Analog SFF, March 2006

by Dell Magazine Authors

  “And the ivy?”

  “That's a little more complicated. The water molecules in the ivy would normally have undergone metabolic reactions that kept the plant alive. If everything had sped up at the same rate, the plant might have survived, but only the water sped up. It would be like trying to dance the jitterbug with a partner who wants to slow dance. It simply won't work. The plant died as a result.”

  “The same thing that happened to the workman in your office.”

  “Mark and Chu were turning their system on and off as they tried different tunings and configurations. It was bad luck that he was in my office when they decided to try a full power test. Trust me, Wellington feels terrible about what's happened. He's been working day and night in his lab trying to get this going and hadn't heard about anything that's happened.”

  She gave him a look that clearly said, “So scientists really do blow things up.” Aloud, she added, “And assuming that this was all an accident, as you say, then—”

  “By all means, talk to Mark. I'm satisfied that it was nothing more than a tragic accident.”

  “You're not investigating Patrick MacGillivray's death, I am. I'm the one to be satisfied that it was accidental, and if I'm not, then he's going to have to try to convince a jury. What you think is immaterial.”

  Arken held up his hands. “You're right. Investigate away.”

  She gave an irritated huff. “Now, as I was saying, assuming that this was actually an accident, is there some way to make this thing safe?”

  “It'll either be made safe or Mark will take his apparatus elsewhere to work on it. He's already looking at the design of the time sink, trying to figure out how to make the time that comes out of it more diffuse.”

  “He'd better succeed. I'll be talking to him as soon as we get done, which is to say, now.” And with that, she abruptly left.

  * * * *

  The smell of paint was strong, but Christopher Arken's office was ready, and he did not intend to waste any time moving back in. Surprisingly, he'd found a new desk and one new bookshelf when he first let himself in. The desk was nice, but the bookshelf didn't match the others. Why they'd replaced one—and one only—he wasn't sure, but as long as it held books he wasn't in the mood to complain. He was tired of his “camping trip” on the third floor and getting resettled into his old office felt like coming home.

  He had just started unpacking the fourth box when he heard a polite tapping on the doorframe. He looked up to find Marsha standing there holding a small pot with a cactus in it. “I thought that I would give you something that could stand a little inattention, since the—”

  “It wasn't my fault! Honest. Mark's stasis field—”

  She nodded, smiling. “I know, I know. I was just teasing you. Still, I thought that I'd get you a little something to make the place feel more like home.”

  “Uh, Marsha, you didn't have to do that.”

  “Think of it as a housewarming gift.”

  There was nothing to do but give in gracefully. “Thanks.”

  She glanced around warily. “So tell me, is it going to be weird being in here knowing that a man actually died right where your desk is? I mean, it would creep me out.”

  “He seemed like a decent guy, but it's not as though I actually knew him. I only talked to him the one time. I'm sure it's rough on his family, though.”

  She nodded. “I hear that they let Mark off the hook.”

  “It was an accident. It's horrible that someone died, but it wasn't something Mark did on purpose. He's got a new technology by the tail, and there's a lot to learn yet. He and Chu just didn't realize that their stasis field had the potential to kill. Now they know. It was the worst sort of way to find out, but...” He shook his head. “It's over now. Mark will be more careful, and things will be okay.”

  “I sure hope so,” she said. “I'd hate to sit in here knowing that you're in the cross hairs of something like that. It'd scare me to death.”

  And that was the crux of the thing—cross hairs.

  Christopher Arken stood at the window, looking thoughtfully at the dead ivy at the base of the wall of the north wing. It was a good fifty feet if it was an inch. And yet the waste time that Mark Wellington had been getting rid of had reached across the intervening space with enough force to blast a wall and kill a man.

  No one had ever given it much thought before, because no one had ever managed to concentrate time; it had always been homogeneous. But now that Wellington had managed to manipulate time, it turned out to have some characteristics in common with electromagnetic waves. By all rights, the waste time from his test apparatus should have obeyed an inverse square law and dissipated to such an extent that it was harmless by the time it hit the wall outside his office. It hadn't. In one of those cosmic flukes like the discovery of vulcanized rubber or penicillin, Mark Wellington had serendipitously designed a time sink that radiated time in a tight beam. Arken doubted that it was an optimal design. That would come later ... after the government got involved.

  And that was only a matter of time because, in effect, Mark Wellington had created a death ray.

  (c)Copyright 2006 by Grey Rollins

  [Back to Table of Contents]

  * * *

  Sun of Suns: Conclusion

  by Karl Schroeder

  Illustration by George Krauter

  * * * *

  Old and new ways may not coexist comfortably, but they can't hide from each other indefinitely.

  * * * *

  The story so far...

  Imagine sky with no earth: clouds dot the blue, receding to infinity in all directions. To one side a distant sun casts its light across hundreds of miles, sending shafts of shadow radiating from the clouds that surround it. Opposite it, the blue fades to black. There is no gravity here—rocks twirl and balls of water undulate in the chill air. Spinning in the middle distance is a wooden wheel two hundred feet in diameter, its inside surface paved with buildings. And inside one of these buildings, young Hayden Griffin is sulking.

  Hayden is oblivious to the strange beauty that surrounds him. He's lived his whole life here in Virga and is unsurprised at a world where you have to make your own light, heat, and gravity. Virga is a fullerene balloon five thousand miles in diameter, filled with air, tumbling rocks, and water—about a Pluto's worth of volatiles. This artificial habitat orbits alone in the outskirts of the Vega star system; but Hayden knows nothing of that. He's spent his entire young life focused on the political struggles of his own nation, Aerie, in its fight against invading forces from the migratory country of Slipstream.

  Hayden's mother is part of a secret project being undertaken here on the edge of darkness. She is part of a resistance group fighting for Aerie's independence. Since Slipstream destroyed Aerie's nuclear fusion sun ten years ago, Aerie has been utterly dependent on Slipstream for light and heat. An engineer, Hayden's mother has come here to the cold edge of Winter to build a new sun for Aerie.

  An ominous note enters the ordinary day: it is the sound of approaching jet engines. Hayden runs outside in time to see a fleet of Slipstream warships approaching. The secret project has been discovered. Soon the air is full of snarling jets, each can-shaped engine surmounted by a saddle and gun-toting rider. Dogfights surround the town and the glittering, half-built sun floating a mile away. Determined to help his mother and the resistance, Hayden impulsively mounts one of the town's jets (which are called bikes) and dives into the conflict. He is too young to control the massive bike, however, and it crashes into an approaching warship.

  As Hayden spins helplessly into the unlit airs of Winter, he sees the new Aerie sun explode, with his mother inside.

  Time: eight years later. Place: the city of Rush, capital of Slipstream. Venera Fanning, wife of the admiral of Slipstream, enters the ladies’ lounge of the admiralty, leaving her manservant outside. This is one of the meeting places for the spy network she runs. The men she meets show her some photographs that indicate a military bu
ildup in the neighboring nation of Falcon Formation. Disturbed, Venera goes to warn her husband.

  Her manservant is none other than Hayden Griffin. He has infiltrated the Fanning household with the intention of killing Admiral Fanning, whom he blames for his mother's death. Despite his determination, he keeps finding reasons to put off doing the deed.

  That night, there is a sneak attack on Rush while Hayden is wandering the streets of the city. Another of Slipstream's neighbors, Mavery, is blamed—but Venera and her husband Chaison know that Mavery is conspiring with Falcon Formation. The trouble is, they can't convince the government, which has decided to send the Slipstream fleet into Mavery. With the fleet distracted, Falcon will mount an attack on Slipstream. If they are to save Slipstream, they will have to do something themselves—something audacious.

  While husband and wife debate, Hayden sneaks up to their office, knife in hand. But at the crucial moment, he is unable to act. Venera sweeps out of the office and, spotting Hayden, orders him to get his things together. They are leaving tonight. Paralyzed by indecision and doubt, he dumbly nods before retreating in shame and frustration.

  So it is that the next day, Hayden finds himself boarding a Slipstream cruiser behind Venera Fanning. As they leave Rush to great fanfare, he meets some of the other members of the expeditionary force. One is the ship's go-fer, the weasel-faced boy Martor. Another, the new armorer, is a beautiful young woman named Aubri Mahallan.

  Seven ships, led by Admiral Fanning's, break off from the main group. Despairing and mystified, Hayden watches as the sunlit realms recede. He, the Fannings, and his new crewmates are headed at full speed away from Slipstream, away from Mavery, and away from Falcon Formation—and into the fathomless darkness and cold of Winter.

  Venera has hired Hayden as a driver, so to keep busy he decides to shake down the bike she's supplied for him. With Martor in his sidecar, he eases out of the Rook's hangar and into the blackness of Winter. He doesn't want to think at this point; any action will do to keep himself from contemplating his situation.

  He takes Martor on a ride through the clouds. We've seen glimpses of the skies of Virga, but now the heavens open up and though it's dark as night, a deep indigo glow leaks in from all sides, illuminating clouds, balls of undulating water, and occasional drifting rocks. Hayden takes the bike up to two hundred miles per hour and they easily outpace the seven ships of the expeditionary force.

  It's lucky that Hayden does this, because as he's arrowing ahead of the expedition, he suddenly sees a reflection of his own headlight gleaming back at him. He stops the bike just in time to avoid running into a wall of dark water—but isn't quite fast enough on the horn to warn the rest of the ships. One of them, the Tormentor, plows right into the miles-wide ball of water that's drifted into their flight path.

  As the airmen dig the Tormentor out of the quavering water, somebody spots lights shining in the depths of the teardrop ocean. Hayden lets slip that he knows what this place is: during his exile in Winter he'd heard of the town of Warea, which is situated in the hollowed-out heart of a giant ball of water. When Admiral Fanning learns that he's familiar with the place, he orders Hayden to join the small group going into the ocean to negotiate for supplies to repair Tormentor.

  Hayden seizes the opportunity to send a message back to the resistance in Rush. As a result of this, he will have cause to wonder whether he is the cause of the catastrophe that follows.

  Repairs complete, the ships continue on their way. Hayden and Martor get to know Aubri Mahallan, the ship's armorer, as she gets them to help her with some odd electrical devices she's building. It turns out that Mahallan is not from Virga, but is a visitor from the strange universe outside the giant balloon. She doesn't like to talk about her past, though—and as a man with secrets himself, Hayden doesn't press. But he finds himself powerfully attracted to her.

  A few nights into the voyage their conversation is interrupted by the onset of a strange phenomenon: a very faint gravity is being felt by the ships. Their engines labor as they pass near the skin of Virga itself. This is a region of giant icebergs that cling to the sub-zero skin like icicles. They have come as far from Candesce—the giant sun of suns that reigns over the core of Virga—as you can get. Beyond those icebergs lies vacuum and the strange civilization of Artificial Nature, Aubri's home.

  Fanning has brought them here to visit something Aubri calls the “tourist station"—some sort of settlement of visitors from Artificial Nature. Poking his head out a porthole, Hayden can see its lights twinkling in the distance.

  Suddenly rockets streak out of the darkness. The expedition is under attack. In the chaos that follows, the ships are separated as black-hulled pirate vessels loom out of the mist. Both the pirates and the Slipstreamers spew mines into the air in an attempt to limit mobility; but the pirates have the advantage of knowing where the icebergs lurk in the cloudbanks. Their ships soar out of the mists, fire off a salvo, and retreat before the Slipstreamers can line up on them. And they outnumber Admiral Fanning's ships.

  Hayden sees that things are going badly. He tries to convince Aubri Mahallan to escape with him; on his bike they can make it to the tourist station easily. She rebuffs him, displaying surprising loyalty for her Slipstream employers. Hayden has no chance to run in any case, as Fanning sends him out to clear mines instead. With Martor's help he succeeds in blowing several icebergs away from Virga's skin and two pirate ships collide with one. But meanwhile the Rook is being boarded.

  When Hayden tries to leave the struggling ship behind, Martor knocks him out and tries to fight off the pirates single-handedly. But it's too late. He, Admiral Fanning, Carrier, and Fanning's aide Travis end up locked together in a cage aboard the Rook. Venera, meanwhile, has shot the Rook's captain to keep him from firing the ship's scuttling charges. She too is captured and abused by Dentius, the pirate captain.

  The prisoners talk to pass the time. Fanning lets slip that the expeditionary force has not come here to Winter to fight Falcon Formation—at least, not right away. No, it turns out that they came to the tourist station to retrieve a map—a map that may lead to a fabled hoard of pirate's treasure.

  He has no time to explain further as the pirates come and open the cage. It is time, they say, for the executions.

  The leader of the pirates, Dentius, was once a captain in the Aerie navy. He has a grudge against Slipstream and is determined to get his revenge. Killing the captive crew of the Rook will also provide him a much-needed distraction, to help cover the fact that he lost so many ships in the battle with Chaison Fanning's expeditionary force.

  His chosen method of execution is barbaric but spectacular: he ties the Rook's crew—including Hayden, Chaison and the others—to the outside of the Rook, then has them doused with kerosene. He will set them on fire as the ship gets under way. Both Aubri and Venera try to talk him out of this course of action, but he won't be dissuaded.

  Black shapes suddenly loom out of the darkness—but it's not the other pirate ships. The five remaining vessels of Fanning's expeditionary force quickly encircle the Rook, cutting off any escape.

  Dentius laughs. He holds all the cards, he tells Venera confidently. If the other ships open fire on the Rook, they'll hit their own men, who are draped over the Rook's hull as a human shield. If the Slipstream ships don't agree to back off, he'll start slaughtering the prisoners.

  But it's Venera's turn to smile. Before she let the pirates into the bridge of the Rook, she explains, she had turned the key in the lock of the scuttling control box. The self-destruct charges are now armed, and she'd thrown away the key. The charges were designed to be highly sensitive once armed: if just one rocket is fired from the surrounding ships, the Rook will blow up, taking prisoners and pirates with it.

  "And if you hurt any of us now,” she says as he furiously raises his sword, “you'll just be signaling our boys to fire."

  A day later the Rook is docked at the alien “tourist station” mounted in the outer skin of the world
. Chaison Fanning negotiated a disengagement from the pirates, who have escaped. While their crew recovers and restocks at the station, Chaison Fanning and Venera go to visit the station, taking Aubri Mahallan with them. They are here to recover an artifact given in trust to the aliens centuries ago—the map, in fact, that will lead them to the legendary treasure of Anetene. They recover the map without incident, and the expeditionary force embarks for the inner regions of Virga, an area known as the principalities of Candesce.

  None of this matters to Hayden, who is just happy to be alive. He's also a bit uncomfortable because Martor has been bragging about their accomplishments during the battle, and Hayden's suddenly become something of a celebrity aboard the Rook.

  While the other crew may have warmed to him, however, Venera's man Carrier is becoming openly hostile. He tells Hayden he doesn't trust him and will be watching him from now on. Hayden isn't afraid of Carrier, but he's beginning to realize that the man may be far more dangerous than he looks.

  Hayden has other things to worry about anyway. Aubri has not been physically injured, and she insists on getting back to work building her strange devices—but she won't speak to him. When he confronts her about it, she tells him that it's because of the way he acted during the battle. She thinks he's a coward or, at least, not someone to be trusted.