"No," I said. She had shown me several mistakes, omissions, or wrongheaded guesses in the past few years, and together we had discovered a few during our voyage to Old Earth.

"It was twofold," she said softly. Somewhere in the desert night, a hawk called. "First, he believed what the TechnoCore told my father."

"About how they were the ones who had hijacked Earth?" I said.

"About everything," said Aenea. "Ummon was lying to the John Keats cybrid."

"Why?" I said. "They were just planning to destroy it."

The girl looked at me. "But my mother was there to record the conversation," she said. "And the Core knew that she would tell the old poet."

I nodded slowly. "And that he would put it as a fact in the epic poem he was writing," I said. "But why would they want to lie about..."

"His second mistake was more subtle and serious," she said, interrupting me without raising her voice. A pale glow still hung behind the mountains to the north and west. "Uncle Martin believed that the TechnoCore was humanity's enemy," she continued.

I set my mug of tea down on stone. "Why is that a mistake?" I said. "Aren't "Aren't they our enemy?" they our enemy?"

When the girl did not answer I held up my hand, five fingers splayed. "One, according to the Cantos Cantos, the Core was the real force behind the attack on the Hegemony that led to the Fall of the Farcasters. Not the Ousters...the Core. The Church has denied that, made the Ousters responsible. Are you saying that the Church is right and the old poet was wrong?"

"No," said Aenea. "It was the Core that orchestrated the attack."

"Billions dead," I said, almost spluttering in outrage. "The Hegemony toppled. The Web destroyed. The fatline cut..."

"The TechnoCore did not cut the fatline," she said softly.

"All right," I said, taking a breath. "That was some mysterious ent.i.ty...your Lions and Tigers and Bears, say. But it was still the Core behind the attack."

Aenea nodded and poured more tea for herself.

I folded my thumb against my palm and touched the first finger with my other hand. "Second, did or did not the TechnoCore use the farcasters as a sort of cosmic leech to suck up human neural networks for their d.a.m.ned Ultimate Intelligence project? Everytime someone farcast, they were being ...used ...used...by those d.a.m.ned autonomous intelligences. Right or wrong?"

"Correct," said Aenea.

"Three," I said, folding the first finger away and tapping the next one in line, "the poem has Rachel-the pilgrim Sol Weintraub's child who has come backward with the Time Tombs from the future-tell about a time to come when," I shifted the tone of my voice as I quoted, "'... the final war raged between the Core-sp.a.w.ned UI and the human spirit.' Was this a mistake?"

"No," said Aenea.

"Four," I said, beginning to feel foolish with my little finger exercise, but angry enough to continue, "didn't the Core admit to your father that it created him...created the John Keats cybrid of him...just as a trap for the-what did they call it?-the empathy component of the human Ultimate Intelligence that's supposed to come into existence sometime in the future?"

"That's what they said," agreed Aenea, sipping her tea. She looked almost amused. This made me angrier.

"Five," I said, folding the last finger back so that my right hand was a fist. "Wasn't it the Core as well as the Pax-h.e.l.l, the Core ordering ordering the Pax-that tried to have you caught and killed on Hyperion, on Renaissance Vector, on G.o.d's Grove...halfway across the spiral arm?" the Pax-that tried to have you caught and killed on Hyperion, on Renaissance Vector, on G.o.d's Grove...halfway across the spiral arm?"

"Yes," she said softly.

"And wasn't it the Core," I continued angrily, forgetting my fingered checklist and the fact that we were talking about the old poet's errors, "that created that female...thing... that arranged to have poor A. Bettik's arm sliced off on G.o.d's Grove and would have had your head in a bag if it hadn't been for the Shrike's intervention." I actually shook my fist I was so angry. "Wasn't it the f.u.c.king Core that's been trying to kill that arranged to have poor A. Bettik's arm sliced off on G.o.d's Grove and would have had your head in a bag if it hadn't been for the Shrike's intervention." I actually shook my fist I was so angry. "Wasn't it the f.u.c.king Core that's been trying to kill me me as well as you, and probably as well as you, and probably will will kill us if we're ever stupid enough to go back into Pax s.p.a.ce?" kill us if we're ever stupid enough to go back into Pax s.p.a.ce?"

Aenea nodded.

I was close to panting, feeling as if I had run a fifty-meter dash. "So?" I said lamely, unclenching my fist.

Aenea touched my knee. As contact with her always did, I felt a thrill of electric shock run through me. "Raul, I didn't say that the Core hadn't been up to no good. I simply said that Uncle Martin had made a mistake in portraying them as humanity's enemy."

"But if all those facts are true..." I shook my head, befuddled.

"Elements of the Core attacked the Web before the Fall," said Aenea. "We know from my father's visit with Ummon that the Core was not in agreement about many of its decisions." of the Core attacked the Web before the Fall," said Aenea. "We know from my father's visit with Ummon that the Core was not in agreement about many of its decisions."

"But..." I began.

Aenea held her hand up, palm out. I fell silent.

"They used our neural networks for their UI project," she said, "but there's no evidence that it did humans any harm."

My jaw almost dropped open at that comment. The thought of those d.a.m.ned AIs using human brains like neural bubbles in their f.u.c.king project made me want to throw up. "They had no right!" I began.

"Of course not," said Aenea. "They should have asked permission. What would you have said?"

"I would have told them to go f.u.c.k themselves," I said, realizing the absurdity of the phrase as applied to autonomous intelligences even as I uttered it.

Aenea smiled again. "And you might remember that we've been using their their mental power for our own purposes for more than a thousand years. I don't think that we asked permission of their ancestors when we created the first silicon AIs...or the first magnetic bubble and DNA ent.i.ties, for that matter." mental power for our own purposes for more than a thousand years. I don't think that we asked permission of their ancestors when we created the first silicon AIs...or the first magnetic bubble and DNA ent.i.ties, for that matter."

I made an angry gesture. "That's different."

"Of course," said Aenea. "The group of AIs called the Ultimates have created problems for humanity in the past and will in the future-including trying to kill you and me-but they're only one part of the Core."

I shook my head. "I don't understand, kiddo," I said, my voice softer now. "Are you really saying that there are good AIs and bad AIs? Don't you remember that they actually considered destroying the human race? destroying the human race? And that they may do it yet if we get in their way? That would make them an enemy of humanity in my book." And that they may do it yet if we get in their way? That would make them an enemy of humanity in my book."

Aenea touched my knee again. Her dark eyes were serious. "Don't forget, Raul, that humanity has also come close to destroying the human race. Capitalists and communists were ready to blow up Earth when that was the only planet we lived on. And for what?"

"Yeah," I said lamely, "but..."

"And the Church is ready to destroy the Ousters even as we speak. Genocide...on a scale our race has never seen before."

"The Church...and a lot of others...don't consider the Ousters human beings," I said.

"Nonsense," snapped Aenea. "Of course they are. They evolved from common Earth-human origins, just as the AI TechnoCore did. All three races are orphans in the storm."

"All three races..."I repeated. "Jesus Christ, Aenea, are you including the Core in your definition of humanity?"

"We created them," she said softly. "Early on, we used human DNA to increase their computing power...their intelligence. We used to have robots. They created cybrids out of human DNA and AI personae. Right now, we have a human inst.i.tution in power which gives all glory and demands all power because of its allegiance to and connection with G.o.d...the human Ultimate Intelligence. Perhaps the Core has a similar situation with the Ultimates in control."

I could only stare at the girl. I did not understand.

Aenea set her other hand on my knee. I could feel her strong fingers through the whipcord of my trousers. "Raul, do you remember what the AI Ummon said to the second Keats cybrid? That was recorded accurately in the Cantos Cantos. Ummon talked in sort-of Zen koans...or at least that's the way Uncle Martin translated the conversation."

I closed my eyes to remember that part of the epic poem. It had been a long time since Grandam and I took turns reciting the tale around the caravan campfire.

Aenea spoke the words even as they began to form in my memory. "Ummon said to the second Keats cybrid- "[You must understand/ Keats/ our only chance was to create a hybrid/ Son of Man/ Son of Machine And make that refuge so attractive that the fleeing Empathy would consider no other home/ A consciousness already as near divine as humankind has offered in thirty generations an imagination which can span s.p.a.ce and time And in so offering/ and joining/ form a bond between worlds which might allow that world to exist for both]"

I rubbed my cheek and thought. The night wind stirred the canvas folds of Aenea's shelter entrance and brought sweet scents from the desert. Strange stars hung above Earth's old mountains on the horizon.

"Empathy was supposedly the fleeing component of the human UI," I said slowly as if working out a word puzzle. "Part of our evolved human consciousness in the future, come back in time."

Aenea looked at me.

"The hybrid was the John Keats cybrid," I continued. "Son of Man and Machine."

"No," said Aenea softly. "That was Uncle Martin's second misunderstanding. The Keats cybrids were not created to be the refuge for Empathy in this age. They were created to be the instrument of that fusion between the Core and humankind. To have a child, in other words."

I looked at the teenaged girl's hands on my leg. "So you're the consciousness '... as near divine as humankind has offered in thirty generations'?"

Aenea shrugged.

"And you have '... an imagination which can span s.p.a.ce and time'?"

"All human beings have that," said Aenea. "It's just that when I dream and imagine, I can see things that truly will be. Remember when I told you that I remember the future?"

"Yeah."

"Well, right now I'm remembering that you will dream this conversation some months hence, while you're lying in bed-in terrible pain, I'm afraid-on a world with a complicated name, in a home where people dress all in blue."

"What?"

"Never mind. It will make sense when it comes about. All improbabilities do when probability waves collapse into event."

"Aenea," I heard myself say as I flew in ever higher circles above the desert shelter, watching myself and the girl dwindle below, "tell me what your secret is...the secret that makes you this messiah, this 'bond between two worlds.'"

"All right, Raul, my love," she said, suddenly appearing as a grown woman in the instant before I circled too high to make out details or hear distinct words above the rush of the air on my dream wings, "I will tell you. Listen."

9.

-y the time they translated into their fifth Ouster system, Task Force GIDEON had slaughter down to a science.

Father Captain de Soya knew from his courses in military history at Pax Fleet Command School that almost all s.p.a.ce engagements fought more than half an AU from a planet, moon, asteroid, or strategic point-source in s.p.a.ce were entered into by mutual agreement. He remembered that the same had been true of primitive ocean navies on pre-Hegira Old Earth, where most great naval battles had been fought in sight of land in the same aquatic killing grounds, with only the technology of the surface ships changing slowly-Greek trireme to steel-hulled battleship. Aircraft carriers with their long-range attack planes had changed that forever-allowing armadas to strike at each other far out to sea and at great distances-but these battles were far different from the legendary naval engagements where capital ships had slugged it out within visible range of one another. Even before cruise missiles, tactical nuclear warheads, and crude charged particle weapons had forever ended the era of the ocean-going surface combatant, the sea navies of Old Earth had grown nostalgic for the days of blazing broadsides and "crossing the T."

s.p.a.ce war had brought a return to such mutually agreed upon engagements. The great battles of the Hegemony days-whether the ancient internecine wars with Generai Horace Glennon-Height and his ilk, or the centuries of warfare between Web worlds and Ouster Swarms-had usually been waged close to a planet or s.p.a.ceborne farcaster portal. And distances between the combatants were absurdly short-hundreds of thousands of klicks, often tens of thousands, frequently less than that-given the light-years and pa.r.s.ecs traveled by the warring parties. But this closing on the enemy was necessary given the time it took a fusion-powered laser lance, a CPB, or ordinary attack missiles to cross even one AU-seven minutes for light to crawl the distance between would-be killer and target, much longer for even the highest-boost missile, where the hunt, chase, and kill could take days of seek and countermeasure, attack and parry. Ships with C-plus capability had no incentive to hang around in enemy s.p.a.ce waiting for these seeker missiles, and the Church-sponsored restriction on AIs in warheads made the effectiveness of these weapons problematic at best. So the shape of s.p.a.ce battles over the centuries of the Hegemony had been simple-fleets translating into disputed s.p.a.ce and finding other translating fleets or more static in-system defenses, a quick closing to more lethal distances, a brief but terrible exchange of energies, and the inevitable retreat of the more savaged forces-or total destruction if the defending forces had nowhere to retreat-followed by consolidation of gains by the winning fleet.

Technically, the slower ships de Soya had served in previously had a powerful tactical advantage over the instantaneous-drive archangel cruisers. Revival from cryogenic fugue state took only hours at worst, minutes at best, so the captain and crew of a Hawking-drive ship could be ready to fight shortly after translating from C-plus. With the archangels, and even with papal dispensation for the accelerated and risky two-day resurrection cycles, it was fifty standard hours or more before the human elements of the ships were ready to do battle. Theoretically, this gave a great advantage to the defenders. Theoretically, the Pax could have optimized the use of Gideon-drive ships by having uncrewed craft piloted by AIs flick into enemy s.p.a.ce, wreak havoc, and flick out again before the defenders knew that they were under attack.

But such theory did not apply here. Autonomous intelligences capable of such advanced fuzzy logic would never be allowed by the Church. More importantly, Pax Fleet had designed attack strategies to meet the requirements of resurrection so that no advantage would be surrendered to defenders. Simply put, no battles were to be fought by mutual agreement. The seven archangels had been designed to descend upon the enemy like the mailed fist of G.o.d, and that was precisely what they were doing now.

In the first three Task Force GIDEON incursions into Ouster s.p.a.ce, Mother Captain Stone's ship, the Gabriel Gabriel, translated first and decelerated hard in-system, drawing all long-range electromagnetic, neutrino, and other sensor probes. The restricted AIs aboard Gabriel Gabriel were sufficient to catalogue the position and ident.i.ty of all defensive positions and population centers in the system, while simultaneously monitoring the sluggish in-system movement of all Ouster attack and merchant vehicles. were sufficient to catalogue the position and ident.i.ty of all defensive positions and population centers in the system, while simultaneously monitoring the sluggish in-system movement of all Ouster attack and merchant vehicles.

Thirty minutes later, the Uriel, Raphael, Remiel, Sariel, Michael Uriel, Raphael, Remiel, Sariel, Michael, and Raguel Raguel would translate in-system. Dropping to only three-quarters light-speed, the task force would be moving like bullets compared to the tortoise velocities of the accelerating Ouster torchships. Receiving would translate in-system. Dropping to only three-quarters light-speed, the task force would be moving like bullets compared to the tortoise velocities of the accelerating Ouster torchships. Receiving Gabriel Gabriel's intelligence and targeting data via tightbeam burst, the task force would open fire with weaponry that held no respect for the limitations of light-speed. The improved Hawking-drive hyper-k missiles would wink into existence among enemy ships and above population centers, some using velocity and precise aiming to destroy targets, others detonating in carefully shaped but promiscuous plasma or thermonuclear blasts. At the same instant, recoverable Hawking-drive high-velocity probes would jump to target points and translate into real s.p.a.ce, radiating conventional lance beams and CPBs like so many lethal sea urchins, destroying anything and everything within a hundred-thousand-klick radius.

Most terribly, the shipborne deathbeams would slice outward from the task force archangels like invisible scythes, propagating along the Hawking-drive wakes of probes and missiles and translating into real s.p.a.ce as surely as the terrible swift sword of G.o.d. Countless trillions of synapses were fried and scrambled in an instant. Tens of thousands of Ousters died without knowing that they were under attack.

And then the GIDEON Task Force-would come back in-system on thousand-kilometer tails of flame, closing in for the final kill.

EACH OF THE SEVEN STAR SYSTEMS TO BE ATTACKED had been probed by instantaneous-drive drones, the presence of Ousters confirmed, preliminary targets a.s.signed. Each of the seven star systems had a name-usually just a New Revised General Catalogue alpha-numerical designation-but the command team aboard H. H. S. Uriel Uriel had given the seven systems target names coded after the seven archdemons mentioned in the Old Testament. had given the seven systems target names coded after the seven archdemons mentioned in the Old Testament.

Father Captain de Soya thought it a bit much, all this cabalistic numerology-seven archangels, seven target systems, seven archdemons, seven deadly sins. But he soon fell into the habit of talking about the targets in this shorthand.

The target systems were-Belphegor (sloth), Leviathan (envy), Beelzebub (gluttony), Satan (anger), Asmodeus (lechery), Mammon (avarice), and Lucifer (pride).

Belphegor had been a red-dwarf system that reminded de Soya of Barnard's Star system, but instead of the lovely, fully terraformed Barnard's World floating close to the sun, Belphegor's only planet was a gas giant resembling Barnard's Star's forgotten child, Whirl. There were true military targets around this unnamed gas giant: refueling stations for the Ouster Swarm torchships en route to attack the Pax's Great Wall, gigantic dipships that shuttled the gases from the world to orbit, repair docks and orbital shipyards by the dozen. De Soya had Raphael Raphael attack these without hesitation, slagging them to orbital lava. attack these without hesitation, slagging them to orbital lava.

GIDEON found most of the true Ouster population centers floating in the Trojan points beyond the gas giant, scores of small orbital forests filled with tens of thousands of s.p.a.ce-adapted "angels," most opening their forcefield wings to the weak, red sunlight in panic at the task force's approach. The seven archangels laid waste to these delicate ecostructures, destroying all of the forests and shepherd asteroids and watering comets, burning the fleeing s.p.a.ce-adapted Ouster angels like putting so many moths to a flame, and all without slowing significantly between entrance and exit translation points.

The second system, Leviathan, despite its impressive name, had been a Sirius B-type white dwarf with only a dozen or so Ouster asteroids huddled close to its pale fire. Here there were none of the obvious military targets that de Soya had attacked so willingly in the Belphegor System: the asteroids were undefended, probably birthing rocks and hollowed-out pressurized environments for Ousters who had not chosen to adapt to vacuum and hard radiation. Task Force GIDEON swept them with deathbeams and pa.s.sed on.

The third system, Beelzebub, was an Alpha Centauri C-like red dwarf, devoid of worlds or colonies, with only a single Ouster military base swinging in the darkness some thirty AUs out and fifty-seven Swarm ships caught in the act of refueling or refitting. Thirty-nine of these warships, ranging in size and armament from tiny ramscouts to an Orion-cla.s.s attack carrier, were fit to fight and flung themselves at Task Force GIDEON. The battle lasted two minutes and eighteen seconds. All fifty-seven Ouster ships and the base complex were turned to gas molecules or lifeless sarcophagi. No archangels were damaged in the exchange. The task force moved on.

The fourth system, Satan, held no ships, only breeding colonies scattered as far out as the Oort cloud. GIDEON spent eleven days in this system, putting Lucifer's angels to the torch.

The fifth system, Asmodeus, centered by a pleasant little K-type orange dwarf not unlike Epsilon Eridani, sent waves of in-system torchships to the defense of its populated asteroid belt. The waves were burned and blasted away with an economy born of practice. The Gabriel Gabriel reported eighty-two inhabited rocks in the belt, harboring a population estimated at a million and a half adapted and unadapted Ousters. Eighty-one of the asteroids were destroyed or deathbeamed from a great distance. Then Admiral Aldikacti ordered prisoners taken. Task Force GIDEON decelerated in a long, four-day ellipse that brought them back to the belt and its sole remaining inhabited rock-a potato-shaped asteroid less than four klicks long and a klick across at its widest, cratered point. Doppler radar showed that it was...o...b..ting and tumbling in random patterns understood only by the G.o.ds of chaos, but that it was turning on its axis in a carefully orchestrated one-tenth-g rotisserie mode. Deep radar showed that it was hollow. Probes told that it was inhabited by as many as ten thousand Ousters. a.n.a.lysis suggested that it was a birthing rock. reported eighty-two inhabited rocks in the belt, harboring a population estimated at a million and a half adapted and unadapted Ousters. Eighty-one of the asteroids were destroyed or deathbeamed from a great distance. Then Admiral Aldikacti ordered prisoners taken. Task Force GIDEON decelerated in a long, four-day ellipse that brought them back to the belt and its sole remaining inhabited rock-a potato-shaped asteroid less than four klicks long and a klick across at its widest, cratered point. Doppler radar showed that it was...o...b..ting and tumbling in random patterns understood only by the G.o.ds of chaos, but that it was turning on its axis in a carefully orchestrated one-tenth-g rotisserie mode. Deep radar showed that it was hollow. Probes told that it was inhabited by as many as ten thousand Ousters. a.n.a.lysis suggested that it was a birthing rock.

Six unarmed rock hoppers flung themselves at the task force. Uriel Uriel turned them into plasma at a distance of eighty-six thousand klicks. A thousand Ouster angels, some of them armed with low-yield energy weapons or recoilless rifles, opened forcefield wings and flew toward the distant Pax ships in long, tacking ellipses along the crest of the solar wind. Their velocity was so slow that it would have taken days to cover the distance. The turned them into plasma at a distance of eighty-six thousand klicks. A thousand Ouster angels, some of them armed with low-yield energy weapons or recoilless rifles, opened forcefield wings and flew toward the distant Pax ships in long, tacking ellipses along the crest of the solar wind. Their velocity was so slow that it would have taken days to cover the distance. The Gabriel Gabriel was given the task of burning them away with a thousand winks of coherent light. was given the task of burning them away with a thousand winks of coherent light.

Tightbeams flicked on between the archangels. Raphael Raphael and and Gabriel Gabriel acknowledged orders and closed to within a thousand klicks of the silent asteroid. Sally ports opened and twelve tiny figures-six from each ship-caught the light from the orange-dwarf star as Swiss Guard commandos, Marines, and troopers jetted toward the rock. There was no resistance. The troopers found two shielded air-lock portals. With precise timing, they blasted the outer doors open and entered in teams of three. acknowledged orders and closed to within a thousand klicks of the silent asteroid. Sally ports opened and twelve tiny figures-six from each ship-caught the light from the orange-dwarf star as Swiss Guard commandos, Marines, and troopers jetted toward the rock. There was no resistance. The troopers found two shielded air-lock portals. With precise timing, they blasted the outer doors open and entered in teams of three.

"BLESS ME, FATHER, FOR I HAVE SINNED. IT'S BEEN two standard months since my last confession."

"Go ahead."

"Father, today's action...it bothers me, Father."

"Yes?"

"It feels...wrong."

Father Captain de Soya was silent. He had watched Sergeant Gregorius's attack on the virtual tactical channels. He had debriefed the men after the mission. Now he knew he was going to hear it again in the darkness of the confessional. "Go ahead, Sergeant," he said softly.

"Aye, sir," said the sergeant on the other side of the part.i.tion. "I mean, aye, Father."

Father Captain de Soya heard the big man take a breath.

"We came onto the rock with no opposition," began Sergeant Gregorius. "Me an' the five young ones, I mean. We were in tightbeam contact with Sergeant Kluge's squad from the Gabriel Gabriel. And of course, with Commanders Barnes-Avne and Uchikawa."

De Soya remained silent in his part of the confessional booth. The booth was sectional, meant to be stored away when the Raphael Raphael was under boost or combat stations, which was most of the time, but now it smelled of wood and sweat and velvet and sin, as all real confessionals did. The father-captain had found this half hour during the last stage of their climb toward translation point for the sixth Ouster system, Mammon, and offered the crew time for confession, but only Sergeant Gregorius had come forward. was under boost or combat stations, which was most of the time, but now it smelled of wood and sweat and velvet and sin, as all real confessionals did. The father-captain had found this half hour during the last stage of their climb toward translation point for the sixth Ouster system, Mammon, and offered the crew time for confession, but only Sergeant Gregorius had come forward.

"So when we landed, sir...Father, I had the laddies in my squad take the south polar air lock, just like in the sims. We blew the doors as easily as you please, Father, and then activated our own fields for the tunnel fighting."