The Eternity Artifact

Prologue

Goodman

Tyang Ku Wong stepped onto the dais and crossed to the podium. Podiums haven’t been necessary in millennia, except for symbolic reasons, but symbols are critical to humanity, whatever the culture. From where I stood on the west side of the dais with the half squad of White Guards, Ku Wong would be less than ten meters away.

The Hall of Deliberation was hushed as the recently elected people’s advocates of the Middle Kingdom waited to hear him. I already knew the basis of his address and the policies he intended to follow as First Advocate. That was why I was there.

My hands felt like they were sweating under the pseudohand full-gloves that ran from fingernails to elbow. So did my face, under the real-flesh that wasn’t my own. The sweating was an illusion, not from nervousness, but from a systemic reaction to the nanothin layer between my flesh and the foreign DNA of the arm-gloves and head-flesh.

With the other White Guards, I remained perfectly motionless.

Ku Wong stepped behind the podium. The front was carved in the likeness of a spray of bamboo stalks behind the seal of the Middle Kingdom. He let the silence draw out before he spoke. The instantlinguistic made what he said intelligible, but that was only because I’d had practice. Years of it. Speaking was still easier than comprehending.

“… the people of the Middle Kingdom have made their wishes known, and you are here on Tiananmen to enact the laws and policies necessary. The election has made it clear that the Middle Kingdom must be run on principles of enlightened humanism and secularism, and not by the dead hands of ancient prophets and barbaric gods. In an age of enlightenment—and we of the Middle Kingdom are indeed blessed to live in such an age—there is no place for religious and cultural paternalism. There is no place for unbridled feministic anarchy. There is no place for unfettered capitalism, nor for dictatorial government command-and-control. Most important, there is no place for the worship of power for the sake of power. We will continue to oppose all the ancient evils, whether based on superstition and blind belief or upon unchecked power and greed. We will oppose such policies and beliefs both within our worlds—and without—and we will stand firm against those who would force such upon us, or who would endeavor to seduce us with poetic polemics of the past…”

A roar of applause filled the Hall.

I had no doubt that Ku Wong’s words sounded better in their original Mandarin, but the instalinguistics were accurate enough. I waited for the next round of applause.

“… in the course of human events, each people has the choice of whether the day ahead will be a bright tomorrow or a faded yesterday chained by memories of a despotic past. The worlds of the Middle Kingdom have chosen tomorrow, unlike those of Covenanters, who have proved that they will drag all around them, such as the ill-fated Libracracy, into a despotic religious tyranny, or those of the Alliance. Tomorrow will be ours…”

Just before the applause rose to the highest point, I twisted my hand slightly. The miniature nanodarts flashed unseen across the space that separated me from the First Advocate.

He paused, looking surprised. “… will be ours… for we have… prepared…”

A few in the front row—the new ministers—leaned forward. Ku Wong never stuttered.

Abruptly, a pillar of flame flared where he had stood. It was so hot the podium turned black even before the pyrotic darts finished their reactive consumption. The darts had been so small and so comparatively slow that the kinetic energy screens had not been triggered. The multiple microlaunchers in my uniform had disintegrated, and the residue would show nothing.

For less than a second, the Hall of Deliberation was still. Then, chaos erupted.

“Covenanters! Murder!”

With the other guards, I dashed forward. We formed a barrier around the ashes that had been the First Advocate of the Middle Kingdom. Nanette barriers dropped into place, separating the dais from the Hall proper.

“White Guards! Re-fcrm on the wings!” The commands came from nowhere, but the voice was that of General Tse-Sung, the Advocate of Security.

We re-formed. Energy fields flashed over and around us. I waited as hard-faced men and women in brilliant white appeared, with the shoulder braids of Security on their singlesuits.

One team appeared to my right.

“Lao Xun, forward!”

Xun stepped forward. The Security specialists aimed scanners and analyzers at him.

The head analyst nodded. “To the right. Wait there.”

“ChoWang, forward!”

I stepped forward. The analyzers took minute samples from the backs of my wrists and cheeks and neck. The only weak points for my visible body parts were my eyes themselves, but the politics of scanning eyes had limited DNA sampling there and retinal scans.

“Clear. Step to the right.”

I formed up next to Lao Xun. Neither of us spoke.

For the next two hours, the Security specialists scanned everything and everyone. The scans were not only for DNA, but for internal weapons. The scans showed that I was ChoWang and that I had no internal weapons or anomalies. That was as it should have been.

All I had to do was to remain calm and carry out the duties of the Guard I had removed and replaced. To do itherwise would have called attention to who I was, and would have been as fatal to me as my nanodarts had been to the First Advocate.

Another two standard hours—and two more screenings—passed before we were dismissed and confined to quarters. This mission had been completed satisfactorily. Getting back to New Zion would be tedious, but not a real problem.

While the universe might suspect that the Council of Twelve had decreed the First Advocate’s death, no proof of my actions or identity could be traced to the Council. Even if I were caught, the automatics would ensure no evidence would remain, and that was another reason why I planned most carefully. If that fail-safe had not existed, the results would have been catastrophically embarrassing to the Council.

In some senses, an operative’s easiest tasks were the missions. In working for the Council, the members and their personal crusaders were more dangerous to you than the operatives of other governments.

As I waited for the opportunity to leave the barracks, I couldn’t help but wonder what the next assignment would be.