Alpha - Gorylkin's Xeno - had approached the edge of the platform. The other members of its species had frozen. It was impossible to tell whether the clicking sounds - which echoed deeply through space, occasionally repeated by its listeners - represented a few simple words of appeasement or a long, condensed discourse of sublime ideas, but it did not last more than ten seconds.
And all the Xenos resumed their activity, perfectly ignoring the humans present. Granted, it was difficult for them to ignore the immense Alecto, but for the time being they merely busied themselves hauling up their ships and finding them room higher up.
Alpha, its task completed, silently placed itself behind Gorylkin.
"I've been running every possible scenario through my head and I can't understand how you managed to make them come," admitted Andreï to Pallas. "Did we invent a system faster than Drift?"
"The Entangled Gate brought back by one of our allies in his Ozy, you know, the old one…?"
"Miltiades? You secretly installed an Entangled Gate aboard the Alecto?"
"By order of Ravzan."
"To… intervene if the situation required it, right?"
"Precisely."
"What a stupid waste of a precious resource. And that's why you were so serene in our darkest moments. You had a joker."
"Do not be mistaken, I am always serene, captain."
Konrad exclaimed that it was high time they eat, drink, and sleep, and the captain ordered a team to carry out a full reconnaissance of the area. They did not dine together around a single table; instead, each went their own way.
Ada introduced her new companions to Andreï: Salman and the Abandoned.
To the first he said:
"If you have Gorylkin's trust, that's all I need. Welcome to the Starfleet, though the term 'resistance army' would be more accurate."
And Salman saluted him. To the second, the Xeno, he shook a tentacle and then declared:
"Have you been offered an alliance pact with the HS?"
"I imagine it's informal, but Ada has kept me informed of your internal troubles. As a Xeno, since we must keep your term, it seems natural for me to side with those who intend to preserve you."
"Ordinarily we are more formal than this, but in these times of internal disorder, my word will suffice, and the LE units aboard bear witness to it. As of today, the Abandoned, a civilization of collective spirit, becomes an ally of the HS. May each aid the other in its moments of need."
At that, Stewart - a man so thin one wondered where his muscles were - head of protocol aboard the Alecto, had the octopus sign a few digital documents by pressing a tentacle to them.
Meanwhile, a nutrition bar in one hand and a flask in the other, Andreï was guiding Ada toward Doux Soleil's workroom.
"How are your studies going?"
"I have a lot to do. For instance, coming to save your skin."
"Every day, you must study. Even on days of rescue. How far have you gotten with prime numbers?"
"Well… density."
"That's a good argument, yes, density."
Ada didn't reply, so he continued.
"Last time I told you what all the experts think: the distribution of prime numbers is a problem meant to elude us, just as we will never see the infinitely small with the naked eye - there exists no tool, even an abstract one, to see, to understand. Perhaps our brain itself lacks something. This mystery, and others we've dragged since the dawn of mathematics, like P = NP, are all in a sack we call the Fundamental Structure. We know it exists, but it will forever remain invisible to our eyes. But you see… prime numbers can be approached from many angles. We know, to a very precise percentage, by which digit the next one is likely to end. We have many analytical approaches, like density. It's as if it were an invisible being in a dark room, and from time to time, we touch it. So does that invisible being truly exist?"
He pushed open the study room. A square chamber, one wall opening onto a bay window through which one could see the Xeno city and its great leafy canopies. Another wall held a whiteboard, a large LE unit capable of printing, and, on a wheeled platform, Doux Soleil - a large brown mass, like a heap of damp soil, upright, more or less swaying. Beside it, a Xeno resembling a wasp. Both greeted the captain and Ada as they entered. The latter signed in stellar language with the dexterity of a linguist.
"You truly are a friend of the Xenos," said Ada.
"I don't love them more than humans. But not less. Now-" (he picked up an old-fashioned marker) "look at this. You see what this is?"
Ada turned toward the board. There were matrices of matrices, and Ada hated matrices.
"We work on this in our free time. So, when we want to go-" (he drew circles meant to represent planets) "from Prospero to, say, well here, Planet Destination, we ask Leonardo to calculate the Drift time for us. That means: when do we leave, how long, at what power. You follow?"
"I know Leonardo and all that stuff very well."
"Now, since planets move, stars move, systems, galaxies, and everything else moves… if we want to go backwards… we can't. Drift routes only work one way. If we want the return route, we have to ask Leonardo again. And sometimes, the calculation takes even longer than the outward journey. So Doux Soleil and I thought… why couldn't we calculate the return route from the outward one? We called it the Inverse Drift. And no one believes in it."
"And have you succeeded?"
"No. We've made progress, but that means nothing. In mathematics, it sometimes takes a hundred years to go from 99 to 100% of a result."
He picked up a paper document, old-fashioned, bound in black and white. Freshly printed, the pages were warm. The title read: Inverse Drift.
"This is for you. Everyone has their grail, kid, but I'd like you to work on it."
"So we must work every day, but you - you're stopping?"
Andreï set down the marker and leaned against the bay window. Backlit, Ada could no longer see his face.
"I'm out of juice. I envy your youth, your brilliant mind. You will see mathematical roads and landscapes that I can only dream of. And my days are numbered."
"You're sick?"
"That's a good way to sum it up. I'm condemned. Don't tell anyone."
The wasp-like Xeno looked at the captain gravely.
"You'll work on it in the After."
"That's not part of the plan."
"My thing is prime numbers."
"One of the paths we use in the Inverse Drift is the Veritatis. It's also in the bag of 'mysteries' I mentioned earlier. If you open that bag, perhaps you'll find within it the missing solutions. You have your whole life, you know - your whole life. Keep it aside, and when you tell yourself, 'Andreï, who taught me chess, he was a decent guy after all,' maybe then you'll dive into it."
Ada flipped through the book. Andreï continued:
"There are no mathematical researchers anymore, not like before. No one wants to go out to meet things, into the unknown territories, because we feel that whatever we do, the LE units will always be more powerful than us. Today, even in the army, professional mathematicians are nothing more than bureaucrats who interpret and log the results of the AIs' research. I think it's this whole immense universe to explore - it offers us so many worlds that we've forgotten our treasure, our inner path, the most epic of all explorations: that of our own thoughts. But you, you have the flame, as I once did. You started young, you're brilliant - I'm sure, absolutely sure, you'll succeed."
Ada raised her eyes and said as she closed the notebook:
"We'll see."
Pallas had entered the study room to bring preliminary results to the captain. She murmured something while showing him a city scan on a terminal. Ada craned her neck to see that it displayed the city center, but could not make out more.
The captain examined the data, and Pallas watched him intently, as if disturbed. Andreï dismissed her with perfect indifference, telling her to escort Ada back to her quarters.
"I have to go," said Ada once she was alone with the psi officer.
"The Alké is currently making a short one-hour journey to position itself in the shadow of a giant. There's almost no risk of the Entangled Gate malfunctioning during the maneuver, but I've reserved a double honor chamber for you aboard the ship. You're our guest for as long as necessary."
"As little as possible, psi. I've learned to be wary of people like you."
Pallas made no reply and let her in.
The room bore the Alecto's chromed hues, but it was rather large and included - besides a desk, a paper-book library, displayed maps, and a screen - two single beds neatly recessed into the wall. Salman was sitting melancholically on one of them.
"Alpha and the Abandoned - where are they?"
"Uh… outside, I think. I know they can talk to each other…"
Ada sat on the opposite bed and threw down Andreï's notebook. Her gaze drifted into the void for a moment, then she said:
"Sal, I'm going to Caliban with Alpha."
"The Abandoned told me about it. No one ever comes back from there."
"Nonsense. I've seen it with my own eyes all my youth."
"Well… I like you, Gorylkin. I'll follow you."
Ada stood and walked toward Sal. She placed a kiss on his forehead.
"I like you too. You have a good heart, Salman. The mission the Wau gave me - to forge an alliance with all the Xenos - I'm entrusting it to you."
"What?"
"I'm going alone to Caliban with Alpha. And you, with the Abandoned, you'll unite the Xenos."
"Gorylkin, you're the Saint of the Xenos."
"Exactly. You'll tell them I'm going here." (She signed in the air.) "Remember the sign. The Empyreal Gates."
"The gates… what are they?"
"Do the sign again. That's it. I don't know. Paradise. The home of the Blind Gods. But that's where I belong. I was born there, I'm going back. I'm giving you my Adventura."
"But that's your mission, isn't it?"
"I'm Gorylkin, Salman. I set my own missions."
She locked eyes with him and leaned in to kiss him. He returned her kiss, and she threw herself upon him.
Since the 2250s, human genetics had been modified through an RNA test on stem cells. Menstruation, and the pains associated with it, had been eliminated. The pains of childbirth as well. Fertility was mentally controlled: in the case of human-to-human fertilization, both partners had to think for a few minutes about the desire to have a child, and the fertility markers would activate. Within this framework, any fertility issues among those who wished to reproduce "the old-fashioned way" (mostly for religious, traditional, or sometimes romantic reasons) were mainly handled by psychologists.
With the unimaginable progress of technology, recreational sexuality between humans had become somewhat of a minority practice - a primitive sensual experience that connected them to their true identity, that allowed them to reconnect with the essence of humanity. Love had countless nuances, and in a world where there was so much to do, it was often called the madness of youth; yet when love struck, it was often accompanied by human-to-human sexuality - an experience people spoke of very little, not out of modesty, but as a secret treasure to be cherished.
For some mysterious reason, Ada declared aloud, as they lay naked, that she wanted a child with Salman. That clearly cooled his ardor, and realizing perhaps that he wasn't ready, he ended the encounter with a simple kiss, telling her that he would carry out his mission, no matter what happened. Ada was short of breath, and though her eyes burned with a kind of fury, Salman's held the absolute loyalty of those who stand before a god.
Passing through the corridor, Pallas caught the essence of the embraces. Empty Eyes - that was what they had called her when she had received her Alpha certification - had once been told:
"Support the UniPsi and serve humanity; apart from that, the world is yours."
And yet… was the world truly hers?
She was the wisest, the most gifted, and let it be said - apart from a few mathematical acrobatics by the captain and his Xeno friend - probably the most intelligent person aboard the ship. But behind her mask and placid smiles, she was not devoid of emotion. She was overwhelmed by the grief of having read her captain's approaching death in his mind, and worse still, his indifference toward her. Toward everything. They could have died in that cage, and for him it would have been merely an experience. And… she was jealous. Yes, jealous! That primitive feeling! Jealous of Gorylkin and of the attention Andreï gave her. If the Wau were still here, she thought, she'd be jealous of him too - and then the dishonor would be complete. She'd be jealous of a goldfish the captain might feed. She was jealous - the vilest possible emotion, a stain of helplessness, for nothing and over nothing. That was how low she had fallen.
And the insolent girl's ability to do whatever she wanted to whomever she wanted infuriated her. Oh, Pallas could have gone at once to half the cabins aboard the Alecto - man or woman - and found desired intimacy there. But it wasn't them she wanted. And Andreï? Did he truly deserve all this attention? Or was he not, rather, not even a man, but a thing created by the Owls of Booz, giving Pallas the illusion of humanity behind some inhuman artifact? Did she see in him anything more than the sum of what he was? Did she desire some invisible status, as before, when she…
Without realizing it, she had returned to her quarters - where, in full view, stood the great Entangled Gate, usually hidden beneath a tarp that lent it the air of a master painting protected from prying eyes.
In a wardrobe, behind her clothes, a briefcase. Indeed, it was a room of secrets. Identity files - her own. Diplomas. A Psi procedure code, in classic paper format. Standing before her wardrobe, back to the door to conceal any intrusion, she opened the codebook.
It was not the code - that dull, indicative, outdated book no one respected, from Alpha to Omega. Beneath its blue cover was hidden another: black and red. The bookmark ribbon, red with black diamonds, ended in a Ruby of Dante with a wild gleam, set in gold.
She took in her hand the so-called stone of power and recited a psalm of the Grip (Emprise), to which she had adhered during her studies:
"I possess the power of the Gods, and unlike the weak, I am fully worthy of it. I do not reject it. I associate it with neither morality nor interpretations of good or evil. This power is only a tool - to seize what I need or what I covet, and to cast out what I no longer desire in my life. The Grip guides me. My brothers support me. I am not alone on my path - but I intend to be alone at its end."
The prayer soothed her, even as a wave of guilt crossed her. Her eyes fell upon the open page marked by the ribbon, titled Fear Stronger than Love.
Fear Stronger than Love
Fictions and historical or moral treatises present divine figures preaching love - and love as the only virtuous, lasting, even effective vector of human relations and ambitious endeavors. "The good" acts through love, using love. "The evil" employs fear.
The Grip teaches that good and evil do not exist, and that love and fear, when they do exist, are two aspects of the same principle, which we call the River of Control.
Love inevitably brings with it the fear of losing love. The path of love leads to the self-destruction of every enterprise. The path of love is that of one who tries to swim upstream against the River of Control: it demands great effort for meager results, for to go against the River is to oppose two powerful forces.
Fear, on the other hand, yields immediate results. The fear you instill in another comes through your power over crucial aspects of your counterpart's life - ideally, absolute control over their life and death. But in thus offering your interlocutor the daily gift of their own life, they will move from forced loyalty to gratitude, which will lead to love. You will have naturally gone down the River of Control, combining two powerful forces, and thus traveled a much greater distance with no effort.
Pallas closed the book and carefully put everything away. Perhaps, she thought, until now she had been nothing but a weakling, lamenting over not obtaining what she desired. Perhaps, from now on, she should correct her attitude.