The Space Between (41 page)

Kim carefully guided the ship down towards a
large open area in the center of the ruins. The plane had passed
that way and a kidol was sprawled awkwardly, wing and neck at odd
angles, but there was still plenty of room to land. She was going
to need it. She'd forgotten how hard it was to actually steer
towards somewhere in particular without stopping and starting and
wavering backwards and forwards. She probably could have done it if
she'd been willing to waste ten minutes or if she could see
straight down.

There was one consolation.
At this time of the day, there should have been tourists
everywhere, but the war had kept them away.
Yay for the war.

Getting close to the ground, Kim panicked
and searched desperately for the switch that controlled the landing
gear. It was a couple of seconds before she realized she hadn't
done anything to raise it back in Nevada. They thumped down
heavily, and Kim let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been
holding.

"Mind the step, and no smoking until you
have cleared the terminal building."

"What?"

"Never mind. Come on." She had to keep
moving. No time for thought, or she would collapse in a blubbering
heap.

Kim opened the back doors and jumped down to
the grass. Despite what she'd said to Keeble, she looked around for
some obvious sign of the gate. The dwarf, toolbox clamped in his
hand, clattered to the ground, and Meledrin landed lightly a moment
later. The elf crossed to her side.

Cuto, following close behind the only person
who could understand him, said something and pointed at the sky.
Kim was waiting for a translation when she worked out for herself
what the alien had said. Three Chinook helicopters emerged from
behind a cloud, heading straight for Machu Picchu. Where else would
they be going?

"General Hilliard isn't stupid." If the
spaceship had been tracked then once they had stopped to search,
their destination must have been obvious to anyone with a map.

"I believe time is running short," Meledrin
said, shading her eyes to watch the helicopters as well.

"Yeah, great, Mel. Well deducted."

"How do we go about this search," the elf
asked, either ignoring or completely missing the sarcasm. "Do you
have a plan?"

Kim turned to look when Keeble grunted
behind her. She expected him to follow up with a smartarse comment,
but he was staring off into the ruins. "How about we just follow
Keeble," she said.

"I beg your pardon? Keeble has not
previously been at this location, as you well know."

"You know where the gate is, Keeble, don't
you?" She hadn't thought of the possibility before. It was obvious,
really.

The dwarf nodded and pointed. "It's that
way," he said absently. "I can hear it as plain as day"

"Well, don't just stand there. Lead on."

It didn't look as if Keeble even heard her,
but he headed down the long slope. Kim wanted to tell him to hurry
but didn't think it would do any good. He was in a daze. They moved
into the shade of a building-topped cliff then climbed a low wall
onto a path.

"How far, Keeble?" Kim checked the sky.

"Not far," Keeble said. He might have been
talking about the helicopters. They were a couple of minutes away,
at most, and the pilots would land them a lot quicker than Kim had
landed the spaceship. But he pointed through a gap between two tall
walls. "Just through here."

The dwarf ran his fingers over the stone as
he passed through, as if wanting to stop for a closer look at the
workmanship, but apparently the song called him on. Beyond the
walls was a small square with what looked like a ceremonial stone
in the middle and a spectacular view out over terraces and a
steep-sided valley. The dwarf ignored both of these. On the
northern side of the square was a small lawn enclosed on three
sides by tall walls, some of them looking as if they couldn't
decide whether to topple over in the next few minutes or stay where
they were for another few thousand years.

The sound of the helicopters was
growing.

"It's there," Keeble said, pointing at the
rear wall.

"Where?" Kim went and touched the stone. It
looked and felt like normal stone.

Keeble shook his head even as he went to put
his good hand gently against the wall as well. "It's on the far
side."

"Do not waste our time, Keeble," Meledrin
said, starting back the way they'd come. "If we have to go around
the wall why did you not lead us there immediately?"

Keeble shook his head again and sneered. "It
is right against the stone," he said, "and we can only go through
from one side. This side."

"So our journey was pointless then. These
stones have been in place for millennia, and we will not change
that in the next few moments."

Kim shook her head and looked at Keeble. "He
can sing, Meledrin. And if he's going to, he'd better do it
quick."

Helicopters were landing
out near the spaceship. Kim thought it was all of them until one of
them came over the wall and hovered barely twenty meters away. If
the pilot got desperate, he could probably land in the square. Kim
shielded her eyes against the dust and wind before turning to see
that there
was
something that could distract Keeble from the gate.

"Don't just stand there, Keeble. Sing."

The dwarf wrenched his eyes away from the
Chinook and turned his attention to the wall. His song couldn't be
heard over the noise, but Kim could feel it building anyway.

"NOBODY MOVE." The voice on the loud speaker
was easy enough to hear. The side door of the helicopter was open
and a few soldiers were visible. One had a microphone, one had a
heavy caliber machine gun bolted to the floor, and the others were
preparing to rappel down to the ground.

"How's it going, Keeble?" Kim shouted.

"Ready."

"Ready?"

"Yes."

Kim went to the wall, taking a deep breath
to steady her nerves. The others were watching her. She'd passed
through to Sherindel, but that had only been for a moment and she
hadn't really believed she'd be passing through to another world at
that time. She'd had time to think about it since then, and the
idea scared her as much as it excited her.

She might have stood there all day, staring
at the misty stone, but one glance over her shoulder and she saw
that the first American soldier had just reached the ground.

"Come on. Quick." She took
another deep breath, nodded, and stepped into the stone. Then she
took another step. Nothing happened. She was in a big, dusty room —
fifteen meters long and ten wide — that most definitely wasn't in
Peru, but nothing had
happened
. She stepped through the
door like she would have stepped though any other door.

"That's it?" she said. "I expected... I
don't know. Something."

"Thunder?" Keeble asked, pushing her out of
the way. The dwarf let his song slip away after the others crowded
through behind.

Kim nodded. "Yeah. Maybe. Just something."
She almost wanted to turn around and go back through, just to see
if she'd missed something. It wasn't as if the destination was all
that amazing either. It might well have been on Earth. There were
ancient, fading frescoes on the walls. The subjects looked boringly
human and were holding some very mundane items. Electrical
lighting, or something similar, cast a pale glow. Did the air taste
strange? Kim laughed. It probably did taste different, but that
didn't mean anything at all. On Earth the air could be different
from one street to the next. From one minute to the next, as
well.

In some ways Kim was
disappointed. If she were on another world, surely things should be
different. At the same time she was comforted. Maybe
her
people didn't know
this world, but humans had at some stage. "One small step," she
said softly. One small step, and it had taken her from one world to
another.

"I reckon we should close these."

Kim looked. There were two slabs of stone
that looked like doors folded back out of the way of the doorway
they'd just used. There didn't seem to be a lock or catch of any
kind. Columns stood on either side of the door, though it wasn't
likely they had anything to do with holding up the roof.

"I don't think it'd be much use. I think
they're more ornamental than anything else. Besides, it'll take
them a while to pull down that wall on Earth. They probably have to
get council permission — destroying one of the wonders of the world
and all."

"If you're sure. It'll only take a
moment."

Kim thought about it then shook her head.
"We want them to get through. We don't want to be doing this on our
own."

"I am still unaware of what it is we are
attempting to achieve," Meledrin said. "You have not made it
clear."

She hadn't made it clear because she wasn't
exactly sure. Get away from the Americans, first. Done, for the
moment. Talk to the hurgon and end the war. She'd certainly made
progress in that direction but wasn't sure how being on this new
world would help, beyond evening out the playing field with the
Americans. She knew as much about this place as they did.

"We see if we can find people on this world
and see if they are technologically advanced." The dusty room they
were in did nothing more than muddy those waters. "And we try to
contact the hurgon and see what the hell we can do about this war.
They don't want this any more than we do. Not really."

"You are basing this assessment on the fact
that one hurgon failed to kill one elderly human?"

"Yes. And this hurgon right here is friendly
enough. He's obviously someone we can get along with."

"So," Keeble said, "we need to find a radio
so Cuto can fix it and we can talk to the rest of them."

"Yes."

"Right. Well it won't get done standing
here." He shifted his toolbox to his good hand and stumped from the
room. Though Cuto could not have understood a word of what was
said, the alien followed. Tuki waited until first Kim and then
Meledrin followed as well.

"This world may be in worse condition than
the others we have seen," Meledrin said. "The hurgon may already
have been victorious and moved on."

Hurrying after Keeble, Kim
sucked in a deep breath as she started to catch up with reality.
She was on another world. Another world. Her companions were all
primitive people who still believed in magic. Hell, Keeble
could
do
magic.
Crossing between worlds was probably not such an impossible thought
for them. They also wouldn't understand the odds of finding a group
of worlds that were so alike.

It was all so unlikely. So impossible.
Ending a war should be easy in comparison.

As far as Kim could tell, they were in some
type of military installation. On the first level was a mess hall
with a huge kitchen. There was what looked like a first aid room
and a laundry. There was an office with twenty desks lined up with
regimental precision. There was what could have been a rec' or
torture room. Or something else entirely.

Every surface was covered in a few
centimeters of dust and looked to have been that way for centuries.
They left a storm of it in their wake.

At the end of a long hall, with a utility
room and workshops that Keeble had to be pulled away from, they
found a door that opened at the push of a button, and a set of
stairs. Up was the only option. Kim went slowly, pausing at the
next level, ear against the door to listen.

"What do you hear?" Keeble whispered.

"Nothing. Come on."

Beyond was more hallway and more quiet,
dusty rooms. Kim didn't know what half of them were for, and she
wasn't interested in the ones whose purpose she could guess. There
wasn't anything that looked like machinery.

More stairs at the end of the hall, and more
rooms above. Then the same again. They hadn't even found a door
leading outside, or a window. Just fifty meters of straight, dusty
blandness with stairs at either end. Keeble and Tuki checked every
door as they went past, long after Kim had given up hope. They
could have passed a dozen radios already, without realizing. Cuto
didn't look particularly interested, though it was probably all
very strange to it.

At the end of the hallway on the fifth
level, Kim leaned against the door. "We might as well go back," she
said.

Keeble shook his head. "The Americans are
probably through by now."

"Right. Of course. We might as well wait
here, then. They'll catch up soon enough."

"They will not return us to prison?"
Meledrin asked as she straightened her hair.

"Of course they will. One made entirely of
metal."

"And you desire this."

Kim sighed. "No."

"Then perhaps we should continue on."

"Come on, then." Kim levered herself off the
door so Keeble could open it and followed him up the inevitable
stairs beyond. And there was another door at the next landing.

"Do we look at this floor or choose floors
at random or go straight to the top?" Kim said before the dwarf had
a chance to open the door. But she knew what his answer would be.
Skipping floors would be leaving the job half done, and that wasn't
right.

"No shirking, dwife. There may be a radio
right through here."

There wasn't. There was a hallway. But the
hallway was wider, higher, and shorter than usual. And it was
filled with all types of furniture and rubbish scattered around
like a fall of autumn leaves. Kim didn’t know what the mess might
mean, so she gave it no thought. The one door that marred the right
hand wall was three meters wide and went all the way from floor to
ceiling. There was no door at the far end, just an opening that
took up the entire wall.