Read Singularity's Ring Online
Authors: Paul Melko
Singularity's Ring (31 page)
I know what I saw in his thoughts!
“Apollo? Are you all right?”
“Stay back,” Meda says, and we continue to think, though it can be considered rude to ignore social interaction to think deeply.
We can’t unthink it,
Manuel says.
We know it and have to admit that.
Manuel says.
We know it and have to admit that.
We can ignore it,
Meda replies.
We can send him away and never tell Mother Redd.
Meda replies.
We can send him away and never tell Mother Redd.
Let’s get the full story from him,
Manuel says, clenching his fists. He wants to force his way into Khalid’s mind.
Manuel says, clenching his fists. He wants to force his way into Khalid’s mind.
No!
More veto from Moira.
We can’t do two wrongs. Stop.
More veto from Moira.
We can’t do two wrongs. Stop.
Then what do we do?
Strom asks.
Strom asks.
We confront him,
Meda says.
We let him know we know.
Meda says.
We let him know we know.
Confront him,
Quant says. Her anger is ours.
Quant says. Her anger is ours.
“We know what you did to Mother Redd.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mother Redd died because of you.”
Whatever imbalance our earlier accusations caused has been erased. Dr. Khalid seems as at ease as he ever does.
“Nonsense. It was a rogue military duo, sent by anti-Ring factions in the OG, to destroy the fetuses. To destroy you, in fact. It’s unfortunate, but I’d have it no other way.”
Quant builds an image, the last memory of Martha before Scarlet dies. Scarlet looks at Martha and signs, “It was—”
It was Khalid. He was directing the duo. Scarlet saw him, though the rest of her did not.
Quant has reached a conclusion she is sure of, and we feel the pull of it. The force of her conviction is hard for us to fight.
Quant works out the angles from the womb room. Someone could have stepped inside the lab and been out of sight from anyone inside the sealed room.
“You hadn’t stopped Mother Redd from alerting the Eugenics Department. You knew it was a matter of time before it all blew up. But you were so scared of censure that you were willing to sacrifice us to save yourself. You brought the duo in. You directed them to kill Scarlet.”
“I would never destroy you,” Khalid says, but he is nervous. His brow is damp. Manuel is watching his pupils. Khalid sees this and looks away. “Redd became your mentor. Why would I try to kill her if I wanted her to be your mentor?”
“You didn’t know her sacrifice would make her a hero, would make us famous.”
“She was a friend!”
“She was an enemy! She was about to turn you in for illegal research.”
“She was a colleague.”
“You used Community technology to build us. You didn’t have any idea what it would do. You didn’t have any idea it would allow us to see through you, Khalid. But we do.”
“It’s all nonsense. It’s all—”
“You never understood the effect of the design. You never knew for certain what you had created, if the Ring had some plan, so you placed Malcolm Leto near us to test us.”
“Preposterous!”
“Did you send McCorkle too? And the avalanche?”
He doesn’t reply, but we read his body language as if we are reading his thoughts.
“Take my hand, Khalid,” we say. “Prove it.”
Meda reaches forward with her palm up. The glands on the inside of her wrist are red and damp.
Khalid’s thoughts are flying around us, but we aren’t listening. Not until he accepts, not until he takes our hand willingly.
“Why? What do you want?”
“You know what I am. Take my hand.”
One of him reaches out, then shirks back.
“No!”
We look at him, frightened now, scared of us.
So be it,
Quant sends.
Quant sends.
“Get out, Dr. Khalid. Run as far as you can. It’s over for you.”
The whites of his eyes are huge as he gathers his things into his bags.
“I had to know,” he says at the door of the lab. “I had to know what you were. And I was right, wasn’t I. You’re something beyond, aren’t you. I was right.”
Meda shakes her head.
“Murder, rape, and betrayal are justified by nothing.”
He blanches at the words, then opens the door. Mother Redd stands there.
“I heard shouting,” she says.
Khalid moves around her. He pauses, looks at us, then at Mother Redd. “I’m sorry, Redd. I’m sorry.”
“What was that about?” she asks as the door closes behind him.
Scarlet,
Quant sends.
Quant sends.
She looks at us. Quant offers her hand to Mother Redd. She looks at us, tries to read our faces. Finally she reaches forward, and we show her everything that we know.
“Oh, no!” Mother Redd cries. She sobs and we hold her until it’s done.
A day later, in the dawn, another sky car lands. It is Colonel Krypicz, whom we have met before. He is adjunct to Space and Defense departments both. Triplets, all swarthy, tall, and solid, though not as tall as Strom. He is thicker across the chest.
He greets us neutrally and asks us to sit with him in the common room. Mother Redd joins us, but remains standing in the kitchen doorway—one of her, while the other two prepare a snack. Mother Redd is quiet, keeping to herself.
“Apollo,” he begins, then stops. He smiles, his interface does, and we dig into memory to see if he’s ever done it before. If he has, it hasn’t been around us.
He starts again. “The duo, the duo in the Amazon who applied the … dissolution agent.” This last phrase left a snarl on his face. “He wasn’t one of ours. He and his cohorts were freelance.”
“We understand, Colonel.”
“Good,” he said, leaning back quickly.
He’s not lying,
Quant sends.
Quant sends.
Don’t dive into his thoughts!
Moira warns.
Moira warns.
Quant shudders.
I won’t. Not ever again.
I won’t. Not ever again.
“This McCorkle. We have him in custody. Tricky bastard. Former military, does work for hire apparently.”
“What about Khalid?” Meda asks. Mother Redd meets our eyes, then disappears into the kitchen to pour coffee.
“No linkage that we can find between them,” the colonel says. “Yet. He’s in custody, but will not answer questions. Grave business, Apollo. Grave. You’ve rocked the OG. Factions are waiting to see who’s betrayed. Not pretty at all.”
Mother Redd hands each of him a mug of coffee, and he thanks her. The movement of Mother Redd’s hand, her look at the colonel, and we know suddenly that she likes him.
Since we have shared Mother Redd’s memory, we see her in a new light: in her lover Nicholas’s arms, as a scientist and a medical doctor. But this affection for the gruff and stolid colonel seems too much. Still we smile, and she catches it, looking at us quizzically.
“Did you want something too?” she asks.
“No, Mother Redd.”
The colonel drinks more of his coffee, then nods. “Well, then we’ve looked at Dr. Baker’s lab, what’s left of it. Marvelous coffee by the way, Ms. Redd. He did quite a number on it. Primary charge, followed by accelerants in all the rooms. Nothing left that we could salvage. We assume”—he glances at Strom—“he was the source of the bears. Is that right?”
“It is.”
The colonel waits for us to say more or even consense.
“Well, then. Other than the bears, then, we were wondering if you could tell us what he was doing.”
“He was rebuilding the pod genetic code and placing it within ursine strands,” Meda says. “He was certain that
all pod genetic code came from the Ring AI and the Community.”
all pod genetic code came from the Ring AI and the Community.”
“Well, then. We knew that … Did you say all pod code?”
“Yes, not just ours. We know about that too. But all the way from the start. Dr. Baker had found several planned deficiencies in the code and was reverse-engineering them.”
“Planned deficiencies? My word. Why?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Meda says. We glance at Mother Redd, who nods.
“That’s the problem with making every generation smarter than the last,” the colonel grumbles. “We oldsters don’t know a thing that’s going on.”
“Harvey, you’re not that old,” Mother Redd says. “What Apollo is saying is that pods were designed to follow a particular path. The designer appears to have been the Ring. But those plans have been derailed.”
“Not derailed,” Meda says. “Delayed.”
The colonel looks up into the rafters, consensing. After a moment, he glances at us, startled.
“Sorry. Quite a bit to fathom there,” he says. “Leto has to be stopped more than ever now, doesn’t he?”
“Yes. He can’t restart the Community,” we say.
“Who could we trust?” he mumbles. “Everyone is compromised.” He looks at us, and we know what he’s thinking.
“We aren’t compromised,” we respond.
“No, of course not.”
One of him begins tapping at a portable console. “We can’t let the Community rise again. It would destroy the OG.”
He doesn’t understand,
Quant sends.
Quant sends.
He understands as it’s relevant to him,
Moira replies.
Moira replies.
It is not the OG we need to save,
Quant sends.
Quant sends.
It’s the entire world.
Leto in control of a new Community would plunge the world into chaos. He has no desire save power, no goal but the accumulation of more. The OG was just one thing in his way. The Earth rebuilt in his image was not a palatable thing.
“Yes. Malcolm Leto has to be stopped,” Meda says.
We spend the afternoon explaining to Colonel Krypicz what we had learned from Dr. Baker and the research we took with us. He holds the data unit from Dr. Baker’s lab in his hand and looks at Mother Redd.
“Are you looking into this?”
“As soon as I clear a few other projects off my lab bench,” she replies.
“Then it’s in good hands,” he says. He looks back at her. “Assume I don’t understand the implications.”
Mother Redd smiles. “Faster consensus. Larger pods, unlimited size really. All species, not just the few we’ve figured out.”
“Really. Hrm.” He turns back to us. “We’ve found Leto. We sent a duo into the Congo. Smart fellow. He arranged a meeting with some folks; his chip showed him going into the desert, toward the east. Two days later, it stopped moving. We sent a team in on camels and found him dead in the desert. Not pretty.”
He pulls out a map of the Congo Desert. “We’re hampered here in the Congo. The singletons lobbied for it and we gave it to them, and never realized what a perfect bolt-hole it is for the lawless peoples. But they do what they say, let the Ecologist Department in to inspect. It’s all on the up-and-up. They’re dedeserting the whole thing. Slow work.”
“And Leto is there,” Meda says.
“Oh, yes. After his run-in with you. After Khalid set
that up.” The colonel’s face hardens. “Hrm, yes. He fled to Green Idaho, had to hoof it after his aircar auto-landed in Grisholm.”
that up.” The colonel’s face hardens. “Hrm, yes. He fled to Green Idaho, had to hoof it after his aircar auto-landed in Grisholm.”
That was me,
Quant sends with pride. She had disabled Leto’s aircar when we had chased him off.
Quant sends with pride. She had disabled Leto’s aircar when we had chased him off.
“His legal machinations led to nothing. No way we’d give that man the Ring. Heavens. It’s the high ground. No one knew he was a psychopath, Apollo. No one guessed he was defective.”
Meda nods.
“He found some like minds in Idaho, and they smuggled him to the Congo Free Zone, where he’s built up quite a following. An interface jack cult. Wire addiction. Pre-Community efforts at mind control and population exploitation with a sadist’s flair. He’s got a few thousand followers and access to Community tech.”
“Why hasn’t he taken the high ground already?”
Strom is assessing the military strength of the Ring. His mind runs scenarios with missiles, glider bombs, pieces of the Ring itself, rocks.
Rocks?
Meda asks.
Meda asks.
The Ring has potential energy on its side. By the time anything dropped from the Ring reaches the Earth, it has a lot of kinetic energy.
Quant draws us pictures: anything directly under the Ring is a target for a dropped weapon. Anything on Earth is a target of a missile fired from the Ring. It could be all explosives and minimal fuel, since it would be born ballistic, at the top of its arc.
Not to mention the energy weapons,
Strom adds.
Strom adds.
Confusion scent erupts. We have never heard of the Ring having energy weapons. Strom explains.
The Earth depends on the solar energy collected by the Ring and beamed down to collection stations around the
Earth. Each one of those beams is a high-energy microwave beam. If it doesn’t land on a collection station, the beam would destroy what it touches.
Earth. Each one of those beams is a high-energy microwave beam. If it doesn’t land on a collection station, the beam would destroy what it touches.
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