All Our Tomorrows

by All Our Tomorrows (epub)

  Kennedy hesitated, but nodded.

  “Thanks. Devon, I need you to pretend you’re a student. Let them educate you, even if you already know ninety percent of what they tell you. Listen for the nuance in the details and, hey, you might learn something.”

  “I resent the implication that I don’t already know everything.”

  “Devon—”

  “I’m kidding. Sort of. All right, I will be passive and docile, but only because this is important.”

  “Yes, it is. Thank you so much!” With a relieved sigh she stood and made her way back to where Corradeo, Cyfeill and Wyddy—oh no, Devon had infected her—were now engaged in an animated and, she thought, pleasant conversation. “How is everyone doing?”

  Corradeo smiled. “Well. We were just reminiscing about how the—it doesn’t matter. Is it time for work again?”

  “If Cyfeill and Wyddoniiet are willing, yes. I think that due to some quirks in communications, it’s best if we let you tell your story of this weapon in whatever manner you see fit. Devon and Kennedy will listen and try not to interrupt with questions that can be addressed later. You’ve been shown how to operate our screens, so why don’t we set up a presentation area over here—” she gestured toward an open area on the left “—and the others will follow your lead. Is this acceptable?”

  Cyfeill and Wyddoniiet considered each other with all six eyes, and after a second, Marlee could swear she felt a new vibration in the air. After a beat, Cyfeill rotated their eyes toward the worktable where Devon and Kennedy sat. “We are willing to make another effort, yes.”

  Marlee did her best to restrain an epic sigh of relief. “Wonderful.”

  25

  * * *

  CONCORD HQ

  Special Projects

  Alex slid an energy drink across the table to Kennedy. “You look tired. Did the kids keep you up again last night?”

  Kennedy guzzled a third of the drink in one long sip. “No. I mean, yes, but no more than usual. Dealing with the Ourankeli, though? Now that’s exhausting. I don’t know how you do it.”

  “Oh, I don’t. Or not particularly well. But was it worth it?”

  “Hell, yes, it was.” They both glanced up as Devon jogged over to the table, plopped down in a chair, and instantiated a long screen between them. “This weapon is ghastly—for its target, anyway.”

  Alex studied the first couple of equations and notations on the screen. She’d initially come to HQ today to try to generate excitement over how the Asterions had cleaned the Rasu out of their Adjunct Worlds, as well as get an update on the Khokteh’s recovery operation. But she’d been here for all of five minutes when she got an excited summons from Devon to report to Special Projects. “Wyddoniiet told us it was similar to a neutron bomb, but more ‘elegant’ and ‘refined’ and whatnot.”

  “And Wyddy wasn’t lying, but it’s a base comparison at best. A fertile imagination goes a long way when creating something new.”

  The fact that Devon was fawning over the science was a positive sign, especially since she’d heard it had been an ugly collaboration, at least to start. And the equations in front of her made it clear they’d moved well beyond a simple neutron bomb. “So what does it do and how does it work?”

  “The weapon is a particle accelerator, one designed to create a very specific new variant of neutron. The name the Ourankeli gave the new particle doesn’t make any sense outside their language, so I’m calling it a 4-neutron. Already filed the forms with the relevant scientific organizations and everything.”

  “Why a ‘4-neutron’?”

  Kennedy snickered. “Because it’s fortified.”

  “Okay, whatever. Keep going.”

  Devon enlarged a tiny section of the screen. “It’s fortified in two ways. Most importantly, it has a…wait for it… four times longer beta decay period than regular free neutrons do. This means four times the collision cascades, a greater than eight times stronger defect wind and a minimum of sixteen times the number of dislocation loops caused by its ionizing radiation.”

  Alex double-checked old, long-filed-away knowledge to make sure she comprehended what he was saying. “Impressive. What’s the second way?”

  “This is awesome. When it does finally decay, the 4-neutron adds a gamma ray to the mix in addition to the usual proton, electron and neutrino. With a boring, regular old neutron, you only see this happen about—”

  “One in every thousand times. I know. I did study this sort of thing in school.”

  Devon had the sense to look chagrined. “Sorry, I’m just excited.”

  “Which is good. So the gamma ray acts like a dead man’s hand to twist the knife in a little deeper, adding to the ionizing radiation and increasing the scattering effect?”

  “Bingo.” Devon swept past columns of formulas on the screen to reach a schematic. “Here’s the basic structure of the particle accelerator. It’s a tricky beast, but we can build it.”

  “How big will it be?”

  Kennedy rubbed at her eyes. “Big. The Ourankeli constructed it on the frame of their halo ring, and they never intended for it to be mobile. But we have to make it so.”

  “Which we can do?”

  “I believe we can, yes, but it won’t be pretty, not any time soon. I think I can design a sort of harness we can use to attach it to a ship—nothing smaller than a cruiser—but I’ll have to switch out several of the weapons bays in order to do so. In other words, transform the ship into a glorified bomb delivery mechanism. And it’s going to take a dedicated Zero Engine to power the weapon, in addition to the one powering the ship.”

  “That’s no big deal. We build a hundred of those a day now.”

  Kennedy waved Devon’s reassurance off and took another long sip of her energy drink.

  Alex smiled indulgently. “Would you like some vodka in that?”

  “More than you can imagine—but not yet. Still a bit of work to do, I’m told. Or possibly a great deal of it.”

  “But look what you will have built when you’re done.” She turned back to Devon. “What’s the range on the weapon?”

  “Once shot out of the nozzle, the particles will keep traveling for a long time. But on our prototype design, the spread gets too wide to be effective after about…” Devon’s features screwed up as he did the math in his head “…six-hundred-fifty megameters. The original Ourankeli weapon was a lot bigger, but it also spread a lot farther. And I’ll be working on extending the range of ours in the first round of design improvements. Ideally, by a significant amount.”

  “Excellent. But even to start, it’ll have far greater coverage than the reach of our average battlespace. Kennedy, assuming we do fire it during the middle of a battle, what is this weapon going to do to our ships?”

  Kennedy studied the table’s surface for a few seconds. “We’ll need to refine the shield algorithms, or our forces will be vulnerable. The tricky thing is how the 4-neutron blast presents as standard neutron radiation while secretly packing a much more potent punch, but I think I can account for this. Some of it, anyway.

  “The real problem, though, is everything else: planets, moons, stations, the surrounding space they inhabit. The damage inflicted on any artificial structure will be damn near permanent. Worse, the weapon’s output will poison every atom it interacts with for hundreds of years.”

  Alex nodded soberly. “This is why the Ourankeli were so reluctant to use it. Why they didn’t use it until it was far too late.”

  She leaned back in the chair and brought a hand to her chin as the tragic scope of the damage at Haelwyeur flitted through her mind. “Because they had the wrong of it. This isn’t a defensive weapon—it’s an offensive one.”

  Command

  Miriam regarded her daughter incredulously. “You think we should use this weapon to take the fight to the Rasu?”

  Alex leaned against the wide viewport spanning the left side of the office. Her mother looked tired, but she knew better than to suggest the Comm
andant take a break. “Yes. I don’t mean fire it straight at the heart of their civilization—actually, that’s a fantastic idea, but I recognize we’re not ready to do so quite yet. Right now, or as soon as we can build one, I’m thinking we should use it to catch them when they’re on approach. If we fire it into the middle of a Rasu armada on the far fringes of a stellar system, or in the void between systems, we can inflict maximum damage without endangering our people or planets.”

  “To do so, we’ll have to track Rasu movements with a significant level of precision across vast distances.”

  Alex shrugged. “Well, I assume you’re working on doing exactly that.”

  “Of course we are. But I can’t simply snap my fingers and have all the infrastructure in place to accomplish it. When you’re talking about kiloparsecs in every direction, we need hundreds of thousands of sensors and buoys.”

  “I know. But we do already have those around populated stellar systems. We—you—will have to move fast, but if a ship carrying one of these weapons can catch the Rasu as soon as they enter a system, the battle’s over before it begins.”

  “That is an appealing notion.” Miriam studied a screen at her desk for a minute, entering several commands before returning her gaze to Alex. “I will insist on every safety precaution being followed, because this is a doomsday weapon if it malfunctions in a populated area. But I’m authorizing the construction of a prototype to begin immediately.”

  “Fabulous. No time to waste and all, especially since Wyddoniiet said it took them several months to build theirs.”

  “Oh? Devon Reynolds says he can build one in six days.”

  Alex arched an eyebrow. “You know, he probably can, assuming he doesn’t allow Kennedy to get any sleep whatsoever. And when he does build it this fast, I will take delight in showing Wyddoniiet the power of human ingenuity.”

  “I’ve no doubt.” Her mother sipped on her ever-present cup of tea. “How is Caleb doing after what happened on Ireltse?”

  “Um…good? He’s started talking about taking a trip to Seneca and running around the mountains healing injured wildlife.”

  “Really?”

  “Nah, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the idea before too long.” She shrugged. “Honestly, neither of us is certain exactly what this new development means for him. But it’s got to be a positive thing, right?”

  “I would expect so, yes, but I’m not the one whose consciousness is merged with a planet.”

  Alex laughed lightly and stood to say her farewells, then paused. She never knew when she’d be able to catch her mother in a non-war-consumed state, and a worrying notion had been itching at the back of her mind ever since Valkyrie had returned from the beyond. As it happened, her mother’s last words provided an excellent segue, so she dove in.

  “Um, on that note, speaking of merging. Just out of curiosity, have you ever considered becoming a Prevo with Thomas?”

  Her mother’s brow furrowed a little. “That’s a random question. The possibility has crossed my mind a time or two, but not seriously, no. I don’t think it’s a proper fit for me, or necessary for either of us to do our jobs.”

  Alex’s shoulders relaxed in a full-bodied sigh. “Whew.”

  “Why do you say that? Do you have something against Thomas?”

  “No, not at all. He’s actually pretty awesome. It’s only…” she flopped back in the chair and pulled a knee up to her chest “…Valkyrie and Thomas are…well, they’re sleeping together. Which is fine, and I wish them all the happiness and ecstasy. But while I try to give Valkyrie her privacy whenever possible, accidental intrusions happen. And if I were to connect with Valkyrie and you were to connect with Thomas at the same time, said time being while they were…we would….” She cringed and let the sentence trail off.

  Miriam stared at her for a second—then her eyes widened precipitously, her face blanching. “Oh. Oh, dear. No, let’s not do that.”

  “Right?” Alex chuckled, relieved she didn’t need to go into any greater detail. There were some things you simply didn’t discuss with your mother.

  “Definitely not. Is being a Prevo always fraught with such hazards?”

  “Hazards and wonders, in equal measure.” Feeling much better now, she stood once more. “Where’s Dad? I stopped by SWTC to say hi, but he wasn’t around.”

  “I believe he’s using his break between classes to chat with Richard over in the CINT offices.”

  “Oh, good. I’m so glad they’re getting along again. They are getting along again, aren’t they?”

  “Judging from the merciful lack of angst radiating off either of them lately, I believe they are.”

  26

  * * *

  CONCORD HQ

  CINT

  Richard Navick passed the bowl of nuts he kept stashed in his desk drawer over to David Solovy. “And everything’s stable on Ireltse now?”

  “We think so.” David dove into the nuts with rarified gusto. “The Rasu fought to the last ship this time, though they did eventually stop sending reinforcements into the system. Sweeps continue on the ground, since nobody wants to leave one of those macabre creations slinking around in the shadows. Also, sweeps on the other worlds, in case the Rasu sneaked a spy in under the wire before the Rift Bubbles arrived. And the Khokteh planetary guard was damn near decimated, obviously, so we’re reinforcing their defenses for the time being.” He tossed a pistachio shell into the trash chute. “Miri hasn’t been home in three days.”

  “Maybe tonight?”

  “Maybe. What about you? What’s the news on your front?”

  Richard grimaced. “Shepherding into the system a new automated algorithm that will change all Concord security and communication protocols every forty-eight hours, then distribute the new information to several million ships and innumerable people. Well, Cliff’s doing most of the work, but you know I have to check behind him.”

  “Ah, the burden of being in charge. I don’t envy you. Whereas I have been tasked with creating an entire curriculum for SWTC on Rasu warfare. Miri’s planning to cycle through every officer with a rank of major and above for day-long training.” David sighed. “The fact is, we need to start wrapping our heads around the possibility that we’re going to be fighting this war for a long time. Sixty galaxies, over two thousand inhabited planets, six hundred twenty space stations. It’s a lot of territory to protect, and also a lot of real estate for the Rasu to target.”

  “It won’t be a long war at all if those slithering machines decide to take out this admittedly stunning monument to our achievements.”

  They both turned toward the open door to see Graham Delavasi slouching against the frame. Richard shook his head. “Not going to happen. We’ve had a Rift Bubble stashed on HQ since about two seconds after Mirai got the very first one.”

  Graham squinted. “Mirai…Asterion Axis World! See, I did read the material.”

  David stood and offered a hand. “Mr. Delavasi, it’s a pleasure to see you again.”

  “And you, Mr. Solovy.”

  David stayed standing and pivoted to Richard. “I will let you two get to work. I have a new curriculum to deliver in less than six hours.”

  “We’ll talk later.” Richard closed the door after David left, then motioned for Graham to sit in the vacated chair. “Is this really your first time on HQ?”

  “It is, and I am positively starstruck. Damn fine station you’ve got here. I didn’t pass any bars or…other establishments on the way here, though.”

  “It’s a big station. They’re around. When things calm down a little, I’ll take you to my favorite pub, and point out the way to reach the, um, ‘other establishments.’ ” He started to reach in a drawer for a thin film, but paused. “Before we begin, answer me one question. Did you only agree to help on this case because Vranas is serving in the Concord Senate now?”

  Graham frowned. “Okay, it actually wounds me that you would think so.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s
only…you were pretty adamant about not wanting to have anything to do with Concord when I visited you at Lake Boscosa.”

  “What can I say? This one caught my interest, just like you knew it would. No, I was already arranging help to cover the fishing lodge business while I was gone when I heard Aristide had been cajoled into taking on the vacated Senator position. I will say, though—I stopped by his office before I came here, and he was as happy as a kid in a candy store. He’s missed the game.”

  “And you?”

  Graham shrugged noncommittally. “We’ll see.”

  It was more of an answer than he’d expected, so Richard retrieved the thin film from the drawer and slid it across the desk to Graham. “A consultancy contract. This way, you won’t be stepping on toes and jurisdictional boundaries with Division.”

  “You mean I’ll be officially stepping on them.”

  “To put a fine point on it.”

  “Excellent. The current Division Director could use a healthy dose of respect instilled in him.”

  So the man was keeping tabs on his old workplace from his fishing boat in the mountains.

  Graham scanned the contract for a second—far too little time to have read it—before affixing his signature and sliding it back to Richard. “Now then. Shall we go arrest Mr. Vilane?”

  “We don’t possess any evidence against him, merely rumors and suspicions.”

  “What about Mia Requelme? He accosted her and threatened her life when she was trying to run a shop on Pandora.”

  “She’s not interested in pressing charges, mostly because he doesn’t know her true identity and she’d prefer to keep it that way. Also, a conviction would mean a year in a cell, tops, after which he’d be out and seeking vengeance. Nope, we have to start from scratch and build a case the old-fashioned way. Then we have to hand the case we build over to SENTRI and let them make the arrest. Concord doesn’t have jurisdiction for internal human criminal matters.”