by Simon Kewin
*
The ships of the fleet manoeuvred relative to each other in Grey Space, moving into formation so they would be ready to attack when they reached their destination. Mackenzie stood in his private quarters, examining likely combat scenarios. The lights were bright, the room cleared of everything but the table they stood over. Star-charts and battle-maps filled each wall. The short, stone-grey figure of the Xin was on one side of him, providing him with a stream of hard tactical data and polite suggestions. The avatar of the Higher Than The Sun stood on his other side, receiving and implementing his decisions.
The Xin had told them she was a she; that her name was Metarion. Although Mackenzie didn’t show it, he still felt considerable excitement at this close contact with the Ancient. He felt a little like a child being treated as an equal by some respected adult. At the same time he grew more and more disconcerted by the detail the Xin was providing him about the Draconians. Welcome as it was for the imminent battle he couldn’t help wondering how Metarion knew it all. It was information she could only know it if she, or another Xin, had worked closely with the Draconians in the recent past.
‘So this battle will be merely a distraction,’ he said. ‘What of Isiur? How do you intend to neutralise it? And how long do you estimate that will take? The battle will be close. Even if we didn’t have to play for time I think we’d lose eventually.’
‘An open assault will not work,’ said the Xin, ‘As I believe you have discovered. However, it is possible for a small, apparently inconsequential force to gain entrance to the machine. I am talking about a space-walk not an approach by any sort of craft. The defence systems of Isiur will ignore this.’
An EVA across space. OK, they could probably fit that into the battle-plan, get close enough to Isiur without seeming to attack it. He wondered how it was that such a gap had been left in the machine’s defences.
‘But how do you get inside? There won’t be an open door.’
‘No,’ said the Xin, ‘That is why I need to take your Draconian along with me. It will be able to gain access.’
That was a shock; he hadn’t seen that coming. And he certainly didn’t like the idea of letting the Draconian loose, especially not onboard Isiur.
Metarion saw the expression on his face.
‘I understand your reluctance to do this, but it is the only way. You must trust me, Mackenzie.’
‘Why would the Draconian help you?’
‘It won’t. It will see an opportunity to escape and take it. It won’t consider that we will be able to stop it once we are on board.’
‘And will we? And who, exactly, is we?’
‘Yes, I would like you to come too if you are willing. You are resourceful and intelligent. By and large you trust me in what I am doing. And you know a great deal about spaceships and all their associated technology. That knowledge will be invaluable to us in doing what we have to do. In such matters we have rather lost our expertise. Some of us consider this to be a failing; that we have degenerated. It is a long time since the Xin were, if you will excuse the term, tool-makers.’
Mackenzie thought for long moments. He looked at the avatar of the ship standing beside him. Her face was blank. He had given her considerable autonomy, allowing her to express her views as well as mere facts. It probably accounted for the strange personas she adopted, her informal attitude. But there seemed to be no advice she could give him with this.
A small part of him couldn’t help feeling that he was following Metarion’s plans exactly as he was supposed to. At the same time, he did trust the Xin, he couldn’t deny it. Maybe it was because there was no-one else to trust.
‘But ... something else confuses me here Metarion,’ said Mackenzie. ‘If this device is only now ready to detonate, why didn’t you tell us beforehand so that we could destroy it then?’
‘A good question. Is it good enough if I say we have our reasons and leave it at that?’
‘No, absolutely not. I need the real reason.’
‘Or if I say we have only just discovered the truth of the situation?’
Mackenzie shook his head and said nothing.
‘Very well then. The truth is we were not sure of the status of Isiur until now. Under an attack, it might have imploded partially. Let us say, the effects upon the universe were indeterminate and we could not take a risk. Now it is ready to detonate and so we know how to deal with it.’
‘And that’s all you’re going to tell me?’
Metarion nodded her head and said nothing.
Mackenzie let out a sigh and glanced up at the battle-maps and the clock showing the time they had remaining before they emerged into normal space.
‘Very well, the Draconian can accompany you and I will come too. But I’m going to bring an avatar of this ship with me. A material, combat-class version I mean, not a projection.’
‘Agreed.’ Metarion smiled at him as if pleased he would be coming along. She put her hands lightly together as if cradling something delicate. He had the distinct impression the intricate silver lines covering her skin had changed and shifted around a little, as if they were part of the way the Xin expressed their emotions.
‘And what of my other question?’ asked Mackenzie. ‘Will we be able to stop the Draconian from taking control of Isiur? Will we even be able to stop it tearing us to pieces?’
‘It knows it needs us to get it safely to Isiur. It isn’t stupid. After that it may ignore us or it may attempt to kill us. In the latter situation I can protect us. I have managed to survive in this galaxy for nearly half a million years now. In the former situation it will simply be a matter of us taking control of Isiur before it does. With my knowledge and your abilities I am confident we can succeed.’
‘Very well.’ He thought of the Million Sun delegation, of the reaction of Galen Jones in particular to what he had agreed to. He looked back up at the clock. There was less than an hour to go now. He turned back to the ship.
‘How can we best arrange a close approach to Isiur? I’d like to get within a hundred kilometres, but not on any sort of direct vector it might consider to be an attack.’
The avatar frowned a little, for show, while she ran through permutations. The icons on the main battle-plan they were working from began to flicker and dart around as the ship calculated the optimum configuration. After a few seconds she looked up at him.
‘This will require only a slight adjustment but will place us on a tangential vector to Isiur approximately three minutes into the battle. Perigee will be 0.2 megametres.’
‘Very well, make the formation changes. And have a five-star, combat-class avatar ready for EVA in thirty minutes. We’ll leave the Higher Than The Sun on the leeward side as we pass by Isiur so that it doesn’t see anything. At that point you will have control of the fleet. Follow the plans we have discussed and ignore everybody else.’
‘And the delegation?’
‘Oh ... I think we’ll tell them about all this when we get back.’ He smiled and turned to Metarion. ‘Do you need to make any preparations? Can you EVA without some sort of ... suit?’
‘I am quite comfortable in space, do not worry.’
‘Very well. I have some final matters to attend to. I will meet you at the EVA bay. The ship will give you any directions you need.’
Metarion nodded her head slightly and walked from the room, apparently fully aware of the way.
‘Keep an eye on her,’ said Mackenzie. ‘Tell me if she does anything unusual.’
‘I will. There is something else you should know about though. An interesting ... anomaly I have been aware of since Metarion appeared on board.’
‘Oh?’
‘I can’t be completely sure because the readings are off the scale, but it appears the mass of the Higher Than The Sun is greater than it should be. Perhaps ... a billion times greater than it should be.
‘A billion times? You didn’t feel it was worth telling me this earlier?’
‘I assessed it was
of low importance. Relatively speaking of course.’
He sighed again.
‘How can this be? A mass of that size would collapse instantly. I mean, we’d be just a black hole. How could we move? How could our structure remain?’
‘I do not know. Perhaps these anomalous readings are normal when one of the Xin is present. Perhaps they are real but the Xin have control over such forces.’
‘Very well. Let’s assume it’s a technology glitch for now. If I get chance I’ll ask Metarion about it.’