The Corporation Wars by Ken MacLeod

Author:Ken MacLeod
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2018-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

“It’s very simple,” said Durward. “That plan is a compromise between Golding, for the Direction, and Remington, for us. Which means that Remington argued our corner, and that was the best she could get the Direction to accept. Fine. That doesn’t mean we have to accept it. I don’t trust the Direction, and it evidently doesn’t trust us. That’s why it just wants us to cripple the Locke complex so it goes into a useless orbit. I’m not having that. I’m not for leaving it lying about in orbit as a standing invitation to the rest of the Reaction.”

“So what do we do instead?” demanded Carlos. “Golding explained why blowing it up would be a bad idea.”

“Oh, we’ve no intention of blowing it up,” said Durward. “Except as a last resort—”

“There’s no ‘except’ about it,” said Carlos, looking to the others for back-up. “Ablation cascades are nothing to muck about with.”

“I’m not sure the ablation cascade is much of a threat, here,” said Blum. “It’s a big orbit, and a big system, and—”

“What!” Carlos cried.

Durward raised a hand. “Hold on,” he said. “Leave that aside for now. The main thing is, we want to grab that module and as much of its outside apparatus as we can for ourselves. Divert it to the same stable orbital point we’re headed for. Cannibalise its machinery, and when we’ve got a firm grip on the exterior situation, actually send a team into the sim to sort things out. Rescue any Axle comrades trapped inside, send any Rax we find running around back to indefinite storage, and deal with the Locke AI.”

Everyone was nodding, as if this were all wise advice from a sage, instead of the rantings of a mad hippy, which was pretty much how they sounded to Carlos. Send a team into the sim?

“You and whose army?” he asked. “If the Locke AI is Rax and is running things, or if Nicole is Rax, perish the thought, or if it’s being run by some other unknown group that’s as hostile as you think, you’ll have no chance. They’d have scores if not hundreds of fighters in there and there are only eighteen of us.”

“Oh, we’ll have a chance all right,” said Durward. “It wouldn’t be us standing here against the Locke AI. It would be me, and Remington. We’re both Axle through and through. We don’t have divided minds, or divided loyalties. We could take that treacherous blinker, no worries.”

“How?” Carlos demanded. “You’re here, they’re there. We’re not proposing moving this module, are we? And waiting for rendezvous if we do manage to divert the Locke module would give them plenty of time to build their defences.”

“No, no,” said Durward. “Remington and I go with you as stored avatars. You slam the storage medium in the right place like a limpet mine, and in we go, same time as you download into the sim. Don’t worry about us, we’ll both be expendable duplicates, and all the more effective for that. And

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