Across a Sea of Stars

by Michael E. Gonzales

  "What about his memory?" Tarnus asked.

  "We really don't know. He will have to receive a number of tests to determine if—"

  "Not this time, technician," Tarnus roared. "You will take us to him now, or I will break your pelvis in order to stuff your feet down your throat."

  "Calm yourself, Lord Tarnus! I will take you any place you wish to go."

  "Lord? I am no lord!"

  "Among we Portigalweg there is a saying—any angry Geldneth giant with a fist before your face—is a lord."

  "Indeed. I begin to have greater respect for the wisdom of the Portigalweg. Lead us hence to my brother."

  "Your brother?"

  "Surely, you have not already forgotten your own saying?"

  "Not at all—my lord."

  Down the hallway and into the bowels of the repair facility the man led them. They passed rooms filled with different videkanica in various stages of repair. At the far end, a set of double doors opened into a larger, circular room with several computer stations in its center. All along the perimeter were many more double doors, each leading into separate examination and workrooms. The man approached a door and indicated they should enter.

  Tarnus stopped Tattie and said to the older man, "You first; if I am not happy, I want the responsible party at my side."

  The man entered the room, holding the door for Tattie and Tarnus.

  Against the wall was a videkanica that only bore a slight resemblance to Capek. This one was taller and thinner with powerful-looking legs and arms. His body was white and smooth, and trimmed with black stripes that ran down the front and back of his legs, the sides of his arms, and a black square on his chest. The head was very similar to the old one in that it looked like a small space helmet, white with a black visor, the difference here being the presence of two small glowing green circles inside the visor.

  A technician had the videkanica wired to a computer.

  Tarnus was shocked, and not at all sure this was his Capek. Until he spoke.

  "Brother, orbrena Tattie! How wonderful to see you both!"

  The voice was that of their Capek, but there was a great deal more emotion in his words.

  "Capek, is it you?" Tarnus exclaimed.

  "Yes, yes, it is me!"

  "You are greatly changed," Tarnus said.

  "I asked for and received several upgrades to my type, I hope you approve, I'm very excited, myself."

  "Yes, I hear it in your voice."

  "Is it not wonderful? Tattie, you've not said a word, are you not pleased to see me as I am pleased to see you?"

  Tattie walked over to him and kissed his cheek. "I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am. Like Tarnus, it will take me a moment to adjust to the new you."

  Capek angled his head a little to his right as he looked into Tattie's eyes. "What is it Tattie, what is wrong?"

  "Wrong, Capek?" Tattie asked, glancing at Tarnus. "What do you mean?"

  "Tattie, I am a videkanica, I have sensors that detect various anomalies in the physiology of both of you, more so in you. Add to this the fact that Cris is not with you and I conclude there is a problem."

  "Yes, Capek, there is a problem."

  "Will you two technicians please leave the family alone a moment?" Capek asked. Both the man who had accompanied Tarnus and Tattie, and the fellow at the computer looked at Capek with some degree of shock.

  "Get out," Capek said in a firm voice.

  Once alone, Tarnus and Tattie began to explain to Capek all that had transpired since he was shot.

  ○O○

  Cris awoke to a flashing light and a loud humming in his ears. As he lifted his head, the sound and light ceased. The computer's voice spoke, "The hidero mas angia is directly ahead at a range of—"

  "Thank you, computer, I see it. Please return manual control to me."

  "Granted."

  Cris was approaching the singularity at an oblique, so from where he sat, it appeared as light glistening off a whirlpool in a bottle of black ink.

  Cris made a wide arch to his right and adjusted his course to enter the anomaly at ninety degrees in order to zip straight through. He tried to hit the thing right in the middle, not knowing if he'd have to negotiate the stone walls of the crater while returning to the lunar surface.

  Cris reduced his speed. His recollection was that the speed of entry was not a determining factor when entering the wormhole.

  Cris looked at his holographic instruments—they were going berserk.

  He entered the event horizon and began to spin at the same speed as the wormhole, so around him, all he saw was what appeared to be dark, dust clouds.

  Just as the first time, it was not a sudden thing, it started with a glow. Everything around him began to glow, even his own body. The power throughout his Rapna went out, no lights, no instruments, no environmental, this included his ability to see through the ship and view space around him. All that remained was the odd, rather dim glow. Cris was not fearful, even though he knew he was flying with death as his co-pilot. He had been dancing closely with death for quite some time, and so far, he'd kept his footing.

  The glow began to increase, brighter and brighter. It became so bright that he had to shut his eyes, and still, the light penetrated his tightly closed lids. It reminded him of kissing Tattie—Tattie. Abruptly, the light was gone. He opened his eyes, but found he was near blind from the intense light.

  The instruments inside his helmet sprang to life first, followed by environmental, and his ability to see outside returned. As his eyes returned to normal, he could see stars. The familiar and ancient constellations were present. Looking over his shoulder, behind him was the surface of the Moon. He was shooting straight up out of the hidero mas angia which was now enormous. The event horizon stretched all the way to the central mound of the crater Maundel in the north and the edge of Kopff to the east.

  Remembering the training video, Cris altered his trajectory from ninety degrees to level with the lunar surface and turned hard toward Hegola Mendaba, the southwest.

  As his eager craft shot over the moon, Cris looked around through the invisible walls of the Rapna. The glowing readouts in his peripheral were all that reminded him he was in a spacecraft, for they were all of it that he could see. Below him, the many craters flashed past, above, all that existed were the countless, depthless stars.

  As he came about, he watched as the three-quarter Earth, just above the eastern horizon at this altitude, glided past to take up a position over his right shoulder. Earth—his home world, where his parents resided, and his few friends. The planet's history was his history. Yet, he could not wait to leave it permanently behind him and return to Nazer—to Tattie.

  As he sped toward the target, the Earth sank behind the limb of the Moon.

  He was making great speed. He could do this—he knew he could. Besides, according to Mag'Osnik, he had already done so, he said he had seen him and Tattie together and happy. That had to mean this was a done deal.

  As Cris streaked onward, something up ahead caught his eye, there were lights on the surface, right about where he expected to find the wreckage of the Nazerian ship.

  Well, hell. They've discovered it, and there are survey teams and archeologists all over the damn thing.

  He knew the frequencies that Eagle squadrons used, so he informed the Rapna's computer, which brought him up on those coms. Instantly, he heard the chatter of several ships. "Eagle five six, this is Eagle five four, I have a visual on the bogy. Over."

  "Roger, stand by. Break. Mother Bird, this is Eagle five six, we have a visual on the bogy, are we clear to engage?"

  Cris's computer was warning him of the close proximity of three craft on his six. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Cris shouted. "This is Eagle eight one, do not engage, I say again, do not engage!"

  "All Eagle Elements, this is Eagle five six, that guy is transmitting Bravo Sierra. Eight one is back in the nest."

  Then Cris heard a familiar voice, "All Eagles, this is
Mother Bird, weapons cold, hold your fire. Break. Cris Salazar, is that you?"

  "Yes, ma'am, this is a blue rocket imperative, are there personal on the ground near the abandoned ship?"

  "Cris, how do you know about that and where the hell have you been?"

  "Blue rocket, I say again this is a blue rocket!"

  "None on the ground at this time. Talk to me, Cris, dammit."

  "I'm here to stop that wormhole from swallowing the Moon and wiping out life on two worlds. You have got to get everyone clear—and I mean now. I am going weapons hot in thirty seconds!"

  "Cris—I can't let you attack the artifact. Orders, you understand."

  "Ma'am, I understand that if I fail, many hundreds of billions of lives will be lost. Your call. I have to go to work, now. Out."

  Chapter 31

  "We are Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On."

  Capek, Tattie, and Tarnus had no more departed the House of Healing when Tattie looked up at the stars, then asked the new and improved Capek the time. "We are in the third cycle of the fifth wheel, Tattie."

  Then, she turned to Tarnus. "Should we not have heard something by now?"

  "Child, you are thinking of time as a linear thing. That is no longer true for Cris."

  "If I may suggest," Capek said, "you need a distraction, a project, something to occupy your mind."

  Tattie thought a moment. "Yes, there is something I need to do." She kissed both Tarnus and Capek and started off toward the city archives.

  "Capek," Tarnus said, "discreetly follow her. She is distraught to an unparalleled degree, worse than I have ever seen her. Take the elixir with you, and force her to drink it, if you think it necessary."

  "You do not think she would harm herself, surely?"

  "I hope not. No, I mean…no."

  Capek took the bladder and set off to monitor Tattie, certain in his mind that she would never harm herself, but obligated to do as his brother asked.

  Tattie went directly into the archives and spoke to another Geldneth woman who directed her to a computer.

  Tattie went into the booth and spoke for several minutes to the computer. Capek tried to read her lips, but his angle of observation was such that he could not see her mouth adequately. Capek changed locations with as much stealth as he could, arriving in time to see her speak the word "stone." Then she thanked the computer. Capek made note of this because she had thanked him before she had known he was aware. She had always treated him with the same courtesy she treated biological life forms. When he had fallen into the lake, she wept to think his functions had ceased.

  At the main desk, the Geldneth woman handed Tattie a small, bound booklet just produced by the computer. From the archives, Tattie took a platform down to the bottom level of the city where, after an inquiry, she was deposited at the door of a stonemason. She was inside about a half-an-hour. Next, she took a platform to the transmission station of the city news and information outlet. Here, she spent two hours.

  Once completed with whatever her business was, she caught another platform and returned to the temple of the Velka Mislay and, ultimately, her room in the tower. Just as she was about to shut the door, she leaned back and spoke aloud down the hallway, "Good night, Capek."

  ○O○

  Cris set his course, adjusted his speed, checked his altitude, and then armed the bomb. His computer guidance self-calibrated on known landmarks from the 1976 data. He was set. He just had to maintain this course—it would all be over in twelve seconds.

  "Cris, this is Mother Bird. Sensors indicate you are carrying a 5kt nuclear bomb…tell me our sensors are screwed up."

  "I'm sorry, Mother Bird, but that's the correct G-2, please have all Eagles clear the area, now."

  "All Eagles, this is Mother Bird, move to Charlie Papa two and stand by."

  Cris looked around, and saw all the Eagles were moving off at a high rate of speed toward the east. All but one. This one fell in behind him, very close.

  "Mother Bird, is that you back there?"

  "Affirmative."

  "What is your intent?" There came no response. "Mother Bird, I will release my weapon in five seconds, if you're going to do something, the time is now."

  Still no response. The drop warning indicator came on in his helmet. He felt a jolt as the computer released the payload.

  "Mother Bird, you better kick that thing in the ass and get the hell out of here!"

  Cris pushed his Rapna forward and turned hard to head back to the wormhole. He looked behind through his near invisible ship, it was obvious Major Selina was not going to get clear. Cris paused but a nano-second, a million thoughts flashed through his mind all at the same instant. The last was an image of Tattie's face.

  "Damn it to hell!"

  Cris executed a one-eighty and rocketed to a position below the Major's Eagle. The bomb was two seconds from impact. Cris placed his Rapna under the Eagle and came gently up under it. The instant he made contact, he pushed the Rapna up at a forty-five-degree angle as fast as he could go without tearing through the Eagle.

  The flash was horrific, like a white-hot star suddenly appearing behind him. The intensity of the light began to slowly fade. In his helmet, alarms were sounding madly, the computer showed him that pieces of the target and huge chunks of moon rock were being hurtled his way. He felt several small impacts, then one large one. An engine warning light and alarm added to the growing cacophony in his helmet. Before Cris could react, another explosion, many times larger than the first, tore a hole in the moon behind him and produced a blinding purplish white light. An energy wave began to expand from ground zero like a fast-growing bubble.

  Chis knew the first explosion was his nuclear weapon, but the second, infinitely fiercer detonation had originated within the Nazerian ship.

  The instant the energy wave hit the two ships, it swept them away like grandma sweeping flies off a sugar cake.

  Cris's last thought was of Tattie.

  ○O○

  On Nazer, a week had passed since Cris's departure. Tattie was in a state of deep depression. Only regular drinks of Geldneth Nordthok kept her sane and moving. She did work hard to accomplish that one more thing, or as she put it, one last thing.

  Cris had been gone eleven days and eleven hours when the ceremony started. Tattie had gotten the city elders, a good portion of the population, and a military salute organized from all the allied combatants out of Emer Alda to meet in front of the ruins of the temple of the Father's Son in the remains of the once beautiful city of Galdo Heirya.

  Placed in the ground, an obelisk of black polished stone rose six meters high. There was but one person scheduled to speak, Tattie Bogle. As she spoke, her words played on all public access channels in Emer Alda. The crowds in Galdo Heirya, already rather frightened and subdued just being in the ghost town, fell silent as Tattie took the elevated area in front of the monument.

  "Many ages ago," Tattie said, her words booming out over the throngs, "within the walls of this city, lived our ancestors. We all know the story of their fate, but we do not know the story of our disgrace. We dishonored them and shamed ourselves by forgetting them. Their story was relegated to myth and legend, their names forgotten among the disused files of the ignored portions of the archival record.

  "The nameless ones did not forget us, however. And at a time when a great shadow threatened to fall over all the known worlds of our stars, when there was little help to be found, the dead arose and saved the living.

  "They are martyrs, and now all these centuries later, they are heroes.

  "Behind me is a stone…one of two. It shall forever bear the names of every man, woman, and child who died here, and who defended their world, and us, from a great evil. The twin sister of this stone is even now being erected in Emer Alda.

  "I was told that once their names were returned to living memory, these souls could then have peace. With that understanding, the elders of Emer Alda have taken it upon themselves to rebuild Galdo Heirya and to r
ename it O'Arway Nifren, the Vale of Heroes. Life will return to these streets, and children's voices will again be heard within these walls." Tattie's voice cracked with the word children, and her eyes filled with tears.

  The military was called to attention, and the crowd began a thunderous applause, the sound of which echoed and reverberated throughout the city.

  As the ceremony ended and the throngs of excited people began to work their way back to their conveyances, Tattie walked out into the street and looked around. There was the spot her ancestor Geldnar Bogle killed the Sorgina of Darlok. Over there is where Cris fell after Sorgina Bruckna cast her spell over him, and where she first kissed him. The recollection should have filled her with happy thoughts, but instead, clouds of sadness covered her in shadow.

  She returned to the monument where Tarnus and Capek stood waiting. She looked up at it, then glanced around, half expecting to see happy spirits dancing about.

  She looked up at her two uncles and quietly said, "Let us go." They turned and headed to where Capek had earlier landed the Meerlow.

  Tattie had taken but a few steps when an irresistible desire came over her to enter the temple of the Father's Son. She realized this for what it was. "Tarnus, Capek, would you mind very much going on ahead? I'll catch up shortly."

  "You won't be long, will you?" Tarnus asked.

  "No, Uncle, I promise."

  Tattie climbed the few steps and entered the great, dusty, cavernous temple. She proceeded a few meters into the darkened areas of the chamber. Her eyes permitted her sight here, where Cris would have been blind. She stopped and listened to the rustle of dead leaves as a cold wind blew around her.

  "You called to me—I am here," she said aloud.

  A distant voice whispered her name, "Tattie Bogle."

  "It is I," she said dryly.

  "You—are as good—as your word. You—have gone beyond—the expected, the requested—now—we—are in—your debt."

  "Spirit, there is nothing you can do for me. I have lost he for whom my love was designed. All that awaits me now is the long, empty road of life until death ends my suffering."