“The human body is exceptionally adaptable, the human mind even more so. An individual can be made to accept almost any circumstance if the one who controls their environment is careful.”
~ personal study notes found in the margin of the textbook Principles of Rule by Anton Fiarro I6-2062
Day 188/365
Year 5 of Progress
(July 7, 2069)
Central Command
Third Continent
Prime Reality
Breathing in the recycled air of home, Rose felt the stiffness in her muscles finally ease up. Chow tonight was a simple grain salad with parsley, peppers, and diced chicken. It wasn’t particularly savory or inspiring, but it was nutritionally balanced and . . . she poked at the quinoa as she fumbled for an adjective. Homey? Reassuring? Safe. That’s what it was: The salad was safe.
Familiar as the recycled air or the hum of the generators outside.
Soothing as the steady flow of encrypted data across her console.
This all felt right. Deep down in her bones, Rose knew this was how life was meant to be. This was the safest path for humanity. The true line of time and history. Every time she stepped away from it, things felt jagged, like rolling across a floor of broken glass.
She took another bite of her supper as she scrolled through the data from the iteration they had stumbled through. The major change point in history seemed to have been a world plague. In the Prime, political tension had kept the borders closed. In the other iteration, peace talks had allowed for free travel and the death of billions.
Ironically, the worldwide tragedy meant that there were more resources available, including the awful forest she’d been forced to walk through. Trees, land, food, jobs . . . the other iteration didn’t need population control because they had an embarrassment of riches. All fairly well distributed by the local governments.
Rose tried to imagine living like that, having a house rather than a barrack room with a shared mess hall and a communal shower like she had until she’d reached the rank of commander. Or vacation time to go climbing in mountains where the land wasn’t irradiated by war. It was nearly impossible to picture.
Her eyes watered at the thought of more trees giving off poisonous fumes.
With a shake of her head, she went back to reading the reports. There had to be a reason the Plague Iteration had gained dominance. And it wasn’t because of the plague or the trees. She’d seen iterations that were spiraling toward universal extinction. Those were easy to deal with, and they’d always been on the far reaches of the probability fan.
She flicked through the files. Sorting out the primitive work the Plague Iteration Emir had done. She saw that he had identified a few nodes—hypothetically at least.
Her door chimed, and Dr. Emir entered.
Rose stood. “Sir? Is there a problem?”
“Nothing significant,” he said as he circled his hand, gesturing for her to sit back down. “I came to ask for your impressions of the new iteration.”
“It’s an unpalatable, backward hell, sir. Years behind us in terms of development and with significant nodal shifts. I’m not sure how we’re connected.”
Emir nodded and paced the three-step space between her wall locker and her bed.
“It will make removing the nodes difficult, sir,” Rose said, the problem had plagued her on the way home. “It’s unlikely they’ll congregate in any one place, not this early in the development of the MIA.” She hesitated a moment before plunging onward. “Sir, our theories—”
Emir’s sharp glare cut her off.
“I thought,” she said, carefully rewording her sentence, “nodes were nearly static across all iterations. History-changing events are very rare. The nodal people are all individuals of a certain age at the time of nodal events, who have the personality traits that drive them to seek change and who score high as influencers for their spheres.”
Another spear of a glare hit her.
“I may have misunderstood, sir, but this shift doesn’t . . .” She couldn’t say the rest. Her tongue wouldn’t move. The air wasn’t in her lungs. Some baser instinct and drive for self-preservation locked her up. “I just don’t understand the situation, sir.”
“That is painfully obvious, Commander,” Emir said in a tone of deep disapproval. “After all these years of training, I would have hoped you had a better grasp of the basic mechanics that hold the universe together. What is the one thing that gives our iteration precedence over all others?”
“Nodes, sir.” The answer was a rote one she’d learned when she’d first been pulled from military intelligence to work for Dr. Emir. “But we have the nodes but no longer have precedence.”
Making a sound of disgust, Emir shook his head. “Were you subjected to brain trauma on your last mission? You sound like a child! Think of what you’ve said. Think.” It was an order.
Rose took a deep breath. “The answer is that Prime has fewer nodes than the other iteration—but that simply isn’t possible, sir. We have all the nodes. All of them. At this stage in the evolution of history, the other—”
Emir held his hand up for silence.
“Sir?”
He sat on the edge of her bunk, looking almost weak.
A frail body, ravaged by age and the lack of proper nutrition. It was moments like this, when his iron will failed, that Emir looked almost vulnerable. It affected Rose the same way a change in the gravitational constant of the universe would affect the orbit of the Earth. She wobbled. “Sir?”
Emir took a deep breath, inhaling the recycled air to fuel the savage fire that burned in his eyes when he looked up. His voice was utterly calm as he asked, “What did you think of Donovan’s behavior during your last mission with him?”
Rose stilled, aware that this could very easily be a trap. “I found him to be an acceptable soldier.” She struggled to remember any variation. “He followed orders as well as he ever does. Fulfilled his mission. I don’t believe Wagner’s death was his fault.” Even though he should have taken the rearguard, she found she couldn’t be angry at him for living. Her carefully won control faltered, and she frowned. “I’m sorry, sir, I noticed no abnormalities. Should I have?”
“Perhaps.” Emir stood again.
Rose stood as well. “Do you suspect him of something, sir?”
“Not of anything unseemly, but he is not filling Peterson’s place well.”
“Captain Peterson was an exceptional man. There aren’t many who could compare to him, and I don’t think we can fault Donovan for not being Peterson. He doesn’t need to be. He only needs to hold the loyalty of the soldiers so he can influence them.”
“But we have lost preeminence. That can only mean we have lost a node. You and I are here, unchanged. The ones who cannot serve on the front lines are under careful watch in IID safe houses. That only leaves one possible traitor to our cause.” Emir waved his hand with a little gesture, indicating the futility of life and the downfall of fidelity.
“Sir, with all due respect, I cannot support calling Donovan a traitor unless I have evidence. If I accuse him publicly, I will lose the respect of the soldiers under my command.” So would Emir, but mentioning that would result in the deaths of those soldiers.
“With all the respect you are due, Commander, it is not the soldiers you should be worried about.” Emir looked disappointed with her. “Donovan leans heavily on Senturi. Perhaps too heavily, considering how reliant Senturi is on his masters in the Council.”
“That is a leash I’ve long suggested we sever.”
“Indeed.”
Rose nodded, feeling her heart slow as the storm of Emir’s wrath turned away from her. “I will see to the matter, sir. Undermine him, if that’s what you want. Or cut him loose entirely. We have . . . fail-safes.” Information left over from her days in military intelligence when the United Nations still held control of the world. Even before she’d met Emir, she knew that one day she’d want enough blackmail to insulate herself from the ever-changing political winds.
“We’ll watch, for now. The Prime is too fragile for me to want to push. But . . .” He trailed off and raised a bushy white eyebrow. “If it is necessary?”
“The fail-safe can be activated and run its course in under an hour, sir.”
His second eyebrow went up. “Dear me, Commander. What on Earth did you find about poor Senturi?”
She smiled cruelly. “Enough.”
“I would warn you to be careful, Commander.”
“I always am, sir.”
“Nevertheless, if Donovan has lost faith in our cause, it won’t be me he attacks, and it won’t be here in your sanctuary where he wages war. You are running another mission in two days. Are you prepared to risk a knife in your back?”
“Every mission carries a risk of failure, sir, and I am always prepared for betrayal.”
He stood. “You are our Paladin. I must rely on your intuition in these matters. Do you trust Donovan.”
Her blood crystallized with icy realization. “No, sir. I never have. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t the node. We shouldn’t act against him.”
“Nevertheless,” Emir said. “We should watch. Your mission as of this minute is to find me a new Warrior Node at all cost. If Donovan comes into his own, very well. He’s an obedient soldier, and I won’t waste him. But I won’t allow his weaknesses to hold Prime back when decoherence is approaching.”
Which made her wonder what he would do to her if he suspected she wasn’t properly performing as a node.