Ibu was gliding slowly along the top of the ridge which the drone flock had scanned. The data feed from his suit was undergoing micro-second dropouts, making the vision flicker every few seconds.
‘Going inside,’ he said.
The little jets of gas puffed again. Then the crystalline wall was sliding past his helmet. He held his course level, staying a constant fifteen metres away from the side of the vast fold that opened into the tree. His entire silver-white oversuit shone with the weird radiance that slithered through the crystalline structure. Laura was aware her heart rate was increasing, and she wondered if it was some kind of telepathic feedback from Ibu.
‘You’re approaching the zone I designated,’ she told him, reading the inertial coordinates from an exovision icon.
‘Yeah. Noticed that.’
Laura grinned. ‘I also have some eggs I’d like to show your grandmother how to use.’
‘I’m sure she’d welcome it.’
Ibu halted close to the bottom of the ride. Fifty metres away, the crystal curved sharply to form the base of a narrow valley. The other wall of the ridge was only seventy metres behind him. ‘Beginning phase one,’ he announced.
Laura’s relayed vision wobbled as he reached down and removed a deep-scan package from his fat utility belt. It was a simple green circle the size of his gauntleted hand.
She gripped the cushioned edge of the couch as Ibu triggered his harness and slowly glided forwards. She could see his arms stretched out ahead. The actual surface of the crystal was hard to make out in the odd shifting light glowing within.
His fingertips touched, and he rebounded slightly. Then the gas jets were puffing, holding him in place.
Laura let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
‘It’s practically frictionless,’ Ibu reported. ‘My suit’s stkpads aren’t holding.’
‘That’ll be the increased valancy,’ Laura told him. ‘That crystal is going to have fewer surface irregularities than ordinary matter.’
‘Okay. Applying the package now. See if that attaches.’
Laura wasn’t sure what kind of adhesive was on the deep-scan package, but when Ibu pressed it to the surface and applied a short burst from the harness jets to push it down, the glue seemed to work.
‘Tactile contact confirmed,’ Ibu said. ‘Telemetry good. Moving to second location.’
‘Well done,’ Ayanna told him.
‘We have a problem,’ Joey’s telepathic voice claimed.
Laura blinked her eyes open, banishing Ibu’s visual feed to a small ancillary icon in her exovision. She looked round the forward cabin, but everything seemed to be okay. ‘What’s wrong?’
Joey’s eyes stared at her from his twisted-up immobile face. ‘I’ve been using the shuttle’s optronic sensors to try and find Vermillion. I can’t. It’s vanished.’
‘What?’ Ayanna snapped, and there was no shielding strong enough to guard against the flash of alarm in her thoughts.
‘I can’t find it,’ Joey said. ‘Look, there’s something seriously wrong about losing contact with the drones and Vermillion just because of dopplering. It doesn’t matter how much the link frequency shifts, we should still be able to pick up the signal.’
Ayanna’s expression was edgy. ‘Yeah. I know.’
‘Okay. So. It bothered me – a lot. I started reviewing visual data. The Vermillion is thirteen hundred metres long, for fuck’s sake. You should be able to see it with the naked eye from this distance. The kind of optronics Fourteen is carrying are capable of reading the damn serial number. We know the orbital track, we know where to focus the search. I’ve run the basic scan five times now. There’s nothing orbiting that world. Not Vermillion. Not Viscount and not Verdant. None of them is in orbit any more.’
‘That can’t—’ Laura started. ‘Oh, bollocks. They couldn’t all crash.’ She gave Ayanna a desperate look. ‘Could they?’
‘They were in a thousand-kilometre orbit,’ Ayanna said. ‘We confirmed that before we entered the Forest’s temporal shift zone. I cannot imagine what kind of power could pull them out of orbit.’
‘The same power that slows time in here,’ Laura said. ‘Joey, we are slower in here. Any chance they’re all on the other side of the planet and they’re just taking a long time to track round into visual range?’
His misshapen face showed no emotion, but his thoughts dripped scorn. ‘Oh, yeah. Really never thought of that. Come on! Their spacing was equidistant round the orbital track. One of them is always in view. Most of the time, two of them are.’
‘Those spheres we tracked heading down to the planet,’ Ayanna said. ‘Perhaps they’re weapons.’
‘And we didn’t see the explosions?’ Laura asked. ‘No. Something else has happened.’
‘If they were pulled down from orbit, they’d create the devil’s own crater,’ Ayanna concluded. ‘Right now there’ll be megatons of rock vapour spewing up into the atmosphere. The planet’s entire climate system will be wrecked. Joey, any sign of that?’
The hyperspace theorist managed to blink. ‘No. But I’ll run a decent scan. Maybe they didn’t crash, maybe the ingrav held out long enough.’
‘Do it,’ Ayanna said curtly.
‘Do we tell . . .?’ Laura waved a hand at the titanic alien artefact glowing beyond the windscreen. The exopod’s strobes were still flashing regularly.
‘No,’ Ayanna said quickly. ‘Let them get back here before we hit them with this. I don’t want anything to distract them out there.’
‘Okay.’ A slow shiver ran down Laura’s spine. It seemed to generate its own chill. ‘Even if the ships were pulled out of orbit, that doesn’t explain what happened to all the drones.’
Ayanna gave a quick nod. ‘I know.’
Laura watched Ibu fit the remainder of the deep-scan packages. They started to reveal the amazing molecular substructure within the tree’s crystal edifice: millions of distinct layers interwoven in the most incredibly complex patterns. Each band possessed a different energy level, many of which dipped into negative functions.
‘This is some seriously impressive bollocks,’ Laura said faintly. Her secondary routines were trying to map the pathways which the packages were exposing, but her macrocellular clusters simply didn’t have the processing capacity to hack it. Even with Fourteen’s array working on the problem, it would take weeks. ‘And we’re only seeing a tiny fraction. The whole thing is a giant solid state circuit that manipulates negative energy – and that’s just the part I do understand. It must be generating its own valency differences, too, which is practically in the realm of perpetual motion.’
‘So there has to be a control mechanism somewhere,’ Ayanna said. ‘Perhaps a section that runs its routines?’
‘Somewhere. Yes. But we’re dealing with cubic kilometres here.’
‘Logically it would be at the centre of the bulbous section at the other end.’
‘Sure. Logically. Ibu, Rojas, are you sensing any kind of thoughts coming from the tree? They wouldn’t necessarily be as fast or even similar to ours.’
‘Sorry, Laura,’ Ibu said. ‘Nothing. My ESP can barely get a look inside the crystal, not that I understand half of what I can perceive, anyway.’
‘Okay. I’m sending you a file with the coordinates I want for the sampler modules.’
‘Laura,’ Rojas asked, ‘this is one very complex molecular structure we’re seeing in the crystal. Is sampling appropriate, do you think?
‘Appropriate?’ she spluttered. ‘This is the most incredible molecular mechanism I’ve ever seen!’
Ibu chuckled. ‘What he means is, if we start sticking sampler filaments in there, is it going to be like shoving a pin in a balloon?’
Laura took a breath to calm down. ‘I’m going to take ten grams out at the most, and none of that is coming out of the negative energy channels. Sampling isn’t going to damage anything, okay? It’s safe.’
Ayanna turned round in the pilot’s couch and raised a very sceptical
eyebrow.
‘Safe,’ Laura reiterated, refusing to back down.
‘All right,’ Ibu said. ‘Applying the first module now.’
The first thing they learned was how difficult it was for the filaments to slide through the crystal surface with its enhanced atomic cohesion. ‘This might take a while,’ Laura admitted as she monitored the painfully slow progress the filament tips were making.
Ibu applied the last of the sample modules. ‘I’m going to take a look at the eggs,’ he said.
Laura expanded the optical ride he was providing, and observed him slide along the bottom of the illuminated valley. As he progressed, the harness emitted occasional puffs of vapour which glittered in the eerie light. The fold grew smaller and narrower, merging with several others as it curved about.
‘Ibu, is the light dimming?’ Laura asked. The image she was riding had been suffering an increasing number of those annoying judders as he moved along the fold, and now she was struggling to make out the fluctuating slivers of phosphorescence inside the crystal. It was as if he’d moved into shadow, which was impossible.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘Why? Are the sample modules screwing with the tree?’
She pressed down on a smile. ‘No.’
‘Signal bandwidth is reducing significantly,’ Ayanna warned. ‘Ibu, you’re moving into some serious interference. Is there anything different inside the crystal?’
‘No. But I can see the globes now. It’s like . . . hell. I can’t—’
Even though her eyelids were closed, Laura wanted to squint. She could just make out the dark globes that were melded with the crystal. Riding Ibu’s optics was a portal into a world of shadow upon shadow.
‘What’s happening?’ Rojas asked urgently.
‘Nothing,’ Ibu said. ‘I just can’t use my ESP on these things, is all. It’s like they’re shielded, the way we learned to protect our thoughts. But they’re really wonderful. I know it.’
‘You mean they’re alive?’ Laura asked in alarm.
‘I’m not sure.’
‘His heart rate’s really building,’ Ayanna warned.
Laura saw him gliding up close. The image fuzzed, then stabilized. It was very hard to see anything now, just shades of dark grey. The lighter outline of Ibu’s arm slid across the image, reaching towards one of the globes.
‘Going to – make out – holding ste—’
The image vanished completely. For a second there was just some basic telemetry, then that too ended.
‘Rojas?’ Ayanna said. ‘Do you have visual on Ibu?’
‘Just. He’s close to the globes. I think—’
Ibu’s link came back up. It was weak, Laura’s u-shadow reported. Voice circuit only.
‘. . . fucking thing . . . doesn’t . . . can’t . . . hell . . . really, really can’t . . .’
‘What’s happening?’ Ayanna demanded. ‘Ibu?’
‘Stuck. It’s stuck . . . all round . . . every finger . . .’
‘What?’ Laura asked. ‘Ibu, your visual is down. We can’t see anything. What has stuck?’
‘. . . Laura, its . . . molecul . . . my hand . . . fucking hand . . . can’t move it . . .’
‘Crap,’ Laura grunted. ‘Ibu, is your hand stuck? Is that what’s happened?’
‘. . . yes . . . yes . . . yes, fucker’s got me – Solid but . . . Shit, shit, nothing . . . cutting . . . free it . . .’
Ayanna gave Laura a worried look. ‘What’s going to happen if he cuts into that thing?’
‘I don’t bloody know!’
‘Ibu, be careful,’ Ayanna said.
‘. . . gotta be fuc—’ Ibu snarled.
‘Just get your hand clear,’ Laura told him. An auxiliary display showed her the exopod was moving.
‘Rojas, what are you doing?’ Ayanna asked.
‘The man needs some help,’ Rojas replied calmly.
‘Can you give us a visual feed?’ Laura asked. She unfastened the couch’s straps and airswam until she was right up against the windscreen. The exopod’s strobes were still flashing reassuringly against the pale waves of light slithering through the tree’s crystal.
‘Exopod’s signal’s reducing,’ Ayanna warned.
‘Ibu, can you hear me?’ Laura asked.
‘. . . isn’t . . .’ Ibu’s distorted voice said.
Ayanna started typing on one of the console keyboards. ‘Lost his signal.’
‘I see him,’ Rojas said. ‘Looks like a hand and a knee are touching the globe surface. Definitely sticking to it.’
‘Just get him off the damn thing!’ Ayanna said. ‘What kind of cutters have you got on the exopod?’
‘Don’t worry; the powerblade can cut through monobonded carbon fibre. This isn’t going to be any problem.’
‘Can you get close enough to use it?’ Laura asked.
‘It’s detachable . . . if I need to . . . easily done . . .’
‘No, no, no,’ Laura exclaimed as her u-shadow showed her the exopod’s signal strength reducing sharply. She hit the windscreen angrily, and had to hurriedly grab a couch as the blow sent her flailing backwards through the air.
‘. . . that’s really awesome . . .’ Rojas’s voice had taken on a reverential tone. ‘. . . going to go out . . . with him . . .’
Ayanna’s body stiffened. ‘Rojas? Rojas, don’t leave the exopod. Do you copy?’
‘. . . closer . . .’
‘Retain line of sight! Rojas? Rojas, do you copy?’
Laura pushed herself right up to the windscreen again and stared frantically at the tip of the distortion tree. ‘I can’t see the strobes! Bollocks, the idiot’s gone down into the fold.’ The communication icon in her exovision showed her the exopod’s signal fading to zero. It ended.
‘What’s really awesome?’ Joey’s mental voice asked. ‘What was he talking about? Did he mean Ibu was cutting himself free?’
Laura gave Ayanna a guilty look, then glanced back at Joey. ‘I don’t know. Yes. Yes, that must be what he meant. We—’ The cabin lights flickered, then dimmed before coming back up to full strength.
‘These dropouts are killing our systems,’ Ayanna snapped. ‘The processors are rebooting each time, then they get hit by another surge before they’ve completed. It’s not helping.’
‘Order the Mk16bs back to the tip of the tree,’ Laura said. ‘We need to see what’s happening out there.’
‘Right,’ Ayanna gave a little nod, as if she was dazed. ‘Yes. Good.’
Laura gripped the rim of the console with one hand, and flicked several switches. A hologram projector slid out of the cabin ceiling above her couch. It started to show a composite picture from the drone flock. They were moving now, converging on the tip of the tree.
‘Lost seven of them. Fifteen more showing functionality reduction,’ Ayanna said.
‘No kidding,’ Laura muttered. She couldn’t stop thinking about Rojas. Really wonderful. What did he mean? Had he seen something?
‘How long?’ Joey asked.
‘Twenty minutes,’ Ayanna said. ‘The flock is mapping the other end of the tree.’
Laura wanted to shout loud and hard – why hadn’t they left some drones close to the exopod? Surely that was procedure? But then, this level of communication failure was inconceivable in the Commonwealth. It was wrong-footing everyone. Blaming Ayanna wouldn’t solve anything.
For every few hundred metres the flock slid along the tree, they would lose another. Sometimes two or three would fail within seconds of each other. There was no pattern.
‘There won’t be one left by the time they reach the exopod,’ Ayanna grumbled.
Laura ignored her. Shuttle Fourteen was also suffering an increased number of glitches. The network was having trouble maintaining its integrity, so many subsystems were dropping out. She watched in dismay as several primary flight systems went off line – forward reaction-control thrusters, one of the fusion tubes, three of the regrav drives, main passenger cabin and environmental systems.
‘Dammit,’ Laura grunted when the passenger cabin systems went down. ‘We can’t afford to lose environmental.’
‘There’s enough oxygen on board for three of us,’ Joey said.
‘To do what?’ Laura snapped. ‘And there’s going to be five flying down to that planet.’
‘Calm down,’ Ayanna said. ‘Worst-case scenario: we can wear pressure suits.’
‘If they work,’ Laura said, hating herself for letting her anxiety show. But . . . The prospect of asphyxiation was firing her imagination into overdrive. Seeing herself in a pressure suit with every red light flashing, clawing feebly at the windscreen just as Fourteen approached the planet, so near . . .
‘Flock’s approaching the exopod,’ Ayanna said in a level voice.
Laura tried to clear her mind and focus on the hologram which was showing the imagery from the flock. There were only eighty-seven of the little drones left now. They had rearranged themselves back into their ring formation, gliding over the tapering end of the distortion tree. The folds meandered in sharp curves, merging and becoming shallower as they neared the tip. Long moiré phantoms slithered about erratically inside the crystal, though even their intensity was reducing. Large sections would remain dark for some time between visitations.
‘There!’ Ayanna said. The exopod was floating twenty metres from the side of a narrow curving valley just over a hundred metres from the tip. Dark globes were sprouting from the crystal all around it.
Laura couldn’t see Ibu anywhere. She ordered the image to rotate, checking the other clefts in the crystal around the tip. They were all covered in the dark globes, ranging from acorn size up to the full three metres in diameter. Ibu wasn’t in any of them, either.
‘The flock is relaying a signal from the exopod,’ Ayanna reported, ‘but I’m not getting any reply from Rojas.’
‘What about their suit transponders?’ Laura asked.
Ayanna pursed her lips and shook her head.
‘Focus on the exopod, please,’ Joey said.
Ayanna’s hands flicked several toggles, and the image jumped up through magnification factors until it was centred on the exopod.
‘Hatch is open,’ Joey said. ‘Can you get some drones closer?’