by JM Guillen
Everything in existence blended into a synesthesia where colors had sounds and tastes, where memory itself unfolded like molten ecstasy within my mind.
I relived everything I had ever done. Time spiraled around us, off kilter, like a murmur in the heart of existence.
“—uck me sideways!” Wyatt yelled, his fingers frantically pounding at his device. “Hang on! Just hang on…”
Then we were through.
We cruised in a vast emptiness between two infinite plains of gloaming, mist-like darkness. Occasional lances of scarlet lightning echoed in the vast, unforgiving distance.
Around us raged the Maelstrom.
The craft trembled, battered from all sides.
“God.” Rachel’s quiet tone sounded awed as she gazed through the glass. “It’s horrifying.”
The vastness of it all made my mind spin. The Maelstrom played a violent symphony of matter and energy, coalescing and sundering around us, orbiting a pit of unfathomable darkness in the center.
Every Asset had a basic understanding of the metaphysic of reality, but actually seeing the Maelstrom?
It was an uncommon experience, to say the least.
“I never thought—” Anya stared out her window, her blue eyes wide.
“I know.” I stepped up to the front, fighting the horrific vertigo. “It’s incredible.”
“Every world in existence drifts within the Maelstrom.” Gideon’s tone fell softly, almost reverent. “Every vast universe, each with its own infinity within it.”
“I’m only interested in one of them.” Wyatt focused on his keys. “Fortunately, I’m pretty familiar with the axiomatic specifications of Rationality. When I get the specifications all entered, this should be a cakewalk.”
“Is that so?” I gave him a sideways grin. “And here you were worried.”
“Every location within the Maelstrom is simply axiomatic coordinates. Just have to get everything input correctly.”
“Hell yeah.” I couldn’t help but grin like a loon at his confidence. Maybe we were actually going home.
Rachel gasped, looking out the portside window.
“Oh… what is that?” Her tone was disquieting, as if she were holding back her terror. Her hand crept to her mouth.
As one, we all turned to see, except Wyatt.
Then my moment of awe was jolted, disrupted into something far greater.
There, drifting through the gloaming beneath us, something loomed like a horrific cross between an amphibious shark and a tendril-covered crustacean. Most of it was shrouded in the gloom, but a baleful eye, larger than our craft, peered up at us. Unable to glance away even for a moment, I watched the many thousands of small pockets that riddled its back; its young squiggled and squirmed loathsomely over and inside its body.
Then it sank back into the midnight black.
“Ok.” I struggled to steady my breath. “That was horrifying.”
“Yeah.” Wyatt’s voice was quiet. “Settin’ for home. No more dickin’ around.” He began typing again but then stopped.
“That’s…” He tapped a few more keys. “That’s strange.”
“I don’t like hearing that.” I stepped up front. “Go back to how easy this all is.”
“It’s as if the axiomatic specifications are shifting.” He glanced at Anya, whose mouth twisted in preparation to report. “No telemetry, princess. I’ll get it.”
A clarion song of brilliant light blasted behind us.
The two Drażeri realmships coalesced into being, approximately where we had first drifted into the Maelstrom.
“Just…” I was so angry I couldn’t find words. “Just no! Let this be easy! Just this part!”
“’Fraid not, Hoss.” Wyatt turned, settling himself back in. “If anything ever came easy, we wouldn’t know what to do.”
He tapped some keys, and the ship lurched forward again, skimming through the darkling mists.
The Drażeri craft streaked forward, following. They would catch us; it was only a matter of time.
On the vast and infinite plane before us, we truly no had hiding places. We could, of course, dip into the gloaming, seething darkness that bounded the Maelstrom, but that posed its own dangers. No one knew what darkened vistas existed within those astral tides or the nature of the creatures within it.
To make matters worse, the Drażeri seemed to have planned for even this eventuality. They had kept their word to Crowe, given him a skiff and even the fuel they had promised. But this craft seemed ungainly and clumsy compared to the sleek realmships that pursued us. They easily made ground.
“Catching us, Wyatt.” My grim tone grated as I watched the Drażeri gain on us.
Their ships skipped easily through the Maelstrom like a stone across water.
Ours behaved more like a brick with a sail on it.
“I am aware.” He had the distracted tone he often took when operating the tangler, and I knew he was focused. “If we can evade them for a while longer, we’ll be home. Axiomatic specifications will hit Rational space soon.”
“What I wonder—” Gideon coughed as he sat up. “—is why they aren’t firing on us? We saw that their craft had weapons of some kind.”
“Perhaps they won’t function within the Maelstrom.” Anya peered at our pursuers as well. I noticed that she was forcibly holding her fingers still in her lap.
“Hold on.” Wyatt’s voice panned monotone. He tapped three keys in quick succession, and then several more at once, looking more like a man playing a piano than a typist.
Our craft veered wildly to the left, away from the beating heart of midnight at the center of the Maelstrom. One of the Drażeri craft adapted, quickly following, but the other overshot by quite a long ways.
It would take several minutes for it to make a winding turn to catch back up, I imagined.
“It’s not much like a stock car.” Wyatt chuckled as he continued his calculations. “But still—”
Our entire skiff jarred as something slammed into it from behind. An amber light immediately glared from the console.
“What the hell?” Wyatt glanced around, trying to determine what had happened.
“Checking.” I stepped to the back of the hold, peering out one of the port side windows.
“My calculations just skewed!” He sounded horrified. “What is it?”
“It’s some kind of pronged harpoon.” The strangeness of the stone thing stunned me. “It’s pierced one of our back wings.” I looked back to him. “We’re tethered to them.”
The Drażeri craft veered violently to one side and dragged us with them.
A horrific grinding sound grated through our ship.
Wyatt swore.
“They’re throwing off every calculation I make! Our physical location corresponds to a specific—”
Then both realmships burst into a multicolored panorama of sparks that burned through reality.
This time we understood what was happening. As matter literally shattered into fragments and gathered itself back together, we tumbled driftways into a topia unknown to us.
Fuck. Not again.
Everything in existence again swirled into a multi-patterned oneness and dribbled together.
As soon as I could breathe, I leapt to one of the starboard windows.
“Oh, God!”
We careened through a green and trackless sky. Unfamiliar stars burned overhead, looking more like hateful eyes than distant suns. The desert below us was vast, speckled with an entire city of tents and small adobe buildings. I could only just make out the multi-limbed people below, gesturing at us and fleeing for the safety of their structures.
“Assholes.” Wyatt’s tone contained more spit-fire rage than irritation. “Think they can drive better than I can math? No. Not today.” He struck a few more keys, and our skiff veered straight into the Drażeri craft, grinding metal on metal.
I could see the two males piloting the craft, and they looked shocked as Wyatt forced our vehicle
into theirs.
I wasn’t as surprised. I had seen him drive before.
For a long moment, the two craft pushed against one another, Wyatt slowly, inexorably shoving them toward the jagged peaks of a mountain range.
“I will crash us all, you Drażeri fucks!” In that moment, I believed him. “We go home, or no one does. That’s the deal.”
The Drażeri craft continually attempted to pull up and away, but our clunker was just slightly larger, adding enough inertia that they couldn’t resist Wyatt’s insanity.
As the dark stone of the mountains grew closer, I began to sweat.
“Wyatt.”
“Not now, Hoss.” He punched several keys, and our craft bore down harder against theirs.
“Okay. I just want—”
“Michael.” His voice was ridiculously, maddeningly quiet. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up.”
I did.
As we drew ever closer to slamming both craft onto the side of the mountain, I could see the Drażeri frantically attempting to configure their systems. However Wyatt had nothing to lose. For every motion their craft made, he had five calculations waiting.
Finally, the Drażeri realized their only way out. They frantically engaged their systems and the fireworks began to burst in ten thousand colors around them.
We were less than twenty meters from impact when we punched back through the axiomatic realmwall of this world.
This time, we quivered in that vast, color-and mind-rending space far longer than we had before. Wyatt continually sculpted equations with his keys, and the Drażeri physically dragged us this way and that via their tether. After what felt like an eternity, we punched back into the vast nothingness where the Maelstrom hung in the sky.
“YES!” Wyatt crowed, making more than one obscene gesture at the Drażeri craft.
“Good work, Guthrie.” Gideon’s voice was weak, and he sounded smaller than I had ever heard him. “Truly excellent.”
The truth ached inside me. Gideon didn’t have much time.
I glanced to Sparks and realized he didn’t look any better.
Rachel leaned over him, her frown tight as she injected him with mecha.
She merely stared up at me, meeting my gaze. Despair haunted her face.
Concern laced Wyatt’s voice. “That little maneuver of theirs cost us.”
“What is it?” I stepped to the front, trying not to look too long into the dizzying vista.
“Fuel, Hoss.” Wyatt’s brow furrowed. “We didn’t start with much. It looks as if most of it was consumed by breaking through into a topia.”
Fuck. If that was the case, then they had us. The smart play would be to simply drag us through as many strange and forsaken skies as possible and wait for our fuel to run out. Then, they could tow us back to Dhire Lith.
I had no doubts what horrifying, bloody poetry awaited us there,
“Oh, damn it.” Wyatt softly swore, and then the craft lurched to one side again. His fingers practically blurred as he jumbled numbers through his interface and his oculus danced with equations.
They were pulling us sideways again.
I closed my eyes, realizing that the game was over. They absolutely had us if they just waited us out. That tether meant our death.
Unless…
“Wyatt.” My voice remained calm, quiet, as I juggled pieces together. “Do you have enough fuel to just get home? I mean, without Drażeri dragging us driftways?”
“Pretty sure.” He glared down at one of the readouts and made some adjustments. “Yep. If not home, then close enough to spit.” He paused and then spoke beneath his breath. “Not that it matters, Hoss.”
Anya watched over at us, concern clouding her eyes.
“Okay.” I thumbed through my interface. “Good. That’s good.”
“Hoss?”
I ignored him and braced myself against the back of Wyatt’s seat. I needed to focus and couldn’t let the jostle of the ship distract me. Almost casually, I adjusted my tactical interface, trying to guess at effects I could not possibly plan for.
I peered into the Maelstrom before us, trying to track distance in a place where truly, direction and distance had no meaning.
“Just get us home, asshole.” I gave him a soft grin.
Anya caught my eye. I had never truly noticed how innocent she looked, how young. Sitting here now, without the use of her interface or her relentless logic, she seemed fragile.
The craft shuddered again and Wyatt swore.
I went back to my calculations and set my mark.
When I opened the aperture, it literally felt as if my skull cracked, one tiny fissure in the center of my head that splintered and spread. It burned like the secret fire of God’s true name. I clenched the back of Wyatt’s seat, trembling, my knuckles white, as my Crown did the impossible.
I tore a rift through spaceless space.
“Bishop!” Rachel’s tone trilled with shocked horror. “You idiot! What are you—?”
CURRENT CONFIGURATION RESULTS IN PARADOX LOOPING PLEASE CONFIRM
That was impossible. I had only set one aperture. Where was it possibly looping to?
It didn’t matter. As the Drażeri pulled against our craft again, I heard Wyatt yell and swear.
I realized it might have been at me.
“I saw that!” He didn’t turn, but now I knew he was talking to me. “What do you think—?”
I ignored him, turning toward the Drażeri craft. It felt hard to move my head, like I was pushing through wet concrete.
This had to be just right.
“Wyatt.” My voice fell in a monotone. “Get ready.”
“For what, you little shit?” I could hear his fingers madly working at his interface as the Drażeri pulled against us again.
“Hang on.” I paused. “Now!”
I placed the second aperture in front of the Drażeri realmship. It opened, sending a tear across my mind, rent like tissue paper. The pain seared, savage and sharp. Wetness ran down the back of my head, and I vaguely wondered what an aneurysm felt like.
Then, our entire skiff violently hurled to port as the tether to the Drażeri craft dragged us toward the aperture. The centripetal force alone was punishing, but I clenched the back of Wyatt’s chair, anticipating the violence.
Rachel cried out, a wordless wail, as she, Gideon, and Sparks all landed in a tangled pile.
Anya had started to stand, meaning she was hurled into me.
“FUCK!” Wyatt screamed.
Less than a second had passed since the Drażeri ship had hurtled through, and I slammed the aperture closed on the tether between us.
It shattered.
With that link broken, our momentum hurled us, spinning wildly, at the center of the Maelstrom.
“There.” I clung to the back of Wyatt’s chair for dear life. “Fuck them.”
As my friend madly entered variables, I vomited and passed out.
27
My mind lit up like an infinite number of Christmas lights. The world shimmered a waterfall of brilliance, neon bright and dazzling. I blinked and shook my head.
“—truly and completely stupid.” The female voice felt tight with worry. “I’ll make certain he gets home, alright. He needs to heal up so I can kick his ass.”
“I can’t wait.” I blinked up at Rachel blearily. The world seemed sideways for a moment, and it smelled as if someone had vomited.
“Michael Bishop.” The anger bloomed in her tone. “You reckless asshole. Did you even think? I don’t—!” Her voice trailed off, inarticulate with rage.
“I missed you too, Rachel.” I pushed myself to a seated position, but that wasn’t really a good idea. My body clearly wanted to lie down. “Are we okay?”
“Are we okay?” Her voice fell flat. “No one’s dead, if that’s what you mean. Gideon and Sparks are both unconscious. I thought that flinging Gideon around might be too much—”
“But he’s fine. At least, fine enough.” I gave her a smile
. “Because you took care of him. I knew you would, Rachel. We can always trust you.”
“Piece of shit.” Her softening voice did nothing to hide her fury. “You think you can just fling my patients around like a couple of rag dolls, all because you trust me to handle it?” She seethed. “I should just chuck you outside. Save myself the trouble.”
“I think that perhaps you should have the passenger seat, Michael.” Anya’s tone sounded a bit reserved. “You are injured, after all.” She offered me her hand to help me up.
“Thanks, Anya.” I chuckled. “That sounds delightful.” I took her hand and pulled myself to standing.
As I positioned myself in the seat, I could see the burbling Maelstrom out the window. Impossibly large, I strove but failed to comprehend its vastness. Every once in a while, we would pass close to the scarlet lightning or glimpse some unnamed horror in the darkness beyond.
Wyatt configured his variables, but compared to earlier, he was positively larking about with the tangler. “Hey there, Hoss?” His tone was conversational.
“Yeah?” I sniffed. Had I fallen into my own vomit?
“Do you think we can have a dossier together where you don’t, at some point, smell like complete shit?” He chuckled as he spoke.
“Seems we can’t.” I blinked, my head still throbbing with pain. I turned back to where Rachel tinkered with Gideon’s mecha. “Hey, could you do something for my pain?”
“Yes.” She glowered at me for a long moment. “I could.” Then, she went back to what she was doing.
“Ouch.” Wyatt smirked and shook his head. “Kinda deserve it though, Hoss. That was some shit right there.”
“Yeah?” I eyed him in challenge. “On a different subject, are we being chased by any Drażeri craft intent on hauling us back to Dhire Lith?”
“We are not.” His smile faded. “Thanks to you.”
“Thanks to me.” I enunciated the last word, making certain everyone could hear before settling myself back.
“Out of curiosity.” Wyatt spoke low, conspiratorially. “Where did they go? I saw the second aperture, but it was just beneath us.” He shook his head. “If they had just come out beneath us, they’d still be on our tail.”