Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

Palagren’s gaze was dark. “That could be risky.”

“But can we do it?” asked Glenswarg.

“Captain—”

“Our orders,” said Glenswarg, “are to bring Impris out if we can. We want the ship, not just the people. We need every bit of information we can get from her.” He glanced at Legroeder.

“That’s right,” Legroeder gulped. “And from what Captain Friedman says, even if we tried to get all of her passengers over here, we probably couldn’t.” He explained.

“Well,” said Palagren, “it’s an open question: Can we fly the two ships out in formation? Or once we power up the two fluxfield generators, will the interaction between them and the quantum fluctuation throw the whole thing out of control?”

Legroeder remembered all too clearly what had just happened to him in the connecting tube. “First tell me how we’re going to get one ship out.”

“Ah.” Palagren scratched the base of his neck-sail. “We have developed a plan, Cantha and I. It will not be easy, and it involves a degree of risk.”

“Which is—?”

“On the one hand, that we lodge ourselves permanently in the underflux; on the other, that we disappear in a spray of neutrinos.”

“Oh.”

Palagren swung back to the console. “Here, let me show you what we have in mind. We have been looking at this business of the dreams, and we’ve found evidence of a physical feature that correlates with it…”

What the Narseil had found, from a careful mapping of the Flux lines of force, was an indication of what they called a deep quantum flaw , a fracture not just in local space as they had thought before, but in the primordial fabric of spacetime itself, situated beneath even the present level of the Deep Flux. Though they could not say much about its size or extent, they believed it was the source of the fluctuations that had drawn Impris and Phoenix into this trap in the underflux. It was entirely possible that similar flaws were the bane of other ships lost in the Deep Flux, as well.

The influence of the flaw could be felt well beyond its actual location. This, Cantha believed, could explain the dreams of the riggers. They, of all the souls on the two ships, were the ones whose psyches were most directly exposed to the Flux. It was no coincidence that they shared the fears about, and possibly a subconscious awareness of, a great monster lurking deep within the Flux. “There really is a monster there,” Cantha said. “That’s why you’re feeling it.”

“In order to get out,” said Palagren, “we must locate the quantum flaw. The opening that brought us into the Deep Flux does not appear to offer an exit. To find another way, we must seek the point of origin of the openings…”

Legroeder listened in sober silence. The Narseil plan was audacious—and not a little desperate. They would try to make the ships sink deeper still —by suppressing even further the action of the nets, by bringing them to a state of controlled, meditative stillness. They hoped to accomplish two things: one, to reduce the dangerous interactions between the two ships’ fluxfields; and two, to allow the natural eddies and ripples to draw the ships down into the lowest layers of the Deep Flux. There, they hoped, they would find not just a clearer view of the underlying quantum flaw, but also a pathway out.

“There are no guarantees,” Palagren noted.

Legroeder remembered the Narseil’s warning about vanishing in a spray of neutrinos. But he couldn’t think of a better idea. And remaining where they were was unthinkable.

Captain Glenswarg was already persuaded; Captain Friedman was a little tougher to sell on the proposal. By the time they reached him by com, on the Impris bridge, there had already been one more time dislocation aboard Impris . “How do we know it won’t make matters worse?” Friedman asked.

Before Legroeder could answer, Deutsch, on the other bridge with Friedman, pointed out that they were already on a nonstop course toward chaos; and surely it was better to try even a risky course of action than none at all. Before he could finish talking, Jamal stepped into view. His eyes were wide as he said, “You’re going to deliberately take us toward that thing that we’ve been dreaming about?” Turning, he gesticulated toward Poppy, who was standing still as a statue, fear frozen on his face.

“We talked about it before, remember?” asked Legroeder, thinking, it wasn’t much more than an hour ago .

“Yeah, but I didn’t think we were going to fly right into the thing’s face!” Jamal protested. “It’s not like we exactly agreed to it.”

“No, we didn’t,” Poppy whispered, behind him.

Legroeder drew a breath, wanting to close his eyes and go somewhere far, far away. “We talked about the fact that it might be necessary.”

Palagren stepped up beside him to speak into the com. Jamal’s eyes grew even wider at the sight of the Narseil. “You are right, that this is a dangerous plan,” Palagren said. “But we know what will happen if we stay. The situation will grow steadily more desperate. We won’t have saved you; we will have doomed you, and us, to watching each other die… very slowly.”

“But—” You Narseil, Jamal seemed about to say. He didn’t complete the thought aloud.

Friedman faded out of the image, then reappeared. “If I may point out—we have watched people die here, and it is not pleasant.”

By now, they had all heard the story: the boy who in despair had poisoned himself with a fast-acting poison—or so he had thought. Due to the time distortions, he had died for almost a year, ship’s time. The captain had finally moved him to the bridge, where time seemed to move faster, to complete the process.

The two Impris riggers stood silent. They had no answer.

“I don’t know about you,” Friedman continued, “but I think a hundred and twenty-four years are enough. Let’s do it.”

Poppy and Jamal looked at each other, then at Deutsch. “Will he be flying with us?” Jamal asked.

“You can’t ask for a better rigger on board with you,” said Legroeder.

“He has those… things ,” Poppy said.

Legroeder drew a deep breath. “Yes. And those things may be what enable us to get you out. Give him a chance. I think you’ll be surprised. Right, Freem’n?”

Before Deutsch could reply, Friedman said, “Consider it done. Riggers, make ready to sail.”

Poppy and Jamal frowned. But if they were tempted to argue, something in the captain’s expression persuaded them otherwise. One after another, they turned reluctantly toward their stations.

Departure had to await the engineers’ completion of their work on the Impris powerplant. Legroeder’s anxieties mounted with the delay, but they didn’t dare fly without ensuring that Impris ’s flux-reactor and field components were properly tuned. Twice more, the other ship flickered out, leaving those on the Phoenix bridge holding their breaths. But when it reappeared the second time, they got the all-clear call from the Kyber engineers on Impris , and the riggers hurried to their posts.

As the rigger-station closed around him, Legroeder thought of how tired he felt, and how much he longed for a good night’s sleep. It was foolhardy to fly while exhausted. But it would be worse to wait while things deteriorated. (Whatever else you guys do, make sure I stay alert, okay?)

// Roger wilco, // he heard in reply.

Legroeder was joined in the Phoenix net by Palagren and Ker’sell, and Cantha in Deutsch’s place. They had decided that Cantha’s inexperience in the net was outweighed by his knowledge of the quantum flaw. Cantha would ride in the top gun position, as observer and advisor. Legroeder, while still in command of the net, would fly in his accustomed stern-rigger spot; Palagren was in the lead position, and Ker’sell was at the keel. If Ker’sell still harbored any suspicions about Legroeder, he was keeping them to himself.