Nissos agreed. He reached over Matshi’s shoulder and manipulated the display. A faint shadow of a vessel appeared. “There you go.”
“Zygan technology isn’t always state of the art,” Sarion said. “And that’s no joke.”
“It’s actually an understatement,” Pallas snorted. “Zygan bureaucracy actually stifles innovation.”
“One of these days,” Matshi admitted, “I’d like to blow this Fed and see what I’ve been missing.”
“Count me in,” Sarion agreed. “I’ve heard the Deltans in the Virgo Cluster are really hot!”
Lykkos snickered, “You wouldn’t believe what we learn from some of our ‘visitors’ when they’re under the influence of Aldebaran brandy.”
Matshi glared at them through furrowed brows. “I was thinking about witnessing new spaceflight technologies.”
“Speaking of, based on the ship outline, it looks like a Messier Sportstar, the latest cool cruiser among Ursans,” Nissos announced. “Seats 22.” He ran his fingers across the holo again, and added, “I read three humans on board.”
“And two of them may be Escott and Rush,” Sarion stated, serious. He turned to Matshi. “Orders, Cap’n?”
Matshi looked at the Megarans soberly, and declared after a beat, “We go in.”
There was a general cheer.
“Suit up, men,” Matshi advised. “We’ll Ergal in invisibly and scan and disperse once we’re on board.”
* * *
Eikhus’s ship
Suthsi sat quietly as Eikhus gently guided the ship towards Matshi’s contact metrics. In the years since they’d left Mingferplatoi, he’d not gotten a decent night’s hibernation. Setsei had wanted to stay at the Academy. I should’ve stayed, too.
Suthsi felt Setsei’s flagella slide over his shoulders and smiled. “Whatever our fate,” he said quietly, “may we share it together.”
Nephil Stratum was relaying comm data to Eikhus. “Matshi and his team are mounting a rescue.”
“Can you see the ship?” the Kharybdian asked. “Inside?”
“Yes,” she responded. “To both. Do we join them, or do we wait?”
Eikhus hesitated, finally declaring, “Just monitor for now. We’ll know when and if we have to make a move.”
* * *
The Messier Sportstar
Matshi M-fanned invisibly into Spud’s cell, dumbfounded by the scene before him. Spud was lying motionless on a metal slab, his eyes closed, his aquiline features devoid of expression. The Chidurian crept closer to see if Escott was breathing. Barely, he realized; no more than a breath a minute, too few for humans.
He reached a hand towards Spud’s chest. A human hand grabbed his and twisted him towards the floor.
“Matshi!” Spud cried as he landed on top of his rescuer, adding in a whisper, “I am actually quite pleased to see you.”
Rolling to one side, the Chidurian slid out from under Spud. Rubbing his sore limb, Matshi stood up to his full height and muttered a Chidurian curse.
“I know what that means,” Spud grumbled as he got to his feet.
“I know you know,” Matshi responded. “Now let’s get your arse out of here.”
* * *
When I opened my eyes and saw Sarion leaning over me with a worried smile, I thought Gary was taunting me with a cruel joke.
“Come on,” Sarion cried. “Hurry.”
I reached up and grabbed his muscular arm. He lifted me off the table and spotted me until I’d regained my balance.
“How did you find us?” I asked, grateful for the rescue.
“No time for that now, follow me.” He pulled out his Ergal and started entering instructions with his fingers.
Dazed and drained, I was still wobbly on my feet, but free of the spasms of agony with which Gary had tortured me. “How did you stop my pain?”
Sarion looked at me, puzzled. “Here, let me Ergal you a suit and we can X-fan back to Matshi’s ship.”
“No.”
Sarion looked even more puzzled. Could it be he had no idea why we had been captured?
“I can’t leave,” I insisted. “I have to save Spud. And stop Gary.”
“Matshi’s saving Spud,” the Megaran informed me. “And, by now, Pallas and Nissos should be on the bridge of this beauty. They should be able to handle your … uh, Gary.”
I was now puzzled. “Who are Pallas and Nissos?”
“My mates,” Sarion said, his eye on the door and his tone impatient. “We better get going. Before somebody tries to stop us.”
I nodded. “Okay. But shouldn’t we disable Gary’s power grid first?”
“Lykkos, another mate, is on that,” Sarion urged anxiously. “Let’s just go.”
“Ergal me a stun gun,” I ordered the Megaran. “I’m not leaving til we arrest Gary.” I stood stone-faced, hands on my hips. “I am still—I hope—a fully certified Zygint agent.”
“I’ll go along with the certified part,” Sarion sighed, rolling his eyes. He Ergaled both of us stun guns and handed one to me. Without hesitating, I blasted the portal of my prison cell open and led Sarion carefully out into the corridor, determined to succeed in my quest.
* * *
“The bridge on these birds is usually astern,” Matshi whispered to Spud. “This way.”
A sudden yaw threw the two against the bulkhead. “Go, Pallas,” Matshi said quietly.
Spud clutched his stun gun even more tightly and crept behind the Chidurian. The ship lurched again, and the power grid went down.
“Lykkos,” Matshi explained as he Ergaled two torches and handed one to Spud.
“Shh.” Spud pulled Matshi back as they rounded a corner. He gestured at his ears and turned off his torch. Matshi followed and the two waited in the darkness, guns at the ready.
The faintest sound of stealthy footsteps approached from the corridor ahead. As the steps neared, Matshi and Spud both aimed their stun guns at the source of the sound. Around the corner, a faint light appeared, followed by two shadowy forms.
“Freeze!” cried Matshi as he and Spud each flew to one side of the shadows.
“Don’t shoot!”
Matshi and Spud turned on their torches to see Sarion and me.
* * *
I really thought I’d bought it when I felt the stun gun in my ribs. I’m so glad Matshi wasn’t quicker on the trigger.
Spud recovered first. “Let’s get to the bridge,” he said quietly.
I nodded, not bothering to hide my sarcasm. “Thanks for asking.”
“We do not have the minutes to waste on…small talk,” Spud returned, as we set off down the corridor behind Matshi and Sarion towards the bridge. “My observation that you seem well was adequately reassuring. As I hope the converse was for you,” he added with a bitter edge.
Ouch. That hit straight home. “Look, I’m sorry, Spud,” I sighed. “After what I’ve—we’ve been through…” I struggled to articulate my distress.
“It is hardly necessary to dissect and relive the experience again,” he finished for me, as he pulled on my arm to encourage me to pick up my pace.
Our companions had gone down a corridor to our right, and we jogged to catch up. After a few yards, Matshi led us off to the in the opposite direction, and then back again to the right. A few more turns and I felt that we had come around in a complete circle. Matshi was an excellent navigator, but I still kept wondering if we shouldn’t’ve ‘turned left back at the stop sign’, you know?
Following the Chidurian, we clambered up a flight of stairs, walked down a short corridor, and finally reached a titanium door at its end. Our attempts to open the door with laser blasts from our stun guns failed. We’d need to use one of our rescuers’ Ergals to M-fan into what we expected would be the bridge on the other side. We all held hands, and, on my whispered count of three, Matshi activated his Ergal and we all X-fanned through the door together.
Yay, Matshi. Success! We looked around hastily, bewild
ered to see that the surprisingly roomy bridge was dark and quiet. There was no sign of Gary, nor of Sarion’s buddies. The emptiness and silence were very worrisome. I hoped the Megaran’s friends were okay. I hoped Gary wasn’t. Our Chief obviously had some tricks up his sleeve that we didn’t learn about through Zygint and he didn’t seem to hesitate to use them.
Stun guns out and charged, we peered into the darkness, trying to listen for sounds of life. I heard someone sniffing. Matshi. Chidurians did have large nostrils and triple our sense of smell. And then I smelled it, too. Something was burning. We’d better find out what. Following Matshi’s lead, we crept behind the large nav and comm panels so we could hide before attempting to turn on the lights with an Ergal.
That effort was unnecessary. A split second later, the entire circumference of the bridge around us became brilliantly lit as it burst into flames. In the center of the chamber, holding a vibrating machine about the size of a large shoebox under one arm, stood Gary. To Sarion’s alarm, there was no sign of either Pallas or Nissos.
“Don’t bother looking for your friends,” Gary announced. “They’re on their way to Level Three as heroes.”
“No!” Sarion lunged forward, and was barely held back by Matshi and Spud.
“Their … transition was instantaneous, I’d say,” Gary chuckled. “I guess their mother never told them to put on their suits before they go outside.” He waved his free hand at the darkness of space beyond the bridge’s windscreens.
Sarion’s face was contorted with rage. Red-faced, he sputtered a string of Megaran oaths.
Spud’s eyes had remained focused on Gary’s box. “What is that?” he interjected.
“That, Escott,” Gary said coldly, “is my key to Level Three.”
The blazing fire was moving rapidly towards our panels. We inched forward to avoid the flames, closer and closer to Gary, guns still aimed at our adversary. Soon we were standing only a few feet away, surrounding him. As Matshi shot out a free appendage to grab Gary’s box, Gary waved a hand and all our stun-guns instantly dissolved. Matshi and Sarion instinctively reached for their Ergals.
“Really, children, you don’t honestly believe that the extent of Zygan knowledge is limited to Catascope 101 at Mingferplatoi?” A second wave of Gary’s hand, and their Ergals had similarly dissolved. Matshi patted his pockets and, looking at Sarion then us, shook his head. “Benedict learned so much more during his exile.”
“And don’t expect Rescue 911,” Gary continued. “I’ve activated E-shields. No one else can get in to save you.”
The toasty flames were now licking our feet. We had no other option. With a shout from Matshi, we all leaped forward intending to grab Gary with our bare hands, and take away his Ergal or whatever it was that was the source of his power. Without an Ergal, or some superErgal, Gary wouldn’t be able to take down the E-shield and escape. He would perish in the inferno along with us, an option that we estimated he wouldn’t tolerate. He’d attempt to save himself, and thereby open the door for us to get out, too.
Unfortunately, Gary had once again anticipated our move, and, still holding the shoebox, which had now started to emit a high pitched whine and shake violently, he avoided us easily by levving beyond our reach to the ceiling of the bridge, comfortably above the flames.
“Nice try, children, but there’s no escape for you,” Gary mocked from his smoky height as the blaze rapidly engulfed us and our suits and clothes began to burn. We scattered to all corners of the bridge, futilely trying to find an exit and flee the flames, but the entire bridge deck had become a fiery inferno with no egress.
Gary waved from his perch above, his gold ring reflecting the glow of the fire below. “See you in Level Three,” he shouted callously over our cries, and pressed a button on the side of the shoebox he continued to tightly clutch.
Faced with certain death, I started my ka’vyr techniques once again to stave off the burning agony. The end would come quickly enough for us all. I did not want to suffer in my last moments alive.
Through the distance of my trance, I heard a blood-curdling scream, like none that I had ever heard before, come from above my head. I looked up as Gary screamed again, and collapsed onto the ground, dead.
As quickly as it had started, the fire was doused over the entire bridge, wisps of smoke the only trace of its flames. On the ceiling levved a dripping Eikhus, his stun gun pointed at the supine, still figure lying at our feet.
“Pallas! Nissos!” Sarion broke into a broad grin as he saw his friends had just M-fanned behind the charred panels on each side of the bridge. “Thank the stars you are alive!”
Eikhus floated down. “Thank Nephil Stratum. She anticipated their … ejections, and we were ready with spacesuits the nanosecond Gary pushed them out the airlocks.”
Spud had knelt next to Gary’s lifeless body. “You did not fire,” he said to Eikhus. “What happened to him?”
“Nephil Stratum has learned many things since we last talked.” Eikhus nodded out the windscreen, where we glimpsed wisps of Nephil Stratum’s tendrils floating around our ship. “With her talents at shadowing communications.”
Setsei M-fanned into the bridge and drew out his Geryon.
Eikhus continued, “Nephil Stratum was able to observe Gary removing his E-shield to escape. And that gave us the cue to get in.”
“If the E-shield was down, then why didn’t he make it out?” I asked, equally curious. “Why is he, uh, dead?”
Nephil Stratum M-fanned on the bridge. “Same reason as the first time. Not enough momentum to push through.”
“Through what?” I asked. “A second E-shield?”
“Through the portal,” Spud explained softly.
“This system apparently has several,” Eikhus nodded. “I’ll bet we’ll see that the radiation belt around Al Najidxxvi just got quite a bit stronger.”
I whistled. “You mean he was trying to go to another dimension? Here?”
Nephil Stratum nodded. “But he was bounced back by the brane. He thought he’d have enough power in that machine to make the crossing, but … someone,” she turned a light golden blush, “tapped into and drained his energy source, and he didn’t get very far.” We looked at the shattered remains of what had been the shoebox scattered along the floor.
“Nephil Stratum,” I cheered, “I could hug you!” I stopped. “Wait a minute. You said like the ‘first time’? What first time?”
Eikhus nodded at Setsei, who walked over and pierced Gary’s skin with his Geryon. An astounding transformation occurred. Gary’s skin, in its deathly pallor, slowly dissolved, and a charred body appeared in its place underneath. With a ringing tinkle, Gary’s gold ring, now too big for his burnt finger, rolled off his hand and came to rest on the floor near my feet.
Spud smacked his forehead. “Of course. What an ass I have been!”
Matshi chuckled. “Yeah.”
Spud glared at him for a second and then continued to me, “At Roswell, we saw Gary, remember?”
“Yes,” I said, puzzled. “He turned towards the woods and we saw his face.”
“That was very clever of Benedict, I must say,” Spud responded with a tone of admiration.
“That was Benedict? But the face we saw was Gary’s.”
Nephil Stratum interrupted. “Gary was the unlucky traveler who made that test run and burned to a crisp.”
“Benedict Ergaled to look like Gary at Roswell--a brilliant move on his part,” Spud acknowledged. “He may even have muted down to his DNA. By pretending to be Gary for a few weeks, Benedict could cover for their failure without raising suspicion, and buy time to get Gary anastasized.”
Eikhus nodded. “I agree.” He turned to us. “But His Highness would never have approved anastasis through Nejinsen Medical Center after a capital crime.” He ran a finger across his neck. “Looks like Benedict took Gary outside of Zygfed to get it done.”
Nephil Stratum looked down at the burnt corpse, and tsk’
ed. “M81 anastasis techniques do still have a few bugs.”
Shaking my head, I bent down and picked up Gary’s ring. “Crossing to another dimension. I never figured our Gary for the type to take those kind of risks,” I said, my voice cracking.
Nephil Stratum placed a comforting tuft on my shoulders, cooling my burned skin. “There is always another dimension to those we think we know.”
I nodded and relaxed into her arms, letting my tears flow.
Chapter 16
Orion, for real this time
We placed Gary’s charred body, wrapped in a protective latex shroud, on the Nautilus’ autopodxxvii and launched it on course for Zyga. Eikhus instructed the autopod’s nav to take the body to Aheya, just in case Nejinsen’s medics wanted to do a post-mortem study of the anastasis work of their M81 colleagues.
Seeing as we’d lost our ship, Spud and I decided to keep Gary’s for the trip to Orion. Lykkos had the power grid up and working in no time, and Setsei and Suthsi’s Geryons helped to regenerate bridge equipment and repair the fire damage within hours. Nephil Stratum used her polyhedron to locate where Gary had secreted our vanished Ergals, and we were each soon re-united with our most valuable tool and weapon. Unfortunately, none of us had any luck in putting back together Gary’s shoebox. The pieces had shattered and burned in the fire. What was left formed an empty shell that had no discernible internal parts we could put in some kind of order.
Luckily, the backdraft radiation from Gary’s ejection had been minimal. Nephil Stratum’s shield hadn’t let Gary get far enough on his journey to create a significant blowback. Scans showed that Al Najid had had only a slight augmentation of radiation belt levels, and our own ship only demonstrated a trivial ring of electrons that was quickly decaying. We would be quite safe with simply the ship’s shielding for at least a week. But even that small amount of blowback energy had unfortunately been fatal to Gary’s anastasized cells. Pity he hadn’t realized that another effort to cross into a different dimension would be deadly after his M81 anastasis.
I caught my reflection in the nav panel, and was surprised to see a few tears bead from my eyes. Gary had been my first real mentor. I would miss the man I thought he was.
I remembered that I still had Gary’s ring in my pocket, where I’d stuffed it after picking it up from the floor. I took the gold band out and held it up in my hands. It was smooth, hard, and cold, and surprisingly heavy. I saw my tear-streaked face reflected on its outer surface, and quickly shifted the ring’s angle. My eyes caught some unusual tiny characters etched on the inside. I didn’t recognize the symbols. Even my Ergal could only identify them as resembling letters from an obscure language in a distant sector of M81. Translating them was a task that could keep me, Spud, and our Ergals busy for the next leg of our trip.