The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [107]
Their host turned towards her, altered its appearance to that of a flattened glassy sphere and floated over.
‘Are you the Julia Bryce from the Darien colony world?’ Clusters of multicoloured pinpoints glowed in patterns within as it spoke. ‘You were the product of a genetic-engineering programme, and escaped Darien in the company of others like you – is that correct?’
‘These details are generally factual, yes,’ she said as they descended the stone steps.
‘My superior, the Construct, has had its loyalists searching for you for several objective days,’ Reski Emantes said. ‘Yet you are here as a fractalised sentience. Does this mean that your physical form is dead? Were you murdered?’
‘Her story is an involved one,’ Harry said. ‘But before that, tell me what happened back at that droid repair shop. And just how did you get in and out with us?’
Patterns raced in the floating glass drone, soft glows and sharp glitters.
‘Someone traced the coded message you sent to me,’ it said. ‘And someone else tracked you from Copernicus University. I think both were sniffers reporting to someone who sprang that netlaw operation while you were on your way. At the same time I was the target of a pincer hit – my online presence was dismembered by a reaper hack while my real-world counterpart was destroyed by a sniper using T9 rounds.’
Harry raised an eyebrow. ‘Tetranine is highly prohibited on metropolitan worlds like Earth.’
‘Indeed. The sniper fired three rounds, wrecked half of the building my counterpart was in and killed at least thirty-nine others. Casualty reports keep bumping that number upwards.’
‘Which brings us to you,’ Harry said.
‘I always maintain an updated partial copy,’ the drone said. ‘I had enough time to activate it then escape-hatch out to my secure bunker here on board the good airship Cloudtrekker. From here I traced your activities, hacked into the local netlaw system, snatched you to containment on the regional netlaw server then had you vectored to my ever-so-humble abode.’
Julia smiled. ‘Humble or not, it feels appropriate.’
‘Sadly this is a cut-down version of what I had to leave behind,’ Reski said. ‘Which sharpens my eagerness to find out who is behind these attacks.’
Harry gave Julia a look. ‘Talavera?’
‘I know that name,’ said the drone. ‘Tell me more.’
As they stood at the foot of the stairs, Julia briefly summarised her experiences since leaving Darien, specifically highlighting her encounters and clashes with Corazon Talavera. It was almost an effort to mention the thermonuclear missiles and the destruction of the Brolturan battleship, yet easier to go over the immersion in Talavera’s virtual prison and the desperate translation from organic existence to that of a fractalised sentience. Who was unsure if the feelings she felt were real any more.
‘Talavera is a name that has been cropping up more and more in back-channel tittle-tattle,’ said the drone. ‘From your account she seems very capable of inflicting the hindrances you’ve been suffering.’
‘She’s not been working alone,’ Julia said. ‘I recall that she mentioned something about an ally called the Godhead. Does that mean anything?’
Harry and the drone exchanged a thoughtful look.
‘It could,’ said Harry. ‘Combine that with the weird vermax manifestations you mentioned and it could be, well, very significant.’
‘Well, we know that Talavera is planning something big,’ Julia said. ‘An act of brutal slaughter on an epic scale.’
‘Using anti-dark matter, yes?’ the drone said. ‘That is horrific enough in its own right, and the involvement of those vermax is bad enough – but the Godhead, too? Ominous news. Talavera could even be an instrument of the Godhead, an ephemeral host. The fact that Vor were escorting her ship is strong corroboration. And since she is also in possession of your Enhanced friends, as well as your own body and its brain – which is a stroke of genius – she has an immense amount of organically based computing power