Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  “Well that’s a pleasant surprise,” Nebb said. “Last place I expected help from. The scout probably called in reinforcements as soon as it spotted us in the system. Who knows when they’ll get here, though.”

  “Brave, to take them on alone like that in the meantime,” Sinive said.

  “The Malfeastanor is cutting us off,” Nebb said, in reference to the ship lurking above the moon ahead. “We’re going to have to make a flyby.”

  “Yes,” Grizz said. “Our current momentum will carry us past them... two minutes after the flyby we’ll be shielded by the far horizon, and out of the line of fire of their disruptors. Then we can make the jump.”

  Sinive glanced at the representation of the Red Grizzly on the tactical display, and all those red planes around it.

  “Not sure we can afford a flyby,” Sinive said. “At the very least, we should orient our aft section toward the Malfeastanor. It’s our most armored area.”

  “Too risky,” Nebb said. “We could lose an engine.”

  “We can still jump on one engine,” Sinive said. “Better that we lose an engine than our entire ship. How do you know the aliens above the planet are part of the faction that wants Tane alive, and not dead?”

  “Good point,” Nebb said. “Grizz, turn our aft section toward the incoming bastard.”

  “Aft section is now pointing toward the enemy,” Grizz announced a moment later. A minute passed. “We’re taking fire from the Malfeastanor.”

  On the tactical display, Sinive saw the aft plane flash.

  “Our energy shields regenerated yet?” Nebb asked.

  “No,” Grizz replied. “Closest point of flyby is in T-minus thirty seconds.”

  The aft armor continued to flash on the tactical display as the ship took more hits from the enemy starship. On the external cam, Sinive could see the moon now. The Red Grizzly was close enough for the light from the celestial body to be visible in this universe.

  At the ten second mark, Grizz announced: “Enemy is firing plasma throwers.”

  “Keep at least one engine pointed away!” Nebb said.

  “I intend to,” Grizz replied. A moment later: “Impact eminent.” The deck shook underneath her. “We just lost the aft port engine.”

  Nebb raised his hands in frustration.

  “Closest point of flyby achieved,” Grizz continued. “The Malfeastanor is now rapidly receding. We should be able to jump in T-minus two minutes and thirty seconds.”

  “Keep our remaining engine rotated away,” Nebb said.

  The aft armor flashed intermittently over the next two minutes; the enemy was firing off lasers as they recharged. The dwellers wouldn’t use plasma throwers, not with the Red Grizzly moving quickly away—the slower moving weapons would never catch them. Such weapons were best suited for flybys.

  “I can feel the Essence,” Lyra announced.

  Sinive felt it too, the stellar wind raging just beyond the edge of perception. Not that she was strong enough to even dare Siphoning any of it at the moment. Otherwise, she would have headed straight to the Essence lance chamber to participate in the fight.

  “Let me know when we’re out of the line of sight of those enemy disruptors!” Lyra continued.

  “Thirty seconds,” Grizz said.

  The tense seconds ticked past. The Red Grizzly held up under the laser assault.

  Only ten seconds remained when Grizz announced: “They’re firing their Essence lance!”

  On the nose cam, Sinive saw the black ball of energy launch from the enemy ship.

  “Dive!” Nebb said.

  Grizz applied reverse acceleration, which caused them to fall into the gravity well of the moon. Sinive watched the Essence lance quickly approach. It turned toward the ship, seeking...

  “We’re out of the firing line of their disruptors,” Grizz announced. “Jump when ready.”

  A loud hum filled the air; Sinive felt a moment of intense nausea and her head dropped forward. On the nose cam, the moon instantly vanished from underneath the Red Grizzly, replaced by darkness.

  The hum faded, and the nausea passed. The stellar wind Sinive had felt at the edge of perception was gone.

  She raised her chin. On the tactical display, the red dots representing the dweller and TSN vessels had vanished, as had the sphere indicating the moon.

  “It’s done,” Lyra’s voice came over the comm. She sounded weary.

  Sinive slumped in relief, as did Nebb. He looked at her and broke into a tired, distorted laugh. “Well, that was a barrel full of fun.”

  Sinive laughed, too, feeling a sudden rush of tears. She quickly blinked them away.

  We made it.

  “I’ve tried to jump us as close as possible to the coordinates listed in the specs of my storage device,” Lyra said over the comm, gasping. Definitely weary. “But with the randomness inherent in every jump, we’re still quite distant. I’m sending you the coordinates now.”

  “Got it,” Nebb said. “Grizz, I’m relaying the coords to you. Set a course and accelerate.”

  “Setting course and accelerating,” Grizz said.

  “I don’t think Tane would have drifted more than a million kilometers by now,” Lyra said. “But either way, in a few minutes time I’ll get a better sense of whether we’re moving toward or away from the beacon stone, and I’ll have you update or course accordingly.”

  “Let’s just hope Ugly hasn’t given up the stone,” Grizz said.

  “If he has, then all of this is for nothing,” Lyra transmitted. “And you probably shouldn’t call the Bender of Worlds ‘Ugly.’ He deserves at least some respect from us.”

  “He’ll always be just Ugly to me,” Grizz said.

  Sinive smiled. She thought Tane would appreciate that. He didn’t seem the sort who was fond of fancy titles. She just hoped they made it to him in time.

  “How far out are we?” Lyra asked over the comm.

  “About an hour away, at our maximum speed,” Nebb said.

  “Notify me if you detect Tane or Jed at any point,” Lyra said.

  “You got it,” Nebb said.

  No doubt Lyra would be out of action for the next little while, like Sinive. Jumping across systems, regardless of whether the jump took place in the Umbra or humanity’s universe, was exhausting.

  Sinive lay back against the headrest and stared idly at the tactical map. The minutes ticked past. Still no signals from Tane or Jed appeared. The destination coordinates were indicated by a flashing blue waypoint still fifty minutes away.

  She glanced at Positron. “You know, I miss your animated visor. I’m going to 3D print one up for you as soon as I have a chance.”

  “Thank you,” Positron said.

  “How’s it feel to be restored from a backup, anyway?” Sinive asked.

  Positron glanced at her with that faceless head. Yes, she definitely missed the animated visor. “It feels no different. I’m me. Just as you are you. I sat down at the backup console to get my neural network scanned, next thing I know I’m standing in the cargo bay with Nebb tweaking my settings, and my time indicator telling me two months have passed.”

  Sinive nodded, then lay back once more.

  She closed her eyes and napped. She daydreamed, halfway between sleep and waking, remembering her ordeal aboard the alien vessel. Those parts she was conscious through, anyway. The crystalline passageways and compartments closed in on her, along with those tentacles...

  She blinked completely awake suddenly. Feeling a rising panic, she quickly observed her surroundings. She was in the cockpit of the Red Grizzly. Not aboard the alien starship. She sighed in relief. According to the time displayed in the lower right of her vision, fifteen minutes had passed.

  Nebb glanced at her, his face blurring because of the motion blur trails. “Nice to have you awake.”

  “I was awake the whole time,” Sinive said. “Just daydreaming.”

  “What of?” Nebb asked.

  She hesitated, then: “When the alie
ns had me, I thought I was going to die.”

  “I never really did find out what happened,” Nebb said. “The Volur only told me that the aliens captured you. They didn’t say how. Something about a microcrillia infection...”

  “I got the infection when the kraals first attacked us in the Umbra,” Sinive said. “One of them bit through my spacesuit after Tane and I were separated from you guys. When we got back to our universe, I went to sleep in a short-termer I shared with Tane. There were signs the microcrillia infection was spreading. I really didn’t feel like going to the hospital. I thought I’d be okay until morning. I was wrong.

  “When I woke up, I was in the hospital. Black veins crawled all along my shoulder and arm, onto my neck. My vision was filled with dark, sputtering lines. The microcrillia had infected my mind by that point. I had no motor control: it was like I was just an observer in my own body. Like an alien presence had taken over. I could merely watch as my body boarded a shuttle that hovered next to my hospital window. Eventually I stepped onto an alien ship. They had prepared an environment for me. I stripped out of my suit and simply sat there on the floor. Eating and sleeping and defecating. I lost consciousness at some point. The dreams weren’t good.

  “In those dreams, I found myself wandering through a dark labyrinth. Eventually I reached the exit to the maze, which forked in two directions. I could take the left branch, and I would plunge further into the darkness, never to return to this reality. Or I could take the right branch, and I would awaken. But Tane might die.” She swallowed. “I was selfish. I wanted to live. I chose the right branch.”

  “It was just a dream,” Nebb said. “I wouldn’t read too much into it.”

  “Even so, it felt very real to me,” Sinive said. “And it’s already coming true. Tane’s out there at this very moment, after all. And he might already be dead.”

  “None of it’s because of you, though,” Nebb said.

  “Isn’t it?” Sinive said. “If he hadn’t tried to rescue me, we would have never diverted to Remus. He would have never touched the artifact, never met the Amaranth, never insisted that we jump to Anteres to face the dweller fleet.”

  “That final choice was all him,” Nebb said. “He could have ran away then. But he chose to fight.”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Sinive said. She paused. “You know, I did some quick research after Lyra healed me. When I awoke aboard the Red Grizzly. This was before I decided to go down to Remus with Tane and the others. I wanted to know what happened to me. Why it felt like I had an alien presence inside of me. Apparently, the microcrillia form their own neural network in an infected person. A neural network that eventually achieves consciousness in the host body, and a sense of self. Sentiency. It was literally like I was possessed. By healing me, Lyra killed that sentience. That’s something I never want to experience again. But still I have to wonder: was that alien presence giving me a glimpse of the future in that final dream before I awakened? Will my continuing existence cause Tane suffering, and maybe death?”

  “Again, you have to stop it,” Nebb said. “What you had was just a fever dream. Whether Tane lives or dies depends on his own choices.”

  “Yes, but my presence will influence him,” Sinive said.

  Nebb snorted. “You really think highly of yourself don’t you?”

  She finally decided to grant Nebb a weak smile.

  “That’s better.” Nebb became serious then, and sighed. He lowered his gaze. “I thought you were going to die, too, after you were abducted. In fact I was so convinced, I abandoned you.”

  “But you came back,” Sinive said. “And saved us, in the end.”

  Nebb nodded. “I did. But only because you’ve always reminded me of someone. And the guilt ate away at me.”

  “I remind you of someone?” Sinive said. That was news.

  “Yes,” Nebb said. “My first apprentice. Years ago. Back when I was still an honest trader. I took on an apprentice. Promised to teach her the trade. Like you, I didn’t pay her. I know, I’m a stingy bastard”

  “I didn’t even know you had an apprentice before me,” Sinive said.

  He smiled sadly. “Not anymore.” He teared up, and quickly turned away.

  Sinive rested a hand on his shoulder. “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” Nebb said. “Eventually she found out I was cheating her, and we parted on bad terms. At first I secretly kept tabs on her, spying on the different Galnet profiles she created for herself. But then she stopped updating them about three years after she quit working for me. For at least a decade I wondered what happened to her, until I finally found out that during those three years she’d become addicted to VR, and subsisted on basic pay and other social subsidies. She stopped updating her profile because she’d ceased living in this reality: she had some shady dealer upload her mind into an AI core. I’m not sure how much you know about mind-core dealers, but they usually incinerate the body after the upload. So if her imprint failed to take, she’s dead. And even if the imprint did take, she’s essentially ruined herself. She could have been so much more than what she became. I could have helped her achieve her best self. And instead I abandoned her.” He glanced at Sinive. “I refused to do the same with you.”

  She nodded slowly. “Thank you. I think.”

  “It’s not all bad being an AI core,” Grizz said.

  “That story wasn’t meant for you,” Nebb grumbled. He turned to look at Sinive again. “I want to do the right thing, this time. I don’t want to find out three years from now that you’ve burned your body and uploaded your psyche into an AI core.”

  “Well, the only way I can see myself doing that is if I was terminally ill or something,” Sinive said. “So you don’t have to worry.”

  “Oh sure, you say that now,” Nebb said. “But as soon as I fire you, and you take up the VR goggles...”

  She grinned. “Don’t need goggles.” She tapped her temple. “We’ve got chips now.”

  “And so we do,” Nebb said.

  Except mine isn’t working properly at the moment.

  She still hadn’t had a chance to take a look at it. Soon, she told herself.

  Lyra gave an update as they closed with the coordinates, and told Nebb her latest sense of the beacon stone’s location. Nebb updated the Red Grizzly’s course appropriately.

  When forty-five minutes had passed since arriving in the system, Grizz announced: “I’m picking up a pair of weak signals. I believe it’s Tane and Jed.”

  Sinive couldn’t suppress a rising sense of excitement and relief.

  “Let Lyra know we’ve found her World Bender,” Nebb said.

  Sinive’s heart dropped at the AI’s next words.

  “They’re not responding to my pings,” Grizz said. “It appears their bodies are covered in crillia. I’m sorry to say this, but I’m not sure the two of them are even alive.”

  7

  Tane awoke to voices.

  He blinked away the blur from his vision. Wait, not all of it: the edges of everything around him appeared fuzzy and indistinct, and no matter how many times he blinked, that didn’t change. Also, everything was tinted a shade of blue.

  So he was still in the Umbra.

  A figure was standing above him. Sinive. She left visible motion blurs when she moved.

  She was looking at him, and crying. Tears of joy, or...?

  “What happened?” Tane attempted to say, but instead only a painful grunt emerged. He realized his throat was completely dry. There was a breathing mask over his mouth, and he coughed into it.

  The medical robot removed the mask and applied a drinking tube to his lips. When his coughing fit subsided he took a sip. The voices had all fallen silent by then. So much so that he could hear a heart rate monitor beeping in the background. With that mask removed, the air smelled of antiseptic.

  Tane turned his head to the side and saw Jed lying on another bed next to his own. The man had been stripped of his armor and wore only a blue medical
garment.

  Like Tane.

  Jed was awake, and sitting up in the bed. Or rather, half of the bed had lifted to form a chair, enabling him to sit upright without actually doing any work.

  “Drink more, Engineer,” Jed said. His voice distorted in that familiar discord of high and low octaves. “The medical robots apparently don’t understand how to set proper humidity levels in the oxygen supply.”

  “I have set the proper humidity levels,” the faceless medical robot said, its voice similarly warping. “It’s a side effect of the antibiotics I’ve given him to stave off microcrillia infection.”

  “I know, I’m kidding,” Jed said flatly. He shook his head. “Robots.”

  Tane took another sip and then tried again. “What happened?”

  Sinive stepped back, still unable to speak. Instead, Lyra squeezed past to stand before him.

  “We found you two barely alive,” Lyra said. She looked weary, as if she’d recently made a jump. Come to think of it, so did Sinive, but it was hard to tell with all those tears. “At first we thought you were dead. Your suits were covered in crillia. A few had eaten right through to the skin on both of you. Your exposed tissues expanded, sealing the rips in your suits and preventing complete suit depressurization. Apparently, your reserve tanks had expired only moments before we arrived. We got you aboard the shuttle, ripped away the crillia from your helmets, and revived the two of you in the cabin. We removed and killed the remaining crillia attached to your suits, and then docked with the Red Grizzly. We took you and Jed to sickbay immediately, and the surgical robots have been working on you ever since. Meanwhile, I took the liberty of repairing your suit and refilling the oxygen tanks. You’ll find it in your storage device.” She nodded toward the pouch on the nearby bed stand.

  “You say I had sections of my skin exposed to the crillia completely?” Tane asked. “I can see now why you’re giving me antibiotics.” He shuddered at the thought of microcrillia infection, remembering quite well what had happened to Sinive. Those black veins crisscrossing her flesh… the seeming loss of volition.