Requiem for the Conqueror

Chapter 35

Targa continued to turn under its sun, men scratching away at the surface, collecting its mineral wealth.

Makarta Mountain lay silent, black corridors haunted only by the rotting dead who stared sightlessly in the cool darkness. Yet they were not alone. Deep within the mountain, at the end of a partially collapsed tunnel, the Mag Comm continued to draw energy from the planet's core. Listening through hidden remote sensors, it watched the movements of men in Free Space, digesting, correlating, sending answers through the tenuous subspace link to the Others.

Bruen had lied. Despite its best efforts, the machine had never caught him at it — but the Seddi heresy had spread. The Others feared, sending constant demands for information.

What is God? Why do the Others fear it so?

Ignoring the queries from beyond the Forbidden Borders, the machine pondered the man whose curiosity had played at the edges of its headset. The Others would know soon enough. Through the Mag Comm's N-dimensional atomic circuits, they, too, would touch his mind.

He would be back, that man. And in the meantime, the Mag Comm continued to think and to observe.