Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  “Do it,” Gia said. “And raise shields. Charge weapons.”

  “Enabling venting, raising shields, and charging weapons,” Muse echoed. A moment later: “The TSN vessel is reversing course to intercept.”

  “Launch the final decoys,” Gia said.

  “Launching decoys two through four,” Muse said.

  “Are our dragons charged yet?” Gia said.

  “No,” Muse said. “But our plasma thrower is almost ready.” The AI paused. “They’re firing some of their lasers in a wide dispersal pattern, targeting our ship and all the decoys at once.”

  “A probing shot,” Sinive said. “They’d guess by now that our decoys can’t hold up to much incoming fire.”

  “The decoys are gone,” Muse said. “They’re unleashing the remainder of their dragons at us. Port side shields are taking a beating. We’re down to sixty five percent.”

  “Good thing we have the advantage of range,” Gia said. “If we were closer, a shot like that would have gone right through the shields.”

  “How long until they can release a volley like that again?” Jed asked.

  “Just under two minutes,” Muse said.

  “They won’t fire their plasma thrower at this range,” Sinive said. “But it’s possible they’d launch their Essence lance.”

  “Lances can be steered, right?” Tane asked Jed.

  “Unfortunately for us, they can,” Jed replied. “And without a Deflector, our shields are useless if one hits. I don’t think they’d risk it, considering how difficult it is to guide a lance at the distances and speeds involved in space combat. They might accidentally destroy us.”

  Tane remembered guiding the Essence Missiles he had created when fighting against the alien fleet. But he had had an advantage at the time: he had been able to send his Essence Sight forward alongside the Missiles, allowing him to steer them with unerring accuracy. It was an ability he had lost when the dark artifact with him had disintegrated.

  The designated two minutes passed and the deck shook.

  Muse announced: “The vessel fired a full laser barrage again. Shields have fallen. Hull breach on Deck Two, outside sickbay. I’ve sealed off the area from the rest of the ship.”

  “A minute to go...” Gia said.

  “What’s going on up there?” G’allanthamas sent over the intercom.

  “Not too much,” Tane lied. “We’re on our way to the rift. About a minute to go.”

  “Good,” G’allanthamas said. “For a moment there I thought we were under attack or something.”

  “Oh no,” Tane said. “Nothing like that.”

  “Well, keep me updated,” the dweller said. “I was in the middle of a good song when vibrations from the hull ruined it.”

  From his memories, Tane knew that what G’allanthamas referred to as a “song” was merely a series of vibrations transmitted directly onto his skin: dwellers’ whole bodies were essentially auditory organs, as vibrations detected anywhere along the surfaces of their carapaces were transmitted to their brains as sound signals. Their bodies quite literally moved to the music.

  “I’ll keep you posted,” Tane said. He heard a click, and he knew the alien had disconnected.

  “They’re firing plasma throwers, and their Essence lance,” Muse said.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” Gia said. “Continue toward the rift.”

  “Looks like they’ve decided if they can’ t have you, no one can,” Sinive told Tane.

  “Actually, I believe the captain of that TSN vessel will be reprimanded when this fight is done,” Jed said.

  “Either way, the next few moments are going to be interesting,” Tane said.

  Tane wished he could access the tactical display to get an idea of how close those enemy weapons were. Then again, maybe it was better this way. Ignorance could sometimes be bliss.

  The seconds ticked past.

  “Near miss by the plasma thrower and Essence lance,” Muse announced. “The plasma bolt is dissipating. However, the lance is doubling back for another pass.”

  “Almost there...” Gia said.

  On the nose cam that overlaid the upper right of his vision, Tane could see the infinite blackness of the rift eating up the backdrop of stars.

  “Will it follow us through?” Tane asked.

  “No,” Jed answered. “The lance will dissipate.”

  “I’m talking about the ship,” Tane said.

  “Probably,” Jed said. “We may have to ambush it.”

  “Its shields will be down the first few moments after it passes through,” Sinive said.

  “I know...” Gia said.

  “We’re through,” Muse announced.

  But Tane already knew: the lights inside the cockpit had blue-shifted, and the edges of everything around Tane had become blurry, indistinct. Motion trails accompanied every movement. The voice of the Mosaic’s AI had become that characteristic overlap of high and low octaves, making Muse sound simultaneously like both a man and a woman.

  Tane couldn’t sense either Essence waiting beyond the periphery of reality. He held up a hand and waited a half second for the motion trail caused by the movement to clear. The threads emerging from his body were too thin to make out.

  On the bight side, the sense of dread the pursuit had created in the pit of his stomach had faded away.

  I can understand why Tiberius would have spent years in this place. The dulling of emotions can have a certain appeal.

  “Turn us around and prepare to fire,” Gia said. Her voice distorted like Muse’s.

  “Before I do so, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t inform you that I’ve detected two ships,” Muse said. “Dwellers. Ravagale class.”

  “Belay previous order,” Gia said.

  “How close are we?” Jed asked.

  “Less than a hundred thousand kilometers,” Muse said.

  “Well within visual ID range,” Tane said. “So much for our luck holding up.”

  Jed nodded. “It had to run out sometime. Muse, put our local dweller on the line.”

  “We have arrived?” G’allanthamas said a moment later.

  “You got it,” Tane said. “We have a couple of dwellers waiting for us. Can you talk them down?”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” G’allanthamas said. “I’ll need the ship’s AI to follow my instructions precisely if we are to have any hope of communicating with them.”

  “Muse, do whatever the dweller asks, as far as communications signals go,” Gia ordered.

  “Oh and by the way, Gall, we have a TSN ship pursuing,” Tane said. “It’s only a few minutes behind us.” He wasn’t exactly sure on the timing, but since Jed didn’t correct him, he assumed a “few minutes” was correct. “So if you can convince them to help us bring it down, that would—”

  “I knew it!” G’allanthamas said. “You thought you would coddle me? Protect me from the news of our imminent demise, is that it?”

  “No, I just figured you didn’t need the added stress,” Tane said.

  “Actually this is perfect,” the dweller said. “It will lend more credence to the story I plan to concoct. I’m disconnecting now. Bye.”

  Tane and the others waited as the seconds ticked past.

  “Is he talking to them yet?” Sinive asked.

  “The dweller has me sending low frequency gravimetric pulses out to the dweller ships, and they are responding with similar pulses, so I am assuming some form of communication is taking place,” Muse said.

  “I didn’t know our communication systems were capable of sending out gravimetric pulses,” Gia said.

  “They’re not,” the Mosaic’s AI said. “To generate the pulses, I’ve been dialing up and down the power output of the reactors. The resultant changes in mass allow for the creation of gravimetric waves.”

  “Very nice,” Tane said. “Does the TSN know about this?”

  “Probably,” Jed said. “Though I don’t think any of their scientists have ever actually fi
gured out the communication protocol, let alone the dweller language.”

  “But the dwellers have figured out ours…” Tane said.

  “Let me just say that dwellers, as a whole, are very difficult to break,” Jed said. “They rarely last longer than a week in captivity. The TSN managed to teach sign language to one particular dweller after a year of internment, but another dweller captured by the TSN shortly thereafter assassinated it.”

  “Muse, any change in their trajectories?” Gia asked.

  Tane heard a click on the intercom, and he thought G’allanthamas had reconnected.

  “No,” Muse said. “They’re continuing on an intercept course with us. They still haven’t fired, however, though they are within range. So that’s something.”

  “They won’t fire,” G’allanthamas said. He had indeed reconnected.

  “Why?” Tane said.

  “I convinced them I was a Cre’ite agent,” G’allanthamas said. “And that I stole this ship. I told them I had news on the Doomwielder, and that if they intervened, the Great Empire would have them executed. They wanted to escort me to our destination, and I agreed. One of them will remain here to hold off our pursuers, while the other will continue onward with us. I told them we were jumping to a different system than our actual destination. So they’ll follow us to the closest planet and jump when we do, but they’ll be a little surprised when we’re not there on the other side with them.”

  “They don’t plan to share our distortion tunnel, do they?” Tane asked.

  “No,” G’allanthamas said. “The Ravagale ship classes don’t have that ability. They’ll assume we arrived in some random location in the target system. It will take them some time before they realize we’ve tricked them. All the better for us.”

  “One of the dweller ships is braking,” Muse said. “It’s positioning itself directly in front of the rift, ready to take on the pursuing TSN. The other meanwhile continues toward us.”

  “Set a course for the closest planet or moon,” Gia said. “Let’s put as much distance between ourselves and that rift as possible.”

  “Hey Dweller,” Sinive said. “I take back every bad thing I’ve ever said about you.”

  G’allanthamas didn’t reply.

  “How rude,” Sinive added.

  “He probably already disconnected before you spoke,” Tane told her.

  “That’s right, take the alien’s side,” Sinive said.

  Gia had the Mosaic slow slightly to allow the dweller vessel to come alongside, and then both vessels continued together at maximum speed toward the nearest planet.

  Some moments later Muse announced: “I’m detecting weapons fire at the rift. The TSN vessel has arrived. Looks like the dweller managed to destroy several of their weapons and knock out an engine before the TSN cruiser could raise their shields. They won’t be able to pursue us. Assuming they survive the battle.”

  Tane rested against the bulkhead. “One less thing to worry about. For now. Why does it seem like it’s getting harder to avoid the TSN’s clutches?”

  “Blame it on circumstance,” Jed said. “They caught you, cleanly, and you escaped right out from under their grasp. Of course any TSN commander worth his salt is going to do everything in his power to rectify that.”

  “Actually, the TSN would be just as likely to reassign another commander to lead the search, than keep the same one,” Sinive said. “They don’t tolerate failure very well in their ranks.”

  “Well, either way, they’re going to be pooling all their resources, and reviewing their protocols, to make certain once they have you that you’ll never escape again,” Jed said.

  “It’s going to be tricky to rescue Lyra and Nebb, you’re saying,” Tane told him.

  “Tricky,” Jed agreed. “But we will have a few surprises on our side. Assuming all goes well when we reach the dweller world.”

  “Yeah, I’m not holding my breath for that,” Sinive said. “Since when has anything ever gone well with you guys? You talk about how lucky you often are, but I’ve been hanging out with you from the beginning, and none of it has ever been easy, not in my book. You want to get off a planet? Oh wait, we’re hunted by aliens. We’re chased by kraals. We got TSN warships scanning our positions from orbit. That’s not easy. Not at all. And I’m getting sick of all this running. It’s time to turn the tables on the hunters. It’s time to be the wolves instead of the sheep.”

  “Soon,” Tane said. “Very soon.”

  He went down to the pantry to grab some dried jerky and he brought it up to the cockpit. But apparently he was the only one with an appetite, because no one else wanted any, so he ate all of it himself.

  Gotta love the emotion dulling effects of the Umbra.

  In a few hours they reached the closest planet. The dweller ship continued to escort the Mosaic, while the battle near the rift had ended with both vessels there limping away in opposite directions.

  As they entered low orbit, Tane suddenly felt the White Essence beckoning to him again from beyond the edges of reality, as well as the Dark. The black threads emerging from his body were visible, and they pointed directly down toward the planet. That likely meant it was a geodynamo of some kind.

  Gia weakly pulled herself out of the jump chamber. “It’s all yours,” she told Sinive.

  The captain squeezed past Sinive and promptly collapsed. Jed caught her, and helped lower her to the deck; she was obviously still exhausted from the earlier jump.

  She smiled up at Jed. “Thank you.”

  Meanwhile Sinive slid into the jump chamber: she lay down in the sideways-rotated seat, and crooked her knees over the leg rest.

  “Muse,” Gia said tiredly. “As soon as we jump through to the target system, I want you to activate the new emitters we’ve got installed.”

  “Will do,” Muse said.

  “So, it’s time for you to reveal the mysterious target system,” Sinive said from the chamber. She was looking directly at Tane.

  He had already shared the details with Jed earlier, and they’d confirmed it was within the Mosaic’s jump range from Geneva Prime. Tane had held off telling Sinive in case she somehow leaked the information before they could depart. Muse was monitoring communications, and was supposed to be able to detect if she in fact attempted to get a message out, but Tane had decided to play it safe.

  “Abakan system,” he told her.

  “Abakan it is,” Sinive said. There was no lingering animosity in her eyes for once: she didn’t blame him for withholding the destination. He saw only grim resolve in her features as she tilted her head toward the focusing array.

  The chamber lit up, the deck vibrated, and a hum filled his hearing as Sinive jumped the starship to Abakan.

  Where destiny awaited.

  23

  Tane felt the momentary nausea as the starship passed through the interstellar distortion tunnel, and on the nose cam video feed the constellations completely changed.

  The glow in the chamber faded, as did the deck vibrations and humming. He no longer felt the Essence, Dark or White, and the black filaments emerging from his body were invisible once again.

  Sinive remained lying inside the jump chamber. Her chest moved up and down as she took long, deep breathes. Her eyes were closed.

  “You okay?” Tane asked.

  “Mmm,” she replied, not opening her eyes.

  Still seated hunched on the floor, Gia looked up slightly. “Did you activate the thermal emitters, Muse?”

  “Immediately after we jumped, as requested,” Muse said.

  Gia smiled in approval, and lolled her head. “Thank you.”

  “AI, can you confirm this is Abakan system?” Jed said.

  “Based on the layout of the constellations and stars, this is indeed Abakan,” Muse told him.

  “All right, how far are we to Kharikhan V?” Jed pressed.

  “Approximately six hours,” the Mosaic’s AI replied.

  “Good,” Sinive said. “I might just ha
ve enough energy to join you when we arrive. Night night.” She rolled out of the jump chamber and literally flopped onto the deck, almost landing on Gia.

  “Hey,” Gia said. She shoved away from Sinive but didn’t otherwise get up.

  “Any ships out there, Muse?” Tane asked.

  “I’m not detecting any,” the Mosaic’s AI replied.

  “Loop in Gall, please,” Tane said.

  Muse had figured out by now that Gall referred to the alien.

  “Are we there yet?” G’allanthamas said.

  “We just entered Abakan, and we’re six hours from Kharikhan V,” Tane said. “There are no signs of any dweller ships.”

  “They’re out there,” the alien said. “As I told you earlier, even though this is only a minor Cre’ite colony, there are still two or three scout ships watching in secret.”

  “Then do your thing,” Tane said. He waited, and several moments later he asked Muse: “Did Gall have you send out gravimetric pulses from the engines yet?”

  “Yes,” Muse replied. “I mimicked the wavelengths and modulations provided by the alien to the letter.”

  “Gall, what did you transmit?” Tane said.

  “A lie,” G’allanthamas said. “I told them I’m a trader visiting relatives on the far side of the planet, and that I plan to drop by the Cre’ite city to offload my wares before leaving.”

  “But Gia won’t be bringing the Mosaic anywhere near the dweller city,” Tane said.

  “Well if they ask why we didn’t visit the city on the way out, I’ll tell them I changed my mind. I don’t think it matters. Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to vegetate until we arrive. I’m not as young as you humans. And tight spaces make me antisocial.”

  Tane heard a click over the intercom and knew the dweller had disconnected.

  “Muse, that gravimetric signal you sent out, is it something you can duplicate at a later date?” Jed asked.

  “Of course,” the Mosaic’s AI said.

  “So that means we won’t have to rely on Gall indefinitely…” Tane said.

  “If we broadcast that message to every dweller we meet, they’ll start to catch on,” Jed said. “Especially when we can’t answer any follow up questions.”