by Scott Rhine
“How is that allowed?” demanded Menelaus, upset by the dual standard. He was eating his fourth meal of the day, something with garlic-shrimp and seaweed. To be fair, he burned more calories than any other crewmember with exercise. “Nonsentients aren’t permitted to fly aboard starships.”
“The Bankers can’t survive on land. They need Tellers to be their hands. The lawyers pointed me to an obscure clause where they agreed to limit their exports to Tellers of a certain family.”
“A ruling caste?” asked Kesh.
“More like priests, similar to the Yellow Slash Clan,” replied Roz.
Reuben sneered, “Or clown fish who lure prey into the heart of the anemone in exchange for immunity.”
“Let’s concentrate on learning instead of bashing. The system has a small blue sun. Our first-contact team detected enormous psi energy on the largest moon. We traded them three ansibles for the secret of the Icarus drive. The biologist on that mission believes Bankers evolved in that ocean. Temperatures near volcanic vents are stable and the water is rich in neural compounds. The low light forced them to develop other senses. Just as sharks on Earth can sense the electrical fields of their prey, the Bankers can detect animals from afar. However, once a Banker reaches the adult phase, they can’t or prefer not to move.”
Max said, “Like barnacles or coral.”
“Exactly. They anchor near a vent and send out tendrils to start new colonies. The parent can communicate to a polyp, which will herd schools of fish over the anchor site. Some theorize the elder ones can attract food the same way as lantern fish.”
Kesh raised his hand to interrupt. “Is the ansible a variation of this polyp?”
“No one has ever seen inside one of the tamper-proof cases, but that’s the theory. It’s a specialized polyp that can lie dormant for long periods and survive in vacuum.”
“That’s just creepy,” said Daisy. “Our banking and FTL communication system is designed to lure us in to be eaten?”
“Not literally, but that’s the mindset. They want servants to do their bidding. Our purpose is to bring in food and minerals so the elder ones can concentrate on growing larger. The tentacle blooms on this ridge are so big we can see them from high orbit.” Roz brought up a grainy image of a writhing sea of pink-purple flesh.
Menelaus lost his seafood dinner into a wastebasket.
Roz patted him on the back. “That’s what I see every time one of the Tellers opens his mouth.”
The Bat retched again at the description.
Reuben examined the holo through his goggles. “I have a similar 2D photo. Xerxes extrapolated their numbers based on reflected colors in that part of the spectrum. He estimated under a hundred thousand mobile units. How does that compare with your figures?”
“We have no guesses. Bankers are highly secretive. We believe they dominated other species before we met them. Whole systems have been erased to make access to Nivaar harder. Tellers refuse to speak to us. From eavesdropping, we can tell they view the Bankers as saviors. Their intervention saved the lesser species from starvation, war, and sickness.”
“Slaves, like we were,” Menelaus complained.
“As the Goats will testify, Banker management is ruthlessly efficient. No one could squeeze more profit out of a space station than they do.”
Max asked, “Have Magi scouts tried to pass unseen among them?”
“They always detect us and send a proxy to speak to us. Even the first ship had a collection of priests waiting to greet them. They sensed us from that far out.”
Kesh mused on this. “So infiltrators would need to be nulls or wearing a helmet to shield themselves. Deep freeze until the last moment is ideal.”
“Right. I suspect the null assassins on Eden were being trained to defend against a counterattack.”
“A what?” asked Max, the man who’d wiped out the training camp.
“If the Bankers sense the assault too early, they might be able to turn the minds of the invaders. We don’t know enough to speculate.”
Menelaus put a hand over his mouth.
Kesh realized, “That’s why every ship has explosives aboard. In case something subverts them. They have to come in hot and hard to succeed. We will too if we don’t want to trigger Banker perimeter defenses. With Reuben and Daisy aboard, we’re going to show up like fireworks on their detectors.”
“Now you know as much as the Magi do,” Roz announced. “Frightening in both the facts and the lack.”
People scattered to digest the information. Roz put a hand on Reuben’s shoulder as he passed. “Black Ram, could I trouble you to stay behind a moment?”
Kesh decide to remain in order to eavesdrop. “Don’t mind me. I won’t say a word. I just have to redo every computation I’ve worked in the last month.”
She looked uneasy until Reuben said, “Since I’m also a head of state, he should be present as my advisor.” Glaring in Daisy’s direction, he added, “We wouldn’t want your virtue called into question if we met without a chaperone.”
When Max lingered, she waved him out. “I’ll meet you in your quarters. This is just boring stuff about ship repairs and math.”
22. Heresy
Kesh tore down the strings for paths he knew the enemy hadn’t taken. Then, he adjusted the values scrawled at each nexus point around the room, pretending not to listen. Roz waited until the others were gone and sealed the room. She used her computer pad to generate white noise.
Due to his military background, Reuben picked up on the precaution. “You’re afraid the Magi are going to bug us?”
Choosing her words with care, Roz said, “They aren’t as united as they present themselves to outsiders. A third of those in the quorum are adversaries, dedicated to challenging and asking questions. Some are from the fringe Aloquoit science group that spearheaded the original prototype that Echo’s triad tested.”
“They’re offended that you improved their creation?”
“Math is the language of God. We weren’t reverent or elegant when we chopped up Deep 6. During one emergency repair, I approximated pi as twenty-two over seven. They harassed me for days about that error.”
“They’re pissed that you fixed their bigger mistakes.”
“It’s more subtle than that. I altered it in such a way that I destroyed their original premise. It’s a religious thing, the orientation of a tile on an ancient … manuscript. Moving one tile is supposed to pass scrutiny from the entire academy for five hundred twelve years. Their faction cut corners to do it in a mere four hundred. If their gamble doesn’t work, they’ll be banned from further experiments. Anything they touched will be shunned by future researchers.”
Reuben held back amusement. “Math heresy?”
“The Aloquoit referred to my design as corruption introduced by the fallen, but that’s the gist. No one believes my claim that the transition takes no subjective time. Since I’m the only witness, it’s easy to discredit me.”
“A smear campaign on a saint?”
“A lot of Magi dislike the fact that I started life as a Human and that I’m a genetic freak. Echo is being isolated because she let me see the holy Enigma before we were joined.”
“They’re claiming you seduced her to access Magi secrets?”
She nodded, causing the Goat to burst out laughing.
Kesh broke his vow of silence so he could defend her. “All of that might be tolerated, but Roz made several modifications over the span of three years. The Academy of Sages would’ve taken over a millennium if they could find their asses with a roadmap. Her sloppy changes will shake the foundation of Magi society. The initial euphoria is fading, and fears are mounting as the implications sink in. She just lit a bonfire with their holy scrolls.”
“If I don’t produce results soon, they might tie me to a stake and throw me in, too,” Roz whispered.
“What do you need from me?” Reuben asked.
“My math skills and recall aren’t nearly what they should
be in this arena. We’re about to try the first test of the smallest subbasement drive possible. There are a hundred minor details I could have forgotten. Could you maybe—?” She rubbed idly at the back of her skull.
“Boost? Oh, no. I just had this argument with Daisy. No. Your married mind is off-limits.”
She pleaded with her eyes. “If can’t make the torpedo work, your mission is over. Deep 6 will remain at this dock. They’ll never risk the only functioning implementation. It’ll become a stationary religious shrine.”
“You’re in the right. History is on your side,” Reuben insisted. “Persist, and the universe itself will testify for you. I’ve seen part of the equations, and you’re dead on.”
“But I don’t know the precise lower limit of the curve. I can’t predict the smallest functioning torpedo. I’ve been over the data a hundred times. We made so many half-assed guesses that I don’t know which errors are going to cancel each other out.”
Reuben backed away, hands raised. “Not going to touch you.”
Kesh put a comforting arm around her. “You convinced all the scientists who accompanied us from the Convocation.”
“The male and the neutral.”
“Pardon.”
“Females normally have a medical-support role. She isn’t trained in these areas of physics. She’s a little jealous of me.”
“Ah.”
“What do I do?”
“Try multiplying by a safety factor of eight,” Kesh suggested. “It’s what the Turtles do. You can always refine it later.”
Roz actually shed a tear. “If I make it too big, the energy won’t be sufficient. The academy refuses to send crystals or a nav computer aboard. We have to make this work with a premeasured charge transferred to the quantum capacitor. Otherwise, they won’t consider it science.”
Reuben sighed. “I’ll look over the numbers for you. Is there an unattached ewe anywhere in this system?”
She scrolled over shipping schedules on her pad. “In twenty days, the trade ship Alliance with Goat assistants will be through the system. If you left soon in a shuttle, you could meet them at the nexus when they arrive. You could merge with her to check my calculations and get back to me in a couple hours.”
Through a female of his own race, Reuben could have the brainpower of an entire planet, but the attempt would drain him for a week. “Can you stall until I make that connection?”
With a snort, Roz said, “All I have to do is ask a question, and they delay every day. Although, I’m not sure how I can stretch the prototyping more than a week without raising suspicions. They’ll want to test it with an in-system hop.”
Kesh grinned. He could help with a bureaucratic shell game better than science. “Use their own nature against them. After completing the first torpedo, demand they manufacture three total in case one has a faulty component.”
She warmed to the idea. “I can make each model slightly different to maximize our chances of success. The mirrored sphere has been hotly debated, but that makes two weeks. How do I buy another until the ewe arrives?”
“Propose a name change from ‘torpedo’ to a less violent one like ‘skipping stones’?” Kesh offered. “Or an acronym like SBOP that stands for subbasement-only propulsion.”
“That might tie them up in debate for a couple days, but someone might agree to name the device later.”
This time, Reuben came through. “Just before the launch, decide to put an animal aboard one torpedo. Observation might change the device’s behavior.”
“The ethics of doing so will tie them in knots indefinitely!” She kissed him on the cheek. “The moment I receive your feedback, I can withdraw the live-specimen request.”
****
Max accompanied Reuben on his mission to merge. After using his gift, the Black Ram often required medical attention. Then Max could relay the message in a cryptic personal transmission to his wife that the Magi wouldn’t suspect or monitor. While he was gone, he asked Kesh to guard Roz. Lacking her own link to the Collective Unconscious, she couldn’t detect people sneaking up on her. As a Saurian, he could smell the opposition, a sense Magi invisibility didn’t mask.
“Do you really think her own people would try to silence her?” Kesh asked.
“To some, we’re still savages. They fought a war against us millennia ago. A few factions blame Humans for damaging the Enigma, including the Aloquoits.”
“The ones whose theory you discredited. So Roz is trying to solve a puzzle where the pieces aren’t all there?”
Max shrugged. “You can’t reason with religion. Keep a nose out, would you? Don’t tell the others what we’re doing. We don’t need Llewellyn involved in Magi internal matters.”
Kesh bowed in acceptance. “I’ll be glad when we get to Glory Point. At least there, we’ll know who the enemies are.”
23. Proof
Having Kesh work as an intermediary for Roz worked well. Under his care, she slept more often. Any errors or confusion could be written on as his fault, sparing the Enlightened One embarrassment. The Magi resented his delays until he ordered matching spacesuits for her and Daisy. The helmet faceplates were mirrored so that observers couldn’t tell who was inside the suit. None of the “advanced race” had thought of protecting her from assassins or kidnappers. Kesh could tell the women apart by the way they walked, but people who hadn’t spent years with them were fooled. Sometimes, Echo took a shift on decoy duty to further complicate the shell game.
On the day scheduled for Reuben’s merge, his tap into the Collective Unconscious went without a hitch. Whether they liked him or not, women in his species were obligated to assist him. Max likened it to serving on a jury for less money than the courthouse charged for parking. It’s what made a branch of government possible.
The answer that came back was short but unexpected. All three prototypes could work. Max relayed, “According to Reuben before he collapsed, only the radius of the spherical containment bubble matters. That’s the one variable in all the calculations we can’t predict yet. He recommends a variable generator. Have the field start small and then increase until the subbasement drive engages.”
At her computer, Roz seemed to understand the advice. “Right. We’ll use the experiment to determine the undercurrent constant in this area of space.”
“Sounds expensive,” said Kesh. “You’d have to map out every star system separately.”
“Trust me. Magi live for this kind of crap. We’ve given them a way to compute the number of angels that can dance on the head of a pin. Once the first ship maps the source and destination region, they can mass-produce dirt-cheap hoppers that can shuttle between them. This reminds me of the pneumatic tubes that old Earth banks used to transport money and receipts.”
“Not people?”
“Not yet. Bertha is the only hopper with a crawlspace big enough for that, but we have to take hundreds of delicate measurements before we can risk our first animal.” The prototypes started existence as A, B, and C. To avoid confusion between the similar sounds of B and C, those names evolved into Alfie, Bertha, and Cedric. Bertha was the biggest due to the mirror test. It resembled an ocean bathysphere. By contrast, Cedric was a minimalist gym locker suspended inside a three-meter hoop. Mounted to a small meteor, Alfie tested whether raw construction materials could be delivered to other systems.
“How long until you can make the variable-bubble adaptation?”
“A couple days. The trick is making sure the hoop stays perfectly round.”
“It’s going to work,” Kesh said. “You need to have a speech ready.”
“What?”
“After every breakthrough like this, we record our inventors for the sake of museums and historians. From my limited discussions, I’m sure Magi do the same. The first is always immortalized.”
“Aw, crud,” Roz complained. “I suck at public speaking.”
“Just address the people in the room.”
“Could you write something for
me?”
“I think you should leave that honor to Echo.”
“Yeah. She’s been begging for something to do during the wait. Thanks.”
****
Every important politician and scientist able to make the journey came to watch the historic test. The devices would be launched from inside a hollow asteroid. The destination for the hoppers was a region of unoccupied space between the two suns. Solar interference would block people outside the Adamantine system from spying. Access was strictly regulated to prevent accidental deaths. The rest of the team wasn’t allowed inside mission control, but Roz wore her comm from Deep 6 in case of an emergency. In practice, she used the comm to soothe her frazzled nerves.
She related details to her crewmembers. “I’ve convinced them to launch one at a time, starting with the smallest. Wish me luck. I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Breathe in through your nose,” Max said.
“The power couplings have detached. We’re bringing Cedric’s bubble online. Nothing. Raising the levels. A hundred ten percent. One twenty. Wow! It just vanished.”
Kesh could picture her crossing her fingers and holding her breath.
“We have confirmation from the telescope. Cedric made the translation! Our remote crew is analyzing the instruments to determine relative speed from the probe’s point of view.”
Minutes later, Roz said, “Oh, no. Without the shielding, the radio and chronometer were trashed. All the mass made the jump, but it’s been twisted somehow. That’s okay. I told them we needed the shielding. The spectrometer says the materials are the same. No radiation. We’ve been given the green light for Alfie. I’ve adjusted our estimate for the constant.”
The meteorite made the jump smoothly.
“We nailed it in one. It took exactly the energy I predicted with no searching. Alfie arrived two centimeters from the bull’s-eye.” They could hear emotion choking off further communication as she hugged Echo to celebrate. With tears in her voice, she reported, “They’ve checked, and the difference was due to forward momentum. The probe has the same relative velocity as the launch platform.”