Terminus Shift (Targon Tales - Sethran Book 2)

by Chris Reher

  He pulled back, amazed by the moment that just passed. She seemed not to have noticed. Delphians, he thought with grim amusement.

  “Something happened a while back,” she said. “We were out, taking some troops from Feron to Callas. Something happened during a jump. I was working with Miko. We… we sort of came across something. At first it was kind of scary but we made it through. We didn’t tell Velen Phar right away because of the way he is with his ship. But it happened again during the next jump we made together.”

  “What was it?”

  “I still don’t really know. Once we opened the keyhole, it was like the parallax changed even after the processors were already set. Talk about vertigo.” She tapped her temple to indicate her neural node. “It was like we could just touch it and make it shift. Without moving, I mean. I don’t know if that means anything to a chartjumper. At a regular gate, you’re standing on one side of a chasm holding a thread tied to a very small pebble on the other side. You can follow that line only there.”

  Seth nodded. “That’s what the charts are for.”

  “Yes. Of course, we don’t need the charts. We just see the pebble and can head straight for it without anyone tying a string to it. Sometimes we can choose from more than one pebble, depending on the keyhole, but they’re always in the same place. We just have to see it.”

  “And this was different?”

  “Oh, Seth, you have no idea! It was amazing and terrifying. We found a way to look past all that, maybe even into another layer of subspace. And there we can just shift to another terminus. We can emerge at any keyhole.”

  “You mean they all open into this… this new space?”

  “No, but they’re connected in there. Like a web, or a net. There are sort of nodes where you can just change directions instead of following a single path.” She waved her hands beside her head as if to shake out words to give meaning to what she was trying to explain. “It’s like you get to a point and the truth of the formula changes. We can make it change. The math changes.”

  Seth reached past her to take a display screen from the bed and called up the Dutchman’s archive. “Can you enter this web from anywhere?”

  “No, we still need a fixed keyhole to start and to exit. The processors act as a sort of anchor. We can even change our destination after we’ve already opened the keyhole.”

  “Inside subspace?”

  “As long as we grab it before we go in, yeah.” She leaned forward to look at his screen. “What are you looking for?”

  “Is this something any Level Three spanner could do?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Just the seven spanners working for Velen Phar and Hariah. We tried to teach it to two spanners on Ryne L’va’s crew. They thought we were crazy or trying to have a giggle at their expense so we haven’t mentioned it since."

  “They’re not Delphian.”

  “No. Caspians, both. Using jumper shots.” She tried to pull the tablet from his hands. “Have you heard of this?”

  He moved to sit beside her and pointed at some data. “Daziel Killian. Astrophysicist. Used to work out of Targon. Dead now. He theorized something like what you’re describing.”

  “Really? That’s terrific.”

  “Sort of. What you said about another layer of subspace reminded me of this. We pretty much assume that there are some, but of course we’ve been able to only breach one. But he came up with some models where the subspace strings are connected, like the net you mentioned, acting like intersections.” Seth called up a massive set of extremely tiresome-looking calculations. “It was named Killian’s Maze and shelved as improbable.”

  Ciela pointed at the screen. “That part looks about right. Why improbable?”

  “Because, just like breaching a keyhole in the first place and going anywhere that doesn’t leave you dead, you need a certain type of mental ability to find an exit. Killian suggested that we don’t have that. It would take even Delphians more time to evolve to that stage. Or another species we haven’t discovered yet. So because that idea is very scary, he was not taken seriously.”

  “Scary?”

  “The reason Velen Phar kept you secret. The reason the Shri-Lan want you so badly. Keyholes dictate which leaps we can take to get anywhere. Which worlds we can visit. Our territories are defined by how we get there. But you seven can get from any keyhole or jumpsite to any other of your choosing. This could change this war in ways even your captain didn’t want to see happening. Who all knows about this?”

  “Hariah, of course.” Ciela paused for a deep breath. “Well, she did, I guess. Her fleet managed the other three spanners. Ruthala and her Father know. Our crew. One or two others. But I guess Sebasta found out and now the Shri-Lan know, too.” She shuffled some of the data on his screen but her thoughts were elsewhere. “Velen thought it best to keep us out of people’s notice. But he said it was because it was just a matter of time before someone wanted us to do more important work. We keep losing more and more spanners as they get caught by Air Command. Maybe some people started demanding that Velen gave up some of us to the frontline groups.” She looked up at Seth. “I know this’ll sound silly to you, but I think all of us just wanted to do our bit by supplying our people with what they need and smuggling to raise funds. Nothing more. I don’t know if I could, you know, go into a battle against Air Command.”

  He smiled. “Not silly at all. I’m pretty much against you going into battle, too.” He fought an urge to brush the long strands of hair from her eyes. “We just have to make sure you don’t fall into the wrong hands.”

  She pursed her lips. “So whose hands are the right ones?”

  Seth considered the question, one for which there likely was no answer. What place existed that would not take advantage of what these spanners had to offer? He looked into her pale, expectant face, realizing that, once again, Delphi was the most likely solution. They would grasp the danger presented by Ciela’s peculiar talent to the stability of the entire sector and they would step up to ensure that she and the others remained out of sight. Especially since all of them were, in fact, Delphian.

  “What?” Ciela said when he sat up straight in his chair as if struck by some sudden revelation.

  “Cazun!” he exclaimed. “The Delphians!”

  “Huh?”

  He stared at her, almost feeling the gears grind in his head. “I said before that you are not in any way a GenMod. That might not be… entirely true.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He ran his hands through his hair, staring at nothing as things fell into place. “A long time ago, almost back when the Commonwealth was first formed about three hundred years ago, the Delphians started to tinker around with their genes. Mostly selective breeding, but also some mental manipulations. Neurogenesis, even. They’re very good at that. Especially an old sect of experts called Shantirs. Delphians don’t fight wars but they felt threatened by the Union. They tried to breed someone to look after them.”

  “What, like some sort of warrior?”

  “Sort of, but with mental capabilities. There were some successes and a lot of failures. The whole experiment was not just abandoned; it was outlawed at some point. But I’m guessing a few of the old guard kept tinkering. Eventually things went very wrong, just a few years ago, actually. I’m not supposed to know about that, of course. It’s all classified but I try not to let that stop me.”

  She grinned. “I didn’t think so.”

  “They ended up with someone who did things they didn’t exactly plan for. Horrible death toll. Soldiers, rebels, too many civilians. They’ve had to live with that since. They’ve tried to make reparations. The Shantirs involved were censured, which, as Delphi goes, is a very big deal.”

  “What does all this have to do with us? You think we were caught up in this?”

  “Yes, I do. Maybe you weren’t driven out of Delphi. And probably your parents weren’t rebels. That just doesn’t fit the way Delphians do things. But what if they w
ere actually fleeing Delphi?”

  “Fleeing? Such paradise?” she said with no small edge of sarcasm in her voice.

  “The Shantirs back then tried different ways of influencing a new born mind through one of their khamal mind links. It’s really no different than the way our neural nodes communicate with our machines, except they access much more complex processes. Well, and they don’t need machines. Nobody really knows what they can do, but it frightens a lot of people. It’s another reason they keep to themselves. Anyway, their experiments didn’t always work out.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’m only guessing. It’s not something they’d publish anywhere, but I assume some of those kids just disappeared. Inside the Shantirs’ enclave or maybe they even died.”

  She stared at him wide-eyed, caught up in his speculation. “So you think we are part of that and our parents took us away? Ran away so those Shantirs wouldn’t take us?”

  “It certainly fits. As does this other-space theory. Let me guess: you seven are all pretty much the same age.”

  “We assume so. We don’t really know.”

  “It’s my guess, if I’m right with this, that you were part of a certain generation that achieved some result that the Shantirs didn’t want. Maybe your ability to see beyond subspace. Maybe they foresaw the trouble that can cause. And for some reason, your parents decided to remove you from the Shantirs’ oversight. And got caught by rebels.”

  “So what about that super warrior, then?”

  “The Tughan Wai. Their greatest success. He was able to do things that I don’t think anyone was able to explain, short of magic. But after what you told me, I think it’s possible he simply accessed Killian’s Maze to reach another point in space. Mentally.”

  “He destroyed things?”

  “To say the least, yeah.”

  “And you think we’re like him?”

  “I hope not. But you are different. You are, like Killian proposed, a different breed of Delphian. It’s not in your DNA, but it’s in your head. A physical change of your neural net.”

  “Is that possible?”

  “You have no idea...” Seth took the tablet and scrolled around Killian’s work, wishing he had the capacity to understand half of what the man described. Was it possible? He stood up and held out his hand. “Come.”

  “What?” She let him pull her up, smiling at something in his expression. “You find this exciting, don’t you?”

  “Don’t you?” He ushered her ahead of him into the little cargo bay. “Stand over there. We’re going to run another med-scan.”

  She sighed dramatically as if indulging a child in some play and stood where he pointed. He programmed the scanners that analyzed and, when necessary, treated for contaminants but also looked for disease and injury. This time, he specified Delphian anatomy and physiology.

  “Smile big.”

  She made a face.

  The scan completed in moments and they returned to the cabin to await the results. Seth actually found himself pacing a little until the screen fixed above the galley delivered the report. Ciela sat on the lounge as if expecting great entertainment.

  “Hey, I look naked!”

  “That’s just a representation.”

  “I hope so. She’s got shoulders like a Feydan.”

  Seth ran some comparisons. Xenobiology was not one of his strengths but his library made up for that lack quite well. The display soon enough shifted to a view of a Delphian brain as a point of interest, as he had suspected. “There it is,” he said.

  “What?”

  He reached up to spin the image and pointed at the center of the brain. “The Delphian hippocampus is larger than most Prime species’ in general. That explains your memory and why so many of your people end up as pilots and engineers. You, however, seem to have an extra lobe.”

  “That thing? Looks like a worm.”

  He nodded. “My equipment here can’t look any closer than this, but I’ll bet your neurons are generating just nicely in there. This could explain your ability to find your way through that maze. That other space.” He reached up to shift to another part of his archive. A quick search found no further reference to Delphians in Killian’s notes. Nothing here hinted at their involvement in his theories. “The problem is, we can’t really ask anyone about this.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Clearly I’m not going back to Delphi. Those people are insane.”

  He returned his gaze to the slowly rotating view of her brain. The Shantirs of Delphi would not dream of banishing someone like Ciela from their oversight. Likely, they would have been aware of this peculiar anomaly since before she was born. “Things have changed. I don’t think you’ll have to worry. There is so much they can teach you. But the main thing is that they’re the only people who will make sure you’re not exploited by rebels or Air Command. No other place can guarantee that.”

  She sighed. “Tadonna sure didn’t.”

  “What about the other six in your group? If they can’t be extracted. I mean, if we can’t find them, how will they deal with being turned over to the Shri-Lan?”

  She stared at nothing for a while. “Miko won’t work for them. They’ll have to find a way to force him. I’m so scared about that.” She bit her lip. “It’ll kill Luanie. She gets very depressed. We have to watch her. Velen promised he’ll find someone to help her but you’d need a Delphian for that, I guess. Deely hates the Shri-Lan but he hates the Commonwealth more. They may… get to him. The girls won’t even notice who they work for. They don’t pay much attention to what happens, ever. We don’t even know what they’re thinking half the time.” She drew her knees up onto the lounger and wrapped her arms around them. “So, yeah, as long as we’re out there somewhere, we’re a danger to everyone. I guess I finally realized that when I saw what Sebasta did to my village.”

  He studied her expression for a moment, seeing nothing but genuine grief there. “Which is why you didn’t tell them who I am. You’re a catastrophe no matter who you work for. You know, you’re not just a terrible shot, you’re a terrible rebel.”

  * * *

  “So are you nervous?”

  “What?” Seth chuckled and realized that he sounded precisely as nervous as she assumed him to be. Now that they were about to enter the keyhole apparently leading to Magra despite all mathematical evidence pointing elsewhere, he wasn’t so sure he wanted to try it. “Not a bit. Once I waxed two Rhuwacs with nothing but a pistol in each hand set to stupendous level. I fear nothing.”

  “My hero.” Ciela reclined in the co-pilot’s bench and engaged her neural interface. Seth did the same, prepared to let her show him what she had found beyond subspace. “I’ve already taken you through that maze once, you know. You just didn’t know it. And anyway, it’s not moving us in space at all.”

  “I’m not nervous!”

  “Not in subspace, anyway. You know, I wonder sometimes what’d happen if I got lost at one of the nodes, like taking a wrong turn or something. That’d be scary. Who knows where you’d end up. Or maybe you’d just zip around forever. I guess that’s why this Killian guy called it a maze. I can see—”

  “Stop it, Ciela!”

  “Want me to hold your hand?”

  “Let’s do this.”

  He aligned the Dutchman with the keyhole, invisible before them, and fed the minute aperture with the ship’s energy to create a sufficient opening. The processors ramped up, ready to provide the navigator with the calculations she needed to determine their destination.

  Ciela closed her eyes, feeling her way into subspace, and he did the same. At this point, once she had found the terminus, all that remained was to shove the ship forward and into the breach and trust that it would come out where intended. For all their reliance on mathematics, astrophysics and the simplest laws of nature, this part was likely not something he’d ever truly understand.

  But she held off. “All right. I’m going to reset the processors. You’ll se
e sort of a weird, uh, parallax shift. You’ll feel it more than anything. Don’t worry; it’s always like that.”

  Seth tried to breathe evenly. He had made a thousand leaps; the simple chart hops that any pilot could manage through a jumpsite, and he had ridden along when a Level Three spanner cracked the most complex of keyholes that felt like they’d never emerge again. This was just another leap, he told himself.

  He knew quite well that the Big Nothing was not at all a Big Nothing. He had seen it. Touched it. He had interacted with it and it had changed him. Not even Delphi’s Shantirs had been able to determine exactly what had altered, however subtly, his neural net after that strange encounter not that long ago. But something had and, so far, it had not affected his life in any noticeable way. Not in real-space, anyway.

  And so when she had offered to show him her glimpse of subspace he had accepted with great enthusiasm. That enthusiasm was slightly compromised now by a growing realization that perhaps minds like his were better left oblivious to the mysteries of subspace.

  He swallowed. “Tell me something…”

  “Hmm?” She frowned, already focused on her task.

  “When you’re in there, do you ever, uh, do you ever feel that there’s something, well, alive in there?”

  “Do you really want to know that now?”

  “Gods, no!”

  She reached for him and gripped his hand. “Go!”

  He punched the Dutchman forward, grinding his teeth as they passed the threshold into the breach. At this point, sentient beings lost all five senses; no time, no gravity, no light, nothing existed except a certainty in the most primitive regions of the brain that knew only that death was imminent.

  But he caught a glimmer of something. For an instant or two, she delayed the jump and he saw what she did; what she glimpsed when entering this space, this other space. Instead of the single, charted, prescribed terminus, the possibilities before him exploded into an endless, ever-expanding network of paths, each accessible through the power of his ship’s processors. He perceived it as a network of glowing lines, as chaotic as a tangled net while as logical as zero and one. He tried to look for her but then the darkness took over, as always, and nothingness replaced the vision his mind had witnessed.