The Neutronium Alchemist

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Or what if it was used against Sol itself? What if it was switched to the nova function?

  There had never been any conceivable prospect of this before. I was always in control. Mother Mary forgive my arrogance.

  She cast a sideways glance at Voi, who was looking as irritable as always with the lift’s progress. Voi would never entertain any change in their mission priorities. The concept of failure was not allowed for.

  Like me at that age.

  I have to get off this planet, she realized abruptly. I have to reopen the options again. I can’t let it end like this.

  The lift’s floor indicator said they were three floors below the penthouse when Gelai and Ngong exchanged a questioning glance.

  “What’s the matter?” Voi asked.

  “We can’t sense Omain, or Lodi,” Gelai said.

  Alkad immediately tried to datavise Lodi. There was no response. She ordered the lift to stop. “Is there anyone up there?”

  “No,” Gelai said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Of all the facets of possession, the perception ability fascinated Alkad the most. She’d only just started considering the mechanism of possession. The whole concept would ultimately mean quantum cosmology having to be completely restructured again. So far, she’d made very little theoretical progress.

  “I told him to stay put,” Voi said indignantly.

  “If his neural nanonics aren’t responding, then this is rather more serious than him simply wandering off,” Alkad told her.

  Voi pulled a face, unconvinced.

  Alkad ordered the lift to restart.

  Gelai and Ngong were standing in front of the doors when they opened on the penthouse vestibule. Trickles of static skipped over their clothes as they readied themselves for trouble.

  “Oh, Mary,” Eriba said. The double doors to the penthouse had been smashed apart.

  Gelai waved the others back as she edged cautiously into the living room.

  Alkad heard an intake of breath.

  The body Omain had been possessing was lying across one of the big settees, covered with deep scorch marks. Snow was blowing in through a gaping hole in the window.

  Ngong hurriedly checked the other rooms. “No body. He’s not here,” he told them.

  “Oh, Mother Mary, now what?” Alkad exclaimed. “Gelai, have you got any idea who did this?”

  “None. Aside from the obvious that it was some possessed.”

  “They know about us,” Voi said. “And now Lodi’s been possessed, they know too much about us. We must leave immediately.”

  “Yes,” Alkad said reluctantly. “I suppose so. We’d better go directly to the spaceport, see if we can hook up with a starship there.”

  “Won’t they know we’re going to do that?” Eriba said.

  “What else can we do? This planet can’t help us anymore.”

  One of the processor blocks on the table let out a bleep. Its AV projector sparkled.

  Alkad looked straight into it. And she was looking out through a set of eyes at a man dressed in a traditional Cossack costume.

  “Can you hear me, Dr Mzu?” he asked.

  “Yes. Who are you?”

  “My name is Baranovich, not that it particularly matters. The important fact here is that I have agreed to work for Mr. Capone’s Organization.”

  “Oh, shit,” Eriba groaned.

  Baranovich smiled and held a small circular mirror up. Alkad could see Lodi’s frightened face reflected in the surface.

  “So,” Baranovich said. “As you can see, we have not harmed your comrade. This is his datavise you are receiving. If he was possessed, he would be unable to do this. No? Say something, Lodi.”

  “Voi? Dr Mzu? I’m sorry. I couldn’t—Look there are only seven of them. Omain tried …” Something hissed loudly behind him. The image blurred.

  Then he blinked.

  “A brave boy.” Baranovich clapped Lodi on the shoulder. “The Organization has a place for those with such integrity. I would hate to see another come to use this body.”

  “You might have to,” Alkad said. “I cannot consider swapping a lone man for the device, no matter how well I know him. There have been far bigger sacrifices made to get me to this point. I would be betraying those who made them, and that I can never do. I’m sorry, Lodi, really I am.”

  “My dear doctor,” Baranovich said. “I was not offering you Lodi in exchange for the Alchemist. I am simply using him as a convenient instrument through which I can deal with you, and perhaps demonstrate our intent.”

  “I don’t need to deal with you.”

  “Your pardon, Doctor, I believe you do. You will not get off this planet unless the Organization takes you off. I think you know that now. After all, you weren’t going to try and run to the spaceport, now were you?”

  “I’m not about to discuss my departure arrangements with you.”

  “Bravo, Doctor. Resistance to the very end. I respect that. But please understand, the circumstances in which you find yourself have changed radically since you began your quest for vengeance. There will be no revenge against Omuta anymore. What would be the point? In a few short months Omuta as it is today will not exist. Whatever you can do to it will not exceed the coming of possession. Will it, Doctor?”

  “No.”

  “So you see, you have only yourself to consider now, and what will happen in your personal future. The Organization can offer you a decent future. You know that with us millions of valuable people remain unpossessed, and secure in their jobs. You can be one of them, Doctor. I have the authority to offer you a place with us.”

  “In return for the Alchemist.”

  Baranovich shrugged magnanimously. “That is the deal. We will take you—and your friends too if you want them—off this planet today, before the orbital battle becomes any worse. Nobody else will do that. You either stay here and become possessed, an eternity spent in the humiliation of physical and mental bondage; or you come with us and live out the rest of your life as fruitfully as possible.”

  “As destructively as possible, you mean.”

  “I doubt the Alchemist would have to be used many times, not if it’s as good as rumour says. Yes?”

  “It wouldn’t need many demonstrations,” Alkad agreed slowly.

  “Alkad!” Voi protested.

  Baranovich beamed happily. “Excellent, Doctor, I see you are acknowledging the truth. Your future is with us.”

  “There’s something you should know,” Alkad said. “The activation code is stored in my neural nanonics. If I am killed and moved into another body in a bid to make me more compliant, I will not be able to access them. If I am possessed, the possessor will not be able to access them. And, Baranovich, there are no copies of the code.”

  “You are a prudent woman.”

  “If I come with you, then my companions are to be given passage to a world of their choice.”

  “No!” Voi shouted.

  Alkad turned from the projection and told Gelai: “Keep her quiet.”

  Voi squirmed helplessly as the possessed woman pinned her arms behind her back. A gag solidified out of thin air to cover her mouth.

  “Those are my terms,” Alkad told Baranovich. “I have spent most of my life in pursuit of my goal. If you do not agree to my terms, then I will not hesitate to defy you in the only way I have left. I have that determination, it is the one real weapon I have always had. You have pushed me into this position, do not doubt that I will use it.”

  “Please, Doctor, there is no need for such vehemence. We will be happy to carry your young friends to a safe place.”

  “All right. We have a deal.”

  “Excellent. Our spaceplanes will pick you and your friends up at the ironberg foundry yard outside the city. We’ll be waiting at Disassembly Shed Four with Lodi. Be there in ninety minutes.”

  Chapter 09

  Admiral Motela Kolhammer and Syrinx arrived at the First Admiral’s o
ffice just as the Provost General was coming out. He almost bumped into them, head down and scowling. Kolhammer was given a brief grunt of apology before he strode off, chased by three aides in an equally flustered mood.

  The admiral gave them a curious look before stepping into the office.

  Captain Maynard Khanna and Admiral Lalwani were sitting in front of the First Admiral’s desk. Two more blue-steel chairs were distending up out of the circular pools of silver on the floor.

  “What was all that about?” Kolhammer asked.

  “We have a small legal problem with one of our guests,” Lalwani said dryly. “It’s just a question of procedures, that’s all.”

  “Bloody lawyers,” Samual Aleksandrovich muttered. He gestured Kolhammer and the voidhawk captain to sit.

  “Is it relevant to Thakrar’s information?” Kolhammer asked.

  “No, fortunately.” Samual smiled a fast welcome at Syrinx. “My thanks to Oenone for such a swift flight.”

  “I’m happy to be contributing, sir,” Syrinx said. “Our journey time from Ngeuni was eighteen hours.”

  “That’s very good.”

  “Good enough?” Kolhammer asked.

  “We believe so,” Lalwani said. “According to our New California surveillance operation, Capone is only just starting to refuel and rearm his fleet again.”

  “How up-to-date is that information?” Kolhammer asked.

  “There’s a voidhawk flight each day from the Yosemite Consensus, so at the most we’re only thirty hours behind. According to the Consensus, it will be another week at the most before they’re ready to launch.”

  “At Toi-Hoi, allegedly,” Kolhammer mused. “Sorry to play the heretic, but how reliable is this Captain Thakrar?”

  Syrinx could only give an empty gesture. If only I had some way of imparting Erick’s intensity, his devotion, to them. “I have no doubt Captain Thakrar’s data is genuine, Admiral. Apart from his unfortunate collapse at the finish of his mission he’s proved an absolute credit to the CNIS. Capone does intend to invade Toi-Hoi next.”

  “I accept the information as essentially accurate,” Lalwani affirmed. “We really are going to be able to intercept the Organization fleet.”

  “Which is going to eliminate the Capone problem completely,” Maynard Khanna said. “With him gone, all we have to concern ourselves with is the quarantine.”

  “And that damnfool Mortonridge Liberation which the Kingdom’s foisted on to us,” Kolhammer complained.

  “Psychologically, the elimination of Capone’s fleet will be considerably more important,” Lalwani said. “Capone is interpreted as a far more active threat by Confederation citizens—”

  “Yeah, thanks to the damn media,” Kolhammer said.

  “—so when they see there is no further chance of his fleet appearing in their skies, and the navy has achieved that for them, we will have a great deal more leverage with the Assembly when it comes to implementing our policy.”

  “Which is?” Samual Aleksandrovich asked sardonically. “Yes, yes, Lalwani. I know. I simply don’t welcome the notion of holding things together while we pray that Gilmore and all the others like him can find a solution for us; it smacks of inactivity.”

  “The more we thwart them, the more we can expect them to cooperate in finding a solution,” she said.

  “Very optimistic,” Kolhammer said.

  Samual datavised a request into his desktop processor and the fat AV cylinder hanging from the middle of the ceiling began to sparkle. “This is our current strategic disposition,” he said as the chairs swivelled their occupants around to face the projection. They were looking down on the Confederation stars from galactic south, where tactical situation icons orbited around the suns of inhabited worlds like technicolour moons. At the centre, Earth’s forces were portrayed by enough symbols to form a ring of gas giant proportions. “You’re going to get your chance, Motela,” the First Admiral said quietly. “That 1st Fleet squadron you assembled to deal with Laton is the only possible force we can engage Capone with. We don’t have time to put anything else together.”

  Kolhammer studied the projection. “What does the Yosemite Consensus estimate Capone’s fleet size to be this time?”

  “Approximately seven hundred,” Lalwani said. “Numerically, that’s slightly down on last time. Arnstadt is tying up a lot of his mid-capacity ships. However, he has acquired a disturbing number of Arnstadt’s navy ships. Consensus believes the fleet will contain at least three hundred and twenty front-line warships. The rest are made up from combat-capable traders and civil craft modified to carry combat wasps.”

  “And they’re armed with antimatter,” Kolhammer said. “My squadron has a maximum of two hundred ships. We both went to the same academy, Lalwani, you need a two to one advantage to guarantee success. And that’s just theoretically.”

  “The Organization crews are not highly motivated or efficient,” she replied. “Nor do their ships function at a hundred per cent capacity with possessed on board screwing up the systems.”

  “Neither of which will matter a damn to their damn forty-gee combat wasps once they’re launched. They function just fine.”

  “I will assign you half of the 1st Fleet vessels here at Avon,” the First Admiral said. “That will bring your strength up to four hundred and thirty, including eighty voidhawks. In addition, Lalwani has suggested that we request support from every Edenist Consensus within a seventy-light-year radius of Toi-Hoi.”

  “Even if they only release ten per cent of their voidhawks, that should give you nearly three hundred and fifty voidhawks,” she said.

  “Seven hundred and eighty front-line warships,” Kolhammer said. “A force that big is very cumbersome.”

  Lalwani turned from the projection to give him a reproachful stare. She found him grinning straight at her.

  “But I think I can cope.”

  “Our tactical staff want to use Tranquillity as the rendezvous point,” Khanna said. “It’s only eighteen light-years from Toi-Hoi; which means you can be there in five hours once you know the Organization fleet is on its way.”

  “One ship takes five hours, yes, but we’re dealing with nearly eight hundred. I wasn’t joking about such a force being cumbersome. Why don’t the tactical staff want us to use Toi-Hoi itself?”

  “Capone must have it under observation. If he sees that kind of task force arrive he’ll simply abort and choose another target. We’d be back at square one. Tranquillity is close, and it’s not an obvious military base. Once our observation operation confirms the Organization fleet is leaving for Toi-Hoi a voidhawk will fly directly to Tranquillity and alert you. You can be at Toi-Hoi before Capone’s ships arrive. You can destroy them as they jump in.”

  “Perfect tactics,” Kolhammer said, almost to himself. “How long before the rest of the 1st Fleet ships can join the squadron?”

  “I’ve already issued recall orders,” the First Admiral said. “The bulk will be at Trafalgar within fifteen hours. The remainder can fly directly to Tranquillity.”

  Kolhammer consulted the AV projection again, then datavised a series of requests into the desktop processor. The scale changed, expanding while the viewpoint slipped around to put Toi-Hoi at the centre. “The critical factor here is that Tranquillity is secure. We need to prevent any ship from leaving, and also make sure it’s not under any kind of stealth observation before we arrive.”

  “Suggestion?” Samual asked.

  “It’ll be four and a half days before the task force gets to Tranquillity. But Meredith Saldana’s squadron is still at Cadiz, correct?”

  “Yes, sir,” Khanna said. “The ships were docked at a 7th Fleet supply base. The Cadiz government requested they remain and support local forces.”

  “So, a voidhawk could reach Cadiz within …” He gave Syrinx an inquiring glance.

  “From Trafalgar? Seven to eight hours.”

  “And Meredith could get to Tranquillity in a further twenty hours. Which would g
ive him almost three days to check local space for any kind of clandestine surveillance activity, as well as preventing any locals from leaving.”

  “Get the orders drafted,” the First Admiral told Khanna. “Captain Syrinx, my compliments to the Oenone, I’d be obliged if you can convey them to Cadiz for me.”

  <> Oenone said excitedly.

  Syrinx concealed her own delight at the voidhawk’s enthusiasm. “Of course, Admiral.”

  Samual Aleksandrovich cancelled the AV projection. He felt the same kind of anxiety that had beset him the day he turned his back on his family and his world for a life in the navy. It came from standing up and taking responsibility. Big decisions were always made solo; and this was the biggest in his career. He couldn’t remember anyone sending close-on eight hundred starships on a single combat assignment before. It was a frightening number, the firepower to wreck several worlds. And by the look of him, Motela was beginning to acknowledge the same reality. They swapped a nervous grin.

  Samual stood up and put out his hand. “We need this. Very badly.”

  “I know,” Kolhammer said. “We won’t let you down.”

  ***

  Nobody in Koblat’s spaceport noticed the steady procession of kids slipping quietly down the airlock tube in bay WJR-99 where the Leonora Cephei was docked. Not the port officials, not the other crews (who would have taken a dim view of Captain Knox’s charter), and certainly not the company cops. For the first time in Jed’s life, the company’s policy meant that things were swinging his way.

  The spaceport’s internal security surveillance systems were turned off, the CAB docking bay logs had been disabled, customs staff were on extended leave. No inconvenient memory file would ever exist of the starships that had come and gone since the start of the quarantine; nor would there be a tax record of the bonuses everyone was earning.

  Even so, Jed was taking no chances. His small chosen tribe convened in the day club where he and Beth checked them over, making them take off their red handkerchiefs before dispatching them up to the spaceport at irregular intervals.

  There were eighteen Deadnights he and Beth reckoned they could trust to keep quiet; and that was stretching the Leonora Cephei’s life-support capacity to its legal capacity. Counting himself and Beth, there were four left when Gari finally arrived. That part was pre-arranged; if both of them had been gone from the apartment for the whole day, their mother might have wondered what they were up to. What had definitely not been arranged was Gari having Navar in tow.