‘I know this city now,’ the Skylord replied. ‘Its kind brought ruin to this universe. We have found no minds since they threw the planets of life down into the stars they orbited. None have emerged here other than your own species.’
‘That time is over now. You know more of my species are already here. Minds are emerging again.’
‘As is the other who kills.’
‘That is why I wish to reach the Heart. I will carry the warning to it. I believe I am fulfilled, I believe the Heart will accept me. Is this right?’
The Skylord took a long time to answer. ‘You are fulfilled,’ it acknowledged. ‘I will guide your essence to the Heart.’
‘Guide me to the Heart as I am. This ship will take me. We will follow you.’
‘It is the essence of every mind my kindred guide.’
‘Guide me to the Heart. It will decide if it accepts me as I am or if I abandon my body and become pure mind.’
‘I will guide you.’
‘Thank you.’
Beyond the crystal dome, the stars began to chase short arcs across space as Makkathran turned to follow the Skylord. Then they started to accelerate again. Edeard experienced a long moment of dizziness. When he looked straight up again, he could see a small clump of stars directly above the apex of the dome. They’d all become bright blue-white. The rest of the universe around them was black.
‘That’s not fast enough,’ Gore said. ‘Ilanthe has a week of Void-time on you. Christ knows how close she is now.’
‘We know this is as fast as the Skylords can travel,’ Justine said.
‘Yeah, but they’re not exactly swinging from the top of the IQ tree, now are they? Ask Makkathran, it’s had millions of years to figure out what passes for spacetime in the Void.’
Justine gave Edeard a questioning look.
‘I’ll ask,’ he said.
‘Faster?’ Makkathran queried; its thoughts intimated curiosity. ‘We were designed for every conceivable quantum state except of course this one. Here the mind is paramount, helping to seduce so many inferior mentalities. Long ago, I observed the fundamental connections between rationality and the multidimensional lattice which incorporates this universe’s functionality. Speed is an aspect of temporal flow, which in turn is determined by thought. It is the application pattern which is the key, and those are actually quite simple to determine.’
Outside the dome, light exploded out of the emptiness. Stars began to streak past like rigid lightning bolts. Glaring nebula clouds formed hurricane curlicues, spiralling round and round as they streamed away in a resplendent blaze of colour.
‘I think that was a yes,’ an awestruck Oscar mumbled as multicoloured ripples of light flowed across his upturned face.
‘So are we going fast, or is the Void slowing down?’ Corrie-Lyn asked tentatively.
‘That’s not strictly relevant in here,’ Inigo said. ‘All that matters is the end result.’
*
In parallel to his conversation with the Delivery Man, Gore was monitoring the data that the infiltration software was surreptitiously accumulating. The elevation mechanism had started running internal scans as the filaments continued their invasion into its structure. He released the first batch of packages, a low-level torrent that swiftly insinuated themselves into the scan interpretation routines, falsifying the results so the elevation mechanism would find nothing wrong with itself at a molecular level.
Dream: Makkathran went ftl amid a spectacular lightstorm.
Visual observation: Tyzak was bouncing its way over the plaza, taking care not to step on the glistening black webbing that was humming gently.
That’s all I need, a higher-secondary segment of Gore’s mind thought. The Anomine translation routine in a storage lacuna went active.
‘Others have come,’ Tyzak said.
‘From your village?’ Gore warbled and whistled back.
‘No. Others. Star-travellers who are similar to you, but very different. I do not know of their story.’
‘Show me, please.’
Tyzak traced his way back across the plaza. One of his limbs extended, pointing down a broad street.
There were eight of them standing across the road a hundred metres short of the plaza. Pastel light from the buildings on either side glittered across their extravagant jewelled longcoats. One of them raised a long white spear, and bowed slightly.
‘Silfen,’ Gore sighed, resisting the urge to give them the finger in return. Instead he inclined his head. ‘Just ignore them. They’re the galaxy’s greatest voyeurs.’
‘Why should they come here?’
‘To observe me.’
The infiltration packages flashed up a problem with the analysis routines they were trying to modify. There must have been hidden sentinels, because the analysis routines were resisting any attempt to subvert them. They had begun reformatting themselves with alarming frequency. It meant the packages couldn’t establish themselves: there was no stable configuration to match. And the sentinels were routing more advanced routines to the scans, examining why the resistance algorithms were being triggered. That might well alert the elevation mechanism’s principal consciousness.
Gore pressed his golden lips together. ‘Oh shit; here we go.’
*
Hanging in transdimensional suspension two million kilometres above the Anomine star, Marius had directed his starship’s sensor readings to a constellation of semi-autonomous secondary routines. Although the Delivery Man’s ship had performed a truly astounding feat flying into the star’s convection layer, it wasn’t his main concern. He simply didn’t understand Justine’s dream. That Gore had somehow manoeuvred Inigo and Araminta-two into the Void was seriously impressive. But then the notion faltered. To rationalize with the Heart as Gore claimed was their ultimate purpose must be a misdirection. He was sure of it.
Then the Waterwalker was resurrected. ‘Remarkable,’ Marius admitted. Which was as nothing compared to Makkathran awaking and lifting itself out of the gargantuan lava-filled impact crater it’d created when it crashed there in the aftermath of the armada’s invasion.
And Gore announced they had to beat Ilanthe to the Heart. Makkathran performed the impossible, and went ftl inside the Void.
‘No,’ Marius said in alarm. Whatever scheme Gore had for when they were inside the Heart, he could not permit it. The risk was infinitesimal, but nonetheless it existed.
His mind moved the dream to secondary routines for monitoring, and brought the sensor readings back to his full attention. The Delivery Man’s starship hadn’t moved. It was still attached to the shielded circular object inside the convection zone. Whatever connection Gore envisaged between that and Makkathran was beyond understanding, but there was purpose to it. No one expended this much effort without a reason.
His quandary was that he didn’t know if Gore was on board the starship, or back on the planet. Therefore the process of elimination would have to be both literal and simple. Ship first. If the dream continued, then Gore was on the Anomine home-world.
Marius ordered the smartcore to drop them out of stealth. Active sensors came on line and performed a more detailed scan of the ship inside the convection zone. For all it incorporated Stardiver shielding to deal with the heat, its layered force fields had only received about twenty per cent strengthening. They remained vulnerable to combat strikes. The only real problem Marius had was choosing a weapon which would be able to reach it within such a radical environment. He started to activate the possibles.
*
They waited for the moment on the Sampalok square, just outside the mansion’s entrance. Inigo and Corrie-Lyn holding hands, and sharing thoughts privately. Araminta-two never far from Oscar, the two of them providing each other with a strange variety of support and comfort. The three Knights Guardians in a tight group, keen and nervy. Justine and Gore side by side, proud and defiant, their determination shining as bright as any of the weird stars flashing past outside. That, oddly
enough, left Edeard gravitating towards Troblum, who was waiting with a sulky, near-childlike pout.
The cascade of opalescent light drained away as quickly as it had arrived. Edeard gazed up at the dome, thunderstruck by the sight beyond the crystal. Makkathran was gliding through space above the centre of Odin’s Sea. Directly above the apex of the dome a ruffled lake of aquamarine dust glimmered with a steady lambency, alive with deep currents and the flaring nimbi of protostars. Around its shores the scarlet reefs extended out for lightyears, slender twined braids of fluorescence that swelled at their tips to form silken veils around the stars they incarcerated.
‘Sweet Lady I never thought to see such a sight,’ Edeard moaned incredulously. And finally his mind heard the siren call; it wasn’t a song but the sense of uncountable minds blending in peace and friendship, secure in their totality. Together they were whole, and combined with the Void’s fabric at some ultimate level of existence. The promise of belonging to such an affiliation filled him with joy; the weariness and strife of a physical life would end, and he would be a part of the greater existence that reached for perfection. The urge to join them, to contribute his nature, was so strong that if his third hand could have elevated him up from the square and through the crystal he would have flown into the Heart there and then for the final consummation. It was nothing like the foolishly imagined near-physical heaven he had expected, where souls clung to their old form and lived in splendour among a city of golden towers. That kind of life was actually achievable back on Querencia if you tried hard enough and often enough, revisiting your own past until you finally eliminated all your failures and disappointments. No, the Heart looked to the future and a fate that was fresh and different to anything that had gone before. He would be a part of creating that.
‘This hippy dippy shit is what everyone praises?’ Gore snapped. ‘Jeezus wept.’
Edeard struggled to keep his temper in check in the face of such blasphemous provocation. ‘It is a glorious reward for a life lived true to oneself.’
‘Uh huh, well let’s not forget why we’re here. We need to get inside.’
‘There is no physical location,’ Makkathran told them when Edeard asked to move closer. ‘At least, not in relation to the Void fabric at this level. The Heart lies beyond rather than behind. That is the final barrier, the one which defeated us before.’
‘Ask it to admit us,’ Oscar said.
Edeard nodded slowly, reluctant at the last to begin the event that could lead to the demise of the entire Void. What if they have lied? Which he knew to be a foolish insecurity. Good old Ashwell optimism, even here. Inigo does not lie, not to me. ‘How can something this splendid be so flawed as to threaten life everywhere?’
‘Because it doesn’t know it’s a danger,’ Gore said.
‘How can that be?’ he cried. ‘It is awesome; it is the accumulation of billions upon billions of minds. How can you possibly be so arrogant to try and change its path?’
‘Those lives it has consumed are doing nothing but dreaming their existence away. The souls who were guided here have been betrayed, the wisdom they brought, the continued life they were promised, it’s all being wasted.’
‘All right.’ Edeard reached out for the Heart. I am here, he told it. I am ready. I am fulfilled. Bring me to you. He held his breath. Nothing happened. I am here, he repeated.
‘Now what?’ Tomansio asked.
‘Stop trying,’ Oscar said. ‘Just let the urge take you. Chill down, and surrender to it.’
‘You’re already in there,’ Corrie-Lyn said. ‘Listen for yourself.’
‘Very well,’ Edeard said. It sounded stupid, but he closed his eyes, then withdrew his farsight, allowing the presence of the Heart to seep into him. He listened for himself. In truth there were others he wanted to hear, to join. Kristabel. Macsen. Dinlay. Kanseen. Akeem! Was he waiting? Had he found his way? Finitan surely would be there. And Rolar, and Jiska, and the twins, and Dylorn, and Marakas, and sweet Taralee. Perhaps even Salrana, who might have finally made her peace with him. He could never forget that night he discovered the true nature of the Void; in the pavilion, after her death, her soul had panicked, realizing she had strayed. Perhaps . . .
‘The barrier falls,’ Makkathran said.
Edeard opened his eyes in time to see Odin’s Sea fading away. The light simply vanished, and they were surrounded by nothing. A perfect uniform blackness.
The Heart’s thoughts grew more powerful. Edeard found himself strengthening his shield. His mind seemed to be expanding, moving to embrace the Heart, flowing out to join it.
‘Edeard!’ Inigo shouted.
His brother’s fright was strong. He hesitated.
‘Edeard, come back.’ Inigo was compelling him, infusing their bond with love.
He opened his eyes again. This time the sturdy Sampalok mansion seemed faint. When he lifted up his hand it was growing translucent.
‘It’s absorbing him,’ Gore said. Worry was flooding from the golden man’s mind. ‘Edeard you’ve got to hold on.’
‘Without you we will be rejected,’ Makkathran warned.
‘Edeard, is there anything you can sense in there that’ll talk to us?’ Gore asked. ‘A single coherent mind?’
Edeard had to laugh. ‘The Heart is bigger than worlds. It is universal, it lies behind everywhere in the Void. And still it grows.’
‘Fuck it,’ Gore snarled. ‘It’s grown so big it’s lost cohesion. All right, Edeard, it wasn’t always like this. I need you to go back to when it was smaller.’
‘What?’
‘Get into the memory layer, trace it down to the origin. Come on son, you can do it.’
‘Lean on me,’ Inigo said. He gripped Edeard’s hand, suffusing him with strength and love. ‘I will help you.’
‘And me, Waterwalker,’ Corrie-Lyn said. Her firmness and fortitude made Edeard smile in gratitude.
Oscar came over, as did the Knights Guardians. ‘Whatever you need,’ Tomansio promised sincerely, which made Edeard regret he hadn’t known the warrior for longer. Justine, smiling and determined, added her essence, buoying him along. Even Troblum was there, dependable and resolute.
There was a memory layer in this place, wherever they were, which surprised Edeard more than anything. Strangely uncluttered, it was easy to perceive, to follow back. He plunged into the past, saddened by how little changed. Then abruptly the Heart wasn’t quite so large. This was the time before humans. He carried on back through it, pushing harder and harder.
There were many changes, coming eons apart, then further. Each alien species that’d come to the Void had contributed to the expansion in its own fashion. None had brought true cohesion. He found that wrong somehow, that the amalgamation always acted in the contrary direction to the Heart’s purpose.
At the end he could think only of flying through the travel tunnels, soaring on into the unknown, content simply in the act of voyaging. He was quite surprised when it did finish. The memory layer grew thinner somehow, less cluttered. And there, right at the beginning of the Void, when the Heart was forming, were millions of connections to individual minds. They could communicate with the Heart. They were the link, the way in. He chased after one and embraced it, offering it up to the creation layer. Perceiving the entity take form again.
Edeard drew a startled breath, shaking himself free of the memory layer and the intimacy of his new friends. Right in front of him, standing in the entrance to Zulmal Street, an alien twenty feet tall was unfolding its disturbingly sinuous limbs as its thoughts churned with surprise and suspicion.
‘Oh wow,’ Oscar groaned, and took a step back. Even so, he was grinning effusively.
‘A Firstlife,’ Edeard announced simply. And he had to own up to being intimidated by so many curving, pointed teeth at the top of its fat central trunk as it opened the glistening mouth membranes to whistle at a painful volume.
Then something moved in the nothingness outside the dome. A dark sphere beset wit
h deep purple scintillations slipped smoothly overhead.
‘What are you doing?’ Ilanthe asked.
*
Marius had been fascinated by the Heart and the notions it sang of. There really was no other way to describe it. In a way he was relieved that it was so vast, so aloof. Gore’s stupid plan to talk to it, to make it see what he considered to be reason, would never transpire in such a milieu. The golden man was pissing in the wind.
Then he stood in Sampalok’s central square, observing through Justine as Gore told the Waterwalker to search back through the memory layer for a younger, more accessible Heart.
‘No no no,’ he chanted in dismay. His exovision brought up the starship’s weapons. He selected a couple of diverted energy function quantumbusters. They would activate in the photosphere, sending a huge exotic energy distortion wave smashing against the Delivery Man’s ship. Its Stardiver shielding would never survive such an impact. Whatever part of Gore’s scheme was being enacted down there in the convection zone would be obliterated. That would give Ilanthe the window of opportunity to enact Fusion.
The two missiles shot away, accelerating at a hundred and fifty gees. His exovision display threw up a sensor image, showing a hyperspace anomaly erupting fifty thousand kilometres away from his own location. One of the huge borderguards materialized out of the spacial deformation. Its concentric shells of elliptical strands were ablaze with aggravated neon light. The outermost strands darkened from a lurid jade down to an irradiated carmine. Marius’s sensors showed the energy spectrum raging inside the borderguard leaping almost off the scale. It fired on the quantumbuster missiles, which burst into a dynamic vapour plume.
‘Shit!’ Marius discarded the dream altogether, and sent his starship hurtling towards the borderguard at thirty-seven gees. Weapons locked on to the garish nimbus. He opened fire.
*
No matter how hard he cursed, how fast his expanded mind activated infiltration packages, Gore knew it was coming. There was nothing he could do about it. His wild boast about Commonwealth webheads had proved vain and hollow. And everything in the galaxy was going to die because of it.
The Evolutionary Void Page 72
