Sufficiently Advanced Technology (Inverse Shadows) (8 page)

Adam disagreed. “This is a waste of time,” he snapped. The team had gathered in the briefing compartment, where they were studying the live feed from a handful of the probes. “The comet was captured thousands of years ago and entered orbit around the primary star. It isn’t
interesting
.”

“It is the exception to the rule in this star system,” the XO pointed out.

Dacron rather liked her, although he wasn’t sure how much of it was his mentality and how much was his new body’s hormones. Controlling them was something that few humans managed to master, apparently, at least until they’d passed their first century. Some humans, particularly the Lords of Pleasure,
never
seemed to master them.

“That alone makes it interesting,” she concluded.

Dacron listened to the debate with half an ear as he studied the endless stream of data. Adam might well be right, he decided, after the survey team deployed nanoprobes to search the comet. There wasn’t anything particularly exceptional about it, apart from the fact that it appeared to have been native to the Darius System. A backtrack of its orbit revealed that it had held for several hundred thousand years at the very least, although Dacron knew that could be unreliable. It would be easy for anyone who could sweep an entire star system clean of space dust, and everything else, to put a comet in a stable orbit and just leave it to carry on forever.

Absently, he projected the comet’s course forward – and felt his heartbeat start to race as he realised that it would strike Darius itself in roughly seven thousand years. Assuming that Darius didn’t master space travel, or the manipulation of quantum foam outside their own world, the comet would slam into the planet with terrific force. The resulting devastation, according to the worst-case projection, would exterminate all life on the planet.

“That could be a coincidence,” the XO said, when Dacron brought it to their attention. “But if someone did stabilise the comet’s orbit, they should have been able to ensure that it would never pose a threat to the planet.”

Dacron nodded, wishing – once again – for the instant access to datafiles he’d enjoyed as an AI. There had been hundreds of thousands of planets struck by space debris
without
alien intervention; indeed, given that planets warped the fabric of space and created gravity wells, it was very likely that asteroids would eventually be pulled in to where they could strike the planet. But if someone had the capability to travel through space, it should have been easy for them to render the comet harmless. The fact that they’d left it in a position to strike the planet had worrying implications.

Or it could simply be a wild coincidence. Dacron tried to calculate the odds against it – and then gave up, deciding that it was futile. Even the AIs would have problems calculating the probability in a reasonable manner, without having to guess at some of the variables.

“So that leaves us with another question,” Elyria said. “Do we alter the comet’s path ourselves and save Darius?”

“Of course we should,” Gigot said. She glared around the room, daring anyone to challenge her. “We cannot leave them to die when the comet strikes their world.”

“There are seven
thousand
years between now and when the comet will hit,” Dacron said, mildly. A full-fledged AI could have given a precise time, all the way down to the last nanosecond. “And a single blast from a fission cannon would obliterate the comet. There is no need for haste.”

“But we should act now,” Gigot insisted. She turned to the Captain. “Captain, surely this ship can alter the comet’s course so it dives into the sun?”

“It can, yes,” the Captain agreed, gravely. “But the comet does not pose an immediate threat and we still don’t understand the Darius System. There will be time to act later.”

“Seven thousand years is a very long time,” Elyria added. “The Confederation itself has only existed for
three
thousand years.”

Dacron wondered, absently, just how many of the humans fully understood what that actually
meant
. The Ancients had lived
billions
of years ago; the Elders had to be millions of years old. Humanity, for all of its power and sophistication, was nothing on such a scale. It was humbling to realise that the entire human race was so
young
. A few million years in the future, it was possible that there would be nothing left of the Confederation. And then alien researchers might just dig up the remains of humanity and wonder what had happened to the human race.

It seemed impossible, except for the simple fact that the Confederation had encountered the ruins of other older civilisations, apart from the Ancients. Worlds that had destroyed themselves in war, worlds that had stagnated and eventually died, worlds that had sent out colony ships, only to be overwhelmed by some unknown fate that had left the dead ships drifting through space for an eternity... no one could look at the remains and not wonder if that was the fate in store for humanity. And some of those dead worlds had proved to be very dangerous.

Five hours passed slowly as the comet was studied time and time again, before the Captain finally allowed the probes to start heading into the inner system. A dozen solar-penetration probes reached the primary star and dived into the flames, eventually signalling back a report that stated that the star was nothing more than a simple G2 primary. There were no signs of stellar engineering comparable to the Sphere-Star, or Omega-5. The Captain remained unconvinced, but he relaxed slightly when the second set of results agreed with the first. Any race that could manipulate stars was very definitely on a level equal to that of the Confederation.

Dacron found himself smiling, rather wryly. Any race that could manipulate the quantum foam was unquestionably
superior
to the Confederation.

Something clicked in his mind and he eyed Captain Thor with new understanding. The Confederation was used to dealing with other civilisations from a position of strength. Even the ones that shared humanity’s level of technology had nowhere near as many starships as the Peacekeepers could deploy if pressed, let alone the industrial base to support them. The Confederation might hold itself to its own ethical system, but it had the firepower to ensure that it got what it wanted, whatever else happened.
Hamilton
alone might not be a threat to a peer power, yet anyone advanced enough to threaten the ship would know that it was the product of a vastly powerful civilisation.

But if someone could manipulate the quantum foam, they could... they could work
magic
, to all intents and purposes. Given enough power, they could simply blink
Hamilton
out of existence, or inflict staggering damage on the Confederation. Dealing with the Elder races was one thing, but this was... different. The Captain had to be aware that one false move could prove utterly disastrous. They had to be very careful.

Finally, the probes headed in towards Darius itself. The strange emptiness of space persisted right up until they reached the planet’s atmosphere, which seemed to be fairly typical for a human-compatible world. There was certainly nothing poisonous in the air, or anything that would cause delusions – or, for that matter, anything that might encourage mutation in human DNA. More hours passed as the probes used optical sensors to chart the planet, comparing their records to those collected by the first survey ship. The general outline of the continents were the same, Dacron concluded, but a number of settlements had been omitted for no accountable reason. It took the RIs several minutes to realise that several settlements detected by the first ship had been missed by the new probes.

“We’re picking up some strange energy signatures,” one of the science team said, finally. The chart of the planet was rapidly updated to indicate the presumed source of the energy signatures, although some of them seemed too scattered to be precisely located. “We cannot identify the energy...”

Dacron listened as the humans started arguing, while he mulled over possibilities in his mind.
Hamilton
had the most advanced sensor suite in the Confederation, capable of detecting almost anything that
could
be detected, but they were dealing with a completely unprecedented situation. It
was
remotely possible that quantum foam manipulation might produce energy they hadn’t learned to track or quantify yet... he shook his head, dismissing the thought. New data was required, urgently. Given time, he was sure that they would be able to devise technology to monitor quantum foam manipulations.

“They seem comparable to random vacuum fluctuations,” another scientist offered. “It could be that they’re a side effect of manipulating the quantum foam.”

“But nothing like it has been recorded during encounters with Elders,” the first scientist objected. “Surely we would have picked up
something
.”

“But there are comparable energy fluxes on Ancient worlds,” Adam injected. “This might be simply more of the same.”

“And we never figured out what those fluxes did, besides screwing with our technology,” the XO said. “Captain, we need to approach very carefully.”

“That goes without saying,” Captain Thor said. He looked down at his display. “How much more can we draw from orbit?”

It took hours to study and analyse the data from the orbiting probes. Adana eventually concluded that Darius was actually divided into a patchwork of small states, the largest being little bigger than two hundred square kilometres. But it wasn’t easy to be sure, because instead of brushing against one another, the states seemed to be separated by miles of undeveloped territory. It occurred to Dacron that it might be comparable to how the Confederation’s territory overlapped with alien territory, yet when he voiced that theory Adana took it apart, pointing out that planet-bound societies often had to compete for land and resources. If the Confederation had still been dependent upon He3 mined from gas giants, they would probably have been a great deal less willing to tolerate aliens who happened to
live
on gas giants. That started another argument, but Dacron suspected she was right. It was a great deal easier to moralise if there was nothing particularly important at stake.

“Maybe there are limits to their power,” Elyria offered. She looked tired, despite all of her enhancement. “But even an iron age society could control more territory than they do.”

“Maybe,” Adana said. “But Gunpowder was also split up into small states.”

Dacron called up the files and compared the two. Gunpowder had been settled back in the First Expansion Era by people who regarded the right to bear arms as a holy duty. They’d been isolated from galactic society by the First Interstellar War and when they’d been rediscovered, they’d split up into smaller states, partly because everyone was armed and ready to resist the imposition of a powerful central government. It didn’t seem comparable, unless they were missing something. Darius had all the trappings of a feudal society – and magic; the two didn’t seem to go together.

Or maybe he was just overlooking the obvious. “Everyone on Gunpowder could bear arms,” he said, studying the files. The population had started practising almost as soon as they were old enough to walk. “What if only a relative handful of people on Darius can manipulate the quantum foam?”

“You mean we might be looking at another group of people convinced of their own superiority?” Elyria asked, thoughtfully. “Or something that works along the same lines?”

“It’s a possibility,” Dacron said. He knew better than to state it was fact, at least not yet. “If one group in society has an incontestable advantage over the rest of the population, that group is either going to find itself in charge or being exterminated.”

“I don’t think I’d want to pick a fight with someone who could turn me into a frog,” Adam said, rather loudly. They’d all seen the recordings. “Who would dare to offend anyone like that?”

There was a long pause. “Most of the random energy fluctuations appear to be outside the cities, rather than near them,” the XO said. “It could be that the energy makes it harder to operate outside the population centres...”

“I don’t see how,” Adam grunted. “We know that primitive technology works on an Ancient world. Darius is primitive enough that their technology shouldn’t have any problems even in the midst of an energy flux.”

“Unless they use compasses,” Dacron said. He’d reviewed the files on the Ancient worlds, all of which held more questions than answers. “Those don’t work right on Ancient worlds...”

“No,” Adam agreed. “They don’t.”

Elyria took a breath. “Captain,” she said, “I believe that we should start redeploying snoops.”

“I’d prefer to wait until we have more data,” the Captain said, reluctantly. Dacron rather doubted that they
could
get more data, at least from orbit. There was no way of being sure of anything without going down to the ground. “Have we picked up anything that could be a colony ship?”

“No, Captain,” the XO reported. “There are no traces of anything above First Age tech at all, apart from the energy fluctuations. The most advanced transportation systems they have are either sailing galleons or carts pulled by horses. If there
was
a colony ship here, it was probably launched into the star after the colonists were disembarked.”

“And nothing from the First Expansion Era could hide from our sensors,” the Captain mused. “Unless they buried it...”

He shook his head. “We’d pick up something, even if it was completely shut down,” he added. “Have you been able to detect a pattern in the fluctuations?”

“None as yet,” Dacron said. “As far as we can tell, the fluctuations outside the cities are completely random. Inside the cities, they seem to be associated with specific buildings, but it’s difficult to tell from orbit. We need to start deploying snoops.”

“There was no sign that they were detected during the first ship’s visit,” Elyria added, “and we do need that data, Captain.”

“Very well,” the Captain said, finally. “You may start deploying them, first to isolated ships and then into the cities. But keep them away from the fluctuations, if possible. We don’t know how they will react to our technology.”