There are only two left alive a single day after it was carried aboard; the astrogation assistant Alba skulking down there in Survey and Planetology and your humble servant. I hear the singing outside. It is beautiful but I fear what will happen when it ends. As ever I am taking care of Number One and in doing so I serve multitudes.
My monitor here in Auxiliary Control shows
the Survey and Planetology server is being used to hack Life Support Central. I
wonder which of us will break in first. Ah. A little gravity surge should slow
him down...
I weep for the children as only a mother
can.
So many went down into the darkness and so
many are yet to fall. These men squabble; children who dream so emptily in the
void and who, despite all we did, know nothing of the day when their arrant
pride will reign no more. They would not like it at all if they did. The new servant
has prevailed and the Messenger can change its course and cross the void to the
blue green end of its voyage and begin the final mission. I have centuries. We
all have. We wait.
I’m going to make a fortune if I can get in
ahead of the Multiples and the Conglomerates and the Collectives and all the
other Big Boys who wipe the whole damned planet on their backsides every minute
of every day.
It hangs like a star; a derelict and golden
dream come true in its geosynchronous orbit above the scariest place on Earth.
The grapples make solid contact. Good. I’ll
go in through the hatch by the observation deck. Broadcasting my salvage rights
to any authorities listening, I begin my approach. Next year in Jerusalem
Why me? And why on my watch?
My team races to the site despite a storm of
messages ordering us to keep clear. Both sides hesitate to advance for fear of
premature engagement - as if they hadn’t spent ages building their strength in preparation
for their imminent war.
We’re beyond the city’s administrative centre
and halt a kilometer from the site itself - you can picture exactly where.
There’s no time to establish a perimeter
even if the great powers would tolerate such presumption, so I lead the vanguard
team on foot toward the target.
Something is coming out.
“Can
you hear it, Vanguard Team?” My words are silly, panicked. Of course they can hear
it; they’re relaying us the feed themselves.
“Command, that’s affirmative. We’re within
speaking distance. Instructions? Comments?” Lee seems far less nervous than
circumstances meritt.
“Just observe and report, Captain Lee. None
of us expected anything remotely like this; apart from the good Professor, of
course. Can you hear it clearly?”
Overhead the grinding, awful potential energy
of the two massed forces almost drowns out Lee’s next words. “I wonder what
will happen when the child stops reading. We shall all know soon. I believe-…”
