“I wish someone at my side who knows Styx personally,” Gesul explained, hard blue eyes fixed upon the displays before him, monitoring multiple incoming feeds at once.
“Yes Gesul-sa,” said Lisbeth, thinking of Hiro’s spy friend Daica, and the threat to her family that could be eased if she spied on the parren. And she shook the thought off. “Gesul-sa, I understand that this is human and impolite of me to ask, but I ask your indulgence. Is this wise?”
“Wise,” said Gesul, eyes not leaving his screens. “Very few things are wise, Lisbeth Debogande. Least frequently those things that are loudly pronounced to be so. The true question is whether they are necessary.”
The rear hold of the big parren assault shuttle was full of marines. A second shuttle was coming too, also loaded with parren firepower. Gesul’s people, some very senior commanders and technicians among them, said that they were ‘in communication’ with new entities deep in the bowels of Defiance. More than that, they would not say. Only now Gesul insisted on going to talk to these entities personally. At least on Phoenix, Lisbeth could be confident that if Erik wanted to do something particularly daft, half a dozen senior people he respected would try to talk him out of it. With Gesul, not a single parren would have raised so much as a non-existent eyebrow.
“It’s that fool Rehnar’s fault,” said Gesul, as the commotion of loading, the stomping of footsteps and the crash of chair restraints continued around them. “We have been on Defiance for a hundred standard rotations, yet most of his personnel deployments were strategic and aggressive, aimed at warding further assault from the deepynines, and then aimed at the Domesh and myself. I proposed in our earliest meetings that within the first two hundred days we should be aiming to have fully explored sixty percent of the city, yet we were on course to achieve less than half of that. Since the Domesh ascended, I have commanded a change in posture to accelerate those explorations and send teams to the deep reaches of Defiance where none have yet ventured. Some of the commanders have now instead sought to blame you, Lisbeth Debogande, for this exceedingly slow pace.”
Lisbeth blinked. “Me?”
“As the one who told them that parren-made drones would be inadequate for the exploration task.” Oh, thought Lisbeth. She had, and she’d had it confirmed by Hiro and every Phoenix tech she’d asked. If a low-tech drone encountered ongoing drysine activity in Defiance, its systems could be hacked and overridden as easily as child’s play, so that its organic operators could not trust a single thing it broadcast back. The only reliable way to explore Defiance was in EVA suits, with trustworthy eyes. “I told them that human proverb you said to me once. That one should not shoot the messenger.”
He broke off to reply to some incoming communication, a fast instruction in some jargon that Lisbeth could barely catch, however improved her Porgesh.
“I was under the impression that parren rather liked shooting the messenger,” Lisbeth muttered, flipping down her helmet visor long enough to call up her official functions and display them on the screens before her. A list of Semaya’s latest official files for her to address… at least nine new ones from various non-Domesh departments requesting clarifications on human matters, or requests for information that Semaya had already cleared with someone higher up. As the only human in Gesul’s administration, she was a source of endless curiosity and information for every other person there, and spent much of her day simply answering queries. But that was part of why Gesul valued her — with her assistance, his administration was now far more well informed on matters concerning humans and hacksaws both, and not all of those answered queries were time wasted.
“As your advisor, Gesul-sa,” she resumed when Gesul’s other conversations ended, “I advise that this is extremely dangerous. There appears to be an indigenous, pre-existing component of drysine drones, and a new contingent. The old contingent is over twenty five human millennia old, evidently their bodies have survived in some sort of good condition, but there is no telling what kind of damage may have been done to their minds in the meantime.”
“Our technicians suppose they may have been reprogrammed,” said Gesul, as airtight hatches sealed and clanked somewhere above, and the shuttle’s background engine noise grew to a dull roar. “Probably by Styx, or with the assistance of Hannachiam.”
“Which raises all kinds of problematic possibilities,” Lisbeth agreed. A shudder, as the shuttle slowly rose. “More problematic still are these new drones from the retasked fabricators. Styx has full access to the data-core, she’s not a manufacturing unit but she’s had access to the best technical data from across the drysine ages. It’s quite likely she’s selected new types of drone with which to task the fabricators, previously unseen by us. I would recommend that if you truly wish for the best advice, you should invite Major Thakur along, or Hiro Uno, or possibly Stan Romki or others of Phoenix’s best technicians who’ve actually studied and worked on constructing new ones… they did build Styx’s entire current combat chassis…”
“I am aware of their expertise,” Gesul said calmly. “But Defiance is House Harmony territory, and this is now a House Harmony matter. The deal to be made is between Harmony and the drysines. We have all had quite enough of humans interjecting themselves in the middle of that relationship, so that parren hold no advantages whatsoever.”
It was a complaint Lisbeth had heard frequently in the past few months, and she swallowed her objection. “You are certain that there is a deal to be made?”
“Yes. Your friend Styx has a formidable intellect. She knows that parren will not stand for threats to their power. If this new drysine force in Defiance constitutes a threat, I will have no choice but to order it destroyed, whatever the cost to House Harmony. I judge that Styx wishes to expand her influence and her strategic options. Until now she has been entirely reliant upon the goodwill of the Phoenix. Now she has things to offer parren as well, beginning with House Harmony.”
“That seems quite reasonable,” said Lisbeth, trying to keep the sarcasm from her voice. “Allow me to then offer one last piece of advice. The human fields of psychology and neuroscience do not even have numbers or framework with which to describe Styx’s level of intellect or manner of sentience. Heading into any confrontation or negotiation with her, or with her servants, assuming that one knows exactly what she’s intending, does not seem logical.”
Gesul smiled faintly, as the big shuttle rumbled through the open doors atop the habitat shell. “Point noted and conceded, Lisbeth Debogande.”
The shuttle flew on low-thrust across the vast steel cityscape, over features alien and remarkable. Casting an eye across it on external visual as they flew, Lisbeth could easily see the scale of the problem. It only took a few hundred metres of reactivated space to begin a new drone manufacturing facility. Across Defiance were thousands of square kilometres of unexplored alien city… no, kilometres cubed, she corrected herself. Defiance was not only wide, it was deep, extending downward for many kilometres before it hit the floor of this gouged, rocky crater.
Entry point was yet another geofeature. When organics had first returned to Defiance four months ago, there had been only one functional, and it had offered a strategic focal-point about which much of the battle had centred. But in fact there were many deep geofeatures across the city, sealed shut before or after the last great battle here. That had been conducted by the forces of Jin Danah — the first but short-lived ruler of the great Parren Empire that followed the Machine Age — against Defiance’s defenders, synthetic and organic alike.
This geofeature, Lisbeth judged by the visuals that moved past her scan-screen as they descended, had had its multiple sealing shield doors reopened — likely a long and difficult process, given the mechanisms had been destroyed long ago once the doors had been swung into place. Down and down they continued, the pilot carefully manoeuvring to avoid several old obstructions protruding into the shaft.
Finally they came to a hover, while several marines took the dorsal shaft out to
leap down and inspect a landing pad that protruded from a wall. After several minutes of checks they pronounced the pad safe, and the big shuttle gently landed. Warning lights flashed with an announcement of imminent decompression, and all aboard sealed their suits and completed final systems checks. Then the roar and hum of ventilation sucking air from the hold, as external sound faded, to be replaced only by the faint whirr of suit systems, and the sound of Lisbeth’s own breathing.
The marines in the rear deployed first, Gesul following with his personal guard, Lisbeth a respectful few steps behind. Outside, Lisbeth looked up through the top of her visor to see the tiny, distant circle of stars that marked the geofeature’s entrance, perhaps five kilometres above. But too much looking upward was bad for her balance, so she watched where she was going instead, and followed the low-G skipping parren into the vast entrance in the tunnel’s side.
Within, a few lights were working, built into the wall and ceiling. Lisbeth’s suit visor informed her those lights were multi-spectrumed — hacksaws utilised many spectrums of light, not just those visible to organic eyes. Those lights illuminated a crazy tangle of machinery and utility arms blocking this entry portion of what might otherwise have been a hangar bay. It was a hangar bay, Lisbeth saw in amazement — amidst the tangle was the angular, unsymmetrical shape of an old hacksaw runner, a short-range spaceship, likely made for shuttling to and from the many starships in orbit overhead. It was very old, aged without rust or visible decay, just dull and lifeless, locked amidst the many-armed docking mechanism, trapped by that faintly disturbing alien embrace.
Multiple other docking ports were vacant, arms and umbilicals hanging limp. In and around those arms were many small holes and accesses, doubtless for drones to crawl and access. Lisbeth hoped fervently that she wouldn’t have to go crawling through there herself. Particularly after what had happened to Hiro, Timoshene and his men. The parren marines deployed wide, weapons not raised, but ready. Lisbeth glanced within her helmet, and saw Timoshene at her far side with his other men, the ones who hadn’t been killed by hacksaw drones. Behind that impassive visor, she could not tell his expression.
The parren talked, a few short, terse sentences. It seemed that whatever communications they’d received had requested them to come here, and wait. Parren were good at waiting. Lisbeth locked out her suit’s legs, settled onto the crotch as all spacers and marines did while standing for a long time on EVAs, and waited.
Movement deep within one of those docking bays. Lisbeth saw a flicker of laser scan, flashing momentarily off her visor. A human marine commander might have given an extra instruction not to fire or flinch. House Harmony marine commanders had no concern of such things.
Then they came, a metallic scuttling like so many silver spiders emerging from their nest. Big spiders, methodical in their movements, thinking and looking, not moving on pre-programmed automatic. Their shapes and sizes varied, some rounder, some flatter, some more intricate and prehensile, others boxy and shell-shaped. Several walked much taller on longer, stilt-like legs. All of them, Lisbeth saw with heart-in-mouth, had modular attachments, almost certainly weapons. Hiro had said the drones that attacked him and Timoshene had had no weapons. Perhaps Styx had kept them unarmed to remove the temptation of engagement, to get them thinking more about hiding than killing. That was alarming, as it suggested not all of the drones could be trusted to behave as required.
And this now suggested that they did have a good stash of weapons somewhere about, and could rearm as required. Others had boxy secondary units attached to the lower-rear torso — probably thrusters, Lisbeth guessed, having read those reports from Phoenix marines in the aftermath of various fights. Thrusters created mobility in low-G. Stripped down, drones could look almost lean and flexible, bodies as articulated and supple as even the human torso, armour-plated segments overlapping and sliding as they turned and twisted. Fully loaded for combat, they looked more like heavy-shelled beetles, nearly double their unloaded size with weapons, utility laser, ammunition and thrusters. Small heads twisted and darted within armoured hood-carapaces, two eyes of uneven size peering and scanning, no doubt sharing everything they saw instantaneously with their comrades.
Dear god Styx, Lisbeth thought, watching the advancing tide of insectoid steel. What have you done?
The advancing line stopped, and a single drone continued forward another several metres, then stopped. Gesul indicated to Lisbeth, and walked forward. Lisbeth wanted to protest, but found her feet moving on automatic, the suit coming out of stand-still without having to be told. No parren guards accompanied them. Not that it mattered, she thought, finding the small water tube with her lips and taking a sip to moisten her dry mouth. If shooting started here, likely everyone would die… though the drones, more heavily armed and far more heavily armoured, would fare much better.
Her visor informed her that Gesul wished to speak, and she blinked on the icon. “Lisbeth, I wish to know, in your opinion, if I am speaking to Styx or not. That is all.”
Because all of these drones obeyed Styx absolutely, had been made and programmed by her, and were likely in direct communications with her at this very moment. Lisbeth was the only one here who knew Styx at all well, and could possibly judge whether it was her speaking with Gesul or not.
They stopped four metres from the lead drone. It was larger than the average drone, heavily armed and loaded. The twin cannon on its back loomed above head-height, its massive vibroblades like twin pincers on an enormous crab. If it moved fast, those four metres would disappear in a flash. And suddenly Lisbeth wondered, suspiciously, if she was only here for translation and analysis… or if Gesul simply judged that Styx was still in close proximity with Phoenix marines, and would be held directly responsible by them if her creations murdered Captain Debogande’s sister.
“Hello,” Gesul said simply, on open coms. “To whom am I speaking?” Assuming the drone could read his unencrypted transmissions was a safe bet, given no audio speaker would work in the vacuum.
A bright red laser lit upon Gesul’s faceplate, then on Lisbeth’s, from somewhere on the drone’s head. “Hello,” came the reply on suit coms, also in Porgesh. “This unit is Dse- Pa.”
“Gesul,” Lisbeth said cautiously, pleased that she had something to report. “Major Thakur encountered a drone in the Tartarus engagement I believe the Major briefed you on personally. It was the local commander of forces, and it identified itself as A1 — ‘A’ is the first letter of the human alphabet, and ‘1’ is the first human number after zero, just as ‘Dse’ and ‘Pa’ are for parren. So this unit too is identifying itself as A1, though it cannot be the same drone. I speculate that it simply chooses that signifier from what it knows of our alphabet and numbers to identify itself as commander.”
“Hello Dse-Pa,” said Gesul. “I am Gesul, leader of House Harmony of the parren. Defiance, this entire city and its moon, and the space surrounding it, are all beneath my command. Do you understand?”
A slight pause, just long enough for Lisbeth’s heart to consider whether to start racing at the implications if Dse-Pa protested. “Yes,” said Dse-Pa instead. “I understand.”
“And do you agree?” Gesul persisted.
“Yes. This unit agrees. All drysines agree.” Lisbeth tried not to gasp audibly with relief. Well that averted a rather large and unpleasant war, and probably most of their immediate deaths. But then, as Gesul had said, it would have been stupid for Dse-Pa, or Styx, to say otherwise. As to what they actually thought, however…
“Dse-Pa,” said Gesul, very calmly and clearly. He could have been giving a thoughtful lecture in old parren history, for all the drama he displayed. “It was my understanding that there would be no more drysine drones on Defiance. Many of my people consider this new move in making many drysine drones to be a threat to parren power on this world. Yet I am a tolerant man. This is an ancient home of drysines, and it was re-built in large part by drysines. Drysines have their place here, and there could be great
utility in allowing drysines to maintain and operate parts of this city once more. I propose an agreement between us. What do you have to offer me, in exchange for my protection?”
“Defiance fully functional,” said Dse-Pa.
“Parren engineers can achieve this without drysine assistance,” Gesul replied.
“Fast,” the drysine retorted. Its response time was rapid enough to be rude, coming from another parren, or a human. Like most drysines, command-level or otherwise, its brain worked with alarming speed.
“Interesting,” said Gesul. “Go on.”
“Translate data-core,” said Dse-Pa. “Current translation requires many years. Deepynine threat will materialise much faster. Quick technology. Good for parren, good for House Harmony.”
“Also interesting,” said Gesul. “Continue.” They were deciding the balance of power between parren houses, Lisbeth realised with wide-eyed disbelief. Right here in this hangar. The balance of power in the Spiral, perhaps. This was what Phoenix had truly wrought, when she had recovered that data-core, then determined there was no choice but to share it with the Spiral.
“New queen,” said Dse-Pa. “You find new facility. Make hardware, cannot program. Drysines program. New queen, powerful new ally for House Harmony.”
“Very interesting.” A hint of genuine pleasure had crept into Gesul’s voice. But only a hint. “This may suit my needs very well, Dse-Pa. You are familiar with the term ‘alliance’?”
“Yes. Drysines serve Gesul of House Harmony. Drysines operate Defiance, make Defiance strong again. Drysines fight to protect Defiance. Fight to defeat parren enemies. Fight to defeat House Harmony enemies.”
Croma Venture: (The Spiral Wars Book Five) Page 20