by Terry Mixon
Laughter bubbled up inside Elise, and she didn’t try to stop it. Moments later, the rest of them were laughing along with her. Life was good. Even though they were in a difficult place, this was a moment to celebrate.
9
Talbot gave his friend a dubious look. “That’s good news, but like you said, things change. What makes you think that it’s got the correct information now? It’s not like it’s monitoring the flip point network in real time. Or is it?”
Carl shrugged. “We shouldn’t dismiss the idea out of hand. After all, we discovered faster-than-light communication. I suppose that means that some galaxy-wide network could conceivably be receiving status updates from every flip point in existence, even ones that hadn’t existed at the time the monitors were put in place.”
Talbot wasn’t sure how to take that. The idea of some advanced species having sent probes to every single flip point in the galaxy seemed ludicrous. Of course, so did the idea that they could just sense them.
Though he had to admit that it was at least possible. Omega—the being that lived in the station around the black hole in the Nova system—could sense the flip point network in its vicinity and even create artificial flip points.
Talbot snapped his fingers. “Can you find the part of this map that links up with the Nova system? If this is just an approximation, it’s not going to show the artificial flip points that Omega created.”
Carl stared at him for a moment and then whipped out a tablet to start going over something. “I’m looking at what the drones are recording to see if I can get them to zero in on that specific area. There are far too many linkages for the drones to give me any kind of real-time update. I’m not even sure that they can record everything with all of the activity.”
“How many flip points do you think this thing is showing?” Talbot asked, not really sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Back on prespaceflight Terra, they believed that the Milky Way held roughly one hundred billion stars. Modern astronomers suspect that that number is low. There are a lot of stars that just aren’t bright enough to be detectable at a distance. They can do some rough estimation of mass on other galaxies, but that’s a little more challenging with our own since we’re swimming in the pool, so to speak.
“Let’s be conservative and say that there are fifty percent more than the lowball number. We already know that flip points don’t necessarily go to every system, but they also can link back to previously visited systems within their part of the network. I suspect the numbers are going to be a wash when you start looking at it that way, so probably on the order of one hundred and fifty billion flip points.”
“Holy crap,” Talbot muttered. “I’m not sure that I want this to be a real-time recording. Even if it’s old data, I can’t imagine keeping that kind of information straight.”
“Honestly, it sounds like it would be harder to calculate the orbits of a hundred billion-plus stars,” Carl said. “Everything is going to influence everything else, so over the amount of time that’s passed since this map was created, if it’s anything close to accurate, that’s really scary. It would imply a level of understanding of stellar orbits that’s almost total.
“Omega’s race was advanced. The people that created the Pandorans, now they were really advanced. These people, they were gods in comparison.”
Carl tapped the slate and frowned. “Yep, I think god-like just about does it. I found the Nova system, and it shows both of the artificial flip points.”
Talbot opened his mouth to say something but closed it again when he realized that he had no idea what he really thought about the situation. Whoever these aliens had been, this meant that they’d had a total grasp on the flip point network for an entire galaxy in real time.
“Is there any way that we can record this?” Talbot asked. “Having a map of all of the flip points inside the Rebel Empire—and maybe even the Singularity—could be extremely useful considering what we’re doing.”
“I’d need to bring down more drones, and I’d need a lot more storage space,” Carl said with a shake of his head. “I’m getting a good reading of the area around us right now, but the Terran Empire is vast. We don’t know the Singularity’s borders except where they run up against the Old Empire.
“And do you know what’s scary? All of known space is just a tiny fraction of what this map is showing. What we’re seeing is like an ant being shown a picture of an entire planet. That’s how small we are in comparison to all of this.”
“Gather what you can, and we’ll get out of here,” Talbot said. “We can always come back and visit again with more equipment. I want to take a walk around the perimeter and make sure that we’re not missing anything.”
“Got it,” Carl said. “If you’ll give me fifteen or twenty minutes, I should have filled up all of the storage I’ve got with me.”
Leaving the young scientist to his work, Talbot walked directly to the nearest wall and stopped to take in the entirety of the displayed galaxy. From the outside, it looked like a bar of stars that had four swirling arms coming out of it.
One hundred and fifty billion stars. Unbelievable.
Thankfully, trying to comprehend something like that was above his pay grade. He’d leave that to the eggheads and be happy to focus on other issues.
He started walking around the edge of the chamber in a clockwise direction. The drones hadn’t shown him anything unusual, but they hadn’t completed their scan of the room before the humans had set off the starscape. That meant they could’ve missed something.
He’d made it about three-quarters of the way around when he found something unusual. There was a small alcove built into the side of the chamber. It was maybe half the height of an adult human. He could get inside on his hands and knees, but it wasn’t really built for someone his size.
Talbot played his hand light into the alcove and saw that it only went back about two meters. There was some kind of engraving on the stone, but the angle made it difficult to see. The shadows from his light were contributing to obscuring them.
He got down on his hands and knees and went inside. Using his implants, he began recording a video of the carvings. It might have been hieroglyphics or even an alien language, but it certainly looked like writing as opposed to pictures.
He’d only gone about a quarter of the way around the small alcove when he saw something unexpected. One of the carvings glowed with a soft blue light.
He reached out and ran a finger along it. The cool stone felt natural.
Suddenly, the rune changed from blue to lime green, and a hint of motion in the periphery of his vision made him look back at the opening.
Only there was no opening. It had vanished, and he was trapped.
The small cavity began to brighten. He couldn’t see any source for the white illumination, but it quickly became too intense to see, and he closed his eyes. The brilliance lasted for maybe fifteen seconds, and then everything went dark again.
When he opened his eyes, he saw that the stone door had vanished again, so he scurried out before it could change its mind.
He made it to his feet and then realized that something was seriously wrong. He was no longer in the underground chamber. Instead, he was standing on a stone ledge. It was nighttime. Sort of.
He took a couple of steps forward and saw a huge city made of green stone laid out below him. It was swathed in bright starlight. Really bright. When he looked up, stars literally filled the night sky. There were far more of them than he’d ever seen in the sky before, even in deep space.
They were so tightly packed that he immediately knew something was terribly wrong. Their combined brightness was more than a moonlit night by orders of magnitude. It was like soft daylight.
He wasn’t on the same planet that he’d been on moments before. Not even close. This one had to be much closer to the galactic core. If that were true, he’d left human-explored space far, far behind.
Whatever was happening, he ne
eded to undo it. He turned back to the opening only to find that the small cavity had sealed itself up, and he was trapped on an alien world.
The hatch to the conference room opened, and Jared looked over to see Lily and Kelsey coming back in. His sister looked… disturbed. He started to say something, but Marcus interrupted him.
“I’m detecting a significant power surge somewhere below the obelisk. The output is substantial.”
“It’s got to be something that Carl did,” Jared said as he rose. “Contact the surface party and make sure they’re okay. I’m on my way to the flag bridge.”
He gave Elise a hug and kissed her tenderly. “I love you, and this is wonderful news, but I’ve got to go to work.”
She nodded and smiled back at him as he headed for the hatch. “Go save the day, my hero.”
Kelsey said something to Lily and then fell in beside him as he headed up the short corridor toward the flag bridge.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded. “Lily just wanted to check my contraceptive implant. I’m perfectly healthy. Congratulations on being a father. You’re going to make a great one.”
He grinned at that. “I can hardly wrap my mind around it. Twins. That’s going to complicate my life.”
Kelsey chuckled. “Your life? Imagine how much it’s going to complicate Elise’s. You get to go gallivanting off while she’s nursing. How unfair is that?”
“It does seem kind of lopsided,” he admitted. “At least Lily can extract the children and put them into gestation pods so that she doesn’t have to give birth the old-fashioned way.”
His sister grimaced. “I hadn’t even thought of that. Ugh. What’s the cutoff for something like that?”
“The first trimester,” Marcus said from the overhead speaker. “After that, the mother has to bear the child naturally.”
Kelsey shot a seemingly frustrated glance toward the ceiling. “Why not after that point?”
“You’d have to ask Doctor Stone for more details, but my understanding is that extraction after that point poses too much danger to the child and mother. Biological reproduction is more fraught with danger than I’d ever suspected. It makes one happy to be a constructed being.”
“Isn’t that just peachy,” Kelsey muttered.
“Why so grumbly?” Jared asked. “Elise dodged that flechette. Imagine what would’ve happened if she’d gotten pregnant almost immediately after we left Terra. She might be six months along and have missed the cutoff. She’s an old-fashioned kind of girl, but I’d imagine that would annoy the hell out of her.”
“As it should.”
The hatch ahead of them slid open, and Jared stepped out into the flag bridge. Commander Kaitlinn Cannon, his chief of staff, stood from her console nearby and approached as he sat at his station.
She’d been on the mission to Terra with him and been one of the few survivors. She was tough, and he knew for a fact that the redheaded woman never gave up.
Her background was as a tactical officer, and she was very skilled when it came to fighting, but if someone wanted to command their own ship, they needed to gain a broad experience of shipboard tasks. For the last six months, he’d been happy to have her serving as his chief of staff and giving her some of that experience.
“What have you got?” he asked.
She nodded at Kelsey. “There was a massive power surge inside the plateau. The eggheads are still trying to figure out precisely what it was, but it put out a lot more energy than this ship could produce. The surge lasted about fifteen seconds.
“Everyone down below reports that they’re okay, except for Carl and Talbot. They still haven’t come back out of the obelisk. Betting odds say that Carl probably did something.”
“That’s a safe bet,” he agreed. “We need to see about getting them out of there. Has anyone figured out exactly what they did to get transported inside?”
“Not yet.”
Cannon opened her mouth to say something else but paused, her eyes going slightly unfocused. A few moments later, she frowned.
“Scratch that. Carl’s back outside. He just flew out of the top of the obelisk and came down to a landing right where he’d been taken from. He’s signaling for you.”
“Put him on the main screen.”
The large screen on the front of the compartment switched from the view of the planet to Carl Owlet standing beside the obelisk. He looked almost angry and a little bit frightened.
“Admiral, we’ve got a problem,” he said grimly. “There’s a huge chamber under the obelisk that has this incredible star map. While I was documenting it, Talbot started a circuit of the chamber but never came back. Once I filled up my data storage, I went looking for him, but I couldn’t find him or any other exits. He’s gone.”
“How could he just vanish?” Kelsey demanded.
“I have no idea. I wouldn’t have come up until I had him back, but I have information that simply can’t wait. I found a far flip point on the map that might take us directly to Twilight River. I’ll send everything that I have to Marcus and then head back down to find Talbot.”
Jared shook his head in mild disbelief. Of course they’d lost track of Talbot. Why not?
“We detected a massive power surge,” he said. “Could that have had anything to do with Talbot’s disappearance?”
Carl shrugged. “Possibly. Should I wait for you to get back down, Kelsey?”
She shook her head, her expression torn. “If you’ve found a path to Twilight River, I have to be the one exploring it. The timeline is too tight for me to split my attention, so I’m counting on you to rescue my wayward husband.”
“Don’t go alone,” Jared added sternly.
“I won’t. As soon as I get the data to Marcus and get my backup briefed, I’ll go get him. You have my word on that. Owlet out.”
Jared turned his gaze to Kelsey as the screen returned to showing the planet they were orbiting. He really should come up with a name for it. Dinosaur World? Obelisk World? The latter sounded better.
His sister looked worried but had a gleam in her eye. “This is the break we’ve been looking for. We’re going to sneak through the back door and screw that bastard while its attention is firmly planted on the front door. I can scout while we move most of the fleet into position to back up Persephone from the near end of the flip point.”
Jared nodded. “That’s a good plan. We can leave Caduceus here with some escort destroyers. Once Carl finds Talbot, she can catch up with us.”
This was an incredibly lucky break. Their biggest strength was their enemy’s ignorance of their existence. Now that they had a possible way forward, the load shifted onto his sister’s shoulders.
Thank God she was ready for the moment, even though the universe couldn’t seem to resist trying to distract her.
10
Kelsey arrived on Persephone’s bridge and half expected Angela to confront her. She knew there was no way the woman could possibly know that she was pregnant unless Lily had said something to her, but she was still more than a bit worried until Angela grinned.
“Carl really brought home the bacon,” her friend said. “If this pans out, it’s going to give us everything we need to make the magic happen. The master AI won’t even know that we’re in the system. It can’t possibly know. Then we can sneak up on its ass and turn it off.”
“I’d rein in your expectations if I were you,” Kelsey cautioned. “This is a big stroke of luck, but it’s still going to take a lot of work to make the magic happen. You can bet that that system is stuffed absolutely full of defensive measures to prevent exactly what we’re going to try and do. Even though the AI doesn’t know about the potential back door, it’s had half a millennium to prepare for humans.
“According to the information Carl sent, we’ll need to go back a couple of branches on the multiflip point network and then look for a far flip point that we missed on the way through.”
Angela nodded. “We’re ready t
o head out now. It’ll take us three hours to get to the multiflip point, maybe twenty minutes to flip back to the system in question, and then another six hours to get out to the far flip point location that he specified.
“I’m not sure how that alien map can be so accurate. It’s been seventy million years since it was created. How could it possibly know where all of these flip points are?”
“I haven’t got the slightest idea,” Kelsey admitted. “Aliens are going to alien. Carl says that the map shows the artificial flip points that Omega created, so that means whatever technology they’re using has a current map of the entire flip point network.
“Since the Milky Way is about a hundred thousand light-years across and has something like one hundred and fifty billion stars, that sounds ridiculous, yet here we are.”
“Considering that the far flip points average a little less than a thousand light-years, and not every system has a far flip point heading in the right direction, it would take decades to make the trip.”
“Don’t forget that you can’t get too close to the galactic core,” Kelsey said. “Carl mentioned that the radiation there is significant. I’m not sure how much you’d have to skirt it with our antiradiation shields, but that would be a factor. Not that we’re going to go across the damned galaxy anytime soon.
“Let’s get ourselves in motion. The sooner we get to Twilight River, the sooner we can beat the AIs once and for all.”
Angela frowned. “What about Talbot?”
Kelsey shook her head. “I’m worried, but if we wait too long, the situation on the other end might become too complicated for us to deal with. Carl will find him. We’ve got to be thinking of humanity first.”
Her friend stared at her for a couple of seconds and then nodded slowly. “I understand that, but I don’t think he’s going to be very happy that you’ve left without him.”
“Then he shouldn’t have let the aliens kidnap him,” Kelsey said tartly. “I don’t think they did anything to intentionally harm my husband. I think he got himself into a different portion of the facility, and all Carl is going to have to do is figure out where he went. There’s no indication that these beings meant us any harm.”
