Lightless by C.A. Higgins

Author:C.A. Higgins
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-28T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

PARTICLE NUMBER

Physics, ground down to its most basic parts, was nothing more than the study of energy: where the energy was, where the energy was not, and how the energy flowed.

Humans were the same. All human interactions were nothing more than the flow of power from one to another. Whatever emotions other people professed to feel for one another—love, hate, empathy—they were nothing to that unconscious awareness of power. Crack any of those sentiments open and find inside only the dark core of a power differential informing it, defining it, giving it strength.

Ida could not say for certain if other people genuinely believed in their own honesty when they professed to be motivated by things other than power, if they simply didn’t recognize that every motivation led back to power in the end. Every interaction was built on power and ebbed and flowed with the changes in who had the power and who did not. She could not say for certain, and there was no way to find out safely.

One thing she did know for certain: she recognized it, she knew it, and that by itself gave her power.

“There was violence on Titania last night,” she said to Ivan when they were together in the white room, and he thought he could gain power over her by the skill with which he lied. “Did you hear?”

He looked up at her and shrugged. “Should I have?” he asked.

“It was just a question,” Ida said with a smile.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Ida, but I’ve been in a cell for a week. I’m a little behind on the news.”

“The Mallt-y-Nos has claimed the activity,” said Ida. “Are you sure you haven’t heard?”

Ivan said, “I hadn’t heard.”

“But you don’t seem surprised.”

He smiled that wolfish smile. “There’s always violence on Titania. Should I be shocked that there’s a little more?”

“What’s she up to, Ivan?” Ida asked. “What’s she going to do next?”

He shrugged as if he couldn’t possibly care. “You can ask me that question as often as you like,” he said. “I still won’t be able to answer it.”

Ida studied him, the arrogance in the way he leaned back in his chair and looked her straight in the eye and boldly spoke what they both knew were lies.

“We found an interesting program on board your ship,” she said. “It looks like a program that would detonate a sequence of charges. Or bombs, perhaps.”

“That?” he said, one eyebrow lifting, displaying no surprise or alarm at the mention of his ship. “We use that to blow up vault doors from far away so that we’re outside of the blast radius. Surely you’ve seen the footage.”

He was so calm and collected, he thought he was winning. Ida knew better. And the ship’s mechanic who thought she could have her way over Ida’s will—she, too, did not fully realize how complete Ida’s power was. Because that evening, after the interrogation, Ida received a message from the System: her request for permission to have Constance Harper and Milla Ivanov brought to the Ananke had been granted.

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