Peter Hamilton - The Evolutionary Void

“Did Mirain send you?” Duaro asked urgently. “Look, we can conclude this in a civilized fashion.”

“Mirain?” the Delivery Man mused out loud. His u-shadow ran a fast cross-reference on Duaro’s profile. “You mean your wife, Mirain?”

The woman on the bed cringed, giving Duaro a sulky glance.

“I can’t believe she went to this much trouble,” Duaro groused. “This is just a harmless little fling.”

“Oh, thank you,” the woman snapped.

“Sneaking on board and keeping the lights off and the smartcore dumb,” the Delivery Man mused. “Doesn’t appear that harmless.”

“Look, let’s be reasonable about this …”

The Delivery Man gave a huge smile at the magnificent, timeless cliche. “Yes, let’s. Shall I tell you what I want?”

“Of course,” Duaro said with an air of cautious relief.

“The yacht’s smartcore access codes.”

“What?”

“Non-negotiable,” the Delivery Man said, and powered up several weapons enrichments.

Paula Myo couldn’t remember being so shocked before, not ever. The emotional trauma had become physical in nature, with her heart racing and her hands trembling as if she were some kind of Natural human. She had to sit down hard on the Alexis Denken ’s cabin floor before her legs gave way. The only thing her exovision revealed was a vast blank plain, which was what the Capital-class ship Kabul was seeing as it scanned the outside of the Sol barrier. Her link came directly from Pentagon II on the secure channel her status entitled her to. But there was nothing she could do, no help she could offer. She was a simple passive observer of the greatest disaster to befall the Commonwealth since the barrier around Dyson Alpha came down. That memory stirred a possibility.

“Do you have the spatial coordinates of the Swarm components when they materialized?” she asked Admiral Juliaca, who was Kazimir’s deputy and now de facto commander of the Commonwealth Navy. “The original Dark Fortress had an opening on the outside, which is how it was turned off.”

“Nice try,” Juliaca said. “That was the first thing the Kabul attempted. There is no bulge in the Sol barrier as far as we can detect, and I’ve got eleven ships out there searching now, as well as several civilian craft. It’s perfectly smooth, certainly in the areas around the swarm components we’ve scanned.”

“Of course,” Paula muttered. No fool like an old one; it was never going to be that easy . She shook herself and ordered her biononics to stabilize her wayward body. Her thoughts, though, were still sluggish, as if they were moving through ice. I thought I got rid of this nonsense when I resequenced . Even as she thought it, some small part of her mind was chiding her for being too hard on herself. But for Accelerators to bring this off successfully was a monumental failure of intelligence gathering and analysis on ANA’s part, for which she bore some considerable responsibility. Any kind of human would be perturbed by the enormity of the coup, which was what this was.

“And we’re certain the deterrence fleet is caught inside?” Paula asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Juliaca said. “There is no response whatsoever from Kazimir. If he could get in touch with us, he would. He was commanding the fleet, so logically the fleet is inside the Sol barrier.”

Paula, who had been monitoring what she could of the ANA judicial conclave, knew the Admiral was right. But … “The whole fleet? That seems unlikely. Surely there’s some craft held in reserve.”

“One moment,” the Admiral said.

A new communication icon appeared in Paula’s exovision. She welcomed the color it brought to the numbing image of the Sol barrier. As she acknowledged the call, she pushed the Kabul ’s imagery into a peripheral mode. “Mr. President,” she said formally.

“Investigator Myo,” President Alcamo replied. “I’m glad you are still available. Frankly, I’m looking for some meaningful advice right now. Without ANA we’re woefully short of relevant information.”

“Whatever I can do, of course,” Paula said. “I was going to suggest to the Admiral that the remainder of the deterrence fleet be deployed to Sol to see if they can break in.”

“That’s the problem,” Admiral Juliaca said. “I don’t have any knowledge of the deterrence fleet. There’s nothing in any navy facility, not even a contact code. And the navy network has acknowledged my authority as commander.”

“But they must be getting in touch with you?” a startled Paula said.

“Not as yet.”

“I see.” A notion was starting to fall into place. It wasn’t good.

“Paula, do you know anything about the fleet?” President Alcamo asked.

“I’m afraid not, sir, though I do know how reluctant ANA and Kazimir were to deploy it. That does suggest to me that it might not be a fleet at all.”

“A single ship?” Juliaca asked.

“It fits what’s currently happening. It is inconceivable that any remaining fleet ships would not get in touch with you in an emergency of this magnitude. We should conclude there was only one and it is trapped inside the Sol barrier along with ANA.”

“You mean we’re defenseless?” President Alcamo asked.

“No, sir,” the Admiral replied. “The Ocisen invasion fleet and their Prime allies were disabled before the Sol barrier was established. There is no other immediate external threat, and the Capital- and River-class squadrons are more than capable of dealing with any known species within range. The deterrence fleet was always there to deal with a post-physical-level threat.”

“Our threat is not external,” Paula said. “It is Ilanthe and that damned inversion core, whatever the hell it is.”

“You hadn’t heard of it before?” the President asked.

“No, sir. All we knew was that the Accelerators hoped to achieve what they called Fusion with the Void in order to bootstrap themselves up to postphysical status.” She drew a breath and started to analyze the situation, trying to predict Ilanthe’s next move. “There is one critical factor remaining which is currently outside anyone’s control.”

“Araminta,” the Admiral ventured.

“Correct,” Paula said. “The only way Ilanthe and Living Dream can get inside the Void is with Araminta’s help. Which will be coerced once they find her.”

“Can you find her first?” the President asked.

“She’s on Chobamba, and it appears as though she’s already made a deal with some faction.”

“Which one?”

“I don’t know. But their agents must have helped to get her off Viotia. I imagine they are now as shocked as we are by the loss of ANA. That might make them open to a deal. We have an opportunity.”

“Can you do that?” the President asked.

“I can reach Chobamba shortly,” Paula said. Inwardly she was disappointed. The Alexis Denken was only an hour out from Viotia, and Chobamba was five hundred ten light-years from her current position. All I ever do these days is rush from one crisis point to another and arrive too late each time. That cannot stand; there’s too much at stake. I have to up my game, get ahead for once .

“Thank you,” the President said. “When you find her, take her into custody. No polite requests. We are beyond that now. She goes with you; she does not ally herself with anyone else-that cannot be permitted. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly, Mr. President. If I can’t capture her, nobody else must be allowed to. I will see to that.”

“You’ll do that, Paula?”

“Most assuredly.”