Chapter 39: New God

Cass found herself back in her Armor, in the fortress at the heart of Francisco-1. Her first impression was relief: the mental weight of the After’s interfaces had gone silent, and the Armor’s support AIs were now handling her unconscious routines. The psychic song of the world once again radiated softly toward her. She needed sleep, but had the energy and desire to celebrate her round trip to the After with an energy bar from the living quarters of the Sanctum.

The Dark Unit opened in curls of water vapor, a red light indicating that the antimatter charge needed replacing. The Wau walked slowly, almost clumsily, across the main platform. AIs alerted her: a red alert. As if not fully awake, she consulted them with a mix of deep seriousness and unsettling detachment: two Endymions had allegedly crashed on Earth. What? There was talk of an attack on Origin. She forgot her fatigue for a moment and made her way toward the Halcyon with a stumbling step-but darkness fell on her fortress, like an ink stain in a glass of water. She found herself in total darkness and sensed a psychic force unlike any other: an Everest that reduced hers to a breeze. She crouched, ready to leap at the creature prowling around her, whose strength rivaled that of the Transients.

- “So here you are, little Wau,” murmured the shadow, before a vast, pitch-black clawed hand seized her and carried her off into quantum void.

The Wau rematerialized in that same darkness, but in a different place, one she sensed was larger. She was held kneeling, arms to the ground, by a colossal force. There were indeed massive metal chains at the ends of her arms, but they were decorative: the force was invisible and irresistible.

The Wau pulled. Moderate force, 800 kilonewtons-the power of a locomotive. She couldn’t move. Cass exhaled. And to think she was already exhausted. This was the worst timing. Amplified force: 50 meganewtons-the thrust of a fusion-powered spacecraft capable of interstellar flight. The Hyperchalque hummed and groaned, but did not move. She ramped up to the high limit: 1 giganewton. The Wau pulled with the equivalent of a million tons. Billions of nanomechanisms in the armor multiplied their output, unleashing a force only used in celestial mechanics-and still the chains held. What was happening? Had the balance of planets been altered? Was it a mental illusion? What if Cass had been in Pax all along?

A man appeared before her. She didn’t know him. The AIs in her armor analyzed him and identified him as Garen Antor, but were then abruptly severed from the EV network, leaving her with only his birth date-over 150 years ago. He didn’t look 150, more like 40. He was tall and broad, naked, and as human in his eyes as in his demeanor. He challenged the Wau with a tilt of his chin, waiting for her to speak.

Wanting to defuse a confrontation, the Wau spoke:

- “These restraints are quite unnecessary. I mean you no harm, Garen Antor.”

- “They’re here to test you.”

His voice was warm. He was nothing like a human possessed by a Xeno or a Empty-Eye.

- “Did you give it your best?”

- “More or less. I can push further, but I’m not sure the Armor’s under warranty.”

- “I appreciate your humor, Wau. You see, I spent much of my previous life studying the Wau. All I had were military AI analyses, and I progressed through hypotheses. So you can imagine, having you within reach is a long-held dream come true.”

A titanic psychic wave crashed over the Wau, who was already badly weakened. But inside the armor, Cass noticed that while the psychic power was vast-so vast as to defy measurement-it was raw. Garen, whoever he was, had never been trained. The Wau became a draft before the mountain. Garen was probing her, body and soul ... except for certain hidden corners-mental caches where the real secrets were stored. Cass layered mental boxes for all sensitive subjects and improvised false information as needed. And, supreme reversal of power, the strong weakened before the weak: she could brush against his sensitivity and extract information.

- “A woman? I never would’ve guessed. I thought you were a melted brain in a suit of armor ... I feel like I have access to all your secrets and yet I’m getting nothing. Maybe we all made a mountain out of a gang of guys in fancy armor.”

- “You know what they say: first impressions matter.”

- “Oh, I’ve certainly taken that lesson to heart. How many of you are there, Wau?”

- “I’m not hiding anything when I say: I have no idea.”

- “I believe you. Fair enough. You’re a Psi of major strength, an Alpha Empty-Eye. And this body, biologically modified. Clearly, we were on the wrong path. That will be corrected. Even if the era of the Wau is over, you know?”

- “You mean it’ll be replaced by you?”

- “Temporarily. I have a question, Wau. You fight for humanity’s freedom, is that right?”

- “On the days we manage to, yes. I’ll admit, I’m going through a dry spell lately.”

- “You’re funny.”

The Wau felt powerful emotions radiating from Garen. This man had clearly been alone for a long time, and the warmth of humor moved him to the point of tears-tears he then repressed violently, giving rise to hatred and disgust toward himself and toward everyone. There was guilt, too, for this weakness, and then guilt for many recent deaths he believed to be his fault. That guilt became inner panic, until another voice within him-calm and repressive-declared that all of this was the fault of the Transients, and that his goal was just. A surge of honor and pride, of righteousness, washed over all the negative emotions, and a new power flowed into him, one that bordered on the sensual and even the sexual. At last, he said:

- “I like you. But I will kill you.”

- “That was your question?” asked the Wau.

Garen felt a fury unlike any he’d known in the face of the Wau’s calm. He let none of it show and held himself back from striking her dead.

- “Yes. But I have another. Have you ever thought that the Wau, like the Transients, exert control over humanity-and therefore rob it of freedom?”

- “Of course. But there is a difference between the Transients and the Wau: we’re human. And you?”

Garen smiled and turned around. The shadow was swept away like dust in the wind, and the Wau-without changing posture-found herself at the base of the great throne atop the Origin tower. She understood her location instantly and pieced together the events previously shared by the AIs.