Across a Sea of Stars

by Michael E. Gonzales

  The throngs, of what Cris could now tell were Ridgkers due to their tan color and brown spots, parted and a creature, doubtless their leader, came forward. He was also dressed in flowing robes, but he wore a highly decorated helmet. Behind him, another Natu carried a totem decorated with small flags, painted leaves from a large tree, small bones, and a Naturan skull.

  The leader advanced to within a meter of Cris. "What manner of deal did you make with Daksano Nuya?"

  "You are much better spoken than is he," observed Tattie.

  "I was raised inside that hole," he said pointing to the facility. "I want to know why Daksano did not kill you. If you have an accord with him, then you are my enemy."

  "You're Chana, right?" Cris asked.

  "Chana Nayu."

  Cris climbed out of the buggy. "Here's what we told him and now I'm telling you, we have already killed the Sorgina, and now we're going to do the same for Caval Du Mal, but we're running out of time. So, you and your boys, here, can kill us now and condemn your progeny to live under old Caval, or you can clear a path and we will set you free. Whichever, you need to do it now."

  Chana Nayu studied Cris's face a moment, then said, "You must think me a fool—"

  "Sorry," Cris interrupted, "we're out of time. Start killing, or get the hell out of my way."

  Chana Nayu made a gesture and his people parted, opening the path for Cris and his party. Cris did take an extra minute and turned to address Chana Nayu. "I was told you were on our side, that Daksano was the real threat—but pal, you've been the bigger pain in the ass. Daksano invited us into his home and even offered us food. You shove a spear in my face." Cris reached up, grabbed the Naturan skull off the totem, and shoved it into Chana Nayu's arms. "Tell me, can you really tell if this guy was Sandlust or Ridgker by looking at that?"

  "That is of no consequence."

  "Can you?" Cris shouted.

  "No."

  "You know why? Because you are both the same on the inside. Now get the hell out of my way." Cris mounted the buggy and sped off down the ramp into the facility.

  Cris made a very brief report to the fellow who had taken them to see the councilman, and then asked how to get back to the ship. The man asked Cris, "What should we do?"

  "What?"

  "There are twenty-eight facilities like this one scattered across Natu, we all want to know what to do."

  "I think you should do what you're best at."

  "And what's that?"

  "Nothing. You've been hiding up here all this time, hoping to stay out of the fray. You just pray the fray doesn't find you."

  The man led them to their ship, leaving them at the door to the launch platform.

  "You were rather short tempered with these people, Cris," Tarnus commented. "I think you need to understand—"

  "Tarnus, here's what I understand; you have cowards underground and bigots up above. Frankly, I can't wait to put this place behind us."

  "It would seem you have had some experience with both groups."

  "Yeah, we have both on Earth. I guess every place in the universe with humanoids does. On my world, bigotry was condoned at one time, even written into the law. We fixed the law, fixed what society perceived as acceptable, but the bigots are still among us, hiding, like cowards. I have no room for either. Come on, Uncle, we've got work to do."

  Once back inside the ship, they climbed up the platforms to the larger landing below the flight deck. Sitting on the floor was the bomb and attached to it was a Rube Goldberg-looking contraption.

  "What's this?" Cris was incredulous.

  Epney leapt forward. "Hey, that's the best we could come up with the parts we found on this ship."

  "You cannibalized the ship to make this? Will the ship still fly?"

  "Of course. I used subsystems we don't need and, of course, the spare parts."

  "Capek!" Cris called out.

  "Yes, Cris?" they heard from the flight deck.

  "The Mind tells me you know how to get us inside the flagship."

  "I was just recently provided the information…I'm afraid you're not going to like it."

  "Why?"

  "There is an exhaust vent for the secondary drives along the port side bottom of the vessel. We must pilot this ship as far as possible into this vent, then exit our ship and find a maintenance access hatch that will take us into the engine room of the secondary plant, there we are to affect our sabotage."

  "After which, we return to the ship and get away before the bomb detonates. Okay, that's a plan." Cris seemed pleased.

  "I am told this ship will no longer be available to us."

  "By whom?"

  "It is part of the information provided to me by the Velka Mislay."

  "What the hell is this, a suicide mission?"

  "No, it is not. We will be in close proximity to a bank of escape vehicles."

  "Show me."

  Capek's schematic appeared again on the monitor. "Here, Cris, we are to place you in front of this portion of the engine. Then after you are finished, we move along this path to the escape vehicle number 1,337, C, here."

  "That's quite some distance," Cris observed.

  "True, but being undiscovered, we will have no problem."

  "Unless we meet someone in the corridor."

  "In that case, we will have a problem."

  Cris glanced down at the bomb again. "Is this going to work?"

  "Sure," Epney said.

  "Let me ask you, would you stake your life and the lives of all on Nazer on it?"

  "I must. I have no other choice."

  "No other choice—right." Cris looked concerned.

  "Cris—that really is the best Capek and I could come up with."

  "'Nuf said. I believe you."

  Chapter 25

  Captured

  The Sorgina's black ship streaked through the void at full power in an effort to get to a position one hundred eighty degrees from that of the moon Natu. They were not certain just how much time they had, so Capek had the drives wide open. He kept monitoring their course, speed, and engine temperatures.

  Epney asked a very good question. "We'll have no moon to hide behind when we get there—how will we hide from the fleet?"

  "With the transponder turned off," Cris said, "if they see us at all, they will think we're a smuggler, insignificant, and no threat to them. They will ignore us completely."

  "I see you are betting our lives on that," Epney said, with a grin.

  "Every life in the entire system," Cris said, without smiling

  As they hurtled through space, Capek put the schematics for Caval Du Mal's flagship up on everyone's monitor, allowing them to study it in detail. Cris's plan was simple: get in, plant the bomb, activate the timer, get to the escape pod, and get away without being seen. It really was simple, and the escape pods were not that far from where they had to plant the explosive. Cris worried though—perhaps it was too simple.

  Several hours later, on the sunward side of Nazer, Capek reported a massive scanner contact at a range of a hundred and thirty-nine million kilometers on a direct course for Nazer, and moving at a high rate of speed.

  Cris had Capek slow to a normal speed, and in an attempt to evade attention, set a course for the demi-star of Zuluth, as if they had set out from Nazer bound for a planet in the demi-star's system. If the enemy were to closely examine their course, they would know the little black ship was trying to deceive them, it was just another gamble they must take. "Once they get within visual range," Cris said, "we'll turn forty-five degrees away from them and simulate running. Once behind them, we'll turn and head for the stern of the flagship."

  When, at last, the enemy fleet could be visually seen on their long-range monitors, what they saw were dots coming out of the aura of the sun. Cris had the computer filter out as much of the visible light as possible. As it did, he became very much impressed. There were perhaps two-dozen ships of various sizes and designs. One, he concluded, must be the flagship, as it w
as enormous. Perhaps two or three kilometers long, five hundred meters wide, and a kilometer tall.

  "Would you look at that thing!" Cris was awestruck. "The power that monster must command is unimaginable."

  That was when the shadow engulfed them. A ship so huge came out of the sun's glare that it blocked out the light completely; this craft was so enormous as to dwarf the previous ship. It was too large to estimate its size. It was, itself, a moon. The thing was a huge cylinder that tapered down at both the bow and the stern without coming to a point. There were five exterior mounted engines at the stern, each about two kilometers in length and nine hundred meters in diameter.

  Along the hull were additional engines, mounted on arms away from the hull, and each engine sat separated a quadrant from the next. These engines could swivel on the arms, making them maneuvering thrusters as well as propulsion engines. The hull of the thing seemed to be etched with deep grooves that formed patterns all over the hull.

  Cris, Tattie, Tarnus, and Epney sat at their monitors, speechless, as they gazed at the colossus. Fortunately, Capek remained focused and executed his instructions. He turned their vehicle away and picked up speed in an apparent attempt to flee.

  Everyone waited to see if they would be swatted for being an annoyance, or ignored. The seconds ticked by. The ship was closer now, and all around her bow could be seen dozens of tiny fighters. Just one of them sent to investigate would blow their cover. If they fired on it, then all of the fighters would descend upon them.

  The seconds ticked by.

  The bow and its swarm of stinging defenders passed without incident. Along the sides of the gargantuan vessel, they could see all manner of weapons, along with missile and torpedo ports, any one of which could spell death for them.

  The seconds became minutes, and still the massive hull streamed past, but not one bolt of plasma, not one torpedo or missile was fired at them.

  "What's our range from the target?" Cris asked.

  "Twenty-eight thousand ninety-six, decimal, eight, two, zero kilometers," Capek responded.

  The behemoth filled their monitors and seemed to slide past slowly. At last, its stern engines filled their view and moved away toward Nazer.

  They breathed a collective sigh as Caval Du Mal's flagship and accompanying fleet departed.

  "Okay," Cris said, "this is it, everyone into their exo-suits and strap in. Capek, maintain course and speed until I tell you otherwise."

  Once everyone was safely into their suits and strapped into their seats, Cris communicated with Capek. "What do you think? Are we out of their sight? Is it safe to start our turn?"

  "Cris, they never even scanned us, I doubt we were observed at all. I will begin a wide turn, and then follow their residual trail toward their primary engines; this should mask us. With any luck, we'll not become an object of interest."

  "Can we catch that thing?"

  "What we lack in size, we make up for with speed. Regardless, I will not rush at them; rather, I will gain on them slowly, so as not to represent a threat."

  The stern of Caval Du Mal's flagship grew larger in their monitors. They were looking into the maw of one of the huge engines when everyone noticed a small spark, which in a nanosecond erupted into a funnel of white hot energy that raced toward them.

  "What the hell?" Cris exclaimed.

  "Nothing to worry about, Cris," Capek said, "they are just maneuvering toward an orbit around Nazer."

  Capek noticed a reduction in forward momentum as the blast engulfed them. He increased their power and pushed through. Exterior hull temperatures began to increase, and an alarm sounded.

  Suddenly, the huge engines shut down. Their little black ship, out of the blast, now catapulted forward. Capek reversed all engines and pushed the nose down, but their upper hull slammed into the stern of the flagship, then scraped along its side for several kilometers. One of their engines was ripped from their hull. Capek managed to get them away from the side of the monstrous ship, then began to compensate and correct for the loss of the engine.

  "I apologize for that failure, Cris."

  "Don't worry about it. Can you still get us to the vent?"

  "Yes, but I'm afraid you'll all need to seal your suits now. We are losing atmosphere at the site of the damage in the stern."

  Capek brought them closer to the side of the flagship. Their own little craft had picked up a vibration now, and was becoming unstable.

  Up ahead was the vent, a hole in the side of the hull almost a kilometer in diameter. Capek altered their attitude so, as they pulled up to the aperture, he could ease directly into it. With great skill, Capek piloted the wounded ship into the vent. Initially, there was plenty of room. However, the farther they went, the smaller the diameter of the vent became. Everyone watched as the walls closed in on them, tighter and tighter. Capek slowed their ship to a crawl. Finally, the passage became so narrow their nose jammed into it, and they came to a halt.

  "Well, that's it," Cris said, "everybody out—"

  Tarnus and Tattie had quickly unbuckled and floated out of their seats, when suddenly, Capek shoved the throttle hard forward and the three remaining engines burst to life. When the engines erupted, all who were still in their seats were jerked hard to the rear, as the ship jammed itself forward into the vent. Almost instantly, Capek shut the engines down. He then drifted down from the flight deck and said, "I am sorry also for that unexpected acceleration. I have no idea what came over me."

  Cris composed himself a moment before saying, "It's all right, Capek. We call that an accident."

  "The word accident is synonymous with mistake or error. My previous failure to anticipate the shutdown of the massive engines was mistake number one, this constitutes a second error. Perhaps I am suffering a flawed or corrupted file, or an encrypted code may have been surreptitiously introduced into my programing—"

  "My point is, Capek, everyone is all right. No harm done. Epney—get the bomb, let's go."

  They exited through the bow hatch and floated farther down the vent, their suits' built-in lamps illuminating the way.

  The vent tube here was still very large and the walls looked like smooth, seamless, polished steel, creating the effect of drifting down a huge, mirrored tunnel. Cris turned to look back at the ship. He now saw plainly that Capek had quite neatly jammed it into the duct.

  "Cris," Capek said, after seeing him look at the craft, "I have run a diagnostic on my actions that resulted in the scene you are now examining. I was correct. In the file provided by the Mind, I was instructed to wedge the ship tightly into the vent. No explanation was provided."

  "That's odd."

  "Indeed."

  Everyone followed Capek along one side of the vent wall, as he knew where to look for the maintenance hatch. Once located, Cris was, again, thankful to have Capek with them because it was doubtful that even Tattie's keen eyes would have seen the almost non-existent door seam along the smooth wall.

  To open the door, some sort of device that acted as a key was required. Without hesitation, Capek opened the index finger of his left hand and two thin wires appeared. He inserted these wires into the mechanism and a series of tiny lights on the door began to flicker, then a green bar illuminated, and the hatch opened.

  As they all entered the room beyond, Cris paused long enough to ask, "Lock pick?"

  "No, but it fulfilled that function."

  The room they had entered was an airlock. Cris closed the outer hatch and Epney activated the atmospheric equalizer. Then the inner hatch opened.

  "I hope that didn't automatically notify someone that it was used," Cris said.

  "We'll know soon enough," Tarnus responded.

  They all removed their helmets. "Don't lose these," Cris warned. "Epney, grab the bomb and follow me."

  They all floated down a long tube the size of a good corridor toward the secondary engine. Capek guided them down the tube, then to a connecting tube on their left where they pushed off the floor to access yet an
other corridor. They floated into a chamber so immense there seemed no end to it. The room was home to a monstrous machine; secondary engine number six.

  ○O○

  As Cris floated closer to the engine, he suddenly grabbed his stomach, moaning. Then he bent double.

  Tattie pushed off the wall and sprang to his side. She grabbed him just before he floated into the engine, where she used her feet against it to stop both of them.

  "Cris, what's wrong?"

  "I—don't—"

  Cris again grabbed his middle and he began to wretch, violently. He vomited up a large white substance that looked like wet cotton. Floating in front of Tattie and Cris's eyes, it began to re-form into a ball too large to have been inside of Cris.

  The ball began to undulate. Cris, exhausted from the experience, looked up, sweat beading from his brow. "What the hell—"

  "Cris, it is the fruit of the Omnez Avai Avory."

  It came back to Cris as a shadowy memory. He and Tattie had just emerged from the mouth of the huge grandfather of all trees back in the forest after having navigated the Cave of the Dark Moon. Cris had thanked the ancient tree for allowing them to pass and the old Avory presented Cris with a rare gift, his fruit that Tattie had encouraged him to eat.

  Cris slowly began to lift his trembling right arm, then he held out a finger and gently nudged the floating mass and it began to drift toward the engine. Tattie looked down at the man in her arms quizzically. He looked up and said, "I don't know—something told me I needed to do that."

  The ball, which now resembled a spider's egg sack, touched the engine and instantly seemed to dissolve and pour like liquid mercury into every small opening and space it could reach in the massive machine where it had touched.

  "That is all we need do," Capek said. "It has begun, now to effect our escape."

  "What?" Tattie and Cris said together.

  "Is it not obvious?" Tarnus asked. "Capek here has been given information he himself is not privy to until it is needed. The Velka Mislay, it seems, requires a degree of faith from us. I think, from here on out, we follow their instructions to the letter."