Chasing Solace Read online

  “They’re torturing them,” said Opal, her voice hoarse.

  “In some cases, yes. It is part of breaking the will. A raft of systems can do that with a hundred per cent success, creating inroads for reprogramming. I said inbuilt obsolescence: some are mental shutdowns, some are surgical shutdowns, and various combinations. The torture is just a side effect of the research goals in other cases. I should add that it is not only humans involved. There is obsolescence programming research being done on various species. And at various scales, from whole being and psyche shutdowns, to encoded commands at the gene level. Other projects are shutdowns for robotics, cyborgs, and AIs, beyond what currently exists. There is even a division dedicated to inbuilt obsolescence of consumer products. This is a whole sub-science, not just a research project into things that already exist. I think we are looking at a piece of a puzzle. An isolated piece that makes little sense until it is put into place. At present, I am at a loss.”

  “Can we save them? Get in there, free the people, take out the bastards doing all this?”

  “Not unless you are willing to sacrifice your primary mission. Our chances of finding your sister are already slender, despite the optimism I often portray in order to keep your spirits up. To free everyone and try to rescue them in some way ... That cannot be done quietly. That cannot be done quickly. Without a huge amount of resources, that cannot be done at all.”

  The screens all reverted to temperature and weather displays. Athene being considerate. But Opal could not loosen the fists her hands had formed.

  “I am sorry, Opal. Sorry in many ways. You have done what you needed to do here, I can manage the rest of the work. Please return to me now.”

  OPAL WAS BACK ON THE terrible ice, head down and hands thrust into pockets, but this time she hardly felt the cold. She hardly noticed the blackness beneath her feet. Because, after all, the blackness had been there all along, and the cold was likely to last a long time.

  “I had considered not telling you,” said Athene in her earpiece, “but I didn’t want to deceive you any more than I wanted to share information that would hurt you. Perhaps not all knowledge is good.”

  “Oh, it is. We need it so we know how to act.”

  “And what is publicly acknowledged is obviously not the truth.”

  “The military is no better. We’re told about honour and about protecting, but I can see why they don’t use specifics for what we’re protecting.”

  “If it is any consolation, few people see through that. My analysis of historical records, after discounting those which are obviously fabricated, suggests that the military branch of governments exists mostly as a tool for those in power to protect and expand their vested interests, variously defined. To hold or acquire territory for tactical reasons, or for the resources they hold. To shut down opposition. To spy, to enforce, and as the ultimate hammer to squash things with. Or perhaps I am being cynical. That may be a trait I inherited from you.”

  Opal shook her head as she crunched over the smaller crystals coating the icy surface. “I never fitted in. Always this lingering suspicion that I couldn’t trust what I was told but I couldn’t say why I felt that way, why the Genitors creeped me out, why it felt wrong when they said I wasn’t as good as other people. I couldn’t argue against it, so I just fought back. And now it seems that all along I was working for people I’d rather kill than obey. Remember when Grubane offered me all the answers I wanted, if I submitted? I’m so glad I didn’t take that deal. To know and then not be able to act ... it’d kill me. You can’t go back. It doesn’t work.”

  She trudged on through the near-darkness. A small tracked robot trundled out of her way as it returned to the base after loading supplies into Athene’s small storage hold.

  “Not acting is what kills me,” Opal muttered. “Always.”

  Opal scurried through the now-black valley to where Athene waited, and she didn’t care if she slipped any more. What right did she have to walk away so free and unharmed?

  The airlock slid open silently. After it had cycled she stepped into the warmth of Athene’s interior, and threw the breather onto the bottom bunk.

  “We can’t rescue them?” Opal repeated.

  “No.”

  “Then can we kill them? What if I suited up and went in?”

  Athene did not answer straight away. When she eventually did, she sounded cautious. “Our original plan, of getting the supplies and getting away by stealth – that would fail.”

  “Plans change. Mine always do. I just can’t leave them to be tortured. I’d want someone to do the same for me. So I ask again. Can we kill them? And can we still try and find my sister?”

  “There is a way. But it will attract attention.”

  “I’m listening.”

  Athene sighed. “I could override all safeties and overcharge the energy rods so they generate extreme heat and begin liquefying the ice.”

  “Right. So the base sinks. But ... No. Slowly burning and drowning isn’t a pleasant way to die. I don’t want the prisoners to suffer even more.”

  “That’s why I would also need to overload the reactor. It is tricky, but possible, if I use a number of robots as my hands for the manual parts. The resultant explosion would be fast and relatively painless. The base itself would become a molten, radioactive nugget under kilometres of ice, so could never be used again by the UFS.”

  “But they’ll know what we did.”

  “It would have to be done a specific way to obfuscate our presence. I could make sure some of the processes match those used by Entropic Screeners in their own attacks on the UFS. If I fake logs and communications so that further fingerprints point their way, then there will be no reason to suspect us.”

  “Pin the blame on freedom fighters and give them a credibility boost. You are a wonder, Athene.”

  “This has to be what you really want. It is a major act with repercussions. I know you. Leaving them will haunt you. But so will doing this.”

  “My choices are never easy.” Opal slumped onto the lower bunk, looking down at her feet. “I don’t suppose you have any advice? You being so wise, and all?”

  “Less wise, and more of an expert at logical analysis. But I do not know what to say. I have tried to understand human ethics and guidance systems, and they all seem to fall into one of two opposed categories, neither of which convince me.”

  “I’ll take whatever you got.”

  “Well, some humans believe in fixed rules and duties, regardless of consequences. ‘Thou shalt not.’ But those ethics are inflexible when facing the real world, with rigid rules leading to the worst outcomes, such as refusing to lie even when it could save a life. And even within this mindset there is mass hypocrisy, since my observations suggest that those who claim to believe in fixed rules will break their own rules when it benefits them. For example, they may say killing is wrong, but then make convenient exceptions when they want to go to war, or to execute people, or to exploit another being in some way.”

  “Sounds like a lot of individuals I’ve had the misfortune to meet.”

  “And, considering your psychological profile, I don’t think rule-following suits you.”

  “You got me. What’s the other type?”

  “Other humans forego fixed rules and instead look at the consequences of their actions, trying to make choices that create the most happiness, as if that is the most important thing. But that leads to overcomplicated systems and choices that are still often based on bias and selfishness. It is strange for a moral system to say the outcome has more importance than the motivation.”

  “That doesn’t help me decide what to do either. It just makes me depressed.”

  “I am sorry. It is a revelation to me that moral decisions, freely made, can be so difficult, and the options so imperfect. But I did draw one conclusion. I suspect that wisdom and justice exist somewhere between the two extremes. And the being that puts the major needs of others before the minor ones of themselves is
likely to be the good being.”

  Opal closed her eyes. She took a deep breath. She nodded.

  “I can feel awful for what I did, or for what I didn’t do. It’s all the same in this world. Okay. Do it. Put them all out of their misery.”

  Euthanising

  < 45 >

  EXIDRIS 3 HAD A FAST axial rotation. It was dawn when Athene executed her plan, and executed the base. It had only taken her a few hours to put everything in place.

  She lifted off as the rods began to overheat and the reactor moved towards critical. Toxic steam rolled over the surface buildings in a billowing cloud. It would not harm Athene. She would be long gone before anything that could damage her occurred.

  “Turn off the display,” Opal said.

  It blinked out immediately, the terrible sinking destruction becoming a blank slate.

  Opal did not want to see it happen. Did not want to dwell on it. Even though dwelling on it was all she would do every time she closed her eyes.

  They had what they came for, including the main payload that sat at the end of the walkway. A single connection in Athene’s complex network of steps to get them through The Cordon. Opal didn’t like looking at that either. It was wired into Athene’s monitoring systems to make sure it stayed stable, yet in the long run it represented death. And there was enough of that going around.

  Opal tried to eat something, but all she could bring herself to do was chew, not swallow. She spat the food back into her bowl, stared at it for a few seconds, then threw it into recyc and began to pace again.

  “You reckon life has always been like this?” Opal asked, just to break the silence that her head filled all too quickly with unwanted images.

  “Which part?”

  “UFS fucking us over.”

  “UFS Central is the overarching government you know, but long ago there was a multitude of regimes coexisting. Obviously they operated on a much smaller scale, from what I can gather – which isn’t as much as I would like, since many parts of that history have been expunged from the records. And yet, despite the variety, the end result was often the same. The people I told you about earlier, the Athenians, were primitive experimenters in a system they called democracy. They believed everyone had a say in things. But they were not telling the truth, because they excluded many groups from having a voice: women, slaves, foreigners, and others.”

  “Kind of like now, with the Genitor failures, the low rankers, the excludeds who can’t get to senior levels?”

  “Exactly. It is called a caste system when you are born into it. Later governments said they perfected this democracy ideology because they opened it up to more types of people. But, in turn, they reduced the amount of say each person had. Athenians allowed every citizen to speak about all the major issues, and to vote on them. Later democracies changed so that years’ worth of decisions were reduced to a single vote, with it being unclear what choices would be made as a result of it.”

  “This world I’m in ... that both of us are in. We never chose it to be set up like this. No-one asked us.”

  “I think that has always been the case. Beings should not be bound by the decisions of others, but we all are. There is nowhere to run that has not been claimed, that is free of it. You cannot opt out without a fight. But the Athenians were part of a people called the Hellenes, and they also talked about another idea, that they called ‘autonomy’. It means ‘living under your own laws’. That is what you try to do, I think. And that is why you always have to struggle. It is a good job that you are an efficient warrior. And that you have me to help you.”

  “Fighting all the time is tiring.”

  “Then rest, for now. I will watch over you.”

  Exidris 3 was behind them but Opal felt like a piece of her had been left there. If that process of chipping away continued, she wondered what would be left by the end.

  Evading

  < 44 >

  THE JOURNEY THROUGH Nullspace was uneventful. Opal had the screens display the blank black exterior views anyway. They matched her mood.

  She exercised whenever she wasn’t asleep. She had to be prepared for what was coming, the extremes her body might face. Stretches were always good in the cramped interior, where everything felt tight and needed release. She didn’t like restrictions. She wore loose trousers and a vest when she worked out, feet bare. She’d just finished arching over backwards and planting her hands on the floor in a bridge shape. She hadn’t tried to speak in that position. It was a fragile bridge.

  “We’re approaching The Cordon, right?” she asked, as she now sat with legs splayed wide, and began slowly pulling her upper body forwards one palm at a time as she exhaled.

  “Yes. Exactly on schedule,” said Athene.

  The Cordon Perimeter extended around all the core Sector Government systems which contained Nullspace nodes. Those core UFS territories housed militarised orbital stations with long-range scanning abilities, complements of fast response craft, and heavy weapon installations. The stations were also coordinating points for the masses of scan glitter that spread across the areas too distant to be worth patrolling regularly. The glitter acted as an invisible web of passive-energy detectors. Anyone making the mistake of sending vibrations along that web would soon find an unwanted response from the dangerous forces that sat and waited.

  Opal’s chest now rested against the warm metal of the flooring grates. Her inner thighs ached but it distracted her from worries that chased their tails in endless circles.

  Mostly.

  “I don’t think anyone’s ever got through it undetected,” said Opal.

  She hugged her legs in, releasing the stretch.

  “Are you worried?” asked Athene.

  “No,” said Opal.

  Muscle-building work was more of a problem in the low-g environment. Athene could increase the gravity but it used a lot more energy and Opal couldn’t justify that for a single purpose (though when she slept Athene dropped the gravity and life support to minimum in all regions apart from Opal’s sealed bunk). Callisthenics did little unless she performed a crazy number of reps, so she considered the best muscle workouts to be combat exercises. Keep hammering patterns and moves until they become instinctive.

  She went to the weapons cabinets and opened the one containing the Eternal Warrior suit she’d worn during her boarding of the Lost Ship. She ran her hand over the curved armour plates. It was scratched and burnt in places, but intact apart from one of the nanoblades that had been broken off during an encounter with an impossibly strong alien. The suit was probably going to be sacrificed during Athene’s plans to get them through the security regions of mil-space. There was a second, pristine, suit, but the potential loss was still depressing. This suit had protected her life on many occasions.

  She removed a serrated knife from a weapons rack to the side of the door, then slid the blade from its sheathe.

  “You’re hoping to sneak through the scan glitter at the Tecant mining system, right?” she asked, holding the blade edge up to the light to admire its sharpness.

  “Yes. The plan incorporates that.”

  Opal began with various kata. Her body moved fluidly, the steps and turns punctuated by fast, straight blows with a knife, palm, or foot.

  “Doesn’t Tecant have an Ellond tower monitoring the scan glitter there?” Opal asked as she switched to close-range strikes with elbows and knees.

  “Yes, there is a fully functional Ellond resonant receiver at the edge of the asteroid belt.” After a pause, Athene added, “The Ellond tower is over a thousand metres tall.”

  Opal’s body was warming now. She imagined her attacks being blocked, so practised swinging punches with trajectories that would get around a shield or forearm. It was a chance to change knife positions during strikes. She stayed springy, using the balls of her feet to perform spinning reverse roundhouse kicks that could evade attacks and retaliate at the same time. Her heel clanged off the metal edge of a bunk when she misjudged the cram
ped quarters, but she refused to hiss in pain, and just carried on with the next evasion and strike.

  “You seem tense,” said Athene. “If we are slow and careful and divert their attention as planned, then we will create an opening we can slip through. It will be fine.”

  “I’m not tense,” replied Opal.

  “Nervous, then?”

  “No!”

  Now Opal imagined multiple opponents attacking her in the confined space, training her reflexes which had saved her life many times before. Faster and faster she struck and turned until the sweat sheened her skin.

  “And this system has a complement of long-range fighter craft?” Opal asked as she pummelled at an imaginary torso.

  “Right, that’s it!” The knife flew out of Opal’s hand and clanged against a ceiling plate that Athene had obviously magnetised.

  “What’s up with you?” asked Opal.

  “You’re worried because you’ve never heard of anyone getting through it undetected? I like to think of it a different way.”

  Opal felt foolish now that she’d been disarmed. She could jump up and reach the knife handle but no doubt it would be locked in place until Athene chose to release it. Opal put her empty hands on her hips. “Go on.”

  “That is also how it would appear if lots of people had been successful in passing through, undetected. Trust me. Even though I know that’s hard for you.”

  Opal sighed. “Can I have my knife back please?”

  It dropped suddenly. Opal twisted out of the way and snatched the handle smartly as it passed. But she didn’t feel like training any more.

  THEY REACHED THE TECANT system.

  Athene’s fuel consumption and timing estimates were perfect.