Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows) (4 page)

CHAPTER
T
HREE

There were those who said that the human race was possessed of an incurable wanderlust. Indeed, nearly half of the Confederation’s population lived on starships, ranging from the giant planetoids and cityships to the relatively small cruisers that made up the mainstay of the Peacekeeper fleet, or the clanships and slowboats that carried extended families on permanent voyages across the galaxy. Who would want to live on a planet when they could have the endless vistas of space?

Elyria smiled as PKS
Hamilton
came into view, floating against a massive gas giant that played host to a remarkable species whom the Confederation had recently contacted. Inhabited gas giants were rare and finding a new species was always interesting, particularly one that had managed to reach into space long before they were discovered. Making contact hadn’t been easy and had largely relied on the AIs, but once communications were established the aliens had been delighted – and astonished – to discover that they were no longer alone. It was humbling to realise that humanity hadn’t taken the discovery so well. But then, humanity’s First Contact had been a bloody disaster that had resulted in the First Interstellar War.

Hamilton
looked nothing like a civilian ship, unsurprisingly. Peacekeeper starships, even survey ships, were sometimes called upon to fight to defend the Confederation and they couldn’t afford to be vulnerable. She was a flattened cylinder, ten kilometres from bow to stern, her silver hull glittering in the reflected light from the gas giant. Starships were the greatest form of artwork in the Confederation and even the nastiest warships had an elegance designed into them by the shipyards.
Hamilton
, in a very real sense, was the Confederation, the first starship spacefaring cultures were meant to encounter. She was designed to make a good impression.

Elyria’s wristcom buzzed. “We are now within teleport range of
Hamilton
,” the ship’s RI informed her. The
Harvest of Love
was a liner, providing fast transportation from star to star for civilians who wanted to travel. It had also been the quickest way to reach
Hamilton
, although that hadn’t stopped her using the ship’s luxury cocoons to enjoy herself. “Do you wish to be teleported immediately?”

“Yes, please,” Elyria said. She’d exchanged messages with
Hamilton’s
Executive Officer, who had made arrangements for her quarters on the giant survey ship. It wasn’t as if she needed much, beyond her wristcom. Anything she was likely to need could be produced onboard the survey ship.

“You don’t wish to say goodbye first?” The RI asked. “You spent time with several young men during your voyage.”

Elyria smiled, inwardly. RIs, particularly the ones designed to help look after civilians, could be alarmingly mothering. The Confederation had never been entirely comfortable with leaving
everything
to the RIs, not after the disaster on Armadillo. One planet had placed everything under the jurisdiction of RIs governed by the ancient – and largely discredited – Three Laws of Robotics. The RIs had taken complete control of the population’s lives, purely for their own safety. Eventually, the Peacekeepers had had to step in to liberate the population from a very strange tyranny.

“I don’t think they will miss me,” she said, ruefully. The luxury liners played host to hundreds of thousands of youngsters on pleasure cruises. Eventually, they grew out of it and started doing something more serious with their lives. “I’d like to be teleported now, if you please.”

The world blurred out around her in a shimmer of red-gold light. When it faded away, she was standing in a teleport chamber on the
Hamilton
, facing a young woman who had extensively modified her body to look like a cartoon character. Her eyes were big, her body was weirdly proportioned and her smile was too bright. There were primitive worlds whose inhabitants would have taken one look at her and
known
that she was a fairy, or a demon.

“Welcome onboard,” she said. “I’m Commander Anastasia, Executive Officer for my sins. You’ll be pleased to know that half of your team is already onboard and burning with curiosity.”

“That’s good,” Elyria said, with a wink. The Peacekeeper briefing notes had stated that no one, apart from Captain Thor, knew the ship’s destination, or what they expected to find there. Indeed, much of the ship’s research staff were being transferred to another survey ship which would continue the discussions with the gas giant’s inhabitants. “I hope to settle their curiosity once we get underway.”

“Excellent,” Anastasia said, as she invited Elyria to follow her. “I don’t know if you’ve ever travelled on a Peacekeeper ship before, but the rules are a little different here. There are parts of the ship that are off-limits to civilian personnel, all listed in the plans uploaded to your wristcom. You’ll be expected to obey orders from Peacekeeper officers, whatever the situation. The Captain has the authority to restrain you if you refuse to follow orders, endanger yourself, others or the ship itself – or if you compromise the mission.”

Elyria nodded. She
had
been on Peacekeeper ships before, although the first voyage had been a nasty shock. The Confederation had very few laws and civilian ships were little different from a Planetary Ring, or a Habitat. On a Peacekeeper ship, however, there
were
rules, many of them throwbacks to what the vast majority of the population would consider the Dark Ages. And yet they had to be followed.

“We don’t allow internal teleports except in emergencies,” Anastasia continued. “If you need to get around the ship, walk or use the transport tubes. You will have access to part of the ship’s computer core, but not all of it; we cannot risk contamination of the internal datanet. And the crew is not there to be your personal servants. If you need something the RI cannot produce for you immediately, place a request through my office.

“But don’t let that worry you,” Anastasia added, a moment later. “The crew is used to working with civilians. I’m sure there won’t be many problems.”

“I certainly hope not,” Elyria said. She’d never worked with a Peacekeeper crew while monitoring primitive populations. Rumour had it that they were cautious to the point of paranoia. It shouldn’t be a real surprise – Peacekeepers often dealt with alien races who shared the Confederation’s technological prowess – but their caution could be an impediment on a primitive world. But then, Darius was no ordinary world. “We will do our best to ensure that there is no friction.”

Anastasia stopped outside a door and pressed her hand against the sensor panel. The door slid open, revealing a barren compartment with a bed, a chair and a small washroom at the rear. Two large windows looked out into interstellar space, which would allow her to lie in bed and stare out at the stars. There were no decorations, but that wasn’t too surprising either. She would be expected to decorate her quarters to suit herself. A small collection of clothing waited for her in one of the storage compartments. Anything else she needed would have to be produced by the onboard fabricator.

“The final members of your team will be boarding this evening,” Anastasia said, once Elyria had checked the terminal and configured the user interface to suit herself. “Once they are onboard, we will be slipping into hyperspace and heading for a destination the Captain has seen fit to keep to himself. I assume you will be briefing us all then?”

“Definitely,” Elyria said. She could understand the XO’s irritation, but the CSC had wanted to keep certain details classified until the mission was underway. It would be a great deal harder for anyone to tip off the news agencies once they were in hyperspace. “I look forward to briefing you all.”

“And the Captain wishes to speak with you,” Anastasia added. “Will 1400 be convenient?”

Elyria blinked. “I think so,” she said, glancing at her wristcom. It was 1314, Confederation Standard Time. “Am I allowed to visit his ready room?”

“I’ll have someone escort you,” Anastasia said. She grinned as she walked back to the door. “And I can’t wait to hear about the mission. I’m sure it’s something extraordinary.”

“It is,” Elyria assured her.

She watched the XO leave her quarters and then sat down in front of the terminal. As she’d been warned, parts of it were clearly unavailable to her, but it was easy to access both her personal mailing account and the secure address she’d been assigned by the Peacekeepers. One prospective researcher had agreed to join the mission, only to change his mind at the last moment, apparently because he’d picked up a better offer elsewhere. Elyria studied it for a long moment, decided that he was fishing for more information and then discarded it. An expert on gunpowder firearms would be helpful, but there was enough cross-specialisation among the team that his presence wasn’t essential. Besides, they
did
have access to the Peacekeeper database, which included all known forms of military tactics. He’d regret his decision when the files were finally declassified.

A second message informed her that Colonel Jorlem, a Peacekeeper attached to something called the Prometheus Project, had been assigned to the team and would be boarding the
Hamilton
later in the afternoon. Elyria glanced through the files, but even with her improved security clearance she wasn’t able to find any information on the Prometheus Project, or even the Colonel himself. The AIs could presumably have told her, yet she knew better than to try to ask. They picked up all kinds of pieces of information and rarely shared something they knew to be classified, or personally embarrassing.

There was a chime at the door, which opened to reveal a young man with feline facial fur and a rather toothy grin, wearing the standard grey uniform. “Begging your pardon, Professor, but I have been assigned to escort you to the Captain,” he said. Elyria glanced at her wristcom and saw, to her surprise, that it was 1350. “Would you like to come with me?”

Elyria smiled. “Why not?”

The command section of the starship proved to be something of a disappointment. There were a handful of consoles on the bridge, but most of the actual work was done through neural links and specialised RIs. Elyria had only a few seconds to glance through the bridge before the door leading to the Captain’s Ready Room hissed open, allowing her to step inside. Captain Thor stood up to greet her, holding out one hand for her to shake. Unlike his crew, he looked reassuringly baseline human, although with long blonde hair and too many muscles.

But at least he was human. The Changed could never be allowed to go down to Darius. They’d simply attract far too much attention.

“Welcome onboard,” Thor said, as he motioned for Elyria to take a seat. “I have been fully briefed by Peacekeeper Command on the true nature of the mission. It is fascinating, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Elyria said, unable to avoid a hint of nervousness. The Captain might not be in command of the research team, but he was in overall command of the
mission
. “Solving the mystery of Darius is a major priority for the Confederation.”

“Because of the Ancients,” Thor said. He stood in front of the producer and tapped it. “You drink tea?”

“It is socially impossible
not
to drink it,” Elyria said, dryly. Besides, her re-engineered taste buds could help her to tolerate it. No human had to force themselves to swallow something awful after the genetic engineers finished with them. “You believe that the Ancients destroyed themselves?”

“I think that so many dead worlds, with comparable ruins and sharing the same... energy signature that causes advanced technology to glitch, suggests that something terrible happened to the Ancients,” Thor said. “I used to be on patrol in the Thule Sector, where multiple worlds were destroyed during the war. There was very little uniform about them, Professor, but all of the Ancient worlds are practically identical. Unless you count Essence – and I understand that the jury is still out on the question of Essence being an actual Ancient world.”

He shrugged. “The evidence suggests that the Ancients destroyed themselves and their worlds in a single moment,” he added. He held up a hand before she could object. “I know – there’s no theory that can account for what happened, or at least none that can be proved. But it could be a Polaris Disaster, except on a much larger scale. We may never know for sure.”

Elyria scowled. Two thousand years ago, the inhabitants of the world humans would eventually call Polaris had suffered a major energy crisis – and tried to solve it by tapping their own sun through a zero-width wormhole. Somehow, they’d miscalculated and triggered a massive solar flare that had sterilised their world, exterminating their entire population. The lucky ones had died quickly. Later, human archaeologists had discovered proof that their society had been bitterly divided on the whole issue of tapping their sun. The naysayers had been right.

“Peacekeeper Command understands the importance of the mission, but I have strict orders not to risk exposing the Confederation’s existence to the locals,” Thor continued. “I know we will eventually have to go down to the surface, but we will be operating under strict security protocols at all times. Matters will not be helped by the glitches in our most advanced systems. We might be unable to teleport someone out if they ran into trouble.”

“We know the dangers,” Elyria said quietly, although she wasn’t sure if that were true. It was quite common to run into danger on primitive worlds, but they had always been able to withdraw, even if they did have to teleport in front of the locals. Darius, on the other hand, might not allow a teleporter to work. And if communications systems began to glitch too...

“I sincerely hope so,” Thor said, quietly. “If worst comes to worst, I have orders to pull back and abandon anyone on the surface to their own fate. The safety of this ship and the security of the Confederation comes first. I know that Interventionists are fond of knocking over planetary societies, but Darius might just be able to bite back.”

“With all due respect,” Elyria said, “isn’t the prize worth a little risk?”