When the light had faded away, Apache Leader ordered a sit rep from his men; everyone was okay, it seemed. He then proceeded on to the Eagle. Everyone watched him stand at the entrance to the airlock for several seconds.
"Apache Leader, this Mother Bird, what's the status down there?"
"Mother Bird—"
"This is Mother Bird, go ahead Apache Leader."
"Ma'am, you better come see this for yourself."
Major Selina bolted for the elevator and was shortly standing next to Apache Leader, who had removed his protective helmet and face mask and stood, bewildered and unmoving.
The major arrived and looked into the airlock. On the floor were Cris's flight suit, undergarments, and boots. Everything still assembled as if he were still in them. The problem was—he was not. No body, no blood, nothing. Inside the jacket, the major found Cris's identification tag and its chain just like it had been around his neck. And on the deck, just above the collar of the flight suit, lay Cris's COMde implant.
"Major," Apache Leader asked, "what the hell just happened?"
"I have no idea," Kathy said slowly.
○O○
Up in the control room, Chuck listened in to the conversation down on the deck. Cris was gone—physically gone—no sign of his body left behind.
Chuck stood for several long minutes looking down on the scene below and thinking of his last conversation with his friend, Cris. He slowly checked his watch and calculated the time differential, then tapped the chip implanted at his right temple and activated his COMde.
The pleasant computer generated female voice on the other end said, "Lunar operator."
"Long distance, Earth, USA. Dayton, Ohio, operator, please."
"Connecting."
Now, a male voice answered, "Thank you for using Earth Tone One. Listing, please."
"I'm looking for a Cynthia Alistair."
"Connecting."
The number rang three times, and then a lovely female voice answered, "Hello?"
○O○
As Tattie had floated on the water, drinking in the stars, her eyes fluttered and she slept. It was the deepest sleep a living creature could enter this side of death.
When she opened her eyes, she was still floating, but now out among the stars. Behind her, like a blue and green marble, was Nazer and its two moons. Is this death? she asked herself. As if in answer, a voice that generated inside her head said, "Tattie—take my hand." The voice was strangely familiar. Tattie looked around and there stood the ghostly apparition from Galdo Heirya.
○O○
Cris's eyes opened and he saw that he was floating among the stars, just where he and Tattie found themselves after that kiss at the pond. He looked over his shoulder and there was Earth, like a huge blue and green ball. And just below him was the Moon.
I must be dead. You can't float naked in space and live.
Cris sighed and smiled. At least here, he would eventually be with Tattie. Then a voice, a voice he was sure he should have known, spoke directly into his head.
"Who's that?" he shouted.
"Cris," the voice spoke again, "take my hand, Cris."
Cris looked back around. Right in front of him floated the eerie specter from that haunted city, with its hand held out.
○O○
Tattie reached out, hesitantly, and took the vision's hand. As she did, the universe went black; all that existed were the specter and her. A bright light now appeared before them at what she imagined was some distance away, but she had no way of telling. She knew that the spirit was pulling her toward it at a phenomenal speed.
○O○
Cris looked at the ghost a moment then decided. What the heck, I'm dead anyway. He reached out and grasped its cold hand. Suddenly, the lights went out. All the stars vanished…the Earth…the Moon…nothing was left but Cris and this ghost. Like a targeting laser, a bright light from his three o'clock hit his eyes. The ghost turned to face this light and gave Cris's arm a tug. The voice in his head said, "Come along now, Cris, you've figured it out."
"Figured what out?"
Rather than a response to his question, Cris was pulled by the robed and hooded image at an incalculable speed toward the light. Cris thought of all the movies he'd seen about ghosts and dying—head toward the light! You heard it in every one of them, it seemed.
So—I'm dead and on the way to meet my Maker. Now that it's too late. Cris lamented not going to mass as his parents had raised him to do; again, he had been too busy. He wished he'd gone to confession at least once after he got back from Oceania. He just didn't have the time.
The competition to get into the space program and for the Mars mission were both very stiff. Now, he was on his last mission, and he was afraid he was destined to crash and burn—forever. Whereas, Tattie would, no doubt, be in Paradise. That's when it hit him like a meteor—he was never going to see her again. It was too late.
Cris looked up at the spectral figure and said, "If I only had it to do all over again."
The voice responded, "Cris, no one gets to do it all over again."
His forward motion stopped as they hit the light. It took him a moment to comprehend just where he was. He was back inside his Rapna and hurtling toward the hidero mas angia, the wormhole, at a tremendous velocity. There was a flash of brilliant, pale blue light inside his helmet, or perhaps inside his eyes. When it was gone, he was out of the wormhole over Earth's Moon and making his turn toward the Nazerian shipwreck. Another flash of blue light, and he was approaching the target. Something told him he needed to be at a greater altitude above the Moon. He climbed another twenty kilometers.
"You are outside the established attack vectors," the computer warned.
"Disregard attack program," Cris shouted.
Below him, he could see the squadron of Eagles headed toward the shipwreck, which was itself visible due to the navigation beacons previously placed around it. The Eagles were at a safe distance from ground zero, and would be for another twenty–seven seconds. Cris accelerated the Rapna and pointed his nose down toward the Nazerian ship. He knew he was way outside the parameters the computer required to hit the target area. "The Force better be in my hip pocket," he said aloud, and he adjusted his flight path toward his target.
It was all Kentucky windage now. His mind was working at a million kilometers an hour, calculating speed, rate of descent, distance to target, lunar gravity, and so many more considerations. This was his second and last chance.
Easy, easy. If his math was off, he would auger his Rapna into the surface of the Moon, or perhaps those mountains, as he tried to pull up. If his math were off, the bomb would miss the target area, or he might be too close when it detonated, and he would be caught up in the energy wave.
"Easy—now!"
He released the bomb and pulled up hard and to his right, he must have pulled eleven G's. More altitude meant more power, he poured it on. The flash of the detonation erupted behind him. He checked the Eagle Squadron, they had stopped, a good thing because Cris knew that the power plant on the wreck was about to blow, which it did as he watched. The Eagles turned and were running from the expanding energy wave.
Cris adjusted his coms to receive their transmissions.
"What the hell was that?" an Eagle pilot exclaimed.
"All Eagles this is Mother Bird, maintain proper RTC. All Eagles check your dose meters, that first blast was nuclear, and the second might have been too. I'm switching to Hotel Sierra freq now. Out."
Cris switched to that channel as well and listened in.
"Hotel Sierra, this is Mother Bird. Over"
"Mother Bird, this Hotel Sierra. Over."
"Hotel Sierra the artifact just detonated, I say again, the artifact just exploded. There were two detonations, one about five Kilo Tango the other off the charts. Over."
"Roger, Mother Bird, the seismic recorders here went nuts. What are your casualties? Over."
"This is Mother Bird, we got real lucky Hotel S
ierra, real lucky."
Cris's Rapna was screaming toward the remains of Hohmann Crater, he prayed hard that he was in time. Ahead of him, the Earth rose over the limb of the Moon, he was getting close.
There it was, and just as anticipated, it was acting like water going down a drain. He maxed out his engines and headed toward the swirling anomaly. The last thing he remembered was the voice of the computer in his ears, "Warning, engine is exceeding design specifications. Engine will overheat in twenty seconds. Activating automatic engine shut down."
"Computer, disregard! Override engine shut down! Maintain course and speed, emergency situation!"
The Rapna plunged into the draining and weakening formation with but a fraction of a second to spare, and disappeared forever from the surface of the Moon and the sight of planet Earth.
○O○
Tattie fell, spinning into the light. This, she thought, must be the entrance to the center of all things. Here, perhaps, she would find her man in the valley of the good, standing among the brave and valorous, here is where she would find the love that reached beyond death.
The intensity of the light caused her to close her eyes tightly and even bury her eyes in the crux of her arm.
Suddenly, she felt her feet standing on solid ground, she began to feel and smell the heat and exhaust of powerful engines, her ears cleared as she opened the membrane inside that protected them, and she heard the busy noise of an active spacedrom. She removed her arm and opened her eyes to find she was standing again in the flight bays of Emer Alda.
She felt Tarnus's large, strong hands on her shoulders. In front of her, she watched as Cris climbed atop his Rapna and donned his helmet. Her hands went to her mouth as she gasped. She wanted to rush to him and stop him, to warn him that he was headed for his doom…but something stopped her. She knew he had to go to stop the hidero mas angia, or all the lives in two systems would be forfeit.
There was something else, too; she just knew that she was not living this nightmare over again without reason. There must be something different this time.
Cris's Rapna lifted above the ground and the landing gear retracted. Tattie waved at him, as she had done before, and, as before, Cris wiggled his wings, then shot rapidly out the bay doors.
Tattie lowered her hands and great tears welled up in her eyes. She turned quickly about and cried into her teaoh's chest.
"There, now, my un genite. Hope remains alive." He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her face. "In your eyes, my child, I see a bright and happy future. Have no fear."
"Teaoh, I already know what's going to—"
Her words were cut short when, over a booming speaker, a voice announced "Bay eighteen prepare to receive incoming Rapna. Bay eighteen prepare to receive incoming Rapna."
"This bay is reserved for Cris!" Tarnus shouted into the air.
A passing technician stopped long enough to shout back at Tarnus, "It is he! He's back! He's done it! We're all saved!"
An unbridled celebration erupted all around them, shouting, dancing, hugging, kissing, and tears of jubilation.
Tarnus looked at Tattie and said, "How is that possible? He left not a minute ago. I am surely vexed. Perhaps another Sorgina lives and we are all under some spell?"
"No, Uncle—there is another power at work here."
The Rapna entered the bay doors and glided over to the designated spot. Its landing gear extended, and it lightly set down. The engine shut off and the hatch opened. As Cris climbed out, Tattie ran to him. More tears streamed down her face, tears of unimagined joy. She reached the Rapna just as Cris climbed down. They fell into each other's arms. The kiss they shared could not be described in any but the old tongue, "Eore um fooit seaqulis oskulum."
In kissing, they both felt the warmth of their love build, but the light did not generate from their the familiar place where they touched; rather, both their bodies began to glow. The sight caused a cessation to the jubilation immediately around them and the silence spread as one person after another stopped to look.
It started with one set of hands clapping, and before long, a roar echoed through the bay as everyone stopped to witness Tattie and Cris's reunion. Only they knew this kiss was the result of some unknown, inexplicable miracle.
Chapter 34
The Infinitely Expanding Sphere
That night, after all the hand shaking—a new practice on Nazer—the hugging, and kissing, after the City Fathers had made their speeches, after all the ceremonies and celebrations they could handle, Tattie, Cris, Tarnus, and Capek retired to their floor in the tower and all gathered in Tattie and Cris's room.
The door closed, and all took a seat, except Capek, for whom sitting was just an option, not a comfort. Tarnus had, perhaps, just a little too much to drink and was in quite a merry mood. He remained savvy enough to understand that Tattie and Cris wanted to talk to him and Capek, so he fought the desire to launch into blithe banter and tell his stories. The two lovers sat together on the sofa, Tarnus sprawled out on the bed and Capek stood by the wardrobe.
Tattie and Cris took each other's hands. Tattie spoke first. "I thought I'd lost you forever."
"I could not bear to be without you another minute. When it happened, I was in the middle of stealing a ship that I was going to fly into a huge stone pit in the hope I would somehow find you!"
"I had Uncles Capek and Tarnus return me to our pond near the city where I felt sure I was going to die in order to find you in the center of all things."
"Wait just a moment," Tarnus was up on his elbows. "Capek and I took you to no pond."
"Yes, you did, Uncle, as I grew more ill in the weeks following Cris's disappearance."
"Disappearance? Weeks? Child, there he sits."
"Uncle, he was gone for weeks, and I almost died for the want of him."
"Child," Tarnus blinked several times, "you were standing there with me when Cris departed and a moment later you were still with me as he returned."
"The Rapna returned after three minutes and twenty-two seconds from departure," Capek said.
"There, you see," Tarnus concluded.
"Tarnus," Cris spoke softly, "Tattie and I lived through a far worse ordeal. I don't really know how long, but I think we were weeks away from one another. We both grew very ill, and nearly died."
"What?"
"I think I may have an explanation," Capek said, "at least in part; somehow, you two lived an alternate reality from our current reality.
"You experienced one of the many paradoxes of time. You see, from any point in time, the decisions we make, or fail to make, can spin us off into any of an infinite number of possible futures."
"Granted, Capek," Cris said. "What I don't understand is how I got back here from one hundred fifty million light years away and Tattie and I got a second chance."
"And how is it," Tattie asked, "that he seems to have fulfilled his task and gotten back here within mere moments of his departure? And he and I still recall the weeks that passed that never were."
"Tattie, it appears that the answer to that question lies outside the purview of the scientist," Capek said, folding his arms as Tarnus was wont to do. "I suggest the answer resides with a metaphysicist."
"A what?" asked Tarnus.
"A wizard, my brother."
"Yup," said Cris, "Mag'Osnik. Should have known. How do we summon him?"
Tarnus laughed. "Cris, one does not summon the great Thaumatergon. He appears when it suits him, the old gimba!"
"Not so—when I first got here, the Parenmer people who took care of me mixed some stuff together and summoned him; in fact, he was a little miffed at having been disturbed."
"Cris, what kind of stuff did they mix?" Tattie asked anxiously.
"It was two thick liquids, one brown, and the other silver."
Tattie sat back against the sofa and exhaled deeply. "And where did you see these liquids?"
"In these underground tunnels the Parenmer had dug out from under their villag
e."
Tattie looked at Tarnus. "Vocat," she said.
Tarnus took a deep breath and said, "Vocat duos parse."
"Say what?" Cris asked.
"That is the only way known to call the Thaumatergon," Tattie replied.
"Those liquids are of unknown composition and origin," Capek continued, "and were provided to the Parenmerians by Mag'Osnik himself, and, interestingly, only a few days before your arrival.
"Undoubtedly, they were destroyed when Caval Du Mal had the village razed. He demanded thoroughness from his slaves and mercenaries."
"Great," Cris said, "so we just have to wait for him to feel like showing up with the answers."
"I have an idea," Tattie said. "Uncles, if you will excuse us, Cris and I will go hunt for our elusive friend."
"Where?" Tarnus asked. "Where would you possibly begin such a search?"
Tattie smiled. "In our dreams—where else?"
○O○
As Cris dozed off, he was again on JILL, in the Crater House Restaurant, standing in front of the large window, looking out at the full Earth over the lunar surface. Turning around, he found he was alone in the restaurant and it was dark—illuminated only by the glow of the full planet behind him. He noticed his right hand was warm. "Tattie?"
"I am here, Cris."
"Where?"
"In the cave where we sheltered from the rain."
Cris thought that quite strange, she sounded as if she were standing right next to him. "How do I get to you?"
"Close your eyes and imagine yourself here."
The instant Cris closed his eyes and recalled the inside of the cave, he materialized on the same rock he had sat upon that cold, rainy night that now seemed a hundred years ago. Before he could speak, they both heard the voice. "Oh, no, not that wet, cold hole in the ground. I much prefer this comfortable restaurant on Earth's Moon." There was a flash of that pale blue light, and Cris and Tattie were in the Crater House, hand in hand, looking out the large picture window.
Across a Sea of Stars Page 46
