"We have perhaps three days to find out," Idyll said. "It is within my ambiance, but beyond my immediate perception. Extremely powerful."
"Let's see whether we can pool our resources," Gale said. "To obtain better definition. I will try to share the enhancement provided by the calculating plants."
They took Shee's two hands, each of them putting two hands on hers. They concentrated.
"It is coming," Idyll said. "Five days hence."
"What is coming?" Shee asked.
"It slipped away," Idyll said, disappointed.
"Let's enjoy the park," Gale said. "Then return for another siege, maybe at a different angle."
"At least we have confirmed our approach to the nexus," Monochrome said. "It is well worth our full attention."
Shee did not comment. She still doubted that she could be all that important, except in some negative way.
They completed the ride and went to the Horror House, where simulated spooks menaced them. It was childishly transparent, but fun on its level.
Then they took a boat on a simulated river. The first portion was idyllically calm. The second portion was the rapids. They clung to the handholds, laughing giddily as they got soaked by spray. It plastered their shirts to their fronts, attracting some covert male glances.
More fun, Gale thought, inhaling.
Then, drying off in a private chamber, they tried again. This time the other three stood on three sides of Shee, wrapping their arms around her body, putting their heads close to hers. This time she felt the aura of their Glamor-hood, intersecting hers.
"Earth!" Monochrome exclaimed. "It impacts Earth!"
Then Shee found the track. "It destroys Earth!" she said, horrified.
They refined it, and at last had it complete: Shee was a nexus because her powers added to theirs enabled them to anticipate the deadliest threat ever to come to the planet.
Earth was doomed.
They wrestled with the revelation while they enjoyed another model touring scenic train excursion, but it was too complicated with the distraction of the ride. "I would like to see more of natural Earth," Shee said.
"Entertainments are fun, but we have them on Charm too. We don't have Earth forests."
The others were quick to agree. When the train came to its next station, in a model countryside, they got off and followed Iolo along a path leading into a model pine forest. The ifrit avidly sniffed the trunks of the great trees, playing his role with enthusiasm.
They found an isolated park bench and sat down for some serious discussion. They linked hands and concentrated again on the intermediate-future vision, guided by Idyll's ability, enhanced by Gale's.
This time Shee oriented most accurately on it. "A ship sent by the machines," she said. "A drone. With I think explosives. Set to impact Earth and detonate. Blowing it apart. Killing all. This must not be."
"Certainly it must not be," Monochrome agreed emphatically.
Shee glanced at her. "Apology. I was thinking of my constituency."
"Not of the death of all folk aboard the planet Earth?"
"That too, of course. But I am the Glamor of Matter. It wants to be whole. Blowing a planet apart makes it un-whole. This can not be tolerated. I must find a way to protect it."
"Our purposes seem to align," Monochrome said somewhat wryly.
Gale was practical. "How do we stop it?"
"Caution," Idyll said. "First we should fathom why the machines sent it."
"Obvious," Gale snapped. "To take out the heart of the human culture, reducing our ability to stop their invasion."
"Not necessarily," Idyll said. "This is not the way they have gone after other cultures. They normally send scouts to explore the region of space, and plant agents on the occupied planets, gathering information. Then they invade and take over the planets, exploiting their resources mercilessly. The machines do not believe in waste. To blow Earth apart unexploited would be a phenomenal waste. Why should they do it? It can't be because they fear Earth's military forces. They can take Earth whenever they choose. They merely are waiting until it is most convenient for them."
Monochrome nodded. "How would Voila react to the arbitrary destruction of Earth?"
Gale smiled without humor. "It would end any chance of her enlistment with the machines. She has friends here, like you and Caveat."
"And the machines surely know that," Monochrome said. "Since they want her more than they fear Earth, why should they destroy Earth before she decides? It doesn't seem to make sense."
"What the machines do always makes sense," Shee said. "On their terms."
"Now I see the point," Gale said. "We need to understand why the machines would do something so counterproductive to their interest. Merely stopping the missile will not suffice; they could send another, or a fleet of them, overwhelming us."
"This was my thought," Idyll agreed. "We need to stop it, but first we need to understand it. It is dangerous to underestimate the machines."
They looked at Shee.
"And I am a machine," she said. "But I do not understand this. Perhaps I have become too humanized."
"You have far future paths seeing," Idyll said. "What does it show of Earth?"
Shee looked. "Amazement! Earth exists!"
"Problem," Idyll said. "Earth is destroyed. How can be be destroyed in the intermediate future, yet exist in the far future?"
Shee spread her hands. "I do not know. But it definitely exists, and not as a mock-up or recreation. It is never destroyed."
"Bluff?" Gale asked. "Threatened destruction that will be canceled at the last moment?"
"Negation," Idyll said. "I see a thousand paths, and virtually all of them show Earth destroyed within five days.
We can't ignore this threat; it is real." They paused, mulling it over.
"Maybe we are too close to the problem," Idyll said. "Iolo."
Iolo turned from the brush he had been exploring and ran to join them.
"My intermediate future seeing shows Earth destroyed in five days," Idyll said. "Yet Shee's far future seeing shows it existing undestroyed. How can this be?"
"Same way that Voila beat Mino," Iolo said. "The far future shows the predominant courses, but the prior future can change them to the least likely ones. Earth may be doomed on ninety nine tracks; you move it to the one track where it survives. The far future paths reflect that decision. The near future paths don't."
They exchanged glances. "Thank you, Iolo," Idyll said. "You have clarified the obvious for those of us who were too complicated to see it."
"Welcome," Iolo said, and returned to the brush.
"One question remains," Idyll said. "Given that the machines know that Earth will not be destroyed, why have they sent the missile? Why waste their effort?"
"Why did they send Shee, and Ikon?" Gale asked. "It is part of their campaign. They are pushing us, making us react. Nominally those robots are here to persuade Havoc and Weft to talk Voila into enlisting with them, but also they are showing us their power. We have no machines to match these two. The Earth space ships are but clumsy contraptions in comparison. Even Mino, who was made and sent by the machines, is comparatively primitive. The humanoid robots are positive, but are showing us what a negative machine could do. That missile is another warning."
The others nodded. "We have fended off or nullified the machines' ploys so far," Idyll said. "But I suspect they haven't really been trying. Now they are pushing more strongly, in a measured manner. It is surely part of their standard operating procedure."
"Turning up the heat," Monochrome said. "And we are forced to respond. In the process not only do the machines warn us, they learn more of what we are capable of. We have to think seriously about accepting their offer."
"In a pig's rectum," Gale snapped. "Voila will never accept."