“Oonak, we’re fine! We’re dreaming. Either that or we’re in a trance. This must be how Vayuna shares knowledge. We’re not in an abyss. I think we’re submerged in Vayuna’s consciousness.”
“Yes. But Zahn, Vayuna can see into the future. I have been studying this octahedron for some time, and I’ve been able to use Vayuna to see into the future.”
“Oonak, that’s impossible, and you know it. Remember what you said about free will? How can we ever know the future if free will exists? You’re only seeing a version of the future.”
“I can see it, Zahn! We will be in an abyss. I can see it.”
“No, Oonak. We can change that if we want to.”
“Don’t you see it?”
“I see nothing in the octahedron. I think they’re tuned to the individual. But that’s not important right now. Oonak, did you learn what we came here for? Did you see where the gates are?”
“Oh yes, I learned that many hours ago. What time is it now?”
“That’s just my point. In here, we have no idea how much time has passed. We need to wake up, Oonak. It could be nightfall by now. For all we know, we could be getting rained on.”
“I’ll call Navika. He’ll know.”
When Oonak looked down to use his wristband, he was surprised to discover that it was gone. Zahn sighed.
“That won’t work since we’re not actually here. Our bodies are still on that small island. Don’t you remember?”
A light went on behind Oonak’s eyes.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. I think this place is affecting my mind. Yes, I now know which gates we need to take. There’s so much knowledge here, Zahn.”
“Good. You got what we came here for. Now, do you remember what Vayuna said? She said to wake up we just need to focus on moving our right index finger.”
“Yes, I remember.”
“Good, then lets do it together. Ready, everyone?”
“Yes,” they both said, and all three of them closed their eyes and focused on moving their fingers.
When they opened their eyes, they saw that the sky was now glistening with thousands of stars, and the air was piercingly cold. Zahn was glad that he had brought his backpack which had a jacket inside. Without it, he would start shivering in no time.
They stood up and noticed that Vayuna was still high above them. In the dim light, they could tell that she had stopped spinning and appeared completely dormant. Now, the main source of light was the faint, eerie golden glow of the crystals that towered out of the lake around them. There was no sign of the saucer or Vivienne’s body anywhere.
“I’ll call Navika,” Oonak said. “From what we now know about Vayuna, I’m sure she would have no objections to us leaving now.”
“Yeah, but are you sure Navika can find us?” Zahn said. “We came a pretty long way.”
“Remember what I said about the wristbands? They cover an entire planetary system. Navika will be able to locate us easily.”
“Oh, I thought that might only work for talking to people.”
“Navika is a person, Zahn,” Oonak said.
“Right.” Zahn sat down again. “I meant people who…”
Zahn decided not to finish that sentence and watched the huge crystals that towered around the island as they pulsed with a faint golden light.
Asha walked over to him.
“It’s okay, Zahn. I know what you mean.” She looked down to the sand below the bench. Zahn noticed that her maroon spacesuit looked almost black in this light, and her hair was up in a bun again, just like it had been when he’d first met her.
“Thanks, Asha. I feel like I should know all of this by now, but I guess this kind of life takes longer to adapt to than I thought.”
“It does.”
“So how did I do back there, on the beach? I tried to catch her by surprise.”
“And by surprise you did,” Oonak said. “You used me as a distraction just as I hoped you would.”
“You performed admirably.” Asha smiled.
“Thanks, guys. I think I was more scared than I looked.”
“Fear is not what separates the courageous from the cowardly, Zahn,” Oonak said. “It is how you react to fear that matters, and you controlled your reaction well.”
A few minutes later, Navika set down on the small island, and his door rolled open. Stepping back inside the ship after two days on Aarava was a strange feeling to Zahn. He had already developed a kind of nostalgia for travelling within Navika. Now that they were armed with new knowledge and weaponry, he was looking forward to reentering the Ocean of Space and continuing their adventure to the galactic core. Oonak hadn’t told him where they were heading next, but he hoped it would be a friendlier place than Aarava.
Whatever was in store, he suspected that wouldn’t be the last time he used his resonator to defend himself.
CHAPTER 23
A NEED TO NODE BASIS
After seeing Aarava briefly from orbit, Oonak sped away from the planet as fast as Navika could go without his timespace drive. But when they reached the location where the gate had been, they found nothing.
“Could it be cloaked?” Zahn said. “Unless it moved.”
“I am transmitting Aaravan DNA now,” Oonak said.
Within moments, a familiar ring-shaped gate was in view ahead of them.
“I guess whoever built these gates doesn’t want wandering ships to find them. Also explains why no one on Avani ever discovered a gate around Kuvela-Dipa.”
“Indeed, it is likely that the gates become cloaked after a period of disuse.”
“So, what’s the plan?” Asha said.
“From what I learned from Vayuna, we need to transfer to a separate node system to proceed toward our destination, which means we are going to make the single largest jump we’ve made thus far, roughly 17,000 light-years.”
Zahn furrowed his brow in thought and turned around.
“What exactly is our destination, Oon?”
“You already know. It is the Confederation Council.”
“But where is that? What planet?” Zahn replied.
“I had hoped you wouldn’t ask that. You see, because neither of you are part of a Confederation world, you are not meant to know its location.”
Oonak paused for a moment, as if two thoughts were competing in his mind.
“However, since we are bound together in this quest, I may tell you that we are headed to a hidden portal that will bring us to a Transcendent World.”
“What is its name?”
Oonak closed his eyes for a moment, as if he were having a conversation with Navika that was unheard by either of them.
“Amithya,” he finally said. “Although some also call it the Transcendent World of Awareness, and when we arrive, you both must follow my instructions precisely. Do you both understand?”
“That’s a lovely name, and I do,” Asha said.
“Of course we understand, Oon.”
Once again they heard Navika’s crisp, calm voice.
“Before we go, can I just point out that I felt rather abandoned when you three were off gallivanting around Aarava without me. I understand that you wanted to maintain good relations with this world, Oonak. But meanwhile, I had to deal with those profoundly stupid floating creatures. They kept nuzzling up against my hull.”
Asha laughed. “I’m sure the prowlers loved you!”
“I don’t care. They got fur on my hull. If residue like that didn’t burn up in the atmosphere, I’d take more baths.”
“How does a starship take a bath?”
“Simple, Zahn. I merely dive into an ocean, the more foam on the surface, the better.”
“Navika, proceed to node 2.0.0.”
Once Navika had transmitted the address to the gate, Zahn watched the now familiar sight of a vortex growing at the center and then stabilizing in size, and once again he held onto the seat and took a deep breath.
A flash once again overtook Zahn’s vision as they entered the
corridor. Instead of gently curving in different directions, this luminous corridor was almost completely straight. Zahn noticed that there was a formation beyond the corridor, but when he tried to discern its shape, the brightness was too great.
Soon, they were back in space once more, and a remarkably different view of the galaxy now surrounded the ship. Even before Zahn’s eyes adjusted again, he noticed a glow above him.
He arched his head, and directly above him was a massive cluster of stars whose beauty left him awestruck. He instinctively knew that it must be the galactic core. Uncounted numbers of stars were strung together like radiant pearls as they stretched out from the center, and between them were vast dust lanes in faint colors.
They really were getting closer.
“Oon?” Zahn turned around.
“Please wait. Navika is about to ascertain our position.”
Zahn turned to Asha. “Do you see what I’m seeing?”
“It’s… incredible,” Asha said.
“Indeed, we have just traversed nearly 17,000 light-years,” Oonak said. “Would you like to see?”
“Sure, but how?” Zahn said.
Just as he finished speaking, an image of the galaxy faded into view in the air between him and Oonak. As this happened, one of the two outward facing walls went opaque, which made the hologram easier to see. If the stars hadn’t looked slightly transparent, he might have believed that a tiny galaxy had come into being within the ship at that moment.
“Oonak, this is astounding,” Zahn said. “I didn’t know Navika could create holograms.”
“Navika has many abilities, and until now there was no reason for you to know. However, this will help you understand how far we’ve come, and how far we’ve left to go. Indeed, what we have done is rather exceptional. Let me show you.”
The hologram blew apart, and parts of the galaxy flew beyond the cabin walls. Now the entire cabin was peppered with millions of tiny glowing orbs hanging in the air. Zahn went to touch one of the glowing orbs in front of him. As he suspected, his finger felt nothing.
“Don’t bother trying to touch those stars, Zahn,” Oonak said, looking down to him. “The hologram is merely a projection. What you now see is a simulation of the space extending up to 20,000 light-years around our current position.”
“Wow.”
“Navika,” Oonak said, “please scan the image I am holding in my mind and overlay it onto the portion of the galaxy that you are displaying.”
Oonak alternated between focusing on certain areas of the projection and closing his eyes for a few seconds. Each time he did this, a point of green light would appear in the projection, and after about a minute, there was a cluster of green points within the hologram.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Navika, add a waypoint for the Amithya portal, as well.”
A pulsing white triangle appeared on the upper edge of one of the inner spiral arms.
“Those green points represent gates, don’t they?” Asha said.
“Indeed, and despite the information I gleaned from Vayuna, we’ll have to do some experimentation to reach the hidden portal to Amithya.”
“Why?” Zahn said. “Didn’t you find out where the gates were from her?”
“I know, to some precision, the locations of the gates in the western arm near the core, yes. But just because I know their location does not mean I know how the addressing system is used there. We have just jumped to node 2.0.0, but we do not know the specific addresses of the gates beyond this one. Therefore, we must make an educated guess. Considering what we’ve seen, it would be logical to predict that the next node on the way to the portal would consist of three single-digit numbers, just as nodes 3.3.2 and 3.3.0 did.”
“I think we should try 2.5.0,” Asha said. “Puts us squarely in the middle of whatever range we’re working with. From there, we can hone our path.”
“Hmm.” Zahn furrowed his eyebrows.
“What?” Asha said.
“It’s just that, using these gates makes me wonder where we might end up if we choose another route. If we had time to try more addresses, it might help us figure out how the gate system is arranged. Too bad we can’t figure out where a gate will take us before we go through. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Oonak, didn’t you say that Navika can detect stars on the other side of a vortex before we go through it?” Zahn said.
“Yes. Navika can detect faint stellar radiation filtering through a stable vortex.”
“Could you use that radiation pattern to figure out where the gate leads before we enter it?”
“That’s a clever idea, Zahn, but the radiation is too faint for Navika to synthesize a three dimensional model of the other side, making it impossible to hypothesize a gate’s location based merely on our star maps. However—”
Oonak seemed lost in thought for a moment.
“Wait a minute,” Zahn said.
“We already know the locations of the nearby gates!” Zahn and Oonak said almost simultaneously, though Zahn’s excitement drowned out Oonak’s more sober realization.
“Wait,” Asha said, “which one of you just realized that?”
“It doesn’t matter. The point is, can you do it, Oonak?”
Oonak was silent, and Zahn guessed that he was in deep communication with Navika, calculating whether it was possible.
“Yes, Navika confirms that he could calculate the location of an exit point with high confidence if we confine the results to the gates I’ve just added to the star map.”
“So it should work?”
“With a slight margin of error, yes. I’ve instructed Navika to request node 2.1.0 and report back.”
After a few moments, Navika spoke.
“The gate appears to be denying our request. It seems that we need the correct DNA code to continue.”
“Of course,” Oonak said. “Navika, do you have the records from Sumanas that I prepared before we began our mission?”
“Affirmative.”
“Within those records is Amithyan DNA code. Transmit it.”
“That is privileged information, Oonak. Please wait while I confirm your access. Confirmed. Transmitting now.”
Another vortex formed amidst the starry background, and once the vortex stabilized in size, Navika spoke again.
“This gate leads to these coordinates,” Navika said, placing a red point farther down on the hologram of the spiral arm.
It wasn’t near their destination at all.
“Okay, let’s try another one,” Zahn said.
“Navika, broadcast 2.2.0.”
Yet once again, the exit point of the gate led them farther down instead of up the spiral.
“I told you guys. Just try 2.5.0.” Asha said. “I have a feeling.”
“Navika, try 2.5.0. Either way, we will know soon enough.”
This time, the resulting exit point was rather near the white triangle that marked their destination.
“Bingo!” Zahn said. “How’d you know, Asha?”
“Call it a lucky guess.”
Soon, another vortex grew at the center of the gate, and when they entered it, Zahn thought about what could lie on the other end. He hoped that they wouldn’t get ambushed again like they had near Outpost 33. And they weren’t, at least not this time.
Once they had made the jump, they planned on using the same technique to narrow down their options, but when they entered 2.5.1 into the gate, they were surprised at its location.
“That exit looks like it’s right beside our destination!” Zahn said. “First try, too. Oonak, is it possible that no more jumps after this will be necessary?”
“Possible, although there is a margin of error.”
“So, we could get lucky?”
“If you believe in luck, then yes.”
Once again, they entered timespace. This was the seventh time, though Zahn had since stopped counting. A vast corridor curved gracefully to the right, and once again Zahn notice
d thousands of threads of light intermingling beyond the corridor, which itself was incredibly radiant. Yet strangely, the brightness did not overwhelm his eyes. As he looked, he saw warm, glowing orbs moving from one part of the bright region to the other. The sight was alien and yet somehow also familiar to him.
From timespace, everything looked so different—stranger and more luminous. Just as they reached the end of the corridor, what he was seeing finally dawned on him.
The bright region in timespace was the galactic core.
For the seventh time, they reentered the Ocean of Space, except that this time, they saw nothing. Not a single star.
“Where are we?” Zahn said. “Why is it all dark? This place seems more like a vast, dark cloud than space.”
Indeed, the only light they could see was coming from up ahead from the edge of what appeared to be an absolute void.
“We appear to be in the midst of a dark nebula, which is making it difficult for Navika to acquire our coordinates.”
“Can’t he filter out visible light and measure infrared rays so we can see beyond the nebula?” Zahn said.
“Navika is doing a wide scan, including infrared. Please wait.”
“Is it possible to fly out of the nebula to get a better idea of where we are? How big is this nebula?” Asha wondered.
“One moment,” Oonak said.
The space around the ship radically transformed. They could now see faint stars in the distance as the nebula became partially transparent, revealing a complex superstructure.
“This nebula is vast,” Oonak said. “It appears to be a birthplace for stars, as well. See those points of light behind some of the dark patches?”
“So since we only have impulse drive, it would take years to leave this nebula if we don’t find a gate, wouldn’t it?” Zahn said.
“Zahn is correct. Even now, we cannot see through all parts of the nebula. At least, not yet. We are currently heading toward—Wait a minute.”
“What is it?”
“Navika is detecting a massive spike of ultraviolet radiation being emitted from up ahead.”
What was approaching them couldn’t possibly be real.
Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky Page 16
