Chapter One
Eddies and currents of time flow through the galaxy … and immense whirlpools beckon everything into chaos.
—Eshaz, timeseeing report to
the Council of Elders
A tiny figure, the Parvii woman clung to a wall of the glowing green sectoid chamber. Using her touch and a telepathic linkage to the Aopoddae podship, she guided the creature past uncounted star systems, which she saw through multiple eyes on the craft’s hull. At the vanguard of the Liberator fleet, she led the other Aopoddae vessels toward the galactic fold of the Parviis, and now their destination drew near.
Tesh Kori’s dominion over the sentient spacecraft was an evolving relationship, a symbiosis between two ancient and very different galactic races in which she merged into the psyche of the creature in the ancient way. Now she felt an increasing closeness to this flagship that she had named Webdancer. The connection gave her a glimmer of hope for the future, that perhaps her people would finally see the error of their ways and agree to cooperate with other races.
But she didn’t hold out much hope for that outcome. More likely, there would be a terrible battle in the sacred fold. And she would be responsible for leading a powerful military force to that secret location, for an attack on her own people.
She tried to set aside the feelings of guilt, if only for a few moments. Her thoughts drifted to something infinitely more pleasant, her feelings for an alien Human named Noah Watanabe.…
O O O
In the passenger compartment behind Tesh’s sectoid chamber, Noah stood beside a blond young man, both of them staring out a wide aft porthole at the formation of nine hundred podships behind them. Unlike the flagship, the trailing vessels were all piloted by Tulyans that had merged into the flesh of the spacefaring vessels, causing reptilian Tulyan faces to protrude from the prows. He recognized several of them, including that of his close friend, Eshaz.
The journey had taken longer than anticipated—more than two days so far—due to the extreme distance involved and poor conditions of the podways that had required the fleet to take alternate routes. They’d been forced to go around entire galactic sectors that had collapsed from the entropic decay of the Timeweb infrastructure.
The young man nudged him. It was Noah’s nephew, Doge Anton del Velli. “While we’ve been looking outside, our ship morphed again. I think it’s bigger now.”
Noah looked around the grayness of the large cabin, which was illuminated by hidden sources that flickered faintly green at times. Many of the uniformed officers and other personnel stood at forward viewing windows that jutted out on the port and starboard sides. He heard the murmur of their voices.
Everyone had noticed the changes. Since embarking on this critical mission, the passenger areas and the cargo holds on the lower levels had become at least half again as large as they had originally been. None of the Human, Tulyan, or robotic passengers had left the vessel, and all of the fighter craft were parked in the holds, yet everyone agreed there was considerably more space for everything now.
“You’re right,” Noah said. “There’s another row of benches, and the ceiling seems a little higher.”
Anton rubbed his thick blond mustache. “Webdancer, she calls this one, and from the reports I’m getting, it’s bigger than all the rest of them.”
With a grin on his freckled face, Noah said, “Well, it is the flagship, and seems to sense its relative importance.” He paused. “Perhaps our ship is just puffing up its chest in pride.”
“Odd, the way podships can configure themselves at will,” Anton said, “expanding, changing layouts, and even adding gun ports on the sides of the hulls that are perfect for our space artillery pieces. I find it most peculiar.”
“Indeed.”
“With your connections, Noah, you should know why.”
“But I don’t.” Noah’s incredible psychic powers came and went, enabling him to take paranormal journeys far across the heavens and sometimes to pilot podships, these mysterious creatures that had their own communication methods and secret motivations. It had all started after he’d been mortally wounded in an attack by Doge Lorenzo del Velli’s forces, and Eshaz healed him by connecting him to a strand of Timeweb. It had been much more than a physical healing process.
Timeweb.
He shuddered slightly as he thought of the name that Parviis and Tulyans had given to the cosmic green filigree connecting everything in the galaxy, a vast network on which these Aopoddae craft were traveling now. Most of the races could not see it, but after Noah’s miraculous survival he’d been granted unprecedented private access to the web, although without explanation or guidance. Still, through it all, Noah had come to suspect that a higher power was guiding him, and had been doing so for some time. He sensed this force with him now, and with the entire fleet.
We’re doing the right thing, he assured himself, the only thing we can do.
As he looked at the young merchant prince leader beside him, Noah thought his nephew carried his responsibilities well, and comported himself as if he had been groomed for this important position. That was hardly the case, though Anton did have royal blood on his father Lorenzo’s side, albeit from an extramarital relationship he’d had with Noah’s sister. Only serving as the Doge for a short time after his father was deposed, Anton had managed to coordinate much of the galaxy-spanning military effort, working with the various allied races and factions so that none felt slighted, and all believed they were indispensable to the success of the mission. It helped that this actually was true. Each of the groups in the assault force—the Red Berets, the MPA troopers, the Guardians, the Tulyans, and even the sentient robots—had important roles to play.
Just then, a clamor of excited voices rose at the front of the compartment. Noah and Anton hurried over, making their way around the extruded benches, tables, and other furnishings the podship had provided. Noticing the approach of the two leaders, the other passengers moved aside, allowing them to reach one of the forward viewing windows.
Looking through it, Noah sucked in a deep breath, and suppressed a gasp. Ahead he saw what looked like a large, luminous hole in the black fabric of the galaxy, casting subdued illumination like a dull cosmic searchlight.
“The Asteroid Funnel,” Anton murmured. “The Parvii Fold is on the other side, but Tesh will need all of her piloting skills to get us there.”
“She can do it,” Noah said. Both of them had heard of the terrible dangers of the galactic funnel, the hurtling asteroids, the extremely perilous flying conditions.
For several moments time seemed to stand still around Noah Watanabe and all went silent. So much rested on this military venture, the fate of all the galactic races and their worlds, the fate of all they had ever known and all they had ever imagined. Countless dreams hung in the balance, made precarious by the dark clouds that had seeped into the galaxy.
Closing his eyes, Noah attempted to mind-range and peer into the cosmic web, trying to see into the Parvii Fold beyond the funnel. But the paranormal network had only been accessible to him intermittently, and almost never of his own volition. Now he beheld a pocket of blackness in his mind and felt cold fear washing through him.
Just as Noah opened his eyes again, Webdancer plunged into the hole, with the fleet right behind.
***