by P. R. Adams
Squishy steps brought Riyun around; Hirvok had closed from behind, ignoring the order to keep a twenty-foot gap. The sergeant glanced at the dense forest canopy above. “Already missing that pretty sky.”
There was no point arguing when Hirvok wanted to talk. “Missing that fresh air, that’s for sure.” Riyun spat, but there was no getting the dirt’s fungus-like taste out of his mouth. “What’s up?”
“No sign of water. And these things in the jungle—”
“Haven’t attacked yet.”
“But they sure look like they could, or you wouldn’t have said that.”
“I’m pretty sure everything we come across is going to try to kill us.”
“So let’s go back to the clearing, where we know what the threat is.”
Riyun surveyed the path they had taken into the dark woods. “I like our odds better against flying lizards than against a trained security force that could outnumber us four-to-one.”
“They’re not real mercenaries.”
“Real mercenaries or not, they’ll have the best weapons and armor available. And four-to-one…they don’t need to be better than us.”
Hirvok winced when a foot-long creature with a bright orange carapace hurtled toward him. He kicked it away and grunted when it cracked against the knobby roots of a tree. “All the charm of my second wife.”
“I liked Quinna.”
“You and half the brigade.” The sergeant hurried until he was slightly ahead. “This thing that you’ve got—”
“It’s called a plan, Hirvok. You should try it sometime.”
“Ha ha. See, I was thinking it was called a death wish. Marching into the shit, searching for water, losing track of the sunlight…”
Losing track of the sunlight was the one thing Riyun had second thoughts about. The woods were even thicker than his worst-case estimate. “It’s a calculated risk. It’s part of being a leader.”
“Sure it is. But I’ve been thinking—”
“Despite all warnings to the contrary.”
“—maybe you’ve been too caught up in your own head. You said you were disoriented, had some of those dreams you get after going through the portals. Maybe you should be listening more. Like, maybe you should step back and let someone else run the show for a bit.”
“Like a certain good-looking sergeant, huh?”
“There are worse options.” Hirvok twisted his head around and smirked. “Maybe you’re afraid someone will do better than you?”
“Afraid? Hirvok, I need you to be better than me. When I die, I want to know I made the right choice about the person I chose to take my place.”
“Let me guess—I’m not ready yet. Is that it?”
“Is this really the time to talk about that?”
The sergeant stopped abruptly, forcing Riyun to step aside to avoid impact. “It’s definitely the time.”
Heavy sloshing grew louder behind them—Lonar had abandoned his gap as well. Sweat poured down his blockish face, and he huffed with the exertion. “Lieutenant!”
Riyun slowed. “Something wrong?”
The big man’s eyes flashed to Hirvok. “I know you need to do that strategic thinking; can you do that with someone yapping in your ear?”
“We were just having a discussion.” Riyun nodded toward the path Javika had marked for them. “Maybe there’s water up ahead.”
Hirvok snorted. “Lonar, can’t you see grown-ups are talking here?”
A deep rumbling bubbled up from the big man’s chest. “Might want to remember the lieutenant runs this operation.” Lonar shifted the heavy assault weapon he held at the ready. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
Riyun patted the tweak on the shoulder. “Catch your breath. Stay sharp.”
That put a smile on the big man’s face. He slowed and was soon back where he should’ve been.
Riyun jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “We can talk about this more later, Hirvok. Get back in position.”
For a moment, it looked as if the sergeant was going to continue his challenge, but then he fell back. Riyun didn’t give the other man a chance to reconsider his decision, turning and pointing to Symbra and Quil, then waving them forward.
When the two were at Riyun’s side, he sucked in a deep breath. “Quil, this pocket dimension—explain it to me. Small words. Big picture.”
The pseudo bowed his head and puffed his cheeks out. “How small should the words be?”
“Baby size. Stay close to two letters when you can.”
“I see. Well, from what I have read, the idea is similar to the theories behind the Golgar Portals: a manipulation of space. The difference is, you create space rather than circumventing it.”
“Whoa. Create what? Space?”
“Yes. It is merely using energy to—”
“Baby size, Quil. You know how I feel about math and science.”
Quil nodded. “Of course. Hm. Imagine that energy is the same as space.”
“All right.”
“So, if you have enough energy, you can affect distance.”
“Manipulating a wormhole?”
“Creating, stabilizing, closing…manipulating.”
“I’m with you.” Riyun arched an eyebrow at Symbra. “Sorry for having to tone this down, but while you and your friends were taking advanced sciences, I was trying to yank boulders from the ground so that we could grow enough food to survive another year.”
The Onath mercenary smiled. “I wasn’t much for advanced science, actually.”
“I appreciate you indulging me. Quil? You were saying about energy and space?”
The pseudo hummed impatiently. “Yes. So now, imagine using that same space and energy interchange, but this time you create space with energy.”
“I guess I believe you.”
“It is nothing more than theory. But if it were true, with all the people Beraga recruited for his business, perhaps he used the knowledge of the Portals to create this space I mentioned.”
“This world? He created a world with energy? What, from his reactor?”
“More than a world. A universe. The reactor would be used like the power systems on the Portals—just a starting point. They draw most of their power through some sort of gateway.”
“Fine. But you don’t create trees and dirt and air with energy.”
“The universe was created from nothing but a release of energy.”
“So I’ve heard. Even if that’s true, that took billions of years. Right?”
“Well, the explosion was…” The pseudo sighed. “Yes, billions of years. But…”
“Go on.”
“Remember how we agreed that energy and space were the same thing? Imagine that matter could be exchanged in the same way. Now imagine that time could be exchanged in the same way.”
“It’s making my head hurt, Quil.”
“Not my intent. I am trying to keep it simple.”
Riyun had a deep hatred for things he couldn’t understand. It was probably more accurate to say he hated not having the opportunities to have the fundamentals people on more prosperous worlds had. Growing up poor, going without much education—it wasn’t so bad when everyone around you had the same life experience. Everyone knew what mattered: the next harvest, a winter that didn’t kill, a house sturdy enough to hold up against the winds. When he’d discovered there were more worlds in the Outer Sphere and the lives others lived, it had been humiliating.
Being humiliated sucked. “So, they use this energy to create matter and space and to make the time go faster?”
“Exactly! Centuries pass in seconds. And over time, the universe is created and evolves.”
“Uh-huh. From energy.”
“People once thought traveling through wormholes would be impossible.”
“Fine. Let’s just assume that’s what happened. But there should still be some sort of signal capability. If they created this world, and they can open all the way into it at will, it seems to me they woul
d want a connection to the network.”
The pseudo’s eyes widened. “You believe there is a network here?”
“There has to be. Beraga does what he does for money. No network, no money. Zabila was paying for Wholesale Fantasy.”
“But not from here.”
“She must’ve come here, though. Would she leave her tablet behind? I don’t think so. Naru said we would’ve found it if it was…back in that…world.”
Quil nodded, then turned toward Symbra, who marched in silence for a few seconds before shrugging. “I’ll work with Naru. She can search for other signals. Maybe it’s a network that operates on a different frequency.”
That made sense. “Thanks. She could use a good distraction.”
The Onath mercenary cast a quick look back. “You noticed that?”
“That she’s not really paying attention? Yeah. That thousand-yard stare—” Riyun patted his helmet, just to be sure it was still stuck to his belt. “We need her to accept that we’re stuck in this until someone figures a way out.”
“We’ll want to conserve our batteries while we’re out of the sunlight, though.”
No solar recharging! Riyun blushed. The dense canopy was a real problem. “When we get back into the light. I’d like her to think she’s part of the solution.”
“Oh. You want to give her some agency, some sort of validation? That’s a good idea.”
“What? No. I want her to figure this out. You three are the brains. Do brain stuff, and do it fast. I don’t want anyone dying here.” He would let them figure out the rest—that the longer they stayed here, the worse the odds of survival.
The two of them dropped back to their positions, but Riyun noted the way Symbra drifted closer to Naru. That was good. They could hold the rear while he talked to Tawod, who he waved forward next. The explosives expert took a few seconds to realize he was being signaled, then jogged forward awkwardly, showing no hint he was aware of the danger they were all in. He matched Riyun’s pace once at his side.
“Something wrong?” The young man blinked slowly as his head swiveled left to right.
Riyun grunted. How could anyone not see just how wrong everything was? “You tell me, kid.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Obviously. You’re supposed to be watching the rear, but your head was down.”
“I was paying attention.”
“Not like I need you to. You saw those lizards. You saw what they could do. They may not even be the worst things out here.”
“I know. I don’t know why we went into these woods.”
“Because it’s the best option available to us.”
“What Hirvok said—”
“I’m in charge, not Hirvok.” Riyun could sense the lines forming, the way the younger members were drawn to Hirvok’s style of leadership. That wasn’t a bad thing, or at least it wouldn’t be under normal circumstances. Grooming Hirvok had been a long process. He was almost ready for the next step. But not just yet. “What’s your inventory like, Tawod?”
“Inventory? Um.”
“Explosives. The demolition charges, grenades—what did I hire you for?”
The young man blushed. “Demolitions.”
“That’s right. And I want you to do your job. So, work up an inventory. Talk to everyone. Figure out what you can do with what we have.”
“What I can do?”
“Do we really need the power of the grenades we have? Maybe it would be better to salvage the explosives material and improvise something different. Do you really think we’re going to be going up against hardened positions here?”
“No, but those things we fought were—”
“Easy enough to kill with bullets. Next time we run into them, though, I wouldn’t mind luring them into an open space and taking them out with a smaller improvised explosive. Could you do something like that?”
“I-I guess so.”
Riyun tapped a finger against the young man’s armored chest. “I need better than that. I need to know that you can make gunpowder. I need to know that you can create explosives. Gathering up our shell casings won’t mean anything if we don’t have gunpowder.”
“But the…bullets…”
“We’ll figure that out. Leave it to me. I’ve run plenty of operations where we had to survive months without resupply.”
The young man nodded. “Basic gunpowder…” He squeezed his eyes shut. “I can do it. We’ll need some fairly common materials.”
“Good. Now take point.” Riyun pointed to a snapped branch several yards ahead. “Follow the trail Javika left for us. Eyes and ears open. The team’s going to be counting on you. Understand?”
“Y-yeah.”
Riyun patted the kid on his shoulder, then slowly fell back through the stretched line until Lonar’s heavy breathing became louder than even the strange animal noises. After a few slower steps, they were moving side-by-side. The big man looked even worse than he had earlier, as if he were cooking inside his armor.
“This is the life, huh, Lieutenant?” Lonar blinked away sweat.
“You’re looking pretty ragged, big guy. Talk to me.”
“It’s nothing.”
“When Beraga said none of our electronics could stay in that room, I almost sent you out.”
“Wouldn’t have gone.”
“I know. And I thought all your wetware was shielded enough to be safe.”
“Best shielding they got.”
“Probably was back when they installed it.” Riyun smirked at the big guy. “You’re getting old.”
“Some things never get old—beer and women and a good punch-up.”
“Sure. But you’re not fooling me. Your systems aren’t working, are they?”
The big man wheezed as he marched along. “They go off-line sometimes. They reboot.”
“After how long?”
Lonar grimaced. “A few seconds.”
Riyun checked the chronometer on his tablet: They had been marching for two hours and change. “Ever had anything like this happen before?”
“No.”
“How long you figure you can last?”
“When I worked the asteroids, I didn’t have the wetware. It was all injections—steroids and things to keep my bone density. I learned how to get along just fine.”
“In low gravity. In climate-controlled environment suits. You’re in a jungle here.”
“It’s all about the mind.” The big man gasped for a few seconds. “I just have to think I can do it.”
“Sure.” Riyun scanned the branches of the trees. “You think you’ll be up for some lizard steak?”
“Looking forward—”
“Lieutenant!” It was Tawod. Panicked.
Riyun rushed forward, eyes darting from one shadow to the next to the ground ahead of him. The team was already moving off the trail, pulling helmets on. They would’ve turned their radios on by now.
He yanked his own helmet from the belt brace, and slammed the protective device on. The electronics flared to life, overlaying the forest trail with the tac-net and enhanced imaging. Each team member fed more data into the network, building a richer, deeper view of their situation. Tawod was ahead maybe thirty feet, on a steeper slope than they’d been on before. He pointed down to something out of sight, something his own helmet would have fed into the tactical network if he’d bothered to put the piece of gear on.
At least the kid was still alive.
Riyun skidded to a stop on the slick loam a few feet shy of the demolitions expert. There were no visible threats anywhere. What was he pointing at?
The demolitions expert smiled, his face now overlaid with infrared and wireframe on the tac-net. “You see it?”
And then Riyun did: a river. Cold and blue. He heard the gurgling of water rushing over rock and roots.
He yanked his helmet off and set it back in the belt brace. “Water.”
But where was Javika? She should have been there. Even if it wasn’t a
n ideal campsite, they would need to take some time here, clean up and cool down. The water had to be drinkable, unless the lizards didn’t have the same sort of biology—
Riyun chuckled. How absurd that he was accepting the impossibility of the place so quickly.
He waved a hand wildly over his head. “It’s clear.”
As the others approached, he searched around for the signs that Javika must have left.
But there were no broken branches, no leaves crumpled and tossed onto the trail.
No obvious divots kicked from the dirt.
Where was she?
As the others made their way down to the riverbank, he retraced his steps to the last sign the graceful assassin had left: a dark twig tossed into a bright thicket. That was more than a hundred feet back. Tawod must’ve simply followed the path, which looked like a game trail.
But why would she quit leaving signs?
Riyun slowly pulled his helmet back on and let it rebuild the tac-net. With no one else wearing a helmet, it should only have his input…
Yet it didn’t.
There was another signal. Her signal. Off the path. Deep in the woods. Deeper than the people slowly creeping toward the riverbank, knives and bows out.
Readying to ambush the unsuspecting squad.
Riyun pulled his knife and bolted into the woods. Six targets. Primitive weapons. Just now aware of him as he crashed toward the closest one. That one took on definition—an old man, thinning hair, ropey muscles, shocked eyes.
The old guy got a sword up, but he was slow.
Riyun’s blade slashed behind the weapon.
The old man went to the ground, moaning and clutching the stump of his arm.
Four of the ambushers charged out of the woods toward the river, leaving a younger man behind. He was big and somewhat muscular, but Riyun had faced much worse. The big man had an axe. Not a fire axe or hatchet or wood axe: an old-fashioned battle axe.
Would it be heavy enough to cut through the Juggernaut armor?
Riyun wasn’t interested in finding out. Instead, when the man lifted the weapon over his head, the lieutenant kicked. His booted foot connected with the knee that was taking all the pressure for the swing.
The knee snapped as the ancient weapon swung down, then slipped from fingers gone weak.
Before the man could scream, Riyun slashed open the exposed throat.
