Infinity Engine by Neal Asher

Author:Neal Asher
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Infinity Engine
ISBN: 9781597808897
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Published: 2017-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

AMISTAD

The one thing about being the warden of a world like Masada was that it gave you time to think, and Amistad had been doing a lot of thinking. As he drifted above a misty cloud layer below aubergine skies he continued to try and work his way to the heart of the matter but, as ever, he was without critical data. Penny Royal was certainly making restitution for past wrongs, but in the process working towards something else. The hijacking of the Azure Whale with its three runcibles aboard was an obvious clue, but there were other more subtle indicators. Take Isobel Satomi. In her the black AI had created a dangerous creature that had built up a nasty coring and thralling operation, and it had then destroyed both Satomi and her operation. However, the upshot of that was that the Weaver had been provided with another biomech war machine which in its turn had repaired the older and larger Technician. Had this been an altruistic act on Penny Royal’s part towards the Weaver? Amistad thought not.

Despite talk of a restoration of balance, Amistad was sure there had been some sort of exchange—that this had been in essence a simple commercial deal. Penny Royal had supplied the Weaver with the war machine and the Weaver was to give something in return. There had been much discussion of this among Polity AIs. Some of them believed the Weaver had supplied Penny Royal with that new version of the hard-field, while others named a thousand other possibilities related to the AI’s capabilities. Amistad felt that the curved hardfield, with its anchoring in U-space, was entirely Penny Royal’s creation. He also felt that the delivery of the war machine was not a deal being completed, but just a down payment. And now it seemed he might be right, because the Weaver was on the move.

Amistad dropped down through the cloud, grav-planing, moisture beading on his nano-chain chromium armour and running away in rivulets. He stabilized and gazed down at the border fence lying between the patchwork of squirm ponds where the big cargo shuttle had landed and the outer wilderness. Along the fence stood automated guard towers like giant flat-topped mushrooms made of a tough dull grey composite. Ranged radially on the upper faces of these a variety of weapons could be brought to bear—the cap tilting and turning to aim them. There were high-powered ion stunners that could drive away most of the life forms here, up to and including the wild gabbleducks. There were lasers and projectile weapons for dealing with any that became stubbornly persistent—usually the siluroynes—and then there were the particle cannons which were fortunately rarely required. In a sane world a shot from a particle cannon should be enough to vaporize any being, but here they were just a deterrent to hooders.

Amistad scanned the wilderness for anything nasty, spotting at extreme distance a heroyne striding through the flute grasses, apparently unaware of the siluroyne stalking it. But

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