Cenotaxis by Sean Williams

you, I suppose."
    "The two are inseparable."
    "I see. So what other end do you envisage than me crushing your resistance and making the Earth my own?"
    "Your role in this drama is less important than you imagine."
    "You're going to tell me that I'm acting in accordance with God's will, whether I want to or not." Before I could shake my head, he ploughed on, "Were I to retreat to orbit and sterilize the surface of this pain-in-the-arse planet, that would obviously be what God wanted."
    There was no point arguing with his primitive misconceptions, or his sarcasm. "You won't do that."
    "No." He moved in closer, still circling, so close we almost brushed against each other. "But the temptation is very real. You have to understand that. I've taken such measures before, in the best interests of the galaxy. I'm not going to let one tiny world stand in my way."
    "Earth is more than just a world. It's an idea. It's the birthplace of God."
    I would have told him more, perhaps, but his patience had run out. "Enough about God! I've been running that scam myself for longer than I care to remember. There's no more fervent atheist than a prophet who doesn't believe in himself."
    He backed off, snapping his fingers at the Freers. "Take him away. I'll work out what to do with him later."
    The scarred soldier leaned in as I was manhandled through the door. "You'll soon be broken down," he said, "like all the rest."
    I stared resolutely at the long, metal corridor ahead.
     
    Later, the blonde woman came to see me.
    "My name is Emlee Copas," she said, standing comfortably on the other side of the clear plastic pane separating me from freedom, dressed in a loose blue shipsuit bearing no visible markings of rank or honor. "Imre's agreed to let me talk to you because I'm a Prime too. So's Render, who you spoke to earlier. He's an Old-Timer, in fact, with a greater claim on this planet than either you or Imre will ever have. I find that ironic, don't you?"
    I stared at her, holding the silence until it became uncomfortable.
    "There's actually something I want to ask you," she went on. "The frag situation fascinates us. We've only seen a handful of planets populated by nothing but frags, and they've always been something special. We've dissected a couple of yours who were killed in battle and discovered that they, like the frags of every other Fort in the galaxy, were connected by Q loop technology, the same thing targeted by the Slow Wave. So whatever was going on here, it was stopped dead by the same thing that killed the Continuum. What was going on here, Jasper? Was the whole population of the planet linked into the mind of a single Fort?"
    This was my first attempt to explain. "Let me tell you something, Emlee Copas. There's no difference between you and my followers. We're all part of a greater whole. By that I don't mean the galactic civilization you belong to—although I'm sure your leader has you firmly convinced that this is indeed the whole of human experience—but the inner whole, aspirations that speak to more than just territory and possessions."
    "I have a brain of my own," she said with a scowl. "I make up my own mind."
    "Then hear what I have to say. Civilization is important; don't get me wrong on that point. We wouldn't be here now but for that step up the ladder. But it's only one step of many, and you can see how easy it is to trip up, now your Forts are gone.
    "Continuity and synchrony are the ties that hold any civilization together, for many diverse and widely separate layers must work at different rates to achieve the greatest good, sometimes without even knowing it. Take away those ties, and the fabric unravels.
    "At the galactic level, across hundreds and thousands of years, those ties are stretched to their breaking points. If humanity is to evolve any further, it must find new ways to connect those far-flung parts."
    "What kind of ties are you talking about, Jasper? Better communications? FTL travel? Is that what you