Convergence

Chapter Eight

The Bose Network permits passage between its nodes, many light-years apart, in no time at all. Its use frees the beings of the spiral arm from the tyranny of slow-speed travel. Few people realize that it produces a mind-set of its own, in which all “significant” travel must be over interstellar distances.

Thus, Hans Rebka, told by Darya that she was leaving Sentinel Gate, assumed that she would head far-off through interstellar space, perhaps to the remote reaches of the Zardalu Communion, or the most distant territories of the Fourth Alliance. The truth never occurred to him as he stepped, bleary-eyed, weary, and guilty, into the balmy morning air. Inside, Glenna snored her happy head off. (If she had been exhausted last night, he wouldn’t like to meet her when she felt fresh and rested.)

The truth was that Darya was still practically within sight. Using the biggest telescope on Sentinel Gate and the right adaptive optics, Hans could have actually seen her ship.

Darya was heading for Sentinel, the artifact that sat a mere couple of hundred million kilometers from Sentinel Gate. From the planet’s surface it showed as a shining and striated ball, an undersized fixed moon in the evening sky.

She needed evidence to disprove Quintus Bloom’s theories, and no one in the universe knew Sentinel better than Darya. The sight of it had first roused her interest, as a child growing up on Sentinel Gate, in the Builders and their artifacts. Heading for it now was like a return to the simple days of childhood.

Of course, there were differences from the old days. Some of them were hard to ignore. One of them was crouched beside her, staring at the screen where Sentinel filled the field of view ahead. The Hymenopt at Darya’s side was eight-legged, with a chubby barrel-shaped body covered with short black fur. Its small, smooth head bore rings of bright black eyes all around the perimeter. At the other end, the tubby Hymenopt abdomen carried a lethal yellow sting, now safely retracted and out of sight.

There had been nothing remotely like Hymenopts, or any other aliens, in Darya’s childhood. But she did not give this one a second thought. She and Kallik had been through so many difficult and dangerous times together, from Quake to Genizee, that she felt closer to the Hymenopt than to most humans.

And Kallik was smart. She knew as much as Darya about many artifacts in Fourth Alliance territory, and more about everything in the Zardalu Communion. It had been a big surprise to Darya to meet Kallik and the Lo’tfian, J’merlia, at the Sentinel Gate spaceport, but a welcome one. The two little aliens and former slaves were just what she needed: someone to talk to — and someone who wouldn’t deceive and betray you.

Darya turned her thoughts away from that subject, back to the Hymenopt clicking and clucking at her side. Kallik had taken Darya’s own file about Sentinel, along with Darya’s summary of the theories of Quintus Bloom. She had read both at lightning speed, and was beginning to form her own impressions of the artifact ahead as the ship crept closer.

“To recapitulate.” Kallik still clicked a little as she spoke, but her command of human language, to Darya who had mastered not one whistle or chirp of Hymenopt, remained mightily impressive. “The impermeable surface of Sentinel lies at a radius of half a million kilometers from the central structure. On your own most recent visit, what was the fate of any object that sought to penetrate that surface?”

“I was there with an exploring party two years ago. First we took a look from well outside, with ultraviolet lasers. We measured a change in the size of the Pyramid, at the center of Sentinel. It was smaller, eighty-eight kilometers on a side, instead of ninety. As always, the surface was completely transparent to radiation. So we tried a probe. Its radial momentum was exactly reversed in sign as it contacted the visible surface. The probe was traveling at only eight meters per second when it met the surface, but onboard instruments recorded a brief acceleration of one hundred and eighty gee. The probe was unmanned, but anyone on board would have been killed — at least, any human would.”

“Or any Hymenopt.” Kallik whistled to signify humor. “You think we are tough, but there are limits. One hundred and eighty gee, for eight meters a second velocity reversal. If the surface were elastic, the permitted penetration would be only to a depth of a couple of centimeters before it rebounded.”

“That’s correct. The same as the last time we were there.” Darya had grown used to the idea that Kallik had her own built-in mental calculator. “The penetration depth is independent of speed. That’s one of the things I want to try this time. I feel sure that Quintus Bloom is wrong, but if he were right we might expect to see changes to Sentinel.”

“With respect, Professor Lang.” The deferential voice came from the pilot’s chair, to Darya’s right. “If that is the case, then based on evidence to date, Quintus Bloom’s theory has much to recommend it.”

J’merlia had a body as slender as a drainpipe, but as many legs as Kallik. That was more than enough to handle the ship and have plenty left over to work the displays. He brought a new screen on-line in front of Darya.

“Since you mentioned the use of ultraviolet lasers, I took the liberty of employing that same class of device while you were busy in conversation. This is the image returned from the interior of Sentinel. I see several objects, spheres and cylinders and cones. But with respect” — the Lo’tfian turned lemon-colored compound eyes on their short eyestalks toward Darya — “with respect, I see nothing that could fairly be described as a pyramid.”

The bulk of Sentinel lay right ahead of the ship. Darya gazed with disbelief at the screen. The Pyramid had to be there. It was the most interesting object in Sentinel’s interior, the object that some workers had suggested might be a central library for Builder knowledge. Darya knew exactly where it would be with respect to the other objects in the interior. It should be…

“It’s gone. It really has. Quintus Bloom said it might.”

“More than that.” J’merlia’s voice was as gentle as ever, as befitted an ex-slave. “While you and Kallik were busy with your important work, I took the liberty of bringing our ship closer and closer to the surface barrier. Naturally, I did so very slowly, so that we would not be hurt or the ship damaged when the surface repulsed us.”

“You didn’t need to worry about that. All the ships in the Sentinel system have a built-in safeguard that stops them when they approach too close to the repulsive surface.”

“Very wise.” J’merlia nodded. “Except that the system did not stop us — and we are now, according to the inertial navigation system, two kilometers inside the bounding surface. We are inside Sentinel.”

Inside Sentinel, where Darya had so often longed to be! But there was little pleasure in the knowledge. It was more evidence that Quintus Bloom was right, and she was wrong. They might be able to make it all the way to the center, and examine objects that humans had peered at, but could not touch, for every year since Sentinel had been discovered.

But after that it would be back to Sentinel Gate, with her tail between her legs, back to grovel before Quintus Bloom and admit that everything was changing, that his ideas had a lot more validity than hers. (Except, dammit, that she didn’t believe it.)

“And we are fortunate to be here to witness this also.” J’merlia was talking again, more to the Hymenopt than to Darya. “You were quite right, Kallik, and it is good that we did not ask questions. He knew this, when he told us to find Professor Lang and go wherever she chose to go. He knew that there would be revelations, which we would return to report.”

The light came on inside Darya’s head. She had been set up for this. “You mean Quintus Bloom told you to come to the spaceport and find me?”

“Certainly not.” Kallik clucked in self-deprecating disapproval. “I did not say it clearly enough to you, but we have never met Quintus Bloom. J’merlia is referring to Captain Hans Rebka. He called and said that we were to protect you, and bring you back safely to Sentinel Gate.”

“Damn that man. He said to protect me? Well, screw him.”

“Indeed?” J’merlia inclined his head politely, and gestured a forelimb at the control board. “Do you wish to proceed farther toward the interior? Or would you rather we return to Sentinel Gate?”

“No! I’m not going back to that bloody planet. Let’s get out of here.”

J’merlia’s eyes rolled on their eyestalks. “With respect, but to where? I cannot navigate, unless I am given a destination.”

Darya leaned back in her chair. It was obvious what she had to do. Quintus Bloom would always have his ace in the hole, his private artifact — until Darya went there and examined it for herself.

“Find a set of Bose transitions to take us to Jerome’s World.” Darya silently cursed all men, but Hans Rebka and Quintus Bloom in particular. “We’re going to take a look at Labyrinth.”