And suddenly Broghuilio was back on the bridge in his flagship, looking at screens showing surroundings of the terrain on Luna. General Wylott was there somehow. In the background, Estordu was jabbering something unintelligible. Another Broghuilio came onto the bridge, stopped dead, and gaped.
"What's happening?" Broghuilio from the Shapieron demanded. "How did we get here? And who the hell are you?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"What happened to the Ganymean ship?"
The other Broghuilio shook his head, obviously not comprehending. "What Ganymean ship?"
Fifty miles from the Shapieron, Garuth stood with the others in the surface lander, watching incredulously as the pattern of craft clustered in space fluctuated crazily. The five Jevlenese ships performed a dance of vanishing and reappearing, jumping from one spot to another. At one instant there would be six or seven, an instant later, just two or three. In a zone extending for an uncertain distance, the time lines from scores or more of realities in which they had happened to take up different positions were converging and becoming entangled. At the center, the Shapieron itself seemed to shift back and forth spasmodically. The channel from the lander's local control system was connected through to a simple circuit breaker that would deactivate the bubble that defined the expanded convergence zone. All Garuth needed was one specific combination. Below his chest in front of him, his hands opened and closed as he flexed his fingers unconsciously in anticipation.
The number of Jevlenese ships shrank to three, two… he tensed… then, suddenly, six. If none of the time lines impinging on the Shapieron included a Jevlenese ship, it followed that the Shapieron couldn't contain anyone who had been brought to it by one, and therefore it would have to be empty.
Then, just for a moment, the Shapieron stood on its own in space. Every one of the five Jevlenese craft and their various alternative versions were momentarily in some different reality.
"NOW!" Garuth called. An icon on a display changed to confirm the transmission. Would the signal get there fast enough?
On the screen, the image of the Shapieron steadied itself. Nothing else changed.
Everyone waited breathlessly. Nothing. Not a sign of any Jevlenese ship.
"I think you've done it, Garuth," Shilohin whispered.
"Magnificent," Chien complimented.
In the background, Duncan and Sandy quietly clasped hands and smiled at each other reassuringly.
Garuth swallowed disbelievingly. The picture replayed itself in his mind of the strutting oaf parading himself inside his ship. The memory came back of the humiliation he had been forced to accept. And a slow smile of satisfaction formed on his face. He felt like a starship commander again.
The lander closed with its regular port in the Shapieron's main docking bay. Garuth had waited a further fifteen minutes before returning. A systematic search of the ship confirmed that no trace of Broghuilio and the Jevlenese was to be found.
It was necessary to search the ship physically because another result that had been feared was also confirmed. During the wait, nothing further had been heard from ZORAC, and no response could be evoked from it either from the lander or upon entering the Shapieron. In the same way as had happened with the system in the probe, the riot of desynchronization had scrambled ZORAC's internal processes to the point where it ceased functioning coherently. But the network that formed ZORAC was far more complex than the probe's equipment, and the energy concentration at the core of the disruption induced by starship power was more intense than anything the probe had come through. After analyzing the logs and records, Shilohin's scientists announced that not enough was left running for the damage to be repaired. ZORAC was irrecoverable.
That was why ZORAC had requested authorization by the Commander before proceeding.
ZORAC had known.
Rodgar Jassilane, the Shapieron's engineering chief, restored the channel to the shuttle down in Melthis. The interface that ZORAC had created into the Agracon system was working. Garuth got ready to deliver the news as best he could without ZORAC available to translate. He asked Jassilane to prepare a replay of the event sequence as captured from the lander.
A Lambian was calling something about an armored column on the move toward the Agracon. Somewhere else, an infantry regiment had declared for the king. In the middle of it all, Hunt and the officer watching him stood to one side, seemingly forgotten. The atmosphere in the communications room was tense. Nothing more had been heard from the Jevlenese. But from the bits that Hunt could pick up, Freskel-Gar was having other problems. The regular forces and the nation appeared to be rallying to Perasmon. Although Freskel-Gar was visibly under strain, whether he would try to brazen it out using the prisoners as bargaining chips, or concede now and make things easier was unclear. It could go either way.
And then a voice that Hunt recognized as deep, Ganymean guttural articulating a mixture of Jevlenese and broken Lambian came through above the hubbub from the console where he had talked briefly with Garuth. "No. Not Prince or Lambian. Victor Hunt, talk with." ZORAC was evidently unavailable. Freskel-Gar moved across, followed by his aides. The voice came again from behind the group of figures. "Victor Hunt, only. Talk with Earth human. Was there before." Freskel-Gar looked back and nodded to the officer to bring Hunt over. As the company parted to let Hunt in, Hunt saw that a screen was connected into the circuit this time, showing Garuth. Freskel-Gar stopped him with a gesture as he was about to move through.
"What did that Giant mean, 'Earth human'?" he muttered. "How can you be from Earth?"
"More to this than you could dream," Hunt replied. "Best for you to end now. Believe." It was pure bravado. Hunt had run out of everything else. Freskel-Gar interrogated him silently with a long, penetrating look, and then motioned for him to continue.
"Garuth," Hunt said, facing the screen.
"Vic. We win, as you guess. Watch how. You see now." Garuth's features were replaced by a view of the Shapieron riding in space, surrounded by Broghuilio's five craft. Garuth's comments continued as a voiceover. "See from lander, where we are. ZORAC expands bubble." The scene became chaotic as ships began vanishing, multiplying, shifting from place to place. Freskel-Gar took a pace forward to stand beside Hunt, peering in bemusement.
"I don't understand. What's happening?" he demanded. Even though it had been he who put the idea to Garuth, Hunt was too astounded himself at seeing it actually happening to be capable of saying anything.
Then the Shapieron was on its own; a voice shouted something in Ganymean; and nothing further changed… except that after a few seconds it became evident that the image had stopped juddering and was stable again. "Back in ship now," Garuth's voice informed. "Broghuilio, Jevlenese, all gone. For good. But Perasmon plane…" Garuth made hand motions in the air as he sought for words.
Freskel-Gar was looking pale and tight-faced. He seemed to have gotten the message. "Translator computer is down," Hunt told him. "Bring back other Giant here. Easier talk, yes?" Too numbed to argue, Freskel-Gar just nodded to the officer, who hurried away. Hunt made the best of his opportunity to pile things on.
"It's over, Highness. You saw. Five ships, many years ahead of all that Minerva has. But all gone." He snapped a finger and thumb in the air. "Like so. Was nothing. You can't win against Giants. Wylott knows. Perasmon lives. Harzin lives. So now you have all Minerva to fight, too. Not possible. Smart thing is end now. Best answer. I tried to tell before. Now obvious."
Frenua Showm was brought in. By means of signs and bits of Jevlenese, Hunt conveyed the situation. Showm gasped at the news, took a few seconds to absorb it and adjust, and then, radiating exhilaration, turned to Garuth on the screen. From bits of the exchange between the two Ganymeans, Hunt followed Garuth saying that ZORAC had been trying… something to do with the Cerians… but Garuth didn't know because ZORAC was… it sounded like "finished." Hunt broke in to tell Showm that the flight had been diverted and two leaders were fine. The remark about ZORAC was alarming, but he had no time to dwell on it. Showm passed the news to Garuth, and it was his turn to be incredulous. Some indecipherable Ganymean exclamations and expressions followed, and the two aliens began emitting snorting noises accompanied by peculiar shaking movements. Only Hunt out of all those in the room had seen a Ganymean laugh before. But there could be no mistaking it.