Antagonist - Childe Cycle 11 (108 page)

"This
is
Orbital
Communications,
the
Final
Encyclopedia,"
a young-sounding
soprano
voice
said.
"We're
told
you
have
a
request."

"Thank
you
for
speaking
to
me,"
Bleys
said.
"My
name
is
Bleys Ahrens,
and
I'd
like
to
speak
with
Hal
Mayne—I
understand
he's presently
working
in
the
Encyclopedia."

"I
will
advise
Hal
Mayne
you
wish
to
speak
with
him,
Bleys Ahrens.
Please
stand
by."

"Wait!"
Bleys
said.

"Yes?"

"I
should
have
been
more
specific,"
Bleys
said.
"What
I'd
like
is permission
to
meet
Hal
Mayne
in
person,
there
in
the
Final
Encyclopedia.
Would
you
ask
him
if
he'll
agree
to
that?"

"I'll
ask
him,"
the
voice
said.
"Please
have
your
shuttle
maintain its
position."

The
voice
keyed
off
without
waiting
for
his
reply.

Bleys
sat
back
in
his
seat,
away
from
the
intercom
he
had
unconsciously
leaned
into
while
speaking.
The
voice
had
been
pleasant and
polite,
blending
innocence
with
competence;
and
he
thought he
could,
sight
unseen,
almost
draw
a
portrait
of
the
speaker.

The
vast
majority
of
the
populations
of
the
Younger
Worlds
would never
listen
to
voices
like
that.
Voices
like
that,
or
other
contact
with the
human
people
inside
the
Final
Encyclopedia,
would
negate
the propaganda
campaign
that
was
portraying
the
Final
Encyclopedia
to the
Younger
Worlds
as
an
inhuman
institution
working
to
craft
su
perweapons
to
be
used
against
the
Younger
Worlds.
The
Final
Encyclopedia,
it
was
said,
hid
behind
its
phase-shield
to
conceal
its
part in
a
grand
conspiracy
that
included
Old
Earth,
the
Exotics
and
the Dorsai;
a
conspiracy
aimed
at
robbing
Old
Earth's
former
colonies
of their
freedoms.

If
the
Final
Encyclopedia
had
no
hidden
purpose,
it
was
asked, why
did
it
need
a
shield
that,
using
the
same
physics
that
allowed
interstellar
travel,
would
disintegrate
any
physical
object
that
touched it,
scattering
its
component
subatomic
parts
evenly
throughout
the Universe?

The
message
was,
so
far,
being
spread
quietly,
in
unofficial
forms and
in
subtle
terms;
but
it
was
effective,
at
least
among
a
small
minority
⁷
.
A
simplistic
view
of
history,
after
all,
supported
fears
of
such a
conspiracy:
Old
Earth
had
certainly
tried,
several
times
in
the past,
to
dominate
the
Younger
Worlds;
and
every
planet
had
near-mythical
stories
about
the
fearsome
Dorsai
men
of
war
and
the crafty
Exotics.

It
did
not
concern
Bleys
that
the
majority
of
the
Younger
Worlds' populations
had
not
yet
bought
into
the
rumors;
over
time
the
minority
voices
would
get
louder,
until
the
unpersuaded
were
run
over, stampeded
or
intimidated
by
fears
of
being
labeled
unpatriotic.

The
Younger
Worlds,
without
quite
realizing
it,
were
well
on their
way
to
being
prepared
for
war.
Economic
structures
were
being
altered
and
assets
appropriated.
Recruitment
of
military
personnel,
although
it
had
plateaued
of
late,
would
soon
be
phased
out; the
mechanisms
for
large-scale
conscription
were
even
now
being put
in
place
on
those
worlds
that
did
not
already
have
such.

Most
of
the
populations
as
yet
had
no
idea
what
was
going
on; control
of
the
media
and
governments
prevented
reporting
of
the more
sensitive
news,
or
of
any
significant
analysis.

Many
of
his
Others
had
found
it
difficult
to
understand
that
it was
not
necessary
that
a
majority
of
their
worlds'
populations
actually
believe
the
propaganda.
All
that
was
required,
he
had
explained,
was
that
those
unconvinced
of
the
reality
of
the
conspiracy and
the
superweapons
become
apprehensive—which
they
would
if they
heard
no
contradicting
voices.
Afraid
of
the
consequences
if their
skeptical
instincts
were
wrong,
they
would
see
little
harm
in supporting
enhanced
defensive
measures;
that
was
all
that
would be
needed.
Fear
and
hatred,
even
if
limited
to
a
minority,
would cow
many
of
the
potentially
dissenting
voices,
who
could
not
stomach
setting
themselves
up
to
be
denounced
as
traitors.

Now
only
a
small
portion
of
Old
Earth
could
be
seen
from
the viewport.
Bleys
hoped
the
young
voice
he
had
spoken
to
would
not be
killed
when
the
end
came
for
the
Final
Encyclopedia....
The shuttle's
slow
movement
had
been
altering
his
view
of
the
mother planet;
he
didn't
mind:
he
could
see
a
small
portion
of
the
vast
sea of
stars.

It
was
slightly
less
than
two
minutes
more
before
the
driver
told Bleys
that
the
Final
Encyclopedia
was
calling
for
him. "This
is
Bleys
Ahrens."

"This
is
the
Final
Encyclopedia,"
a
voice
said.
It
was
not
the young
soprano
he
had
spoken
with
before,
but
a
slightly
more
mature,
but
still
female,
alto
voice.

"Hal
Mayne
says
he'll
see
you,
Bleys
Ahrens,"
the
new
voice continued.
"We'll
advise
your
driver
when
we
have
an
opening,
and you'll
be
vectored
into
Bay
One.
Someone
will
meet
you
there."

"Thank
you,"
Bleys
said.
He
registered
a
slight
uncomfortable-ness
at
not
addressing,
in
a
more
polite
fashion,
the
person
who
had spoken
to
him;
but
she
had
not
given
her
name.

No
matter.

He
was
committed,
now.
He
felt
relief.

He
had
called
for
a
hired
shuttle
to
pick
him
up
from
Favored of God,
on
a
kind
of
whim,
and
he
had
been
wondering
whether
he was
making
a
silly
mistake.

It's never a mistake to scout out your opponent,
he
reminded
himself.
It's been well over a year since we met in that prison cell, and I need every chance I can get to learn what might be going on in that boy's head.

After
all,
he
was
nearby
anyway.

As
Bley
s
stepped
out
of
the
shuttle's
lock,
the
bay
was
quieter
than he
had
expected.
He
looked
around,
wondering
what
it
would
take
to get
a
complete
tour
of
this
huge
technological
wonder—and
quashed the
notion,
irritated
at
himself
for
being
weak
enough
to
be
taken
by the
same
fascination
with
toys
that
had
led
the
race
too
quickly
into space.
It
might
be
better
to
simply
destroy
this
place,
rather
than
try to
control
it;
it
was
too
tempting.