Second Veil

by Wilson, David

  "I saw the test data and the simulations," Euphrankes said. "We'll be fine."

  He looked around the workshop once, nodded, and then pulled the brass watch from his pocket and glanced at the time.

  "Well," he said. "This is it. Fifteen minutes from now, we'll be flying…"

  "Destination destiny," Slyphie said. She snapped a quick salute. "See you on the other side."

  Euphrankes took her hand and pulled her close into a quick brotherly hug. Aria hugged her too, and then the two of them hurried back through engineering and up to the bridge. They had to get into their own protective gear, and it would be bad form to be late for the most important moment of their lives.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  High Councilor Cumby left the area of the air tower the moment Euphrankes mounted the steps. He would have liked to be there at ground zero when the great ship launched, but even more he wanted to be in the Chamber of Stars when the Tangent burst through the veil. He didn't get around as well as he once had, and the walk to The Temple was a fairly long one.

  The streets were empty again – as they had always been, though this time the people were out and together, working toward a common goal. For too many years they'd been locked away in homes, buildings, small factories, and their minds. Everything was suddenly open to them, and it was difficult to rein in their enthusiasm.

  When he reached the door to The Temple, Cyril was waiting for him. Several other priests accompanied the old man, and, again Cumby was struck by the level of energy that surrounded them. The Temple had always been a grim, sedate place. Now things had shifted, and, in combination with the engineers and technicians of the city, Cyril's priests were a vital hub of information, their dusty libraries and dull rituals given new life and purpose.

  Many of the older priests had resisted the changes at first, but as their younger counterparts turned to them, calling on their experience, and the knowledge they'd gained through years of service, attitudes had shifted. No one could deny the change in atmosphere, or that it was for the better. The music played in The Temple had energy and enthusiasm behind it. The time standing watch in The Chamber of Stars had become a coveted role rather than something to be avoided, or shunted off to whoever you could convince to take an extra shift.

  The library was in The Chamber of Stars, and suddenly the musty tomes and forgotten manuals on those shelves were seen as valuable resources. It seemed as if everyone wanted to find something there that could change things – some lost ritual, or forgotten bit of history that put everything they did, and believed, into new perspective.

  In short, the priests had resumed the role that should have been theirs all along. They held the history and the tradition of the city in their care, and they did what they could to improve the mental and spiritual states of the citizens of Urv, who suddenly found themselves with a lot of questions, and the need for direction in a world very different from that in which they'd recently inhabited.

  They greeted Cumby's arrival with smiles and nods. Cyril embraced him quickly, and then turned, leading the way to the long stairs that would take them to The Chamber of Stars. Cumby wasn't looking forward to making that climb, but for this he'd have endured much worse.

  "This feels a bit different than the last time we all made this climb," Cyril said with a laugh. “A little less frantic, though no less momentous, I think."

  "If nothing else," Cumby replied, "it feels more positive. That was a dark day…"

  "It led to light, and that is the way of darkness," Cyril said. Then he laughed again. "I sound like a passage from one of the old prayers."

  "As is only fitting," Cumby said. He kept his words to a minimum as they climbed, saving his breath.

  Sensing the effort it was costing the High Councilor, Cyril filled the silence as they progressed, relieving Cumby of the necessity of replies.

  "We've made some changes in our watch standing in The Chamber of Stars," he said. Many of our acolytes have asked to be paired with older priests for a time. It seems that over the years the library has become nothing more than a symbolic knowledge store. Upon closer examination, it seems a great deal of things could have been clear to us at a much earlier point in time if we'd just seen what was right there in front of our faces.

  "For instance," Cyril went on, "there are copies of the manuals that were kept in the 'forbidden locker' for so long right there in the chamber. Alongside them we found journals filled with the notes of priests who studied there long ago. Many of them had some relatively brilliant ideas.

  "We also discovered at least one priest who, through his haste and lack of attention to ritual, nearly brought the pumps to a halt about eighty years ago. It was his actions that caused the creation of the forbidden locker. There were also rules laid out after his banishment. Those rules have kept us rather stagnant for a very long time, and if Euphrankes and young Ozymandes had not taken a chance…we might be stagnant still, if not dead."

  "What happened?" Cumby asked.

  They were nearly to the top of the stairs, and he felt a little better than he'd expected to.

  "The priest – his name was Cesaran, believed that he'd found a way to increase the output of the pumps. He brought his findings before The Council, and they urged caution. They suggested, in fact, that The Temple undertake the building of a new pump – one upon which new designs and changes could be tested without putting Urv in danger. Cesaran thought this was foolishly over-cautious. He was very sure of himself, so the next time he was on duty in the pump rooms, he attempted to make his modification to the final pump in the line. His reasoning was that, if he caused a problem, the others would handle the load until he undid his work and returned the last pump to operation.

  "As it turned out, his design did, in fact, increase the possible output from the pumps by a considerable amount. What he failed to take into consideration, and what would have been obvious had they tested it as The Council asked, was that the system was designed to handle a certain amount of flow. He modified the pump, put it online, and almost immediately it caused a feedback loop as backed up air was unable to exit the system and turned back on itself, looking for any path of escape."

  They'd reached the top of the stairs, and one of the younger priests, who'd hurried on ahead, held the door as first Cyril, and then High Councilor Cumby, entered the room.

  "Obviously he didn't destroy the pumps," Cumby said drily. "What happened?"

  "He was lucky," Cyril said. "Two others happened to enter the pump room just after the problem ensued. One was older, and wiser than Cesaran. He knew about the valves that Euphrankes discovered, and more. He knew where there was a safety vent. They managed to shunt the system around the final pump, close it down, and release the extra pressure before any real damage was done. They restored the pump to its original state, and, despite his protestations that his work was sound, he was brought before The Council and banished. He was removed from The Temple and sent to farm in one of the agricultural pods."

  "They kept his work, though," Cumby said.

  "Yes, but they never acted on it. The High Priest at the time worried that his position would lead people to place the blame for such a disaster on his shoulders. Rather than accepting that responsibility as a natural function of the office, he determined to crack down on research and modification. He ordered the locking away of the manuals in the pump room, and I suspect that if he'd known there were other copies in the library, he'd have had them locked away as well. In fact, I get the impression that he was not a very involved High Priest. I think Cesaran's fellows brought the journal up here, and the manuals, and hid them in the hope they would be discovered and studied again, once the trouble had passed."

  "So few years to change the entire face of a city," Cumby said. "I can't remember a time when the rituals were not rigid and locked down, and I am an old man, yet from what you say, it must have been only a few years before my birth that these things took place. My parents never spoke of them."

 
"They would likely not have known," Cyril said. "Unless one of them was a part of The Council, or had some particular affiliation with The Temple, all they'd have known was that the rules had grown harsher, and that it was believed that The Protectors were behind the change. No one ever questioned such edicts, as you know. We dropped into an age of darkness and never even noticed when it happened."

  "It's almost time, your eminence," one of the priests called out.

  The young man stood beside the telescope. He leaned in again, made some quick adjustments to the lens to focus, and pulled back reluctantly. Every one of them wished to be the one with his eye to that lens when the Tangent broke through. They would not voice this out loud, of course.

  "I suspect," Cumby said ruefully, "that one of the first orders of business when we are done here will be the commissioning of another telescope or two. Perhaps we should direct them toward different areas of the sky and allow more than one person access. I think that anything we learn in such a fashion might be worth passing on to the Tangent, once communications become steady."

  "That is a wonderful idea," Cyril said. "For now, though, I believe you should take the honors…"

  Cumby took a step toward the telescope, stopped, and shook his head.

  "You are the chosen communicator," he said. "You are the one with the ability and proclivity to record events as they happen. If any should watch this moment, it should be you. You are more likely to be able to share what you see – to bring it to life in the telling, and writing of it. I have a poor imagination, and at this age, a memory to match. I will be content to take a glance after they are free of the veil."

  Cyril thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. He stepped forward and gripped the telescope in one hand, taking the seat behind it. He placed one eye against the lens, and no one in the room spoke. It was as if the sound and breath had been sucked from them.

  "There she is," Cyril said softly. "The Tangent is approaching the veil."

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The Tangent shifted just slightly to the side as it lifted free of the final mooring and drifted up and away from the air tower. Those below quickly shrank to the size of tiny insects, and then faded from sight as Euphrankes steered the great ship in a looping curve away from Urv.

  They'd determined that it would be best to be clear of all cities and roads before making their shot at the veil, but at the same time they wanted to remain within clear sight of Urv's telescope. There was little fear of damaging the veil after what they'd witnessed recently, but as Cumby had pointed out to Euphrankes over tea – they had never shot anything out of the veil. They had only witnessed something flying in. They also didn't really know what damage that passing might have caused to the falling debris. It could have been much larger before passing through the veil, reduced by friction or some other force they were unaware of.

  It had been suggested that they try and launch a projectile through first, but the idea had been rejected. It might cause unnecessary wear or damage to the veil, and other than actually seeing it pass through the veil, there was no way to judge what effect this would have, unless they allowed it to plunge back to the planet. If they did this outside the First Veil, they had no way to study or retrieve it, and if it struck the veil they'd have a new disaster on their hands that might not turn out like the first.

  Now, as they rose in a slow, spiraling loop, picking up speed with each narrowing circle, Euphrankes wondered if they'd been rash. He believed that The Second Veil functioned on a molecular level. It was not, as the First Veil, a solid shield against objects or attack. Its purpose was to prevent particular types of gas from being lost from the atmosphere. It was a giant, radiant bubble that prevented the thin upper air from dispersing into space, and provided a temperature and atmospheric buffer between empty space, and the First Veil.

  It was also possible that Euphrankes was wrong. He tried to set those thoughts aside and concentrate. The ship steered like a dream. They'd determined that, rather than just go nose to the sky and blast up, it would be better to give the ship a sort of second shake-down as they rose, taking the circular route, and then, just before contacting the veil, raising the ship's nose, reversing polarity on the mag drives holding them close to the planet and shooting up the last few miles directly into space.

  "Just past the halfway point, Frankes," Zins called out.

  They were all strapped carefully into their seats. When the drives reversed, the force pressing them down would be immense. If anyone were standing, or not tied in firmly, they might be slammed into a bulkhead hard enough to kill them. Their protective suits were fully sealed. The face shields were made of synthetic glass. Tiny spun threads of Imperium ran through the material, giving it a slight flexibility, and strengthening it nearly a thousand times. The shields were designed to withstand a sudden change of pressure, and the synth-glass, very similar to that which provided their view of the endless sky above them, glistened with subtle hints of the embedded filaments.

  "Going to keep her steady a bit longer," Euphrankes said. "Aria, can you get a report from engineering?"

  Aria nodded. She flipped a switch and spoke into an ornate microphone mounted beside her seat. The communications system was of her own design, and every time he saw it, Euphrankes had to smile. Aria never went for simple and utilitarian if flashy and elegant was a choice.

  The microphone stood on a tripod and was adjustable so that she could sit at any of the various control panels available to her and use it comfortably. A series of toggle switches determined which circuit she was plugged into. She could reach any department or space, flip it over to the long-range communicator on line with The Temple, or turn the microphones toward space, open up a wide-band receiver, and search for unexpected or unknown signals. Euphrankes would have gone with a headset that plugged into one of the panels, but he'd left it to her – and found that he approved.

  The Tangent wasn't just another airship. She was the first of her kind – an interstellar cruiser. The bridge should be elegant – extravagant, even.

  "Engineering," Aria spoke clearly and crisply, "report."

  The answer was clear and immediate, and after another quick adjustment it emanated from speakers all over the bridge.

  "Smooth and steady," Slyphie said. "Not a shiver or a glitch."

  "Perfect," Euphrankes said. "Get a report from all stations. Make sure the entire crew is strapped in and ready. We will be reversing the drive in five minutes."

  Aria flipped another switch, and red lights began flashing around the bridge. A soft, throbbing buzz sounded – not jarring, but loud enough to carry. Euphrankes knew it was the same all over the ship. It was the warning to get seated and strapped. He also knew that everyone had been strapped in for the last twenty minutes. It was procedure, and he thought it was best to begin their first flight safely.

  He wished for a moment that he'd prepared a speech, but then thought better of it. The Second Veil was approaching quickly. Beyond it, vast screen of darkness, lit only by twinkling stars and the pale surfaces of the twin moons. None of the crew would want him to mar the memory by speaking. Each of them would share this moment, one with the other, but they would do it in the solitude of their thoughts, minds, and dreams.

  "Three minutes," he said softly.

  He tightened the spiral slightly, edging the nose upward. He glanced at the face of the timer in front of him, mesmerized, as the hand moved slowly from number to number.

  "One minute," he said.

  He straightened the nose of the Tangent and it hung there, seeming to float free in the sky for just an instant. There was a hum as the mag drives spun. The acceleration, just from the unbound Freethion, was huge. They were pressed back slowly into their seats as the Tangent shot forward. Then the drives kicked in and – as if they'd been fired from a gun – they shot into space. It happened so quickly that by the time they caught their breath, they were through and speeding away from the planet. Behind them, the tear in the veil
sealed as if it had never happened, glistening like a shimmering spray of water, sending rainbow glitters of light trailing after them as they soared into the void.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  In The Chamber of Stars, Cyril gasped. His fingers tightened around the telescope, and he leaned even closer.

  "What?" High Councilor Cumby cried, unable to contain himself. "What do you see? What happened?"

  "They…are free," Cyril said. He leaned back and stood, stepping away from the telescope. Cumby slide into the seat and pressed his eye to the lens. At first he saw nothing but the stars, the veil, and the twin moons. Then, as his vision acclimated, he could make out a smaller shape, glistening like a chip of silver, moving slowly across the darkness.

  "Can you contact them?" Cumby asked. "The radio, is it live?"

  Cyril glanced across the room to a priest who'd been standing by, waiting for instructions. He had the microphone in his hand. The speaker, a large, cone-shaped device, was aimed toward the center of the room so anyone present would be able to hear it.

  The man turned to the radio, but before he could key the microphone, a burst of static crackled from the speaker. It was followed by a second burst, a quick, frequency shifting squeal…and then Aria's voice.

  "Chamber of Stars this is Tangent. We have achieved space. I repeat. We have achieved space. Can you read us?"

  The priest stood very still, staring at the speaker, the microphone forgotten in his hand. Cyril waited only a second before hurrying across the room and gently pulling it from the younger man's grasp.

  He keyed the microphone and spoke.

  "Tangent, this is Chamber of Stars. We read you very clearly. Congratulations, and we are thankful you are safe."

  They waited a moment, and then Aria replied. "As are we, Cyril…as are we. All systems are operating as expected, except we have not yet been able to lock the mag drive onto another source of metal. Our velocity is not decreasing; as expected, there is no resistance beyond the veil."