The Archer's Paradox - The Travis Fletcher Chronicles (12 page)

While he was away, she prepared a suitable meal for him, overriding the erratic requests the ship was picking up from him. She also added some suitable items for herself before placing a call to a particularly enthusiastic young
Aantah
. She had need of her help, and this was a way of apologising for humiliating her in the Gaming Centre last time.

She found it strangely satisfying to see him enjoying the meal she had prepared, and she found him a better conversationalist than previous times as they ate. She asked him about his session with Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e. He described the feeling of flying over the city his mind had created and the exercises Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e had taught him to control his thoughts. She actually apologised for rejecting his query but said she was busy, and showed a mental picture of her friends enjoying each other’s company to illustrate what she meant. She could not help but marvel at the wide eyed wonder he displayed at abilities she, and the whole of her race, took for granted. She had never considered what it would be like to live without them. She was careful not to probe too much, but there were gaps and slight inconsistencies in his descriptions and she got the impression that the wily old
Ts’ats’aak
had left a suggestion in his mind to make him blind to something that happened during the session.

Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e arrived at Wingu Kanzu’s cabin. He was waiting behind a desk with a holographic computer terminal where he was busy studying reams of data that flowed in front of his eyes. He shut down the display and motioned her to sit.

“Did you know?” She began without preamble and projected the image of The Original’s Mindscape and specifically the area that had been tampered with. Wingu Kanzu’s demeanour remained noncommittal. “The damage is deliberate and genetic” she added, as if she had a bad taste in her mouth.

“So I see.” He replied, noncommittally.

“It means that his whole race has been deliberately altered to make them less than they should be.” She continued. “There was no wonder you had such a problem finding a suitable candidate; with such damage, they have evolved by discarding redundant systems.” When she got no reaction, she tried a more direct approach. “Was it us? Was it the Xi Scorpii?” Honour demanded that a direct question be answered.

“Does the answer matter now?” He replied evenly, evading the question. “As you said, the damage was done a long time ago.”

“We are responsible for those people!” She stood and planted her palms on his desk.

“No we are not!” He retorted, the force of which caught her by surprise. “We abdicated responsibility at The Fall.” He leaned forward confrontationally.

“We abandoned them!” She regained the upper hand.

Wingu Kanzu slumped back in his chair. “The argument is academic,” he sounded resigned, “if you wish to discuss honour, you should bring it before the Council. They mandated this expedition and without it, we are extinct.”

“I do not doubt it.” The old
Ts’ats’aak
sat back down. “But old ghosts have come back to haunt us.”

“Only if we let them.”

“You know that getting what we need will kill him unless he is trained properly first.”

“Would you put the life of one man above the life of our race?” He asked dangerously.

“I am
Ts’ats’aak
!” She retorted forcefully, with a mental poke in his chest to emphasise the point. “ALL life in my care is sacrosanct!” She took a breath and calmed herself. “I will not allow him to be sacrificed for the sake of satisfying the timetable of the Council. We can still get what we need, but it will take more time, effort, and co-operation from him.”

“Your points are noted,
Ts’ats’aak.
” He responded dismissively as he stood to indicate the meeting was over, but Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e was not finished yet and remained seated.

“Your
Paal Kanik
you have attending him.” Wingu Kanzu sighed and seated himself again.

“Xnuk Ek’?” He asked, she nodded.

“Are you sure she is the best choice for the task? I know you assigned her as punishment, but she is displaying some very unusual behaviour in his presence.”

“She is my best student and I may have assigned her the task anyway.” He replied. “And although she is close to becoming
Ka’nsah
herself she still has some lessons to learn, but I will discuss your concerns with her.” Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e nodded, they both rose and bowed. Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e left and made her way back to her quarters. She had a rest period before she was due for another session with The Original. Meanwhile, Wingu Kanzu leaned back in his chair, contemplating the recent conversation. He would have to keep an eye on that old
Ts’ats’aak.

With the meal over, Xnuk Ek’ and Travis Fletcher left the cabin. He felt like a small child being both fascinated and surprised by everything. The floor took a bit of getting used to and he found himself clinging to his escort to stop
himself falling over. She actually found that she was enjoying explaining things to him that she would normally take for granted. She began looking at her surroundings through his eyes to understand his reactions.

“Is everyone on this ship from…from…?” He asked, faltering over the name, as they were being whisked along a corridor.

“Xi Scorpii?” She finished for him. He nodded. “Yes but not all originally from the same star.” She added. His head snapped round in query. “There are five stars in the Xi Scorpii cluster and I was born on Otoch, which orbits Xi Scorpii C. Sundaravāda Ci
ṭṭ
e is from Xi Scorpii A and Niji No Tori……”

“The little assistant to the doctor?” He interrupted.

“Yes, she is from Xi Scorpii B, and my
Nuuktak
, who was with me when we found you, is from Xi Scorpii D.”

Travis considered this for a moment. “You said you ‘were born’ and everyone else was ‘originally’ from the other stars.”

“Very astute.” she commented with a smile and a nod.

“Is this anything to do with the dream I had?” She gave him a long hard look but he kept his face closed - he had learnt quickly to hide his thoughts. She could easily penetrate his shield but refrained. “I know you had something to do with that,” he looked sideways at her, “I just don’t know why.”

She halted their progress, took him by the shoulders and locked eyes with him. She was starting to regret her indiscretion. “I will explain,” she said, almost in a whisper, even though there was no-one near, “but not here, not now. You should not mention the dream again.” He nodded, baffled by her sudden change of mood. After a short time of thinking that he was actually getting to grips with his new surroundings, he suddenly felt as if he was tumbling down the rabbit hole again. Gently, she bolstered his emotions and he calmed down again. She smiled and suggested that they should continue, as Niji No Tori would be waiting for them.

They arrived at the Gaming Centre after a particularly tedious journey. The Gaming Centre was towards the aft of the great vessel, in one of the four pods that were attached to main fuselage. The others included two fully equipped landing bays and ancillary equipment stores deemed non-essential to the running of the ship. In the case of an emergency, anyone not managing to make it onto the ship’s shuttles could take refuge in the other pods which could be jettisoned as life boats. All the pods had their own systems independent from the main ship, as well as a rudimentary system drive and navigation, enough to get them into orbit of a nearby planet.

Neither spoke to the other as they were both wrapped up in their own thoughts, with Xnuk Ek’ wondering if she was getting into something too big for her, and Travis just trying to make sense of everything. He looked across at Xnuk Ek’ as the floor pulled them along. She did not catch his eyes and her expression did not welcome his questions at the moment.

Niji No Tori was waiting for them just inside the entrance and she bounded up to greet them, smiling from ear to ear. She bowed to Xnuk Ek’ then to Travis, affording Travis a bow as low as the one for Xnuk Ek’, which irked her a little, but she decided to give the young one some leeway due to her inexperience. Travis bowed back, affording the young girl a deeper bow than his escort’s more curt response. He was not sure if he was correct but the girl did seem to be pleased.

They were in an anteroom some twenty yards wide and ten across. A balcony ran the full width of the room opposite the door they had come through, with a number of people with their backs to them, looking out. Most were tall, like Xnuk Ek’ and the others from Xi Scorpii C. There were also a smattering with similar looks and build to the young
Aantah
, the stockier look of Xi Scorpii D, like his escort’s boss, and the more rounded Xi Scorpii A. Xnuk Ek’ had taken Niji No Tori to one side and seemed to be giving the girl instructions as she nodded acceptance frequently, but a look of consternation crossed her face occasionally and she glanced sideways at Travis.

Travis took the opportunity to look around. He wandered over to the balcony and his jaw dropped open at what he saw. Beyond the balcony was a huge cavern, maybe a couple of miles long, a good four hundred yards across, and two hundred yards high. The opposite side of the cavern was lined with balconies, just like the one he was stood on. He craned his neck out, looked up and down, and determined that there were balconies all around the one he was stood on before vertigo got the better of him and he withdrew. Floating out in the void were transparent cubes varying in size from a few square yards to the size of a football field and containing two, three or dozens of people.
He noticed that the people on the balcony were wearing a headset and spare ones dangled from hooks on the rail. He picked one up and examined it. As he turned it over in his hands a female with the characteristics of Xi Scorpii C detached herself from the male she was talking to and glided over, smiling broadly, and bowed low in greeting.

“Forgive me.” Her voice was like velvet, her eyes the colour of clear honey and her hair a darker shade of silver than Xnuk Ek’. “I am Turix Dayak'.”

Travis felt himself stir and desperately fought the feeling down. The yellow ship suit left little to the imagination and being embarrassed twice in front of Xnuk Ek’ was
enough.
He was sure he saw the newcomer smirk a little. “Travis Fletcher.” He responded, copying her bow.

She laughed and he felt a tingle down his spine. “I know. I am a friend of Xnuk Ek’. She has spoken of you to me.”

I bet she has.
He thought wryly.

“May I show you how to use the viewer?”

“Yes please.” He answered.

She showed him how to put it on and he was immediately treated to a full three-dimensional view of one of the cubes. He was watching a game between two teams of three people as if he was sat amongst them, the clarity was staggering. He could hear their shouts, grunts of exertion and (he was sure) could even smell their sweat. She showed him the hand device that came with the helmet, a bit like one of those new TV remote controls, only much slimmer and the controls were only images on the glossy surface and not buttons that clicked when he pushed them. She showed him how to change his viewpoint at will and even move from cube to cube. If he could get this back to Earth, he would make a fortune. Watching the Saturday football would never be the same again; you could flick from game to game and choose where to see the action from. He felt a hand on his shoulder and the presence of his escort behind him and reluctantly removed the headset.

That is absolutely amazing!” He could not help himself. “This whole place is bloody amazing! How do you get them to float?”

Xnuk Ek’ smiled, condescendingly. “We are in space.” She replied. Travis looked blank. “No gravity,” she explained. “It takes energy to create gravity, removing it is easy.”

Shit! What a dickhead! Of course.
He was reminded of the time he had pointed at the cooling towers of a power station they were driving past when he was a child and asked if that was where clouds were made.
Bollocks!
“But why?”

“A more logical question, but one that would take time to explain just now.” Xnuk Ek’ replied and turned to her friend. Travis fumed silently in frustration at getting fobbed off again, while the two tall women exchanged words of greeting and shared a joke before Xnuk Ek’ returned her attention back to Travis.

“Come.” She gestured that they should join Niji No Tori further along the balcony. As they approached, the young
Aantah
was entering information into a keypad. A cube, about fifteen yards square, floated over and hovered below the balcony. The barrier opened and Niji No Tori stepped off and floated gently into the cube. Xnuk Ek’ gestured to Travis that he should follow. He fought down his fear and copied Niji No Tori’s exit and found himself deposited softly next to her, closely followed by Xnuk Ek’. There were no markings on the walls or floor, all of which had a spongy feel to them, and no equipment or apparatus. He looked back at the balcony they left from to see that they were floating gently away amongst the dozens of other cubes.