War Bodies by Neal Asher

Author:Neal Asher [Asher, Neal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2023-05-15T17:00:00+00:00

12

The ship rose from U-space and this time the sensation was like surfacing from a clear cool pool. Piper studied this analogy, knowing that never in his life had he surfaced from a clear cool pool – it was an experience garnered from others. They had reached their rendezvous point with the rest of the Polity fleet – one step closer to their mission on Yannetholm. He strode along the corridor with Inster at his side. The agent gave him an amused look, but had nothing to say. Was school over now? No, because coming here was also part of his education. And anyway, he’d tasted some of what it was like to have lived centuries from those in virtuality, like Corisian, and knew he still had much he could learn from Inster.

‘You of course know what lies ahead?’ said the agent.

‘Of course.’

‘Your range now?’

‘Out to fifty metres, but I get a lot from the computing, from Albermech, so it’s not a hard dividing line.’

‘And that reptile inside you?’

‘Fully controlled,’ Piper replied firmly, and wondered if he’d got the lie past Inster.

‘The Cyberat?’

‘I’m linked with them all the time now. My commanders and their subordinates have gone from wanting to get the hell out of this ship, off to somewhere safe, to a fanatical desire to apply their war craft to the prador.’

It was a light touch; a delicate balance. The reptile liked what he’d done but he didn’t like the emotions the thing engendered. Unchecked, its influence had him seeing this as vengeance enacted and the power to exact further punishment, all sitting under a thin skin of justification – a pretence of justice. In response he had powered down his bones and felt its grip on him diminishing. He reckoned their function was now at about a third their present capacity, though that capacity had as yet unplumbed room for expansion, and he would need it later on.

‘The grunts?’ Inster asked.

‘The Enforcers are still rising to consciousness but, as I surmised, my programs are having an effect.’ Piper smiled to himself, but this died as he felt reptile approval.

He thought of those erstwhile rebels, for it seemed that was what the bulk of them were – others who were plain criminals having been punished in more terminal and perhaps kinder ways, considering the Enforcers’ subsequent lives until now. Even not fully out of hibernation, they were changing quickly.

‘Detail this effect.’ Inster stopped by a bulkhead door three metres across.

No, school wasn’t over.

‘They have more mind than was supposed. Free will, intelligence and much in the way of memory was suppressed. Their programs are now shaping them to my purpose, so they still don’t have free will, but something curious is happening. The previous suppression of memory and intelligence was a result of them being forcibly indoctrinated to do things completely against their morality – against their will. However, the personality aspects of the loading have unconsciously apprised them of their situation. Now they’re being prepared to do things that don’t go against their will, and this is freeing up other functions of their minds.

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