The Night's Dawn Trilogy (481 page)

As they drew closer, more movement became visible across the darkside. Trains, made up from hundreds of tanker carriages and
kilometres in length, slid slowly along the valleys and embankments between the thermal transfer systems. Their rails were
an open framework of girders; suspended above the tubes and foil sheets of the disk, undulating like a roller coaster track,
dipping down to merge with the larger tubes, allowing the trains to run inside them, then rising up the stilt legs of industrial
modules to pass straight through the middle.

“Who the hell built this place?” Ashly asked in bemusement as the grey pixels built up into a comprehensive image in this
neural nanonics. “Isombard Kingdom Brunel?”

“If it works, don’t try and fix it,” Joshua said.

“There is more to it than that,” Samuel said. “Tojolt-HI is not a declining technology. They have selected the simplest engineering
technology which can sustain them. Whilst humans would no doubt progress to developing a full Dyson sphere over fifteen thousand
years, the Tyrathca have refined something that requires the minimum of effort to maintain. It does have a kind of elegance.”

“But it still fails repeatedly,” Beaulieu said. “There are dozens of dead sections across the disk. And each failure would
cost them millions of lives. Any sentient creature should try to refine its living environment to something less prone to
accident, surely?” Samuel shrugged.

The Anthi-CL dominion began issuing instructions for
Lady Mac
’s final rendezvous coordinate. A blueprint they transmitted identified a specific section of the rim, which the flight computer
matched up to the sensor image. The Anthi-CL dominion wanted them to keep station two kilometres out from a pier-like structure
protruding from the edge.

“How is the translation program update coming on?” Joshua asked Oski. “Do we know enough to communicate directly now?”

“It’s integrated all the new terms we’ve encountered so far; the analysis comparison subroutine response time is down to an
acceptable level. I’d say it’s okay to try and talk to them.”

Lady Mac
’s drive thrust was reducing steadily as she drew level with the plane of the disk. In comparison to the desolate solidity
of the darkside, the rim appeared to be unfinished. It bristled with slender spires and protruding gantry platforms wrapped
in cables. Clumps of tanks and pods were attached to various open frame grids.

“At last,” Sarha said. “That’s got to be a ship.”

The vessel was docked to the rim a hundred kilometres along from their rendezvous coordinate. It had a simple profile, a pentagon
of five huge globes scintilating with a soft gold and scarlet iridescence under the gas-giant’s illumination, each one at
least two kilometres in diameter. They surrounded the throat of an elongated funnel made from a broad mesh of jet-black material;
its open mouth was eight kilometres across. There was no recognizable life support section visible from
Lady Mac
’s current position.

“Picking up a lot of very complex magnetic fluctuations from that thing,” Liol said. “Whatever it does, there’s a lot of energy
involved.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was a Bussard ramscoop,” Joshua said. “It was a neat idea, pre-ZTT era interstellar propulsion.
Use a magnetic scoop to collect interstellar hydrogen, and feed it direct into a fusion drive. A cheap and easy way to travel
between stars, you haven’t got to worry about carrying any on-board fuel. Unfortunately it turns out the hydrogen density
isn’t high enough to make it work.”

“In our part of the galaxy, maybe,” Liol said. “What’s the hydrogen density in space between a red giant and a nebula?”

“Good point. That could mean they’re in contact with the closest colony stars.” He didn’t believe it; there was some missing
factor here. What would be the reason to travel to a nearby star? You couldn’t trade over interstellar distances, not with
slower-than-light ships. And given your destination would have the same technology and society as your departure point, what
could be traded anyway? Any differences or technological improvements that sprung up over the millennia could be shared by
communication laser. “Hey,” he exclaimed. “Parker?”

“Yes, Joshua?” the old director responded.

“We thought the reason for Tanjuntic-RI losing contact with Mastrit-PJ was because civilization failed here. It hasn’t. So
why did they go off-air?”

“I have no idea. Perhaps one of the colony worlds relaying the messages round the nebula collapsed.”

“A Tyrathca society failed? Isn’t that a bit unlikely?”

“Or it was killed off,” Monica said. “I’d like to think the enslaved xenocs finally rebelled and wiped them out.”

“Possible.” Joshua wasn’t convinced.
I’m missing something obvious
.

Lady Mac
fell through the plane of the disk. It was a deliberate overshoot, allowing them to see Tojolt-HI’s sunside. Here, at last,
they found the invariable conformity they’d grown to expect from the Tyrathca.

On this half of the disk, every tube section was made from glass; a trillion corrugations held together by black reinforcement
hoops like the roof of God’s greenhouse. Light evaporating from the photosphere below was thick enough to qualify as a crimson
haze; it gusted against the diskcity, only to be rebuffed by the burnished surface in copper ripples longer than planetary
crescents. This was a hint of how sunset over eternity’s ocean would appear.

“Jesus,” Joshua crooned. “I guess this makes up for Tanjuntic-RI.”

They held position for several minutes with every sensor boom extended to gather in the scene, then Joshua reluctantly fired
the secondary drive rockets to bring them back into the disk plane and back towards the rim. He locked
Lady Mac
’s position in the coordinate Anthi-CL had given them, and initiated a barbecue roll. The starship’s thermodump panels were
spread out to their full extent, glimmering cherry red whenever they turned into shadow.

As soon as Sarha confirmed their on-board heat exchangers could handle the sun’s heat, Joshua opened a direct communication
channel to the Anthi-CL dominion.

“I would like to speak with Quantook-LOU,” he said.

The reply came back almost immediately. “I speak.”

“Again, I thank the Anthi-CL dominion for receiving us. We look forward to beginning a prosperous exchange, and hope that
it will be the first of many between our respective species.” Make them believe that others will be coming, he thought; that
implies any forceful action on their part would ultimately have to be accounted for. Pretty unlikely given the scale of things
around here, but they don’t know that.

“We too have that anticipation,” Quantook-LOU said. “That is an interesting ship you fly, Captain Calvert. We have not seen
its like before. Those of us who disputed your claimed origin no longer do so. Is it a subsidiary vessel of your starship,
or did you cross interstellar space in it?”

Joshua gave his brother a disconcerted look. “Even if this translation program is getting creative on me, they’re not responding
like any Tyrathca I know about.”

“That’s a leading question, too,” Samuel cautioned. “If you confirm we travelled round the nebula in
Lady Macbeth
they’ll know we have faster-than-light travel.”

“And they’ll want it,” Beaulieu said. “If we’re right about the pressure on local resources, it’s their escape route out past
the surrounding colony worlds.”

“No it’s not,” Ashly said. “I lived through the Great Dispersal, remember. We couldn’t even shift five per cent of Earth’s
population when we really needed to. ZTT isn’t an escape route, not even with the industrial capacity of a diskcity. Everything
is relative. They could build enough ships in a year to transport billions of breeder pairs away from Mastrit-PJ, but they’d
still be left with thousands of billions living in the diskcities. All of whom would be busy laying more eggs.”

“It might not solve their problem, but it would certainly give star systems where they propose to settle one hell of a headache,”
Liol said. “We’ve seen what they’ll do to aboriginal species occupying real estate they want.”

Joshua held up a hand. “I get the picture, thank you. Though I think we have to consider ZTT technology as our ultimate purchasing
power to get the Sleeping God’s location. The Hesperi-LN Tyrathca already have ZTT. It might take decades to reach Mastrit-PJ,
but it will spread here eventually.”

“
Try
not to,” Monica said forcefully. “Try very hard.”

Joshua held her stare as he reopened the channel to Quantook-LOU. “The nature of our ship is one of the items of knowledge
we can discuss as part of the exchange. Perhaps you would like to list the areas of science and technology you have the most
interest in acquiring.”

“What areas do you excel in?”

Joshua frowned. “Wrong,” he mouthed to his crew. “This is not a Tyrathca.”

“I agree, this is not a response I would expect from one,” Samuel said.

“Then what?” Sarha asked.

“Let’s find out,” Joshua said. “Quantook-LOU, I think we should start slowly. As a gesture of good faith, I would like to
give you a gift. We might then start to exchange our histories. Once we understand each other’s background we should have
a better idea where useful exchanges can be made. Are you agreeable to this?”

“In principle, yes. What is your gift?”

“An electronic processor. It is a standard work tool among humans; the design and composition may be of interest to you. If
so, duplication would be a simple matter.”

“I accept your gift.”

“I will bring it to you. I am eager to see the inside of Tojolt-HI. It is an astonishing achievement.”

“Thank you. Can you dock your starship to one of our ports? We do not have a suitable ship to collect you from your present
position.”

“Curiouser and curiouser,” Liol said. “They can build habitats the size of continents, but not commuter taxis.”

“We have a small shuttle craft we can use to reach the port,” Joshua said. “We will remain in spacesuits while we are inside
Anthi-CL to avoid biological contamination.”

“Is a direct physical encounter between our species dangerous?”

“Not if adequate precautions are taken. Our species is very experienced in this field. Please don’t be alarmed.”

______

Joshua piloted the MSV himself, ignoring Ashly’s snide remarks about union rules. It was cramped in the little cabin; Samuel
and Oski came with him, as well as a serjeant (just in case). He had to promise the others a rota for visiting the diskcity,
everyone had wanted to come.

The port which Quantook-LOU had designated was a fat bulb of grey-white metal four hundred metres across, which flared out
from the end of a web tube. Its apex was taken up by a circular hatch seventy-five metres in diameter, open to show a dimly-lit
interior.

“Looks like one big empty chamber in there,” Joshua said. He fired the thrusters carefully, edging the little craft inside.
Gentle red light shone from long strips that curved round the walls like fluorescent ribs. Between them were rows of almost-human
machinery. It put him in mind of the docking craters in Tranquillity’s spaceport.

Directly opposite the main outer hatch was a stubby cylindrical grid, with much smaller airlock hatches at the far end. Joshua
steered the MSV towards it.

“Your datavise carrier is starting to break up,” Sarha reported.

“That’s to be expected, though a good host would offer us a constant link. We’ll start to worry if they actually shut that
hatch.”

The MSV reached the top of the cylindrical grid. Joshua extended one of the vehicle’s waldo arms to grip it in the clamp.
“We’re secure,” he reported, using the band to Quantook-LOU.

“Please proceed to the airlock ahead of you. I await on the other side.”

Joshua and the others fastened their space armour helmets into place. They assumed the Tyrathca didn’t have programmable silicon,
so they wouldn’t know about SII suits. The armour would appear to be their actual spacesuit, reducing the risk of offending
their hosts at the same time providing a degree of protection. The MSV’s cabin atmosphere cycled and the four of them slid
out.

There were three airlock hatches at the end of the grid. Only one of them, the largest, was open. The chamber behind was a
sphere six metres across.

“Those other hatches were too small for the breeders,” Samuel said. “I wonder if one of the vassal caste has been bred for
a higher IQ; they certainly weren’t capable of useful engineering work before.”

Joshua didn’t reply. He stuck his boots to what could have been the chamber floor just as the atmospheric gas started to hiss
in. Suit sensors told him was a composition of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, argon, and various hydrocarbon compounds,
the humidity level was very high, and there were several classes of organic particulate in circulation. He made a strong effort
to keep his hand away from the innocuous-looking cylinder on his belt which was actually a laser.

Strangely, he felt no excitement at this moment. It was almost as if there was too much riding on it for him to take anything
other than an objective view. A good thing, he supposed.

The inner hatch opened, revealing one of Tojolt-HI’s wider habitation tubes dwindling away to a flat metal bulkhead a kilometre
away. Two colours dominated the interior: red and brown. Joshua smiled round his suit’s respirator tube as he saw the cluster
of xenocs waiting for him. They weren’t Tyrathca.

First impression was a shoal of human-size seahorses floating cautiously in the air. They had that same kind of flowing twitch
along the length of their body, as if forever poised at the start of a race. Their colouring was almost black, though Joshua
suspected that was due to the unvarying red light; sensor spectral analysis showed their scales were actually a shade of dark
grey-brown very close to the Tyrathca, suggesting a common Mastrit-PJ ancestry. The head was pointed, dragon-like, with a
long beak-mouth and two small semi-recessed eyes. It was held almost at a right angle to the body by a heavily wrinkled neck,
suggesting considerable flexibility. The rest of the body had an ovoid cross section that gradually tapered away towards the
base, though there was no sign of any tail. It curved slightly, producing an overall S-shape. Three pairs of limbs were spaced
equidistantly along it, all sharing the same basic profile: a long first section extending away from a shoulder-analogue socket
and ending in a wrist joint. The hand appendage was elongated with nine twin-knuckle digits. On the highest set of limbs they
were thin and highly dextrous; the middle set were smaller and thicker; while the hindset were stumpy, toes rather than fingers.
On most of the xenocs the hind feet appeared to be withered; becoming simple paddles of flesh, as though they were borrowed
from aquatic creatures.