Eternity's End (63 page)

At the end of the lounge, an old man was sitting with his feet propped on the table, reading a book. As they went by, the man looked up, arching his eyebrows. "Don't recall seeing you two here before," he said. "You must be off a' that other ship, the one that's knockin' us off kilter—"

Legroeder could scarcely breathe. "You can see us?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?"

"Yeah, but... well, you're the first person who's—"

"Wait a minute," said Deutsch. "You said
we're
knocking
you
off kilter?"

The man chuckled. "Well, begging your pardon—things have gone from bad to worse since you got here, what with the time waves and all." He marked his place in the book and closed it. "Don't get me wrong. But I hear people saying your arrival must have upset something in the continuum. Not that I understand how things could
possibly
be worse—except if we take you along with us."

Legroeder stared at him open-mouthed.

// If we might interject—it could be very important to determine whether or not this is true.//

(No kidding,)
Legroeder thought.

"We passed through an instability ourselves, not long ago," Deutsch said.

The man laughed. "You're in good company. Twice now, since I been reading my book here, I found myself having dinner again last night." He grimaced. "The first time was bad enough. They
used
to have good food on this ship. That was before everything came from the recyclers."

"Do you have any idea where we might find the captain?" Legroeder asked. "We were meeting with him, and then this wall of darkness—"

The old man waved him to silence. "If the same thing happened to him, he could be most anywhere. But you're headed in the right direction for the bridge and crew section. Just keep going till you get to the royal blue doors."

"Thank you," Deutsch said, his face flickering with augment activity. He peered up the corridor with his primary eyes, while his cheekbone eyes remained fixed on the man. "Any chance you might come with us? Help us if we get lost?"

"Jesus, that's weird. Your eyes, I mean. No offense." The man shook his head. "No, I'd rather just read my book, if that's okay with you. It's a happier way to go."

"All right," said Legroeder. "Thanks, then."

They continued quickly on.

It seemed only a dozen heartbeats later when Legroeder suddenly shivered, blinked...

—wave of shadow passing over—

...grabbed for Deutsch, didn't find him, felt a rush of disorientation, his vision swimming...

He refocused with an effort and found himself in the meeting room with Captain Friedman, Jamal, and Poppy. He struggled for breath as he peered around the room. No Deutsch.

"What the hell are you doing?" Friedman asked.

Legroeder couldn't tell if the captain was angry or just surprised. "I'm—not sure—" Legroeder gasped. "I think I just got transported to...
tonight
. At least... some night. There was a passenger lounge, and hardly any people. Most of them couldn't see me."

Friedman grunted.

"A passenger told us that things had grown more unstable since our arrival—"

"Told
us?
Who's us?"

"Rigger Deutsch. I found him back there, and then we got separated again. Have you seen him since—?"

"I'm right here," said Deutsch, beside him.

Legroeder jumped, startled.

"I have not seen Rigger Deutsch since—oh, there he is," Friedman said, squinting. He shook his head. "What were you saying?"

"That the instabilities may be worse as a result of our presence here. May I take a moment to contact my ship?"

"Certainly. Do you need a com-unit?"

Legroeder shook his head.
(Connect me to the ship, please?)

// Trying... connecting... //

A moment later, Cantha's voice squawked from the collar-com: "Legroeder, this is
Phoenix
. We've been trying to reach you for hours. What's wrong? Do you have a report?"

"Sort of," Legroeder said, and described briefly what had happened. "Have you been observing anything like this?"

"We certainly have," said Cantha. "Including the fact that you seem completely out of time synch with us. More importantly, we've mapped some movement in the quantum flux, and we have some ideas about what might be causing it."

"Such as—?"

"We believe that we may be sitting on top of a very large flaw in the quantum structure of the Deep Flux. We suspect its influence is reverberating upward through the layers of the underflux. And by the way, at least three riggers on this ship have reported having dreams—all with a similar thread. Frightening dreams, mostly."

"Dreams!" Legroeder barked, suddenly remembering the fears he'd felt trying to sleep the night before.

"Yes, have you—?"

"Hold a moment, Cantha." Legroeder realized that Jamal and Poppy had swung to face him, the word
dream
on both of their lips. "Does this mean something to you?"

The two
Impris
riggers looked wide-eyed. Jamal was crouching slightly in his chair, a grimace on his face. "Something coming," Jamal whispered. "I keep dreaming that it's coming. Coming to get me. To get all of us."

"What is? What's coming to get you?"

Jamal shook his head. "Don't know. Monstrous thing. It sounds crazy. But it's like there's a big
serpent
or something in the sky..."

Legroeder shifted his gaze. "You, too, Poppy?"

Poppy nodded, biting his lip. "For me, it's like... the Gates of
Hell
or something," he whispered. "Something real bad. I can't sleep at all when I've been dreaming about it. Sully too. Sully's had it, too."

"Okay," Legroeder said. "I want to know everything you can tell me about it. Cantha, did you hear that?"

"Yes, I did," came the Narseil's voice. "Get the details, please. We've got to piece it together quickly. Palagren thinks we need to get out of here before the instability gets uncontrollable."

"Do you know yet what's causing it?"

"We think it's an entropic effect of the two overlapping flux-reactor fields, in the presence of the quantum fluctuations. There are signs it's getting progressively worse."

Legroeder felt faint. "Meaning, if we don't get out soon, we won't get out at all?"

"Precisely."

"And have you come up with a way to do it? To get out?"

"Possibly. That confirmation of the dreams might be an important clue. If there
is
a deeper structure... and people, riggers, are somehow sensing it subconsciously..."

Legroeder frowned.

"Hold on a moment, Legroeder. Palagren wants to talk to you."

Legroeder waited, drumming his fingers on the table. Finally he heard Palagren's voice. "Are you there? Did Cantha tell you that we have to move fast?"

"Yes. But he didn't say how we were going to do it."

"We think we have a way. But we nee-e-e-d to-o-o ta-a-a-a-l-l-l-k-k..." Palagren's answer suddenly stretched out into a long distortion of his voice, then faded away.

"Palagren?
Palagren?
"

// We have lost the connection.//

(Can you get it back?)

// We are trying, but there is no longer a com-signal.//

"What is it, Legroeder?" Deutsch asked.

Legroeder gestured sharply. "See if you can raise the ship."

Deutsch became very still, then shook his head.

Friedman reached for his own com-set. "Bridge! Has there been any change in the other ship?"

"Excuse me, sir?" came the answer.

"The other ship.
Phoenix
. Is there a change in its condition."

There was a pause. "I'm not sure what you mean, sir. What other ship?"

"The ship that docked with us a few hours ago!" Friedman shouted.

"Sir?" said the voice on the bridge. "We haven't had contact with another ship in at least a month. Is there... a problem, sir?"

"With
me?
No." Friedman snapped off the com in frustration, then snapped it back on. "Bridge, give me a time and date check."

"Certainly," said the bridge officer, sounding relieved to have a question that could be answered. "It's now 1730 hours. And we're showing, let's see, day six hundred fifty-two."

Friedman stiffened. "Thank you." He snapped off the com.

"What?" Legroeder said.

"The bridge is two days behind us. Your ship hasn't arrived, as far as they're concerned." Friedman's face was ashen. "This has never happened before. It's definitely getting worse, isn't it?"

Legroeder took a deep breath. "Yes," he whispered. "Yes, it is."

Chapter 31

Splinters in Time

"I would like to suggest," Deutsch said, "that we forget about what day it is, or whether our ship happens to be out there right now."

"Excuse me?"
said Jamal. "Are you aware of what's happening here?"
You Kyber,
his eyes seemed to say.

"I
do
understand," said Deutsch. "We must assume that, at some point, our ship will reappear. When that happens, we should be ready to move."

"Agreed," Legroeder said. He had been running through various scenarios in his head, and the one that scared him the most was the one where they waited too long and found they'd missed their opportunity to escape. "It's clear Palagren has a plan for attempting to fly out."

"Great. What good does that do, if we don't know what it is?" Poppy muttered.

"But we should be ready to act when we
do
find out what it is. And—" Legroeder focused inward for a moment "—the first question is whether we should try to fly the two ships out together, which could be very difficult and dangerous, or instead just get everyone over to
Phoenix
." He turned to Captain Friedman, whose eyes he'd been avoiding. "I'm sorry, Captain. We must consider the possibility."

Friedman's face had turned even whiter, if that was possible. "You don't know what you're saying," he whispered. "We have passengers who are hiding, crewmen disappearing and reappearing..." He shook his head, and appeared to regain strength as he drew a deep breath. "I don't think we could ever be sure we had them all. And some people would never willingly leave the ship."

Including you?
Legroeder wondered.

"We cannot assume that everyone will be rational about it."

"Well," said Deutsch, "I think we would all prefer to bring
Impris
out, if we can do it safely. Our people very much want to study it."

Jamal's voice was a flat twang of skepticism. "I don't know how we're going to get
one
ship, let alone two, out of this—whatever you called it—fold in the underflux." His nostrils flared.
Prove it to me,
his gleaming white eyes seemed to say.

Legroeder couldn't; he could only guess what Palagren had been about to say. But it had something to do with the hidden structure in the Flux. "The Narseil seemed to think that those dreams of yours might be an important clue in how to get out."

Jamal shuddered. "Man—if you are trying to
reassure
me, that's not the way to do it."

Legroeder persisted. "I think the dreams
may
be trying to tell us something about the Deep Flux. And the more you can tell us about them, the better."

Jamal glanced at his crewmates, shrugged, and began talking.

"...I don't always see the same
thing
, but it's always the same
feeling
—you know what I'm saying? That there's something out there." Jamal's voice fell to a murmur, straining. "Something that...
devours
."

Legroeder suppressed a shiver as his own memories surfaced. "Suppose," he said, following a sudden hunch, "that you had to
confront
this thing—whatever it is. To get your ship out. Could you do that? Could you face it?"

Jamal shook his head. "I just want to get
away
from it, man."

"But suppose
it's
what's keeping you here." Legroeder's voice became husky. "Suppose, to find your way past it, you had to make it real. In the net. Could you?"

Beads of sweat were forming on Jamal's forehead.

Legroeder felt a sudden wave of dizziness, and leaned heavily on his elbows for support.
(What's happening?)

// We have contact with the ship.//

"Thank God!" he gasped.

"For
what?
" said Poppy, who had been sitting tightlipped since giving a terse description of his dreams.

"Our ship is back," Legroeder said. He held up a hand.
(Put me through.)

// We have a voice channel—//

"
Phoenix
," Legroeder snapped. "Can you hear me?"

"Legroeder?" called Cantha. "Are you there? For a few minutes, it looked like you flickered out. Not
you
—the whole ship."

"Tell me about it. Look, Cantha—we have a crew here that's ready to do whatever's necessary to get out."
Right?
he asked with his eyes, of the
Impris
riggers. Jamal scowled, while Poppy looked as if he had been drained of emotion. After a moment, Jamal nodded reluctantly; then Poppy. Good. "I think I should probably get back over to
Phoenix
to plan with you and Palagren," Legroeder said to Cantha.

Jamal sneered at that. "What, you're going to cut and run now? And leave us here?"

"I'm doing nothing of the kind," Legroeder said, with annoyance. "But we've got a lot of planning to do." He turned in his seat. "Freem'n, what do you think?"

Deutsch raised his chin. "Okay—but how about I stay and work with these guys. That okay with you?" He surveyed Friedman and the two
Impris
riggers, who looked frightened at the prospect. "Flying out of here is going be a real bitch, you know. Anyone else think formation flying, through instabilities and quantum fluctuations, might be hard?"

Poppy squinted hard at him. "You've got those—" He jerked his chin at Deutsch.