Heaven's Reach (56 page)

That was the chief perplexing quandary dogging the fugitive Earthlings for three long, hellish years.

Oh, the superficial answer was easy. When Creideiki and Orley beamed images from the Shallow Cluster, they triggered religious schisms across the Five Galaxies. Rival clans and alliances, who had controlled their feuding for ages, sent battle fleets to secure
Streaker
's
samples—and especially the coordinates of the derelict fleet—before their rivals could acquire them.

Some said the Ghost Armada might be blessed Progenitors, returning to survey their descendants after two billion years. But if so, why react violently? Wouldn't all dogmatic differences be worked out, once truth was shared by all?

Emerson sensed hesitation. Then a faint perception of agreement, as if the voice was waiting for something
else
to happen. Meanwhile, it might as well converse with a bright wolfling, to pass the time.

“A
LL OF THIS HAS TO DO WITH THE
E
MBRACE OF
T
IDES
. T
HE DELICIOUS TUG THAT EACH OLDER RACE BEGINS TO FEEL AFTER LOSING INTEREST IN DASHING ABOUT ON MANIC STARSHIPS
. W
E ALL FOLLOW THIS ATTRACTION
,
DROPPING OUR FORMER DIFFERENCES TO ASSEMBLE TOGETHER NEXT TO LITTLE RED SUNS
,
WHERE OUR MINDS MAY GROW AND PURIFY
.

“T
HEN
,
FROM SUCH PLACES OF RETIREMENT
,
MANY PROCEED TO SITES LIKE THIS ONE
,
WHERE OXYGEN AND HYDROGEN MERGE PEACEFULLY
,
UNITING IN COMMON APPRECIATION OF THE STRENGTHENING EMBRACE
,
PROVING THAT A PLAN IS AT WORK
,
MAGNIFICENT AND BEAUTIFUL
.…”

Emerson heard a low clattering, coming from somewhere just ahead. Softly, he laid the tracker down, then hurried toward the rustling sounds. From another pocket, he pulled a slim device—one he had stolen days ago from Gillian Baskin's office.

“… 
THOUGH WHERE THE COMBINED RACES GO FROM HERE
—
TO WHAT DESTINY
—
HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MYSTERY
. Y
OUNGER CLANS DEBATE IT ENDLESSLY
,
BUT TRANSCENDENT LIFE
-
FORMS NEVER EXPLAIN WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
. A
LL WE HAVE ARE HINTS AND STRANGE EMANATIONS FROM
 …”

Concentrating hard to blank his thoughts, Emerson rounded a corner and abruptly saw
starlight
ahead, glimmering through a crystal pane. He knew this place. It housed the main communication laser, a wide-barreled tube occupying most of the available volume, aimed through a broad window.

Streaker
's magical coating lay beyond, a meter thick
but utterly transparent, covering nearly all of the ship in a layer that was both miraculous and deadly.

A figure stood nearby, working at an open access panel. Emerson recognized the fluid skill of those hands, using tools to perform rapid modifications on the laser system. One arm was clearly artificial, while remnants of the head lay encased in a mirrorlike dome. Cyborg components like these had saved the life of
Streaker
's chief engineer, back at the Fractal World. Generosity, from a different, more kindly faction of Old Ones—or so the crew thought at the time.

Next to Suessi lay a large data reader and several crystalline knowledge cells—enough to hold all of
Streaker
's hard-won discoveries.

“Hello, Hannes,” Emerson said aloud.

The instant he spoke, several things happened at once.

Servos whined as the figure spun around, raising a cutter torch whose short flame burned blindingly hot. Without his old friend's face to look at, Emerson could only assume the man meant to use it.

Meanwhile, the voice interrupted its explanation with a hiss of surprise that seemed to shoot through Emerson's head like an electric jolt. He cried out, instinctively grabbing at his temples. But that reaction lasted just an instant. Gritting his teeth, he aimed the stolen plasma pistol past Suessi's shiny dome.

“Stop it, or I shoot the laser right now! You know pain won't work on me.”

The lightning ceased at once.

“I
N TRUTH
,
WE NOW BELIEVE IT
,
HAVING FOOLISHLY REPEATED THE ERROR OF TAKING YOU FOR GRANTED
. O
UR COMPUTER MODELS CONSISTENTLY UNDERESTIMATE YOUR FERAL CLEVERNESS
.
COULD THIS ADAPTABILITY HAVE BEEN FOSTERED DURING YOUR EXILE ON THE SOONER WORLD
?”

“Flattery'll get you nowhere. But yeah, I learned some new ways of thinking, there. You should hear me curse, sometime. Or sing.”

“I
N ANOTHER LIFE
,
PERHAPS
. S
O YOU FIGURED WE WOULD HAVE AN ALTERNATE AGENT
. D
ID YOU ATTACH A TRACER
,
TO FIND HIM THE MOMENT WE ARRIVED
?”

Emerson nodded. “Something like this seemed likely. The one person you might have altered would be Hannes.”

“W
E DID NOT ALTER THE HUMAN ARTIFICER
. T
HOSE WHO REPAIRED HIM WERE SINCERE
. B
UT WE LATER INCORPORATED THAT FACTION
,
AND THUS GAINED THE ACCESS CODES
. S
INCE IT CLEARLY MATTERS TO YOU
, BE ASSURED HE HAS NO PAIN. H
E PERCEIVES THIS AS JUST A BAD DREAM
.”

“How considerate of you!” Emerson snapped.

“Y
OU THINK US CALLOUS
. Y
ET
,
WITH THE DESTINY OF MANY RACES AND TRILLIONS OF LIVES AT STAKE
,
WE HAD REASONS
—”

“I see only that you're cowards! You feel drawn by the Embrace of Tides, yet you fear to go in. You worry it may be a mistake!”

“A
N OVERSIMPLIFICATION
,
BUT TRUE ENOUGH
.

“T
HE STORY IS SO BEAUTIFUL
,
SO PERFECT
—
WITH OXY AND HYDRO LIFE ORDERS COMBINING IN ELEGANT PEACE
,
MERGING AMID A GLORIOUS FUNNEL OF TRANSCENDENCE
—
THAT HARDLY ANY CANDIDATES EVER QUESTION THE GENERAL ACCEPTANCE OF THIS PATH
,
FOLLOWED BY THEIR ANCESTORS SINCE TIMES IMMEMORIAL
. T
HE EMBRACE IS ALMOST IRRESISTIBLE
. D
IVING TO TRANSCENDENCE IS AN ULTIMATE ACT OF TRUST
. O
F FAITH
.

“B
UT THEREIN LIES THE RUB
! T
O SOME OF US
,
FAITH IS NOT ENOUGH
. T
HERE WAS ONCE A MINORITY VIEW
,
A HERESY THAT LOOKED ON THE
E
MBRACE OF
T
IDES
,
AND CALLED IT SOMETHING ELSE
.”

Emerson nodded.

“A recycling system. You're worried that this white dwarf is just like the oceanic trench on Jijo … the Great Midden. A graceful way to clear away the old and make way for the new! Yeah, that makes just as much sense as a mystical portal to some higher layer of reality!”

Deep sadness filled the alien presence—a fretful brooding that seemed poignant in a species so ancient and learned.

“T
HE DISCOVERY MADE BY YOUR DOLPHIN
-
CREWED SHIP IN THE
S
HALLOW
C
LUSTER
 … 
THE REAL REASON IT CAUSED SUCH CONSTERNATION
 …”

Abruptly the voice stopped. Emerson crouched nervously as the deck shuddered beneath his feet. Tremors accelerated, growing in pitch and intensity.

“You're attacking us!” he accused. “All your talk was just to humor me until—”

The voice interrupted.

“Y
OU ARE RIGHT THAT
I
WAS PERFORMING A DELAYING TACTIC
. B
UT FOR A DIFFERENT REASON
. T
HE SHOCKS YOU FEEL ARE FROM STRAIN FRACTURES IN THE VERY FABRIC OF THE COSMOS
,
CONTINUING THE SAME PROCESS THAT DEMOLISHED OUR HOME THAT YOU CALLED THE
F
RACTAL
W
ORLD
.

“T
HESE FRACTURES ARE SPREADING AT AN ACCELERATING PACE
.”

“Sara thinks—”

“W
E HAVE FOLLOWED HER WORK WITH INTEREST
. S
HE APPEARS TO KNOW WHAT THE TRANSCENDENTS COVERED UP
—
THAT FATE SEEMS BOUND TO SMASH THE TIES BINDING OUR GALAXIES
 … 
INDEED
,
THE NETWORKS THAT MAINTAIN CIVILIZATION
.”

It was an awesome statement. Yet, something else the voice had said bothered Emerson.

“A … delaying tactic? Why? I already stopped Hannes from—”

He shouted an oath.

“
Of course.
You Old Ones wouldn't leave anything to chance. You'd have a third option. A backup for your backup! What is it? Tell me!”

“O
R ELSE WHAT
? W
ILL YOU SHOOT YOUR FRIEND
? W
E COULD HAVE SENT HIM CHARGING AT YOU
,
SEVERAL DURAS AGO
. W
ITH CYBORG STRENGTH AND SPEED
,
WE CALCULATE THIRTY PERCENT ODDS HE WOULD HAVE PREVAILED BEFORE YOU PUT HIM OUT OF ACTION
.
A WORTHWHILE GAMBLE
,
FROM OUR POINT OF VIEW
.

“E
XCEPT THAT BY NOW OUR THIRD AGENT HAS ALREADY DEPARTED YOUR SHIP
.”

“Your … third agent?”

“W
E MADE A BARGAIN WITH A YOUNG WOLFLING
. I
N EXCHANGE FOR COPIES OF YOUR SHIP LOGS
,
WE WILL TAKE HER AWAY FROM THIS PLACE
.

“F
ROM HERE TO SEE HER GODS
.”

Darting past immobile Suessi, Emerson pressed against the laser-window and peered outside.

Streaker
's nose lay to his left, where just one of the airlocks had been cleared of the magic coating to allow egress. Emerson could not see that aperture. But a few hundred meters outward, he glimpsed a stubby vessel—a little escape pod, puffing as it turned toward a dark patch of space.

A black patch that blocked a swath of stars.

Emerson's brain seemed to spin. His thought processes were much quicker than they had been before his mutilation. Still, it took moments to realize—

“Lieutenant Tsh't! You sprang her from the brig and helped her escape!”

“A
SIMPLE MATTER OF MEME
-
INFECTING YOUR SHIPBOARD COMPUTERS
. M
UCH HARDER WAS THE PHYSICAL EFFORT
,
HELPING HER ENTER PLACES WHERE
G
ILLIAN
B
ASKIN HAD HIDDEN THE SECRETS
,
WORKING WITH A MIND
-
CONTROLLED
S
UESSI TO STEAL THEM
,
THEN HAVING BOTH AGENTS SMUGGLE OUT THE MATERIAL BY SEPARATE ROUTES
.

“A
ND NOW AT LAST
,
DESPITE YOUR INTERFERENCE
,
WE ARE ABOUT TO POSSESS THE DATA NEEDED TO MAKE CORRECT DECISIONS AFFECTING MULTITUDES
.

“T
HIS PUTS US IN A GENEROUS MOOD TO REDRESS YOUR MANY INCONVENIENCES
. O
UT OF RESPECT FOR YOUR FERAL INGENUITY
,
LET US MAKE AMENDS
. I
N DEPARTING WE SHALL LEAVE BEHIND SOMETHING YOU'LL BE GLAD TO HAVE BAC
—”

The voice cut off abruptly as another wave of space-time tremors struck. This one made Emerson's skin crawl with tingling sensations. Pulsations coursed the length of his digestive system, producing several loud ecruptions.

The stars outside wavered, and the vague black patch he had glimpsed before started to shimmer, revealing a familiar outline.

A galuphin-class sneakboat
, he identified. An expensive, but conventional Galactic design.

“Wha—?” uttered a nearby voice. Hannes Suessi groaned, recovering consciousness. “What'm I doin' here? What's happening?”

Emerson had other things to worry about than updating a friend. Spatial fluctuations had confused the enigmatic Old Ones. With their cloaking mask disrupted, they dropped all pretense at stealth and made speed toward the little life pod, in order to pick up Tsh't and the information they prized. But the same tumult that made
Streaker
's hull vibrate was causing them trouble, too.

Indeed, the surrounding vast armada of “transcendence candidates” seemed to be breaking up! Wavelets
of compressed metric tore through their crowded ranks, pushing one phalanx of great ships toward another. Emerson saw collisions—and sparkling explosions—ripple from one area to the next, as jagged oxy-vessels merged prematurely with hydro-globules, releasing convulsions of raw energy.

Amid all this chaos, something far more disconcerting was going on. At least from Emerson's perspective. His power of speech kept fading, then surging back again, briefly enhanced beyond all natural ability, causing countless strange associations to spill forth.

The voice was absent, yet he continued getting impressions from the beings he called Old Ones. Sensations of deep concern. Shifting toward worry. Followed by desperation.

Moving in fits and starts, their sneakboat approached the little pod carrying Tsh't, fighting chaotic disruption waves all the way. While the heavens coruscated with dire accidents—and untold populations died just short of their transcendent goal—Emerson's erstwhile tormentors struggled to dock with the renegade dolphin lieutenant.

“I feel … like somehow I been
used
,” murmured Suessi, moving alongside to peer out the window. “I sure wish you could talk, lad. I could do with some light put on the subject.”

Emerson glanced at Suessi, then at the shadowy sneakboat … and then rapidly from his friend to the big comm laser.