The Neutronium Alchemist

by Peter F. Hamilton

  The Arab frowned as Joshua reached into a pocket with his left hand and brought out Horst Elwes’s small crucifix. He thrust it forwards.

  “Holy Father, Lord of Heaven and the mortal world, in humility and obedience, I do ask Your aid in this act of sanctification, through Jesus the Christ who walked among us to know our failings, grant me Your blessing in this task.”

  “But I am a Sunni Muslim,” the bemused Arab said.

  “Eh?”

  “A Muslim. I have no belief in your false Jewish prophet.” He raised his arms, palms upwards. The deluge of water from the nozzles turned to snow.

  Every flake stuck to Joshua’s ship-suit, smearing him in a coat of slush.

  Most of his skin was numb now.

  “But I believe,” Joshua ground out through vibrating teeth. And did. The revelation was as shocking as the cold and the pain. But he’d come to this moment of pure clarity through reason and ordeal. All he knew, all he’d seen, all he’d done; it spoke to him that there was order in the universe. Reality was too complex for chance evolution.

  Medieval prophets were a convenient lie, but something had made sense out of the chaos which existed before time began. Something started time itself flowing.

  “My Lord God, look upon this servant of Yours before me, fallen to a misguided and unclean spirit.”

  “Misguided?” The Arab glowered, trickles of static electricity crawling up his robes. “You brain-dead infidel! Allah is the only true—oh shit.”

  The serjeant fired, aiming for the Arab’s head.

  Joshua drooped limply onto the floor. “That’s always how religious arguments end, isn’t it?” He was only dimly conscious of the serjeant dragging him out of the downpour. His neural nanonics came back on line, and immediately started erecting axon blockades. It was a different kind of numbness than the snow had brought, less severe. The serjeant wrapped a medical nanonic package around his hand. A stimulant program coaxed Joshua’s brain back to full alertness. He blinked up at the three faces peering down at him. Kole and Shea were clinging together, both of them in a shambles, drenched and stupefied. The serjeant had taken a bad pounding, deep scorch marks crisscrossed its body, all-too-human blood was bubbling out from crusted wounds.

  Joshua climbed slowly to his feet. He wanted to smile reassuringly at the girls, but the will just wasn’t there. “Are you okay?” he asked the serjeant.

  “I’m mobile.”

  “Good. What about you two, any damage?”

  Shea shook her head timidly, Kole was still sobbing.

  “Thanks for helping,” he said to Shea. “That was fast thinking. I don’t know what I would have done without the water. It was all a little bit too close for comfort. But we’re through the worst now.”

  “Joshua,” the serjeant said. “Dahybi says that three of the Capone Organization’s warships have just arrived.”

  Seven Edenists in full body armour were guarding the docking ledge departure lounge. Monica was tremendously glad to see them. Along with Samuel, she’d been covering their retreat from the Terminal Terminus, no easy duty. There had been three encounters with the possessed on the way, and the shapeshifting magicians terrified her. Nerves and neural nanonics were hyped to the maximum. Never once had she given them the opportunity to surrender or back off. Locate and shoot, that was the way to do it.

  And she noticed that for all his worthiness and respect for life, Samuel was wired pretty much the same.

  The lighting panels were flickering and dimming as the group rushed across the lounge towards the airlock door and the waiting crew bus outside. Monica waited until the airlock hatch slid shut before taking her combat programs off line. She flicked the machine gun’s safety catch on, and slowly pulled off her chameleon suit hood. The bus’s cool air felt gloriously refreshing as it gusted over her sweat-soaked hair.

  “Well, that was easy,” she said.

  The bus was rolling towards the Hoya, the last voidhawk left on the ledge. Nothing else moved on the shelf of smooth dark rock.

  “Unfortunately, you might be right,” Samuel said. He was bent over the unconscious form of Adok Dala, checking the boy with a sensor from a medical block. “Capone’s ships are here.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry. The Duida Consensus has dispatched a squadron of voidhawks to support us. We are in little physical danger.”

  An inane impulse made Monica stare out through the bus’s window in search of the Organization ships. She could barely make out the non-rotational spaceport, an eclipsed crescent with the funereal red mist of the disk swirling around its edges. “We’re a long way from New California. Is this another invasion?”

  “No, there are only three ships.”

  “Then why … Oh, God, you don’t think he’s looking for Mzu as well?”

  “It is the most obvious possibility.”

  They reached the voidhawk, and the bus extended its airlock tube over the upper hull. Despite their situation, Monica glanced around curiously once she was on board. The crew toroid wasn’t that much different from an Adamist starship’s life-support capsule in terms of technology; it was a lot roomier, though. Samuel led her around the central corridor to the bridge and introduced her to Captain Niveu.

  “My thanks to Hoya,” she said, remembering her etiquette.

  “Our pleasure, you have been performing a difficult job under extreme circumstances.”

  “Tell me about it. What’s happening with the Capone ships?”

  “They are accelerating down into the disk, though they have made no threatening moves. The squadron from the Duida habitats is here, we’re moving out to join them now. What happens next depends on the Capone ships.”

  “We’re under way?” Monica asked. The gravity field was rock steady.

  “Yes.”

  “Are there any electronic sensors I can access?”

  “Certainly.”

  Monica’s neural nanonics received a datavise from the bridge’s bitek processor array. Hoya was already sliding up through the fringes of the disk, like a bird emerging from a rain cloud. Purple and green symbols outlined the three Capone Organization ships, half a million kilometres away, and heading in towards Ayacucho at a steady third of a gravity. The squadron of voidhawks was clustered together just outside the top of the disk.

  “They’re not in any hurry,” Monica observed.

  “They probably don’t wish to appear hostile,” Niveu said. “If it came to a battle with us they would lose.”

  “Are you going to allow them to dock?”

  Niveu glanced at Samuel.

  “Consensus is undecided,” Samuel said. “We don’t have sufficient information yet. To attack them without reason is not an action we can undertake lightly.”

  “They can’t be here on an assault mission,” Niveu said. “Ayacucho has almost fallen now, attacking it would be pointless. The asteroid’s new masters would probably welcome an alliance with Capone.”

  “Destroying them now might be the best course for us all in the long run,” Monica said. “If they walk in, they’ll be able to squeeze every byte of data from Voi’s friends. And if Voi and Mzu didn’t get off, then we really are up shit creek.”

  “Good point,” Samuel said. “We must find out what we can. Time to talk to our guest.”

  Only Sarha, Beaulieu, and Dahybi were on the bridge when Joshua sailed through the floor hatch. He’d told the serjeants to take both girls to capsule C where Melvyn, Liol, and Ashly were waiting in the sick bay.

  Sarha’s expression was a blend of anger and worry as he drifted past her acceleration couch. “God, Joshua!”

  “I’m all right, really.” He showed her the medical nanonic which had enveloped his right hand. “All under control.”

  She scowled as he moved away trailing droplets of cold water. A neat midair twist, and he was lying on his acceleration couch with the webbing folding over him.

  “The net has gone completely,” Dahybi said. “We can’t mo
nitor the asteroid’s systems.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Joshua said. “I know exactly what’s happening in there. That’s why we’re leaving.”

  “Did the girl help?” Beaulieu asked.

  “Not yet. I just want to get us clear first. Dahybi, are any of the voidhawks screwing around with our nodes?”

  “No, Captain, we can jump.”

  “Good.” Joshua optimistically ordered the flight computer to release the cradle clamps. He was rather pleased to see them disengage, some processors were still working back in the spaceport.

  The chemical verniers fired, lifting them straight up out of the bay.

  Sarha winced as the drab metal wall slid past the tips of the sensor clusters, there was only about five metres clearance. But Lady Mac never wavered. As soon as they emerged from the bay Joshua cut the rockets, letting the starship fly free. The sensor clusters sank down into their jump recesses. An event horizon claimed the hull. They jumped half a light year. A second after they emerged energy flashed through the patterning nodes again. This time the jump was three light-years.

  Joshua let out a juddering sigh.

  Sarha, Beaulieu, and Dahybi looked at him. He was completely motionless, staring at the ceiling.

  “Why don’t you join the others in the sick bay?” Sarha said compassionately. “Your hand should be checked properly.”

  “I heard them, you know.”

  Sarha gave Dahybi an anxious look. The node specialist gave her a curt gesture with his hand.

  “Heard who?” she asked. Her webbing peeled back, allowing her to haul herself over to Joshua. A stikpad at the side of his couch captured her feet.

  He didn’t acknowledge her presence. “The souls in the beyond. Jesus, they’re real all right, they’re there waiting. One tiny act of weakness, that’s all it takes, and they’ve got you.”

  Her fingers stroked his waterlogged hair. “They didn’t get you.”

  “No. But they lie and lie about how they can help. I was angry, and stupid enough to think Horst’s damn cross would save me.” He held up the little crucifix and snorted at it. “Jesus, he was a Muslim.”

  “You’re not making a lot of sense.”

  He looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. “Sorry. They can hurt you very badly, you know. He’d only just started with my hand, that was a warm-up. I don’t know if I could have held out. I told myself I would, or at least that I wouldn’t give in. I think the only way to do that is to die.”

  “But you didn’t give in, and you’re still alive, and it’s only you inside your skull. You won, Joshua.”

  “Luck, and the tank is about empty.”

  “It wasn’t luck you had three serjeants with you. It was healthy paranoia and good planning. You knew the possessed are extremely dangerous, and took it into account. And that’s what we’ll do again next time.”

  He gave a nervous laugh. “If I can manage a next time. It’s quite something to look right down into the abyss and see what’s there waiting for you, one way or the other, as possessed or possessor.”

  “We were up against it at Lalonde, and we’re still flying.”

  “That was different, I was ignorant then. But now I know for sure. We’re going to die, and be condemned to live in the beyond. All of us. Every sentient entity in the universe.” His face screwed up in pain and anger.

  “Jesus, I can’t believe that’s all there is: life and purgatory. After tens of thousands of years, the universe finally reveals that we have souls, and then we have the glory snatched right back and replaced with terror. There has to be something more, there has to be. He wouldn’t do that to us.”

  “Who?”

  “God, he, she, it, whatever. This torment, it’s too … I don’t know. Personal. Why the fuck build a universe that does this to people? If you’re that powerful, why not make death final, or make everyone immortal? Why this? We have to know, have to find out why it works the way it does. That way we can know what the answer to all this is. We have to find something that’s permanent, something which will last until the end of time.”

  “How do you propose to do that?” she asked quietly.

  “I don’t know,” he snapped, then just as suddenly he was thoughtful again. “Maybe the Kiint. They say they’ve solved all this. They won’t tell us outright, but they might at least point me in the right direction.”

  Sarha looked down at his intense expression in astonishment. Joshua taking life so seriously was strange, Joshua mounting a crusade was frankly astonishing. For one second she thought that he had been possessed after all. “You?” she blurted.

  All the suffering and angst vanished from his angular face. The old Joshua swept back. He started chuckling. “Yeah, me. I might be catching religion a little late in life, but the born-again are always the most insufferable and devout.”

  “It’s more than your hand which needs checking out in the sick bay.”

  “Thank you, my loyal crew.” His restraint webbing parted, allowing him up. “But we’re still going to ask the Kiint.” He ordered the flight computer to run a full star track search and correlate their exact position. Then he ran an almanac search for Jobis’s file.

  “Right now?” Dahybi asked tartly. “You’re going to throw away all you achieved on Ayacucho just like that?”

  “Of course not,” Joshua said smoothly.

  “Good. Because if we don’t find Mzu and the Alchemist before the possessed do, there probably won’t be any Confederation left for you to save.”

  Adok Dala returned to consciousness with a loud cry. He looked around fearfully at the Hoya’s sick bay. Not reassured by his surroundings. Not at all.

  Samuel removed the medical nanonic package from the base of his neck.

  “Easy there. You’re quite safe, Adok. Nobody is going to hurt you here. And I must apologize for the way we treated you in the club, but you are rather important to us.”

  “You’re not the possessed?”

  “No. We’re Edenists. Well, apart from Monica, here; she’s from the Kulu Kingdom.”

  Monica did her best to smile at the nervous boy.

  “You’re foreign agents, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “I won’t tell you anything. I’m not helping you catch Mzu.”

  “That’s very patriotic. But we’re not interested in Mzu. Frankly, we hope she got away clean. You see, the possessed are in charge of Ayacucho now.”

  Adok moaned in distress, clamping his hand over his mouth.

  “What we’d like to know about is Voi,” Samuel said.

  “Voi?”

  “Yes. Do you know where she is?”

  “I haven’t seen her for days. She put us all on standby. It was silly, we had to organize the kids in the day clubs to kill spiders. She said Lodi figured out you were using them to spy on us.”

  “Clever man, Lodi. Do you know where he is?”

  “No. Not for a couple of days.”

  “Interesting. How many are there in this group of yours?”

  “About twenty, twenty-five. There’s no real list. We’re just friends.”

  “Who started it?”

  “Voi. She’d changed when she came out of detox. The genocide became a real cause for her. We just got sucked along by her. Everybody does when Voi gets serious about an issue.”

  Monica datavised a request to her processor block, retrieving a memory image from the file she’d recorded at the Terminal Terminus. It had bothered her since the snatch. The last glimpse she had of Joshua Calvert showed him tugging a girl along. She showed the enhanced image to Adok.

  “Do you know her?”

  He blinked blearily at the little screen. Whatever drugs Samuel had administered to loosen his tongue were making him drowsy. “That’s Shea. I like her, but …”

  “Is she one of your group?”

  “Not really, but she’s Prince Lambert’s girlfriend. He’s sort of a member; and she’s done a few things for us occasionally.”

&n
bsp; Monica looked at Samuel. “What have we got on this Prince Lambert character?”

  “A moment.” He consulted his bitek processor block. “He’s registered as a pilot for the Tekas, an executive yacht owned by his family corporation. Monica, it was one of the starships which left Ayacucho this afternoon.”

  “Damn it!” She slammed her fist down on one of the cabinets beside Adok Dala’s couch. “Does Voi know Prince Lambert?”

  Adok smiled blithely. “Yes. They used to be lovers. He was the reason she wound up in detox.”

  <> ? Samuel asked Niveu.

  <>

  <>

  <>

  Shea had changed into a grey ship-suit when Joshua floated into the sickbay. She was talking quietly to Liol, but broke off to give him a shy grin. Ashly and Melvyn were busy packing equipment away. One of the serjeants held on to a grab hoop just inside the hatch.

  “How are you feeling?” Joshua asked her.

  “Fine. Ashly gave me a tranquillizer. I think it helps.”

  “I wish he’d give me one.”

  Her grin brightened. “Is your hand very bad?”

  He held it up. “Most of the bone is intact, but I’m going to need some clone vat tissue to build the fingers up. The package can’t regenerate quite that much.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry.”

  “Tranquillity will pay for it,” he said, straight-faced. “Where’s Kole?”

  “Zero-tau,” Melvyn said.

  “Good idea.”

  “Do you want me to go in as well?” Shea asked.

  “Up to you. But I need some help before you decide.”

  “From me?”

  “Yes. Let me explain. Contrary to everything the news studios were saying, I’m not a foreign agent.”