Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus (120 page)

“Interesting,” Noah said. “How does the Parvii concept of a Universal Creator compare with your Sublime Creator, and with our Supreme Being?”

“Some of my people would be surprised to hear you ask such a question,” Eshaz said with a toothy smile. “They believe you are a messiah.”

“So, you think I should know all the answers?”

“I wasn’t necessarily speaking for myself. Tell me, my friend. Are you saying, then, that you are not a messiah?”

“If I am one, I have a lot to learn.” Noah paused. “I don’t know what I am, or why special things have happened to me. My life changed dramatically after you healed me the way you did, touching my skin to the web, causing its nutrients to flow into my wound.”

“Do you regret any of it?”

Noah hesitated. “No. I don’t think I do.” He stared at the place on the wall where Eshaz continued to touch the podship.

“Try connecting with Tesh yourself,” Eshaz said. “You’ve had a special relationship with podships, and with her. Touch the skin and communicate with her, as I am doing.”

“I don’t know. My … I hesitate to call them powers … come and go. I never know when I’m going to be able journey through the web, and when it will keep me at bay.”

“Give it a try now.”

Instead, Noah looked out the window. The podship had come to a stop very close to the gray-green membrane of the fold, near the long scar that Tesh had spoken of. The sentient craft nudged against the membrane, like a ship bumping up against a dock.

Over the last four days, Noah, Anton, and the Tulyans had been consolidating the immense podship fleet at the Parvii Fold. Instead of nine hundred ships in the Liberator fleet, they now had a vastly larger number of vessels—and all of them had morphed to produce gun port feature on their hulls, controllable by the various pilots in the battle group.

With their increased assets, the Liberators had a new mission: Use the podships to transport Tulyan teams all over the galaxy, so that they could perform the infrastructure repairs on an emergency basis, staving off the damage that was occurring to the fabric of the universe.…

* * * * *

But before leaving, Tulyan hunting crews needed to round up all of the podships that had drifted around inside the Parvii Fold, away from the moorage basin. Acey Zelk, always anxious to pilot the arcane vessels, had been permitted to join one of the crews. Already they had found more ships than the one hundred thousand Tulyan pilots they had brought with them, so the Liberators would need to send some of their original fleet back to their starcloud to pick up thousands of more pilots. The exact number was unclear, because they kept finding more podships, in hidden places.

“A nice problem to have,” Doge Anton had said that morning, when he and the others began to realize the enormity of the prize they had captured from the Parviis.

Through the web, Eshaz had sent a message back to the Tulyan Starcloud, notifying the Council of the logistical challenge. They made arrangements to send four hundred podships from the original Liberator fleet back to the starcloud, to get thousands of more Tulyans. They needed enough pilots to transport the rest of the huge fleet of recovered vessels, and none of the new ships could be moved yet.

This was because the Tulyan pilots and web maintenance crews needed time to familiarize themselves with the new podships, and to practice operations with them. Since time immemorial, there had always been a methodical breaking-in process in which the various personalities and talents—Tulyan and Aopoddae—were sorted out and meshed properly. If this was not done correctly, the ancient legends held that there could be extremely adverse results, even disasters in which podships rebelled and caused destructive havoc. Thus, it was worth taking the extra time to ensure safety, and—to the extent possible—to enhance predictability.

In addition, the Liberators were setting up defenses, securing the galactic fold militarily to prevent Parviis from returning and regaining multiswarm strength there. General Nirella had set up a guard post near the tiny bolt hole where the Parviis had disappeared, and made plans to leave a guard force of one hundred podships and military personnel in other key areas of the fold, including the entranceway to the Asteroid Funnel.…

* * * * *

Continuing the inspection tour on a prearranged route, Tesh caused
Webdancer
to hover over the bolt hole. Using a magnaviewer aboard the flagship, Noah saw the barely-perceptible opening through which the Parviis had escaped. Inside the hole, he saw something move, and identified it as a solitary Parvii. A sentry, Noah surmised.

Noah set the viewer aside, and said, “We must guard this area well.”

“Where there’s one hole, there may be others,” Eshaz said.

Both of them knew Tulyan teams were looking, but so far nothing had turned up.

Once more the podship nudged up against the membrane, this time near the bolt hole. Inside the passenger compartment, Noah touched the skin of the vessel, but unlike the experience of Eshaz, Noah did not link with Tesh. The skin trembled, as if in fear of Noah. Then it calmed, and abruptly his vision shifted, flooding his consciousness with a wash of gray-green. Presently it focused, and one star seemed to twinkle in the broad field of view, but for only a moment before turning the blackest black.

With his mind, Noah Watanabe—this most unusual of all men—peered into Timeweb and absorbed the entire vast enclosure of his own galaxy, including the decaying infrastructure and this remote, intricately folded section of membrane that had once protected the Parviis.

The opening through which they had fled was a tiny point of blackness in the midst of the gray-green membrane. With his inner eye, Noah peered through the hole into another galaxy, and saw distant, twinkling star systems, nebulas, and belts of undefined, streaking color.

He then experienced an even more peculiar sensation, and felt his consciousness shifting, spinning, making him dizzy. Presently he regained his internal balance, and found that his mind was now
inside
the alternate galaxy, experiencing it paranormally. From this new vantage point, he saw the small Parvii swarm near the other side of the bolt hole.

They’re in the undergalaxy
, he thought, feeling both a rush of excitement and deep trepidation.

Oddly, Noah could not see very far in this realm, and he wondered if his own anxiety had something to do with that. In his own galaxy, he had learned to overcome physical fear, for he was as close to immortal in that realm as any person could be. But in the undergalaxy, he sensed the rules of physics and laws of nature were entirely different. Nothing was as it seemed there, and he curbed his own curiosity, didn’t really want to venture further. Everything he had been through in his own galaxy was more than enough for him, and he couldn’t afford to lose focus, couldn’t afford to leave his duties and spin off into the unknown.

But Noah also sensed very strongly that something in the undergalaxy was causing the decline of Timeweb, or at least contributing to it. He could not escape considering the ramifications of this second galaxy. His entire concept of galactic ecology had potentially been broadened by a great deal, and beyond that the implications were exponential. A universe of them.

Seeing the vastly diminished Parvii swarm hovering by the bolt hole, Noah had mixed feelings—an urge to destroy them and feelings of pity. Tesh was one of that devilish breed, and he thought he might even love her, and that he might do virtually anything for her if he ever managed to fulfill the galactic duties that seemed to have been thrust upon him by fate.

I am not a god or a messiah.

He did not want to even consider such possibilities. It could only cause harm to his focus, to his intentions. He felt an innate sense of rightness about the course he had followed with his life thus far, about the choices he had made. But he hesitated to believe that he might be anything more than an enhanced form of a human being. Eshaz, in his zeal to heal Noah, had pressed his wounded flesh against the infrastructure of Timeweb, but the strange and powerful nutrients of the infrastructure could never alter certain basic truths.

I was born of a Human mother and father. There is nothing miraculous or particularly heroic about that.

Despite all he told himself, and his sense that he was highly ethical, part of Noah wanted to eliminate this Parvii swarm violently, leaving Tesh Kori as the only survivor of her demented race. In the undergalaxy, the troubled Noah stirred his mind, and felt a cosmic storm forming. Was he causing it? He felt uncertainty about this. But then, as if caught in a great wind, he saw the Parvii swarm buffeted, so that they flitted about in confusion and fear. Some scattered into the distance, and did not return.

The swarm grew even smaller, and Noah felt pity for the terrified creatures.

Wondering what had just occurred, he struggled to extract himself from the peculiar visions. Finally he succeeded in withdrawing, and returned to his physical self, in the passenger compartment of
Webdancer
.

Conflicting emotions raged in his mind, giving him an intense headache.

Eshaz looked at him with concern in his large eyes. “You saw something, didn’t you?” the Tulyan asked.

Noah nodded, but for several moments found himself unable to organize his thoughts or form them into words.

Chapter Eight

Noah worries incessantly about his genetic linkage to Francella Watanabe, and her severe mental health issues. But there is an ancillary problem, something he has not discussed with me, and which I have not had the courage to bring up: Is not Doge Anton genetically linked to Francella as well, and might there be psychological repercussions because of that?

—Tesh Kori, private notes

Thousands of additional Tulyan pilots had arrived from the starcloud, and were being meshed with the podships like alien marital partners, using the ancient techniques to ensure the maximum efficiency of the Tulyan-Aopoddae linkages. Now, counting the original nine hundred podships that the Liberator fleet had brought to the galactic fold, Doge Anton had a force of more than one hundred twenty-two thousand podships. As had earlier occurred with the original fleet, as the new pilot-ship matchings were completed, the sentient podships took on the reptilian faces of their pilots, and opened up gun ports on the sides of their hulls.

The process was going well. Only two hundred and fourteen podships remained to be synchronized by the Tulyans, plus a few more out in the reaches of the fold that needed to be brought in.

Noah, Anton, and Eshaz stood at a viewing window inside a modular headquarters structure that General Nirella’s military technicians had constructed. Held in place by space anchors, it was positioned exactly where the Palace of Woldn used to be, which was considered the most central—and most commanding—position in the entire fold.

The three leaders stood with a number of dignitaries who had been brought in after the victory here over the Parviis, including two members of the Council of Elders and a number of merchant princes. They watched while teams of Tulyan podship handlers worked in the airless vacuum with the remaining, unsynchronized Aopoddae.

The entire Liberator fleet had been delayed while Tulyan experts synchronized and stabilized the vast fleet, necessary to ensure that there would be no rebellion in the Aopoddae ranks, and that every one of the sentient ships was working in concert with the pilots. This involved subtle methods of synchronicity and mutual respect, ways that had been known to the Tulyans since time immemorial, and by which they ensured the integrity of the immense fleet.

“It has been very difficult to integrate so many ships,” Eshaz said, “but we’re almost there. Long ago, the Parviis did something similar, using their own methods. We’re replacing their bonds with our own, then checking and rechecking.”

“And those are the most difficult of the bunch,” Anton said, pointing out at the podships that were still being worked.

“Precisely. We’ve separated them from the others, and are performing final tests on the others as we speak. Keep in mind, too, that this is not a process of breaking or taming the podships. Rather, we must harmonize with them.”

“Just as Humans and other races need to do in nature,” Noah said.

“Well put, my good friend,” Eshaz said. He touched Noah’s left arm affectionately before pulling away. Then, looking at Doge Anton, the Tulyan added, “If final tests go as anticipated, the rest of the fleet should be able to depart for the starcloud in two days.”

“And the recalcitrants?” Anton asked, gesturing again at the podships outside.

“They can be left behind for more work. Eventually, they will be integrated with the others. These just have more difficult Parvii bonds to overcome.”

Anton tapped on the window plax. “Can they be merged with the guard force of one hundred armed vessels that we’re leaving?”

“Some, perhaps. We’ll see.”

Outside, Noah saw three additional podships being brought into the mooring basin, including one piloted by Acey Zelk. In the only way that a Human could do this, the teenager stood on top of the vessel. He wore a life support suit, and was secured to the beast by an ornate harness. He used thorn-vines to guide the creature. The suit and harness enable him to travel at high speeds, as fast as the podship could go. The young man was grinning as he came in atop the hull, and he waved toward the viewing window.

Noah and Eshaz waved back.

But Noah withdrew his hand quickly. He wore a long-sleeve shirt, and the extension of his left arm had revealed something that had been troubling him for several days … a rough area of gray-and-black skin that ran from the forearm to the shoulder and down across his torso, like a mineral vein.

He had not wanted to see a doctor about the condition, suspecting that it was far beyond anything a medical practitioner could understand. Much of his own paranormal abilities undoubtedly stemmed from the time that Eshaz had healed him of a serious head injury by connecting him to a torn fragment of Timeweb. Afterward Noah’s own sister, Francella, had attempted to kill him by the most brutal of methods, by hacking him to pieces. Through some miracle, he had survived the dismemberment attempt, growing back all of his severed body parts like an exotic lizard.