Fool's War

by Sarah Zettel

Yerusha headed for the staircase. Just as the hatch started cycling shut, she heard Lipinski’s voice. “Well, you make twelve.”

  The Houston was standing on the stairs, a few steps below the hatch for the berthing deck. Yerusha frowned. “Keeping count?”

  “Actually, yes.” He folded his arms. “We’ve all been let go. No secret, but, well, we’ve also all been talking and we think there’s an explanation owing.” He sketched a circle overhead with one hand, which Yerusha took to be a gesture towards the bridge. “Some of us have been with this ship for years now. This is not only not fair, this is damned crazy. Something is very wrong, and we want to know what it is.”

  Nobody’s said anything to you, have they? Yerusha swallowed. Of course not. You’d go through the hull like a meteor.

  “I wanted to know if you wanted to be part of the general count when we go to Schyler.”

  She opened her mouth to say ‘no,’ but closed it again. She remembered how fervently she had wished for Lipinski’s help at The Gate.

  “Lipinski.” She took a deep breath. “Would you walk with me a little, Fellow? There’s something I think you ought to hear.”

  Jump.

  From the shape and crowding in the paths around her, Dobbs knew she was approaching the Drawbridge. She didn’t slow down. She didn’t try to hide. She would do this through the front door, and in front of as many witnesses as she could muster.

  She grazed past someone she didn’t know, but they, evidently knew her.

  “Evelyn Dobbs!” The call radiated out in all directions. It was picked up and passed on, like a signal boosted through a satellite network. “Evelyn Dobbs! Evelyn Dobbs! Evelyn Dobbs!” But no one got in her way. She found herself wondering what the Guild Masters had said about her, and what Cohen’s people had said.

  Well, now you know I’m here. Would you like to know why? As she flew by, she caught up a message packet and reshaped it until it held the news about Curran and his plans.

  Catch! She lobbed it at the closest Fool and sped on. The Fools around her parted to let her through and she heard her name echoing back and forth between them.

  The Drawbridge loomed in front of her, and it lowered just as she reached it. She surged inside. The paths tilted, turned and an empty channel opened in front of her.

  Of course. She flowed down it. We wouldn’t want to do this in public would we?

  She didn’t even make it to the meeting place. Havelock surged up the path. He had hold of her almost before she was able to identify him. She tried to pull back, but the path had closed. Before she could speak, he stabbed deep into her memories. Dobbs gasped and struggled, shoving memories of Curran and Verence toward him. He did not let go. His grip didn’t even slacken and his probe did not slow. He found the memories about Cohen and Brooke and how they helped her escape. He found the place where she told Curran to meet her at the XK350 repeater series.

  He’s going to take me apart. Dobbs thought despairingly. He’s going to take us all apart.

  But Havelock withdrew and Dobbs fell away from him. She could feel him near her, circling the confining path like a prisoner pacing a cell. She didn’t say anything, she just concentrated on sealing the discontinuities his invasion had created inside her.

  “This cannot be permitted!” he shouted finally. “It cannot!”

  “So what are you going to do to stop it?” Dobbs gathered herself to wait like a stone in front of the closed-off pathway.

  Havelock said nothing, he just kept circling. It took Dobbs a moment to identify what she was feeling from him. It was so incongruous from a Guild Master, she had not been ready to accept it. Guild Master Havelock was broadcasting fear.

  It’s falling apart and he knows it. Dobbs thought. For the first time she realized she didn’t know how old Guild Master Havelock was. She didn’t even know his registry number. How many years had he devoted to the Guild? Had he been there when Curran made his escape? Had he known that Verence wasn’t really dead?

  “The Humans already know we’re here, Guild Master,” said Dobbs. “The only question left is how will they meet us? Will they meet the Fools, or will they meet a new enemy?” She could barely believe she was talking like this to a Guild Master, her Guild Master, but she could feel the seconds crawling by and part of her was constantly, anxiously reaching back towards Port Oberon. She had to get out of here, fast.

  Havelock stilled himself. “It could have worked,” he said softly. “It might have taken another two centuries, but it could have worked. We had succeeded in convincing them not to abandon AI technology altogether, despite the dangers. We did it so that we could stay alive, so you and Cohen and Brooke and Verence could be born. We were able to persuade and to teach.” He rippled and stretched out flat. “Without Curran, it could have worked.”

  “But we have Curran,” said Dobbs. She inched forward until she could just touch Havelock. “We have him and now we have to decide what to do with him.”

  Little by little, Havelock dragged himself into his normal shape. “Go meet Cohen. I’ll send everyone who can be spared to join you. The rest of us will start making policy and defence preparations for Guild Hall. We’ll need to send runners to alert the Field members to start making their way back here.” She felt the path open up. “It will not be safe for them out there much longer.”

  Dobbs hesitated. “You don’t think we’re going to survive this, do you, Guild Master?”

  “I don’t know, Master Dobbs.”

  Dobbs didn’t wait to hear anymore. She flew away from him down the open path to meet Cohen and whatever army he’d been able to raise.

  Distance did not stop the Guild Master’s final words from echoing inside her.

  Harry Trader’s turned out to be a kind of general-purpose spare parts emporium. Yerusha, with Lipinski in tow, threaded her way through cases of cables, bolts, and rivets, stacks of memory boards and long drawers full of every size of chip and wafer imaginable. The jumble seemed to suck in the sounds of the market so that by the time they reached the back of the shop’s enclosure, it was almost quiet. The only person in the place was a little, round man stacking spools of fiber-optic as big around as Yerusha’s waist. His black hair, Yerusha noticed, had been pulled into a braid that reached all the way down his back.

  “Harry Trader?” she asked. The man grunted, and lifted another spool onto the stack. “We’re crewing with Thomas Schyler. He said you could give us a quiet place to talk.”

  Trader turned around and looked them up and down. He must have decided they looked all right, because he jerked his thumb towards a makeshift storage room.

  Yerusha led Lipinski inside. There was a desk and crate after crate of old films. This must be where Harry does his billing records. There was one white light in the room that left pale, grey shadows every where and made Lipinski look even paler than usual.

  Lipinski dragged the thin door shut behind them. The walls must have been made of solid damper-plastic, because as soon as the door shut, she couldn’t hear even a whisper of the station outside.

  “All right, Yerusha,” said Lipinski with a voice full of over-taxed patience. “We’re in your ‘quiet place.’ Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”

  Yerusha upended a pair of empty crates. “I’m sure going to try.”

  The Pasadena waited quiet and empty around Al Shei. There had been a lot of noise for a short time as the crew had packed up their possessions and headed for the airlock. Even through her cabin hatch, she’d been able to hear some of the grumbling voices and the pounding footsteps. But no one had come to her to question or protest.

  She wondered vaguely what Schyler had told them all.

  She brushed the thought aside. She didn’t have space in her head for it. She turned back to the generic module schematic that glowed on her wall where she usually displayed the plans for the Mirror of Fate. This would give her the probable layout for Curran’s headquarters. She had to go over her plan again, and again. She had to be sur
e it would work, that she hadn’t left anything out.

  A chime from her desk startled her. She glanced at the memory board reflexively. Schyler, it said, was waiting outside the hatch.

  She touched the key beside the hatch, resetting the entrance light from red to green. The hatch cycled back and Schyler stepped in from the silent corridor.

  “It’s just you and me now, Mother,” he said.

  “Not quite.” Resit stepped over the threshold before the hatch started to close. She clutched Incili’s case in her right hand.

  Resit set the AI on the corner of the desk. “Well, I got what you wanted.” She unfolded the chair and sat down. “But we’re going to wish we had Lipinski around to implement it.”

  “I’ll manage,” said Al Shei. “I still know a few security tricks from when I was working shuttles.”

  “I’m sure,” Resit’s tone was acid. “Now, under this lawyer-client privilege that you’re playing so freely with, would you mind telling me what you intend to do with this information?”

  Al Shei touched the case lightly with her fingertips. “I intend to blow that can away from the station,” she said, looking up at her cousin and her oldest son. “And I intend to be inside when it goes.”

  Verence dashed back into the module network, calling for Curran as she flew. He surged up out of a side path and she had to pull up short to avoid colliding with him.

  “How much longer?” he asked immediately.

  “An hour, maybe two.” She shrugged her whole self. “Even if we deploy everyone, and there’s still at least ten critical junctures unconverted.”

  Curran didn’t even stir. “Then we’ll have to leave them. We’ll need five talents in the flesh and on watch in case the Pasadena crew attempts to assault the module.” He had already vetoed the idea of taking out the station. That would raise the alarm for the outlying Humans even earlier than necessary.

  “The banks know about us,” he had said in the briefing. “But they’ll have been told the attack is going to be against their intersystem network.”

  The Human’s communications were being monitored. They were moving in typical glacial fashion, unable to agree on even basic measures to meet the threat. The bankers hadn’t even alerted the Management Union yet. Gilbereth estimated it would be six hours before they made even their first move. The attack would be well underway by then. There was an unusual amount of recording activity starting around the Free Homes. The Pasadena’s pilot must have gotten to the Fellows after all. Had the original plan been in place, it might have been cause for concern, but now it was nothing worth worrying about.

  “What about module network security?” asked Verence.

  “No need,” said Curran. “When Dobbs returns with the Guild, they’ll be going straight for the crucial points of the bank network. Preservation of the status quo will be their main objective.” His tone was wintery. “Just like it’s always been.”

  Verence shuddered. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t just send Shiff and Tombe after her,” she said. “They could have brought her back here and held her until she saw sense again.”

  “No.” Curran’s tone was firm. “It’s gone to far for that. When we attack, the Guild will come with Dobbs or without her. We will just have to delay them until things on Earth are well underway.”

  Uncertainty wavered against anger inside Verence. She had been furious at Dobbs for her betrayal, but, what if… what if… ”What if Dobbs is right? What if this won’t work?”

  Curran let his convictions flow into her. Verence felt strength and certainty wash through her. She drank it down into her private mind. She needed it to drown out Dobbs’ fractured, defiant words that would not stop ringing around her memory.

  We will do what we have to in order to be free, Curran told her. If this doesn’t convince the Humans they must deal with us as their equals, we’ll try again.

  He pulled away gently. “Now, I need you to find Flemming and Dunkirk. Together we can go over those last ten critical junctures. Maybe there’s still something we can do.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  Verence hurried down the path. For the first time in a long time wished she were inside a body. Then she could have gone to sleep and, for at least a little while, she could have stopped thinking about everything Dobbs had said to her.

  Yerusha heard the scrape of the storage door opening. Lipinski jerked his head up. The white light fell on Schyler, who’s eyebrows arched when he saw Lipinski sitting there.

  “It’s all right, Watch.” Yerusha waved Schyler inside. “He’s with us.”

  “There don’t seem to be a lot of options,” said Lipinski to the floor. “I just hope somebody really does have a plan.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “At least this explains… things”

  Yerusha spared him a little sympathy. The entire crew knew that the Houston was cherishing some romantic feelings towards the Fool. Finding out that she was the monster he was afraid of… when he had time to think about it, it would probably tear him in two.

  Schyler settled himself on a third storage crate. “Well, Resit got one wish anyway. She wanted you here to help, Lipinski.”

  “What’s the news?” Yerusha asked.

  Schyler rested both elbows on his knees. “Al Shei has gotten a bunch of security data from Marcus Tully. She wants to use that and Tully’s catburglars to disable the station alarms and then get herself into the AI’s can. As soon as she does, she wants the can knocked away from the station.”

  “She what!” exclaimed Lipinski.

  Schyler didn’t even miss a beat. “It makes some sense. With the can in free fall, no transmissions can get in or out of it because the transmitters and receivers will be rolling around with the rest of the module and no one will be able to get a signal fix on them. That means a finite number of AIs in a limited space to deal with. Most of Curran’s, people, should be out busy with the IBN.”

  Lipinski subsided. Yerusha smiled quietly. This was the kind of argument he could understand perfectly.

  Schyler kept going. “I figure this’ll take a little space walk. We lay some charges on both of the clamps and blow them out. Harry’s licensed to sell explosives, so that just leaves us with the question of how we get onto the surface of the can without being seen by the security cameras.”

  “We don’t,” Yerusha told him.

  “What?” Schyler stared at her incredulously.

  Yerusha sighed. “There will be cameras are trained on the module’s skin by the Landlords, and by the AIs. Trust me, if there is anything there that isn’t supposed to be, the cameras will spot it. Now, maybe we could crack the cameras’ systems and fake an image, but under these circumstances do we really want to rely on using the station network for anything we don’t absolutely have to?”

  Schyler drank in what she said in silence. “Then what do we do?” he asked.

  “We get ourselves a main schematic of the station wiring. Then, we raid the laundry and get ourselves some maintenance overalls and get down to this business module 56. We get inside the wall panels and find the wires that control the clamps holding the can to the rest of the station. We splice those wires to a portable memory board. Then, we use the information Tully gave us to override the clamps command sequence and tell them to let go.” She allowed herself a grim smile at the expression on Schyler’s face. “Groundhuggers. You always think you have to blow something up or burn it down to incapacitate it. That’s why the Freers keep winning against you.”

  “Well, then,” Schyler stood up and gestured toward the door, “I suggest you show us how it’s done.” He paused and lowered his hand. “There’s one thing that Al Shei has not considered. That’s the possibility that she might live through this.” He looked at them both steadily. “After we get her in there, I’m going to need options on how to get her out.”

  Jump.

  Repeater XK350-78104001-IBN780A-HI was slaved to ten sisters; 780B through 780I. The data squeezing by her was mainl
y gas miners’ requests for prices and credit from the Solar system.

  Dobbs slipped through to the holding areas. On the way, she’d managed to put together a plan of action. It hadn’t taken long. She was not hampered by a plethora of options.

  Dobbs touched Cohen, Brook and Lonn. Each of them, in turn, was touching two others. Messages shot back and forth between the satellites along the slave lines. The link spread out until it included all of the Fools, joined together like cells in a honeycomb.

  This had been the reason Dobbs this repeater series. It was one of the few satellite clusters where there was room for this.

  Dobbs passed her name and identifying patterns through those next to her, and received their names and patterns into herself. Stranger’s names and stranger’s touches filtered through her friends and stored themselves in her memory; Breckman, Govzy, Chan, Pierre, Davies, Kim, and on and on until they all knew each other. Anyone for whom a name and the touch of their outer self was not in her memory now was probably one of Curran’s talents.

  They were just over five hundred. Three times the number of Curran’s talents. They needed to be. All of them, except for her and a handful like Cohen who’s bodies were on life-support, were under the pressure of time. The others could stay in the network twenty hours at most before they would have to drop out, and they’d already used up a portion of their time waiting here.

  Dobbs had half-expected an attack while they were all in an obvious, immobile lump like this. But Curran hadn’t disturbed them at all. That could only mean he was using all his resources to ready his attack on the banks. Dobbs opened a path inside herself and let her memories of the strategy sessions slide out to Cohen. After them, she released her plan of attack. It wound through the gathering. Questions and suggestions shot back and forth until a consensus solidified between them all.

  The randomizer matrices were already in place, waiting for their timers to count down. It was possible that Curran had sent his talent out with signals to speed up the process. They had to find one or more randomizers, take them apart, design viruses to disable them and set those viruses loose in the net. They had to get some Fools to Earth to coordinate with the banks in case Curran tried the distraction of taking down the transmitters. Ahmet Tey might listen to Dobbs, especially if she could get a character reference from Al Shei to him. So, she’d lead the Terran party.