Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus (116 page)

Just then the door burst open again, and a squad of red-uniformed soldiers marched in. A young officer slapped a document onto the desk. “We are placing you into protective custody,” he announced.

“But I don’t need
any protection!”
the little Hibbil protested, as he was lifted into the air, with his feet kicking. “I can take care of myself!”

“Orders directly from the Doge,” the officer said, showing him an oval red seal on the document. He snapped electronic cuffs around Pimyt’s wrists and ankles.

“But Lorenzo would never.…” Pimyt caught himself, having gotten so flustered that he had forgotten political realities. “Why would Doge Anton do this?”

“Gee,” the officer said, “I’d ask him, but I think he’s kind of busy.”

“Lorenzo will not like this!”

“The two of you can discuss it at length,” the officer said. “He’s being taken into custody, too.”

The following morning the Liberator fleet departed, bound for Siriki, the second wealthiest planet in the Merchant Prince Alliance. As the warships left Canopa, the pod station defenses were reactivated, while ahead, at Siriki, they were temporarily shut down, for the least possible amount of time.

Noah, Anton, and Nirella rode in the flagship Webdancer, which was piloted by Tesh. Her vessel was the only craft not piloted by a Tulyan, and as a consequence it was the sole one that did not have a reptilian face on its prow. All of the ships (including hers) had a useful new feature: gun ports that opened and closed in the thick flesh of the hulls at the command of the various pilots, so that weapons could be fired through them. Intriguingly, the podships had done this en masse when weapons were being loaded aboard them, so they obviously had a collective way of understanding the lofty purpose and magnitude of the mission.

Many Guardians rode in the warships, including Subi Danvar, Acey Zelk, and Dux Hannah. All of them would fight side by side with Red Berets and MPA soldiers against a common enemy. But by far the most numerous of the passengers on board the spacecraft were Tulyan pilots, more than one hundred thousand of them in transport vessels inside the cargo holds, waiting for the opportunity to regain control of the huge podship fleet.

During the preparations for this ambitious undertaking, Master Noah had been at Anton’s side, giving him advice and marveling as he saw his young nephew assume the reins of power and gain the respect of his troops. He was exactly the sort of doge that a venture of this magnitude required.

As one of the leaders of the desperate military effort, Noah felt strong and very much in contact with this dimension of reality, which was inhabited by his physical body and its conscious memories. In recent days he had not dreamed at all when he slept, and perhaps this had something to do with how tired he was when his head hit the pillow, causing him to go deeper into unconsciousness than the REM level of dreams.

At Siriki, specialized military personnel and space weapons were loaded aboard the ships, and the fleet moved on. This procedure was repeated at the seventeen largest Alliance planets, until they had what they needed. In the process, Noah and Anton discovered that Human military assets on all of the planets were not as extensive as shown in the records left behind by ex-Doge Lorenzo. The bases were smaller, and even seemed to be positioned in non-strategic locations. The two men vowed to look into it further upon returning to Canopa.

Having earlier discovered deficiencies in the military installations on Canopa, Anton had ordered the arrests of Lorenzo and Pimyt, along with their top associates. Even if they proved innocent of wrongdoing, Anton said he did not want to leave that group in charge of anything, not even the orbital gambling facility. He didn’t intend to leave a power vacuum that Lorenzo could exploit.

With minimal fanfare, the task force set course for the galactic fold of the Parviis. Speeding ahead, Webdancer seemed anxious to join the battle. Not far behind the sentient flagship, in the midst of other Tulyan-piloted vessels, flew one under the guidance of Eshaz, bearing his determined face on the prow.

It was the most important military operation in the history of the galaxy.

The End

Dedication

This book is for Jan. When I met you on that summer day in California, all of the stars in the heavens were in alignment for us—and my darling, they have been ever since. Thank you for being my loyal, loving companion and for teaching me everything that is meaningful about life.

Chapter One

Eddies and currents of time flow through the galaxy … and immense whirlpools beckon everything into chaos.

—Eshaz, timeseeing report to the Council of Elders

A tiny figure, the Parvii woman clung to a wall of the glowing green sectoid chamber. Using her touch and a telepathic linkage to the Aopoddae podship, she guided the creature past uncounted star systems, which she saw through multiple eyes on the craft’s hull. At the vanguard of the Liberator fleet, she led the other Aopoddae vessels toward the galactic fold of the Parviis, and now their destination drew near.

Tesh Kori’s dominion over the sentient spacecraft was an evolving relationship, a symbiosis between two ancient and very different galactic races in which she merged into the psyche of the creature in the ancient way. Now she felt an increasing closeness to this flagship that she had named
Webdancer
. The connection gave her a glimmer of hope for the future, that perhaps her people would finally see the error of their ways and agree to cooperate with other races.

But she didn’t hold out much hope for that outcome. More likely, there would be a terrible battle in the sacred fold. And she would be responsible for leading a powerful military force to that secret location, for an attack on her own people.

She tried to set aside the feelings of guilt, if only for a few moments. Her thoughts drifted to something infinitely more pleasant, her feelings for an alien Human named Noah Watanabe.…

* * * * *

In the passenger compartment behind Tesh’s sectoid chamber, Noah stood beside a blond young man, both of them staring out a wide aft porthole at the formation of nine hundred podships behind them. Unlike the flagship, the trailing vessels were all piloted by Tulyans that had merged into the flesh of the spacefaring vessels, causing reptilian Tulyan faces to protrude from the prows. He recognized several of them, including that of his close friend, Eshaz.

The journey had taken longer than anticipated—more than two days so far—due to the extreme distance involved and poor conditions of the podways that had required the fleet to take alternate routes. They’d been forced to go around entire galactic sectors that had collapsed from the entropic decay of the Timeweb infrastructure.

The young man nudged him. It was Noah’s nephew, Doge Anton del Velli. “While we’ve been looking outside, our ship morphed again. I think it’s bigger now.”

Noah looked around the grayness of the large cabin, which was illuminated by hidden sources that flickered faintly green at times. Many of the uniformed officers and other personnel stood at forward viewing windows that jutted out on the port and starboard sides. He heard the murmur of their voices.

Everyone had noticed the changes. Since embarking on this critical mission, the passenger areas and the cargo holds on the lower levels had become at least half again as large as they had originally been. None of the Human, Tulyan, or robotic passengers had left the vessel, and all of the fighter craft were parked in the holds, yet everyone agreed there was considerably more space for everything now.

“You’re right,” Noah said. “There’s another row of benches, and the ceiling seems a little higher.”

Anton rubbed his thick blond mustache. “
Webdancer
, she calls this one, and from the reports I’m getting, it’s bigger than all the rest of them.”

With a grin on his freckled face, Noah said, “Well, it is the flagship, and seems to sense its relative importance.” He paused. “Perhaps our ship is just puffing up its chest in pride.”

“Odd, the way podships can configure themselves at will,” Anton said, expanding, changing layouts, and even adding gun ports on the sides of the hulls that are perfect for our space artillery pieces. I find it most peculiar.”

“Indeed.”

“With your connections, Noah, you should know why.”

“But I don’t.” Noah’s incredible psychic powers came and went, enabling him to take paranormal journeys far across the heavens, and sometimes to pilot podships, these mysterious creatures that had their own communication methods and secret motivations. It had all started after he’d been mortally wounded in an attack by Doge Lorenzo del Velli’s forces, and Eshaz healed him by connecting him to a strand of Timeweb. It had been much more than a physical healing process

Timeweb
.

He shuddered slightly as he thought of the name that Parviis and Tulyans had given to the cosmic green filigree connecting everything in the galaxy, a vast network on which these Aopoddae craft were traveling now. Most of the races could not see it, but after Noah’s miraculous survival he’d been granted unprecedented private access to the web, although without explanation or guidance. Still, through it all, Noah had come to suspect that a higher power was guiding him, and had been doing so for some time. He sensed this force with him now, and with the entire fleet.

We’re doing the right thing,
he assured himself,
the only thing we can do.

As he looked at the young merchant prince leader beside him, Noah thought his nephew carried his responsibilities well, and comported himself as if he had been groomed for this important position. That was hardly the case, though Anton did have royal blood on his father Lorenzo’s side, albeit from an extramarital relationship he’d had with Noah’s sister. Only serving as the Doge for a short time after his father was deposed, Anton had managed to coordinate much of the galaxy-spanning military effort, working with the various allied races and factions so that none felt slighted, and all believed they were indispensable to the success of the mission. It helped that this actually was true. Each of the groups in the assault force—the Red Berets, the MPA troopers, the Guardians, the Tulyans, and even the sentient robots—had important roles to play.

Just then, a clamor of excited voices rose at the front of the compartment. Noah and Anton hurried over, making their way around the extruded benches, tables and other furnishings the podship had provided. Noticing the approach of the two leaders, the other passengers moved aside, allowing them to reach one of the forward viewing windows.

Looking through it, Noah sucked in a deep breath, and suppressed a gasp. Ahead he saw what looked like a large, luminous hole in the black fabric of the galaxy, casting subdued illumination like a dull cosmic searchlight.

“The Asteroid Funnel,” Anton murmured. “The Parvii Fold is on the other side, but Tesh will need all of her piloting skills to get us there.”

“She can do it,” Noah said. Both of them had heard of the terrible dangers of the galactic funnel, the hurtling asteroids, the extremely perilous flying conditions.

For several moments time seemed to stand still around Noah Watanabe, and all went silent. So much rested on this military venture, the fate of all the galactic races and their worlds, the fate of all they had ever known and all they had ever imagined. Countless dreams hung in the balance, made precarious by the dark clouds that had seeped into the galaxy.

Closing his eyes, Noah attempted to mind-range and peer into the cosmic web, trying to see into the Parvii Fold beyond the funnel. But the paranormal network had only been accessible to him intermittently, and almost never of his own volition. Now he beheld a pocket of blackness in his mind, and felt cold fear washing through him.

Just as Noah opened his eyes again,
Webdancer
plunged into the hole, with the fleet right behind.

Chapter Two

The most ancient patterns of the heavens are falling victim to new laws of science. From time immemorial, comets, asteroids, and planetary systems have traveled through space at regular, predictable orbits, speeds, and inclinations. Previously it was possible to calculate exactly when a particular comet would transit Venus, to the hour and minute. It was like clockwork, but no more. Cosmic bodies, even entire galactic sectors, have vanished into timeholes.

—Professor Daviz Joél, report to the Merchant Prince Alliance

Two mottled gray-and-black podships sped along the galactic web, one right after the other. Though they traveled so rapidly that a Human eye would not be able to see them, their speeds were nonetheless diminished from the norm, in large part due to the decline of the infrastructure.

Bred in a laboratory, these large, sentient vessels were not piloted like their natural cousins. Instead of Parviis inside the sectoid chambers, or Tulyans merged into the flesh of the creatures, each was under the control of a Mutati operating a Hibbil navigation unit. Behind the pilot in the lead craft stood the Emir Hari’Adab, leader of the shapeshifter race … a position he had attained after assassinating his own father, the Zultan Abal Meshdi.