Coyote Rising Read Free Page B

there was the subtle mechanical whir from inside the robe.
    “An honor to meet you, Captain Baptiste.” The voice was a smooth buzz, inflective of its vowels yet oddly without accent. “My colleagues and I have followed your career with great interest.”
    A Savant. Like almost everyone else he knew, Baptiste found himself nervous in the company of these creatures: persons who’d chosen tohave their minds downloaded into mechanical forms, eschewing their human bodies for virtual immortality as cyborgs. Baptiste believed them to be closet sociopaths, people who would rather interface with an AI than look another person straight in the eye. The fact that they all looked very much alike didn’t help much either: the same black robes, the same skeletal forms. Yet once WHU granted them legal status as citizens, many had gone to work for the Union Astronautica, where they served as a legion of posthuman intellects. For some reason, space attracted them.
    The Spirit ’s complement included five Savants. Having no need to breathe, eat, or indulge any of the other biological functions they had forsaken, they would remain awake during the half century it took for the starship to travel to 47 Ursae Majoris, standing watch while he and everyone else slept the dreamless sleep of biostasis. What they’d do during that time, what they would think about, God only knew; their intellects were as alien to unaltered humans as that of ants. Or perhaps ghosts, although Baptiste didn’t believe in such things.
    “Captain, allow me to introduce you to Savant Gregor Hull.” Somoza gestured lazily toward the Savant. “Savant Hull is the senior member of a group that’s been studying the social dynamics of small founding populations.” He glanced at Hull. “If you’ll continue?”
    “Thank you, sir.” The Savant glided across the office until he stopped next to Somoza. Although there was another chair nearby, Hull didn’t take a seat. Indeed, Baptiste reflected, one thing that made the Savants seem so otherworldly was the fact that they seldom sat down; they didn’t need to rest, or at least not as flesh-and-blood humans did. “As Patriarch Somoza says, my team has done considerable historical research into colonies, both in space and on Earth. Our major finding is that, once a population grows to a certain size, there’s a strong tendency for it to sever ties to home.”
    Baptiste shrugged. “Makes sense . . . especially if you’re referring to Coyote. Establishing a self-sufficient colony out there was the principal reason the URA built the Alabama in the first place.”
    “Yes, it was, Captain.” The Savant’s voice was a monotonous purr. “But remember, the Alabama was hijacked by renegades . . . ‘dissidentintellectuals’ as they were known back then. They were committed to achieving political independence the moment they left Earth, and so there’s every reason to believe that, if their colony survives, they’ll be even more committed toward maintaining their independence.”
    “The Union Astronautica anticipated this when it launched the Glorious Destiny four years ago.” The Patriarch crossed his legs. “That is why we put a large company of Union Guard aboard that ship, to make sure that there would be . . . well, little resistance from the original settlers.” He chuckled, shook his head. “ ‘Will be,’ I should say. One of the drawbacks of thinking in interstellar terms . . . Alabama is still en route to 47 Ursae Majoris, and, regardless of its greater velocity, Glorious Destiny is still a considerable distance behind it. So we’re discussing future events as if they’ve already happened.”
    Baptiste nodded. The colony established by the crew of the Alabama would be almost four years old by the time Glorious Destiny arrived . . . and once the Spirit reached the 47 Ursae Majoris system almost eight years after the Alabama , three more ships from the Western Hemisphere Union would have