Nightfall_at_Algemron

Gabriel thought about that for a moment. "And the first most important?"
It looked at him, and Gabriel now saw that with the very tips of the top legs it was knitting a strand of glass idly into something Gabriel could not make out.
"Passion," it said, "we lack, but the short-lived biologicals, so our builders instruct us, have in plenty. Again we now see that they were correct."
"They were correct about most things, it seems," Enda said.
The Patterner looked at her. "They are also dead," it said, "so we see, here at the end of things, how that benefited them." It gazed up at its knitting briefly. "No matter. If they are not alive, you are, and we were told that one would come seeking their legacy. It awaits you."
"Then take us to it," Gabriel said.
"We cannot do that," said the Patterner. "It is not here."
"What?"
"You seek the main facility. You shall come to it. That is now ordained, as it always was, but it is not here. The main stronghold of our makers is not in this system."
' 'Now you're going to tell me," Gabriel said, "that you don't have a map."
For a creature without access to human expression, the Patterner nonetheless managed to give him a very dry look. "On the contrary. That facility and this one are in constant communication, but you could not have come to that other facility without having come here first. This is."
The concept that flooded into his mind was not one that would fit in a single word. It included parts of the concepts for "testbed," "research facility," and "place ofjudgment." This was courtroom and prison, exercise ground and playroom, school, examination room, and graveyard. Gabriel swallowed as he got a sense from the Patterner how routinely it was expected that the examination room would lead directly to the graveyard in most cases.
"Having been here," it said, "you are now enabled for access to the other facility. You may proceed there. You will find there the basic equipment, in terms of technology, which will enable you to proceed with your plans."
"Uh," Gabriel said, "so you'll tell me where it is?"
"You have already been told," the Patterner said. "You will recognize the location. Meanwhile, I am authorized to tell you that they are coming."
Gabriel's head whipped around. "Who?"
"The enemy against whom our builders strove," it said, "and you strive now." "The Externals ?"
"They are coming in union and in force," it said. "They know of this site's activation and the successful processing of a facilitator. It has been expected. They will now move to take possession of the technology at that site."
"How would they know?"
"From that," it said, indicating the stone.
Gabriel opened his mouth, closed it again.
"There are forms of broadcast emission that do not involve energy spectra with which you seem to be familiar, except anecdotally," the Patterner said. "Analysis of your vessels confirms this. You have little time. Estimation of some thousands of hours at best, some hundreds of hours at worst. No closer approximation is possible."
"Where are they headed?" Gabriel said.
"This region first," the Patterner said. "Here they failed before, though it took all the lives of all our builders to stop them. This area."
Gabriel saw in his mind a swirl of fire in the night, one which was still there, identifiable from the classic emission colors of the nebula, though the shape was much changed. "The Lightning Nebula!"
"Your evaluation would seem to be correct. They are creatures of habit, and their memories are long. They were driven out from there. from here. Therefore, they will lake this part of space first and then move inward."
"In hundreds of hours," Gabriel whispered. "Oh, gods." He swallowed. His mouth was dry. "Where is this other site, the one with the weapons?"
Then he saw it in his mind, amid the streams of stars: a yellow sun, eleven planets, two of them habitable. "Oh, no," Gabriel moaned. He turned to the others. "Algemron. It's at Algemron!" Mouths fell open, and those whose pigmentation made it possible blanched. "Gonna be kind of a problem going back there," Helm said.
"You have a gift for understatement," Gabriel said. "It's not just that they'll shoot us on sight. We've got to get the news to someone who can make use of it in time, and we have to do it now. We can't spend months and months getting back there!" "Any suggestion as to how?" Angela asked. Gabriel could only shake his head.
"That facility is now activating," said the Patterner, "pending your arrival. You must proceed there forthwith and make use of the enabling equipment before the Externals reach it."
"Or before someone else does," Gabriel muttered.
The thought of what would happen in that system if either the Galvinites or the Alitarins got their hands on the kind of Precursor technology that had been available at Danwell gave Gabriel the shakes. Things back there had been heating up enough as it was. If they found out about this.
"We've got to get back there right away." Gabriel said. How in the worlds would they reach it in time? Their small ships simply could not make the journey fast enough. He was ready to turn and run straight out the way he had come, but first he said to the Patterner, "Is there anything else you need to know?"
"Ideally we seek the totality of knowledge in the universe," the Patterner said. "Your contribution to this, however, is now complete."
Gabriel had to smile at that, terrified and upset as he was at the moment. "Thank you, then," he said. "We should go."
"Wait," said the Patterner.
Its top legs finished their knitting and brought the little object down for the eyes to look at again. Then one clawed limb hooked the thing, another one cut the thread that the Patterner had been spinning from, and a third limb took the object from the first one and flung it at Gabriel.
Startled, he nonetheless caught it one-handed with the hand that held the stone. The object prickled Gabriel's hand slightly. It was a little open latticework of Precursor glass, and it caught a dull glow from the stone, which ran down the filaments.
"Instruction: do not lose this object," said the Patterner. "It will complete the programming work at your destination."
"Which programming work?" Gabriel said.
"The programming that has been in progress on your facilitator," said the Patterner, "and on you."
He looked at the lattice thoughtfully and finally put it in his pocket. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Gabriel asked at last.
There was a pause, as if this had not been a question that the Patterner was expecting. Finally, it said, "Succeed where our builders failed."
It turned away and vanished into the veils and webs of glass. With the soft tinkling noise of their feet on the glassy floor, the arachnons followed.
Gabriel looked at the others. He was shaking with both anticipation and terror, and he was having trouble telling which of them was the stronger.
"Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here right now."
Chapter Thirteen
They made their way back toward Charlotte. Gabriel let Enda do the flying, for his mind was in turmoil over everything he had just been through.
There was other business going on as well. To complete the programming, the Patterner had said. Such a light act, to pitch him that little piece of glass. but a lot more was going on inside him. In his head he could feel the tickle-tickle-tickle of delicate glass claws on a glass floor, as things were rearranged, connections made or remade. Inside his mind, something was weaving together the strands of old thought and new thought—mind that was and mind that was about to be. It didn't hurt. yet, but he was beginning to be afraid in a way that he hadn't been before. Softly, in the back of his mind, he could hear the sound of chiming. Back there in the shadows, eluding him when he tried to look right at them, images were stirring, preparing themselves to be released.