The Dreaming Void (14 page)

Gore gave a derisive chuckle. “What a monstrosity. You'd think they could do better now that we've given them regrav.”

“We took five hundred years to get from the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to the
Second Chance,
” Justine pointed out.

Gore looked up as the alien starship slowed to a halt above the mansion's grounds. “Do you think it'll have jets of dry ice gushing out when it lands? Or maybe they've mounted a giant laser gun that'll blast the White House to smithereens.”

“Dad, be quiet.”

The ship descended. Two rows of hatches along its belly swung open.

“For fuck's sake, haven't they even heard of malmetal?” Gore complained.

Long fat landing legs telescoped out. The movement was accompanied by a sharp hissing sound as high-pressure gas vented through grilles in the undercarriage bays.

Justine had to suck in her lower lip to stop herself from giggling. The starship was ridiculous, the kind of contraption Isambard Brunel would have built for Queen Victoria.

It touched down on the lawn, its landing pads sinking deep into the grass and the soft soil. Several radiator fins sliced down into silver birch trees, their heat igniting the wood. Burning branches dropped to the ground.

“Wow, the damage it causes. How will our world survive? Quick, you kids flee to the woods; I'll hold them off with a shotgun.”

“Dad! And cancel your solido; you know what the Empire thinks of ANA personalities.”

“Stupid
and
superstitious.”

His solido vanished. Justine watched his icon appear in her exoimage. “Now behave,” she told him.

“That ship is leaking radiation all over the place,” Gore commented. “They haven't even shielded their fusion reactor properly. And who uses deuterium, anyway?”

Justine reviewed the sensor data, scanning the ship's hotspots. “It's hardly a harmful emission level.”

“The Ocisens aren't as susceptible to radioactivity as humans are,” Kazimir said. “It's one reason they were able to industrialize space in their home system with what equates to our mid-twenty-first-century technology. They simply didn't require the shielding mass we would have needed.”

Halfway down the starship's fuselage a multisegment airlock door unwound. The ambassador for the Ocisen Empire floated out, sitting on top of a hemispherical regrav sled. Physically, the alien was not impressive: a small barrel-shaped torso wrapped in layers of flaccid flesh that formed overlapping folds. Its four eyes were on serpent stalks curving out from the crest, while four limbs were folded up against the lower half of its body. They were encrusted in cybernetic systems, amplifying its strength and providing a number of manipulator attachments that ranged from delicate pliers up to a big hydraulic crab pincer. Further support braces ran up its body, resembling a cage of chrome vertebrae that ended in a collar arrangement just below the base of the eye stalks. Patches of what looked like copper moss were growing across various sections of its flesh; they sprouted small rubbery stalks covered in minute sapphire flowers.

Justine bowed formally as the sled stopped in front of her, floating half a meter off the ground, which put the ambassador's eye stalks above her. Even with the regrav unit and the physical support, it was obvious the ambassador had come from a low-gravity world. It sagged against the metal and composite structures holding it up. Two of the eye stalks bent around so that they were aligned on her.

“Ambassador, thank you for visiting us,” Justine said.

“We are pleased to visit,” the ambassador answered, its voice a whispery burble coming from a slender vocalizer gill between the eye stalks. Translated into English, the sled processors used a speaker on the rim to boom the reply to Justine.

“My home welcomes you,” she said, remembering the formalites.

Another of the ambassador's eye stalks curved around to stare at Kazimir. “You are the human navy commander.”

“That is correct,” Kazimir said. “I am here as you requested.”

“Many of my nest ancestor cousins fought in the Fandola assault.” Thin droplets of spittle ran out of the ambassador's gill, to be absorbed by drain holes in its support collar.

“I am sure they fought with honor.”

“Honor be damned. We would have enjoyed victory over the Hancher vermin if you had not intervened that day.”

“We are friends with the Hancher. Your attack was ill advised; I warned you we would not abandon our friends. That is not our way.”

The fourth eye stalk turned on Kazimir. “You in person warned the Empire, Navy Commander?”

“That is correct.”

“You live so long. You are no longer natural.”

“Is this why you are here, Ambassador, to insult me?”

“You overreact. I state the obvious.”

“We do not hide from the obvious,” Justine said. “But we are not here today to dwell upon what was. Please come in, Ambassador.”

“You are kind.”

Justine walked into the entrance hall with the ambassador's sled gliding along behind her. Somehow it managed to keep a distance that was not so close as to be blatantly rude but close enough to be disconcerting.

Kazimir's icon blinked up beside Gore's in her peripheral vision. “You know,” he said, “the Ocisens only started painting their sleds black after they found out humans are unsettled by darkness.”

“If that's the best they can come up with, it's a wonder their species ever survived the fission age,” she replied.

“We shouldn't be in too much of a hurry to mock them,” Gore replied. “However much we sneer, they do have an empire, and they would have obliterated the Hancher if we hadn't stepped in.”

“I'd hardly consider that to be an indicator of their superiority,” Justine told them. “And they're certainly not a threat to us; their technology level is orders of magnitude below Higher culture, let alone ANA.”

“Yes, but right now they only have one policy: to acquire better technology, especially weapons technology. A sizable percentage of the Emperor's expansion budget is diverted to building long-range exploration ships in the hope they'll come across a world whose inhabitants have gone postphysical and they can help themselves to whatever's left behind.”

“Let's hope they never encounter a Prime immotile.”

“They've made seventeen attempts to reach the Dyson Pair,” Kazimir told her. “And they currently have forty-two ships searching for an immotile civilization beyond the region of space we firewalled.”

“I didn't know that. Is there any danger they'll find a rogue Prime planet?”

“If we can't find one, they certainly won't be able to.”

Justine led their little party into the McLeod room and sat at the head of the large oak table running down the middle. Kazimir took the chair at his mother's side while the ambassador hovered at the other end. Its eye stalks bent around slowly, as if it were having trouble with what it saw as it scanned the walls. The room's decor was Scottish-themed, surrounding the alien with tartan drapes, ancient Celtic ceremonial swords, and solemn marble mannequins dressed in clan kilts. Several sets of bagpipes were displayed in glass cases. A fabulous pair of stag antlers hung above the stone mantel that had been imported from a Highland castle.

“Ambassador,” Justine said formally. “I represent the human government of Earth. I am physical, as you asked, and I am empowered to negotiate on the government's behalf with the Ocisen Empire. What do you wish to discuss?”

Three of the ambassador's eyes curved around to stare at her. “Although we disapprove of living creatures placing themselves subordinate to the mechanical, we consider your planetary computer to be the true ruler of the Commonwealth. That is why I required this direct meeting rather than with the Senate as usual.”

Justine was not about to start arguing about political structures with an alien who saw everything in black and white. “ANA has considerable influence beyond this planet. That is so.”

“Then you must work with the Empire to avert a very real danger.”

“What danger is that, Ambassador?”
As if none of us knew.

“A human organization is threatening to send ships into the Void.”

“Yes, our Living Dream movement wants to send its followers on a Pilgrimage there.”

“I am familiar with human emotional states after being exposed to your kind for so long, so I am curious why you do not react to this event with any sense of distress or concern. It is through humans that we know of the Void; therefore, you know what effect your Living Dream is proposing to trigger.”

“They do not propose anything; they simply wish to live the life of their idol.”

“You are deliberately denying the implication. Their entry to the Void will provoke a massive devourment phase. The galaxy will be ruined. Our Empire will be consumed. You will kill us and countless others.”

“That will not happen,” Justine said.

“We are reassured that you intend to stop the Living Dream.”

“That's not what I said. It is not our belief that their Pilgrimage will cause a devourment phase of any size. They simply do not possess the ability to pass through the event horizon which guards the Void. Even the Raiel have trouble doing that, and Living Dream does not have access to a Raiel ship.”

“Then why are they launching this Pilgrimage?”

“It is a simple political gesture, nothing more. Neither the Ocisen Empire nor any other species in the galaxy has anything to worry about.”

“Do you guarantee that your Living Dream group cannot get through the event horizon? Other humans have crossed over into the Void. They are the cause of this desire to Pilgrimage, are they not?”

“Nothing is certain, Ambassador; you know that. But the likelihood—”

“If you cannot guarantee it, then you must prevent the ships from flying.”

“The Greater Commonwealth is a democratic institution, complicated in this case by Living Dream being both transstellar and the legitimate government of Ellezelin. The Commonwealth constitution is specifically designed to protect every member's right to self-determination on an individual and governmental level. In other words, we don't actually have the legal right to prevent them from embarking on their Pilgrimage.”

“I am familiar with human lawyers. Everything can be undone; nothing is final. You play with words, not reality. The Empire recognizes only power and ability. Your computer government has the physical power to prevent this Pilgrimage, am I not correct?”

“Ability does not automatically imply intent,” Justine said. “ANA: Governance has the ability to do many things. We do not do them because of the laws which govern us, both legal and moral.”

“It is not part of your morality to destroy this galaxy. You can prevent this.”

“We can argue strongly against it,” she said, wishing she did not agree quite so much with the Ocisen.

“The Empire requires a tangible commitment. The Pilgrimage ships must be neutralized.”

“Out of the question,” Justine said. “We cannot interfere with the lawful activities of another sovereign state; it goes against everything we are.”

“If you do not prevent the launch of this atrocity, then the Empire will. Even your lawyers will agree we have the right to species self-preservation.”

“Is that a threat, Ambassador?” Kazimir asked quietly.

“It is the course of action you have forced upon us. Why do you not see this? Are you afraid of your primitive cousins? What can they threaten you with?”

“They do not threaten us; we respect each other. Can you make the leap to understand that?”

Justine tried to read the ambassador's reaction to the jibe, but it seemed unperturbed. Spittle continued to dribble from its vocalizer gill while its arms flopped like landed fish inside their cybernetic casings. “Your laws and their hypocrisy will always elude us,” the ambassador said. “The Empire knows you always include extraordinary powers within your constitutions to impose solutions in times of crisis. We require you to invoke them now.”

“ANA: Governance will be happy to introduce a motion in the Senate,” Justine said. “We will ask that Living Dream desist from reckless action.”

“Will you back this by force if they refuse?”

“Unlikely,” Kazimir said. “Our navy exists to protect us from external enemies.”

“What is the Void devourment if not an enemy? Ultimately it is everyone's enemy. The Raiel acknowledge this.”

“We do understand your unease, Ambassador,” Justine said. “I would like to reassure you we will work to prevent any catastrophe from engulfing the galaxy.”

“The Raiel could not prevent devourment. Are you greater than the Raiel?”

“Probably not,” she muttered. Did it understand sarcasm?

“Then we will prevent your ships from flying.”

“Ambassador, I have to advise the Ocisen Empire against such a course of action,” Kazimir said. “The navy will not permit you to attack humans.”

“Do not think you can intimidate us, Admiral Kazimir. We are not the helpless species you attacked at Fandola. We have allies now. I represent many powerful species who will not allow the Void to begin its final devourment phase. We do not stand alone. Do you think your navy can defeat the whole galaxy?”

Kazimir seemed unperturbed. “The navy acts only in defense. I urge you to allow the Commonwealth to solve an internal problem in our own way. Humans will not trigger a large-scale devourment.”

“We will watch you,” the ambassador boomed. “If you do not prevent these Pilgrimage ships from being built and launched, then we and our new—powerful—allies will act in self-defense.”

“I do understand your concern,” Justine said. “But I would ask you to trust us.”

“You have never given us a reason to,” the ambassador said. “I thank you for your time. I will return to my ship; I find your environment unpleasant.”