by Jacen Aster
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The rules of jumping, Ringless or not, had dropped them outside the solar system proper. Preitus was good, however, and had their superluminal scout drones out before the light show had faded. With the drones providing data for a safe path, the Falcon's Eye was already rapidly accelerating to light speed for the hop in system by the time the cabin settled. It would only be a matter of minutes now, most of them of acceleration and deceleration, before they reached the orbit of Klenthe.
The cabin was silent as the crew, familiar with one another after many such trips, worked seamlessly together to make safe a path through an unknown system. The infinity drive was a wonderful thing. Without it, they'd be days getting into the system from here, but its use was never completely safe. Far less so when moving into a completely new and unmapped system. The silence was broken only a few times, for updates or requests from one to another. Serasul had come out of her reverie, but seemed to be taking the silence to brace herself for what she might find when they reached orbit.
The minutes stretched. Breaching the system’s heliosphere came early and as they accelerated in system they passed a number of barren worlds until, at last, they decelerated to a station keeping point roughly a quarter million kilometers off the planet. The visual Preitus pulled up from the drones, which had gone somewhat closer in and had a clearer image, showed a queer sight. The planet was there all right, but it looked like a ghost from some cheesy VR production. Henry almost rubbed his eyes before he remembered that it wouldn't help. That this was the result of a world that was literally out of phase with the rest of reality. Incredible.
Serasul shook herself and addressed Vivian. “Miss Vivian, may I broadcast a message to the planet now?”
Vivian nodded. “Sure.” She waved for the ship comm to begin broadcasting, signaling a fifteen second delay. “Go ahead. We're broadcasting on the frequencies you gave us starting...now.”
Serasul spoke...and everyone aboard suddenly realized that they hadn't gotten a translation package for the Bralnchie's native language. Oops. Now there's a good reminder for why this sort of thing is normally handled by professionals. The language was a rolling tongue, full of low, melodious tones, the rustle of leaf and rock, and harder to describe sounds no human could make in a thousand years of trying. For a few moments after her broadcast, there was silence, and then another voice came back in the same language. By then Henry could see Serira frantically scrambling to try and translate the new tongue, likely feeling even more sheepish than he did, given that she was their expert. Apparently, they had all forgotten that the Bralnchie didn't natively speak the Xeroteais tongue.
A quick, excited sounding exchange later, Serasul turned to Vivian and made a motion they took as a request to cut the audio. Vivian did so and Serasul immediately spoke. “They are happy, but nearly disbelieving, that one of their Life Ships stumbled upon a friendly species. They are opening a corridor for us through the phase shield. They weren't prepared for guests, so it will take a little bit to open the hole. They will send coordinates in Xeroteais code shortly.”
Serira piped up. “About that. Any way we can get a translation pack for your language?” She somehow managed to look coolly shameless. “In all the excitement, we seem to have overlooked that.”
Serasul gave a grinding chuckle and pulled a cube out from the vest that was her only clothing. “We didn't forget, this is a—”
Serira snatched it and inserted it into a module slot on her console. “A Xeroteais datacube, or an approximation of one. Why didn't you give it to us when you came aboard?”
Serasul seemed almost sheepish. Henry was surprised he could recognize that already, but took it as a good sign. “I'm afraid it was a bit of paranoia. I was to give it to you if you asked, but to otherwise let you remain ignorant until we arrived. That way, if you proved duplicitous and tried to threaten me to have the phase shield lowered, I could tell them to deny you in a way you wouldn't be able to understand.” She shrunk to a size smaller than Vivian. “As you have been nothing but kind to us, I feel much sorrow for this. Please do not hold my people accountable. I will take any blame.”
Vivian just cracked a grin. “Relax Serasul, I was beginning to wonder if your species had any self-preservation instincts at all. It was a good move, and I think you and I are going to get along fabulously.” Turning to Serira she asked, “So, Princess?”
Giving Vivian an icy glare that could probably chill a good whiskey, her standard response to Vivian's nickname for her, Serira nevertheless answered in an imperious tone. “There was some small trouble with integration. This may look like a Xeroteais cube, but it is far more primitive. I worked it out, and we now have a proper translation matrix for their language.”
“Good—”
Vivian was cut off by Preitus. “Receiving coordinates, ma'am. I can see the corridor. Shall I take us in?”
Vivian nodded. “Take us in. Mind the paint.”
Serusal looked confused, but Preitus just chuckled. “Yes, ma'am!”
It quickly proved a good thing Preitus was an exceptional pilot, for the world was burning. At least that was Henry's first, admittedly melodramatic, thought. It seemed a good quarter of the terrain below them was boiling away with active volcanos and rivers of lava. Even a casual glance showed massive cuts in the land, far too straight and true to be natural, channeling those flows away from areas still somehow green and vibrant. There was surprisingly little ash in the air, but the turbulent winds caused by such heat pushed and pulled at the ship, straining Preitus’ not inconsiderable talents as their ship dropped through the atmosphere.
As they finally battled their way into the lower atmosphere, they caught sight of their destination, a massive fortress of a city on a high plateau. Placed all around the city, on lower plateaus, could also be seen the reason for the ash-free air. Massive air processing factories churned away, doing double duty of purifying the air and drawing it onto specific paths, so as to tame the air currents into something predictable. Preitus sighed in relief as the terrible winds calmed in vicinity to the walled city. He smoothly directed them to a small field outside the bastion’s walls, where a welcome party with wheeled land vehicles awaited them.
Once they touched down, Vivian, Henry, and Serira joined their Bralnchie guest in disembarking to meet the welcoming committee, leaving the others to tend the ship. Said committee rushed forward, some excitedly, some hesitantly, as soon as their boots touched alien soil.
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The Bralnchie proved to be a delightfully practical people. Once the survey team’s offer to look at the issue with the phase shield became known, the first meetings proved to be with their engineers and scientists rather than politicians. Though the Bralnchie kept a watchful eye on their actions, Henry and Vivian had been quickly shown to the remote command and control unit for the shield systems. Sadly, the unit proved useless for rectifying any damage. It was when Henry had asked about seeing the Xeroteais shield device itself that grave looks were exchanged and politics entered.
It hadn't taken long for them to be swept into a meeting with the leadership of the fortress city, primary among them being an ancient member of the species, his fading colors apparently showing that he was approaching his third century. He was introduced as Manwode, the overall authority in the region, and one of only five such individuals on the planet. Serusal had cut through much of the polite manners and political flack by presenting Henry and Vivian’s offer to look at the installation in person. Silence swiftly fell as the leaders looked at each other.
Manwode finally spoke into the silence. “While we indeed wish that you could help us in such a way, we fear that it is not so easy as you might assume. The path to reach the device itself is all but lost to us, even discounting the security we were never able to breach. It now lies in the middle of a volcano field, and while there has been little active lava flow in that zone after we cut the channels, it is a place of bad air, razor sharp r
ock, and fires. The air currents there are far too violent for even your magnificent craft, the minerals throughout make portable comms near useless, and none of our ground transports can handle the terrain. It would be nearly thirty kilometers, on foot, through such a place just to reach the outer doors of the device's command center. Then you have to somehow breach the doors, whose automated defenses have repelled every one of our teams, and that's just to get inside. Once you get in, there is no guarantee that there might not be worse awaiting you. Surely, with your great knowledge and technologies, there must be a way you could repair it remotely with the control devices?”
Vivian was grimacing at the description and looked at Henry. Henry slowly shook his head. Sighing, she turned back to the Bralnchie leader. “Sadly, I'm afraid not. The control devices you've shown us were deliberately made to broadcast only. It isn't a failing on your part to activate them properly, as you had previously believed, but rather a safety feature. Likely, one put in place specifically to prevent your people from toying with the phase shield programming.” She swiped a loose strand of hair out of her eyes and sighed again before continuing. “We also attempted to remotely connect our own systems into those of the device installation. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything to connect with. Either the builders never meant it to be remotely accessible or, just as likely, the same damage causing all the issues took that system offline. No, the only option is to go in on foot and physically repair the device.”
“But the difficulties....”
Vivian shrugged. “I admit, I'm really not looking forward to the hike, but some of the problems aren't as big as they might seem. The bad air you spoke of is actually still breathable to our races, as we don't require quite as high an oxygen content. Add a simple rebreather to filter the fumes and we'll be fine. The rock, while annoying, can't cut the materials of our standard issue gear. As for the security, Henry and I have managed to bypass their security systems in the past. I have no doubt we can crack this one as well.”
Manwode still looked hesitant. “But...would you really do this for us? I don't know what we can offer you....”
Vivian waved him off. “The only thing we ask for is much the same as what the Xeroteais wanted. The chance to study your people, culture, art, philosophy, and so on.” She smirked as she continued. “While I'd love to say that you got lucky and simply encountered two races of super nice, helpful people, in this case it's more that you got lucky it was us specifically. You see, while we haven't said much about it in light of your difficulties, we're actually an exploration team very far from home. Our sole purpose is to explore, to find new peoples and interesting things. I can't promise that all people coming from our area of space would be satisfied with that, but for us it's specifically what we set out to find in the first place. To satisfy our curiosity of what was out here, so far from our own home.”
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Vivian, or St. Claire's ideals repeated via Vivian at least, proved to be a very good fit for the Bralnchie. As a peaceful and curious people, the idea of an expedition like ours, particularly when it was explained just how far we truly were from home, seemed to rather appeal to them. Apparently, not even the Xeroteais had been so prone to exploration and knowledge for the sake of such, and the idea of it seemed to help the Bralnchie understand us to some extent.
Of course, there was also simply a degree of enlightened self-interest, and not a little desperation, that led them to agreeing to provide us with anything we needed. As luck would have it, we were even able to acquire a pair of volunteer guides who had scouted the region in the past. Aertlie and Bretallis were a pair of Bralnchie lifemates that had developed their own shape changing abilities to such an extent that they could safely traverse the area, despite the “bad air,” at least for a short time. Only fourteen hours after landfall, Henry, Vivian, Serira, and their guides parted from the ground vehicles.
A somewhat asthmatic sounding sigh came from Vivian's rebreather as she took in the jagged canyons that were the deep volcanic fields. Addressing Aertlie, the male of their guides, she doubtfully asked, “Are you sure there is a way through from here? These canyons look like a maze. Only one that isn't required to have something as convenient as an exit.”
Aertlie's reply came in a surprisingly high and pleasant rumble. “No. I'm afraid we can't be completely sure. We haven't ventured as far in as the installation in almost a year and the canyons are always shifting. This is simply the best route we could plan between our own maps and the satellite images. This journey will be very treacherous, and perhaps impossible.”
Henry snorted. “Well isn't that a cheery thought. So much for the power of positive thinking.”
Vivian just shrugged, shouldered her pack, and started moving. Bretallis quickly moved forward to take point, easily overtaking Vivian as she and her husband were in the larger forms that the species seemed to prefer. Henry followed, shouldering his own pack and towing a reluctant looking Serira behind him.
The hours passed as they wound their way through the smoldering fields and jagged obsidian formations. They had made nearly half the distance to the installation when they encountered their first true obstacle. An obsidian canyon, previously passable, had suffered a rockslide during the tectonic shifting and become blocked.
Henry tossed a remote hovercam in the air, keeping it low and out of the heavy air currents, and shifted his view to his portable, guiding it to give them a top down look at the rock slide. He shook his head. “It might be climbable here, but it gets worse ahead. The whole canyon looks filled another hundred meters down.”
Vivian growled. “Great, so we've got to backtrack. Lovely.” She leaned against a smooth portion of rock. “I'm beginning to realize I might be a bit out of shape. How far are we going to have to travel for a reroute?”
Bretallis spoke from where she was studying the maps. “I am much afraid it will be a lengthy addition, Miss Vivian. We will have to backtrack at least an hour to get to another route, and that route is longer by at least another three kilometers.”
Vivian groaned. “Great, that means we're going to be spending the night out here.”
Henry sighed. “That was always a possibility.”
“That doesn't make it suck any less.”
“Point.”
“Wait!”
The entire team stopped picking up their gear, turning toward Serira, to see why she wanted them to wait. She was staring at her portable. When she saw that she had their attention, she waved it at them. It was showing the images Henry's drone had just taken.
“There might be another way. The pocket canyon just north of here looks like it goes all the way past the rockslide.”
Henry frowned. “You're thinking we climb the walls? That would take even longer. It's nearly thirty meters here, and some of it’s glass smooth.”
She looked smug. “Don't be ridiculous. No, there's a point about twenty meters back where the wall looks thin and a second similar point further down. I say we use the breaching charges to blow an entrance in both places.”
Aertlie's protest was immediate. “That is madness! These canyons are already unstable, and you would add to that instability?”
“He kinda has a point, you know,” Henry added, giving her a flat stare. “That sounds like a terrible idea.”
Serira's expression had gone from smug to icy anger. “And this plan of yours to reroute is so much better, is it? Never mind the time it will take, how do you know it won't be blocked as well? If it is a longer route, then it has even more of a chance to be blocked than this one did.”
Vivian spoke before an argument could start. “Enough! Both points have merit. However, we are not on a time crunch. Even our guides have another three days in here before it is dangerous to them and we ourselves have nearly two weeks. We will try the long way first and save the explosives for a last resort.” So saying, she set off without further word, forcing them to scramble for their things and follow her.
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In the end, after being forced to make a rough camp for the night, Serira's words had proven prophetic. Their secondary route proved to be even more thoroughly blocked than their first option had been. It was a smug Serira that planted the charges back on their primary route.
Serira stepped back from the canyon wall. “Alright, everyone, take cover!” She waited only a few moments, just long enough to get behind a protrusion of stone herself, before thumbing the detonator with a victorious smirk.
The detpack whined in warning for a moment, then the whole canyon shuddered with an explosion. Rock broke free in a dozen places and the ground shifted slightly. Debris filled the air, blocking their view of the wall. A few minutes passed before everything settled and Serira stepped out from cover, followed by the others.
Serira's voice was filled with smug condescension when she saw the result. “A perfect detonation. A nice little corridor into the pocket canyon, just like I said.”
Indeed, Henry thought, that's exactly what had been achieved. Though the hole was small, and their guides would have to reduce size to get through, there could be no denying that her plan had worked. At least so far.
Aertlie seemed to be having similar thoughts. “This is folly. You felt the ground move and heard the rockfalls when your device went off. Another explosion like that, in close proximity, could destabilize the whole region!”
Serira blew him off. “It won't. Obsidian isn't that hard, so these charges aren't overlarge. The only way there would be a problem is if there were underground caverns close to the surface, and with the number of times these volcanoes have erupted there should be plenty of layers between us and any such caverns.”
Aertlie looked doubtful. “There are not so many layers here as you seem to imagine, young one. The installation was well placed, and the closer we are to it, the fewer lava flows have passed nearby.”