Greyson, who had been staring at the cart, let out a sob and said, “I knew it; I knew it, Henry. I knew you’d leap on any excuse to try to use that thing!” Greyson jumped to his feet and moved to one side and reached under his monk’s robe and drew out a double-action Colt .45 revolver and cocked it and leveled it at Stein and said, “I knew I would have to stop you, Henry, from creating six soulless monsters. If you touch even one of the Foxes, I’ll shoot you; I swear I’ll shoot you.” Greyson then burst into tears.
Stein stepped hindward, and Alya gasped, and Sheila let out a yip.
“John, put that thing away,” said Toni, trying but failing to keep her voice calm.
Drew Meyer stood stock still beside Grace Willoby, but Billy Clay began sidling in an attempt to ease behind Greyson. Greyson, though, stepped back and into a corner and, with tears flowing, he shouted, “Keep away from me! Keep away!”
Toni flipped open her holocom and said, “Melissa French.” After two pips, Melissa’s avatar sprang up instead of a live picture. “What is it this time, Toni?”
“Mel, we need that court order, the injunction. We have to get the power back on. Not only are the lives of the alpha team in jeopardy, but Greyson has a bloody big gun and is threatening to shoot Henry Stein.”
55
Polaris
(Starfighters)
As they hurtled through hyperspace, Ky marveled at its nature—distorted colors, energy strikes, strange gravitic tides, and other oddities. Since its discovery by humans in 2241, this parallel brane, where space-time is folded differently, had allowed swift passage from point A to point B in the “prime.” All one had to do was jump from the prime to the secondary, fly a bit, and then jump back to the prime. This breakthrough, made by many civilizations throughout time, had revolutionized space travel for the Earthlings, and had allowed them to join the Galactic Community. Until then, the humans were just savages, and off limits, though various studies of them had been made. But after their independent discovery of how to move from brane to brane, and subsequent application of this knowledge to space travel, they were welcomed into and reaped the benefits of the advanced civilizations of the Galactic Community, though some of those civilizations thought the humans were savages still.
But then the invasion came. The Andromedans, an insectoidal race, had decided they needed more space, more planets, and they had jumped to this galaxy. And Earth, being on the edge of the spiral, was among the first to receive this wave. And now the savagery of the humans became an asset to the Galactic Community instead of a shortcoming.
As Ky mused over these events, of a sudden she gasped, for in that very moment she abruptly knew she had lived as an Itherian, and then as a Malagarian, followed by being a citizen of the United States in 1895 and then in 1937. Four different people at four different times plus what she now was. Oh, she had always been a Shadowmaster—a psi power in this existence, though perhaps a magical power in her former incarnations—but in this moment in hyperspace it was as if she suddenly remembered all of her past lives.
Ky said into her communicator, “Hey. Anyone else just had an epiphany?”
Rith immediately answered. “Itheria, Malagar, Egypt, and the former US of A?”
“Right,” said Ky.
“Arda?” asked Kane.
“Yep,” said Arik.
“The Dark God?” said Lyssa, the ship interpreting her thoughts and speaking for her.
“Indeed,” said Trendel.
“It must be a property of hyperspace that brought it all back,” said Kane.
“But we’ve been across parts of the secondary brane any number of times and never had anything like this happen before,” said Rith.
“Maybe we ran through a special spot,” said Ky. “An energy field or whatever.” Then she asked her ship, “Did we?”
“I detected no anomaly,” the starfighter replied.
“Then maybe it’s that damn Arda messing with us again,” growled Arik. “Regardless, we’re close to the jumping out place, so any speculation will have to wait. —Watch for the bugs.”
“Oh, dretch, I clearly recall fighting bugs before,” said Kane, “down in that blasted cave by the ocean.”
“Maybe Andromeda is where they came from,” said Rith.
“Different kind of bugs from the Droms,” said Trendel.
“Advance scouts?” asked Lyssa.
“I don’t think so,” said Kane, “like roaches compared to, um, those siafu marching ants in Africa. I mean, a siafu would strip a roach in no time flat. And the galactic bugs would just flat-out slaughter those things we fought in Maine.”
“There’s only a slight resemblance between the bugs we’re fighting today and ants,” said Ky, “mostly in the antennae and pincers in the head. No, the bugs in Main were definitely roachlike, whereas I think the Droms look more like human-size praying mantises, with those serrated arms of theirs and those four spindly legs on the floor.”
“Look alive,” said Arik, drawing them back to their mission. He glanced at his display as the ship itself said, “Three . . . Two . . . One . . . Jump!”
Their starfighters were equipped with AIs, who, under the commands of their human pilots, literally ran the ships. The starfighter engines were based on zero-point energy, as were her weapons, and they were devastating, for engines and weapons could draw power out from the fabric of space-time itself.
They popped back into normal space at the specified galactic coordinates, and, as Arik looked up and about, the ship said, “Negative bug scan.”
“Polaris ahead,” said Arik, fixing his gaze on the most obvious star of the trinary system. It was Polaris A, the primary, a bright yellow Cepheid variable. It had two satellite stars: Polaris AB, a yellow dwarf, orbiting close to the prime; and, Polaris B, another yellow dwarf, dimmer and farther out.
“I don’t see AB,” said Rith.
“I think it’s either occluded by A or lost in A’s brightness,” said Trendel.
“We should have jumped above the orbital plane,” said Lyssa, “instead of in it.”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Arik. “B is our target, and it’s over there.”
Rith laughed. “As Jonesy would say, ‘Thataway!’”
Arik said, “All ships do a tight scan on B.”
Moments later, his own AI said, “A single planet, with no satellite, zero point four eight AUs out, and a scattering of asteroids in a band at one point seven AUs mean.”
“No sign of a bug ship?”
“None, though they could be among the asteroids, or on planet, or occluded.”
“Atmosphere?”
“There is an atmosphere,” said the AI, “though I need to be closer for an accurate analysis.”
Arik nodded and said, “I want a safe jump to this side of the asteroid belt in line with the planet and B, and there we’ll do another scan.”
“Calculating,” replied the ship.
“Did you get that, Starfighters?” Arik asked the others.
Each replied “Affirmative.”
“Course laid in,” said Arik’s ship.
When the others were ready, they made a short and nearly instantaneous jump: first they were here, and then they were there.
They did another scan, and Arik’s ship reported the planet had an axial tilt of seventeen point eight degrees, a rotational period of nine hours, six minutes, forty-seven seconds, and an atmosphere point nine seven earth normal, with a trace of hydrogen sulfide.
Kane groaned, “Rotten eggs again.”
“Bug preferred,” said Ky. “I can practically smell ’em from here.”
Arik’s AI said, “I have calculated that the planet’s orbit about Polaris B is somewhat affected by Polaris A and AB, but not to any significant degree.”
Trendel said, “Lyss, your body is somewhere on that planet.”
“What?” asked Arik.
“Lyssa’s body is somewhere on that planet,” said Trendel.
“What I mean
t was, are you certain?”
“Arik, I’m a seer. She’s there.”
“Oh, lord,” said Lyssa, “me looking at my own body? This is going to be weird.”
“All the more reason to go,” said Ky.
Arik nodded and said, “Lyssa, jump your ship well above the orbital plane, and scan down on the planet.”
Lyssa made the jump and after a moment said, “There’s a bug ship in stationary orbit on the far side from you.”
“What class?”
“G3.”
“Oh, crap,” said Kane. “I think we’re bug splat.”
“Not if we ambush it,” said Arik. “There are six of us and one of it, and if we take it by surprise . . .”
“I’ll transmit the coordinates when ready,” said Lyssa.
“Right,” said Arik.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Ky.
“Englobe it and shoot?” said Trendel.
“Sounds like a plan to me,” said Rith.
“Lyssa, do you scan the prison?” asked Arik.
“Directly below the ship,” she replied. “I think the G3 is guarding it.”
“As the scout drone reported,” said Trendel.
“All right,” said Arik, “now here’s the plan.”
Three hours later, as the prison was sliding into nighttime darkness, with the bug ship in orbit above, the six of them jumped out of hyperspace to envelope the G3 vessel: Arik to the fore, Lyssa aft, Kane above, Ky below, Trendel right, and Rith left. And, as preplanned, and simultaneously initiated by the AIs, all starfighters immediately fired nova beams, and took out the G3’s shields, and they instantly followed up with a salvo of hellfire disruptors and breached the G3 hull, and a third disruptor salvo hit her old-style matter-antimatter engines and blew her to smithereens, the starfighter AIs popping the ships back into hyperspace to avoid the detonation.
The battle, though planned by Arik, had been completely managed by the starfighter AIs.
As they waited in hyperspace for the expanding shell of debris to spread far, Rith said, “That was easy.”
Kane replied, “See, I told you we could take ’em.”
Rith snorted and said, “If I remember correctly, you said, and I quote, ‘Oh, crap, I think we’re bug splat.’”
“A mere moment of stark panic on my part,” said Kane. “One to be easily overlooked.”
Hoots and laughter greeted Kane’s pronouncement, perhaps the AIs joining in, though much of mankind’s humor escaped them.
Five minutes later they returned to normal space, the area now clear of fragments.
“Trendel . . . ?” said Arik.
Trendel said a word and then replied. “She’s in the prison.”
“An added incentive to our original mission,” said Kane.
“Time for phase two,” said Arik.
“Here we come, bugs,” said Ky.
They were going to the planet surface to take down the prison; not by starfighter, for, not only was Lyssa’s body inside, there would be too many allied casualties were they to use nova beams or hellfire disruptors on the facility.
Instead their plan was to take it on foot.
56
Courthouse
(Stein)
“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in the testimony you are about to give?”
“I do,” said Henry Stein, who had cited the various rulings of the Supreme Court and had refused to raise his right hand, and had refused to place either hand on any “religious book of myths.”
“You may be seated,” said the court clerk, a faint note of distaste in his voice at having to administer an oath that didn’t use the Bible and wasn’t sworn in the name of God.
Several in the courtroom looked at Stein in disgust while others looked at him in admiration, but most didn’t seem to care one way or the other.
“Your honor,” said Stein, looking at the judge. “I don’t see why I had to be dragged down here, why I couldn’t have given my testimony via holo.” Stein pointed at the holo projectors mounted in the witness box, which, as had been installed throughout much of the civil court system, had been fitted as a means of saving the wear and tear on witnesses, having to do with physical impairment and missing work and travel and living accommodations and other burdensome costs, just as had been previously done with televised appearances.
Judge Marshall cocked an eyebrow and said, “You were not overburdened, Dr. Stein.”
“But—”
“I said, Dr. Stein, you were not overburdened. Now let’s get on with the testimony.”
Mark Perry sighed in resignation at Stein’s attitude, but nevertheless stood and approached the witness box.
“Tell me, Dr. Stein, what credentials did you bring to the Coburn Industries AI slash VR zero one project?”
Stein almost preened while sitting still. “I graduated first in my Harvard premed class in just three years, and then first in my class at Johns Hopkins. My residency was at the Mayo Clinic, and afterward I served there as the chief neurosurgeon. In my specialty I am considered to be preeminent in the world, and have performed operations that no other surgeon on this planet can do. My knowledge of the workings of the human brain is unsurpassed, and I’ve published more than one hundred papers in the most prestigious medical and scientific journals, and I have written five textbooks considered to be the standard throughout various leading universities.”
“Quite impressive,” said Mark.
“Yes,” said Stein.
“Well, tell me, doctor, just what brought you to Coburn Industries?”
“The chance to use my knowledge to develop an AI based on some of my theories was too good to pass up.”
“You didn’t do it for the pay?”
“I am independently wealthy.”
“Ah, I see.” Mark paused for a moment and then asked, “Do you believe humans have souls.”
Stein snorted and said, “Ridiculous.”
“I take that to mean no.”
“You are correct,” said Stein. “To believe in souls is to fall into magical thinking; and that certainly includes believing in miracles, which is nothing more than a belief in magic.”
“Miracles are magic?”
“What else would you call such ludicrous claims as walking on water, rising up to heaven, virgin births—of a male, no less—and other such twaddle? There is no difference between magic and miracles, both products of believing in the absurd.”
“So then I take it that you don’t believe that the Coburn Industries AI slash VR zero one can suck in men’s souls, as some here have claimed?”
“I do not, for souls do not exist.”
“And you base this on . . . what?”
“Have you ever heard of vitalism?” asked Stein.
As one of the panelists nodded, Mark shook his head and said, “No. Please explain, and remember, most of us in this room are laymen, and so keep it simple and short.”
“Pah!” scoffed Stein, then took on the aspect of one addressing a class of slow learners. “Back in historical times, when virtually nothing was known about life and mitochondria and DNA and chemical reactions and science was not a discipline, it seems that the purported thinkers of those eras thought that there was something which they called life force, and that living beings were somehow made up of substances that are different from the substances of nonliving things. In other words, the carbon in coal or a diamond or other object is different from the carbon in a living being. Of course, because at the time they had no idea of atomic structure and chemical reactions, perhaps, just perhaps they can be forgiven in their ignorance.
“Regardless, in their learned arrogance, they then decided that humans had a greater degree of this life force than any other living thing. Priests and religions sprang up around this concept, and gods were invented to explain this so-called spark of life.
“And down through the centuries, maintaining their ignorance, they continued to spout
their beliefs, claiming that their god, and no others, was responsible for this spark, which became known as the soul. They also decided, unlike other animals, only humans had souls, or so the thinking eventually went.
“When scientific query came along, men, still believing in souls, looked for evidence of this force, this essence that made humans different from all things. Crackpot theories developed—phlogiston, animal magnetism, spiritualism, orgone, universal life force, and other such nonsense. Some even tried to weigh the human body just before and just after death, looking for evidence of the soul by determining its weight, claiming it had a mass of twenty-one grams. At base, what they really wanted to believe was that the soul is immortal, and that it exists after the body dies; in other words, that life transcends death. To these people the existence of the soul is simply true, and anyone who fails to understand that is lacking in a kind of insight that requires no scientific support. That is to say, just like the transubstantiation of a wheat wafer into flesh, and wine into blood, the belief in a soul is subject to no scientific test. How ridiculous. Magical thinking, again.
“I won’t go into what Galileo’s and Darwin’s studies and subsequent followups in those realms and others did to traditional religion—the Earth-centered universe and the Garden of Eden and all of that—for science simply began finding cracks in the structure of religion, which caused all manner of upheaval. I just note that Galileo and Darwin simply took additional steps on the road to enlightenment, as do all others of a scientific bent of mind.
“But now that we know how the brain works, and how thoughts arise, and how the mitochondria power the body, and how DNA evolved to spur evolutionary changes, and other such scientific advances, there is no doubt whatsoever that the human soul is a myth; as I have explained, it is a product of ignorance and magical thinking. One might as well believe in phlogiston and walking on water.”
As Stein fell silent, Mark said, “Well, Dr. Stein, there are many in the world who disagree with you.”
“Fools all,” said Stein.
“Perhaps,” said Mark. “But the point I want to get to is this: do you believe that Arthur Coburn’s soul is trapped inside the Coburn Industries AI slash VR zero one?”
Shadowprey: A Black Foxes Adventure Page 28