She touched the medical nanonic on his hand. “I’m not the only one who’s come through, apparently.”
Joshua returned the smile, and sat next to her.
“There’s a file I want you and Dr Mzu to review before we start,” Ione told him.
The miserable scene of Coastuc-RT swamped Joshua’s mind; with Waboto-YAU arguing through its translator, and the two menacing
soldier-caste Tyrathca standing close to Reza Malin. He’d avoided accessing most of Kelly’s recordings when Collins released
them. Lalonde was one planet he didn’t want to return to by any method. The close presence of the mercenary leader was a shortcut
to emotions he’d rather leave dormant.
When the recording ended, he looked up to see one of the long glass windows behind Ione had darkened. Instead of emitting
strong golden light, it now contained the image of an ancient Oriental man sitting in an antique wheelchair.
“Wing-Tsit Chong will speak for the Jovian Consensus today,” Ione announced.
“Right,” Joshua said. He loaded that name into a search program, ready to run it through his memory files.
Syrinx leant across. “The founder of Edenism,” she said softly. “Quite a major historical figure, in fact.”
“Name the inventor of the ZTT drive,” Joshua retorted.
“Julian Wan normally gets the credit. Although technically he was only the head of the New Kong asteroid’s stardrive research
team; a bureaucrat, basically.”
Joshua frowned in pique.
“Possibly the present would provide us with a more suitable topic for discussion,” Wing-Tsit Chong chided gently.
“The Sleeping God throws up a number of questions,” Ione said. “Very relevant questions, given the Tyrathca’s psychology.
They believed it would be able to help them against possessed humans. And they don’t lie.”
“So far this entity or object has made no appreciable impact upon our situation,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “Implying three options.
It is a myth, and the Tyrathca were either fooled or mistaken by their encounter with it. It is not capable of assisting them.
Or it does exist, it is capable, and it has simply restrained itself, so far.”
“That third implication is the most interesting,” Kemp-ster said. “It’s an assumption that the Sleeping God is sentient, or
at lest self-aware; which rules out a celestial event.”
“I always concurred with the artefact possibility myself,” Parker Higgens said. “The arkship Tyrathca would surely recognize
a celestial event for what it was. And celestial events don’t keep watch. Waboto-YAU was quite insistent about that. The Sleeping
God dreams of the universe, it knows everything.”
“I concur,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “This entity has been assigned extraordinary perceptive powers by the Tyrathca. Although
we can assume the memories of Sireth-AFL’s family would become open to degradation down the centuries, the major elements
must retain their integrity. Something very unusual is out there.”
“Have you asked the Kiint direct what it is, and what their interest is?” Joshua asked.
“Yes. They claim a total lack of knowledge on the subject. Ambassador Armira simply repeats Lieria’s claim that they are interested
in the full record of Kelly Tirrel’s sojourn on Lalonde so they might understand the nature of human possession.”
“They might be telling the truth.”
“No,” Parker Higgens said forcefully. “Not them. They’ve been lying to us since first contact. This is more than coincidence.
The Kiint are desperately interested. And I’d love to beat them to it.”
“A race that can teleport?” Joshua said light heartedly. The old director’s vehemence was out of character here.
“Even if the Kiint aren’t interested,” Ione said swiftly, “we certainly are. The Tyrathca believe it to be real and able to
assist them. That alone justifies sending a mission to it.”
“Wait—” Joshua said. He couldn’t believe he’d been so slow. “You want me to go after it, don’t you?”
“That’s why you’re here,” Ione answered calmly. “I believe you said you wanted to make a contribution?”
“Yes, I did.” There was a residue of reluctance in the acknowledgement. Some of the old bravado. I want to originate the solution.
Claim all the glory. Shades of the good old days.
He grinned at Ione, wondering if she’d guessed what he was thinking. More than likely. But if there was a chance this xenoc
God might have an answer, he wanted in. He owed a lot of people the effort. His dead crew. His unborn child. Louise and the
rest of Norfolk. Even himself, now he refused to avoid thinking of death and the mysteries that inaugurated. Facing up to
fate in such a fashion might be frightening, but it made living a hell of a lot easier. And, to be honest with himself, so
did the prospect of flying again.
“And so, I believe, did Syrinx,” Ione said. The voidhawk captain nodded admission.
“The Kiint stonewalled you, huh?” Joshua asked.
“Malva was very polite about it, but essentially, yes.”
Joshua settled back, gazing up at the domed ceiling. “Let me see. If a Tyrathca arkship encountered this God, then it has
to be a long way off, a very long way. Not too much problem for a voidhawk, but… ah, now I get it. The antimatter.”
Lady Mac
’s inclusion was obvious now. Her delta-V reserve was currently five or six times greater than most Adamist warships, making
her an obvious candidate to surmount the problem of galactic orbital mechanics. For star-ships, there’s a lot more than just
distance to the gulf between stars. Ultimately, it is velocity which governs their design and finances.
Earth’s sun orbits the galactic centre roughly once every two hundred and thirty million years, giving it an approximate velocity
of two hundred and twenty kilometres per second relative to the core. Other stars, of course, have different orbital velocities,
depending on their distance from the core, so their velocities relative to each other are also different. Voidhawks can cope
with the variance by tailoring their wormhole terminus to match a local star’s vector. It’s a manoeuvre which uses up an inconvenient
amount of energy from the patterning cells; however, because they obtain their energy for free it doesn’t affect their commercial
performance except in terms of recharging time. But for Adamist starship captains, that variance isn’t merely inconvenient,
it’s a positive bane. The ZTT jump might provide a short cut across the interstellar gulf, but it cannot magically change
inertia. A starship emerging from a jump has precisely the same vector it had when it started. In order to rendezvous with
the planet or asteroid at its destination, its delta-V has to be altered to match. It’s a tedious process which uses up plenty
of fuel; in other words, it costs money. And the further the stars are away from each other, the greater the velocity difference.
For most Adamist starships, a flight right across the longest axis of Confederation space, a distance approaching nine hundred
light-years, would use up over ninety per cent of their reaction drive fuel. Several marques would be incapable of the feat
anyway. The limit is imposed because they all used fusion drives.
Antimatter, of course, provided a vastly superior delta-V. And the antimatter
Lady Mac
had taken on board from the
Beezling
was still in her confinement chambers. The First Admiral had given Samuel instructions for the secure military facilities
at Jupiter to dispose of it. One of the five specialist ships qualified to handle the substance was still en route to Tranquillity.
“There is a high possibility that a long flight will be required to bring this task to a fruitful conclusion,” Wing-Tsit Chong
said. “I congratulate you on your clarity of thought, young Joshua.”
Syrinx and Ione swapped a glance. “You’re going to let him use antimatter?” Mzu asked in surprise.
“A voidhawk and Adamist starship are a good pairing for this kind of assignment,” Syrinx said. “Both of us have strengths
and weaknesses which complement the other. Providing the Adamist ship can manage to keep up with a voidhawk, of course.”
“Outperform, or outsmart?” Joshua asked civilly.
“All right,” Mzu said. “So why am I here?”
“We believed you might be able to help us analyse the nature of the Sleeping God,” Kempster Getchell said. “Especially if
it turns out to be a high-technology weapon rather than a natural phenomenon, which is my field.”
Alkad glanced round at their faces, depressed when she knew she should have been flattered. “I had one idea,” she said. “Once.
Thirty years ago.”
“One original insight,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “Which is one more than most people have had, or ever will have. You have a
mind which is capable of it. An ability which can innovate on such a level is an asset we cannot overlook.”
“What about Foulkes?” Alkad asked Samuel.
“If you agree to participate, I’ll speak with her. The non-contact prohibition placed upon you does not apply in this situation.
You will be permitted to fly on this mission. However, I will accompany you along with Monica.”
“I’m flattered.”
“Don’t be. And please don’t interpret our continued presence as approval for what you did. It so happens, that there are sections
of this mission which require the kind of ability which Monica and I specialise in.”
“How very enigmatic. Very well, if you think I’m the right person for the job, I’d be honoured to take part.”
“Good,” Ione said.
“But I’ll need Peter with me.”
“This isn’t a honeymoon cruise,” Samuel told her, reproachfully.
“We worked as a team putting the Alchemist together. It’s a synergistic relationship.”
“Somehow, I doubt that,” Ione said. “But for argument’s sake, I’ll permit you to ask him if he wants to accompany you.”
“So where were you thinking of sending us?” Joshua asked.
“Regretfully, you will have to go directly to the source,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “Which is one of the reasons this mission
is being assembled under the auspices of the Jovian security sub-Consensus. A thorough search of xenology records both at
Jupiter and Earth have revealed absolutely no reference to the Sleeping God. The Tyrathca have never mentioned it to us before.”
“The source? Oh Jesus, you mean Hesperi-LN, the Tyrathca home planet?”
“Initially, yes. Waboto-YAU told us that it was another arkship which encountered the Sleeping God, not Tanjuntic-RI. Therefore,
that arkship must have lasered the information to all the other Tyrathca arkships in the exodus fleet. We must hope that a
recording of that message is still aboard Tanjuntic-RI. If you can find it, you may be able to establish the approximate location
of the encounter.”
“That could be a long way off,” Joshua said. His neural nanonics started to access almanac and Tyrathca history files from
memory cells, running them through a navigation program. The result rising into his mind in the form of gold and scarlet icons
was both fascinating and alarming. “Hesperi-LN isn’t their genuine home planet, remember. It’s just the last colony world
Tanjuntic-RI founded. Look, the original Tyrathca star, Mastrit-PJ, the one they escaped from is on the other side of the
Orion Nebula. That puts it
at least
1,600 light-years away. Now if we get real unlucky, and the arkship which found the Sleeping God was going in the opposite
direction to Tanjuntic-RI, you’re talking twice as far.”
“We are aware of that,” Wing-Tsit Chong said.
Joshua sighed with indubitable regret. To take
Lady Mac
on such a voyage would have been awesome. “I’m sorry, there isn’t that much antimatter left. I can’t take the old girl that
far.”
“We are aware of your starship’s performance capabilities,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “However there is a supply of antimatter
which you will be able to use.”
“You keep some here at Jupiter?” Joshua asked in what he figured was a casual voice.
“No,” Syrinx said. “A CNIS agent called Erick Thakara located a production station which may be supplying Capone.”
“Thakara—” Joshua’s search program located the appropriate file; he locked eyes with Ione. “Really? That’s… helpful.”
“With the 1st fleet somewhat overstretched, the First Admiral’s staff have asked for Jupiter’s voidhawks to tackle it,” Samuel
said.
“Which they are preparing to do,” Wing-Tsit Chong said. “However, before the station is finally annihilated, you will be able
to take on board as much antimatter as the
Lady Macbeth
’s confinement systems can handle.”
“Three thousand light-years,” Joshua murmured. “Jesus.”
“Meredith Saldana’s task force has a large contingent of Confederation Navy marines assigned to it,” Ione said. “They’ll secure
the station for you once the personnel surrender to the voidhawk squadron.”
“What if the station operatives just suicide?” Joshua said. “They usually do when the Navy confronts them.”
“And take as many of us with them as they can,” Syrinx whispered.
“They will be offered a penal planet sentence instead of the usual death penalty,” Samuel said. “We can only hope that proves
attractive enough to them.”
“All right, but even if we load
Lady Mac
with enough antimatter, the Tyrathca have ended communications with the Confederation,” Joshua said. “Do you really think
they’ll allow us to search through Tanjuntic-RI’s electronic systems?”
“Probably not,” Samuel said. “But as we don’t intend to ask their permission, it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
You didn’t have to be attuned to the land like a possessed to know it was about to happen. Most of Ombey’s population was
aware the time had come.
Day after day the news companies had been broadcasting sensevises from rover reporters covering the build up of Liberation
forces. Everybody knew somebody who was connected to somebody who was involved in some way; from hauling equipment out to
Fort Forward to serving drinks to Edenists in spaceport bars. Speculation on the current affairs programmes was deliberately
vague about specific dates and precise numbers, even the communication net gossips were showing restraint in naming the day.
Hearsay aside, the evidence was pretty solid.