‘You don’t have much time,’ said the Ambassador. It floated towards the lip of the platform.
Donn followed, and looked down at the engineered moon. Ghosts swarmed, pinpricks of dazzling light against the worked regolith. ‘How long?’
‘The mathematics is uncertain.’
‘There are human colonies scattered through the Association,’ Donn said, thinking. ‘Many of them still have hyperdrive, I think. But the main human concentration is the Reef. And we no longer have hyperdrive—’
‘Ask your father,’ the Ambassador said.
‘What?’
‘I too approved of the Silverman’s wish to contact you personally, Donn Wyman. Because I know that your family has resources. We will send you home now, Donn Wyman.’
They pulled back and stood in a row, the Silverman with the tetrahedral box, the looming Ghost, and the Virtual of Eve, gradually disintegrating.
Eve raised her hand. ‘There is more,’ she said solemnly. ‘Human and Ghosts must both join the great confluence of mind in the far future, join with the rest. That is the only way the next transition can be survived by either of us.’
Donn was shocked by this latest bit of bad news. ‘And if humans destroy the Ghosts—’
‘Then neither will survive. Remember,’ she said, her voice scratchy. ‘Remember . . .’
Five ran towards the Silverman, who stood stock-still, slow to react. She raised her fists and slammed them down on the Seer. Her hands passed through its substance, scattering pixels.
Donn pulled her away.
‘Just an avatar,’ she said, breathless. ‘Worth a try. To strike such a blow . . . It would have been magnificent.’
The Ghost and its companions were surrounded by a cloud of pixels now. The star’s light flickered.
And Donn was home.
His mother ran up to him and grabbed him. ‘Oh, Lethe, Donn! I never thought I’d see you again.’ He let her weep on his shoulder. ‘Benj is back too,’ she whispered. ‘He’s back!’
Here was Samm, his father, grinning hugely, grabbing onto Benj as hard as his mother was to Donn. The Commissary, Elah, was here too. She looked as shocked as any of them at Donn’s sudden appearance, but she was looking up into the sky with some alarm and muttering into the air, evidently communicating with her Coalition colleagues. And Donn saw Five, still in her bloodstained Ghost-hide suit, looking even more scared and bewildered than in the centre of the star.
Donn found his brother. Benj was wearing a plain white bath robe; all his hair had been shaved off. ‘Benj. What happened to you?’
‘I’ve been a stark-naked lab rat for a day. If it really was you who got me out—’
‘It was. You owe me.’
‘I was afraid of that. Damn.’
There were twin concussions, soft explosions, and a breeze of displaced air, as Hama Belk and Kanda Fors returned, coalescing under the lifedome. Grubby, scrawny, they both staggered in the sudden change of gravity, and clung to each other in shock. Then they realised where they were, and their clinging turned to a hug of joy. Then Hama spotted Elah, standing apart in her black Commissary’s robe, and he went over to her immediately.
And Kanda, recovering her composure quickly, came forward to Donn and Rima.
Donn gently disengaged his mother. ‘Mother – you have guests.’
Rima turned. ‘Do I know you?’
‘Kanda Fors. Food tech, from the Harry Poole. We met a couple of times, I think . . . I’ve been lost for a number of years.’
‘It’s a day of shocks for us all.’ Rima stepped forward, and the women clasped hands.
Amid more soft concussions, more of the ragged rats from Ghostworld started to appear, many naked, bewildered. One woman cradled a baby.
Five still stood alone, Donn saw, scared, resentful.
Donn went over, took Five by the hand, and led her to his mother. ‘Mother, this one’s called Five. Long story. I think she’d appreciate some help, her and her people. Some clothes for a start.’ But Five flinched back. ‘She’s been living wild,’ Donn murmured. ‘It will take some time . . .’
‘We’ve all the time in the world. Come, child. And, Kanda, you’ll be wanting to tell your family you’re back?’
‘I feel nervous about it. Yes, of course . . .’
‘And you – Five, was it? What about your family?’
‘I don’t remember.’
‘I’m sure we can trace them. Come on, we’ll sort it out.’
Now Donn approached Samm. ‘Father. I need to talk to you. We’re in trouble. The Boss—’
‘I know. Look at this.’ He showed Donn an image, returned by faster-than-light inseparability links from a Coalition drone observer close to the giant star. The Boss was spitting, flaring, ejecting knots of plasma large enough to swallow Earth’s sun whole. ‘It’s becoming unstable.’
‘It’s worse than that . . .’ As urgently as he could, Donn told his father all he had witnessed, of the Ghost experiments at the heart of the Boss – of the coming supernova. Samm listened gravely.
‘You do believe me, Father?’
‘Of course I believe you.’
‘As do we,’ Elah said, walking over.
Hama followed in her wake. Though he was just as grimy and underfed, he didn’t seem the same person he had been on the Ghostworld; he had immediately retreated into his Coalition role, like a shadow of the Commissary.
‘What you say,’ Elah went on, ‘ties in with the projections we have been making of the star’s instability.’
Samm folded his arms. ‘You say you’re here to protect us, you of the Coalition. What are you going to do about this?’
‘We have already put out a warning to the other human colonies in the Association. Most of them have hyperdrive ships; they will be able to flee in time. Other Coalition centres are arranging refugee facilities—’
‘Blankets and hot water. Great. But what about us? You know damn well the Reef contains the largest human population in the Association. You took away our hyperdrives.’
‘In order to serve the greater needs of the Third Expansion—’
‘That star’s going to expand before long and cook us all. Going to give us back our technology, are you?’
‘That isn’t practical,’ Elah said simply. She listened absently to a voice only she could hear. ‘Come,’ she said to Hama. ‘The flitters are lifting Coalition personnel from the Reef in fifteen minutes.’
‘And us?’ Samm tried to grab her arm, but she shook him off. ‘What of us? You’re leaving us to die!’
From nowhere Elah produced a handgun, a starbreaker. ‘This conversation is over, regrettably.’ Backing up, she and Hama made for the door cut into the lifedome.
Samm made to follow, but Donn stopped him. ‘Father – let me. Wait, Commissary.’ Cautiously he approached Elah and Hama. In a few, rushed words, he tried to tell them more of what the Ghost had told him within the star.
‘The Ghosts don’t want this to be seen as an act of war.’
‘Then they shouldn’t detonate supernovas in human space,’ Elah said.
‘They’re only doing it to escape the cage we put them in.’
‘They put humans in cages. Your friend Five, Hama here—’
‘They fear we will drive them to extinction. That’s what the Seer foresees. And if that’s so, we may ultimately destroy ourselves in the process.’
Elah thought that over. ‘Better a Galaxy in ruins,’ she said, ‘than a Galaxy that is not ruled by us. Good luck, Donn Wyman.’ She backed to the door, and left. Hama looked back once, but it was as if he barely recognised Donn any more, and he followed his superior.
Donn went back to his father. ‘I failed.’
‘Well, what did you expect? You aren’t going to overturn an ideology like the Coalition’s with a couple of sentences. But the Commission for Historical Truth records everything that transpires – everything. Maybe they will figure all this out one day, after a couple of thousand years’ study in some library on Earth – maybe you planted a few seeds for the future. In the meantime, we’ve a supernova to deal with.’ Samm eyed his son. ‘So did your new Ghost best buddy give you any advice?’