Edward M. Lerner by A New Order of Things Read Free Book Online Page A

radiation,” the shipboard AI replied.
    “On-screen,” Helmut said. “Magnify.”
    “That looks like a fusion flame. Why doesn’t radar see something?”
    He had an idea that he wasn’t yet willing to speak aloud. “New radar search. Max pulsed power towards the source of that first ping. Range unknown, just watch for a return. Maintain safety scans near the ship using back-up radar.” To Corinne’s questioning look, Helmut answered only, “Bear with me.”
    The first reply ping was received after an excruciatingly long 294 seconds. He swiveled toward Corinne. “It wasn’t visible on radar because I didn’t look that far out.”
    “But obviously you can. What am I missing?”
    “Did I mention that it”—he gestured to the tiny visual of a fusion flame—“is forty-four million klicks from here? About the same as the closest approach between Earth and Venus?”
    For the first time in their acquaintance, Corinne was at a loss for words. She eventually came up with, “It must be huge .”
    Helmut nodded; he’d done the calculation already. “Habitat-sized.” He tapped a number-filled display. More echoes had been received; the Odyssey could begin to calculate its course and speed. “Here’s the most interesting part. It’s coming from the direction of Barnard’s Star, it’s heading towards Jupiter, and—although it’s still going like a bat out of hell—it’s decelerating like crazy.” When she failed to comment further, he finally had to ask. “Okay, boss. What do you want to do about this?”
    “Maintain course.”
    “Well, Callisto is as good as any other destination. I’ll need to collect more data to even form an opinion where in Jupiter system it’s headed. But what about the discovery itself?” You’re a reporter , he wanted to shout.
    “It was already discovered. Discovered, then covered up.” An ear-to-ear smile lit Corinne’s face. “I’ve been trying to determine why the UP has been making so many short-notice flights to Callisto from across the solar system. I think we just found out.
    “The UP has been sitting on the story that’s going to get me a Pulitzer.”

    The effrontery was breathtaking: the opportunity to bid for exclusive netcast rights to an undefined but claimed-epochal news spectacular. Possibly no one but Corinne Elman had the nerve to announce such an auction. Certainly no freelancer, but she had the reputation to have takers.
    Media moguls across the solar system radioed bids to the Odyssey . Each hour, by ship’s time on the hour, she had echoed the highest offer so far received. On the third round, only one offer came back: 10.55 million Sols. Within five hours, Transplanetary Bank confirmed that a down payment of two million had been deposited to her account.
    She spun in her chair to face the Odyssey ‘s dour captain. “When you see your tip for this outing, even you will smile.”

CHAPTER 6
    Impatience is a weakness of the organic.
    T’bck Fwa, long-time trade representative of the species known to humans as the Centaurs, was immune to that imperfection. A purist would point out that the agent, like all AIs in human-occupied space, resided in an organic biocomputer. The quibble would have been both true and irrelevant. He would have functioned exactly the same within a bulky, power-gulping, heirloom, microelectronic computer such as the humans had employed before adopting K’vithian technology, or in one of the photonic computers used by the Unity.
    So T’bck Fwa was exceedingly patient, and over the decades a persistent searcher could glean much from the human infosphere. Data streamed to him every picosecond, new information to be sifted and sorted, analyzed and interpreted. Often a pattern would emerge.
    He mulled two such patterns. The newer discovery, if it had meaning, must relate somehow to the older: an unannounced UP technology program. Only the most diligent and information-insatiable of observers would have inferred that program’s