Legacy (11 page)

"I'll bet!" Frank's enthusiasm was as unfeigned as his delight in the bionic left hand that only a medical sensor could have recognized as such. He had followed the battle in space raptly, growing more openmouthed with each offhand mention of rapid-repeating plasma guns, grav deflectors, tractor beams, X-ray lasers that didn't require the detonation of a nuclear bomb, and all the rest.

Natalya read his thoughts—as she did more and more of late. "And yet, as impressive as your weaponry is, the truly decisive innovation is your continuous-displacement drive. It changes the entire strategic picture. In fact, it
abolishes
the strategic picture, in the traditional sense!"

"Not quite," Murchison smiled. "Remember, paired displacement points tend to be very far apart in realspace, typically hundreds of light-years. So the Solar Union and the Realm of Tarzhgul—and the Raehaniv Federation—extend over enormous reaches of space, within which they've only visited a tiny percentage of the stars. For really long-distance movement within a reasonable length of time, we still need to make use of the displacement network. The Raehaniv Federation resembles a series of bubbles in space, connected by displacement lines. We emerge from a new displacement point, stop to determine where we are in realspace—we've learned
that
lesson—and then probe outward on continuous-displacement drive. Sometimes two of the bubbles grow into each other. Remind me to show you a holoprojection of it." He snagged a fresh wineglass from one of the serving robots that floated about on the silent Raehaniv grav repulsion, from which all the annoying side effects had been banished. "Of course, the biggest of the bubbles is the one centered on Raehan itself. That one includes Terranova, which used to have a displacement point, but no longer does."

"Every Terranovan I've ever known takes a perverse pride in their isolation," Loruin put in. "They claim it builds character!"

Everyone laughed, but Sarnac found himself wondering if that isolation had preserved the descendants of a few thousand Americans and Russians from traceless submergence into the Raehaniv billions, and allowed them to retain a distinct cultural identity with which even the non-Terranovans of Earth descent like Tiraena could identify.

"But, Lieutenant Liu," Murchison resumed, "you're right in the sense that continuous-displacement drive will place us in an unbeatable strategic position. Once we have access to your astronomical data on the known Korvaash-held systems, we'll be able to use the displacement network to get as close as possible to them in realspace, then attack from completely unexpected directions."

"So the whole sky becomes one big displacement point, from the standpoint of the defender!" Frank grinned, shooting his right cuff . . . the illusion was so perfect that even the person "wearing" it could easily forget, and the holoprojectors made the appropriate adjustment. He was constantly exercising the bionic hand, and Sarnac wondered if he'd be able to part with it when the cloned replacement had finished being force-grown and was ready to be attached.

"And," Natalya added, "such an attack could be made in conjunction with a frontal displacement point assault. Tiraena, wasn't that what your ancestors did to the Korvaash occupiers of the Raehan system?"

Tiraena nodded. Her hair was in the short Raehaniv military style again, and she wore survey turquoise and white. (Actual fabric—she had explained that expense, and the possibility of cold weather, plus sheer conservatism, had restricted the holo belts to special uses.) She looked stunning, and Sarnac was still trying to square the Tiraena he knew—or thought he knew—with this elegant lady.

"Yes," Murchison confirmed. "After the Liberation, we were planning to launch a sustained counteroffensive against the Unity using these tactics. That was before the disruption of the displacement network, which left us as thoroughly out of contact with the Korvaasha as with Earth." He paused and shook his head slowly. "I knew we were going to find Korvaasha—the first we've faced in two centuries—in this system. But to arrive and find that we've also reestablished contact with Earth . . . !"

He shook his head again and ran a hand over his bald scalp. The
thrufarn
's lack of hair had distressed Sarnac, who worried about the very slight, thinning out at his temples—surely the Raehaniv had a cure for baldness! (He'd later learned, to his chagrin, that they did, and that Murchison hadn't thought it worth bothering with.)

Loruin lacked the
thrufarn
's ethnic interest in the scouts, but had his own enthusiasms. "Aside from the military considerations—although I agree that dealing with the Realm of Tarzhgul has to have the first priority—we'll now be able to explore the problem of Raehaniv origins from a whole new perspective."

"Yes," Natalya said earnestly, maintaining concentration with obvious effort. The Raehaniv were justifiably fanatical about their wines, and she had perhaps overdone the social obligations to which she was unaccustomed. "We've more or less taken that whole subject on faith until now—too much else to occupy us. But it has to be faced. It goes without saying that homo sapiens couldn't have evolved independently on Earth and on Raehan. But it's equally impossible that a spacefaring culture could have existed on Earth thirty thousand years ago. In the first place. . . ."

"Oh, yes," Loruin cut in. "All the arguments are very familiar, and beyond dispute. And yet it is certain that humans, and various other species now known to be of Earth origin, appeared on Raehan at that time. A classic paradox. Especially given the indisputable evidence of a spacefaring culture at that period of time."

"Tiraena mentioned that," Sarnac said. "I understand this evidence all came to light at the time of the liberation of Raehan."

"Yes," Loruin affirmed. "And we've had so much else to talk about that you've never seen it. Would you like to view the records?"

There was a basic technological incompatibility between virtual reality as known to the Solar Union and to the Raehaniv. The former required the wearing of special helmets and other sensory-input gear, to replicate the product of a computer program which had only become practical in the last couple of generations. The Raehaniv used none of this, for they had achieved a practical application of direct neural interfacing. Tiraena, like most other specialized Raehaniv personnel, had a tiny socket behind her left ear, by which she could link interactively with a computer for full sensory input. Sarnac and his companions had no such sockets, and therefore could not use Raehaniv equipment.

Thus it was that they all sat in front of a holo dais, passively viewing a scene two centuries old.

"My great-grandfather," Tiraena said quietly, and Sarnac gazed at the image of Colonel Eric DiFalco, wearing a light-duty vac suit that must have been far beyond what his own twenty-first century Earth could produce.

"This," the image was saying in an English that held an unmistakable period flavor, "is a chamber in the heart of the base." He had already led the viewer into the long-abandoned installation that he and his companions had discovered on a gas-giant satellite when they had first entered the Terranova system. Now he proceeded into the chamber, his audience travelling with him.

"My great-grandmother," Tiraena said as the tall Raehaniv woman came into the pickup's scope. Sarnac looked on Aelanni zho'Morna and found himself approving of Colonel DiFalco's taste.

But then the image centered on the relief sculpture on the wall . . . and Sarnac forgot everything else.

After some passage of time he heard Frank's shaken voice. "The Bering Strait is a land bridge. . . ."

"And so is the English Channel," Natalya finished for him. "But this is unquestionably a map of Earth during the last ice age." It was anticlimactic when the image of Colonel DiFalco confirmed the conclusion, and then moved on to what he declared to be a map of Raehan.

"Since then, we've discovered two of the other planets whose maps decorate the walls of that chamber," Loruin murmured from the shadows behind them.

Abruptly, the scene shifted to a similar chamber, full of Raehaniv whose speech Sarnac's translator rendered into English. They, too, were indicating a sculpture carved into a rock wall—but this one was a face.

Sarnac gazed for a long moment into that face, so entirely human, despite the exotic features—equally exotic to a Raehaniv, he had been assured—before turning to Tiraena.

"You say this second base was discovered in the asteroids of Raehan's sun at the same time as Colonel DiFalco's people blundered onto the one at Terranova?"

"Yes. The Free Raehaniv Fleet that operated in that asteroid belt during the occupation 'blundered onto' it, as you put it."

"Doesn't that strike you as just a little . . . unlikely?"

"Indubitably," Loruin answered for her. "The observation is far from new, I assure you. But we must face facts. The dating of both bases is beyond question; there is no possibility of some elaborate hoax. There was a space-travelling culture thirty thousand of your years ago, apparently human. And it is, of course, established that humanity evolved on Earth." He had received Natalya's full-bore lecture on the manifest scientific illiteracy of anyone who believed otherwise on today's Earth, which had outgrown the dogma that all viewpoints, however uninformed, were of fundamentally equal worth.

"So the ancestral Raehaniv must have been transferred from Earth," Sarnac said slowly. "And we have to assume that it was done by these people, rather than bringing some unknown
other
space-travelling civilization into the argument. You've got to shave with Occam's Razor." Loruin's translator couldn't cope, but Tiraena explained that Sarnac was referring to Hlaeronn's Fourth Fundamental Principle of Logic.

"Yes," Loruin gave his professorial nod. "And as to the obvious question of where that civilization came from, and where it has gone since, the answer is that we don't know. After the simultaneous discoveries of the two deserted bases, we thought it was only a matter of time until we'd find other sites, providing more clues. But none have come to light. We know no more than our ancestors did then. The paradox still stands." He turned to the holo dais, where long-dead Raehaniv were explaining other, less interesting finds, and ordered the computer to terminate the display. The lights came back on, and they looked at each other, awkward in the face of their inexplicable common humanity.

"The problem," Loruin addressed the meeting, "is that
Thrufarn
Taraen didn't bring any accredited diplomatic representatives with his fleet. There was no reason for it; we sent for help before we knew, or imagined, that they'd be needed."

"But," Murchison picked up the thread, "we want to proceed with as little delay as possible to finalize an alliance with the Solar Union. The sooner we commence joint operations against the Realm of Tarzhgul, the better."

"I'm sure our government will agree,
Thrufarn
," Sarnac nodded, carefully not letting himself contemplate the humor in such sonorities coming from a lieutenant senior grade.

"Therefore," Murchison resumed, "we suggest that both governments be informed simultaneously, by those most intimately connected with the reunion. The news will have all the more impact for being delivered by people who, by their very existence, underline its reality." He paused. "Clearly, I can't give you orders. And if you feel that your duty demands that all three of you return to the Solar Union as quickly as possible, I'll provide transportation. But if you're agreeable, I suggest that Lieutenants Liu and Kowalski-O'Hara go to Raehan aboard one of my fastest frigates, to propose, in the name of your government, that a diplomatic mission be sent to this system to meet with representatives of the Solar Union."

"Agreeable?" Frank blurted. " 'Agreeable' is hardly the word,
Thrufarn
! My God, what a chance!"

"Yes!" Natalya's eyes flashed. "To see a world that we never imagined could exist. . . ." She trailed off, suddenly looking troubled. "But,
Thrufarn
, we are . . . well, we're only . . ."

Murchison smiled. "I know. You're being asked to speak for your government in matters of tremendous importance while still very young, and very junior. But I assure you that no one on Raehan will be worried about it. They'll only be interested in the news you bring." He turned to Sarnac and spoke formally. "Lieutenant Sarnac, you are the senior Solar Union officer in this system, so I must ask your concurrence."

"Of course,
Thrufarn
. But . . . what about me?"

"Ah, yes," Loruin reentered the conversation. "We feel that you, as senior surviving member of the Solar Union's expedition to this system, should represent the facts to your government. We propose that you return in company with my chief alien-contact officer, Rael zho'Vorlann." He smiled ruefully. "Not terribly appropriate, is it? This is hardly an 'alien contact,' but it's the best I can do. I don't have a 'reunion officer.' " He chuckled at his own wit, then continued.

"We also feel that Tiraena should accompany you. It is fortuitous that she is here, for her ancestry gives her a unique status—a living link between our people and yours, as it were. And her role in rescuing the three of you should enhance that status."

"No question about it," Sarnac agreed. "She'll be a sensation. The media will see to that." He exchanged a glance with her across the table, and knew that he was glad—very glad—that she was coming.

"As to your travel arrangements," Murchison continued, "you've told us that Sol is eight displacement transitions from here, but that the fifth will bring one to the outermost fortified system of the Solar Union."

"Yes, New Laurentia," Sarnac supplied. "I see where you're headed,
Thrufarn
. Our ship won't be broadcasting the right recognition code when we enter that system. But I can start transmitting on Fleet frequencies as soon as we come out of the displacement point, identifying myself and telling them not to shoot."

"Still, I think it would be best to appear as unthreatening as possible." Murchison turned to Loruin. "Don't you have a
Taelarn
-class courier boat here?"