Peter Hamilton - The Evolutionary Void

“What will you do now?” the SI asked Troblum as the Mellanie’s Redemption tracked Oscar’s starship going FTL. It suddenly vanished from his exovision. None of the sensors could track it when it was stealthed.

“I don’t know,” he said unsteadily. The conversation between Oscar and Paula that the SI had intercepted had left him badly shaken. Both Dreamers and Ozzie coming together to solve the problem was cause for some tentative hope. “I can’t make a difference.”

“You know more about the Sol barrier than any other individual. They might need that.”

“I don’t know.” It was too big, too much, and getting horribly personal again. But it was a huge unexpected relief to solve the Araminta puzzle. She hadn’t betrayed anyone; she was doing what she could. And … Araminta, Inigo, Oscar, and Ozzie together. That’s going to be history .

Catriona came over and sat on his lap. She was wearing a thin lacy top and tight jeans. The feel of her resting there, human scent and musky perfume, her perfect form centimeters from his eyes. It was comforting somehow.

“We should go,” she told him softly.

“Yes.” Even that made him feel good.

Sensors showed Paula the Elvin’s Payback flashing into hyperspace and activating its stealth. She could track it of course, though few other ships in the galaxy could.

After a minute, the ship hanging in suspension a hundred thousand kilometers above Viotia also pushed back fully into hyperspace and followed Oscar at ultradrive speed. Its stealth wasn’t as good as that of the ANA ship, but its drive seemed more than capable, and the real giveaway was the mass, which was identical to that of the Mellanie’s Redemption , which Paula had last seen departing Sholapur at their hyperdrive speed.

“And then there was one,” Paula muttered.

The remaining stealthed ship started to move. Its drive signature was one the Alexis Denken was also familiar with from Sholapur, as was the much superior stealth effect. Paula ordered the smartcore to follow the other three starships to the Spike, then opened a secure link to the High Angel .

“Hello, Paula,” Qatux said.

“So you can’t break through the Sol barrier?”

“No. Our trip here was largely symbolic, a statement of Raiel support for the rest of the Commonwealth.”

“I don’t expect empty political gestures from you.”

“If there is any way we can influence the Living Dream from their Pilgrimage, we are obliged to enact it.”

“They’ve just launched.”

“I know. Paula, if you would like to come with us when this galaxy falls, I will be happy to take you.”

“I know the purpose of the High Angel is supposed to be to save life from this galaxy, but something is happening, Qatux, something my instinct tells me is crucial. So I’m going to need a favor. A very big favor.”

The lake measured over ten kilometers across, its shoreline made up of attractive sweeping coves. Two-thirds of the surrounding land was smothered by a thick wild forest, with vegetation scrambling down over the stones that lined the rippling water. The remaining third was an alien city whose globes and spikes dominated the skyline. Deserted for millennia, its iron structures were a similar construction to those of Octoron’s little human township. But this metropolis was put together on a much grander scale, perhaps a little too imposing. Humans living in the chamber had never attempted to settle there.

Ozzie’s old capsule skimmed above the thin towers and dropped down toward the huge semicircular harbor bay on the other side. There were several small islands dotted across the water. They were heading for the largest, which had a wide sandy beach guarded by rocky prominences on either side. Behind the beach itself the land was a cluster of long dunes before the ground started to slope up into the island’s central mountain. A simple whitewashed stone house stood alone, poised between the dunes and the forested slope. It was surrounded on three sides by a veranda that had a leafy canopy of thick vines draped over an ancient, sagging wooden frame. Tall sash windows had wooden shutters on the outside, giving the place the appearance of a farmhouse in rural Provence.

The capsule touched down in front of the solitary building. Aaron scanned it briefly. Another human was lurking behind the wide slatted doors that opened from the lounge to the veranda decking. She had biononics, but they weren’t weapons-configured. There were some additional enrichments that he didn’t recognize, but their low power usage argued against their posing any kind of threat. The house itself had a few technological items: a culinary unit, a medical capsule, two very sophisticated replicators, a fleet of old-fashioned maidbots, and five smartcores larger than he’d encountered before. In short, the perfect retreat for someone like Ozzie.

“Okay, we can go out,” Aaron said.

Ozzie gave him a long look. “You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Well, okay, but be careful of the mutant squids in the lake.”

“I appreciate that this intrusion is unwelcome; we’ll be gone as soon as we can.” Though Aaron couldn’t be sure of that. Ideas were starting to form in the back of his mind in anticipation of Inigo regaining consciousness. He gave the sleeping messiah a quick look. It wouldn’t be long before he was awake.

“And remember never to leave the house at night,” Ozzie said with an innocent tone that nonetheless mocked.

“Why?”

“Vampires.”

Aaron bit back on his response. He wasn’t quite sure how much of Ozzie’s attitude was driven by irritation at having his hermit life violated. If it was genuine, things might get unpleasant. Aaron hoped not.

Ozzie walked out of the capsule, leaving Aaron to deal with the two unconscious people sprawled on the curving leather couch at the back of the passenger section. “Greatly done,” he muttered, and picked Inigo up, fumbling him into a traditional fireman’s lift. For a long moment he was tempted to shoot another sedative (or ten) into Corrie-Lyn, but Inigo wouldn’t be happy about that. Having two bolshie living legends with overblown egos pissed with him would be a definite disadvantage.

Aaron carried Inigo over the dunes and up the gray wooden steps to the veranda. He dumped the inert body onto a sunlounger and went back for Corrie-Lyn.

Ozzie was nowhere to be seen by the time he got back to the veranda. A quick low-level field scan showed him upstairs in the house’s biggest bedroom with the woman. Aaron abruptly canceled the scan, trying to quash his feeling of dismay at Ozzie’s attitude and behavior. He hadn’t expected quite this much irrational stubbornness.

Inigo groaned and stirred. His biononics assisted a quick rise to full awareness. He sat up and looked around the shaded veranda, then took a moment to stare at the vista of the ancient alien city facing him across the bay.

“We made it, then?”

“We made it.”

Inigo gazed over at Corrie-Lyn on the next sunlounger. “How is she?”

“Stable. She should wake up in half an hour or so. Your biononics give you an advantage.”

Inigo nodded slowly. “You kept your word. Thank you.”

“I know she hates me, but truly, I’m not one of the bad guys. I just have a job to do.”

“Indeed.” Inigo started flexing his limbs, grimacing at the chemical-induced stiffness. “What do you do for fun?”

“I don’t.”

Inigo gave the city another look. “That looks deserted.”

“It is. Ozzie has fully embraced his whole living recluse legend.”

“Great Lady, you actually found him?”