Permanence

by Karl Schroeder

  "They look big, but what are they?"

  "Autotroph technology?" asked Mike. Barendts shook his head, pointing down at the docks below. Men in uniform were running about there; none were the conspicuous green of the fanatical humans who had seemed to worship the autotrophs.

  "Hey, what are they doing?" protested Rue. The sub was being lowered into what looked like a giant trash compactor. It was a heavy cube with airlock hatches on the sides and top. It was attached to a larger, windowless cube. Their view of the cavern beyond was cut off as the cube's walls rose around them; then they were grounded with a thud. Fit-looking young men with buzzcut hair hopped into the cube and proceeded to roll the sub on its side. Stuff fell about the cabin and Rue found herself skidding over to sit on the wall.

  Now their airlock was right next to a door that led into the larger cube. The fit young men clambered out of the cube and its walls started closing in, accompanied by a deep throbbing of motors somewhere. This is it, thought Rue incredulously, they're going to squash us.

  The sides of the door to the large cube flattened and deformed around the sub's hatch, as though it were made of rubber. The sub settled a bit, creaked and then someone was undogging their hatch from the other side.

  A little puff of air came in. A man-sized robot stood there, little laser lenses aiming at them from its hips. It stepped back with a clank and gestured in a very manlike way. "Come in," it said.

  Rue and the others climbed out of the sub, finding themselves in a large cube-shaped room with bunks along the walls and a small partition behind which there was a toilet. There were no windows.

  "Pressure equalization will commence now," said the robot. It slammed the inside door of the cube and stood in front of it, arms crossed.

  Herat went over to it. "Please don't equalize the pressure," he said. "We need to get back to the surface as soon as possible!"

  The robot said nothing. It seemed to have shut itself off.

  * * *

  HOURS PASSED. RUE'S sinuses hurt and her ears kept popping painfully. Her private inscape told her she was being subjected to mounting air pressure that her circulatory nano were having a tough time compensating for. They kept popping up windows in the corner of her vision, asking whether she could please eat some silicon and iron so that they could start building more units. They anticipated a need to protect her from the bends at a later time. There was nothing to eat in the cube, so she ignored them.

  She and Herat continued to plead with the robot to let them talk to someone in authority, but it continued to ignore them. Mike sat on the sidelines, looking despondent; he was polite but not warm when she spoke to him. It was frustrating to face walls of silence on two sides.

  Just when Rue was eyeing one of the cots in resigned exhaustion, the robot jerked and stepped forward. "Apologies," it said. "Our apologies."

  Rue's ears popped and simultaneously an inscape window appeared. Her nano were telling her that the air pressure was dropping again.

  "What the hell is going on here?" demanded Herat.

  A new inscape window opened in the center of the room— a public one, obviously, from the way the others looked at it.

  The abbot of the monastery of Permanence, Griffin, stood there. He held out his hands in a supplicatory gesture. "We are so sorry, gentlemen, captain. We just found out about your rescue. It seems the military police who fished you out of the ocean had some trouble ascertaining your identity, because the I.D. tags of your sub had been lasered off."

  Barendts grinned sheepishly and shrugged.

  "We've been talking ourselves hoarse for hours," said Herat. "Wasn't anybody listening?"

  Griffin looked, if possible, even more embarrassed. "There's a local human rights policy that forbade the police from taking a deposition from you without a human physically present. It comes from an old case of long-distance interrogation, the ugly details of which I won't go into. And there were… further complications… due to where you chose to be rescued."

  "What complications?" asked Rue. She was rapidly tiring of Oculus and all its political mazes.

  "It appears you've stumbled on a military secret that no one, least of all citizens of the Rights Economy, is supposed to know about."

  "What secret?" But even as she said this, Rue remembered the strange spikelike things they had seen in the cavern above.

  "Please, this is a very sensitive matter. We're reversing your pressure equalization and will have you shipped topside immediately. These are matters that we cannot discuss through inscape, due to," the abbot coughed politely, "certain parties' uncomfortable skills with inscape hacking." His image looked directly at Barendts.

  "Hey, don't look at me," said Barendts. "I'm just here for the food."

  * * *

  TWELVE HOURS LATER Rue stood in the lavish council chamber of the Permanence monastery. Once again she faced an array of faces around the oak table that dominated the room. The faces were different this time and Rue suspected that these men and women were the real powers of the Cycler Compact.

  The politician Mallory was conspicuously missing.

  Rue had been separated from the others early on their journey up here. She was assured that Mike, Herat, and Barendts were safe and were being taken care of. They were citizens of a foreign power, however, and it was time to discuss matters that they should not know about.

  She resented the implication; as soon as Rue saw Mike and Herat again, she was going to fill them in on the situation, no matter what was said in this council chamher. She trusted them. Of course, there was no way she was going to tell that to the military police who had escorted her here.

  Captain Li was present. He stood up as she entered; the others followed suit. "Captain Cassels," he began gravely, "let me express my deepest condolences on the loss of your cousin."

  Rue had been all business, but this simple gesture stopped her. She felt her eyes filling with tears and wiped them angrily away.

  "Yes, well," she said, as she dropped herself into an empty chair. "Thank you. But let's get on with things, shall we?"

  Li nodded and sat, as did the others. Rue tried to still the quivering of her lip by biting it.

  "You've been briefed on the overall situation," said a woman Rue did not recognize. "After the murder of your cousin and your disappearance, Admiral Crisler exercised diplomatic immunity and retreated to your magsail with his people. You had already secured beam time from the monastery and with the help of Mallory's people, Crisler got the schedule moved up. They left two days ago and are now nearing the outskirts of the Colossus system."

  "Rebecca went with them?" asked Rue for the tenth time. She couldn't understand why her doctor and friend had deserted her.

  "She did," said Travis Li. "We spoke before she left; she genuinely believed you were dead. She told me that she wanted to defend the Envy from Mallory's people— first of all by making sure crew members Laurel and Chandra learned, as she put it, 'what really happened on Oculus. »

  "I see. Thank you, Captain." This time, she held her expression completely neutral.

  Captain Li continued. "We know now that Crisler has committed high crimes, but it is absolutely forbidden to withdraw beam power from a cycler cargo once it's on its way," he said. "You understand the sanctity of the Compact's laws? We have to honor our commitments regardless of local consequences." She nodded.

  "We'll be questioning your companions about Crisler and the rebellion against the Rights Economy," said Griffin. "Don't worry, it won't be an interrogation. But we want to get your impressions most of all, as a citizen of the halo. We know Mallory's people have cut a deal with the R.E.; they want to abolish the Compact and make us dependent on the R.E." The abbot scowled, shaking his head. "They paint it as an opportunity, but it's really a power grab; we think Mallory and his cabal have been promised rights to all commercial travel between the lit worlds and the halo. As Rights Owners, they'd become fabulously wealthy…"

  "And we'd be paying them to communica
te with our own people," finished Rue. The prospect was appalling, but had its own sick logic.

  She told the assembly the scenario she had worked out with Mike and Barendts, wherein Mallory got the Envy and Crisler whatever treasure lay at Apophis and Osiris. "Crisler is looking for some ultimate weapon he can use against the rebels and he thinks it's to be found at the Twins. We have to head him off."

  "Why?" asked an elderly woman. "What does it matter to us if the R.E. tears itself apart? In fact, why shouldn't we just sit back and let them do it?"

  Rue told them about the probability that Crisler's von Neumann machines would have to target alien worlds as well as human in order to guarantee wiping out the rebels. "This would amount to humanity declaring war against all other sentient life," she said. "I don't believe we could be neutral and I don't believe we could let it happen without being party to genocide beyond anything we've ever witnessed before. Do you really want that on your hands?"

  They shifted uncomfortably; she could see they did not relish the prospect.

  "But if you need a reason that's more… self-interested…" she said slowly, "think about this: If we're right and Crisler certainly believes as we do… if we're right, then what is waiting for us at Apophis and Osiris is some kind of technology that would make it easier for us to produce cyclers. Maybe they would produce themselves, we don't know. If Crisler gets his hands on it, we lose…" She shrugged. "Well, we lose everything. I think it's fair to say we lose the Compact. After all, who's building new cyclers these days?" She looked around the table.

  "That's why we have to stop Crisler. We need to signal the Envy, get Evan and Corinna to break her free of the Banshee at any cost and head straight for the Twins. Think of what it would mean to the halo if we found, not just one new cycler, but a whole line of them!"

  Even as she said this, Rue knew it was useless. They might agree with her, but Crisler held all the cards. Even if they sent a message to the Envy, Evan and Corinna had no way to stop the Banshee from going to the Twins. It, on the other hand, could blast the Envy to smithereens without a second thought. More to the point, Evan and Corinna could be rounded up at any time by the marines aboard the Banshee.

  Even now, messages to that effect must be winging ahead of Crisler's magsail. By the time he rendezvoused with the ships, the Envy would be his. And no other ship from the halo could hope to get to the Twins first.

  One of the people at the table was a government minister whom Rue remembered from her first meeting, lo those distant several days ago. He leaned forward now and called up a holographic starmap above the tabletop.

  "Don't worry," he said, "this image is isolated from the inscape system. I just want us to be clear on the logistics before we make the next decision."

  He pointed at the center of the display. "Apophis and Osiris. And here is Maenad, the Envy's next destination after Colossus. Crisler will arrive there, return to the R.E. and round up some extra ships. Then he'll fly to Apophis and Osiris. Captain Cassels, what do you think the likelihood is that Admiral Crisler will forego the extra ships and simply jump straight to the Twins from Maenad?"

  She thought about it. Crisler was a control freak, but he was also cautious and thorough. He already had a complete scientific team aboard the Banshee, but he had no idea what he might find at the Twins. He might need more ships and if he discovered that too late, it would take years for him to return to High Space and gather them. She shook her head. "No. He'd want to have everything he needs before going in."

  Nods up and down the table. "Right," said the minister. "Maenad is a light-year from us. Crisler will reach it in about fourteen months. Then he has to round up his new team— which may involve politics and we all know how slow that can be. When he's got the ships, he can fly out to the Twins in essentially no time at all. Call it… sixteen months."

  "Sixteen months." It was the older captain, Serle. He was shaking his head in disbelief. "There's no way we can be ready in that time."

  "We're going to have to be," countered Captain Li.

  "Ready?" Rue put her hand up, looking ironically meek. "Ready for what?"

  The minister glanced around the table, nodded. "Rue, what we're about to tell you cannot be spoken about outside this room. After our experience with Crisler's men hacking into our inscape system, we no longer trust public communications systems for this kind of thing. We know we were not compromised before his arrival, but now that the R.E.'s ties to Mallory's people are exposed, security is more vital than ever.

  "You are now a captain of the Cycler Compact. You have certain rights and powers, including a security clearance high enough for you to hear what we're about to tell you. First, however, we need your solemn assurance that you will not tell your travelling companions, the professor and this NeoShintoist, Bequith, anything that we reveal to you now."

  Rue chewed her lip, thinking. It was astonishing; from being a rejected kid on a cometary station, she had arisen to cycler captain. One small step remained to be taken and she would be in the central circle of power for the Compact itself, so far above where her ambitions had lain that she had no idea what it would mean for her.

  "No," she said curtly. "I trust those men with my life, sir. They have my confidence."

  Travis Li leaned forward. "They are citizens of the Rights Economy," he said. "We can't permit the R.E. to know—"

  "They're my crew," she interrupted.

  Li sat back, obviously startled. "Crew? But they were hired by Admiral Crisler to do research for him."

  "Ask them," she said, though her heart was pounding. "One of the rights of a cycler captain, as you explained to me so kindly at the ball the other night, is to confer citizenship. I hereby say that Laurent Herat and Michael Bequith are citizens of the Compact, in my eyes, if they choose to be. Ask them. But I won't swear to you that I won't tell them whatever secrets you're offering me."

  The powers of the Compact muttered among themselves and Rue sat with her face hot, feeling like she'd blown it for good this time. And what was this secret, anyway?

  Travis Li was frowning. "You realize that as captain, you will be responsible for their conduct and if they betray the Compact, you will bear the consequences?" She nodded.

  Then the abbot clapped his hands sharply and everyone turned to him. "This is Compact Law," he said. "She has the right to what she proposes. And since Apophis and Osiris lie along her ring, Captain Cassels must be informed of any actions the Compact takes toward any worlds on that ring. It seems, gentlemen and ladies, that we are at an impasse."

  He stood and bowed to Rue. "We will ask your friends if they will forego their citizenship in the Rights Economy to become sons of the Compact. If they do, they may continue to fraternize with you and may be party to our plans. If not, we must ask you to end your association with them, at least for now— lest they should leave Colossus by cycler and communicate what they know to the R.E."

  And the meeting broke up, simple as that.

  * * *

  I'VE DONE IT this time, Rue told herself for the tenth time. She was being escorted down a corridor hacked into the ice deep beneath the city. Eight hours had passed since the strange meeting and she'd had just enough time to ponder things and get very depressed. It was late in the shift now, she was tired, and way out in space, Crisler must be laughing himself sick as he and Mallory winged their way toward the Envy.

  Two military policemen were escorting Rue to the cells (they called them apartments) where Mike and Herat were being held. Apparently they had been asked the question Rue, in her stupidity, had maneuvered them all into. Give up the R.E.? A world where they could traverse the galaxy in weeks? When both men's lives revolved around the hunt for alien intelligence? No. Why would they voluntarily remain in the halo, when they had that to return to?

  This whole fiasco threw her relationship with Michael Bequith into sharp relief. It had been ridiculous for her to hope he might stay with her, she saw now. She hadn't even dared to fantasize that he might�
�� but the hope had been there, underlying all her thoughts and actions these past few weeks.

  She was a girl from the stations, after all, her eyes too weak to stand the sunlight of Mike's world. The dark was her home and the cold of the orphan worlds between the stars. He lived in the light and he would be returning to it as soon as he could.

  She bit back tears as the MPs barged through one last set of metal doors and into some sort of waiting room. There were benches on the floor and a podium at one end, behind which the infinity symbol of the Compact was etched on the wall. Travis Li was here, seated on one of the benches. To her surprise, so was the abbot. He smiled at her kindly and handed her a thick book.

  She stared at it. The abbot coughed politely, so Rue made to sit on one of the back benches. The abbot took her arm, shaking his head and gestured forward. She walked to a front bench and started to sit. He shook his head again; both he and Li were smiling now, damn them. The abbot gestured forward again.

  But there was nothing up there except… Oh, the podium. Rue walked up to it hesitantly and laid the heavy book down on it. There was a ribbon bookmark in the center of it, so she opened the book out to that page and made to return to the benches. But the title on the page of the book caught her eye.

  Ceremony of Citizenship in the Cycler Compact

  "All rise!" shouted one of the marines suddenly. Travis and the abbot stood, grinning, and the doors at the back opened. In stepped Laurent Herat— alone.

  Rue felt nauseated. She was sure she would faint at any second, and barely registered Herat's presence as the man came to stand at the front of the room, right before the podium. When she finally did look into his face, she saw the apologetic expression there, and that just made her feel worse.

  "Why?" she croaked, almost inaudibly.

  Herat shrugged. "My career was in its twilight anyway— the whole Panspermia Institute is on its way out. My wife is dead, my children grown. And my people… you know, years of investigating the ruins of alien civilizations have taught me a lot about what makes a healthy one, and which ones are doomed to fail.