Trin stared back into the sky with disbelief. Mira Fedor.
MIRA
Mira started awake as a hand touched her shoulder. Tekton had disengaged from his nub and was standing next to her.
‘Baronessa, I would speak with you privately,’ he whispered.
She blinked and looked around the buccal. Josef was still in Autonomy, eyes closed and flickering with dreamsleep. Tapping the nub to release her, she got to her feet. Sleep had refreshed her enough that she was now hungry. ‘Would there be food?’
‘I have hoarded some in my cabin. If you would accompany me there, I have something of the utmost importance to show you.’
Mira regarded the man. She’d heard little of Tekton of Lostol that would recommend him as trustworthy, and yet right at this moment he seemed as sincere as any ‘esque could be.
‘What is the nature of the thing you would show me?’ she asked.
‘It is... without meaning to sound grandiose... a matter of our survival.’
She nodded.
As they made their way along the strata to Tekton’s cabin, Mira was again pained by what she saw—the piles of rubbish and the unhealthy smell of rot. The corporeals, Jancz and like, had not cared for the hybrid at all.
Not surprising, she thought, given what they were. Wanton had been correct when it had said that Hosts could be humanesque, and yet she had not quite believed the little Extro.
‘The biozoon is sick,’ she said.
‘Yes.’ Tekton stopped in front of a ridged door and pressed the pucker. It opened sluggishly.
Inside, the room was similar to Insignia’s cabins, save for the grey tinge to the walls and small pools of biozoon secretion in the corners. There were no furnishings other than the bed, on which lay a small dark box.
Mira paused just inside the pucker and waited for Tekton to speak.
He pointed at the box. ‘Do you know what that is, Baronessa?’
She regarded the innocuous object, wondering why the sight of it filled her with dread. Finally, she shook her head.
‘I... borrowed it from Lasper Farr after he tried to have me murdered. At the time I thought it would be both a fine revenge and a useful appendage. That’s all. But now, having spent many hours between Intel station and here learning its nuances, I’m not sure that my choice was the most judicious.’
Mira’s eyes widened a little. ‘You stole something from Commander Farr?’
‘Yes. While you were making your pronouncements of impending doom on Intel, I was busy ransacking his cabin. But that is far from the point I would make. Do you know what this does?’
She shook her head again.
‘It is called a bifurcation or Dynamic System Device, a fascinating object that has only, until this was created, been theorised about.’
Mira frowned, recalling the encounter with Commander Farr at the trade faire. Josef Rasterovich had fallen into a deep trance-like state and then collapsed on the floor of the tent after immersion in Farr’s virtual world. He’d spoken little of his experience to them, other than to curse the Commander.
‘I have heard something of such theories. The idea is to predict things,’ she said.
‘That is a most simplistic explanation of its capabilities. It’s fed by information, collected and delivered to the device’s astounding—unbelievable—processing capability. Skilled interaction with the DSD will enable you to view possible outcomes of events, but it will also allow the user to locate optimum points at which changes might be made to affect those outcomes.’
‘To change life?’
‘More precisely, to create new outcomes. Acting at those points is essential to the change. Attempting to make alterations at a less than optimum point will amount to nothing more than a clustering and local disturbance. The outcomes will remain the same.’
He picked up a juice container and sipped from it. Then he rummaged in a crate on the bedside table and produced another one, which he offered to Mira.
She saw that the seal was intact and took it. The sweet tepid liquid eased her dry throat.
‘Here.’ He passed her a small carton of dry biscuits and sank onto the bed next to the box. ‘After spending much time observing Orion’s future with the device, I have learned that there are few outcomes from the Post-Species invasion of OLOSS that don’t end in the destruction of all the humanesque and alien species.’ He sagged further until his body appeared almost folded upon itself. ‘In fact, Baronessa, there is only one.’
She waited again, nibbling the biscuits as he sought to convey what he knew.
‘Excuse my bluntness, but time is a factor. You see, the optimum point for averting the destruction of our species, Baronessa, is nearly upon us, and involves you.’
‘Me?’ Mira stepped back against the pucker.
‘You and your newborn child, who I believe is aboard your biozoon, and the man piloting this ship.’
‘Josef?’
‘Yes. Josef Rasterovich.’ Tekton’s face crumpled into a kind of disgust. ‘I’ve seen the point of change, and the three of you must be there.’
‘W-what must w-we do?’
‘It is unclear to me exactly what you should do, only that you must be there. It would be best if I showed you. Have you heard of the Sole Entity?’
‘Si.’
‘You know then that I was one of its tyros?’
‘Si.’
‘The device has shown me that the Entity has left the space around Belle-Monde, and has been travelling throughout Orion to the areas of destruction.’
‘What is it doing?’
‘I could not be sure. But I am not convinced, now, that its purpose is entirely benign. I do however think that it has a curious way about it. It has given us a
chance to manage our own affairs by giving us this gift.’ He held out his hand. ‘Come, Baronessa, and see what I mean.’
Mira hesitated, unsure that she liked the desperate light in the Godhead’s eyes. He seemed a little... disturbed, though lucid enough with it.
Mama?
Si, Nova.
You must listen to him, and see.
Why do you say that?
You must trust me, Mama. Even if you don’t trust him.
Mira took a deep breath. ‘Where would you have me stand? And how do I watch?’
Tekton smiled and patted the bed. ‘No need to stand, Baronessa. In fact, best not to.’
* * *
Mira’s immersion was intense, but not painful like her early days of bonding with Insignia had been. She let Tekton’s voice guide her through the streams of images. His narration became an anchor in a sea of horror and destruction.
Her connection to the Post-Species invasion was more vivid and visceral than anything she’d seen on farcast. The dust of imploded worlds seemed to coat her, the screams of the dying twisted her stomach, and the dryness of the solar winds parched her mouth. She was there, witnessing the end of family dynasties, the disfiguration of whole planetary systems, the sudden and profound snuffing out of billions and billions of lives.
The scale of annihilation became incomprehensible, and yet among it she saw faint shafts of hope. Many systems had closed their shift spheres. Some might never reopen, while others would do so to find Geni-carriers still waiting. Non-Corporeal Post-Species had no age, no limit on patience, no need to find other distractions. They would wait, and they would kill.
‘They must never reopen their shift spheres,’ she whispered.
‘There is another way,’ said Tekton. ‘Come.’
He guided her in deeper. She saw images of herself, scenes that had already played out: sitting at a table with Bethany Ionil and Josef at the trade faire on Edo, riding in the taxi with Thales, the markets on Rho Junction, being enveloped by a crowd of siphonophores...
‘Now we move forward,’ said Tekton. ‘Commands can be given sub-vocally or using micro-expressions, the same way most virtuals interact.’
Mira tried using a combination of both to slo
w the image flow. After several tries she became accustomed to it. It was much clumsier than her mind bond with Insignia, but effective enough.
All the while, she followed Tekton’s crisp monologue on how to follow the pathways of projected futures, making great leaps in time like an all-powerful god.
She saw many different paths leading to one result: the rise of the Post-Species consciousness and the end of humanesque- and alien-kind.
‘Did Commander Farr know this?’ she asked Tekton.
‘I expect so.’
‘How far forward can the device forecast? Is it infinite?’
‘I’ve explored that question a little, and strangely it is not. There is a point at which the information stops propagating. Not an end but more like an invisible wall—a barrier between us and what comes next.’
Mira might have found Tekton’s answer fanciful at any other time, but not now, not with what she had seen. The device itself was remarkable—and frighteningly powerful.
Suddenly, she wanted to disengage from it. Get away. Toss it into the void. No person should have such potential at their beck and call, least of all a selfish academic or a mercenary leader. Neither Farr nor Tekton, nor even she, was safe with its powers. She wanted to tell Tekton how she felt, but he kept on talking.
‘If we take a different perspective on the information streams, you can see the potential change nodes, the points at which optimum change can be effected, the point at which you must be present.’
Her virtual landscape changed to the impression of a chaotic spinning knot. She could hardly breathe, wondering what it represented.
‘Shall we look, Baronessa?’
Mama. You must. Nova had been quiet throughout, but now she sent another urgent thought. With it, her child sent her a sense of confidence and inevitability.
‘I must,’ said Mira. ‘I must.’
BALBAO
They came for him sooner than even Hob or Sammy could have guessed. The lights flared, disturbing their slumber, and guards dragged him from his bunk soon after he’d returned to it.
Miranda and Jise roused enough to make a faint protest, but Sammy and Hob simply watched. Connit never stirred.
They marched him through the convoluted corridors of the ship to the transport lock. Farr was waiting on the station side of the hatch, speaking with a harassed official. Ra was with him, and a huge teranu with a fleshy face and broad shoulders that he had to compress to fit in the narrow tube. Petalu Mau.
‘Balbao.’ The Godhead nodded.
‘What am I doing here?’ snarled Balbao.
‘I need your assistance,’ said Ra.
‘For what?’
Ra ignored him, focusing back on Farr’s conversation with the official. As Sammy had guessed, the Commander was trying to get access to the station information node.
‘Our IN’s in lockdown, Commander,’ said the ‘esque. ‘The Sophos have restricted access.’
‘Mau,’ said Farr.
The huge teranu grabbed the ‘esque by the tunic and lifted him off his feet, shaking him.
Farr folded his arms. ‘Unrestrict it.’
The official paled and nodded.
Petalu Mau dropped him to the floor and gave him a shove.
The terrified official hurried forward. Mau followed him with Farr striding on Mau’s heels. He didn’t bother to acknowledge Balbao’s presence, and his soldiers nudged Ra and Balbao along quickly to keep up.
The station was chaotic and at capacity, bodies crowding every standing space. It seemed to Balbao that everyone there was either arguing or pleading with someone else.
Getting to the information node became a nightmare of mini-confrontations between Petalu Mau and Farr’s soldiers, and those in their way. The red robes of the Scolar police punctuated the milling throng, but even they only seemed to be able to contain pockets of the confusion.
Scolar station was close to anarchy. Balbao saw it in the aggressive stares; felt it in the undercurrent of panic. Everyone wanted off, but the planet-transit ships were backlogged, and the sphere itself could only process at a certain speed. Farr must have used extreme coercion to get docking permission.
The IN entrance was guarded by a contingent of four tired station security guards. Farr ordered several his of soldiers to stay with them and the rest to accompany him inside.
Balbao followed Ra and the others into the darkened chamber. The smell of sweat and the whirr of fans assailed his senses, twenty or more data dispersal technicians working on top of each other.
‘Ra?’ Farr’s calmness unnerved Balbao.
Ra pointed to a workstation on the other side of the chamber.
Petalu Mau advanced on the person using it and cleared her with a clout of one large hand. The IN supervisor stormed across but Farr’s soldiers backed him up against the wall at gunpoint. Soon all the technicians and scientists were next to him.
Balbao guessed the same was happening to the guards outside the door.
Ra sat himself at the chosen station and began to generate, as far as Balbao could tell, pseudo-code.
‘Balbao,’ Ra tapped the desktop. ‘Come over here. I need you to breed a Henon map.’
Balbao felt something hard thrust up under his armpit into the soft part of his skin in line with his heart.
‘Now,’ Farr said in his ear.
Balbao pulled away stiffly and threaded through the other workstations to join Ra. His own face, he was sure, matched the angry fearful stares from the techs herded against the exterior wall behind them.
‘What do you want?’ he growled as he sat down.
‘An orbital diagram,’ said Ra.
‘What for? What did you build on Belle-Monde?’
‘A bifurcation device,’ Ra answered absently.
‘That’s not possible.’
Ra took a brief moment to give Balbao a deprecating stare before turning back to his workstation. ‘What did you think we were learning on Belle-Monde, Balbao? How to culture fungi?’
With a tremor in his hands, Balbao reached for the interaction pads. Ra’s sarcasm had jolted him. He’d taken the tyros far too lightly, concerned as he’d been with collecting empirical data about the Entity. But a bifurcation device—a device that can predict futures—surely not! ‘So you’re trying to re-create the same thing? Here?’
‘That’s not possible without the Entity’s assistance. And as you may have noticed, Sole seems to have deserted us,’ Ra replied softly.
‘Then what in Crux’s name are you doing?’
‘I’m searching for a repeller, something to destabilise the dynamic system of the universe.’
Balbao’s frill stiffened to the point of pain. ‘What?’
‘A repeller will disrupt whatever changes Tekton has set in place with the DSD.’
Tekton? Balbao sucked in a deep noisy breath. ‘If this bifurcation device really exists, then a repeller—in theory—risks causing a dysfunction that could have any number of catastrophic results. You would do that simply to thwart your cousin?’
Ra gave a small and wholly unpleasant smile. ‘No more catastrophic than what we currently face. It may even disrupt the final outcome of the invasion.’
‘May? But you don’t know that.’
Ra turned his multi-faceted eyes on Balbao. His thin skin concertinaed into a frown. ‘If you say that any louder, I will kill you myself.’ He slid a thin knife from inside his robe and rested it on his knee.
Balbao felt a surge of uncontrolled fury. He glanced over at Lasper Farr. The commander watched their whispered conversation, as he watched everything, with suspicion. Ra had convinced the Commander that he could somehow deter the Extros’ invasion. That was why Farr had bought them here.
Balbao looked for Petalu Mau, who’d taken up a position near the lab hostages. He wanted to deliver Sammy’s message to him, but something other than the knife on Ra’s knee held him back. Not yet, he thought, not quite yet.
Instead he clenched his teeth, slapped t
he I-pads on his neck and entered the virtual patterner.
THALES
‘The commander’s here,’ whispered Fariss.
She brushed past Thales and crouched close to Janne and Magdalen. Getting this far had been harder than they’d anticipated; the station was frenzied. They’d travelled in small groups so as not to attract the attention of the red robes, who were scattered among the crowds. Linnea knew the way to the information node and had given precise instructions to the Feohte.
Now they’d reassembled a corridor away from the IN and Fariss had just scouted the last stretch. The news she had to give was the last that Thales expected to hear. He joined their huddle, anxious to know exactly what she’d seen.
‘There’re a bunch of soldiers at the door. Some mercs have got station sec baled up against the wall. I’ve seen the mercs before. For some Crux-damned reason, Commander Lasper Farr’s in the IN.’
Magdalen and Janne stared at her.
‘Commander Farr,’ said Magdalen. ‘Of the—’
‘Stain Wars. Yeah.’ Fariss turned to Thales. ‘Ideas?’
Thales shook his head. He couldn’t imagine what had bought Lasper Farr here at this time. What could be so important that he would risk his ship by coming to Scolar station?
‘We could go through the front door,’ said Janne.
Fariss shook her head. ‘They’ll have more Robes at Shift Command than anywhere else. It’s this way or none. We’ve got surprise on our side. Don’t imagine the Commander’s expectin’ to see us either.’
‘Will the mercs know you?’ asked Thales.
She thought about it for a moment. ‘Yeah, but that might not be a bad thing. A little reputation, you know...’
Thales’s stomach clenched even tighter. ‘Fariss, please—’
She ignored him and spoke directly to Janne. ‘I’ll get close enough to deal with two or three. When I make that move you need to get down the corridor quick. Take the mercs first. Station sec won’t know what the fuck is going on. My guess is they’ll run.’
The Sentients of Orion Page 116