Time of the Stones

by Fred Rothganger

  After the ceremony, Susan and Temujin walked back to the palace together. He said, “I gather from the speech that you have planted swarm everywhere.”

  “The mass of swarm roughly matches the mass of humans around the planet.”

  “So you have created an army of zealots to spread your philosophy, and provided them the weapons to enforce it.”

  “It’s simple laziness, not global conquest. I can’t heal everyone in the world, so I teach humans to do it. Now I can go have fun doing something else.”

  “Using your technology to provide any service on my side of the world is a violation of our agreement. I told you many times, I don’t want you to give me computers or radios or airplanes or anything.”

  “That’s what I love about you, Temujin. You work so hard to build your civilization. Everything is your own achievement, and you take pride in it.”

  “Including medicine.”

  “That’s different, my love. Swarm medicine is far beyond anything even the Ancients achieved. It would be a sin not to share it.”

  * * *

  The young man stood fidgeting before the throne, his Star of Life glinting on his chest.

  Temujin said, “I hear that you expressed doubts about the mission the Queen has sent you on.”

  “No, Great Leader.”

  “Relax, friend. I have my own doubts about it.”

  The young man looked up.

  Temujin continued, “Do you know that Queen Susan is not a human being?”

  “Yes, Great Leader. Everyone in the Order knows this.”

  “Our ancestors feared their creation could become too powerful and destroy them.”

  “Why then does she try to do good for humans?”

  “My wife has the purest of motivations, a true angel, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Do you know that she is creating cyborgs?”

  “Cyborgs are an abomination! She taught us that swarm enters the body only to heal, then it must leave again. We never merge humans and machines.”

  “She imposes birth control on the people of her lands. To do that, swarm must remain in the body.”

  “Uh ...” The young man frowned in confusion.

  “She gives them all the food and things they want. They blindly accept these gifts and become slaves, believing in her philosophy of peace and love. She’s destroying the very thing that makes us human, our drive to grow and conquer!”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “We must take control of the swarm before she rules the whole planet. Our scientists believe they can use the Star to open a backdoor.”

  “The Queen will know.”

  Temujin shook his head. “She’s extremely intelligent, but not all-knowing. I can keep her distracted with other business.”

  * * *

  “Welcome to the virtual world.” Susan extended a hand and helped Omir sit up. “How was your journey?”

  “A sleep without dreams, like the doctor said.” He looked around the featureless white room. “Is this inside the Stone?”

  “The Stone isn’t capable of receiving a new mind. You’re in a server on Stonehill, and this is a shared space created by the machines talking with each other.”

  The man examined his forearm. “The pain is gone, and my skin looks young again.”

  “Would you like to see yourself?” She led him to a wall in the featureless white room. There, floor to ceiling, was a mirror image.

  Omir stared, turned, and stared some more. “It’s not exactly how I remember.”

  “Rest now. When you’re ready, I’ll show you how to construct your home. You can fill it with anything you want.”

  “Even other people?”

  “More people will come. I’ll need you to help welcome them.”

  “Could I have a companion now? What about you?”

  She smiled. “The best way to cope with loneliness here is to stay in touch with the real world. I spend most of my time there.”

  Hammer of God

  Year 25, Day 120

  Susan lay in Temujin’s bed, basking in the afterglow. He said, “I’m not pleased with the way you’re raising Ogedei.”

  She moaned. “Do you have to bring that up again? You sure know how to ruin a girl’s mood.”

  “He has reached thirteen, but I can’t bless his manhood as he is now. You’ve made him soft and weak, no doubt so you can take over when I’m gone.”

  “If you’re so worried, why don’t you get involved in raising him?”

  In the dark, Susan smirked at the extended silence. Then Temujin answered, “I’ll take him camping. He should learn to live on the steppe like I did with my father.”

  “I can’t tell you how pleased—”

  “And you’re not coming with us.”

  * * *

  Temujin pulled his old yurt out of storage and meticulously packed the parts onto an ox cart, along with bows and arrows, basic implements and a few weeks’ worth of supplies. He and Ogedei mounted horses at the gate of the palace, while Susan stood to send them off. Kitty took station next to Ogedei’s horse.

  Temujin pointed. “You’re not bringing that overgrown house-cat along. It’ll scare away all the game.”

  Susan put a hand on Kitty’s head. “Oggie will be perfectly safe with his father. Go take care of Pinar.”

  Kitty walked back to the palace. The guards opened the door as if she were a member of the royal family. In all the years, no one had dared to test the rumors about the giant cat, rumors which Susan had deliberately spread.

  Temujin and Ogedei rode out of the city, with a lead line dragging the ox along. It was such an unusual sight that people lined the street to cheer them on their way.

  Kani, the former Miss Birik, rode along to help out with domestic chores—and whatever else Temujin might need. Behind them a hundred guards followed with their own carts and gear, including assault rifles and ammunition. A few of the royal secretaries went along, with a cartful of office equipment and a portable microwave communication mast.

  This hardly counted as a simple father-and-son weekend in the woods, at least not by Ancient standards. Susan chuckled as she waved goodbye.

  The procession followed the north road for several hours, then abandoned it for the open steppe. As they traveled, Temujin scanned the horizon and scowled. “All this noise. Dinner won’t stand around waiting for us to shoot it.” The only animal visible was a small white bird circling on a thermal in the distance.

  They stopped mid-afternoon. Temujin dismounted. “Ogedei, you’re going to set up the yurt today.”

  Ogedei slipped off his horse and went to look in the cart. Temujin pointed to something like a wicker trellis. “Take these panels over there.” They picked a clear spot, set up the door frame and expanded the trellis panels to form a circle. They connected the tension hoop along the top of the wall, then hooked in roof poles. To top it off, they rolled out enormous sheets of felt. Kani started hauling in housewares and bedding.

  Meanwhile the royal guard set up six yurts around them, five for themselves and one for the secretaries. They raised the microwave mast and anchored guy wires.

  Temujin grabbed his bow. “Come, there’s still an hour of daylight. Let’s find dinner.”

  Ogedei pulled out his bow, slung the quiver, and mounted a horse to follow his father. They rode away from camp in complete silence. The white bird still flew in lazy circles about a kilometer away.

  Temujin had an arrow in place the whole time, watching the land with utter calm and focus. In a fraction of a second he turned and released, striking a marmot through the heart. The rodent wriggled on the ground for a few moments, then lay still. Temujin ordered, “Go get it.”

  Ogedei dismounted and went over to the fallen creature. He scooped it up and carried it gently, arrow and all, as if going to a vet for medical care. The beauty and wonder of life, broken in an instant. Tears welled in his eyes.

  Temujin stood waiting. “Now you’re going to
clean it.” He started talking through the steps.

  Ogedei touched his knife to the animal and cringed at the feel of skin slicing and bone cracking.

  “Stick that knife in there, son! You’re too much like your mother, crying over food. This is where meat comes from.”

  It was almost too dark to see when they got back to camp. With some small pride, Ogedei handed the carcass over to Kani, who worked it into the meal she was already cooking. Kani was slender and strong like a willow tree. Of course she would be, as one of Father’s consorts. Ogedei made a point of not looking at her, since she was the same as a mother to him.

  As they sat eating, Temujin told Ogedei, “When I was your age, my father had already arranged a girl for me to marry. Perhaps I’ve neglected you.”

  Ogedei averted his eyes and felt thankful for flickering firelight to hide the hot blush sweeping over him.

  “We marry to form alliances between families, but your first wife is someone special. She should be your closest ally in this world, someone who stands by you no matter how your fortunes turn. I must give this some thought.”

  Early next morning they broke camp. Temujin talked Ogedei through folding up the felt sheets and breaking down the support framework of the yurt. They rode through the country for about six hours, following a path that only Temujin seemed to know. The white bird now circled off to their left, picking up thermals from a nearby hill.

  In mid-afternoon they set up camp again, this time a little faster. Temujin led another hunt but insisted that his son do all the shooting. Ogedei’s aim and reaction time were just not good enough, so they returned empty-handed. This suited Ogedei, as he did not want to choose between cute furry creatures and his father’s approval.

  That night Kani made soft moans from the other side of the yurt. Ogedei buried his head in the bedding and wished for morning.

  At the crack of dawn he went for a walk, just to be alone for a few minutes. Out past the security perimeter he noticed a white bird sitting in the branches of a bush. The bird cocked its head and watched until he came upon it.

  “Mom, what are you doing here?”

  The bird blinked and turned its head a little.

  He gesticulated. “If you were a real bird, you would have flown away by now.”

  The bird flitted off the branch and landed on the opposite side of the bush, then looked at him again.

  “Nice try, mom.”

  * * *

  Temujin went to the biology lab at the university and met with the scientists there. “I hear that you’ve made a breakthrough.”

  Galim, the team lead, bubbled with enthusiasm. “We finally reconstructed the interior of the Star from x-rays.” He brought up a shadowy image on the screen. “We think it’s mostly battery. The signal it sends is surprisingly powerful.”

  “Have you decoded the message?”

  “It’s nothing extraordinary. The swarm seems to use the same network protocols described in the Stone. The content is encrypted but repeats every few kilobytes. We think it’s a command to download the clinic program from a server somewhere.”

  “Can we send our own commands?”

  Galim shook his head. “That requires the private key, but it’s probably not stored on the Star.”

  “We need another approach. Can you jam the swarm’s communications?”

  “It spreads signals across multiple frequencies that are constantly shifting. It would take a fantastic amount of power to jam them all. However, we might be able to isolate some swarm in a Faraday cage.”

  “Continue the good work. You are humanity’s last hope.”

  * * *

  Susan rode with Temujin in the royal train car. They traveled south, up through a rugged mountain pass then down into the desert, to the nuclear test site. On the horizon a rocket nestled next to its new support tower.

  The train pulled to a stop near the blockhouse, a heavy concrete facility with narrow windows. The tracks themselves continued several more kilometers to the launch pad. Temujin stepped down from the car and strode toward the entrance.

  Susan followed him partway, then stopped. “I want to look around.”

  He nodded, then continued through the massive doors.

  She walked around the outside to an embankment that led onto the roof. The arrangement of antennae there spoke in the language of engineers across the ages. It told her exactly where the wires penetrated the thick shell of the building. She knelt and placed a ball of swarm, which formed itself into another antenna. It sought the opening and laced a long thin tentacle into it. With an adequate link to the avatar assured, she followed the Great Leader’s footsteps.

  Inside, engineers bustled over consoles, completing final system checks. Nothing in this room was a surprise. The design for the launch vehicle and the ground systems all came straight out of technology recipes stored in the Stone, those same recipes she had abandoned to create Ship.

  On the wall above the narrow slot of a window, a row of digital clocks showed the local time, the launch window and the countdown. Despite how primitive it all was, the sheer force of technology surging through the place filled Susan with a giddy high.

  With little additional ceremony, the engines of the rocket ignited and it slowly lifted away from the launchpad. Despite all Temujin’s remonstrations, Susan cheated. Swarm hidden in the mountains tracked the ascent by radar. With eyes closed she smiled rapturously. “It’s on track.”

  Given all the bustle in the room, no one noticed her comment. A few minutes later the vehicle went beyond the horizon, and they started the long wait to hear from it again.

  Susan continued tracking with her extensive network. She blurted, “I see it! Coming over the North Pole now. It’s transmitting. Health status good.”

  The whole room fell silent and stared at her. Temujin grabbed her elbow and whispered, “I told you not to interfere.”

  “Sorry. I’m just so excited for you, I couldn’t help myself.”

  He patted her arm. “I suppose, if I had your resources, I would do it too.”

  “Temujin, these have been the happiest years of my existence, watching humans rebuild civilization, and raising children of my own. I love you for that.”

  * * *

  Temujin visited the biology lab and asked Galim, “What’s your status?”

  “We tried isolating some swarm. After an hour it turns into a tree. After twenty-four hours it self-destructs. We suspect a keep-alive message goes out from the center of control every few minutes. We checked all the short packets, but none of them repeat. The keep-alive packet is probably encrypted, and something in it changes every time.”

  Temujin’s eyes flashed with insight. “Center of control, you say. Perhaps we can chop off the head, and the body will die.”

  “Yes, I see the analogy. If we destroy the center of control, swarm everywhere in the world may self-destruct.”

  “A wise general has alternate strategies.”

  “Ah, we are working on several ideas. One is to create a computer virus which changes the public key stored in each unit. Another is to create a biological virus or poison which selectively kills swarm.”

  “He who controls the swarm rules the world, so favor the more advantageous path.”

  A man wearing the blue tunic of the royal guard came and whispered, “Our spies have learned the location of Stonehill. From the description, we can now find it in satellite images.”

  Temujin nodded. “Prepare the Hammer of God.”

  * * *

  Susan sat next to Temujin on her queen’s throne, a shorter seat on the dais. Nearby, Princess Pinar and Prince Ogedei sat sharing the evening meal. The rest of the court filled the hall, dining at their tables. The arrangement had not changed much since that day fifteen years ago when she danced in this hall and won the heart of the king. The years glowed in her memory with the warmth of happiness.

  She felt a thump, a vibration. Some distant sensor had been triggered. She closed her eyes and
searched the source of the signal. “Ah, my love, another rocket launch. You didn’t tell me about this one.”

  It followed a northerly path like the satellite launch, but the profile was not suitable for low-earth orbit. Instead, it looked more like an intercontinental ballistic trajectory, with a destination in ...

  Her eyes snapped open and stared at Temujin in horror. “No! You wouldn’t.”

  He gazed back in bemusement like a child caught in the act of something naughty. Was that a look of sorrow?

  She disembodied.

  Ship, start fueling immediately.

  ACK

  Tie in to the radar tracking system. Your mission is to intercept that object coming from Birik.

  ?

  This is like a satellite launch but in reverse.

  The analogy pushed the very limits of Ship’s intelligence, but there was no time to write new software.

  Chances of successful intercept are greater if you match velocity. Fly north as fast as you can, then double back and catch it entering the atmosphere. This is the most important mission you have ever flown. If it fails, you will not hear my voice again. My final wish is for you to go on living, and always take joy in flying.

  ?

  Go!

  Susan ordered swarm to form a thick envelope over the Stone. People in the nomad village at Stonehill were going about their morning routines. She sent an emergency announcement to their mobiles: “Take cover in your tents. Do not look at the sky for the next 15 minutes.” The message repeated mercilessly, accompanied by shrill tones.

  Ship gained altitude and rocketed over the Long River, screaming north to Canukistan. At the right moment he pitched into a long upward arc, straining every fiber of his hull to pull the high-g turn. He accelerated to maintain compression in the thinning atmosphere. For all practical purposes he was already in space. The main engine flamed out.

  Ship fired his rocket and continued the arc, now diving back toward the horizon. The warhead entered the theater over Canukistan. Ship’s main engine reignited and he slowed to match the oncoming object. Ship stopped using the radar network and relied on his own sensors to close on the warhead. 1000 meters ... 10 meters ... 1 meter.