The Dark Ascent

by Walter H Hunt

  "Dreaming of the zor People, this is?"

  "No." I'm not so sure, she thought, but kept that comment to herself. "No, this was real life. I met Captain Stone in person. He arranged my return to Zor'a from hundreds of parsecs distant, by means that are almost too unbelievable to describe."

  "Imagination of M'm'e'e is great, ha ha ha. Continue."

  "Do you know where Crossover is?"

  "Six days' jump from Cicero is Crossover. Pirate port."

  "That's right." What, did everyone know about Crossover but the Imperial Navy? "I was at least three or four days' jump farther out than that. I walked home. Through jump. Stone created—or summoned—a sort of rainbow bridge. I stepped onto it and I wound up in the High Lord's esTle 'e on Zor'a."

  "Also in report of pilot Garrett was," M'm'e'e said. "Debriefing Admiral Hsien received, of this colored bridge also. Same means must be, yes?"

  Well, all right, she thought to herself. "Yes, I believe that it's the same phenomenon. It got him off the alien ship that captured him at Cicero."

  M'm'e'e didn't say anything for several moments, as if he were trying to gauge the truth of her statement.

  "Your sudden reappearance, explanation it provide would. Gyaryu also returned after unfortunate incident at A'alu Spaceport not long before; clarifies does it." It was clear to Jackie he was fitting pieces together. "Stipulation is, that you with Stone character on far world met, there obtained sword you, interestingly, with the death of long-talk friend se Sergei coincident, not long after suicide of not-so-insane High Lord Ke'erl HeYen.

  "Fulfillment of Qu'u legend, Perilous Stair climbed, Ice-wall pierced, all complete—even appointment of female High Lord all pattern of greater dream fits, yes? Ha ha ha. M'm'e'e to understand begins."

  That was quick, she thought. "You know about all of that?"

  "Of that, zor no secret have made. Old rashk proverb is: 'People smell what their nostrils told to smell have been.' Stipulation: Zor to humans mysterious greatly are, though many years since war have gone. But pattern of behavior long centuries built has been; zor the wingspeech but speak cannot help, quoting of zor epics in official releases do. When Jupiter ion-storm erupts, comm into noise falls, people the noise ignore. After time, zor speech like ion-storm becomes; regular occurrence in mysterious references to speak, people the noise ignore.

  "Zor wings have the story given away, yet few to noise have listened. M'm'e'e listened. M'm'e'e heard. You the sword from Plain of Despite have brought; you the sword from Deceiver have wrested. You the Gyaryu'har have become—something else also, M'm'e'e suspects. Take and give. Many thinkings M'm'e'e must perform." He leaned his head back, and his eyes drooped shut.

  "M'm'e'e?"

  The rashk appeared to have gone to sleep.

  "M'm'e'e," she repeated, a bit louder.

  One eyelid slowly lifted. "Eh?"

  "The record."

  He reached out a hand and tapped his control pad with a finger. A regular human control pad extruded in front of Jackie. "Many thinkings," he repeated, and his eye closed again.

  While soft, vaguely moist snoring sounds began to erupt from the rashk, and his four arms began to move gently in a slow, almost hypnotic pattern, Jackie began to navigate through the data presented. It was clear that M'm'e'e had placed strict boundaries on the information, but within its scope she could take it in and analyze it any way she pleased.

  It was a remarkable story. A highly placed agent had been aboard the fleet flagship—Lancaster, si Sergei's ship—up until the time the fleet took A'anenu, the huge naval base where the envoy's great-grandfather had happened upon the esLiHeShuSa'a, the shrine to esLi. The agent had been discovered—or perhaps feared discovery—and had sent no further reports after the taking of the base.

  Though there was no firsthand report of the incident from the agent—he had left Lancaster to remain behind with the ships guarding A'anenu—it was clear that Stone, then serving as the Admiral's adjutant, had literally disappeared from Lancaster while it was in jump. This fit with the information she'd been given back on Zor'a.

  Stone had left nothing behind; in fact, an official log report from Lancaster indicated that Stone's cabin had been completely empty—With a millimeter of deck, wall and ceiling removed as well.

  Some weeks later, when Marais had returned to Sol System, he was shot at by a 'copter signed out under Stone's name. Stone had then appeared a second time, at the old Grimaldi base on Luna, and had attacked Marais again—this time very nearly killing him, but for the intervention of an agent who was killed by the peculiar eversion weapon. There was even 3-V footage of the event.

  COMMANDER LYNNE RUSS (trial counsel for Admiral Marais): Admiral, the witness is answering the question. The perception that the accused won the war is an evaluation of the military accomplishment of the accused. It is therefore valid.

  REAR ADMIRAL THEODORE MCMASTERS (Tribunal President): Objection overruled. Defense may proceed.

  COMMANDER SIR JAMES ARONOFF (Judge Advocate): I beg to remind the Admiral that this decision will permit the witness to engage in rhetoric which might influence the cause of the accused but which is in no way evidence.

  MCMASTERS: Does the trial counsel wish to lodge a formal protest?

  (Lights extinguished and sound of life support stops. After a moment, dim emergency lights appear. Tribunal in shadow; defense table and some of the wall is lit. Marais is now standing.)

  MCMASTERS: What the hell is happening?

  (A bright, multicolored light begins to form in the lit area: a rainbow spilling out of nowhere.)

  CAPTAIN THOMAS STONE: Perhaps I can answer that, Admiral.

  "Freeze," Jackie said. The clip stopped moving. She set it to reverse slowly and watched the form of Thomas Stone step backward into nothingness, a cornucopian swirl of color accompanying him.

  "An interesting phenomenon is that," M'm'e'e said, eyes open now. "The energy phenomenon similar to that recorded upon the Lancaster is, favorably also with the recorded pattern of our agent at Hilton Head arcology compares it does."

  The image hung in midair, frozen, a droplet of time from most of a century ago.

  "This is how you to Zor'a returned, my thinkings to M'm'e'e say," the rashk said. "Also how Garrett from alien ship escaped. Walking from some other place did Stone come."

  "Proceed," Jackie said to the image, without directly answering M'm'e'e; but it was probably true.

  (Stone holds a pistol of unknown design, pointed at Marais' chest.)

  MARAIS: All right, Stone. Answer.

  (Stone looks around. No other figure moves while he does so.)

  STONE: I am here, my dear Admiral, to kill you.

  MCMASTERS: Now, wait just a damn minute—

  (McMasters stands, but freezes when Stone turns the pistol toward him.)

  STONE: This weapon has a most unusual effect. I will be happy to demonstrate its effects if you'd like.

  MARAIS: That won't be necessary. I assume you intend to explain yourself, at last.

  STONE: Of course. The problem, Admiral Marais, is that you have failed to play your part as originally intended. You had the greatest opportunity ever afforded a human: the opportunity to utterly and completely destroy a rival species and demonstrate the superiority of your own. Yet at the last moment you refused to deliver the coup de grace.

  That is a fatal weakness, Admiral. It is one that has plagued humanity throughout its history. Humanity is too violent to be civilized and too civilized to be ruthless. It will be your downfall in the end.

  But since you failed to do what was necessary, it is obvious that you cannot be allowed to live. If humanity will not destroy the zor, then surely the zor will have to destroy humanity. The destruction of their precious Dark Wing should assure that.

  MARAIS: But there was no need—

  STONE: Of course there was need, you fool. What do you think this was all about?

  MCMASTERS: Tell me. What is this all about?

  STO
NE: This is a conflict between races. My employers determined that it was best that humanity defeat the zor, whose fanatic predilections made their evolutionary chances significantly less than their more adaptable human opponents. With my help, Admiral Marais wrote a book that described the single available solution to the quandary into which humanity had placed itself: the destruction of the zor by fighting them on the same terms as they fought humanity. The rest you know: Marais carried the plan forward up to the critical stage, at which point he allowed the mystical nonsense that passes for zor religion to get in the way of carrying out his historical mission—to eradicate the zor.

  MARAIS: "Mystical"—

  STONE (to McMasters): Your precious Admiral had even begun to believe that he was the Destroyer their myths had foretold. This ridiculous messianic complex stayed his hand when he should have slain. Humanity has proven itself incapable of dominance.

  MARAIS: By showing mercy?

  STONE: When did you show mercy before? At Sr'chne'e? At A'anenu? Even the pathetic creature that you saved on A'anenu naval base, the zor Rrith, did not want your precious mercy.

  "A hit, as you humans say would," M'm'e'e said. "A palpable hit."

  "Shhh," Jackie said, listening intently.

  STONE: . . . Humanity and zor cannot live side by side. It has been foreseen.

  MARAIS: What else has been foreseen? How else have humans and zor been used as pawns in your game?

  STONE: Regrettably, you will never know. (Pause.) Good-bye, Admiral Marais.

  "Freeze," M'm'e'e said suddenly. The scene froze with the figures all beginning to move: Marais diving for the floor, Stone changing the point of aim from Marais to an emerging figure moving from the shadows.

  "Our agent, that is," M'm'e'e added quietly. "Observe. Stone by him killed is, but he attacked as well is."

  (A beam of multicolored light lances out from Stone's pistol and engulfs the new figure. Stone falls to the deck, his right arm and a good part of his right side vaporized. The new figure twists in the energies around his frame, a gurgling scream escaping his lips and then ending suddenly. The pistol crashes to the deck, shattering into many pieces and erupting into light.)

  "The everting weapon," Jackie said as the clip ended. "Stone's pistol."

  "On this clip and the remains of the crashing did the Intelligence Service a reconstruction perform, but from it no great amount of learning could we obtain. Stone a human was, and autopsies performed were."

  "What happened to your agent?"

  "Everted, he was." M'm'e'e gestured, and the mummy-image reappeared, growing and coming forward. It was vaguely human-shaped, like a man twisting in the wind, but made of some sort of papier-mâché—

  Bone, she realized. The outside of the body is bone, and the stringy gristle must be what's inside—and around the head must be the brain, turned inside out—

  "Everted," M'm'e'e repeated. "Killed Stone did he, but caught in the beam of the alien weapon was he, everted, within out came and outside within went. Another example." He gestured at another image, and a 3-V of an empty room appeared. It had a missing wall that opened out to empty sky. On the floor was a larger body with the same characteristics.

  "Another agent, it was. Energy patterns Stone to pointed. Twice this Stone, with the everting weapon, men killed has. Twice, agents of the Imperial Intelligence Service. You say, him you met, far beyond Empire world. Enemy of Agency is he, dangerous is he. No everting did he try?"

  "On me?"

  "On you. Attacked, were you? Qu'u legend, many times hero agent of Deceiver fights must. He of Dancing Blade— Shrnu'u HeGa'u named is—point man for esGa'u. According to legend, with Dancing Blade person Qu'u before gate of Fortress a duel fight must.

  "So, fought him, did you? This Stone, Shrnu'u HeGa'u is he?"

  "No."

  She wasn't sure why she was so quick to dismiss this connection; she thought about the Dsen'yen'ch'a at Adrianople Starbase, the challenge at the tower against Shrnu'u HeGa'u.

  He of the Dancing Blade, his e'chya in his hand, scorn in his voice as he destroyed her hsi-images . . .

  Stone, sitting in the drawing-room on Center while the storm raged outside, sardonic and reserved . . .

  Stone on the video, turning his everting weapon on the nameless intelligence agent . . .

  The horrible image of human figures turned inside out, mummified by their own innards. The rainbow bridge through jump. The pseudopods of anGa'e'ren reaching for her from the open clamshell doors aboard the Fair Damsel as it hurtled through the darkness.

  She looked away from the image.

  "se Jackie Laperriere, Gyaryu'har, not well is feeling? To drink something else, perhaps? Help needed, is?"

  Jackie didn't answer. ". . . I've got other employers," Stone had said to her. "They've been watching this affair play itself out, Commodore, and it is their consensus opinion that it is best for their interests that the gyaryu be placed in your hands."

  "My employers determined it was best that humanity defeat the zor . . ." the Stone on the video had said.

  Stone.

  Shrnu'u HeGa'u.

  "No," she repeated.

  Stone had referred to his "employers"; he even credited them with writing the Qu'u legend. If he were merely a functionary, no more than a representative . . . If he was Shrnu'u HeGa'u, it would be frightening. But if he wasn't, then who was he?

  I will not submit to this panic, she told herself sternly. All of it—the casual reference to the "employers," the attack of anGa'e'ren, the terror weapon that everted human bodies—was intended to frighten me.

  Can't think through fear. Pull yourself together, damn it.

  "se Gyaryu'har?" M'm'e'e asked, and there was obvious concern in his voice. He shifted back and forth in his chair.

  "I'm sorry, M'm'e'e. I was . . ." She forced herself to relax and smile a bit. "I was having a thinking."

  "Many thinkings necessary will be, before end of problem reached is. Healthfulness is, or not?"

  "I'm fine. I—I'm fine." Qu'u is destroyed by the Deceiver, but esLi saves him and brings him back to the World That Is. I listen to Shrnu 'u HeGa'u—Stone—who sends me through anGa'e'ren back to Zor'a. Am I still following the damned legend or not? . . . What's happening?

  "What did Stone do to me? What is his part?"

  "M'm'e'e not so sure is. Many travelings, too many thinkings. Resting in quiet needed might be for se Gyaryu'har Jackie Laperriere, or not?"

  "No . . . thank you." She mentally shrugged off the fear and concentrated again on the frozen image. "Is there anything else related to this investigation?"

  "Telemetric evidence is," he answered, working the console in front of him. The ghastly everted corpse disappeared and was replaced by a diagram of Sol System with a long orange curve drawn across it. "Just before scene on screen happening was, something near number six jump point appeared. Unusual energy distribution. Recorded on Lancaster same, evidence found on Earth same, pattern of Restucci distribution available is." A 3-D graph of fluctuating energy appeared, hovering next to the diagram. "Record from starship Charlemagne is. Short video clip, see it will you?"

  "Certainly."

  M'm'e'e issued several more instructions. Diagram and graph disappeared and were replaced by a 3-V depiction of space. A multicolored something flashed across and the video clip ended. M'm'e'e caused it to appear again, frozen at the start of the clip.

  "Zoom twenty-seven," he said, and the something became a bright band of light, just coming into view from starboard. "Zoom two-forty-three," he said. "Apologies are, computer to being addressed in base-ten accustomed is."

  "No problem," she answered, as the something became a broad, colored ribbon, consisting of six parallel bands: red, yellow, green, blue, orange and violet. The telemetry data displayed on the bottom of the screen made it out to be sixty to seventy meters wide and, at the moment of depiction, almost two hundred kilometers long.

  It was clearly the same sort of path she'd wal
ked through jump to reach Zor'a.

  "Less than nine seconds in visual range of Charlemagne was it. Also, Ganymede Observatory and Jodrell Bank recorded it did. Endpoint of phenomenon, Grimaldi Base was. After happened Stone appearance, disappeared."

  "His transport. He was brought in by—his 'employers'— on that."

  "Correct assumption is, M'm'e'e believe would. Stipulation: Phenomenon close to your conveyance is. Conclusion: Same Stone is, human appearance for convenience was. Why choose same guise? M'm'e'e asks."

  "He must've known we'd put this all together," Jackie agreed. "Unless . . ." She thought for a moment.

  M'm'e'e's arms folded and unfolded several times. "In Standard speech is, 'unless' followed by predicate conclusion is. What 'Unless,' se Gyaryu'har?"

  "Wouldn't you agree, M'm'e'e, that Stone, both back then"—she gestured toward the midair images—"and now, made a particular effort to try and show how much everyone was being manipulated? I mean, think about this for a moment. He said that his employers intended for Marais to die. Why didn't they kill him, then? Certainly beings capable of creating footpaths through jump could've found a way to vaporize Grimaldi Base and kill Admiral Marais.

  "He said that his employers wrote the Qu'u legend. If you believe him, they arranged for the zor to leave the sword unprotected, for the vuhls to capture it and for me to emerge from nowhere and capture it back . . . and then got me home again. Why did they go to all the trouble?

  "It's inconsistent and it's confusing. Whoever or whatever Stone was—is—working for, they're clearly technologically advanced, but a long way from omnipotent. Unless they wanted this outcome all along."