‘Despite our earlier conversation,’ Dakota said, standing at one of the control pedestals, ‘it is vital to me that we conduct our expedition in a spirit of mutual cooperation. It is true that we have had cause to doubt each other’s better intentions. Such difficulties are to be expected in an enterprise such as ours. But let us not lose sight of what we have achieved, and of what lies within our reach. Human–Tantor symbiotic exploration – people and the Risen united in a spirit of scientific and cultural enlightenment. What have we to fear if we stand together?’
‘You stood with Chiku and Eunice once,’ Kanu said, ‘until they had the poor sense to disagree with you.’
‘We have all made mistakes. The mark of intelligence is to learn from them, and not be bound by the errors of the past. I regret everything that came between Chiku, Eunice and I. But they were not steadfast in the face of the unknown.’
‘Are you still Dakota, or have the Watchkeepers made you into something else?’
‘I know my own nature, Kanu.’
She was cycling the main viewer through display options, learning her way around the controls. The tip of her trunk, splayed like an open hand, was a thing of dexterous wonder.
‘I think I know it, too,’ he said. ‘You imagine you have free will, and maybe you have just enough to fool yourself into believing that. The fact is, though, you’re doing the work of those zombie machines – mindless automata that became so clever they forgot how to be conscious. It’s not too late, Dakota. Abandon this expedition – or at least delay it until we’ve made contact with the other ship.’
‘The other ship, yes. I will admit I have some interest in it – but only insofar as it spurs me to even more decisive action. They are on the move, did you know?’
‘Are they?’
‘Not the main vessel, but a smaller craft – a vehicle about the size of our Noah. Nothing escapes the Watchkeepers’ scrutiny, and there is nothing I need to know that they will not bring to my attention.’
‘You think they care about you?’ Nissa asked.
‘I concede that theirs is a detached sort of interest – clinical, you might say. I am realistic enough to think of myself as an instrument in the service of their enquiry. If a better instrument were to present itself, I might cease to be their favoured subject. But for now they are invested in me, and this other ship is no more than a distraction. I would like it to remain that way. Might you show me how to project a schematic of the entire inner solar system? I appear to be unable to zoom out from the immediate neighbourhood of Paladin.’
‘Access that sub-menu, then select the logarithmic scale factor,’ Nissa said.
‘Thank you – I should have seen that.’
The schematic showed Gliese 163, then its family of worlds – at least out to the orbit of Paladin, the eighth world from the star. Dakota called up a set of curving paths which showed options for their own trajectory depending on start time, gee-loads and fuel consumption. The coloured paths fanned out like peacock feathers, annotated with numbers and symbols, but all commenced at Paladin and ended at Poseidon.
‘Our course is simple – we have but one objective. They have commenced their journey from Orison, but at the moment their trajectory can’t be extrapolated with any precision, other than to say that it remains bound to the ecliptic, so it is very unlikely that they mean to leave the system. More likely, they have a world in mind. Paladin is one possibility, but it would not cost them much in additional time to divert to Poseidon, or indeed towards three or four other objectives. What do you make of this smaller vehicle, either of you?’
‘You’re the one with the Watchkeepers whispering in your ear,’ Nissa said. ‘Why not ask them?’
‘Oh, I have – or rather, they have tried to present me with the information in a way suitable for my comprehension. But they are not good at that sort of thing, and frankly I don’t have time to be swallowed up and dismantled by them again. The small ship does not strike me as having interstellar capability, but I would not like to bet against it if it came down to speed and agility within a solar system. Do you concur?’
‘If you’d like me to,’ Kanu said.
‘I do not wish to find that ship already at Poseidon when we arrive, hampering our approach. For that reason, we shall take the hardest, fastest course open to us – or at least the fastest we can achieve without employing post-Chibesa energies.’ Dakota moved her trunk – Kanu was still curiously fascinated by the way it shaped itself to the needs of the moment – and blanked out all but one of the trajectories. ‘There – our golden course. It will bring us within the outer perimeter of the moons in just over forty-eight hours. Unless the other ship has capabilities not known to us, they cannot beat us to Poseidon.’
‘When do we leave?’ Nissa asked.
‘Is there any reason not to depart immediately?’
‘No,’ Kanu said, for he knew that the ship was as ready as it ever would be, and Dakota far too intelligent to be convinced otherwise.
‘Then you have your answer,’ the elephant said.
For a long while they hardly appeared to be moving at all, Zanzibar diminishing in size so slowly that Kanu’s eyes offered no real impression of progress. They were like a ship fighting its way out to sea from the safety of a harbour, the town and the rising land beyond only reluctantly allowing their prize to slip from reach.
The tiny distance they had come made no difference to Paladin’s apparent size. As they pulled away from Zanzibar, so the Mandala rotated into view below.
Kanu stared at it with a troubled sense that he had offered it insufficient attention – that too much had been happening when they arrived, too much while they were guests of the Risen. It felt discourteous – a lapse in respect that was bound to be punished. When he had known of the Crucible Mandala’s existence, he had envisaged a mute and mindless thing – an alien construction, sphinxlike with its secrets but possessed of no deeper intent. Now, in such close proximity to the second Mandala, his perception underwent a change. He felt its scrutiny on him – its need to be attended, to be observed and to feel itself the subject of awe. It was not malignant, he decided, but neither was it universally benign. It was capricious, capable of acts of supreme and disregarding cruelty – a jealous god branded onto the face of a world.
He did not like it. But then again, no one was asking him to.
‘At one hundred kilometres from Zanzibar,’ Dakota said, ‘you may increase our thrust to normal output. We will make a direct course for Poseidon. We have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of that would require subterfuge.’
That was when Icebreaker began to pick up a transmission. The console chimed, and chimed again.
‘It’s the smaller ship,’ Kanu said. ‘Do you want to take the call?’
‘Let us hear what they have to say – we have no obligation to respond.’
The transmission was simple audio-visual, with no cumbersome encryption. Kanu threw it onto the nearest wall and studied the face that appeared. He recognised her immediately: it was Gandhari Vasin, the woman who had spoken to him just before his abortive suicide bid.
He was careful to show no recognition.
‘This is Captain Vasin,’ she said. ‘We see you moving, accelerating away from Zanzibar. I must insist that you reverse course and return to Zanzibar. I will allow you five minutes to acknowledge this transmission and demonstrate some intent to turn around. If I see no change in your trajectory, I will be forced to consider punitive action. Trust me – I have the means.’
The transmission ended. Kanu made a mental note of the time. She had allowed for the time lag between the smaller vehicle and Paladin’s neighbourhood, but without much room for error.
‘Your thoughts?’ Dakota asked.
‘There’s no point articulating them,’ Kanu said. ‘You’re committed to this action, and you know she can’t reach us acros
s this distance.’
‘Then you consider it a bluff.’
‘You tell me.’
‘I am struck by two things. The first is that she would be very unwise to stake so much on a bluff, given that we will know the truth of it in a few short minutes. The second is that she arrived at her point very quickly – no introductions, no clarification regarding her mission or mandate, the name of her ship—’
‘Make of that what you will.’
‘If you had prior contact with these people, Kanu – you would have informed me, of course?’
Half-truths came to him without effort. ‘That may not have been her first transmission but it’s the first one we’ve heard. But she could have been sending for days without Icebreaker recognising it as a deliberate attempt at communication. For all we know, she made her introductions ages ago and the ship was too damaged to recognise it for what it was.’
Dakota gave a nod, and Kanu trusted that she was satisfied. He ought to have been grateful for that, but the words had come from Swift, not his conscious self.
At least, he could take no credit for them.
‘Nonetheless, we must consider her threat,’ Dakota said. ‘Unless her expedition has weapons that defy physics, she cannot possibly harm us from such a distance. But she must have something to back up her threat.’
‘Or it is a bluff,’ Nissa said.
‘We shall find out soon enough, in that case. Maintain our heading, Kanu. Make it clear that we will not be deterred.’
‘Do you want me to respond verbally?’
‘I do not think that is necessary. Our intentions will be clear enough from our actions.’
‘Swift?’ Nissa asked, using the subvocal channel.
‘As much as it pains me, I can’t fault her analysis. But I doubt very much that Captain Vasin would make a threat unless she had some means of delivering on it.’
‘Well, that’s reassuring.’
‘It was not meant to be.’
‘Sometimes,’ Dakota said, ‘I have the sense of something passing between the two of you – a private discussion to which I am not privy. Is it wrong of me to feel that way?’
‘We feel the same way around the Risen,’ Kanu answered.
‘Ah, but in your case the feeling is entirely justified. Speech is efficient, but there are some things that can only be conveyed through the old channels – the rumble and the roar.’
Vasin was generous; it was another ten minutes before they heard from her again.
‘You haven’t altered your course, which is regrettable because it’s going to make things very difficult for both of us. Charitably, you may not have heard me or be incapable of responding. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to make charitable assumptions. If you are in a position to do so, please turn your attention back to Zanzibar.’
They needed to do nothing; the image of the shard was still up on the wall, albeit now captured by high-magnification sensor. It was a real-time view and the shard would not be visible for much longer before it passed behind Paladin. For the moment it was unobstructed, lit sharply on one face, shadowed on the other.
‘I have complete control of your solar mirrors,’ Vasin said. ‘They are mine to deactivate or redirect. A preprogrammed command is about to take effect; in about ten seconds you should see the consequences.’
‘My god,’ Kanu said, genuinely startled.
It could not be a bluff, he knew: no one would claim such a thing unless it were within their immediate capabilities to make good on it. And indeed, he only had to look at the thermal hot spots to see that the threat was entirely real.
The bright spots winked out instantly, although it would take much longer for the thermal collection grids and the area around them to cool down to the ambient temperature of the rest of Zanzibar. Still, the point had been made, and made excellently.
‘No,’ Dakota said, with a rage that was both quiet and world-consuming. ‘No. This will not stand.’
‘They’ve done what they said they would,’ Nissa said. ‘Maybe it’s time to think about negotiating.’
Vasin was speaking again. ‘Although I’ve turned off your power, it’s fully within my capabilities to restore it. I have no desire to hurt or inconvenience you – merely to demonstrate that I have the means to do so. Turn around now and the power will be restored.’
‘Speak to her,’ Dakota said.
Kanu nodded. ‘To let them know you’re going to turn around?’
‘To let them know that their power is worthless. Of course I am infuriated that she has this capability. I do not fully understand how it is possible, although in time I am sure that I will. But she misunderstands our position. That power is a luxury, not a necessity. Tell her this, Kanu.’
‘I have no reason to believe you.’
The elephant lowered her head. ‘Better to ask yourself: do I appear concerned? Outraged, most certainly – this is a violation – but it means nothing.’
‘You must need that power,’ Nissa said, ‘or else why would you bother collecting it?’
‘The power was a lifeline in the early days, when times were at their hardest and we had no independent means of supplying our energy needs. But we have become stronger since then – less reliant on the external universe. Zanzibar’s Chibesa core was damaged beyond hope of repair during the translation, but we still had the ships, shuttles and service vehicles gathered within her docks. Many of them had small Chibesa power plants of their own, and so we incorporated them into Zanzibar’s energy grid.’
‘But you still need the mirrors,’ Kanu said.
‘Only in the very long term. Some of the chambers will have to be darkened and resources conserved elsewhere, which is difficult but not intolerable. The Risen have withstood much worse. Tell the captain that. Tell her that I am impressed by her cleverness, but that she would need to shut off the mirrors for many years before it became a serious problem.’
‘This may not be the end of it,’ Nissa said. ‘If she can turn them off . . . well, what else can she do? Do we really want to find out?’
The mirrors were still disabled and Kanu supposed that Vasin would maintain this state of affairs until she had reason to change it. It was an effective and surprising demonstration, he had to admit – the kind of thing he might have expected of Swift, but not this pleasant-faced human woman.
Evidently he had underestimated her
‘Captain?’ he said, delivering the return transmission. ‘We’ve seen what you did and there’s no doubt it’s an impressive demonstration of your technical capabilities. Unfortunately, it hasn’t made any difference to us. The mirrors do feed energy into Zanzibar’s power grid, but it can function without that power for a very long time. Months, years, easily – it’s simply a question of placing more reliance on the internal generators. So I’m afraid there’s no reason for us to turn around, and now you’ve taken this hostile action, there’s no further incentive for us to consider you a trustworthy negotiating partner. I’m very sorry, but I think we’ve said all we need to.’
‘Very good, Kanu,’ Dakota said, when he was done.
‘Don’t thank me. I may as well have had a gun to my head. Was any of that true, by the way?’
‘About the generators? Mostly. I won’t pretend that her actions aren’t a nuisance, but it will be the Friends who are the first to suffer. She is the one damaging Zanzibar’s capacity to sustain life, Kanu, not I. For now my concern is with Icebreaker – and we are safely beyond Vasin’s influence.’
‘You wouldn’t treat the Friends so callously.’
‘Let us not dwell on things yet to happen.’
‘Then you’ll leave it at that?’ Nissa asked.
‘This Captain Vasin is resourceful, but I doubt she is infallible. If there is a way to regain control of those mirrors, I shall find it. I can communicate with them jus
t as readily from Icebreaker as from Zanzibar, and I shall indulge myself with the problem: it will help to pass the hours. Do you know something? For the first time in a very long while, I rather wish I had the assistance of my old friend Eunice. She would know exactly where to start.’
‘It’s a shame she died,’ Nissa said.
‘Yes,’ Dakota answered. ‘Careless of me to depend on the frail. I learned that lesson well.’
Later they were alone, making use of the privacy they had been promised. It would be an exaggeration to say they were enjoying it, but Kanu was at least glad to be away from the Risen and their goal-fixated leader.
‘She’s insane,’ Nissa said. ‘The Watchkeepers have done this to her, but that doesn’t change what she is.’
‘I don’t disagree.’
‘So what are we going to do about it?’
‘Nothing. What else can we do? You saw how easily she shrugged off Vasin’s attempt at persuasion. If that didn’t turn her around, what will?’
‘This is our ship, not hers. We’ll always know it better than she does.’
Kanu gave a joyless smile. Odd how Nissa now felt an equal claim on Icebreaker’s ownership.
‘I know what you’re thinking, but it doesn’t change anything. We already have control of the ship but a mutiny would be pointless. The problem is the Friends. If we act against her, she’ll take it out on them.’
‘So kill her. Then what?’
He shuddered at the thought of it. But repugnant as the very notion might be, killing Dakota was not the biggest problem.
‘She’s in constant contact with Memphis. We can presume that contingency plans are in place – if Memphis doesn’t hear from her, he’ll take action against the Friends.’
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