Poseidon's Wake (52 page)

‘Did they, Swift? Or did you drive Kanu because you needed a head to travel in?’

‘Please,’ Kanu said. ‘There’s nothing to be gained by this. I know why I’m here, and Swift is part of it but not the only reason. And this discussion changes nothing because we still have to think of the Friends. We can’t forget about them, and we can’t abandon Dakota inside the Watchkeeper and hope there’ll be no consequences. I’m sorry, but going through with her expedition is the only course open to us.’

‘Even if it kills us?’ Nissa asked.

‘Yes. Even if. Because what is the alternative? To take a gamble with thousands of human lives? I’m not suicidal – not any more. But I’d rather die than have their deaths on my conscience. Nothing’s worth that.’

‘She’s coming back,’ Swift said.

They had a lock on her suit signature again and observed as it emerged from the narrowing waterspout-like proboscis at the very limit of the Watchkeeper’s shell, a seed spat out into vacuum. At first she moved with the same implausible speed and agility they had witnessed before, until the Watchkeeper surrendered her to the steering and propulsion of her own suit and she closed the distance back to
Icebreaker
. As she did so, the Watchkeeper turned on its axis and fell away at an unnerving acceleration.

Whatever business it had with them, it was clearly concluded – for now, at least.

Kanu readied the lock and watched as Dakota slowed her approach before tucking herself back inside the ship. When the lock had begun to cycle, he returned the drive to power and resumed their earlier acceleration. Kanu and Nissa were at the lock when she emerged back into
Icebreaker
, and – with the aid of the other Risen – set about divesting herself of the suit. As they were removed from her, the pieces gave off a rank pungency. Kanu suspected that the inside of a human spacesuit would not smell all that appealing to an elephant.

‘Are we back on course?’

‘Yes,’ he answered. ‘We didn’t lose too much time – certainly not enough to help Goma. What happened to you inside the Watchkeeper?’

‘The continuation of a process. The continued revelation of that which demands to be revealed. Beyond that, I do not think any answer would satisfy you.’

‘You could try,’ Nissa said.

‘Then I shall. Such doubts as I had have now been set aside. I feel emboldened – confident that this is the right course. The machines have eased my misgivings and reaffirmed my absolute conviction to the cause of knowledge-gathering. Has there been contact from the other ship?’

‘Not since we spoke to them,’ Kanu said.

‘Then you will prepare a transmission. I have no wish to stir up trouble with these people, but they must be made to understand the utter inflexibility of our position. Tell them to turn around. If they go back to Orison, there will be no more difficulties between us and we may yet find common ground. But they must come no closer to Poseidon.’

‘We’ve tried persuading them already,’ Nissa said. ‘Look where it got us.’

‘Words alone will not change their minds.’

Kanu hardly dared ask. ‘So what now?’

‘Tell them about the Friends. If Eunice is who she claims to be, she will validate the fact of the Friends’ existence. She will also convince the others that I am fully capable of destroying each and every human life in the skipover vaults. Tell them that, Kanu. Tell them and make them turn around. We will be watching and waiting.’

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Aboard
Mposi
they had seen the pause in the other ship’s progress and the temporary quenching of its Chibesa signature. At first they drew some encouragement from that, hoping that it might signal a change of heart on Dakota’s behalf – perhaps even a technical fault that would force her to abandon the mission. But closer examination showed the presence of a Watchkeeper, a dark-shuttered lantern a thousand times larger than Kanu’s tiny spacecraft. They watched it shark in close and stop with an insolent suddenness. It held station for an hour or two, then veered off at high acceleration. Not long after the Watchkeeper departed, the Chibesa signature resumed.

They had lost a little time, but nothing that made any difference in the larger scheme.

‘Eunice?’ Vasin asked, as if she had all the answers.

But Eunice had nothing to offer. ‘You know as much as I do. If the Watchkeepers didn’t think that expedition of hers was a good idea, they’d have stomped down on it.’

Soon there was an incoming transmission from Kanu.

They crowded around to watch it, letting it play without interruption. Now that she had spent time in the man’s presence, Goma felt she had some measure of Kanu as an individual – some sense of when he was speaking frankly, and when he was being held back from absolute candour.

Now she had no doubt that he was speaking freely.

They were to turn around, Kanu said. They were to turn around and restore full power to
Zanzibar
, and if they did not do so there would be immediate and irrevocable consequences.

‘She has no weapon that can touch you,’ Kanu explained, ‘just as you have no real weapon that can hurt her – and no, the mirrors don’t count. But ask Eunice about the Friends, about the survivors in the skipover vaults. Dakota has already convinced us that she’ll harm the Friends if we don’t cooperate with her, and that’s argument enough for me. Now she’s extending the same terms of engagement to you. If you don’t turn around, the Friends will die.’

The distance between
Mposi
and
Icebreaker
– they now knew the name of Kanu’s ship – had closed to less than one light-minute now. On that basis, Kanu demanded a response to his request within three clock minutes. Both ships were fully capable of tracking the other’s movements and exhaust energies – there was no possibility of subterfuge.

‘Sounds like brinkmanship to me,’ Vasin said.

‘Whatever it sounds like,’ Eunice replied, ‘he’s telling the truth about the sleepers in the skipover vaults. They exist.’

‘You mean,’ Ru said, ‘they existed the last time you had any hard evidence.’

Eunice gave a gracious nod. ‘That’s true, and I can’t prove that the Friends are still on
Zanzibar
. But they were always a potentially useful resource to her, even if only as a human shield. Provided she had the power to keep them viable, I think she’d have done so. Besides, there is another reason to believe they’re still alive.’

Ru folded her arms. ‘Which would be?’

‘Atonement. A great crime took place aboard
Zanzibar
. Don’t think that hasn’t left its mark on Dakota – there’s a part of her that still feels, still suffers remorse.’

‘You’re that good a judge of her character, after all this time?’ Vasin asked.

‘I know elephants. The past isn’t the past to them.’

‘Then she’s kept the Friends alive out of a sense of guilt, is that what you’re saying?’ asked Goma.

‘Not guilt, precisely, more out of a deep desire to undo what was already done – to balance out a wrongness with a greater good. But that doesn’t mean she won’t harm the Friends if she feels there’s no other alternative.’

‘How might she do it?’ Vasin asked.

‘A hundred ways. The simplest? Turn off their power. Left to warm too quickly, they’ll come back to us as so much neural porridge. Trust me. I’ve had some experience with this.’

‘You were warmed too quickly,’ Goma said, remembering one thread of Eunice’s ancient history. ‘But they found your body in time to recover some patterns from your head.’

‘They may as well have read chai-leaves. I don’t think Chiku brought back anywhere near as much of me as she imagined. But she meant well by it. It encouraged me to be more than I was.’

‘So where does this leave us?’ asked Vasin.

‘Your choice, Captain,’ Eunice said. ‘Take Kanu at his word and turn around or press ahead if you think this really is brinkmanship.’

‘What would you do?’

‘I can’t say I’ve ever been one for turning.’

If there was an argument to be mustered against Vasin, Goma was not going to be the one who took a stand. She could see the case for turning around – that to press on further was to risk retaliatory action against the Friends. But equally they had come this far with the intention of dissuading Dakota, not of giving in at the first setback.

She felt uneasy about it – as if she was allowing herself to be swept along by a rising tide of belligerence. But abandoning the pursuit felt no more desirable.

‘I meant to salute your courage,’ Grave said, during a quiet moment while they were waiting to see how Dakota would respond to their refusal to turn back. ‘After what happened to Mposi, it was not an easy thing to submit to the nanomachinery.’

Goma thought back to the horror of that moment, the imminent terror of drowning, the cool, calm force of Eunice restraining her under the surface of that lung-filling fluid.

Goma dredged up some false bravado. ‘It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.’

‘It’s what you feared beforehand that matters. I can’t say I knew him as well as you did, but I believe he would have been suitably proud. I just wish your negotiations had brought us to a more positive state of affairs.’

‘So do I.’

‘Our captain appears to be moving towards an acceptance of force as the only solution.’

Goma answered wearily, ‘If you have a better idea, please raise it. We’ve argued with them and reasoned with them. It’s made no difference.’

‘Mposi would not have been so defeatist.’

‘You’re right – you didn’t know him as well as I did.’

‘I just think we’re rushing into something we will not be able to undo. Gandhari will try to use the mirrors in an offensive capacity; Dakota will deliver on her promise to harm the Friends. And what will have been gained by either party except a deepening of our estrangement?’

‘I get all that, Peter. I just don’t see an alternative.’

‘We could have demonstrated our good intentions by backing off.’

‘And allowed Dakota a free run at Poseidon?’

‘An even freer run,’ Grave corrected, without any censure. ‘In one sense, our chase is completely futile. She will get there ahead of us no matter what we do, so what is to be gained by pursuing this course of action?’

‘We can’t just let her do what she wants.’

‘But since we cannot prevent her, what are we hoping to achieve? A show of defiance?’

‘Anything could happen once they approach those moons. They’ll need to slow down drastically. If they run into trouble or have a malfunction, the tables might be turned.’

He smiled. ‘Might.’

‘It’s all we’ve got, Peter. You have your faith, and this is mine – that a long shot is better than no shot at all. And you forget, Dakota is a Tantor – no matter what she thinks of herself, what she’s become, that makes her something marvellous to me. I want to know her mind. I want to protect it like a jewel. Nothing so precious should ever fade from the universe again.’

‘From what I’ve seen, she looks like a monster to me.’

‘Even monsters are beautiful,’ Goma said.

Dakota delivered her answer via Kanu. His face, familiar to them all now, bore the stress of recent events. Nissa, his former wife, looked on from the background, her expression no more settled than Kanu’s.

‘Well, you can’t say you weren’t warned. Dakota has sent a command back to
Zanzibar
to begin selective thawing of one hundred of the Friends. You know what this means. They’ll be raised from skipover too quickly and suffer irreversible damage to their detailed brain structure. The process will take a few hours and you’ll have no independent confirmation of it until the work is done, but I’ve spent enough time with Dakota not to doubt her conviction. The thawing has commenced. You can still turn around, and perhaps the damage won’t be so bad that they can’t be cooled down again and given another shot at revival. But that’s your decision, and your risk. I’ve done what I can – I’ve argued our case to the best of my abilities. I hoped you’d see sense – see that there’s no option but to permit us to continue alone. But you haven’t, and I’m sorry.’

When he was done, Vasin turned to her little assembly. ‘An idle threat?’

‘Not given her history,’ Eunice said.

‘Then we can assume those sleepers really are being allowed to thaw?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do we still retain control of the mirrors?’

‘Ditto.’

‘And her efforts to lock us out?’

‘Continuing, but as yet unsuccessful. They’ve put up a good fight, but I know the control architecture of those mirrors better than they do, and I had a head start.’

Vasin nodded solemnly. ‘Then we’ll put that control to the test. Depriving them of power hasn’t been persuasive. I want you to swing the beams back onto
Zanzibar
, but not directed at the power grids this time. Concentrate the heat on anything that might be vulnerable.’

‘This will not make her a happy bunny.’

‘We were not the first to move to violence as a negotiating tactic,’ Vasin said.

‘We were not,’ Peter Grave said, ‘but we did refuse to listen to any of her earlier pleas, and now we’re going to meet violence with violence.’

‘Against physical structures, not human bodies,’ Vasin said.

Loring steepled vis fingers and gave a sagelike nod. ‘Fair point.’

‘Our intention is to debilitate
Zanzibar
, not to harm the Tantors,’ Vasin went on. ‘If we can hurt their life-support capability, we may force them back from the brink. Reactivate the mirrors, Eunice. Let’s show them that we have teeth.’

Like vengeful searchlights, the mirrors’ beams tightened their focus and swung back onto
Zanzibar
.

Vasin’s knowledge of the former holoship was still predicated on long-range imagery and the gloss of interpretation – reliable or otherwise – offered by Eunice. Doubtless they were wrong or confused about some of the details, but at least the positions of the original solar grids were known with reasonable confidence. They were now directing the foci of the beams away from those designated collector areas onto other parts of the crust. The grids were intended to absorb the incoming energy of solar photons, soaking it into the fluid that would eventually drive the generators inside
Zanzibar
. They would grow hot – no radiation conversion process was entirely efficient – but that was compensated for in their design. But no such allowance would have been made for any of the other structural installations on the shard’s surface.

Under the continued assault of three thousand kelvins of temperature, almost any mechanical system was bound to suffer catastrophic damage. Locks would be fused into slag, power ducts ruptured, berthing cradles warped out of function, insulation charred and boiled away, the very skin of
Zanzibar
turned locally molten. Volatiles trapped in the rocky matrix of the original holoship would geyser into vacuum. These actions would only damage the outer skin of the little world and the consequences might not be immediately fatal for the deeper layers – it was not Vasin’s intention to blast through into the airtight cores, or to bake the inhabitants into submission. But she was hoping to do sufficient swift and severe damage that her opponents would be cowed into renegotiation, for fear of worse to come.

Even from the distance of
Mposi
, the effects of their work were soon visible. Wherever the beams touched, warm material began to haze off into the surrounding vacuum.
Zanzibar
began to resemble the husk of a warming comet stroked by sunlight. These tendrils of gas and ionised matter would eventually curdle into orbit around Paladin.

‘This is Kanu,’ he said, when news of the attack reached
Icebreaker
. ‘I confess I’m surprised by the haste of your actions. Under any other circumstances we’d call this a declaration of war.’

The time lag for round-trip communications was down to ninety seconds – not quite short enough for a fluent conversation, but sufficient for real-time negotiations.

‘Call it what you will, Kanu,’ said Vasin. ‘Dakota was the one who began murdering innocent hostages, not us. So far we’ve not touched a single life – Tantor or human. You can still back down, provided you convince Dakota to give up on this expedition.’

‘You still don’t get it, do you? You’re damaging
Zanzibar
, but that won’t make any difference to Dakota. You can’t touch
Icebreaker
, and whatever harm you do to
Zanzibar
’s outer structures won’t have any real consequences for the Risen inside. They’ll ride this out, then repair and rebuild. It’s what they do – what they’ve always done. And in the meantime, you’ve only given her additional incentive to carry on warming the Friends.’

‘They say you were a diplomat.’

‘In another life.’

‘Were you good at diplomacy, Kanu Akinya? Were you good at finding a solution where none appeared evident?’

‘No better or worse than the rest of my colleagues.’

‘And what became of them?’

‘Most of them died. We were trying to keep a peace. I don’t even know if it was worth the effort.’

‘It’s always worth it. Our argument isn’t with you, Kanu – we understand that you are acting contrary to your better judgement. But that doesn’t mean you have to surrender to Dakota. Tell her I am ready to withdraw the mirrors the moment she changes course. Tell her that, in the event of a peaceful resolution, I’ll commit all our resources to repairing the damage we’ve done. Total amnesty, no recriminations. But you must do your part, too. She’s sailing into calamity, whatever you may believe to the contrary. If there’s a way to stop her, you must do it.’