She turned on her holovision coverage of the London siege. As usual, the Brits were showing an abundance of courage in the face of insurmountable odds. The population was of one mind; they would fight until the last man. Unfortunately, that time was fast approaching. Westminster Abbey, Parliament House and the London Eye were gone. Nelson’s column in Trafalgar Square stood defiant to the end, but the Royal Family had fled from Buckingham Palace and were transmitting messages of encouragement from Balmoral in Scotland.
She thought of what Merrik had said. New York was next on the agenda for destruction. She needed to see the Admiral.
#
Hickory made her way along the corridor to what had once been the welcome room of the Prince of Wales. Now, it served as an emergency hospital. Scores of injured crew were being treated for burns and shattered bones. She caught sight of the Admiral giving comfort to a man who had lost an arm and realized with a shock he was James Brandt, the Admiral’s second in command. George Sebastian Lace spotted his adopted daughter, patted Brandt’s good arm, and came over.
He looked at her, his eyes grim and rimmed red through lack of sleep. “My quarters are still intact. Let’s talk there.” He led the way, striding past mangled steel, smoke-filled air, and melted glass. Crewmen rushed past in both directions to the sound of strident alarms signaling new hull breaches. Once inside his cabin, he brushed the papers off his desktop and indicated she should sit opposite. “How are things on Earth?” he asked.
She thought for a second he was asking about her grandmother, but no. Her heart sank a little lower. He didn’t know, hadn’t spoken to Maria since her daughter had died. “Unstable,” she said. “I’ve shown the leader of the house your video letter and filled him in on the background to Merrik’s treachery, but of course he doesn’t really believe it. He has, however, issued a category five disaster alert for New New York, and they are proceeding to evacuate the city center. He wouldn’t have done as much without your support, so thanks, but he wants hard evidence before he will act on Merrik.”
“That’s understandable. Merrik’s a very powerful woman and not someone he’d want to cross. Is anybody doing anything down there?” He rubbed his eyes and glared at her.
“The inner senate are in never-ending meetings trying to agree on what to do. Gareth and his team of university researchers are working on the black box conundrum as we speak. I’m hopeful they will come up with something that might help, but regardless, I need to find a way to get on board Kabutai’s battlecruiser before it leaves London.”
“Which, by my estimation, will be two weeks at most. I don’t envy you, Hickory. What do you think you can do that Merrik couldn’t?”
She wondered about that. There was no Teacher to guide her, no Jess or Gareth to stand in battle beside her. It was solely up to her. She would face death and would either prevail over Kabutai and the Sword, or die.
At least, the prospect of death held no fears for her. She found a moment to regret she might never see Sikona, Sabrina, nor Anyar again, but she was satisfied with the knowledge she would die trying to give them—all of them—a new life free from the yoke of the Warlord’s tyranny.
Aslexis gave her pause. She loved the man. It was the first time she’d truly understood what it meant to love and be loved. It made her feel deliciously warm to know she wanted his baby. But if she didn’t survive, he would continue to prosper. He had his work and would find another in time. What she had to do, she did for him and all mankind.
The Admiral interrupted her contemplation. “Do you have any ideas on how you might get on board?”
“I’ve been thinking about it. How long would it take for the Wales to travel from Auriga to Earth?”
“About five days, most of which is the sub-light approach once it reaches the solar system.”
“It’s taken him three months. Even using his old-gen FTL technology, he should have been here weeks ago.”
He shrugged. “He took time to harness the power of the Sword.”
“I don’t think Kabutai would have waited. He’d have done his learning on the battlecruiser.”
The Admiral shook his head. “I don’t see the point.”
“The point is he couldn’t use the Sword of Connat to increase his FTL capacity. Only the Sergioni could do so. But he did find a way to enhance his shield through the power of the Sword. That took time to learn. I figure to keep the field operating at full strength, he needs to link his mind to the Sword, and while he’s doing that, he’s personally vulnerable.”
“You still need to get on board.”
“You’ve thrown everything you can against Kabutai’s ship?”
“Not just The Prince of Wales, every ship in the fleet has had a go, and Earth has fired massive nuclear missiles at him. Everything explodes on contact with his force field, but the blast is always directed away from him.”
“Over time, a normal field would crumple with the sort of barrage he’s been receiving. The Sword of Connat is powerful but not inexhaustible. There has to be a weak spot.”
The Admiral pursed his lips in thought. “We’ve tried every weapon known to man.”
Hickory grinned. The adrenaline rush from the energy sparks almost overpowered her. She felt a need to run, to jump. Instead, she rose to her feet. “What about something unknown to man. Admiral, I want you to authorize me to fly a small emergency life pod into the battlecruiser’s forcefield. I believe the symbiosis between the energy sparks I carry and the Sword will enable me to get through.”
#
“You must be mad!” Jess’s image almost popped out of the viewphone. “You can’t just walk into the Warlord’s lair unarmed; it’ll be suicide.”
Gareth, on the other channel, agreed. “Can’t you wait until we’ve finished analyzing how and why the box operates? A few weeks, that’s all. Then I’ll come with you. We can do this together.”
“Calm down, guys. First off, we can’t wait any longer. I must stop Kabutai from destroying London and New York. And I’d love to have you by my side, but you wouldn’t survive. The force-field is generated via the Sword and it would identify you as an enemy. You’d be destroyed before you got near the battlecruiser. This is something only I can do.” If I can do it. “The energy sparks should protect me until I get inside.”
Jess rolled her eyes. “How can you be sure the sparks and the Sword won’t join together again?”
Hickory shook her head. “I can’t be sure. They chose to come to me. I believe they’ll stay.”
Gareth rolled his head in a circle to release the tension. “But, even so…I’ve met this guy, remember? Without the Sword, he was too strong for us to handle. There’s no point in you sacrificing your life for nothing.”
Hickory smiled grimly. “I’d rather not, but I need to do this.” She hesitated. Neither Jess nor Gareth liked the thought of her going into battle without them. Jess would complain, but in the end, she’d understand the futility of arguing. Gareth was more stubborn – he’d refuse to leave her side, no matter the personal risk. “How far have you got?” she asked him.
“I’m still working on deciphering the Lorentzian Manifold metrics and the quantum state vectors. Without them, we have absolutely no control over dimensional space-time navigation.”
“Are you saying it will work? We can interact with other, what… dimensions? We just can’t select which ones?”
“Other dimensions, parallel universes, alternate realities.” Gareth rolled his eyes. “Well, yes, I suppose so. It’s untested, and quite possibly, your mind would reject the massive data input, in which case, you’d go mad.” He raised one eyebrow.
“I think I should take it for a test drive.”
Jess’s hand flew to her mouth. “Hickory, it’s far too risky.”
Gareth rubbed his nose and glanced at Jess. “Em, I might be able to create a limited run in a relatively safe sphere of activity. Ah, or… maybe not.” He faltered at Jess’s furious look.
“What does rel
atively safe mean, boyo? Relative to what?”
Hickory rubbed Jess’s back, touched by her concern. “He means relative to facing up to Kabutai in his own backyard, unprepared.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to do anything silly, but a taste of how this works before I meet the warlord should stand me in good stead.”
CHAPTER 30
Test Drive
Next morning, in the university lab, Hickory wasn’t feeling so confident as Gareth strapped her onto a narrow bed.
“Just want to make sure you don’t accidentally hurt yourself or anyone else during the experiment. I’ll be putting you into a deep sleep to begin with, and I expect you to transition to REM within forty-five minutes to an hour. Then we’ll activate the Black Box. After that, we’re in pathfinder territory.”
“Hickory, are you sure you want to do this?” Jess had circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. She held Hickory’s hand tightly.
Hickory nodded and smiled. She hadn’t slept much last night either. “I won’t be able to defeat Kabutai without help, and no one from the now, our own universe, can get near Achilles. I need to see what’s out there.”
Gareth took a full syringe from a nearby table and held it point up, looking down at her. “We think the onset of the black box interaction with your sparks will propel you into a state of super-consciousness. It’s possible your body will react negatively, especially when you try to persuade figures from other dimensions to come to you. At that point, you’ll be on your own, because only you will experience the enabling symbiosis between the Black Box and your sparks. For us in this space, it’ll seem as though you’re suffering from RBD, REM sleep behavior disorder, although you won’t actually be asleep.”
“But you’ll be able to wake me, pull me out if things get out of hand?”
“We’ll monitor all your vital signs and record the whole episode. We should have a full set of data at the completion of the experiment. If it looks like you’re losing it, I’ll snap the connection pronto.” He grinned weakly. “Good luck. Are you ready?”
#
Hickory yawned. “Get on with it, Gareth.” She opened her eyes, expecting to see the grinning face of her friend, then sat bolt upright. No restraints. Have I come out of it already? She walked to the lab window but could see nothing. Night had fallen. She’d been out longer than she thought, maybe four or five hours. Where was everybody?
The air shimmered in the middle of the room and she saw the faint outline of Gareth and his assistants crouched over an operating table. She called, but no sound came out. God, they must have activated the box. She checked herself over, stretching her arms and legs and testing her neck. Nothing seemed amiss, except she had no voice. She walked to Gareth and his team. They were still as statues, then she saw a slight quiver of Gareth’s eyes. Not quite still, just moving so slowly, she could hardly detect it. Abruptly, Gareth and the others flickered and disappeared.
Whoa! The room was still there, but it was empty and seemed older, dilapidated, not the spartan clean of the laboratory. She took a deep breath. Okay. That’s weird. What do I do now?
Gareth had told her she would know when the box and sparks were fully integrated because the environment would become fluid. When that happened, she should concentrate on bringing something familiar to her, something safe and friendly to hopefully minimize the opportunity for danger.
“We think it’s possible the known Universe which we call ‘the now’ is actually one of an infinite number of universes existing at different points in space-time,” he’d told her. You should assume the laws of nature in the now will not be the same elsewhere. For that reason, try to stay in the present time dimension, don’t visit the past or the future. If you’re successful and our theory is correct, there will be one universe in the present time for every imaginable scenario.”
“How do you mean?” she’d asked.
“For example, in the now you’re in a room in Hawaii University. Everything you see, hear, touch, taste and smell is as it should be. But somewhere there is an alternate universe where one or more of those senses will be different. In fact, with an infinite number of universes, everything you can think of becomes a variable – a variable of the complex equation of life. No two universes can be alike. And this is where it gets interesting. Our analysis of the box suggests every living thing you’ve ever interacted with in your life has counterparts living in multiple planes of existence in the present.”
Time to test out the theory. She focused her mind on Bonni, seeing her running beside her, “Here girl.”
A red-coated sheepdog glimmered and solidified in front of her. She’d navigated to a spatial dimension where the pup was in this room right now.
“Bonni!”
The kelpie seemed confused at first to see Hickory, where seconds before the room had been empty. It sniffed then trotted over to her. Hickory hugged the dog, her heart overflowing. “Good to see you girl,” she whispered. The Kelpie quivered and disappeared, and Hickory felt unaccountably sad.
I wonder, she thought and drew a deep breath. She brought to mind an image of the Teacher. She felt the sparks swirl excitedly in her body.
A shape coalesced in one corner of the room, but it wasn’t the Teacher.
Ah, the imposter. Long and far have I searched for you, and at last I have you. The harsh voice of the Riv-Amok struck fear into her heart.
“What are you doing here? I didn’t call you.” She stumbled backward.
You called to the Teacher and I knew your voice.
The Riv-Amok was a unique and powerful telepath who had at their first meeting tried to rend her tooth and claw. If the Teacher hadn’t intervened, she would have died as Saurab had died, ripped to shreds and devoured.
Amid her terror, Hickory realized the beast had not only heard her but had traversed other universe boundaries to reach her. The fact startled her until she realized this was simply the manifestation of another variable in the equation of life.
Using its claws on the tips of massive leathery wings and two smaller legs at its rear, the monster dragged itself towards her. It reared up and thrust its open mouth at her, displaying huge canine teeth.
She backed into the wall and screamed. “Gareth!”
#
Hickory yawned and opened her eyes.
Gareth and Jess were looking down at her with concern. Gareth checked the monitors and breathed a sigh of relief. “Welcome back. We were worried for a bit there.”
“What? Have I done it, what happened? I can’t remember anything.”
“That’s a common effect of RBD, but I recorded the electrical signals of the images from your brain, and I can guarantee there was a lot going on. It’s all there for the guys to analyze and they should be able to reconstruct everything that happened to you.”
“Will it help with the real thing?”
Gareth nodded. “I hope so. I think so. At the least, you’ve had a taste of what you can do.”
Jess handed her a glass filled with water. “And hopefully what not to do.”
Hickory smiled grimly. “I need to do this, but there are two things I’d like your help with. I don’t intend to go in totally unarmed. I can’t smuggle a firearm on board; I’m sure the Sword’s defense system wouldn’t allow it. So, I’d like to borrow your sword, Gareth.”
Gareth looked away, and a flush rose up his neck. “What sword’s that, Captain?”
Hickory sat up and sipped her water. “The one you didn’t think I knew about. The one you smuggled aboard before we left Prosperine on our last mission. The one Sabin made for you tempered with crynidium and hardened in fire so it would slice open chain mail. That one.”
“How did—never mind. Of course, you can take it, and I also happen to have some gold inlaid Bikashi chest armor that should just about fit you.” He grinned at her.
Jess laughed. “What’s the second thing you want from us, Captain?”
CHAPTER 31
The Sword of Connat
The fighter’s thrusters fired a five-second burst and then cut off. “Going dark now, Admiral. Wish me luck.” Hickory turned off all systems, and the jet glided straight, slow and silent toward the battlecruiser.
Hope they don’t decide to take me out for target practice. If the plan works, I shouldn’t raise any alarms, the jet will register as non-threatening to the Sword.
The forcefield surrounding the battlecruiser appeared as a sparkling cloud of dust. She estimated it was five miles away, and touched the crucifix at her neck, thinking of Talya, Maria, and her mother. If this doesn’t work, I guess I’ll be joining you girls sooner than I expected. Hickory was surprised the thought didn’t fill her with dread.
The spaceship approached within one mile of the barrier, and the energy sparks inside her grew ever more agitated. Hickory’s skin took on a deep golden glow as the sparks gravitated there. The sense of euphoria was almost overwhelming. Calm down. Must remain conscious. The barrier glistened as she neared the outskirts of the forcefield. She felt the meeting of the Sword and her energy sparks as a joyful reunion of friends thought lost forever.
The bejeweled surface opened like the petals of a tulip in the sun. A dozen silky filaments extruded from the battlecruiser and wrapped themselves around the jet. Hickory sensed delight and wellbeing from her sparks, more—the two energy sources were communicating in a melodic data stream.
She felt the dart being drawn into the forcefield, the entity enveloping her, caressing the ship towards the battlecruiser.
The cargo bay door opened into a massive cavern, and the dart entered. The ship settled, and after a few seconds, normal air pressure resumed, and its canopy slid back.
Hickory jumped to the floor. The Bikashi armor felt a little uncomfortable, but the longsword glittered, feeling secure in her hand. She activated her SIM and attempted to reach Gareth. Reception was fragmented, so she adjusted the amplitude and reached for her empathic ability. The line became clearer. Any word from Jess?
Fractured Prophecy Page 24
