The Phoenix Exultant

by John C. Wright

  A third conclusion confirmed the first: Daphne’s departure had been a public event. The enemy had merely dispatched a horse, controlled by, or carrying, some nanotechnology package, to find her and have her lead it to him. This meant that Phaethon’s whereabouts had in fact been unknown to the enemy till today. This meant the Silent Ones had not invaded the mentality to any great degree. Evidently their penetration was enough to allow them to be aware of public events, but no more.

  The intuition which had been nagging him before now became clear. The enemy was not powerful.

  From their actions, their goals could now be guessed. The enemy must have made contact with some Neptunians, in distant space, beyond the sight of the inner-system Sophotechs; the Neptunians had contacts with Gannis. Through Gannis the enemy found Unmoiqhotep and the Cacophiles. The enemy had then waited for an opportunity to strike secretly at Phaethon.

  But not to kill him. The seizure of his brain and his brain-work, of his knowledge of the ship, of the ship-controlling mechanisms in his armor, must have been their goal from the first. Hence the Neptunian legate who had approached him had attempted to get him physically to come with him. When that failed, they struck next right after the Curia hearing, when the Cacophile Unmoiqhotep poisoned his mind with a black card in the Middle Dreaming, implanting false memories of a nonexistent attack, meant to frighten him into opening his memory casket and to force him into exile. With Phaethon in exile, they then moved to seize control of the Phoenix Exultant.

  The enemy had struck right at the moment after Phaethon’s debt to Gannis had been canceled by Monomarchos’ cleverness. Why? Because the Silent Ones had control of Xenophon, who was able to buy the debt from Wheel-of-Life, and take possession of the ship (which, had it not been for Monomarchos, would have gone to Gannis and been dismantled.)

  All of this was meaningless unless they intended to capture the ship (and her pilot) intact.

  This led to two possibilities. The less horrifying one to contemplate was that Xenophon did not actually intend to dismantle the ship. The other possibility spelled terrible danger for his friend Diomedes.

  The Silent Ones had lost track of him after Victoria Lake (as had, apparently, the Hortators). But then Daphne, using private knowledge about him and about his tastes (which Nothing Sophotech, no matter how intelligent it was, could not have known or deduced) had found him.

  And she had brought this Silent One agent, this construct or being or whatever it was, here. It had, during the journey, tampered with the noetic reader only just enough to deter a paranoid Phaethon from using it. When he had finally (and against all better judgment) decided to use it nonetheless, it had directed a beam of energy into the noetic unit’s works to destroy the machine. Daphne’s ring had detected the beam, and at that moment, the masquerade ended.

  But why hadn’t it destroyed the noetic unit earlier? There was only one answer: It could not afford to let Daphne, or anyone else, get any firm evidence that the Silent Ones existed. A noetic reader that had been clearly and obviously sabotaged would be evidence confirming Phaethon’s story, just as much as if the working reader had examined Phaethon and discovered the origin of his false memories.

  In each circumstance, the Silent Ones had attempted to avoid detection.

  All this flashed though his thoughts in a suspended moment of emergency time. Then, over the next microsecond, he ran through a complete system-check, attempted four different ways to log on to the mentality, to send out emergency signals, or to make any sort of contact with any external circuits or networks. Everything was blocked; all channels were white with static.

  Another long microsecond was spent while he made what tests he could on the barrier, sending pulses out from his armor and analyzing the echoes. He attempted to determine its energy levels, its field geometry, its resonating properties. From the reactions, he realized that this was not merely meant to block outgoing energies, but also to trace them.

  This fact implied certain obvious conclusions, and suggested a possible course of action. But was that action wise?

  Here was the monster, wretched and sad creature that it was, invulnerable to Phaethon’s most fierce attack, with all its weapons ready, looming above, threatening Daphne with death, and him with worse than death. But was Phaethon in a weak position now, or a strong one?

  The emergency persona recognized that it was unable to make this assessment, which required a value judgment, and so it shut down and dumped Phaethon back into the flow of normal time.

  3.

  Immediately his fear for Daphne’s safety rose to seize him.

  “You callous bastard,” Phaethon whispered. “You cold-blooded, calculating, ruthless son of a bitch.”

  The monster said, “Your response is not appropriate. We once again demand your surrender. Otherwise the love-object dies in pain.”

  “I wasn’t talking about you,” muttered Phaethon.

  Daphne, from behind him, said fiercely, “Don’t let it win. If it wants the armor, destroy the armor first. If it wants you, kill yourself first. If it tries to use me to control you, shoot me first. This thing cannot win unless you let it!”

  Phaethon drew a deep breath. He had tried all the weapons he could build, but that had proven futile. Any agent Nothing Sophotech would send out would obviously be equipped with the best defenses a superintelligent study of Phaethon’s armor could predict. What could Phaethon attempt which had not been predicted … ?

  There was one possibility. He was not pleased, but, for Daphne’s sake, he saw he had to make the attempt.

  Phaethon said, “I will not surrender to you, since you are an insane creature, and I cannot trust that you will keep your word. I am a manorial. I have been born and raised by machines, and I trust only machines. Put me in contact with your Nothing Sophotech. Only if your Sophotech gives me assurance that Daphne will be kept alive and safe and free to go, will I believe in your good faith, and surrender.”

  The creature said nothing, but its tentacles twitched. Phaethon tried to guess what thought-process might be going on inside that headless skeleton-body. Yet surely it would not regard this request as unusual or strange, coming from him. Everyone knew the manor-born trusted only Sophotechs.

  Behind him, Daphne hissed, “Lover, have you lost your mind? Is that helmet cutting off the oxygen to your brain? Do you think it’s easy for me to stand here waiting to be shot and to keep telling you to fight that thing? How about a little support for my position here!?”

  Phaethon said harshly to her: “My dear, forgive me, but you have read far too many of those romantic fictions of yours. In your type of stories, heroes always prevail because they are good, not because they are correct. But for engineers, reality requires that you solve problems only within the context of what circumstances and available resources permit. It involves trade-offs. It involves compromise. Sometimes the solution isn’t pretty, and falls far short of any high ideal. But whatever solution it is that works, that’s the one we choose.”

  To the creature, he said, “You can erase her memory of this event, so that your secrecy will be safe, but I insist that she be set free.”

  The monster said, “You will service our needs because need is all we have. We have nothing. You have no right to bargain with us or to make demands. Your love, your notions of right and wrong, makes you susceptible. Because you are weak, you must obey.”

  Phaethon said, “Weak … ? Me … ? Why in the world do people keep telling me that?” Impatience crept into his voice: “Listen to me, you pathetic vomit-mass of psychotic self-loathing, unless I myself surrender, and freely open this armor, and freely discard it, you have no power to hurt me. None! It is you who has no room to bargain, you who cannot negotiate. You were instructed by your master to capture me and my armor intact. You will fail, and fail utterly, unless I choose otherwise. Very well: you have heard the conditions of my choice. Send a signal to your master: I want confirmation from the Nothing Sophotech itself.”

 
The area was beginning to fill with smoke. The creature stood still, looming high in the darkness, silhouetted dimly against the few dying fires Phaethon’s weapons had lit on the far side of the deck, and by the glint from Daphne’s ring.

  The creature said, “Very well. The signal is being sent …”

  It came from somewhere over Phaethon’s shoulder and whispered right past his ear. Whatever it was, it must have been traveling faster than the speed of sound, because he heard it only after the monster vanished in a moment of light. Smoking, toppling, the scattered blue-white bone-things seemed to fly apart, as if trying to escape. The dazzling after-echoes of the light seemed to close in around them. Perhaps there was a very quiet hissing noise. And then the blue-white substance was consumed without a trace.

  For less than a moment, like an after-echo, a vibration or haze flashed across the deck and the overhead panels, each place the creature had stepped or dripped or touched.

  Darkness. All was still.

  Only then was Phaethon aware of the needle-thin ray of light striking him from behind. He turned. There was a small melted hole, like a pinprick, piercing the black diamond parasol wall behind him, just above the railings. The hole was so small that, had it not been utterly black inside here, and admitting some little light from outside, it would have passed unnoticed.

  Phaethon grimaced. “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” he muttered angrily.

  Daphne coughed and climbed to her feet and looked around blankly. “What’s going on? You were only pretending to give up, I hope. Does this mean you are a hero after all … ?”

  Phaethon said, “Not me. I’m just the dupe. The bait. And, as for that …” He nodded toward the empty air where the enemy had just been standing.

  “It is dead, I hope … ? I’ve never seen a dead thing before, not permanently dead. But I thought there would be a corpse or something. There is always a corpse in mystery fiction.”

  “The weapon he used involved an energy I haven’t seen before. Whatever it was did not even mar the deck where the creature was standing, or touch the pavilion surface behind it.”

  “He used … ? He who … ?” But then she began coughing again.

  Phaethon stepped to where he had seen Daphne’s horse nosing among the pavilion surfaces. There. The icons and thought-ports were stained with soot, but he saw the wires running to the lock-icon. Once again, a trick anyone with Golden Oecumene technology could have played.

  He brushed the wires aside, which interrupted the circuit holding the lock shut. The pavilions turned transparent, slid open, and spread wide, admitting the night sky.

  Smoke and stink, trapped beneath the canopy, now poured out from beneath the upper peaks, spilling off of higher canopies, and flowing up to be lost in the air. Daphne stepped to the rail and drew a deep breath.

  Across the bay, rose a cliff. Stepping out from a place where the hillside below the burnt houses had fallen away, was a figure in streamlined brown-gray armor. In one hand he held a long thin implement of some sort. When the figure stepped to the top of the cliff, and the night sky was behind him, the armor changed color, turning night-black.

  Phaethon squinted, pointed. “There’s your answer. He must have known all along. About the invasion. About everything. He lied to you, you know. He may be the only person in the Golden Oecumene who is allowed to lie and get away with it. No wonder people hate him.”

  Daphne looked at the black figure. The armored man saw they were watching him, he drew a length of silver metal, a sword from his side, held it overhead, and saluted them.

  It was Atkins, of course.

  Phaethon said, “My access to the mentality was cut off by a barrier which was intended to trace outgoing messages to their destination. His plan was to have the monster succeed, kill you and kill me, and then see where the creature took my head. But I don’t understand why Atkins was not stationed here, watching me, from the very first. He must have known where I was.”

  Daphne sighed in exasperation. “I should have seen this a mile off. This is intrigue, just like in all my stories! He knew they had to be following me. So he must have known my poor Sunset was carrying a monster. He followed us to see what the monster was up to.” She shook her head in self-dismay. “I’m simply going to have to read more romances!”

  They were both leaning with their elbows on the railing. Both sighed, either with pent anger or with surprised relief. Both turned and looked at each other.

  It was only a small motion. Perhaps she only tilted her head a bit toward him, or moved her shoulder. But, somehow, instantly, he had flung his armor clattering to the deck in a swirl of black nanomaterial, and found her arms around him, his arms around her, her warm lips surrendering to his fierce kisses, his mouth stung by her return kiss even more fierce, their bodies pressed together, locked tight, and sighs, cries, and muffled sounds surrounding each extended kiss.

  It was Phaethon who drew his head back first. “You know, miss …”

  “Shut up,” she said. She was as boneless as a sleeping cat in his arms, her head thrown back, her eyes half-closed, her lips half-opened, slender hands without strength against his shoulders. She looked helpless, utterly overcome, and utterly in control. “You talk too much. I’m coming with you.”

  And she raised her lips to kiss him again.

  Her face was just like his drowned wife’s face. Her kisses were almost the same as the kisses of her twin.

  He put his hands on her shoulders and firmly drew her away from him.

  Impish humor, impatience, impertinence all flashed in her gaze, and she opened her mouth to speak. But then she saw the sober look in his eyes. Her expression grew sad. She said nothing.

  He dropped his hands away.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, half-turning away.

  Her eyes flashed. “Don’t worry. I’ll wait. Or maybe I’ll just go find some other man. Atkins is pretty cute.” And she turned toward the cliff shore and waved her hand high overhead, calling out “Yoo-hoo! Hey, sailor! Over here!”

  Atkins had been standing with his hands clasped behind his back, pretending to study the stars and cloud formations, while the two of them were kissing. Now he nodded toward them, and jumped.

  Phaethon could not see what engine or flight-system he was using to make the leap all the way across the bay, and Phaethon lost sight of the black armor as it passed overhead. But then Atkins landed on the deck in a crouch, like a cat, and he made no noise at all when he landed.

  Atkins turned. His helmet opened into a black halo of hovering beads; but some of the beads fell to the deck, and became simple seashell shapes, and scampered back and forth across the deck and the diamond pavilion surfaces above him.

  His face was still immobile, grim, and lined. But there was a sparkle in his eye, which made him look refreshed, alert, and perhaps slightly cheerful.

  Phaethon could not hide a hostile expression. He snapped his fingers, and had his black coat reach down and fit his armor back onto him. He left his helmet off.

  Atkins had only his katana in his belt. Daphne pointed, and said, “What happened to your big, long gun? The one you shot the monster with?”

  “It’s not called that, ma’am. Its called a field-disruption directed-energy remote-manifest aiming unit. Or it’s called a Hell-hammer. It projects a group of remote micro-units at near-light speed to form a high-energy web assembly around the target, investigate and confuse any anti-disintegration gear, neutralize counter-measures, and then the web negates mesonic fields coupling basic particles together. It’s got an effective range of about fourteen light-minutes, so I could not hit any target outside of the inner system with it, so it’s no good for long-range work. Also, the energy-web-targeting capacity falls off sharply if your mass is greater than that of, oh, let’s say, thirty thousand metric tons, so it’s no good for naval bombardments. But a little bit of close work like this … ?”

  Daphne, seeing Phaethon’s eyes narrow in a look of distaste, stepped closer to A
tkins, and said in a cooing tone, “That’s all very fascinating! But where did you put it … ? You’re not carrying it.”

  “Oh. It was a pseudo-material projection, ma’am.”

  “Really?” Her eyes sparkled, and she took another step closer.

  “Yes ma’am. I carry templates for all possible weapons and other combat systems in my armor, with a long-range pseudo-matter projector, so I can project units of equipment, and fighting machines into my environment, as needed. The thing I put between you and the blast when your husband here set off his little fireworks display, that was an Iron Wizard Heironymous Fifth-Era War Car with attached entrenching blade …”

  She blinked. “What?”

  Atkins spoke in a voice of polite surprise: “You did not notice a large, square-treaded vehicle of heavy mobile armored cavalry appear on the deck between you and the blast when the blast went off ?”

  “I had my eyes closed,” she said. “I think Phaethon was looking the other way. Weren’t you, Phaethon? Aren’t you going to thank the nice man for saving my life? I had evolved back up from ‘miss’ back to ‘wife,’ at least at that moment, so don’t you think you should say something nice instead of standing there glowering?”

  Phaethon said, “Perhaps I should thank you, for saving my … for saving Daphne’s life.”

  “Just doing my duty, sir.”

  “ … Or perhaps I should punch you in the nose. Seeing as how it was you who put her life in harm’s way in the first place. Or are you going to say that that was just doing your duty as well?”

  The tiny twitch in his jaw, which Atkins used instead of a smile, appeared. “As to that, sir, I cannot say. But, if you’re going to try to take a swing at me, you’d better do it now. Because, if you do it later, it will be a court-martial offense.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because striking a superior officer has always been a court-martial offense for people who join the military. And you are going to sign up, aren’t you? Because there is no way you are ever going to get your Starship back out of the hands of the enemy if you don’t.”