Seeds of Earth

by Michael Cobley

'Such precautions have already been taken, Gowchee.

  I shall reach my goal and fulfil my purpose. Now I must

  deactivate this channel - honourable Gowchee and

  Yash, my thanks.'

  . Abruptly, the voice cut off, leaving Kao Chih to stare

  at the external monitor in puzzlement. The mech's final

  words had been odd, lacking in its usual conciseness,

  and expressing thanks seemed somewhat out of charac-

  ter.

  'What . . . the jelk,' Yash said, pointing with a long

  forefinger, 'is that?'

  The Voth was indicating a touch-control screen on

  the comms console - it was glowing a pale blue with

  dark blue and green graphics, an app options panel with

  the words 'Terminate Simulation?' across the top.

  'What simulation?' said Kao Chih.

  'Exactly! - there wasn't one running before you and

  your machine arrived,' the Voth said as he reached over

  to the screen, hesitated a moment, then firmly pressed

  the terminate button.

  At once, the image of the Castellan and the oncoming

  freighter disappeared from several screens up and down

  the control room. A second later, a cluster of board

  alarms went off, lights and symbols flickered and

  flashed, and a rasping synth voice spoke.

  'Hull breach, outer hold 4, inner pressure doors clos-

  ing . . . hull breach, outer hold 9, inner pressure doors

  closing ... inner bulkhead breach, section 23, mainte-

  nance drone assigned . . .'

  'What. .. what's happening?' said Kao Chih, bewil-

  dered now.

  'Well, for a jelking start,' Yash said, hefting the

  plasma cannon and levelling it in his direction, 'there

  never was any message to your allies, was there?

  Instead, your machine sets a simulation running, faking

  an attack and him taking your ship, while all the time he

  was stealing my shuttleV

  'No, that cannot be ...'

  'Look, idiot Human, look!' An external monitor

  showed the Castellan still moored to the harvester's

  underside, then it switched to a view of some kind of

  hold with a gantry and racks of equipment. 'And that is

  Stern Bay 1, where my shuttle is usually berthed, only

  now it's . . .'

  'Intruder detected, deck 10 . . . intruder detected,

  deck 7 . . . hull breach, outer hold 2, inner pressure

  doors closing ...'

  'And now I'm being boarded,' the Voth moaned.

  'Who by? - and where did they come from?'

  'It must be the droids from the ship you destroyed,'

  said Kao Chih, eyeing the wavering business end of the

  plasma cannon. 'They are agents for a cyborg species

  called the Legion of Avatars who were defeated by the

  Forerunners, but these droids have to get to Darien to

  open a well into hyperspace ...'

  'Mad,' the Voth said. 'Completely sun-staring, rock-

  sniffing insane you are! Legions and Forerunners . . .

  I'm being boarded and you're giving me jelk like that.

  But here's an idea ...' He prodded Kao Chih with the

  cannon. '. . . if they're your enemies, maybe I should

  just welcome them on board and treat them as friends,

  eh? What do you say?'

  'A very sensible proposal,' said a voice from one of

  the monitors. 'I suggest you adopt it without delay.'

  One of the Legion droids was regarding them from

  the screen. It was a bulky, asymmetrical machine with

  lens clusters set into a small, off-centre recess. Yash took

  one look and sneered.

  'Jelk you! This is my ship so we play by my rules . . .'

  'I don't think you've grasped the fullness of the situ-

  ation,' the droid said.

  Just then the control room lights went out along with

  all the consoles and monitors, apart from the one they

  were watching.

  'So - where do you think we are?' the droid contin-

  ued.

  Yash flared his nostrils and Kao Chih could actually

  hear his teeth grinding.

  'Power core regulating station,' he muttered.

  'Correct. Now, because you destroyed our ship we're

  going to have to borrow yours so that we can resume

  our pursuit, made all the more difficult by your stupid-

  ity in letting the Instrument take your shuttle . ..'

  'Stupidity?' said the Voth, long teeth bared.

  'Yours and this halfwit Human's. Anyway, before we

  can do anything we have to unpick the autodestruct

  which the Instrument planted in the hyperdrive startup

  datachain.' Some of the consoles came back to life.

  'Take a look.'

  As the Voth bent over a console and called up streams

  of incomprehensible code, Kao Chih slumped into one of

  the bucket seats, thoughts whirling. Clearly, Drazuma-

  Ha* had been planning all this since before they'd come

  aboard the harvester, which included leaving Kao Chih

  behind. Perhaps it needed Kao Chih's honest reaction

  when the simulated droid ship had appeared, but that

  did not make him feel any better. Nor did it quell bis

  sense of unease. And why did the Legion droid refer to

  the mech as the Instrument?

  'Nasty and well hidden,' Yash said at last, straight-

  ening. 'But how do I know you didn't put it in there

  yourselves?'

  'Why should we?' the droid said. 'Why go to all the

  trouble? No, that's high-grade Legion work - not our

  methodology at all.'

  Yash stared at Kao Chih. 'You said that this lot were

  from the Legion of . . . what was it?'

  'Avatars,' Kao Chih said. 'Legion of Avatars . . .'

  'Ah, I see,' said the droid on the monitor. 'I'm afraid

  you have been deceived - your mech companion is an

  Instrument of the Legion of Avatars while we are field

  armigers for the Construct...'

  'What proof . .. can you offer?' Kao Chih said. 'Why

  should we take what you say at face value?'

  'Why did you take what that machine said at face

  value?' the droid countered. 'Even its appearance is a

  fake ...'

  'With respect,' he said, 'that is ridiculous.'

  Yash laughed unkindly. 'Didn't you know that it was

  running a holoshell behind its forcefield? I was using

  my goggles in tandem with my wall sensors to study it,

  got a few outline scans and extrapolated a rough

  image . . .'

  'Did it look anything like this?' An inset appeared

  on the monitor next to the hulking droid, showing a

  strange metallic object resembling a section of articu-

  lated limb with a joint halfway up its length. Seeing it,

  the Voth nodded.

  'Yes, very similar, except that this one has two joints.'

  He squinted at the screen. 'What is this thing? Looks

  like a piece of something else.'

  'It is,' the droid said. 'This is a limb from a cyborg

  creature, a Knight of the Legion of Avatars. A Knight

  cyborg is permeated with bio-cortical substrate so

  when they hive off parts of themselves they can imbue

  them with a version of their own personae. They pos-

  sess organic sentience along with the attitudes and

  instincts o
f their progenitors, which is strictly in accor-

  dance with their creed. In the convergence of organic

  sentience and technology, the part shall reflect the

  whole.'

  'Can they be killed?' Yash said, patting his plasma

  cannon.

  'Most definitely,' the droid said. 'But not if we stand

  around here talking.'

  'I'll get that autodestruct unpicked,' the Voth said, sit-

  ting down at the console. =

  Kao Chih had listened in silence, absorbing the truth

  and feeling a horrible realisation. After the escape from

  the Chaurixa torture ship, he had been so determined to

  be done with being someone else's pawn or commodity,

  yet he had been Drazuma-Ha*'; willing dupe all along.

  His father was right - the hidden hand with its knife had

  been there from the start.

  'When you reach Darien, I want to go with you,' he

  said to the droid.

  'As you wish, Human. Just don't get in our way.'

  'I won't, I give you my word. I just want to be there

  when you tear out whatever that treacherous machine

  uses for a heart.'

  Yash looked up from his screen, chuckling.

  'That's more like it, Human!'

  In the stolen shuttle's cockpit, the Instrument patiently

  observed the console displays, overseeing the ship's

  progress through T2 hyperspace as it savoured the suc-

  cessful outcome of its deceptions and gambits. He had

  come so far in such a short span of time, from awaken-

  ing underwater in the shadow of his mighty progenitor

  to this final stage of his momentous journey, having

  beguiled and outwitted all his adversaries. Even when

  the Chaurixa hijacker had taken them by surprise at

  Bryag Station and employed a stasis web, he had been

  able to divert all available resources to maintaining a

  hard holoshell while recovering various crashed sub-

  systems preparatory to regaining full functionality.

  Another example of ingenious improvisation leading to

  success. And was that not because he was, in himself, an

  authentic replica of his exalted progenitor's instincts and

  craft and ingenuity?

  Too soon for celebration, said an admonitory inner

  voice. Too far yet to travel, too much still to do, too

  many uncertainties and opponents to overcome. Focus

  on the task, enumerate resources, assess all likely risks

  and possibilities, generate tactical solutions that will

  support strategic aims.

  Very well - risks and possibilities. Before leaving the

  Viganli's bridge he had left a destruct trigger buried in

  the hyperdrive datachain matrix, but it was quite likely

  that if any or all of the Construct's rustbucket Als

  boarded the harvester (itself quite likely) the trap would

  be uncovered and made safe. Therefore, there was a

  good chance that they were following him to this

  Darien, the warpwell planet, which had been colonised

  by Humans. He knew, from news feeds picked during

  his travels, that there were warships in orbit there, a

  dangerous obstacle to any arriving vessel. He would

  have to find a way to make that potential aggression,

  and the inherent territorial paranoia of military hierar-

  chies, work in his favour.

  There were a few options but one of them stood out

  from the rest in its simplicity. It would require a certain

  amount of finely-gauged role-playing, but he was sure

  that his recent experiences would prove invaluable in

  that respect.

  Aboard the Heracles, Sub-Lieutenant Tuan Ho had just

  gone on overwatch in Sensory when one of the outer

  boundary beacons went off. He shook his head, put

  down the plastic beaker of coffee from which he had

  been about to sip, and called up Hugo, the resident

  expert system.

  'Yarr, matey! There be a ship incoming off the lar-

  board bow . ..'

  Ho sighed when he saw the eye-patched, tricorn-

  hatted visage. The middle-watch operators must have

  been exceptionally bored.

  'Hugo,' he said. 'Setting command - reskin to default.'

  Suddenly the head and shoulders image reverted to

  Hugo's usual appearance, attired in the pale green one-

  piece of a navy tech.

  'Okay,' Tuan Ho said. 'Let me have the report again.'

  'A badly damaged small ship, possibly a shuttle,

  dropped out of hyperspace just inside the deci-au

  marker. The pilot is speaking Brolturan, says he is the

  sole survivor of a Brolturan prospecting expedition that

  was attacked by a hijacked harvester ship, and claims

  that this harvester is chasing him. He also says that his

  guidance systems are down and that he's flying on

  manual with the aim of landing on Darien. His life sup-

  port is on backup and his comms are down to audio

  only; his ship is not emitting an ident but he claims to

  be from the Perquisitor. A Brolturan-registered ship of

  that name was reported missing in the Huvuun three

  weeks ago.'

  Tuan Ho frowned. 'No ident, audio only - could be

  anyone or anything. Have you piped it to Tactical?'

  'I did so when I piped it up to the captain's portable.'

  His eyes widened in surprise. 'Why do that?'

  'Because fifteen seconds later the captain received a

  direct query about the newcomer from Father-Admiral

  Dyrosha aboard the Purifier.'

  Tuan Ho grinned. 'And it would have looked bad if

  Velazquez had had to get the information from Dyrosha.

  Good thinking, Hugo.'

  The expert system smiled and shrugged. 'I am coded

  for initiative.'

  'Over-Lieutenant Schenker once said he wished I was.

  So what's happening now?'

  'I am tracking this ship in tandem with Tactical,

  Velazquez and Dyrosha are still in conference, and the

  Purifier has just launched a pair of interceptors.'

  'Goodness, I do hope they don't lose those ones too!'

  Like almost everyone on board Heracles, Tuan Ho

  had watched the incredible dogfight over the forest

  moon, which had been shown on all the communal and

  rec screens. The sight of one of their own shuttles being

  piloted with insane bravado and destroying not one but

  two Brolturan interceptors was electrifying, and reveal-

  ing. The crew had been divided into a minority who

  were shocked and upset, and the majority whose

  approval ran from a kind of fateful resignation to out-

  and-out pro-Dariens who later put together a

  noticeboard shrine to the Scots pilot, Donny Barbour. It

  had not escaped Ho's attention that most of the pro-

  Brolturans also had Al-companions.

  'Well, it'll probably turn out to be nothing serious,'

  he said. 'While you're keeping your eye on it, I'm going

  to heat up my coffee.'

  'You may be right, sir,' said Hugo.

  But twenty minutes later, when a Star-Eater-class

  cloud-harvester came out of hyperspace a mere 2,000

  kilometres from the Heracles, tripping every alarm,

  Tuan Ho soon found that there was no time for sips o
r

  even thoughts of coffee.

  From the moment they appeared in the Darien system,

  they were bombarded with a stream of increasingly

  trenchant demands, and finally warnings of dire conse-

  quences. Yash, however, was giving as good as he got.

  'No, no, Heracles, you listen to me - I am the

  wronged party, I am the victim and I'm in pursuit of the

  thief who stole my shuttle . . .'

  'Harvester Viganli, we have to verify your story

  which is why you must cut your velocity and assume

  stationary orbit

  'Why aren't you putting the clamps on that shuttle,

  eh? Why? . . .'

  'As a Brolturan vessel it is being handled by . . .'

  'It's not a Brolturan ship! - can't you jelkers under-

  stand? The thieving, stinking machine who stole it is

  lying to you and the Brolturans, lying to everybody . . .'

  'Harvester ship - this is Tactical Dominance Enabler

  Purifier, Father-Admiral Dyrosha commanding. You are

  ordered to reduce your velocity to zero and prepare for

  boarding scrutiny . . .'

  'No one gets to scrutinise me,' snarled the Voth.

  '. . . and possible charges. Failure to comply will

  result in diligent threat elimination. That is all.'

  'Heracles to Viganli - in case you didn't get the gist of

  that, I should tell you that the Purifier has launched fif-

  teen close support fighters due to intercept your

  trajectory in less than six minutes. But you are already in

  range of our standoff weapons and in two minutes you

  will be in range of our full deterrent. Consider your

  position carefully.'

  Yash nodded sourly at the dead channel then looked

  round at the Construct droid, the spokesman.

  'I hope that you know what you're doing - it looks as

  if we're about to become involved in a bit of target prac-

  tice.'

  'We have reconfigured your fields into defence shields,

  Pilot Yash,' said the bulky droid, who went by the name

  Gorol9. 'Our opponents should be surprised, especially

  when the target starts firing back.' Part of its upper cara-

  pace swivelled to bring its lens cluster to bear on Kao

  Chih. 'Has there been any change, Human Gowchee?'

  Kao Chih had been assigned a console dedicated to

  tracking the stolen shuttle's course, velocity and other

  aspects of its flightpath.

  'None, Gorol9,' he said. 'It is still broadcasting that