The Evolutionary Void (68 page)

“In which case this Last Dream doesn’t help our situation in any way I
can fathom,” Aaron said.

“Not your mission, no,” Ozzie told him, curious how that would affect the
man’s strange mentality. “But I guess if we release the Last Dream, it might
cause the rise of a few doubters in Living Dream. Mind, they’d be the smart
ones, and face it, they’re in a minority in that religion.”

“Too late,” Inigo said. “Even if the majority acknowledged that the
result of a Pilgrimage into the Void is ultimately a lost, sterile generation,
it won’t affect the Pilgrimage itself. And you saw Corrie-Lyn’s reaction. She
doesn’t believe the Last Dream is an indication of failure. If I can’t convince
her …”

“Throwing your belief is always hard, man. Look at you.”

Inigo rubbed his hands wearily across his face as he slumped down in the
chair. “Yeah, look at me.”

“I’m sorry about that, man. No, really I am. That was one tough mother of
a fall. How long have you bottled that Last Dream up?”

“About seventy years.”

“No shit. That’s gotta be good to let it out finally. Tell you what,
tonight you and me are going to get major-league hammered together. It’s the
only way to put shit like that behind you. And if anyone’s going to understand
a colossus of a disaster, it’s yours truly.”

“That’s almost tempting,” Inigo admitted.

“You can do that afterward,” Aaron announced. “Now that we’ve determined
the Last Dream is not relevant to us, I need you both to focus on what is
achievable.”

“Man, you never give up, do you?”

“Did you give up when the Dreamer emerged and subverted your gaiafield?”

“Please, don’t try that motivational psychology bullshit on me. Whatever
you are, you’re not up to that. Trust me, stick with the psycho threats.”

“As you wish. Stick your pleasantries and stay with me now. Our task is
to get the Dreamer into the Void.”

“It may not be,” Inigo said. “I actually think Araminta’s faith in the
Void isn’t entirely misplaced. The Heart will be able to defeat Ilanthe.”

“You’re right about that,” Ozzie said. “The Silfen believe in Araminta. I
can feel it, man. It’s their strongest hope right now.”

“Again, irrelevant,” Aaron said.

“No, it’s not,” Inigo said stubbornly. “The Ilanthe side of the problem
didn’t emerge until well after your mission was started. Given how big a factor
she is, we have to start taking her into consideration. It would be irrational
to do anything else.”

“Our mission is to get you, Dreamer, into the Void.”

“No. Kills me to say it,” Ozzie admitted, “but Inigo is right. Ilanthe is
clearly part of the original problem, even though your boss didn’t take that
into account when he preloaded all that mission crap in your brain. You’ve got
to start thinking about her, man. Come on, there must be some room to maneuver
in that metal skull of yours.”

“Fair enough. I can see she is a factor in the ultimate outcome. But if
we’re not in the Void, we can’t confront her, now, can we? So will you two
please start putting your genius brains together and solve this problem of how
to get Inigo inside.”

“Can’t be done,” Inigo said. “Even if you still had that ultradrive ship
you lost on Hanko, it couldn’t get us to the Void boundary before the
Pilgrimage. Basically, whoever gets inside first wins.”

“Don’t big it up like that, dude,” Ozzie said. “If you’d gotten there
first, you might have stood a chance of a win. But nothing is certain,
especially not in there. Now that you can’t get in, we all need to start
thinking about a dignified yet fast exit.”

“That is not permissible thinking, and I’m getting mighty tired of
telling you,” Aaron said. “Don’t make me ram the point home, because I’m
through talking metaphors. Now, how do we get the Dreamer into the Void?”

Ozzie hunched his shoulders. The agent was starting to annoy him, which
wasn’t good. He knew he wouldn’t be able to resist pushing Aaron to the limit
just to find out what the limit was.
Just like the Chikova
at Octoron
. “So can we still plan for that emergency telepathic linkup
if everything else fails?” he asked innocently.

Aaron’s arm came off the table. Weapon enrichments bulged up out of the
wrist skin. “Don’t.”

Myraian’s eyes fluttered open. She smiled up from the depths of some
narcotic state. “Bad boys. You won’t get any supper.”

“I want my supper,” Ozzie said.

Aaron gave him a long warning glance, then the enrichments sank back
down. “Okay, then, let’s examine this in a sweet progressive fashion. We’re now
a little more than eight thousand light-years behind the Pilgrimage ships; the
Lindau
is terminally screwed. So we need something faster
than the Commonwealth’s ever produced. What’s available on the Spike?”

Ozzie let out a sigh. “Hey, you heard the man, me-brain-in-a-jar. What
have we got out there?”

“The Spike’s AI is currently registering three hundred and eighty-two
alien starships docked,” the smartcores replied. “None are known to be faster
than a Commonwealth hyperdrive. The fastest local sensors have observed is the
Ilodi ships, which can reach twenty-two light-years per hour.”

“No use to us,” Inigo said.

“You two could steal one and get back to the Commonwealth,” Ozzie
suggested. “If Inigo publicly reappeared, maybe your boss would get in touch
and tell you what the hell to do next.”

“That would be a last resort if even a telepathic link to the Heart
failed,” Aaron said. “You said that the
High Angel
would pick you up if the expansion phase begins.”

Ozzie suddenly wished he hadn’t shot his mouth off earlier. This line of
thought could only go one way. And Aaron wasn’t about to drop it, not him, not
ever. “It might. Depends on how busy it is.”

“Your precise words were: ‘Qatux owes me. The
High
Angel
will stop by and collect us on its way to Andromeda or wherever
the hell it’s going.’ That means you can call the
High
Angel
here.”

“Dude, I could ask. There’s no guarantee …”

“Ask.”

“What’s the point? You want to get inside the Void. Qatux is heading in
the opposite direction. A long, long way in the opposite direction.”

“The Raiel are the only known species able to break through the Void
boundary. They can get us inside.”

“Can but won’t. Don’t even have to ask.”

“Humor me.”

Ozzie gave Inigo a frozen help-me-out smile. The ex-messiah just shrugged
his shoulders and said: “Welcome to my world.”

“It’s not easy to make contact,” Ozzie said. It was lame. This was a
losing battle, and he knew it.

“For someone with his own private TD channel to the Commonwealth?” Aaron
queried lightly.

“Ain’t going to work,” Ozzie said.

“I’m almighty pleased for you about that. You deserve a moral victory
over me around about now. Maybe I’ll shut up and leave you alone afterward.”

Ozzie gave him an evil stare and told his u-shadow to open a link to the
High Angel
.

“Expand this end of the link to include us, please,” Aaron told him.

Ozzie couldn’t remember being quite this pissed off for some centuries.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to help get Inigo inside the Void. But that he
might have to actually accompany him was deeply worrying, and Qatux might not
agree to lend them the
High Angel
unless he came
along. Ozzie did not want to go into the Void for the simple reason that no one
had ever been known to get out.

The link was accepted by
High Angel
.

“Ozzie,” Qatux said. “It has been many years.”

“Yeah. Listen, we’ll do the old buddy-buddy catch-up crap later; I’ve got
a couple of people here on my end of the link who need to get into the Void
before the Pilgrimage. Any chance you or your species can make that happen?”

“Ozzie, as always you are never what I expect. This is why I always
delight in knowing you. Is Aaron with you?”

“I am here,” Aaron said. “How did you know that?”

“This link stretches over seven thousand light-years; it also passes
through many nodes within the unisphere. I do not believe it to be totally
secure. Please remember that. However, I am glad you have survived. Our mutual
friend Paula Myo has been keeping me informed of your travels.”

“Ah. Right.”

“And the other person with you; this is the man you were searching for when
we met?”

“Yes.”

“That is excellent news.”

“I’m glad you think so. I hope you understand that this third person may
be able to neutralize this whole situation if you can get them into the Void
ahead of the Pilgrimage. Can you or the warrior Raiel do that?”

“No.”

“I am making a sincere offer. What harm will it do getting us through the
boundary? Two people, when there are now twenty-four million en route.”

“I regret we are not able to help. It is a physical impossibility. Even
our ships do not have the speed to perform such a task. However, I do have an
alternative for you to consider.”

“Yes?”

“Someone else is on their way to meet Ozzie. Someone who is possibly more
important than the person already with you. They will be with you in three
days. I urge you to wait for them.”

“I’m not sure I can do that. I have a mission.”

“That is a great shame.”

“I’ll wait for them,” Ozzie said.

“Thank you, Ozzie. They are accompanied by an old friend of mine, Oscar
Monroe. He will act as guarantor for what you will hear.”

“Holy shit. Oscar? Really? Is he out of the slammer already? Damn, I so
lose track of time.”

“He is very much out. I hope that together you will be able to find a
solution to this terrible situation. Please convince Aaron’s companion to
wait.”

“Do my best, dude.”

The link closed. Ozzie gave Inigo a pensive grin. “Someone more important
than you, huh? Now who could that be?” He couldn’t figure it out for himself,
which was hugely annoying. Qatux wouldn’t lie, so … someone more important than
the Dreamer with regard to the Void. There wasn’t even a list.

“We have been compromised,” Aaron said. He stood up and activated a
low-level integral force field, creating a tiny purple nimbus around his stolen
navy tunic.

Ozzie chuckled. “Something you need to know about Paula Myo. Apart from
being able to freeze your balls off at ten paces with a single look, that chick
seriously rocks. Wouldn’t be surprised if she’s your secretive boss. She’s done
groovier things in her time.”

“I cannot allow my mission to be terminated.”

“Relax. If Paula wanted you stopped, you wouldn’t be here. Qatux was
telling me to chill. The old big-Q, he’s not stupid. We need to wait for Oscar.
Man, fancy him still kicking around. Tell you, my confidence just went up like
ten notches.”

“Who in Honious is Oscar Monroe?” Inigo asked.

“Oscar the Martyr,” Aaron said quietly. “He sacrificed himself so Wilson
Kime could steer the Planet’s Revenge and save the human race from corruption
and extinction. If it truly is Oscar coming here …” He hesitated, which was
something Ozzie hadn’t seen him do before.

“So I guess we wait, then?” Ozzie said, curious to see what reaction that
would trigger. For someone who didn’t have many memories, it was strange in the
extreme that Aaron (or his boss) had room to include a fact that obscure. Yet
knowing Oscar was on his way actually seemed able to divert his otherwise rigid
fixation on the mission.

There was a noticeable pause before Aaron said: “We must continue to
consider methods of getting Inigo into the Void. That cannot stop.”

“But we can do that sitting here, right?” Ozzie insisted.

Again Aaron hesitated. “That is permissible.”

“Cool. But you can forget getting inside the Void. If the Raiel can’t get
here, pick you up, then overtake the Pilgrimage fleet, no one can.”

“Qatux said the link was suspect.”

“Dude! There’s caution and there’s paranoia. I think we all know which
road you walk down.”

“All right.” Aaron turned to Inigo. “Ethan told Araminta that Living
Dream hoped the Void would open a gateway within the Commonwealth for the rest
of the followers.”

“It was an idea we were kicking around before I left, certainly,” Inigo
replied. “I never gave it a lot of credit.”

“If you can contact a Skylord, you must ask it to reach for you.”

“Oh, Lady, come on …”

“Every option must be examined. If physical flight to the boundary is now
denied us, then we must try this method or at the very least see if it is
possible. You have to dream the Void again. How could it possibly make the
situation worse?”

Corrie-Lyn appeared in the kitchen doorway. Ozzie was fairly sure she’d
been hovering outside for some time.

“I will be with you if you try that,” she said to Inigo, and walked over
to embrace him. “For now and evermore.”

He rested his head on her shoulder. “Thank you. For everything. For
understanding.”

“You were right. Their lives were futile, worthless. They were blessed
beyond our wildest aspirations, yet they never thought to look outward. Their
bodies flew, but their souls were moribund. That’s so sad. We can’t let such a fate
befall our followers. They will be lost, and the galaxy will fall.” She took
his hands in her own. “Lead us away from that, Dreamer. Don’t allow the Void to
destroy our spirit.”

“My love.” Inigo gave her a tender kiss.

It was so intimate, Ozzie was almost embarrassed to be a witness. Almost.
The two lovers were staring longingly at each other, smiling with happiness and
relief. No one else existed.

“Dude?”

Inigo’s smile widened. Corrie-Lyn laughed.

“Yes, Ozzie?”

“Just a suggestion: Give your followers the Last Dream.”

“What?”

“Corrie-Lyn’s right; you’ve got to start fighting back. So do it; show
them how their dream of the Void is going to go horribly wrong, that they’re
going to condemn their children to emptiness and extinction. What is it your
guy was always saying?
Sometimes you have to do the wrong
thing to do the right?
It’ll devastate all your loyal followers; they
may understand, they may not. Who gives a shit, man? You were never going to
get them all back on your side, anyway. At the very least you’ll give Ethan and
Ilanthe a seriously bad day. And if you’re lucky, you might even spark a mutiny
amid the fleet.”