Gateways #6: Cold Wars

by Peter David

  She looked at him in confusion. “What trouble? What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’m getting one of my feelings. You know those feelings I get?”

  She did indeed. Calhoun possessed a nose for danger that bordered on the supernatural when it came to detecting problems before they occurred. Although she also had to note that, despite his knack for sensing it ahead of time, it rarely helped him actually to avoid any of the difficulties. He just always knew there was going to be some sort of problem going in.

  “I know them, yes. Can you pinpoint anything, though? Do you have any solid idea as to what exactly is the threat?”

  “No. But I still feel as if—”

  At that moment, the air was filled with the humming of two sets of transporter beams working in perfect tandem. Moments later, the shimmering ended, and the two Iconians were staring at each other with open astonishment. They were standing about ten feet away from one another, as if facing off in an Old West duel, the containers with their respective Gateways at their sides. They were dressed identically, and even looked quite similar to one another, with only marginal differences as a consequence of their being two opposite genders.

  “Son of a bitch,” muttered Arex, struck by the resemblance. M’Ress fired him a look, but really his sentiment wasn’t all that different from her own. She saw the female Smyt cast a quick glance toward her, but just as quickly look away, returning her attention to the other Iconian.

  “Who are you?” they chorused, and then once again together, they said, “Smyt,” and then again, in surprise, “What do you mean, Smyt? I’m Smyt! Who are you—!” And then they pointed with mutual astonishment at the Gateway containers they were both carrying. “Where did you get that? I’m the only one who has the prototype!”

  “I hope they stop that very soon,” said Kebron, with the implicit threat that if they did not, he was personally going to make sure they did.

  “Most curious,” said Soleta. “Captain—”

  “Yes,” both Calhoun and Shelby said in synch. Kebron growled.

  “I believe I’m forming a partial hypothesis.”

  The two Smyts did not seem the least bit interested in any speculations that Soleta had to offer. Instead, they had reflexively positioned themselves behind their devices, clearly suspicious—even afraid—of the other. In unison they said, “Stop saying everything I say!”

  “Permission to shoot them both,” said Kebron.

  “Denied . . . for the moment,” Calhoun told him. “ Soleta—?”

  Soleta was circling them, her hands behind her back, never taking her eyes from them as she posited, “I believe that one of these individuals . . . and possibly both . . . is not of this universe. I believe that they are male and female reflections of each other, from one or perhaps two parallel universes. Both of them named Smyt, both of them in possession of this ‘unique’ transportable Gateway prototype, and both of them here by accident, happenstance, or perhaps during passage through another Gateway.”

  “Could they have come here through the Gateways they each possess?” asked Calhoun.

  Surprisingly, it was Ebozay who responded. “I doubt it. Because if they’d come through the Gateway created by the device, they would not have then been able to bring the device itself through. The device is the generator; it can’t be pulled through itself. It’s impossible.”

  “I believe he is correct,” M’Ress spoke up. “Take it from someone who fell through a Gateway.”

  “All right,” Calhoun said abruptly. “This has gone on long enough. Whoever the two of you are, you’ve done more damage than any two people should have a right to do. If Soleta’s right, or if she’s wrong, that doesn’t matter to me as much as knowing why you’ve done all this. We’re here, on this world, a symbol of the pointlessness of a war that you two helped start again. Captain Shelby and I resolved to wait until everyone was together to start asking the tough questions, but now they’re going to be asked: Why? Why did you do it? Why the Aerons and the Markanians? You owe them an explanation.”

  “We owe no one anything!” shouted the Iconians, and suddenly they slammed their respective hands down upon the Gateway containers. The cartons literally collapsed upon themselves, revealing the rather unimpressive-looking Gateway control devices themselves.

  “Back away from those!” snapped Shelby.

  Arex and Kebron were already in motion, striding toward the respective Smyts with determined looks on their faces. At the exact same time, the Iconians hit control buttons on the Gateway consoles, and protective shields flared into existence around them.

  Kebron, a hair too slow, slammed into the outside of the shield around the male Smyt and ground to a halt.

  Arex, a hair too fast, propelled by his three legs, sailed through just as the shield activated, and slammed into the female Smyt.

  The female Smyt tried to fight back against Arex, but there were simply too many arms for her to contend with. But then a grim smile played across her lips, and suddenly energy was sizzling through Arex. A scream was ripped from his mouth as his body vibrated violently under the assault, and M’Ress tried to leap to his aid, but was rebuffed by the in-place shield.

  * * *

  The male Smyt laughed contemptuously at Kebron, who stood outside the shield. “Try to get through all you want, you great rocky oaf!” he shouted.

  Kebron didn’t answer. Instead he slammed against the screen, and suddenly Smyt was no longer laughing, because the impact jolted him off his feet. The screen that was protecting him was one single, solid force unit, and when Kebron hit it with all his might, the entire thing was rocked. Again Kebron rammed it, and yet again, and Smyt kept hauling himself up only to be knocked down once more.

  Seeing the disconcerted look on Smyt’s face, Calhoun said, quite sanguinely, to Si Cwan, “I believe Mr. Kebron is annoyed.”

  “I’m glad I don’t annoy him,” said Si Cwan.

  “You do.”

  “Oh. Right. Perhaps I should try not to in the future.”

  “A good plan.”

  The female Smyt’s confidence was fading fast, for the device she had used with such success against Ebozay wasn’t having the same impact on Arex. The energy crackling through him was hurting him, no question, but it wasn’t stopping him, and suddenly Smyt was being pressed backward against the console, and Arex’s agonized-but-snarling face was right in hers as he growled, “Turn it . . . off . . . before I . . . break you . . . in half . . .”

  There was no question in her mind that he wasn’t kidding, and just like that, the assault on Arex had halted. The moment it ceased, however, it was as if all his strength was departing Arex’s body. He sagged against her, only his body weight immobilizing her, and suddenly he lunged with all his fast-fading might and thudded a fist against the console, right where he’d seen her push to activate the force shield.

  Instantly it flared out of existence, and that was when Arex slumped to the ground.

  But M’Ress had been waiting on the other side of the shield, and she had her phaser out. The moment the shield was down, she vaulted the distance and was standing in between Smyt and Arex. There was cold amusement in Smyt’s eyes, as if this couldn’t have worked out better for her. “This is it, M’Ress. Get him out of the way, come with me . . . and I’ll find a way to get you home.”

  “M’Ress!” shouted Shelby, running toward them. “ Immobilize her!”

  M’Ress had exactly seconds to act, because in no time Shelby would be there to lend a hand. Yet even with those bare seconds, she still had enough time to shove Arex out of the way, out of the range of the shield. Then Smyt could reactivate it with M’Ress safely within its confines, do whatever she was going to do, and maybe—somehow—Smyt would be able to find a way to restore M’Ress to her proper place. It was a long shot, she knew, but at least it was a hope. Otherwise she was definitely stuck there, and was going to have to accept the fact that this world, this environment, was goi
ng to be her new home from now on.

  She took all the seconds she needed to consider it . . . all those seconds and more besides, and it was something of a testament to the speed of her mind and her instincts that she came up with the same answer three times in almost as many seconds.

  She extended her left hand down to help Arex to his feet, and her right hand never wavered as she kept her phaser squarely aimed at Smyt. “Back away from the console,” she said. “Put your hands over your head and make no sudden moves.”

  For just a moment, disappointment flickered over Smyt’s face, and then she sighed as she raised her hands. “A shame. I had hopes for you, M’Ress. On your head, then.”

  “Don’t touch anything,” M’Ress said firmly. Arex was leaning against her, looking haggard. Shelby was now directly behind them.

  “I don’t have to,” replied Smyt. “It’s time. He said I’d know when it’s time . . . and he was right.”

  The male Smyt was jolted once more, and to his utter shock he saw that the field was actually starting to lose strength. Kebron, meantime, looked none the worse for wear; indeed, the challenge he was being presented with only seemed to make him stronger. Two or three more smashes such as Smyt had just endured, and the field would crumble.

  “He said I’d know when it was time . . . and he was right,” muttered Smyt.

  “On-line!” shouted both Smyts.

  Oh, hell, they’re voice-responsive, thought M’Ress, and that was the last thought to go through her mind before all hell broke loose.

  Ten feet away from each other, two Gateways—identical but opposite—snapped open.

  Both Smyts would have absolutely sworn that they knew, beyond question, all of the different things that the Gateways were capable of, all the permutations through which the devices could go. No matter how much they might have sworn it, however, they were wrong, because neither of them had ever experienced any circumstances remotely similar to this one.

  Two stars in proximity to each other never have any planets, because of the intense gravity wells between the two of them.

  Two microphones, when brought close to each other, can cause earsplitting feedback.

  That was what was occurring between the two opened Gateways: a combination of intense gravity and feedback.

  Immediately, power levels on both consoles spiked above anything that either Smyt had ever seen. The Gateways hung there in the open air, energy corruscating between the two, as if they were feeding upon each other. The sound was absolutely earsplitting, with M’Ress and Soleta being the hardest hit.

  The open portals started to pulsate, the power so intense that everyone had to shield their eyes. The air began to roar, a vortex building between the two of them, the air starting to twist into something that looked like a horizontal tornado.

  The Smyts let out a terrified shriek that was drowned out by the power hanging in midair only a few yards away. But as they lunged for their consoles to try and shut down that which they had inadvertently unleashed, they suddenly felt themselves being hauled off their feet. They grabbed for the consoles, which seemed securely anchored and immune from the suction of the Gateway vortex. Neither of them could maintain their grip, however, as they were hauled away from the consoles. Kicking and screaming, they sailed through the air and were yanked into the swirling energy field. For a moment they were still visible in the spinning vortex, and then, like a cork being sucked into a champagne bottle instead of being popped out, they vanished.

  As if it were sentient, having grown stronger now that it had “devoured” two individuals, the vortex increased in intensity. Everything was being sucked up. Dirt, debris . . .

  . . . people.

  On the bridge of the Excalibur, Mark McHenry—looking, as always, like he was asleep at his post—sat bolt upright with such force that it startled everyone else on the bridge. “What the hell—!” he spat out.

  Before Burgoyne could ask what had so alarmed the conn officer, Lefler at ops promptly said, “Commander! Picking up some sort of massive energy readings! I’ve . . . I’ve never seen anything like it! I don’t know what—!”

  “It’s Gateway signatures.”

  Robin turned in her chair, her eyes wide, to see her mother, Morgan, standing at the science station normally occupied by Soleta. “Mother! What are you—?”

  “I told the captain I was bored; this is where he put me,” snapped Morgan, studying the sensors.

  “But . . . but you can’t—!”

  “Shut up, Robin,” Burgoyne said, crossing quickly to Morgan. “Gateway signatures? Are you sure—?”

  “Yes, but with an intensity far greater than anything recorded,” she said grimly. “Anything that’s down there is going to be pulled in. . . .”

  Instantly Burgoyne called out, “Bridge to transporter room! Lock on to the away team, and anyone else in the area! Beam them up here, now!”

  “Unable to comply, Commander,” came the transporter officer’s voice a moment later. “We can’t get a lock on them . . . something is interfering with—”

  “I know something is interfering with it! That’s what we want to get them away from! Bridge to shuttle bay!”

  “Shuttle bay.”

  “I want a security team scrambled and heading planetside inside of two minutes! Get landing coordinates from the transporter room! I want a visual recon of what’s going on, and an airlift out of there for the captain and the others if humanly possible! If not humanly possible, do it anyway!”

  “Aye, Commander!”

  “Incoming call from the Trident!” said Lefler.

  “On screen.”

  Instantly Kat Mueller’s worried face appeared on the viewscreen. “Are you reading what’s going on down there?” she said immediately, not wasting time with any niceties.

  “We make it to be something from the Gateways.”

  “As do we.”

  “We can’t beam them up.”

  “We know. I’ve got a—”

  “Shuttlecraft prepping,” Burgoyne interrupted her. “We do, too.”

  Despite the urgency of the situation, Mueller smiled ever so slightly. “You learned fast, Burgy.”

  “This isn’t the kind of job that provides time for a lengthy learning curve,” Burgoyne said ruefully.

  Ebozay was tumbling end over end through the air, screaming as the vortex pulled him toward itself, and suddenly his out-of-control tumble was abruptly halted. He hung there in midair, twisted around, and saw that Gragg was gripping him firmly by the ankle. Gragg, in turn, had anchored himself to an upper section of Hinkasa’s Shrine that was buried so deeply, not even the power of the Gateway vortex could dislodge it. Tsana was wedged into the other side of the section, safely ensconced.

  “Thank you! Thank you!” screamed Ebozay.

  And then he saw Tsana looking at him pitilessly, with eyes as dead as those of a shark. When she spoke, even though it was relatively softly, even though the vortex was screaming, yards away, from the wind and the power it was unleashing, nevertheless he heard every word.

  “We need to keep our priorities in order,” she said. “That’s what I had you say before, to make sure.”

  “Make sure?!” He didn’t understand.

  She nodded. “I thought I recognized your voice . . . because I heard you say those exact words . . . at my home . . . the night you led the squad that killed my parents, my family . . . my childhood . . . my life . . . all gone, because of you. . . .”

  “We . . . we have to set aside our differences—you said—!”

  Tsana smiled grimly. “We’ve had differences for centuries. What’s one more day? Gragg . . .” And she nodded just once, but the meaning was clear.

  “ Noooooo!!” howled Ebozay, but it was too late, for Gragg had released him. Ebozay tried to grab at him, but it was no good as he was yanked through the air and, an instant later, hauled into the vortex.

  “Shut it down!” Arex was screaming in M’Ress’s ear as they clutched the c
ontrol console. The only reason that they hadn’t been hauled away was the extra traction provided by Arex’s third arm and leg.

  “I’m trying! Don’t you think I’m trying!” And she was, desperately manipulating the controls as fast as she could. Not only was it guesswork, though, but she was reasonably sure that whatever the hell was happening, it was beyond the ability of the controls to rein in.

  Then the console started to tremble beneath her. It had remained miraculously impervious to the pull of the Gateway up until that point, but the vortex was continuing to increase exponentially in power. It was starting to overwhelm everything. For all she knew, it would wind up eating the entire planet. To her horror, the control console—their one anchor—began to slide toward the vortex.

  “Maybe it’ll be someplace better than here!” shouted Arex hopefully.

  “Here is actually starting to look pretty good!” M’Ress howled back, and then she threw both arms around Arex and braced herself.

  “What the hell — !” said McHenry for the second time in as many minutes.

  Burgoyne strode forward. “Now what?” s/he demanded.

  From the science station, Morgan Lefler looked up and announced, “It stopped.”

  “What do you mean, it stopped?”

  “It. Stopped,” said Morgan with a trace of impatience. “Which was unclear, the pronoun or the past tense verb?”

  Burgoyne said, “Robin . . . run a check on combadges and life-form readings. See if everybody’s present and accounted for.”

  She nodded, running a scan through the ship’s op systems. The silence on the bridge waiting for her reply seemed to go on forever, and then she said, very softly, “Registering five less readings than were there before it started.”

  “Five,” said Burgoyne hollowly. “Can you narrow it down?”

  She nodded. “Missing two Iconians . . . one Markanian . . .” and after a pause, she said, “. . . and . . . two of ours.”