Book 4 - 13: If You Can't Beat Them
Wormhole
Antecessor Ship
Point-Two’s Quarters
“Something bothering you?” asked Point-Two.
“Yes,” said Fig, turning off the control panel on his arm which he seemed to be always fiddling with these days. “Several things, actually. Do you really believe going through the Central Authority’s training program is the best way to get into the First Quadrant? It just seems so unnecessary.”
“You’re probably right,” said Point-Two. “My guess would be Ubik wants to involve the CA for some reason, but he can’t come out and say it because we have Antecessors who might not be too agreeable to the idea. The ones on this ship and the one in your head.”
“Yes, that makes sense,” said Fig. He sat down on the chair-like structure that effortlessly slid out from the wall of the room Point-Two had been given as his personal quarters. “I understand why he wouldn’t want to explain it to me, but there’s no reason to keep it from you.”
“No reason other than Ubik being Ubik. Whatever his ultimate goal, I don’t think he intends any harm towards either of us. Not on purpose, anyway.”
“I used to think the same,” said Fig. “Now I’m not so sure. The closer we get to the Antecessor homeworld and all the secrets it contains, the less he seems to care about anything else. Or anyone else.”
“Did he ever care?” said Point-Two.
“I think so,” said Fig. “At least, he didn’t go out of his way to endanger others. But now, it seems he is willing to make sacrifices of a more lethal nature.”
Point-Two could tell Fig had spent some time thinking this matter over. Possibly not just on his own.
“Is that your judgement or your friend’s?”
Fig tilted his head and looked up at him. “We’re thinking along similar lines at the moment.”
“Well, he hasn’t stepped over the line yet,” said Point-Two. “It’s never a good idea to assume what he’s going to do — we should wait and see. Not that you have too much to worry about. You are the most powerful person in the galaxy, after all.”
“I don’t believe that’s true,” said Fig, smiling to himself. “I may be holding the catalyst for the end of this universe, but it’s not really a useful tool on a practical level. You, on the other hand, are the first multi-organic of this age. Your power is the one we’ll be relying on most.”
“I don’t know about that. Never mind the galaxy, neither of us are even the most powerful person on this ship.”
“True,” said Fig. “That’s what’s bothering me.”
“If it’s just a matter of not trusting him, I think you’re fretting over nothing. There are many, many more people who can’t be trusted who are going to get us killed before he does. If it was between Ubik and relying on some selfless hero who wanted to save us all, then I might share your concerns. But there isn’t a better alternative. What do you want to do? Go hide on some backwater planet while the Antecessors redesign our reality for us?”
“Yes, you’re right,” said Fig. “There are no better alternatives. We have to make the best of what we have. And we have Ubik.” Fig stood up and his seat folded itself into the wall. “I still think you should try to talk to him. I would like to have some small inkling of what it is he really wants from the CA.”
Fig left to contemplate matters on his own. Or maybe not on his own.
It wasn’t a bad idea. The CA was a powerful entity best left alone. If Ubik wanted to provoke them, it would help to have an exit strategy ready. And to do that, you would need to know where Ubik was going, so you could arrange for exits in the opposite direction. It wasn’t likely to work. Ubik didn’t want the Antecessors knowing too much. But any information was better than no information.
Point-Two left his quarters and headed towards the bridge. Or what Ubik had convinced the Antecessors to change into a bridge-like room. The ship was huge and the rooms were all being constantly created and folded away as needed.
Ubik sat in a big chair with cushions he had taken from the freighter. The dirty yellow pillows looked out of place against the pristine Antecessor obsidian and silver. It was supposed to be a captain’s chair of sorts, but it looked more like a captain’s egg cup.
“Because I think it is going to be the quickest way into the First Quadrant,” said Ubik when Point-Two suggested there might be other routes to their destination, ones that avoided contact with people looking to incarcerate, interrogate and then execute them, and not necessarily in that order. “And I’ve always wanted to go to Heaven.”
“Sorry, what?”
“Heaven. Well, you know, something-something Heaven City. The CA’s big citadel thing.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” said Point-Two, staring at the screen the Antecessors had built at Ubik’s request which showed the inside of the wormhole they were currently flying through.
“Yes, you do,” insisted Ubik. “You must have heard of it. A thousand years ago, they bridged together a bunch of starships and star fortresses and built a grand, magnificent super metropolis in space named Heavenly something-or-other City. “
“A thousand years ago?”
“Well, maybe not a thousand. Maybe a couple of hundred. I don’t know, I’m not an expert on space architecture. But it’s the CA’s jewel in the crown. Who wouldn’t want to have a look at it?”
It was starting to sound like Ubik was only here for the tourist attractions.
“Won’t the Antecessor homeworld be more interesting?”
“Sure, sure, that’ll be great, too. But since we’re in the neighbourhood, why not check out both? Who knows when we’ll get another chance? Who knows if the universe will still be here tomorrow?”
Point-Two had that itchy feeling at the back of his head, the one he got when Ubik became overly excited about something. The one that told him he was being diverted away from something more important.
“I’m just saying,” said Point-Two, carefully guiding the conversation back to the thing Ubik seemed to be trying to avoid, “it feels like we could cut out the middleman and go directly to our end goal.”
“Oh,” said Ubik. “You want to cut out the middleman. I see. You think that’s the logical approach, huh? Worm eats dirt, chicken eats worm, we eat chicken. Why not cut out the middleman and we can all enjoy a nice bowl of dirt for lunch? Think of the time saved.”
“That’s not what I’m saying, Ubik.”
“That’s exactly what you’re saying. This is a process. You jump straight to the end, you miss out on the necessary steps, everything falls apart. This isn’t old Ubik speaking here. This is new improved Ubik with access to all the resources a million years of Antecessor technology can supply. We no longer have the luxury of making things up as we go along. We can’t afford to play things fast and loose anymore. I’ve got this worked out. I have a plan. I’ve done the research.”
“You? You’ve done the research?”
“Yes,” said Ubik very firmly. “Deep research. The deepest. It’s all up here.” Ubik pointed to his head. “All the data, the details, the info, down to the last bit, byte and piece of code. I’ve absorbed it all and formulated the ideal executable. That’s why I know our best way in is via Heaven’s Fortress Megacity or whatever it’s called.”
“If you’ve got everything memorised why can’t you remember the bloody name of the Central Authority base?”
Ubik raised both hands and shook his head as though at a loss to explain where all this hostility was coming from. “Because names aren’t important, only function. We can spend every hour having to dodge and duck and hide from the CA, or we can go directly to their central core and disable their entire sensor array in one go, leaving us undetectable permanently. Huh? You see? The long game.”
It wasn’t that what Ubik was saying didn’t make sense. If there really was a way to pass through the CA’s space metropolis without being identified, then it would certainly be worth seeing. And if they could disable the CA’s ability to detect their movements in the First Quadrant, it would certainly make life easier. But how likely was a plan like that to go smoothly?
“They’re going to know it’s us,” said Point-Two. “There’s no way they won’t. As soon as we step into their territory, we’ll be pinged a thousand times. We can’t disable their sensor array before we arrive, can we?”
“Ah, I see. You’re worried about our cover being blown. You think they can penetrate my disguises?”
“They have the most advanced sensors in the galaxy. Observing is what they do best.”
“They’ve had a hard time tracking us so far, haven’t they?” Ubik banged on the arm of the chair he was slouching in, making lights run around the back of it. Silver blobs detached from the walls and three Antecessors came rushing closer to see what the problem was. “Antecessor tech, especially the stuff that’s fully operational, still has an edge over their tech. You haven’t even seen half of what’s on board here, you know.”
He waved away the Antecessors like insects that were bothering him.
“That’s another thing,” said Point-Two, watching the silver blobs float off. “The way the Antecessors have embraced you as their leader, it’s a bit suspect, don’t you think?”
“Is he getting jealous? Is that what this is about?”
“Is who getting jealous?”
“Fig’s organic. You should keep an eye on it. Can’t be trusted.”
“That’s what the organic says about you,” said Point-Two.
“I bet he does. Wait until we get to the homeworld. That’s when it’ll show its true colours.”
Point-Two also felt they had yet to see the organic’s true colours. But he also agreed with Fig that Ubik unchecked would probably leave them in a very disadvantageous position.
It was like the only person he could trust was himself. Which was what he was used to, so that was fine. But when it came down to an actual power struggle, how would he be able to cope with both Ubik and Fig?
Hope they cancelled each other out? Leaving him as the one in charge?
That was not what he wanted. Point-Two wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life, but he knew he wanted to live in a universe that left him alone.
What he really needed was someone to take his place. Suddenly, the Central Authority’s base of operations didn’t seem such a terrible place to visit. The CA was, after all, home to the greatest AI minds in the galaxy, devoid of all human aspirations, free of greed and selfishness. Perhaps a cold, emotionless machine was the best answer to his problem.
