PeterWatts_Blindsight

Peter Watts 281 Blindsight
Rorschach's parting shot had punched through the carapace at
the base of the spine. It had just missed the ramscoop and the
telematter assembly. It might have taken out Fab if it hadn't spent
so many joules burning through the carapace, but barring some
temporary pulse effects it left all critical systems pretty much
operational. All it had done was weaken Theseus' backbone enough
to make it snap in two should we ever burn hard enough to break
orbit. The ship would be able to repair that damage, but not in
time.
If it had been luck it would have been remarkable.
And now, its quarry disabled, Rorschach had vanished. It had
everything it needed from us, for the moment at least. It had
information: all the experiences and insights encoded in the
salvaged limbs of its martyred spies. If Stretch-or-Clench's gamble
had paid off it even had a specimen of its own now, which all
things considered we could hardly begrudge it. And so now it
lurked invisibly in the depths, resting perhaps. Recharging.
But it would be back.
Theseus lost weight for the final round. We shut down the drum
in a token attempt to reduce our vulnerable allotment of moving
parts. The Gang of Four—uncommanded, unneeded, the very
reason for their existence ripped away—retreated into some inner
dialog to which other flesh was unwelcome. She floated in the
observatory, her eyes closed as tightly as the leaded lids around
her. I could not tell who was in control.
I guessed. "Michelle?"
"Siri—" Susan. "Just go."
Bates floated near the floor of the drum, windows arrayed
externally across bulkhead and conference table. "What can I do?"
I asked.
She didn't look up. "Nothing."
So I watched. Bates counted skimmers in one window—mass,
inertia, any of a dozen variables that would prove far too constant
should any of those shovelnosed missiles come at our throat. They
had finally noticed us. Their chaotic electron-dance was shifting
now, hundreds of thousands of colossal sledgehammers in sudden
flux, reweaving into some ominous dynamic that hadn't yet settled