‘You seem troubled, Conservator.’
Ethan started, twisting round in his chair to see where the voice had come from. His u-shadow was already calling for help from Cabinet Security.
The woman-thing walking calmly out of the shadows on the other side of the desk disturbed his sensibilities. ‘I believe you’re expecting me,’ she said. She was naked, which only intensified Ethan’s censure as her body possessed no sexual characteristics. Her skin was some kind of artificial covering that produced a grey layer whose exact boundary was indeterminable. Far worse than that was her figure. It was as though her internal organs were too small for her frame, leaving the skin to curve in between every rib. And her eyes didn’t help, little patches of pink moonlight that never revealed exactly what she was looking at. There was a gold circle just below her neck, from which sprouted two long streamers of dark-scarlet cloth. The fabric was draped across her shoulders to float horizontally through the air for several metres behind her. It rippled with the sluggish fluidity of an embryo sac.
Five armoured guards burst in through the main doors, their fat weapons raised. The Higher woman cocked her head on one side, while the gaiafield revealed a steely politeness in her mind.
Ethan held up a finger. ‘Hold,’ he instructed the guards. ‘Did Marius send you?’
A narrow mouth opened to reveal shiny metal teeth. ‘Marius has been moved to other duties. I am Valean, his replacement. I am here to help sort out our mutual problem with the ANA starship orbiting above you.’
Ethan waved the guards out, suspecting they wouldn’t have lasted long against her. ‘What do you want?’
She walked towards him, the scarlet streamers wavering sinuously behind her. Ethan saw her heels ended in a long tapering cone, as if both feet had grown their own stiletto. ‘I require access to the Agra wormhole generator. Please inform the operations staff I am to be given full cooperation.’
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Prevent the ANA agent from retrieving any more fragments.’
‘I can’t afford any kind of conflict with ANA. Some in the Senate are eager for the flimsiest legal grounds to authorize Navy intervention.’
‘We are expecting that any such concerns will soon be irrelevant. Rest assured, Cleric Conservator, there will be no physical clash here.’
‘Very well, I will see that you have full clearance.’
‘Thank you.’ She inclined her head, and turned for the main doors.
‘Please tell your Faction leaders I would prefer to deal with Marius,’ he said.
Valean didn’t even turn round. ‘I will certainly tell them.’ There was no trace of irony in her thoughts, the facade of politeness remained intact.
The doors shut behind her. Ethan let out a long breath of apprehension; he felt as if he’d finally been shown what awaited the lost souls who fell to Honious.
Preliminary sensor analysis of the debris cloud indicated there were 1,312 critical fragments, defined as anything over five centimetres across. When Chatfield’s starship exploded, over a third of them had been thrown down towards Ellezelin on trajectories that would see them burning up in the atmosphere within half an hour; the rest were whirling rapidly along wildly different orbital tracks. Recovery would be a bitch.
Digby was quietly pleased at the way the Columbia505’s smartcore was handling the collection operation. Modified ingrav-drive emissions were pulling fragments out of their terminal trajectories; sensors had identified several particles which had exotic matter constituents, and were tracking constantly. The sleek ultradrive ship was darting about, drawing the first chunks into the mid-hold where they were embedded in a stabilizer field. ANA:Governance had assured him a forensic team would be arriving within ten hours. Digby hoped so, stabilizer fields weren’t designed to preserve exotic matter. A lot of it was decaying right in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it.
His exovision suddenly threw up warnings he never expected to see. A very large wormhole was intruding into space not three kilometres from the Columbia505.
‘What the hell?’
The smartcore tracked several chunks of wreckage tumbling down the wormhole’s throat. Then the wormhole shifted exit coordinates, reappearing five kilometres away. More junk was sucked down. Exoimage displays showed him it was the worm-hole that normally linked Ellezelin to Agra. Somebody was redirecting it with unnerving skill, scooping up precious evidence. His u-shadow connected him directly into the planetary cybersphere, and tried to access the generator net. ‘It’s been isolated,’ the u-shadow reported. ‘I can’t even gain access to the building net. Whoever’s in there, they’ve sealed themselves in tight.’
Columbia505’s sensors swept across the generator complex on the outskirts of Riasi, seven thousand kilometres away round the curvature of the planet. A force field was protecting the whole area. ‘Crap.’ Digby ordered the smartcore to distort the worm-hole’s pseudostructure. Negative energy fluxes reached out from the starship’s drive, attempting to destabilize the wormhole’s integrity. But the planetary generators had too much power available compared to the starship. It was a struggle Digby was doomed to lose.
‘Take us down,’ he ordered the smartcore. ‘Fast.’ As the starship dived down into the atmosphere, he called ANA:Gov-ernance and explained what was happening.
‘I will call the Cleric Conservator,’ ANA:Governance said. ‘He must be made to understand that he cannot act against us with impunity.’
Digby was pretty sure the Cleric Conservator knew that, but held his council. It was long gone midnight in Makkathran2, which meant that Riasi was just slipping across the terminator line into daylight. Columbia505 was decelerating at fifteen gees when it hit the stratosphere above the Sinkang continent, upon whose northern coast the ex-capital city was sited. The ship scorched its way down through the lower atmosphere like a splinter carved from a star’s corona. It braked to a halt five hundred metres directly above the Agra wormhole generator’s force field. The hypersonic shockwave of its passage slammed past it, shattering all unprotected panes of glass within a three-kilometre radius. Nearby regrav capsules tumbled through the air like leaves in a blizzard as their smartnets used emergency power to try and right them. Local traffic control was screaming warnings at Digby on every frequency. Metropolitan police cruisers curved round to intercept. He sent out a blanket broadcast to be picked up by every cybersphere node and macrocellular cluster surrounding the force field.
‘Everyone in the generator complex, switch off the force field and deactivate the wormhole. You are violating an ANA sanctioned operation. I am authorized to use extreme force to end your transgression.’
As he suspected, there was no reply. There never would be, he knew. Every moment he waited playing the good guy was another moment spent eradicating the precious evidence in orbit. All that left him with was the problem of knocking out the force field without flattening half the city.
Eight slender atomic distortion beams stabbed out from the starship to the top of the force-field dome, ripping the air molecules apart in a blaze of incandescence. Monstrous static discharges flared away into the heaving atmosphere. The force field began to glow a pale purple, as if it was growing a bruise. A cluster of dump webs skittered down from the Columbia505 They struck the force field, kicking out blooms of dusky ripples. The darkness around them intensified, expanding rapidly. Under such an assault, overload was only ever going to be a matter of time. The force field collapsed amid a deluge of wild energy flares and superheated shockwaves that battered the surrounding buildings. Columbia505 received a heavy buffeting, which the smartcore fought to counter and hold the ship stable above the circle of glaring ion flames that were eating into the generator building. Sensors reported the wormhole had failed. Digby was worried about how much evidence it had already cleared away.
Ellezelin Civil Defence Agency force fields were coming on above Riasi, a series of large interlocking hemispheres protecting the city’s districts.
Five large Ellezelin Navy cruisers were racing round the planet, their trajectories curving sharply to position them above the city.
A starship hurtled up from the buckling generator complex, accelerating at nearly forty gees. It fired a barrage of energy beams and disruptor pulses at the Columbia505. Digby found himself gripped by safety webbing as the starship spun helplessly. Planetary atmosphere was an alien milieu for it; systems designed for combat in the clear vacuum of space were operating below optimum, fogged by the dense gases. The force field shimmered a vivid amber, spitting off glittering scintillations while Digby’s vulnerable inner ears conjured up a wave of nausea. Far below, consecutive shockwaves crashed down across the beleaguered commercial buildings and warehouses which comprised Riasi’s sprawling interstellar commerce district.
The Columbia505 levelled out. Routines in Digby’s macro-cellular clusters neutralized the nausea. Exoimage displays showed him the other starship streaking up through the troposphere, a huge ionic contrail shimmering behind it. ‘Follow it,’ Digby ordered the smartcore. The air above the shaken city howled yet again as the Columbia505 powered its way up, ignoring the cruisers that were attempting to converge on it. The other starship slipped into hyperspace. Columbia505 followed.
*
‘Why? Paula asked before Digby had even cleared the Ellezelin system. ‘Those fragments were vital. We’ll lose most of them now.’
‘Forensic analysis was only ever a long shot,’ Digby countered. ‘I determined the Faction ship was a much better lead. They risked a lot to obstruct my collection operation.’
‘Which implies the fragments you were recovering were important.’
‘My judgement,’ Digby insisted, wishing he didn’t feel quite so small. No other human, higher, advancer, or normal could ever make him feel so inadequate and defensive as his great-grandmother.
‘Indeed it was, and you’re committed now. How good is the sensor reading?’
‘Holding steady. They’re stealthed, of course, but my smart-core can still detect some distortion. It’s a good ship they’ve got, equal to Chatfield’s.’
‘All right. I’d probably have done the same in your circumstances. You stay with it, and see where that representative is going. The ANA judicial conclave is beginning now, I’m expecting the entire Accelerator Faction to be shut down within the next hour or two.’
‘Excellent.’
‘It has its problems, not least the agents and representatives still at large, like the one you’re following. I suspect we’re going to be a long time mopping up.’
‘At least we’ll have a complete list of them and their activities.’
‘Yes, that should help. Let me know when the ship reaches some kind of destination.’
‘Of course.’ Digby scowled as the secure call ended. This whole mission was proving very unsatisfactory. He was leaving too many unanswered questions behind him as he tagged along after the latest possible lead. He was also feeling plenty of stress from the destruction he’d caused then fled from in Riasi. There would have been a lot of bodyloss due to his actions.
After quarter of an hour it was clear the Faction ship was heading in towards the Central Worlds. It looked like the destination was Oaktier.
*
There had only been one judicial conclave in ANA’s history. It had been called to deal with the Separatist Faction who had wanted to break ANA up, leaving them in a section free from any regulation or limit imposed by the base law control which acted as a universal governor across the entire edifice. The majority verdict was to disallow any such action. An entity with ANA’s ability and resources, and under the authority of a dogmatic ideology, might conceivably pose a threat to the original ANA, not to mention the rest of the Greater Commonwealth. The duplicitous method by which the Separatist Faction had sought to seize command of the quasi-physical mechanism which sustained ANA in order to achieve the segmentation was verification enough that they couldn’t be trusted to evolve quietly in some distant corner of the galaxy. A whole host of other agendas to encourage post-physical ascension were exposed at the conclave.
As before, ANA:Governance produced a spherical assembly arena with an equivalent diameter half that of Earth itself. Such a size was necessary in order to accommodate the manifested forms of every individual mind embedded within the edifice of ANA. They appeared within seconds of the judicial conclave being announced, materializing across the vast curving shell, clustering with those of their own faction or in simple groupings of friends or relatives. Ilanthe, as the nominated representative of the Accelerator Faction, floated at the centre of the sphere. She had chosen to manifest as her primary representation, a featureless human female with fluid silver skin. Only her face retained any characteristics, showing a long jawbone and small elegant nose. Her eyes were the absorptive black of an event horizon.
‘Thank you for responding,’ ANA:Governance said to the convened population.
Ilanthe performed a random sweep over sections of the assembly arena, noting the various forms and shapes manifested across the shell wall. Over half retained a human appearance, while the rest had selected a multitude of geometries and colours from minimal spheres of light, to swarms of neurone-echoes, to the simple yet sinister black pyramids of the radical Isolator faction. One of the human figures was Nelson Sheldon, who was contemplating her with the relaxed disdain of a man who’s won his game. Of Gore Burnelli there was no sign, which perturbed her more than it should have. She still didn’t understand how he’d become the Third Dreamer; his mentality must have some private link out of ANA to the gaiafield which she didn’t comprehend. Not that it was going to matter now.
Her fully expanded mentality (still anchored within the Accelerator compilation) regarded her jury with a degree of amusement, especially as some infinitesimal portion of her own mentality was contributing to ANA:Governance, effectively making her judge herself.
‘We are called here to review the activities of the Accelerator Faction,’ ANA:Governance continued. ‘The charge against them is one of high treason.’
Ilanthe’s peers remained quiescent, awaiting the information repositories containing ANA’s evidence.
‘Do you wish to say anything?’ ANA:Governance asked Ilanthe.
‘You exist to provide us an existence which promotes intellectual development and evolution, yet you place restrictions upon enacting those very developments in the reality of spacetime. Now you complain when we try to achieve that which your fundamental nature encourages. Please explain the logic.’
‘All individuals within me are free to translate their goals into physical or post-physical reality,’ ANA:Governance replied. ‘You know this. What I cannot permit is for those goals to be imposed on an unwilling majority. When and if we transform to post-physical status it will be as a consenting majority.’
‘Nice in theory. But the restrictions you impose on those of us who are ready to transcend are completely unacceptable. We shall achieve our objective on our own.’ Ilanthe’s primary consciousness withdrew back into the centre of the Accelerator compilation where the inversion core awaited. Secondary routines took over her manifestation within the assembly arena, producing responses to ANA:Governance’s questions.
The globular inversion core shimmered a dark metallic indigo, its surface cohesion rippling slightly as the bands of exotic force structuring its boundary began to disengage from the quantum pseudofabric that was ANA’s edifice.
‘The Prime allies of the Ocisen Empire fleet were animated by the thought routines of Donald Chatfield,’ ANA:Governance said. ‘He is one of your agents in the Greater Commonwealth.’ A vast flock of information repositories burst into existence within the assembly arena and settled on the audience waiting across the shell. Only Nelson Sheldon didn’t bother to access the information. Everybody else studied the records of Kazimir’s interception, the electronic interrogation and analysis of the inter-Prime communications. The conclusion was inevitable.
Ilanthe’s
mentality switched residence from ANA’s edifice to the inversion core. For the first time since she had downloaded three hundred and twenty-seven years ago, she was fully independent.
‘What are you doing?’ ANA:Governance demanded as it detected her withdrawal from itself.
‘Claiming the right you were established to enforce,’ the secondary routines manifested in the assembly arena told it.
‘You cannot function separately within me,’ it replied. ‘You will simply be isolated until your primary identity reconnects to my edifice. Until then, no interaction with any part of me will be permitted. You will effectively be placing yourself into suspension.’
‘Really?’
‘Your Faction’s attempt to manipulate Living Dream into providing you passage into the Void is declared outlaw,’ ANA:Governance announced. The base law upon which its entire edifice was built asserted itself, exposing the collective memory of the Accelerator Faction members. ANA immediately noticed gaps where whole segments had been erased, the information transferred to Ilanthe’s mentality. Everything else was there, the actions of their agents, the development of independent Primes to provide the Ocisens with the kind of allies that gave them enough confidence to launch the invasion fleet. The why of it was missing. ANA also familiarized itself with the way Ilanthe had grown to dominate the faction, how her obsession with the Void and its abilities had come to supplant all other goals to accelerate human evolution. The secret manufacturing sites producing hardware for agents were revealed. There was one station orbiting a red dwarf star for which there were no records. It examined how she had diverted every resource and ability of the faction within ANA to empower the centre of the Accelerator compilation: producing the inversion core which they were going to fuse with the nucleus of the Void.
Too much was missing still to determine their underlying strategy. All of it, the ultimate essence of the Accelerator faction, hung within the inversion core. ANA observed the core detach itself from all contact with the edifice. Yet, still, the object maintained its integrity contained within the overall subquantum edifice. Not quite real.