The Space Between

by Scott J Robinson

Meledrin felt a strange shifting in her weight, like she had felt when they first moved away from the American base, and Kim dashed back into the cockpit to lean on the backs of the two chairs to look. "I thought I told you..."

  Meledrin followed at a more sedate pace and discovered that they were motionless in a sky full of planes and kidol. The alien bats, much more maneuverable than the planes, were no match for the human weapons. They dodged and weaved, retaliating with missiles of their own and dropping their bombs onto the world below.

  "I thought it was a good idea to slow down," Keeble said. "The way we were going before, we'd run into stuff before we saw it, just about."

  A plane turned and skimmed past a ponderous alien missile. The missile exploded anyway, engulfing the aircraft in a huge ball of flame and sound. Kim swore. Meledrin's heart was racing, but she schooled her face to calmness in case someone should observe her.

  "Christ. We need a radar." Kim scanned the controls, eyes darting back and forth, as if the use of each one would suddenly become obvious now that she thought the need was real.

  "What is a radar?"

  "It lets us see things like missiles from a long way away, even if they're behind us."

  Meledrin shook her head before remembering the way Tuki had used the skyglass at the American base. She mentioned the idea to Kim.

  "You're a bloody genius, Mel. Tuki shift the focus, would you? Shift it in close so we can see what's around us."

  The moai did as he was asked. In the meantime Kim moved up to the main controls in the middle of the panel and dropped the ship down near the ground. They advanced along a shallow river valley. The skyglass was soon showing the ship and a few kilometers all around. There were so many dots, they almost became one large smudge of yellow. Tuki touched the crystal and spoke a single word. Suddenly there were fewer dots, further apart. One seemed to be directly over the ship and descending rapidly.

  A moment later Meledrin jumped, despite her best intentions, as a kidol plummeted past the front of their craft. It seemed to be just meters away, almost close enough to touch. She could hear the creature's panicked shrieking as it went by. The metal cylinders strapped to its belly were ablaze.

  Cuto was standing just behind her. "That was a Ma'sosa Family kidol."

  "How can Cuto tell?"

  "The colors painted on the side. The Ma'sosa are a small family."

  Meledrin watched as Kim increased their speed. They slewed from one side to the other as she struggled to keep them from colliding with the mountains.

  "Do the hakans want Cuto to fix the radio?"

  Meledrin translated for Kim, though she was almost certain what the answer would be. She could tell what the woman was thinking by just looking at her face.

  "Now isn't the best time," Kim replied while still working at the controls. And to Tuki: "Where the hell is this gate?"

  Tuki worked at the skyglass again. He chewed on his lip as if unsure. "I think it is five hundred and twenty seven kilometers directly south of us."

  "Right."

  There was a sound like rain against the hull of the ship moments before a jet streaked past. Meledrin jumped and held her hand to her racing heart as if someone might otherwise see. And again a few seconds later, when a sound like thunder washed over them.

  "They shot us," Kim said.

  They had already established that human weapons had no effect on the craft, through both overburdened logic and practical tests, so Meledrin was uncertain what the fuss was about.

  "Hakan weapons have not improved since the start of the war," Cuto said. "In fact they have gone backwards. Hurgon have made many advances but, still, Cuto thinks there is no chance."

  Meledrin did not know much about reading the alien's body language, but there seemed to be a resigned tilt to his sign language.

  "All the more reason for Cuto to help us stop the war."

  After a couple of minutes struggling along near the bottom of the valley, Kim sighed and took them up. Then she pointed the ship towards what looked like a clear section of sky and accelerated.

  Meledrin closed her eyes for a moment and held her breath.

  28: One Small Step

  Kim flinched when a jet passed by, no more than eighty meters ahead. According to the skyglass, there were another couple coming from the other direction. Or maybe they were kidol. It didn't matter. Both sides were likely to have a shot at her if they could.

  A warning alarm sounded. Luckily, Kim had her hand on the elevation knob, and she held on as she flinched. A missile, definitely of human design, passed below as they shot upwards like a cork from a champagne bottle. Her heart was racing. When she thought to release the knob, they were almost eye-to-eye with a couple of kidol. A moment later a missile dropped from the central cylinder of one creature. It fell a few meters then powered up and darted forward. Kim sent her ship up again. This time, when they stopped, they seemed to be above the main battle. For now.

  They'd climbed a few hundred meters in a couple of seconds. There had been the momentary thump of g-forces when they first moved, then nothing at all. Amazing.

  She breathed and looked around at her companions.

  "That was close." She stood up on shaking legs and looked at the battle below. The sun was rising, peeking over the horizon, painting hundreds, maybe thousands of aircraft with golden light. There were so many of them, filling the sky like a plague of locusts.

  The skyglass was indicating they'd have company again very soon.

  Kim looked back out the window then back at the controls. It was possible the ship had all sorts of defensive equipment, but she was forced to jump around like a startled rabbit every time someone came close. Or maybe the ship was for doing the shopping, and the only thing it could defend against was wild shopping trollies. Looking around, she decided the final option was the most likely. There was so much she wanted to find out, but she wasn't likely to get an opportunity in the near future. She wondered how Keeble was doing. He was constantly reviewing the control panel, as if all the action outside was of no consequence, and doing an admirable job of controlling himself. His fingers were twitching with suppressed need to be doing something.

  "South, right, Tuki?" She pushed at the thrust pedal. "Let's get the hell out of here."

  There were battles for much of the five hundred kilometers, seemingly from the ground all the way up. The death and destruction was horrible. Kidol and jets were falling from the sky like ducks in hunting season. There were more kidol than planes, and that was where their only real advantage lay. For every one of the creatures shot down another three were waiting to take its place. Smoke was rising from wrecks and towns and forest fires. Kim did her best to ignore them all, finding open air and heading for it, passing by before anyone had a chance to react.

  Half an hour later Tuki, watching his skyglass in the cargo cabin, started to fidget quietly.

  Kim looked back at him. "What is it, Tuki?"

  "We are in the right area. I think. The gate is close by."

  "You're sure?"

  "I think so."

  "You think you're sure?" Kim muttered.

  There were more than a dozen kidol high up to the west and a few dozen more scattered around the area. There were a few planes flying around the perimeters, but the humans seemed to be content to leave them alone for the most part.

  Kim stood up and examined the mountains below them. There didn't seem to be anything there.

  "Are you sure, Tuki?" Kim probably would have let the aliens have the area as well.

  Tuki checked the skyglass again. He shifted the focus. "I think so."

  He probably hadn't been sure of much in his life.

  "That way, I think. The cross is very large, though, so it is hard to be sure."

  "Okay." Kim sighed. "Let's find this thing." It could take forever.

  After nearly an hour of searching, Kim brought the ship to a halt, hovering a few miles away from their destination. She slumped back in her seat and looked a
t the ruins clinging to the ridge.

  "Where are we?" Keeble asked.

  Kim could tell he wouldn't be able to control himself for much longer. "Machu Picchu," she said. She'd never been there, but it wasn't hard to recognize. "It's an ancient city that nobody really understands."

  "What is it that you mean?" Meledrin asked.

  "Well, there's no real reason for the city to be where it is. It's not on a major road, it probably wouldn't have been self sufficient, which was strange at the time, and it’s in a really out of the way place. Nobody has ever been able to think of a sensible reason why anyone would build a city there."

  "How old is this city?"

  "Not overly, in the scheme of things. A few thousand years, maybe. Maybe they didn't know about the gate, they just knew the site was important."

  "But where's the gate?" Keeble asked.

  "I don't know. Exactly. You know as much as me. Tuki? How about you?"

  "Pardon, mo'shi."

  "Can you narrow down the location on the skyglass any more?"

  "I do not know. I do not really know how to use the skyglass very well. I am just a go'gan."

  "Don't say stuff like that. You're getting better at using it all the time, Tuki. Just keep working on it."

  "Yes, mo'shi."

  "Right, then. Let's just land and we'll see what we can see."

  Keeble grunted, and Kim knew exactly what he was going to say. "Great plan. The gate has been hidden for fifty thousand years or something, but we'll find it in the next half an hour."

  "Well, we'd better. The Americans have a base in Peru. It can't be more than a couple of hours from here."

  A crashing plane had taken the tops off a few walls and cut a long furrow in the earth. It had eventually come to rest, tail in the air, against a terrace wall. It had exploded sometime during the process. There were half a dozen dead kidol as well, plus another that writhed and kicked feebly. Smoke rose from the canisters on all of them.

  Kim carefully guided the ship down towards a large open area in the center of the ruins. The plane had passed that way and a kidol was sprawled awkwardly, wing and neck at odd angles, but there was still plenty of room to land. She was going to need it. She'd forgotten how hard it was to actually steer towards somewhere in particular without stopping and starting and wavering backwards and forwards. She probably could have done it if she'd been willing to waste ten minutes or if she could see straight down.

  There was one consolation. At this time of the day, there should have been tourists everywhere, but the war had kept them away. Yay for the war.

  Getting close to the ground, Kim panicked and searched desperately for the switch that controlled the landing gear. It was a couple of seconds before she realized she hadn't done anything to raise it back in Nevada. They thumped down heavily, and Kim let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

  "Mind the step, and no smoking until you have cleared the terminal building."

  "What?"

  "Never mind. Come on." She had to keep moving. No time for thought, or she would collapse in a blubbering heap.

  Kim opened the back doors and jumped down to the grass. Despite what she'd said to Keeble, she looked around for some obvious sign of the gate. The dwarf, toolbox clamped in his hand, clattered to the ground, and Meledrin landed lightly a moment later. The elf crossed to her side.

  Cuto, following close behind the only person who could understand him, said something and pointed at the sky. Kim was waiting for a translation when she worked out for herself what the alien had said. Three Chinook helicopters emerged from behind a cloud, heading straight for Machu Picchu. Where else would they be going?

  "General Hilliard isn't stupid." If the spaceship had been tracked then once they had stopped to search, their destination must have been obvious to anyone with a map.

  "I believe time is running short," Meledrin said, shading her eyes to watch the helicopters as well.

  "Yeah, great, Mel. Well deducted."

  "How do we go about this search," the elf asked, either ignoring or completely missing the sarcasm. "Do you have a plan?"

  Kim turned to look when Keeble grunted behind her. She expected him to follow up with a smartarse comment, but he was staring off into the ruins. "How about we just follow Keeble," she said.

  "I beg your pardon? Keeble has not previously been at this location, as you well know."

  "You know where the gate is, Keeble, don't you?" She hadn't thought of the possibility before. It was obvious, really.

  The dwarf nodded and pointed. "It's that way," he said absently. "I can hear it as plain as day"

  "Well, don't just stand there. Lead on."

  It didn't look as if Keeble even heard her, but he headed down the long slope. Kim wanted to tell him to hurry but didn't think it would do any good. He was in a daze. They moved into the shade of a building-topped cliff then climbed a low wall onto a path.

  "How far, Keeble?" Kim checked the sky.

  "Not far," Keeble said. He might have been talking about the helicopters. They were a couple of minutes away, at most, and the pilots would land them a lot quicker than Kim had landed the spaceship. But he pointed through a gap between two tall walls. "Just through here."

  The dwarf ran his fingers over the stone as he passed through, as if wanting to stop for a closer look at the workmanship, but apparently the song called him on. Beyond the walls was a small square with what looked like a ceremonial stone in the middle and a spectacular view out over terraces and a steep-sided valley. The dwarf ignored both of these. On the northern side of the square was a small lawn enclosed on three sides by tall walls, some of them looking as if they couldn't decide whether to topple over in the next few minutes or stay where they were for another few thousand years.

  The sound of the helicopters was growing.

  "It's there," Keeble said, pointing at the rear wall.

  "Where?" Kim went and touched the stone. It looked and felt like normal stone.

  Keeble shook his head even as he went to put his good hand gently against the wall as well. "It's on the far side."

  "Do not waste our time, Keeble," Meledrin said, starting back the way they'd come. "If we have to go around the wall why did you not lead us there immediately?"

  Keeble shook his head again and sneered. "It is right against the stone," he said, "and we can only go through from one side. This side."

  "So our journey was pointless then. These stones have been in place for millennia, and we will not change that in the next few moments."

  Kim shook her head and looked at Keeble. "He can sing, Meledrin. And if he's going to, he'd better do it quick."

  Helicopters were landing out near the spaceship. Kim thought it was all of them until one of them came over the wall and hovered barely twenty meters away. If the pilot got desperate, he could probably land in the square. Kim shielded her eyes against the dust and wind before turning to see that there was something that could distract Keeble from the gate.

  "Don't just stand there, Keeble. Sing."

  The dwarf wrenched his eyes away from the Chinook and turned his attention to the wall. His song couldn't be heard over the noise, but Kim could feel it building anyway.

  "NOBODY MOVE." The voice on the loud speaker was easy enough to hear. The side door of the helicopter was open and a few soldiers were visible. One had a microphone, one had a heavy caliber machine gun bolted to the floor, and the others were preparing to rappel down to the ground.

  "How's it going, Keeble?" Kim shouted.

  "Ready."

  "Ready?"

  "Yes."

  Kim went to the wall, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. The others were watching her. She'd passed through to Sherindel, but that had only been for a moment and she hadn't really believed she'd be passing through to another world at that time. She'd had time to think about it since then, and the idea scared her as much as it excited her.

  She might have stood there all day, staring
at the misty stone, but one glance over her shoulder and she saw that the first American soldier had just reached the ground.

  "Come on. Quick." She took another deep breath, nodded, and stepped into the stone. Then she took another step. Nothing happened. She was in a big, dusty room — fifteen meters long and ten wide — that most definitely wasn't in Peru, but nothing had happened. She stepped through the door like she would have stepped though any other door.

  "That's it?" she said. "I expected... I don't know. Something."

  "Thunder?" Keeble asked, pushing her out of the way. The dwarf let his song slip away after the others crowded through behind.

  Kim nodded. "Yeah. Maybe. Just something." She almost wanted to turn around and go back through, just to see if she'd missed something. It wasn't as if the destination was all that amazing either. It might well have been on Earth. There were ancient, fading frescoes on the walls. The subjects looked boringly human and were holding some very mundane items. Electrical lighting, or something similar, cast a pale glow. Did the air taste strange? Kim laughed. It probably did taste different, but that didn't mean anything at all. On Earth the air could be different from one street to the next. From one minute to the next, as well.

  In some ways Kim was disappointed. If she were on another world, surely things should be different. At the same time she was comforted. Maybe her people didn't know this world, but humans had at some stage. "One small step," she said softly. One small step, and it had taken her from one world to another.

  "I reckon we should close these."

  Kim looked. There were two slabs of stone that looked like doors folded back out of the way of the doorway they'd just used. There didn't seem to be a lock or catch of any kind. Columns stood on either side of the door, though it wasn't likely they had anything to do with holding up the roof.

  "I don't think it'd be much use. I think they're more ornamental than anything else. Besides, it'll take them a while to pull down that wall on Earth. They probably have to get council permission — destroying one of the wonders of the world and all."

  "If you're sure. It'll only take a moment."