The Shattered Sky

by Paul Lucas

  It wasn’t the newness of the vista that unnerved me. It was its familiarity. I had seen such a sight once before, and I instantly recognized the what the chamber beyond the window-wall must be.

  "A spaceport," I gasped. “Your sponsors must be the Cephalopods." The last word hung in the air like a leaden weight. The Known Nations’ most dangerous enemies, except for possibly the Others. I’d heard they sometimes traded technology to natives of living Shards in exchange for organic resources. I turned toward Kalen. “What arrangement do you have with them? Do you give them food and plants and wood and they give you guns and high-tech devices scavenged from long-dead Shards?”

  He looked more than a little suspicious. “How can you know that?”

  “There are many different clans of Cephalopods. The ones that count themselves as enemies of my husband’s people are in the minority. In truth most of them are indifferent to the presence of humans in InterShard space and seek only trade. Those that are more friendly have no qualms about telling the KN what the other clans do.”

  “Lies!” Skel shouted. “Our sponsors have told us that all of their kind stand united to oppose the sky-devil humans. Why would they give us all these powerful weapons--which we could easily turn on them--if not to defend ourselves from the coming human invasion?”

  “Would you send an attack dog after an enemy unless you were sure it had sharp teeth? Manipulating your people, Skel, must be just one skirmish in their campaign against the Known Nations. By arming you and feeding you lies about the humans, they create trouble for the KN on the KN's home Shard, denying the humans territory on the MegaShard while giving your sponsors a potentially valuable beach head for future incursions.”

  “Much of what she said is true,” Cloud chimed in. “I have read many of the same things in the human magazines. Cephalopods are not to be trusted, if that is truly who your sponsors are. The humans of the Known Nations may be haughty and arrogant, but I must admit they have rarely lied to us outright.” He paused, regarding me. “Do not give me that look, Gossamyr. I have grown up somewhat since that day I attacked Lerner. And I have had much time to think these past few years.”

  Skel was unconvinced. “What makes you so sure the humans were not lying about our sponsors?”

  Cloud turned away and bit his lip. "I cannot know with complete certainty, but they would have little reason to lie to us about them, since it would have seemed a remote possibility to them that we would ever actually meet a Cephalopod."

  The room segued into an uncomfortable silence. My gaze inevitably wandered to the view outside the window-wall. “Over there.” I pointed to a large, 300-meter long cylindrical craft resting in a molded UTSite berth. “Isn’t that a Builder spacecraft?” The KN had discovered thirty-seven such craft under Malachon and had used them to spear-head their space explorations.

  Kalen nodded. “Yes. It has always been there. No one can access its interior, not even our sponsors. It does not respond to any signal and its hull is made of the impenetrable pseudo-metal.”

  “UTSite,” I said. The KN’s relic craft had been the same way, except the humans had found a way inside. I could not recall how exactly. I wished D’Artagnan were here. He could probably have figured it out in no time.

  “Is that the human word for it?” Kalen asked. When I affirmed it was, he continued. “It is too bad we cannot get into its interior and learn how to fly it. Our sponsors say the sky-devil humans control a whole fleet of such craft and use them to terrorize InterShard space. If we could even get one such ship of our own, we could turn the tables.”

  I made a non-committal noise and stared at the Builder spacecraft in the distance, not wanting to get dragged into another verbal argument.

  Lerner would have loved to have been here now, to see such new wonders. He would have ached to wander around the spaceport in a pressure suit, to try and figure a way into the mysterious Builder ship. I wished I could go in there for him.

  Unbidden, an alien voice burst into my mind. Access recognized. Acknowledge?

  I started, but no one noticed me, as lights suddenly came alive on the cylindrical relic ship. Kalen and his retinue swore heavily and pointed out the window-wall.

  The voice had come from the crystal. Acknowledge? it repeated.

  “Yes,” I whispered, not quite sure what I was agreeing to. I think I just wanted to see what would happen, if I was just imagining things or not.

  The ship outside came alive. More lights blinked on, and a low, rumbling vibration shook the floor as something in its interior awakened. All conversation in the room died, then exploded into shouts of disbelief again a heartbeat later as they realized what was happening. They jammed against the window wall.

  Vessel now on stand-by, the crystal voice said.

  “Wh-what?” I said. This time Cloud turned to regard me. His eyes narrowed.

  Vessel is now in stand-by mode, awaiting further instructions. Do you have specific orders you wish to input?

  “Like what?”

  Options include complete or partial diagnostics of individual ship systems or the ship as a whole; upgrading to start-up mode; inputting navigational coordinates; relaying communication through the ship; initiating shut-down sequence; disengaging docking clam--

  The vibration under the floor grew more and more intense. “Shut it down!” I said. “Shut it down right now!”

  Acknowledged.

  The vibration abruptly ceased and all the lights on the hull abruptly winked out. I was so relieved to see the artifact return to sleep that I scarcely noticed that everyone in the room drilled me with their eyes, ears tapered back in alarm.

  I sighed, deep and heavy. Nothing could ever be simple, could it?

  FIFTY-EIGHT

  The cybernetic octopus was not happy.

  Kalen stood to the side as one of his “sponsors” looked me over from its environment bubble. The Councileader had tried to catch my eye several times, to give me a nervous but encouraging smile. I ignored him and concentrated on the odd being sitting in judgment of me.

  The creature blurbled in my direction, its tentacles quivering in irritation in its liquid medium. A number of cables spooled out from its floppy body/cranium into a number of input devices in the mobile aquarium-bubble. Every few second I saw the creature flash one of its black eyes to some kind of heads-up display concealed from us vertebrate onlookers.

  As I had suspected since seeing the Spaceport, Llexa’s sponsors were a clan of Cephalopods particularly hostile to the Known Nations. The space-faring scavengers were even more fractionalized than my husband’s people, with over a thousand clans vying for scavenged resources and jockeying for dominance among their fellows.

  I should have recognized the one that was in the conference room, the one whose pressurized, water-filled walker I had mistaken for a fancy aquarium. But for some reason, perhaps because of the KN’s stories of them were always filled with such dread, I had expected a Cephalopod to be much bigger. The being before me could not have weighed more than a medium-sized dog. If it (she? he?) was not at the controls of a monstrous robotic walker that contained his life-support bubble, I probably could have drop-kicked creature across the room with little effort.

  This “interview,” as the creature had called it, came three days after the incident with the Builder ship. It had been the minimum amount of time it had taken for Kalen’s people to get a message to their sponsors’ main ships, not just the small envoy craft that had settled in the spaceport previously, and for a ‘Pod ship carrying a Cephalopod leader to arrive.

  I found out later that they'd had the Interface Crystal the Others wanted so badly in an adjoining chamber, a makeshift laboratory set up by the Cephalopods, when the Builder ship was activated. The best anyone could guess is that the crystal acted as a mediary between my mind--or, more accurately, that nanites in my brain that interpreted my thoughts--and the Builder ship.

  Almost immediately after the incident with the crystal the guards dragged
me back to the surface and throwing me back into my cell where I rotted until being summoned before the Cephalopod representative.

  A tinny, emotionless voice in pitch-perfect Myotan emanated from a speaker in the two-meter tall walker. “Your sound-designation is Gossamyr. Confirm this.”

  “You mean my name? Yes.”

  It blurbled for several seconds, lights flashing on its wire leads. “Councileader Kalen and others in his dominance umbra have reported on your actions in the space access chamber 3.46 cycles ago. They have also provided extensive details on your accounts of your background prior to arriving at this habitat settlement. Explain your reasons for activating the Originators’ artifact spacecraft.”

  Something about its unrelenting pure-business tone was unnerving, plus the fact that I never saw the creature itself actually speak only added to my feelings of unease. It was carrying out an entire conversation completely through its cyber-linked mind alone.

  My mind raced about how to reply to the creature. Lying might buy me some time, but unfortunately I knew so little about Builder technology that I doubted I could make any falsehoods sound convincing. “It was an accident. I did not mean to activate the ship. The crystal wanted acknowledgement of some activation sequence or something, and without really knowing what that meant I said yes.”

  “What did you do to activate the crystal from its dormant state?”

  “I--I don’t know. I remember thinking about my Mate, about how he would have loved to have seen this Spaceport and enter the Builder ship. Then I heard this voice in my head, asking for acknowledgement.”

  The creature stared at me unblinking--do Cephalopods ever blink?--for a great many heartbeats. Finally, the speaker blurted. “Your primary sound designation is Gossamyr. But Councileader Kalen has reported you have a secondary given designation. Confirm.”

  “Yes. My Mate’s name was Armand Lerner. He was a human, and I adopted their custom of taking my Mate’s second name as my own. My full name is Gossamyr Lerner.”

  “Your genetic exchange partner was not of your species? I had thought that an error in Councileader Kalen’s reports. Foolish. Armand Lerner's genes would be incompatible with yours. You could not produce offspring.”

  My anger sparked. Did everyone have to have an opinion about my choice of Mates? “I know that! But we fell in love...”

  “A mammalian emotional imprinting mechanism which obviously malfunctioned. Your dysfunction is noted.”

  “It is not a dysfunction!” My voice rose. “How dare you judge my--!”

  “Gossamyr--” Kalen hissed, but too late.

  A deafening shriek exploded from the Cephalopod’s walker, loud and painful enough to drive both Kalen and myself instantly to our knees.

  It was cut quickly short, replaced by the ‘Pod’s booming voice. “You are in MY dominance umbra, Myotan. Any further lack of subservience in your actions or in your communication with me will result in repeated punishment.” Its emotionless monotone only made the creature’s threats all the more chilling. “Confirm your comprehension of my statement.”

  Kalen and I rose on shaky legs. I was tempted to summon a Shattersound spell and cram it down that arrogant creature’s beak, but I quickly backflapped from that impulse. They did not seem to suspect yet that I could manipulate the Nanotech Matrix. If they did, they would have kept me sedated as they did Louis, who they blamed for the spell that downed so many of their troops by the crashed helistat. That, and D’Artagnan, wherever he was, seemed to be our only advantages at the moment. “Yes. I understand. I will comply with what you want.” For now.

  “Your genetic exchange partner was also the same human who established communications via gravity wave resonator with beings designated as ‘Others’ by the humans, while in the Originators’ gravitic resonance construct, designated as ‘Artifact Site X12,’ also by the humans. His sound designation was Armand Lerner. Confirm.”

  “How could you know that?”

  “Confirm!”

  “Yes. Yes, Lerner talked to the Others at the Tower. Many of us did.”

  “The Dominance Umbra of the Others and those of my clan overlap. We are allies. It is they who told us how to enter the space access facility here, and have helped us to stage raids upon the humans and rival clans who would threaten our claims on dead Shards.

  “They used a chimera lifeform created from the genetic codes of your genetic exchange partner and yourself as a means of procuring a valuable Originator fractal dimensional interface crystal that was located in the resonance construct. However, this acquisition attempt was thwarted by mammalian humanoids indigenous to that area.”

  “I thwarted the attempt! I killed my son, who was twisted into a monster by your allies! I took the crystal from his body.”

  The Cephalopod was silent for several seconds, regarding me coldly. “This confirms the suspicions of our allies.”

  “What suspicions?”

  “That the crystal that activated the Originators’ ship in the space access facility is the same as the one our allies attempted to procure at the gravitic resonance construct. Unfortunately, we have encountered a complication.”

  Kalen and I exchanged brief, worried looks.

  The creature in the tank blurbled for several minutes, the lights on his wire leads blinking madly. “I am in communication with our allies at this moment, through a gravitic resonator link they have provided my clan. They relay through me a generous offer to you, Gossamyr Lerner, in exchange for the use of the crystal.”

  “Wait. I am confused. Why do they need to offer me anything? Do you not already have the crystal? What do you need me for?”

  Several seconds of silence, then: “They relay through me that there is a reason why they chose a chimera lifeform for their procurement attempt. They wish to have this explained to you in full, so there will be no further misunderstanding. The crystal was preprogrammed many cycles ago to be attuned only to the genetic structure of a small cross section of the Myotan population. Most likely this was accomplished as a security precaution when your ancestors first encountered the crystal, before storing it in the dark side maintenance and storage tunnels. They must have attuned it to their own genetic code and that of their offspring.”

  “What does that mean, exactly?”

  “I can guess that,” Kalen interjected. “It means you are probably the only one here who can use the crystal. We've already tried to get Cloud to do something with it, but nothing.”

  “Correct,” the Cephalopod said. “There may be a statistically insignificant percentage of Myotans in Llexa that may also be able manipulate the crystal, but finding them would be prohibitively costly both in materials and time. Back at the resonance construct, our allies manipulated you and your genetic exchange partner’s desire for offspring in order to produce an agent with a genetic code compatible for operating the crystal.”

  I was quiet for many long heartbeats, thinking. But finally I shook my head. “No. Your allies caused me and my people a great deal of pain and suffering. I refuse to help them in any way. I refuse to use the crystal for them.”

  Kalen winced and pulled his ears back, expecting another sonic assault from his sponsor. I did the same; surely my refusal and impudence would be taken as a challenge to the ‘Pods assertions of dominance. But no attack came. Instead, it trembled its tentacles irritatedly for several seconds.

  “My allies relay through me that they have anticipated your response,” the creature finally said. “As a show of good faith on their part I must now and in the future refrain from harming you or any with whom you may have emotionally imprinted upon.” Through the emotionless monotone I could just barely detect a faint glimmer of annoyance.

  “That includes Councilord Kalen,” I blurted, fearing the creature would take its frustrations out on him later. Kalen’s head whipped around toward me, ears starched straight out and eyes wide in surprise. A pleasant grin threatened to burst out on his lips.

  Oops. I guess my stateme
nt could have been interpreted to mean I had feelings for him. I would have to straighten that out later.

  “I am still hesitant,” I added after a heartbeat. It looks like I was going to be stuck being the Others’ tool for right now. But if that was so, it would do no harm to see what I could get out of the deal.

  “Our allies relay through me that, again, this reaction on your part was anticipated. As was mentioned earlier, you will be well rewarded for your service.”

  “What could they possibly offer me that could make me work for the killers of my family?”

  Even the Cephalopod seemed genuinely surprised at hearing the answer, just before he repeated it to us. “Our allies relay through me that, if you wish, they will restore both your human genetic exchange partner and your unaltered hybrid offspring to you. Our allies have the knowledge and the means to make them live again.”

  FIFTY-NINE

  I sat on the edge of my new bed and frowned. Since the meeting with the Cephalopod leader three days ago, I had been taken out of my cell and given a real room in Kalen’s stronghold. Like the humans, Kalen’s people had discovered the use of mattresses, though only the rich and powerful like the members of the Council could afford them in their homes. Unlike the stiff, spring-molded mattresses of human manufacture, however, this one was hand-sewn and stuffed with dried grasses. It smelled wonderful, for all its lumpiness, and probably weighed twice what I did. In it I enjoyed the most wonderful nights’ sleep since coming through the Node.

  I allowed myself a wan smile as I realized that this was Myotan-made. The most comfortable thing I had ever lain on and it was not human-made, not Cephalopod-made, not Builder-made, but created by my own people.