The Fractured Void

by Tim Pratt

  “Why do you ask?”

  “Because they took my ship,” Felix said. “I’m interested in taking theirs.”

  “It just so happens that I’m in a position to sell it,” Sagasa said.

  •••

  “The Grim Countenance.” Sagasa stood in the middle of the Letnev ship’s black-metal bridge and spread his arms. “A top-of-the-line Letnev battle cruiser, one of their famed thorn ships, sure to strike terror into the hearts of et cetera. A fine choice for the unaffiliated privateer, because you can sow terror throughout the stars, and since the ship is so distinctive, the Barony will be blamed – their reputation for dark deeds providing cover for your own.”

  “Are all the original data banks intact?”

  “I haven’t even had the vessel cleaned,” Sagasa said. “I didn’t know I owned this ship until those two flew away without returning the ship they traded this one for. They left the Grim Countenance as collateral. I have now collected it. It is new inventory, ready to move.”

  “Name your price.”

  Sagasa named one. Calred, who was nearly recovered from his sedation, roared. “That’s more than it cost the Barony to build it!”

  “Try buying one from the Barony, then,” Sagasa said.

  Felix sighed. “You two negotiate, and come to an agreement that won’t bankrupt us, OK, Cal?”

  He went to the command station, considering the unfamiliar controls. The Mentak Coalition studied how to operate all sorts of different vessels – that was the raider’s life – and though it had been a while since he’d done his Letnev tutorials, he thought he could muddle along.

  Tib joined him. “Apart from the symmetry of taking their ship when they took yours, is there a reason you wanted this boat in particular?”

  “It’s fast,” he said. “It’s got guns. It’s a match for the Temerarious in a fight.”

  “Except that they have umpty-petawatt-laser cannons, and we don’t.”

  “It’s as close as we’re going to get to a match for the Temerarious in a fight, then,” Felix said.

  “Fair enough, but we don’t know where they went. They’ll shut down the transponder and run dark. They might go back to Jord. They might go to the Barony. Thales said he had various test sites in mind, so maybe they’ll go to one of those, but we don’t know what those sites are. We’re good at hide-and-seek, but we’re not that good.”

  “We can find them.” Felix figured out how to pull up the ship’s personnel roster. The information he wanted was locked, but he had his fob full of Mentak Coalition pirate tools to break that security. He put them to work. “Once we own this system, we can track them down, if we hurry.”

  “How?” Tib said.

  “The Letnev are a paranoid, suspicious, distrustful culture. Their culture heroes are all snitches and informants. They sell out their own grandmothers for promotions.”

  “The version of the Letnev that appears in sims as villains is all that, absolutely, but it’s an exaggeration–”

  “They’re paranoid enough to track their officers, though.” He pulled up Severyne’s file, her frozen face on the screen. “Anyone who might defect or sell secrets or who poses a danger to the motherland is fitted with a tracking device, the kind you can’t get out without a bomb disposal unit that’s also capable of thoracic surgery. If we get moving before that device is out of range, we can track them.”

  “Calred!” Tib shouted. “Hurry up and close that deal. We’re going to cheat at hideand-seek!”

  Chapter 26

  “I can’t believe we left the Grim Countenance behind.” Severyne sat with her head in her hands. “I delivered one of the Barony’s finest ships into the hands of a Hacan crime lord.”

  “It’s a shame,” Azad said. They were in Felix’s cabin, Azad lounging on the bed, Severyne seated at the small desk. “If I’d seen a way to keep both, I would have.”

  “Loss of a Barony warship is an offense punishable by death.”

  “You’ve committed a couple of those. The nice thing about death sentences is, they aren’t really cumulative. It’s not like the Barony can execute you twice.”

  “They can,” Severyne said. “They kill you, then restart your heart, then kill you again. It’s fairly common.”

  “Wow. I stand corrected. So, have you considered my offer?”

  Severyne sighed. “My people are taught to choose death before dishonor, Azad.”

  “But are you really expected to choose double death before dishonor? That’s a lot of death.” Azad rose and stood behind the desk, where she began to massage Severyne’s tense shoulders. Severyne willed herself to relax into the touch. Azad had skillful hands. She should have killed the human by now, but it was nice having her to talk to. Without Azad, Severyne would be stuck here alone with Thales, who had not proven pleasant based on their brief acquaintance. Shelma had been annoying, but Thales was vile.

  “Maybe I can make you feel better, or, at least, make you feel good,” Azad purred.

  Then the comms blared. “This is Thales!” the scientist yelled, as if there were anyone else it could be. “We need to talk about my experiment, ladies, right now.”

  “He does not seem to realize he’s a prisoner,” Azad said. “He appears to believe he is our boss.”

  “I have noticed that,” Severyne said.

  “We’ll meet you in half an hour in the galley,” Azad replied, shipwide.

  “Half an hour? I demand we meet–”

  Azad turned off the comms. “So. What do we do with half an hour?”

  They only got ten minutes, because at that point, Thales started pounding on their door and screaming, which rather ruined the mood.

  •••

  “You two are disgusting,” Thales said. “You aren’t even the same species.”

  “You grew up on Nar.” Azad leaned way back in one of the galley chairs, her boots up on the table. “You never kissed a squid? No sense of adventure.”

  “When I think of you two–” Thales began.

  “We aren’t here to listen to your fantasies, Doc,” Azad interrupted. “You insisted we meet. What’s the ruckus?”

  Thales composed himself. “I assume you plan to deliver me to your superiors in the Federation of Sol?”

  “That’s the idea,” Azad said. “We sure took the long way around, but the end is in sight.”

  “You shouldn’t take me back there yet.”

  “Oh? Why not? You have some more errands you need to run? More old rivals to gas or poison?” Azad and Severyne had both read Duval’s private log entries, including his speculation about what Thales had done. Azad had checked, and the ship was still running diagnostics on Shelma’s corpse. She was curious to see what it turned up.

  “It is a long trip back to the heart of Federation space,” Thales said. “There is only one nearby wormhole you could plausibly use to get there. We’re in a stolen Coalition warship. Their raider fleets will be on alert, looking for this vessel. Don’t you think they’ll be waiting for you at the gate?”

  “Oh, probably,” Azad said. “You forget I’m a covert operative by training, Doc. There are ways around that problem.”

  “Are those ways entirely without risk?”

  Azad shrugged. “Taking a shower isn’t entirely without risk. You could slip and fall. There could be a fault in the heating system, and you could get electrocuted. I guess, if you were particularly stupid, you might even manage to drown.”

  “I think avoiding Coalition forces is riskier than taking a shower, woman.”

  “Call me Amina, Doc. We’re all pals here.”

  I don’t even call her Amina, Severyne though. It would feel far too familiar. Considering some of the things they’d done together, that should have been a ridiculous thought, but it wasn’t.

  “Damn it, admit I’m right,” Thale
s said.

  “Yes, fine, there’s danger.” Azad yawned in his face. “So what? It’s the only path. I was sent to fetch you, and here I am, fetching you. I know you don’t want to work with the Federation any more–”

  “I don’t care who I work with,” Thales said. “These idiots, those idiots, you idiots. I only left the Coalition because it seemed wise to put some distance between myself and the ruins of my lab. All I care about now is the work. Duval and his crew acquired the last pieces I needed – the prototype trigger and the power source. I’ve been working on them in my lab, and the activation engine is ready. We don’t need to go through a heavily guarded wormhole, risking our lives in the process. We can open our own wormhole, and return to the Sol system directly.”

  Azad whistled. “Really. Your magic button is done?”

  “It isn’t magic.”

  “Shelma was that close to completion?” Severyne said. “She told us it would be years before she had a device ready for testing!”

  “Shelma was toying with you,” Thales said. “By the time I got her prototype, it was practically done, except for the power supply – which she didn’t even mention to you. She didn’t want the Barony to have this power. I don’t think she wanted anyone to have it, frankly. She was afraid of harnessing such power. Coward. I would like to note, her design was based entirely on my research–”

  “You’ll get full credit, Doc, don’t worry,” Azad said. “The dead can’t demand a byline. So the thing really works. In that case why shouldn’t I just kill you and take it home? We don’t actually care about Phillip Thales. Just about what Phillip Thales can build – or, in this case, steal from a Hylar and plug into a battery.”

  Thales sniffed. “Such threats are so predictable. Only I know how to operate the device, and, moreover, most of my additions to Shelma’s design were instituted to make the whole thing tamper-proof. Anyone who tries to open the case to examine the interior, or do a more than purely passive scan, will fuse all the components into melted slag. I will share my designs only when I have proper assurances from the Federation authorities that I’ll be compensated to my liking.”

  Azad nodded. “I thought you’d have something slippery in mind. Your brain is powered by grievance and paranoia.”

  “How do you know it really works?” Severyne said. “You haven’t even turned it on yet.”

  “When the theory is sound, the practice is mere formality, young lady.”

  “That is not even a little bit true,” Azad said.

  “It is easier to sell a finished product than just the plans for one,” Thales admitted. “That’s the only reason I stooped to doing actual engineering.”

  Azad said, “I admit, I’m curious to see if it works. It’s not like my bosses are expecting me back anytime soon – they probably assume I’m dead, since I’ve been gone this long. Being presumed dead offers some operational flexibility. What do you say, Sev? Should we see if this guy’s as smart as he thinks he is?”

  “It would be advantageous to verify the functionality of the device,” Severyne said.

  “You are so hot right now,” Azad said. “I’d like to verify the functionality of your–”

  “Stop!” Thales roared. “You repulse me. I never thought I’d miss Duval and his cretinous crew.” He put his hands flat on the tabletop. “We need to travel to an appropriate test site.”

  “I thought the whole point of your wonder-device was that it can open a wormhole from anywhere to anywhere?” Azad said. “Fire it up right here and now.”

  “I would rather not. It’s possible there could be ripple effects in space-time after I open the wormhole. Or the wormhole might not open precisely where I intend. We’re within a few thousand kilometers of an inhabited asteroid belt right now. I don’t expect any problems, but I want to open the first wormhole in an uninhabited area, to another uninhabited area, until I can verify all the readings fall within expected parameters.”

  “So we’re headed to the big empty. I can see how opening a wormhole in the middle of a civilization would be a big problem.”

  “Or a huge opportunity,” Severyne said.

  “What do you mean?” Azad said.

  “I mean, if you opened a wormhole directly above, say, Jol or Nar, the resulting warping of space-time would destroy the planets.” That was why the Barony really wanted the device – for the remote planet-killing capabilities. The ability to move a fleet from anywhere to anywhere was of secondary importance.

  “Now, ‘destroy’ is an overstatement,” Thales said. “But opening a wormhole near a planet would have powerful gravitational effects, and would likely cause mass casualties. There are safeguards in place that won’t permit the wormhole to open if–”

  “Huh. So could you open a wormhole inside an enemy ship?” Azad said. “Just tear them to bits?”

  “Again, there are safeguards against such accidents, but if those safeguards were disabled, then in theory–”

  “Theory is just practice that hasn’t happened yet, isn’t that what you were saying?” Azad interrupted. “Oh, I like this. I like this a lot. You should have led with the whole ‘I can destroy planets’ thing, Thales – you would have gotten way more funding.”

  “That is not the purpose of this device. My activation engine is meant to facilitate exploration, and trade, and to help galactic civilization flourish. I don’t want my legacy to be that of a war criminal.”

  “Nobody gets to choose their legacy. One side’s war criminal is the other side’s war hero, usually, anyway. Besides, the Federation researched you thoroughly, Thales. The purpose of this device is to make you so rich and powerful you never have to do what anybody else tells you to ever again. That’s all you really care about.”

  “I also want respect, Amina.” His eyes blazed. “I have been belittled, dismissed, laughed at, for my entire life – that stops. The moment I turn on this device, I will prove my brilliance. Even you will be forced to admit that I’m the man who transformed the galaxy.”

  “Fine by me,” Azad said. “Let’s find a place to turn it on. Someplace where we won’t kill a bunch of asteroid miners by accident.”

  “I have considered the nearest options.” Thales called up a star chart on his tablet and showed it to them, zooming in on a marked point in space. There was nothing there, which, Severyne supposed, was part of the point. “I say we go here.”

  “Does that work for you, Sev?”

  Severyne looked at the scientist. “Do you have anything else you’d like to share about your device, Thales?”

  “Nothing that people with your lack of education would understand–”

  “I worked with Shelma,” Severyne said.

  “Yes, I’d assumed you were sent to fetch her back. Why else would a Letnev and a human be working together? Do you expect me to express some sympathy for the loss of our mutual colleague? Fine. Her death was a tragedy. She simply couldn’t handle the strain of–”

  “I don’t care about sympathy,” Severyne snapped, and was pleased to see his face shut down. “I wasn’t friends with Shelma. She was infuriating – though having met you, I must say, I miss her. But she told me about her work, and her worries. She was concerned about that ripple effect through space-time, too, Thales. But she wasn’t just worried about harming nearby inhabitants. She said there was a chance the ripple effect would propagate. That the wormhole would become unstable, and spread, corroding the fabric of space-time, in all directions… forever.”

  Thales sniffed. “I obviously don’t think that’s a serious concern. Shelma was always too cautious. There are legends about the first humans to discover the power of atomic energy. When they built an atom bomb, they were afraid to test it, because some of their scientists theorized that setting off an atomic weapon might create a chain reaction that would ignite the hydrogen and nitrogen in the oceans and the atmosphere and kill ever
ything on the planet in a cataclysm of endless flame.”

  “I assume that didn’t happen,” Azad said. “Since there are still a few humans around.”

  “It did not happen. Shelma’s worry is even less likely. She didn’t want the Barony to have this technology, as I told you, so she over-emphasized the risks.”

  “And yet, I am not reassured,” Severyne said. “You are a megalomaniac with a device that might burn down the galaxy.”

  “When you put it that way, even I get a little shiver,” Azad said. “But, hell, he built the thing already. One thing you should know about humans, Sev, is that once we’ve built something, we’re gonna turn it on.”

  Chapter 27

  “We’ve got them.” Calred loomed over the security station on the Grim Countenance – or the Incontinence, as Felix had taken to calling it. “We’re gaining on them, even. They don’t seem to be in any particular hurry.”

  “Are they heading toward the wormhole to Sol, or to Barony space?” Felix asked. “Tib bet me that Azad would kill Severyne and head back to Jord, but my money’s on Severyne killing Azad and heading to the Barony – people underestimate her.”

  “I could go either way,” Calred said. “But they didn’t. Go either way, I mean. They’re headed, as far as I can tell, for a big old stretch of nowhere.”

  “They’re going to test the device, then,” Felix said. “They must be.”

  “It’s a working hypothesis,” Tib said. “What do we do about it? Hang back and see if the activation engine even works? If it doesn’t work, we can just slink away and let them kill Thales.”

  “If it does work, though…” Felix shook his head. “If they open a wormhole, they might go through it, and then they could end up anywhere. I say we take back our ship.”

  “You want to fight them hand-to-hand in the corridors, huh?” Calred said. “All right. As long as Severyne doesn’t have a halberd this time.”

  “I think it was a glaive guisarme,” Tib said.