“So, that would mean that…” Tim trailed off noticing something that he was about to discover. “You’ve got a directory,” he began, pointing at Rick, “that’s labeled ‘Apocrypha’. It’s considered to be obscure nonsense by the locals but it’s far more important than they realize – to us, at least.”
Precog had many advantages, one of which was the ability to search through mountains of data quickly. Thousands of dead ends could be pre-emptively ignored in favor of more lucrative lines of inquiry.
Rick made the file available to Tim.
A new set of data call-outs populated the holo model of the system. They were in the ancient court dialect of the old empire that had preceded the Dactari Republic. The text shimmered and reappeared in Fleet-Standard English.
English was already a composite of various languages, so accommodating words from Midgaard, Mandarin, Hindi or Dheema was no biggie. The older languages were still in use, but FSE was the new lingua franca of the Alliance.
“You want the good news first?” Tim asked.
“Sure, why not?” Rick replied.
Tim reached out to a point near a bulge in the effect that hid the system. “Right here, next to the black hole that they harvested elsewhere – don’t ask me how ’cause I don’t understand their explanation – is the exit.”
“An exit!” Thorstein put in. “That’s good news!”
“It’s the only exit,” Tim added.
“If that’s the bad news,” Thorstein said, “it doesn’t sound so bad at all, which probably means there’s more to it and you’re just indulging in a bit of showmanship first?”
“Guilty,” Tim admitted. “What’s outside this hidden system?”
“Aside from our fleet,” Rick said, “nothing. You’re telling us the exit doesn’t lead back out there, aren’t you?”
“Why would it?” Tim zoomed out the display to show the estimated boundaries of the Great Bled. He entered a new command and new call-outs began to pop up.
“Systems,” he told them. “Hundreds of systems. All of them hidden, just like this one. This was an empire that never existed, as far as anyone else knew. If the astronomical dating is correct, these guys figured out how to hide their systems long before anyone else in this region even learned how to distort space and long before the Bolsharii first started taxing commercial traffic through their space.”
“They predate the Bolshari Empire?” Thorstein whistled.
“By at least sixty thousand years,” Tim said. “They predate Humans, let alone the Bolshari Empire. They also fell apart before the Bolsharii even had a unified planetary government.”
“So the remnants are still out there,” Rick said quietly, gazing in amazement at the holo. “And this exit leads to one of them?”
Tim nodded. “We’re sitting at what loosely translates to a terminal world, the end of a line. That exit should take us to one of the hub systems where we can choose a pathway that eventually leads to an access system.
“Those are the systems that sit on their borders. They would’ve launched colonies from worlds like that. They’d conceal them and push the boundaries of what we call the Bled even farther out. I don’t know why they stopped but the end of their expansion seems to be the beginning of their destruction.”
“And that’s our only way out?” Rick asked. “Can we find a path that comes out near to our current objective?”
“If you mean the world where we think Gabiola is being held, then yes,” Tim said. “If you mean our current rendezvous with the fleet, hells no!”
Rick sighed. “We were supposed to get in and then get right back out again. If we don’t show, they know there’s any number of reasons. They’ll stick to the plan and go after Commander Gabiola.”
“You don’t think Lady Freya will bring the whole fleet in here to rescue us?” Tim asked. “I mean, plan or not, she might at least want her husband back…”
“No,” Rick said decisively. “She’s not going to risk everyone’s lives for the three of us and certainly not for me! She probably wants to but it would be pretty bad leadership on her part. She’s responsible for everyone out there. She’ll stick to the plan.”
“She would come looking for us later, though, right?” Thorstein asked. “Even though this gives her a great excuse to trade up, if you get my meaning…”
“It would, I suppose,” Rick mused. “We’d better get our asses back to the fleet before she decides to move on and find a new mate.”
Thorstein sucked in his breath through his teeth. “Think we’ll make it before she makes that call?” He nodded at the holo showing the systems in the Bled. “This could take days…”
If You Wait Long Enough by the River,
Your Enemies Will Probably Urinate Upstream…
Planet 3428
The way through the brambles must have been on the far right side because the deadly rocks were sliding steadily to the left. Viggo was just about to raise up enough to see the way ahead but he stopped himself and grabbed the gunwales. He flexed forward as the small craft grounded on a gravel bar.
The chimera tumbled about in the bows but seemed more or less unruffled.
The two front paddlers jumped out and began trying to heave the boat up onto the gravel. Viggo jumped out to help. He felt as though the effects of the dart had worn off but, with this blurry night-vision, it was kind of hard to tell.
‘One, two, heave!” the female monk chanted, over and over until the boat was halfway out of the water. She used exaggerated head and mouth movements because the roar of the rapids through the brambles made it hard to hear her. “OK,” she panted, waving a hand and mouthing something that looked like “wait.” She waved the others out from where they’d been sitting at the stern.
All five now heaved at the boat, dragging it entirely out of the water. “We go on foot from here?” Viggo leaned over to shout in Roj’s ear.
“No,” Roj shouted back, putting his mouth close to Viggo’s ear. “We have to drag the boat over the gravel to get past the brambles. Our ride’s just begun.”
They each grabbed onto the gunwales and nobody protested about Viggo helping this time. After a few false starts, they managed to overcome the friction between the gravel and the keel and get the craft moving on the small round rocks. They were slippery with algae and, though it made it easier for them to keep up the critical momentum needed to prevent the boat from grinding to a halt, it also made the footing treacherous.
After they’d moved about forty meters downstream, Viggo saw it happen but he was powerless to stop it. The man in front was about to step on a larger, slanted stone and slip under the bow. The keel would break his leg.
Viggo shouted but it was no use with the rapids roaring to their left and the sound bouncing off the rock face to their right. In a fit of desperation, he let go of the boat and launched himself forward, tackling the man to the ground.
The young monk rolled to the side, away from Viggo and he came to his feet, face blurring and angry at the sudden attack. He started advancing on the young Human who was still on the ground but stopped as the two adult chimera took up blocking positions, indigo eyes blazing at the monk.
They really can read your intentions, Viggo realized. There’s so much about this world we still don’t know. He got up and looked around at the others who were still picking themselves up after the boat’s unexpected halt. It was frustrating that the incident was easily explained in almost any other setting.
The roaring water left little in the way of options. He waved them all in, cringing at the wary looks on their faces. They had just watched him tackle a man for no reason after all. Coming closer was a bit of a leap of faith.
Luckily, faith was their stock in trade and they started edging in. It took a lot of shouting and, in the end, they seemed to have a hazy idea that something bad might have been averted by Viggo’s attack.
Or he was just a reckless jerk. It was hard to tell what they were thinking. At least they manag
ed to get moving again. By the time they’d reached a sloping beach on the downstream side of the brambles, all five were worn out.
Roj leaned into the boat and pulled out a satchel. He handed each of them a tree-cucumber.
Viggo realized the monk was eager to get moving again. The tree-cucumber was a slow moving slug that gave a burst of energy when lightly roasted and eaten. When eaten alive, it could keep you going for half a day at the very least.
He bit off the head, swallowing that before letting the narrow body slide down to his belly. It was the only way to eat the damned things. If you chewed on it, you’d get a mouthful of guts and a wicked headache, mostly from absorbing the enzymes in its stomach too quickly.
He could already feel the energy coursing through his body and he moved to the side of the boat, eager to shove it back into the water and start paddling.
He wasn’t the only one. They were back out in mid-stream in a matter of moments, their exhaustion completely forgotten. A few quick strokes every now and then was all it took to keep them out in the fastest part of the current.
Viggo turned to look back at Roj. “The night-vision’s wearing off,” he told him, expecting they’d need a second dose. They were far enough now from the rapids that he could speak at a normal tone.
“Not a problem now,” Roj assured him. “I can keep us in the middle of the current by feel and we’ll be getting some sunlight coming in before too long.
Viggo started to turn back to the front but he stopped and returned his gaze to the monk. He was staring ahead absently, as if there was no point to looking in any particular direction.
Viggo raised a hand and waved it at Roj but the monk didn’t show any reaction at all. His eyes didn’t seem to move in response to the hand but just stared ahead. A burbling sound came from eddies around some rocks to the right and Roj cocked his head to listen, eyes still aimlessly focusing in the direction he faced.
Perhaps their physiology burns through that stuff faster? he theorized. Or this might be from an interaction with the drug they used to knock me out… He turned to look forward, seeing the young woman and man there were also behaving as though they’d lost all sight in the darkness. They’d both stowed their paddles, searching for a place to wedge them with their hands.
And then their hands started searching somewhere else.
Well this is pretty high on the old awkwardometer, thought Viggo as they started undoing clothing. He thought, when he’d first seen it coming, that they would have been joking around but nothing on his precog horizon indicated they’d be stopping.
They were starting to fade from his vision more quickly now, but he still tore his gaze away as they moved into a positon that seemed a good compromise between pleasure and seaworthiness.
As the green hue faded away, leaving him in the blackness that his crewmates already occupied, he was sure that he could hear steady rhythmic sounds. His ears, trained by years of hunting in the forests above, told him someone was trying to breathe quietly but only with mixed success.
Just in case his brain might disagree, his ears certified the data by turning what he was sure would be a bright red, if there’d been any light to see them by. Desperate to distract himself, he turned back to Roj.
“How long is this ride going to take?’
“The better part of a day,” Roj said. “This river is roughly twelve times a walking pace, given the jungle conditions above us, plus the fact that the central highlands are along the way. I’d say you’d be fifteen days ahead of any pursuit.”
“I doubt they’d even look that far out,” Viggo replied, definitely hearing a low moan. “It’s farther than anyone has ever gone on foot and they’ll have accounted for every shuttle.”
Roj took a few strokes to put them back in the fastest water.
“You’re busy,” Viggo said hastily. “I shouldn’t be distracting you.”
“Not at all,” the monk demurred. “Easier to keep my mind on the job while listening to you, instead of just hearing those two screwing in the bows.”
“You can hear it too?” he replied, feeling a little less voyeuristic now that he wasn’t the only one in on the secret. “Your society seems to be a little more open about this kind of thing…”
“Not so much,” Roj said mildly. “Those two are just kinky.”
“And we’ve both been out in the jungle risking our lives to help our friend here,” the young woman’s voice jumped in surprised volume on the word ‘friend’. Another soft moan followed.
“Projecting often causes urges,” Roj admitted, “but it doesn’t cause your particular… proclivities. You had plenty of time back at our cell but you prefer a little spice, don’t you?”
“Nothing wrong with that,” the man’s voice said breathlessly.
“Certainly not,” Roj agreed. “I’m just making sure our young friend has the proper context.”
“Wait,” Viggo said, “you’ve been following me? How did you even know who I was? Why didn’t you let me die like those traders?”
“You father told us about you, not long after you were born,” Roj said, sounding as though it should have been obvious. “And we were watching the first time he showed you his secret hideout, that shuttle at one of our old crash-sites.”
“And you were following me?”
“Following?” Roj sounded amused. “No, we were guiding you.”
“Guiding? I never saw you…”
“Shit!” the young woman exclaimed “There’s someone behind me! Wait, now they’re on my right! How’d they move so fast?”
“Wait… wait… what?” Viggo looked at her, forgetting that he was averting his eyes.
She was sitting up again, buttoning her pants, one breast still swaying free.
“Didn’t you think it was odd that you sensed danger but couldn’t see what it was, even with your precog abilities?” she asked.
“Well… yeah. It was weird.” He was both disappointed and relieved when she tucked herself back into her tunic.
“We can project fear,” Roj explained. “Whatever it is about this planet that gave your species precognitive abilities, it made us scary.”
“What?” Viggo exclaimed, uncomfortably aware he hadn’t been making the best use of the language in this exchange. “You’re bullshitting me!” He ducked suddenly. “Watch out!” he yelled. “There’s something down here with us!”
“Yeah,” the woman drawled. “That was me, genius.”
“You mean you just… Shit!” He threw himself to the bottom of the boat, banging his head painfully against the keel.
“Me again. Gods, you’re an easy mark!”
Viggo sat up, his ass resting uncomfortably on the keel. He groaned, rubbing at the side of his head. “Gotta admit, that’s pretty cool!” He straightened suddenly and turned back to Roj, even though he couldn’t see him.
“So this is why my people stay away from the central highlands, where you have the cell I woke up in?”
There was a pause. “Oh, sorry,” Roj said. “I’m nodding ‘yes’ back here like a jackass…”
Everyone chuckled.
“And you said the effort makes your people randy,” Viggo said, “so how much of your population is conceived beneath the highlands?”
The chuckles grew into general laughter.
“Coming into the light,” the woman said.
Viggo turned. It was just a faint glow in the distance, but it was enough for him to make out the silhouettes of the two monks and the adult chimera. He suddenly realized how tired he was. After his narrow escape and the treacherous rapids, the sudden peace of this stretch of river and the warm glow ahead were lulling him.
He woke with a start, his head nearly on his chest. “I’m just going to lie down for a while,” he murmured. He turned sideways, his backside on the near side of the keel with his legs draped over it. He lay his head against the hull and dropped off to sleep almost instantly.
Taking Transit
The Hidden
Systems
“Sending you a minor course correction,” Tim told Thorstein. He looked back out at the blackness. “What happens, I wonder, if this transport system is broken?”
“Won’t be our problem,” Thorstein replied. He shrugged, glancing over at Tim. “Not for more than a few seconds, anyway!”
“Ease us in gently,” Tim advised. “Let’s see if…”
“You noticed that, huh?” Thorstein held his fingers just above the controls. “It’s taking us in now, just like the way we got stuck in here to begin with. Damned disconcerting to have sensors tell me we’re accelerating beyond what our pitch-drives can do but not be able to see any visual evidence from outside.”
“Now to see if there’s anyone still alive at the other end of this link,” Rick said.
The other two looked at him, their surprise evident.
“You think they nuked themselves out of existence?” Thorstein asked.
“Or they just didn’t have enough resources,” Tim ventured. This first place had a pretty good assortment of minerals to support themselves but this next place was a transit hub. What if they selected it entirely for its location and there’s not much else to justify its existence?”
“If the whole political structure fell apart,” Rick said, “a ‘crossroads’ system like the one we’re approaching might suffer badly. Commercial traffic might have been reduced or even stopped entirely.” He nodded at the nav-holo. “Either way, we’re about to find out. Heads up!”
“Shit that was fast!” Thorstein scrambled to establish control over their trajectory as the wormhole spit them out into the new system. “Reading a lot of inquiry traffic here. Can’t tell yet if it’s automated or not.”
He prepared the comms system for a response but Tim reached over, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hang on, Thor…” He frowned. “You hear that? They’re handing us off to the security forces on our port-side for not having a valid transponder code but there are no ships out here.”
“Automated,” Thorstein agreed.
“Can we spoof the transponder code?” Rick asked. “Might make our short time in this system a little less exciting.”
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