“The public is in an outcry over the deaths. They view the Rasu as some hypothetical boogeyman lurking out in the void, but these deaths are real and tangible. Flash opinion polls show a growing backlash against the use of the Rift Bubbles.”
How many times was she going to have to repeat herself before they took the threat seriously? “Sir, I assure you, the Rasu are not hypothetical.”
“I realize they’re not. However, this is a concrete problem we face right now.”
Chairman Duca stepped in over Gagnon. “Tell me, Commandant, can the Rift Bubbles be programmed to simply bounce any intruders back a few megameters, rather than deposit them in a cauldron of fiery stellar death?”
Malcolm leaned forward in his seat. “If I may, Commandant. Sir, such a change would make the military’s job incalculably more challenging during a battle. The Rasu are exceedingly difficult to destroy, and we count on the Rift Bubbles to thin their numbers in the initial maneuvers.”
“Can the effect of a collision with a Rift Bubble be changed during a battle? Can it deliver a soft bounce under peacetime conditions and a fiery death once the Rasu are here?”
Malcolm shook his head. “Yes, the destination can be altered, but not swiftly and not on the fly.”
He’d obviously been doing the homework since returning to duty. Given everything else he was involved in, she worried he was getting less sleep than she was.
Duca spread his arms wide. “Well, this sounds like a problem for military scientists to solve. What other option do we have?”
Governor Rolph Tremblay, the head of the IDCC government, interjected. “We can keep the Rift Bubbles turned off until a Rasu fleet actually arrives.”
“Yes! We should have followed such a procedure from the beginning. I assume it will only take a few minutes to activate the device on whatever world is being targeted by the enemy.”
Miriam tried and failed to suppress a sigh. “And those few minutes could cost us countless lives—lives the Rasu will massacre when they reach the surface of the planet unimpeded before AEGIS forces arrive.”
“I’m sorry, Commandant, but a theoretical few thousand lives at a possible-but-unlikely future time is a far lower cost than the thousands of lives lost today because we were being excessively cautious.”
While Duca continued pontificating, she sent Richard a pulse, asking a question she absolutely should have asked in their meeting earlier.
Of the twenty-eight vessels that went missing in the last week, how many of them went missing in the Milky Way? Of those, how many were human ships?
Malcolm grumbled in evident frustration. “Chairman, being excessively cautious before an attack occurs is the only thing that will keep your citizens alive.”
“Now, Fleet Admiral, aren’t you being a bit hyperbolic?”
Ten vessels showed their last recorded location as in the Milky Way. Six of them were owned or operated by humans.
Thank you.
The numbers weren’t overwhelming, or definitive proof of anything on their own, but they were concerning enough to persuade her.
She deliberately stood, keeping her fingertips resting on the table. “The Fleet Admiral isn’t being hyperbolic at all. The Rasu are beginning to use stealth to mask their approaches. Thus far they’re using it to capture lone vessels, but they can just as easily use it at the start of a planetary invasion to catch us completely unawares.
“We might not know they’re here until they are. In fact, there’s strong evidence they’re already here. Almost a dozen vessels have gone missing in the Milky Way in the last week. Six of them were human vessels.”
Gagnon frowned, but protested nonetheless. “Our defensive systems will pick up a Rasu fleet before it reaches orbit.”
“They didn’t pick up the stealthed Kat superdreadnoughts during the Metigen War.”
His frown deepened. “Our systems have improved immeasurably since then.”
“They have, and Concord is currently pushing out improvements to our own tracking technology to try to respond to this new Rasu tactic. Will it be enough? We won’t know until it’s tested in the field, or as a precursor to an attack on a planet. What if the planet is Earth? Seneca? Romane? Is that a risk any of you are willing to take?”
Silence fell for a moment, then was gradually overtaken by quiet murmurs among the attendees. Prime Minister Gagnon shook his head. “If or when the Rasu start actively attacking AEGIS colonies, we might reconsider the decision. But for now, we must protect our citizens today. We’re turning the Rift Bubbles off.”
She and Malcolm exchanged a weighty look. They’d discuss the ramifications in private later, but she suspected he would agree with her assessment. This decision was going to cost lives—far more lives than those lost on the luxury cruiser today. The only question was, how many more?
Malcolm watched Miriam exit the room with no small amount of envy. She’d done the group a courtesy by making an in-person appearance, but he was bound to his chair by metaphorical chains until the Council deigned to dismiss him. On the battlefield, he enjoyed near-absolute authority, but in this room he was a glorified punching bag.
Or it was possible that he was merely cranky. The Rasu, Vilane and the Gardiens, spiritual ruminations he was in no way qualified to ruminate on, plus the cold loneliness of a bed lacking Mia’s presence, all conspired to keep his sleep, when it came at all, perpetually troubled.
“Fleet Admiral, how quickly do you anticipate being able to reactivate the Rift Bubbles, should it become necessary to do so during an attack?”
Politicians always wanted things both ways. “Prime Minister, allow me to state for the record that I agree with Commandant Solovy’s assessment of the risks involved in shutting them off. The Rasu are a clever and persistent enemy, and we cannot discount the possibility that they have a tactic prepared to take advantage of just such an action on our part.” He paused, but no one blinked. “To answer your question, on a given planet where the military is on active alert, between twelve and eighteen minutes.”
“Plenty of time to promptly counter an attack, then. Excellent.”
Malcolm simply stared at Gagnon.
“Now, about the reports of Rasu kidnapping merchant vessels. We don’t want to see commerce disrupted, so what can we do to ensure these companies that their shipments are safe?”
He charitably assumed Governor Tremblay was implicitly including the ships’ crew in the ‘shipments’ category. “This morning, a team put together a plan to provide maximum protection to the greatest percentage of commercial traffic. Now, we cannot protect all routes or all vessels, not even if we tasked every ship in the AEGIS military with this duty. But using a combination of dynamic patrols and escorts of large convoys, we believe we can cover up to sixty-four percent of them.”
“And the other thirty-six percent? Will we be leaving them to the Rasu’s devices?”
“Concord Special Projects is working on new sensor array algorithms to detect a Rasu presence sooner and briefly interfere with the Rasu’s operations, thus giving a vessel a greater opportunity to escape capture. These improvements should be ready for field testing in another few days.”
“Very well. Please keep us apprised.”
General Colby, who had been content to let Malcolm and Miriam catch all the flack while the politicians argued, finally spoke up. “As an aside, Fleet Admiral, have you given any more thought to the matter we discussed at the last Oversight Board meeting?”
Malcolm’s chest tightened. “What matter is that, General? We’ve discussed many things in recent meetings.”
“The matter of your no-regenesis clause in your will. Public opinion is in flux regarding this issue, and you revising your stance publicly would sway a great many people.”
“General, it is not my job nor my role to sway public opinion. I’m a Marine, not a politician.”
Colby’s mouth curled down, and he looked as though he’d eaten something sour. No military officer liked being
called a politician. “Of course. Nevertheless, appearances do matter, and your position is a public one. Have you made a decision, or not?”
“I have not.”
53
* * *
UNKNOWN LOCATION
From its location deep in the shadows of a long, squat building, CTX38b-sub9 observed the organics scurry about. Its stealth provided it sufficient protection, but its orders were to not take any risks of discovery. It was alone on this planet, for now, and that made it vulnerable. Before separating from CTX38, it had been instructed that the organics here were worthy of respect, so it took due care. If its presence was discovered by the inhabitants of the planet, it would fail in its mission here. The mission was its defining purpose, so it was employing all its capabilities to not fail.
Hence, it proceeded slowly. Methodically. Its constituent parts were arranged so as to enable it to (1) move freely, (2) acquire and transport resources and (3) construct the components for a device to prevent quantum interactions. In order to complete the last task, however, it needed raw materials.
Analysis of the planet’s surface prior to CTX38b-sub9’s dispatch here indicated it contained all the necessary materials to fulfill task #3. CTX38b-sub9’s landing site was chosen in substantial part because those materials, or the elements needed to formulate them, all existed within a thirty-square-kilometer grid surrounding the location.
The organics across the open space shepherded two such materials it was in need of on floating barges. It watched as the barges and the organics disappeared inside a different long, squat building; several minutes later, the organics returned without the materials.
Now CTX38b-sub9 knew where they were stored.
It did not attempt to retrieve the materials at this time. Much preparation work remained to be done first. It had chosen a lair nearby—an underground room the organics did not visit, from where it would construct its device. Tonight, under the additional protection of darkness, it intended to acquire more readily available ingredients that could form the basis of the device’s assembly. When it was ready, it planned to return to this location and do whatever was required, short of being detected, to acquire the materials from the building where they were stored.
For now it slid away, sticking to the shadows whenever possible. Its acquisition list was a long one, and it had much in the way of scouting to perform. As it was restricted to the slow, deliberate movement of stealth, thirty square kilometers represented a lot of ground to cover.
CTX38b-sub9 was alone on this planet, but it was not alone in its mission. Other sub-units had been dispatched to other planets, all armed with identical orders. The organics and semi-synthetics had begun deploying dimensional barriers to stop Rasu from harvesting their targets, but this promised to be a temporary setback. So long as Rasu infiltrated the surfaces of targets before such barriers were activated, this attempt at defense would prove futile in the end.
When it came time to act, Rasu would have their harvest—on this planet and on every planet they required, from here to the universe’s end.
54
* * *
PANDORA
Enzio Vilane glared at the two men present remotely in his living room. “Beaumont, what the bloody fuck happened in London?”
Philippe fidgeted under the weight of the scrutiny. Good. “Our sniper says that the same instant he fired the dart, someone crossed into its path in front of the Commandant. When he tried to line up another shot, the target was simply…gone. He’s willing to try again, should the opportunity arise.”
“People don’t fail me and get to keep ‘trying’ endlessly until they stumble into succeeding. Besides, Solovy never showed up at her dinner. This means she knows something untoward happened. Gentlemen, we have a rat in our midst.”
He directed his attention to the other man present, the Gardiens’ Chief of Security, Olav Zylynski. “We can’t make a renewed move against Solovy until we deal with the rat. Find them.”
Olav nodded sharply. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you. Beaumont, it goes without saying that you’ve disappointed me. You insisted you were ready for greater responsibility, but now I find myself questioning your judgment. You selected the venue and the operative, and both failed.”
Philippe’s face blanched. “What can I do to make it up to you, sir?”
“Close the deal on the Fleet Admiral. This week.”
“His schedule is very—”
“Close it, or else we’ll be having a far more unpleasant conversation.”
“Yes, sir.”
Enzio waved a hand, and Beaumont’s holo disappeared, leaving him and Olav alone. “Kill the sniper. We can’t have fuck-ups like him wandering around freely with knowledge of our operations. Do it yourself, so the job gets done properly.”
“Not a problem. What about Beaumont?”
Enzio hesitated. If he didn’t know Philippe personally, he’d order the man’s execution now. But he held some personal affection for his subordinate, and he had promised Philippe another chance. “Eh, he’s a true believer. I’m not convinced he has the stomach for the next phase, but he’s done a lot of good work for us up until now. I’ll give him an opportunity to prove he’s serious about our mission.”
“Understood. It’s your call, sir.”
Olav’s holo vanished as well, and Enzio stood alone in the silence for several seconds. Frustration gnawed away at him—abruptly he grabbed a plate from the counter and hurled it across the room. It smacked into the wide expanse of glass and shattered to the floor.
“Ah!”
He spun around to see his mother standing in the doorway, her hands over her mouth. “Enzio, what’s wrong?”
He hurried up to her and gently took her hands in his. “I’m sorry, Mother. Just trouble with work, and I lost my temper for a moment. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
“Startled me is all. Can I ask about the trouble?”
He hesitated. But it must be a good thing how of late, she was growing interested in how he passed his time and spent his money. After all, he was going to need her sage advice in the heady days to come. “An important mission failed, and I believe it did so because I have a traitor in the Gardiens.”
“Oh. That is unfortunate.” She stared out at the skyline, a tiny smile growing on her lips. “Do you know what I used to do to traitors?”
He did, but he asked anyway. “What did you do?”
“I executed them without mercy or hesitation—often in a violently flagrant manner to send an appropriate message to everyone in my organization.”
He decided the tiny smile she’d adopted was quite diabolical. “And I will follow your example and do the same the instant I discover their identity.”
“I’m sure you will. You are my son, after all.”
Yes, he most certainly was.
The house bot arriving to clean up the broken plate distracted him briefly, but he deliberately returned his attention to his mother. “I thought you were taking a nap. Do you need me?”
The diabolical smile shifted to something else, and she strolled across the living room. “I’ve been thinking. I have several refinements I want to make to my programming. They’ll clean up some dangling algorithms and hopefully restore some of the damaged files you’ve kept around in my storage.”
Part of him recoiled from the notion. She knew what she had been, and what she was now; he’d never hidden this from her. Yet a knot of worry materialized in his gut. If she took charge of her own development…what if she grew beyond his control? What if she came to reject him?
Nonsense. She was his mother, and as such, she loved him more than anything in the world. “Why don’t you work up a simulation of the proposed revisions, and we’ll review them together later.”
“I’d like that.” She nodded. “Yes. I’ll be in my bedroom working on it until dinner.”
“Okay. I need to see to a few things this afternoon, then we’ll reconvene over
a nice meal.”
She turned and departed without further comment. Once she was gone, he went into the kitchen and splashed water on his face. Fury at the failure of the Solovy operation still churned through his veins, and he badly wanted to strangle the first stranger he came upon.
He breathed in through his nose. Out through his mouth. Compartmentalization, compartmentalization…. A dozen other initiatives required his active guidance, and he couldn’t let himself spiral down into ineffectual rage. Not if he expected the Gardiens to succeed.
So he returned to the living room, surrounded himself with a virtual mosaic of those initiatives, and went to work on planning the next phase of his Grand Design.
55
* * *
AKESO
But I like my hair.
Alex poured herself a glass of juice and headed for the living room. I like it, too. But… she cringed …Richard is concerned that Vilane will recognize you if he sees you on the news feeds. And you’re planning to be on the news feeds soon, aren’t you?
If all goes well. Oh, fine. I suppose he’s right, and the last thing I want is Enzio Vilane back in my life. I’ll ditch the silver. Good enough?
I’m sure it will be. I’ll let Richard know.
Promise to Malcolm fulfilled with only a small hit to her conscience, Alex sank into the plushest, coziest chair in the living room, closed her eyes and slipped into sidespace.
Destination: Pandora.
The Avenue was arguably the classiest neighborhood on Pandora, hosting block upon block of upscale residences above its wide streets. But she was here for a single, specific residence… there. High atop one of the most expensive buildings in the neighborhood sat a privacy-glass-walled penthouse in the shape of a hexagon.
Vilane guarded his personal home’s address zealously. But there were few things in the world that the four Noetica Artificials couldn’t root out when they worked together.
All Our Tomorrows Page 31
