Chaos Cipher

by Den Harrington

  ‘Do you know what the word uitwaaien means?’ he said reflectively, his frowzy hair shifting as he run his palm through it to cool his head. She told him she didn’t and shook her head.

  ‘It’s Dutch. It means to walk in the wind,’ he explained, ‘to take a break and clear your head. I think it’s a beautiful word.’

  ‘Well, I don’t need to clear my head,’ said Enaya, sitting beside him. ‘I need to help mitigate a growing problem. Do you think Edge Fenris killed the dog?’

  ‘For revenge?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Daryl Sanders didn’t know, and shook his head. ‘Possibly. Why?’

  Enaya pointed to the wall screen opposite them and smiled invitingly at Daryl.

  ‘Open the Q-net, see for yourself.’

  Daryl stood up and operated the screen from his Quantic-W, and she guided him through the various personalised sites of administrations, schools, clubs, events and not-for-profit businesses and voluntary placements. He landed upon Niraj Mohad’s home page and was greeted with a welcome and a playback of some of Niraj’s past lectures. He knew he was a scholar of History and War, and Niraj had been speaking quite eloquently about Edge Fenris in his recent video logs. He pointed to the most recent one titled The Truth about Edge Fenris.

  ‘Edge Fenris is a dangerous immigrant,’ he began. ‘It’s no secret to those who know him that he is a layabout and a none-contributor to the forced voluntarism and social slavery paradigm of this system. If you do not impose your work routine on him as you do to everyone else, then you cannot expect him to do any less than occupy his time plotting against you, burning your buildings, killing your animals.’

  ‘What is he on about?’ Daryl squinted.

  ‘He reasons that we’re a labour camp,’ Enaya smiled. ‘That we’re not volunteers but forced to work for free.’

  ‘He’s insane,’ Daryl laughed.

  ‘Well, he puts together argumentative comparisons,’ she smiled, ‘not convincing ones, but they are deceptive. Except the misery and deprivation people experienced in labour camps obviously aren’t experienced here. He explains that we so called captives of Cerise Timbers do not realise its prison bars.’

  ‘He’s got a few followers,’ said Daryl with raised brows. ‘A couple a’ thousand by the looks of it.’

  ‘Yeah,’ said Enaya, ‘despite his rhetoric and biased opinions, he’s a capable scholar and people enjoy his history classes.’

  ‘Guy’s got a chip on his shoulder.’

  ‘Well you should check Edge Fenris,’ she offered, ‘he’s posted a response video log.’

  Daryl didn’t find a website, but a basic profile on the Q-net’s digital guest-book for new comers looking to establish themselves and network with others in Cerise Timbers.

  ‘That ineffable monstrosity doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about!’ Edge Fenris raged in a plume of his own smoke, rabid teeth grinding at the cigarette tip. ‘Twice I’ve been assaulted and dragged out of my own damn bed! I’ve a right to rest, goddamnit! They tried to burn me alive and I only just survived. Sure, you wanna know about the dog, huh? Yeah, I poisoned a security dog with sleeping pills, a dose that wasn’t enough to kill it. It was measured to put him under for an hour, while I broke into Pierce Lewis’ home to dig up evidence that he was the one who caused the fire. Yes, I’m guilty of that much. But if you wanna know who killed the dog I suspect it was that insufferable golem Berengar, the one who’s been helping Lewis and his cronies to ride roughshod over all you idiots! Now, just look at Niraj Mohad’s damn video. He makes me sound like I’m suffering from idle hands. I’m a greater asset to this place that he will have you believe. I screwed up in the past, I’m not perfect, but unlike him, I won’t pretend otherwise. And unlike him, I won’t attack someone’s character on no logical basis and without evidence. My doors are open Niraj! Come get your damn evidence, if you want it. You’ll find nothing here that could kill a dog except professor Laux’s whiskey. And as for your condescending title, the truth about me? You don’t know me you ass-hat! And if you people gotta be told what the truth is, then you’re not interested in looking for it.’

  ‘Strong words,’ said Daryl, closing the screen on a blurred freeze frame of Edge’s angered snarl.

  ‘Edge is losing this one,’ she sighed. ‘People are following the logic of better the devil you know. Edge Fenris doesn’t have an established reputation outside getting drunk and being involved in trouble in one way or another.’

  ‘But what about Laux?’ Daryl reminded. ‘Professor Aldous Laux has made significant changes since coming here. And he’s here with Edge. If the community exclude someone, it has to be for a good reason, and we don’t know how Laux is going to take that.’

  ‘Difficult,’ she uttered plaintively. ‘I hope they can resolve this amicably. Otherwise, I fear somebody is going to go. Be it a scholar or an engineer, either would be a great loss.’

  ‘What about Berengar?’ Daryl asked.

  ‘The kids from the art school wanted to bury the dog,’ she smiled faintly. ‘They said it was disrespectful to the animal what he had done. Berengar has retreated back to the Lewis home.’

  ‘Best place for him,’ Daryl replied. ‘I’m not a betting man but I think some of the Mercs will want to beat a few of his teeth out for that move.’

  -58-

  Pawel quickly shut down the Alcubierre field after making the velox out of Jupiter’s orbit. The engines powered down, its many rings spinning and rotating around the body of the starnavis once more realigned into a singular band and shrunk quietly down, tightening around the vessel’s waist like a large metal belt. A thermal purge unit sucked up the excess heat from the shuttle’s core and released the long glowing hot cylinder quickly into space behind it, spinning endlessly out of sight.

  ‘Safe distance acquired,’ Pawel stated nervously, reposed in his inertial bed. ‘Saltus-carousels are folded. Excess thermal energy purged. Cruise thrusters only.’

  Nitro Harbeck breathed a sigh of relief and sat up slightly, facing the giant Olympian warrior, now hovering in the micro-gravity.

  ‘You can relax now,’ Nitro assured. ‘We’re on our way to Earth.’

  ‘Thou thinkest me a fool,’ he gnashed. ‘Only when I see the planet beneath my feet, will I bequeath this Starnavis unto its rightful owners.’

  ‘What is it you want?’ Nitro asked.

  ‘Thou needs only concern thyself with getting me to Earth.’

  ‘Because we are happy to take on another Olympian warrior,’ he disclosed. A moment of silence passed before Nitro began to explain himself.

  ‘You see the Shield of Spheres are special ops. Where the work is we go and we’re in search of talent all the time. This starnavis was of interest to us and its team are quite professional and elusive individuals. All be it a little sloppy, some training is still in order. But you…well you coming along is an absolute gold mine. And a Chronomancer as well?’ Nitro looked over at Avenoir and she held tightly onto her inertial seating, a worried look on her diamond freckled face. ‘I have to get you interested. We could help each other out here.’

  ‘I have already told thee Titan,’ Raven remarked. ‘I am not interested in a bargain. If I feel my own mission to be compromised I will invest the final moments of my life destroying this very Starnavis.’ And Raven’s eyes pulsed with a luminous green hue. ‘Do not doubt that I can do it.’

  ‘Why us?’ Kelly asked from her inertial cushioning, unfastening the harness and netting. ‘Why this vessel?’

  ‘I did not appropriate The Griffin’s Claw on my own demand,’ Raven disclosed, ‘but because of the acute visions of the Chronomancer.’

  Kelly looked over to the young girl and patiently awaited some response but she said nothing.

  ‘Her name is Avenoir,’ Raven told.

  ‘Yeah, I had heard about the kid,’ said Nitro. ‘The authorities are calling her Cassandra.’

  ‘Pardon my ignorance,’ said Kelly again, ‘but you
keep saying Chronomancer. What does that mean?’

  ‘It means this girl can see the future.’ Nitro explained.

  ‘Her name is Avenoir.’ Raven said in a low voice, grabbing one of the ship’s ladders to hold himself steady in the free-fall environment.

  ‘She can speak for herself, right?’ Kelly asked.

  And Avenoir dipped her chin and shook her head, her face tightening painfully.

  ‘She refuses,’ Raven explained, ‘much of what I know from her I have seen only in vivid dreams alone. But she lost her ability to speak when she was very young due to trauma. She is guiding us a safe passage to Earth, hence we are here with you for such reason.’

  ‘Where are you from?’ asked Nitro.

  ‘The Kyklos,’ said Raven. ‘An arc station that had settled near a planet we called Amora out in the Suntau system. We no longer have a home. There is nothing to return to but a black hole. Your kind destroyed it to make Obsiduranium.’

  ‘The Kyklos?’ Nitro uttered in wonder. ‘We’ve never heard of such a thing. I swear it I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.’

  ‘The class of Starnavis chosen for this mission,’ Raven recalled, ‘were Jackal Dreadnaught. They launched Arrowhead strike-ships and nuclear phoenix missiles. I hath since found much more out about this mission. They had called it heat beat and treat, a vernacular not uncommon to thy violence of language. How easily you divorce thy words from thy deeds, that you call mass murder something as insipid as heat, beat and treat. Or that you’d name individuals as mere targets.’

  ‘That’s standard,’ Nitro shrugged. ‘But this was nothing to do with The Shield of Spheres.’

  Raven looked over to Avenoir and Nitro suddenly realised the young Chronomancer had been watching him, listening carefully to their conversation and Raven told him he believed him. Then their proximity alarms began to siren through the bridge and Caspian’s voice pierced through the speakers.

  ‘Whot da heil ees goink on up there?’ he snapped. ‘Weiv been waitink down heir fore whot feils like yeirs, whots de plan, ah?’

  ‘Shut him up!’ Nitro told Kelly.

  ‘Caspian just-’ Kelly stuttered uncertainly, her eyes steadily on Raven, watching the intimidating creature lurking through the dark with his sullen whispers and promises of death, and those fierce radium eyes shining like malachite rings. ‘Just stay calm, captain. We are still sorting things out.’

  ‘We are entering asteroid field,’ Pawel alerted. ‘I’m slowing down.’

  ‘Whenst thou reaches the planet Earth,’ Raven’s voice spoke lightly. ‘there will be many defences. I believe that fate is indeed on our side Nitro Harbeck. I believe thou canst get us through.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Nitro nodded. ‘I believe I can too. The only way you’re getting down to that planet is by registering as a Shield of Spheres agent. It’s a privilege not everyone has.’

  ‘A commonality,’ said Raven, considering carefully. ‘A shared accomplishment. I deem it important that we establish something of a rule for our agreement. After all, if I am contracted to work beside thee then thou may discover my real clause is to work against thee.’

  ‘What is your real cause?’ Nitro pressed, his face all the more serious. ‘What are you here to do?’

  Raven was smiling in the dark. A faint passage of sunlight from outside slipped over his face as The Griffin’s Claw’s orientation shifted and they saw his wild grin.

  ‘I seek an artefact.’

  ‘An artefact?’

  ‘Something that was stolen from the Kyklos,’ he explained. ‘Siphoned from the vast remains of its demise.’

  ‘Name it.’ Nitro stated.

  ‘A sacred emblem,’ said Raven. ‘Three orbs, no bigger than a human fist. I must retrieve them once more. And more…I seek the Galileo Coterie. They must hear what your Atominii world is doing to life everywhere.’

  ‘And what do you intend to do?’ asked Nitro. ‘Assemble an uprising?’

  Raven didn’t answer. He glared at Nitro with cold blinkless eyes and awaited his decision. Nitro sighed and huffed a while, then laughed as he came to a conclusion.

  ‘We’ll set you up with Shield of Spheres,’ said Nitro. ‘If the arc station really was destroyed as you said it was, then technically whoever did it committed a terrible crime even by Atominii standards. We can only target stars with no colonies, alien life and all that sort of stuff. If it was your home and they destroyed you for this cause, then we could have a good reason for defending you. We could come down heavy on the military operation responsible for doing it. But, I promise you, that wasn’t us.’

  ‘Thou wouldst help me find those responsible?’

  ‘If it is considered a defence matter, the Shield of Spheres is there. If the contract is worth it, we’ll be present.’

  Raven became taciturn as he began to cogitate on just how the Shield of Spheres would be compensated for their services when the very people they would be taking on, they were contrariwise also sworn to protect; the Atominii state. Raven had no means of paying them, but it seemed what Nitro was saying was becoming more and more clear all of a sudden.

  ‘What compensation?’

  ‘If I do this for you,’ said Nitro. ‘You and the girl work for us. We’ll protect you, give you interstellar access to our bases and train you both.’

  ‘Yes.’ A demure voice suddenly stated from the darkness of the ship. Raven’s face suddenly became ashen, as though some ghost had appeared and all present turned to face Avenoir. Her big eyes one green and the other red looked around each of them nervously as she said again, just above a whisper.

  ‘Yes. We accept your proposal, Mr Harbeck.’

  ‘Avenoir?’ Raven gasped in astonishment. ‘Didst I hear thy voice or-’

  The hull of The Griffin’s Claw began to vibrate and more proximity alarms sounded. Pawel worked to navigate, occupied in his neurosphere he reported from the neurological correspondence with the ship verbally.

  ‘Sorry…but we’ve got debris flying in. Asteroids are usually stable here but something is rattling them.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Not sure,’ said Pawel. ‘Everyone to your inertial places.’

  As she strapped herself in, Kelly thought about the Martian colony and the huge terraforming effort being done to Phobos and Demos. She’d found an interesting neurophase mnemonic that he stored in her memory for general interest once but it was a little hazy now. Something about the asteroid field being harvested to make the two Martian moons bigger.

  ‘Hey, does anybody know about the terraforming mission on Mars?’ Kelly asked.

  ‘Sure,’ said Nitro strapping in. ‘What do you wanna know?’

  ‘There was something about making the moons bigger using the asteroid field.’ She said. ‘Could something have happened?’

  ‘No,’ said Pawel. ‘You’re talking about lunar-scaping. The Martians use drones to pull asteroids and drop them onto Phobos and Demos. They do it so the moons will be one day strong enough to circulate the planet’s future oceans. Only the problem is not coming from the inner solar system.’

  Pawel felt the huge distortions rippling through space as material flocked towards the asteroid field. He manoeuvred the shuttle through the scree and they heard the diminutive clattering against the hull as dust collided, ticking and rustling like the patters of hail. Pawel looked deeply worried.

  ‘We’re alright,’ Kelly whispered, ‘aren’t we?’

  ‘I wish you could see what I see.’ Pawel whispered back.

  And he watched something frighteningly familiar flying into the asteroid field. It was a large burning section of the Omicron station, a curved habitation ring cruising into the flow of dust, drifting off to encompass the remote sun and doomed to cycle around in an eternal plummet. Pawel took several image displays from the external sensors and displayed the segment into a photonic hologram field for them to witness.

  ‘Jesus,’ Nitro uttered.

  ‘The Omicron?’ K
elly joined incredulously.

  ‘What in god’s name could have done this?’

  And Pawel immediately tightened as the reach of his neurosphere became disturbed by the impetus of some vast moving force pushing through space. Then he saw the Xenotech machines rippling space-time as they cruised into the asteroid field, crashing through huge rocks, as though they were bullets passing unmitigated through breeze blocks. And the tumultuous hurtling of colossal and aleatory collisions went seen but unheard in the massive expanse of the dark cosmic field. Dust and matter spayed about in uncontrolled waves and vectors in the wake of the menace as the whole ringular arrangement now became fragmentary. The Griffin’s Claw could only watch silently, dipping down into the rocks to hide as the dangerous and deadly trio advanced towards the red planet beyond the scattered sea of stones.

  -59-

  The twittering and chirping of birds sang through the rustic mellifluous air as the avian creatures frolicked in the ferns. Scott Barnes sat in the tubular habitat and listened sedulously to the tranquillity of the area he was in. They’d dressed him in a specific black and orange robe that seemed to drizzle with information along the latitudes of the material’s colour segments. He liked feeling the grass between his toes and requested to walk bare foot around the habitat for a while. The environment projection suddenly paused. Scott Barnes looked up to see a robin redbreast trapped in time mid-flight, nose diving towards a distant birch. The sounds had all at once returned to the usual clack and drum of the vast space of Orandoré’s habitation sector. Yerma had led Max onto the grass and he walked calmly and nodded his head with a mild greeting.