Chapter Seventy-Four
In this universe, there is always a way to escape from any situation … even from the greatest danger. It is for us, with the brains and free will that the Sublime Creator gave us, to find the way.
—Tulyan observation, in emergency council
The Web Spinners scrambled along the strands, heading directly toward Noah’s cocoon, ignoring the warships of the Liberator fleet that raced alongside them, peppering them with ion and atomic cannon fire that didn’t phase them at all, didn’t slow them down or make them change course. The monsters just ignored them.
In the midst of the terrible threat, Noah’s mind raced, searching for answers and possibilities. He kept firing his own primal blasts at the creatures, but they kept coming, and he didn’t want to increase the power any more, fearing it would go beyond anything he could handle. It could destroy the remains of the starcloud, the Liberator fleet, and everything in this galactic sector—with the possible exception of the monsters of the undergalaxy. He wasn’t sure if anything could stop them.
For the moment, he continued to fire at the geometric, spidery creatures, and at least his shots were slowing them down—though they kept regrouping and clamoring toward him. Intermittently, for brief moments, he saw faint lights and shifting colors inside the bodies and heads, as if illuminated from within. Then the colors and lights would fade to black-blackness with the exception of the yellow-ember eyes, peering out of the darkness of the bodies.
Noah recalled the Battle of Yaree, where he had experienced a brief vision lasting only a few seconds, in which the cocoon blew up and he tumbled out into a glowing green timehole. That had never really happened, and he strongly suspected now—more viscerally than intellectually—that he had seen a fragment of his own future in that vision. But he also felt, with equal certainty, that it was only
one
of his possible futures, and that he could still avoid it if he made the right choices. Perhaps that was why his mind revealed the vision to him again, to prevent it from happening.
The Web Spinners had been opening timeholes all over the galaxy, exploiting natural galactic weaknesses and creating new ones, undoubtedly setting them up as entry points and waiting for their best opportunity to attack. But they had seemed to ignore the HibAdus and their conventional weaponry, and were doing the same with the Liberators. They weren’t ignoring Noah, though, and his weapon didn’t seem to have much effect on them at all.
Should he raise the primal power and see what it could do to the creatures, no matter what the potential risk was to everything else? He might have to.
He realized now that the Web Spinners wanted to get to
him
, to the exclusion of everything else in this galaxy. And they had been after him before. Somehow they’d been sensing his presence wherever he was, especially after he formed the cocoon and began discovering what it contained—a raw, cosmic power that the creatures feared. Earlier they had intended to get him at Yaree and in the Kandor Sector, but each time Noah had eluded them. Crossing space from Kandor, he had displayed an ability to traverse vast distances almost instantaneously, which seemed to cause problems for the creatures. And—if that method of travel was not available—for reasons he did not yet understand—he could still travel at great speeds along the podways. He had the means of escape, though he suspected that would only delay the inevitable. They would find him. They were
determined
to find him, like predators that refused to give up the hunt. But for what purpose? Presumably, to attempt to kill him. But what if they couldn’t accomplish that? What then? What sort of integrated mind and energy drove them? What form of extraterrestrial hell did they intend for him?
That particular future—if it existed—had not yet been revealed to him.
These alien organisms were smart, and they would undoubtedly attempt to cut off his routes of escape, as the HibAdus had tried to do with the Liberator fleet. Alternately, the creatures seemed to select both undergalactic routes and routes in this galaxy. But Noah was not without his own options. Maybe he could lure them away as far as possible and set off a huge detonation that would finish them off. If conditions permitted it, he could go through a timehole into the undergalaxy and do it to them there—thus shifting the focus of the destruction.
Wipe them out in their own nest
, he thought.
Kill all of them. Get the Queen.
If this worked, it would test the limits of his own “immortality,” and his ability to return to this realm through a timehole, or through some other means he did not yet know about. But these considerations were not a priority. For the sake of his own galaxy, and for all he held dear, he was more than willing to sacrifice his own life—in whatever form that sacrifice took. It might just save Tesh and their child, and the Liberator fleet could then attack the weakened HibAdu forces and take back the Human and Mutati planets they controlled.
Thinker, are you picking this up?
Noah thought.
Yes.
Tell the fleet to disengage, and why. Tell them to remain here, without me.
I’m doing it now, Master.
* * * * *
Noah envisioned a sector far across the galaxy, a region where he had seen numerous timeholes, through the paranormal lens available to him. It was beyond Yaree and the Kandor Sector—so far away, so desolate and off the beaten path that he didn’t know of a name for it, or even an astronomical number. Even with all of the sector mapping that had been completed by the various races, there were still places like this, and it was exactly what he wanted. If he had to set off an explosion there, it would be as far as possible from population centers, and it presented the possibility of escape routes to the undergalaxy, where he would go if necessary. One way or another, he would make a statement.
This time, the movement across space was not nearly instantaneous, as it had seemed to be before. He felt the podships tremble around him as he transmitted psychic energy to them, but he urged them to go—he
commanded
it, and they went into motion. There was a tightening inside his skull, and a searing pain as the collective entity accelerated along one podway and then another, heading for the far reaches of the galaxy at tachyon speeds. The discomfort in his skull was enormous—as if the Aopoddae didn’t want to cooperate in this—but he did not let up.
Through his cocoon eyes at the rear, Noah saw the curvature of the web, and black forms scrambling along it behind him, trying to keep up. The smaller Web Spinners were in front of the big one now. He summoned the cocoon to greater speed, but it resisted. Despite this, he was still going at tremendous speed, because he saw suns and solar systems passing by in a blur.
But as he peered through the eyes behind the pod-amalgam, he knew he was not going fast enough. After initially falling back, the predators were gradually gaining on him, with the smaller ones running along parallel strands and the big one looming behind.
The hybrid space station began to vibrate and slow down slightly, and Noah realized that the strand beneath his ship was disintegrating, about to break. Before he could react, the cocoon spun and somersaulted away through space. It had fallen off the galactic track. He struggled for control, and to see what is going on, but for several moments he could do neither. One of the smaller pursuers was ahead of the others, and very near him now. Running along a parallel strand, it reached out to swipe at the cocoon with a claw, but narrowly missed.
Noah managed to engage with another podway strand and he accelerated along it, momentarily leaving the creatures behind—until they got on the same podway and began to gain on him again. He urged the cocoon to greater speed, but it resisted.
Desperately, Noah looked for an alternate way to get to the remote sector where he wanted to detonate the primal charge and get rid of these alien bastards. He changed course three times to again head in that direction, but each time he looked back, the pursuers were a little bit closer. Judging the distance he still needed to travel and the limited velocities the cocoon seemed able to attain, he knew he would never make it that far.
Now he had to find the nearest timehole. Desperately, Noah took a series of looping turns and skimmed a gray-green membrane that didn’t seem to belong there, since it was nowhere near the perimeter of the galaxy. Like a wavering, broken piece of wall, it might be a remnant of the long-ago galactic construction project, a huge unused piece that had just drifted away. Or, more likely, it had something to do with the faltering state of the cosmos. He did find podways that were faster on the membrane, but he couldn’t locate a timehole. The geometric spiders were much closer now, only a few seconds behind him. The largest one moved up to the center of the pack.
Again the Web Spinners displayed internal lights and colors, but this time only in their heads, where the energy glowed brightly and danced inside the facets, as if in anticipation of the kill. As the monsters neared, Noah was startled to identify facial features on them that were contorted but still resembled those of various galactic races—Humans, Salducians, Adurians, Hibbils, Jimlats, Mutatis, Churians, and even Tulyans.
The faces were chiseled and hard instead of organic … features buried within facets.
The Queen looked like an amalgamation of the others, more ferocious and predatory in appearance than any monster of the imagination. She revealed immense pincers on two of her eight feet—claws that could easily rip the space station apart. Looking like an arachnid, a crustacean, and a host of unknown organisms from her demonic realm, she was a nightmare come to life.
A particularly fast spinner streaked ahead of the others, but this one did not have yellow-sun eyes—these burned red. The contorted face resembled that of Pimyt, the Royal Attaché to Lorenzo del Velli. Noah had no time to be amazed, or to wonder. He fired a blast from the cocoon weapon that slowed the creature down, and it fell back with the others.
The Queen of the Undergalaxy moved to the front of the pack. Focusing through the multiple humanoid eyes at the rear of his cocoon, Noah saw that she and her minions were almost on top of him now. While continuing to run ahead of his pursuers, he glowed brighter green, preparing to fire at them.
Suddenly Noah saw bursts of green light ahead of him, like flowers in space, and thousands of podships emerging, one after the other. It was the Liberator fleet led by
Webdancer
, catching up because of the circuitous route he had taken. But he was not happy to see them, and commanded Thinker to tell them so. Noah was troubled. The Liberators were not only risking their own safety, but it was a foolish gesture, because their destruction would leave much of the known galaxy in the hands of the HibAdus. With no Liberator force to oppose them, Human and Mutati worlds would be forever lost to the conspirators.
Thinker sent the message, but his comlink call had no effect. The fleet surged around Noah, more than one hundred thousand of them heading en masse toward the advancing Web Spinners, firing every weapon they had. Curiously, most of the vessels did not have Tulyan faces on them, suggesting that they were under Aopoddae control.
This new tactic had some effect on the monsters, as it forced them to veer off course and come back around. Even the Queen shifted course in the barrage of fire, and when she and her demon-companions took new routes toward Noah, the fleet harassed them. Even so, the Web Spinners tried to ignore them, and did not counterattack. They just kept going around and focusing on Noah.
Send another message
! Noah said to Thinker, through their organic link.
Tell them I was trying to lure the Web Spinners to a remote region, and preferably into the undergalaxy, where I planned to set off a big explosion. Now I’ll have to do it here, but first the fleet needs to be as far away as possible.
Moments later, Thinker reported back:
Fleet command reports that most of the podships are flying out of their control, not responding to the commands of their Tulyan pilots. Only Tesh, Eshaz, and a few hundred other pilots, for reasons that no one understands, report that they can convince their podships to do what they want. But they’re here of their own volition, too—and they’re setting up battle formations with the others.
Tell Tesh to go back!
Noah said, worrying about her and their unborn child.
Maybe the others will follow.
A momentary delay. Then:
She won’t do it, Master Noah, won’t abandon the fleet. Or you.
Desperately, Noah looked for opportunities to fire at the Web Spinners, but worried about hitting the thick clusters of Liberator ships, and especially
Webdancer
, which Tesh piloted. He still knew where Tesh was—
Webdancer
was the largest ship in the fleet, and beside that, he saw through Timeweb to the sectoid chamber where she clung to a wall inside, piloting the craft. But he could not linger to watch over her, and couldn’t justify trying to save her at the expense of the others. Then he was heartened, but only a little, to see his friend Eshaz bring his ship Agryt and others in close to
Webdancer
, forming some protection for the flagship. But against such behemoths of space, the effort couldn’t amount to much.
Changing course, Noah went around to a flank position, where he was able to fire the primal weapon at several smaller Web Spinners on the perimeter. He used a little higher intensity than before, but far short of the massive detonation he planned. Once more, the creatures were not harmed, but he did manage to knock five of them further away, forcing them to scramble back. If any of those blasts had accidentally hit a Liberator vessel, however, he had no doubt the vessel would not survive. The Aopoddae ships were now following the lead of the flagship, coordinating attacks on the monsters that were beginning to have some effect, albeit only like the collective effect of pesky flies.
Reaching the limit of her patience, the Queen finally began thrashing around with her multiple legs, snaring podships on the sticky surfaces of her skin and smashing the vessels together, killing the Aopoddae and their passengers. So far,
Webdancer
eluded this fate, as did Eshaz’s ship Agryt, but to his horror Noah saw them heading straight toward her. This time she had her deadly pincers extended toward them.