Tides of Light by Gregory Benford

going?”
    “Toward that station. Against our will.”

EIGHT
    Deep bass moans ran the length of
Argo
, like the songs of great swollen beasts.
    The dust outside hummed and rubbed against the life-zone bubbles as the ship decelerated. It was as though the thin flotsam
     of the Galactic Center, spiraling in toward the shrouded star ahead, played the
Argo
like a great taut instrument. Melodies of red lightning danced about the burnished bow.
    Killeen watched the approach of the station. He stood with his back to the assembling crew and peered through the forward
     port. Their trajectory ahead was clear.
Argo
was coming down to fly parallel to the station’s great circular plain, skimmed along it by unseen forces. Shibo could do
     nothing with
Argo’
s helm.
    He allowed himself a smile of self-derision. His proud show of decisiveness had come to nothing. Jocelyn’s cagey—and insubordinate—egging
     on of the crew, and her public disagreement, had angered him. She had taken advantage of the Family context to attack his
     piloting decisions. Now, ironically, her whetting of appetites for action served his purposes.
    He had to rouse the crew for an assault that promised little success. They were going in against unknown opponents, across
     a mechtech terrain they had never seen the likes ofbefore. Hard-learned Family tactics would mean nothing here—perhaps worse than nothing, for they might well be exactly the
     wrong thing to do.
    The swelling disk below revealed its silvery intricacies as he watched. At their present speed, blunted somehow by the station
     as they approached, it would take over an hour to reach the central tower. If that was their destination, he had time to carry
     out the ruse he had planned. If not, there was a surprise squad set at a spot mechs would probably not anticipate.
    Killeen wore his full ceremonial tunic of blue and gold over his gray coverall, and a full belt of tools and weapons beneath
     that. He would waste no time changing if events interrupted the ceremony. Battle squads were poised at every small lock of
     the ship, ready to pour forth on signal. The remaining crew, gathered here, were for effect. Killeen had no way of knowing
     if whatever ran the station had already planted bugs on the hull, listeners powerful enough to pick up conversation. But he
     had to allow that this might be true, and use it against the enemy if he could.
    Ahead, the scintillant, perfectly circular disk filled half the sky. Phosphorescent waves spiraled inward on the disk, their
     troughs brimming silver, their peaks moving rims of gold. The luminescence hovered like a fog over the actual metal-work of
     the disk. Arcs formed at the disk’s rim, where they washed and fretted in random rivulets.
    Somehow this chaos resolved itself into distinct waves which grew and glowed with each undulation, oozing inward to join a
     whirlpool that twisted with majestic deliberation toward the towering spike at the disk center. That bristly central axis
     harvested the inward-racing waves in a spray of rainbow glory as they hammered against its ribbed base.
    Jutting above and below the disk, the light-encrusted central tower tapered away, many kilometers long. Web antennaebristled along it. One end of the tower poked into a vapor of forking flux that burned steadily, silent and ivory against
     the backdrop of a passing dustcloud. The other ended in a burnished stub.
    The waves seemed to be drawing
Argo
down in a long, scalloping glide across the circular plain. Bulkheads crackled and the deck rippled in sluggish, muscular
     grace, like something roused from sleep. Killeen fretted about how much of such flexing the ship could take.
    Shibo said to him quietly, so the gathering Family behind them could not hear, “Lie doggo?”
    “A little longer. Looks like whatever’s bringing us in is taking no other precautions.”
    “Maybe it thinks we’re a mech ship?”
    “Hope so.” Killeen watched luminous discharges warp and