by Pam Uphoff
Paer fought down a wave of, umm, motherly attributes, and watched where they were going. Apparently to a very distant gate.
"So, your Mom lives here in Gate City?"
"Yep. Dad divorced her ages ago, the usual Game idiocy. But she moved here and bought a house when I told her I was pregnant. And so far she's happy here, found lots of friends. Boyfriends. Ugh. Parents can be so embarrassing."
Paer snickered. "Sometimes I wish my Dad would embarrass me more often. He's either incredibly discreet or has no love life at all. Even if he has been seen in the vicinity of a couple of vid stars recently. And like as not that was just to get his name in the paper."
"He's got a Princess, or is Qayg a real ball buster?"
Paer sighed. "They have an excellent professional relationship, and they're good friends. Rather like you and Ajha."
Fean slowed and turned. "Ouch. Actually, I lust after that man, I just . . . "
"Being professional is the pits. At least Ebsa's not my boss, so when we're both home and off-duty . . . "
"You lucky dog. Some days I wish my kids were Ajha's, some days I'm glad I've never had to find out what sort of father he would be." She slowed the crawler and stayed well behind the crawler they were following.
"Hmm, no tight gate times to worry about. Bet that bothers the old-timers."
"Watch it punk, I'm an old-timer. The trouble comes when you're back using a powered gate and you have to remember to suck up the distance."
Paer shut up and watched as Fean aimed the crawler at the fog of the gate and followed the Facilities crawler through. A slight twist. So nice. I just wish we could make them, and didn't have to buy them from Disco.
The Empty World was a scrubby desert. Rocks, brush, cacti, a bit of grass. Mountains on the distant horizon straight ahead. Paer glanced at the map screen. South.
"As advertised." Paer leaned to look around the crawler ahead of them. "An open pavilion and . . . lots of nothing."
Fean chuckled. "There's a water well and a small power plant."
Paer sat up and plastered herself to the window. "Is that Endi?"
Snicker.
Paer cleared her throat. "That is. I do believe we're getting the VIP treatment, with Xen Wolfson himself."
"Have you seen him since he was spying on us?"
"Of course. My second internship was at the Comet Fall Hospital on Embassy. Plus Dad invites him to dinner regularly. That's when I got all my medgician type training."
"On horses, of course. So, a rival for Ebsa's affections?" Fean stopped the crawler, reversed and turned to back it off the road.
"Ha! Rael's got him twisted around her little finger. Although one strongly suspects there's a limit to what she can ask of him." Paer bounced out of her seat and hauled the door open. "Ooo! A bit chilly!"
Wxxo, the Camp Manager was already out of his crawler, and striding across the road waving directions to the loaded Flats. The next two crawlers were the Action Teams, then the analysts, with Ajha's electronics crawler at the end.
And Xen was leaning in the door. ". . . show you my maps and we can figure out the best places to put the gates." He stepped back and turned.
Paer tried to look casual. "Hi Xen. Roped in some experts, eh?"
His quick grin flashed.
I am so glad I was oblivious to sex when I met this man!
"Yes, we've even got some Earthers coming. It's not their problem, so they'll probably be watching us more than they watch the Helios. But they claim to be really fantastic linguists."
"That'll be useful."
"Yes, and Q will pop in to get your bunch up to speed with the language. She managed to retain a lot of it."
"Luckily for us, but . . ." Ajha shrugged as he hopped down. "It looks like Wxxo's getting tables set up, so why don't we take a look at what you've got."
Lots of paper maps. Hand drawn and labeled over grid lines.
"On the large scale first . . . They're based in North America, now. They have a line of ten magnetics centers. These are what hold the worlds together—yet holds them apart as well, forming a shadow zone of slow overlap that grows gradually until a critical point is reached and the entirety of the worlds snap together."
He ran his fingers across a wide strip behind the arc of the magnetics centers. "Apartments. They cram everyone in close during the merges. They've spread out over the last few years, and aren't moving back in yet. I'm hoping that means they're having trouble with the magnetics centers. They usually have four or five decades between merges."
Action Leader Ubno tapped a spot. "This is an infantry camp. That one's got tanks. Over here's their air force—I haven't seen anything flying yet—and their military HQ is this cluster of buildings. They have their infantry spread out over eight—that we've found so far—camps. I'll get you the detailed maps in a second. We . . . stayed outside their built up areas, so the central zone is not well mapped." He glanced at Xen. "By us."
Ajha spaced off the arc of the magnetics centers. "About eight hundred kilometers?"
Xen unrolled another map. "Yes. They started with a small shadow zone in the center, turning on pairs of magnetos to either side as the shadow zone gradually spread, or causing it to spread. So we need to get into this center zone. I do hope you've got some aerial surveillance equipment. And cams. This is exposing Disco's lack of assets. We're going to have to tool up.
"Now, this rebuilt area is, we think, going to be outside the first shadow zone, but inside the next. Government here. Scientists, here. This is the HQ of their magnetics operations."
Ajha nodded. "We'll scan these all, and get them up on the project site where everyone can add to it as we learn things. And yes, I have three stealthed drones with cams. We'll get them up and flying . . . we're going to need to hide the gates."
"Yes." Xen cast a glance over his shoulder. "I'll put the gates to Helios south of camp, but that'll still only give you a couple of kilometers of distance to stop an attack through the gates and onto One World."
Ajha nodded. "I recommended we build the camp a hundred klicks south of the gate, but the pavilion was already here, for a biological quarantine station. The construction crews didn't want to build a hundred kilometers of road, then drill another well, and start the construction of permanent facilities from scratch."
"Ah. Expediency over security. Not that the other way around isn't just as often a nuisance without much justification."
Paer eyed him. Taller than Ebsa, nearly as good looking in a different sort of way. Shields as tight as Ra'd's. Lighter hair, darker skin. A wary distancing not too unlike Ra'd, and very different from open, easy going, Ebsa. Except, sometimes he is open and relaxed. That's what I found so attractive in Ebsa right from the start, that he reminded me of Endi at his best.
"And then there's the tight time schedule." Ajha's worry lines returned.
Paer looked back at the maps. "Ajha, what's the range of the drones?"
"Good point. A hundred and eighty kilometers. We'll need gates within a hundred kilometers of each of the major targets. Preferably much closer, for maneuvering, hovering and whatnot." Ajha bent over the map. "If we place the gates in these areas you've marked as ruins, will that minimize the chances of them finding them?"
Xen nodded. "Yes. I've been using concealment as well as illusions over mine. The Helios, possibly as a result of the merging they've done, are hard to mentally detect, let alone influence. So I'm being very cautious."
Ajha frowned. "We have no experience with them, at all."
Paer sat up hopefully. "Xen? Can you set up a gate and take us through a few at a time, so we can get a feel for them? Do they have any magic at all?"
"Oh, certainly. I wasn't planning on throwing you all out there to sink or swim. What are there, thirty of you?"
"Twenty of us who might go across, at need." Ajha nodded toward Ubno. "The Action Teams especially. My group just needs to place bugs and then sit back and listen to them."
One Dammit. I'll b
et I'm not on the list to go across.
Xen's eyes flicked her direction, a ghost of a smile crossed his face.
Paer tightened up her shields.
"It's mid afternoon, there. In four hours the light will be dim enough to make sneaking around fairly easy." Xen started unrolling more papers. "These are more detailed maps . . . "
Chapter Three
29 Emre 1405
Capitol City, Helios
Looking through the gate . . . the ruins were eerie. Melted, twisted. Even where the buildings had crumbled and fallen, the edges looked like they had crawled to merge with something from the other world. The light fog made them even eerier, glowing a bit as the sun over there dropped toward the horizon and the light fell on the gate.
"Hard to tell which world the merged buildings came from." Ajha shifted uncomfortably.
"I'd guess glass and steel, or red brick for the victim. Concrete for the Helios. Cheap and fast, because they knew it would all be ruined." Paer tromped hard on her imagination setting up scenes worthy of horror flicks. The gate opened on a third floor room, open to the air, the outer wall holed and . . . melted.
A sniff from Offe. "We're the analysts. I suspect the victim world was in one of the modern phases worlds seem to go through, all concrete squares. The Greeks were known for elaborately decorated buildings."
Ajha sighed. "Offe? These are not Ancient Greeks. We'll be watching the films the victims took as they retreated. This was a thriving metropolis, population over two million. Most of them were able to flee. It had a very diverse mix of building styles, being centuries old. The Helios buildings were crude and unadorned."
Scowl. "We didn't have much time to prep for this."
"I know. They want to keep this under wraps for as long as possible. Hopefully until we can eliminate Home as the next victim." Ajha stared out at the scene on the far side. Beyond the ruined wall, they had a view over a part of the infantry encampment.
Xen had claimed the illusion he'd put over the far side would block all light from their side.
There was movement now, as the Action Team returned.
Ubno was shaking his head as he stepped back through. "Damn. That was strange. They've got aura like a small animal. I tried a few things . . . nada. Guys, let's talk about this." He rounded up the Teamers and pulled them aside.
"Info Leader?" Xen eyed Ajha.
"Right. Fean and Hob, let's go get a feel for these people." Ajha eyed the analysts. "Do any of you have field experience? No? Umm, maybe later then. Paer? You want to come?"
"You bet!" Paer ignore the indignant looks of the analysts.
Ajha nodded back to Xen. "Just us four. And yes, I've seen Paer in the field."
A flash of teeth from Xen. "Ah yes. Paer's dinosaur rodeo."
Paer choked. "You've seen those vids! I thought they were pretty closely held."
Grin. "Urfa showed them to me. I think he was bragging about his kick ass Directorate trainees. Or enjoying shocking me, perhaps."
"Definitely kick ass." Ajha turned and stepped through the gate.
Fean and Hob were on his heels and Paer followed. She glanced back as Xen stepped out of a battered cement wall. She concentrated . . . still a battered cement wall. But there's not actually any fog. I guess that was an effect of this illusion.
"I do good illusions. Even the Helios see these."
Ajha looked over his shoulder and raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"I put the gate off a road between installations. Far enough from the road that the magnetic properties of the gate won't interfere with anything on the road. Unless they bring in magnetometers for a sweep of the area, or fly a survey grid, they shouldn't be able to find it." Xen slid through a hole in the wall and led the way through a maze of fallen buildings. He knelt at a wall a bit over a meter tall.
"Silently now. There's a pair of guards walking towards us, on the other side of the wall." Xen watched them, not elsewhere.
He thinks we might do something stupid. Paer closed her eyes and looked. Four bright spots near her, two so well shielded she suspected they were only showing her as much as they wanted. Ajha and Xen. Fean and Hob are solidly shielded as well. But I don't see the Helios at all.
She opened her eyes and listened. Footsteps, a bit of gravel crunching underfoot. A faint metallic clink. They're right there! She looked mentally again. The faintest of glows, like small animals. Holy One! And they're just as hard to affect as to detect? This is going to be difficult.
The footsteps faded, and Xen led them out and across a street, through another ruined building and up a flight of steps that ended in thin air.
"The whole city is like this. Their population may be somewhere around a couple of million. Enough to cause a serious problem to fight. But it's the possibility of them merging with a populated world that makes me sick." He pointed. "See the tallest building on the horizon? That's their working government offices. Below it, to the left, there's a slightly more ornate building for the highest officials, and their council hall."
"What do the magnetics centers look like?" Paer kept her voice low.
"Big square boxes. They've got counter rotating superconducting rings. Bastard cousins of your powered gates. I haven't been able to get inside to see how their repairs are going. Our go-to-hell scenario is to capture them and keep them running, slowing the merge to give you time to evacuate everyone. God only knows if we can do it, or keep them running."
Ajha eyed him. "Or survive?"
A quick flash of teeth. "The human body is over 90% water. The trick is to find unmerged water inside the shadow zone. Add salt and chalk, iron and minerals—unfortunately from the other world, nothing you can bring with you will merge with you."
Hob looked horrified. "Tell me you're kidding!"
"Nope. I was trapped here, soaked up rain, stood in some kitchen smoke, stole salt . . . It worked well enough. Q . . . recovered faster than I did, not that I actually let her see that."
Fean snickered. "Sibling rivalry in the middle of a war zone?"
"Oh, by then we were in survival mode. There wasn't a whole lot to eat after the merge. I kept finding dead animals and however gross, pulling out the bones to powder and eat. Serious calcium cravings."
Paer gulped . . . and crouched down in the deep shadows of twilight as swinging beams of light preceded another pair of guards around a corner.
Ajha leaned forward, squinting a bit. A cat slipped out into the path, stopped to look at the approaching guards. They walked past it, giving no sign of seeing anything. The cat darted forward. Not the faintest twitch from the guard whose booted foot swung through the illusion.
Ajha looked a bit taken aback. The guards walked on, and Xen ushered them back to the gate.
Ajha shucked his backpack and pulled out half of a laser relay. "Fean?"
She nodded and stepped through. Presumably to set up the far side receiver.
Hob unreeled optical cable, running it up a wall, and installing an antenna in an opening. He fiddled for a long moment, then climbed quietly down.
Xen glanced at Paer. "I take it they're an experienced team?"
Paer nodded. "I worked with them for a couple of months. They're awesome."
Ajha cleared his throat. "I think your illusion is interfering. Can you give us a tiny corner?"
"Ah." Xen frowned at the concrete wall for a moment. "Try it now."
"I thought illusions didn't work on machines?" Paer squinted at what still looked like a shabby wall.
"Most people just use a mental influence. I find backing them up with light reflecting physical effects useful. Especially with the Helaos."
"Got it. Right. We're done." Ajha stepped through the gate. Hob and Paer followed, and Xen brought up the rear.
Ajha frowned back at the gate, then over at the waiting Teamers. "Could you feel them?"
They all shook their heads.
"That is going to make things difficult."
Ubno shrugged. "I tried a sleep spe
ll. Nothing. But they did stumble over a very tiny shield down on the ground."
Xen nodded. "Both energy and physical effects work. It's the mental fog that is the problem. You can't see them coming . . . until they can see you, as well. So while we're setting up, I'll try showing you some physical effects that will help a bit."
Or just give them headaches. Warping light, Xen called it. Paer could do it . . . for thirty seconds.
Xen just grinned. "You've made the Action Teamers jealous and impressed your boss. Practice, it gets easier."
Paer moaned and staggered over to the newly installed vendos. Booster was, of course, on the menu. A vaguely fruity, vaguely salty, definitely sweet concoction that contained all the electrolytes and sugar one tended to use up doing magic. She chugged half the bottle, then stepped back and eyed the array of machines. Vendos, fabs and a vat. Nothing resembling a kitchen.
"No real food? Well . . . no one ever said field assignments were all roses and sunshine."
Fean laughed behind her. "Ajha couldn't even stock up on edibles, security was so tight."
"Do people watch Ajha? I can see why they would—if he's still getting tossed at the toughest jobs."
One of the analysts snorted behind her. Paer wasn't sure which one.
"Really? Watch a Closey?" Tayc sniffed. "Really Paer, you shouldn't hang out with the secretary."
"Tayc . . . we're Teamers. You desk jockeys wouldn't understand competence in the field. But with us, it's what counts." Do you actually think you can snob at us?
Fluffy . . . Hioz . . .stepped around and eyed the machines. "Ooo! Just like the mall. Vendos!"
Fean snorted. "At least one of you is diplomatic. Yes, we'll be eating out of vendos and fabs until we're big enough to warrant a kitchen squishy."
"Oh, I doubt they can find a chef with the kind of clearance we have." Offe poked a couple of buttons and snagged his drink. "So, how was Helios?"
"Ruined." Paer tossed her bottle in the trash. "They've just bulldozed roads in between large fallen buildings. And probably over them as well. One only knows how they managed to keep any tech functioning at all." Which is an interesting question. I'll ask Ajha about it.