Less than eleven minutes had passed since the Tulyans had estimated the eighteen-minute arrival time, so there should be seven left. But Noah thought it might be more like three now. In the last few moments, the Web Spinners had increased their speed, in anticipation of reaching their goal.
They were hungry.…
* * * * *
Clinging to the forward wall of Webdancer’s much smaller sectoid chamber, Tesh Kori monitored the flurry of activity in the meeting rooms and corridors of the flagship, and in space around her. Through her connection with the podflesh, she listened to the interior of the vessel, while looking outward through visual sensors in the hull. The Liberator fleet had been divided up and positioned according to General Nirella’s orders, prepared to defend the starcloud against the fast-approaching threat.
Web Spinners, they called them. Ancient creatures from the undergalaxy. Demons? That was the only parallel she could draw to Parvii legends, which described the undergalaxy as a stygian realm, inhabited by evil spirits.
She waited for the next command from her superiors. Agonizing seconds ticked by. Through the misty gases of the starcloud, Tesh saw Noah’s cocoon moving to a forward position, where General Nirella had ordered him to go. She thought of Noah’s child growing in her womb, and wondered if they would ever form a family—the three of them. She desperately hoped so, but nothing about her relationship with Noah was conventional. Besides, war was filled with uncertainties, and too many of the possibilities were not good.
Tesh had lived for more than seven centuries, and in that time had dated men of many star systems and galactic races. But never before had she met anyone even remotely like Noah Watanabe, nor had she ever experienced feelings for any of them that approached those she felt for him.
And, while she could remember details going back all that time, she had noticed a recent compression of the memories that mattered most to her, the ones she kept calling up and thinking about over and over. The kisses she had shared with Noah, their brief intimacy, the comforting sound of his voice, the caring way he looked at her with his hazel eyes, which he still had even after his flesh changed.
Since meeting him, the original racial difference between them had widened, as Noah had set forth on a path of evolving into something else. She only hoped that he was not evolving into someone else.
At the very heart of her feelings, his appearance didn’t really matter to her. She cared much more about what was inside, what he was thinking and where he was going with his life. She cared about what sort of a father he might be for their child.
Tears welled up in Tesh’s eyes, and ran down her cheeks. She tasted salt.
I must be strong, she thought. The tears stopped, and she steeled herself for battle.
* * * * *
The great weapon that Noah was about to use and the entire scenario seemed so far beyond the range of possibility that he wondered if he was going completely mad, if he had been infected with a terrible disease of the mind. His own twin sister had gone insane and had died hideously. Noah recalled the dermex injection she had stabbed into him, claiming it was her own blood. It had been her last act of hatred toward him before dying. Could Francella’s vicious presence be alive inside him at this very moment, and dictating his very perceptions? It remained an unanswered question, just one of many.
I need to control chaos, he thought, trying to bring himself back, knowing that the monsters of the undergalaxy really were coming. Order must emerge from chaos. In this galaxy, and in my own psyche.
Abruptly, Noah felt a shift in time and space around him, and he saw fast-forward images through Francella’s eyes as she committed vile acts—scheming to murder their father, stealing his assets, hacking at and stabbing Noah. He felt her hatreds, her twisted views, her petty jealousies and self-serving plots. He felt how much she loathed her twin. It was not the first time he had seen through her eyes—or seemed to—and he wondered if this had something to do with the blood she had injected in him, or to the fact that twins were said to have paranormal linkages.
The eyes shifted; the view shifted, revealing a horrific threat to the Tulyan Starcloud.…
Chapter Seventy-Three
In some circumstances, it is better to perish than to survive.
If that be the case in our hour of crisis, may death come quickly to us all.
—Transmitted thoughts, from a Tulyan webtalker
Like an earthquake in space, a terrible upheaval consumed the Tulyan Starcloud. Once a haven like none other in the known galaxy, it was anything but that now. Having slipped out of the control of mindlink, comets and meteors streaked wildly through the mists of the starcloud, threatening the planets, the Liberator fleet, and the Council Chamber.
Focusing and refocusing their telepathic waves, the Tulyans succeeded in diverting the incoming missiles one at a time, but more kept coming. A huge meteor—the size of a small moon—barely missed hitting the planet Tulé.
All across the starcloud, Liberator warships fired their weapons at the incoming objects, hitting some and diverting them, but missing others. With the attentions of the defenders on the larger objects, meteorites got through and crashed into dwellings and community structures. Flaming embers hit the floating Council Chamber.
Noah’s cocoon was in motion, moving independently of his commands. It was a survival mode in the amalgamated podships that enabled him to focus on other, more pressing concerns. The cocoon moved through the mists in great graceful patterns, avoiding the celestial storm. It rose heavenward, then circled over the misty veils and three planets of the starcloud, taking evasive action as necessary.
From his paranormal, web-linked observation and listening post Noah hesitated, sensing that he should not fire his great weapon at the incoming objects yet, that he needed to save it for exactly the right moment. But he couldn’t just stand by and watch this. At Yaree, he had minimized the power and spread it around to detonate the invading Parviis.
He realized he was having a gut reaction now, and he had to ask himself if it was relevant, or if it was a useless remnant of his Human form, something that should be discarded. As he watched the cosmic storm all around him, he could hardly stand it anymore. He had to fire the weapon to divert some of those incoming objects.
But still he hesitated.
Through Timeweb, Noah heard one of the Elders—Dabiggio—cry out in dismay, “The demons of the undergalaxy are breaking through!” Other council members shouted that this couldn’t possibly be happening, that the starcloud was supposed to be the strongest place in the entire galaxy, since mindlink had been improved dramatically by a concerted effort of the defenders.
The Council Chamber was hit again, this time by a small comet that skipped off the bulbous underside, tearing loose a jagged piece of the inverted dome. All over the starcloud, thousands of Tulyans were fleeing for the podships and attempting to board them. But in the chaos most vessels were having to take off before they were fully loaded. Above Tulé, four were hit by meteorites and larger objects, destroying them. Noah heard the screams of the dying Aopoddae and their Tulyan passengers.
Unable to wait any longer, he reduced the power of the great weapon, focused it, and fired bursts of primal green light in multiple directions. All over the starcloud and beyond it, comets, meteors, and meteorites exploded and veered away. A small number of them kept coming, but Noah thought the Tulyans should be able to deter the rest of them with mindlink. He drew the power inward, felt it building up around him again.
Now his humanoid eyes looked at the oncoming Web Spinners, amorphous shapes that were closer than ever, only a minute or two away, surging past one star system after another. Why weren’t they coming into focus? Kre’n had said they were like spiders, and had exoskeletons that scaled up to amazing proportions. Did they look like spiders, then? So far, he’d only gotten glimpses of long legs beneath dark bodies that almost seemed fluid, as their shapes bent one way and another. Perhaps this was yet another form of shapeshi
fting.
Again Noah felt the visceral sensation telling him not to fire, not yet. He had to wait for precisely the right moment, and really cut loose with everything he had. This time, Noah went with the feeling, and hoped he had not made a mistake by activating the weapon earlier to protect the starcloud. He felt the power continue to build up around him, and it did not seem to him that he had damaged anything. It could keep going up and up.
But in a matter of moments he reached a point where he didn’t feel his brain could encompass any more of the tremendous energy. Although his thoughts extended far and could accomplish a great deal, he still had some connection to his past as a Human, and he sensed that there were distinct limitations on what he could do, and that he should not go beyond certain boundaries. But what were those boundaries? His expanded mind would not, or could not, tell him.
Noah felt like a child-god, one who was not able to understand or fully control his powers. But he had no more time to learn, and needed to utilize what he had immediately. It was the most severe form of on-the-job training imaginable, because any mistake he made would have immense consequences.
He felt the momentum of time around him, a tidal wave of events pushing him toward an unavoidable climax. He looked in all directions at once, absorbed information from everywhere simultaneously.
The dark creatures kept coming, and in anticipation of this the Tulyans were evacuating the Council Chamber. Noah recognized the face of Eshaz on the prow of one of the ships that was taking on passengers. That vessel began to move quickly and headed away with others, going in the opposite direction from the approaching Web Spinners. Incoming thoughts from webtalkers told Noah that the Tulyans were setting up a new defensive bastion on their largest planet, Tulé. Due to changes in cosmic conditions, this would be the most powerful place in the starcloud, where they intended to make a last-ditch telepathic stand against the attackers.
Noah saw a weak spot in the galactic infrastructure near the abandoned Council Chamber, a fraying of the green filigree that would soon send the chamber tumbling one direction or another. Nothing like that had ever happened before in this region of space.
Then, to his amazement, the approaching Web Spinners began to disappear before reaching the starcloud, one after the other. From his vantage over the misty Tulyan domain, Noah saw that the creatures were entering a timehole. In seconds, they were gone, and the hole closed.
But near the Council Chamber he saw a bulge in the barely visible fabric of space, and remembered seeing that effect in the Kandor Sector, right before the creatures poured through from the undergalaxy. Now he noticed other bulges appearing around the starcloud, with the biggest of all forming around Tulé, where podships full of evacuees were still arriving. To his dismay, he realized that Eshaz was piloting one of them.
And Noah had no time to do anything about it.
The surface of Tulé cracked open like an eggshell. Something monstrous and black pushed its way through molten lava and crust of the world, a creature that was much larger than the others. It had long legs, which waved in the sky and struck several podships at they tried to take off, causing them to crash. The planet cracked open further, and Noah saw smaller creatures, scurrying out of fissures. Near the Council Chamber, other creatures emerged and knocked the chamber aside, sending its severely damaged remains drifting through the starcloud.
The earlier Web Spinners had been scouts. Now many more of them were coming out of the undergalaxy, and the mother of them all was a hundred times the size of Noah’s cocoon, with a head and body of odd geometric angles, and yellow-ember eyes that burned as bright as suns. Its legs looked and moved like those of a spider, but its body, just breaking through the crust of the planet, was diamond-shaped, as if cut from an immense, precious stone. It was the darkest shade of black he had ever seen, and seemed to absorb light into it and make it disappear, like a black hole in motion.
The monsters clustered on webbing over the ruined world, having scattered Tulé and its atmosphere into space. Liberator warships attacked the creatures, firing ion cannons, nuclear projectiles, and a variety of other space weapons. But nothing did any good, as the creatures ignored the small blasts.
From his high vantage Noah was sickened to see the torn bodies of Humans, Tulyans, and Mutatis floating in space.
The largest Web Spinner, now free, began to climb the web toward Noah’s cocoon, but got on a weak strand that broke, causing a momentary delay before it found another.
The Queen of the Undergalaxy, he thought.
Other smaller creatures followed her, but even the smallest of them were as big as his cocoon.
Seeing through his many eyes in the amalgamation around him, Noah’s eyes displayed multiple images of the spiders crawling up the web toward him. It was like an array of video screens … all showing horror. The creatures were picking up speed.
Noah focused the primal-energy weapon and fired a blinding green blast that was much more powerful than he had used to destroy the HibAdu armada. But this time it only bounced off the creatures, without seeming to harm them.
Desperately, he increased the energy level by several factors—beyond what he had earlier thought he could stand. He continued firing, but with very little effect on the monsters of the nether realm. The blasts slowed them, but they didn’t seem to be harmed at all, and they kept coming.…
Chapter Seventy-Four
In this universe, there is always a way to escape from any situation … even from the greatest danger. It is for us, with the brains and free will that the Sublime Creator gave us, to find the way.
—Tulyan observation, in emergency council
The Web Spinners scrambled along the strands, heading directly toward Noah’s cocoon, ignoring the warships of the Liberator fleet that raced alongside them, peppering them with ion and atomic cannon fire that didn’t phase them at all, didn’t slow them down or make them change course. The monsters just ignored them.
In the midst of the terrible threat, Noah’s mind raced, searching for answers and possibilities. He kept firing his own primal blasts at the creatures, but they kept coming, and he didn’t want to increase the power any more, fearing it would go beyond anything he could handle. It could destroy the remains of the starcloud, the Liberator fleet, and everything in this galactic sector—with the possible exception of the monsters of the undergalaxy. He wasn’t sure if anything could stop them.
For the moment, he continued to fire at the geometric, spidery creatures, and at least his shots were slowing them down—though they kept regrouping and clamoring toward him. Intermittently, for brief moments, he saw faint lights and shifting colors inside the bodies and heads, as if illuminated from within. Then the colors and lights would fade to black-blackness with the exception of the yellow-ember eyes, peering out of the darkness of the bodies.
Noah recalled the Battle of Yaree, where he had experienced a brief vision lasting only a few seconds, in which the cocoon blew up and he tumbled out into a glowing green timehole. That had never really happened, and he strongly suspected now—more viscerally than intellectually—that he had seen a fragment of his own future in that vision. But he also felt, with equal certainty, that it was only one of his possible futures, and that he could still avoid it if he made the right choices. Perhaps that was why his mind revealed the vision to him again, to prevent it from happening.
The Web Spinners had been opening timeholes all over the galaxy, exploiting natural galactic weaknesses and creating new ones, undoubtedly setting them up as entry points and waiting for their best opportunity to attack. But they had seemed to ignore the HibAdus and their conventional weaponry, and were doing the same with the Liberators. They weren’t ignoring Noah, though, and his weapon didn’t seem to have much effect on them at all.
Should he raise the primal power and see what it could do to the creatures, no matter what the potential risk was to everything else? He might have to.
He realized now that the Web Spinners wanted to
get to him, to the exclusion of everything else in this galaxy. And they had been after him before. Somehow they’d been sensing his presence wherever he was, especially after he formed the cocoon and began discovering what it contained—a raw, cosmic power that the creatures feared. Earlier they had intended to get him at Yaree and in the Kandor Sector, but each time Noah had eluded them. Crossing space from Kandor, he had displayed an ability to traverse vast distances almost instantaneously, which seemed to cause problems for the creatures. And—if that method of travel was not available—for reasons he did not yet understand—he could still travel at great speeds along the podways. He had the means of escape, though he suspected that would only delay the inevitable. They would find him. They were determined to find him, like predators that refused to give up the hunt. But for what purpose? Presumably, to attempt to kill him. But what if they couldn’t accomplish that? What then? What sort of integrated mind and energy drove them? What form of extraterrestrial hell did they intend for him?
That particular future—if it existed—had not yet been revealed to him.
These alien organisms were smart, and they would undoubtedly attempt to cut off his routes of escape, as the HibAdus had tried to do with the Liberator fleet. Alternately, the creatures seemed to select both undergalactic routes and routes in this galaxy. But Noah was not without his own options. Maybe he could lure them away as far as possible and set off a huge detonation that would finish them off. If conditions permitted it, he could go through a timehole into the undergalaxy and do it to them there—thus shifting the focus of the destruction.
Wipe them out in their own nest, he thought. Kill all of them. Get the Queen.
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