Sunborn

by Jeffrey Carver

  The hell with it. He inserted his hands and felt an immediate, tingling surge of power. It took his breath away as he felt the AI draw close.

  “Ship,” he said.

  *Li-Jared,* he heard, once more in the voice of his stones, slightly raised in pitch. It sounded a little different this time.

  “This is the shipboard AI, isn’t it?”

  *This is the scout craft AI. You are in the control center for Auxiliary Scout Module One.*

  “Oh.”

  *We are prepared for flight. Do you have need to separate from the main ship?*

  “What? No! Moon and stars, no!” Li-Jared’s hearts beat wildly in horror. “No separation. Please.” The AI acknowledged, and he slowly calmed down. This was very strange. He had encountered the scout from the outside on a previous exploration. How had he managed to enter it without even seeing the vessel? Finally he said, “I don’t want to go anywhere. I need to talk to the main shipboard AI. Can you do that?”

  *One moment.* Then, *Li-Jared.*

  “Yes! Is this the ship?”

  *It is.*

  “Thank heaven!” he gasped.

  *How may we help?*

  “Do you remember you told me to come back if there was need, uh...” He stammered to a halt, because he had not prepared how to say this.

  *Need of what?*

  He struggled to control his out-of-synch heartbeats. “You said...you would consider changing the command structure—” he struggled to fit the words together “—if it was necessary to take control of the mission away from Jeaves.” He rubbed his fingertips together nervously. “You said it might be possible. Well, I just want to know more about how that might happen. If it proves necessary. What the protocols are, and so on. Because I think Jeaves is going to get us all killed.”

  *Please specify.*

  Li-Jared felt his hands spasm into fists. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we just almost got caught in a star exploding.”

  *Jeaves indicates that we have safely transitioned through the current emergency.*

  Li-Jared tried to control his temper. He forced his voice to go low. “Jeaves doesn’t know what he’s doing.”

  *We are presenting that assertion to Jeaves, and requesting a response.*

  “Wait! I didn’t mean—”

  *But Jeaves is not the only command authority. He shares authority with us, and with others.*

  Clouds above. Li-Jared’s thoughts were starting to spin.

  “Ship,” he said, in a tone that he hoped would sound earnest and potentially commanding. “Does that shared authority include us?”

  *Please clarify: meaning of “us.”*

  “I mean me. Ik. John Bandicut. Antares.” He thought a moment. “I suppose I even mean Copernicus and Napoleon.”

  *The status of the robots is in flux. The status of the others, the group we refer to as the Company, is advisory.*

  Li-Jared almost snarled, “Define ‘advisory.’”

  *We take your expressed opinions into consideration.*

  “That’s it? You take our opinions into consideration?” Li-Jared was having trouble standing still. “And the robots—are they even lower on the ladder?”

  *The robots are part of your Company. However, in addition, they hold subsidiary command authority.*

  Lightning fire from above. The robots had more say on this ship than they did! Li-Jared closed his eyes, his mind a blur of anger and exasperation. He forced himself to breathe, to think carefully. “Let me ask this, then. Could Copernicus or Napoleon order a course change, if they believed it was required by circumstances?”

  *They could input such an order for our review.*

  “And then you would—?”

  *Review it.*

  Li-Jared clamped his eyes shut. Hardware bureaucrat! It was hopeless. He was better off trying to work through Bandicut’s robots. “I see,” he said finally. His breath hissed out. “Thank you.” Bwang. “Can you give me directions out of here?”

  “Of course,” said the AI. “Just follow the lighted arrows.”

  *

  Bandicut and Antares were back on the bridge—Ik having returned to his quarters for meditation—when Napoleon trotted in with an unusually springy gait. He was followed a moment later by Copernicus, humming smoothly on his four wheels. “Lord Captain and Milady,” Napoleon said, coming to a stop and bowing.

  Bandicut rolled his eyes. “Nappy, please—”

  The robot ignored him and continued. “Cap’n, we believe we have served you by assembling some potentially useful information regarding the Mindaru.”

  Bandicut glanced at Antares. “Regarding the what?”

  “The Mindaru. We believe that is the real name of the adversary we are flying to meet.”

  /// The Mindaru! ///

  /That name mean something to you?/

  /// It was the name given by the Fffff’tink

  to the invisible enemy that was afflicting them.

  And I have a suspicion that it was

  also the destroyer of my own homeworld. ///

  Bandicut swallowed hard. /That’s...alarming. So you’re saying all of these legends Jeaves talked about really referred to one adversary? And it’s one that seems to win all of its wars?/

  /// Maybe. A lot of them, anyway. ///

  Copernicus was speaking now. “We found some correlations in the library that cast light—”

  “You mean the ship’s library—which Jeaves should know by heart?” Bandicut interrupted with a glance at the Jeaves-holo.

  “Yes,” Copernicus answered. “But Jeaves and the library did not have the benefit of knowledge we gained on the Neri world, or even on Shipworld—with respect to the boojum, for example.”

  Bandicut shuddered at the reminder of the boojum, the bodiless, malicious intelligence they’d faced down on Shipworld. “Okay. The boojum I can see. What knowledge did we gain on the Neri world?”

  “Cap’n, sir, we had contact with the Maw of the Abyss during our passage through it, on our way off the Neri world,” Copernicus said. “We picked up some information.”

  “Some information? And you never thought to mention this before?”

  “It did not seem relevant. It was more like random pieces of history and writing from a fractured collection. But the Maw—”

  “Uhhl,” Antares broke in, “are you saying that the Maw of the Abyss is part of this...enemy...we’re fighting now?” She stretched her arms wide as if to enclose the galaxy.

  Napoleon flexed his knees for a moment, then cocked his metal head before answering. “Not necessarily part of the enemy, no. But it had some knowledge, not well organized, of a widespread pattern of threats to inhabited worlds. It is a pattern that fits well with similar patterns described in our ship’s library. The Maw called the force behind these threats the Mindaru. And variations on that name appear repeatedly among widely separated legends mentioned in old historical writings in the library here.”

  Bandicut cleared his throat. “It also seems to have appeared in certain histories reported to me two minutes ago by Charli. So I’d say we’ve got a pattern. And does the boojum fit in?”

  Napoleon dipped his head. “The boojum, now—”

  Napoleon was interrupted by Jeaves’s sharp voice. “Excuse me, but I think we’d all better take a look forward out the window.” Jeaves rotated and pointed into the distance.

  Antares strode into the viewspace, peering forward. “What’s happening to Deep?” she said, pointing to the dark cloud currently just visible against the glow of the growing Starmaker Nebula.

  Bandicut came alongside her, squinting hard. It looked like...“Are there two dark clouds that look like Deep out there?”

  /// Ah, so that’s what it meant. ///

  /That’s what what meant?/

  /// A feeling I didn’t understand before.

  A sense that we would be meeting another. ///

  /Another Deep? Dear God. Is there a family of these things out here? Did Deep divide
?/

  /// My sense was of something different.

  Perhaps that’s why I didn’t understand. ///

  “I do feel the presence of two beings out there now,” Antares said. “And I believe they are turning to meet us.”

  Does anyone else have something to share that they haven’t mentioned? Bandicut wondered. He drew a long, slow breath as he awaited the newest arrival.

  Chapter 18

  Traveling in the Dark

  JEAVES SITUATIONAL DIARY: 384.15.7.8

  I find myself unexpectedly at a decision point. With a new unknown approaching, the timing is particularly—how would the humans who created me put it?—dicey.

  Li-Jared twice has gone off to speak privately with the shipboard AI. He is clearly testing the waters for a change of command authority, by charging me with incompetence.

  Perhaps I should have foreseen this.

  And perhaps Li-Jared has a point.

  What have my decisions yielded us so far?

  Answer: Ik traumatized, a dying star left behind, limited knowledge gained, and members of the team in various stages of dissatisfaction.

  Do I know what I’m doing? It’s not entirely a rhetorical question.

  I’m clear on the goal. To find the source of hypergrav disturbances, and put a stop to them—and to whatever other havoc is involved in their creation. I’m clear on some of the steps that must be taken. But perhaps I know less than I should know to continue in command. Is it time to put the company in control?

  Delilah will disagree. But Delilah’s interpersonal skills make my own look polished.

  It has been my hope to gradually encourage in the company a greater sense of ownership of the mission. With this new unknown approaching, do I dare take the step of granting them greater autonomy?

  Do I dare not?

  *

  To Deeaab, the way ahead was unclear, a series of skips through murky realms of n-space. He understood well enough the general direction the dying star had indicated to reach N-ck-ck-ck-ck, but the path led through much of the body of Starmaker. The path was strewn with stars being born, the dust of stars not yet born, and ferocious winds of radiation from stars erupting in the full bloom of life. Deeaab had considerable facility in moving through space and time, but all that concentrated matter and energy obscured his view. And the periodic gravitational shock waves, like a kind of sickness, just made matters worse.

  Often, he wished that another he knew might come to help: one whose origins were like his, who could shape energy just as he could shape time. He thought of her songs, the one who traveled as a dark cloud, whose haunting, reverberating name recalled the quality of dark that she loved. They had traveled together at times, but Deeaab did not know where Daarooaack was now, and had no way to call her.

  He was therefore surprised when he heard Daarooaack’s low, keening whistle out of nowhere, and felt her approach. How could she have known? Perhaps she had felt the throes of the star’s disturbance in spacetime, or maybe Deeaab’s own manipulations, and had come to investigate. Whatever the reason, Deeaab called joyfully across space, “Daarooaack? Join me! Much is happening!”

  He sensed her darkness skidding across the star-cloud as she called back, “Much that is strange! You are not alone.”

  “New visitors,” answered Deeaab. “They have come to battle the sickness. Come and meet them...”

  Daarooaack answered with a rising note, circling to join him.

  *

  Deep and his new companion were drawing close now. Bandicut waited quietly for Charli to connect with Charlene-echo, and beside him, Antares was poised to gather her own sense of the approaching clouds. Li-Jared had joined them on the bridge, but hadn’t said much, except to gulp with surprise at the second approaching cloud.

  Deep and the new one were flying a little apart from each other, approaching The Long View/One Way Trip from eleven o’clock and one o’clock respectively. Jeaves noted aloud that they appeared different from each other in electromagnetic readings, but he couldn’t say what that meant.

  /// Perhaps it’s time I made contact. ///

  Bandicut sat on the padded bench, steadying himself. /Go./

  The transition this time felt smoother, with Charli following a now-familiar route into the mind of the entity. The quarx and Charlene-Deep began to speak. For a time it was indecipherable to Bandicut—like distant bell buoys clanging to each other on a foggy night. But gradually words began to emerge, and fragments of conversation drifted across...

  ///...know where we are going? ///

  <<< Daarooaack will lead.

  Daarooaack can see paths that are obscure to us. >>>

  /// Daarooaack. What is Daarooaack?

  A part of you...of Deep? ///

  /Daarooaack?/ Bandicut blinked. /Forget it. Dark. We’re calling her Dark./

  <<< Yes? Dark, then.

  Dark is another...different...

  can do things we cannot.

  We...things Dark cannot. >>>

  /// But where did Dark come from? ///

  <<< Like us...another place and time...

  place-time... >>>

  /// Universe? ///

  <<< Yes. >>>

  /// Both of you?

  From the same place? ///

  There was a perceptible pause before Deep answered, in the quarx-echo’s voice.

  <<< We think so, yes. >>>

  Bandicut felt the quarx’s empathy. But while he was interested in what these clouds were and where they came from, right now he had other things on his mind. /Charli, can you find out where we’re going, how we’re supposed to find our way there?/

  Charli responded smoothly:

  /// Where will Dark lead us? ///

  <<< Between ridges, and down rivers.

  Dark can find the way. >>>

  /// Are you saying that Dark can...///

  <<< See the paths through n-space, yes.

  You could say it is a gift. >>>

  The echo of Charlene reverberated softly, almost as though with laughter.

  <<< And as to where...

  we go to where stars are being born,

  at the end of the river.

  To where starlife is aflame.

  To where the trouble lies.

  We cannot defeat the sickness without going

  to where the trouble lies. >>>

  /Dark can get us to the Trapezium, is that what she’s saying?/ Bandicut asked.

  /// Dark’s the one to follow, yes...///

  *

  Antares, clearly puzzled by the new entity, wondered aloud just what Deep and Dark were. “They feel so similar in some ways—but in other ways feel very different.”

  “I can tell you this much,” Jeaves said. “They seem to create, or maybe even are made of, moving quantum disturbances.”

  “Uhhlll...”

  Charli spoke slowly.

  /// I perhaps think I know what these clouds are.

  I think they’re diffuse singularities. ///

  Startled, Bandicut turned his attention back inward. /Aren’t singularities points, like in a black hole?/

  /// That’s how we ordinarily think of them.

  But this is something different.

  You know how a singularity can be thought of

  as an opening in spacetime,

  where the rules of physics cease? ///

  Bandicut nodded, aware of the others in the room watching him.

  /// Well, Deep and Dark say

  they have come to this universe

  from another. ///

  /Another universe?/

  /// Yes.

  And whatever they were in their own universe,

  here they took the form of

  singularities distributed over measurable space.

  That’s why they can affect

  spacetime in ways that might otherwise

  seem unlikely. ///

  Bandicut exhaled softly. /The whole thing seems plenty unlikely to me./
r />   /// And yet it happens.

  That’s my belief, anyway. ///

  <<< Yes. >>>

  That last was a whisper from afar. Bandicut hadn’t realized that Charlene-echo was still with them.

  “John? John, have you gone away again?”

  He brought his eyes back into focus. Antares was peering at him. “Uh,” he managed.

  Bwang. “Silence-fugue?”

  Antares’s hand was on his arm. “No, not silence-fugue. But he had that lost look on his face again. John, was it Charli?”

  Bandicut nodded, searching for his voice. Finally he was able to say, “I was just...learning about our friends.” He tried to convey what the quarx had just told him. The others looked puzzled. “It’s not like I understand it exactly.”

  “Understand what?” Ik said, striding onto the bridge.

  Bandicut turned, startled. “Ik! Are you all right?”

  “I am fine,” Ik said—a little shakily, Bandicut thought. “What have I missed?” The bony-faced Hraachee’an looked from one person to another with his deep-set eyes.

  Bandicut opened his mouth and closed it.

  “Perhaps,” Jeaves interrupted, “I should start. I have been thinking, it is time I turned some of the control of this mission over to the four of you.”

  This time everyone turned and opened their mouths. Li-Jared bonged softly. Bandicut stammered, searching for a reply. Finally he managed, “Do you mean you are asking our opinions?”

  Jeaves regarded him in apparent thought. “I have always intended to do so. I have not always, I’m afraid, set you at ease in the manner in which I accept your input. I suspect I have seemed at times...autocratic, in my approach.”

  Bandicut coughed.

  “I apologize. My preparation—my experiences leading up to meeting you—did not prepare me well for dealing with relationships. I used to be better at it. But I have had far more practice, of late, in working with other AIs. And with beings such as the haloes, with whom the dynamics are rather different.” Jeaves inclined his holographic head slightly.

  Bwang. “That all sounds wonderful and moving,” said Li-Jared. “What, exactly, are you offering?”