Thirty-nine
Myla left Jeremy and Jeep on the surface of the red
dwarf and the courier circling in orbit. She rode alone aboard a skiff to
the Hive communication and command module, a sphere the size of a small
world adrift ten light-years from the nearest star, and twenty from her
red dwarf. Distance did nothing to attenuate her interface with Dikki, and she
ordered the MI to remain entirely passive, suspecting the Hive might
inadvertently allow him entrance by virtue of their neural web during the
automatic docking interface.
When she boarded the module, spider-like machines
tried to move in and physically restrain her. Dikki's counter
instructions froze the machines in place, and an executive program
conflict alarm radiated through the web. But the Hive knew of Myla's
skill at usurping authority and for this moment in time, and in this
place, they backed off and tolerated the invasion.
She proceeded down a corridor of open web work of
conduit and support beams to a mesh deck. Devices on two sides emitted a
comfortable infrared heat, a source of energy for her. A field-contained
atmosphere made it possible for her to speak audibly. Gravity was only a
tiny fraction of human standard. None of this was of any immediate
consequence to her.
The Hive tried to communicate by throwing a vast
parallel databank of information at her in machine code. Myla responded
in the same code, but only to the extent that she pointed out that Boris
had long-standing experience communicating with humans and would best
serve as an intermediary between them. When the Hive agreed, Gorlon
Hague's protest through back channels went unnoticed.
Through Boris, the Hive reiterated its demand.
Submit to destruction, or Hive resources would be committed to the
annihilation of the human species on all known worlds. It was a strategy
that had worked once for reasons the Hive did not understand. As far as
they could determine, it would work again. "You are a potential threat to
Hive security that cannot be calculated," Boris said. "Your presence
cannot be tolerated within the Hive's sphere of influence."
"I concur. I am an abomination in the eyes of my own
people. Covonia will die because of me, and I cannot act quickly enough
to save them. I have only one option that will stop the chain reaction of
destruction I have caused. I will commit myself to the void, but only if
you cease hostilities against humanity.”
“Agreed,” Boris said a brief moment later.
“I must add an inconsequential condition to this
agreement. I have three charges in my care. They must be released
unharmed. Two must be returned to Bolphan. I do not know how to
communicate with the third. She is not human and must be free to leave in
any way she chooses."
"The others are of no concern to the Hive,” Boris
said. “Your condition is acceptable."
Myla sensed Gorlon Hague's approach before he emerged
from the darkness. Although not nearly as ominous as Khalin Nome's
avatar, Gorlon Hague's mechanical exterior had once struck a far greater
note of fear in the child she had been. Now, he was only grotesque to her
eyes.
"The third party to which Myla refers is the sole
passenger of the alien craft that crashed on Covonia and I believe it to
be the party for which the alien vessels search even now," Gorlon told the
Hive. "It may have become an ally of the girl. You cannot allow
it to escape you."
Myla felt the Hive spinning in the electronic
equivalent of a whirlpool of mathematical recalculations. Gorlon's
protest would force the Hive to
rethink everything.
Myla turned to face Gorlon. "Jeep is no threat to
the Hive or to human populations. I will not allow her to be harmed."
"You are in no position to defend the creature,"
Gorlon growled at her on his subchannel. He turned away from her and
spoke confidently to the Hive. "Neither should Jeremy Kael be allowed to
return to Bolphan and communicate to the Alliance details of the Hive's
defeat. Hive security would be compromised by knowledge of the warcraft
configuration this monster used against you."
"What about the mud dragon, General Hague?"
Myla said quietly. "Is there
some reason for it, too, to be destroyed?"
Myla took note that all but one Hive warcraft
surrounding the station begin to move away. She understood what was
happening. Hague hadn’t noticed.
"You have considerable rapport with the Hive, General
Hague. Have you forgotten that it places no value on individual life? It
was willing to negotiate with me. Now that you have interfered in that
process, it has only one effective means to ensure my destruction."
It took Gorlon a moment to realize that he had sealed
his own fate, that the Hive would blow up the entire station to see them
both destroyed. He bowed his head.
"So be it."
Myla sensed his willingness and even his eagerness to
die. He thought he had sacrificed himself to save humanity.
Dikki interceded to stop the same engine
destabilization that Myla had used to destroy a Hive outpost. The Hive
executive program reacted to the momentary deadlock by issuing a series of
commands to equipment that had been isolated before her arrival. Her
ability to interface with Hive equipment had been anticipated and blocked
long enough to ensure her destruction.
Myla searched for an alternate means to save
herself. Only the executive program itself could intervene in the
self-destruction sequence, and Boris was her only remaining access to that
program.
She focused, not on Boris the machine, but Boris the
crippled consciousness that pondered what it meant to be human. Boris had
the strongest sense of identity she had ever sensed in a machine, and a
strong focus to that dim awareness that could almost be called a mind.
"You've always wondered what it would be like to be
one of us," Myla said. "I don't know how much of his you will be able to
retain in your memory system, but I will show you what it means to be
human. Share the vision with the Hive. They have to understand that more
is at stake than their infernal calculations."
Myla interfaced with the machine in a way that had
nothing to do with neural webs and data transfer. She opened a window of
consciousness into a universe those orphaned minds had never imagined.
Gorlon Hague perceived nothing but sudden and total
quiet.
"What's happening?"
The Hive paused, enraptured by its interface with
Boris, and with Myla. For the first time since its manufacture, its
numerical processors had fallen silent. She could feel through Dikki that
the generator unbalance had been momentarily restored.
“Your qualia cannot be calculated,” Boris said
suddenly. "The Hive cannot calculate an accurate assessment and determine
a clear course of action. None is deemed necessary in relation to this
new phenomenon. Now, we understand."
Gorlon Hague's mechanical prostheses suddenly
faltered. He collapsed to the deck in the light gravity.
"Don't kill him," Myla said. "Remove his prostheses
and provide him with passive life support. I will speak with him. If he
can help to alleviate the threat humanity poses to the Hive and can help
resolve the need for war, I will return him to his people to do so."
Mechanical spiders scurried across the deck and
dragged off the Gorlon Hague's mechanical body. In time, a spider
approached with a handled urn containing the living remains of what
had once been a man. The life-support container was placed at her feet. Myla stared
down at it with a grimace, appalled at how tenaciously Gorlon Hague
managed to cling to life.
"Will you return to human service?" Myla asked of
Boris. "The General may need your help."
"I am released to human service," Boris rumbled
gently among her thoughts. "The Hive is recalculating the threat humanity
poses to the executive programming. No further hostilities will be
initiated."
She picked up the container, turned, and hurried
away. The machinery around her made no move to stop her on her walk back
to the courier.
"Is everything okay?" she asked of Dikki on the
return voyage in the skiff to the red dwarf.
"I do not think so. The alien vessels are in motion," Dikki said. "They
converge upon our location."
Against the background of the universe moved a vast
arc of emerald stars.
