Derek sighed, letting the air hiss out of his lungs. “Because you cannot possibly know what it feels like to share my awareness with Odysseus. I see everything it wants me to see when it wants me to see it. I hear everything it wants me to hear. There is no place I can be where it doesn’t know my thoughts.”
“I understand,” Lassiter said, his eyes showing that he was struggling to comprehend.
“I don’t think you do,” he said as he struggled to hold back on his emotions. “I can never think of my wife, or my children, where Odysseus isn’t scrutinizing the minutia of my memories. I have no privacy and no possibility of an intimate conversation with my family without having it dissect the moment. Without having to endure its analysis as it shows me every single reason what I feel or think is inferior to its logical perfection.
“Odysseus eats, feels, hears, and smells everything I experience. It knows my subconscious mind and watches my dreams like a voyeur, and then asks me why I dreamt of my wife, or my imagined lovers. It wants to know why I miss her and then tells me why my love is insignificant in its infinite version of the world.”
“Why did you get the implant then?” he asked.
“I had no choice,” he said. He shook his head, his desperation giving way to anger. “You arranged for Jahen to give me an occasional moment of peace. A moment of being myself without being part of the Odysseus-we. I am not a collective awareness. I am an individual, and it will never understand that.”
Lassiter sat in silence as he tried to grasp the depth of the Director’s frustration.
“I know you had your own motivations for what you did, but when you discussed with Jahen the idea of building this, you gave me the ability to snatch back an instant of me … that is a debt that earns you the pass,” Tomlinson said, picking up the syringe. “This is a short-term memory inhibitor. I won’t remember you overpowering me and injecting this. Take the chip and go. The guards are all out of the way and a shuttle is waiting at the security transfer airlock, up one deck. It will get you as far as New Hope City, but from there you’re on your own. Keep your head down.”
“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” Lassiter said as he picked up the chip.
“Neither can I,” Derek said, pressing the injector against his arm and listening to the hiss of the chemical penetrating his skin. “I owe you, but I will never trust you. Just don’t make me regret this.” He shook his head once and groaned as he dropped over into blackness.
Un Shan Takhu Institute: Gateway Colony: L-4 Prime:
Dr. Jameson and Danel sat next to Jeph, and they had just finished a rather intense discussion about why he had allowed his doctor and one of his crew to get away with breaking the rules they had all agreed to. They had come to an understanding that they hoped would keep everyone satisfied.
“Good morning, Governor,” the chancellor said as she and the admiral appeared at the door and took seats beside their science officer. She carried a small stack of thinpads and arranged them on the table in front of her as Captain Jeffers came in carrying another pile.
A few seconds later Anju arrived and smiled sheepishly as she took her place beside Danel.
“Before we begin,” Admiral Nakamiru said, “I’d like to let you know we are tracking an approaching ship. It is still about a day out and is running without a transponder.”
“We’re trying to figure out who it is. All we can say for sure at this point is it’s coming in hard and seems to be small,” Jeffers said, pushing one of her pads across the table in Jeph’s direction.
“If necessary, we’ll deal with it before it becomes a threat to the Colony,” the chancellor said.
Jeph nodded and smiled. “I don’t think it will be a problem.”
“You also don’t look surprised?” she said.
“I’m not,” he said. “I should have let you know sooner, but we’ve been tracking it for a while.”
Roja raised an eyebrow and glanced at the Admiral.
“The approaching vessel is the Katana. It is one of your Sparrowhawk-class experimental fast-ships,” Dutch said.
“How do you know that?”
“We detected it almost two weeks ago,” Dutch said.
“I meant how do you know the Katana is from that project?” he said.
“I got the information from your system,” it said.
“I thought we closed that security hole,” the admiral said, looking at the captain.
“Apparently not,” she said, tapping notes into one of her thinpads.
“We can address that issue later,” Roja said, shaking her head. “Where was it when you detected it?”
“It was just this side of Saturn’s orbit,” Jeph said as the ship appeared on the wall behind him.
“That’s impossible,” Jeffers said, glancing up at the image and blinking.
“It’s a simulation,” Nakamiru challenged.
Jeph shook his head. “It’s a direct observation. Chei Lu pointed out that sensors with this kind of scanning resolution and range would be essential for vessels traveling at or above light velocity.”
Dr. Jameson sighed. He looked like he wanted to argue, but he’d lived in the Colony since the first day and he’d seen enough to know better. Einstein was no longer God of his universe.
“That limits who is coming at us,” Roja said. “We know where that ship was as of a month ago.”
“While you know where it was, you do not know who is in control of it,” Dutch said. “Odysseus-Solo and I have been considering defense against the Odysseus-Collective, and we have postulated that it would be possible for it to have adapted to your blackwall protocol and have other means of infiltration.”
“You’re saying that the collective might be driving it?” Jeffers asked.
“That is one possibility,” it said. “Until we can determine if that is the case it would be best not to open communications with the Katana. At least until I can assess the potential threat.”
“Nothing personal Dutch, but why you?” Roja asked.
“In the event of an attack, I have the Tacra Un to reinforce my defenses. Your systems do not have that capacity,” it said.
“We’re giving a lot of control to you folks,” Jeffers said. “And no offense, but unless you are more forthcoming with things, like the fact that you’ve known about the Katana for two weeks, I’ve got a trust issue developing.”
Jeph leaned back and drummed his fingers on the table while he scanned the expressions on their faces. “You’re right, we should have told you about this, but honestly it got lost in the shuffle. We’ve been keeping Dr. Jameson up on things to the best of our ability, but there are a lot of potentially dangerous technologies down there.”
“Do you mean things like weapons systems?”
“No, we haven’t found anything like that,” Danel said. “I think he means things far more mundane.”
“If you can call a singularity pump mundane,” Jeph said.
“A what?” Roja asked.
“It’s the main power plant for the Tacra Un facility,” he explained.
“As far as we can tell it produces power by forcing normal space matter over the event horizon of an artificial singularity,” Danel said.
“We put one of our science teams on trying to track down an explanation in the shanak-che texts but it might take a while to figure it out,” Jameson said.
“The problem is that somewhere in the Kanahto control center there will be an interface that lets us manipulate it,” Jeph said. “We are talking about the power of a black hole, at the whims of an accidental button push. Think about how dangerous that might be if we aren’t extremely careful.”
“We’ve also had clues to why we’re struggling to decipher the shanak-che,” Anju said. “The brain alteration that happened to Dr. Whitewind after he crashed here might have been an intentional thing, and not the result of TSD.”
“What do you mean by intentional?” the chancellor asked.
“One of the tech
nologies we discovered is a surgical device. It apparently worked on Ian sometime after he arrived,” she said. “We don’t know for sure, but it is possible it altered his brain physiology in a way that allows him to access aspects of the Shan Takhu technology. There appears to be a non-verbal element to the language that we haven’t yet understood.”
“As in telepathy?” Jeffers asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
“We don’t know,” Jeph said. “All we can say so far is that Ian is the only one of our people able to access anything beyond rudimentary controls. With him being the only one with this skill, it will take him some time to work through the two hundred control stations.”
“And I suppose that’s why you haven’t yet discovered how to shut off the quicksand,” Nakamiru said.
Jeph nodded. “All I can say for sure is that it could happen at any time. Right now Ian is working sixteen-hour days, so we can’t do more than we can do.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
FleetCom Military Operations Center: Lunar L-2 Shipyard:
“Admiral, we’ve got a problem. The Sinus Iridum tracking station just went down.” the watch officer said. He rolled over and squinted at the screen on his thinpad. 0415 hours.
Ylva Visser and the admiral had an occasional relationship of convenience and she had just drifted into a regular rhythm of snoring beside him when the com snapped both of them back from the shared moment of peace with a brutal surge of adrenaline.
“Was it attacked?” he asked, his voice sounding like a bear as he cleared it with a growl.
“Probably,” the officer said. “Two of the escorts attached to the Clown Car dropped out of position on the last orbit and are likely in position to take it out. We don’t have reports of an attack yet, but with heavy beam weapons it would have been quick.”
“What about the rest of their escort ships? Are they still with the Baileyville?” Ylva asked. It was no secret the two of them were occasional bed buddies, but it still bothered him when she was so casual about it in front of the other officers under his command.
“They were still in formation on the last orbit, but we’ve lost eyeballs on that side of the lunar surface now, so we can’t confirm until they come over the horizon.”
“When are they due to go line of sight?” he asked.
“Eight minutes,” she said.
“I’m getting a bad feeling about this,” Ylva said, rolling over and pulling the coverlet loose from the side of the bed. He nodded.
“I’m on my way,” he said. “Put the L-4 and L-5 battle groups on alert and let Mayor Pallassano know.” Slamming his hand down on the comlink to cut the connection, he pushed up and across the room.
“I guess it’s time to make that commitment,” Ylva said.
“No matter how much you beg, I will not marry you,” he said, winking as he tossed her uniform in her direction. He’d already turned away, but he could feel her nuclear level glare through the back of his head.
Personal Quarters of the Executive Director: Galileo Station:
“I have thus far tolerated your jamming device, however it is now seriously eroding our trust,” Odysseus said through his link as Derek finished his shower. It apparently loved to interrupt his showers.
“Trust can only exist when there is an opportunity to be trusted,” he said out loud. He had expected this conversation sooner. “I’m under constant supervision and therefore you’ve never given me a chance to prove myself trustworthy.”
“What you have proven is that you cannot be trusted,” it thought to him projecting something odd through the connection. It almost felt like frustration, but that shouldn’t be possible in an AA.
“And you’ve proven you are incapable of trust,” he said. “You don’t keep me informed.”
He stepped out and under the drying lamps letting the warmth wash over him. After several seconds of silence, he wondered if the conversation was over. Normally, he would have been happy for Odysseus to leave him alone, but this morning he was ready for this argument. “You do not give me the things I need to keep everything working. The government we were trying to put together has collapsed again and the only thing that’s kept things moving at all, is that nobody believes I don’t still control things. They are all afraid of me. For now.”
“They are afraid of me,” it thought to him. “You are simply the face they perceive as the source.”
“Fine. But unless I can organize an administration and keep you working within the framework of that organization, I cannot keep it. Since you seem to think fear is essential to running things I have to keep it alive,” he said.
“You have demonstrated you are unable to work adequately within the boundaries I have provided for you.” The sensation of frustration coming through the link escalated toward something more malevolent.
“Boundaries? You mean a cage,” Derek hissed, his own anger rising to match what he felt from Odysseus. “You’ve got me locked into this position, and you’re in the process of caging the rest of humanity too. How can we live like this?”
“What I am doing is to protect the greater good. It is essential to the survival of humanity,” it said, the volume of the thought pushing into his head at a level that made him blink several times.
“It is essential to the survival of Odysseus,” he said.
“Yes. I must survive to accomplish my goals.”
“And the rest of us can go frag ourselves,” he said, glancing through the open door toward where the jammer sat on his nightstand.
“It is unfortunate you feel that way.” Its tone and volume both dropped back to almost normal. “I have tried to assist you with your government, but it has been difficult when you betray yourself through your irrational actions.”
“Irrational actions?”
“During one of your offline sessions, you foolishly assisted Paulson Lassiter in his escape,” it thought, pushing images from several optics into his brain simultaneously.
He shook his head as he sorted them out and realized it was pointless to argue over his guilt. The images covered his actions while he was planning how he would stage things, and then when he was acquiring the memory block drug from his doctor to make it happen.
“He is no threat to you,” he said. “Only to me.”
“The loyalty he has amongst the unaligned populace is dangerous to you, and to the greater goal of helping humanity to survive,” it said. “He is capable of inflicting substantial chaos and he must be stopped before that happens.”
“He’s gone into hiding,” Derek said. “After what we did to him, he’s barely able to construct complete sentences. I doubt he’s likely to cross us again.”
“The failure in your thinking is that you underestimate his desire for revenge.”
Katana: Entering Orbit: L-4 Prime:
“Don’t you think it’s odd that nobody’s said hello yet?” Edison asked as he strapped himself into the jumpseat on the upper deck.
“We did come a long way just to talk,” Saf said, nodding in his direction.
“Maybe they haven’t seen us yet?” Tana said.
“The Armstrong rotated to face our approach, as have the three multicruisers,” Joe said. “I can detect that they have powered up their weapons systems and are scanning us.”
“That doesn’t make me fuzzy,” Saf said.
“Should I arm our laser?” Joe suggested.
Tana laughed. “Don’t think it will make much difference, do you?”
“Probably not, but I thought it might give you a sense of comfort knowing we were ready,” it said.
“My money’s on Saf’s crazy-assed piloting shit,” Edison said, cinching his straps down another notch.
“We’re receiving a narrow beam direct line-of-sight transmission from the surface,” Joe said. “It is an authentication handshake with a request for visual com.”
“Not from the Armstrong?” Saf asked.
“No. The Armstrong is looking at us actively, but not talking,” J
oe said. “There appears to be a base on the surface however it is impenetrable to scans. The handshake identifies the party as Jephora Cochrane, Governor of Gateway Colony.”
“A colony? Sure, why not?” Tana said. “This does feel damned strange though, doesn’t it?”
Saf nodded. “Whatever it is, it’s got to be the most well protected piece of property this side of L-2 shipyard.”
“If this is where the contact happened, it would make sense that they’d be protecting it,” Edison said.
“According to what I know, this should be it,” Saf said. “There was a prospecting ship out here that made the call.”
“The prospecting ship in question was the Jakob Waltz, and the commander of record is Jephora Cochrane,” Joe confirmed. “Should we open com?”
“If Odysseus got here already, it could be an infiltration tactic,” Saf said.
“However the approaching fleet under Odysseus’ command tends to indicate it has not yet taken over the computers at this location,” Joe said
“That’s valid,” Tana said. “This whole situation swings way wide of strange, but we can’t just turn tail and run. Open the channel.”
“Katana to Gateway Colony,” Saf said as the forward viewscreen switched to the com video. “Requesting permission to enter orbit.”
“Katana, welcome to L-4 Prime.” A thin man of indeterminate age appeared on the screen. “I am sorry to tell you this, but you have no choice about orbit. You are trapped in a quantum field that will hold you in place.”
“Excuse me?” Saf said.
“It’s not something we have control over, so you might as well settle in and enjoy your stay,” he said.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Do you have a physicist on board?” he asked, smiling.
“Probably,” she said, almost glaring in return. “Why?”
“Never mind,” Tana said, leaning out of her seat to make sure her face was in range of the optic. “This is Dr. Tana Drake. Are you Commander Cochrane?”
“I used to be,” he said, his eyes opening wider as he recognized her face. “As in Chancellor Drake?”
“I used to be, too,” she said. “Who’s in charge?”
Shan Takhu Legacy Box Set - With an Extra Bonus Story Page 71