THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS - PLUS REVIEWS OF THE BOOK.
A shortened form of the first chapter won the New Zealand Science-Fiction and Fantasy Convention award for best short story in 2011.
sssssss
ssssONE
ssssA red, rocky landscape cut with splashes of burnt purple shambled its way to a horizon that was impossibly close. A thirty-second dash would cover it with ease, except a one-second dash without a spraysuit would kill you. The Sun lay feebly on its back on a rock the size of a house, putting out the light, and heat, of a twenty watt nightlight. It was only with Neptune adding its meagre reflected light from behind, and the fact that the control room lights had been turned off, that it was possible to see what was outside at all. The psych books said don’t do it, you’d go mad; miner’s claustrophobia they called it, the craven need to be outside just for once, no longer in an artificial environment, eating artificial food and living an artificial life.
ssssFlorenchantaine put his feet up and looked out the window, except it probably wasn’t the best thing for the sample analyser he put his feet on, and strictly speaking it wasn’t a window.
ssssIt was a good facsimile though. It had a recognisable sill and surrounds, even if the glass was only a vidlink screen from a camera in the outside wall. If they wanted to, the crew could turn on the outside lights and look out the ‘window’, reassuring themselves that the rest of the universe was still there.
ssss“Hey, Flinch, you want a game?”
ssssRossun hefted an old-fashioned pack of cards. ‘Flinch’ was a good shorthand version of a name the miners generally found too pretentious, and it had the added benefit of being somewhat ironic – Flinch was a leader you could trust when the going got tough; in actual fact he’d never been known to ‘flinch’ at all.
ssssThe contests of skill that had been fought over a card deck were legendary in mining camps throughout the Solar System. Out here they found they preferred something solid, something they could touch, to while away the time. Too many hours in front of screens, too much time in a simcomm environment, left you with a distaste for anything that smacked of technology.
ssss“Yeah, that’d be good,” said Flinch slowly. He looked at that little, curved, bent and craggy horizon one more time, soaking in the sense of distance, of freedom, and lifted himself out of the chair.
ssss“You okay?” quizzed Rossun as he eased up the lights halfway and started to deal cards onto the bench by the door. Flinch smiled. Rossun always asked that. He was a good guy to have around on a long mining assignment. But on this occasion Flinch never got to answer Rossun’s question.
ssssThe lighting strips in the ceiling began to flash alternatively one short red and two long yellow, the universal alarm signal. Rossun hit the door a second later and Flinch scrambled around the end of the bench to bolt through it right behind him.
ssssThey made it to the control room at the same time as George and Matsu. Every panel in the proximity sensor array was lit by the same flashing red and yellow. George (‘Saint George’) was the topographics officer, and he scrambled into his seat. “Mother of . . ,” he hissed, then stopped and checked his readings. “Rock headed for the mining site; big, going to do some real damage. I’m trying to get a fix on the size and composition.”
ssssFlinch tightened his hands into fists. There was half the economic output of the South American trading block invested in this opencast mine, and a small fortune in industrial minerals waiting to be shipped back to Earth.
ssssSeconds passed. “Want the good news or the bad news, gentlemen?” ground out George in grim undertones.
ssss“There’s good?” smiled Matsu weakly.
ssss“I think the first one’s going to miss the mining site, but behind it there’s a scattering of smaller ones.”
ssss“Where in all the sham’ass hells did this come from!” exploded Rossun. “We’re on the downside of this miserable piece of rock. Neptune is supposed to shield us!”
ssss“This can’t be right,” said Matsu, “check the flight path and find out where they’re coming from.”
ssss“No time,” snapped Flinch. He was in charge of operations, and it was at times like these that he earned his money. And this time, like every other time, there was no telling when he would find himself in that central position once again. “Rossun, Matsu, get onto remote and power down everything at the mining site, and I mean everything. Don’t try to get the mining units under cover, they’re too slow.”
ssss“George, you were going to get me some idea of size and composition?” George looked puzzled. He pulled up diagnostics on different frequencies.
ssss“Can’t say, Boss. Size seems to vary on the big one, and some of the lower frequencies go right through it like it’s not there. The smaller ones look like comet debris, methane and water ice over a denser core.”
ssss“How long until they hit?”
ssss“Not sure; two, three minutes.” He stopped and looked again. “Sham’ass, that’s weird, the comet fragments are bouncing around like rocks in a tumbler.”
ssssFlinch cut in, “George, what are our chances of being hit here at the control site?”
ssss“At the moment we’re looking fairly good,” replied George. “Everything should land over the horizon, but there’s always the danger of fragmentation and we don’t know where those pieces might go.”
ssss“Fine. Put the incoming, whatever they are, on the long-range screen; then shut down power here to a minimum and seal all the bulkheads.”
ssssMatsu turned from the work station nearest George. “All electronics and back-ups at the mining site powering down, but the reactor won’t be below safety levels before they hit – if they do hit.”
ssssDamn’t, thought Flinch. It was a reasonable risk though. If the fusion reactor took a direct hit at the mining site the force would largely dissipate into space. The shockwaves through the rocky interior of the moon would be more dangerous. Death from above if they got hit by a comet fragment, death from below if the reactor blew, not much of a choice. He smiled. Rule number one: don’t let fear slow your ability to think.
ssss“Chief, you’d better take a look at this!”
ssssFlinch turned to the screen. The central rock appeared oddly spherical, too perfectly round. Behind it, comet fragments grouped in a five-pointed formation, glowing with an eerie orange light. As they watched in stunned silence, orange fire bled from the smaller pieces into a central ring, and then lanced out toward the larger one.
ssss“What’s happening?” whispered Matsu, as orange fire drilled a neat hole straight through the target and out the other side.
ssss“Get me a close up of that,” snapped Flinch.
ssssIn the short term, nothing happened. No explosions, no disintegration. But then the big rock vanished, gone from the void overhead as if it had never been.
ssssRossun and Flinch looked at each other in disbelief, then back at the screen. The supposed ‘comets’ seemed to be flying randomly again, and now they came in over the mining site. Two of them clipped the rim of the large crater opposite the control centre and exploded into glistening ice fragments, the rest sailed serenely on and out into space.
ssss“Does anybody, in your wildest dreams, know what that was all about?” said George.
ssss“You and me both, Saint G,” added Rossun in a half-whispered voice.
ssss“Well it is absolutely, and I mean take it as read from me, not H’Dree technology,” said Matsu.
ssssFlinch surveyed the environmental officer for a moment. It was part of Matsu’s training to know about the H’Dree, so he was probably right; but that opened the door to other possibilities, and Flinch didn’t want to have to deal with those thoughts right now.
ssssThe United Federation of Earth Trading Associations (UfEta) had cracked the ramecium code and developed space flight four hundred years ago, but it had taken nearly three hundred years to find another civilisation with stardrive capability, the Borok’h’Dree. Intelligent life, but so different. Cooperation between Human and H’Dree was difficult at the best of times. If what they had just seen was not H’Dree in origin, then what was it? Right now Flinch had other things to think about.
ssss“Rossun, Matsu, get a rover and take a look at that comet debris. I want a full-spectrum analysis and samples, the lot. Go armed. No, wait, if there’s a life form out there, it’ll be way ahead of us in hardware. Cancel the armaments. George will monitor you while you’re outside; try not to annoy anything you find out there.”
ssssRossun raised his eyebrows, Flinch raised his in return. “Anyone got a better idea?” he snapped. “Let’s go do it then.”
ssssGeorge unsealed the bulkheads and got on with restoring power to the control centre. Flinch left the mining site powered down while he ran diagnostics of its systems and checked for damage by using remotes.
ssssRossun and Matsu walked into the spraysuit chamber. “Ah, sham’ass, I get tired of this,” groaned Rossun as he slipped on gloves and boots and grabbed a mask. When they had both snapped the masks into place, they stood with arms raised and feet apart. A rough foam sprayed over them until they were covered from head to toe, and sealed into the accessories. A fine mist set the foam into a firm but flexible air-tight suit. The suits were rated close to 100 percent for insulation, but not recommended outside the rovers. Miners often ignored that.
ssssSliding part of the wall back to get an airpak, Rossun pulled the straps over and around his shoulders until they clicked together across his chest. When they both had vidlink and air connections in place, they trudged over to the testing station. Behind them the spraysuit cubicles cleaned and reset themselves.
ssssBoth spraysuits showed clear under vacuum at the testing station, and they exited the control centre straight into an SM2 armoured rover.
ssssWhen he had checked and cleared the rover’s systems, Matsu patched in to the vidlink circuit and the two men headed for the crater. Back in the control centre George finished restoring the control centre to operational, and Flinch handed him the mining site to bring back on line.
ssss“Keep in touch with the rover, George,” he cautioned, “If you want me I’ll be simcomming the big dish – I’d better call this one in.”
ssssThis was going to be a *S7, alien contact, he just knew it. The last time he’d got too close to ‘breaking news’, as it was so euphemistically called by the media, it had cost him his career and a relationship with an ops officer two grades ahead of him that it still hurt to think about. He was just starting to get back on his feet in the mining industry, taking big risks and earning big money at the sludge end of the Solar System, and now this. Flinch had a smattering of several languages, and he muttered the choicest and most anatomically specific curses he knew for a full minute. Feeling better, he headed for the restech simcomm unit in the corner of the room. This was restricted technology, UfEta equipment.
ssssThe headgear adjusted to his position and the optic shields closed over his face and came on line. Fingertip controls wrapped themselves around both arms, and moulded themselves to his hands. He was identified from a dozen body imprints, and the system powered up. Flinch tapped through the options showing in his visual field.
ssssEmergency over-ride to UfEta Earth . . . class: dash question mark *S7 . . . searching . . . no line of site possible . . . allocated reroute through research station orbiting Jupiter . . . feed coordinates to the multidish array . . , and the system powered down. He booted it up again, and it died before ID protocols started. He booted it for a third time and the headgear retracted while the controls unwrapped themselves from his arms.
ssssHe was running diagnostics when George called him over.
ssss“Something’s interfering with the systems. As best as I can make out, it’s reading the processor files.”
ssss“That figures,” said Flinch. George looked puzzled.
ssss“Something just knocked me off the simcomm routines.” A cold chill started around Flinch’s heart. If something out there was hostile, and they couldn’t let anybody know they were under attack, well, it might get very messy.
ssss“Start the virus and sabotage routines,” he muttered.
ssss“Already running.”
ssss“Let me know as soon as you’ve got something,” he said, and headed for the techdeck cubbyhole, where he could try to bypass the simcomm unit and operate the dish array manually. Less than five minutes later, George called him back into the control room to look at the feed from the miners out on the surface.
ssss“Ah, Captain, you definitely want to look at this,” came Rossun’s voice over the vidlink from the rover. The control centre had its own tiny satellites to provide contact around the curvature of the moon, but at this stage the rover was still within line-of-sight.
ssssThe SM2 had stopped halfway to its intended destination. They were traversing a fairly clear slope above the giant opencast mine. Matsu trained the forward cameras onto the floor of the pit, and the whole, enormous, white hemisphere came into view.
ssss“That, I presume,” said Rossun, “is where Big Billy went when the others started shooting at it. Not silly really, the only place where it stood a chance of not being seen. Now, how did it disappear from there and reappear down here – pretty neat trick that.”
ssss“You are not going to call it ‘Big Billy’,” snorted George in disbelief.
ssss“Anyone got a better idea?” said Rossun, taking a leaf out of Flinch’s book.
ssss“Call it what you like,” snapped Flinch. “Where’s the other half of it?”
ssss“You’re not going to believe this, but at the highest resolution we’ve got, the sides just continue into the floor of the pit,” said Matsu, “There are no broken edges.”
ssss“Then where’s the debris it displaced when it landed?”
ssss“I don’t know; I mean it didn’t. I just, look I don’t know but the sides just go into the rock, okay?”
ssss“Okay, okay, calm down you two. Get your ice analysis done and get back here quick. And stay out of line-of-sight of that thing on the way back, got it?”
ssss“Yeah, we won’t be long,” answered Matsu. “Believe me, I’m feeling really uncomfortable out here right now.”
ssssBy the time Flinch had tried the obvious bypass routes to the dish array, the rover was back. A chime from the security system identified an SM2 rover locking on to the embarkation bay.
ssss“I don’t think I can reroute communication to Earth, George,” called Flinch from the techdeck, “It looks like the transmitters are down as well as the simcomm unit.”
ssss“Forget that, boss. Whatever virus is inside the control unit is kicking up a storm!”
ssssFlinch scrambled back into the control room. Script raced across screens on every side, and backup protocols flickered feverishly overhead. He jumped into the nearest seat. Hundreds of pages of script flashed past in seconds, then a stream of override commands speared down the page, and the flickering parade of script pages resumed.
ssss“Shut it off!” he screamed desperately. George punched in a couple more commands, before finally ripping the laser web out of its casing. The flow of data continued unabated.
ssss“That’s it,” said George, “there’s nothing more I can do except take a plasma torch and turn the panels into slag. With the laser web gone no one system should be able to talk to any other, but they’re doing it anyway.”
ssssFlinch thought feverishly. He glanced at the life support system – at least that appeared to be still functioning normally. He tapped on the personnel Acomm on his upper arm. “Rossun, Matsu, don’t micropulse the suits. I think we’re going out again.”
ssssRossun and Matsu dropped the airpaks on the floor of the embarkation bay and sat down. They would not need the micropulse room next to the spray cubicles, not yet anyway. In there, finely tuned electronic pulses broke chemical linkages in the foam of the spraysuits – and the artificial fibre clothing underneath – and peeled the resultant chaff off them with a blast of ionised air. Everything was recycled inside the unit, and a new set of clothing for each of them was always ready when the micropulse process was finished.
ssss“The interference has to be coming from that thing hiding out in the mine,” said George, looking at the parade of script across the screens. “We’ve still got access to the rovers and the mining equipment, I say we try and cook ‘Big Billy’ with the plasma torches in the refinery. I could mount a handful of them on one of the mining units, and we could send it in by remote.”
ssss“Maybe,” said Flinch, “maybe not. It could just be disabled. We saw it take a hit of that orange fire, and I don’t think that was a friendly chat. Now it finds itself down, but not out; so it looks around, sees us and says to itself, ‘there’s technology I can use’.
ssss“Apart from which,” he added, “I don’t think we’d get near it with anything that looked like a weapon.”
ssssHe was about to leave George trying to generate a distress call, when the flicker of information across the screens ended abruptly.
ssssThe two of them looked at each other, then back at the control systems. A small dot of light edged haphazardly around the central screen, like a child’s wavering attempts at longhand. The apparently random scrawl had covered about half the screen when it vanished. Seconds ticked by while the two men watched in fascination.
ssss“HELLO COMMUNICATIONS” appeared suddenly in giant letters, taking up most of the screen. This slowly faded, and then another message appeared, overwriting the first.
ssss“PLEASE TO HELP FREEDOM” appeared in more giant letters.
ssssThen, “TO REMEMBER ONE SOURCE”
ssssThen nothing. The mixture of overwrites slowly faded away.
ssss“What is ‘one source’?” mused George.
ssss“Don’t know,” said Flinch, “but it does look like a request for help.”
ssss“Well, we are still alive; and it is saying please,” said George with a smile. “Right now that’s better than being fried to ashes. You want to do the honours?”
ssss“No, but I don’t have much choice,” sighed Flinch.
ssssHe sat down at the screen. The ‘voice command’ function didn’t work, so he grabbed the mining diagnostics pad and reconfigured it to alphabet use.
ssss“HOW TO HELP?” he typed in.
ssss“ENERGY POWER HURRY HELP” appeared instantly on the screen.
ssssFlinch moved to the next screen and called up an energy scan of the mine workings. Where the white hemisphere lay tucked under one side of the opencast mine, a faint blue point blinked feebly.
ssss“By all the . . . look at that!” he exclaimed. “The casing, the shell, whatever it is, isn’t registering. There’s one small central point, and that’s radiating less than an Mwatt. I think maybe they do need our help.” George pulled up another scan.
ssss“No life signs though. No movement and no heat showing; no conductor activity consistent with a nervous system.”
ssss“Could be shielded, could be a different sort of life.”
ssssFlinch tapped his Acomm. “Rossun, we’re going down into the pit. Stack the back of the rover with powerpaks, and throw in a dish and portable remote for drawing power off the reactor. I’m going with you. Five minutes.”
ssss“Understood.”
ssssFlinch turned to George. “Keep trying to send emergency messages. Hard copy a brief version of what’s happening, something that can’t be wiped by an emf pulse, or be destroyed by fire . . . you get the idea. If the worst comes to the worst there must be some sort of record.” George nodded. “And George.” George looked up from the screen. “See you on the other side, alright?”
ssssGeorge laughed. “Yeah, yeah. I hope you make it too. Go catch your rover.” Flinch headed for the spraysuit cubicles. Four minutes later the rover left the embarkation bay and roared toward the opencast mine, huge overland wheels bouncing off the track and spinning great fountains of red dust behind them in the low gravity.
ssssRossun slowed the rover at the top of the track into the pit. The white shell of the ship was massive, an unearthly, perfect mushroom of giant proportions. As they bounced more cautiously down the long incline to the floor, the shell flickered and went dull for a moment, then resumed its former brightness.
ssss“Losing its integrity,” said Flinch. “We need to be snappy about rigging up some sort of power transfer when we get there.”
ssss“And how are we going to do that,” said Rossun, drawing out the words with a hint of scepticism, and a little fear.
ssss“I don’t know, my friend. At this moment I just do not know. If they want our help, they’re going to have to give us some pointers.”
ssss“They are going to have to do all of that,” drawled Rossun slowly, coupling the powerpaks into a makeshift multibox in the back of the rover, and improvising a lead from the multibox. “Watch the bumps, Matsu! I’m trying to do delicate work back here.”
ssss“What do you want – go fast or go careful,” snapped Matsu, his voice breaking with an aggression that was very much out of character.
ssssFlinch raised his voice. “We’re all on edge. We need to think teamwork, got it?” Two brisk “Yessirs” snapped back. He smiled. It was good to know he could count on these men when the going got tough.
ssssThe rover bounced through 180 degrees and reversed toward the dome. At half its length from the dome Flinch called a stop. Matsu set the sequence for the airlock door in the side of the rover and keyed in override. They hadn’t pressurised the cabin, relying on the spraysuits in an attempt to save time. Rossun dragged the heavy industrial lead through the doors and toward the shining white wall that soared out of the ground and curved away above them.
ssss“Now what?” he said, turning toward Flinch, who shrugged, an expression largely lost in the rubbery binding of his spraysuit.
ssssA square of darker material slowly formed in the wall. Rossun dragged the linkage to it. There was a moment’s hesitation, and then a negative impression to match the positive end of the lead formed in the middle of the darkened square.
ssssRossun stepped back for a moment, hesitated, then pushed the fitting into place and locked it home. He walked back to the rover to read the energy levels in the packs, but before he was halfway there the heavy shielding on the lead began to bubble. He ran clumsily in the low gravity to shut off the powerpaks.
ssss“Look at this,” he said to Flinch a moment later, pointing to the energy levels on the multibox. The paks were all empty. It was no wonder the extreme power surge to the alien ship had started to burn the covering right off the heavy-duty lead.
ssss“I thought it might take a lot of juice to make an impression on their systems,” said Flinch. “I’m hoping we’re powering secondary circuits that might be enough to get their own power source back on line. If this thing has come from outside the Solar System, which I bet it did, then it must have a power source able to drive a ramecium stardrive, or something better.”
ssss“Matsu,” he called over the control centre vidlink, “isolate the emergency power from the main systems, we’re going to link into the mains on the rover and I want a separate backup when the mains are discharged.”
ssssThis time the power drain was more gradual.
ssss“I think our boys in Big Billy are capable of learning from their mistakes,” said Rossun approvingly, as he watched the steady discharge of the rover’s reserves. “Pity the rover doesn’t have a powerplant like the mining units.”
ssss“Yeah, well, let’s hope the portable dish can tap into the reactor lasers. George, you there? Can the reactor systems locate our portable dish?”
ssssThere was a moment’s silence. “Not from the remote,” came George’s voice. “You’re out of line of sight from the control site, and the satellite signal is too weak to get a good enough fix on your position.”
ssss“Understood,” said Flinch. He turned to Rossun. “Hook the portable dish into the rover’s positional system, that should do it.” But over Rossun’s shoulder he saw another area of the white wall darken, then slump inward and take up the shape of a large parabolic dish, angled up toward the reactor. He tapped on Rossun’s mask, and pointed.
ssssRossun whistled in surprise.
ssss“The boys in Big Billy are way ahead of us. Look at that; a receiver dish – would you believe it!”
ssssFlinch took a locator cone they used for heavy blasting in the mine, and taped it to the centre of the dish. The rover picked up the cone’s signal and relayed it to the control centre. Once the reactor started to feed power into it, the cone would be a fog of ionised gas, but by then the beam would be locked onto the dish. They bundled back into the rover and headed for the control site.
ssssGeorge started to feed power from the reactor at a level slightly above the output of the powerpaks. The dish on the side of the dome seemed to take it okay. He gradually increased the output. By the time the rover had arrived back at the embarkation bay, he had it up to a normal mining feed without any apparent difficulty at the dome end. The link had been running for twenty minutes by the time Flinch stood at his shoulder in the control room. On the central visual a light blue beam blazed from the side of the reactor to the dish on the dome. The camera link had automatically darkened to reduce the glare from the beam and the reflections from the rocky surrounds.
ssss“It’s an energy screen,” said George without preamble. “The dome is an illusion. I’m not even sure it could be used as a shield. Mind you it would be almost impossible to hit the vital parts inside it. See here.” (He tapped back a couple of screens to a schematic of the floor of the mine. The outline of something half the size of the rover, that looked like it had been made up from boxes and barrels, lay on the floor of the mine close to one side of the dome.) “I think they ‘turned off’ the sphere as an evasive manoeuvre when they were hit by that orange fire. The cabin part is covered in something that doesn’t reflect scanning signals, some sort of cloaking technology, and they coasted in to land with all systems off.”
ssss“There’s something else,” said George, pointing to a string of results on the screen to his right. “I’m sure there are no life signs coming from the cabin. It could be a very different sort of life as you said, but they would still need some modification of their environment, and a space inside the cabin to modify. There are neither of those inside that structure; it’s solid hardware and systems, with no living space.”
ssss“I thought you said it absorbed all of our scans without reflecting any?”
ssss“I did. I used gravity wave analysis from the mining satellites to get these results. There’s no room for living quarters, for an atmosphere, or for a flesh and blood body of any sort.”
ssss“Very interesting,” mused Flinch. “I was thinking it was time for another chat with our uninvited guests. Perhaps the dome is only a machine.” He took a seat in front of the screen and pulled out the mining diagnostics pad he had previously reconfigured to alphabet use.
ssss“How much power do you need?” he typed in, and looked up at the central screen.
ssssThere was no reply. “How long will you need the reactor feed?” he queried, then added, “Time remaining reactor feed. Question.” Maybe trader slang was easier for them, or it, to understand.
ssss“PERHAPS TWENTY YOUR MINUTES. PERHAPS NOT,” filled the screen in giant letters. As this faded another message overwrote the first. “PRIMARY SOURCE UNSUCCESSFUL.”
ssssYes, thought Flinch, they’re trying to repair their systems so they can kick start their reactors – if their main power source is a reactor. Hope they’re not too busy to answer a few questions.
ssss“You are machine. Question. You are people. Question.”
ssss“I AM PEOPLE. WE ARE PEOPLE.”
ssssFlinch considered this. Communication was difficult enough without trying to point out to the dome the inconsistencies of being both ‘I’ and ‘we’.
ssss“No people in ship,” he tapped. “No room, no life, no people.”
ssssThis time there was a long pause. Matsu came in, tidy in a fresh change of clothes after being stripped of his spraysuit, and George put him to work rigging an emergency signal that might be powerful enough to reach another mining station, or a passing ship. Rossun remained in the embarkation bay, unloading the rover and breaking down the powerpacks to store them away.
ssss“PEOPLE LONG WAY FAR,” filled the screen. Moments later, “SHIP A MACHINE,” pulsed and faded over the top of the first message
ssss“Hey, George, are you getting this?” queried Flinch. “It looks like the dome’s a remote.”
ssss“Can’t be,” responded George, who was trying to find out how the dome was shutting down the control room systems and communicating with the control centre directly through the screens. “Time lag. Signals can only travel at the speed of light, so unless whoever built the dome is nearby, it can’t be having this conversation with you. The time lag from earth is over twenty minutes at this distance.”
ssss“So you think it might be a super-computer talking, a kind of advanced AI?”
ssss“Not necessarily,” broke in Matsu excitedly. “When I was in my last year at the academy, we talked about possibilities like this in the Diminishing Effect hypothesis. It was a kind of string theory. Each quantum particle is connected to every other particle by ‘strings’ determining how they react to each other. But the number of secondary strings increases by the cube as distance increases from the original particle, and the effect of ‘determination’ decreases.
ssss“Anyway,” said Matsu, as George tilted his head and gave him a ‘make this relevant’ look, “a normal communication signal moves from particle to particle of space-time and is limited by the speed of light, a ‘string’ signal acts outside particles, and may be much faster than light, or even instantaneous.”
ssss“Sub-space radio,” said George. Flinch raised his eyebrows.
ssss“The way all the spaceships communicated in the big surround theatres when I was growing up. Instantaneous communication.” He grinned.
ssss“Yeah, maybe,” said Flinch, distracted. Matsu could be right. He’d been brilliant as a student but not very stable emotionally, and hadn’t lasted long as a junior officer in the UfEta stardrive fleet. A quiet mining life and time to read the latest engineering research had suited his emotional makeup much better.
ssss“Reactor laser’s cut off,” snapped George, suddenly attentive to the screen in front of him. His head lifted abruptly, “main screen, dome’s lifting off!”
ssssThe bottom half of the dome lifted out of the bedrock. The floor of the mine remained undisturbed, exactly as they remembered it. The perfect white sphere gained more height, and peeped out of the opencast mine like a vast bubble escaping an underground mud pool. The cameras outside the control room picked it up, and it appeared to hang on the horizon like an impossibly large full moon.
ssss“They’ve got their reactor running I guess,” murmured Flinch.
ssss“Stardrive must be coming on line as well,” he added. How long before they left? His fingers stabbed at the mining diagnostics pad.
ssss“Who are you? Where do you come from?”
ssss“WE ARE DRUA.” Flinch waited. “FAR SPACE NO STARS,” followed. “He was about to tap in another question when the screen blazed again. SYSTEM DELETE.”
ssss“Speak again. Friendship,” keyed in Flinch.
ssss“TIME NOT,” came the reply. “ENEMY HARM,” followed. Surely they don’t mean us, thought Flinch, surprised.
ssss“CARNII DRONES PROXIMITY. HARM.”
ssssThe ship lifted smoothly away from the moon, dwindling rapidly as it fell toward Neptune. Messages continued to blaze and fade.
ssss“REPEAT NOT.”
ssss“ASSIST REMEMBER HELP.”
ssss“SYSTEM DELETE NOT FEAR.”
ssss“SYSTEM DELETE CARNII READ.”
ssss“MANY SUNS HARM.”
ssssAll they could see was a tiny white dot at extreme magnification for the cameras.
ssss“REPEAT NOT.”
ssss“ONE SOURCE.”
ssssSuddenly the white dot was gone.
ssss“FREEDOM,” came the last message, and then every system in the control centre went down and the lights went out.
ssss“For the . . ,” began George. Pale, blue light came up in the corners of the room as the emergency systems kicked in. The life support panels came back up as a soft yellow glow.
ssss“Systems starting from AVS,” called George, watching as in one small corner of his control panel a group of red graphics indicated machine language start-up.
ssss“Something’s not right,” he relayed, watching as the red graphics reached out to areas they should not normally be touching. He ran testing programs as more systems began to function again. “I think there’s a rider program in the system, making changes and then deleting itself.”
ssss“Something from Big Billy?” questioned Flinch.
ssss“Unknown. Unlikely to be anything else.”
ssss“Can you do anything about it?”
ssss“Wait a minute,” said George. He paused. “Main systems now operational. No trace of rider program remaining.”
ssss“So, what did it do?” said Flinch, running diagnostics and getting normal readings.
ssss“Nothing showing different in the mining systems,” said George. “Nothing in the dish array routines, or the satellites.”
ssss“Try the temporary files for the vidlink system,” said Matsu, who had given up rigging an emergency signal and now sat at one of the consoles.
ssss“What do you mean?”
ssss“This is the remote feed from the mine, right?” The view of the mine where the dome had just lifted off came onto the central screen. The others nodded.
ssss“This is five minutes ago,” said Matsu, and the picture flickered momentarily but remained the same. “Ten minutes ago,” he added, and still the screen showed nothing but the floor of the mine. “Twenty minutes.” Flicker, no change. “Thirty minutes”. Flicker, no change. “Do you get it? No evidence that the dome was ever here.”
ssss“I’ll be . . ,” sighed Flinch. George looked at the screen, astonished.
ssss“That’s what they meant!” exclaimed Flinch, standing up suddenly. “That’s what they meant by ‘system delete’! They were warning us they were going to do this.” He turned to George. “What was the phrase they used most often?”
ssss“Apart from ‘system delete’, ah, ‘repeat not’ I think.”
ssss“Do you understand? They were asking us to keep this incident confidential, to not report it to mining control at UOMC, to UfEta, or to anyone else. That’s why our attempts at an emergency transmission wouldn’t work. They read our systems and figured out how to stop us.”
ssss“Why do they want it confidential?” said George. “Anyway, they didn’t ask us, they forced the point – who’s going to believe us without evidence?”
ssss“I think they did ask us,” said Flinch. “At least, that’s what I would like to believe.”
ssss“Okay,” said Matsu, “but like George said, there’s still the question ‘why?’ ”
ssss“Bring up the words they put on the screens again, Matsu,” said Flinch.
ssss“It isn’t going to work,” said Matsu, as he pulled up the screen memory. “Nothing,” he said. “Shots of the mine floor, stars, and Neptune rising. Nothing else.”
ssss“We’re going to have to write down what we remember and collate it,” said Flinch. “Do you remember the words ‘system delete fear not’,” he continued, “and ‘system delete Carnii read’?”
ssss“Yeah, sure,” came both voices at once.
ssss“They were saying the Carnii, whatever they are, can read our records, and it seems pretty certain it was the Carnii who attacked the dome, right?”
ssss“It fits, I guess,” said George.
ssssFlinch walked to the far wall, turned around, and stood still. “I think they don’t want to drag us into their conflict with the Carnii,” he said, considering each word as he spoke it. “Evidence of us helping them, helping the Drua, would endanger us.”
ssss“Then the Carnii must be pretty mean slagspawn to pick on us for helping someone in trouble!” said George. “Sham’ass, that’s the number one rule among stardrive crews.”
ssssThere was a moment’s silence. Most of them had been pulled out of trouble at some time by the courage of others, or knew someone whose life had been saved.
ssss“How would anyone find out we helped the Drua?” said Matsu.
ssss“All we saw of the Carnii was a few chunks of comet ice,” said Flinch, “No ship, no energy signature, nothing to tell us they were there. These guys are way ahead of us technologically; I figure they could be anywhere, and we wouldn’t know it.”
ssssHe paused. “Maybe we aren’t a threat to the Carnii, not yet anyway. But if they think we’re allied with the Drua, then we might be worth destroying before we became a threat – certainly so if they thought we had access to Drua technology. Mostly I think they’d knock us out just in case; a first strike before we grew to be a problem.” George and Matsu had nothing to say.
ssss“I think the Drua did us a favour,” said Flinch finally.
ssssTWO
ssssThe world has changed, sighed Manoba Cordez, Regent of the South American trading block and one of the two most powerful leaders on Earth; but some things never change.
ssssThe endless urban sprawls and towering city centres of the fifth century PM had gone. It must have seemed strange back then to be alone in the universe, to have an identity defined without reference to other civilisations; in the days before an alliance with the Borok’h’Dree, before trading with the KSarth, and before humankind knew about the legacy of the H’Roth. The inclusion of Earth in the cultural milieu of the star systems of the Spiral Arm had seen such a change in the Human psyche that all Human history was now divided into PM (Pre-Milieu) and the period from that time. It was now the year 110, and Human and H’Dree were slowly beginning to work together, if the huge cultural differences and frequent misunderstandings could be called ‘working together’.
ssssManoba got up from his desk and walked to the window. He looked out over the typical profile of a city today, scattered buildings among reserves and gardens, while the bulk of the city lay underground. Manoba preferred working on the ground floor in the small three-storey UfEta office, where he could watch families walking through the spacious grounds and children playing. Of course the site was monitored from hidden cameras and satellite feed, and the glass he looked through was a synthetic diamond polymer that could withstand virtually any attack, but very few people knew this building was the centre of SouthAm activity on Earth.
ssssIt was the middle of the afternoon, and people had gathered under some of the larger trees, while more animated groups clustered around tables under sun shelters. The population of Earth had decreased, and a citizen’s contribution to the trading capability of his or her trading block was now mostly completed at home and in one’s own time, though sometimes at the innumerable trading block centres in every town, every urban hub, almost in every street.
ssssProduction must go forward, every citizen must be personally committed to the wellbeing of neighbours and the success of the trading block! Manoba smiled at his own enthusiasm as he recited a popular slogan. He almost believed the publicity he selected and approved for the media through his team of writers and political hacks. He looked pensive for a moment. From a philosophical point of view it was undeniably best to keep John and Jane Citizen busy, feeling they belonged and feeling they were needed. Those that would rise above that, for whatever reason, would do so regardless of their environment.
ssssHe paused, holding back a brief smile. It should be Manuel and Juanita Citizen in the SouthAm trading block. He’d spent too long in the EuroRussian and NorthAm blocks in his student days, but a change of names would be just another stereotype.
ssssHe walked back to his desk and sat down, picking up a report from the stack on his desk. Cities might now be no more than a hundred thousand people, mostly parks and recycled materials, but it all still needed to be maintained, and reports still had to be read. The Emperors of ancient history, at least those who survived very long, had always done what he was doing right now – keeping himself informed.
ssss“UOMC Report, Second Quarter,” read the title. Another report from the United Offworld Mining Companies; best to read the summary quickly. It probably wouldn’t contribute much, but all information added to his overall picture of the rapidly changing world of UfEta commerce.
ssssHe read the summary a second time. The beginnings of a frown creased his forehead. He flicked through to the middle and dove into a page of figures. He animated the wafer-thin infochip attached to the front of the report, and a series of 3D animations floated above his desk and cycled through a number of productivity charts. Something didn’t quite click. He read the summary again, more slowly this time; clearing his mind first and letting his subconscious mull over the information. When he’d finished he closed his eyes and let the pieces of the puzzle buzz around and collide with one another in his mind, until hopefully they fit.
ssssA few minutes later he opened his eyes and smiled to himself. It was a cover. The summary hinted at some things and avoided others, all carefully presented within a typical engineer’s report, but it didn’t actually say anything. The big opencast mine on Neptune’s second moon had missed several days productivity, yet the reactor output was higher than normal, and no reason had been given for the discrepancy. The mining boss, or someone further up the chain at UOMC, had done a very professional con job.
ssssHe sat back in his chair. The question, of course, was why?
ssssThe monitor on his desk chimed discretely. “The Borok’h’Dree delegation has arrived, Sir,” murmured his secretary. Sallyanne Montoya was one of Earth’s top sociologists, specialising in offworld cultures. She had been substituted for his usual secretary when the Borok’h’Dree had agreed to talk about the quarantine planet Alamos – and even more surprisingly suggested a meeting on Earth. It had taken a lot of pressure before the other Regents had agreed that he should see them alone. The H’Dree always had a clear chain of command in their operations, and one leader who was responsible for each event. Going into a meeting to face the full council of Regents would have horrified them; they had to see one Human as responsible for negotiations.
ssssManoba had vetoed anyone apart from his own team ‘sitting in’ on the meeting. The presence of others only muddied the waters, and the absent Regents would just have to be happy that negotiations would be recorded for them. Still, the way things had turned out, it was a rather prestigious political coup for him!
ssssHe hastily filed the UOMC report in the VHlock container he kept under his desk. Practically indestructible and opening to his handprint and skin enzymes only, it contained everything of interest he came across in reports, or in the input from his many contacts. When this information was put together it gave him a command of UfEta matters, and a prescience, that made him the most powerful Regent on Earth. Only Asura Ming, head of the most populous and influential Asian trading block, could be considered his equal.
ssss“Conduct them into the Ambassadorial Office,” he said, knowing the desk monitor would pick up his words. “Inform me when they’ve been seated.”
ssssIt was always a shock to meet the Borok’h’Dree in person. Their large, shambling bodies seemed ill suited to locomotion on dry land. If the limited information they supplied about themselves was to be believed, the H’Dree culture had remained virtually unchanged for 200 thousand years. Their recorded history started about the time the mysterious H’Roth disappeared – whether died out or destroyed their records did not say. The H'Dree had inherited the ramecium stardrive from the H’Roth, along with most of their present technology and their language. Still, it would be foolish to underestimate them, thought Manoba as he rose from his chair. The monitor chimed - the H’Dree had entered the building right on time. Vice-Regent Harrow would welcome them shortly, and Manoba would be called to attend a minute or two after that. He was still thinking about the H'Roth when Sallyanne bustled in.
ssss“Remember to look at the H’Dree when you’re talking to them,” she said. “It’s a sign of respect, and I can read skin colour changes and heart rates more easily from your sensors when you do. Remember, I need to see the H’Dree reactions to what you say.”
ssssMost high officials had inbuilt sensor arrays and vidlinks, it was part of the job. The two sinuses in Manoba’s cheekbones had been replaced with sensors and camera feeds, and the bone behind his ears had been hollowed out and strengthened to hold minute hearing connections and tracking equipment. Sallyanne would be giving him live feedback as the meeting unfolded, and what he heard and saw, she would also see and hear.
ssssHe tapped the command panel on the monitor and a channel on the overhead cameras picked up the H’Dree delegation being ushered into the spacious ambassadorial office. There were eight of them. They towered over the Humans by a good head.
ssssSallyanne’s eyes flicked up to the screen as she ran checks on the portable equipment that connected her electronically to the Regent. “H’Dree are very sociable and like to have others around them; a party of eight is about a minimum. Eight is also a significant number for them, but we don’t yet understand why. There are no distinguishable differences between the sexes.
ssss“There will be a speaker, but the real power will lie with someone else in the group. Always address the speaker. If the speaker turns to another in the group, you may then look at that member, but must still talk to the speaker. Another member of the group speaking would be most unusual, but you must still talk at or through the speaker.”
ssssThere was nothing new in what Sallyanne was saying, but a review of the plan for the encounter was a pre-meeting ritual that Manoba found indispensable. Human and H’Dree had maintained cautious relations for over 100 years, and the Regent did not want things to sour under his jurisdiction. At least interpretation of languages was now almost instantaneous. All parties would be wearing linguist earpieces.
ssss“The Borok’h’Dree have used H’Roth technology a number of times to change their genetic structure,” continued Sallyanne. “The latest estimates put the change to air breathers around 8 thousand years ago.”
ssssManoba turned from the screen in surprise. “I didn’t know it was that recent.”
ssss“Yeeup,” she drawled with a hint of a smile. “From water-breathing reef fish to land-walking air breathers. That’s some change.” She had the confidence to treat people in power as equals, something the Regent found refreshing. Other people’s awkwardness inevitably slowed down the work to be done. It also gave her a poise that made her quite attractive, he thought idly, then decided after a moment that he felt no need to take his interest further.
ssssManoba looked at the H’Dree as they sat awkwardly in seats that had been modified for their very different shape. “It doesn’t look like the transformation was all that successful,” he commented.
ssss“It wasn’t,” said Sallyanne. “But then we Humans still suffer from spinal problems due to walking upright and stroke problems due to expansion of the brain. Don’t forget, an H’Dree can pump adrenaline at 50 times the rate we can, something they share with fish on Earth. When they get excited they can move fast. They’ve also changed to being warm-blooded, but it’s not red blood.”
ssssManoba looked at her quizzically.
ssss“We don’t know what colour for sure, but it’s not haemoglobin as we know it. No one’s had the nerve to ask them for blood and tissue samples yet; I think they would frown on it culturally.” She tapped in a last command and closed the portable. “You’re ready. Good luck.”
ssssThe Regent smiled. Luck was what you made of the situation.
ssssIn the Ambassadorial office a recording team bustled around equipment in one corner, and a catering team had thrown open the hatches along one side and prepared a number of covered trays on the servery. None of this was really necessary, but apparently the H’Dree felt more comfortable in a busy room.
ssssThe introductions were slow, and formal. The speaker for the Borok’h’Dree was named HabDurn. Manoba was not surprised that an official, one of the Par’Durn, was chosen for this role. Of the other seven H’Dree, however, all would surely be Par’Brahmad, ritual leaders, and Par’Sanni, or Seconds, where the operational power lay. It was unlikely one of the Para’Par’Brahmad was present, a leader of leaders, the equivalent of a Regent on Earth.
ssssSurprisingly, the H’Dree delegation got directly to the Alamos question.
ssss“The Human planetary system already trades with the KSarth, and has visiting rights to Borok’h’Dree and H’Roth worlds,” began HobDurn, the H’Dree speaker. “Why do they wish to trade with a quarantine world?”
ssss“The speaker is anxious, but doing a good job of controlling skin colour and hand movements,” came Sallyanne’s voice inside Manoba’s head, directly from the implants to his inner ear. “Most of the others are more agitated, and certainly uncomfortable with the topic.”
ssssThe Regent considered his response. There would be nothing to be gained by pointing out that visiting H’Dree-controlled planets was difficult at best, or that the KSarth and Borok’h’Dree were so unlike the human race that to some extent Earth still felt alone in the Spiral Arm. The H’Dree were talking of motivation in terms of trade, but Human interest was in something more than that. The planet Alamos had a highly sophisticated population, skilled in creative arts and novel in scientific approach. It was a wonder that they had not overcome the effects of the H’Roth meddling in their sun already, and developed stardrive. Most of all, and certainly this was anthropomorphic thinking acknowledged Manoba, the Alamos people looked decidedly more Human. Although slight of build and short by Earth standards, they moved like the forest dwellers their ancestors had been – in a very Human way. The human race wanted to meet a civilisation they could shares ideas and philosophies with; they wanted friends.
ssssIt was time to play his ace card. He had not expected to do this so early in negotiations, but each meeting had its own pace, and its own atmosphere, and he had learned to trust his finely honed political instincts.
ssssHe had been introduced as the speaker for the council of Regents. That diminished his position in the eyes of the H’Dree, who could not imagine a speaker being also a leader, but it gave Manoba more control of the meeting. He stood to speak.
ssss“As we all know, the H’Roth, for reasons unknown to us, seeded the suns of planets likely to produce sentient life forms with vast, stabilised plasma strings. Absorbing energy in the quantum levels produced by the super-heavy elements, these strings prevent the production of the super-heavy element ramecium in the heart of such suns. Without the signature spectroscope lines so unique, and so unexpected, of this element, the existence of a stable super-heavy element with an atomic number 228 is not deducible. Its existence does not follow from patterns in the table of elements, or from any known theory of nucleic behaviour. Unless a civilisation stumbles onto this element and its attendant space-folding properties in the course of high-energy particle physics, a very unlikely event, stardrive cannot be achieved.”
ssssEarth had managed to theorise the existence of ramecium, when the logic of science had not been enough, more than 200 years ago. It would be best to let the Borok’h’Dree remain mystified about that achievement, and a little in awe of it, thought Manoba, for the time being.
ssss“Before their disappearance, the H’Roth commanded the Borok’h’Dree to avoid contact with the systems they had so effectively quarantined, and the Borok’h’Dree have studiously done this. Indeed, Human thought follows similar lines. A civilisation at a markedly lower technological level must be left to develop its own solutions to its own problems. The flowering of awareness and intelligence must bear many fruit across the universe, not many copies of just one fruit.
ssss“However, the Mersa people of the planet Alamos are not technologically below the level of Earth, even though the Mersa have not yet developed a stardrive. A meeting of our two peoples would be more of a meeting of equals.” He paused to let his first major point take effect.
ssssSallyanne’s voice whispered in his ear. “Mixed signals, agreement with your argument but many still agitated, suspect main concerns have not yet been addressed.”
ssssThis was what Manoba had expected. It was time to introduce a few concessions, and time to open a door for the H’Dree to walk through; a door that led to a bright, shining path they would want to be part of.
ssss“The people of Earth would welcome the H’Dree as partners in the inclusion of Alamos in the planetary Milieu. In principle the Mersa people would not be given the stardrive unless both of our peoples wished it so.” Giving the H’Dree a controlling say, at least about the stardrive technology, should dispel some of their misgivings, thought Manoba.
ssssNow for the closing gambit, and this was going to be uncomfortably close to a gamble; high risk, high reward, and a fair few unknowns.
ssss“The Borok’h’Dree have benefited from the wisdom of the H’Roth, and worked faithfully to maintain order and implement justice to the highest level in the planetary milieu.”
ssssEasy, he thought, don’t overstate the case. “But as new situations arise, situations the H’Roth could not have anticipated, surely they would have wished their partners the Borok’h’Dree to use their own judgement? Would it not have been the wish of the H’Roth that if they were no longer able to guide us, as we now find the case to be, that their protégés should be the ones to lead the way into the future – to make new decisions for new situations?”
ssssIt was a nice, thick layer of emotional appeal that covered everything in doublespeak, in comforting fudge, until nothing was clear anymore.
ssssIt was unlikely the H’Dree had ever been partners with the H’Roth, and more likely they were a minor player of some sort, since the technology they wielded was so far beyond their own inventive capabilities.
ssssStill, they were the most powerful force among the known planets, and thankfully had never been hostile.
ssss“Confusion mixed with agreement,” said Sallyanne in his ear. “All the signs of a new idea being assimilated.” Manoba waited for the H’Dree speaker to respond.
ssss“Now becoming general agreement, mixed with caution,” said Sallyanne. “Still some underlying concern. Not to do with us, though, I think.” The speaker conferred with one of the H’Dree to his right, then with another at the back of the delegation.
ssssManoba recalled the intriguing question of the missing mining output he had filed in his VHLock container just before this meeting. Perhaps something similar, though perhaps more important, was on the minds of the H’Dree leaders.
ssss“This is a matter of grave concern to the Borok’h’Dree people,” intoned HobDurn, giving quite a Human display of thoughtful leadership. “We will consider your words carefully, and return in the fullness of time with our decision.”
ssss“You’ve got them,” said Sallyanne in his ear. “The decision has been made. Now they have to clear it with the Para’Par’Brahmads, but I would bet they’ll be back with an affirmative.”
ssssGood, thought the Regent – first step on the road to dialogue with Alamos achieved. Humankind needed competition, needed the stimulation of new ideas. If history had taught anything, it was the unfortunate tendency of Human culture, when given the chance to rest on its laurels, to sink into self-absorption and a diminishing connection with reality.
ssssHe voiced his appreciation to the H’Dree delegation and sat down. While the meeting continued with other affairs of state, handled now by Vice-Regent Harrow, his mind wandered.
ssssIf the H’Dree had not agreed to consider his proposal – technically it was a proposal from the Council of Regents, but it was his idea and he had pushed it through to this stage – then he would have tried to point out to them the political advantages of allowing Human contact with the Mersa people.
ssssThe H’Dree would be the ones seen as innovative and forward-looking, while Earth would do all the actual work. The H’Dree would not be breaking the quarantine restrictions laid down by the H’Roth, and the H’Roth had never restricted Human access to quarantine planets. This was something of a non sequitur since Human civilisation had not existed when the H’Roth had made their restrictions; but that was what made politics so exciting, and he was sure he could carry that argument with the H’Dree.
ssssThe H’Dree speaker paused to get the full attention of his Human hosts.
ssss“In conclusion,” intoned HobDurn, “and acknowledging the long association of our peoples, the H’Dree would like to make available to our Human allies a record of the first meeting of our peoples.”
ssssManoba sat up. Surely that was a meeting well archived by both sides. An extraordinary meeting in the year zero, 110 years ago, among the H’Roth ruins on RuaRoth, the moon of the planet Fellspar. The H’Dree maintained a science station and outpost for stardrive flight there.
ssss“The records I mention are from the survey ship Artee’h’Rok 3, in the year 9280 PM of your time,” stated HobDurn sonorously.
ssssThis time Manoba sat bolt upright. The H’Dree had never admitted to knowledge of Human activity before the RuaRoth meeting. What did this sudden revelation mean? Had they been ‘monitoring’ Human civilisation for longer than that? He wondered. It must have been a lot longer if they were now saying first contact was in 9280 PM.
ssssIt would certainly be a political coup for the H’Dree to show they were aware of us long before we were aware of them, mused Manoba.
ssssHe paused. Hadn’t Sallyanne said the H’Dree changed to air breathers around 8000 years ago? If these records were from a period before that time, what would the H’Dree look like before they changed their form?
ssss“If it is acceptable to all,” continued HobDurn, “we will make these records available in the next day or two. It would then be possible for us to answer your questions before we leave.”
ssssAs the meeting wound down, The Regent’s mind buzzed with activity. What would this mean for Human-H’Dree relations? How would it affect his plans to make contact with the Mersa, and how could he turn this unexpected event, at a meeting under his control, to political gain? The next few days were going to be very interesting indeed.
ssssThe day after the meeting, Manoba was back at his desk. He pulled up personnel files for the mining engineers in the UOMC report from Neptune’s moon. Two of them had the engineering backgrounds he expected, but then it got interesting. One of them had been brilliant in the stardrive academy, but hadn’t been officer material. The other one, Florenchantaine, had really made the news ten years back. Part of a research team at an H’Roth site, he had been accused of pirating H’Roth technology by the H’Dree.
ssssFor anyone getting H’Roth technology to the trading blocks on Earth, the rewards were huge, but it looked to the Regent’s experienced eye as if this case had been more of a set-up. Of course the H’Dree had to be appeased, and a scapegoat had to be found. Florenchantaine had been kicked out of research and was now a mining boss on the fringes of the solar system.
ssssWhat are you trying to hide, my friends? mused Manoba.
ssssThen it was time to view the H’Dree record of the initial contact between the two races.
ssss“The H’Dree basically asked us for a power lead and a bare room,” explained Manoba’s senior technician. “After that they wouldn’t let us near the place.” Fairly typical for the H’Dree, thought Manoba, keeping their secrets close to their chests as usual.
ssssHe looked around the room, now set up with some kind of projector in the centre of the ceiling and an odd blue matt coating on all the surfaces. There were chairs coated in the same material ringed around the walls. He shrugged and went back to the door to greet the viewing audience.
ssssThis time, there had been no stopping the other Regents, and as formality dictated, they were to be seated first. He took the time to personally escort Asura Ming to a position next to his seat. It did no harm to keep the communication lines open and to be friendly to the only real competition he had for power on Earth. It didn’t hurt that the woman was also strikingly attractive and very quick-witted – a combination that made it difficult for him to keep his mind on the political necessities of the moment at times.
ssssShortly thereafter, they were all seated. The speaker for the H’Dree delegation introduced the event.
ssss“One of our survey ships visited your Solar System in your year 9280 PM. Earth was a quarantine planet, and our directive from the H’Roth has always been that there should be no contact with a quarantine system.
ssss“The following records of this event were taken from a position on the edge of your system. At that time the H’Dree were an ocean people. We did not see in the same electromagnetic spectrum you do, and in fact sight was secondary to touch and hearing. We have augmented the records you are about to see by increasing the light levels.”
ssssGoddamn’t, thought Manoba, they found their way around the universe by Braille!
ssss“Commentary is provided where the significance of a particular situation may be lost because of cultural differences. The personal logs of the officers on the ship have been consulted and all attempts have been made to see that the record is historically accurate, and to give a living sense of events unfolding as they happened.” HobDurn made several of the slow left-right body movements that were the equivalent of a formal bow on Earth.
ssss“Please enjoy this, our gift to you.”
ssssWhen the speaker was seated, the room darkened. Manoba felt an irrational urge to take the hand of Asura Ming, who was sitting next to him – an old habit from his younger years when attending an entertainment centre with a girl he fancied.
ssssThe room brightened to show a fairly typical H’Dree bridge, with the usual complement of fifteen officers for a survey ship. The viewers found they were observing events as if they were looking out of the walls of the bridge.
ssssThe Regent wondered why the bridge seemed murky, even though the light was moderately strong. Then some sort of small seaweed drifted past, and he realised that the ‘air’ he was seeing was seawater. A deep space shot, fairly obviously added later, showed the survey ship clawing its way through vast interstellar distances on its way between worlds. A voiceover began to add details.
ssss“Since the Borok’h’Dree do not need to sleep, the officers on the bridge could have been on duty since the ship left the mining colony on H’Rok over a week ago, but this was not the case. H’Dree bodies need exercise, and H’Dree brains need downtime to process information and strengthen social bonds. Three shifts of fifteen officers rotate on and off the bridge each day, and the same number again are needed for other tasks on a survey ship of the this size.”
ssssManoba relaxed, and settled in to enjoy the show. Between the commentary and the projection of the bridge in front of him, it soon seemed as if he was actually there.
ssssOrLock ran his fingertips over the instruments before him once again. All was well. He checked the decay rate of the ramecium rods in the massive containment chamber at the heart of the ship. The resultant folding of space pinched and seamed them across the galaxy at many times the speed of light. He felt a flurry of minute fluctuations in the meters under his resting hands. These had been coming and going since he’d come on watch, but to an experienced officer they were just minor variations in the curvature of space as the ship crossed it.
ssssThe bridge and living quarters rode a force field ahead of the main part of the ship. The super-heavy nucleic decay that the ship tamed and channelled through its engines to bend space provided far more energy than it needed while travelling, and most of it radiated into the freezing depths of space from the red-hot cooling towers that sat in behind the containment chamber. To the officers on the bridge, they were riding a shock wave that sucked the space ahead of them back to the moment when several bits of the universe tried to occupy the same space (now swiftly receding behind them). To the engineers around the containment chamber, monitoring the effects of the implosion of time upon itself, space piled up behind them like a folded rug. To an ‘independent observer’ stationed some distance away, the survey ship appeared to grow impossibly thin while stretching itself half way across a star system; only to grab hold of a bit of space with its nose and pull itself forward, and be gone.
ssssThe “Artee’h’Rok 3”, an older class survey ship constructed at H’Rok, the H’Dree industrial planet, traversed the wonders of space at extraordinary speeds. In the shadowy depths of the control room, Paipai detached from the far wall and coasted overhead. OrLock recognised him from the faint hiss of tail fins in water under great pressure. Reaching up he ran his fingers along the side of his pet, tickling whorls of slightly raised sensor lines. Paipai arched his back and rolled over in delight, sinking to the floor as streams of bubbles whistled intermittently from his mouth. At this evidence of devotion, OrLock’s thick lips parted in what was, for him, a grin.
ssss“Long-range sensors picking up an anomaly, Captain,” BarLock snapped efficiently from the forward sensor station.
ssss“ramecium-neutral zone,” chimed the automatic pilot.
ssssThe captain released the automatic pilot and switched to voice command. “Voice over-ride. Bring us to a stationary position nearby.”
ssssThe noise level grew as others on the bridge joined in, trying to find something more concrete to add to the unknown. “Nineteen Parsa and closing.” “Star system with planets; some in temperate zones. Gas giants.” “Yellow sun.”
ssssBut they all fell silent as the spectrograph analysis of its sun came up on all stations simultaneously.
ssss“Quarantine System,” breathed the second-in-command.
ssss“Confirm safe position,” barked the captain.
ssss“Damping space-web discontinuity,” chimed the autopilot. They waited. “Position confirmed to quarantine standards in three . . two . . one . . now.”
ssssOrLock shook himself and ordered up diagnostics from his engines. “No change in drive functions due to plasma strings in the system’s sun, Captain,” he reported. The H’Dree Commander nodded in satisfaction.
ssss“Confirm, Second; circumnavigate system and chart for H’Dree records?”
ssssHis Par’Sanni Second hesitated. “This is a largely inexperienced crew, Captain. Suggest elaborate?”
ssss“Agreed, elaborate.”
ssssThe Captain floated out of his station at the centre of the bridge and drifted to the Ops room. Second would bear the brunt of this teaching session.
ssss“OrLock, stay on line. OFar, EnDor, route all other systems through your stations; BarLock, begin planetary analyses; everyone else, connect to the open bridge system.”
ssssThere was a brief silence. The crew settled more deeply into their odd, asymmetric work stations. Contact points at sensor lines along each side of their bodies oiled up for a better connection.
ssss“All of you have a basic understanding of the H’Roth,” began the ship’s Second. “We have found the remnants of their civilisation in a number of places across the Spiral Arm, and our records tell us they disappeared over two hundred thousand years ago. Our records tell us we inherited much of their technology. There are also clear connections between our language and theirs, but they were air breathers and lived only on planets with a light gravity. Now, learn!”
ssssSecond’s cupped, webbed ‘hands’ flew over the phosphorescent polished rock control panel that held him in place like a giant half lifebelt. He unlocked bursts of language, sensory pictures of a sort, and detailed causal structures that uncoiled in many dimensions.
ssssImpressions flooded over his students. The H’Roth worlds, small and close to their suns, were few in number because the atmospheres of such planets more often than not boiled away before life could become established. Then there was the later development of enclosed stations on the moons of larger planets, and the black hulks of impossibly large space stations between worlds. There were impressions of low, thick-walled buildings on the home planets. The H’Roth had left behind little information about their build, and were presumed to be larger than the H’Dree, bulky in shape with thick or impervious skin to withstand hot days and freezing nights, and high levels of solar radiation so close to the sun.
ssssSecond kept the most incomprehensible thing about the H’Roth till last. Protection or damnation, no one knew, but on the planets most likely to support life, on those that hundreds of thousands of years ago had already evolved a complex biosphere, the H’Roth had seeded their suns with plasma strings. Hidden behind the dense curtain of hydrogen fusion at the surface, vast, inert chains of them churned in the constant motion of the hearts of suns, interrupting the production of heavy and super-heavy elements at the stars’ core. The telltale signatures of ramecium and the reaction chain of elements leading to it were scrubbed from the signatures of these stars. When life on the surrounding planets finally did scan the sun that had given it birth, it would not find the answers to spaceflight there – and the ramecium stardrive technology was an indispensable link in the evolution of any civilisation.
ssssThe H’Dree had surveyed and marked as quarantined a number of such planetary systems, and where self-awareness had dawned in such a system, civilisation had not been able to expand beyond its home star system.
ssssNeither could the H’Dree help. The H’Roth records made it clear this was an absolute ruling – quarantined meant quarantined, and no H’Dree ship could approach such a system.
ssssIt had been many centuries since a quarantine system had last been surveyed. OrLock felt a great sadness for this place. Without the stardrive technology that depended on the properties of ramecium, civilisations that survived beyond the industrial stage would always be limited. The developing culture might reach a stable post-industrial state, but it would at some stage, inevitably, begin to decline. Without an introduction to a broader experience of the universe, and eventually to alien cultures, they could not continue to grow and change.
ssssIt was as if the H’Roth had said to the peoples of these planets, for reasons of their own that now seemed impossible to understand, “this far, and no further.”
ssssThe inflow of data terminated, and Second returned his students to their duties. Many now shared with Orlock the sadness of finding creatures whose potential would remain forever unfulfilled.
ssssSkirting the quarantine system, the survey ship carefully recorded every sign of life. There was some excitement at the discovery of heat signatures under the ice of one of the outer planet’s moons, but the excitement faded when it was found to be rafts of single-cell organisms floating in deeply buried seas and living off volcanic heat vents. However, interest on the bridge mounted as the ship began to scan the inner planets, the most likely place for life. If the H’Roth had quarantined this system, then once, very long ago, it had shown the promise of producing thinking creatures.
ssssBarLock’s station stopped the long, slow pulsing of broad scanning, and shifted to the chirrups and staccato bursts of more detailed information. More octaves of the acoustic spectrum came on line, like colours in the process of seeing, until the sound on the bridge was an incredibly dense wall of noise.
ssssThe sound patterns painted ‘pictures’ for the H’Dree of those times. They were now ‘seeing’ air-breathing creatures, walking upright and congregated in thousands around the low, flat structures they had built on a river plain. OrLock sat at his station, completely absorbed. He noted sociological points: there was limited metal use, evidence of a centralised government, and crops with canals to water them.
ssssThis was wonderful! These creatures understood that heat and water could change the qualities of natural materials. They had clothing, specialised tools, and could adapt naturally occurring materials; but there was nothing to indicate an understanding that all materials were made up of a number of basic elements. Early technology then – some control of environment, but limited understanding of matter and energy.
ssssOrLock noted the planetary poles tilted to the plane of the sun’s system. This would mean temperatures would cycle over time. One ‘year’ on this planet would be . . . slightly less than one ‘year’ on Ba’h’Rok, the H’Dree home world. And Orlock saw in a flash that such a density of people would mean record keeping – if enough food was to be grown in the productive part of the year to sustain them for the non-productive part. But that would mean writing, and a recorded history.
ssssOr was that going too far? Already he had violated one of the rules of studying the development of culture over time, and thought of these subjects as almost H’Dree. How unlike the H’Dree they probably were, but it was so easy to believe they would think and feel exactly like himself!
ssssIf they already had domesticated animals, if they had tools, if they were able to fashion metal, if they were organised . . . something tugged at the edges of his mind. He began to feel a mounting excitement.
ssssOrLock tried to remember what his teachers at the Lyceum Brotherhood had said about this. If more than three of the twelve supporting pillars of sentient life were present, then the developmental pillars must be occurring every millennia. If more than four of the pillars were present, then progress was twice as fast. But there was heated debate on what it might mean if five or more pillars were present at the same time.
ssssPossibly, the time scale shortened in an exponential fashion, but this was untested. Of those examples of life the H’Dree had encountered, and for the H’Dree themselves, no civilisation had been found with more than three of the developmental pillars at one time, at such an early stage.
ssssIf only there were more H’Dree interested in such things, thought OrLock, our civilisation might expand more quickly – but changes in H’Dree society always occurred so slowly.
ssssOrLock concentrated on the forest of sound around him. Yes, he could certainly detect five . . no, six of the developmental pillars present in some form, and possibly more if a closer inspection could be made.
ssssIf the developmental rates were exponential, and there could be as many as eight pillars already present in this society, that would mean the development of a new pillar on average every . . seven thousand years.
ssssThat was impossible! He checked the numbers again. Such a figure would mean that a nomadic tribe must have walked up this river and settled here only thirty thousand years ago. He sat back in shock – such a rapid development was something no H’Dree could comprehend.
ssssYet he had a duty. If he were to play his part on the survey ship, he must speak out. He tapped a private line to Second, but paused for a moment.
ssss“Speak!” snapped Second, busy monitoring the flow of information from his central station. OrLock gulped nervously. A private line was unusual among the normally schooling H’Dree, but it was accepted there could be occasions for its use.
ssss“I believe there is something unusual about these creatures, Second,” he ventured. Par’Lock were engineers, the lowest in the chain of command on the bridge. Who was he to speak of something other than his assigned role, his engineering duty. That he found an interest in anything else would be almost offensive to most H’Dree.
ssssSecond did not comment.
ssss“Does it not seem unusual that they have so many accomplishments in place at this one time, as if they have barely finished with one before they have developed numerous successors?”
ssssSecond paused. “I had noticed this. Are you saying it has some significance?”
ssssThank the great Otherworld of the Depths, thought OrLock. Second did not think it outrageously unusual that an engineer should comment on such things.
ssss“It may signify an enormously accelerated evolution of their culture, and their capabilities, Second.”
ssss“You have an interest in such things?”
ssssSecond was quick, no doubt of that. That was why he was Second. In H’Dree society Par’Brahmad led, Seconds did the thinking. What should OrLock disclose? What might harm his career?
ssss“I sometimes attend the Lyceum Brotherhood,” he said quietly, glad indeed that he was on a private channel.
ssssSecond was silent. Studies outside one’s work caste were, indeed, most unusual among the H’Dree. Yet the work of the Lyceum was thorough, and grudgingly admitted by many H’Dree to be of some use.
ssssOrLock did not dare to guess what Second might be thinking.
ssss“If I take this to the commander, you can provide more information?” continued Second. “H’Dree of good standing on Ba’H’Rok would support you?”
ssssOrLock swallowed. “Yes,” he said, hoping the Lyceum brothers would agree to such public scrutiny.
ssssSecond closed the private line and tapped something into his systems. The commander coasted through from the Ops room.
ssss“This race appears to be showing unusual vigour, Commander,” began Second. “Perhaps the report of a new quarantine system should include a watch status.”
ssss“Ah,” said the captain. He sat in the captain’s chair. “Are these, ah, air breathers, likely to make advances in the near future that the H’Dree may regret?”
ssss“Unknown, Captain, yet that is the disturbing thing about them, it is difficult to see in what direction their civilisation may be heading.”
ssss“Yes, yes,” cut in the captain, “do they possess any significant weaponry?”
ssssOrLock’s heart sank, the commander had no concept of time, no concept of development, and little understanding outside of immediate threat.
ssss“There does not appear to be anything more advanced than metal tools for some crafts, and as possible implements of war,” said Second noncommittally.
ssss“So we can confidently assume it will take at least half a million years before they have developed nuclear power,” said the captain, and added disdainfully, “by which time I think another survey ship will have checked on them, don’t you?”
ssssSecond appeared to be thinking long and hard about this. “Yes,” he said at last, “let the record show that I agree that within this time frame another survey ship will have visited this planet.”
ssssWhat was Second doing, wondered OrLock. He seemed to be disagreeing by agreeing. Politics had never interested the H’Dree engineer; but at least Second had not mentioned him by name, and he was very, very grateful for that. He turned his attention to the chirping record of a bustling seaport on the edge of an island off the main land mass on the planet. Such homogenous development these people had. Every invention seemed to be in use everywhere at the same time. He listened in awe to the description of trading ships entering and leaving the busy port. On impulse he tapped in a request to BarLock on a subchannel. In a few moments a scattering of dots raised on the panel in front of him, and he read them with the sensitive ridges across the end of his hands.
ssssUnbelievable. He leaned back into his station, unconsciously looking for the safety of an overhang of rock when he was confronted with something he did not want to believe. These creatures had ships spread across the oceans. Tiny scraps of wood – keeping to the coastline in the main, but here and there venturing many days from land. And air breathers at that. Foolishness, or bravery?
ssssWhat might they become if he had correctly estimated the speed of their development, and if they were all as determined as these scattered crews cast upon the seas?
ssssWe should have tagged the survey report, he thought sadly; but what could he do? He was on a ship of the Borok’h’Dree, and he was a lowly engineer. It was hopeless.
ssssHis thoughts returned to the chirruping waves of sound that filled the bridge, now showing more wonders. Could these people have made the impossible leap from a nomadic lifestyle to a city-state, in thirty thousand years? He was a scientist, dedicated to his tools of understanding, and he stood by his results, but surely such a short span of time was impossible.
ssssManoba did a quick calculation. The H’Dree engineer was wrong. It had been less than a quarter of that.
ssssThe H’Dree figures froze in place on the bridge. At first the Regent thought it was a technical malfunction, but the show was over. The lights dimmed, and then came up again, showing the Human part of the audience blinking and looking around. The H’Dree remained motionless.
ssssNow that was candid, thought Manoba. The H’Dree usually try to hide things from us. Why did they show us this? If the H’Dree were up to something, he wanted to know what it was!
ssssTHREE
ssssThe vast shape of the abandoned H’Roth space station loomed overhead, looking vaguely sinister as the flat, black underbelly slid by. Sharmin turned the controls of the Europa over to the automatic pilot, and it guided them in on the navigation paths the H’Dree science team had put in place. Most of ToruRoth remained as the H’Roth had left it 200 thousand years before. The main power plant had been left shut down, but ionisation panels captured the thin stellar dust of the Magellan cloud and drove life-support and self-repair systems. One small corner of the space station had been adapted by the H’Dree as a science station and outpost for stardrive flight.
ssssDamson and Roberto joined Sharmin at the diamond polymer viewing window that spanned the front of the bridge. Force fields inside and out protected the massive viewing screen. Nonetheless it was an anomaly, an unnecessary risk when a relayed camera view would have done the job just as well; but some ancient instinct in a tree dweller adapted to the plains found the idea of uninterrupted light deeply satisfying.
ssss“You should both be in web harness,” chided Sharmin. “Gravitysum will shut off for a while before the H’Dree pull us into the cargo bay.”
ssss“What’s a little space walk?” grinned Roberto.
ssssSharmin knew them both well. Their team had been the top European Community research team for H’Roth artefacts for the last three years. Roberto in particular had never suffered from the space sickness sometimes associated with zero gravity. Neither had Sharmin, but Damson had a low tolerance for zero gee. It was a measure of the fascination the giant H’Roth space station held for them all that she was on the bridge now.
ssssThe autopilot handed control of the Europa over to the H’Dree systems, and a faint glow of ionisation spread around the ship. Simple electrostatic attraction would pull them gently into the cavernous hole at the edge of the space station. Andre and Jubilate, the other members of the team, would be back on the Europa’s techdeck, downloading data and protocol systems from the science station command centre on ToruRoth.
ssss“I can’t believe we’re here at last,” breathed Damson, craning her neck around in an attempt to take in the impossible size of the black hull that now stretched away from them in all directions, until it curved gently up and out of sight. It was a credit to them all that a European Community research team had landed this assignment. The H’Dree took forever to grant requests for access to H’Roth or H’Dree areas, and it was usual for one of the trading blocks to use their immense wealth to put their own teams first. For the trading blocks there was always the chance of uncovering some technological advance that could be worth a fortune – even with the H’Dree watching over their work.
ssss“Ever worked with the H’Dree before?” asked Sharmin. She knew Roberto had. They had been on the same team at the H’Dree science station at RuaRoth, cataloguing the abandoned H’Roth buildings; before Creedo Shard had retired to academia to write papers on the H’Roth and Sharmin had been put in charge of the team. It had been a privilege to stand in the room on RuaRoth where the first treaty between H’Roth and Human had been signed.
ssss“No,” said Damson.
ssss“They’re easy enough to get along with. Just stick to their rules and think carefully before you reply to anything they say. Sometimes it’s as simple as it sounds, sometimes it means something totally different to what you expect. Cultural differences. Can be very confusing at times.”
ssss“Translator check,” called Andre over the vidlink. They listened to the earpieces while a simulated H’Dree voice snuffled and hacked away and a Human voice welcomed them to the space station, and confirmed that their protocol systems had been successfully copied to a partitioned section of the H’Dree command systems.
ssss“I’ve just been asked to fit a reduction circuit to a CM5 switch and check the flow reading,” said Jubilate with the hint of a smile.
ssss“Oops, sorry,” said Andre to her. “I’ve been trying to come up to speed on the H’Dree technology, must have left that segment in the loop.” He ran the welcome speech again. “Better?”
ssss“Affirmative,” said Jubilate from the techdeck, and returned to powering down the stardrive systems.
ssssThe Europa drifted through the opening in the side of the space station, and immense doors slid shut behind them. For a moment everything was dark outside the polymer window, and then the lighting strips fired up.
ssss“It’s quite a shock to see a stardrive ship like the Europa look like a toy in a H’Roth cargo bay,” said Roberto.
ssssSharmin quickly scanned the proximity settings. They confirmed that the ship had touched down safely, and she shut off the deep space sensors. An H’Dree rover of some kind wheeled across the floor and closed around the forward hatch.
ssss“Looks like they’re not going to pressurise the whole cargo bay,” said Sharmin, “let’s go and meet our hosts. Best behaviour everyone, eyes open and be observant; I don’t want you to miss a thing!”
ssssThey needed have bothered staying alert. Life in the H’Dree corner of the space station soon became a matter of routine and boredom. Whatever the H’Dree knew about H’Roth technology they had clearly been instructed not to share it with the Human research team. Over the following weeks Sharmin began to feel more and more that they were tourists at a holiday resort, not actually expected to do anything strenuous. At the start of the seventh week, half way through their allotted time at the station, she was letting out her feelings to Jubilate while Andre ran checks on the Europa’s life support systems in the background.
ssss“We’re not allowed anywhere near the H’Roth power plant, which isn’t even functioning, and the H’Dree have taken over what must have been the H’Roth command centre for the station. We’re not allowed to work on anything that might be of interest to us!”
ssss“Will the Par’Brahmad let us work on some of the old H’Roth life support systems?” said Andre from behind them. “One of our priorities is to find out what the H’Roth looked like and how they got around. The life support systems might give us clues to that.”
ssss“Already tried that,” said Sharmin. “EusBrahmad has denied us pretty much everything we’ve asked for. The Second, SarSanni, looked like he wanted to help us at the start, but he’s saying no to everything now too. I guess he can’t help us much if his boss is against helping us.”
ssss“Stiff-necked pride,” said Jubilate. “Just because the H’Dree have been around forever, they think it’s impossible that a young, upstart race like ours could have anything to offer!”
ssss“Yeah, well, it’s not the first time we’ve come across this, is it,” said Andre.
ssss“No, it’s not,” replied Sharmin, getting up with a more purposeful look on her face. “But we’re not going back to Earth empty handed. Andre, get the sensor array out and in position. While we’re allowed into this corner of H’Dree space, at least we can get some detailed observations of the area. Put out the extreme range satellites too, I want to see what we can pick up from the Core. I’ll go and tell the H’Dree we’ll be working outside the station for a few days. We can try to get access to more of the H’Roth areas when we get back.”
ssssAndre let out a mock groan. It was going to take him many hours of precision work to put the array in place, but at least it would feel better to be doing something useful.
ssss“What’s the matter, old man, not up to it?” smiled Jubilate.
ssss“Listen, squeak,” snorted Andre. “What I can’t do with array equipment is not worth doing. When I get my hands on something it’s not long before it’s purring like a kitten!” He looked up slyly at her legs, crossed on a powerpak on the deck while she ran diagnostics from a monitor in her lap.
ssssShe smiled and tucked her legs under the chair, out of sight. Both of them had felt an attraction building for some time now. There was a bit of an age gap, but so what. If you got romantically involved with someone from outside the specialised area of H’Roth artefacts, they didn’t know what you were talking about. It had been something of a research team tradition to keep love affairs in-house.
ssssAndre had been shy at first, mindful of the age gap, but once she had shown him she was as interested as he was, he had taken to acting as a somewhat untrustworthy Robber Baron trying to seduce a ‘sweet young thing’. At first she had thought it was just funny, but lately she had begun to feel disturbingly thrilled at the way he was pretending to pursue her. Age gave him an advantage in games like these.
ssssIt took them almost ten days to get the sensor array up and the remote satellites into position. A lot of the problems they encountered were from setting up the satellites at the extreme end of their operating range. Starships could travel many times the speed of light across space, but communications were still limited to the speed of light. The satellites were essentially platforms for the collection of data, data they would pick up using the Europa later.
ssssSharmin wanted to observe the Core, the centre of the galaxy where hydrogen clouds were thickest and stars were born at a rate to put the more remote areas to shame. Both Earth and Ba’H’Rok, the H’Dree home planet, were well out from the Core, in the Spiral Arm. ToruRoth was at the extreme edge of the territory explored by the H’Dree, and closest to the Core.
ssssWhen the satellites were in place, Sharmin approached EusBrahmad again for access to some of the more interesting parts of the H’Roth station. Sensing the dynamics between the Par’Brahmad and his Second, she worked on SarSanni first, and got him to at least accompany her when she went to see EusBrahmad. It was quite a battle of wills. Pushing her point as far as she dared without triggering an interstellar incident, Sharmin reminded the Par’Brahmad of his obligations under the recent Closer Cooperation Treaty (CCT). SarSanni was caught in the middle, agreeing with Sharmin in principle but unable to disagree with his boss. The changes of skin colour and body movement by both H’Dree confirmed the mixture of embarrassment and anger they were experiencing. It would have been alarming for someone who had not worked with them before, but Sharmin had acquired a lot of experience negotiating with the H’Dree over her research career.
ssssFinally, she managed to win some minor concessions. It was better than nothing. SarSanni escorted her back to the designated Human part of the station. He seemed apologetic, and Sharmin was not surprised. Par’Sanni were always the most reasonable of the H’Dree, actively looking forward and feeling the value of new discoveries outweighed disturbance to the established systems. Par’Brahmad, on the other hand, were titular heads, ritual leaders, whose power came from the established order, and who wanted to keep things the way they were. It was good sense for the H’Dree to put Par’Brahmad in charge of most things, but to give the main operational power to the Par’Sanni, or Seconds as they were usually known.
ssssSarSanni was more open to new ideas than other Par’Sanni she had met. He also seemed more interested in Human activities. He could be a valuable friend in the future, if time permitted them the chance to get to know each other. She stopped and laughed to herself. H’Dree were always ‘he’ to the research team. It just seemed easier; none of them had any obviously female features. There was no way of telling which of them were male and which were female. Perhaps leaders were always one or the other, no one knew. The H’Dree were secretive enough with their technology and their civilisation, but gave away absolutely nothing about themselves or their culture.
ssssWhile the others shifted equipment into a long, low room in the space station – one of EusBrahmad’s concessions – that had been something to do with H’Roth medical matters, Andre and Jubilate took the opportunity to shut down gravitysum in the Europa and overhaul the stardrive systems. The conduits around the massive ramecium decay chamber in the research ship were smaller than most, and crammed into the aft of the ship. With the gravitysum off, they pulled themselves along more easily than by clambering over bolted sections and around awkward sensor extrusions while under gravity.
ssssAndre was in a particularly good mood. He kept up a stream of funny comments, and made the occasional ribald suggestion, as they worked along opposing sides of the containment chamber. When at last they met in a larger section in front of the main panel, in the most inaccessible part of the stardrive section, they were both flushed with the effort and pleased with a good morning’s work.
ssss“It would be nice to be back under gravitysum,” said Jubilate, “now that we’ve got a bit more space. Half my scan meters keep trying to float away.”
ssssAndre pulled himself to a position on the other side of the section, above her, and smiled. He tapped the remote in his pocket to reactivate the artificial gravity, and said, “you mean like this?” as he fell gently onto her.
ssssShe was amused by the deviousness, or was that the cleverness, of him, at the same time as she was indignant at the cheek of him. Her thinking processes came to an abrupt stop when the warmth, and exciting weight of him, flooded her senses. He wriggled his arms around her, and she gave a small gasp. Then he was kissing her, and her body melted under him like it had a mind of its own.
ssssIt was not the perfect time to be doing this, she thought, trying not to make too many metallic clanking noises that might travel through the ship.
ssssAll intimacy lies somewhere between a leisurely time of discovery and a few hurried moments grabbed when you can, but it was a more than moderately successful attempt to get to know each other a little better.
ssssAndre was the picture of worried concern when she asked him to sit up for a moment, while she removed one of the scan meters that was digging into her back. She laughed at him, and told him to stop treating her like something delicate that might break. She put her arms around him, and he followed her down as she lay back into the place they had already warmed with the heat of their bodies.
ssssIt was enough. The touch, the smell, the presence of him was enough for her to know that it was not a matter of if, but rather when, they would dive deeply into a binding relationship. She toyed with the idea of letting it start now – certainly it seemed there were no doubts in Andre’s mind, but she knew it would be better if they took time to get used to being in the same space, to being close. Such closeness needed to be something comfortable and relaxed when it did happen.
ssssBut for now, ah, for now she was holding this clever, clever man who was so funny and so kind, and she had him all to herself.
ssssSomewhat later, a rather sheepish pair emerged onto the techdeck from the conduit system. Mortified that something about their clothes or heightened colour might make them the butt of embarrassing jokes, they checked carefully to see that no one was about and hurried to their respective quarters to restore some order to their appearance.
ssssIt wasn’t long before Jubilate simply found it too difficult to find a reason to resist Andre’s advances. On one particular day they had finished work and were talking about the recreation time they would have later on. Jubilate found herself saying, “If you want to drop by later, I’ve got some rather complicated servo-assist equipment that hasn’t been used for a while – maybe we could run it in or something.”
ssssOnly the nervous giggle and the spreading blush across her cheeks alerted Andre to Jubilate’s attempt to sound clever and off-hand. His eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously, then began to bounce up and down, making hangdog puppy faces. She burst out laughing and pushed him away.
ssss“You are hopeless, you know that?” She said, turning and walking away.
ssss“Quite hopeless, and quite predictable. I suppose someone has to take you off the streets and save the rest of the world from you.”
ssss“What? What?” said Andre, trotting along after her and waving his hands in the air. “I didn’t do anything, I didn’t say anything, I didn’t . . .” But he stopped talking as she turned and kissed him.
ssss“One hour after evening rations, and don’t eat too much. You’ll spoil your, ah, dessert.”
ssssAndre watched in amazement as she walked off. It slowly dawned on him that he’d been neatly manoeuvred into a place in Jubilate’s life. He walked off in the other direction with a pleased little smile on his face.
ssssThey got away with it for three weeks. Sharmin began to wonder why things needed fixing in the back end of the ship so much. Andre and Jubilate were becoming harder to find, particularly on the morning shift, and could be counted on to be somewhere deep in the maintenance conduits. Then Sharmin was watching them work the diagnostics on the techdeck one day, when Jubilate absentmindedly flicked stray hair off Andre’s ear, in the casual manner of the proprietary female.
ssssRoberto walked past, and she beckoned him to the doorway. She motioned a shushing sound, confident they couldn’t be heard over the hums and beeps of the machines, and pointed to the two at the diagnostic panels. Roberto lifted his palms up, saying in effect ‘what do you want me to see?’ She leaned her head sideways on her hands and made a soft ‘ah’ sound. Roberto looked again. Andre and Jubilate were involved in an intense discussion about something on the readout screen. He closed his hand over hers and quickly tapped on the command panel in several places, using her fingers. They looked at the screen again. After a few moments Andre looked down at his hand, squeezed Jubilate’s fingers gently and went back to his work. Sharmin motioned Roberto further down the corridor.
ssss“How long has this been going on?” she said, with the hint of a smile.
ssss“Don’t know. Now that you mention it, their behaviour has been a bit odd lately.”
ssss“Well I wish they’d let me know. Relationships are another variable in my everyday planning for the team, and they don’t make decisions any easier on an assignment like this.”
ssss“You’re sure you didn’t know anything?” she said accusingly, looking up at Roberto.
ssss“No. Not a thing,” he protested.
ssss“Running this show isn’t always easy you know,” said Sharmin, looking down.
ssss“Hey, you’ve done a great job since Creedo stepped down,” said Roberto softly, “and I know the others think so too.”
ssss“Oh, well, thanks,” she said quietly, then looked up at him and continued more strongly, ”we’ve only got four weeks left on ToruRoth. We’ve got to make the best of it. How is the examination of the H’Roth medical bay coming on?”
ssss“Ah, I wanted to speak to you about that. Things don’t stack up. It’s definitely built by H’Roth for H’Roth, but the biometric figures don’t make any sense. For example, bone density seems to be a major part of the medical data, but the figures don’t fit with the H’Dree idea that the H’Roth were basically round in form. We’re talking bones with very small cross-sections here. I’m not sure we’ve got the scale right, but it would be like you or me having a thigh bone that was no thicker than a forearm bone, and twice as long.”
ssssSharmin’s eyes lit up.
ssss“This is more like it! Earth has been dying to know more about the H’Roth, and this could be a real breakthrough.”
ssssTheir voices trailed off as they made their way off the ship and back to Roberto’s equipment in the H’Roth facilities.
ssssThe progress in the H’Roth medical centre took all their attention over the following days. It was only on a routine pass of the satellites by a stardrive drone that Andre began to suspect anything was wrong.
ssss“Look at this,” he said to Roberto, who was examining the latest findings on the H’Roth skeletal structure at one of the work stations.
ssss“What am I supposed to see?” queried Roberto, having walked to the screen in front of Andre at the back of the techdeck.
ssss“That’s just it,” said Andre. “Remote sats two and five are missing. The drone just came in, and these are its sensor readings.” Three-dimensional representations of the star systems on the edge of the Core showed on the screen. Satellites showed as pulsing dots, but two black circles indicated no detectable telemetry from two and five.
ssss“Have you got the infra-red and low-frequency data up yet?” he called to Jubilate, who was partially hidden behind a panel she had opened to get access to the navigation console.
ssss“Should be available in a few seconds,” she called back, and indeed, an orange bar appeared at the right of the screen. Andre adapted the screen to show information in the more reliable lower frequencies.
ssss“Same story,” he said. “It’s as if they’ve vanished.”
ssss“Meteorite damage, malfunction, power loss, could be anything . . ,” said Roberto.
ssss“No, no, no,” said Andre. “All would have left a trace, a bit of debris, something for the drone to record.”
ssss“It’s odd alright,” said Roberto. “Why should it be the two closest to the Core?”
ssssThey stared at the screen, but no further information was forthcoming. Later in the day Roberto was talking to Sharmin.
ssss“Should we pick up the rest of the satellites?” he said.
ssss“No, leave them out there,” said Sharmin. “They’re picking up valuable information. There’s a bit of overlap in the sensor ranges. I think we can get most of the data we want from those that are left.”
ssssIt wasn’t long before they were most fervently grateful for that decision.
ssssNear the end of the following ‘sleep period’, when the ship’s lighting was muted and the ship’s sounds reduced to a minimum, the lighting in Andre’s cubicle came on and started to flash the universal emergency signal: one short red and two long yellow. He took half a second to realise what was going on, and then hit the floor running. The others arrived at the techdeck moments after him. Most had fumbled into some semblance of work outfits. Damson was attired in a flowing open robe that she was trying to contain with an extravagant belt. Jubilate raised an eyebrow.
ssss“It’s a present from my family,” said Damson defensively. Jubilate said nothing. Clothing varied from culture to culture, and sometimes too had extraordinary significance for the individual.
ssss“It’s a pigeon,” said Andre. Each of the satellites had been fitted with an emergency ‘carrier pigeon’, the smallest possible stardrive in a pod that was all crude mechanics and no extra weight. None of them would have known why it was called a pigeon. It was an archaic phrase, but the wording had stuck over the centuries.
ssssA pigeon was launched only if the proximity sensors and emergency program on the satellite thought there was a high likelihood of destruction of the satellite.
ssss“It’s from number three,” said Andre. “Running the data now.” He stopped and made a thin whistling sound through his teeth.
ssss“These are the readings just before the pigeon was released. There were some sort of massive energy fluctuations, and look at the plasma count. This looks like – I don’t know – the sort of discharge you’d get with a very small sun.”
ssssMost of the sensors on the satellite had shut down when they were overloaded. At the end of the data stream there was a strange ionisation pattern. Sharmin looked enquiringly at Andre.
ssss“I can’t figure that last bit out,” he said. “It doesn’t look to me like a natural disturbance.” Roberto fastened onto his words.
ssss“So it could be unnatural,” he said. “I mean, it could be an organised signal of some sort; a weapon perhaps.”
ssss“I suppose so,” replied Andre. “The pattern is very regular. But it’s a signal of immense power.”
ssssThat was when the second pigeon came in. Andre looked startled as the security system chimed and a second information display started up along the top of his screen. Jubilate began the diagnostics as the data stream came on line.
ssss“Which one is it this time,” said Sharmin, alarm growing in her voice.
ssss“Um, that one came from number eleven,” said Andre. “One of the inner ring of sats we put near anomalies, unusual radiation events further back from the core.”
ssss“Put them on the navigation grid,” snapped Sharmin. Andre jumped.
ssss“Hurry, man!” she yelled, and he closed off the data stream from the second pigeon as he called up the navigation systems.
ssss“It’s a straight goddamn’t line,” swore Sharmin. “If it’s not coming at us, it’s still going to pass very close by.”
ssss“What, what’s coming by?” stammered Jubilate.
ssss“How far. How far between them?” said Sharmin urgently.
ssss“What?” said Andre, not altogether comprehending.
ssss“Never mind!” she yelled, and turned to Roberto. “How long between the two pigeons?”
ssss“Ah, few minutes, why?” said Roberto.
ssss“Exactly how long?” snapped Sharmin.
ssss“Just over four minutes,” said Jubilate, who had recovered her composure and pulled up the ship’s log for the drone arrivals. Sharmin whirled to the navigation grid and examined it closely.
ssss“The distance between the two sats was maybe one fifth of the distance from the last sat to ToruRoth. Less the travel time of the last pigeon – that means we’ve got less than 20 minutes before whatever destroyed the sats gets here.”
ssssThey all looked stunned.
ssss“You can’t be sure something destroyed them,” began Andre.
ssss“But we can’t be sure it didn’t,” said Roberto urgently. He’d seen Sharmin in action in an emergency before. If you wanted to live, you backed her.
ssss“Be ready to leave in five. I’m going to talk to the H’Dree.” She paused. “Andre, we may have to hide – check Earthside of the ship, find us somewhere we can do that.” And she was gone.
ssssH’Dree did not need to sleep, but they did need to rest after prolonged periods of activity, when they engaged in lighter, more leisurely pursuits. The H’Dree command centre on ToruRoth had a full complement of officers around the clock. Sharmin tapped in her code and waited for the ‘permission to enter’ signal to appear. Then she stormed into the command centre, a lofty room more like a hall from her home town than a bridge, and headed for EusBrahmad, thankful that he was there. He towered over her, shoulders reducing to a solid neck that reduced again to a long, barely humanoid head.
ssss“We have to abandon ToruRoth,” she told him bluntly. The H’Dree in the vicinity stopped what they were doing. Heads turned in her direction, though it was likely only the Par’Brahmad leader and Second habitually wore linguist earpieces.
ssss“Something has destroyed two of our satellites and is heading this way. We can’t take the risk of staying in the station.”
ssss“You are sure?” said SarSanni from his position in front of the navigation panels. Sharmin nodded vigorously. SarSanni turned to EusBrahmad. “Perhaps we should consider this information the Human team has brought us.”
ssssHe turned back to Sharmin. “When will this ‘something’ of yours reach ToruRoth?” he enquired. “I’m not sure exactly what it is,” said Sharmin apologetically, “but it would be wise to leave the station now. It will be here in about fifteen minutes.” She hoped that the timescale would translate for the H’Dree.
ssssPut on the spot before his crew, EusBrahmad took the easiest course for him, and began a blustering act of H’Dree superiority.
ssss“The Borok’h’Dree do not run from an unnamed menace!” he declared.
ssssSharmin felt her heart sink. She had expected this, but so many lives would probably be lost if the H’Dree did nothing.
ssss“Shut down your systems,” she said to SarSanni. “Perhaps this ‘something’ will believe the station is abandoned.” She looked intently at him, willing him to take the threat seriously. She felt like shaking him, but had no idea how the H’Dree would interpret an action like that.
ssssShe turned away at last. “Good luck,” she said to SarSanni, not sure how that would translate, and hurried out of the command centre.
ssssThe bridge on the Europa was alive with organised chaos when she arrived. The team had been powering up systems and stowing equipment in anticipation of departure.
ssss“Take us out on the opposite side of the space station to the destroyed sats,” she said to Andre. “With any luck the station will camouflage our exit for a few minutes.”
ssss“We normally ask the H’Dree to open the cargo bay doors,” said Roberto, “though that’s more of a formality than anything.”
ssss“Can you override?” said Sharmin. Andre nodded.
ssssWith less than ten minutes remaining, the ship hurled itself away from the station, a hare trying to outrun a wolf.
ssss“Look for something to mask our energy signature,” said Sharmin, as she bent over the controls with Andre.
ssss“Already onto it,” said Jubilate, her fingers flying over the remote sensing equipment, trying to find something in the star charts of the rapidly unfolding space ahead. They were now outrunning any information from the station, information which was limited to the speed of light. They were blind to what was happening behind them, and they had to find a hiding place, soon.
ssssSeveral minutes later, Sharmin shook her head.
ssss“It’s no good. There’s nothing suitable in front of us and we could well be overhauled from behind at any moment. Turn off our present course and run obliquely.”
ssss“Got it!” called Jubilate. “Off our present course and close by. A star system with a gas giant.”
ssss“Do it!” said Sharmin, and Andre set to work on the navs station. They dipped below the speed of light briefly so he could set the new coordinates. Minutes later they curved around a huge orange planet and eased into its upper atmosphere from the other side.
ssss“We’re in orbit inside the atmosphere,” said Andre a little later, “and having to compensate for the drag of the gases. The containment chamber is running hot from our run at full speed, but the heat will dissipate soon enough in this soup.” Outside the ship acid storms lashed the Europa, and turbulence shook the craft despite the autopilot’s attempts to avoid the worst of it.
ssss“How much of this can we stand?” asked Roberto.
ssss“The hull? As much as the atmosphere can throw at us,” said Andre. “The sensor arrays might have problems though,” and he hurried over to help Jubilate shut down non-essentials and put a protective current through the hull.
ssssBack at ToruRoth the complement of officers in the H’Dree command centre went to high alert. The H’Dree were supremely confident. In 200 thousand years they had not met a situation they had not been able to handle, so why should anything be different now?
ssssSharmin’s fifteen minutes passed, and nothing was reported on the long-range sensors. The crew began to relax.
ssss“The Borok’h’Dree do not run at the sight of their own shadows,” proclaimed EusBrahmad, using one of the few expressions that were the same in both languages. He prepared to stand them down from high alert.
ssss“Infra-red at maximum range,” reported one of the Par’Dor, the technician class. “Reporting a point source dropping below the speed of light.” He put it on the central screen.
ssss“What is that?” said SarSanni, knowing it was not H’Roth or H’Dree, and unlikely to be Human. A vast flat shape like the blade of an ornate ceremonial dagger sliced through space toward them. It seemed to be a ship carved by a giant sculptor from a massive solar flare.
ssss“Recording continuous plasma discharge,” said a nearby Par’Lock engineer. “Disruptive ionisation. Sensor arrays failing, boosting back-up and multiple integrity.”
ssssThe flat, bright ship of flame slowed further, and began a bypass of the space station.
ssss“It’s bigger than ToruRoth,” said the Par’Lock engineer, “much bigger,” and then his instruments began to overload from the energy discharges of the giant ship.
ssssSarSanni muttered into the communications wheel on his forearm, and exited the command centre. He started to run. He was soon at a H’Dree transport ship in a cargo bay near the top of the space station. His two protégés, both Par’Sanni, arrived a moment later, carrying the supplies he had requested. He hurried them on board the transport ship.
ssss“We are not leaving?” said AldSanni, standing firmly in the centre of the transport’s bridge and refusing to go any further. He would not leave without the other H’Dree, SarSanni knew that, neither would SarSanni, and none of them would do so without direct orders from their Par’Brahmad.
ssssSarSanni outlined his plan. As a precautionary measure they would use the technician hatches and enter the massive containment chamber in the transport where ramecium decayed to provide stardrive. It was the area best shielded from radiation and most likely to survive damage. If the station was going to be devastated, at least some of them might live to tell the story.
ssssAldSanni wanted to include as many of the others as they could. SarSanni made the H’Dree formal sign for an impossible situation. AldSanni sagged, realising the rest of the H’Dree were too proud and too slow to understand, and there was not enough time.
ssssOutside the station, the strange new ship brightened. The black hull of ToruRoth glistened like shiny night. Then a loop of fire from nose to tail, like the flare of a sun, scythed out from the ship and sliced open the space station. Inside, SarSanni and the others felt the decks shudder, and heard the terrible squealing of metal giving way.
ssss“Hurry!” yelled SarSanni, and pushed the other two toward the rear of the ship. Galvanised, they broke into a run, a strange but effective lumbering sprint as enormous concentrations of adrenaline dumped into their systems. SarSanni tapped in his master code and the first technician hatch at the rear of the bridge opened. They clambered in.
ssssAnother plasma blast sliced off the bottom of the station. SarSanni made it through the ship to the containment chamber and released another hatch. He scrambled through, and the others followed. As soon as they were all through the opening he sealed the chamber. They settled against the supports at the bottom of the chamber, and began to extract glowlights from the supply containers. Above them the immense firebox of the ramecium decay unit stood silent, the rods withdrawn and damped in short-range nucleic fields.
ssssOutside the station more scything loops of fire breached the hull in a dozen places. Then a huge burst of fire split the station into fragments. Safe for the moment in a jagged chunk of the station that contained the cargo bay, the three Par’Sanni whirled away amidst the debris.
ssssFOUR
ssssA day or two later, and much further out into the Spiral Arm, a fleet of Fire Ships slowed as it came out of stardrive in the SiRoth system, and then spread out – like a handful of cinders scattered from a blaze. At first they moved in a haphazard manner, like the random movements of hounds scenting a fox. Then they converged on the ancient H’Roth world that circled closest to the system’s sun, and took up a stationary orbit above the equator.
ssssFar below, the automated H’Dree station on the edge of the largest of the abandoned H’Roth cities dutifully recorded the appearance of five bright new stars in the night sky. Scanning equipment at the station picked up little discernable data from the strange, plasma-wreathed shapes. Visual scanners recorded blurred and changing outlines from the ships overhead, and noted an intense radiant heat.
ssssOne of the Fire Ships disgorged a flotilla of needle-nosed craft, slashes of fire that dropped from its belly and fell away toward the planet beneath. Once away from the mother ship they lost their heat and turned into sleek black obelisks, lost against the darkness of space. The scattering of black chaff disappeared against the blackness of space for a while, but as they entered the atmosphere the hulls began to glow a cherry-red.
ssssThe H’Dree scanning equipment recorded a chatter of new impressions. Electrical fields grew around each of the glowing obelisks, reflecting an enormous transfer of energy as weapons powered up. Had the machines in the H’Dree station the capacity to wonder, they may well have commented on the way the obelisks charged their weapons from the release of potential energy as they fell into the gravity well surrounding the planet.
ssssThe long, black ships levelled off just short of ground level, and accelerated toward the largest H’Roth settlement. Travelling much faster than the shattering booms they generated in the thin air of SiRoth, they were upon the H’Dree station in an instant. They split the station open, their low-frequency weapons superheating target points inside the buildings, or in the ground under them, until the gases released exploded outward, destroying everything in their path.
ssssAt the last moment the station authorised a drone ship in orbit to go for help, but before the drones could initiate stardrive a scything flare from one of Fire Ships reduced it to a fog of molten droplets.
ssssThe needle-nosed obelisks continued around the planet, destroying everything that was H’Dree in origin, and targeting many of the squat H’Roth data-storage buildings as well. Then, climbing out of the atmosphere, they rendezvoused with the mother ship – leaving nothing, H’Dree or H’Roth, still functioning.
ssssA little further away from the Core, and following a roughly straight line that started at ToruRoth, the quarantine planet Aqua Regis was equally unaware of the approaching Fire Ships.
ssssHudnee Builder shouted encouragement as the line of herdbeasts strained against the thick rope. The massive stone block rose slowly into the air and inched ponderously along the overhead gantry until it slid into position. With much shouting and cursing the herdbeast drivers halted the animals and kept them straining against the weight as the team of labourers lowered the imposing block onto the one beneath. The biggest and burliest of men, the labourers were trained from a young age in the ways of levers and fixed points, and bone teeth fitted to heavy footwear strapped to their legs took a firm grip in the soft ground. With a hollow thud the block touched the column, and with a grinding noise it turned slowly and was fitted into place. It didn’t lie perfectly flat on the one below it, but a coating of ground smokerock and light neema oil would fill in the gaps and render the finished column, slowly hardening to a flawless white finish.
ssssWhite was the most sacred of colours. In all Aqua Regis white was the only colour that did not occur naturally. The greys and greens of the toxic lowland swamps ran into the dark tans of the seas. The bones of the great leviathans that came sporting and playing in the ocean current in spring of each year lay purple and gold on the beach, stained with exotic metals from the tiny seafood they consumed in vast quantities.
ssssWhen the H’Dree had catalogued the quarantine system they had noted the strange nature of the water planet with its string of islands around the equator and one small, flat continent. The crust of the planet was thicker than normal, and the core less active, so that plates had not formed and volcanic activity had not occurred. The reduced magnetic field of the core, combined with traces of ozone-damaging gases produced by the anaerobic activities of the lowland swamps, had left the planet more open than most to solar radiation.
ssssThe people of Aqua Regis had developed a thick, protective skin and an immune system that was particularly effective at hunting down and killing cancer cells. But their first line of defence lay in the magnificent colour of their skin. It was more than dark; it was a shining, iridescent black that seemed to catch and reflect all the colours around it. Perhaps it was partly because of this that the colour white, the contrasting colour to black, was such a holy colour to them.
ssssHudnee Builder signalled to the herdbeast drivers when the stone block was positioned to his satisfaction. Then he called the midday break, and the labourers took to the shade to refresh themselves with water and the bitter quinac that dulled aches and kept the mind alert. A mixed group of men and women had the midday meal almost ready in the cooking sheds, and a group of mainly women was busy chiselling decoration into shaped stones that lay nearby. The morning had gone well, and Hudnee climbed the lashed framework that supported the guiding gantry for the stones to better survey the progress. His practised eye noticed wear on the lashings and splits in the timbers, little things that could mean death for his labourers or the undoing of all the hard work that went into preparing a stone. He noted in a professional way that the framework would last for a while yet.
ssssAlong the top of it were two poles, lashed either side of regular crosspieces that ran down to footings in the ground. He sat across them and surveyed the morning’s work.
ssssNearly all of the pillars were finished. Soon he could start on the roof. He felt pleased at the way the work was going. This was going to be one of the largest Pilars of the Descendants of the Prophet. A great open-sided hall of worship that would soar above the people into a black vault that would be painted with the constellations and the morning star of the Prophet. Only a master tradesman could take the name Hudnee, the name of the people, and with work like this he had more than earned that right!
ssssA rich female voice called to him from the pile of unfinished rocks to the west of the building site. Dreesa! What was she doing here? It was always embarrassing when his mate came to the working site. The others laughed behind his back when she did, particularly since she was so much younger than him, and he worried that it made it difficult for him to wield his authority effectively. He hastened down the framework of poles, hoping she wouldn’t call out again.
ssssShe was waiting for him behind the pile of stones that had yet to be worked. These were quarried from a bed of hard slate-like sedimentary rock, great slabs that were quickly squared and stacked roughly so that Hudnee could see what was available as he needed it. Dreesa caught his eye as he came closer, and vanished into a narrow aisle between two rows of rock. Like all of the women of Hud she was lean and wiry from a hard-working life. It was the men who started life built large and powerful, and turned to fat later on if they stopped working and didn’t limit what they ate.
ssssHudnee hurried after her. She wanted to play games, and that was not a good sign.
ssssDreesa waited until he had walked past, and then stepped out from her hiding place and draped herself across his back. Her voice, naturally low and rich, was now husky and urgent.
ssss“I’ve missed you, handsome stranger,” she murmured, working one of her hands inside his builder’s apron.
ssssWe live in the same house, we got up together this morning; how can you miss me? growled Hudnee to himself, but he knew that was not what she meant. The women of the Hudnee were fiercely reproductive in the first few years past maidenhood, and could not be reasoned with at this time. On the other hand, their children were quickly independent, and by midlife the women were valuable workers in the community. He was a master builder and could have had any woman he chose, why had he chosen such a young mate? A little older and the fertility of Hudnee women quickly dropped to zero. Why had he not chosen a woman nearer his own age, a loyal mate who could think clearly and choose wisely about their life together? He imagined the companionable silence of evenings together without the constant demands of children.
ssss“You’re thinking about something else,” Dreesa said reproachfully, and began to pout.
ssssHudnee felt guilty. He looked at her disappointed face. She was beautiful. A hint of red added an exotic tinge to her ebony-dark face, particularly around her eyes and mouth. Hudnee had the tints of green on his dark, dark skin that identified him as a Hud mainlander, but Dreesa was from the islands to the east. She kissed his throat and pulled his hips in against her. He smiled. She had already given him a strong and clever boy, and two intelligent and affectionate girls. She was almost twenty-six now, and her fertility must be dropping. Perhaps if he lifted her up onto the shelf of rock behind them and pulled up the light shift under her cloak, it would not mean another child.
ssssIt was time they started to think about their future together. The last child was already four and it might be the last one. Dreesa needed to think about what work she would do when she was no longer bearing or nursing children.
ssssShe slapped him playfully and pulled his head down to an ebony breast she had eased out from behind her shift. His loins stirred, and he looked furtively about to see that they were alone. She cuffed him again, less gently this time.
ssss“Pay attention,” she ordered, untying his builder's apron and pushing it aside.
ssssHudnee lifted her onto the shelf of rock, still not fully convinced that this was a good idea. The men were already laughing behind his back at his choice of mate, now they would have something else to laugh about.
ssssHe knew he was going to feel embarrassed about this for the rest of the day; but a little voice was telling him to give her what she wanted, or he wouldn’t get any peace at home for the next few days.
ssssAs they clung together, Hudnee looked up at the deep blue-black of the sky and thought how fortunate he had been with his life. Then he paused. Dreesa murmured a little protest and pulled him toward her.
ssssSomething wasn’t right. It took a moment for Hudnee to realise what it was. In the sky above him, five new stars burned in the constellation of the Prophet. At least, that was where the constellation of the Prophet was during the midnight services he sometimes attended. Stars that burned in the daytime. How could that be?
ssssDreesa was now more than a little upset with him, and a spirited cuff on the side of his head forced him to change his line of thought. He hurried to finish with her – not too hurriedly of course – while his mind was already wondering where Filipii, the tribunal chairman, would be. He had worked with Filipii before, not just on this Pilar for the peoples’ worship. Filipii was an important man among the Descendants of the Prophet, he would know what to do.
ssssThe Fire Ships were closing in on Ba’H’Roth, the ancient, abandoned H’Roth home planet, when they detected long chains of H’Roth plasma strings in the sun of the Aqua Regis system. A change of direction set them on a new course and in a short time they entered the system, slowing as they approached the sun. For a moment they paused inside the orbit of Aqua Regis, looking as Hudnee had noted like new stars in the constellation of the Prophet, and then turned toward the small moon that orbited the second planet.
ssssLater that day a series of flashes ejected material from the surface of the moon, nudging it out of orbit. Some of the dislodged material fell out of the sky over the second planet, setting up vast dust storms, and eventually bringing about an artificial winter on the bleak, rocky surface. The Fire Ships edged the moon closer to the sun.
ssssProgress was slow to start with, and a day and a night went by on Aqua Regis as the moon picked up speed. As it accelerated across the orbit of the innermost planet, it showed from Aqua Regis as a dark spot on the surface of the sun. Now, considering perhaps that they had done enough, the bright ships veered away, and accelerated out of the planetary system.
ssssMore swiftly now, under the enormous gravitational attraction of the sun, the displaced moon fell headlong downward. Its course would take it on an angle into the sun; a long, descending curve through the upper layers of the sun’s gases until it burnt up. As it got closer, the surface of the moon baked until it reached temperatures when compounds broke down and gave up their gases. As it approached the surface of the sun it was followed by a flaming tail that caught and reflected the intense heat and light all around it. Then it plunged into the sun in a shallow dive.
ssssThe H’Roth plasma strings were few in number and close to the surface. Their purpose was to convert some of the abundant energy around them into frequencies that would join the background howl of ionisation inside the sun and work their way through to the core, where they would interfere with the production of the super-heavy element ramecium that made stardrive possible. The strings were a marvel of sophisticated technology in an extreme environment, and had worked perfectly for more than 200 thousand years; but they were never intended to survive a massive physical disruption. As the Fire Ships had planned, first one then another broke apart as the moon, reduced now to a vast ball of molten slag, preceded a massive shockwave through the upper levels of the sun. It destroyed nearly a quarter of the plasma strings in its first passage around the upper atmospheric levels, and then it dissipated into the depths.
ssssThe plasma strings were an integral system, each one reinforcing the others. With so many destroyed the intensity of the interference frequencies they produced dropped sharply. As the remaining plasma strings weakened and failed, the production of ramecium in the centre of the sun would begin again, and over time would return to normal.
ssssHudnee Builder hurried into the imposing stone building in the centre of the little town. The office of the Descendants of the Prophet loomed over the wooden houses on the main thoroughfare, and over the woven brush and mud constructions of the farmers on the edge of town.
ssssI hope Filipii is his office today, he thought. He usually was, but his duties sometimes took him to one of the many villages that lay throughout the district. Hudnee approached the clerk who was sitting, copying manuscripts, in the library.
ssss“Is Filipii the Magister in today?” he asked quietly.
ssssThe clerk pretended not to hear him, and carefully blotted a small over-run on an ornate capital letter. Hudnee waited, and wondered why the most officious and small-minded of men always seemed destined to climb their way to petty positions in large organisations.
ssssFinally the clerk spoke. “Is he expecting you?”
ssssHudnee clenched his teeth and forced himself to wait a few moments until he felt calmer. “I have urgent business with Filipii about the construction of the Pilar. If you want me to wait here at his expense, then I will do so. I have set no work past the midday break, and if you want the labourers and drivers to sit around as well at his expense, then so be it.” His business wasn’t about the building site, but the clerk didn’t know that. It seemed the best way to get him to do what he should have done with good grace in the first place.
ssssThe clerk grudgingly got up from his desk and went through to the back.
ssssFilipii bustled out. “My friend, my friend; always good to see you, of course. What do you want to discuss with me today? Or perhaps since it is close to the midday break you would care to eat with myself and my family? I was about to return to my home, perhaps you would join me?”
ssss“No, no,” said Hudnee hurriedly. “Er, no thank you, very kind of you, but I have an urgent matter I would like to discuss with you.” If he joined Filipii and his family for the midday meal, he would be limited to social chitchat until well into the afternoon, and he didn’t want that.
ssssOnce in the privacy of the Magister’s office, Hudnee quickly related what he had seen in the sky from the construction site that morning. Filipii leaned forward, steepling his fingers and looking most concerned.
ssss“Several people have reported this to myself or to other Descendants, and some of them, like you, were reliable witnesses. I have no reason to doubt it occurred.”
ssssFilipii looked at Hudnee’s expectant face. The man obviously wanted him to do something about it, which was very inconvenient. Did these people really believe that every event out of the ordinary heralded a return of the Prophet?
ssssLike a lot of officials who had come to a comfortable position of power, Filipii did not really want anything to change. Still, the lights in the sky had been in the constellation of the Prophet, so he had better be seen to do something.
ssss“I will report this to the Ordinate Pilar in Roum, my friend. On a local level we will declare an auspicious omen and hold a special service, while we try to understand what it means. You did the right thing by bringing this to my attention.”
ssssHudnee looked gratified. Filipii grumbled inwardly about the extra work he would have to do. Still, he rose graciously and smiled warmly.
ssss“Are you sure I cannot tempt you with the company of my family and some plain fare?”
ssss“Well, if you’re sure . . .” accepted Hudnee, well aware that the food would be anything but plain. Still, work on the Pilar was ahead of schedule, and it was an exceptional event to see new stars in the sky, certainly something to celebrate. He could not recall it ever happening before.
ssssRoum was not at all interested in Filipii’s report.
ssssThe sudden appearance, and equally baffling disappearance, of five new stars in the constellation of the Prophet had been reported by every office of the Descendants in nearly every district on the continent. When the report came in from Filipii’s outlying office, the senior officials of the organisation were already gathered in the elaborate ceremonial room normally used to confer high office – it was the only room big enough to accommodate them all.
ssss“Order, order!” demanded the ArchOrdinate’s clerk, and the few whispers and occasional scraping of chairs ceased. The Descendants had not kept power for so many centuries by being undisciplined.
ssss“The facts of this . . omen . . are not in dispute,” said the ArchOrdinate, looking round the room. There had been rumours of a dramatic discovery by one of the Descendant science departments, and every eye was on him.
ssss“However, the overall picture is somewhat . . disturbing. I will now call on Descendant Peters to explain what I mean.”
ssssHe sat down, and a small, elderly man made his way to the front. The band of short, white hair around his receding crown looked a little like a halo.
ssss“Thank you, ArchOrdinate,” wheezed Descendant Peters, a little overcome by all the attention, or perhaps the lengthy walk from the back of the room.
ssss“As you all know, we in the Descendant constellation department have been mapping the heavens for some time now.” An agitated murmuring greeted this remark, and a red-faced ArchOrdinate dug his clerk in the ribs, who quickly sprang to his feet and fiercely demanded order all over again. Descendant Peters looked a little embarrassed.
ssss“Using the new combination glasses, two of my assistants were watching the night sky on the night after these new stars were first reported.”
ssssThis time a number of the older Descendants at the back leaped to their feet.
ssss“Lies, nothing but lies! Heresy! Expel him!”
ssssThe ArchOrdinate looked as if he was about to choke on something. He stood and raised his arms in the air. At the threat of the ‘discipline cell’ (for whoever a raised arm lowered to point at was dragged out of the chamber to that damp, stinking place), the uproar subsided.
ssss“Brothers!” commanded the ArchOrdinate. “Descendant Peters has some vital information to give us. I give you my word that it does not challenge the divine revelation that Hud, the birthplace of the Prophet (may he never be named), lies at the centre of the universe.”
ssssAt this the fundamentalist faction settled back into their seats. In the last fifty years, evidence from some of the new ‘sciences’ had supported the preposterous idea, first mooted more than a century ago, that the sun might be the centre of the universe. Despite the fact this theory explained the movement of the planets much more satisfactorily than the established view, traditionalists had fought the new ideas every step of the way. The new combination glasses in particular had been labelled, “tools of the evil one.”
ssssThe ArchOrdinate motioned for Descendant Peters to continue. Peters looked around nervously.
ssss“As I was saying,” he began. He paused, but there was no uproar, and he continued with more confidence. “As I was saying, two of my assistants were on duty the night before last at the constellation department, and they recorded a number of things. One of them was marking the movements of Unis, the second planet, trying to work out its distance from us by its speed. He noted several sharp flashes that seemed to come from behind Unis, a little after MidNatus, in the third watch. This was duly noted, and then he got on with his work.”
ssssPeters paused for a moment, partly in apprehension at what he knew he must reveal to them next.
ssss“Last night, during the first watch, they were due to confirm some of the readings taken the previous night. The first thing they noticed was that Pelior, the name we have given the moon of Unis, was no longer there.”
ssssThe room filled with an urgent babble of voices. There were very few of the Descendants indeed who kept up with the work of the new ‘sciences’, so most did not know that a moon had been discovered circling Unis. But even for those who took no interest in such matters, the message was clear. Things were changing among the heavenly bodies, and that would almost certainly mean changes on Hud sooner or later.
ssssDescendant Peters held up his hand, and when that did not work the ArchOrdinate’s clerk called once more for order.
ssss“This concerned us all in our department,” continued Peters, “and every available person and every one of the combination glasses was busy for the rest of the night.” He paused again, thinking that the next revelation might be even more worrying to the Descendants in the hall than the first one.
ssss“Just before dawn, when the first light of the sun was creeping over Hud, observers noticed a bright half-moon shape close to the sun. It disappeared for a time, and then a black spot crept across the face of the sun. As the sun rose, one of the observers recorded that the black spot grew very bright and then vanished.”
ssssThey were all watching him now, confused and uncertain of what he was trying to tell them.
ssss“After much discussion,” he paused again, “we think the moon of Unis has fallen into the sun.”
ssssThe room erupted, everyone trying to talk at once. The terrifying thought that the world on which they lived, and the planets they knew so well, might be sucked into the sun one by one, had occurred to them all.
ssssOver the next few weeks, the inhabitants of Hud talked constantly about the exceptionally fine weather. Hudnee remarked to Filipii that the sun seemed brighter than usual. In Roum Descendant Peters measured the increase in brightness at close to eight percent. The ArchOrdinate maintained a calm and reassuring face but inwardly became more and more worried.
ssssAt first crops grew faster than usual, driven by days of fine, sunny weather, and nurtured by the boggy soil, but then the ground began to dry out, and the crops showed signs of heat stress. The Pilars became full of worried people praying to the Prophet, and the Descendants put on extra services. In the more remote districts some of the forbidden practices of sacrificing animals began to reappear. The ArchOrdinate prepared to reinforce the rules of the Descendants of the Prophet, and tightened his grip across the continent.
ssssThen the rains came.
ssssDay after day, humidity across the planet had been climbing. Most people had deserted the fields in the middle of the hot, dry weather that preceded the change, but now no one could work at all. The combination of heat and humidity rapidly sapped the strength of anyone who tried to do anything more than the most basic of chores.
ssssAnd the rains continued. At first there this brought some relief from the overbearing heat, but then the cloud cover became unbroken, and the rains came every day, starting at midday and continuing until they petered out sometime after the last of the light left the sky. The crops rotted in the ground, and the people began to ration what they had stored away. Grasses died of a strange mildew, and farmers were forced to cut branches off the trees for the animals.
ssssThe religious sacrifice of animals in the outer districts quickly ceased when it became obvious that every source of food was going to be vitally important in the months ahead. However, talk of ancient sky religions and the importance of Human sacrifice began to surface. The ArchOrdinate knew it would take every effort by the Descendants of the Prophet, and the largest of the landowners, to maintain the civilisation they knew. He began to draw up plans to fortify the Descendant offices in each region, and began to draw more recruits into the Descendant guard units.
ssssThe passage of the small moon of the second planet through the sun’s upper levels had increased the efficiency of fusion reaction in the sun, rather like stirring a fermented liquid. This released a little extra energy, a fraction of a fraction of a percent, and as far as the sun was concerned it was an event that was over in a moment. But to the inhabitants of Aqua Regis, it would destroy the life they had previously known, and bring extinction to a number of the species on the planet. Would the Hudnee be one of them?
ssssThe Fire Ships had resumed their course, and now arrived at Ba’H’Roth, the home planet that the H’Roth had abandoned so long ago.
ssssA substantial H’Dree settlement had grown up on Ba’H’Roth. H’Dree were not normally a curious people, but some had the time and resources to visit the world of their benefactors, the H’Roth from whom they had inherited their technology. A substantial hospitality industry had grown up to cater for these visitors, and the H’Dree government had centralised a number of departments around the large science station that existed on the planet.
ssssA vast drydock floated in orbit above Ba’H’Roth. Sited at one corner of the H’Dree empire, Ba’H’Roth was a convenient place to base a maintenance station. Three H’Dree warships were docked there, undergoing routine maintenance. The other five ships of the Number Fourteen wing of the Imperial Deep Space Navy were due to return soon from manoeuvres at MahiBa’H’Roth, the remains of a H’Roth moon colony in the next system.
ssssAs the Fire Ships entered the Ba’H’Roth system, the science station was the first to sound the alarm. Not only was traffic from the direction of the Core unexpected, but the size of the ships and the strange energy signatures were completely unknown to the H’Dree.
ssssThe warships at the docking station declared an emergency alert and recalled crew members from the planet’s surface. The first warship to be ready was dispatched to recall the other warships of the Number Fourteen wing from MahiBa’H’Roth at maximum speed. The H’Dree settlement on the planet powered down its reactors and blanked out the planet. While messages of peace were broadcast continuously, the population took refuge in the complex of storage chambers that lay beneath the settlement.
ssssAnother of the warships reached operational readiness and stood off from the drydock, powering up its weapons. Crew members boarded the last warship in drydock, as the Fire Ships began to converge on the planet. One of them swept past the dock and sliced it open with an arc of fire, pinning the remaining warship in the tangled wreckage. They fell as one toward the planet beneath them, the warship desperately trying to lift the combined weight of itself and the remains of the drydock wrapped about it.
ssssThen the Fire Ships dropped lower, and seeded the upper atmosphere of the planet with hundreds of smaller craft. Down in the underground chambers the H’Dree population crowded around monitors and stood awed by the immense, flat, ornate shapes high above, each wreathed in constantly changing fields of fire. They watched the sleek, malevolent groundships fall through the atmosphere toward them.
ssssAs the needle-nosed craft reached the surface they began long strafing runs across the H’Dree settlement, and the H’Dree cowered, helpless, as subterranean detonations rumbled like massive earthquakes all around them. At last the five warships from MahiBa’H’Roth, lead by the one sent to recall them, appeared at the edge of the system, the cooling towers behind their containment chambers running so hot that the ships appeared haloed in blinding light.
ssssStill falling toward the planet below, the crew of the trapped warship tried desperately to free themselves. The small thrusters used for manoeuvring in orbit were unable to make any real difference to their situation, and stardrive had catastrophic effects within a planet’s atmosphere. The captain considered bringing the ship’s weapons to bear on the dock itself, but what further damage would that do to his ship? All the same, he was rapidly running out of options.
ssssThe Par’Brahmad wing commander of the approaching warships sized up the situation. His Par’Sanni Second briefed him on their possible courses of action.
ssssThe first priority had to be to distract the Fire Ships in orbit, and then assist the warship that was trapped within the drydock, and falling closer and closer to the planet. Two spearheads of three warships targeted a Fire Ship each.
ssssTwisting and turning in complex patterns, the warships separated and came in on the Fire Ships from all sides. In response, bright blades of fire scythed out from head to tail of the Fire Ships. The H’Dree warships ran within the expanding rings and targeted a point on the fiery hull below them, firing plasma cannon continuously into the same spot while they swept overhead. The warships made it through the first pass without damage, but the Fire Ships appeared unharmed also. Standing off in a loose group at distance, the H’Dree commander concentrated the combined firepower of all his ships on the forward section of the nearest Fire Ship. The fiery hull glowed even brighter, but the bombardment did not appear to cause any damage. As they closed again, an arc of fire scythed out from the lead Fire Ship and cut one of the warships in half. As the others looked on in shock it fell toward the planet below, spilling bodies and the haphazard contents of any H’Dree warship.
ssssThe Fire Ships were faster and stronger than the Par’Sanni Second had thought possible. This close to the enemy, and this close to the planet, they couldn’t launch fusion missiles. All they could do now was try to distract their much more powerful opponent, and buy time for the remaining warship, now closing on the trapped warship in a desperate attempt to free it. Spreading out again, they threw themselves at the much larger Fire Ships.
ssssOn the other side of the planet, the rescue warship was falling alongside its helpless comrade. Together they primed their weapons, and at exactly the same time they cut through the remains of the dry dock that lay wrapped around the trapped ship – one targeting the forward section, and the other the wreckage that lay across its own aft thrusters and stardrive unit.
ssssBy a miracle the wreckage fell free, but it tore open two decks of the ship as it departed.
ssssCasualties of war, thought the captain grimly, as he briefly considered the sudden loss of life, and then forced himself to dismiss it from his mind. More fortunately, the thrusters appeared to be still operable, and the stardrive unit undamaged. At full thrust the warships began to clear the planet’s atmosphere.
ssssOn the planet below, the destruction of the H’Dree settlement was almost complete. While most of the obelisks concentrated on the H’Dree facilities, others searched the planet’s surface for H’Roth remains, destroying the squat H’Roth data storage facilities wherever they found them. The underground storage chambers seemed able to withstand the worst of the attacks, though casualties mounted, the H’Dree population huddling in fear as each needle-nosed craft passed overhead, destroying anything still standing.
ssssAs the rescue mission came to a close, the H’Dree commander took note of a less conventional suggestion by his Par’Sanni, and switched his attack. As the obelisks rose to rejoin the mother ships, the H’Dree warships came at them on the very fringes of the atmosphere. First one, then another, of the obelisks crumpled as the H’Dree plasma cannon hit them. The handful of groundships that the warships destroyed made little difference to the hundreds that swarmed out of the atmosphere to rejoin the mother ships, but it proved a point – they were not invulnerable.
ssssThe Fire Ships descended closer to the planet, making the docking of the ground craft easier and putting themselves between the warships and their targets. The Par’Brahmad commander broke off the attack, and the remains of his wing rejoined the two warships on the far side of the planet.
ssssWith the destruction of the H’Dree settlement, and much of the ancient H’Roth sites, complete, the Fire Ships lifted away from the planet. Following them at a distance, the H’Dree warships loosed full salvos of fusion missiles.
ssssThe Fire Ships did not even bother to take evasive action, and with a sour taste in his mouth, the Par’Brahmad commander guessed what that might mean. The missiles struck, and the Fire Ships were engulfed in an intense white fireball. When it faded away the ornate, bladed ships continued on their way untouched. As the warships looked on helplessly, the Fire Ships blinked out of existence in a flash of light as they left the Ba’H’Roth system.
sssssssssssREVIEWS OF THE BOOK.
sssssssStarfire Scourge, the first book in the Prometheus trilogy, starts with a bang and retains its racy pace and science fiction depth throughout its epic length – finishing with a discovery about the origins of the human race that you won’t want to miss. Warwick Gibson could surely become one of the great science fiction writers of our time, with his masterful plot-making, command of scientific theory and mind-expanding extensions of our reality. This book is not to be missed.
sssssss- Graeme Beals, Publisher, Zenith Publishing Group.
sssssssUsing solid logic and a great imagination, author Warwick Gibson has extrapolated way beyond today’s science to create a very believable future in which star travel across light years is as commonplace as a trip to the dairy. Starting with four different strands he cleverly weaves these together with just the right mix of inter-galactic encounters, bloody battles, fragile alliances, romance, humour and intrigue. The result is an enthralling story which culminates in an unexpected but very satisfying outcome; leaving enough loose ends to make the reader look forward eagerly to the next book.
sssssss- Malcolm McGregor, HoD Computer Studies, Spotswood College.
sssssssAs a professional editor I could see work that needed doing on Warwick Gibson's scifi book to 'sharpen it up a bit', as with all new authors. But apart from that I was drawn to the characters and found their adventures, and the trials and tribulations of their lives, compelling stuff. This book is well worth the trouble of reading.
sssssss- Wiesje Geldof, Sigma publications, Wellington.
sssssssScience fiction has never been my choice of reading, but after coming across the preview chapter of Starfire Scourge on the web I was intrigued and ordered a copy. I have not been disappointed. From the start I have been captivated by the intricate story line with all its twists and turns, surreal characters and non stop action. This book is a "must read" for any Science Fiction fan and a serious consideration for anyone wanting a good action story with a difference.
sssssss- Mariea Coppard, Artist, Canterbury.
sssssssFrom the first page to the last I was riveted by the vast, intricate, technicolor universe this writer has created. It extended well beyond imagination to become a reality of life that I became total absorbed in. This book is a page-turning, gripping, powerful book, and the people who inhabit these new worlds became friends to me, sharing humour, love, tragedy and compassion. I didn’t want to leave .
sssssss- Jane Hamann, Artist, Taranaki. (Jane is a Fine Arts graduate who has read every book in Taranaki and cut her teeth on Science-Fiction. A strong endorsement from her is particularly encouraging).
sssssssI have never been a SciFi enthusiast, apart from some of the high profile special effect spectaculars seen in our movie theaters over the last 20 years. However Starfire Scourge arrived in our house and I started flicking through pages at random. The first thing that struck me was how well the story flowed, with a very easy narrative and believable characters. Pages led to chapters and very soon the book had captured my imagination and I was finding it hard to put down. Am I now a converted SciFi reader? Not sure but keenly awaiting the next volume in the trilogy.
sssssss- Phil Hayward, Software Developer, Canterbury.
sssssssI have never really been a sci-fi reader, but I really enjoyed this book. I did find the many names confusing, but the writing flows well and I was always curious to know what would happen on the next page. I might try more books in this genre now, but mostly I am looking forward to the next book by Warwick Gibson!
sssssss- Anna van Laars, Fruit shop proprietor, Taranaki.
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