Entoverse

CHAPTER SIXTY

Shingen-Hu refused to let himself be demoralized again. The higher gods had told him that he was to be their chosen instrument, and he had seen their power. Therefore the sudden cessation of the demonstration was a sign to him. It meant something. They had placed their emissaries in his charge, he had decided as the procession wound its way through the hills surrounding Rakashym, and left them stripped of their protection. All the time, the emissaries had remained quiet and subdued, obviously leaving Shingen-Hu to work the interpretation out for himself. It could only mean that the gods were entrusting to him the task of saving them. It was a test of his faith and worthiness.

Having satisfied himself of that much, he maneuvered himself into one of the corners of the cart below the two guards who were riding up front, and out of their line of vision. Then, under cover of the other bodies packed around him, he slipped from his robe one of the pieces of mobilium from the dignitaries’ carnage that he had picked up and concealed when they were back in the village square. He laid the sliver along one of his fingers and, concentrating his powers, slowly passed his finger through one of the links of the chain shackling his hands. The mobilium following behind his finger repelled the material, preventing it from rejoining behind, and the chain fell apart. He nudged Thrax, indicated what he had done, and passed him the other piece of mobilium. Thrax loosened his own chains, then worked his way across to the far side of the cart. By the time the cart had covered another mile, they had freed all five of the captives whom the gods had entrusted to them.

The train rounded a sharp bend at a point where the trail began descending, and there Shingen-Hu saw the opportunity that the gods had prepared for him. On one side, a steep gully rose into the rocks above the trail, its course littered with many loose and precarious boulders. On the other side, just past the bend where the gully spilled out onto the trail, there was a deep gorge with a stream at the bottom, and across it a cliff of crumbling, red-brown gritstone, its face patchy and veined with crystal of various colors.

Shingen-Hu waited until the cart carrying the prisoners had passed the gully, at which point the supply wagon and main body of the escorting soldiers following behind were obscured momentarily by the bend. Straightening up suddenly, he pointed at the gully with the extended fingers of both hands, singling out a large boulder that had acted as a dam and accumulated a mound of smaller debris fallen from higher up. The rock moved. Shingen-Hu sent a bolt of focused power, which he felt augmented by Thrax, concentrating beside him, and moments later a miniature avalanche came rumbling and tumbling down the gorge, sealing off the trail behind.

Ahead, the cart that the dignitaries were traveling in-commandeered from the villagers to replace the carriage-had come to a stop on a narrow stretch where the trail passed between two rock walls. As the occupants came spilling out in consternation, they blocked the way of the soldiers from the front, who were trying to get back.

Shingen-Hu marveled at how perfectly the gods had prepared the moment.

Casting his powers forward, he materialized a curtain of thick, black smoke to add to their confusion. Now the train was blocked both to the rear and to the fore, and the way open for escape lay off to the side, across the gorge. Again combining his power with Thrax’s, he walked out on a jutting rock that the gods had provided. There he paused until he felt a current surging, gathered his effort, and then stepped forth confidently to feel himself carried across to a narrow ledge near the cliff base, a short distance above the water. Thrax moved onto the jutting rock, marshaling the emissaries. Shingen-Hu could see that, just as he had expected, they were giving Thrax no assistance, but were acting like helpless novices to let him meet his test on his own merits.

“Walk forward over the bridge,” he called, beckoning for them to follow.

“What bloody bridge?” the emissary who was called Hunt shouted back.

“The bridge that faith shall build for ye. Trust my word, and my power shall carry thee safe.”

Hunt shrugged and stepped off the rock, and Shingen-Hu felt a wave of exhilaration as he bore the emissary over. Next came the redheaded female, followed by the ring-eyed Father of Gods, who had arrived in the spinning temple of beasts. By that time the ledge was crowded, and Thrax was left on the other side with the short-skirted female and the long-headed giant.

“Now we must climb,” Shingen-Hu exhorted. His power would never lift five of them to the top. The test would be to get them there, he was certain. What was to happen after that would then be revealed. So saying, he began moving smoothly and surely up the face, making use of frictite veins to afford a grip where there was no convenient hold, and avoiding the protrusions of green anchorite and black catchstone, as any youngster would know how to do.

But he had barely ascended halfway when a cry from below halted him. “What in God’s name is this confounded stuff? I can’t move.”

Shingen-Hu leaned outward and peered back down. The Father of Gods was stuck to a knob of anchorite and gesticulating frantically. Hunt began traversing toward him but became entangled with a growth of clingweed hanging from a crevice, while the redheaded female below them was scrabbling futilely at a block of lubrite, which contained grains of mobilium and was unclimbable. They were acting like children to try him, Shingen-Hu realized. The test was not over yet.

Meanwhile, priests and soldiers were appearing from the confusion on the other side of the gorge. “Thrax, thou must cross over now and assist,” Shingen-Hu called down. From his stance above he helped Thrax across the gorge, then turned and resumed climbing.

But as he reached the top, Thrax’s voice came up from below. “‘Tis beyond all hope, Master. They are as fish stranded in mud.”

Shingen-Hu looked back across the gorge. The soldiers had reached the jutting rock and were dragging back the female and the long-headed one who had been left. “Then save thyself, Thrax,” he called back down. “Nothing can be gained by thy sacrifice.”

Thrax joined him at the top of the cliff minutes later. By that time the long-headed one and the short-skirted female had been led away, and soldiers had descended to the stream and were wading across. On the trail above the soldiers, the priests had assembled around the Examiner and were directing a paralyzing influence across at the three emissaries stranded below. Shingen-Hu looked on dejectedly. He had failed.

Movement higher up above caught his eye. A flock of vultures was circling above the trail, right over the spot where the priests were gathered. Raising his arm, he pointed at them, his eyes glinting malevolently. Seized by a sudden compulsion, the birds voided their contents upon the priests from on high. Shingen-Hu and Thrax turned and walked sadly away.

In the Shapieron, orbiting high over Jevlen, Eesyan was explaining over the connection from Thurien what would be involved in restoring VISAR’s connection to JEVEX.

“The line out from the club connected into the regular Jevlenese planetary communications net,” he said from one of the large screens overlooking the command deck. “The activation codes that were fed in triggered an i-link termination node somewhere, which was programmed with the operating parameters to access JEVEX. To restore the connection we need to do two things: first, find an entry point into the planetary net that bypasses the normal security checks; and second, input the same activation codes to it that Keshen entered from the club.”

“So that would trigger the same i-space terminal to connect to Uttan,” Hunt said. He was standing with Danchekker and Keshen beside the Ganymeans, Leyel Torres and Rodgar Jassilane. “We wouldn’t need to know where the node is located or what it is, or exactly how it functions?”

“That’s right,” Keshen confirmed.

“But I thought all the links were shut down,” Jassilane said. “Isn’t that what disconnected you in the first place?”

“Yes,” Eesyan agreed. “Apart from one that they’ve probably got open to their people inside PAC-but that would be inaccessible to us, anyway. But in order to stage his invasion from Uttan, Eubeleus will have to open JEVEX to access from Jevlen-based trunk nodes again. What we’re saying is that when he does, VISAR will have been routed through to one of them.”

Jassilane looked inquiringly at Keshen.

The Jevlenese nodded. “If we can get back into the net,” he confirmed.

Gina watched with Nixie, Fendro, and Murray, over on one side. There was nothing she could contribute, and tossing in questions that could just as well be answered later would only delay things. Nixie, Fendro, and Murray were still too awed at the interior of the starship to have much thought about anything else, anyway.

“And I think there’s a way we might be able to do it,” Keshen said. He looked around quickly. “Through one of the redirector satellites that were left functioning. There are about thirty of them. They’re part of the regular net, unmanned, and a long way out.” The others were listening intently. He spread his hands and went on. “If we could get to one of them and find a way inside it, I think I could break into one of the primary circuits. That would bypass the protection. The network itself would take care of finding a route to wherever the access code indicates. We don’t have to know where it points.”

“Do you know the codes?” Eesyan asked. He sounded dubious, as if he found the thought unlikely.

Keshen looked surprised. “But I assumed VISAR had the codes,” he replied. “VISAR was connected when I entered them at the club. Isn’t it true?”

“They were stored in local memory,” VISAR said. “They got lost when I was cut off.”

Eubeleus paced agitatedly to and fro across the floor of the main control center deep beneath the surface of Uttan. The latest report from Jevlen was that the Shapieron had lifted out from the planet and was riding in orbit. It was the Shapieron that had slipped in close under the planet’s defensive guard during the Pseudowar and intercepted a communications beam to let VISAR into JEVEX. All his instincts told him that the Terrans were going to try the same thing again. He should have felt completely confident, he knew, for this time he had foreseen their plan; but he found himself unable to shake off an oppressive nervousness, which he traced back to the knowledge that Hunt and Danchekker were involved. It meant that anything could happen: especially something that nobody else had thought of.

“How close to completion is the final integration sequence?” he asked the operators clustered around the supervisory console.

“It’s practically complete now,” Iduane answered.

“Good. Run a double check on all communications input channels. I want to be absolutely sure that no illicit accesses are being tried anywhere. Assign it a class-one priority.”

“Understood.”

“What is the Shapieron doing?” Eubeleus asked another operator, who was monitoring the tracking data being relayed via PAC from the Jevlenese surveillance system.

“Still holding LJO. No new developments.”

Eubeleus stopped, stared at the screen showing Langerif and his officers in the PAC communications room, then turned away and started pacing again. “I don’t like it,” he muttered. “I don’t trust that ship.”

“It’s not doing anything,” Iduane pointed out. “And what can it do? Our surveillance will be following it from Jevlen every inch of the way, wherever it goes.”

“It’s not safe so long as it’s anywhere in the vicinity of Jevlen,” Eubeleus said. “I’m not proceeding further until we get rid of it.”

“Get rid of it?” Iduane looked perplexed. “How? Jevlen doesn’t have any strategic defenses.”

“There must be some way of-” Eubeleus stopped and looked over at the screen showing Langerif again. “Wait. We’ve still got their illustrious commander, haven’t we?” he said, moving back across. “The leader who brought them back after all those years. They wouldn’t want anything to happen to him, now, would they?” He nodded, satisfied. “And you’ve got some others there that we can use as hostages, isn’t that right? Who are they?”

“Two scientists, who work with Hunt and Danchekker,” Langerif replied. “Also the Terran who was in charge of security here.”

Eubeleus looked gratified. “Perfect! Get a laser link to whoever is in command of the Shapieron and have those three brought up to where you are, right away. We’ll have that ship out of harm’s way within an hour.” He looked across at Iduane. “Suspend all further action concerning the Awakening for the time being,” he ordered.

Iduane nodded but didn’t look happy about it. “What about the Prophet? He’s still there with all the people, waiting for you to take over.”

Eubeleus waved a hand impatiently. “Oh… go back and tell them to sing a few more hymns or something,” he replied.

Duncan and Sandy were sitting together among the group of security guards, Ganymeans, and other captives inside PAC.

“How’s that for a bummer?” Duncan said. “We come all this way, to a new city and a totally different culture, and we end up like this.”

“We never even got to see the town,” Sandy agreed dismally.

Duncan looked idly around at the others sitting around the room, not saying much, waiting. “What do you like to do when you get to go out?” he asked.

“Go out? What’s that? I work for Chris Danchekker, remember? A vacation is eating lunch that didn’t come out of a paper bag.”

“Guys like that ought to get married,” Duncan said.

“Maybe he did, years ago, and forgot all about it. I’ve seen him show up at the lab in odd shoes.”

“How about San Francisco?” Duncan said. “Ever get out that way? Fisherman’s Wharf, Enrico’s Coffee House? Do you know, I reckon that if they handed this city over to the people who run Chinatown in S.F., they’d have the place up and running in a month without ever needing JEVEX.”

Sandy stretched and thought about it. “I think I’ll take the south,” she said. “New Orleans, some places out along Texas. Maybe I’m just cut out for the slow, lazy life.”

“Tell you what,” Duncan said. “When we get back after this, we’ll go off on a tour and see all of it. Thinking back, I’d say I’ve spent too much of my time shut up in labs, too. Vic’s always saying, Why change your job? It’s just more of the same. Change your life. What do you think? Does that sound good?”

Sandy looked at him sideways. “Are your intentions strictly honorable, Mr. Watt?”

“Absolutely not.”

“It’s a deal.”

Some police came into the room and started talking to the ones who had been standing guard. The newcomers seemed excited, with a lot of waving and gesticulating. The captives watched and waited with mixed reactions. While it was going on, Del Cullen moved over to where Sandy and Duncan were sitting. “Looks like the war’s not over yet,” he murmured.

“Why? What’s happening?” Duncan asked.

“I only caught pieces of it, but it sounds like something’s just come down through the roof of the city. I think one of them said it was the Shapieron.”

Sandy looked aghast. “You mean it crashed?”

“Hell, no. It took off again… But there’s still something going on out there. The others are up to something.”

Then the police who had entered came over and pointed to the three of them. The guards motioned for them to get up and follow. In the background, Koberg and Lebansky started objecting, but held back when other guards lowered their weapons threateningly. Cullen shrugged. “I guess we don’t have a lot of choice,” he said. The prisoners left, accompanied by the escort that had been sent for them.

They were taken up to the communications room, where Garuth was standing with Langerif and a group of other Jevlenese in front of a screen showing Eubeleus. On another screen they saw Hunt, Danchekker, and a mixed group of others in brightly lit surroundings of display consoles and control stations, which Duncan guessed to be the inside of the Shapieron.

“It’s them!” he exclaimed. “They got out! They’re-”

“Quiet!” Langerif snapped.

On the other screen, Eubeleus was speaking. “We do indeed have all of them as you can see for yourselves. I’m not in a mood to make long speeches. The implications are too obvious to require spelling out. My instructions are that-”

“Don’t listen,” Garuth broke in. “Do whatever-”

“Remove him,” Langerif ordered. Two armed guards ushered Garuth away, out of range of the screen.

Eubeleus resumed. “You will take your ship away from Jevlen immediately at maximum speed, and out of Athena’s planetary system completely. The Thuriens will project a toroid to remove it from this region.” He raised a hand, seeing the protest start to form on Torres’s face. “There is nothing to negotiate. You will commence at once.” Sandy was ebullient at seeing that the others were safe, and for the moment she wasn’t worried about what would happen next. Gina, standing in the forefront of the group behind Torres, was looking especially crestfallen. “Don’t worry, Gina,” Sandy called, as if she could direct the words only at her. “Things will work out. Maybe it’s all just happening in our heads.” A private joke. Gina caught it and smiled back.

“Glad you made it, chief,” Duncan called out from beside Sandy. Hunt acknowledged with a nod and a faint grin.

Eubeleus paled with anger. “Take them all away!” he shouted. “They’ve served their purpose. The Ganymeans know we have them.” He looked back at the view of Torres. “Don’t let their frivolity mislead you, Captain. Take your ship outward immediately. Otherwise, I don’t have to tell you what will become of your precious friends there.”

Torres could only nod numbly. But behind him, Danchekker’s face had taken on the enraptured expression of somebody who had just seen a light, as if he had only just realized something that should have been obvious long before.