The Island on the Edge of Forever (The Epic of Aravinda Book 2) (7 page)

CHAPTER
10

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS

Asha embraced her father tightly. A light rain fell, and the chill from the water percolated straight down into her bones. Just behind her, a circular opening hung in the air above the forest floor. Yet the idea of leaving filled Asha with apprehension. The last time she had said goodbye to Yantrik, it hadn’t been her choice. But now that the choice was hers, she somehow found it even more difficult.

She tried to focus on the reason. Mira had said that her intuitive and healing potential were great, and that she would be invaluable on the mission.

“I just wish Mira would let you come, Dad.”

Yantrik shook his head. “I’d just get in the way, anyway. You will be a great asset to Mira, and not just in piloting.” Yantrik pulled out a resonator pistol from one of his many pockets and handed it to his daughter. “Don’t forget this. Zahn traded his photodisc for it for a reason. Anyway, you’ll be fine; I can feel it.”

Asha took the small sonic weapon and looked back up to her father’s eyes. “Thanks, Dad. But even with the resonator, how can you be so sure I’ll be okay?”

Yantrik laughed. “Well, I can’t be sure!” His smile faded. “But I feel it. Mira is right. Your intuitive powers are growing day by day. I’ve seen it. And your experience today is more evidence of that. You could have reacted impulsively and pursued Zahn with your ship, but you didn’t. And if you had, Mira might never have reached you.”

Tears formed in Asha’s eyes, and she embraced him again.

“You know I hate leaving you, Dad.”

“I know,” he whispered. “I know.”

Mira walked up beside them. “It is still your choice, Asha. I can pursue Zahn and the Tulari on my own, but remember that this request comes direct from the Confederation. They do not make it lightly.”

“And you promise to return me here?” Asha wiped some of her tears away from her face.

“Of course.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Asha noticed Darshana and Vivek looking on, and she heard a ringing in her right ear which quickly faded.

She took a few deep breaths and reflected on the scene, wondering how long it would be before all of them were united again. But in the deepest part of her heart, she knew what she had to do.

“All right.” She kissed her father on the cheek, already wet from the rain. A circular doorway into a curving room hung in the air above the forest floor, and Asha stepped in. “I’ll be back.”

“I know,” Yantrik whispered.

Mira
, completely unaffected by the rain,
walked up to Yantrik and studied him. “You are wise to have faith in your daughter.”

Thunder rumbled over them.

Mira bowed to him. “Be well, and always remember the importance of the Code.”

“Don’t worry, Mira. I’m not going to give these people modern technology. Who do you think I am?”

“That question does not concern me. What concerns me is this: who do
you
think you are? Consider your own beliefs carefully, in all things.”

And with that, Mira disappeared into the pristine light of the ship. After a few seconds, the door rolled shut once more, leaving no trace at all.

Inside, Asha felt sandwiched between two worlds. In a stark contrast to Navika’s spaciousness, the curving geometry of the buffer room made her feel claustrophobic. She glanced over to where some thicker silver suits and helmets hung.

“Void suits,” Mira said, removing her boots and stowing them into a round bag that hung beside the helmets. “Necessary for reconnaissance in places without a breathable atmosphere.”

“Void suits,” Asha repeated. “Reminds me of Oonak’s uniform, from our first adventure.”

“Then I suspect you will find much of this familiar.”

Mira pressed three fingers to the inner wall and another circular door slid open, revealing a curving inner room. Mira gestured Asha to go first, and once she looked inside, Asha realized that the entire inner surface of the room was covered in a mirrored bulkhead that curved up and all around her. Just beside the door, she noticed a sleek command chair floating in the air above the floor, which swooped down until it reached the bottom of the sphere about a meter below.

“Oh, yes,” Mira said. “I almost forgot.”

She tapped the wall in a complex sequence of movements, and a disc grew out of the bottom of the command chair.

Asha glanced back at her with a bewildered look, but Mira only flashed a quick smile and gestured for her to look ahead. She did, and as the disc continued to grow out of the bottom of the command chair, a part of it rose to form the crude shape of a second chair. Asha watched in silence as the details of the chair became more refined, until Mira finally stepped onto the round platform that both chairs stood on. She walked around it and pinched it. Then she punched it, but it held up to the abuse.

“Liila, confirm metamorphic integrity.”

A soft, feminine voice filled the cabin. “Confirmed, captain.”

Asha thought she felt something else behind the voice. Mischievousness perhaps? She waited for it to speak again, but it did not.

“Who is that?” Asha said as she stepped onto the platform.

“Liila, my starship. Please, sit.” Mira gestured toward the newly formed chair.

Asha sat down, surprised to discover how comfortable it was. It responded to pressure and formed itself around her body. “Thank you! It’s rather remarkable, actually.”

“Indeed.” Mira sat down. “Are you ready?”

Asha took a deep breath. “Yes.”

The curving walls of the room vanished, giving Asha the illusion that she was merely sitting atop an open platform, floating just a few meters over the forest floor. They rose slowly at first, and even though she knew he couldn’t see her, Asha waved at her father as he diminished in the distance.

Once they popped above the azure canopy, their ascent accelerated. Below, Asha watched as the archipelago rapidly shrank in the distance, and soon they entered a layer of soupy grey clouds. Once they were above the cloud layer, Asha realized that the clouds were part of a larger storm system that was passing over the entire archipelago.

“Do you like tea?” Mira asked.

“Huh?”

An opening appeared in Asha’s seat, and a small straw shot out from it.

“You may drink from the straw,” Mira said. “It was flash-brewed just now. My own blend, so I hope you like it.”

“Oh, thank you. Do you normally do this?”

Mira flashed her a quick smile. “On a long trip across the Ocean of Space, it is important to stay hydrated.”

“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Asha studied Mira’s face, still feeling bewildered. Outside, the stars raced past, ever faster.

“So we’re going to Outpost 33, right?”

“Was there ever any doubt? Asha, if you ever expect to rely on your intuitive powers, you must learn to trust them. Reflect.” She shot Asha a serious glance. “Be honest with your feelings. Do you not already
feel
where we were going?”

Asha considered this for a few seconds. “Home.”

A series of chirping sounds filled the cabin, and Mira withdrew from their conversation. “Brace yourself. We are about to make the jump.”

Ahead, Asha could see a familiar swirling vortex warping the starlight as if by a mirrored sphere, and as the space distorted, she thought of what it would mean if Zahn were successful. Could it really be as easy as sealing up the wormhole the marauders were coming in from? What if there were more? With these thoughts spinning around in her mind, they slipped out of spacetime and entered that radiant realm beyond all understanding.

CHAPTER
11

BIZARRE AND FANTASTIC SHAPES

In a blink, Asha beheld a golden crescent shape, set against an uncountable number of stars. Below, she saw that the ship had haloed thousands of tiny objects in a pink light, and Asha’s eyes followed the cluster of objects until they led up and beyond the edge of the crescent shape of the planet ahead.

Asha turned to Mira and was surprised to see that her eyes were closed.

“No Confederation starships in this system. However—” Mira’s eyes flashed open. “Navika has left a mark. Liila, show our guest the evidence of the one we pursue.”

“As a brushstroke in the sky.”

Superimposed upon their view, a streak of blue light began far above them, continued in a perfectly straight line for a few degrees, only to end abruptly.

“That’s helpful, but how are we going to find them? There’s no known way to track someone after they’ve made a timespace jump.” Asha shook her head. “Wait a minute. Mira, is the wormhole still down there?”

“Liila is perceptive. One moment.”

Ahead, Asha watched as their view of the planet and its ring changed dramatically. At first, she could see clearly through the planet’s atmosphere, revealing windswept valleys thousands of klicks wide. Then, every object appeared hollow, with only a faint outline to give her reference. And finally, faint trails of dust appeared that she hadn’t seen before.

“There are no traces of a wormhole in this system.”

“He did it,” Asha whispered to herself.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Mira stopped and studied Asha’s expression. “Do not assume what the Confederation does and does not know. And
never
assume anything about me.”

The stars spun briefly, bringing a distant, dim star into view.

“You asked me how we are going to find them,” she continued. “You believe there is no way to track them from here? You are wrong.”

The gas giant disappeared behind them, and the starlight around them became distorted and watery as the sound of a low whistle grew all around her. Another vortex grew in front of them, and once again Asha saw a brief flash of the realm of infinite light.

Another flash. Darkness.

Light. Dark. Light. Dark.

Thinking was difficult to do when you were flip-flopping between realities, but Asha still managed to wonder just how far they were travelling. And it occurred to her that she had no idea where they were going, at all.

She closed her eyes.

When she was sure the flashing had stopped, she gradually opened her eyes again and beheld a radically different view of the galaxy spread out before her. The star field was much thicker here, and she guessed that the density was easily twice that of where they just had been.

Directly ahead of them, the stars were clustered into a vaguely spherical shape, and stretching beyond that, she could see the beginning of one of the galactic arms with patches of golden dust between the strands. The majesty of it filled her heart.

“You took us near the core, didn’t you?”

“Indeed. He came through here.”

Her view of the stars flickered between different wavelengths again, revealing invisible dust lanes for a moment, before it returned to visible light once more.

“The star called Vasanta-dipa.” Mira pointed to a large star, tinged in a violet hue, now haloed by the ship in a faint pink light. “He was there.”

“How do you know?”

Mira only glanced over and narrowed her eyes at her.

“You don’t trust me to know anything, do you?” Asha said. “I’m just curious how you know, considering I’m under just as much risk as you—”

“Liila is perceptive, and timespace jumps leave a residue. Hold on; there is some odd radiation emanating from a nearby world. Liila is analyzing.”

Asha’s eyes drifted over to the star ahead of them. She’d never heard of a star being violet before. But that was exactly what it was, and the closer they grew to its light violet disc, the more stunning the star appeared.

“Mira, is there something wrong with that star? I’ve never seen anything—”

Mira interrupted her again. “Look! Look near the edge of the star. Something is moving.”

She studied the edge of the violet disc, and a few bluish dots moved beside it. Mira must have told the ship to focus in on that spot, because the dots grew until their details became obvious.

Asha had trouble believing her eyes.

Far off, appearing to be migrating past the violet sun itself, was a herd of sleek, drifting creatures, and the starlight danced across their smooth, silvery skin like a waking dream. Their bodies were elongated, and their mouths curved so that they appeared to be forever smiling.

“Akasha-timi…” Mira said. “They drift between worlds. We do not fully understand them yet.” She looked down to Asha. “Spacefaring organisms are more common near the core, and this system is indeed a holy place.”

Words left Asha as she watched the graceful creatures swim through space itself. It had never occurred to her that an entire star system could be holy, but then again she had never seen anything like this before, either.

“Akasha-timi,” she whispered. “Incredible.”

The disc of the star grew larger still, and once Liila dimmed their view of the disc, Asha watched a white-violet flare arc out of the star, only to crash back into its surface. She closed her eyes and calmed herself. The energy did feel different here. But why?

“Curious. Liila is reporting an intense energy anomaly from one of the worlds in this system.”

“What?” Asha said. “Is there a message from Zahn?”

“No. In fact, in light of this new information, we will need to postpone our search for Zahn. Asha, there is an energy field that matches a Chintamani signature on the fifth planet of this system. We are incredibly fortunate! And under my oath, I am compelled to investigate.”

“Your oath? But you said Zahn is in danger! We have to follow after him. How can you change your plan now?”

Mira flashed Asha a hard expression. “If the Kiss of Life is down there, then we can win this war, Asha. Nothing is more important than that, not even your friend. We are remarkably blessed to find it.”

The majestic creatures shrank in the distance, and a blueish planet grew closer.

Within a few minutes, Asha could clearly see an enormous cyclone slowly spinning above its surface. She watched as Liila projected a partial hologram of the planet in the air beside Mira. The image was even clearer than Navika’s holograms were, and she wondered what else Liila could do. The cyclone was so large that Asha could only see small glimpses of a continent below. Or were they large islands?

“Yes, Liila indicates the energy field is nearby, but the storm is scattering the field. We must descend to get a clearer reading.”

“You mean, we’re heading into that?”

“We must.”

As they grew closer, the cyclone grew more ominous, and within minutes, they dove into the soupy grey mass.

Although she couldn’t feel it, Asha noticed their view jostle up and down. Even though the inertial nullifiers absorbed the chaotic forces around them, the effect of the strong winds was still noticeable, and all around her Asha heard a low-pitched whine as the ship struggled to compensate.

“Are you sure it’s safe to go into this storm?” Asha called out over the whine.

“Do not be afraid,” Mira called back. “Liila is resilient.”

“Like a bismuth atom formed in the heart of an ancient sun, I’m not just resilient. I’m iridescent!”

From up ahead, a harsh thunderclap flooded Asha’s ears as lightning arced from one cloud to another, spanning her vision as they sped through the atmosphere. She jolted back, gripping the armrest even harder. All around them, the storm churned like an angry beast, and in the midst of the chaos, she glanced over to Mira, whose eyes burned with concentration. Asha guessed that navigating through this storm was more difficult than Mira was willing to admit.

“Mira, is there anything I can do?”

The whine of the ship became louder, but Mira didn’t answer.

Something made Asha glance to her left, and she watched as a bolt of lightning arced toward them. In a flash, it hit the ship and the right half of the wall flickered off, becoming a perfect mirror. As the thunderclap filled Asha’s ears, a feeling of dread filled her heart.

“Do not worry,” Mira said over the storm. “The mindcap interface is stable, and the interference has reduced. I have pinpointed the energy anomaly to 19.5° latitude, matching tetrahedral geometry…”

They emerged below the clouds, and Asha could see a tumultuous ocean through the remaining part of the wall. Rain pelted the surface of the water, seething in angry colors.

“I detect several small islands just a few klicks upspin, right on top of the anomaly,” Mira continued. “We shall land there.”

Asha watched in disbelief as a half-dozen giant tentacles reached out from the surface just ahead of them and smacked the front of the ship, sending them into a headlong spin.

Mira struggled to recover, but more tentacles covered in tiny spikes appeared all around them. Like miniature lightning storms, electric sparks flew out of the spikes and showered the ship’s surface. A shrill sound filled the cabin, and Mira’s hands moved at a frenzied pace. The interior lights of the ship flickered off and on, and Asha sat speechless as the mass of tentacles reached up and over the ship, pulling it under the water.

In stark contrast to the chaos above, the world below was calm and overflowing with color. Far below, Asha beheld a sweeping complex of coral in bizarre and fantastic shapes, glowing in every color she could imagine. The sight was magnificent, and for some reason Asha’s mind turned to Zahn, wondering if he might have faced this as well. Her heart still felt heavy from what had happened between them.

She glanced over to Mira, who was nearly out of breath.

“Doing everything I can!”

Another giant arm flailed out of the depths, but it vanished before Asha could study it in detail.

“What are we supposed to do?” Asha cried.

“I think—”

But before Mira could continue, a swarm of arms covered the ship, blocking their view. Through the tiny gaps in the arms, Asha saw that they were pulling the ship closer into the coral complex. A feeling of panic threatened to overtake her, but she knew she couldn’t give in.

“Be calm, Asha,” she said to herself. “It’s going to be okay. Maybe they just want to talk. That’s right. Just a friendly little chat. Maybe they’ll have tea—”

A thud interrupted Asha’s thought, and all around her she heard electric snaps.

“They are trying to fracture the hull,” Mira said. “Drawing from power reserves.”

The snapping became louder and louder.

“Where are they getting all of this power?”

Outside, Asha heard low gonging sounds.

“Hull breach imminent.” Mira stood up and opened a compartment beside the command chair. “Take this,” she said, throwing Asha a transparent face mask. “Just breathe normally.”

Asha took it and strapped it around her face just in time to see the rear hatch twist open.

In a flash, a torrent of water rushed into the inner room, filling her vision and washing her off of the platform.

SMACK.

Her head felt numb, and all at once the world fell away.