Orphans of the Helix

  "It destroyed your seedship," said Dem Lia. So that was why the Ousters seemed to have no metal and why there was no Templar-grown forest ring braiding this alien one.

  Far Rider shook his head. "It devoured the seedship, along with more than twenty-eight thousand kilometers of the tree ring itself -- every leaf, fruit, oxygen pod, water tendril -- even our protogene growth centers."

  "There were far fewer purely space-adapted Ousters in those days," said Reta Kasteen. "The adapted ones attempted to save the others, but many thousands died on that first visit of the Destroyer ... the Devourer ... the Machine. We obviously have many names for it."

  "Ship from hell," said the Chief Branchman, and Dem Lia realized that he was almost certainly speaking literally, as if a religion had grown up based upon hating this machine.

  "How often does it come?" asked Den Soa.

  "Every fifty-seven years," said the Templar. "Exactly."

  "From the red giant system?" asked Den Soa.

  "Yes," broadcast Far Rider. "From the hell star."

  "If you know its trajectory," said Dem Lia, "can't you know far ahead of time the sections of your forest ring it will ... devastate, devour? Couldn't you just not colonize, or at the very least evacuate, those areas? After all, most of the tree ring has to be unpopulated ... the ring's surface area has to be equal to more than half a million Old Earths or Hyperions."

  Chief Branchman Keel Redt showed his thin smile again. "About now -- some seven or eight standard days out -- the Destroyer, for all its mass, not only completes its deceleration cycle, but carries out complicated maneuvers that will take it to some populated part of the ring. Always a populated area. A hundred and four years ago, its final trajectory took it to a massing of O2 pods where more than twenty million of our non-fully space-adapted Ousters had made their homes, complete with travel tubes, bridges, towers, city-sized platforms and artificially grown life-support pods that had been under slow construction for more than six hundred standard years."

  "All destroyed," said True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen with sorrow in her voice. "Devoured. Harvested."

  "Was there much loss of life?" asked Dem Lia, her voice quiet.

  Far Rider shook his head and broadcast, "Millions of fully space-adapted Ousters rallied to evacuate the oxygen breathers. Fewer than a hundred died."

  "Have you tried to communicate with the ... machine?" asked Peter Delem Dem Tae.

  "For centuries," said Reta Kasteen, her voice shaking with emotion. "We've used radio, tightbeam, maser, the few holo transmitters we still have, Far Rider's people have even used their wingfields -- by the thousands -- to flash messages in simple, mathematical code."

  The five Amoiete Spectrum Helix people waited.

  "Nothing," said the Chief Branchman in a flat voice. "It comes, it chooses its populated section of the ring, and it devours. We have never had a reply."

  "We believe that it is completely automated and very ancient," said Reta Kasteen. "Perhaps millions of years old. Still operating on programming developed when the alien ring was built. It harvests these huge sections of the ring, limbs, branches, tubules with millions of gallons of tree-ring manufactured water ... then returns to the red-star system and, after a pause, returns our way again."

  "We used to believe that there was a world left in that red-giant system," broadcast Far Rider. "A planet which remains permanently hidden from us on the far side of that evil sun. A world which built this ring as its food source, probably before their G2 sun went giant, and which continues to harvest in spite of the misery it causes us. No longer. There is no such planet. We now believe that the Destroyer acts alone, out of ancient, blind programming, harvesting sections of the ring and destroying our settlements for no reason. Whatever or whoever lived in that red giant system has long since fled."

  Dem Lia wished that Kem Loi, their astronomer, was there. She knew that she was on the command deck watching. "We saw no planets during our approach to this binary system," said the green-banded commander. "It seems highly unlikely that any world that could support life would have survived the transition of the G2 star to the red giant."

  "Nonetheless, the Destroyer passes very close to that terrible red star on each of its voyages," said the Ouster Chief Branchman. "Perhaps some sort of artificial environment remains -- a space habitat -- hollowed-out asteroids. An environment which requires this plant ring for its inhabitants to survive. But it does not excuse the carnage."

  "If they had the ability to build this machine, they could have simply fled their system when the G2 sun went critical," mused Patek Georg. The red-band looked at Far Rider. "Have you tried to destroy the machine?"

  The lipless smile beneath the ectofield twitched lizard-wide on Far Rider's strange face. "Many times. Scores of thousands of true Ousters have died. The machine has an energy defense that lances us to ash at approximately one hundred thousand klicks."

  "That could be a simple meteor defense," said Dem Lia.

  Far Rider's smile broadened so that it was very terrible. "If so, it suffices as a very efficient killing device. My father died in the last attack attempt."

  "Have you tried traveling to the red giant system?" asked Peter Delem.

  "We have no spacecraft left," answered the Templar.

  "On your own solar wings then?" asked Peter, obviously doing the math in his head on the time such a round trip would take. Years -- decades at solar sailing velocities -- but well within an Ouster's life span.

  Far Rider moved his hand with its elongated fingers in a horizontal chop. "The heliosphere turbulence is too great. Yet we have tried hundreds of times -- expeditions upon which scores depart and none or only a few return. My brother died on such an attempt six of your standard years ago."

  "And Far Rider himself was terribly hurt," said Reta Kasteen softly. "Sixty-eight of the best deep spacers left -- two returned. It took all of what remains of our medical science to save Far Rider's life, and that meant two years in recovery pod nutrient for him."

  Dem Lia cleared her throat. "What do you want us to do?"

  The two Ousters and the Templar leaned forward. Chief Branchman Keel Redt spoke for all of them. "If, as you believe, as we have become convinced, there is no inhabited world left in the red giant system, kill the Destroyer now. Annihilate the harvesting machine. Save us from this mindless, obsolete, and endless scourge. We will reward you as handsomely as we can -- foods, fruits, as much water as you need for your voyage, advanced genetic techniques, our knowledge of nearby systems, anything."

  The Spectrum Helix people glanced at one another. Finally Dem Lia said, "If you are comfortable here, four of us would like to excuse ourselves for a short time to discuss this. Ces Ambre would be delighted to stay with you and talk if you so wish."

  The Chief Branchman made a gesture with both long arms and huge hands. "We are completely comfortable. And we are more than delighted to have this chance to talk to the venerable M. Ambre -- the woman who saw the husband of Aenea."

  Dem Lia noticed that the young Templar, Reta Kasteen, looked visibly thrilled at the prospect.

  "And then you will bring us your decision, yes?" radioed Far Rider, his waxy body, huge eyeshields, and alien physiology giving Dem Lia a slight chill. This was a creature that fed on light, tapped enough energy to deploy electromagnetic solar wings hundreds of kilometers wide, recycled his own air, waste, and water, and lived in an environment of absolute cold, heat, radiation, and hard vacuum. Humankind had come a long way from the early hominids in Africa on Old Earth.

  And if we say no, thought Dem Lia, three-hundred-thousand-some angry space-adapted Ousters just like him might descend on our spinship like the angry Hawaiians venting their wrath on Captain James Cook when he caught them pulling the nails from the hull of his ship. The good captain ended up not only being killed horribly, but having his body eviscerated, burned, and boiled into small chunks. As soon as she thought this, Dem Lia knew better. These Ousters would not attack the Helix. All of
her intuition told her that. And if they do, she thought, our weaponry will vaporize the lot of them in two-point-six seconds. She felt guilty and slightly nauseated at her own thoughts as she made her farewells and took the lift down to the command deck with the other three.

  "You saw him," said True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen a little breathlessly. "Aenea's husband?"

  Ces Ambre smiled. "I was fourteen standard years old. It was a long time ago. He was traveling from world to world via farcaster and stayed a few days in my second triune parents' home because he was ill -- a kidney stone -- and then the Pax troopers kept him under arrest until they could send someone to interrogate him. My parents helped him escape. It was a very few days a very many years ago." She smiled again. "And he was not Aenea's husband at that time, remember. He had not taken the sacrament of her DNA, nor even grown aware of what her blood and teachings could do for the human race."

  "But you saw him," pressed Chief Branchman Keel Redt.

  "Yes. He was in delirium and pain much of the time and handcuffed to my parents' bed by the Pax troopers."

  Reta Kasteen leaned closer. "Did he have any sort of ... aura ... about him?"

  "Oh, yes," said Ces Ambre with a chuckle. "Until my parents gave him a sponge bath. He had been traveling hard for many days."

  The two Ousters and the Templar seemed to sit back in disappointment.

  Ces Ambre leaned forward and touched the Templar woman's knee. "I apologize for being flippant -- I know the important role that Raul Endymion played in all of our history -- but it was long ago, there was much confusion, and at that time on Vitus-Gray-Balianus B I was a rebellious teenager who wanted to leave my community of the Spectrum and accept the cruciform in some nearby Pax city."

  The other three visibly leaned back now. The two faces that were readable registered shock. "You wanted to accept that ... that ... parasite into your body?"

  As part of Aenea's Shared Moment, every human everywhere had seen -- had known -- had felt the full gestalt -- of the reality behind the "immortality cruciform" -- a parasitic mass of AI nodes creating a TechnoCore in real space, using the neurons and synapses of each host body in any way it wished, often using it in more creative ways by killing the human host and using the linked neuronic web when it was at its most creative -- during those final seconds of neural dissolution before death. Then the Church would use TechnoCore technology to resurrect the human body with the Core cruciform parasite growing stronger and more networked at each death and resurrection.

  Ces Ambre shrugged. "It represented immortality at the time. And a chance to get away from our dusty little village and join the real world -- the Pax."

  The three Ouster diplomats could only stare.

  Ces Ambre raised her hands to her robe and slipped it open enough to show them the base of her throat and the beginning of a scar where the cruciform had been removed by the Aeneans. "I was kidnapped to one of the remaining Pax worlds and put under the cruciform for nine years," she said so softly that her voice barely carried to the three diplomats. "And most of this time was after Aenea's shared moment -- after the absolute revelation of the Core's plan to enslave us with those despicable things."

  The True Voice of the Tree Reta Kasteen took Ces Ambre's older hand in hers. "Yet you refused to become Aenean when you were liberated. You joined what was left of your old culture."

  Ces Ambre smiled. There were tears in her eyes, and those eyes suddenly looked much older. "Yes. I felt I owed my people that -- for deserting them at the time of crisis. Someone had to carry on the Spectrum Helix culture. We had lost so many in the wars. We lost even more when the Aeneans gave us the option of joining them. It is hard to refuse to become something like a god."

  Far Rider made a grunt that sounded like heavy static. "This is our greatest fear next to the Destroyer. No one is now alive on the forest ring who experienced the Shared Moment, but the details of it -- the glorious insights into empathy and the binding powers of the Void Which Binds, Aenea's knowledge that many of the Aeneans would be able to farcast -- freecast -- anywhere in the universe. Well, the Church of Aenea has grown here until at least a fourth of our population would give up their Ouster or Templar heritage and become Aenean in a second."

  Ces Ambre rubbed her cheek and smiled again. "Then it's obvious that no Aeneans have visited this system. And you have to remember that Aenea insisted that there be no 'Church of Aenea,' no veneration or beatification or adoration. That was paramount in her thoughts during the Shared Moment."

  "We know," said Reta Kasteen. "But in the absence of choice and knowledge, cultures often turn to religion. And the possibility of an Aenean being aboard with you was one reason we greeted the arrival of your great ship with such enthusiasm and trepidation."

  "Aeneans do not arrive by spacecraft," Ces Ambre said softly.

  The three nodded. "When and if the day ever comes," broadcast Far Rider, "it will be up to the individual conscience of each Ouster and Templar to decide. As for me, I will always ride the great waves of the solar wind."

  Dem Lia and the other three returned.

  "We've decided to help," she said. "But we must hurry."

  There was no way in the universe that Dem Lia or any of the other eight humans or any of the five AIs would risk the Helix in a direct confrontation with the Destroyer or the Harvester or whatever the hell the Ousters wanted to call their nemesis. It was not just by engineering happenstance that the three thousand life-support pods carrying the 684,300 Spectrum Helix pioneers in deep cryogenic sleep were egg-shaped. This culture had all their eggs in one basket -- literally -- and they were not about to send that basket into battle. Already Basho and several of the other AIs were brooding about the proximity to the oncoming harvesting ship. Space battles could easily be fought across twenty-eight AU's of distance -- while traditional lasers, or lances, or charged particle-beam weapons would take more than a hundred and ninety-six minutes to creep that distance -- Hegemony, Pax, and Ouster ships had all developed hyperkinetic missiles able to leap into and out of Hawking space. Ships could be destroyed before radar could announce the presence of the incoming missile. Since this "harvester" crept around its appointed rounds at sublight speed, it seemed unlikely that it would carry C-plus weaponry, but "unlikely" is a word that has undone the planning and fates of warriors since time immemorial.

  At the Spectrum Helix engineers' request, the Aeneans had rebuilt the Helix to be truly modular. When it reached its Utopian planet around its perfect star, sections would free themselves to become probes and aircraft and landers and submersibles and space stations. Each of the three thousand individual life pods could land and begin a colony on its own, although the plans were to cluster the landing sites carefully after much study of the new world. By the time the Helix was finished deploying and landing its pods and modules and probes and shuttles and command deck and central fusion core, little would be left in orbit except the huge Hawking drive units with maintenance programs and robots to keep them in perfect condition for centuries, if not millennia.

  "We'll take the system exploratory probe to investigate this Destroyer," said Dem Lia. It was one of the smaller modules, adapted more to pure vacuum than to atmospheric entry, although it was capable of some morphing. But compared to most of the Helix's peaceful subcomponents the probe was armed to the teeth.

  "May we accompany you?" said Chief Branchman Keel Redt. "None of our race has come closer than a hundred thousand kilometers to the machine and lived."

  "By all means," said Dem Lia. "The probe's large enough to hold thirty or forty of us, and only three are going from our ship. We will keep the internal containment field at one-tenth gee and adapt the seating accordingly."

  The probe was more like one of the old combat torchships than anything else, and it accelerated out toward the advancing machine under 250 gravities, internal containment fields on infinite redundancy, external fields raised to their maximum of class twelve. Dem Lia was piloting. Den Soa was attempting to
communicate with the gigantic ship via every means available, sending messages of peace on every band from primitive radio to modulated tachyon bursts. There was no response. Patek Georg Dem Mio was meshed into the defense/counterattack virtual umbilicals of his couch. The passengers sat at the rear of the probe's compact command deck and watched. Saigyô had decided to accompany them, and his massive holo sat bare-chested and cross-legged on a counter near the main viewport. Dem Lia made sure to keep their trajectory aimed not directly at the monstrosity, in the probability that it had simple meteor defenses: if they kept traveling toward their current coordinates, they would miss the ship by tens of thousands of kilometers above the plane of the ecliptic.

  "Its radar has begun tracking us," said Patek Georg when they were six hundred thousand klicks away and decelerating nicely. "Passive radar. No weapons acquisition. It doesn't seem to be probing us with anything except simple radar. It will have no idea if life-forms are aboard our probe or not."

  Dem Lia nodded. "Saigyô," she said softly, "at two hundred thousand klicks, please bring our coordinates around so that we will be on intercept course with the thing." The chubby monk nodded.

  Somewhat later, the probe's thrusters and main engines changed tune, the starfield rotated, and the image of the huge machine filled the main window. The view was magnified as if they were only five hundred klicks from the spacecraft. The thing was indescribably ungainly, built only for vacuum, fronted with metal teeth and rotating blades built into mandible-like housings, the rest looking like the wreckage of an old space habitat that had been mindlessly added onto for millennium after millennium and then covered with warts, wattles, bulbous sacs, tumors, and filaments.

  "Distance, one hundred eighty-three thousand klicks and closing," said Patek Georg.

  "Look how blackened it is," whispered Den Soa.

  "And worn," radioed Far Rider. "None of our people have ever seen it from this close. Look at the layers of cratering through the heavy carbon deposits. It is like an ancient, black moon that has been struck again and again by tiny meteorites."