by Mack Maloney
They didn't know. The Echo 999.9 was such a mysterious device, it was a miracle — literally — that Vanex had been able to manipulate it as much as he had. There was even speculation among the UPF contingent that the device wasn't a holo-girl capsule at all, not a typical one, anyway. That it was something else, just dressed up in a clever disguise.
In any case, there was no shortage of theories of what would happen to Hunter if he went back as they did. Because he would be returning to a different place from where he started, and would be going through the extra step of passing through the twenty-sixth dimension, Erx thought he'd be reduced to a quivering mass of quarks and snarks long before he ever popped out on the other side. Zarex wondered if he might be caught forever inside the twenty-sixth dimension, unable to make the extra step to break through. Vanex, who was the authority on the matter, warned that while Hunter might make it to the other side in one piece, all of his atoms would be turned inside out.
None of these scenarios appealed to him, so Hunter had made up his mind early on: he'd come here via the mysterious holo-capsule, given to him by Joxx just hours before he was to be executed. He would have to go back the same way.
Actually, this was where the real problem lay. As far as they knew, there were only two Echo 999.9s in existence. One the Imperial spy had given to Xara and Vanex to get them here in the first place. That was the model Vanex had taken apart to make the escape window. The second one the same spy gave to Joxx to allow Hunter to escape. Usually, with lesser models, the romp on the beach lasted what seemed to be a month. Yet when the customer returned, it was as if no more than a few seconds of real time had gone by. It seemed like magic, but this was actually a customer-oriented feature of cheaper models, a reverse-time element allowing them to disappear for what seemed to be a month, but not be gone long enough for their spouse (or their boss) to be suspicious.
The Echo 999.9 was significantly different, only adding to the mystique of the strange device. As soon as Hunter arrived here, Vanex had taken apart his capsule, too, and had effectively frozen its built-in time clock. And then after noodling with it, he found a way to actually advance it.
When Hunter left the other side, he'd been just a few hours away from getting shot. He certainly didn't want to return in the same instant, still locked in a cell, waiting for the executioner's song. So Vanex pushed up his return time to parallel that of the fleet ships; they would all go back together and arrive in the same time frame. Or at least that's how Vanex hoped it would work.
However, there was nothing he could do about where Hunter would return. The pilot had left from the locked jail cell at the bottom of Joxx's starship, and that's where he'd reappear— one month later.
No one could know what had happened in that month. Bonz had told him that at last report, Joxx had dropped out of sight, had been refusing orders, and was seen sporting a silver dagger in his belt — the weapon of choice for those wishing to kill the Emperor. Hunter knew that anything could happen once he returned, including the possibility that he'd find himself still behind bars.
So he had to be prepared for any uncertainty.
That's why when Bonz went looking for Hunter a few hours after the somber meetings in the America, he found the pilot atop High Hill, picking apples.
The valley below was alive with frenetic motion by now. The Vanex Door was about halfway reconstructed in its new place. It was quite an operation for the UPF troopers to try to align the huge framework with the gigantic cargo 'crasher. The rigging looked like a stiff breeze would blow it over in a second; luckily, there were no stiff breezes here in Heaven. The Resonance 133 was almost ready to go, too. Crude ladders had been dropped from it, and technicians could be seen climbing up and down from them on a very regular basis.
Bonz meandered up to Hunter. His family was now living down on the valley floor.
"Not too long now," Bonz said to the pilot, looking down on all the activity.
"How can you tell?" Hunter asked him. Bonz grinned; he got the joke. There was no time here, so theoretically at least, nothing could take a long or short time.
Hunter resumed picking apples. He was looking for ones that were small enough to fit into the pockets of his flight suit, as self-contained survival kits, you might say. Bonz took down an apple himself and examined it. Clearly he had something on his mind.
"I just wanted to apologize to you," he finally said to Hunter, turning the apple over in his hands. "I'm really sorry—"
"Sorry? What do you mean?"
Bonz shrugged. "Well, I'm responsible for this mess," he said, spreading his hands out to indicate the whole operation of getting the Resonance 133 lined up with the Vanex Door.
"What mess?" Hunter replied. "You're a hero. You got us back in gear again. If it wasn't for you, we would have stayed here forever."
"Like that would have been a bad thing?" Bonz asked, half-heartedly biting into the apple. "Being happy not just for the rest of your life, but for the rest of eternity: it's everyone's ultimate dream."
Hunter looked out on the valley below. It was even more magnificent than the first time he saw it.
"Well, it's yours to enjoy now," he told Bonz. "You're with your wife and kids again — as you should be. See how only good things work out here?"
"There's no doubt about that," Bonz replied. "But I have to wonder about something: Will I carry through eternity the knowledge you've imparted to me about the origin of the empires? There is no doubt in my mind that what was done to the original people of Earth is the greatest wrong of human history or certainly in the history of the Galaxy. They used to talk about the crime of the century in the ancient days? Well, this is the biggest crime of all humanity! It's mind-boggling. Billions of people, thrown off their planet after they fought to free it from one enemy, only to be betrayed by another? And these were the descendants who brought man into space in the first place, the descendants of the Ancient Engineers. Such an atrocity. And I'm now one of the comparatively few souls who know about it. Yet there's nothing I can do about it."
Hunter walked to another tree and began examining the apples on it. "Like I said," he told Bonz, "you did your part. You tipped us off on a great opportunity to go back. That's a big first step for us."
Bonz just shook his head. "I know. But look at it from my perspective. I spent more than a century serving a regime that is up to its neck in this treachery. Knowing what I know, I wonder just how peaceful my soul can really be."
Hunter stopped picking apples and looked at the SF3 agent.
"What are you suggesting?" he asked him. "Certainly not that you go back with us."
"It's crossed my mind," Bonz admitted.
Hunter stuffed another apple into his pocket. "Don't be crazy," he told the spy. "Like I said: You're the hero. It took you winding up here to light the fuse again, and that could have only come about by the horrible way you died. They used to give medals out for things like that. No matter what transpires now, it couldn't have happened unless you did what you did."
"Well, sure, that helps you," Bonz said. "It doesn't help me."
Hunter said to him: "Look, man, you lost a beautiful wife, two beautiful kids. Now they're not lost anymore. They are here. And so are you. And you're guaranteed an eternity with them."
"But that's just it," Bonz insisted. "They will always be here. I could go with the R133 crew and maybe do some real good. Then, when I come back, it will be like I never left."
Hunter just shook his head. 'Talk to Pater Tomm," he suggested. "He'll knock that thought right out of your head, either with a prayer or the blackjack he keeps in his back pocket. Bottom line is this: you are a soul who has passed over; the rest of us are not. When we go back, we hope we will be in the same shape and form as when we left. But what would happen if you went back? God, they think I'll turn myself inside out if I ride aboard the first ship. I can't imagine what they might think would happen to you."
Bonz paused for a moment and thought about this. Then h
e said suddenly: "You should marry her, you know…"
Hunter stopped what he was doing. "Marry? Marry who?"
"Xara, of course."
Hunter tried to stay cool; he stuffed another small apple into his pocket. "Why would you say that?"
Bonz shrugged. "Hey — I'm a spook. It's my job — or it used to be, anyway — to be able to read people in a half a second."
"SF3 is turning out love connectors these days?"
"I don't have to be a wizard to know you're crazy about her, and she's crazy about you," Bonz said.
"Whether I've been here ten years or ten minutes, it's rather obvious."
"So?"
"So, when all of this is over, back on the other side or wherever the hell the real world is, I suggest you marry her."
Hunter thought a moment. "But if I did that, that might make me Emperor someday."
Bonz suddenly shook Hunter's hand.
"Well, Major," he said, "I never thought I'd say this, but if there was one person I would choose to be top man in the Empire — in the entire Galaxy — that guy is you."
Hunter just laughed again, picked one last apple, and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Good luck, Gym," he said. "And enjoy your eternal reward."
8
It took what seemed like a very long while for the UPF troopers to complete the relocation of the Vanex Door.
Taking it apart, piece by piece, and carrying the sections to the other end of the small valley went smoothly enough. But when it came time to put the last half of the portal back together, strange things began to happen.
Soon after the main frame had been put up, a twilight came, one that lasted longer than anyone could remember. No moons appeared in the sky this time; nor were there any great washes of stars over ahead, at least not over Happy Valley.
The lack of starlight hampered the final phase of the repositioning. There was no artificial illumination in Happy Valley; there was never a need for any. When it became apparent that the dusk was going to last longer than usual, the UPF engineers tried to switch on the search and landing lights attached to the bottom of each ship, including Resonance 133. But none of these lamps would work. The power inside the ships was already very low; trying the lights only further drained the limited supply. Then someone suggested they try making a fire and then lighting torches. But no one could produce as much as a spark.
There was no fire in Paradise, because there was never any need for it.
So the last part of the rebuilding project was done in the low light of the strange twilight, which made it all that much more difficult. But somehow the troopers prevailed. It was only as they were tightening up the last truss that the twilight finally ended. The sun rose; the dusk went away.
The Vanex Door, powered by the tiny cell included in the Echo 999.9, came to life a short while later.
There was never any doubt who would be going aboard the Resonance 133 for this first attempt to break back through to the other side.
As the most seasoned pilots, Zarex and Calandrx would handle the flying. Tomm, Gordon, and Klaaz would lord over the primary controls. Erx and Berx would be back in the engine room, watching over the ship's dual-power system.
Why two power systems? It was the only solution to yet another complication. The Resonance 133 was an Empire ship. It was powered by a prop core. But the juice it needed to draw from the Big Generator was nonexistent here; Supertime did not extend to Paradise. So taking a page from Bonz's experience on his ill-fated ship, the TxroVox, the Resonance 133 now had both an ion-ballast engine — actually a spare taken from one of the original UPF ships — as well as its own prop core. It was hoped if enough power could be diverted to the ion-ballast engine, it would give the ship the boost needed to penetrate the Vanex Door and to get through the twenty-sixth dimension.
Once on the other side, the prop core would be kicked in.
If the ship made it that far.
The bare-bones crew of the Resonance 133 had prepared for their flight up on High Hill. A bridge connecting the peak and the access door to the ship had been constructed with materials left over from moving the Vanex Door. This way the crew could walk right across to the main hatchway to the waiting vessel.
The crew would have to wear their spacesuits, for they had no idea what was going to happen once they entered the Vanex Door. A short trip through the twenty-sixth dimension certainly, lasting just a microsecond in real time but seeming like an eternity for those going through it. This was how it had been on the trip that brought them here. But whether the Resonance could take the strain of all this transdimensional flip-flopping was a big unknown. There was a good chance the ship might break up upon reaching Zero Point on the other side. Spacesuits would give the crew about thirty seconds to say their last good-byes — and then, theoretically at least, head back to Heaven by more traditional means.
Another twilight came and went. The plan called for the Resonance 133 to leave during a daylight period, so the final preparations hurriedly began. Helping to attend to some of the last details, Hunter was up on High Hill with the crew. That's when Tomm approached him and pulled him aside.
The two men knew each other very well. Hunter had met Tomm when the space monk was serving as a tagalong chaplain for the Freedom Brigade, the small band of American mercenaries who eventually led Hunter to find Planet America. Tomm had stuck by him in the worst days of the war to free the Home Planets and during the UPF invasion of the Two Arm. Next to Erx and Berx, the priest was probably Hunter's closest friend.
But Tomm was not a man without secrets. And one was known to very few people in the Galaxy; in fact, it was one of the deepest secrets in the history of all humankind.
Once they were a good distance away from the others, Tomm said to him, "We all realize that getting back to the other side will be an enormous undertaking and might not even happen at all. I also realize that as you will be going back a different way, we might not have a chance to speak again, ever."
He took something out of his pocket but kept it hidden tightly in his fist.
"I think I know where we can find an ally for our cause," Tomm went on, choosing his words carefully. "A very powerful ally. Someone who might not need much convincing to join… our fight. But I am reluctant to talk about him here… for obvious reasons."
Hunter nodded. He fully understood.
"Finding him, though, is a mission that only you can see through," the priest went on. He finally passed the object in his hand to Hunter. It was a viz-screen capsule, a sort of compact image projection device used by soldiers in forward battle areas to receive orders from their superiors without jeopardizing string communications.
"I made this a very long time ago," Tomm told Hunter. "Right after we first met, in fact. I had hoped that I would never have to give it to you. I hoped things would never get so bad. But now, under the circumstances, I believe it is the right thing to do. The message it contains is in two parts. Open it when you get back. It will give you all the specifics you will need. We will all have a role to play when we reach the other side. I think this is the avenue you should pursue. And I think that is all we should say about it here."
At that moment, the Resonance technicians passed the word that it was time to go. Tomm shook Hunter's hand and turned to join the others walking across the bridge. But Hunter stopped him. He looked at the viz-screen capsule. "But Father, even if I do what it says in here, what are the chances of me actually succeeding?"
Tomm just shook his head.
'Truthfully, Brother Hawk," he said, "for any of this to work, we will need more than just one miracle."
The big moment finally came.
The ship techs pronounced the Resonance 133 ready to go. The gigantic wedge-shaped cargo ship, dark gray against the bright emerald grass below and the shimmering blue sky above, looked very out of place, even more so now that the bubble top cockpit area was lit with a dim but eerie yellow light.
The crew walked across the
bridge as the UPF troopers, back in formation on the valley floor below, stood at attention. The techs had hung a flag over the entrance to the Resonance 133. It was the Stars and Stripes. Watching from the top of the hill, Xara at his side, Hunter was not surprised to find himself choked up as the crew passed beneath the unfurled flag.
Once in, the crew turned on only the bare essentials. Their departure was only a short while away.
Now came a crucial question involving time — or, more accurately, keeping track of time in this place that had none. Clocks didn't work here, no surprise in an environment that seemed designed to make one forget all about the concept of time. How then would they know when the week was up, and the rest of the fleet should cross over?
There was only one way to do it. Volunteers from the UPF army would be made "designated counters." As soon as the Resonance 133 disappeared, these troopers would start counting, in rhythm.
Sixty seconds to mark every minute, 3,600 seconds to mark every hour, 86,400 seconds to mark each day — for seven days.
Only then would the rest of the fleet follow.
The Resonance's departure also required a countdown.
It started at thirty. On a technician's cue, the entire UPF contingent assembled below began shouting out the descending numbers.
But strange things started happening again. The sky suddenly turned black, as clouds covered the sun. A darkness more acute than any twilight descended on Happy Valley. This was a frightening turn of events for the UPF contingent, not to mention the other residents of the area. Never had it grown so dark before in Happy Valley. Still, the countdown continued.
It reached fifteen seconds, and a sudden clap of thunder rolled through the valley. It was powerful enough to shake the Vanex Door, as well as everything and everybody nearby. Standing atop High Hill, Xara grabbed Hunter so tightly, her nails went right through his uniform sleeve. The countdown continued.
