Alik’s entanglement link to the transmitter immediately ended as its delicate onboard electronics died instantly from the energy bombardment. ‘Well, something happened,’ he said. ‘Mine’s out.’
The others all acknowledged they’d lost direct contact with their transmitters.
‘We’re seven AUs from the nearest Signal,’ Jessika said. ‘It’ll take an hour for us to see what’s happened.’
‘If it worked, the Salvation of Life is going to know about it a bloody sight quicker than that,’ Callum said. ‘Every ship and station in this star system has entangled communications. They’ll all know at once.’
Alik closed his eyes so he could concentrate on the thoughts that whispered away at the back of his head. Sure enough, within a minute, one thing rose out of the onemind’s babble to eclipse everything else – surprise and concern. It originated from the oneminds that governed the radio telescopes as they shared their perception.
He concentrated on the thoughts issuing out of the radio telescope his transmitter had reached. A tiny potent star hung above it, burning away at the upper end of the violet spectrum. Below it, the dish helped reflect and concentrate the Signal into a beam that was heading in the general direction of Sol.
‘Goddamn, it worked,’ Alik said in a tone that betrayed his surprise. We got something right.
‘Happy for you,’ Kandara growled.
As Alik examined the onemind’s thoughts, he saw four of the Signal transmitters were now intense violet sparks, while the fifth . . . Something had gone wrong with the annihilation procedure. All the anti-protons had escaped their lattice confinement at once, producing a massive explosion, most of which was in the form of gamma and X-ray emissions – an outpouring of energy that for a brief instant rivalled that of the Olyix star. Already the dodecahedron of dishes was starting to crumple from the rampant flare, the curving continent-sized surfaces melting and fracturing. He saw long cracks tearing open, splintering the dishes even as the surface facing the antimatter explosion started to boil away. Then the closest viewpoint of the disaster vanished from the onemind’s thoughts.
‘What happened?’ Callum asked.
‘My transmitter core got overenthusiastic,’ Kandara grumbled.
‘Come on, stay positive,’ Jessika said. ‘Four of them are working. If the active molecules maintain cohesion, they’ll last for almost another ninety minutes.’
‘But without mine, we’ve lost twenty per cent of the broadcast power.’
‘There’s certainly enough left to piss off the Olyix,’ Callum said contentedly.
Alik had to smile at the furious thoughts churning within the arkship’s onemind. They’d been right about the radio telescopes not having any ships nearby. Eighteen Deliverance ships and eleven Resolution ships were being ordered to divert and intercept the signal generators. But the closest were more than an AU away. Even at maximum acceleration, it would take them a couple of hours to reach the radio telescopes, by which time the Signal transmitters would have exhausted their supply of anti-protons.
They carried on reading theonemind’s thoughts until the last Signal transmitter flickered out. In total, the Signal had been broadcast for ninety-one minutes and seventeen seconds.
‘It was a good strength,’ Jessika said. ‘Any exodus habitat with a decent sensor array should be able to receive it.’
‘A ninety-minute window in fifty thousand years’ time?’ Callum said bitterly. ‘Sure thing. Let’s crack the champagne open and party.’
‘Oh, lighten the fuck up,’ Alik told him. ‘You can sense how disturbed the Olyix are. Even if humans don’t pick up the Signal, other species will. Half the galaxy will know something is here. And anyone who’s fleeing an Olyix invasion the way the Neána tell them to will have a pretty good idea who and what that something is. It’s the beginning of the end, man.’
Callum ducked his head. ‘Maybe.’
Eight hours later, the Salvation of Life arrived at the gateway. The escort ships no longer spiralled exuberantly around it; there was no celebration. The onemind’s thoughts had descended into a dour formality.
The remaining sensor clumps on the arkship’s exterior showed them the barrier approaching – an insubstantial hemisphere refraction haloed by the galactic core, growing until it dominated space outside. Then they were passing through, their passage kicking up a delicate splash plume of silver scintillations.
Gox Quint
Salvation of Life
Gateway Arrival
I fucking knew it! Those sneaky little human shits put together some kind of dark operation. We should never trust them. Never.
They must have used a Neána neurovirus against the transport ship somehow and subverted its onemind. Just like Soćko did thirty years ago. They flew it into the hangar while we were retreating from Earth. There was a lot of confusion that day. We never did understand why they didn’t attack all our positions simultaneously. They could’ve launched those deadly portal missiles at the Salvation of Life first. Not to destroy it – that would kill too many of their own, and they are laudably sentimental. But they could have taken out the wormhole generator. We would’ve been stranded, all alone. Well, now we know what they were actually doing. Everything about that assault was deliberately chaotic, thousands of our ships fleeing their attackers; even the onemind didn’t analyse the manoeuvres in any detail.
I paused from my endless task, supervising the containers with their myriad humans, and extended my reach further into the wonderful union with the onemind. It was urgently reviewing its hangar memory. That ship took off from Salt Lake City, and there was an intense human attack there. Memories were incomplete, inadequate, with too many gaps. We were stupid. No: It was. Forgiving.
Now we pay for our compassion, for treating the humans with love and respect. Meanwhile, their antimatter-powered radio devices broadcast our position to the whole galaxy. There is nothing we can do about that now. The closest ships are over two hours
