The Chaos Chronicles

by Jeffrey A. Carver

  /Do you know, Charlie?/

  /// Count me with Ik. ///

  He grunted, dissatisfied. "Then, do you know why the boojum is doing this? Why it's trying to kill Li-Jared? And destroying all this property?"

  "I cannot say for sure. But I suspect that Li-Jared has gained knowledge that the boojum does not wish him to have. Knowledge, after all, was his goal. Our goal."

  Bandicut swallowed, thinking about all of their talk about seeking knowledge of this world. He peered to his left, at the silvery carapace that hid Ik's face, and imagined that Ik was peering back at him.

  "John Bandicut, I wish I knew more. But I know this: that the boojum seeks control—and seeks to destroy those who oppose it. And I know also, that there are many who oppose it."

  "Many? You mean, like, the builders? Or the people who run the place?"

  "Well, yes—the masters of Shipworld oppose it, I believe. But also others."

  Bandicut squinted. They zoomed through an enormous arch, where a massive junction of some kind had been blown apart. The effect was so silent that it almost felt like a scene of ancient destruction, undisturbed for eons. And yet, this had probably happened within the hour. /It's like a war,/ he thought, torn between fear and wonder.

  /// I think I'm starting to understand

  something that Hroom tried to convey to me. ///

  /What's that?/

  /// I believe it is a war.

  A struggle for domination, anyway.

  And most of those who live in Shipworld

  are innocent of the struggle.

  They don't know the sides,

  or even that there is a conflict.

  And yet, many of them may suffer for it. ///

  Bandicut shifted his head right and left, trying to make sense of a long series of strange geometric shapes. They flashed past an arcing electrical discharge. /Except for the shadow-people, I've hardly even seen anyone living here. Where are they all?/

  /// Ik noted that, too, remember.

  I think it's a question of where we were.

  My impression, from Hroom,

  is that there are peoples who have either died

  because of massive systems failures,

  or been forced to move

  to new living areas. ///

  /War refugees?/ He looked left, then right, and suddenly realized that the robots were no longer in formation with him. /Oh, mokin' hell. Charlie, have you seen—?/ He broke off the question, turning as far as he could without spinning the suit. "Ik, is there some way to look behind in these suits?" He tried to keep panic out of his voice. "I've lost sight of the robots!"

  "It should give you a mirror view if you ask for it. I do not see the robots, either."

  "Damn! I've got to slow down. I may have to go back."

  "Wait—testing long-range scanners. Gaiii! Why didn't I think of them before?"

  Bandicut's heart was pounding. "How do you turn it on? Do you see—?"

  "I could have been searching for Li-Jared."

  Damn it, forget Li-Jared for a moment! Bandicut swallowed and croaked silently, /Translators, can you get me long-range scanning, to the rear? I'm looking for the two robots./

  The view ahead shrank to a dot. A new view exploded, the rear view. He shuddered, his stomach lurching as he experienced a sudden sensation of flying backward, as fast as he'd been flying forward. He strained to focus on the receding landscape. /Can you scan for a target?/

  *Specify modality.*

  /How would I know? Radar, infrared—whatever the hell you've got! Can you isolate the two robots?/

  The image blinked and shifted, changing color, then cycling rapidly through a dozen different false-color views and changes in magnification. Suddenly it froze. The image was dark red, and grainy with magnification. In its center was a grotesque-looking crab shape. Copernicus, in his suit. And he was zigzagging back and forth across the image, back and forth across the shaft. Where the hell was Napoleon?

  "Coppy!" Bandicut shouted. "Can you read me, Coppy?" /Translator, how far back is that? Can you slow me, turn me around to go back?/

  /// Can I help, John? ///

  /Yes! Talk to it!/

  /// Okay, Copernicus is about

  eighty kilometers behind us.

  We are modifying your flight path.

  Slowing. ///

  /Don't lose Ik!/

  /// Maintaining fix on Ik.

  He is slowing, too, but not as fast. ///

  "Ik!" he called. "Coppy's fallen way back! I don't see Napoleon. I've got to go look for them."

  "Quickly, then! I have a fix on distant activity. Explosions, I believe! It could be Li-Jared. I dare not delay!"

  Bandicut chafed, desperately wanting not to be separated from either the robots or the Hraachee'an. "Okay, Ik! Coppy! Can you read me?"

  In the image, he saw the silvery crab of a robot swerve sharply one way, then another—left, right, up, down. A narrow scale on the right of the image, which he realized was a range indicator, jumped; then he felt a surge, and the indicator began to close again. Coppy had decelerated suddenly, and Bandicut's suit had responded by slowing in kind. "Coppy-y-y-y!" he yelled.

  In answer he heard a rasp of static, and finally a voice, through the static. "Cap'n, have lost contact with Napoleon. Search pattern no good . . . may need assistance . . ." His words after that were lost in static.

  Bandicut cursed. /Charlie, can we turn around? And keep the lock on Ik?/

  /// Turning.

  I'll try to keep that lock,

  but I can't promise. ///

  Bandicut felt a slight but dizzying surge, and saw a flicker in the image. He was rotating to face the other way. "Ik! I'll try to rejoin you as soon as I can!" He felt a knot in his stomach, and realized just how badly he did not want to leave one friend for another. /All right, Charlie—pour it on!/

  The image blurred with speed, then slowed again. For a moment, the suit seemed to lose the fix on Copernicus. Then it focused again, and the image was much clearer, and the range indicator had narrowed drastically.

  /// Here's zero magnification. ///

  Copernicus was a small but growing silver spot in the distance. /Can you scan for Napoleon?/

  /// Trying. ///

  "Coppy, what was your last contact with Napoleon?"

  The voice was clearer this time. "Cap'n, he veered to map the structure on the left while I mapped the structure on the right. We lost contact two minutes and thirty-seven seconds ago."

  Bandicut thought of the speed they were travelling, and Napoleon's difficulties in movement after reawakening. He never should have let Napoleon fly solo! "Did he—he didn't crash, did he?"

  "I saw no such indication."

  "Then do you think he's—?" Bandicut's voice suddenly caught, as he realized he didn't know what he was thinking. Lost control? Gone amok?

  "Cap'n, he appeared to be flying without difficulty. Until I said something that seemed to disturb him."

  Bandicut blinked as the robot came alongside. "What do you mean?"

  "I expressed concern that we could be acting on misleading information."

  "What?"

  "Supposition, Cap'n. I thought it a logical possibility that we could be pursuing a phantom—or flying into a trap. How do we know that the shadow-people's information was accurate? Or our own scanner images? What do we know of these systems, after all?"

  Bandicut felt his pulse race. "Coppy, if you had some basis for thinking that, why didn't you say it before?" He felt a trickle of sweat run down his back. He peered around at this empty, but living, power shaft—knowing that he had no idea where he was, or what his options might be if Coppy was right. Ik was out of sight now. "Ik!" he cried out. "Can you still hear me?"

  "Hrrrm . . ." came a distant, staticky response.

  "We began mapping to gather data," Copernicus continued. "I did not see Napoleon depart from formation. But following one of my turns, he was gone."

  Damn! Bandicut thought.
He swiveled hard left, then right, scanning the mystifying structure of metal and glass and God knew what else, searching for any sign at all of Napoleon. He could be hundreds of kilometers from here by now. "Coppy, I don't even know how to search for him. We can't search the whole damn structure!"

  /// Try calling to him. ///

  /What? Hasn't Copernicus been trying?/

  /// Can it hurt to try? ///

  Bandicut shrugged. "Napoleon!" he shouted. "Nappy, can you hear me? Nappyyyyy!" He rotated through a full three hundred sixty degrees, searching.

  To his astonishment, he was answered by a sharp rasp of static. He glimpsed movement, and jerked himself in a quick turn. A second silver crab, this one elongated, flew out from the jumbled landscape of the shaft wall, and darted toward him. "Nappy!"

  Copernicus shot out to meet the other robot, but Napoleon flew in quick, evasive maneuvers around Copernicus and darted close to Bandicut.

  Rasp. "John Bandicut, danger—danger!" screeched the metal voice of Napoleon. "Protect me from that machine!"

  "What machine?" Bandicut searched frantically for an enemy, perhaps some berserk machine controlled by the boojum.

  "That one!" Napoleon cried. "It's trying to harm me, trying to contaminate my programming! Protect me from Copernicus!"

  Bandicut stared, dumbfounded, then whirled to see Copernicus fleeing into the cover from which Napoleon had just emerged.

  Chapter 13

  Friend or Foe

  "COPERNICUS!" BANDICUT CRIED.

  Ik joined him, dropping into formation with a silver flash. Copernicus shot past Ik and rocketed ahead of them all down the shaft, hugging the wall. "What is the meaning of this?"

  "I wish I knew!" Bandicut watched in helpless despair as Copernicus dwindled in the distance. He spun to look at Napoleon. "Nappy, are you out of your mind? What's all this about? Why did Coppy just run away?"

  "John Bandicut, we must be vigilant!" screeched Napoleon.

  "Yes! But for what?"

  "Betrayal!" cried the robot. "It's all around us!"

  Bandicut stared at Napoleon in disbelief. "What are you talking about?" He peered fretfully down the endless power-connector. /Charlie, can we keep a lock on Copernicus?/

  /// Trying.

  He's moving awfully fast. ///

  Ik interrupted his efforts at comprehension with a staccato bark: "We must!—move!—on!"

  "I know," Bandicut said hoarsely.

  "I am picking up further explosions ahead of us. We must investigate. Is Napoleon functional?"

  Bandicut assumed that Ik meant, was Napoleon trustworthy, and he didn't know the answer. "Nappy, can you follow us without veering off?"

  Napoleon's voice was slow but clear. "I am able to follow, John Bandicut."

  "We don't have time to screw around. If you're going to have problems, tell me now."

  "I will remain vigilant."

  Bandicut grunted. "All right, let's go! Let's see if we can catch Li-Jared and Coppy."

  "Rakh!" said Ik, and shot away.

  Keeping formation with Ik was easy enough, but Copernicus was well out of visual sight now, moving at reckless speed. The tiny marker in the tracking window that was Copernicus disappeared periodically into the wall of the power-connector, then reappeared further on. He seemed to be flying evasively. Because of the explosions the scanners were picking up even further on? Or because he was afraid of Napoleon?

  "Nappy," Bandicut asked, profoundly disturbed not just by Copernicus's flight, but by Napoleon's behavior. "Why did you say that about Copernicus? What has he done to you? And why did he run?"

  "I felt great disruption!" Napoleon rasped. "Great disruption all around, and fear!"

  "You said he was trying to contaminate your programming!"

  "Fear!" echoed the robot. "Fear for our mission! And for your safety!"

  "But Nappy." Bandicut could find no words to convey his bewilderment, and his fury at the turn of events.

  /// This might not be a good time

  to press the question. ///

  /Why not?/

  /// He's flying stably, holding formation.

  But he may be having personality problems,

  trying to integrate changes in his

  programming. ///

  Bandicut frowned, not answering.

  /// And we must at least consider— ///

  /What?/ Bandicut asked, though he knew exactly what Charlie was going to say.

  /// Just—the possibility of

  interference with his programming. ///

  /"Contamination," you mean?/

  /// Well, the boojum does seem to function

  quickly and unexpectedly,

  causing mischief but not exposing itself long.

  We should consider that

  Napoleon might have been meddled with,

  when he was repaired. ///

  /Charlie, do you really think that's what's happened?/

  /// I think it's possible.

  That doesn't necessarily mean probable.

  He was, after all, under the care of

  the shadow-people. ///

  /Yeah, and so was Copernicus. So why do you think Copernicus ran away?/

  To that, Charlie offered no comment. Bandicut dizzily imagined reporting this dialogue, and all of the possibilities it was fraught with, to Ik. And he could imagine Ik's answer. Get rid of the robots.

  Which was not at all an unreasonable suggestion, objectively speaking. It was also a suggestion he would not dream of taking.

  He watched the endlessly streaming landscape of the shaft as they arrowed down its middle. It was dangerously hypnotic. He began to wish that he had something to eat or drink. A moment later a tube appeared at the corner of his mouth. He took a sip of a clear, sweet liquid, which revived him somewhat.

  Still, he nearly jumped out of his skin when Ik yelled, "Hraahh!" and decelerated sharply.

  "Uh!" he grunted, feeling a modest shift of his weight, as his suit decelerated at what had to have been about a hundred gees.

  /// We just passed something. ///

  /Coppy?/

  /// I don't think so. ///

  The suit gave him a series of rapid-fire scans to the rear, and he saw Ik practically colliding with a shiny bipedal figure that had emerged from the side of the shaft. They had flashed by so fast, Bandicut had completely missed it. Now they were spinning around each other in quick circuits. As he slowed, Ik and the other accelerated to rejoin him. He became aware of Ik jabbering on the comm. "Are you safe? We feared for your life!"

  The answering voice—Li-Jared's?—was oddly metallic, perhaps because of his suit comm, perhaps because Bandicut's translator-stones didn't know what to do with it. Bwang bwang. Bandicut's wrists tingled for a moment, before he heard, "Terrible . . . terrible attacks! Destructive overloads . . . great wave! Nodes ahead already destroyed . . . may have passed . . . can't be sure."

  Ik's voice overlaid Bandicut's strained efforts to understand Li-Jared's words. "Very near thing, indeed! The shadow-people warned us of your danger and sent us after you."

  Bwang! "They are no longer angry, then? Good." The chromed being suddenly pointed at Bandicut and Napoleon, as they matched speeds and began to accelerate again. "Who?"

  "My new friend John Bandicut—and his robot, Napoleon. John Bandicut, Li-Jared! We have found him at last!"

  Bandicut cleared his throat, as they flew down the shaft at blinding speed. "Nice to, uh, meet you," he said to the mirror-silvered figure, which in its suit looked like a chrome gorilla. Li-Jared's suit appeared less bulky than theirs.

  Bwong. "Friend of Ik's, I should be willing to meet."

  Bandicut blinked, uncertain whether to consider that a friendly greeting or an expression of reticence.

  Ik continued, "Another of our party—a robot, Copernicus—has fled ahead of us. It has been accused by this one of possible contamination."

  Li-Jared made a sweeping gesture. "Then let us—" bwang-ang! "—stay as far
from it as possible."

  Bandicut grunted. No way, he thought.

  "Hraah, Li-Jared, that robot saved my life not long ago," said Ik.

  Bwuhh.

  Bandicut waited for a translation, but none came. When Ik spoke again, it was in a firm voice. "We must pursue it. We do not know that it is contaminated, and something else altogether may be going on. Can you fly faster?"

  In answer, Li-Jared rotated slightly. The back of his suit sparkled with red fire, and he accelerated smoothly into the lead. "John Bandicut," said Ik. "Let us see if we can catch Copernicus."

  As quickly as he could form the thought, Bandicut accelerated to keep up with Li-Jared. Ik kept pace on one side, and Napoleon on the other.

  *

  The landscape of the shaft gradually changed, almost like mountains giving way to river valleys and plains. Bandicut watched the ribs and crenelations of the shaft open up to form basins with huge, mysterious structures etched into their sides. Like sprawling river-confluences, the basins seemed to branch off to the sides, but where they led was impossible to tell. They sometimes passed those basins for minutes at a time, at whatever dizzying speed they were making, which gave Bandicut some sense of the size of the things. He envisioned a vast web of these power-connectors, joining wings of the metaworld from all directions.

  /// A reasonable image, I think.

  It is a very large world,

  no question. ///

  /How large is it really, Charlie?/ He was feeling a little faint from the sheer sense of magnitude.

  /// As large as your solar system,

  I would guess.

  Or larger.

  With all of the n-space connectors,

  it's hard to say. ///

  /Oh,/ Bandicut whispered.

  The tiny point in his scanner that was Copernicus continued to draw away, with occasional zigzags. Napoleon remained quiet. Bandicut wondered if he dared trust either robot now. He called out to Copernicus repeatedly, but there was no answer. Whatever had frightened him, had frightened him to the core.

  The quarx seemed to become lost in his own thoughts, perhaps occupied with his gradually emerging memories. The flight down the shaft began to seem endless.

  *

  Bandicut woke from a doze to the sound of Ik and Li-Jared talking.

  "If your information is correct—"