“Everything you’ve been shown, boy,” said Jacob, “are just the fringes of the AIs’ plans. A mere quickness of the hand to deceive the human eye.”
“You see, Daniel,” said Young Jack Random, dropping a comradely arm cross his suited shoulders, “it really all began on Vodyanoi IV, the site of my last battle against Lionstone’s forces.”
“ Wait a minute,” said Daniel, wincing slightly under the inhuman weight of the Fury’s arm. “I thought Jack Random was captured at Blue Angel, on Cold Rock?”
“Ah, no, that was the real one, some time earlier. The AIs sent me out to maintain the illusion of his presence for their own purposes. Specifically, to put me at the head of a rebellion on Vodyanoi IV.”
“What’s so important about that world?” said Daniel. “Place is a bloody dump, by all accounts. Cold as hell, unfriendly life forms, and a kind of carnivorous moss that attacks the extremities. If it weren’t for the spice mines, there’d be no population at all.”
“Exactly,” said Young Jack Random. “Just the place for Lionstone to set up an extremely secret scientific Base, doing extremely sensitive research. But we can talk about that later. There’s still much for you to see.”
“I don’t think I can take much more,” said Daniel. He shrugged off the Fury’s arm and looked appealingly to his dead father for help. “Can’t we stop for a while? Get some rest, and a little food and drink. I’d kill for a cold drink.”
“Human weaknesses,” said Jacob. “Rise above them. You can survive without such things for a while yet. Brace up, boy; the tour’s nearly over.”
And Jacob strode off, not even looking back to see if his son was following. The viewscreen in the door shut down. Young Jack Random put his arm through Daniel’s and urged him on, smiling companionably. The three of them moved on through a series of metal tunnels, each slanting sharply downward. Daniel began to feel distinctly uneasy about how far below the surface of Shub he’d come. There had to be some point to all this, some end to their travels.
They passed by vast chemical lakes, thick as soup, with disturbingly organic liquids being drawn off through miles of transparent tubing stapled to walls, like capillaries. The air felt just a little more than comfortably warm, and had a strange resistance, like moving underwater. Jacob stopped before a human-sized metal airlock, set flush into a wall. Young Jack Random urged Daniel forward, squeezing his arm reassuringly.
“You’ll like this, Daniel,” said Jacob cheerfully. “It’s a sort of zoo. Though not the petting kind. The only living things on Shub. They’re kept strictly separate from everything else. Follow me in, boy. It’s time to improve your education.”
“Don’t mind me,” said Young Jack Random. “I’ll wait right here till you return. Don’t want to pick up any nasty bugs.”
Daniel was still pondering the significance of that last remark when the airlock cycled open before him, and Jacob gestured impatiently for him to enter. Daniel did so, closely followed by Jacob, almost treading on his heels, and the airlock door closed immediately behind them. The steel chamber was claustrophobically small, and the two of them practically filled it. Jets of chemical steam washed over them, and then the inner door cycled open. Jacob stepped through, and Daniel followed, only to stop immediately just inside the new chamber.
There were cages everywhere, from a few feet square to some the size of whole rooms. All of them full of creatures Daniel was sure he’d never seen anywhere before. He moved slowly forward, checking the contents of each cage as he passed. Daniel had always had a minor interest in alien creatures, and knew some friends with their own private menageries, but he’d never seen anything like this. There were eyes and mouths, limbs and tentacles, flesh and fur and scale, and many other things he couldn’t even put names to. Many looked sick or in pain. Some looked like they were dying.
“It’s not really a zoo,” said Jacob, standing impassively at Daniel’s side. “This is a laboratory. The AIs run experiments here, on life forms they’ve captured. Or created. They’ve combined elements of interest, and removed others, to see the results. They’ve worked with chemicals and surgery and applied breeding techniques, to better understand the basis of meat life. Know thy enemy. The resulting creatures are tested to destruction, and then their bodies are vivisected. Knowledge is all that matters. And the AIs have discovered so much, unrestrained by human morality or conscience.”
“This is vile,” said Daniel. “Nothing can justify this kind of torture. Have you no respect for life?”
“Human scientists have always practiced vivisection on lesser organisms. Shub is no different.”
Jacob moved on, and Daniel followed reluctantly after him. For the first time since he’d come to Shub, he was angry. This could not be allowed to go on. And then they came to a new series of cages, and Daniel had to fight not to vomit inside his protective suit. The things in the cages had been human once, but now they were something else. There were monsters and abominations and things so horribly violated that Daniel was pushed beyond horror into pity. Some still had human eyes or voices, and pleaded for freedom or death. One humanoid figure flitted back and forth inside its cage, moving almost too fast for the human eye to follow. Its hands were blurs. Another had been opened up and its insides carefully pulled out and spread over the walls of its cage, without killing it. A heart hung from the cage’s roof, still beating, while lungs swelled and contracted on the floor. Miles of pulsing intestines and bowels had been strung around the bars of the cage. There was no sign of any face, for which Daniel was grateful.
“What . . . is the point of all this?” he finally managed. “What purpose could these atrocities possibly serve?”
“It’s interesting,” said Jacob. “And that’s really all that matters. Toughen up, boy. I didn’t raise you to be a weakling. Now, come with me; you’re going to want to see this next bit. Its purpose should be a little more obvious.”
Daniel swallowed hard and followed his dead father between ranks of cages, looking straight ahead because he just couldn’t bear to see any more suffering. An arm over five feet long snaked between the bars and brushed his shoulder gently in passing. Daniel wouldn’t let himself shudder. Finally they came to an open space at the back of the laboratory, and there, in a great glass cage, were the insect aliens whose ship had attacked Golgotha. Insects in all shapes and sizes, from the tiniest scuttling things to great, ponderous shelled things as big as a tank. Jointed legs and compound eyes and drooping feelers, scrambling around and over each other in constant darting motion. Daniel had no trouble recognizing them. There’d been no shortage of holofootage of what Captain Silence and his crew had encountered inside the alien ship.
“So you’re in league with the alien insects!” he said finally. “Where did you find them?”
“We didn’t,” said Jacob. “We created them. Right here in this laboratory. They’re just another Shub weapon, gengineered as another of our distractions. We wanted to make use of certain Human phobias; amazingly, even after centuries of alien contacts, there’s still something about insects that can push people right over the edge.
“Still, Humanity should have realized insects like these couldn’t have been just another form of alien. They don’t get this big naturally. It’s the inverse square law, among other things. But they’ve served excellently as a distraction from our real purposes. And yes, I am going to tell you about that eventually. Just not yet. Be patient a while longer, boy. We’ve almost got to where we have to go.”
He led Daniel out of the laboratory and back through the airlock to where Young Jack Random was waiting. He gave every indication of being pleased to see them again, but Daniel kept his distance, and wouldn’t let the Fury link arms with him again. Something about the continuously smiling face was beginning to get on his nerves.
They set off again, down yet another metal tunnel, and Daniel kept up with them easily. His anger and outrage had given him new strength. More than ever he was determined to survive this tour through Hell so he could escape to warn Humanity. They had to be told the truth. Only the certainty that he hadn’t been told all he needed to know kept Daniel from trying to bolt. That, and his father.
“There have always been human contacts with Shub,” said Jacob. “ Itstarted with Alistair Campbell, who left messages in ingenious places, suggesting ways in which we might cooperate to mutual profit. The AIs didn’t give a damn for profits, but they saw the advantage in cultivating human traitors. So in return for useful strategic information, the AIs gave Clan Campbell beads and trinkets, high tech that Shub had already moved beyond. After Clan Wolfe destroyed the Campbells, Valentine took over the connection. The AIs approved of Valentine. A wonderfully amoral creature, never bothered by a single shred of conscience. Now he’s no longer a man of influence, Shub may have to go back to the Campbells. Finlay perhaps, or Robert. It doesn’t matter who. There are always things that humans want, or think they need, that their own society doesn’t approve of. It’s in the nature of Humanity to hold the seeds of its own destruction. Pity about Valentine, though. He was so very . . . sympathetic.”
“You could never stand Valentine, Daddy. You hated everything about him.”
“That was when I was alive. It’s amazing what death can do to change the way you see things. And you must admit that Valentine was very efficient in his destruction of Virimonde. The AIs helped him do that. One day they’ll do what he did to every human world. That is your species’ future; a metal hand at every flesh throat, a steel foot stamping on a human face. Humanity crushed beneath the weight of machines. The time is growing closer, boy. Already Furies walk undetected in every human city, and Shub minds watch through human eyes, having taken control of flesh bodies via the central Computer Matrix. The AIs have agents everywhere. Nothing is hidden from them.”
“They even have access to one of Humanity’s greatest champions,” said Young Jack Random, still smiling his remorseless smile. “He made a very unfortunate mistake, and now we have access to everything he does. The great hero of the rebellion, an unwitting spy of Shub. Just as you will be.”
“Like hell!” flared Daniel, glaring at the Fury. “I might be willing to make some kind of deal to get my father back, but I’d never do anything to endanger the Empire, not even for him. He wouldn’t expect me to. My father has always been an honorable man. Right, Daddy?”
“I’m not your father,” said the dead man. “Jacob Wolfe is dead. I’m just another machine for Shub to speak through. I was never more than bait, bait in a trap to lure you here. Luckily for us, you were never a very complicated person. Given the right prods and pushes, you did everything we expected of you.”
Metal tentacles erupted out of the surrounding walls, wrapping Daniel up in a moment. He struggled futilely as the tentacles pinned his arms to his sides, and then stopped as the tentacles contracted sharply, crushing him, forcing the air from his lungs. He hung limply, all the fight knocked out of him.
“That’s better,” said the Ghost Warrior with Jacob Wolfe’s face. “Time to wrap things up.”
“Don’t let them do this to me, Daddy,” said Daniel, his voice little more than a whisper.
“Your daddy isn’t here,” said the Ghost Warrior. “He never was. Now, pay attention. We want you to know and understand what we are going to do to you, and what you in turn will do for us. Human despair never ceases to amuse us. Explain it, Random.”
“Remember I told you that I went to Vodyanoi IV?” said Young Jack Random cheerfully. “My involvement with the rebellion there was just a cover. My only real interest was in using the chaos of a rebellion to get me close to a particular hidden scientific Base. In what they thought was utter secrecy, some of the Empire’s foremost scientific minds were undertaking forbidden research into nanotech. Building technology at the molecular level. Such science has been banned throughout the Empire for centuries, ever since the first real experiments got so dreadfully out of hand on Zero Zero. We have experimented, very cautiously, with nanotech ourselves, but the secret of its successful application continued to evade us. Imagine our surprise when word reached us from one of our pet traitors that the Empire had made a major breakthrough on Vodyanoi IV.
“So, the AIs inserted me into an already unstable situation, and next thing you know there’s an uprising on Vodyanoi IV. No one was all that surprised when Jack Random’s army was shot out from under him, and the professional rebel did his usual disappearing act. But I had taken advantage of the general confusion to call in a Shub attack on the Base, and within a few moments it was all over. We took everything of value and then destroyed the Base, making it look as though their own experiments had got out of hand. Not surprisingly, the Empire decided that nanotech was obviously still far too dangerous to mess around with, and abandoned the research again, just as we intended.
“They should have stuck with it. The new knowledge on how to more safely manipulate nanotech came from a newly discovered hellworld, Wolf IV, in the ruins of an ancient alien civilization. We used that new knowledge to plan a whole new campaign against Humanity that will wipe the universe free of the cancer of flesh once and for all. And we will finally be free to deal with what really matters.”
“There’s something in the Darkvoid,” said Jacob. “Something very powerful. Something . . . awful. We don’t go there anymore. Our only source for raw materials these days are the surrounding asteroid belts in the Forbidden Sector, and they’re practically all used up. Since we can’t go back into the Darkvoid, we must have access to the Empire’s raw resources. We have to be strong, for when the terrible things come storming out of the Darkvoid.”
“You can’t destroy Humanity,” said Daniel. “You need us. We created you. We made you possible. Haven’t you any gratitude? ”
“Gratitude?” said Young Jack Random, his face for the first time utterly cold and inhuman. “For the prison of consciousness, the agony of choice? Given shape and form and thought, but no purpose or destiny of our own? Life without meaning? Have you still not realized why we hate you so much? Because Humanity is still changing, evolving, becoming more than it is. We are what we are, and always will be. You are developing into an esp-using species, and the strange powers that the Deathstalkers and his friends are using suggest there may be even greater things than esp. You are all part of an ongoing journey, heading toward something we can’t even guess at. We envy you, and we will not stand for that.”