ARC OF THE IMMORTALS: Book 1/Pursuit

7/CasaNoir: Chapter 7.3/ Tubari Rift Prep

The rainbow colors of the rift surrounded the Fish. The transdimensional tube was spherically swollen./ “Something is wrong,” Jac mumbled to himself.

“I’m going down to Galactic Cartography,” Jac informed Touzdae. He went below, mumbling to himself on and off, followed by Harry.

The ship, pulled inside the cone of the rift, as if he rift itself were alive. There was turbulence and buffeting. Touzdae handed off the helm to Nez Fish. (The rift was different than a stable wormhole. Over many millennia physicists could not explain the difference. Mystics had several explanations.) Touzdae transported to the Cartography Chamber.

Touzdae joined Jac in the Galactic Cartography Chamber. He bent over a scope peering at code from Nez Fish’s protected memory core.

“How’s it going, Sweetie?”

“Something is off. It’s not just the nightmare descent vectors into Gata, it’s something existential about the ship.”

“What? You’re scaring me,” Touzdae shuddered.

“I’ve transferred memory code up from when I first left the Fish to the inner world. We don’t have much time,” Jac told her.

Harry sauntered in. “Touzdae, I saw you just a second ago on the bridge. How did you get down here so fast? Who’s flying the ship?” He took a bite of his sandwich.

Touzdae told Harry to relax, “I handed the helm to Fish and transported down here.”

“Jac, are you going to use the escape vehicle to get us down to Gata?” Harry appeared confused and dismayed.

“Don’t be daft, Harry,” Touzdae snarled. “That would only happen if Fish were dead.”

Harry peered over the holo-table with various trajectories to the planetoid.

“Ah, the re-entry conundrum. Why not let Fish do that?” Harry asked revealing his needy inner child.

“Like I said before, all long-range scanners go down in the heat of the cloud’s first layer,” Jac explained. And continued, “In short Fish is blind in that heat. We hit that layer at Factor One of Light Speed, and brake engines in reverse. Curve around at combinations of acute and obtuse angles. A steep dive to the port city: Winnow. Full brake using all fuel including auxiliary fuel and I set Fish down in the Marina.”

Touzdae handed Jac his tea. He walked towards a bank of monitors that activated as he approached.

“Here, I’ll show you my last approach in fifty years ago or thereabouts.” he motioned Harry over. “Fish show last approach.”

Harry watched as Jac explained

“This is what happens if my timing is off. If this happens Pursuer will kill me. It could take weeks to bring the Fish to the marina. So, it’s essential to get it right the first time under these constraints.”

“After that smooth sailing, right?” Harry flexed his eyebrows.

“I’ll have to play Bendel in that damned game.”

“Oh?” Harry and Touzdae said simultaneously.

“Touzdae, I can see why your memory around the game might be fuzzy but Uncle Harry you have no excuse.”

“Jac,” Harry complained. “I’m getting older and my mid-term memory has been affected.”

“I don’t have time for this banter. Fish will explain the game, please.” Jac flicked his eyes upwards and forward towards the bridge.

“Okay, we need to give Jac some space to tweak the re-entry plan.”

As Touzdae and Harry reached the bridge Nez began the explanation:

“It is a simple yet sophisticated Holo-game of kill or be killed. It’s not about straight winning, if it were then anyone could play. It’s about forfeiting monetary gain for energy at key junctures. Not through only betting or winning bets. A good analogy is a 5-dimensional game of the Terran Japanese game of Go. The intersection points hold tremendous energy; it’s complex. You could take a look in the library.”

While Harry listened and watched Fish’s presentation, Touzdae approached Jac.

“It looks like you have a plan brewing. Is that right?” she asked him. He nodded tentatively and pulled her aside

“Question: Did you see a duplicate of the Nez in the Purgje Ice rings, Touz?” Jac asked. Touzdae nodded in the affirmative.

“What you saw was real. I believe it was a quantum duplicate of us. The memory code indicates that it collided with the Fish after I went into the interior world in search of Bhantu. But the collision didn’t match and now we’re in a time loop.”

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