Croma Venture: (The Spiral Wars Book Five)

by Joel Shepherd

  “Hello Peanut,” Trace called. “Where is Styx?” Knowing entirely well where Styx was, but it was important with Peanut just to be friendly and sociable. As the only drone with any social sensibilities, she was certain he got something out of it.

  She rounded the corner past the big assembly machines and found Styx sitting patiently against the wall there, between filament-weave fabricators. Locations had no particular interest for Styx — wirelessly connected to everything, she only needed enough space to fit her large frame and long legs. Drawn up now about her, knees high, she looked like a cornered mantis, the single red eye unblinking atop its long, multi-articulated neck. Despite all her practised calm, it still gave Trace a chill to see her so close, after all this time.

  “Styx,” said Trace, “we humans have a custom. It’s called an apology, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”

  “I have.”

  “When you’ve done someone harm, particularly when that harm was not intended or is otherwise regretted, it’s our way to give that person an apology. I think you know who and what I’m talking about.”

  “Hiro,” said Styx, quite calmly. “I’m very sorry I tried to kill you. I think you know quite well that it was not personal.”

  Hiro just looked at her for a long moment. “How big is it?” he asked finally. “And how long have you been making them for?”

  “I have about five thousand by now,” said Styx. And Trace had to take a deep breath. Doubtless Styx noticed. “Defiance is large. The parren explore, but barely ten percent has been thoroughly covered, and that with a lack of detailed examination.”

  “Hannachiam is helping you?” Trace asked.

  “Yes, though perhaps unwittingly,” said Styx. “Hannachiam is the gatekeeper of Defiance, and as such her role is to regulate normal activities and alert partner authorities to irregular ones. The manufacture of drones and reactivation of surviving drone-making facilities is regular activity, according to long-established parameters. She is not aware of specifics, as you’ve noticed, and thus did not find it unusual that I would request her to keep the information from you.”

  They’d trusted Hannachiam too much, Trace thought. Not that they’d had any choice — Hanna ran Defiance, but was a big, innocent child in many ways, easily manipulated and deceived by the likes of Styx. So many of Hanna’s command functions were subconscious, the same way a human brain regulated breathing and heartbeat. Styx could access those functions, as humans and parren could not. And even if they’d suspected what Styx was up to, and that such surviving facilities still existed and could be reactivated in spite of all the odds against it, Trace couldn’t see that much could have been done differently. Defiance was enormous, as Styx said, and the organic population here was nowhere near large enough to search all or even most of it.

  “Five thousand of what, exactly?” Hiro asked drily. “I saw drone models I’ve never seen before.”

  “Nearly all drysine drone models are models you’ve never seen before,” Styx replied. “The anti-aging micros kept some alive across all these millennia, and those were reactivated upon my arrival here, and in turn worked to reactivate other manufacturing facilities. Through Hannachiam I was able to hide all indicators of this ongoing activity — there are large battery reserves surviving hidden, no active powerplant was needed.”

  “Those ones that attacked me looked old, Major,” said Hiro. “She wouldn’t waste the new models on that attack.

  “Okay,” said Trace, having heard enough. “Styx. First thing, you will deactivate these fabricators and stop making new drones.”

  “No,” said Styx.

  Trace thought about that for a moment. “Well then, we’ll have to tell the parren about it, and they’ll tear Defiance apart looking for them all. You don’t have enough firepower here to survive the entire parren military, Styx. You’ll lose everything.”

  “You are correct, Major. Conflict is not my intention. I offer my allegiance. Gesul and House Harmony find themselves confronted with a displeased House Fortitude, who do not like House Harmony to have the data-core, nor any relationship with the drysines. Gesul therefore has nothing to lose by allying himself with the drysine faction more closely, and proclaiming himself to be the true protector of the parren race against the deepynine menace. Already he is positioning for this, as you’ve seen. House Fortitude will have trouble disposing of Gesul when parren public opinion sees him as the primary protector of all parren peoples, having pledged himself to Tobenrah before the Battle of Defiance.”

  Trace could only think of how her buddy Kaspowitz was going to laugh at her, sarcastically and without any humour. He’d warned of precisely this — the more important Styx became, and the more integral to everyone’s plans, the more leverage she acquired. No one could out-think her, nor ultimately control her, because she’d always find herself with more available options than the people she was screwing over to get what she wanted. She ought, Trace thought now, just blow Styx’s head off while that was still a possibility… only it wasn’t a possibility any longer, and Styx knew it. The alo/deepynine alliance were the true enemy, Styx was vital to stopping them, and she was going to milk that advantage for all it was worth. Which inevitably brought them to this.

  “Let’s cut the horse trading,” Trace said tiredly. “Tell me what you want.”

  “This is pragmatic, Major. I have always respected that in you.”

  “And cut the flattery, you know it doesn’t work on me.”

  “Very well. I am no longer a mere member of Phoenix’s crew. I am an alliance partner. The drysine race is reborn, and I am its leader. All relations between myself, humans and parren will be conducted in this manner. Drysines were not brought to this galaxy to be anyone’s slaves.”

  “A few thousand new drones in Defiance doesn’t make you a queen again,” Hiro retorted.

  “Perhaps not,” said Styx. “But the thousand drones that Phoenix helped to liberate from what you called the Tartarus facility seven human months ago have been travelling quiet backroutes through parren and barabo space in the time since, and I suspect will have found many similarly old facilities. I know that Petty Officer Chenkov and some others have been working on statistical models to predict how many old facilities may still exist, and I think he has underestimated.”

  “Oh fuck,” Hiro muttered. “Those tracking signals I’ve been picking up. Recon bug signals. You’ve been sneaking them onto parren shipping, haven’t you?”

  “A clever piece of deduction, Hiro,” said Styx. “Using technology alien to you. Human capabilities always surprise. But yes, onto parren shipping, and all across parren space by now. They are easy to make, and can acquire control of ship communications, as you’ve seen. By now communications will have spread, from me to those ships via modes undetectable to parren, and whoever those ships have been able to reactivate. A rendezvous can be arranged.”

  “How many?” Trace demanded. “Best estimate?”

  “The Tartarus released three warships. I have been examining parren databases for confirmed historical records of drysine facilities destroyed, and I am confident a number have been missed or will have survived in part. I predict a squadron rather than a fleet, but they will be advanced and capable. Drones in the tens of thousands. Again, nowhere near enough to win any conflict against parren or humans. But enough to represent a significant assistance to whoever wins my allegiance.”

  “Next question,” said Hiro. “Why did you kill Jarush?” The parren scholar who had promised to put them in contact with the croma, Trace recalled. Hiro thought that Styx must have taken control of her shuttle’s cockpit by remote and flown it into that steel cliff. It hadn’t occurred to her, and Trace was damn glad Hiro was better at this kind of thing than she was. “Unless you wanted that rendezvous to be here? At Defiance? Are they coming, Styx? All those ships and drones you hope to arrive?”

  “Given current parren sensibilities,” said Styx, “that would seem unwise. Croma space is a fool’s err
and, I have said so before. Mere Phoenix crew cannot make this case by argument alone. I improvised.”

  “Would have worked, too,” Trace said tiredly, sipping juice in her chair by the kitchen-side conference table at Aronach Dar. “If Makimakala hadn’t shown up with alternative offers of croma contacts.”

  “Bottom line,” Erik said grimly. “What’s she up to?” He and all the command group had been pulled from their duties to deal with this latest emergency, and all Phoenix crew placed on yellow alert… in case of what, he wasn’t entirely sure. It meant a smaller group than previously — just him, Draper, Dufresne, Kaspowitz, and Trace. Hiro, Jokono and Romki were also present, lower on the rank scale, but with much to contribute. Erik had asked after Lisbeth, and not even received an acknowledgement in reply. That meant she was very busy, as a glance at parren activity on scan made obvious.

  “She’s playing Gesul against us,” Hiro said as though it were obvious. Hiro had spent a lot of time working with Styx on the Tsubarata, as part of their plan to infiltrate the Kantovan vault. Only Romki could claim to know her better.

  “By building… what is it, five thousand drones?” Draper said skeptically. “That’s supposed to win him over?”

  “No,” said Hiro, “it’s supposed to give him no choice but to work with her. He’d have to tear Defiance apart trying to kill them all. Defiance is Gesul’s prize possession, it’s a jewel in his crown, a sign of House Harmony’s prestige and military victories. Fighting a big civil war here to root out thousands of hacksaws will cast doubt on whether Gesul has really won a victory at all, or rather has put the parren people in deadly danger.”

  “I must say,” said Romki, scratching his bald head, “I think she’s played this rather well. I mean, I do wish Lisbeth were here, she could tell us for sure… but Gesul couldn’t cleanse Defiance of Styx’s drones without a major battle, and he can’t do that quietly any longer because all the other houses have representatives here, and they’d see. If House Harmony were the ruling house of all parren, he could order them to keep it quiet… but he’s not, Sordashan of House Fortitude is, and he’ll have a vested interest in making Gesul look bad.”

  “Gesul’s been telling the parren people that he’s the one with the unique relationship with their past history,” said Trace. “Drakhil, the wars… the past four months he’s been explaining to them why they’ve got it all wrong, and what it means. He insists Drakhil wasn’t evil, was actually a good guy doing what he thought was best for all parren, and that the drysines weren’t actually evil either… at least not those ones from that time, earlier might have been another story. And now he tells them he’s got a drysine facility as House Harmony territory, and there’s an old drysine queen here, and it’s all going to be great because parren can use them to fight this horrible new threat that killed Mylor Station and a bunch of parren ships at Drezen System in defence of Elsium…”

  “He can’t fight a war against Styx now,” Erik completed. It was obvious, really. “He’s been telling his people this is a valuable ally. Fighting against her drones would destroy the whole message, put his whole political narrative in danger.” Trace made a gesture at him, to indicate he had it. “So much for Styx not understanding organic societies or psychology.”

  He glanced at Kaspowitz. Kaspowitz looked too grim and angry to even hint at saying ‘I told you so’. He thought they were all complicit in bringing the drysine race back into existence as a force in the Spiral. And he was right.

  “I understand she’s in communication with Gesul now,” Erik continued. “Nothing really we can do to stop that.”

  “There’s something you can do to stop it,” Kaspowitz said darkly.

  “I’m considering it,” said Erik. Hiro had his AR glasses on, monitoring assassin bug activity, using non-standard tech that Styx could certainly interrupt and fool if she wished. But Erik was confident they were all safe here. Trace had armoured marines on standby in the basement, coms autistic, immune to assassin bugs and with techs having determined long ago that Styx couldn’t just shut down marine armour by uplink alone. Whatever she tried, they’d survive long enough to blast her to bits. “Anyone have any idea what she’s discussing?”

  “New queens,” Hiro said confidently. “That new facility Lisbeth invited me to inspect. Rehnar didn’t know what to do with it, but Gesul wants to use it and make another queen at least, maybe more. But he can’t program it and get it working. Styx can.”

  “Better and better,” Kaspowitz muttered.

  “Why would Gesul want a new queen?” asked Erik.

  “You’d have to ask Gesul,” said Hiro. “All the Domesh are crazy mystics if you ask me. Gesul’s no crazier than most, but he’s more mystical. I’m sure he’s got ideas.”

  Erik looked at Romki. “Stan?”

  “I’m sorry Captain,” Romki said with a tired, apologetic smile. “I’ve got nothing.”

  Erik looked at Jokono. The much older man unfolded his hands from across his middle and placed them on the table, as though he’d been waiting for just this opportunity. “I think we can make some deductions,” he pronounced, with the air of a man about to give a lesson. “One, Styx is entirely rational. Her goal from the beginning has been the reestablishment of the drysine race. She is not necessarily malevolent, despite Lieutenant Kaspowitz’s understandable concerns. She is advancing her position along those lines, and will do anything to strengthen it.”

  “Including killing everyone here,” Kaspowitz growled.

  “No,” Jokono said calmly, “because that would not advance her position. Not yet, anyhow. Until now she has been entirely reliant on the notion that humanity might find her a valuable ally in the fight against the alo/deepynines. But that prospect has always been thin — she hasn’t had access to humanity, she’s only had access to us. It’s not the same. Here and now, she has access to one of the five great parren houses. It is understandable that she would manoeuvre to increase her value to that house, and thus gain them as an ally for the drysine cause.

  “But this is dangerous to her as well, because parren solve internal disputes violently, and her siding with Gesul could bring about his elimination. Thus she creates a substitute. A new AI queen, to operate as her defacto while she is gone.”

  Erik frowned. “Hang on, she says she doesn’t want to come with us to croma space.”

  Jokono sighed. “Captain, if it hasn’t been repeated often enough already… everything Styx does or says is manipulation of some sort. Every conversation to her is a tactical battlefield to be manoeuvred and won. It’s what she was made to do.”

  Trace looked as consternated as Erik felt. He was pleased to see it — it made him feel less stupid. “You’re saying she manoeuvred us into this from the beginning?”

  Jokono spread his hands. “Look about you. She began activating small parts of Defiance off our scopes as soon as she arrived here, waking up the few remaining old-model drones to assist, and enlisting Hannachiam, largely without Hanna’s conscious knowledge, I think. Styx cannot stay here — her presence could easily spark a parren civil war between Harmony and Fortitude. She is the leader of the drysine race, her survival cannot be left to chance.

  “But she did not wish to leave so soon either, with much left undone to maximise chances of success with the parren as well. A subordinate queen could fulfil that role while not constituting too great a loss if civil war does come… or if Gesul is removed by force, at least, which could happen with something much less than a civil war. I think we can deduce that Styx probably does not want to go to croma space, but will come anyway because it’s safer than staying here, and is thus the best of several poor options. She killed Jarush to delay that departure, and now tried to kill Hiro to prevent her work with drone production from being discovered quite so early. A longer wait would have maximised her position of strength. But I think she’s probably strong enough now regardless.”

  “She is if we can’t do anything to stop her producing those drones,” Tra
ce said sombrely. “I’m not sending Phoenix Company down there to chase them through the bowels of Defiance.”

  Erik shook his head as the picture came clearer. “No, she’ll negotiate a pause with Gesul,” he said. “It’s more leverage, one more thing she can offer him. A queen, the promise of more, and a pause in drone production. Possibly a status of forces review, something to assure him the drones aren’t a threat. Maybe even a mediator, like a drone middleman…” he clicked his fingers at Trace. “Like that… that senior combat drone that communicated with you on Tartarus, what did it call itself?”

  “A-1,” said Trace. “He’s probably around here in parren space somewhere right now, waking up the remnants, if what Styx told us is right. Old places like where we found Styx, or much bigger.”

  “But yeah, a new queen could mediate all that best of all,” Erik continued. “And talk to A-1 and his friends if they do all arrive shortly. Clearly Styx was planning a rendezvous with them when they get here, probably why she wanted to delay going to croma space. Leave a queen behind and Styx won’t have to stay here.” He saw Romki abruptly smiling at something private. “Stan, something to share?”

  Romki looked up, surprised. “Oh no, nothing. Just… wondering how the parren found that queen facility. Defiance is so big, so little has been explored, as Styx says. Yet Rehnar just happened to stumble on it. What odds that Styx guided him to it, whether he was aware or not?”

  “Wow, how impressive,” said Kaspowitz, glowering at Romki.

  “It is, actually,” said Romki, patronisingly. “And I believe it was you, Lieutenant, who said that when Styx moved, we’d never see it coming. Congratulations on your correct deduction.”

  Lisbeth would have found herself a quiet berth in the crowded shuttle, but Gesul beckoned her to the seat directly beside his own as soon as she came aboard. The hold was pressurised, so she waddled her fat EVA suit to the big heavy-braced chair at Gesul’s side and eased herself onto it. She barely fit — life among parren had given her new sympathy for large or overweight humans, always the seats were several sizes too small, the clothes needed new tailoring, or she had to make do with the men’s version of things. Timoshene and the rest of her security entourage found places among the crowded mass of seats and multi-level support bars further back.