“To what?” Zhao spoke so loudly that Makali and the others stopped moving.
“To landing as close to the facility as possible, as soon as we can.”
“Exposing ourselves to attack? The Reivers flew a vesicle to Earth twenty years ago. We have to assume they know how to breach or destroy one. Hell, we could probably be destroyed by American missiles if we get pounded often enough! And,” he said, not waiting for Sanjay to continue his argument, “we lose our waterborne weapons and probably the aerosols, too. Why would we march into this war with a third of our army?”
“The mission is changing.”
“I don’t see it.”
“You don’t have my perspective.”
Zhao sneered. “This is your Keanu link talking to you.”
“You don’t believe it? You used to.” Sanjay remembered Zhao’s tales of his encounter with the Architect, his interactions with Zack Stewart and especially the Revenant Yvonne Hall.
“Seeing Dale Scott as a proponent made me reevaluate Keanu’s taste in messengers.”
“Dale Scott is not in contact with Keanu—”
“I rather think he is, insane as that sounds—”
“Not the way I am!” Sanjay said.
“For God’s sake, Zhao!” Makali joined the argument. “Dale Scott never died. Dale Scott never became a Revenant!” She pointed at Sanjay. “This is how Keanu and the Architects communicate with us! Listen to him—or call Jaidev and Harley and have them tell you the same thing.”
Zhao blinked. “You’re right,” he said, his voice notably softer and quieter. “I am forced to admit that the pressure is affecting me.” He was a brilliant and capable man, the most versatile of all the HBs with his skills in manipulating people as well as machinery. But who could function normally when dealing with the fate of the Earth? “What is the new plan?”
Makali and the other four had not resumed their work but rather drifted closer to Zhao and Sanjay. What was being said might mean whether they lived or died.
“We are no longer a weapons platform; we are now a courier ship. The goal is to get me close enough to the Reiver facility, as soon as possible, to contact Rachel and her team directly.”
“We can’t get there in much less than ten hours,” Zhao said. “Maybe we can accelerate and shave an hour or two.”
Sanjay could feel the response that data triggered. Pleasure, but also more urgency. “Do it, then.”
“What’s so important that you have to tell her?”
“Keanu’s systems know what the Reiver facility is—it’s called the Ring—and what it’s for.”
“Which is?”
“To teleport a Reiver army to the Architect home world.”
“You just lost me.”
Sanjay felt a pressure in his skull so intense that he thought he was having a stroke. His vision blurred for a moment, then returned. “You don’t need to understand it. I don’t. But you need to accept it.”
“The Reivers are opening a portal to another planet . . . in another star system? If they could do that, why did they ever bother with Keanu or the vesicle?”
“It’s new technology for them. Untried.”
“So maybe it won’t work.”
“We can’t take that chance.”
“Doesn’t that argue in favor of our original mission?”
Sanjay shook his head. He shared Zhao’s position, but he was no longer speaking entirely for himself. “Even if we successfully launch all our weapons, some Reivers will survive . . . and we will have killed thousands or even millions of human beings.”
Zhao appeared frustrated. “I just don’t see how taking control of the Ring solves the problem of Reivers on Earth. Wouldn’t it be better to blow up the damn thing and kill them all?”
“Keanu has a plan for the Ring.”
“Oh. And the Reivers?”
“Some will be destroyed. But there is a . . . greater need.” Sanjay struggled to articulate the message. The flood of images and data was so intense and so diverse that he couldn’t accept it. “I . . . I’m no longer certain that Keanu wants the Reivers destroyed, if that’s the price.”
Then he vomited, explosively, with all the horrific side effects that meant. “Oh, Jesus,” Makali said.
His discomfort was short-lived. As he accepted water and stopped shaking, he said, “Here’s how we take control, and why.”
As he started speaking, he saw an expression he never thought he would ever see on Zhao Buoming’s face:
Surprise.
And then, something that surely passed for excitement. Then Zhao said, “I hope the entire plan doesn’t rest on us alone.”
Sanjay felt a jolt like a bolt of lightning in his head, and a shiver up his spine, a form of confirmation. “It doesn’t,” he said, both relieved and disappointed. Relieved because it doubled the chances that this crazy idea might work.
Disappointed because it doubled the chances that Keanu would no longer need him, and he would die as quickly as the earlier Revenants.
QUESTION: For Mr. Toutant, what is your role in the Adventure crew?
TOUTANT: Movie star. (laughter)
QUESTION: Seriously.
TOUTANT: Well, I’m not a pilot, I’m not a politician, so (pats his ample stomach) call me ballast.
QUESTION: You’re not answering.
TOUTANT: You pick up on things.
INTERVIEW AT YELAHANKA,
APRIL 14, 2040
DALE
Dale Scott had spent years flying Air Force jets on combat missions and routine patrols.
Then, during his decade at NASA, he had access to the sleek T-38 jets, which gave him even more hours of high-performance exhilaration.
He had been also launched into orbit aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
None of those experiences approached the thrill and satisfaction he felt in “flying” Keanu, even though his active role lasted less than fifteen minutes.
He had made his way back to the Factory in less than an hour—there was nothing like compulsion, anger, and good directions to shorten a trip.
The control center that Keanu guided him to was a structure he had passed dozens of times over the years. He recalled making plans to check out the place, but that applied to fifty other buildings as well.
When he arrived, he realized that he had stuck his head inside at least once in a dozen years . . . finding nothing but inert, incomprehensible machines and displays.
Today, however, these items were alive and working, as if waiting for him.
By now the messages inside his head had resolved with impressive clarity; he knew exactly what screens to touch, in what order, with what timing.
He executed the intricate series of commands, feeling a glow of satisfaction each time he was successful.
With the final touch, he believed that he felt a shudder in his feet . . . Keanu’s propulsion system coming alive.
On one central screen, entire rows and cells of figures began to change.
“Houston, we have ignition,” Dale said.
Another screen lit up with the most detailed Keanu schematic he had ever seen—not for the first time in his exile, he wished for an iPhone so he could capture that image. Jaidev Mahabala, Sasha Blaine, and Harley Drake—indeed, any one of the HBs—would have introduced money to the human habitat just to be able to buy the thing.
It showed the spheroid of the NEO, of course; that wasn’t surprising. Also visible: a number of habitats that Dale recognized, including the Factory. What fascinated him was seeing at least twice as many habitats as he expected, along with a network of tunnels and passages far more extensive than his explorations had revealed.
There was the core, too, a central cylinder running roughly south to north and containing Keanu’s primary power source, the fusion generator Zack Stewart had died restarting.