Empire Ebook Full (29 page)

I reached the upper atmosphere, which amounted to a swirling mix of hydrogen atoms
at the fringe of a vast sea of gases. I nosed the destroyer downward and drove it
steadily deeper. Soon, the air thickened and space around me vanished.

I rode
Actium
down in the soup, and felt the hull begin to vibrate and occasionally groan as the
exterior pressures built up. I ran the program I’d developed with the last ship I’d
taken down, slowly folding the walls down toward me, reducing the size of the ship’s
cabin and thus increasing the internal pressure and thickening the hull. The nanites
flowed overhead like silver water, forming and reforming the curved walls as they
adjusted to the building forces outside.

I planned my diplomatic speech during the long descent toward the inhabited layers
of their atmosphere. Every layer I penetrated seemed like a permanent blanket that
wrapped around this murky world. I told myself I would
insist
they speak with me. It would be easier to find them this time, as I now knew where
they glided and swam in their oceans of gas.

 Just like the last time, the ride was pretty uncomfortable until I got to a depth
of about nine thousand miles. Down there, the windshear of the upper layers was gone,
and the pressure seemed to level out a bit. The environment at this depth was calm
and even the temperature was reasonable.

I had
Actium
form an audio device to talk to the Blues. The bassoon-like instrument was half-megaphone
and half-computer. Through it, I was able to blow vibrations into their winds and
capture their attention. I still wasn’t sure why they didn’t use more advanced communications
technology when dealing with us, but I didn’t much care why. I just wanted to get
them talking.

 Eventually, after sending out enough whale-calls, I received an answer: “Why do you
disturb us, dense-thing?” asked a melodious voice.

“I’m Colonel Kyle Riggs,” I said. “May I ask who you are?”

“I am…
Beneficence
.”

An interesting name, I thought. I knew from experience that the Blues were named for
their natural behavioral traits. I told myself I should be happy this guy’s name wasn’t
something like
Irritability
or
Pointless Rage
.

“I’m not the machine you see before you. It’s merely a vehicle. I’m inside this ship,
and I’m biotic like you.”

“You insult me by suggesting you are in any way similar to myself.”

I frowned. Beneficence my ass, I thought.
Prissy
might have been a better name.

“I’ll come out of my ship and meet with you, if you like,” I said.

As the Blues were essentially gaseous in nature, they considered us to be more or
less on the level of rocks. Blues lived their lives as organized clouds, and frequently
shared their body mass with one another. They mixed gases and gauzy aerogels when
coming into contact with each other as a matter of course. It was vaguely creepy,
but they really liked to
taste
a newcomer and share part of themselves physically with anyone they met.

“If you must,” Beneficence said.

Muttering about ungracious hosts, I wriggled out of the airlock, which was about the
size of a manhole now that
Actium
had compressed herself down to withstand the atmosphere. Once floating outside, I
was promptly assailed by Beneficence. The process was like being felt-up by an air
compressor.

When the being was quite finished, I coughed as politely as I could and resumed our
conversation. “I’m here to ask you to join us in the coming conflict.”

“I find you distasteful. The molecules reeking from your form are universally unpleasant.”

“Yeah?” I asked, trying to control my temper. “You stink too. But let’s get down to
business, shall we? Are you in charge of making any kind of group decision for your
people? Should I talk to someone else?”

“I doubt another of my kind would subject themselves to your disgusting essence.”

“Well, how would they know—”

“I’ve taken the precaution of singing about it. The message will be repeated and resung
until it rolls around the world and back again.”

“That’s great,” I said. “Do you know anything about the robots your people built and
sent up above the clouds to plague the rest of the universe? Or are you as ignorant
as you are rude?”

“You came here to cast insults and demands? Striking. Discrediting.”

Something in my question had shocked the cloud-being. I was glad about that, and wished
I knew exactly what it was so I could say it again with more vigor. I took a deep
breath on my respirator and tried to control my temper. For all I knew, the rest of
the Blues would avoid me now, because this joker had told them I smelled really bad.
In that case, I had to get some kind of valuable communication going with him, because
it might be my last chance. I didn’t have weeks to hang out down here and become touchy-feely
with their culture.

“Look, Beneficence, I want to ally with your people against your lost robots. Billions
of lives are at stake, including your own.”

“Lost robots?”

“The Macros,” I said, explaining what I was talking about until we were both clear
on the topic.

“We have not lost them,” Beneficence said at last. “We know precisely where they are.”

I thought about that, and narrowed my eyes within my helmet. I had a growing suspicion
this Blue was hostile toward me in a personal way. My mind had also begun convert
the suspicion they were using the rings as transmission systems into a certainty.

“You don’t like us, do you?” I asked. “You aren’t a random being, you were sent here
by your superiors to be rude to me. I get it now. You aren’t an emissary, you’re an
insult.”

“
I
am an insult?” asked the cloud, its voice rising. The translation system didn’t do
so well with inflections. It could only raise or lower the volume of a statement.
The gasses around me, however, had begun to stir. I could feel bumps and currents.
I suddenly felt like a kite on a windy day, instead of a diver floating above a calm
seabed.

“Yes,” I said. “What don’t you like about me, other than my flavor?”

“You are arrogant—almost to the point of absurdity. You come here into our universe
and disturb our peaceful seas with your stench. You dare to destroy that which we
created—as if you are the superior species.”

There was a lot of anger and resentment in that statement. I took a second to mull
over my response. “When I came here the last time, your people expressed guilt about
having released machines beyond your clouds to plague the rest of us. We have done
nothing but defend ourselves against your creations. In fact, your creations have
turned against even you.”

“Incorrect!” shouted the being. “You shall see. We are not helpless. We will not sit
here, awaiting your ships and bombs. We’re not at your mercy any longer. Now go, before
we forget ourselves in a forgivable act of vengeance!”

I had the sense then, for the first time, that there were others here. I wasn’t meeting
a sole being, but a crowd of them. They nosed the ship, making it bob and roll, its
stabilizers fighting to keep an even keel.

Gone from my mind was all concept of making these beings see reason. They were angry
because of earlier events. I’d blown up their screen of Nano ships, having led them
off like the Pied Piper to be destroyed by the Macros. I could tell now this had really
pissed them off. I guess they’d felt tricked and used—and in a way, they had been.
But they were the ones who had built the damned machines in the first place.

“Know this, people of Eden-12,” I said, “you released abominations of metal upon the
rest of us. You can’t expect the other biotic species in this star system to die without
a fight. Nor can you expect to survive, if we label you as an enemy. Therefore, I’ll
warn you now: if the Macros come again to the Eden system and attack, we will not
direct our weapons toward them. Instead, we will destroy the brain of this enemy.
We will rain fire down upon this world until every shred of atmosphere is blown away,
and nothing but the molten core remains. This planet will be reduced to a cinder bubbling
in space, with nothing living left upon it.”

Even as I spoke, I’d been wriggling my way back into my ship. I felt a tugging, as
if invisible fingers grasped at my suit. I was glad for my nanotized muscles and for
every Microbial bath I’d undergone at Marvin’s urging. I managed to escape their grasping
tendrils of gases and gels. I buttoned up the ship and ordered her to sail aloft.

Actium
struggled at first. It was as if a thousand hands had grabbed her hull and tried
to hang on. In the end the ship was too strong however, and broke free. I sailed up
and up, not daring to relax until I reached open space again.

As I returned to the inner planets, I gazed back at the retreating brownish-green
sphere that was the Blues’ homeworld. Had I just declared war upon another species?
Had they given me any choice?

Troubled, I went back to my reports and informed Star Force that my diplomatic mission
had failed.

-24-

After I’d rejoined the fleet, I monitored the alien traffic using Marvin’s mysterious
apparatus. The rings sang like high-tension wires all the next day and night. I monitored
the activity, and had Sarin graph it for me on our shared console.

“See here?” I said, pointing with a gloved finger to a red line that rose above the
others on the displayed graph. “This spike in transmissions occurred immediately after
my visit to their homeworld. I’m sure it represents them calling the Macros. The transmission
is only hitting the Thor ring. They don’t send anything the other way to the Helios
system until hours later.”

“Yes,” Sarin said, studying the data. “I can see the point where they begin transmitting
through the Helios ring. It’s right after another series of vibrations at the Thor
ring. See, this blue line represents the Helios activity. Nothing is there until after
the second spike.”

“So, this seems like a clear scenario. They heard my planted threat, then sent something
out to the Macros. Once they heard back from the Macros, they talked to the other
side—to Crow’s forces.”

Sarin looked at me very seriously. “That’s a lot of guesswork, Colonel. We still have
no idea what was said. We don’t even really know who said what.”

“I know,” I said, “all we have is a timeline of events, and a lot of conjecture.”

I paced around the console. When I’d circled it twice, I turned back to it and began
tapping. A theoretical repositioning of ships began. “Here’s what we’re going to do,”
I said. “We’ll pull our ships from the Thor ring—we’ll pull back everything supporting
the battle station for now, except for a few scouts to keep an eye on the Crustaceans.
Then, we’ll station a squad of ships over the Blue’s homeworld. They’ll just sit out
there, silently, in far orbit. In the meantime, the bulk of our forces will mass here
at the Helios ring.”

Miklos walked quietly over and joined us. “This is a significant change to our strategy,
sir.”

“Indeed it is,” I agreed. “And we’d better all pray tonight I’ve guessed right. Because
we’re betting the farm on this one.”

Miklos blinked at me. “Must we bet the entire farm, sir? Perhaps we should only bet—ah,
a few animals or a field.”

I laughed and shook my head. “We can’t win that way. Hell, we might lose no matter
what we do. But if we get hit from both ends at once, and split our forces to face
these two enemies evenly, we’ll get mowed for sure. We have to put everything down
at Helios ring. We’ll set an ambush for Crow’s Imperial fleet. When they come, they
have to be hit so hard from the outset that they turn around and run.”

Miklos pursed his lips. Sarin’s eyes were big and dark. She didn’t say anything.

“Sir…” Miklos began.

“I know, I know,” I said. “It sounds kind of crazy. But I’m working from more than
a hunch. I think the Blues really only care about one thing, and that is their own
gassy rear ends. They’ve been cowards from the start, and I’m betting they’ll stay
that way. They just transmitted to the Macros a cease and desist order. I’m pretty
sure of that. We’ll keep a fleet near them to keep them running scared. That’s a small
price to pay to neutralize an entire armada on a second front.”

“You believe they are talking to Crow, also?”

“Of course,” I said. “Either that, or Crow is talking to the Lobsters. It doesn’t
really matter. We haven’t got enough force to cover everything. To win, we have to
gamble.”

“But sir,” he said, giving it one last try, “sometimes, your hunches don’t work out
quite the way you planned.”

I glowered. “I know that. If you have a better plan, I’d like to hear it now.”

That was my trump card. They all tried, but no one could come up with anything else
that gave us a good chance at victory. Sure, none of us knew what was going to happen.
But in war, you had to play the odds. I’d laid my cards on the table, and we were
going to see how it all played out very soon.

After another hour of watching my staff do some obligatory soul-searching, I tapped
the scenario we’d laid out into a loading queue. The orders were automatically dispersed
to every ship and they began moving the moment they got them. What had been a battle
plan had neatly turned into reality.