weeks ago with the news that the Time Tombs showed signs of opening. The
anti-entropic fields around them were expanding rapidly and the Shrike
has begun ranging as far south as the Bridle Range."
The Consul turned and dropped into the cushions. A hoio had formed of
Meina Gladstone's ancient face. Her eyes looked as tired as her voice
sounded.
'A FORCE:space task force was immediately dispatched from Parvati to
evacuate the Hegemony citizens on Hyperion before the Time Tombs open.
Their time-debt will be a little more than three Hyperion years." Meina
Gladstone paused. The Consul thought he had never seen the Senate CEO
look so grim. 'We do not know if the evacuation fleet will arrive in
time,' she said, 'but the situation is even more complicated. An Ouster
migration cluster of at least four thousand... units...
has been detected approaching the Hyperion system.
Our evacuation task force should arrive only a short while before the
Ousters."
The Consul understood Gladstone's hesitation. An Ouster migration
cluster might consist of ships ranging in size from single-person
ramscouts to can cities and comet forts holding tens of thousands of the
interstellar barbarians.
'The FORCE joint chiefs believe that this is the Ousters' big push,'
said Meina Gladstone. The ship's computer had positioned the holo so
that the woman's sad brown eyes seemed to be staring directly at the
Consul.
'Whether they seek to control just Hyperion for the Time Tombs or
whether this is an all-out attack on the Worldweb remains to be seen. In
the meantime, a full FORCE:space battle fleet complete with a fareaster
construction battalion has spun up from the Camn System to join the
evacuation task force, but this fleet may be recalled depending upon
circumstances."
The Consul nodded and absently raised the Scotch to his lips. He
frowned at the empty glass and dropped it onto the thick carpeting of
the holopit. Even with no military training he understood the difficult
tactical decision Gladstone and the joint chiefs were faced with.
Unless a military fareaster were hurriedly constructed in the Hyperion
system- at staggering expense- there would be no way to resist the
Ouster invasion. Whatever secrets the Time Tombs might hold would go to
the Hegemony's enemy. If the fleet did construct a farcaster in time
and the Hegemony committed the total resources of FORCE to defending the
single, distant, colonial world of Hyperion, the Worldweb ran the
terrible risk of suffering an Ouster attack elsewhere on the perimeter,
or- in a worst-case scenario- having the barbarians actually seizing the
