Pax Multi Pt. 06

Bosch brought his pistol around and Listens Deeply had enough moment to twitch his blowhole before the stuttering pulse of laser light hit him -- a single short pulse to burn deep, then a second, faster strobe that struck through the hole burned into his skull. The combined blasts, timed to prevent the aerosolized blood from acting as ablative armor, flickered past so quickly that, to Bosch, it was a single flash, then pop as the dolphin's skull exploded from the inside out under the pressure of his boiling blood. The long gray body twitched, then stumbled, then collapsed, the signals from his nerve harness to his mechanical legs getting confused by the spasmodic twitching of what little nerve tissue wasn't completely disrupted by a wave of red steam.

The Liutenant gaped at Bosch, who holstered his pistol. "Toss it in the corner -- pack everything up." He nodded. "Begin to pulse the data back to Mars on the lighthugger's com laser. Maximum encryption." He frowned. "I want our tower of babel finished before we're halfway home."

He stepped over to the console that controlled the prototype and flicked on the speaker.

"P L E A S E... L E T ... M E...D I E..." the warbling, modulated voice of Echo-3 came from the speaker.

"Don't worry," Bosch murmured. "I am told cryogenics...is a great deal like death..."

"N...O..."

Bosch tapped the button to begin the freezing process.

***

"Is it safe?"

"Why would it not be safe?"

Amy sighed, then rubbed her temples. "Okay, Godfucker. What happens when you hit 90% C?"

"...you go really fast?" GF's brow furrowed. "And time gets wonky."

Lou watched the two AnComs, frowning, while he worked to set up the disassembles. By long Benoit tradition, the servitors had been recycled first, leaving the task to any living Benoits to take down their manor house. The disassemblers were long strips of preloaded nanomachines, simple ones that fit into the Neopolitan ethos, and they required a careful set up. You needed to arrange them so that the swarms of nanorobots they released wouldn't run into each other and begin to disassemble one another, while still making sure that they still got everything that wouldn't disassemble itself over time.

"My husband is very industrious," Bea said, cheerfully. Her moth body was seated upon the bed.

"He's very weird," Amy said, grinning. "This is labor for labor's sake -- eccentric in the extreme."

"Working has value," Lou murmured. "Awareness of what it takes to do things is an important thing to remember." He used his thumb to flatten the strip down against the edge of the wall, frowning as he eyeball the math, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. "But I'm afraid, I have to echo GF here: Why wouldn't it be safe?"

Amy sighed. "Okay. Beatrice..." She pointed at her. "Is a quantum entangled communication network sustaining a brain. All the different bioforms she's in are maintaining and continuing her thought-patterns, in the same way our brains do, just...distributed." She nods. "Now. What happens if a chunk of your brain -- even a small chunk of your brain -- begins to function erratically. Say, if a chunk of it was processing one second for every three seconds that passed in the rest of the brain?"

There was a long, long pause.

Lou looked at Bea.

Bea frowned.

"Y-You've gone...near light, right?" he asked.

Bea shook her head. "No. My ships never went faster than one tenth the speed of light. That, in fact, is one of the major reasons why I had such a hard time doing battle with you. You were always faster. That is why I began to study ways to try and move faster than the speed of light, which produced..." She made a face. "Proxima."

"How did that happen?" GF asked.

"I do not know," Bea said, shrugging. "I created a bioform that I believed could travel faster than the speed of light. It entered into the star, and then the star destroyed itself."

Lou blinked, then frowned. "Amy, access our records: Are there any Shavanti in the Alpha Centauri tinary?"

Amy closed her eyes, put her fingers to her temples. "The sum collected total of human knowledge says...yes!" she said, cheerfully. "We've detected three distinct Shavanti communication signals."

"I don't think that Bea did anything to Proxima," Lou said, slowly.

"Are you saying the Shavanti destroyed Proxima?" GF asked.

"I mean, they did demand that we never try faster than light travel," Lou said, nodding. "They said that if we did, that they'd destroy us -- and we were already fighting a war on one front." He bit his lip, then shuddered. "Imagine if what happened to Proxima happened to...SOL..."

GF hissed. "Fuckery Christing shit, no! No, I will not imagine that."

Bea blinked a few times. "This explains a great deal of early communications that I found baffling!" she said, cheerfully. "The mystery has been resolved!"

"Well...what's the worst thing that happens?" GF asked.

"Her brain breaks and she dies," Amy said.

"...that's not okay!" GF exclaimed.

Beatrice frowned. "I do not think my brain is that fragile," she said.

"A human brain can be killed by being bumped hard enough," Amy said, frowning. "We should have some kind of test or plan or something."

"Yeah, what test or plan can we use that would work without putting her at risk?" Lou asked, stepping over and placing his hand protectively on his wife's shoulder.

"You two had sex last night, right?" Amy asked.

"W-What!?" Lou exclaimed.

"Yes, vigorously!" Beatrice said, cheerfully.

"And yet, we didn't notice, and had to ask," Amy said, nodding.

"To be fair, that's because we were fucking too," GF muttered.

"Shush," Amy said, waving her hand. "We didn't notice because your bugs kept on working and doing what they were doing. How? Did you make a buffer between yourself and them?"

"Yes!" Beatrice said, cheerfully. "Oh! I see your idea, yes, I just need to create a similar arrangement of buffer...ah yes! I know precisely how to do it! I will breed bioforms that think three times faster than I normally do, and then route my thoughts on the ship through them, so that they will be upshifted to match the thoughts of the rest of my intelligence. That will mean I'll have to have more bioforms on the ship..." She rubbed her chin. "But...that is all for the best, since it will give me something to tinker with while...Lou is..." Her antennas drooped. "Asleep."

Lou blushed. "About that..." He coughed. "Beatrice." He stood up a bit taller. "I shall not."

Bea turned to face him, her brow furrowing. "Excuse me?"

"I said that I shall not," Lou said, again, trying to sound as serious as he could. "I shall not go into cryogenic storage." He took her hand, squeezing. "You once said that it would be a million eternities-"

"One million, seven hundred and eight thousand, two hundred eternities, approximately," Bea murmured, squeezing his hand with all four of hers.

"Yes," Lou said, smiling. "All of them alone. But you will never be alone again, Beatrice. For as long as I live."

Bea's eyes glimmered. Then she threw her arms around him, squeezing him tightly. Then her legs scissored around his waist as he found himself supporting her entire body -- easy, considering the weight. Less hard, considering how fiercely her wings her beating in her excitement, and even less easy considering how Amy and GF were right there, laughing as Beatrice kissed his face, his nose, his lips, his forehead, his neck, all of him. Her hands caressed him and she whispered. "Love love love love you you you you you!" Her antennas were twitching so excitedly that they batted at his head.

Lou laughed, softly. "H-Honey, the AnComs are right there."

"Don't stop on my account," GF said, cheerfully.

The door opened and Beatrice's wasp body stepped in, then grabbed both of the AnComs by the ears, then dragged them out.

"...I love you too, you know," Lou said, grinning.

"Make love to me vigorously!" Bea purred.

A knocking at the door interrupted Lou before he could agree to that, and he managed, just barely, to disentangle himself from Beatrice before the door opened and his mother entered. She smiled as she did so, then frowned as she saw that only half of the disassemblers had been deployed. "Lou, we have a schedule to keep," she said -- which they did, even if it felt faintly delusional when contrasted against the vast sweep of time and space ahead of them. Lou gulped, then blinked as Beatrice piped up.

"Lou is not going into cryogenic storage!" she said. "He is going to remain awake for the entire voyage."

Mother gaped at Lou. "You what?"

"I...was going to broach that slightly more delicately, Beatrice," he said.

Beatrice's antennas twitched down. "Oh. Right. I apologize, Lou, I forgot t-that you have to go, physically, to locations and communicate with people other than me..."

Lou sighed. "Mother, Beatrice cannot go into cryogenic storage -- for her, it will be years of subjective time before she can see me again. Years alone." He drew himself up a bit taller. "What husband would leave his wife alone for such a time?"

Mother looked aside -- and Lou immediately felt like a heel. And a liar. His mother had spent years apart from Father during the Bug War. The years had been shortened by trips into the family cryocrypts, but there was a limit to what even that could do to take the sting out of separation. And there was the deeper lie, the wound, the hurt that he had yet to even touch, simply because he had no idea how to begin to broach it.

Father had dishonored himself, with an AnCom woman. The fact that Amy had ceased even talking to Father save for when she absolutely had to didn't change that fact. And yet...if he brought it out, it would cause a rift between his mother and his father. And yet, if he didn't, then what was his honor even worth?

Mother sighed. "Sometimes, the affairs of state require one to make sacrifices," she said, nodding slightly. "But...a year is not so long as all that. And it will give you more time to get to know one another."

Lou breathed slowly out. "I'm glad. There will need to be some modifications made to the lighthugger..." he said. "And we...will need to determine how to best protect Beatrice and myself from the stabdrive..." He frowned.

In the end, the solution proved incredibly simple: When they told Father the idea, he chuckled. "Oh, that's simple: We simply burn at one gravity for the entire trip, rather than stabbing and then cruising. Stabbing is, theoretically, more efficient in terms of reaction mass, but we can top off the tanks with matter from this system..." He shook his head. "It's not trouble, no trouble at all. And...I'm proud of you, son."

Lou felt a twinge in his chest. Father stood from where he had been placing the disassembler. "It is, after all, what a husband should do, if he can. To sacrifice for his loved one."

Lou clenched his jaw.

Maybe...it was the fact that he was married now, and the idea of causing pain or dishonor to Beatrice was as violently wrenching as the idea of losing his own arm. The hypothetical horror he had about cheating on a loved one had become practical, and it had made his father's crime all the more offensive to him now. And maybe, part of it had been hanging out with irreverent, uncontrolled, wild and free AnComs for so long.

But whatever the reason, Lou found that repeating the Neopolitan mantras about how they used the totality of human experience, that hypocrisy was just another tool in the vast collection of abilities, skills and weapons that humanity had collected in its long, long history...was not enough.

"Ah, so, is that why you fucked Amy?" Lou snapped.

Silence hung in the room. Beatrice, who was standing near the door, blinked, her antennas twitching curiously, while Mother and Father exchanged a look.

"Of course he did," Mother said, her brow furrowing. "She's a nubile, attractive gynoid without morals. Why wouldn't he?"

Lou blinked as Father chuckled, then stood. "I mean, it's not as if mother doesn't have her stable," he said, nodding. "You have beamed ahead to make sure that any of your hands have been reassigned to other areas?"

"Oh, I traded them off to the Machi and the Molyneaux before I even left, I'm sure that Lady Dresin is already enjoying the fellow with-" Mother started, smiling.

"I beg...your pardon?" Lou stammered, his eyes widening as he looked from his Mother to his Father. His mouth opened, then closed again, then opened. "I...I beg your pardon?"

Father frowned, slightly. "Louis, you are a Neopolitan prince -- do you not know the maxims? Hypocrisy is-"

"It's one thing to do something dishonorable to win in the field of battle!" Lou snapped, his face growing hot, his voice getting higher pitched. "It's another thing entirely to preach, to your entire interstellar kingdom, about chastity and abstinence and control, then behind closed doors, to engage in these...games!" He threw up his hands, furiously. "I-"

"You enjoy relaxing -- partying, watching films, reading books, with AnComs!" Father exclaimed. "Your friend is named Godfucker for goodness sake, and he and Amy have been carrying on and they're not married!"

"It's not about the sex, you blackguard!" Lou shouted. "It is about the lies! The deception! The...the...dishonor of it!" He clenched his hands. "The Kingdom is about taking the finest parts of humanity and exemplifying it -- not just about wearing fancy surcoats and having castles!" He shook his head, trembling with rage. "I...I...I must...I must pack!" He turned and he stormed towards the door, snatching Beatrice's hand up and stomping towards the door.

"Louis!" Father shouted -- but Louis slammed the door in his face.

***

Lou sat upon a small hill, watching as the country manor that he had lived in dissolving away in a swirling mass of gray goo. The dome was primed with AnCom style disassembly swarms. The instant the last shuttle left, the whole place would be swept and returned to the ecology that had been here when they had arrived. Charon would barely notice humanity's second departure, a sharp distinction from the cataclysmic detonations that had scoured humanity away previously.

Lou felt intensely desolate at the thought. Beatrice leaned against him, six hands caressing him. "I am sorry your family are blackguards..." She said, gently, speaking in unison as he closed his eyes and let himself lean into her two bodies.

"It's okay..." Lou said. "Let us focus on what is positive..." He smiled. "The Procyon embryo is loaded on the lighthugger. The Plurality ambassador never even woke up -- he'll be reformed back in SOL, with experts, which will make things easier. And the lighhugger is full of all those cortical stacks. You're going to be returning to SOL with six hundred thousand people thought lost." He smiled. "That is all good."

"Yes. And yet...your parents remain blackguards," she said, sighing slowly.

"And yet," Lou said, then shook his head.

"And-" Bea stopped. "Nevermind!"

Lou opened his eyes, frowning. Both of Bea's bodies were looking quite discomforted.

"What?" Lou asked.

"N-Nothing," Beatrice said, blushing.

"...is everything going well with transporting your bioforms to the lighthugger?" he asked -- Beatrice had been busy packing up and cleaning herself off the world as well. Lou had not wanted to watch, but he could imagine the sight of the bioforms tossing themselves into the recycling pits, the crystalline lattices being torn down. He didn't want to see that. He preferred to instead focus upon his wife's bodies, who were both so very beautiful. They were going to be riding up in a normal shuttle, rather than a cargo lighter.

"Y-Yes, everything is fine!" The wasp body said, standing up and stretching. "I must simply stretch and go and go and...and investigate...a...thing! That has happened. And is fine."

Lou sprang to his feet. "Is something the matter?" He looked from Bea to Bea -- but before he could get any more information from them, GF came jogging up, smiling cheerfully.

"Hey, you two ready to get to the shuttle?"

"No," Lou said.

"Yes!" the two Bea bodies said. "I mean, you can take Lou, and I can catch up." Her moth form nodded hurriedly.

"Okay, what is going on?" Lou asked, frowning.

"Nothing!" Her wasp form said. "There is nothing at all in the breeding caves that needs our attention."

Lou pursed his lips. "GF, can you do me a favor and ensure that my wife doesn't prevent me from investigating this...nothing?" he asked, frowning at GF, who snorted and then put his hands upon the two bodies, who sagged in defeat.

"W-We just wanted it to be a surprise," Bea muttered, quietly.

Lou grinned, slowly. He was beginning to think that this was nothing much to worry about -- but seeing Beatrice squirm was ever so amusing. He stepped close to her wasp-body, leaning in close, whispering. "Would it happen to be a new bioform?"

"No! That is definitely not it!" she said, nodding, her wasp-body nodding as well, even more forcefully.

Lou was able to requisition a skimmer cycle easily enough. The ground effect vehicle whisked along the vast, flat plains of Charon as he carefully skirted around the thicker forests, not wanting to try and recreate any harrowing sci-fi chases he had seen during the AnCom's movie nights. In the end, he came to where Beatrice's little colony had been set up. The entire place had been deconstructed with the same orderly nature that he had seen in the human settlement -- it barely looked recognizable. But the narrow canyon that she had used to gestate and breed bioforms remained. Lou swung himself off his skimmer cycle, adjusted his face mask to make sure it was secure, then started towards the cave, humming cheerfully.

He found that there were no bioforms left. Even the glow-worms had been recycled. But still, he followed the very same passage that he had taken to find her moth form, back in the first days of their marriage. His light shone down upon the chamber -- and he swung it around, slowly, taking his time. Enjoying this.

It was amazing what a few weeks of married life would do to a man's perception of the world around him.

The light shone on a large gestation pod that had been split open.

It shone upon a long, glistening strand of white material that clung to the ground like a rope.

It shone upon a pair of narrow, black legs, ending in dainty feet, with small chiten plates that covered the shin to the knee joint, then from the knee joint to the thigh. Segmented thighs connected to a curvy, cushy black belly, which led to a pair of breast-plates that were segmented away from the rest of the body. And there were six arms -- fanning out from the sides of her body, three on each side, with a cute, delicate face that looked delightfully kissable, despite the mandibles, the fangs, and the eight eyes -- fanned out in patterns of four -- across her forehead. They blinked in a rippling pattern as Lou saw that, somehow, his wife had managed to stick herself to the wall with thick webbing strands, wrapped around her wrists, her waist, her belly, her hips, and one of her ankles.

She squirmed...

"It's not funny!" she exclaimed. "Stop laughing!" She paused. "Y-You brought a knife, right?"