'You're alive! Edeard bellowed.
'What in Honious is going on? Topar asked. He had risen from his blanket, his pistol held ready. Boloton, Fresage, Verini, and Larby were scrambling round, trying to find the source of the commotion.
'Nothing! Edeard said breathlessly. An explosion of pure joy inside his head threatened to overwhelm him. 'Everything! I did it! I'm here. It's real. You're real. And you're all alive.
Dinlay let out an exasperated sigh. 'What is the matter with you? He squinted into his boot. 'Ah ha! His third hand scraped out the remains of a utog beetle. He gave Macsen a suspicious glance.
'Edeard? Topar asked cautiously.
'It's fine, Edeard held up a hand in reassurance, then laughed. He was feeling giddy now. The world was whirling round unsteadily. He sat down hard. 'No, wait. He held up his hands, fingers out to count. 'The ambush is in two days' time. Er… then another day and a half to ride back. Ladydamnit, if I start now I might not make it. I've got to go further back.
Dinlay shoved his foot into the boot and walked over. 'Bad dream?
Edeard grinned. 'The worst there has ever been.
'Ah. Would you like some tea? You've still got some of those linen packets left, Dinlay added hopefully.
'No. Edeard stood up fast. Before Dinlay knew what was happening, Edeard kissed him.
'Fuck the Lady, Dinlay exclaimed, juddering back out of reach.
Edeard laughed delightedly. 'I can't stay. I'm sorry. But by the Lady it is so good to see you all alive again. And the girls, our wives. Macsen, you're going to be a father. I promise. I swear on the Lady herself.
'What in Honious did you drink last night? Macsen demanded.
'I drank… I drank everything there is to drink.
'I think you'd better sit down, Topar said levelly.
'No time, Edeard said, enjoying how manic he must be appearing to the others. 'Well, actually, that's not true. He giggled. 'Do you remember the first day on the road. His fingers clicked urgently. 'We stopped and made camp just outside that farm. Oh, where was it?
'Stibbington, Dinlay grunted.
'That's right. That's the place, and it's in time. Plenty of time. Barely a day's gallop back from there. Macsen, do you remember, you were so saddle sore you claimed you couldn't walk.
'I remember.
'Yeah, me too. Edeard reached for the moment—
Justine: Year Four
Dreaming still. Mellow images of her true love. His scent. His laughter. His pleasure. Those two days kept stretching out and out—
Justine sat up in the medical chamber and glanced round the Silverbird's cabin. Everything was exactly the same as when she went in to suspension. No alarms sounding this time. They'd reached the star system, and the starship's log reported a thoroughly uneventful voyage. The Silverbird was already decelerating.
She swung her legs out, wincing at the stiffness in her limbs. Neck muscles were knotted and tight. What she needed was a good massage. Maybe at the Hulluba resort on Fasal Island. Yes, she could certainly picture herself lying on a bed on the spa veranda, overlooking the white beaches and absurdly clear turquoise water. The spa had some very handsome masseur, talented fit young men who knew how to kneed her muscles and tendons into complete submission. Very handsome. And the drinks they served in long glasses full of crushed ice, with exotic fruits — delicious. Hot blue-white star a pinprick of intense light atop the indigo sky. Handsome and eager.
Lordie, this is what dreaming about those two days does to me. Hulluba was a thousand years ago.
Justine sighed in regret and her third hand pulled a robe out of the replicator module. The culinary unit produced a big glass of carrot juice with vitamin supplements. It brought a grimace to her face as she dutifully swallowed it all down.
Maybe there'll be some beaches on a planet here somewhere.
She sat on the floor and started stretching exercises. Already she was looking forward to a very hot shower with powerful jets, a forcefully applied heat that would rid her neck of those abysmal kinks.
'What have we got outside? she asked the smartcore.
The star appeared in her exovision. Justine frowned. 'I know this. It was the star system which was projected on to the ceiling of the Orchard Palace's Upper Council chamber. A copper star that shone warmly at the centre of an accretion disc. Comets with moon-sized nuclei prowled the outer edges of the disc in high-inclination orbits, their tails streaming out for millions of kilometres, fluorescing a glorious scarlet. But what she was seeing outside now was older, the accretion disc had thinned out from the time of Edeard's tenure. Nine distinct bands had formed within it, each one shepherded by dense curlicues of asteroids as proto-planets started to congeal. The tails of the fireball comets were smaller, less volatile than before. Long braids of white vapour corrupted their once-pure scarlet efflux.
Translucent data displays overlaid the astronomy image. Justine's secondary thought routines sampled the information, compiling summaries, and her focus immediately shifted to a tiny white crescent that circled the tenuous rim of the disc. 'No way! It was an H-congruent planet.
The Silverbird was still seven AUs out from the star. It gave her plenty of time to observe the planet as they approached. In the real universe outside the Void it wouldn't exist. Even if the accretion disc had produced an amalgamation of rock and minerals that built up to planet-size there wouldn't have been time for life to evolve. The Silverbird's spectral analysis filters identified water and chlorophyll, along with a lot of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Wherever the world had come from, it had oceans and recognisable plant-life covering the landmasses.
One AU out. It was small for a H-congruent planet; Mars-size. The atmosphere was thick, at the surface it would be a standard pressure. Temperature was typical. A magnetic field warped solar wind into characteristic Van Allen belts around it. There were no electromagnetic emissions. But she kept checking for that the whole way in.
An implausible world in an impossible place. Only in the Void. She knew full well the amount of mass energy the boundary had consumed during that short dreadful expansion phase was enough to create a thousand solar systems, let alone one small planet. I shouldn't be surprised at anything here. Edeard only scratched the surface of the Void's potential, as Living Dream keep emphasising.
Ten million kilometres out, and the Silverbird was decelerating at five gees, shedding the last of the colossal velocity that had carried her across three lightyears. Five gees was the best it could reliably maintain. The glitches were back with a vengeance. Sensor degradation was acute on some of the higher-function scans. But simple optical lenses were showing continents and ice caps. Whorl patterns in the clouds were becoming apparent. She saw one hurricane that was somehow splitting in two as it hit the coast, its leading edge separating as if a knife was cutting it. A very big knife. The phenomena triggered some uncertainty deep in her subconscious — an ancient memory that struggled to resolve. What cuts a storm in half?
Then she had more to worry about as cabin gravity started to fluctuate. Secondary systems were dropping out as fluctuations beset the power network. Back-up supplies didn't always compensate properly. She ordered the cabin to return to a neutral status, retracting everything except for her acceleration couch. At least her biononics remained fully functional. She activated her integral force field as the Silverbird flew across the remaining million kilometres. Ahead of her, the planet's upper atmosphere sparked constantly with contrails as meteorites from the fringe of the accretion disc impacted on the ionosphere. The Silverbird's force fields reported a build up of micro-particle strikes. Dust density outside was thickening rapidly.