DUALITY: The World of Lies (6 page)

“Boy, do not think I am here to prosecute you.
The magistrate will hear your justifications and afford you a full
defense at trial. I come to charge and arrest you for those laws,
that by your own admission and testimony, you have violated. I am
duty bound in this regard.”

“Then the Law itself is perverse,” Gahre
grunted, reseating himself and taking up his utensils
again.

“As perverse as a boy with a record of
poaching and a personal vendetta against banditry?”

These aspersions were unbelievable. “I was
cleared of the poaching charge, by the Master Ranger
here.”

“Tis true,” confirmed Ranger Throjos. “The boy
was hunting wolves and…”

“And how many wolves did you kill,
boy?”

“All of them,” replied Gahre “And
Sheriff, I was not engaged in a hunt, but a
war
. Farmer Peascow's land is on the
periphery of the hinterlands, bordered by the northern hills. A
natural order was in place that each kept to their domain, man and
wolf. When the lupines crossed into our territories, they had to be
dealt with for the danger they posed not to just farmer Peascow’s
young ones and livestock, but to all of us, as their numbers
grew.”

“Tis again true,” affirmed Ranger Throjos. “It
is illegal to hunt the wolf in their own territory. Though never
codified, it has been long understood that they are to be
eradicated for public safety should they attempt to expand their
territory onto our side of those hills. You’ll recall a similar
situation in our youth Sheriff. The cycle seems to repeat itself
every few decades. In light of this, the poaching charges were
dropped against the young Gahre here.”

“My concern, Master Ranger, is to the
character of the young man. His reputation as a loner and a hunter,
and it seems he has an insatiable appetite for blood. Twenty-two
wolves, Master Ranger, solo. Work indeed so perilous, it would not
be undertaken by any sane man. And now he tells a tale of hunting
down the very deadliest of all predators, a tale in which he did
not hesitate to strike first and draw blood against men. What kind
of man, I ask, Master Ranger, hunts predators who be not one
himself?”

“A harsh and unwarranted allegation, Sheriff,”
argued Throjos. “Aloof though he is, Gahre’s reputation is more
than honorable. He has never harmed any folk til now, and that man
he lamed be one of the worst notoriety, wanted across the realms
for despicable deeds.”

“There are two more charges,” countered the
Sheriff, “both again felonies. One is for the brandishing of a
firearm and another for possessing knowledge of its
operation.”

“As it was superior to my bow, I co-opted the
enemy’s rifle,” Gahre explained in exasperation, still bolting down
food and drink. “I pressed every advantage I had, Sheriff. As for
my “illegal knowledge,” suffice it to say that I have boarded these
many years in Tulan with my uncle, a master tinker. The mechanics
of the thing were simple enough to deduce.”

“You stated that you both fired the weapon and
reloaded it. Perhaps it is your uncle who has given you such
instruction?”

Gahre, for the first time, was obliged to lie.
Yes, uncle had described to him the operation of a rifle, though he
had also learnt that same knowledge from various hunting parties
he’d crossed paths with over the years. “Who in this tavern, who
here does not know what a rifle is? Who here has not heard the many
sordid stories of their use in misdeeds across the Far West, and of
their proliferation therein? There is not a one here, Sheriff,
without that basic knowledge. These charges are as spurious as the
others.”

“Again, you may plead your case to the
magistrate. You will be afforded counsel to represent
you…”

“I require no counsel, Sheriff. I stand by my
every action, honestly and in the face of any corrupt application
of the Law you wish to throw at me.”

“Nonetheless, you shall be afforded a
barrister. Should you refuse this...”

“Indulu comes soon to Tulan, does he not?” A
silence fell across the tavern as Gahre invoked the name. “Spring
Conference is to be held in the coming weeks. You already have a
full and detailed testimony of my account. So I choose Indulu as my
counsel, and I will speak to none but him in the
interim.”

“Then you agree to come with us peaceably into
custody?”

“Once my meal is finished, Sheriff. Otherwise
you will get a brutal scuffle out of me, here before the
public.”

The Sheriff began to open his mouth in
indignance, but the Venerable Elder Panthus, the highest standing
authority present, waved his hand.

“Take a seat. Sheriff, Master Ranger,
deputies, order what you like. I’ll cover the tab. Let’s let the
boy eat in peace.”

T
wenty-two
tenuous life-hanging-by-a-thread hours and seven overloaded and
ejected heatsinks later, the Kinetic Dream broke through to the
cooler, placid chromosphere. A calm seemed to fall over the ship, a
respite from the inferno. Aru's mind started to unwind and he felt
sleepy. It occurred to him to have a drink, but this probably
wasn’t the time. Well, actually it was. Like everything else he did
he engaged his vice on a strict schedule, and today was his day to
indulge. Maybe later. Fool’s errand or not, they still had their
work cut out for them.

Mei was busily plotting away coordinates and
routes for the probes. They had 61 long-range probes in total and
an immense area of the solar ecliptic to cover since they only had
a very rough idea of the object’s orbital altitude. He had never
seen her so devoted to a mission before, and for the first time, he
felt like she was in charge and he was mostly just along for the
ride.

In a sense, that was only fair. She had served
under him with loyalty and distinction for over a decade, and when
he honestly weighed the full measure of her value to him, it was
far more than that. She'd given him more than just service; she'd
given him her heart, and all she’d ever asked for in return was
this one endeavor. She seemed to have everything well in hand.
There wasn’t much he could do but monitor the ship’s status and
wait for her to put the finishing touches on the probe strategy for
their search.

“System, recliner,” he ordered. This was the
standing bridge, quite literally. It was more suited to this type
of operation. It was a large grey chamber, utilitarian and arching
with the curve of the inner-ring. Aside from the lack of coziness,
the biggest drawback was that it was set in a fixed position on the
centrifuge. Any enemy they chanced upon was bound to know that, so
normally they used the mobile auxiliary bridge for command, a much
smaller more lounge-like affair.

The padded chair rose up from the floor and
positioned itself behind his command console. He flopped down into
it with a sigh. “System, brandy,” he ordered in a sudden change of
heart.

Mei paused briefly from her feverish
calculations to look over at him and giggle. She knew Aru’s habits;
he drank once every eight days, like clockwork, no more, no
less.

“I’ll take first watch,” she offered. “Delve
into your cups if you like. Knock off even.”

Aru knew the rules, for they were his own.
“System, transfer primary command control to Commander
Li.”

“Confirmed, Captain.” The ship replied curtly.
System also knew the rules, and this was a weekly occurrence.
Command would stay under Mei until such time as Aru awakened with
negligible blood-alcohol levels.

“Oooh, Kinny gets scared when I’m in charge!”
she joked with System. Aru viewed their contrasting attitudes
toward the machine world as yet another defining difference between
reds and blues. Reds saw them as servants, underlings that gave
useful analysis and certain particular insights, but were otherwise
on the whole unworthy companions. Mei, who had the peculiar habit
of talking to machines, tended to anthropomorphize them and would
engage System in long discourses about philosophy, fashion,
culture, etc. Aru knew better. Sure they had all kinds of
personalities and social protocols installed to every flavor and
liking, but aside from L-classified anthrometas, like Memnetech,
they were ultimately all alike in their foundations.

“Apprehensive would be the more suitable term,
Commander,” replied the ship.

“You know I’m going to turn the G up once
you’re good and knackered,” she said to taunt Aru.

There were two things in particular they
bickered over constantly, G and lighting. Occitania, being the most
massive world in the Taiji, had 4.6% higher gravity than Aru’s
homeworld of Calidon. Generally, by agreement, they kept it at the
median of the two, but both had a tendency to surreptitiously notch
it up or down ever-so-slightly when the other was off guard. Then
there was lighting, red or blue. At the moment Aru didn’t care, so
long as it was dim.

“Go right ahead, I’ll sleep all the harder.”
He was surrendering, and it felt good. “I’m going to stay here on
deck until those probes get launched.”

“Suit yourself. Maybe you’d like to review the
sweep strategy Kinny and I have come up with before you wander off
too far into the idiot zone. I’ve modified it considerably based on
the data we’re getting here, most especially this high flare
activity.”

Aru brought up the holograph of Ignis Rubeli
with their position indicated and a series of colored lines
representing the orbits and spacing of the search probes' destined
positions and their routes to them.

Mei continued, “As you can see, that magnetic
disturbance we spotted yesterday on the far side photosphere is
forming into a formidable solar flare along the ecliptic, a
possible CME. So I’m reserving half of the probes for delayed
launch and rerouting fourteen others. It’s not just that one flare
either. The overall solar surface is showing a sudden and unusual
amount of turbulence.”

“It’s pissed that we’re here,” Aru half joked,
looking at the holograph and animating the prescribed orbits. He
noted something else that was not in the original strategy. “Why do
you have probes 22 through 33 in such high orbits? I thought the
target was well below the geosynchronous zone.”

Aru had his brandy glass set to self-refill
and was already on his second. Mei answered him.

“Two reasons. One is that we need more outer
network relays for the lower probes to report to in the face of all
this high solar activity. Signal travels further and stronger when
it flows with the solar medium. Secondly, I want to expand the
search area, since who knows what else might be out here that could
clue us into the target's location? Let’s consider the Kinetic as
the primary search vehicle since it has by far the most burn
capacity, sensory and analytic power. I’m positioning us in a
median orbit in the prime search radius. Probes will be in and out
of contact, but I’m hoping this configuration is what will alert us
to any find in the timeliest manner. Any find, of course, will
require an immediate reconfiguration of the entire network, which
Kinny has already programmed the probes to initiate on their own in
the event we lose contact with them.”

He’d gotten halfway through his second glass
listening to all that. “Ok, that’s all well and fine then. But what
I’m not seeing here are expeditionary probes 41 through 45 set for
their alternate missions.”

Mei sighed, never a sign she was about to tell
him anything he wanted to hear. “Those probes are on the delayed
launch list, and… and they’re being utilized in the sweep. I want
every probe on it. Once we locate the object, you can go ahead and
launch all our assets directly into the star for all I
care.”

Aru swallowed his annoyance, along with more
liquor. They’d spent over two months being outfitted for this
mission at Carousel 7, a major Fleet base. They had ordered the
ship outfitted with multiple heatsinks, reinforced solar shielding,
and a variety of other parts to protect them from this fatal
environment, making The Kinetic Dream the most expensively
outfitted craft in the entire Fleet. It had been a tall order, and
it had been filled with without question, or at least without open
question. It made it obvious they were attempting a solar
expedition, so it would make sense to return with valuable data for
the science community, such as what could be discovered by
launching probes directly into a sunspot and following them until
the signal stopped. Since most ships had neither the capability to
enter a star nor crews that were willing to do so, this was indeed
a rare opportunity to gather inner star data for the solar dynamics
crowd to ooh and aww and ponder and debate over. More importantly
it would justify the costly outfitting and give him a reputation
boost to boot, while returning without such data would just raise
more questions regarding their motives for this
expedition.

“The solar depth probes were outfitted above
and beyond the probes you requested, expressly for this purpose,”
he snapped at her.

“Well, that was then. We’re going to have
double the signal loss with all this surface activity, and to
compensate I’m allocating all assets to the primary
mission.”

This was very typical of her, too typical, and
a personality trait that irritated him to no end. Aru was a man who
was bred and raised to follow through on his word, but Cearuleins,
like Mei, had no qualms about making false promises if it achieved
their ends. This put him at a constant disadvantage because it
meant that while he was held to his every syllable, both by others
and himself, she maintained a free pass to flout her commitments
-because, well, that was just who she was. He glared at her so
derisively and so conspicuously that she could not ignore
him.