“This is your stop,” Clive said. The omnipresence of his voice was off-putting.
“Clive, your voice seems to be, everywhere. And I don’t see any cameras or anything?” Michael scanned the roof of the corridor, just in case he was wrong.
“Oh, no, I have eyes. Cameras, I guess. Lots of them, too many really. It’s hard to describe. Like they’re everywhere, tiny parts of me, in a sort of cloud.”
“Like nanobots?” Michael said. “I guess that makes sense.”
“What? Nan-o-bots,” Aileena said, sounding out the words. “What in the rhythm are those?”
Shock fell across Michael’s face. “Really? I know something about technology you don’t. Now it’s Michael’s turn to talk about the crazy science. Well, gather around you lower lifeforms, and I shall explain the wonders of the universe to you.”
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Immensely, Aileena. It’s nice for the tables to turn. Nanobots are tiny, microscopic robots. We’ve had theories about them for years, on Earth. Useful for like, medical purposes, or sometimes in the movies they go mad and eat everything.”
“So, you don’t have them either. You said theories. Not sure I like the idea of them going mad like you said.” Aileena had a smug grin across her face. “Not so high and mighty now, are you?”
“Well, I am a messiah, two of them actually. Can’t get much higher and mightier than that, well not unless we add a third one to the list. I would rather we didn’t though.
“So, Clive, are they going to go mad?” Aileena said.
“Not unless I do?” Clive’s face, along with its slicked-back hair appeared floating in the air, composed of a thousand points of light. It made Michael jump in his seat, the sudden image unexpected. It looked oddly like a bad videogame cut scene, pixelated and blocky. “Is this any better?”
“It’s somehow both better, and yet worse?” Michael said. “I suppose it will do.”
Michael climbed out of the cart, passing through the cloud of machines forming the face of Clive. It scattered around him, reforming once Michael was through. Gravult had already walked through the doors into the chamber, tentatively examining the objects within.
The chamber was large, full of seats and consoles, similar to the control room aboard the Seeker, but much, much bigger. Everything had gentle sloping curves, consoles spreading around egg-shaped seats like the keyboards of bands far too into synthesisers. It looked like the kind of fake spaceship set Michael had seen once in a seventies B-movie. Lights blinked happily.
He picked a seat at random, sliding into it. He felt the familiar feel of the cushioning gel. Michael was beginning to enjoy the feeling.
“This is more like it. A proper spaceship, the Seeker was a little bit, well space bus,” Michael said. “No offence, Mellok.”
“None taken, the Seeker was chosen because its small size made it easier to sneak onto the Earth. I have no particular attachment to it.” Mellok rubbed his beak for a moment. “Still, I do have an idea…”
The mountain shook, stone flying free as the behemoth within stirred. The Sword of Truth was awake, thousands of years sloughing from it like water from the back of a whale. From his vantage point in his blimp, Gravult watched the waking monster as it casually levelled the stone around it. It was impressive but terrifying. He had no love of the thing, the power it held over his daughter. He had tried to get her to leave with him, to hide from the danger, but she had refused. He could have ordered his guards to drag her out by the fur, but ultimately, succeed or fail, his own daughter being there looked good for him. It was mercenary, but he hadn’t gotten to where he was without paying the price when needed.
The Sword spun in the air effortlessly, twisting around on its powerful thrusters. Fearsome lances of blue energy bursting out from beneath it. There was a colossal booming noise, a shockwave of sound, as it accelerated, vanishing over the horizon.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The Gallant drifted lazily above the earth, an insignificant spec amongst the swarm of ships that surrounded the planet. Over the last two days the fleet had grown bigger, warships larger than Commander Orson could have imagined now orbiting in place around the blue-green jewel. It was a display of force that would have been impressive, were it not surrounding his home like a death shroud, shadows scattering down onto the Earth below.
Orson had been left out of exactly why the build-up was necessary. The Council’s faith in him had plummeted after the Ossiark incident, and he knew the only reason he had been able to hang onto the Gallant was to avoid angering the earth governments. The process of folding them into The Council’s political structure was going slowly, on both sides. The Council didn’t seem used to negotiating, about anything.
“Sensor sweep of sector nineteen complete, continuing to sector twenty,” Trooper Johnson said, the boredom heavy in his voice. “Course set and applied, permission to engage engines?”
“What do you think, Johnson?” Orson said. “Same as the last nineteen times. Permission granted. There are how many other patrol ships out there, Johnson?”
“Uh, three hundred and seventeen all told, sir.”
“And how many sectors are there?”
“Local space around the Earth is separated into ninety-two sectors.”
“So, that’s,” Orson said, counting on his hands, his mouth moving silently as he did the math. “Three and a bit patrols ships per sector. Plus, the sensor fields of the frankly insane number of ships out there.”
“Things certainly are cramped up here, sir,” Johnson said. He was staring at the controls before him, inputting the commands. The ship began to move, the dampening fields giving it no sense of motion.
“This Substrate really has The Council on edge it seems. Which is strange, because the archives I checked seemed very clear that they thought the Substrate was no threat at all. Disorganised and prone to internal conflicts it said. I don’t know about you Johnson, but I know propaganda when I see it.”
“Me too, sir. Permission to speak freely?”
“Granted,” Orson said. “Hell, Johnson, it’s just you, me, and a squad of very bored marines aboard the ship. The only humans in the fleet. It’s looking more and more we need to look out for ourselves these last few days, consider yourself to always have that permission.”
“Thank you, sir. I think that big bastard of a ship we saw is just one of many, and that they scare The Council shitless. I think they’re getting ready, they think there’s going to be an attack,” Johnson said.
“On Earth? That would mean the Substrate have some brass balls,” Orson said. “Hell, maybe they do, the archive says they are some kind of sentient rocks? Earth is something the Council fought for. They spilt blood looking for ii, for millennia. I can’t imagine they’re going to give it up without a hell of a fight.”
“You ever wonder why that is, sir? Why is Earth so damn special. I get it’s holy in their religion, but why? They’ve been awful guarded about the how’s and why’s of it all. You would think an entire society based on a religion would be more forward about it. I did missionary work, for my church. Riding around town on bikes, trying to preach the word of God.”
“You a Mormon then, Johnson?”
“Not anymore, sir. Things I saw when I joined the forces knocked the religion right out of me. Some of the boys in my unit found God, guess it bounced out of me and into them.”