Supergiant (Gigaparsec Book 2) (10 page)

“Of course. I work with Magi tech
every day. Crystals at different frequencies are like batteries at different
voltages.”

Royce said, “Cutting the live
crystals to precision that way is a trade secret.” However, he elaborated on
several points to demonstrate the breadth of his technical skills.

Max traded Roz’s empty glass for
his full one.

“Where did the seeds come from
initially?” she asked.

“Overlook, a former Magi outpost.
Very few stars emit the necessary gamma radiation to charge the crystals.”

Roz steadied herself against
Royce’s arm. “Your power surges must be huge.”

He recited the exact wavelength and
duration needed to trigger a spawn.

Mrs. Royce, a radiant socialite,
made her way across the room to greet Roz. “You’re monopolizing my husband.
Should I be worried?”

“He was merely reassuring me that
this safety shield will hold. The field out there is glowing in several
patches.”

“That means the show is about to
begin,” said the trophy wife. Flashes of deep-red energy crackled between the
gem clusters as the white sun rose over the crater’s rim. “Get ready.” She slipped
a proprietary arm around her husband.

People on the dance floor fell
silent, gravitating toward the huge windows for the event.

The alcohol made Roz dogged. “How
much explosive force—”

Max swept her over and planted a
kiss on her lips to silence her. He was warm and sweet. She embraced him,
deepening the kiss. Her whole body tingled with excitement.

Lights flashed in the corner of her
eye, and she heard roaring. When he broke the kiss, Roz panted, “Am I having
another episode?”

He whispered low in her ear,
“Sorry. Follow me.”

Roz made her apologies to Mr. and
Mrs. Royce. “Something’s come up that demands my attention.”

Mrs. Royce smiled knowingly. “Is it
true what they say about the rams? Eight times?”

“Twelve,” Roz corrected
automatically and winced.
Now everyone thinks I’m Ivy.

Max led her through the celebration
to a quiet hall near the exit. “Security is on alert. We need to get out of
here.” He touched his earbud to indicate the source of his intel.

Arrested after my first kiss?
How cruel is that?
Roz pushed the call button on the tunnel tram. “Did
Prairie Station send a pursuit vessel?”

“That’s not scheduled to emerge
from subspace till tomorrow morning. No. Reuben almost got pinched collecting
some supplement cargo. Good thing he looped the cameras.”

The door slid aside, and the two of
them hopped into the empty railcar. Everyone else was distracted by the show
outside. She drained the rest of her second champagne. “You’re talking about
smuggling?”

Max put a finger over his lips and
pointed to the security camera. “We could
snuggle
on the way there,
sure.” The low-speed train would take about fifteen minutes to reach the
spaceport stop on the night side.

He sat on the padded bench and
pulled her to his side. His warmth felt so good, she could almost forget her
anger and fear. She removed her painful shoes and pressed idly at a sore spot.
Max shifted and took her foot in his hands. He began rubbing with strong,
experienced strokes. Her eyes rolled up. “Oh. Y-you don’t have to.”

“Nonsense. If you had to wear these
torture devices to maintain our cover, the least I can do as a team member is
to take care of the damage they cause.”

She tried to protest again, but his
hand slid up her heel, releasing cramped muscle. She had to brace an arm
against him to avoid going limp and flopping back onto the bench. As it was,
Roz had to bite her lower lip to avoid crying out or moaning.
Definitely
compatible
.

“Don’t be afraid,” he said, his
voice deeper and huskier than normal. The way he swallowed and glanced at her dress,
Max was more than interested. If it weren’t for corporate security watching,
their ride could have had a much different conclusion. Still, he was a
gentleman and didn’t press further.

She didn’t remember much after the
ride ended other than holding hands and walking barefoot in a cloud of bliss.

In the last few moments of privacy
before boarding the Phoenix shuttle, Max whispered, “I apologize for being so
forward. I had to make our cover look convincing.”

“That was exciting.”

He grinned. “A close call does get
the blood pumping.”

When they were safely strapped
inside the shuttle and ready to depart, Max explained the urgency to Roz.
“Reuben was legitimately collecting raw materials for solar panels for resale
to the Cocytus colony. The cops tried to arrest him for buying tellurium. We
have no idea why.”

Muzzy from the sensual
distractions, Roz took a moment to process the information. “That’s a
controlled substance.”

“Why? They produce more than they
need as a byproduct of gold and copper mining.”

“Sensor invisibility. Bats have
some of the best ship detectors in the Union. Even with Icarus engines off, the
only known way to hide from them is to lace the hull metal with tellurium.”

“That’s what our ship’s former
owner and the Blue Claw Clan were up to on Eden—

supplying pirates.” Max reached over to squeeze her hand.
“You cleared up months of mystery in just a few seconds. I should tell you
everything. Somehow you end up having all the answers.”

His contact and honest faith meant
more to her than if they had taken a tumble on the train. “No, but you can ask
me anything.”

As they fled the Phoenix system, mere hours ahead of
authorities, Roz didn’t sleep much. Just as well, as her bed had been replaced
by a sleeping bag on the hard floor. The only comfortable part was the extra
cushioning Jeeves provided as he grew plumper. Max made a big deal about how
much better the floor was for his bad back. Without a bed of her own, Ivy moved
into Reuben’s stateroom temporarily.

Alyssa brought Roz hot cocoa to
help her relax. She clearly wanted to initiate a friendship, but Roz answered
her with monosyllables. The cook looked so crestfallen at the rejection that
Roz felt obligated to attempt some sort of small talk. Desperate for a topic, she
asked, “Based on what you know about Max, what would his ideal pastry be?”

The mysterious ex-con considered
for a moment. “Baklava. He refuses most donuts as unhealthy. He’s mature enough
to know what’s good for him. The honey can be converted easily to energy, while
the nuts provide longer-term sustenance. The dough looks tough, but the layers
fascinate him. He knows that, baked long enough, the perfect tan of the phyllo
leaves will be tender and melt in his mouth. He looks forward to the flavors
that are hidden deep inside. The treat also travels well and can be enjoyed
almost anywhere.”

Only later did Roz realize the cook
had been speaking in a wicked metaphor.

That night, Roz woke from a
nightmare in total darkness. Jeeves immediately cuddled with her. Her breathing
was still jerky, almost a hiccough. Heartbeats later, she could see the outline
of Jeeves’s open doggy door by the faint light of a clock or some other glowing
electronic device in the next room. Max’s voice whispered through the opening,
“What’s wrong?”

Trying to focus on the threat, she
felt embarrassed. “The matrix equation.”

“The one in Echo’s room?”

“Yes. It seeped through the walls
of the bridge and glued me in place like a tar pit. I couldn’t steer the ship
anymore.” Roz petted the mimic and calmed. “A solar flare threatened to flay
the ship and everyone on it, but I couldn’t break free of the equation to
dodge.”

“I think we’d all agree you’re the
most responsible person on this ship,” Max said through the darkness, “but this
problem has been around much longer than you have. None of us expects you to
solve it, let alone overnight.”

“I expect myself to because I know
it
can
be solved.”

“Roz, I need you to listen to me
very closely. Even if you never accomplished another repair or solved another
puzzle, we would all still respect you and trust you with our lives. You’ve
performed above and beyond ever since we met. You need to let other people
carry some of the weight and trust they’ll be beside you to take up slack, even
if you stumble.”

She nodded, even though he couldn’t
possibly see her. “Okay.”

“Now let me get some rest. Not all
of us get to lie around on a couch all day and have people bring things to
them.” The door
swished
as it swung shut.

“You take that back,” Roz said in
mock outrage.

Max faked snoring sounds, so she
poked her hand through the doggie door to give him a punch in the arm. He
caught her hand and held it until she relaxed. Then he interlaced his fingers
with hers and lowered their joined hands to his blanket.

Roz asked, “Why were you already
awake?”

“You’re not the only one who has
nightmares.”

“Sharing might make you feel
better.” When he remained silent, Roz said, “You could write your dreams down
in a journal or something. My therapist told me it would help, and somehow it
did—I put the bad things in perspective and found better things from my past to
dwell on.”

“From your accident?”

“No. I was too young then. I don’t
want you thinking less of me, but during my journey to the university, I had
flashbacks, panic attacks, homesickness, and mild claustrophobia.”

“I think you’re all the braver for
sharing and overcoming those fears,” he murmured. “I’m not sure my life is all
that interesting.”

“Nonsense,” Roz said. “You know
more about aliens and other planets than anyone I’ve ever met. You grandfather
wrote an excellent book about Eden. I think you could do the same for all sorts
of places. We didn’t have any good post-war travel textbooks at the university.
Perhaps you could write the first.”

“Use my knowledge to save lives and
prepare people instead of kill them? A novel concept.” He snorted. “Stop
worrying and rest.”

Somehow, in this awkward position,
she could.

****

The next morning, Roz woke as the ship jumped. The
transition to subspace barely hurt at all, but she took the opportunity to
sneak down to Echo’s chamber.

The elevator startled Echo. With a
gesture, she shut doors to two other mirrored chambers on either side of the
elevator, perhaps those of her deceased mates. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. Something right,” said Roz,
still in her night clothes. She related everything that had happened with Max
during the ball and the intimate moment last night. At some point, furniture
had appeared for them to relax on. Roz summarized with, “When he does ask me
for my hand in marriage, I’ll accept, but I still want him to declare his
feelings first.”

Echo embraced her in a long hug
that felt like a sister’s. “As you are being frank, I will too. Max won’t
proposition you on the ship because of his position of authority, and he
intends to have a long and careful courtship. Expect nothing physical until
after the ceremony of union. Furthermore, he can’t go ashore for a date on
Cocytus because the planet is too close to Vegas. He had a disagreement with
some prominent organized-crime figures there. You may have a considerable
wait.”

“The longest and most frightening
wait of my life,” Roz admitted. “So are you up for more math? I need to get
some sort of handle on the matrix, or the nightmares are going to continue.”

Echo mused for a moment. “The
nightmare may be your subconscious trying to warn you about something.” She
brought up the 3D projection of the subbasement equation. “You’ve spent a great
deal of time getting in tune with the physical aspect of the ship. What else bothers
you?”

Roz opened up and let the chaos
wash over her. She strolled through the room, concentrating on each cell of the
matrix. Finally, a small value on the diagonal, two hops from the one she had
already expressed problems with, caught her attention. Cells to the left and
down were empty. “Here. This one doesn’t match the rest of the model. It should
have a larger magnitude.”

“Indeed.” Echo highlighted both
problematic cells and narrowed her eyes. “I can share facts that will enlighten
you as to the cause, but first, I need a token from you.”

“Of what sort?”

“Do you swear betrothal to me and
loyalty to our union? Promise that what we speak of in this place shall be
private and revealed to no one outside our sacred bond.”

“Of course.”

“Give me a symbol of your pledge,
to be returned upon our marriage ceremony,” the Magi insisted. “It must have
great personal worth.”

Roz didn’t have any meaningful
personal items except the medal Max had given her. Slowly, she unpinned the
dolphin from her lapel and offered it to Echo. “As a sign of my commitment and
intent.”

Echo examined the shimmering pin
with affection and clipped it to her own silk robe. “This is indeed precious. I
shall keep it safe. For my part, I give you access to one of my race’s greatest
secrets.” From beneath the robe at her chest, she withdrew a golden necklace so
thick it could have been a belt. The flat, oval, green stone fixed in the
center could have been from an Egyptian pharaoh. She lowered the heavy necklace
over Roz’s shoulders and adjusted something on a security menu. The image of
the matrix around them vanished. “Place your palm over the stone to be granted
access.”

As Roz did so, the stone flared so
brightly that she could see pink light through her hand.

Echo gave the stone instructions in
rapid Magi. In Banker, she explained, “I made a copy of my work space for you
to experiment with. My male mate was the Probability Mechanic in our triad. You
may see things he didn’t.”

The projection changed to a stack
of ceramic cubes—nine wide, nine deep, and nine high.
Again the Magi
obsession with threes
. Invisible bars of glass separated the perfect rows
and columns so Roz could shift her angle of view to see the precise hieroglyphs
on each face. Together, the writing on consecutive cubes made a complete
pattern. They reminded her of a three-by-three cube her math professor had used
to demonstrate group theory. “Is this some sort of game or puzzle?”

“A copy of the ultimate puzzle—the
Enigma Cube. The inside has equations as well as the outer faces.”

“It’s insane. There are 729 options
for each hole and twenty-four orientations for each little cube. The
permutations are astronomical!”

“Worse. The expected lifespan of
the Milky Way is less than ten to the eighteenth seconds long. The cube has on
the order of ten to the 2778th permutations.”

“There’s no way we can solve this
by brute force. What sadist invented it?” Roz asked.

“Your people would call them the
Forerunners, the race who preceded all others. This was the only trace left of
them. It is said the one who solves this puzzle can join them. Our wisest
philosophers and sages have been working to solve it for tens of thousands of
Anodyne years.” Even the Magi’s revelation was cloaked in further mystery. “The
first layer was only workable because it contained a multiplication table in
base eight.”

Roz wrinkled her brow. Humans only used
base ten because they had ten fingers. “Do your people have eight fingers like
the Turtles and the cold-bloods?”

“The Turtles shaped species in
their own image. We avoid such pride,” Echo said, dodging the question. “The
secondary patterns inside are called internal assurances, letting us know we’re
on the right track with our solution. By the third layer, the assurances were
so miniscule they spurred our people to invent microscopes. The study of Enigma
changed us. From it, we have learned most of our physics, including the Icarus
star-drive equations.”

Roz stared in disbelief at the
ornate interface in her hands. The Icarus equations had nearly destroyed Earth
four centuries ago. This was far bigger. She began breathing faster, and her
voice rose. “Your people built their civilization around this artifact. Your
genetic engineering of the Quantum Computing talent was probably designed to
solve this puzzle. What do you expect me to do?”

“Provide fresh perspective. When we
met the Turtles, they gave us principles of sonic physics that never occurred
to us. This reduced our search space by an order of magnitude. Then my mates
and I showed this puzzle to Black Ram Xerxes.”

Rotating the image, Roz marveled at
the complexity buried in the simplicity. “Reuben’s ancestor. He could tap the
Collective computing power of every Goat mind on his planet.”

“Yes. For a price, Xerxes twisted
the cube in new ways to reveal the subbasement equations. My mates and I
devoted decades of our lives to the implementation of that discovery.” Echo
touched the center stone, and the holographic equations they had been studying
before reappeared. “That cube configuration generates our current matrix.”

“Holy crap,” Roz said, her fingers
numb from hyperventilating. “These are the building blocks to the freaking
universe.”

“Holy, indeed, is the triune made
solid. Even the authenticity of dirt smudges on various cubes has provoked
years of debate. The original was lost ages ago in our religious wars, but
anyone who contributes new science to the academy is entrusted with a copy.”

“I thought you guys were totally
against violence,” Roz said.

“Losing our greatest treasure
caused many changes in our society, including our determination to protect
sentient life,” Echo said quietly. “My greatest fear for the last century has
been that the academy of sages would discard my solution as a dead end and
forbid further exploration of its variations. This would seal off the true
solution from our people forever, a worse fate than my death would have been.”

“Branches of exploration? Interesting.”
Roz stared at the problem cells. “Is there any way you can trade these two like
flipping the battery over in a flashlight? Could you turn a zero upside down or
something?”

Echo restored the array of cubes.
Then she reached out her fingers and rotated the square. Most of the sides were
blank, and the two hieroglyphs that swapped were remarkably similar. However, she
tapped the center stone, and a new matrix appeared. “Like this?” The two cells
in question were now transposed. Several other cells had been subtly modified.

“That feels … better,” Roz said
after several moments of examination. “But it changes everything.”

“Yes, mate-to-be. I think you may
have found the source of many problems.” Echo’s voice was tinged with awe. “You
are the first Human to have earned the mantle of the Enigma. Regardless of
whether I survive, you shall be honored by the academy of Magi sages for this
contribution.”

A touch on Roz’s neck conveyed
peace and calm. “How can we prove this is the
right
change?”

“Confirming with computer
simulation could take many months. If Professor Crakik solves the drift issue,
we can test the changes soon after.”

“This is awesome. While you
simulate, I’ll track the physical differences. A lot of them can be achieved by
adjusting existing hardware.” Roz was already planning how to reshape the
Calabi-Yau reaction chambers and use the photovores conservatively.

“Are you glad now that you have
pledged yourself to my triad?”