Chapter 39 Chapter Thirty-eight
Today we come to the Marsh Wastes, which I recognize as the plain surrounding the city of Rome.To celebrate, my cough flared up again, and when it finally stopped, I threw up a big puddle of blood.A big beach.Lee Hunter stayed by my side, full of concern, full of disappointment.As I spasmed, he held my shoulders, wiped my clothes with a rag soaked in a nearby creek, and asked, "What can I do?"
"Pick some flowers from the field," I panted. "That's what Joseph Seven did."
He turned away angrily.He didn't realize that even in my feverish and exhausted state, I was telling the truth.
Carts and weary horses crossed the plains of Rome, now more painfully crashing and rattling than ever.In the afternoon, we encountered some horse skeletons on the road, then the ruins of a dilapidated inn, then the remains of a huge plank road covered with moss, and finally pillars, as if they were nailed there white sticks.
"What the hell is that?" Hunter asked, unaware of it.
"The wreck of a bandit," I said truthfully.
Hunter stared at me as if my mind had bowed to the disease.Maybe.
Afterwards, we climbed out of the wilds of the Roman plain and caught a glimpse of a little red in the far fields.
"What's that?" Hunter asked, earnestly and hopefully.I know he wants to see people at any moment, or a teleporter in action afterward.
"," I replied, and I spoke the truth, "birds of hunting."
Hunter plugged into his poor crippled comlog. "The cardinal is a bird," he said.
I nodded and looked west, but the red dot had disappeared. "Priest too," I said. "Look, we're heading for Rome."
Hunter frowned at me, trying for the thousandth time to get in touch with someone on the comm band of his comlog.The afternoon was quiet save for the rhythmic creak of the mastula's wooden wheels and the distant chirping of songbirds.Perhaps, the Cardinal?
When the first red light of night touches the clouds, we are in Rome.The trolley swayed and rumbled through the Lateran gates, and almost immediately we saw the Colosseum, overgrown with ivy, apparently a colony for thousands of pigeons, but it was true The sight is far more impressive than a hologram of the ruins.It stands here, not in the filth of a post-war city surrounded by gigantic eco-buildings, but in stark contrast to the clusters of cottages and open fields around it, where the city ends and the countryside begins.I can see Rome in the distance... sparse roofs and small ruins, located on the legendary seven hills.But here, the Colosseum reigns supreme.
"Jesus," whispered Lee Hunter, "what's this thing?"
"The wreckage of the bandit," I said slowly, fearful of provoking that terrible cough again.
We walked on, galloping, through the deserted streets of nineteenth-century old Rome, night enveloping us, the light dimming, and pigeons circling over the domes and roofs of the Eternal City.
"Where's everyone else?" Hunter whispered.There was fear in his voice.
"They're not here because they're not needed," I said.My voice sounded shrill in the dim valley of city streets.Now the wheels were on cobblestones, which wasn't much smoother than the rough rocky road we'd just escaped.
"Is this a stimulus simulation?" he asked.
"Stop." I said, and the obedient horse stopped.I pointed to a big rock by the side of the ditch and said to Hunter, "Kick that rock."
He frowned at me, but walked on, walked up to the stone, and kicked it hard.A flock of pigeons, awakened by the echo of Hunter's curses, huffed away from the clock tower and the ivy towards the sky.
"You've proven, like Dr. Johnson, that these things are real," I said. "It's not a stimulus simulation. It's not a dream. It's just the rest of our lives, really."
"Why did they bring us here?" asked the CEO's aide, looking up at the sky as if the gods were listening on a pastel-painted fence of faded evening clouds. "What do they want?"
They want me dead, I thought, and knowing that fact, I felt someone punch me in the chest.I breathe slowly, avoiding a coughing fit, but I feel phlegm bubbling in my throat.They want me dead, they want you to watch.
The mare continued her long drag, and on the next narrow street she turned right, then right again, and entered a wide avenue full of shadows and the sound of our passing. echo.Finally, we stopped at the top of a huge flight of stairs.
"Here we are," I said, struggling to get out of the carriage.My legs were cramping, my chest was aching, my hip was sore.In my head came the opening words of a satirical ode to the joys of travel.
Hunter came out, stiff as I was, and stood at the top of the great forked staircase, arms folded, glaring at them as if they were a trap, or some illusion. "Severn, this...what the hell...is this place?"
I pointed to a piazza at the bottom of the stairs. "Plaza de España," I replied.I suddenly felt strange hearing Hunter call me "Severn".By the time we passed the Rutland Gate, I had already felt that the name was no longer my own.Or, to be more precise, my real name suddenly became my own again.
"In a few years," I said, "these will be called the Spanish Steps." I started walking down the steps on the right.A sudden dizziness hit me, I staggered, and Hunter rushed forward and grabbed my arm.
"You can't walk," he said, "you're too sick."
I pointed to the wall of a mottled old building across the broad steps, facing the square. "Not far. Hunter. That's where we're headed."
Pleasant Stone's assistant turned to the building with a sad face. "Where is that? Why are we going there? What's waiting for us there?"
I couldn't help laughing when I heard the homophony he used unconsciously and heard these few poetic words.Suddenly I imagined a picture - of us surviving the long night in the dark sprawling building, and I taught him the technique of rhyme and rhyme breaks, or the joy of using iambic and iambic unaccented interchangeably, or the frequent use of Young Yang's self-indulgence.
I started coughing, coughing and coughing, and finally spattered a big mouthful of blood on my palm and shirt.
Hunter helped me down the steps and across the plaza.In the dark, Bernini's boat-shaped fountain made the sound of gurgling water.Under the instructions of my fingers, Hunter led me into the dark square door—the door of No. 26 Plaza de España—I couldn’t help thinking of Dante’s "Divine Comedy", and seemed to see the phrase "LASCIATE OGNE SPERANZA, VOICH'INTRATE" - "Entering this place, you should abandon all desires" - was chiseled on the cold lintel of the door.
Saul Weintrabo stood at the entrance of the Sphinx, shaking his fist at the world.As night fell, the entrance to the Tomb of Time shone brightly, but his daughter was gone.
Gone forever.
The Shrike took her, held her newborn body in his steel palms, and stepped back into the light that was pushing even Thor away now, like some terrible brilliance blown from the depths of the planet .Thor resisted the whirlwind of light, but it shut him out like a containment field out of control.
The Hyperion sun has set, and now a cold wind blows from the wilderness.The fronts of cold air that slide down the mountains and march southward also drive the winds over the desert.Thor turned to look at the vermilion sands, blown into the blinding searchlight of the open Tombs of Time.
The open grave of time!
Thor squinted in the cold light, looking down into the valley where the other Tombs of Time shone like pale green jack-o'-lanterns hidden under their sandy curtains.Light and long shadows leaped across the valley, and overhead the clouds had spent the last of the sunset's color, and night fell with howling winds.
Something moves at the entrance to the second building, the Emerald Tomb.Thor staggered down the steps of the Sphinx, glanced back toward the entrance, where the Shrike had disappeared with her daughter, and left the steps.He ran past the paws of the sphinx, and staggered down the windswept path toward the Emerald Tomb.
Something was slowly coming out of the oval entrance, and the beam from the Tomb of Time showed its silhouette, but Thor still couldn't tell if it was a person or a Shrike.If it was the Shrike, he would grab it with his bare hands and shake it until it returned to his daughter, or fight to the death.
But that's not the Shrike.
Thor could now see that the silhouette was human.The man staggered forward, leaning against the entrance of the Emerald Tomb, he seemed injured, perhaps tired.
It's a young woman.
Saul remembered that Rachel had been in this place more than half a standard century ago, the young archaeologist who studied these man-made structures, never thinking that the fate of Merlin's disease awaited her.Saul always imagined that the disease would go away, that his child would be saved, that the child would grow up normally again, that the future Rachel's child would return to her life.But what if Rachel returns as the twenty-six-year-old Rachel who entered the Sphinx?
The veins in Sol's ears were beating heavily, deafeningly, and he could no longer hear the roaring storm around him.He waved at the figure, which was now half hidden by the storm of dust.
The young woman waved to him too.
Sol ran forward for twenty meters and stopped thirty meters in front of the Tomb of Time. He shouted, "Rachel! Rachel!"
A young woman emerged from the roaring light, and walked away from the entrance, clasping her hands to her face, shouting something, but her voice was lost in the wind, and she began to climb down the steps.
Sol started to run, stumbled on a rock, lost his way, staggered his way across the valley floor, and knocked his knee on a low boulder, but heedless of the pain, he found it again. Road, ran to the bottom of the Emerald Tomb.The woman emerges from the cone of diffused light.
Just as Thor reached the bottom of the steps, she fell, and Thor hugged her and lowered her gently to the ground.Wind-blown sand scraped against his back, and the tides of time made their world spin, an invisible vortex of dizziness and déjà vu.
"It's you," she said, raising a hand to touch Saul's face. "It's true. I'm back."
"Yes, Braun," Saul said, trying to steady his voice, brushing aside the tangled curls of Braun Lamia's face and hugging her tightly, one arm on his lap Go up, put her head on the pillow, arch her back, and shield Braun from the wind and sand. "It's all right, Braun," he whispered softly, protectively, tears of disappointment shining in his eyes but trying not to let them fall. "It's all right. You're back."
Meina Gladstone climbed the steps of the cavernous Strategic Resolution Center and stepped out into the hallway, where long strips of thick plexiglass offered views from Mount Olympus to Talsis The scene of the plateau.Far below, there was heavy rain. Standing on this commanding height that plunged into the sky of Mars almost twelve kilometers high, she could see bursts of lightning and curtains of static electricity. The storm was dragging her footsteps on the high prairie. .
Her assistant, Syedputra Akash, also stepped out into the hallway and stood quietly beside the CEO.
"Is there still no news about Li and Seven?" Yue Shi asked.
"No," Akashic replied.The face of the young black lady was illuminated by the pale sun of the home galaxy, and by the light of the lightning show below. "Inernal authorities say maybe the teletransmitter is malfunctioning."
Yueshi smiled coldly: "Yes. Let me ask you, Seid Putra, do you remember any teleportation failures in our lifetime? Anywhere on the ring network?"
"No, my lord executive."
"Kernel thinks they don't have to play dirty with us at all. Apparently they feel they can kidnap whoever they want and they don't have to take any responsibility. They feel we need them so badly in the last moments. Seid Putra, you do you know?"
"what do you know?"
"Their wishful thinking was right." Yue Shi shook his head, turned around and began to enter the strategic decision center along the long downward road, "Now there are less than ten minutes left, and the Ousters will surround the God Forest. Let's go down and The others stay. Is my meeting with Advisor Alberto arranged just after the meeting?"
"Yeah, Meina. I don't think... I mean, some of us think it's too risky to meet them directly like that."
Yueshi stopped before stepping into the strategic decision center. "Why?" she asked, this time her smile was genuine, "Do you think the kernel will make me disappear like Lee and Seven?"
Akashi opened her mouth to speak, but stopped, and she raised her palm.
Pleasant Stone put his hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Sid Putra, if they do, then I'm relieved. But I don't think they will. Things have gone so far, they believe, that no one can do anything to change things Progress." Yue Shi withdrew his hand, his smile faded, "Maybe they are right."
The two stopped talking, and they went down, into the circle of waiting soldiers and politicians.
"The time has come." Said the loyal voice of the World Tree, Seke Haltyn.
Father Paul Durley, who was lost in reverie, was now drawn back.For the past hour, his desperation and despondency had been transformed into something resembling joy through resignation.Then, he thought, he would have no choice, no duty to perform.Du Lei sat there silent, like an old friend of the leader of the Brotherhood of Saints.He watched the sun go down in the forest of the gods, and the stars and light slowly increasing in the night, but those were not real stars.
Duré had been thinking that at such a critical moment the Saints should be separated from his people, but Duré knew the theology of the Saints, and he realized that Muir's followers would be on the holiest platform, in their holiest In the most mysterious shade of the giant tree, alone facing such a critical moment of possible destruction.Occasionally, Halteen spoke softly from under the hood of his robes, and Dure realized that the Voice of Allegiance was using a comlog or implant to communicate with fellow saints.
Even so, it is still a peaceful way to wait for the end of the world, sitting on the top of the tallest tree of life in the known galaxy, listening to the warm night wind caressing the countless leaves, watching the stars shine, the twin moons in the velvet Flying rapidly through the sky.
"We have asked Pleasant Stone and the Hegemony authorities not to resist and not to allow the military warships to enter the system." Saik Haltyen said.
"Is that sensible?" Dooley asked.Earlier, Haltyon had told him the fate of the Gate of Heaven.
"The military fleet has not yet been organized and cannot provide complete resistance," the saint replied. "If there is no resistance, our world will at least have a chance. They will treat us as a non-warring planet."
Father Duré nodded and leaned forward to get a good look at the tall figure in the shadows of the platform.The soft fluorescent balls on the branches below them cast the only light other than starlight and moonlight. "But you welcomed the war. You helped the Shrike Church authorities cause it."
"No, Dooley. Not war. The Brotherhood knows it must be part of the Great Change."
"What great change?" Du Lei asked.
"The sea change is that humans take on their role as part of the natural order of the universe, rather than as a cancerous tumor."
"Cancer?"
"It's an ancient disease—"
"Yes," Duray said, "I know what a cancer is. But how does it resemble a human?"
Cyke Haltian's extremely soft accented tones seem a little agitated. "We are scattered throughout the galaxy, Dure, like cancer cells throughout a living body. We reproduce without regard for countless other life forms. They must die or be pushed aside in order for us to prosper. We Eliminate intelligent life forms that compete with us."
"For example?"
"Such as the Senesi empaths in Hebron. The wetland centaurs in Gaden. Durey, the entire ecosystem of Gaden was destroyed just to allow thousands of human colonists to live there, and once There are millions of protostar life thriving there."
Du Lei bent a finger and touched his cheek. "That's one of the flaws of terraforming."
"We didn't transform the revolving star," the saint continued, "but those majestic lives were hunted down."
"But no one knows whether Zeplen is an intelligent life." Du Lei said, even he himself could hear the wavering confidence in his tone.
"They sing," said the saint, "across thousands of kilometers of atmosphere, they call to each other in a song that contains meaning, love, sorrow. Yet they are hunted to extinction, like the old giant whale."
Dure crossed his arms. "I agree that there is indeed an injustice here. But if you want to correct it, there must be a better way, without having to support the cruel philosophy of the Shrike Church... without allowing this war to continue."
The saint's hood shook back and forth. "No. If these are merely human injustices, of course there are other remedies. But the many maladies that lead to the destruction of races and the plunder of the world... many madnesses... are in fact born of a symbiosis of sin."
"Symbiosis?"
"The symbiosis of human beings and the core of technology," Saik Haltyen said in a very sharp tone. Du Lei has never heard such a speech from a saint. "Human and machine intelligence. Which one is the parasite of the other? Now, this Neither part of the symbiote knows the answer to that question anymore. But it's a sinful symbiote, a work against nature. It's even worse than that, Dure, it's an evolutionary dead end."
The Jesuit stood up and went to the railing.He lifted his eyes and looked across the dark world of treetops, spread out like the tops of clouds at night. "There must be better ways than resorting to the Shrike and Star Wars."
"The Shrike is the catalyst," said Haltiern, "it is the cleansing fire when the forest is stunted and diseased by overplanting. There will be hard times, but the result will be newborns, and species will germinate and multiply ... not only elsewhere, but also in human society itself."
"Tough times," Du Lei mused, "will your fraternity be willing to watch a billion people die in order to achieve this... culling job?"
The saint clenched his fists. "No. The Shrike is just a warning. Our Ouster brethren are simply trying to keep Hyperion and the Shrike firmly in check in order to strike at the technological core. It's like a surgical procedure... to destroy the symbiote and make humans the key to the cycle of life A unique partner is reborn."
Du Lei sighed. "No one knows where the technical core lives," he said, "how does the Ouster strike?"
"They will." The loyal voice of World Tree said, but the confidence of a moment ago was missing in the voice.
"Is the attack on the Sacred Forest part of the agreement?" the priest asked.
Now it was the saint's turn to stand up and walk, first to the railing, then back to the table. "They won't attack the God Forest. That's why I left you here. You must report to the Overlord afterwards."
"Whether the Ousters will attack or not, they'll know right away," Duray said, bewildered.
"Yes, but they won't know why our world escaped. You must bring the news. Explain the truth to them."
"Go to hell," said Father Paul Durley, cursing. "I'm tired of being someone else's messenger. How do you know all this? The arrival of the Shrike? The reason for the war?"
"There is a prophecy—" Cyke Haltian said.
Du Lei's fist hit the railing.How could he account for the mastermind behind a creature—or the agent of a force?They can even manipulate time!
"You will see with your own eyes..." The saint spoke again, as if to end his words, and suddenly there was a loud, soft voice, almost like millions of hidden humans sighed and then gently Moaned softly.
"Jesus," Dooley said, looking west, where the sun seemed to rise from where it had sunk less than an hour ago.A wave of heat caressed the leaves and brushed his face.
Five blooming inward mushroom clouds climbed out of the western horizon, and night turned to day as they writhed and withered.Instinctively, Dure covered his eyes, and finally he realized that the explosions were so far away that although they were as bright as Hyperion's sun, they would not blind him.
Cyke Haltyon pulled back his hood, and the hot wind blew through his long, queer green hair.Staring at the man's long, thin, slightly Asian features, Du Lei realized that shock was etched on the face in front of him.Shocked, unbelievable.Whispers of comm calls and excited voices whispered from Halteen's hood.
"Explosions on Saw Ridge and Hokkaido," the Saint murmured to himself. "Nuclear explosions. From orbiting ships."
Du Lei remembered that Saw Ridge was a continent close to outsiders, less than 800 kilometers away from the World Tree where they were.He also remembered that Hokkaido is a sacred island, where the future ship of the giant tree grows and is ready to be put into use.
"Accident?" he asked, but before Haltiern could answer, the sky was pierced by flashes of light, and more than twenty tactical lasers, charged particle beams, and fusion cutting weapons swept across the horizon. Like a searchlight sweeping across the top of the world tree in the forest of gods.Cutting beams streaked across, flames gushing in their wake.
As a 100-meter-wide beam of light jumped like a tornado through the forest less than one kilometer away from the World Tree, Du Lei shook his body.The ancient forest burst into flames, jumped out of a ten-kilometer flame corridor, and rushed towards the night sky.As the air rushed in to fuel the fiery storm, the wind began to roar past Dure and Seke Haltyn.Another beam of light slashed from north to south, piercing all the way, and disappeared on the horizon when it was almost a short distance from the World Tree.Another vigorous burst of fire and smoke rose toward the shifting stars.
"They promised," Saik Haltian gasped, "Brother Ouster promised."
"You need help!" Du Lei shouted, "Quickly call Ring Network for emergency help."
Halteen grabbed Durey's arm and pulled him to the edge of the platform.The steps returned to their original positions.On the platform below, a teleporter was glimmering.
"Only the vanguard of the Destroyer Fleet is here," cried the Saint over the roar of the forest fire.Soot hung in the air, wafting in hot embers, "But the Singularity Sphere will be destroyed at any moment. Go!"
"I cannot leave you alone," cried the Jesuit, but he was sure his voice would be drowned out by the sound of the storm and the terrible crackling.Suddenly, just a few kilometers to the east, the perfect blue circle of a plasma explosion swelled, burst inward, and then expanded again, sending out visible concentric circles of shock waves.Under the first shock wave, the giant trees a few kilometers high bent and broke, and their east side burst into flames, and thousands of leaves flew wildly, joining the almost continuous waves of debris, rushing towards the World Tree.After the circle of flames, another plasma bomb exploded.And then the third.
Duray and Saint fell down the steps and were pushed by the shock wave across the low platform like leaves on the sidewalk.Grasping a flaming muir railing, the Saint clung relentlessly to Duray's arm, pulled himself to his feet, and walked toward the still glowing teletransmitter, like a man leaning toward the A man in a tornado march.
At this time, Du Lei was half-conscious, and he felt in a trance that he was being pulled.Just as Seke Haltyen, the loyal voice of the World Tree, pulled him to the edge of the portal, Du Lei tried his best to stand up.He gripped the door frame of the portal, weakly unable to drag himself the last meter.Before passing through the portal, he saw something he would never forget.
Many, many years ago, at his beloved Villefonne-sur-Saône, young Paul Duré stood on top of a cliff, safe in his father's arms, safe in his thick concrete bunker , through a narrow window, he looked out of the window, a forty-meter-high tsunami rushed towards the coast where they lived.
And now the tsunami was three kilometers high, made of flames, and seemed to be passing through the forest's incompetent top at the speed of light, and was running towards the World Tree, towards Seke Haltyn, and towards Paul Duley.Wherever the tsunami passed, no one was spared death.It galloped furiously closer and closer, rising higher and nearer, until flame and sound engulfed world and sky.
"No!" screamed Father Paul Durley.
"Go!" shouted the loyal voice of the giant tree, pushing the Jesuit through the teleportation gate just as the platform, the trunk of the World Tree, and the robes of the saints burst into flames.
Just as Du Lei crawled in, the teleportation door closed, and as it shrank, Du Lei's heel was cut off.Du Lei felt that when he fell, his eardrums burst, his clothes smoldered, and the back of his head hit something hard, and then he fell into the more pure darkness again.
Yue Shi and the others watched, everyone was silent, and the signal was relayed through the long-distance transmitter, and the civilian satellite transmitted the scene of Shenlin's death and pain.
"We've got to blow it up at once," Marshal Singh shouted over the crackle of the great forest fire.Meina Gladstone thought she heard the screams of the humans and countless arboreal creatures that dwelt in the Forest of the Saints.
"Don't let them get close!" Singer shouted. "We only have the remote control to detonate the singularity ball."
"Okay." Yue Shi said, her lips moved a little, but she didn't hear any words.
Singer turned and nodded to a military space colonel.The colonel touched his tactical panel.The burning forest was gone, the giant holo was completely dark, but somehow the screams were still there.Yue Shi finally understood that it was the sound of blood in her ears.
She turned to face Moboge. "How long..." She cleared her throat, "General, how long is it before Infinity Sea is attacked?"
"Three hours and fifty-two minutes, my lord," said the general.
Pleasant Stone turned to look at William Ajunta Lee, the former commander. "Major General, is your task force ready?"
"Everything is ready, Mr. Executive Officer." Li's dark skin was pale.
"How many ships are there in total for attack missions?"
"Seventy-four, my lord executive."
"You're going to push them all back from the Infinity Sea, aren't you?"
"It's in the Otter Cloud, Mr. Executor."
"Very well," Yueshi said, "Major General. You are doing very well."
The young man took the remark as a hint of salute, and turned and left the room.Marshal Singer leaned forward and whispered something in General Van Hitt's ear.
Saidputra Akash approached Joyce and said, "Government building security reported that someone had just teleported into a protected government building terminal using an outdated priority access code. He was injured and taken to Go to the infirmary in the east wing."
"Li?" Yue Shi asked, "Seven?"
"No, my lord Executor," Akashy said, "from the priest of Payson. Paul Dooley."
Yue Shi nodded. "After my meeting with Alberto is over, I'll go see him," she told her assistant.Then she announced to the group, "We've seen this, and now, if you have nothing else to say, we'll adjourn for thirty minutes. Reassemble in thirty minutes and we'll discuss Asquith and Defense of Ixion."
Everyone stood up and watched as the CEO and her entourage entered the permanent portal and entered the government building, and a procession entered a door in the far wall.After Pleasant Stone disappeared from sight, the arguments and the babble of shock resumed.
Meina Gladstone sat in her leather chair, closed her eyes, opened them again after exactly five seconds, and the group of assistants were still standing there, some looking pins and needles, some looking She was extremely eager, and everyone was waiting for her next sentence, her next order.
"Get out," she said softly, "quick, take a few minutes to rest. Take ten minutes to relax and unwind. There won't be much rest for the next twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
Everyone filed out, some seemingly on the verge of protest, others on the verge of collapse.
"Sed Putra," Yue Shi said, and the young woman walked back to the office, "choose two from my personal guards and send them to the priest Du Lei who has just arrived."
Akashi nodded and made a note on her fax desk.
"How's the political situation?" Yue Shi asked, rubbing his eyes.
"The whole situation is in disarray," Akashy said. "There are infighting, but they haven't coalesced into actual opposition. But the House is a different story."
"Feldstein?" Pleasant Stone said, referring to the angry senator from Barna's Realm.There are forty-two hours left before Barna's Domain is attacked by the Ousters.
"Feldstein, Kakinuma, Peters, Saben Storafin, Li Xiu...even Sude Schell is calling for you to step down."
"Then what about her husband?" Yue Shi thought of the most influential member of the House, Korsev.
"No news from Korsev yet. Neither public nor private."
Yue Shi tapped his lower lip with his thumbnail. "Sid Putra, how long do you think our government has before being impeached by a vote of no confidence?"
Akash, the most astute politician Pleasant Stone had ever worked with, glanced back at her immediate boss. "Seventy-two hours at most, my lord. They're voting. The thugs don't know they're thugs yet. Someone has to pay for what happened."
Yue Shi nodded absently. "Seventy-two hours," she murmured, "that's plenty of time." She looked up and smiled. "That's it, Seidputra. You too go to rest."
The assistant nodded, but her expression revealed what she really thought about the proposal.After the door closed behind her, the study suddenly became very quiet.
Yue Shi sat and thought for a moment, resting his chin with one fist.Then he said to the wall, "Please call Advisor Alberto over."
=Ten seconds later, the air opposite Yue Shikuan's table was covered with mist, shimmering, and finally froze.The representative of the technical core still looks handsome, with short gray hair shining in the light, and his frank and upright face has a healthy bronze color.
"Master Executive Officer," the holographic projection said, "The Advisory Council and the Core Prophet will continue to serve you, and in this catastrophe—"
"Albert, where is the core?" Yue Shi interrupted.
The advisor's smile didn't waver. "Excuse me, Mr. Executive Officer, what did you say?"
"Technical core. Where is it?"
There was a trace of doubt on Alberto's nice face, but there was no hostility, no obvious emotional reaction, except for a blank expression of helping others. "Your Excellency, as you must be aware, since the retirement of the Kernel, it has been our policy not to expose the location of the physical components of the... ah... technical kernel. In other words, the Kernel is nowhere since—"
"Since you live in the sympathetic reality of the data plane and the data network," said Pleasant Stone, in a monotonous voice, "yes, I've heard enough of this nonsense, Alberto. My father and my father's father have heard enough of it all. Yes. Let me ask you directly, where is the technical core?"
The consultant shook his head blankly, apologetic, like an adult being asked a question a thousand times by a child.Dad, why is the sky blue?
"My lord executive, I can't answer this question with human three-dimensional coordinates. In a sense, our... core... exists in the ring network and outside the ring network. We are in the data plane navigating the reality of what you call a datanet, but when it comes to physical components... what your ancestors called 'hardware', we felt the need to-"
"It is necessary to keep it secret," Yue Shi finished the sentence for him.她交叉双臂，“阿尔贝都顾问，你有没有意识到，霸主中将会有好多人……数百万人……坚信内核……你们的顾问理事会……背叛了人类？”
阿尔贝都双手打了个手势。“执行官大人，那实在是令人遗憾。遗憾，但可以理解。”
“顾问先生，你们的预言者应该差不多是十全十美的。但你们却从没有警告过我们，驱逐者舰队会对世界造成毁灭。”
投影像英俊的脸庞上露出悲伤之情，表情极为令人信服。“执行官大人，我得提醒你，顾问理事会警告过你们，如果想将海伯利安引进环网，将会带来无规则的变数，甚至连理事会也无法归因。”
“但并不单单是海伯利安！”悦石叫道，她提高了嗓音，“神林被烧毁了。天国之门被熔成一堆渣。无限极海的脑袋正等着下一锤的攻击！如果顾问理事会不能预测如此规模的侵略，那还要你们有什么用？”
“我们的确预测到了和驱逐者发生战争的必然性，执行官大人。我们也预言了防卫海伯利安的重大危险。你必须相信我，把海伯利安加入到任何预言方程式，都将让安全性因素降低到——”
“好吧，”悦石叹了口气，“我想和内核的其他人谈谈，阿尔贝都。你们那难以辨认的智能阶级中拥有决策权力的人。”
“我向你保证，我代表了广大内核成员，在我——”
“对，对。但我想要和你们的……我想你们称其为神，我想和你们的一位神谈一谈。老辈人工智能中的一个。一个有影响力的神，阿尔贝都。我需要和他谈一谈，告诉我为什么内核绑架了我的艺术家赛文和我的助手李·亨特。”
全息像看上去大吃一惊。“我向你保证，执行官大人，我们四世纪的联盟在上，内核跟这不幸的失踪事件完全无关——”
悦石站起身。“这就是为什么我要和你们的神谈一谈的原因。阿尔贝都，现在作担保都毫无意义了。如果我们两个种族想要活下去，那就是时候来一次坦率的会谈了。我说完了。”她的注意力回到了桌子上的传真台文件上。
阿尔贝都顾问站起身，点头道别，闪了闪，消失了。
悦石下了个命令，她的私人远距传送门出现了，她道出政府大楼医务室的代码，迈步朝里走去。就在触摸到能量矩形那不透明表面的刹那间，她停住脚步，想了想她正在做什么，她这一生中第一次在迈进远距传输器的时候感到了忧虑。
如果内核想绑架她，或者杀死她，那该怎么办？
梅伊娜·悦石突然意识到，内核掌握着每一个在环网作远距传输旅行的公民的生杀大权……包括所有有权有势的公民。李和赛伯人赛文并不一定是被绑架了，或是被传送到了什么地方……仅仅是因为脑子里一直把远距传输器想象成万无一失的运输工具，才让人下意识里觉得他们是到了什么其它地方。她的助手和高深莫测的赛伯人可以不费吹灰之力被传送……得无影无踪。成为蔓延进奇点的稀稀落落的原子。远距传输器不会对人和物进行“心灵传输”——这样的想法真是蠢透了——但是，相信这样一个在时空架构中打洞的装置，允许我们在黑洞“活板门”中穿行，这主意又如何聪明了呢？对她来说，相信内核会把她传送进医务室，这又有多蠢呢？
悦石想起了战略决议中心……三间庞大的房间，由永远活动的视像清晰的远距传送门导连……但归根结底还是三间房间，即使是在霍金驱动状态下，也至少被一千光年的真实空间、数十年的真实时间所分隔。每当莫泊阁和辛格或是其他从地图全息像走到标航线盘边上时，他们都跨越了时空的广袤深渊。内核想要摧毁霸主或者其内的任何人，他们只要动动远距传输器就行了，让目标发生一起小小的“错误”就行了。
见鬼去吧，梅伊娜·悦石走了进去，去见政府大楼医务室的保罗·杜雷。
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Notes: