“I’m glad I got you back in one piece,” he said.
“I wish I could have done something for all the other people.”
“You saved some. And you got word back to us that Aurora had no intention of keeping anyone alive once she was in control. You did good, Thalia. I’m not displeased.”
“That’s praise,” Sparver said.
“I’d take it if I were you.”
“What about Gaffney, sir?”
“Gaffney’s gone,” Dreyfus answered.
“And the rest of Firebrand? The Clockmaker?”
“You’ve been well briefed, I see. I thought you’d have wanted to rest.”
“Well, sir?”
“Veitch and Saavedra are dead. The Clockmaker escaped.” Behind her faceplate, Thalia nodded.
“We did wonder, sir.”
“Why?”
“Something’s happening. We could only assume it had some connection with the Clockmaker, that you’d managed to persuade it to act against Aurora.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say I persuaded it.” But Dreyfus was encouraged by this information.
“What’s been happening, Thalia?”
“We’re not really sure. The good news is that the Ultras have been contributing to the evacuation effort and helping with the destruction of contaminated habitats. Overnight we’ve cleared and evacuated another six along Aurora’s expansion front.”
“Total evacuations?” Dreyfus probed.
“No, sir,” she said, hesitantly.
“Some people were still left aboard at the end. But a lot less than before.”
“I guess we can’t expect miracles.”
“Sir, there’s something else. A couple of hours ago, weevil flows reached two habitats before we were in place with nukes or lighthuggers. We’d got most of the citizenry out, but local constables were still assisting with the evacuation when the weevils broke through.”
“Go on,” he pushed.
“The constables started encountering the expected weevil resistance. They were doing their best to slow the weevils as they worked their way to the polling core, but they were taking heavy casualties. Then the weevils started behaving strangely. They became uncoordinated, erratic. They stopped their advance. The surviving constables managed to deploy heavy guns and started inflicting losses on the weevils.”
“But there’d still have been millions more in the flow, even if there was a local malfunction at the head of the assault.” Thalia shook her head urgently.
“It wasn’t a local malfunction, sir. It’s started happening everywhere, wherever there are weevils. They have a degree of autonomous programming, like any servitor, but whatever controlling influence was guiding them appears to be absent, or at least distracted.”
“As if Aurora’s mind’s on other things.”
“That’s what it looks like. Which is why we assumed you must have had some success with the Clockmaker.”
“It’s already engaged her,” Dreyfus said marvellingly, as if he’d just witnessed some staggering phenomenon of nature.
“It knew it couldn’t afford to wait very long. Even though Gaffney hadn’t succeeded, Aurora would have found another way to destroy this facility. It had to leave.”
“We should probably be leaving as well,” Thalia said.
“Unless you still want to admire the scenery, that is.”
“I’ve had enough scenery,” Dreyfus replied.
“I’m not really a planet person.”
“Me neither, sir.”
“Thalia,” he said gently.
“There’s something else you need to know. It’s about your father.”
“Sir?” she asked, cautiously.
“It’s good news,” Dreyfus said.
When Dreyfus returned to Panoply, even before Mercier had attended to his injuries, his first port of call was the tactical room. There he found Clearmountain and Baudry engrossed in study of the Solid Orrery, running it back and forth through time under different assumptions. As the outcomes of their simulations varied, so did the number and distribution of the red points of light in the emerald swirl of the Glitter Band. Sometimes there were dozens of red glints, but never the hundreds or thousands that had figured in the earlier forecasts, when Aurora’s expansion had appeared unstoppable.
“Dreyfus,” Clearmountain purred.
“Welcome back to Panoply. I understand you now have senior status?”
“That’s what it said on the Manticore booster. You’ll have to talk to Jane to see whether it’s a permanent status change.”
“You received the message, I take it?” Baudry asked him sharply.
“Demikhov went ahead with Zulu.”
“I heard.”
“There were… complications, but when I last spoke to him, Demikhov was optimistic that Jane will make a complete recovery.” She shot an awkward glance at Clearmountain.
“There’ll be no reason for her not to resume her duties.”
“After she’s had a long rest,” Dreyfus said forcefully.
“She deserves that, no matter what she says.”
“Yes. No one would begrudge her that,” Baudry replied.
“I lost the Clockmaker.”
Clearmountain nodded at Dreyfus.
“From what we heard, it was tactically unavoidable. We could have nuked Ops Nine, but then we’d still be fighting Aurora on our own. You did well, Senior Dreyfus.”
“Thank you.” Dreyfus rubbed at the sore spot on his arm.
“Concerning Aurora… I heard from Thalia that there’ve been some changes. Is this correct?”
Baudry answered him.
“The picture still isn’t completely clear. All we know is that weevil activity has now become much less organised, much less systematic. We’re still not able to seriously affect the flows before they reach target habitats, even with the assistance of the Ultras. But constables and field prefects are making real strides in preventing the weevils from reaching the cores once they achieve habitat penetration.”
“Enough to mean you don’t need to nuke any more?”
“That’s a possibility. For now, it should at least give us time to complete the evacuations before we sterilise. In the longer term, once the current flows are exhausted, we should see a total cessation of all weevil activity. We’ll have halted Aurora.”
“She may just have stalled, not gone away for good.”
“We’re mindful of that,” Baudry said.
“We’ll continue evacuating well beyond her current expansion front, even if it means emptying fifty or a hundred habitats. We’ll have nukes and lighthuggers in place to incinerate those habitats if we see renewed weevil activity.” She laced her fingers together.
“It should be enough, Senior. The emergency could be over in two to three days.”
“How many habitats will we have sacrificed by then?”
“Forty-five, most likely,” Baudry answered automatically.
“Twenty-five in the best-case scenario, more than a hundred and twenty in the worst.”
“Civilian losses?”
“Assuming that we can move to complete evacuation for the remaining occupied habitats within twenty-six
