After all this time, what disturbed him was the fact that he would be among large numbers of people for the first time in nine years.
Eventually he left the empty crystalline fairyland he’d lived in for so long, paid his respects at a lonely grave, and started the long walk to the nearest settlement.
* * * *
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Silent Partners
“Artificial Intelligences are feared more for the latter than the former.”
—The Cynic’s Book of Wisdom
“These thinking machines are an offense against God!”
—August Benito Galiani
(2019-*2105)
Dom kept his eyes on the road while Tetsami kept her gaze locked on him. The new contragrav truck slid down the tunnel as if the tube were designed for it, not for maglev commuter traffic.
“I don’t see why you had to buy it,” she said when the silence got too long.
“We need the tunnel to make this work.”
“I know,” Tetsami said. She turned away from his deadpan expression.
The Godwin-Proudhon commuter tunnel shot by them, the magnets sliding past like a silent heartbeat in a giant concrete vein. They were well under the forest east of Godwin now. If they were lucky, ahead lay an unbroken subterranean highway that traveled nearly all the way to Proudhon.
They were combining an inspection tour with their visit to their potential electronics whiz, and—Tetsami had to admit—this was certainly a low-profile way to travel.
“But did you have to buy it? It’s not like anyone’s guarding the entrance.”
“You’re concerned about the money?”
“Hell, yes, I’m concerned about the money. I never thought I’d see the day when half a meg seemed like limited resources—”
“The tunnel was a relatively cheap investment.”
“Cheap?” Tetsami nearly gagged. “Put aside the fact I doubt those leeches at the Mahajan bank have ever given anyone a deal. You shelled out nearly one hundred K for this white elephant.”
“Like I said, an investment.” Dom’s finger began tapping on the control stick. “Tetsami, don’t think of the money we’re spending. At this point I am totally committed to this operation.”
“What if something goes wrong with it?”
Dom put a hand to the side of his face. “For me, that is not an option.”
The flat way Dom said that chilled Tetsami. It was not the first time she was a little scared of her partner. She looked away from the expressionless stare he was casting out down the tunnel. The computer was guiding the contragrav, but he had yet to look at her during their conversation. She wondered if there were something down the tunnel only he could see.
Tetsami wished she’d gotten hold of Ivor. She’d feel better with him in the driver’s seat, even though the computer was driving. Unfortunately, Ivor’s old message drop said he was out on a run somewhere and wouldn’t be back for three days or so.
She looked at Dom and moved the conversation to a different subject.
“How’s the cover story holding up?”
“The bankers bought the innuendo, and the rumors are spreading nicely. One place where I was pricing mining lasers, the proprietor informed me that he could direct me to an off-planet buyer who would be very interested in Dolbrian artifacts.”
Was that actually a ghost of a smile she saw?
Their cover was a very simple deception, explaining the purchase of the defunct Godwin-Proudhon commuter tube as well as masses of digging equipment, lasers, and things more esoteric. The Dolbrians—named for the first planet where concrete evidence was found of successful nonhuman terraforming—were a race that flourished perhaps a million centuries ago. The Dolbrians had scattered traces of themselves all over Confederacy space, not the least of which were the massive structures on the plains of Cydonia on Mars.
However, the most common artifacts to survive the hundred million years since their disappearance weren’t ruins, buildings, or any form of technology. The most common evidence of the Dolbrians was the planets they’d terraformed.
Depending on the expert, there were anywhere from five to two dozen Dolbrian planets in the Confederacy. Planets that shouldn’t—couldn’t—have life, an atmosphere, or be remotely habitable without some form of intelligent intervention. Planets in triple sun systems, planets orbiting too close to—or far from—their primary, planets orbiting suns too young, too old, too weak....
As far as Dolbrian planets went, Bakunin—orbiting a weak orange-red sun that never even rated a real name before humans arrived—was on the shortlist of possibilities. Very short, considering that Dolbri was Bakunin’s closest inhabited neighbor. Every once in a while a herd of academics would brave the violent politics and go up in the hills, or out in the ocean, and try to unearth some physical evidence of the Dolbrian presence.
The fact that not so much as one kilo of worked stone had surfaced did not discourage them. After all, a hundred million years is a long time.
And treasure hunting for alien artifacts was just the kind of harebrained scheme that some wealthy homegrown Bakunin nutballs might come up with. It certainly covered for their plans for much more practical treasure-hunting, as well as explaining the digging equipment.
“Do you think there might actually be some Dolbrian artifacts under the Diderot range?” she asked.
She saw a smile, perhaps, or maybe only a trick of the light reflecting back through the windshield. “The Dolbrians,” Dom said, “are a myth propagated to explain a handful of Martian rock formations and the fact that we have no coherent theory explaining the evolution of habitable planets.”
As usual, she couldn’t read his expression. “You believe that?”
He shook his head. “Not any more ...”
After a few seconds, Tetsami said, “You trailed off, what were you about to say?”
“Sorry, caught myself in a memory. A long time ago.”
Tetsami decided to let it lie. She knew practically nothing about Dominic’s background, and she had decided, after he admitted to once being a TEC officer, that it was a good thing. Since their discussion on top of the Waldgrave Hotel, she had avoided questioning him on any part of his life prior to his involvement in Godwin Arms & Armaments. She tried hard not to acknowledge the curiosity she felt.
Dom might have sensed her unvoiced inquiry, or he might have just been in an unusually loquacious mood. In any case, he volunteered, “I’ve been to Cydonia.”
“You have?” Against her better judgment she felt her curiosity piqued.
Dom nodded. “Long time ago. When I was still in the Executive Command. Since the atmosphere became breathable, a lot of old bunkers, terraforming bases, academic retreats were mothballed. The TEC uses them occasionally for secure meetings, safe houses, private retreats. The largest concentration of them is around Cydonia.”
Tetsami couldn’t help but smile. It was rather amusing picturing the archaeological find of the millennium swarming with spies and secret police. Certainly, it was out of the way.
“Anyway,” Dom continued, “when I expressed my belief to a superior on Mars, he took me out on the plains to show me the Face. Said he wanted to teach me a little about humility.”