“So you think he was wasting his efforts, is that what you're saying?” she said bitterly.
He shrugged. “I mean no slight or insult to him. He was a very capable scholar, someone I was proud to work with and call a friend. He understood the need to go out into the field, to find things in their natural state and search in ways that hadn't been thought of before. But his failing was a human one. The same failing, I'm afraid, that you possess. And that all others possess.”
“Except for you, apparently.”
Dr. Hammond smiled. “Ah, don't get me wrong. I understand more. But I am still a human. And even with all the knowledge laid out before me, I still have a hard time processing it all.”
“So what is this knowledge?” Lauren asked impatiently. She was beginning to tire of his lecture. To her he sounded like a pseudo-intellectual, one that could make a theory sound good, yet had nothing solid to back it up.
And his scorn for evidence and proofs seemed self-serving. She imagined he felt that way because it protected his way of thinking and shielded it from all challenges, at least in his mind. Lauren hated arguing with that type of person, mostly because they refused to even acknowledge other points of view.
“What do you want to know, exactly?”
“I want to know what you think it is that's so important to find. So stunning that I'm going to suddenly decide to help the people that killed my mentor and have been trying to kill me for months. Or have you forgotten how ludicrous your idea actually sounds?”
“Merely because you don't know,” he said. “Like I told you, this galaxy, this entire reality is based on petty distinctions. Struggles for power, wealth, all of it completely meaningless in the grand scheme of the universe. But what if there was something else? Something beyond that?”
“So you're trying to be a guru, or a religious leader?” she asked. “People have called Eon Path a cult. I guess the description fits.”
“Hm, and I suppose you want to blame me for that as well, like so many others. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. The point is that the Ulics were so advanced that our way of thinking, our way of living and interacting with each other would be completely beneath them. And they in turn are completely unfathomable to us.”
“There's evidence that they were fairly similar to humans.”
“Maybe in their physiology. But their intellect and understanding is a completely different story. What if there was something beyond this universe? Something unseen, unless those with the foresight and the will to explore it made it real.”
“Like an alternate dimension. Is that what you're getting at?” she asked. “We already know about that. Every time we travel into wormhole space we jump into a different dimension.”
“To the casual observer yes. But wormhole space isn't truly a different reality. It exists on the edge of our own, and is influenced by the celestial bodies contained within. I'm speaking of a truly separate reality, one completely divorced from the one we inhabit at the moment.”
“That's not a new theory,” she said. “Multiple universes. How many centuries has that idea been floating around?”
“For quite some time. But I'm not speaking of that.”
She sighed. “You know, for someone who wants to get me on his side you're not doing a very good job of it. You're going around in circles and speaking in riddles. Tell me it straight. What are you looking for? What do you think you're going to find here, and why do you think it's so important?”
“Very well, though I suppose that this will make you think that I'm a lunatic.”
“You're already well past that point, so I don't think this is going to make much of a difference.”
“Quite. We're looking for the Eon Gate, the same thing that you and your expedition expected to find here. It's the function that you're confused about. You're under the impression that it's a weapon. Not a completely unreasonable assumption to make. Many in Eon Path were inclined to believe the same thing. But it's incorrect. The Eon Gate is something far more than a mere weapon.”
“You think it leads somewhere,” she said. “Another reality? Another universe?”
“I'm not completely certain. But almost certain counts for something as well,” Hammond said. “It leads somewhere not in the known universe, and the Ulics considered it to be their crowning achievement. I agree.”
“If it exists...”
“Yes, there's always the possibility that it's nothing more than a myth. But I don't think that's the case.”
“If it exists, where does it lead? And do we know anything about the universe that's on the other side?”
“We know nothing about it,” he said. “I know nothing about it, save for one thing. It's a product and a technological marvel beyond our wildest dreams.”
Lauren nodded. “To find another reality and create a bridge to it...”
“Find it?” Hammond said. “That's an understatement and a disservice to what the Ulics accomplished. They didn't find a new universe. They built it.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
By skill and a little bit of luck her team managed to push the enemy back and recover their wounded comrade, but Nina was in a foul mood as they went to work trying to treat Elsner's injury. With two of their comrades captured and a huge enemy force ahead of them their options were limited.
“How is he doing?” she asked.
“We've stabilized him, but it's not good,” Soko told her. “And without our medic I don't know if we can give him proper treatment down here. We might need to get him back up to the ship, although I'm not sure if that's going to be possible. We can leave him here hooked up to a mobile life support unit, but...”
“We can try,” she said, “but it's going to be tough. You can be sure that Eon Path is trying to break through the doorway, which means we're going to have to fight our way through.”
“I can deploy a drone unit to assist you from the outside,” IVIN said. “And I'll alert the crew on the ship that you may need a bombardment.”
“If we do that we're going to be giving up our position,” Griz said. “Once we leave the surface we're probably not going to be able to get back down, at least not without reinforcements. They're going to be ready for us. And the longer this takes, the more distance their other team will be able to cover.”
“I know.”
“So if we're going to do anything about Kei and Lauren-”
“I know,” Nina snapped, then immediately regretted her tone. If they had more troops with them they might be able to do something, but with only five able-bodied soldiers and herself their options were limited.
This was her fault as well. They could have brought another platoon along, or insisted that another ship come with them, but her ego had won out. Whether it was due to arrogance or not, she thought they could accomplish the task on their own.
Nina had completely underestimated the enemy's capabilities, and now others were paying for her failure. That thought rankled her more than anything.
But she couldn't let that affect her thinking, not when so much depended on the decisions she was about to make. Nina went over their situation again in her head. They needed to get Elsner to safety, but they also had to think about Lauren and Kei. She suspected that they'd be relatively safe, since the enemy had a chance to kill them but took them prisoner instead. Even so, they couldn't just let Eon Path get their hands on what lay inside.
“One thing,” Rappa said.
“What is it?”
He hesitated for a moment. “We're picking up signals from further inside the structure. It's communications. A radio signal. And it matches Kei's ID number.”
“What are they, stupid?” Salim said. “They didn't take his radio away from him?”
“I don't think they're that dumb. More than likely someone has his radio and is using it to signal us. Who or why they'd do it is a mystery to me, but...”
Nina saw the logic in this theory. “Well, well. Looks like there might be more to t
his. But...”
“What are we doing?” Soko asked.
Nina hesitated for a moment.
“BUILT IT? What do you mean built it?” Lauren asked.
“Just like I said. They built the new universe, and the link to it is the Eon Gate.”
“How… how is that possible? How would you even do that? And where would you get the materials for it? That sounds completely insane.”
“Yes, that's what I thought when I first came across a mention of it in a text I was studying. Just a myth, a flight of fancy or a story meant to entertain or act as an allegory. That's what I believed, but then I began to see it. More and more, the deeper I delved into the Ulic writings the more it became apparent.”
“But that doesn't mean anything,” she argued. “You're a writer. How many fictional things would another civilization think are real if they only studied our movies?”
“I understand why you'd be skeptical. But I assure you, I've studied this extensively over the years, and it's the only logical conclusion I've managed to draw. The Eon Gate is real. This is the control center. And it leads to another universe. And according to the text, they built it.”
“That sounds so insane,” she said again. “The scale of that. It's not even scientific. It's-”
“It sounds like sorcery doesn't it? Magic.”
Lauren remembered her conversation with Leon Skare. Clarke's third law…
“But I haven't seen any proof of this in the writings I've studied,” she said. “If this was so important to the Ulics, then why weren't there any mentions of it?”
“Because you were looking in the wrong place. The planets that humanity inhabits in this galaxy were the fringes of the Ulic civilization. Backwaters, frontiers. The true center of the empire was located in the Central Expanse, and few archeologists dare to venture here.”
That was true enough. The war had shut down the area to all non-military traffic, and even before then the Central Expanse had been a notorious pirate haven. That didn't even account for the difficulties trying to search the asteroids or the three intact but desolate worlds within the region. Lauren counted herself lucky that she was able to come here under the patronage of a wealthy, well-equipped corporation.
“But still, if it was so important then why didn't information leak out into the rest of the frontier?”
“Maybe it did. But the problem with the data we've been collecting over the years is that much of it has been corrupted. I think it's reasonable to assume that the information on the true purpose of the Eon Gate might have been one of the things lost to that.”
“This...”
“I know that you're skeptical, and you have every reason to be that way,” Hammond said. “It's the natural reaction that all humans have. When we see something that's incomprehensible to us we assume that it's impossible, and we're imagining things. But I assure you, this is real.”
“And what proof can you offer that it's real? The complexity of creating an entire universe-”
“Ah,” he said, “you want to apply Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is that my assumptions are wrong, that much is true. But Occam's Razor isn't an infallible criteria. And I think that my theory is very testable. We find the Eon Gate, we open it up and then we explore what's on the other side.”
“But that's still making so many assumptions. If there's an entire universe on the other side...”
He shrugged. “That might be. But the universe on the other side might not be the same size as our own. Most of the writings I've discovered focused on a single world floating in the void. Whether that was by accident or design I don't know, but it may indicate the Ulics designed it to be much more compact than the naturally formed universe.”
Lauren didn't respond. Too many things had been dumped on her at once, and her head was spinning. None of it made any sense either. Dr. Hammond seemed to be rambling like a madman, driven to believe in his wild theories without a shred of evidence to back them up. She wanted to dismiss them as just the ravings of a mind too far gone…
But she couldn't. Something in the back of her mind kept insisting that he might be right, or at least his ideas might not be completely insane. Could she discount them, especially with so much at stake?
“If what you're saying is true...”
“Yes?”
“What are you planning on doing?”
“It's simple, of course. We find the gate. We activate it. And then we find what's on the other side.”
ANOTHER DAY PASSED, and they continued moving further and further into the complex. With no set day or night cycle Kei found it hard to keep track of time, but he did his best to keep his wits about him.
Lauren seemed occupied, especially after her conversation with Dr. Hammond. He didn't blame her for that, not when everything he had told her seemed so outlandish. Even hearing it from her, Kei wasn't sure whether to believe it or not. He agreed with Lauren that it seemed like the ravings of a lunatic.
But that wasn't his main concern right now. Kei remained wary of their captors, noticing that there seemed to be some tension between Dr. Hammond and Bray. The Eon Path leader appeared to resent him on some level, even though Hammond was the organization's inspiration, maybe even their spiritual leader.
It might be a personality clash, or it might speak to something deeper. Whatever the case, Kei felt he had to keep his eyes open and look for opportunities to escape. Bray seemed far too eager to use force to extract the information they wanted. He had no doubt that the enemy leader would kill them if he got the chance, too.
Relying on Dr. Hammond's protection could prove to be very dangerous. If he changed his mind, if anything happened to him along the way, or if he wasn't looking at the wrong time…
Some of the more junior members attempted to make conversation with him, but Kei kept his answers curt and vague. It might pay off to make friends, but he didn't want to sympathize with them. They were his captors, they were the enemy, a terrorist organization that had no qualms about killing civilians and innocents. If he could get his hands on a weapon he'd kill them all without any hesitation.
This was truly personal to him. This went beyond his job, his duty as a soldier. They had hurt one of his comrades, possibly killed him, and they had demonstrated their willingness to hurt anyone else that would get in their way. They had taken him captive, and they'd torture or murder him if they were given the chance.
Kei knew he needed to be careful, but he was itching for a chance to get his hands on a weapon. He could do it easily enough. His military training included plenty of hand-to-hand combat experience, and he knew how to disarm an enemy. Grabbing a gun would be relatively simple, but it was what came afterward that concerned him the most.
He still had his armor, but the enemy had taken everything else in his pack. Kei lacked his radio, his visor, even basic necessities like food and water. He might be able to escape and evade the enemy long enough to link up with the rest of the squad, but that depended on them staying put. He could end up searching this place for days, and Eon Path would probably take great pains to recapture him. There was no guarantee that they'd remain here either, not with Elsner badly wounded. They might scrap the mission, get him back to the Starlight and wait for reinforcements to arrive.
And he still had to think about Lauren. She was tough and physically fit, but dodging enemy patrols for days without food and water would take its toll on her, and Eon Path probably wouldn't be terribly amused if they were recaptured.
The further they traveled the more nervous he became. Kei had that feeling in the back of his mind. Eon Path wasn't just heading to the center of the complex to find the gate. They had something else planned. What that might be was anyone's guess.
“SO YOU HAVEN'T GIVEN me a proper answer. Are you willing to help me?”
Lauren frowned. “I'm not sure.”
“Hm? Even after realizing what we're searching for?”
“Shouldn't that give me even more reason not t
o help you?” she said. “You're dealing with terrorists. I know you don't see eye-to-eye with me on that, but from my perspective I'd be handing over the greatest discovery in the history of mankind to them. Do you really think I'd do that?”
“Hm, I suppose not, though again I would point out that the distinctions you want to make aren't as clear-cut as you want to make them. It's all a matter of perception.”
“Even so.”
She braced herself for the worst. Dr. Hammond seemed affable enough and appeared to be very patient with them, but even that patience might have its limits. If she kept resisting there was no telling what he might do.
Even so, Lauren wasn't about to help a terrorist organization, not for a weapon, certainly not for the technological marvel that Dr. Hammond believed lay buried deep within this complex. She'd keep her mouth shut at all costs, even if that meant courting certain death.
But he laughed.
“Ah, you're a stubborn one. Very much like Doran. I can see that you're his student. But I still think that you'll come around. One way or another you'll help us. I'm certain of that.”
“You keep saying that, but it's not becoming any more true.”
“Oh,” Hammond said with a smile, “I think it will. I have my reasons for believing so. You'll help us, that much is certain.”
Lauren didn't like the tone of his voice, but she couldn't imagine what he was planning. No matter what they tried she wasn't' going to give in, and doubtless he knew about her resolve. Yet Dr. Hammond still retained his confidence. She'd help Eon Path despite her objections.
That thought chilled her.
“DR. HAMMOND, we've found it.”
“Excellent. Excellent indeed,” he said. “Now let's see what we can do with it.”
Kei had no idea what they were talking about. By his estimation they should be nearing the center of the complex, but they had taken several twists and turns during their journey. Were they deviating from a straight route? He couldn't tell, since his visor and wristband had been taken away, and they contained the map of this place.
Eon Gate (The Eon Pentalogy Book 1) Page 21