Nimbus

by Jacey Bedford

  The collected indrawn breaths were audible.

  Ben turned to the Vraxos pilots. “What’s your take on it?”

  “Real,” Durand said.

  Morlen nodded. “Real, but if you ignore them, they’ll ignore you.”

  “And how has that worked for you so far?”

  “All right, mostly, though there was a time when one of those big ones touched me. That was tough to ignore.”

  “You mean the big ones that look like this?” Ben projected a drawing of the void dragon on to the wall.

  “Yeah, that’s the one.”

  Ben looked at his class. “Does anyone not recognize this?”

  No one answered.

  “Good. The other thing you need to know is that nothing we take in with us is real in foldspace. It’s a different dimension. The laws of physics don’t work.” He let that sink in for a few moments. “If you believe you can breathe and survive in foldspace without an EVA suit, then you can. If you believe you can’t, you won’t. If you believe the walls of your ship are insubstantial, then they will be.”

  “That’s nuts.”

  Ben glanced at his list to see who’d said that. “Dorman, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, sir, Lois Dorman. Previously of Alphacorp. Assigned to work the Blacklock run. When the colony went independent, they bought my contract.”

  “We’ll be going into the Folds soon. Tell me if you still think it’s nuts when we come back. You can all pilot a ship through the jump gate system and keep on track between gates, navigating by the beacons. Flying a jumpship is a sideways step from that. You won’t be using beacons, you’ll be using your own innate navigational talent to find the line to your destination. You guys have a head start. You’re sensitive to the Folds and foldspace creatures. Once you’ve learned the trick of finding the line, you’re going to be as safe as anyone can be in the Folds.”

  He explained his theory to them that the frequently used lines between jump gates had left a trail of platinum pollution which was deadly to the Nimbus, but also acted as a beacon for it. “Think of it as tracing a bad smell to its source.”

  “Sorry,” Dorman said. “You’re getting ahead of me. What’s a nimbus?”

  So he told them.

  When he’d finished, all ten of them sat in stunned silence.

  “Questions?” he asked.

  “So we’re going to be flying into foldspace where a creature from another dimension waits to trap us, weaponize us, and send us back to wreak havoc?”

  “Yes, exactly like it’s always been, had you but known it. The difference this time is that you won’t be using the jump gates, so the statistical chances of you ending up as Nimbus bait are much lower. Say right now if you want out. There are some jobs going in the platinum processing plant on Olyanda. If you want to continue to fly, this is your new reality. It’s no different from your old reality except now you know about it.”

  He gave them a moment to let the facts sink in. “I can take five of you at a time on the flight deck.” He looked at his list again. “Durand, Stratton, Knox, Badel, and Dorman. The rest of you will take a turn next time out. In the meantime, you’ll be stationed at different points around the ship. You may or may not see anything. Your job is to look hard at whatever comes your way. If any of you spot a darkness developing, you don’t go near it and you yell as loud and as long as you can. Understood?”

  “What happens if we see it?” Morlen asked.

  “We get out of foldspace as quickly as we can before it does any damage. It grows quite slowly at first, so speed is on our side. My guess is that it doesn’t experience time in a linear way as we do. You can debate that at your leisure. Let’s get started.”

  With Lynda Munene on comms, Ben sat at the systems station and let Dorman take Solar Wind out of Port 46. She was a competent pilot and at no time did he have the urge to toss her out of the command chair and take it himself. The look on her face told him all he needed to know. She loved having Solar Wind under her control.

  Welcome to my world, he thought.

  He let each pilot in turn take the helm and get a feel for the ship before taking over for the first jump into the Folds.

  *Lynda, can you please join us all in a gestalt?*

  Lynda didn’t have the same sure touch that Cara did, but she did the job. Ben and his five students connected as he took over the pilot’s chair and felt his way into the Solar Wind’s jump drive.

  *I’m going to take us into the Folds and straight out again. See if you can all follow me.*

  In and out again, like a needle stitching through fabric.

  *Are you all with me so far?* Ben asked.

  They all were.

  *Right. Again. Twice this time.*

  He repeated the dips in and out of foldspace several times.

  *Everyone good with that?*

  They were.

  *All right. One at a time. Try it for yourselves. Straight in and straight out again.*

  Dorman went first and, despite her skepticism, made a clean job of the entry and the exit. Badel faltered, but Ben gave her another chance and she did it successfully the second time. Stratton, Knox, and Durand completed the maneuver competently but without flair. That was okay. Competence was what he required.

  *Now we’re going to stay in the Folds and learn to look for the line to where we need to be. In this case we’ll be looking for the line to Crossways. From now on you can expect visitors: otter-kind, void dragons, or possibly both.*

  *Not the Nimbus?* Dorman asked.

  *I sincerely hope not.*

  • • •

  With a rush Ben takes Solar Wind into foldspace. This time all that happens is that the flight deck light dips. Ben searches for the line to Crossways, finds it, and pops them out of the Folds at a distance of some five hundred klicks.

  • • •

  “Don’t get too close,” Ben said. “I have enough trouble with Crossways control without you all ruining my reputation as a teacher. Right, who wants to try that?”

  This time Josette Badel volunteered and Ben relinquished Solar Wind to her. Linked to all of them once more by Lynda, Ben followed her thoughts as she took Solar Wind over the threshold.

  • • •

  This time the negative light effect fills the flight deck with reversed images in black and white. That’s no problem. These guys are all used to the effects of the Folds. It’s not as if they’re inexperienced, even though they’ve only used jump gates up to now.

  Ben follows Badel’s thought patterns as she looks for the line to Crossways—looks but doesn’t find. He gets a wave of panic from her.

  “Two minutes.” Lynda calls.

  *I should be able to—* Badel’s thoughts stall as the void dragon pushes its snout through the bulkhead.

  OLIVIA MAY MARLING, it says.

  *Gone,* Ben replies. They are still connected so all his students can follow the conversation.

  MAAAXXX. MOMMM.

  *Gone. They’ve all gone.* Ben puts the feeling of loss upfront.

  NEED. TALK. LEARN.

  Ben’s already beginning to think it’s learning more words. Perhaps Liv started the process. Now it has some words, it might be possible to teach it others.

  *Where’s the bad thing, the Nimbus?* Ben asks.

  NIMBUS.

  *Yes, the bad thing. Shadow. Cloud.*

  OVER THERE.

  It’s a bit like a child’s version of time being yesterday, today, and tomorrow for past, present, and future. Over there. In dragon-speak it means not here, but it doesn’t mean a specific place. He hopes it means not here.

  He tries an abstract question. *Bad thing. Nimbus, can you speak to it?*

  BAD THING. NIMBUS. SILVER. HURT.

  *Yes. We didn’t know. We know now. Can you speak to it?*
>
  The void dragon struggles with the concept.

  TOYS, it says.

  Now Ben is struggling with the concept until he remembers Liv likened the humans to toys controlled by the Nimbus. *Can the toys speak to the bad thing?*

  TOYS SPEAK. YES.

  *Where are the toys? Where does the bad thing keep the toys?*

  HERE.

  *Here?*

  YES.

  *Now?*

  YESTERDAY. TOMORROW. NOW.

  *Time?*

  It asks, *?*

  Ben tries to imagine a sequence of things happening one after the other. He imagines humans being born, growing up, growing old, dying. He imagines a star forming, shining brightly, swelling to become a red giant, dwindling to a black dwarf, or becoming a super-giant and exploding in a supernova as it collapses under its own weight.

  *Time. Things pass.*

  NO.

  *You mean there’s no such thing as time?*

  It blinks at him as if some things are so obvious they don’t need saying.

  “Four minutes,” Lynda calls.

  “Okay. Let’s get out of here. Badel, you can do this. Look for the line to Crossways. There, that’s it.”

  As if falling down a rabbit hole, they tumble into realspace.

  • • •

  Ben looked at his students. Their faces revealed several different stages of shock and awe. “Questions?” he asked.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  HUB

  CARA WAS ON DUTY WHEN SHE PICKED UP news on the tel-net of a disaster at the Pinch Point Hub.

  “No, no, no,” she said, pushing open the cubicle door and finding Wenna at her desk. “Ben was right!”

  “What? What’s happened?” Wenna pushed her chair back.

  “Pinch Point Hub.” Cara’s voice caught in her throat. “It’s gone dark. No communications, telepathic or otherwise. It looks like it’s been hit.”

  It took less than an hour for the news broadcasts to carry the story. The hub, an old toroidal station set between five jump gates had been destroyed by forces unknown according to the news broadcasts.

  Ben was out on a training flight with his student pilots. Cara contacted him and told him the news.

  *It’s begun,* Ben said. *Can you connect me with Jessop?*

  *Of course.*

  Jessop was awake. Cara would like to bet every Monitor within reach of a news net was awake regardless of the hour.

  *I told you the hubs would be a target,* Ben said. *What’s happening, Jess?*

  *Right now, they’re officially blaming pirates.*

  *But it’s not, is it?*

  *Not unless the pirates had access to a state-of-the-art battleship belonging to the Dominion Group, lost in the Folds five years ago. The Star of India is one of the most heavily armed ships in her class and Admiral Henney was on board—a master tactician. The attack on the hub was recognizably his style.*

  *Has Commissioner Rodriguez pressed this home with the megacorps? Has anyone even talked about closing the gates?*

  *I’m not that high up, Ben. You can’t expect—*

  *But you haven’t heard anything?*

  *No. Sorry.*

  *Let me know if you do.*

  Ben signed off.

  *Cara, can you trace Rodriguez’s Telepath. Was it Sweeting?*

  *Yes, I should be able to. Stand by.*

  She let her mind range out. Having contacted Rodriguez via Sweeting once before, it should be simple to do it again, but her implant refused to handshake with Sweeting’s, possibly because he was working flat-out to keep Rodriguez abreast of the news as it came in from Pinch Point. She kept trying. Eventually, she made a solid contact and connected Ben with Commissioner Rodriguez.

  *Commissioner, I warned you. All the hubs are vulnerable, as are the busiest gates.*

  *Benjamin, it’s been suggested you’ve deliberately done this—attacked a hub—to give credence to your wild ideas.*

  *Oh, right. I’m to blame now. According to Captain Jessop, a battleship belonging to the Dominion Group destroyed the station.*

  *That ship went missing only five years ago. How do we know the pirates from Crossways weren’t to blame?*

  *It makes a neat story if you want to spin it that way, but Crossways would never have had the firepower to steal a battleship like the Star of India—destroy it, maybe, with a concerted effort and ten ships working together, but not steal it in a usable condition. Five years ago, Chaliss was in charge. Crossways didn’t have big ideas, and I was still a loyal employee of the Trust. Have you sent investigators?*

  *One ship.*

  *And?*

  *We can’t raise them.*

  *So you think the Star of India is out there waiting to take out the investigators.*

  *And possibly any other ships that come through the gates.*

  Cara heard Ben swear, but he recovered quickly. *You need to close or destroy all five Pinch Point jump gates before more ships stumble through. It’s likely the Nimbus is lying in wait for ships in foldspace, and the Star of India in realspace. Hold all traffic.*

  *We’re doing that now, but there are three ships in foldspace with flight plans filed.*

  *How long since they passed through an outward gate?*Ben asked.

  *An hour or more.*

  *Then, I’m sorry, you’ve probably lost them.*

  *They might yet—*

  *What kind of firepower can you field?*

  *Two battlewagons. They might not be enough.*

  *Would the Howling Wolf help?*

  *Certainly would.*

  Cara let the call drop. Before Ben could ask, she cut in. *I know. Contact Oleg Staple for the Howling Wolf.*

  *Thanks. I’m going to see what it will take to destroy those gates.*

  Cara’s guts turned a lopsided somersault. Why couldn’t Ben stay safe for a change?

  *With a crew of students?* she said.

  *Qualified pilots and Navigators, just not converted to jumpships yet. They’ll be fine. Have to learn sometime.*

  Just like Ben. Throw them in at the deep end!

  Ben quickly explained the situation to his pilots. He was grateful he had his advanced group which included both Vraxos pilots: Caleb Morlen and Chloe Durand, as well as Rory Stratton, Josette Badel, and Tamara Knox, who had proved to be a fast learner after a shaky start. Lynda Munene was on comms again—he wished it had been Cara, but Lynda was good at her job and unflappable. Ed Dobson was in engineering as usual.

  “Caleb and Jo, man the tactical stations, please. Rory—systems. Tam—copilot.”

  “What about me?” Chloe asked.

  “Watch for the Nimbus on all screens, internal and external. Stay safe. If it all goes to shit, get the ship and the survivors home.”

  She swallowed hard and nodded.

  “If we get through this, you’ve all graduated.”

  “You didn’t tell us the final exam would be a practical one,” Tam said.

  “I like to spring surprises. Lynda, connect me with Cara, please.”

  *Ben?* Cara was in his head almost immediately. She took over the link, which made it private, and Lynda dropped out tactfully.

  *Going to take a look at Pinch Point from the foldspace side of the gates.*

  *You know the Nimbus will be waiting.*

  *Seems likely.*

  *Howling Wolf has gone to assist the two Monitor battlewagons.*

  *Good.*

  *Will it take three ships to contain the Star of India?*

  *It could.*

  *Are you going to make it four?*

  *That’s not my plan. There are three ships in the Folds on their way to Pinch Point. It’s probably too late already, but I’m going to see if they’re retrievable.*

 
*And also going to see if you can take out the jump gates.*

  *Probably. We’ll be out of touch as soon as we’re in the Folds.*

  *I know.*

  *I wanted to say I wish you were here with me.*

  *Oh, thanks, on a suicide mission.*

  *That’s not what I—*

  *I know.*

  *I’m glad you’re safe,* he said. *If something happens—*

  *It had better not. That’s an order.*

  *Yes, ma’am.*

  He pulled out of the conversation before he could start to babble about being sorry, and loving her, and all the stuff he should have said to her face. He wasn’t sure he could keep his mental voice steady, so they hit the Folds without warning.

  • • •

  There’s a faint greenish cast to foldspace this time and Ben is almost sure he can smell burning, but he checks the panel by his left hand and there are no warning lights. Okay, that’s a win.

  He finds the line to Pinch Point’s nearest gate. From this side, it doesn’t look like a gate. It looks like a potential rift in space and time. He can see a faint haze of silver. He’s sure he shouldn’t be able to see platinum in such minute concentrations, but he can not only see it, he can smell it. It smells like death.

  “Oh, shit.”

  “What’s up?” Chloe asks.

  “Can you see that trail of pollution on the screen?”

  “By the gate.”

  “That’s the one. Are there any ships on the screens?”

  “Negative,” Rory says.

  “Nothing.” Chloe backs him up.

  “Then let’s close this gate down.”

  Ben brings Solar Wind out of the Folds barely a hundred meters from the active gate.

  • • •

  About two hundred klicks away the remains of Pinch Point Hub float serenely. They won’t be so serene from closer up. He can see five ships where he only expected four. From this distance, the battle that’s raging looks small.

  *We see you, Solar Wind,* the Telepath from Howling Wolf broadcast.

  *Status, Howling Wolf,* Lynda responded.

  *Monitor battlewagon, Georgia, has taken a hit to her starboard maneuvering thrusters. MB Washington is covering her six. Star of India has brought a plus one to the party via Jump Gate Three.*