The Arc of the Universe

by Mark Whiteway

  “All right, then. Let her,” Quinn said. “I sought out the Elinare to prevent the AI from spreading to human worlds. So long as they agree to help, what does it matter who serves as your mouthpiece?”

  “Careful, Quinn,” Keiza replied. “Would you hand the fate of humanity to someone whose main motivation is their personal ambition?”

  Rahada rose to her feet. “That is a lie!”

  “Well then, here’s your opportunity to prove it. I have adjusted the rules for the Jaranthar challenge to help settle the dispute.

  “Once the claxon sounds, the trial will begin. The Shanata have concealed traps within the forest and introduced predators taken from other worlds. We must overcome these just as in the original challenge. If you are first among the three of us to reach the finish, then I will join with you. If Quinn is first, I will remain with him. If I am first, then the choice will be mine.”

  “Fine,” Rahada said. “Let’s get on with it.”

  “There’s one other condition. All three of us must make it to the portal. If one fails, then I will join with neither of you, and without me, you will never find the Haven. The AI will absorb your worlds and ships one by one, Consensus and human.”

  Rahada’s expression darkened as she took a step forward. A mechanical wail cut the air.

  Keiza rose to meet her, a faint smile playing about her lips. “Better get going!”

  Rahada turned, slipped through the entrance, and was gone.

  ~

  Quinn stumbled out of the hut’s entrance, almost crashing into Keiza. The claxon pummelled his eardrums. A bloated moon lit the landscape almost as bright as day. Black-suited figures poured from five identical huts, pushed and shoved their way to a wooden table at the centre of the clearing, and then dashed for the tree line.

  “Come on,” Keiza urged.

  Quinn grabbed her sleeve. “No. No way. Not till I get some answers.”

  “I’ve told you all I can.”

  “The hell you have! She’s herself, you’re supposed to be her sister, and I’m this Adam guy.”

  “Anmadon,” she corrected.

  “Whatever. He’s the one who gets eaten in the woods, right?”

  “You don’t understand. This scenario is drawn from Rahada’s mind, but that doesn’t mean the outcome is predetermined. Remember the Alamo re-creation?”

  He threw his arms wide. “You died in the Alamo re-creation!”

  “Only from your standpoint. I was weakened, but I have recovered for the most part.”

  “You see, it’s that ‘for the most part’ bit that has me worried.”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Well, forgive me, but you don’t seem to be firing on all cylinders, if you know what I mean. All of this”—with a sweep of his hand he took in the huts, the moonlit clearing, and the Shanata now disappearing into the woods—“is pointless. Why not just make your selection—me or her—and move on?”

  “It’s not that simple,” she said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because she might be the better choice.”

  “You just claimed she was obsessed with personal ambition!” Quinn exclaimed.

  “Yes, but ambition can be a powerful driving force. You, on the other hand, are indifferent, flexible. You bend whichever way the wind blows you. Either trait can be a strength or a weakness. Observing how you react will show which of you is better qualified.”

  “And if you judge Rahada unworthy, but she wins anyway?”

  “It’s your job to prevent that,” Keiza said. “And you are already falling behind.”

  Quinn released her arm, and together they ran towards the centre of the clearing.

  “It may interest you to know that Rahada has adopted exactly the tactic I predicted for her,” Keiza said.

  Quinn nodded. “Get as big a lead as possible.”

  “That’s correct.”

  “In the belief that you and I will protect one another, reach the finish together, and seal her victory.”

  “Again correct.”

  On the now-deserted table lay a collection of unfamiliar weapons.

  Keiza pointed. “Incendiary blade, throwing disc, telescopic spear. Make your choice. You may only take one.”

  The blade had an ornate, twisted handle but otherwise seemed unremarkable. The discs were saucer-shaped and paired with curved wire baskets shaped like the cestas used by the ancient Basques in the game of pelota. The spear seemed to be nothing more than a two-metre-long silver rod honed to a point at one end.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Quinn selected the spear. Keiza chose the blade.

  He tested the spear’s point with a fingertip. “So in order to frustrate her, you would have to confound her expectations.” Quinn observed. “You would let me die.”

  “You seem to have a clear grasp of what’s at stake. Of course, if you were to catch up to her, then the tactical balance would shift in your favour.”

  “If you’re trying to convince me to hurry, then you’ve succeeded.” He set off for the tree line at a fast trot.

  ~

  Quinn plunged into the woods. Foliage closed in overhead, shattering the moonlight into shards. His boots sank into thick loam. Ahead, he heard a distant howl, though whether from a feral beast or one of the Shanata, he could not tell.

  “We should keep moving.” Rahada’s low voice in his ear spurred him forward.

  The forest appeared ancient. Gnarled branches grasped at him, and wide boles barred his path. He ducked and skirted around them. As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, his pace quickened. “You will let me know if I head off in the wrong direction.”

  “I have placed knowledge of the route in your mind,” Keiza said. “I have also taken away Rahada’s option to simply kill you and claim victory. I have done everything in my power to ensure a fair contest.”

  “I’m touched.”

  “There is something else I should mention. Anmadon was Rahada’s lover.”

  Quinn’s boots crunched as he crossed a patch of snow. “That’s interesting, but I’m not him, and she knows that. I don’t see what relevance it has here.”

  “Perhaps you’re right. But my experience suggests that corporeal beings find it difficult to separate memory from emotion. Your reaction when you saw your family at the colony, for example. It may be a weakness you can exploit.”

  Quinn smiled. “If I didn’t know better, I might think you were on my side.”

  “You should be aware of the facts surrounding this scenario. Like I said, I am merely trying to ensure a fair contest.”

  “Right.”

  A chuckle of running water carried on the air. A few paces on, it grew louder, and the ground fell away, revealing a dark ribbon, scattering moonlight.

  Using the spear as a staff, Quinn picked his way down the hillside and skittered to a halt on the bank of a fast-flowing stream. “Any idea how deep this goes?”

  “No, I don’t,” she replied.

  “One way to find out.” Gingerly, he waded out until the water was waist high. Shocking cold penetrated his Shanata suit, taking root in his bones. Clamping his teeth together to stop them from chattering, he poked the streambed ahead with the spear and then signalled Keiza. “All right, follow me.”

  She waded in after him and dogged his footsteps as he tested the way forward, advancing until the water was chest-high. She yelled. He turned his head and saw her floundering in surf.

  Jamming his spear into the riverbed, he leaned against the current and grabbed her arm, holding on until she regained her footing. She spat out water, shook her head, and waved him on. A few steps farther on the river grew shallower, and they sloshed their way to the opposite bank.

  She sagged to her knees, dark hair plastered to the sides of her face, and fought for breath. If the scenario was genuine, she was certainly discovering what it meant to be corporeal.

  He knelt beside her. “Are you all right?”

  She raised her palm and nodde
d.

  I should give her a moment to recover. As he surveyed the hillside, he caught sight of a faint blue glow on the ridgeline. He rose and peered at it, but it was too far off to make out any details.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back in a moment.” Without waiting for an answer, he forged on up the hill.

  ~

  Digging in with the spear and using saplings for support, he climbed towards the light. As he crested the ridge, the apparition resolved into a shining egg shape, two-and-a-half metres in height. He gasped. A black-clad Shanata occupied the egg.

  Quinn advanced and circled the egg. Without a mask, the Shanata was bright-eyed but motionless, as if frozen in an instant of time. The egg’s surface ran and coalesced like oil on water. He reached out with his fingertips.

  A high-pitched cry sounded behind him. He turned and saw Keiza drag herself over the ridge top.

  “Don’t! Don’t touch it!” she said.

  “Why, what is it?”

  “It’s a stasis trap.”

  Quinn stared at the face within. The blue tinge gave it an almost ethereal glow. “Can’t we get him out of there?”

  “This is a simulation, remember? The only real entities are you, Rahada and me. We don’t have time to play Good Samaritan, as you would put it.”

  “How many more traps like this are there?”

  “I don’t know,” she replied. “Lots, probably. The trial is a balance between risk and reward. Those who press ahead in hopes of a quick victory run a greater risk of triggering them.”

  “My character, Anmadon—how did he die?”

  She shook her head. “It’s not important.”

  “Tell me.”

  “He fell into a patch of strangling coils. She couldn’t save him. She still blames herself for pushing him too hard.”

  “You saw that in her mind.”

  “Yes, Quinn. Nothing that is in her mind is hidden from me. Or yours.”

  “Then you already know I’m thankful you broke your word.”

  “Broke my word?”

  “You said you wouldn’t save me if I got into trouble, remember.”

  A whistle and thud wiped the smile from his face.

  Keiza lay sprawled in the mud. “Get down, now!”

  Quinn dived beside her as a second projectile sliced the air where he had been standing.

  He spat mud from his lips. “What sort of trap is this?”

  “Not a trap,” she replied. “The other candidates are trying to cut down on the competition.”

  “What are they firing at us exactly?”

  “Those are throwing discs.”

  “You mean those things back at the clearing?”

  “That’s right,” she said. “They can be deadly at longer ranges.”

  “Well, you might have explained that before. You know, in the interests of a ‘fair contest’? If I’d known what they were, I might have picked them instead of this spear.”

  “Each weapon bears strengths and weaknesses, Quinn. The Shanata designed them so that the choice delivers no significant advantage or disadvantage.”

  Another disc flew over Quinn’s head and embedded itself in a tree trunk.

  “You could’ve fooled me,” he said. “Right now, they have us pinned down. All they have to do is close in and—”

  A bat-like screech sounded from above. Dark shapes fluttered across the moon and descended to the tree canopy. Winged shadows picked out targets and then swooped from the branches. Two Shanata broke cover, only to be felled and raked by talons the size of horns. The creatures ripped apart the disc-wielding Shanata with the indifference of vultures. One beast raised its head and leered at Quinn with coal-red eyes. Its blood-stained mouth had a sadistic twist.

  “Razers,” Keiza said. “If we make a run for it while they’re preoccupied, we might stand a chance.”

  Quinn rose to a crouch. “All right, that way. Let’s go.”

  He headed away from the carnage in a direction that curved inward from the ridgeline. At this pace, they might well run slap bang into another Shanata trap, but he couldn’t worry about that now.

  His heart turned to ice as he heard a further screech and the flapping of wings, like shrouds caught in a breeze. He hazarded a glance over his shoulder. A single creature blotted out the moon as it descended towards them, claws outstretched. We’re not going to outrun it. He turned and hefted the spear like a javelin.

  “No, no. Not like that!” he heard Keiza say.

  She pointed to the spear’s butt. “Use the trigger.”

  He fiddled with the end, but could not see anything to latch on to. Finally, he gave it a firm twist. The sharp end opened like a flower with razor-like petals. Grinding his teeth, he drove it at the flying creature.

  The beast howled as serrated barbs shredded its chest. Its wings folded, and it dropped to the ground. Keiza advanced on it, her raised blade glowing white-hot, as if she had just dipped it in a forge. With a single stroke, she severed its neck. Its body slumped, and its head rolled to one side. Steam rose from the cauterised wound.

  The remaining razers shrieked and took to the sky once more. They dived and snapped at one another before turning and heading straight for Quinn and Keiza.

  Quinn counted six, no seven of the creatures. Too many. He glanced at Keiza, and together, spattering mud, they dashed for a thick stand of trees. They dived into a thicket that scratched Quinn’s face and pulled at his hair like a berserk fishwife. He disentangled himself and gazed back. The razers had alighted next to the fallen beast and were gnawing and shaking its limbs as they squabbled with one another.

  Quinn wiped mud from his forehead with the back of a grimy hand. “You said the Shanata brought those things here.”

  “Yes, although I don’t know where from or even what their real name is.”

  “Because that information isn’t in Rahada’s mind. You can only know what she and I know.”

  “Right.”

  “So is there anything in Rahada’s memory that might help us in catching up to her?” Quinn asked.

  “Possibly,” she replied. “But it would be risky.”

  Quinn stared at the winged fiends as they tore chunks from their slain companion. “Show me something here that isn’t.”

  ~

  As he listened to Keiza outline her plan, Quinn reached one inescapable conclusion—the more he heard, the less he liked it. However, his wracked brain could come up with no viable alternative.

  Like a glum child, he handed over his spear weapon and watched as she took it apart, extracted a long length of metal twine, and cast the remaining parts aside like a broken toy. Suppose we encounter more of those razer things. What then? The question lay stillborn on his tongue as she tied the twine taut between a pair of saplings.

  “Kindling,” she said. “We need to collect as much as possible.”

  He muttered something about the damp conditions.

  “Here.” She pushed a lump of bark with red striations under his nose. “Look for more of this. It’s highly combustible under intense heat.”

  After twenty minutes of mooching around the forest, he had helped her gather a semi-respectable pile.

  “Stand well back,” she instructed.

  He walked off twenty metres or so. “Are you sure about this?”

  She glanced at the discarded bits of his spear. “It’s a little late for second thoughts.”

  She knelt, drew her blade, and began making adjustments to its hilt. A low whine grew in pitch and intensity. She thrust the glowing weapon into the heart of the woodpile and took off running, reaching his position just as the pile erupted in a white flash. The surrounding forest began to burn fiercely. At its centre, their last remaining weapon was now a lump of slag.

  “What now?” Quinn asked.

  She stared at her handiwork as it roared and crackled, threatening to incinerate everything in its path. “Now, we wait.”

  ~

  Quinn counted off the seconds as he sca
nned the trees. What if she’s wrong? Then we’ve just wasted half an hour of valuable time, and deliberately destroyed our only weapons for nothing.

  A distant hum gave him a sliver of hope.

  She pointed. “Skimmer. Coming from that way.” He set off in the opposite direction, but she grabbed his arm. “No. They have to see us first.”

  A copper-coloured disc threaded through the trees. Mounted on it were twin seats occupied by a pair of masked Shanata. Keiza yelled at the occupants and raised a defiant fist. One of the Shanata pointed, and the skimmer angled towards them.

  “Come on.” She headed straight for the centre of the conflagration. Branches wreathed in living flame sprouted blackened leaves that blossomed with sparks. Heat pressed against his face. At the last moment, she veered away. He glanced over his shoulder. The skimmer had already halved the distance. We’ll never outrun them.

  She headed for the stand of saplings, ducking slightly as she passed beneath the twine from Quinn’s spear. Quinn followed suit. Seconds later, he heard a twang like the plucking of a rubber band. She threw herself headlong. Quinn dived beside her just as the skimmer passed over their heads and crash-landed, burying its leading edge in the dirt.

  Before Quinn could rouse himself, Keiza was on her feet and running for the downed craft. He scraped the mud from his front and trotted after her. By the time he reached the skimmer, its seats were empty, and the Shanata lay facedown in the muck

  “They’re not real,” she reminded him. “This is just a simulation.”

  Simulation or no, Quinn still had to fight down the urge to retch.

  She tossed him one of the Shanata’s baton-shaped weapons. “I retrieved these. Quickly! We have to get this thing airborne again and reach the exit portal before their masters realise what’s happened and start to track us.”

  She leaned over the front of the machine and began shovelling the thick black soil with her bare hands.