Eternity's End

by Jeffrey Carver

  Legroeder shivered at the memory: the frantic, terrifying dash through the minefield, and then the Chimney, the Fool's Refuge... chased by raiders and flux torpedoes and fear, and somehow finding his way. He hadn't thought much about how he had gotten through, except to be grateful that he'd been so monumentally lucky.

  "You think other riggers could have done that? I understand quite a few have tried, and died."

  Tracy-Ace, Legroeder realized, was gazing at him with a strangely penetrating expression, and a hint of a smile on her lips. He shrugged, not to her but to YZ/I.

  "And according to Rigger Deutsch's report, you led a pretty good chase through the bottom layers of the Flux when you were engaging Flechette. Well, okay—maybe some other riggers could have done that." YZ/I was staring unblinking at him now, ripples of light running down his arms and torso. "But I don't know any riggers—except maybe a couple of our maintainers—who could have seen those features of the Deep FLux that you picked out in the maintainers' net. And you weren't even in the net! You were just watching an image on the wall!"

  Legroeder felt a sudden dizziness, remembering. Yes, he had seen those features. But so what? What did that mean?

  "You don't even know that you're unusual, do you? At DeNoble, they were too dumb to recognize what they had." YZ/I cocked his head and gestured to Tracy-Ace. "Why do you think she took you into a high-security area like that? For your health?"

  Open-mouthed, Legroeder turned to Tracy-Ace. "I thought it was—I don't know—that you were trying to gain my trust."

  She inclined her head. "Yes, I was. But that part didn't work so well, did it?"

  YZ/I chuckled. "Of course she wanted to gain your trust. But I also wanted to know what you would see there. And what you saw... tells me you're worth taking a gamble on." His voice became almost solemn. "You have the vision. You see deeper than my people. Or at least, differently. That's why I want you to go."

  "Well, I—"

  "And I want you to take some of your Narseil friends with you."

  Legroeder closed his open mouth. For a few seconds, he was speechless. "You want the Narseil to go?"

  "Yes, because they'll see things that no human will see. Don't you get it? I want to send out the full spectrum—my people with their augments, you, the Narseil. Everyone together."

  Legroeder's voice caught. "I'm having just a little trouble believing this. You want to work with the Narseil?"

  "That's what I said, didn't I? Do I have to repeat everything?" YZ/I reached into a compartment on his chair. "Do you want a cigar?"

  "No. Thank you."

  Looking disappointed, YZ/I withdrew his hand. "Anyway, yes—I think it's time we and the Narseil talked. It might be very useful for us to exchange information."

  Legroeder gave a harsh laugh. "And it might be useful if you stopped raiding innocent shipping!"

  YZ/I grimaced and reached into his cigar compartment again. His hand seemed to war with his mind for a moment, before he snapped the compartment shut, empty handed. He drew himself up. "As a matter of fact... that could be on the table, too."

  Legroeder blinked, startled.

  YZ/I looked pained and angry, and not eager to say more. Tracy-Ace looked as if she wanted to kick him. Instead, she turned to Legroeder. "The free ride. YZ/I, unlike some of the other bosses, has begun to recognize what some of us have been saying for a long time—the free ride may be coming to an end. The raiding. The tax. We've been living on it so long now—"

  "It's made us soft," YZ/I growled. "Soft and lazy. And we're supposed to go out and colonize the Well of Stars?" He snorted.

  "I think what YZ/I is trying to say," Tracy-Ace said slowly, "is that, in addition to making us soft, all the raiding has made us vulnerable."

  Legroeder didn't hide his confusion.

  "Look, we know that there are some, like the Narseil, who are getting ready to come looking for us. With guns. The ship you came on was just a start."

  "Well—"

  "We know you came here to talk, if you could," Tracy-Ace said. "But you also came to gather intelligence to wipe us out, if you could. We're not idiots."

  "Oh hell," YZ/I muttered. "If you're going to tell him everything. Don't get cocky, Legroeder. We could fight your fleets. But sometimes—" sparks of light shot through his face, as though it hurt to say it "—sometimes, it makes more sense to talk. And that's what I want to do with the Narseil. Talk. And... go after something of mutual benefit. So, are you interested?" He rocked back in his chair.

  "I'm interested," Legroeder said. "But what are you offering in return? Besides some vague promise to talk?"

  "Why, you—" YZ/I cursed in a tongue Legroeder didn't recognize, but there was no mistaking the tone. He reached into his seat compartment, grabbed a cigar, and snapped the end of it alight. He blew an enormous cloud of smoke into the air. "Isn't Impris enough? I send you home with your friends, and you get to clear your name. Plus we open lines of talk. Isn't that enough?"

  Legroeder held his breath until the smoke cleared, thinking, it wasn't as if he was in a position of power here; but on the other hand, YZ/I had gone to a lot of trouble to enlist him. "Seems to me," he said, with a cough, "that there's more at stake here. You mentioned a willingness to end the piracy."

  "Rings!" YZ/I shouted. "I didn't say I would discuss it with you!"

  Legroeder shot back, "You didn't say you wouldn't." He took a breath, gestured with one hand. "Look, you're telling me all about how you want to talk with the Narseil, and share with the Narseil, and give up the free ride."

  YZ/I waved the burning tip of his cigar. "Your point?"

  "And you've told me all about Carlotta conspiring with the Centrists, and Carlotta this and Carlotta that, but you haven't said a word about yourself. How do I know you're not as involved in piracy as she is? Not to mention slavery." A rush of memories from DeNoble threatened to overwhelm him. He forced them back down, and glanced at Tracy-Ace out of the corner of his eye. How do I know you aren't involved in it, too? he wanted, and didn't want, to say.

  YZ/I shrugged. "We keep our ear to the deck on the Centrist Worlds, if that's what you mean. But we don't have our hooks in their governments, like KM/C. The raiding—okay. I see it can't last. Carlotta, she doesn't see it. Neither do some of the other bosses. We've got a disagreement in that regard." YZ/I raised his right hand and held it so that he could look into his own palm, as though studying the threaded pattern of light there. "With all the things we don't agree on, it's a wonder we've gotten this fleet assembled at all."

  He eyed Legroeder. "So if we do this thing, KM/C isn't going to like it. And she isn't going to like our collaborating with the Narseil. These are things I have to think about. I don't live in isolation. Carlotta likes her cozy arrangement."

  "But wouldn't it be to everyone's benefit to find out why ships are disappearing?" Legroeder asked. And wouldn't it also be to the benefit of that Kyber fleet that I want to stop? Hell and damnation.

  "Yeah, but it wasn't Carlotta's probe ships that got lost, so what's she care? You rescue Impris and that'll interfere with a lucrative raiding setup." YZ/I shrugged. "Couldn't happen to a nicer person."

  Legroeder thought about getting KM/C even angrier at him than she was already...

  "So needless to say, I'm taking one hell of a risk just underwriting the mission. So don't give me a lot of crap about what other risks I ought to be taking on."

  Legroeder closed his eyes. Had he pushed as far as he could push? Probably he would be smart to stop here, and just agree to it. Bring Impris back, clear his name, get people talking. What were Harriet and Morgan up to now? And Maris? They seemed a universe away, another lifetime. He was supposed to ask about Bobby Mahoney. Jesus Christ, he'd almost forgotten. But this wasn't the time...

  "And yet," he found himself saying, "you continue to fly, and fight, with forced labor."

  YZ/I glared in astonishment. "Christ, you don't give up, do you, boy?" He coughed on the cigar smoke; the stench was mak
ing Legroeder dizzy. "Yeah, we fly with captives. It's part of our history. What do you want me to do about it?"

  "Give it up."

  YZ/I gave a long, sputtering laugh. "Give it up!" He snapped his fingers. "Just like that!"

  "You said you were the underground. You want things to change."

  "Yeah, we're the underground," YZ/I said slowly. "And the reason we're the underground is you don't just change things overnight. People like Lanyard—they've got friends."

  Legroeder felt as if he were sliding on ice, unable to stop. "You're getting soft and lazy, preying on the innocent."

  YZ/I stood up and shouted, "Fuck... you... boy! Don't you talk to me that way!"

  Legroeder realized he had involuntarily raised an arm to ward off a blow.

  YZ/I stood before him, his face a meteor shower of fury. Then he shifted his glare to Tracy-Ace. "What are you looking at?" he shouted.

  Tracy-Ace raised her eyebrows.

  "Rings." YZ/I chomped his cigar and turned his back to them for a moment. Then he sat and shook his head. "You have to understand some history here, for chrissake. Jesus! You don't know what it was like."

  But I'm about to find out...

  "The Centrists cut us off. Treated us like scum, like nonhumans. Sure, they made peace. Peace." YZ/I snorted. "Peace with no future, peace as long as no one with hardware in their brains had a planet to live on, or worlds to conquer. They cast us off, cut us off, and sent us to live in Golen Space. And you wonder why the Free Kyber started raiding shipping, three generations ago? What else were they supposed to do?"

  Legroeder opened his mouth, closed it. "But you said you want to change it."

  "Yes! We need each other! I know that! But it can't be done overnight. There's just no way."

  Legroeder leaned forward. "So make a start. Start it here. This is your chance to make history."

  YZ/I glared, his anger clearly rising.

  Tracy-Ace rubbed the flickering augments by her left eye, and said softly, "He's saying what I've been saying, YZ/I."

  "Do me a favor," Legroeder said, "and put up that image of the fleet again. The colony fleet."

  The monitors changed to the fleet image.

  "Big fleet. Must be hundreds of ships."

  "Over a thousand," YZ/I said.

  Legroeder nodded. "And it means a lot to you to have the fleet get through safely. A lot of effort. Resources. Lives." Legroeder pressed his lips together. What am I talking about trading here? His head was pounding.

  YZ/I stared at him furiously.

  "End the piracy."

  YZ/I spat to one side. "We'll talk about it later."

  "You're asking me to risk my life. And you want me to trust that we'll talk about it? Send me and the Narseil home with Impris. You can have all the information we get from her. It could save your fleet."

  YZ/I snarled and blew smoke at him.

  Legroeder let the smoke pass. "If we're going to deal, make it real."

  YZ/I flung down his cigar. "Guards!" he shouted.

  Before Legroeder could finish drawing a breath, there were four heavily armed and augmented Kyber soldiers surrounding him on the dais. Tracy-Ace was staring at YZ/I, wide-eyed. Legroeder's heart was pounding so hard he could barely hear YZ/I's next words.

  "You think you can just waltz in here and tell me what to do! Guards, take this man to—" YZ/I suddenly broke off and jerked his gaze over to Tracy-Ace. They stood facing each other with silent glares, joined as though by a high-voltage charge. Legroeder watched them in numb bewilderment, trying not to think about the neutraser muzzles that were pointing at his chest. Tracy-Ace's implants were pulsing at a frantic rate; YZ's face looked like a contained explosion. What the devil was going on between them?

  Suddenly Tracy-Ace cried out in pain, staggering. YZ/I turned with a curse to one of the soldiers. "Stand down your men. I'll call you if I need you."

  The soldiers melted away. Tracy-Ace rubbed her temple and stood straight again, scowling.

  YZ/I looked down at the floor where his cigar lay smoldering. Then he looked up at Legroeder. "I will negotiate—not with you, but with the Narseil commander—on a timetable for ceasing hostilities. If we come to agreement—and I think we will—you'll do the mission. Agreed?"

  Legroeder forced himself to draw a breath. "One more thing."

  YZ/I's eyes danced with fire. "What, damn it?"

  "A small thing—to you. There's a boy..." He told YZ/I about Bobby Mahoney and Harriet. "Would you try to find him? See if he's okay? Release him?"

  YZ/I's gaze softened and he sighed. "All right. I'll see what I can do."

  Legroeder nodded thanks, his head spinning.

  "Any agreement we reach is for Ivan only," YZ/I continued. "I can't speak for the other bosses."

  Legroeder nodded again. "What about information about Impris, and a ship?"

  "You'll go with the best we've got. KM/C could cause us trouble, so we'll have to send some escort." YZ/I rubbed his temple in thought. "Not too much, though. Can't have it looking like an armada."

  Legroeder's heartrate was slowly easing. "Who are you sending with me?"

  "I think... two or three Narseil riggers of your choice, and—Freem'n Deutsch, as well. He will represent our own rigger force. You, however, will be the lead rigger."

  "Me?"

  "You have the experience and the will to see the job done right. Don't you want it?"

  Legroeder shrugged. "All right."

  "Good. We'll begin preparations immediately." YZ/I called an aide from the ops room and began muttering in the man's ear.

  Tracy-Ace stepped closer and squeezed Legroeder's hand. He felt a surge of the link, and a bewildering array of emotions, triumph and gratitude among them. This struggle had been as much between her and YZ/I as between the Boss and Legroeder. He found himself wishing he were alone with her.

  "Oh, yes," YZ/I said suddenly. "In case you're wondering, Tracy-Ace/Alfa will not be flying with you. I have other things I need her for. But what the hell—it'll give you something to look forward to when you get back, eh?"

  Legroeder felt his face redden.

  YZ/I laughed in satisfaction. "You'd better get going, if you want to be the one to break the news to your Narseil captain."

  Tracy-Ace gave Legroeder a tug. It took no further persuasion to get him moving from YZ/I's presence.

  * * *

  They finally got a chance to talk, on the way to the detention area. "I misled you about what I knew," Tracy-Ace said, when they were in a corridor with no one around. "I'm sorry." She turned to face him.

  He swallowed, licking his lips. "You, uh, weren't the only one to do that, I guess."

  "No." A smile flickered across her face. "But, you know, we might not have gotten a chance to know each other... the same way... if we hadn't."

  Legroeder remembered the anger he'd felt when he first realized that she had deceived him. He took her hand. "I guess not. I'm glad, anyway... about last night."

  As their hands joined, he felt a tingle, and a flickering of augments. And... not quite a voice, but a presence. Did it because I wanted you... couldn't help it... not just a job. Do you believe me? I believe you, he thought; want to believe you. How could so much have happened, in such a short space of time? The answer was flowing through his fingertips, of course; it might otherwise have taken years. He felt a knot in his stomach, a vague dizziness. Like a lovesick puppy. Memories of a few hours ago were popping like camera flashes in the juncture between them, and his blood pressure was starting to rise.

  "Let's get going to see Fre'geel," he said raspily, afraid he would lose all ability to control his thoughts.

  She drew a slow breath and they turned and continued down the corridor.

  Legroeder could not help chuckling as they hurried toward the detention center. Fre'geel and the others, he guessed, were going to be very, very surprised.

  PART THREE

  Deep into that darkness peering,

  long I sto
od there wondering, fearing...

  —Edgar Allan Poe

  Prologue

  Impris

  In the shifting sands of time, the starship seemed always to be sliding, falling, never quite at a point where human intervention could bring it under control. It was not the slide of time itself that befuddled its occupants so much as the endless spinning pirouettes, the sideways shifts and turns that left them eternally breathless and anchorless.

  And anchorless the starship was, in a network of splintered spacetime that stretched up and down the spiral arms of the galaxy, and from one end of time to the other...

  * * *

  Jamal awoke with a start, sweating and shaking. He sat for a moment, staring into the darkness, listening to the sounds of Impris around him; then he growled to his cabin for a nightlight. As the pale orange glow came up, he peered around, breathing heavily, reassuring himself that everything in his cabin was normal. As normal as anything could be on the haunted ship.

  Except in his head. The nightmare was back again, returned to plague him. Damn you, he thought. Damn you damn you...

  Cursing the thing that lay in wait for them—great writhing monster of the Flux, lurking invisibly, waiting for them to move their net in the wrong direction...

  Jamal shut his eyes, willing the image away. Poppy had been complaining of it two nights ago, and last week Sully. Where the hell was this vision coming from? It couldn't be real.

  The monster stretched in a tortuous line across the sky—a great threatening serpent, turning this way and that, looking for them. No question about that: it was looking for them. Looking to devour any living thing that fell within its reach. And they were falling... falling...

  Jamal's eyes snapped open again. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, counting to ten. Do not let it control you, he thought grimly. It's only a dream.

  Only a dream.

  A dream to fill an already nightmarish existence, stranded in a limbo without end, without hope. God, was it just his subconscious? Or was this realm of insanity finally becoming complete? No, surely it was just a nightmare.