Cronus raged. The Sisters of Enoy were probably laughing about their victory even now. Hawkins was a little prick. The man would not understand the great indignity that he had heaped upon Cronus.

  Cronus shook with rage. He roared, the sound deafening within the bubble of reality around his planet-sized body. He was inconceivably old. One greater than him had banished him to this Howling realm of nullity. Cronus had long ago believed that there was no method to leave the void. Now—

  I must have the secret of the null-splitter. I must have the device. Which would be easier to acquire, the Dandelion of Enoy or the Nathan Graham?

  Now that the pain of the null-splitter was finally dissipating, he could plan again. Who were these AI robots that each alien side fought? The AIs sounded like an interesting group of entities. The Sisters of Enoy considered the AIs machines. Yet, the machines could think. This was a great mystery. Could he make common cause with the machines to defeat the Sisters of Enoy and crush the puny Confederation?

  Oh, that sounded like a grand idea, worthy of Cronus. He was greater than any creature he had ever met. He had devoured so many in his time. The Sisters of Enoy had been unique, and he had saved them, toyed with them for eons.

  Cronus halted his movement away from the place where he had fought the Nathan Graham. He began to search the flood of memories that he had torn from Lugo Malagate. He had made an error, thinking the Nathan Graham had been a Kames vessel. He would study these memories. He would seek out the Nathan Graham, maybe the Dandelion of Enoy as well. He would use the weak Sister, the one that had lost her name long ago. He could control her from afar. It had been a sly trick putting her on the asteroid vessel. And as for Lugo Malagate—

  Cronus increased his rate of propulsion, knowing that he had to get there in time. Time existed in his bubble. It existed in the bubble around the Enoy vessel and the Confederation ship. It did not exist in the void.

  What a paradox. Cronus had studied and used those paradoxes for time without end. He would use Lugo again. He had that little puke’s number. He would control the man better next time, and he would use Lugo to cripple the Nathan Graham so he could get his units on the null-splitter.

  As Cronus thought upon that, he dreamed of vengeance against the Confederation and alliance with the stupid machines. The AIs would not know what to make out of his greatness. Maybe he would become the supreme AI—only in a matter of speaking, of course—and use the machines to demolish Enoy.

  Cronus could laugh, and he did for a time. The gales of evil mirth sustained him as he drove himself relentlessly. He had to reach the Nathan Graham in time. Oh, he wanted to thwart Hawkins and that stupid oaf Bast Banbeck.

  Next time, you worms, I’ll show you what it means to mess with Cronus. I will crush your dreams and make you scream in agony.

  He made an oath, vowing it by himself, because the only one greater than him he hated beyond belief. He would worry about that one later. First, it was time for vengeance. It was time for administering pain. It was time to be Cronus as he had been in the beginning. He would show the universe the price it would have to pay for spawning him eons upon eons ago and then shunting him aside.

  PART IV

  THE RED DWARF SYSTEM

  -1-

  On the bridge, Jon sat in the commander’s chair with a knot in his gut.

  Many other bridge personnel seemed nervous and apprehensive, likely for the same reasons as he had.

  According to the instruments, the Nathan Graham had reached the expected place in the void. Now, they prepared to make their entrance into time and space. The worry came from wondering if the original calculations had been correct. And if they were correct, had the ship’s navigation been precise enough to bring them to the needed location. For instance, if they appeared too near Main 54, the AI would detect the void ship and likely launch an instant and devastating assault. They would all die.

  Jon noticed how sweaty his palms had become and wiped them on his pants. When he caught several people eyeing him, he sat straighter, attempting to project calm confidence.

  The void wasn’t like ordinary space, obviously. And they had been taking the dope that allowed them to cope for some time, now. Had the DE-16-C addled their higher brain functions just enough so they made a critical mistake today?

  Jon exhaled. It was time to just get her done. “Doc,” he said, glad that at least his voice sounded calm. “Let’s do this.”

  Doc Cullen nodded somberly, tapping the helm panel.

  Deep in the ship, the quantum-pi engine labored harder. Not only was it supplying the power to the reality generator, but now it activated the null-splitter.

  “There, sir,” Doc said in his slow voice.

  On the main screen, a representation appeared as lines glowed with power. Once again, the null-splitter opened a hole in the void, tearing it wider as stars, as beautiful, wonderful, glorious stars appeared against the background of reality.

  Jon’s throat convulsed, and he realized how much he wanted to leave this horrible, wretched, mind-bending realm of horror. In fact, a grim feeling of certainty filled him. He never wanted to reenter the void, maybe not even to travel home. To willingly slide back into the horrid void—

  “Get us out of here,” Jon said thickly.

  Doc’s shoulders stiffened. The helmsman seemed as if he was going to turn around and stare at Jon, but he refrained—and Jon was glad for it. He didn’t want Doc’s actions pointing out the Supreme Commander’s obvious horror of the void.

  “We’re moving, sir,” Doc said.

  “Good,” Jon said, unable to help himself.

  Others stared longingly at the main screen, showing their hunger to leave the void.

  Outside in reality, the Nathan Graham appeared from the blackest of holes. The great cybership-class vessel with an asteroid-like hull slid from the terrible opening like a submarine from ancient pre-space-flight times surfacing from the deep.

  “Close that thing,” Jon said.

  Doc once again manipulated his board.

  “Start switching over,” Jon said. “I want regular sensors running as soon as possible. Let’s see where the Hell we are.”

  Behind the ship, the reality rip closed as the glowing lines shrank toward each other. In seconds, the lines joined into a glowing dot that winked out. The void was gone, hidden behind the backdrop of time and space.

  “Done,” Doc said, shutting down the null-splitter.

  A tech at a different station began decreasing the reality field until it disappeared, and the quantum-pi engine began cycling down until it shut off.

  “Resuming normal power,” Doc said.

  Jon nodded, staring at the main screen. Now, not only his palms had become sweaty, but his armpits as well. It was crazy, but his gut was tightening and actually hurting. So much depended on their initial placement into reality.

  The main screen shimmered, and then stars and space appeared normally as shown by the regular sensors.

  “Where are we?” Jon demanded, his voice too harsh perhaps.

  Gloria glanced at him. “Give me a minute, and I’ll let you know.”

  Jon forced himself to say nothing. Calm, project calm, he reminded himself.

  “We appear to be in the system’s Oort cloud,” Gloria said.

  Some of the tension dissipated from Jon’s gut. Coming out of the void in the inner system would have been a disaster.

  “I haven’t spotted any siege-ships out here with us yet,” Gloria said.

  Jon nodded. The Kames had given them some intelligence about how a Main defended a star system, but they didn’t know if the information was accurate or not.

  The primary, quick-searching sensor in this instance was teleoptics, like a telescope to see what was there. This had a key advantage over something like radar. Radar bounced a beam off an object, meaning the radar beam had to travel to the object and then travel back. That took longer, and when trying to spot objects many AUs away, time was critical. A ray of light from the Sun took on average eight minutes, twenty seconds to reach the Earth. Thus, a telescope saw what had been there eight minutes, twenty seconds ago if it was a single AU away. Radar would need sixteen minutes, forty seconds to see the same thing.

  But it was worse than that. Radar could only begin sensing once the sensor operator sent the first pulse. A telescope could immediately see an object how it had been—one AU away and thus eight minutes, twenty seconds ago—as soon as it trained the scope on the object.

  Thus, for quickly mapping out a new star system, good teleoptics was critical. Teleoptics weren’t as good at spotting small dark objects, though.

  In star system terms, a siege-ship—three thousand kilometers in diameter, Moon-sized—was many times easier to spot than a cybership, a mere one hundred kilometers long.

  “I’m starting to build up a picture,” Gloria said. “The red dwarf star has fifty-eight percent of the Sun’s mass and sixty-nine percent its radius. The spectral type is M1. There are two planets—terrestrial planets near the red dwarf in the inner system. There are swarms of asteroids, an incredible number and many with high metal content. I don’t spy anything like a gas giant.”

  Jon could hardly hold in his questions. The stellar data was important, but not the critical piece of news he desired.

  “There,” Gloria said. “I’ve found the Main. There is only one planet in the system. The Main is the other planet-sized object. It’s huge, Jon, the size of Earth, at least, and made of metal.”

  “Does it see us?” Jon asked.

  Gloria looked at him.

  “I know, I know,” Jon said. “The Main couldn’t see us yet. We just appeared out of the void.”

  In real time and space, nothing moved faster than the speed of light. Gloria wasn’t seeing the Main as it was now, but what it was doing and looked like many hours or possibly days ago. That data had traveled toward them, as it were, at the speed of light.

  “The Main is approximately ten thousand AUs from us,” Gloria said.

  An Astronomical Unit was the average distance from the Sun to Earth, roughly one point five trillion kilometers, 1,500,000,000. Thus, the Main was one point five trillion kilometers away from the Nathan Graham. That distance took light almost fifty-eight days to travel.

  That meant if the Main had teleoptic sensors trained at this exact spot, and if the scopes could see something so small as a one hundred kilometer vessel at that distance, that the Main would spot the Nathan Graham out here fifty-eight days from now. The Main physically could not spot them sooner.

  The Nathan Graham had not used any regular matter/antimatter-fueled propulsion to move into real time and space. If they used propulsion to build up velocity, that would be something else. The exhaust would be bright and hot compared to the normal cold of space and would act like a giant flare. The same held true for AI vessels out here, especially smaller ones.

  If there were AI scout vessels in the Oort cloud, and if they spotted the Nathan Graham, their message to the Main would take fifty-eight days if sent by a laser light or radio.

  That had been the reasoning behind a scouting pop out in the outer red dwarf system. By the time the Main spotted the Nathan Graham out here, the mission would already be over one way or another.

  It was much harder to hide a planet-sized object, especially when the searchers knew what to look for and where to look for it.

  So far, the plan held. They had appeared in the right spot in the red dwarf star system, and they may have gotten lucky, too. The Main was on this side of the red dwarf. The Main could have been hidden behind the star relative to them.

  “Excellent work so far,” Jon said. “Let’s gather more data. I want a complete picture of the star system and all its occupants, or as many of them as we can spot. Then, we can begin making the final plans for the insertion mission.”

  Jon stood, congratulating himself. The enemy did not yet know they were here, and that was going to make all the difference.

  ***

  Except, the Dandelion of Enoy had reached sensor range of the Nathan Graham before it had exited the void. Zeno and Kree had watched the exiting operation and were even now discussing it.

  ***

  Except, although Main 54 hadn’t seen the Nathan Graham, by his calculations an Earth vessel or several Earth vessels should soon be making an appearance here. He had sent out a signal long ago for increased vigilance on everyone’s part in the red dwarf system. The trap had been set; the players were ready. Now, would the pitiful humans do as predicted?

  Main 54 waited with building anticipation, certain that his vaunted intelligence had accurately guessed the intentions and methods of this willful Life-creature, Jon Hawkins.

  -2-

  As the crew of the Nathan Graham gathered data, held meetings and finalized plans, the two coherent Sisters of Enoy aboard the Dandelion attempted to understand what was taking place.

  They used a special monitor that could pierce through the void like a window into time and space. It was expensive in shipboard energy, but it provided a useful tool long employed by those of Enoy. It also allowed them to view different points in a star system far away from each other almost at once.

  Both Zeno and Kree calculated furiously while the monitor showed them the situation. Then, the human vessel used its null-splitter, creating an opening back into the void.

  “No, no,” Kree said, her flame shape brighter and flickering more vigorously than before because during the journey she had supped vitality from the ancient stores. “I told you this would happen. The humans are clever and deceptive. They knew we were monitoring them and are now coming to board us. Launch the Vestal missiles, I say.”

  “You say?” asked Zeno, her lightning-bolt shape bright and strong. She had supped even more deeply than Kree on the ancient stores during the journey. It felt marvelous to have power again. Her will surged with force, and her temper had actually grown shorter because of it. She had been imperious in the old times before the original fringe patrol. Then, and once again now, she believed there was a way, a key, to ultimately defeating the dread killing machines, and she meant to find that key.

  “Quick,” Kree said. “There isn’t much time. Launch at once. Or do you want me to do it for you?”

  For an answer, Zeno pointed at Kree and launched a bolt of lightning. It slammed the living flame against a rock bulkhead.

  The flame being grew, flickering more, and it seemed as if two hands in the fire juggled a growing ball of flame, perhaps to hurl it at Zeno in retaliation.

  “Think carefully, low-ranker,” Zeno said. “If you hurl a fireball at me, I shall shred you to pieces and feed your essence to the silent one. You will be no more, and never again will I hear a subordinate challenge my authority.”

  Perhaps Kree would have attacked anyway, but on the smoky rimmed, cavern screen, the Nathan Graham headed back into the void. Would the Earth-crewed ship attack theirs? The seeming hands disappeared, and the growing fireball lost coherence, merging back with her substance.

  “I stand corrected,” Kree said, although she did not sound nor look remorseful.

  “Pay attention and learn,” Zeno said as she floated to a stone table. Lightning sizzled from her to various locales on the table.

  The Dandelion slid away from the reality rip, sliding deeper into the void. Did it sink far enough away that those on the Nathan Graham failed to spot the Enoy vessel?

  The smaller human-crewed vessel reentered the void. The rip closed behind it, and as if oblivious to the Dandelion, the Nathan Graham maneuvered to a different spot.

  “I see them,” Kree said, “but I do not understand their actions.”

  “You have learned a valuable lesson,” Zeno said curtly. “You are no longer questioning me. You must finally realize the foolishness of that.”

  Kree did not reply.

  “Silence is better than arguing with me,” Zeno said. “An affirmation would be best.”

  “You are in charge,” Kree said. “That is patently obvious.”

  “I detect a disregard for regularity in you. Have you forgotten the ways of Enoy?”

  “No,” Kree said.

  “Then you spitefully reject regularity?”

  “I… I am sorry, Sister. The old ways are returning slower in me than in you. You always were the stronger between us.”

  “Thus, I command the Dandelion.”

  “Without a doubt, and now without any disrespect from me.”

  “Much better,” Zeno said. “I find myself hating you less. Continue in this proper manner, and I shall learn to like you again.”

  “Then, I will strive to please you,” Kree said.

  “There is hope for unity aboard the Dandelion. Now, let us attend to the humans. Let us see if we can glean their intentions from their odd actions.”

  For a time, the Sisters monitored the Nathan Graham. The cylindrical, asteroid-like-hulled vessel soon opened another reality rip. The ship slid back into time and space, closing the rip behind it.

  “How odd,” Kree said.

  “I would almost agree with your assessment,” Zeno said. “But we have seen that Jon Hawkins acts in accordance with a plan. Let us watch them in reality. Perhaps the actions are not odd at all.”

  The powerful and energy-expensive reality monitor came back online. The two alien entities watched the Nathan Graham.

  “Notice,” Kree said after a time, “the Nathan Graham arrived behind the red dwarf star relative to the Main. I suspect that is important.”

  “The Nathan Graham did not do so originally,” Zeno said.

  “Actions imply reasons,” Kree said. “I am paraphrasing your comment earlier.”

  “I hope you are not doing so in a sarcastic or sardonic manner.”

  “On the contrary, I am attempting to follow orders by using the precept you suggested.”