James Hogan - Mission to Minerva

"Broghuilio assures us they are safe."

"Pah! Broghuilio's own general doesn't trust him. If the Giants are safe, I will bargain. You will learn what else we know besides Hat Rack, what else can happen. Otherwise, I have nothing to tell you."

Freskel-Gar didn't look happy about it, but Hunt's mention of Hat Rack seemed to make an impression. He nodded curtly. "A brief word only. Then we talk."

Hunt was led over to the panel where he had addressed ZORAC before. Freskel-Gar and aides stood behind and around him. "ZORAC?"

"Yes, Vic?"

"Is Garuth out there in that lander?"

"Yes."

"With the remainder of the crew and the three Terrans?"

"Yes."

"You have a link to them from the Shapieron?"

"Stop." One of Freskel-Gar's officers interrupted, raising a hand. "What is this Shapieron?

"The name of the ship," Hunt told him. Freskel-Gar nodded for him to continue. "Can you connect me?"

"No problem."

"Audio only," the officer who seemed suspicious of everything instructed. A few moments passed.

"Vic?"

"Vic speaking. Is that you, Garuth, in the surface lander?"

"Yes. I-"

"I must be quick. Being monitored by people converged around me. Checking on your safety. We see ships converging around. I feel an expanding bubble of anxiety that I am unable to suppress. Please confirm."

There was a pause. Hunt could almost sense Garuth's bewilderment at the strange choice of words. Freskel-Gar shuffled impatiently. "We are unharmed so far," Garuth answered finally. "I understand your concern, and am grateful." Another pause. "I do understand."

"Enough," the officer pronounced. Hunt was moved away, back across the floor. Somebody across the room relayed a message that Hat Rack had been aborted. Suddenly, an instinct told Hunt what it referred to. His hopes took an upturn. Now, all he had to do was play for time.

Garuth's mind raced frantically through what Hunt had been trying to say. Converge, expand bubble, suppress… Obviously it was referring to the Shapieron's M-wave gear. But how did that apply to their present situation?

He looked back at the image of the Shapieron, surrounded by Broghuilio's five craft.

The others around him were picking up on it too. Moments before Hunt called, they had been stunned by an announcement from ZORAC that the probe thought to be absent had suddenly commenced transmitting. It had been out there all along! The passage through the spacetime storm had caused havoc with its on-board system programming. Possessing only lightweight processing capacity compared to something like ZORAC or the kinds of system carried in the Jevlenese ships, it had taken until now to repair the damage.

"He was trying to tell us something," Duncan said. "Vic's word games again."

Garuth looked back at the Shapieron, standing there empty apart from the Jevlenese, with nothing else in the vicinity.

"He talked about expansion," Chien said. "When a detached onboard generator is powered up, it creates a vastly expanded bubble."

"And its convergence core zone," Shilohin mused. "That must be what he meant."

"The raft!" Chien exclaimed suddenly. "The Thuriens' first experiments with the onboard bubble generator. Before we realized that the bubble has to be collapsed after stabilization. The Shapieron can do the same thing."

Shilohin saw at once what Chien meant. "Garuth, can I handle this? Vic sounded pressed down there."

"Go ahead."

"ZORAC," Shilohin called.

"Ma'am?"

"Reference the early Thurien experiments on convergence containment and wave stabilization. Specifically, the rafts built to test onboard bubble creation. When the local bubble is not balanced via an umbilical connection to the Gate projectors, an expanded convergence zone results. Are we in agreement so far?"

"I'm with you."

"With the Shapieron's onboard generator driven at maximum, what kind of size would the bubble extend to?"

"I don't have access to VISAR's data right now. Impossible to say."

"Hundreds of feet? Thousands? A few miles, maybe?"

"Possibly… I think I see your reasoning."

"Not mine. Vic Hunt's."

"That figures."

Shilohin hesitated. Glancing at Garuth but still addressing ZORAC, she said, "Synchronization of the collapse would have to be external. It couldn't be coordinated within the convergence zone."

"I could create a direct switch from the lander into the control circuit to collapse the bubble," ZORAC replied. "But the ship's functional integrity might be compromised. It would require authorization by the Commander."

It took Garuth a few seconds to follow what they were talking about. But if they didn't try, Minerva would be at Broghuilo's mercy. The mission would have failed. If they tried and succeeded, and as a result the Shapieron became no longer functional, they would be unable to get home. But it was already looking very much as if they weren't going to be able to get home anyway. The alternative they stood to face was becoming part of a world dominated by Broghuilio. Garuth met Shilohin's eyes. Once again, he had to make an agonizing decision, but with no real choice.

"I authorize it," he confirmed.

"Reconfiguring generator net for maximum power," ZORAC responded. "Commencing bubble inflation now."

Broghuilio stood with his entourage on the Command Deck of the Shapieron and surveyed his new domain. In terms of style and engineering it was admittedly primitive in some ways, with its reliance on voice and screens-not even avco to afford permanent visual and audio sensory integration, let alone the full-neural capability of something like VISAR or JEVEX. But in a different way it had its own kind of splendor. Without direct neural interaction, and featuring less automatic system integration than Thurien designs, the older architecture used greater numbers of screens and operators, making the vista more grand and imposing. The supervisory dais with its positions for commander, deputy, and engineering chief looked out at the main displays over the bays of operator stations and instrument panels in the grand manner of thrones. Very fitting. It would suit Broghuilio well. In his mind's eye he could already picture the extension that would be added for the targeting and fire-control sections when the armaments from his own ships were installed. The whole vessel had obviously been refitted recently throughout, and he had established from its controlling AI that the power generation and drive systems were fully refurbished and charged. He would be unchallengeable effectively indefinitely in this. Even in its former condition, the ship had been good for over twenty years-and at the end of that, still up to attempting a voyage from Sol to Gistar. Yes, Broghuilio decided, this would suit him very well indeed.

"You see," he said, turning to Estordu and the others. "We have been here for a time measured only in days, and we are established. Our situation has already improved dramatically from the poor relations that the Lambian prince would have us be. As a revolutionary, he is an amateur. Did not I, the true revolutionary, promise you that one day we would settle the reckoning for that insult? It seems the day may come sooner than I anticipated."

"His Excellency spoke truly," one of the party said.

"Luring the Shapieron here to be dealt with away from the Thuriens was an act of brilliance!" another effused. "The mark of a true genius."

Even Broghuilio blinked at that one. It hadn't quite been that way. But it was fine by him, if that was what they wanted to believe.

The captain of Broghuilio's flagship, who had also come aboard for the tour, looked up from speaking via compad with his second-in-command. "We are still receiving requests from General Wylott and from the Lambians to reconnect, Excellency," he advised.