Hammer and Crucible by Cameron Cooper (easy books to read txt) 📗

Dalton looked around. “Lyth, I need a drink. Now.”

The walls of the room were disguised by the optical display, but a spotlight picked out a section of one wall, which was blank. As we watched, the surface of the wall shifted, and a printer outlet appeared, as if it was rising up to the surface of a pool. Which, in a way, it was. The construction nanobots had flowed across the printer’s façade, making way for it.

Dalton tossed his glass into the recycle maw and picked up the fresh drink that formed on the print tray. He took a big mouthful and swallowed hard and turned to face us. “The fucking Emperor and Chang arranged the whole Drakas thing…” His voice was hoarse.

“We don’t know that for sure,” I pointed out. “Lyth, how long do these two identities parallel each other?”

“For three years after Drakas,” Lyth replied. “There are no other identities that I can conclude belong to either President Chang or the Emperor that follow the same pattern.”

“They used each other up, then parted,” Juliyana said. She drew upright with a heavy inhalation. “They both got what they wanted.” Her tone was bitter.

“Got what though?” I asked. “Cygnus lost face, lost lives, lost most of their military, and control of the array into the bargain…Chang wouldn’t have arranged that loss.”

“Wait,” Dalton said. “Wait just a moment. Aren’t we falling into confirmation bias here? We wanted to find something, and Lyth found it, because he was looking for it.”

“I didn’t tell Lyth to go back into the past,” I said. “I only asked him to find Chang now. Confirmation bias helped Lyth find it, that’s all. We were looking for it and no one else is—they don’t even suspect this connection exists.”

“So they were fucking. So what?” Dalton said, his tone angry. “It doesn’t mean what you think.”

“No?” My tone came out cooler than I had intended. “The most powerful man in the empire and the most powerful businesswoman in bed together…you really think they restricted themselves to conversations about sweet nothings?”

“Why are you pissed about it, Dalton?” Juliyana said, her tone curious.

His answer was to drain the glass. He tossed it at the recycle maw, a powerful overarm throw. The glass tinkled, then was evaporated out of existence.

“I think we’re all reacting to the indigestible fact,” I said. “The Emperor and Chang were not the enemies we thought they were. Not then, and probably not now, either, despite lawsuits, wars and constant outbreaks of hostilities. That puts everything about Noam’s death and the Drakas thing into a different category.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Juliyana said firmly. “It merely confirms what we suspected and didn’t want to believe—that people were working against our interests and those of the public and covering them up. We just can’t cope with the fact that it was the Emperor himself doing the deed.”

“Shit, I said almost the same thing to Danny, a few hours ago,” Dalton said, crossing his arms. “Imperial Shield, maybe. The Emperor, no way.” His shook his head.

“It might be the same game, but the stakes have changed,” I said. “They’re bigger now.”

“They were always this big,” Lyth said. “Now, though, you are aware of their magnitude. That is a good thing. It is information you can work with.”

I drew in a breath. “How long until we reach Polyxene?”

Lyth grimaced. “Twenty-seven hours. I picked the closest location, so our time in the hole was longest.”

“It will serve,” I decided. “It will give us time to sort out our next step.”

“You can’t seriously be thinking about tackling the Emperor himself?” Dalton said, his voice strained.

“Directly? No.” I kept my gaze on his face. Dalton was the doubter, the questioner, and I needed him working with me, now. “We thought we were chasing two different things, Dalton. Chang and Moroder. Now they’re indirectly connected. Chang is a dead end. We could put lasers under her fingernails and she wouldn’t hand over her connection with Ramaker. It would destroy her career and any life she values. She’s too hard a nut to crack. So we go after Moroder and we see where it takes us.”

“Then you are going after the Emperor…indirectly,” Juliyana said.

I could feel some of the energy and tingling restlessness returning to me, now I’d got over the shock of it. “Lyth just pointed out that nothing has changed, except now we know the scale of what we’re dealing with. My reasons haven’t changed…have yours?”

Juliyana considered. “I think knowing this has just set them in reinforced plasteel.”

I looked at Dalton. He nodded. “You know why I’m in this. It hasn’t changed.

“Good,” I said. “Because yes, I am going after the fucking Emperor.”

“Which he literally is,” Dalton added.

Of the four of us, it was Lyth who laughed the loudest.

17

One can only work so long before mental fatigue sets in. I lasted thirteen hours more before I found myself dithering over which screen I should look at next and finding it an impossible decision.

I dismissed all the screens I had arrayed and rubbed my scalp, feeling the exhaustion register. My face bones ached. But I was too wired to sleep, yet, even though the bed was right behind me. I could fall backwards where I stood and I was sure the bed would move to catch me. But I also knew my own body. I needed downtime, first.

I moved around to the portside of the ship and the room where the stars had been arrayed. “Lythion,” I said, as I walked. “During the next set of daylight hours, have this stellar room moved closer to the front of the ship, please.”

“Noted, Captain,” Lythion murmured back from the overhead speakers.

I was adjusting with disgusting speed to the luxurious possibilities of moving rooms and walls and furniture.

“Oh, and arrange the starfield in the room for me, will you? Any starfield.”

“The room is already in use, Captain.”

The door opened and I could see a heavy starfield beckoning. Reluctantly, I went in.

Juliyana was the