The Temporal Void (ARC)

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Justine regarded the exovision images in surprise. She was gripping the couch arms tight, her skin slick with sweat. 'I'm not to sure—'

  Behind her, the Raiel warships slowed, allowing the Silverbird 'to race onwards. - this is such - '

  Al fifteen lightyears high the cone stopped expanding.

  ' - a good - '

  Its apex opened like a flower, petals of infinite night pealing back. Exquisite nebula-light shone out into the Gulf.

  Silverbird passed across the threshold, into the Void.

  ' - after all.'

  The cone closed up. It sank back into the now quiescent boundary. Silverbird's communication link to the Navy relay ended. Both Raiel warships executed tight curves and headed back towards the Wall.

  * * * *

  'Please, talk to us,' Ethan appealed. 'The Skylord has anointed you as our' Second Dreamer. We await you. We need you.' He was given no reply.

  * * * *

  Araminta slipped out of Danal's apartment, and tiptoed across the vestibule to her own. Outside, a brash dawn light was lapping against the weather dome. The crowd was cheering ecstatically. That felt good.

  'Well whadda you know, I saved the universe.' Araminta grinned wildly at the ridiculous knowledge, then yawned. Being a hero was actually quite exhausting. She sank down into the big old armchair with its strangely lumpy cushions. Just five minutes' rest.

  * * * *

  Cheriton McOnna didn't like the 'in character' clothes Beckia had produced for him out of the replicator on board Elvin's Payback. Really didn't. Nothing wrong with the touch of them, a cotton shirt, wool-lined waistcoat with brass buttons, and trousers that were like suede but a great deal softer. No, it was the colours and style, the shirt's lace-up front, its grey-green colour which was more like a stain than a dye, and the odd tight cut of the black trousers. He plain refused to wear the felt ha I with its flamboyant green and blue feathers; although he reluctantly agreed to carry it after Beckia got all stroppy. It wasn't good to get Beckia stroppy.

  She'd been right, of course. As soon as he walked into the Confluence nest building on Daryad Avenue in the centre of town, he fitted in with the Ellezelin workforce. Security was strong around the building, an old brick cube with dark arching windows. Colwyn's three confluence nests were the first priority for the occupying forces. But Liatris McPeierl had done his job well, infiltrating a complete legend for Cheriton, including DNA. When he walked into the airy marble-floored lobby he was told to put his hand on a sensor pedestal while three armed and armoured guards watched him cautiously. The building's new net cleared him, and they waved him on. He gave them a cheery smile, backed up with a contented emanation into the gaiafield.

  The nest itself was housed on the fourth floor in a sterile chamber which took up half of the available floorspace. He reported for duty to Dream Master Yenrol in the overseer's office, which looked out into the nest chamber through a glass partition. Normally, the office was only occupied a few hours each day when the overseer or their assistant ran a six hourly assessment to ensure the nest was operating smoothly. Now there were seven technicians all struggling for elbow space as they installed banks of new hardware, while on the other side of the glass more technicians were blending fresh bioneural clusters with the original nest.

  'What's your field?' Yenrol asked. He was both agitated and puzzled. Cheriton's late assignment coupled with the pressure to get the job done was making him very twitchy.

  'Pattern definition,' Cheriton replied equitably. 'The routines I've developed will help isolate the Second Dreamer's thoughts within the gaiafield. It should give us a stronger source to trace.'

  'Good,' Yenrol said. 'Okay, great. Start installing the routines.' He'd turned back to a half-completed hardware unit before Cheriton got a chance to reply.

  'Okay then,' Cheriton mumbled, keeping his gaiafield emission a level flow of eagerness and enthusiasm. He found a free console seat, and nodded to the man in the next seat.

  'Welcome to the eye,' his new colleague said. 'I'm Danal.'

  'Glad to be here,' Cheriton said. 'What do you mean: eye?'

  'Of the storm.'

  Cheriton grinned. 'This is the quiet part?'

  'Exactly!'

  Danal, it turned out, had been on Viotia for some time now. He and Mareble had come in anticipation of being close to the Second Dreamer. 'We wanted to be here when he revealed himself,' Danal admitted. 'I've been upgrading nest sensitivity since we arrived in the hope our Dream Masters can locate him.' He gave Yenrol a guilty glance, stifling his gaiafield emissions for a moment. 'I wasn't expecting this,' he confided.

  'I know what you mean,' Cheriton said, all sympathy. 'I was praying to the Lady that Ethan would be elected Cleric Conservator, but I didn't think anything like our presence here would be necessary.'

  Danal gave an awkward shrug, and got back to work. Cheriton continued loading in the routines he'd concocted. They did perform the recognition function, but in reverse, so that the nest would develop a mild blind spot should it receive any thoughts originating from the Second Dreamer. It would inform Cheriton first before reverting to the advertised function.

  The modification team's frantic work stalled as Justine's madcap flight swamped the Unisphere.

  'She's so close,' Danal said in awe as the Silverbird's sensors revealed the undulating surface of the Void. Then everyone winced as the Raiel transformed the second moon into a hyperluminal quake.

  'How are they doing that?' Cheriton murmured, fascinated by the level of extraordinary sophisticated violence involved.

  'Who cares?' Danal said. 'The Void can resist their devilry. It has for a million years. That's all that matters.'

  Cheriton raised an eyebrow. It took a lot of self-control not to leak his dismay at the man's bigotry into the gaiafield. 'Let's hope Justine's ship can withstand it, too.'

  'She's not a believer. She's an ANA creature.'

  'She's human,' Cheriton said. 'That means she should be able to get inside. Somehow.'

  'Ah. I hadn't thought of that.'

  'Please,' Yenrol entreated the modification team. 'Keep working. If the Second Dreamer is going to show himself, it will be tonight.'

  Danal flashed Cheriton a shamefaced smile.

  * * * *

  Oscar hadn't expected things to happen quite this fast. He should have known better. If the Starflyer War had taught him nothing else, it was that events ruled people, not the other way round.

  So here he was encased in a stiff paramilitary armour suit, sitting halfway down the passenger section of an Ellezelin police capsule, floating over the Cairns. Beckia was sitting on the bench next to him, while Tomansio was forward in the command seat. The capsules were designed to hold fifteen paramilitaries. However, its original occupants were now resting in a drug-induced coma back in the Bootel & Leicester warehouse, so at least he had plenty of room to stretch out.

  Like the rest of the Commonwealth, they were accessing Justine's mad dash through the Gulf.

  'The welcome team has just stepped up to active status,' Liatris reported; he had stayed behind in the Elvin's Payback to monitor the occupying forces and provide Unisphere support. 'Everyone thinks that the Second Dreamer will intervene for Justine.'

  'He didn't after Gore's appeal,' Oscar said.

  'The Raiel should give things a degree of urgency,' Beckia said. 'I agree with Living Dream, if it's going to happen it'll happen tonight.'

  Oscar shrugged, which didn't come off well in his armour.

  'Did you know Gore and Justine?' Tomansio asked.

  'I think I met her once, some senior officer function on High Angel. Everyone was trying to chat her up.'

  'Including you?' Beckia teased.

  'No, I was aiming for the ones she turned down. Rejection always leaves you vulnerable to a quick bout of cheap meaningless sex.'

  'Ozzie, but you're dreadful.'

  'Anything from Cheriton?' Tomansio asked.

  'Nothing since his last che
ck in,' Liatris reported. 'Nobody questioned his appointment to Yenrol's staff. He's installed his routines in the nest.'

  'Is he wearing his hat?' Beckia asked innocently.

  Oscar couldn't help the smile creeping on to his mouth. That had been quite an argument.

  'I'll find out next time,' Liatris promised.

  'What have you got for us on the welcome team?' Tomansio asked.

  'All deeply loyal Living Dream followers; it doesn't look like Phelim fancied contracting out for this job. They're on secondment from the Makkathran2 cabinet security office.'

  'Ethan's private bodyguards,' Tomansio declared. 'What .m-their enrichments?'

  'Very heavy duty weapons, and they're accelerated up to at least our standard. But I don't think they have biononics; there's no record in any file I can find.'

  'Okay, thank you. Keep deep mining, I want everything you've got on them.'

  'Will do. Files coming over.'

  Oscar's u-shadow told him it had received the heavily encrypted files. When he scrutinized them he couldn't help a sharp intake of breath. The welcome team that Councillor Phelim had put together to interdict the Second Dreamer were carrying the kind of firepower he'd thought exclusive to members of the Knights Guardian. They were also extremely devout. Phelim hail given them complete authority over all the invading forces to accomplish their goal. 'We need to be quick,' he murmured.

  'That we do,' Tomansio agreed. 'I wouldn't want to be caught in the act by this lot.'

  'I bet they have got biononics,' Beckia said. 'They'll justify it by saying it will help bring about the Dream. Their kind always does.'

  'I didn't know Living Dream disapproved of biononics,' Oscar said.

  'Oh yes. Nothing like the Protectorate, though; biononics aren't quite a sacrilege, they simply don't have any place in the Void. Most people believe they won't work in there anyway.'

  'Why?'

  'Because there was never any functioning technology on Querencia. The most sophisticated thing the Waterwalker ever encountered was the machine gun. And that's purely mechanical. There was no electricity, no genetics, no biononics. Given the humans who landed, their ship would have had access to the most advanced technology and information base the Commonwealth could provide, it is inconceivable that their new society couldn't even make a battery. They certainly know their chemistry and medicine, even astronomy. Something stopped them from following the electromechanical route.'

  'The internal structure of the Void,' Oscar mused.

  'Quite. Whatever the quantum structure is that permits true mental powers, it must also block electricity.'

  'That's ridiculous. You can't stop current flowing, that implies a whole level of atomic reactions would cease to exist. There wouldn't be any stars.'

  'The Silfen paths mess with human hardware-based technology,' Tomansio said.

  'That's direct interference generated by their paths.'

  'All I'm saying is that it appears there's something inimical to rift ironies in the Void.'

  'The original colony ship survived to land on Querencia.'

  'And the Living Dream is still arguing if it landed or crashed,' Beckia said. 'The interference with electronics could come directly from the Heart itself, like some kind of overlord making sure civilization doesn't rise above a certain level.'

  'What the hell would anyone go to so much trouble making the Void in the first place just so they can use it to keep sentient species as pets?'

  'No idea,' she said merrily. The firstlife are alien, remember, they think differently.'

  Oscar gave up with an irritable wave of his hand. 'All right, so thanks to the whole firstlife zookeeper theory, the welcome team are unlikely to have biononics.'

  'That's about it, yeah,' Tomansio said.

  'Either way,' Beckia said. 'We don't want to go head to head if we can help it.'

  'Right.'

  'Liatris, can you get us assigned to the welcome team back up, please,' Tomansio asked.

  'Way ahead of you. Your assignment should be coming through in a couple of minutes.'

  'Thank you.'

  Oscar drew a sharp breath as the Raiel warships obliterated a gas-giant. 'Jesus H Christ, give the poor girl a break.' The Silverbird dropped back into real space. Oscar grimaced at the radiation battering its force fields, his memory flipping back to the fight for Hanko when he'd captained the Dublin. There were a lot of parallels. MorningLightMountain's ships had used exotic energy blasts to smack the Dublin about. And at half a million kilometres above the surface, their force field had only just withstood the star's radiation. All that was nothing compared to the hell Silverbird was now enduring. Oscar couldn't help the burst of encouragement pouring out of his mind and into the gaiafield, as if prayer alone could make a difference.

  Justine powered back into hyperspace.

  'Good tactic,' Oscar said approvingly. Another part of his mind was dwelling on the fact that the Elvin's Payback was the same type of ship as Silverbird. We could be out there doing that.

  'Stand by,' Cheriton said on the ultrasecure link. 'The Second Dreamer is making contact with the Skylord.'

  'Where is he?' Tomansio growled out. 'Armour active, please. Oscar, do exactly as we tell you, clear?'

  'Yes.' He just managed not to add 'sir'.

  'Haven't got his position yet,' Cheriton said. 'My routines are still fudging the nest for us.'

  Oscar opened his mind wide to the gaiafield.

  '—close to you now. Feel for her,' the Second Dreamer was imploring.

  'Here we go,' Cheriton said. 'First fix is the Bodant district.'

  'En route,' Tomansio said, and pushed the capsule round in a hundred and eighty degree curve above the dark river. Viotia's dawn sun shone into the capsule through the forward section of the transparent fuselage.

  'Ah crap, the rest of the nests are focusing on the origin,' Cheriton said. 'I thought they'd take longer.'

  Tomansio pushed their speed up. 'Ozzie! How long have we got?'

  Thirty thousand lightyears away, the Void began to extend out towards the Silverbird.

  'If it screws with technology is she going to be all right when she's inside?' Oscar asked.

  'Let's just concentrate on the job you've given us, shall we?' Beckia chided. She was activating her armour. The helmet visor rippled shut.

  'He's near the edge of the park,' Cheriton told them. 'The Dream Masters are pulling out some very precise coordinates. Damn, they're good. Sorry guys, you're not going to make it. The welcome team is being given his location.'

  'Shit,' Tomansio reducing their speed. 'It'll look suspicious if we arrive a couple of seconds before them, and that's all the time we've got.'

  'What's plan B?' Oscar asked.

  'Snatch him away from the welcome team, but that's going to be difficult. This is all happening too fast. I wanted to be properly embedded in the occupation forces here before we moved to this phase.'

  'Kill the wormhole,' Beckia said. 'We can use Elvin's Payback to intercept the welcome team in interstellar space when they ship the Second Dreamer back to Ellezelin.'

  'That would give us a better chance,' Oscar said. 'That ship's a damn sight better than anything Living Dream will have.'

  'We don't know that,' Tomansio said. 'And it would take a lot of aggression to take out the wormhole.'

  'I could go through and do it,' Liatris insisted.

  'They'd know exactly what happened, and why,' Tomansio said. 'This is looking like we'll have to switch operations to Ellezelin itself. Oh, here we go, deployment orders from the welcome team. It's an apartment building.'

  'Something wrong here,' Cheriton said. 'One of my new colleagues Danal is having a fit. That apartment block is where he lives. As best we can determine the Second Dreamer is actually in his own apartment.'

  'Ah hah, everybody might just be underestimating the Second Dreamer, after all,' Tomansio said. 'Good for him.'

  'And for us,' Beckia agreed.

  'He's
going to have to get out of there quick,' Oscar said. He was viewing an exoimage map of Colwyn. Nine cruisers were converging on Bodant Park. Five had orders to establish a secure ground perimeter. Two were assigned to provide air cover. The rest, including theirs, were to back up the welcome team inside.

  He glanced down as they passed over the bright illuminum buildings of a marina, then on across the park. There were thousands of people spread across the grass, still cheering and jumping up and down with glee as their all-night vigil was rewarded. A real party atmosphere had developed and the pull it exerted through the gaiafield was intoxicating.

  The capsule carrying the welcome team roared overhead, barely subsonic and decelerating hard. Up ahead, the glass pillar corners of the target apartment block gleamed with a purple and blue iridescence, naively signalling its position. The welcome team capsule circled it possessively, trailing a thin vapour trail. Happy people down in the park frowned upwards at the boorish intrusion. Dismay and resentment appeared in the gaiafield like necrotic sunspots in an otherwise healthy corona.

  'Oh great,' Oscar grunted as more and more celebrating citizens became indignant and aggrieved. 'That'll help.'

  'They don't care,' Tomansio said. 'This whole planet doesn't matter to them. All they're interested in is finding the Second Dreamer.'

  'I wonder what he's like,' Oscar said they slowed to hover above the strip of well maintained gardens in front of the block.

  'Neurotic,' Beckia said. 'Got to be.'

  'Smart and scared,' Tomansio said. 'Which makes him dangerous to Living Dream.'

  The rest of the capsules assigned to support the welcome team arrived. 'This is Major Honilar,' the welcome team commander announced. 'Perimeter squad, establish yourselves immediately. No one in or out. Janglepulse anyone who attempts to cross your line. Custody support squad, seal off the ground floor and shut down the lifts. Use the stairwell to isolate each floor. Now listen up: I want to make very sure you all understand this: there is to be no lethal weapons usage at all. The Second Dreamer is in there, and he must not be harmed. If you encounter any problem, for example if he is using a force field and tries to break through, call us. We will deal with him. I don't want your dirty hands on him.'