Sam peered closer and said, 'Doctor, I can't see through the other half of that ship any more. It's quite solid now.'
The Doctor nodded solemnly. "This is it, Sam. We're entering the core of the probability nexus.'
Chapter 35
Nexus
Rexton recovered from the stomach-wrenching sensation of the transition to find the wraiths he had been holding at bay had vanished.The central well of the tower shaft was empty of them and also any sign of the interface. Shakily he crossed over to where Bendix was resting against the edge of a control panel. The external screen showed no sign of the cavern, only stars.There were bright, irregular, moving points among them that could only be ships. He clapped him on the back.
'Well done, Bendix. Now, we must get the film away safely.'
Bendix was cautiously checking the external views. 'There are a lot of ships out there. Must be the Nimosians as well as our fleet. How are we going to get the film to them if they can't pick us up?'
'I anticipated that possibility,' Rexton assured him, unslinging his backpack,
'and took the precaution of bringing this from your ship's stores.'
He pulled out three short sections of tubing which he snapped together to form a device resembling a military hand-held rocket launcher.
'An emergency homing rocket,' Bendix said. 'Of course.'
'I have arranged that our forces should be on the alert for one,' Rexton explained, removing the precious film cartridge from his pocket and fitting it into the chamber in the body of the small missile. "They will also be ready to develop the film, scan and transmit it at top speed. Always think ahead, Bendix.'
He fitted the rocket into the firing chamber and slung the launcher over his shoulder.'Now, down through the central shaft and along to the nearest external hatchway...' His eye caught a control marked HATCH CENTRAL LOCKING. He pressed the relevant button, opening them. 'That'll save time.'
Bendix suddenly looked anxious.'What about the ghosts?'
'They disappeared as we made the transition.' 'I suppose they went back to the Cirrandaria '. He looked at the external screens, but there was no sign of the ghost craft.
'Come on,' said Rexton impatiently.
***
The two opposing fleets went to maximum alert. Neither had modified shuttles ready to land on the alien ship and tow beams still failed to lock on to it, so the only option each had was to deny it to the other side.The Cirrandaria was also a problematical piece in the game and it too had to be taken into account.As both sides jockeyed for the most favourable tactical position, shuttles from the Korgon were launched towards the crippled liner.
***
'Two Emindian landing craft are outside demanding entry to the shuttle bay, Captain,'
Lanchard sighed. 'Without the main engines we can't outrun them. Better let them in before they blow the doors.'
'Sorry,' said Vega.'Our presence here hasn't helped.'
'I think they were going to do this anyway.' She hesitated, then asked, 'Was it really as bad as you said over there?'
'Yes, it was.'
'And we were both there... as ghosts?'
'Yes. I know it must seem unbelievable.'
'The trouble is... I do believe it. I felt there was something wrong when we first set eyes on the derelict.' She took a deep breath. 'Excuse me, I have to tell everybody what's going on.'
She opened the general address system.
'This is the Captain speaking to all passengers and crew. The situation outside is getting pretty tense as you may have seen for yourself. This ship has been placed under military control and we are about to be boarded by Emindian soldiers. For your own safety, put on your emergency suits and stay in your cabins or any inner compartments of the ship.'
'May I?' Vega asked, and took over the microphone. 'Vega to all Nimosian personnel on the Cirrandaria . Do not engage the Emindian troops. We do not want to start a war on this ship.'
He finished and looked at Doctor and Sam. "This is when it begins, isn't it?'
'I think so,' the Doctor admitted.
Lanchard said.'I was considering asking you to evacuate as many of the passengers as you could, but it looks like we've run out of time. Thanks for what you've done, but this isn't your concern any more. You might as well leave in that machine of yours before our troops try to stop you.'
'We're going down to the TARDIS but we're not leaving,' the Doctor said.
"There may be something we can do to stop the very worst happening.
We'll see it through with you. Come on, Sam.'
Sam looked desperately at Vega and Lanchard. Any words would be inadequate, but she couldn't just leave in silence.'Good luck; she said quickly, and hurried after the Doctor.
***
Standing on the hull of the alien ship, Rexton scanned the two groups of twinkling dots on opposite sides of the sky with binoculars.
'There's theKorgon ! he said.
Bendix handed him the launcher. He shouldered it, took aim at the distant target and fired. A simple, solid-fuel first stage propelled the small rocket clear of the alien ship's gravitational field. Five kilometres up, the homing system would cut in and direct it towards the nearest Emindian ship.
Rexton watched the flare of its tail jet vanish into the darkness, then threw the empty launcher tube aside.'Now, back to the control room.'
'Shouldn't we wait out here for recovery?'
'No, Bendix, we take advantage of circumstances.The film is only a safeguard. Now we can try for the real prize.'
'Sorry?'
'We have a ship that can quite literally go anywhere.' Rexton smiled grimly.
'We're going to see if we can take it home.'
***
Emindian marines spread efficiently through the Cirrandaria, taking stations at key points and firmly shepherding frightened passengers out of their way. A young lieutenant took possession of the bridge.To his surprise he found Lanchard sharing a drink with Vega in her day cabin.
'Since you've taken over my ship you might as well sit down,' Lanchard said with careless amicability.
'Commander, you are my prisoner,' the lieutenant told Vega.
The Nimosian did not appear in the least concerned. 'No, we're all prisoners,' he replied tonelessly. He gave the lieutenant a very disconcerting appraisal. 'I wonder: have you ever used a net and trident?'
***
They reached the TARDIS just ahead of the tramp of heavy boots. Sam felt it was like running away, but it was reassuring to be safe inside its walls again.The Doctor crossed to the console.
'Good, the capacitors are almost fully charged,' he said.
'What are you going to do - use the normaliser effect?'
'No, that only temporarily disrupts their bodily patterns. We need to do something more fundamental. Did you notice, during the fight in the starport, that none of the ghosts entered the TARDIS, even though they were swarming around it?'
'Yes.The Engerses wouldn't come in either.'
"The interior of the TARDIS is shielded from normal space, so it must sever the ghosts' link with their intradimensional phase band. They lose their individual patterns. With the power boost, I'm going to try to duplicate that effect outside the TARDIS across as large a volume of space as possible. It should completely disrupt the plane in which the ghosts exist.' He glanced at her as though appealing for understanding. "They'll die.'
Sam just stood there, taking it all in. 'It'll be a mercy,' she said finally.
"That's what they want.' She remembered Vega's disintegrating face.
'Believe me.'
The Doctor nodded slowly and returned to his controls and the monitor which he had linked to Cirrandaria's systems.
Sam frowned. 'Will we have to go back... I mean forward, to the spaceport to find the ghosts?'
'No. I think they'll come to us,' the Doctor said. "The probability nexus is evidently unstable and that may have something to do with the nature and origin of the ghosts. It's als
o why I dare not restore them to full reality even if I could. Only their phase-shifted state has allowed them to interact with their former selves to the degree they have for this long. But if they became more real, or enough of them come together at the same time, it could be disastrous.'
Sam stared at him, eyes wide in realisation. 'And if youdid fully restore them..."The Doctor nodded.'Double occupancy of the same part of space-time..."
He clapped his hands together violently as if by way of demonstration.
'Yes. It would take a tremendous release of energy to dimensionally shift an entire starship so far out of phase with reality as the Cirrandaria was.
One of the few possible sources would be the energy released when two identical bodies meet.'
The full implication struck Sam. 'You mean... they did it to themselves all along?'
'I think so, Sam. And very shortly, they're going to do it again.'
***
The message rocket sped into the heart of the Emindian fleet, cut its power and activated its beacon. It was swiftly drawn into one of theKorgon's ports, where the film cartridge was extracted and rushed to the imaging laboratory.
***
Mokai received a call from the hangar deck.
"The two modified landers are now crewed and ready to launch, Admiral.'
'Well done,' Mokai acknowledged. 'Communications, code signal to fleet: Insertion Plan Delta. Launch landing craft on confirmation.' He stared at the image of the alien vessel on the screen. 'We're going to take that ship for Nimos.'
***
Sternby watched the launch of the landing craft and manoeuvring of the Nimosian fleet grimly.
'They're going into assault formation, sir.'
'Are our craft ready yet?' Sternby demanded.
'Another hour, sir.'
'Not good enough! We can't let them get down there. Open a line to the Starfire .'
Mokai's face appeared on the screen.
'There are still two Emindian citizens on the alien vessel,' Sternby told him.'I state for the record that they are a prize crew, making that vessel Emindian territory. You have no right to land on her.'
'You have no proof whatsoever that they are on board,' Mokai retorted.
'However, I assure you that, should our landing party encounter them, they will be properly treated and returned to your care promptly and unharmed.
Unless you care to suggest that the ship is crewed by these "ghosts", it is still a derelict and open to salvage by any who can take possession of her.
Mokai out.'
Sternby stared at the blank screen for a moment, then opened a channel to the imaging laboratory.
'Has the film data from the message rocket been processed?'
'Yes, sir. We are encoding and transmitting on the ultra channel now.'
'Any personal communication from General Rexton with the film?
'No, sir.'
That was typical of the man, thought Sternby - his only concern was the mission. Well, now his own orders left him only one option. On no account were the Nimosians to be allowed to take possession of the alien vessel.
He thought Rexton would understand.
'Missile control, target the alien ship. Main batteries, one salvo each, set warheads to maximum yield. Fire when ready.'
***
The missiles streaked towards the great bulk of the alien ship, to be met by a wave of antimissile interceptors from the Nimosian fleet. Only two got through, and the interference field caused them both to detonate short of their target. A hundred metre circle of hull skin was fused and warped, while a blast wave of vaporised missile casing shook the ship's central tower.
The landing craft and their escort broke off their first run and circled clear of their target. Counterstrike missiles leapt from the Nimosian ship's launch tubes towards the Emindian fleet, while waves of darting fighters dived out of the night to engage their opposite numbers. Incandescent beams and pulses of multigigawatt magnitude stabbed across the intervening space as the two fleets' heaviest projector turrets exchanged fire. Another missile salvo sped away from theKorgon towards the alien ship.
The first battle of the war had begun.
***
Rexton and Bendix clung to the edges of the control panels for support as the ship trembled under the onslaught, but they kept on with their task.
There was no need to state the obvious. They had very little time left.
***
Sam turned aside from the monitor image, feeling hot tears of rage and despair pricking her eyes.
'What can we do?'
'Nothing,' said the Doctor. 'Our warning and the actions of the ghosts have all become part of what we sought to avoid. It was inevitable... but we had to try. All we can do now is limit the suffering.'
***
Three black-hulled Nimosian assault craft, having flown a long evasive arc around the conflict zone, intercepted the Cirrandaria , which lay a little back from the cluster of Emindian ships. They clamped on to its hull and cutting beams rapidly and efficiently sliced through external service hatches, opening the way for the marines themselves. They poured in, dividing up to take specific sections of the ship. They were met by fierce resistance from the occupying Emindian soldiers and the advance faltered, degenerating into a corridor-by-corridor struggle, then finally a bloody hand-to-hand combat. At the head of one of these infiltration parties was Corporal Talek Chen.
***
In his cabin on the Indomitable , Fayle felt the surges of power as the ship manoeuvred, and the concussion as it discharged its guns or took hits against its shields. But he noted all this with a curious detachment.
His encounter with the thing in Chen's cabin had, in a few seconds, turned his certainties upside down. He had tried to report the incident objectively and had been relieved of his command for his trouble.And now, even though they were fighting the Emindians, it no longer seemed to matter.
Perhaps it was just the effect of shock, but he appreciated for the first time that there were greater mysteries and possibilities out there than he had ever dreamed of. It put mundane life, with all its fears and hatreds, into perspective. Now he waited, slightly impatiently, to find out what would come next.
***
In his own cabin Rask Chen listened to the pounding as the spirit of his brother said, 'Sorry, Rask. I tried...'
The next concussion threw Chen to the floor.
***
'I think I have Emindar on the target screen,' Bendix said. 'It's locked in, correcting for space-time distortion.'
'Offset by one million kilometres. We don't want to arrive on the surface."
'Done... I think.'
'Now set temporal displacement back one year,' said Rexton.
'What? But we can't risk -'
'Our forces did not have time to finish the repairs and master the full functions of the other ship. We will give them time, so they will be ready.Doit!'
'But I'm not sure about the calibration -'
The ship trembled again.
'We have no time, Bendix.We'll take the risk for Emindar'
'It'll take a couple of minutes - if we have that long.'
Rexton looked desperately over the controls. There were still so many they hadn't examined. The panel they'd used earlier had only negated the space-time separation between the ends of the ship. Now they needed to move just a few kilometres through space alone to get clear of the battle.
Then he saw the sign that read NODES: REAL-TIME PHYSICAL
DISPLACEMENT EFFECT.
Did that mean what he thought? There was only one way to find out.'We're going to take evasive action,' he said.
Space contorted around the ship as the gravimetric potential grew between the ends of its main hull, then started to flow past it. To maintain an equilibrium the ship moved forward with the main control module leading, steadily gaining speed. It ploughed its way through the heart of the battle, ships of all sizes scattering before its huge bulk.
/>
***
'Delray's ghost proved that the nexus is not yet in perfect equilibrium,' the Doctor said, as they watched and waited for the Cirrandaria's doppelgänger.'The ghosts' timeline at least can change. Delray remembered a different sequence of events in which Lyset Wynter had died through what he felt was his cowardice. So he influenced his former self to behave differently, and in effect swapped his life for hers. A tiny change, on the cosmic scale of things, but significant.'
'But if the ghosts are going to annihilate their former selves to start the whole cycle off again, won't they be finished anyway?' Sam wondered.
'I can't be certain of that, in their altered state.That's why I'll release the energy pulse just after they've made contact. At least we can be sure they'll be at rest then. It's just a matter of timing.'
'Doctor,' Sam said slowly. 'What if you did it early? Stopped them from turning themselves into ghosts in the first place? Then they won't be there to send the alien ship back, so the Emindians and Nimosians won't be here to fight over it...'
She saw the look in his eyes.'Youare thinking about it!'
She saw that familiar dangerous smile play about his lips, defying the terrible sense of inevitability and doom that Sam had felt lying heavy upon them.
'It would be a terrible risk, Sam,' he said quickly. 'I wouldn't dare consider it, except we know space and time are mutable at this point. Yes, it might just work.There'U be some other confrontation and the war will happen anyway
- that can't be changed. But at least these people might escape. But it could be dangerous for us too.'
'Go for it!' Sam said without hesitation.
***
In the Cirrandaria's sickbay, which had become an emergency centre for the treatment of wounded from both sides, Dr Gilliam was sealing the stump of corporal Talek Chen's left arm, which had been blown completely off by an Emindian blaster bolt.
Vanderdeken's Children Page 26