Timelike Infinity by Stephen Baxter

Author:Stephen Baxter
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Fiction
ISBN: 9780006476184
Publisher: Orion
Published: 1997-08-18T07:00:00+00:00

10

“Michael.” Harry Poole’s voice was soft but insistent. “Michael, wake up. It’s started.”

Michael Poole emerged from sleep reluctantly. He pushed back his thin blanket, rolled onto his back and rubbed his eyes. Beside him, he saw, Berg was already awake and sitting up. Poole lifted himself onto his elbows, wincing at a stab in his lower spine: Shira’s little hut was quiet enough, and the air of the earth-craft was still and comfortably warm; but—despite Miriam’s assurances that the hard surfaces were doing him the world of good—he doubted if he would ever get used to sleeping on nothing more than an inch of coarsely stuffed pallet over a floor of Xeelee construction sheeting.

Miriam Berg was already pulling on her one-piece Friend’s jumpsuit. “What’s started, Harry?”

The Virtual construct of his father, coarsened by diffraction, hovered over Poole. “The high-energy particle flux from the Interface portal has increased. Something’s coming, Michael. An invasion from the future—we’ve got to get out of here.”

Poole , still struggling into jumpsuit and shoes, stumbled to the tepee’s open doorway. He squinted in the Jovian light and turned his face to the sky. The Interface portal hung there, delicate and beautiful, apparently innocent of menace.

“Spline,” Berg breathed. “They’ll send Spline through. The living ships the Friends described, the warships of the Qax, of the Occupation, come to destroy the earth-craft. Just as we’ve expected.”

There was an edge in Berg’s voice Poole had never heard before, a fragility that induced in him an atavistic urge to take her in his arms, shield her from the sky.

Berg said, “Michael, those things will defeat the best humanity can throw at them—fifteen centuries from now. What can we do? We haven’t got a hope of even scratching their ugly hides.”

“Well, we can have a damn good try,” Poole murmured. “Come on, Berg. I need you to be strong. Harry, what’s happening in the rest of the System?”

The Virtual, sharp and clear out here outside the tepee, shrugged nervously. “I can’t send a message out, Michael. The Friends are still blocking me. But the ships in the area have detected the high-energy particle flux.” He met Michael’s eyes, mournfully. “Nobody knows what the hell’s going on, Michael. They’re still keeping a respectful distance, waiting for us to report back. They don’t see any threat—after all the earth-craft has simply sat here in Jovian orbit for a year, enigmatic but harmless. What can happen now?” He looked vaguely into the sky. “People are—curious, Michael. Looking forward to this. There are huge public Virtuals, images of the portal and the earth-craft hovering over every city on Earth... It’s like a carnival.”

“But once the Qax begin their assault—”

“It will be too late.” Berg took Michael’s arm; her face was still a mask of fear, he saw, but some of her determination, her cunning, seemed restored. “Listen to me. The best chance of hitting them is going to be now... in the first few minutes after the Spline emerge from the portal.”

Poole nodded. “Right.Causality stress.”

“The Spline are living creatures,” Berg said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.