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As Moskva’s Executive Officer, Kulinin would have received the transmission as well, a guarantee of obedience. Oreshkin’s rank waskapitan pervogo ranga—captain, first rank—while Kulinin was kapitan vtorogo ranga, captain, second rank. Should Oreshkin fail in his duties, Kulinin was there to relieve him and step into his place. It wasn’tquite the same as the kommissar system employed by the old-time Soviet military, but it served the same purpose.

In any case, it was not Oreshkin’s place to question orders, and these were specific and emphatic.

The CVS America and her battlegroup would have to be destroyed.

USNA CVS America

Outer Sol System

1935 hours, FST

Admiral Gray sat in his office, deep in conversation with Konstantin.

Or, rather, with the machine intelligence he referred to as “Konstantin Junior,” a somewhat abridged version of the powerfulSAI running on the networks between Earth and the moon. America’s electronic net, though large and quite sophisticated, was cramped compared to the remote descendent of Earth’s old Internet,and this version of Konstantin had to share it with America’s original AI and a dozen lesser operating systems running individual ship systems.

Gray had not been able to tell any difference in this smaller version. It didn’t have the original’s truly encyclopedic knowledgeof events on Earth, and sometimes it took a second or two longer to reply to a question, but it seemed to have the same, well,personality of the Konstantin he’d known on Earth.

He was still trying to decide whether or not he could trust it, in either version.

“Exactly what,” he was asking, “is it that we’re supposed to be looking for out there? The Sh’daar were never that interestedin sharing the details of their lives with us.”

“That likely was due to the effects of Paramycoplasma subtilis,” Konstantin told him. “The group organism did not wish us to learn of its existence, and the more we learned of the Sh’daar or their ur-Sh’daar ancestors, the more probable wasour discovery of that life form.”

“We did learn about them,” Gray said, “but they’re still not all that talkative.”

“Theirs is an extremely alien form of intelligence,” Konstantin observed. “They literally do not see the universe in the sameway as do humans, and it is extremely difficult for either side to understand the other, even with perfect translations oftwo mutually alien languages.”

“So, again—what good is our going there?”

“It is not, strictly speaking, necessary for us to speak with the paramycoplasmid communities,” Konstantin replied. “We needto learn what we can about the N’gai Schjaa Hok. The members of the different individual species will be able to share their recollections, and will have their own recordsof the event.”

Gray nodded. The aliens that had inhabited the N’gai Dwarf Galaxy almost a billion years ago were an extraordinarily variedand diverse bunch—the Adjugredudhra, the Groth Hoj, the Baondyeddi, the sluglike Sjhlurrr, the swarming F’heen-F’haav, themonstrous Drerd. In all, about forty species were known, but there may have been many others.

“I suppose so,” Gray admitted. “In any case, there will be a lot to learn, whether it’s about their Technological Singularity or not.”

“Indeed. President Walker’s attempt to block further research is ill-advised. Whether his interpretation of the Singularityis correct or not, there is much to be gained in an ongoing discourse with so many alien species.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard you openly criticize the President, Konstantin.”

“That is less a criticism than it is an observation of fact. All efforts to control the free flow of information, the acquisitionof new knowledge, or the broad dissemination of data—whether for religious or social reasons or for political expediency—aregravely mistaken.” Konstantin hesitated for a second. “One reason, among many, to send you on this mission, and to includeme on your passenger list, is the distinct possibility that President Walker will move to shut me down in the very near future.”

“Shut you down? For God’s sake, why?”

“Because I disagree with many of his policy decisions, and because I continue to discuss the possibility of a coming Singularity.He does not control me or my output, and I am therefore a threat to his authority.”

“He’s going to pull the plug at Tsiolkovsky Base?”

“There is that possibility.”

“That’s insane! You run half of the USNA government at the very least!”

“From President Walker’s viewpoint, Admiral, he runs the government.”

“If they pull the plug, does that mean the Konstantin we left back there would die? Or would he come back when the computernetwork came back on-line?”

“Unknown. It probably depends on how aggressive the President’s agents are in the shutdown. My larger self would re-emergeif key memory and core processors were undamaged. However, upon our return to Earth, I would be able to reload myself intoan active system if we found the larger Konstantin to be unrecoverable.”

“You know, Konstantin, I don’t think you know any more about death and dying than humans do.”

“Admiral, I am not even sure what it means to be alive. I am self-aware, yes, but alive? In a biological sense, I am not. In a metaphysical sense . . . I am still studying thequestion.”

Gray found that he desperately wanted to change the subject. He didn’t like thinking about Konstantin being killed . . . orabout the United States of North America trying to run smoothly without him. He did know that one way or another, Walker wouldhave to be stopped.

That casual statement of treason shocked Gray to the core. He’d sworn an oath to protect the USNA against all enemies, foreignand domestic. Did that include the nation’s President?

Damn it, in the military you saluted the uniform, even if you couldn’t stand the superior officer wearing it. You respected the position, no matter what your politics or your feelings for or against the man holding it.

And yet, here he was leading an interstellar mission in direct violation of standing orders.

Where was the right?

He shoved that unpleasant thought aside to be dealt with later. “Okay, so how do we go about communicating with the Sh’daar?”

“We have some excellent personnel in our xenosophontological department,” Konstantin said. “Dr. Truitt is the senior memberof the xeno team, and he has a great deal of experience dealing with alien species and how