by Mark Wandrey
"Not that I can think of," she said with a straight face. Lying was a skill the Chosen cultivated from the days of their Trials. She trusted and liked Dram, but coming clean would serve no purpose here and likely damage their efforts. "What did the council think of the Law data we gave you?"
He looked at her critically for a moment and she was afraid he wouldn't drop the hacking issue. He must know it was them, by now probably half the Chosen knew it was them, and the rest likely suspected. He took a bite of his sandwich and continued. "The council ruled out an open declaration of war. Considering what we know of that squatter colony, they would never get permission. If it had been a higher order species?" Minu shuddered to think of what would have happened if Ivan had shot up a bunch of T'Chillen civilians, or even a peaceful species like the Gulla. Would the Tog have been able to protect them? "Sanctions don't seem possible either. The Rasa are too easily offended, and we're too poor to be worth much anyway. That just leaves Vendetta."
"A mini war?" He nodded gravely. "What danger is that to us? No one knows where we are. At least no one who would talk."
"There are ways of finding out." Minu took a drink and thought. If any of the Rasa were half as brilliant as Pip, it was only a matter of time.
“I better get back to work.”
Chapter 3
Julast 13th, 518 AE – 07:15
Science Branch, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
Two days after Minu's talk with Dram, all off world operations were temporarily terminated. To everyone surprise, the Tog did not complain. Then to their horror, all aliens on Bellatrix left or canceled visits. The first clue that things were heating up was when Minu turned on the morning news and saw the normally inactive Tranquility Portal with lines of aliens waiting. Mostly Tog and Beezer with a scattering of others species as well. They were all leaving as quickly as possible.
"What's going on?" Minu asked Pip as she trotted into the lab, coffee in hand.
"Last one out is stuck with the bill," he said. Her whole team was there watching a broadcast on the big wall monitor. Normally she'd protest the abuse of their resources, today it seemed the thing to do. The line at the Tranquility Portal steadily grew smaller, a tight knit assemblage of Beezer were pressing in through the door and leaving behind only the curious human residents and a flock of reporters. Word traveled fast of the unprecedented event.
"The civil authority has no clue, does it?" Minu asked the room.
"None," Pip answered. She knew he would know. "Most Chosen operations aren't what you'd call a secret. I've talked about the whole Rasa thing to people and family, most of what we do just never quite makes news to the civies. Your beamcaster made news because it cost them money. This? Please. The average idiot won't care until we have a real war on our hands. Dead and dying Chosen are only good for human interest pieces published during Founders Day celebrations."
Minu nodded her head and watched a talking head hypothesizing on what might be the reason for the sudden departure. Had a rare disease broken out on the world and no one informed the populace? One moron from New Jerusalem suggested that Bellatrix was about to be destroyed like earth. Minu hoped that rumor wouldn't grow wings. Her communicator went off and she answered it.
"Command bunker ASAP," Dram ordered, then hung up without waiting for a reply.
Minu was heading for the door in an instant. "Everyone in full field kits and stay put until I get back!" she said over her shoulder as she ran, having to yell the last. As she was crossing the building to the secure bunker access her communicator went off. "Chosen Alma."
"It's me," Pip's voice came at her.
"Wasn't my orders clear enough? I have a meeting in the bunker." She came to a sliding stop next to another group of Chosen waiting. The indicator over the nearest lift showed a car arriving in ten seconds. "You've got ten seconds."
"Your orders were clear," he snapped, "but not to Mandi. She wants to go home if there is going to be some fighting."
"She thinks she'll be safer at her apartment in Chelan?"
"So it would seem."
Minu spotted a man with three green stars waiting with her and directed a question to him. "Civilian shuttles to Chelan still running?"
"One leaving in five minutes," he answered from memory, "and if we're going on alert, it will be the last."
"Thanks," she said and spoke into her communicator. "If she wants to go, fine. Tell her five minutes for the last shuttle to Chelan."
"We might need her here if we need to work on weapons."
The floor vibrated and a bell rang to announce the cars arrival, the doors opening with a hiss. "Fuck her," Minu said, "we'll be better off without the bitching."
Minu could hear Mandi screaming in the background. Pip must have had her on speaker. “Tell that bitch she can go to hell!” Minu climbed into the car, the thick concrete and metal effectively cut off any more conversation.
A half hour later Minu was taking a seat assigned behind Jasmine. She would much rather have sat next to Dram, or even Jacob. Though she'd come to an agreement of sorts with the raven haired Peninsula woman, there was still no love lost between the them. She worked for Science, so with Jasmine she sat. The thin figure of Jasmine turned when she came in and she spoke. "Are the guns finished?"
"No," Minu said plainly. "We might be ready to test in a week..."
"Okay," Jasmine said. She looked resigned to the facts as the situation dictated them. "Keep working through this, whatever is going on. Maybe we'll get lucky."
"We'll try."
"Attention everyone," Dram's deep voice boomed. The semicircular bunker command center was as full as she'd ever seen it. Fully two hundred Chosen crowded into half that many chairs. Dozens stood along the back wall. The slightly curved wall length display was on standby, only displaying the seldom seen five pointed star logo of the Chosen, each point colored for a different branch of service. With nothing to do but wait she watched the star rotate slowly on three axis. Once the room settled down Dram spoke again. "First Among the Chosen, Jacob Bentley."
There was polite applause as he entered the room to stand before the rotating logo and face all the Chosen. "I'm sure you are all aware of the Rasa incident ten days ago? As we have feared, it was a flash point in our undeclared hostilities." From a desk he picked up a device similar to a portal control rod and gestured over his shoulder. The logo disappeared and was replaced by a camera image of the Minsk Portal. It was surrounded by retracted conveyor arms, the handiwork of Cherise and her people. The camera faced almost edge on to the portal. Visible in the scene were a pair of green star Chosen and numerous civilians all talking. "What you are seeing transpired four hours ago," Jacob said as the scene continued to play out. The portal activated and seemed to surprise all those present. Several of them looked at wrist watches and consulted tablets, obviously wondering if they'd forgotten a scheduled shipment.
While they tried to figure out who would be activating the portal, a single Rasa jumped through. It was dressed in armor similar to what Minu had seen on GBX2334, only this armor was more ornate with inlays of precious metal and gems. Several in the room exclaimed in surprise and angry yells rose as the Rasa raised a hand-weapon and shot the nearest person, one of the Chosen, in the head. Though not combat tested scouts, the surviving Chosen responded instantly and rushed the alien while the civilians ran for their lives. It was tackled and bore to the ground by the man, then disarmed. "Why didn't it keep shooting?" Minu said more to herself. Another Chosen within hearing range turned to her and nodded his head in agreement. Why indeed?
"The Chosen there were unarmed, and it turned out to be a good thing. This Rasa's attack was a symbolic one. An ancient Concordia ritual to announce commencement of an armed aggression. The Chosen’s death was a byproduct, only blood needed to be shed. It was tough luck that he was unarmored. If our portal was properly defended he would have been simply neutralized." The scene changed to the now unarmored Rasa sitting passively (though uncomfort
ably) in a human made chair. His armor was being examined by several silver star Chosen and Minu could now see that every inch of the armor was covered in Concordia script. "The armor, like his mission, is ritual. On it is a notice that we are under Vendetta." Minu took a deep breath that whistled out through her teeth. "It states the dates and conditions of the vendetta. We already had some good research provided by Chosen Minu Alma so we know that had we killed the messenger, we would have escalated the hostilities." Minu wished she'd remembered that part.
"How the hell were we supposed to know all this?" asked one of the only blue star Chosen in the room. His two stars shone in the dim light as did the anger on his face. “The damned Tog keep us so ignorant that we're going to kill ourselves by accident some day.
"It isn't something that 'young' species usually encounter," Jacob answered, a courtesy to one of his branch commanders. "At least that is what Z'Kal said before hse left." If the Rasa attacking on the screen hadn't caused an uproar, that news surely did. Z'Kal was like the gatekeeper to the Tog's Concordia knowledge, and as a sort of liaison to the Tog themselves. If hse left, it meant they were truly alone. "As of the time of this meeting, we believe there are no more aliens on the planet Bellatrix. According to this proclamation on the armor, hostilities will commence within a few hours of now, and continue for five days."
He was forced to wait for several minutes as the room filled with conversations, some shouts and more than a few harsh words directed between branches of the service. Minu saw more than one older Chosen staring at her with barely concealed anger and knew they likely blamed her for the events leading up to this, and secretly she blamed herself as well.
Eventually Dram managed to regain order and allow his boss to continue. "We only have two scout teams off world, both overdue. They may be cut off because of the vendetta and if that is the case they will be waiting it out on one of the neutral frontier worlds." Minu felt a stab of worry for Christian and his team. "I am having Dram draw up a duty roster and my office will begin mailing out assignments. We are on alert and war footing. I know many of you haven't fired a weapon since training so I am creating combat teams centered around our best trained, most experienced combat personnel. Five days might seem like a long time, but we have the upper hand. All except three portals are shut down and cannot be used, and one of those is here and already heavily defended. Combat teams will be leaving for the other two portals in one hour.
"We only have a few hours and a lot to do. Please return to your offices and await assignment."
"What about the Tog?" an anonymous Chosen asked, "Are they going to help?"
"By the rules of Vendetta, we're on our own." Considering how loud the room had been a few minutes ago, the silence that descended as they left was deafening.
***
Julast 13th, 518 AE – 08:00
Science Branch, Chosen Headquarters, Steven’s Pass
Minu returned to her team and gave them the full briefing. Pip was busily back to work having already gotten all the details through other people at the meeting. Mandi was of course gone. Terry and Alijah took it all in stride. Others might be surprised at this turn of events, not these four Chosen.
By the time she was done explaining the situation the email with duty rosters and team assignments arrived. She was to keep her current assignment as well as Gregg and Aaron who'd been working with her regularly in weapons development anyway. As if on cue, the two scouts appeared at the door. They had field kits over their shoulders and were armed with beamcasters. "This where the fun begins?" Gregg chuckled when he saw the surprised looks on Terry and Alijah's faces.
"Only in your pants," Pip said and they all laughed. With Terry and Alijah's limited experience, it only made sense for the two scouts to be assigned in a combat situation.
"All right, we have portal duty in four hours,” Minu told them, “so let’s get as much done as possible between now and then."
The time passed and no attack materialized. Minu continued to help anyone who asked and tried no to look as nervous as she felt. Aaron and Gregg played cards and joked, the others carried on their work. Pip even got another civilian engineer (one that hadn't run away to hide) to fill in for Mandi during the alert. Before anyone realized, it was their turn at portal duty.
For the next four hours they were the trip line, the first line of defense, a meat shield. Heavy beamcasters sat four wide within view of the active side of the portal and Minu deployed her people at all the exits. That left her free to move about with no assigned position. But she quickly got bored just wandering around the grassy quad. She tried doing some of her college course work, and couldn't concentrate. Same for their research. Only Pip seemed unaffected as he continued to work with tablets from a improvised desk to one side of the beamcaster he'd been assigned. Minu didn't know why she bothered bringing him. If they were attacked he might not even notice.
She walked into the open air courtyard to look at the portal, running a hand along the pearly iridescent dais. Before she realized she was going to do it, she climbed to the top step and sat cross legged. Just like with Jovich months ago, she stared at the swirling patterns of lights and began to let go. Much quicker than the first time, she was floating inside the portal itself.
This really is like swimming, she thought as she drifted through the ethereal environment. The swirling patterns of lights reminded her of deep space nebula, or distant galaxies viewed through a telescope. They seemed to move of their own volition, she could feel no wind moving. Of course there was no wind, stupid, it's a dream.
"What is a dream?" asked a familiar voice in her head.
"You are a dream," she said in replied.
"I simply am."
"Glad to see you agree with me," she said and chuckled at her own joke.
"Danger comes," the mysterious voice said. Minu could just see the spider like apparition floating toward her. Like before, its circle of almost human eyes sent a shiver up her spine.
Why is this so familiar? she asked herself. "Okay, I'll bite. What sort of danger?"
"Rasa."
The one word answer brought a jolt of fear, then resolve. "How many, how soon, where?"
"Your kind are made of questions." It almost sounded like an accusation. The creature was the clearest she'd ever seen. For the first time Minu could make out waving sensory organs around the eyes. Like a spider, it had eight limbs, four looked like legs, but the other four were different. These four were shorter, like a crabs claws, though they didn't end in pincers. When you tried to focus on the ends of those claws they got smaller, and smaller, until your brain began to itch trying to focus on the tip. What the hell?
"We are an inquisitive people,” she said, trying to shake off that uneasy feeling. “What are you called?" She immediately was afraid it would become angry at yet another question. It didn't.
"You named us Weavers."
"I named you? Until a year ago I'd never seen you before."
"Months, weeks, days, minutes, seconds, years, eons, eternity, these are concepts that do no affect us."
"Still you know of them."
"We know them from you."
Minu felt her mouth snap shut. Was it reading her mind?
"I hear your thoughts," came the reply and she tried not to scream. The eyes regarded her almost curiously, one or two occasionally blinking. "Made of questions and fear, so unlike before. The winds of fate have treated you poorly."
"Can you answer my earlier questions about the Rasa?"
"The number is four thousand that is, will, have come, and more preparing. How soon is a question we cannot answer. Time is a construct to us, not a moving thing. Where, is your location, the portal you rest on and speak with us through, and two others portals."
Minu tried to jump away from the portal. All that happened was her body spun around in the void. She felt through a tiny tendril of awareness that her body had not moved at all. She concentrated as hard as she could and managed to see through her
real eyes for a moment. Aaron was a few meters away, he was running toward her, frozen in mid stride, curiously suspended in midair with a look of terror on his face. I am somehow frozen in time, she realized.
"Do not fear, they cannot harm you."
"You are doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"Stopping time."
"Time does not work for us the way it does for you. It is necessary to alter your perceptions in order to speak with you. It has always been such with your kind. Better than others, you can speak with us. Some hear, they do not really understand."
The Weaver was becoming steadily more understandable the longer they interacted. From reading my mind, she thought and shivered. "So you're saying that you changed my perception of time to speak to me? Why can't you just talk through the portal somehow? Are you alive in side of it?"
"We are not a living being as you understand it, we are not from your universe."
"What?"
"We are not from your universe. I can see from your mind that this will not be something you can yet understand. We would like to converse with the being known as Pip." Minu felt snubbed. "You needn't feel the way you do, he is just of a different order of intelligence. Does a comet envy a star? They both shine brightly, but differently."
She was flattered and insulted at the same time, a very strange sensation. Which was she, comet or star? "How do you know Pip?"
"First from your mind, then as he travels through the portals. We try to speak to him, but he does not make himself available like you and a few others of your kind."
"The meditation," Minu whispered.
"This incident has nearly passed. The Rasa will arrive."