by Pam Uphoff
"But what about those Elves?" One Member was looking belligerent.
"This Wolfson person claims that they are leaving it all to us to jointly forge a hopefully peaceful coexistence. He was uncertain what would trigger their return—although he suggested that a cross dimensional war would probably 'do the trick,' as he put it." Howie stiffened his back and tried to hide how bloody damned tired he was. What the hell was I thinking of, to let them talk me into coming back? I served three terms and retired. I'm too damned old for this! Stupid warmongers, still wishing they'd been able to kill hundreds of millions of people. No. Natives. Not people. They still refuse to see anyone else as real people, somehow.
He tapped at his comp, to catch their attention with a pause, not because he needed to refer to his notes. "I approve of your choice of Mr. Montgomery for our ambassador. And we have bids lined up for the construction . . . and then the first foray through this 'permanent gate' is set for next week." He glowered around the chamber again. "There will be no military. Mr. Montgomery will lead a small delegation through for preliminary talks. Then we will have the official, public crossing. I will have a small security detachment. And, like it or not, news media. Yes. It's going to be a circus."
A low clamor as the councilmen all conferred with each other. I wonder how many of them will decide to get in on this historic occasion? I'll give my major speech on this side, with full media coverage. Then on the other side, a briefer speech aimed at the Empire of the One, welcoming the start of diplomacy. If only I can figure out how to keep this lot quiet, perhaps we can actually accomplish something.
Chapter Thirteen
Fall Equinox 1398 px
21 September 3515 ce
1 Hija 1400 yp
Embassy World
Xen's awareness prowled through the inbetween, catching glimpses of worlds, none of them the right one. But there was a bright line, a rope snapping out between two worlds . . . a second rope curled out and touched a third world.
:: Those are the powered gates. Easy to spot when you're close enough. :: Q dived toward the world both ropes touched.
:: See this crowd of worlds? They're spraying out after this event back there, you can sort of see the trails. ::
Xen sighed. :: No, you can see the trails. ::
:: Humph. Don't see why everyone can't see the structure. Anyway, that's where—I think—a meteor hit Moscow in 1964 and started a nuclear war. ::
:: And the One World is just one slight variation of how that played out. :: Xen eyed the collection of worlds . . . someday I'll explore them all, see what happened when a bunch of genetically engineered magicians didn't get marooned there.
He turned his attention back to the World that had pulled back one rope and was throwing it again. Easy to track them back home . . . :: Right, so their gate complex is right there in North America. ::
:: I went there while you were playing with horses. This is Gate City, and that's their . . . I think they call it the Secured Gate Area. ::
:: Urfa said beyond the warehouses . . . over there, do you think? ::
:: Yes. Nice and far from their powered gates. I'm a bit worried that the powered gates will disrupt our gates. They certainly blow all the local inbetween clear of tops. ::
:: Even the bubble cloud is pretty thin. :: Xen eyed the world, a distorted vision, as if looking through running water. :: Let's put it there, just off that ring road. Easy access for them. ::
Q drew back . . . returned with a top, slowing the spin, forcing it into the right place . . . it leapt out of her grasp and grabbed the world.
Xen pulled back . . . and back . . . finally spotted a top, a very tough spinning cone shaped interdimensional . . . thing. He started bumping it with bubbles, to get it to slow down and move where he wanted it.
The tails of the two tops twisted together and the flat side of the second jumped to adhere to his world.
Xen pulled out of his meditation and opened his eyes. He was an arm's reach from a spinning white vortex.
Behind him, Garit cleared his throat.
"You might want to get up. Their emergency equipment is arriving and it includes a lot of large weapons pointing this direction."
Xen raised a shield . . . "Can they shoot through a gate? No reason why not, I suppose."
Q stood up as well. "We need to check the positioning of the gate on the far side, as well." She stepped through.
Xen choked and jumped after her.
" . . . at an angle to the road, or moved elsewhere?" Q was facing a gun toting Oner officer of some sort. Her expression was mildly questioning and entirely amiable. Her shields, physical, mental and energy were up and strongly held.
Three vehicles, or various sizes and utility (why the fire engine?) and a couple dozen Oners, about half in casual khaki uniforms, the rest in business attire were standing back, some weapons.
The Oner in front was clearly taken aback by what he probably thought was a harmless young woman. His rifle was held in a loose left handed grip, muzzle pointed downward and away from Q. A flash a relief crossed his face as he spotted Xen, and shifted to a more confrontational stance and expression. Didn't move the gun.
Tall, thin, wiry muscled, thinning brown hair. The belligerent stance was unconvincing, but the casual handing of the weapon, confident and competent.
Xen hid his amusement. An actual nice fellow who doesn't want to bully a girl? How refreshing.
He strolled up beside Q. "Are you the person we need to speak to about the exact gate placement?"
Further relaxation and a faint twirk of lips. "No. I suspect Director Agni will be here very soon to . . . express an opinion on that matter."
Xen glanced across the open lands to a half dozen vehicles headed their direction. "No doubt."
"As a practical matter, moving the gate back another ten meters and angling it forty-five degrees would simplify vehicular access. Once we pave and so forth."
A black car swerved around the cluster of Oners and rocked to an abrupt halt. The back door was flung open and . . . yep. Agni.
Madder than hell, glaring from Xen to the first Oner.
"How did you get here first!" An angry bark, not really a question.
The first Oner answered anyway. "Somehow I was assigned to the least convenient warehouse." A glance over his shoulder to the nearest building. "Well what used to be . . . "
"Shut up and go away."
The man turned away abruptly. Xen could see the grin starting on his face. He retreated twenty feet and stopped.
I need to find out who the hell that is and recruit him for Disco.
But he turned his attention back to Agni.
"Director Agni, what a . . . pleasure to meet you again. Here's your gate to the Embassy World. Would you like it closer to the road and facing it straight on?"
"You . . . "
"Wildly successful spy?"
Agni took a deep breath. Smiled through clenched teeth.
A Oner in a business suit sidled up. "Director? For the best entry approach, could you get them to move the gate back and angle it a . . . bit." He trailed off staring at the gate. "One! I didn't really believe . . . "
Agni unclenched his teeth. "I take it you can move it. So . . . back it up and angle it."
Xen could hear his teeth grind.
"Please."
Xen shut his mouth on a sarcastic remark about Agni's virgin attempt at diplomacy, and walked over to help Q shove the gate back thirty feet and turn it forty-five degrees.
Agni and an ever growing crowd followed them, circled them and frowned at the back of the gate. I should ask someone, some time, what the back looks like. And what walking into it does . . . umm, first we'll experiment with throwing inanimate objects into it.
And fortunately Q stepped in to talk to the man. "The world on the far side has very few land animals, and a mild climate. Feel free to study the gate—and the world—however you wish. We'll be busy establishing these first gates for several days, so p
erhaps five days from now would be a useful time for any official delegation you would like to send. Diplomatic or scientific, as you wish. We will suggest the same to Earth, so perhaps some early moves toward diplomacy can be initiated."
Agni scowled down at her. "Who the One Hell are you?"
"Oh, pardon my manners. I am Doctor Quail Quicksilver, from the Kingdom of the West on Comet Fall. I am a civilian, working for the Department of Interdimensional Security and Cooperation as the head of Science and Exploration."
Behind Agni, Xen spotted Oners in civilian garb, carrying vid cams, microphones on long sticks, scrambling to get into position . . .
Agni ignored them and nodded at Xen. "That your husband?"
"God forbid! What a hideous idea." Q looked amused . . . and horrified. "Captain Xen Wolfson is head of Security. This particular Disco node is under the direction of Colonel Garit Negue. They are both also from Comet Fall."
"Node." Agni crossed his arms and frowned down at her.
"That's what Ambassador Time called it. Then he left. We're on our own, to become a civilized corner of the Multiverse, or not. Our decision, jointly arrived at or forced upon the region by one of the civilizations here. An interesting . . . endeavor." She turned and walked through the gate.
Xen gave Agni a friendly nod and followed her. Glanced back to see Agni stalking out of the gate.
The Oner stopped and took a slow survey of plaza, frowned at the hulking black Disco headquarters. His frown deepened as he eyed the stone underfoot.
His dismissed underling was the second man through, a pair of armed guards on his heels.
Agni glared.
The Newsies poured through the gate. Recording this historical occasion, or some such.
"I called Subdirector Wrla. He's sending a laser repeater. Grounds will take a look for building a proper approach." The thin man dropped his gaze to the stone. "And perhaps we need an engineer to study their paving. I've seen roads like this. There."
Agni turned his back on the fountain and looked past the gate.
"We'll be selling quarter mile square plots. Two to a side. For building embassies." Xen looked as well. Plowed dirt grid, not even worthy of the term "road." He'd placed the Oner's gate centrally on the west side of the plaza.
The thin man cleared his throat. "They use a rather old measuring system. That would be four hundred meters a side, about 16 hectares."
"Not enough." Agni waved at the block. "We'll take two."
Xen shrugged. "No problem. We were planning on charging a hundred thousand per, as a way to get starter funds on every participating world."
Agni hissed. Cast another look around, then turned back to the thin man. "Get. I will assign a proper team to study this world."
Must find out who that is.
Agni dismissed the guards with a simple wave, and followed them back through the gate.
The Newsies grinned and turned on Endi.
"Endi! Were you working for this Department of Interdimensional . . . " The woman trailed off looking around the wilderness and focusing on the big black building. Somehow the building and the fountain made the grasslands look even emptier.
"No. At that time I was entirely at the service of my government. We were in contact with . . . others, but frankly? We're pretty much on our own, to make peace or war. I'm hoping for peace."
"And these other people?" A man waved his video man to take Q and Garit . . .
Then Oners in khaki flooded through the gate and rounded up the newsies and hauled them away.
Garit walked up, looking through the gate . "Looks like they're organizing a guard for the gate. And moving a vehicle to block the gate. Paranoid, are they?"
"A bit. We're going to need some non-dimensional type people around, so we can see what's on the far side before we step through." Xen pulled his innermost mental shield up tight and solid. He could see a thick foggy impression of something massive across the gate. He winced and let the shield relax to his usual barely-show-a-glow. Looked at Q. "Earth tomorrow?"
"Yep."
***
Napoleon Zambrano stared upward at the wavering lightshow, the rainbow heat distortion . . . and followed it.
"That's . . . not a gate." Ridley Chandalahar had griped the whole week as Napoleon had crisscrossed the Gate Security Area/// looking for the first sign of this so-called permanent gate.
"It may be a precursor. Keep up." Idiot ought to exercise more.
The gate guards were taking notice, now, as the dancing flick of lights settled to the ground a couple hundred meters beyond the ruins of the old gate.
Napoleon turned his back on it. "Start recording. This is Napoleon Zambrano reporting live from Nowhereistan. The gate from the Department of Interdimensional Cooperation and Security may be about to form. I'm not sure what the camera can show, but here on the ground we see a patch of multicolored flickering lights. It took a sweep across the grounds and is now settling down at ground level. It's a couple of hundred meters from the old gate that was destroyed three years ago, and about two kilometers from the new gate."
Ridley took one hand off the big shoulder-mounted vid cam and pointed.
Napoleon turned sideways, and stepped a bit further to the side. "The light patch is firming up into a bright white spot, and now it's swirling open to show stone pavement, green grass, and two people sitting on the ground."
Standing sideways, he could see the fast approaching troops. Armored troop carriers in the lead, tanks behind.
"We've got the Army closing in now that we've got an exact location for this alien gate." A quick glance around. "We're going to back off a bit and find a good spot to watch this historic occasion," or bloody massacre, "from. Ridley, keep shooting."
Napoleon stepped past him, put a hand on his shoulder, and pulling him back slowly and carefully. The rubble had been only roughly cleared, but that was actually to their advantage, as Napoleon steadied the vidcam as Ridley backed up a pile that had . . . probably . . . once been a large building.
Even out of the camera frame, Napoleon kept up a running commentary. "The troops have dismounted from the carriers and are arraying themselves around the tanks. Now the two people on the far side of that gate are standing up and stepping through. They have no obvious weapons, and look like ordinary human beings."
He stepped briefly into the frame and spoke to the cam. "For you coming new to the scene, this is Napoleon Zambrano live in Nowheristanwhere this 'Disco' has opened a new kind of gate to the so-called Embassy World." A glance to the side. Big black car approaching. "So far we have two people, a man and a woman, who have stepped through, and are waiting, probably for the officials, who are now approaching."
He named all the officials as they left the car, but only Senate Leader Po approached the waiting pair.
"Let's see if we can pick up their conversation . . . "
***
They attached the gate to Earth a few hundred feet beyond the ruins of their original powered gate. The Earth's new powered gate had been built on the far side of the building complex. Xen stepped through, stopping to watch the speeding vehicles slamming to a stop and disgorging infantry. The tanks rolled up behind them.
I wonder how many people we killed, when we destroyed their gate? Lots, the way they're scrambling to move heavy weaponry this direction.
Xen sauntered out and stood in a relaxed pose, non-threatening, and in the eyes of an Earther, unarmed. Q stepped up beside him. Hands open and empty. A broad low dome of layered shields over both of them. In theory the angle of impact would deflect any incoming projectiles, minimizing the kinetic energy the physical shield would have to handle.
:: Do they realize how dangerous Wizards and Witches are? ::
:: Doubt they believe in magic. Odd, considering this is where the genetic engineering that started it all took place. :: Xen watched the tanks taking aim at them, and wondered if this attempt at diplomacy was doomed to failure from the first.
But howev
er ready, the tanks didn't fire. The soldiers surrounding them, tested their shields with a few pokes and prods, but no shooting.
Men in suits showed up eventually, and Q softened the shields, pulled them in close.
One man advanced on them, looked them over for a long moment.
"We do not allow anyone to control us."
Xen nodded. "We have no desire to control you, as such. We merely want you to stop attacking inhabited worlds. You can do anything you want on uninhabited worlds. Anything you want, on your own world and your colonies that don't have an indigenous population. Our goal is to stop interdimensional war. We'll leave this gate here, for your inspection. Four days from today, the Empire of the One will be sending an official delegation to Embassy World, to open communications. I invite the Earth to do the same."
A second inclination of his head, then he and Q turned and walked through the gate. In a burst of common sense, they'd put the Earther gate on the opposite side of the plaza from the Oners. Xen rather hoped they'd build a bit south and further from the Disco building.
"Well . . . they didn't shoot at us."
Xen nodded. "It would take an Earther to be ruder and more dismissive than Agni."
***
"And there you have it. Four days from now we'll be face-to-face with the Empire of the One. From Nowhereistan, this is Napoleon Zambrano."
***
The entirety of Disco—all three of them—ignored the tanks pointing their main guns through the gate, and the security people stepping through to glare around at nothing, and then the scientists who popped though and aimed instruments back at the gate. Both the Earthers and the Oners stayed near "their" gate, and didn't stay long.
Four days later, the first official delegation came through.
The first man through the Oner gate was moderately tall, middle-aged, with the look of a fairly fit office dweller.