Bechimo
En route
“Everybody’s read the files?” Theo asked, looking ’round the table, and into the split screen that showed Joyita in his comm tower, and Win Ton on the bridge, at first board.
There were nods, murmured “Yes, Theos,” and solemn faces, which was appropriate, considering the contents of the files.
“Who’s first?”
“Tinsori Light is a Great Work,” Chernak said. “Great Works are…difficult to kill.”
Theo nodded. Truth said, she’d had a moment or two of doubt herself while reading the file. The scholarship was strong, and the experts impeccable, which counted for her, as the daughter of two scholars. Chernak and Stost, though, had seen and contended against the Enemy’s Works in the Old Universe. She’d expected them to be hard to convince.
“Right,” she said. “We know from Aberthaz Ferry that Tinsori Light was one of the three Great Works from the Old Universe that he was hunting in this one,” she said. “He never reached his goal, but we have it on file that Tinsori Light did die, and very recently. All the people at the Light, and all the experts on it, including Uncle, are convinced that’s the case: The intelligence that called himself Tinsori Light is dead.”
She paused. It was Stost who spoke this time.
“In our experience, and from the intelligence shared by other soldiers and Command—the only way to be certain that a Great Work is dead is to reduce it to atoms and deposit the atoms into the heart of a sun.”
“Even then,” Chernak said, tapping the table with a stern forefinger, like a teacher chiding a student for having left out the proof for the equation.
“Yes, Senior,” Stost said, and met Theo’s eyes. “Even then, we must assume that we have only delivered a setback, never a final death.”
Theo frowned. “Is that a joke?”
Stost turned his big hands up.
“A soldier’s joke, Captain.”
“Which is to say, black an’ near enough to true,” Clarence said, “as truth was.”
“That’s an important point,” Theo said, leaning in. “This isn’t the Old Universe, and Tinsori Light was old. Aberthaz Ferry told us that the timonium powering the Old Tech systems is at its limit. There’s another twenty Standards of power, maybe, for outliers. Timonium exhaustion alone—I think it’s telling that Miri’s more worried about systems going down from timonium failure than she is about Tinsori Light not being factually dead.”
“Factually dead,” Win Ton murmured. Theo flicked a look at the screen, but he was minding his board, face smooth.
“Captain Robertson is wise to be concerned of systems failures,” Chernak said, “but she may be naive in her belief that Tinsori Light is completely dead.”
“The only thing that’s going to prove it yes or no is observation,” Theo said. “Unless you think we ought to ignore our orders and leave Tinsori Light on its own?”
“No!” Chernak and Stost answered as one, both clearly horrified.
“Captain, with respect, you cannot ignore the Great Work,” Chernak said, very carefully. “Stost and I, it is our duty to be careful on behalf of ship, crew, and the universe where we find ourselves. We only wanted it to be clear, that we would be—”
She faltered, and Stost took it up.
“We will be proceeding as if the Great Work is not factually dead,” he said. “If we are found to be fools, it will not be the first time.”
“Yes,” Chernak said. “You say it well, my Stost.”
“I can accept that,” Theo said. “You’ll also have to remember that Tocohl has taken over station systems. She’s someone entirely other than Tinsori Light.”
“Occupying the systems as she does,” Kara said, “would she not notice an—intruder? A remnant?”
Chernak and Stost exchanged a look.
“The Enemy, and the Works of the Enemy are very good at hiding, and at—misdirection,” Chernak said.
“Joyita and I have agreed to help the young person Tocohl,” Bechimo said. “Ascertaining that there are no bugs, ghosts, or traps in her hardware or systems is an example of the sort of assistance we can offer.”
“No direct contact,” Theo said. “We don’t want anything coming across to us.”
“Captain Theo,” Joyita said chidingly, “give us credit. We’re good at this kind of thing.”
“You’re also cocky,” Theo said sternly. “No risks to yourself or Bechimo, that’s clear?”
“Yes, Captain,” Joyita said, sounding subdued. A little. Maybe.
“Theo, we will do what we can to assist while keeping ourselves and the crew safe,” Bechimo assured her, which would have been more reassuring if Bechimo’s definition of safe hadn’t been expanding, and that was her fault, for being, well, human. And, so her father and her brother told her, for being related to Clan Korval, possibly the least safe body of humans in the universe.
“Safe,” she said, now. “I’ll expect it.”
She looked around the table again.
“What else?”
“The space around the Light is now said to be stable, lacking all anomalies that previously defined it,” Kara said slowly. “I don’t quite understand how this was achieved.”
Theo sighed.
“Tinsori Light was caught up in the wave of the Great Migration”—she nodded at Chernak and Stost—“what you call the Retreat. It came into our universe, but only partway. It cycled back and forth, manifesting only occasionally—that’s all in the dossier.” The dossier that read like something out of Thrilling Wonder Tales about haunted space stations and crystal ships lurking in asteroid fields to freeze the unwary, and Theo might’ve thought that Val Con was having a joke, except that file had been compiled by Jeeves.
“Yes,” Kara said, “it is. The dossier also states that an event occurred which brought the Light entirely into our universe. I wonder what that event was.”
Pharst, Theo thought.
She met Kara’s eyes.
“I wasn’t there, though I was told what happened, in general terms. Knowing both versions, I’d say it might be more…comfortable to accept Clan Korval’s assurance that an event occurred and Tinsori Light is now completely part of this universe.”
“I’ll take that,” Clarence said comfortably.
Kara frowned.
“Comforting?”
“I can tell you the story I was told, which frankly makes my head hurt. But if Korval’s word isn’t good enough—”
Kara blinked.
“When you put it that way…very well. An event occurred. Tinsori Light, the station, is fully in this universe, and the malignant intelligence that once resided there has received his last reward.”
“Thank you,” Theo said sincerely, and looked around the table for the third time.
“Anything else?”
Silence.
“All right, then. We’ll be Jumping directly for Tinsori Light in three shifts.”