Permanence

Michael regarded him calmly over the edge of the airlock. "What war is it that you're talking about?" He had to laugh at his own thick-headedness during the past months. "I know all about that war, I just spent the last five years of my life uncovering its victims with Professor Herat.

"Out there in High Space, the war is of all against all, and it goes on forever. No one needs anyone else if they can simply pull up roots and move a few light-years to get away— which works great until you run up against someone who's there already. That's the great lesson of the Chicxulub, isn't it? No matter how big the galaxy, its resources are finite— but with FTL, mobility isn't. Barendts, the result is always— always— the disintegration of the species into thousands of subspecies that war among themselves and with their neighbors. Permanent war. In all the lifetime of the galaxy there's only been two exceptions: the Lasa and the Chicxulub. The Lasa opted out of FTL travel completely; they discovered an environment that encouraged cooperation rather than competition: the halo worlds. No halo world can stand on its own. They need one another, and war between them isn't possible because of the barrier of light-speed."

"You're crazy," said Barendts. "Put down the laser. Can't you see what's happening here?"

"More clearly than ever. The Chicxulub are the only other solution, Barendts. The only other solution is to keep yourself pure, and wipe out every competitor. That's what the R.E.'s all about, isn't it? It was created to force humanity to stay together.

"The lit worlds are lost no matter who wins, can't you see? Whether you and I bring this seed back or not, the R.E. either wins, and goes the way of the Chicxulub, or it loses, and we end up with every world for itself. A thousand wars where before there was only one."

"You want the R.E. to win!" accused Barendts.

Michael shook his head. "Actually, I want the Lasa to win. Now you'd better find something to hold onto out there, because I'm shutting this hatch and then we're going after the rest of our people."

From inside the hatch it was easy to pull the cycler mother seed inside. Michael could see Barendts waiting just outside, but he had no weapon. He continued to rail impotently at Michael until the hatch was shut.

"DON'T MIND THE cold, guys," said Rue. It was only about — 5 °Celcius in here so far, which brought back memories of her escape from Allemagne. "Just breathe through your noses." At least everybody had their suits on; it was just the scientists who were missing their helmets that were having trouble. So far everyone had been calm, sitting along the walls silently while the techs worked.

The lights of the hab flickered. Now this they didn't need. "What's going on?" She moved to where two technicians were trying to rig up a transmitter.

"Looks like the emergency supply was just a superconducting loop. It's bleeding out pretty fast, ma'am. I'd say we've got about ten minutes of power left."

When the power went the cold would really start. Those without helmets would develop severe frostbite around the face and ears, then their lungs would start to burn.

She would have to fix things before then. "Okay, how about reserve oxygen?" The techs pointed to a set of panels under the floor. Rue opened one and examined the tanks there.

"Listen up, people! We're going to do something hazardous. I'm going to fetch one of our interceptors." If Mike Bequith hasn't stolen both, she thought bitterly. "I'm going to have to cut a hole in the wall and exit through it. There'll be a huge pressure drop, but it'll be temporary. Once the patches are on, you'll be able to breathe again. Is everybody clear on that?"

Several of the exposed faces went white, but no one protested.

"Better for two of us to go," said Harp. "I'll come."

"All right." Rue pointed a laser at a section of wall well away from the vulnerable scientists. "Rapid, deep breaths, people. Get ready to plug your noses." She aimed.

Clunk. Something big had struck the hab a glancing blow; Rue found herself and Harp tumbling like dice in a cup. Moments later the hab stabilized, but not its inhabitants: Everyone was shouting at once.

"Wait, wait! Shut up everybody!" They gradually quieted. Then Rue heard it: a tapping on the door. She flew over to it and looked through its tiny window.

Michael Bequith gri

The door opened. Mike filled the doorway, his suit covered in smoking frost.

She grabbed him and hugged him tightly, despite the cold that seared through her cheek as she laid it against the breastplate of his suit. "You came back."

"Of course." He seemed a bit offended that she had doubted him.

"But the seed… the rebels… don't you want to fight the R.E.?"

Mike sighed, and reached up to smooth back her hair with one icy glove.

"I don't want to destroy, not even destroy the R.E." he said. "I… want to build."

A DAY LATER, Rue joined a large crowd that had gathered around a big inscape window in the larger of the cruisers they had captured from Crisler. The scientific team was here, all talking excitedly about the spectacle unfolding in the window. Someone had found material to make black arm bands in honor of Henry Katz.

"I knew there wasn't enough power in those tethers to launch a cycler!" laughed Herat. "But never in a million years would I have imagined they'd do that!"

That was bright enough to illuminate both Apophis and Osiris like a minor sun. The thousands of conductive tethers that orbited around Osiris normally just drew power out of the brown dwarf's magnetic field. Somehow, they had orchestrated a vast current flow back into the dwarf— and the result was the biggest flare Rue had ever seen burst off a dwarf. It stood out of Osiris's equator like an incandescent spear, and though they weren't visible from here, she knew that a vortex of tethers was amplifying and aiming that flare. The full power of Osiris's magnetosphere was pouring power into an energy beam of astonishing power.

Crisler's cycler rode the crest of that wave of energy like a leaf in a hurricane. The acceleration was enormous; Crisler and his men were either in their hibernation tanks now, or dead from the pressure. The cycler was thriving, though, soaring on wings of magnetized plasma faster and faster, trying its best to catch up to light.

Rue made her way over to the professor, and Mike who was as always next to his mentor. Rue reached out and touched Mike's arm. He turned with a wide smile.

"And so," Rue said very softly, "the halo worlds become able to launch our own cyclers at last." Mike took her hand in his, and squeezed it.

She'd barely had a chance to talk to Mike in the whirlwind of activity that had followed Crisler's escape. When he arrived to rescue her team and she realized he had abandoned the rebels, Rue had felt a rush of happiness that had carried her through the whirlwind. Now, with Crisler's ships secure and dispatches ready for sending to Colossus, New Armstrong, and Crisler's probable destination, she could finally relax for a moment.

The scientists cheered the cycler launch like they were watching a sporting match. Herat turned away, smiling fondly, and said, "Hello, Rue. Are you getting ready to leave?"

She nodded. "There's much to do. Are you staying here, Laurent, or are you going back to High Space? Now that we know they exist, I'm sure you'll be able to find the Lasa themselves."

He shook his head. "No— or rather, we already found them. They are that." He gestured to the vast machinery of the Twins visible through the window. "That and no more. The original Lasa— the species that gave us the name— realized that no species is permanent. Only the ecological niches, the environments friendly to one or another kind of life, have any kind of permanence. They saw that they would rise and fall like every living form. So, instead of trying to extend their existence, like so many other species before and since," he sighed, "they looked to ways of preserving and nourishing an environment that would encourage the birth and growth of species similar to themselves. Cooperative, farsighted peoples."