Owner 03 - Jupiter War (21 page)

‘We’re on our way,’ he whispered, purely to himself, for only now did some residual human part of him feel that the journey had truly begun. Then, just seconds later, serendipity took a hand and reminded him of everything that lay behind him.

‘Fuck it,’ he said, preparing to shut down the Traveller engine and divert power throughout the station back into the Rhine drive; preparing to run.

It was a gravity-wave detector aboard the observation satellite orbiting parallel to Earth that alerted him. The anomaly was one it couldn’t quite process because it lay so far out of the parameters its processing had been devised to handle. Secondary visual images came in as a confirmation – the tracking intermittent because the object was moving so fast. One of the three ships had left the Traveller construction station, engaged a drive similar to Rhine’s creation and was now on its way out. He glimpsed jerky images of the shiny bubble of an Alcubierre warp heading directly towards them. Travelling at sub-light speed, it was behind the signals from the satellite, but it could still be here in well under an hour.

Extrapolating from the size of its warp bubble, he realized that it was the smaller ship that had left – the prototype – the one with a very vulnerable drive ring and with other combat disadvantages. Still, it was unexpected and it was a danger, for Galahad might have decided to send it to attack in the hope that it would cripple Saul’s ship, even though the attacking ship would itself surely end up being destroyed.

‘One of Galahad’s ships is on its way out towards us,’ he stated over the intercom, ‘and it may be that we will have to run.’ Really, he needed to say no more, and there were no preparations that needed to be made since personnel who were already secure for the thrust of the Traveller engine were over-prepared for inertia-less flight. He could go right now, but he waited. If the other ship continued on this course, it had a very high risk of knocking out its own drive bubble on asteroid debris on the way. Saul calculated tactics. Maybe the intention was to use this approaching ship’s drive bubble to stop or attempt to damage Argus, in which case it would have to halt first, then come in on a new trajectory.

‘Paul,’ he said, ‘we have partial on the Mach-effect drive?’

‘We do,’ replied that proctor.

‘Give me stats.’

The figures arrived in an instant, and Saul felt a brief sense of tension dispersing. If the other ship used its warp bubble to knock out his bubble, the problem thereafter would have been manoeuvrability, since his ship carried a lot of inertia so could not dodge bullets easily. However, the partial Mach-effect they possessed, combined with the Traveller engine and steering thrusters, meant that, after both drive bubbles were knocked out, the other ship would have no advantage in manoeuvrability. And if it came within range of the Saberhagens’ weapons, it would end up being destroyed.

Next, as Saul continued to make his preparations, the other ship halted some half a million kilometres in from the orbit of Mars. For a moment Saul thought it must have struck something, but swift analysis of the gravity anomaly assured him that it hadn’t. In the next moment he realized what was going on. Galahad had sent out an observer which, if required, might attempt to stop Saul leaving the solar system. Within a matter of weeks, if his estimations regarding what he could see at the Traveller construction station were correct, the other two ships would be able to follow. It was therefore worth spending time gathering necessary materials and continuing to build his ship inside the solar system, Saul felt – even at risk of attack from this small ship – for a long and perilous journey lay ahead. However, its two sister ships were not worth risking so, henceforth, he would ensure the Rhine drive was sufficiently powered up to engage before those other two craft arrived.

‘We’re okay for now,’ he announced. ‘It’s just an observer.’

As he sent images to all the screens and delegated a smaller part of his mind to deliver a commentary on what had happened, he felt a deep disquiet. He had been too arrogant on occasion before, so what might he have missed this time?

Impossible Robots

Even with our own comlifers and the rapid development of cyber technologies, nothing yet has been developed to match Alan Saul’s ‘conjoining robots’. The reasons posited for this by those working in robotics have been of the same tone: he was lucky, the reports on their efficiency were exaggerated, or even that the robots never really existed. However, that Saul was able to turn Argus Station into an interstellar vessel in such a short time is undeniable, and the truth is perhaps difficult to accept. Alan Saul was a genius even before he was turned into what we now call a comlifer. Every time we have tried to take people with similar mental advantages and do the same with them, the result has always been disastrous – the recipient of the cerebral technology and AI mental template rapidly self-destructing or going insane, or turning into a moron. We must accept that Alan Saul was unique and we should not slide into a denial of what he managed. For our future, and for the sake of us all, we must believe in the impossible – and similarly achieve it.

Earth

The image on the screen was as clear as anything broadcast locally, yet its source lay millions of kilometres away, focused on by the telescopes aboard the
Vision
and relayed back here. Serene felt an extreme frustration with the clarity of it all, for screen images as detailed as this had been, ever since she assumed total power over Earth, ones of scenes she could affect at once. However, she could not touch Argus Station, she could not touch this ship Alan Saul was building, or at least not yet.

‘What are they doing?’ she asked tightly.

‘Exactly what the tactical assessment predicted, ma’am. They’re taking on more materials,’ said Bartholomew. ‘Professor Calder should be able to give you more detail on that.’

Calder cleared his throat then, in dry tones, explained, ‘The Argus asteroid, as we see, is nearly all gone. It was mostly nickel iron, so Saul will need other materials. His EVA units, robots and work teams are currently using demolition charges and cutting equipment to take apart a rubble pile consisting of a wide variety of metallic ores, including some radioactives.’

Calder leaned forward, past Serene, and made some adjustments with a ball control, bringing the focus in closer so that now they could see the conglomerate of the rubble pile lying just hundreds of metres away from the ship’s outer skeleton. One-man EVA units – spherical machines sporting a pair of arms and claws to the fore – were ferrying chunks of the pile in through a gap in the skeleton, while robots of a kind Serene recognized were carrying other lumps across and down into a smelting-plant dock. However, there were things there she did not recognize, and the sight of them made her skin crawl. Things that looked like golden centipedes were crawling over the rubble pile and disassembling it.

‘What the hell are they?’ she demanded.

‘Some new form of robot, ma’am,’ said Calder. ‘Now we’ve managed to get a close look at them, I can confirm that they are the reason the outer skeleton of the ship was built so fast – but previous images weren’t clear enough for us to see them. I have my robotics staff analysing the data. An initial report suggests conjoining robots: single units that can join up into larger wholes.’

‘We have nothing like that?’ said Serene.

‘No,’ Calder agreed, ‘the degree of programming sophistication is not available to us as yet.’

Serene turned on him. ‘And why not?’

He gazed at her steadily, obviously reassessing the snap answer he had been about to give. ‘We have been working with already known methods to build our defences and ships as quickly as possible, rather than apply resources to that kind of research and development, ma’am. However, now we know that Saul can build robots like this, and now we are close to completing the two remaining ships, I have assigned a team to work on a similar project.’

She couldn’t really fault that answer and spent a moment analysing why she kept seeking ways to attack the professor. He had created his own little realm up here and, though she couldn’t detail a specific instance of it, she felt he resented stepping into second place while she was here. It seemed to her that he was always on the edge of rebelliousness, but his survival instincts kept restraining him. She turned back to the screen. ‘There was something about a space-plane launch.’

Calder leaned forward again to make further adjustments. The view changed abruptly to show two space planes heading under power away from Argus.

‘They will reach their target within a day,’ he explained. ‘They’re heading now for a single asteroid consisting of mostly water ice and salts. We suspect the main targets there are the water and rare earth elements.’

‘They’ll tow it back?’

‘It seems more likely that they’ll begin cutting it apart,’ said Calder. ‘Then, when Saul has all he needs from the rubble pile, he’ll move Argus itself over.’

‘Then what?’ asked Serene.

‘Once he has the materials,’ interjected Bartholomew, ‘we reckon on him wanting power, ma’am. Tactical says he has three options: he comes back to the sun, he flees the solar system or he taps into some other solar system source, the mostly likely being the Io flux tube. That’s where—’

‘I know what the Io flux tube is, Bartholomew,’ Serene interrupted. ‘What I want to know now is how you plan to stop him and capture or kill him. I want to know how you’re going to retrieve the Gene Bank data and samples for me.’

‘The initial plan remains unchanged, ma’am,’ said Bartholomew. ‘We are mostly reliant on Saul not knowing about the warp missile aboard the
Vision
. Once we’ve stopped him, we can thereafter ensure he never leaves by completely disabling his Alcubierre drive. We can then take our time with Argus Station – effectively putting it under siege.’

The image on the screen had now returned to a previous setting and showed those same golden centipede robots seemingly eating an entire asteroid. The sight was disquieting because it made her wonder in what other ways they might have underestimated Alan Saul. She also disliked how their whole plan relied on just one throw of the dice; if the
Vision
failed to stop Saul with its warp missile, the missiles aboard the other two ships would probably become redundant.

‘When will
Fist
and
Command
be ready?’ she asked.

‘In twenty days now,’ Calder replied, trying to keep his voice level. He glanced at Bartholomew. ‘Sometime soon the troops’ quarters will be ready, so they can go on board, then there’ll just be some diagnostics to run.’

Serene remembered how the troops were presently housed in the construction station, though why Calder had felt the need to mention them now she couldn’t divine. Perhaps he also resented their presence on his territory. Whatever, she dismissed the thought.

Sitting back in her chair, she gazed around the command centre, which overlooked the two remaining ships. She eyed the Inspectorate personnel here and recollected that she had intended making inquiries about the number of personnel in the construction station, but just didn’t currently feel inclined. She was tired of this place and had come to realize that her presence here tended to hinder people rather than impel them to greater efforts. Her order that the
Vision
should be launched as soon as possible had been obeyed, but she had since discovered the cost: eight people killed in accidents due to overwork and resulting tiredness, disruption in production here which, even though it had resulted in the
Vision
being launched sooner, had put back the launching of the other two ships. She decided she would stay until after that double launch, and until after the tug, which was currently being prepared, had brought in the
Scourge
. Then she would return to Earth and begin the genetic reprogramming of the human race.

Scourge

It was worse than when Scotonis had shot him with a stun round, but then this time, as well as something knocking him unconscious, he was recovering from inducement and his body was still full of slowly healing bones. He opened his gummy eyes to dim light and at once realized he was in one of the storerooms down near the troops’ quarters. How he had ended up here, he had no idea, until Trove dropped into view, pushing a big plastic crate down towards the floor.

‘How’s the head?’ she asked, and by her tone it almost seemed as if she cared.

‘It hurts,’ he croaked.

‘It was the only way I could stop you.’ She then smiled oddly. ‘And it provided some repayment for what you did to me with my cabin inducer.’

Clay noted that her voice was slightly slurred, as if she was drunk, and her eyes were veined with red.

‘But how did you stop yourself?’ he asked.

She pointed over beside him, where a pile of used analgesic patches lay. It took him a moment to realize what this implied: she had used the patches to numb the pain from the inducers. That explained her apparent drunkenness, and also meant she must have known about the inducers beforehand.

‘What’s happened?’ he asked.

‘You realize Scotonis is insane?’ she countered.

‘Depending on your particular definition of sanity,’ he replied. ‘How did you know about the inducers?’

‘He had them put back online because, so he said, under such extreme circumstances the crew might mutiny and try to bargain with Galahad. I agreed, but I didn’t find out until just a few hours ago that he’d had further inducers installed in the corridors, and put the readerguns back online too.’ She shook her head, picked up a coffee flask and swigged from it. ‘I didn’t start putting it together until the two of you visited me, then I started using my stash of patches. I stole them from Myers shortly after you used my cabin inducer on me.’

‘I’m sorry about that.’ Clay was astounded to discover that he actually meant it. ‘But what was your plan?’

‘To kill Scotonis, but I couldn’t get to him – the inducers he has around the bridge were set at full strength.’ She closed her eyes for a moment, obviously on the edge of tears, then her expression hardened as she opened them again. ‘They’re all dead,’ she told him. ‘Scotonis murdered his entire crew.’