Poseidon's Wake

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Travertine maintained its orbit around Orison. Next to it, tracing the same orbit and very nearly ready for independent flight, the lander remained the focus of intense human and machine activity.

In the forward sphere of the larger ship, the part spun to simulate gravity, a woman and a man sat opposite each other at table in the main public galley. The woman drank chai; the man cradled a mug of scented coffee. Around them, the spaces of the ship hummed with news and rumour.

‘Something went wrong,’ Goma said. ‘That’s what Gandhari says. Or nearly went wrong — as if the ship came very close to blowing up, and then the malfunction was damped down just in time.’

‘I’m no physicist,’ Peter Grave said, ‘but I would imagine there are a great many things that can go wrong with a Chibesa drive. The captain made contact with the other ship?’

‘Momentarily. There was a reply to Nasim’s automated transmission and then a direct response to Gandhari’s. She played it back for me — he claims to be another Akinya!’

‘This is either startling news, or almost inevitable.’ Grave looked up from his drink, smiled at her to disarm her natural defensiveness. ‘Another Akinya. Do you believe him?’

‘He says he’s Kanu. There is a Kanu in my lineage, so it’s possible, but it’s… complicated.’

‘Nothing about your family would be considered uncomplicated, Goma. Still — is this good or bad? Does his being an Akinya improve our situation or worsen it?’

‘You mean, can he be expected to do the right thing?’

Grave scratched at his almost hairless scalp. Goma could not help but notice the crescent-sized impressions where her fingernails had gouged his skin, still preserved despite decades of skipover.

‘I suppose,’ Grave said.

‘That presupposes there is a “right thing” to be done. Kanu didn’t threaten us; he didn’t tell us to back off or say he’d do terrible things to us if we didn’t comply. He just urged us not to get involved and advised us to be cautious.’

‘And yet he is still acting in a way Eunice deems hazardous — conspiring with Dakota in this expedition.’

‘If he knew what was at stake, he wouldn’t go along with it.’

‘Unless he felt he had no choice,’ Grave said. ‘Have you looked into his history?’

‘As much as I can find. Kanu was a significant figure in the United Aquatic Nations — a Panspermian, an advocate of the philosophy of the Green Efflorescence.’

‘I’ve studied that movement. They were regarded as cranks and cultists for a while, weren’t they?’ There was a playful, gently mocking tone in his voice. ‘True believers.’

‘I don’t think it’s quite the same thing as the Second Chancers,’ Goma answered, meeting his answer with a smile of her own. ‘They wanted to turn the galaxy green. You’d be content if we crawled back under a rock and forgot about the stars completely.’

‘A very slight mischaracterisation, if you don’t mind my saying so.’

‘All right, I’ll allow you that one.’ Goma could not help but smile back at Grave, seeing that no offence had been taken. ‘Anyway, that’s only part of Kanu’s story. Eventually he ended up being an ambassador to the robots on Mars — the Evolvarium.’

‘I’ve studied my early space age history. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Eunice have something to do with all that?’

‘Do you mean the real Eunice, as opposed to the one aboard with us now?’

Grave shrugged. ‘If we’re going to insist on a distinction.’

‘Wait a minute, Peter. If either of us was going to insist they’re not the same, I’d expect it to be you.’

‘Because of my belief system?’

‘Why else? One’s a human being who lived and died, the other’s a cybernetic simulation that began as a conceptual art project long after the real woman was dead and gone.’

‘And yet — she is flesh and blood. And she has the real woman’s memories.’

‘Gathered from public records.’

‘Not all of them — some of those memories are directly attributable to the neural traces she inherited from her own frozen corpse.’ A touch of mischief softened his features. ‘Or have you not been keeping up?’

‘She’s my fake robot ancestor, not yours!’

‘But she is human now, and mortal — probably — and she lives and breathes the world much as the original Eunice would were she here instead. At this point, do we have the right to make any distinction between them? Whatever Eunice’s essence was — her soul, if you will — surely it has been conserved, reconstituted, in this iteration?’

Goma shook her head. ‘No. We don’t speak of souls. Not now, not ever. Souls aren’t real.’

‘Patterns, then. Abstract structures of experience and reaction, making up a consistent, continuous human identity. She thinks of herself as Eunice Akinya. Have we the right to deny her that belief?’

‘We can deny her whatever we like.’

‘But if we deny her humanity,’ Grave said, ‘we may as well deny our own. She has as much claim on her self as the rest of us, Goma. And if I can see it — me, a Second Chancer — then surely it can’t be too great a leap for anyone else?’

Goma wished to argue. But the truth was, she had nothing to offer in return beyond a sullen: ‘We were talking about Kanu, I think.’

‘We were,’ he agreed. ‘But the digression was worthwhile.’

Eunice was allowed her liberty, within limits. She was assigned a bangle and told to explore the ship as she pleased, and to mingle without hesitation among the other members of the expedition. But Goma knew the bangle would only get Eunice so far — the security protocols had been redoubled — and that there would be certain members of the crew who wanted nothing to do with this quixotic and fiery enigma from the past, this thing shaped like a woman that had not even come close to earning their trust yet.

Goma understood the concerns, voiced or otherwise. So what if Eunice was biological, if she needed air to breathe and food to stuff in her mouth? That did not mean she was in any way harmless or indeed on their side. Ru had learned that lesson and felt the alien strength in Eunice’s bones and muscles.

Ru would not allow Eunice anywhere near their quarters, and Goma lacked the strength to argue with her. She had her point of view and it was justifiable. But if Ru disapproved of Goma speaking to Eunice at all, then that was just too bad.

They gave Eunice a cabin, and Eunice and Goma were free to meet there whenever they chose. For her part Ru was sensible enough not to ask too much regarding Goma’s whereabouts when they were not together.

‘Gandhari says it won’t be long now.’

‘This captain of yours — do you have confidence in her?’

‘Of course I do — why wouldn’t I? Oh, wait — because she had the misfortune not to carve out her exploits in the daring days of the early space age, and therefore can’t be relied upon to manage a starship?’

‘You need not take that tone with me, Goma Akinya.’

‘Then don’t presume to doubt Vasin’s capabilities. She agreed to let you use the communications array, didn’t she?’

‘But only with one of you breathing down my neck, questioning my every move — and thereby making everything take twenty times as long as it needs to.’

‘Don’t blame her for showing due caution. Her style may not be your style, but she’s more than up to the job.’

‘We’ll see about that when we discover what the job really entails.’

‘You’re just jealous. You’re a passenger and you don’t like it. Well, get used to enjoying your lowly new status.’

‘I can see we’ll get along famously. Did you bring the books?’

‘Yes.’

‘I would like to see them. You say Ndege entrusted these to you? That was extraordinarily insightful of her. She had no guarantee they would eventually find me.’

‘She intended me to have them, not you. You’re only getting a look at them, not a permanent loan.’

‘Then I take it you’ve made sterling progress in understanding your mother’s work?’

Goma passed Eunice the first of the three notebooks. It was chronologically the earliest, going by the date at the start. By the same token, though, it was quite clear that Ndege had continued working on all the notebooks throughout her life, revisiting her earlier ideas and filling in those areas that had not at first yielded to her research. A complete picture of Ndege’s work required all of the notebooks.

Goma knew this.

‘Let’s see what you make of it.’

Eunice started at the beginning, gently creaking open its black spine and turning the pages with great care. She stared at the first two pages of notes, the columns of symbols with their meticulous and bewildering connections.

She stared and stared. A minute passed, maybe longer. If she blinked, Goma did not see it.

Eunice turned to the next pair of pages. She stared at them with the same intensity, but for not quite so long this time. The next pair she swept with her gaze, Goma watching her pupils track up and down the columns. She looked at the next couple of pages for a few seconds, then turned again. Faster now, the turning of the pages becoming a slowly accelerating whisk, like the chopping of helicopter blades.

‘Are you—’

‘Silence.’

The pages sped by, her fingers moving with card-sharp speed, her eyes never blinking. The whisking settled into a machine-like rhythm, the action of her hands and eyes methodical enough that Goma was fairly sure this was a kind of photographic capture. She finished the notebook, closed it and sat motionless for a second or two, as if the information absorbed still needed to be processed into a deeper level of comprehension.

‘The second notebook.’

‘Not yet. Not everything in one go.’

‘I’ve waited long enough, Goma. There’s nothing to be gained from withholding the rest.’

‘Not for you, maybe. But the only power I have over you lies in these notebooks.’

‘Why do you feel the need to have power over me?’

‘Because I don’t know what you are, or what you’re really capable of. Because I don’t know what you think or feel about me.’

‘I think you can be useful.’

‘Tools are useful. Materials and rations are useful. I think I deserve more than that.’

‘And after everything that happened on Orison, the deaths of my friends, withholding this information is how you hope to elevate your status in my eyes?’

‘If necessary, yes. Do you want the second notebook or not?’

‘After this glimpse? Yes. And the third.’

‘How badly?’

‘More than anything. I’ve seen something marvellous, Goma — felt the curtain of ignorance being tugged aside. All the years I spent on Orison, trying to reconstruct a few fragments of insight — they’ve been eclipsed in a couple of minutes. Eclipsed and outshone. Ndege saw with clarity something I had barely begun to think might be true. And beyond.’ She tapped the shut notebook. ‘There is more than just symbolic connection here, Goma — more than just the patterns between two forms of an alien language laid down millions of years apart. This is the key to understanding — the start of comprehension. I saw things during the Terror, but until this moment I did not have the apparatus to make sense of them. Now I do. At least, now I have the start… I beg of you — the other notebooks.’

‘In good time.’

‘This is intolerable.’

‘This is how it feels to be human. Not always getting the universe on a plate. Having to be beholden to others.’

‘You are being cruel.’

‘No, I’m being kind. I don’t think you’re a monster, Eunice, and I’m sorry about Orison — truly sorry. But you’re going to have to work to become one of us. This is where it starts.’

A hash of numbers and symbols sped past Goma’s eyes much too fast to read, even if there were some sense to be drawn from them. They were in Vasin’s quarters again. Eunice was stationed at a small fold-out console while Loring and Caspari watched with expressions of studied concern, still not quite satisfied that their guest was to be trusted.

Eunice tapped at the keys, her fingers moving with an unnatural fluency. The numbers and symbols kept scrolling.

‘So,’ Vasin said, ‘tell us the state of things, as succinctly as you can manage.’

Eunice glanced back at her audience. ‘The command channel to the mirrors is still open and they respond as I’d expect. I don’t think Dakota has done anything to alter their basic functionality. Why would she, so long as they continue working?’

‘What have you done so far?’

‘Nothing she’d notice, just asked the mirrors to confirm their status and their readiness to accept further commands. We’re using a tight beam, so it’s unlikely Dakota will have intercepted our signal. Similarly, the mirrors are only sending their responses in our direction — there’s little chance that Zanzibar has detected any of this traffic.’

‘That sounds promising,’ Goma said. ‘Do you think they’ll do what you tell them to?’

‘It depends on the complexity of the command. Turning them on and off shouldn’t be hard — it’s a simple matter of breaking the concentric symmetry of the individual mirror elements so that the beam is no longer focused. But that may not have been attempted since the mirrors were put in place. As for altering the beam angle, the mirrors need to do it all the time, so that shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘So you can switch the beams off or aim them somewhere else,’ Caspari said.

‘We won’t know for sure until I send the command.’

‘We don’t want to hurt them,’ Goma said, ‘but we’ve every indication that Kanu’s being coerced. Right now, the mirrors are our only long-range negotiating tool. I don’t intend to use them as a weapon, but if we can squeeze them short of power, we may buy some time for negotiation.’

Eunice nodded, but there was a note of caution in her voice. ‘The instant the mirrors deactivate, Dakota will know that we have control. We’ll have played our only card at that point, and Dakota’s bound to start trying to regain control from her side. I’m doing everything I can to lock out direct commands from Zanzibar, but I can’t promise I’ll succeed.’

‘You designed this system?’ Loring asked.

‘Not exactly,’ she answered carefully. ‘The old version of me designed it, a version I barely remember being. Lot of water under the bridge since then.’

‘Do your best,’ Vasin said. ‘We can’t expect the impossible. Equally, we’d be fools not to try to use the mirrors. Could we…’ But she abandoned the thought with a sudden distasteful expression, as if she had bitten into something sour.

‘What?’ Eunice asked.

‘I was wondering if we might use them as a weapon, if it came to that?’

‘No!’ Peter Grave said, Goma shaping the word in the same moment, sharing his exact repugnance.

‘I’m not talking about inflicting deliberate loss of life, just making a statement. If that ship powers up again, could we focus the mirrors onto it, cause enough damage to prevent its departure?’

‘Not with several minutes of time lag thrown into the pot,’ Eunice responded. ‘We can steer the mirrors, but not in real-time. Provided the ship doesn’t follow a predictable path, it can always stay out of harm’s way.’

‘Maybe not the ship, then. But Zanzibar won’t be going anywhere in a hurry, will it? If we steer the beams off their power grids, we could inflict structural damage on the other parts.’

Goma had believed there was steel in Gandhari Vasin before; now she had proof of it.

‘This isn’t war,’ Goma said.

‘Not yet,’ Vasin said. ‘But we’d be idiotic not to think ahead, wouldn’t we?’ Then she clapped her hands once, making a jangle of jewellery. ‘Continue your work, Eunice — do everything you can to lock Dakota out of the mirrors, but take no action she might notice. In the meantime, we will continue preparing the lander. It will make no difference to your work — if you can control the mirrors from Travertine, you will also be able to do so from the smaller ship, and the time lag will be reduced as we close in.’

‘When we do we leave?’ Goma asked.

‘Three days, maybe two if things progress well.’

‘It won’t be war, Gandhari. We need to understand that. Tell her, Eunice.’

‘What would you like me to tell her?’

‘That it can’t come down to violence. That nothing’s so serious that it has to end that way.’

‘I’d love to,’ Eunice said.

Then she returned to her work, as if the matter was settled.