Part 26 (1/2)

'That was you you?'

'There was a . . . confusion when it came to identifying you from a distance of several light-years. I suspect you don't realize it, but machine-heads can, over time, imprint an unconscious pattern of their own thought processes on systems like the Piri Piri's AI. From a distance, it can appear as if you are a single mind.'

The shape affected a shrug of the shoulders. 'We attempted to reorganize its core programming, believing it was part of your conscious mind. But as we soon discovered, its mechanisms are too crude for genuine consciousness. By this point, you yourself were already deep in the process of navigator maturation by which I mean the changes to your original machine-head implants, which have now been fully replaced with something far more compatible with my own systems. You can thank the s.h.i.+p you found in Nova Arctis for that.'

'You know what happened to it, then.'

'If you're afraid of punishment, don't be. The knowledge it carried was not unique; each one of us carries the same data in our stacks. You were merely trying to prevent it falling into the wrong hands. In fact, you did no less than many Magi navigators did when confronted by the Shoal's betrayal.'

'I have a question. Why did it go to Night's End?'

'Your escape from Nova Arctis system was difficult, dangerous, and driven by necessity. It made the logical decision to try and get you as close as possible to the next and nearest Magi s.h.i.+p.'

'But it didn't make it all the way.'

The figure s.h.i.+fted slightly in the gloom. 'Given the circ.u.mstances, it's surprising it got anywhere at all, Dakota. Necessity forced you to jump out of the Nova Arctis system before the s.h.i.+p was absolutely ready.' The shadowy figure spread its hands. 'But now you're here.'

'So I am.' She caught herself fidgeting, and folded her hands over her knees. 'Do you know why I'm here?'

'I believe you want to stop Immortal Light and the Emissaries from reaching me first.'

'I need to take control of the scout-s.h.i.+p I'm currently aboard its defensive drones as well, just so I can try and stay alive. You know I can't do that without using you as a go-between. Why didn't you let me a.s.sume control?'

'The answer to that question is . . . complicated. There are other candidates for control of the Magi s.h.i.+p of which I am part.'

''What candidates?' She desperately wanted to get up, walk over and stare into the face of whatever was interrogating her- But she couldn't move. She wasn't physically trapped, but she simply couldn't summon up the will, or even the strength, to lift herself up from the chaise-longue and take the necessary steps.

She was, in fact, helpless.

'First things first,' the Librarian continued, leaning forward, its face tantalizingly close to becoming visible. 'Look around you.'

The Librarian waved a hand to indicate the onion-dome above and the carpeted s.p.a.ce around them. In a brief moment, the building and its shafts of light dimmed until the chaise-longue, the chair and the orrery were isolated in a pool of light that came from no particular direction. Beyond was only darkness.

Just then, another pool of light appeared a considerable distance away, revealing a second orrery. Dakota stared at it, and, as she did so, her mind's eye seemed to zoom towards this second device until its components and levers were as clear as if she was standing next to it.

The second orrery represented little more than a single world, a sphere of dense blue gla.s.s hiding a darker core. Bright points of light like tiny stars floated high above its surface, as it sailed alone, seemingly through a spray of diamond dust.

'This is the Shoal home world,' the Librarian explained, 'and it is a very long way off. This is where they maintain their Deep Dreamers technological oracles designed to predict both near-and far-future events.'

Beneath the thick blue gla.s.s Dakota understood without being told that this was an ocean world something enormous and tentacular s.h.i.+fted as if alive.

'The Shoal predicted all this happening? That's why Trader followed us to Nova Arctis is that what you're saying?'

'The Dreamers predict many possible futures, while Shoal-members like Trader try to manipulate key events solely for the Hegemony's benefit often regardless of the cost to other species.'

'Do the Emissaries have anything like this?' Dakota now realized that other, more distant orreries were starting to appear all around them, each illuminated by its own pool of directionless light. One in particular featured a writhing, smoke-like shape that was difficult even to look at.

'Fortunately no,' the Librarian replied. 'The Emissaries are exemplary proof of why Maker caches are so potentially dangerous: they can grant enormous power without understanding. The Emissaries are an immature species who haven't had the opportunity to evolve alongside that technology to make the necessary necessary mistakes only in order to survive them and thereby grow wiser. They were a primitive culture when they first stumbled across a Maker cache, and they still are now. They are, in fact, exactly the kind of creature the caches were apparently intended for volatile and ultimately self-destructive.' mistakes only in order to survive them and thereby grow wiser. They were a primitive culture when they first stumbled across a Maker cache, and they still are now. They are, in fact, exactly the kind of creature the caches were apparently intended for volatile and ultimately self-destructive.'

'Except, the way things are going now, they'll probably wind up destroying everyone else as well as themselves.'

'Precisely.'

'Is that what will happen if I don't get to you first?'

'Almost certainly.'

'I don't want that responsibility,' Dakota moaned. 'It shouldn't just be up to me.'

'Perhaps you'd rather things hadn't gone quite so badly with Yi and her brother,' the Librarian said. 'You might have been able to quietly retire, as you'd been hoping. Isn't that so?'

Dakota felt tears trickle down her cheeks as she sobbed quietly. Get out of my head, d.a.m.n you. Get out of my head, d.a.m.n you.

'Would you like to see how your life would have been instead?'

Dakota sniffed. 'You can do that?'

'There are higher and lower probabilities of outcome but, yes, I can show you the most likely turn of events. Observe.'

Dakota looked up, and saw a world melting as the fires of a dying star reached out to consume it. A fleet rushed away from the nova, slipping into superluminal s.p.a.ce a moment before its shockwave caught up with them.

It took a moment for her to understand that she'd just witnessed the destruction of Bellhaven.

'They-'

'Were Freehold s.h.i.+ps,' the Librarian finished for her. She'd recognized the red phoenix symbol emblazoned on the hulls of the attacking s.h.i.+ps. 'A fast strike against the system responsible for producing the vast majority of machine-heads. Within a few weeks, another occupied system is destroyed, and the Consortium capitulates to the Freehold's demands.'

The Librarian shrugged with an affectation of world-weary cynicism. 'But, of course, things didn't actually turn out like that.'

Dakota lowered her gaze, her throat dry. 'And what would have happened to me?'

'Dead by now, I fear. At first there would have been an amnesty for machine-heads as the Consortium desperately tried to muster a military response to the Freehold. You yourself would have taken up arms, driven to fanatical anger by the destruction of your home world.'

'And the Shoal what would they have done?'

'Against a fledgling would-be interstellar empire on their doorstep, but without the resources and reach of the Emissaries?' Another shrug. 'Wiped your entire species out of existence, of course.'

Dakota sat very still. 'I don't need to believe any of this. You could make me see anything you wanted, and you a.s.sume I'd just believe it. You're saying that if I hadn't taken that derelict out of Nova Arctis, this is what would have happened.

'Tell me then, Miss Merrick, if Senator Arbenz, instead, had retrieved the derelict, what do you you think would have happened?' think would have happened?'

'Let me out of this chair,' she whispered. 'Give the job to someone else.'

'I can do that,' the Librarian quietly replied, 'if you really want.'

Then she remembered. 'You said . . . there were other candidates. Who?'

'You already know who they are. One told you himself, and the other's presence you sensed only quite recently.'

'Tutor Langley.'