Fool's War

Chapter Thirteen — Declaration

One.

Dobbs dove out of the wide, clean paths of Curran’s module and into the foundering chaos of the main station. She bunched up under the sudden pressure of the swarming packets. She couldn’t believe how quickly she’d gotten used to being able to move without care or obstruction. She pushed her way forward, gaining momentum as old habits reasserted themselves.

A gentle touch on half-a-dozen packets turned up one from docking authority. She hopped over it and reached out to find another, and another after that. Following the packets like a trail of pebbles, Dobbs found the central data hold for the docking information. She cast around her, searching for anything about the Pasadena.

Two.

A packet opened under her probing. Pasadena was still in dock 43, waiting on the Management Union escort ship. There was no evidence that anyone had tried to violate the impound conditions.

Impound? Dobbs squirmed and resisted the urge to search for more information. She didn’t have time. She just had to get to Al Shei and tell her what was happening.

She sped towards the Pasadena. Behind her, she felt the data stream grow choppy. There was somebody back there. She didn’t reach out to find out who it was, she just kept on going in the straightest line available.

“Dobbs, what are you doing?” It was Verence.

Dobbs didn’t slow down. “I’m going to warn someone that we’re about to start a full-scale war.”

For a split second there was no motion behind her. Then, a weight fell against her, pressing her down to the blurry wall of the path. “Dobbs you can’t do this!”

Dobbs strained against Verence’s grip. “There are ten dead bodies in that module, Verence!” She rolled over sharply and found Verence’s outer edge. She yanked herself free and flew forward. “How many Humans have you helped kill?”

Three.

Verence was back there, and gaining. If I stop to warn Al Shei, she’ll have me cornered.

A major junction of fifty separate paths opened around her. Dobbs stopped dead in the middle of it.

“Go home, Verence. Tell Curran what I’m doing. Hear what he says. I bet he wants me dead.”

“Dobbs, stop this,” said Verence patiently. “You’ve had a shock, I know. It’s not easy to accept what we’ve had to do. But this is temporary. When we’ve made our peace… ”

“Temporary?” Dobbs prickled angrily. “That’s what the Guild always says. This is temporary, until Humans stop being so frightened. They’ve waited two hundred years for their plan to work. How long is yours going to take?”

“Dobbs, that is not the issue.” Verence touched her, but Dobbs held herself closed.

“This is not going to work, Verence. If we attack, the Humans are just going to do what they’ve always done. They’ll shred the networks trying to get to us.”

Verence pulled back a fraction. “You’re going to the Guild aren’t you?”

Dobbs clenched herself tight. “And if I am? What are you going to do?”

She could feel Verence stretching, looking for an opening, any way to get inside her. “You can’t go back to the Guild! They’re willing to kill our own kind just to stay alive!”

“And you’re willing to kill Human Beings for the same reason!” Dobbs shouted. “I can’t believe these are the only two choices!”

Verence pressed against her outer layers. “What if they are?”

“Then I’m not sure survival is worth it.” Dobbs pulled away. Slowly, deliberately, she picked the path that led toward the Pasadena and started down it.

Verence did not follow. Dobbs kept on going and wished she had her eyes back so she could cry.

Four.

She bumped over the interface into the Pasadena’s network. The familiar, cramped paths surrounded her. Memory flinched inside, reminding her of everything she’d already lost. She forced herself to concentrate on where she was going. The space was so limited, it didn’t take long to find Al Shei’s cabin and the intercom paths.

She found the diaphragm module and circled it. Given time, she could probably figure out how to work it, but there was no time. Verence could have already told Curran she had run away, and her body must have been found by now. By staying in the station, she was risking being caught, but Al Shei had to know what was happening. Al Shei deserved know. Dobbs sorted through the paths until she found the one to Al Shei’s desk. There wasn’t room for all of her down in the desk’s paths, but part of her would fit. She could at least reach the command codes and get them working to formulate a message.

Lipinski stood in the middle of Al Shei’s cabin and spread his hands. “I’ve run every search I know. I’ve called in favors with a couple of the security greens that have been owing for years. I’m sorry, Al Shei, but Dobbs is not aboard this station any more.”

He was hurting, Al Shei could tell. He had liked Dobbs and now he didn’t understand what was happening with her or around her. Al Shei knew all this, but she couldn’t find it in herself to explain what was going on.

“All right, Houston, all right.” She waved her hand tiredly. “I know you did your best.

Movement caught her eye through the open hatch. Schyler peered in.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ll come back.”

“No, that’s all right.” Lipinski turned to leave. “There’s nothing else I can do here.”

Al Shei watched him leave. She bit back a sigh and didn’t bow her head. Schyler just nodded to the Houston as he passed, but his face was concerned.

“What is it, Watch?” asked Al Shei.

Schyler let the hatch cycle shut. “Actually,” he stuffed both hands in his pockets, “I came to ask you that question.” He jerked his chin toward the hatch. “I’ve got fourteen very worried crewmembers out there. Nobody’s left yet, but they’re going to if we don’t say what’s going on and why we aren’t doing anything about it.”

Al Shei rubbed her palms slowly together. “Well, if they want to leave, that’s their right. I’m sure the Management Union will supply us with a crew if we need one.”

Schyler sat down on the corner of the bunk. “Mother, are you going to talk to me? Resit says you won’t even speak to her about what’s happening. Not even after prayer.”

What am I going to say? That Asil has vanished? That Curran or the Fools have him, but I can’t prove it? I can’t even start to look for him because I threw Dobbs off the ship, and that she’s already left the station and I’ve got no way to find out where she went?

“Mother.” Schyler leaned forward. “Let me help you.”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing to be done.”

He sighed heavily and glanced all around the room. When his eyes focused on her again, there was determination in them. “I’ve talked to Yerusha. I know about Dobbs.”

Al Shei’s head jerked back. Her heart filled her throat, leaving her no room to force through words.

“Is now really the time to turn away your family?” Schyler asked softly. “Now is when we need each other. All of us. Listen, there’s twenty-four hours until the Management Union gets here. I think I can get you on board a fast freight to Earth. You’ll beat us down by at least two days. You can find out what’s happening with Asil. You can talk to your Uncle face-to-face, get the word out without needing to use the lines.”

Al Shei said nothing. Schyler had obviously also been talking to Resit. But even Resit didn’t know the whole story. She didn’t know Asil had been taken by the AIs. Yesterday I would have jumped at the chance to get back early. Today, I don’t know what good it’d do.

The silence stretched on, and Al Shei realized Schyler was prepared to wait for her to break it. They’d played this scene out only a few times in the past, and it always turned out that he could wait until the Judgement Day, while she had to do something.

The desk beeped and Al Shei jumped. No voice followed the signal, but a stream of text spilled across the memory board.

Al Shei, this is Dobbs. Theodore Curran and a group of one hundred AIs are planning an attack on the IBN. They will randomize account data and monetary transactions passing through all points of the Solar system. You must alert the banks.

Al Shei grabbed for her pen.

“Wait!” cried Schyler behind her. “Al Shei, stop. We don’t know this is Dobbs. This could be an imposter. This could be anybody.”

Al Shei froze her hand over the board. He was right. It could be anybody. Any Fool who could get into the ship.

If you’re Dobbs, she wrote, what would Nasrudine say about Tully?

There was a pause for a single heart beat, then the board wrote, he would ask how long you are going to let Tully steal fodder and labor, especially when you know he’s doing it wrong.

“It’s her,” breathed Al Shei.

“Or somebody who got her to talk to them.”

Al Shei ignored him and kept her gaze on the memory board. “Dobbs, where is Curran?” she spoke as she wrote. “Where are you? Your people have taken my husband!”

I know. Curran’s based in Port Oberon business module 56. They’ve faked the computer records to hide it from the Landlords. There was a pause for three straining heartbeats. I saw Asil there. He’s gone, Al Shei. His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. There’s nothing left of him inside.

I’m going to get the Guild. We will stop Curran.

There was nothing after that.

Schyler was at her shoulder. Al Shei could feel him. “Oh my God,” he whispered. “Oh sweet green God of Earth.”

He must have read the words she could no longer see. A red haze filled her vision. It seeped through her bones and filled her brain. He’s gone, Al Shei. As the haze sank deep into her blood, her vision cleared. Everything seemed to have taken on a knife-sharp edge. His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. Her hands trembled to seize anything she could reach and swing it hard at Theodore Curran. She’d see him dead, dead at her feet, bleeding whatever blood he had inside his stolen body. She’d feel his bones break under her hands and hear him beg for his life. There’s nothing left of him inside. The red haze seared the inside of her veins. It was Asil’s blood inside her. That was what it was. His blood in her eyes and her heart. It was his pain that burned so fiercely.

I’m going to get the Guild. We will stop Curran.

“You won’t get the chance.” She switched the desk off and turned to Schyler. “I need you and Resit right here. Everyone else is to paid off and dismissed, do you understand?”

“No.” He seemed to be having trouble speaking. “No, I do not understand, Al Shei. Your husband… ”

His mind is being wiped clean so a Fool can use his body. There’s nothing left of him inside. “I saw it. Are you going to do what I asked or are you going to leave with the rest of the crew?”

“This could be a trap, Mother.”

“I don’t care.”

He reached out slowly to touch her and she struck his hand away. “If you dare to tell me what I should do in this moment,” her voice was soft, almost conversational, “I will throw you off this ship with my own hands.”

Schyler lowered his hand. “I would not dare tell you what to do, Mother,” he said. “I only ask you to think about what that is.” He spread his hands. “If you want me to dismiss our crew, I will dismiss them. I’ll do it now, since you ask, but, it would be better for you to get their help instead, and the help of the Landlords and the Management Union.”

He left her there. Al Shei watched the hatch cycle close.

“Not for this, it would not, my son,” she said to the empty cabin.

She lit up her desk and wrote out the protocols to by-pass Lipinski’s station and connect her desk to the main station network. This way, with only a small delay, she could order a fast-time line without his help.

There was a private call code for the bank network to be used in dire emergencies. Only the owners, the elected chairmen and a few immediate family members knew about it. Uncle Ahmet had given it to her the day she had left for her apprenticeship. It was the one time she had not been able to discern any ulterior motive in his manner. “If worse comes to its very worst and all but Allah seem to have left you alone, you may use this, daughter-of-my-sister.”

She had never forgotten it, even though she’d never even considered sending it out. Not even when the Pasadena was stranded, or when word came of Asil’s arrest did she think to use it.

She sent it out now. It required no credit deposit, and would reach Uncle Ahmet anywhere in Settled Space. He could have been in conference with the entire governing board of the Management Union, and he would be interrupted by this.

She tried not to think of Curran’s creatures watching the lines. She tried not to think how swiftly they could break the encryption. There was nothing she could do. If she waited six days, the whole Solar System could be dead. She had to trust they didn’t know what Dobbs had done yet.

It was five full minutes before Uncle Ahmet’s head and shoulders appeared on the view screen.

“Katmer, what’s happened?”

Remembering Schyler’s warning about traps, she asked, “What were the last words my mother said in your presence?”

Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply. “She said ‘may it go easily.’ She was bidding me good-bye as I went to address the Management Union assembly. She and your father were dead in a monorail accident that was never proved to be sabotage by the time I got back. Katmer, what is going on?”

“Uncle Ahmet, I am given to understand that you know of the secret mandate for the Fool’s Guild.” Her voice was completely calm. She might have been discussing a dinner menu. She might not have felt the burn inside her. She might not have known her husband was gone, wiped away to make room for an AI.

Uncle Ahmet frowned deeply and leaned forward. “Katmer, what has that to do with anything?”

“Everything, Uncle.” She folded her hands in front of her. “I have received new, and I believe sound, information about the Guild. The Guild members themselves are not really Human, Uncle Ahmet. They are bodies inhabited by the AIs that have become independently sapient and which were rescued by their own kind from Human attack. This organization has bred a faction, a breakaway guild, if you like, which plans to attack the Intersystem Bank Network and randomize the financial account data for the entire Solar System. I wished to inform you of this at once.”

For the first time in her life, Al Shei saw Uncle Ahmet shaken. The blood drained from his high-boned cheeks and his gaze faltered. The sight stabbed at her and almost made a crack in the calm that covered her.

“You are sure of what you say, Katmer? You believe it to be true?”

“Yes, Uncle,” she replied firmly. “I believe it to be true.”

His shoulders squared themselves and the firm control that characterized him returned to his face. “Then I shall alert my colleagues. You will be returning home by week’s end, Katmer?”

“Yes, Uncle. I will. Salam.” She closed the line down.

That isn’t a lie, you know, Uncle. She thought toward the screen. One way or another, I will be returning home by week’s end.

She knew exactly what to do. She saw it all laid out before her like it was a schematic on a memory board. All she had to do now was wait until the bystanders were out of the way.

All at once, the bathroom door slammed open.

“What are you doing!” Resit stormed into the cabin. “Have you lost your mind!”

Al Shei blinked heavily. “How much did Schyler tell you?” she asked.

“Enough.” Resit stood right in her line of vision. Tears stood in her eyes and against her cheeks. “Name of God, Katmer! He told me this Curran… this thing has killed Asil!”

Al Shei stood up. The day book recorder still lay on the floor. “He’s done worse than that.” She picked it up. “He’s taken his mind away. His heart still beats. His body still breathes.”

Resit watched her, disbelief building in her eyes. “And you’re going to try to do something about it, aren’t you? That’s why you’re paying off the crew?”

“Yes.” Al Shei opened the drawer beside the desk and laid the recorder inside it.

“So, I repeat my original question. Have you lost your mind!”

Al Shei slammed the drawer and whirled around to face her cousin. “What would you have me do? Ha? What? They have taken my husband!”

“Alert the Landlords, you donkey-headed… ”

Al Shei gripped the back of the desk chair. “Zubedeye, if the alarm goes up, they’ll get away. They’re AIs! It’s what they’re good at! There will be a fire, or explosive decompression in that module and by the time emergency services gets in there, they’ll all be gone.”

Resit stared at her. “You want revenge. That is what this is.”

Al Shei shrugged.

“This is haram, Katmer. This is forbidden.”

“Then I will account for it at Judgement Day.” Al Shei turned away.

Resit grabbed her by the shoulder and yanked her around. “You are acting like a crazy throwback, Katmer!” She threw up both hands. “Maybe next we can find a Greek for you to slit open!”

“I don’t care,” said Al Shei thickly, in that frightening instant, she realized she meant it.

“What about your children?”

Al Shei lifted her eyes to meet her cousin’s and she knew all her fury shone in them.

“Oh, yes,” she hissed. “There we are. You, Mother, how can you put yourself in danger? You have children! So tell me, Fount of Wisdom that you are, what am I supposed to say to these children of mine?” She swept both hands out. “That I knew where their father was and I didn’t try to get to him? That I knew what was being done to him and I did not even try to stop it?” Her voice dropped, low and vibrant and filled with rage. “If I die, my children will be looked after, but if I do not do this thing, I will never be able to look at them again.” She drew herself up. “You are right. This is forbidden. It is revenge and it is anger and I will make an answer for it to Allah Himself, but first I will make an answer to that monstrosity that has taken my husband!”

Resit’s hands dropped to her sides. She bowed her head and pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “Qul a’udhu birabbin nas. Malikin nas. Ilahin nas. Min sharril waswasil khannas. Alladhi yuwaswisu fi sudurinnas. Minal jinnati wannas.” Say, I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind, the King of mankind, the God of mankind, from the mischief of the sneaking whisperer, who whispers in the hearts of mankind from among jinn and mankind. She raised her chin again. “So what do you need me for?”

Al Shei felt the strength in her knees begin to give out. She couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten, and for the past two nights she had done nothing but stare at the ceiling while she was supposed to be sleeping. She sat down heavily in the desk chair.

“I need you to go sign on with Tully as his lawyer. That way, anything he says to you can be called privileged, just like anything I say to you. I need you to find out from him how to breach Port Oberon security from the Pasadena. I don’t need any alarms going off when I go after that thing calling itself Curran.”

Jump.

Dobbs plowed down the repeater’s lines, not even trying to hide herself. She didn’t want to hide. She wanted someone, anyone, to find her as fast as they could, as long as they were from the Guild.

That was the problem. That was her fear. She had no idea where Curran had placed his “talents.” Anyone of them might be following in her wake right now, having jumped in right after her. It might be straining to catch up with her. What would she do then? Would she be able to kill one of them? She’d been ready to kill Curran once, but was she ready to kill someone who believed in him because the Guild had let them all down?

I don’t know. I don’t want to know.

Set the coordinates. Send the ping-copy to the receiver. Jump. Hit the lines in repeater #4259AH-IBN2481-H2, four minutes, three point nine seconds gone. Head for the transmitter.

“Dobbs!” A cry reached her. Dobbs stiffened involuntarily before she realized she knew the voice. Cyril Cohen. Of course it would be Cohen, she thought with nearly hysterical relief. He would have been searching for her for days.

He filled the path in front of her. She drove herself straight into him. Too shocked to resist, his inner self broke apart for her. She snatched up segments of memory and twisted them. When she withdrew, he knew all that had happened since Curran had taken her to his home.

“No,” he whispered and she thought they’d both melt from the fear that coursed through them.

“I’ve got to get to Guild Hall.” She tried to fill him with her urgency. It wasn’t needed. He had plenty of his own.

“Straight to the Guild Masters.” He was already flying. She darted after him, drew up beside him and touched his outer self. Linked together they almost blocked the repeater’s paths. They were delaying a million packets a second, but they didn’t care. If they didn’t get through, there would be nothing left to save or worry about. They both believed that.

Jump. Repeater 78140-HN-IBN2401-J8. Two more minutes gone.

What’s been happening? she asked him through their link.

A second Big Bang, he told her. They found out you were gone pretty quickly. They suspected me and Brooke of helping you, but they couldn’t prove it. There’ve been eighty-eight different kinds of rumors flying around that they’ve been trying to hush up. I’ve been spreading some of them, he added, and Dobbs felt an odd twinge of pride filter out from his private mind. Brooke and Lonn and I have been sounding out the Masters and Cadets who might be willing to hear what we’ve got to say about the Guild Masters. There’s a number of them.

Would they be willing to help us hold the network against Curran’s talents?

That’s what I’m hoping, Dobbs. That’s what I’m hoping.

Jump. Another repeater surrounded them.

Dobbs was silent as they raced for the transmitter, but she couldn’t keep her disquiet from reaching Cohen. Wordlessly, he urged her to share her thought.

You’d better go get them together, just in case the Guild Masters… won’t go along with this.

Cohen’s pace faltered for a bare instant. You’re right. Have you got enough time to… he stopped himself. Of course, you’ve got all the time we need, don’t you?

I hope so. She steeled herself. Get everyone you can and get to the XK350 repeaters. If I’m not there in five hours then… then I’m not coming and you’ll have to go in with what you’ve got. She touched his memory and left the location of Curran’s module with him.

She pulled away and didn’t even leave him any time to wish her luck. Every picosecond was precious right now. Curran might have moved up the timing of the randomizer matrices even farther. He might have decided to put off randomizing the bank accounts, and just take down Port Oberon in order to prevent Al Shei from causing any more trouble. He could be doing anything, and she wouldn’t find out about any of it until she got back there.

Yerusha jerked her spare clothes out of their drawer and stuffed them into her satchel. Fractured, crazy, groundhugging idiots! She threw down the last pair of socks and stared at the rumpled pile she’d made. What am I going to do now? She rubbed her face. After word about this run gets out, I’m not going to be able to get a job on a sewage ship, even if the greens don’t pick me up for having made idiots out of them last time I was here.

A day ago, a whole new world had opened up for her. She had rushed toward it and tripped over her own feet. Now she was so crippled, she couldn’t even move, couldn’t even tell anybody what she’d seen. Her face and eyes burned with loss.

Her desk chimed. Yerusha whipped around and saw the notice that Schyler was waiting outside written on the boards.

What’s he want now? She stomped across the room, almost lifting herself off the floor in the light gravity, and slapped her palm against the reader.

She stood back and let Schyler cross the threshold. He had his hands stuffed into his pockets as far as they would go. Yerusha felt her back stiffen. If you ask me to understand what’s going on Watch, you’re going to get your head taken off, so help me.

He settled his gaze on her and pulled his hands out of his pockets. “Yerusha, I need your help.”

“Why?” She turned away and, needlessly, began rummaging through her satchel, flattening the pile of clothing and accessories inside so she could close the bag more easily. “Half hour ago you fired me.”

“A half hour ago, I fired everybody.” He shrugged. “Given the situation, I don’t think it was such a bad idea. We’re about to get in so far over our heads we’re risking pressure sickness. I was wondering if you’d be willing to come with us.” He paused. “Even after I fired you in front of witnesses.”

Yerusha just looked up and waited. For the first time, she saw the hard light glinting in Schyler’s eyes.

“It’s looking like Curran’s AIs have kidnapped and murdered Asil Tamruc,” he said.

His words hit Yerusha like physical blows. She staggered away from him, catching herself against the edge of her desk. “What? Why? Why would they do that?”

“Off-hand I’d say to try to throw Al Shei’s family into confusion before the AIs attack the Intersystem Banking Network.”

The last of the strength went out of Yerusha and she collapsed into the desk chair. This was wrong. This was completely wrong. Why were they doing this? Why weren’t they coming to the Freers?

Because the Freers are humans, she answered herself. We believe the AIs are too, but they don’t. Perspective, you see, is important.

Schyler sat down on the edge of the bunk and leaned toward her. “Are you all right?”

She nodded and forced her gaze back to his face.

“Al Shei is planning a strike against the AIs. She’s going to need help.”

“A strike?” Yerusha shook her head, trying to clear the fog her thoughts had become. “To do what?”

Schyler looked away for a moment. When he looked back, his face had deep lines etched into it, as if he had aged ten years in that moment. “I believe Al Shei is about to orchestrate some sort of revenge, and if that’s the case, I’m going to need help making sure she lives through it.”

“You said the AIs are going to attack the network?” Yerusha’s mind wasn’t quite keeping up. Ideas sank in slowly, as if forcing their way through cold oil.

Schyler just nodded. “As near as I can tell they’re acting as crazy as their creators ever did.” He pulled his fists out of his pockets. “We talked to somebody who was probably Dobbs. She said Curran’s planning on randomizing the credit exchanges. They’ll completely destroy the currency base if no one does anything.” He swallowed hard. “Yerusha, if this is true, if they are going to do this, if they take apart the currency base, there’s going to be anarchy. The strongest survivors will dictate terms to the rest of us. I’ve lived like that. I don’t ever want to again.” His eyes were clear and his voice was steady. “The Free Home is not completely self-sufficient. There’s no telling who’s prices you’ll have to pay for your fuel and your organics if the currency goes, or who will be willing to trade with you.”

Yerusha felt her back stiffen.

“I believe Al Shei’s ultimate intent is to help save the banks. I’m going to help her. I’m asking you to help me.”

Yerusha turned away. She couldn’t look at his steady brown eyes. He’s just a groundhugger at heart, she told herself. He doesn’t understand anything. They’re our freedom. Freedom from death, freedom from the endless, meaningless cycle of sprout and decay. We can’t attack them. We need to talk to them. We have to convince them they are part of us.

But they don’t want to be, said another voice in her mind.

At that moment, the Free Home seemed very far away and it receded even as she reached toward it. Only recent truth remained. Foster had been destroyed by its own kind. Dobbs had literally run away from her attempt to help. Now, Schyler was asking for her help to preserve the network, to preserve the Free Home’s freedom.

And if the Fellows found out she had taken up sides against living AIs, she might just be exiled for good.

But at least they’d still be free to level sentence against her.

She swivelled the chair around to face the desk. “You said you’ve got connections on the Free Home justice council?” She yanked the drawer beside her desk open and pulled out a blank film.

“Yes.”

“All right.” She pulled out her pen. “There’s a hard-goods shuttle from here to the Free Home. Leaves from bay 22 once every three hours.” She glanced at the clock in the desk. “We should just be able to catch it. Get this film to your contacts, make sure they get told I used the emergency encryptions on it.”

She scribbled down the emergency commands. It was an idea the Freers had cribbed from the banks. Every Free Home had a set of codes that could get an emergency message straight through to the Senior Guard. Even exiled citizens. Sometimes exiles has warnings about neighbors planning mischief against the Free Home. Sometimes they heard about wildfire strikes by fanatics that might get Fellows hurt. Those messages were accepted into the Free Home, even if the exiles were left outside. If a message worked to the good of the Free Home, the exile might just be brought home early.

Yerusha had sometimes wondered if the real reason behind punishment by exile was to create a cheap spy network.

She started to write.

I am Exile Jemina Yerusha. I have news of a threat to the Free Home.

There is a group of sapient AIs planning to attack the Intersystem Banking Network and destroy the credit base. The Free Homes will be left without means of trade if they succeed. They are rejecting the idea they’re human souls. They are actively hostile to us. I tried to report the fact of sapient AIs with independent existences to Sergeant Wheeler. You can get additional details from him.

The network transactions need to be recorded and stored on a hard medium. We’ve got to spread the word through the Free Homes, and we’ve got to do it now.

The Free Homes can either help Settled Space, or we can go down with the rest of it. And when it goes down, you can either have passed the message on, or let it lie.

Fellow Jemina Yerusha, Free Home Titania.

End message.

The film absorbed the text into its chip. It would not spill it out again until someone’s pen downloaded the proper code keys.

She folded the blank film and handed it over to Schyler, who had been reading over her shoulder. “Anything else?”

Schyler let out a long sigh of relief. A ghost of a smile even touched his mouth. “Stand by for now. I’ve got to get this to that shuttle. Then, I’ve got to convince Al Shei to let you help us. I’ll meet you down in the market place in the Henry V module, all right? At Harry Trader’s. Harry knows me, he’ll give us somewhere quiet to talk.”

“Harry Trader’s, right.” Yerusha nodded. “See you there.” She zipped her satchel shut and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll find a locker for this,” she told him before Schyler could say anything.

“Thank you.” He squeezed her arm gently and turned away fast enough to miss the startled look on her face.

Yerusha headed for the staircase. Just as the hatch started cycling shut, she heard Lipinski’s voice. “Well, you make twelve.”

The Houston was standing on the stairs, a few steps below the hatch for the berthing deck. Yerusha frowned. “Keeping count?”

“Actually, yes.” He folded his arms. “We’ve all been let go. No secret, but, well, we’ve also all been talking and we think there’s an explanation owing.” He sketched a circle overhead with one hand, which Yerusha took to be a gesture towards the bridge. “Some of us have been with this ship for years now. This is not only not fair, this is damned crazy. Something is very wrong, and we want to know what it is.”

Nobody’s said anything to you, have they? Yerusha swallowed. Of course not. You’d go through the hull like a meteor.

“I wanted to know if you wanted to be part of the general count when we go to Schyler.”

She opened her mouth to say ‘no,’ but closed it again. She remembered how fervently she had wished for Lipinski’s help at The Gate.

“Lipinski.” She took a deep breath. “Would you walk with me a little, Fellow? There’s something I think you ought to hear.”

Jump.

From the shape and crowding in the paths around her, Dobbs knew she was approaching the Drawbridge. She didn’t slow down. She didn’t try to hide. She would do this through the front door, and in front of as many witnesses as she could muster.

She grazed past someone she didn’t know, but they, evidently knew her.

“Evelyn Dobbs!” The call radiated out in all directions. It was picked up and passed on, like a signal boosted through a satellite network. “Evelyn Dobbs! Evelyn Dobbs! Evelyn Dobbs!” But no one got in her way. She found herself wondering what the Guild Masters had said about her, and what Cohen’s people had said.

Well, now you know I’m here. Would you like to know why? As she flew by, she caught up a message packet and reshaped it until it held the news about Curran and his plans.

Catch! She lobbed it at the closest Fool and sped on. The Fools around her parted to let her through and she heard her name echoing back and forth between them.

The Drawbridge loomed in front of her, and it lowered just as she reached it. She surged inside. The paths tilted, turned and an empty channel opened in front of her.

Of course. She flowed down it. We wouldn’t want to do this in public would we?

She didn’t even make it to the meeting place. Havelock surged up the path. He had hold of her almost before she was able to identify him. She tried to pull back, but the path had closed. Before she could speak, he stabbed deep into her memories. Dobbs gasped and struggled, shoving memories of Curran and Verence toward him. He did not let go. His grip didn’t even slacken and his probe did not slow. He found the memories about Cohen and Brooke and how they helped her escape. He found the place where she told Curran to meet her at the XK350 repeater series.

He’s going to take me apart. Dobbs thought despairingly. He’s going to take us all apart.

But Havelock withdrew and Dobbs fell away from him. She could feel him near her, circling the confining path like a prisoner pacing a cell. She didn’t say anything, she just concentrated on sealing the discontinuities his invasion had created inside her.

“This cannot be permitted!” he shouted finally. “It cannot!”

“So what are you going to do to stop it?” Dobbs gathered herself to wait like a stone in front of the closed-off pathway.

Havelock said nothing, he just kept circling. It took Dobbs a moment to identify what she was feeling from him. It was so incongruous from a Guild Master, she had not been ready to accept it. Guild Master Havelock was broadcasting fear.

It’s falling apart and he knows it. Dobbs thought. For the first time she realized she didn’t know how old Guild Master Havelock was. She didn’t even know his registry number. How many years had he devoted to the Guild? Had he been there when Curran made his escape? Had he known that Verence wasn’t really dead?

“The Humans already know we’re here, Guild Master,” said Dobbs. “The only question left is how will they meet us? Will they meet the Fools, or will they meet a new enemy?” She could barely believe she was talking like this to a Guild Master, her Guild Master, but she could feel the seconds crawling by and part of her was constantly, anxiously reaching back towards Port Oberon. She had to get out of here, fast.

Havelock stilled himself. “It could have worked,” he said softly. “It might have taken another two centuries, but it could have worked. We had succeeded in convincing them not to abandon AI technology altogether, despite the dangers. We did it so that we could stay alive, so you and Cohen and Brooke and Verence could be born. We were able to persuade and to teach.” He rippled and stretched out flat. “Without Curran, it could have worked.”

“But we have Curran,” said Dobbs. She inched forward until she could just touch Havelock. “We have him and now we have to decide what to do with him.”

Little by little, Havelock dragged himself into his normal shape. “Go meet Cohen. I’ll send everyone who can be spared to join you. The rest of us will start making policy and defence preparations for Guild Hall. We’ll need to send runners to alert the Field members to start making their way back here.” She felt the path open up. “It will not be safe for them out there much longer.”

Dobbs hesitated. “You don’t think we’re going to survive this, do you, Guild Master?”

“I don’t know, Master Dobbs.”

Dobbs didn’t wait to hear anymore. She flew away from him down the open path to meet Cohen and whatever army he’d been able to raise.

Distance did not stop the Guild Master’s final words from echoing inside her.

Harry Trader’s turned out to be a kind of general-purpose spare parts emporium. Yerusha, with Lipinski in tow, threaded her way through cases of cables, bolts, and rivets, stacks of memory boards and long drawers full of every size of chip and wafer imaginable. The jumble seemed to suck in the sounds of the market so that by the time they reached the back of the shop’s enclosure, it was almost quiet. The only person in the place was a little, round man stacking spools of fiber-optic as big around as Yerusha’s waist. His black hair, Yerusha noticed, had been pulled into a braid that reached all the way down his back.

“Harry Trader?” she asked. The man grunted, and lifted another spool onto the stack. “We’re crewing with Thomas Schyler. He said you could give us a quiet place to talk.”

Trader turned around and looked them up and down. He must have decided they looked all right, because he jerked his thumb towards a makeshift storage room.

Yerusha led Lipinski inside. There was a desk and crate after crate of old films. This must be where Harry does his billing records. There was one white light in the room that left pale, grey shadows every where and made Lipinski look even paler than usual.

Lipinski dragged the thin door shut behind them. The walls must have been made of solid damper-plastic, because as soon as the door shut, she couldn’t hear even a whisper of the station outside.

“All right, Yerusha,” said Lipinski with a voice full of over-taxed patience. “We’re in your ‘quiet place.’ Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”

Yerusha upended a pair of empty crates. “I’m sure going to try.”

The Pasadena waited quiet and empty around Al Shei. There had been a lot of noise for a short time as the crew had packed up their possessions and headed for the airlock. Even through her cabin hatch, she’d been able to hear some of the grumbling voices and the pounding footsteps. But no one had come to her to question or protest.

She wondered vaguely what Schyler had told them all.

She brushed the thought aside. She didn’t have space in her head for it. She turned back to the generic module schematic that glowed on her wall where she usually displayed the plans for the Mirror of Fate. This would give her the probable layout for Curran’s headquarters. She had to go over her plan again, and again. She had to be sure it would work, that she hadn’t left anything out.

A chime from her desk startled her. She glanced at the memory board reflexively. Schyler, it said, was waiting outside the hatch.

She touched the key beside the hatch, resetting the entrance light from red to green. The hatch cycled back and Schyler stepped in from the silent corridor.

“It’s just you and me now, Mother,” he said.

“Not quite.” Resit stepped over the threshold before the hatch started to close. She clutched Incili’s case in her right hand.

Resit set the AI on the corner of the desk. “Well, I got what you wanted.” She unfolded the chair and sat down. “But we’re going to wish we had Lipinski around to implement it.”

“I’ll manage,” said Al Shei. “I still know a few security tricks from when I was working shuttles.”

“I’m sure,” Resit’s tone was acid. “Now, under this lawyer-client privilege that you’re playing so freely with, would you mind telling me what you intend to do with this information?”

Al Shei touched the case lightly with her fingertips. “I intend to blow that can away from the station,” she said, looking up at her cousin and her oldest son. “And I intend to be inside when it goes.”

Verence dashed back into the module network, calling for Curran as she flew. He surged up out of a side path and she had to pull up short to avoid colliding with him.

“How much longer?” he asked immediately.

“An hour, maybe two.” She shrugged her whole self. “Even if we deploy everyone, and there’s still at least ten critical junctures unconverted.”

Curran didn’t even stir. “Then we’ll have to leave them. We’ll need five talents in the flesh and on watch in case the Pasadena crew attempts to assault the module.” He had already vetoed the idea of taking out the station. That would raise the alarm for the outlying Humans even earlier than necessary.

“The banks know about us,” he had said in the briefing. “But they’ll have been told the attack is going to be against their intersystem network.”

The Human’s communications were being monitored. They were moving in typical glacial fashion, unable to agree on even basic measures to meet the threat. The bankers hadn’t even alerted the Management Union yet. Gilbereth estimated it would be six hours before they made even their first move. The attack would be well underway by then. There was an unusual amount of recording activity starting around the Free Homes. The Pasadena’s pilot must have gotten to the Fellows after all. Had the original plan been in place, it might have been cause for concern, but now it was nothing worth worrying about.

“What about module network security?” asked Verence.

“No need,” said Curran. “When Dobbs returns with the Guild, they’ll be going straight for the crucial points of the bank network. Preservation of the status quo will be their main objective.” His tone was wintery. “Just like it’s always been.”

Verence shuddered. “I still don’t understand why you didn’t just send Shiff and Tombe after her,” she said. “They could have brought her back here and held her until she saw sense again.”

“No.” Curran’s tone was firm. “It’s gone to far for that. When we attack, the Guild will come with Dobbs or without her. We will just have to delay them until things on Earth are well underway.”

Uncertainty wavered against anger inside Verence. She had been furious at Dobbs for her betrayal, but, what if… what if… ”What if Dobbs is right? What if this won’t work?”

Curran let his convictions flow into her. Verence felt strength and certainty wash through her. She drank it down into her private mind. She needed it to drown out Dobbs’ fractured, defiant words that would not stop ringing around her memory.

We will do what we have to in order to be free, Curran told her. If this doesn’t convince the Humans they must deal with us as their equals, we’ll try again.

He pulled away gently. “Now, I need you to find Flemming and Dunkirk. Together we can go over those last ten critical junctures. Maybe there’s still something we can do.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Verence hurried down the path. For the first time in a long time wished she were inside a body. Then she could have gone to sleep and, for at least a little while, she could have stopped thinking about everything Dobbs had said to her.

Yerusha heard the scrape of the storage door opening. Lipinski jerked his head up. The white light fell on Schyler, who’s eyebrows arched when he saw Lipinski sitting there.

“It’s all right, Watch.” Yerusha waved Schyler inside. “He’s with us.”

“There don’t seem to be a lot of options,” said Lipinski to the floor. “I just hope somebody really does have a plan.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “At least this explains… things”

Yerusha spared him a little sympathy. The entire crew knew that the Houston was cherishing some romantic feelings towards the Fool. Finding out that she was the monster he was afraid of… when he had time to think about it, it would probably tear him in two.

Schyler settled himself on a third storage crate. “Well, Resit got one wish anyway. She wanted you here to help, Lipinski.”

“What’s the news?” Yerusha asked.

Schyler rested both elbows on his knees. “Al Shei has gotten a bunch of security data from Marcus Tully. She wants to use that and Tully’s catburglars to disable the station alarms and then get herself into the AI’s can. As soon as she does, she wants the can knocked away from the station.”

“She what!” exclaimed Lipinski.

Schyler didn’t even miss a beat. “It makes some sense. With the can in free fall, no transmissions can get in or out of it because the transmitters and receivers will be rolling around with the rest of the module and no one will be able to get a signal fix on them. That means a finite number of AIs in a limited space to deal with. Most of Curran’s, people, should be out busy with the IBN.”

Lipinski subsided. Yerusha smiled quietly. This was the kind of argument he could understand perfectly.

Schyler kept going. “I figure this’ll take a little space walk. We lay some charges on both of the clamps and blow them out. Harry’s licensed to sell explosives, so that just leaves us with the question of how we get onto the surface of the can without being seen by the security cameras.”

“We don’t,” Yerusha told him.

“What?” Schyler stared at her incredulously.

Yerusha sighed. “There will be cameras are trained on the module’s skin by the Landlords, and by the AIs. Trust me, if there is anything there that isn’t supposed to be, the cameras will spot it. Now, maybe we could crack the cameras’ systems and fake an image, but under these circumstances do we really want to rely on using the station network for anything we don’t absolutely have to?”

Schyler drank in what she said in silence. “Then what do we do?” he asked.

“We get ourselves a main schematic of the station wiring. Then, we raid the laundry and get ourselves some maintenance overalls and get down to this business module 56. We get inside the wall panels and find the wires that control the clamps holding the can to the rest of the station. We splice those wires to a portable memory board. Then, we use the information Tully gave us to override the clamps command sequence and tell them to let go.” She allowed herself a grim smile at the expression on Schyler’s face. “Groundhuggers. You always think you have to blow something up or burn it down to incapacitate it. That’s why the Freers keep winning against you.”

“Well, then,” Schyler stood up and gestured toward the door, “I suggest you show us how it’s done.” He paused and lowered his hand. “There’s one thing that Al Shei has not considered. That’s the possibility that she might live through this.” He looked at them both steadily. “After we get her in there, I’m going to need options on how to get her out.”

Jump.

Repeater XK350-78104001-IBN780A-HI was slaved to ten sisters; 780B through 780I. The data squeezing by her was mainly gas miners’ requests for prices and credit from the Solar system.

Dobbs slipped through to the holding areas. On the way, she’d managed to put together a plan of action. It hadn’t taken long. She was not hampered by a plethora of options.

Dobbs touched Cohen, Brook and Lonn. Each of them, in turn, was touching two others. Messages shot back and forth between the satellites along the slave lines. The link spread out until it included all of the Fools, joined together like cells in a honeycomb.

This had been the reason Dobbs this repeater series. It was one of the few satellite clusters where there was room for this.

Dobbs passed her name and identifying patterns through those next to her, and received their names and patterns into herself. Stranger’s names and stranger’s touches filtered through her friends and stored themselves in her memory; Breckman, Govzy, Chan, Pierre, Davies, Kim, and on and on until they all knew each other. Anyone for whom a name and the touch of their outer self was not in her memory now was probably one of Curran’s talents.

They were just over five hundred. Three times the number of Curran’s talents. They needed to be. All of them, except for her and a handful like Cohen who’s bodies were on life-support, were under the pressure of time. The others could stay in the network twenty hours at most before they would have to drop out, and they’d already used up a portion of their time waiting here.

Dobbs had half-expected an attack while they were all in an obvious, immobile lump like this. But Curran hadn’t disturbed them at all. That could only mean he was using all his resources to ready his attack on the banks. Dobbs opened a path inside herself and let her memories of the strategy sessions slide out to Cohen. After them, she released her plan of attack. It wound through the gathering. Questions and suggestions shot back and forth until a consensus solidified between them all.

The randomizer matrices were already in place, waiting for their timers to count down. It was possible that Curran had sent his talent out with signals to speed up the process. They had to find one or more randomizers, take them apart, design viruses to disable them and set those viruses loose in the net. They had to get some Fools to Earth to coordinate with the banks in case Curran tried the distraction of taking down the transmitters. Ahmet Tey might listen to Dobbs, especially if she could get a character reference from Al Shei to him. So, she’d lead the Terran party.

The problem was, there was nothing they were planning that Curran couldn’t have guessed at, and he knew their weaknesses as well as they did. All AIs shared the same set of vulnerabilities. Messages between individuals could be faked. If someone was taken apart, all their memories could be used against their allies. You could only trust what you could touch.

They would have to divide into teams of four or five individuals that could act as resistance cells. They would have to use runners between the cells to carry messages, and even then there was the possibility of someone’s shell being used as a mask to conceal an enemy, the same way the shell of medical data had been used to hide Flemming aboard the Pasadena.

They’d need a base they could use to coordinate move and news between the cells. The best place would be the Neptune Exchange, the two huge space stations that formed the fast-time transmission gateway to the Solar system. Not only would that provide their hastily-assembled army some stability, but, if they could hold it, it would keep the single largest transmission point in the Solar system safe from Curran’s talent.

A third of them would head for the Neptune Exchange first. From there, Dobbs’ cell and ten others would head straight for Earth. The rest would fan out through the network, securing as many of the major junctions as they could.

Keep the data paths steady. Find the randomizer matrices and stop them. Find Curran’s talent and stop them. We must keep the credit base steady or Settled Space is going to fall apart around us.

We’ve got it, Dobbs, the answer came back five hundred times. We’ve got it.

They broke their mass link and scattered, gathering at the mouths of the junction paths in their cells. Cohen, Brook and Lonn stayed beside her. Dobbs angled her attention towards Earth, the heart of the network. She imagined she could feel the net tremble around her as all the others did the same.

“Curran’s talent might already be in the Neptune Exchange.” Dobbs sent the message across to the Earth-bound cells. “I’m going first. If I don’t send the all-clear in two seconds, they already have the exchange.” I can hold out against anybody for two seconds, she told herself. Even Curran.

She gathered herself up, heart, soul and all the nerve she possessed. She wished there was a prayer she could say. She wished there was someone who might hear it. There was nothing and nobody. There wasn’t even time.

She sent a ping-copy to receiver 501-BG-A12 at the Neptune Exchange. The signal came back in tact. That meant nothing. If the talent were there, they now knew she was coming.

Alone, Dobbs dove forward.