Peter Hamilton - The Evolutionary Void

He stood perfectly still, allowing his mouth to open wide as he stared up at the preposterously extravagant building. “This is your home ?”

“Yes, this is where I was born and lived ever since.” That was almost the truth. She didn’t want to spoil things. It was going to take this naive Kazimir a while to adjust to everything the Greater Commonwealth offered. And who better to act as his guide and tutor?

“Would you like to look around?”

“Oh, yes!” His arms flapped around for emphasis. “Who else lives here?”

“Ah, no one at the moment. It’s become a bit of a museum, I’m afraid. We’ll find you a bedroom, a suite, actually. There are some excellent ones in the west wing.”

He caught hold of her hand and gave her that beseeching look with his lovely big adoring eyes. “Will you be nearby, Justine?”

“Um.” She was blushing again. Come on, girl, get a grip . “I will stay for a while to make sure you’re all right. I’m going to be quite busy. There’s a lot to sort out right now.”

He grinned. “You have saved the galaxy. People will allow you time for yourself now. I am sure of it.”

“Probably.” The entrance doors were huge jet black slabs of glossy stonewood inlaid with a gold-leaf vine pattern. She paused as they swung open. I never noticed before; that’s so similar to the gates of the Sampalok mansion . Oscar had sworn his first voyage of exploration would be an attempt to find the previous occupiers of Makkathran. She still couldn’t quite get her head around that partnership. But then, in the Void, anything is possible . Kazimir was witness to that. And Catriona.

Kazimir peered in curiously as the lights came on along the length of the cavernous hall. “How old is this palace?”

“Over a thousand years,” she said with pride.

“Dreaming heavens,” he murmured as they walked inside.

“I used to rollerblade in here,” she said fondly. “That’s when I was your age or maybe a little younger. Dad would scream at me and-” She stopped dead. A shiver ran up her body, strong enough to cause her to clutch at the door frame for support. Shock that only a genuine flesh-and-blood body could know was threatening to reduce her to tears.

Gore was standing in the doorway to the white room. As always, his solido was the twenty-fourth-century version of himself, gold skin body wearing a black shirt and trousers.

“Dad?” she gasped. In her nice rational tidy mind she’d known all along that he would be waiting here for her, that ANA would have reanimated his personality as soon as it confirmed his bodyloss on the Anomine homeworld. But back in Makkathran his transcendence had been so real, so vivid. Her meat body and brain knew her father’s mind and body had gone on to something better, that Daddy had died, that everything afterward was just the result of clever technology.

Sometimes basic human flesh and blood was far too painful.

“You did a great job out there,” he said. “Not everyone operating in a meat body would hold it together under that kind of emotional stress. Thanks.”

“My pleasure,” she said weakly.

“So how about that-my original body finally gets fried up in a nova. Goddamn Marius, he’s actually worse than Ilanthe in his own pathetically petty way. Funny thing, I didn’t imagine I’d get nostalgic, but I think I’m going to miss it. The damn thing was like a psychological final safety net. I suppose I ought to clone another. Not that I’ll ever use one again.”

“Good idea.”

“And I’m going to have to have a long talk with the Delivery Man; he can fill in the missing details. I accessed the kubes in Ozzie’s asteroid as soon as ANA brought me out of suspension storage; they updated me back to the point I left on the Last Throw . But there’s no accurate record of what happened on the Anomine homeworld between then and when that old Tyzak guy switched on the elevation mechanism. The way it played out, I’m guessing there had to be some serious problems back there.”

“Yeah, that’s how I read it, too.”

“Right. Well, you wouldn’t believe the fuss the Radical Darwinist Faction is kicking up in here. Conniving little shits. I could do with some help slapping them down. Are you coming back home now?”

Justine draped an arm around a very silent Kazimir’s shoulders and gave the golden man a defiant look. “Not just yet, Dad. There’re a few things I have to finish off out here. They might take awhile.”

The ultradrive starship hung in transdimensional suspension five million kilometers out from the Leo Twins. Marius wasn’t quite sure why he’d chosen this as his destination. Presumably, his subconscious had identified it as the last place anyone would suspect him of fleeing to.

As to what he should do now, he had no idea. The one time scrutineers he’d inserted into the unisphere were supplying a comprehensive picture of the political fallout from the Void’s elevation and the fall of the Sol barrier.

ANA had carried out its threat and suspended the Accelerator Faction. Instructions were being issued to ANA representatives to locate and arrest the remaining Accelerator agents. The list was very comprehensive. He was at the top, charged with genocide. That wasn’t something the authorities would quietly downgrade and forget after a couple of decades or even centuries, certainly not if Paula Myo was involved. That meant he would have to leave the Commonwealth entirely.

His options weren’t good. He didn’t know where any of the colonies were or what kind of societies they’d developed. Conceivably, he could start rescuing the other Accelerators on the list, form some kind of resistance. It would be dangerous, but he was more than capable of working in such an environment.

Alarms flared-

His ship was wrenched back into spacetime before even his accelerated thought routines had truly grasped what was happening. Sensors revealed nothing except a minuscule spatial anomaly directly in front of the fuselage. Then they failed, along with the drive. The starship’s network crashed. Gravity cut out, leaving him in free fall. Cabin lights died. He couldn’t access his u-shadow. A biononic field scan revealed that the life-support system was off line.

A link opened to his macrocellular clusters. “You’re under arrest,” Admiral Kazimir informed him.

“For now,” Marius retorted. “She’ll be back.”

“She won’t. None of them ever come back.”

As Araminta landed the big passenger capsule outside the sprawling white house, her confidence suddenly deserted her. Even the little surprise she’d prepared for him seemed feeble. There was absolutely no way of knowing how he’d react. Sure, he’d helped her before, but that was when the Living Dream maniacs threatened his homeworld and his lives.

They were gone now, thanks to her and the deception he’d helped her with. Now Ellezelin would be paying compensation for all the physical damage its troops had caused during the invasion. Inigo had promised that as he went back there to assume the presidency she’d abdicated. It was going to take a long while to dismantle the Living Dream movement, but he was the best-the only-candidate for the job. After the Void’s elevation, he was the person everybody trusted to do it right.

Two of hers stepped out onto the grass: her original body and Araminta-two. She looked around with all four eyes, relishing the familiarity.

Mr. Bovey had been busy since she’d left. The house had been repaired and painted. But then, if anybody could do a fast, quality refurbishment, it was going to be he with all his contacts in the business.