The Well of Forever: The Classic Sci-fi Adventure Continues (The Star Rim Empire Adventures Book 2)

by R. A. Nargi

  Maybe it was better that I’d already burned that bridge.

  5

  “Come.” Narcissa swept out of her throne. Her shawl falling from her shoulders looked like a cat jumping from its mistress.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” Flanked by two guards, she led me back up the wide staircase and across the plaza. It was dark now, but the plaza was lit by the soft glow of hanging lanterns.

  We entered another temple-like building with a large staircase and then walked down to another subterranean hallway. This one was filled with statues of grim-looking non-humans. Not Obaswoon, that was obvious.

  “Are these—?”

  “Yueldians,” Narcissa said. “The fearsome Sky Reavers.”

  They didn’t look particularly fearsome to me. They were close in appearance to Faiurae: tall and bony. Their necks were long and curved and their heads were elongated, stretching back to a fin-like mantle that almost looked squid-like.

  “Let’s move it,” Narcissa said. “As you said, we don’t have much time.”

  We descended a second staircase and then a third, which ended in a long dark corridor. Where the hell was she taking me?

  As we walked down the corridor, I noticed a strand of heavy cables as thick as my wrist. They poked through a broken hole in one wall and then continued down the hallway, hung close to the ceiling. They looked like power cables. But they were definitely out of place in this ancient structure.

  The corridor ended in a thick wooden door guarded by an Obaswoon soldier. Narcissa had a quick interchange with him in his own language and then he stepped aside.

  I wasn’t really prepared for what was on the other side of the door: the glowing globe from a containment field generator.

  And inside the field was a live Rhya.

  It floated right up to the edge of the swirling translucent energy field and stared at me curiously.

  I gawped for what felt like five minutes, then glanced back at Narcissa. “Holy shit.”

  I had a million questions and she knew it, so she tried to preempt most of them with a quick explanation.

  “I had been stuck in this system for nearly twenty years. And I wanted to go home.”

  “That’s what Murroux said.”

  “Yeah, well, at the time he didn’t seem so keen on going back,” she said. “Anyway, we went our separate ways and I salvaged an old shuttle and figured out how to get planetside.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I was going to see if I could hitch a ride back with one of the next expeditions to come through the Fountain. So I made my way to Roan Andessa.”

  “But you must have known about the Rhya—the interdiction of travel to Roan Andessa.”

  She shook her head. “In ’39 we were allowed to venture into the capital. There were rules, of course. We weren’t allowed to interfere with the locals. And the Rhya were there looking over our shoulders the whole time. But all the expeditions spent time here in the city. There’s so much archaeological material in Roan Andessa, I never thought it would be declared off limits.”

  “Oops.”

  “Oops is right. Anyway, no expeditions came, but a number of Rhya wardships did. They dropped supplies, took census counts, wanted to meet with the vadas—”

  “The what?”

  “The Obaswoon chief. They found out about me pretty quickly. A human living among the Obaswoon. Ruling them, if you wanted to get technical. Exactly what the Rhya had been trying to prevent all these years. They were not happy, to say the least. But I didn’t care. Even a Rhya prison would be better than this swamp world.”

  “I don’t think the Rhya actually have prisons.”

  “Well, it didn’t matter, because they all started dropping dead around me.”

  “You saw it?”

  Narcissa nodded. “I still can’t believe it. It was like someone pulled a plug on them. The ships as well. Most of them went down beyond the city limits, thank Dynark, but you could see them being taken out. Z-fields failing. Complete power outages. They just crashed. And burned for days.”

  There went Chiraine’s idea of convincing a sentient wardship to take us home.

  I looked over at the Rhya floating within the containment field and asked the obvious question. “What about this one?”

  “It was here—nosing around the containment field generator I had built. That’s what saved it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I introduced the Obaswoon to a lot of technology that they weren’t supposed to have. I’m an engineer. I couldn’t help it. Anyway, the Rhya sent this guy—the Inspector, I call it—to survey the mess I made by introducing TL-7 tech to a TL-5 civilization.”

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “It was literally swimming within the containment field when this thing hit. Its buddies outside of the field dropped dead and the Inspector has been freaking out since. But being a superior intelligence, I think it knows enough not to leave the field.”

  I felt my head exploding. This was incredible.

  “Can you talk to it?” I asked.

  “Their communications magnata was knocked out during the attack. I’m pretty sure the Inspector understands us, but without machine-assist, he can’t communicate back.”

  That made sense. I knew that the Rhya didn’t have the physical means to make sounds. At least sounds that humans could hear. The Rhya had magnatae that were programmed to interact with other species. That’s the way our folks at Beck Salvage worked with them.

  I approached the containment field and motioned to the Rhya. “Hello,” I said. “Can you help us?”

  I was reasonably certain that the Vostok was equipped with a comm box or something else that might allow us to communicate with the Inspector.

  We just had to get the Rhya there. And, thankfully, Narcissa had an idea about that.

  “We salvaged some fuel cells from one of the crashed ships,” she said. “With a little luck, I can rig up a mobile containment field.”

  “Does it even need the containment field?” I asked. “It’s been four days. Maybe the scidatium or whatever has dispersed.”

  “I have no idea. I don’t know exactly what it was that slaughtered them.”

  “Neither did the guy who deployed it.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “His name is Qualt and he’s currently locked up in his own brig.”

  “On his own ship? You serious?” She grinned at me. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You are a Beck, after all.”

  I wasn’t sure how to take that.

  While Narcissa left to make preparations to transport the Inspector, I decided to talk to it some more.

  I had never spoken to an advanced intelligence before, so I wasn’t sure what to say or how exactly to say it. I imagined it might be like a dog talking to me or something. Maybe more like a rat. Or a grasshopper.

  In the end, I just spoke plainly, trying to communicate as clearly as I could.

  I told the Inspector who I was, who I worked for, and why we had come through the Fountain. I told it about the betrayal by two of our crew members and being trapped on the orbital fortress Bandala. I even revealed how I had found my missing father alive, preserved in deep hibernation, and how he had ‘survived’ by placing his consciousness in an Aanthangan clone bot. I explained that the Mayir had destroyed our ship, but how we had found the Kryrk and tried to barter with it to be allowed to return through the Fountain.

  The Rhya just floated there impassively. I didn’t know if it was bored, confused, half-dead, or actually interested in my story. But I continued anyway. This was the relevant part—to its troubles.

  I explained that when Agon Qualt, captain of the Mayir ship, was trying to convince us to surrender the Kryrk and join him, he related how he disabled the Fountain and destroyed all the Rhya. I mentioned what Qualt had told us: he didn’t know how the weapon he used worked, only that it did work. He also bragged that the true p
urpose of his expedition was to set up long-range dark space beacons to that a Mayir squadron could make the jump here to the Nymorean system. Which they did. The Mayir’s plans were to plunder Yueld. And they would be looking specifically for ancient artifacts like the Kryrk which might be used as weapons.

  I told the Inspector that my team and I had actually tried to destroy Bandala to keep its treasures out of the Mayir’s hands, but unfortunately, we failed.

  Now we were on the run—in a stolen Mayir ship, and trapped in a galaxy three billion light years from home.

  I asked the Inspector again, “Can you help us?”

  Again, it had a blank look on its face.

  Narcissa returned with two Obaswoon. Between them they carried what looked like an ancient medical stretcher piled with mechanical and electric parts—junk, essentially. But I did spot what appeared to be a PEM-cell.

  “How was your meeting with the Inspector?” Narcissa asked.

  “The conversation was a bit one-sided, but I kind of expected that.”

  “You know I heard everything you said, right?”

  My heart jumped. What?!

  “It’s okay,” Narcissa said. “I wouldn’t fully trust me either. But you will. Once we get to know each other.” She gave me a kind of weird smile that unnerved me almost as much as learning that she had heard everything.

  It made sense, of course. She probably had a ton of scanners set up in the room—not just audio.

  Oh well. It was water under the bridge.

  “I’m going to need an hour or so here,” Narcissa said. “So maybe you want to check on your captain?”

  “Sure. How’s she doing?”

  “Better than when we found her.” She instructed one of the guards to escort me across the plaza and into a low stone building that had been divided into rooms by brightly-colored, tent-like fabric.

  In one of the rooms, I found Ana-Zhi stretched out on a cot. There was something weird on her face. It kind of looked like dried mud, partially covering up her bruises. She had been dozing, but opened her eyes when I moved into the room.

  “I like your facial,” I said. “How are you doing?”

  “I’m getting too old for this, junior,” she groaned. Despite her bruises and swollen eyes, Ana-Zhi actually seemed like she was in decent shape.

  “Looks like the Obaswoon patched you up pretty good.”

  “Yeah, if you call mud and twigs and foul-smelling slime patching up. The jury’s still out.”

  “Well, I’ve got something that will cheer you up.”

  I filled her in about the Rhya and Narcissa’s plan to get it to our ship.

  Ana-Zhi listened wide-eyed. “I don’t fucking believe it.”

  “You’ll believe it when you see the Inspector for yourself. Now, let me help you out of here.”

  She had to move slowly, but we managed to make our way across the plaza and return to the old temple with the containment field room.

  I was surprised to see that the glowing containment field surrounding the Inspector had been moved to the stretcher, along with an array of fuel cells and the generator itself.

  “Just about ready,” Narcissa said.

  I could see that. The Rhya didn’t look particularly alarmed at being moved onto the stretcher. Maybe the plan wasn’t so strange after all.

  “Can we get our gear back?”

  “I’m a step ahead of you,” Narcissa said. She motioned to a bench which was piled with our exosuits and weapons.

  “Yeah, I’m not getting back into that thing.” Ana-Zhi pointed to her suit.

  “The Mayir are still out there,” I said, as I pulled my own suit on.

  “You got it, wear it,” Narcissa said.

  I checked my Aura and pulled up the topographics. It looked like we were about three klicks northeast of Tarkoja Plaza and the Well of Forever.

  The only problem was that those three klicks could be filled with Mayir patrols.

  I checked for any messages from Chiraine, but there was nothing. It had been nearly twelve hours since we left her. We were a good four hours late. Plus I had sent that distress signal when the Mayir captured us. I had no idea what she was thinking.

  Narcissa summoned four more of her men and we all huddled around my Aura, plotting a course back to Tarkoja. She asked for the details of where the Vostok was located and how we planned on getting there.

  Because we had parked the sled a hundred meters down the shaft, I would have to climb down myself and take the sled up to the top so we’d be able to transfer the Rhya and its containment field onto it. Once we did that, it should be relatively straightforward to just pilot the sled back down the shaft and to the Vostok.

  “My men will escort us to Tarkoja,” Narcissa said. “And then we are on our own.”

  I nodded. It all made sense. All we had to do was stay alive while we crossed through the ruined city of Roan Andessa in the middle of the night while evading Mayir patrols.

  Easy.

  We moved single-file through the night. Narcissa and two of her men armed with Mayir rifles were out front. Then me and Ana-Zhi. And then the two bearers with the stretcher and the Inspector in its containment field. Bringing up the rear were two more armed Obaswoon.

  Thankfully I had been able to convince Ana-Zhi to don her exosuit, but she was too weak to even wield a rifle effectively. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up on the stretcher next to the Rhya before the night was through.

  I didn’t want to risk using the light on my helmet, but Yueld’s twin moons were rising and provided just enough light to navigate through the twisting alleys and passages of Roan Andessa.

  We stopped frequently, ducking into abandoned buildings to check our location or wait out a suspicious noise or just hide from a jiren drone—of which there were several patrolling the city.

  Narcissa had deployed other groups of Obaswoon, moving in different directions, as a distraction, but I wasn’t sure how much that would help. It depended on what forces the Mayir had on the ground.

  “Maybe we should have thought this out in a little more detail,” I said.

  “No time for that,” Ana-Zhi said. “It’s just going to get worse.”

  “Agreed,” Narcissa said. “This is our only chance to get out of here.”

  Yeah, and go where? Even if we made it back to the Vostok, repaired her, and managed to escape Roan Andessa, where would we go? Unless the Inspector could somehow get the Fountain operational, we’d be stuck here. And four of us—five if you counted the Inspector—versus who-knew-how-many Mayir weren’t exactly great odds.

  I pushed the thought from my mind and forced myself to focus on my surroundings. The air smelled like oily smoke, and the sounds of muffled explosions sounded in the distance. Maybe Narcissa’s other teams were actually pulling off the distractions we needed. I hoped so.

  Eventually we made it to Tarkoja. The plaza was empty and quiet. Maybe too quiet.

  “Looks like you’re up, kid,” Ana-Zhi said.

  “I’ll cover you.” Narcissa readied her sniper rifle.

  I made sure my Aura was networked with Ana-Zhi’s so I could signal her when the sled was ready. Then I made my way through the inky moon shadows to the edge of the Well.

  Here goes nothing, I thought.

  I activated my suit’s repulsors and vaulted over the edge into the dark pit. With a thud I landed on the stone platform two meters below. Our gear was right where we had left it. I strapped on my jetpack and climbing gear and then headed down into the shaft.

  I might have been a little reckless climbing down, but time was of the essence. Thankfully, I only slipped once during the whole hundred-meter climb, and I managed to grab my line in time so I didn’t even need to use my jetpack.

  The sled was still anchored in place, its z-field generators humming quietly. Thank Dynark. I untethered it from the pitons and then signaled Ana-Zhi.

  “On my way!”

  Even moving slowly, it took less than two minut
es to pilot the sled up to the rim of the Well. Ana-Zhi, Narcissa, and the Obaswoon were there and they loaded the Rhya and its containment field on the sled swiftly and silently, as if they had practiced the maneuver a hundred times.

  Ana-Zhi took over piloting, and Narcissa quietly said goodbye to her men. If all went well, she’d never see them again.

  And then we were off, dropping through the cold damp air of the lava tube. A few minutes later the Vostok was in sight, its exterior lights casting the cave in a soft glow.

  Narcissa said, “Thank the maker. You weren’t lying.”

  “Why would I lie?”

  “Nothing personal, Beck. It’s just that I wasn’t sure I should get my hopes up.”

  “Well, we’re not out of this yet.”

  As we got closer to the Vostok, I tried to contact Chiraine again, but there was no answer—which was weird. Ana-Zhi maneuvered the sled right up to the sealed cargo bay doors.

  The Inspector swam about in its containment field, looking a bit agitated by the sight of the Vostok.

  “Nice-looking ship,” Narcissa said. “Looks like a Barnes LV, but I haven’t seen this hull design before.”

  “It’s a 900,” Ana-Zhi said. “Lamprey-class. Fairly new. We’re still trying to get familiar with it.”

  “I thought you said you had a crew member inside,” Narcissa said.

  “We do,” Ana-Zhi said. “Jannigan, she still not answering?”

  “No.”

  “Would it help if you knocked?” Narcissa asked.

  “It might.”

  But before I could, the doors opened.

  “Finally,” Ana-Zhi said and eased the sled inside the air lock. The doors sealed in back of us and the air exchangers kicked on.

  “You know,” Ana-Zhi said. “It just dawned on me that we never ended up testing that piece of statue.”

  I had completely forgotten about that. “You still have it, right?”

  “Of course, but if it doesn’t contain mimonite we’re back to square one.”

  “Don’t even say that.”