Broken Glass (Glass Complex Book 1) (36 page)

“Henry,” welcomed the Emperor as he entered the office with a two-man guard detail; they were members of the Emperor’s Own. They stood by the door, just inside the office. Steg assumed others were in position outside the office. With Colonel Boston and Denke, he stood to attention. The Emperor waved a casual, at ease, gesture. He was of slender build and appeared to be just forty years of age, with hairline already receding. “If I recall, Major Denke. And—?”

“Sir, Captain Steg de Coeur,” introduced Colonel Boston.

“de Coeur? Homeworld? Yes, I’ve seen a report, somewhere. Now, I’ve cleared my calendar for the next hour. Upset the delegation from Delphi B. Why are you here?”

“The issue is simple. The portal network permits time travel. This feature was discovered by de Coeur.”

“Exceptional. I need to re-read that report.”

“Yes, sir. I agree. The time cues have been verified by both de Coeur and Denke.”

“Hmmm. As you said, it’s a simple issue, at least to state. You want to bring Jochum II on-line?”

“I’ve already commenced that process.”

“Good. We can’t have the Strategy Panel involved if we want this discovery to be secure. I see your problem. Or should I say: problems. I think this may become a working lunch.” He gave instructions to his secretary.

“Gentlemen. Let’s work this through. Say what you think, don’t stand on ceremony. This—the portal network with its additional functions—has potential to impact the very fiber of my Empire.”

“We need a special force within the Special Force,” suggested Boston.

“That’s going to create major issues unless we manage it very carefully,” predicted Denke.

“So we don’t do it. We create a separate force. You, Henry, will be in charge. Report directly to me. No exceptions. I’ll bump you up to General, which will cut out most of the noise. Your promotion is overdue, anyway. Denke will be your second. de Coeur, you’re included in this key structure. Henry, work out the how and so forth. Build your team—take whomever you want from the Specials, active members, security, technicians or civilians. Anyone you want, just transfer—you have my authority to access any Imperial force for resources. I will smooth and soothe the resulting ruffled feathers. You can even reach into the Emperor’s Own; just check with me, first. This new force needs a name, something that hides its real purpose, but ensures recognition as mine. Something like the Emperor’s Intelligence Agency. As of now, Jochum II is yours. You’ll need the three dreads—take those stationed at Jochum; the Fleet can provide replacements. I’ll authorize that requisition. Henry, make sure you get some good paper shufflers, the bureaucrats and politicians are going to scream.”

The discussion veered into technical issues, resources and budgets. To Steg’s surprise, two hours later the new force was almost fully defined, in comprehensive terms of governance, mission objectives, scope, resources and finances. He was, he admitted to himself, impressed with the speed of the Emperor’s decision-making.

As the session drew to its conclusion, Steg found himself the total focus of the Emperor’s attention. He felt like a small animal caught in an intense spotlight.

“de Coeur. You’ve provided an invaluable service, and we’re in your debt. I know parts of the Empire require pruning, and I agree with what Henry and Denke have offered you in the way of assistance. Go quietly, please. Also, at this stage, we probably don’t need Acolytes involved in the portals. If you think they can assist—later—discuss first with Henry. Agreed?”

“Yes, sir. Thank you.”

“Henry, seeing you have ruined my day—go and do some real work.”

******

Chapter 29

“Henry,” reminded Denke. “Our security issue
is now acute.”

“I know,” replied now-General Boston wearily. He was managing a transition that filled him with concern, building a new portal team that they now referred to as the Emperor’s Information Agency. “We’ve started to re-build the portal team here. The technicians are putting together their plans. Meanwhile, we’ve stopped all use of portals, except for research and occasional—very occasional—special projects. Special Forces command is screaming.” He rubbed his temples. “With each portal constituting an entrance not only to other portals in the network, but also to the past—and perhaps—when we’re brave enough to explore—to the future.”

Denke said, “We need to monitor every known portal in the network to ensure we have no unauthorized transits. We can use our portal guards and security teams for that. We need to work closely with the Specials to ensure they understand our approach. We’ll have exceptional use circumstances, as always.”

“Of course, we need to continue exploration, but under even tighter control,” added Trench, who had been brought into the senior team. “The research teams must validate the time cue discovery, and validate it again and again. Some barriers may exist that we don’t know about; we need to find out what they are and how to overcome them. All portal travelers must be trained in this spatio-temporal network structure and operation before we open up access
again
to the network.”

“Agreed. I can delegate these activities to you all. I have to focus on the bureaucrats, the worst problem we have.”

The meeting ended unsatisfactorily, without resolution of pressing issues. Their task was immense and Steg felt that the team was getting lost in the complexities of trying to understand the portal network.

Both he and Millie had worked to find a Homeworld portal while they continued to develop a plan for recovering Homeworld. At times his frustrations increased, as he seemed to spend more time exploring portal network issues than working on what he regarded as his real needs.

Steg met with Denke to raise his frustrations at lack of progress.

“Denke, this has gone on long enough. Millie and I have done some preliminary planning for Homeworld and we want to brief you on this.”

“Speak.”

“We’ve three stages to implement. One, I plan to recruit Djiis to help us, which will minimize use of Special Forces. Tziksis has returned to his planet—one of his nephews is the accredited ambassador to the Empire, and Tziksis holds a very senior military position. As far as I can make out, he’s in charge of the new Djiis star fleet—their Star Admiral. They captured quite a haul of star ships from the Xesset, as you should recall.”

“I do recall, and yes, I agree, contact Tziksis and see what they’ll provide to help you. I can authorize that.”

“The second stage—I process gaining access the House of Aluta’s computer system. I have to be there, on the planet. I’ll take Millie. However, we need papers, transport, cover, etc.”

“Hmmm. No issue with providing cover, documents and so forth. But you run a tremendous risk—Aluta’s a nest of vipers—have you thought this through?”

“Oh, yes. As I said, I must gain access to their systems, and for that, I have to be on Aluta. We can travel as legitimate visitors, or we can use portals. I think we should arrive as legitimate travelers. If we used portals and were subsequently detected on the planet, it’d be impossible to explain our presence.”

“Points taken. You mentioned three stages?”

“Yes. I can mentally time cue destinations, so can you, and now so can half the technical team. I don’t need to work on that any more. I want to take our testing to the next level. I want to test transiting by mentally cueing not just the temporal portion, but also the complete destination code, encompassing both place and time. I can test on known portals and once we establish that I can do it, I want to try for a Homeworld portal. I’m sure it will work. If we find a portal, we have a back door to the planet.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“It will spit me out somewhere.” He was optimistic. “I can key in a new destination and time codes, whatever happens. Look, I can test a transfer to
Xuotang
, first.”

Denke was not totally convinced. “W-e-l-l,” he drawled. “It might work.”

Millie added her input. “Denke, you have an outstanding promise to help. We—Steg—he needs to do this.”

“Denke, of course it’ll work. Let me test a couple of known destinations, first.”

“Henry will kill me if this goes wrong. All right, I agree to a test, here to the
Xuotang
and back.”

Steg moved to the portal and calmly, with his mind relaxed, he mentally cued both destination and time. Then he stepped up to and through the portal. The transfer was immediate.

The dreadnought corporal, re-assuring his security team, expressed surprise. “Sir, I did not know we had a transmission scheduled.”

“An impromptu experiment. Just a simple test. Log it, with my return to Jochum II portal.” Steg turned and stepped back into the portal, mentally cueing his destination.

“It works, Denke, it works.” Steg was jubilant. “Admit it, nothing went wrong.”

Denke was still worried. “Yes, that worked, transferring from one known portal to another known portal. We don’t even know if Homeworld is part of the portal network. What happens if you can’t find a way to Homeworld?”

“Either the network will not accept an invalid destination, or I’ll be shunted to the nearest location. I must try it, Denke. Millie, you understand?”

Steg ignored the final protest from Denke and stepped up to the portal. Denke motioned as if to stop him, but changed his mind. Millie remained silent, a strained expression on her face. Steg squared his shoulders in front of the portal. He knew the risks. He calmed his mind, thinking only of Homeworld, of Castlehome, of the Glass Complex. He stepped forward, projecting, he hoped, the correct cue. The transit time seemed excessively long.

“You’re early, far too early.” The speaker was an old, old man, seated at a large viewscreen, working. He did not turn around.

Steg shook his head. Sparks flashed in front of his eyes, spiraling like exploding fireflies. His mind didn’t seem to be functioning properly.

“What?” Steg asked. “Isn’t this Castlehome?”

“Castlehome? Certainly not.” The old man was indignant; his beard trembled as he spoke. “Castlehome is it? Well, back you go, back you go. Do it again and this time don’t cue any reference to computer systems. Otherwise you’ll return here and I won’t have it. I won’t have it, do you hear? Now I don’t want any more interruptions. Go, go,” he urged impatiently, waving Steg back towards the portal.

Steg tried to ask a question, but the old man frowned and waved him to silence. Still dazed, Steg turned back to the portal and cued his Homeworld destination again. This time he didn’t reference the Glass Complex. He stepped into the waiting blue, painfully cold portal field. After what seemed an equally long time, he stepped out into a small room, softly lit by a flickering light cell. The room had the now familiar appearance of an undisturbed ancient portal facility. Steg stepped quietly to the door and after a brief struggle, managed to open it. He climbed up broken stairs and stepped over loose rocks, the path lit by faded light cells.

He continued up, guided more by instinct than by actual sensory data. The downward drafts were freezing cold and he shivered at the feel of midwinter snow. He moved more quickly, in an attempt to keep warm, edging past rock walls and sidling around falls which almost blocked the path. At last, after climbing for what seemed like hours, he came to a section where rough rock gave way to a far smoother finish. Now cableways blocked and caught his feet, instead of loose rocks. Occasionally the soft murmur of voices reached him.

Steg reached out, seeking, searching for data, for contact with electronic systems. The reaction was staggering. He was on Homeworld and the Glass Complex welcomed him into its midst where he was surrounded by excited, welcoming Acolytes.

******

Chapter 30

Steg and Millie kept to their cabin during the long
and wearisome trip from the Telrin Cluster to Aluta. They had used the time to study and absorb Telrin background briefing material provided by the Special Forces post on Telrin V. Their plan was simple. Steg, posing as a Telrin post-graduate research student, had received a grant for travel and related costs and was attending a university conference in Aluta. Millie was traveling as his wife. Special Forces had produced their new documents and identities.

At last Millie protested as Steg reloaded the files. “Oh my head aches, Master,” she complained. “I know more about Telrin than I do about Fain. Spare me, please.”

“Only if you stop calling me Master,” laughed Steg at her plaintive expression. “Although I agree—we certainly have covered a lot of material. Do you think you can carry it off?”

“I am certain another memory session or two or ten will not improve my chances. In fact, I could recite the whole twenty boring hours, word for word, if you wish.” She poised, ready to comply.

Steg winced and shook his head. “No, that won’t be necessary. Come on, we’ll explore this passenger ship and test our act as naive travelers from Telrin.”

On arrival at Aluta, they discovered the planet’s landing processes were rigorous, as though the government was preparing for war. Question followed question. Police, security and other officials monitored every answer and added more questions. Who are you? Where are you from? Why are you visiting Aluta? They were questioned separately. Then together. The same questions, with different interrogators, with different emphases. At last their papers were accepted and their documents stamped.