10

The Command System: Batholith

“It’s called a batholith: a granitic intrusion which rose up like a molten bubble into the sedimentary and metamorphic rocks

already here a

hundred million years ago.

“Eleven thousand years ago the locals built the Command System in it, hoping to use the rock cover as protection from fusion

warheads.

“They built nine stations and eight trains. The idea was that the politicos and military chiefs sat in one train, their seconds-in-command

and

deputies in another, and during a war all eight trains would be shuffled around the tunnels, halting in a station to be

linked via hardened

communication channels to the transceiver sites on the immediate surface and throughout the state, so

they could run the war. The enemy

would have a hard time cracking the granite that deep anyway, but hitting something as relatively

small as a station would be even more

difficult, and they never could be sure there would be a train in it, or that it would

be manned, and on top of that they had to knock out the back-

up train as well as the main one.

“Germ warfare killed them all off, and some time between then and ten thousand years ago the Dra’Azon moved in, pumping the

air out of

the tunnels and replacing it with inert gas. Seven thousand years ago a new ice age started, and about four thousand

years after that the place

got so cold Mr. Adequate pumped the argon out and let the planet’s own atmosphere back in; it’s

so desiccated, nothing’s rusted in the tunnels

for three millennia.

“About three and a half thousand years ago the Dra’Azon came to an agreement with most of the rival Galactic Federations which

allowed

ships in distress to cross the Quiet Barriers. Politically neutral, relatively powerless species were permitted to

set up small bases on most of

the Planets of the Dead to provide help for those in distress and—I suppose—to provide a sop

to the people who had always wanted to know

what the planets were like; certainly on Schar’s World, Mr. Adequate let us take

a good look at the System every year, and turned a blind eye

when we went down unofficially. However, nobody’s ever taken

unscrambled recordings of any sort out of the tunnels.

“The entrance we’re at is here: at the base of the peninsula, above station four, one of the three main stations—the others

are one and

seven—where repair and maintenance facilities exist. There are no trains parked in four, three or five. There

are two trains in station one, two in

seven, one train each in the rest. At least that’s where they ought to be; the Idirans

may have moved them, though I doubt it.

“The stations are twenty-five to thirty-five kilometers apart, linked by twin sets of tunnels which only join up at each of

the stations. The whole

System is buried about five kilometers down.

“We’ll take lasers… and a neural stunner, plus chaff grenades for protection—nothing heavier. Neisin can take his projectile

rifle; the bullets

he has are only light explosive…. But no plasma cannons or micronukes. They’d be dangerous enough in the

tunnels anyway, God knows, but

they might also bring down Mr. Adequate’s wrath, and we

don’t

want that.

“Wubslin’s rigged up our ship mass anomaly sensor into a portable set, so we can spot the Mind. In addition, I’ve got a mass

sensor in my

suit, so we shouldn’t have any problem actually finding what we’re after, even if it’s hidden itself.

“Assuming the Idirans don’t have their own communicators, they’ll be using the Changers’. Our transceivers cover their frequencies

and

more, so we can listen in on them, but they can’t hear us.

“So those are the tunnels. That Mind is in there somewhere, and so, presumably, are some Idirans and medjel."

Horza stood in the mess room at the head of the table, under the screen. On the screen a diagram of the tunnels was superimposed

over a

map of the peninsula. The others looked at him. The empty semi-suit of the medjel he had found lay in the center of

the table.

“You want to take us

all

in." the drone Unaha-Closp said.

“Yes."

“What about the ship." Neisin said.

“It can take care of itself. I’ll program its automatics so that it’ll recognize us and defend itself against anybody else."

“And you’re going to take her." Yalson asked, nodding at Balveda, who was sitting opposite her.

Horza looked at the Culture woman. “I’d prefer to have Balveda where I can see her," he said. “I wouldn’t feel safe leaving

her here with any

of you."

“I still don’t see why

I

have to go," Unaha-Closp said.

“Because," Horza told it, “I don’t trust you on board here, either. Besides, I want you to carry stuff."

“What." The drone sounded angry.

“I don’t know that you’re being completely honest here, Horza," Aviger said, shaking his head ruefully. “You say that the

Idirans and medjel…

well, that you’re on their side. But here they are, and they’ve killed four of your own people already,

and you think that they’re somewhere inside

these tunnels, wandering about…. And they’re supposed to be about the best ground-troops

in the galaxy. You want to send

us

up against

them."

“First of all," Horza sighed, “I am on their side. We’re after the same thing. Secondly, it looks to me as though they don’t

have many

weapons of their own, otherwise that medjel would certainly have been armed. All they probably have here are the

Changers’ weapons. Also it

looks, from this medjel suit we’ve got"—he gestured at the webbed apparatus in the middle of the

table, which he and Wubslin had been

studying since they had brought it on board—“like a lot of their equipment is blown.

Only the lights and the heaters on this thing were working.

Everything else had fused. My guess is all that happened when

they came through the Quiet Barrier. They were all zapped

inside

the chuy-hirtsi,

and their battle gear was fucked up. If the same thing happened to their weapons as happened to their suits,

they’re virtually unarmed, and with