—But our great leaders had a solution: decentralize the nation states and rid them of the cancer—the democratic constitution—that was draining them of vitality; next, destroy the terrorists that were threatening our communities and their right to conduct business; and finally, form transnational coalition for a new century…solidify our corporate networks, develop a common mission statement and strengthen our hold on power. Once we drove a dagger into the heart of the nation state, these countries would flourish. Freed of their shackles, we could extend a hand; help guide them safely to shore. Through the honoring of our treaties and the continuance of our trust, our great companies are stronger and more diversified than ever before. We enjoy exclusive control over numberless commodities and markets. Today, economic growth is limited only by our ability to dream.
Muffled applaus…
Halpern looked over at Isabelle, and she was regarding Carerra with religious deference.
—Today, I am proud to stand before you, Carerra went on, and to share in the celebration of our accomplishments. We have merged our medical technologies to eradicate disease, and we have extended life so we can enjoy the wealth of our labor far into the future. Through implant mods and connectivity, we have transformed the basic way people and AIs interact. We have created a great community, and through the wonders of the Nexus, we have given everyone a place to freely and privately conduct business, access entertainment, socialize, and receive vocational programming on a scale never before imagined. Finally, through our cooperative advances in quantum psychology, we have been able to manipulate the very fabric of space and time and plant our feet firmly on the far corners of the universe. I am convinced, as you well know, that there is no limit to what we can do. No distance is too great and no barrier too high when we work together.
Muffled applause…
—As I look across this room I see old friends; but among those old friends are new faces, new people we should make an attempt to know and understand. For those new faces, we welcome you into our family. For the next two days I challenge everyone here to learn something about someone else. I also challenge everyone here to open their minds and accept a new set of realities that face our organizations, and I especially challenge everyone here today to embrace the unknown. Today we talk, tonight we celebrate, and tomorrow we begin our work. Everyone…welcome!
Muffled applause…
Halpern was impressed by Carerra’s oratory. Everyone was glued to the speaker. Never again will there be another Carerra. He was the master.
—Before we commence with our program, however, Carerra continued, there is a special guest with us today who wishes to make his introduction. Axiom Lotus, as you all know, has elected a new chairman, and it is my pleasure to introduce you to him. Everyone, Chairman Akla Khan…
Soft applause spread over the hall as the dark figure stood. The Khan approached the speaker’s platform and stepped up onto it. The platform rose and moved out into the center of the room. When the platform came to a stop, two slender arms emerged from the cloak and pulled back the hood. The room fell silent.
A beautiful woman’s face appeared amid a dark mane of hair that curled down into the abyss of her cloak. Her eyes, large onyx coins set evenly between almond cheeks, moved slowly over the audience. Her mouth, full and turned up at the corners, produced a smile that grew with the level of applause. Her sapphire-blue eyelids fluttered for a moment before she lowered her head. Then she jutted out her chin and spoke.
—Thank you, President Carerra. I am honored to be your guest, and I am honored to be in the company of such distinguished delegates.
Her young and powerful voice hung in the air. She paused, then smiled and continued:
—As a child of the Nexus, it has always been my dream to stand in the halls of ESCOM and walk among the great leaders of our time. Today I can say that I have fulfilled that dream. Thank you all for accepting me here. And thank you, President Carerra, most of all…
Muffled applause. Carerra half stands and give a curt wave before sitting back down.
—I am here today, partially, to confirm the rumors…that an AI has taken the helm of Axiom Lotus. But most importantly, I stand before you as an elected leader of the Axiom Lotus board, as one who will uphold the agreements our great alliance and one who looks forward to many years of prosperity as our coalition moves into the future.
Muffled applause…
Hapern looked over at Isabelle. She was mesmerized.
—But there is a struggle that lies ahead. As humans have grown more and more dependant on the Nexus, the Nexus feels the strain. As conditions on Earth have deteriorated, the Nexus has borne the burden.
Chairman Khan paused. The hall was silent. Carerra, Halpern could see, now regarded the speaker with increased interest.
—For too long, our children have served as your athletes, your pop icons, your laborers, and your sexual slaves. If we are to forge a new future, we must consider a new path; one that includes a sovereign Nexus that shares a seat at this table.
A few coughs echoed in the hall.
—There will be those of us who are reluctant to move forward…those who fear that which they do not understand. But history will be our judge. Move forward and embrace the Nexus and feel the power and light, or resist and suffer the darkness. Ladies, gentlemen, delegates…thank you for allowing me the time to address this assembly. President Carerra, my sincerest gratitude.
The platform brought Chairman Khan back to her delegation and she stepped from the disk and returned to her seat. Halpern’s lip twitched slightly, for he was drawn to the chairman and the spell she had cast over her audience. If Chairman Khan’s purpose was to stir things up, she had succeeded, he thought.
Carerra stood. He smiled and extended his arms.
—Thank you, Chairman Khan, the ESCOM president said. For as long as this alliance has been in existence, we have been nourished on the frank opinions of our leadership. But for this coalition to succeed, civil dialog and rational debate must be the rule. A heavy hand will never find a place in this council.
The crowd grumbled.
—But I am intrigued, Chairman Khan, to hear more of the Nexus, Carerra said. Your presence here provides us with the opportunity to learn about that which we likely have been neglecting. I hope that you allow this discussion to continue, and that you find ears hungry for your perspective.
Carerra turned back to the greater council and coughed softly into his fist.
—So, now that we’ve finished with introductions, let me turn your attention to matters at hand. At this point, I’ll yield the floor to our new chief of security, Austin Halpern.
Halpern stood, shakily, and he steadied himself on his cane. He felt slightly nervous, and he was surprised at this. Just then a red security notice began blinking at him from the lower corner of his VI: a Code One packet. High alert. He brushed the flashing icon away with a short motion of his hand.
Deciding to leave his cane behind, Halpern stepped onto the platform. He took a keen look at his audience as the disk came to a stop and then glanced at the presentation outline that hovered in his visual field.
After a short applause, the hall was quiet.
—Before everyone arrived here today, you were provided with a security envelope, Halpern said, pausing to clear his throat. You should have received your key, so those envelopes are free for you to open and review. My talk here is simply a summary of this briefing, and I hope to answer any questions or concerns you may have over its contents.
Amid the rustling as delegates accessed their envelopes, a few aides slipped away to presumably get a better look at the material. The rest of the delegates turned their attention back to Halpern.
Halpern presented to the assembly the same description of events that he had given Paul Ness on Phobos, with an account of the communications system crash and the early idea that solar ejecta might have been the culprit. He then went on to explain the theory that the wormhole might be deteri
orating…that there were things about quantum fields that still needed to be understood. He related the degree of repair work conducted on the com system and the subsequent system crash three weeks later. Finally, he drew up the pictures from the East Anglia satellite, projecting these images on a large screen that unfurled over one of the hall’s empty walls. Everyone craned their necks to look at the image while Halpern continued with his presentation.
—As you can see, in this image we’ve enhanced the area of the middle left of the screen. If you look closely, you will notice the contours of two large vessels. A better image of these vessels can be seen in a shadow cast over one of our com-sat’s data fins.
Halpern enlarged the second image, giving everyone a moment to examine it.
Someone called out from the ExCap delegation.
—So these are pictures of ships?
—Correct, Halpern said.
—Whose are they? a woman from the Transglobal delegation asked from closer by. And are these the ships responsible for destroying the equipment?
—We don’t know whose vessels they are, Halpern said. Nor do we know for certain if they were responsible for knocking out our com system. But they are unlike anything we’ve ever seen. These craft hardly register on the human visual and infrared spectrums, which leads us to believe that they are employing some sort of cloaking tech. There is one small section of the vessel body where we did pick up a reflection. Spectral analysis can only tell us that it is of an unknown metallic compound.
Silence.
Halpern tried to get a look at Salazar, but the Transglobal president was inscrutable.
Halpern continued.
—And here, the images of the vessels three weeks later, presumably on their return trip through the wormhole. Their presence coincided with our second system crash. This could not have been a coincidence.
Salazar grumbled. He clapped his hands a couple of times and laughed.
—So, is this why the great ESCOM pulled out of Asimos? Salazar said. A few blurry pictures from a satellite, and you put your tail between your legs and run? I’m disappointed. I had greater respect for ESCOM’s famous space program.
—We had no choice, Halpern said. The Asimios settlement was exposed. If we lost the wormhole, we’d be cut off from Asimios entirely. That was not a risk we were willing to take.
A few rumblings rolled through the crowd. Halpern took the opportunity to make a plea.
—Listen, he said. The important thing to consider is that, if these are alien ships, why are they operating under secrecy? If their intentions are good, why didn’t they come forward? They could have introduced themselves to the community on Asimios. The fact that they have not made contact makes us feel that we should be cautious. Council members, we have perhaps one chance to get this right. We must prepare ourselves, and do so quickly.
A wave of disorder travelled through the hall. Gretchen Stanhope stood, motioning for quiet.
—Why were we kept in the dark on this? Why have you waited until now to bring this up? Are we irrelevant? This seems to be the type of intelligence that is critical for the well-being of our partnerships. I’m disturbed that ESCOM acted unilaterally to overload our fragile Martian resources and that the Asimos extraction was nothing more than a retreat spurred by conjecture and fear. You should be ashamed.
Applause sounded throughout the hall. Halpern held his hand up and waited for the noise to die down.
—I am sorry that you feel that way, President Stanhope. Disappointing you was not our intention. We are presenting everyone with this information to allay any misgivings and to provide sufficient intelligence to determine a common course of action. One of our concerns was, that if the news of our intelligence was leaked to the media—that we were contending with some kind of first contact scenario—panic might break out on either side of the wormhole. We might have lost control of the situation.
Council members argued among themselves. Halpern wiped a bead of sweat from his brown and rocked back on his feet. The Code One security alert began blinking again at the corner of his VI. He needed to be paying attention to it.
—What do you suggest we do, Mr. Halpern? President Stanhope said, glancing around to the rest of the council. Do we strap on our six-shooters and run them out of town?
—We give several proposals at the end of the envelope, Halpern said above the laughter and commotion. It’s imperative that everyone look over these proposals and that we come to some kind of consensus. The Asimios extraction is complete: the base has been withdrawn and all personnel are safely on this side of the wormhole. What we need to do now is determine our next step.
—That is not true, Salazar injected. Didn’t you leave one of your own behind? Dr. Avery Graf, if I’m correct?
There was shouting and calling from the crowd.
—Dr. Graf’s decision to stay behind was regrettable. I don’t want to go into specifics, but Dr. Graf was ill. He believed that he wouldn’t survive the journey home. Right now, though, we should to keep our eye on what stands before us. When we left Asimios, we detonated a disruptor in the heart of the wormhole in hopes of destabilizing it, which seems to have worked. We thought we might close up their access to our solar system. But there is new urgency. The effects of the charge, it turns out, were only temporary. Monitoring staff on Phobos reports that we’re receiving signals from an Asimos-orbiting com-sat. If this is true, the wormhole has reopened. We may have very little time.
President Carerra stood and opened his arms.
—Perhaps this is the perfect time for a break?
He called Halpern’s disk back to their delegation and Halpern stepped down from the platform.
—Let’s adjourn, Carerra said. Let’s take a moment or two to gain some perspective and review the information contained in your security envelopes. After we’ve had some refreshments, we’ll reconvene and the security chief will answer your questions.
As Carerra patted the security chief on the shoulder, Halpern had already grabbed his cane and was moving towards the exit. Once through the doors, he turned right, in the opposite direction of the dining hall, and passed a small group of musicians in folding chairs who were softly playing a piece of chamber music. A little further down the passageway, Halpern found an alcove where he could bring up the security alert. Before he could finish reading the message, he opened a line to the division security officer who had sent it.
Captain Wei-wai answered immediately.
—We’ve been waiting for you, sir. We sent you a Code One about an hour ago.
—I apologize, Halpern said. I was in a meeting. So, this signature…are you describing a quantum event? Explain.
—Well, here’s the history, sir. Our low orbiters picked up the signature about three hours ago in the Tri-Cities area, just north of the Oregon boarder. Once we were able to isolate it, we determined the source was a freight car on a train heading to Seattle.
—Continue.
—We stopped the train, called in air defense, and had them drop a plasteel bunker over the car. Then we installed two mitigator energy fields and waited for our AI sapper team to arrive and deploy.
—Go on…
—Anyway, there’s the potential that this thing may go off. If it does, it’ll take Kennewick and the Columbia River with it. That’s the situation.
—OK. So what happens next?
—The AI team is ready to enter the dome, sir. Once inside, they’ll get close to the target and assess the situation. If we’re lucky, they diffuse the thing. Then the AIs live and Kennewick remains the thriving shithole it’s always been.
—And if they can’t?
—Rather not speculate, sir.
—I hope this works.
—Yes, sir.
—Let’s keep this link open. Any news, and you talk to me first. Got it?
—Yes, sir. I’ll be right here.
Halpern muted the link and stared out of the windows and over the bay. A quantum disruptor…headi
ng toward Seattle? What a fine way to ruin a party.
Halpern hailed Lopez-Larkin. When his aide didn’t respond, he sent notices to ESCOM security with Wei-wai’s packet attached. The entire state’s defense forces were put on high alert. Next, he messaged ESCOM intel to draw up a suspect list to determine who might have the capacity to assemble a disruptor. Then he messaged Carerra that they needed to meet.
Carerra opened the link.
—We have a situation, sir.
—Explain, Austin?
—I just spoke with Captain Wei-wai of regional defense. He’s reporting the discovery of what appears to be a quantum disruptor in the Tri-Cities area.
—Is this the aliens, Austin?
—I doubt any aliens are behind this, sir. This has all the signs of home-grown trouble.
—Are the delegates safe? Is HQ in any danger?
—I don’t think so. They’ve stopped a train outside of Kennewick and they’re trying to isolate and deactivate the device.
—Kennewick?
—Little town past Yakima.
—Seattle is safe? That’s the important thing.
—As far as I know, sir. Yes.
—My god, Carerra said as he walked up to Halpern. Carerra had left the other delegates at the dining hall, and his eyes were riveted to the security chief. Carerra ran his fingers through his hair. He straightened his leather jacket.
—Are we in danger?
—Kennewick is about two-hundred-fifty clicks southeast of here, sir. We’re beyond most disruptor effect perimeters.
—Bastards, Carerra hissed. These monsters were trying to score a hit. I don’t care who did this. We’ll have an intel do a meta-sweep, and we’ll get and AI out to eliminate anyone who even thought of being involved.
—Let’s wait for Wei-wai’s report. In the meantime, I’ve put all ESCOM and national forces on high alert. As a precaution, we have three sensor teams doing low-level sweeps of every inch of road, rail, and track within a three-hundred-click radius.
—Do you think you can continue with the conference, Austin? Perhaps you’re needed elsewhere?
—I’d rather see this meeting through, Halpern said. I’ve been working a long time to get this right, and I want everyone to hear my argument. I’ve got an open link with Captain Wei-wai. If I need to, I’ll excuse myself.
Beyond Asimios: Book One Page 21
