‘If enough of them pull at the neutron star’s surface, they might create a wave in the outer crust; it’s only ions and electrons down to about four hundred metres.’
‘Love the way you call it “only”,’ Wim said.
‘But susceptible to external forces,’ Yirella countered. ‘I wonder if we can get an accurate surface map? See if there are physical waves splashing around down there.’
‘They wouldn’t be big,’ Wim said. ‘The neutron star’s only twenty-one kilometres in diameter, so a wave would be maybe a couple of millimetres high. Probably less.’
‘We’re missing the main point,’ Ellici said. ‘Why?’
‘Because they can?’
‘Because they’re weaponizing neutronium would be my guess. Remember, Ainsley has some kind of super-dense weapons we haven’t seen in action yet.’
‘And here we are in orbit around two point three solar masses of neutronium,’ Yirella said. ‘Matter that’s just as dense as you can get. Weaponize that, and the Olyix will be in serious trouble.’
‘Anyone would be,’ Wim said. ‘That’s a take-over-the-galaxy weapon.’
‘I disagree,’ Yirella said. ‘It’s a terrify-the-galaxy weapon, yes, but you can only destroy one thing with it. That doesn’t compel people to submit, just to run away.’
‘Or die.’
‘Good job they’re on our side, then,’ Ellici said.
Yirella grinned over at her friend. ‘There’s one thing missing from this ring – from the whole system, actually.’
‘Which is?’
‘The seedships.’
‘Then where are they?’ Wim said, frowning.
‘Inside the museum particle?’ Ellici suggested.
‘Surplus to requirements,’ Wim said. ‘Plus the ring orbit is uncomfortably close to the neutron star. The radiation down there is dangerous. If we didn’t have mirrorfabrik shells, the fleet wouldn’t be in this parking orbit. We’d be a lot further out.’
‘The seedships were obsolete,’ Yirella said. ‘They didn’t bother maintaining them. Simplest solution applies.’
‘Interesting insight into their psychology, then,’ Ellici said. ‘Human cultures normally display a reverence for the past. You know there was a protective dome built over the Apollo lunar module at Tranquillity to preserve Armstrong and Aldrin’s footprints from overeager tourists.’
‘That probably died the day the Olyix super-nuked Theophilus crater. It was a miracle they didn’t crack the whole moon open with that one.’
‘Most likely,’ Wim said testily. ‘Your point?’
‘This is the first human civilization we know about that has no past, no heritage,’ Yirella said. ‘I deliberately chose not to burden them with expectations and traditions. Their value system is going to be different from ours. And Ainsley told me they were . . . argumentative at first.’
‘That indicated they took time establishing the boundaries and behaviour profiles that parents normally instil in children. But of course they had to determine those for themselves. So yeah, they’ll probably look at things differently. From a strictly logical point of view, the past is really dead to them, an irrelevance.’
‘Sentimentality is an inbuilt human trait,’ Wim said.
‘Is it?’
‘Don’t start bringing up nature versus nurture, not here. Please.’
‘Their society, particularly the individuals themselves, aren’t old enough to have experienced death from old age, not yet,’ Yirella said. ‘They have never known that kind of loss. That must impact their outlook.’
‘Saints, what have you created?’
‘I have no idea,’ she said, and grinned. ‘Wonderful, isn’t it.’
*
A small spherical craft with the ubiquitous copper skin flew out of the ring to the Morgan, accelerating and decelerating at twenty gees. When it had manoeuvred into the starship’s largest airlock, it opened up to present a single portal, three metres in diameter. Alexandre was standing in front of it, at the head of a delegation of senior officers and fleet captains. They could glimpse a verdant green landscape framed by the glowing blue rim – one that seemed to be mostly rainforest. A human figure walked through.
Yirella couldn’t stop her lips twitching as she regarded the neutron star human in fascination. The visitor was an easy three metres tall, and she thought probably omnia; something about the sharp facial features elicited the instinctual assumption. Gender – if there was one – was hard to determine, what with the colourful ribbons of cloth that were wound spiral-style around its body – and which seemed to be moving as if still being wound. It was a perception issue, as if her eyes couldn’t quite resolve the subtle motion. The bands of colour were also travelling along the fabric in the opposite direction to the – apparent – physical motion. Then there were the visitor’s eyes, which were pale golden orbs, not at all biological. Also unusual was their skin, which was black but not as dark as her own, and had a kind of indigo mottling as if some reptilian DNA had somehow seeped in. The whole reptile theory was enhanced by the tail, over a metre long and sinuous, with strong muscle bands swishing it from side to side in a controlled pendulum motion that suggested it was anything but vestigial.
Dellian leant in towards her and whispered: ‘Is that how you designed them?’
‘No. The initiators were set to produce standard binary humans. There’s been plenty of body modification going on here.’
‘Free to do what they like, huh?’
Yirella was about to give him a really glance when the exotic visitor turned to face Alexandre, who was beginning hir official welcome speech. The cloth strips on its back parted to flow around five metallic sockets protruding from the spine. Yirella couldn’t figure those out at all; they were quite brutalist, given the technology level on show in the ring.
‘I am Immanueel,’ the visitor said in a high voice that hinted at amusement. ‘I thank you for your greeting. This is a momentous occasion for us.’ Immanueel began to look around at the people lined up behind Alexandre, searching – then drew a breath and walked straight to Yirella. Everyone parted to give them a clear path.
Yirella wasn’t used to looking up at people. Of all Immanueel’s modified aspects, she found their height the most unsettling.
‘The genesis human,’ Immanueel said reverentially, and bowed. ‘I am honoured. You created us unbound – the greatest gift sentience can be given. We thank you for our lives and freedom.’
Yirella
