The Space Between (40 page)

When Cuto was done, Meledrin began
translating.

"Wait a second, we attacked them?" Kim
interrupted when Meledrin reached that part of the story. She had
barely begun at all. "They hadn't yet gotten into space and humans
were attacking them?"

"That is what Cuto says."

"Ask again."

Meledrin sighed.
"
Kim wishes confirmation of the fact that
hakans attacked Hulgorn before hurgon had a knowledge of flight and
the stars.
"

"
That is correct. The hakan is trying to blame the hurgon for
this war?
"

"
Cuto, modern hakan society knows nothing of these attacks.
Our societies have come and gone and come again since
then.
"

"
Do not lie. No time at all has passed since the Great Sun
Wars began.
"

"
Ages have come and gone for our people Cuto. Truly we knew
nothing of hurgon or the war until hurgon attacked the hakan
worlds.
"

Meledrin could hear Kim fidgeting and turned
to the woman.

"Make sure Cuto understands that we want
peace with the hurgon, Mel," Kim said in response to the
translation.

Meledrin sighed.
What else did she expect me to say?
"
Cuto, hakans desire
peace with your people.
"

Cuto was not convinced.
"
How is Cuto to believe? Millions of
hurgon died at the hands of hakans.
"

"
Meledrin does not know what can be done to convince Cuto,
beyond treat Cuto as well as can be, which is being done
already.
"

"
Hakans could let Cuto go.
"

"
Where, Cuto? Do the hakans just drop Cuto off somewhere and
hope Cuto is found by hurgon?
"

"
Let Cuto talk to them.
"

"
How?
"

"
Cuto is a communications technician. If tools are available,
Cuto can fix the hakan radio so it can hear hurgon
radio.
"

"
Meledrin will pass this information on to Kim and complete
the telling of Lapenti and Zorta's tale.
"

When Meledrin had finished the translation,
Kim laughed.

"Shit. They fluked it. Talk
about
deus ex machina
. A superior being reached down from heaven and helped them.
No wonder Cuto is so in awe of the ships."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Don't worry. But what now, do you
think?"

"Cuto suggests that if tools are available,
our radio might be modified to hear hurgon radio."

"Really?"

Meledrin glanced at Kim, thinking that
perhaps the woman was accusing her of lying.

Keeble's voice emerging from the cockpit
delayed any opportunity to inquire. "Ahhh, Kim. I think you should
come in here."

Meledrin felt a strange shifting in her
weight, like she had felt when they first moved away from the
American base, and Kim dashed back into the cockpit to lean on the
backs of the two chairs to look. "I thought I told you..."

Meledrin followed at a more sedate pace and
discovered that they were motionless in a sky full of planes and
kidol. The alien bats, much more maneuverable than the planes, were
no match for the human weapons. They dodged and weaved, retaliating
with missiles of their own and dropping their bombs onto the world
below.

"I thought it was a good idea to slow down,"
Keeble said. "The way we were going before, we'd run into stuff
before we saw it, just about."

A plane turned and skimmed past a ponderous
alien missile. The missile exploded anyway, engulfing the aircraft
in a huge ball of flame and sound. Kim swore. Meledrin's heart was
racing, but she schooled her face to calmness in case someone
should observe her.

"Christ. We need a radar." Kim scanned the
controls, eyes darting back and forth, as if the use of each one
would suddenly become obvious now that she thought the need was
real.

"What is a radar?"

"It lets us see things like missiles from a
long way away, even if they're behind us."

Meledrin shook her head before remembering
the way Tuki had used the skyglass at the American base. She
mentioned the idea to Kim.

"You're a bloody genius, Mel. Tuki shift the
focus, would you? Shift it in close so we can see what's around
us."

The moai did as he was asked. In the
meantime Kim moved up to the main controls in the middle of the
panel and dropped the ship down near the ground. They advanced
along a shallow river valley. The skyglass was soon showing the
ship and a few kilometers all around. There were so many dots, they
almost became one large smudge of yellow. Tuki touched the crystal
and spoke a single word. Suddenly there were fewer dots, further
apart. One seemed to be directly over the ship and descending
rapidly.

A moment later Meledrin jumped, despite her
best intentions, as a kidol plummeted past the front of their
craft. It seemed to be just meters away, almost close enough to
touch. She could hear the creature's panicked shrieking as it went
by. The metal cylinders strapped to its belly were ablaze.

Cuto was standing just
behind her. "
That was a Ma'sosa Family
kidol.
"

"
How can Cuto tell?
"

"
The colors painted on the side. The Ma'sosa are a small
family.
"

Meledrin watched as Kim increased their
speed. They slewed from one side to the other as she struggled to
keep them from colliding with the mountains.

"
Do the hakans want Cuto to fix the radio?
"

Meledrin translated for Kim, though she was
almost certain what the answer would be. She could tell what the
woman was thinking by just looking at her face.

"Now isn't the best time," Kim replied while
still working at the controls. And to Tuki: "Where the hell is this
gate?"

Tuki worked at the skyglass again. He chewed
on his lip as if unsure. "I think it is five hundred and twenty
seven kilometers directly south of us."

"Right."

There was a sound like rain against the hull
of the ship moments before a jet streaked past. Meledrin jumped and
held her hand to her racing heart as if someone might otherwise
see. And again a few seconds later, when a sound like thunder
washed over them.

"They shot us," Kim said.

They had already established that human
weapons had no effect on the craft, through both overburdened logic
and practical tests, so Meledrin was uncertain what the fuss was
about.

"
Hakan weapons have not improved since the start of the
war,
" Cuto said. "
In fact they have gone backwards. Hurgon have made many
advances but, still, Cuto thinks there is no
chance.
"

Meledrin did not know much about reading the
alien's body language, but there seemed to be a resigned tilt to
his sign language.

"
All the more reason for Cuto to help us stop the
war.
"

After a couple of minutes struggling along
near the bottom of the valley, Kim sighed and took them up. Then
she pointed the ship towards what looked like a clear section of
sky and accelerated.

Meledrin closed her eyes for a moment and
held her breath.

28: One Small Step

Kim flinched when a jet passed by, no more
than eighty meters ahead. According to the skyglass, there were
another couple coming from the other direction. Or maybe they were
kidol. It didn't matter. Both sides were likely to have a shot at
her if they could.

A warning alarm sounded. Luckily, Kim had
her hand on the elevation knob, and she held on as she flinched. A
missile, definitely of human design, passed below as they shot
upwards like a cork from a champagne bottle. Her heart was racing.
When she thought to release the knob, they were almost eye-to-eye
with a couple of kidol. A moment later a missile dropped from the
central cylinder of one creature. It fell a few meters then powered
up and darted forward. Kim sent her ship up again. This time, when
they stopped, they seemed to be above the main battle. For now.

They'd climbed a few hundred meters in a
couple of seconds. There had been the momentary thump of g-forces
when they first moved, then nothing at all. Amazing.

She breathed and looked around at her
companions.

"That was close." She stood up on shaking
legs and looked at the battle below. The sun was rising, peeking
over the horizon, painting hundreds, maybe thousands of aircraft
with golden light. There were so many of them, filling the sky like
a plague of locusts.

The skyglass was indicating they'd have
company again very soon.

Kim looked back out the
window then back at the controls. It was possible the ship had all
sorts of defensive equipment, but she was forced to jump around
like a startled rabbit every time someone came close. Or maybe the
ship was for doing the shopping, and the only thing it could defend
against was wild shopping trollies. Looking around, she decided the
final option was the most likely. There was so much she wanted to
find out, but she wasn't likely to get an opportunity in the near
future. She wondered how Keeble was doing. He was constantly
reviewing the control panel, as if all the action outside was of no
consequence, and doing an admirable job of controlling himself. His
fingers were twitching with suppressed need to be doing
something
.

"South, right, Tuki?" She pushed at the
thrust pedal. "Let's get the hell out of here."

There were battles for much of the five
hundred kilometers, seemingly from the ground all the way up. The
death and destruction was horrible. Kidol and jets were falling
from the sky like ducks in hunting season. There were more kidol
than planes, and that was where their only real advantage lay. For
every one of the creatures shot down another three were waiting to
take its place. Smoke was rising from wrecks and towns and forest
fires. Kim did her best to ignore them all, finding open air and
heading for it, passing by before anyone had a chance to react.

Half an hour later Tuki, watching his
skyglass in the cargo cabin, started to fidget quietly.

Kim looked back at him. "What is it,
Tuki?"

"We are in the right area. I think. The gate
is close by."

"You're sure?"

"I think so."

"You think you're sure?" Kim muttered.

There were more than a dozen kidol high up
to the west and a few dozen more scattered around the area. There
were a few planes flying around the perimeters, but the humans
seemed to be content to leave them alone for the most part.

Kim stood up and examined the mountains
below them. There didn't seem to be anything there.

"Are you sure, Tuki?" Kim probably would
have let the aliens have the area as well.

Tuki checked the skyglass again. He shifted
the focus. "I think so."

He probably hadn't been sure of much in his
life.

"That way, I think. The cross is very large,
though, so it is hard to be sure."

"Okay." Kim sighed. "Let's find this thing."
It could take forever.

After nearly an hour of searching, Kim
brought the ship to a halt, hovering a few miles away from their
destination. She slumped back in her seat and looked at the ruins
clinging to the ridge.

"Where are we?" Keeble asked.

Kim could tell he wouldn't be able to
control himself for much longer. "Machu Picchu," she said. She'd
never been there, but it wasn't hard to recognize. "It's an ancient
city that nobody really understands."

"What is it that you mean?" Meledrin
asked.

"Well, there's no real reason for the city
to be where it is. It's not on a major road, it probably wouldn't
have been self sufficient, which was strange at the time, and it’s
in a really out of the way place. Nobody has ever been able to
think of a sensible reason why anyone would build a city
there."

"How old is this city?"

"Not overly, in the scheme of things. A few
thousand years, maybe. Maybe they didn't know about the gate, they
just knew the site was important."

"But where's the gate?" Keeble asked.

"I don't know. Exactly. You know as much as
me. Tuki? How about you?"

"Pardon, mo'shi."

"Can you narrow down the location on the
skyglass any more?"

"I do not know. I do not really know how to
use the skyglass very well. I am just a go'gan."

"Don't say stuff like that. You're getting
better at using it all the time, Tuki. Just keep working on
it."

"Yes, mo'shi."

"Right, then. Let's just land and we'll see
what we can see."

Keeble grunted, and Kim knew exactly what he
was going to say. "Great plan. The gate has been hidden for fifty
thousand years or something, but we'll find it in the next half an
hour."

"Well, we'd better. The Americans have a
base in Peru. It can't be more than a couple of hours from
here."

A crashing plane had taken the tops off a
few walls and cut a long furrow in the earth. It had eventually
come to rest, tail in the air, against a terrace wall. It had
exploded sometime during the process. There were half a dozen dead
kidol as well, plus another that writhed and kicked feebly. Smoke
rose from the canisters on all of them.