Nexus by Robert Boyczuk (best large ebook reader txt) 📕

Sav did a quick mental calculation. “Five hundred years,” he said. “That’s how long it will take to reach The Twins.” Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Ruen stiffen in his seat. His air of superciliousness seemed to vanish.

“Five hundred and, ah, twenty-eight,” Yilda said.

“Then it’ll be more than a thousand years before we return. The facility will never support those in suspension that long,” Sav said. “Look what’s happened in the thirty years it’s been unattended.”

Yilda shrugged. “This is most unfortunate. Yes. We’ll install fissionable power sources and, um, triple redundant backup systems, like those in the longhaul ships. Much more reliable than the solar array. And give the AIs control of our modified waldos so that they have ‘arms’ and ‘legs’, so to speak. Perhaps they will last. Perhaps they won’t. But there’s nothing more we can do. Our resources are, after all, limited.”

“I have listened to this blasphemy long enough!” Grunting, Ruen pushed his chair back and stood. His goiter bobbed up and down in an agitated motion. “One thousand years! I will participate no further in this attempt to stay the Dissolution.” His cane whistled as he brought it down on the table with an ear-splitting crack. His basso voice boomed out like he was delivering a sermon. “Beware of your transgressions! I agreed to attend this meeting so that I might warn you-as I am bound to by my articles of faith. Even considering such a course of action is an unpardonable offence. You will all die uncleansed-shrouded in your sin!” He puffed our his scrawny chest beneath his robes. “I have consulted the blessed database. Its message was unequivocal. Temptation is to be shunned! We must be pure when the Dissolution comes. This mission of which you talk is a wanton disregard of anhaa-10‘s pleasure!” Ruen gathered his cloak about himself and walked to the door, his cane clicking angrily in time to his steps. “Prepare yourself!” he said, turning at the door, raising his cane to deliver his final warning. “The Brothers cannot save you. They cannot save themselves!” Then he spun around, cape billowing, and strode off. His footsteps faded in the distance.

Mira looked stunned; she opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.

“Dissolution!” Binlosson spat. “Simpleton! Have you seen his blessed database? It’s a network of data card receptacles he’s cobbled together-and an insane search engine. He puts the cards in a cloth bag and shakes them. Then he inserts them randomly into the receptacles. Its answers are as crazy as he is!” Binlosson turned his glare on Josua. “I can’t believe you took him in! You should have left him where he was to starve to death. Then he’d have experienced his holy Dissolution!”

“He’s pulled his weight,” Josua said sharply.

Sav was surprised by his response. Had Josua begun to heed to the patrix‘s ramblings?

“The Brothers,” Penirdth said. “What did he mean when he said they couldn’t protect us?”

“He meant Nexus,” Hebuiza said. The Facilitator paused, glanced at Yilda who nodded his approval. Hebuiza carried on: “It is apocryphal. There are many variants of the story, but the common thread is that two brothers, twins, discovered the secret of folding dimensions that allows two people to communicate instantaneously-regardless of the distance separating them. Using this discovery, the brothers trained Speakers and sent them out to the seeded worlds, and so built their empire. One brother, growing suspicious of the other’s intentions, cast him into a fiery pit. For centuries Nexus was also called the Brothers, but the term has long since fallen into disuse. Certainly there’s no historical record of such brothers. In all probability, the name arose because of the binary stars around which the Hub orbits. The name of that system is, of course, The Twins.”

“He thinks we’re in league with Nexus?” Mira asked, the incredulity clear in her voice.

“No,” Josua answered softly. “He fears anything that might interfere with the Dissolution. If anyone from Bh’Haret survives, the Dissolution may be prevented.”

“We should get rid of Ruen,” Binlosson said to Yilda. “At best he’ll be a liability. At worst he’ll undermine our plans.”

Our plans? Sav thought. A few moments ago Binlosson had been deriding everything that had been suggested. Without a backward glance, he’d switched sides.

“What?” Mira looked distressed, as if she couldn’t believe she’d heard correctly.

“I agree,” Hebuiza said, ignoring her.

“No.” Josua’s voice was low, restrained. But there was no mistaking the threat in it. “He stays.”

Mira nodded, her expression one of relief.

She’s a believer, Sav suddenly realised with a start. One of the faithful. That’s why Ruen was whispering to her.

Hebuiza seemed nonplussed; then his face fell back into an indecipherable mask. He looked at Yilda who lifted his shoulders in a slight shrug. In his seat, Binlosson seemed to vibrate with suppressed anger, perhaps as much as being abandoned by Hebuiza as at having his suggestion snubbed.

“You’ve already decided on the crews,” Sav said. “Before, you said you’d tell your crew what you were going to do at the repeater station.”

“Yes, yes,” Yilda acknowledged. “Hebuiza and I will take the_ Ea_ to the repeater station. You and Josua will take The Viracosa to the Nexus Hub. Your, um, mission will be the simpler, therefore require only two crew members to pilot the vessel. We will need all the help we can get at the repeater station. So the remaining people will come with us. Which means our crew will consist of Mira, Penirdth, Binlosson and Liis.”

Sav glanced around the table, trying to gauge the others’ reactions. Josua’s momentary anger had passed; his eyes gleamed with barely suppressed excitement. Binlosson scowled. Hebuiza and Yilda were like bookends, both sporting carefully neutral expressions. Penirdth looked off thoughtfully into the distance, considering, while Mira alternated between watching him and darting nervous glances at Yilda. Sav found his gaze lingering on Liis. But she only stared intently at the surface of the table in front of her.

“You’re forgetting Ruen,” Josua said softly.

Yilda arched his eyebrows. “No purpose would be served in assigning him to either crew.”

“He can come with me,” Josua said, adding after a moment’s pause, “If he wishes.”

“I won’t have him aboard,” Sav said.

“It’s, ah, Josua’s decision,” Yilda said. “After all, he’ll be the commander, hey?”

“What?” Astounded, Sav rocked forward in his seat. He looked around the table for support, but knew immediately he had none. The newcomers watched him, their expressions carefully neutral. Sav knew then that Hebuiza, Josua and Liis had already poisoned the others against him. And could he blame them? Sav had taken great pains to withdraw from the group. And for an instant he saw himself through everyone else’s eyes: unkempt beard, wild, tangled hair, clothes shiny with their own dirt. He looked like hell. How could they think he was anything other than borderline psychotic?

“Sav?” Yilda stared at him.

Sav swallowed. He’d been outvoted. So he accepted his demotion as he’d accepted everything else, with a fatalistic shrug.

“Let Ruen decide for himself,” Josua said. “If he wants to stay, I’m not going to force him to accompany us.” He looked at Sav. “Okay?”

He’s throwing me a bone, Sav thought. Trying to take the edge off. He shrugged again.

“What? We’ve…we’ve decided?” It was Mira. Her child-like voice rose as she spoke. It had the quality of a barely controlled hysteria. Her thick arms trembled visibly and her eyes moved rapidly, like those of a cornered animal searching for an escape.

She’s terrified, Sav thought. Ruen’s scared her out of her wits. She’s doesn’t know what to think. Belief in the Dissolution means our mission is an unpardonable sin. Sav suddenly realised he was gripping the edge of the table so tightly his fingers ached. He stared at his whitened knuckles, the tendons in the back of his hands. Taking a deep breath, he released his grip.

Yilda looked around the table. “Unless anyone has a, ah, better suggestion….” He drew his thick lips into a wan smile, exposing his lower teeth. The cravings stood out clearly against the dark interior of his mouth.

“What choice do we have,” Josua said. He sounded almost elated. “It’s our only course of action.”

Binlosson scowled, but raised no objection. Penirdth was nodding, almost reluctantly it seemed. And Mira watched Penirdth, her Captain, apprehensively, as if the decision wasn’t hers to make.

“Yes,” Liis said, her voice a whisper. “What choice do we have.” She echoed Josua’s words, only hers were filled with bitterness and resignation. She stared openly at him. The scars on her face seemed to writhe. Her eyes had dilated in the diffuse light of the projection that still hovered over the table. They were filled with a look of longing and infinite sadness. For Josua. Yet Josua sat there, apparently insensible to her scrutiny.

“Mira?” It was Penirdth who spoke. “What do you think?”

Mira’s face went slack; she closed her eyes and swallowed, nodding weakly, as if signalling her own executioner to drop the blade.

“Well,” said Yilda. “All agreed then. Hey?”

Preparations began in earnest the day after the meeting. The Facilitators closeted themselves in Hebuiza’s lab to design and build the equipment they would need-although they refused to tell anyone exactly what that equipment might be. Since Penirdth and Mira’s EVA suits were still in good condition, they had been assigned the arduous job of using the dropships to transfer fuel pellets from the hold of The Viracosa to the ring of bulbous feeder tanks circling the ignition chamber on the Ea; Josua, along with Liis, undertook the task of recharging the oxygen/nitrogen cartridges, and bleeding off the cryoagents and liquid nitrogen from stasis facility for use aboard the two vessels. It fell to Binlosson and Sav to scavenge an entirely new list of goods, mainly weapons, or materials to construct weapons. Sav took an immediate dislike to the short, stocky man. His sour disposition radiated from him like a stench; a steady stream of invective spewed from his mouth.

“Fucking stick man!” he said the moment he and Sav lifted off in the VTOL on their first day together. “Hebuiza’s a fucking insect. Except an insect has more intelligence!”

As much as Sav disliked the Facilitator, he refrained from commenting.

By the end of their second day together, Binlosson had managed to do a minimum of work-citing a variety of past ailments that precluded heavy lifting or any other strenuous work-while regaling Sav with a detailed dissection of everyone’s personality: he sneered at Liis’ moody silences; mocked Josua’s distracted air; exposed Yilda as a vainglorious power monger; and dismissed Penirdth who was, apparently, beneath his contempt. He’d also made thinly veiled comments on Sav’s weight and the speed at which he moved. But it was for Ruen he reserved his most bitter attacks. While careful not to insult the others in their presence, Binlosson seemed unafraid of confronting the patrix openly, never passing up an opportunity to mock Ruen’s beliefs.

On the morning of their third day scavenging, minutes before they were to leave, Sav heard shouts coming from the end of the first-level corridor. Sprinting from the elevator deeper into the complex, Sav found Binlosson had trapped Ruen in a narrow, dead end hallway. Binlosson’s compact, muscular form effectively blocked the patrix‘s escape and Ruen held his cane high over his head with a spindly arm, ready to bring it down on Binlosson’s head should he come within its range.

“Blasphemer!” the holy man hissed. “Your unblessed atoms will be scattered, your soul will become fodder for the enlightened!”

Binlosson barked out a derisive laugh. “Maybe