Owner 03 - Jupiter War by Asher Neal

Author:Asher, Neal [Asher, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780230771291
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2013-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

11

Soft-fruit Practice

There are those who assert that evolution is a directional thing and that, as we evolve, we are heading towards some omega point. This strange idea stems from the thoroughly erroneous perception of evolution having an aim beyond the brute survival of genes. It is a sign of philosophical, faith-based thinking infiltrating the thoroughly mechanistic facts regarding human biology. There is no data on evolutionary biology to warrant any faith in the idea that we are somehow ‘improving’. If living in trees and chucking bananas at each other became a breeding advantage, into the trees we would go for soft-fruit target practice. Evolution does not just stop, and the changes it makes in us are governed only by production of the next generation. It can be argued that, by physically altering our bodies and our minds, we are just part of evolution’s toolbox. Perhaps now the best cerebral implants shunt aside the biggest horns and the bushiest tail, and it might be that humans will eventually reach something akin to an omega point. But, equally, those same implants might prove a hindrance to obtaining a mate – a dead end – and the ones still up in the trees with the bananas will eventually be the winners.

Earth

‘Admiral Bartholomew,’ enquired Serene, as the man’s image popped up in a small frame at the top corner of the main screen, ‘how much longer before you can undock?’

‘Once all the troops are aboard, which could be any time now, we can separate,’ he replied. ‘All our other supplies are in.’

‘And, thereafter,’ Serene continued, ‘how long until you can head out?’

‘If we run our vortex generators up to speed and forgo any further testing and diagnostics, then twenty-two hours.’

‘Keep me updated,’ Serene concluded and, after a moment, the small frame closed.

Undocking the Command and the Fist from the construction station the moment the supplies and troops were aboard would shave off almost a day, but only if the drives functioned as predicted and there was no requirement to dock the ships again for further work. It was a risk Serene felt it necessary to take in light of the images she was now viewing.

She’d seen just how fast things were progressing here on the construction station, but this development outpaced it tenfold. Saul was building his ship at a phenomenal rate. That skeletal ship had arrived in orbit about Jupiter just a few weeks ago and, despite a lack of clarity to the images because of the ionization thereabouts, the moment it plugged into the flux tube, activity aboard the craft had ramped up so high that its image in infrared showed clearly even beside Io itself. Now the outer skeleton was more than halfway enclosed with hull plates, while the interior had filled up rapidly – even the docking pillars being moved inside with the ease of shifting a few planks rather than thousands of tonnes of metal and the complex support technologies.

‘What have Tactical got to add?’ she asked without turning.

Elkin stood silently behind her, along with her two aides.

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