All Fall Down (44 page)

           
“But the infection.” Djembe waved back at his simulation cells.

           
“We need to rescue something from here. The research. The colonists' memories. We have to take the AI, even if it's to dissect it and find out what's going on in its deep code, what the sentients are.”

           
While the holo looped, Djembe watched the planetoid mutely thundering towards Fall, “Go then. I will feed this data into the consequence map. Try to run some crude modelling on its trajectory, the physics your probe has collected.”

           
At the door, Win turned back, “Be in the hangar within thirty minutes.”

           
Weakly, “Go.”

           
He watched the door close on Win.

           
Djembe turned, and looked in the face of the Over Angel. It reflected his face, the darkness passing over it, light and shade, as Fall's neighbour approached ever closer.

As she left the dark tunnel, Kate shielded her eyes. Daoud stepped through the door after her, pushed, sealed it.

           
He put a hand to her shoulder, “Kate.”

           
“Get off me.”

           
Back in the Colony and its LocalSysNet, her wrist communicator squalled into life at the same time as Daoud's. They looked down, then at each other, showed under-wrists, pressed fingers, buttons. Simultaneously, with different voices, different heads, with the same urgency, “Where are you? We have a situation.”

           
Their eyes remained locked, hands out, supplicant to the messages, “Yes?”

           
“Something's coming.” Identical words, different meanings. The same meaning.

           
“What do you mean?”

           
“From space. We're not alone.”

           
“I'll be right there.”

Kate stepped into the all-but empty holo room, where Djembe sat on a bare throne, hands immersed in well clothed consequence vines.

           
“What's that?” her face turned up to the looping black mass above his head.

           
“That is just coming into orbit around the planet. Win's probe picked it up. We've been trying to contact you for fifteen minutes. Where have you been?”

           
“Later. What is it?”

           
“It's one of the system's inner planetoids. It left its orbit around the sun, and entered orbit around Fall. We don't know if it's because of the forthcoming eclipse.”

           
She stared, unblinking, “The eclipse is more significant than we thought, then. Has Win run the simulations?”

           
“Yes and no. He ran the simulations for the system, they didn't predict this, the planetoid being flung out of its orbit. But they do show with almost certainty that Fall is going to be destroyed. The sun, planets, wormhole are all approaching conjunction. The gravity changes are going to rip the planet apart. We have to evacuate within fifteen minutes. Win is taking the AI's cortex to the ship. He should be loading it up by now.”

           
“Who gave him permission to do that?”

           
“He's acting on his own initiative, as a Commander,” Djembe stood from his throne, he looked sick with worry. “The ship needs to leave in fifteen minutes to give us enough time to reach a safe distance. Any later and we will surely die.”

           
There was an uncomfortable pause.

           
“Kate? General?”

           
“What?”

           
“We need to evacuate.”

           
“The others...” This was too much. After what Daoud had told her. Alien life everywhere. A war he wanted to start. And now they were approaching, the size of planets.

           
“Come on, we need to go.” Djembe moved past her, turned off the holo.
 
He addressed the computer, “Clear memory, MI authorisation CDC Article Seven.”

           
“The others. We need to bring the others,” she turned to face him, her face open, eyes locked beyond his.

           
“The colonists will have to face their fate. There's no time.” He pulled her toward the door, “Kate!”

           
“No. The others. You don't understand. The twenty three.”

           
“General, I need you to take command here. This is outside my experience. The planet is about to be destroyed. Do you understand? This planet is going to crack apart. We have less than fifteen minutes to evacuate.” Djembe grabbed Kate's hand, yanked her to the door. She muttered as she followed him to the hangar.

“What is it?”

           
“Something's come out of the wormhole.” Sophie was wary. She spoke professionally, in clipped tones, as he was used to.

           
“Show me.” Daoud's face was lit from beneath by the holo. “The parents?”

           
“Something, anyway.”

           
“Have you initiated the plan?”

           
“I've activated the satellites, yes.”

           
“How close are the visitors to orbit?”
      

           
“I haven't had time to check. I'll call it up. Computer, planetary orbit status please.”

           
“There are four unknown objects in orbit around Fall. They are not responding to hails.”

           
“Four? What do you mean? There are only two in the holo.”

           
Daoud waved away the question, “I think we need to find General Leland. She may have the answer. Computer, locate General Leland.”

           
“General Leland is in lift shaft six, heading to the hangar.”

           
“I'll meet her there. Stick with the plan. Hook the satellites to my wrist control.” Daoud nodded to his words, his intensity grew him in stature, “Prep then seal the tunnel. Then prep and release the ground defences: mech and emplacements. Update me in twenty minutes.
 
Our time has come.”

The lift juddered, bumped upwards, threw Kate and Djembe against the wall. When the doors opened, everything was dark.

           
Slowly, soft emergency light - produced by biological phosphorescence - illuminated the corridor. The Colony was riddled with tubes of organisms that depended not on an electrical power supply, but on being plugged into the facility's waste management system. The corridor went from pitch to dim, lit red and a sickly green-white, depending on the state of the biotubes. For the first time, both Kate and Djembe felt they were underground, oppressed by the weight of the planet's surface above them.

           
Shouts echoed round the corridor's curves, questions, alarm. Footsteps ricocheted. They exited the lift. “The eclipse?”

           
“People are panicking.”

           
They ran to the hangar door, dodging Colonists.

           
Suddenly the Colony shook, the corridors lurched. People fell to the floor, into the walls.

           
“Must be the eclipse, causing seismic disturbances.” The shouts turned to screams, crying children, frozen eyes and held breath. Dust drifted from the ceiling.

           
The lurching continued, throwing the panicked colonists around as they ran down corridors to secure equipment, loved ones.

           
Kate opened the hangar door. In the distance they could just make out Win and the ship's pilot, fighting the palsied floor to load the AI's cortex into the ship's hold. The hangar was dark. The cavity above, normally lit with guide lights, was senseless. The gloom dripped down the walls, pooling around the bays. Dust rained softly after it. The ship's landing lights drew the eye. Silence flooded the space, broken only by the timpani of the footsteps Kate and Djembe created running through it. There was the dry smell of the lifeless surface.

           
As she ran, Kate found a new focus. Djembe was usually so secure in his work, in himself. Seeing him on the edge of panic had thrown her off. He was their beat, the steady one they could cling to when surrounded by chaos. The realist. She'd gone into shock.

           
“Not now.”

           
“Sorry?” Djembe looked over as they ran. “Not what?”

           
“I'm going to find a way through this mess. This doesn't happen on my watch.”

           
As they reached the ship, a voice echoed across the lightless floor, “General Leland.” Daoud's voice was a blurred silhouette against the door, backlit by a dusky red.

           
Kate looked at Djembe and Win, “Go ahead. Leave whether I'm on board or not. That's an order.” She turned. “Administrator.” She jogged back, crossing her footsteps, equipment clattering out of the murk with each seismic upheaval. “What's going on?” she indicated the shaking.

           
His eyes went over her shoulder, “I'm not sure. Sophie's checking it for me. An earthquake perhaps.” His eyes flicked back to hers, “We both received news. What was yours?”

           
Quickly, “Win thinks he has a lead on your... visitor.”

           
“Yes?”

           
Firmly, “Yes. What was your news?”

           
“There are ships in orbit. I was wondering if you knew what they were.”

           
The Colony shook again. Daoud caught her arm, pulled her into the door frame. She looked at him, bewildered. She still suspected him of arranging the murders of Doctors Maki and Cassel. And now he was pulling her to safety?

           
And these ships? Could the MI fleet be here so quickly? She thought the soonest they could arrive was another few hours from now. Maybe there had already been a back-up fleet in the wormhole, waiting? That intrusion, maybe. Decisively, “Come to the ship. There's a holo I want to show you.”

           
“Very well.”

           
Across the floor their silence multiplied as the tremors increased.

           
The Colony suffered a massive quake. Lumps of rock fell from the ceiling above, narrowly missing them as they ran. Sandstone exploded around them. They made the ship's entrance ramp as the hangar floor buckled and one of the transport craft was shifted several metres.

           
In the ship's briefing room Kate took charge, “Sit down Administrator. Computer, play the last data feed from the Lagrange One probe.” While inky space burst into life in the briefing room, the ship lurched under them again. “This is one of Fall's planetoids, which until recently orbited the yellow sun. It's in orbit around Fall, Administrator.”