Gravity Dreams

'Just in general terms,' I admitted.

'Most people have.' He nodded, the brown eyes serious. 'You need to know more. We don't bother with this briefing until someone is a pilot and until he or she is beyond the first run.' A hologram sprang into being - almost at his shoulder. Alpha Felini - that's the official term for the Anomaly. It's about ten light-years away from Sol - in roughly the opposite direction from Santerene, in case you're interested.'

I studied the image. In the center of the unfamiliar star field was a glowing haziness - somewhat like the fuzzy golden ball of light that I'd sensed right after I'd been 'infected' with the first, old-style nanites. The image expanded and focused in on the golden center. Abruptly, the ball turned into a central core of golden-red fire - a miniature sun -or was it miniature? Around the sun were long arms of red fire. I'd seen that image in my thoughts and elsewhere all too often.

'This is accelerated several hundred fold from real time,' Astlyn explained.

The arms of fire sparkled as they swept through seemingly empty space, although I knew no space was totally empty.

Actually, for practical purposes, the space behind each arm is effectively empty. Each of the arms is a field of some sort, and what you're seeing is low-level antimatter annihilating low-level matter. The result is energy and virtually empty space.'

And a great deal of disruption in space and overspace,' added Erelya.

And the sun?' I asked. 'It doesn't look normal.'

'New matter. We think it's more "energetic," if you will, but that could be a bias from the energies involved.'

I digested all of that. 'There's something creating and using antimatter to generate energy and sweep space, and creating new matter. Engee?'

Astlyn nodded.

'Exactly,' Erelya confirmed.

I took a deep breath. 'Just what is engee? There's nothing in any data system about the Anomaly or engee.' I almost added 'not any system I've found,' but decided against that.

Erelya and Astlyn exchanged glances.

Astlyn cleared his throat. 'We believe that engee is an assemblage of self-assembling and replicating nanites of a variety developed by the ancients. While there has been no way to verify this, there are enough indirect indicators to make that conclusion. There is not enough information to put what we suspect on the full Rykashan datanet...'

As he talked I pondered his words. Why not on the full net? Because people would be concerned or upset? I could understand that intellectually, but the universe was so vast it seemed unlikely that it was empty, and if something was there ... it was there. That's Dzin, and most people - even Rykashans - don't see it that way.

'... while not conclusive, one would have to act as though there is some form of intelligence there ...'

'Which the Followers believe is God, their god at least,' I suggested.

Astlyn nodded.

'And it has enough power to create a solar system?'

'Yes.'

'Why?' I pursued, wondering if I were pushing too hard. Probably.

'We don't know why; nor do we know the mechanics of how, although the theory is relatively old.' Astlyn waited. 'Why are you telling me this?'

'Because you're a needle pilot, and because you're headed along that general gradient, and there seems to be an even greater fascination on the overspace level. And because none of this is a surprise to you, or any pilot,' added Erelya. 'You've seen visions of this, haven't you?'

'At scattered intervals ever since I came to Lyncol,' I confirmed, then asked, knowing that they wouldn't have briefed me if there weren't a danger, 'How many pilots have you lost?'

'Just three, but that represents three ships and a substantial resource commitment.' Astlyn cleared his throat. 'You must know that.'

'There's another problem,' added Erelya.

Astlyn frowned.

'New City.'

I didn't hide my surprise. I'd never heard of whatever New City might be.

The hologram vanished before Astlyn spoke again. A number of people have built ships, photonjet-powered. Somehow, without Web pilots and excitation systems, the ships arrive there. There, and nowhere else. They're building a deep-space city near this Anomaly. They say it will be a new solar system in time, created by the only True God.'

'Demons ... people ... believe that?'

'It could be.' Astlyn laughed harshly. 'They'll have to wait a long time. At the present rate of accretion it still is likely to be millions of years before engee has enough matter there for a new system. Even if you assume an exponential rate, it's around ten thousand years - and the disruptions to the Web, overspace, and normspace will render the area rather uninhabitable, even for individuals with full nanite protection.'

Astlyn's explanation left much unexplained.

'Is there a possible way to use the Web without an excitation and insertion system - or a pilot?'

'It's possible an untrained pilot could bring a ship from Sol to the Anomaly about half the time,' Erelya theorized. 'We don't know of any way that it could be done in the time frames that we've observed without a Web insertion system.'

'But it happens?' I pursued. 'What about the missing pilots?'

'There's been no sign of them or their ships,' Astlyn replied. 'No exit disruptions, either.'

That all brought up the last question. 'Why me? This is my second trip as a needle pilot'

'Medical thinks you have a higher resistance than most of the others.' Astlyn did not sound totally convinced.

'You've opposed anything you didn't like all along,' Erelya added dryly.

I managed to resist smiling.

'This is the second attempt with this cargo,' Astlyn said. 'You'll be carrying almost a full load of passengers also.' Those two items gave me a reason to swallow. 'Is there any trace ... ?'

'The ship could be almost anywhere in normspace,' Astlyn pointed out.

Or it could be drifting in overspace until it collides with enough mass to create a real normspace mess. 'It would be years if we saw anything optically.'

'More like centuries,' suggested Erelya. I nodded slowly.

'Do you have any other questions?'

Dozens, if I'd thought of them, but none would have changed anything.

As I made my way down to the ready room, I had to ask what Astlyn and Erelya knew that neither was saying, and what I didn't know enough to ask.

One familiar figure was waiting - a round-faced blonde. 'Glad to see you, Tyndel.' Berya smiled and gestured. 'This is Durmak.' The wiry man with the golden skin and mahogany hair had to have come from Dhurr extraction.

Durmak nodded. 'Ser.'

'Glad to meet you, Durmak. Have you done the Nabata run before?'

'No, ser. I've done the Trough, though.'

Trough? The Epsilon Cygni - BaUentir run ... climb over an overspace gradient... considered the most difficult insertion and exit.

'This should be easier.' Not quite sure about that, I glanced at Berya, wondering if she happened to be getting another bonus. 'Might as well get moving.'

I gathered the rest of my gear, and we slipped out of the ready room and down the shaft and to the passenger level. This time, the Mambrino was cradled at the other end, lock one, and I used the directlink to send the entry code to open the locks.

'With your permission, ser?' asked Durmak.

I nodded, and the third headed to the lower decks to re-check the cargo, while Berya rechecked the passenger area for our full load. I went through the passenger compartment, and continued through every space, just as I always had, and, as usual, I found nothing out of the ordinary. That brought me back to the control center, where I strapped myself in and began to run through the systems checks.