Kinder des Schicksals 4 (Xeelee 9): Resplendent

take.’
    ’It’s possible,’ Borno said. ’Ghosts are single-minded. They
choose a plan and stick to it, whatever the cost.’
    In the training academies there was a joke about Ghosts that had
the right of way to cross a road. But the transport drivers ignored
the stop signs. So the first Ghost crossed, exerting its rights, and
was creamed in the process. So did the second, the third, the fourth,
each sticking to what it believed was right regardless of the cost.
Then the fifth invented a teleport, changing physical law to make the
road obsolete altogether…
    Teel said, ’So you want the Black Ghost eliminated before it
destroys everything. Even though this may be your best chance of
winning the war and of avoiding the subjugation or even extinction
that would follow.’
    ’Sooner extinction than universal destruction,’ the Integumentary
said.
    ’How noble.’
    Hex said, ’And you, Integumentary, are prepared to make the most
profound moral judgements on behalf of your whole species - and their
entire future?’
    Borno said, ’Who cares about Ghost ethics? They won’t need ethics
when they’re all dead.’
    ’You’re deranged, gunner, but you’re right,’ said Teel. ’We don’t
need to consider Ghost consciences. Our job is to consider what use
to make of this strange opportunity. Certainly we need to find out
more about these new Ghost variants you’ve come up against. I’ll pass
this up the line to - ’
    ’You decide now,’ the Ghost snapped.
    Borno said, ’If you think a commodore is going to take orders from
a ball of fat like you - ’
    ’Can it, gunner,’ Hex snapped.
    ’You decide now,’ the Ghost said again. ’You allow this crew, in
this ship, to follow my instructions, or I disconnect the link.’
    Hella said, ’I guess the Integumentary has its own pressures.
Imagine trying to run a covert operation like this from our
side.’
    ’We’ll follow your orders, whatever you say, Commodore,’ Hex
said.
    ’I know you will,’ Teel said dismissively. ’But I’ve no way of
assessing your chances of success - let alone survival.’
    ’Our survival is irrelevant, sir,’ Jul said.
    ’I know that’s what you’re taught, engineer. Perhaps there are a
few desk-bound Commissaries back on Earth who actually believe that.
But out here we who do the fighting are still human. The mission has
a greater chance of success if you’re willing to take it on.’
    ’I’m willing,’ Borno said immediately.
    ’I’ve seen your file, gunner. What about those of you who aren’t
psychopathically hostile to the Ghosts and all their works?’
    Hella was uncertain. ’We’re flight crew. We aren’t infantry, or
covert operatives. We may not be right for the job.’
    ’We’re Aleph Force,’ Hex said firmly. ’In Aleph Force you do
whatever it takes.’
    ’Anyhow I don’t think there’s a choice,’ Jul said. ’Us or
nobody.’
    Hella asked, ’So what do you think, pilot?’
    Hex looked into her soul. A journey into the very heart of Ghost
territory - a mission that might turn the course of the war - how
could she refuse? ’I’m in.’
    Jul, Hella and Borno quickly concurred.
    ’I’m proud of you,’ the Commodore said.
    The Ghost spun. ’Humans!’
    Hex snapped, ’All right, Ghost, let’s get on with it. Where are we
going?’
    More data chattered into the Spear’s banks.

 
III
     
     
    The Spear of Orion swept through space. The needleship moved from
point to point through hyperdrive jumps, each too brief for a human
eye to follow, so that the stars seemed to slide through the sky like
lamp posts beside a road. For the crew the journey was a routine
marvel.
    But Hex and her crew had come far from the outermost boundary of
human space, farther than any human had travelled from Earth save for
a handful of explorers. And every star they could see must host a
Ghost emplacement: if humanity was turning the Galaxy green, then
this rich chunk of it still gleamed Ghost-silver. But the Spear
remained undisturbed.
    ’It’s eerie,’ engineer Jul said. ’Ghosts should be swarming all
over us.’
    Hex said, ’The Integumentary promised to make us invisible to the
Ghosts’ sensors, and it’s keeping its word.’
    Jul, a practical engineer, snorted. ’I’d feel a lot more reassured
if I knew how.’
    Borno said, ’What do you expect? Ghosts don’t give you anything.’
His pent-up rage, here in Ghost territory, was tangible.
    They sailed on in tense silence.
    Borno had been