Read The Immortal Game (Rook's Song) for Free Online

know if we were alone.  We wanted a final answer, because many of those in our scientist caste detected strange stratic readings across the cosmos, anomalies that were more than just the cosmic background noise.  There was a theory that we weren’t alone, a serious theory, and it was gaining support.”  When he speaks again, there might be the teensiest bit of remorse, or it might just be the monotone nature of the translator.  “We didn’t know it was the Cerebs, we only knew something was out there, and that it was moving.  They found us first, and had the honor and advantage of first strike.”
    “So, you fled?” Rook says, nodding to his screen.  “To this place?”
    “To this and places like it, correct.  We had already traveled far and wide in our explorations, and we had just discovered that there was life far beneath the surface of this world.  But then our great enemy came, and like you, we dropped everything else in our society and focused on our enemy.  It wasn’t until the end that we discovered they had almost no understanding of deception.  The whole time they were watching us dance, watching us prepare what they determined were meaningless deceptions—and they were mostly meaningless, since the Cerebs had done enough planning beforehand and could calculate almost every conceivable place we meant to move our people and resources to.”  Now, he looks rather appreciatively at the forward view.  “But then we had another plan.  We came back to this place.  I was one of the engineers that designed and built the subterranean installations here.  It was never quite finished, as you can plainly see.”
    Rook looks at his screen, at the twelve large spheres hanging around the planet.  “Those survey and defense stations, you said they were never made fully operational?”
    “That i s correct.  The remoteness of this planet, and its speed and likeliness of being flung entirely from the galaxy, made it someplace the Cerebs would never see as a tactical advantage.”
    “That’s why you chose it , I get that.  But what about these stations?” he says, pointing to the orbs floating a hundred kilometers off.  “Wouldn’t that make this planet more detectable?”
    “These stations were built elsewhere, and brought in as a response to intel ligence reports we received suggesting the Cerebs might have discovered this place.  We brought in the defense stations half constructed, hoping to complete their development here.  But the Cerebs were pushing too far, too fast, and we decided to abandon this place entirely before any such major effort could get underway.  Their engines were working then, and probably still work, probably even the energy shields if they weren’t used too much.  But the weapons were never installed.  They’re just floating, empty husks.”
    A chime goes off.  The Sidewinder’s fab ricators have finished transforming another barrel of deuterium into pycnodeuterium.  Rook taps a few keys, gives the ship his authorization codes to begin the necessary steps to safely mix the new pycno with what was left inside the fuel tanks.  It forces him to look at the fuel levels again, so depressingly low.  “Are there any dangerous security measures we ought to be aware of before we make our approach?”
    “I told you, the defense stations aren’t working,” Bishop says , perhaps a little tersely.
    “I know that, but what about down on the planet itself?  Any sort of robot security forces, energy fields, ground-to-air defense turrets?”
    “None.”
    “Are you positive?”
    “I was one of the last of my people to leave Kali,” he says, adopting Rook’s nickname for the planet.  “There were no dangerous security systems I ever helped to implement, merely a few security doors made of dense yet flexible materials, much like your compristeel.  The only thing we need worry about is getting trapped in certain areas where the doors might seal around us, or in