by Essa Hansen
Caiden squeezed his eyes shut as the rind passed through the ship. Radiant filaments swept over him, soaking his body with electric prickles. The rind swept by, and in the new universe on the other side, Caiden’s breathing came easier, and the ship’s scalar gravity field felt weaker.
Light threshed off the cockpit windows, revealing a new expanse of stars.
And Emporia: a structure a hundred times larger than the Cartographers’ Den had been, and many times more unfathomable.
The entire thing was lightseep obsidian.
CHAPTER 16
EMPORIA
Caiden couldn’t decide if having a name for the substance that composed Emporia made it more or less baffling to observe. The structure hanging in space was almost entirely lightseep obsidian, that bizarre multidimensional matter that composed parts of the Azura’s spine. The transparent walls and angles were there one moment and gone the next, slipping in and out of phase with one another like a great faceted jewel turned in the light.
Taitn said, “The multiverse is full of ancient Graven structures like this. Once discovered, they’re gutted by the Dynast, scraped of any relics, leaving us the shells of things that once had purpose: a planet or a palace, a city, a creature— we don’t know.”
Caiden gawked. “Creature?”
“Well, anything is possible. Some think lightseep was chiseled, others say it’s bones, or like an insect that’s molted and left a perfect shell.”
Emporia’s fat middle tapered at top and bottom. As Taitn circled the Azura to one starlit side, the ridges were revealed to be the ends of long flat slices lined up close together to create the illusion of a single mass.
The lightseep glinted and slithered in and out of space: a bright wall where none was before, or transparency suddenly dense and dark. Each slice was built of small hexagonal hollows pieced together. Normal materials filled the inside of these transparent bones, colonizing the lightseep skeleton like a hive built around the limbs of a tree.
“Lightseep is the physical condensation of other-dimensional energy structures. Whatever event wiped out the Graven civilization also slowed down and crystallized the vibrations of lightseep over time. That’s why it’s solid.”
Atmoseal membranes capped the hexagonal spaces, and the whole exterior was studded with lights and slathered with languages in luminous moving pastes. Activity swelled inside the rooms, while ships streamed in and out of the layers like bees.
“We’re going to the mechanics zone,” Taitn continued, “where Panca can fix up the Azura, and Laythan can buy us a new vessel. Probably cargo class.” A bit of husky regret laced his voice. “The Cartographers’ medical district has the acceleration chamber you’ll use. It’s rare enough tech we won’t find it anywhere else, otherwise”— he hushed—“Laythan wouldn’t come here.”
Emporia’s many layers immersed their view. Taitn navigated between two slices. The shift of viewing angle made the lightseep vanish for a moment, and the hive’s cells appeared cushioned by an expanse of only stars.
Taitn flew against one long layer slice, through, up another wall, across, and Caiden lost all sense of orientation. They stopped in an area less vibrant and decorated, at an atmoseal-capped cell with a nondescript iris door. To one side, a strip of stars was bordered by obsidian. On the other, zipping lines of starship traffic dazzled among studded lights.
Taitn pulled his fingers from the milky twitch drive panels and raised them in the air. The holosplays congealed in the cockpit’s foggy light, blinking and fading at his touch as he navigated the ship interface.
“Communications linked,” the pilot said. “Request sent.”
A throaty voice blared through a speaker in the cockpit. “Laythan Paraïa! For too long I have not seen! What is this heap? Where is Dava?”
Taitn rolled his eyes.
“Let us in, Pent, we have business,” Laythan said.
“Yes, yes, yes. Let me see it, let me eyeball.”
The door iris before them dilated open. The Azura drifted inside through the luminous atmoseal.
The interior of the depository stretched half a kilometer, stuffed full of dead starships. Some were disassembled, or parts of one cannibalized onto another, while others were only shells or bones. Caiden didn’t have names for most of the materials or shapes, and he gaped, leaning in the cockpit to see on all sides.
Taitn chuckled. “You have a mechanic’s gleam in your eye. This place is pretty cool, huh?” The thrusters whispered as he flew carefully between the massive wrecks, finally stopping in a large open area. Landing gear slithered from the ship’s belly. “Pent is an old friend. He can get any replacement parts we need, and we’ll reassemble Laythan a new ship from the trove. This district is quiet and clandestine.”
“Hey,” En said, gliding over to drop something in Caiden’s hand: a pair of small golden kernels. “Translators. Put these in your ears, they’ll help shape your synapses. There are quite a few languages that your acceleration won’t be able to give you.”
Caiden fitted a kernel in each ear canal. They fuzzed up inside until he couldn’t feel them, but when En said, “How about this?” the words lay heavy in his brain for a moment. He smiled, confirming they worked.
Floating spotlights, like bright insects, clustered in the nodes of the depository’s scalar gravity. As Taitn set the Azura down, the lights swarmed all around, inspecting.
Pent’s voice crashed through the speakers. “Never have I seen! The wings! Oh! Open. Taitn Maray Artensi, please, please, yes, open, expose.”
Taitn shook his head. “Excitable as ever.”
Ksiñe hit the doors open as everyone gathered in the bay. The back of the ship unfolded and the floating spotlights poured in, beaming rays across every surface. Caiden swatted a few away and backed into a corner.
“Friends!” Pent shouted as he approached the back of the ship, arms open wide. His voice was scratchy wet, vibrating in triplet through his big skull and the floral folds of his inverted nose.
Pent was a saavee. His large eyes sat high on his face, crisp fluorescent green dimpled by diamond pupils. He was Laythan’s height but much thicker, brawny and callused, his body a mix of bumpy textures in slate and lavender hues.
Laythan greeted Pent on the ramp. They clasped wrists and thumped a fist into each other’s chest. “We need repairs. She’s been derelict for some time.”
“Always for you! Always. Whatever need.”
The floating scanner lights homed in on the ceiling, where the ship’s crystal and lightseep spine was covered in scaly panels.
“What is?” Pent’s diamond pupils flicked. He took a step back on the ramp.
Panca switched the ceiling plates open, filling the bay with blue light. The spine scintillated magnificent plays of luminescence and shadow.
“Graven!” Pent shrieked. His short ears curled back in alarm. The weave of his green irises came apart and wriggled as if he wanted to unsee what was before him. “No, no, no, don’t you know— Dynast has detectors now! They would kill, kill for it!”
“They have what?” Laythan rounded on the saavee.
Pent swiveled his head anxiously. “Dynast set sensors up to detect vibrations of active Graven technology in all, all, all Emporia. They want to catch Graven things sold in secret. Quick! I have shielded hollow, can hide her! It is lightseep hole, pocket of weird physics, can hide things.”
Laythan’s face screwed. “Taitn, park there quick. Everyone else, out!”
“This way, in the back,” Pent hissed. He shuffled outside, kneading his forearms anxiously.
“Wha—” Caiden was pushed out and left aside like baggage as the crew became a flurry of efficiency.
Taitn closed the bay doors and ignited the ship. The Azura’s huge thrusters were a pink whisper while a deeper vibration emanated from the base to push it off the ground. The ship crossed the huge depository to a far wall, where a gaping blister in the lightseep resembled a knot in a tree, a cavern of velvety light j
ust big enough to house the ship. Taitn parked the Azura inside, and a creamy membrane slicked across the hollow’s opening. The ship’s sharp wings folded over each other, her outline svelte and so black it hid all the contours, seams, and sheen. The Azura looked like those dead insects that would collect in the pasture block light panels, impossible to remove.
Caiden walked over alone, watching the crew at work. En squeezed information from the saavee. Panca strode off into the shadowy depths of the depository.
The sound of Caiden’s footfalls bounced lonely off the wrecks. The crew didn’t need him at all, but he still very much needed them. The acceleration would make him twenty years old, stuffed with skills and able to fight, fix, fly, and speak real languages. Would he become good enough to contribute? Good enough to make them understand why he needed an impossible thing like vengeance?
Taitn emerged through the shielding hollow’s membrane. His brow wrinkled when he saw Caiden. “You all right? Your cheeks are red. Don’t worry about the Azura, she’ll be undetected in there. Ksiñe is modifying the traces we made as we were coming in. The Dynast’s detectors rove, so we missed most of them.”
“Yeah … thanks. Can we go to my acceleration now?”
Taitn blanched. “After we discuss. Soon.”
Soon. That would forever be Caiden’s most hated word. He would understand soon. He would accelerate soon. He would fly the Azura soon.
“A child!” Pent spotted him and gave a wide-jawed grin. His teeth were vertical strips of white barbs in dark gums. “A child. Do not tell me … Laythan! No, no, no. Surely, Endirion Day. You have misfired at last!” A hoarse cackle erupted from the saavee.
En scowled and folded his arms. “Not me. Sharpshooter.”
“His name is Winn,” Laythan said. “The ship is his, both of them from CWN82.”
“Ah.” Squiggles swam in Pent’s eyes as he inspected Caiden. “Winn of Casthen.”
“I’m not Casthen!”
“Then you would not have ship! Not be you.” Pent grinned horribly again. “Bad things can make good people. Good people can make things bad.”
Caiden’s mind tripped hard over that. Was the opposite true too?
Panca approached, pushing a levitating cart of supplies and tools.
“Pan Carai! Oh!” Pent thundered to one knee and raised his arms in worship. “Pan, supreme, exquisite, tell me: have you heard Azura speak? What does she need? I have sulphur specs, you must see! And new coils, all the kinds— malta, halispar, all! Glossalith threads, I buy for you! Come, come. Come.” Arms still spread, he backed sideways. His nose flared with great breaths like the petals of a gray flower.
Caiden shuddered. Panca followed with little reaction.
Laythan snapped his fingers and addressed the crew. “The sooner we wrap up the Azura’s bioprocessing repairs, the faster we can assemble and outfit a new ship and get out of Unity. I don’t want to be anywhere near the Dynast while this Casthen dust settles. En, sell the gloss as discreetly as you can manage. Try not to bloody anyone.”
“No promises.” En saluted and jogged away.
Caiden tugged the morphcoat tighter around his shoulders. Laythan was still vexed, but Caiden had a goal and he didn’t need to wait for the captain’s approval. “Tell me how to get to the Cartographers’ district.”
Surprisingly, Laythan didn’t fight. “Let’s get it over with, then.” He strode off to a nearby door on the depository wall and punched a keypad. Singsong motors brought down a lift.
Taitn charged after them both, face still pale and glistening with sweat. “Hang on, we have to discuss acceleration increments. He’ll need—”
“He can do it all at once. It’s only six years. Then he can make adult decisions and we can get out of Unity.”
“Only six … You’d put him in danger just beca—”
The lift boomed to a stop, and the door to it opened by dissolving into particles. The three of them treaded inside, and the door re-congealed. The space was cramped, and there was no room for Caiden’s anxiety as he sensed an old argument resurging between pilot and captain. The air was electric, and both of them towered, casting heavy shadows. Caiden shoved his hands in his morphcoat pockets and crunched the fabric between his fingers.
Laythan delivered measured, biting words. “We’re leaving as soon as we have a new ship, which should only be a few days. If you want to take his acceleration slow, you can split off and stay here with him.”
Taitn fidgeted. “You’re trying to run from a threat that doesn’t exist.” He dropped his tone, quiet and deep. “En was right. Just because you spent decades stuck doesn’t mean it’s right to speed everything up for Winn.”
Laythan’s voice rose to take up the volume Taitn had lost. “Just because you went too fast doesn’t mean others have your lust for patience.”
“I’m not an adolescent, Layth.”
“Stop arguing like one. It’s not your choice, anyway, it’s for the boy to decide what he does with his body. Winn— will you accelerate all six years at once and come with us when we leave, or space your time out safely and remain in Emporia?”
Alone dangled unsaid on the end of that.
Caiden stood, pinned by Laythan’s unyielding gray gaze and Taitn’s pleading blues. As much as he had fantasized about being older and capable, he had no sense of what he would become after that many years were slammed into him in an instant. And he couldn’t imagine being alone in the multiverse without the help of the crew.
He desperately needed both the acceleration and their support.
“All six years at once.” His voice quavered at the end, and he couldn’t meet his hero’s eyes.
Taitn looked away, face grim. He tousled fingers through his dark hair and slicked it aggressively to one side. Then, seeming unsure what to do with his hands and the silence, he fished out the flask from his jacket and nursed it.
Caiden pinched his arms against his stomach. His breathing felt loud in the cramped space. The lift stopped with a hiss and its door dissolved into a cascade of particles.
He blinked at the massive space beyond. Inside Emporia, the Graven ruin’s hexagonal rooms that he’d seen from the exterior extended like long tubes. Xenids and wares populated the inner chambers.
Inside, the lightseep obsidian wasn’t just a scaffolding into which solid, opaque materials were stuffed. It was a canvas onto which holograms projected. Light soaked surfaces, giving the illusion of moving landscapes much vaster than the actual walls of Emporia. To his left, waterfalls sixty meters high inhabited lightseep columns. They threw up whorls of mist that fractured rainbows. On his right, a forest of red-barked trees projected across one long, flat sheet of the lightseep stuff. Caiden touched the wall, expecting to graze the tree’s rough bark, but his palm flattened on solid crystal, senses deceived.
Taitn ambled on, familiar with this place. Laythan strode stiffly, piercing gaze darting this way and that, parsing out the crowd. Caiden trailed behind, so captivated by the deceptive vistas, he barely noticed the new variety of xenids strolling past. Wonder started to unstitch his anxiety.
The inner facets of the lightseep obsidian shifted when seen from different angles, and the holo-environments projected inside transformed too. A tunnel passage they walked through was painted with fields of blue glaciers. In the next atrium, rainfall dangled like silver threads from an orange sky. But as he entered, the crystal facets shifted and there were clouds where the floor had been, and an underwater world in the ceiling.
The myriad views were all the more disconcerting and dreamlike because none had sound. And all of them were wildly different from Caiden’s home of industrial buildings and green fields.
“Cartographers are purple,” Taitn said, pulling Caiden’s attention back. He flicked at a sinuous thread of colored light hovering in the middle of the corridor. Other colors bundled with it and shot off in different directions. In such a labyrinthine place it made sense there was some system of guidance.
; “Dynast copper. Medics green. En will tell you red is ‘fun,’ I’d call it trouble.”
Laythan snorted at that, his first sign of softening up.
The red navigation thread angled into a wide hall where tones swelled through glass walls and changed its hues. Lettering dripped in the air, painted in stylistic light, while laughter and sweet or rowdy voices pealed from moving shadows behind.
They followed the purple thread to a multileveled concourse over a kilometer wide and tall, crisscrossed with causeways and corridors. The lightseep wasn’t holopainted; instead, it was like being inside a chiseled jewel with light sources casting all around.
As Caiden marveled, a lance of guilt cut him down. Focus, idiot.
He wasn’t here to explore or enjoy— none of these worlds could be his— he was here to shore up his failings so he could put his worthless life to use. He would get one crucial step closer to the vengeance his whole dead world deserved.
Twenty years old. Caiden watched Taitn’s back, the confident and unhurried sway of his shoulders, the straps crossing them with polished buckles that caught every light they passed. Taitn’s boots had a jingling rhythm that Caiden tried to match, tried to measure himself and feel steady in his pace.
The acceleration would catch him up. Taller, stronger, knowledgeable. Caiden huffed, reenergized.
Taitn looked down and slowed. “Too fast?”
“Just right.”
“Are you scared?” Taitn managed to summon a reassuring smile.
“What will it feel like? To be older, to know things, and be able to do things without any memories of how I learned?”
“It— it won’t hurt,” Taitn said, “but our bodies aren’t designed to speed up or slow down. It’ll take a while for the rest of you to catch up. I’ll— we’ll make sure you safely recover.”
Caiden glanced at Laythan striding ahead.
Taitn took a sip from his lacquered flask.
Laythan reached a hand back for it. Taitn paused a good long moment before he shared.
In thickened silence, they treaded across storm clouds. Shops lined the long passageway on either side, while scarlet lightning danced in the ceiling and floor. Caiden flinched at every flash beneath his feet.