The Farpool (57 page)

Dringoth distinguished himself in one
detachment mission (Operation
Galactic
Hammer
) when a small detachment of jumpships returned
to base and the base came under immediate attack from Coethi scouts
who had hidden in the ships (morphed into human-like creatures) and
returned with the Umans. The Time Corps base at Hapsh’m was in a
hell of a fight, but Dringoth was able to rally a small force of
mechanics, cooks, armorers, and office staff, including some bots,
to counter-attack and destroy the Coethi, though some did escape
back into another time stream. For this effort, Dringoth was
awarded a Distinguished Valor medal (DVM
3
^rd
class with star clusters)
and promoted to Top Sergeant. Not long after that, he applied for
Time Corps OCS and was admitted on probation (due to academic
deficits). The school was at the Time Corps base on Byrd’s
Draconis.

As an OCS cadet, Dringoth was an average
student academically, but was good in sports and other
competitions. Dringoth was always a competitive person, always
driven to achieve and differentiate himself as an achiever from his
illustrious parents. He always tried to take the most difficult
route to achieve anything, so no one could say he had an easy time
because of his name. He became an Academy legend for his exploits
in many victories in the game of bangball.

Fresh out of the Academy, as a newly
minted Ultrarch-Lieutenant (Academy graduates were always given the
title Ultrarch in their commissions and ranks, to denote alumni),
Dringoth’s first assignment was as engineering officer of a Time
Corps jumpship called
Pollux
.
The mission of ships like
Pollux
was to cruise in and out of time streams hunting down and
engaging Coethi ships and scouts and hopefully destroying them.
Jumpships also patrolled especially critical time streams, such as
the streams when certain bases and colonies were established in the
Lower Halo and Inner Spiral. It was vital that these time streams
remained unaltered.

Dringoth served with some distinction
aboard
Pollux
, and later
aboard another jumpship
Majoris
, where he served as executive officer.
This was the same
Majoris
that almost singlehandedly engaged and ran off a whole
squadron of Coethi jumpships in Strategic Time Stream S-4487, known
as the Battle of the Gauntlet.
Majoris
was basically destroyed but Dringoth and
some of her crew survived and were marooned in Time Stream S-4487
for days before being picked up by another jumpship. It was
Dringoth who kept most of the group alive and together during this
time. Although he and the survivors suffered grievous injuries, he
received a Legion of Merit medal for this.

Dringoth knew firsthand what it was like to
be marooned in alternate time streams.

During his recovery and rehab, Dringoth
was approached by Time Corps senior leadership about receiving his
first command: that of a Time Displacement Battery. A new defensive
weapon had been developed in Time Corps labs. It was called
a
Time Twister.
It was
conceived and developed as an area weapon, able to defend large
parcels of space and many time streams simultaneously. It was
designed to be installed and defended and operated by a static crew
on a given planet or satellite. The Battery would have primary
defensive responsibilities and missions for a given sector of
space.

Dringoth was hesitant but when a
promotion of two grades, all the way to Ultrarch-Major, was dangled
in front of him, he agreed. Here was a chance to really distinguish
himself from his parents and get out from under their illustrious
shadow, which was already beginning to happen. Plus, he would have
the honor of commanding the lead Time Twister battery in a new
command, known as
Timejump
Command
. Dringoth figured he could almost write his
own book.

He agreed. After some initial training
and familiarization with Time Twister ops (he helped develop the
CONOPS and wrote some of the doctrinal materials), he led his first
Battery crew to a newly scouted world in the Sigma Albeth B system,
an undistinguished and dreary backwater oceanic world known to
Umans as Storm. The planet and the star system were strategically
located in the Lower Halo region known as
Halo-Alpha
. It was a vital crossroads between
Uman settlements in the Halo and the Inner Spiral.

So it came to be that Ultrarch-Major
Monthan Dringoth and his crew of ten, with a jumpship called
Cygnus
at their disposal and the
Mark 1 version of the Time Twister, an untested weapon upon which
much hope was being placed, settled onto a small island called
Kinlok on this wet hellhole of a world aptly known as
Storm.

It wasn’t long before they realized they
weren’t alone.

A day later, Pekto returned to the Omtorish
camp near Kinlok with the Metah’s response, all the way from
Omsh’pont. He located Longsee and gave him the pod on which was
recorded the very words of Iltereedah luk’t. Longsee called for
Kloosee, Pakma and Chase to attend the listening.

The Metah’s words were clear: Chase would be
allowed to go back through the Farpool. Kloosee and Pakma would not
accompany him; they were needed to work with the Umans and besides,
nobody knew if the Farpool even worked the same way anymore.
Iltereedah didn’t want to risk losing key people until the transit
system could be proven again.

Moreover, to assist Chase in this trip, two
members of the current expedition would accompany him. They were
both guard-prodsmen. Pulkor rik and Veskort tu were summoned by
Longsee to the gathering and told of the Metah’s command. They
would assist in preparing a kip’t for the trip. Normally, special
ships had been used for travel through the Farpool, but none were
available and Longsee was reasonably certain a kip’t could be
sealed and modified so that it would survive the trip.

The next day, Chase was introduced to Pulkor
and Veskort.

Both were husky, middle-aged males, strong
swimmers. They had guard and security duties and one had handled
himself well against the Ponkti assault at the Pillars. Now they
had been assigned to help partition the sections of the wavemaker
foundation…some strength was required for this and the Umans were
particular about how it should be done.

Pulkor seemed eager for the adventure. “I’ve
never been through the Farpool before…never even seen it.”

Veskort wasn’t so sure. “It makes me dizzy,
just thinking of it. What if we don’t come back…you said the
wavemaker created the Farpool. Now, the Umans are shutting down the
wavemaker. How do you know the thing even works?”

Kloosee was honest. “We don’t. But Longsee
here believes the basic functions will last unless the wavemaker is
completely shutdown. That won’t happen for quite some time. You
should be back before then.”

Veskort was skeptical and somewhat
jealous that Chase had such influence with the Metah. “He’s not one
of us…he’s
eekoti
. Why can’t
he do this himself?”’

Longsee explained the reasoning behind the
Metah’s instructions. “The Metah fears Ponkti influence. Already,
they’ve tried to stop us. They want the Farpool for themselves.
There are rumors they’ve worked out a deal with the Umans, although
the Umans don’t admit such. Your job is to make sure the Ponkti
don’t interfere with the Farpool.”

Veskort sniffed at that and darted off with
one annoyed slap of his tail. “We should just forget this Farpool
and focus on strengthening Omt’or. That’s the best way to keep the
Ponkti under control…if we’re stronger than they are, the Ponkti
can’t make mischief.”

Longsee was thoughtful. “Don’t be too sure of
that. If the Ponkti wind up in control of the Farpool, all of Seome
will be under their influence. And all of your prods and muscles
will mean nothing then.”

Veskort didn’t reply.

A kip’t large enough for three was found and
modified and sealed. The work took several days. Longsee was
adamant that the Umans would not know or be told of this little
side trip. When the kip’t was ready and provisions laid in, Kloosee
attached it by towline to another kip’t. Chase climbed in, riding
in the front, with Veskort and Pulkor behind. Chase had some idea
how to use sounds and clicks from his echopod to control the sled
plus he had been through the whirlpool before.

Pulkor and Veskort and their prods were
unwilling passengers, ordered to accompany Chase by the Metah.
Longsee also gave them empty echopods and told them to record what
they saw and heard.

“Each trip is another piece of the puzzle,”
Longsee told them. He made sure Chase wasn’t around. “We learn more
and more about the Uman world, about its waters, its currents, its
indigenous life, with each trip. We may have to emigrate there, if
the Umans continue to bring war to our world. The Metah wants a
full reconnaissance of their world. She wants to know if it’s
really suitable for mass migration…assuming we can keep the Farpool
operating.”

Pulkor honked. “
Kah
, we’re better off saving this world…wipe out
the Umans, wipe out the Ponkti…they’re all
mah’jeet
anyway…they’re a menace to everyone.
These trips are a waste.”

Longsee said, “You prodsmen are all
alike…if it bothers you, stick a prod in it and kill it. But the
Metah’s got a bigger view of the situation. You’d best do as she
commands…for this mission, you’re both
tekmetah
…free-bonded to Iltereedah. Keep that in
mind.”

Chase could tell that Pulkor and Veskort were
both sulking the whole way out to the field of whirlpools.

Well, this is going to be
fun,
he told himself. Still, he had to do it. He had
to find out what had happened to Angie. And if two Omtorish
prodsmen were miffed because they were ordered to come along, so be
it.

The trip to the Farpool took only a few short
hours.

Chase found controlling the kip’t an
adventure, owing in part to being unfamiliar with the
controls—controls based as much on making certain sounds as
anything—and his lack of navigating expertise. The field of
whirlpools surrounding the outer edges of the Uman machine was easy
enough to find. All you had to do was let the turbulent currents
pull you in. But then Chase had to make sure they stayed out of the
smaller vortexes…he eventually learned to skirt the edges of the
things and almost ride the waves from one to another, a rough sort
of surfing but underwater.

Then the kip’t control panel started pinging
and clanging at him and Chase realized it was an alarm that Kloosee
had set up to guide them right to the Farpool itself.

Ahead of them, he could see only blue-green
sheets of bubbles and foam. But the strong pull of the maelstrom
was unmistakable and they were soon caught in its clutches and
speeding toward the core of the rotation.

“Hang on, guys…
here we go
--!” he yelled.

Behind him, he felt the body of Pulkor
tense slightly. Behind
him
,
Veskort seemed to be mumbling something…perhaps an Omtorish prayer.
The sled rocked and shuddered and shimmied like a wild pony as it
was inexorably pulled closer and closer. The bubbles and foam
turned to a white crashing froth…

…and in a blinding flash of light, they were
in….

Whenever he and Angie talked about the
experience, Chase mentioned that going through the Farpool was like
riding Space Mountain at Disney: moments of peaceful
weightlessness, almost a dreamlike quality, except for the bright
strobing lights outside the porthole, and the wrenching
neck-breaking turns and then the sudden stop.

It was like having a horse kick the crap out
of you. Or maybe driving your bike headfirst into a brick wall at
eighty miles an hour.

The kip’t shuddered and hurtled out of the
Farpool in a flash of light, a roaring rush of deceleration,
knocking Chase and his passengers hard against the cockpit windows.
Still trapped in the vortex, Chase knew enough to ram the ship’s
rudder hard over, while firing her jets to counteract the residual
force of the spin. For a moment, they were pinned sideways against
the cockpit, until the force of the jets shot them through the core
of the whirlpool and out into calmer waters.

Several minutes passed before Chase recovered
enough consciousness to remember Pulkor and Veskort tucked in
behind him. He made sure his echopod was working, then—

“Hey, you guys okay back there? Everything
still attached and working?”

It was Veskort who replied—he had a guttural
way of honking and grunting that was unmistakable.

“Shhkreeeh
…I
think I have many broken bones—“

Then Pulkor chimed in. Chase felt him
stretching and flexing behind him. “
Eekoti
Chase…everything in my body hurts…is this
normal…the Farpool does this?”

Chase had to concentrate on bringing
the kip’t fully under control. He wrestled with the controls,
clicking and clanking and honking as best he could, but not having
that much effect.
Blast these sound
controls!
You had to make just the right sound, the
right volume and frequency…
Jesus, I’ll
never get the hang of this!
Fortunately, the ocean
water dampened their wildest gyrations and soon enough, they were
cruising slowly through dark, cold waters, toward—