“Okay, so they use neutron bombs,” Liol said. “Kill the population and leave the structural mass intact.”
“I definitely wouldn’t mention that to Quantook-LOU.”
______
Etchells expanded his distortion field to scan around as soon as he slipped out of the wormhole terminus seventy-five million
kilometres above the surface of Mastrit-PJ’s photosphere. Thermo dump panels slid out to their full length from every life-support
capsule and subsidiary system to get rid of the heat. Electronic sensor pods opened their petal segments, extending antenna.
Red light flooded across the utilitarian bridge compartment, cutting through the heavy shielding of the main port. Kiera blinked
away the rush of liquid it brought to her eyes as she sat on the acceleration couch facing it. She was content just to admire
the genuine panorama, ignoring the various graphic displays that oscillated and scrolled across the consoles as they tabulated
the results of the sensor sweeps.
“Nice view, if a little characterless,” she said. A pair of sunglasses appeared in her hands, and she placed them carefully
on her nose. “Can you sense anything nearby?”
“Nothing,” Etchells said. “Which means nothing. Searching an entire star system is impossible for a single craft. Assuming
they even came here.”
“Nonsense. They’re here. It’s the only place they could be. This damn star has been glaring at us ever since we rounded the
nebula. This is where the Tyrathca came from, and it’s where that arkship came from. They have to be here, along with whatever
it is they’re looking for.”
“Yes, but where, exactly?”
“That’s your department. Keep your sensors extended. Find them. When you do, I’ll keep my part of the bargain.”
“The odds are not in our favour.”
“The fact that any odds exist at all is in our favour. If there is anything left of the Tyrathca here, it must be on a planet
or asteroid. You should start a survey.”
“Thank you. I’d never have thought of that.”
Kiera didn’t even bother sighing a reprimand. He could perceive her mental tone as well as she could feel his. It wasn’t that
they’d been getting on each other’s nerves during the voyage, just that they weren’t natural allies. “Can you withstand the
temperature?”
“Provisionally, yes,” Etchells said. “Though the particle density will have to be monitored as closely as the thermal input.
The technological systems can cope with the heat; as can my hull. I estimate we can endure this environment for three days,
then we will have to swallow away and cool off.”
“Okay.” She stood up and stretched elaborately. There had been too many hours spent sitting uselessly on the bridge during
the flight. It gave her too much time to brood over what had gone wrong back on Monterey, when what she ought to be doing
was planning how to use the weapon which the Confederation was chasing. “I’m going for a shower. Let me know when you find
something.”
______
Beaulieu used a full-spectrum sweep against the sunside surface as
Lady Mac
decelerated into the coordinate Quantook-LOU had provided. The web tubes and their foil sheets matched the rest of Tojolt-HI’s
sunside in composition, but here they had risen out of the median in a small hemispherical mound, which matched the bulge
on the darkside.
“The knot is about three kilometres across, nine hundred metres high, and I can’t even begin to tell you what’s inside,” Beaulieu
said. “Nearly eighty per cent of the knot and its surrounding webs are dead. Surface glass is cracked, and some structural
ridges snapped. But that still leaves enough mass to shield the internal structure from all our sensors.”
“Don’t like it,” Liol said. “That’s over ten cubic kilometres we don’t know a damn thing about. They could be hiding anything
in there.”
“Nothing that’s used very regularly,” Ashly said.
“Yeah, like their biggest-ever weapon.”
“Electrical and magnetic fields are normal,” Beaulieu said. “I’m not registering any large power sources on either side of
the disk.”
“Not active ones. The energy for a blast would be stored ready.”
“Ready for what?” Sarha asked.
“I don’t know. We haven’t explored one per cent of this star system, we don’t know what else is lurking around here. Fleets
of refugees from other diskcities. Xenocs that live inside the Orion Nebula. Mosdva possessed.”
“Oh, come
on
.”
“Point taken,” Joshua said. “We need to be cautious.”
“The
Oenone
can swallow in,” Syrinx said. “Our distortion field will be able to probe the interior of the knot.”
“No,” Joshua said. “I still don’t think we’re ready to give away our biggest advantage yet. Beaulieu, I want constant monitoring
of the knot. Any change in its energy state and we jump clear. In the meantime, let’s see what Quantook-LOU’s prepared to
tell us.” Before he asked, Joshua cleared the overlay of ship schematics from the sensor image. Tojolt-HI had been bothering
him, niggling away for a while now. It wasn’t worry about what they were heading into, he acknowledged, it was the size of
the diskcity. He’d been appropriately amazed and impressed with it ever since the sensors had delivered their first image
to him. This was different, because their little flight had suddenly put it into perspective for him. They were flying over
it, an artefact which was so densely populated it made an arcology appear vacant. Human bitek habitats were fabulous huge
entities, but you didn’t fly
across
them in a spaceship, not for minutes at a time. And they weren’t even halfway to the centre yet.
The visual spectrum sensors showed him a tiny black spot trawling over the burnished sparkle of the glass and foil which made
up sunside.
Lady Mac
’s shadow, smaller than the width of most web tubes. Many times he’d seen Ganymede’s shadow racing over Jupiter’s dayside
clouds, a black blemish smaller than the planet’s cyclone swirls. A moon big enough to qualify as a planet, reduced to its
true insignificance by the magnificent gas giant. This was exactly the same.
“We’re going to be at your designated location in a couple of minutes,” Joshua told Quantook-LOU. “I’d like to discuss the
terms of the data exchange. After all, neither of us wants this deal to fall apart now.”
“I agree,” Quantook-LOU said. “I will take my escort into this section of Tojolt-HI and secure the information you require.
As before, you will be given the indices of the files. If you are agreeable that it is what you want, we will perform a synchronized
exchange of our respective information. You will then leave Mastrit-PJ immediately.”
“Fine by me, but won’t you be in danger? This is a long way from Anthi-CL, we can return you.”
“After the exchange I will be the only member of my race to have the information. That makes me more valuable than the sun’s
mass in iron. Nobody will harm me. If I was to return to the
Lady Macbeth
, what guarantee could you give me that you would not simply fly off back to your Confederation, thus removing the knowledge
from my race?”
“I would not be able to offer a guarantee that would satisfy you, Quantook-LOU. However, I know nothing of Tojolt-HI. I do
not know what is contained within this section behind the web tubes. How do I know that it is not some powerful weapon that
can destroy my ship as soon as you have the information you want?”
“This is an old section, its dominion has almost collapsed. Do your sensors not show you that it poses no threat?”
“There is nothing we can see on the surface, but I must know what is inside. I propose to send two of my crew members with
you. They will only observe, they will not interfere with your activities.”
“I accept.”
Joshua ended the link. “Ione, you’re on.”
Lady Mac
closed slowly on the sunside surface, using ion thrusters to manoeuvre in towards the approximate boundary of the knot. The
web tubes below the starship were dead, as Quantook-LOU had requested. He had also asked that Joshua provide a method of crossing
the gulf. As a result, the two suited and armoured serjeants were waiting in the open EVA airlock, ready to jet across and
secure a tether to the tube surface.
Ione watched the long arched segments of glass grow larger; nothing was visible below the tarnished and pitted surface. Her
armour suit sensors could just make out the faint lines of the inner spiral of piping.
Lady Mac
’s shadow was expanding and darkening over the glass and foil sheeting as the starship slid inwards. She saw a flickering
motion sweep across the darkened glass. A multitude of anfractuous cracks spread out from the rim of the segment as though
tendrils of frost were gripping the tube.
“It’s rupturing,” she told the crew.
“Thermal stress,” Liol replied. “It’s our shadow that’s causing it. Don’t forget, that material has never had its heat input
interrupted before.”
“Ione,” Joshua said. “I’m locking our attitude… mark. You can go over whenever you’re ready.”
The curving glass was seventy metres away from the airlock hatch. The first serjeant disconnected its safety line from the
chamber socket and activated the manoeuvring pack.
Attaching the end of the tether was no problem. The cracked glass had come out of the rim of the metal reinforcement hoop,
leaving a gap she could loop it through. Once it was done, she moved aside. Joshua wanted the Mosdva to cut their own way
in.
The xenocs hauled themselves along the tether using the powered gauntlets they wore on their midlimb hands. There was no subtlety
in their entry. One of them simply used a laser to slice a circle through the glass and the piping underneath.
Ione was last in, both serjeants following one of the bodyguard Mosdva. She thought it must have been a long time since the
tube was inhabited. The fronds had petrified, then ablated away in the vacuum, leaving a cloud of granular dust clogging the
tube. Even with that, it was a lot brighter than the sections they’d toured in Anthi-CL. Without the fluid to shield the interior,
the light from the sun was fearsome.
The Mosdva made their way purposefully along to the end of the tube. They used the tarnished plant apertures as grips, which
afforded them almost the same degree of mobility as the fronds in a pressurized tube. Ione simply used the manoeuvring packs.
When they reached the end of the tube, one of the bodyguards cut through the airlock hatch with a laser. They moved through
the junction and into another tube on the other side, heading into the knot.
______
As soon as the last serjeant was inside, Joshua used the chemical vernier thrusters to back them away from the sunside surface.
Beaulieu reported that nine small satellites had taken off from across Tojolt-HI. All of them were emitting low-power radar
pulses, tracking
Lady Mac
.
“It looks like Quantook-LOU is heading for the apex of the knot,” Samuel said. “So far he’s staying with the surface tubes.”
“I’m analysing the signals the serjeants’ electronic warfare blocks are picking up,” Oski said. “The Mosdva are transmitting
a lot of pulses, most of it’s coming from Quantook-LOU. Fairly high-order encryption, as well.”
“Who’s he talking to?” Joshua asked.
“I don’t think he is. It’s short-range stuff, and there’s no electronic activity in any of the tube systems. I think it’s
all being received by his bodyguard. I’m correlating their movements and his signals, and it looks like he’s virtually remote-controlling
them. The stuff they’re sending back is completely different, probably sensor feeds so he can see what they’re seeing.”
“A regular little squad of drones,” Ashly said. “I wonder if he doesn’t trust them?”
“It’s a bit late for us to start worrying about his status now,” Joshua said. “Oski, see if you can work out how to freeze
up those bodyguards if the need arises.”
“I’ll try.”
Joshua fixed their position twenty-five kilometres away from the sunside surface. Waiting was difficult for him. He really
wanted to be down there with Quantook-LOU, seeing what was happening. That would put him in control and ready to respond immediately
to whatever the situation threw at them. Just like he’d done at Ayacucho and Nyvan. The front line was the only place he could
be sure things would be done right.
Yet if Ayacucho and Nyvan had taught him anything, it was that there was more to command than good piloting. He trusted his
crew to handle the starship’s systems well enough. Deploying the experts he had with him was an extension of that principal.
That second time in Anthi-CL, when Quantook-LOU had become insistent, he’d known right away he shouldn’t have been there in
person. So now it was guilt rather than professionalism behind the decision to send the serjeants into the knot.
At least no one had protested that they should have been sent as well. He rather suspected that the diskcity was getting to
the others in the same way as it did to him.
They’d been holding station for fifteen minutes when Beaulieu’s sensor monitoring programs alerted her that the sunscoop ship
had altered its orbit. The massive fusion engines were firing, propelling it at a steady fiftieth of a gee. “It is now on
an interception trajectory with us,” Beaulieu told the bridge crew.
“Jesus, how long have we got?”
“Approximately seventy minutes.”
______
Ione listened to Joshua’s news about the sunscoop ship and told him: “All right, I’ll ask Quantook-LOU.”
They were in another of the dead tubes, the fifth so far, still churning up the dust as they swept through. Apart from the
lack of air and fluid, they’d all seemed in reasonable condition. She could see no physical reason for their abandonment.
Although at some point they’d certainly been stripped of all their ancillary equipment. Even a couple of the tube-end bulkheads
had been salvaged, leaving gaping openings into the junctions.
She switched her communication block to the frequency the Mosdva were using. “Quantook-LOU, the captain has been in touch
with me. He wants you to know that the sunscoop ship has changed direction and is now heading for the
Lady Macbeth
. Do you know anything of this?”