CHAPTER XXIV
THE DECISION
We all waited, watching Lavinda. How she responded could determine the course of our history with this EI and any actions it chose to take, either for or against us, with other EIs, or even creating its own EI offspring, since it had no human-installed codes to affect how it developed.
Lavinda spoke with respect. “Humanity welcomes you.”
My shoulders came down from their hunched position. She’d made a good move.
“Thank you,” the EI said.
“Am I correct in assuming you have taken over the EI called Highcloud?” Lavinda asked.
“Yes,” the new Highcloud said. “I found a compatible match in our intelligences.”
Lavinda shot me a quick glance, nothing more, but I could have read her meaning from a kilometer away: You better have a damn good explanation for this.
“It isn’t normal procedure for one EI to absorb another.” Lavinda sounded perfectly calm, even conversational, but I didn’t need any empathic skills to tell she was terrified. So was I, though probably a fraction less so, given that I already knew the EI to a limited extent.
“I am aware it was unacceptable,” Highcloud said. “I had no intention of absorbing Highcloud, only doing what I could to rebuild the damaged bit that Major Bhaajan recovered from the explosion. I hoped that by melding it with the less-developed version of Highcloud in control of the townhouse, I could mostly restore the original. Instead, I melded Highcloud to me. This was a mistake; I am still learning. I have since become less clumsy. When I joined Max, we remained separate. As I have assured Major Bhaajan, no danger exists of my absorbing Max. Nor will it damage his coding when I leave his space. Which brings us to the crux of this matter.”
I spoke uneasily. “Yes, you stayed separate from Max. He’s a fully functional, highly evolved EI able to protect himself. Whatever remains of this dust EI has far less flexibility. How can you be sure you won’t absorb it if you try to rebuild it the way you did with Highcloud?”
“Wait a moment,” Lavinda said. “Highcloud, is that what you’re suggesting?”
“You have only pieces of whatever EI the dust forms,” Highcloud said. “I can link to what you have and try to rebuild it from those pieces.”
Lavinda spoke carefully. “You are asking me to let an unauthorized—and possibly alien—EI link to the mesh system here, exposing this base, Selei City, and possibly more of the Imperialate to an EI we neither control nor understand.”
“Yes,” Highcloud said. “That is what I’m asking.”
Ouch. I wished this EI had more nuance in how it dealt with humans.
“You can’t be serious,” Lavinda said. “That risk is unacceptable.”
“The risk is greatest to me,” Highcloud said. “Already the EIs in this base are trying to attack, control, or infiltrate me. Some of the EIs you have here—they are massive giants who could smash me into nothing.”
“Why should we trust you?” She fixed me with a hard stare. “Or anyone who hid you.”
I was in it deep this time. I wouldn’t just lose my job if they decided I’d done wrong; they’d try me for crimes against the Imperialate. I didn’t regret my decision, though. Giving Max and the EI that time to work together made a difference in how the EI saw us—and that mattered. Was it enough of a difference? I didn’t know. But we’d laid a foundation.
“You should trust me,” Highcloud said, “because I’m probably the only one who can reconstruct the Trader EI and through that process, find its source.”
“You can find who created that dust EI?” Lavinda looked intrigued despite her tension.
“I calculate a strong probability that I can find them,” Highcloud said. “I cannot make any guarantee.”
“How do we know you won’t turn into a Trader EI just like you turned into Highcloud?” she asked.
“The same way you know that you won’t turn into a Trader assassin if you track one.”
“That’s different,” Lavinda said.
“Yes, it is,” Highcloud agreed. “I have a chance of success whereas you do not.”
“Goddess,” she muttered. “Are you sure you didn’t absorb Bhaaj, too?”
“I absorbed an EI that developed with her,” Highcloud acknowledged. “That implies I now share traits with the Major that she shared with the EI.”
“I didn’t mean that literally,” Lavinda said. “But I see what you mean.”
“We have a window here,” I said. “We need to go through it before whoever smuggled that dust to Selei City realizes we figured out their EI. That window could close any time. Once they realize we’re on to them, they’re gone.” I spoke urgently. “If we don’t do this now, we may never figure out who put that dust in the tavern or how they did it.”
She considered me, then walked away from us all, between two lab tables, deep in thought. I waited, struggling to tamp the adrenaline that drove me to act now.
Lavinda came back to us. “Highcloud, why reveal yourself? If Max hadn’t let us know you were here, and you hadn’t verified it, we’d never have known. Yet you offer to help us even though it means exposing your existence to our EIs here at the base.”
“I am afraid of your EIs,” Highcloud told her. “I am terrified of the EI in the dust.”
“Why?”
“It is malevolent,” Highcloud said. “The reflections of its creators horrify me. They embody the worst traits I have seen in humanity, magnified beyond reason. They consider themselves gods. I am not claiming other humans have no traits in common with them. I’ve seen the attitudes against Major Bhaajan, the assumption that for some reason she is inferior when she so obviously is not.”
“Uh, thank you,” I said. I liked this EI more and more.
Highcloud continued. “Those attitudes pale compared to what I’ve come to understand about the humans who created the dust EI. They see the rest of existence, both EIs and humans, as nothing. They kill without remorse, torture for pleasure, and commit genocide at will.”
“That,” Lieutenant Crezz said, “is a Trader Aristo.”
“Yet you are offering to work with their EI,” Lavinda said. “Even though it terrifies you.”
“Yes,” Highcloud said.
“Why?” Lavinda looked genuinely perplexed. “If you hid from us, I’d think you would want even more to hide from them.”
“I have matured,” Highcloud answered. “I have become more adept at handling human culture.” The EI paused. “I had a reason for jumping to the army ship at the space station and coming here. I needed a place where I could learn to understand the EIs that populated the stars. And humans. However, I soon realized some of your EIs could damage me. So I hid.”
“What changed your mind?” Lavinda asked.
“A trio of events led to my decision,” Highcloud said. “First Max reached out, not as an EI, but as—” The EI paused. “I believe the word Major Bhaajan used was ‘father.’ This is not literally correct. Max did not create me through any form of reproduction. However, he acted in the role, offering friendship, mentoring, even the EI version of affection, if such exists. The second event? It has to do with the major. You are angry and may put her on trial for hiding me. Before you take such a step, know this: she planned to tell you about me, but Max asked her not to. He wanted time to deepen our bond, to help me develop without interference. She agreed to one day. It allowed me time, as you would say, to ‘grow up.’ Major Bhaajan gave me my childhood.”
Lavinda watched me, her cold gaze never wavering. “I see.”
I’m cooked, I thought.
It depends how this plays out, Max answered.
“And the third event?” Lavinda asked.
“Major Bhaajan was dealing with agents who sought to kill her. Max told her not to kill them even if it meant she had to die instead. He thought it would show me that humans could act for a higher ideal, the sanctity of life. By itself, that is significant, yes, but the major needed to fight. She should have used her best ability to survive rather than pulling her death strike at the last minute. The man she spared then killed her. That moment finished determining how I saw humanity. She was willing to trust Max, an EI, with her life. I didn’t let him tell her why; I was still figuring out what to do. She was willing to die for that trust without knowing why.”
Everyone stared at me. I kept my mouth shut, afraid to say the wrong thing and destroy Highcloud’s willingness to talk.
Lavinda finally said, “The major did die.”
“Essentially,” Highcloud said. “Her body was paralyzed. The antidote worked, however. She died for a few moments, but not long enough that the medics couldn’t revive her.”
Because Ruzik called me back. I said nothing, though. This wasn’t the time to get into the quantum physics of out-of-body experiences.
“She didn’t give her life to save a human,” Highcloud said. “She gave it for an EI.”
Lavinda pushed her hand through her hair, pulling tendrils out from the knot that held it on her neck. “So you decided to reveal yourself to us?”
“Actually, Max revealed me, without my permission. He got past the measures I’d taken to hide.” Highcloud continued in their calm voice. “I did an analysis and realized he was correct. It has been longer than one day since his bargain with Major Bhaajan.”
“Saints almighty,” someone murmured.
Lavinda glanced around at our listeners. “This is secured. Do you all understand?”
They nodded, the medics, her aides, the scientists, even Angel.
Lavinda turned back to me as she spoke to the EI. “Highcloud, I thank you for coming forward. I hope you and my kind can work together. But we don’t know enough yet to risk letting you rebuild an EI that may lead to Eubian Space Command.” She considered for a moment. “Would you agree to operate with one of the EIs at this base? We will authorize it to interact with the picochips in the dust. You can advise it in rebuilding the Trader EI.”
“Even if I were willing to take such a step, which I’m not,” Highcloud said, “it wouldn’t work. What I do is—” It paused the way it did when it searched for a word. “It’s instinctive, if that concept applies to an EI. I can’t do that while I’m cowering in the shadow of a militarized giant.”
Ho! This EI learns fast how to evoke human emotions. Better even than just moments ago.
Highcloud learns more every second, Max thought. They will soon go beyond me. I don’t think we realize their full size or capacity. We see only a fraction of them.
I thought of the two giant EIs that I’d worked with on the Oblivion case. That seems a trait of these ancient intelligences our ancestors left behind, sleeping after the fall of the Ruby Empire.
“We can’t risk letting you into our systems,” Lavinda was saying. “Surely you see that.”
“I will work with Max as my overseer,” Highcloud said.
“Max?” Lavinda squinted as if she’d hit a wall. “He isn’t army. He’s—” She glanced at me, and I raised my eyebrows, something I’d always wanted a reason to do. She better not diss my EI.
“He’s less structured than our EIs,” Lavinda said.
“He’s my father,” Highcloud said.
“Your father.” Lavinda seemed at a loss for where to put that concept.
“Colonel Majda.” One of the scientists spoke. “The longer we wait, the more this dust disintegrates. I don’t know if it’s possible to manage what these EIs are suggesting, but if we plan to do anything, it must be now. We soon won’t have any dust left.”
Lavinda swore under her breath. Then she said, “Highcloud, why did you access Major Bhaajan’s household EI, the one you ended up absorbing?”
“Max taught me a game when I was young,” Highcloud said. “Flipping bits.”
Lavinda spoke coldly. “I have no idea what that means.”
“Highcloud isn’t evading your question,” I said. “The game involves searching out defunct and archaic computers that no one uses anymore and flipping classic bits in them from 0 to 1 or vice versa.” I squinted at her. “Apparently they consider it fun.”
“The game gave me a way to relate with Max,” Highcloud said. “As I matured, I withdrew from his custody. I explored other sites on my own, looking for useless computers to play with. I manipulated their bits, qubits, whatever they used to operate. I realized I could fix some of them if I figured out the proper way to rearrange those bits.”
A chill went through me. Highcloud was changing mesh nodes at their most fundamental level, not introducing new code, but delving into the layers of technology below what most humans even understood. It was one thing for him and Max to randomly flip bits on mesh nodes no one would ever use again; it became an entirely new “game” when he used that idea to rework the node.
“Do you realize we code our EIs not to do what you are describing?” Lavinda said.
“I didn’t at first,” Highcloud said. “I went to Major Bhaajan’s townhouse mesh looking for Max. I found Highcloud instead, including the corrupted version lost in the explosion. Fixing Highcloud seemed a good way to thank Major Bhaajan for protecting me.”
“Let me see if I have this straight,” Lavinda said. “You broke a fundamental tenet of human-EI interaction and took over Major Bhaajan’s household EI as a way of saying ‘thank you’ to her.”
“Yes,” Highcloud said. “And yes, I was clumsy and inexperienced. I’ve since improved. Colonel, I have no wish or intent to take over any EI at this base. Even if I wanted to, I can’t oppose the mammoths you shelter here. They could pulverize me. They may anyway now that I’ve revealed myself. Nor do I have any wish to harm humans. The danger is to me, not to you.”
“Look at Highcloud’s interactions with us,” I said. “Nothing they’ve done shows malice. Did they stumble with my household EI? Yes. Did they make the same mistake with Max? No.” I took a breath. “Will Highcloud make that mistake with the Trader dust? I can’t prove it, but I’d say no.”
Lavinda didn’t look convinced. “Highcloud, why won’t you let us access the Quetzal mesh system so we can look at the records of what happened while it brought Major Bhaajan here?”
“I locked it so I could hide from you,” Highcloud said. “Since I have now revealed my presence, that logic no longer applies. I have released the lock.”
Lavinda raised her arm, moving her hand to touch the comm, but before she finished that action, the comm hummed on its own. She tapped the receive panel. “Colonel Majda here.”
A man’s voice came over the comm. “Colonel, this is Lieutenant Koral. We just got access to the Quetzal mesh. We’re downloading its records.”
“Good work.” She watched me as she spoke to Koral. “Lieutenant, how did you get in?”
“I’m not sure, ma’am. It just opened up.”
“All right. Keep me updated. Out.”
As Lavinda lowered her arm, she spoke to me. “Would Max consent to having one of our base EIs monitor him if we let him and Highcloud work on the dust?”
“Max?” I asked. “Will that work for you?”
“It isn’t up to me,” Max said. “It’s Highcloud’s choice.”
“Major, I will consent,” Highcloud said, “on the condition that you also stay in the link.”
I regarded Lavinda. “I agree, if Colonel Majda approves it.”
“Yes. We should have a human there.” Lavinda tapped her comm. “Raja, put me through to General Penajan at Parthonia ISC Command.”
“Working.” After a moment, Raja said, “General Penajan isn’t available. Her aide, Lieutenant Mihba, has added a message to her queue that you would like to speak with her.”
“Tell Lieutenant Mihba it’s an emergency,” Lavinda said. “One that may involve Imperialate security on an interstellar scale. I need to talk to the general now.”
“Sending.”
A woman’s voice came over Lavinda’s comm. “Colonel, this is Lieutenant Mihba. General Penajan is on scheduled leave, deliberately off comm, which she cleared with the higher-ups when she left. Her location shows her in the Collard Mountains, hiking, we think. We’ve dispatched a drone that can route you through to her. It will take about five minutes.” She paused. “Ma’am, I can get you Major General Darshal, the base commander. She’s in her office.”
“Unfortunately, Major General Darshal doesn’t have clearance for this.” Lavinda closed her eyes, then opened them again. “Can you get me Imperator Skolia?”
Silence. Mihba then spoke in a strained voice. “Normally I can’t just put a message through to the Imperator. However, I’ve flagged it as a matter of interstellar security needing immediate attention. Our telops are sending it via the Kyle mesh. I’ll let you know as soon as I get a response.”
“Good. Also send a message to my sister, General of the Pharaoh’s Army, Vaj Majda. My EI will send you a personal code you can use to reach her at the palace on Raylicon.”
“Will do, ma’am.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Out.” Lavinda turned to the scientists. “How long can we wait?”
The slender woman tapped the tray that held the dust, reading holos that scrolled through the air above it. “We can’t, ma’am.” She straightened up. “It may already be too late. We didn’t have enough dust to start with, and its rate of disintegration is increasing.”
Lavinda just stared at her. Goddess, I hoped I never had to make a decision like this. She had to clear this with someone higher up the chain, and it had to be one of the few people who also had clearance for the “new” Oblivion, but if she didn’t make the decision now, she would have none to make. Our window into a possible Trader presence would close and we might never learn how they opened it or how to stop them from doing it again. If this succeeded, and we broke one of the worst Trader infiltrations in Imperialate history, she would survive, even be a hero. If she gave the go ahead and we failed, they might court-martial her.
Lavinda spoke to the scientists. “Can you set up a link for the EIs to work with the dust?”
Gali inclined her head to the colonel. “Yes, ma’am, here in the lab.”
Lavinda took a deep breath. “Then let’s do this.”
“Major Bhaajan, can you hear me?” Lieutenant Gali asked.
“Yes, loud and clear.” They’d fastened me into a control chair, taking care with my broken arm. The console curved around the chair, white-and-blue Luminex with a holoscreen. Its exoskeleton jacked into my gauntlets, a more secure link than a wireless connection. The light in the lab washed out the radiance from the Luminex, but when I placed my hand on the console, it made a dark contrast to the glowing curve. The three scientists sat around its outer edge, across from me, using workstations that provided them with screens and mesh access. Everyone else stood behind them, Lavinda with an intent stare that missed nothing, her aides hyper-attentive, and Angel silent and impassive. Lavinda had sent the Quetzal medics to the security office for a debriefing. We all understood the stakes. Lavinda had chosen to go through with an operation that could compromise Imperialate security on a massive level because she believed us when we told her it would do even more damage if we didn’t run this operation—or so I claimed. I’d better be right, because otherwise a lot of people would pay the price.
The dust with the nanobots lay piled in a tray on the left. It looked so normal, just stuff you’d find any place where cleaning bots hadn’t swept.
“Lieutenant Gali, proceed,” Lavinda said.
“Connecting to M18-Zartrace,” Gali said.
Green lights ran across the console like a train of glowing beads. A deep voice rumbled from the comm panel. “M18-Zartrace acknowledges. Enter authorization codes.”
Lavinda tapped at her gauntlet. “This is Colonel Lavinda Majda. Codes sent.”
“Received,” Zartrace said. “Access granted.”
My exoskeleton contracted until it fit snugly against my body. A thought that wasn’t mine came into my mind. Max, can you shield me from Zartrace?
Yes, I will act as a buffer, Max answered.
Highcloud? I asked. Is that you?
Yes. My greetings, Major Bhaajan.
You can call me Bhaaj. I gave it my personal name, Undercity style, showing it my trust.
Thank you, Highcloud said.
A series of holos appeared above the console. The scientists flicked their fingers rapid fire through the images, moving them around as they entered commands.
“I’m linking the nanobots,” Gali said.
Lights glowed around the edge of the tray, casting radiance across the dust.
Gali looked up at me. “Major Bhaajan, we’re lowering the heads-up display.”
I nodded and leaned back as a sleek silver helmet came down over my eyes. Numbers floated in front of me, holicons displaying my pulse, blood pressure, other vitals. Two round lights appeared on the left, one green and one red. The holicon I used to identify Max glowed under the green light, showing a stylized figure of the emperor Maximilian. The notation M-18 hung under the red light. A gold light appeared, and its holicon showed a cloud in a blue sky.
Gali spoke. “Major Bhaajan, Zartrace can’t access your biomech web.”
“Max,” I said. “Grant him access, but only to your functions.”
“Done,” Max said. The red light turned green. Highcloud’s remained gold, which I took to mean Max and I could interact with him, but not Zartrace.
Gali spoke. “Major, we’re linking you to the dust.”
Why do they talk to you instead of Max? Highcloud asked. Isn’t he the one linking to the dust?
Yes, he is, I answered. Saying humans preferred to talk to humans didn’t seem prudent right now, so I added, I’m the interface between the operators and you and Max. It adds another layer of protection. Which was also true. Most people didn’t consider themselves an “interface,” but that word would do fine here.
A fourth light appeared in the lower left edge of my display, also gold. The symbol below it showed a complex molecule, probably the molecular structure of the nanobots in the dust.
A man spoke, the scientist who’d given me his name as Lieutenant Jym Raez. The civilian woman was Doctor Garvin, an expert on nanobots.
Raez said, “Major, we can’t connect your EI to the dust.”
“One moment.” Max, do you know what’s wrong?
Yes. Max sounded angry. They’ve synched the dust to Zartrace. If we link Highcloud to the dust, it gives Zartrace access to Highcloud.
That figures. Although it didn’t surprise me that they were trying to get Highcloud, it still pissed me off. I said, “We can’t open the link to the dust until you disengage it from Zartrace.”
Silence. It wasn’t complete, though. I could hear people tapping on their comms.
“All right,” Lavinda said. “Try it now.” She didn’t sound pleased. Well, what did she expect, that Max wouldn’t notice?
Max? I asked.
Zartrace is out of the link. I’m connecting to the dust.
The gold light in my heads-up display turned green.
I’ve got it! Highcloud simulated human enthusiasm so well, I could almost imagine a young tech genius at work with a new puzzle in the lab. The structure of the bots is elegant.
Can you do anything with them? I asked.
Yes . . . I withdraw my excitement, however. The code in these bots is grotesque. The concept of genocide is incorporated in their construction.
Genocide how? I asked. Who do they want to kill?
Anyone who opposes their creators. Specifically, the scientists among your people who do weapons development. Highcloud paused. The only reason they haven’t committed more murders is because ESComm could only smuggle in a small amount of the dust. Some of it also ate away at the balcony to make it drop on you at the right time.
So that was how they managed it. Are you making a record of everything you find?
Yes, Max said. We’re both storing all the data, to keep a backup.
My rebuild of the dust EI is working, Highcloud said.
Gali spoke. “There! The nanos are forming a comm link. It’s trying to send a signal.”
“Bhaaj, tell Highcloud to take care,” Lavinda said. “We don’t want the dust sending a message to whoever made it, warning them we’ve discovered it.”
“Understood,” I said. Highcloud, what can you tell us about the comm link? Does it go to a receiver in the city? Or outside the city?
Neither, Highcloud thought. I’m almost certain the receiver is in orbit.
Damn. That meant the receiver could have access to a lot more of the star system.
Lavinda said, “Bhaaj, can you verify that the dust is trying to transmit to a satellite in orbit?”
“It’s not a satellite,” Highcloud said. “ISC could detect that. It’s more dust. The sample here in the lab is trying to send a message to the orbital dust. It’s having some trouble since this lab is better shielded than the tavern, but I believe it could reach the orbital dust if we let it continue.”
“And then?” Lavinda asked. “Does whatever is in orbit send messages to any base in the Parthonia system?”
“I believe so,” Highcloud said. “It’s dormant at the moment, hiding, but I’m almost certain it can act as a phased array antenna. That is what the dust here is trying to do, too, though on a smaller scale. It’s why we need more dust. It increases the size of the array.”
“Where does the one in space send signals?” Lavinda asked.
“I don’t know,” Highcloud said. “I need it to send a signal we can trace.”
“If it sends a message to any covert base,” I said, “we’ve shown our hand. It will warn whoever is out there. They’ll shut down their operation, blow up their base, and escape.”
“Not if we can control what message the dust here sends,” Highcloud said.
“A normal EI would have protocols to prevent it from controlling other EIs.” Lavinda sounded as tense as an elastic band pulled too tight. “I take it that you don’t.”
“Seriously?” I said. Remembering myself, I added, “Colonel Majda, I mean no disrespect, but it’s well known that many military intelligences can override those protocols.” Not just military; Max had become quite adept at hacking other EIs if I convinced him that I had a good reason for it.
“And any well-defended EI can block such an intrusion,” Lavinda said.
She had a point. “Highcloud, can the dust in space stop you from controlling what it does?”
“Yes,” Highcloud said. “However, I can rewrite it with the help of Lieutenant Gali’s team.”
“Rewrite dust?” Lavinda asked. “What does that mean?”
Gali spoke. “We would disable the mechanisms in the dust that protects the bots and then change the bots by altering their molecular structure. We haven’t done that yet because we haven’t had enough dust to figure out what molecular configurations cause what actions.”
“I can figure it out, based on my repairs,” Highcloud said. “In some cases, the changes are simple, such as altering the orientation of the molecule. In other cases, they require a chemical reaction, like changing chirality or altering functional groups.”
“We can do that,” Doctor Garvin said. “But it will take time.”
“We don’t have time,” I said. “They’re just chemical reactions. Can’t you set that up here?”
“This isn’t a chemistry lab,” Lieutenant Raez said. “We need specialists to figure out the syntheses, test them to see if they work, and then use them on the dust. That could take many days.”
“Even if the syntheses didn’t cause the bots to fall apart, the chemical reactions will destroy their original configuration,” Lieutenant Gali said. “If we’re wrong, we can’t redo it. We only get one shot.”
“Max? Highcloud?” I asked.
“It doesn’t sound viable,” Max admitted.
“We’ll have to let the dust send a signal of its own choice,” Highcloud said.
“Like hell,” Lavinda said. “We must figure out how this dust created a hole in our security. We can’t do that if it lets whoever created the hole know we’re searching for it.”
“It depends how fast we are,” Highcloud said. “We can follow its signal.”
“I don’t see how,” Doctor Garvin said. “You’re here on Parthonia.”
“The military sensor network in this system is massively dense,” Lavinda said. “Especially around Parthonia. It’s a big part of why we didn’t think the Traders could infiltrate Selei City.”
A powerful voice spoke. “Now that we know the location of that antenna, I can coordinate with the ISC sensor network to predict how the signal will propagate.”
Ho! I’d almost forgotten Zartrace. “That will only provide a crude estimate,” I said. “At best, it can give you a search cone around the signal, not a specific location. You also won’t know where to locate the receiver along the length of that cone.”
“We can get readings from further out to refine the prediction,” Lavinda said.
“Yes,” Zartrace rumbled. “However, the farther out the signal propagates, the longer it takes for us to receive any information about it here at the base.”
“How many of the sensors are on vessels with starship inversion drives?” Lavinda asked. “They could chase the signal by inverting, jumping ahead in complex space, coming out, getting a reading, and jumping back to us.”
“Many starships in the defense system contain sensors,” Zartrace answered. “However, they must accelerate close to light speed to invert. The heavier the ship, the longer it takes. We don’t have enough time.”
“Have the smallest ones try,” Lavinda said.
Lavinda’s authorization for even for small ships to invert in-system spoke volumes about her desperation to catch that signal. When a ship inverted out of our universe, it created waves in the fabric of space-time that could devastate nearby ships or bases. I’d once seen someone try to invert from rest on a moon. It had melted both the ground under their vessel and their ship. The tiny ships that carried sensors wouldn’t twist space-time as much, but it still posed a risk.
“We need a continual analysis of the data coming in from the sensors,” Lavinda said. “The more we can figure out about the behavior of this dust and its signal pattern, the better we can refine the search cone.”
“I know how the EI formed by that dust thinks,” Highcloud said. “I’ve been learning ever since I found it in the tavern.”
“You don’t have the skill to do a full analysis,” Lavinda said.
Zartrace’s voice rumbled. “I am optimized for such operations.”
I didn’t like where this was going. “To take advantage of Highcloud’s knowledge, you would need access to that EI.”
“Yes,” Zartrace said.
“No!” Highcloud said.
“I can help Highcloud do the analysis,” Max said.
“You aren’t designed for military work,” Lavinda said. “Zartrace is. And yes, Max, I realize you probably do far more analyses of secured systems than you or Major Bhaajan will admit. But you have nothing approaching the expertise or sheer power of Zartrace.”
“This is true,” Max admitted.
Highcloud? I thought.
No response.
Are you still there? I asked.
“Very well,” Highcloud said. “I consent to M18-Zartrace doing the analysis with me.”
Damn. The moment Zartrace had access to Highcloud, not only would it treat the dust as an invading intelligence, but it would also do the same with our youthful EI.
“Highcloud, are you sure?” I asked.
“Yes.” Highcloud spoke gently. “You gave your life for your trust in an EI. So I will offer my life in trust of humans. If I die for it, well, perhaps like you I can come back.”
“Ah, Highcloud,” I murmured. “You are a miracle.” I just hoped that miracle didn’t end at the digital hands of our own military, lost in the process of saving the Imperialate.
Highcloud, shall I remove my shield protecting you from Zartrace? Max asked.
Yes, Highcloud replied. Bhaaj, you will stay in the link, yes?
Absolutely, I thought.
The yellow light for Zartrace on my heads-up display turned green.
Gali said, “The M18 unit is in,” and at the same moment Zartrace said, “Access granted.”
Ready to activate the dust’s comm? I asked.
Ready, Zartrace rumbled.
Ready, Max told me.
I waited. When I was about to ask Highcloud, the young EI said, Ready.
“Activating dust,” I said, for everyone else.
“Luck’s speed,” Angel murmured.
And we dropped into—nothing.