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  “Meanwhile, panic spreads,” Komar remarked. “Just take a look…” She pressed a button, muting the volume on all the displays and a series of Solnet reports ran in quick succession across the screens, like a collage: The Last Days?...Symborg Promises Paradise in Major Speech…Assimilator Booths Catch Fire From Overuse in Manchester, England…Riots Spread across Djarkarta….

  Quint felt a rock in the pit of his stomach watching all the chaos, dutifully captured by Solnet and other press dronecams. “They won’t have to absorb us, or whatever it is they do. We’re doing it to ourselves.”

  “That’s not all,” Komar said. “Lamar, what’s the latest from Q2 on the Sanctuaries?”

  CINCQUANT consulted his own pad. “I’ll put the details up for everyone but the basics are this: legally constituted swarms resident in the Sanctuaries are on the move. Sanctuary Patrol’s reporting over a hundred border violations in just the last week, across the board…Amazon, east Africa, the Pacific. There have been clashes and skirmishes between SP and elements of these swarms. Quantum Corps has provided some assistance in Africa…HERF and mag weapons, logistics and the like. We’ve already lodged formal complaints in the UN—“

  The S-G, Dr. Vishnapuram, interjected. “I signed off on those yesterday. We’ve got hearings today and tomorrow. General Quint, I’ll need all the data you can get me—times, dates, how many swarms, exact locations. Something to substantiate your claims. Getting this through all the vetoes won’t be easy.”

  “Go on, General,” urged Komar.

  “That’s not all,” Quint continued. “Now Q2 has evidence, from thermal signatures and electromagnetics, that Config Zero or some subset of that swarm, has breached containment at Kipwezia. For over thirty years, we’ve had a MOBnet-style containment field around that island. Nothing in or out. Recently, Q2 sensors have detected signatures indicating that the net has been breached in multiple places and Config Zero may well be on the move. We’ve got a detachment there now to recon the perimeter of the zone.”

  Now it was Salaam’s turn to add some bad news. “I’m afraid this may be the least of our worries. Just this morning, Farside sent me an advisory from Europa Eye. You recall we set up Eye about forty years ago to keep tabs on the Keeper unit on Europa…or maybe I should say, under Europa. Now Farside is saying the Keeper may not even be there anymore. They’ve detected signatures of something orbiting Jupiter in a separate orbit…and it has swarm-like signatures. They’re trying to work out mission parameters to pull Eye out of Europa orbit and go sniff out this other source. But it’ll take a few weeks.”

  Angelika Komar watched all the screens and displays blinking bad news around them and took a deep breath. “The biggest threat long-term is still this Kuiper Belt One. We haven’t figured how to stop the thing yet.”

  “Or even slow it down,” added Salaam.

  “Table Top has a few eggheads with a really crackpot idea,” Quint told them. “It’s a harebrained idea but now seems to be the time for things like this.” He loaded up the displays and let the AI chew on the files for awhile, then showed all of them what he was talking about.

  “Think MOBnet. We put a gigantic net over and around Kipwezia years ago. Mostly it’s held, except it may be wearing out now. A couple of our top fellows have had a similar notion. They’ve worked up, as you can see, a design for an astronomical MOBnet, a sort of Earthshield that would encompass much of the space around the Earth-Moon system, at least space in the same plane as that big KB-1 swarm. Not the whole volume of space around Earth-Moon but a substantial fraction of it. Here, I’ll let Dr. Gamilon explain—“ Quint selected a vid clip and the displays all showed an animated ecliptic plot of the Earth and Moon in orbit around each other. Gamilon was a balding, bespectacled French physicist, appearing in a small window inside the animation, to narrate.

  “EarthShield is a protective barrier composed of nanoscale robots, physically linked together like a mesh, designed to provide a physical barrier to oncoming swarms or bots from elsewhere in the solar system, especially the Old Ones and their mother swarm.

  “The shield does not completely envelope the Earth-Moon system, but rather forms a sort of pancake structure, extending from the L1 to the L2 equilibrium points.

  “Inside the envelope, both Earth and the Moon are more or less protected from nanobotic swarm incidence roughly in the plane of the Earth’s orbit, plus or minus several degrees. These are thought to be the most likely approach vectors for Kuiper Belt One.

  “The physical extent of this barrier is some 3 million kilometers, from L1 to L2. The breath is about .5 million kilometers.

  “Gravitational forces away from the equilibrium points L1 and L2 will require anchor satellites and positioning buoys.

  “EarthShield is a linked, single physical object, but the linkages are nanobotic effectors and they can be adjusted and reconfigured as needed.

  “Deployment of the Shield will take several months. Deployment involves four Frontier Corps ships. Two ships will lay shield bots from Earth to L1. Two ships will deploy shield bots from Earth to L2. The deployment pattern resembles a weaving pattern…multiple trajectories to and from L1 and L2, shifting a little at the end of each sector sweep.

  “The end result is a physical barrier composed of individual nanobot elements, linked by effectors and configured not only to form the barrier but to be able to fight off probes and assaults from other swarms. Some Sentinel system technology is applied here. Most of the bots have bond disrupters and other defensive weapons as well as linking effectors.

  “Equilibrium points L1 and L2 are gravitationally stable and require only modest maneuvering from anchor satellites. However, the gravity of the Moon and Earth along the ‘strands’ of the shield, would eventually distort and disrupt the shield, so additional positioning and maneuvering buoys are required, as multiple points along the arcs from L1 to Earth to L2. PM buoys are small satellites with linkage to specific sectors of the Shield to help it maintain shape and orientation.

  “EarthShield control will be operated out of Gateway Station, a manned complex also at the L2 point. Control functions will include positioning and maneuvering (involving coordinated operation of trillions of propulsors), overall sector status and condition, repairs and maintenance, power, and configuration control.

  “This concludes our presentation on the EarthShield design.”

  Gamilon’s face winked out and the final configuration of the shield was frozen on all displays.

  CINCSPACE General Salaam shook his head sadly. “Truly an ingenious idea. In Kolkata, we call notions like this paagal…crazy, wacko, you understand. UNISPACE would have to be involved in such an effort.”

  “Probably up to your eyebrows,” Quint said.

  UNSAC sniffed. “Does anyone have a better idea? If something isn’t done, KB-1 will be on our doorsteps in six months, maybe less. We should make a decision on this now. “

  For the better part of the next hour, the officers knocked the idea around.

  “The material requirements alone are staggering,” said Salaam. “What kind of feedstock tonnage are we talking about to be able to generate swarms of this magnitude? And the transport requirements—“ Salaam twirled his black moustache like it was a toy.

  In the end, the decision was made. Earthshield would proceed. Nobody thought the idea had the slightest chance of working but nobody had a better idea.

  Dr. Vishnapuram gave his approval. “Initial design work should begin immediately. General Quint, give me a synopsis of the idea, something I can offer to the General Assembly. Make it simple. These cows are simple people. They can be steered but sometimes it takes a big kick. The cost of this Earthshield will be so astronomical that all countries will have to contribute.”

  Komar had an idea. “I want to speed this along as fast as we can. In fact, I know a Solnet reporter who can help get the word out.”

  Dana Polansky
climbed out of the jetcab in front of the Quartier-General building and looked up at the eighty-story blade-shaped structure. Critics had panned the design for years. Looks like a sword broken in two…looks like a frozen banana…looks like a wilting flower with indigestion. Polansky figured she was no architectural critic. She’s leave the snide comments to others. As it was, the UNIFORCE headquarters building dominated the 5th arrondisement like a weed in a grass patch and nobody could miss the thing, even from halfway across the City of Light.

  It was a statement in stone, marble and glass that didn’t need translating.

  Polansky had gotten the message from a Captain Laval, comm officer inside the office of the Security Affairs Commissioner. Urgent. Need to speak with you. Come at 1100 hours. Background on a major development. Exclusive to Solnet…

  What reporter wouldn’t salivate at an offering like that?

  Polansky signed in at the first-floor security station and began a long series of increasingly stringent security scans, sweeps and probes, including every biometric she could imagine. After what seemed like a day, she found herself on the seventy-fifth floor, in an oak-paneled anteroom, facing heavy doors and two scowling well-armed guards, and a visible, very obvious nanobotic barrier, all comprising the entrance to a suite of offices and conference rooms occupied by UNSAC herself.

  It’s not every day a girl reporter gets to enter the Holy of Holies, she told herself, quickly primping her face with a compact mirror.

  Promptly at 1100 hours, she was ushered through multiple doors and barriers into a spacious corner officer with an acre-sized desk surrounded by displays and 3-d images dancing in mid-air.

  Angelika Komar stabbed a button on the side panel of her chair and the 3-d dancers vanished. She rose and extended a hand, indicating Polansky should be seated.

  “Sorry, Ms. Polansky…I was just following live drone footage of a skirmish along the east African Sanctuary border…the Bugs are getting restless and we’re trying to keep a lid on them. Thanks for coming on such short notice.”

  “Thank you for asking me, Madame Commissioner. I could never pass up a chance at an exclusive from UNSAC.”

  Komar sank back in her chair. “I want to be clear about this. I will give you exclusive background to a major development, but I want your agreement to hold it for a few days. This is deep background, by the way. No direct attribution to this office…or to me.”

  When Dana started to object, UNSAC held up a hand. “Just hear me out, Ms. Polansky. Listen to what I have to say and show you, and I think you’ll understand my position.” With that, UNSAC punched up another 3-d show on the pedestal at the front of her desk…the thing was big enough to form a theatrical stage.

  “It’s called Earthshield,” she said. “Here are the details….”

  Polansky leaned forward slightly and watched mesmerized at the unfolding description and graphics of the huge project.

  When it was done, UNSAC punched off the vid and got right to the point. “Ms. Polansky, I need your help. I want to publicize the whole idea of Earthshield as widely as possible. I want you to do this for me. My main goal here is to put pressure on UN delegates to approve the project.” Here, Komar punched on her 3-D stage again, this time showing long-range imagery of the leading edge of KB-1, imagery from Farside and sensors at Station T, Titan.

  “I don’t have to explain what this is…you’ve seen it enough in recent days. Ms. Polansky, time is short. We have to move now. KB-1…the Old Ones…judgment days…whatever you want to call it, it’s coming. Coming our way and coming fast.”

  Polansky’s head spun with all the things she had just seen and heard. “I’ll have to discuss this with my editors, Madame Commissioner. They make decisions on what stories we cover…and how we cover them. Will this…thing… this shield…do your engineers and tech people think it’ll really work? Stop this KB-1 from doing any damage to us?”

  Komar shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, Dana. The figures say it should work. The simulations say it should work. But one thing I’ve learned in this job…when you’re dealing with Bugs…or any enemy, for that matter, remember one thing: the enemy always gets a vote on what works and what doesn’t. Few military plans survive contact with the enemy intact. But right now, it’s the best idea we’ve got.”

  Polansky agreed to take the matter directly to her chief editor. “His name is Henri Bergeron…a dear fellow, really, kind of nervous, buzzes about the newsroom like a bee. He’ll listen. But Henri’s like a flag. He always knows which way the wind is blowing.”

  Polansky and Komar exchanged a few more pleasantries, then Dana was firmly showed the door and conducted downstairs. You couldn’t just walk out of the Quartier-General like it was a corner bakery. She went through the whole security screening process again, this time in reverse.

  An hour later, she had climbed out of another jetcab, swiped her card across the face of the driver-AI and rode the lift to her offices at the Solnet Studios on the Rue Descartes. She dropped her things off at her desk and went directly to the little tenth-floor veranda-café outside Edit, thinking to get a coffee and beignet, before trying to hunt down Henri.

  She had to compose her thinking about how to put this to her editor.

  She was more or less lost in a daze, pulling off pieces of the chewy dough to munch on when something caught her eye. It was a shadow by the windows—the Café Duchenne had great views of Montmartre—something she had for a moment thought was just a cloud passing by the sun.

  No, that wasn’t it. She turned slightly, with a chill going down her spine, and carefully put the coffee down on the table. The shadow thickened. Nobody else in the café—there were only a few—seemed to notice it. Dana wondered if she were imagining this. The last few days had been stressful and that was an understatement.

  When she realized she was looking at a shadowy, nearly translucent outline of her daughter Jana, Dana dropped the beignet to the floor. She didn’t know whether to be startled, ecstatic, mad or distraught. Maybe all of them at the same time.

  As she studied what she could see of Jana’s face, she could see that her daughter seemed to be in some kind of distress. It was her expression. A mother knew about things like that, with the way her lips were set, her eyes….

  The more she looked, the more Dana was sure that Jana wanted something.

  “What is it, baby?” she whispered. “What are you trying to tell me?”

  Jana didn’t say a word but a mother could tell.

  Jana looks tired, she thought. Her eyelids, what there were of them, sort of drooped. The full angel form hadn’t filled out. Only a faint outline, barely visible in the back glow from outside, was visible. Others in the cafe said nothing, probably saw nothing. Like a rainbow, you could only see Jana from a certain direction.

  Dana started to get up, but thought better of it. This has to be a dream, she told herself. But she knew that somehow, some way, she had to get Jana back from this netherworld. It seemed like a form of hell, or purgatory. Maybe that was it. But who could she turn to? Was it even possible to get Jana back?

  Dana prided herself on being a hardheaded journalist. Reporters dealt with facts. Dana knew that, officially, nobody had ever been ‘reconstructed’ after going through assimilation, though there had been attempts. And she knew that the Church of Assimilation would oppose anything she tried to do.

  But there just had to be a way….

  Chapter 7

  Solnet/Omnivision Video Post

  @dana.polansky.solnetworldview

  June 14, 2155

  1750 hours U.T.

  SOLNET Special Report:

  A Shield to Hide Behind?

  This Solnet Special Report will cover an unusual story that has emerged from the labs of UNIFORCE in recent days. Highly placed sources have provided information about a program to build a shield-type defensive system in space, a shield that would oste
nsibly protect the Earth from the approach of the large swarm formation even now moving into our solar system. Dr. Swanson Lurkfelder of Cambridge University, U.K., is interviewed by reporter Dana Polansky and reports on what is known about this program.

  “Dr. Lurkfelder, thank you for taking the time to be with us today.”

  “My pleasure, Dana. How can help you?” Lurkfelder is a thin, almost emaciated academic, possessed of a large white moustache and a shock of dirty white hair. His corduroy jacket doesn’t quite have elbow patches, but the doctor is in many ways a prototypical academic denizen.

  “Dr. Lurkfelder, you’ve heard reports recently about this so-called Earthshield project?”

  Lurkfelder takes off his glasses, fiddles with the dataspecs for a moment, then lays them on his desk. “I have heard the term…a most unfortunate wording, if you ask me.”

  “Why is that, Dr. Lurkfelder?”

  “Well, as I understand the term, a full shield would be something approximating a sphere, covering much of the space between the Earth and Moon. Such a structure is quite impossible, I might add. To imagine that any single structure could prevent the approach of a large swarm, as this Kuiper Belt One phenomenon is known officially, is patently ridiculous. It simply flies in the face of the laws of physics.”

  Dana refers to a tablet with her notes. “Dr. Lurkfelder, just so our viewers will know what we’re talking about here, unnamed sources inside UNIFORCE have provided Solnet with considerable information about this project, which is known informally as Earthshield. The plan is to design and build a gigantic shield in space and envelop most of the space around the Earth and the Moon, out to the L2, L3, L4 and L5 positions. Not a true spherical shield, as you say, but more of a series of pancakes, to try and block the approach of this great swarm at the edges of the solar system.”

  “Just as you say, Dana, this shield idea is very controversial,’ Lurkfelder added. “There are many engineering problems that would have to be overcome. In fact, the design is seriously flawed and the concept is frankly ridiculous on the face of it.”