by Dan Simmons
"Patek Georg is going to recommend a hundred-kilometer extension of the class-twenty external containment field," said Ryôkan softly. "With all energy weapons on standby and pre-targeted on the three hundred nine thousand, two hundred and five approaching Ousters."
Dem Lia's eyebrows rose a trifle. "And how long would it take our systems to lance more than three hundred thousand such targets?" she asked softly.
"Two-point-six seconds," said Ryôkan.
Dem Lia shook her head. "Ryôkan, please tell Patek Georg that you and I have spoken and that I want the containment field not at a hundred-klick distance, but maintained at a steady one kilometer from the ship. It may remain a class-twenty field -- the Ousters can actually see the strength of it, and that's good. But the ship's weapons systems will not target the Ousters at this time. Presumably, they can see our targeting scans as well. Ryôkan, you and Patek Georg can run as many simulations of the combat encounter as you need to feel secure, but divert no power to the energy weapons and allow no targeting until I give the command."
Ryôkan bowed. Basho shuffled his virtual clogs but said nothing.
Lady Murasaki fluttered a fan half in front of her face. "You trust," she said softly.
Dem Lia did not smile. "Not totally. Never totally. Ryôkan, I want you and Patek Georg to work out the containment-field system so that if even one Ouster attempts to breach the containment field with focused plasma from his or her solar wings, the containment field should go to emergency class thirty-five and instantly expand to five hundred klicks."
Ryôkan nodded. Ikkyû smiled slightly and said, "That will be one very quick ride for a great mass of Ousters, Ma'am. Their personal energy systems might not be up to containing their own life support under that much of a shock, and it's certain that they wouldn't decelerate for half an AU or more."
Dem Lia nodded. "That's their problem. I don't think it will come to that. Thank you all for talking to me."
All six human figures winked out of existence.
Rendezvous was peaceful and efficient.
The first question the Ousters had radioed the Helix twenty hours earlier was, "Are you Pax?"
This had startled Dem Lia and the others at first. Their assumption was that these people had been out of touch with human space since long before the rise of the Pax. Then the ebony, Jon Mikail Dem Alem, said, "The Shared Moment. It has to have been the Shared Moment."
The nine looked at each other in silence at this. Everyone understood that Aenea's "Shared Moment" during her torture and murder by the Pax and TechnoCore had been shared by every human being in human space -- a gestalt resonance along the Void Which Binds that had transmitted the dying young woman's thoughts and memories and knowledge along those threads in the quantum fabric of the universe which existed to resonate empathy, briefly uniting everyone originating from Old Earth human stock. But out here? So many thousands of light-years away?
Dem Lia suddenly realized how silly that thought was. Aenea's Shared Moment of almost five centuries ago must have propagated everywhere in the universe along the quantum fabric of the Void Which Binds, touching alien races and cultures so distant as to be unreachable by any technology of human travel or communication while adding the first self-aware human voice to the empathic conversation that had been going on between sentient and sensitive species for almost twelve billion years. Most of those species had long since become extinct or evolved beyond their original form, the Aeneans had told Dem Lia, but their empathic memories still resonated in the Void Which Binds.
Of course the Ousters had experienced the Shared Moment five hundred years ago.
"No, we are not Pax," the Helix had radioed back to the three-hundred-some thousand approaching Ousters. "The Pax was essentially destroyed four hundred standard years ago."
"Do you have followers of Aenea aboard?" came the next Ouster message.
Dem Lia and the others had sighed. Perhaps these Ousters had been desperately waiting for an Aenean messenger, a prophet, someone to bring the sacrament of Aenea's DNA to them so that they could also become Aeneans.
"No," the Helix had radioed back. "No followers of Aenea." They then tried to explain the Amoiete Spectrum Helix and how the Aeneans had helped them build and adapt this ship for their long voyage.
After some silence, the Ousters had radioed, "Is there anyone aboard who has met Aenea or her beloved, Raul Endymion?"
Again the nine had looked blankly at each other. Saigyô, who had been sitting cross-legged on the floor some distance from the conference table, spoke up. "No one on board met Aenea," he said softly. "Of the Spectrum family who hid and helped Raul Endymion when he was ill on Vitus-Gray-Balianus B, two of the marriage partners were killed in the war with the Pax there -- one of the mothers, Dem Ria, and the biological father, Alem Mikail Dem Alem. Their son by that triune -- a boy named Bin Ria Dem Loa Alem -- was also killed in the Pax bombing. Alem Mikail's daughter by a previous triune marriage was missing and presumed dead. The surviving female of the triune, Dem Loa, took the sacrament and became an Aenean not many weeks after the Shared Moment. She farcast away from Vitus-Gray-Balianus B and never returned."
Dem Lia and the others waited, knowing that the AI wouldn't have gone on at such length if there were not more to the story.
Saigyô nodded. "It turns out that the teenage daughter, Ces Ambre, presumed killed in the Pax Base Bombasine massacre of Spectrum Helix civilians, had actually been shipped offworld with more than a thousand other children and young adults. They were to be raised on the final Pax stronghold world of St. Theresa as born-again Pax Christians. Ces Ambre received the cruciform and was overseen by a cadre of religious guards there for nine years before that world was liberated by the Aeneans and Dem Loa learned that her daughter was still alive."
"Did they reunite?" asked young Den Soa, the attractive diplomat. There were tears in her eyes. "Did Ces Ambre free herself of the cruciform?"
"There was a reunion," said Saigyô. "Dem Loa freecast there as soon as she learned that her daughter was alive. Ces Ambre chose to have the Aeneans remove the cruciform, but she reported that she did not accept Aenea's DNA sacrament from her triune stepmother to become Aenean herself. Her dossier says that she wanted to return to Vitus-Gray-Balianus B to see the remnants of the culture from which she had been kidnapped. She continued living and working there as a teacher for almost sixty standard years. She adopted her former family's band of blue."
"She suffered the cruciform but chose not to become Aenean," muttered Kem Loi, the astronomer, as if it were impossible to believe.
Dem Lia said, "She's aboard in deep sleep."
"Yes," said Saigyô.
"How old was she when we embarked?" asked Patek Georg.
"Ninety-five standard years," said the AI. He smiled. "But as with all of us, she had the benefit of Aenean medicine in the years before departure. Her physical appearance and mental capabilities are of a woman in her early sixties."
Dem Lia rubbed her cheek. "Saigyô, please awaken Citizen Ces Ambre. Den Soa, could you be there when she awakens and explain the situation to her before the Ousters join us? They seem more interested in someone who knew Aenea's husband than in learning about the Spectrum Helix."
"Future husband at that point in time," corrected the ebony, Jon Mikail, who was a bit of a pedant. "Raul Endymion was not yet married to Aenea at the time of his short stay on Vitus-Gray-Balianus B."
"I'd feel privileged to stay with Ces Ambre until we meet the Ousters," said Den Soa with a bright smile.
While the great mass of Ousters kept their distance -- five hundred klicks -- the three ambassadors were brought aboard. It had been worked out by radio that the three could take one-tenth normal gravity without discomfort, so the lovely solarium bubble just aft and above the command deck had its containment field set at that level and the proper chairs and lighting adapted. All of the Helix people thought it would be easier conversing with at least some sense of up and down. Den Soa added that the
Ousters might feel at home amongst all the greenery there. The ship easily morphed an airlock onto the top of the great solarium bubble, and those waiting watched the slow approach of two winged Ousters and one smaller form being towed in a transparent spacesuit. The Ousters who breathed air on the ring, breathed 100 percent oxygen so the ship had taken care to accommodate them in the solarium. Dem Lia realized that she felt slightly euphoric as the Ouster guests entered and were shown to their specially tailored chairs, and she wondered if it was the pure O2 or just the novelty of the circumstances.
Once settled in their chairs, the Ousters seemed to be studying their five Spectrum Helix counterparts -- Dem Lia, Den Soa, Patek Georg, the psychologist Peter Delen Dem Tae, and Ces Ambre, an attractive woman with short, white hair, her hands now folded neatly on her lap. The former teacher had insisted on dressing in her full robe and cowl of blue, but a few tabs of stiktite sewn at strategic places kept the garment from billowing at each movement or ballooning up off the floor.
The Ouster delegation was an interesting assortment of types. On the left, in the most elaborately constructed low-g chair, was a true space-adapted Ouster. Introduced as Far Rider, he was almost four meters tall -- making Dem Lia feel even shorter than she was, the Spectrum Helix people always having been generally short and stocky, not through centuries on high-g planets, just because of the genetics of their founders -- and the space-adapted Ouster looked far from human in many other ways. Arms and legs were mere long, spidery attachments to the thin torso. The man's fingers must have been twenty centimeters long. Every square centimeter of his body -- appearing almost naked under the skintight sweat-coolant, compression layer -- was covered with a self-generated forcefield, actually an enhancement of the usual human body aura, which kept him alive in hard vacuum. The ridges above and beneath his shoulders were permanent arrays for extending his forcefield wings to catch the solar wind and magnetic fields. Far Rider's face had been genetically altered far from basic human stock: the eyes were black slits behind bulbous, nictitating membranes; he had no ears but a gridwork on the side of his head that suggested the radio receiver; his mouth was the narrowest of slits, lipless -- he communicated through radio-transmitting glands in his neck.
The Spectrum Helix delegation had been aware of this Ouster adaptation and each was wearing a subtle hearplug, which, in addition to picking up Far Rider's radio transmissions, allowed them to communicate with their AI's on a secure tightband.
The second Ouster was partially adapted to space, but clearly more human. Three meters tall, he was thin and spidery, but the permanent field of forcefield ectoplasmic skin was missing, his eyes and face were thin and boldly structured, he had no hair -- and he spoke early Web English with very little accent. He was introduced as Chief Branchman and historian Keel Redt, and it was obvious that he was the chosen speaker for the group, if not its actual leader.
To the Chief Branchman's left was a Templar -- a young woman with the hairless skull, fine bone structure, vaguely Asian features, and large eyes common to Templars everywhere -- wearing the traditional brown robe and hood. She introduced herself as the True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen, and her voice was soft and strangely musical.
When the Helix Spectrum contingent had introduced themselves, Dem Lia noticed the two Ousters and the Templar staring at Ces Ambre, who smiled back pleasantly.
"How is it that you have come so far in such a ship?" asked Chief Branchman Keel Redt.
Dem Lia explained their decision to start a new colony of the Amoiete Spectrum Helix far from Aenean and human space. There was the inevitable question about the origins of the Amoiete Spectrum Helix culture, and Dem Lia told the story as succinctly as possible.
"So if I understand you correctly," said True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen, the Templar, "your entire social structure is based upon an opera -- a work of entertainment -- that was performed only once, more than six hundred standard years ago."
"Not the entire social structure," Den Soa responded to her Templar counterpart. "Cultures grow and adapt themselves to changing conditions and imperatives, of course. But the basic philosophical bedrock and structure of our culture was contained in that one performance by the philosopher-composer-poet-holistic artist, Halpul Amoiete."
"And what did this ... poet ... think of a society being built around his single multimedia opera?" asked the Chief Branchman.
It was a delicate question, but Dem Lia just smiled and said, "We'll never know. Citizen Amoiete died in a mountain-climbing accident just a month after the opera was performed. The first Spectrum Helix communities did not appear for another twenty standard years."
"Do you worship this man?" asked Chief Branchman Keel Redt.
Ces Ambre answered. "No. None of the Spectrum Helix people have ever deified Halpul Amoiete, even though we have taken his name as part of our society's. We do, however, respect and try to live up to the values and goals for human potential which he communicated in his art through that single, extraordinary Spectrum Helix performance."
The Chief Branchman nodded as if satisfied.
Saigyô's soft voice whispered in Dem Lia's ear. "They are broadcasting both visual and audio on a very tight coherent band which is being picked up by the Ousters outside and being rebroadcast to the forest ring."
Dem Lia looked at the three sitting across from her, finally resting her gaze on Far Rider, the completely space-adapted Ouster. His human eyes were essentially invisible behind the gogglelike, polarized, and nictitating membranes that made him look almost insectoid. Saigyô had tracked Dem Lia's gaze, and his voice whispered in her ear again. "Yes. He is the one broadcasting."
Dem Lia steepled her fingers and touched her lips, better to conceal the subvocalizing. "You've tapped into their tightbeam?"
"Yes, of course," said Saigyô. "Very primitive. They're broadcasting just the video and audio of this meeting, no data subchannels or return broadcasts from either the Ousters near us or from the forest ring."
Dem Lia nodded ever so slightly. Since the Helix was also carrying out complete holocoverage of this meeting, including infrared study, magnetic-resonance analysis of brain function, and a dozen other hidden but intrusive observations, she could hardly blame the Ousters for recording the meeting. Suddenly her cheeks reddened. Infrared. Tightbeam physical scans. Remote neuro-MRI. Certainly the fully space-adapted Ouster could see these probes -- the man, if man he still was, lived in an environment where he could see the solar wind, sense the magnetic-field lines, and follow individual ions and even cosmic rays as they flowed over and under and through him in hard vacuum. Dem Lia subvocalized, "Shut down all of our solarium sensors except the holocameras."
Saigyô's silence was his assent.
Dem Lia noticed Far Rider suddenly blinking as if someone had shut off blazing lights that had been shining in his eyes. The Ouster then looked at Dem Lia and nodded slightly. The strange gap of a mouth, sealed away from the world by the layer of forcefield and clear ectodermal skin plasma, twitched in what the Spectrum woman thought might be a smile.
It was the young Templar, Reta Kasteen, who had been speaking. " ... so you see we passed through what was becoming the Worldweb and left human space about the time the Hegemony was establishing itself. We had departed the Centauri system some time after the original Hegira had ended. Periodically, our seedship would drop into real space -- the Templars joined us from God's Grove on our way out -- so we had fatline news and occasional firsthand information of what the interstellar Worldweb society was becoming. We continued outbound."
"Why so far?" asked Patek Georg.
The Chief Branchman answered, "Quite simply, the ship malfunctioned. It kept us in deep cryogenic fugue for centuries while its programming ignored potential systems for an orbital worldtree. Eventually, as the ship realized its mistake -- twelve hundred of us had already died in fugue creches never designed for such a lengthy voyage -- the ship panicked and began dropping out of Hawking space at every system, finding the usua
l assortment of stars that could not support our Templar-grown tree ring or that would have been deadly to Ousters. We know from the ship's records that it almost settled us in a binary system consisting of a black hole that was gorging on its close red-giant neighbor."
"The accretion disk would have been pretty to watch," said Den Soa with a weak smile.
The Chief Branchman showed his own thin-lipped smile. "Yes, in the weeks or months we would have had before it killed us. Instead, working on the last of its reasoning power, the ship made one more jump and found the perfect solution -- this double system, with the white-star heliosphere we Ousters could thrive in, and a tree ring already constructed."
"How long ago was that?" asked Dem Lia.
"Twelve-hundred-and-thirty-some standard years," broadcast Far Rider.
The Templar woman leaned forward and continued the story. "The first thing we discovered was that this forest ring had nothing to do with the biogenetics we had developed on God's Grove to build our own beautiful, secret startrees. This DNA was so alien in its alignment and function that to tamper with it might have killed the entire forest ring."
"You could have started your own forest ring growing in and around the alien one," said Ces Ambre. "Or attempted a startree sphere as other Ousters have done."
The True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen nodded. "We had just begun attempting that -- and diversifying the protogene growth centers just a few hundred kilometers from where we had parked the seedship in the leaves and branches of the alien ring, when ... " She paused as if searching for the right words.
"The Destroyer came," broadcast Far Rider.
"The Destroyer being the ship we observe approaching your ring now?" asked Patek Georg.
"Same ship," broadcast Far Rider. The two syllables seemed to have been spat out.
"Same monster from hell," added the Chief Branchman.