Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

laughed, hollowly. ’I was doomed by
being smart. That is why your precious Commissary despises me so
much, you see. I have been taught to think - and we can’t have that,
can we?…’
    I turned away from him and shut up. Jeru wasn’t ’my’ Commissary,
and this sure wasn’t my argument. Besides, Pael gave me the creeps.
I’ve always been wary of people who know too much stuff. With a
weapon, all you want to know is how it works, what kind of energy or
ammunition it needs, and what to do when it goes wrong. People who
know all the technical background and the statistics are usually
covering up their own failings; it is experience of use that
counts.
    But this was no loudmouth weapons tech. This was an Academician:
one of humanity’s elite scientists. I felt I had no point of contact
with him at all. I looked out through the tangle, trying to see the
fleet’s sliding, glimmering lanes of light.
    There was motion in the tangle. I turned that way, motioning Pael
to keep still and silent, and got hold of my knife in my good
hand.
    Jeru came bustling back, exactly the way she had left. She nodded
approvingly at my alertness. ’Not a peep out of the beacon.’
    Pael said, ’You realise our time here is limited.’
    I asked, ’You mean the suits?’
    ’He means the star,’ Jeru said heavily. ’Case, fortress stars seem
to be unstable. When the Ghosts throw up their cordon equipment, the
stars don’t last long before going pop.’
    Pael shrugged. ’We have hours, a few days at most.’
    Jeru said, ’Well, we’re going to have to get out, beyond the
fortress cordon, so we can signal the fleet. That or find a way to
collapse the cordon altogether.’
    Pael laughed hollowly. ’And how do you propose we do that?’
    Jeru glared. ’Isn’t it your role to tell me, Academician?’
    Pael leaned back and closed his eyes. ’Not for the first time,
you’re being ridiculous.’
    Jeru growled. She turned to me. ’You. What do you know about the
Ghosts?’
    I said, ’They come from someplace cold. That’s why they are
wrapped up in silvery shells. You can’t bring a Ghost down with laser
fire because of those shells. They’re perfectly reflective.’
    Pael said, ’Not perfectly. They are based on a Planck-zero
effect… About one part in a billion of incident energy is
absorbed.’
    I hesitated. ’They say the Ghosts experiment on people.’
    Pael sneered. ’Lies put about by Jeru’s Commission for Historical
Truth. To demonise an opponent is a tactic as old as mankind.’
    Jeru wasn’t perturbed. ’Then why don’t you put young Case right?
How do the Ghosts go about their business?’
    Pael said, ’The Silver Ghosts tinker with the laws of physics. The
Ghosts are motivated by a desire to understand the fine-tuning of the
universe, which they believe betrayed them. Why are we here? You see,
young tar, there is only a narrow range of the constants of physics
within which life of any sort is possible. We think the Ghosts are
studying this question by pushing at the boundaries - by tinkering
with the laws which sustain and contain us all.’
    I looked to Jeru; she shrugged. She said, ’So how do they do this,
Academician?’
    Pael tried to explain. It was all to do with quagma.
    Quagma is the state of matter which emerged from the Big Bang.
Matter, when raised to sufficiently high temperatures, melts into a
magma of quarks - a quagma. And at such temperatures the four
fundamental forces of physics unify into a single superforce. When
quagma is allowed to cool and expand its binding superforce
decomposes into four sub-forces.
    To my surprise, I understood some of this. The principle of the
GUTdrive, which powers intrasystem ships like Brief Life Burns
Brightly, is related.
    Anyhow, by controlling the superforce decomposition, you can
select the ratios between those sub-forces. And those ratios govern
the fundamental constants of physics.
    Something like that.
    Pael said, ’That marvellous reflective coating of theirs is an
example. Each Ghost is surrounded by a thin layer of space in which a
fundamental number called the Planck constant is significantly lower
than elsewhere. Thus, quantum effects are collapsed… Because the
energy carried by a photon, a particle of light, is proportional to
the Planck constant, an incoming photon must shed most of its energy
when it hits the shell - hence the reflectivity.’
    ’All right,’ Jeru said. ’So what are they doing here?’
    Pael sighed. ’The fortress