by Drew Wagar
“And where are these aliens now?” Rebecca asked.
“Where indeed,” Iacobus said mysteriously, his voice as clear as a bell.
“Well, at least the mystery of Raxxla has been sorted out,” Rebecca said. Iacobus and Rebka exchanged a glance.
“Or not?” Rebecca asked.
“Raxxla has many more facets,” Iacobus countered, his voice shifting to an almost trance-like tone. “Many, many more… ”
“So what next?” Jim interjected.
Rebka smiled. “You’ll have to wait a few years before you learn what happens next.” She laughed at Rebecca’s crestfallen face, “Don’t worry, there are lots of interesting things going to happen to you in the meantime… ”
“Rebka!” Iacobus said sternly.
Rebka pulled a face at Iacobus and then clasped Rebecca around the shoulders. “She’s had a tough life, she deserves something to look forward to.”
“And what about Zerz?” Jim asked.
“You stopped him from interfering with the correct course of events in this time frame,” Iacobus said. “You can consider that a success.”
“Is he dead?” Rebecca asked, with a sharp edge to her voice.
“It’s not quite that simple,” Iacobus said carefully.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I stabbed him! That usually does the trick!”
“You already know that being killed is not necessarily the end of the story when Raxxla is involved. Time is not an ordered sequence of events, with effect following cause as we are tempted to understand it,” Iacobus said gently. “Zerz had successfully used Raxxla before we intervened to stop him, you even met his future self.”
“Multiverse theory,” Jim acknowledged.
“Normal person speak please?” Rebecca hissed.
Iacobus nodded at Jim and he continued, “It’s the idea that for every decision that is made, every possibility is played out in a separate but closely similar universe. You go left or right, and another universe is created to play out the results of your decision.”
“Raxxla proves the theory,” Iacobus said. “It allows you to cross quantum-level realities.”
“So when we jumped back in time ten minutes… ” Jim began.
“You moved universes,” Iacobus said, nodding. “Remarkable concept isn’t it?”
“And there was a universe in which we didn’t jump back, and Zerz killed us.”
“Precisely,” Iacobus continued. “And there also exists a universe in which you were killed and we didn’t come to your aid… ”
Rebecca looked across at Rebka as Jim and Iacobus debated, each trying to have the last word. Rebka smiled, rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Some things never change!” Rebka whispered and then looked more seriously across at Rebecca. “Is there anything you want to ask me?”
Rebecca looked back at her in surprise. “I don’t know. I guess there’s quite a lot, but… ”
Rebka nodded encouragement.
“… you know what happens to me. You’ve lived my life. Should I ask?”
Rebka smiled. “It’s not like that Rebecca. I never met me, my older self like this, when I was your age. Our lives will be different. There are an infinity of possibilities. Your future is still what you make it.”
Rebecca thought about it for a moment.
“I’d like to know, you know, about my family and friends on the Boa.”
“You already answered that question,” Rebka said sadly. “You were right.”
“Right?”
“If you save them you change other things.”
“Jim,” Rebecca said quickly.
“Killed by the Vipers as you surmised. There is a war between Galcop and the Imperials. It’s very messy. You end up conscripted into the Navy, you’re injured and live out your life as a half-mechanical paraplegic. I met that instance of ‘us’; burnt up with regret, anger and frustration. You don’t want to go there.”
Rebecca looked aghast. “In that case, I don’t think I want to know any more! If this whole episode has taught me anything it’s to make sure I live in the here and now, not chasing after a future that might never happen!”
Rebka smiled broadly. “In that case, I feel happy about giving you this.”
She handed Rebecca a small data-tab.
“The future?” Rebecca said. “What was the whole point of that conversation we just had then? I don’t want to know… !”
“I needed to know whether you were smart enough to know when to use it. Call it the edited highlights of my life. Trust me, there are some things you will want to know in advance,” Rebka looked wistful for a moment. “I… we… ” she paused. “Well, let’s just say that Iacobus isn’t the only one who needs to close a loop. Please.”
Rebecca looked her in the eye, there was something urgent and compelling about her gaze.
“Okay.” she replied uncertainly, biting her bottom lip.
Rebka looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “One more question?”
“You know what I’m going to ask.”
Rebka smiled. “You still have to ask it though.”
Rebecca sighed and looked up. “Do you know what happened to my mother, our mother? Dad said he’d tell me one day, and Red knew something he never let on. They were always so protective of me. Is she still alive?”
Rebka rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “All I can say is that you will find the answers. I know, it’s not what you want to hear! Right here, right now it’s the best I can give you. It was her that gave you your gift.”
“Gift?”
“That stunning piloting skill of yours?”
“Dad said I was born in a flight simulator,” Rebecca grinned.
“Well, you sure as hell didn’t learn it at edu-class did you! Spent most of the time dreaming about Rafe Jameson two cubicles up as I recall… ”
“Shhhh!”
“… when you weren’t in attitude adjustment therapy. Anyway, the answers are all wrapped up with… ”
“Don’t tell me – Raxxla! I’m so sick of that name… damn planet… thing… whatever it is!”
Rebka grinned, and looked across at Jim and Iacobus. “We’d better stop these two from debating for the rest of time… ”
“Jim can out-talk an Oresrian,” Rebecca acknowledged.
“He only gets worse, I’m warning you!” Rebka said with a laugh. Her face turned serious a moment later though. “He’s a good man, make sure you look after him.”
Jim and Iacobus were still deep in conversation.
“Was Zerz right? About the technology?” Jim was asking.
“He was indeed,” Iacobus replied. “Technology was drifting from the future into the past, and causing us a great deal of trouble. The Dark Wheel spends much of its time trying to re-establish the correct outcomes of events, unpolluted by transfers of this type. Zerz himself was one of the worst.”
“The plasma weapon.”
“Indeed. That particular monstrosity wasn’t invented until 3164. You thought the Q-Bomb was bad? Wait until you discover the whole saga around the huge plasma accelerator. Quite a caper.”
“And the Selezen crisis? The wormholes collapsing?”
“Also true. It seems Raxxla is breaking down. We’re using the wormholes in ways for which they were never intended. All these trade ships moving around are degrading the links. Unless we find a way to repair the damage… ”
“And how do you repair an alien technology you don’t understand?”
Iacobus smiled, “If we had the answer to that question… ”
“Well I hope there is a universe somewhere out there where this all does make sense!” Rebecca said, raising her voice and interrupting the two men to Rebka’s obvious delight. “So what now?”
“We’ve got to get back,” Rebka said, standing close to Iacobus. “This is not our time after all. It’s been good to be here. I always liked this time-period – before everything got complicated.”
“Befor
e everything got complicated?” Rebecca shot back, incredulously.
“Just you wait and see,” Rebka said with a wink.
“Just you wait and see?” Jim repeated, with a smile. “The curse of the old on the young!”
Rebka flashed a grin at him.
“How are you going to get back? Using Raxxla?” Rebecca asked.
“Naturally,” Iacobus replied, “unless you’re aware of any other means of time travel we could use… ”
“So you know where it is now,” Rebecca queried.
“Yes.”
“And you’re not going to tell us.”
“Most definitely not. Events must be allowed to unravel as they should, as much as is possible,” Iacobus returned smoothly. “Your mission is complete, for now. I have transferred your payment as promised. The Dark Wheel will be in touch.”
“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime?” Rebecca insisted.
“First,” Iacobus said sternly, picking up the manilla Raxxla file from the console and brandishing it at them. “You return this to the President. Make sure you ask him to look after it this time!”
“Then what?” Rebecca continued.
Rebka leaned in close. “I suggest staying out of trouble, and start enjoying yourselves by spending those five million credits! I know I did.”
“Five million credits?” Jim echoed, looking at Rebecca in amazement.
“My price for this mission,” Rebecca preened.
“You got the Dark Wheel to pay you five million credits?”
“Five million,” Iacobus acknowledged with disapproval, “even in 3199, that’s a lot of money!”
“Trader’s instinct,” Rebecca said sheepishly, with a grin and a shrug. “ ’Cause I’m worth it.”
Iacobus and Rebka had helped with basic repairs, patching up the Eclipse as much as was possible in space. More importantly they had provided some fuel, allowing Rebecca and Jim to proceed to Lave for repairs. They had then returned to their ship. Rebecca had spotted the name on the hull of the Ophidian before it disappeared behind its cloaking device.
Argent’s Folly.
Rebecca laid in a course for one of the Lave Coriolis stations. Without a working torus drive there was no point in staying away from the shipping lanes, so she had fallen in not far behind two big ‘Oo-Haul’ freighters called the DaddyHoggy and the Ryke. Both were accompanied by a series of fighters for protection on contract from some firm called TGHC Escorts. One of the escort ships was an unusual design. She frowned.
“What is that?” she said, curious.
“Never seen one before,” Jim admitted.
She angled the Eclipse onto an intercept course, and the ship grew slowly larger on the screen. Jim had never seen anything like it. It was an aggressive design, its hull streamlined from a narrow cockpit that flared out into swept-back wing sections. It sported two stabiliser fins giving the ship a rakish, interceptor style look. Two enormous engines gently pushed the ship along in the convoy. It looked deadly, even more intimidating than the Imperial Courier.
“Wow!” Rebecca said, her eyes wide. She rebooted the ident computer.
Ident computer initialising. Please wait… Ready.
Unknown vessel type, interrogating Galcop astrometric database…
Please wait… done.
Vampire Mk1 : Isis Interstellar manufacturing prototype : ‘Killer Wolf’
Mass 290 metric.
Speed .2 LM.
Rebecca looked over the specs of the ship, pulling up the references on the console from the Galcop databases. Her eyes were alight with enthusiasm.
“I have got to get me one of these! Isn’t that the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen?”
No, it’s not, you daft girl!
Jim regarded her with fondness. “I thought you were ready to retire?”
“Well, I’ve got to provide for my retirement, haven’t I?” she said unconvincingly. “I’m not going to be happy flying a junk-heap old Ophidian around in my old age! Give me some credit!”
“You and your ships!”
Jim left her to it, it was clear she was going to be engrossed for a while. He looked contentedly out of the viewscreen at the planet Lave slowly rotating in far the distance. For a few minutes he relaxed into his co-pilot’s seat before he caught sight of the Raxxla file once again. He'd left it filed safely against the Cobra's astrogation console.
Doubtless the President would be wanting it back, but Zerz had left it unlocked, so there was no reason he couldn't retain a copy, for backup purposes only of course.
It brought his mind back to all that they had just experienced. Perhaps the President might believe what they had seen, but no one else would.
Just like all the other reports of Raxxla! We have no mem-recs, no visios, no artefacts; nothing to prove our story! How many other people have really been there and been forced to stay quiet for lack of evidence? Is that what the Dark Wheel is really for? What do we do next? Seems hard to believe we just wait…
“I wonder if the future is really changeable like they said, or whether some things have to happen in a certain way,” he mused, almost to himself.
Rebecca looked up from her ship specifications, as if a thought had just occurred to her.
“I guess we’ll never know,” Jim sighed.
“Maybe we can,” Rebecca interjected, with a mischievous grin.
Jim frowned, turning to look at her. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure I can tell you,” Rebecca explained in a teasing tone.
“What have you got?” Jim asked suspiciously, lowering his voice.
“No need to be like that. It’s a data tab. I think Rebka meant me to know something particular about the future. She slipped it to me as we were leaving. Good to see I keep my cunning in my old age!”
“Iacobus definitely wouldn’t approve, and since he’s me, I’m not sure I approve either!”
“Are you telling me you don’t want to know what it contains?” Rebecca dangled the data tab in front of his eyes.
“We might cause a paradox, alter the course of future events, create the wrong universe… ” Jim looked at her pouting expression, and considered for a moment. “All right, you win. Stuff him. He was always trying to get the last word anyway.”
“I wonder where he gets that particular trait from, eh?” Rebecca said with a smile.
Now it was Jim’s turn to act outraged. “Hey!”
Rebecca giggled, and slipped the data tab into the console. As she suspected, it was full of information. She scrolled down with interest.
“Thargoid movements, tactics, ships' specs… ” Rebecca said, fascinated. “Look, even fleet strengths and positions. Definitely going to need that Vampire now!”
Further down was a significant entry. Jim and Rebecca read it in horror.
“Oh my God!” Jim’s face had gone white.
If you do not avert it, Jim will be killed whilst en route to a demonstration at Lave in 3156 over the proposed use of the Q-Bomb in order to quell the Aesbion uprising. Though it will be officially claimed it was a life support malfunction, he will actually be assassinated by a cartel of struggling Q-Bomb manufacturers. Without his intervention, the Aesbion uprising will escalate into a full-blown civil war, over five hundred and twenty vessels will be lost. Over sixty percent are destroyed by the Q-Bomb during a terrifying cascade reaction caused by the positioning of combative ships. You can avert this by…
“Glad you let me look at this then?” Rebecca queried.
“Hell, yeah!”
“Me too,” she said. “I’m not going to let you die twice. That would just be careless.”
Her voice was jocular, but there was a serious edge to it.
One particular item was highlighted in bold text with a date some years in the future. Jim frowned in surprise and looked more closely, and then looked back up at Rebecca. She was wearing a faint, but contented smile, her eyes glistening as she returned his gaze.
&
nbsp; She reached out for his hand, pulling him towards her. The ship specifications and data-tab were forgotten.
“Kind of hoped that would happen,” she said, her eyes aglow.
Epilogue
Epilogue
Rebecca Weston found worthy of Elite Combateer status, this date, Galactic Year 3152. Decorated for extreme valour in the Thargoid War of 3151, twice commended for bravery under fire. Awarded the Tionisla Crossed Dagger and Galcop Congressional Medal of Honour for her defence of the Coriolis station there, in which she single-handedly destroyed five Thargoid warships, incredibly without being injured. Observers at the scene described her attack on the Thargoids as nothing short of miraculous.
“They didn’t stand a chance! It was like she had prior knowledge of their tactics – unnerving flying! Without her intervention the whole Navy contingent would have been wiped out. She was like something out of Raxxla, she was beyond ‘Elite’, she was more like a force of nature out there. I wish she was working in the fleet and training our boys. She can have a commission any time she likes!” – Commander McLane, GalNavy.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. Five Thargoids taken out by a single ship! I know the Vampire is a great ship and all, but I wouldn’t have given her odds on three, let alone five of those insectoid scum! They were brutal, cutting through us like butter. I thought we were all dead. When those five broke through and made for the station I thought it was game over! There’s three kids back on station five who’d be fatherless if it hadn’t been for Rebecca. And guess what they want to do when they grow up!” – Bob Lavellee, Galcop Viper Pilot.
“Thank Randomius Factoria for Rebecca; she’s our guardian angel. She will never be paying tax or landing charges on any of our stations again, that much I can tell you!” – David Hughes, Tionisla Orbit Commissioner.
– Extract from Elite Rating Authority Log
James McKenna, though little is known of his background outside of academia, became a leading advocate of the Karella Institute (commonly referred to simply as the ‘Ban the Bomb movement’) set up shortly after the Q-Bomb appeared for sale in 3139. He successfully lobbied against the proposed use of the Q-Bomb in order to quell the Aesbion uprising. Historians believe that without his efforts the Aesbion conflict could have resulted in a significant number of casualties directly attributed to the Q-bomb.