"Voice. Put through a hyperwave call to New Terra. I urgently need to consult with Sigmund Ausfaller."

39.

From the center of his spacious audience chamber Achilles settled into a mound of plush cushions, then gestured graciously to his minions to make themselves comfortable. He expected this to be a long meeting.

Clotho, his usually alert gaze dulled by fatigue, chose a lesser collection of pillows. Louis and Enzio took opposite ends of the low human-style sofa.

All watched Achilles expectantly.

"We shall begin," Achilles said. "The topic is our disposition of the Gw'oth fleet."

Disposition. Achilles thought it the perfect word. No battle. No danger. Merely a task to accomplish, items to be discarded. Nothing scary. Achilles thought it the perfect word. No battle. No danger. Merely a task to accomplish, items to be discarded. Nothing scary.

After ten consecutive days in hyperspace, most of the Citizen crew was anxious, short-tempered, despondent. Two cowered in their cabins, lost to catatonia. Of the humans Achilles had less ability to judge, but they, too, struck him as ill at ease.

And so production of new fusion suppressors lagged behind his goals. That was all right. The shortfall had only propelled him to new heights of brilliance.

"We heed, Excellency," Clotho said. He spoke English, of course, so the humans could take part, but adding respectful grace notes for Achilles' ears. "Guide us."

"I have devised a foolproof plan." Achilles inhaled deeply, the air thicker than ever with artificial herd pheromone. The rich scent sufficed to maintain his calm. "I brought you here to discuss implementation.

"The action we last planned depended on the Gw'oth fleet following a pattern. Unfortunately, they changed their pattern."

"So we return to normal space to learn their new pattern?" Enzio asked hopefully.

Too hopefully. He, too, suffered from so long in hyperspace.

"To the contrary," Achilles answered. "The surest place to meet them is where they must appear: near Kl'mo." And that is why Remembrance Remembrance must arrive first. must arrive first.

Unseen within Clotho's nest of pillows, a paw ripped through meadowplant to scrape at the hard deck beneath. "The crew will redouble its efforts to build suppressors."

"In the new plan," Achilles said, "we will not need so many. Perhaps none at all."

Louis's eyes narrowed. "What is is this new plan, Achilles?" this new plan, Achilles?"

"In a way, it is your your plan, Louis." Achilles paused dramatically. "We will use our planet-buster." plan, Louis." Achilles paused dramatically. "We will use our planet-buster."

Clotho twitched. Enzio looked puzzled. Louis looked ... wary.

"I will explain," Achilles said. "The plan is quite simple. We arrive first. We deploy a few passive probes instrumented to sense any large hyperwave disturbances. Remembrance Remembrance remains outside the singularity by making very short hops centered on the enemy's solar system. remains outside the singularity by making very short hops centered on the enemy's solar system.

"We wait and watch for the ripples of the Gw'oth fleet emerging. If the fleet arrives when we ourselves are in hyperspace, we will find that upon our reemergence by querying the probes. When the enemy appears-we deploy the planet-buster."

"Then we will need a rogue planet to bust," Clotho said. "Finding one may take time."

Not so. That was the beauty of the plan. That and the delicious irony that Baedeker had developed the technology that would doom his rule. That and the equally wonderful twist of fate that Baedeker would never have succeeded in developing that technology without the help of Ol't'ro, now leader of the rebellious Gw'oth.

Achilles said, "Debris is only necessary to cover a large volume. For a volume not much larger than a solar system, the device's other effects suffice."

"I'm not sure I follow," Louis said.

"The space-time effects should be more than adequate." The effects would be spectacular, but not everyone could appreciate his vision. And the understatement of adequate, adequate, like like disposition, disposition, amused Achilles. amused Achilles.

"I ... see," Louis said.

"You do not seem convinced," Achilles prompted.

"No, I am." Louis leaned forward. "Just trying to work out the sequence in my mind. See enough ripples to denote the Gw'oth fleet emerging, jettison the planet-buster, activate it, and then Remembrance Remembrance jumps to hyperspace before the device triggers." jumps to hyperspace before the device triggers."

"Correct."

"And the drive stays stable for how how long?" Louis persisted. long?" Louis persisted.

Did Louis imagine the plan not thought through? Achilles began to feel irked. "The latest devices are much more stable than those Ausfaller observed. We will have minutes to activate our hyperdrive." A few seconds would be ample.

"A brilliant plan, Excellency," Clotho offered. "I shall direct the crew to cease production of fusion suppressors."

And leave them with idle mouths and jaws? More More would lose their minds. Achilles said, "Have them continue. Now let us turn to the details. ..." would lose their minds. Achilles said, "Have them continue. Now let us turn to the details. ..."

Louis's mind reeled. By warning off the Gw'oth fleet, Louis had managed to make the situation worse. Somehow, he had to stop Achilles. But how?

Achilles finally dismissed everyone. Enzio lagged behind with Louis while Clotho cantered ahead.

When Clotho disappeared around a curve of corridor, Enzio grabbed Louis by the arm. "You're not one of my team, Wu. Achilles picked you, so maybe you don't owe me an answer. But something is bothering you. Something major."

Nessus had worried aboard Aegis Aegis that Achilles would make and hide bugs. Louis was not about to gamble Achilles did not spy here. Louis took out his sketch pad and pen and jotted a note. He flashed the page at Enzio. that Achilles would make and hide bugs. Louis was not about to gamble Achilles did not spy here. Louis took out his sketch pad and pen and jotted a note. He flashed the page at Enzio. Sensors. Have my comp? Sensors. Have my comp? Louis returned pad and pen to his pocket. Louis returned pad and pen to his pocket.

Enzio nodded, ever so slightly.

"I'm going for a walk," Louis said. "Deck Eight, outer corridor. Care to join me?"

"Thanks. I have something to do first. I'll catch up with you."

Enzio joined Louis a few minutes later. Soon after, power walking side by side, Louis noticed an unaccustomed bulge in his pocket. Pickpocket was obviously among his crewmate's criminal skills.

After another half lap around the corridor, Louis slipped a hand into that pocket and found a comp. By touch he fingered a four-button numeric control code. He was rewarded by a soft chirp acknowledging activation of what Sigmund called protocol gamma: sound suppression, bug suppression, and a holographic projection to defeat lip readers. Louis left the comp in his pocket. A passerby or hidden camera noticing a translucent aura around the two men was a bigger risk than Puppeteers who read lips.

"If this isn't the comp you took from me on Addison, Addison, tell me now," Louis said. tell me now," Louis said.

"It is," Enzio said. "Now, who are you? One of Sigmund Ausfaller's agents?"

"Let's just say I'm not who Achilles thinks I am. We need to talk fast. The jamming field is apt to show up in security sensors as noise. Jamming mode will turn itself off before anyone is likely to come looking."

"Evasion duly noted. So what is the problem?" Pause. "How crazy is is this new plan of his?" this new plan of his?"

Not crazy impractical. Genocidal and sociopathic crazy. "The planet-buster," Louis began cautiously. "Do you know much about them?"

"They bust planets. From what Achilles said, they shake up space-time when they go off." Enzio wheezed, out of shape and out of breath, and slowed their pace. "Sounds like a nice safe way to take out the Gw'oth fleet."

"Oh, it is." And Alice Alice's ship, too, tanj it. She had left for Kl'mo days before Enzio kidnapped Louis. She would not be quite there yet, but she would arrive before Remembrance. Remembrance. He He had had to stop Achilles. "But there are a couple of details Achilles hasn't shared. to stop Achilles. "But there are a couple of details Achilles hasn't shared.

"If the Gw'oth are a danger to the Citizens, it's because of his his machinations. He instigated a war between Gw'oth worlds just to create a fleet that would pass near Hearth. By squashing the threat he himself created, he expects the Experimentalists to elevate him to Hindmost." machinations. He instigated a war between Gw'oth worlds just to create a fleet that would pass near Hearth. By squashing the threat he himself created, he expects the Experimentalists to elevate him to Hindmost."

"And the other detail?"

"Those space-time 'ripples'?" Louis shivered. "They'll be enough to disrupt planetary orbits across the solar system. Drop planets into the sun? Eject planets into the dark between stars? Anything can happen, and there's a whole innocent colony on one of those worlds."

Enzio scowled. "I'm a thief, not a physicist. But neither am I an idiot. We can't possibly be carrying something with the power to do that."

"I'm no physicist, either, but I understand basic mechanics. Citizens keep trying to duplicate the planetary drives bought at great price from the Outsiders. The homemade drives are unstable, so they blow planets apart rather than move them.

"The thing is, Enzio, no one fully understands Outsider technologies. Not hyperdrive. Not the planetary drive. Not the reactionless drive that propels Outsider ships in normal space. But here is one amazing thing we do know. A city-sized Outsider ship can drop from near light speed to a dead stop, or zoom back again, in an instant."

Sigmund had seen it happen. So, Louis was almost certain, had First Father. Sigmund's story had struck a chord, had reawakened another cryptic childhood memory of Beowulf and Carlos talking while young Louis skulked about.

"To stop," Louis continued, "that ship sheds an incredible incredible amount of kinetic energy. If it didn't, the ship would vaporize from kinetic energy transformed to heat. To instantly reacquire that velocity, the same ship regains the same amount of kinetic energy. Only the Outsiders know how it's done, but their ships must shift energy between normal space and ... somewhere. Hyperspace? Another dimension? Another universe? Don't ask me. But they do it." amount of kinetic energy. If it didn't, the ship would vaporize from kinetic energy transformed to heat. To instantly reacquire that velocity, the same ship regains the same amount of kinetic energy. Only the Outsiders know how it's done, but their ships must shift energy between normal space and ... somewhere. Hyperspace? Another dimension? Another universe? Don't ask me. But they do it."

"And the planet-buster aboard Remembrance Remembrance taps the same other-where forces?" taps the same other-where forces?"

From Louis's pocket, a double chirp: the comp's wrap-it-up warning. "Enzio, we're running out of time. Big picture: if we allow it, Achilles will slaughter bunches of innocents. Everyone on the Gw'oth fleet and everyone in the Gw'oth colony."

And Alice and everyone aboard her ship, too. Louis kept that to himself. For all he knew, Enzio would go straight to Achilles.

While Enzio mulled, a triple chirp: the jamming mode's timeout/shutdown announcement.

"So I like the Capitals this season," Louis said. The Capitals were the first New Terran football team whose name he dredged up. For all he knew they were terrible. "Who do you like this season?"

"The Capitals? Hah! I think the Swans."

A few paces later, weight vanished from Louis's pocket. Louis said, "You're so so wrong. When those teams play next, I call it the Capitals by fourteen, sixteen points." The activation code for jamming mode: one four one six. If Enzio had believed anything he had just heard, he would talk it over with his people. Louis added a reminder, one more data point, for that discussion. "Not that we can listen here to New Terran news." wrong. When those teams play next, I call it the Capitals by fourteen, sixteen points." The activation code for jamming mode: one four one six. If Enzio had believed anything he had just heard, he would talk it over with his people. Louis added a reminder, one more data point, for that discussion. "Not that we can listen here to New Terran news."

"Fourteen, sixteen." Enzio snorted. "We'll be talking about this this again." again."

"Anytime," Louis said, knowing he had put his fate into the hands of criminals.

A sharp tap-tap on Louis's cabin door jerked him awake. He collapsed the sleeper field and stood. "It's not locked."

The door opened. By the nightshift-dimmed corridor lighting he recognized Maura. She stroked the touchpoint beside the door as she entered, and the cabin lights came up. The door clicked shut behind her. Another click sounded as she engaged the lock.

He must have looked surprised.

"You do nothing for me either, sport." Her right hand was in a pocket and the pocket chirped. "But Citizens are private about their own sex lives, if they even have sex. They won't won't want to know what you and I are doing in here. That's why Enzio sent me." want to know what you and I are doing in here. That's why Enzio sent me."

"About?"

"Enzio told us about your conversation. We talked it over. We signed up to defend Hearth, not to attack anyone else. Certainly not as mass murderers. We want out."

"Achilles won't care," Louis said. "I can get us all out, but I'll need everyone's help."

"So we assumed. Why else would you say anything to Enzio?"

"And it means taking orders from me. Enzio, too."

She nodded. "We assumed that, too."

"You can start by returning my computer."

She set it on his desk, just as it emitted its double chirp of warning. Red, yellow, and green dots chased each other around the display until, with a triple chirp, the device turned off.

Maura killed the overhead lights and sidled up to Louis. Her breath hot in his ear, she murmured, "Start talking."

And so, in the dark, in urgent whispers, he laid out his plan.

40.

The hardest part was the waiting.

It was not that Louis and his reluctant allies were without things to do. There was the timeline to refine. Tasks to delegate. Supplies to gather in secrecy. Stepping-disc coordinates to explore, confirm, and exchange. Details to tune and tweak. Even weapons to be made, mostly smoke grenades and Molotov cocktails, whoever Molotov was. As for more potent bombs, Louis had retained enough from his Wunderland training not to blow himself up improvising explosives and detonators with the chemicals he had retrieved from Addison. Addison. Whether the devices would blow up when they needed to remained to be seen. Whether the devices would blow up when they needed to remained to be seen.

And they had to do everything without attracting Puppeteer interest.

Still, they finished. And waited. And fretted. And waited.

While Remembrance Remembrance remained in hyperspace, they could not act. remained in hyperspace, they could not act.

"Prepare for normal space," Achilles called out. He pretended not to hear the soft notes of relief from the bridge crew. But unless he provided some some respite, he would be without a crew by the time they reached the Kl'mo system. respite, he would be without a crew by the time they reached the Kl'mo system.

"Normal space," Clotho acknowledged from the pilot's couch. "In ten. Nine. Eight ..."

At zero, the bridge displays switched from virtual meadows to real stars. The gnawing tickle vanished from the back of Achilles' brain. The hushed bridge chatter sounded brighter.

Achilles activated the intercom. "We will remain in normal space for an hour. Clotho and I will keep watch on the bridge. You are all relieved until five minutes before we continue on our way."

The bridge crew trotted from the room. Happy songs echoed in the corridors. Achilles stood, ready to walk about the for-once-uncrowded bridge.