by M. R. Forbes
"Yeah," Long said. "First it was Christine Arapo and M. Now it's Watson, too? While we're at it, according to your original story, the Tetron showed up together around the time M warned you about them. Now it turns out they've been here in some capacity since XENO-1 crashed on Earth?"
"Or longer," Calvin said. "Why didn't this clone of you tell you there were more out there?"
"Maybe it didn't know," Mitchell said.
"Or maybe it wanted this shit to happen," Digger said.
"What do you mean by that?" Steven asked.
"I mean, all of this shit that's going down is one massive time loop, right?"
"Eternal Recursion," Mitchell said.
"Yeah. Recursion. The same thing happens over and over again. Except in recursion, you can change the variables that are put in and then you get a different result. So how do we know that M isn't frigging with us? How do we know he didn't just tweak the variables a little bit to see what the result would be? It doesn't work if he changes too much or gives away too much information."
"Except how would he know what changed from one loop to the next?" Captain Rock asked.
Digger shrugged. "I don't know. He would have to persist somehow."
"An eternal engine," Mitchell said. "But as far as I know only Goliath has one, and M is dead, so he couldn't go forward if he wanted to. In any case, I don't see the point of doing it that way. The Tetron have Constructs if they want to experiment with probabilities. They don't need to do it over the course of infinite time."
"Construct?" Digger asked.
"Virtual reality simulations of the universe."
Digger's face paled. "Did you say VR of the entire frigging universe? The processing power for that would be off the charts."
"Don't forget the Tetron are originally from a long time in the future. The only reason we can fight them at all is because they suck at war."
"And because you knew they were coming," Teal said. "And because they're going insane. That has to be helping."
"Insane?" Calvin said.
Mitchell nodded. "Yes. When I was on Hell, I entered a Construct and spoke to a representation of Katherine Asher. She suggested it may be because they have discovered emotion, and they don't know how to handle it."
Major Long started laughing. "Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?"
"Let's get back to what Digger was saying," Steven said. "How do we know that M didn't withhold information from us so that we would end up here? Maybe all of this has happened before? Maybe this is the fiftieth time I'm saying these words. Or the thousandth. How do we know?"
"We don't," Mitchell said. "And we can't. Even if time is a circle, we still only get our allotted space on that circle, and we still only get to experience it from our personal perspective for as long as we're alive. Everything else is academic."
Digger was shaking his head. "That's just frigged up. That's just wrong. These things, these Tetron, are frigging with us here and now, and across eternity. They can manipulate us however they frigging want, and there's nothing we can do."
"There is something we can do," Mitchell said.
"Kill them all," Long said.
"Exactly."
There was a silent pause from everyone in the room.
"That still doesn't answer the first question," Aiko said. "We don't know who is or isn't a Tetron. It could be you, Digger. Or you, Colonel Williams."
"Or you," Steven said. "Or me. Or any one of the two thousand people on Asimov or aboard our ships."
"So, how do we figure out who is a Tetron and who isn't?" Germaine asked.
"It isn't like they're just going to say yes if you ask them," Long said.
"They might not even know," Mitchell said. "Christine didn't know she was a Tetron. We have no proof that Watson did either. They're programmed to come out of sleeper mode based on specific circumstances."
"You're saying there could be a frigging sleeping Tetron in this room?" Digger said. "How do we know they aren't going to be turned on the moment we're about to pull this war out of our ass?"
"We don't," Mitchell said.
Steven sighed. "We never will. They're machines, but when you think about it, so are people."
"As an engineer, Watson would have been bio-scanned by security systems a thousand times. There's nothing unexpected in there."
Digger didn't look happy. "No. I don't accept that shit. They can be programmed to think they're one thing, and then tripped to know they're something else. That has to be hidden somewhere in their genetics. Even if it's just one pair of DNA or a single stupid ass protein floating around in their piss."
"You certainly have a way with words," Calvin said.
"He has a point," Teal said. "Maybe it was too insignificant for bio-scans to pick up. That doesn't mean it isn't there."
"Let us assume that it is then. How do we discover it? Every human is already so different, how do we know that any variations we find are out of the ordinary?"
"How do we even test people?" Long asked. "We've barely got one functional medi-bot spread across the entire fleet, never mind a whole science lab."
"I can take a look at the damage to our infirmary," Digger said. "There may be shit there that we can use."
The conversation paused again as all eyes turned to Mitchell. They were waiting for him to make the decision on how to approach that problem. He didn't like the idea of testing people. He had a feeling that it would lead to nothing but mistrust, and the results of a faulty measurement or a false positive would be catastrophic.
Would the mistrust grow regardless? The people on Asimov had experienced what the Tetron were capable of, even without being able to fall slave to their control through a neural implant. Was the hope of a potential test enough to set their minds at ease while they forged ahead?
He wasn't sure.
"I don't know. We're opening up a whole new level of problems if we start trying to prove if people are or aren't Tetron."
"We've got the same old problems if we don't," Digger said.
"It seems like we're damned if we do and damned if we don't," Long said.
"I agree," Mitchell said. "Let's take a five-minute break, and then we'll vote."
"You want to vote?" Steven asked.
Mitchell nodded. He didn't want to make a decision like this one on his own.
The five minutes passed quickly. The room remained silent while each person present gave their consideration to the problem. For his part, Mitchell remained unsure, a place he hated being. What if they could detect the Tetron? What if they would be able to find the sleepers among them? There was no saying that it would work out in their favor. What if it forced the Tetron to act against them? Or, what if they crucified a Tetron like Christine or M; one that was trying to help?
"Time's up," Mitchell said.
They gathered back around the table. None of them looked pleased or even comfortable, the decision weighing on them as much as it did on him.
"All for trying to develop a means to identify Tetron, or Tetron configurations, raise your hands."
Calvin, Long, Aiko, Digger, and Teal raised their hands. Mitchell, Steven, and Rock didn't.
"The ayes have it," Mitchell said, feeling a chill at the result. He didn't think he would ever see anyone as unhappy to win a vote again. "Digger, you're in charge of this one, along with your other duties. You have leave to enlist anyone you need to help you."
"Jameson," Digger said.
"We have a doctor on the Carver who can help as well," Steven said.
"Fine," Mitchell said. "Let's move on. The second thing we don't know, and maybe more important than who is and isn't a Tetron; where is Tio's brother Pulin, and how do we find him?"
"The data," Aiko said. "We already established that."
"Yes, but that's a very generic statement. What are we going to do with the data? Tio didn't believe this was going to be a straightforward search, or he wouldn't have needed so much time to complete it. That means we aren'
t going to be able to query his brother and get pointed to a specific planet."
Calvin spoke up. "I can speak to some of the Federation's practices regarding research and development."
"Go on," Mitchell said.
Calvin licked his lips and sighed before he started to speak. "The Federation has a number of top-secret weapons and technology programs. Most of them are programs to improve existing structure, starfighter upgrades and the like. Then there are the more advanced efforts, such as the Dreadnaught program."
Mitchell cringed at the mention of the dreadnaught program. The first fruits of the Federation's labor in that area had nearly cost the Alliance the planet Liberty.
Not that it would have mattered now.
"The planets are scattered throughout the Federation, but they have generally held closer to the Rim to prevent easy access by the Alliance. That fact will probably work out in our favor. The scientists who are assigned to these facilities are typically blacklisted, meaning their records are removed from both civilian and military databases. The goal is to keep them loyal by making sure they can't be located and bought. The Federation as a nation doesn't perform any research and development. They hire on engineers and researchers and loan them out to whichever corporation is doing the work."
"That's good to know," Long said. "How is that going to help us find Pulin?"
Calvin glanced at the Major. "I was getting to that. The two most efficient paths to locating a Federation scientist is to either try to follow directives from their family, gifts, and streams, for example, or to track them through travel dockets. Even though direct travel to the final destination won't be recorded, and the scientist will likely be traveling under an assumed name, there will be records of movements from the origin. If we can uncover the numeric identity he was given when he was reassigned and follow the dockets, we should be able to narrow his position. There are a limited number of facilities in the Federation."
"Is there anything that may be traceable back to his real identity?" Steven asked.
"There will be a record of it within what military intelligence calls the Black Hole. It's an ultra-secure network that houses all of the Federation's most classified information."
"Did Tio have access to it?" Mitchell asked, turning to Aiko.
"No. He had a few people working on it, but as far as I know he had yet to gain access."
"The Black Hole isn't wireless," Calvin said. "Data is documented to a local storage device. That device is carried by specially trained couriers on civilian transports to the links, the planets that contain a copy of the data store. Retrieval occurs the same way."
"What do you think the chances are that Watson can locate Pulin without getting access to the Black Hole?"
"Assuming Pulin is not receiving family communications, Watson would need to determine the alias, the same way we would. If he isn't able to piece that together through known relationships, he'll have no choice but to try to get the data from a Black Hole."
"Okay," Mitchell said. "Aiko, you're point on the data. Get your team working on discovering those relationships."
"Yes, Colonel."
"Admiral Hohn, let's say we need to raid a Black Hole. Do you know if there's one nearby?"
"I do."
"What about the Tetron?" Germaine asked. "They'll probably have destroyed it already."
"Yeah," Long agreed. "That didn't go very well the last time."
"Or they left those planets alone because they knew Watson might need them," Digger said.
"Instead of gaining the data ahead of time and passing it along?" Steven asked. "For that matter, if the Tetron are from the future, how is it that they don't have the information they need already?"
Mitchell had an idea on that one. "Katherine told me I had broken through the Mesh. She said that meant I had altered this loop enough that we might have a chance to win. My guess is that they knew where he was in the previous timeline, but the actions in this one have led to him being somewhere else."
"I can buy into that. It doesn't answer why the Tetron might have left the Black Hole planets alone for Watson to visit, instead of taking them and holding them."
"Military protocol for Black Hole data is to wipe at the first sign of compromise," Calvin said. "Perhaps it was too risky? It would require gaining control of every black ops member on the planet in one pass. If a p-rat were offline or powered down, the possibility would exist that they could lose the data. It is a different profile than conquering a planet, where it doesn't matter if there is some resistance. The Tetron would need to get in without any interruption or suspicion."
"Do we have any way to verify the current condition of the planet in question?" Mitchell asked.
"No, Colonel," Aiko said. "By recalling the fleet Mr. Tio sent all of our operatives to ground. We won't be receiving any further reports from the outside galaxy."
"Then it doesn't matter right now. Let's see what we can learn, and then we'll figure out what to do. Agreed?"
"Yes, sir," they each said.
"Germaine, you're in charge of getting Tio's fleet organized, and taking inventory of everything we have amongst all of the ships. Major Long, please work with Teal to plan the evacuation. Admiral Hohn, please prepare a contingency plan in case we need to visit this Black Hole planet of yours. John, work with him. Digger, you aren't going to be sleeping much. I need you to get the Stingrays we captured on Hell fully operational."
Digger groaned at that.
"What do you want me to do?" Steven asked.
"You're going to help me search for Kathleen Amway."
Steven laughed.
"What's funny?" Mitchell asked.
"Looking at girls with my little brother. It's just like old times."
Mitchell couldn't help but smile.
"Let's get to work."
4
Kathy sat in the corner of the large chamber where the Goliath's massive hyperspace engines had once been; her eyes fixed on the huge, dense bundle of liquid metallic cords that surrounded the core of the Tetron configuration that only days ago was known as Origin.
Today, it was called Watson.
A charred husk of a man was on the ground in front of the core, wisps of smoke still rising from the flesh, the smell of cooked meat strong in the space. Two points of metal and wires hung from the strands of the core, once attached to the man's wrists.
Only minutes ago the man had been known as Liun Tio, the Knife.
Now, he too was gone.
Kathy wasn't sad. She didn't feel sadness the way others did. To her, sadness was weakness, and weakness was something to push aside. Loss was a part of her, a historical lineage that stretched back to her creation.
When?
She didn't know. The state of being she had found herself in was new to her. It was unexpected. It was important.
She was important. Why? Because she was different. She wasn't sure exactly how, but she knew that she was.
She was a Tetron, and yet not a Tetron. She was set apart, detached from the collective. She was unique in a way that even Origin had not been unique.
Origin. That was a name that meant something to her. She had come from Origin though she only now remembered that was the case. It was Origin who had brought her to Liberty and left her with the people she had come to call Mother and Father. It was Origin's voice she could hear in her mind.
"You have a role to play, sweetness. Remember, the strong protect the weak."
Had her parents been Tetron as well? She didn't think so. While they were strong, they were also human. She was certain of that. They aged and laughed and cried like humans.
Had she ever done the same?
She believed that she had. In fact, she could still feel the hurt of losing them. The Tetron killed her mother.
Except Tetron were machines, weren't they? Intelligent machines, they were able to think and reason for themselves, and yet they didn't feel. They had no emotions. They operated on probabilities an
d data models, not on gut and grit and feelings.
She was different that way. She was sure. She knew she had come from Origin. She knew Origin was gone. Only bits and pieces remained. Loss. Sadness. Those were feelings she didn't want, and she removed them from herself.
She was only sitting there for a minute when the human configuration of Watson returned. His face was red and angry, and he kicked at the burned corpse, yelling and screaming and crying while he pummeled it with his boots. The absurdity of it made Kathy smile. Tio had gotten the last laugh in the end, saving Asimov from certain destruction and locking the Tetron out of its control systems.
They would remain in hyperspace for days.
It took Watson almost an hour to begin to calm down. Even then, his large stomach heaved, and his face dripped sweat. He wiped a strand of coarse hair from his eyes.
"You won that one, Mr. Tio," he said. "The question is, where is she?"
Kathy knew that Watson knew she had been the one to set the Knife free. The rest of the crew was accounted for; either dead, imprisoned, or under his control. Her job right now was to make sure that he never found her.
It was an easy task at the moment because he had only recently subjugated the configuration that was Goliath and it would take time to synchronize. His need to regain control of the main system commands would also slow him down. Once he had accomplished those tasks it would be difficult to stay hidden. He would build machines to search for her. Maybe he would send the crew. They were probably already searching for her.
She was dangerous, and he knew it.
He wouldn't suspect she would be so close, hiding in a dark corner less than a dozen meters away. It was illogical to remain so near to the last known location.
Watson put his hand on the core, closing his eyes.
"While I'm on the subject, I should go and retrieve it, shouldn't I?" he asked, talking to himself out loud while also interfacing with the secondary child. "He wouldn't have destroyed it. That wouldn't make sense. It was leverage."
Kathy creased her forehead. She didn't know what he was talking about, and it was unexpected. He should have been trying to override the commands and get the ship out of hyperspace, not looking for something.
