Empress of Eternity

by L. E. Modesitt

  “I’m fine. In a few minutes, I’d like to see if we can reclaim the ladder.”

  “You think they’ll drop more bombs?”

  “Missiles,” corrected Eltyn, “they’re using some sort of drone to target us. But there’s a delay between observation and when the missile hits.” He accessed the station system, trying to get an idea of whether more missiles were inbound.

  The local antennae showed nothing. He decided to wait before deploying the newly replaced main scanning antenna.

  “Sir?” pressed Rhyana.

  “What is it?”

  “Do you believe in spirits, sir?”

  “Spirits? Discorporate entities? Why?”

  “I’ve seen one. Here in the station. Around the time the first missile came down outside. It was a woman. She wasn’t dressed like anyone I ever saw. She had amber hair and amber eyes, and she wore a long dress of golden cloth trimmed in silver-gray.”

  “Was she shadowy, the way they say spirits are?”

  “No, sir. She looked right real. She looked sad, too. Then she was gone, like a video image that lost its signal or power.”

  Rhyana’s seeing images, Eltyn pulsed Faelyna. Or she did, when the first missiles came in. She’s not the type to have hysterical visions.

  Might have been a projection harmonic, but we weren’t projecting then.

  Thought you should know.

  Have to think about that.

  “What is it, sir?”

  “I was checking with Faelyna, to see if she did something different then. If you see something odd again, let one of us know.”

  “I can do that, sir.”

  “Thank you.” Unshield main antenna. Scan.

  Once the antenna was deployed, Eltyn tracked the findings in all directions. As he’d suspected, there was a blip almost directly overhead, at one point four kays—mostly likely the minidrone observing the station.

  Confirming minidrone overhead. He could sense Faelyna’s presence on the system even before he finished.

  Noted. Too bad it’s out of range of anything we have.

  Agreed2.

  Eltyn turned to Rhyana. “Let’s recover that ladder—quickly.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Eltyn pressed the door and watched as the stone flowed back into itself, then crossed the four yards to the ladder, where he pressed the retraction stud. Nervously, he checked the system again, but there was no sign of anything out of the ordinary—except the minidrone overhead.

  The ladder retracted into itself slowly, or so it seemed to Eltyn, and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other until it had compacted itself and he could finally pick up the handles of the heavy oblong.

  Incoming missile! announced the system.

  “Inside!” he snapped to Rhyana. Shield antennae and report!

  All shielded.

  In moments, the two of them were back inside the station. Eltyn moved back behind the wall, not standing in the opening as the door closed.

  Less than two minutes later, the warhead arrived, close enough that even the shielded antennae recorded the impact.

  We went out to recover the ladder. In minutes, we had an incoming.

  The riffies want to keep us penned up.

  Or pinned down, replied Eltyn.

  “Sir?” asked Rhyana.

  “We’ll have to stay inside for now.”

  “Like to set the riffie outside and let him get the greetings the others sent.” She shook her head. “Might as well check on him.” She headed down to the lower level.

  Since there was clearly no point in attempting any more ventures outside, Eltyn made his way to Faelyna’s work space. She didn’t look up as he entered the other large main-floor chamber.

  “Any progress on the shadow operatives for color changes on the commands?” he inquired.

  “I have some options in the structure and presentation of the commands. I need you to finish the power modifications to the projector.”

  [embarrassment] With all the missiles…forgot I hadn’t finished them. He sat down at the adjoining table. Shouldn’t take long.

  We have some time. More than enough. [warm cynicism]

  Because the riffies are trying to keep us inside?

  What else?

  “Have you figured out if the entire universe is fermionically entangled?” Eltyn resumed work on reassembling the modules for the projector.

  “The entire universe is entangled, but that wasn’t the question. You asked whether all universes were entangled.”

  “Are they?”

  Immediate reaction = yes. Reason says no. Trust reaction, even without proof.

  By that logic, with which Eltyn did not disagree, he suspected that Rhyana had indeed seen someone very real—real in some fashion—and that the ghost or image or whatever it happened to be was indeed linked to what he and Faelyna were doing.

  33

  18 Siebmonat 3123, Vaniran Hegemony

  While he followed Helkyria on her inspection of the station, Duhyle kept himself linked to the exterior monitors. Doubtless, she was doing the same, although neither spoke of it. Her scrutiny of the upper levels was slightly more than perfunctory. Once she headed down the ramp to the lower level, where the kitchen and the assembly area and storage chambers were located, she paused every yard, looking at what she held in her hand—something that resembled a personal comm.

  At one side of the bottom of the ramp stood Captain Valakyr, trying to conceal an expression that mixed puzzlement and irritation.

  “Captain, the Aesyr are attempting to break into the station. They will fail, but it will occupy them for a time. That will allow me to inspect and measure the lower level to see if we have more options than are apparent. You may accompany us for the moment.”

  “Yes, ser.”

  Helkyria continued her examination of the lower level, scanning—if that was what she happened to be doing—every part of the outside walls. Finally, she reached the small storeroom at the eastern end of the station on the lower level of the station, the only one with an actual interior door. She turned to Valakyr. “Please step back, Captain. I’m about to try something. If it fails, you will be in command.”

  Valakyr started to speak, paused, then said, “Yes, ser.” The blue of puzzlement flickered at the tips of her hair. She stepped out of the storeroom.

  Helkyria added, to Duhyle, “Close the door.”

  He didn’t question her, but touched the door.

  After it closed, she stepped up to him, put her arms around him, kissed him gently on the lips. Duhyle could feel as much as see the warm gold of love flowing from the tips of her silver-blond hair. Then she stepped back, showing him the small oblong box with a miniature screen. “I modified a personal comm. Let’s see if I’m right.”

  For several minutes, she stood there, manipulating images on the screen.

  Abruptly, the eastern wall irised open, but in a hexagonal shape. Beyond lay what looked to be a long straight corridor, dimly lit as if by a radiance from the stone walls and stretching eastward into the distance. For a moment, Duhyle could have sworn he saw a rainbow, but when he blinked it was gone.

  A faint smile crossed Helkyria’s lips. “Good.” She touched the screen again. The hexagonal door vanished. Then she looked at Duhyle.

  He understood perfectly. “Does it extend the length of the entire canal?”

  “It should. There’s no way to tell. There may not be any exits anywhere near, either.”

  Duhyle nodded. “Are you ready for me to open the other door?”

  “Please.”

  On the far side, in the long assembly room, stood Valakyr. The captain’s eyes fixed on Helkyria, but Valakyr did not speak.

  “For the moment,” said Helkyria, “you and your troopers will stand by, but in stand-down status. It will be some time before you’ll be needed, and I will give you advance notice—as I can.”

  “How long do you anticipate our remaining confined within the station, Comman
der?” asked Valakyr.

  “As long as required to keep the Aesyr occupied and to keep you and your forces intact, Captain.” Helkyria offered a pleasant but cool smile. “Also, we’re trying to minimize the Aesyr use of the Hammers. It doesn’t make sense to win a battle and lose the world…and the universe.”

  “Would overuse of the Hammers lead to…immediate…destruction?”

  Helkyria shook her head. “The effects might not be felt for decades…here on Earth. Centuries elsewhere in our galaxy, and perhaps eons in the farthest reaches of the universe. That is one of the greatest dangers of their use.” She nodded to the captain and headed toward the ramp.

  Duhyle followed.

  When they were relatively alone at the top of the ramp before turning toward Helkyria’s work chamber, Duhyle cleared his throat and asked in a murmur, “Now what?”

  “I keep working, and you keep checking the monitors. The Aesyr will attempt various assaults on the stone itself. Those will fail. Then they will attempt something else. When it appears as though they will, let me know.”

  “And you will be doing…?”

  “Attempting to determine the best fashion in which to use the station’s capabilities to counter what the Aesyr will try.” She turned back to the array of screens before her, but set the converted personal comm just to one side of the central screen.

  Over the next half hour, Duhyle sat at the small table in the corner, using his direct links to the station system to keep checking the external systems. He glanced occasionally toward Helkyria or Symra, who had returned and stood well back, only a few steps from the archway. As he observed, one of the submersibles and the cargo vessel moved in-shore and took up station in the middle of the canal almost due north of the station, but closer to the far side of the canal, more than two kays away.

  Why the cargo vessel?

  Before that long, Duhyle thought he knew as he watched a crew begin to work on an apparatus on the raised fantail of the ship. Some sort of weapon, but one unlike the odd-shaped antenna that had heralded the earlier use of the Hammer. The ships were that far away in order to have a better angle for focusing an energy weapon on the station.

  Finally, he spoke. “Check the north observation monitor. They’re setting up a weapon to fire at the station.”

  After several moments, Helkyria replied, “It’s likely a high-energy particle beam. Thora knows that the stone of the canal walls simply reflects even the highest-energy lasers. They’ll try something that will attack the subatomic structure of the stone.”

  “Will it work?”

  “No. She should know that, but she’ll study the results before allowing them to use the Hammer. Let me know if anything unusual occurs.”

  Duhyle continued to follow the outside monitors. The Aesyr forces in blend-ins retreated southward, leaving no one in the area around the station. The high-speed launch that had landed them pulled away from the canal and took up station a good kay east in the middle of the channel, beside the second submersible.

  Abruptly, the monitor covering the area to the north went blank. Duhyle cross-checked the others, then reported, “We lost the north monitor. There was a large energy surge consistent with a high-energy weapon.”

  “SatCom reports a similar energy discharge,” Helkyria replied.

  “What if they destroy all our scanners and antennae, ser?” asked Symra.

  “They’ll leave one…if only to try to communicate with us.”

  Duhyle had his doubts about that.

  Three more intense blasts of energy, each several minutes apart, followed. Then, ten minutes passed. The eastern, western, and southern monitors showed no movement of Aesyr toward the station. Using the eastern monitor, Duhyle could just barely catch a view of the submersible to the east, but neither it nor the launch moved.

  “They’re about to try the Hammer,” predicted Helkyria.

  Duhyle watched all the system indicators, but over the next ten minutes, they showed nothing.

  “SatCom reports that the submersible to the north initiated two Hammer strikes. They wish to know our status,” Helkyria added dryly.

  “What next?” asked Symra in little more than a whisper.

  “I’d imagine they’ll have decided that we have a ventilation system, and they’ll attempt to attack us in that fashion.”

  “Will you have to cut off power to block the ducts?” Duhyle studied the land to the south of the station, but the Aesyr remained under cover and out of sight or heat-scanning.

  “Not unless they try to put a power surge through the power net. We’ll be able to see that…unless they take out the rest of the system sensors.” Helkyria turned and looked to Duhyle. “They’ll most likely lob in shells with some sort of antipersonnel or nerve agent first. They’d rather not destroy my equipment and anything I’ve discovered, and trying to destroy our systems through a power overload might compromise what they hope to find.”

  Duhyle forced himself to concentrate on the remaining monitors. While the north monitor was gone, the proximity of the station’s north wall to the canal proper would make dropping a shell in the uncovered area difficult, if not close to impossible. Even if the Aesyr could do that, the impact and seismic registers from other sensors would indicate that something of force had struck.

  Close to a half hour passed before a shell exploded to the southwest of the station, on the open ground beyond the stone of the canal. Immediately a greenish mist rose and drifted northward with the light breeze.

  “Ser! Agent attack!”

  Helkyria did nothing overt for a moment, then snapped, “Kavn, move under the duct vent to your left. Do you feel the airflow?”

  Duhyle winced, but stood and moved to stand under the vent. The outside air was cooler as it flowed over him. “Yes.”

  Helkyria entered something on the small screen before her. “Has the airflow stopped?” Cold silver light from hair and eyebrows wreathed her face.

  Her voice was so commanding that he replied, “Yes, ser.”

  “Good. We’re protected from whatever that gas might be.”

  “How long will the oxygen in here last?” asked Symra.

  “We’ll have to see. It’s better than breathing whatever nerve agent is in the mist-gas.”

  “With nearly a hundred people here…” ventured Symra.

  “Why don’t you go down to the lower level and monitor the air quality there?” suggested Helkyria. “If you sense any deterioration, report back here immediately.”

  “Yes, ser.”

  Once Symra had left, Duhyle moved back to where he had been sitting. From there, he continued to check the monitors. Several more shells dropped around the station, and before long, the entire area was shrouded in a greenish mist.

  There was no noticeable change in temperature in the chamber, although Duhyle thought the air seemed slightly more moist. Was that because of exhaled water vapor? Yet the air in the chamber, if anything, seemed “fresher.” Duhyle continued to monitor what he could and to look occasionally at Helkyria, who was totally absorbed in whatever she was doing. While he wanted to ask, he decided against it. She wouldn’t tell him anything until she was ready to do so.

  Within another hour, the light breeze that had swirled the first hints of the mist/nerve/whatever agent around the station had dispersed the remaining traces of the mist. Symra finally returned.

  “Yes?” inquired Duhyle, when he realized that Helkyria wasn’t about to say anything. “How is the air?”

  “Ah…” Symra glanced toward the scient-commander, then finished, “It smells different, more humid.”

  Surprisingly, to Duhyle, Helkyria responded, even if she did not lift her head from what she was doing. “It should. What you’re breathing most likely mimics what the canal’s creators breathed. There’s a diffusion process going on.”

  “Then…we won’t be forced to leave because of the lack of oxygen?”

  “It would appear not.” Helkyria paused, then added, “If tha
t is all, Subcaptain, you may remain here silently, or rejoin the captain and her troopers.”

  “Yes, ser.” Symra did not leave and moved closed to Duhyle, but remained standing, murmuring, “That still doesn’t deal with the longer-term problem of food, or water, especially.”

  “How much is there?” asked Duhyle in a low voice.

  “Two weeks…three on short rations. Water…who knows?”

  “We’ll have water unless the Aesyr want to embark on a rather large engineering project,” Duhyle replied, keeping his voice down. “The water comes from an aquifer south of here, and it’s fed through one of the underground ducts that’s something like fifty yards below ground. The biggest problem will be the sanitary facilities. They can handle the numbers, but it’s likely to be very crowded.”

  “We’ve already noticed that.”

  “You might want to pass the water information on to Captain Valakyr,” Duhyle said.

  “Perhaps I should.” Symra eased away from Duhyle and headed down the ramp.

  Duhyle kept tracking matters, but another hour passed before a squad of blend-in concealed Aesyr appeared to the south of the station, crossing the open space cautiously. “The Aesyr are returning.”

  “They’ll attempt to open the station,” predicted Helkyria. “When that fails, they’ll contact Asgard for instructions. Thora or whoever’s in charge will suggest locating several power cables, but not trying to create power surges. That interchange will take a good hour. It may well be dark before they decide. Then they’ll have to arrange the equipment, and that will take even longer.”

  “And then?”

  “Let us hope that we’re ready to deal with them.” Helkyria looked down at the make shift assembly and instruments before her. “We might even get some sleep.”

  Duhyle went back to his monitors.

  Helkyria’s assessment of the situation proved to be accurate. The lower edge of the sun was touching the waters of the Jainoran Ocean before a crew of Aesyr re-appeared with long narrow tanks and hoses. One of them wore black goggles on the top of his forehead.

  Symra leaned forward to look at the image Duhyle had projected. “What’s that?”