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bird—an Andean condor, perhaps. Theentrance to the venting tube was now just ahead. Darkness descended over Valdez like a shroud as he guided his aircar throughthe stone-lined portal.

Cayambe was a volcano. Rising almost 5,800 meters above sea level, it was the third-highest peak in Ecuador. The city on itssouth flank stood at an altitude of 4,690 meters, the highest point in the world crossed by the equator, and the only pointon the equator permanently covered in snow.

There’d been a great deal of argument during the building of the space elevator over whether it was safe to use a volcanic mountain as the Earthside anchor for the structure. The issue was resolved by the Ecuadoran Consortium, a group of business and governmental interests that stood to make hundreds of trillions of dollars if Port Ecuador and the adjoining metropolis of Quito became a major trade center linking Earth with synchorbit. Cayambe had last erupted in March of 1786, some 643 years ago. It was probably dead.

To protect their investment, however, the governments of the USNA, Pan-Europe, and several other major players had insistedon safeguards. Eighty tunnels had been bored into the lower flanks of the mountain, leading down at shallow angles to a regiondeep beneath the roots of Cayambe, to La Caldera de Erebus, a basalt chamber twenty kilometers above the top magma plume that had created the peak. Those twenty kilometers of solidrock comprised the plug in the quiescent volcano’s throat; a robotic observatory rested on the floor of the chamber itself,monitoring conditions in the rock deep below. If an incipient eruption was detected, the lowest section of the elevator itselfcould be severed, allowing the elevator to be moved, while the city would be evacuated.

Should an eruption occur, that plug would dissolve or be blown clear; the venting stubs existed to redirect the upper surgeof magma and hot gas outward and away from the mountain’s base. No one knew for sure if it would work, but the best calculationsby the best volcanology SAIs on the planet suggested that it would save Port Ecuador . . . or at least buy time enough toshift the space elevator’s base to Hacienda Tanda, thirty-eight kilometers along the equator to the west, where reserve groundfacilities were in place.

Acting according to the dictates of the nano within his brain, Valdez guided his aircar down the arrow-straight tunnel, droppingoff drone relays along his path. When he reached the inner mouth of the tunnel, overlooking the vast basaltic chamber below,he grounded his vehicle.

The relay drones would keep him linked to his handlers.

Now all he had to do was wait.

Chapter Thirteen

21 April, 2429

USNA CVS America

CIC

N’gai Cluster

0915 hours, FST

It had taken some time for Konstantin to find the appropriate channel to contact the enormous McKendree cylinder now hangingin space just ahead of America and her consorts. The aliens apparently did not use radio for regular communication, or laser transmissions, though therewas plenty of broadband leakage from various control systems and networks. Konstantin had finally managed to make contactwith a robot through its radar ranging circuitry, and after several hours he’d reported to Gray that they were now communicatingwith the Adjugredudhra.

Gray remembered them, one of the more advanced species that had made up the Sh’daar Collective. They looked like upright but unsteady pillars perhaps a meter high, radially symmetrical, like eight terrestrial starfish stacked one atop the other. Highly flexible arms emerged from masses of dark tendrils between the pale-yellow starfish shapes; some of those tendrils looked like sucker-tipped manipulatory appendages, while others ended in blood-red marbles—presumably eyes. He found himself looking at one now within an in-head window, as Konstantin opened the channel.

It regarded him without any emotion that Gray could detect through a number of stalked eyes. He noticed several small, metallicdevices were imbedded in the organism’s flesh. Some Adjugredudhra, Gray knew, used advanced nanoprostheses to remake theirphysical bodies, while others were cybernetic organisms, part machine, part organic. This one, apparently, was pretty muchthe original model.

“Ah, Admiral Gray,” the being’s translated voice said in Gray’s head. “It is good to again see you.”

For Gray, it was very much a matter of one Adjugredudhra looking pretty much like another. “We’ve met before?”

“Yes. I am called Ghresthrepni,” the being told him. Gray could hear the being’s actual voice in the background, a melodiousblend of chirps, trills, and the tinkling of bells. “When last we met, I commanded a vessel called the Ancient Hope,” it continued. “I was selected to receive your communication once more, since I have had dealings with your species before.”

“It’s good to see you again,” Gray said. He wondered if the odd little being might have been offended by the fact that hehadn’t recognized it, but if it had, it gave no sign.

Perhaps it found it as difficult to distinguish between individuals of another species as Gray did. It might have learnedhis name just now from Konstantin.

Or, possibly not.

“Why,” Ghresthrepni asked, “have you sought us out?

And Gray told him.

 

Quito Space Elevator

Port Ecuador

1034 hours, EST

Alexander Koenig stepped off the mag-tube pod and onto the terminal platform. Port Ecuador was one of the busiest mag-tube nodes on the planet, and riding the evacuated tube on magnetic cushions all the way from Columbus to Cayambe had taken just forty minutes. The platform seethed with people, from full-humans to people with organic prostheses or cyberenhancements all the way to outlandish gene mods, some of whom looked very inhuman indeed. There were lots of robots as well, some designed solely for function rather than for a human appearance, andothers who would have passed for human except for the ID tags that flashed up within Koenig’s awareness.

Koenig himself was not exactly as he outwardly appeared. Like Marta yesterday, he was wearing a face, a living mask that madehim look physically quite different—forty years younger, with higher cheekbones, thicker eyebrows, and the hint of a beard.His security detail had insisted; too many people knew Koenig’s face . . . including people who had reason to want him dead.

His Marine bodyguard, Staff Sergeant Hinkley, wearing