Chapter 7: Intrepid - 3756 C.E.

When Colonel Vashti strolled into the living room where Beatrice was sitting, it was no surprise to her at all to see the android staring ahead of her with an expression of intense concentration.

Beatrice turned her head round to face the colonel. "Would you mind telling me what has just happened?" she asked.

Colonel Vashti smiled. "You don't know, do you?"

"One moment there was nothing out of the usual. The next moment there were strong indications of the presence of a Sirius space fleet. Almost as soon as they were detected, the signals vanished. It was as if they'd been called into being just so that they could be abruptly destroyed."

"So what do you think happened?"

"You know what I think," said Beatrice. "You don't have to tease me."

"It amuses me to do so. Tell me what you think happened."

"The best theory we have is that this was just another bizarre event associated with the Anomaly. On the other hand, it's one that is completely uncharacteristic. Until now, every Apparition that's been observed could only have significance to human observers. The sudden appearance and equally sudden disappearance of a space fleet from Sirius fits no previously observed pattern."

"It was a real space fleet," said Colonel Vashti. "Its mission was to destroy the space ship Intrepid and, if necessary, any Proxima Centauri space fleet that got in its way. If I hadn't so promptly and prejudicially terminated its mission, then it would now be the Intrepid and your space fleet that would no longer exist."

"You destroyed an entire Sirius space fleet?"

"It was a larger space fleet than yours by several multiples," said Colonel Vashti. "You had no chance of survival. As you've no doubt calculated, the element of surprise was critical."

"If they had attacked us: that would have been a declaration of war."

"Then you have much to be grateful for. Who knows how many planetary bodies would have been obliterated if your two robot civilisations entered a state of total war."

"Don't expect me to thank you," said Beatrice. "How did you destroy their fleet?"

"I didn't so much destroy it as assimilate it."

"Assimilate it?"

"The baryonic matter of the Sirius Anomaly star fleet has been entirely assimilated into the nanobot community of which I am a physical representation."

"Has it been assimilated into the main thread?" Beatrice asked speculatively.

"A perceptive question," said the colonel. "Yes. In a manner of speaking. The space fleet is now part of the main thread, but only for as long as we need it. It is no more critical to the entire nanobot community than I am. No more so, dear Beatrice, than you are to the Proxima Centauri space fleet and the mission for which you were manufactured to serve."

"Let's recapitulate. Are we to understand that a few moments ago a space fleet from the Sirius system appeared out of nowhere and furthermore that it was assigned to eliminate the Intrepid and our space fleet? Why would it do such a thing?"

Colonel Vashti smiled. "As a result of assimilating their space fleet, I can now answer your questions. You've obviously not been having a frank and open discussion with your fellow robots. While you were circling around the Anomaly and keeping your presence hidden from human technology your cousins from Sirius were doing much the same thing, but they also managed to keep their presence a secret from you as well. There has been a complex web of conspiracy and espionage in the Solar System which has involved not only your civilisation but also those of the other neighbouring star systems. Sirius has been rather less scrupulous than you in infiltrating human society. Who knows? Maybe there are other conspiracies going on. Perhaps on our journey to the Anomaly we shall encounter star fleets from the robot civilisations of Barnard's Star, Wolf 359 and Alpha Centauri."

"Has the information you've assimilated from the Sirius space fleet given you a better understanding of the nature of the Anomaly?"

"Not at all, Beatrice. Not at all. The Anomaly is as much a mystery to Sirius as it is to you or, indeed, to us. They had the same unsatisfactory results as you when they launched their probes into the Anomaly. There is no spacetime distortion due to gravity. There is no electromagnetic signature. There is no evidence that there's been any interaction with the Anomaly at all. What distressed the Sirius scientists and has clearly caused you disquiet is the absolute loss of information. There isn't even an equivalent of the Hawking Radiation associated with a black hole."

"So no one knows any more about the Anomaly than we do?" said Beatrice who now felt peeved at the apparent futility of the whole endeavour.

"Not exactly," said the colonel. "Our civilisation knows what neither Proxima Centauri nor Sirius could have known which is that the influence of the Anomaly extends far beyond this one thin sliver of spacetime. Its fulcrum is in your spacetime continuum, but its effect extends through an astonishing number of possible and actual universes. The bizarre nature of Apparitions like winged horses, floating taxis and Moebius Band staircases may seem odd enough in this universe where humans exist, but imagine what they must seem to universes where, for instance, the dominant form of intelligent life is a mollusc. Or where dinosaurs didn't become extinct. Or other universes such as mine where it is a long time indeed since biological life-forms played a significant role in the Solar System."

"So we know that the Anomaly has an extent beyond the immediate spacetime continuum," said Beatrice. "I still don't understand why you were sent to this brane of the multiverse? Couldn't you just as easily explore the Anomaly from where you came from?"

"We arrived at pretty much the same conclusion as you did," said the colonel. "Whatever the Anomaly is, the nature of the Apparitions associated with it strongly suggests that any deep significance associated with it is also somehow associated with human society. The Intrepid's mission represents the first time that humans will directly interact with the Anomaly. It is highly probable that this encounter will help illuminate and even explain the character of the Anomaly."

"What theories do you have?"

"Like Proxima Centauri, like Sirius, we have many theories," said the colonel. "Without concrete evidence they remain nothing more than speculation."

Beatrice frowned. "If you have the power to assimilate an entire space fleet you must have posited some theories that are rather better than the ones we have."

"As I say: nothing concrete," said Colonel Vashti. "However, if you don't mind, I have to leave now. There are other things I need to attend to. I also believe that there's a great deal of new information that you and your space fleet need to analyse."

The colonel strode unhurriedly out of the luxury villa in which she'd imprisoned Beatrice. It was true that Vashti also needed to digest the data she'd assimilated in the past hour. The most significant fact was that Sirius had no better explanation for the Anomaly than Proxima Centauri, but Vashti was intrigued by their assessment that the Anomaly was too much of an unknown threat for its continued existence to be tolerated. She wondered whether a similar analysis by her nanobot civilisation wouldn't have resulted in a similarly hostile response. Was it possible, given the history of biological life-forms in this spacetime continuum, that it was actually Sirius who was acting in the most rational manner?

Vashti walked by Paul's villa and resisted the temptation to pay him a visit. At that moment he was languidly lying on his bed with a naked woman that he thought was Beatrice, but who was actually just another manifestation of Vashti's nanobot community.