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Vanishing Act -- Chapter
27
1. Daniel felt his body free floating in the vastness of
space.
2. It was not his corporeal body, but his
energy-matter within.
3. In the distance was a layer of colorful rings
made of luminous material. As he approached the rings, he
realized that he had greatly underestimated their size.
4. At first, the rings seemed to be made of an
ever-shifting solid material; a fusion of light and metal held together
in an inexplicable fashion.
5. He thought he saw gemstones, then the stones
dissolved into liquid jewels. The effect was heavenly, and it
seemed connected to his mind.
6. "Isn't 'everything' connected to my mind?" he
second-guessed sardonically.
7. The rings spanned in excess of 1,000 miles in
diameter. In the central area of the rings were billions of
glowing creatures
dressed in luminous robes surrounding a glorious personage in the
center.
8. "Is it really?..." Daniel lipped, breathless in his energy
body. Breathing isn't a photonic necessity, but it is a hard
habit to break.
9. The central personage sat upon a throne made of
luminous
jewels that rotated slowly on three invisible axis.
10. The setting was so incomprehensible that it
was reduced to fit the limits of ones imagination.
11. Daniel never doubted the existence of
God and this moment was proof enough, dream or no dream.
12. His movement stopped within 100 miles of
the center. The central
being was given a 50-mile berth.
13. There was an indescribable music of creation
that could not be heard in corporeal form. The music flowed
euphorically through the soul. Apart from the ethereal
sounds, there was a humbling, reverent silence.
These creatures were accustomed to being in the presence of God.
14. A streak of light sped from its vanishing
point straight to Daniel, who was holding fast at a predisposed point.
15. The being was breathtakingly glorious beyond
anything Daniel
had ever imagined; beyond his dreams of the Light Race.
16. A conversation took place between Daniel and
the being that would take the rest of his natural life to
understand. "You will remember parts of this conversation at
specific times in your life," the being explained.
17. Daniel guessed one keyword right:
Tetragammaton. Then he awoke on the sofa in his office in a
wonderful daze. Incredible!
18. Coming into focus was B'jhon's face, who had
been standing there, waiting for Daniel to awake. There was an
unwritten code on Corlos: Never wake anybody up. Nobody
ever questioned it; probably because everyone on Corlos wondered which
side of consciousness they were really on.
19. "Yes?" Daniel asked B'jhon without so much as
twitching an eye muscle.
20. "Dayton has returned to Earth." B'jhon
said rather flatly.
21. Daniel shot up, gave B'jhon a disturbing stare
and strolled over to his enormous wall-length window. He held his
hands behind his back in military fashion and slowly paced, his
thoughts well removed from God's throne.
22. "I think this is the first time anyone has
ever done this," he said.
23.
It wasn't a simple matter of going back to Earth to retrieve him;
during the ten minutes that lapsed, a million different variables
changed. That's why deployments and redeployment were always
calculated in advance to assess the quantum possibilities.
24. B'jhon knew the severity of Dayton's
infraction, but didn't want to be the one to pronounce
punishment. "Who in the hell let him do this!" Daniel thought out
loud.
25. "You know," Daniel said, barely more
composed, "I've never
had to terminate an agent before... at least not for this reason."
26. "He made the choice for you," B'jhon
replied.
27. "OK," Daniel agreed, "reassemble them."
If it wasn't for these constant meetings -- Corlos would have nothing
else to do.
28. The librarian had already retrieved the user
log from the simulator and sent it to the conference room. The
simulator was not networked on purpose.
<>29. Everyone watched Dayton flirt with disaster,
struggle with morality and ultimately choose suicide. Everyone
had experienced the same temptation more than once. Everyone knew
the rules, but nobody had committed this particular unforgivable
sin. The Glory
of God is Intelligence -- but the Valley of Death is
prerequisite. It wasn't just disobedience on trial, but a
scornful lack of common sense. "Is he wanting
to die?" an operative asked before Daniel arrived. Of course they
already knew.
30. "I never thought this day would happen,"
Daniel said, as he entered. He didn't seem to mind that they were
already talking about it. It was rather unprecedented.
31. "Who was Dayton's recruiter?" Daniel asked.
<>32. "I-40," came a choral response. It
wasn't necessary to point out that I-40 was also a machine. That
sort of profiling was beneath Sunova etiquette. But it was also
curious, since I-40 seemed to have connections that nobody could
resolutely prove or disprove. I-40 was above
suspecion.
33. "I-40 is always dead pan accurate," Daniel
said introspectively. Everyone caught the unspoken, "What went
wrong?" "How... did it
go wrong?"
34. "We need a retrieval agent," Daniel
added. "What are the dynamics of extraction?"
35. The images of three extraction agents appeared
on both walls; the room had an ovular shape.
36. Gryffyn was considered the official Corlos executioner.
His image was one of the three.
37. Everyone recognized the third image, who was on
assignment near Alpha Centuri and the 2nd closest agent to Earth.
38. The center image was Ireana, who was aboard an Elite
Destroyer enroute Earth to destroy it. She was the
closest and almost there
already.
39. "Well, Ireana is probably in the mood to kill somebody, so
why not send her?" The voice was at the other end of the
table was safely out of range.
40. Daniel allowed himself to laugh privately at the
sentiment. The others were a little more hesitant, since Dayton's
termination could one day be their own if they messed up like
this.
41. "The intrigue is killing me," Daniel
replied. It was another paraphrased
conversation.
42. The same voice on the other end surmised,
"It's Onimex."
43. Another voice amended, "No, it's Xanax!"
44. There was an unspoken, "Oh, that's right!" on
everyone's faces. Daniel had to re-assess the
verdict. The Ellipsis forbade the conviction of machines
indentured to chaos, and Dayton's situation was a perfect
example. Xanax made the magic happen, but expressly under
Dayton's authority.
45. "You know what?" Daniel whispered, "We really
can't kill Dayton."
46. That was a revelation. "Because of
Xanax?" most of them wondered.
47.
Xanax was an A.I. statement whose full potential had not even scratched
the surface; the closest thing to cybernetic alchemy ever
concocted. "We can't kill the inventor of such a thing," was the
silent conclusion. "He messed up -- but we've got to find another
way."
48. The voice at the end of the table was right --
Ireana was the only choice.
49. "We've got to get her off Kor's ship," Daniel
prodded. What they heard was, 'we need to
secure the industrial vulnerability ASAP.'
50. Daniel touched a button on the onyx table
surface. "I need an analysis on moving Ireana from Kor's ship to
Earth."
51. "We're on it," came the immediate reply.
Daniel had called Operations on his way to the meeting.
Operations
called back. "Yes," Daniel answered.
52. "I didn't mention that four quantum
distortions will be focused on one point in space-time if we move
her. We are unable to forcibly retrieve Dayton -- he's immersed
in an alternate timeline that we have to reverse engineer in order to
figure out where he is. The simulator only gave us a starting
point."
53. "Can't Xanax and Onimex buffer such a
transport?" Daniel asked.
54. "Yes, but it would help if they had some
notice first." Privately, Daniel wondered, "Why is all this
attention focused on this one point in space, and all at once, right
now?"
55. "And Ireana can be briefed during transport?"
Daniel asked.
56. "If that's what you want Sir, that's what
we'll do."
57. "Let me know when it can happen," Daniel
said. "Yes Sir," came the reply.
58. The assistant librarian scurried into the room
somewhat flushed and with something remarkable to report.
59. She set a hockey-puck shaped disc onto a
reader at Daniel's station. "You'll want to see this," she said.
60. A red "Y" symbol, just like the alpha-numeric
"Y" appeared on every wall. It was the most serious event in the
known Universe and precisely what Corlos was chartered to
interdict and prevent. The symbol represented a time split,
unnatural to any known dimenstion; a shard.
61. "He messed up like you wouldn't believe,"
the librarian reported.
62. Daniel sat back down in his chair. This was the 2nd
instance in one day where he was tasked with terminating the same
person.
63. Before the alternate reality had a chance to play, Dayton
pushed the disk off the receiver.
64. "That reality will not happen," Daniel said sternly, "so we
might as well not watch it."
65. Daniel rose with an angry look on his face.
66. "Seek
and Terminate. Meeting adjourned." "Damn!" somebody
remarked at the sudden conclusion. It seemed like it was starting
to soften up for Dayton, and now this.
67. Operations chimed back in, "We have a lock on Ireana
and we've calculated the right moment to move her. It's
coming up soon."
68. "You picked the point when the conjoining waves are
oscillating at their widest?" Daniel confirmed. "Yes
Sir," operations replied.
69, "Just making sure," Daniel said, "I know
you know what you're doing." Conjoining waves are only part of
the transport process, but that's usually where the hang-ups occur when
things go
wrong. Daniel's concern was normal... when just about everything
else wasn't.
ABOARD
THE DESTROYER
70. Sol
3 gradually enlarged on the main viewer as 30 Elite destroyers
decelerated and approached conquest
# 919, soon to be annihilated.
71. "A beautiful blue shell," Kor observed
indifferently. The Elite empire accepted The One's indifference
as an endorsement of Kor, who was careful not to mock God, just in case
the Jolvian fable of Me'thosha's Tower was true. If anything, Kor
was fulfilling the ancient prophecy of a great conqueror who drove all
vices from the shell.
72. In spite of Earth's well conceived defensive
posture, it was grossly maligned for this type of attack.
Earth's psionists
knew that 'the proverbial aliens' had been dwelling among them for
centuries; that the best defense would be inadaquate against a
determined telestial foe. There was nothing in it for the bank,
so such talk was avoided with
scorn.
73. By the time Earth's sensor grid registered a
crack in their defenses -- the planet would be reduced to a
septillion bite-sized pieces that simply disappeared. There would
be no evidence that a shell ever existed.
74. "Meet me in my throne room," Kor instructed Ireana.
There was no place that she could escape to, and Corlos had not
retrieved her, so Kor gave her free reign of the ship. Besides,
the crew adored her as a heroine, anointed by The Master for her
valiancy. "Let sleeping droids lay," the Cacci Dai
say.
75. Ireana could feel the solemnity of those on board. In their
own piously misguided way,
shell destructions were necessary to rid the Universe of
evil. They were not villains in their own eyes -- the shellan
deserters
were. "Just how backward..." Ireana started. "Don't think,"
she remembered Onimex suggesting. She wanted to hear his voice
again.
76. Conquest # 919 would become collateral for dessertion, just
like conquest # 718 was.
77. The throne in Kor's audience chamber had been forced to fit
aboard a ship void of pomp and circumstance. Extra
monitors were added so that he could observe ship
operations. His prized feature was the private full-length
observation window. As long as Kor was happy -- the ship's
carpenter was happy too. The crew could have their
recreation room back when The Master no longer needed it.
78. Dal
El's presence
was purely figurative; seated in one of the lounge chairs facing the
observation window. He had written the Elite SOP based on his
operational knowledge of the Theotian Spaceforce. The Elite
tweaked it here and there and adapted it for their use.
79. Kor greeted Ireana as soon as the door slid open, after all,
she was one of them. They entered together like a King and
Queen. Dal
El rose in salute. Kor accepted his salute and motioned
for him to sit back down. The #1 rumor was that Kor and Ireana
were 'a thing' now.
80. Visible from the observation deck was the operations
center down below: Elegantly sheik, sinfully stylish and
gloriously ordained by Kor to kill everything in
sight. The entire apparatus made wholesale murder appear
purposeful and idealistic.
81.
Ireana juxtaposed the beautification of death against everything that
she believed, "How did Kor hypnotize an entire culture..., no... 'create' a culture addicted to
planetcide?"
82. She scanned the crews psionic pulse and sensed
their reverent delight in killing; dark and intoxicated.
Sick. Every justification and every license led to the will of
one shellan, whose will reigned supreme.
83. "These... shellans...
" Ireana searched for an equasion that could quantify the dysfunction,
"...enjoy... what they
do." She looked away in thought, "It's just an emotion then --
gratification." She role played the result; "Why do you
annihilate whole shells?" "Because I enjoy it," she
answered. Oh, how pedestrian.
84. Kor tapped into her at random times -- he no
longer felt a pressing need to follow every synaptic thread. Her
individuality posed no meaningful threat. In a more
industrialized setting, she would be unrivaled, but here, she was
nothing more than an attractive actress, and a damn good one at
that.
85. As the veil of Elite psychosis lifted, she understood why
Daniel wanted her here. Daniel was like a savage beauty, always
two steps ahead. "What was that expression?" she searched her
memory, "Life through Light and Death, Beauty and Savagery." It
fit somehow. She turned her head toward Kor and then back toward
the window. This was the closest Corlos would ever get to
Kor. "Daniel knew exactly what he was doing," she thought, "And
who is his
handler?"
86. "They
think I'm one of them now... no, ... that
I have always been one of
them." She scanned the crew for symbols of herself:
87. "The Secret Sorceress. The Elite
Queen." It was like stepping into a royal treasury and finding
your name written on everything. Only she wasn't who they thought
she was, like a typical Jolvian tragedy. The crew liked her, akin
to a matriarchal figure -- they thought it was time for 'The Great
Father to 'get a woman.'
88. "Guards!" she mumbled under her breath in
realization, "They love me -- they think Kor needs a mate."
89. "A marriage by acclaimation," he clarified
nonchalantly. "But aren't you..." she started. "You
may not think so, but I'm a product of what they wanted. The
Constitutional rhetoric that the whole Universe revolves around me is
simply untrue," Kor shrugged, "You hear them -- you can decide for
yourself." Ireana cocked her head back incredulously -- for a
second, it sounded like he was proselytizing her into the
fold.
90. "This moment," Kor alluded to the lull in time
before destroying a shell, "is what we call the Black Mass."
91. His voice reflected reverence and solemnity for the
dead. "Is there a definitive, two dimensional point where Heaven
and Hell meet?" Ireana thought. It was her quantitative way of
reconciling a marriage between good and evil. "Did he, in a
round-about way, say he would marry me? and if so, we need to work on
our priorities. Planetcide needs to be deleted."
92. "You don't have to do
it," she said, "You don't have to do this -- you can make a
choice. You can save this
world, by not destroying it. There are no Vejhonians there -- I
was the only one, and I'm here now, so... just... stop."
She turned to Kor as if she was already proclaimed Queen, "Don't... do
this," she said calmly.
93. From her point of view, her logic was perfect. Kor
was truly taken back and cocked his head
inquisitively toward her, as if she was pleading for perdition.
"Are you trying to bargain with me..."
he asked, "for their lives?" "Making deals with the devil," a
Human might say. He was being serious.
94. A cold fire cracked through the gates of hell and penetrated
her soul like an icicle. Kor thought that he had captured her,
but clearly, something got lost in the translation. She knew that
Corlos
could extract her at any moment, making this the shortest love story in
history. But if she could save one life, then she could save them
all, and Cacci Dai would plant an astral swril in her honor in the
museum of chaos. "Could I really change him?" she wondered.
95. Her breathing stiffened. She became conscious that Dal
El was in another world, far outside their psionic communion, or
maybe just giving the love birds their privacy.
96. "Would you?" she asked. Kor captured the two
additional words that she didn't say, "for me?" "You've got to be
frackin' kidding me?" Kor shielded from everyone. It was the most
incredulous thing anyone had ever asked of him. In a mischevious
way he was thinking, "What sort of God do you take me for?"
97. Of course, he could do any damn thing he pleased, and had
indulged her passion once before, "I could give you
worlds without end," Kor replied. "So who bears the burden of
sanity now?" Ireana asked. Kor knew it was introspection.
"Do we live in the same Universe?" Kor questioned. "Mirror,"
Ireana said -- she could ask the same question.
98. Ireana felt a tear trying to rip from her face, "Is it so
unthinkable?" she asked.
99. "Give me this world and I'll do whatever you want," she
whispered. Kor also heard, "... and don't let anyone know that I
said that, because I'll deny it." The moment had come: The
decision to cancel conquest # 919 was now or never. She was
weakening, but not philosophically. If she had too -- she
would find a way to make the best of an inexplicable situation.
"But the price is Earth." She had barely lived there for 2 days
while observing Dayton.
100. Dal El interrupted politely, "All ships are reporting
'GO.'" Even his intonation suggested that Kor and Ireana were
already a thing. She returned a tight smile to acknowledge his
ludicrous presumption -- he didn't have a clue. "Such an
extraordinary mind," she sighed. "...caught up in all of this,"
Kor also heard.
101. Kor nodded toward a yeoman who stood invisibly by; he was in
charge
of holding the main fire button until Kor required it. The
invisible jobs were sometimes the best ones.
102. The ships Captain called Kor and reported, "We
have a teutonic lock. All systems are synched. Awaiting
your order, Sir." Ireana was forcing her diaphragm to function
because she couldn't breathe otherwise. The Earth was enlarged on
the viewer, but the ship was at a very safe distance.
103. "Well Done, Captain," Kor acknowledged, "I'll fire from up
here." Ireana didn't know what else to do. She had
offered herself to him, and that was all that she had. Kor rolled
his eyes. "If Onimex was here..." she started. "I would
massacre the son-of-a-bitch, and still destroy 919," Kor
injected. "I could throw myself in front of the disrupter beam,"
she scratched for ideas. "Now, you're just being stupid," Kor
gently swayed his head, as if it was a true lovers quarrel. At
least she was maintaining her composure. Nobody had the
foggiest...
104. Kor rose for the occasion, took the detonation switch from
the yeoman and approached the observation window as if the additional
10 steps made a tremendous visual difference -- it was a
habit.
105. Monitors throughout the fleet were focused on Kor's every
move because whoever held the switch was the star for
the occasion. Sometimes that honor was bestowed upon someone who
had demonstrated great valiancy in the face of grave danger to protect
the Elite. Ireana felt a joyous sentiment sweep across the entire
fleet and unanimously elect her to push the
button... a 'wedding' present of sorts.
106. Kor motioned for her to join him near the window and
offered her the remote. She was utterly and morbidly stupefied,
"Director bless me," she said.
She had never even met a Psionic Guard, let alone the Director.
The line was inaudiable and otherwise innocuous.
107. Kor offered her the remote
like one might offer a drinking
buddy some pretzels, and even feigned comic puzzlement by her
hesitation. She made
a customary bow to ingratiate herself, and declined the honor as one
unworthy:
108. Ireana thought that she was losing consciousness, when in
fact, she had become familiar with the feeling. The psionic
shield was temporarily disabled in order to fire the primary
disrupter. Nothing was left to chance.
109. She saw Kor return his attention to conquest # 919. He
pressed the fire switch and a weapons officer said, "Weapons Free!"
into his mic.
110. As the ships activated their primary weapons, Kor
peripherally detected that Ireana had disappeared.
He spun around to see where she had went! She was nowhere in
sight; she was not in an adjacent dimension; her whereabouts were
utterly unknown. Her amusing psionic imprint was vacant.
111. He returned his gaze to the window and there was nothing to
see
but thousands of miles of empty space in all directions: Conquest # 919
disappeared seconds before the disrupter beams could impact the upper
atmosphere -- the
entire armada witnessed it! Some thought it might be a spacial
distortion, because the weapons never failed -- Dal El made sure of
it.
112. Kor dropped his arm to his side and numbly fumbled with the
remote. It was
the first time in his life that he had been at a total loss for
words.
"An act of The One?" he entertained, "...and if so... why now? Why such a 'delayed'
interest Universal affairs?" It really didn't make
sense. "Did we take out the shell, or not?" he asked his Fleet
Commanders psionically.
113. "We're still in the 10-planet system," cartography reported,
"but 919 vanished. "Our weapons did not impact the shell.
No joy," the chief weapons officer reported. The anomaly started
a plethora of psionic curiosity throughout the fleet,
understandably.
114. Energy blasts from ships positioned 50,000 miles away were
beginning to streak past Kor's destroyer, having impacted no target at
all, to confirm the fact.
115. Earth's moon had been clipped by two disrupter beams, and
without Earth to hold it in orbit, drifted injured into space.
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