Sunborn (32 page)

    The silence was finally broken by Li-Jared, who, having already bonged in dismay, now quite practically said, “What now? Weren’t we waiting for Dark to come pull us out of here?”

    Bandicut answered in a gravelly voice. “We were. But I’m not sure what Dark is doing now.” He pointed toward the graphical display. Having passed
The Long View,
 Dark was circling around near where Delilah had met her end.

    Soon, though, Dark turned sharply, apparently rounding back toward them. Copernicus—when had he gotten back?—said, “I believe Dark may be trying to map the layout of the field lines.”

    “
I
 believe Dark may be trying to find a way to get us out,” Jeaves said.

    Bandicut shot Antares an inquiring glance. But she had no answer.

*

   
As Dark approached, the viewspace became shadowed. The ship suddenly shook—not with an impact, exactly, but with powerful vibrations. Bandicut staggered—they all did—and then the shadow swept away from the viewspace. It returned from another angle, and the bridge shook once more. “Dark seems to be trying to grapple us,” Jeaves called out, “but he can’t do it. I think the space around us is shifting too much.”

    “What about Deep? Where is Deep?” Bandicut asked, while under his breath he called, /Charli? Can you hear me? Charli, we need to know what’s happening!/

    “I’m not sure,” Jeaves admitted. “I’m seeing a fluctuation near Dark; that
may
 be Deep.”

    Bandicut stepped in front of the small control console and forced himself to breathe. /
Charli,
where the hell are you?/ And at that moment, he felt a sudden great whirlwind of vacuum around his ears. And an instant later, the quarx was back in his head. /Charli?
Jesus!
/

   
/// I’m here. I’m here. I’ve made contact.

   
Deep couldn’t stop what was happening to Delilah.

   
Dark’s been working on finding a way to get you out.

   
You’re not going to like what she found. ///

   
Bandicut felt a great weight on his shoulders. /What am I not going to like?/

    Charli hesitated.

   
/// Dark can’t pull us out. ///

   
Bandicut choked. /Can’t—/

   
/// That’s not the part I meant, though. ///

   
Bandicut practically exploded. /What could be worse than that?/

   
/// There may be another way to get out. ///

   
Bandicut raised his hands in exclamation. /That’s good./

   
/// Maybe. ///

   
He was aware of Antares staring at him, waiting for him to communicate. He raised a finger. /I’m listening./

   
/// You need to fly toward the center.

   
Somewhere in that direction is the way out. ///

   
Bandicut opened his mouth to speak, but for a long time no words came out.

*

   
The Mindbody was puzzled. After the parasitic lifeform had divided into two, one part had continued as before, showing no significant change, while the other part began moving across the n-space web in that blurred, not-here, not-there way that made it difficult to follow. It swelled in apparent energy, but at the same time seemed to be losing its temporal anchor. The Mindbody watched, wondering what it would do. It was coming closer.

   
And suddenly—for no apparent reason—the object
flung
itself at the Mindbody. Was it attacking? Probing? Suffering a malfunction?

   
Whatever its intent, it broke apart like a comet diving on a gas-giant planet. Its pieces physically struck the Mindbody’s outer carapace, many of them disintegrating. The remaining pieces were swept up in the net and drawn in close for analysis, but so far even the Mindaru logic-core at the Mindbody’s center had found nothing remarkable. Was that the end of it? Many strands of the Mindbody thought it was, but the logic-core was not so sure. It felt an irritant, as if something remained that it couldn’t account for.

   
Still, no need to occupy the entire Mindbody on this one puzzle. Several strands of mind could stay with it, and later encapsulate whatever survived. The rest of the Mindbody had a job to do.

   
The remaining invader vessel had extended a number of long-range sensor-fields. Perhaps these could be put to use—as carrier signals, input channels into the intelligence of the invading parasite.

   
It would not be a risk-free operation. But knowledge of both the vessel and the biological and how they worked could be extremely useful, not just to use against it, but for the possibility of adapting it into the Mindbody’s own systems.

   
There was some risk, of course, that a counter-probe, using the same carrier signal, might find its way back into the Mindbody collective, or even the Mindaru core. To reduce the risk, the Mindbody set up protective layers along its own sensors. Then it reached out, searching for receptor points—and began to thread its way in.

*

   
“Bad news,” Bandicut finally managed to report. “Dark can’t pull us out.”

   
“Hrah?”
 Ik’s face contorted, but not nearly as much as Li-Jared’s. “Why not?”

    “It’s just what Jeaves was saying. Whatever that thing is, it’s distorting n-space so much that Dark can’t grab on to us.”

    Antares’s gaze was nearly inscrutable. “So...did Delilah—?”

    “Sacrifice herself in vain?” he asked. “Maybe not. Here’s the other thing Charli told me. There may be a way out...”

    Li-Jared’s head weaved from side to side as Bandicut repeated Charli’s report. “Fly
toward
 the source of the trouble?” he asked, his voice incredulous. “Just where do you think—?”

    Napoleon whirred. “Cap’n. Milord. This suggestion may have merit. But there are some issues about flying in this place that we need to discuss.”

    Bandicut scowled. “Issues?”

    “Yes,” Copernicus said, rolling forward. “Force and acceleration do not appear to function normally here.”

    Bandicut could feel his blood pressure rising. “Explain.”

    “It is difficult, milords and lady,” Copernicus said. He rolled out into the viewspace, as though he were going to launch himself straight off into space. Then he stopped and raised a metal arm. It rose vertically from his side, then bent to point forward. “I believe it is necessary to steer
that
way”—he gestured slightly to the right of the dark central object, then swiveled his arm to the left and raised it forty-five degrees—“in order to go
that
 way. It’s not unlike a magnetic field, where forces get turned ninety degrees.”

    Ik rubbed his chest and squinted, saying nothing. “Of course!” Li-Jared said suddenly. “It’s like a plasma jet coming out of an imploding star. Everything’s at right angles to the magnetic field lines.”

   
“Correct, if oversimplified,” said Copernicus, swiveling to face them. “The point is that we cannot see the whole tangle of n-space pathways ahead of us. Charli suggests there may be exit points ahead. But they might only
seem
 to be ahead.”

    “Why would they be toward the center of the attraction at all?” Bandicut asked, trying to control his exasperation.

    “Ah,” said Napoleon. “We think exit holes may have been created when our friend out there puckered n-space like a fabric. There may be an escape chute waiting for us. The only catch is, we don’t know exactly where. But we think the puckers are most likely to occur near the stress. Possibly near the Mindaru object itself.”

    They all stared at the robots for a few moments. The facade of romance was gone. The metal creatures were completely serious.

   
“It’ll be a little complicated,” Copernicus said at last. “Because n-space is so warped here, it may be a very twisty path out. There could be up to nine-and-a-fraction spatial dimensions to steer through before we complete the route.” As everyone gaped in dumbfounded silence, he added, “It’s fractals all the way down, folks.”

Chapter 21

Ready to Break

   
The Mindbody took its time, modulating the sensor beams to make its entry into the larger invader vessel. With a bit of experimentation, it determined the best frequency for penetration. The invader vessel was proceeding cautiously, which gave the Mindbody time to complete its testing.
   
The invader possessed a sophisticated machine intelligence of its own. That increased the risk, because it might fight back—but also the potential reward, if the Mindbody could subsume useful parts of the intelligence into itself. The Mindbody understood machine intelligences very well, and considered the chance worth taking.

    The pathway into the other was not difficult, though it took a few redirects and false starts to find the way in. The spying threads established a beachhead in a maintenance subsection, and from there began to survey the surroundings. There was no immediate defensive action. The ship continued to move in a satisfactory arc toward the Mindbody’s capture fields.

*

   
Napoleon swiveled his metal head to speak again. “Milord—or Cap’n, if I may—the flying ahead is going to be tricky, with many small corrections. Perhaps, if possible, you should consider jacking into the AI to help you do the job. Can Charli help you do that?”

    Bandicut felt a dull pain as he pondered the possibility. How many times had he tried that, and how many times had it gone wrong? But Napoleon was probably right. /Charli?/

   
/// I’ll try. ///

   
“Okay,” Bandicut said to Napoleon. He turned to Li-Jared. “Can you be ready to step in and fly, if something goes wrong? Jeaves, have you set up those backup controls? Can Li-Jared use them if something happens to me, or to these controls?” He gave Li-Jared a questioning look and was answered by an emphatic nod.

   
“I am activating secondary controls in the common room right now,” Jeaves answered. “By the way, I’m starting to pick up some long-distance probing from the Mindaru object. Nothing I wouldn’t expect. But it answers the question of whether Delilah successfully diverted its attention from us.”

    Bandicut grunted. “Then we’d better get moving. I’m jacking in now.” /Ready, Charli?/ He squeezed the handles on the flight controls and felt the shipboard AI surround his mind like an inrushing tide.

*

   
It was a shocking echo of the old days on Triton, and even before, when he piloted survey craft by mind-computer link, before the accident that crippled his neuros. He felt an exhilarating rush from the sudden fire-hose of connectivity to the intelligence system. That gave way to a surreal blankness. An instant later, he felt the emptiness buzzing with activity beneath the surface, like the perfect vacuum of space swarming with virtual particles. He clung dizzily to the control panel. /Help me in,/ he thought. /Show me the condition of the ship./

   
You are connected. How can we help you?

   
It was the voice of the AI. For a moment, his mind was filled to overflowing with questions, and ways he would like the AI to help him. Then, with Charli’s help, he focused. /I am John Bandicut. I am taking the con, and I intend to fly the ship manually, from within the system. Can you provide me with real-time guidance?/

   
Yes, of course. Napoleon has briefed me on your needs. Would you prefer visual or auditory feedback, or both?

   
/Both, please. Can you provide me with a control interface?/

   
A variety of interfaces are possible. Any of them should provide several orders of magnitude faster response than the physical controls...

   
There was a sparkle in the darkness, and floating before him was a matrix of colored lights. He stared at it without comprehension, then said, /Next./ With another sparkle, the image was replaced by a visual replica of the physical control stick and control panel.

   
This might be more familiar, while eliminating the delay of your physical reactions
.

    Bandicut touched it tentatively with his thought. /Maybe. What else?/

    The third image was a topographical map of the n-space web they were caught in, similar to the display on the bridge, with a simple spaceship icon. /Do I just push the icon the way I want it to go?/

   
Correct. Do you wish to—?

   
/Let me try it./ He reached out a virtual finger and placed it on the icon. /Ready when you are./

   
Napoleon suggests following this course.
A glowing line in the display indicated the course.
Turn left forty-five degrees...now. Down ten degrees...now....

*

   
Ik watched Bandicut turn stony-faced as he connected with the shipboard AI. Something about this sudden plan troubled Ik, though he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the fact that if John was going to do all of the flying from within the AI, there was no way for the rest of them to know what was happening. And no way to step in if something went wrong. Li-Jared had left the bridge to stand by in the common lounge, but if things went badly amiss here, how much good could Li-Jared do from there?