A paper-thin plane of Brightspace-interface breaks the "surface" is reality, neatly transferring several hundred pounds of material into my sub-reality. Exactly as planned, the released dome begins to rise, the space around it shimmering as the force-field envelope completely encloses the structure, and the towing squadron begins the painfully slow process of carrying the last millions of the Tol'Celpres population to safety...
We're not out of harm's way yet. "Getting indications of energised matter being shed by the surface layers of the Celpres star", The Wanderer says gravely. "It may be a moderate magnitude event in stellar collapse terms, but it may just be enough to wreck everything."
Somehow, I think I know what needs to be done. "Bright/Strike One, come and pick me up", I order my flagship. "We're going to build a wind-break."
My ship flies low over the planet's surface, and I "side-step" through Brightspace onto the command deck of Bright/Strike One. "We can't out-fly this... shockwave", I say to the rest of my team, on their respective ships, "but I think I can deflect it. If I put even a small blockage in its path..."
"A 'flying wedge'", interrupts Pippi. "A point disruption close enough to the source, will form a cone of clear space behind it. Excellent - but you'd better hurry. The matter stream is moving pretty quickly."
"An interesting idea", observes Myr'aa as I take over the captain's seat, "but exactly how are you going to achieve it? Even you're not as powerful as a star."
"I don't need to be", I try to explain. "I have a whole heap of metal, just floating around in Brightspace - I may as well make use of it."
There's maybe half an hour before the matter-wave reaches the colony dome "lifeboat" when we reach our destination, and as soon as Bright/Strike One answers "All Stop", I start shifting the slices of metal back into normal space, neatly arranging the layers in an overlapping fashion so that Bright/Strike One can use her weapons to fuse them into a solid enough mass to provide the "wind-break" we need.
For a time, it looks as though there won't be enough to produce the effect we need, but then two Universal Guardians arrive, towing masses of waste metal, either shed by the rising dome or drifting about in space, to add to my barrier. "The White Guardian asked us to assist", says one of them. "We are honoured to play our part."
The two glowing figures retreat to aid the "lifeboat" once their vital cargo is surrendered into my possession, and portals through Brightspace allow me to shift the scrap into the necessary location, and simultaneously carve the two balls of fused metal into the slices we need. Combined with my original metal, and strengthened by Bright/Strike One's force shields, it should be enough...
The ship's Mireet avatar jumps up onto the head-rest of my chair, and sits there silently, eyes glowing. I can sense that the ship is going to give everything to make this work, whether I ask for it or not.
"Here it comes", says Myr'aa. "Directing all available power to external force fields. Polarising the perimeter of the field envelope to repel as much of the charged material as possible..."
She doesn't sound entirely convinced about our chances. Me? I don't have the luxury.
Something as powerful as a pre-nova stellar matter burst shouldn't be this quiet, but our combined shield does its job without complaint. There’s only a marginally increased hum from Bright/Strike One's power-cores, and I can see the shield efficiency gauges on the main view-screen dip by maybe a quarter in total.
"We seem to be getting the clear space we need", reports Pippi. "The wave-front has a good deal less energy than expected - strange, that..."
"I'll take whatever good luck the Fates will grant me", I reply. "What's the status of the dome?"
"Stable, and accelerating gradually", answers the girl-genius. "projections show that the star's final collapse is imminent, and I'm not sure we'll have enough di--"
***A gift. Gratitude...***
Space... trembles, but I barely notice. I'm still trying to "get my head around" what I've just "heard" when Myr'aa brings me the incredible news. "The... the dome is gone, along with the ships towing and shielding it", she murmurs, stunned. "The other vessels are scanning the area, and they're picking up residue from some kind of spatial portal..."
"--stance to escape... the... star's what the hell just happened?", Pippi continues. "Brighthawk, did you just do something...?"
"I... I..."
"The colony dome is back on our sensor grid", says Myr'aa. "Point six light years distant, clear of the star's blast radius. I don't know how you did it..."
"I didn't", I whisper to myself. "The star did."
I know I heard a voice. I've sensed something like that before, only never so clearly - it's the only answer.
I'm still overawed by it all as Myr'aa announces the star's final convulsions, and it tears itself apart. I listen for anything more, but deep inside I know that particular voice has been stilled forever, and I whisper two words: "Thank you."
As we rejoin the rest of the fleet, I heralded as the heroine of the hour, a saviour of millions, even though I had as much to do with that final escape as anyone else. I accept the applause in silence, knowing that I can never share the truth; a truth that could be horribly exploited - I can hear the voices of stars...
Let the rest of them think what they will. If the MDI comes to trust Dominion more because of what's happened, then I won't try to stop their heroine-worship. If anyone asks me what I did, I'll just say I have no idea, and I don't know whether I can do it again. "I need to get my head down for a while", I tell Myr'aa. "You have command, I'd prefer not to be disturbed. I'll be... somewhere."
I leave the command deck, and go directly to the chamber I've been using as my "state room". The Mireet avatar is inside waiting for me, sitting opposite the door, head to one side, and looking at me with great curiosity. As I step into the room, the holographic Shadowpet gets up, and starts to approach me, but stops when I wearily shake my head.
"Not now, please", I whisper, and the projection blinks out of existence without a sound.
I don't even remember lying down, let alone falling asleep.
I do, however, remember waking up. I'm never likely to forget it.
I dream of floating in open space, hearing a multitude of stars crying out in pain, then one calls out to me in person, from behind me. I look round, and there's a door, my state room door, hovering there. The voice comes from behind the door, and I "swim" over to it - and open it...
...and then I'm awake, standing in the corridor. Or more correctly, a corridor - it's not one I recognise, and certainly not the passage I'd walked down earlier, inside Bright/Strike One...
***Brighthawk...?***
There's the voice again. A man - he sounds strangely familiar, but the very presence of his speech inside my head sets the corridors of my mind shaking. The last time I experienced anything like this was on Mystalorn, during the siege... the siege carried out by The Emperor.
***Have no fear***, says the voice. ***I mean you know harm. Your sister would be so angry with me if I were to mistreat you - and we both know how she can be.***
Now I know I've heard that voice before. I take a step, and space "shrinks" somehow, so that that single stride carries me who knows how far, into a temple-like chamber - a library, with shelves of books vanishing into the dark high above, easily escaping from the illumination cast out by an old-fashioned fireplace, in front of which are arranged a low oval table, and two heavily-padded leather chairs. One of those is occupied by a robed figure with silver-grey hair, and an intent expression as he continues gazing into the book cradled in his hands...
"Konjantek."
The man - the Overlord - looks up. "Ah, there you are", he says, smiling slightly. "Glad you could drop by..."
I don't respond immediately, not knowing how much of this is real and how much is subtle psychic projection, designed to confuse or entrap me. Darkhawk seemed to trust this being, despite his past history, but to me he's a stranger, and perhaps there's no more dangerous stranger in existence. Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, or so the saying goes - and this could be the very occasion to which that saying refers...
"I don't know what you want", I tell Konjantek, "but I know what I want, and I want to rest undisturbed."
"I won't take up much of your time", he replies. "In fact, this will barely take up any of it. We are in the space between heartbeats - right now, probably the safest place to be."
"Spare me that cryptic garbage", I mutter. "If you have anything to say, then say it."
Setting down his book, Konjantek gestures to the other chair, and I accept the invitation. Almost straight away, I feel dwarfed by the chair, its headrest and arms seeming to reach in around me, and I'm made to feel like a naughty child, about to receive a stern lecture from her uncle. "I am about to take a great risk", says Konjantek, solemnly. "I am going to share things with you that I had intended only to share with Darkhawk, but seeing that you have passed the test..."
"Don't tell me you... arranged for those creatures to attack the MDI", I growl.
"That was going to happen anyway", he assures me. "The Pandemonicum set that in motion. So far, no lives have been lost as a result, but that is unlikely to remain the case unless the Mutual Defence Imperative 'get their act together' - and they will need help."
"Dominion stands ready to assist", I declare.
"Good, good", says a smiling Konjantek. It's an unnerving smile - he's one of those beings, who, when he smiles, gives you the impression that he only ever does it to put others on edge. "Now, back to the matter at hand..."
Konjantek gets up, and leans on the mantlepiece of the fire-place, casting a long shadow across the floor. "Things are far more complicated than they appear, my dear", he says. "More complicated, and more dangerous. From what I have learned of your most recent exploits, you have already witnessed a ting part of what I am about to explain."
"That... brain in amber...?"
"Exactly", he answers. "A lesser... one could say 'life-form' in a whole 'eco-system' beyond our normal experience. Beyond understanding, even."
"The Lost Gods?", I venture. I've heard them mentioned in hushed whispers - The Wanderer reacted quite strongly when their name was uttered just recently...
Konjantek shakes his head. "A mere scab over a wound to the multiverse that will never be understood - if scholars are wise - and which will never fully heal. No, this is something far more malicious. The Lost Gods only ever awaken when some fool picks at that scab - the forces I am trying to explain are always awake, writhing and whispering in the deepest and darkest corners of reality. Those places where reality as we know it has still to... congeal - where reality is still fluid."
"I don't understand..."
Konjantek fixes a stare upon me that chills me to the core. "Good."
He takes a moment to centre himself again, and I don't interrupt. When he's ready, he continues. "Ever since I was 'born', I have been aware of the existence of something beyond even my power to defeat", he says, gazing into the fire. "During my time as a god, I began to piece together the truth, and started to assemble the means to at least withstand that power. Only now, with the knowledge of Sanangru The Seeker..." - he looks up at the books - "...does it all become clear. What we are facing, and what must be done to prevent it."
"Are we facing another war?", I dare to ask - it's a question that has to be asked. "I don't know if we can take any more of that - not so soon..."
"There will be no war", he tells me. "They will, if allowed, come and lay waste to all that we know."
"Or that's what you'd like us all to think", I bite back. It all sounds just too convenient...
"And there it is - that precious spark of Darkhawk", says my Overlord host. "And with it come the doubt, that nagging sense of deception that accompanies dealing with 'The Bio-Master'. I've come to expect it, but this is not the time for it."
"What? I'm just the 'little girl' who'll believe everything the 'grown-ups' tell her?", I respond sourly. "You couldn't be more wrong."
"Ah, more than a spark, then", muses Konjantek. "Interesting..."
He returns to his chair. "Of course, you are quite right - you should never take anything anyone says at face value. Everyone wants something, and is prepared to manipulate others, manipulate events, in order to get what they desire. Unless, however, they already have what they want."
"And you, you have your heart's desire?"
"I have answers", replies Konjantek. "Understanding. I know why I was brought into being."
"To break down the barriers established by the Silver Ancients, and maintained by the Kirugarans", I respond. "To allow The Intruder into this reality so that it could destroy all life."
"That is part of the truth, my dear", says Konjantek, now sounding more stern, irritated. "Not the whole. Why did The Intruder want to destroy all life in... your universe?"
"It was driven insane by the concept of mortality", I answer. "It realised the bleakness of its immortal existence--"
"No", declares Konjantek, launching himself out of his chair and lunging towards me. His hands grasp the arms of my chair, and his face comes close enough to my face to feel his breath on my skin. "The Intruder gazed into the heart of the darkness, and it was enough to drive even a cosmic entity mad. My... father sought to destroy all life in your reality so that he could wrap its dead husk around himself, and hide from the horrors."
His voice is a snarl, his eyes narrowed in barely-contained rage. I don't quite know why, but somehow I believe him.
Konjantek turns away, and walks into the shadows. "I had expected better from you", he says flatly. "You are clearly not your sister."
"I'm not trying to be", I try to tell him.
"You may have to rethink that position, in times to come", he responds. "If you doubt my intentions, then I invite you to try and stop me. In return, I shall try to... educate you. You may yet come to see things 'my way'."
Again, he sounds entirely honest, entirely selfless. Part of me is certain it's all a ruse, another of the labyrinthine schemes of "The Bio-Master" - the other part is convinced that my host is indeed sharing fundamental truths with me, and I'd be wise to listen. However, the time for a "grown-up" discussion has unfortunately passed...
"You said it yourself - no-one trusts you because of who you are", I call into the darkness. "If there is such a menace... surely there's another way. Not just 'the Konjantek way'..."
"I could take that to mean you seek to claim all the glory, to save the universe yourself in the name of Darkhawk and Dominion", replies Konjantek. "As selfish a scheme as that which you would so readily attribute to me."
"I want to save lives, to prevent war and suffering", I retort. "If you've truly become some great 'champion of life', turning your back on all you once were, then surely... surely it doesn't matter who gets the credit."
There's a pause, an ominous moment of silence. Then, Konjantek speaks: "Aaah, then there is still hope", he announces. "Perhaps you are simply not ready to hear what I have to say. When you are, seek me out - and we will talk."
Again, a pause; this time, it rather suggests I am "dismissed", but as I start to wonder just how I'm supposed to find my way home, Konjantek speaks one last time. "As a gesture of respect to your family, I offer a small gift. Some advice: find the girl who was never born... the child with the mark... the white prince. Perhaps then you will begin to understand what really matters."
The heat from the fireplace seems to be drying my eyes, and I blink to let them recover. That momentary interruption of vision is all my host needs to remove me from his presence, and return me to my room on Bright/Strike One, and my bed - whether I want to go or not...
Frustration boils over inside me, but it escapes from me as a weary sigh instead of an angry growl. Even though Konjantek has a dark and bloody past, I don't believe he ever lied to Darkhawk - and I pray I haven't caused that relationship to change; not when I'm in dire need of all the friends I can get.
I have no idea how long I'd been asleep, but I know there's no point in trying to sleep any more. I sit myself down in the lounge of my commander's suite, in front of the main vid-screen, and call up the Confederacy news feed...
"...just received confirmation of earlier reports concerning a major operation in MDI space, involving both local and outside space-forces. A rapid evacuation has been carried out in the Celpres system, involving several million residents of the mining colony on Tol'Celpres, and we understand that a number of Dominion vessels played a critical part in the operation . We're trying to reach someone in the Dominion space-fleet for comment, and we'll bring you that live when we get the link..."
The rest of it just washes over me. My mind has drifted to other things: "...the girl who was never born... the child with the mark.. the white prince..." - that's something of Sanangru, Seeker of Secrets, speaking through Konjantek, I suspect. I never met that particular Overlord - few ever did - but I get the feeling I shouldn't ignore what I've been told, however cryptic. This... this means something, but I have no idea how to start finding out what...
I switch through some of the other channels, only vaguely registering what's shown on screen - a sports report from Yituron, featuring highlights from a shieldball game, and previews of a turbo-bike race... a shopping channel, offering exotic wares from Lu'Khi and Urmia... some bizarre fashion show... in the end, I give up on it all, and turn my attention to "matters of state" - and that's when I get a big, and welcome surprise.
Grand Ohden Araas has been talking with the MDI central authority, and they have decided to invite Dominion to establish a semi-permanent presence in The Contested Sectors. Any ships operating as part of that will be primarily restricted to that region, but may be called upon to enter secured MDI space on request - with the glaring exception of The Ever-keen Blade. If that ships ever enters regulated MDI space again, the declaration of justified vengeance called upon her commander by the brother of the captain of the Vaesgammen will come into effect again, with the full blessing of the Narthani government.
Fleet Defender Lakaaren'kaeris will not like that, I'm sure, but orders are orders, and it's a small price to pay. I'll make sure that our Task Forces in The Contested Sectors give the MDI no reason to regret this momentous decision.
Talking of momentous decisions...
I open the internal comm-link. "Myr'aa? Get me The Wanderer. If he's interested, I may have an employment opportunity for him."
If I'm going to confront Konjantek - or these "horrors" he hinted at - I'm going to need all the help I can find.
As soon as news of the new agreement with the MDI reached her, Lakaaren'kaeris of Shalnvassa powered up the ornate communications matrix, and made contact with her unseen allies. "Yes, this stipulation does rather limit me", she said to the glowing orbs, "but at least I'm at the centre of things. The MDI trusts Dominion, and that's good news in anyone's book."
"Brighthawk has been a worthy leader?", asked one of the voices from the jewels.
"She's learning fast", replied the huntress. "She's certainly come out from under Darkhawk's shadow - but..."
"There is a problem?", enquired another voice.
"She's yet to be tested in battle", said Lakaaren'kaeris. "She managed to avoid direct conflict, but still... she needs to be blooded, whether she wants to be or not."
"I'm sure the opportunity will present itself soon enough", assured the first voice. "It always does."
"I just hope she doesn't lose her, shall we say, 'maidenhood' against our own", said the second voice. "We still can't be certain what form this threat from within will take."
"You do your jobs", sighed Lakaaren'kaeris, "and I'll do mine."
"For the future of Dominion", the two disembodied voices said in unison, and the light from their respective jewels faded to nothing.
Lakaaren'kaeris took the top-most jewel from its place on the framework of glittering wire, deactivating the device and reducing it to an inert sculpture. "For the future of Dominion", she sighed, rolling the orb back and forth in the palm of her hand. "At least let us pray there will be one."
- Posted on 20.12.2011 at 22:33 -
Previously...
Every Silver Lining... - Chapter 6 - 20.12.2011
Every Silver Lining... - Chapter 5 - 18.12.2011
Every Silver Lining... - Chapter 4 - 16.12.2011
Every Silver Lining... - Chapter 3 - 14.12.2011
Every Silver Lining... - Chapter 2 - 12.12.2011
