“That’s because you are.”
“I thought this was a pep talk.”
“Oh, it is.” He kissed her softly. “Custom-crafted especially for you. I will point out how, since Namino, you’ve won every battle you’ve waged.”
“I know. So why does it feel as if I’m losing?”
“The fog of war can be like that. But you’re doing a phenomenal job, so just keep doing what you do best.”
“And what is that? Moving ships from one location to another?”
His brow furrowed. She recognized she was being stubbornly resistant to his earnest efforts, but if she couldn’t reveal her darkest, most raw self to him, to whom could she?
“Granted, it was one of the first things you did best, way back when. And…yes, but not what I meant. You defeated the Kats, when they were Metigens, by bucking both your government and traditional military dogma to work with your enemy while throwing the rulebooks out the window. Or so I’ve heard. You defeated the Directorate by being a clever, strategic marvel. By striking where it hurt most and yanking its support structures out from underneath it, then by destroying its exposed heart.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Literally.”
“Quite. Now you’re aiming a plethora of technological advances and weapons at this new enemy. You’re balancing defense and offense in equal measure, working to protect your side’s weaknesses while pushing into theirs. You’ve assembled a team of brilliant, experienced military advisors at your side, and for once, no politicians or insurrectionists are trying to stab you in the back.”
“All true—and thank you for saying so.” She forced a smile onto her lips as a reward. “I’m also working with the Asterions and now the Ourankeli, the only survivors of the Rasu we’ve located so far. Today I command a fleet five hundred times larger than the one I first brought to Amaranthe.
“But you know what? It’s a speck of dust compared to the size of the Rasu. They give the locusts of the Bible a bad name. This enemy? It brings its support structures along with it or builds them on the fly out of itself. And I have no idea where or what the Rasu’s heart is, or if they have one at all.”
He abruptly stepped back, bringing his hands to his chin. “What an excellent point! We should try to find that out.”
PART III
FOG OF WAR
39
* * *
CONCORD HQ
Special Warfare Training Center
Her father’s office had the most comfortable chairs on HQ, and Alex curled her legs up underneath her and sank into the luxurious cushions.
David tossed her a blueberry muffin, which she caught with one hand. “Fresh out of the oven this morning.”
“Mmm.” She took a bite and nodded in affirmation. Since she didn’t have a drink to wash it down, she talked through the gooeyness. “Whaths uhp?”
“Your mother and I had an insightful, if frustrating, conversation yesterday about the Rasu.”
“Every conversation about the Rasu is frustrating.”
“True, and doubly so for her. The takeaway was this: we have enough honed weapons and tools now to defeat the Rasu in any reasonable encounter. As I pointed out to her, she’s won every battle since Namino.”
Alex frowned, the muffin halfway back to her mouth. “The people who were on Chalmun Station might disagree.”
“Chalmun Station was not a Concord-affiliated settlement and left itself utterly unprotected. Under those circumstances, the outcome was more favorable than anyone had a right to expect.”
She smiled a little, mostly to herself. It was adorable how fiercely protective he was of her mother. “Fair enough. So are we worried about non-reasonable encounters now?”
“Certainly. But in my opinion, Concord will rise to the occasion when those occur as well. I think we can play whack-a-mole, as Miri phrased it, for as long as the Rasu persist in attacking. We’ll hold our ground every time.”
“But that isn’t victory.”
“No, it isn’t. You’ve seen the map.” A dozen or more times, but he instantiated the virtual map of the Rasu presence in Laniakea, anyway.
The yellow southern edge now had tendrils creeping down into Concord space, and the Kats had recently updated the enormous red blob of Rasu-controlled territory to extend farther in three directions. “How do we win against an enemy such as this?”
She finished off the muffin and licked her fingers in contemplation. “Well, we…wait, you weren’t actually asking me, were you?”
He made a hedging motion. “Not so much, though your input is most welcome. The best answer I’ve developed is, we learn what makes them tick. We search for where in all this great expanse they’re vulnerable. We discover where and what the heart of their civilization is, so we can rip it out.”
“Assuming they have one.”
“That’s what your mother said. But they must have a fundamental weakness. The Asterions insist they’re paranoid and prone to self-isolation, so maybe their weakness lies in the joints where they of necessity connect with one another. I don’t know. But I do know if we don’t find a vulnerability, we’re going to be fighting this war for a hundred years.”
“You’re giving me an assignment, aren’t you? You want me to sneak around deep in Rasu territory and see what’s behind the curtain.”
“If you wouldn’t mind?”
“No, it’s a good idea. We kind of started to do so when we checked out NGC 55, but then Namino happened, then the Ourankeli, then the war came to us and…. We didn’t follow up the way we should have, but we’ll rectify the error. One question, though: why isn’t Mom the one asking me to do this?”
“Your mother is in London today, and having a miserable time of it, I expect.”
“But she knows about your idea?”
“I will tell her we talked when she gets home tonight. I’m consciously trying to not keep things from her any longer, even innocuous things. Probably overdoing it and will eventually get in trouble for that, too. The pendulum swings and all.”
An alarm rang in her eVi, and she reluctantly climbed out of the chair. “Caleb, Valkyrie, and I will put together a mission plan in the next day or two. Now, though, I’ve got to run. Kennedy’s asked me to come by one of the Special Projects labs to pitch in on some experiment or other.”
Special Projects
Alex wound her hair up into a sloppy knot as she jogged into the lab a few minutes later. “Okay, I’m here. Why am I here?”
Kennedy had her head buried in a wide screen stuffed with formulas, but glanced over at her proclamation. “Finally.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She gazed around the lab in surprise. It was somewhat crowded, and not with a bunch of Devon’s drones. “Noah. Nika. Dashiel. This isn’t a party, is it? My birthday isn’t for several months. Neither is yours…or yours…or….” She pointed at Kennedy, then Noah, then arched an eyebrow at Nika.
Nika shook her head. “Asterions don’t do birthdays.”
“Noted. So why are we…?” The large glass enclosure on the left side of the space belatedly caught her attention. A long, narrow Reor block was suspended inside, and several needle pliers attached to robotic arms hovered near one end of it. “Oh. I see.”
She fished her tiny slab out of her pocket and placed it on her palm, then shifted into sidespace. Cosmic strings poured into and out of the larger block, then wound tightly together to pass through one end of her slab and out the other. The strings continued on to dance happily around the space, but most of all to and through Nika and Dashiel. In Nika in particular, they bound up into a brilliant ball of light before continuing on beyond the walls of the lab.
She smiled to herself. “Sublime, every damn time.”
Nika stood and came to join her. “Do you mean the kyoseil strings? You can see them?”
“When I’m in sidespace.”
“Right. That place I can’t access. Thankfully, I don’t need to access it to see the kyoseil. Do you also need this slab in order
to see it?”
Alex thought on it briefly. Had she ever tried to see the strings when it wasn’t in her possession? “I’m not certain I know the answer to your question. When I’m not near any Reor, I think they might be so diffuse that I wouldn’t necessarily notice them.”
“Not true if you’re in the Dominion.”
“Good point. I’ll try it out the next time I visit. Is the Dominion still Rasu-free?”
“So far. We’re trying to use the time to gain whatever advantages we can, because they will attack again.”
“Seems likely.” She thought about what her father had said about the Rasu and the war. He and Nika were both right; until they cut the head off the beast—or ripped its heart out, to go with her father’s analogy—the Rasu would never stop.
Kennedy abandoned her formulas to come over and enter a series of commands in the control panel associated with the enclosure. “Is Caleb coming, too?”
“He went to chat with Marlee at her office. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“I’m glad they’re getting along now.”
“You have no idea how glad I am.” Alex took a step back, dropped the slab into her pocket and rubbed her hands together. “All right. We’re here to find out if the fact that I was gifted with the encryption key means I can also make the Reor comply with commands, correct?”
Kennedy continued to study the control panel but nodded sharply.
“To what end?”
Her friend gave a full-bodied sigh and glared at her. “For science, of course!”
Alex double-checked the settings on the graviton field generator, then the security of the delicate fibers connecting it to the two thin sheets of metamaterial, all while trying to keep her annoyance under control. Gravity plating worked, and everyone knew it. The sheets and generators used to create artificial gravity were mass-produced for commercial, private and military starships on a daily basis. There hadn’t been a mystery involved in the process for over two hundred years.
But this was school , so they had to demonstrate their understanding of the underlying mechanics involved to the professor’s satisfaction. Fine, whatever.
The door to the lab opened, and Kennedy sauntered in carrying a bottle of wine and two crystal goblets.
Alex shot her an amused look. “I’m all for celebrating once we’re finished, but I’d prefer a more relaxing locale to do it in than the engineering lab.”
Kennedy shook her head as she set the bottle and glasses on the table across from the workbench. “This isn’t for celebrating—it’s for testing.”
“What? We only have to record the gravity measurements at each of the assigned generator strengths.”
“I know. But wouldn’t a visual representation be cool?”
“If I want a visual representation, I can go walk around on a starship that’s traveling through space.”
Kennedy groaned. “Has anyone ever told you that you are no fun at all?”
“Yes, you have.” Alex rubbed at her face. “Sorry. I just want to get this over and done with and move on to the interesting stuff.”
“Hence the visual aids. Since we have to complete the assignment, we’re going to make it as interesting as possible.” Kennedy opened the bottle and poured the two glasses three-quarters full.
Alex pondered it for a second, then took a long sip of one of them. “Hmm. You brought the good wine.”
“I always bring the good wine.”
“True.” She refilled the glass until it again matched the other one. “I’ve got the parameters calibrated and everything ready to go. We simply need to turn the generator on and step through the assigned settings.”
“Excellent. We should take care to follow the instructions to the letter. You know how Dr. Sampson can be.”
“You think?” Alex cocked an eyebrow while she confirmed the polycarbonate enclosure was sealed up. She activated the first control, creating a state of weightlessness inside the enclosure. “Good. Now for 0.3 EG on the bottom sheet.”
All she had to do was activate buttons, as the measurements taken were auto-fed and recorded in the attached data storage. Boring.
They proceeded through the settings for 1 EG and 1.5 EG, then switched to the top sheet and repeated the process.
Alex spread her arms wide. “There. Shocker of shockers, gravity plating works precisely like it’s supposed to. Izumitel’nyy .”
“It is stupendous, because it means now we can get to the fun part.”
“Drinking the wine?”
“Not yet.” Kennedy adjusted the controls, re-activating the field for the bottom sheet at a 0.2 EG setting. Next, she grabbed one of the wine glasses and opened the small door on the enclosure.
“You’re letting out the gravity.”
“What does that even mean?” Kennedy eased the glass inside and hurriedly closed the door.
The glass teetered in the air a few centimeters above the bottom sheet. Kennedy decreased the setting to 0.1 EG, and the glass floated erratically toward the center of the enclosure. It gradually tilted to the side, sending droplets of wine spilling over the brim to float alongside it.
“You’re spilling the good wine!”
“It’s for science.” Kennedy gradually increased the setting until the artificially generated gravity reached 1 EG, and the glass settled onto the bottom surface as droplets splattered across the sheet’s protective covering. “Fabulous. Now, one more test.” She retrieved the second glass, then reopened the door and held it aloft inside. “Turn on the top sheet, 1 EG.”
“You’re not going to close the door?”
“It’s not as if gravity is going to hurt me.”
“Gravity pulling in two different directions just might.”
“I think my hand will survive the trauma.”
“If you say so.” Alex adjusted the controls.
The glass wobbled around in Kennedy’s hand, and she giggled. “Feels funny.” With some apparent effort, she lifted the glass toward the upper sheet while turning it over in her hand.
The glass abruptly glued itself to the top sheet. For a fraction of a second, wine poured out to slosh around the enclosure; then what was left in the glass pressed in toward the stem, now situated above the liquid.
“Viola!”
Alex nodded approvingly. “Okay, this is pretty cool. But you spilt the good wine all over the lab equipment.”
“I told you, it was for science.”
“Uh-huh. I hope you have another bottle at the apartment.”
“I always have another bottle at the apartment.”
Alex made a show of peering around at the shelves and cabinets in the lab. “I don’t see any wine goblets.”
“Very funny.”
“Alas. For science, then. Are we ready?”
Nika touched her shoulder. “That’s our cue to vacate the premises so we don’t interfere with the test. Dashiel and I will be a few hundred meters away at the gelato shop in the atrium. Message me when it’s safe for us to return.”
“Will do.” Nika and Dashiel exited the lab, leaving her, Kennedy, Noah, and two techs to whom Noah was quietly issuing some instructions. She shrugged at Kennedy. “So what do I do?”
Kennedy gestured to the control panel. “The machine is set up to send the harmonic resonance wave to the Reor. All you need to do is press the button to send it.”
“And the goal is for the Reor to let loose of its protection of the kyoseil filaments so the needle pliers can extract them?”
“It is. When I run the machine—when any of multiple humans run the machine—the Reor just sits there giving us a raspberry.”
She chuckled at the imagery, glanced around, then unceremoniously reached out and pressed the signal button.
A screen above the enclosure magnified the image of one of the kyoseil filaments encased in the Reor. As they watched, the deep green mineral surrounding the fiber appeared to lose some of its solidity. The kyoseil filament…wiggled? Yes, it clearl
y wiggled, testing out the limits of its now more spacious suit of armor. One of the needle pliers maneuvered into place and reached out to grasp the tiny end of the filament that had been exposed by the ever-so-slightly melted mineral. It got a hold of it and pulled.
Nothing gave way.
“Send it again.”
Alex frowned but complied. The mineral surrounding the filament definitely softened further. The plier tugged, and the filament slid out a centimeter or so, then seemed to get stuck again.
She was about to send the signal a third time when the Reor surrounding the filament dissolved into an almost gelatinous state. The plier continued its work, and within a few seconds it had extracted a thirty-centimeter length of kyoseil.
“Am I missing all the fun?”
She spun around as Caleb crossed the lab to sidle up beside her. “Um….” She stared at him for a minute, followed by the Reor slab.
“What? Did I interrupt something?”
She and Kennedy exchanged a squirrelly look. “Is it you?”
“Is what me?”
“We were trying to get the Reor to give up its kyoseil prize. For me, it appeared to be considering the possibility but hadn’t committed yet. When you walked in, the Reor melted like butter.”
Caleb peered at the half-liquified Reor slab in the enclosure. “That doesn’t make any sense. I don’t have anything to do with kyoseil.”
“You were with me in the Oneiroi Nebula when the mega-Reor colony gave me my slab.”
“But you’ve used the slab plenty of times to read data when I wasn’t anywhere nearby.”
“True.” She ignored the quiet pang of resentment that flared in the back of her mind. It didn’t matter whether the Reor had ‘chosen’ her or not; what mattered was that it had chosen to get involved, and in doing so had tipped the balance of the Directorate War in their favor. “Kennedy, do you have another slab on hand? Can we run the test in the opposite order?”
All Our Tomorrows Page 23
