Page 60 of The Space Traveller's Lover
“Very well. You can stay. We need to keep all our options open, just in case,” General Stewart concludes, walking away without acknowledging Sam’s enthusiasm.
The generals gather around the tracking screens as they check every submarine leaving their bases. Unchallenged, the submarines’ long metallic bodies pierce through the dense, deep waters, assembling into an ever-growing formation while approaching their target from all directions on their inexorable advance.
CHAPTER 25
THE CENTRAL PROCESSOR
Now I’m sending my duplicate to the ARA headquarters.
Rothwen takes Shaillah towards the back of the UniverseScope viewing platform, through the dimly lit corridor leading to the central processor, the very heart of their entire array of high-powered machinery.
They walk up to the antechamber’s shielding grey mist, its bubbling edges dazzling with the steady pulses of rainbow-like light streaks, constantly merging and then breaking apart, scrambling into a radiant multicoloured meshwork.
The antechamber … never ceases to amaze me!Shaillah thinks as they enter the hazy fog, their bodies distorting the iridescent wispy lines as they advance. Then they begin gently falling through the ever-thinning cloud.
As they land in front of the crystalline medium of the inner chamber, she gasps in admiration. “Ah! It is so orderly—so perfect!” She contemplates the infinite lattice of kaleidoscopic trails of virtual particles, perfectly aligned in a three-dimensional matrix and vibrating through the all-pervading plasma condensate.
The sprawling inner chamber medium surrounds and insulates the antimatter core and its widespread web of interconnected filaments, powering the entire Rom-Ghenshar compound. The swarming matrix of entangled virtual particles processes all the data and executes allquantum calculations for their UniverseScope platform, brain network, and laboratory units.
“I wanted to show you something.” Rothwen’s pressing voice breaks up her contemplation as the rotating sphere of planet Earth appears by her side. The bulky globe expands until matching her height, its surface teeming in a web of flashing orange dots.
“The orange markers are invasion zones—happening now,” Rothwen points out.
“First, I want to see my home town. What is happening there?”
“We have started rebuilding the island and others around it. We have kept the humans from leaving their safe shelters,” Rothwen starts explaining in a reassuring tone.
“Is everybody okay?” Her eyes dart from place to place as the barren landscape starts to unfold before her.
“Here, zoom in by yourself. Focus your thoughts on your island,” Rothwen tells her while the globe rotates and tilts onto her chosen coordinates.
Astonished, she stares at the different sites appearing on the expanding island view. One by one, she dismays at the desolate images as they come into focus in increasing detail. Even the sturdy steel bridge from the tuna farm has disappeared, and there is no sign of the high steel control tower either. And to her utter shock, she finds a pile of rubbish where her family farmhouse used to stand.
It is all in the past, and I should feel nothing for it, she thinks, trying in vain to disregard her distress. But she can’t help reaching out and touching the glimmering surface, even if her fiddling fingers only get to distort the harsh landscape.
“We’re rebuilding the island and the whole archipelago, Shaillah. It’ll be one of our main land bases on this planet,” Rothwen explains, trying to take Shaillah out of her sombre mood.
But she keeps watching the grim scenes in silence as she struggles with her mixed confounded feelings. All the while, as she sees the islanders hiding in the relative safety of their shelters, she can’t stop thinking about how she can help them.
Even though she knew about the invasion, the reconstruction, even if she thought she was ready to withstand the upheaval, she finds herself feeling this immense distress that she can’t shake off.
“Now, we have much to do. The humans are still trying to fight a losing battle,” Rothwen warns, attempting to get her attention. “They have sent these little toys they call submarines to one of our undersea exits, planning to stop our robots. My patience has a limit. But I’m prepared to consider avoiding a catastrophe.”
“What are they planning?” Shaillah finally responds as if she has suddenly started to listen to him.
“Let me show you.”
He shifts the image towards LA, showing the bottom of the ocean by the Pacific West Coast; the striking display of a large fleet of submarines comes into sharp focus. She surveys the submarine’s slim metallic bodies waiting in ambush along the serpentine trench, the blue and red colours of the ARA’s starry flag gleaming through the translucent waters.
“It is not a staged illusion. It’s real—happening now.” Rothwen speaks over her shoulders, “I let them see one of the trenches from where we deploy our robots, and the first thing they do is to prepare an attack.
“They are waiting for something to show up to fire their weapons,” Rothwen continues in a derisive tone. “Unfortunately for them, it’s the turn of our soldier robots to come out. If the humans were to fire their weapons, they would annihilate their entire fleet, as their useless arsenal would recoil off the robots’ lethal bouncing shields.
“But that would be the least of the damage. The sudden release of energy from our shields will provoke a colossal explosion, ripping off through the mantle; melting the rocks; and causing major tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. The disturbed shield’s outer layers will continue expanding and contracting, causing more explosions and thick clouds of vaporized material and debris that will rise from under the water and into the atmosphere.”
Shaillah looks up at Rothwen, speechless, her distress showing she fully understands the consequences of his dire warning but also that, deep inside, she feels the urge to do something about it. She nods her head in a reflective mood for a second. Then she asks him, “We can stop them, Rothwen. We can control and change their minds.”
“And when do we stop? Shall we continue changing their minds until we finish the reconstruction?” Rothwen replies dismissively. “Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me what they do. Besides, if they decide to attack, it will be far easier for us. And they will have learned their lesson. Or shall I obliterate their minds right now so they can’t even reason?”
