Timeweb Trilogy Omnibus (51 page)

Noah’s grid-plane led a procession of ships down toward the surface of Canopa. Seated by a porthole in the passenger compartment, he was struck by the raw natural beauty of his homeworld as he entered its atmosphere, with its deep green forests, pale blue seas, and snow-capped mountains. To the west, the late afternoon sky glowed a soft golden hue, rimmed by an orange line along the horizon. Such a glorious view. He was glad to be back.

He was just thinking that the planet must be putting on a show for his benefit, in honor of his return, when he looked to the north. In that direction the weather was quite different, with roiling clouds and jagged flashes of lightning. At the controls of the small ship, Subi reported that the storm was heading toward them. It was an unusually deep disturbance, he said, with powerful winds in the upper and lower atmospheres.

“Can we outrun it?” Noah asked.

“I don’t know if we want to. This weather could actually be a blessing in disguise, covering our approach.”

Noah glanced at the navigation desk, on one end of the instrument console. Anton and Tesh sat at the nav-computer, putting finishing touches on the tunnel map that Noah had ordered. A half hour ago, they had shown him an earlier version on the screen. Based on that, Noah had decided to scout the southwest corner of his former ecological demonstration compound, looking for a possible landing site there. With luck, he would be able to enter the tunnels and set up a base there for his resistance operation, in a place where the Red Beret and CorpOne forces would never to think to look.

“We can fly through this storm, then?” Noah rose and went over behind Subi, where he held onto the chair-back and looked over the adjutant’s shoulder at the instrument console, with its dials, meters, and gauges.

“We can, but I don’t know about those space jalopies behind us.”

“I suspect the machines may be tougher than they look,” Eshaz said, clumping heavily across the deck and standing by Noah. “And their vessels, too.”

“We’re about to find out,” Subi said. “Take your seats, and get into your safety harnesses.”

As Noah got into his own harness, he saw the big Tulyan showing Acey and Dux how to engage theirs. He had developed a liking for the boys, had told Noah privately that they were brave young adventurers, and he thought they were fine additions to the Guardians.

Eshaz barely had time to get into his own large harness when the grid-plane rattled as it entered the storm and bumped through the air currents.

It grew darker outside Noah’s window. He squinted as a flash of lightning lit up the sky, like a high-powered ethereal spotlight.

When the flash dissipated, he could see a portion of Canopa clearly, but the view was framed by dark, rain-saturated clouds.

My beautiful Canopa
, he thought.

Of all the worlds he had known in his travels around the galaxy, this one was by far the most pleasing to the eye. Even more important than that, it held a special place in his heart.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Subi plunged the grid-plane through the slot in the clouds. Looking out the wide aft porthole, Noah saw the machine ships following. He counted them, and none were missing.

He had never expected to find so many recruits awaiting him upon his arrival at the pod station, and now he took a few seconds to consider his good fortune. Thinker, while unusual in his appearance and mannerisms, just might prove to be exactly what Noah needed, perhaps breaking the string of bad luck he’d been going through.

Inside the aerial tunnel, lightning flashed on all sides, brilliant orange zigzags in the clouds. Behind him, he heard Dr. Bichette cry out in surprise and fear.

Noah thought back to the images of Mutatis in merchant schooners that he saw in the cosmic web. They had been floating in space near pod stations in Mutati territory, and he had not been able to determine why. It had seemed like an odd dream, but one that overlapped into reality.

What did I see, and why was it accessible to me?

Aside from his desire to rescue any Guardians who had been captured or who had fled into the countryside, Noah had another reason for returning to Canopa. He felt mentally and physically stronger on his homeworld, as if invigorated by the living energy of the planet. Even before landing (and despite the bumpiness of the ride), he felt more animated, more able to carry on his important work. He knew the large planet well, and looking down saw the rugged canyons where he often went on retreat in earlier years. One day he would like to take new Guardian recruits there to teach them about ecology, the interdependence of life forms in harsh environments. He had made detailed notes on how such classes might be conducted, but had not yet put them into effect.

The grid-plane leveled out, and headed toward the night side of the planet, crossing over a remote, unpopulated region that was only intermittently visible through turbulent, swirling clouds.

On the way, Noah noted how Subi was able to adjust the guidance and power to make the ride more smooth, like a person in a groundcar avoiding ruts and potholes. Noah also knew that the smoothness was not entirely dependent on the pilot’s skill. Some of it was attributable to a computer program that reacted to the gusts of wind with equal and opposite forces. Elementary physics. But there were always surprises, both in intensity and direction, and some time ago Subi had explained to him that Humans were frequently better at reacting to unexpected situations than machines were.

In less than an hour, they began to pass into darkness.

“Switching to night vision,” Subi finally said. Thirty seconds later, the passenger cabin changed to an eerie infrared darkness, including all computer screens. Looking through the aft porthole, Noah confirmed that Thinker and his robot force had done the same. The ships were shadows against the starlit night sky.

Down on the surface of the planet, Noah made out only occasional lights, marking widely spaced Human settlements.

“The descendants of ancient Canopans live in wild, hostile regions down there,” Noah said. In the darkness of the cabin, he saw his companions as ghostlike shapes, from the infrared mechanism that provided interior and exterior visibility for the pilot and passengers. “With our scanner on it probably wouldn’t matter if we switched on our lights,” Noah said, “but I don’t want to take any chances.”

Presently, Subi reported that they were approaching the plateau where the robot ships were to wait, by pre-arrangement. He circled the area, then looped upward and sped off. Thinker’s ships went into holding patterns.

Noah went to the nav-computer and studied the tunnel map. A small screen on one side showed the terrain of this region of Canopa, with them flying toward the Ecological Demonstration Project compound. Subi, ever conscious of security, had fitted this grid-plane with its long-range scanning system, one that could not only detect hostile forces at a great distance, but would also neutralize the surveillance features of the planet’s electronic grid system.

“All clear in the southwest corner of the compound,” Subi reported. “I’m picking up activity over at the main administration building in the center of the compound, but that’s what we expected.”

Noah’s ecology complex was immense, covering many hectares of land. As the grid-plane swooped over one corner of the land, he saw the maintenance building that Diggers had damaged, and gaping holes from the activity of the rampant machines and the counter operations of his own commandos.

From those missions and the new computer map that he now had, Noah knew that there were hundreds of deep tunnels beneath his compound and the adjacent land, and that all Diggers down there had either been destroyed or disabled. Anton and Tesh, commandos themselves, had shown him how to gain access to a network of burrows in the remote hills east of the maintenance building, far enough away that they might go undetected. With that as his base of operations, Noah intended to organize a resistance force, hoping to eventually regain control of his land and space station.

“Let’s go get our new army,” Noah said.

Subi nodded, and accelerated out toward the plateau where the machine ships were waiting. As Noah’s aircraft rose up to the top of the plateau and burst into the sky, he was pleased to see the twelve machine ships still in a holding pattern. They blinked their infrared lights, and followed Subi’s lead.

Undetected by Canopa’s electronic grid system, Noah’s force skimmed the ground and reached the eastern hills. After landing, they tucked their wings and hover-floated into the largest burrow, which led to an immense cavern. The burned-out hulks of three Digger machines were near the entrance.

As Noah stepped from the grid-plane to the floor of the cavern, he saw Thinker and summoned him. The scholarly robot clanked over, and bowed slightly. “Sir?” he said.

“Send robots back to seal the entrance behind us,” Noah commanded. Looking back at Tesh and Anton, he ordered them to go with the robots, and to help Thinker supervise the operation.

The three of them marched off, and at a signal from Thinker they were joined by many sentient machines. While the physical camouflage work was being accomplished, Subi set up a multi-function scrambling device to prevent scanner detection from above. He was quick to say as he activated the system, however, that it still needed to be calibrated to the surrounding terrain and tunnel system, which could take several days.

Studying the scrambler machinery, Thinker said, “Perhaps I can speed up the calibration, and even improve the system. I will work on it.”

“All right,” Noah said.

Thinker and Noah accompanied Subi as the beefy adjutant made final settings to the scrambler system, which was supposed to erase heat and sound signatures, making them undetectable to their enemies aboveground and in adjacent tunnels. Finally the robot folded his body flat, saying he wanted to contemplate how to improve the system.

“What do you say we call this place Diggerville?” Subi asked, looking at Noah. “Our new headquarters … or should I say, our new digs?” He looked tired, and seemed a little giddy.

“Fine, fine.” Noah smiled stiffly.

Leaving Thinker where he was, Noah and the crew of his grid-plane settled in for their first night underground, sleeping in the cabin of the aircraft while the machines stood guard.

Just before Noah drifted off to sleep he thought of Tesh, who slept not far from him on the carpeted deck. He heard the regular breathing and snoring of his companions, but in the shadows could only identify the regular, deep snorts of Eshaz, and saw his hulking form profiled against the low light of the instrument panel.

At the first opportunity, he wanted to have a conversation with Tesh. The two of them needed to clear the air.

Chapter Seventy-Seven

All living forms are dying. It is a vast and glorious empyrean curve, gaining strength and vitality, reaching a zenith, and then fading.

—Noah Watanabe

In the darkness of the grid-plane cabin, Noah cried out in his sleep, but no one seemed to hear him. He sat up, or thought he did, and wondered why he could no longer hear the snoring of his companions, and why he could no longer see the slumbering form of Eshaz profiled against the light of the instrument panel.

He barely made out a flickering light that seemed to be way off in the distance. Presently it came into focus, a tiny pinpoint of illumination. Then another appeared beside it, and another, and another. With a start, he realized that they were stars, and that he was gazing into deep space. He felt the intense cold of the void, but could endure it nonetheless.

His mind told him that he was underground in a Digger burrow, and that this should not be happening, but he recalled his previous experience in which he cartwheeled across the galaxy on a fantastic cosmic journey. At the time, he had wondered if it had really occurred, or if it had only been a vivid dream. Subsequently, however, he’d had another paranormal experience, in which he took control of the podship and flew it to Canopa.

Now, he realized that he only had his left eye open.

Lifting the other eyelid, his body shuddered at what he saw, a strange split vision in which the tableau of space and the interior of the grid-plane cabin were superimposed over one another, as in old double photographic images. He heard rumbling breathing, and saw the broken image of Eshaz in the shadows, and this time he saw Tesh as well, and Anton. All were asleep, breathing and snoring regularly.

Noah closed the eye with which he had been peering into space, and abruptly the cosmic panorama disappeared, leaving only the interior of the cabin, with its warmth and Human noises. He felt queasy, then uncertain and fearful. A shuddering shock shook his body, and it took him several moments to stop shaking.

Testing, he looked through one eye or the other, and sometimes both, to confirm the bizarre reality that had overtaken him. Why this was happening he could not determine, but through each eye he beheld a different reality—confusing double images. Each eye saw something entirely different, and with it opened up the sounds, smells, and other senses. All of his senses were now oddly linked to his vision.

First I journeyed across the cosmos in my mind
, he thought, and then
did that physically when I
piloted the podship.

So odd, two realities—one ethereal and the other physical—overlapping at times and separate at times. His brain had capabilities that he had never imagined possible, and now each eye seemed to be linked to different aspects of that brain. He felt freakish, as if he was splitting into parts, with no control over the changes.

Opening only one eye at a time, he found that he could completely change his reality. With his left eye he saw—and telepathically
entered—
the cold cosmic-web realm, while with his right eye he saw the low light of the grid-plane cabin, and felt the warmth and nearness of his friends. This at least was an aspect of control, albeit minimal, as he could open and shut the two realities. But he couldn’t make his brain and eyes stop generating the peculiar, disturbing phenomenon.