In Araminta’s exovision, Justine was climbing back into her chair, which folded protectively around her. ‘Main systems are functional. Drive units have reduced capacity. These energy bursts are stressing a lot of components. I guess they’re trying to wear me down.’
Araminta crept over to the balcony windows, and peered out across the park. There were several Ellezelin capsules hanging above the encircling road. They were all stationary; like everyone else their occupants were captivated by the chase thirty thousand lightyears away. Below them, the crowd stared up into the heavens whose stars were smeared by the weather dome. She nodded in satisfaction.
‘They’re firing again,’ Justine yelped. ‘Oh Christ.’
The Silverbird shuddered violently. Araminta gritted her teeth, feeling the huge tremor of anticipation in the gaiafield. More sections of the ship reported overloads. The speed fell off as the drive reconfigured its energy manipulation functions around degraded components. Justine changed course, streaking into the loop, the shortest distance to the barrier. Both Raiel warships followed unerringly. Closing the gap.
Araminta pulled a big sky-blue cushion out of a nest pile and into the middle of the living room. She was annoyed to see the ebony-wood parquet had been stripped back to the bare wood. Didn’t Mareble understand how difficult it was to get the varnish application correct? The work that had gone into cleaning the little wooden blocks!
She sat down on the cushion and crossed her legs, banishing such negative thoughts.
‘Good strategy, darling,’ Gore said. ‘There aren’t many planets inside the loop.’
Araminta retrieved Likan’s program from her storage lacuna, feeling her mind finally settle. It was a risk using this apartment, but she wasn’t sure how good Living Dream was at tracking people through the gaiafield. The day Danal had moved in he’d confided to her that he was helping with the search for the Second Dreamer, and how the confluence nests were being altered somehow to facilitate that. So she certainly didn’t want to be in her own place when she did this, just in case they were accurate enough to fix the exact location. And they might just think Danal’s apartment was some kind of false reading. She didn’t know anywhere else she could go. Other than to Mr Bovey’s house, but that would expose him to the paramilitaries, which she could never do.
The shadowy spectres of sensation that lurked within her subconscious expanded outwards. She let her attention swim across the myriad thoughts it contained. Drifting. Content in a way the program alone could never kindle.
Most of the thoughts she could ignore. Some were intriguing. One had a mental signature she knew, associated with a dark tone that almost made her shy away. Instead, she concentrated.
‘My Lord,’ Ethan was pleading. ‘Hear us please.’
He was calling with all his mental strength, amplified by countless confluence nests, directing his appeal outwards into the infinite. Wrong, she mused from her lofty Olympian distance. The Skylord is not beyond us, it is within.
She drifted further, devoid of urgency.
‘If you don’t call them off I will personally rip your fucking arkship apart molecule by molecule with all of you in it,’ Gore was yelling. ‘You think the Void is a Bad Thing? Do you, huh? You believe that? Because let me tell you: it is your mommy with her titty out for you to suck on compared to me.’
Araminta couldn’t help grinning. Now that’s the kind of father I would have liked. Out in the park, people were cheering. A cry taken up across hundreds of planets. The gaiafield filled with determination and support, the raw emotion of billions, swelling the sense of unification to near ecstasy. Go Gore, humanity whooped. Araminta added her blessing, a whisper lost in the multitude.
‘I can do nothing,’ Qatux protested. ‘They are warrior Raiel. Not our kind, not any longer.’
‘Find a fucking way!’
Araminta lifted herself away from the turmoil, drifting towards a strand of familiar quiet thought. Opening herself in greeting. The nebulas of the Void emerged from darkness to glimmer spectacularly around her. Half of space was a gauzy splash of aquamarine with a few distant stars shining through. She recognized it as Odin’s Sea where a Skylord coasted between two of the scarlet promontories, spikes of whorled gases light-years long, swelling to buds big enough to contain a globular cluster. And here, the thoughts of what once was mingled with more purposeful notions. An awareness wove through this space, not conscious, but knowing purpose.
Silverbird burst out of the loop and streaked towards the final implacable barrier. All around it, broken stars sleeted inwards, shedding the glowing husks of the planets they had once birthed as if they were an encumbrance during the final tumultuous plunge to extinction.
‘Oh, God, here we go again,’ Justine whimpered. Ten light-years behind her a gas-giant imploded. Hyperluminal quantum distortions burst out from its vanishing point.
The Silverbird dropped out of hyperspace, flying free in spacetime that no human would recognize. It was a dark universe inside the Wall stars. Thick braids of dust and gas shielded the light of the galactic core behind the starship. Ahead, few photons escaped the macrogravity cloak of the Void as suns sank through the event horizon. A lurid vermilion band shimmered across space, the swirl of ion clouds enraged by the loop’s fatal discharge, illuminating the fuselage like the devil’s own gaze. Radiation alarms howled in fright as the force field started to collapse. The fuselage blistered.
‘One of us comes,’ Araminta said. ‘See?’
The distortion shockwave was almost unnoticeable in real space as it flashed past. Dead streamers of atoms were stirred briefly by the unquiet force leaking back out of the quantum interstices. Silverbird powered back into hyperspace, smouldering from radiation burns.
‘You,’ Ethan exclaimed.
The Skylord resonated with interest. ‘I still search for you. The nucleus aches with longing.’
‘I know. You must stop that. Please welcome our emissary. She approaches you.’
‘Where? I sense you are so far away.’
‘I am. She is close to you now. Feel for her. She bleeds emotion as do we all. Guide her as you should. Open your boundary.’
‘The Heart will welcome you.’
The two Raiel warships were closing on the Silverbird. Justine’s sensor display showed her another gas giant-sized mass barely five lightyears away. If they targeted that it would be the end. The Silverbird’s ultradrive was struggling to maintain acceleration now.
‘Hurry. Please,’ Araminta implored.
The Skylord radiated satisfaction as it receded.
‘I thank you,’ Gore said. ‘Whoever you are.’
Justine sank back into the couch, her mind fully open to the gaiafield, letting every emotion pour fourth. Hopes. Fears. Everything she was.
Ahead of the Silverbird, the Void boundary changed. A vast circular wave rippled out, creating a crater ten lightyears across. From its centre a smooth cone of pure blackness rose up towards the starship.
Justine regarded the exovision images in surprise. She was gripping the couch arms tight, her skin slick with sweat. ‘I’m not so sure—’
Behind her, the Raiel warships slowed, allowing the Silverbird to race onwards.
‘ – this is such – ’
At fifteen lightyears high the cone stopped expanding.
‘ – a good – ’
Its apex opened like a flower, petals of infinite night pealing back. Exquisite nebula-light shone out into the Gulf.
‘ – idea – ’
Silverbird passed across the threshold, into the Void.
‘ – after all.’
The cone closed up. It sank back into the now quiescent boundary. Silverbird’s communication link to the Navy relay ended. Both Raiel warships executed tight curves and headed back towards the Wall.
‘Please, talk to us,’ Ethan appealed. ‘The Skylord has anointed you as our Second Dreamer. We await you. We need you.’
He was given no reply.
Araminta slipped out of Danal’s apartment, and tiptoed across the vestibule to her own. Outside, a brash dawn light was lapping against the weather dome. The crowd was cheering ecstatically. That felt good.
‘Well, whadda you know, I saved the universe.’ Araminta grinned wildly at the ridiculous knowledge, then yawned. Being a hero was actually quite exhausting. She sank down into the big old armchair with its strangely lumpy cushions. Just five minutes’ rest.
*
Cheriton McOnna didn’t like the ‘in character’ clothes Beckia had produced for him out of the replicator on board Elvin’s Payback. Really didn’t. Nothing wrong with the touch of them, a cotton shirt, wool-lined waistcoat with brass buttons, and trousers that were like suede but a great deal softer. No, it was the colours and style, the shirt’s lace-up front, its grey-green colour which was more like a stain than a dye, and the odd tight cut of the black trousers. He plain refused to wear the felt hat with its flamboyant green and blue feathers; although he reluctantly agreed to carry it after Beckia got all stroppy. It wasn’t good to get Beckia stroppy.
She’d been right, of course. As soon as he walked into the Confluence nest building on Daryad Avenue in the centre of town, he fitted in with the Ellezelin workforce. Security was strong around the building, an old brick cube with dark arching windows. Colwyn’s three confluence nests were the first priority for the occupying forces. But Liatris McPeierl had done his job well, infiltrating a complete legend for Cheriton, including DNA. When he walked into the airy marble-floored lobby he was told to put his hand on a sensor pedestal while three armed and armoured guards watched him cautiously. The building’s new net cleared him, and they waved him on. He gave them a cheery smile, backed up with a contented emanation into the gaiafield.
The nest itself was housed on the fourth floor in a sterile chamber which took up half of the available floorspace. He reported for duty to Dream Master Yenrol in the overseer’s office, which looked out into the nest chamber through a glass partition. Normally, the office was only occupied a few hours each day when the overseer or their assistant ran a six-hourly assessment to ensure the nest was operating smoothly. Now there were seven technicians all struggling for elbow space as they installed banks of new hardware, while on the other side of the glass more technicians were blending fresh bioneural clusters with the original nest.
‘What’s your field?’ Yenrol asked. He was both agitated and puzzled. Cheriton’s late assignment coupled with the pressure to get the job done was making him very twitchy.
‘Pattern definition,’ Cheriton replied equitably. ‘The routines I’ve developed will help isolate the Second Dreamer’s thoughts within the gaiafield. It should give us a stronger source to trace.’
‘Good,’ Yenrol said. ‘Okay, great. Start installing the routines.’ He’d turned back to a half-completed hardware unit before Cheriton got a chance to reply.
‘Okay then,’ Cheriton mumbled, keeping his gaiafield emission a level flow of eagerness and enthusiasm. He found a free console seat, and nodded to the man in the next seat.
‘Welcome to the eye,’ his new colleage said. ‘I’m Danal.’
‘Glad to be here,’ Cheriton said. ‘What do you mean: eye?’
‘Of the storm.’
Cheriton grinned. ‘This is the quiet part?’
‘Exactly!’
Danal, it turned out, had been on Viotia for some time now. He and Mareble had come in anticipation of being close to the Second Dreamer. ‘We wanted to be here when he revealed himself,’ Danal admitted. ‘I’ve been upgrading nest sensitivity since we arrived in the hope our Dream Masters can locate him.’ He gave Yenrol a guilty glance, stifling his gaiafield emissions for a moment. ‘I wasn’t expecting this,’ he confided.
‘I know what you mean,’ Cheriton said, all sympathy. ‘I was praying to the Lady that Ethan would be elected Cleric Conservator, but I didn’t think anything like our presence here would be necessary.’
Danal gave an awkward shrug, and got back to work. Cheriton continued loading in the routines he’d concocted. They did perform the recognition function, but in reverse, so that the nest would develop a mild blind spot should it receive any thoughts originating from the Second Dreamer. It would inform Cheriton first before reverting to the advertised function.
The modification team’s frantic work stalled as Justine’s madcap flight swamped the unisphere.
‘She’s so close,’ Danal said in awe as the Silverbird’s sensors revealed the undulating surface of the Void. Then everyone winced as the Raiel transformed the second moon into a hyper-luminal quake.
‘How are they doing that?’ Cheriton murmured, fascinated by the level of extraordinarily sophisticated violence involved.
‘Who cares?’ Danal said. ‘The Void can resist their devilry. It has for a million years. That’s all that matters.’
Cheriton raised an eyebrow. It took a lot of self-control not to leak his dismay at the man’s bigotry into the gaiafield. ‘Let’s hope Justine’s ship can withstand it, too.’
‘She’s not a believer. She’s an ANA creature.’
‘She’s human,’ Cheriton said. ‘That means she should be able to get inside. Somehow.’
‘Ah. I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘Please,’ Yenrol entreated the modification team. ‘Keep working. If the Second Dreamer is going to show himself, it will be tonight.’
Danal flashed Cheriton a shamefaced smile.
Oscar hadn’t expected things to happen quite this fast. He should have known better. If the Starflyer War had taught him nothing else, it was that events ruled people, not the other way round.
So here he was encased in a stiff paramilitary armour suit, sitting halfway down the passenger section of an Ellezelin police capsule, floating over the Cairns. Beckia was sitting on the bench next to him, while Tomansio was forward in the command seat. The capsules were designed to hold fifteen paramilitaries. However, its original occupants were now resting in a drug-induced coma back in the Bootel & Leicester warehouse, so at least he had plenty of room to stretch out.
Like the rest of the Commonwealth, they were accessing Justine’s mad dash through the Gulf.
‘The welcome team has just stepped up to active status,’ Liatris reported: he had stayed behind in the Elvin’s Payback to monitor the occupying forces and provide unisphere support. ‘Everyone thinks that the Second Dreamer will intervene for Justine.’
‘He didn’t after Gore’s appeal,’ Oscar said.
‘The Raiel should give things a degree of urgency,’ Beckia said. ‘I agree with Living Dream, if it’s going to happen it’ll happen tonight.’
Oscar shrugged, which didn’t come off well in his armour.
‘Did you know Gore and Justine?’ Tomansio asked.
‘I think I met her once, some senior officer function on High Angel. Everyone was trying to chat her up.’
‘Including you?’ Beckia teased.
‘No, I was aiming for the ones she turned down. Rejection always leaves you vulnerable to a quick bout of cheap meaningless sex.’
‘Ozzie, but you’re dreadful.’
‘Anything from Cheriton?’ Tomansio asked.
‘Nothing since his last check-in,’ Liatris reported. ‘Nobody questioned his appointment to Yenrol’s staff. He’s installed his routines in the nest.’
‘Is he wearing his hat?’ Beckia asked innocently.
Oscar couldn’t help the smile creeping on to his mouth. That had been quite an argument.
‘I’ll find out next time,’ Liatris promised.
‘What have you got for us on the welcome team?’ Tomansio asked.
‘All deeply loyal Living Dream followers; it doesn’t look like Phelim fancied contracting out for this job. They’re on secondment from the Makkathran2 cabinet security office.’
‘Ethan’s private bodyguards,’ Tomansio declared. ‘What are their enrichments?’
‘Very heavy duty weapons, and they’re accelera
ted up to at least our standard. But I don’t think they have biononics; there’s no record in any file I can find.’
‘Okay, thank you. Keep deep mining, I want everything you’ve got on them.’
‘Will do. Files coming over.’
Oscar’s u-shadow told him it had received the heavily encrypted files. When he scrutinized them he couldn’t help a sharp intake of breath. The welcome team that Councillor Phelim had put together to interdict the Second Dreamer were carrying the kind of firepower he’d thought exclusive to members of the Knights Guardian. They were also extremely devout. Phelim had given them complete authority over all the invading forces to accomplish their goal. ‘We need to be quick,’ he murmured.
‘That we do,’ Tomansio agreed. ‘I wouldn’t want to be caught in the act by this lot.’
‘I bet they have got biononics,’ Beckia said. ‘They’ll justify it by saying it will help bring about the Dream. Their kind always does.’
‘I didn’t know Living Dream disapproved of biononics,’ Oscar said.
‘Oh yes. Nothing like the Protectorate, though; biononics aren’t quite a sacrilege, they simply don’t have any place in the Void. Most people believe they won’t work in there anyway.’
‘Why?’
‘Because there was never any functioning technology on Querencia. The most sophisticated thing the Waterwalker ever encountered was the machine gun. And that’s purely mechanical. There was no electricity, no genetics, no biononics. Given the humans who landed, their ship would have had access to the most advanced technology and information base the Commonwealth could provide, it is inconceivable that their new society couldn’t even make a battery. They certainly know their chemistry and medicine, even astronomy. Something stopped them from following the electromechanical route.’
‘The internal structure of the Void,’ Oscar mused.
‘Quite. Whatever the quantum structure is that permits true mental powers, it must also block electricity.’
‘That’s ridiculous. You can’t stop current flowing, that implies a whole level of atomic reactions would cease to exist. There wouldn’t be any stars.’