Chapter Nine

 

"The habitat was founded by a man called William Anderson," Leyton told Mya. "Anderson seems to have been a big noise among the Allied Worlds during the early years of the War - an industrialist with his finger in many pies. One of his businesses dabbled in exploration and finding new worlds, new resources. It was a survey ship belonging to this company which stumbled on something unexpected in a supposedly virgin corner of the galaxy. A derelict alien space ship."

"You're kidding."

"No." He stared at Mya, a little surprised she'd even say that. She knew him better. "By all accounts, it was a Byrzaen ship."

"Fuck me! Does ULAW know about this?"

"Nope. Being a businessman, Anderson saw a chance of massive profits, so he kept the discovery to himself, put a lid on the whole matter, doubtless with ruthless application when required. You have to remember, too, that this all happened when the War was becoming increasingly intense and paranoia was rife. The last thing Anderson would have wanted was word of the derelict reaching the enemy.

"So he set about quietly recruiting scientists and spiriting them away to examine his treasure. After a while, though, the implications must have got him worried, because he began talking to politicians, urging them to seek peace with the United League of Allied Worlds as soon as possible, believing there to be a far greater threat waiting in the wings.

"He might have done a great job of keeping the derelict out of the news, but word of his political entreaties did get out, and you can imagine what the press would have done to someone whispering such treasonous, lily-livered suggestions when every self-respecting soul was howling for blood. They crucified him. Anderson found himself vilified and ridiculed, dubbed as everything from a naïve idealist to a traitor.

"His response was to build the habitat and withdraw to it, taking with him some of the best minds of the day and enough people to establish a viable community. They cut themselves off from the rest of humanity and went on their merry way, all but forgotten about."

"Until now."

"Precisely."

"And this ship, The Rebellion..."

"...is a marvel, drawing on both human and Byrzaen technology."

Leyton was glad of this opportunity to chat to Mya, delighted that she'd sought him out when she had questions that needed answering. The ship's database could probably have told her all of this in any case, which made him suspect that she needed the company as much as the information. His own knowledge of the habitat and its history had been gleaned largely from what Kethi told him during similar conversations, supplemented by what he'd discovered for himself.

Leyton didn't feel in any sense that Mya was avoiding him, but he'd seen less of her in the past few days than he'd have liked, less than he felt he would have done had she retained any real desire to pick up where they'd left off. He knew better than to crowd her and had done his best to give her space, throwing himself into his gym regime and even going to watch Kethi and others play z-ball a couple of times, despite having no great love for the sport. The presence of a z-ball court on what amounted to a military vessel struck him as a hell of an indulgence. Certainly you wouldn't have found anything like this on a ULAW fighting ship, or any vessel short of a luxury liner. Further proof, were it needed, of the differences between the habitat and the society he was used to.

"But what are they hoping to achieve by all this?" Mya asked.

"Ah, now there's a question. The habitat has been waiting for the Byrzaens to arrive, expecting to be at the vanguard of humanity's struggle against the alien aggressors."

"Are you serious?"

"They certainly are. It's what the whole culture's geared towards. Now that the Byrzaens are actually here and the anticipated conflict hasn't arisen, I think they're struggling a bit. The current game plan seems to be to unveil the Byrzaens as wolves in sheep's clothing, to reveal them as being far less benign than they're pretending."

She thought about that. "And do they have any real basis for that?"

"Not much," he admitted. "Prejudice mainly, as far as I can tell; but, having said that, I happen to believe they might just be right."

"More by luck than judgement, you mean."

Leyton grinned. "Let's just say good instincts."

"Okay, I'm willing to accept that you haven't succumbed to an outbreak of irrationality. What makes you suspicious?"

"Lots of things. Little things that come together in the shape of a big question mark. You and I have both seen enough ULAW spin-doctoring to recognise the signs, and this whole situation is being spun, big time. Not just PR-spin but covering-up-the-cracks spin. You heard about what went down at New Paris?"

She nodded.

"I was there. Trust me, something wasn't right about the whole set up."

"Are you saying you think the Byrzaen's appearance was stage managed?"

"Possibly. Hell of a coincidence the way they showed up out of nowhere just in the nick of time to save the day. Then there's the fact that Benson was put in charge of operations on New Paris. I mean, Benson, head of ULAW's black-ops, managing humankind's first contact with another species. Why?"

"Yeah, when you put it like that..."

"You know there are even rumours that the energy blast which wrecked the station's orbit wasn't a stray shot from the battle at all but a carefully aimed beam from The Noise Within?"

"Causing the problem which the Byrzaens then arrived to solve," Mya said, nodding slowly. "No, I hadn't heard that."

"And before you say it, yes, I'm sure there's enough telemetry to reconstruct the battle and trace the course of the stray beam, but if ULAW have ever troubled to do so, they haven't chosen to share their findings." He realised he was in danger of sounding fanatical, so consciously relaxed and grinned. "Don't you just love a good conspiracy theory?"

"Always." She smiled in response. "So, you've thrown in your lot with this habitat, then?"

His smile slipped away. "It... seemed like a good idea at the time." To rescue you, he thought but didn't say.

"I'm glad you did," she said quietly, evidently hearing the unspoken words in any case.

For now Mya seemed content to settle in with her new benefactors, the habitat, but Leyton knew her too well. Before long she'd grow restless and want answers, not to mention revenge. He was happy enough to wait until she felt sufficiently recovered to strike back at those who had imprisoned and tortured her. When she did, he'd be there at her side.

As for the habitat, at that moment gathering information seemed to be their priority. The Rebellion hopped from one pick up point to another, collecting parcels of data which Kethi devoured relentlessly. She wasn't the only analyst - there was a man called Morkel whose status Leyton wasn't entirely sure of, except that he didn't seem to like Kethi much - but she was the one Nyles listened to.

As something of an outsider, Leyton was able to observe all this and do some analysing of his own. There seemed to him an air of desperation about the whole process, hence his comments to Mya. He had a feeling that now the habitat had secured the services of one former eyegee and the freedom of another, they weren't too sure what to do with them. To justify all the planning and preparation they'd made for this moment, it would need to be something significant, or at least effective. They didn't need him to tell them that. The pressure on Kethi to come up with something was enormous, and a symptom of that was that she was spending less and less time at the z-ball courts or anywhere other than her work station.

Funny how often invention can spring phoenix-like from the ashes of adversity. Leyton had seen it more than once - a spark of inspiration flaring to life when spirits were at their lowest ebb. Just as well, since the crew of The Rebellion were about to suffer a hammer blow.

The Rebellion rendezvoused with another habitat vessel, The Retribution. The event instantly cheered up everyone on board and a welcome committee was quickly assembled, Mya and Leyton included. He'd never seen the habitat personnel in such high spirits. After so much time spent away from home, the prospect of catching up with friends and fellows must have seemed like a holiday. The sister ship's skipper, Captain Forster, came aboard with two adjutants. Tall, middle-aged, silver-haired, albeit with salt-and-pepper eyebrows, and stick rigid in both deportment and attitude, Forster struck Leyton as a military man through and through. Leyton couldn't be certain if his unyielding demeanour was due solely to the news the man carried, but he thought otherwise, suspecting that Captain Forster's character leant itself to that sort of thing in any case. Certainly he glared at the two former eyegees with mistrust bordering on hostility, clearly considering them vipers in The Rebellion's bosom.

"The habitat's gone," he stated without preamble.

The smiles of greeting, of joy at seeing friends and fellows, died on the faces of the welcome party.

"Go on," Nyles said, sober and all business.

"ULAW attacked with a sizeable task force. Their ships were cloaked, evading our orbital defences. They sent in marines to take control of both the habitat and The Renaissance, then at dock. We believe Captain Gibson may have triggered the self destruct in both his ship and the habitat itself to prevent knowledge of our technology from falling into ULAW hands."

This news was greeted by a collective gasp from several, including Kethi, who looked stunned and lifted a hand to cover her mouth.

"Survivors?" Nyles asked.

"None that we're aware of."

"My aunt...?" Kethi's voice sounded small, strained.

"I'm sorry. The older Kethi was among those left to govern those few who remained at home. She was there at the end."

Kethi closed her eyes, tears gathering at their corners. Simon, never far away, put a comforting arm - his good one - around her shoulders and she leant into him. Leyton wasn't sure how he felt on seeing that. He turned his attention back to the ongoing conversation.

"Total number of casualties?" Nyles asked.

"We estimate around five hundred souls. Far Flung will have a more accurate count."

Nyles nodded.

Forster continued, still talking without any hint of emotion. "As the habitat died it squirted off a tight beam data package which ULAW failed to intercept in the confusion. For whatever it's worth, we believe government casualties were as comprehensive as ours. We also have some footage of the woman who led the attack... if I may?"

Nyles nodded assent. Forster's aide stepped forward, fiddling with something at his wrist that looked suspiciously like a wric. An image formed in the air. Leyton recognised the black cladding and armour of ULAW marines and, at the forefront, the unmistakable figure of an eyegee.

Breath hissed between his teeth as the facial features registered even through her visor. "Boulton!"

Nyles's head swivelled towards him. "You know this woman?"

"Oh yes, I know her all right." Not that he had the slightest intention of elaborating on exactly how well he knew her. Not now, not anytime, and especially not in front of Mya. "She's an eyegee, though God knows why."

 

Philip had devoted his life to Kaufman Industries and was still having a few issues with accepting that he was no longer the company's CEO. Perhaps that went some way to explaining why this was the first time he'd been back to his successor's office since she so generously offered him a salaried position as a consultant; generous not because he wasn't worth the money but because, as yet, Catherine hadn't bothered to utilise him at all.

The thought that he and Malcolm must appear to her in much the same fashion that his own partial, Phil, had appeared to him in the past - a 3D image hovering somewhere towards the centre of the room - didn't help either. Most of the time he'd never even bothered ensuring Phil's feet touched the carpet. A trivial detail, one which hadn't seemed important then. It did now, but he dismissed the thought and concentrated on the purpose of the visit: Tanya.

"Why would you think I'd need a bodyguard, Catherine? What aren't you telling me?"

KI's longest serving director pursed her lips and studied him, no doubt weighing up how much to reveal. "Nothing sinister, I promise you. I would happily have shared all this before but thought you probably had enough to cope with simply coming to terms with your new status. I couldn't see anything to be gained by troubling you with additional concerns."

"What additional concerns?"

Again she took her time before replying, "It's probably nothing, but... Julia Cirese, the woman who killed you..."

Philip knew full well who she was. "What about her?"

"I don't suppose you ever bothered checking into her background?"

"No, why would I?" A contract had been issued against him; Julia had seen it posted in the Death Wish and had taken up the invitation. Eventually, on the space station called New Paris, she had succeeded in killing him. What else did he need to know? If the murderous bitch had suffered an unhappy childhood or been forced into a career as a hired killer by cruel misfortune, what did he care? She'd killed him!

"That's what I thought. Well I did - check up on her, I mean. Call me a pedantic old cynic, but I couldn't understand why she'd bothered to pursue you halfway across the galaxy like that, especially after the death wish had been lifted, or how she found you so quickly for that matter. So I did a little digging. Turns out she was a journalist just as she claimed, although clearly she was a good deal more than that as well. However, it seems Ms Cirese was posted to Home only a week before your Gügenhall lecture. We've cracked Universal News's systems and accessed her data records. What we found there was interesting. Julia Cirese began gathering information on you - your habits, preferences, and movements - from the moment she first arrived on Home."

"In other words she started researching me a week before the contract at the Death Wish was posted."

"Exactly."

"This doesn't prove anything. Julia was writing a piece on me and preparing for an interview; naturally she'd do some research."

"Except that the piece in question never really existed."

"So if the research was all part of her cover, why did she start all before the death wish was even issued?" Philip added. The implications were unnerving. By the sound of things, Julia Cirese had been preparing to kill him before he'd ever made himself a target.

"It looks to me as if she was sent here specifically to assassinate you, Philip."

He nodded. "The death wish merely provided her with a convenient smokescreen. Which begs two complimentary questions: Who was she working for? And why did whoever it was want me dead?"

"Excellent questions both, neither of which I have an answer to as yet, which is why I assigned Tanya to watch your back. She's a martial arts expert in the real world, an experienced gamer and she's familiar with Virtuality. In addition to that, we've packed her avatar with a host of countermeasures."

"And her avatar was doubtless designed to appeal to my taste."

"We may have tweaked her appearance a little," Catherine conceded, "but the important thing here is that she's fit for purpose." Philip certainly wasn't about to argue with the 'fit' part. "Somebody powerful ordered your death, Philip. There's every chance they might decide to finish the job, even if that means following you into Virtuality. Tanya's there to ensure they don't succeed."

Despite his attempt at outward calm, Philip was shaken to the core. It had never occurred to him that his physical death was anything other than the work of an opportunist seeking to claim the price on his head. Who else could have been behind it? Someone who didn't want the project, the integration of human and AI minds, to succeed? That made no sense. The project was to the benefit of all humankind... unless those responsible didn't want humankind to benefit or to progress. He thought again about the Byrzaen infiltration of Virtuality, but instantly baulked at the thought that the aliens might be behind this. The concept seemed ridiculous to the point of paranoia.

His thoughts flipped back to Tanya. All right, so she was sent to protect him; her popping up in the right place at the right time not once but twice still represented a huge coincidence. Almost as if she knew exactly where to find him, as if Catherine had an accomplice in this little scheme.

He turned to Malcolm. "You were in on this, weren't you?"

Malcolm at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed. "Catherine did share her concerns, yes."

"No wonder Tanya was loitering by the door at Bubbles when we came in and then again at the street meet. You set it all up beforehand!"

Malcolm shrugged. "It was for your own good."

Philip was seething. They'd treated him like a child, both of them. "This stops now. Don't you ever, ever, hold out on me like that again, or how am I supposed to trust you?"

"Fair comment. I'm sorry."

Having said his piece, Philip's thoughts turned to recent events, seeing them in a new light. "Is there anything to suggest that what happened at the street meet was specifically targeted at me?"

"No," Catherine replied. "As far as we can tell, that was a genuine accident. A case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"But you can't be certain?"

"Not entirely. Don't worry, we're still looking into it."

"There's no point in wasting Kaufman Industry resources on this..."

Catherine held up a hand, forestalling anything else he might have added. "First off, KI have the resources to spare now that the project's completed and the first needle ship squadron has been handed over to ULAW, and second, this isn't a waste. Stop with the false modesty. You're a valuable resource, Philip, an asset that's well worth our while protecting."

Strange to hear himself spoken about in such terms, but he supposed Catherine had a point.

 

Kethi felt numbed by the news brought by The Retribution. Not merely because of her own personal loss, nor even at the thought of so many deaths. The habitat itself was the greatest loss, the only home she and most people aboard had ever known. With the utterance of a single sentence she had been transformed into a refugee; they all had.

Her response was to throw herself into her work in an effort to keep her mind busy. The Retribution had delivered several new data packages, collected from the network of beacon drops established by habitat sympathisers within ULAW's ranks. There was a wealth of new information here, which Kethi worked furiously to integrate with what she already had. Perhaps it was this new influx of data, or perhaps the renewed intensity she brought to the job, but she began to get a glimmer of something. There was a pattern here. Kethi could sense its presence even though the components of its design were scattered and buried deep beneath layers of apparently still unconnected data - a web of links so tenuous they barely existed; strands of the finest spider silk all but lost in the cracks between myriad blocks of solid fact and detail.

She continued to race through the accumulated reports, tagging incidents and then compiling a list of names, refining its composition all the while - adding this person but removing that one as more information came to light which perhaps eliminated one prospect by suggesting another. The framework of links Kethi could sense continued to grow. By the time the list numbered sixteen she felt able to take stock, and sensed immediately that there was something wrong. A few of the names didn't quite fit, though she felt certain they belonged to the pattern somewhere.

Tentatively, she drew one name out of the list and then another, moving them to one side, until she had two columns: five in the new list, leaving eleven in the original. Of course, it was obvious now. Two very similar interlinked groups which could easily be mistaken for one. She pushed the smaller list to the right-hand periphery of vision and the larger to the left, before continuing to work her way through the data, occasionally drawing out new names to add to one group or the other.

Finally she was satisfied. There was still some data to analyse, but this gave her more than enough to isolate and identify the nebulous pattern. What Kethi saw horrified her. She blinked, wiping the lenses and returning her awareness outward. Nyles and Leyton were still there, though neither was looking her way just then.

"Nyles," she said.

His head whipped around. "Anything?"

"Yes, and you're going to want to see this, both of you."

Kethi had wondered whether the shock would show on her face. Judging by the looks on theirs, it did.

She might have cleared her lenses, but Kethi possessed eidetic memory and was able to recall the two lists instantly, projecting them onto one of the virtual screens that surrounded the bridge. The longer list now held twenty names, the shorter eight. "Jim, do you recognise any of these?"

Leyton instantly fastened onto one name on the longer list. "Yes, I was with Philip Kaufman when he died, on New Paris... and these three in the smaller group," he highlighted the relevant names in red, "are all members of the eyegee squad."

"Were," Kethi corrected. "The larger group consists of politicians and corporate magnates. I'm pretty certain those in the smaller group are all ULAW operatives - though it's not always so easy to identify those for obvious reasons. Every one of these people has died by presumed accident in most cases, assassination in a couple, all within the last few weeks."

Nyles let out a hiss of breath. "Surely someone else has spotted this."

Kethi shook her head. "Group the names together this way and it looks significant, ominous even, but spread these across all of ULAW space and the result is well within statistical parameters, especially given that most of these are the victims of apparent accidents. No AI's going to pick up on it." She said the last with a degree of pride.

"Well done, Kethi, well done," Nyles said.

"Eyegees don't die easily or often," Leyton added.

"No," Kethi said, "I don't suppose they do."

"What's your reading of this, Kethi?" Nyles asked.

"That's simple. We're seeing here proof of what Mya warned us about. ULAW is in the process of tearing itself apart."

Nyles nodded. "All this at the same time the Byrzaens put in an appearance. It can't be simple coincidence."

"Agreed, and there's more."

"Go on."

"As I sift through the data and reports, one name has cropped up on several occasions, too often to dismiss as coincidence: Pavel Benson."

"The same Pavel Benson who runs the eyegee unit, the one Mya reported to?"

"Yes. He's involved in whatever's going on here, I'm sure of it."

"I know Benson," Leyton said. "I can't believe he'd be disloyal to the Union."

"Perhaps he isn't," Nyles replied carefully, as if testing the sound of the words even as he spoke them. "Perhaps it's simply a question of which version of the Union he's loyal to."

"That makes sense," Kethi agreed. "It might not be a matter of trying to bring down ULAW at all but rather a disagreement over which direction the Union should go in."

Leyton indicated the two lists of the dead, which still hovered in the air before them. "That's one hell of a policy dispute."

"People have been killed over a lot less, and I agree the theory has its appeal. It's certainly worth investigating." Nyles appeared to reach a decision. "Kethi, you take command of The Rebellion and continue to the next beacon. The more intel we can gather the better. I'll take The Retribution to New Paris. We need to confront Benson."

"He's no longer at New Paris," Kethi said. "He's returned to the honeycomb." It was the notorious headquarters of ULAW's intelligence operations.

"Getting in to see him there will be easier said than done," Leyton said, "but I'll go with you to handle that side of things."

"No," said a new voice. "I'll deal with this." Mya entered the bridge. "It's about time I contributed something. Besides which, Benson owes me an explanation or two."

"Very well," Nyles agreed. "We'll divide our forces. Leyton, you stay here with Kethi; Mya, you come with me on The Retribution."

Kethi watched Leyton carefully, curious to see his reaction to this enforced separation from the woman they'd all risked so much to rescue and whom he clearly still loved, but the former eyegee simply nodded, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. Privately she wanted to applaud Nyles. Decisive action was exactly what everyone needed. News of the habitat's fate had hit the crew hard. Anticipating the possible loss of their home was one thing, dealing with the fact as reality quite another. People would be looking for a continued purpose and Nyles was giving them just that. Nor was it an empty one - a goal set simply for the sake of having a goal. Kethi felt increasingly certain that Benson would prove the key to their discovering what was going on within ULAW, and that would put them one step closer to learning what part the Byrzaens played in all this.