“Even if our fleet is armed with the new weapons?” Paula asked. “Are you sure that we would lose such a battle?”
“That’s not your decision to make,” Arun said, coldly. “Allow me to remind you of our purpose, Paula. The Technical Faction was founded to explore scientific questions that were officially decreed forbidden territory by Earth’s various governments. We created the foodstuffs that would have fed Earth’s teeming multitudes using genetic engineering, despite the belief on Old Earth that genetic engineering was somehow evil. We created cures for diseases that had plagued humanity since the dawn of time. We developed fusion power and improved fission reactors. We carried out the first tentative experiments into antimatter production and use. We ignored the whims and foibles of an Earth packed with morons who believed that science was dirty and filthy, who ignored the fact that science was the only thing keeping them from barbarism, and created wonders. We ignored their religious prattle and their claims to moral superiority, we rejected their belief that they were somehow qualified to tell us what to do. And it was rewarded! We survived when Earth itself died.
“It was us who developed the technology that allowed humanity to survive after Old Earth was destroyed. It was us who created the warp drive and all the little wonders that keep us alive. It was us who created the MassMind and started to incorporate all of humanity’s hopes and dreams into a powerful communications system, cheating Death herself. We carried out the experiments that produced the Spacers and offered humanity another path to immortality. We even developed newer and better weapons for the war against the Killers. We did all that selflessly. We never asked for anything in return, but to be left alone.
“We are not a fighting force, nor are we a government. Our relationship with the Community has always been one where we worked with the Community, without acknowledging that it had any right to dictate to us. We don’t need anything from the Community, but the young minds that could make the next set of breakthroughs; we had all the resources we could use to carry out whatever experiments we wanted to carry out. Our only weakness was simple. If the Killers came to visit, we could no more stand them off than an entire wing of Defence Force starships. We did not dare to do anything that would attract their attention…
“And you, you imprudent girl, decide to push the War Council into approving the creation of a black hole!
“The remainder of the Community now knows about the supernova bomb,” he concluded. “You just ensured that they will soon also know about the black hole generator, which will have its own effect on our relationship with the remainder of the Community. We may find ourselves forced into taking a more active hand in events, which would cripple our political neutrality and scientific independence. And all of that, Paula, only matters if we survive the next few months. What happens if the Killers come to terminate the threat?”
Paula took a breath. “And if we create the black hole well away from anywhere vital?” She asked. “There are hundreds upon hundreds of stars light years from anywhere that we could destroy. We could make sure that there’s no gas giant in the system to avoid the possibility of exterminating another Killer settlement…”
“You don’t understand,” Arun said. “Last week, the Killers knew that we were hardly a threat to them. Yes, we captured one ship out of thousands and destroyed a second through sheer luck. Now, they know we can blow up stars at will… and soon enough, that we can create a black hole. Will they regard that as a serious threat? How else can they regard it?”
Paula said nothing. “I am deeply disappointed in you,” Arun concluded. “If it had been up to me, you would have been stripped of your position and exiled. As it is, the Defence Force has requested your presence, despite our protests, and you are assigned to the fleet they’re assembling at Sparta. You’ll get your chance to create a black hole in a system no one, even the Killers, will miss. You’ll also be there when the Killers arrive — if they arrive — and your life will be on the line, along with thousands of others. I just hope you find it worthwhile.”
He smiled, without humour. “Your black hole might even be the key to ultimate victory,” he said, looking her in the eye. His voice was curiously flat and she felt another pang of regret. The Technical Faction had rejected her. The Circle had probably already decided to banish her. “I just hope that it doesn’t devour us all.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“We’ve unlocked the starboard weapons pod, sir,” the engineer said. “The technicians report that they can reload the weapons pod at your command.”
Andrew nodded, only slightly distracted from the report he was reading. The Defence Force preferred to use written reports where possible, rather than direct memory downloads, for a reason that had been lost somewhere in the mists of time. The crews might complain about the delay, but it made a certain kind of sense. Too much direct memory downloads could harm a mind.
“Tell them to get on with it,” he ordered, shortly. “We have a deadline to meet.”
And it might just be a real deadline, he reflected. The pre-mission briefing had gone over the uncertain nature of the new weapons, to such an extent that he was worried that the researchers who had designed them weren’t sure what they would do either, let alone the crewmen on the starships. They’d designed the weapons and the Fabricators had produced thousands of them rapidly, but what if they failed? Ironically, if the weapons didn’t work, they were going to be even more ineffective than before; their standard compliment of weapons had been stripped down to allow them to carry the newer weapons.
I suppose that that would be the advantage of a larger ship, he thought, ruefully. The Killers could house as many weapons as they liked on their behemoths — although they had only displayed one weapon — but the destroyers were too small to carry more than the bare minimum of weapons. It would have been nice to have a larger ship, he decided, but only when they figured out how to shield against the Killer weapon. A larger ship without a shield would just be a bigger target. The destroyers could move effortlessly around the Killer starships, ducking and weaving to avoid their shots, yet a larger ship would have problems evading their fire. Unless the new weapons worked better than advertised — and he knew better to rely on it — they wouldn’t even gain any firepower advantage from a larger ship. Their weapons would be as ineffective as the Lightning’s weapons.
Lighting herself was orbiting an unnamed asteroid shipyard in interstellar space, over twenty light years from the nearest star. It made Andrew wonder, when he’d first been informed of the location, just how long the Defence Force had known that it was possible to blow up stars. If the nearest star was destroyed, it would be twenty years before the asteroid felt any effects… and it would really be little more than a wave of radiation, lethal to unprotected forms of life but easily handled with a proper shield. If the human race started blowing up hundreds of stars, they would render thousands of planets uninhabitable… although they had been uninhabitable anyway, as long as the Killers were out there, watching for targets. New Hope’s death had provided yet another reminder that the Killers were implacable. They couldn’t be reasoned with, or dissuaded from their course…
And yet, the Killers had fled Sparta. It made no sense to Andrew. They had been in a position to seriously wound the Defence Force, yet they hadn’t taken advantage of it. There was no reason why they should have fled, unless they were worried that the human defenders might blow up Sparta’s star to get at them… hell, that might have been the answer. The Killers were powerful, but they couldn’t survive a supernova. Had they been, for the first time, afraid of the human defenders? They hadn’t even launched any other attacks since the Cinder had been created.