“Good. And with the Loop gone, they’ll all have to stay here and fight it out amongst themselves,” Jason said.
“You’re lucky you’re still alive. What are you doing? What are you waiting for here? You don’t honestly think you haven’t shown up on multiple scans, do you?”
“We were trying to keep a low profile, make some modifications to our ship.”
Brian looked over at the ancient cargo vessel and snickered.
Billy said, “So what side of things do you fall on, Brian?”
“It doesn’t matter. Part of my assignment was to bring back Emperor Reechet—In light of what’s happened, I don’t know if that holds true anymore.”
“Who, specifically, made that assignment?” Jason asked.
Brian didn’t answer, shrugged off the question.
“Whatever, Brian. We have to go. Have a good life.” Jason turned to leave, but Brian took hold of his arm.
“In light of you turning down my earlier offer, the second part of my assignment was to capture that ship of yours, by any means possible.”
“What are you telling me? You’re responsible for sending those pirates? Even you wouldn’t agree to that.”
“It’s just a ship, Jason. I didn’t know your ex-wife and Mollie would be onboard. All you had to do is take the deal I proposed. Hand over Ricket and that damn ship and the Craing leaves Earth alone. All this could have been avoided.”
Jason was finding it harder and harder to contain himself. “Just shut up. You’ll contact whoever has taken the ship, and my family, and have them released. Do it now.”
“Perhaps that could have been possible, if you hadn't dismantled the Loop. Any FDL messages sent will arrive at their intended destination in about three to four hundred years. Don’t you get it? We’re all stranded here. I’m sorry. But whatever happens with your ship or your family is completely out of my hands.”
“I should kill you. Brother or not, I’d be doing the universe a favor,” Jason said.
“I’ll do it for you, Cap,” Billy said, taking a step closer.
Jason put his hand up to hold off Billy. “He’s not worth the energy. Tell me, what is it you promised those pirates, anyway?”
“We were going to give them access to the Loop—the wormhole and all the access points. Give them the ability to move about the universe in seconds versus weeks or months or even years.”
“I could see that would be quite useful for pirates. What are they going to do when they discover the Loop is history?” Jason asked, already knowing the answer.
Brian shrugged, “The ship is collateral, Jason.”
“Nan and Mollie are on that ship; how could you do such a thing?”
“First of all, I didn’t know they would be aboard. But even if I had, it’s the bigger picture. I was keeping the Craing at bay, away from Earth.”
“None of that matters now. If I can’t rescue them, you’re going to have to think of something else you can give them.”
Brian laughed out loud. “What, are you in a dream world here? The Loop is gone. I mean, I’m really sorry, brother, but none of us—not you, me, or anyone else—will ever see that ship, or Earth, again.”
“No. The only ship never to be seen again will be that one out there in the field. Grab him, Billy. We need to get out of here.”
The already tight compartment got substantially tighter with Billy, Jason, and now Brian added to the mix. Jason didn’t bother making introductions.
“We’ve plotted three consecutive phase-shift points, plus actual flight coordinates,” Ricket said, seated in the cockpit with Gaddy. Using the small interface control, Ricket phase-shifted out of the barn.
* * *
Back on the hillside overlooking the city, the small ship landed behind a cluster of trees. Everyone was filing out. Jason waited for Rustling Leaves to maneuver Traveler outside. The more Jason thought about it, the more frustrated he became. Re-crossing HAB 12’s four quadrants, especially with Traveler’s injuries, would be daunting. Every minute lost, Nan and Mollie would be more at the mercy of the pirates.
Gaddy stopped Jason with a small hand on his chest. “I no longer can leave. Things have changed here. I be a part of it.”
“That’s good, Gaddy. This is an important time for your people. I’m happy for you. I really am.” Jason smiled and kissed her forehead. As he got up to leave, she stopped him again.
“It not much. I give ship to you. You take.”
“I have no need for a ship …” Looking outside the ship toward the hillside, something else occurred to him, “Wait, what did you say?”
“You take ship.”
“Do you know how wide it is … this ship?”
Gaddy looked perplexed.
“Ricket! How wide is this ship?” Jason yelled.
Ricket appeared at the open hatch, looked in, stood back and looked at the ship. He looked back up at Jason. “Nine feet, eight inches wide by nine feet, three inches high.”
“And the dimensions of the portal window?”
“Exactly ten by ten.”
“Everyone back in. We’re going to try something,” Jason said, a smile on his face for the first time in days.
“Gaddy, I’m going to take you up on your offer. Thank you. Thank you for everything.” She smiled and said something to her three Craing friends; none seemed very happy with her generosity. “One more thing. You can never tell anyone about this portal. You understand that?”
She looked somewhat perplexed, but nodded anyway: “We not speak of this to anyone.”
The Craing dissidents stood back and watched from a distance.
“You will need to pilot the vessel, Captain,” Ricket said. “Time will be short and the portal access code is long and complex. You’ll have sixty seconds.”
“And you’re certain we can’t just phase-shift in?” Jason asked.
“No. Security protocols prohibit anything like that.”
Rustling Leaves had carried Traveler back into the cargo area again, looking a bit worn out. Jason looked back and nodded to the faces behind him. He brought the ship up to where it was hovering less than a foot off the ground, and positioned so it was even with the lower edge of the window. Ricket was outside at the portal and entering the access codes. He had instructed Jason to maneuver the ship forward the second he heard the signal.
Beep, Beep, Beep!
Jason goosed the thrusters and the ship darted forward. The left side of the hull scraped something, causing sparks and prolonged screeching sounds. Jason feathered the controls to starboard and the ship began to move forward slowly. Ricket sprinted to the rear of the ship, coming around its other side, and leapt in through the open hatch. A few more sparks and scratches, and the ship was through. They were once again at the inside cave portal of HAB 12.
The small vessel’s running lights cast an amber glow to the rocky environment outside. “There’s no way you’ll maneuver this ship through those tunnels, Cap,” Billy said.
Brian leaned forward and looked through the small hatch window. “What did we just do? Where are we?” he said to Orion, who was sitting closest to him.
“Welcome to the multiverse,” she replied. Everyone seemed to enjoy Brian’s confusion as he continued to peer out the window.
Jason steered the small cargo vessel over to an open area within the cave.
“There’s something moving out there,” Brian said, probably a little louder than he had intended.
Dira, closest to the hatch, looked out. “Oh, that would be the six-foot-long cockroaches that inhabit this cave.”
Brian smiled, not taking her seriously, then the smile was gone. “What’s that sound?”
“I think that’s their pincers.”
“We’re not getting out here, are we?” Brian asked, not even trying to hide how uncomfortable he was at the prospect.
Jason answered from the cockpit area, “No, just hold on, we’re plotting our next phase-shift location.” With that, they shifted again. Bright sunlight streamed through the window. Dira released the hatch and was the first to climb out. They had shifted two hundred feet from the cave entrance. Dira looked around, seeming disappointed.
“I’m afraid she’s long gone, Dira,” Jason said.
“Oh, I know. I was just hoping …”
“
Birka, birka, birka, birka
;” the strange bark-like sound echoed off in the distance.
“That’s her! That’s Alice! Come on, girl, come on, Alice,” Dira yelled into the surrounding trees. Everyone, with the exception of Traveler, stood outside the ship trying to be the first to spot the creature.
Brian, confused again, leaned over to Orion. “Who is Alice?”
“You’ll see.”
Alice cleared the trees and headed for them at a full run. Abruptly she stopped, retrieved something from the ground, then continued on in their direction. Dira said, “She has a toy, she’s bringing us her toy!”
Brian’s expression went from mild amusement to disgust as realization hit: “That’s a fucking head.”
* * *
He had his right fist tightly clenched around Wik-ma’s neck. Jason, Billy and Ricket had phase-shifted themselves mere feet from where the Craing leader was standing. As Jason brought the little alien off the ground, Ricket asked something in their native tongue. Wik-ma squealed and gasped, and Jason released his hold. Sprawled on the ground and rubbing his throat, he croaked something to a small group of Craing males standing nearby. Several minutes passed before the little warrior returned holding an assortment of leaves in one hand and a small hollowed-out rock, a mortar and pestle, in the other. On their knees, several other warriors had joined him and were tearing the leaves into small bits, while another used the pestle to grind. Water was added. Then something that looked like salt or sugar. Within minutes they had a thick gray paste. Wik-ma took the mortar and handed it to Jason, smiling and nodding. He said something to Ricket.
“He tells me this will cure our friend. He had forgotten to give it to us earlier. What surprised him is that Traveler is still alive. They use this same poison to bring down Serapins. Traveler must be very strong.”
Off the ship, Traveler now sat beneath the shade of a large tree. Rustling Leaves leaned against a nearby tree; carting Traveler’s thousand-pound bulk around was taking its toll.
Jason handed the Craing paste-concoction to Dira.
“How is it applied—what do we do with this?” she asked.
“He said to smear it over the infected area several times a day,” Jason replied.
Jason watched as Dira attended to Traveler’s legs, wrapping them with her last supply of bandages. They needed to get going; every minute stalled here was a minute away from
The Lilly
.
“Okay, everybody, let’s get back in the ship,” Jason said. Rustling Leaves heaved a sigh and went to lift Traveler. He was grateful when Jason, Billy and Rizzo stepped in to assist him.
The small cargo ship needed several tries before the drive sputtered to life. Jason lifted the ship above the tree tops and headed in the direction of quadrant 3. The now-familiar HAB 12 landscape rushed by in a blur below.
“Shhhh.”
Jason heard Dira shushing Alice several times. Did she really think he wouldn’t notice she’d smuggled the creature on board? He hadn’t decided yet if he’d allow Alice on board
The Lilly
. Unfortunately, the longer he waited to address it, the less likely he would have the heart to confront her negatively on the issue. Although Ricket assured him of the animal’s safety, the simple fact was, nobody really knew for certain.
Jason spoke in a hushed tone to Ricket sitting in the copilot seat. “I need to be sure that dog, or whatever Alice is, won’t cause any crewmembers to experience the same fate as Morgan.”
“Alice’s reproduction system is not dissimilar to those of mammals. It was a third-party organism that introduced Alice’s genome into the mix. The other growths on Morgan’s body were a strange collection of other organisms, including Serapins, plant life, even Craing—things indigenous to the localized area,” Ricket said.
Jason felt somewhat better about it. For now, he’d pretended he had no idea Alice was on board. Right now, Brian was occupying his thoughts. Why hadn’t he brought up his family? With Mollie and Nan at the forefront of his own mind, wouldn’t Brian be up in arms about not seeing his wife and child again—especially now that the Loop was gone? Jason had no idea where their home planet was located, but Brian also had no idea where they were headed.
They had passed over the volcanic gorge and were nearing the cliffs of quadrant 2. Jason’s mind flashed to the time he’d spent with Dira under the waterfall and he caught himself smiling. How the hell was he going to find out about courting a
Jhardian girl.
The whole idea of courting was odd at this stage in life, but intriguing nonetheless. She had alluded to the fact that he’d be able to find out more if he was interested. The only person who could possibly know would be the person who had brought her on board
The Lilly
: his father. Something he’d have to ask him about when he saw him again. Jason felt his pulse quicken as the other HAB 12 portal neared, as well as the borders of the habitat. A strange sight from this altitude—as if the world had stopped; there was nothing but white beyond the portal.
Jason brought the craft down near an outcropping of rocks. In this location, the ship would not be viewable from
The Lilly
’s Zoo portal. He wasn’t sure, but keeping their now only method of reaching the Craing worlds a secret seemed like a good precaution.
Once the vessel was on the ground and powered down, Jason turned to the team. Everyone seemed anxious to get going. Traveler was sitting up and conversing with Rustling Leaves. The beneficial effects of the Craing antidote were surprising.
“Listen up, everyone. I have no idea what we’ll be walking into. Comms are down. We need to assume the AI has been compromised. This is a hostage situation so at least initially this will be a reconnaissance mission—stay under the radar.”
“What’s radar?” Dira asked.
“Never mind that. Here’s what I want each of you to do.”
Chapter 28
Ricket was the first to enter the portal back into the ship. One by one the team stepped into
The Lilly
’s Zoo. Various items and trash littered the floor. Jason knelt down and picked up the remnants of a hand-rolled cigarette.