by Robert Boren
“I agree with that proposal,” Elizabeth said.
“Why would you help us, after what we’ve done?”
“You guys did save my life,” Ecason said. “I remember that.”
Elizabeth shot him a questioning glance.
“It’s true, Elizabeth,” Ecason said. “I still owe you the story of what happened to my ship.”
“Your ship came apart on the outer boundary,” XC22272 said. “You said you didn’t remember anything.”
“Yes, that’s what I said,” Ecason said. “I was being less than truthful.”
XC22272 eyed him. “All right, I’m listening.”
“So am I,” Elizabeth said.
Ecason sat back down, turning his chair away from the desk, towards the others. “I was escaping from the neighboring universe.”
***
Captain Clarke was sitting in his stateroom, looking at the screen, as Butch fed him the latest info about the Central Authority bases.
“You’re assuming they’d attack from Devonia Axxiom. Not that these wouldn’t be good targets, but I’m wondering if they want us to attack those.”
“No, I wouldn’t opt to use either of the New Jersey-class battleships in the attack. We’ll use pilotless flight suits, delivered by Zephyrus-class ships.”
Trey thought about it for a moment. “Okay, you’ve got my attention. Why? Do you think Aeon’s forces will figure out how to see the Zephyrus class ships?”
“Why not just use them with the atomic devices they usually have? That would effectively kill our smaller ships.”
“You’re forgetting the resources Aeon has at his disposal.”
Trey was silent again for a moment. “You’re just guessing they have mines with that capability, or there’s something you aren’t telling me.”
“Maybe we get our stuff from the same place… and why the hell didn’t you bring this up right away?”
Trey chuckled. “I’m being managed.”
“Spit-balling? That’s what the original Butch used to say.”
“You never knew him.”
Trey shook his head. “Okay, the targets are on Avid One and Portuna. We can have the freighters fling disks onto a planet not too far away. Suggestions?”
The screen changed aspect ratio, zooming out, a circle around Toatoiana.
“Not bad, well away from the reach of their ships. I want at least twenty-four hours between placement of the disks and when they make the attacks.”
“What if Aeon’s forces have people planted on the worlds close to these bases?” Trey asked.
Trey cracked up. “Neck of the woods? Really?”
“Why aren’t they on the screen?”
The screen changed, zooming out again, thousands of planets showing up.
“Okay, you made your point. Put the circle back around Toatoiana.”
“Where?”
“This is like pulling teeth. Anything else you haven’t told me about, before I go meet JJ for dinner?”
“Well, are you going to tell me?”
“Boo frigging hoo,” Trey said, standing up. “We’ll get back to this later.”
***
Stuart Cain, Admiral Boeraton, and X22945 sat on the Forestall bridge, waiting for Prime Minister Aeon to join the call.
“Hope he’s in a good mood,” X22945 said.
“Don’t be nervous,” Boeraton said. “He’ll notice, and he doesn’t like that.”
X22945 smirked. “Thanks, that’s a helpful comment.”
Stuart burst out laughing as the screen lit up, Prime Minister Aeon’s skull-like face on one side of the screen, General Corsi’s large shaved head on the other.
“Is something funny, Captain Cain?” Aeon asked, grinning at him.
“It’s not important, sir,” Cain said. “Sorry.”
“No matter. What’s X22945 doing there?”
“Hello, Mr. Prime Minister,” X22945 said. “I came to help Stuart… Captain Cain make contact with the rogue Clan ships.”
“Oh, I see,” Aeon said. “Did you make contact?”
“We did,” Boeraton said, “and they agreed to help us, provided we allow them to live un-molested in the Valla Cappos sector.”
“We need to be careful about that,” General Corsi said. “The search teams might see them.”
“Search teams?” Cain asked.
“We made an agreement with a group of citizens,” General Corsi said. “Relatives of the Magellan III crew and passengers. We’re trying to placate the population and get them behind us.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Aeon said. “Those search teams are acting under my orders. I’ll tell them to ignore the Clan ships. You tell the Clan ships to do the same, and we’ll all get along just fine. Who did you interface with?”
“Captain U67444 of VCD09,” X22945 said.
“And what did he agree to do?” Aeon asked.
“He agreed to find us a safe way to C1111-A,” Boeraton said.
“Will he accompany you there?” General Corsi asked.
“No, and we don’t want him to,” Boeraton said. “He was being hunted in the Free Zone. They’ll be watching for him. They know our ship belongs to the Central Authority. If we’re discovered, we will be able to claim diplomatic immunity.”
Aeon laughed. “And if they don’t accept that?”
“Then I guess you can send flowers to our funerals,” Stuart Cain said, Boera
ton shooting him a harsh look.
Aeon laughed. “Don’t worry, Admiral, I enjoy a sense of humor. I’m very pleased with your progress so far. How soon will you start your journey?”
“A few days, but we’ll keep in contact,” Boeraton said. “Does this work for you?”
“It does,” Aeon said. “Thank you. We’ll be in touch.”
The screen went blank. Boeraton eyed Stuart.
“Are you crazy?”
“Seemed like the right thing to say at the time,” Stuart said. “I think he likes to see honesty and a certain type of fearlessness.”
“I almost crapped myself,” X22945 said.
Boeraton shook his head. “Okay, I understand, but be careful. Don’t ever do that if you aren’t delivering good news.”
“Understood, Admiral.”
{ 4 }
Eggs
E lizabeth and XC22272 eyed Ecason.
“Next Universe?” Elizabeth asked. “You figured it out.”
“Rubbish,” XC22272 said. “Your ship was destroyed. You were drifting in an escape pod.”
“I self-destructed my ship.”
“Your crew?” Elizabeth asked. “Your wife was with you, wasn’t she?”
“Janiza,” Ecason said, his eyes brimming with tears. “I couldn’t save her.”
“This is ridiculous,” XC22272 said.
“Perhaps I should start from the beginning,” Ecason said. “I might get emotional.”
XC22272 shrugged.
“Go ahead,” Elizabeth said.
Ecason sat silently for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “We were approaching the boundary in our ship, the Ophelia. I wasn’t sure it would work. We sent probes through but lost the first few because we couldn’t communicate past the membrane. We eventually pre-programmed the probes to return after a set distance. They had only impulse engines. We had no idea if the laws of physics were the same in the neighboring Universe. Impulse engines worked, but they appeared to be considerably faster in that environment, based on the recorded data from the probes. Samson Drives were a big question mark… none of us knew if they would work.”
“How did you get through?” XC22272 asked.
“I will take that information to the grave,” Ecason said.
“Why?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because of what is on the other side.”
“Something chased you back here?” XC22272 asked.
“If they were chasing me they would’ve caught me,” Ecason said.
“So you experimented with the probes, then took the Ophelia across?” Elizabeth asked.
Ecason nodded. “We used my device to breach the membrane. What we saw was shocking, to say the least. Most of that universe is incased in a solid shell.”
“Solid?” XC22272 asked. “What do you mean?”
“It’s not a huge empty vacuum populated by stars and planets with great distances between them. Once we got through the membrane, there was a giant globe, less than a lightyear from the membrane.”
“Why are we wasting time on this?” XC22272 asked.
“You asked,” Ecason said. “Why should I lie?”
“You went to the surface of this thing?” Elizabeth asked. “What was its composition?”
“The top shell was some kind of stone that our sensors didn’t recognize. There was no atmosphere, and it was so huge and smooth that we were able to set the Ophelia down on the surface.”
“What was it like?” XC22272 asked, looking mesmerized now.
“It was relatively soft, and it appeared to be only about twelve meters thick, according to our sensors.”
“Soft?” Elizabeth asked. “Like what?”
“Sandstone, perhaps. Certainly not as hard as granite.”
“The gravity must have been crushing,” XC22272 said.
“There was no gravity on the surface at all. We needed vacuum suits with jetpacks to work out there, and had to anchor the ship to the surface so it wouldn’t move around.”
“What did you do?” Elizabeth asked.
“We spent more than a month exploring the surface, mostly by flying probes around it in the vacuum. It was vast and uniform. Eventually we drilled into the surface. There was an atmosphere inside, which started to outgas right away. We put a plug into the hole after we gathered samples, but that’s when the troubles started.”
“Troubles?”
“The atmosphere breach alerted the locals.”
“Locals?” Elizabeth asked. “There were people there?”
“Creatures came out. They looked similar to wasps, but they had hands with opposable thumbs, and carried weapons.”
“Giant insects?” XC22272 asked.
“I wouldn’t call them insects. They had wings and exoskeletons similar to insects in our Universe, but they were different in some ways too.”
“Did they attack you?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, they probed our brains using telepathy, and communicated with us. They seemed friendly at first. Even invited us inside their world.”
“You went inside?” XC22272 asked.
“No, the leadership team decided against me going. We sent in a team of biologists and geologists, along with some of the security staff. All of them had helmet video units, so I got a look.”
“Humans couldn’t tolerate the atmosphere?” Elizabeth asked.
“Close, but no. They have similar levels of oxygen and nitrogen in their atmosphere, but there’s another compound there which kills us fast. It smells like ammonia, but it’s not. Our sensors couldn’t detect what it was. The creatures can tolerate our atmosphere. The dangerous substance isn’t required for their survival, and the oxygen and nitrogen levels in our air is close enough to what they need.”
“You let them onto the Ophelia?” XC22272 asked. “Was that wise?”
“I didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
“What do you mean by that?” Elizabeth asked.
“Half of the away team were stricken by a serious illness, and needed to get back onboard quickly. The creatures helped them return, and were allowed on the ship, after using their telepathic capability on the security chief to suggest that it was a good idea.”
“Uh oh,” Elizabeth said.
“They scanned the entire crew when they got on board, to determine who they could control with their telepathy. They attempted to strike those they couldn’t control with the sickness. The symptoms didn’t start right away, but when they did, the result was quarantine in quarters or sick bay.”
“This happened to you?”
“No. Their tactics didn’t work with everybody. Janiza figured out some of the reasons behind that, and developed a simple defense.”
“These creatures weren’t technologically advanced?” Elizabeth asked.
“I wouldn’t say that, but remember the differences in our universes. They were trying to apply local rules to creatures from elsewhere. Janiza saved us… or saved me anyway.” Ecason had to pause a moment, the tears coming. “Sorry.”
“Take your time,” Elizabeth said.
“Sorry,” Ecason said. “She figured out two things, and it was enough to turn the tide temporarily. First, only people with certain blood types appeared to be threatened by the sickness. Types A, and O, positive and negative.”
“That’s half of us,” XC22272 said. “What’s the other thing she found out?”
“Vitamin D,” Ecason said. “Deficiency of this vitamin makes the subject much more susceptible to both the sickness and the mind control.”
“That’s not an unusual problem for spacers,” Elizabeth said.
“Exactly,” Ecason said. “When Janiza figured that out, she put everybody on higher doses. The creatures figured this out, and used people they had control over to break into our storeroom and destroy our supplies. That’s when we knew it was time to escape. It became more urgent when we found out their main strategy.”
“What was that?” Elizabeth asked.
“They�
��d been using the people they controlled to slip millions of eggs onto our ship.”
“Oh shit,” Elizabeth said. “How’d you find out?”
“Several of the people who were helping recovered after the Vitamin D regiment. That’s what tipped off the creatures to destroy our stockpiles, actually.”
“Are these creatures a threat to our universe?” XC22272 asked.
“Yes. They multiply rapidly, and they’re all tied into a central intelligence. They are a true collective. They can focus their efforts with shocking speed.”
“Like bees?” Elizabeth asked.
“Of course that’s what we all thought. They’re structures resembled honeycomb, but they weren’t made of wax. Most of them lived on the inside surface of the shell. There was gravity there. Above that surface was a kind of strata, layers upon layers, but not covering the entire inside surface. It appeared to be free floating in the atmosphere. Warmth was provided by an object in the center of the shell, like a small sun.”
“This sounds implausible,” XC22272 said.
“Like I said, the rules of physics in that universe are different than in our universe.”
“Why would they be aggressive?” Elizabeth asked.
“Over population was a big problem for them. They were having to cull, because they couldn’t house or feed the entire population.”
“They wanted our real estate,” XC22272 said.
“Yes, and they have something in abundance that would be interesting to us. The strata closest to their sun is composed of very high-quality Boron. It grows, so it’s renewable.”
“They were using it?”
“Yes, to power their society. They had something similar to electricity, but it had some differences from our electricity. The magnetic field from their transmission lines and equipment was much more dangerous. Everything had to be heavily shielded.”
“Did your worm hole drives work there?” XC22272 asked.
“In the vacuum surrounding the globe, yes, but they overheated quickly. We found that out on the way in, and had to make short jumps, then use impulse engines while the drives cooled. We never figured out why. It helped that the impulse engines worked better there. We got roughly sixty times the speed.”
