Peter Hamilton - Judas Unchained

“Right.”

“Your certificate, Mark, please.”

“Oh. Yes.” He told his e-butler to add his certificate to the contract, and sent it back to her.

“Thank you.” She started for the hall.

“Will I see you tomorrow?” Mark asked.

“No, Mark, you won’t.”

The front door closed smoothly behind her. Mark ran his hand back through his hair. “Goddamn, what a ballbreaker.”

“Yeah, but one that’s saved our asses. I wonder what the project is?”

“Some big military production line. I guess that’s where the automated assembly comes in. They’re going to bypass High Angel; that was only ever about politics.”

“Could be.”

“You don’t believe that?”

“It really doesn’t matter. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow.”

“You sorry I said yes? We could always not turn up.”

“I wouldn’t like to try that, not with Ms. Giselle Swinsol on our asses.”

“Guess not.”

“But you did the right thing. I just didn’t like the way she tried to bump us into saying yes. Then again, I suppose if you are building military systems right now, you can’t afford to waste any time.”

“Yeah. You know, I think I feel good about this already. I’m doing something to hit back at the bastards.”

“I’m glad, baby.” Liz put her arm around his neck, and pulled him close for a kiss. “How come you never told me you’re a Sheldon?”

“I’m not, really. Not part of the Dynasty, anyway.”

“Humm.” She kissed him again. “So what do we do till half past seven tomorrow?”

***

Oscar and Mac arrived outside Wilson’s office at the same time. Anna rose from behind her desk to kiss them both.

“He’s ready for you,” she told them.

“So how’s married life?” Mac asked.

“Oh, you know, we’re just like any other couple trying to pay off the mortgage.”

“Screw that,” Oscar said. “What was the honeymoon like? Spill it.”

Anna glanced back over her shoulder and gave him a saucy wink. “Euphoric, of course. An entire ten hours out of the office. What more could any girl want?”

Wilson greeted both of them warmly. “Thanks for coming. I try to see each captain before they leave. I don’t suppose it’s a tradition that’ll last much longer. We’re really starting to get a rush of components through for the next batch of starships. The emergency budget is showing some results, thank God.”

“Some good news,” Oscar said as he lowered himself cautiously into one of the scooplike chairs. He hated anything with so much spongy padding. “I haven’t seen that on the unisphere shows. They’re still busy navy-bashing.”

“You won’t,” Wilson said. “We’re holding back on specifics. We don’t know how much information the Primes glean from the unisphere.”

“Are you serious?”

“They must be trying to keep themselves updated about our capabilities,” Anna said. “We have to assume they datamined the Lost23. They know what we had at the time of the attack.”

“We’re watching them,” Wilson said. “QED.”

“Have we had any indication they’re running a surveillance operation?” Mac asked.

“Not as such. But then they haven’t spotted ours, yet.”

“I haven’t spotted ours yet,” Oscar protested.

“Rafael’s running it.” Anna gave him a teasing smile. “We’ve released hundreds of thousands of microsatellites in each system. It’s similar to the technique they used against us, open a wormhole and keep moving the end point. They can detect it, but they can’t investigate each opening.”

“So a lot of the satellites survive,” Wilson said. “They report back to us on a constant basis through the wormhole.”

“Information we are also keeping from the unisphere,” Anna said. “What the satellite swarms are showing us isn’t good.”

“They’re digging in on each of the Lost23,” Wilson said. “Wormholes have now been anchored on the planetary surfaces. The amount of equipment and aliens coming through is quite phenomenal, even by what we understand as Prime standards. Dimitri Leopoldovich was quite right, damn him; we’re not going to reclaim those planets.”

“So do we cancel the planetary section of the counterattack?” Mac asked.

“No. We’re sure the Lost23 are the strategic bases for the next Prime attack. The buildup is so massive it can’t be for anything else. Once they’re established, they can strike anywhere inside the Commonwealth, not just the nearby stars. If anything, that makes infiltrating and sabotaging them even more important. We need to buy time.” He looked directly at Oscar. “We have got to find the star where the Hell’s Gateway leads. It’s the one truly weak point they have.”

“Do my best,” Oscar said. He didn’t like the way Wilson was almost pleading with him. “The Defender will get to each of those stars on our flight’s search list, you can count on that.” It sounded defensive, even to him.

“I know I can,” Wilson said. “Mac, you’ve drawn the easy straw this time.”

“Well, there’s a surprise,” Oscar taunted his friend. “What have you got for him, Boss? Guarding a convent school on Molise?”

Mac politely showed him a finger. “Up yours.”

“You’re going to be testing the relativistic missiles, a long way from Commonwealth space. Now that the Primes have seen what we can do with the hyperdrive they’ll be coming up with defensive strategies. But if these missiles live up to their promise, even they will be hard-pressed to ward them off.”

“We’ll iron any bugs out,” Mac told him.

“Good. I’ve also decided this will be the last flight for StAsaph,” Wilson said.

“Why?”

“She’s obsolete, Mac, I’m sorry. By the time you get back we’ll be starting assembly of the new warships with the marque six hyperdrive. I want you in the captain’s seat on the first.”

“That’s a deal I can live with,” Mac said.

Oscar nearly complained. Doesn’t this navy believe in seniority? But that would have come out churlish, even from him.

“And when you get back,” Wilson said, “you’re heading up the assault cruiser project.”

“Who, me?” Oscar said.

“Yeah, you. It’s going to be our eventual war winner, Oscar. I’m not kidding. They’re putting so many new technologies into the damn thing that even I don’t know half of them. Sheldon’s got every Dynasty collaborating on this. That’s leading to a lot of friction on the overall management team. If anyone’s got the experience to pull that team together and make it work, it’s you.”

“Hell.” Oscar actually felt a burst of gratitude that made his throat close up. He would never ask for so much responsibility. Yet Wilson trusted him with it, and Sheldon must have approved of the appointment, too. “Thanks, Boss. I won’t let you down.” Stupid sentimentalist. Then he thought about Adam, and the recordings he was planning to take on the reconnaissance flight. His cheeks began to flush from the guilt.

“You okay?” Anna asked.

“Sure.”

“For a moment there, you looked embarrassed.”

“Him?” Mac exclaimed. “I don’t think so. Forgotten a date, yes.”

“At least I can get dates,” Oscar shot back. It was too late; the moment was gone. If there was anybody in the world he could trust to explain about Adam and his own past, it was these three friends. He smiled broadly to cover his true emotions. Just who am I afraid of? Them, or me?

***

The simulation environment was almost perfect. Morton had been wetwired for TSI before, of course, but this was an order of magnitude above that simple consumer convenience. There were unisphere artistes who couldn’t afford this level of sensorium quality. The navy technicians had even equipped him for smell, notoriously the most difficult human sense for a program to duplicate correctly. Even now it wasn’t perfect: the smell of the smoke was more like citrus than burning wood.