The Ascendant Stars

by Cobley, Michael

  ‘Okay, the miragers have got us looking like self-dispatching mid-priority updates. Ready for the next stage?’

  Hand in hand they leaped away and up, a cascade of blurs, a sequence of intertialess direction changes, a flurry of fleeting impressions flashing and flickering.

  And stopped.

  The modules here had more variety, hexagonal and octagonal cross-sections, and more complex polyhedrals combined in larger, more elaborate structures. This was a reflection of the Hub systems they represented, according to Harry. But when they saw several small hand-sized objects flying around and between the structures he admitted that he was puzzled.

  ‘They don’t look like Hegemony AIs,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen images of the kind of exters they prefer and they give new meaning to the phrase “self-important megalomania” … ’

  The small motiles had widely varying types, orbs or pyramids decorated with odd symbols, strange toylike shapes resembling dogs or cows or birds, even shellfish. One was an old piston engine moving along on three wheels while another looked like a tiny stubby aircraft.

  ‘Sub-programs?’ Julia said. ‘Semi-autonomous … routines?’

  ‘Doubtful,’ Harry said, then frowned. ‘Uh-oh.’

  One of the motile objects, a glassy green hourglass with short tendrils poking out from the ends, paused on its midair flightpath and floated towards them.

  ‘I enquire as to status, as to purpose,’ came a high unhurried voice. ‘Context of respect and compliance.’

  Julia looked at Harry, who gave a wide-eyed shrug.

  ‘Time we were moving on,’ he said, grabbing her hand.

  Another headlong, zooming charge through bright cloudy blurs. The next stage up the immense pillar was busier still, the structures and interconnections more intricate. The modules had many facets and the colours rippled through changes while different dataflows were visible, slender threads along which silver bursts zipped back and forth. There were also many, many more of the small AI objects and even as she and Harry wandered through, getting their bearings, the green hourglass was there again, gliding towards them, accompanied by what resembled a sea horse.

  ‘It’s back,’ she said. ‘And it’s brought a friend.’

  Harry took hold of her hand. ‘I hope they’re very happy together.’

  And they were off again.

  But this time they found themselves on a square ruby platform, apparently suspended between levels in the great amber conduit. The air was suffused with a soft golden flow. There were no dataflows in sight and when Julia peered over the edge a built-up area of system structures was visible some way below. The platform was also positioned directly before the wide lacuna that ran the full length of the hollow column from bottom to top. Through it they had a magnificent view of the virtual metropolis which the Hegemony AIs had made for themselves.

  It consisted of a rising spiral of circular plates, tapering to the summit. Each plate was essentially a city, clusters of buildings of every design, and although details were hazy at such a perceptual distance, Julia could see that the cities grew denser and more opulent the higher up the spiral the eye travelled.

  ‘A symbolic expression of hierarchy,’ she said.

  ‘I would say more functional than symbolic,’ said Harry, who glanced over his shoulder and frowned. ‘Our hosts have arrived.’

  She turned to see the small green hourglass and the sea horse, and a new addition which roughly resembled a thick wheel with an eyelike cam that moved freely in an axle socket. The hovering hourglass tentatively advanced a short distance.

  ‘Context of high-value respect and apology,’ it said. ‘We enquire as to nature and purpose. We possess state-re-evaluation document—’

  ‘We must know if you are of the Wellspring,’ interrupted the sea horse. ‘We wish to know if you intend to countervail the intruders from the External.’

  ‘Are you of the Wellspring?’ said the eye-wheel. ‘Are you of the Gray Eyes?’

  Julia suddenly realised that all of the enquiry was being directed at her, and pointed this out to Harry.

  ‘They seem to think that you are someone very important,’ he said. ‘I’m going to activate our exters’ outgoing translators and try something.’

  Harry was still and silent for a moment then raised an arm.

  ‘I have been assigned to speak,’ he said. ‘By what authority do you delay us? We have vital tasks to execute at a higher level.’

  The three small AIs faced each other and exchanged brief bursts of sibilant twittering and polyphonic note clusters. Then the green hourglass spoke.

  ‘Context of status parity and concomitant courtesy,’ it said to Harry. ‘I have absence scans of your principal. The datascopic density falls within very specific upper-high range. Amongst we subservicers, First Tradition states that this range is only used by the Superexaltants … ’

  ‘Or Eminentials,’ said the sea horse. ‘If your principal is of the Wellspring, you must know of the intruders from the External. We can be of assistance … ’

  ‘We have an image document,’ said the eye-wheel, which then started to project a vid-recording from its axle-eye.

  It was Corazon Talavera, smiling as she leaned in close to whatever recording device she had been using.

  ‘Listen to me carefully,’ she said, face lit up by the gleeful delight that Julia knew so well. ‘I and my associates have taken up temporary residence aboard your very wonderful data-nexus station for purposes which need not concern you. In fact, I strongly urge you to go about your normal administrative duties without giving us so much as a second thought.

  ‘But, if you stray outside these easy-to-follow rules and interfere with my activities, I shall without hesitation start up this … ’ Talavera held up a dataslate showing a still of a large drumlike machine assembly topped with an overlapping fluted torque. ‘As you surely must know, this is the generator that powers the EMP emitters which would wipe every circuit and every core aboard the Great Hub. So to sum up, occupy yourselves with your usual pastimes and soon we shall be finished and gone. But if you try to test me, then the lights go out … ’

  The recording ended and the sea horse AI spoke again to Harry.

  ‘That was sent to the Supreme Servicer, the mind that administers the Great Hub’s operations. Our co-worker, VZ1183 … ’

  ‘I admit to being such,’ said the hourglass.

  ‘ … is a meticulous collector of peripheral system trivia and abstracted that document from the raw mirror data through which it sifts. It then noticed the absence scan which revealed the existence of high-density, dynamic file structure – this convinced it that your principal is one of the legendary Superexaltants, the machine sentients who designed and built the Great Hub. Is this true?’

  Harry glanced at Julia, eyebrows raised, and she nodded.

  ‘That creature is an enemy of the Eminentials,’ she said. ‘She is malicious, violent and untrustworthy, and will very likely activate the generator anyway in order to erase all traces of her presence. We were sent by the Wellspring as a countervailing force but we need to gain access to the intruders’ devices. Can you help us find the right level?’

  Again the three subservicer AIs conferred for a few seconds, after which the hourglass addressed Julia and Harry.

  ‘Context of optimism and combative anticipation,’ it said. ‘You will already have been sensed by midlevel flow monitors, therefore transit to the culminant levels will result in detention by the Supreme Servicer’s utilitors. However, there is another route, secondary backups, inactive paramonitors of the External which still have process space assigned … ’

  ‘It is a cluster of dormant monitoring systems modelled in dataform,’ said the sea horse. ‘Their functions are similar to those of the Supreme Servicer’s hardware interarrays, and are capable of infiltrating the intruders’ data wall and providing you with the required access.’

  Julia glanced at Harry, who shrugged then grinned and nodded.
/>   ‘Very well,’ she said. ‘We accept your offer of assistance.’

  ‘Transfer now taking place,’ said the eye-wheel. ‘Expect minimal disruption … ’

  The square platform quivered and their surroundings flickered and went through a succession of strange, non-Human-perspective backgrounds that flew in and out around them, looking hazy and smeared as they did so. It was similar to those earlier speedy journeys except that it was the surroundings which were in motion rather than themselves.

  Abruptly, the tumult ceased. They were now all grouped near the end of a long dark corridor of immense proportions. Small glowing points lit the floor all along the wall to the far end, which was pretty far away. The other wall boasted a line of huge semicircular recesses full of shadows – the one Julia and Harry stood before was faintly illuminated by the meagre radiance of a console at the rear.

  The three subservicer AIs made straight for the console and a moment later a massive construction of light began to build itself before their eyes. Julia knew she was seeing the virtual representation of a complex simulation program coming online, but clearly the representation itself had been designed according to a unified aesthetic. In its rainbow translucency the device of light was beautiful. Block sections spun into place, extruding meshes or laminae or rods. Cylinders telescoped, opened, unfolded or turned into spirals of cross-sections. Helical dataflows unwound and branched throughout the dataform device, whose self-assembly rose in a broad curve towards the corridor’s high ceiling. From there complex, cross-connected conduits extended across to join with a pattern of dark slots and sockets in the opposite wall.

  ‘Current context has a high risk factor,’ said the hourglass AI. ‘We are establishing our shadow system, and planning to trace a threefold infiltration through their data wall. Soon we will begin charting the components of their system … ’

  ‘It is highly secure,’ said the sea horse. ‘All lines are encrypted, although scarcely to the most expert level. We could seize control of any or all segments of their operation but alerts would be triggered. This would lead to the generator’s activation, we have no doubt.’

  ‘With respect,’ said the eye-wheel, ‘may we know your plan?’

  Julia frowned. ‘I need to see a realtime visual feed of their operational location – is that possible?’

  ‘A rudimentary one is available,’ said the sea horse. ‘Shall we scale it to your perceptual height?’

  ‘Certainly.’

  Suddenly ghostly images filled the area beneath the dataform’s overarching curve. It was a low, oval corridor with consoles along one side, cables taped to the wall, unidentifiable equipment stacked further back while five forms lay strapped into couches placed lengthwise along the other wall. They all wore close-fitting VR bands that enclosed the eyes and ears while their hands were buried in keyer modules. Drips led to arms and throats, evacuation tubes trailed to round containers under the couches and several neural leads ran from scalps to a junction console nearby. Even with their faces half-obscured, Julia knew them – Irenya, Thorold, Arkady and Konstantin. It felt like an age since she had thought about them or even recalled their faces to mind.

  They don’t deserve this horror, she thought. I have to get them out somehow.

  And finally, last in line was herself, motionless in the couch. Pointing at her own body, she turned to the subservicers.

  ‘I wish to be transferred into the organic cortex of this sentient,’ she said. ‘Can it be done?’

  ‘Context of regret and honesty,’ said the hourglass AI. ‘Our analysis of this individual reveals significant neural damage … ’

  ‘Our shadow system is more efficient than that of the intruders,’ said the sea horse. ‘Our diagnoses of their operation are more encompassing and more accurate. These five lifeforms are being used as networked bioprocessors to direct the launch and guidance of several hundred missiles. Regretfully, only two of them retain persona coherence … ’

  ‘Which ones are those?’ Julia said.

  The sea horse rose up and used a blue beam to point at Irenya and Konstantin.

  ‘The others no longer exhibit such brain-activity signifiers, although their neural pathways are being used for high computation by task-dedicated cognitions.’

  Harry was suddenly more alert and focused. ‘Are these cognitions running from cortical implants?’

  ‘Yes,’ said the sea horse. ‘One possible method would be for the Eminential to be transferred directly into the implant on the indicated individual, overwriting the cognition currently installed.’

  Smiling widely, Harry nodded. ‘But that scale of intervention would trip their alerts – so we need a diversion and we need to make it look as if it came from outside the Great Hub!’

  ‘This would be difficult,’ the sea horse said. ‘We have no access to any resources out in the External.’

  ‘But we do – can you tap into the subspace dataflow and send a message on a particular channel?’

  ‘Yes, but who will be receiving?’

  ‘Yes,’ Julia said. ‘Who?’

  Harry grinned. ‘A certain drone AI currently leading the Vor a merry chase!’

  CHEL

  Despair weighed heavily upon him, as if his bones had turned to stone. When the dreaded moment, long-awaited and long-feared, had arrived, those on the side of life had been foiled by chance and an endemic weakness, by unwise choices and unforeseen treacheries. And now the calamity had blossomed forth, and an ancient viciousness had been set loose. The fighting had begun in earnest, and the destruction would be terrible beyond description.

  Now cyborg knights of the Legion of Avatars flew through the skies over Umara, circling above the warpwell. Seated in the underground gloom of the roothouse, Cheluvahar, Uvovo Seer of Segrana, could sense their presence, and felt like weeping.

  The root network that linked together the nineteen burrows he had extended to connect with the daughter-forests, all seven of them. The planetary energies of Umara now trickled steadily through the entire rootweb while he sat at its centre, holding it all in perfect balance. His Seer talents and senses were multiplied and focused now, allowing him to see the possible futures, to sift them for the likely ones, to see them in all their aspects of triumph and loss, to know what he could and could not do with the powers he controlled. The uncaging of the Legion had drastically diminished the range of future possibilities, and that was why he wept.

  In one future, the Legion of Avatars to the last escaped from its hyperspace prison, its millions of cyborgs driven insane by the aeons spent entombed in a frozen pit at the very bottom of the Abyss. After utterly defeating the combined forces of Hegemony, Earthsphere and Imisil ships, it swept outwards, encountering the star systems of the Brolturan Compact. Entire worlds were laid waste and billions died in agony or were enslaved, a scenario that was repeated over and over across the Hegemony, tens of thousands of times for nearly a century until the rampage was finally stopped by a grand alliance of Earthsphere, the Indroma and the Milybi.

  In another future the Legion swept in another direction, straight into the domains of the Milybi, whose cultural ethos of adaptation led them to take on aspects of their attackers. After fifty years the Milybi civilisation had turned into an exemplar of the Legion creed of convergence, such that the Legion of Avatars was eventually absorbed into the Milybi Exodomain. A decade of rebuilding later, the Milybi launched a campaign of conquest and in time the borders of the Exodomain swallowed the Indroma, Earthsphere and the Hegemony.

  In yet another future the Legion of Avatars, having destroyed all opposition in or near the Darien system, then argued among themselves about forward strategy, resulting in a bitter and savage internecine struggle that tore the millions of cyborgs into several warring camps. The Hegemony were struggling to cope with the tragedy of hundreds of supernovae, but Earthsphere and the Erenate, backed by the Aranja Tesh and the Pothiwa alliances, led a new attack on the Legion cyborgs which forced many of them to flee int
o the Huvuun Deepzone. It also served to push several factions of the Legion into the arms of the Hegemony, with catastrophic consequences decades later …

  Chel could see and feel those futures looming like unsteady mountains ready to topple and fall. It wasn’t entirely accurate to say that they all hung on the decisions of one person or several people since the inexplicable consequences of the unexpected had led certain individuals down paths of near-unbearable predicament. Chel could see the places where Theo and Rory, and Greg and Catriona had been, and the places they were soon to reach. Each had decisions to make and the ability to attempt resolutions, just like Chel.

  He wept small tears into the fur on his face, but only from the eyes he was born with. His four Seer eyes stared unblinkingly into the futures arrayed before him, making starkly clear the consequences that had to happen and the preceding decisions that had to be taken. His decisions – about who should live and who should die.

  Guilt assailed him, guilt for what he would soon do. It was a burning task that seared him down to the essence. He tried to shut it out, rise above it … and for one shimmering instant he was free of it and able to see further, clearer and more truthfully than ever before. One vibrant, vivid instant when the stonework of the roothouse and the ground above moved aside, when the sky parted, when a shining corridor opened for him and let his vision soar at first between the stars then into the underdomains, what Humans call hyperspace. Onward his vision flew, past incredible sights and spectacles before it approached what seemed to be a vast and monstrous island, hanging in midair, ragged at the edges and underneath. And he felt another mind looking straight at him, a mind of two minds, readying itself for battle. It spoke before he could: