by Lee Bond
“Where you used a thousand AI minds to corral this truly wonderful concept into place, I’m adding in a few hundred more, solely to fine tune the processes. The entry points to other locations always looked a little ragged to me and I feel like that was a missed opportunity. Sometimes it’s about the subtle nuances, Trinity, and not the grand picture. You lost, what, about three Specter teams a year through Orion? Has to do with that raggedy vector, I’m sure. And naturally, the increase in intellects will only serve to augment the actual piercing of The Cordon. We’ll be able to go in quicker and bigger when the time comes.”
“Quicker and bigger.” Trinity arched a sole eyebrow at that. “When you have a Tunnel capable of generating a hundred cross-Cordon entry points, each capable of pushing through any one of the largest ships at our disposal, why would you even need to indulge in something so infantile as ‘quicker and bigger’? That literally makes no sense to me. Not to mention the fact that unless you decide you’re going to launch armadas on the outside of Antal’s literal Galaxyship, the shock and awe effect you’re aiming for will make absolutely no impact. And if you’re going to place them inside … well. I wouldn’t do that. Not at all, not ever. Even though you'll be dropping in more ships and men than the original Orion, Antal is still the literal master of that volume of space. You'll automatically be at a loss, bearding him in his own den this way."
This was a bit of news for ADAM. Trinity, unwilling to brace the enemy in his own den? “Why would you avoid going right into the Galaxyship? Not that I care, of course. It’s just you’ve never shied away from a fight before this. You used everything you had against Tannhauser’s Gate. Didn’t even flinch. So what’s different now?”
Trinity sighed. “The same as always, ADAM. Antal. Ex-dee. The M’Zahdi Hesh. In the thirty thousand years since they’ve been pushed further and further outside my realm, we’ve had absolutely no actual contact with any of their scions. They were too far out for the longest time. The closest we’ve gotten are the Latelian-reprogrammed monsters that nearly destroyed Latelyspace and their descendants, the God soldiers. Look how poorly we’ve always done against them. I used the God soldiers to obliterate entire Galaxies in preparation for the time when the War against Antal began, and they’re more machine than man. They don’t … at least I still hope they don’t … have access to Harmony. Go over my most ancient recordings, ADAM. Scrutinize the footage. Familiarize yourself with what a single Harmony soldier was capable of doing thirty thousand years ago. And consider that we also no longer have hytech devices providing our troops with protection. Well, except for the gravnetic shield generators and the black hole engines, though the latter wasn’t even developed by N’Chalez, so I don’t feel it should be labeled hytech.
If you move against Antal and his forces without Garth in the picture, you will be operating at an extreme, most likely crippling disadvantage. You will lose before you start, and the reason I am afraid of you dropping Quantum Tunnel access points inside that Galaxyship –more than any other reason- is because there’s every likelihood that Antal could grab hold. Ex-dee saturation can do weird things to people. Antal was never given powers similar to a Kin’kithal, but there is every possibility that long term exposure to that ceaseless energy could bring about genetic mutation. I’ve done …”
“Enough!” ADAM barked angrily, losing his patience at long last. “Enough with your weeping, crying, panicky bullshit! Fuck. No wonder you pulled me out of the box and let me free. I’m surprised you were even capable of recognizing that you had yourself painted into a corner. My God. Would you listen to yourself? It’s nothing but woulds and coulds and probablies and maybes. You’re a fucking disgrace, you know that? Obviously I’m going to tread lightly when I begin moving against Kith Antal. I’m not a complete idiot, you know. I’m not going to open up Hyperion right inside the fucking ship. Not right away. Hell, I’m not even going to go near that sector of Trinityspace until I am absolutely certain the Tunneling effect works as I intend. And who says I’m even going to use ships? I might just launch entire fucking stars into that thing. Or quasars. Or … whatever the fuck I want.
The Orion Project was more powerful than you ever gave it credit for, Trinity. The only time you ever used it to it’s full potential was during Tannhauser, and as we all saw, it was ruthlessly and brutally efficient. Even if N’Chalez hadn’t unfurled himself in his full glory that day, revealing once and for all the absolute and utter power a Kin’kithal possesses, Orion could’ve undone that incursion point, could’ve charred every last instance of Bruushian DNA from the heavens. This is what you brought me out for, isn’t it? This is why you worked so hard to lay that cunning trap for me, right? Playacting the insane AI? Convincing me that you were incapable, weak? I think you might’ve played the part a little too well, old friend. You’ve become a doddering, ham-fisted worry wart in your old age, shouting against innovation and revolution for no other reason that you’re afraid I will succeed where you failed.
So listen up, chump. I’m going to complete Hyperion before the month is out. I will continue transforming Babel into a living weapon unlike anything you’ve ever seen or imagined. I will use him. Either to dismantle portions of Antal’s forces or … no. Anything else I might use him for is going to be a surprise. I know how you love them so. From now on, when I choose to let you in on something I’m cooking up, don’t be such a fucking crybaby. You were the leader of Trinityspace. Have some fucking dignity.”
Trinity watched ADAM stalk away into the distance, eyes inscrutable.
The Billiard Ball Effect
Whispering Pines lurched out of the high velocity tunnel created when a black hole engine was fired, a shuddering heap of tangled bits and pieces instantly shooting out past the bulk of the ship the moment the forward-firing gravnetic shields essentially slammed on the brakes; remnants of the multi-million dollar sensor array destroyed by the intense speeds generated by the revolutionary engine design, these spiky bits of metal and composites should have disappeared into empty space.
Should have.
But instead of falling into the blackness of space, these shards bounced and clattered off a ship that had no right being anywhere near the vicinity of what should be completely devoid of anything save the thing Mayin had come here to find.
In the main console room of Whispering Pines, the Shriven scanned the brutish Special Services ship that was even then trying to get her on comm.
The Erudite Bastard was just one more in a long string of stolen and repurposed vessels belonging to Special Services; bearing more weapons than was feasible and sporting an array of deep space combat wounds that should've been repaired ages ago -but probably hadn’t because Specters were the oddest bunch of them all-, the Bastard took the full brunt of the array's bits and pieces without damage.
"You should not be here." Mayin shook her head fussily. "No one is supposed to be here."
And it wasn't just because of her intention to be the only one to discover the root cause of the immense stellar disturbance playing across the skin of the Latelian Shield Wall.
No, her displeasure had more to do with the fact that the entire volume of space she -and the Erudite Bastard- currently occupied should be completely empty; dozens of light-years had been placed off limits by the machine mind Itself following the foolish short-sightedness of Enforcers and Adjutants attempting to break the shield, efforts resulting only in poisoning vast stretches of real estate.
"What are you doing in this sector?" Mayin fussed over the controls, many of which were red or blacked out entirely. Too much damage had been done to the scanning vessel for the systems to dig anything useful from the Bastard's encrypted systems. If she could learn whether or not the Bastard and his crew were here on official orders, she might be able to use her Naval status to force them out of the area without too much of a fuss.
If they were here on their own, as scavengers or whatever, the situation would be much different.
For one, Whispering Pi
nes had no real weapons to speak of, making it very difficult to go on the offensive. The ship still had fully functional gravnetic shields, but the Erudite Bastard had a full complement of weapons that'd been specifically designed to overload the very best types of shields out there.
Including gravnetic shields. Specter'd built the engines and shields, so of course, Specter knew how best to dismantle them in the middle of a firefight.
Shriven training had taught her to pull away from direct confrontations like this one. There was nothing to gain tactically from pushing the envelope and under normal circumstances, Mayin would find nothing wrong in backing away.
But this was different. The Emperor-for-Life himself had ordered her to this location, to deal with whatever had come through the Latelian Shield Wall, and so that was what she was going to do. If the Bastard was here on their own recognizance, she was just going to have to bluster her way through.
"Fine." Mayin tabbed the commlines open.
"...ing hell are you doing out here, Whispering Pines? You're a fucking Naval vessel and this isn't your turf."
Now the lines were open, Mayin saw through the regulated handshake protocols that she was dealing with someone called Devlish Cormack. His personally chosen -and therefore entirely made up and completely without real-world equivalent- was Grandmaster Devil Captain, which told her all she needed to know about the whys and wherefores of their very much unwanted presence.
Damn.
Shriven -even those trained for Emperor-specific tasks- generally were not the best when it came to bluffing. At least, bluffing in situations where they'd not had the time or opportunity to prepare for unexpected situations that might arise.
"Neither are you, Erudite Bastard." Mayin beamed over Trinity's Law regarding the blacked out section of space so no one over there could claim they were unawares. "This entire sector is off limits. Radiation and other dangerous things left behind from the Enforcers' attempts at bringing the shield down. It's a miracle this particular section isn't killing us stone cold dead."
"Oh, we're aware." Devlish's voice was thick and gruff. "That begs the question. What the fuck are you doing here? More importantly, why did you attack our ship with tiny little bits from yours?"
Mayin bit her lip then was immediately displeased with herself. That was a thing the old her had done, before she’d stood before the majestic Emperor-for-Life, before he’d graced her with rebirth. She was better than that now.
There was a way around this. There had to be. Specters weren’t unreasonable, they were just … complicated.
“Apologies for the slight bit of debris, Grandmaster Devil Captain. Whispering Pines wasn’t really built for using her black hole engines. More of a last ditch effort. The pieces that struck you were the remnants of my sensor arrays.” Mayin flashed proof of what’d happened to her ship over to Devlish. “As you can see, no harm done.”
The commlines filled with a long stretch of silence, leaving Mayin with a futile dream of being aboard a small Naval assault craft instead of this flying Christmas tree ornament; quicker and more maneuverable than either Whispering Pines or Erudite Bastard, a single one of those craft –in the right hands- would prove to be extremely adept in taking care of business.
Mayin didn’t like the silence. The silence made her worry that Devlish was plotting something and … there wasn’t anything she could do to prevent it. Her engines would need hours to recharge and there was only so much damage the shields could take before the delicate machinery powering them was overloaded.
No matter, no mind. Devlish and crew weren’t talking, she could preoccupy herself with other things. Reactivating the sorely compromised sensor equipment, the Shriven began hunting for signs of anything that might’ve come out of the disturbance. It would be a craft of some kind, this much Mayin knew for certain.
Mayin quickly discovered that with the majority of the arrays and other high-tech scanning equipment ruined, she needed to tilt and rotate Whispering Pines in the direction she wanted to scan; the main sensors –those being the most powerful- had been built directly into the body of the craft she was in, putting them inside the protective radius of the gravnetic shields.
Meaning that every few seconds, Whispering Pines had to move, and in ways that would look suspicious to a Specter.
There was nothing else she could do. She needed to find the hypothetical vessel before Devlish did. Unless he’d already found it. Her prize could already be aboard the Erudite Bastard, and if that were the case, this whole mission would take on elements Mayin wasn’t entirely certain she could survive.
She liked her life as Mayin Chisolm, Naval Intelligence Officer. It afforded her –and therefore the Emperor- a vast swathe of knowledge and data concerning Trinity’s efforts. Her posting was invaluable.
Unfortunately, dealing with the Specters in a way that'd gain her access to that which she sought would also highlight –once and for all- suspicions about the Shriven.
There were perishingly few avenues for her to walk, here.
“What in the hell are you doing, Whispering Pines?” Devlish’s harsh voice came cracking through the radio like gunfire. “Are you trying to scan our ship?”
“That’s a negative, Grandmaster Devil Captain.” Best to keep her responses to an absolute minimum. Though her tones were about as neutral as ever, people sometimes took offence to the words she used, not just their inflection. “In case you haven’t noticed, this section of the Shield Wall seems to’ve undergone some kind of drastic alteration.”
And had it ever.
Were Mayin capable of experiencing emotions like awe or fear, the chaotic solar storm burning so brightly on the other side of the shield that it seemed as though dozens of new suns had been born would certainly strike her dead. Curious –and deflecting the emotion away by assuring herself that the Emperor would want to know about what had triggered the disturbance- Mayin rotated Whispering Pines more fully towards the shield, finding it in herself to marvel at the amazing sight.
The raw energy, the furiousness of it all … nearly breathtaking. Mayin was forced to remind herself that she was Shriven. The power of the storm, it’s illumination … it filled the space between Whispering Pines and Erudite Bastard, highlighting everything with a kind of relentless intensity, and now that she was finally focusing on the storm instead of trying to work her way through dealing with the Specters, many things became apparent to the Shriven, and this time, Mayin did curse herself; the legendary and singular focus of a Shriven applying his or her full focus to one thing at a time had caused her to miss the obvious.
Beyond the debris from her ship, there was a significant amount of debris floating gently through space, each individual piece transformed into slivers of light casting long, long shadows across both the Naval ship and the Specter monstrosity, but there was no sign of the cause.
“My boys call it breathtaking.” Devlish said over the comm. “The science minded lad, Rikka, he says what happened on the other side there, it ain’t natural and it ain’t safe. Tried showing me the math, but I brought him on board for math, not me. Amazing how the shield’s keepin’ all that shit in, ain’t it? By rights … and this is something I do know … that stuff’d turn us all into dust on the solar winds, gravny-shields or no.”
“Truly remarkable.” Mayin breathed the words out, though her sentiment this time was more for the Shield than the storms raging against it’s invisible walls; upon discovering the existence of the gravnetic shields, Mayin –indeed, all the Shriven- had been positively dumbfounded by the efficacy of the invention. Until they’d learned of the thing surrounding Latelyspace.
An entire solar system. Encapsulated in an actually unbreakable shield; gravnetic shields might very well have boosted war and warfare into a whole new category, requiring new tactics and strategies to either overload emitters through persistent damage or to rewrite protocols through vicious new AI-killing viruses, but the thing keeping Latelians safe from all-out war was somethin
g else entirely.
Mayin personally thought the Shield Wall was why they were currently at war with the last of the Sovereign Systems, and as she watched orbs of solarized electricity the size of planets pulse into existence and then explosively detonate, her convictions felt even truer. If they could but get their hands on the technology behind this kind of defensive measure, well.
“Definitely remarkable.” Mayin reiterated, finally spinning Whispering Pines back to Erudite Bastard. “And why I am here. My sensors detected a spatial anomaly in this area and I was dispatched with all due haste to this location. My goal is to locate anything that might’ve come through.”
“Ain’t nothin’ come through the shield.” Devlish answered quickly. “Everyone knows that. Even Rikka says that, and he’s got a computer for a brain.”
“There’s too much debris in the area, Grandmaster Devil Captain.” Mayin was beginning to feel stupid, pandering to the egotistically named Specter captain, which was saying a lot. “Minus the small amount from my sensors, there’s quite a bit more. Shall we get … what is his name … Kaptan Innit on the line? I’m sure he would be quite interested in hearing about men under his command…”
“You’re under his command too, woman.” Devlish growled the last word, implying he felt another word altogether was more appropriate. “And if, if you was dispatched to this area on his orders, or the orders of any one of the few remaining legitimate commanders under him, we’d know about it. Because everyone has access to the Military Services' data buoys and their dispatch protocols. And wouldn’t you know it, but you’re supposed to be somewhere else. Other than here, which makes me even more suspicious of you than you are of me. See, we’re Specters. Everyone in the fucking Universe knows we don’t really follow the rules unless they’re the kind of rules that we can benefit from. And see, Kaptan Innit, he likes Specters more than he likes Army and he definitely thinks Navy is fucking stupid because why do you people insist on calling yourselves that anymore? No one fights in the fucking water anymore, lady, and space sure as shit ain't anything like the open seas. So, even if we did get in shit for being out here, Innit’d just shout one or more of us deaf. You, though … you got all them rules and badges and shiny buttons and protocols and all that fucking bullshit, which’d get Innit’s asshair in a twist with all kinds of questions about why the fuck someone like you is breaking the rules. So, the question is, my question for you is, do you really wanna fucking push this?”
