apexeno vol 1

14. Winner Takes All

Contact Unit

Greater love hath no man than he lay down the life of his brother for you.

—Arjun

"Why did you throw the match?!" Sanjay was furious.

"You saw the odds," Arjun said. "We only had a one-in-fifty chance of winning."

"That's infinitely better than a zero chance. If it was a lottery, I'd take those odds any day. Hell, any move would have been better than no move at all."

"This isn't a lottery," Arjun said. "There is a sentient being—or at least one hell of a smart AI—on the other side of that board. It can read the odds just as well as we can. Winning would have demonstrated nothing other than we caught a lucky break. Our concession, on the other hand, signals a deeper understanding of the situation. Perhaps it will open a dialogue."

Misuni had peeled her grav suit down to her navel and was rubbing feeling back into her bare arms. "I never knew mental puzzles could be so orgasmic. I feel like I just had a sex marathon."

MeiWei was not so glib. She locked eyes with Arjun. "You shouldn't have deployed the solar sail without consulting us. We could have been stranded in the system."

"You were indisposed, and I deemed it a necessary risk," Arjun said without apology.

MeiWei's eyes flared. She was about to fire back, but Sanjay spoke first. "Who says we'll be allowed to leave now? In case it escaped your attention, we lost the match. That thing might vaporize us at any moment."

"Or even worse, it might gloat for the next million years," Misuni said. "Don't look now, I think something's happening."

The small drones that made up the points of the game grid began streaming back toward the artifact. "Detecting laser lock on the ship's communication array," Jaine said. "It appears the artifact is opening a comms channel."

The message was a pictorial that represented the CU vessel containing internal nodes resembling dandelion spores. It was not lost on the crew that there were five nodes, the same number as the human crew. How had it known? Two sequences of images followed. The first showed the artifact firing a straight line at the CU whereupon it dissolved into specks along with its dandelion spores, dispersing into nothing. The second sequence showed one of the nodes leaving the CU vessel and floating across the gap. Once it was swallowed up by the artifact, the CU moved away unharmed.

The message required no translation: send over one of your number andyou may leave in peace, or else your vessel will be obliterated.