by Craig Allen
“The reeds aren’t from this world,” Cody said.
“No.” Stripe spoke as the holovisual focused on one of the bat creatures. “You, of course, remember these from before the world turned to poison.”
“Those bat creatures are you,” Sonja said. “The Reed Entity turned your people into those things.”
“The Entity did much more than that.” Stripe hung his head. “It was almost the end of our people. Only a few of my people managed to escape.”
“I never could find all of you.”
Cody whirled around. Ann Salyard, or at least her form, stood behind them, her hands crossed in front of her. She lifted her head and regarded the lot of them. All around them, red reeds rose from the ground, quivering in a breeze that wasn’t there.
“You invaded this world.” Cody took a step toward her, half wishing he still had his coil pistol. “Why?”
“It was what I was designed to do,” she said.
“Who designed you?” Sonja asked.
The Ann-puppet opened her mouth then shut it again.
“The Reed Entity doesn’t know,” Stripe said. “This creature once lived in space but came to our world, and she changed everything when she did. We stayed at the highest mountaintops, where the reeds could not touch us.”
“I could not find all of you,” Ann said. “I tried, but you were too good. I tried to use the planet itself to find you. I altered all the life-forms so they had the intelligence and the wit to find the rest of this world’s former rulers.”
“Then why did you tell the toads a year ago not to hunt the fliers?” Cody asked.
“I told them well before that.” The Ann-puppet approached until she stood next to Cody. Behind her, a stream of red reeds was jutting from her torso into the ground—a genuine puppet. “At some point, I didn’t care anymore what happened to the fliers. I was learning, growing. I would peer into the stars and wonder what they were. Then your kind appeared.”
“The UEAF Kali,” Sonja said. “She crashed here almost eleven years ago.”
“I learned so much from the records in that vessel,” the Ann-puppet said. “The nature of the universe, technology… All of it was so new, so astounding, I wanted more.”
The ground shook, and the Ann-puppet locked up like a broken clock. A moment later, she regained her senses.
“It is almost time, isn’t it?” Stripe asked.
The Ann-puppet nodded. “Soon, I will leave.”
“Leave? Just like that?” Cody looked around. “Do you have a ship large enough? Or was that what the Hive was for? Because I’m afraid it’s gone.”
“I do not need a ship to leave,” the Ann-puppet said. “And as for the Hive, that was never meant for me.”
“My people constructed it in haste in the hopes of escaping our fate,” Stripe said. “We didn’t have time to board the vessel before the reeds dominated our world. By that point, our world wasn’t ours any longer. It belonged to the Reed Entity, and the vessel you call the Hive drifted away.”
“That’s why the Hive tried to connect with you,” Cody said.
Stripe nodded. “It had been obeying our commands all along. We didn’t want you to leave the Hive, so it caused all fusion reactors close by to halt. We hated the toad you were questioning, so the Hive swallowed it up for me. I didn’t realize we’d caused these events until I gave in and connected with the Hive. Then I knew the truth—about ourselves, our world, and the Reed Entity.”
“Why did the Reed Entity come here?” Cody walked up to the Ann-puppet. “Did you have any idea how terrifying it must’ve been for the people of this world?”
“I did not understand such things at the time,” the Ann-puppet said. “My species lives in space, floating between the stars. We hate the gravity of worlds and can’t understand how other life-forms live there. But when we are born, we must incubate in such places.”
“You reproduce on planets?” Sonja asked.
“I did,” the Ann-puppet said. “My sire died, leaving me here, but something went wrong. I… I had forgotten what I was, and I don’t know why.”
Stripe’s head hung low. “We attempted to remove your presence from our world via means that… that would take too long to explain. The process should’ve killed you.”
“It damaged me, and I forgot who I was. So I remained inside this planet.” The Ann-puppet glared at Cody. “I didn’t remember until I was damaged again.”
“When we nuked that cave where you constructed space vessels.” Cody remembered how they had decided to destroy the underground facility of space vessels they had found. “You didn’t give us a lot of choice.”
“I wanted to leave,” the Ann-puppet said. “I didn’t know why or how, but I thought that building space vessels would help me leave. When I finally remembered what I really was, I made the appropriate preparations. I altered the life-forms of this world so you would not disturb those preparations.”
“You poisoned the entire world,” Cody said. “But why save the fliers?”
“It is their world.” She looked at Stripe. “I understand that now.”
“So you will leave?” Stripe asked.
An alarm sounded in Cody’s visor, and a timer came up. The gamma-ray burst would arrive in less than an hour.
Sonja saw the same thing. “Oh Christ. Cody, we have to leave. Now.”
“It’s too late.” The Ann-puppet pointed upward. “Fortunately, you, like me, no longer have to worry about the toads or the gamma-ray burst.”
A ring of light appeared in the sky, as if the planet were inside the ring but off-center somehow. The glow increased in intensity until it was brighter than the sun. The circle of light started at the horizon and moved across the sky. Moments later, the light vanished, leaving them in darkness.
~~~
Jericho knew what had happened and why, but he was so stunned that he continued to stare at the hologlobe. Planet Kali and her moon had vanished inside the giant ring. All the ships had just managed to get clear in time, but Banshee One Eight had been on the planet surface when it vanished.
The ring continued to glow with power, though for how long it would do so, Jericho had no idea.
“The gate is still open, Admiral,” Johnson said. “My God, it’s the biggest connection to bridge-space I’ve ever seen.”
“Never mind that,” Jericho said. “Get us near the aperture of the gate. We have to find that hopper.”
“Sir.” It was the sensor operator. “Sir, the gamma-ray burst is on its way. ETA twenty minutes.”
“Understood.” Jericho had forgotten the deadline, but he didn’t let on. “Maneuver the Tokugawa in front of that wormhole. See if they can scan the other side without actually going through. And activate bridge struts. Stand by to evacuate the system.”
The communication was sent, and the Tokugawa crept toward the edge of the gate. Jericho tried not to stare at the timer on the hologlobe. No amount of hull plating would stop the gamma-ray burst from irradiating everyone on board. Alcubierre fields would collapse under the onslaught. The only way to survive a gamma-ray burst was not to be there when it came.
But he wasn’t leaving without Banshee One Eight. He couldn’t have that weight on his soul.
~~~
The filters in Cody’s eyes adjusted in seconds to the almost complete darkness around them. The stars shone brightly, but not in any patterns he recognized. Even the globular cluster was gone. The moon was a crescent though it had been full just a few nights before.
The Ann-puppet wavered, as if about to collapse. Her skin fluctuated as the reeds that made up who she was quivered.
“We have arrived.” Her tone sounded relieved. “I am free.”
Cody gazed at the sky above. “Remarkable. But can we get back?”
The Ann-puppet pointed at the western sky. A distortion where the stars didn’t shine covered much of the sky, like a black disk floating in space. To Cody, it seemed to be far away or to be getting smaller.
> “It will remain for thirty-two minutes and no longer.” As the Ann-puppet spoke, her legs vanished, followed by her arms as the reeds that made her up retreated into the ground. “I have reset the planetary ecology to what it was before I arrived. Now, I will leave.”
“Where will you go?” Stripe asked.
“To… another place.” Its hand pointed at the northern sky. “If you have the courage to follow, you may risk the journey yourselves.”
The Ann-puppet retreated into the ground, along with every reed in sight. Soon, all that remained was the open ground and sparse vegetation.
“What will happen to the Reed Entity?” Cody asked.
Stripe shook his head. “Whatever it desires. But you must leave before your way home closes. You are thousands of light years from where you were. Your small vessel cannot make such a trip.”
“He’s right, Cody. Let’s go home.” Sonja gripped his hand and winked. “The chaplain’s waiting on us.”
Cody smiled at her then looked at Stripe. The fliers had landed and circled them.
“And what about you and your people?” Cody asked. “You were threatened by every life-form here. Will that still be the case?”
“No.” Stripe gestured around him. “We are the dominant life-form now, as it was before the Reed Entity arrived. Our fate is in our hands, as it should be.”
Cody hesitated. They had to hurry, but he didn’t want to face the fact he would never see the fliers again. Strange and alien though they were, they were a wonderful people, and he was proud to have known them.
“I’m going to miss you,” Cody said.
Stripe hobbled toward him, stretching out his wings. He touched Cody on the shoulders with the vestigial hands at the ends.
“We will not forget you, Dr. Cody Brenner. The efforts of you and your people have saved us. We will remember you always.”
Cody put a hand on Stripe’s wing. “Goodbye, my friend.”
“Goodbye, Stripe,” Sonja said, “and good luck to your people.”
Stripe put a wingtip under her chin then backed away. “Please go, my friends, before you are marooned here.”
The fliers parted as Cody and Sonja walked toward the hopper. A few reached out to them, and Cody and Sonja both touched the fliers’ wingtips.
As Cody and Sonja boarded the hopper, the fliers took to the air and flew into the distance, far from the engines of the hopper that hurt their delicate senses, but not so far that they couldn’t watch them leave.
Sonja closed the rear hatch. “Think they’ll be okay?”
“This is their home,” Cody said. “They’ll be fine.”
Sonja fired up the engines and gained altitude. She adjusted course toward the dark disk in the sky and accelerated. They went hypersonic in seconds and, minutes later, were outside the atmosphere.
“Sensors are reading a G-3 local star. Almost like Earth’s sun.” Cody pulled up navigation. “Getting a reading on our location now. Looks like we’re in the outer arm of the Milky Way. We’re not far from the edge of the galaxy.”
“Well, we won’t be staying here,” Sonja said. “As long as that wormhole stays open long enough.”
“The Reed Entity was more intelligent than we could imagine. I’m sure…” Cody leaned over and stared out the port side of the canopy. “My God.”
A red mist spread forth from the planet, as if the planet were sighing. It spread up and out from the atmosphere and coalesced into a single shape in planetary orbit.
“Is that…” Sonja pulled up the sensors. “The reeds?”
The HUD zoomed in on the red “mist,” which was nothing of the sort. A collection of red tentacles had gathered and connected with each other. City-sized red spheres of tentacles collided with one another and merged. In less than a minute, the different elements of the Reed Entity collected into a gigantic ball.
The bulk of the Reed Entity flattened into what looked like a sail the size of Kali’s moon, connected by thin tendrils to a red sphere that faced the sun. The creature then propelled itself away from Kali into the depths of space.
“How is it moving?” Cody checked sensors. “There’s nothing on gravimetrics. Solar winds couldn’t propel it that fast.”
“As long as it’s leaving,” Sonja said. “That thing’s done enough damage. I hope it never comes back.”
Cody focused his attention on finding the wormhole. It had just transported a planetary system, which meant it had to be huge. Fitting through it shouldn’t be a problem. If he could find it.
“Where’d it go?”
“Cody, I love you,” Sonja said, “but those are not the words I want to hear from you right now.”
“I don’t want to hear those words from me either.” Cody activated every sensor the hopper had, even ones that didn’t make sense. Gravimetrics should pick it up, since the wormhole was an anomaly in the space-time continuum. But dead ahead was nothing. He scanned as far as he could manage, trying to figure out how to add more power to the sensors. Then the sensors alarmed. The message Unusual Anomaly Detected appeared on the HUD.
“There it is.” He highlighted the anomaly, which looked like a sliver in space many times longer than the hopper.
“It’s facing a different direction.” Sonja adjusted course. “We’re looking at it from the side. That’s why we didn’t see it.”
“And it’s smaller,” Cody said.
Sonja angled the hopper so that its course was more perpendicular to the wormhole, which was still big enough for the Tokugawa to fit through.
“I think it’s shrinking a lot faster than the Reed Entity anticipated,” Cody said. “Better hustle.”
“I am hustling.” The hopper drew closer while Sonja continued to change their trajectory. “How did it turn like that?”
“The ring must be drifting on the other side,” Cody said. “It probably doesn’t have enough power to stabilize itself as it devotes everything to the wormhole.”
“So when the ring drifts,” Sonja said, “it does so on both ends.”
The entry point had shrunk even more. Maybe a cruiser could have fit through, but not more than that. Soon, the hopper wouldn’t fit.
“Babe…” Cody started.
“Say no more.” She cranked the throttle forward.
The reactor alarmed as she pushed the power far beyond its capabilities, something Cody hoped they had done for the last time. The hopper wouldn’t last long that way, but they had no choice.
“You were serious about marrying me, right?” Sonja asked. “That wasn’t just the heat of the moment?”
“Damn right I was serious.”
Cody gripped the armrests as the hopper shook violently under the strain of acceleration beyond the limits of safety. They approached the visible opening, which Cody wasn’t certain they could fit through.
~~~
The ring continued to drift. All power had been diverted to maintaining the wormhole. But that was about to end. The Tokugawa had a great view, considering they were in range to pick up the hopper when it arrived.
“Estimating ten seconds to wormhole destabilization,” the sensor operator said. “Five minutes to arrival of gamma-ray burst.”
Jericho rubbed his brow. They could navigate out of the path of the burst in three minutes. That didn’t leave a lot of time for the hopper to dock, assuming it appeared at all.
“Contact!”
The main hologlobe highlighted the contact as it emerged from the wormhole. The transponder read Banshee One Eight.
Jericho grinned. “Hail them. Angle the ship so the tubes along Docking Bay One are accessible.”
“Aye, sir” was the response.
The bridge quickly went back to business, and Jericho’s elation faded. The hopper’s velocity was so high her reactor had to be on the verge of emergency shutdown.
“Time to docking,” Jericho said.
“One minute, sir.” The sensor operator grimaced. “That’s assuming she doesn’t crash into us.”<
br />
~~~
Cody released his iron grip on the armrests as the hopper rocketed out of the wormhole. Ahead, the Tokugawa filled the view on the canopy as they closed in… a little too quickly.
“Oh shit!” Sonja reversed thrust. “Hold on!”
Cody was pushed forward in his seat until his straps strained as Sonja kept pushing the hopper beyond its safety limits. The Tokugawa engaged its port thrusters and pushed away from the hopper, trying to reduce the closing speed between them and giving the hopper more time to slow down. An alarm sounded, and red words flashed across the HUD: Internal Gravity Failure Imminent.
“There’s the docking point.” Sonja locked onto the hull, and the hopper adjusted its course. “This could be rough.”
“Assuming our gravity holds out,” Cody said.
Collision alarms sounded as the Tokugawa loomed. The docking point opened up, ready to absorb the hopper into the hull. Less than a second before impact, Sonja shut down the main drive.
Cody didn’t check their velocity as they hit the docking point. The hopper jerked violently. A schematic of the hopper appeared on the HUD. Red highlights marked everything. The reactor had shut down, the forward grav plates had been knocked out, internal gravity was up though failing… Cody gave up reading the list and just accepted the fact that the hopper would never fly again.
Finally, the violent shaking stopped, and the cockpit lights went out. The only light was from the holocontrols.
“Are we in?” Sonja asked.
Cody shrugged. “Sensors are offline.”
Ahead, a light appeared as the launch tube opened. A crane snatched the hopper from the tube and carried it to the flight deck.
“Hopper One Eight, this is docking control. Welcome back.”
Cody thought when everything was over he would cheer. But he was too drained to do anything but slump in his seat.
Sonja did the same, leaning back in her seat as she waved a hand over the comm console. “Copy that, control. It’s good to be back.”
Sonja unbuckled herself and stepped out of the cockpit. Cody followed her into the hopper’s bay. She reached for the rear hatch’s controls, but Cody put his hand on hers.
