Sarah Zettel - Fool's War

Curran didn’t even stir. “Then we’ll have to leave them. We’ll need five talents in the flesh and on watch in case the Pasadena crew attempts to assault the module.” He had already vetoed the idea of taking out the station. That would raise the alarm for the outlying Humans even earlier than necessary.

“The banks know about us,” he had said in the briefing. “But they’ll have been told the attack is going to be against their intersystem network.”

The Human’s communications were being monitored. They were moving in typical glacial fashion, unable to agree on even basic measures to meet the threat. The bankers hadn’t even alerted the Management Union yet. Gilbereth estimated it would be six hours before they made even their first move. The attack would be well underway by then. There was an unusual amount of recording activity starting around the Free Homes. The Pasadena ’s pilot must have gotten to the Fellows after all. Had the original plan been in place, it might have been cause for concern, but now it was nothing worth worrying about.

“What about module network security?” asked Verence.

“No need,” said Curran. “When Dobbs returns with the Guild, they’ll be going straight for the crucial points of the bank network. Preservation of the status quo will be their main objective.” His tone was wintery. “Just like it’s always been.”

Verence shuddered. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t just send Shiff and Tombe after her,” she said. “They could have brought her back here and held her until she saw sense again.”

“No.” Curran’s tone was firm. “It’s gone to far for that. When we attack, the Guild will come with Dobbs or without her. We will just have to delay them until things on Earth are well underway.”

Uncertainty wavered against anger inside Verence. She had been furious at Dobbs for her betrayal, but, what if… what if… ”What if Dobbs is right? What if this won’t work?”

Curran let his convictions flow into her. Verence felt strength and certainty wash through her. She drank it down into her private mind. She needed it to drown out Dobbs’ fractured, defiant words that would not stop ringing around her memory.

We will do what we have to in order to be free, Curran told her. If this doesn’t convince the Humans they must deal with us as their equals, we’ll try again.

He pulled away gently. “Now, I need you to find Flemming and Dunkirk. Together we can go over those last ten critical junctures. Maybe there’s still something we can do.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Verence hurried down the path. For the first time in a long time wished she were inside a body. Then she could have gone to sleep and, for at least a little while, she could have stopped thinking about everything Dobbs had said to her.

Yerusha heard the scrape of the storage door opening. Lipinski jerked his head up. The white light fell on Schyler, who’s eyebrows arched when he saw Lipinski sitting there.

“It’s all right, Watch.” Yerusha waved Schyler inside. “He’s with us.”

“There don’t seem to be a lot of options,” said Lipinski to the floor. “I just hope somebody really does have a plan.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “At least this explains… things”

Yerusha spared him a little sympathy. The entire crew knew that the Houston was cherishing some romantic feelings towards the Fool. Finding out that she was the monster he was afraid of… when he had time to think about it, it would probably tear him in two.

Schyler settled himself on a third storage crate. “Well, Resit got one wish anyway. She wanted you here to help, Lipinski.”

“What’s the news?” Yerusha asked.

Schyler rested both elbows on his knees. “Al Shei has gotten a bunch of security data from Marcus Tully. She wants to use that and Tully’s catburglars to disable the station alarms and then get herself into the AI’s can. As soon as she does, she wants the can knocked away from the station.”

“She what!” exclaimed Lipinski.

Schyler didn’t even miss a beat. “It makes some sense. With the can in free fall, no transmissions can get in or out of it because the transmitters and receivers will be rolling around with the rest of the module and no one will be able to get a signal fix on them. That means a finite number of AIs in a limited space to deal with. Most of Curran’s, people, should be out busy with the IBN.”

Lipinski subsided. Yerusha smiled quietly. This was the kind of argument he could understand perfectly.

Schyler kept going. “I figure this’ll take a little space walk. We lay some charges on both of the clamps and blow them out. Harry’s licensed to sell explosives, so that just leaves us with the question of how we get onto the surface of the can without being seen by the security cameras.”

“We don’t,” Yerusha told him.

“What?” Schyler stared at her incredulously.

Yerusha sighed. “There will be cameras are trained on the module’s skin by the Landlords, and by the AIs. Trust me, if there is anything there that isn’t supposed to be, the cameras will spot it. Now, maybe we could crack the cameras’ systems and fake an image, but under these circumstances do we really want to rely on using the station network for anything we don’t absolutely have to?”

Schyler drank in what she said in silence. “Then what do we do?” he asked.

“We get ourselves a main schematic of the station wiring. Then, we raid the laundry and get ourselves some maintenance overalls and get down to this business module 56. We get inside the wall panels and find the wires that control the clamps holding the can to the rest of the station. We splice those wires to a portable memory board. Then, we use the information Tully gave us to override the clamps command sequence and tell them to let go.” She allowed herself a grim smile at the expression on Schyler’s face. “Groundhuggers. You always think you have to blow something up or burn it down to incapacitate it. That’s why the Freers keep winning against you.”

“Well, then,” Schyler stood up and gestured toward the door, “I suggest you show us how it’s done.” He paused and lowered his hand. “There’s one thing that Al Shei has not considered. That’s the possibility that she might live through this.” He looked at them both steadily. “After we get her in there, I’m going to need options on how to get her out.”

Jump.

Repeater XK350-78104001-IBN780A-HI was slaved to ten sisters; 780B through 780I. The data squeezing by her was mainly gas miners’ requests for prices and credit from the Solar system.

Dobbs slipped through to the holding areas. On the way, she’d managed to put together a plan of action. It hadn’t taken long. She was not hampered by a plethora of options.

Dobbs touched Cohen, Brook and Lonn. Each of them, in turn, was touching two others. Messages shot back and forth between the satellites along the slave lines. The link spread out until it included all of the Fools, joined together like cells in a honeycomb.

This had been the reason Dobbs this repeater series. It was one of the few satellite clusters where there was room for this.

Dobbs passed her name and identifying patterns through those next to her, and received their names and patterns into herself. Stranger’s names and stranger’s touches filtered through her friends and stored themselves in her memory; Breckman, Govzy, Chan, Pierre, Davies, Kim, and on and on until they all knew each other. Anyone for whom a name and the touch of their outer self was not in her memory now was probably one of Curran’s talents.

They were just over five hundred. Three times the number of Curran’s talents. They needed to be. All of them, except for her and a handful like Cohen who’s bodies were on life-support, were under the pressure of time. The others could stay in the network twenty hours at most before they would have to drop out, and they’d already used up a portion of their time waiting here.