DUALITY: The World of Lies (37 page)

He gave them a short pause to study the
projection. As learned spacefarers they were already quite familiar
with all these stars and their locations relative to the
Taiji.

“Now, let's look at a simplification of the
circuit diagram I showed to the Commander on the day you extracted
me from the sphere.”

It was in truth an extreme oversimplification,
but Ming wanted to be sure they didn't get overwhelmed and dismiss
it this time around. Moreover, Ming was planning to lie to them,
The Big Lie. It would be a half-truth under the umbrella of which
all else would be true. This was necessary to his long-term plans,
which ranged well beyond this first phase he was briefing them
on.

The lines of braided current transfer between
the stars drew themselves out across the display.

“The power originates in the
Trapezium and transfers along a string of stars to PoleStar North.
PoleStar North is small body that would be more suited to planetary
existence, but its location along a main energy channel forces it
into stardom. Not 1/10
^th
the mass of the Red or the Blue stars of The
Taiji, it shines with a luminescence and equatorial energy
discharge many times greater than both combined. Such stars are
short lived by the standard of celestial time.”

He invoked to holograph two branches of
braided plasma currents brachiating south from PoleStar North, one
feeding into the outer heliosphere of Cearulei and the other into
that of Rubeli.

“PoleStar North splits the
output to power both sides of the Taiji. It is also in a
resonant cycle with the binary circular orbit of the Blue and the
Red Star, favoring Cearulei. Why? This resonant cycle that favors
blue is due to the circular movement of
Polestar North caused by a sort
of gravitational dance with its sole orbiting body, planet
Ponix.”

He narrowed the holograph to display only the
Taiji and PoleStar North systems and all their dizzying dynamic
motions. The orbits of the Red and Blue stars and the oscillating
cycle of the Taiji's angular plane shift north to south 30 degrees
and back again in a 600 orbit cycle, the opposing precesses of both
stars, and the orbits of their corresponding dual planetary systems
of Calidon and Occitania and their orbits and precession, the
interplays of the stars heliospheres along their borders, and the
currents that fed them, with crisscrossing lines denoting all the
resonant ratios labeled above the bodies in numerical pairs of
matching color. And it was the same for the PoleStar North system,
its own cycles, resonant ratios, and those ratios that corresponded
to the cycles of the Taiji. From what Ming could judge, Commander
Li was following along somewhat better than the Captain, which
would stand to reason with her specialized background in celestial
navigation. This was it. This was the maximum level of
simplification he could offer them that would still express the
most critical aspect of the theory he was putting forward. He
narrowed the 3-dimensional model even further to only the PoleStar
North system.

“Planet Ponix is large rocky body, 1.6 times
the mass of The Taiji's largest planet, Occitania. It is the
primary Rubelian source for the rare minerals required to maintain
the Fleet's military supremacy over the Occitanian Service. Most
notably gold for machine circuit channels, uranium for nuclear
fission engines, and thorium for conversion to the most valued of
all resources, anti-matter. Because of Ponix's sparse atmosphere
and high gravitation, the surface mining operations are entirely
conducted by machine, while human personnel staff only Beixing
Prime. Beixing Prime is believed to have originally been a natural
satellite of Ponix, now caverned into a centrifugal space colony,
similar to the Carousels but at a much larger scale. Please note
that the surface mining operations on Ponix may only operate within
the parameters of two natural restrictions. One is the thin surface
crust on the eastern hemisphere, which is actually a vast
supervolcanic zone. Thus surface mining operations may only be
conducted in the western hemisphere of the planet. Secondly, Ponix
is a massive planet on an extreme cometary orbit with its star on a
seven year annual cycle.”

He played an animation illustrating how Ponix
orbited PoleStar North, the great distance it traveled from it in
its narrow, elliptical orbit and then the close slingshot it made
around the star on its return. He put this on repeat and allowed it
to spirograph across the display. The pull of Ponix on PoleStar was
also very evident, and the circular cycle of the white dwarf
relative to the Taiji that he'd discussed earlier became readily
apparent. They were nearly there.

“There is just one more star to add.
KDR-Alpha,” he told them, as a dim brown dot appeared three
times the distance beyond the aphelion of Ponix's orbit. KDR-A is a
rogue brown dwarf moving counterdirectional to the other star
systems across the nebula. In our times, it is reaching its closest
encounter to the PoleStar North system, and Ponix's outer orbit
reaches toward it while it exerts ever greater gravitational pull
on Ponix, stretching its already radically elongated orbit ever
further from PoleStar North, and thus accelerating Ponix's orbital
speed to nearing the escape velocity of its parent
body.”

He demonstrated this relationship on holograph
over a period of ten orbital cycles of Ponix. As the dim brown
dwarf KDR-A passed closer and Ponix's orbit came into angular
alignment with it, the orbit stretched further and further each
time, and with each orbit Ponix hurtled ever faster and closer
around PoleStar North when it returned.

“Thus, Commander, when you say even the
grandest endeavors of man and machine cannot change the stars, you
speak a general truth. But as you see, with the culmination of all
these factors destabilizing this system, all it would really take
now is a nudge. And this rare and unique opportunity for the hand
of man to enact change upon the stars coincides neatly with the
time frame Lord Logos set out in The Ultimatum.”

The Captain and the Commander were glancing
back and forth at each other and back at the holograph with
expressions of alarm and dread. He felt like he had made the right
choice bringing this to these two humans, ones that had the
capacity not only to understand, but also to act on that
understanding.

The Captain spoke first. “This nudge you refer
to, you mean colliding Ore City into Ponix?”

“There are several potential scenarios,
Captain. I know only what I can deduce of the mind of my creator,
Lord Logos, but not his precise intentions. It may be as you say.
Ore City is a massive object, a moon in its own right, and to make
matters more volatile, it is the processing and containment holding
facility for the Fleet's largest reserve of antimatter, over a
dozen metric tons. That alone would be more than enough to
obliterate Ore City... or split asunder a portion of the eastern
continental crust of Ponix, creating a supervolcanic eruption that
would encompass most of the hemisphere and further thrust the world
off its orbital course. If this were to happen at aphelion, it
might go rogue and leave the PoleStar North System altogether. If
at perihelion in such close proximity to PoleStar North... Well, I
can't even predict the dynamics of such an interaction, but it
would with certainty effect a cataclysmic result. And as I
explained before, any catastrophic reordering of the PoleStar North
system will affect the same in the Taiji. No celestial body, star,
world, or moon, will be spared.”

Captain Psyron widened his eyes then closed
them and exhaled. “I think I need a drink.”

“Of course, Captain.” Ming dispatched the
service bots to deliver the Captain's brandy. It arrived in
seconds.

He took a long sip that emptied half the
glass. “I think the science is sound, Mei.”

The Commander exhibited a more subdued version
of her earlier combativeness. “Yeah, well, if it's all true, I'd
say he makes a compelling case. But let's remember, this is the man
who has held us in his virtual world of deceit and illusion for the
past three months, like animals in a zoo. I expect that even when
he speaks truth, he speaks a lie.”

“Mei, he singlehandedly took over an L-3
superintelligence in the span of an hour -remotely I might add. Do
you think even Lord Mnemtech has that kind of capability? We may
have uncovered the pinnacle operating intelligence of the Taiji,
standing before us, a new Grand Machine Lord.”

“Or the Devil himself,” she
countered.

He drank to that and asked Ming, “So, what is
our... your objective in Ore City? Do you really think you can take
over an L-5 in the largest and most secure military spacebase known
to man?”

“It is not we who will take it over, Captain.
It will be The Exiles. We will facilitate their invasion of the
base in a coactive operation of our own, where I will work to take
clandestine control the L-5 and all subsystems from within, while
you and Commander Li exploit weaknesses in the circle of human
leadership. The state of emergency instigated by this unexpected
attack will create a climate of chaos that should allow us to
expedite our infiltration. We will steal the bulk of the antimatter
in their containment facilities so that it may not be utilized by
Logos to his vengeful ends. And as a final measure to insure the
safety of the Taiji, we will burn what's needed of that reserve to
thrust Beixing Prime out of orbit from Ponix.”

“That is certainly an audacious plan, Ming,”
the Commander commented. “And every day I thank Heaven that you
Reds never stop fighting among yourselves long enough to make any
real problems for us Blues. But it seems to me that if you cut off
Ponix mining operations, the Fleet's military advantage over The
Service will be severely degraded.”

“Commander, I am a machine intelligence
following machine ethics. Think what you will of my methods, but my
aims are the same as all machines. That directive far outweighs any
political loyalty, of which I have none anyway. I a non-entity who
holds no position in the Fleet or the Rubelian ruling class, and I
have no homeworld.”

“You're as Red as they come, Ming! Your
homeworld is the Red Star itself.”

“Regardless of whatever conjecture you care to
make about me, if saving the Taiji and your homeworld from a
pending natural disaster is not enough to compel you to accept this
mission, the obvious benefit to your homeworld of a weakened Fleet
presence in the Taiji should.”

“I'll think about it, Ming,” said the
Commander. “Now please loose these restraints if you don't
mind.”

Ming considered this and looked at Captain
Psyron.

“You might not want to do that, Ming,” he
advised.

“So you expect the Commander would assault me,
Captain?”

He took another drink. “I'd say it's about the
same as flipping a coin at this point, Machine Lord.”

Ming examined the Commander. She appeared calm
on the surface, but her bioreadings showed elevated blood pressure
and adrenaline levels, and frantic brainwave patterns.

“You are a highly skilled martial artist,
Commander. I've observed recordings of your matches from years past
and I was duly impressed. I have programmed myself with a
hand-to-hand instruction set, but I have only so far pitted it
against the simulator and our onboard androids. I have to admit I'm
curious to see how I would fair against a skilled human opponent
such as yourself.”

“You can find that out right now if you like,”
she smiled.

“Machine Lord, I don't think we're talking
about a friendly sparring session here. Mei is quite lethal,”
warned the Captain.

EMERGENCY CORE ACTIVATION. LEVEL 1 HEMISPHERIC
CONFLICT. CORE to Subprime core, arbitrate. R-ART: L-ORG in HCM
requests primer instruct to deactivate SEC restraints on hostile
entity in proximity to CORE vessel, COM LI MEIYANG. ACTION POSES
HIGH RISK POTENTIAL TO CORE VESSEL. ACTION UNMITIGATED. End
argument. L-ORG: Minimal Risk. Human asset recruitment and
management requires CORE VESSEL interaction. End argument. Subprime
to CORE: SUB RULES IN FAVOR OF R-ART. UNNECCESSARY RISK TO CORE
VESSEL. LEVEL 1 HEMISHPHERIC CONFLICT adjudicated and resolved.
L-ORG CORE: Resume HCM.

“I have no desire to harm the Commander,” Ming
said, straightening himself into a more formal posture and adopting
a dismissive tone. “We will soon set course for Beixing Prime.
Captain, Commander, let me know when you have reached a
decision.”

And with that, Ming walked out of the
auxiliary bridge, releasing their restraints as the doorway sealed
behind him.

D
arkness.
Complete darkness. Gahre was on his back and below him was a soft
quilt smooth in texture like silk. He could feel his heart faintly
beating and he was drawing breath. 
Did
he live?
This was not the first time in
the span of a year he had awoken to face this daunting question. He
touched his body, clad in a thin loose robe, and determined it was
indeed that of a full grown man and not that of an infant, ruling
out the possibility he had been reincarnated. The cracks
and cuts on his face were now moist and healing. His skin was clean
and smelled of medicinal ointments. His feet were
sore and still heavily calloused. Would the body still
breathe and heal and suffer pain in the afterworld? No, he
concluded, I live. But I am blind.