Andy sighed. Shandra always could see through her. “Truth?”
“Truth.”
Andy took a deep breath. “I didn’t want you to worry….”
It all came tumbling out.
“OKAY, I need you to reengage the x-drive when I tell you to.”
Marissa nodded. “How do I do that?”
“Just push the button here.” He indicated the drive button.
“Got it.”
Eddy slung the Moonjumper out past the tumbling escape pod, masterfully intercepting its course as Forever shrunk behind them.
It occurred to her that they might all die out here, far from the warmth of the world. Little one. She basked in his love for her and cast her doubts side.
Eddy would get them home. She knew it, and yet she stared at the fuel gauge nervously as it inched downward.
Eddy opened the radio link. “We’re coming for you.”
“We’re here.” Shandra’s voice sounded shaken. No big surprise there.
Eddy was matching course and speed with the escape pod now. “They have a little more spin than we do. Nothing I can do about that in the time we have.”
Marissa looked down. The little pod was approaching slowly. She could see Andy’s face through one of the view ports as it spun by. We’ll catch you.
“Ready?”
“Ready.” Marissa’s hand hovered above the x-drive.
“Do it… now!”
Marissa punched the drive and the pod slammed into them, grinding and knocking them sideways as the jumper absorbed the rotation of the other craft.
Eddy fought the spin, firing off the jets to bring them back to stability. At last, he breathed an audible sigh of relief. “Everyone okay over there?”
There was silence. “Yeah, we’re okay,” Andy said at last over the radio. “Just a little banged up. We have enough fuel to get back?”
Marissa let go of her held breath and the edge of her seat.
Eddy checked the gauge. “Roger, if we’re careful.”
“Define careful.” Andy sounded worried. Andy hardly ever sounded worried.
“I’ll get us there. Gonna cut the connection. I need to concentrate.”
“Roger.”
He spun the craft around in a wide arc.
Smart. Less fuel waste than trying to brake and change direction.
Forever came back into view. It seemed so far away.
Slowly they headed toward home.
EDDY WATCHED the fuel gauge nervously. They were running dangerously low. The impromptu chase and rescue had used up most of their reserves.
He nudged the little craft and its payload back toward Forever, gauging each thrust and using it to maximum effect.
Bit by bit he nudged them across the space before the great sail, back toward the world itself.
Forever was quite different when seen from this angle. The last asteroid they’d picked up, Isis, had only been partially consumed over the last seven years. Its rocky bulk, along with the sail, made the world look like some great fantastic, gnarly mushroom.
The sail funneled particles down into the sides of Forever, just behind where Isis was attached to the long cylinder that was the body of the world.
“They’re like gills,” Andy had told him of the intake ports that lined the side of the world. “They lead into the guts of the world—the stomachs that digest the material, and the lungs that sift out the incoming material and also provide the world’s breath.”
The world’s breath. There was something wondrous about that thought. As long as she breathes, we breathe.
Then another thought hit him. We’re going to kill the world mind. Holy crap, I hope you know what you’re doing.
Eddy surveyed the scene ahead of them. The tear they’d created in the glowing sail was already healing, sewing itself closed as he watched. She was an amazing beast, the world they lived in.
That gave him an idea.
“I want to try something,” he said over the radio. “But it’s gonna be a bit rough.”
“Will it get us inside?” Andy’s voice sounded tired and a little forlorn.
“Yes, I think so. I want to use the sail as a ski slope and slide down inside the world. That should leave us enough fuel to maneuver once we’re inside. There may be a little bouncing, though.”
“Ah.”
“I’d like everyone to put their suit helmets on now, please.” He pulled his on and made sure it was properly attached.
Then he nudged the ships down toward the sail at a shallow angle and fired two of the jets to send them into a slight roll. “Everyone hold on.”
The fuel gauge hovered just a smidge above empty.
The connected craft glided down toward the sail, ever so slowly. As they spun, it would come into view, wrap around the window, and then disappear again behind them in a stately cosmic dance.
The next rotation, the glowing white sail kissed the ships, and they pushed down and then bounced up off the resilient material like a pair of giant rubber balls.
The rotation was making Eddy dizzy. He closed his eyes as they arced up and then back down, bounding closer to the edge of the world. “Everyone okay?”
“A little queasy, but it’ll pass.” Andy’s voice sounded strangely distant. Maybe the connection was bad.
They came down again and bounced once more toward the bottom of the sail, this time a little lower.
Three more times, and they were sliding instead of bouncing.
Eddy opened his eyes to see one of the “gills” looming ahead of them. Most of the particles captured by the sails were microscopic, but occasionally something a little larger would fall into the lungs for processing.
Andy had described the process in depth. Once they were inside, he’d need to push through the mucus that guarded the interior of the world, dissolving the various bits of space debris it encountered, absorbing them as world-building fodder.
The gills were long, dark slits in the side of the world that ran along the base of the sails, each one about fifty meters wide and maybe twenty high. They were dark inside, the ominous blackness of a monster’s maw.
They passed under the edge and the dim light from the sail faded. A gelatinous membrane captured the craft, halting their forward momentum.
Prepared for this, Eddy powered through it, burning the last of their fuel to push the two ships to the other side.
“Everyone out! Don’t touch the goo!” Eddy grabbed the last three sticks of gum from under the seat.
They cracked the hatches and climbed out quickly but carefully, avoiding the sticky stuff that covered the two ships.
The lights from inside the two vessels lit up only the rocky space around them and nothing else, but he had the sense that he stood in a wide-open space.
He flicked on the helmet light and shone it over the Moonjumper.
The ship’s skin was pitted, a white vapor rising into the air as the world began to digest it.
Andy patted him on the shoulder. “She’s not gonna make the museum now.”
The sturdy little ship had saved him once, and now maybe twice. It was sad to see her being reduced to her component molecules.
He raised his hand in salute. “Farewell, old friend.”
Chapter Eleven: Belly of the Beast
MARISSA SWEPT her helmet lamp up into the air and gasped.
The others followed her gaze.
Something massive loomed overhead. It was hard to make it out—a collection of gray ridges and folds something like a crumpled towel. The whole thing expanded and contracted in a slow, rhythmic motion.
“What is it?” she asked over her suit radio.
Andy smiled. “The lungs of the world.”
The room lit up, seams of golden light lining the ridges of the lungs. The light illuminated the huge space they were in too. It was formed of rough rock and ran around the full circle of the world. The lungs filled the space, stretching off into the distance, huge beyond belief.
Thick roots like tree trunks crossed the intervening space at regular intervals, plunging into the rock on the other side of the gap.
“They’re beautiful.” What an amazing world she lived in. How alive it was. “How can we kill this?”
“And what will happen if we do?” Eddy was frowning up at the lungs.
Shandra looked worried.
“Let’s get there first.” Andy turned away and headed back in the direction of the rest of Forever.
The others followed her under the overhanging lungs.
Marissa stared up at them, as she approached close enough to touch them. She reached out, wishing she weren’t wearing the suit. “Is the air here breathable?”
Andy shook her head. “I don’t know. My guess is that it’s pretty stale. The suit’s rebreather makes it passable, but I wouldn’t take a chance without it.”
The ground rose up around them into parallel channels. In the middle of each channel, a deeper rut led down the center of the floor.
Liquid from the sticky barrier flowed down the channel, carrying half-dissolved bits of the ships.
There was no way back now.
Andy touched the ground and pointed to one of the channels. “This way.”
They entered the U-shaped pathway, and soon the walls rose overhead to meet above them, creating a tunnel.
Marissa wondered how the world mind had built all these structures. The scale of this place, the intricate detail of Forever… it was stunning. “Can he… sense us here?”
Andy, walking just ahead of her, shook her helmet. “We’re in the belly of the beast now. Unless we do something active, he’ll have no idea we’re here.”
“What about when we need to do something active?”
“Then we’ll test out your father’s little dead zone trick.”
The tunnel was straight. There was enough space on either side of the smaller channel for them to walk. There was nothing flowing through their passageway now.
“Are these tunnels ever full?” Eddy asked, sounding as in awe as she was.
“Only when the world needs to process a lot of debris.” Andy’s voice sounded tinny over the com. “Out here in the void between the stars, it’s unlikely.”
After a ten-minute hike, they came to the end of the tunnel. Their helmet lights showed a man-sized closed three-part valve, like a pie chart but a little twisted.
Andy put her hand against it, and in a moment, it spiraled open, revealing a large space beyond that shone with a golden glow. “These valves open all the time.” Andy answered the question Marissa hadn’t asked. “He won’t notice.”
They stepped through.
Marissa gasped at the sight.
The room was a huge cavern, maybe a hundred meters wide and twice as long. Other valves lined the wall along the near side, and one of them was open, dumping the remnants of their transportation into the golden lake.
Where the two met, the glowing liquid churned and steamed.
“It’s one of the stomachs.” It was huge, and it was one of probably hundreds.
Andy nodded. “Very good. Follow me along the outer edge, and try not to fall in. The liquid’s not as corrosive as the barrier, but it can still peel your skin off with a bit of time.”
Marissa shivered. Belly of the beast indeed.
They followed the rim of the cavern. This was the kind of place where Ana had died, when Andy’s own father had transferred her into the world mind.
There was a deep rumbling and an explosion loud enough to be heard through the helmet.
Marissa spun around to see a huge bubble rise to the surface and burst about fifty meters away. She lost her balance and started to slip down the short slope toward the golden liquid.
“No you don’t.” Andy grabbed her by the arm and hauled her back up to the pathway, pulling her back hard against the rock face of the cavern.
Geez, that was close. Marissa was breathing heavily. “Thanks,” she managed.
“Looks like our ships gave her a bit of indigestion.”
“Do you think Ana and the others…. Did they survive?”
Andy frowned. “I don’t know. We’ll find out once we get there. You okay to keep going?”
Marissa could see the concern on Andy’s face. “Yeah. I’m fine.” She reached for Colin, and a reassuring wave of warmth and love came back in return. “Yeah, I’m good.”
EDDY WATCHED Andy and Marissa as they made their way around the strange cavern.
There was something beautiful in the way Andy cared for the girl—well, young woman now—something maternal. Andy and Shandra had never had kids, but the Liminals were their children, in every way that mattered.
It was bizarre to be wandering around in the guts of the world. Intellectually he’d known they were here, but he’d never thought to actually find himself inside them. How different this place was from Old Earth. Humans were like bacteria—or maybe parasites—in the belly of this great world.
As they reached the far side of the stomach cavern, Andy touched the wall again. There were valves there, too, but they were both fewer and larger than the one they had entered through.
“How are we going to get up to the world mind? That’s got to be a good four kilometers above us, give or take.”
Andy nodded. “We’re going to fly.”
“Seriously?” He looked around at the four of them. “We have no wings. Unless you’re hiding a pair under that suit of yours.”
She turned to stare at him through her visor and grinned, something that sent chills through him.
“I’m not going to like what you have planned, am I?”
She turned away. “Probably not.”
ANDY CHOSE one of the valves and opened it. She was going on feel alone, but it hadn’t guided her wrong yet.
Her father had taught her how to do this, tapping into the low-level neural systems without alerting the world mind. It was a controlled form of dipping.
The other side held another tunnel, but these ones were made of an organic material, intended to shuttle the digested stomach fluid to various parts of the world’s body. “We need to hurry.”
“Why?” Shandra asked.
“Because once these valves open, the stomach contracts and pumps the fluid through them. I’m guessing we have about two minutes before we’re part of the stomach stew.” She led the way inside, and they ran about thirty feet before she stopped them.
She pulled out a knife from her pack and started to hack at the lining of the tunnel.
Behind them, an ominous rumbling commenced.
The tunnel wall was thicker than she’d anticipated. They had to cut their way out to get to the air tubes and to escape Forever’s digestive system, and if she couldn’t make a big enough exit in time, this whole mission was for naught.
The rumbling increased behind them.
“Andy….” Shandra’s voice sounded worried.
“Almost there.” She strained at it with both hands, and at last she broke through muscle and sinew. She worked the knife downward to enlarge the opening, and the skin peeled away, leaving a gash that she purposefully extended toward the ground.
Behind them, fluid started to gush into the tunnel.
“Got it. Marissa, go!” She all but pushed the girl through the hole, glancing back at the onrushing fluid. “Shandra, go!”
Shandra dove through, followed by Eddy, who struggled but then squeezed through the gash.
Andy was last to go. She was halfway out when the wave hit her.
Panicked, she managed to slosh her way through, slipping out onto the hard ground on the other side, covered in the digestive fluid.
She ripped off her helmet and threw it, stepping clear of the growing puddle of fluid. “Stay away!” She held out her hand in warning.
She peeled off the suit and j
umped out of it, turning to see the gash she’d cut in the tube closing up, shutting off the flow of fluid.
The suit lay in the puddle of intestinal fluid, slowly sagging. It did take time for the stomach juices to break things down. Her father had stood in them for ten minutes, but of course they’d been diluted then by water inflow.
Her carry sack was a total loss.
Eddy levered off his own helmet. He sniffed the air curiously. “Is it safe to breathe in here?”
“Should be.”
Eddy nodded. “Are you okay?”
“Close call. But I’ll live.” Andy had experienced too many of those on this journey. One of them was bound to be a little too close. And then….
She cut off that line of thought. She looked around at the narrow cavern. They’d come out on the other side of the lungs, which glowed above them with lines of golden light.
The feeder tubes branched out and extended along the floor and up into the darkness above. Another set of parallel tubes climbed the far wall.
She pointed at them. “Those are the air pipes. They will carry us up to the world mind.” She looked back at her things, dissolving in the golden puddle. “Anyone have another knife?”
THE STORM had finally blown itself out.
As first light flared past them, Santi let the hot air balloon drift down toward the ground.
Darlith lay below them. The town was in tatters. The stronger buildings, built out of rock, had survived, though many had their roofs ripped off.
The wooden buildings were destroyed.
As they drifted down, the extent of the damage became clearer. The Rhyl River had overrun its banks, and the streets were flooded.
“Where are all the people?” Matt stared down at the disaster scene beneath them.
“Did he kill them all?” Keera’s hand went to her mouth, and her eyes were wide.
“No, look.” Aaron pointed at the town hall, a sturdy brick building on a hill above the rest of the town. A door had opened, and people the apparent size of ants were coming out.
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