Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 238
It was strange being back on Zar-Quaesitor, for so long his jail but now a base of operations. Kerubim had left this ship a shunned outcast but he returned a triumphant hero. He strode the corridors with a confident step, head held high and bearing proud. Adepts, Tech-Priests and Enginseers made way, moving aside so the party could walk to Cawl's sanctum. Today they would present their findings to the Archmagos himself and be rewarded, Kerubim was sure of it.
"What are you so smug about?" Brontes grumbled on a private vox-link.
Kerubim had his helm secured as he replied, "They finally respect us."
"It's not you," Jordig scoffed over the link, "It's Brontes they make way for."
"Eh?" Kerubim started.
"They don't want to get stepped on you dimwit," Brontes snorted.
Kerubim's hearts fell as he saw it was true. The Cadmus robot was a step behind the pair, looming over the surrounding adepts. They didn't know he was intelligent, but they knew he was big and aggressive and would stomp them flat if they didn't move. Kerubim's bubble burst and he sighed to himself. It looked like not so much had changed as he wished.
Their path took them to the private abode of the Archmagos and Kerubim trusted they were being summoned for good reason. The Tezla had docked barely an hour earlier, but enjoyed vox-communication far longer. Pycelo and Cawl engaging in pure Binaric exchange. Kerubim hadn't been party to any of it however, locked in his quarters with his comrades. As always he was doomed to be treated as suspect, so long as he associated with a Silica Animus. For all the efforts made to entice knowledge from Brontes, no one truly trusted him.
Their path took them past various forges and laboritorums. Kerubim was thoroughly lost but Jordig seemed to know where he was going and soon arrived at a pair of massive doors, guarded by a dozen Myrmidon destructors. Kerubim sensed targeting lasers passing over his armour and his hand itched to take up his Adrathic rifle but knew if he presented a threat he would die. It seemed the warrior-priests were satisfied he intended no harm to the Archmagos, for the great doors spilt open to allow them entry.
Kerubim passed between the waiting guns without showing wariness and entered the sanctum of Belisarius Cawl. Kerubim hadn't known what to expect: a Holy shrine to the Omnissiah, replete with votive electroscones and Cyber-cherubs, a clinical laboritorum, a greasy workshop, a mouldering library, menagerie of Xenos lifeforms, or sterile stacks of Data-looms. It turned out to be all of these and more.
Kerubim's jaw fell as he beheld the most eclectic collection of artefacts he had ever seen. In a vault so wide the noise of their steps echoed into the distance stacks of relics were piled high. He had never seen so many machines piled together, heaps of half-finished devices buried under piles of debris. Books and scrolls stood on lone bookcases, surrounded by pumps, energy coils, soldering irons and incense burners. Rows of jars filled with preserved animals bubbled in corners while a blank-eyed servitor tried to sort a pile of mismatched memory coils, unable to comprehend the uneven discs kept falling over before it was halfway done. A half-finished flying machine hung on wires from the roof, literally half, the left side perfect and flawless, the right nothing but plasteel frame. There was no rhyme or reason, it was a polymath's mind laid bare.
Jordig didn't seem surprised and led them on, negotiating a path past a whirring stack of Data-looms. Beyond they found the Archmagos himself, whirring about on many legs as he examined five separate holo-screeds. He seemed agitated, gesturing constantly and muttering to himself as he waved a data-wand in his metal hand. In the corner Kerubim saw Dannye hanging back, silently watching. It was annoying the Secutor had got here first, but there was nothing to be done save march forward and await Cawl's pleasure.
"Most perturbing," Cawl muttered to himself, "Paradoxes abound. All reports are confirmed as true, yet utterly contradictory."
"Archmagos, may we be of assistance?" Jordig said without ceremony as he removed his helm.
Cawl whirred about and exclaimed, "Ah, an outside perspective! Just what I need. Come look at this!"
Kerubim glanced at the data-screeds and asked, "What are they?"
Cawl explained, "Five separate missives from Primarch Thirteen, demanding I divert course to meet him in various sectors and reprimanding that I haven't responded. All of them arrived together, no mere Astropathic lag, these reports are confirmed as current but dated years apart."
"Time is broken," Kerubim mused recalling an earlier conversation.
"Exactly! Different sectors of the galaxy are no longer connected to others, in temporal terms. The Crusade may be experiencing time as a linear flow, but from our perspective it is analogous to looking at a broken mirror, multiple aspects moving independently of each other."
Jordig mused, "If you respond to a message from an earlier time, If you warn earlier periods of dangers yet to manifest, the course of events would change. You could rewrite history with a misplaced word. The chances of temporal calamity are immeasurable. You could wreck greater damage than the Cicatrix Maledictum."
"I don't think so," Kerubim sniffed.
"Elaborate," Cawl snapped.
"Easy, pick the message with the last timestamp and use it as a standard. The others already reprimand you for not responding, so you know you didn't reply. The evidence is self-evident: you shouldn't reply to earlier messages, because later missives tell us that you didn't."
Cawl stared for a moment then chuckled, "So simple and yet so elegant! Well done young one. Now, tell me what you think of my humble sanctum!"
Kerubim was taken aback by the sudden change in topic and said, "It's… it's certainly varied."
"I turn my hand to all aspects of the Machine God's realm!" Cawl crowed with glee, "No field is beyond my interest. Some hold that the Divisiones are separate and isolated but I have learned all things are connected, all fields are one. The creation of the Primaris was born not from one field but many, all aspects of their being, flesh and metal, existing in harmony! Metallurgy, chemistry, mathematics, genics, Xenos dissection, war-strategy, cyber-theurgy, history, geology, meteorology, construction and reverse-engineering, none are a stranger to Belisarius Cawl!"
Brontes broke his silence, "Is this going anywhere or did you bring us here to listen to you pat yourself on the back?!"
Cawl spun about and laughed, "Oh, ever so contrary, how pleasing it is to see your programming is unchanged. As for your question, I was explaining how I analysed those remarkable starcharts you brought back, behold!"
With a wave of his hand Cawl dismissed the data-screeds and replaced them with a glowing Hololith of the stars. Kerubim craned his head back and examined the points of light, trying to make sense of it. Little he saw looked familiar but Cawl waved his hand again and the lights shifted, lines disappearing and reappearing as colours shifted. Segmentum Ultima, from the capital world of Kar Duniash to distant Ultramar. Golden pinpricks emerged, marked with Aquila to denote Imperial holdings, red were Chaos strongholds, green motes he assumed were Ork strongholds, blue Tau, purple Tyranid and black bore runes of the Necrons. A great jagged scar ran through much of it, the Cicatrix Maledictum, and beyond was only grey haze of worlds whose status was unknown.
"So much was lost," Brontes groaned.
"Indeed," Cawl sighed, "Much of what you called the Hegemony is now claimed by others. As you can see Xenos enclaves inhabit great swathes of your former empire. Many more worlds were lost to Warp Storms, Supernovas, geological collapse and deliberate destruction. Imperial Colonies have claimed more, their secrets plundered and resources spent… and yet despite all that secrets remain unclaimed."
A series of white spots began to blink, Kerubim peered closer and saw they were not claimed by any race. Hidden worlds, absent from any Imperial starchart. Planets who had never been explored, worlds whose secrets remained pristine. The thought made Kerubim's mouth water, there was no telling what mysteries lay hidden there. What wonders of the past were waiting for a bold explorer to find them.
It was then Dannye spoke up, "Some of those planets dwell within suspected paths of Hive Fleets. They have been devoured by Tyranids."
"Their biospheres, yes," Cawl admitted, "But the Hive Mind has no interest in technological artefacts. The treasures of the past may well have been left intact."
"Worth looking into," Jordig mused, "But exploring all these will take time. If you send one ship to look into them all it will be centuries of poking through ruins, with no guarantee of success. Unless you intend to recruit more Magos Explorators."
But Cawl exclaimed, "No need! I already know where to start looking. I told you I was on the trail of wonder, a new means of fabrication, a way to build without factorum or laboritorum. I have caught the scent of the ultimate means of creation, and it all started with Brontes!"
"This better not be what I think it is," Brontes growled.
"So defensive," Cawl chuckled, "But I saw how you self-repair, your Nanocytes at work. Oh, you are not so cunning as you think, I have been watching closely and marvelled at your ability to rebuild at the atomic level."
"Nanoswarms?" Kerubim gasped, recognising the term from theoretical scriptures, "Isn't that impossible?"
Cawl exclaimed, "Everything is impossible, until it is done for the first time! Imagine if we could control a Nanoswarm. No more vulnerable Factorums, no more mining for resources and slow transport of ores. We could drop a Nanoswarm on a planet and instruct it to build a city. Or Legions of armoured vehicles, Titans or starships. Nanoswarms could construct anything we can dream, in a fraction of the time clumsy hands can manage. Even down to the atomic level, the very genic codes of living beings could be rewritten. We could produce armies of Primaris Marines in days!"
"No," Brontes spat.
That brought everyone up short and Dannye asked, "No?"
"I said no," Brontes growled, "This shall not be."
"But…" Kerubim gasped.
"Listen to me," Brontes elaborated, "I've heard this thinking before and it led to disaster. The Hegemony tried what you speak of and we failed. Did it escape your notice that we still needed Manufactories and Warworlds to build our weapons? Nanocytes have their uses, but they have to have limits too, without limits they are more dangerous than you can imagine."
Jordig eyed the Cadmus and probed, "You speak from first-hand experience."
"I do, there was a disaster, a calamity you can't imagine. The Nanoswarms they… you don't… it was out of control. The Nanocytes became something we never intended. I can't explain this in terms you can understand, but listen to me when I say the Hegemony couldn't get this idea to work. We shut it down and buried it deep, where none would think to look."
"But I found it," Cawl exclaimed, "The agri-world of Cippum."
A golden mote glowed and Kerubim gasped, "It's colonised!"
"Cippum," Jordig stated by rote, "Colonised M38, a minor agri-colony of little strategic worth. A backwater in the middle of nowhere, its only interesting feature is a series of crystal pyramids, large enough to be seen from orbit. Multiple expeditions and Techno-archaeologists have attempted to uncover their secrets, but their purpose remains unknown."
"You…" Brontes gasped, "You put people on Cippum! Are you deranged?!"
"There is no cause for concern," Dannye stated, "The planet has been colonised for three thousand years without incident."
"You must be insane!" Brontes snarled, "There are people on Cippum! Why weren't our warnings heeded?! It will get out, it will get free!"
Kerubim had never seen the Cadmus so alarmed, always dismissive and arrogant but now he sounded distressed. No, he sounded afraid. Whatever was there caused Brontes to know fear. Kerubim wouldn't have believed it was possible but with his own eyes he saw Brontes' distress. Hastily he spoke up, "Brontes, it's been three thousand years and nothing's happened. Whatever has got you worked up, it's unlikely to start tomorrow."
"You can't comprehend the danger," Brontes growled, "You need to get those people off that planet, now!"
"Evacuate a whole planet, of fifty million people," Dannye scoffed.
"If you want them to live," Brontes snapped, "If not… I can't imagine the number of worlds you will lose."
Kerubim interjected, "But a sudden evacuation might set off, whatever this is. Surely the best course is to leave it alone and keep everything calm."
"You have no idea what you're talking about," Brontes growled.
Cawl's voice sounded icy as he said, "No, I don't because you refuse to explain. Your alarm is illogical. I find your reaction out of character. Is this some failsafe your makers programmed into you?
Brontes however retorted, "You know the Hegemony reached for science and understanding, our mastery of invention was second to none, and I'm telling you this was something even we dared not use. We couldn't deploy it, no sane person would. Nothing you can whip up compares to this. Cippum must remain undisturbed."
Cawl's upbeat manner had evaporated as he said, "To turn from this course I would require detailed knowledge of the threat, as well as a viable alternative to pursue."
Brontes agreed, "Stay away from Cippum and I'll tell you everything. I'll even go through the starcharts and reveal every last secret base and research facility of the Hegemony. All of it, everything I've been holding back. But only to you."
Kerubim blinked in shock. He'd never imagined Brontes would give up so much, but the robot sounded desperate to keep them from going to that planet. Whatever was buried there must be truly dire to provoke such a reaction. Kerubim knew Daemonworlds and planets infested with Xenos horrors gave the Cadmus no fear, so Brontes' reason must be truly epic. Cawl waved the others to depart and Kerubim strode away, head churning with confusion. He and Jordig left the Silica Animus and Archmagos behind, wondering what was about to be revealed and how troubled they should be about it. However they should have been more concerned with Dannye.
The Secutor trailed in their wake, head down and silent. Yet his eyes gleamed with avarice and his processors itched with scented opportunity. Brontes had revealed the existence of a weapon beyond compare, the ultimate power, one so mighty even the ancients feared to use it. Dannye was not so timid, whatever was buried on Cippum, he wanted it.