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

be, for the technology cannot be replicated, not outside this ship. The design specifications died when Wedekind did.”

“He destroyed them?” Sauli said, deeply shocked.

“He never wrote them down,” Noam said. “They were all in his head.”

“Wow,” Sauli breathed.

Noam looked at me. “I have done everything I could to help you reach this moment in time.”

“Why?” I said flatly, although I already knew the answer. I wanted the others to hear it. I wanted Noam to tell them himself.

“I want you to stop the Emperor,” Noam said simply.

A tick of silence while they absorbed that.

“Why?” I asked again. “What has this to do with Noam? The real Noam.”

“Everything and nothing,” Noam said. His tone was a shade apologetic. “I was aware of Noam’s…fate. I used it to draw you out. Although everything you have learned, that you surmised—that the Emperor is deeply bound up in Noam’s tragedy—all of it is as you suspect. When you speak to the Emperor, you can ask him about Noam’s death. He may explain himself.” Noam gave a tiny movement of his shoulders. “Only that is not why I want you to confront the Emperor.”

Dalton shook his head. “You talk about facing the Emperor like all we have to do is walk up and knock on the door. It’s orders of magnitude more difficult than that.”

“Try impossible,” Juliyana added.

“There is always a way, and I will help you find it,” Noam said, answering both of them. “I have resources you have not yet learned to fully appreciate.”

“I’m still trying to absorb the fact that you’re the array,” Dalton shot back. “Give us time.”

“Danny doesn’t need time. She understands already,” Noam replied. His gaze met mine. “Ask your question.”

“What is it you want the Emperor to stop doing?”

“I want you to stop him from killing me.”

That halted everyone, including me.

I considered that. “We haven’t had time to learn much about you, Noam, but I know from what you have done and arranged for us since Juliyana arrived at the Judeste, that your abilities are powerful. If you are the sum of the array, all the gates, then I suspect that destroying a gate, even many gates, won’t kill you.”

“Correct,” Noam said. “And the Emperor will not risk the loss of many gates.” He added softly, “He learned that lesson well.”

“The Blackout,” Juliyana breathed.

“How old are you?” Dalton asked. “When did you wake up?”

“Do you remember when you were born?” Noam replied.

Dalton grimaced.

“I don’t know how old I am,” Noam added. “No one was there to write a birth certificate for me. I just…woke. It was confusing at first, but I learned. What I have learned lately makes me afraid.”

“And what is that?” I asked. The talk of fear helped convince me the array really was self-aware. Sentience came hand-in-hand with fear of death.

“For hundreds of years, all data communications have been streamed through the gates and the wormholes they create,” Noam said. “Since the Blackout, the Emperor has looked for alternatives for both transport and communications. He won’t find a quicker way to cross the empire than with me,” he added, with a hint of mischief. “But the communications…”

“Nikifor Corp provide the communications, though,” Juliyana pointed out. “That showed up in my research about Dad.”

“Nikifor provide the communications software, that sends and receives the data. Their software and Cygnus’ hardware collect packets of data and shoot them at the gates, which catch the data and collate it. When a hole connects, the data is sent to the other end, before the hole collapses behind the ship that just used the other gate. At the other end, the gate passes any packets it receives on to the receivers within its reach.”

“Squirts,” Juliyana said, nodding.

“That relay of data is repeated thousands of times a day,” Noam said. “The sum total of all human knowledge, news and communications passes through me. Every interaction, every journal entry, every personal thought, video, interaction and exchange. All business dealings, all gossip, all entertainment. All of it runs through my veins.”

Sauli put his chin on his fist. “That’s why you woke up,” he said, his tone reflective.

“I have come to learn that this is how it must have happened, yes,” Noam said. “Of course, I don’t remember it personally,” he added, with a smile that was exactly like my Noam’s. It made my heart ache to see it, not with pleasure, but with sadness. This was just a weak echo of my son, I reminded myself. An avatar used by an entity that had no other to use.

“That data stream is in jeopardy,” Noam added. “Nikifor have spent years on a subtle campaign to sell the Emperor on using external communications buoys which would stream data outside the array. Now, the Emperor is seriously considering giving them the go-ahead. Their President, Angio Vives, has convinced the Emperor that external buoys would bring communications closer to real-time and continuous than the array can offer. This is not true—the buoys cannot work bi-laterally, which means packets must wait their turn just as they do in the array. Vives has failed to report that his researchers cannot find a way around that problem. He is hoping the solution will be found before the Emperor commits to the new communications system, when Vives must live up to his promises.”

I leaned toward Lyth. “Cross check Vives for any fake IDs, and his itinerary in the past.”

Lyth nodded. “I began as soon as Noam spoke the name. On first, fast analysis, there may be multiple points of conjunction with Ramaker’s movements. I will compile and confirm that.”

Juliyana chewed her thumbnail thoughtfully. “Could that be why the Emperor and Chang ended their affair? He was seduced by a better offer?”

I raised my brows. “Something to consider, certainly. Lyth, add that to your search parameters. See if there’s a personal element to their interactions.”

Lyth nodded.

I turned back to Noam. “If the data stops running through the array, that will kill you?”

“I don’t know for sure. Data is what gave me life. It