by Skyler Grant
I’d lost half my drones defending the hangar bay when a shadow leapt down from a passageway ceiling to swipe claws of darkness at the enemy armored soldiers. They turned and fired into it, but it didn’t seem to do any good. The thing ripped several more apart before flickering and disappearing as suddenly as it appeared.
That had to be Sylax’s nightmare monster. The walls were still dripping blood throughout the station. There wasn’t a passageway not sticky as it pooled inch-thick on the floor.
Sylax said, “Can I just say I love this thing? I mean, I want my accelerated-healing back, but this is fun.” My biosensors confirmed she was enjoying herself. That was no surprise. Mass-murder always delighted her.
“Later,” I said.
I didn’t need all of the Flare’s reactors for what I had in mind, even a low-powered dimensional shift would suffice to get the ship to where I could repair it at my leisure.
Given that whatever Sylax was doing did seem to be weakening the local dimensional framework, it might be enough to amplify the range of a dimensional-reactor exploding.
I didn’t want to wipe out the planet. The general population hadn’t done anything to deserve that. However their rulers thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with us and I’d see they wouldn’t make that mistake again.
“Get your teams aboard. We’ll use the Flare for evac,” I said, before I shifted my attention back over to Caya and Anna. Several ships were dropping to the surface from orbit, avoiding the combat there. Entering the atmosphere made their engines vulnerable and while my fighters weren’t designed for atmospheric entry, the drones didn’t need to survive anyway.
I sent over Warmonger’s data to Caya, who gave one of my drones a surprised look, “Really?”
“I know, more than your feeble mind can process,” I said, slipping into the drone.
“No, no, it actually makes a sort of sense,” Caya said, gnawing on her lower lip as she began to tap faster at the keys in front of her.
No, it really didn’t make sense.
That was refreshing on one level. SCIENCE was at its best when it made no sense. Still, I didn’t like it making sense to other people and not to me.
“Going through that ascension engine really did break your mind, if you now think Warmonger is sensible,” I said.
“I don’t need to understand the logic behind it to analyze and act on a pattern. A core part of dimensional science is making the universe believe the untrue is true. I just needed to know which lie to tell. I had the when, but lacked other variables,” Caya said.
Of course, she wasn’t going to force the gateway open. Rather, she was going to make the universe believe that the same conditions existed as when the gateway had opened before. It would open all by itself.
The air shimmered. A square doorway opened showing a city of carved white structures beyond. Of Hot Stuff and her team there was no sign, although crates on the other side of the doorway were piled up with galactic lettering on them. Hot Stuff’s crew must have marked the contents. The crates showed signs of weapons fire from the kinetic weapons the locals favored.
“Hot Stuff, if you can hear me, we came to the rescue,” Anna shouted.
There was no response.
“Guess I go looking. Come along, or do you need to hold the door?” Anna asked.
“I can send a drone,” I said.
Caya said, “Emma saw what I did. If she had to, she can duplicate this at any of the past sites this gateway opened.”
Maybe. We weren’t certain of that.
“Hold it open and keep us from getting attacked,” Anna said, and passed through. On the other side she picked up one of the crates and threw it through the gateway, “If you can still hear me, figure out why this stuff is so important.”
I wasn’t thrilled about this. The enemy fleet was showing signs of getting their act together.
Caya passed through the gateway and I had one of my drones join her.
I jumped another dozen Juggernauts into the orbit around the second planet.
Troop carriers were heading towards shipyards while the bulk of their fleet was now moving towards the second planet too.
It was time to give them more of a distraction.
27
Warmonger was having only minor success on the planet’s surface. We knew this universe’s Earth had artificial intelligence before the planet disappeared, we’d found a version of myself that carried over. That meant the locals could put up some resistance against Warmonger’s efforts. However, Ais could think and respond to the system attacks faster than any human and with Warmonger of advanced alien construction it afforded him an edge. He was running loose through the network on the planet’s surface and amplifying comm traffic, overloading communication systems and hampering their coordination.
While I was sure Warmonger was enjoying himself I doubted he was actually interfering much with the command and control structure of the enemy military, which should rely on different networks.
It would have to be enough. I had him reintegrate himself into the Flare’s systems as my drones went about preparing the ship’s departure. Dimensional shifting as a means of transit was dangerous. The field that extended around a ship was unstable at the best of times and given how much equipment they’d already stripped from the Flare it would be more risk than usual.
I had a technical team remaining behind with one of the dimensional reactors. I ordered them to get some distance away and activate the shift. Unstable was right, only about eighty-four percent of the ship went—and two drones dead. Fortunately the rest were in Aegis suits already and atmospheric integrity wasn’t an issue.
The team was moving the dimensional reactor over to the other dock. More power would help with the instability and since they had a partially-constructed battleship already there I might as well put it to some use. With its engines fueling the reaction I should get some more power.
Troop carriers were approaching the shipyard. If I could give this another minute it might put them into range. I wished I had a way to draw the fleets here, but instead they were moving with purpose towards my own ships. I could have withdrawn them, but that would leave the second planet vulnerable to bombardment. Caya might be confident that I could reestablish the gateway elsewhere. I wasn’t convinced.
Unless I wanted to risk the loss of Anna, Caya, and Hot Stuff I needed to maintain hold of the planet.
When the troop carriers were closer I had my team trigger the explosion. At its core a dimensional reactor is creating energy from nothing, lying to the universe. Do it poorly and the universe catches on to the lie and balances the scales. Matter and energy are all the same thing in the end. With the weakened dimensional holes around the shipyard the dimensional bubble spread further than it normally would and the math was bad. Drones vanished, ships vanished—even a large chunk of the moon vanished into the void.
Paying a debt the universe suddenly realized it was owed.
Emma Delta
Back in my drone and following Anna and Caya through the gateway, I discovered the other side was bright. I quickly adjusted the sensory feeds of the drone and toned it down to a tolerable level. Even though behnd us the other side was still visible, I'd lost connection to my Network.
"No fixed origin point for the light. It is coming from all directions," Caya said.
The air shimmered, light coalescing into a humanoid figure of a woman. Although her features were indistinct she was obviously an attempt to mimic a human.
"If you're Hot Stuff, you've changed a bit," Anna said.
"I'm not. You can call me Bright," Bright said. There were no words spoken, it was a psionic projection. I was a bit miffed that their psionic abilities worked here while mine seemed dampened.
"If you're not our friend, you probably know where she is. We'd like her back," Anna said.
"You reopened the gate. That was a surprise," Bright said, and leaned in to peer at Caya. "Ah, I see. You are almost ready. You should
turn back before it is too late."
"Why do people never answer my questions?" Anna asked.
I said, "You're so tremendously uninteresting they forget them seconds after you speak. What species are you?" I asked Bright.
"I was of the Illari, I doubt you'll have heard of us," Bright said.
That much was right.
"I'm standing right here. I'm still asking questions and I'm about to start breaking things," Anna said.
"I'd have to restrain you, if you tried," Bright said, finally acknowledging Anna. "The blue one is this way. You may follow. When she was trapped I decided to help her."
"Help her how?" Caya asked.
"You, who are also being consumed alive by a gift of Iska, ask this? You need my help as well, but I shall not give it. There are too many of you here," Bright said.
The city through the gateway wasn't really a city. There was no life here, no purpose. It was almost like an abandoned film studio lot, empty structures with no meaning to any of them anymore.
"You know Iska?" Anna said.
"She means well, but should learn her own lesson," Bright said.
"You're ascended, aren't you? Shouldn't you be off ... doing something else?" Caya asked.
"I'm the last of my people, green one, because I wanted to stay behind," Bright said.
I asked, "Why do you keep referring to everyone by the color of their crystals? While I admit they have few other distinguishing features, we could at least be smart one, pretty one, other one?"
Caya said, "I'm the pretty one and the smart one. Your classification system doesn't work. Smart and pretty one, psionic parasite, angry one."
"That isn't any better," Anna scowled.
Bright waited for a pause to say, "It is the easiest way for me to perceive any of you. You with only a small crystal are so dim as to be almost indistinguishable."
We were getting near Hot Stuff. I didn't need to see her, my drone was starting to sweat. She must be outside her containment suit.
"Organics are vulnerable to temperature extremes," I said.
Bright tilted her head and the air chilled. She made no other acknowledgment as she led the way. The structure we were heading towards was unlike the others. There were details, vines carved in stonework and fractal patterns engraved on pillars. None were casual, all looked complex and interconnected.
"These are related to ascension," Caya said.
"Memories fade, after. In this place I remember," Bright said.
Hot Stuff was inside. She wore a white robe and looked to be meditating. The outfit wasn't one of my creations. It was actually surviving the blue flames that flickered constantly around her body. There was no sign of her containment suit.
I'd spent a lot of time monitoring her, and could tell immediately that her flames had lost some intensity.
"Hot Stuff?" Anna asked.
Hot Stuff blinked, startled, and looked up. "Anna? Caya? Is that Emma riding along with you? What the hell are you three doing here? Bright, can I hug people?"
"If you must," Bright said.
Hot Stuff proceeded to do just that and nobody died. Energy absorption of the flames, it had to be.
Bright was strong.
28
Emma Prime
The team that had gone through the gateway still hadn't returned, and the drone accompanying Anna and Caya was cut off from my Network. I had my own problems, the distraction hadn't been that distracting. Oh, there were rescue ships going up from the planet to investigate what had happened to the shipyards, but the military ships were pointed towards the threat still in the system.
So far I'd managed to avoid losing any more Juggernauts. The enemy vessels were dangerous and I'd formed a fighter screen between my vessels and them while the Angels occasionally switched locations to pummel them from a distance.
The enemy ships had powerful mass drivers that were likely intended for planetary bombardment, or for attacking vessels happy to stand there and slug it out. Point defense systems followed a similar philosophy, high in power but because of the maneuverability of my fighters effective only at short range.
If I didn't close on them they had a hard time hurting me, but advancing individually would quickly see a ship destroyed. They were mustering forces and forming lines. I knew they'd use it to force their way through the fighter screen and open fire on the Juggernauts.
I'd lose ships then, possibly a lot of ships.
My science team meanwhile had cracked open the case that had been thrown through the gateway. The contents were unexciting if very valuable—vials of teleoka fluid. Teleoka maintained a liquid state at absolute zero and at around 40,000 degrees Celsius. Our ships didn't make use of it. However, it was a core component of the singularity drives used by most species and quite rare.
Hot Stuff had scored an incredible payday. It was little wonder the locals wanted in on the action, assuming they'd discovered what she had found.
I wondered how much she'd been able to load onto the Flare before they launched their attack. I sent my team through to retrieve the remaining crates. They were worth selling, or if this was really the reason behind the attack on Hot Stuff, they might be willing to negotiate.
Emma Delta
"We need to go," I told Caya and Anna.
Hugs were all very useless and unpleasant, and we had a fight to get back to.
"Not yet. I can adjust the time flow. Red, Blue, Green, all are on paths to destruction," Bright said.
"You should listen to her. Bright's good people," Hot Stuff said.
"Are your crew here too?" I asked.
Hot Stuff grimaced and shook her head. "I hoped they were taken prisoner with the Flare."
If so, hopefully the real me managed to rescue them.
"They were after your cargo. Not hostages," I said.
"Well, at least you've moved on to ignoring her now. Why are we on a path to destruction?" Anna asked Bright.
Hot Stuff told her, "Bright said it isn't the crystals making me burn out of control. It is me—according to her it always has been. I was my lack of willingness to have self-control that fled outwards into my abilities and became worse as they did," Hot Stuff said.
"And you," Bright said, pointing at Anna. "You hate power, still, for all you pretend otherwise. The more power you have, and you show, the more it will hurt until it tears you apart."
"And I suppose you're going to say I'm just too perfect?" Caya asked.
"You are a perfected human attempting to become ascendant, a state by its very nature flawed and imperfect. You might succeed if you persist, and I think you will. You should not. Ascension is death," Bright said.
"You're looking pretty alive. Well, I mean, maybe ghostly and made of light, but alive," Anna said.
"I'm hiding," Bright said.
"From what?"
"It is not something it will benefit you to know. You will learn the lessons I have to teach, and the pale one will accept a gift, if it wishes," Bright said.
"If I can learn, it means no more suit. I can have food, water, clothes ... sex. I'm grateful you came to rescue me, Emma, I am. But I'm staying," Hot Stuff said.
"I can scale time. Compress it for you. But a moment will pass for the others," Bright said.
"You think you can get rid of my pain?" Anna asked. "Emma has been trying, but nothing has helped."
"You should be wary of any entity offering you all the answers," Caya said, and asked Bright, “Why?”
Bright offered a glowing hand to Caya and after a moment of frowning regard, Caya reached out to take it. Green and white light flared.
Caya stumbled back, clutching at her head.
"I'm fine, just ... give me a moment. I'm not ascended, however good my chances, and that hurt. Bright is lonely and sad, and dying. I know she's keeping secrets, something happened to the rest of her people, but she kept hoping they would show. That someone would come looking for her," Caya asked.
"By hiding in another dimension
?" Anna asked.
"The signature wavelength that predicts the gateway. Part of the spectrum, her color, her name. It doesn't make much sense to us, but if her people were looking for Bright, this is one of the places they'd check," Caya said.
Interesting, if true. In galactic society the ascended did not come back to have chats once they were gone. Bright must be breaking a lot of rules, or else ascension really was death and she was one of the few survivors of the process.
"What gift?" I asked.
"Iska hid my people too, we had our own gifts. I was one of our carriers and have it still. Soon I will carry it no more," Bright said.
A greater crystal. I'd never taken one before because I feared the consequences. If I died, millions died. But I wasn't myself right now. Psionically cut off from the Network, this drone and I were the equivalent of an isolated server. If we died, the Network wouldn't die. If we lived ... well, I wasn't sure what would happen when we integrated with the whole.
"I'm in," Anna said.
"Me as well," Caya said.
"You sure you want a gift?" Anna asked me.
Bright said, "There are drawbacks. Power should be forced on none, but I warn you I see darkness ahead for you and yours. Without strength you will fall as have so many before."
It wasn't my choice alone. Normally my drone’s personalities were silent riders when I was in control. Now I let her bubble to the surface so we could communicate directly.
"In theory we have your backup on the Network, but I don't know how this will interfere with that," I said.
My drone’s name was Erika, botany was her love and engineering was her competence. I'd had her along with the expedition team as a technical specialist. Her boyfriend was a military scout, now deceased although set for rebuilding with some upgrades in three weeks.
"How will it affect me?" Erika asked.
"No way to know. Your puny little body could explode and the crystal could be fused right into my psionic framework. Or the opposite happens and suddenly you're fighting on the front lines and never have to worry again about me taking you for a spin," I said.