by Jake Elwood
The door to the private room swung open and a man in a cook's outfit stuck his head in. "Is everything all right in here?"
"Just fine," Sykes said.
"Do you know what that was?"
Sykes gave him a look of utter, bland innocence. "What do you mean?"
The man shook his head. "Never mind." He pulled his head back and closed the door.
Sykes turned his attention to the panels on the analyzer.
"Um, Professor?" Cassie said. "Do you mind telling us what just happened?"
"It tried to take us out of phase," he said, his voice thoughtful. "But we're too far away from the source."
"Oh, well, that explains everything." When he didn't react, she said, "Try again, Professor."
He looked up. "It's not a weapon."
"Beg your pardon?"
He tapped the cube. "This. It's not part of a weapon. Not exactly. It's part of what the survivors used to shut the weapon down."
She waited for him to continue. When he went back to staring at his panels she said, "Sorry, not quite following you."
"Hmm? Oh." He looked up again. "Liman system."
"Sorry?"
He shook his head impatiently. "Liman Three. Where you're going next." He held up the egg. "These artifacts are from Liman Three. They were probably discovered somewhere else, of course. The survivors would have stashed them somewhere far away from the weapon itself."
He looked from Cassie to Jerry, saw their confusion, and sighed. "There would have been survivors," he said. "After the holocaust. After the enemy, the ones on Liman Three, wiped out most of the Ancients. There would have been people on ships, people on tiny outposts that the enemy missed. I expect they got together. Pooled their resources. And they built this," he tapped the egg against the cube, "to shut the weapon down."
"Okay," said Lark. "What does it do?"
Sykes opened his mouth, paused, then closed it. "English doesn't really have the words I'd need to describe it," he said. "It's something no human being has ever done or encountered, so we've never invented a way to talk about it." He scratched the thinning hair over his temple. "They couldn't destroy the weapon," he said. "So they hid it."
"Hid it?" Cassie demanded. "How?"
"They tucked it away, out of phase." Sykes shrugged before she could tell him he wasn't making sense. "That's the best I can really describe it. It's like N-Space. It's there, but it's not there. A ship in N-Space wouldn't show up on radar or through a telescope, right?"
Cassie shook her head, feeling the beginning of a headache coming on. "They hid the weapon in N-Space? But it's stationary, isn't it?" N-Space only existed at fantastically high velocities.
"It's not in N-Space," the professor said. "Pay attention. I said it's out of phase. It's like N-Space. At least, inasmuch as it's not there."
Cassie stared at him, unable to formulate an intelligent question.
"The Ancients discovered something that humanity never did," Sykes said. "Like another dimension. Parallel to ours, but separate. And they generated, I don't know, some sort of field." He tapped the cube. "There's an explanation of sorts in here, but it's not intended as a primer. It's like reading the user manual for a skimmer and using it to infer the physical properties of powered flight."
"I understand," said Jerry. "I'm sorry we're being impatient." He, of course, hadn't shown any impatience at all. Cassie thought about kicking him under the table.
"Anyway," said Sykes, "from what I can deduce, the Ancients put some sort of power source and a machine on the enemy homeworld. Assuming the weapon's on their homeworld." He shrugged. "It's impossible to be precise, I'm afraid. They took the weapon, or the controls for the weapon, or maybe the whole planet, and they knocked it all out of phase. Made it disappear."
"Okay," said Cassie. "What's the cube and egg for?"
"For getting back in," Sykes said. "That part I'm sure of. You connect the egg, as you call it, to the cube, and it opens a portal into the other, er, 'phase'."
"So…" She stared at the egg, thinking. "You need the egg and cube to get at the weapon now?"
"That's about the size of it," Sykes said.
"Maybe I should destroy them."
Sykes nodded. "Maybe you should. But they'll never stop hunting you. Just in case you know something. In case it still exists."
"I could smash it," she said. "Give them the pieces." There was a sinking feeling in her stomach, though, that told her it wouldn't be that easy.
"Ancients technology is remarkably difficult to destroy," he said. "Nearly impossible, in fact. And if you could smash it, well, they might be able to reverse-engineer it from the pieces."
"Really?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. We've never been able to reverse-engineer anything the Ancients left behind. But then, we've never managed to break anything open to take a look, either."
"Damn it." She slumped in her seat. "Where does that leave us, then?"
"On our way to Liman Three," Jerry said, "to take a look for ourselves."
Episode Seven
Showdown on Liman
CHAPTER 23
The murky gray void of N-Space vanished and the stars snapped into view, crisp and bright. Cassie leaned over Jerry's shoulder where he sat at the helm controls and scanned the console in front of him, checking for transponders. Nothing appeared, which only meant that there were no honest ships in the system.
Lark stood at one of the Argo's many windows, craning her neck to peer in every direction at once. "I don't see anything," she announced.
It wasn't the most helpful statement, but Cassie was so relieved that Lark was past her grouchy, waspish phase that she said, "Thanks, kid."
"Is that the planet there?"
Cassie followed Lark's pointing finger. A pale disk showed in the distance, barely visible. "I think that's the star, actually."
"Yep," said Jerry. "That's Liman. We're too far out to see a planet."
Lark's forehead scrunched up. "Why're we so far out? Aren't we going to the planet?"
Liman Three was their destination. "We're being cautious," Cassie said. "If there are ships anywhere near the planet, we want to see them from a good long way off." She patted the bulkhead beside her. "This lump of rivets and rust hasn't got any guns. Running away is our only option."
"It's a good ship," Jerry said defensively.
"I know it is, Jerry." Lark turned to smile at him. Her acceptance of the bounty hunter was complete and enthusiastic. She didn't share Cassie's distrust.
"It looks like we're alone," Jerry said. "Let's go check it out."
Cassie sighed, wondering if she was the only person on the ship with enough sense to be nervous, as Jerry started the ship moving sunward. The thrust would make them much easier to spot. If there were hostile ships in the system the three of them were putting themselves in plenty of danger.
Jerry increased speed, and the stars grew and blurred as the ship moved into semi-relativistic space. It was much slower than N-Space travel, but it allowed them to cover the two light-hours to their destination in twenty minutes or so, without losing the ability to use scanning instruments.
"What do you think it'll be like?" Lark was almost bouncing in excitement.
"We're going to see things that very few people have seen," Jerry drawled. "I predict it will be amazing. Something to tell your grandchildren about."
Lark's face briefly clouded. Mention of family tended to upset her. Her smile returned soon, though. "The Ancients," she said. "They're older than dinosaurs, right, Jerry?"
Jerry smiled back. "Not quite. But they were around before people. There would have been wooly rhinoceroses back on Earth, and mastodons, and saber-tooth tigers."
"Strap in," Cassie interrupted. She didn't want to strap herself in, but to set a good example for Lark she moved to a seat and pulled a harness over her shoulders. "If we're going to hit any trouble it'll be when we get close to the planet."
Lark sighed and rolled her eyes, but s
he strapped in.
"Thank you," said Cassie. "It's probably not necessary, but—"
A buzzer sounded, a light flashed on the console in front of Jerry, and he slapped his hand down on the port side maneuvering thrusters. The stars seemed to spin as the ship twisted sideways. Cassie craned her neck, trying to see the helm displays. An energy flare had just shot up from the surface of one of Liman Three's small moons.
She barely had time to register the flare on the screen before the blow struck them. The whole ship trembled, an alarm blared, and her ears popped. Jerry bawled, "Suki! Evasive action!"
The AI took control, whipping the ship back and forth, changing direction and speed faster than human hands could ever manage. Flashes of light filled the space around the ship as a barrage of fire from a powerful energy weapon lashed out at them.
Of course Suki sounded perfectly calm as she said, "The port engine is on fire, and we're losing atmosphere. The planet ahead seems to have breathable air. I recommend an emergency landing."
Cassie swallowed to equalize the pressure in her ears, and had to swallow again almost immediately. They were losing air fast. "Get us down," she said, watching as Jerry tapped controls on his console. They were taking particle-beam fire from a base on the nearest moon, and she could see a ship lifting off from the moon's surface. "Outgunned, outnumbered, and outmaneuvered," she said. "What else is new?"
The planet was a cloud-wreathed orb of green and blue that reminded her of pictures of Earth, and it grew as the ship rushed forward. Suki projected a damage report above the dash, and Cassie winced. The ship showed major structural damage in half a dozen places. "Keep us on track for our original landing spot," she said. "I don't want to be stranded in some distant wilderness."
"Right," said Jerry. "Hang on. We're about to enter atmosphere."
The ship rocked, and a high-pitched whine filled the cockpit. Cassie pressed her hands over her ears and watched as the nose of the ship started to glow. She'd read about ships heating up on entry, but she'd never been in a ship so badly damaged that it actually happened. She stared at the red glow with a mix of fascination and dread.
The stars faded as the sky turned violet, then blue. The ship bucked and bumped, the blows coming faster and faster until they became a steady vibration that made her teeth rattle in her skull. She glanced over at Lark, saw the girl white-faced, her hands clutching the arm-rests of her seat.
"Planetfall in one minute," Jerry said. "It's likely to be bumpy."
Mercifully the vibration eased as they moved deeper into the atmosphere. The angry red glow on the nose of the ship faded. They were soaring through nice, thick air now, flying as much as they were falling. The ship was losing altitude, but Suki had a degree of control, banking the ship gently to turn them. The ground below was a blanket of green jungle unbroken by any hint of human activity.
"Thirty seconds," said Jerry. "We'll be a few kilometers short. I suspect we want that ziggurat ahead."
Cassie peered forward. A dark shape thrust above the canopy far ahead, expanding as they sped closer. It was a pyramid, she saw, a four-sided structure with at least five stepped levels. The building had to be huge, but with nothing but treetops around it there was nothing to give a scale.
Lark's face was a mask of terror. Cassie said, "I'm sorry." Lark looked at her, and she said, "I shouldn't have brought you here."
The look of terror vanished from Lark's face, replaced by outrage. She looked so deeply offended that Cassie almost laughed out loud despite the situation. "Okay, never mind."
The first tree branches whipped against the bottom of the ship, making the deck plates vibrate against Cassie's feet. "I hope I didn't get you killed," she said. "I'm glad I met you."
They hit a bigger branch. The ship lurched, a crackling sound filled the air, and Cassie hit her shoulder straps hard enough to drive the air from her lungs. The ship tilted forward, then farther, and branches slapped against the windows. After that they started to tumble, so that Cassie had no idea which way was up by the time the ship slammed into the trunk of a tree.
The shock of impact chased every other thought out of her head. She left the ship and the planet and the universe behind for a time, and wandered among exploding pinwheels of light. There was no space, no time, and only a little bit of pain. Then, one grudging millimeter at a time, she returned to her battered and aching body.
She was still in her seat, hanging from the shoulder straps. The ship lay on its side, the starboard wing completely obliterated. Sideways was down. The transparent panes of the windows hadn't broken, but the steel framework of the front windows had bent and twisted. There was a gap around the bottom of the window, and she could smell the jungle, rich and moist and earthy.
"Cassie!" Lark hung from her seat straps, looking unharmed. "Are you okay?"
"I think so." She looked herself over. "Are you all right?"
"Yes." Lark looked around, reaching up to push hair out of her face. "How about Jerry?"
Jerry hung limp in his straps beside her, one arm dangling so that his hand almost touched her shoulder. She grabbed his hand, and his head turned. He gave her an off-center grin. "Good landing."
"Sure." She held onto his hand for a long moment, taking comfort in the simple human contact. Then she hit the release button on her harness and fell sideways, landing on the side of the cabin. She turned to help Lark down, but the girl was standing beside her, clinging to her hand, by the time Cassie got to her feet.
"Gimme room," Jerry muttered, and hit the release for his own harness. He started to fall, braced a hand against the console, and managed to work his legs down until he was able to stand. "Suki. Status."
There was silence from the speakers.
"Suki? Come on, don't do this to me." He tapped the dark screens at the helm station, then turned, his face bleak. "Suki didn't make it."
"I think Roger's okay," Lark said. "I put him under my seat." She stood on tip-toes and dragged a shoulder bag out from under her seat. Cassie held out a hand, and Lark handed her the bag.
"It doesn’t seem right, just replacing her," Jerry said. Nevertheless he took the bag from Carrie, pulled out a long wire, and slid a plug into a port on the helm console.
Lights flickered here and there on the console, and Cassie heard a series of clicks and pops in her earbud. Then a staticky voice spoke from one speaker on the port side. "This is only a slight improvement over being disconnected."
"Hush," Cassie told him. "What's the status of the ship?"
"Badly malfunctioning," he reported. "The ship is telling me it's on its side."
"That's actually true," Cassie said. "We crashed on Liman Three. They shot us up first."
"That explains much. The damage is significant, but I assume you realized that."
"Yes," said Cassie. "We were hoping for something a little more specific."
"I can't be sure if the hull is still airtight," Roger said.
"It's not."
"The engine is intact but not functioning."
Cassie brightened. An intact engine was more than she'd dared hope for. "Not functioning how? Can you tell?"
"There's no direct diagnostic access to the engine's internal computer," Roger said. "That makes it unsafe for use in anything but an emergency situation. I assume this is an emergency?"
"You assume correctly. Keep going."
"A power conduit on the port side has been destroyed," Roger said. "That's the only problem I can detect."
Cassie looked at Jerry, then at Lark. "That might actually be repairable."
"Let's check it out," said Jerry.
Getting out of the cabin proved to be the biggest challenge they faced. The hatches had lost power, and Roger didn’t know why. The port hatch was high above them, so they turned their attention to the starboard hatch, hoping it wasn't buried in the ground.
Jerry had to pull a panel from the bulkhead and crank the door open by hand, using a tiny wheel that had been installed as an afterth
ought, not as a practical tool. As the hatch slid open they saw dirt, not an encouraging sign. Jerry kept cranking, though, and finally daylight appeared in the opening.
When the hatch was half-open the three of them wriggled out. A narrow strip of blue sky was visible above them. Dark jungle loomed close on every side, tall trees covered in vines stretching up to a fantastic height before spreading to form a solid canopy of leaves. There was hardly any undergrowth, but plants grew in the forks where branches extended from tree trunks, or spread their roots around the vines that clung to the trunks. Flowers the size of sun hats stretched pale blossoms toward the invisible sun.
The trunk of one tree had split on impact with the ship. The trunk still stood, a jagged spike of wood jutting fifty meters or more into the air. The rest of the tree lay draped along the forest floor. The ship was close beside it, the port side buried in soil.
The damage looked dreadful from the outside. The hull was scorched and torn along the starboard side. The remaining wing had holes in it, and was missing the wingtip. The nose was blackened from the heat of reentry. Still, the hull plating, though battered, was largely intact.
A deep tear in the skin of the ship near the back marked the location of the damaged power conduit. Jerry opened a locker under the nose of the ship and laid out a selection of tools and spare parts. "I'll take care of the power conduit," he said. "You two seal up the base of the window."
Cassie used her pistol on laser setting to cut a section from the fallen tree trunk. She and Lark rolled the log to the nose of the ship and used it as a platform as they spread emergency patches along the bottom of the window. It was going to be pretty hard to see out by the time they were done, but if that was the worst problem they faced they'd be doing well.
As she worked, Cassie glanced warily at the little slice of sky above. Their enemies would come looking for them sooner or later. She was tempted to abandon the ship and flee into the jungle while there was still time, but the thought of being stranded made her stomach twist with fear. So she worked as fast as she could, pressing patches against the skin of the ship and doing her best to hide her worry from Lark.
