As the lines of the colonel’s lifetime wove around each other, they were drawn towards one point, a terminus. It was a dark, black hole into which every winding path was drawn. There was a powerful force at work within it — Josh could feel the pull of unknown events emanating from inside the infinite darkness. He knew it represented death, the country of no return, and fought back the urge to explore its depths. He realised this was what drew the reavers, this was what Lyra had become obsessed with.
As he tried to resist, Josh noticed that nearly all the paths were moving in a slowly decaying spiral into the darkness, all but one. He moved his mind across the dark space towards it and as he reached it he knew what to do.
He’d taken the colonel back into his own timeline — Josh was the one who’d brought the old man back to his house that day, breaking God knows how many rules. He looked around the study — his earlier self had yet to enter the room; the colonel was as he remembered, laid out, bleeding, on the sofa, his hand covering the wound.
‘Rufius. Can you hear me?’
The colonel grunted.
‘You’re about to be absorbed by a Strzyga — someone set you up — I think it was Dalton. Caitlin says you would know what to do.’
The colonel opened his eyes and nodded. Josh heard himself talking to the cat in the other room and guessed that bad stuff would happen if they met.
‘I’ve got to go. Caitlin is holding back one ugly queen bitch while I’m connected to one of your lifelines inside it. Tell the other me these coordinates — I’ll work it out eventually.’
He repeated the co-ordinates to the old man and jumped back into the darkened temple.
The colonel’s body had disappeared, which Josh assumed was a good sign. He was searching the room for clues of when he heard the howling. Strzyga began to materialise inside the circle, each one more hideous than the last. Josh found himself facing the horde instead of the old man and was on the verge of pulling out of the event when he heard the colonel’s voice.
‘Stay very, very still.’
Josh turned to see the colonel holding a strange-looking vase. It was clearly ancient; there were lead seals around the lid and arcane symbols across its surface, ones that he could tell were warnings without being able to read them.
The colonel waited until the last of the Strzyga had appeared, then lifted the vessel above his head and smashed it down onto the floor at Josh’s feet. A faint wisp of smoke rose from the ashes inside the broken pot. The hags hardly paid it any attention as they fought each other to reach Josh. The swirls of dust began to gain mass — collecting other motes together as it moved through the air until it had taken a shape. Slowly, a grotesque spectre formed above the Strzyga and Josh saw them shrink away from it. The ghostly apparition waited a long, painful second before descending on them like a bird of prey.
Josh turned towards the colonel who simply winked and said: ‘Probably best if we go now.’
‘Thank you,’ the colonel said to Caitlin and Josh as they tucked into the trays of food laid out on the floor in front of him. ‘You took a great risk coming after me.’
‘What an earth were those things?’ Josh asked with a mouth full of pitta and hummus.
‘The Strzyga? They’re one of the elder races. They prey on the lost and the fallen. They’ve a sweet spot for members of the Order, feeding on their extended timelines. A sort of quantum vampire, I suppose.’
‘So you sent a monad after them?’
Caitlin looked up from her food. ‘Monad?’
The colonel looked uncomfortable, as if Caitlin wasn’t going to like the answer.
‘It was awesome — they were shit-scared of it.’ Josh waved his hand around where the bodies of the Strzyga would have been a few minutes before.
‘You released a monad!’ exclaimed Caitlin.
The colonel shrugged and nodded. ‘It seemed like the only thing to do at the time,’ he said sheepishly.
‘What’s so bad about that?’ Josh asked, dipping his bread for the second time into the hummus.
‘No double-dipping!’ Caitlin said, slapping his hand away. ‘A monad is a seriously dangerous entity, and stealing a captive one is highly illegal.’
‘Well, the Strzyga weren’t too pleased to see it, that’s for sure.’
‘I’m not surprised. The temptation of a three-thousand-year-old soul would be more than it could resist. Monads are particularly fond of Strzyga — but it won’t be long before it follows your trail to us.’
The colonel shuffled uncomfortably and cleared his throat.
‘I left a note. The Xenos will have contained it by now. So, anyway, you took it upon yourself to come find me — why? I assume there isn’t a Draconian brigade waiting outside.’
‘Not as such no,’ Caitlin said demurely. ‘We’re kind of it — and the Xenobiology Department has better things to do than clear up after you.’
Josh was intrigued. ‘Are they like Ghostbusters? How many other monsters have you guys forgotten to tell me about?’
‘More than I care to remember,’ sighed the old man, staring into the distance.
‘Methuselah sent us. He was concerned after the Council listed you as MIA,’ Caitlin added. ‘Something is going on in the Council. There is some kind of challenge by Dalton’s mother and the Determinists.’
‘That could explain why the Protectorate wanted you out of the picture,’ Josh mused.
‘How an earth is this related to the Protectorate?’ exclaimed Caitlin.
Josh handed her the dagger. ‘I found this by his body and the last person I saw with it was Dalton’s mother — she asked me if I knew where you were.’
‘Ravana wouldn’t stoop that low,’ the colonel mused.
‘No, but Dalton would,’ Caitlin added. ‘Or one of his minions.’
‘Joshua may be on to something,’ said the colonel thoughtfully. ‘I think someone may have been trying to eradicate me. My research is seen by many as heretical,’ his voice dropped to a whisper. ‘I believe someone may be intentionally manipulating the continuum, bypassing the Copernicans.’
‘We know about your research — we found the room, the one in the attic,’ Caitlin admitted.
‘What are they trying to do?’ Josh asked, helping himself to the meat. It tasted a little like chicken, but he was afraid to ask in case it wasn’t.
‘Your Greek is very good by the way — I’m impressed,’ said the colonel, trying to avoid the question. ‘How long have you been here?’
‘We used a mind,’ Caitlin interrupted. ‘We got here yesterday. Please answer the question, Rufius. What are “they” trying to do, and why here?’
‘Ah, a mind. I bet that was an interesting experience for you, Joshua.’
Caitlin squealed in frustration.
‘All right, I’ll tell you,’ he said, picking up a fig and tearing it open, ‘although you may wish I hadn’t.’
46
Fates
The colonel shifted on his seat as if to make himself comfortable.
‘Around 11.900, a group of sponge divers discovered a shipwreck off the coast of Antikythera.’ He pointed out of the west window. ‘At first, they thought it was a Roman ship that had sunk whilst taking the spoils of the second Punic War back to the republic; the scientists carbon-dated the ship back to 9.795 — around 205 BC,’ he added for Josh’s benefit. ‘The treasure consisted mostly of statues and amphorae, as well as a whole cache of coins from around this period, but by far the most valuable find was nothing like anyone was expecting. Have either of you heard of anyone discovering an “out-of-place” object in the continuum?’
They both shook their heads.
‘No, even the Draconians won’t admit they exist, but it has been a pet project of mine for many years. I’ve discovered there have been a number of incidents involving archaeologists who’ve uncovered modern items fossilised in much older rock — mostly things like steel bolts in the strata of four-million-year-old riverbeds. These sponge divers f
ound a small wooden box on that shipwreck and inside was what could only be described as an analogue computer.’
Josh coughed on the grape he was chewing and spat it out. Caitlin was not impressed.
‘I thought you couldn’t take technology back in time?’
The colonel nodded. ‘You can’t, not physically. But you can take the knowledge back and teach someone how to do it.’
‘But that breaks the prime directive,’ Caitlin said with a look of astonishment.
‘Indeed it does, and no one in our Order would ever contemplate such a thing. Not even the Determinists.’
‘Are there others like us who haven’t joined the Order?’ asked Josh.
Caitlin rolled her eyes as if he’d just opened a can of worms.
‘Yes, I believe there are. Although I seemed to be the only one,’ the colonel replied, looking at Caitlin cryptically. ‘I call them the Fatalists, or Fates for short, and I believe these renegades are working against the Order.’
‘To do what exactly?’
‘From the little I can ascertain, I believe the Fates want the Order to stop interfering in the timeline altogether, to leave the future to pure chance — they are throwing curveballs at the continuum.’ The colonel tossed an olive stone out of the window. ‘I have no idea what their real agenda is — there have been more than a couple of incidents, ones that cannot be explained away as coincidence — a word that one should never use in front of a Copernican by the way.’
‘So you needed to find this computer?’ Caitlin interrupted.
‘Actually, I think I am the one who has to sink it. There will be nothing like this technology for another fourteen hundred years, not until the Renaissance. I want to make sure it doesn’t reach Rome, and more importantly find out who made it.’
‘Why?’ Josh asked naively.
Caitlin coughed into her drink. ‘Er. Because the advancement of technology breaks our prime directive, and would probably result in the extinction of the human race!’ She turned back to the colonel and added, ‘surely the Council know about this?’
‘Well if they do — they’re not doing anything about it. Not that they would admit to the existence of a secret organisation of anarchists — it would undermine their stochastic ideals and play directly into the hands of the Determinist Party. They’ve have been pushing for tighter controls for years — we would end up in a police state.’
Josh grimaced at the word ‘Police.’
‘Do you think my parents might have known?’ Caitlin asked quietly.
‘I don’t know my dear,’ the colonel said, taking her hand, ‘they were the bravest and brightest Draconians I’ve ever met, and they ranged far off of the map, who can say what they would have seen.’
Josh could see how much the colonel meant to her. He’d missed the old man too, and he had no idea how he was going to explain about getting kicked out of the Order yet, so he asked the next most obvious question.
‘So, how exactly are we going to sink it?’
‘For that,’ the colonel said with a smile, ‘we’re going to need a Pirate.’
47
Selephin
Silent waves lapped at the sides of the boat as they rowed their way out into the bay. Josh fought back the impulse to throw up every time the water hit the prow. It wasn’t going to be long before he lost control, but he was going to hang on to it as long as he could.
The dark shapes of the colonel and the two oarsmen sat in front of him, their sinewed arms carving the oars through the water at a rapid pace. Caitlin sat behind Josh looking up at the canopy of stars, which were magnificent, but not something he could really appreciate properly while trying to focus on keeping his down his last meal.
‘Do you ever wonder if there’s another boat out there somewhere on a sea just like this?’ Caitlin asked as she trailed her hand through the water.
‘No,’ replied Josh, feeling his stomach lurch again.
‘The chances are slim I know. According to the Drake equation, maybe less than one in a hundred million, but I like to think there is someone looking up at our sun and wondering the same.’ She moved and the boat rocked. ‘Just look at Cassiopeia. When did you ever get to see the Milky Way so clearly in your time?’
Josh was having trouble concentrating on what she was saying through the rising nausea. His skin had gone clammy, and his tongue felt too big for his mouth.
‘Caitlin, stop teasing the boy. Josh, for God’s sake, get it over with,’ the colonel interrupted.
Josh let physiology take over. It was beyond his control and he surrendered to it, venting the contents of his stomach into the sea.
‘It’s all right,’ he heard the colonel say. ‘I’m sure somewhere in the infinite vastness of space someone else is suffering from mal de mer at this very moment.’ He passed Josh a small flask. ‘Here, I find this helps on such occasions.’
It was a sweet, citrus spirit that instantly made Josh feel a hell of a lot better
An hour later they reached the ship. It was anchored far out in the bay, a large wooden vessel with three rows of long oars on each side and two huge masts with their sails furled. The hull was a vast hulking wall of barnacle-encrusted wood and tar that dwarfed their boat as it rose and fell in front of them like a floating castle. Suddenly a rope ladder was cast down from the deck, and voices called out in various languages for them to climb aboard.
In the dark, cold night it seemed suicidal for Josh to leave the relative safety of the small boat and climb up the side of the heaving wall, but the colonel jumped up and pulled them towards the ladder with a boat hook. Then, with Caitlin following close behind, the colonel climbed up the swaying ropes. Josh came last. The two oarsmen were keen to leave and virtually threw him out on to the ladder as their boat pitched and dipped in the ship’s wake.
He climbed the wet rungs slowly, trying not to look down between his feet, but stinging salt water ran off the bulkhead and into his eyes when he looked up. There was nothing below him but the dark, brooding sea and he closed his eyes and forced himself to keep moving upwards — with only the sound of Caitlin shouting at him to ‘move your arse’ barely audible over the boom of the waves.
There was nothing more satisfying than the feeling of the deck beneath his feet when he was finally dragged over the gunwale by one of the crew. Josh felt like a complete idiot for being so pathetic. He wanted to explain to Caitlin that he’d never been this close to the sea — other than the time at the beach when he was six, the largest body of water he’d ever seen was the local swimming pool. But then she would realise that he’d never been anywhere and he didn’t want to admit to that.
‘You okay?’ Caitlin asked, as the ship lurched and he fell against her.
‘Yeah. Just need to get my sea legs.’
‘It will be easier when we get under way,’ she said, trying to reassure him.
‘Do the waves get smaller then?’
‘No, but we get faster.’
‘Great.’
A few minutes later the colonel returned with an unusual-looking man dressed in a baroque chest plate and what Josh could only describe as a skirt.
‘Caitlin, Josh, I would like to introduce you to a very old friend of mine — this is Selephin Maltraders, former Draconian Commander of the Ninth and the especially excellent captain of this marvellous vessel.
Selephin had a broad smile that exposed many of his pearly white teeth and what appeared to be jewels embedded within them. The scars across his face were deep and old and only mildly less distracting than the tattoos that covered the rest of his entirely hairless head.
‘Welcome to my humble vessel!’ Selephin said in a clipped English accent, holding out a hand that was covered in rings and bracelets. ‘A fine evening for a fight, don’t you think?’
Josh shook his hand, and then watched as the captain took Caitlin’s hand and kissed it very gently.
‘We are blessed to have such beauty aboard. Your fairness doth outshine the moon.’
Josh tried not to laugh, but when he saw how flattered she was, he changed his mind.
‘Now the tide is about to turn,’ Selephin observed, and barked out a series of orders to the crew in something that sounded like Arabic. It was pretty obvious from the way the crew responded that he’d just told them to make sail: a troupe of men appeared from various hatches on the deck and clambered up and down the rigging, hauling thick ropes, and unfurling the sails. Within a matter of minutes, the ship was ploughing through the water at speed, the night winds pushing them forward into the darkness.
Selephin took them to his cabin: a small, cosy space at the stern of the ship. It was full of charts and chests, but in the centre a space had been cleared for a table, where a map of the surrounding seas had been laid out.
The colonel consulted his almanac and then picked up some small coins that lay discarded on top of the map. ‘So this is us,’ he said, placing the first coin down near the island marked Ogylos. Then he took another coin and put it near the island labelled Kretes. ‘The ship in question left Crete approximately two hours ago.’
‘She will be fighting the wind,’ commented Selephin. ‘We have the advantage.’
‘Good,’ said the colonel, ‘she is also heavily laden, full of prizes for the patricians.’
‘Ha,’ spat Selephin. ‘Damn the senate and their accursed patricians! My men will be only too happy to relieve them of one of their prizes. Their ships have been very bad for business lately — this war never seems to end!’
Selephin took an unusual-looking bottle and a handful of glasses out of a cupboard. ‘We have a three hours before the dawn and much to discuss.’
Caitlin and Josh made themselves comfortable on the captain’s couch and whiled away the next few hours listening to Selephin’s and the colonel’s stories. Caitlin grew tired and slowly nestled down against Josh’s shoulder and dozed off. Josh was too intrigued by their anecdotes to notice. The two veterans recounted one adventure after another as the rum flowed, each one became more daring and outrageous than the last.
The Infinity Engines Books 1-3 Page 26