Superluminary_The World Armada

by John C. Wright

  “I have ordered the perigee sections of the hull of the Dyson to be rendered semi-transparent, to allow you to view events within in the interior. With the undead technicians familiar with the warp science assisting me, these maneuvers should take place—or, rather, should already have had taken place—with a precision never heretofore seen. All these things were done minutes ago; the light is reaching us now. Let us elevate our thrones above the treetops for a clearer view.”

  A great hexagonal segment of the Dyson filling the eastern half of the sky now blazed. Through this window, all could see the interior of the Dyson Sphere was occupied by a globe of blue-white light filling half its volume.

  “That is the mighty star Canopus, also called Alpha Carina,” said Aeneas solemnly. “Canopus is eight times the mass of Sol, seventy times the girth, and ten thousand times the luminosity, of which only the tiniest fraction is allowed to escape and reach your eyes. It has a long history in legend and lore, and I am sorry to see it go.”

  Lord Neptune asked, “Go?”

  “Bid Canopus adieu! We are here to slay the star, and loot the corpse.”

  The Lord of Creation, their thrones suspended in midair high above the green island, stared in wonder at the bronze curve filling half the sky, the blazing star within.

  Aeneas spoke. “Thanks to the skill of the undead warp technicians we stole from Urvasthrang, I was able to materialize back in three-dimensional space with the Dyson entirely englobing the star.”

  Lady Pallas said, “How is it possible? I have seen hyperspatial objects re-enter the sublight frame of reference. Such bodies enter at a single point. Had our point appeared inside Canopus, we would be fried, and the star plasma would have been thrown outwards in all directions.”

  Aeneas said, “Under normal conditions, yes. In this case, the technicians used Lord Mercury’s megascale pearl to render the Dyson into nullspace and out again at the moment of its reentry in to the normal spacetime metric. The Dyson is vast in volume but lower in density than so much gossamer, and is low enough in mass for a megascale pearl to render it insubstantial at the moment of materialization.”

  Lady Pallas said, “And why is not the World Armada burned?”

  “The technicians know how to link three World Armada warpcores to the Dyson warpcore, and allow the larger to tow the smaller. We emerged outside Canopus and outside the Dyson, so that we could watch events at a safe distance. I yield the floor to Lord Mars, who oversaw this operation, and can explain it.”

  Lord Mars said, “Thank you, sire. Brothers and sisters, we have two megascale pearls remaining which store a nova-blast of light from Sol. One is reserved for LBV 1806-20, where the Last Master Armature is seated. The other I used. Six minutes before the materialization, I ordered it into position to release a nova-blast of Sol’s holy light to fill the Dyson interior.

  “Precisely three minutes after that, the compression firing sequences began. The gravitic and kinetic forces that make the entire volume of the Dyson into a firing chamber were already collapsing inward before we warped to this location.”

  Aeneas said, “Thank you, Lord Mars.”

  Lord Mercury gave a little shriek. “I can see black dots passing before the star inside the Dyson! Crescents hanging near it! Dozens!”

  Aeneas said gravely, “Doomed worlds who will see no doom approaching. The compression fields will reach the surface of the planets caught inside with Canopus before the light of Canopus reaches the inner hull, is reflected off its surface, and returns to the open eyes of vampires lying torpid on the planets. All will be crushed into the singularity at the warpcore and used for fuel.

  “Planets outside the Dyson, however, will be spared that fate. We need but wait until the pulse of Sol’s holy light from our pearl, which will pass through all Dyson hull walls easily, to reach and pass through them. All the vampires worlds, gear, and working warpcore armatures will be left intact.

  “This star was selected for four reasons: first, it was between our former location and our current destination. Second, it is near enough to Sol’s old neighborhood, three hundred ten light years away, that the space vampires will swarm here, seeking us, thinking we are returning to familiar haunts.”

  A bright spot appeared on one limb of the Dyson, burning like acetylene. Aeneas winced. “Ah! There we see what happens when a Dyson sphere hull rams a gas giant. You do not have eyes like mine, my lords and ladies. I see x-rays and gamma rays released in that explosion. The speed of impact was enough to cause the planetary core to undergo fusion, but not the whole mass. It is only a decillion joules of energy, about the same as the solar output for a year. A pinprick. But hopefully all the other planets are either inside or outside the hull, and no more orbits will intersect.”

  Aeneas continued, “The third reason is this: a solar system Urvasthrang’s memory showed was swarming with worlds, believed to contain an unusual number of working warpcore armatures. Canopus had apparently been a major caravanserai to the Forerunners, a shipyard of worlds. The Forerunners preferred to travel while taking their worlds with them wherever they went. They had the thrill of exploration without the discomfort of leaving the drawing room or the backyard garden, The must have been a most civilized people indeed.”

  Lady Luna was staring up at the sight above in awe. Gas giants and smaller planets trapped within the Dyson were being caught in the compression field and shattered like eggs. She recovered her composure long enough to say, “You mentioned a fourth reason.”

  Aeneas smiled. “Canopus has outer worlds enough to give one to every member of the family, and, I hope, with some left over for any militia who wish to volunteer for the coming battle.”

  Lord Mercury said, “What do you mean, sire?”

  Aeneas said, “This method we are using to kidnap Canopus, destroy the star, and use its total energy output to create the next warpchannel we need to reach the next star of the same mass and volume, and next after that, and so on for seven more stars. This method will not work on our ultimate destinations, LBV 1806-20, the Master Star. The blue hypergiant is too big. Canopus is, or was, a place Urvasthrang’s memory assured us no vampires with enough life energy remained to stay awake or active lingered.

  “Unlike torpid Canopus, the Master Star is watched with sleepless eyes and guarded with most potent forces. A direct attack by a large War Dyson will not do. We must launch hundreds of attacks from hundreds of directions, with each warworld under its own independent command, free to use the initiative and imagination we need to catch the enemy unawares.”

  Lord Mercury said, “Your meaning is still unclear, sire…”

  Lady Venus groaned and rolled her large, dark, beautiful eyes. “It means, brother, that my idiot son is going to share the secret of the warpcore with all of us.”

  Lady Luna said, “That was His Majesty’s meaning all along.”

  And Lady Venus through lowered lids shot a sideways suspicious glance at Lord Uranus. Aeneas was impressed (and mildly frightened) by the perceptiveness of his mother. Did she actually guess that this had been a plan suggested by Lord Uranus to flush out the betrayer among them?

  He hoped the betrayer was not equally perceptive.

  Aeneas spoke. “My lords and ladies, you recall that I ordered the giant planets of the World Armada in an evenly spaced tetrahedron around the Dyson, farther away than the orbit of the outermost planet of Canopus. We have erected planes of antiphotonic and Schroedingerwave-opaque force fields to enclose the whole system, and, as you can see, our Dyson is flattening space to prevent nearby warps from forming. None slain by the light of Sol will know how they were slain, or tell the tale.

  “Nonetheless, a warpchannel of seventy solar masses crossing to here will have been detected by every large warpcore within a six thousand lightyear radius. So the enemy knows we are here.”

  He held up his ring. “Here is a list of the next stars we must capture and destroy. In order, it is 9 Sagittarii, KW Sagittarii, WR 102, the Peony Star, V4641
Sagittarii and finally a last jump to LBV 1806-20, the Master Star.

  “You will notice each one is roughly six thousand light years farther in the direction of Sagittarius. The Peony Star is near the Galactic Core, V4641 Sagittarii, and the Radio Nebula holding the Master Star is six thousand light years beyond, in the far half of the Milky Way.

  “The attack of Xi Sagittarii, out next target, cannot be accomplished as easily as this, as we will not have the burst of light of Sol available to wipe out a six- to ten-light minute spherical volume of the enemy. We must save our final shot for the Master Star.

  “So, my lords and ladies, we are out of time! Who wants to be first?”

  Lord Mercury was the quickest-witted of them, so he saw the point first, and kicked his heels and snapped his fingers. “So! No more debate on who will share the dangerous warpcore technology with whom, or who can be trusted! We are all trusted!”

  Lord Jupiter said, “Sire, this matter cannot be decided in a preemptory fashion! I, for one, do not trust my siblings with this dangerous…”

  The light, quick laughter of Mercury interrupted him. “Don’t you see it? We have no choice! He cannot work the Dyson Armature by himself, not and capture the stars using a nullspace trick!”

  Lord Jupiter opened his mouth, no doubt to object that the undead technicians captured from Urvasthrang could do the warpcore work. Then he looked, and saw a flash of yellow light pass across the blue-white fiery face of Canopus. It was a glint of sunlight, Sol’s light. It burned for a moment, then dimmed and vanished.

  Lady Venus said, “Our puppet Lord Urvasthrang is dead now too, isn’t he? We can no longer sneak among the vampires, pretending to be one of them.”

  Aeneas said, “Not with all our undead now dead, I am afraid. If any of you, against my orders, had been constructing undead armies in secret, you will find them wiped out as well. And, yes. Urvasthrang’s Dyson has just killed Canopus, and destroyed all the inner planets of the system. Whether the vampire lords realize that mankind is still alive, or whether they think Urvasthrang is flying the Jolly Roger, does not much matter which, does it? Who wants to have his brain imprinted with the superluminary technology first? Speak quickly! The enemy is on their way!”

  Episode 07 Line of Battleworlds

  Aeneas said to the gathered Lords of Creation, “I open the secrets of the universe to you! Our recent tragedy must prove instructive: Mankind can spare me, but cannot lose my knowledge.”

  The circle of thrones hung in midair below the titanic vision of the War Dyson rising in the east. The star Canopus was shrinking visibly, undergoing a compression that would force it into a singularity.

  Aeneas raised his finger. Projectors formed the images, whole and solid-seeming, in the center of the ring of flying thrones.

  “Your eyes are not as mine. I spread before you images taken from my cortex, which I receive from myriad instruments post near and far. These images are six to eighteen minutes old. Look! Here, found outside the Dyson, is a subterrestrial world with mountains like elfin minarets soaring above the thin atmosphere; there, a terrestrial coated from pole to pole with a single hellish city buried beneath snow, and I behold in the balconies of towers, in the windows of empty palaces, ranks of toppled vampires who have not lost their human form, hunger and wrath graven into their dead faces.

  “I see a larger world, a superterrestrial, with squat mountains and heavy glaciers, whose sea beds are filled with vampires.

  “On a subjovian globe, I peer down in an atmosphere thicker than water the undead lying motionless on bridges and boulevards, and in the deep shafts of mines. No blade of grass grows here, no insect flies. But all their machinery is intact, and their robotic guard still swarms.

  “In the mile-deep atmosphere of a jovian world, atop a naked planetary core featureless and flat beneath the action of gigantic wind and crushing gravity, I view what seems humped hills looming, forest covered, swathed in smog. The hills are undead, archvampire flesh like those Lord Mars fought. The forest are their numberless tentacles, and the smog are midge swarms, remotely controlled, whom they send swimming on myriad delicate, small tasks. These fogs are settling, their hill crumbling to dust.

  “In a world even larger, at the bottom of layers of atmospheres and hydrospheres of chemicals not found on lighter worlds, layers so deep not even the brightness of giant Canopus could reach, from pole to pole crawls an ocean of undead, liquid flesh, of one solitary ultra-archvampire who slew countless hosts of his own slaves and absorbed them, one and all, and every last plankton in oceans larger than all the worlds of man combined. Even this titan is slain instantly.

  “All these had working warpcores. The subterrestrial is no bigger than Mercury or Titan, and can reach three light years; the superjovian, twice the size of Jupiter, two hundred fifty. These worlds are our Battleships, Battlecruisers, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates and small Corvettes. The War Dyson is our Dreadnaught. Our foe outnumbers us in all classes of battleworlds by thousands to millions to one. Who wishes first to assume command of one of these planetary engines of destruction?”

  Aeneas contorted all the gathered Lords of Creation now to the great dome of nacre, amber and mother-of-pearl his mother had erected on the bed the Guinevere Sea of Second Venus, between the islands of Vasilisa and Sappho. Brother Beast was there as well, looking startled, as he had evidently been plucked up in the middle of prayers.

  Aeneas said, “Lady Venus here has prepared servants and equipment needed for the brain imprint process. Our hour is brief! The warp jump here was surely detected by any warpcore of eighteen solar masses or greater that happened to be within a radius of twenty thousand light years. The whole Milky Way is but five or six times that diameter. Space is vast beyond imagining, but so is the reach and power of the space vampires. Lord Uranus? Have you something to say?”

  Lord Uranus was holding his signet ring up before the eyeholes of his mask, as if something hidden in the sparkles of the signet fascinated him. “Not just the warpchannel was detected, good sire. Normal matter is transparent to the nova-burst of Sol’s holiness inside the Dyson. It was not smothered this time by a supergiant star. Even though neuropsionic waves lag along at lightspeed, any warpcore set to detect them has just seen Canopus blaze like a signal flare.”

  Aeneas said, “Come, my lords! Our race is a tasty plum rolling on an empty feast table surrounding by starved madmen with long arms. Why is no one clamoring to take command of a World of the Battle Line?”

  Lord Mars stood, “Forgive me, sire, but you asked for volunteers. Since my youth, I have been wary of placing my head into one of my sister’s brain-editing helmets. It is a fate worse than death, because I could never trust any thought again to be my own. I will not disobey, if commanded, but I will commit suicide first, to keep sanity, self-command, and honor intact.”

  Brother Beast said sharply, “Speak not so! Suicide is the door of hell. Better to break faith with temporal lords than to offend eternal!”

  Aeneas said, “Are we to die rather than learn to trust each other? But I compel no unwilling. This is voluntary.”

  Lord Neptune looked sourly at Lord Jupiter, and said, “Voluntary as the choice to drown or swim! The warptech allows not only faster-than-light drive, but to alter the physical constants of nature, so as to shut off each of our special techniques. It was father’s whip hand.”

  Lord Jupiter said, “I will volunteer! Let Lady Venus do her worst!”

  Lady Ceres looked uncomfortable. “Why is this necessary at all? Why not just teach us what you know, sire?”

  Aeneas said, “A thousand books would not hold it all, and when should I start writing them? You must know not only theory, but reflexes and judgment, which the human brain otherwise learns only by years of practice. We have not years. I doubt we have an hour.”

  Lord Mercury stood. His boyish face was twisted into a frown. “I am sorry, my sire, but I also do not trust Lady Venus. I think you trust her only because she has made it so! But I
know we need every man. May I substitute my son Autolycos Lord Anubis to stand in my stead?”

  Lord Mars said, “I offer my son Deimos, whose mother’s name I hide, but she is someone very dear to Lady Venus. She will not harm him.”

  Lord Pluto said, “I have walked unseen amid the many-chambered pleasure-palaces of Lady Venus, and know her work. She is allowed no access to my brain. I set forth my son Zagreus Lord Kerberos in my stead.”

  Aeneas show no more expression than a poker player. “Not my lore only, then, must your sons learn. If and only if you imprint them with the secrets you so jealously have guarded, do I agree!”

  Brother Beast said, “The Archbishop of Valparaiso is willing to forgive my oath to forswear the sword in this, our desperate hour. I trust Lady Venus.”

  Lady Ceres said, “Unwarlike, my skill against the foe is unneeded. I offer my grandson, Anton Romanov Lord Hydra, child of my beloved Cora, who passed away.”

  And, likewise, Lady Vesta said, “A woman’s hands are more fitted to the loom than the lance. Let my son Winedark Savage, Lord Dionysus, who delights in frenzy, take my place, and lead his Bacchants to war. My science of theriopathy, control of beasts, is small enough, I willingly grant it him.”

  Aeneas scowled. “What do you say, Lady Pallas? Are women unsuited to war? You have no sons to take your place.”

  Lady Pallas said, “I say the gentler sex is deadlier than the male, for we fight only at need, not for sport. Arm me, and let us count how many enemy planets I throw like skulls at the foot of your throne!”

  There was no more time for discussion. The countless millions of pearls used for the mass migrations now were put to use. Clouds of pearls were flung by interplanetary range tractor presser beams, disinert and at nearly the speed of light, into the atmospheres of the newly-emptied worlds of Canopus. Those worlds which were frozen were thawed by beams issuing from Second Jupiter, diffused and gentle enough to leave the worlds and the needed machinery intact.