Part 11 (1/2)
He made limited progress at best, intimidated by the vast energies involved.
Then Don Quixote Don Quixote had emerged into the midst of the enemy and distraction became impossible. had emerged into the midst of the enemy and distraction became impossible.
The nameless, faceless enemy was ruthless. Devastated worlds littered their trail. Sigmund had led them on a hasty surveillance of several planetary systems pa.s.sed by the enemy vanguard, and the images haunted Baedeker. Not in sleep, not even rolled tightly into a near catatonic ball of trembling flesh could he put from his thoughts the horrors they had seen. Ecosystems reduced to ashes. Atmospheres choked with dust, smoke, and volcanic fumes. Continents swept by floods, the trappings of civilization washed out to sea.
Wreckage made it plain that on the devastated worlds there had had been civilizations. Ruins suggested road networks, factories, dams, airfields, sometimes even the beginnings of s.p.a.ceflight. Most were shattered and abandoned. been civilizations. Ruins suggested road networks, factories, dams, airfields, sometimes even the beginnings of s.p.a.ceflight. Most were shattered and abandoned.
And just ahead of the enemy, more advanced than any culture they had preemptively destroyed: the Fleet of Worlds.
Here and there survivors struggled to put things back together. The natives of those violated worlds either hid or attacked on sight-in the latter case, futilely, to be sure-wherever Don Quixote Don Quixote had landed in pursuit of information. had landed in pursuit of information.
All that prevented Baedeker from retreating into catatonia was the threat much nearer. The Gw'oth had done exactly what they promised, and therein loomed a new horror. They did did glean more information from astronomical clues, from the outputs of glean more information from astronomical clues, from the outputs of Don Quixote Don Quixote's sensor suite, than the humans or even Baedeker himself. Day by day, Er'o and his cohorts wrung new insights from the s.h.i.+p's sensors, intuited infinitesimal drifts from calibration, invented novel means of data collection, and made intriguing new correlations.
And as though making sense of the enemy onslaught was insufficiently challenging, the Gw'oth also mapped nearby dark-matter concentrations and discovered for themselves the concept of black holes. If, miraculously, the Fleet survived the onrus.h.i.+ng threat, Citizens would confront another fearsome rival soon enough.
Unless the Concordance learned a lesson about ruthless preemption from the enemy.
Turning away from a hoof's ceaseless pawing, Baedeker found himself staring himself in the eyes. He forced his gazes apart. The action he contemplated was bitterly ironic, but he saw no humor in it.
He had once stopped a genocidal attack on newly independent New Terra, and then, disgusted at what his government had sanctioned, settled among the humans. Now New Terra might be the Concordance's best hope, for Citizens had no apt.i.tude for war. Meanwhile he he contemplated his own atrocity, and for no more reason than that the Gw'oth might be too smart. contemplated his own atrocity, and for no more reason than that the Gw'oth might be too smart.
Sigmund's voice over the intercom interrupted Baedeker's dark thoughts. ”We need to regroup, people. Meet in the relax room in ten minutes.”
THE CLOSER ER'O LOOKED, the more wondrous things grew.
Not the nameless enemy, of course, but everything-even danger-existed within a broader context. Such as the means of study ...
Don Quixote carried extraordinary instruments. Er'o eagerly drank in everything that the s.h.i.+p's sensors had to offer, but while he and his companions extracted meaning where their giant s.h.i.+pmates did not, those new eyes on the universe were only a part of the wonder. carried extraordinary instruments. Er'o eagerly drank in everything that the s.h.i.+p's sensors had to offer, but while he and his companions extracted meaning where their giant s.h.i.+pmates did not, those new eyes on the universe were only a part of the wonder.
The true marvel was Don Quixote Don Quixote itself, and the technology it embodied, and the secrets its crew hoped to keep. Such as the never-seen Jeeves. itself, and the technology it embodied, and the secrets its crew hoped to keep. Such as the never-seen Jeeves.
The network that interfaced the Gw'oth habitat with Don Quixote Don Quixote's sensors also gave access to s.h.i.+pboard archives. Er'o-and more so, Ol't'ro-was increasingly certain their s.h.i.+pmates must control artificial computing devices of some kind. Those might be electrical, optical, or even quantum mechanical, for direct access to the hypothesized devices was blocked. All questions about such technology were turned away.
But as Ol't'ro characterized the s.h.i.+pboard comm network, many things became clearer. The s.h.i.+p's sensors were under real-time control. Ol't'ro felt certain that that control operated too quickly to be biological and natural. Like the synthetic-aperture calculations preceding this mission, some of the data consolidations embodied algorithms requiring prodigious prodigious computations. Data retrievals from s.h.i.+pboard archives exhibited responses that correlated with the behavior of one-and only one-member of the crew. computations. Data retrievals from s.h.i.+pboard archives exhibited responses that correlated with the behavior of one-and only one-member of the crew.
And so, even as Er'o a.n.a.lyzed the latest sensor data, his speculations returned to the unseen s.h.i.+pmate. Er'o spoke into a comm terminal that interfaced wirelessly through the opaque habitat wall to a network node Eric had mounted to a wall of the cargo hold. ”Jeeves.”
”Yes, Er'o,” the familiar voice replied.
That Jeeves never never appeared in person was surely significant. Even the timorous one, Baedeker, visited the cargo hold. From time to time Er'o invented a reason to put on a pressure suit and walk around. He never encountered anyone that might be Jeeves, only a hatch marked Jeeves in the curiously blocky script of the humans. That hatch was always locked. appeared in person was surely significant. Even the timorous one, Baedeker, visited the cargo hold. From time to time Er'o invented a reason to put on a pressure suit and walk around. He never encountered anyone that might be Jeeves, only a hatch marked Jeeves in the curiously blocky script of the humans. That hatch was always locked.
But Er' o's wandering about the s.h.i.+p (except onto the bridge and into the engine room-his s.h.i.+pmates had countless reasons why he should not visit those compartments) revealed internal dimensions. Trivial geometry showed that the ”cabin” behind that hatch must be compact even by Gw'oth standards, no larger than nooks elsewhere labeled as wiring closets.
So what secret did the mysterious crewman embody? That was one of many topics Er'o chose never to raise explicitly. ”Jeeves, I am interested in readings of the electric constant.”
”That's not something measured by s.h.i.+p's sensors,” Jeeves answered.
Theory related the speed of light to the electric constant, a measure of electric-field penetration. Theory decreed that the speed of light in vacuum was everywhere the same. Here, on Don Quixote Don Quixote, Er'o could test those theories. He and his companions measured, with instruments that probed beyond habitat, cargo hold, and hull, many properties of the vacuum.
When Don Quixote Don Quixote traveled between stars, those readings were-odd. A clue to the nature of faster-than-light travel, Er'o surmised. traveled between stars, those readings were-odd. A clue to the nature of faster-than-light travel, Er'o surmised.
Inferences and clues were all he had. The humans and Baedeker steadfastly declined to discuss faster-than-light travel, even if or when the drive operated. ”Whether to transfer technologies is not for any of us to decide,” Sigmund had declared. ”Perhaps after this mission.”
Doubtless Don Quixote Don Quixote's digital archives contained relevant data, but cautious probing of the network had yet to find it. In an incautious moment, Kirsten had made mention of a firewall.
Fire was unnatural, chaotic, and transformative. Fire was fearsome. Early in the great breakout above the ice, fires had killed and hideously maimed many. As Er'o, he had never experienced a wildfire, but a mountaintop foundry consumed by flames was etched deep into Ol't'ro's memory. The Gw'otesht had lost two members to that terrible conflagration. Two dead! That accident had almost extinguished Ol't'ro themselves, long before Er' o's birth.
Firewall! Er'o wriggled in revulsion at an almost-remembered wall of flame: hypnotic, searing, alien. Surely Kirsten had used a metaphor-a distinctly human notion-but the evoked image horrified nonetheless.
It was better to imagine other things, even the cataclysms on the worlds Don Quixote Don Quixote surveyed. surveyed.
To make a planet-killer required no imagination. Anything moving fast enough would do. The enemy s.h.i.+ps certainly moved fast enough. And when, soon enough, enemy s.h.i.+ps came upon Jm'ho?
Then the ice would shatter and much of the ocean would flash to steam. Death would come in a race between boiling and exploding. Around the point of impact the crust itself would shatter. Waves of magma-walls of fire, indeed!-would spew forth.
Millions would die. Everything Ol't'ro had accomplished would be lost. Civilization itself might fall. And the Gw'oth were defenseless.
Er'o forced himself to focus. This s.h.i.+p held secrets that might give the Gw'oth a chance to survive. Secrets that Ol't'ro, better than anyone, could exploit in the defense of Gw'oth and Citizens and New Terrans alike. Secrets that he must must acquire. acquire.
The secret of faster-than-light travel would surely be a start.
Er'o said, ”Jeeves, perhaps the archives have surveys of electric-constant measurements from other interstellar journeys.”
”I'm afraid not,” Jeeves answered, sounding apologetic.
Did Jeeves dissemble? Almost certainly, but confirmation would need eight separate metrics, each a multispectral correlation in several frequency bands across a series of speech samples. The calculations were far beyond Er' o's capacity.
Even Ol't'ro had needed much of the flight to fully master alien voice inflections. Aural qualities and nonverbal cues correlated imprecisely, varying slightly from person to person. The correlations even drifted over time for an individual-except for Jeeves. Jeeves always inflected the same way. And his spoken mannerisms correlated exactly with the translator used at Er' o's first encounter with his s.h.i.+pmates. He no longer needed a translator, of course.
All around Er'o, throughout the habitat tank, his companions a.n.a.lyzed observations, tended to the recycling apparatus, and considered various open questions. Everything that they did was important, but it could all wait. Er'o gestured to the group: We must meld.
Human computing technology, its specifics well hidden (firewall!), seemed to be even more capable than first surmised. Any artificial computation was a mind-expanding notion, but what Er'o most recently inferred greatly surpa.s.sed computation. How could intelligent, aware behavior happen on machines? Perhaps Jeeves was something like Ol't'ro themselves, arising from grouped minds.
The Gw'otesht gathered. Tubacles quested. Memories merged. Egos meshed. Overmind began to emerge. What remained of Er'o began to offer his latest suspicions- ”We need to regroup, people,” Sigmund announced over the intercom. ”Meet in the relax room in ten minutes.”
Er'o projected his speculations into the group mind. Reluctantly, he disconnected. It must be another meld without him.
To the comm terminal Er'o said, ”That gives me time to suit up.” And the others enough time, barely, while he wriggled into his pressure suit, to evacuate the equipment from the water lock. The tiny out-of-water machine shop and laboratory remained a Gw'oth secret.
”That's why ten minutes,” Sigmund said.
21.