The Evolutionary Void (91 page)

Marius activated the ship’s ultradrive and flashed in toward the star. He
emerged just above the swirling streamers of the photosphere, where energized
atoms from a multitude of spots and flares simmered away into solar wind. Every
force field warning turned critical as the starship received the full blast of
the star’s radiation and heat. Marius fired two novabombs straight down, then
jumped back into hyperspace.

Behind him the borderguards were massing above the photosphere. Eighteen
of the giant machines had rushed out of hyperspace, firing enough weapons down
after the novabombs to break open a moon. None of it was any use. The novabombs
were designed to function amid the outer fringes of a star, whereas the
borderguards’ weapons were just uselessly pumping more energy into the rampant
solar furnace.

Thirty seconds before they detonated, Marius was already outside the
Anomine system. The nova would eliminate the power station, then go on to wipe
out the Anomine homeworld minutes later. Gore would never reach postphysical
status now. The Accelerator objective was safe.

Edeard didn’t know who to give his attention to or even that it would do
any good if he could decide. The astounding Firstlife was straightening itself,
turning several small black membranes at the top of its trunk toward the humans
as well as directing a formidable farsight at them.

Above the dome the Ilanthe thing was also observing them. It scared him
how nonhuman it was. His farsight couldn’t begin to uncover its secrets, but
the power it contained was evident. Whatever the Heart was, it seemed to be
bending around Ilanthe’s glossy surface.

But it was Gore who now concerned him the most. The golden man was
stumbling, dropping to his knees. The anguished keening his mind emitted was
dreadful, as if his soul itself were being violated.

“Dad,” Justine was yelling frantically. “Dad, what is it? What’s
happening?”

“It caught me,” Gore told her weakly. “The motherfucker found the
infiltrator packages.”

“I could have told you the Anomine mechanism was obdurate,” Ilanthe said
complacently.

The Firstlife took a step toward the humans, three of its feet slamming
down on the surface of the square with a slap that Edeard could feel in his leg
bones. “What is this place?” the Firstlife’s longtalk demanded. “What are you?
You are not us.”

Inigo squared up to the imposing creature. “This is your future. You were
re-created from the Void’s memory.”

The Firstlife’s farsight probed around again, its extraordinary reach
allowing it to scan the city and delve down into a fair percentage of the
warship’s main body. It also attempted to examine Ilanthe, who deflected it
effortlessly.

“You are the omega?” it asked in surprise.

“No,” Inigo said. “We originated outside the Void.”

“How can that be? There is nothing outside, only dead matter.”

“Are you the creators? Did your species build this?”

“Yes.”

“We and many others have been pulled inside so you could exploit our
rationality.”

“That is not so. You cannot exist unless the omega formed you.”

“We do exist, and the Void did not make us. The Void is killing us.”

“You do not understand your purpose. This is why I was brought back.” The
Firstlife was uncertain.

“No. You can communicate with the Heart, the mind that envelops us. This
is why—”

“Wait,” Troblum said. He ignored the looks everyone gave him. “In your
time, were there any other sentient species in the galaxy?”

“There is only us. We are first, and when we achieve omega, we will be
last.”

“First life,” Oscar said in wonder. “The first race to evolve in the
galaxy. How old is this thing?”

“Ancient,” Justine muttered. “More ancient than we ever thought
possible.”

“Since your time, countless species have evolved right across the
galaxy,” Inigo said. “You were first, but you are no longer alone.”

The Firstlife’s thoughts reeled in astonishment. “You are not us? You are
original?”

“We are.”

The black membranes flapped about in agitation. Glistening honey-like
droplets appeared on their tips. “Why are you here?”

“This thing you built, this Void, now threatens the entire galaxy,” Gore
said, climbing to his feet again. “I understand why you built it, to evolve
into something new, something exquisite. You haven’t. Instead it has absorbed
thousands of other types of minds which have pulled it in every direction. It
cannot evolve, not in this state.”

“Exactly,” Ilanthe said. “Ask these creatures what they would have you
do. They want you to stop; they want all you have achieved on the way to your
omega to wither away and die. They have nothing else to offer you. I do.”

“Is this why you brought me back?” the Firstlife asked. “To end our
evolution?”

“It cannot continue in its current form,” Inigo said. “It is consuming
the mass of the galaxy in order to power its existence. Every star will
ultimately be devoured, and the species they have birthed will die with them.”

“Unless you act now,” Ilanthe said. “Communicate with the amalgamated
mind; tell it to adopt my inversion.”

“What is your inversion?”

“I will take the composition of the Void and implant it within the
quantum fields which structure the universe outside. This core will ignite the
chain reaction which will disseminate change across the entirety of spacetime.
Entropy will be eliminated. Mind will become paramount. Every sentient entity
will be given the opportunity to reach its own omega as you anticipated for
yourselves. Your legacy will be the birth of a new reality.”

“You have got to be fucking joking,” Gore gasped. “Any quantum field
transform wave will simply reverse once it expands past its initial energy
input zone. All you’ll be left with is a collapsing microverse that seals
itself off from reality as soon as the implosion is complete.”

“Not if entropy is eliminated.”

“You can’t eliminate entropy across infinity. That’s the fucking point of
infinity. It’s forever and always.”

“Ask the amalgamated mind to give me the Void’s governing parameters,”
Ilanthe said to the Firstlife.

“Do not!” Gore shouted, thrusting his arm out at the Firstlife. “Do not
even think it. You will destroy this entire supercluster with her insanity.”

“And what do you offer?” Ilanthe mocked. “The end of their journey to
omega?”

“Since you built the Void, hundreds of species have evolved to
postphysical status, what you call omega,” Gore said. “It can be done, but not
like this. I’m sorry, but you have made a mistake by building the Void. You
have to get the Heart to stop the boundary’s mass devourment, suspend the
Void’s functions, become stable. We’ll show you how to achieve true evolution
in a different way.”

“You can’t,” Ilanthe said. “Every species has to find its own way.”

The Firstlife didn’t reply. A whistling sound was coming from the thin
fronds around its mouth as air gusted in and out past the teeth. Edeard was
aware of its thoughts pulsing out to be absorbed by the Heart. It wasn’t
anything he could copy; he knew he could never communicate with the Heart
directly.

“Darkness eclipses us,” it said eventually. “Something is growing outside
our frontier, a shroud which would deny us the universe.”

“The warrior Raiel,” Ilanthe said. “Sworn to destroy you. Ask this
wretched remnant of their invasion if you require confirmation. They seek to
cut you off from your source of energy, to starve you to death. They will be
rendered irrelevant by the change I can instigate. In time, in the new
universe, they will learn to celebrate your liberation.”

“Do you seek to destroy us?” the Firstlife asked.

“We require you to end your absorption of this galaxy and the threat of
extinction it brings to all life,” Makkathran said. “If you will not undertake
this freely, we have the right to stop you.”

“You don’t have to stop,” Ilanthe said. “Inversion circumvents
everything. All of us will achieve the promise of our evolution. Give me your
governing parameters.”

“Wait!” Gore demanded. “I think my alternative just became available.” He
lifted his golden head and gave Ilanthe a sweetly evil grin. “And guess who
made that happen.” And he dreamed of his life back outside the Void.

The Delivery Man watched in horror as the twin quantum signatures
expanded at hyperluminal velocity. Marius had fired novabombs into the star. He
couldn’t believe it. This was genocide.

Diverted energy functions absorbed the energy liberated from the first
activation pulse, modifying it to expand the annihilation effect. A volume of
the star’s interior the size of a super-Jovian gas giant converted directly
into energy. The convection zone bulged around the periphery. It was the first
act in a sequence that would see the star’s core squeezed beyond stability.

Monstrous shock waves raced toward the
Last Throw
at close to lightspeed. “Ozziefuckit!”

By the time he’d said it, his accelerated thoughts had ordered the
smartcore to trigger the ultradrive. It was never designed to operate within a
stellar gravity field, but he was dead, anyway.

The universe clearly hated such an aberration, sending a vengeful force
to tear savagely at the perpetrator. Finally the cabin was alive with noise and
shaking and alarms just as he’d thought he wanted. Bulkheads split, hundreds of
tiny cracks ripping open. Sparks and sprays of gooey fluid shot through the
air, churned by a cyclone of gravity waves that pulled the Delivery Man
violently in every direction. He screamed in terror—

Two seconds. The time it took the ultradrive to claw the
Last Throw
out of the star’s stupendous gravity gradient.
The time in which an astonishing amount of pain went surging along the Delivery
Man’s nervous system. The time the ship’s overstressed components had to hold
together. Most of them did.

The Delivery Man’s world steadied. Gravity stopped its wild fluctuations.
The vibrations beating the starship’s fuselage faded away. His screaming
dribbled off to a whimper.

And far away in a dream Ilanthe was entreating the Firstlife to give her
the key to the Void’s nature.

“Gore!” he called.

“What’s happening?” the golden man asked. “There’s a power surge from the
siphon.”

“Hell, you mean it’s survived that?”

“Survived what?”

“Marius! Sweet Ozzie, he used novabombs. Gore, the star is going nova.
It’s already begun. That fucking deranged maniac has killed everything in the
system. Tyzak! Warn Tyzak. I’m coming to get you.” Already the
Last Throw
was approaching the Anomine homeworld. The
Delivery Man was designating a vector to take him around to the city where he’d
left Gore.

“They know,” Gore said.

The Third Dreamer had abandoned Makkathran to dream of the Anomine city.
The fantastical lights within the empty buildings were blazing with solar glory
now. In its last minutes the city was waking defiantly to face its doom. Gore
turned to Tyzak, who was staring straight up at the few quiet stars still visible
directly above the plaza. The small remaining patch of dark sky was fading away
as the light of the buildings grew ever stronger. Finally the old alien’s
thoughts were slipping through whatever variant of the gaiafield was
establishing itself around the planet. Every system and device the ancient
Anomine had left behind was coming alive. Thousands of borderguards were
materializing into orbit.

The Delivery Man knew it was all useless. Nothing could save the planet
now.

“It was us,” Gore told Tyzak. “Humans. We did this. I’m so sorry.”

“You did not,” Tyzak replied. “Your song remains pure.”

“I have failed so many times today.”

“I believe you are to have your greatest success. They seem to think so.”

Gore saw that the plaza was now lined with hundreds of Silfen, all of
them keeping back from the rim of the elevation mechanism.