Pruit spent an hour loading the data crystals into a special crystal reader mounted in the control center, thus transferring all the Eschless Funnel data to the ship.
While she worked, Adaiz took a seat on the floor and let his eyes close. He was thinking of Enon-Amet, trying to find him. He thought he could sense him, his spirit, home, ready for his next life on beautiful Galea. In spirit form, Enon had crossed instantly a distance that would take twenty years in physical bodies. Good-bye, Dear Brother, he said to him, I hope I may have the honor of knowing you again…
When Pruit was finished with the crystals, she found herself standing by the sentient tank. She was thinking of the future. How nice it would be to climb into the tank and talk things over with Niks. She would tell him everything that had happened. She would tell him about her plan, and the chance she saw ahead for the Kinley to free themselves. She would tell him about Eddie and ask him if he minded that she had found someone else, ask him if he minded that she cared about him. She would tell him these things, and then she would ask him about the future, and they would plan together.
But that was not Niks inside the tank; that was a computer with his voice. Niks was gone, and the future was up to her. She put her hand on the tank and thought of him, the way he looked, his humor, his love. She found she did not need to cry; those things were still with her.
Softly, she said, “Good-bye, Niks.”
After three hours of monitoring the life-systems computer, Central spoke.
“The crib occupant is ready to wake.”
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Structurally, he looks repaired. His brain function should be normal and continue normal. He may or may not have full memory, however.”
Pruit moved to the crib, just as the plantglass retracted and the biofluid began to drain. As the bioarms released the Engineer, she reached in and took hold of his hand, helping him to a sitting position. His hands came to his eyes and rubbed them, then he opened them and coughed. He looked at Pruit and then at Adaiz, who was standing behind her.
“Do you know your name?” Pruit asked him softly in Haight.
“I’m the Engineer,” he said, his voice scratchy.
Pruit smiled.
“Yes, you are. Do you remember coming here with me?”
The Engineer squeezed his eyes shut. “Yes,” he said, as though the memory pained him. “Of course. I’ve been…living in a nightmare these past weeks.” Then he opened his eyes and took hold of Pruit’s hand. “Thank you.”
She got a blanket for him. He stood from the tank and wrapped himself in it.
“Can you remember the Eschless Funnel?” she asked.
“Do you have something to write with?”
Pruit found him a stylus and writing pad. He took them in his hands and sat down on the floor. Quickly, he jotted down a dozen long mathematical formulas, then did a few sample equations. Because of their complexity, this took him several minutes. Then it was his turn to smile.
“The core equations I still know by heart,” he said, “The rest I can reconstruct.”
“We have your data crystals,” Pruit said.
The Engineer smiled again. “Then the Funnel is secure.”
She returned his smile, then sent him to shower and dress. She and Adaiz moved to one of the control centers. “He can build me the ship I need,” she said. “Are we ready to do this?”
“Yes,” Adaiz replied.
Pruit accessed her ship’s communication capabilities. There was a powerful broadcast transmitter aboard. It had been designed to send the Eschless technology back to Herrod. Transmitting the information in this way meant that it could be intercepted by the Lucien as well, but Pruit had a set of incredibly complex ciphers to use as protection. Now, however, she was not worried about the Lucien intercepting the information and eventually breaking the code. With the spies they had on Herrod, that was, perhaps, inevitable in any case. She had another plan, one which she and Adaiz had agreed upon together.
With Central’s help, she aligned the transmitter and prepared the ship to broadcast the manuals. When everything was ready, she turned to Adaiz again.
“Are you ready?”
Adaiz paused, then, “Yes. I may be called a traitor in my home for this. But I know my own heart, and I am willing to bear that personal burden.”
“You are not a traitor. This is a new time, and the rules have changed. We will give the Funnel to both of our races. The field will ultimately be level for both.”
“I hope you’re right.”
She turned back to the screen, double-checking her instructions. The data would be sent eight light-years through space, landing squarely in their home system. She was also sending the data to Earth, where it would arrive within a few dozen minutes of broadcast.
“Then here we go,” she said. “Central, transmit.”
There was a brief pause as Central executed her command. “Done, Pruit.”
Pruit and Adaiz did not look at each other. They were thinking of the invisible beams of information traveling the speed of light, hurtling inexorably through the reaches of star systems, heading for home. And here, in the local neighborhood, Earth receiving stations in every country on the globe would soon be picking up an incoming message that would change the course of civilization.
At last, Pruit realized that she was not breathing. She let out her breath and drew one in. She would remember that breath for years, the first breath of a new life.
“Something is different,” Adaiz said quietly.
Pruit knew immediately what he meant. “Yes,” she agreed. “Everything is different.”
CHAPTER 53
The bus was air-conditioned, and the cold air was very welcome after standing in the midday heat on the cement platform outside. Adaiz carried a small bag of belongings over his shoulder. He stared down the aisle, letting his eyes sweep over the people seated along either side.
The vehicle was only half full. There were men and women of varying ages, some sitting together, some alone. A few glanced his way, but most were looking out their windows. He could smell them, not a bad smell, just a smell of bodies, mostly clean. There was also a faint chemical scent coming from the lavatory at the back of the bus.
Adaiz showed his ticket to the driver and worked his way down the aisle. He took a seat near the back. There was no one next to him. He set his bag down and glanced out the window as the bus gave a squeaky sigh and moved into gear.
This was the state of New York, in the United States of America, planet Earth. It was summer, and Adaiz was taking this bus from one coast of the continent to the other. It would be weeks before he arrived and joined Pruit.
Though a Lucien by upbringing and by loyalty, Adaiz had a human body, and he no longer resisted this. He wanted to experience humanity, wanted to be a part of it. Perhaps he could learn something about himself and teach something to his Lucien brothers as well. True enlightenment, he felt, had room to encompass all races.
He could feel someone’s eyes on him. He turned his head to find a young woman looking at him from her seat across the aisle. She glanced away when he looked, a little shy, but he could see the beginnings of a smile on her lips. She was nice looking, he thought, with dark hair and fair skin. There was something unusual about the way she was smiling. With a flash of understanding, he realized she was flirting with him.
He felt a tingling sensation in his abdomen. There was a feeling of attraction for her and an excitement about possible contact. He turned his head away, unsure if he wanted these sensations. After a moment, he realized he did. They were part of humanity, and he no longer objected to them.
The girl was looking at him again. Adaiz turned and met her gaze. Slowly, he smiled. The woman smiled back, and Adaiz felt that nothing could have been more natural than that silent interchange.
His favorite chant from the Katalla Oman came into his mind unbidden, but the words were altered to describe the path he was now taking:
> This world exists
It surrounds me
I will pass through it
And become
Awareness
Light
A point of knowing.
CHAPTER 54
The cabin sat at the top of a hill in Northern California, with oak and fir trees around it. It was a large house, with an enormous common area that included a living room, kitchen, and dining room. Above this area was a balcony that lead to several bedrooms. Off the living room were double doors leading to a garage, which had been converted into a workshop.
This was a house that belonged to Eddie, left to him by his grandmother when he was still a teenager. It held his fondest memories from childhood, of the summers he had spent there with his family, daydreaming about anything he wished.
It was evening now, and a warm breeze blew in through the windows. Eddie was in the workshop with the Engineer and the Doctor, arranging the tables and equipment under the Engineer’s direction.
Callen had arrived that afternoon, bringing her fiancé, a young man in a nice suit who sat on a kitchen stool with a somewhat bewildered look on his face. Callen was standing in the kitchen, talking into a wall-mounted phone and watching the television in the living room. A national news station was on, and the commentators, as they had been for the last month, were talking about the broadcast from Jupiter. “The government of Japan announced today that it is launching a program to study and develop the mathematical formulas broadcast to Earth three weeks ago. Japan becomes the fourth country to make such an announcement, following the United States, China, and Germany. The source of the broadcast, which appears to have originated from the vicinity of Jupiter, is still unknown…”
Callen spoke into the phone, raising her voice to overpower the two other parties on her conference call. “Dad, Mister DeLacy, I know you can get the broadcast information anywhere. But Eddie knows two people who can boost you ahead of anyone else. Everyone’s expecting at least a decade to figure this stuff out. You could have a spaceship built within three years.” That shut them up. “Yes, a spaceship. What do you think is up there making the broadcast? Yes, Eddie knows them,” she said, answering a protest from Eddie’s father. “Three years. We’re in the summer cabin. Come out here and see for yourself.”
Pruit was unpacking her small bag in the bedroom she and Eddie would share. The Engineer was going to build her an Eschless Funnel ship, and Eddie and Callen would ensure he had the help of Bannon-Delacy. Securing that help would be easy, once the aerospace company realized it would get full access to the Engineer’s knowledge. Broadcasting the Eschless data to Earth had been a teaser to ensure their interest and support.
The ship would be ready in three years, the Engineer promised her, and it would take only a few months to reach Herrod. She would arrive home long before the Lucien attack, with a fully built ship and plans to build more. The Kinley would have an edge, the ability to threaten the Lucien enough to stave off the attack, and even, perhaps, to move the entire Herrod population somewhere else.
In eight years—five years after she returned home—the transmission from her ship would arrive on Herrod and arrive on Galea, the Lucien capital, as well. The transmission was heavily encrypted. It would take the Lucien a few years to decipher it, but they would eventually have access to all the Eschless Funnel data as well. Thus, the Kinley would not have an opportunity to become aggressors and turn the tables on the Lucien. It would be a level playing field, and the two races would have to learn to coexist.
Later that night, the Engineer and Doctor were busy beginning work in the Engineer’s shop, and Callen and her fiancé were huddled in the kitchen, strategizing about the upcoming visit of Callen and Eddie’s fathers. Eddie snuck Pruit out of the house alone.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“You’ll see,” Eddie said, a hint of a smile in his voice.
He was holding her hand and leading her through trees and tall grass. The night was warm despite the late hour. The moon was nearly full and bright enough to cast distinct shadows. After ten minutes, they made their way out of the trees and, in a few moments, came upon a wide road. It was midnight, and there were no cars.
“This is the Pacific Coast Highway,” he said, pulling her across it. “It only leads to good places.”
“What do you mean?”
“You’ll see,” he said, putting a hand over her eyes as they reached the other side.
“What is it?”
“Stop asking questions!” He was laughing now.
He guided her down a short hill; then Pruit felt rocks beneath her feet. There was a rhythmic sighing sound in the air that she could almost recognize.
“All right,” he said and removed his hand from her eyes.
Stretched out before her was the nighttime expanse of the Pacific Ocean. It was blue black, under a sky of slightly lighter color, and there was a wide swath of moonlight across it. She was standing on a low outcropping above the water, and the breakers lapped against the sand a few dozen feet below, almost at her feet.
“The ocean…” she breathed. It was the first time she has seen an ocean in person. Even on their flights, the oceans had been obscured, by night or by clouds. Now, finally, here it was, water forever. “It’s beautiful.”
They sat together on the large rocks, watching the tide go out. Eddie leaned back and looked up at the sky. Despite the brightness of the moon, hundreds of stars were visible, for they were far from cities.
He took her hand and kissed it. Pruit wondered about love. Was it possible to love two people so different as Niks and Eddie? She leaned over and kissed him gently. Perhaps it was.
She lay back against the rocks and thought of Herrod, of its domed cities, of the Sentinel and her family. She would see them again. Soon. And there would be hope.
“It’s going to be a new world,” Eddie said softly.
Pruit looked at the stars. Within a generation, they would be within reach of three very different worlds. “A new universe,” she said.
She was experiencing a strange physical sensation. There was a nervousness in her stomach, coupled with elation. It was a feeling she had never quite encountered before, at least not in this magnitude.
Eddie saw the look on her face. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I feel…strange. Like a weight has been lifted and the future is open. Like…like there’s no longer a set path before me. Instead, there are possibilities, and they are limitless.”
Eddie laughed and put his arms around her, pulling her close to him. “Pruit,” he whispered, “you’re happy.”
She smiled, looking out at the horizon, where the ocean met the sky, feeling his warmth, feeling the life within her and the life ahead. She kissed him and whispered back, “Maybe I am.”
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Arwen Elys Dayton was born on the West Coast of the United States to a math professor father and a romantic mother, who named her after an elf in the Lord of the Rings. Arwen lives in Southern California with her husband and their three children.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE/GLOSSARY
Adaiz-Ari (Mission Officer Adaiz-Ari) (uh-daz’ ar-ee’): Twenty-two years old. Male. Kinley, fertilized and born in a Lucien laboratory, from stolen Kinley genetic material. Considers himself Lucien. Member of Clan Warrior and Clan Providence. Full blood brother of both clans. Raised in Lucien family, as younger brother of Enon-Amet.
Archaeologist: Forty-eight years old. Female. Ancient Kinley. Archaeologist and member of the Kinley Earth Survey crew. Wife of the Captain.
Avani (ah-vah’-ni): The modern language of the Lucien.
Biologist: Thirty-five years old. Female. Ancient Kinley. Biologist and member of the Kinley Earth Survey crew.
Callen St. John: Thirty-two years old. Female. Earth human, Caucasian. Childhood friend of Eddie.
Captain: Fifty years old. Male. Ancient Kinley. Military pilot with training in medici
ne. Leader of the Kinley Earth survey crew. Husband of the Archaeologist.
Champion, the: The Kinley survey team’s ship.
Clan Providence: The military organization of the Lucien people.
Doctor: Forty years old. Female. Ancient Kinley. Doctor and member of the Kinley Earth survey crew. Wife of the Engineer.
Eddie (Harris Edward DeLacy III): Thirty-two years old. Male. Earth human, Caucasian.
Egani-tah (e-ga’-ni tah): A form of Opening practiced by members of Clan Providence. It involves a ritual battle in which the opponents have a full spiritual connection with each other. High masters of the egani-tah can also force this state upon their opponents during battle, encompassing an enemy within themselves.
Engineer: Forty years old. Male. Ancient Kinley. Member of the Kinley Earth survey crew and designer of the Champion, the Eschless Funnel ship that brought the survey crew to Earth. Husband of the Doctor.
Enon-Amet (Mission Leader Enon-Amet) (ee-non ah-met’): Twenty-eight years old. Male. Lucien. Member of Warrior Clan and Clan Providence. Elder brother of Adaiz-Ari and leader of the Lucien mission to Earth.
Eschless Funnel (esh’-les): An engine that can propel a space-faring ship at speeds greater than the speed of light. The Eschless Funnel was developed on Herrod and used to power the Kinley survey vessel that landed on Earth in the third millennium BC.