Pandora's Star

“Re-life always freaks me out,” Daniel confessed. “Those accelerated growth clones just don’t look human.”

“But his personality is intact?” Wilson pressed.

“Oh, yeah. The download from his secure store was completely successful. The last thing he remembers is making a short update on the Second Chance before going over to the Watchtower.”

“And Emmanuelle?”

“The same. Though she’s a lot calmer than Bose.”

“How do you mean?”

“I only met Bose once before; he seemed quite edgy then. That trait has become… amplified a little. The doctors said the information he’s received subsequent to re-life hasn’t helped.”

“You mean the warning we were given on the scout mission?”

“Yes, partly. It’s unfortunate that we don’t know exactly what did give you that warning. Re-lifers often worry that their earlier self is alive somewhere. In this case, the prospect is throwing up some unique schizophrenic problems.”

“The warning specifically said the Primes killed them.”

“I know. But Bose is obsessed by what actually transmitted that warning at you. He suspects his original self is still alive back there, in some form or other, which is reasonable enough. It hasn’t helped that his wife has told him she’s divorcing him, either. The psychologist says that he’s interpreted that as a rejection of his new self, which reinforced his focus on his old self.”

Wilson and A

“Yeah,” he said uncomfortably. “So what else did the docs say about him?”

“The clinic will discharge him in a few months. Physically, he’ll be in top shape by then. Mentally—well they say that every re-life case takes another life to get over the trauma. Bose is no exception. Dose him up on antidepressants and let him get on with it.”

“Did he say what he wanted to do afterward?”

“No. He’s receiving a lot of offers from media companies, not just for his life story as a biogdrama, they want him as a commentator on the Prime ‘situation.’ I expect his university will welcome him back. We can drop a hint to that effect, a strong hint. He can’t do much harm back on Gralmond.”

“So he doesn’t want to join the navy, then?”

Daniel gri

Oscar laughed at the relieved expression on Wilson’s face.

Patricia Kantil walked into the office. “Thank you for waiting,” she said with ever-professional courtesy.

“You’re not late,” Daniel said. “Just to finish off on Bose, there will be some kind of ceremony when he and Verbeke leave the clinic. Patricia, that came from your office?”

“It did. Given their profile, especially Bose, we thought some official welcome back to Commonwealth society would be appropriate for them. They’re the nearest things we have to heroes right now. The Vice President will be there, and it would be nice for some of their shipmates to participate as well.”

Wilson almost groaned out loud. “All right,” he said. “We’ll send someone on the day. Now, if we can get started.”

“My report’s simple enough,” Oscar said. “We haven’t had any contact with the scoutships yet.”

“When was the first due to report back?” Daniel asked.

“The StAsaph should be back at Anshun within another ten days, assuming they didn’t find anything.”

“And if they did?”

“They’re searching fifteen star systems three hundred light-years from the edge of phase three space. Basically their course is a big curve to take them within hysradar range of each star. If the Primes have opened their giant wormhole to any of those systems they’ll be able to detect it. But given the nature of the flightpath, their journey back will be a long one. As they’re not back yet, we know that they didn’t find anything at the first eleven stars.”

“Or they did, and the Primes caught them,” Rafael said. He shrugged into the silence. “Just being realistic.”

“The remaining six scoutships we’ve got out there should be returning over the following two months,” Oscar continued. “Between them, they’ll have covered over a hundred star systems. Admittedly, that’s not many considering the distances involved and the number of stars between us and Dyson Alpha. But if the Primes are coming this way, then one of those stars will be used as a staging post. We need to find it; at the very least that will enable us to start building realistic tactical scenarios.”

“Are these scouting patrols going to be constant?” Patricia asked.

“Yes,” Wilson confirmed. “We need to establish some early warning if the Primes are moving in our direction. It’s a three stage approach. Rafael is overseeing our short-range detector network which will find any wormhole opening inside the Commonwealth. The fleet will be ru

“When does this come into effect?”

“We’ve already begun siting the first elements for the border network detectors,” Rafael said. “If they come at us directly, we’ll know about it. Our estimates for completing the full Commonwealth-wide network are anything up to a further eighteen months.”

“I see. Admiral, what about the scout flights?”

“It depends on ship numbers, of course. Once this preliminary operation we’re ru

“They cost three billion Earth dollars each,” Patricia said tersely.

“I’m aware of that; and their operating and maintenance costs as well. The executive knew the budget would have to increase almost exponentially for the first three to five years of the navy’s existence.”

“I’ll take those preliminary figures back with me. What about the warships?”

“The first batch of three is due to finish assembly in four months. After that, we’ll be building one every three weeks. How many we ultimately need depends on the nature of the Prime threat.”

Everybody turned to Dimitri Leopoldovich. Since the return of the Second Chance he’d been consulted by the Commonwealth executive and the Senate on an increasingly regular basis. The experience gave him a degree of confidence facing down high-powered questioners in a way that wasn’t evident in his appearance. “Just about the only thing we know for certain about the Primes is that they ca