Heirs of Earth Read Online Free Page B

we’ve got. A solar flare might do it, but there’s nothing in the gifts to show how we might generate one—or how to get the Starfish to bring one of their Tridents close enough for us to even be able to use it.”
    “Whatever you’re trying to talk me into, Frank, you’re doing a shit-poor job of it. And you’re not telling me anything I don’t already know, either.”
    “If you already know it, then why bother with the big meeting? Why waste time debating over options as if you really have any choice in the matter?”
    The scorn in his voice stung, like salt in an open wound.
    “Because the decision can’t be mine alone to make.”
    “But it can’t be left to them. Christ, they’re idiots, Caryl! Half of them seriously believe that, regardless of what happens, the human spirit will prevail and overcome any adversity. But you and I both know that the Starfish will storm through this region and completely remove all trace of humanity as it goes—and they won’t even stop to check their heels to see what it is they’ve stepped in, either.”
    A great weariness fell over her. The fatalistic certainty of her insignificance was something that confronted her on an almost hourly basis.
    “So what do you suggest we do, Frank? What’s your great plan to save humanity?”
    “We make them notice us, of course.”
    “We’ve tried that, remember? It didn’t work.”
    “Then you didn’t try hard enough.”
    “Easy to say, but do you actually have something more than just hot air and criticism to offer here?”
    “I do have an idea, but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
    “Try me anyway.”
    “Very well,” he said. “You’ve already tried broadcasting messages to the Starfish. You’ve left satellites in vulnerable systems, radiating in all frequencies, using all known codes and media. You’ve sacrificed hole ships to transmit via ftl. And despite attempting to get their attention, you’ve never once received a reply.
    “I think the reason for this is that you’ve been hailing the wrong people. The cutters are nothing more than drones; they’re just doing a job. They’re deaf to anything but their orders, and those orders are to take out any sign of intelligence in the systems they’ve been allocated. Maybe I’m anthropomorphizing, but that’s what I see when I study their behavior. They’re simply front-line soldiers, grunts, cannon fodder—they’re nothing, Caryl.
    “We need to speak to the people giving the orders, and I don’t think we’ve even come remotely close to seeing them yet.”
    “What about the Trident?”
    “It’s possible, but at this stage there’s no way of knowing one way or the other. All I do know is this: they probably have no idea that we even exist and no reason to suspect it. They’re as blind to us as we are to the insects in the soil over which we used to walk. They’re not looking for us, so they don’t see us.”
    “So what’s your plan, then?” She wished he would hurry up and get to the point.
    “To be honest, it’s not my plan,” he said. “I was contacted by someone with an intriguing idea.”
    She wanted to ask who this person was, but she didn’t have time—the engram assembly was quickly breaking down into a morass of arguments and personal insults, and she needed to get back to it—so instead she asked: “And that is?”
    “It’s quite simple, actually,” he said. “If the Starfish won’t come to us, then we’ll just have to go to them.”

    1.1.3

    In the virtual spaces of the hole ship walls; the image of Lucia Benck faced Peter Alander for the first time in 110 Adjusted Planck years. She looked exactly the same as she had during entrainment, but he had changed both overtly and subtly, from the hair to the color of his skin; from his apparent age—much younger than it had been on Earth, even taking antisenescence treatments into account—to the way he moved. There was something about him, Lucia decided, that was very