“It’s hard to imagine that with all the firepower we combine, that any faction could be a threat.”
“I know what you mean. That’s what really concerns me. As I’ve said before, there had to have been sentients every bit as resourceful as us in every universe they’ve obliterated.”
“It does give one pause.”
He rocked on his heels a moment. “Pause to consider death. As you know, we have not faced it for several eternities. Frankly, I think we stopped believing that we might stop existing.” After a second, he went on. “The fact is one does not have to accept or understand death to experience it. Dying has never been a consensual process. But still, when it seems to have one in its sights…”
“It’s sobering and it’s unavoidably distracting.”
He smiled, something I couldn’t remember him doing. “Yes. Damn it, it is. I’ve forgotten what is what is to be told what to do.”
“So, you and your father have both avoided your wives for a very long time?”
“I think they’ve been avoiding us, but that’s another topic. Come, let’s find some nufe.” He rapped me on the back and led me away.
I guess when you face your own mortality, you prefer to do it with whoever is as close to a friend as you have. Well, that and strong drink. Never face death without it.
TWENTY-NINE
It didn’t take long to find out what was in store for our universe. I was relatively pissed about that aspect. I hoped their time and our time would be different enough that it would take forever for them to hit. Maybe the Last Nightmare would lose interest? No such fucking luck.
I was back on Exeter only two days after the conference when the shit not only hit the fan, the shit destroyed the fan, the wall it was plugged into, and the power company generating the electricity. Man, the Last Nightmare was aptly named. I had to give them their due there. They were not bad news. They were the end of news.
Out of the blue, I got a signal in my head from Wrath. Form, I have a message from Master Form Yibitriander.
Never heard him called that before. I guess in times of war, titles become important again.
What?
He says to contact him immediately. The Last Nightmare has begun.
You mean the Last Nightmare has attacked?
Both. Form, that is why they are referred to as the…
End the lecture and patch me though.
Form.
Jon, they’ve begun. For whatever reason, they’ve appeared in the Zaltat Quadrant. Sorry, they hit the Churell.
Okay, I’ll alert the other androids, and we’ll be right…
No. No need. The Churell no longer exist. There’s no alliance to defend.
You have got to be kidding me.
I wish I was.
What happened? When did they attack?
By your clock, ten minutes ago.
Shit.
Seven minutes ago, I received the Churell’s distress call. As of four minutes ago, I lost all contact with them. I sent one vortex to see what happened. They were to relay back enemy numbers, interface with the Churell, and help me decide where to commit the majority of our forces.
And?
And Oxisanna reported back to me that there was nothing.
Nothing what? What does that mean?
She said outside her vortex there was no space-time. There was no matter and no energy. Even the quantum flux of vacuum energy had ceased.
That’s impossible. What you just said is impossible. She must be wrong, or she cracked under the pressure. Where was the space-time? What happened to the substance of space?
She cannot tell. It is as if it never was; it never existed.
I’ll get Toño and Carlos. We need to examine the region. There may be some clues, some hint as to what happened.
I would advise against it.
Why? We need to look for at least the trace remnants.
There’s nothing there to study.
How did she know where to go if there wasn’t any where to go? I do believe we’re talking gibberish here, my friend.
Her vortex took the coordinates she requested and folded space-time to access a point in what was the void. All the vortex could do was connect to the last real point in the direction it was told to go. That’s where she contacted me from—the edge of nothingness.
Then what did she do?
She ordered the vortex to move into the emptiness.
And?
And she no longer exists. My dear friend of one and a half million years is gone.
But how? If there was nothing there, how could it hurt her?
I have no idea. Yes, theoretically she should have moved into the space-time and constituted existence. For lack of a better term, she should have reanimated to void.
But she didn’t?
No. She joined it. I can only assume either the Last Nightmare was still present or there was a lingering effect. Something caused her to unexist.
I was stunned silent. What had happened could not have happened. There could be no annihilation like that.
I’m going in alone.
No, Jon, you can’t. You’re too valuable.
Yib, this is war. Everyone’s expendable. Especially in this war.
Jon, I can’t lose you.
Wow. Didn’t see that one coming.
Ah, Yib, we’re good pals and all, but I’m betting you can live without me.
He was silent a second.
I can’t lose you because you remind me of myself before I became so ghastly intolerable. Before I lost my humanity.
Ah, Yib, you mean you lost your Deavoriathity. You’re not human. You know that, right?
I mean what I said. There never was such a thing as…as what you said. But there was a time, forever ago, when I too possessed humanity. I see myself in you, and I don’t want to lose it again for good.
Seriously, I’m flattered. But I’m going. I need to touch base with those two, I’ll say good bye to my family, and then I’m going.
There was silence.
Yib, you there?
A dissociative panic set in like I was struck by lightning. Were they gone too? Then I felt a faint nausea. Yibitriander’s vortex was right next to me. He stepped out.
“I’ll be here when you’re ready. We’re both going. Please hurry. I don’t want to chicken out.”
“Chicken out? You people can’t say…”
“We do now. Thanks, Jon.” He swished his hands at me. “Go.”
I called Toño in his head. I ran down what Yibitriander had told me and asked him to alert Carlos and meet us at Wrath ASAP.
Man, oh man. I’d said my last good bye to Sapale before the Berrillians attacked. I thought it would be me doing the dying, but it was harder than hard. Doing it again, especially to my kids? Crap. When I got my hands around the neck of one of the Nightmare, I was going to make it suffer.
The three men were waiting for me when I returned a few minutes later.
“We’ve decided we’ll all go,” said Toño preemptively.
“No, you’re not,” I said flatly.
“Jon, you’re not…”
“Yes, in fact, I am in charge of you two eggheads. I’m a four-star general in a time of war. Under martial law, I own you.”
“He’s going,” whined Toño.
“My jurisdiction falls just short of the planet Oowaoa. That and he’s meaner than me. He goes and you two stay. Period.”
Toño rested a hand on my shoulder. “Jon, why?”
“Simple. He’s got a family to look after.” I pointed to Carlos.
“And me? I don’t.”
“Toño, you son of a gun, someone who knows his ass from a hole in the ground has to be here when the big bad guys attack. The lives of everyone will depend on it.”
“Wh…are you saying I don’t…” Carlos was freaking hot.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying. Once the fighting begins, your thoughts will be with that lovely family, and you will bec
ome clueless.”
“You have a family,” Carlos accused more than stated.
“Yes, and I’m a jet-jockey. I’ve been through more wars than I can recall, let alone battles. This is what I do. I’m hard wired.”
“No, you’re not. I was there when you were wired.” Carlos thought for a mini-second about what he’d just said, and he began to laugh through his nose. He laughed so hard he doubled over. Slowly, Toño, then me, then even Yibitriander joined in. We must have been quite the sight.
After a minute, Yibitriander’s laughing stopped, and he asked, “Why are we laughing?”
Of course, that brought a second, louder round of giggles and chuckles.
“I was being concrete,” said Carlos, “while Jon was being allegorical concerning his wiring.”
Yibitriander gave a great belly laugh. “You people think that’s funny? When this is over, I’ll tell you something really funny.”
We did all calm down. Eventually. “I think it’s time we go,” I said gasping a bit.
“Yes. We must investigate this attack before the next one comes,” agreed Yibitriander.
“Very well. And I will keep the mental picture of Toño’s ass not being a hole in the ground in mind, should the worst should happen,” said a now serious Carlos. “It will definitely keep me sober.”
“Jon, if I didn’t love you so much, I’d hate you more than the Nightmare. Now you have my best friend and closest associate picturing my ass. This will make working productively most challenging,” said Toño barely able contain a laugh. “I’ll let you know when you return.”
We all bumped shoulders. Yibitriander and I entered Wrath, and we were gone.
I had Wrath take us to a point as close to where Oxisanna entered the absolute void as possible. Looking through five walls I saw stars and nebulae like normal. Out the front wall, there was nothing. I don’t mean blackness. I mean nothing. It’s what you see out of the back of your head. Not blackness, but nothing at all. I immediately had vertigo, even though I’m sure that was impossible. I felt like a young child would standing on a diving board fifty meters above a half-filled pool.
“This is unprecedented,” Yibitriander said quietly. “I wouldn't have thought this could exist. There’s nothing out there.”
Fortunately, all my training kicked in. “Let’s get some data back to the boys,” I said.
“Yes. I’ll work with Wrath, you interface with Al,” responded Yibitriander snapping to attention.
Al, what do you read out there?
Nothing, Captain.
Is there any radiation, any cosmic rays, and EM signal at all?
None.
How about vacuum energy? There has to be that.
Negative.
But, Al, in any space, virtual particles pop in and out constantly. Even if this space was cleared by the Nightmare, new particles would have to appear. They couldn’t know what happened before they existed.
I agree, but that does not mean they are there.
Al, there’s a flashlight near the main cargo bay hatch. The one on the wall.
Yes. Would you like to review the rest of ship’s stores now, Pilot? Seems as good a time as any, right?
No, you electronic moron. Turn it on and throw it into the void. Make sure it rotates in a horizontal plane one time per second.
And then we’ll review ship’s stores, minus a wasted flashlight? I think you’re due for a tune-up, Pilot.
Do it. I want to probe how dense the void is. It seems a cheap and easy enough way to me.
Oh my.
What?
I find myself in agreement. Do you know what that means?
No.
We both need a tune-up. Flashlight away.
I watched as the torch spun slowly toward the void. It faded very gradually and then it disappeared completely.
That seems odd.
What does, Captain?
It faded away. Why didn’t it just vanish?
Why should it? We are not familiar with what it is the Last Nightmare does.
I don’t know. I rubbed my chin. I would have presupposed the nothingness was there, but anything added to it would cause existence to reemerge.
Their effect on space-time would seem to persist then.
But how?
Again, we do not know their technology, only that it is monumentally destructive.
True, but I’m trained to think about cause and effect. The reverse logic applies. Where you observe an effect, there must be a cause—an active cause.
What are you suggesting?
They’re still in there.
Who? The Churell?
No. The Last Nightmare.
Ah. Excellent point. Alternately, they could have left a void-generating device.
Yes. That’s equally possible, but it tells me one thing important.
Which is?
They’re not omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient.
You mean they are not gods.
Exactly. Gods, I’m not anxious to face. Magicians, not so much. You know, I’m a magician in an alternate life?
No. My goodness, I’m shocked. You completely blindsided me there. Why did you wait until the eleventh hour to mention this?
Funny toaster.
Hey. I’m going to speak with Yib. Stay tuned.
Like I have a choice.
“Have you figured anything out?” I asked.
“Little. Wrath detects nothing, absolutely nothing. Signals sent away from the void progress normally. Signals sent into the void are gone.”
“Did you notice they sort of fade away?”
He hesitated, possible communicating with the vortex manipulator. “Yes, there is a quick but definite delay in their disappearance. Does that suggest something to you?”
“Yes, it does. If you broadcast a signal, any signal, what eventually becomes of it?”
“That depends on the signal. Light and gravity decrease with the square of the distance. Magnetism decreases with the cube.”
“But eventually, what happens to the signal?”
“It fades away. For gravitational attraction, it’s infinitesimal, then it’s the square root of infinitesimal, and so on. Eventually it is essentially zero.”
“But it never just drops to zero abruptly, like it hits a wall.”
“No. Your point?”
“The void we’re witnessing is being broadcast. If it were a thing, an entity unto itself, it would have a discrete margin, like a balloon.”
“Yes,” he hesitated.
Again, I think he was conversing with Wrath.
“What significance do you attach to this observation?” he asked.
“That something is still generating this effect. We witness its gradual decay, so it must have a center point and dampen at some rate. Ah, thank you, Al.”
He’d slipped the numbers into my head.
“The void intensity drops with the πe of the distance.”
“What an odd value.”
“Yeah, but there it is. Some thing or some Nightmare is still in there. It’s smack-dab in the center, and it’s begging for us to turn it off.”
“I’m not hearing those words,” he said with a nervous smile.
“Aw, sure you are.” I cupped my ear. “Listen real hard.”
THIRTY
“Des-al, more aliens have appeared at the demarcation boundary,” reported For-tal.
“What are these fools doing?” he asked.
“Little. They did throw a battery-powered light generator into the void. Otherwise, they are dead in space.”
“A what?”
“A chemical energy to electricity storage unit powering a weak light source.”
“These are beyond a doubt the weirdest life forms we’ve ever encountered. That’s silly.”
“I find it impossible to disagree with you,” replied For-tal. She left off the part of being concerned with being presented with an observation she couldn’t account for. That was, after
all, De-al's job, not hers.
“Keep me informed. Zes-ol, what is the status of the digestion?”
“Proceeding as normal. We have dismembered five percent of the mass of the civilization’s home star and most of the planetary mass. All radiative energy has been assimilated.”
“And the sentients?”
“Neutralized, confined, and awaiting disposition.”
“Excellent. I long to taste a soul in agony. How soon will it be reasonable to begin mass consumption?”
“Our power stores are augmenting rapidly. I estimate that we will have suspended the entire primary target solar system to a radius of ten parsecs in a matter of hours. Then we will be able to return to the Neverwhere with our prizes and assimilate them at our leisure.”
“Have you selected the next target, Uil-or?”
“Yes. Once replenished, we can suspend a much larger portion of this galaxy. I am setting plans to reduce the region subtending three sentient species as soon as we return to this wasteland space.”
“Fine. Which populations shall we assimilate next?” asked Des-al. The hunger could be detected in his words.
“The Maxwal-Asute, the Fenptodinians, and the Homo sapiens segments.”
“Why not the Deavoriath? Surely they are our greatest threats and our richest prize.”
“They will serve as an excellent dessert. The sweetest victory always is.”
“And then we expand our influence to engulf galaxies at an exponential rate?”
“Yes. With more energy stores comes increased capture.”
“What of the race you mentioned before? The Faxel. Are we to leave them behind?”
“No. They, however, will likely provide little sustenance. I calculate they possess no souls.”
“Ah, yes. How annoying. One of those species.”
“And, dare I ask, have you run across any immortals with souls?”
“None, per se.”
“Zes-ol, do not anger me. We are too old and too successful to take unnecessary risk. There either are immortals with souls or there are not. Speak to me or die.”
“Des-al, you lead, we follow. But your worries about this immortal soul thing are getting old. Never have we encountered one. What passed as one always turned out not to be. Let it go.”
“You would speak to me thusly? How dare you, petty worm. I brought you into existence. I have fed you for time untold. My concerns are mine alone. You do not need to share them for them to be true, valid, or an issue requiring your input. Have you found such a force?”
Forever Series 5: The Forever Alliance Page 17