“Entertaining, Kryx love, but hardly useful.”
“Everything has uses.” He paused. “According to Althor, our bard and his waif queen live together on the Orbiter.”
That caught Viquara’s interest. “Indeed.”
He began to pace the office. “Through Althor, we can get more of his family. We need them. Althor can create a psiberweb and Jaibriol can maintain it, but they are scarce resources.” His voice became crisp. “Two possible scenarios exist in regards to Jaibriol. Either he got children on this Lyra Merzon and Sauscony Valdoria is a fanatic who pursued him for fifteen years, or he got children on Valdoria and she seeks vengeance for their deaths. Either way, she is dangerous.” He paced back to Viquara. “Previous ESComm extrapolations gave a good probability of eventual Eube victory, but now it is less certain. Waiting centuries to wear down ISC is too risky. We need a Lock, we need more Keys, and we need to break the Ruby Dynasty. Now.”
Dryly Viquara said, “While we are at it, perhaps we could create a new universe or two.”
His smile exuded a feral arrogance. “Think big, my love. I’ve discussed it with General Taratus and Admiral Kaliga. The more trained telops we install on our ships, the more we lessen the technological edge ISC holds over us.”
She stared at him. “You’re talking about Onyx Platform.”
“You’ve a quick mind.”
“I’ve seen Vitrex’s reports on the interrogation. The Third Lock is at Onyx.”
“So Intelligence says.”
“It also says Onyx is prohibitively well defended.”
Quaelen came over to her. “Well defended and sufficiently defended are not the same. Right now ESComm has the largest inventory of ships, equipment, and personnel in its history, whereas ISC is weakened by upheavals in the Ruby Dynasty. If ever there was a time for such a move, it is now.”
Viquara wondered if she had misjudged her consort. Whether or not his plans would withstand scrutiny remained to be seen. But she knew Quaelen. He grounded his ideas in well-researched reality. If this bore out its promise, ESComm might bring the Imperialate under control within her lifetime. The Allieds would follow easily after that. It could be prudent to cultivate a more amenable relationship with this man who might soon rule all humanity from the shadows behind the Carnelian Throne.
She softened her posture, her hips settling just so to accent her figure. “This could be a best time for many things.”
His gaze lingered on her body. “Indeed.”
“Indeed,” Viquara murmured.
25
All four of Soz’s top officers attended the Joint Task Force meeting. General Stone and Primary Tapperhaven projected their simulacrums from HQ. Admiral Tahota projected from Onyx Platform and General Majda from Raylicon. Four people were actually present in the Strategy Room: Soz, Jon Casestar, Soz’s brother Eldrin, and Barcala Tikal, all seated at the table. They kept this preliminary conference small, to lay the JTF groundwork before bringing in their staffs.
“A fleet the size we’re talking about would be detectable to the most incompetent web extractor alive,” Stone said. “You can’t hide hundreds of thousands of ships.”
“They don’t need to travel together,” Soz replied. “If we use telops linked through the web, the fleet could assemble anytime, from smaller groups.”
Tahota spoke. “To avoid detection, the groups would have to be small, a few dozen ships or less. Coordinating the assembly of an entire fleet from such units, during superluminal travel, may be beyond even our best EI brains. We’re talking trillions of coupled spacetime-psiberspace transforms per second.”
General Majda leaned forward. “I understand the Pharaoh’s son is on the Orbiter.”
“That’s right,” Soz said.
“Perhaps he and the Pharaoh would consider bending their mental capacity to this problem.”
Tikal sat up straighter. “Excellent idea.” He sounded relieved. “It will keep them occupied. Out of trouble.”
Irritation flashed across Brant Tapperhaven’s face. “I wasn’t aware they were in trouble.”
“I think it’s a good idea,” Eldrin interposed.
Dryly Casestar said, “We have to find them first.”
Soz glanced at her brother. “Can you talk to them?”
Eldrin nodded. “At the house.”
Soz picked up a holograph on the table and cycled through its displays. “Even if Dehya and Taquinil can develop algorithms to coordinate assembly of the fleet, we still have the problem of the defenses in Platinum Sector and at Glory.”
“My people have looked at it from every angle,” Tahota said. “I don’t see any way to bring in a fleet that size without triggering every alarm within five light-years of Glory. No matter how we assemble the fleet, Platinum Sector will still have more than enough warning to mobilize.”
“Given the extent and strength of the Glory defenses,” Stone said, “and its proximity to Platinum Sector, then unless I’ve missed something, we have no chance of success.”
“Unless,” Soz said, “our incoming fleet appears small enough to avoid detection until it’s too late for ESComm to mobilize.”
“I see no way to disguise so large a force,” Majda stated.
Casestar glanced at Soz. When she nodded, he said, “The Radiance Project.”
Tapperhaven snorted. “That business with the Klein bottles? It didn’t work.”
“A problem with instabilities in containment fields, wasn’t it?” Tahota said.
“The instabilities come from interference between the larger Klein field and the fields it contains,” Casestar said. “If we can shield the smaller bottle, that might take care of it.”
“Might?” Stone asked.
“So far no shields have worked,” Casestar admitted. “As soon as matter twists into Klein space, it loses cohesion. Melts, so to speak.”
“Then don’t use real matter,” Tapperhaven said.
“You know another type?” Tikal asked. When Tapperhaven shot him an irritated look, the First Councilor raised his eyebrows.
“What would you propose, Primary Tapperhaven?” Soz asked.
“Something with quasis,” he said. “Or tachyons.”
“Quasis doesn’t extend into Klein space,” Casestar said. “It just protects the real space equipment that creates the bottle.”
“Can you apply it to the bottle’s contents?” Tahota asked.
Casestar shook his head. “That puts the fuel itself into quasis. Then the ship can’t use it. Same for weapons. Annihilators do no good if we can’t fire them.”
“Tachyonic matter can exist in an imaginary state,” Tapperhaven pointed out.
“Professor Rasmuss has been considering superluminal particles,” Casestar said. “She might be able to do something with it. But that would mean we couldn’t put the ships into Klein bottles until we were in superluminal space and we would have to bring them out before we dropped into normal space. It would add more complications and reduce our element of surprise.”
Soz.
Soz nearly jumped out of her chair. Without equipment to enhance the fields produced by their brains, even strong psions rarely spoke mind to mind. Kyle activity depended on physical processes in the brain, dominated by Coulomb interactions, with higher order effects such as spin and momentum. In theory the interactions extended to infinity; in practice they became so small so fast that most telepaths could only pick up thoughts within a few meters and only from another psion, someone who could project strong enough signals.
She knew Dehya wasn’t close to the Strategy Room. Yet her aunt’s thought came as clear as a chime of crystal. Even odder, Soz could see the barest trace of a mesh around her now, as if Dehya had brought a ghost of psiberspace into the room.
Yes. That was from Eldrin. I see it too. Strange.
Soz regarded her brother uneasily. He knew Dehya better than anyone. If even he found this disquieting, she had no idea what to make of it.
Dehya? s
he asked.
The sense of a smile came from her aunt. You all endow me with far more mystery than I possess, I’m afraid. I’m in the web. It makes it easier to link to you. That’s all.
Where are you? Soz asked.
In the Solitude Room. I had an idea for the Radiance Project.
“Imperator Skolia?” Tahota asked. “Are you all right?”
“She’s in a Kyle link,” Tapperhaven said. As a Jagernaut, he would recognize the signs.
Distracted by their voices, Soz held up her hand, urging them to silence. Do you have a solution? she asked Dehya.
Unfortunately, no. However, a thought does occur to me.
Go ahead, Soz thought.
If you have a problem with interference, perhaps you should look at phases instead of shielding.
You mean phases of matter? Soz asked. Solid, liquid, that sort of thing?
No. Light waves, actually. Waves out of phase undergo destructive interference. They cancel. Waves in phase interfere constructively. They add. Perhaps instead of shielding, you need to consider phases.
Does Klein space have phase? Soz asked.
I don’t know, Dehya admitted. I’m not that familiar with Rasmuss’s work. But imaginary quantities often involve oscillation. Her thought receded, fading into the mesh. It may be worth a look.
Then she was gone.
Soz blinked and shook her head, trying to clear it.
“Imperator Skolia?” Tapperhaven asked.
“That was Assembly Key Selei,” Soz said. She had discovered different people thought of Dehya by different titles. Majda, General of the Pharaoh’s Army, referred to her as the Pharaoh. Tapperhaven, whose own mind was inextricably linked to the web, thought of her as the Assembly Key. “She suggested we look at phases of Klein fields.” Soz glanced at Casestar. “She compared it to the interference of light. Can your people do anything with that?”
He looked intrigued. “Possibly. I’ll talk to Rasmuss.”
“If we solve this problem of the bottles, it may give the project a chance,” General Stone said.
General Majda shook her head. “The magnitude of the project is prohibitive. The logistics alone boggle the mind.”
As the debate continued, Soz listened. They were right, of course. If they solved the Klein instabilities, they still had a thousand and one other problems that had to be solved before the invasion had a chance.
* * *
Vitrex glowered at his wife Sharla. “Last time all they did was lie on the cot. I can’t breed them if they won’t mate.” He motioned at Cirrus, who was sitting on an examination table in Sharla’s office, dressed in a silk robe. Cirrus tried to imagine she was someplace else. Anywhere else.
“You’re the doctor,” Vitrex said to Sharla. “You must have a way to, ah, increase his enthusiasm.”
Sharla smiled. “Izar, love, just look at her. All you have to do is put her in his cell. Nature will do the rest.”
“I did. It didn’t.”
“Let me check her profile.” Sharla slid a needle out of her palmtop, inserted it into Cirrus’s wrist cuff, twirled it around, and returned it to the palmtop. Studying the display, she said, “This is nice work.”
“What is?” Vitrex asked.
Sharla flipped the screen open on her palm. The holo above it showed a blue, a red, and a gold line floating in the air. She pointed to the lowest line, the blue one, horizontal to her palm. “This is normal pheromone production for someone resting.” She indicated the red line, also horizontal and higher than the blue. “This is Cirrus’s normal level. Her nanomeds produce it.”
Vitrex shrugged. “I know she smells good.”
“It’s more than smell. Even I feel the effect and normally I never react to women.” She pointed to the gold line, higher then the red, with hills, valleys, and spikes. “This happens when she’s handled. The spikes are off the scale.” She flicked off the display. “On top of which, as a psion she produces pheromones targeted to other psions. Given that Althor is Rhon, he’ll have an even more intense response to her. And she to him.”
“So why didn’t they do anything last time?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to.”
“Then it’s her enthusiasm you have to increase.” Vitrex scowled. “It isn’t easy, believe me.”
“Have you tried Leratin?”
He waved his hand. “Leratin. Halcasic acid. Kerradonna. Nanogels. Either she gets sick or else she has these bizarre moods. One time she just kept crying.”
You would cry too if you had to make love to you, Cirrus thought.
“You probably used the wrong dosages.” Sharla plugged an air syringe into her palmtop to get its recommended prescription, then gave Cirrus a shot. She took a vial out of her lab coat pocket and pressed it into Cirrus’s hand. Gently she said, “Give this to Althor. He may enjoy putting it on you and you may enjoy his doing it.”
Cirrus considered the vial, blue glass with a gold stopper. She shook it and oil sloshed within.
Vitrex took the vial. “If he thinks he needs nanogels to make her want him, he’ll lose interest.” He gave it back to his wife. “You apply it.”
Sharla smiled, and Cirrus caught her thought: Ah, Izar, you want to watch me play with your favorite toy, hmmm? She took off Cirrus’s robe, speaking in a gentler voice. “This won’t hurt. Just lie down.”
Cirrus lay on her back and stared at the ceiling, imagining Vitrex and Sharla as repair bots up there, their exalted selves reduced to squeedy little mechanical bugs in case-crete. Sharla rubbed the nanogels over Cirrus’s body, and Vitrex watched, leaning against an adjacent table with his arms crossed, his gaze devouring them both. After Sharla finished, she helped Cirrus off the table.
“How do you feel?” Vitrex asked Cirrus.
Strange, she thought. She wanted to touch someone. Putting on her robe, she deliberately gave him a blank look. “Fine.”
Vitrex scowled at his wife. “You see? Nothing.”
Sharla was working on her palmtop. “According to this, she’s having a huge response.”
“Really?” Vitrex touched Cirrus under the chin. “Would you like to play later, pretty cloud?”
No, Cirrus thought.
Sharla gave Cirrus her robe. “If you do, Izar, she could end up with yours instead of Valdoria’s. I’ve got her primed.”
“I’ll be careful,” Vitrex said. “Give her a suppressant. I don’t want your work wasted on Althor Valdoria.”
After Sharla gave her another shot, Cirrus put on her robe and Vitrex took her out of the lab. His bodyguards were waiting outside, including Xirson, a Razer gifted to Vitrex from the palace. Xirson smiled at Cirrus, catching her by surprise. Razers were usually more like the other guard, Kryxson, hard-edged and cold, daggers in snow. They never smiled.
As they walked down the hall, two ministry aides intercepted them, along with more Razers. Vitrex went with them, leaving her in the care of several guards, who took her through secured halls until they reached a cell. Inside, Althor was lying on the cot. He sat up when they entered, and the guards removed his chains. Then the Razers left, locking Cirrus in with Althor.
“So you’re back,” Althor said.
She bit her lip. Did he hate her for revealing Jaibriol Qox?
He laid his palm on the cot. “Come sit with me.”
Relieved by his mild tone, she went over and settled on the cot. Although he was still drugged, he seemed more coherent now. “Are you feeling better?” Cirrus asked.
“About what?” he asked.
“Last time you were unhappy.”
He pushed his hand through his hair. “I don’t remember.”
I tried not to tell, she thought. About Jaibriol Qox.
His face gentled. I know. I picked that up from the empress. He took her hand. I’m sorry if they hurt you because of it.
She tried not to think of the son she would never again see. I’m all right. At least being with Althor distracted he
r. She rubbed the gold skin of his arm, below the short sleeves of his gray prison shirt.
He folded his hand around hers. “What did they do to you?”
“Do to me?”
“It’s more than just Rhon pheromones. I can feel it.”
She flushed. “I’m sorry.”
“Why? They’re the ones who should apologize to you.” He let go of her hand and stroked her hair, from the top of her head to her shoulder. “They should be on their knees begging your forgiveness.”
Cirrus slid her arms around his waist, feeling his muscles under his clothes. She rubbed her cheek on his shoulder, then turned her face up to his. Watching her, he moistened his lips and bent his head. As they kissed, he took off her robe.
Cirrus moved her lips to his ear. “You’re wonderful.”
“Hardly.”
“I love you.”
Althor sighed. “Ai, beautiful girl, you don’t love me.” He rubbed his hand up her spine. “They made you this way. Right now, you would love a slug under a rock.”
She smiled. “You are no slug.”
“I’m a shell without a memory.”
“You’re beautiful.” She tugged at his shirt, to unfasten it. So he helped her, undressing while she explored him. Then they lay on the cot, their limbs tangling together.
What Althor did with her was no different than what Hightons did when they weren’t transcending. Except she liked Althor. He had a gentleness she had never before encountered. But she was trying to reach something, she wasn’t sure what, and she couldn’t get there.
Finally he climaxed and then went still on top of her, his weight sinking in to her body as his breathing calmed. Even knowing he would soon want to sleep, she kept pressing against him. He brushed his lips over hers, then slid to her side and caressed her between the legs, trying to help. It wasn’t enough. She almost cried out with the frustration.
“They gave you Damzarine, didn’t they?” he said.
“What?” Opening her eyes, she saw him through a haze of desire and tears.
“A suppressant.”
“Yes.” She tried to calm her breathing. “What is it? Why would they give it to me?”