Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

There was some inaudible crosstalk in the net.

Say again? said Legroeder.

I said, don’t do that .

Do what? Legroeder asked, then realized that some argument was going on in the Impris net. Maybe that explained the jerky hold the Impris crew was exerting on the line.

The Phoenix crew continued to draw in the net, slowly but steadily. The effort was becoming somewhat less difficult as the reach of the net shortened.

Cantha’s voice cut in from the bridge. We’re getting a call on fluxwave. It’s from the captain of Impris.

Legroeder wanted to cheer. Can you let us hear it?

Stand by, said Cantha, and then a new voice filled the net.

—is Noel Friedman, captain of Faber Eridani starliner Impris. To whom am I speaking?

Glenswarg’s voice filled the com. This is Captain Jaemes Glenswarg of Kyber-Ivan Phoenix. Captain, we are extremely pleased to have found you. Are you in need of assistance?

Are we—? The other skipper’s voice was choked with emotion. Captain, we are very much in need …

As the captains conferred, Legroeder and his rigger-mates continued drawing Impris closer. Progress grew faster as the nets shortened and became stronger. Sooner than Legroeder would have imagined, the ships were nearly alongside each other. Legroeder signaled his fellow riggers to begin reaching all the way around Impris with the Phoenix net. It felt to him as if they were about to embrace a long-lost, estranged family.

As his crewmates handled the net, Legroeder called across to the Impris crew, I’m Rigger Legroeder. We met once, years ago. I was aboard Ciudad de los Angeles then.

Ciudad de los Angeles! echoed an astounded voice. Have you come back to haunt us, then?

Legroeder blinked in astonishment. They had heard the L.A . riggers! With sudden exultation, he remembered his own first reason for being here. He had witnesses! Are you recording all this, Cantha? he shouted into the com. Get it all! Every word! As Cantha muttered an acknowledgment, he called, Impris—we heard your distress call seven years ago, on Ciudad de los Angeles. We couldn’t help you then—but we’ve come back to get you!

The confusion in the other net was palpable.

What do you mean—?

Seven years—?

Deutsch murmured to Legroeder, It might be better not to try to explain too much right now.

Legroeder nodded agreement. Impris, you’re caught in a fold of the underflux. We will do our very best to get you out. May we grapple and dock?

At that moment Glenswarg came on the com to tell the rigger crew that they had permission to dock with Impris . Legroeder drew a deep breath of triumph and relief.

As the riggers began to enfold Impris in their net, he had a sudden unsettling vision of the joined nets echoing with manic laughter.

The grappling with the net turned out to be more difficult than Legroeder expected, despite Phoenix ’s net having been built for just such operations. Just as they were about to close around Impris , the passenger liner began to ripple in their grasp like a great silver fish. Afraid they might lose it, Legroeder called for more power to the flux-reactor. The shimmying became worse; it was like trying to hold onto a frightened whale. A low groan began to reverberate through the net. Everyone, stop! Legroeder cried. His pulse thudded in his ears as the net relaxed. Gradually, over several seconds, the reverberations subsided.

Impris—what just happened? he called. Do you know what caused that instability?

What instability? came the answer.

Legroeder blinked. You didn’t feel yourselves shimmying in our net a moment ago?

Pause. We didn’t feel anything.

Legroeder turned to his crewmates. Did you feel it?

Indeed, said`Palagren. Give me a moment to speak with Cantha…

As the Narseil turned his attention to the com, Legroeder asked Ker’sell, What did you feel?

Ker’sell’s voice sounded sluggish, as though he were in a daze. Time, he said slowly. There’s something wrong with it .

What do you mean, wrong? asked Legroeder. Do you mean the tessa’chron? Is there something in the immediate future?

Ker’sell hesitated, as if embarrassed. It’s not that. It’s as though it’s… blurred, he said finally.

Was this a Narseil admission of a weakness? Legroeder wondered. Ker’sell turned away, avoiding his gaze. Legroeder glanced down at Deutsch, who simply looked annoyed at the situation.

Palagren spoke again. Cantha thinks what we were seeing was a temporal flutter. They measured no spatial anomalies from the bridge, but all of the Narseil felt a blurring in the tessa’chron.

That’s what Ker’sell said. What’s it mean?

Palagren took a moment to readjust himself in the net. I’m not seeing a clear window on past, present, and future. It’s difficult to explain. My viewframe is smeared out, as if something’s… vibrating the spacetime continuum. He looked closely at his fellow riggers. He did not appear to share Ker’sell’s embarrassment about the subject. We may be feeling continuing quantum effects from our passage into this layer.

Legroeder shivered. How much do we know about that?

Palagren answered cautiously. Cantha and Agamem are studying it.

Well, if you figure it out, don’t forget to tell us, Deutsch muttered.

Palagren looked at him wordlessly for a moment. Cantha suggests that we pull tight for a hard dock without actually encircling Impris with the net. He believes a physical joining might keep the two ships in better synch.

I concur, said Captain Glenswarg, coming onto the com circuit. Pull us in as close as you can. We’ll fire tethers across.

Legroeder signaled the other riggers, and they began drawing the two ships together as before. When the gap had closed to a hundred meters, the captain ordered magnetic tethering cables launched across to anchor on Impris ’s hull. Bumper forcefields were turned on, to keep the ships from colliding, and the tethers drawn in. Finally Glenswarg ordered a boarding tube stretched between the ships. Before sending anyone through, he asked Legroeder if there was a chance of bringing the two ships out into normal-space.

Legroeder hesitated before answering. The captain’s desire was understandable; they all wanted to know that they had done more than just join Impris in eternal limbo. And yet…

If I may interject, said Cantha, I believe it would be unwise to try. Until we understand better how we got into this fold, we could run the risk of burrowing ourselves in deeper.

Glenswarg’s silence sounded like a curse.

Captain, said Legroeder, I think the sooner we get over there to talk to their crew, the better .

All right, then—stabilize the net and come on out, Glenswarg said. I’ll send in the backups.

“Fine work,” he said, when the four riggers were standing on the deck with him. “Now I want you to go get some rest.”

Legroeder started to protest, then saw the other ship begin to ripple in the monitor with a slow-motion distortion. He held his breath.

“Don’t worry, I’ll call you when it’s time for you to go over,” Glenswarg said, reading his thoughts. “But first, we need to establish safe passage. That’s going to take time. And I’m not about to risk you people until I have to. You’re the only ones who have any hope of getting us out of here again.”