Peter F. Hamilton - The Evolutionary Void

The Evolutionary Void

Book 3 of the Void Trilogy

By Peter F. Hamilton

For Felix F. Hamilton,

who arrived at the start of the Void.

Dont worry, Daddys world isnt really like this.

T HE STARSHIP HAD NO NAME ; it didnt have a serial numberor even a marque. Only one of its kind had ever been built. As no more wouldever be required, no designation was needed; it was simply theship .

It streaked through the substructure of spacetime at fifty-ninelight-years an hour, the fastest anything built by humans had ever traveled.Navigation at that awesome velocity was by quantum interstice similarityinterpretation, which determined the relative location of mass in the realuniverse beyond. This alleviated the use of crude hysradar or any other sensorthat might possibly be detected. The extremely sophisticated ultradrive thatpowered it might have reached even greater speeds if a considerable fraction ofits phenomenal energy hadnt been used for fluctuation suppression. That meantthere was no telltale distortion amid the quantum fields to betray its positionto other starships that might wish to hunt it.

As well as its formidable stealth ability, the ship was big, a fat ovoid over six hundred meters long and two hundred meters acrossat the center. But its real advantage came from its armaments; there wereweapons on board that could knock out a half a dozen Commonwealth NavyCapital-class ships while barely stirring out of standby mode. The weapons hadbeen verified only once: the ship had flown over tenthousand light-years from the Greater Commonwealth to test them so as to avoiddetection. For millennia to come, primitive alien civilizations in that sectionof the galaxy would worship as gods the colorful nebulae expanding across theinterstellar wastes.

Even now, sitting in the ship s cleanhemispherical cabin with the flight path imagery playing quietly in herexovision, Neskia remembered with a little shiver of excitement andapprehension the stars splitting asunder. It had been one thing to run theclandestine fabrication station for the Accelerator Faction, dispatching shipsand equipment to various agents and representatives. That was easy, coldmachinery functioning with a precision she could take pride in. But seeing theweapons active was slightly different. Shed felt a level of perturbation shehadnt known in over two centuries, ever since she became Higher and began herinward migration. Not that she questioned her belief in the Accelerators; itwas just the sheer potency of the weapons that struck her at some primitivelevel that could never be fully exorcised from the human psyche. She was awedby the power of what she alone commanded.

Other elements of her animal past had been erased quietly and effectively:first with biononics and acceptance of Higher cultural philosophy, culminatingin her embrace of Accelerator Faction tenets, then by committing to a subtlerejection of her existing body form, as if to emphasize her new beliefs. Herskin now was a shimmering metallic gray, the epidermal cells imbued with acontemporary semiorganic fiber that established itself in perfect symbiosis.The face that had caused many a man to turn in admiration when she was youngernow wore a more efficient, flatter profile, with big saucer eyes biononicallymodified to look across a multitude of spectra. Her neck also had beenstretched, its increased flexibility allowing her head much greatermaneuverability. Underneath the gently shimmering skin her muscles had been strengthenedto a level that would allow her to keep up with a terrestrial panther on itskill run, and that was before biononic augmentation kicked in.

However, it was her mind that had undergone the greatest evolution. Shedstopped short of bioneural profiling simply because she didnt need any geneticreinforcement to her beliefs. Worship was a crude term for thought processes,but she was certainly devoted to her cause. She had dedicated herselfcompletely to the Accelerators at a fully emotional level. The old humanconcerns and biological imperatives simply didnt affect her anymore; herintellect was involved solely with the faction and its goal. For the past fiftyyears their projects and plans had been all that triggered her satisfaction andsuffering. Her integration was total; she was the epitome of Acceleratorvalues. That was why shed been chosen to fly the ship by the faction leader, Ilanthe, on this mission. That, and that alone, made hercontent.

The ship began to slow as it approached thecoordinate Neskia had supplied to the smartcore. Speed ebbed away until it hunginertly in transdimensional suspension while her navigation display showed theSol system twenty-three light-years away. The distance was comfortable. Theywere outside the comprehensive sensor mesh surrounding humanitys birthworld,yet she could be there in less than thirty minutes.

Neskia ordered the smartcore to run a passive scan. Other thaninterstellar dust and the odd frozen comet, there was no detectable mass withinthree light-years. Certainly there were no ships. However, the scan picked up atiny specific anomaly, which caused her to smile in tight satisfaction. Allaround the ship ultradrives were holding themselvesin transdimensional suspension, undetectable except for that one deliberatesignal. You had to know what to search for to find it, and nobody would belooking for anything out here, let alone ultradrives. Theship confirmed there were eight thousand of the machines holdingposition as they awaited instructions. Neskia established a communication linkto them and ran a swift function check. The Swarm was ready.

She settled down to wait for Ilanthes next call.

The ExoProtectorate Council meeting ended, and Kazimir canceled the linkto the perceptual conference room. He was alone in his office atop Pentagon II,with nowhere to go. The deterrence fleet had to be launched; there was noquestion of that now. Nothing else could deal with the approaching OcisenEmpire armada without an unacceptable loss of life on both sides. And if newsthat the Ocisens were backed up by Prime warships leaked out Which it would.Ilanthe would see to that.

No choice .

He straightened the recalcitrant silver braid collar on his dress uniformone last time as he walked over to the sweeping window and looked down on thelush parkland of Babuyan Atoll. A gentle radiance was shining down on it,emitted from the crystal dome curving overhead. Even so, he could still seeIcalanises misty crescent through the ersatz dawn. The sight was one hed seencountless times during his tenure. Hed always taken it for granted; now hewondered if hed ever see it again. For a true military man the thought wasntunusual; in fact, it was quite a proud pedigree.

His u-shadow opened a link to Paula. Were deploying the deterrencefleet against the Ocisens, he told her.

Oh, dear. I take it the last capture mission didnt work, then.

No. The Prime ship exploded when we took it out of hyperspace.

Damn. Suicide isnt part of the Primes psychological makeup.

You know that and I know that. ANA:Governance knows that, too, ofcourse, but as always it needs proof, not circumstantial evidence.

Are you going with the fleet?

Kazimir couldnt help but smile at the question. If onlyyou knew . Yes. Im going with the fleet.

Good luck. I want you to try and turn this against her. Theyll be outthere watching. Any chance you can detect them first?