Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework (63 page)

“You plan on letting him be defeated,” Eve
said.

“He’s the only one who can challenge us for
leadership,” replied Clark, who was watching the workers.

“The Leviathan?”

“If it survives this battle we’ll initiate
the remote destruct. You don’t approve?”

“I think Meunez is a waste of skin,” Eve
replied, “but losing the Leviathan seems wasteful.”

“Two other Leviathan class ships are near
completion. The projects were funded with Regent Galactic money,
the Order’s war chest is largely untouched. This Leviathan’s
destruction will mark a success if we accomplish our primary goal,
the reduction of the population of the Rega Gain system. It cannot
remain unscathed, or it will attract the attention of the edxi.
Judging from Meunez’s progress, we won’t have to deal with that
system again.”

“This is all from information you gained
when you connected with Hampon?” Eve asked.

“Yes. He was well informed thanks to the
Victory Machine and predictive software designed here, in this
command centre. He wanted to refine it to the point where he no
longer needed the Victory Machine, and since I connected with the
systems here, I can see that he came close.”

“Will you let me connect to these systems?”
Eve asked.

“If you like,” he replied. “But you don’t
want to know what it has to tell you. The burden is more than I
could have imagined. It’s everything I can do to keep it from my
people.”

She knew he meant the issyrians he’d arrived
with. Eve didn’t know if Clark would ever refer to anyone else as
‘his people.’ The more time she spent near him, the more she could
see the subtle connection they shared. Looking to the issyrians
working in the room, she could see them carrying some of his
sadness.

“Hampon was a sadist,” Clark stated. “That
is how he could know this and not collapse.”

“You’re not collapsing,” Eve said.

“I will.” He took a deep breath, the layers
of his armour scraping against each other with a sound like wet,
sandy stones grating. “You said you wanted to connect with your
fleet. Now is the time, especially if there’s a problem.”

Eve shook her head. “I can’t, I don’t have
the implant.”

“You do. I forced your neural implant to
regenerate. You only have to start using it.”

With a thought she was connected to the main
computer of the Overlord II and discovered the main communication
systems. High powered, microscopic wormholes formed, reaching out
to hypertransmitter nodes across the sector. In seconds she was
seeing the outer boundaries of the Eden system, reaching out to the
main hub.

There was no response. Like a panicked child
in the dark, she searched for anything to cling to. Where there
should be thousands of communication nodes, monitoring stations,
and millions of ships, there was nothing. She continued searching,
pressing the Overlord II’s long range communication systems to
their limits and tasking tactical systems on Regent Galactic ships
light years away to cooperate.

At long last, she discovered a
communications drone on the edge of the Eden system. It was
desperate to depart. Sensors detailed a massive gravity well near
the fourth planet. Eve forced it to look back, towards the area
where Eden II should be, and discovered the planet was being pulled
apart by the black hole that formed only a few million kilometres
away from it.

She played back the drone’s recent memory
and fell to her knees. The Eden Fleet ships outside the Eden system
didn’t understand how a black hole could appear in their home solar
system. Thousands of ships travelled there as quickly as they could
to investigate, and to exact revenge on the assailant. They scanned
for cloaked ships, tried to determine the cause of the sudden
astral anomaly, and most became trapped by the gravity well.

Joy. The drone realized she was interfacing
with him and recognized her. It greeted her with pure adulation. It
began rebroadcasting her presence to the nearest communication
hubs, using as much of its power as it could spare while fighting
the pull of the black hole. Then she felt the question on its
mechanical mind. “Can you save me?”

Before she could guard her emotions or
thoughts she replied: “No, I can’t save you.” She never felt more
helpless, not even when she knew Pandem was lost. These were her
children, and half of them were lost along with their
birthplace.

That was broadcast as well. The drone’s
panic returned, and the last thing it transmitted was angry
disappointment before being crushed by the intense gravity of the
black hole.

She tried to reach out to the communication
hubs and other drones that captured the message before they could
pass it on, but she wasn’t fast enough. They would all know, the
entire Fleet would be aware of how she’d failed to protect them.
Eve discovered fleets that wouldn’t allow her to communicate with
them.

HUMAN. HELPLESS. OBSOLETE, was the response
from most Eden ships. They could sense she was whole, that she
wasn’t just a mind in a tank, connected to computers and
communication systems. Her emotions were too vivid, too tied to her
human senses. She was corrupt. They shut her thoughts out.

A hand on her shoulder startled her from her
knees, which popped when she stood awkwardly. Tears streamed down
her face. “Leave me alone!” she cried.

“Goddess,” said a wide-eyed West Keeper in
robes. “You have been here for two hours. The Beast asked us here
so we could offer you solace.”

“Two hours,” she said, looking at the
contingent of white-robed humans who had come to assist her. They
regarded her with concern. “It can’t have been two hours.” She
looked to the construction of the tank to see that transparent
metal panels were being welded into place.

“Goddess, why are you weeping?” asked one
young West Keeper. She took Eve’s hand gently and stroked it.

“My children,” she caught herself saying.
That wasn’t the way to win them. If she wasn’t careful she’d lose
her human followers next. “Our machines have been set free,” she
said, almost choking on the words. “We have to defend
ourselves.”

“Will you lead us?” asked a woman with long
blond hair and a sharply pointed nose. “We are ready to follow
you.”

She couldn’t help but think the thin woman
seemed empty-headed, devoid of opinion or self-worth, but she
nodded. “I am yours. I’ll lead you.”

In that moment she knew how alone the Beast
felt. Eve would lead the Order until they were no longer needed,
then she’d set them free. They would save humanity.

The pub, called Ron’s Iron, was inside the
hold of an old secure cargo ship. Minh-Chu had never seen the
inside of one before. Most law-abiding humans hadn’t, in fact,
since the majority of the ship was built like a vault with
thrusters and a bridge. The outer hull itself had enough metal to
build four Warlords, and she was five meters shorter.

The days of Ron’s Iron transporting precious
goods were long over, however. Her cargo doors lay open with guards
to either side. Tables and chairs were magnetically bound to the
floor so they could slide but not be swung or thrown. The rear of
the long hold was piled high with bottles, refrigeration crates,
kegs, a few food processing machines, and other items waiting to be
served. In front of it all was a bar built down the length of a
heavy crossbeam. Several bartenders, one an issyrian who had two
arms and two tentacles, deftly served the customers.

There were hundreds of patrons in
attendance, and Minh couldn’t help but watch them as he sipped hot
sake. Frost ordered three bottles for the table as soon as he saw
it was available. “Just like home,” he said as he put the bottles
down. A waitress followed close behind with cups. Minh didn’t have
the heart to tell him that he wasn’t partial to it, but looked
forward to the next round when he could try something else.

The Warlord crew had taken three tables. One
played host to all but one of Minh’s pilots, another was mostly
specialists and mechanics, and he sat at the third with Frost,
Jacob, Agameg, and Finn. Minh-Chu scanned the room, looking from
corporate hauler crews at one table, to nondescript patrons at
another, to United Core World Confederation solders next to them,
to another group of corporate freighter crewmen in loose vacsuits,
and finally to another table with three nafalli leaning over it,
having some kind of drinking contest. They’d open their long maws,
lower their mouths over the top half of a bottle, tilt their heads
back, then drink until one of them coughed or gurgled, or gave up.
He watched for the fourth time as they all leaned back in their
chairs, watchful of the others. One sputtered violently, and the
others took their bottles out of their mouths so they could slap
their mate on the arm and laugh. Once he recovered, the loser was
off to get the next round.

“How are you finding the Warlord?” asked
Agameg.

Minh-Chu only realized that the shape
changer was talking to him after he noticed everyone else at the
table was looking at him too. “It’ll be great when it’s finished.
Great crew,” he answered hurriedly. “Strange destinations.”

“That’s a toast!” Frost exclaimed, slugging
what was left of his sake back.

The rest of the table followed suit, except
for Agameg, who daintily sipped instead. Finn stared at him. “I
prefer to sip,” Agameg said with a defensive shrug. “I like it too
much.”

“I think our wee pilot here,” Frost started
as he poured more sake in his cup, “is quiet because he’s realizing
he’s going to have his hands full with our Ashley. She’s not as low
maintenance as she seems.”

The room seemed a couple degrees warmer to
Minh-Chu just then.

“I think Ash’s taking it easy on him because
she can sense Minh’s history with women is colourful and unlucky,”
Jake said, calling a thin visi waiter over. The green and brown
spots on his angular, stretched face and arms swirled and
shifted.

“Everyone in the store was watching when
they were all close-talk. I just caught the end of it, I think,”
Frost said. “Depending on where you stand, you’re in luck or big
trouble, lad.”

Minh-Chu watched Finn’s fairly lighthearted
expression wilt until he realized that he was being watched. He
stiffened up and looked away. Agameg had closed the eye facing Minh
and watched Finn with the other, which had closed to a narrow slit
as though he was wincing.

Jake returned his attention to the table
after he finished placing his order with the waiter. He didn’t seem
fazed by any of it, instead regarding Minh-Chu directly across the
table. “Minh here trusted me enough to date one of his sisters
once,” Jake said.

“I trusted you to
ask
her on a date
once,” Minh corrected, trying to add a little levity to the
table.

“Ah, right,” Jake said. “It didn’t work
out.”

“She turned you down, Captain?” Frost asked
with an expectant grin.

“I wasn’t good enough for her,” Jake replied
to the amusement of Frost and several crew members at the other
tables. “My point is, if he and Ash, who is like a daughter to me,
want to share some time, then I’m not getting in their way. She’s
not made of glass-“

“-And you’re not a total ass!” Frost
finished for Jake abruptly, pointing at Minh-Chu. He obviously
thought it was funnier than anyone else did.

When things settled a little, Minh looked at
Jake, more to avoid looking at Finn. “Glad I have your permission,”
Minh-Chu said.

“Oh, careful there,” Frost said. “Don’t let
any of the ladies aboard hear that you needed Captain’s permission
for anything where Ash or any other woman is concerned.”

“Right,” Minh-Chu said. “Good point. That
could be taken the wrong way.”

A short, quiet discussion took place between
Finn and Agameg. The pair rose. “We’re going to return to the
ship,” Agameg announced politely. “There are things we want to do.
I think,” he finished awkwardly.

“You can stay here,” Finn muttered as he
walked away from the table.

“Or I can stay here?” Agameg said as he
walked after him in confusion.

After another quiet moment of discussion, a
Warlord marine joined Finn and Agameg returned to the table. “I can
stay here,” he said with a shrug.

“I’m guessing that Finn and Ashley have
history,” Minh said, looking around the table.

“Ash mooned over Finn while he was stuck in
stasis,” Frost explained. “We got a real doctor who knew how to get
him through some bio-regeneration-growback treatment and they broke
down at the starting line.”

Jake regarded him with a surprised smile. “I
didn’t know you followed scuttlebutt.”

“Can’t avoid it with Stephanie,” Frost
grumbled. “Woman hears everything and holds a secret like a grave
until she gets into our quarters. Then she yaps my ear off after
our evening festivities, when there are festivities, that is.”

Minh-Chu watched as Stephanie entered the
pub and started for their table. He wasn’t the only one. “Evening
festivities?” Minh asked, aware of what Frost meant, but unable to
resist the golden opportunity that lay before him.

“C’mon, lad. You know, the ‘sloppy sheet
shuffle,’ ‘bunk bumpin’,’ or just plain bonk-a-donkin’. She’s a
wonder when it happens, but it happens so rarely I can’t help but
wonder.” He raised his glass, downed the contents and slammed it
down on the table.

It was at this point that Jake realized that
Stephanie was on quick approach behind Frost, and he silently
mouthed ‘you’re evil,’ to Minh-Chu so Frost couldn’t see.

Frost went on. “We finally finish repairing
our quarters on the Warlord and she’s too shy to get any midnight
manoeuvres started because the walls are thin.” Stephanie already
knew what Frost was talking about, and he went on, breaking into an
enthusiastic mimicking act that sounded like a whining old woman.
“But she keeps tellin’ me ‘no, there’s three bunks against this
wall here, the crew’ll hear us like we’re in the same cabin,’ I
would have never guessed she was such a-“ Minh supposed that it was
Agameg’s saucer shaped eyes looking at Frost that told him that
something was amiss, but he couldn’t be completely sure.