The Thousand Emperors (42 page)

‘And that’s why you threatened war?’

‘We have no objections to the Tian Di exploring the Founder Network,’ said the Ambassador, ‘so long as it is conducted with an appreciation of the considerable dangers
involved. Cheng initially agreed to halt any further explorations for the duration of our negotiations with him, but he constantly reneges or ignores every agreement we have made. We now believe he
has no intention of honouring any of our demands.’

‘But why would he do that? Why take such a huge risk with all our lives?’

‘A question that has been on our minds from the beginning, Mr Gabion, but the information you have brought us may answer that question. If Tian Di agents truly have attempted to retrieve
artefacts from Darwin – and there is strong circumstantial evidence to support that conjecture – it may be that Cheng has simply been stalling for time until he can acquire those
artefacts. It adds fuel to our growing conviction that neither Cheng nor his closest advisors are wholly sane.’

‘So what will you do now?’

‘Since he is apparently unprepared or unwilling to deal with the threat, we will have to deal with it for him, and either seal or destroy the Thorne gate. It is likely this will provoke
violent action from the Sandoz, and become a full-fledged conflict throughout the Tian Di. We are extremely well prepared, however, for the coming conflict. Now, Mr Gabion,’ he said, again
reaching out with his ungloved hand. ‘Time is running short.’

Luc hesitated for a moment, then reached out and gripped the Ambassador’s hand.

In a moment, the
Sequoia
slipped away.

He saw ships like shards of black ice tear the underlying structure of space apart, triggering the death of a star in a burst of blazing energy. He realized he was witnessing a battle between
evenly balanced Inimical and Coalition forces, each side equipped with weapons the nature of which neither truly comprehended.

You see
? said the Ambassador, from somewhere far away.

He remembered that once his name had been only Luc Gabion, but now he had a billion names and faces, scattered across multiple worlds, and in the cold, dark depths between stars.

Simultaneous with witnessing this battle, he stood in a busy street and watched figures – some more or less human in appearance, some multi-limbed and bizarrely alien – engage in
what might have been a dance, or a ritual, or something else entirely, their emotions and thoughts tumbling around and through him.

He stood on the bottom of an ocean in a body constructed of plastic and metal, leaning in close to observe tiny, finger-like polyps that populated the edges of a volcanic fissure.

There were other eyes and other faces, some on the surfaces of worlds, and others floating above the roiling surfaces of stars, naked to the vacuum.

He was anyone and anything he chose to be.

It was, he thought, like being God.

But it was too much. Luc’s senses reeled under the assault of so many crowded perspectives and tumbling, chaotic thoughts.

Then, finally, he was all alone once more, and back in his own skull – all except for Antonov, somewhere in the depths of his thoughts, grinning toothily through a bushy black beard.

He opened his eyes to find he had folded his body into a ball next to the now open airlock door, his skin bright with sweat. Ambassador Sachs knelt on one knee by his side.

‘Now do you see?’ said Sachs. ‘Some of those weapons you saw being used were first developed so that we might defend ourselves against the Inimicals. We fought battles that
destroyed entire star systems, but we did what we had to do because it was a choice between survival and extinction. But when it comes to a fight between the Tian Di and the Coalition, believe us
when we say it is not a war we could possibly lose. Long ago, we seeded weapons fabricants in the outer reaches of several Tian Di systems, including this one, against the possibility that a day
such as this might come.’

‘You’re not human,’ Luc gasped, the words rasping in his throat. ‘Not any more.’

‘We in the Coalition prefer to think we are
more
human,’ the Ambassador observed. ‘But perhaps you now more clearly understand the threat we all face, and the reason for
our actions.’

‘I could be talking to anyone right now,’ said Luc. ‘There
is
no one, single Ambassador, is there?’

He’d seen how the Coalition’s citizens leapt from body to body at will, instantaneously, across continents and even light-years, using instantaneous communications technology, a
constant shunting of encoded consciousnesses in and out of the lattices filling their skulls. Notions of privacy, as they were understood within the Tian Di, simply did not, could not exist for
them. Bodies were there to be shared, rather than owned. A single mind might find itself in a dozen different bodies in the space of a week, a day, or an hour; a constant flow of conscious, living
data across a civilization that now itself encompassed dozens of star systems.

In that brief moment of contact with the Ambassador, Luc had seen how a single mind could split itself into a dozen copies, each occupying a separate body simultaneously, before later
reintegrating itself into a single consciousness. It was wonderful and terrifying in equal measure, and Luc wasn’t sure he could experience it all again without going insane.

‘We understand how all this must frighten you,’ said the Ambassador. ‘You think you would lose your individuality if you came to live amongst us. That’s not the case: the
Coalition embraces change, since to become static is to stagnate and die. By contrast, very little in the Tian Di has changed in centuries. Your ruling Council live artificially extended lives, but
they do not live
well
. You’ve seen how they have sunk into a mire of depredation and excess, down on that miserable sandpit of a world they call home. They keep life- and
intelligence-boosting technology from the rest of you and have the audacity to claim it’s for your own good. Tell us honestly,’ Sachs continued, ‘after everything you’ve
seen, who, may we ask, is more human? Men and women like Cripps and de Almeida, or what you’ve seen of the Coalition?’

Luc blinked sweat out of his eyes. ‘Was it you I spoke to when I last came here? Or was there someone else using that body?’

‘There are up to thirty agents using this body at different times,’ the Ambassador replied. ‘But the individual mind you are addressing just now is the same one that you spoke
with then.’

‘So who exactly am I talking to right now? Is your name really Horst Sachs?’

‘That is the name of the individual occupying this body
at this moment
, yes,’ Sachs replied. ‘Of all of us, we – or rather,
I
– spend the most time in
this body, but whatever you and I say to each other is heard by all.’

‘And where are you the rest of the time?’

The Ambassador shrugged. ‘In other places, other bodies – even other times, if duty calls me into the Founder Network. Now do you understand why Antonov did to you what he did? He
was saving your life – and his own.’

‘No.’ Luc shook his head. ‘That’s not what you said to me before. You said I was just one life measured against billions.’

‘Much has changed since then, Mr Gabion. We did not yet fully understand your role in current events. Look.’

The Ambassador reached into a pocket and pulled out something metallic that squirmed in the open palm of his hand. Luc stared at the writhing thing with horrible fascination.

‘So why did Antonov put one of those things in me, instead of using it on himself?’

‘Because he was already equipped with the more primitive form of lattice still used by the Council,’ the Ambassador explained. ‘It cannot be removed, even by surgery. The only
way to ensure his survival, or that of any member of the Temur Council, would be to acquire a clone body pre-equipped with its own lattice, then place backups of his preserved mind-state into that
new body. Since such means were not available to him while he was trapped on Aeschere, the only option left to him under the circumstances was to imprint a number of his memories and some fragment
of his personality onto a device such as this one, and implant it within you.’

‘Except that it’s killing me.’

‘Killing the body you
currently
occupy, yes,’ the Ambassador agreed, ‘but the same cannot be said for your
mind
. With the aid of your lattice, everything that
defines you – every thought, memory, and learned skill, along with the manifold and near-infinite interrelationships between those thoughts and memories – can be stored, shuffled, or
copied indefinitely, so long as there is Coalition instantiation technology to receive it all.’

Luc stared at the Ambassador’s single gloved hand. ‘That’s why you wear those gloves, isn’t it? Even shaking someone’s hand . . .’

‘Has considerably deeper meaning in our culture than in yours, yes,’ the Ambassador agreed. ‘It can allow the sharing of the most intimate gestures and thoughts, or it can
reveal the very essence of one’s soul. When everything and everyone around you is capable of either imbuing you with its own thoughts and memories, or of absorbing your own, one must be
careful in the extreme. Come.’

The Ambassador stood and pulled his glove back on, then reached down, helping Luc upright. Luc found himself wondering what kind of pronoun you used for more than one person taking turns sharing
a single body – or was it safer just to refer to Ambassador Sachs as ‘they’?

The airlock door finally opened, letting them pass through into the now re-pressurized dock. The air inside was filled with the stink of burning plastic, and a pile of half-melted metal in one
corner, still radiating heat, was only just recognizable as the remains of a Sandoz mechant. Luc saw that a lone flier sat in a launching cradle at the centre of the bay, watched over by one of the
Ambassador’s own mechants. The flier’s hatch hissed open as they approached.

‘It’s best you leave immediately,’ said the Ambassador. ‘But first I have some more information for you. Within the past few days, an attack took place on an orbital
facility above Darwin. The raid was both unexpected and unexpectedly sophisticated, and it appears an artefact originating from the Founder Network, in storage aboard that orbital facility, may
indeed have been removed from it. Our consensus, given what you’ve already told us, is that the raid must have been carried out by agents working on behalf of Father Cheng.’

‘But can you stop them from bringing the artefact, whatever it is, back to Temur?’

‘Unfortunately, it may already be too late,’ the Ambassador replied with a pained expression. ‘Not long after the raid, there was an unexpected breach of security at the
Darwin–Temur gate.’

Luc felt his insides turn hollow. ‘What kind of breach?’

‘Special Envoys originating from the Tian Di passed back through the Darwin–Temur gate less than half a day ago. On further investigation, it seems one of the Envoys did not
precisely match our records. Our conclusion is that one of the Envoys was replaced, presumably by whichever agent acquired the artefact for Cheng.’

‘The last time I spoke to Zelia, she said the Council’s effectively gone to war with itself.’

‘We can corroborate that,’ said the Ambassador. ‘We have observed fighting in the vicinity of Liebenau and the Red Palace.’

‘Can’t you hold off your invading forces for a little while longer?’ Luc pleaded. ‘I have all the proof I need to discredit Cheng in the eyes of all but his most loyal
supporters. I just need an opportunity to show it to them.’

‘We can perhaps delay for a few hours,’ the Ambassador admitted. ‘But Cheng appears to be winning the battle for control of Vanaheim. That will leave us no choice but to
subjugate his forces, and Vanaheim, with utmost prejudice.’

‘I’ll talk to Zelia de Almeida, tell her everything you’ve told me. She can take it to the rest of the Council and make them understand just how bad things have
become.’

The Ambassador thought for a moment. ‘Twelve hours,’ he said. ‘Is that enough?’

‘Not nearly enough.’

Sachs smiled gently. ‘But enough for now.’

The station emitted a series of howling, metallic shrieks, and Luc reached out to grab hold of the flier’s hatch as the station shuddered around them. An automated voice sounded,
announcing in calm tones that anyone remaining on board the
Sequoia
should evacuate immediately.

‘What about you?’ Luc shouted over the din. ‘Why the hell won’t you come with me?’

‘We told you, the flier only has room for one. Besides, your chances are considerably improved if we
don’t
join you.’

‘Why?’

‘We intend to destroy the
Sequoia
immediately following your departure.’

‘
What?
’

‘At the very least, the detonation should disguise your departure, otherwise you would likely be blown out of the sky long before you reached the surface. And please remember, Mr Gabion,
this is hardly an act of sacrifice. In fact, I – or rather, Horst Sachs – fully intend to speak to you again, regardless of what happens to either this body or yours.’

The station shook again. ‘Then I should go,’ said Luc, his throat tight.

‘You should be aware,’ the Ambassador added, ‘that we took the opportunity to make some necessary adjustments to your lattice when we made physical contact.’

Luc’s eyes narrowed. ‘What kind of adjustments?’

‘Your lattice required optimization. The crude surgery performed on you was insufficient to allow the full use of its potential.’

‘What potential?’

‘The ability to control mechants in the way you saw us do, to subvert attack-systems, or even boost physical response times. We have also given you the means to track down the stolen
artefact, which we strongly urge you to do.’

Luc nodded wordlessly as the hatch hissed into place before him. He pulled himself into his seat restraints, then watched as the doors at the far end of the dock swung open to reveal a vista of
stars.

With any luck, his departure wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as his arrival.