by Isaac Hooke
“The aliens were waiting here,” Lyra said. “They must have placed vessels in all nearby jump systems.”
“But how would they know which ship we were in?” Jed said. “They’d have to search every ship that arrived. Unless they specifically knew we’d be coming within a Rapier class vessel.”
“Either they were monitoring TSN communications…” Lyra said.
“Or they placed a tracker.” Jed finished.
Lyra folded her hands on her chest as if in contemplation. “To beat the TSN to him tells me they had some other advantage besides communications monitoring. But your earlier scan turned up negative.”
“It did,” Jed agreed.
“Check him again,” Lyra said.
Jed directed his gloved palm toward Tane and the familiar scanning beam of red laser light emerged. Jed directed the translucent triangle at Tane’s feet and slowly slid the beam upward. A loud chime sounded as it passed over Tane’s chest. Jed had already slid the beam up to Tane’s neck, and he lowered it over the chest area and the chime sounded again.
“There,” Jed said.
“I see it,” Lyra said. “Bring him to me.”
Jed reached for his arm, but Tane stepped into the compartment past him. “Don’t touch me. I’ll go to her on my own.”
“Then go,” Jed said with a growl.
Tane move past Sinive, who lifted her knees to her chest to give him room to pass. He reached Lyra, who still lay in the jump chamber.
“This won’t hurt a bit,” Lyra said. She extended a hesitant hand. “May I?”
Tane nodded. “Yes.”
She placed her hand flat on his chest, over his right lung. “The aliens used a special tracker on you, one based upon our own nanotech. They must have injected it into the ventilation system of your farm at some point, and you breathed in enough of the nano machines for a tracking device to form in your lungs. However, the aliens were smart. They designed the device to assemble at a later time so our scanners wouldn’t pick it up.”
“It’s my fault, I should have been scanning him every few hours,” Jed said.
“You couldn’t have known,” Lyra told him. “We’ve never seen that technology in the hands of the aliens before.”
“They’ve adapted,” Jed said.
“Yes,” Lyra said. “A dangerous turn of events.” She removed her hand. “Check him.”
Jed scanned Tane. “He’s clean.”
“I didn’t feel anything,” Tane said.
Lyra closed her eyes. “You weren’t supposed to.”
“Why do they want me so bad?” Tane said.
“I don’t know,” Lyra said.
Tane sat down beside Sinive in the tight compartment. “Hey.”
She gave him a weary smile. “Hey. You’re popular with aliens I hear.”
“Story of my life,” Tane said. “Grizz, I don’t suppose you can grant me access to the cockpit view screen?”
“Negative,” Grizz said.
“I’ll share my feed with you,” Sinive said.
A moment later he received a digital overlay request from her ID. He accepted.
On the bulkhead across from him, he could see the familiar spacescape with the four aliens ships blotting out the stars.
“How far are they?” Tane asked.
“Right now, sixty-five thousand klicks,” Sinive said.
Tane received another prompt, and after he accepted, the distance to the closest alien ship was shown in the lower right.
“Maybe we should open fire on them first,” Tane said.
“Smugglers rules,” Grizz said. “When stealing honey, don’t stir up the bees.”
“I’m serious,” Tane said. “Maybe we can disable their disruption device.”
“To do that we’d need the Essence lance,” Grizz said. “Our dragons and plasma throwers won’t penetrate those shields. Even if we had rested crew members who could operate the lance, their ship has a deflector. We wouldn’t take out the disruptor, and we’d only stir up the proverbial bees’ nest I mentioned.”
“There has to be something we can do,” Tane said.
“There is,” Lyra said. “And we’re doing it.”
The minutes passed.
At the fifty thousand klick mark, Grizz announced: “Jump chamber reset complete.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jed asked the Volur.
“I have to,” Lyra said. “The alternative is... unpleasant.”
Lyra moved her arm, activating some switch Tane couldn’t see, and the chamber’s portal spiraled closed. Before it sealed her from view, she gave Tane one last, forlorn glance, and then she was gone.
The tense seconds ticked by.
Sinive reached out and grabbed Tane’s hand. He looked at her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. He understood that she just wanted human contact in that moment. There was nothing more to read into her behavior. At least that was what he told himself.
Tane waited for the deck to vibrate, and for the humming sound to fill his hearing, and the nausea to take hold, but none of those things occurred. Instead, only eerie silence echoed through the compartment.
The portal opened.
To his relief, Lyra was still there. She looked even worse than before, however. Her breathing came in wheezes.
Jed squeezed through the aisle, his large boots rudely slamming into the knees of Tane and Sinive.
“Hey!” Sinive said.
Jed scooped Lyra out of the chamber. “I’m taking you to sickbay.”
“No,” she said, her voice little more than a whisper. “The bridge. Take me to the cockpit.”
“If you refuse to go to sickbay, then at least draw upon our link,” Jed said. “Take stamina from me.”
“I—”
“Do it!” Jed said.
Lyra sighed, then she closed her eyes. A few seconds passed, then Jed staggered.
Lyra’s wheezing stopped and some color returned to her complexion. Her eyes shot open. “Put me on my feet.”
Jed lowered her to the deck. He nearly lost his balance in the process, and had to slam one hand against the bulkhead to steady himself.
“What’s going on?” Tane said.
“I’m spent,” Lyra said. “I can’t even create a small Branch. Let alone operate the jump chamber. I’m on my feet only because of the stamina Jed has lent me. Fleeing via distortion tunnel is no longer an option. We’ll have to stay and fight.”
Tane scrambled to his feet and helped up Sinive, who also appeared exhausted.
“I can walk on my own,” Sinive said. And she did, though it was obvious she was forcing herself.
Lyra led the way though the passageways. Nebb apparently had no issue opening the breach seals along the way, despite what he had told Tane: one of the benefits of having a Volur in his company.
At the cockpit, Jed helped Lyra into the spare seated, and took his customary position next to the bulkhead. Positron gave Sinive his seat, and lingered beside Tane near the entrance. The brow shapes on the robot’s visor touched together in an angry V-shape when Positron glanced at Tane.
The digital view screen showed the four alien ships continuing to close.
“I’m getting a hail,” Nebb said. He paused, then: “The dwellers say the rest of us can go. They only want the one named Tane Ganeth.” He glanced at Lyra. “We should seriously consider giving him up. We can’t outrun them.”
Sinive was the one who answered. “We’re not giving him up,” she said firmly. “We have a code, if you’ll recall.”
“I recall,” Nebb said. “I was just checking to make sure you were listening.”
“This is the Dhoulan System,” Lyra said.
“So?” Nebb said.
She gave the smuggler a pointed look. “There is a rift behind the gas giant.”
“You can’t seriously be suggesting…” Nebb said.
“It’s the only way.”
“Between you and me, I’d rather give him up,” Nebb said
.
“I’m sorry, that’s not going to happen,” Lyra said. “He can’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the dwellers. Do you understand me?”
Nebb sighed. The smuggler glanced at Sinive, who had gone very pale. “We entered a rift once, and I tell you, we couldn’t wait to jump out of there. Barely made it to Anteres for the return trip back to our universe. After that, I swore: never again. The only way I’m taking you in there is if you triple our agreed upon fee.”
“Done,” Lyra said. “I’ll send what I owe when we reach Talendir. I’m somewhat short of funds at the moment.”
13
Tane glanced at Nebb. Though Lyra had just agreed to his terms, the smuggler still seemed hesitant.
“I didn’t expect you to say yes,” Nebb told her. “You were supposed to say no. Or at least fight me, like you usually do.”
“We don’t have time to fight anymore,” Lyra said. Her voice sounded grim.
“This is a bad idea,” Nebb said as he swung the ship around. “First of all we have to make it to the rift. I’ll do my best to take us there without seeing too much action, but we will have to endure at least one flyby.”
“On the current trajectory, we’ll pass within twenty thousand kilometers of the enemy vessels during flyby,” Grizz said.
“That’s fine,” Nebb said. “When we reach at maximum speed, rotate our engines away from them. I don’t want to give them an opportunity to disable the ship.”
The minutes ticked past.
“Maximum speed attained,” Grizz said. “Keeping nose rotated toward incoming alien vessels.”
On the view screen, the gas giant appeared as a ball the size of Tane’s thumbnail in the distance.
“When we’re at the closest point in our flyby with the aliens, let loose with the plasma throwers and dragons,” Nebb said. “Target one of the smaller ships. Aim for their weapon systems.”
“What happened to not stirring up the hornets’ nest?” Tane said.
“Bees’ nest,” the ship’s AI said. “It’s stirring up the bees’ nest.”
For a moment Tane wondered why Nebb didn’t want to fire the Red Grizzly’s Essence lance, too, but then he remembered an Essenceworker had to operate that particular weapon, and Sinive and Lyra were in no state for that.
More time passed.
Tane shifted from foot to foot, trying to get some circulation going to his legs. He wished he had access to the tactical display.
“We’re at the closest point of the flyby,” Grizz said. “Firing plasma throwers.”
The screen flashed and two long bursts accelerated from the Red Grizzly in a blur.
A moment later, Grizz said: “Direct hit. Enemy shields eleven percent. Firing dragons.”
This time there was no flash.
“Direct hit. Enemy shields penetrated. I’ve disabled two of their laser turrets.”
Long purple bolts erupted from the enemy ships in turn.
“Dive!” Nebb said. “Emergency speed!”
Tane felt the sudden Gs as the inertial dampeners struggled to keep up with the high speed maneuver.
On the view screen, the incoming bolts tore past.
“Their plasma shots missed,” Grizz said. “Barely.”
“Ha!” Nebb said. “That’s what they get for facing off against a more nimble ship. They might be faster overall, but I have the agility!”
“They’re firing lasers,” Grizz said. “Shields are holding. Down to seventy percent.”
“Guess I spoke too soon…” Nebb said.
“Why doesn’t the hook ship use its Essence lance equivalent against us?” Tane asked.
Lyra shook her head. “That weapon would pass right through our shields… cause too much damage. They want you alive, apparently.”
“Enemy vessels are decelerating to pursue…” Grizz announced.
“Keep our nose pointing at those ships!” Nebb said. “And put up a view of the Dhoulan Rift on the right side of the screen.”
A small blue rectangle overlaid the existing display, on the right side, representing the new view. Tane didn’t see anything there at the moment other than ordinary stars.
The enemy vessels continued decelerating after the flyby, turning around to pursue the Red Grizzly, but it was a slow process to reverse one’s course in space, requiring one to cancel out their previous momentum first. Because the enemy range after the flyby was still increasing as the four alien ships struggled to change course, subsequent laser shots from the enemy hit the Red Grizzly with even less intensity, and the Rapier’s energy shield levels were able to regenerate to one hundred percent between each shot.
“You’re not going to keep firing at them?” Tane asked.
Nebb shrugged. “No point. The best chance of causing damage was during the flyby. I launch plasma bolts now, they’ll have a ton of time to avoid them. I fire lasers, and their shields will regenerate, like our own.”
“They might try an Essence lance at this range,” Grizz said.
“I know,” Nebb said. “But it won’t be enough to stop us.”
By the time the Red Grizzly had swung around to the dark side of the gas giant, the alien vessels had completed their course change and were slowly closing with the Red Grizzly again.
Tane’s eyes were drawn to the dark planet: he could see lightning flashes generated beneath the clouds, and the auroras at the poles. Under different circumstances it might have been beautiful.
He glanced at the right hand view screen. Something new had cropped up there: a black smear blotting out the stars in the distance. It was darker than the surrounding space as if it consumed all light. It looked like a long, horizontal gash in the fabric of reality.
The smear slowly got bigger as the ship approached, until the infinite blackness consumed almost the entire view screen.
“This rift,” Tane said. “How come no TSN battleships are here in the Dhoulan System guarding it?”
“You can’t see it on the view screen,” Lyra said. “But there are tiny probes on either side of the rift, recording. The TSN will know we’ve gone through. Even if I had the stamina, I couldn’t blur us to those cameras. Hiding a ship is far more difficult than hiding a face.”
“That still doesn’t tell me why there are no actual ships standing guard,” Tane said. “Wasn’t it you who told me the TSN had battleships watching the Anteres Rift?”
“Rifts are one-way, either leading out of our universe, or to it,” Lyra said. “This one… we enter here, we can’t return to our universe. The same holds true of the aliens if they follow. So there is no need for the TSN to leave battleships standing guard.”
“Then how do we get back?” Tane said.
“Once we reach the other side, we’ll have to jump to Anteres System and leave via the giant rift that leads back to our universe.”
“You make it sound like the Anteres System still exists on the other side,” Tane said.
“It does,” Lyra said. “All systems do.”
“Okay, wait,” Tane told her. “Let’s say we jump to Anteres on the other side, like you suggest, and leave via the rift there. Is Anteres guarded by a fleet of TSN battleships or not?”
“It is,” Lyra said. “We’ll have to deal with that when we arrive. Take your pick. Would you prefer to be captured by the TSN, or the aliens?”
“I see your point,” Tane said.
Nebb glanced at Lyra. “How can you be sure that hundreds of dweller battleships won’t be gathering near the Anteres Rift entrance as well, on the alien side? Planning a raid or something?”
“I can’t,” Lyra said. “But with luck, we’ll catch them by surprise. The Anteres Rift is very wide: we’re talking millions of kilometers long. The dwellers can’t guard every point. And light behaves differently inside, as you’ll see. With luck, they won’t realize we’re not one of their own until too late.”
“What about this rift here?” Nebb said. “What if there are dwellers waiting on the alien side? Did
it never occur to you that they might want us to enter the rift? We could be waltzing right into a trap.”
“It’s possible,” Lyra said. “But keep in mind the dwellers on this side have no way to communicate with their home universe, not while they’re here in ours. I’m betting there will be no welcoming party.”
“You’re lucky I’m a betting man as well, otherwise I might just turn us around,” Nebb said.
The dark smear swallowed the entire right hand view screen now.
“Last chance to change your mind,” Nebb told Lyra.
The Volur didn’t say a word.
“We’re committed,” Nebb said.
Tane felt it then. A strange pulling sensation. As if something was calling out to him from the darkness.
“Am I the only one—” he began.
But then reality itself seemed to smear around him. Nebb, Lyra, the chairs: the edges of everything seemed blurry, indistinct, as if not quiet real. The compartment and its occupants had also become shaded a dark blue, as if some sort of filter had been slipped over his cornea, or the ceiling light source. The combined effect strained his eyes and made them water.
His gaze drifted to the view screen. Now both view windows on the display had no stars. The nose camera had been pointed at the system’s sun, but the distant pinpoint of light had vanished. He wondered if the sun was even there anymore.
“Energy shields offline,” Grizz announced. The AI’s words were distorted in a strange manner. It was as if both a high- and low-pitched version of Grizz’s voice sounded at the same time. “No enemy vessels detected.”
“Full reverse!” Nebb said. His voice was similarly overlaid with high and low versions, almost to the point of being unintelligible. His lips blurred so that Tane could barely tell he was talking. “Get us positioned on the left side of the rift, out of the way. And prepare to fire on my mark.”
Lyra turned her head to look at Tane. The movement left a visible smear behind her.
“Welcome to the Umbra,” Lyra said. Her voice had the same disturbing distortion. “The universe that sits below our own.”
