Strider's Galaxy

by John Grant

  Dammit, but he missed the presence of Strider. Dammit, but at the same time he was glad she was gone: the Santa Maria was his. People didn't enlist in the SSIA to become seconds-in-command.

  There was a strange taste in his mouth. He at last identified it as lime. That was the taste of the wormhole.

  He pressed the button that the graphic display told him to press so that the tachyonic drive would cut in. He found himself grinning just before he pressed it. The drive itself was going to revolutionize humanity's physics. The ride back through the wormhole was going to be an exhilaration.

  In point of fact, O'Sondheim first realized the Santa Maria had entered the wormhole when he found himself staring into a blackly cavernous maw, framed above and below by arrays of mauve and seemingly very sharp teeth. That the upper and lower jaws were currently several hundred kilometers apart did not reassure him at all.

  It's all just an illusion, was his first thought. Oh shit, was his second.

  #

  Quite a lot had been gained, thought Lan Yi as he stroked the skin of his forearm, amazed yet again by its silky smoothness. Although the experience of decontamination itself had been unpleasant, he was captivated by the various sensations of its after-effects.

  The destruction of the Autarch and of Qitanefermeartha was a first step towards, he hoped, The Wondervale's gaining some form of freedom as it struggled out from under the tyrant's boot. Of course, there would be another Autarch soon—as soon as various competing would-be heirs battled out the succession, wiping out a few worlds and species along the way. But the early days of a new tyranny are the time when it is at its most vulnerable: there was hope.

  Alliances, too, were gains.

  There was the alliance now of the humans with the Trok and the Bredai and the various other species who had thrown off the thraldom to which they had been subjected on F-14. The Helgiolath, the Onurg of the Pridehouse had explained, were not necessarily to be trusted for ever, but perhaps they could be trusted for now. And then there was the forthcoming alliance with the ancient species, something which Lan Yi eagerly anticipated. He still wanted to study Polyaggle, to find out how such a highly sophisticated colonial organism—if that was what she was—could have evolved. The prospect of discovering other, equally strange species stirred more than just his intellect. He was honest enough with himself to recognize that there was an emotional charge there as well. The appeal of scientific research can be described as the satisfaction of human inquisitiveness—which is a long phrase meaning "the thrill."

  And there had also been a personal gain.

  Lan Yi walked across the floor of the sparsely furnished common-room the Bredai had created for the humans and took Strauss-Giolitto's hand. She reached her head down towards him and they pecked each other chastely on the cheek. At some time or another as they'd separately careened over the barren plains of Qitanefermeartha they'd individually realized quite how much they meant to each other. Older brother, younger sister; big sister, little brother.

  There were tears in Strauss-Giolitto's eyes.

  "Shit," she said, "but I've been thinking about that damn' bot again."

  #

  It was several subjective days later when Strider felt the nudge of an Image into her mind. The probe seemed slightly clumsy and nervous, as if this were some kind of tyro. Was there such a thing as a newborn Image? She had come to the assumption that the beings were immortals.

  LEONIE, said an unpracticed voice.

  Pinocchio's voice.

  About the Author

  John Grant is the author of some seventy books. His nonfiction has included The Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (with John Clute), and a series of books on the misuse and misunderstanding of science, begun with Discarded Science and continued most recently with Denying Science. His fiction has included novels like The World, The Far-Enough Window and The Dragons of Manhattan as well as numerous short stories, some of which have been collected as Take No Prisoners. For his nonfiction work he has received the Hugo (twice), the World Fantasy Award, and a number of other awards and nominations.

  His A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir, the largest film noir encyclopedia ever published, appeared in October 2013 from Limelight. He is currently working on a YA book provisionally called The Young Person’s Guide to Bullshit, scheduled for publication by Zest in Fall 2014.