L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

Suddenly, as one, all the security troopers dropped behind the sandbag barrier.

Why? wondered Duhyle, but only for an instant before he stepped completely into the station and touched the stone beside the opening, willing it to close. His hands went to cover his ears.

He almost made it before the sonic nerve-ruptor slammed him to the floor. He lay shuddering for several moments, despite the protection afforded by the station. When he could move again, perhaps a minute later, he slowly climbed to his feet. He did wait for another two minutes before touching the stone to open the entrance.

He stepped back out into the late morning and surveyed the canal. His eyes still watered, but he could see the submersible was pulling away from the canal wall at high speed and submerging. Just before the conning tower looked to disappear beneath the gray-blue waters of the canal, a streak of brilliant green struck, and an enormous gout of water geysered skyward. Almost immediately, a second explosion followed the first.

The force of the explosions rocked Duhyle back and forth on his boots. He had to reach out and steady himself on the stone of the station wall.

For the next ten minutes, the security troopers remained behind the wall of sandbags, occasionally discharging stunners whenever there was a sign of movement. Then, when all movement among the fallen Aesyr had ceased, a squad of troopers moved out from the sandbags.

Still holding the looper at the ready, Duhyle moved forward. He glanced at the canal where the waves from the explosions had yet to fully subside, and then back at the stone expanse beyond the sandbags. The only movements were those of the security squad. By the time Duhyle reached the wall of sandbags, the security troopers had reached the rear of the bodies of the fallen Aesyr. How many were merely stunned, and how many were dead?

As Duhyle stood back of the sandbags, something flickered at the edge of his vision. He turned and loosed the looper. A projectile whined past him-only one. As the restraint loops tightened around a kneeling figure in blend-ins, a stun bolt slammed into the Aesyr, and he pitched forward onto the stone.

A security trooper hurried up toward Duhyle. "Are you all right?"

"I?m fine."

"He must have been lying low, pretending to be stunned, looking for a high-tech or an officer," she continued.

Symra joined the two of them, and the three moved toward the fallen attacker, less than thirty yards away.

The trooper knelt and turned the bearded man, still twitching, on his back. "Another big one. Big and stupid."

"Not…stupid…" gasped the man. "The Hammer will not fail the Aesyr…" The attacker?s eyes glazed over, and he slumped.

"The Hammer?" asked Symra, looking to the tech.

Duhyle shrugged. "You?d have to ask the commander. I?ve never heard of it."

"After we make sure everything here is secure…"

"Are most of them dead?" asked Duhyle.

"So far. The nervous system isn?t designed for multiple jolts, but one or two isn?t enough to stop someone with the size of most of them, not when they?re in berserker mode." Symra shrugged. "I can?t say I have much sympathy for them. All the weapons they were carrying are lethal. Projectile guns, battle-axes for close-in, even razor knives."

Duhyle looked across the dead and fallen, possibly two hundred bodies, and nodded slowly. He?d heard that part of the Aesyr belief was that because chaos or the universe always triumphed, all that mattered was the struggle. The bodies suggested they really believed that.

Valakyr appeared behind them. "Once we have a count, we?ll report to the commander."

The captain moved away.

Duhyle made his way back to the station. He waited by the canal-side door so that he could accompany the two officers when they reported to Helkyria. Absently, he wondered exactly what had so preoccupied her that she had not come to see the results of the skirmish-since Valakyr and Symra had to have sent a quick report.

He debated asking by using private link, then decided against it.

He waited half an hour, studying the canal, the sky, and the ocean to the west. He saw nothing unexpected-and no aircraft or watercraft at all. Finally, the two junior officers appeared, and he followed them inside.

Helkyria rose from where she was sitting before the comm console and turned, waiting.

"There are twenty-three survivors among the Aesyr. They?re all restrained," announced Captain Valakyr. "The other hundred eighty-one are dead. I regret the casualties. They won?t make matters easier for the government or the First Speaker."

"When you?re under attack, the enemies? casualties are secondary," replied Helkyria.

"Particularly now."

"One of the fatalities claimed before he died that something called the Hammer would not fail the Aesyr," interjected Symra. "Do you know what he meant, Commander?"

Helkyria stiffened. "It is-or was reputed to be-a weapon based on Thora?s Theorem."

"Ah…that?s not exactly revealing to those of us without a technical background, ser," suggested Symra, ignoring the hard look from Valakyr.

"Freyja Thora was trained as a theoretical physicist, and also as an engineer. Her theorem states that, since all matter was once one, prior to universal inflation, with proper manipulation energy can be directed anywhere and then return, compressed and compacted and able to strike again, like a hammer. She left the Institute of Vestalte some ten years ago when the Bursar for Procurement denied her requests for equipment on the grounds that weapons development was against the charter of the Institute. Reputedly, she?s been working at the Collegium of Asgard."

"That sounds very much like something for nothing, or perpetual motion, or any number of other frauds," opined Subcaptain Symra.

"It?s not a fraud, and it?s definitely not something for nothing."

"Ah…" Duhyle offered, gently, before continuing. "There was a silver pulse from the submersible. It destroyed the scramjet and then returned to the submersible. When it did, it dwindled to a black point. Whether it was that or another weapon, we likely won?t be able to tell, since SatCom took it out. The fragments of the submersible are at the bottom of the canal, more than a kay down."

For a moment, there was silence.

"I was about to say," Helkyria replied, "that if you could build such a weapon, you?d end up drawing upon and possibly rending the very dark matter/energy that holds the universe together. Apparently, the Aesyr are ignoring such concerns. If such uses continue, before long the entire universe could be spiraling down like a giant snake into the icy entropy of Niflheim…"

"Not a world snake, then, but a universe snake?" suggested Duhyle dryly.

Helkyria?s sidelong glance was cold enough to freeze him into not wanting to make any more comments, not in public.

"Did you see what Duhyle saw?" asked Helkyria.

Valakyr shook her head. "No, ser."

"I saw the silver pulse and the destruction of the scramjet," replied Symra, "but I was watching the Aesyr attackers after that."

"There was an anomalous energy pulse surrounding the release of energy that destroyed the aircraft," said Helkyria. "That would suggest that Thora was correct…and that the Aesyr have weaponized the theorem."

"So that was why they used the submersible? They needed the space for the equipment?" asked Symra.

"I?d judge so. The weapon on the submersible may have been a prototype."

"Sweet father Njord…" muttered Valakyr.

"Oh…and one other matter," said Helkyria. "We don?t have to worry about public opinion quite as much anymore. Asgard has declared its secession from the World Republic and issued a statement of independence."

Duhyle studied her face before asking, "What else?"