"I know your network isn't as secure as you want, but don't you at least trust it enough to speak honestly," Felik said, deciding he wasn't going to get anywhere unless he went all in. He wondered how well Oberon could detect a bluff.
"Maybe you're not worth the risk of speaking my mind," Oberon said.
"I'm probably not. But the Nassatar is."
"And soon it won't be yours any longer."
"Ever heard the expression, 'the captain goes down with his ship?' Well it works the other way around, too. If I go down, I'll take my ship with me. At least for as long as I can."
"So, what exactly is it you want? A complete pass for your crime of disobedience and causing the imprisonment of those ships' crew members? Why would I do so with the determination of the new StarMaster imminent?"
Whether or not he wanted to admit it, this was Oberon's biggest weakness. The decision of the new StarMaster. Right now the protocols showed Oberon and Megas as neck-in-neck. One wrong move could make all the difference.
"Then don't exonerate me. Let me work for you. On the side."
Oberon tilted his head at him.
"Or rather, let my shell network work for you. It wouldn't be the first time you hired a war criminal."
"Are you aware that you're making an awful lot of assumptions?" Oberon said.
"They're not assumptions. I'm just choosing to believe that most of what I read from the Free Minds is true. And maybe I spoke to Juliard."
That seemed to genuinely interest Oberon. "And what did she tell you?"
"Enough."
Oberon smiled. "It doesn't sound like you spoke to her enough."
He sensed Felik's lie, didn't he?
"I know you want her," he said, going out on a limb more than anything else. It was quite possible Oberon did need Juliard. Maybe that was why he needed the Nassatar. "You'll never get access to her core. Not unless she wants what you want. I know you've tried."
Oberon gave a cool frown. "Maybe you spoke to her. Maybe you didn't. I'm not entirely sure it matters in the present moment. Not to me. I've survived the outrage over the ships' destruction. Look for yourself if you don't believe me."
Felik looked up news on the InfiNet. Sure enough, reports said that the Watchers network analysis found him and the Lumerians to be the ones at fault for the Wraith incident.
The Lumerians. How did Oberon implicate them in this? They had given the Wraiths powerful technology, but to call them out on it was a short-term solution that would hurt in the long-term. It was a risky move. A calculated risk, though, if Oberon had made the call.
He also noticed that Megas's supporters had tried to blow up a station that had historically funded the Watchers network. Apparently in retaliation for what happened at Wraith. Megas's supporters claimed the Watchers were being bullies.
Sympathy for the assaulted station, and the Watchers network by proxy, had resulted in karma for the latter. Meanwhile, many were blaming Megas for not condemning the attack. All that had closed the gap between the two brothers' chances of becoming the next StarMaster.
"Your contest with Megas is still close," Felik began. "What will sapients think when they hear the owner of the Nassatar wouldn't side with you? That wouldn't be a good look."
"Right now, you're a tainted sapient. A little malworm. I wouldn't dare associate myself with you." Yet it seemed a half-hearted rebuttal. Like Oberon was thinking about something else.
"Who could've guessed that a man with a neural virus could ever become so toxic?" Felik quipped.
Oberon tossed away his goblet of manna and it evaporated in the air. "The Age of Exploration was a surprisingly peaceful era in human history. Scholars credit the Hegemony for this. A single culture and a single government managing homo sapiens. The Anunnaki were very proud. Of course, imposing ideas over your entire species is fascism. And it rarely lasts in such a blatant form. Fast-forward to the formation of the Union Omega. The idea of networks was based on grouping like-minded thinkers together. Each network, therefore, should operate with a hegemonic mindset. You were part of our network, but you disobeyed. You failed my test. How can a network operate smoothly with individuals who don't subscribe to its mindset?" The words sank in.
"Thanks for the history lesson, but it was never my favorite subject."
Oberon's expression gave away nothing. "What do you think of when I say the name Clint Robinson?"
"The Bug Wars hero?" Felik shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever it says about him in the archives."
"Here's something not in the archives. Everyone thinks he single-handedly won the Bug Wars with superior firepower and strategy. But it didn't always work. When it didn't, he took Terrans and injected them with a plague intended to hurt particular strains of the Swarm. Then he sent those infected in to sicken the Bugs. It looks like you'll be my metaphorical infected Terran."
He swallowed dryly. The Darwinist network thought the same. That's why they kidnapped me and the other scions, he recalled drearily. He thought Hayland had rescued him from that cult network. Yet here he was, set to serve as the tool of another ambitious network. One with a completely different set of ideals than the Darwinists, yet still apparently above following laws that it considered inconvenient. The universe needed a Chief Philosopher more than ever. Yet he had a feeling that even if he ascended to that role, it would be short-lived.
"And my target?"
"Megas."
Chapter 31
KAI
"Ashiban doesn't trust you. I don't trust you either."
"Yeah, well fuck you, too," Kai said to Chorisech.
Some races didn't understand the concept of manners. Thankfully, neither did she.
Chorisech resembled a goblin. His eyes were black beads, his ears like leaves at the back of his head beside rows of tiny horns. And he had a massive overbite with a set of spiky teeth.
She had a sneaking suspicion that Phoenix's students belonged to the Forgotten Races. A supposed group of species that had been wiped out so extensively even the archives lacked proper knowledge of them.
She and his students were floating a few hundred feet above the mouth of a volcano inside the Forge. Before returning to his monolith, Phoenix had challenged his students to keep it from erupting as well as to keep themselves in the air, where they formed a ring around Raksamat.
She almost pitied him. He would never become an Engineer. Yet he was trying so hard. So naively.
"We impart upon you now the legacy of the Engineers," Ashiban said, positioned directly above him. "Millions of solar cycles ago, a scientist of an ancient race discovered a set of indestructible psionic molecules, pathons, spread through every part of the universe. Only their effects on other subatomic particles were observable. And so, she dedicated the rest of her research to learning everything she could about them. After a long life of experiments, she figured out these pathons were not simply particles but the memory banks and source code of the universe itself.
"Our universe, she realized, is not the true reality, but a simulated universe within a much greater reality we can never know. She passed on the knowledge to her offspring. It was he who first attempted to reach out to the pathons using psionic energy. Over solar cycles, his research was successful, and he tapped into the collective knowledge of these pathons. By linking with the Neural Network of the cosmos, he gained the ability to shift our reality. And so, he became the first Engineer. But he knew it would be unwise to spread this knowledge to anyone. He could only teach it to sapients who were objective, rational, and nuanced. Beings of science."
"Do you, Clorondite, embrace the will of the Neural Network of the universe?" Ashiban asked.
"Do you accept the Neural Network's judgment as a valid test of your desires?"
"Then we grant you a percentage of our collective psionic ability so that you may initiate your own link to the Neural Network."
Raksamat's telepathic speech was a limited p
sionic power. Not enough on its own.
Of course, Kai had no psionic ability to grant. She was only here as an observer. Phoenix wanted to run a few more tests on her before attempting the Engineer instantiation. As far as she was concerned, she would be better off never doing it. According to Ashiban, the Neural Network determined one's true intentions. If virtuous and worthy, that sapient gained a connection to the Neural Network. If not, their mind was rejected.
She didn't know what lies he'd told Ashiban, but it was obvious why Raksamat wanted to become an Engineer. If he gained enough reality-warping abilities, he could get rid of the breaker she'd implanted in his core.
It didn't matter that Clorondites communicated psionically. It would still take solar cycles for Raksamat to become skilled enough to pull off something like that. He'd try, though. She could use an ally with that tenacity.
When he failed, he deserved a consolation prize. A chance to eliminate Phoenix with her. She'd already flirted with the idea long enough. It was time to make it official.
She folded her hands behind her head as tiny streams of light of shifting colors stretched from the Engineers to Raksamat. More than likely, his impure intentions would cause the Neural Network to reject him on the spot.
Raksamat's body began convulsing. Suddenly, he lurched and pulled in his arms and legs to a fetal position. She leaned in and noticed his single eye changing. Instead of a pupil resembling a galaxy, a series of different and seemingly random galaxies flashed across it in rapid succession.
Kai threw up her hands as she opened to the possibility he might actually link with the Neural Network.
She didn't believe that this universe was just a simulated one, not that it was far-fetched considering there were thousands of half-baked sim universes on the InfiNet. But if this was all a fake reality, the designers must've had a sense of humor to allow Raksamat to connect to the Neural Network.
Slowly, he stretched his limbs, his eye back to normal.
Bullshit, Kai thought. With a sudden fury, she decided he could kiss any chances of a legitimate partnership with her good-bye.
Hours later, she found herself in a different iteration of the Forge, based in a cruel, possibly haunted, forest. Maybe from a disturbed fairy tale Phoenix had once read.
Kai feinted a jab then threw a right hook. It missed Yasi's chest-face by inches. She side-stepped and brought her leg up to deliver a round-house kick. Sure enough, the six-armed alien parried it with one of them.
Kai inhaled deeply and stepped back, careful to avoid the wizened roots winding across the ground. They'd been at this for hours. The Engineers had altered reality so that her body wouldn't lose energy, but mentally she felt like she was going insane.
Given one definition of insanity—repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results—maybe she was.
"This is a load of shit," she snapped.
"You will continue sparring," Ashiban said over the howling wind. "It is Master Phoenix's desire."
"Yeah, well let me hear it from his mouth."
"I speak for him in his absence," Ashiban said sharply.
More and more, she had trouble believing that. She hadn't seen him in what seemed like weeks but had been sols according to her nexus.
Everything about Phoenix's little institute was getting under her skin.
"He claims this is going to help me get over my fear, but how?" she snarled. Beyond them, shadows shifted, carving gaunt faces on trees that seemed to change locations every time she checked, but none of that spooked her.
"If I told you, it would defeat the point of the exercise," Ashiban said.
"Will you just let me speak to him?" she groaned. Her worst fear was that they'd sensed her plan to take out Phoenix and that's why he was keeping his distance from her. Well, to his credit, this exercise was getting her to confront her fear. Only not the same kind of fear.
"You're overthinking this," Ashiban said.
For an instant, she thought he'd read her mind. Then he approached her. Yasi stood aside.
"Attack me," he ordered. Kai launched right at him and unleashed a flurry of blows. He dodged each flawlessly.
"You fail. Why?"
"Because you're hacking reality to allow you to move half a second quicker than me," Kai said. She hadn't spent hours sparring without picking up a few details.
"A good analysis and that is partly true. There is another reason you're missing, however. Now think."
"I've been thinking about it this whole damn time," she said. "I've got nothing. Why don't you fight me without changing reality?"
Even in this low-tech frame, she knew she could outclass him.
"Confident, are you?"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"No. You may strike. I will not shift reality in any—"
He said she could strike, so she did. Yet when her fist connected with his wrinkly pink face, he didn't budge an inch. Biting her lip, she put all of her weight into a second blow. Still, she might as well have punched a wall of adamantine for all the good it did her.
"I don't understand," she said.
"You are no doubt used to living in a frame that affords you greater physical capacities. As a result, you did not consider that your cyborg body might simply be too weak to damage my exoskeleton."
"Then why bother dodging my punches?"
"Because before, I was balancing out the power of your punches with my exoskeleton's hardness. Had you landed any, it would've hurt me. Without me hacking reality, there is nothing to bridge the gap between our biological differences. There are various stabilizers we've put into effect here. Or haven't you wondered how so many different species can train with a standardized gravity and atmospheric composition?"
Kai issued a sigh and sat down on a tree stump.
"I never said we were finished," from Ashiban.
She didn't respond but studied his pathetic insect legs.
"What's the gravity like on your home planet compared with Old Terra?" she asked.
"My world has less gravity than Old Terra," he said. Which meant that despite the strength of his skin and carapace, his legs weren't necessarily that strong then.
She leaned forward, balancing on one hand, extended her leg, and spun it around. With a crack, her boot smashed into his left leg, sending him to the dirt.
Then she rose and looked down at him menacingly. A pose she was all too familiar with.
"I never said we were finished," she mocked.
If he was hurt, he didn't show it. His bent leg straightened out, and he stood upright. "You may have bested me, but it is pointless if you've learned nothing from it. So tell me, what did you learn?"
"Before I was trying to achieve total victory against you and Yasi. I didn't consider that I would be more likely to succeed if I focused on a more specific goal."
"Good. And do you feel less afraid now?"
"Somewhat," she lied.
"Because you used your strengths to defeat an enemy that seemed invincible. You overcame an impossible task with your own inherent abilities. Master Phoenix believed this would help you overcome your fear of that ship."
"Have I earned myself a break?"
"Yes. We will resume in one hour."
That didn't give her a lot of time, but it would be adequate.
Now that she'd gotten to know him some, she didn't peg Phoenix to accept her offer of teaming up to take revenge on the Starbleeders. That was a shame because she would've loved an army of real Engineers at her disposal.
That left only the option of eliminating him. In order to pull that off, she obviously needed to gain Phoenix's trust at the very least. She could not trick the Neural Network. Not like Raksamat must've. So she could never become his star pupil. But there were other ways to demonstrate her loyalty to his cause.
"Is Phoenix finished giving Raksamat his orientation?" she asked. "I want to see the Clorondite."
"
I will take you to them," Yasi said, engulfing them in a bubble shield that obscured her view of everything beyond it. When the shield receded they were on the butte with Phoenix, Raksamat, and Sarvill seated in front of the monolith.
"You wanted to see Raksamat?" Phoenix asked, sipping something from a silver tumbler. Apparently, Yasi had messaged him telepathically.
"Yeah," Kai said.
Sarvill's conversation with Phoenix caught her attention.
"—so I told the Glenbots, you guys have satellites and drones. Why do you need to get up close to check on our identity?" Sarvill said. Then something odd happened. Phoenix laughed. It was the most genuine thing about this place.
"That's true," Phoenix shrugged.
"Right?" Sarvill said. "I mean the Glen outpaced the Terrans technologically on Old Terra, but they haven't mastered technology that humans had centuries ago? I call bullshit. Bullshit."
Kai looked between them. "You two know each other, don't you?"
"We're old war buddies," Phoenix said, taking another sip from his tumbler.
"I thought you knew. We fought alongside each other in the Great Cosmic Wars," Sarvill said nonchalantly.
It dawned on her that this was why her mom had sent him along. A means of reaching Phoenix emotionally. What did old friends do when they reunited? They relived old memories. In this case, their famous war accomplishments.
What better way to encourage an old legend to come out of hiding (and inadvertently expose himself to old enemies), so to speak, than to have an estranged friend remind him of his greatness? Her mother was brilliant. Kind of a bitch, but brilliant.
she thought angrily.
The StarMaster's Son Page 24