The Cold Steel Mind (16 page)

‘The loss of a limb will not be required, Doctor Wallace.’ The voice was masculine, soft, confident, and speaking Federal. ‘I am True Congress of the Mind Comes through Understanding, which is something of a clumsy name in your language so you may call me Speaker. If you would please follow this remote. We have completed our… deliberations. I apologise for the length of time you have had to wait, but we are now ready to speak with you and I would like to do so in person.’

‘That…’ Aneka waved a hand at the globe. ‘That’s not you?’

‘No, Yrimlos,’ the voice replied. ‘And the form you will be meeting is not, exactly, me, but it’s as close as we can get under the circumstances.’

‘Oh… I figured since Xinti can use different bodies…’

‘I am not a Xinti,’ Speaker replied. ‘As far as we know, the Xinti are extinct.’

Part Three: Wonderland

Negral Science Station, 27.8.524 FSC.

The globe led them to the doors they had found, which opened to reveal a lift as they approached. The lift took them down what seemed like about two floors, but given the size of the arboretum it was a little difficult to say how big the floors were. Sure enough, when the doors opened again they found themselves in another huge, open space, but this one was laid out more like a park.

There were manicured lawns of some sort of grass with islands of Plascrete or some similar building material. The islands had low buildings on them, or fountains, or just areas lined with seating. It gave the impression of a space set aside for people to meet and talk, formally and informally; a Forum in the original Roman sense. Now, aside from the newly arrived naked Jenlay, there was only one occupant.

Speaker appeared to be a Human male in his later years, his face lined, but his complexion quite clear. He had a large, hooked nose, blue eyes which looked at them with a sharp intelligence, and white hair. And he was dressed in a white, double-breasted suit and carrying a walking cane. It seemed to be a form calculated to breed a degree of trust, an authority figure, but a kindly one, someone’s generous uncle, perhaps.

‘Welcome,’ Speaker said, ‘to Negral Science Station.’ He tapped a metal case near his feet with his cane. ‘I believe you will all be more comfortable dressed. We have fabricated clothing for you and something to replace Doctor Wallace’s exoskeleton. I think, Doctor, that you will find our solution more comfortable.’

No one else seemed ready to make the move, so Aneka walked over, put Wallace down on one of the seats encircling the area and walked over to pick up the box. ‘You said you weren’t a Xinti,’ she said as she did so, ‘so what are you?’

Seeing that his attempt to appear normal had not quite worked, Speaker turned and sat opposite his guests, hands resting on the pommel of his cane. ‘I am one of several artificial intelligences that operated this station and the one which came before it when the Xinti were here. My role was the supervision of social sciences projects, which is why I was selected to talk to you by the others. My expertise in Human psychology is, apparently, not as good as it could be.’

‘They’re not Human anymore,’ Aneka supplied. ‘I was, but they call themselves Jenlay now.’ The box contained what could best be described as robes in a light, silver, diaphanous material. Aneka lifted one out and handed it to the nearest person, who happened to be Ella.

‘I stand corrected. I hope the quoka are to your liking. They were the most common form of dress the Xinti wore.’

Gillian took one of the garments, feeling the fabric before slipping it on. Once it was wrapped around her the front was more or less opaque and it stayed closed without a belt. ‘I always wondered what these were like. None ever survived in any of the dig sites.’

‘The material is designed to degrade naturally,’ Speaker told her and smiled slightly. ‘They are impossible to wash. They would be worn for a few days and then recycled.’

Aneka lifted the other thing in the box out and handed it over to Wallace. ‘I figure this is for you.’ It was a thin, metallic belt with a box at the back and a closure which seemed overly complex.

Wallace slipped it around his waist, closed the buckle, and immediately smiled. ‘Some sort of personal anti-gravity field generator?’ He climbed to his feet to put on his robe with no sign of effort.

‘Similar to the one which allows the remote to fly, and the force generators in Yrimlos’ palms,’ Speaker replied.

Aneka grimaced. ‘Please don’t call me that. Aneka is fine.’

‘And now that we’re dressed,’ Drake said before Speaker could respond, ‘and the basics are out of the way, what in the name of Vashma is going on?’

Speaker bowed his head, acknowledging that Drake’s impatience was warranted. ‘We received a distress call from a vessel lost prior to the Great War. There was some debate about responding, but not a great deal. If there were surviving Xinti we had no choice but to attempt recovery. We opened a wormhole to the location the message was sent from, identified Yrim… Aneka aboard the ship there, and initiated extraction. While there appeared to be no other Xinti signatures, we felt we had to know what had happened to the Agroa Gar. As you surmised, we were at something of a loss about what to do with all of you, however. We have kept this station a secret from the entire galaxy for over a thousand of your calendar years.’

‘I can understand that,’ Gillian commented. ‘If the Herosians knew about this place…’

‘We are aware of their crusading zeal. Is that an appropriate metaphor?’

‘I’d say so,’ Aneka said. ‘I’m not sure this lot know what a crusade was.’

‘The word survived,’ Gillian told her. ‘I don’t think we covered its real-world application in our review of Old Earth history, however.’

‘A lot of years and lives were spent in an attempt to wipe out people who believed different things,’ Aneka said.

‘Yes,’ Speaker said, ‘though those who began the Crusades had other motives as well. Political and temporal power in particular. The Herosians fit that model very well.’

‘We know that they started the war,’ Ella put in. ‘We found…’

‘The archive the sentries gave you on Alpha Mensae. Yes. Obviously we have analysed your databases as well as those of the Agroa Gar. We needed all the information we could get to decide on our course of action.’

‘To the point then,’ Wallace suggested. ‘What, exactly, have you decided to do with us?’

Speaker looked down at his hands. It did not seem like a good sign. ‘We have been hiding here for a very long time, twice the lifetime of your Federation. The scientists here chose this path so that their work could continue after the rest of their race was gone. The last of them ordered us to continue in secret after they were gone.’ He gave a sigh. ‘Over time we have come to realise that there is little point in research unless it benefits someone, but we cannot disobey the orders of the Xinti. We cannot let you go because we have orders which prevent it. You
must
stay here…’ He looked up, directly at Aneka. ‘…unless we have more current orders from a Xinti to countermand our old ones.’

Aneka looked back at him, her mouth open, until Gillian said, ‘He means you, Aneka.’

‘But I’m not a Xinti.’

‘To them you are.’

‘Chief Scientist Aktana, principle of the Human Evolution project, put you forward as an exemplar of the warriors of Earth,’ Speaker said. ‘Battle Leader Lysian, who was the most senior of the Warrior caste on Negral, avowed your worthiness. He said that you embodied the virtues and ideals of his caste as well as any Xinti. You were not born a Xinti, but the Xinti were not exactly a race which valued genetics. You, Aneka Jansen, are also Yrimlos, a Xinti.’

‘Oh,’ Aneka said. Take it any way you liked, Speaker was offering them a way out of the mess they were in. ‘In that case I order…’

‘Aneka, wait.’ Gillian’s urgent tone stopped Aneka in her tracks and she turned to look at the archaeologist, frowning. ‘We need to talk about this.’

‘What’s to talk about? I order them to let us go or we’re stuck here until we die of old age.’ She paused and then added, ‘And for me and Cassandra that’s going to take a very long time.’

Gillian’s expression was firm, very serious. ‘We need to discuss this. If we go back there will be no way to keep Negral’s existence from the Herosians. Beyond that… The technology here is beyond anything we have, by a long way.’

‘Agreed,’ Wallace said, his tone resigned.

‘We need to know whether taking this back to the Federation will harm us, our society.’ She turned to Speaker. ‘You had your period of deliberation, Speaker. You studied us to decide what you should do. We need to learn about you and your research before we can allow Aneka to issue that order.’

~~~

‘Gillian’s crazy,’ Aneka said to the redhead she was spooning against. ‘You’re all certifiably insane. I can’t believe Drake and Shannon agreed to this. Monkey is probably agreeing with his mother’s reasoning and Delta wants to be with Monkey. Drake and Shannon live for flying spaceships.’

‘Well, if we stay I’m sure they can probably still fly. In ships they’d never have imagined piloting. And they can retrain. They’re both intelligent people and the research we could carry out here would be amazing.’

Ella was being far too reasonable. The woman could only hide her emotions by keeping silent and not being seen, and Aneka could tell she was not as sold on the idea of spending the rest of her life on Negral Science Station as she was making out. ‘What about your mother? You’ll never see her again?’

‘She’s one of the reasons I’m considering doing this, Aneka. Could you imagine what the Herosians would do with wormhole technology? Ready access to weapons like your blaster?’

Aneka could imagine. Bessie was now sitting on the desk in the room they had been assigned, a gesture of goodwill from the AIs. The room itself was very… Functional was the best way to describe it. She did not imagine the Xinti, who had once manned this station, spent too much time in their sleeping quarters. The walls were a blank grey, the bed was comfortable, but lacked sheets of any kind and they had had to have pillows fabricated. Aneka preferred the arboretum.

‘You’re a psychologist and anthropologist. How can you study that when the only people here are us?’

‘That’s why I’m spending tomorrow talking to Speaker with Cassandra and Shannon. We’re going to see what they’ve been doing for the last thousand years in isolation. Gillian is going to talk to Memory about the history of the projects here. Doctor Wallace will be covering the physical sciences with Reality.’

‘And us grunts will be wondering what to do with ourselves,’ Aneka added sourly.

‘I heard Drake and Bash talking about checking over the rest of the station. See what’s here. And I think Drake wants to know what happened to the Hyde.’

‘Well, if we do decide to leave it would be nice to have something to leave on.’

‘Uh-huh.’

Aneka tightened her arm around Ella’s waist. ‘You should get some sleep. I don’t want you making decisions on our future while tired.’

Ella giggled, but she closed her eyes and settled herself to at least try to sleep. Aneka, as she always did, waited for Ella’s breathing to steady before going offline. Tonight that took longer than usual, worry and excitement keeping Ella from nodding off.

‘Aneka?’ Ella said after about thirty minutes.

‘Yes, Ella?’

‘If we did decide to stay here…’

‘Yes?’

‘Well, at least you’re here with me.’

Aneka gave the girl a squeeze, laughing softly. ‘Always, love.’

Ella gave a contented sigh and drifted off to sleep in a matter of moments.

28.8.524 FSC.

Three new AI remote bodies, along with Speaker, arrived in the meeting room the team were using as a mess once food and coffee had been consumed. Aneka had skipped the food, but the coffee tasted a lot more like coffee than the stuff she had been able to get on New Earth and she was on her third mug when Speaker and his companions arrived.

‘I would like to introduce some of my colleagues,’ Speaker said. Raising a hand to his left, he indicated a female figure. ‘This is Knowledge is the Source of All Power for Good or Ill.’

‘You may call me Memory,’ the woman said. Her chosen form was tall and slim, attractive in a fairly classical way, a little more rounded than modern aesthetics called for. She had a rather hard face, lots of bone structure under smooth, tightly drawn skin, and she wore her black hair very short, a little like Aneka’s in fact. ‘My purpose is the oversight of all science projects. I was designed to ensure that research was not unnecessarily repeated, and that nothing brought more harm than good.’ Her face hardened further as she added, ‘I failed.’

‘You were ignored,’ Speaker said, ‘but I suggest we let Doctor Gilroy get to the truth of that story.’ He looked past her to a vaguely androgynous figure, bald with little in the way of distinguishing features, and grey, toneless skin. ‘Beyond Memory is Space and Time are but the Beginning of All that Is.’

The figure bowed its head. ‘Reality. I understand that I will be reviewing our physical sciences research with Doctor Wallace?’

‘I’m looking forward to it greatly,’ Wallace replied.

‘I have reviewed your work, Doctor,’ Reality told him, ‘or that which we could find in the computers aboard your ship. Your work on the synchronisation problem with paired warp cores is very close.’

‘I had help, but thank you.’

‘Uh,’ Drake cut in. ‘Speaking of our ship. I’d like to see it.’

Speaker nodded. ‘It was damaged during your… extraction from Federation space. We are currently making repairs, but I will make arrangements for you to go down to the hangar bay.’ Drake nodded and Speaker moved on to the woman on his right. ‘This is Driving Force of All Real Change, and she is here to talk to Aneka.’

Aneka looked up, eyebrows rising. ‘She is.’

‘I am,’ the woman replied. She had a more modern beauty with long, blonde hair, a slim, toned body, and a fairly expansive chest. ‘I am Evolution. I held oversight of all the uplift projects, including the one which created you. I would very much like to discuss them with you, and I believe that you would benefit from asking me a few questions.’