by Isaac Hooke
“We’re clear in here,” Jed said. “Send the repair drones whenever you’re ready. Do you need any help with the overflow vent?”
“Nope,” Nebb said. “We’re just finishing up here, too.”
Tane, Sinive and Jed climbed down the rungs and stood back to watch with Lyra as the repair drones began their work. Some of the drones ferried elements back and forth from the hangar to the ship, while others attached to the hull next to the breach and began 3D printing replacement metals along the ragged edges. The small robots would obviously repair the interior later, once the more critical damage to the outer hull was fixed.
Tane stared at all the lifeless crillia that fanned outward on the landing platform underneath the breach. There was a similar mass of the dark blue creatures scattering the platform on the other side of the ship, where Nebb and Positron worked.
“Bastards really love our ships, don’t they?” Jed said.
Tane’s eyes drifted to the edge of the platform, where a small shed had been built overlooking the city below. A rivet had fallen away from the side of the shed, and rested near the precipice; after the Red Grizzly’s next takeoff, it would probably roll off the skyscraper entirely, plunging all the way down to the street.
“You see that rivet next to the shed?” Tane said. He highlighted the object so it would show up on the HUDs of his companions. “A rivet that exists both here and in our universe? You say if I move that rivet, it won’t move in our universe, too, just here?”
“That’s right,” Lyra said.
“So then it’s forever displaced, never matching the location of its twin in our universe?” Tane pressed. “Just like the refined metals our drones are taking from the hangar?”
“No,” Lyra said. “If we leave the area entirely and later come back, the objects will appear to ‘reset,’ returning to where they exist in our universe.”
“I guess that explains why we never see objects moving around of their own accord in our own universe,” Tane said. “So even those processed materials will return when we come back? Respawning like in some Galnet game?”
“That’s right,” Lyra said. “When we first enter an area, we get a snapshot of everything as it exists in our own universe. If we leave and come back at a later time, the location will ‘reset,’ and any objects will update to match their latest quantities and positions in our universe.”
“What happens if a ship in our universe lands here before we’re done repairs?” Tane said. “As in, right on top of the Red Grizzly?”
“It won’t show up here until we depart and the area resets,” Lyra said.
“Strange universe,” Tane said. “And if we leave something here? What then?”
“It will be lost in the next reset,” Lyra said.
“What if one of us stays behind?” Tane said. “Rather than an object? Are we lost in the reset?”
“There is no reset if living entities, including robots with advanced neural networks, remain behind,” Lyra said. “Only inanimate, non-living objects can cause a reset.”
“So if I dropped a rifle with an advanced AI, I could lock a place forever, and prevent it from respawning?” Tane asked.
“As long as the rifle was sentient, and remained here, then yes,” Lyra said.
“Is that how the dwellers build anything that lasts here?” Tane said. “They remain in the vicinity of anything important to them? Or maybe distribute neutral networks throughout their cities and ships?”
“They don’t have to,” Lyra said. “You see, they build most of their ships and cities with their version of the Essence. Structures and ships built of their Essence do not reset, but they also appear in the Umbra only, and not our universe—unless the dwellers take them through the Anteres Rift, of course.”
“Complications, complications,” Tane said.
“Like you said, strange universe,” Lyra told him.
“You almost make it sound almost like all dwellers can Siphon their Essence equivalent,” Tane said.
“That’s not the case,” Lyra said. “There are about as many dwellers as humans with the Ability: as in, very few. Those that do Siphon are assigned to one of two castes, either the much weaker Builders—those who create their cities and ships—or the Warriors—dwellers who can Siphon as much as the Volur. The Builders make up ninety percent of their Essence users, the Warriors ten percent. Together, the two groups compose maybe one percent of the entire dweller population.”
“Oh okay,” Tane said. “So in all this talk about resets and snapshots, what happens to things with low-level AIs, like shopping or delivery drones? I didn’t spot any of those during the city flyby.”
“Flying vehicles don’t show up in the snapshots, period. The skies and planetary orbits are always clear of human-built machines—no starships, no stations, no orbital defense platforms. Interplanetary and interstellar space are also always empty.”
“What about planet-capable starships?” Tane said. “Those that have landed on the surface? You already hinted they appear after touching down…”
“They do show up, yes” Lyra said. “But without working AI cores. The non-sentient subsystems remain active, but not the core itself.”
“Because they count as living entities in this universe…” Tane said.
“Correct,” Lyra transmitted.
“Guess that means you can’t steal a whole starship,” Tane said.
“Unless you bring an AI core with you,” Sinive chimed in.
“There’s an interesting idea…” Tane said.
“Why living entities have no imprint here,” Lyra continued. “And why the presence of an observer causes snapshots to come into being, no one can really say. Our scientists don’t know enough about the Umbra to do more than speculate. In our own universe, at the quantum level sometimes the very act of observing can influence the results of an experiment. What we’re seeing here might very well be some magnification of that effect.”
Nebb’s voice came over the comm, cutting short the discussion. “All right, Positron and I are done over here. I’ve repurposed half the repair drones to the overflow vent. We should be ready for take-off in half an hour, tops. In the meantime, I’m going to do some recon aboard the other ships parked here with us. See if I can stock up on other repair materials for the Red Grizzly. I’m taking Positron and one of the scout drones with me.”
Tane could see Nebb and Positron on the other side of the platform; one of the hovering, spherical scouts joined the pair, and all three headed toward a large ship parked adjacent to the Red Grizzly. The entry ramp of that ship was lowered.
“You sure you’re just looking for repair materials?” Tane said.
“Hey, if I find something else of value, I’m obviously not going to leave it behind,” Nebb said.
“Is it the wisest idea to abandon your ship, on a planet where we’re surrounded by enemies?” Lyra said.
“We’re stuck here anyway until repairs can be completed,” Nebb said. “You have nothing to worry about. I have scouts watching the perimeter. I’ll be ten minutes.”
“I have to insist—” Lyra began.
“Hey, this is my ship, my operation, remember that,” Nebb said. “You’re just a passenger. I run a business here. If I’m forced into the Umbra at the insistence of my passengers, and I then have to land on a moon for repairs, a moon that’s colonized in our own universe at that, then I’m damn well going to take full advantage of that while I’m here. Ten minutes!”
“I’ll set a timer,” Lyra said.
“You do that,” Nebb said.
“I’m going to do some exploring, too,” Sinive said over the comm.
“I can’t spare any drone scouts for you,” Nebb said. “I need them watching the perimeter.”
“That’s fine,” Sinive said. “I don’t think I really need a scout for checking out these ships anyway. If there were kraal in any of them, they would have attacked already.”
“True enough,” Nebb said. “But
be careful anyway.”
“I’ll go with you,” Tane told Sinive. He patted the personal storage pouch hanging from his belt. “I came prepared.”
“No, it’s safer for us to return to the ship,” Lyra said.
“Yeah, I second that,” Sinive said. “I mean, your returning to the ship. I don’t really want someone who has black strings coming from his body following me around.”
“Fine, I’ll go off on my own without you,” Tane said. He stalked off toward a craft with an open ramp located on the far side of the shipyard. He would have chosen a closer ship, but save for the vessel Nebb and Positron had selected, all the other vessels nearby had their ramps closed.
“Um no, that’s the ship I picked for myself!” Sinive said.
“Too late,” Tane said, breaking into a run.
“Hey!” she said.
He glanced over his shoulder and saw Sinive breaking into a sprint behind him. Beyond her, he saw Lyra and Ked exchange a momentary glance, and then the two of them broke into a run to follow him as well.
Tane reached the ship first and did a quick ID before dashing up the ramp. It was a Camel Transport class. The kind merchants liked. Only a few defensive dragons to deter pirates. He pulled up the standard blueprints, located the closest cargo bay, and made a beeline for that area.
Sinive reached him, but couldn’t shove past him in the tight passageway. “My ship!”
“Nope,” Tane said.
When he reached the cargo bay, he discovered that the hatch was locked tight.
“Blow it open with your rifle!” Sinive said.
Tane retreated a pace, forcing her back as he did so. Then he took aim and fired. The plasma struck the door and the surface turned red hot in the middle. He emptied the full twelve rounds until the metal became white hot.
More plasma bolts fired from underneath him, and he realized Sinive had dropped to the deck and was shooting at the hatch past him.
“Hey!” He dodged to the side, giving her as much room as he was able.
“You didn’t have to move,” Sinive said. “I got high sharpshooting, you know.”
“Yeah, okay,” Tane said.
He waited for his rifle to recharge and fired another twelve bolts. Between him and Sinive they made short work of the door.
Inside, he chose a random cargo container and tried to open it. Locked.
Not a problem.
He aimed his rifle at the locking mechanism and let loose. When the molten fragments fell away he reached for the lid, but hesitated, wondering if it was booby trapped. He was starting to wish he had purchased the Detect Trap skill.
He glanced at Sinive and waited for her to open hers first. When she didn’t get blown up, electrocuted, or otherwise maimed, he took that as his cue it was safe, and knocked off the lid.
Inside were stacked crates. He pulled one out and, using the stock of his rifle as a crowbar, pried open the top to reveal...
Hundreds of bananas.
Tane glanced up in confusion. He spotted Lyra and Ked lingering by the doorway. When he met Lyra’s gaze, she shrugged.
“What were you expecting to find?” Lyra said. “Legendary weapons?”
Tane turned toward Sinive. She had removed a crate from her own container, and it was filled with apples.
“Oh well, at least we’ll have something else to eat besides that white goo,” Sinive said.
Tane hoisted all of the crates from the container and dropped them into his pouch in turn, using up four inventory slots. He planned to sell them when he got back to his own universe. They had to be worth at least a few hundred credits.
He moved from container to container like that, prying each open in turn, only to reveal more fruits: melons, pears, and oranges. He didn’t bother loading any more of those items into his personal storage device, not wanting to waste the slots.
He had something else in mind.
Tane pulled up the overhead map and identified the probable location of the armory. He darted for the room, once again with Sinive on his heels.
He reached the armory and grabbed two of the weapons on the rack. Sinive shoved him aside and grabbed the other two. Tane stowed the weapons into his pouch and identified them after they were slotted. Both were plasma rifles, Scepter class, similar to what he used on the farm. Nothing special, but they’d fetch at least two to three thousand credits on resale, hopefully.
Lastly he made his way to the suit closets. Inside were the parts for several spacesuits. By themselves, the different suit assemblies—boots, leg assemblies, chest assembly, arm assemblies, and helmet—would each use up individual inventory slots, but Tane found some spare carbon fiber twine and used it to bind the suit pieces into a pair of bundles. He stowed the two complete spacesuits in his storage device, using only two slots. He was going to grab a jumpjet unit, but Sinive beat him to it. He had used up nine of his slots by then, including the slot for his clothes luggage, but if he found anything else of value at some point, he could always dump something, like the bananas.
While Sinive was stuffing the jumpjet unit into her pouch, Tane asked her: “Can we nest pouches within pouches? As a short term way of boosting storage capacity without upgrading to a more expensive device?”
“Of course.” Sinive finished shoving the large unit into her pouch. “In fact, it’s the way to go as far as organizational purposes are concerned. I’ve got one storage device for weapons. One for armor. Another for food. Another for clothes. And so on. All stuffed inside my main storage pouch, which has twenty slots.”
“I guess you don’t want to be losing that pouch,” Tane said. “Convenience, at the cost of redundancy.”
“I definitely don’t want to be losing it,” Sinive agreed.
Jed and Lyra were still following them around as the Tane led the way back toward the exit ramp.
A prompt appeared on his HUD from Sinive, requesting a private band. Tane accepted, and switched to the band so the pair could talk privately.
“What’s with the Volur and Bander, anyway?” Sinive said. “They don’t want to let you out of their sight for even a second. They’re like your puppy dogs or something. Or overbearing parents.”
“They’ll do whatever it takes to make sure I don’t fall into the hands of the dwellers,” Tane said. “And I mean anything.”
“What, like kill you?” Sinive said. Though he couldn’t see her, from her voice he thought she was smiling, as if intending the comment to be a joke. When Tane didn’t answer, she said, more seriously: “Would they?”
“I don’t actually know,” Tane said. “But they implied as much.”
“Those dark threads coming from your body are a big deal then, aren’t they?”
“I have no idea,” Tane said. “I wish I did. I’m in the dark. Literally.”
He switched back to the common band, not liking where the conversation was going, and continued making his way toward the Camel Transport’s exit.
“Your ten minutes are up,” Lyra announced. “I hope you found everything you were looking for, smuggler.”
“I’m happy,” Nebb said over the comm. “Got all the extra elements I needed for sure. I’m heading back to the Red Grizzly. By the way, for all your condescending moral preening, looks like you decided to do some looting yourself, huh?”
“No, I’m shepherding my cargo,” Lyra said.
“That’s all I am to you, cargo?” Tane said. “I don’t know why I ever agreed to go with you. This trip has been a disaster from the start.”
“I apologize,” Lyra said. “My words were meant for Nebb. You have to use a different language with smugglers to make sure they understand.”
“Yeah sure,” Tane said. “When you think I’m not listening you tell people I’m your ‘cargo.’ But to my face I’m your honored guest. Funny how that works.”
“Tane, I told you I’m sorry,” Lyra said. “You’re not cargo. I’m trying to do everything I can to protect you. Please understand that. You’re a human
being. An important one.”
Tane was about to contest her when a klaxon sounded over the HUD.
“One of the scouts is reporting kraals penetrating the perimeter!” Nebb said. “Back to the Red Grizzly on the double. We take off, now!”
16
Tane raced down the ramp of the Camel Transport. He saw them then: rank upon rank of large beasts emerging from a metal shed on the far side of the rooftop. Like the crillia, they seemed the most substantial objects in sight, seeming more real than Tane and his companions even.
“They’re coming from inside the building!” Sinive said.
Tane had no time to feel fear. He simply reacted, and tore across the shipyard platform toward the Red Grizzly and salvation. Ahead of him, at the edge of the building, more of the beasts appeared, leaping over the side where they had apparently scaled the building unnoticed.
“We got more trying to cut us off!” Tane said. “How did your scouts miss their approach?”
Tane was forced to slow down and dig in. He dropped to one knee, aimed, and opened fire at the kraals with his S4 as the creatures raced at him.
“The latest are emerging from inside the building, too,” Nebb said. “I’m looking at the scout feeds… looks like the kraals broke the glass on the floor just below this one and formed living ropes with their bodies!”
“So much for these kraals being mere dumb animals!” Tane said.
Every target Tane picked dropped after one or two shots—none of them had personal energy shields. The creatures had the bodies of huge primates, though instead of fur they were covered in black scales. They had broad, eyeless reptilian heads with elongated snouts. When they opened their maws, their bottom rows of razor sharp teeth were joined to the top by long strings of slime. They ran on all fours, their movements eerily silent. No hoots, hisses, or battle cries. Then again, maybe his spacesuit was filtering that out, though the external microphones should have picked up any sounds.
“My heck, these things are disgusting,” Sinive said.
She had dropped beside him and was firing rapidly into the approaching beasts, downing them as fast as she was able.
