The Void #03 - The Evolutionary Void by Peter F. Hamilton

Author:Peter F. Hamilton [Hamilton, Peter F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Adventure, Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780330443173
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2011-03-30T23:00:00+00:00

6

The Delivery Man spent the flight accessing what information the smartcore had on the Anomine. There wasn’t much. They were an advanced race who had travelled along the standard evolutionary development route for biological species, zipping from agricultural age to industrial age right up to a benign civilization with ftl starflight and a kind of cellular-based replicator technology that meshed with their own forms. That development had allowed for a lot of diversification before their various blocs and genealogies eventually reunited and elevated themselves to post-physical status. From the small snippets of true history which Navy expeditions had uncovered it seemed like the trigger factor for reunification was the threat posed by the Prime.

Sitting in the antique styling of the Last Throw’s cabin with an uncommunicative Gore, the Delivery Man couldn’t help but wonder if the Anomine had found the Prime a little too much like looking into a mirror for comfort. Bodies which had merged into machinery? Albeit the Prime capability was set at a more primitive level. There but for the grace of God go I. Grace in this case being the Prime’s biogenetically embedded xenophobia. The Anomine were only too well aware of what would happen if the paranoid, aggressive, and heavily armed Prime ever escaped their home star system, as they were already attempting in slower-than-light starships. Concerns vindicated by their observation of the first Prime ships to reach the closest star system, Dyson Beta, with its existing civilization. The peaceful aliens of that world never stood a chance.

Within ten years of the genocidal invasion, the Anomine had thrown up force-field barriers around the stars which humans came to know as the Dyson Pair. Where the Dark Fortress generators had come from, indigenous construction or borrowed from the Raiel, was still a point much argued over by a small specialist section of human academia. But it was that effort which had brought the diverse Anomine back together; barely a hundred and fifty years after the barriers went up, the majority of the Anomine went post-physical.

‘There’s nothing about the elevation mechanism,’ the Delivery Man said as the Last Throw streaked towards the Anomine star at fifty-five lightyears an hour. They were fifteen minutes out, and the starship’s sensors were starting to obtain high-resolution scans of the system with all its planets.

‘Classified,’ Gore replied smartly. ‘Some aspects of government never change no matter how benevolent and transparent they strive to be. Secrecy is like oxygen to politicians and defence forces, there’s always got to be some of it to keep them going.’

‘But you’ve got the files, right?’

‘I’ve accessed the summaries.’

The Delivery Man gave Gore a suspicious look. ‘I thought you had this all planned out?’

‘I do, sonny, so stop with the panicking.’

‘Have you got those summaries?’

‘Not actually with us here today, no; but I remember most of the critical stuff.’

‘But . . . You do know how to get it working again, don’t you? You said that.’

‘I said that we think it’s intact.’

‘No!’ The Delivery Man sat forward abruptly, almost ready to fly out of the chair and go nose to nose with Gore.

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