Authors: Gregory Benford
“You have a strange manner of showing your reverence, Cap’n. The battle was going well.”
“They swatted us like flies.”
“
Every
battle costs us—that is the glory of it! Only by great sacrifice can we win great victories.
That
is the point which eluded the shortsighted Elders and Cap’ns before me, and which only Divine intervention, in the form of
myself, has countered.”
“I see, Your Supremacy.”
“It is our fierceness, our sacred rage, our Divine fearlessness of mortal wounds and even of death, that places us above the
monsters and demons which curse our mother-world!
This brought a shout of agreement from the Tribe. Hoteyed, grinning, the mob was mesmerized. Their nostrils flared with anticipation.
Killeen joined in their cheering tardily and so did his lieutenants. But His Supremacy noticed this and abruptly held his
hands up, silencing the crowd.
“I see a slowness in you, Cap’n. A reluctance to follow the commandments of My Holy Self.”
“Naysay, I—”
His Supremacy’s eyes flashed. “Naysay?”
“Well, I—”
“The God of Sacred Rage does not like this word
naysay
. Especially from a Cap’n who runs. I think you speak it far too much. Knees!”
Officers instantly and expertly struck the back of Killeen’s knees so that he dropped forward to the ground. Someone pinned
his hands behind his back, lifting them so that he bowed involuntarily. He looked up at the pendants that swayed from His
Supremacy’s broad, scarlet belt. One was a tiny carved human head, grinning. Another seemed to be a fragment of a mech carapace
fashioned to resemble a long stalk from which a large seed sprouted.
“You realize that bodies left on the field are used by Cybers?”
“Yeasay.” Killeen could not trust himself to say more; sarcasm crept in too easily.
“They infest our heroic dead with eggs. Demon eggs!”
“Yeasay.”
“Yet, knowing this foul fact, you chose to disobey.”
“Ah, I thought only ’bout my Family’s safety.”
“And how will you feel when you see demons crawling the hills, demons born of your abandoned dead?”
Killeen could think of nothing to say to this, so he simply bowed his head.
“A portion of my godliness urges that you be erased from our cause. I could order you to the spit, to abide there until corrupt
fluids have drained from you.”
The crowd murmured with animal anticipation. Killeen saw Toby begin to edge a hand closer to his rifle. Killeen shook his
head slightly. His son reluctantly let his hand drop. Killeen caught Shibo’s eye and saw there something he could not deflect.
She stood still and compressed in a way he knew well.
“We Bishops,” he said hurriedly, “we hunger for your cause.”
“Fiercely? Despite the sky demon we all witnessed?”
“A deep hunger. Yeasay, yeasay.” He made himself shout, “Show us the righteousness.”
Catcalls and jeers came from the crowd.
A puzzled expression swept over His Supremacy as his eyes went blank. His lips trembled and he gazed up as though seeking
celestial advice. The mob rustled. A chilly wind swept across the mountaintop.
Finally His Supremacy said, “Yet generosity is sometimes wise. Mercy can flow from me as well as punishment, Cap’n.”
The crowd groaned with disappointment.
“Still, I cannot allow a Family to suffer the guidance of such a Cap’n.
Killeen opened his mouth, closed it. The man’s moods flickered so fast Killeen could not keep up.
“So! I shall appoint a new Cap’n of the Bishops. In time of trial—and this is surely such—I retain that right. You”—he pointed
at Jocelyn—“you will be the new Cap’n. Step forward!”
Jocelyn took a pace forward and saluted smartly.
Hands released Killeen and helped him to his feet.
“I expect
instant
obedience in all things.”
“Yessir!”
“We begin planning immediately for our next battle, a great struggle which shall turn the tide against the legions of monsters.
And this time the Bishops shall lead.”
“Very good, Your Supremacy,” Jocelyn said. “We are honored.”
“Prepare, Bishops!” His Supremacy called. “And tonight, celebrate with your holy exalted Tribal fellows the victories to come!”
He waved her away. She stepped back, bowing. The crowd yelled halfheartedly and began to break up. Bishops glanced at one
another uneasily.
Jocelyn came to where Killeen stood, still unmoving. Only when she came to attention next to him did he realize
that he should return to the ranks. Mutely he swiveled and went. Behind him His Supremacy went on, announcing the celebration
of some religious event. The idea of carrying on a festival that evening, after the withering losses every Family had taken,
gave Killeen a bitter taste. Family members, shocked by the abrupt change in Cap’ns, stared at him as he passed their sharply
squared-out squads. Some in the formation gave him hidden signs of salute and others nodded in respect. The world seemed crisp
and fresh to him as he just kept walking on blistered feet.
Quath hurried up a steep raw cliff. She should not expose herself so, but she needed to search these mountain passes quickly
for her Nought. She had thought she was following it closely, but then she had come upon a large pack and had to slip away
to avoid detection.
The Tukar’ramin agreed that she should avoid alarming the Nought packs until she was sure of snaring the right Nought, the
one who knew the workings of the Nought ship from antiquity. To be certain her Nought was not caught in the ambushes that
her fellow podia were springing on the fleeing stragglers, the Tukar’ramin had called off all attacks. Now all attention turned
to Quath’s search.
But where
was
the Nought? Its telltale had not reported on time. Probably it was damaged.
This complication irritated Quath. She cast her electroaura outward and caught fragrances of Nought lacing the senso-air of
the mountains. They were congregating here,
yes. What an opportunity! The podia could annihilate these pests by the thousands, once Quath had her catch safely encased.
This vantage, scrabbling up the rough face of canted rock, gave her an umbrella coverage of the jumbled, sharp peaks of the
entire range. She quelled the simmering panic among her subminds that height brought on. Only her sure grip saved her from
succumbing to her deep fear of heights.
Strangely, here at the planet’s equator the effect of the Syphoning had thrust tortured crust still higher. It had compressed
the basaltic underpinnings, splitting great seams and poking them into the underbelly rock of the range. Far away she saw
a cone spitting sooty gouts into air already laden with churned dust. Calamity had cut broad swaths through the forests and
plateau brambles. Mech mines had caved in. Their railways were smashed and buried.
All good, but the rubble gave pests myriad hiding places. Quath clambered with six legs onto a high notch in the mountain.
The main gathering of Noughts was one peak farther away, and she hoped they were as dull-sensed as they had appeared to be
in the battle, or else they might detect her here.
*Quath!* came the Tukar’ramin’s call. *I bring grave word.*
*No, far worse. There is conflict among the Illuminates.*
*Yes.*
*I cannot fathom it myself, young podder, and I am far more skilled than you. This is the first time I have ever been privy
to any Illuminate proceedings. To tap into a small fraction
of the flow is to sense vast, sliding conjectures as tides in one’s very soul. Do not ask me to describe it, for I cannot.
Conflict rages among them like the smashing of suns in my mind’s sky. I—I am still recovering my teetering equilibrium.*
Quath said, though she did not. The Tukar’ramin’s signals carried a sucking undercurrent of doubt and gray
fear.
*Some Illuminates do not want any foray into Galactic Center. They wax fiercely.*
of the Illuminates.
*They sense a larger design behind this. A mech artifice, perhaps, to draw us into the Center.*
dictates.
*I had been so told, and until this moment I had never doubted. You are a Philosoph, Quath—you cannot know the wonderful shelter
that we unmitigated intelligences know….*
Quath had a thin glimmering of what the Tukar’ramin felt. To have that certainty shattered by the spectacle of the Illuminates’
differing among themselves must be a terrifying experience. Quath felt sympathy for the Tukar’ramin—and abruptly felt how
far she had come from the Quath of her simple Hive days. To feel anything but unblemished awe for the Tukar’ramin would have
been incomprehensible only days ago.
*Other Illuminates think it is our true historic destiny to use these trifling Noughts, who by pernicious accident carry a
key to the inner region.* The Tukar’ramin’s muted carrier
frequencies ran somber, muddled, tossed with flecks of pale doubt.
*They differ. They have studied all these events and some feel that the Noughts were sent here as part of a larger work.*
*A concept we do not fully understand. Some mechs do things for inexplicable reasons. They term it “art.” Such works seemingly
have no use.*
*Not necessarily. Some Illuminates feel the Noughts came in the ancient craft as an aid in stabilizing the mech city conflicts.*
*Perhaps. Like us, the mechs use a hierarchical system of command. The entities controlling this world before our arrival
were low on the mech ladder of being. This was a mere tendril, an operation at the periphery of mech interest.*
Quath suppressed her momentary shock at this news. All along she had supposed their efforts here were of great import, driving
terror into mechs everywhere.
*In such cases, control must be delegated to the local level, and liberal use must be made of the stimulus of competition
among subunits.*
*Efficiencies arise out of carefully regulated conflict. Note how much more diligent were your own strivings, small one, when
you were stimulated by your rivalry with your sister, Beq’qdahl.*
How little had escaped Tukar’ramin’s attention! Had she engineered every detail of Quath’s life?
*This use of inter-unit striving is nearly universal. The
mechs had a unified design for this world. But individual mech cities and complexes here were allowed—even encouraged—to compete
for resources, for challenging roles. Even the cells of all living things act in such a manner, jostling each other, seeking
nutrients and higher tasks. Delicate chemical balances keep the process under control. When it goes well, the whole organism
flourishes.*
of inter-city battle on the planet’s surface. Such scars did not look at all “well-regulated.”
*Indeed. With mechs, as living things, there is a danger to such a process. These tensions can spill over into greedy excess.
It is known as cancer. A wild burgeoning of ego—of blind aggression by a part against the greater whole. The mid-level mech
minds on this world began striving in deadly earnest. They employed new, vicious weapons against each other.*
Quath experienced a leap of understanding.
She detected a rumble of satisfaction coming from Tukar’ramin, accompanied by something else… a hint, perhaps, of respect?
*Indeed, young one. Your nimbleness of mind is pleasing. Noughts had long infested the interstices of mech culture as no more
than irritants, occasionally employed for small purposes by lesser mech entities—more often, seen as pests to be squashed
underfoot. Until the cancer began. Then they proved powerfully useful to one of the warring sides. The result was catastrophic.
Their alliance weakened mech power in this system.*
*Just so. It is why the Illuminates risked sending our expedition,
with the precious Great String, to this place so near the fringes of mech power.*
Quath felt she was beginning to sense some of the scope of this tale. It was vast, intimidating.
*Certainly. But the cancer spread so rapidly, and our might descended upon this system so quickly, that we were able to establish
ourselves before they could act to eradicate the cancer. With the string at our disposal, we defeated all expeditions sent
to “cure” this wayward mech colony. And the Illuminates estimated that economics would prevent any truly massive counterstrike.
This outpost was too unimportant to merit any such major undertaking.*
*Nevertheless. Mechs elsewhere may have sought to send aid to their brothers here in more subtle forms, using sneaky tactics
to slip medicine under our cordon of guard.*
Quath felt a burst of insight.
Noughts! The ones who arrived in the little ship. They were sent as
medicine?
… To interfere with the cancer?>
*That is what is believed by some of the Illuminates—those who see the vessel as a deadly missile, sent by our enemies, carrying
agents harmful to our cause. It is why I received orders to sear them. It is why, at first, I sent you and your sister after
them, to destroy them one and all.*
Tukar’ramin paused, then resumed in lower tones.