“We still appreciate it.” Eltyn slipped into one of the chairs, before which was a platter, and across the narrow table from Faelyna.
As he ate more of the egg-like omelet than he thought he could, Eltyn had to admit that food preparation had improved immeasurably since Rhyana had joined them, especially with the flaky pastries.
“Anyone out there?” asked the delivery woman.
“Antennae don’t show anyone, but the locals are only good for a kay or so.”
“Riffies’ll be back. They want everything their own way.”
Eltyn stiffened at the warnings coming from the system. Trouble…seismics and locals showing something…coming our way…
They couldn’t…how could they evacuate…
All the lights went out, except for the emergency beacon…
Eltyn immediately accessed the station systems and scanned all the indicators. Readings show temperatures… Eltyn swallowed. …sensors…vaporized…Entire outside power grid gone, even the tidal pump.
Thermonuke? No…there aren’t any…are there?
Eltyn checked the last readings, frozen on the system. Radiation…but not weapons…superheated3 steam…
…steam…?
Abruptly…the two exchanged glances. Eltyn checked the ventilation system, but something had shut off all the ducts, and the ventilators had cut off. He closed down the internal net, and the nonessentials, leaving just basic lighting for the moment. They’d need all the power in the inside storage system, and they certainly wouldn’t be leaving the station any time soon. Before long they might have to worry about air quality, but with only the four of them and the size of the station, that wasn’t an immediate concern.
“They wouldn’t…would they?” asked Faelyna. “The area to the north…hundreds of kays…”
“Maybe they evacuated the people.”
“The Twenty? Do you think they’d bother?”
“What happened?” asked Rhyana. “Something bad, from the look of you.”
“Exactly? We don’t know,” replied Eltyn.
“Eltyn…”
“The Twenty dropped—we think—a chunk of nickel iron or something like it out of orbit and aimed its re-entry at us. It looks like it hit water, probably to the west and north of us. That’s just a guess from what information the sensors recorded before they all vaporized.”
“Vaporized? Turned to gas?”
“That’s an educated guess, too. None of the sensors are registering, and the temperatures outside were hot enough to melt, if not vaporize, most metals and composites.”
“You sure? We didn’t feel anything.”
“Inside the station you don’t. We didn’t feel any of the shelling. The whole Earth could fall apart and you wouldn’t know.”
“Can’t we open a door or window and look out…” Rhyana glanced from Eltyn to Faelyna. “It’s too hot?”
“In more ways than one.” Eltyn stopped, then glanced around. Something else had changed, although he couldn’t quite determine what.
“Do you notice something?” asked Faelyna. “The light…”
“It’s sharper…or different…” Eltyn stood, moving away from the table, his eyes going to the ceiling, then to the walls.
Banks of instruments appeared, shimmering as if shrouded in transparent silver, but crisp and solid. They lined the walls of the chamber, but as soon as Eltyn tried to concentrate on a single area, one console or equipment bay was replaced by another, different but appearing equally solid and crisp, and the rate of change varied from moment to moment.
“They keep changing,” said Rhyana.
“We’re seeing all the equipment that’s been here…or will be…Do you think?” Faelyna slipped from her chair and moved until she was beside Eltyn.
He wasn’t certain what to think.
Echoing from the adjoining chamber came a moaning that rose into a thin and piercing scream. “No, no, NO!!!” Then there was silence.
Rhyana hurried to the archway, then turned. “Everything’s changing in here, too. Riffie’s passed out.” After a moment, she added, “There’s a door here now…a real door. Except it’s got six sides. It’s open. Sort of.”
Faelyna started forward immediately. Eltyn joined her as they stepped through the archway. He glanced at their captive, who slumped forward in the chair where he’d been restrained, and then at the hexagonal opening at the east end of the small room. The door didn’t look like an illusion or a projected image, and beyond it stretched a corridor—except that some ten or fifteen yards beyond the opening was another hexagonal door, and it was closed.
Rhyana stepped toward the slumped riffie, reached out, and touched him, looking toward the two scientist-techs. Her mouth opened, but she did not speak.
At that moment, three figures appeared, stepping through the nearer open door. Two of them had short curly brown hair and wore identical shimmering brown singlesuits with the intertwined lightning bolt insignia on their shoulders. All three wore almost resigned expressions, and the man shook his head. Then they vanished.
“They were us!” exclaimed Rhyana. “They were.”
“It could be that means if we go through the door we’ll come back,” suggested Eltyn.
“Or someone wants us to think that,” replied Faelyna.
“What else are we going to do? Stand here and wait? We won’t even be able to check outside for a good day or so, not safely.”
“Sometimes…waiting isn’t a bad option.”
“Where can we possibly go?” asked Eltyn. “The station’s been around for thousands and thousands of years, and no one’s been trapped inside yet.”
“Not that we know of.”
“There would have been traces.”
“What’s the harm of going through a door?”
“A hexagonal door that no one’s ever seen before,” she replied.
“That we know of,” he countered.
That brought a momentary smile to her lips, a smile he appreciated.
“What about the riffie?” asked Faelyna.
“You don’t have to worry about him,” said Rhyana. “He’s dead. Was about to tell you when…all that happened.”
“How could that occur? No one touched him,” Eltyn pointed out.
“Not physically,” countered Faelyna. “But he’s been brain-conditioned at least some, and…”
“You think what he saw…”
“We don’t know what he saw, but you heard that scream.”
“Saw that happen at the Apialor station,” said Rhyana. “Serves him right.”
Eltyn wasn’t totally sure about that. What choices did someone have once they were brain-conditioned? Then he shook his head. “We might as well try the door.”
Faelyna raised her eyebrows.
“More in favor of errors of action than errors of inaction.” Eltyn reached out and took her hand. The two stepped through the hexagonal opening together, Rhyana close behind them.
Eltyn turned to look back, but the door remained open.
“Eltyn…” murmured Faelyna.
He looked forward.
The entire corridor before them was fragmenting into branches and pathways, seemingly an infinite number that shifted and twisted. He swallowed and looked back…only to find that there were at least scores of overlapping hexagonal doors…and all of them were closed.
He turned to Faelyna.
“Only a door?” she asked.
“Do you pick the way or do I?”
She squeezed his hand and started forward…toward the corridor directly ahead…
42
20 Siebmonat 3123, Vaniran Hegemony
Duhyle didn’t quite use the “bigger hammer” theory to rebuild the synchronizer. He did calculate exactly how much power each component in the current assembly could take without failing, melting down, or otherwise malfunctioning. Then he started modifying. That resulted in subassemblies angling off from the body of the device.
At one point Helkyr
ia looked up from her makeshift console and at his table.
Duhyle grinned at her. “You did tell me that speed and reliability outweighed compactness and efficient design.”
She smiled back, warmly, and went back to work.
Twilight was dropping across the canal by the time he checked the last connections and cleared his throat.
“You’re finished, Kavn?”
“I hope so. And you?”
“I’ve done what I could. I’ve been waiting for you. I didn’t want to break your concentration. Is it ready?”
“As ready as I can make it. I never asked what you had in mind.”
“No, you didn’t. For that, I’m grateful. There’s a pattern in the systems, but what exactly completing it will do…of that I’m not certain.”
“You must have an idea.”
Helkyria nodded. “If Thora’s correct, and she seems to be, then gaining full control of the system might grant us access to the canal’s internal systems.”
“Ah…what does Thora have to do with that?”
“Time…There’s no way the canal can exist as it does. Therefore, it doesn’t.”
Duhyle shook his head, then abruptly stopped. “The ancients did something to place it somehow outside of time?”
“I don’t see how that’s possible, but if she’s correct, it might be possible to anchor the canal across a continuum of time, not all time, but at points across hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of years, perhaps at so many points that it would seem continuous.”
“But the energy…?”
“…had to come from somewhere.”
“Where, ser, if I might ask?” asked Symra from where she stood at the top of the ramp.
“There are a number of possibilities, but we won’t know which one unless and until the synchronizer works.”
“What do you want us to do? Captain Valakyr—”
“Like all good junior officers, she wants to do something. The question is what will be most effective. We will find out shortly.” She looked at the subcaptain. “If you’d have someone bring us some rations and something to drink…? We need a break before we test this.”
“Yes, ser.”
After Symra left, Duhyle asked, “Have you thought what we do if this doesn’t work and we get to Baeldura’s deadline?”
“I have.”
Duhyle waited.
“We refuse to give up the station. Unless we can stop them, the Aesyr won’t stop using the Hammers, even if we surrender. They’ll just keep using them to get their way. Their actions already prove that. If they’d used just one Hammer strike and held back on the others, I’d be more inclined to trust Baeldura’s word, but they’ve already used the Hammers here several times, and we have no idea where else they’ve employed them.”
“Isn’t that playing turtle?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, but the First Speaker agrees.”
“I thought she wanted us to negotiate.”
“That was before she discovered that Aesyr mobs in Asgard cut down forty Vanir with axes. Now both she and the Magistra of Security see no reason to negotiate. None of us trust the Aesyr, and certainly not Baeldura, for all of her public reputation for honesty. She may be beloved, but it’s only by the Aesyr.”
“You knew that before Baeldura made the ultimatum.”
“I did. We needed the extra time.”
Neither spoke.
Duhyle started to say more, but then heard Symra’s boots on the stone of the ramp.
“Ser…I brought the ration paks and some tea. It’s only warm…”
“That’s fine. Thank you,” offered Helkyria.
Only after he’d eaten the entire ration pak did Duhyle realize just how hungry he’d been. Then he stood and stretched, looking for somewhere to put the carton because the cycler was down on the lower level.
“I’ll take those,” offered Symra.
“Thank you.” Duhyle handed her the carton and the mug.
“It will be a while before everything’s powered up and checked,” said Helkyria. “You should be here.”
“I’ll be right back, ser.” Symra headed down the ramp with the empty cartons and mugs.
“She’d be watching and listening from the ramp anyway,” Duhyle pointed out.
Helkyria nodded. “Let’s start powering up. If this works, we won’t have that much time to figure out how to manage what we discover.”
“You were rather effective with that flaming blade,” Duhyle pointed out. “Couldn’t you try something like that?”
“Kavn…I told you. I didn’t do that. At least, I don’t remember doing it, and I have no idea how to replicate that. I’m hoping that if we can get to the next level of commands, we might be able to use the canal for directed forces that way…but I don’t know.” For a moment a combination of off-black and green colored the tips of her short hair. “System power…”
“System power on.”
“Disabler one…”
“Disabler one…removed…”
By the time Symra hurried back up the ramp and stood behind them, they had the system fully powered and were ready to employ the beefed-up synchronizer.
“Beginning search probe…” Helkyria pressed the stud.
The work space/laboratory exploded into a brilliant silver light so bright that Duhyle could see nothing, nor could he access any of the systems. He closed his eyes against the intensity that was far more than mere glare. For several moments, he thought that the light would dim. It did not. Instead the brilliance increased so much that his closed eyes began to tear.
Then the light vanished. A darkness as intensive and as intrusive as the light had been enfolded him. He wanted to protest that darkness couldn’t behave like light, that it didn’t have a wave form or photonic behavior.
That was before both heat and chill shook him so that he was burning and shivering…and plunged him into depths that were neither hot nor cold, light nor dark…
43
8 Tenmonth 1351, Unity of Caelaarn
When he woke, lying next to Maarlyna, Maertyn knew that he had to get back to his research. Yet, in some ways, the whole idea felt futile. Maarlyna, simply by being receptive to the image or the ice-sport, or whatever the woman in red happened to be, had uncovered more of a novel nature in a few moments than he’d discovered in more than a year and a half. Even before he moved, Maertyn smiled, if ruefully. He’d already enlisted her aid. Why not bring her into the research more fully? With that thought, he eased out of bed, looking back at Maarlyna, who opened her eyes at his movement and smiled sleepily.
The rest of rising, breakfasting, and beginning the day was uneventful, until Svorak appeared just after midmorning, stepping into the station and holding two items. “No messages today, excepting a letter from Shaenya’s sister, but the canal-runner driver thought you might like to see the morning newsheet from Daelmar.” He handed the single sheet to Maertyn. “Strange doings in the capital.”
Maarlyna reached out and took Maertyn’s arm. He held the sheet at a slight angle so that she could read it as he did.
…Minister of Protective Services announced that the Gaerda had discovered a wide-spread conspiracy to undermine the Unity government…recent deaths of several ministers and assistant ministers only a small part of a vast plot…Minister Tauzn petitioned the Executive Administrator to declare a state of emergency throughout the Unity…
…EA D’Onfrio rejected the petition, but Tauzn has appealed the rejection to the Unity Council…expected to consider the matter in emergency session…
Maertyn looked up from the sheet. “Very strange. Thank you, Svorak.”
“We just thought you should know. Will you be needing anything, sir?”
“Not at the moment. Perhaps later.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be working in the shed for a time if you need me.”
“That’s good to know.” Maertyn smiled, but did not say more until the lighthouse-keeper had left the station.
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Maarlyna released her hold on Maertyn’s arm. “The Council will overrule the Administrator, won’t they?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Tauzn wouldn’t have made the appeal unless he had the votes.”
“You’re likely quite correct, dearest, but there’s little we can do from here. Perhaps we should don winter jackets and walk out and observe the ocean.”
Maarlyna glanced toward the ramp leading down to the lower levels and nodded. “I’ll be just a moment. I’ll get your jacket, too. The green one?”
“The dark green one, please.”
Within a few minutes, the two were walking toward the light house overlooking the canal and the ocean. Each breath created a faint ice-mist in the still air of late morning, and an icy corona wreathed the pale early-winter sun.
“You didn’t want to say anything in the station,” Maarlyna finally offered.
“No. I don’t see any point in getting Shaenya and Svorak upset. Not yet, anyway.”
“Do you think Tauzn will come after you?”
“He might. He’s known to be vindictive.”
“He wouldn’t like the way you escaped all his agents…is that it?”
“He’s the kind who’d regard that as a personal affront, especially the fact that I managed it without killing anyone.”
“What about the lorry driver?”
“I doubt the accident killed him. The lorry wasn’t that badly smashed. I think Ashauer’s men did when Transport cleaned up the accident.” Maertyn stopped short of the worn bricks of the light house and glanced northward across the canal. All he could see beyond the icy gray waters and the gray-blue stone of the far walls were the whites of ice and snow. After several moments, he turned westward, where a few whitecaps dotted the swells of the ocean.
“I never met Tauzn,” Maarlyna said, “but the few times we encountered Administrator D’Onfrio, he seemed more concerned, more accessible.”
“D’Onfrio’s just as political, but not quite so ruthless, and the way things are now, that might be his undoing.” Maertyn continued to look out over the ocean, not really seeing it.
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