Flinx Transcendent Part 24

One by one the Ujurrians stepped or jumped back into the opening in the aether. A deep rumble followed Fluff's disappearance, following which the hole snapped in upon itself like a circlet of interdimensional elastic and was gone. Nothing remained to indicate that anyone other than Flinx, Clarity, and the two minidrags had ever been there.

Well, almost nothing. Bending down, Flinx picked up half a handful of gray-brown fur and lifted it to his nose. It smelled strongly of myrtle and musk: Softsmooth. Turning, he found himself once again surveying their implausible environs. Any xenologist in the Commonwealth would gladly have given up several years' stipends for the privilege of spending a single day in such surrounds, and here he could not enjoy it for a moment because-because he was some kind of stupid, enigmatic, inscrutable key.

He shook his head. Following procrastinating visits to worlds as diverse as Visaria and Jast he had resolved to do whatever he could to try to save the Commonwealth. Someone else might have said "to fulfill his destiny"-except that he did not for an instant believe in such nonsense. It was all so much superst.i.tion and silliness.

There was nothing nonsensical about the Great Evil, however. His reluctant, innermost self had been thrust outward to perceive it. It was as real and remorseless and dangerous as his dreams of a normal life were wish fulfillment.

"Flinx? Are you all right?" Clarity was looking at him with concern. Such a simple gesture. Such an essential one.

"I'm unchanged," he responded carefully. "Whether that makes me all right or not I don't know and I no longer much care. But since you ask-yeah, I feel 'all right.'" His words relieved her evident alarm.

Alarm.

He thought back. Back to when he had gone to New Riviera to reunite with Clarity. What was it that Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex had told him a small coterie of their fellow researchers had learned about that mysterious apparatus that had been left behind on Horseye by the long-vanished Xunca?

He remembered. Two Two sources had been recorded. Down through the millennia the incredibly ancient mechanism had been monitoring not one but two locations. One was, of course, the threat represented by the Evil that was coming out of the Great Emptiness. The other was something unknown that was located in a unique region of s.p.a.ce known as the Great Attractor. A point in the continuum that all local galaxies were s.h.i.+fting toward. An inexplicable physical anomaly with the energy of ten thousand trillion suns. It was utterly unique in the universe. No known physics or mathematics could account for such an incredible concentration of energy. sources had been recorded. Down through the millennia the incredibly ancient mechanism had been monitoring not one but two locations. One was, of course, the threat represented by the Evil that was coming out of the Great Emptiness. The other was something unknown that was located in a unique region of s.p.a.ce known as the Great Attractor. A point in the continuum that all local galaxies were s.h.i.+fting toward. An inexplicable physical anomaly with the energy of ten thousand trillion suns. It was utterly unique in the universe. No known physics or mathematics could account for such an incredible concentration of energy.

Could the Xunca?

Contemplating the anomaly, Flinx and the two scientists had previously speculated on whether the Xunca had actually considered constructing something capable of moving entire galaxies, including their own, out of the path of the oncoming menace. It had remained just that, nothing more than speculation. But what if, he found himself wondering, the Great Attractor, or something at the heart of that fantastic force, was actually designed to do something else? The instrumentality on Horseye not only monitored both sites, it also sporadically sent some kind of signal through a deviation of normal subs.p.a.ce toward an unknown third location. According to Tse-Mallory and Truzenzuzex the scientists studying the Xunca mechanism had not even been able to determine how the information was being sent, much less what was being transmitted or what might be on the receiving end.

Constant monitoring of the approaching threat he could understand. Constructing and monitoring something capable of moving an entire galaxy, much less several, out of the way of that threat was a physical undertaking that could barely be comprehended by mere organic ent.i.ties. But why the third signal? What did it consist of, where was it being beamed, and what was it intended to accomplish?

Perhaps nothing, he told himself. Maybe it was an unintentional byproduct of the monitoring/alarm system. Maybe it was only an inadvertent leak of deformed radiation into subs.p.a.ce. Having latched on to the thought and fallen into speculation, he could not let it go. Always, ever, eternally curious, and usually to his detriment, he needed an answer. Where and how to find an answer to a question that some of the Commonwealth's finest scientists had only recently learned to ask? He was stuck on an uninhabited, long-dead alien world in the middle of the sterile Blight, cut off from any planetary information sh.e.l.l, with access only to the library that was part of his s.h.i.+p's mind.

Not quite a dead world, he reminded himself. Something was tugging at his arm.

"Where'd you go?" Clarity asked him intently.

"Hmm?" He blinked. "I've been right here."

"No." She smiled perceptively. "I know that self-inflicted stasis. You went somewhere. I'm sorry to break in, but I couldn't take it anymore. The silence, and the distance."

"Sorry," he apologized. "Something one of the Ulru-Ujurrians said got me to thinking."

Her expression twisted. "I don't think I like the sound of that."

"It just sparked a question," he explained, a little too quickly, a little too disingenuously. "Not a solution. Just a question." Looking past her, he nodded in the direction of the Krang's silent contact platform. "The only drawback is that I have to ask it of the machine."

She looked around sharply, then back at him. "Again? If I didn't know you better and appreciate what putting yourself under those transparencies costs you in terms of physical and mental wear, I'd say you were getting addicted to the experience."

He had to smile. "Hardly. It's every bit as tiring and draining as you say. But I don't have any choice. Even if we had access to the Terran Sh.e.l.l itself, the answer I need isn't available there. Or from any humanx knowledge resource." His expression reflected the helplessness he was feeling. "I have have to try, Clarity. It might be the last thing I can think of to try." to try, Clarity. It might be the last thing I can think of to try."

She chewed her lower lip. "I wish you'd wait until the others are back."

He shrugged. "Why? Would Bran somehow make the experience easier? Is Tru's presence going to lessen the strain? Can Syl find a way to keep me from burning axons?" He shook his head. "I'd rather do it and get it over with than have to listen to their advice and deal with their worries."

Her tone was subdued almost to the point of inaudibility. "What about my my worries?" worries?"

Reaching out, he did his best to rea.s.sure her. "This will be the least amount of time I've ever spent on one of those contact slabs, I promise. I'll just make contact, pose my question, receive an answer or a rebuff, and slip back out."

She looked up at him. "You make it sound as harmless as requesting a zoning change on a piece of undeveloped property on Nur."

"Okay," he acknowledged, "so there's some risk involved." He indicated their alien surroundings. "Look where we are. Consider where we recently were and what I experienced beyond the Rim. Compared to that and everything else you and I have been through, soliciting the answer to a single question from an alien machine I've already been in contact with counts as a minor diversion."

She sniffed. "I don't know why I bother to raise concerns: you're going to do what you want to do anyway."

He straightened. "I'm going to do what I have have to do, Clarity. You, of all people, should know that." Reaching up to stroke Pip, he started deliberately past her. As he headed down the wider-than-human aisle toward the distant dais, she watched him go. to do, Clarity. You, of all people, should know that." Reaching up to stroke Pip, he started deliberately past her. As he headed down the wider-than-human aisle toward the distant dais, she watched him go.

It seemed like she was always watching him go.

As soon as the skimmer settled gently to ground and its loading ramp deployed just inside the entrance to the alien monolith, Truzenzuzex, Tse-Mallory, and Sylzenzuzex disembarked. Seeing the human female sitting by herself, Syl wandered over and proffered politeness.

"Sirrintt, Clarity. You are feeling well?"

"As well as can be expected, Syl." She nodded past the thranx in the direction of the two senior scientists. "How did it go? Did you find the solution to everything-or anything?"

"I'm afraid not." Settling back on all six legs, Syl used both truhands to pull down her right antenna and commenced preening. "There's certainly much to see and learn-there is an entire city to explore, after all-but we found nothing more remarkable than what was expected. As a xenoarchaeological expedition it has been a great success." She gestured regret. "Insofar as finding something to use against the advancing threat, it has been a total failure." Continuing to groom, she looked back over her thorax. "My Eighth and his companion try to exude optimism, but at hearts they are realists."

Clarity nodded understandingly. "Well, as long as they search without expecting to find anything they won't be disappointed."

"Chilarr-ah-Ksa!!tt, so true it is," the security officer agreed. Looking past Clarity, she found herself searching the area immediately behind her friend. She could not frown-inflexible chitin rendered thranx facial expression virtually nonexistent-but she gestured her sudden distress.

"Where is Flinx?"

"Speaking of optimism..." As her voice trailed away Clarity raised a hand and pointed.

Sylzenzuzex had no difficulty identifying the distant solitary figure mounting the dais. Responding to her loud, sharp whistle of exclamation, Truzenzuzex and Tse-Mallory hurried over to see what was happening.

Clarity sighed knowingly as they approached. "I guess we'd better get ready for another concert."

"But what is he doing?" As he tracked the progress of the familiar tall biped, Truzenzuzex could not hide his puzzlement. "Why is he going to submit himself to the stress and strain of reconnecting with the alien device? It has already indicated it cannot do anything to inhibit the advance of the approaching peril."

"I believe," she explained, "that he intends to ask it a question."

Tse-Mallory was also tracking the progress of the tall redhead. "What kind of question? A question about what?"

"I don't know. Flinx doesn't tell me everything that goes on in his head. I think he's doing his best to spare me." She gestured in the direction of the platform. "You can ask him yourself when he's finished. Maybe he'll even get an answer to his question."

"He didn't say what the question was?" Truzenzuzex persisted.

"No." Despite telling herself that this time she was not going to watch, she felt herself turning to join the others in gazing at the distant dais. Flinx had a.s.sured her he was not going to be under its influence for very long. That was small comfort, but she would take what she could get.

"But doesn't... ?" Sylzenzuzex began. Then her antennae flattened back against her head as she winced.

Thunder filled the Krang's interior as tame lightning emerged from the structures protruding from its walls and began to crawl ceilingward. The deafening, clas.h.i.+ng howls of alien music a.s.sailed their ears even as flaring bursts of luminosity skipped off their retinas like stones on the flat surface of a lake. The Krang was alive again; with sight, with sound, and with presentiment. Beneath the inner of the double domes, Flinx could be seen sprawled out on the operator's platform, Pip coiled tightly above his head. Young man and ancient machine were talking again.

Reduced to the status of mere onlookers, his companions could only s.h.i.+eld their eyes and ears and wait for the esoteric conversation to end.

AGAIN, CLa.s.s-A MIND. I HAVE COMMUNICATED WITH THE s.h.i.+P OF THE BUILDERS. THE ATTEMPT FAILED.

"Yes." Flinx spasmed slightly beneath the inner dome. Above his head Pip twitched and contorted, acting as a lens for his projections. Flinx spasmed slightly beneath the inner dome. Above his head Pip twitched and contorted, acting as a lens for his projections.

YET YOU SEEK AGAIN. I AM A WEAPON. I HAVE NOTHING MORE TO OFFER.

"I disagree. You have knowledge. I would posit a question."

ASK.

"There is a world inhabited by three indigenous intelligent species. My people call it Horseye, the locals call it Tslamaina. Buried near one of its poles is the visible portion of an extensive instrumental complex that was put in place by a race called the Xunca, who dominated this entire portion of the galaxy before the time of the Tar-Aiym and the Hur'rikku."

I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF THE XUNCA. SOME. THEY WERE A GREAT PEOPLE.

Already the Krang had confessed to knowledge beyond the fragments that had been laboriously acc.u.mulated over the centuries by Commonwealth xenoarchaeologists. So excited was Flinx by the machine's revelation that he put aside the question he had come to ask in favor of another. "What-what happened to them?" "What-what happened to them?"

THEY WENT AWAY.

Went away. The Ulru-Ujurrians had said almost exactly the same thing.

"How did they 'go away'?"

THAT IS NOT KNOWN.

Dead end. He returned to his original question. "It's thought that the instrumental complex on Horseye is part of an incredibly old and advanced warning system. Even though those it was intended to warn have 'gone away,' the device they left behind continues to function. My people have been able to determine that it is monitoring the approach "It's thought that the instrumental complex on Horseye is part of an incredibly old and advanced warning system. Even though those it was intended to warn have 'gone away,' the device they left behind continues to function. My people have been able to determine that it is monitoring the approach of the Great Evil and also the most energetic, dynamic region of known s.p.a.ce, a phenomenon that we call the Great Attractor. But in addition to monitoring and recording these two events, the system also sends out a sporadic signal whose meaning and content we have not been able to decipher of the Great Evil and also the most energetic, dynamic region of known s.p.a.ce, a phenomenon that we call the Great Attractor. But in addition to monitoring and recording these two events, the system also sends out a sporadic signal whose meaning and content we have not been able to decipher.

"I want to know, I need to know, where this signal is directed and if possible, the purpose behind it."

The half-million-year-old machine that was at once an instrument of war and an instrument of art did not hesitate. Hesitation was a defect reserved for organic sentients.

SEARCHING NOW.

Flinx waited. Something remarkable happened.

Nothing happened.

It happened for a moment, then several moments. The several moments stretched into a period of time lasting longer than any comparable period of time he had spent on a Tar-Aiym operator's dais without anything happening.

Was it possible that just then and now, at that particular instant of time, the half-million-year-old mechanism had finally failed? It was a possibility he was allowed to ponder for barely an instant before a response was forthcoming. When it did, there was no indication on the part of the instrumentality in which he lay that anything unusual had transpired.

MUCH TO SEARCH. THEN HAD TO SIFT WHAT WAS SEARCHED.

"Did you learn-anything?" Muscles convulsed as Flinx arched his back against the unyielding composite material beneath him. Muscles convulsed as Flinx arched his back against the unyielding composite material beneath him.

LEGEND. OF THOSE WHO WENT AWAY.

Flinx was patient. "Can you be more specific?" "Can you be more specific?"

ONE SIGNAL TO MONITOR THREAT. ONE SIGNAL TO MONITOR DEFENSE. ONE SIGNAL TO LINK THE TWO.

Was it possible? Was it even conceivable? Had the Xunca, before they "went away," built something they believed might be capable of defending against the oncoming Great Evil? If that was the case, why hadn't this hypothetical weapon already unleashed its unknown potential on a threat that had now s.h.i.+fted nearer than ever? Flinx thought hard.

A menace looms. The threatened man raises a defensive weapon to protect himself. But he has a choice: he has time to flee. So instead of firing, he simply runs away. A safer option than standing and fighting when the outcome of the clash is unpredictable.

And in his haste to run away, he leaves his unused weapon behind. But the unfired weapon remains bound to the danger. Sporadically, if the Krang was to be believed.

Where was the weapon? What What was the weapon? The Great Attractor? How did you fire, how did you pull the trigger, on a cosmic phenomenon that blazed with the energy of ten thousand trillion suns? was the weapon? The Great Attractor? How did you fire, how did you pull the trigger, on a cosmic phenomenon that blazed with the energy of ten thousand trillion suns?

Very carefully, he decided. That was a.s.suming the fantastic inferences he was making were in any way, shape, or fas.h.i.+on accurate, and he was not just wish-dreaming.

"The signal that intermittently reaches out from Horseye-it's not designed to activate the defense?"

NO.

"Why not?"

ASK THOSE WHO MADE IT.

Back to square one. "Do you know where this defense is?" "Do you know where this defense is?"

I CAN PROVIDE COORDINATES.

Flinx's spirits rose. Something solid, something tangible, at last!

"Please provide."

Though the Teacher Teacher essentially flew and maintained itself, years of crisscrossing the Commonwealth and the AAnn Empire had given Flinx a certain amount of insight into the basics of interstellar navigation. When the Krang offered up a simplified set of stellar coordinates, Flinx quickly set them against what he knew. They made no sense. He projected his confusion. essentially flew and maintained itself, years of crisscrossing the Commonwealth and the AAnn Empire had given Flinx a certain amount of insight into the basics of interstellar navigation. When the Krang offered up a simplified set of stellar coordinates, Flinx quickly set them against what he knew. They made no sense. He projected his confusion.

I WILL SUPPLY VISUAL REFERENCE.

An image formed in Flinx's mind. It moved and s.h.i.+fted, changing size and perspective. Slowed, enhanced, enhanced again. Eyes shut tight, locked in communicative stasis, he inhaled sharply when it finally resolved.

"Useless," he finally thought. he finally thought. "Impossibly far away. Of what conceivable use is something situated at such a distance?" "Impossibly far away. Of what conceivable use is something situated at such a distance?"

ASK THOSE WHO MADE IT.

Infuriating. If he did not know better he would have thought the machine was mocking him. It was doing nothing of the kind, of course. Simply responding with minimal waste and delay to his inquiries.

"I am patently unable to do that," he replied as calmly as he could manage, he replied as calmly as he could manage, "since those who made it have 'gone away.'" "since those who made it have 'gone away.'" Almost as an afterthought he added, Almost as an afterthought he added, "Perhaps you can suggest another means or method of ascertaining the potential usefulness of this hypothetical defense?" "Perhaps you can suggest another means or method of ascertaining the potential usefulness of this hypothetical defense?"

The last thing he expected was a response. No, that wasn't quite correct. The last thing he expected was a positive positive response. response.

GO THERE.

Being locked in cerebral stasis did not prevent Flinx from coughing slightly. "I'm afraid I don't have adequate means of transportation. Even if I did, I wouldn't live long enough to complete the journey." "I'm afraid I don't have adequate means of transportation. Even if I did, I wouldn't live long enough to complete the journey."

BOTH LIMITS ARE WITHIN REACH.

If he had been in full control of his body, he would have sat up. "What did you say?" "What did you say?"