by Alex Lamb
Ira could hear the others shifting in their bunks. Hugo had a good point, but it didn’t help morale to dwell upon the thought that the Earthers could have kicked their asses years ago and simply hadn’t bothered.
‘Then let’s stop speculating and start investigating,’ he told them. ‘John, Will, I want you to get to work tapping their comms. Amy, find us an orbit that’ll let us keep an eye on all this without being seen. Rachel and Hugo, I want both of you to take a closer look at the installation. Maybe some of those answers are right in front of us.’
There was a chorus of ayes as his crew set about their assigned tasks. Ira continued to stare hard at the crescent of ships looming in his visor. Part of him urgently wanted to turn around and get home as fast as he could. At least that way the evacuation arks parked in orbit around Galatea would have a chance of getting away before this armada turned up. But they’d come to listen, so listen they would. If this fleet hadn’t left already, maybe that meant there was still some way to beat them.
5.2: WILL
Will sat in the virtual room he’d created for his soft-assault node and watched propaganda broadcasts from the Earther fleet.
‘Rebuilding on the planet Drexler,’ said the screen in front of him. An image appeared of joyful crowds dressed in rags leaping up and down in the streets of a rubble-strewn city. ‘Liberated from the yoke of their former capitalist government, the people of Drexler are enjoying a free expression of faith for the first time in a century! All across this world, top subsects are lending a hand, bringing eager new members to the Following.’
The image swapped to a huge white building with a blue and gold dome set in a perfect lawn. ‘Here, for instance, in the struggling tent-town of Kroto, the Medellins have contributed a brand-new church.’ The screen showed a florid man in long blue and gold robes. The words at the bottom of the screen identified him as Igor Shanhuan, the new Medellin cardinal for Kroto.
‘When the people here realised that their immortal place in heaven was determined by how soon they converted and to whom, it was amazing how quickly they came to their senses,’ said Shanhuan. ‘They’re not bad people. They’ve just been kept away from the Lord’s truth for a long time, and I can tell you, they’re glad to finally hear it.’
A gaunt local in rags with wild eyes added his testimony. ‘I cry when I think of how lucky we are,’ he told the camera with tearful earnestness. ‘When I look back at the life I used to lead, it disgusts me. I was lost. The whole planet was lost. My only regret was that we resisted the Kingdom for so long.’
The look in the Drexlerian’s eyes gave Will the shivers. He’d seen broadcasts from Drexler from before the war. It had been a peaceful place with well-fed, rational people – one of the most successful of the Fifteen Colonies.
Will changed channel.
‘The Kingdom makes astounding progress against the Sin-World Galatea!’ said the screen. ‘In a breathtaking victory this month, a special task force led by the Reconsiderist subsect saw off four Gallie battle cruisers and paved the way for the final push against the last major colony still violating human unity. However, sources in the crusade say there’s still a lot of work to be done.’
A square-jawed man with bushy eyebrows, apparently named Captain Huen Gupta, faced the camera. ‘We can expect a hard fight from Galatea,’ said Gupta solemnly. ‘What people don’t understand is that the Gallies aren’t like other colonists we’ve faced. They’re genetic fascists, which means that for generations, they’ve subjected their own children to outrageous mutations in the hope of creating some kind of master race. By most measures, they’re not even sane.
‘They’ve come so far from God’s truth that they’d rather kill us all than accept his justice. They’ve got so much hate in their hearts that I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept fighting down to the last woman and child. Once the Kingdom takes up guardianship there, an extensive renormalisation process will be necessary.’
He looked supremely sorry about it.
‘Scary, isn’t it?’ said John.
Will jumped. John’s avatar had appeared next to him. John had acquired the disturbing habit of appearing unannounced in Will’s metaphor space since they started working together a week ago. Will had been astonished the first time it happened and leapt halfway across the room in shock. He hadn’t known that John could build avatars, let alone access his private realm. John had laughed for a long time.
In retrospect, the idea of data protection was a little silly when you were sharing a ship with one of Galatea’s finest hackers. Now Will barely flinched, though John’s creepy sense of humour still left him uneasy.
He nodded in agreement. It was scary. That ominous word renormalisation still rang in his ears.
John created a chair for his avatar to sit down on, brushed some fictitious dust off it and took a seat. He manipulated the puppet version of himself with an almost roboteer-like deftness.
‘You know, you really ought to get this place cleaned up,’ he said with a grin. It was a subtle way of reminding Will that, unlike Rachel, he could see everything Will had made.
John’s remark referred to the metaphor Will had chosen for the soft-assault node. He’d based it on an archaic wiretap-room he’d once seen in a flat-screen movie. Grey-brown sunlight slanted in through a window with slatted blinds drawn. To one side of him was a desk covered in bulky listening equipment complete with magnetic tape reels and oscilloscopes. On the other was the bank of cathode-ray screens Will was watching. The rest of the room was dusty and bare.
Will had spent most of the last week in there. During that time, he’d acquired a lot of respect for the Ariel’s assault expert, who was a completely different type of person from Franz. John was always open to ideas, though in truth Will had found little to contribute. Most of John’s work was applied data theory, about which Will knew next to nothing. There wasn’t much for him to do but follow instructions and pilot the odd decryption SAP John passed him. The SAPs were always inscrutable and filled with subtle cunning.
‘What’s a fascist?’ asked Will.
John smiled wryly. ‘It’s an Old Earth term for an aggressive kind of nationalist. But the Earthers don’t use the word properly. They mean someone who believes that one ethnic type is superior to another.’
‘But we don’t believe that,’ said Will. ‘Why do they call us that?’
Will had found watching the propaganda almost painful, so distorted was the news it put out. But once they’d positioned their spy satellites, there hadn’t been much else for him to do. So he’d watched, and reported anything new he learned to John.
‘It’s an emotionally charged word with lots of historical connotations that they think fits because we practise genetic engineering,’ John explained. ‘As far as they’re concerned, that makes us a separate ethnic type. And the fact that we keep doing it implies we think we’re better than them.’
Will shook his head. It made him burn inside. How could he be hated so much by people he’d never met, over some aspect of himself that he never even chose?
‘Why do they hate people with mods so much?’ he said.
‘Because they haven’t got them,’ said John with a smile.
‘So what? What’s to stop them from gene-tweaking their kids?’
‘Lots of them can’t afford to. Or they think it’s wrong.’
That wasn’t good enough for Will. ‘But what right do they have to say what someone else should or shouldn’t give their own children?’
John laughed. ‘As far as they’re concerned, someone else’s choice limits their own kids’ future. Someone with good mods is more likely to get a decent job than someone without.’
Will squirmed in his seat. Just like he could never hope to become a starship captain. ‘But that’s crazy,’ he insisted. ‘Mods exist. Everyone knows you can never put the technology genie back in its bottle. Sooner or later, everyone will have mods!’
‘They disagree,’ said John. ‘Well, some of the
m disagree. And the rest of them just want to be sure that if someone’s enjoying a biological advantage, it’s them. Plus it helps to look self-righteous while you’re murdering people. But I didn’t come here to talk politics. There’s a progress meeting happening upstairs in a few minutes and I thought you’d want to come along.’
Will nodded, not that he had much to contribute. ‘Okay, I’ll be there.’ It had to be better than listening to Captain Huen Gupta.
Five minutes later, the crew convened in the Ariel’s upper chamber. Will surveyed the assembled faces as he pulled himself into the room. The stress of their work showed in their eyes – in Hugo’s most of all. Gone was the talkative physicist so eager to expound on his pet subject. The constant risk of discovery, coupled with the academic frustrations of the last few days, was getting to him. He’d become sullen and withdrawn.
‘All right,’ said Ira. ‘I’ve brought you together because we’ve been at this for six days now and I thought we should take stock.’
As always, the captain surveyed them with an easy if slightly detached confidence. His massive arms were folded across his chest.
‘You’ve all been focused on your own tasks with only limited exposure to what the others have been doing, and pooling a little knowledge might help us all. I’ll kick off because I don’t have much to tell you. I’ve been monitoring our security situation. There’s no sign that we’ve been noticed yet, so my guess is that we’re safe here as long as we don’t move around too much. Okay, that’s it from me. John, want to go next?’
John smoothed the sleeve of his crumpled ship-suit as he spoke. ‘Well, most of my time I’ve been working either with Hugo or Will. Our scans of the standard broadcast frequencies haven’t turned up a whole hell of a lot, mostly the same old propaganda shit for the Following to lap up. The stuff with Hugo has been rather more technical, so I’ll let him explain that to you.’
Hugo had been looking down at his hands and frowning while the others talked. Now he glanced up and surveyed the crew. He spoke slowly. ‘As some of you already know, I’ve been trying to find out more about what the Earthers call the suntap.’ He delivered the word with an ironic sneer. ‘The name itself is evocative. The source of their apparently boundless energy is now clear at last. However, little else is.
‘We have still found no information in their system that suggests how it functions. Had I but a few pointers, I don’t doubt that I’d be able to replicate and surpass the Earthers’ efforts with ease. However, there are no such pointers. I have even tried to interpolate a theory of the device’s mechanism from the operating parameters of the starship components to which it is connected, though to no avail. Our examination of the engineers’ working rules have revealed more than their technical files.’
Hugo shook his head in disgust. ‘The only instructions the engineers are given pertain to the unpacking and fitting of the device. They’re forbidden from opening the unit. They are even banned from speculating on how it works while eating in their canteen.’ His lip curled. ‘In short, as far as the staff here are concerned, it is magic.’
John held up a finger. ‘In my assessment, the reason we haven’t found any data is that it’s simply not here to find,’ he said. ‘The suntap doesn’t come from Zuni.’
‘Will,’ said Ira, ‘you’ve also been working with John. Anything to report?’
‘No,’ Will replied, wishing he had more to add. ‘Other than a sick feeling from watching too much church TV.’
Rachel chuckled.
Ira glanced at her. ‘How about you?’
She pushed floating hair away from her heart-shaped face. ‘Well, while you’ve been listening, I’ve been watching. I’ve used the spy drones to carry out as close a survey of the whole facility as I can muster. The results have been interesting, if inconclusive.’
Will was surprised by how much he enjoyed listening to her again. He’d missed her, though it had only been a week since they’d last worked together. It was strange to feel that way about someone who hadn’t been more than a few metres away from him the whole time, but with their shift differences and work patterns he’d hardly set eyes on her.
‘The first thing I did was take a look at the g-ray banks on those new ships to see if there’s anything different about them,’ she said, ‘and the answer is no. They’re just a lot bigger. The technology appears to be the same as they’ve always used. Just as old. Just as clumsy. So then I took a look at their factory set-up – and that’s where I found something. The antimatter plant, the factory asteroid and one of the habitat rings are all of Pioneer design.’
John smiled and nodded knowingly. ‘I thought I recognised some of those power schematics.’
‘That more than anything convinces me that the Earthers stole their new weapon technology rather than inventing it,’ Rachel went on. ‘I find it much easier to believe that the Pioneers found a way to tap a star’s energy than that the Earthers did.’
Will couldn’t help but agree.
‘So that solves one of the mysteries about this place,’ Rachel said. ‘The Earthers built their fleet using equipment that was already here when they conquered it. That’s why we haven’t seen much traffic – they only had to bring in enough crew to man the place before they started churning out starships. Right now, though, I’m looking for ways we might stop that fleet before it leaves here. Haven’t found one yet.’ She gestured at Amy. ‘Your turn?’
‘I’ve been listening to ship gossip,’ Amy said with glee. ‘In other words, the executive channel tight-beam transmissions which John so kindly decrypted for me, and I’ve learned plenty. First, and most importantly, the majority of those ships don’t have their suntaps yet. They might look finished, but they’re not.’ She glanced around at the others with triumph.
‘Hah!’ said Rachel. ‘That’s great!’
‘Secondly,’ said Amy, ‘as we suspected, they don’t have crews, either. We’re definitely looking at a threat, but it’s not nearly as immediate as it first appeared.’
Will exhaled and suddenly realized just how much tension he’d been carrying since they’d arrived. There was nothing like the possibility of impending extinction to put you permanently on edge.
‘Thirdly, and I think most interestingly,’ Amy added, ‘is that the big boss who runs this place isn’t here. He’s someone called General Ulanu, and as far as they know he’s on his way back here from Earth, where they gave him some kind of medal for the attack on Memburi.’
‘Bastard,’ muttered John.
‘Undoubtedly,’ said Amy. ‘But the thing is, the guy he left in charge here is the one who did all the work, or thinks he did anyway. His name’s Konrad Tang, and we caught some video footage of him talking to one of his aides.’
She tapped the tablet display. A picture of a furious man with a spherical head and a pair of outrageous eyebrows appeared.
‘As you can see,’ she said, ‘Tang isn’t happy.’
Will laughed. That was an understatement.
‘Turns out that he not only planned the show at Memburi,’ said Amy, ‘but also oversaw the construction of this whole fleet. He’s been away from his family here for two years building this stuff and he’s mad keen to use it. But apparently he has to wait for Ulanu to give the word before he can go any further.’
‘How come this Ulanu gets to call all the shots?’ asked Rachel. ‘What’s his contribution?’
‘Well, from the way they talk,’ said Amy, ‘it sounds to me like Ulanu is hardly ever here. He spends all his time at a place they call the “remote facility”, which is where I suspect the suntaps are built. He’s the man who makes it all possible, I guess.’ She shrugged. ‘As far as I can tell, he just ships the units in and gives the orders. But Tang is expecting some big changes when Ulanu gets back.’
‘Any idea what kind of changes?’ said Ira.
Amy shook her head. ‘I think Tang’s hoping it’ll be news about the deliveries he needs. And an attack schedule.’
&
nbsp; Ira frowned. ‘And do they know when he’s due to show?’
‘He’s late already,’ said Amy. ‘They expected him back days ago. I suspect that one of the reasons we got into the system so easily was because half their telescopes are pointed at Earth right now.’
Ira rubbed his chin. ‘Hmmm. That puts us in an interesting situation.’ He paused to examine the face on the tablet. ‘Okay, Rachel, Amy, I need some estimates – worst case, from our perspective. Let’s say this Ulanu turns up with two hundred full crews fresh from the Old World. He has to get them aboard, trained and ready to go. How long do we think that’d take?’ He looked to Amy.
‘If the crews are seasoned, a week,’ she replied. ‘If they’re not, the better part of a month.’
‘Let’s work with a week,’ said Ira. ‘He also needs to fuel up those ships. Even if that little factory of theirs has full stores, it’s not enough for the whole armada. How long till they’re ready to go?’
Rachel tapped her chin. ‘The quickest? About three weeks, I guess. Of course, he could always siphon off fuel from the troop ships he comes in with. That’d cut it to a fortnight.’
Ira nodded to himself. ‘Okay. Finally, the good general has to install his suntaps. I think it’s safe to assume he didn’t take his top-secret tech with him to show off to the other sects on Earth, which means he has to go and get them and come back here. Any guesses?’
Amy grimaced. ‘It’s hard to say. If we assume this facility is at a neighbouring star, which seems likely, I think the closest one in the shell is at least three days away. A week if you’re in one of those Earther buckets. So let’s say a week there and a week back.’
‘Then another two for installation,’ Rachel added.
‘So,’ said Ira, ‘assuming he does all this in parallel, the guy still needs a month to get ready, even if he’s working flat out. Otherwise, it could be more than twice that. Then they have to cross their territory to our end of space.’