Conor’s mouth opened as if to speak, and then he too fractured. In his place stood a silver-grey automaton. Legs and arms like spikes were set in a triangular torso, and its head was a faceless mask. Rahada stood behind it, white-hot blade raised. With a single strike, she severed its neck. Its head bounced away, and its body crumpled. The wall of flame vanished. Rahada stepped over the automaton and ripped syringe-like attachments from Quinn’s temples.
Eire Colony was gone. He was back in the forest of Jaranthar on Shana. One illusion exchanged for another.
Rahada searched his face. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you.” Quinn’s voice was hoarse.
She helped him to his feet and pulled his arm around her shoulder. “We have to get to the portal before the Keeper figures out what happened and sends another.”
“Another what?”
“Siren trap. It was about to incinerate you. I warned you about them, didn’t I?” She forged a path ahead, half-dragging him through the forest. “Why is it humans never listen?”
~
Quinn and Rahada stepped together through the exit portal and onto a brilliant-white landscape. Waiting for them was Keiza, clad in a long white robe. Rahada released Quinn, and he concentrated on standing upright.
Keiza smiled. “You’re both here.”
Quinn turned slowly. The whiteness appeared to go on forever. “Where are we now?”
“I suppose you could call it the dawn of consciousness,” Keiza said. “It’s the moment between exiting a simulation and entering what you perceive as the waking world. I have expanded that moment so that we can converse.”
Quinn recalled his encounter with the Japhet when they had pulled him out of time for a similar conversation. The Founder Races shared a mastery of space and time that permitted them these sorts of parlour tricks.
“You deceived us,” Rahada said.
Keiza cocked her head to one side. “How so?”
“You never had any intention of abandoning us.”
“That is not entirely true. You reveal your true nature through adversity. I needed to discover who you really are, just as you needed to discover each other. Had I found you unworthy, I would have sought a different vessel.”
Quinn frowned. “A different vessel?”
“Another individual. Your son, perhaps. Or the Nemazi.”
“You would have put Conor through that… nightmare?”
“Each of you wishes me to present your case to my people,” Keiza replied. “Whoever I select must be able to demonstrate why your races are worthy of preservation.”
“Well, don’t keep us in suspense,” Quinn said. “You entered the escape portal first, so the choice is yours. Which of us is it to be?”
Keiza’s robe shifted as if she were shuffling her feet. “First, you must witness for each other.”
Quinn closed his eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“I believe she’s referring to the ancient legal code,” Rahada said. “Before the Agantzane joined the Consensus and imposed their perfect justice of one plus one equals two, disputes were resolved by mutual witness. Each side would argue the other’s case. The intention was to create understanding and recognition of the other’s point of view, leading to a peaceful settlement.”
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Forgive me, but that sounds like a superior form of justice. Why would the Consensus abandon it?”
“The Agantzane claimed it was too dependent on the goodwill of the participants. They maintained that treating sentient life-forms according to an assigned value was the only truly impartial system.”
“And you agree with that?”
“The Agantzane are the most influential race within the Consensus. What I or anyone else may think is of no consequence.”
The Mercy Faction had taken a different view, but with the spread of the Damise’s AI, most of them were probably dead or in hiding by now. Quinn could see nothing to be gained by pressing the point. “Okay, fine. You want me to start?”
“Very well,” Keiza said. “You may begin.”
He took a deep breath. “As I see it, it’s the Consensus that’s under immediate threat. The AI hasn’t yet touched human worlds. Ximun did say that once the Consensus had been fully subjugated, we would be the next target, but humans lag behind the Consensus technologically speaking, so if we wait till we’re under attack, we’ll be overwhelmed. Our only hope is to stop the AI’s spread here and now.
“You questioned Rahada’s motives in wanting to join with you, and it’s probably true that she’s lost some prestige due to my link with the Elinare, but I say that’s irrelevant. She’s the effective leader of the Shanata, and as the largest race within the breakaway fleet, their cooperation is essential if we’re going to maintain our unity and defeat the AI.
“Aurek chose me at random to be your host, but Rahada is clearly the better candidate. You said it yourself. She’s more focussed, more single-minded than I am. If you join with her, then both the Consensus and humanity stand the best chance of survival. That’s all that really matters.”
Keiza addressed Rahada. “Quinn makes a powerful argument that I should choose you. What say you?”
Rahada’s gaze drifted between Keiza and Quinn. “I invoke ka-hol-shah.”
Quinn blinked. “You… what?”
“It means ‘I have expired’,” Keiza said. She turned to Rahada.
“Explain.”
“A ruinator trapped me in a cocoon. If the human had not intervened, it would have consumed me. By the provisions of the ancient law code, I have expired and cannot witness. Therefore, you must choose Quinn.”
“Objection!” Quinn blurted out the word, and then noticed the others staring at him. “Sorry, it’s something we say in human courts when we disagree. Look, she’s only telling you part of the story. She took on the ruinator all by herself while I hid behind a rock. Before that, I was thrown from a skimmer and knocked unconscious. She dragged me into a cave for safety. And afterwards, when I fell prey to the siren machine, she rescued me again. So that’s two cold showers to her one, okay?”
“Ka-hol-shah,” Keiza corrected.
“Whatever.”
The air beside them congealed into moving images. Trees burst into flame and then canted wildly. Soundlessly, the ground rushed up, jarred, and then the display went black. Quinn realised he was watching his memory of the skimmer incident being replayed.
“You revived not long after,” Keiza said. “You were in no immediate danger.”
“The Keeper could have found me.”
“Speculation,” Rahada said.
“All right, what about the siren thing. It was about to burn me to a crisp. You said so yourself.”
A new scene appeared. Quinn’s gut wrenched as he stared into the young Conor’s eyes once more. The portal grew larger and then exploded into flame. The image of Conor transformed into a faceless metal drone. Quinn turned away.
“You too claim ka-hol-shah, Quinn. Would you have me reject both you and Rahada?” Keiza asked.
Images of Conor undergoing the same kind of mental torture filled Quinn’s mind. “Well, no… that’s not what I meant, exactly. I only…”
Keiza shook her head. “It would not matter. I must reject your counterclaim.”
“Why?”
“You forget I am within your mind. Your motivations are laid out before me, like pages ripped from a book. You plotted your own destruction so as to give Rahada a chance to escape. You created the crisis she was forced to extract you from.”
“So you’re saying her efforts don’t count?”
“They cannot form part of your witness, no.”
“Then it is decided,” Rahada said. “Quinn will remain your vessel.”
Keiza bowed her head. “He will remain.”
“Now, wait just one minute—”
The light all around him intensified, washing out Keiza and Rahada and screwing his eyes shut. He cracked open his eyelids
, and a pencil-thin beam did its best to blind him. The all-white universe was gone. He was back in the Shanata vessel’s medical bay, lying on a gurney. The beam shut off. Yellow, medical adept of the Osei, leaned over him, and its tentacles rippled millimetres from his face. Instinctively he turned his head aside. Surely it knows about my death touch?
“Reading extensive bruising and skin laceration to subject’s face,” Yellow trilled to an unseen audience. “Bruising to the chest. Damage to right knee joint. Commencing repairs.”
Tubules shot from a machine, reared up like vipers, and then penetrated Quinn’s knee. He drew in a sharp breath in anticipation of pain, but there was none. The affected joint grew warm. More tubules gathered in front of his face.
“Try to remain still,” Yellow instructed.
Cautiously, Quinn turned his head, exposing his injured face. The tubules waved as if in recognition and set to work.
“We have separated you from the Unity,” Yellow continued. “Your interaction appears to have caused some superficial injuries. We are not sure how.”
“Keiza… the simulation,” Quinn rasped.
“How’s that?”
Quinn shook his head, and the machine beside him ticked in rebuke. “Doesn’t matter. How’s Rahada?”
“I am well, Quinn.” Her face drifted into view. “As soon as you are recovered, I would recommend that we ask the Elinare within you to conduct us to the others of her kind.”
“Sure, no problem.” He closed his eyes and revelled in the warm glow spreading across his face.
“We seem to be entirely dependent on the Elinare, now. The creature, Vil-gar, who navigated the spatial currents to bring us here, has disappeared. A search of the ship has failed to locate him.”
“S’not important,” Quinn said, trying not to nod off. “Forget ’im. We don’ need him.”
“As you say,” Rahada replied, her voice flat. “I will be in the control area.”
“Uh-huh.” Quinn’s breathing slowed as he lapsed into a dreamless slumber.
~
Quinn awoke fresh and alert. Aside from a faint tingling, he felt no pain from his various injuries. He touched the side of his face but felt only the familiar roughness of stubble. Experimentally, he sat up, swung his legs over the side of the gurney, and put his right foot to the floor. It supported his weight without protest. He eased himself to a standing position.
Yellow bustled over, waving its tentacles as if sending a distress signal. “You should rest.”
“I feel fine,” he said. “Besides, I have an important date with the Elinare.”
Yellow’s tentacles froze, which Quinn had learned to interpret as a sign that it was communing with its fellow Osei. “The engineering adept concurs. It requests that you go to the control area and take over navigation.”
“Just what I had in mind.”
He exited the medical area and headed for the transit tube that connected the forward and aft sections. He thought of making a side trip to the docking bay to see if Conor was still camped beside the dolin, but decided against it. Best get underway as soon as possible. I’ll check on him later.
He passed a masked Shanata, who nodded in acknowledgement, and a pair of Osei, who ignored him completely. Finally, he reached a well-lit, empty platform. The air was chilly. He pulled the Nemazi garment tighter. Moments later, a transit car pulled in and opened its clear, gull-wing doors with a sigh. Three Shanata disembarked. He boarded, selecting a seat in the rear.
As the doors began to close, a dark figure slipped in and glided to the seat opposite. His willowy frame and long face identified him as Badhati.
Quinn stiffened. The last time he’d travelled the transit with a Badhati, the creature had sprayed some sort of anaesthetic in his face, and he’d awakened on a Damise ship. Tzurel is dead, he reminded himself. This individual might look similar, but…
“You are Quinn.” The Badhati spoke in a deep baritone.
Quinn swallowed. “Uh, yes. How do you do?” The idiotic question was past his lips before he could censor it.
The Badhati’s visage was half-hidden behind a cowl. “Discontent stalks this vessel.”
The coup attempt. He’s referring to the coup attempt by rogue Shanata during Rahada’s absence. He nodded. “So I’ve heard.”
The Badhati extended a robed arm and slowly opened his hand. Six spidery fingers surrounded a dull red jewel. The jewel began to glow. “Take it, quickly.”
Quinn reached forward and plucked the jewel from the creature’s palm, being careful not to make skin contact. The glow faded.
“Keep it safe,” the Badhati said. “If you are in peril, use it without hesitation.”
Before Quinn could cobble together a reply, the transit car swished to a halt, and the Badhati slipped through the open gull-wing doors and was gone.
Quinn stared at the inert jewel. He had no idea what it was, how to activate it, or even whether he could trust the Badhati who had given it to him.
With a shrug, he stowed it in the pouch at his belt, exited the transit car, and headed for the control area.
~
Quinn stepped onto the control section and headed for the central table beneath the starry dome. He recognised Rahada and Grey of the Osei. A Badhati was with them.
Quinn addressed Grey. “You asked for me?”
“Yes,” Grey trilled. “We are currently adrift, as we have no means of navigating this space. If we are to seek out the Elinare, we will need your help.”
“Right.”
“This ship is at your disposal,” the Badhati said. “Ask and it shall be given you.”
The Badhati spoke with a bass timbre like the others of his race. Whether this was the same individual he had encountered on the transit car, Quinn couldn’t tell. “Can you show me the navigation interface?”
The Badhati conducted him to one of the elevated chairs and signalled to its occupant. The chair descended, and a Shanata relinquished the position. Quinn eased himself into the seat, and it rose into the air towards the star-filled dome.
He glanced down. The three representatives waited at the base like expectant courtiers. He managed a smile and then his smile vanished as a virtual screen appeared before him, filled with symbols that might as well have been chicken scratchings. He gulped. I have absolutely no idea what I’m supposed to do.
Keiza?
More Shanata on raised chairs were distributed around the control area, engrossed in their various tasks. If he couldn’t work out how to direct this ship, all of them would face a cold death here in the neighbour universe.
He closed his eyes. Keiza, where are you?
Cawing sounded from overhead. He opened his eyes and stared up at a tree canopy. He was no longer aboard the Shanata vessel. Raindrops skated down leaves and plopped onto his head. This was a far cry from the twisted, angry forest of Jaranthar on Shana. He recognised the shapes of the leaves—oak and elm. This was Earth—had to be. Yet he had never set foot on Earth. How—
“Quinn.”
He whirled and saw Keiza standing behind him.
She wore a plain ochre dress, drawn in at the waist, dowdy, yet oddly attractive. But for her angular grey face and unnaturally sunken eyes, he might have taken her for human. She carried a slight smile. “Welcome home.”
~
“This isn’t Eire Colony,” Quinn said. “It’s Earth.”
Keiza clasped her hands behind her back. “Quite right. We are in Ireland. County Clare, near a village called Ballyvarna.”
Quinn nodded. “It’s where my grandmother grew up. But I’ve never been here.”
“Nevertheless, your impressions of this place are quite strong.”
Vid-recordings and an education rooted in Irish culture had created in him a connection to this place far away amid the stars. He half-expected to see his grandmother as a girl come tripping through the trees. A fresh raindrop splashed against his forehead. “Well, the rain feels authentic. But why bring me here?”
“We are journeying to the home of my people. I thought it appropriate that I show you the home of yours.”
Chinks of sunlight illuminated raindrops like diamonds. “Look, I can’t hang about here. The others are waiting for me to get the ship underway.”
She smiled. “You’re not really here, remember? The forest is a representation that will allow you to negotiate the space-time currents here in the neighbour universe. The mathematics are formidable, quite beyond anything a human might be capable of.”
“I see.”
“Don’t feel bad. Aside from your friend Vil-gar, only the Elinare are capable of navigating the neighbour universe.”
“He’s not my friend,” Quinn corrected.
She shrugged. “Humanity faces annihilation or subjugation. I would have thought you needed every friend you could get.”
“So how do I proceed?” Quinn asked, anxious to change the subject.
“Simple,” she replied. “Just follow me.”
~
Quinn trailed Keiza along the forest paths, while in the real world, his fingers made unseen adjustments to the Shanata interface. “Tell me about your people.”
“You already know our history,” she said. “When the Agantzane took control of the Consensus, we refused to hand over our technology. They tried to imprison us, but we escaped and took refuge in the neighbour universe.”
“Yes, but that was three thousand years ago. This universe is empty. What are you still doing here?”
“It’s… complicated.”
“You mean it’s a secret.”
“No, I’m just not sure you’ll understand.”
“Try me.”
Her face worked as if she were struggling to find the words. “When we came here, our intention was to build our resources and then oust the upstart Agantzane.”
The Arc of the Universe Page 24