Crucible of Time

by Jeffrey A. Carver

  That got everyone stirring. She suppressed a rush of nerves; she had never before tried anything like what she was about to do. But the stones had agreed to try it. She cleared her throat. “Most of you know by now that I carry with me—” she rubbed her wrists as she spoke “—communication devices of alien origin. They are called translator-stones, and I’ve had them since I lived back in Earth space. They are offspring of the very first alien artifact discovered by humanity, in the home system, pre-starflight. They are old, or their progenitor is, and by old I mean in the millions of years. And they communicate with others of their kind.”

  “Begging your pardon, Commander, but how does this—?”

  Dakota silenced the question from the power-deck chief with a raised finger. “Bear with me, please.” She held up her hands, showing the glowing gem embedded in each of her wrists. “These stones shared a lot of information with a sister pair that my uncle, in that ship we’re following, carries. The stones are very private in their communication with me, but they have consented to attempt to speak with all of you, to share some of what they learned.” Dakota made a small adjustment to a communications unit on the table in front of her, and closed her eyes. /Are you ready?/

  Her wrists vibrated, tickling her, and a soft, alto voice came out of the box. “Greetings. Thank you for your attention. We are not used to this. Forgive us if we stumble.”

  Navigator Tanaki’s eyes went wide. “Is that really the stones speaking?”

  “Yes, we are the daughter-stones. It is an unusual mode of communication for us, but we are trying. We thought it important that you know what you face.”

  “You mean the Mindaru?” Dakota said. She rested her forearms on the table, keeping the stones close to the comm box.

  “Yes, the Mindaru.” The voice quavered slightly, then steadied. “We learned much about them from contact with John Bandicut. Also from stones of Daarooaack, the cloud you saw in the starstream. They have both faced Mindaru. They know the terrible danger Mindaru pose. And that is why they fought it in the stream, protecting us. We believe they continue to fight. Mindaru are ancient, and seek death.”

  At Dakota’s prompting, the stones related a condensed account of the Mindaru history, and threat.

  There were many questions, which the stones tried to answer. The most difficult came from Kamya, the weapons chief. “If these things are as dangerous as you say, wouldn’t it be better to get this ship back home at top speed, and warn the Patrol and the rest of humanity? I’m willing to die in the right cause, but if we die out here without getting word back, what good will that do? We need to warn people!”

  Dakota did her best to conceal her own distress at that question, because it was one she’d wrestled with ever since they’d set out in pursuit. She waited for the stones to answer.

  “We share that concern. But from here, there is no apparent way back to where you can report in a reasonable time.”

  “Even so,” said the weapons officer, “and please don’t judge me for saying this, but I think we’re all thinking it. This planet ahead is just one world, and the Habitat of Humanity is many. What if we let the Mindaru have this one—”

  “Throw them to the wolves?” asked Gordon-Wu, the systems chief.

  “To put it crassly, yes. And buy us time to get back and get the rest of humanity ready for them. If they’re as dangerous as you say—”

  “Indeed they are. And even if we disregard the ethics of sacrificing an innocent world—”

  “I don’t think it would be right to just leave that world helpless,” Tanaki interrupted.

  “We agree. And there is this: They will only grow stronger if we give them victory here. Instead of a few, they will have the power of a world.”

  “We need to kill them now. And kill them good,” said the first pilot. “It would be crazy to let them get stronger.”

  “Our point, precisely. Yes.”

  “So,” said Captain Brody, turning from a wall comm, where he’d been having a muted conversation. “I’ve just been given the latest from long-range tracking. The signature of The Long View has been picked up again in the Geronimo A system, and there have been multiple indications of high-energy discharges. Tactical believes there may be a battle underway right now near the inhabited planet.”

  Dakota let out a sigh. “Let’s wrap this up, then. Thank you, stones.” She turned off the comm box and flexed her fingers. “I wanted you to know what we’re facing, and why we’re facing it head-on. I have the utmost confidence in all of you.” She caught the captain’s eye.

  Brody stepped forward. “Let’s get ready, then. Nav, prepare a course for interception of the closest of the Mindaru. Everyone else, be prepared for battle stations.” He nodded to Dakota.

  She rose. “Thank you. Meeting dismissed.”

  ***

  The Mindaru had stayed in normal-space, and Plato’s pursuit was bringing the rearmost one very close to engagement range. Long-range sensors were producing a much clearer picture now of the situation in the Geronimo A system. The planet had identifiable signatures of technological civilization, and some spacefaring capability. But the fighting, largely, was between the contact they believed to be The Long View and the Mindaru. There had been some fusion blasts of considerable power. The Long View was still active and moving, but appeared outnumbered and under attack.

  An hour ago, Captain Brody had announced his intention to engage the nearest Mindaru, tagged as target India, as soon as Plato had closed the range sufficiently. “The least we can do is try to improve the odds for The Long View,” he’d said. It escaped no one’s attention that there were two Mindaru in their area. The first one, target Hotel, was speeding ahead toward the planet, but there was no reason to think it couldn’t turn back on them. Whether it did or not, Plato had its hands full with target India, lagging behind.

  The bridge was very quiet, just the occasional murmur between nav and piloting, or the low voice of Captain Brody or Dakota herself. The concentration of the bridge officers was ferocious, each absorbed with a holo-display, analyzing data as it came in. Dakota felt the pressure mounting, as they pursued the enemy toward the planet.

  “Fifteen minutes to firing range,” reported Tanaki.

  Dakota breathed a silent prayer.

  ***

  “Laser range in one minute,” said the tactical officer. “Particle beam in two.”

  Brody rubbed his chin. “Exo, any last-minute advice from your stones?”

  Dakota shook her head. “Afraid they can’t tell us anything more about the best weapons to use.”

  Brody grunted. “All right. Weapons, give me a one-two punch of laser and particle-beam. See if we can land a shot and evaluate the effects. Ten seconds each, no gap, on my order.”

  Kamya on weapons control acknowledged both beams powered up. Dakota tried to remain relaxed. Plato had none of the fancy weapons such as they’d seen The Long View use. No quantum devices or n-space disrupters. Besides the two beams, they had a total of six missiles with EMP warheads, and four more with fusion warheads. And finally, more or less a last resort in this case, they had a kinetic-kill railgun, basically a hyper-powered electric slingshot. For any of the projectile weapons, they would need to partially drop the protective force screens for an instant. Better to get their longest-distance shots in early, before they got too close to the target.

  “Skipper, it’s rotating; it may be reacting to our approach,” Kamya said.

  Brody didn’t reply. He waited until he heard tactical report that they were in range for both, before saying, “Fire weapons.”

  The laser flashed out, in pulses barely visible against the rarefied dust in the interplanetary medium. Ten seconds later, it winked out and a faintly glowing thread of particle-beam destruction lanced in its place. Kamya reported in a subdued tone, “Both beams at least fifty percent on target. No measurable effect.”

  “Not no effect,” said Tanaki. “It’s cut velocity. It’s turning on us.”
r />   Dakota swore under her breath.

  “Prepare for high-gee maneuvering,” Brody ordered. “Weapons, have two fusion missiles ready to launch on my command.”

  The bridge was shockingly quiet as Kamya acknowledged, and they watched the now-rapid approach of the enemy. Dakota had to remind herself to breathe.

  The Mindaru, jittering slightly in the view from the image magnification, looked like a pitted metal asteroid with menacing spines.

  Tanaki’s voice was muted, but audible to everyone on the bridge: “One thousand klicks . . . eight hundred . . . six hundred . . .”

  Brody raised a hand with pointed finger. At four hundred klicks, he snapped the finger toward Kamya and said, “Launch missiles.”

  The deck shuddered slightly, and two glowing objects shot out of the front of the ship. At the same instant, something bright flashed on the surface of the enemy. Dakota felt a jolt, and the viewer went white. Half a dozen alarms flashed red, blaring their alerts, and a smell of ozone filled the air. The bridge lights went dark, and the alarms fell silent. Something groaned deep in the ship, and Dakota felt a vibration beneath her feet. Chemical emergency light flickered on, ghostly red, and steadied. “Report!” she shouted, and in rapid sequence the bridge officers replied. There had been a beam strike from the enemy in the instant their force screen was down, hitting them with an electromagnetic pulse. Propulsion was down; comms were down; life support was compromised, holding at minimum. Respirators were out. Dakota put hers on and turned to Brody. “Your orders, Captain?”

  “I need eyes, Exo. Get me vision outside the ship.”

  Dakota strode to Gordon-Wu at the systems console. “Kyle, first priority, screens and sensors.”

  “Yes, sir. Nanos are rebooting. Okay, they’re back, in safe mode. Starting repairs now.”

  “Good.” Dakota adjusted her air mask and made a scan of the bridge crew to see that all were wearing theirs. She sent another crewman down to gather reports from sections of the ship cut off by the comm failure.

  By the time she’d completed a round of bridge stations, the viewscreen area was flickering. A small window appeared in the center, providing a lo-res view forward of the ship. The Mindaru was not visible, but sensors indicated a patch of residual radiation where the fusion warheads might have exploded. Brody stood staring at it for a moment, then said, “I don’t see any debris. Can you get me a sweep tracking the target’s path?”

  “Trying, Captain,” Gordon-Wu said, working at a console that was a lot more cumbersome to work manually than a holo, and in very dim light. The window of view began to move to the side.

  “Wrong way!” Dakota yelled.

  “Damn. How’s this?”

  The view drifted to the left, and then began a steady sweep. Black, black, black, and then a twinkling object. “Hold it right there!” Brody called. “Can you bring it in? Magnify?”

  “Half a second.” A few seconds passed, and suddenly the full viewer sprang back to life. “Okay—magnifying.” The view zoomed. The object was the Mindaru, rotating slowly. It appeared completely intact. “Bugger!”

  “Tactical?” Brody snapped.

  “It’s still moving away at high velocity.”

  “Does it look like it’s going to come back after us?”

  “Can’t tell. Wait. Yes, it’s deflecting its course, and slowing. Intent unclear. But it must have taken some damage, or it would have hit us again.”

  “Keep monitoring it. Exo, do you have an update on our condition?”

  Dakota was making another round of her people. Without holos, it was impossible to take everything in at a glance. Her voice was muffled behind the air mask. “Not yet. Kyle, what’s the state of comm and weapons?”

  “I’ve got a repair crew of nanos on both,” Gordon-Wu said. “Comm cables are intact; I’m waiting for the self-repair bots to bring the head units back up. Should be—there we go! Commander, you can talk to power deck.” As he said that, half the bridge lighting returned.

  Dakota stepped to the comm and said, “Power, this is the Exo. Talk to me.”

  She heard some crackling; then the voice of the power assistant answered. “We’re piecing it back together, Commander. I can give you power to essential systems, but propulsion is going to take—well—”

  “Is going to take what, Smits?”

  “Longer, sir . . .”

  ***

  For the next hour and a half, Plato coasted, unable to maneuver from her last trajectory. Life-support and communications were back, but propulsion, force-screens, and most of weapons were down. The Mindaru appeared to be having difficulty maneuvering, also. Perhaps it really had been damaged by the two missiles, but it was slowly altering course to make another pass. Apparently it thought it had a better chance with its weapons than Plato. Dakota thought that likely, too. The captain wasn’t saying what he thought, but he had every human and nano resource working on restoring firepower to the ship.

  Tactical reported the Mindaru almost within range of the beam weapons; likely that meant Plato was also in range of the Mindaru’s beam weapon. Dakota stepped quickly to check the weapons status. They had railgun capability, nothing else. The railgun was the simplest weapon on the ship, and also the least likely to be effective against the Mindaru, given their ability to dodge. Damn, she whispered and turned to the captain.

  Before she could speak, her stones buzzed. *Dark is here to help.*

  ***

  Brody spoke with a sharp edge in his voice. “Tell me once more what your friend wants us to do.”

  Dakota answered quickly. “Be ready to fire the railgun.”

  “What I thought you said. Might as well throw rocks at it. This had better be good.” He gave the order to rotate the ship to face straight into the oncoming Mindaru, and to bring the railgun into firing alignment.

  “It’s what Dark is asking for. David and Goliath, maybe. She’s going to make a grab for the thing and try to hold it still.” It had better be good, indeed.

  In the viewer, a tracking tag showed the tiny smudge that was Dark speeding across the star-field, past Plato, aiming straight for the Mindaru and interposing itself between the Mindaru and Plato. Something flashed behind it, and Dark glowed momentarily. Had Dark just absorbed a shot intended for Plato? Or maybe for itself? /Is Dark okay?/ she asked her stones.

  *Yes. Be ready to fire on command.*

  Dakota asked, “Is the railgun ready? Spread of three?”

  “Charged and ready,” Kamya called.

  Brody nodded, fist raised. “Firing approved. You call the shot, Exo.”

  Dark intercepted the twinkling Mindaru. On full magnification, they could all see the hazy cloud-being envelop the enemy. The Mindaru jerked one way and then another. Amazingly, Dark appeared to be holding the enemy immobile. Dark glowed twice, briefly, as the Mindaru tried to shoot.

  *Fire now.*

  “Fire!” Dakota called.

  There was an audible thumpthumpthump through the deck as the electric gun shot its projectiles with machine-gun rapidity. Three sparks, hot and bright from the acceleration, flew toward Dark. Toward the Mindaru. The bridge was silent; nobody breathed.

  Another second passed.

  Light blazed where the Mindaru was, and then was swallowed by Dark. A secondary flash was partially obscured, and a third. All three projectiles had hit their target, their considerable kinetic energy converted to heat and light.

  Brody stared at the screen. “Is it dead? Is the damn thing dead?” He could have been asking anyone, but he was talking to Dakota.

  She didn’t have to ask the stones.

  *Waiting to be certain. Yes. It is destroyed. Dark will convert its remaining matter to energy.*

  Another blaze of violet-white, much brighter and larger. An instant later it was swallowed into the blackness of Dark.

  *The Mindaru is no more. Dark wonders if we require further assistance.*

  Dakota whooped. “It’s gone! We killed it!”

  Bro
dy jerked two thumbs up and smiled. But before he could speak, the comm came to life. “Bridge, power deck. If it’s not too late, would you like propulsion now?”

  Dakota grinned back at her captain.

  ***

  The Long View was about halfway across the distance to the last Mindaru when Bandicut saw the Mindaru and Plato exchange fire. It was impossible to tell what was happening, except that the Mindaru flew on past Plato, and no further shots were fired for the moment. But a little later, the Mindaru turned back for another run on Plato.

  Copernicus reported, “Dark is reaching them.” They could see it in the viewspace, under magnification. Dark flew fast, and grabbed the Mindaru.

  A needle of light against space seemed to split Plato in two. It exploded into fine rays that reminded Bandicut of splintering glass. His heart stopped.

  An instant later, there was a starburst, from inside Dark. Suddenly he realized that the needle of light had not hit Plato, but had come from it.

  He stared into the viewspace, fixed on the distant point that was Plato, and on the fading fire now being released into space by Dark. “What just happened?” he demanded.

  Jeaves spoke. “A most unusual technique . . .”

  “What happened, damn it?”

  “Sorry,” Jeaves said. “I believe your niece’s ship has just destroyed the last of the Mindaru in this system.”

  PART TWO

  Worlds and Time Together

  “Time is an illusion.”

  —Albert Einstein

  “For the present is the point at which time touches eternity.”

  —C.S. Lewis

  Chapter 24

  Searching the Timestream

  AN INSISTENT PINGING woke Antares from a fitful sleep. Though she was weary from anxiety, her restlessness had kept her awake for the first half of the night. She had finally gotten to sleep—not long ago, she realized, peering at the clock to the right of her head. But what was this damn pinging?