Eye of the Gazelle

  Vekta dropped back into his chair, stunned. W...wait, what? If she... But he shoved aside the direction of those thoughts. I can't. Not yet!

  *

  Austine Tauscher tapped her foot impatiently, standing in the middle of the control deck. All had been prepared for immediate departure for the Vega System. All that was needed was the input of the Dao Parameter. She wasn't sure if Vekta wanted to just use the usual one for Gamma Universe, or if he was able to figure out the one for Xost. Stander, she thought, biting on a fingernail, are you all right? You're just as mad as Vekta, you know that? Thank goodness I can see you again...

  Novella appeared on the deck, going to her station. She wore a minute smile, which Austine puzzled over. What did she want to talk to Vekta about? “Major Aurand, do you know what Dao Parameter we're using? Crater will need that.”

  The Dracon woman shrugged calmly. “The Gamma one should be fine,” she said, fingers already working through the patterns on a Sixtheye display. “Go ahead, Crater.”

  “Got it,” Crater said. He had done so already some time ago. Major Aurand looks pleased about something. What did she talk with Kviatha about?

  “Proceed to Vega in Gamma,” came Vekta's firm menttrans to all the senior officers. “Once there we'll transfer to Xost Universe. I'll handle that directly with Crater.”

  Austine grinned. “Yes, sir! You heard the man. Let's go!”

  The problem with the Dao Parameter was that it had practically been randomly generated because there was, it'd been theorized, an infinite number of universes between any other two universes. “Beta” had been estimated to have a set of physical laws close enough to “Alpha” to sustain life. There were universes between Alpha and Beta, and between Beta and Gamma. Xost Universe presented no reference, however. Vekta “knew” its location but translating that to the set of variables required to establish its Dao Parameter was the tricky part.

  I could simply shift the Andromedea to Xost, Vekta mused from his commander's chair a while later when they were underway. But we're going to need that Dao Parameter anyway. I wonder...

  He closed his eyes for a moment, and let his consciousness rise up to consci4. There, he could sense the fabric of the barrier between universes. He could zone in easily on the particular mental patterns of his children and Stander Kvaan. Then... there. Vekta sensed the barrier between Gamma and Xost.

  *

  Thho was still observing Vekta at this time, curious as to how he handled his social interactions after developing the Attitudes. She'd thought the man had held up well considering how radically his personal universe had changed. She was especially interested in how he would handle what he was calling the Eye of the Gazelle. This little bit about calculating something that would allow his ship to traverse between this universe and the one called Xost was of little interest to her. But she would admit to an interest in his cybernetic creation.

  *

  “Crater, I need you to compartmentalize your Starlock calculations so you can give me your full attention,” Vekta menttransed to the Crater 0001. “Do that, and I'll form the Link.”

  Compartmentalize? I already do that, Crater wondered, then took a detached look at the calculations that he was performing. Picosecond by picosecond, he had to recalculate their navigational settings for the Starlock. But because it was more of a computer function, he could set it in motion without having to pay attention to it. He had other things to attend to as the main computer system of the starship but those, too, could be absented from his awareness. It was an easy matter to set up alerts so that if anything strayed off expected levels, he'd know. Done, he thought, knowing his creator would pick up his thought.

  Vekta formed the Link with Crater, and marveled as always at his creation's abilities. The cybernism was indeed able to relegate his ship duties to the background, giving his active attention to his creator. When Crater had first been activated, Vekta had been amazed that he had a subconscious at all. The HAGE had from the onset organized mental capabilities to fully mimic a Human mind. The only difference qualitatively was due to Crater's superior processing abilities. He had no need to sleep, processing all data input on the fly. Therefore, that there was a subconscious component to his mind, had been unexpected.

  I don't know how this is going to work exactly, Vekta thought to Crater within the Link. I can see the barrier to Xost; you can see the Dao Parameter settings. Hmm...

  Crater considered his normal process. He had a set of variables for the parameter in the Starlock system, would input them appropriately, then the ship simply translated into that universe. This was going to be reverse of that, to see the universe and somehow “read” the appropriate settings. Could it even work like that?

  *

  Thho suddenly became more attentive. Does this man see what is happening already? Though this created thing is not a telepath, it's as if this is an actual merge... because the man is in what he calls consci4? Of course a telepath can merge with a nontelepath, but this isn't quite the same. The creation is a latent telepath... is that why? It cannot sense the merge, but the man should. Interesting!

  As usual, she found her subjects — fascinating.

  *

  Vekta was wholly focused on the dimensional barrier. There must be a way to read the Dao here...

  Crater felt a strong wave of surprise. I don't know why, but—

  Abruptly, Crater realized he could “read” the Dao Parameter, the specific variable set that represented the laws of physics peculiar to Xost Universe which were required for the insertion of the ship. It was as if a tool within the Starlock itself had suddenly presented itself for use in this manner: a telepath detecting a dimensional barrier and interfacing with the Starlock, extrapolating the Dao Parameter as if reading a meter.

  *

  Thho made an interpretation of her own, shocked. Unexpected! That this created mind should be... She wriggled her tail in a Pelan approximation of a laugh, delighted. I wonder what the man will do...

  *

  Stunned, Vekta severed the Link and immediately erased all memory of this particular experience of Linking from Crater's mind. He shouldn't have been able to do that... was it already there in the Starlock? Did Austine...? But he knew that Austine Tauscher would not have anticipated the necessity to read the parameter of a specific, perceived universe because when she'd designed the Starlock, there was no way to perceive such a thing, not by any Level 8 telepath at the time, and they had not yet met the teleXandee. Now, of course, Vekta knew he could merge2 with any teleXandee even without the Attitudes and use this unexpected feature of the Starlock to read the Dao Parameter of whatever universe they could “look” into.

  But was it the Starlock? Or was it actually Crater?

  Chilled, Vekta altered Crater's memory so that the cybernism would think that there was such a feature of the Starlock. He's not a telepath, though he has the potential; has that started to develop on its own? Ruthlessly he checked. But Crater was unable to rise above a consci2, typical of a nontelepathic Human with heightened self-awareness. Vekta was sure of it. What does this mean?

  He was well aware that Crater even having a telepathic potential was a severe violation of the very research guidelines for the development of intelligent Constructs that he himself had designed and presented to Fleet Research as well as Fleet General Staff. Perhaps I need to take that away from him, he considered soberly now. I can't allow it—

  “You know you will not take it away,” Thho sent to him with a Pelanish snort. “I do not think I can let you, anyway. Someday he may be needed. It could be.”

  Vekta had been aware of Thho's attention — marginally. “You can't prevent me,” he retorted. “We can't have telepathic Constructs. You don't know... or perhaps you never looked into our history. Arcturus—”

  “I would never have believed you of all people would subscribe to a societal hysteria,” Thho snapped back. “Why did you put that in your creation, then?”r />
  Opening his eyes, Vekta glanced at the viewport. He was finished; Crater would be only aware that there was a tool in the Starlock that could potentially be used to discover a specific Dao Parameter. He would not know that he himself had used it within the Link with Vekta, nor that they had been Linked just now. He would naturally assume that Vekta himself had discovered and used it.

  “I don't know,” Vekta answered the Pelan honestly. “You can see into the future. Do you know something about Crater that I don't?”

  Thho did not want to answer that question. “You call it intuition, I think. I do not want to explain. Just let your marvelous creation be himself. Besides, you cannot seriously think there is any potential in him to go rogue, right? Please consider that you are essentially his god and he is unable to go against your wishes. Am I not right?”

  Vekta sighed, which won him a look from Austine. “He's... as unpredictable as he is brilliant. But I suppose you're right. He's loyal to me and the USC. Besides, he's a Dracon-analogue.”

  “There you are.” Thho emtransed a whiff of amusement. “Are you put off that there's something more unpredictable than you are?”

  Someone snapped their fingers in front of Vekta's face; he jumped a little. Both actions had produced visual phenomena: a bright pink flash and a bluish wiggle. “Vekta, you in there?” Austine said, now waving her hand until his eyes started to track the movement of the blue waves emanating from her hand.

  “Sorry,” he said to his executive officer. “How long until Vega?” His voice produced a pale yellow fuzzy glow, but he ignored it. He didn't deign to respond to the Pelan.

  “How long, Crater?” Austine drawled the query, glancing at the cybernism's closest viewport. She, too, ignored the visual phenomena producing by Gamma Universe.

  “About an hour,” Crater replied. He had returned to attending to the Starlock calculations and his other functions, though was also reviewing a treatise on the phenomenon of Human muscle spasms and tics.

  “There you go,” Austine murmured, sitting back in her chair. “Are you going to tell us what's going to happen once we get there? And what about Xost Universe?”

  “We can switch at any time,” Vekta murmured thoughtfully. “I've been able to ascertain the Dao Parameter. It might be useful to go ahead and do that now so we can measure how Xost and Alpha differ in case we need to make any adjustments. Because the Elektra hasn't had any problems, I'm not expecting any. It's probably that Xost is closer in physical laws to Alpha than Beta or even Gamma. Vega, being a blue giant, emits more radiation than expected. The Xandee have provided Stander and the twins with shields to protect them.”

  “You've really got the Dao Parameter for Xost?” Austine asked privately, stunned.

  “Yes. Tell you about that later... maybe,” Vekta replied, looking at the Sixtheye displays around him, fingers separating them out every once in a while. Combined with the visuals produced by movement, they were a little more tricky to read.

  “That's expected, isn't it?” Veladasser spoke up from the science station. “Of course, the atmosphere of Vega V in Alpha shields out some of the radiation. I would think its Xost counterpart would do the same.”

  “Apparently not; we'll measure that when we get there,” Vekta murmured. “Another reason to go into Xost now. I wasn't really on the Elektra long enough to investigate.” And I had other things on my mind, he thought to himself with irony.

  “Let's do it,” Austine said, waving away the Sixtheye fields glowing around her.

  “Let's,” Vekta echoed, then menttransed to the entire crew:“This is Major Colonel Rentclifv. We're translating into another universe called Xost. We're not expecting any environmental differences, but please report anything out of the ordinary. Stand by for Starlock insertion.” Then, to the cybernism: “Go ahead, Crater.”

  Crater input the new Dao Parameter. “This still takes seven minutes.”

  “Then we wait seven minutes,” Vekta murmured, closing his eyes.

  And seven minutes later, the cybernism announced. “Starlock insertion into Xost Universe commending.” There was a momentary shimmer, and the ship seemed to shrug, then nothing. Quickly he checked readings. Amazed, he noted that the corner of his mind that was still doing the course changes had automatically adjusted for the changed speed of light.

  Which was significantly less than Gamma, but more than Alpha. As expected, he considered. Xost is more like Alpha after all. Instead of picosecond to picosecond course adjustments, it would be more like nanosecond to nanosecond. “Sir, recalculated estimation of time to Vega System. Instead of five hours, it should take five days.” In Alpha under the normal stardrive, it would have taken sixteen days.

  There was no visual component to speech now. Vekta nodded, sighing. “Very well. We'll take that time to study Xost Universe and also take a break for those who need it. We ought to be quite busy once we reach Vega.”

  “Why don't we just go there now via the faster Gamma?” Austine inquired, frowning. “We can study when we get there. Don't we also need to get Jaime back his starcraft?”

  Vekta also frowned; he had endless options now that he had the Attitudes. But should he use them so much? I can simply fetch the Elektra now, can take everyone back to Debbar in a flash, and we could even ignore the teleXandee, pretend we never encountered them, but of course I can't do that.

  “You can,” Thho said abruptly.

  Vekta stiffened his Attitude of Powerlessness against the Pelan. “I'll take care of my own business now,” he retorted. “Don't drop into my thoughts, please. We'll still need you to develop the Attitudes in others, but I know you know how to respect privacy.”

  “Just curious as to why you would bother helping a species from another universe,” Thho replied, unruffled. “What can you possibly gain from doing that?”

  “Peace of mind,” Vekta snapped, then was brought back by a hand tugging on his arm.

  “Hey, are you having private conversations on duty?” Austine was saying, tugging until he looked at her. “Hmm?”

  “Sorry,” Vekta muttered. “Crater, do you notice anything else different about Xost?”

  “Just an increase in ambient interstellar radiation for which I've already compensated.”

  Vekta nodded. He'd noted before that the Elektra's systems had done that automatically as well, fortunately. “We'll need to ascertain the Xandee's environmental requirements before relocation,” he said, glancing at Veladasser who nodded back. “Xanda in Xost seemed very similar in climate to Vriesia in Alpha, but we'll need to make sure. So let's do this. We'll continue on Starlock in Xost for a day, then shift back to Gamma to complete the trip quickly. That way we have a chance to study this universe and it won't delay our arrival much.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Austine said cheerily.

  21: Decisions

  Taree Imperial Khagan Raskogg yawned, then stretched to reach her white mantle of office draped at the edge of her bed. Drawing the rich fabric up around her nude body, she sat up and glanced over to regard her partner with amusement.

  Dear boy, she thought, drawing a line down his leg absently. I'll miss you in my bed. Suddenly she gave the leg a slap. “Time to get up, lovey. It's time we got you back to your Starglobe. You've a position to make firm. Korgovax had his loyalists.”

  Tesirax stirred, reaching for her, but Raskogg smoothly backed off and rose from the bed to walk away toward her “personal” room. “Kassa,” he purred sleepily. “Come back to bed first.”

  “Sorry, it's back to business for us both,” she murmured over her shoulder, then tantalizingly let the mantle slip just when she knew his eyes were fully open and he was looking at her before she disappeared into the personal.

  “Damn,” Tesirax muttered.

  The Starglobe Stauroyn had met up with his Korvaleen — now renamed the Tesing — just outside the Phorsev System to escort the new Khagan back to Taree space. There would be his formal installatio
n on Sarga, but due to Korgovax's untimely demise, the support of Raskogg would be critical to lend credence to Tesirax's appointment. Merely the report that the five Taree oligarchs had approved via the Pentacross wasn't sufficient for Korgavax's Sarganian power base.

  A decision hadn't yet been made about the now unmanned outpost station on the sole planet of Gozgazel Primary. Its location had been deemed important because of its distance from the USC. While the Taree were uninterested in USC affairs, they nevertheless wanted to keep an eye on their larger neighbor federation. Now that the Sdaldi invaders had been identified as having come from the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, its strategic importance had risen.

  But there was that pesky field to deal with.

  Under the steam clouds of the shower, Raskogg thought hard about the possibilities. Though she was loathe to ask any more of the Communitists, they did have stronger telepaths. The Taree had no Level designations for their Mahotar, but she believed she was probably the equal of that Vekta Rentclifv and Jaime Cenntl, the Starguards who had had the most interaction with the Taree over the years. Rentclifv is useless, she mused, running her fingers through her long, auburn hair. Damn Dracon, so moralistic, but that Jaime. Hmm, he's more my type...

  She decided. I've got to have Communitist involvement... damn. But I can't go to Althaea myself. Who to send? Who's closest? The Taree, of course, had their own agents to watch the USC, just as there were Starguards to watch the Taree. Idly she looked in on her personal computer in the other room where there were files on Taree personnel placements.

  Ugh, this is such a bother, Raskogg thought, changing her mind abruptly. I'll wait until it becomes a problem. If I know those Communitists, they'll wade in to fix whatever that thing is — if they can — all on their own. And we don't have to be involved at all!

  *

  On Vega V, the planet Xanda, a very unexpected communique had reached Center Cone. Gon-druxa-el, the leader of the anti-teleXandee element in the capital city, had requested a formal audience with Dr. Xiel-qoran-el, the leader of the refugees.