The sky over Targos City was darkening as night began to fall.
“Can you contact the Confederation camp west of the hills?” Grimshaw asked weakly. “Loading coordinates.”
“Affirmative, Captain. The ship is equipped with electromagnetic and quantum communication arrays,” Ascari said. “One hundred and nine life forms detected at the desired location. Please confirm.”
“Confirm.”
Static crackled on the speaker system and disappeared.
“Connection established.”
“Commander Grimshaw of the Bakura here, do you read?”
“Commander!” Whoever it was got a little carried away. “Cadet Bates, reading.”
“Good to hear your voice, Bates.”
“Same, Commander.” The cadet’s voice went from being excited to nervous. “Some of us were starting to think you weren’t coming back. Our comms system is still down. How did you get in contact with us? Are you nearby?”
“All will be explained soon, Bates. Can you patch me through to Lieutenant Dann?”
“Ah, yes. Of course, Commander. Yes,” Bates stuttered. “One second, please.”
Static crackled as Bates changed the channel.
“Commander Grimshaw, is it true?” Lieutenant Dann said.
“We’re going home, Lieutenant.”
Lieutenant Dann cheered. “By God, it’s good to hear you’re okay, sir.’”
“I can’t talk long, Lieutenant.” Grimshaw said, struggling. “Move the camp to the edge of the forest where we left the Barracudas. We have a ship. We’ll wait for you there.”
“Right away, sir.”
“Grimshaw out.” Grimshaw groaned in pain. “Please take us there, Evans.”
“We’ll be ready to leave in two minutes, sir.” Clio thought about her visor and it snapped back into place.
She navigated through Project Zero’s systems, running a final check.
Satisfied, she took manual control via the flight helmet and Project Zero lifted off the hangar floor with little effort. She eased the ship through the opening and kissed the edge of the hangar entrance.
“Sorry,” she muttered to Ascari, hoping no one else noticed.
The ship handled like a dream, responding to Clio’s commands as though an extension of her mind. In no time, they were high above Targos City, heading west to fetch the other Bakura survivors.
Clio had never been so happy to leave a city behind, but somewhere deep inside, she knew that part of Targos City, on Colony 115, would stay with her until the day she died.
46
Straight Flush
Randai climbed into his TEK and turned his back to Zora as she dressed. He had no idea what to make of the woman. She seemed like an ally one minute and acted like an egotistical maniac the next. Randai didn’t like things he couldn’t wrap his head around. He was open to an explanation for her behavior and deceit because there had to be one, but she wasn’t the kind to willingly part with details.
“Well, that was awkward,” she said, breaking the silence. “I’ve got my clothes on, by the way.”
Having equipped his damaged suit, Randai clipped his weapons into place and turned to face her. “You seemed pretty calm in there.” He tried not to sound overly irritated. “Either you’re mad, or this is all some kind of game to you.”
“A little bit of both, maybe.” An explosion rocked the ceiling, and dislodged dust fell onto the wet floor. “We should get out of here.”
“I know you need this.” He held the cloth-wrapped artifact up to her before stowing it in his belt. “It isn’t going anywhere until you start telling me what the hell this is about.”
Zora’s SIG made the same noise it had the last time they parted. “Did you read the data crystal?”
“Yes, but half of it didn’t make sense, and the parts I understood led to more questions than answers.”
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” she said, sighing gravely. “Always so impatient. But we’ll have to talk on the way. Let’s go.”
Zora followed the directions Cho had provided, leading them deep into the tunnel system. The tube stretched on forever and the water level rose the further they went. Eventually, it reached their chests.
Despite her promise to answer his questions, they traveled in silence. “Another mile and we should emerge in another overflow chamber.” Zora’s words rang with a dull echo.
The water lapped against Randai’s neck. “We won’t be able to go much further if this damn water gets any deeper.”
“I think we’re starting to ascend again; the water level should drop soon.”
“Good.” Randai checked his glowing SIG. “We’ve been in here for over an hour. How about those answers you promised?”
“I needed to wait until we’d gone a few miles, to make sure no one was following us.”
“Anyone following us all the way through here would have to be crazy.” He rolled his eyes. “Do you work for Omnion secret services or something?” he asked, half joking.
“Only an Omnion can accept the office of an Omnion official,” she said seriously. “I’m more of a sub-agent, though they just call us agents. The nature of what I do for them means I can only say so much. You’ll understand, being a former SIA Archagent.”
“How much I understand depends on how much explaining you do…which so far has been very little.”
“As you know, Master Wu is an Omnion.”
“I met him. Of course, I know.”
“You’d be surprised how many people meet Master Wu without ever realizing what he truly is. Anyway, the Omnion are thought to be extinct and it’s in their best interests that the other races keep believing as much,” she explained.
“Wu did say something along those lines before we parted all those years ago.”
“Due to certain…complications, the Omnion live somewhere no one can find them. But I can’t elaborate any further on that point.”
“How about less of what you can’t tell me and more of what you can?” Randai said, growing irritated.
Zora was about to say something but hesitated. “I wish it were that easy.”
“Let’s start with how you’ve lied to me these past seven years or so.”
“I hardly lied. You barely spoke to me in those seven years.”
Randai couldn’t help but sound annoyed. “You weren’t exactly honest.”
“You have a really narrow view of things.” She spun on him, her face twisted with anger. “Besides, who the hell are you to accuse anyone of dishonesty, Archagent Taza Arkona.”
Zora trudged on through the pipeline, and the water level dropped back to their chests just like she said it would.
“Since we aren’t going anywhere fast. How do you know so much about me?” Randai pressed. “About everything?”
Zora stopped and turned to him. She sighed and looked into his eyes. “It all boils down to two things. The Omnion are master information dealers, and they practice a form of precognition.”
Randai regarded her as though she was joking, half a smile on his lips. When he realized she was being serious, the smile melted away. “You mean they can see into the future?”
“That’s a very crude way of putting it.” Zora frowned. “Think of it as more like being able to mathematically calculate countless eventualities and ascertain which are most probable.”
He considered that for a minute. “Like a computer that can tell you what might happen.”
“Basically, yes. We don’t have time to stop. Let’s keep moving.”
As they continued wading through the water, Randai considered what the Omnion having such abilities meant for the galaxy. “If you know what’s going to happen, then why can’t you just tell me?”
“The greater the number of people who know about future events, the greater the variation in probability and the more the lines become blurred. Think of the universe as a river. The water follows through patterns already carved in the rock by the water that flowed befor
e it. The more patterns in the rock, the more routes the river can take, but it only takes one path in the end.”
“I don’t get it.”
“Certain words and actions may change the course of time, or at least create more courses that time could take,” Zora said. “Telling a person about his own future is one of the most effective ways of creating more possible courses and therefore greater uncertainty. The fewer courses there are, the easier it is to plan for possible outcomes. The Omnion are a very placid people, but if there’s one thing they hate, it’s uncertainty. We can never be completely certain that an event will come to pass, but we can be up to eighty-nine percent sure, give or take.”
“So, you knew that everything that happened these past seven years was going to happen?”
“I knew there was a strong chance that events might take place as they did, but it’s more complex than that. There are often unforeseen developments that necessitate last-minute adjustments to the algorithm. Sometimes multiple outcomes have similar probabilities. That requires additional preparation and judgment. Other times, the system breaks down entirely. It’s far from perfect.”
Randai thought he was starting to grasp what Zora was saying, but as always, it raised even more questions. “Doesn’t your knowing what’s going to happen also alter the course of events?”
“It’s a matter of finding a balance. Corrections can be made so long as only one or two people know. But it’s an exponential curve, or a series of exponential curves, so things can swiftly grow out of control. If too many people know, it results in something called the fracture paradox. We need to keep it as narrow as we can if we’re to stand any chance of success.”
“Success at what?”
“Preserving sentient life.”
“Ah, of course. Saving the universe. It’s all very self-sacrificing of you and your Omnion friends.”
“The Aegi do it by going around and blowing shit up. Our solutions are a little subtler…even elegant.”
The water level quickly lowered to their waists.
Randai maintained a steady pace. “So, you knew we would be taking this tunnel to the Bometown waterworks?”
“Like I said, time is a fickle thing. It changes and takes unexpected turns, which it has done a lot recently. If I don’t receive updates from my sources in time and make adjustments to my data, the chances of making mistakes increase. If I’m honest, I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it out of that torture chamber at all. The chances of Cho killing Mr. Darcy were so strong it was almost a certainty. However, the Vargs submitting to him versus killing every non-Varg in the chamber was almost fifty-fifty.”
“Is that why your SIG keeps making that noise?”
“It helps me track eventualities.”
A light bulb went off in his head. “You gave me that medshot to put Brutus to sleep because you knew he would try to kill me.”
“There was a high probability, yes.”
“What else have you done, or can’t you tell me that either?”
“Discussing past events usually has a negligible effect on the flow, though there are always exceptions.” She sounded exasperated. “You do have a lot of questions.”
“You can’t blame me for being curious after everything that’s happened.”
“At the Abundustown warehouse in District Nineteen, when those guards almost found you, I drew them away. If they had spotted you, chances are they would have raised the alarm, and security was heavy that night.”
“Go on.”
“Pretty much any time you thought you were being watched or followed.” She smiled at him over her shoulder.
It was so absurd he almost laughed. “I thought I was going insane.”
“Most of the time, I used my ghost-drive, so you couldn’t see me. Saying that, I thought you caught me once when I wasn’t using it.”
“That person watching from the building across the street the day Brutus attacked?”
“You were meant to see me that time. I pretended to be a White Dragon, so you would flee in the other direction. The other road had a dozen thugs waiting with orders to kill you if you tried to escape, but they didn’t bother to block the alleyways. Speaking of the day Brutus attacked, I’m also responsible for your broken apartment door.”
“All this time, this was happening right under my nose, and I didn’t suspect a thing. It’s hard to believe, yet it also makes so much sense.”
Zora shrugged. “The fact that you were drunk or otherwise inebriated most of the time did help.”
“You mean my descending into squalor was necessary?”
“I could have snapped you out of it sooner, but that would have decreased our chances drastically.” Her features softened, and she looked at him like a naughty child would a parent while sulking. “Sorry.”
He shrugged. “No hard feelings. I’m just having trouble coming to terms with everything.” Something else struck him. “If you already knew all of this, and you knew where the artifact was, why didn’t you just take it? Hell, you were even in my apartment without my knowledge. Even better, why didn’t Wu just keep it and give it to you instead of me.”
“It doesn’t work like that. Certain people have to do certain things. Believe me, I wanted to do nothing more than to grab the key and run for it, but there were no acceptable outcomes where I was the one to return it to Master Wu. Certain universes choose certain people. And in this universe, you were chosen for this task.”
He fell quiet as it sank in. A light flashed up ahead signaling they were coming to the end of the sewer pipe.
“What now?” Randai asked. “Jump on your magical ship and sail off into the stars?”
“Not my magical ship.”
His eyes widened. “But there is a magical ship?”
“Some fools might think it magical. It hasn’t arrived yet, but it should be here soon. Several complications have arisen, so I’m not sure if the ship will make it. If it does, it’ll be here within a few days.”
“If not?”
She stopped and looked into his eyes with the sincerest expression he had seen thus far, like Doctor Kira suddenly stared back at him again. “Then we’ll be back at square one.”
47
Flight
By the time they’d reached the edge of Raugh Forest, Clio had gotten the hang of Project Zero’s controls. She sensed Ascari guiding her like a parent would a child riding a bicycle for the first time. Given that the vessel was utterly alien to her and threw every textbook and simulation out the window, Clio was glad for the AI’s assistance.
The artificial intelligence was a work of genius. Clio had since learned that Ascari could act as navigator, weapons controller, and systems operator. She could also serve as all three simultaneously, though to a more limited degree, which was the mode Clio selected given the lack of trained personnel. Commander Grimshaw had assigned most of the scientists to engineering and the labs, while one assisted on the bridge.
“Put her down in that clearing over there, Evans.” Grimshaw highlighted the area he meant on the primary VD.
“Yes, sir.” Clio brought the ship to the designated clearing. She set down so smoothly Clio didn’t feel any sign that they had in fact landed. “She’s kissed the dirt, sir.”
“What about Chit air support, Fresnel?” Commander Grimshaw asked the Xerocorp scientist he’d placed in charge of scanners.
“Nothing, sir. Her scanners aren’t picking up a single blip.”
“They must have left with that giant Chit ship the other day,” Martin said.
“Even still, keep an eye out, Fresnel,” Commander Grimshaw said. “Especially when we leave orbit.”
“Of course, sir.” The scientist returned to his terminal.
“Evans, get that leg seen to while the other Bakura survivors board, and keep your SIG active in case we need you.”
“My leg’s fine—”
“That was an order, Ensign,” Grimshaw said, his tone tense.
“Yes, sir,” Clio muttered, though she was glad to see some life had returned to him.
“The medics found a portable regen unit,” O’Donovan interjected. “They’re on the way to the bridge with it right now.”
That seemed to placate the Commander and he left the bridge for the cargo hold, where the other Bakura survivors would board.
Clio contacted sickbay to check on Booster and was happy to learn that the medic had stuck to his word and made sure the puck was receiving good care. They had to sedate him until they had time to operate on his shattered arm.
The medic arrived with his cumbersome regen unit: a heavy box with a selection of sleeve-like tubes. He unscrewed Clio’s leg panels and she fought down a scream as he pulled the metal free, despite the pain medication.
“It’s a good thing you called,” the medic said to O’Donovan. “This would have gotten bad if left untreated.”
Clio winced as he pulled a padded sleeve up her leg until it covered her wounded thigh. He connected the leg cover to the white box using two thick cables and messed with the controls. A second later, a gentle warmth pumped into Clio’s thigh.
“What’s that supposed to do?” she asked, trying not to sound too suspicious.
“Don’t worry, we tested it on a few colonists earlier. It actually works,” he said, amazed. “It’s just as good as a standard regen chamber. It’ll adjust your internal anatomy and speed the healing. It’s an incredible piece of equipment. Years beyond anything the Terran Star Confederation has.”
“How long does it need to stay on?”
“Your wound will take days to heal fully, even with the regen machine. But we’ll do it in stages. Don’t worry,” he added quickly, noticing the horror on her face. “You can still fly while it’s attached. Just try not to move too much.”
Clio reclined in the pilot’s chair as the regen machine warmed and cooled her leg at intervals. She drifted in and out of a light sleep as the skeleton-crew operated around her.
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