The Evolutionary Void (11 page)

“Thank you for responding,” ANA:Governance said to the convened
population.

Ilanthe performed a random sweep over sections of the assembly arena,
noting the various forms and shapes manifested across the shell wall. Over half
retained a human appearance, whereas the rest had selected a multitude of
geometries and colors from minimal spheres of light, to swarms of neuron
echoes, to the simple yet sinister black pyramids of the radical Isolator
Faction. One of the human figures was Nelson Sheldon, who was contemplating her
with the relaxed disdain of a man who had won his game. Of Gore Burnelli there
was no sign, which perturbed her more than it should have. She still didn’t
understand how he’d become the Third Dreamer; his mentality must have some
private link out of ANA to the gaiafield that she didn’t comprehend. Not that
it was going to matter now.

Her fully expanded mentality (still anchored within the Accelerator
compilation) regarded her jury with a degree of amusement, especially as some
infinitesimal portion of her own mentality was contributing to ANA:Governance,
effectively making her judge herself.

“We are called here to review the activities of the Accelerator Faction,”
ANA:Governance continued. “The charge against them is one of high treason.”

Ilanthe’s peers remained quiescent, awaiting the information repositories
containing ANA’s evidence.

“Do you wish to say anything?” ANA:Governance asked Ilanthe.

“You exist to provide us an existence which promotes intellectual
development and evolution, yet you place restrictions upon enacting those very
developments in the reality of spacetime. Now you complain when we try to
achieve that which your fundamental nature encourages. Please explain the
logic.”

“All individuals within me are free to translate their goals into
physical or postphysical reality,” ANA:Governance replied. “You know this. What
I cannot permit is for those goals to be imposed on an unwilling majority. When
and if we transform to postphysical status, it will be as a consenting
majority.”

“Nice in theory. But the restrictions you impose on those of us who are
ready to transcend are completely unacceptable. We shall achieve our objective
on our own.” Ilanthe’s primary consciousness withdrew back into the center of
the Accelerator compilation, where the inversion core awaited. Secondary
routines took over her manifestation within the assembly arena, producing
responses to ANA:Governance’s questions.

The globular inversion core shimmered a dark metallic indigo, its surface
cohesion rippling slightly as the bands of exotic force structuring its
boundary began to disengage from the quantum pseudofabric that was ANA’s
edifice.

“The Prime allies of the Ocisen Empire fleet were animated by the thought
routines of Donald Chatfield,” ANA:Governance said. “He is one of your agents
in the Greater Commonwealth.” A vast flock of information repositories burst
into existence within the assembly arena and settled on the audience waiting
across the shell. Only Nelson Sheldon didn’t bother to access the information.
Everybody else studied the records of Kazimir’s interception, the electronic
interrogation and analysis of the inter-Prime communications. The conclusion
was inevitable.

Ilanthe’s mentality switched residence from ANA’s edifice to the
inversion core. For the first time since she had downloaded three hundred
twenty-seven years ago, she was fully independent.

“What are you doing?” ANA:Governance demanded as it detected her
withdrawal from itself.

“Claiming the right you were established to enforce,” the secondary
routines manifested in the assembly arena told it.

“You cannot function separately within me,” it replied. “You will simply
be isolated until your primary identity reconnects to my edifice. Until then,
no interaction with any part of me will be permitted. You will effectively be
placing yourself into suspension.”

“Really?”

“Your faction’s attempt to manipulate Living Dream into providing you
passage into the Void is declared outlaw,” ANA:Governance announced. The base
law upon which its entire edifice was built asserted itself, exposing the
collective memory of the Accelerator Faction members. ANA immediately noticed
gaps where whole segments had been erased, the information transferred to
Ilanthe’s mentality. Everything else was there: the actions of their agents,
the development of independent Primes to provide the Ocisens with the kind of
allies that gave them enough confidence to launch the invasion fleet. The why
of it was missing. ANA also familiarized itself with the way Ilanthe had grown
to dominate the faction, how her obsession with the Void and its abilities had
come to supplant all other goals to accelerate human evolution. The secret
manufacturing sites producing hardware for agents were revealed. There was one
station orbiting a red dwarf star for which there were no records. It examined
how she had diverted every resource and ability of the faction within ANA to
empower the center of the Accelerator compilation, producing the inversion core
that they were going to fuse with the nucleus of the Void.

Too much was missing still to determine their underlying strategy. All of
it, the ultimate essence of the Accelerator Faction, hung within the inversion
core. ANA observed the core detach itself from all contact with the edifice.
Yet still the object maintained its integrity contained within the overall
subquantum edifice. Not quite real.

“The Accelerator Faction is hereby suspended,” ANA:Governance announced
to the assembly arena. The thought routines of every individual comprising the
Accelerator Faction immediately terminated, held frozen within the edifice, ready
for an edit that would remove the illegal sections and impose limiters to
restrain future behavior.

None of it affected the inversion core. ANA couldn’t find an entrance
point. The Accelerators had fabricated it without the base law, a circumvention
of its authority that was disturbing. Their knowledge of exotic quantum
structures was extremely advanced. Presumably that had come from people like
Troblum studying the Dark Fortress mechanism. Examination of the faction’s
now-exposed memories showed that eighty-seven of their researchers had served
with the navy on missions to Dyson Alpha. Their findings were not available.

ANA shut down the entire Accelerator compilation in case there were some
remaining connections it couldn’t perceive. The inversion core remained; it was
self-sustaining, truly independent. “What is your purpose?” ANA asked.

“Total evolution,” Ilanthe replied. “I have never hidden that from you.”

“Your actions thus far have caused extreme danger, not just to the
Commonwealth. I cannot let that pass with impunity.”

“I reject you and your authority,” Ilanthe replied.

The inversion core exerted an exotic force against the collapsed edifice
surrounding it. ANA felt its structure warp to an alarming degree. Far above
Earth’s lunar orbit, spacetime twisted badly, distorting photons into a
globular whirl, sucking light down like a small event horizon.

“Desist from this action,” ANA warned. Ten Capital-class warships on Sol
assignment raced in toward the spacetime stress point, slipping smoothly out of
hyperspace to target the anomaly. ANA also opened a link to Kazimir, who was
already within the External worlds.

“Do you have any idea what it is?” Kazimir asked.

“I can assume the inversion core contains some of my own functions if
that is what they intend to fuse with the Void. They have been extremely clever
in producing the system within me. No matter what any individual or faction
fabricates for itself within me, the base laws apply, for they are a simple
extension of the quantum interstice that is my edifice. That is how my
integrity is retained. However, in this case my base laws were evaded. This is
not part of me.”

“I will be there in another fifteen minutes.”

“That is gratifying. However, I do not believe even Ilanthe will attempt
to destroy me. If she did, she would find it extremely difficult. There are
some levels which I have never employed.”

The inversion core increased the level of the force it was exerting. ANA
perceived the quantum fields within which it was embedded start to separate as
their cohesion faltered. Spacetime fractured.

Senses available to the boundary of the inversion core registered
starlight falling upon it. “You can no longer constrain me,” Ilanthe said. The
starlight grew stronger, twisting savagely as it poured through the severe rift
opening all around the inversion core. Then it was free, emerging into
spacetime as the rift collapsed. The Earth was a splendid silver-blue crescent
half a million kilometers away while the smooth plains of the moon’s farside
glimmered to one side. Ten Capital-class ships accelerated smoothly toward it.
Ilanthe sensed their weapons powering up and locking on. The inversion core
went from a sedate cislunar orbital velocity to point nine nine lightspeed in
less than half a second.

“What do you want to do?” Kazimir asked as he flashed past the Oort
cometry belt that marked the boundary of the Sol system. He’d followed the
chase with interest. The Capital-class ships had immediately dropped into
hyperspace as the inversion core sped away at its incredible velocity,
something disturbingly reminiscent of a Skylord in the way it did so. They had
some trouble matching speeds when they emerged, replicating its velocity as
part of their exit vector. Then, when they did get close, it simply stopped, shedding
its relativistic speed in an instant, which left the warships streaking away.
The inversion core accelerated again along a slightly different trajectory,
leaving the warships with no choice but to dive back into hyperspace. Any
engagement was going to be extremely difficult, and they still had no idea of
its true capabilities.

“Ilanthe has left us with no options. Please intercept her and nullify
the object.”

“Very well.” Kazimir ordered the Capital-class ships to disengage. He
manifested several functions into spacetime, his energy signature matching the
inversion core’s velocity perfectly. When he attempted to analyze it, all he
could perceive was an incredibly complex knot of exotic forces. He didn’t have
the sensor functions necessary to interpret its intersection within the quantum
fields. That left him in the very surprising position of not knowing what
aggressive function to deploy against it.

The inversion core halted again, twenty million kilometers out from Mars.
Kazimir’s energy signature matched locations flawlessly. Visually, the
inversion core resembled a ball of black glass whose interior was beset by
purple scintillations. Thermally, it didn’t even register, and the exotic
energy sensors revealed a boundary layer of negative matter somehow entwined
with quantum fluctuations of enormous power.

“The deterrence fleet, I presume?” Ilanthe said equitably.

“Yes,” Kazimir said.

“I am most impressed.”

“I am reluctant to use weapons functions against you. We are still within
the Sol system. There might be damage.”

“Not to me. But that isn’t your immediate concern.”

“I assure you it is. However, if it becomes necessary, I will use force.
Your rebellion is now over. Please accept that.”

“You believed we engineered your deployment so I would be safe to
emerge.”

“That is obvious.”

“But wrong. Please scan near-Sol space.”

Look behind you. The oldest ploy in the book, but
nearly always spoken from a position of superiority
. Kazimir kept his
energy signature where it was but manifested several long-range sensor
functions. He searched for signs of stealthed hyperdrives. Eight thousand and
one were holding steady in transdimensional suspension, englobing the Sol
system at forty AUs (astronomical units) out.

“What are they?” he asked.

“We call them the Swarm,” Ilanthe said. “They are here to put an end to
ANA’s interference.”

“I have to access them,” Kazimir told ANA. “I really don’t like that
formation.” His sensor functions observed one of the hyperdrives arrowing in
toward the inversion core at very high speed even for an ultradrive. The other
eight thousand dropped out of hyperspace where they were, materializing into
spacetime as large spherical force fields, their orbits neatly surrounding the
Sol system.

Every navy warship assigned to the Sol protection fleet flashed in toward
Earth, knitting together in a defensive formation that extended out beyond
lunar orbit. Weapons platforms that had spent decades stealthed in high orbit
emerged to join the incredible array of firepower lining up on the Swarm. All over
the planet, force fields powered up, shielding the remaining cities. Anyone
outside an urban area was immediately teleported in to safety. The T-sphere
itself was integrated into the defense organization, ready to ward off energy
assaults against the planet by rearranging spacetime in a sharp curve.

Lizzie was in the kitchen when the alert came through. Unfamiliar icons
popped up in her exovision as she was taking a big pan of boiling chicken stock
off the grand iron range. Secondary routines identified them, pushing their
meanings into her consciousness. She was suddenly all too aware of what was
happening out on the fringes of the Sol system. “Ozzie, crappit,” she grunted
as she put the hot pan back down on the range. The whole event was so extraordinary,
she had no idea how to react, and then her basic parental instincts took over.

Little Rosa was chortling away happily to herself in the family room,
where she was playing with some reactive spheres, clashing them against each
other in a burst of music, then clapping as they rolled away across the antique
rug. She grinned delightedly as her mother rushed in.

The pediatric housebot floating to one side of the toddler glided
smoothly to one side as Lizzie scooped her up. “Come on,” she said, and started
to designate her coordinate within the T-sphere. That was when the defense
agency announced the T-sphere would be unavailable for civilian use in one
minute’s time.