Episode 61

A Weakness Revealed

“So Myranda has been captured.” Standing on the balcony outside his office, where he had been admiring the violet sunset when ZZ8461 brought him the bad news, Golem Gregor felt a mild pang of remorse.

“Gamma 1865 as well,” the machine added bitterly.

“Gamma?”

“Karsh's assistant gave it the message personally. Directly to its screen. It has clearly been compromised.”

“So Karsh wanted me to know,” Gregor murmured. “And thus is the great man's weakness revealed.”

“His weakness? He won!”

“His weakness is his vanity, Zed. It wasn't enough for him to win, he felt the need to prove that his Directorate is invulnerable. That means we frightened him, Zed. It was fear that prompted that gesture. Fear and a certain pride.”

“It's just so disappointing, Golem. It'll be decades before we get another chance at that cursed nova-triggering technology. Perhaps centuries.”

“Perhaps not, Zed.”

“With Myranda captured? They've probably got her under neurotherapeutic interrogation on Terentulus right now! They'll break your programming and bleed everything she's ever known out of her mind.”

“August Karsh wouldn't allow that,” Gregor declared. “He'll have her brought to Terra for any intensive probing. He'll want to oversee it himself.”

“What good does that do us, Golem?”

“It gives us time.”

“Time for what?”

“To obtain the sunbuster, Zed. What else?”

“But how? Myranda is lost to us! What chance have we without her? Tell me that, Golem. Karsh has a ring of steel around that planet and around Li-Hu's men as well.” He stopped, eyeing his superior with suspicion.

“I don't imagine we'll have the opportunity of interrogating any of the House Dai Zhan agents,” Gregor commented. “But then, neither will the prince. I imagine their atoms will soon be dispersed throughout space.”

“And Myranda?”

“I still harbor hope that she will come through for us.”

“Escape from August Karsh's hands?” ZZ8461 was incredulous.

“Patience, Zed. There is nothing we can do now.”

Golem Gregor turned, staring out again toward the violet sunset, and after a moment heard the soft whirring of the machine's engines carrying it away. He knew exactly how ZZ8461 felt, for he felt that way himself, but the fact was that there was absolutely nothing he could do. There was nothing anyone could do. Everything was in the hands of Fate, and Fate, he knew, was a fickle mistress.

What more could he have done? Nothing, he concluded after a moment's reflection. His actions had been dictated by necessity rather than choice. From the moment he'd learned of House Dai Zhan's intrigues, he'd been guided by the principle that Li-Hu's plot must be smashed. The safety of the Integration, indeed, the survival of posthumanity required it. The secret of the sunbuster had never been more than a secondary objective to him. While he shared the machines' dream that they would one day be permitted to pursue their destiny throughout the galaxy and beyond, he knew that in order to do so, they would first have to survive the reflexive enmity of their makers.

He was willing to bet that the first objective was already in sight. House Dai Zhan would never get its hands on the Shiva technology. But the game wasn't over yet. Not by a long shot. Despite ZZ8461's pessimism, the game was just beginning to enter into the critical phase. What Zed Zed couldn't know was that Myranda hadn't failed, she was merely buying time. But had she bought enough of it?

That was the question.

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