Judas Unchained

“The invasion has been halted. MorningLightMountain still exists. As does the generator for the interstellar wormhole. This is not good. It now sees humans as a very real and immediate danger to its continued existence.”

“But it’s got to realize that if it attacks us again, we can wipe it out completely,” Rob said. “It’s not stupid.”

“No, it isn’t,” the Bose motile said. “Nor is it reasonable and open to negotiation as a human would be at this point. I’m not sure we did the right thing, though I admit I don’t see an alternative.”

“We can turn stars nova.” There was a trill of admiration in the Cat’s voice. “How wonderful.”

“The navy will need to do it to Dyson Alpha now,” Morton said. “That’s the only solution left to us.”

“Go, Navy!” Rob shouted.

“Here it comes,” the Bose motile said. “I can see the light growing. The radiation is reaching the staging post itself. MorningLightMountain is withdrawing the interstellar wormhole. All remaining wormholes are gone.”

Morton turned his attention back to the flyers hovering above the Trine’ba. They were holding steady. Prime signal traffic was almost nonexistent. “What are the immotiles it left behind going to do?”

“I’m not sure,” the Bose motile said. “All the immotiles are independent again. For the moment they’re unified copies of MorningLightMountain, but that won’t last. They’ll revert to autonomy, and try to carve themselves territories. Those on the ground will make alliances with the groups that control the big lander ships.”

“Will they fight among themselves?” Simon asked hopefully.

“Not for centuries,” the Bose motile said. “They occupy a lot of territory; there is no need to compete for a long time. But this is assuming the Commonwealth allows them to grow in the Lost23 systems.”

“That won’t happen,” Morton said. “We’ll probably be withdrawn, and they’ll nova the stars.”

“That is inadvisable,” the Bose motile said. “The radiation which novas release can quite easily sterilize all life on neighboring star systems. You’d wipe out this whole section of the Commonwealth.”

“Who gives a shit about details?” Rob said. “We can win. The immotiles left behind can be wiped out one at a time while we whack MorningLightMountain on its home star.”

“The remaining immotiles still present a formidable force,” the Bose motile said. “They have thousands of ships and several wormhole generators remaining in the Lost23 systems. They will probably seek to move beyond human reach.”

“None of this affects us,” Morton said. “All we have to worry about for now is how the local boys react. Any clues on that yet?” As he spoke, he saw the flyers moving again. They were all heading back toward the force field.

“The local immotiles are agreeing to cooperate, and remain linked into a group cluster. Without the supply route to Dyson Alpha, all expansion of existing operations will cease. They will concentrate their resources on strengthening their border against any assaults you make, and from any navy bombardment. Communications will be resumed with the other groups and clusters on Elan to decide what to do. It will mainly depend on what action the Commonwealth takes against them.”

“We should find that out soon enough. The next wormhole communication is scheduled for seven hours’ time.”

“They’ll take us home,” Rob declared. “There’s no point to all this sabotage bull when you can wipe out entire stars. How about that? Home free. And we didn’t spend half the time they threatened us with.”

“Home free?” the Cat asked sweetly. “So how exactly were you thinking of explaining why we’ve held on to our version of Dudley?”

“Shit!”

Morton watched Rob’s blue icon change to amber as he switched to a secure encrypted channel.

“Morton, you’ve got to think of some way to square that with the navy. Maybe just leave it here and pretend nothing happened. The survivors owe us big time, they won’t rat us out.”

“Could be. I want to hear what Mellanie says in the next message.”

“Goddamn,” Rob swore. “You are so pussy-whipped. Well, you make it clear to that little witch I’m not going to let her and her conspiracy theories stand between me and my clean record. That applies to you and the psycho bitch as well. When the navy lifts us, I want my release. I’ve fucking earned it.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Niall Swalt had been cycling to work at the Grand Triad Adventures office when the Prime attack started. He still came in every day, even though the tour operator hadn’t seen a single client since Mellanie returned from her short vacation. For some reason, head office on Wessex hadn’t canceled his employment contract. Every Friday night their accountancy program paid his wages; so every Monday morning he arrived back at the office for another week of doing whatever he wanted on company time. That was mainly accessing TSIs. He went through Murderous Seduction at least once a week.