Skanse
Aerie :
Gliese
System :
“There’s no way,”
General Gates said when Alex and Justine approached him and explained what Red
Spot had told them.
The two found the general in the Gliesan councilor’s suite.
Michael and Yoatl were also there.
The general’s face grew a deep shade of crimson as he spoke.
“Not only are we already so far beyond my mandate that I’m probably going to be
court-martialed when we get back home—if I’m lucky—but even if I had any
inclination to follow through on this mission now—which would be sure sign I’ve
had some kind of psychotic breakdown—I can’t imagine the Council of Sentinels
would go on what’s tantamount to a suicide mission.” He took a deep breath when
he finished his rant, his eyes flicking back and forth between the two.
“It’s not a suicide mission,” Justine said, but her next
words were cut off when the general raised a forestalling hand.
“First you tell me that, no matter what we do, the Kulsat
won’t surrender. Then you say there is some kind of secret method to stop the
Kulsat—by saving them!” He shook his head in disbelief. “But the only one who
knows how is one of the Kulsat prisoners, who won’t tell us how unless we bring
her with us.” Giving Justine an exasperated look, he asked, “And you don’t find
anything suspicious about that?”
After the general gave Councilor Ijallanna a pleading look,
the tall Gliesan ruffled his dark-gray neck feathers and said, “Officially, our
government has no say in whether you undertake this action—Sentinel business is
not in our purview. However, if the Sentinels are on board with this, I’m
certain I can convince our security council to hand custody of our Kulsat
guests to you, General Gates. After all, we have taken precautions against
giving them access to any vital information on our system.”
At the general’s incredulous look, the councilor said,
“Perhaps we should invite the Sentinels into this discussion.” He strode to his
computer console and spoke a few commands into it.
Within moments, the monitor flared to life. Ah Tabai stood
in the frame, with Aliah, Naila, and Fairamai in the background.
“Councilor Ijallanna,” Ah Tabai said. “I was just about to
let you and the others know. Word has come back from the Sentinel Council.
Every available Sentinel will be ready to go to Kulsat System within six
hours.”
“There seems to be a significant hitch in the plan, Sentinel
Ah Tabai. I will let the Grace explain.”
Alex took a step closer to the monitor and said, “We have
information that the incursion may not convince the Kulsat Risen to surrender.
Red Spot indicates that they are so power-mad, they will most likely fight to
the death. There’s an alternative, but we don’t have all the facts. Instead of
an offensive, we require the Sentinels to provide a distraction. We need to
bait all Risen in the galaxy to return to Kulsat, at which point Red Spot will
reveal how to stop them permanently. She won’t tell us how until we are in the
system, however.”
Ah Tabai frowned. “Do you believe she’s telling the truth?”
Alex, shooting a quick look at Justine, who nodded, said,
“It might be our only option.”
Taking a moment to confer with the three other Sentinels, Ah
Tabai returned to the screen. “We’ll need to get confirmation from the Council,
but we all follow the law of the Grace. I see no reason not to follow you, Your
Grace.”
The general let out a deep sigh. Justine and Alex looked at
him.
He gave a terse shake of his head. “I must be as crazy as
the rest of you.” Addressing the Councilor, he asked, “Is there any way your people
can assist us in building a grapple to secure the Kulsat’s shuttle to our ship?”
∞
Five hours later, Alex stood on the bridge of the
Liberty
,
along with the general and his staff as they went through a final systems
check. They, and the twenty-thousand sentinel ships, were in formation around
the Gliesan star beacon.
Red Spot and the ninety other Kulsat were already aboard their
shuttle, which was firmly secured to the
Liberty
with an electromagnetic
grapple. A direct communications line was set up between the shuttle and Alex’s
station on the bridge. When he’d reminded Red Spot about a quantum pilot’s
limitation of how many beings they could quantize, the Kulsat leader had
assured Alex that they were all more than willing to take that chance.
While Michael stayed on Aerie Skanse—he did not have any
practical experience either as a Kinemat or as a pilot—Justine had insisted on
doing her part.
“I’ve been training for this all my life,” she’d said. “I’ve
studied the Sentinel ships. I can fly one. You need every able body.” When the general
and the Council of Sentinels approved her participation, Justine hadn’t been
able to hide the elation from her face. Alex knew, from previous conversations,
she’d never believed she would ever pilot a spacecraft again, and—he kept the
dark thought to himself—this might be the last time she ever did.
Though they’d gone over the plan several times, the general reiterated
it for both Alex’s and Red Spot’s benefit. “We’ll go through the star beacon
into Kulsat space last. Once we arrive, we won’t directly engage the Kulsat. We’ll
get out of the thick of the battle, and hang back until we’re certain the bulk
of the Kulsat Risen ships have returned to the system.
“Alex, you will nullify the quantum drive of any enemy ship that
comes close to us, and we’ll retreat out of their line of fire. Once the bulk
of the Kulsat armada is in the system, and Red Spot lets you know whatever it
is you’re supposed to do to save the Kulsat, you do it. Then we’ll get the hell
out of there.” He shook his head in bewilderment as if he couldn’t believe he
was going along with the plan.
A moment later, he continued, his voice taking on a hard
edge. “Red Spot, I expect you to hold up your end of the bargain.”
A mechanical voice came through the bridge speakers. “I do
not practice deception,” Red Spot said. “Expect several waves of Kulsat. The
Sentinels will meet their initial defense patrol, but they will not provide
much resistance—they will alert our home planet, and then they will exit the
system to call for reinforcements.
“The largest force will come from within the system. The
Sentinels must hold them off for as long as possible to allow those who are
outside the system to return.” According to consensus, that would take anywhere
up to a quarter of an hour.
The problem would come when the off-system Kulsat ships returned.
The Sentinels would be trapped between two armadas.
The general asked, “And how long will it take Alex to … do
whatever it is you want him to do?”
“It will not take long,” Red Spot’s translated voice said
through the speakers. “Before Alex saves us, you must ensure you have released
our shuttle, and all non-Kulsat have exited the system. Only then will I share
the knowledge with you.”
Alex could hear a very low growl come from the general, and
though he could sympathize with the sentiment, he trusted in Justine’s judgment.
Red Spot had risked everything to save her—an alien—and had given no indication
that she would betray them.
“How long until the operation begins, General?” Alex asked,
more to distract the officer than anything else.
The general was in constant contact with the Sentinel
squadron commanders through his upgraded communications console. There were five-hundred
squadrons in total. From the instant the first wave of Sentinel ships went through
to the last wave, it would take nearly a quarter of an hour. The
Liberty
,
with Alex as the quantum pilot, would launch a minute later. The entire time,
the Sentinels would be under heavy fire. Alex didn’t want to think about the
potential casualties.
“If I read these monitors correctly,” the general said,
scanning the screens, “the first wave will quantize in thirty minutes.”
“Which squadron is Justine in?”
“The last,” the general said. “She told me she plans on
joining the Sentinels once this is all over. For some reason, flying billions
of kilometers through the vast blankness of space is more appealing to her than
a cushy political assignment.”
A moment later, he said, “I’m getting an alert on the
screens.”
“What is it?”
The general raised his head and gave Alex a hard look. “The
Sentinels have a tracking sensor aimed at Sol System’s star beacon. They say it’s
activating. The Kulsat are invading us right now.”
A cold bead of sweat rolled down Alex’s spine. “How many of
them?”
“No idea. Could be hundreds, for all I know. The Sentinel
commander is giving the word to launch against Kulsat now. He hopes the Kulsat
patrol will send out the alert to their armada to return before they get too
far into our system to turn back in time.”
The general asked, “Are you ready for this? The first wave
is engaging … now. We’re up in about fifteen minutes.”
“That’s too long,” Alex said.
“What?”
“We need to get to Sol System right now.” Alex wasn’t about
to stand around and wait while an armada of genocidal Kulsat Risen were on
their way to Earth. He knew, even if their leaders sent a messenger to recall
them, they would be too far into the system to turn around. Earth was wide open
to their attack.
Before the general could say another word of protest, Alex
quantized all the passengers on the
Liberty
, and all the Kulsat on the
mining shuttle.
A moment later, he quantized the ship itself, and headed for
the Gliesan star beacon, setting a course for
Dis Pater.
The instant before he reached the star beacon, he was still
in photonic space—an elemental being within the physical universe.
The next instant…
Unknown
:
Welcome home,
Alex.
It was the haunting voice that had been calling to him for
nearly two decades, and he struggled to understand it.
Though he’d been in a photonic state a number of times,
before the tragic experiment on Qin Station that had completed his
transformation, he’d never been ‘aware’ while quantized.
Since Qin Station, he’d initiated the change in himself
several times—and marveled in the awareness he had while in that state of
being.
He’d never traveled using the star beacons as the quantum
pilot, however. Both times, from Sol to Centauri, and then from Centauri to
Gliese, Ah Tabai had been in control. When another Kinemat quantized someone, it
was the only time that being would not retain awareness in the photonic state.
Alex wasn’t sure what he had expected. Indeed, his thoughts
had been so preoccupied with getting to Sol System that he hadn’t fully
anticipated what would happen. After all, everything the other Kinemats had
told him was that, once they reached the star beacon, there was no
consciousness during transit to the destination until after they arrived in the
new system.
As far as anyone knew, the journey between beacons was
instantaneous.
Now, Alex knew different.
For him, the journey was simultaneously immediate, and of an
infinite duration.
Though the physical universe contained vast stretches of emptiness,
there was always a faint signature of electromagnetic radiation in all parts of
space, however immeasurable it was to technological sensors.
The star beacons were not portals to another dimension, as
Alice Yin had theorized.
Alex recalled the description Ah Tabai had given him before:
“Outside light, the star beacons occupy the same space.” Without proper perspective,
that was the only rational explanation for how the star beacons existed.
His mind struggled to understand the reality, and it seemed
to take eons for him to realize the truth.
The star beacons did not occupy the same space, because the
place it touched did not have light, or space, or time.
The monumental artifact they called
Dis Pater
was
nothing more than a physical construct, built with altered Kinemet, surrounding
the star beacon.
The star beacon was an anomaly—something of a fracture in
the fabric of the universe. It was the absence of the universe.
Somehow, Alex guessed, the Xtôti had not been content to
travel throughout the galaxy at the speed of light. After all, it would take
over fifty-thousand years to get from one edge of the Milky Way to the other.
The physicists at Quantum Resources had theorized that there were countless
ways to prime Kinemet, and create powerful results from the alteration.
The Grace had experimented with this a million years ago.
Instinctively, he realized that one of these experiments had caused their sun
to supernova. Dimly, he wondered if that reaction had caused their
metamorphosis from Kinemats to the Grace…
Was it possible the Xtôti, like Alex, had no idea how they’d
evolved past Kinemats and become the Grace? If they had, they would have
created more Grace and not have died out. They would have continued expanding
throughout the Milky Way and, possibly, ventured to neighboring galaxies.
Was Alex, truly, the last of the Grace?
If so, it was up to him to rediscover the process and
repopulate the galaxy with more Grace. But how? Was there some kind of
similarity between that and what had happened to Alex on Macklin’s Rock?
He recalled that the first readout from the security
receptacle had indicated something was coming at them at light speeds. Could
that cosmic event have, indeed, happened at the same time his parents had
drilled into the asteroid and exposed the deposit of raw Kinemet? Whatever had
happened, it must have had something to do with the Sun itself, Alex guessed.
Perhaps it had been the same kind of unexpected solar event during an
experiment that had inadvertently caused the supernova of Xtôti’s sun.
If the Grace had never figured it out, then how was Alex
going to?
The thought came to him then: even if he could figure out
how to raise someone to the state of Grace, should he? Perhaps the galaxy wasn’t
ready for that. Maybe there were some secrets that should be kept a mystery.
But he would have to think about it another time. After all,
according to what Justine had told him, he might have an abundance of that
commodity to meditate on the topic.
Right now, he needed to understand the nature of that
null-space between star beacons.
The story Justine had related to him on the history of the
Grace indicated that it was after the Xtôti sun’s supernova that they’d begun
their outward expansion through the galaxy, creating the system of star beacons
to connect individual solar systems.
As Grace, they’d figured out how to tear holes in the
universe, and ‘sew’ the tears back together with ‘threads’ of altered Kinemet—which
were metaphysically connected to each other, as if in a state of quantum
superposition.
Traveling through the star beacons was, in actuality,
traveling through rips in the universe.
The monuments themselves were incredible feats of advanced technology
designed to monitor and house the ‘threads’. They also had the power to shield
the location of the star beacons for populated solar systems.
Kinemet was a quantum element. Using it and entering the
photonic state, Alex was aware of others who were also in that state, and could
sense the Kinemet in quantum drives.
He imagined, if he tried, he could also sense raw deposits
of Kinemet. In a way, all Kinemet throughout the universe was connected,
entangled on a metaphysical level. And the hub of those connections was in that
tear in the universe; it was the center of everything.
At the same time, that existence between star beacons was
the purest state of Kinemet. Alex, and all those who had achieved the state of
Grace, was a creature of that element. It was fundamental to their DNA. It was
such a powerful concentration of pure Kinemet, it was the closest thing to ‘home’
there could be for someone like Alex.
Aside from those who’d died by mishap, this is where the
majority of the Grace had gone. A million years of life was more than enough
time for any sentient being to exist. Alex couldn’t imagine it. One-by-one,
they must have made a decision to take that final voyage to the null-space
outside the universe, and remain there.
Instinctively, Alex knew he could stay in that place between
star beacons for eternity, and be perfectly content for the rest of his
metaphysical existence. It
was
home.
But … there was something more important for him to do than
remaining there, and his conscience would not let him stay.
Sol System was in danger.
He was the only one who could save it.