by Mack Maloney
The spy thought a moment.
"Did you hear what happened in the Blue House the night of the Great Saturnalia?" he finally asked her.
Xara shook her head no.
The spy almost laughed. "They found a leak, my lady. In one of the water pipes. Caused quite a stir, I'm told. Some of the clankers actually blew circuits because they didn't know what to do. They had never seen a leak. This was something totally new to them, and they did not like it. I heard it was the same for some of the human workers, too. No one knew how to fix it.
"There is an ancient theory, the idea that chaos itself is not chaotic at all. It is not disorganization, rather it is the organizer of everything. A soldier sneezes on a distant planet somewhere, and if it happens in the right place at the right time, the air pressure from that sneeze will build and build until the planet is racked by a super tornado. It's a huge catastrophe, but it still takes that little sneeze to start the events that eventually destroy the planet."
"I think you might be losing me," she confessed.
He nodded and began again. "Did you know that last year was the first time that the percentage of wealth brought in to the imperial coffers was higher than the number of planets we reclaimed? A statement probably better off explained by the Empire's bursars, but I think I know what it means. We have lost our view. We have begun to fail in our first mission: reclaiming the Galaxy. We have become so absorbed by the riches we take from our subjects that making things better for those subjects themselves is slowly fading away. It's just a pinprick really, a trend that might take another hundred years to really be noticed. But it is a warning sign, a symptom, that other things are wrong. With the Empire. With the planet. With us. We've become so self-absorbed in the grandeur of it all, and with everyone trying to get a piece of that grandeur, that a certain kind of blindness has set in."
He paused a moment. Xara was transfixed. Intelligent conversation was a rarity in her world.
He began again slowly. "One of the oldest texts we have ever found here on Earth was a fantasy written by one of this planet's greatest writers even before the first humans went into space. Only a few pages remain, and many of the words are so archaic, we have no idea what they mean anymore. But the main idea was this: No matter how big or small, empires always reach a point of inevitable collapse, a point where they more or less have to fall, some in order to regain whatever was great about them in the first place. And where the first crack appears is usually from within. I guess what I'm saying is, I wonder if maybe the leak in the pipe is trying to tell us something. Perhaps we've reached that point.
"Now this man, Hunter — I know a few things about him. His claim that he simply appeared one day out on that lonely rock in space is apparently true. It really was as if someone had simply dropped him out here, from somewhere else. My dear princess, as you know, the Galaxy is filled with mysterious and wonderful things. But I've never heard of a case like his. Just suddenly there. And look at what's happened since. In less than a year, Hunter has won the greatest acclaim in the Galaxy, then he has vanished, only to reemerge to attack the Empire itself — and so far, very successfully, against one of our most brilliant commanders. From my deepest thoughts I've come to believe that Hunter is here for a reason. Is it to conquer the Empire? I don't think so. I think he is here to simply tip it over. Either way, stopping him might not necessarily be the right thing."
Xara didn't speak for a very long time. Finally, she said. "So my reasons are for love. And yours are for history?"
She thought the spy might have actually smiled for a moment. It was hard to tell.
"Can you think of any two better?" he replied.
17
Chesterwest, Twenty Miles North of Big Bright City
Captain Vanex, chief custodian of Special Number One, was dreaming of the great eastern ocean overflowing its artificial banks, rising up over the grand triad and flooding into his home, when a sound interrupted his slumber.
Was that someone knocking on his door?
He fell slowly out of bed, padded into the hallway, and over to his front entrance. He opened the door to find no one standing there. A small box was floating at about eye level. It was shedding a bright emerald aura, almost the same hue as the pine trees surrounding his home. This indicated the package had been sent to him by someone within the Imperial Family.
He took the package from its hover, closed the door, and brought it inside.
Placing the package on his bed stand, he lit a candle to see better. It was almost noontime, but Vanex's 700-year-old eyes welcomed the additional light. He pushed the button sequencer on the top of the package, and it slowly began to open. He found inside — of all things — a holo-girl capsule. An ion impression identified it as an Echo 999.9, Transdimensional Test. Top Secret.
Vanex was stunned. A holo-girl capsule? He hadn't seen one of these things in almost two centuries.
He studied the palm-size container. It was obviously some kind of advanced model. He knew the Echoes were not only able to provide the user with the comforts of a very heavenly creature, they also had the ability to bring that user into the mysterious thirty-fourth dimension, where time more or less stood still, and where one could live and love and frolic with her forever — or at least until the power strings ran out. Such experiences could last for what seemed to be a month, thirty days in paradise with an angel. And upon return, it was like you never left. Whatever was happening the moment you began the experience was still happening the moment you returned.
An encrypted message suddenly popped into space just above the capsule. It contained a short sequence of words, presented in the archaic language that few people on Earth understood anymore. But Vanex was one of them. And these words were somewhat simple.
The message instructed Vanex to summon a sentinel to his quarters. Sentinels were the very strange beings who existed primarily in the sixth dimension. They had been around for centuries and for want of a better description, these days served as ghostly valets. They looked after the daily affairs of the Imperial elite. From grooming and dressing, to making sure the very special Specials had water at every hand, they also served as musicians, envoys, escorts, tour guides, you name it. They even served as stand-ins for the Emperor himself, experiencing, if not exactly enjoying, a secret and very close relationship with the all-knowing O'Nay. They were odd-looking characters, most of them. Tall and gangling, with long faces, dark, deeply sunken, tremendously sad eyes, hunched-over shoulders, and terrible posture. Sometimes they appeared in a shape that resembled O'Nay himself, but in a rather disturbing way.
No one was really sure who these characters were; they were one of several deep mysteries of the Fourth Empire. Whether they were real or just part of some deeply secret program running somewhere at some location unknown, few people knew, if any. Because they weren't really human, they had an ability to project themselves to any point in the Galaxy instantaneously but could only stay at that location for a few seconds' time before they disappeared— for good. These one-way missions lasted just long enough to perhaps deliver a document, a weapon, a bit of good or bad news. Then the messenger would fade away like a ghost, never to be seen again. There was one theory that the sentinels were actually a race of disposable, computer-projected spies left over from the Second or possibly even the Third Empire. Because Vanex was in effect part of the Imperial Court, he could summon a sentinel at any time.
Vanex studied the holo-girl capsule more intently now. It seemed bigger, more streamlined than the holo devices he'd been familiar with as a younger man. The encrypted hovering message ended: "Once you have summoned the sentinel, by your service to the Imperial Court, activate this device."
Vanex had to read the message over and over again; it seemed stranger each time. Why would someone in the Imperial Family want him to take a holo-girl trip? Did one of the four top Specials actually think he'd enjoy such a lusty getaway? Or was there another motive involved?
He didn't know. But o
rders were orders, and Vanex was nothing if not a loyal servant.
So he summoned the sentinal, then he flipped the switch at the top of the capsule and…
The next thing he knew, he was standing on a beach. It stretched for miles in both directions. High cliffs marked the limits of the northern and southern horizons. A calm sea was before him.
This was a very beautiful place. The water was cobalt blue, the sky a lighter version of the same color. A huge, friendly, yellow sun was shining above; its rays felt warm and perfect. Behind him, a grove of multicolored trees danced slowly in the wind. The sand beneath his feet was made up of trillions of tiny gemstones of many, many different colors.
"My God," Vanex whispered. "They have certainly improved these things."
He took a deep breath and it was as if Life itself had entered his lungs. Suddenly he felt better in mind and body than he had in the last two hundred years.
He knelt to cup some water in to his hands, and his back did not creak in response. He touched the water to his lips and tasted a nectar more sweet, more golden than the best batch of slow-ship wine ever made. He sat down at the water's edge and stared out at the magnificent view. The crystal sea, the cliffs on either side of him. The flora gently swaying, the song of leaves pressing against leaves.
"Heavenly…" Vanex whispered.
Someone came up beside him. Vanex first saw two beautiful feet, toeing the sand. His eyes drifted up the well-curved ankles, the beautiful knees, the shapely thighs. A very brief piece of gold cloth covered the nether regions, but the hourglass shape'continued upward to a pair of gorgeous, small breasts only partially covered by long, flowing blond hair.
This was for him, Vanex knew. His holo-girl had arrived.
He shielded his eyes and looked up at her face — and nearly dropped dead right there, a very difficult thing to do, here in the thirty-fourth dimension.
His holo-girl was Princess Xara.
Vanex didn't expire, but he did become dizzy for a moment.
This had ceased to make all sense. Why would Xara, Daughter of O'Nay, be here? Dressed like a holo-girl?
"Because I need your help," Xara replied, answering his question.
She pulled Vanex to his feet.
"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" she asked the elderly engineer.
The old man sputtered in his reply. She had asked the right question, the wrong way.
"I mean," she amended. "Have you ever seen one of these dreams so detailed? So — perfect?"
Vanex looked around him. Again, it had been a long time since he'd been inside such a experience, but as he felt on first landing here, this one looked incredibly detailed and expansive. The dreams he'd taken so long ago usually provided little more than the requisite beach, the lapping water.
a comfortable place to lie down and have sex.
But this place was much more elaborate. The sky looked authentic, the sun did, too, in a way. The water was like an elixir, and you could actually see things over and beyond the trees: mountaintops, green valleys, flowing rivers.
In all it just looked bigger, more real.
Xara got him back to his senses.
"I am hoping that as an engineer, you might be able to grasp what I'm about to tell you."
"I'll try, my lady," he replied. "Though I must say, confusion reigns at the moment."
She spread her hands around her. "We have been fooled by these things for centuries," she said. "We have always been led to believe that this is all an elaborate illusion. A holographic program — and in the first models, it really seemed as if this was the case. But I am here to tell you a great secret that I have only learned recently myself. This is not an illusion. The thirty-fourth dimension is not a dimension at all, not in the sense that we know them. This is a real place. A very strange and little-studied place. Time has the appearance of standing still here for reasons we know nothing about. And nothing ever goes wrong here. Nothing…"
She held up a holo-capsule in her hand. It was an exact copy of the one Vanex had used to get here.
"No one knows who invented these things," Xara went on. "Or how they work. Another thing lost in the haze of time. And the most elaborate ones — such as this one — put you here in such a way, it's almost completely different than the less-specialized devices. This is the most advanced type of holo-capsule in the Empire — and also the most mysterious. Its origins are so unknown, in fact, it is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the realm. There is a chance even my father knows nothing about this. Yet this device is now possibly the one thing that determines the course of the Empire from this moment forward."
Vanex still looked very confused.
"But these are all things that we must both learn together," Xara went on. "I have been here only a little while.
I have learned much in that time. But still have much to go".
She pointed to the line of mountains off to the west.
"Over there," she said to Vanex. "What is on the other side of those mountains? What lies beyond?"
Vanex could only shrug and shake his head.
"I have no idea, my lady," he said.
Xara pushed the hair from her eyes and started leading Vanex off the beach.
"Well, let's go then," she said. "You have to help me find out."
One Minute Later
The sentinel named J'eevx arrived aboard the cargo 'crasher Resonance 133 to find the ship in chaos.
He was still invisible, still stuck in the sixth dimension, but he knew the ship was speeding through space near a point in the Two Arm known as Thirty Star Pass. He'd appeared at first in a passageway leading up to the vessel's control room. Hundreds of soldiers in odd tan-and-red-splotched uniforms were rushing all around him. They were tearing apart the inside of the ship, pulling the covers off the hundreds of sensor panels that lined the passageway leading to the main control room.
Each of these soldiers was bearing a quadtrol. They would tear off the cover to a sensor panel, take a quick reading, then alter the ion frequency of each sensor within. The problem was, there were thousands of sensor panels throughout the enormous vessel, each one with tens of thousands of individual sensors inside.
They are trying to change the electronic identity of the ship, J'eevx knew for no apparent reason. They are doing so before some unseen enemy destroys them. It is a race against time.
This made no difference to him. In fact, he would have no memory of this at all once he'd blinked out and was lost forever. He was here to fulfill an order from Vanex, the imperial custodian, at the request of Princess Xara Herself. Nothing else had any meaning to him.
He had only two seconds to act. Two seconds to become whole and do what he had to do before fading away into eternity. He had to pick the right place and the right moment to spend those two precious seconds. Princess Xara's wishes demanded it.
He moved through the frenetic passageway and into the control room itself. It, too, was a scene of chaos. Every control panel in the compartment had been ripped apart, and more soldiers were altering the sensor frequencies with the quadtrols. But on the main projection screen, the sentinel saw something else. An enormous fleet of Solar Guard ships was approaching, in Supertime, and with huge weapons slung under their wedge bodies, weapons with bright red glowing warheads.
In this fragment of time, these things were clear to the sentinel: This desperate effort of the people on this ship would not be rewarded, because the fleet heading toward them was about to fire the huge, glowing red weapons at them.
J'eevx wondered if he had arrived too late.
Only a few people in the control room saw him when he blinked in. They were startled and froze in place — a typical reaction whenever a sentinel appeared unexpectedly. He had no time to waste. So he simply held out his hand and gave the object in it to the nearest man. Then he drew a line in the air in front of him and a viz screen with a message appeared. Unlike him, he knew this image would remain long after he was gone.
On the viz screen was the message: "Engage immediately. Do not hesitate. Xara."
The soldier who took the device, read the viz message, and then watched as J'eevx faded away.
Only then did he look at what the ghost had given him.
It was a holo-girl capsule.
18
Megiddo
Needle City was in ruins.
Smoke and flames were everywhere. The Sea of Green was now a murky brown. High above, storm clouds were unleashing a torrential downpour on the devastated landscape, the first unscheduled rain the planet Megiddo had seen in more than a century. At some points up north, the poles had begun to melt.
Nowhere was the destruction more apparent than in the wreckage of the sky needle. What was once a three-mile-high tower was now a thousand-foot pile of rubble. Plumes of steam were exhaling from points all over the debris, interspersed with cracks of electricity and bursts of bright yellow sparks. The tower, like the city — like the entire planet — seemed dead, devoid of any life.
But deep within the ruins, one heart was still beating.
Joxx was alive.
He didn't know how. The tower had come crashing down around him, hundreds of thousands of tons of material falling about his head, but somehow he'd been spared. Was it because he'd been standing in the jail cell when the enormous structure collapsed? Was it just by luck that one huge jagged piece of melted rock fell this way, and a huge twisted girder fell that way, creating a shield that protected him from the rest of the collapsing structure? Was it simply fate? Or destiny?
Or was it because he was a Special, and escaping death by miraculous means just came along with the territory?
He didn't know.
But he could still feel every part of his body, and though he had some cuts and bruises, nothing was broken, nothing was numb, and even his hair had survived with a minimum of muss.
He still found himself buried beneath tons of rubble, however. Dark and craggy and filled with hissing power tubes and crackling electrical conduits, the debris was also being soaked by the nonstop deluge coming down from above.