Jeffrey Carver - Eternity's End

“You mean people like Centrist Strength?” Legroeder asked sarcastically.

YZ/I shrugged. “They’re not someone we deal with, but yeah. Same principle. Lemme ask you—why do you think, for decades now, the Free Kyber have drawn their tax from the wealthy planets, almost without opposition?”

“Tax?” Legroeder echoed sarcastically.

“Let’s not quibble over terminology.” YZ/I waved his hand in annoyance. He looked as if he missed the cigar, now that he’d put it out. “The point is they’ve been helping the Free Kyber build the colonizing fleet. Most of the ships in that fleet came from the Centrist Worlds—with the help of Centrists who’d rather see Free Kyber colonists move out to the Well of Stars than no one at all. Plus—” YZ/I waggled his hand “—there’s the smell of profit for them. Of course.”

“Of course,” Legroeder murmured.

YZ/I gazed at him for a moment. “I believe someone you once knew is among them. A Captain Hyutu, formerly of the Ciudad de los Angeles ?”

Legroeder was stunned. “Captain Hyutu!”

“A captain now in the fleet of Kilo-Mike/Carlotta. A nasty, mendacious son of a bitch, by reputation.”

Legroeder swallowed back bile.

YZ/I’s eyebrows went up. “You know, neither Hyutu—nor, for that matter, KM/C—will much like what I’m going to suggest. I suspect there could be some personal satisfaction in it for you, though.”

Legroeder raised his chin. “What are you going to suggest?”

“Oh, nothing much.” YZ/I focused on his fingertips for a moment. “Just that I thought you might want to go out and find Impris for us and see if you can bring her back in one piece.”

Legroeder stopped breathing. He heard blood pounding in his ears and felt suddenly detached from reality. Was his heart still beating? Had this man just said what he thought he’d said?

“You okay there?” said Yankee-Zulu/Ivan, in a voice that seemed to echo in Legroeder’s skull.

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in… yes, I am okay. He nodded, not trusting his voice.

“I was afraid I’d given you a heart attack or something.”

You damn near did, Legroeder thought.

“What do you think? Want to do it?”

Legroeder cleared his throat. “You want me to find Impris— ”

“Find her, see if anyone’s still alive on her, make contact, do a full investigation. Bring her back, if you can.”

The feeling of dizziness was passing, but slowly. “I didn’t, uh, realize that Impris was lost. From your point of view, I mean.”

“Well, not completely. KM/C knows more or less where she is, no doubt. They’re the ones currently using her as a siren lure to bring in ships. But I don’t know where she is… precisely. And even KM/C can’t reach her.”

“Then why—”

“Because I want, very badly, to know why she disappeared.”

Legroeder stared at him. “Why do you care?”

Yankee-Zulu/Ivan rose from his seat and stretched out a hand. The image of the fleet reappeared behind him. “ See this fleet?” he rumbled. “ This fleet is the pride of our Republic!” He was actually breathing hard from the apparent intensity of emotion, and it took him a moment to get his breath back. “And I don’t want this fleet disappearing the way Impris did!”

Legroeder shook his head. “Why would it?”

YZ/I’s face turned into a glowing network of veins and arteries. “Because… we have suffered losses. Unexplained losses. Not just Ivan, but other outposts.” He turned his hands palm up.

Tracy-Ace tapped her feet impatiently. “Why don’t you just tell him, YZ/I?”

Legroeder looked from one to the other.

YZ/I seemed annoyed. “Well, all right—for one thing, ships have been lost that were shadowing Impris too closely.”

And you want me to fly close to her? Legroeder thought. He drew a breath, stretching his lips over his teeth. “Maybe you guys have just been shooting each others’ ships up. Anyway, why don’t you just stop flying so close to her?” And why don’t you stop using her for piracy, while you’re at it?

“Well, the shooting part isn’t as far-fetched as you might think,” YZ/I said thoughtfully. “But no—we’re pretty sure whatever’s happened to them is related to what happened to Impris . And we need to find out what the hell that is.”

This time Tracy-Ace looked annoyed. “Tell him, YZ/I.”

YZ/I sighed and rubbed his jaw, setting off little sparkles of color in his cheeks. “All right, it’s not just ships near Impris . In the last three years, we’ve lost four probe ships headed to the Sagittarian Clouds. Advance ships for the fleet…” His voice trailed off, as he waved a hand back at the monitors. “I’m used to losing ships, but… with the whole fleet getting ready to go…”

“Tell him about your brother,” Tracy-Ace said.

A flash of light went up YZ/I’s face. With obvious irritation, he said, “And men who are like brothers to me are commanding ships in that fleet. All right?” Tracy-Ace stared, and he growled. “Anyway, it’s not just that. We’re going to commit an entire fleet to the Deep Flux. We need to know what’s going on.”

The Deep Flux…

Tracy-Ace continued staring at YZ/I. “Tell him about your brother!”

YZ/I put his fingertips to his temple, as his face flashed dark and light. “All right,” he said, as though suppressing a pain. “Come on.” Rising, he led them across the dais and down the steps to a large holotank monitor. It took him a few seconds to get the image he wanted: an outpost floating in the reddish mists of the Flux. Not Ivan, not DeNoble, not KM/C. It was shaped rather like a skyscraper tower, but with its lower end simply fading into the Flux. “This is… was… Outpost Juliette.”

“Was?” Legroeder asked.

“Yeah. It was anchored in the Flux, like Ivan. Only it had its foundation in the slow layers. They thought it would be safer that way, keep it anchored better.”

“Only it didn’t,” Legroeder guessed.

YZ/I changed the image. “This holo was taken by a ship coming in from patrol, just as this happened.” As he spoke, the image suddenly began to quiver and dance, as though they were looking at it through heat waves rising off a desert floor.

“What’s that? What’s happening?”

“Watch.”

The quivering worsened, and the recording became jerky, as though the camera were moving. The surrounding mists flickered and then darkened, and in that moment the tower suddenly became transparent. One heartbeat it was solid; the next it was a ghost. And then it vanished altogether, leaving behind the blood-red mist.

“Just like that,” YZ/I said. “It was gone before the ship could approach for docking. They felt turbulence in the Flux, and sheared off. And then the outpost was just… gone.” YZ/I suddenly looked old and care-worn. “Never found so much as a trace of it. And my pain-in-the-ass kid brother was on it at the time.” He rubbed his forehead, wincing, then straightened as Legroeder absorbed that blow. “I can tell you, no other outposts are anchored in the lower layers now. Impris , as far as I know, is the only one of these ships that’s ever reappeared where we can see it.”

Legroeder regarded him in horror and fascination, thinking of all those people caught, perhaps for all of eternity, in a ghost realm that no rigger knew how to navigate. Impris had been… half a legend, and half a terrible, isolated reality. Just one. But now… So many ships? And an outpost?

“If I knew where to look, I’d send you after my own ships,” YZ/I said.