Eric Brown: The Serene Invasion

Nina Ricci stared across the greensward at the diminutive Kath, and said, “You have graced us with a power beyond our expectations, an ability none of us could have dreamed of… But — and far be it for me to sound suspicious, or ungrateful — but why have the Serene done this? What exactly do you want from us?”

Kath gestured, raising both her hands candidly. “As I told you, our desires are the continuance of the human race, the protection of your species, initially from yourselves, and then from the threat of the Obterek. With your ability, you can assist the Serene in this.”

Ana said, “In what way? I don’t understand how our ability to… shift … can help protect us.”

“Your ability will not protect you, but it will help towards setting up a system, an environment, in which the human race will be safe.”

“Again,” asked Nina Ricci, “how?”

“To answer that,” Kath said, “I need you to ask a question. And the question is this: where are we now?”

All six humans looked around them. Natascha said, “It looks like a meadow in Georgia where I went on holiday as a child.”

“The hills of Tuscany,” Ricci laughed.

Ana said, “Or the vale of Kashmir.”

“It could easily be somewhere in Shropshire,” Sally said.

Kath smiled. “You are all wrong, but right in that it is a place of surpassing beauty. We are not on Earth; nor are we on any planet or moon in the solar system.”

More to himself, Geoff said, “The dimming of the stars…” And aloud, “Then where?”

“Look into the sky,” Kath said, “and tell me what you see.”

Allen looked up. The sky was cloudless. “The sun,” he said.

“How many?” Kath asked.

Allen laughed. “One…”

“No!” Nina Ricci said. “Two…”

“Three… four!” Kapil exclaimed.

Allen saw that they were right; high above, a series of small, bright yellow suns marched across the heavens.

He shook his head. “But that’s impossible, isn’t it? Where are we?” He had a sudden, explosive thought, and said, “On the home planet of the Serene?”

Kath shook her head. “We are still within the confines of your solar system, but only just.”

Nina Ricci pointed to the sky. “But the suns?”

“The dimming of the stars,” Allen said, but aloud this time. He had the inkling of an idea. “On the edge of our system, Kath? On some kind of… of artificial platform?”

She smiled. “Almost. We are on the edge of the solar system, but the structure is somewhat more impressive than a mere platform. Imagine the skin of an orange, or rather a more oblate satsuma, cut into sections. Imagine the sections reformed into an oblate whole.”

The idea was dizzying. Allen laughed. “And this… this is one of those sections?”

Kath Kemp nodded. “It is. From point to point it measures one astronomical unit, and the same across at its widest point.”

Nina Ricci was shaking her head. “But it’s… vast.”

Kapil said, “That’s the distance from the sun to the Earth!”

“In surface area,” Kath said, “it equates to forty million Earths.”

“And you say that this is just one section?” Kapil asked.

“The first,” Kath said. “Soon, others will join it, and in five of your years, the entire solar system will be enclosed.”

Kapil was shaking his head in wonder. “And the number of sections it will take to do this?” he asked.

“The Serene estimate approximately two million,” Kath said.

Allen laughed. “My maths isn’t up to it…”

Kapil said in awed tones, “So there will be the equivalent of eighty trillion planet Earths on the inner surface of the shell, give or take a handful.”

“How?” Sally asked. “The energy required, the material…”

Kath said, “We beam the energy from the far stars of the core, and utilise takrea technology to transport the rock and iron of distant planets. Surrounding the solar system are thousands of vast quantum engines, fabricators, which take the energy and reconstruct it.” She gestured about her. “Forming the shell, which is in the region of fifteen thousand kilometres thick.”

Natascha asked, “But why, Kath? Why are the Serene doing this?”

Kath nodded, as if the question were entirely reasonable. “Think about it,” she said. “Think about what is happening to the human race. There are no more wars, no more crimes of violence, no more murders. Also, with the coming of the Serene and the advance of pharmaceutical sciences, many deadly diseases are no more. The human race is expanding, hence the outward push from Earth, the establishment of colonies on Venus, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.”

Kapil finished for her. “And we need space into which to expand,” he said.

Kath looked around the astonished faces of the humans before her. “This is not the first time the Serene have built a habitat shell around a solar system,” she said. “It is one of the corollaries of saving a race from itself.”

“But will there come a time, in the far, far future,” Nina Ricci wanted to know, “when the human race will expand to fill all the available land within the shell?”

“That is very doubtful,” Kath said. “It has not happened so far with any of the other races the Serene have assisted; they have instituted measures to curb their populations.”

Beside Allen, Sally opened her mouth with an exclamation of understanding. “Ah, I see now…” she said.

The others looked at her.

“I understand why the representatives have been granted the ability to… shift,” she said.

Kath Kemp was nodding. “When the shell is complete, the distances between areas of population across the inner surface will be so vast that we will need people, individuals, to travel back and forth, as envoys, messengers — couriers, if you like. To create and sustain a system of obelisks to perform this function would be an energy drain beyond even the resources of the Serene, hence the creation of a cadre of shifters , as you will come to be known.”

Allen slipped an arm around his wife’s shoulder and smiled at her.

“Of course,” Kath went on, “as twenty years ago when the Serene recruited the representatives, we gave you the option of withdrawing, without fear of prejudice. We offer you the same option now; if any of you do not wish to enjoy the facility of shifting, or do not wish to carry through the work of the Serene, please say so and you will be returned to Mars with no memory of what has taken place here.”

Allen laughed. “You are,” he said, “joking, right? As if I could turn my back on the ability to…” He shook his head, suddenly speechless at the thought of what the Serene had granted him.

Kath turned to Ana Devi. “Ana?”

She smiled and clutched Kapil’s hand. “I agree with Geoff,” she said.

“And you, Nina?” Kath asked.

“I would not turn my back on the ability to shift for all the world,” she said.

Kath Kemp smiled. “Thank you all,” she said. “You have made me very happy.”

Allen asked, “And the other representatives? Have the Serene told all ten thousand of us?”

She smiled. “We are in the process of doing so,” she said. She gestured around her at the meadow. “As we speak there are groups of representatives, with their attendant self-aware entities, being told just what I have just told you.”

She paused, then went on, “In celebration, I suggest we return to the plaza at Titan. I’ve had the presumption to order a magnum of champagne in readiness for our return.”

Nina Ricci said, “But won’t our sudden arrival, out of the blue, cause a little consternation?”

“Until a formal announcement is made regarding the shifters,” Kath said, “the Serene have ensured that your arrival, anywhere, will go unnoticed by those in the vicinity.”