The Dreaming Void v-1

by Peter Hamilton

  'They just shot at us, she said. 'They didn't warn us or tell us to stop first. They just opened fire.

  'I had jumped down a lift shaft to try and get out, he pointed out. 'That's a reasonable admission of guilt.

  'For Ozzie's sake! If you didn't have a force field web we'd be dead. That's not how the police are supposed to act. They were police, weren't they?

  'Yeah. They're the city police, all right.

  'But we did get out, she sounded puzzled. 'There were how many… ten of them? Twenty?

  'Something like that, yeah.

  'You just walked out like nothing could stop you. It didn't matter what they did.

  'That's Higher biononics for you. The only way standard weaponry can gain an advantage is overwhelming firepower. They weren't carrying that much hardware.

  'You're Higher?

  'I have weapons-grade biononics. I'm not sure about the culture part of it. That way of life seems slightly pointless to me, sort of like the pre-Commonwealth aristocracy.

  'What's that?

  'Very rich people living a life of considerable ease and decadence while the common people slaved away into an early grave, with all their labour going to support the aristocrats and their way of life.

  'Oh. Right. She didn't sound interested. 'Inigo was Higher.

  'No he wasn't. Aaron said it automatically.

  'Actually, he was. But he kept that extremely quiet. Only a couple of us ever knew. I don't think our new Cleric Conservator is aware of his idol's true nature.

  'Are you—

  'Sure? Yes, I'm sure.

  'That's remarkable. There's no record of it; that's a hell of an achievement these days.

  'Like I said, he kept it quiet. No one would have paid any attention to a Higher showing them his dreams, not out here on the External Worlds. He needed to appear as ordinary as possible. To be accepted as one of us.

  Aaron gave an amused grunt. 'Highers are people, too.

  'Some of them. She gave him a meaningful glance.

  'Was Yves the other Cleric who knew about Inigo?

  'No. She drew a short gasp, and glanced back. 'Oh Ozzie, Yves! He was unconscious when the fane collapsed.

  'He'll be all right.

  'All right? she yelled, finally becoming animated. 'All right? He's dead!

  'Well, he'll probably need re-lifing, yeah. But that's only a couple of months downtime these days.

  She gave him an incredulous snort, and leant against the capsule's transparent fuselage to gaze down on the city.

  Shock, anger, and fright, he decided. Mostly fright. 'You need to decide what to do next, he told her as sympathetically as he could. 'Team up with me, or… He shrugged. 'I can give you some untraceable funds, that should help keep you hidden.

  'Bastard. She wiped at her eyes, then looked down at herself. Her red sweater had large damp patches, and the lower half of her trousers were caked in blue foam. Her knees were grazed and filthy from the inside of the utility tunnel. Her shoulders slumped in resignation. 'He used to go somewhere, she said in a quiet emotionless voice.

  'Inigo?

  'Yes. This isn't the first time he took off on a sabbatical and left Living Dream covering up for his absence. But none of the other times were for so long. A year at most.

  'I see. Where did he go?

  'Anagaska.

  'That's his birthworld.

  'Yes.

  'An External World. One of the first. Advancer through and through, he said significantly.

  'I'm not arguing with you.

  'Did he ever take you?

  'No. He said he was visiting family. I don't know how true that was.

  Aaron reviewed the files on Inigo's family. There was very little information; they didn't seek publicity, especially after he founded Living Dream. 'His mother migrated inwards a long time ago. She downloaded into ANA in 3440, after first becoming…

  'Higher, yes I know.

  He didn't follow the point; but for someone to convert to Higher without leaving any record was essentially impossible. Corrie-Lyn must have been mistaken. 'There's no record of any brothers or sisters, he said.

  Corrie-Lyn closed her eyes and let out a long breath. 'His mother had a sister, a twin. There was something… I don't know what, but some incident long ago. Inigo hinted at it; the sisters went through this big trauma together. Whatever it was drove them apart, they never really reconciled.

  'There's nothing in the records about that, I didn't even know he had an aunt.

  'Well now you do. So what next?

  'Go to Anagaska. Try and find the aunt or her children.

  'How do we get there? I imagine the police will be watching the spaceports and wormholes.

  'They will eventually. But I have my own starship. He stopped in surprise as knowledge of the starship emerged into his mind from some deep memory.

  Corrie-Lyn's eyes opened in curiosity. 'You do?

  'I think so.

  'Sweet Ozzie, you are so strange.

  Seventeen minutes later the capsule slid down to land beside a pad in Riasi's spaceport. Aaron and Corrie-Lyn climbed out and looked up at the chrome-purple ovoid that stood on five bulbous legs.

  She whistled in admiration. 'That looks deliciously expensive. Is it really yours?

  'Yeah.

  'Odd name, she said as she walked under the curving underbelly of the fuselage. 'What's the reference?

  'I've no idea. His u-shadow opened a link to the Artful Dodgers smartcore, confirming his identity with a DNA verification along with a code he abruptly remembered. The smartcore acknowledged his command authority.

  'Hang on, Aaron told Corrie-Lyn, and grabbed her hand. The base of the starship bulged inwards, stretching into a dark tube. Gravity altered around them and they slid up inside the opening.

  * * * * *

  Sholapur was one of those Commonwealth planets that didn't quite work. All the ingredients for success and normality were there; a standard H-congruous biosphere, G-type star, oceans, big continents with great landscapes of deserts, mountains, plains, jungles, and vast deciduous forests, handsome coastlines and long meandering archipelagos. The local flora had several plants humans could eat; while the wildlife wasn't wild enough to pose much of a threat. Tectonically it was benign. The twin moons were small, orbiting seven hundred thousand kilometres out to produce the kind of tides and waves that satisfied every kind of marine sports enthusiast.

  So physically, there was nothing wrong with it. That just left the people.

  Settlement began in 3120, the year ANA officially became Earth's government. It was the kind of incentive which flushed a lot of the remaining political, cultural, and religious malcontents out of the Central Worlds. The greatest machine ever built was obviously taking over, and Higher culture was now so dominant it could never be revoked. They left in their millions to settle the then furthest External Worlds. At 470 lightyears from Earth, Sholapur was an attractive proposition for anyone looking for a distant haven. To begin with, everything went smoothly. There was commercial investment, the immigrants were experienced professionals; cities and industrial parks sprang up, farms were established. But the groups who arrived from the Central Worlds weren't just dissatisfied with Higher culture, they tended to be insular, intolerant of other ideologies and lifestyles. Petty local disputes had a way of swelling to encompass entire ethnic or ideological communities. Internal migration accelerated, transforming urban areas into miniature city states; all with massively different laws and creeds. Cooperation between them was minimal. The planetary parliament was 'suspended' in 3180, after yet another debate ended in personal violence between Senators. And that more or less marked the end of Sholapur's economic and cultural development. It was regarded as hermitic by the rest of the Commonwealth. Even the External Worlds with all their attitude of forthright independence viewed it like a kind of embarrassing drop-out cousin. The nearest settled worlds called it Planet of the Hotheads, and had little contact. Despite that, a great ma
ny starships continued to visit. Some of the micro-nations had laws (or a lack of laws) which could be advantageous to certain types of merchant.

  Five thousand kilometres above the planetary surface, the starship Mellanie's Redemption fell out of hyperspace amid a collapsing bubble of violet Cherenkov radiation. There was no single planetary traffic control Troblum could contact; instead he filed an approach request with Ikeo City, and received permission to land.

  The Mellanie's Redemption measured thirty metres long, a sleek flared cone shape, with forward-curving tailfins that looked functionally aerodynamic. In fact they were thermal radiators added to handle the extensively customized power system. The cabin layout was a central circular lounge ringed by ten sleeping cubicles and a washroom. Hyperdrive ships didn't come much bigger, they simply weren't cost effective to build. Starline companies used them almost exclusively for passengers wealthy enough to pay for fast transport. Most starships used a continuous wormhole drive; they were slower but could be built to any size required, and carried the bulk of interstellar trade around the External Worlds. Originally, Mellanie's Redemption had been a specialist craft, built to carry priority cargo or passengers between the External Worlds. A risky proposition at the best of times. The company who commissioned her had lurched from one financial crisis to another until Troblum made them an offer for their superfast lame duck. He claimed she would be refitted as a big personal yacht, which was a white lie. It was her three large cargo holds which made her perfect for him; their volume was ideal for carrying the equipment he was working on to recreate the Anomine 'one shot' wormhole. Marius had agreed to the acquisition, and the additional EMAs materialized in Trob-lum's account. Although the ship was supposed to remain on Arevalo until Troblum was ready to move the project to its test stage he found it indispensable for some of the transactions he was involved in. The addition of a Navy-grade stealth field was especially beneficial when it came to slipping away from Arevalo without Marius being aware of anything untoward.

  City was a somewhat overzealous description for Ikeo which comprised a fifty-mile stretch of rugged sub-tropical coastline with a small town in the middle and a lot of mansions spread along the cliff tops on either side. The province's ideology could best be described as a free trade area, with several individuals specializing in artefact salvage. It did have a resident-funded police force, which its poorer neighbouring states referred to as a strategic defence system.

  Mellanie's Redemption descended at the focal point of several ground-based tracking sensors. She landed on pad 23 at the city's spaceport, a two kilometre circle of mown grass with twenty-four concrete pads, a couple of black dome-shaped maintenance hangars, and a warehouse owned by an Intersolar service supply company. There were no arrival formalities. A capsule drew up beside the starship as Troblum walked down the short airstair, puffing heavily from the rush of heat and humidity that hit him as soon as the airlock opened.

  The capsule took him several miles out of town to a Romanesque villa atop a low cliff. Three sides of the single-storey building surrounded an elaborate pool and patio area festooned with colourful plants. Several waterfalls spilled down large strategically positioned boulders to splash into the pool. The view down on to the white beach was spectacular, with a needle-profile glide-boat anchored just offshore.

  Stubsy Florae was waiting for him by the bar at the side of the pool. Not that anyone called him 'Stubsy' to his face; Florae was sensitive about his height. Sensitive to a degree that he didn't get it changed during rejuvenation therapy because to do that would be to admit that he was a head shorter than most adults and that it bothered him enough to do something about it. He wore knee-length sports trousers and a simple pale-blue shirt open to the waist to reveal a chest covered in hair and a stomach that was starting to bulge. When Troblum appeared he smiled broadly and pushed his oversize sunglasses on to his forehead. His hairline was a lot higher and thinner than Troblum was used to seeing even on External World citizens.

  'Hey! My man, Florae exclaimed loudly. He held his arms out and shifted his hips from side to side. 'You been dieting, or what? He laughed loudly again at his own joke. All his companions smiled.

  There were seven of them visible in the pool area, either lying on sunloungers, or sitting at the table in the shallow end of the pool sipping drinks that were mostly fruit and ice. Troblum was always slightly uncomfortable about the girls Stubsy kept at the villa. Not quite clones, but there were standard requirements. For a start they were all a lot taller than their boss, two were even taller than Troblum; naturally they were beautiful, with long silken hair, bodies toned as if they were part of some ancient Olympic athlete squad, and wearing tight bikinis — dressing for dinner here was putting on a pair of shorts and sandals. A low-level field scan revealed them to be enriched with several advanced weapons systems; half of the muscle ridges etched beneath their taut skin was actually force field webbing. If they ganged up on Troblum they could probably overwhelm his biononic defences. They acted like a hybrid of floozies and executive assistants. Troblum knew the image which the whole stable arrangement was supposed to convey, but just didn't understand why. Stubsy must have a lot more insecurities than just his height.

  Troblum's worn old toga suit rippled round his vast body as he raised his arms. 'Do I look smaller?

  'Hey, come on, I'm just fucking with you. What I got, it entitles me.

  'What you claim you've got.

  'Man, just shove that stake in a little further, I don't think it went right through my heart. How are you, man? It's been a while. Stubsy gave Troblum a hug, arms reaching almost a third of the way round. Squeezing like he was being reunited with a parent.

  'Too long, Troblum suggested.

  'Still got your ship. Sweet ship. You Higher guys, you live the life all right.

  Troblum looked down on Stubsy's head. 'So come and join us.

  'Wowa there! Not quite ready for that. Okay? Man don't even joke about. I'd need to spend a decade wiping all my bad memories before they'd let me set foot on the Central Worlds. Hey, you want a drink. Couple of sandwiches, maybe. Alcinda, she knows how to boss a culinary unit around. He lowered his voice and winked. 'Not the only thing she knows her way around, huh.

  Troblum tried not to grimace in dismay. 'Some beer maybe.

  'Sure sure. Florae gestured to some chairs beside a table. They sat down while one of the girls brought a large mug of light beer over. 'Hey, Somonie, bring it out for my man, will you?

  A girl in a vivid-pink bikini gave a short nod and went inside.

  'Where did you find it? Troblum asked.

  'A contact of mine. Hey, have I been retrofitted without a brain and somebody not tell me? If I tell you about my people what's left for me in this universe?

  'Quite.

  'You know I've got a network pumping away down there in the civilized Commonwealth. This week it's some guy, next it's another. Who knows where shit is going to appear. You want to stab me in the back, first you got to build yourself your own network.

  'I already have.

  Florae blinked, his best-friends smile fading. 'You have?

  'Sure. Hundreds of guys like you.

  'You kill me, you know that? He laughed, too loud, and raised his glass. 'People like me. Ho man!

  'I meant, what planet was it recovered from? My record search confirmed Vic Russell handed it back in to the Serious Crimes Directorate when he returned from the Boongate relocation. It was obsolete by then. The SCD would have disposed of it.

  'Beats me, Florae said with a shrug. 'Guess there were people like you and me around even back in those days.

  Troblum said nothing. The salvager could be right. For all his personality faults and distasteful lifestyle, he had always provided bona fide items. A large number of artefacts in Troblum's museum had come from Florae.

  Somonie returned from the villa carrying a long stable-environment case. It was heavy, her arm muscles were standing proud. She put it the table in front of Troblu
m and Stubsy.

  'Before we go any further, Troblum said. 'I have the SCD serial code. The genuine one. So. Do you still want to open the case?

  'I don't give a shit what fucking number you think you got, man, this is for real. And hey guess what, you aren't the only asshole in the Commonwealth that creams himself over this shit. I come to you first because I figure we got a friendship going by now. You want to call me out, you want to crap all over my reputation, and you know what, fatboy, you can roll all the way back to your ship and fuck the hell off this world. My fucking world.

  'We'd better look at it then, Troblum said. 'I'd hate to lose your friendship. He didn't care about Stubsy Florae, there were dozens of scavengers just like him. But it was an interesting claim; he'd never really thought there were other collectors outside museums. He wondered idly if they could be persuaded to sell. Perhaps Florae could enquire…

  Florae's u-shadow gave the case a key, and the top unfurled to reveal an antique ion rifle. A protective shield shimmered faintly around it, but Troblum could clearly see the metre-long barrel which ended in a stubby black metal handle that had several attachment points and an open induction socket on the bottom.

  'Yeah well, Stubsy said with a modest grimace, which could almost have been embarrassment. 'The other bit is missing. Obviously. But what the fuck, this is the business end, right? That's what counts.

  'There is no "other bit", Troblum said. 'This is designed to be used by someone in an armour suit; it clips on to the lower arm.

  'No shit?

  It was an effort for Troblum to speak calmly. The weapon certainly looked genuine. 'Would you turn off the field, please.

  The shimmer vanished. Troblum's field function swept across the antique rifle. Deep in the barrel's casing were long chains of specifically arranged molecules, spelling out a unique code. He licked the sweat from his upper lip. 'It's real, he whispered hoarsely.

  'Yo! Stubsy slapped his hands together in victory. 'Do I ever let you down?

  Troblum couldn't stop staring at the weapon. 'Only in the flesh. Would you like payment now?