by Dan Worth
With the uncertainty principle suspended, the vast array of computers within the depths of Port Royal began to catalogue the positions of the countless trillions of particles that made up the base and its entire contents, down to the last nut and bolt, particle of dust, blade of grass, stray hair and ruffled feather, drop of water and lungful of air. For three quarters of an hour the base was frozen in time, fixed with absolute precision, a trillion, trillion probability curves determined and fixed. Then with one deft move those precise positions were suddenly and simultaneously altered. Port Royal vanished in the blink of an eye, leaving the perfect black body sphere of the translation drive floating free amid the scattered rocks.
Isaacs felt a sudden coldness, then dizziness and the urge to vomit. He staggered slightly and saw Anna turn pale. The humming had ceased.
‘Was that it?’ he said. ‘Did it work?’
‘Yes. The jump was successful,’ The Speaker replied. ‘My people will retrieve the core. Welcome to the Spica system.’
The Spica system was huge. Two hundred and sixty light years from Earth, an elliptical blue-white star lay at the centre of the system, locked in a violent whirling dance with its smaller companion that orbited the parent every four days. Far out, beyond the violent gravitational eddies caused by this deadly embrace, a system of thirty major planets orbited the binary in a more stately fashion. Of these thirty, nineteen were gas giants, each with their own family of moons, resulting in a system that contained, excluding asteroids and comets, around three hundred catalogued bodies. The sheer amount of real estate in the system had made it into an industrial powerhouse and a trading nexus in this part of the Commonwealth. Gas and mineral mining flourished in the system’s wealth of natural resources and manufacturing industries grew up alongside to take advantage of the local abundance as well as supporting the largest shipyards outside the Solar System. It was for these reasons that the Navy had made Spica the location of its main base in the southern Commonwealth, a gigantic floating harbour fortress in orbit around the third planet, a water world designated Atlantis, after the primitive flooded ruins that dotted its now sterile shallow seas. Spica’s location placed it near the centre of the sector, and its vital economic resources had to be protected. In addition, the myriad of worlds within the system made it an ideal location for the training of marines, who could be subjected to simulated combat on their varied terrains, from the inner asteroid ring about the stars, to the desert conditions of the second planet, to the island archipelagos of the sixth planet’s second moon. The entire inner system was given over to the military, where the Commonwealth’s best troops could train away from prying eyes. The lack of any indigenous life anywhere in the system also made it an ideal testing ground for new and experimental weapon systems and tactics.
Further out, the vast mining and manufacturing operations swarmed with civilian traffic under the watchful eyes of the military’s monitoring arrays stationed in orbit between the fifth and sixth planet, observing and recording all who passed beneath their gaze.
They failed to notice the extra body that had suddenly appeared far out in the system’s Kuiper belt amid the myriad of other objects that hung at the furthest reaches of Spica’s gravity well.
In front of The Speaker, the projected orrery of the system updated itself to incorporate the real time data now pouring into the creature’s suit from the passive sensors aboard Port Royal. A bright galaxy of thousands of lurid markers showed the positions of ships entering, leaving and traversing the system.
‘You ever been here before Cal?’ said Anna.
‘Once or twice,’ he replied. ‘Too many fucking cops around for my taste. If there’s one things puts a cramp on our kind of business, it’s too much surveillance.’
‘Yeah, looks like we’ll have to careful. When do Cox’s fleet arrive?’
‘Another ten days, by your reckoning’ said The Speaker. ‘Plenty of time for our people to start going about their business.’
‘The usual drill?’ said Anna.
‘Yes, disperse in ones and twos so as not to arouse suspicions’
‘Got it, I’ll send ships to get in touch with our fences. We were thinking of using Shigeru Toyama at the Labyrinth as a fence for any stuff from Chen.’
‘I’m not about to tell you your business,’ said The Speaker. ‘Though it seems a little out of the way.’
‘Shigs himself will just co-ordinate the supply runs from there. We’ll keep changing the handover points once we’ve established our contacts. In the mean-time we need data on this system as accurate as that that we had for Hadar, in case we need to pull the same evasion tricks again.’
‘Consider it done,’ said The Speaker. ‘I will devote our sensors to the task.’
‘Thank you for doing this,’ said Anna. ‘I know what it might cost you.’
‘Do you?’ The Speaker replied wearily. ‘Do you really?’ It began to busy itself with the base’s systems.
‘Come on,’ said Isaacs. ‘I don’t know about you Anna, but I could sure use a drink right now.’
‘We need to start getting our people out into the system.’
‘Yeah well… when the tech crews have finished changing the serial i.d. numbers on our ships, why don’t you and I take a hop over to one of the orbitals in this system and find a nice quiet bar and, you know, do a bit of surveillance?’
She gave him a look. ‘All right, fine. I was planning on having a look around.’
‘Maybe we could see if they have any nice cheap hotels?’
‘One step at a time, hotshot.’
Chapter 29
The Shaper creature had now spread itself throughout the Arkari data hyper-sphere. It had scattered shards of itself throughout the myriad of nodes and interstices undetected as it subsumed the more primitive systems. It was laughably easy. Such things were mere child’s play to the creature. Now it sifted the flows of data as they passed through it, scrutinising the discrete packets of information. Much of it was of little use, the mundane communications sent between private individuals, conversations in a multitude of media, love letters, idle chit chat, news and trivia, holographic images of people it cared nothing for as the billions of Arkari citizens went about their daily existences, oblivious to its prying electronic eyes as they laid their lives open to it.
Amongst this avalanche of information the creature occasionally found morsels that it found more interesting: encrypted traffic, secrets. Hidden amongst the plaintext were things that both senders and receivers intended to remain confidential. The Arkari had moved beyond a scarcity based existence and had no need for commerce; hence such traffic could only come from military and government sources. This was what it wanted.
The encryption and deception methods were not difficult for it to break given the computing power available to it. It was simply a matter of time and brute force processing, combined with a degree of stealth if its presence were to remain undetected to both senders and recipients.
Within a matter of weeks the creature had laid bare the entirety of the Arkari’s military command and control systems. It knew everything; fleet deployments, force levels, logistical information, duty rosters, reconnaissance data about a myriad of species including its own - which it found laughably sketchy and riddled with inaccuracies – research and development projects and the personnel files of the millions who served in the Arkari Navy. All of this it dutifully relayed back to its masters.
But it was not done yet. It now turned its attentions to the government of the Arkari Meritocracy itself and the vast torrents of information that ordered their civilisation. Much of it was of little interest, but amidst all of this it found data so heavily encrypted that even its mind was tested. Data so heavily guarded that its level of protection made it stand out from the swarm.
It was not uncommon for the Arkari to make use of computerised implants or other devices that linked their brains directly to machines. Most private citizens used them daily to talk to one another
, attend concerts in virtual spaces, collaborate on works of art or other personal creative projects or simply for friends on different worlds to stay in touch. The military made use of special hardened versions of such devices to communicate with their ships and weapons, relaying tactical and targeting data directly into their minds and allowing star-ship crews to act as one co-ordinated instrument. But members of the government as well as the vast bureaucracy that underpinned it also used them. It allowed meetings to be chaired across hundreds of light years by individuals sitting together within virtual environments, research to be conducted, efforts to be pooled and discussions to be held with across the vastness of the Sphere. Most importantly of all it allowed the elected members of their government to sit in session together, no matter what their location, within a perfect virtual recreation of the Meritarch Council Chamber on Keros.
All of this was now laid bare to the Shaper creature. With the form of the data and the nature of its encryption now available to it, it began to construct its own tools and prepared to insert them into the system.
It was cautious at first. The Arkari may be primitive by its standards, but they were not stupid, and it would not let its arrogance lead it to be careless. It tried a few sample packets at first, letting them slide into the system unnoticed. Then it tried a few simple messages: innocuous things that would go unnoticed inside the minds of those who received them. It observed its results and recorded them and then set about crafting a virus.
Chapter 30
The Churchill emerged from its jump into the wan illumination of a white dwarf star some twenty AUs distant that lay on the border between the Arkari Sphere and the Commonwealth. True to Chen’s word, it was almost nine days since the Churchill had left the Hadar system, and the ship had crossed the intervening distance at a blistering pace.
The Shining Glory was waiting for them. Mentith’s personal destroyer appeared ghostlike in the pale light, its great wings lazily sculling the void as it held station, dwarfing the Commonwealth carrier that was barely a tenth of its size. The Churchill came to a halt a kilometre off the bow of the larger craft and launched a small shuttle from its forward bay. The shuttle crossed the distance to the Arkari vessel in a matter of moments; the skin of the destroyer flowing open to allow the tiny ship admittance.
Katherine stepped off the shuttle’s boarding ramp onto the smooth, seamless, pale surface of the cavernous landing bay. The rib vaulted roof arched overhead, brilliantly lit and smoothly formed. The bay stretched back inside the vessel’s belly for over five kilometres. Here was where the ship’s complement of fighters, bombers, shuttles and assault craft roosted like huge and terrible birds of prey, their curved, mercury-like skins reflecting the brilliant lights. Each was cradled within a mass of tendril like growths; silver power and data conduits that sprang in clumps from the ceiling and walls like the waving fronds of sea anemones and plugged into various ports on the surfaces of the ships.
It was not the first time she had been aboard an Arkari vessel, but the organic strangeness of their alien technology was a little unsettling. She couldn’t help but feel as though she had stepped out into the belly of some vast beast and some animal instinct in her hindbrain was trying to tell her that the serried ranks of predatory vessels were scrutinising her every movement, like hawks watching the progress of a mouse beneath them.
‘Sometimes, I forget just where you came from Rekkid,’ she said softly.
‘Hmm well I didn’t come from a place like this,’ he replied. ‘The truth of it is, even other Arkari find our military a little unsettling. Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, doesn’t it?’
‘Yes, it does.’
‘Makes my crest itch terribly. Not a good sign. Part of me knows that we’re being watched by those things over there.’ He nodded towards the roosting fighters.
‘Would that we had your technology to build them ourselves,’ said Chen. ‘I’d give my right arm for a fleet of ships like those.’
Unlike the two archaeologists, Chen seemed less perturbed by the alien power of their surroundings. She shifted impatiently from foot to foot on the deck and eyed the docking bay and its contents.
‘You never see as many people on these ships as on our vessels,’ she remarked. ‘I guess these ships look after themselves.’ She looked at Rekkid as if seeking an answer. He merely shrugged.
A crewman clad in the black, high collared uniform of the Arkari Navy now approached from a side entrance. She walked smartly up to Chen and saluted in the human manner as a mark of respect.
‘My apologies for your wait, Admiral,’ she said crisply in slightly accented English. ‘The War Marshal is anxious to speak with the three of you. If you would follow me?’
They were taken speedily via the ship’s internal network of transport arteries to the bow section where Mentith waited for them in a spacious conference chamber that looked out over the ship’s tapering nose via a wide curving window. The chamber’s walls were, like all within the vessel, organically curved and seamless. The room was dominated by a large oval table of some dark reflective rock, polished to a mirror-like sheen. Behind it sat Mentith, his long, seven-fingered hands steepled in front of him, and a pensive look upon his aged features. On the desk itself, the simulacrum of a cat strutted amid a scatter of papers and data-pads. The creature was formed from the same material as the ship’s hull; its shimmering fur appeared as though fashioned from spun silver. As the three figures entered the room it turned to look at them with its penetrating black eyes.
‘Ah, Admiral Chen, Professor Cor, Doctor O’Reilly, welcome aboard,’ said Mentith. ‘I’ve been anxious to speak with you all ever since I received your coded transmission from the Churchill. I have alerted Fleet Admiral Haines, he is, at this moment returning to Earth with the Abraham Lincoln’s battle group. I gather that further fleet redeployments will be made in due course.’
‘All of our own fleet assets stand at the highest state of readiness,’ said the cat. ‘We anticipate that the enemy may move against us soon. I am currently running a number of battle simulations based upon our intelligence data regarding the enemy’s capabilities. However, I am able to devote a small portion of my processing power to speak with you. The information you provided and my assessment of what is said will be passed directly onto my comrades.’
‘What the hell is that thing?’ said Katherine. ‘I never saw it aboard last time.’ She felt a chill of fear as the cat turned its blank gaze upon her.
‘No, you did not encounter me during your previous stay aboard,’ said the cat. ‘The existence of truly sentient artificial intelligences amongst the Arkari military is a well kept secret, and rightly so, since there are many amongst the galaxy - even our own people - who would fear us, should they knew of us. I am merely the representative of the ship, a spokesman if you will. Many people find it easier to speak to another person or creature rather than shouting at blank walls. I can change my form if you wish. This nano-alloy is infinitely malleable. However I chose this form as I thought you might find it pleasing.’
‘It’ll do,’ said Katherine, warily. ‘I suppose all ships need a ship’s cat.’
‘As you say, and I assure you, I am not a dumb machine. Though loyal to the Arkari, I do not follow commands blindly.’
Its emotionless voice and the way it appeared to be scrutinising her only served to unsettle Katherine further. She wondered if those coldly intelligent eyes were what they appeared to be, whether or not they contained sophisticated imaging devices or whether they were merely present to convey expression and make the creature look like a cat. Nevertheless, those intelligent orbs revealed in their gaze a hint of the vast power of the warship. The ship was right; people should fear it.
‘Well, well,’ said Rekkid. ‘You know I always wondered if the rumours were true about our military using sentient machines. I suppose the conspiracy theorists are correct, sometimes.’
‘They are indeed,’ said Mentith. ‘You will of course
reveal this knowledge to no-one. Regard it as an exceptional privilege. Few outside the military have spoken directly with our artificial citizens.’
Rekkid felt the implacable gaze of the cat creature boring into him and suppressed a shudder.
‘Now perhaps if you could elaborate on what has transpired in the Hadar system,’ said Mentith briskly.
‘Very well sir,’ Chen replied. ‘Our report may take some time.’
Mentith and the ship listened intently as Chen, Katherine and Rekkid took it in turns to describe what the three of them had witnessed. They presented the evidence that they themselves had gathered and the vast dossier gathered by the Hidden Hand and the Nahabe concerning Admiral Cox’s operations on the moon of Rhyolite, the brief disappearance of Centrepoint Station and Cox’s entire command, the trail of clues leading back to Admiral Morgan from both the Nahabe’s own intelligence network and the assassination of the Sirius Syndicate boss known as Bennett. They also assured Mentith that Isaacs was clean of any Shaper taint, and told him of the freelancer’s bravery, the assistance he had rendered and the information he had provided. Finally, Rekkid and Katherine showed off the galactic map that Rekkid had unearthed in the data wafers taken from Bivian Sun Sphere.
When they had finished, Mentith looked a shade paler. He massaged his scalp either side of his head crest with both hands as he digested the information that had just given to him.
‘So, it’s possible that an entire fleet of Commonwealth vessels has been subverted by the Shapers, including one of your Admirals, and that one of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has been a Shaper agent for who knows how long?’