The Neutronium Alchemist

by Peter F. Hamilton

  “It’s all right,” Tatiana whispered as she hugged him. “It’s all over now. He’s left you for good.” She even managed to surprise herself at the note of regret which had crept into her voice.

  The voidhawks rendezvoused with Tatiana’s pod, claimed its occupants, then swooped away from the habitat at seven gees. Valisk was now host to a war of light. The original red fluorescence was besieged by a vigorous purple shimmer sweeping down the shell from the northern endcap. As the purple area grew in size, so it grew in intensity.

  Ten minutes after the escape pods were launched, the last glimmer of red was extinguished. The voidhawks were seven hundred kilometres away when it happened, and still retreating at two gees. Nobody quite knew what constituted a safe separation distance. Then their distortion fields detected Valisk’s mass starting to reduce. The last image of the habitat which their sensor blisters received was of a purple-white micro-star blazing coldly. At the core of the photonic rupture, space itself broke down as bizarre energy patterns exerted a catastrophic stress.

  When the glare faded and space regained its equipoise there was no evidence of the habitat’s existence. However hard the voidhawks probed, they could find no residue of energy, no particles larger than a mote of dust. Valisk had neither vaporized nor shattered, it had simply and cleanly departed the universe.

  Chapter 11

  The Kulu embassy was situated just outside Harrisburg’s central governmental district; a five-storey building in the civic tradition, granite block walls and elaborately carved windows. Slender turrets and retro-modernist sculptures lined the roof in an attempt to grant the stark façade some degree of interest. To no avail; Harrisburg’s ubiquitous granite reduced the most ornate architecture to the level of a neo-Gothic fortress. Even the setting, in one of the wealthier districts laid out with parks, wide streets, and century-old trees, didn’t help. An office cube was an office cube, no matter what cosmetics it dabbed on.

  Its neighbours comprised rich legal practices, capital-city headquarters of large companies, and expensive apartment blocks. Directly opposite, in an office which claimed to be an aircraft charter broker, Tonala’s security police kept a twenty-four hour watch on everyone who went in or out. Forty minutes ago they had gone up to alert condition amber three (foreign covert action imminent) when five large, screened cars from the diplomatic fleet slid down into the embassy’s underground car park. None of the officers on duty were sure if that particular alert status applied in this case; according to their colleagues at the city spaceport, the cars were full of Edenists.

  The arrival of Samuel and his team had drawn considerable interest from staff inside the embassy, too. Curious, slightly apprehensive faces peered out of almost every doorway as Adrian Redway led Monica Foulkes and her new allies through the building. They took a lift eight stories below ground, to a floor which didn’t exist on any blueprints logged on the city council’s civil engineering computer.

  Adrian Redway stopped at the door to the ESA station’s operational centre and gave Samuel an awkward look. His eyes slid over the tall Edenist’s shoulders to the other six Edenists waiting patiently in the corridor.

  “Listen,” he said heavily. “I don’t mean to be an oaf about this. But we do run and correlate our entire Tonala asset network from here. Surely, you don’t all need to come in?” His eyebrows quivered hopefully.

  “Of course not,” Samuel said graciously.

  Monica gave a disgruntled sigh. She knew Samuel well enough now not to need affinity to hear the thought in his head: strange concept. If one Edenist went inside, then technically all of them did. Her hand fluttered towards him in a modestly embarrassed gesture. He winked back.

  The operations centre could have been the office of any medium-sized commercial enterprise. Air-conditioned yet strangely airless, it had the standard desks with (more sophisticated than usual) processor blocks, big wall screens, ceiling-mounted AV pillars, and side offices with heavily tinted glass walls. Eleven ESA staffers were sitting in big leather chairs, monitoring what they could of the planet’s current military and politico-strategic situation. Information was becoming a precious resource as Tonala’s communications net started to suffer glitches; the only certainty gained from the overall picture was how close the orbital situation was getting to all-out confrontation.

  Tonala’s state of emergency had been matched by that of the other nations. Then in the last twenty minutes Tonala’s high command had confirmed it had lost the Spirit of Freedom station to unknown foreign elements. In response, five warships had been dispatched to intercept the Urschel, Raimo, and the Pinzola to try to find out what had happened.

  Every other government was complaining that their deployment at this time constituted a deliberately provocative act.

  Adrian led Monica and Samuel through into a conference room on the far side of the operations centre. “My chief analyst gives us two hours tops before the shooting starts for real,” he said glumly as he sat at the head of the table.

  “I hate to say this, but that really is secondary to our mission,” Monica said. “We must secure Mzu. She cannot be killed or captured. It would be a disaster for the Confederation.”

  “Yeah, I accessed the report,” Adrian said glumly. “The Alchemist by itself is bad enough, but in the hands of the possessed …”

  “A fact you may not have yet,” Samuel said. “The frigates Urschel, Raimo, and Pinzola are all Organization starships. Capone must know Dr Mzu is here; his representatives will not demonstrate any restraint or subtlety at all. Their actions could well trigger the war.”

  “Jeeze, they sent some spaceplanes down after they arrived. Nobody knows where the hell to, the planetary sensor coverage is wiped.”

  “What about local air defence coverage for the city?” Monica asked.

  “Reasonably intact. Kulu supplied the hardware about eleven years ago; hardly top grade but it’s still functioning. The embassy has an over-the-shoulder feed from the Tonala defence force headquarters.”

  “So if the Organization spaceplanes approach Harrisburg you’ll be able to warn us.”

  “No problem.”

  “Good, that ought to give us a couple of minutes breathing space. Next question, did you find her?”

  Adrian pretended offence. “Of course we found her,” he said, grinning. “We’re the ESA, remember?”

  “Right; truth is always worse than rumour. Where is she?”

  Adrian datavised the officer running the surveillance mission on Mzu.

  “She booked in at the Mercedes Hotel, or rather Voi did, as soon as they arrived. They made very little effort to cover their tracks; Voi used a credit disk registered under an alias, but it’s still got her biolectric pattern. I mean, how amateur can you get?”

  “They’re not even amateurs, they’re just kids,” Samuel said. “They eluded us on their home ground because we were rushed. Out here they’re completely defenceless against any professional agency.”

  “Voi did approach a local security firm,” Adrian said. “But she hasn’t followed it up. Her request for bodyguards was cancelled. They seem to have linked up with some locals instead. We’re not sure who they are. There certainly aren’t any Garissa partizan cadres on Nyvan.”

  “How many locals?” Monica asked.

  “Three or four, we think. As we don’t know who they are, it’s hard to be sure.”

  “Any interest from other agencies?”

  “There have been three probes launched into the hotel’s computer system. We couldn’t get an origin on any of them. Whoever it was, their blocker programs are first rate.”

  “Is Mzu still at the Mercedes?” Monica asked.

  “Not at this exact moment; but she is on her way back there from a meeting with the Opia company. Her group is passing themselves off as representatives from the Dorados defence force, which gives them a valid reason to buy armaments. I should be receiving a report on the meeting from our asset in the company any minute.”


  “Fine,” Monica said. “We’ll intercept her at the hotel.”

  “Very well.” Adrian gave her an edgy glance. “The local police won’t appreciate that.”

  “Sad, but irrelevant. Can you load a priority flight clearance authorization into the city’s air defence network?”

  “Sure, we supplied it, we have the ultimate authority codes.”

  “Fine, stand by to do it for the Edenist flyers. We’ll use them to evac as soon as we’ve acquired her.”

  “The Kingdom will probably get expelled from this entire system if you pull a stunt like that,” Adrian said. “If there’s one thing Nyvan’s nations hate more than each other, it’s outsystem foreigners.”

  “Mzu wanted somewhere that was dishonest and greedy enough to supply her with weapons on a no-questions-asked basis. If this planet had built themselves a decent civilization in the first place, she wouldn’t even be here. They’ve only themselves to blame. I mean, they’ve had five centuries for God’s sake.”

  Samuel groaned chidingly.

  Adrian paused, not meeting Monica’s stare. “Um, my second surveillance team leader is reporting in. I’ve had them following that Calvert character, as you asked.”

  “Yes?” There was a sense of grudging inevitability in this moment, Monica thought.

  “The captain contacted a data security expert as soon as he landed, a Richard Keaton. It would seem Keaton has done a good job for him. In fact, he probably origined one of the probes into the hotel computer. They’re currently in a car which is heading in the general direction of the Mercedes Hotel. He’ll get there before you can.”

  “Shit! That bloody Calvert.”

  “Do you want him eliminated?”

  “No,” Samuel said. He stopped Monica’s outburst with a firm stare. “Any action at the hotel now will draw the police to it before we can get there. Our interception will be difficult enough as it is.”

  “All right,” she grumbled.

  “My team could intercept Mzu for you,” Adrian said.

  Monica was tempted—anything to get this resolved. “How many have you got on her?”

  “Three cars, seven personnel.”

  “Mzu has at least four people with her,” Samuel said.

  “Agreed,” Monica said regretfully. “That’s too many, and God knows what they’re carrying, especially these unknown locals. We have to guarantee first attempt success. Tell your team to continue their observation, Adrian, we’ll join them as soon as we can.”

  “Do you think she’ll resist?” Adrian asked.

  “I would hope not,” Samuel said. “After all, she is not stupid; she must know Nyvan’s situation is decaying by the minute. That may well make this easier for us. We should start with an open approach to fly her outsystem. Once she realizes she has to leave with us, either willingly or by force, it would be logical for her to capitulate.”

  “Easier?” Monica gave him a pitying look. “This mission?”

  “Mother Mary, why?” Voi demanded as soon as the five of them crowded back into the penthouse lift. “You can’t sell out now. Think of what you’ve been through—Mary, what we’ve done for you. You can’t hand it over to Capone!”

  Her impassioned outburst stopped dead as Alkad turned to stare at her.

  “Do not argue with one of my decisions ever again.”

  Even Gelai and Ngong were daunted by the tone, but then they could sense the thoughts powering her.

  “As Baranovich made quite clear, the Omuta option is now closed to me,” Alkad said. “Worthless piece of trash though he is, he happens to be right. You cannot begin to imagine how much I resent that, because it means the one thing I never allowed myself to think in thirty years has become real. Our vengeance has become irrelevant.”

  “Nonsense,” Voi said. “You can still hit the Omutans before the possessed do.”

  “Please don’t display your ignorance in public, it’s offensive.”

  “Ignorance, you bitch. Mary, you’re giving the Alchemist to Capone. Giving it! You think I’m going to keep quiet about that?”

  Alkad squared her shoulders; with an immense effort she spoke in a level voice to the ireful girl. “You are a simple immature child, with an equally childish fixation. You have never once thought through the consequences should your wish be granted, the suffering it will cause.

  For thirty years I have thought of nothing else. I created the Alchemist, Mary have mercy on me. I understand the full reality of what it can do.

  The responsibility for that machine is mine alone. I have never, nor will ever, shirk that. To do so would be to divorce myself from what remains of my humanity. And the consequences of the possessed obtaining it are very bad indeed. Therefore I will accept Baranovich’s offer to leave this doomed planet. I will lead Capone’s forces to the Alchemist. And I will then activate it. It will never be available for anyone to study and duplicate.”

  “But—” Voi looked around the others for support. “If you activate it, surely …”

  “I will die. Oh, yes. And with me will die the one man I ever loved. We’ve been separated for thirty years, and I still love him. That purely human entanglement doesn’t matter. I will even sacrifice him for this.

  Now do you understand my commitment and responsibility? Maybe I will come back as a possessor, or maybe I will stay in the beyond. Whatever my fate, it will be no different to any other human being. I am afraid of that, but I don’t reject it. I’m not arrogant enough to think I can cheat our ultimate destination.

  “Gelai and Ngong have shown me that we do retain our basic personality. That’s good, because if I do come back in someone else’s body, my resolve will remain intact. I will not build another Alchemist. Its reason for being is gone, it must go too.”

  Voi bent her knees slightly so her eyes were closer to Alkad’s face, as if that would give her a deeper insight into the physicist’s mind. “You really will, won’t you? You’ll kill yourself.”

  “I think kamikaze is a more appropriate term. But don’t worry, I’m not going to dragoon you two along. I don’t even consider this to be your fight, I never did. You’re not Garissans, not really; you have no reason to dip your hands into blood this deep. Now be quiet and pray to Mother Mary that we can save something from this pile of shit, and get the pair of you as well as Lodi out of here. But be assured, I still consider you expendable to my goal.” She turned to Gelai. “If either of you have any objection to this, then speak now, please.”

  “No, Doctor,” Gelai said. There was the faintest smile on her lips. “I don’t object. In fact, I’m rather glad it won’t be used against a planet by you or Capone. But believe me, you don’t want to kill yourself; once you’ve known the beyond, the pressure Capone can exert by promising you a body is going to be extraordinary.”

  “I know,” Alkad said. “But choice has never played a large part in my life.”

  Tonala’s state of emergency had drastically reduced the volume of road traffic in the capital. Normally, the churning wheels of the afternoon gridlock would turn the snow to mush and spray it over the pedestrians.

  Now, however, the big flakes were beginning to accumulate on the roads.

  Harrisburg’s civic mechanoids were losing their battle to clear it away.

  The transport department considered the effects such an icy blanket would have on brake response time, and ordered a general speed reduction to avoid accidents. The proscription was datavised into the control processor of individual vehicles.

  “You want me to neutralize the order for this car?” Dick Keaton asked.

  Joshua gave the data security expert an edgy glance as he tried to decide. The answer was yes, but he said, “No,” anyway, because speeding when you’re a suspect foreigner in a nation on the brink of war and being followed by two local police cars is an essentially dumb thing to do.

  Thanks to the general lack of cars, their tail was a prominent one, keeping a precise fifty metres behind. Its presence didn’t have much
effect on Joshua and his companions. The two serjeants were as vigilant as mechanoids, while Melvyn stared out at the city covered in its crisp grey mantle, the opposite of Dahybi who sat hunched up in his seat, hands clasped and paying no attention to their surroundings, almost as if he were at prayer. Dick Keaton was enjoying the ride, a pre-teen excitement which Joshua found annoying. He was trying to balance mission priorities at the same time as he reviewed what he was going to say to Mzu. A sincere but insistent invitation to return to Tranquillity, point out the shit she was in, how he had a starship waiting. It wasn’t that he was bad with words, but these were just so damn important. Exactly how do you tell the semi-psychotic owner of a doomsday device to come along quietly and not make any fuss?

  His communications block accepted Ashly’s secure datavise and relayed it straight into his neural nanonics.

  “New development,” Ashly reported. “The Edenist flyers just activated their ion fields.”

  “Are they leaving?”

  “No sign of that yet. They’re still on the ground, but they’re in a rapid response condition. Their agents must be close to Mzu.”

  “Bugger. Any news from orbit?”

  “Not a thing. Lady Macbeth isn’t due above the horizon for another eight minutes, but the spaceplane sensors haven’t detected any low-orbit weapons activity yet.”

  “Okay. Stand by, we’re approaching the hotel now. I might need you in a hurry.”

  “Do my best. But if these flyers don’t want me to lift off, it could get tricky.”

  “Lady Mac is your last resort. She can take them out. Use her if you have to.”

  “Understood.”

  Dahybi was leaning forward in his seat to catch a glimpse of the Mercedes Hotel as the car swept along the last two hundred metres of road.