Authors: Sean Williams,Shane Dix
Tags: #Science Fiction, #Fiction, #Space Opera
She cleared her faceplate and met his eye. She sensed an internal struggle raging within him. He wasn’t going to betray his boss, but he didn’t want to see her fail, either. How he could possibly hope to succeed at both—and why—she didn’t know, but she was keen to see him try.
“Go on,” she said.
“It’s about Cane,” he said. “And the other one we’re chasing. The Kesh believe they’re something to do with the Sol Apotheosis Movement, but Rufo doesn’t. He’s letting them believe it because it gives him an edge. But he suspects it’s all a smoke screen.”
Roche shook her head. “A
smoke screen
? What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I say. There might be no connection between the two. And if so, you could be basing assumptions on imperfect data.”
“But we’ve got
proof
that Cane is a Sol Wunderkind: his genetic design, the control language you’ve been broadcasting—”
“I’m not a biogeneticist, so I can’t argue about his makeup. But I do know the control language didn’t come from any of the historical archives. You must have looked before you came here. Did
you
find the codes?”
“No. I assumed Rufo had access to other records—”
“The language
wasn’t
in the records,” he cut in. “None that any of us can access, anyway. I don’t know where the codes came from or what they mean, and I doubt the chief knows either, but I know he was
given
those codes. He’s deliberately keeping Shak’ni out of the full picture—and he’s letting you believe what you want to believe, too.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Disisto seemed frustrated. “But I think it’s dangerous. We should be sharing information. Otherwise we could all be killed by this thing. Or even Cane, for that matter—whatever the hell he is.”
“No, you’re wrong,” said Roche. “Uri found a correlation in the
Ana Vereine
’s database. Cane’s face matched that of the man who wiped out the Sol Apotheosis Movement. How can you ignore that kind of connection?”
“Because
we
have no records of any ‘Adoni Cane’ at all—in the Sol files or elsewhere.”
“What?”
“I can’t explain it, Roche. All I know is that while you were in the meeting with Linegar, he ordered a confirmatory search, and nothing was found.”
“This is insane.” She groped for an explanation that made sense. Either Rufo had corrupted his own files in order to keep the information a secret, or the
Ana Vereine
’s records were wrong—along with those of COE Intelligence HQ, which had confirmed the match. For the first time, she wished the Box was around to help her work out what was going on.
The Box
... It had a habit of manipulating records to suit its own agenda. But why would it encourage her to believe, mistakenly, that Cane’s origins lay with the Sol Apotheosis Movement? What could it possibly gain from that? And where had Rufo’s information come from? The Kesh didn’t know, so that ruled them out, and the Box had been with her for weeks. It just didn’t fit together.
“You disapprove of what Rufo is doing,” she said, trying to clarify Disisto’s feelings on the matter of Cane. “But I suppose you don’t disapprove enough to help me rectify the problem, either.”
Disisto drifted until one hand rested on the alien surface. “Look, I’d rather we were taking an active role here in the system. The Kesh might go along with it, although I don’t really know what they’re after. Rufo’s attempts to contact the warrior give me the creeps, to be honest Whoever gave him the information he needed to do that, whoever knew enough about the warrior to identify his type even though we can’t—whoever that
is,
I think they know a lot more than they’re saying. And I think Rufo is being used. This ‘whoever’ was too afraid to come here themselves, so we were dispatched. We’re all expendable.”
Roche suddenly felt cold and vulnerable. The Box had something to do with the High Human called the Crescend. High Humans had access to all sorts of information mundanes never even suspected existed. It might have given the control language to Rufo in exchange for firsthand information. And where
was
the Box now? Jetting around the system in her one and only escape route, while she played xenoarchaeologist with a genocidal clone warrior possibly nearby....
She cursed under her breath and tried to shake the paranoid thoughts. Such a line of thinking was neither helpful nor healthy. Nevertheless, one thing she
had
learned in recent weeks was that being merely paranoid wasn’t paranoid enough. And she certainly
was
expendable
No. She couldn’t let Disisto confuse her. She had no reason to believe that the Sol Apotheosis Movement was a smoke screen. Linegar Rufo could be wrong for a change, or Disisto could be lying. Better the latter than the tangled skein of deceit he was proposing in its place.
Disisto seemed unaware of the uncertainty he had provoked in her. That only made it worse. If he had done it deliberately, then he was a better liar than she believed him to be.
“Anyway,” he said, “I thought you ought to know about my dilemma. If you can help
me
out of it, then—”
“That’s not my problem,” she said, pushing herself impatiently away from the alien trumpet. “And there’s too much going on for us to just float around sightseeing. The more I can sort out before the Box gets here, the better.” She switched to a more general frequency. “Byrne? Idil? Can anyone hear me?”
“Is something wrong?” said Idil after a few moments.
“I want to attend the Plenary. I want to hear what you’re saying about me.”
“You don’t have the interfaces required to do that.”
“Byrne said I could sit in on the summary. How much different could it be?”
“Fundamentally.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Roche saw Disisto moving away from her. She froze his suit with a simple command. “Regardless, I want to know what’s going on. Maybe I can contribute.”
Or make sure you come to the right decision,
she thought.
“I’m sorry, but it just isn’t possible—”
The auditor’s voice cut into the conversation. “Let her,” she said. “It will do us no harm.”
“Very well, Roche. Surrender your suit’s input channels,” said Idil. “Do you have direct inputs?”
“My left eye and ear.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do to make it easier.”
Roche hesitated before handing over control, wondering what she had let herself in for.
She gave Idil the access codes required to patch into her implants. The outriggers would be able to draw upon her suit’s full communication capacity; she could pull out any time she wanted, she assumed.
“Five seconds,” Idil said. “Prepare yourself.”
For what?
she wanted to ask.
Then she recalled that Auditor Byrne hadn’t said “harmless” to everyone. Byrne had said that it wouldn’t harm
them.
With a click and a flash deep in the underside of her brain, the Plenary of Long Span spine exploded through her.
6
Mok Interior
‘955.01.21 EN
1990
The voice seemed to speak directly into the fissures of Roche’s brain:
___
Commander Roche
___
has come to us for help
___
and to offer us help.
___
We have numerous options.
___
Which do we choose?
With the words came a blinding light. It felt as though the outriggers were overloading the tolerances of her auditory and optic nerves. But her implants had buffers that should prevent that sort of surge. Somehow the outriggers must have infiltrated the hardwiring of her implants.
The voice repeated its spiel. This time Roche sensed a hidden complexity, a second, more subtle strand underlying the first, somehow mixed up with vivid pulses of light accompanying the sound.
___
Commander Roche
/\how do we know she is who she says she is?\/
___
has come to us for help
/\or to spy\/
___
and to offer us help.
/\how? \/
___
We have numerous options.
/\believe her\/
/\don’t trust her\/
/\trust her\/
/\kill her\/
/\send her away\/
/\help her\/
/\help her help us\/
/\help her get away\/
___
Which do we choose?
The response wrapped itself around the question like a vine. The more the question was repeated the more complex and tangled the response became. Layer by layer, the argument unfolded:
___
Commander Roche
/\
1
How do we know she is who she says she is?
/\
2
She has no reason to lie.
/\
3
or reason to tell us the truth.
3
\/
Does it matter?
/\
3
If she’s lying about this, we can’t trust her at all.
/\
4
But we have no way of knowing.
4
\/
True.
3
\/
It’s good to be cautious, but let’s not get out of hand.
2
\/
Agreed, for now.
1
\/
She struggled to keep up as the question cycled and recycled, dragging her along with it:
___
has come to us for help
/\
1
More likely to spy.
/\
2
Who for?
2
\/
COE Intelligence
/\
2
She says she doesn’t work for them anymore.
/\
33
And you believe her?
/\
4
She says she heard a distress call.
/\
5
She could be lying about that, too.
5
\/
We’re going in circles!
/\
5
No,
you
are
5
\/
We must establish a reason for suspicion.
/\
5
That our lives are under threat isn’t enough?
/\
6
We are safe here.
/\
7
Short term only.
7
\/
Perhaps.
6
\/
Perhaps not, if we let Roche in.
5
\/
Perhaps.
4
\/
Perhaps.
3
\/
We need to make a decision!
2
\/
But the
right
one.
1
\/
___
and to offer us help.
/\
1
How?
/\
2
Ask
her.
/\
3
Again: why should we believe her?\/
/\
2
What have we got to lose if we do?
/\
3
Our lives
/\
4
We’ll die if she
doesn’t
help us!
4
\/
/\
3
We have only her word on that.
/\
4
But we
are
trapped here.
4
\/
Undeniably.
3
\/
So we can at least agree to give her a chance?
2
\/
That’s what we
are
doing!
1
\/
Despite the increasing complexity of the argument, she began to recognize voices—or at least patterns of response. There were the skeptics, and there were those inclined to trust her. She wondered how they could ever expect to achieve a consensus to arise from such chaos.
Each time the question reached its conclusion, the eddy of voices threatened to carry her away....
___
We have numerous options.
/\
1
don’t trust her
/\
2
send her away
/\
3
trust her
/\
4
help her help us
/\
5
believe her
/\
6
don’t trust her
/\
7
send her away
/\
8
trust her
/\
9
help her help us
/\
10
disbelieve her
/\
11
kill her
/\
12
use her
12
\/
kill
her
11
\/
don’t trust her
10
\/
trust her
9
\/help her
8
\/
send her away
/\
8
help her help us/\
9
help her get away
/\
10
send her away
10
\/
trust her
9
\/help her help us
8
\/
kill her
7
\/
send her away
6
\/
let her live
5-3
\/
ignore her
2
don’t trust her
1
\/
Gradually, the voices began to cluster into groups. The clamor didn’t ebb, but it became slightly more coherent to Roche’s adjusting senses. Each group made concessions in order to increase its numbers; one, initially prepared to let
her go unharmed, eventually allied itself with another group who wanted the resources of
Daybreak
to remain behind; another began by offering help unreservedly but ended up demanding rescue from the collapsing Gauntlet as a condition for giving that help. Then the boundaries shifted again, hinging this time on her possible allegiance with Linegar Rufo. With each concession came increased complexity, so the Plenary became less of a squabble and more of a debate, although some of the exchanges remained heated.
Woven through the groups were odd loners who initially refused to accept any compromise. One of these in particular caught Roche’s attention, even though the voice at first didn’t contribute much.
/\
113-117
We have to make some kind of decision soon.
/\
118
But what
can
we do?
/\
119-125
The sensible thing would be to wait to see what happens.
125-119
\/
Do we even have the resources to do anything?
/\
119-125
Exactly our point. For that reason we prefer inaction to action.
/\
126-129
No. The sensible response is to help her.
/\
130-131
Such action would potentially benefit us the most.
/\
132
No—
kill her
!
/\
133
And miss this chance to avenge my clan?
133
\/
Irrelevant! Her mere presence here puts us in danger!
132
We have no proof of that.
/\
132
Yet.
/\
133
But we
know
she can help
me.
133
\/
Must we also die in some futile attempt to make a point?
132-131
It would be a meaningless sacrifice.
130-126
\/
Perhaps it is better in this case to attempt neither.
125-118
\/
Unacceptable response! Inaction is not an option!
117-111
\/
At least we’d be alive.
110-109
\/
For how long?
108-105
\/
My people didn’t die so yours could cower here and wait your turn!
104
\/
So let’s kill her now before she has a chance!
103
\/
This is getting us
nowhere
!
102-98
\/
The outrigger seeking revenge, Roche guessed, was the lone survivor of the attack on Wide Berth spine; the one seeking Roche’s death, however, she couldn’t identify. Perhaps it was one she hadn’t yet met. A couple of times she tried to interject a comment in her defense, but she didn’t know how to. All she could do was feel the currents of opinion ebbing and flowing around her.
___
Which do we choose?
Each time that question was asked, argument broke out afresh and the entire process was repeated. Slowly, though, a consensus began to emerge.
/\
286-291
We need more information.
/\How do you propose getting that?
294-292
By asking.
291-286
\/
And
trusting
her?
285
\/
We could do worse than try.
279-284
\/
Roche felt a growing sense of frustration. They had already interrogated her; what more could she possibly tell them that she hadn’t already? There wasn’t
time
for this!
The coordinating voice seemed to agree with her. Without warning, the fundamental spiel altered:
___
We must reach consensus.
___
Doing nothing is not an option
___
and neither is stalling for more information.
___
We cannot wait any longer.
___
We must decide now.
___
Do we help or hinder?
Roche almost drowned in the resulting surge of voices as the Plenary erupted into a chaotic buzz. She barely managed to hang onto the central thread in the fervor. And through the babble, only one voice stood out clearly.
/\
l43
Either we help her, or we die!
/\
144-155
You can’t be certain of that!
155-144
\/
My clan is no more; how much more evidence do you need?
/\
144-155
Wide Berth was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
155-144
\/
Exactly—so don’t let it happen to Long Span too!
143
\/
You are free to leave at any time.
142-137
\/
Maybe I will cast my lot elsewhere.
136
\/
Be serious!
/\
136
Better to have striven and failed than to not have even tried at all.
/\
137-142
We are talking about the possible annihilation of an entire clan!
We have no time for feeble aphorisms, child!
142-137
\/
My age is not relevant to this discussion.
136
\/
And you are alone.
122-135
\/
Am I?
121
\/
Are you?
/\
121
Will no one join me?
/\
122
I will.
The two words sent shock waves through the Plenary.
/\
123
Do you realize what you’re saying?
/\
124-7
If you join her, the spine will be broken!
/\
128
It will be destroyed anyway, won’t it?
/\
129-32
There is no evidence of that.
132-129
\/
There is enough to convince me.
128
\/
And me. It
does
seem the lesser of two evils.
127
\/
A choice between methods of suicide is not really a choice!
126-124
\/
At least you
have
a choice. My clan did not.
121
\/
They would have chosen life; why can’t we?
/\
121
Because life does not seem to be an option anymore.
Roche listened in amazement as the tide of the Plenary turned, the outriggers for the most part preferring to risk exposure and attack rather than see the clan divided.
/\
130-145
We live as one, we die as one.
/\
146
But Roche is not one of us!
146
\/
Yarrow supports her.
/\
146
He is not one of us either.
146
\/
We have adopted him.
145-92
\/
Then we can un-adopt him!
91
\/
He is one of us now, and always will be!
90-37
\/
The resounding emphasis on Yarrow’s permanent status as a member of the clan silenced many of the critics. Into the sudden ebb, the auditor repeated the crucial question:
___
Do we help or hinder?
/\
l-9
We help.
/\
10-27
We hinder.
/\
28-32
We help.
/\
33-40
We hinder.
/\
41-55
We help.
/\
56-66
We hinder.
66-58
We help.
59-42
\/
We hinder.
43-40
\/
We help.
39-26
\/
We hinder.
25-19
\/
We help.
18-1
\/
The vote was fluctuating, changing every time the question was asked. Roche sensed a trend in her favor, but couldn’t be certain. There were too many powerful voices commanding a negative vote. She waited anxiously for some sort of confirmation.
___
No matter what the decision
___
do we agree to abide by the ruling of the clan?
/\
1-66
We do.
66-1
\/
The giddying motion of the Plenary ceased for a brief moment as all the outriggers agreed on that one point. Again Roche was surprised by the fierce unity of the clan. Perhaps that was only to be expected when the rest of the galaxy treated them with disinterest at best.