The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [111]
Harry smiled. ‘I think I’d put a good-sized bet on it.’
‘The Great Hub is a critical multinode,’ said Reski Emantes. ‘And it’s in hyperspace and well away from the main ship trails. But it is also guarded by four of the Hegemony’s elite attack cruisers – which explains the Vor ships. No way to know what variants they are, fluxers or burners, but in any case both are armed with fearsome energy disruptors.’
‘The Great Hub has some other respectable defences, I understand,’ said Harry.
‘And AI guardians,’ the drone added. ‘It seems logical to assume that those vermax will play a crucial role in Talavera’s plan.’
Harry rubbed his hands. ‘Good, excellent – when do we leave?’
‘Your eagerness is laudable but entirely impractical,’ said Reski Emantes. ‘The Great Hub’s systems are protected by three distinct levels of encrypted access and the gatekeepers are a mixture of organic and AI processors.’
‘No encrypted system is entirely invulnerable.’
‘True, but every intrusion has its price and hacking the Great Hub could turn out to be costly.’
‘But if we can stop Talavera, no cost is too high,’ Julia said.
Harry regarded her with a thoughtful smile. ‘I can see why you would say that,’ he said. ‘Talavera has already caused immense suffering and must be neutralised.’
Yes, but she couldn’t have done all that without the Enhanced, without me, she thought. Shouldn’t I be punished too?
‘That is so,’ she said in a level voice. ‘So what must we do in order to find a way in?’
‘We’ll need the decryption mole to end all decryption moles,’ Harry said. ‘A super-decrypter, or über-decrypter if you will.’
The drone was unimpressed. ‘Which may entail grubby deals with unlicensed softbrokers in the Underglow.’
‘Well, that is half the fun, after all.’
‘What’s the Underglow?’ Julia said.
‘A patchwork of unregistered and illegal virtualities,’ Reski Emantes said. ‘Traders in porn, plagiarism and plagiaristic porn … ’
‘Venues where non-mainstream artists can find an audience,’ Harry countered. ‘And where a kind of amateur commerce can flourish … ’
A high musical chime sounded and the drone broke off to investigate.
‘Interesting,’ it said. ‘A breaking-newscast from Citivox on Daliborka. Looks like they’ve received a new report from the Darien system … ’
The large overhanging holopanel switched to the same veehost as before.
‘With each succeeding report,’ the host began, ‘Kaphiri Farag seems to be setting the bar of action journalism higher and higher. With this latest exclusive, received less than half an hour ago, Mr Farag has raised himself to the very pinnacle of his profession.’
The image switched to a view of the planet Darien, titled as such and set against the dust swirls of the Huvuun Deepzone, with a backdrop of hazy stars burning through misty interstellar veils. A voice-over commenced.
‘Darien, a world colonised by Humans fleeing the deadly Achorga onslaught, hardy settlers who by the sweat of their brow and sheer grit and determination built their settlements, towns and cities, places to live in and raise new generations. Yet the colonyship which reached this world was one of three such vessels, whose fates have remained a mystery.
‘Until now.’
The image changed to another section of the starry depths just as a knot of distortion twisted a patch of faintly radiant dust-cloud swirls. The knot opened out and a large irregular shape appeared. At first glance it seemed to be nothing more than a large asteroid, cast in sharp relief by the light of the sun. Then Julia saw that the sunlight was reflecting from clusters of gleaming, glittering points and surfaces and when the magnification suddenly jumped forward everything was revealed. The asteroid had been adapted by sentient hands, its exterior encrusted with vents and ducts, improvised cableways, machinery housings, a variety of small shiny domes, outcrops of mysterious assemblies, innumerable antennae, dishes and sensors, and on every surface characters that Julia realised were Earth-Asiatic, possibly Chinese.
‘With my surveillance