The Evolutionary Void (42 page)

“Aren’t you going to talk to me?” she asked the chamber. Her own voice
reverberated off the hard walls. “I know you’re sharing me.” Again the chamber
was silent. Empty. Araminta let out a mildly exasperated sigh and allowed her
ire to show. “I am talking to
you
, that which
emerged from Earth’s prison. You have to speak with me at some time, for I am
the only way to reach the Void. Let us begin now. Don’t be afraid. You’ve seen
I am both reasonable and practical.”

The curiosity within the gaiafield grew more intense as everyone strained
to perceive what she was talking to. Her u-shadow reported that the Upper
Council chamber’s secure communication net was activating. A solido projection
appeared at the other end of the table. Not a person but a simple dark sphere
scintillating with grim purple light. Araminta faced it impassively.

“Congratulations on your ascension, Dreamer.” Its voice was female,
melodically sinister.

“And you are?”

“Ilanthe.”

“You must be the one supplying the ultradrives and the force fields.”

“My agents arranged that with Ethan, yes.”

“Will the force fields be strong enough to protect us from the warrior
Raiel?”

“I believe so. They are the same type currently protecting Earth.”

“Ah. And for this bounty you expect to be taken into the Void?”

“Without my assistance you cannot reach the boundary.”

“And without me you cannot get inside.”

“It would seem we need each other.”

“Then we have reached an accord.”

“You will take me?” Ilanthe’s voice carried a note of surprise.

“The Void welcomes all who seek fulfillment. Whatever you are, you
obviously believe you need what the Void can offer. Therefore, I will be happy
to bring you to it. It is, after all, my destiny as Dreamer to help those who
yearn to reach the Heart.”

“That’s very noble of you. And completely unbelievable.”

“You are evil,” Araminta said.

“No, I am driven. It is not just Inigo and Edeard who had a vision of a
beautiful future.”

“Nonetheless, you are inimical to the Commonwealth and its citizens.”

“Again you are misjudging me. I simply wish to achieve a different goal
from the mundane aspirations which have so far existed among our species. A
wonderful uplifting goal that everyone can share. I require the Void’s
assistance to do that.”

“Then I wish you well on your voyage.”

“Why?”

“Because the Void will obliterate you. The Heart will not tolerate
malevolence no matter the intent behind it, deluded or deliberate. You cannot
avoid it, you cannot elude it. Despite my many misgivings I do genuinely
believe in the goodness of the Heart, for I am twinned with the Skylords, who
truly know its munificence. If necessary, I will travel there myself to expose
you and your machinations.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Knowing this, knowing I will oppose you, do you still wish to come with
us?”

“Yes. Do you still wish to take me?”

“Yes.”

“So be it. Our fate will be decided within the Void.”

“That it will.”

The sphere faded out, and the solido projector switched off. A long
breath escaped through Araminta’s pursed lips. She grinned nervously for the
benefit of her billions-strong spellbound audience. “Lady! I wonder what day
two is going to be like?”

Paula was curious about that herself.

“She’s up to something,” Oscar insisted over the ultrasecure link. “This
self-coronation is only the start.”

“I don’t see what else there can be for her,” Paula said.

“Well yeah … If it was obvious, everyone would figure it out and it’d be
pointless.”

“I do love your optimism. It was always your most endearing quality. You
probably believe Ilanthe will see the error of her ways before long.”

“You sound bitter.”

Paula rubbed a hand over her brow, surprised to find it was trembling.
But then, she hadn’t slept for days; even biononics could keep her fatigue at
bay for only so long. “I probably am. We’re the good guys, Oscar; we’re not
supposed to lose.”

“We haven’t lost. We’re nowhere near losing. The Pilgrimage ships haven’t
even been finished, let alone launched. So tell me how many ways covert
operations can sabotage them.”

“Hundreds, but that’s only a delay. It’s not a solution.”

“I want to keep going. I want to see if Araminta contacts me.”

“She won’t. Everyone in the galaxy can observe every second of her
existence. It’s actually quite clever: Sharing like that puts her beyond mere
Dreamer status; she’s almost achieved the same level Edeard had. Every moment
of her life is available for her followers to idolize, just like his was. But
they’ll only keep supporting her if she does what they want and takes them into
the Void. There’s no escape.”

“Humor me. I have faith in her, too. Different from everyone else, but
faith nonetheless. She’s not stupid, and she’s descended from Mellanie.”

“If that’s what your faith is based on, we’re in serious deep shit.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too.”

Paula smiled wearily. “All right, Oscar, I certainly haven’t got anything
else for you to do. Stick with the original mission; see if you can make
contact with the Second Dreamer.”

“Thank you.”

“What do your colleagues think about the notion?”

“They’re still on the payroll.”

“Are they all okay? Francola Wood seemed unnecessarily violent.”

“Wasn’t me, honest.”

“You were there.”

“We were. And I still don’t understand what happened. The path became
active somehow; we all knew that. Hell, we
felt
it.
But she never came through.”

“And yet she turned up in Colwyn City right after.”

“Exactly. See, there’s more to her than we understand. I trust you
noticed what she’s wearing around her neck.”

“Yes.”

“And she knew about Ilanthe. I didn’t.”

“It was classified. The navy knew she’d escaped.”

“So she’s getting her information from somewhere. She understands what’s
going on. Which means she knows what she’s got to do.”

“I hope you’re right, Oscar.”

“Me, too. So what are you going to do now?”

“Follow up leads, act on information. The usual.”

“Good luck.”

The link ended. Paula lay back on the couch, closing her eyes for a
moment to summon up the willpower to place her next call. It was all very well
being tired, but the situation was moving on with or without her.

Symbols appeared in her exovision, and her secondary routines pulled out
the technical results.
Alexis Denken
was currently
in full stealth mode fifty thousand kilometers above Viotia’s equator. The
smartcore had been running a painstaking search across local space for signs of
anyone else lurking above the planet. The first eight starships were easy
enough for its sensors to detect; she suspected they were backup vessels for
various agent teams on the planet. Now it had found another, the faintest
hyperspatial anomaly a quarter of a million kilometers out from the planet. The
stealth effect was first-rate; anything less than
Alexis
Denken
’s ANA-fabricated sensors wouldn’t have been able to find it. That
left her with the question of who it was and if it even mattered.

Her u-shadow opened a secure link to Admiral Juliaca. “I wasn’t expecting
this,” she said.

“Neither were we,” the Admiral confirmed. “The President is not happy
with today’s events.”

“You mean the President is frightened.”

“Yeah. Our best guess is that someone captured her and broke into her
mind. They’re just remote-controlling her now. It’s probably Ethan himself if
it isn’t Ilanthe.”

“That doesn’t quite fit. I don’t believe Ethan and Ilanthe would want
their shabby little arrangement to be public knowledge. And how did Araminta
know about Ilanthe?”

“Exactly. She has to have been taken over.”

“Or she communed with the Silfen Motherholme while she was on the paths.
After all, we still haven’t got a clue how she returned to Viotia, and it would
appear she’s been named a Friend.”

“Okay,” the Admiral said. “So why would the Silfen want Living Dream to
go on Pilgrimage?”

Paula pressed her fingertips into her temple again, massaging firmly. “I
haven’t got a clue. I’m just saying it’s possible Araminta has decided to step
up her game.” She could barely believe she was repeating Oscar’s hopes, but
what else was there to explain such extraordinary behavior?

“Then her new game is going to kill us all.”

“Will the navy destroy the Pilgrimage fleet?”

“President Alcamo is still trying to decide what to do. We’re as
compromised now as we were before, if not worse. If Ilanthe does make good on her
promise and supply Sol barrier force fields to the ships, then they’ll be
invulnerable to anything we can hit them with. That just leaves us a small
window while they’re on the ground under construction.”

Paula immediately saw the problem with that. “They’re being built next to
Greater Makkathran.”

“Actually, they’re inside the urban boundary, which means they’re under
the city’s civil defense force fields. If we take them out, it’ll destroy half
the city at least, probably more. Paula, even if I gave the order, I’m not sure
the navy ships would carry it out. I wouldn’t even blame them. Sixteen million
people live there.”

“Billions of people live throughout the Greater Commonwealth. Trillions
of entities live in the galaxy.”

“I know.”

“Covert sabotage will be easy enough. It doesn’t have to be a frontal
assault.”

“Believe me, we’re drawing up those plans right now.”

“But that’s only going to delay things.”

“If we have long enough, ANA might break out.”

“If we delay the Pilgrimage too much, Ilanthe might offer Araminta a ride
on her ship. Then we’d really be in trouble.”

“We’re more concerned by what the Void would do,” the Admiral said. “It
already began an expansion the first time Araminta tried denying it. If we
block her, there’s no telling how it’ll react to that. To put it bluntly, it
knows where we live now.”

“So we still need an alternative.”

“We do. Paula … do you have any idea what Gore is up to?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“Damn. Well, that leaves us with just about nothing.”

“I thought the Raiel answered our request to attempt to break through the
Sol barrier.”

“Yes, Qatux has agreed to help. We’re expecting the
High
Angel
will depart for Earth within the hour. The navy is evacuating its
core staff down to Kerensk, including me. After all, we don’t know if it’ll
come back.”

“I regard their involvement as promising. Nothing much stirs the Raiel
these days.”

“I think Ilanthe and Araminta have managed to focus their attention.”

“Quite.”

“Have you got anything else for me?”

“I’m sorry, Admiral, but the only other possibility is if Inigo is alive
and on the
Lindau
.”

“How does that help us? He started this Ozziedamned nonsense in the first
place.”

“Exactly. He may be able to stop it. He certainly had a large enough
change of heart to dump Living Dream. Several powerful people believed that
warranted expending considerable effort and energy to finding him.”

“What do you suggest? Intercepting the
Lindau
?”

“Not a good option. Not yet. This Aaron character is single-minded in his
mission and has already killed countless people in his pursuit. If he is
threatened, he may well have instructions to eliminate Inigo.”

“Or he may not.”

“Granted. But if Inigo is our last remaining chance and he’s on board
that scout ship, we can’t risk it. That’s a small ship: Aaron has no fallback,
nowhere to run. Prudence would suggest waiting until it reaches the Spike. That
opens up our options from a tactical point of view.”

“All right, Paula, but it’s a loose end I don’t want to ignore. We need
every glimmer of hope we can muster.”

“I won’t let it slip, I assure you. I have a ship which can reach the
Spike quickly when the need arises.”

Once again he ran across the vast hall with its crystalline arches high
above. People scattered before him, frightened people. Children. Children with
tears streaming down their sweet little faces.

Of all his uncertainty and confusion, he knew that should not be so. A
thought he held steadfast. A lone conviction in a world gone terribly wrong.
Human society existed to protect its children. That was bedrock he could rest
easy upon. Not that such assurance meant anything to the physical reality he
was surrounded by.

Weapons fire burst all around him, elegant colored lines of energy
forming complex crisscross patterns in the air. Force fields added a mauve haze
to the image. Then came the cacophony of screaming.

He ran, flinging himself across a cluster of wailing children. It was no
good. The darkness followed him, flowing across the huge room like an incoming
tide. It curled around him. And he felt her hand on his shoulder amid a clash
of sparkling colors. The pain began, searing in through his flesh, seeking out
his heart.