by B. V. Larson
I wondered why he hated the Slab. He’d said something about getting everything he loved taken away from him. “There’s a lot Sokolov isn’t telling us, I think. He may have outright lied about a bunch of things.” I snapped my fingers. “Oh, what about Kalu? Has she hooked up with Sokolov?”
Adrienne looked at me in astonishment. “How did you know? He’s so much older, I was surprised.”
“Between Marvin and me, we’ve deduced a lot of what must have happened. Kalu is the most likely one to have sabotaged our suit telemetry, and she’s tried to use her sex appeal to climb the social ladder before. That’s why she took a shot at seducing me, and Hansen too afterward—I don’t think I ever told you about that. We figured she’d jump at the chance to become Sokolov’s lady.”
“You figured right. That witch became insufferable.”
I stepped toward her, reaching for her shoulders. “Forgive me for the kiss? It really was just a ploy.”
Adrienne twisted away. “Not yet. Not until I’m sure those vids with you and Moranian were faked.”
Oh yeah. I’d forgotten about those. “You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted, Adrienne.”
“Except Olivia,” she replied bitterly.
“Why can’t you let that go?” I blew up, throwing up my arms. “I didn’t even know you then. If you’d gone to the Academy, I’m sure I’d have fallen in love with you instead of her.”
“See?” She pointed an accusing finger at me. “We’re interchangeable in your mind. If one dies, find a lookalike replacement. Does Marvin have a clone of me ready to grow just in case?”
“What?” This conversation had really taken a huge turn for the worse. Sometimes I really didn’t understand women—or at least not this woman, anyway. Why couldn’t she be less emotional like Sakura—well, not quite that unemotional. Or more admiring, like Moranian?
“No, Marvin doesn’t have any clones. Even if he did, cloning isn’t magic. You’d just have a baby who would grow up and have completely different experiences, even if the genetics were the same. Oh my God, why am I even talking about this?” I stepped toward Adrienne again. “I love you. I don’t want anyone else. Can’t we just go back to the way things were?”
Crossing her arms under her petite, firm breasts, she snapped, “I don’t think so.”
“Well, then can we at least get back to the danger we’re in? What happened with Valiant?”
Adrienne turned away as if she didn’t want to look at me anymore. “We were about to finish Stalker off when the Slab intervened. One minute they were there and the next they just disappeared. The Slab—or the golden world itself, maybe—must have teleported Stalker away. An hour or so later we saw them appear next to the planet, pretty much where they are now.”
“Were you about a light-hour away from the planet?”
“Yes.”
“Then that confirms it. The Ancients must have teleported them. Did they teleport Valiant too?”
“No. We just flew in as normal. Sokolov set us up for another attack run, but something grabbed us and dragged us to where we are now. We were helpless. Still are. Running the engines or repellers strains the ship, but we don’t budge. One weird thing is that we can orient using thrusters. We just can’t leave this position. It’s like we’re stuck in space.”
“Except this position is slowly falling toward the planet.”
Adrienne nodded somberly. “Yes. In eight days we crash.”
“Then where’s Sokolov? Did he chicken out? And where’re the rest of the officers, marines and crew?”
“They’re down on the planet.”
“What do they think they’ll accomplish there?”
“Sokolov said he knows a way to free Valiant.”
I looked around the infirmary once more. “We need to be on the bridge. Let’s go.”
I led the way with the other two following. We didn’t see anyone in the passageways. “How many went with Sokolov?”
“He took all the marines except Moranian and Seidel,” Adrienne said. Seidel was our only other female marine, a private. “And most of the rest of the crew. Said he needed them, but I think he didn’t want to let them out of his sight. He’s afraid of a mutiny.”
“He seems to have a problem with women, too,” I observed.
“Oh, that was Kalu, I think. Every woman got left behind.”
“Steiner?” Kwon asked from behind us as we walked.
“Yes, your girlfriend’s here too,” Adrienne said. “Oh, Cody, where’s Marvin?”
“The Slab snatched him, I believe. Teleported him right out of Greyhound.”
“Pity. We could use him.”
Something occurred to me. “What about Hoon?”
“Still here. He’s been working with Sakura, but no luck.”
I was relieved to hear the Professor was still aboard. As annoying as he was, he was one smart lobster.
When we arrived on the bridge, I was surprised to see Bradley pacing near the holotank. He was the only one there and snapped to attention when we came in. “Sir, it’s great to see you.”
“You too. Why’d you get left behind?”
“Not sure, sir.”
“How many people do we still have aboard?”
“Nine, not including you and Kwon. All women except for me,” Bradley said. He made a twirling motion by his head with his finger. “Sir, Sokolov is nuts. I could see it in his eyes. Whatever happened to him during his time inside the multidimensional maze, it screwed his head up good.”
“Did he explain why he wanted to go down to the planet?” I walked over to the holotank, noting that it displayed an icon for one of our pinnaces on the surface.
“No, but I think I know part of his plan. He’s trying to blow up the Ancients.”
-17-
I stared at Bradley, the holotank blinking between us. “He’s trying to blow up a whole planet? That’s insane.”
“I told you Sokolov was getting crazy, but what he said seemed to make sense at the time. Everybody was freaked out by the situation: We’d been fighting for long hours, you were dead, we had this forceful new commander…anyway, he said that when he had been inside the ‘Machine’—that’s what he called it, like with a capital letter—he’d learned enough to disable it. He took a nuke off one of the missiles and had the marines bring grenades.”
Marine grenades were mini-nukes. Each one was big enough to destroy a ship if it could be planted inside.
“Nukes won’t do much to stardust, but I guess if he detonated one inside the maze…” I said speculatively. “Marvin figured out the mechanism well enough to release a software virus. There must be something to damage.”
“The whole idea is barking mad,” Adrienne said. “This is an entire planet we’re talking about. A few nukes will be just a pinprick. He’ll just wind the bastards up. And there’s no guarantee it will break Valiant loose.”
“Not to mention I’m already wondering how many of our people Sokolov will sacrifice for his goals. Whatever happened to him long ago has him obsessed with revenge—on the Raptors, on the Ancients, maybe on the whole human race.” I pounded my fist into the side of the holotank. That was a mistake as the smart metal dented in, and the image wavered. After a moment, the image steadied itself and the metal side of the unit began to self-repair. I sighed, forcing myself to calm down.
“I need to get down there,” I said. “I need to take action.”
“Me too,” Kwon rumbled.
“Use the other pinnace,” Adrienne said. “It didn’t get immobilized.”
“There’s either a size threshold, or the Ancients are taking action selectively. Greyhound didn’t seem to be affected,” I said. “I’m taking her. There’s still a bunch of unknown tech aboard. If I can find Marvin, maybe there’s a rabbit he can pull out of his hat.”
“I wasn’t aware Marvin wore a hat or owned a rabbit,” said a voice. The sarcastic synthesized voice came from the bridge doorway.
“Hoon!” I cried. �
��I could almost hug you.”
“Save your affections for your numerous females,” Hoon replied.
Adrienne glared at me again, and I carefully ignored her.
“Thanks a lot, Professor,” I said. “If you want to help, analyze those sex vids and prove they were doctored.”
“I’m a scientist, not an engineer. Nor am I a behavioral psychologist—at least, my credentials in that regard do not extend to human activity. If you want me to become expert in human audiovisual technology or human-based hysteria, I will need at least a week for either endeavor.”
“We might be dead in a week,” I retorted.
“Exactly my point, young Riggs.” The lobster waddled over to the holotank and looked it up and down with his eyestalks. “What you need is the aid of that irritating robot.”
“Master of the obvious again today, Hoon. What can you do besides carp?”
“Is that a slur against aquatic creatures?”
“No, only against you. Come on, Professor. You’re smart. Do something useful!”
“I tried, but your human general rejected my advice.”
“Which was?” I asked.
“I suggested he talk to Marvin and take his advice. An odd option, I admit, but in this instance I calculated that the robot was more lucid than your general.”
“Unfortunately, that’s no longer an option. Marvin’s been abducted by the Ancients.”
“Have you tried to reach him?” Hoon demanded.
“Yes.”
“Persistence is a virtue lost upon the young, Riggs. Did you attempt to contact his reverse quantum-tunneling entanglement ansible?”
“Is your translation software malfunctioning? His what?”
Hoon’s suited feet did a little tap-dance on the deck. “Some months ago I helped the robot work out the theory of a new faster-than-light communications system using certain exotic properties of matter. I believe he installed it on his ship.”
I dredged something out of my memory. “RQTEA. That’s what it meant!” I bolted off the bridge leaving the rest bewildered behind me. I headed down to the docking chamber and impatiently worked my way into the guts of Greyhound. The ship was still a twisted mass of misplaced wiring and equipment.
Kwon caught up as I was sliding into Greyhound’s cockpit. “Where we going, boss?”
“Welcome, Cody Riggs,” Greyhound said.
“Shut up, Greyhound. Nowhere, Kwon. I just have to find… There!” The touch-point I wanted was on the comm control menu, under “Advanced Options.” RQTEA—Reverse Quantum-Tunneling Entanglement Ansible. I stuck in my earbud and turned it on.
“Marvin?”
What I heard in response was more of an impression than a sound, a feeling of empty space and endless faint echoes. It reminded me of one of those EVP recordings, Electronic Voice Phenomena, where people claimed to record ghosts.
“Marvin?” I called more loudly. “Greyhound, can you access the RQTEA?”
“Yes.”
“Can you boost its transceiver power?”
“How much?”
“To maximum without damaging the system.”
“Power boosted.”
The odd hissing and warblings in my ear became louder. “Marvin?”
Faintly I heard a scrambled, choppy reply. “Ma-a-a-r-v-v-v-n-n.”
“Is that you, Marvin?”
The sound got a bit clearer. “Ri-i-i-g-g.”
“This is Cody Riggs, Marvin. Keep talking. Greyhound, try to clean up the signal.”
Screeches and beeps pierced my ear, but I hung on. Eventually I heard him, faint but clear. “Cody Riggs?”
“Marvin, yes, it’s Cody. Where are you?”
“Why do you want to know? I calculate it is past your bedtime, assuming you haven’t left your residence.”
“What? What the hell are you talking about? Marvin, you’re babbling.”
“Human children should not use vulgar language. Please put your father on.”
This whole conversation made no sense to me. Marvin seemed to think I was a child. Had the Ancients regressed his psyche somehow? Had they wiped his memories back to a time when he knew me as a boy?
Then something occurred to me. Something chilling and very, very strange. “Marvin, what year is it?”
Marvin replied, and a quick calculation placed him almost twenty years in the past.
“Marvin, I know you won’t believe me, but I think I’m speaking from your future, though it seems like the present to me. I’m twenty-four years old now.”
“I perceive your signal is composed of quantum-entangled packets which theoretically might be able to reach across the fourth dimension. How were you able to do this?”
“I’m using your own equipment, Marvin—something you built in your future. But I need to reach the present Marvin, not the past Marvin.”
“I’m gratified to learn of my future existence and accomplishments. In return I’ll attempt to aid you, echo of what might yet be. I would suggest adjusting my equipment.”
A burst of white noise occurred then, followed by some blasts of weirdness that hurt my auditory nerves. I pulled out the earbud. While I waited, a crazy thought passed through my head. It was risky, but what the hell?
When the interference diminished, I spoke again to the ghostly Marvin of the past. “Marvin, we might be losing you. If you can hear this, someone will try to kill me with a bomb on the space yacht Greyhound shortly after I graduate from Star Force Academy. Stop them!”
Another burst of static cut me off. When it was gone, I tried to reestablish contact to no avail. “Greyhound, can you adjust the RQTEA to keep it working in the present time only?”
“That is beyond my current capacity. Please load the technical manual for the equipment in question.”
“Damn.”
“Boss,” Kwon said, “maybe it’s the Slab-world below us that warped the signal. The Square does lots of crazy stuff, even changing time. Marvin told me that once. I asked him if he could go back and warn us about activating the ring so we wouldn’t fall through, but he said the past couldn’t be changed.”
“Maybe not,” I said, “but at least I tried.”
“So try again,” Kwon said. “What have you got to lose?”
“I will, Kwon, but I have another idea first. Greyhound, form a datalink with Valiant.”
“Link established.”
“Valiant, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Valiant, I need you to increase Greyhound’s brainbox capacity as fast as you can.”
“Greyhound is operating on a suit-brain. It’s very small,” Valiant said with a hint of disapproval.
“I did the best with what I had. Can you plug in some more memory or something?”
“I will consult with Chief Engineer Sakura and we will do what we can. It will probably take a couple of hours.”
“Valiant, in the meantime can you take control of the system labeled RQTEA? It’s a quantum radio or something like that.”
“Of course I can.”
“Do it.”
“Control link established.”
“Does it have an adjustment for the fourth dimension? For time?”
“No.”
“Damn.” I’d hoped Marvin had come up with a way to communicate reliably with the past and future. “Okay, optimize it and try to reach Marvin.”
A squawk came over the speakers, but it died.
“A response was momentarily received,” Valiant said after a moment. “But the system is experiencing overwhelming quantum interference from the golden planet,”
“Keep trying. If you reach Marvin, try to get something from him that tells us where he is and how to get him back.”
“Command acknowledged. Conditional behavior set.”
I sat back in the cockpit and tapped my head against the headrest in irritation.
“Any chance we’re gonna fight something?” Kwon asked. “Like, say, within the next hour or s
o?”
I chewed my lip. “Don’t think so.”
“Crap. I’m getting a six-pack.”
“Bring me a couple,” I called as he lumbered off. One or two brews wouldn’t impair me—at least no more than I wanted to be right now. I returned to Valiant’s bridge to stare at the holotank. Only Bradley was still standing watch. I wondered where Adrienne was and if she’d cooled off by now.
“Where’s the Slab?” I asked Valiant.
“My current hypothesis states that the Slab has merged with, or possibly entered, the planet.”
“You don’t know for sure?”
“Due to the Slab’s method of locomotion, it’s impossible to definitively determine where it went. However, its last known outbound teleportation took place approximately two hundred miles above the planet’s surface. Prior jumps didn’t take it out of view in a single transference. Examining these two realities, consensus among my brainboxes and shipboard officers indicates a majority belief that the Slab has moved itself inside the planet. A minority hypothesis suggests that the Slab integrated itself into the surface of the planet and was lost in the clutter.”
“Show me the surface.”
A moment later I stared at an exquisite three-dimensional rendering of the golden world’s skin. Cubes piled atop cubes, some seeming to be welded or melded to each other, some arching outward in elegant cantilevers impossible for the eye to fully comprehend.
“That looks like a bigger version of the Square,” I said.
“Not exactly; however, its general features are congruent within one percent.”
“The Slab could be down there and we’d never find it.”
“Given sufficient time, I believe I could find it via pattern-matching.”
I grunted. “How long to scan fifty percent of the planet’s surface?”
“Assuming I was allowed full mobility and my neural chains weren’t taxed with pointless conversations—approximately nineteen days.”
I shook my head. “We’ll be a grease spot in a week, so that’s out.”
Abruptly the holotank zoomed its view down toward the planet. In one square plaza that looked like every other place on the surface, an icon flashed.
“I reached the current iteration of Marvin for less than one second,” Valiant reported, “the exchange was garbled, but enough to pinpoint his position at the indicated coordinates.”