Empire's End

by Chris Bunch

  "What're you waiting for, Richards? Do you need a written invitation?" As he knelt over her, her legs came up, locking around his waist.

  Sure, Richards. Tell her no.

  Just like you told the company no.

  He had heard the rumors about Operation Alva even before he had been approached by Captain Selfridge to join the crew. Word was that a routine scan of the remote Alva Sector had come up with a strong but intermittent disturbance in the normal background radiation. The pulse came from an area no known body existed. It was not a black hole. Or any of the theoretical formations posed by twenty-second-century physicists to explain the newly unexplainable. Also, as far as anyone could tell, the blips or buzzes showing up against the radiation background charts came from a "natural" source.

  Kea was oddly stirred by rumors of the unexplained phenomenon. The small-boy/adventurer in him wanted badly to see for himself. To be the first to know a thing before anyone else. To rediscover his sense of wonder. Then his hard-won cynicism reasserted itself. Unless there was proven money in it, the company would ignore the whole thing. The required government report would eventually be drawn up, filed, and forgotten in a bureaucratic black hole. So, he'd returned to the room the company provided 'tween-contract workers and buried himself in his steadily growing collection of historical works. Then he had gotten the news of Dr. Fazlur's arrival. The scientist was reportedly an expert on alternate-universe theory. Kea had nearly dismissed this news outright. He had met too many of the company's pet experts. They always proved to be nothing more than PhDs for hire, with no qualms about bending fact to meet an employer's expectations. He had figured Fazlur was there merely to draw up the report, to maintain the company's license requirements with the government. This guess had been reinforced when he heard about Fazlur's gorgeous "assistant"—Dr. Ruth Yuen—and how he liked to nuzzle and paw at her in public. The man was obviously more playboy than scientist. Then he'd heard about the many metric tons of equipment being unloaded from the ship that had borne Fazlur and Yuen to Base Ten.

  "Company's turned on the money machine," an old space jock had said at one of Kea's favorite dives. "Somethin's gotta be up!"

  A small forest of special antennas had been erected on Base Ten's exterior skin by around-the-clock crews. Kea had seen it for himself upon his return from a quick, one-week hop. As his ship had floated toward Base Ten's docking bay, he had noted the odd configuration Fazlur had ordered constructed: wires knitted together and strung from towers until they formed an immense gill-net receiver. The old space jock had not exaggerated when he talked about the money machine going full bore. Something was up, indeed.

  Kea had paced his room. Picked up Gibbon. Tossed it. Flipped through the Anabasis. Tossed it, too. Ditto Plutarch's Lives. And Churchill. Too many hours dragged by. When he had gotten the message from Captain Selfridge that he was putting together a crew for an expedition to the Alva Sector, he had bounded to the meeting as fast as a strong young man can bound in three-quarters gravity.

  "Company thinks real well of you, Richards," Selfridge had said.

  "Thanks, Captain."

  "Hey, none of that captain business," the man had protested. "I like my ship loosey-goosey. Informal. Makes for a better team. That way we all pull together when you know what hits the fan… Call me Murph."

  "Sure… Murph," Kea had said, thinking then and there he ought to blow out. Only a fool would sign on a ship run by a captain who said, "Call me Murph."

  "That's right, Richards. Loosey-goosey. And we'll get on fine. Anyway. Company put you top of my list for the chief engineer's slot. Now that I metcha, and we talked… I can see why."

  Kea hadn't responded. He would have blown the deal. He had spoken maybe fifteen words since he had arrived at the captain's temporary HQ. If old Murph spent an equivalent time checking out the others, they'd wind up with a crew that would give Long John Silver the heebie-jeebies. "One thing I oughta mention," Murph had continued. "I gotta Osiran for my new first officer. Name's Vasoovan. Any problem with that?"

  Murph had instantly misunderstood Kea's raised eyebrow. "Now, I won't blame you if you're sorta prejudiced against Osirans. Taken a good man's job, and all. But this Vasoovan comes highly recommended. Even if she is a bug."

  "No. I've got no problems with Osirans… Murph," Kea had finally said. This was no lie. He was too much a mongrel himself to be prejudiced. He had heard fine things about Osirans in general. But not as company employees. Osirans were a pretty proud group. Hated the idea of being beholden to humans because they'd been the ones to make first contact. The only ones who would work for humans, Kea knew very well, were malcontents and incompetents. Which meant Murph's first officer was a likely loser with an attitude. Another bad sign. So, if his own name was on the recommended list, what did that make him?

  "Now, this is a real ticklish mission we got here," Murph said. "So you get hazardous-duty pay. And that's triple time, friend. One year guaranteed."

  Kea had smiled, acting pleased. So that explains it, he had thought. As one of the company's youngest chief engineers in grade, triple time would be pretty cheap. Which explained the Osiran. Rock-bottom wages mere. And good old Murph looked like the sort of guy who had to work cheap. "Plus bonuses if we bring home the bacon," Murph had said.

  "What exactly are we after?"

  "You probably heard the scuttlebutt in the bars about the weird readings they're gettin' out of Alva Sector, right?"

  "Yeah. Everybody heard."

  Laughter. "Figured that. No secrets on Base Ten. Anyway, they got the readings. Clerk drew up a filing, like we're supposed to. Law says the company's gotta report unexplained stuff like that. Part of the license with the Powers That Be. Public duty, and all that BS."

  Public duty, meaning pure research and intellectual development, was a sop the big companies threw the opposition when they won the right to commercialize space. Little money was actually spent. Space Ways and its fellow franchisees met only the vaguest spirit of the law.

  "The report got punted forward," Murph continued, "and everybody figured that was that. It'd get buried along with all the other jerkoff stuff. Which is where Fazlur comes into the story. The doc's an expert on alternate-universe theory. Don't ask me to explain it, I'm a space jockey, not a domehead."

  "I promise I won't," Kea had said.

  "So Fazlur sees the report. Gets all excited. Runs it through the computers, and bingo, it comes up three cherries. Proof there's an alternate universe, he says. A leak in space."

  "Why is the company listening?" Kea had kept his features bland. Inside, his heart was hammering. "What do they care? Unless there's money it in for them."

  "No money," Murph had said. "Not a chance. This expedition is, and I quote, 'purely in the interest of the advancement of science,' end BS quote."

  Kea had just stared at him—a working stiff's Don't Con Me stare. Murph had laughed. "Yeah. Right. Actually, what's goin' on is that our fearless parent company—SpaceWays—has got its tit in a political wringer. Some government types say they're skinnin' the research credits too fine."

  "So they're looking for a nice bone to throw to the dogs, right?" Kea had guessed.

  "You got it. And so did Fazlur. He may be a domehead, but he's got a good business nose. He pulls some strings. A junior veep sees a chance to make senior. And son of a gun, all of a sudden, we got us a scientific mission."

  So, that's all it was, Kea had thought. A little cheapie non-effort to spread oil on troubled political waters. This thing was bound to be screwed from the get-go.

  "So, Richards. I did my dance. Give you my best dog-and-pony show. What do you say? You with me?"

  Kea had rolled it over. And over again. It still didn't look good. However… An alternate universe? The other side of God's coin? And there was a measurable leak… A door. Into…

  What?

  Richards had to know. "Yeah," he'd said. "I'm with you."

  Kea watched Ruth ankle down the corridor. She pau
sed at the door, turned, flashed that wicked grin, then the door hissed open. She disappeared inside. He waited a few moments. It wouldn't do for them to arrive together.

  Murph's call for a meeting had caught them in the middle of another wild session of lovemaking. The voice on Kea's room speaker had barely died away, before they were pulling on their clothes. Now he was cooling his heels to allay any suspicions Fazlur might have. Kea cursed himself for getting into the predicament. The woman had come on from the start. She had a body and look that dared you to find out what she knew. Which was a helluva lot. She had told him Fazlur was a pig. She put up with his demands because it was the only way she could keep her job. Otherwise she would be just another scientist with a sheepskin for hire.

  "I have to use what nature gave me," she'd said, tracing a shapely finger along even more shapely naked flesh. But Kea had noted that for her the danger of getting caught—and the ensuing trouble it would cause—lent heavy spice to sex. Again, like Tamara. Don't point fingers, Richards, he thought. It gets to you, too. Every time she comes knocking… you open the door.

  The most maddening thing about it, Kea realized, was that the situation was right out of a basic frosh psych text. An obsession directly related to his failure with Tamara. It helped that the sex was absolutely fabulous. Feeling far younger than twenty-eight and ashamed of his addiction, Kea decided enough time had passed. He paced down the corridor and entered the bridge. They were all waiting. Murph and Vasoovan and Fazlur. Behind them, Ruth threw him a kiss.

  "What kept you, Richards?" came Vasoovan's irritating twitter.

  Fazlur looked at him. Did he suspect?

  "A little trouble in the engine room," Kea said.

  "Leak in the seals again?" Murph misguessed.

  "Yeah, Murph. Trouble in the seals again." Kea watched Fazlur turn away… satisfied? "What's going on?" Kea asked.

  Murph thumbed at Fazlur. "Doc's got some kinda answer." He turned to Fazlur. "Why don't you run it down?"

  "Yeah, Fazlur," Vasoovan prodded. "Tell us why you've had us chasing a big fat zero for five months."

  "It is not a phantom, my dimwitted companion. Of this I assure you. When we started out, the signal we were picking up from the apparent discontinuity in the Alva Sector was certainly steady and strong enough. Our dilemma came only when we grew close. The steady pulse we were receiving appeared to shatter."

  "I think your equipment is all screwed up, is what I think," Vasoovan said. "You were seein' something that wasn't there."

  "Then what, you fool, do you think those blinking lights were on the monitor? That's not my equipment." Vasoovan was silent. Eyestalks astir. Wandering or not, the blips on the screen did indicate some kind of presence. Fazlur smirked at Vasoovan, then turned serious. "What I did was gather up all the recordings of Vasoovan's sightings. Then I crunched the data. To see if there was some sort of pattern."

  "Which there was," Kea guessed. Otherwise they wouldn't be here talking about it.

  "Which there was," Fazlur confirmed with relish. "Viewed in isolation, it appeared the signal was wandering all over the clock. One o'clock to six o'clock. To nine… When one steps back for perspective, however, one would observe that it repeats the nine, then six, and on to one, again." He sketched as he talked. The result looked a bit like a tilted U.

  "What's causing it?" Richards asked.

  "Some of it is due to the presence of black matter," Fazlur said. "No doubt about it. A very strong gravitational force is at work here, and I'll be the first to admit I hadn't considered it. But that's not the whole answer. I think what's really happening is that we're viewing an alternate universe bleeding through the discontinuity. It's well known that early in the life of our own universe, positive ions were so compressed that no light could escape. As the ions separated—we now imagine—light began to burst out of that dense ionic fog. I believe something similar is going on in our not-so-theoretical alternate universe. Dense ionic fog—or its equivalent in that universe. Light pushing to get through. And finding the path of least resistance through the discontinuity and into our own universe."

  "Good work, Doc," Murph said. "I guess. But I'll leave that to our bosses. Tell the truth, though, what you're tellin' me may be the answer. But that answer don't have the ring of Bonus City. Hope you can punch it up better'n that when we get back to Base Ten."

  "Oh, I can do far better," Fazlur said, preening. "I can take us there… and prove it!"

  "Hey, come on, Fazlur!" Vasoovan protested, predator's grin stretched wide on her long face. "Let's not get stupid about this. I'll buy your theory. I'll even back your act with the company to earn my share of the bonus. But, we gotta face facts, here. Which is—ion fog or no ion fog—we don't know how to get from here to there."

  "Yes we do," Fazlur said. He drew a line straight through the tilted U. Made a circle at eleven o'clock. "This is our course for the next jump." Silence all around. Kea saw Ruth puzzling. Judging. Then he saw her nod. She believed he was right.

  Murph finally broke the silence. "Gee, Doc. That's good crap, and all. But I think we got enough. The politicos will be happy we really did something. Which means the company'll be happy. End story."

  "Don't be a fool," Fazlur said. "If I'm right, we're talking about the greatest discovery since Galileo. Redefining reality itself. Forget the fame. Although every member of the crew will go down in history. Think of the fortune, man. The fortune."

  Murph turned to Kea. "What's our status?"

  "Engine's in okay shape. Everything else is so-so. Including fuel." Kea had no choice but to be honest.

  "I don't know," Murph said. "I just don't feel right making this kind of decision myself."

  "Can't buzz the Powers That Be," Vasoovan said "We're way out of range."

  "If you turn back now," Fazlur warned, "I swear I'll see you fired and blackballed for life."

  "Come on, Doc," Murph said. "Don't be like that. I'm just sayin' I feel real uncomfortable decidin' this whole thing solo."

  "I'll take responsibility," Fazlur said.

  "That wouldn't be right," Murph said. All he meant was it wouldn't be enough to protect his big-hammed behind. "How about we vote on it? Just the officers and you two. We don't need to ask the crew anything."

  Kea almost laughed aloud. A ship's captain calling for a vote. Instead, he said, "Why not?" He raised a hand. "Start with me. I say we go."

  "Crap on you!" Vasoovan said. "I vote for home."

  Fazlur and Ruth joined Kea. Murph could see which way the land lay now. "Okay. I'll go along with the majority. Sorry, Vasoovan, but I gotta keep the peace. It's my job."

  And so the last stage of Operation Alva was launched as cynically and halfheartedly as the first. Kea didn't care. He was determined to see the other side of God's big coin. An old line crawled into his brain: "This is the stuff dreams are made of."

  A fine rain of fire curtained across space. And that curtain seemed to swirl and billow against a gentle cosmic wind. It was a place where two universes touched… and bled through.

  Kea peered at the image on the ship's main screen and watched birth and death enacted instantly as small particles from one universe touched one from another and exploded in pinprick bursts of light. Pinbursts that played up and down the shuddering curtain that Fazlur called a "discontinuity." Kea thought, Discontinuity? No. More like the Gate to Paradise. Or Hell.

  Fazlur's voice came from behind him: "Now, Richards… if you could take sweep in a bit farther…"

  Kea worked the joystick. Onscreen, the sweep he'd helped Fazlur and Ruth deploy swooped into view. It consisted of a small cylindrical unit designed for use as a 'tween-ship short-range courier, now pushing a net made of specially treated plas wires. On a bar across the bottom of the screen, numbers jumped and played.

  "Just a little more…" Fazlur's voice coaxed. "A little more…"

  Suddenly the sweep's net was alive with pinbursts. Anti-particles colliding against particles. A small drama being played
out against the plas wires of the net. Kea kept the sweep steady on its dip-in-and-out course. It wasn't hard. The joystick's sensors showed no interference. Then the pinbursts stopped abruptly as the sweep completed its journey and returned to normal space.

  Fazlur's voice gloated behind him. "I've done it! Done it!" Kea knew Fazlur was seeing his name in history books. The first scientist to explore another universe—albeit by remote. He punched in a command putting the sweep on autoreturn and swiveled in his chair.

  "Done what?" came Vasoovan's annoying twitter. "We're in on this same as you, buster. It's a team. Right, Murph? We all get equal shares."

  "Uh… Gotta get back to you on that," Murph hemmed. "See what the book says."

  Kea could tell that good old team player Murph would like the bonus cut in the rank-share system. He could see those crafty old eyes in that disarming hail-fellow face buzz in calculation. Let's see, now, he'd be thinking… That way me and Fazlur split fifty percent… That'd be… Uh see… what's the biggest bonus the company ever put out?

  "I don't gotta read the book, Murph," Vasoovan shrilled. "This is expedition rules, fella. Fazlur as team leader gets twenty. We all split the rest. Equals."

  "Will you all just stop it," Fazlur stormed. "Who cares about the company bonus? Put it in a glass, swallow, and urinate."

  "Say…" Murph said. "If you don't want any part of your bonus, we'll be glad to split up your share. Won't we, Vasoovan?"

  "You got it, Murph."

  Kea broke in. "Why don't you explain it to them, Fazlur?" This was the third time he'd taken the sweep through. And he'd watched over Fazlur's and Ruth's shoulders as they figured and refigured. He had a faint idea what Fazlur had discovered. But it was very faint.

  Fazlur nodded. He turned his craggy, handsome face to its best profile. "It's as simple as this," he said. "We have just reached into another universe—and brought back evidence of its most basic material. This material—in our own universe—would become the source of unlimited power. A small flask of it, my friends, might supply all the wants and needs of a city and its inhabitants for a hundred years." Fazlur giggled. The giggle turned to laughter. The cabin was silent until he stopped. "So much for your damn bonus," he said.