gentlemen. We’re in dereliction of duty if we don’t.”
“It’s monstrous,” Clearmountain said.
“So is the prospect of losing the ten thousand,” Baudry replied.
“But would we necessarily be losing one hundred million lives?” asked Aumonier.
“Gaffney told Dreyfus that Aurora was interested in a benign takeover. The life-support systems in Aubusson and the three other habitats are still running: we’d have seen the evidence otherwise. That suggests to me that Aurora has at least the intention of keeping her subjects alive and healthy.”
“Human shields aren’t much use unless they’re alive,” Baudry said.
“But we still have to consider the possibility that she intends to keep her subjects alive for ever. If her
stated goal is to ensure the long-term survival of the Glitter Band, she’s not going to start murdering people.” Aumonier’s eyes became glazed, as if she was looking at something far beyond the room.
“Oh, wait,” said her floating head.
“Something’s coming in from Flammarion. They’ve made contact.”
Bracelets started chiming. The prefects silenced them and studied the Solid Orrery as it enlarged a thimble- shaped representation of House Flammarion.
“Status on Brazilia?” Dreyfus asked.
Aumonier glanced away, then back at him.
“The anti-collision guns have been picking off one weevil in ten. The rest are getting through more or less undamaged. They’ve established six bridgeheads on the outer skin of the wheel. Our assets have been concentrating fire, but some weevils appear to be making it through into the underlying structure.”
“Pressure containment?”
“Still holding. It looks as if the machines are at least programmed to break inside without compromising biosphere integrity.”
It would go the same way with Flammarion, Dreyfus knew. The concentration of weevils might not be exactly the same, the anti-collision systems might prove more or less successful at intercepting the arriving forces, but it would make no practical difference in the long run. It would only take a handful of those war robots to storm their way through the citizenry, scything a bloody path to the polling core. And then they would open a door and Aurora, or some facet of Aurora, could pass through.
“How many did we get off Brazilia?”
“Eleven thousand on the commercial shuttles that were already docked. Three from Flammarion.”
“Aurora’s reliant on data networks to hop into those habitats,” Dreyfus said.
“Before we start nuking our own citizens, can we block her progress by taking down part of the network?”
Baudry grimaced.
“It’s all or nothing, Tom.”
“Then we take the whole damned thing down.”
“We don’t know for sure that that would stop Aurora, but it would definitely hurt us. We need the apparatus to track Aurora’s spread, to coordinate evacuation operations and the deployment of our own assets.”
“Nonetheless,” Aumonier said, “Tom is right. Taking down Bandwide abstraction is something we have to consider. In fact, I’ve been considering it ever since I became aware of the crisis. We shouldn’t underestimate the risks, though. We may slow Aurora, but we’ll more than likely blind ourselves in the process.”
“Use the nukes and we end this now,” Baudry said.
“Aurora may not be intending to kill people, but she definitely intends to take their freedom from them.”
Dreyfus clutched his stylus so tightly that the nib pushed into his palm and drew blood.
“There’s another option, while we still have the apparatus. A given habitat may not be able to fight off the weevils, but at the moment we still have the resources of the entire Glitter Band to call upon.”
“I’m not with you, Tom,” Baudry said.
“I say we table an emergency poll with the people. We request permission to draft and mobilise a temporary militia from across the entire Glitter Band.”
“Define ’militia’.”
“I mean millions of citizens, armed and equipped with whatever weapons their manufactories can produce in the next thirteen hours. They already have the ships, so moving them around won’t be a problem. If we can supply them with weapons blueprints, then place enough of them into the compromised habitats, and into the habitats we think Aurora will go for next, together with military-grade servitors under our control, we may be able to break her back without using nukes.”
Baudry looked regretful.
“You’re talking about citizens, Tom, not soldiers.”
“You were the one calling them combatants, not me.”
“They have no training, no equipment—”
“The manufactories’ll give them equipment. Eidetics will give them training. Prefects can lead small units of drafted citizens.”
“There are a hundred million citizens out there, Tom, ninety-eight per cent of whom face no immediate threat from Aurora. Do you honestly think many of them are going to race to throw themselves against those weevils?”
“I think we should at least give them the choice. We won’t be proposing to draft the entire citizenry. Ten million would give us an overwhelming advantage, especially if they’re backed up by servitors. That’s only one citizen in ten, Lillian. The majority can agree to our draft safe in the knowledge that they’re not likely to be called up.”
“Do you want to put some numbers on casualty estimates?” Baudry asked.
“One in ten, two in ten? Worse than that?”
Dreyfus tapped his stylus against the table.
“I don’t know.”
“Lose two million and you’ll have killed more people than if we go in now with nukes.”
“But it would be two million people who chose to put themselves on the line, for the greater good of the Glitter Band, rather than two million we press the button on just because some simulation says so.”
“Maybe we can come to some kind of compromise,” Aumonier said, her crystal-clear voice cutting through the tension between Dreyfus and Baudry.
“We all find the idea of nuking habitats abhorrent, even if we differ on the necessity of doing so.”
“Agreed,” Baudry said cautiously.
“Which criteria did you use to identify Aurora’s next targets?” Aumonier asked.
“Proximity and usefulness, with allowance for varying distances due to differential orbital velocities. I reasoned that Aurora would concentrate her efforts on the nearest habitats with manufacturing capability.”
“Sounds reasonable to me,” Aumonier said.
“The question is, can we get the people out of those habitats before the weevils arrive from those that are now under assault?”
“You mean evacuate and then nuke?” Dreyfus asked.
“If we can do it, we’ll be clearing a line in a forest. Aurora’s weevils may well be able to cross that line and leapfrog to even further habitats, but at least it’ll have bought us time, with no expenditure of human lives.”
“If we get them out in time,” Clearmountain said.
“We can’t be certain which habitats she’ll go for,” Baudry said, pointing at the Solid Orrery.
“I selected likely candidates, but I couldn’t be precise.”
“Then we’ll have to cover more bases.” Aumonier said.
“I’m going to initiate an emergency evacuation order for ten probable targets.”
Dreyfus said, “I suggest we concentrate any enforcement activities on one habitat, just to show we mean business. The others will hopefully assume we’re capable of dishing out the same treatment to them.”
“I agree,” Aumonier replied.
“The one thing the people mustn’t suspect is that we’re overstretched. As for assistance in the evacuation effort, I’ll go through CTC. They can requisition and re-route all spaceborne traffic without the need for a poll. We’ll be limited by ship capacity and docking hub throughput, but we’ll just have to do the best we can.” She looked
