Hub…config to outer shell…collapsing effectors now, collapsing all outer structures…enzymatic knife, pyridine probes, electron lens…folding in planes…standby, Hub…standby a minute--"
The tenor of the assembler's voicelink changed. "What's happening?" Johnny Winger studied the IC, wondering.
Gibby was getting frustrated at the pace. "Lieutenant, we may have to go quantum."
Winger was still fighting the controls. "I hope not. If we have to collapse to squeeze through the foundation of that building, it'll take nearly an hour to grab enough atoms to reconfig on the other side. Somebody's bound to notice ANAD. We'd be lucky to get half of ANAD back before they jumped him."
"Lieutenant, if we can't get those last effectors in, ANAD won't fit through the lattice atoms. None of the swarm will. The mission's over--"
Winger banged his hand on the keypad. "The mission's not over, dammit!" He wiped sweat from his eyes, watched the imager screen for a moment. The dense, dark regularity of crystalline planes dimmed the view, extending to infinity. An impenetrable woods. An impassable barrier?
Not just yet.
Winger made up his mind. "We're going quantum, fellas. There's no other way. We'll just have to chance it. Gibby, send the command."
Gibbs checked config status and sent the instruction. As a check, he requested voicelink confirmation from ANAD. It came two minutes later.
"ANAD to Hub…attempting to comply with command…severing outer shell lattices and groups now…breaking all bonds…severing covalent groups…severing poly groups…ending--"
The voicelink cut out in midsentence. Gibby reset the link but ANAD was quiet.
"That does it, Skipper. No voicelink."
"Status, Gibby? What's ANAD doing now?"
"Unknown, sir. There's no signal at all. Either the mountain's too solid for commlink or--"
"We've lost another master," said Nguyen, glumly.
"Maybe not...maybe not…give him time, fellas." Winger waited impatiently, pacing about the tiny van, rubbing his hands together. He tried to visualize what the autonomous assembler was doing, more than a kilometer away, a few feet below the foundation underside of the Red Hammer lab. When Delforza’s look questioned him, he shrugged. “Now we wait…that’s all we can do.”
Deep inside the heart of Banikaiyan Mountain, the ANAD master had finally received the command. Executing the quantum collapse, it rapidly folded its own outer shell inward, imploding in a puff of atom fragments. Base lattice, effectors, probes and grapplers, even the core shell surrounding its nanoprocessor, went hurtling off into the minute voids of the dense shale layers below the foundation, ricocheting like bullets from one atom cluster to another, a spreading big bang of spinning atom parts.
Instantly, ANAD disappeared. To intents and purposes, ANAD had effectively vanished in a cloud of blurry quantum waves. Only the singular dot of its nanoprocessor, the kernel of the assembler, remained. The dot was the heart and mind of the assembler.
Less than an hour later, making its way on quantum wave propulsors, ANAD traversed the foundation structure like a fly in a forest. Silently, with the barest ripple of probability waves, the kernel of ANAD emerged into a darkened storage vault in the basement of the Red Hammer lab, its nanoprocessor still dogging electron states to bring the nearly invisible device through.
Unknown to anyone, ANAD had made it.
For another few minutes, ANAD ran its internal program, replicating structure, grabbing atoms left and right like some frantic brickmason, rebuilding itself from the inside out. Base, core shell, working grapplers, probes and hooks, atom by atom, cluster by cluster, the master replicant fashioned a new body for itself and, following its stored survival program, finally enabled a commlink and called out for its human handlers.
The speaker erupted with a staticky crackle. "--AD to Hub, ANAD to Hub…ANAD is through the foundation…ANAD has replicated to Level 1, standing by inside the target...ANAD senses inert structures nearby...replicating swarm now...replicating swarm to Level 1...ANAD detects no disturbance in range--"
A great cheer erupted through the van. Johnny Winger sprang to his feet and enabled voicelink.
"ANAD, you old goat…good work! Good work! Hub to ANAD, where are you? Can you broadcast a signal we can fix?"
Moments later, the acoustic return materialized on the display. "Bingo!" cried Gibby. Deeno slapped him on the back so hard, he nearly choked. "Just inside the basement of the complex. Good old ANAD--"
Winger waved everyone quiet. "We're inside and replicating…let's get Q2’s layout of the target up. I want to see what's what.”
A short time later, the ANAD group was fully formed and in position.
"ANAD reporting position…sixty two micrometers below first atom planes of target…barrier ahead…detecting barrier ahead--"
Winger shot to the controls. "ANAD, start filtering through the floors now! Penetrate the floor before any mechs engage!"
He sent the commands to get ANAD inside the solid lattices of the floor, hoping the enemy mechs of the security barrier could never find him in such a tangle. Even if they do, he reasoned to himself, engaging another swarm wouldn't be easy in close confines like that. Like trying to turn a horse around in his stall--
The enemy mechs closed and pressed through the floor tiles of the control room, but ANAD had already dispersed and spread out. Deep inside the atomic structure of the floor, two armies of nanomechs stalked each other, sliding through tight corridors of crystalline lattices, probing and sounding and listening in the echo chamber for any hint of the other.
Winger held his breath.
After a few minutes, he began to relax. The enemy mechs couldn't detect ANAD. The assemblers were dispersed too widely.
Gibby studied the nav display. "ANAD approaching upper floor plane…outer lattice."
Winger was already thinking ahead. "Once he reaches the floor surface, I want to split the formation. Two recon swarms, you and me controlling. Lieutenant—“ he turned to Delforza, “anything from Intel on what might be inside…what we should be looking for?”
The Italian officer shook his head. “No, that’s why you’re here. Q2’s detected residual HNRIV in the area but very dispersed…we think there are HNRIV ops here, but there’s no real proof. Atom Slammer is supposed to get that proof…and then do something about it.”
Winger understood. “Okay, we’ll go from there. Let’s configure for all-scan…EM, acoustic, the works. I want to see what's going on. Gibby, you take the second swarm and filter out into the rest of the building…see what you can find."
"Understood." Gibby pulled up the proper swarm template and got ready to send the command.
ANAD's whiny voice crackled through the speakers. "ANAD to Hub…ANAD at upper plane…twenty percent propulsor…effectors stowed and safed…detecting reduced density ahead…crystal packing density dropping off--"
"Hub to ANAD," Johnny Winger bent to the voice pickup, "Get ready to replicate and divide. Recon swarm template. Configure for max bandwidth…send everything back as fast as you get it!"
The delay was only a few seconds now…"ANAD to Hub, acknowledging formation command…still detecting slight disturbances in lattice…maneuvering to avoid…that was quite a ride through the mountain--"
Winger and Gibby looked at each other. "He sounds just like a kid, Wings."
"Too much like a kid. I need him to stay focused." Winger perused the IC panel. The imager screen was still dim, shadowy walls and ramparts of crystalline planes still evident, lined up into the distance. Config status showed ANAD's current setup. The recon swarm template had been sent. In moments, ANAD would start grabbing atoms from the top layer of the floor, replicating himself with blazing speed. When the swarm reached the commanded size, the master would split the formation and begin shaping each group into virtual lenses and detectors, infinitesimal instruments able to capture photons of any energy and funne
l the patterns back along the comm link to the vans a kilometer downslope down from La Maghreb.
With any luck, dividing the swarms and silently capturing photons from inside the complex wouldn't arouse any Red Hammer defenses.
"It's just a matter of time before that swarm of mechs under the floor re-groups," Winger muttered.
"ANAD'll kick ass," Deeno shot back. The CQE1 was slouching against the far wall of the van, propped up on the edge of the TinyTown cylinder, much to An Nguyen's disgust. Firmly, he nudged her away.
"TinyTown is a delicate environment, Deeno. Not a sofa bed."
D'Nunzio growled at him, as both watched Winger and Gibby work the controls.
Deep inside the compound, an invisible mist of nanoscale mechs rose silently from the floor tiles into the atmosphere of the Red Hammer facility.
Seconds later, the first visual image, grainy and patchy, jerking with interference, but discernible filled the imager screen.
"We're in," Winger breathed. He hardly dared believe their luck.
For his part, Gibby steered his own horde through the door seals, briefly pausing at the inner boundary of the security web. "Forgot about that," he said. "Hub to ANAD2, disperse and re-enter the floor structure. Filter along the upper plane until this security web is bypassed."
"ANAD2 to Hub…acknowledging…dispersing for solid entry now…I get claustrophobia down there, you know…it's awfully crowded inside those lattices…Brownian motion's a bitch…entering