The Path to Loss (Approaching Infinity Book 4) (27 page)

He didn’t think they’d be able to use the temporal window, not without the other component of its power source, and that he would never give up. He hoped, perhaps in vain, that they wouldn’t even be able to discern its purpose. The window was an acceptable sacrifice, though, especially if he’d succeeded in halting whatever progress the monstrosity-plant was making in collapsing the universe. Stol’s Stolom was safe. Raohan La’s mere existence was proof of that.

There was still work to do, but he needed to recover a bit more, to gather his faculties. The mental and physical resources required to finally eliminate the humans and that hideous Vine would be substantial. He’d intuited that the humans were a secondary threat, that they merely aided the plant, and that the plant’s main power and intelligence had been trapped here in the past. The humans had proven to be exceptionally able, probably due to augmentation of some sort, and there was still the matter of the plant itself. He’d hoped and expected that the temporal amputation would weaken and disorient it, and so far, he was confident that the separation had had the desired effect. That a portion of the plant still remained in the present was irksome due to the threat it represented, even if only potential, but it couldn’t be helped.

A little more rest and he would be ready to—

Pain seared through him like jabbing spear. First there was enormous pressure and then a sickening release. He realized that this latter was his blood pouring out in a thick stream from his midsection. Nausea overwhelmed him and he nearly collapsed. Everything canted, spun. Up and down had no more meaning. He took one heavy step forward and attempted to master himself. In those steadying moments, he was able to make out the glimmering figure just beyond the arcing spill of his own blood.

For the first time in nearly a hundred years, Hilene Tanser was truly frustrated. She’d approached the giant reptile, which, for some reason, she couldn’t think of as a dragon—no wings? awkward and less than ideal anthropomorphism?—carelessly. That wasn’t a fair assessment exactly, but she was very critical of herself. She had to be. It wasn’t fair to be critical only of others. She’d approached the reptile as she had every other enemy, intangible, but only at the most rudimentary level. Teleportation was very rare to begin with, but to reach beyond the physical and grasp what essentially wasn’t there spoke of vast mental powers. Enough power, she deduced instantly, to knock the Palace off true. She would not make the same mistake twice.

When she found herself buried under kilometers of murky salt water, she snorted and sighed internally. She’d immediately pushed her intangibility to its most advanced level. The environmental conditions posed no danger to her, but she had no reference point. In this state, everything was revealed to her. Through the very planet itself, she could sense the Vine, or at least part of it. She could sense the intellect responsible for sending her here. There was something else, too. There was something between the Vine and the reptile that reached down into the planet’s core, feeding on its energy and exuding some kind of distortion, like a strange and constant echo. She fixed her attention on the reptile and made her best speed towards him. She streaked through rocky layers, through the molten core, then back through countless layers of rock, until, seventy-six minutes later, she popped out from the ground less than a hundred meters from the reptile’s hiding place.

Again she snorted. A light-bending field? Maybe it would fool her colleagues, for a short time anyway, but it was nothing to her. In her current state, she had no fear of detection save visual, and the monster’s back was to her. Normally she didn’t like sneak attacks, but teleporting your opponent from the fight wasn’t exactly sporting either. She couldn’t ignore the positioning advantage he’d provided to her, or, she was less likely to admit to herself, the bruising to her ego.

She straightened, took a deep, purely reflexive and symbolic breath, and shot forward, executing the Ten Deaths inside to bore a straight channel through the reptile.

Her fragments reassembled on exit, but she stopped in midair shortly thereafter. All during her progress through the monster’s torso, she felt something tugging at her, trying to rip her and all her other selves apart. No, that wasn’t quite right. It was something trying to invade her, through every cell, though none should have been accessible to the physical world. She coughed blood into her helmet now and, shocked and outraged for the first time in her life, turned to look at the thing responsible.

She spent no time considering what to do next. She burst forth, back towards the reptile. She would finish it off and that would be the end of it: no more threat to the Vine or to her personally. She didn’t realize it, but it was the latter that had incensed her. She’d never felt such pain or been so close to death as she had while inside the reptile and its very existence drove her reason from her, made her furious. Just as she was about to pierce its hide, though, it moved, or rather, it teleported several meters away. She darted towards its new location, employing the Ten Deaths a fraction of a second after what would have been penetration, but the reptile teleported again just prior, and in fact, teleported multiple times, each time to take it out of reach of one of her charges. It backed away from her as she reassembled, and her eyes succumbed to some kind of trick of perspective. The reptile suddenly appeared to be several kilometers away and was then gone from her sight.

She bent and held her arms tightly about her middle, trying to stem the pain she felt there. Her head was muzzy. Was she feverish? What was wrong with her? She strained her senses to try to find the reptile once again, but could not and came away only with a dull, throbbing ache behind her eyes to accompany the muzziness in her head. She thought she might vomit. Thankfully the Vine was closer than the reptile had been when she started back from the ocean bottom.

Four hours later, Hilene awoke to darkness, but recognized her own bed. She immediately called Jav through her Artifact, was relieved to find him in range and able to respond. He showed up in her quarters not ten minutes later. She hadn’t moved from the bed. He sat down on its edge to join her.

“I thought we’d lost you both, Hilene,” Jav said.

“Both? What do you mean?” She sat up on her elbows, her face scrunching up with mild effort to do so.

“Nils. He’s gone.”

She shook her head, not able or not wanting to process the information.

“But Nils. . . Not even you can crack him when he’s Dark.”

Jav pursed his lips, nodded. “I don’t think anything could have survived what hit him.”

She lowered her eyes, frowning. She felt tired, exhausted actually, which was unusual, but maybe not, considering what she’d been feeling before. . . before. . .

“How did I get here? I remember the reptile going away. I started to come back here, but. . .” She met his eyes and shook her head again.

“You made it as far as the clearing. We’ve got quite a set-up out there now with Gran Mal standing guard. Scanlan says he’s hours away from figuring out how to get us back. Which is impressive, considering he figures we’ve arrived a couple hundred million years early.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, and it looked like it hurt her to try.

“Don’t worry. Anyway, you were incoherent and had reverted to a slightly-less-than-impossible-to-reach state. I used AI to tow you back. You finally went solid on your own and I put you to bed.”

He smiled at her. “I’m glad you’re all right.” But as he stared at her, his smile darkened. “You
are
all right, aren’t you?”

She nodded. “I think so. I hurt it, Jav, but I couldn’t kill it. It sent me away, far away, but I found it again and made it bleed. There’s something really very terrible about it, though. Something,” she shook her head, searching for the right words, “something
final
about it.”

“Final?”

She sighed. “I don’t have the words. There’s what it did to the Vine, and when I went through it, I think I almost died. I think it left me sick somehow. I feel better now. Just. . . just tired.”

“A medscan crew has already had a look at you. They couldn’t identify anything wrong. You should get some more rest. I’m going to go back out to check on Scanlan’s progress.”

She nodded and smiled. “Thanks.”

He smiled in return.

Raohan La hurt everywhere, but it was his pride, once again, that suffered most. It had been shattered and abandoned as a result. He rose from the vast stone slab that had served as his sick bed, stood in the darkness of the caverns he’d carved with his mind for his people to use as shelter from what had arrived hours ago. Previously, he’d entertained ideas of stopping the plant on his own, of once more being a hero to two races and perhaps the universe as well. But he knew now that he couldn’t do it alone. He required help. There were others, his mate in particular, who were quite adept at biological manipulation. If he hadn’t come back to seek aid from his fellows, he’d be dead now.

In the entryway, he recognized Chushin La’s silhouette, lit only slightly by the wan firelight from the adjoining chamber. He knew that the rest were there, discussing options and the possibility of a future. She put a paw gently to his chest, careful of the tender, rebuilt tissue.

“Nobody judges you, Raohan La,” she whispered into his mind. “We are eager to be of assistance, to stand by you, to ensure Stolom’s survival. No one could have done what you did, not in the way of preparation, not in the way of assault. No one here is your equal, but every one of us is ready to die in support of your vision. After all, what else is there?”

He winced at that. “I could have allowed the present to contend with its own difficulties, spared us additional strife after achieving peace and establishing new lives here in this paradise.”

“How?”

“A simple choice.”

“Not simple,” she said. “Not even a choice, really. No one judges you for any of your actions. Every last one of us owes you
everything
. Now, you must stop judging yourself or we are all doomed.”

“You are wise, Chushin La. And my vanity disgusts me. I will ask for help, not in shamed defeat, but in the name of proud fellowship.”

They walked together into the next chamber, which opened up incredibly with walls worn smooth for a kilometer around, and where nearly a hundred of their fellows were gathered.

The clearing from which the giant reptile had wrought such terrible damage on the Vine had been co-opted by the Vine’s occupants. The ground itself was of little worth, but the lens, as Scanlan took to calling it, was to be their salvation. Gran Mal, golden, massive, and looming stood over it, guarding it like fresh prey. Powerful lamps encircled the ring and more spots from the Gran shone down to illuminate Scanlan’s makeshift workspace under the Gran’s own Shadow.

Jav accompanied Scanlan, though Gran Mid, along with Gran Pham and Gran Lej, was stationed back at the Palace.

Witchlan appeared on a holographic screen in the midst of Scanlan’s equipment as he had every hour on the hour since Scanlan had set up.

“Mr. Scanlan, I know it’s only been twenty-one hours since planetfall, but we have the terrible sense that with each ticking second, the possibility for return is reduced. Are you no closer now to a solution than you were before?”

“We are nearly ready, Minister. I have worked out the calculations and the containment apparatus. What we have been waiting for is power. Power is the key to this lock. The lens gets a steady supply from the planet’s core, but that is to maintain base functions. If my specifications have been adhered to, then the Palace should have built up enough stored power to initiate
and
sustain the necessary reaction.”

Scanlan checked a monitor. “Ah, yes. Mere minutes now, Minister.”

“Where do you want me, Scanlan?” Jav said.

“You’ve been very good to indulge me, General Holson,” Scanlan said. “I truly do appreciate your presence. Without it and the peace of mind it has provided, I fear this work might never have been accomplished, but I think you can return to your Gran now. I think our Secret Weapon has removed the giant reptile as a threat, at least temporarily, which has been sufficient.”

Jav nodded, jumped, and was flashing back to Gran Mid’s brow by way of AI. In mid-flight, he turned reflexively, responding to the sound of crumpling metal from behind. He came to a jarring halt in the air and gawked.

Gran Mal canted, tipping down due to its crushed or missing left foreleg. Jav could still see the lens and Scanlan near it, but Scanlan was undergoing a radical change. His burnished bronze body rippled, folded in on itself, popped at several joints, and became a jagged, compressed sphere. Jav had gotten half way to Gran Mid, which was too far for Artifact communication either way. He scanned the area, but could see nothing. Except that he
could
see something. From his vantage point, he could see trees bent at strange angles, then righting themselves, then other trees bending similarly. He focused on this for a moment and summoned forth Rommel, his lieutenant in his most elemental form, that of a superior quality pole sword. There were no humanoid skeletons here on this planet to make use of Salavar Grummel’s Secret Track Pole Sword, but Rommel would stand in for the skeleton army.

Jav held the pole sword at his shoulder and calmly began calculating. Much of Scanlan’s equipment was suffering the same fate as the Shade himself, but Jav didn’t allow that to bother him. He wound up and launched the pole sword, applying calculations to the calculations already being executed, turning Rommel into a lance of light that was visible only for a split second. Nothing—
nothing
—could have turned the pole sword away. And nothing did.

Rommel pierced through something that didn’t appear to be there at all. Black smoke tinged with red rose in a thin stream from the ground where Rommel had finally struck and stopped. A wail of pain came a fraction of a second later, and Jav suffered a moment of near-panic for what he saw, more for the question it raised about his sanity than for the threat it might portend. He
thought
saw not one, but several giant reptiles, perhaps twenty. All of them matched the general outline of yesterday’s antagonist and were spreading through the forest, moving towards Gran Mal, but just as soon as they became visible, they disappeared again. He shook his head to clear his vision. Was he seeing things? Better to assume not.