Tesla's Signal (70 page)

Niko stared into a huge triangle. He thought it might be a viewing port, or a what they called a Gate.

 

 Alu's wings moved in a complex pattern, and the view of the Gate expanded. And now Niko saw the curve of poor, injured Earth; the great scar where the two destructive rays had met and collided. And there in dark space lurked the U'jaan Command ship. It looked damaged—but not damaged enough. Its weaponry still aimed at the planet below.

No, that was impossible. <
Oh, God—is Earth still going to be destroyed?>
 

said Ayin.  

Akai spoke to Niko while several others manipulated the Gate.

Alu morphed from one shape to another, expressing deep emotion. <
Bright, I regret so much that we could not help you more. The Guardians tried to end our contact with you...they feared the danger. But now we're going to make sure the U'jaan never destroy anything again.>
 

Niko felt the first stirrings of hope.

And Alu blazed up tall and resolute.

 

Several of the glowing Aon moved the Nexus Key into position. Now Niko could see that it was much more than a set of oddly-angled blades: now he could see the
rest
of it! The angles and shapes stretched off into infinity, and more kept unfolding every minute.

They gathered around the device, manipulating the energies in some way Niko could not fathom. A nexus of lines radiated out from the center of the device and poured into the Gate. They focused the radiating beam onto the U'jaan Command Ship.

Ayin enfolded one of the 'fan blades' and moved it. Niko could feel the motion like invisible gears turning, as the device grabbed the ship.

Then came an instant of tremendous force, like a controlled tornado, as they folded the ship out of existence. The ominous, looming shape simply...disappeared...into some other of the infinite dimensions which the Nexus revealed.

But the Aon Colleagues weren't done.

Niko watched in stupefied awe, as they searched the Starsea with their Gate and focused on the view of a cylindrical shape, rotating above a rust-colored planet.
Mars?
He made out faint details: ports, inlets, projections, rotating sections which his mind interpreted as stabilizers, perhaps a motive force. Tiny objects flew in and out of its ports. Shuttle ships, like the one that had taken him? 

said Alu.
 

destroy
it?>
Niko felt the oddest emotion. Something he had never expected to feel.

He had feared and hated the U'jaan conquerors who had enslaved New York. But...he had seen something in the very moment when the aliens were about to feast on him: he had seen them as
biological beings
. Frightening monsters, but also
creatures
, like Earthly predators—wolves, or sharks—simply creatures that ate other beings, like himself, when he enjoyed a Delmonico steak.

Now his rescuers had a weapon which could snuff out a whole population of these beings. Even ones who had never harmed him. Did the U'jaan have families, he wondered...and children?

all
of the U'jaan? But...>
 

Alu pulsed with an emotion Niko interpreted as amusement, and a touch of compassion.

Ayin took up the thread, <
there are infinite dimensions and universes. Some are very small, containing only a few star systems. We're sending the U'jaan to one of those universes. There will be no other races for them to conquer and consume. They will have to learn other ways of living.>
 

Alu focused on the Abode and folded again. With a tremendous rush of cosmic wind, the U'jaan and their Abode were twisted out of the known universe.

***

He came to awareness not knowing how much time had passed.
Am I really alive or is this a dream?
One moment he was alone; the next moment Alu and Ayin appeared with no warning.
Very disconcerting, that 4th-d trick.
 

Well, he might be dead, but that didn't stop his curiosity.
he asked.
 

Finally he found the courage to ask the most important question of all.

Though the aliens had no mouths, they seemed to be smiling.

They led Niko into a spherical bubble
.
And he gasped in surprise, for who should be standing there, but...Clara. A Clara that he had never seen before. Her skin was radiant; in fact she was nearly transparent. He could see the glowing clouds of this planet right through her. She looked like...one of the Aon!

she said, and reached out for him.

He thought he must be weeping for joy, if he still had eyes.

The Aon surrounded them and shared the joyful moment, vibrating like candle flames. And finally, they left Niko and Clara alone.

***

He reached for her hand.
> he said in wonder. <
Even if I can see right through it. Are we nothing but mathematical abstractions?>
He smiled at that delightful concept.

 

Clara told him
.
 

He ran his fingertips over her palm. He forgot that he had ever been afraid of touching her.

 

.>

Clara took his hand and stroked his upper arm. That was when it occurred to Niko that he wasn't wearing his usual shirt, tie and vest. <
What—what happened to my clothes?>
All could see were a few suggestions of leaves and fronds. Or perhaps they too were mathematical abstractions.

Her laughter sounded like the tinkle of glass wind chimes.

 

He laughed. <
Well, this is certainly...embarrassing.>
 

.> Actually he couldn't think of a reason. Things that made sense on Earth, just didn't apply here. In fact, he did not feel at all like the Nikola who had lived on Earth, a world of strictures and propriety, where people must be imprisoned in confining clothing, conventional manners and rigid comportment.

He looked at Clara. She wasn't wearing the usual women's attire—high-necked shirt, constricting corset and billowing skirt—or even her customary baggy overalls. She only wore what made her more beautiful. A flower-like drape here and there: a burst of sunlight there.

She looks like...a Goddess. Botticelli's Venus.

She touched his shoulder.
The sensation was like being caressed with the current: the same feeling he had as a child, when the lightning struck him. Only slower and more pleasurable. She caressed the length of his body, laughing the whole time.

 

In turn Niko stroked her shoulders and back. <
But you feel like current to me, Clara. A being made of slowed-down lightning. Why didn't I ever touch you before?>
 

She grinned: the same wry grin that she had given him, the day she had tracked him to his Clinton Street Station
.
 

She may be an Aon, but she is still Clara.

.
I had such deep feelings for you, but..
.> All the words came out: all the emotions he had locked inside.

 

She put her arms around him.
Their lips met.

 

He felt as if his heart had just been shattered in pieces.

She enveloped him in her arms, folded him into her Aon body.

 

They touched palms, intertwined fingers. Niko felt as if he and Clara had become a single circuit, with current pulsing between them.

They held, and stroked, and raised the energy. They became like twin coils, vibrating on ever higher levels of sensation and emotion. It was time for the Human Capacitor to give up all that he had stored; all he had held back. They joined and completed a cosmic circuit.  

Ten million volts, a hundred, five hundred million volts...those were nothing compared to the power of Niko and Clara's love.

39: White Bird

They moved about as if in a dream: sharing thoughts, speaking in music and current, refusing to let go of each other for one second.

He thought about her suggestion.

 

Soon afterward, the Aon Colleagues called a meeting and assembled around them, ranks on ranks. Akai spoke first.