oldest and most loyal subject.
‘Durell, I have a question. A question based on, shall we say, an unreliable source.’ Durell nodded for Mace to continue, and the compact Nex’s finger lifted to rest gently against his narrow lips before he went on. ‘There is talk. Of a warhead—a super-weapon designed and built by Spiral when it ruled and stagnated in its decadent prime. Have you heard of this weapon?’
Durell tilted his head gently. ‘Where did you hear of this?’
‘From the lips of a dying REB. I persuaded her to release her knowledge before she ... unfortunately, my skills are not what they were—old age is creeping slowly into my limbs, and as a result I could not keep her at the brink of life with the steady hand I once possessed.’
Durell smiled. And nodded.
‘So it is true?’ persisted Mace.
‘Worse than true, my friend. Spiral created a weapon so devastating that if they were to initiate it against us, we would do well to survive the onslaught. Our Empire would be toppled. It is our only weakness.’ Durell’s voice had dropped to a low croon, his copper eyes glinting in the darkness.
‘Surely one warhead could not possibly pose such a threat? We have more than fifty armies. We have nuclear-blast-proof Sentinel Towers in nearly every city of the world. And even without Nex forces we now control the JT8s. Even as we speak, they forget their lives under the old rule. Soon we will be all they remember. The Old World will not only have died—it will have been extinguished. We have rewritten the past, Durell—cast it into shadows.’
‘The Warhead is not simply a warhead; it is Evolution Class. An EC Warhead is a machine , a prototype of the next generation of intelligent, self-sufficient, sentient weapons systems.’
‘Sentient?’
Durell’s eyes sparkled with the reflections of distant fires. A lone machine gun rattled. ‘The Evolution Warhead was a project locked in a development cycle from the same era as the QII and then QIII processors—it followed similar design pathways and used many modules from some of the same programmers who applied their skills to the QIII and, later, QIV systems. I did not think the project was ever completed—because, by its very nature, its design specifications seemed almost impossible. A wet dream of the weapon designers and the military generals.’
‘Tell me more,’ said Mace, with a barely suppressed shiver.
‘The Evolution Warhead was supposed to be a warhead that could have unlimited targets. Once released, it would be completely self-sufficient. It had battery cells that would last a century. It could increase and decrease its own mass and size by accumulation and dissemination of its structural polymorphing chassis. It could reduce its own size and act as a stealth missile, infiltrating anything down to a room-size target by using a discrete global positioning system—not a standard military GPS, but from its own individual mainframe. It could—on paper—distil elements from the air, the ground, the sea—and increase its own capacity for speed and destruction. Its chassis was a Shift Unit—it could change shape and purpose and construct its own detonation units, its own independent missiles from within itself, like a metal insect giving birth to a progeny of war and destruction. And it was sentient—it had a brain modelled on our previous Quantell technology. It could, ultimately, construct intelligent procedures. It could think for itself.’
‘But it was never created?’
‘No, I thought the project abandoned. Because ...’
‘Yes?’
Durell turned, his dark copper eyes glittering. ‘Because to create a weapon which could assimilate its own miniature but equally devastating nuclear missiles and rain them down like fire on a million chosen targets if so required; to create a machine so incredibly lethal to mankind that it was, in effect, a machine gun that would fire nuclear bombs—with the ability to destroy and destroy and
‘Durell, I have a question. A question based on, shall we say, an unreliable source.’ Durell nodded for Mace to continue, and the compact Nex’s finger lifted to rest gently against his narrow lips before he went on. ‘There is talk. Of a warhead—a super-weapon designed and built by Spiral when it ruled and stagnated in its decadent prime. Have you heard of this weapon?’
Durell tilted his head gently. ‘Where did you hear of this?’
‘From the lips of a dying REB. I persuaded her to release her knowledge before she ... unfortunately, my skills are not what they were—old age is creeping slowly into my limbs, and as a result I could not keep her at the brink of life with the steady hand I once possessed.’
Durell smiled. And nodded.
‘So it is true?’ persisted Mace.
‘Worse than true, my friend. Spiral created a weapon so devastating that if they were to initiate it against us, we would do well to survive the onslaught. Our Empire would be toppled. It is our only weakness.’ Durell’s voice had dropped to a low croon, his copper eyes glinting in the darkness.
‘Surely one warhead could not possibly pose such a threat? We have more than fifty armies. We have nuclear-blast-proof Sentinel Towers in nearly every city of the world. And even without Nex forces we now control the JT8s. Even as we speak, they forget their lives under the old rule. Soon we will be all they remember. The Old World will not only have died—it will have been extinguished. We have rewritten the past, Durell—cast it into shadows.’
‘The Warhead is not simply a warhead; it is Evolution Class. An EC Warhead is a machine , a prototype of the next generation of intelligent, self-sufficient, sentient weapons systems.’
‘Sentient?’
Durell’s eyes sparkled with the reflections of distant fires. A lone machine gun rattled. ‘The Evolution Warhead was a project locked in a development cycle from the same era as the QII and then QIII processors—it followed similar design pathways and used many modules from some of the same programmers who applied their skills to the QIII and, later, QIV systems. I did not think the project was ever completed—because, by its very nature, its design specifications seemed almost impossible. A wet dream of the weapon designers and the military generals.’
‘Tell me more,’ said Mace, with a barely suppressed shiver.
‘The Evolution Warhead was supposed to be a warhead that could have unlimited targets. Once released, it would be completely self-sufficient. It had battery cells that would last a century. It could increase and decrease its own mass and size by accumulation and dissemination of its structural polymorphing chassis. It could reduce its own size and act as a stealth missile, infiltrating anything down to a room-size target by using a discrete global positioning system—not a standard military GPS, but from its own individual mainframe. It could—on paper—distil elements from the air, the ground, the sea—and increase its own capacity for speed and destruction. Its chassis was a Shift Unit—it could change shape and purpose and construct its own detonation units, its own independent missiles from within itself, like a metal insect giving birth to a progeny of war and destruction. And it was sentient—it had a brain modelled on our previous Quantell technology. It could, ultimately, construct intelligent procedures. It could think for itself.’
‘But it was never created?’
‘No, I thought the project abandoned. Because ...’
‘Yes?’
Durell turned, his dark copper eyes glittering. ‘Because to create a weapon which could assimilate its own miniature but equally devastating nuclear missiles and rain them down like fire on a million chosen targets if so required; to create a machine so incredibly lethal to mankind that it was, in effect, a machine gun that would fire nuclear bombs—with the ability to destroy and destroy and
Similar Books
