Poseidon's Wake - Страница 106

106

‘Yes, but she was inside it, camped there, physically present. She had screens, blackout sheets, floodlamps… you have none of these things.’

‘I have the mirrors,’ Eunice said.

This was met with another silence, but it was shorter than the first and this time Vasin was the one to break it.

‘No. You lost control of the mirrors. We saw it happen. You told us she had found her way in.’

‘Ah, yes, so I did. Which obviously eliminates any possibility that I was lying, or withholding some portion of the truth…’

Ru made a lunge for her across the edge of the well and nearly got a hand around Eunice’s neck before she jerked out of reach.

Ru snapped her attention to Goma. ‘What the fuck is she talking about?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Everybody calm down,’ Vasin said. ‘Eunice — clarify the situation with the mirrors. You said she had control.’

‘That was true.’

‘And now you’re saying you do still have control?’

‘That’s also true. You should have paid more attention when I told you I was deep inside that architecture — deep enough to allow Dakota the illusion that she had regained some control. I allowed her to think she’d beaten me. I allowed you to think I was all out of options. In truth, I’d already embedded the command code — the instruction for the mirrors to swing onto Paladin’s Mandala.’

‘You want to attack it!’ Vasin said.

‘What are the odds, Captain, that any human technology could even begin to damage something that’s been there for several million years, weathering solar storms, asteroid bombardments and geological changes without sustaining so much as a blemish? No, that’s not what I wanted the mirrors for. Goma knows. Goma sees.’

‘Light,’ Goma answered. ‘She can modulate the mirrors to send a version of Ndege’s command string — talk directly to Mandala in the language of light.’

‘To initiate a Mandala event?’ Vasin asked.

‘Yes,’ Eunice said. ‘It’s not difficult. It’s the Mandala’s purpose, and it doesn’t need huge encouragement to start doing the thing it was designed to do. Especially not after all this time asleep, dormant, waiting to be reactivated — as Ndege found when she communicated with Crucible’s Mandala.’

‘You’re insane,’ Karayan said. ‘You cannot take this action.’

‘I see no alternative. Kanu is acting under duress because of the threat to the Friends. I am removing them from the equation.’

‘Stop her,’ Ru said. ‘Kill her. Whatever it takes.’

Eunice directed a look of supreme contrition at the other woman. ‘You have every right to despise me, Ru — but not on this score. I’m not hurting the Friends or the Tantors. I am sparing them further involvement in this unholy human mess. They have endured one Mandala event; I have every confidence they can survive another.’

‘No,’ Ru said, as if none of those words had reached her. ‘She’s got to be stopped.’

‘And how would you do that? I’ve told you that the command sequence is already activated. Would you like me to deactivate it? In which case, I’ll need access to the console again — and you’d better hope we still have enough time left before Mandala begins to come into view, because that fifteen minutes is a very fuzzy estimate indeed.’

‘If we allow her access to the console,’ Grave said, ‘we could be giving her exactly the opportunity she needs. Are you bluffing, Eunice? Can we trust a single word that comes out of your mouth?’

‘You can trust me when I say this: the translation event is irrevocable. It will happen. And if you wish for some good to come out of this, now would be the time to warn Dakota so that she can get a message to the rest of them.’

‘She won’t believe a word of it,’ Vasin said. ‘Not now.’

‘But at least you’ll have tried,’ Eunice said.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Kanu was staring at the approach solutions for the swarm of moons, thinking back to their first ignorant encounter with the killing space around Poseidon, when the chime of an incoming transmission began to sound.

‘I think we have heard all we need to,’ Dakota said. ‘Our point was made, as was theirs. They have begun to turn from us, and we have clarified their status as potential prisoners of war. I do not believe there is anything left to say.’

‘We may as well hear them out,’ Nissa said. ‘If there’s the slightest chance it might be useful information, we’d be fools to ignore them.’

‘They have nothing we need or can use,’ Dakota said. ‘Our knowledge of Poseidon is already immeasurably richer than theirs.’

‘They have Eunice,’ Kanu said.

‘They have a bag full of dying memories that thinks it once owned the stars. I am sorry to speak so bluntly of her, Kanu, but you have seen first hand the harm she would have done us had the means been available. As it was, she overreached herself.’

The chime continued knelling.

‘I’d take the call if I were you,’ Swift said. ‘I think it may be a matter of some urgency.’

‘How would you know?’

‘I’ve spent some time getting to know the ship.’

‘You’re in my skull, Swift. You only see and hear what I see and hear.’

‘That’s perfectly true, Kanu, but as I hoped I demonstrated in Zanzibar, you do not make the best use of those channels. The ship is telling me that this signal is something we would indeed be very foolish to ignore. It speaks of a matter of urgency that I think one might characterise as “dire”.’

‘They have nothing that can touch us.’

‘We are not the subject of the dire urgency, but we can assist those who are. Something awful is about to happen to Zanzibar, Kanu, and in that respect, I think we can agree that it concerns us all.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Ignore Dakota. Take the call.’

In his own voice, Kanu instructed Icebreaker to play the transmission. Dakota began to voice her disapproval, but she had barely begun when Goma started speaking.

‘Don’t shut me off. Listen. You too, Dakota. This isn’t a threat, or any kind of negotiation. Eunice claims that Zanzibar is about to experience a second Mandala event. A second translation to who knows where. It’s imminent — minutes away, maybe less. We can’t stop it happening, and nor can you — but you can warn them. It was bad the first time; now you can at least tell them to prepare for it — to bring in anyone or anything outside and to brace for whatever’s coming. Please heed us — we gain nothing by lying to you. And tell them that wherever they end up, they won’t be forgotten.’

Goma fell silent. Kanu looked at Nissa, then back to Dakota — wondering if they felt the same way he did. He hoped this would prove to be nothing more than a ruse. But the time he had spent talking with Goma had convinced him that she spoke with absolute sincerity. More than that: she was genuinely afraid of what was coming.

So was he.

‘After all this time,’ Dakota said, ‘a Mandala event would not simply happen all by itself.’

‘So it’s not a coincidence,’ Nissa replied. ‘It’s something to do with our activity. Triggered by us, or by them.’

‘There is no mechanism by which they could reach Mandala at that distance.’

‘That we know of,’ Kanu said. ‘And Nissa’s right: they gain nothing by lying. We must take her seriously. I think you need to consider giving that warning.’

‘I will not be held hostage to absurd threats.’

‘Signal Memphis,’ Nissa said. ‘Tell him there’s a chance something is about to happen. Tell him to act as if it might be real — that’s all you have to do.’

The elephant cogitated. ‘Perhaps.’

‘Do it!’ Kanu snarled. ‘Goma said we might only be minutes away from the event. It’ll take that long to get a signal back to Zanzibar!’

But then the chime sounded again. On his console, Kanu saw that the point of origin was Paladin space, not Mposi. He raised an eyebrow at Dakota.

‘Someone wants to speak to you.’

It was Memphis, as he guessed it must be. The huge bull filled the wall, projected larger than life. The other Tantors, with the exception of Dakota, lowered their heads in submission.

‘The mirrors have moved,’ Memphis said. ‘They are not pointed at Zanzibar now. They are pointed at Paladin. They are shining light onto the Mandala. We cannot make them stop. What should we do?’

Not all of them, Kanu guessed — the mechanics of their orbits and sight lines would not allow for that. But if someone wished to communicate with the Mandala using light, they needed only one mirror.

‘Memphis,’ Dakota said. ‘I have news… information. You must act upon it with all haste. Zanzibar moved once, when it came from Crucible. Now there is a chance it may move again, and very soon. Communicate with all chambers. Bring all Risen inside as quickly as you can — away from the locks and the berthing core. Zanzibar was very badly damaged during the first translation, and there may be damage during the second… You must be ready, Memphis. Close the great doors, ready the chambers for isolation… prepare to bring the emergency generators into use. You have never been the swiftest of us, Memphis, but you are good and loyal and there is no Risen I would sooner trust with the welfare of our home. You have a slow strength — but you are seldom wrong, and you have never disappointed me.’

106