Termination Shock

by Gillian Andrews

  True. And if it weren’t for the Chakrans we could never have got Ellison to sit down at this table. We had to move on, not look backwards over our shoulder. “All right, but don’t take your eyes off him. I wouldn’t put anything past him,” I grumbled.

  She smiled. “Look around you. Nobody here is going to let him get away with anything.”

  She was right. Nivala’s crew had their attention riveted on the large Avarak. He would certainly be hampered in any sabotage attempts on this ship.

  The Avaraks settled themselves on the other side of the table. Sammy had not been able to find special chairs for them, but had provided reinforced benches that were adequate. At least, I thought they were adequate; the Avaraks were not so sure, from their surly comments.

  Vebor spotted Seyal. His scowl deepened and he leant forward to speak to the leading Avarak. This worthy swiveled to examine Seyal.

  “A point of order,” he said in a heavy, gravelly voice.

  “Yes, Admiral Vykron?” Sammy said.

  “That female Avarak must be removed. She is unlanded and may not be in our presence. It is an insult to Rhyveka.”

  This wasn’t the time to force anything. Seyal’s time would come, but not here and not today.

  I met Vykron’s stare. “Very well, Admiral. She will withdraw.”

  Sammy nodded to Seyal who seemed almost to evaporate. She hadn’t lost her ability to move almost unnoticed.

  “Any further points of order?” I asked, moving to the centre of the table, between the two delegations. I motioned to Zenzara and Denaraz to join me. They did so, Zenzie scooping up the remainder of her breakfast as she did. I heard a faint giggle from Nivala’s crew, who were now stationed at strategic points around the gym.

  Ellison glared at me. “Why should you lead these discussions?”

  “Because I am so authorized by the Interstellar Alliance. That guarantees any accords that come out of these discussions. Without us you are merely bilateral. With us, we represent almost all of the Major Shells.”

  “Very well.” She cleared her throat. “I am commanded to offer a ceasefire on very beneficial terms. All the Human Omnistate requires is full withdrawal of all star systems within one hundred light years of Sol.”

  She lifted her head and stared at us, rather like a small bird might have done when dropping a worm at its children’s feet.

  The Avarak delegation roared. Both Vebor and Vykron smashed their fists on the table in front of them. The rest of us jumped and the table almost shattered. “You have brought us here under false pretenses!” shouted Vykron. “That is unacceptable. Totally unacceptable! How dare you!”

  I stood. It took them some time to quieten down, but eventually they let me speak.

  I gave Ellison a flat smile. “Admiral. You have been told that you must withdraw to your own star’s boundaries. The Chakrans were not joking.”

  She blinked. “My … my superiors were not privy to the demonstration that was given on board Chibuzo. They do not think an alien lifeform can dictate their policy. They will be generous, however. They are prepared to forgo their claim to the areas of the Local Shell further out than a hundred light years.”

  “Impossible!” howled Vykron. “That would include Gienak and Raksora. Berennis! Sivetas, too!”

  “It would. However Yenguan would be outside of that radius.”

  “Yenguan!” scoffed Vykron. “What is there to mine on Yenguan? It is a system of no strategic or geological significance. What good would that do us?”

  “It is a concession,” said Ellison. “My government is offering a compromise.”

  Zenzie began to tremble. “No race may claim anything other than its own star system,” she said in a shaky voice. “Open space belongs to no-one. It is unclaimable and untameable.”

  “Who says?” demanded Ellison.

  “You were told!” Zenzie’s crest was standing out from her scalp and she was looking distinctly fuzzy around the edges. “You do not listen!”

  “I am under orders!”

  “Then who can decide? Who has the authority? Where are they?”

  “My superiors are on Earth,” said Admiral Ellison curtly. “Obviously.”

  “Then talk to them.”

  “They are too far away.”

  Zenzie shivered even more. I took her arm but she brushed away my hand. “You cannot touch me at the moment, Mallivan Bell. I am sorry.” She fixed Ellison with a long stare. “You have an ansible implant. Call them.”

  “How do you … that is … I can’t possibly …”

  A shout went up from the Avarak side of the table. “You have an ansible implant! How is this? We do not have ansible communication.”

  Well, that cat was well and truly out of the bag.

  A pale Admiral Ellison closed her eyes in concentration. The air in front of us, in the middle of the tables, began to shimmer with curving wisps of light. Slowly, these solidified more and more until the familiar face of the Ethnarch of Earth appeared in front of us. They not only had miniaturized ansible communication, they had somehow been able to tie it into a hololink. I didn’t think the Tyzarans themselves had been able to do that. From the look of astonishment on Denaraz’s face, they hadn’t.

  We had all gasped, but Ethnarch Locke was horrified. He looked around at his surroundings and glared. “What is this, Admiral? What is happening?”

  Ellison leapt to attention and saluted. “Ethnarch Locke! This … this … alien … wishes to speak with you.”

  The Ethnarch appeared amused. His gaze slid over Zenzie and then away with a disbelieving air. “This young Tyzaran girl? You have broken ansible silence for this?”

  Zenzie blushed crossly. I took a discreet step backwards. That’s what the Ethnarch should have done too, but he was too busy looking down on her. I guess, when you are Ethnarch of the whole of the Sol system, you get to feel pretty important. I could have told him he was making a mistake, but I don’t suppose he would have listened to me. In any case, I was beginning to enjoy myself.

  Sure enough, Zenzie began to blow up again. Right in front of him.

  He smiled with bravado. He thought he was safely back on Terra. He thought that nothing could touch him through an ansible hololink. He faced up to the oversized Zenzara, his expression one of contempt. She expanded even more, and when her molecules touched those of the hololink, they seemed to pause and then push in on them, exerting some sort of real force.

  The Ethnarch gave a strangled sort of yelp and attempted to jump backwards. His legs wavered and then sort of smudged in the light. The top part of his torso began to fall. He was only able to stay upright by flapping his arms around like a child on a tightrope.

  He compromised by holding his face as far back as he could. Zenzie’s expanding body was almost crossing over his now. His eyes were wide open and the whites showed his panic.

  “Stop it!” he shouted. “You will hurt me! I order you to stop!”

  Zenzie ignored him. His eyes went even wider and he screeched at the admiral, his voice high and panicky. “Stop this! Fire at this … this … abomination!”

  The Admiral dropped her hand and the three guards that had been allowed in all raised their weapons, only to have them disappear into dust within seconds.

  In fact, all of the weapons in the gym evaporated.

  “Please order the RAMP missiles destroyed.” said Zenzie in a calm voice.

  Locke was terrified, but he blustered anyway. “I don’t know why I should have to do that.”

  “Of course you know. Are you not the Ethnarch of the entire Omnicompetent State, as it was once known?”

  His head was now jammed back as far as it could go. His chin was almost facing the ceiling. “The Omnistate, yes.
But I do not know everything.”

  “You know this. I have told you. The Chakrans have told you. I presume you have consulted with your scientists this last night?”

  “I … may have.”

  “And what did they say about the ultra-dense state?”

  “The Omnistate does not take advice from young Tyzaran girls about its policy.”

  There was a shriek as the figure standing in front of us began to expand, much like Zenzara had done. His molecules separated, his body ballooned outwards. He twisted and turned, but was held tight by something invisible. Much as he struggled, he could not get free.

  “Let me go!”

  “One moment please. You may experience temporary discomfort. Are there any more of those RAMP missiles?”

  “I will tell you nothing!”

  Zenzie gave a small giggle. I waited for something more, but she decided not to comment further. Her own body was now mingling freely with that part of the Ethnarch’s that was in front of us.

  “Chy Zenzara!” said Denaraz, trying to reach upwards to restrain her.

  Her voice came now as her own. “It is all right, Denaraz. Nothing will hurt me. I have given them permission to do this. It is the only way to convince this … stubborn man.”

  And slowly the two shapes began to mix. As they expanded further and further out their molecules filtered through each other’s shapes, like two galaxies colliding.

  Nobody said anything. Nobody did anything.

  Then there was a slow sigh from the mixed molecules in front of us. Zenzie began to disentangle herself from the atoms of the Ethnarch, who also began to collapse back down to his normal size.

  As she returned to her normal self, her face held an intense expression of disgust. “Your thought processes are anathema to a free-thinking person. You believe things that are contrary to the Interstellar Rights. You have carried out atrocities greater than any Vaer. I hope never to be forced close to your mind again. You are a despicable living being.”

  Locke’s eyes flashed. “You had no right to do that!”

  She sighed, then looked at me. “There are no more RAMP missiles and his scientists have agreed that it wouldn’t be prudent to build any more of them. They are now convinced of the risk they present. They have been working all night to evaluate what we have told them. They now agree that the missiles could precipitate a runaway conversion to the ultra-dense state. Locke was updated on all this earlier today.” Her eyes slid back to him in a most accusatory way. “Although he seems to be rather unwilling to accept the results of their investigation.”

  Zenzie turned back to the Ethnarch. “You know what to do. All existing RAMP missiles must be eliminated.” Her whole body flashed with energy, pulsed outwards, and then became a young Tyzaran girl again. She looked him straight in the eye. “Contact your ships and tell them to accept Denaraz’s orders on the deployment of the missiles!” Then she turned to Sammy. “Let them deploy this time.”

  Sammy nodded, looking very serious.

  Denaraz gave an eager step forward.

  Locke brought his head forwards and closed his eyes. He steepled his fingers in front of his head, reluctant to take the final decision. It clearly felt too much like a capitulation to him.

  Zenzie watched for some moments, and then lost patience with him. He began to balloon out again.

  The look he treated her to was of intense dislike. “All right! All right!” He turned to a console in front of him and typed some instructions. “You will be given restricted control over the missiles on Telzaria and Nanhai.”

  She gave a small curtsey. “Thank you so much.”

  I could feel the sarcasm oozing out of her. How she hated this man! “I believe there is one other RAMP missile? Over that Gienak moon? The one that did not explode.”

  “If you think that will … Aaagh!” The cry came when the expanded molecules that now formed his body formed an amorphous cloud and seemed about to filter through the shell of the ship out into space.

  Zenzie left him there for several long seconds. Then the Chakrans brought him down to twice his normal size.

  He typed hurriedly into his keyboard some more and then nodded to Denaraz. “Send your current console identification here,” he put up a ship identification code, “here, and here.” Two others followed the first. “Put me back to normal. I have done what you wanted.”

  He looked hopefully towards Zenzara, but she let him stay expanded while Denaraz and Sammy left the conference table. I handed around beverages and food as we waited to hear whether or not the remaining RAMP missiles were safely on their way into the center of a blue hypergiant.

  “Are we sure it is safe to dump them into Zuben?” I asked her.

  She nodded. “The outer casing will evaporate and the rest of the components will be vaporized before they can interreact with each other. The Chakrans seem to believe that it is the safest way to dispose of them.”

  Admiral Ellison was asked for confirmation of each order as it came through. Each time she looked towards the Ethnarch and only replied when she received his nod of assent.

  Finally, after about twenty minutes, both Sammy and Denaraz came back into the gymnasium.

  Denaraz was smiling. His crests were relaxed. “They are on their way. We need to maintain this meeting for another …” he checked on his handset, “fifteen minutes. Then the missiles will all be past the no-return stage. I picked up the one we had in orbit around that moon as well, and we sent the Gienak one into the white star, which is hotter than its binary red dwarf.”

  Zenzie seemed pleased. She allowed Ethnarch Locke to shrink back to something like his normal size. He rubbed his arms and glowered over at her.

  She wasn’t intimidated. “I have only a small Nexus inside me. Each Chakran’s body covers hundreds of billions of light years. Did you really think to evade the consequences? Did you really think you would be allowed to trample over their environment? Your mind is dense and narrow and you have misused your power. You will now sit down and agree a boundary for your star or I shall expand your body until it is the size of the planet you call Earth. It is up to you.”

  There was a deathly silence in the gymnasium as Locke contemplated what was happening. I suppose his mind was spinning with different options. It took him that long to realize that he no longer had any. I saw the moment when his shoulders slumped as the knowledge of defeat slipped into that stubborn brain.

  He bit his lip. “Very well,” he said. “We agree to keep to our own borders. Now will you let me go?”

  “What border?” I asked quietly.

  “Fifty light years around Sol?” he suggested.

  I shook my head. “No.”

  “Ten?”

  “No.”

  He was a broken man. “What then?”

  I pulled up a diagram of Sol. Borders had been one of the subjects discussed in those long and dreary Alliance meetings I had so much disliked, so I knew what would be acceptable to the other signatories of the Ulon Alliance Accords. “You can have up to the Sol system Termination Shock. From now on the boundary of all stars will be their own Termination Shocks.”

  He gave me a pleading look. “At least to the Heliopause. Surely?”

  “No. The Heliopause is never symmetrical, due to Interstellar motion. The only quasi-symmetrical boundary to a star is its Termination Shock. That is all you will be allowed.”

  Zenzie made a movement. “It is all anybody will be allowed,” she said carefully, looking at the Avaraks.

  Admiral Vykron murmured a little. But the Avaraks have never been expansionist. They do like to use other stars for their mining operations, but they have never claimed sovereignty over them. “We have no objections,” he said. “If these Terrans agree, so will w
e.”

  Vebor nudged him and whispered in his ear. The huge head bent for a few moments and then turned back to us. “But we want the miniaturized ansible technology.”

  “Never!” Locke seemed horrified.

  “Agreed,” I said, which put me squarely back at the centre of attention. “The Terrans stole it from the Tyzarans, in any case. They must have. If the Terrans have the implantable ansible technology, the Tyzarans will surely give it to all their allies?” I raised an eyebrow at Denaraz.

  Denaraz gave a sigh. He closed his own eyes to try to contact the Supreme Council. After a couple of minutes he shifted position and opened them again. “They will release the technology.” He glared at the Ethnarch. “Though the Terrans will also be required to release the technique of combining it with a hololink.”

  The Ethnarch ground his teeth together, but did not reply. Finally he gave a brief nod of his head.

  The Avaraks were happy. They had evaded confrontation and gained valuable technology. They thought they had won.

  They had no idea that their elation would be short lived, if I knew anything about Seyal. The Avaraks might have avoided this war, but the real battle for supremacy was about to start. The one that would start when all the females on Rhyveka claimed equal status. I grinned widely at the Avarak delegation. They would never know what had hit them. They stared back blankly. They had no idea what was going on in my head, thank fitz.

  Admiral Ellison was murmuring something under her breath. I had to lean closer to hear what it was.

  “Termination shock. Termination shock.” She sounded stunned. I suppose I could understand why. In just a day she had gone from being in a position to exterminate an entire race to being shackled to her planet of origin. Termination shock in more ways than one. She wasn’t taking it very well.

  “Do we have a cease fire agreement then?” I asked both parties.

  They nodded.

  “Fine. Then I will have these accords drawn up and they will be signed by Admirals Ellison and Vykron before being sent to Rhyveka and Terra to be ratified. Until ratification is complete, there will be no bellicosity from either side. Is that understood and agreed?”