Edda (7 page)

“Even then,” said Gunnar, “I believe I speak for the majority of people on New Earth when I say that we will not participate in a battle in Saga against a new enemy. Not after what happened with the Dark Queen.”

“Maybe a majority, maybe not.” Inny flared up. “Look at all the people who wanted to help this mission.”

Before the argument could continue, Athena held up her hand abruptly to command attention. “I’m just getting a report.” Her eyes were on the distant skyline. “We’ve picked up a scout, and it is merely robotic; no organic material at all; no response to attempts to communicate with it.”

“Well then.” Having slotted home a power pack into his rifle with a distinct
clunk
, B.E. had no need to say anything further.

“Dad, what do you think? NPCs?”

“Sounds like it, although robots can be intelligent life-forms.”

“Not these.” Athena shook her head as she listened to her earpiece. “It’s switched itself off. Gone dead on us while we were trying to communicate with it.”

“We’re still back to the question of what is the guiding intelligence behind this and what do they want. These robots have been sent here with a purpose and those guarding the portal from their side were ordered to do so by someone. Right?” asked Inny.

Several of the group nodded.

“Then we have to get through and find out more.”

While they continued to wait for Anonemuss, Cindella raised a crystal container high toward the sun and tipped it to see the liquid inside.

“Is that the invisibility potion?” asked Ghost.

Beside her, Inny’s avatar displayed a wince. “Not much left, is there?”

“We could maybe get two people in. Not enough. But I have these as well.” Erik put the potion down and from Cindella’s backpack drew a set of finely illuminated playing cards.

“A Deck of Curiosities?” Inny walked over to quickly look through the images. “The problem is our situation is too vague to use their magic for transport. These only work when you can be very specific about what you want from them.”

Cindella nodded and put the cards back. “How do you feel about fighting the guards, then?”

“I think it’s all right. They aren’t alive—not like the people of Saga,” said Inny, but still with a note of uncertainty in her voice.

“Don’t you think they must be a little bit alive, though? Like, say, a cat or a dog?” asked Erik.

“Maybe. But cats and dogs don’t switch themselves off like these things.”

“So, you think they are basically NPCs?”

“I do,” Inny replied firmly.

Lifting the potion bottle again, this time high for all to see, Erik spoke loudly. “I’m sorry folks; we are not going to be able to get more than two people in with the potion. So the question is, are we willing to fight those guards to get to see what lies beyond the portal?”

“I am,” B.E. said with a shrug.

Harald, however, did not move, and it was hard to read his avatar, as the expression was set to neutral.

“Gunnar?”

“Thank you for asking my opinion. I’ll give it, although I don’t think I can sway you all from a potentially catastrophic encounter with a world of belligerent and powerful electronic intelligences. First of all, I do agree that to fight the NPCs on the other side would not infringe on the Law of Violence, but one or more of the fully conscious beings in this other world might be among the units sent to guard the portal and we might harm them by mistake. Moreover, charging in and firing our weapons is precisely the kind of behaviour that will alert the initiating powers of the other side to our existence. Ours, meaning human. What will they make of avatars that disappear without a trace after they are killed? Where will this lead them to search? If they come to consider us a threat, do they have the means to find our planet? Probably not, but even a marginal chance that we might be responsible for bringing disaster upon our people should make us pause for thought.”

“You would abandon our friends in Saga to whatever dangers this portal represents?” Erik could show a great range of emotions through Cindella and right now she was frowning.

“That’s a question I would prefer to answer privately, among ourselves,” Gunnar answered primly, with a quick glance at Ghost.

“You mean yes. And don’t be so coy.” B.E.’s avatar was less sophisticated than Cindella’s, but it, too, was scowling.

“All right, yes. I think we should leave now and never come back. I know this sounds harsh”—this to Ghost—“but I hope you understand my reasoning and my motives. I only seek to protect my species as you would yours.”

Erik turned to Ghost.

“What would you do, if the situation were reversed? If you had to come fight in our world, at the risk of bringing trouble to Saga?”

“Me? I’d fight,” Ghost replied without hesitation.

“Go Ghost!” Milan laughed with delight and held out his knuckles for her to punch. “I knew you’d say that.”

“All right, I vote for fighting, too.” Up until now, Harald had been reserved, but this reaction by Ghost and Milan seemed to have won him over.

“Great. Seeing as Anonemuss proposed the idea, that settles it. Sorry, Gunnar, but we are going in.”

“I knew it a long time ago. And I can’t stop you here . . .”

“That’s right,” said B.E., lifting his rifle.

“. . . but I can cut off your access to Saga and you can be certain I will do so if there seems to be the slightest risk to our people.”

Harald’s trooper shook his head. “You don’t have the authority to do that.”

“Oh yes I do.”

“Listen, Gunnar, everyone. This is not the time for such an argument. We’ve agreed that we are going in and we’ll do so as soon as Anonemuss is back. That’s the end of the matter for now.” Cindella strode up to the portal, a lithe silhouette against the bright shimmering surface, and Milan’s heart warmed at the determination in Erik’s voice.

Chapter 8

BOWS AND BULLETS

Ghost waited impatiently
for Anonemuss to return; an airbike driven by one of Athena’s squad was bringing him back as a passenger. As soon as the scout reached the group, Anonemuss leapt off the bike and everyone gathered together to look as he sketched the layout on the other side of the portal. It did not take long to formulate a plan, which essentially consisted of Cindella going in first and relying on her magic items to draw enemy fire away from the portal while everyone else came through, troopers first.

“Damn, I wish I was joining you,” muttered Milan as the humans checked their weapons in preparation for their attack.

“Really? I would be terrified if this was happening on New Earth and my life was at stake,” Inny replied.

“Well yeah, I wish I was joining you and that I could come back to life if it didn’t work out.” He laughed.

“I am coming.”

Everyone turned to Ghost.

“We need you here, though,” said Athena quietly.

“It doesn’t make sense,” added Harald. “It doesn’t matter if any of us get killed. But you . . . well, you are unique.”

“As are we all.” Despite her seriousness, Ghost gave a smile. “I know what you mean. But I can’t just stay here in Saga and wait to see what happens. It’s like I’m shackled. I need to stretch myself, to see the rest of the universe, to discover what I’m capable of. To feel myself fully alive.” She looked about the group, hoping they understood her.

“There was a time when I thought I would upload myself into a robot in your galaxy and fly to the stars in a spaceship. But this is better; I get to keep my body. And I’ve two other reasons for going that have nothing to do with my own feelings. One is that you’ll need me, assuming my RAL abilities work through there; secondly, if Saga is under threat, it’s my responsibility as queen to defend us. Given that it’s my fault the people of Saga no longer have an army to defend them, the least I can do is go in person and try to avert the danger.”

It was unlike Ghost to explain herself at such length, but she was determined to go through the portal with the humans and wanted them to understand her. And her speech had not just been for the benefit of the humans. Although she had addressed Erik’s group, it was Athena’s and Milan’s responses that she was watching for. Athena appeared shocked but Milan gave her a knowing wink.

“I understand you, Ghost,” Erik answered. “But all the same, I think you should at least wait here until the initial fighting is over. If we win, come through afterward and see if your powers work. If they don’t apply beyond the portal, you’d be of more use here in Saga, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.” She nodded. But at the same time she settled an ammunition belt over her shoulder.

“Well then, we’re all set.” Cindella looked from the glistening, pale sheen of the portal back to the group of combatants, then tapped the device fixed to her ear. “Coms on. Let’s do it.”

“About time.” B.E. hefted his IVB Pulsar with both hands, cradling it in front of his chest like an infant.

“Good luck everyone.” Swords drawn, Cindella dived through the portal on a roll.

After a count of twenty, Harald ran in, rifle already raised, ready to fire. Another ten seconds and B.E. moved closer to the shimmering curtain.

“Come on, Gunnar. You’re supposed to be next.”

“I decline to enter.”

“Blood and thunder!” With a cry of exasperation, B.E. dived through, and after him went Inny, the medic for their team. With the exception of Gunnar, whose handsome trooper was stepping away from the portal, the humans were through—and probably in the middle of a furious battle. In the quiet streets of Saga it could hardly have been any more tranquil.

Kicking her airboard alive, Ghost accelerated as fast as she could toward the shimmering portal. “I’m going in.”

“No!” cried Athena.

But Ghost didn’t hesitate.

The world beyond the portal was sunny, just as Erik had described it. What he hadn’t managed to convey was the curious impact of the colors. They were subtly different from those of Saga: the green of the trees in the distance was, well, greener; the same was true for the blue of the sky, and even the ocher uniforms of the soldiers. Everything was a little brighter, a little more cartoonlike, than the gritty urban environment that Ghost lived in.

No sooner had she absorbed the shock of entering this new world than the first streams of bullets began to search her out. As she threw herself from the airboard and down a grassy bank, Ghost summoned up all her powers of concentration and tried to slow down the passage of time. It worked. The underlying fabric of this new environment was almost identical to that of Saga. It was made up of discrete cycles of processing activity, which felt to Ghost like a pulse: a pulse with more than a thousand beats per second. As a RAL—the last in Saga—Ghost had an innate ability to alter all the environmental variables around her, including this pulse, and she slowed it now as much as she possibly could, bringing the beat of time almost to a stop.

Bullets filled the air. Each jerk of the time frame brought a dozen lines of these missiles closer to her body. And crude as they were, if they hit, they’d rip her to pieces. Nevertheless, as her body rolled down the slope, Ghost lifted her own handguns into position to fire back at the enemy soldiers. Near-blinding flashes of energy now joined the lethal display, lurching away from her with every frame, back toward the source of one of the streams of bullets. She could alter the air pressure in her vicinity and did so, making sure that as the arriving bullets reached her they curved away from the straight line they had previously followed, to streak past Ghost’s head with a distortion of the air that would have sounded like a high-pitched scream at normal speeds. As she finished her roll to come up to a kneeling posture, still returning fire, Ghost let out a cry of triumph. To stay alive in the center of this rain of hot metal stretched her to her utter limit, but she could do it. Whoever these people were, they had made a big mistake; a terrible enemy was upon them.

Blue and red streaks flashed across the sky, indicating that the human avatars from Saga were in the thick of battle and firing their energy weapons. It was too congested over by the portal to see what was happening. Some distance ahead, however, Ghost caught sight of Cindella, and her heart gave a skip of delight that Erik’s avatar was still alive. The pirate was standing on top of a troop carrier, surrounded by enemy soldiers but sweeping them away with a machine gun she had captured. It looked like the avatar’s magic armor from Epic was effective here, because bullets were hitting the figure but just bouncing off her. As Ghost watched admiringly, a warrior looking like a medieval knight climbed into the vehicle and caught Cindella from behind with a thrust from a sword. That staggered Cindella and she leaped from the truck, disappearing from Ghost’s view.

Ever since Ghost had rolled through the portal and down the hill, a stream of expletives had been coming through her coms unit, but in the last few seconds they had died away, which was rather ominous. She hadn’t been able to speak until now; all her concentration had been needed to deflect bullets. A large group of pikemen had spotted her and were running toward her, but she had a few moments until they arrived. It was most peculiar how the soldiers here were a mix of types, from those using ancient handheld weapons to those using fairly modern guns.

“What’s going on? Have we a plan?” she asked the static, all the while firing non-stop at the incoming attackers.

B.E.’s voice was a whisper. “I’m lying in a pile of bodies beside a tank, playing dead.”

“Ghost!” cried Erik. “Get back out through the portal if you can. I think we’re going to wipe. I’m down to twenty-two percent health.”

There was no time to say anything further, for despite the fact that Ghost had picked off a dozen of the pikemen with her handguns, there were still twenty or so who had reached her and were now chopping down at her with poles, the ends of which were fixed with sharp curved blades. Again there was something curious about the soldiers: they all seemed to perform the same actions. This made it relatively easy to swerve and dodge their blows, except that things were getting congested. The gun in her right hand was out of power, so in midair—vaulting as a pikeman attempted to cut her legs off at the knee—Ghost dropped the empty gun to pull out a dagger. Dragging an off-balance soldier across her body to block the incoming attacks, Ghost alternated close-range shots from her left hand with stabs and slashes from her right. Breathless and sweating, she soon stood alone in the center of a pile of bodies.

“Other reports, please,” she managed to pant out. Taking a tip from B.E., Ghost crouched down among the dead while she tried to get a picture of what was happening.

“I think it’s just the three of us,” answered Erik.

But there were three distinct clicks in her ear.

“Was that you, B.E.? If someone else is alive but unable to speak, tap again.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Harald? Inny? Anon . . .”

Tap, tap, tap.

So, the scout was hiding somewhere, too. Probably surrounded by enemies.

“Anyone see what happened to Harald and Inny?” Erik’s voice faltered slightly.

“Shot,” whispered B.E. “Both dead.”

Maybe she should try to get back to Saga? Much as Ghost relished being in battle, if too many enemy soldiers focused on her, even her RAL abilities would not be able to cope with them all. Just as she was readying herself to sprint back up the slope toward the portal, an extraordinary sight caused Ghost to remain in place.

Cindella came into view about fifty meters away, sprinting around the side of the hill on which the portal stood, with an enormous body of horsemen of the medieval type galloping behind her. Farther up the hillside was a crowd of the more modern soldiers, moving after her much more slowly, but firing their guns all the while. Not that this was a problem, since those bullets that hit their target still bounced off the avatar’s armor. As Ghost watched, Cindella produced a crystal bottle from the pouches around her waist and drank from it. Some kind of magic potion, probably.

Keeping low to the ground as the whole chase thundered past Ghost’s position, she smiled to herself. Erik had managed to draw all of their remaining troops in a chase after his avatar. It seemed from the curved route he was taking that Erik was steering Cindella in a wide circle around the hill.

“. . . off me! I protest! How dare . . .”

“Gunnar?” Ghost whispered.

“He’s gone,” said B.E. faintly. “He just rolled out of the portal and ran straight back to Saga again.”

“The coward! You mean he ducked out of the battle?” It was rare to hear Erik sound so furious, but a moment later his voice became calmer. “I’m sorry, Ghost.”

“It’s only an avatar. Why is he afraid of it being killed?” she asked in reply, keeping her voice low.

“I’ve no idea what he’s thinking, but his absence may be to our advantage right now. Anonemuss, I want you to unclip, please. Go get Gunnar to clip out, too. Tell him exactly what is happening here. Then he is to go back into Saga and tell Milan and Athena. The main thing is that they don’t try to come in. It’s too dangerous. Got that?”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Do you need a full report from me, or can you see what’s happening?”

Tap.

“Tap three times if you want the full report.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“There are about fifty modern soldiers left in the vicinity of the portal. With something like five hundred barbarian riders chasing me around the base of the hill, I’m running in a circle whose path is about two hundred meters from the portal, which is in the center. I’m good—eighty-nine percent health and slowly rising. I can keep this up indefinitely, as the bullets don’t damage me. I haven’t given up yet, and I reckon B.E. and I still have a chance, so Ghost, there’s no need for you to take any risks. Also, seeing as Gunnar can act as a communication channel where he is, he needn’t come through again.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“What’s the plan, then?” If B.E. had any doubts, it was impossible to detect them in his voice; it may have been a whisper, but it was almost an enthusiastic one.

“Mad, isn’t it? I’m going to clear the modern soldiers from the hill with my bow, while keeping these cavalry chasing me if I can. Then we’ll see. If you can stand up safely and pick off these horsemen one by one without being attacked, we are good. If they come for you, there’s nothing I can do, so run back through the portal.”

“Gotcha,” acknowledged B.E.

“Same for you, Ghost, wherever you are.”

“I’m hiding in a pile of bodies at the bottom of the hill. You just passed me.”

“Nice. When the hill is clear, go up to the portal, and then, if the cavalry break off from chasing me, at least you’re safe.”

“Good idea.”

“One down.”

A few seconds passed.

“Two more. There’s about fifty altogether, though, so this may be a while.”

Tap, tap, tap.

“Welcome back, Anonemuss. All good on your side?” There was a cheerful note in Erik’s voice now, and Ghost smiled to herself. He was the perfect comrade to have alongside you in battle; he’d kept his composure and his plan sounded like it might work.

Tap, tap.

“What’s two taps mean?” asked Ghost. “Neither yes nor no?”

“I bet it means Gunnar was acting the maggot again, but that he has gone to talk to Milan, right?” Despite the risk of being heard by the remaining riflemen on the hill, B.E. evidently couldn’t resist offering his negative estimate of Gunnar’s likely behavior.

Tap, tap, tap.

“Ha,” chuckled Ghost.

“Stay hidden, wherever you are, Anonemuss,” said Erik. “I’m taking out the soldiers on the hill with my bow while trying to keep these horsemen focused on me. I’ll let you know when it’s clear, and then you can join B.E. and Ghost up at the portal.”

Tap, tap, tap.