by Mark Oliver
The table broke out into murmurs.
"Although we only operate on the very edge of the Wrake Pass," the scientist said, "we still run the risk of roller interference."
"However the cost was well worth it," Chief Lade said. He was sat on Doctor Sree's right. The other silver men and women went quiet. When Lade spoke, people listened. Doctor Sree wished he had the same effect on a crowd. People usually sneered at him, and went right on talking.
Lade raised a silver eyebrow at the scientist, signalling him to continue.
"Yes, yes, definitely," Doctor Sree said. "The Wrake Pass remains the best place to open a rift and draw out the energy we need to fire the rift engines. And we learned a great deal from our experiments out there. In fact, work has already begun on a much larger, more efficient engine. This second generation engine will be large enough to power a destroyer, pushing it up to thirty per cent light speed."
"And at that speed," the CEO said, "how long will it take to circumnavigate the Pass and reach Poklawi space?"
"Two months."
A nervous energy flittered around the table.
"When will it be ready?"
"Give me two weeks," Doctor Sree said, happy to see the looks of surprise on the silver faces. They had obviously held little hope for his experiments and now he was handing them everything they had always dreamed of. One point for the regular, he thought.
The CEO slammed her slender fists on the table. "Ladies and Gentleman of the board, we now have our battle date. Two weeks from today we set voyage for Poklawi." As she spoke, her calm, motherly countenance vanished. Her raised chin and flashing eyes showed hope and power and vengeance. "No longer will those red savages be able to hide behind their river of rolling beasts."
A wave of excitement passed around the table.
"No longer will the turen traitors be able to hit us and flee like cowards into the Pass with their red allies." The CEO rose to her feet. A hush descended on the room. "And when we have seized Poklawi, enslaving whatever barbarians remain, and crushed the dregs of the resistance here on Seenthee, we will turn our eyes outwards. We will fit a fleet of destroyers with these rift engines and take them beyond the known realm, in search of new planets to conquer. For this is the beginning of a new dawn in Corporation history. The dawn of the inter-galactic empire of the Corporation."
Everyone around the table rose to their feet, and all, except Doctor Sree and the silent Lade, pumped their fists in the air and chanted, "Corporation, Corporation, Corporation . . . "
"I trust you have said nothing of what happened on the destroyer?" Lade said in a voice as cold and hard as his eyes. The board members had filtered out of the room. Executive Ko had waited and entered, taking her rightful place beside her master.
Lade spoke without fear of being overheard, having activated the anti-eavesdropping device on his lapel, one of several tiny devices known only to him and a handful of trusted executives in the department of technology. The chief prized exclusive knowledge above all else, and those foolish enough to divulge his secrets died painful deaths.
And now Doctor Sree found himself in on the biggest secret of all, one that could bring Lade the Corporation CEO seat, so long craved for, so long denied. Ko, by failing to report the alien occurrence to her superiors in the department of military, had also aligned herself with Lade.
She must believe he can pull it off, Doctor Sree thought. If the military finds out she's been holding back, she'll be held in treason.
He rubbed his monobrow with his thumb and forefinger. To survive he would have to match these silvers for cunning and ruthlessness.
"No, Sir," Doctor Sree said, his nose releasing a pinched squeal. He started, and squeezed his nostrils together. Chief Lade curled his lips in disgust. "My team believe," the scientist went on, "that I have been carrying out only routine tests on the rift engines. I have shared my real findings with nobody." Although he could not see them, he could feel Ko's viper's eyes boring into the back of his head.
"Very good," Lade said.
Ko stepped into the scientist's line of sight, slipping a syringe into her pocket. The scientist swallowed. That was meant for me, he thought. In case he didn't believe me. He wondered whether the Chief had some kind of concealed lie detector on him. Or implanted inside him. The thought worried him.
"Tell me what you found out," Lade said.
"After the alien escaped I dispatched some drones to investigate the section of space we picked him up in. They've been beaming back data."
Lade ran a manicured finger across his chin. "What did they find?"
"Anomalies in the fabric of space close to where we found him."
Ko was listening, her expression as blank as always.
Doctor Sree paused. To Lade he said, "How much does she know?"
"Only that we have found a way to draw immense power from the Universe."
"She needs more if she's going to help us find him."
"Then give her the basics," Lade said and then sharply, "without the jargon."
Doctor Sree nodded. He loved showing off his superior knowledge to silvers and the prospect of doing so with Executive KO was delicious.
With an ill concealed smirk, he said, "The fabric is an invisible layer separating our Universe from a second dimension that runs parallel to it. The robundee call this dimension or realm the Divide.
"We know little about the Divide, but the late Doctor Krest hypothesised that with the right calculations and technology a ship could pass into it at one point in the Universe and come out seconds later at another. This point could be a day's flight away or on the opposite side of the Universe. The crazy fool tried it himself. It tore his ship, himself and his fiancée into a billion atoms, and the resulting surge of power badly damaged the pursuing destroyer."
"But every silver knows the Corporation tortured Doctor Krest and his lover to death," Ko said.
Lade folded his arms. When he spoke there was a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Nobody could know the truth. Krest was a traitor and yet he had found a way to tear a hole between our Universe and the Divide." He shook his head. "No, it was better to use his death as a warning to all silvers. Turn traitor and you'll suffer more pain than you can imagine. It worked too. No silver has since."
"Unfortunately," Doctor Sree continued, "most of Krest's data was lost in the explosion. He was a very secretive man and kept much of his findings to himself. I should know, I worked with him for the five years leading up to his death.
"But on the other hand, we now had concrete evidence that the Divide existed and that with the right tools we could access its immense power. It took me twenty years, but finally I pieced together his theories and developed the rift engine. You see its energy from the Divide that powers the engine and allows us to travel at such great speeds. The rift engine tears a rift in the fabric and sucks out the energy.
"And that brings us to here and the alien." He turned to Lade. "And the anomaly I found."
"Go on," Lade said.
"At first I didn't notice it because it occurred in the same location as our experiments. I almost missed it. But the drones didn't. They discovered that a much larger rift was torn in the fabric after our experiments. This rift stayed open for two full minutes. That's four hundred times longer than our rifts managed. It was through this rift that the alien passed into our galaxy. He opened it, halted the flow of energy, and crossed through."
"But we caught him in a turen ship," Lade said. "Not an alien one. And we found no alien artefacts, nothing hinting at a more technologically advanced species. How would he be able cross over without his own version of the rift engine?"
"It was our rift engines that pulled him over," Doctor Sree said. "I'm sure of it. We must have pulled him over. It's too much of a coincidence. Our experiments and his arrival must be linked."
"But there was someone waiting for him with a ship," Lade said. "It could have been them who brought him over."
Doctor Sree shook
his head. "Impossible. I'm the only person in the galaxy who knows how to activate the rift engines. Besides, the ship was a basic smuggler. It would not have been able to support a rift engine."
"Then what was it doing there?" Lade asked.
"Waiting for him, as you said," the scientist said. "I believe the pilot was a robundee pathfinder. The boy came through the Divide. That's roller territory and where there are rollers, there are pathfinders. The rollers must have told the robundee to meet him when he crossed over."
"But what has the alien got to do with the rollers?"
"I don't know," the scientist said.
"I don't like it, Sir," Ko said, turning to Lade. "If the robundee know about the alien, then so do the terrorists. They'll use him against us."
Lade stroked his chin. His eyes clouded over in thought. Finally, he spoke. "It's true, Executive. The alien is a threat, but he's an even greater opportunity. He has the power to open rifts." He turned to Doctor Sree. "Could he take a ship and its crew through the Divide?"
"No," the scientist said. "Our experiments have shown that no conscious being can survive the Divide. The boy must be uniquely hardwired to survive it. But we can still use him. With him on board we would have no need to travel out to the Wrake Pass to charge a rift engine. He could open a rift anywhere. And that's not all-" He paused, holding the two silvers in suspense. "He could keep the rift open indefinitely, filling the rift engine with as much energy as we need."
"How fast could we travel?" Lade said.
"I hypothesize that a minute's worth of divide energy could take our largest destroyer to light speed."
The chief's eyes glistened. "At that speed we could reach Poklawi in days. With a single destroyer we could destroy their defences, send down an occupying force and return to Seenthee. All in less than a month."
Chief Lade nodded, thoughts dancing behind his eyes. "The Corporation would have no choice but to elect me CEO. And that would be just the start." He smiled at both the scientist and Executive Ko, the prospect of ultimate power defrosting his icy exterior. "As CEO, with you two at my side, we could search out other Poklawis, conquer their inhabitants and set up a chain of turen colonies across the Universe. Our names would live forever in turen history."
Doctor Sree allowed himself a smile. The thrill of fame and glory ran through him. As the CEO's right hand man, he would show all those silvers. No more could they look down on him as an inferior subspecies. He was struck with such a wave of excitement that he almost punched the air.
Lade looked at Ko and said, "But first we need the boy."
"My informers have placed him in the palace of Lady Ori, a monarch residing in the far north of the planet. I have organised a team of operatives. They're ready to leave at my command. I shall find him and return with him no later than tomorrow night."
"Very good" Lade said. "Go now. And remember Executive, we need him alive."
Ko nodded, "Do I have permission to maim him?"
"Of course, Executive. But nothing permanent."
Ko's jaw shook for a second. Her eyes flashed green. Doctor Sree shuddered, thankful for the chief's protection.
Chapter 16
Charlie floated in a sea of white. All around him rollers weaved and rolled, waves of blue, red, gold and green crashing and reforming. He glowed just as brightly. His skin, flesh and bone had gone, replaced by a pulsing green energy. Within it a billion stars burned hot white, swirling and streaming. He was an emerald man carved into the whiteness.
He felt charged. Power flowed around him, through him and in him. Either the rollers snaking around him had shrunk to his size or he had expanded to theirs. He had no idea which, for he had nothing solid to refer to. There was only the glowing white Universe, the rollers and his pulsating green form.
He smiled and, basking in the energy, felt a sense of belonging he had never experienced before.
Then through the light came a rough, wet sensation. Charlie scanned the whiteness, confused as to where this unpleasantly physical feeling had come from. All around him, the light flickered. And then in the blink of an eye, it vanished and Charlie was lying on Lady Ori's bed, looking up at the beastly faces of Debel and Ius, furiously lapping at his nose and brow, crushing him under their weight.
He grimaced, and pushed them away, moaning for the world he had so cruelly been taken from. The desert stalkers sat up either side of him, their tongues wagging, expectant eyes staring at him. He sighed, reached into his pyjama pockets, pulled out a few pieces of meat, and threw them onto the floor beside the bed. The beasts leapt off him, and began fighting over the scraps.
The two guards sat either side of the bed, stopped cleaning the rifles balanced across their laps and glared at him. "Arsehole," muttered one of them.
Charlie winced. He forgot the concubines ate better than the mercenaries. The succulent meat the beasts were devouring was a once a year treat for the guards. Charlie had insulted them by throwing it to the pets. He pursed his lips and raised his palms in the air, as if to say what else he could do.
The pair of guards exchanged meaningful looks, shook their heads in disdain and went back to polishing their guns. They would sit their keeping watch over him until Lady Ori arrived.
Which, Charlie thought, will be any minute. The beasts' arrival was a sure sign of that. She always sent them to bed a few minutes before her. Charlie got up, and ignoring the guards, headed for the bathroom. It was a rule that all concubines receive her ladyship freshly showered and covered in cologne.
He stepped out of the three hundred and sixty degree shower, and stood in front of the mirror. Warm air blew down upon him. He reached for the cologne disperser, activated it and stretched his arms above him as a thin layer of sweet smelling liquid coated his bare body.
Outside, he heard the bedroom door open, and Lady Ori's stern commands to the guards. She talked to them much more harshly than to her concubine. Better hurry, Charlie told himself. Her ladyship did not do waiting.
He grabbed the bathroom door handle. But instead of feeling the cool metal against his palm, he slipped straight through it. He stumbled, but managed to stop himself slamming shoulder first into the door.
What the hell, Charlie thought. He straightened, glancing down at his right arm at the same time. What he saw sent a cold shiver up his spine. The whole part of his arm from fingertip to elbow was glowing. It shimmered the same electric green he had seen in his dream. He closed his eyes, squeezing them shut tight. Then he opened them.
But this was no dream. His arm still flickered, shining as brightly as a Las Vegas casino.
He held it up before his disbelieving eyes and examined it. As in his dream, the greenness was more than a simple glow. It consisted of millions upon millions of tiny stars, each sparking vibrantly. As he looked deeper into his arm, he saw the stars flow and stream and spin, arranging themselves into temporary constellations before dispersing once more. The infiniteness and chaos of it reminded Charlie of the rivers of energy he had seen on his ride inside the roller. A sensation of vertigo made him turn his eyes away.
"Charlie Scott" Lady Ori called from outside the bathroom door. Her voice, holding a mixture of annoyance and sternness, was the voice of teacher reprimanding a student for failing to hand in their homework in on time. "Get out of that bathroom immediately. You have a job to do."
"Coming, your Ladyship," he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice.
He could open and close the phantom limb and even wiggle his fingers, making them shimmer beautifully. But when he tried to grab hold with his left hand, he passed straight through it.
"Charlie Scott, need I remind you what happens to concubines foolish enough to disappoint me?"
"Shit, shit, shit," Charlie muttered, frantically flicking his hand in the air like he did when he had pins and needles.
"Coming," he said, and grabbed a pyjama robe from the shelf Lady Ori kept for her concubines. He draped it over his shoulders like a cape, slipped his right
arm underneath, and stepped outside, sweating cologne furiously.
"What took you so long?" Lady Ori said. She was already half naked and lying on the bed, the desert stalkers curled up beside her.
He had to think quickly. "I was warming up, your Ladyship." While saying this, he twisted his hips from side to side in a hopefully convincing manner and prayed for his arm to stop shimmering. "The position Waw taught me today requires considerable dexterity."
Lady Ori raised an eyebrow and smiled, sleazily. She said, "Oh," drawing the single syllable out seductively. She got off the bed and withdrew her clothes and jewellery, everything except for the golden bracelet.
A shake of her head brought her hair cascading down over her curves. She reached forward and placed a hand on Charlie's crotch.
He swallowed hard. Usually, the sight of his mistress's body and the sound of her honey-dipped voice sent his blood racing with sexual desire. But now all he could think of was the arm silently radiating under his robe. He had no idea how he would explain it to her ladyship. She liked the exotic, but flaming green arms he feared were a step too far.
She leaned forward, still gripping his rather distracted private parts in her hand, and planted a trail of kisses starting on his neck and finishing on his lips. Charlie returned the kiss, flexing his right hand madly beneath the robe.
"Enough of the foreplay," she said, grabbing a handful of his robe. She tore it of him, and pulled him down onto the bed.
Charlie landed with his arms either side of her. When he saw his arm back, pink and solid, he moaned in relief.
Lady Ori misinterpreted it, said, "That's right."
Charlie spun onto his back, and pulled her on top of him. He grabbed her buttocks and noticed the palace bracelet still on his wrist. They had reappeared with the rest of him.
"So what's this move that's so hard to perform?" She placed a heavy weight on the word 'hard'.
"Waw called it the reverse jockey," he said, turning her roughly away from him, so that she sat with her back towards him. "I hope it pleases you."
