Hyperion - Orphans Of The Helix Part 4

The yellow-band woman hesitated. No one on board knew the risks to the ship's systems better than this person. A two percent chance of destruction must seem an obscene gamble to her. She touched her lips with her fingers. "There are two civilizations we are deciding for here," she said, obviously musing to herself.

"Possibly three."

"Oam Rai?" repeated Dem Lia.

"Yes," said Oam Rai.

"Kern Loi?" said Dem Lia to the astronomer.

"Yes." The young woman's voice quavered slightly.

"Patek Georg Dem Mio?"

The red-band security specialist grinned. "Yes. As the ancient saying goes, no guts, no glory."

Dem Lia was irritated. "You're speaking for 684,288 sleeping people who might not be so devil-may-care."

Patek Georg's grin stayed in place. "My vote is yes."

"Dr. Samel Ria Kem Ali?"

The medic looked as troubled as Patek had brazen. "I must say ... there are so many unknowns ... " He looked around. "Yes," he said. "We must be sure."

"Peter Delem Dem Tae?" Dem Lia asked the blue-banded psychologist.

The older man had been chewing on a pencil. He looked at it, smiled, and set it on the table. "Yes."

"Res Sandre?"

For a second the other green-band woman's eyes seemed to show defiance, almost anger. Dem Lia steeled herself for the veto and the lecture that would follow.

"Yes," said Res Sandre. "I believe it's a moral imperative."

That left the youngest in the group.

"Den Soa?" said Dem Lia.

The young woman had to clear her throat before speaking. "Yes. Let's go look."

All eyes turned to the appointed commander.

"I vote yes," said Dem Lia. "Saigyo, prepare for maximum acceleration toward the translation point to Hawking drive. Kem Loi, you and Res Sandre and Oam Rai work on the optimum inbound translation point for a systemwide search for life. Chief Branchman Redt, Far Rider, True Voice of the Tree Kasteen, if you would prefer to wait behind, we will prepare the airlock now. If you three wish to come, we must leave immediately."

The Chief Branchman spoke without consulting the others. "We wish to accompany you, Citizen Dem Lia."

She nodded. "Far Rider, tell your people to clear a wide wake. We'll angle above the plane of the ecliptic outward bound, but our fusion tail is going to be fierce as a dragon's breath."

The fully s.p.a.ce-adapted Ouster broadcast, "I have already done so. Many are looking forward to the spectacle."

Dem Lia grunted softly. "Let's hope it's not more of a spectacle than we've all bargained for," she said.

The Helix made the jump safely, with only minor upset to a few of the ship's subsystems. At a distance of three AU's from the surface of the red giant, they surveyed the system. They had estimated two days, but the survey was done in less than twenty-four hours.

There were no hidden planets, no planetoids, no hollowed-out asteroids, no converted comets, no artificial s.p.a.ce habitats -- no sign of life whatsoever. When the G2 star had finished its evolution into a red giant at least three million years earlier, its helium nuclei began burning its own ash in a high-temperature second round of fusion reactions at the star's core while the original hydrogen fusion continued in a thin sh.e.l.l far from that core, the whole process creating carbon and oxygen atoms that added to the reaction and ... presto ... the short-lived rebirth of the star as a red giant. It was obvious that there had been no outer planets, no gas giants, no rocky worlds beyond the new red sun's reach. Any inner planets had been swallowed whole by the expanding star. Outga.s.sing of dust and heavy radiation had all but cleared the solar system of anything larger than nickel-iron meteorites.

"So," said Patek Georg, "that's that."

"Shall I authorize the AI's to begin full acceleration toward the return translation point?" said Res Sandre.

The Ouster diplomats had been moved to the command deck with their specialized couches. No one minded the one-tenth gravity on the bridge because each of the Amoiete Spectrum specialists -- with the exception of Ces Ambre -- was enmeshed in a control couch and in touch with the ship on a variety of levels.

The Ouster diplomats had been silent during most of the search, and they remained silent now as they turned to look at Dem Lia at her center console.

The elected commander tapped her lower lip with her knuckle. "Not quite yet."

Their searches had brought them all around the red giant, and now they were less than one AU from its broiling surface. "Saigyo, have you looked inside the star?"

"Just enough to sample it," came the AI's affable voice. "Typical for a red giant at this stage. Solar luminosity is about two thousand times that of its G8 companion. We sampled the core -- no surprises. The helium nuclei there are obviously engaged despite their mutual electrical repulsion."

"What is its surface temperature?" asked Dem Lia.

"Approximately three thousand degrees Kelvin," came Saigyo's voice. "About half of what the surface temperature had been when it was a G2 sun."

"Oh, my G.o.d," whispered the violet-band Kem Loi from her couch in the astronomy station nexus. "Are you thinking ... "

"Deep-radar the star, please," said Dem Lia.

The graphics holos appeared less than twenty minutes later as the star turned and they orbited it. Saigyo said, "A single rocky world. Still in orbit.

Approximately four-fifths Old Earth's size. Radar evidence of ocean bottoms and former riverbeds."

Dr. Samel said, "It was probably earthlike until its expanding sun boiled away its seas and evaporated its atmosphere. G.o.d help whoever or whatever lived there."

"How deep in the sun's troposphere is it?" asked Dem Lia.

"Less than a hundred and fifty thousand kilometers," said Saigyo.

Dem Lia nodded. "Raise the containment fields to maximum," she said softly.

"Let's go visit them."

It's like swimming under the surface of a red sea, Dem Lia thought as they approached the rocky world. Above them, the outer atmosphere of the star swirled and spiraled, tornadoes of magnetic fields rose from the depths and dissipated, and the containment field was already glowing despite the thirty micromonofilament cables they had trailed out a hundred and sixty thousand klicks behind them to act as radiators.

For an hour the Helix stood off less than twenty thousand kilometers from what was left of what could once have been Old Earth or Hyperion. Various sensors showed the rocky world through the swirling red murk.

"A cinder," said Jon Mikail Dem Alem.

"A cinder filled with life," said Kem Loi at the primary sensing nexus. She brought up the deep-radar holo. "Absolutely honeycombed. Internal oceans of water. At least three billion sentient ent.i.ties. I have no idea if they're humanoid, but they have machines, transport mechanisms, and citylike hives. You can even see the docking port where their harvester puts in every fifty-seven years."

"But still no understandable contact?" asked Dem Lia. The Helix had been broadcasting basic mathematical overtures on every bandwidth, spectrum, and communications technology the ship had -- from radio maser to modulated tachyons. There had been a return broadcast of sorts.

"Modulated gravity waves," explained Ikkyu. "But not responding to our mathematical or geometrical overtures. They are picking up our electromagnetic signals but not understanding them, and we can't decipher their gravitonic pulses."

"How long to study the modulations until we can find a common alphabet?"

demanded Dem Lia.

Ikkyu's lined face looked pained. "Weeks, at least. Months more likely.

Possibly years." The AI returned the disappointed gaze of the humans, Ousters and Templar. "I am sorry," he said, opening his hands. "Humankind has only contacted two sentient alien races before, and they both found ways to communicate with us. These ... beings ... are truly alien. There are too few common referents."

"We can't stay here much longer," said Res Sandre at her engineering nexus.

"Powerful magnetic storms are coming up from the core. And we just can't dissipate the heat quickly enough. We have to leave."

Suddenly Ces Ambre, who had a couch but no station or duties, stood, floated a meter above the deck in the one-tenth g, moaned, and slowly floated to the deck in a dead faint.

Dr. Sam reached her a second before Dem Lia and Den Soa. "Everyone else stay at your stations," said Dem Lia.

Ces Ambre opened her startlingly blue eyes. "They are so different. Not human at all ... oxygen breathers but not like the Seneschai empaths ... modular ...

multiple minds ... so fibrous ... "

Dem Lia held the older woman. "Can you communicate with them?" she said urgently. "Send them images?"

Ces Ambre nodded weakly.

"Send them the image of their harvesting machine and the Ousters," said Dem Lia sternly. "Show them the damage their machine does to the Ouster city cl.u.s.ters. Show them that the Ousters are ... human ... sentient. Squatters, but not harming the forest ring."

Ces Ambre nodded again and closed her eyes. A moment later she began weeping. "They ... are ... so ... sorry," she whispered. "The machine brings back no ... pictures ... only the food and air and water. It is programmed ... as you suggested, Dem Lia ... to eliminate infestations. They are ... so ... so ... sorry for the loss of Ouster life. They offer the suicide of ... of their species ... if it would atone for the destruction."

"No, no, no," said Dem Lia, squeezing the crying woman's hands. "Tell them that won't be necessary." She took the older woman by the shoulders. "This will be difficult, Ces Ambre, but you have to ask them if the harvester can be reprogrammed. Taught to stay away from the Ouster settlements."

Ces Ambre closed her eyes for several minutes. At one point it looked as if she had stopped breathing. Then those lovely eyes opened wide. "It can. They are sending the reprogramming data."

"We are receiving modulated graviton pulses," said Saigyo. "Still no translation possible."

"We don't need a translation," said Dem Lia, breathing deeply. She lifted Ces Ambre and helped her back to her couch. "We just have to record it and repeat it to the Destroyer when we get back." She squeezed Ces Ambre's hand again. "Can you communicate our thanks and farewell?"

The woman smiled. "I have done so. As best I can."

"Saigyo," said Dem Lia. "Get us the h.e.l.l out of here and accelerate full speed to the translation point."

The Helix survived the Hawking s.p.a.ce jump back into the G8 system with no damage. The Destroyer had already altered its trajectory toward populated regions of the forest ring, but Den Soa broadcast the modulated graviton recordings while they were still decelerating, and the giant harvester responded with an indecipherable gravitonic rumble of its own and dutifully changed course toward a remote and unpopulated section of the ring. Far Rider used his tight- beam equipment to show them a holo of the rejoicing on the ring cities, platforms, pods, branches, and towers, then he shut down his broadcast equipment.

They had gathered in the solarium. None of the AIs was present or listening, but the humans, Ousters, and Templar sat in a circle. All eyes were on Ces Ambre.

That woman's eyes were closed.

Den Soa said very quietly, "The beings ... on that world ... they had to build the tree ring before their star expanded. They built the harvesting s.p.a.cecraft. Why didn't they just ... leave?"

"The planet was ... is ... home," whispered Ces Ambre, her eyes still shut tight.

"Like children ... not wanting to leave home ... because it's dark out there. Very dark ... empty. They love ... home." The older woman opened her eyes and smiled wanly.

"Why didn't you tell us that you were Aenean?" Dem Lia said softly.

Ces Ambre's jaw set in resolve. "I am not Aenean. My mother, Dem Loa, gave me the sacrament of Aenea's blood -- through her own, of course -- after rescuing me from the h.e.l.l of St. Theresa. But I decided not to use the Aenean abilities. I chose not to follow the others, but to remain with the Amoiete."

"But you communicated telepathically with ... " began Patek Georg.

Ces Ambre shook her head and interrupted quickly. "It is not telepathy. It is ...

being connected ... to the Void Which Binds. It is hearing the language of the dead and of the living across time and s.p.a.ce through pure empathy. Memories not one's own." The ninety-five-year-old woman who looked middle-aged put her hand on her brow. "It is so tiring. I fought for so many years not to pay attention to the voices ... to join in the memories. That is why the cryogenic deep sleep is so ... restful."

"And the other Aenean abilities?" Dem Lia asked, her voice still very soft.

"Have you freecast?"

Ces Ambre shook her head, with her hand still shielding her eyes. "I did not want to learn the Aenean secrets," she said. Her voice sounded very tired.

"But you could if you wanted to," said Den Soa, her voice awestruck. "You could take one step -- freecast -- and be back on Vitus-Gray-Balia.n.u.s B or Hyperion or Tau Ceti Center or Old Earth in a second, couldn't you?"

Ces Ambre lowered her hand and looked fiercely at the young woman. "But I won't."

"Are you continuing with us in deep sleep to our destination?" asked the other green-band, Res Sandre. "To our final Spectrum Helix colony?"

"Yes," said Ces Ambre. The single word was a declaration and a challenge.

"How will we tell the others?" asked Jon Mikail Dem Alem. "Having an Aenean ... a potential Aenean ... in the colony will change ... everything."

Dem Lia stood. "In my final moments as your consensus-elected commander, I could make this an order, Citizens. Instead, I ask for a vote. I feel that Ces Ambre and only Ces Ambre should make the decision as to whether or not to tell our fellow Spectrum Helix family about her ... gift. At any time after we reach our destination." She looked directly at Ces Ambre. "Or never, if you so choose."

Dem Lia turned to look at each of the other eight. "And we shall never reveal the secret. Only Ces Ambre has the right to tell the others. Those in favor of this, say aye."

It was unanimous.

Dem Lia turned to the standing Ousters and Templar. "Saigyo a.s.sures me that none of this was broadcast on your tightbeam."

Far Rider nodded.

"And your recording of Ces Ambres's contact with the aliens through the Void Which Binds?"

"Destroyed," broadcast the four-meter Ouster.

Ces Ambre stepped closer to the Ousters. "But you still want some of my blood ... some of Aenea's sacramental DNA. You still want the choice."

Chief Branchman Keel Redt's long hands were shaking. "It would not be for us to decide to release the information or allow the sacrament to be distributed ...