The Starfighter Invitation

41 keymaster

"Okay, I have no clue what to do here."

"Same."

For the final stage of the gauntlet series we had emerged via stairs into the centre of a circular park. The pool at the top of the series of waterfalls formed a crescent, and a smooth wall curved around to meet the pool, without any of the rougher edges of the crevice accessible. The space between was filled with grass. After a good half hour of exploring, we had found no blasters, no symbols, and no obvious exits.

"But we have our clue," Arlen pointed out to Silent and Nova. "It is just that we do not understand it yet."

"Perhaps there’s an extra hint in the whole sequence," Nova said.

"You mean the first letter of each or something?" Silent said, and shared our notes of the clues from the whole gauntlet series.

"Can’t see any clear letter code," he said. "Word puzzles would be complex to pull off, given the number of languages this game supports."

"Nothing obvious in Japanese," Nova added. "If we’re following the pattern, then this section requires us to Follow the Thread. Although, since this is the last stage, perhaps we should combine them: Follow the Thread, To Find the Core of All You Are."

"Probably a reference to lan," I said. "Core Units, etcetera."

"And lan is spirit or soul," Silent said. "Though following a thread suggests a maze or minotaur, which doesn’t match. Never seen any space less maze-like in my life."

"Under the water, is it possible?" Arlen suggested. "Water is life?"

We made a speculative tour along the rim of the large crescent-shaped pool. The surface was deceptively smooth, but there was clearly a lot of movement given the roaring of water falling at the lip.

"Let’s sit on the edge and rest while we think," I said. "We’re just tiring ourselves out, wandering around shields up."

Despite our frustrations, I maintained a good mood. My round trip to Ka Bol Ka Fan had been spectacularly self-indulgent, but a crowded system and many-mooned primary planet had fulfilled my dearest wishes for space-views. Even my brief wander through the accessible sections of the Orafa had given me much fuel for future plans. I mightn’t be ranking as quickly as I’d like, but I had had a right-place-right-time bit of good fortune that was a balm to envy, even if it couldn’t bring balance to wildly disparate lan strength. I was starting to grow concerned about losing my bet with Dio, though. Not that anything was currently trying to kill us, but there didn’t seem to be a clear path forward.

"If anyone’s watching the stream of our Challenge, they’re going to be very bored," Silent remarked—a fortunate reminder, since I’d been on the verge of deactivating my focus.

Pulling my boots off instead, I probed the water with my feet. "Deep, and the current’s strong," I said.

I carefully didn’t look too long at Nova, who sat cross-legged and apparently relaxed on the edge, but would certainly not be keen on a Challenge that required swimming lessons. She was otherwise her usual self, reverting to the teen magical girl look, and revealing no sign of tension or particular awareness of Silent. But I supposed TALiSON hadn’t necessarily been wrong: I was bad at picking up on that kind of thing.

"Too deep to go paddling, and I’m not sure I’d care to risk swimming," Silent added. "Let’s leave it as a last resort."

"If it’s not in the outer wall, perhaps there’s something concealed in the grass," Nova said.

We surveyed the park without enthusiasm. It might not be nearly so large as the lower terraces, but it was still a formidable space. Going over it in minute detail would stretch our endurance. But we couldn’t risk not keeping at least one shield up.

"Start at the centre stairs, spiral out?" Silent suggested. "Two groups?"

Unheatedly discussing whether multiple groups would end up covering the exact same ground or not, we returned to the entry stair, and divided into two, but before we could begin our examination of the grass, Imoenne pointed to the pearly rim of stone surrounding the stair and said: "Stitches?"

She had indicated a line of tiny holes—each no greater diameter than a knitting needle—that ran around the entire outer rim of the pale stone stairwell. This, too, was a circle, and vaguely resembled a yin yang symbol, with the void of the top of the stair forming a misshapen yang.

"Stitches with the thread unpicked?" Nova said, dubious.

"Maybe it’s an example," I said. "And there’s some intact stitches somewhere, with a thread we can follow."

"Unless it’s in the grass, or too high for us to see on the outer wall, we didn’t miss anything like this." Nova was firm on the point, but then hesitated, surveying the unobtrusive curving line. "Not that I can see anything to do with these things."

Arlen knelt and ran his hand over the nearest couple. "Too small to make of any use."

"I’ll try dropping a shield over the whole outline," Silent said, and did so to no apparent effect.

Imoenne folded gracefully down to kneel beside the rim of holes, her soft voice barely audible as she said: "But we are to make the thread, are we not?"

A faint whine accompanied her attempt to push a thread of lan into the nearest hole, and I was not the only one who instinctively responded by snapping up an additional shield. Imoenne straightened, abandoning her exploration, but no attack followed.

"I saw it rise," Silent said. "Came up partway, but went back down again without firing."

"One hole, one blaster?" I said, and began to count under my breath.

The rest of my group had come quickly to the same conclusion. "Twenty," Nova said. "Even if they only shoot once, that’s going to tax us."

"Single shots are too much to hope for," Silent added. "This is the final stage, the biggest hurdle, and every hole we activate is going to add to the pounding."

"Three of us on shields, at least," Nova said. "And the other two trying to thread all these holes as quickly as possible. Let’s do a quick comparison of who can sew faster than the rest."

Arlen and I were the fastest, and we divided the circle in two, with the three on shield duty standing between us.

"Don’t stop for anything," Nova advised. "We’re likely to have only one chance at this."

"On the third mark," Arlen said, bouncing lightly. "One. Two…"

"Wait," I said.

Arlen almost fell over, pulling himself back from action, and gave me an aggrieved glance.

"Don’t do one hole at a time," I said. "Make a connecting shape, a long curve, and then go downward into the holes all at the same time. That will make it complete before any of the blasters activate."

"Or just activate them all at once," Nova remarked, then shrugged. "But it seems the logical approach. Might intensify the blast, but shorten how long we have to withstand it."

Arlen considered the wide semi-circle of dots, frowning, and said: "That will be more difficult, but I will attempt it. I do not think I can grow the little points evenly all at once, however."

"But you could create the shape above the holes, and then lower it, yes?" Imoenne said.

The boy’s smile lit up his face. "Yes, indeed! Ah, that is a good plan, because we can do all that is difficult in safety, and it is only a matter of dropping it into place."

"Hold the form after dropping it, in case it has a long activation time," Nova warned, and we nodded and began again.

Creating a curve, and then descending spikes, wasn’t particularly difficult. Making sure they all lined up to such small holes was a good deal harder, and I could hear Arlen occasionally telling himself off in low tones as he corrected and recorrected himself.

"Lower just to touching to make sure they’re all going to fit," I suggested, and then had to correct one of my own. Changing an existing shape was always harder than creating it in the first place, but it helped to think back to my glass-blowing analogy, to melt the tine back into the curve, and then poke a mental hot needle down in just the right spot.

"I think that I am ready," Arlen said, sounding nervous for the first time.

"Okay, if you’ve got it just touching, we’ll push it down as quickly as possible on three," I said. "One…"

"Brace," Nova added, to Imoenne and Silent.

"Two." I took a breath. "Three."

Whirring, all around us. I wanted to bring up my own shield, the nerves along my arms and back crawling with anticipation, but I didn’t dare in case my spike projection faltered.

"Double-check everything’s gone in," I got out, voice high and breathless, just before the blasting began.

Silent gasped, a deep exhalation, as if he’d been punched in the stomach. His shield dropped, and I felt rather than heard him stumble behind me. I didn’t dare look up until I’d confirmed that all my threads had gone in, and then I risked a quick glance about, checking to see if there was a protruding blaster to match each of the holes.

Imoenne lost her shield as Silent resurrected his, and then they both went down, and I could see the chrysanthemum blooms of light on Nova’s, as bright and constant as New Year’s fireworks. She was breathing like a runner, but standing firm as Silent and Imoenne constantly brought up and lost their shields to the barrage. Then came a thunderous thrumming, and it all stopped.

Nova sat down, panting, face streaked with sweat. "Not single-shot."

"What was that noise?" I asked, bringing up a shield because no-one else had replaced Nova’s, and I didn’t trust this game not to produce some last-minute horror movie encore.

"Back wall," Silent said, waving in a vague way toward the sweeping curve.

At first I saw no difference, or at least no black gap to indicate an opening. It took a moment to see the intersecting curve of the walls, hiding the way through.

"So it is done?" Arlen asked. "We have finished?"

"Maybe," I said, drawing the word out, and then recognising an unintended imitation of Dio.

Cautious, we rested and put up a full set of shields before heading for the gap, but there was no further barrage. We walked through a white curving corridor into one final room.

Arlen and Imoenne slapped hands together, and Arlen hummed a little medley of gaming victory tunes.

"Well, we did it," Silent said.

"We did," Nova agreed, and something in the way they looked at each other—even though their faces were still concealed by their focuses—made me decide TALiSON was right.

"Without dying," I said.

[[Without dying,]] Dio agreed, over my Link.

I glanced around for tem, but couldn’t see any Cycogs—just the cluster of Renba trailing us into the room. Ordering mine to efface itself, I listened as the others talked excitedly about attempting the System Challenge, revisiting upcoming available times, factoring in the travel time involved in reaching The Wreck. We would have to get off-planet, Skip, and then dock and travel with the big ship that was apparently the mandatory form of transport to the System Challenge. I listened, and said I could be available whenever, but my mind was on other questions, and whether the answers would be true.

Imoenne wandered away while Arlen handled scheduling. With her habitually soft voice, her tiny exclamation was barely audible, but some quality to the sound made us all pause and turn to look at her, standing before the mural that had marked the completion of every stage of the gauntlet series.

The figures had become familiar, shifting pose and position only marginally through the series. We’d reached the complete set of default Bios before this stage: Darashi, Vssf, Human, Ah Ma Ani, Shree, Kzah, Embyde. I counted them off as I followed everyone else in joining Imoenne. All there, all in much the same…

No. The same positions, similar poses, but tiny lines had been introduced, at key joints of each of the figures, and lifting an inch or two directly up.

"They look like marionettes," Arlen observed. "But there is no marionnettiste."

"Top right corner," Nova said.

It took me several moments to see what she indicated: a minute cluster of pale tiles with a single white mote at the centre.

"Cykes do a real job selling themselves, don’t they?" Silent said, after a long pause.

"But this game, it is theirs. For what reason would they include this?" Arlen asked, sounding more perplexed than disturbed.

"Trolling?" I suggested, feebly.

"To show that their power over the biologicals, it is complete," Imoenne whispered.

"It could be lan," Silent said, though dubiously. "We’ve just been making threads of it, after all. Care to explain, Bishop?"

[[Not at this juncture,]] Silent’s Cycog replied, drifting out of the pale patch of tiles.

"Bah," Nova said. "Well, now that this grim note has quashed our moment of triumph, let’s settle our start time for the System Challenge."

"Before we spook ourselves out of playing on," Silent murmured, and we all looked back at the mural, and away.