The Arc of the Universe

by Mark Whiteway

  Dreaming… I must be dreaming. Yes, that must be it. He pinched himself hard. The pain grew intense, but his view did not change. He pushed himself up by the elbows, but she placed a restraining hand on his chest.

  “Rest,” she said. “You need to rest.”

  “How did I get here? Where are we?” His mouth tasted like rust.

  “Shhh, it won’t be long now.”

  “Won’t be long till what?”

  “Till it’s time for you to contact them,” she said. “Don’t you remember? You were going to contact the Elinare.”

  Quinn felt as if his head were filled with flocks of birds. The last thing he remembered was riding the conveyor. Tzurel asked him something that made him think of home. And then he was here.

  He put a hand to his forehead. “Where’s Conor? Where’s the fleet?”

  She laughed lightly as if he’d made a witty remark over cocktails. “You mean the remnants of the Agantzane’s former allies? Those misfits? They’re far away by now. Dead, probably. As for Conor, he’s safe. You’ll be seeing him just as soon as you’ve completed your task.”

  “Task?”

  “It’ll be easy. We’ve formed a line of ships extending into the void of the neighbour universe, just as you suggested. The Elinare are waiting for you. All you have to do is call them. Then we can go home.”

  “Home?”

  “To Eire Colony, silly! We can all go hiking in the hills and forget about all of this.”

  Eire’s my home, not yours. Something’s wrong. He sat up. She made to restrain him once more, but he pushed her arm aside. “What ship is this?”

  She gazed up and around, accentuating her pointed chin. “You’re inside a Damise vessel. Don’t worry. They want to help us. They’re our friends.”

  “You’re crazy! They want to take over everything. They absorbed you, don’t you remember?”

  “They saved me! Ximun’s reanimate attacked me because it misinterpreted Conor’s feelings for his mother. It was an unintended reaction.”

  “The Damise brought me to Pann’s ground level in order to kill me,” he reminded her.

  “Only because you were working against their interests. They’re passionate about their beliefs.” She seated herself cross-legged opposite Quinn and laid the beacon on the floor between them. Her hands worked as she spoke. “The Damise are like… like your parents. Parents want you to keep your curfew, eat your meals, and play nicely. In the same way, the Damise believe the universe runs best when everyone cooperates and keeps to the rules.

  “The Elinare are more like anarchists. They would rather leave races to their own devices. If those same races war with one another or destroy one another, then so be it. Their hope is that order will arise out of chaos. The Japhet tried and failed to mediate between the Damise and the Elinare. Their dispute eventually spilled into open conflict with weapons that threatened to destroy the fabric of space-time in this part of the galaxy. Only when faced with mutual annihilation did both sides step back from the brink, and the Consensus was born.”

  “The Damise’s philosophy sounds similar to the Agantzane,” Quinn said.

  “Up to a point,” she agreed. “But the old Agantzane were blinkered. When they took over, their obsession with their so-called perfect justice of one plus one equals two led to massive inequalities, and that brought about the rise of the Mercy Faction. If the Damise hadn’t intervened, the Mercy Faction would eventually have won out, and the Consensus would’ve descended into chaos.”

  “But you were—you are Mercy Faction.”

  “That was only because I opposed the inflexible judgements and the summary executions. The Damise have promised to change all of that.”

  “By using the AI to absorb all opposition.”

  She shook her head. “You’re viewing it from a human perspective. The AI doesn’t transform intelligent creatures into mindless drones. It acts more like a… a training harness. As soon as it’s re-formed our mental pathways along the lines of obedience and cooperation, it frees us. It’s already withdrawn from several of those you call AI-controlled ships. Their crews are now committed to supporting the peace and unity of the new Consensus.”

  A chill raked down Quinn’s back. “What about those who won’t conform?”

  “They don’t survive,” she replied. “It’s the price of harmony.”

  “Did that include Crenon?”

  The AI had swallowed the Samalian giant who was Vyasa’s close ally in the Mercy Faction during their flight from Nemazi. Her jaw dropped, and the zeal in her eyes snuffed out. “I… I don’t know.”

  “What about humanity? Ximun told me that as soon as the Damise subjugated the Consensus, they’d turn their attention to Earth and its dependent worlds.”

  Her eyes reignited. “Ximun was obsessed with humans. The Damise have little interest in your people. They view them as too… too primitive to be a threat. But if the Elinare revive the old conflict, then no one in this part of space will be safe.”

  “You’re going to destroy the Elinare, aren’t you?”

  “It’s the only way to ensure lasting peace. But you’ve no need to worry about that. All you have to do is establish contact with them. Then you can return to Eire. The Damise have treated me with a dermal coating that makes me immune to your death touch. We can be together.” She broke into a wide smile.

  Why are females always more attractive when they smile? He shook the thought from his head. “And what if I refuse?”

  Her pupils swelled with midnight. “You have no choice, Quinn. The fate of dozens of worlds and billions of sentient creatures hangs on your next actions. The Damise have no wish to harm you or your son, but they will do what they must.”

  “I have no power to call the Elinare. Last time they just came to me. I can’t guarantee that will happen again.”

  Her smile returned. “We have reproduced the same conditions as before, as far as we could. I have faith in you, Quinn.”

  Quinn was a worm on a hook. However much he squirmed, he was bait. But hope glimmered in the water. The only way to defeat the Damise was to turn back the tide of their AI technology, and the only being that had succeeded in doing that was Aurek of the Elinare. Tragically, Aurek had been destroyed in the process. It was bad enough that Quinn was bringing their archenemy to their doorstep. He could also be asking more of them to sacrifice themselves. He found it difficult to imagine that they would receive him kindly. But she was right. He had no choice.

  “Very well,” he heard himself say. “I’ll try.”

  ~

  Alone, Quinn stared out of the life pod’s window into the stark nothingness of the neighbour universe. The Damise craft was dimly lit, unlike the Ardalan vessel he had occupied during his first encounter with the Elinare, but at least it was not as cramped.

  The life pod had been fitted with a display in English that read his distance from the nearest Damise vessel as 9.8 hochari. Apparently, the system was not programmed to convert to kilometres, but it hardly mattered. The only significant fact was that he was approaching maximum transmission range.

  The Damise, represented by Vyasa—if indeed it was truly she—appeared content to allow him to launch off alone into the void, and that puzzle had occupied his thoughts for most of the journey. He could see nothing preventing him from opening up his engines and powering away, losing himself in the vastness and putting himself beyond the Damise’s reach. Before long, he would succumb to lack of air, water, or heat, depending on which gave out first. But at least he would no longer be subject to the Damise’s machinations.

  Perhaps they had anticipated that contingency and fitted the pod with a failsafe that would shut down propulsion before he reached the limit of twelve hochari. Perhaps they were unconcerned because they had an alternate plan if his effort failed. Or perhaps they simply didn’t believe he would commit suicide. If so, then they were right.

  He glanced again at the readout—11.3 hochari. Time to power down the pod’s
engines. As their background hum faded to silence, the pod began to drift. The view from the window was the same unending matte black.

  Tzurel had been Agantzane—that much was obvious. Was he a lone wolf, or did the new group that had allied themselves to the Damise have spies on every non-aligned ship and vessel in the Consensus? Either way, he had no way of alerting what was left of the fleet. Assuming its crews were still alive, their only hope was for him to reach the Elinare.

  Quinn had tried to rehearse what he might say to the Elinare when they made contact, but everything he could come up with sounded trite. During his only previous contact, the Elinare who called himself Aurek had appeared as a manifestation of Lance Larsen, Private Investigator—a fictional character from a series of detective stories Quinn had read as a youngster. Aurek had somehow tapped into Quinn’s mind and used one of those stories to explain how he intended to defeat the AI at the cost of his own life. Quinn found the experience profoundly unsettling, and a part of him balked at the prospect of reliving something similar.

  He took a deep breath. How long should I wait? He hadn’t considered the question before. As Tzurel had pointed out, a universe is a big place. It might take some considerable time before the Elinare found him. If his life support ran low, he could always reverse course, dock with the Damise vessel, and then head out again. Of course, every additional hour that passed increased the AI’s stranglehold on the Consensus and decreased the chances of survival for the fleet and any other dissident group out there. But he had no means of hurrying the process and no backup plan.

  He closed his eyes.

  Bright sunlight prised open his eyelids. He stared up into a burnished, blue sky. Panic gripped him by the throat. He was no longer aboard the life pod… or was he? Had the Elinare thrust him into another illusion? He recalled how lifelike the Lance Larsen re-creation had been, down to the feel of the brass doorknob and the scent of old leather. This appeared just as real.

  He felt movement beneath him. His gloved fingers held strips of old hide. Ahead of him, a creature reared its maned head. A horse… I’m seated on a horse. He stiffened. He’d never ridden a horse before. Transports between Earth and Eire were hellishly expensive. A few dogs and cats had made it out as far as the colony, but nothing as large as a horse.

  “Quinn.”

  He glanced across and saw a mounted figure next to him. She wore a duster coat and Stetson suggestive of the Old West, but her cheekbones were ridged, and her face was an inhuman grey. Just like Aurek of the Elinare. The side of her coat fell open, revealing the ivory grip of a pistol sticking out of its holster. He felt an unnatural bulge against his own thigh.

  His throat constricted. “What’s happening? Who are you?”

  She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, and he twisted in the saddle. Far below, at the foot of a narrow, scrub-lined trail, a multi-hoofed dust cloud was headed towards them.

  “We have to move,” she said. “Now!”

  ~

  With gentle leg pressure, Quinn squeezed the flanks of his chestnut mare, and it fell into a trot. His movements were fluid—instinctive, as if someone else was controlling him. The sensation was both frightening and exhilarating.

  He fell in just behind the Elinare, and together, they headed up the winding trail.

  “Who are you?” he asked again.

  “We are the McGill brothers, Seth and Andy,” she replied. “According to the information in your memory cortex, we have just robbed something called the Bank of Harcourt Wells.”

  She was female and not human, so the description “brothers” seemed absurd. He glossed over it. “No, I meant what is your real name?”

  “I am Keiza. I have occupied your mind and am controlling your vessel. When you last encountered the Elinare, you were favoured with another presence, but I find no trace of him. What happened?”

  “Aurek. He was lost. I’m sorry.”

  “And now you return to us with our enemy at your back.” She glanced at him with burning red eyes. “That and this memory of yours shows you to be a highly dangerous individual.”

  “You’ve got it all wrong,” he protested. “Aurek gave his life in an effort to combat the spread of the Damise’s AI. Then the Damise shanghaied me and forced me to track you down. As for this scenario, I don’t recognise it at all.”

  “It is drawn from your accumulated experiences. You have clearly led a very violent past.”

  “Who’s supposed to be chasing us?”

  “A posse led by someone called Sheriff John Hightower.”

  Hightower… Hightower’s Justice. A cheesy Western show on the EarthVid channel he’d watched during his early teens. He’d forgotten all about it, but then none of the episodes had been particularly memorable. “This is… this was a form of human entertainment.”

  “Your race viewed this as entertainment? That is almost as disturbing.”

  Quinn shrugged. “Well, you got me there, I guess.” He loosened the bandana around his throat and mopped his glistening forehead. Up ahead, the trail flattened slightly before disappearing over a ridge.

  “Something’s wrong,” she said.

  “Why, what’s the matter?”

  She glanced over her shoulder. Their pursuers were now strung out on the trail, but their pace had hardly slowed. “Elinare have learned to navigate the eddies and currents of space-time in this universe. The Damise should have turned back, but they have not. If they have developed similar capability—”

  “No, I don’t think so. The Damise seized on my plan of using a chain of ships to penetrate this space. If they could navigate freely, then they would’ve had no need.”

  “But once they move beyond the portal’s range, they will be lost. Their actions make no sense.”

  “Maybe they do,” Quinn mused. “I don’t know their vessels’ maximum speed, but I’m willing to bet it’s faster than one of their life pods. All they’d have to do is lock on to us and follow until we lead them to the rest of your people.”

  “You’re saying this was a trap all along?”

  “I’m afraid it looks that way. They used me because they reckoned you would want to know what happened to Aurek. I’m sorry I didn’t figure out the whole thing sooner.”

  She stared at him as if weighing the truth of what he was saying then gave a quick nod. “There may still be a way to lose them. Come.”

  She kicked her horse into motion, and it cantered towards the ridgeline.

  Quinn spurred his own mount and sped after her.

  ~

  Keiza’s mount crested the ridge and skittered down a steep incline. Quinn’s horse slipped on the scree as he did his best to keep up.

  “Where are we going?” he yelled.

  “See the creek?”

  The bottom of the ravine was cast in shadow. A dark ribbon tumbled through it.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “It widens out beyond the divide. Once we make it through, we’ll be out of sight of the posse.”

  “It won’t take them long to catch up,” he pointed out.

  “No, but if we follow the creek bed, it will mask our horses’ tracks. The posse won’t be able to follow us.”

  “I’m not sure I understand. How do we lose them in the life pod? What’s the creek supposed to symbolise?”

  “I told you,” she said. “Space-time in this universe is warped into tides and currents. Some are extremely strong, and even fold in on one another. If we can reach one of those, we will vanish from their perspective.”

  Her horse clattered to the bottom of the ravine, tossing its mane as it splashed into the narrow creek.

  Quinn heard a shout and glanced up. The posse was already at the ridgeline. Sunlight glinted off the barrel of a Winchester.

  Quinn ducked a split second before the thundercrack. Shards flew from the rock face behind him. Keiza flattened herself to her mount’s neck and bolted. Quinn followed suit. A second shot rang out that zinged between them.

  Water fountaine
d from the horses’ hooves as first Keiza and then Quinn urged their mounts through the gap. More shots echoed behind them. As they emerged from shadow, the sun’s heat licked their faces once more. Keiza headed into the widening stream.

  “Hold up,” Quinn called.

  She forged on. “We have to keep moving. As soon as we are clear, I will bring you to the rest of the Elinare, and together we will determine how to remove the Damise’s AI threat once and for all.”

  “But the pursuing ships will be stranded here. Their crews will perish.”

  “What of it?”

  “Vyasa is aboard. As is my son.”

  “You forget I know the content of your mind, Quinn. The being you claim as your son is an Agantzane re-animate. And Vyasa of the Harani is now a twisted creature. She is no longer the person you once knew. You must let them go.”

  “No,” he said. “No, I won’t do that. Conor overcame his Agantzane programming. Who’s to say whether Vyasa might not recover too? I won’t leave them out here to die.”

  “The choice is not yours to make, human. You brought the Damise here, and now all of us face annihilation. I will not endanger my entire race for the sake of your irrational demands.”

  She flicked her horse’s reins, and it bore her farther downstream.

  Pressing his mount forward, he pulled alongside, grabbed Keiza by her coat, and dragged her from the saddle. She gave a strangled cry as, locked together, the two of them toppled into the shallow water. Quinn winced as his hip jarred against the stony riverbed.

  She tried to stand, and then swung at him, teeth gritted, but he kept his hold on her coat. Together, they splashed and thrashed like geese performing some bizarre ritual. Halted a short distance downstream, the dismounted horses eyed their riders’ antics with faint disinterest.

  “Let me go!” she grated. “Let me go! Don’t you realise what you’re doing?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, redoubling his grip. “I can’t let you abandon them.”