L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

The dead riffie was in the same slumped position where they had left him, and the images of equipment on the walls flickered in and out of focus, shifting colors now and again.

Eltyn looked back again. The door to the long corridor was still open. "Let?s go up to the equipment and see if we can figure out what it shows."

Rhyana sniffed. "The air smells different. Sort of damp."

"The ventilators aren?t working," Eltyn said. "The station closed the ducts, or the debris did, and I shut down the system right after the impact."

"It does feel more humid," acknowledged Faelyna. "We?re still seeing equipment around us." She stepped toward the silver-flickering images, then stopped and fumbled in her belt pouch, extending what looked to be a folded scrap of something.

The scrap touched the edge of the image and passed through it, then seemed to double, and the second ghostly folded scrap flared instantly, and dust sifted down toward the stone floor.

Faelyna still held the first scrap. Her brows furrowed.

"Real and not real?" Eltyn?s words sounded inane, at least to him.

"I wonder," replied Faelyna. "We might as well see if our equipment is still there." She started up the ramp.

All three of them stopped at the top of the ramp. Everything had changed. The main chamber was filled with silver light, but dark rust-brown consoles seemed to be everywhere, leaving corridors to the ramps and to where the doors were-or had been.

Yet as he watched, Eltyn could see the consoles shifting, and, abruptly, they were all dark gray, and the intensity of the light increased once more.

Where are we?

That Rhyana?s voice came to Eltyn in the same manner as a private comm pulse stopped him from asking an almost identical question.

It might be when…not where, replied Faelyna. We were just on the main level. That can'thave changed.

Doesn't look the same to me, replied Rhyana.

A swirl of gray and scarlet appeared before them, momentarily coalescing into a figure in a scarlet singlesuit of some sort, only to be replaced by a figure in silver and gray, and then by one in pale ice-blue, before returning to the scarlet-clad figure.

Eltyn swallowed. Who…what…are we seeing…?

The figure?s mouth moved…all event-points…all at once…Then he/she returned to an indistinct blur of fast-shifting shapes.

All event-points at once, mused Faelyna. That sounds like a theory of time.

No sequence or causality? Hasn't that been discredited?

Politically, because the Ruche is founded on certainty and causality. The feeling of a laugh followed Faelyna?s words. There are a few theoreticians who might not think the universeis that certain.

What about universes? asked Eltyn, looking for the smile he knew he wouldn?t see amid the increasing light and shifting images.

That's more likely in a multiverse-

A flare of light brighter than a nova and simultaneously darker than the depths reserved for unbelievers in the Ruche swept over Eltyn…and the chamber…

The blinding silver light lessened and then dimmed, and Maertyn opened his eyes, only to find that scores of corridors swirled before him. Vertigo and nausea wrenched at him, and he immediately closed his eyes again.

Are you all right? As it had been with the woman in scarlet, Maarlyna?s voice was clear in his thoughts, not his ears.

I'm better…now. I opened my eyes…very disorienting. Where are we going? Maertyn grasped her smaller hand more firmly, holding on to the warmth of her presence.

To the center…or something like that.

The center of the canal? That's a thousand kays to the east…

The sense of a soft laugh bathed him. A control center, I think. I can't read theinscriptions on the wall…yet they're familiar…and I feel as though I should.

Maertyn concentrated on holding her hand and trying to follow her lead, not that such was difficult, because she was walking in a straight line.

We're going to stop and turn here. We're almost there, I think.

Where?

Maarlyna didn?t answer, but guided him through what must have been a door or an archway, because the sleeve of his shoulder brushed against stone. Then she stopped.

Maertyn took another half-step, then halted as well.

You can open your eyes, dear. It shouldn't be too bad.

Maertyn did. He found himself in a small chamber, no more than five yards by three, standing beside Maarlyna and facing a whirl of scarlet and gray that coalesced into a solid figure in a scarlet singlesuit, except that before the image or person solidified, a man in silver and gray stood there…

That…it was you… Maarlyna?s surprise went beyond the words in his head.

…only to be followed by a woman in pale ice-blue, before returning to the indistinct scarlet-clad figure.

Words echoed in Maertyn?s mind, but they were not directed at him. That he could sense.

The battle…not fought in one time…the choice…yours…to be key…keeper…of allthose…choose fate…the universe…this event-point…only you…so few…ever…able to see…

For all his concentration, Maertyn could only grasp fragments of sentences or phrases, words clearly directed at Maarlyna, a conversation to which he was party only in the sense of a partly deaf man trying to understand a rapid exchange between two others in an ancient tongue.

Wait! That preemptory command was Maarlyna?s. She turned to face Maertyn. Even though her mouth opened, he could hear the words only in his mind. You need to know…

Know what? He offered a wry smile. I have the feeling I'm not going to like what I'mgoing to hear.

It's not as bad as it could have been, dearest.

But…?

Would you want everything to end?

What do you mean…everything? Life? The world?

Slowly, she nodded. And I saw what I might be…and the awful emptiness that willhappen if I don't…

Can't you…or this power you're being offered…can't you just deal with the Gaerda? he pressed.

When I've asked you about politics and the government, sometimes, you've said to me…itdoesn't work that way. This doesn't work that way. If I choose…what I feel isright…things…between us, they'll change.

How?

I'll never be able to leave the station…I told you once that it was like coming home. Ididn't know how true that was…

Maertyn just stood there, his eyes burning, and not because of everything shifting around him. Time seemed to freeze, as though he could not move. But…why?

Everything affects everything else… She swallowed.

Maertyn could see that, and the tears flowing from her eyes.

If youknewthat Tauzn would destroy the world, what would you do? she asked after a time.

I still wouldn't want to lose you. Yet he knew that those words were not an answer, not with the Gaerda waiting outside the station, and not with the tears in her eyes.

Neither one of us will die. Things will be…different.

Different? How? He paused. Can we be together? Can I touch and hold you?

If you wish…for as long as…we can.

What do you mean…if we wish?

I'll be different. I'll know more…I think. I'll see things that will be hard for you to see.

Maertyn moistened his lips. Like the corridors that shift? They don't for you, do they?

No. Not in the way you mean.

He just stood there, trying to think, looking at the woman he loved, and for whom…He pushed that thought away. He?d done what he?d done as much for himself as for Maarlyna, and she?d hung on to him even when she hadn?t understood. And now…it was his turn. "Where you go so will I go…" Those words were cribbed from somewhere in the past. That he also knew. He also understood that while no feeling was truly new, that lack of novelty did not mean lack of truth…or love. And yet…how could he let go…?