The Evolutionary Void v-3

by Peter Hamilton

  Across the gaiafield, those billions of Living Dream members watching in envy as the Pilgrimage began reaffirmed their devotion to her. Tens of millions wondered who Tomansio was.

  Araminta-two lifted an eyebrow at Tomansio. “So?”

  “Okay, that was pretty convincing. A multiple of two. Who’d have guessed?”

  “Not you,” Araminta-two said.

  “Let’s hope I’m not alone.”

  Oscar grinned again. “I was right. She didn’t betray us.”

  “Oscar, I love you dearly,” Tomansio said. “But if you don’t shut up about that, I will shove you headfirst into-”

  Oscar chuckled. “Yeah, yeah.” The smartcore showed him two capsules arriving in the warehouse. Beckia and Cheriton came sprinting out. It took the edge off his humor slightly. He ordered the smartcore to launch as soon as the other two were in the airlock.

  Tomansio gave him a startled look as the Elvin’s Payback punched clean through the warehouse roof and accelerated vertically at twenty gees. The internal gravity countered some of the force, but they all had to sit down quickly on the couches extruded by the cabin floor.

  “A little drastic,” Tomansio mused.

  “Tactically smart. Up here we can run if we have to.”

  “You’re the boss.”

  Beckia and Cheriton emerged from the airlock and gave Araminta-two incredulous looks as they lumbered over to their acceleration couches.

  Oscar’s initial jubilation was draining away. Viotia spaceflight control was directing a lot of queries and warnings at them, but nothing appeared to be in pursuit. Space above the planet was relatively clear; none of the starships the sensors could detect were threatening. “All right,” he said to Araminta-two. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “I was running out of options,” Araminta-two replied. “Becoming the Dreamer is a diversion.” His confidence faltered for a moment. “I hope. That’s where you come in.”

  “I wasn’t lying,” Oscar said. “We’re here to help in any way we can.”

  “Why? I know who you are. I checked. But I’d like to know who’s backing you.”

  “Fair enough; it was ANA, but now we’re just hanging on by ourselves. Hoping for something to turn up. And … you did.”

  “What do you need?” Tomansio asked. “Are you going to crash the Pilgrimage fleet into the boundary or something?”

  Araminta-two’s dignified face produced a sad smile, making him look even older. “There are twenty-four million people on those starships. Idiots, yes, but still people. There is no way I will slaughter them as an example to the rest of the galaxy not to go in. No, if they arrive at the Void boundary before we can stop them, then I’ll have to get the Skylord to open the way for them. So you see, I really need help.”

  “Name it,” Oscar said.

  “Bradley suggested I find Ozzie. He said Ozzie is a real genius, and if anyone can come up with a solution, it will be us in combination.”

  Oscar’s skin chilled right down. “Bradley?” he asked lightly. The others gave him a curious look; it must have been because of what his emotions revealed.

  “Bradley Johansson,” Araminta-two said. “I met him on the Silfen paths.”

  “Bradley Johansson is alive?”

  “Bradley is a Silfen now.”

  “Holy crap.”

  “Do you speak the truth of this?” Tomansio demanded almost in anger.

  Araminta-two faced him down. “I speak the truth.” He turned back to Oscar. “Bradley told me you and he fought together in the Starflyer War. He said I could trust you, Oscar. And you did help me back at Bodant Park.”

  “Bradley a Silfen,” Oscar said in wonder. “How about that. We both survived the Planet’s Revenge in our own ways.”

  “He lives,” an incredulous Beckia murmured. “The greatest of us all, our founder, humanity’s liberator. He lives! Do you realize what-” She broke off, too overwhelmed to speak.

  “I don’t wish to disappoint,” Araminta-two said. “But he’s not coming to help. I’m afraid the best he could do was send me.”

  “And he wanted you and Ozzie to team up?” Oscar queried.

  “Yes. Um, he was also worried about the Ilanthe-thing and what it is now. Even the Silfen are concerned about that, as much as they are about anything.”

  “Nobody knows much about Ilanthe,” Oscar said. “So let’s concentrate on what we can achieve.” He opened a secure link to Paula.

  “Take her to Ozzie,” Paula said as soon as he’d finished explaining.

  “Really?”

  “Bradley is right. The Dreamer and Ozzie together would make a formidable combination.”

  “All right, then.”

  “And … Araminta really met Bradley?”

  “Yeah, so she says. Something, huh?”

  “Indeed.”

  “So where’s Ozzie these days?”

  “The Spike.”

  “No shit, Paula. That’s seven thousand light-years away.”

  “I know. But face it, what else have we got? We’re that desperate now.”

  “Okay.” The Elvin’s Payback had finished its initial acceleration. It was curving into a wide elliptical orbit above Viotia. Oscar grinned at Araminta-two. “Ozzie’s in the Spike. It’ll take five days to get there.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  “Great.” He gave a relieved smile.

  “A word of caution,” Paula said, which brought Oscar back down fast.

  “Yeah?”

  “I believe someone called Aaron has possibly taken Inigo to the Spike for exactly the same reason you’re going, to link up with Ozzie.”

  “Oh, crap.” He glanced around to see the team members all giving him a vaguely accusatory stare. “Inigo? They found Inigo?”

  “Yes. Which I’m hoping is good. If you can bring together the First and Second Dreamers along with Ozzie, that may really give us the kind of edge we’re going to need to-”

  “Take out the Void? Blow up the Pilgrimage fleet? Eliminate Ilanthe?”

  “I’d settle for any one of those right now.”

  “So who is this Aaron character, and who is he working for?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know. But logically he belongs to a faction inimical to Pilgrimage. And be careful. He can be very trigger-happy, and he’s known to be somewhat aggressive with it. Your team should be able to protect Araminta from him if he turns hostile.”

  “Okay. What about you, Paula? What are you doing?”

  “Working on a couple of leads, as always.”

  Feeling slightly let down by her reply, Oscar ordered the smartcore to go FTL and take them to the Spike. Then he and the others started questioning Araminta-two in earnest.

  “What will you do now?” the SI asked Troblum as the Mellanie’s Redemption tracked Oscar’s starship going FTL. It suddenly vanished from his exovision. None of the sensors could track it when it was stealthed.

  “I don’t know,” he said unsteadily. The conversation between Oscar and Paula that the SI had intercepted had left him badly shaken. Both Dreamers and Ozzie coming together to solve the problem was cause for some tentative hope. “I can’t make a difference.”

  “You know more about the Sol barrier than any other individual. They might need that.”

  “I don’t know.” It was too big, too much, and getting horribly personal again. But it was a huge unexpected relief to solve the Araminta puzzle. She hadn’t betrayed anyone; she was doing what she could. And … Araminta, Inigo, Oscar, and Ozzie together. That’s going to be history.

  Catriona came over and sat on his lap. She was wearing a thin lacy top and tight jeans. The feel of her resting there, human scent and musky perfume, her perfect form centimeters from his eyes. It was comforting somehow.

  “We should go,” she told him softly.

  “Yes.” Even that made him feel good.

  Sensors showed Paula the Elvin’s Payback flashing into hyperspace and activating its stealth. She could
track it of course, though few other ships in the galaxy could.

  After a minute, the ship hanging in suspension a hundred thousand kilometers above Viotia also pushed back fully into hyperspace and followed Oscar at ultradrive speed. Its stealth wasn’t as good as that of the ANA ship, but its drive seemed more than capable, and the real giveaway was the mass, which was identical to that of the Mellanie’s Redemption, which Paula had last seen departing Sholapur at their hyperdrive speed.

  “And then there was one,” Paula muttered.

  The remaining stealthed ship started to move. Its drive signature was one the Alexis Denken was also familiar with from Sholapur, as was the much superior stealth effect. Paula ordered the smartcore to follow the other three starships to the Spike, then opened a secure link to the High Angel.

  “Hello, Paula,” Qatux said.

  “So you can’t break through the Sol barrier?”

  “No. Our trip here was largely symbolic, a statement of Raiel support for the rest of the Commonwealth.”

  “I don’t expect empty political gestures from you.”

  “If there is any way we can influence the Living Dream from their Pilgrimage, we are obliged to enact it.”

  “They’ve just launched.”

  “I know. Paula, if you would like to come with us when this galaxy falls, I will be happy to take you.”

  “I know the purpose of the High Angel is supposed to be to save life from this galaxy, but something is happening, Qatux, something my instinct tells me is crucial. So I’m going to need a favor. A very big favor.”

  The lake measured over ten kilometers across, its shoreline made up of attractive sweeping coves. Two-thirds of the surrounding land was smothered by a thick wild forest, with vegetation scrambling down over the stones that lined the rippling water. The remaining third was an alien city whose globes and spikes dominated the skyline. Deserted for millennia, its iron structures were a similar construction to those of Octoron’s little human township. But this metropolis was put together on a much grander scale, perhaps a little too imposing. Humans living in the chamber had never attempted to settle there.

  Ozzie’s old capsule skimmed above the thin towers and dropped down toward the huge semicircular harbor bay on the other side. There were several small islands dotted across the water. They were heading for the largest, which had a wide sandy beach guarded by rocky prominences on either side. Behind the beach itself the land was a cluster of long dunes before the ground started to slope up into the island’s central mountain. A simple whitewashed stone house stood alone, poised between the dunes and the forested slope. It was surrounded on three sides by a veranda that had a leafy canopy of thick vines draped over an ancient, sagging wooden frame. Tall sash windows had wooden shutters on the outside, giving the place the appearance of a farmhouse in rural Provence.

  The capsule touched down in front of the solitary building. Aaron scanned it briefly. Another human was lurking behind the wide slatted doors that opened from the lounge to the veranda decking. She had biononics, but they weren’t weapons-configured. There were some additional enrichments that he didn’t recognize, but their low power usage argued against their posing any kind of threat. The house itself had a few technological items: a culinary unit, a medical capsule, two very sophisticated replicators, a fleet of old-fashioned maidbots, and five smartcores larger than he’d encountered before. In short, the perfect retreat for someone like Ozzie.

  “Okay, we can go out,” Aaron said.

  Ozzie gave him a long look. “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, okay, but be careful of the mutant squids in the lake.”

  “I appreciate that this intrusion is unwelcome; we’ll be gone as soon as we can.” Though Aaron couldn’t be sure of that. Ideas were starting to form in the back of his mind in anticipation of Inigo regaining consciousness. He gave the sleeping messiah a quick look. It wouldn’t be long before he was awake.

  “And remember never to leave the house at night,” Ozzie said with an innocent tone that nonetheless mocked.

  “Why?”

  “Vampires.”

  Aaron bit back on his response. He wasn’t quite sure how much of Ozzie’s attitude was driven by irritation at having his hermit life violated. If it was genuine, things might get unpleasant. Aaron hoped not.

  Ozzie walked out of the capsule, leaving Aaron to deal with the two unconscious people sprawled on the curving leather couch at the back of the passenger section. “Greatly done,” he muttered, and picked Inigo up, fumbling him into a traditional fireman’s lift. For a long moment he was tempted to shoot another sedative (or ten) into Corrie-Lyn, but Inigo wouldn’t be happy about that. Having two bolshie living legends with overblown egos pissed with him would be a definite disadvantage.

  Aaron carried Inigo over the dunes and up the gray wooden steps to the veranda. He dumped the inert body onto a sunlounger and went back for Corrie-Lyn.

  Ozzie was nowhere to be seen by the time he got back to the veranda. A quick low-level field scan showed him upstairs in the house’s biggest bedroom with the woman. Aaron abruptly canceled the scan, trying to quash his feeling of dismay at Ozzie’s attitude and behavior. He hadn’t expected quite this much irrational stubbornness.

  Inigo groaned and stirred. His biononics assisted a quick rise to full awareness. He sat up and looked around the shaded veranda, then took a moment to stare at the vista of the ancient alien city facing him across the bay.

  “We made it, then?”

  “We made it.”

  Inigo gazed over at Corrie-Lyn on the next sunlounger. “How is she?”

  “Stable. She should wake up in half an hour or so. Your biononics give you an advantage.”

  Inigo nodded slowly. “You kept your word. Thank you.”

  “I know she hates me, but truly, I’m not one of the bad guys. I just have a job to do.”

  “Indeed.” Inigo started flexing his limbs, grimacing at the chemical-induced stiffness. “What do you do for fun?”

  “I don’t.”

  Inigo gave the city another look. “That looks deserted.”

  “It is. Ozzie has fully embraced his whole living recluse legend.”

  “Great Lady, you actually found him?”

  “Yes.”

  Inigo peered around, unable to contain his excitement. “So where is he?”

  Aaron held up a finger for silence. On cue a woman’s rhythmic groans could be heard from the open bedroom window.

  “Ah,” Inigo muttered. “What’s he like?”

  “Not pleased to see me and especially not you.”

  “Yeah. We never did hit it off.” He stood up cautiously and went over to Corrie-Lyn. His field scan ran a fast check. “So what’s the plan?”

  “I’ll tell you when Ozzie comes down.”

  “Whatever.” Inigo wandered into the house and found the kitchen. After a burst of enthusiastic compliments at discovering the culinary unit sitting amid all the historic cooking appliances, he started issuing it a complicated list. Several maidbots followed him back out to the veranda, carrying contemporary dishes: meal for two.

  Corrie-Lyn finally shook off the sedative amid a flurry of cursing and groans. After a moment hugging a relieved Inigo, she shot Aaron a vicious glare. “Bastard.”

  “We’re alive. The Chikoya can’t locate us. And I’ve found Ozzie.”

  “So where is he?”

  “I’m sure he’ll join us soon.”

  “He’s not happy about this,” Inigo explained.

  “Tell him to get in line.” But she relented when Inigo led her over to the table where the maidbots had laid out the meal. “Oh, wow, real food.” She hesitated.

  “It’s genuine,” Inigo reassured her.

  She grinned her gratitude and started wolfing down the keanfish starter, dipping the tassels into a plum and rador sauce. Aaron went into the kitchen and ordered his own meal from the culinary unit, eating it alone on the scrubbed pine table.
>
  An hour later Ozzie still hadn’t come down. It was pushing the screw-you point a little far, Aaron decided. Inigo and Corrie-Lyn were chatting happily on the veranda, holding hands at the table like a couple on a first date as they finished their second bottle of wine. All the scene lacked was candles and twilight. The chamber’s light hadn’t varied since they’d arrived.

  Aaron went upstairs and knocked politely on the bedroom door. There was no answer. Ozzie was being deliberately difficult, which was understandable but unacceptable. He went into the room. It was dark inside, with the big wooden shutters closed and the slats down. Ozzie and the woman were cuddled up on the bed. The woman was sleeping. Colorful patterns on her space-black body glowed in phosphorescent hues, shifting slowly in time with her breathing. Aaron hesitated at that. They reminded him of OCtattoos, a technology from so long ago that he didn’t even understand where the memory had come from.

  Ozzie raised his head and peered at Aaron. “What, dude?”

  “Quicker we start, the quicker it’s over.”

  “This is the middle of the night, you moron.”

  Aaron gestured at the light spilling in through the open door.

  “Yeah? So? The light never goes out in Octoron. You make your own days here, man. And this is my night. Now take a hike.”

  “No. You come downstairs now and greet Inigo.”

  “Or what?”

  “I start getting unpleasant.”

  “Fucking fascist.” Ozzie slithered off the bed, muttering. “Drown in your own shit.” He found a silk robe and tugged the belt tight emphatically. “Used to some goddamn respect in my own home.” He combed his fingers through his mass of wavering wayward hair.

  “I know. Turn your back for a moment and the whole Ozziedamned universe falls to barbarism.”

  Ozzie glared at him for a long moment. It actually made Aaron nervous. Secondary routines were poised to activate his biononic defenses.

  “Don’t push it, creepy boy,” Ozzie growled.

  “Sorry, but you’re not making my life easy.”