Science Major Cam Ranie of INRA was a bit disappointed in himself, as if he had lost a game of skill to a presumed inferior opponent. That was a very similar feeling, he recalled. But he hadn’t played any game for well over a year now, and his annoyance was directed at something very different. The ship he was aboard looked just like an ordinary Imperial Explorer from the outside, in itself a mighty and awe-inspiring class of warship that was the largest and most fearsome vessel the Empire had. Of course, the craft had been heavily converted and upgraded a long time ago, and was now of first-rate INRA standard. Any Imperial officer placed aboard without forewarning would have had great difficulties in recognizing this as an Imperial warship, as INRA requirements and technology were very different from what was common in the Imperial navy, and equally different from the standard of the Federal Military. Ranie, himself a former Federal sergeant, was only now beginning to fathom precisely how wide the gap was, and herein lay the source of his momentary self-disdain. He should have seen it a long time ago; he had now been aboard Rear Admiral Esereth’s flagship for many months, nearly a year, and had in that time had his horizon broadened beyond anything he had ever imagined. That was, he contemplated as he walked briskly along a corridor, perhaps the reason why it had only now dawned on him. Before, his mind had not had the ability to comprehend such disproportion. But now it seemed so obvious as to almost make him slap his forehead. He slowed his pace, and a door slid silently open. He entered and was a bit surprised to see that beside himself, there was only one other person in the room. ”Good morning, Colonel Tunk,” he said. ”Ah, good morning, Major. Take a seat.” Ranie sat down in one of the chairs in the briefing-room and looked expectantly at the woman who stood at the front of the room. ”You don’t look too happy, Major. Is something wrong?” ”No, not at all. I just finally realized something very obvious.” The colonel took on an expression of interest, quizzically lifting an eyebrow. ”And what was that?” ”That this ship is much larger on the inside than on the outside.” The colonel sat down on the edge of the desk and smiled knowingly at him. ”I see. And you feel that it took you too long to discover that?” ”To say the least.” ”Actually, it took you about ten months. For most of our new recruits it takes considerably longer. You’re quite quick by any standards.” ”Really? Is it some kind of test?” ”A very informal one. We are deliberate in not telling you because we want to see how our officers handle logical conclusions that seem impossible. In our line of work, it might be important to be able to do that. So I’ll ask you not to tell Lord Tirkis or Major Nardligh about it yet.” Ranie nodded in understanding. ”How is it done?” ”You mean technically? I don’t know. You’ll have to ask Count Smadasalguod. Some multi-dimensional affair. Theoretical physics was never my strong suit, and I suspect that this physical phenomenon is pretty darn theoretical in its nature. But I do know that it is practical enough to give us six times the interior space we would otherwise have on board.” ”And allows every single crewmember to have view-ports to space in their quarters?” Ranie inquired. The colonel laughed out loud. ”Yes, precisely! A bizarre, but comfortable side-effect. You’re more perceptive than I thought, young man. Well done.” The colonel rose and sat down again in a chair behind the desk. ”Right, down to business.” She glanced up at him. ”The others won’t be joining us, in case you wondered. I thought it best to let them sleep for a few hours more and give them their assignments at the usual time. I summoned you this early to brief you on a mission that will probably take a while.” A map of their sector of the galaxy suddenly filled the wall behind her. ”The primary part of the mission is of the usual sort: patrol and scan this system for three hours.” A star system winked in red on the giant map-display. ”It is located close to where the Thargoid fleet was last spotted, and we quite simply need to find out if they have taken that route. Details are here.” She put a holocube on the desk, then leaned back to look at him enigmatically. ”The second, and very secondary, part of the mission requires a bit more explanation.” For Ranie, it was very different. He had seen the Thargoid fleet up close, observed as the enormous, octagonal ships floated silently and calmly past the cockpit of his Viper in precise, ghostly formation as he was sitting in their midst, virtually defenseless in a damaged ship. It had given him more of a scare than he had thought at the time, and even now, months later, he sometimes woke up abruptly, his bed-linen soaked in sweat, from a similar dream where those alien vessels silently surrounded him and started moving in closer in perfect, unrelenting synchronization. Consequently, he kept the Viper moving fast around the edge of the system in full stealth mode, weapons armed and sensors and scanning equipment on maximum sensitivity. He half expected to run into the alien fleet at any moment, and at the end of the three hours, he felt considerable relief as he was able to engage the hyperdrive and jump a hundred and forty light-years Coreward. The Veliaze system was new to him, he had never been there before. An anarchy system, it had no police forces to keep the space lanes safe, and he knew that pirates and assassins were plentiful. He doubted that they were prepared to take on INRA, but then again, they had no way of knowing what this innocent-looking Viper MkII really was. Had they attacked, he would have melted them down within a hundredth of a second, of course. But INRA did not see it as their business to kill humans, no matter how much they might deserve it, and tried to avoid it as much as possible. So Ranie flew between the packs of pirates without a second thought. He came out of hyperspace two astronomical units out from New Africa, the planet around which London Depot orbited. He could have chosen to emerge in realspace much closer, but that could have raised eyebrows, and he was under strict, standing orders not to arouse unnecessary attention. He set the course straight toward the terraformed planet and engaged the autopilot. On the way in-system, his scanner showed scores of small groups of ships flying in very aggressive formations. Pirates, no doubt. They wouldn’t bother him; the stealth systems on his ship were far too effective for them to have the slightest idea that he was there. The docking procedure at London Depot went smoothly, and before his disembarked, Ranie put on his camouflage. It simply consisted of wearing a civilian jacket over his INRA uniform, which nobody would recognize anyway, and strapping a big, black sidearm onto his hip. The holster was very low-slung, so that the gun was slapping against his thigh as he walked. According to Colonel Tunk, this configuration would give him the appearance of an outlaw character and instill some respect in those he might encounter. Of course, the lasergun was purely for camouflage; for real personal protection, Ranie had far more sophisticated means at his disposal. The jacket was worn, leathery and fiendishly expensive, as it was made of animal skins from Earth itself. Ranie logged on to the station message board and found the message Colonel Tunk had showed him during the briefing. It was titled simply ’Attention INRA’. He pressed the heading and the full message text appeared. It was succinct and very to the point. Important discovery of interest to INRA made. Vital INRA contact immediately. Positive INRA identification required. There was also a GalNet address, which Ranie proceeded to contact. The screen flickered as someone answered his call, but the screen remained dark. ”Yes?” A man’s voice. Middle aged? ”I am with INRA,” Ranie said. ”Can you prove it?” ”Yes.” ”There’s a cantina at Level 9. Be there in five minutes. ”How will I know you?” ”Don’t worry. Just be there.” It was only the second time Ranie had set foot in a civilian installation since joining INRA, and the first time had been on the very civilized Li Qing Jao which orbited Earth. London Depot was a much darker, seedier and poorer station, as was evident to him from the moment he disembarked his Viper. Shady characters skulked along the walls, some turning around and quickly heading in a different direction as they saw him approaching. There was dust, debris and filth everywhere, and the smell of soiled metal and raw sewage filled his nostrils as he walked quickly through the hangar deck to get to the turbolifts. He felt curious and suspicious eyes on him as he entered a lift pod, but ascribed it to his being an unfamiliar face to the locals. The lift took him to level 9 with reasonable speed, and he was happy to be able to leave the stuffy, smelly pod and make his way to the cantina. This level of the station was quite crowded, and it seemed as if the local administration time was approaching dinner or lunch or something. The cantina was filling up, but Ranie was able to secure an empty table and sit down. He absentmindedly picked up the menu which lay on the table, soaked with some sticky liquid that flooded the tabletop and dripped slowly onto the deck on the other side from where he was sitting. He tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible as he let his eyes wander casually around the room, trying to spot the person behind the message. The clientele seemed to consist mainly of the seedy underworld types one would expect to find in an anarchy system; the majority of them probably made their living as pirates or assassins, or other professions in the same shadowy vein. He was unable to pick out any one person that looked likely to have posted the mysterious message, but one of the tables caught his interest. It was a long table by a wall, and it was populated with a noisy gang of scruffy-looking individuals. Pirates, no doubt, and probably rather influential on this station, as they seemed to have the cantina staff taking orders by the table and bringing the dishes directly to them. The other guests were evidently expected to make their orders by the counter, pay and then hang around until their synthetic meals were ready. Ranie remained seated, as he had absolutely no intention of ordering anything in this dirty establishment. A man came in through the door, made his way straight to Ranie’s table and sat down, simply and without fuss. He leaned forward and put his elbows on the table and thus right in the puddle of liquid that was slowly drying up, but didn’t take any notice of it. ”Did you just call me?” he asked. ”If you have made an important discovery, yes.” The man lowered his voice and looked at Ranie conspiratorially. ”INRA?” ”Yes,” Ranie said, looking around casually to check if anyone was within earshot. ”Proof?” Ranie took an identification card out of his inner pocket and put it on the table. It stated his identity as Major Nebarb of INRA’s Covert Sector, Section for Information Collection. Of course, no such department existed, and there was no such thing as INRA ID-cards, but Colonel Tunk had thought that it would look and sound plausible and impressive to an outsider. The man gingerly picked up the card and peered at it briefly, then gave it back. ”No, this won’t do. I don’t know what a proper INRA ID looks like. You could have made this yourself.” Ranie cocked his head to the side. ”Well, what did you expect?” The man looked at him levelly. ”I expect you to prove that you are from INRA.” Ranie looked into the man’s eyes, holding his gaze in what he hoped was a businesslike manner. ”All right. But not here.” They rose and went out the door, the stranger first. He was not a big man, rather a thin, short, energetic character approaching middle age. He was wearing a battered but clean and solid looking jumpsuit, very utilitarian and pretty much exactly what one would expect to see on a person who makes his living in a sparsely populated area. The man, who was obviously very familiar with the station layout, led Ranie quickly through to a fairly secluded section where they could be out of sight of prying eyes. He turned around and looked up at Ranie expectantly. ”Well?” After a quick check to see that they were alone, Ranie reached with his right hand into a pocket on the inside of his borrowed leather jacket and fished out a small black box. He put it in the palm of his left hand and opened it. There was a small hiss as the air pressure was equalized, and a lid slowly swung open. In the middle of the carefully padded innards of the container lay a small, transparent cylinder. Carefully, Ranie picked it up and with two fingers held it in front of the stranger’s eyes. He nearly had to smile to himself, because the precise moment when the stranger realized what the cylinder actually contained was so very obvious. The man stood silent for a second and gawked at the cylinder before clearing his voice. ”Is that what I think it is?” ”Yes.” ”A Thargoid finger?” ”Yes. Sufficient evidence?” The man nodded slowly, unable to take his eyes from the tiny alien limb as its smooth, chitinous surface reflected the subdued light of the space station in a hypnotic, bluish sheen impossible to describe or reproduce. ”Sufficient evidence,” he said at last. Ranie replaced the cylinder in its protective container and put the assembly back in his pocket. ”I believe you have something to show me.” The stranger, who introduced himself as Valo, led the way as they quickly walked the few meters to the lifts, where they found a pod that didn’t reek quite as much as the one Ranie had used. ”What kind of ship do you have?” Valo asked casually as the elevator pod rapidly sank to the hangar level. ”A modified Viper MkII.” ”A police craft?” ”I suppose it was, many years ago. And yourself?” ”Just an old Hawk. Don’t do much interstellar travelli- ” He didn’t finish his sentence before the pod screeched to a violent halt and they were both thrown about inside it. Before they could get back on their feet the doors shot open and two large figures stepped in. As Ranie looked up, he saw that there were a pair of very scruffy-looking and also very bulky characters pointing laserguns at himself and at Valo. ”Get up and get out,” one of them shouted. Valo and Ranie got to their feet and were dragged out of the pod onto the deck. Outside the lift there were two more thugs, but of a more ordinary build. Unsurprisingly, they also had guns. ”Put your hands behind your heads,” one of them yelled, his voice being echoed through the empty corridors on this level. Ranie complied, and recognized that the gang was the same one he had noticed in the cantina. ”Hello, Valo, who’s your friend?” the other man said as he slowly came closer, his voice thick with mock friendliness. ”I don’t think I’ve seen him before. Corporation man, is he? Oh, but Valo, you know how we hate to have other corporations on our station. I think a token of appreciation from him would be in order, don’t you?” The man grinned wolfishly as he cashed in the scorning laughs of his colleagues. ”Hey, I like his jacket. Real animal skin, is it? Here’s a thought: why don’t you give me your jacket and empty your pockets, corporation man?” The demand made Ranie’s decision simple. There was no question in his mind. He could not surrender the jacket. In itself it was expendable, but with the Thargoid artifact in its inner pocket he simply could not let it go. ”Well,” he said, ”mainly because it isn’t yours. But also because I happen to like it. Tell you what, let’s try something else. I give you five thousand credits, you let me keep the jacket and we part as friends.” The expression on the thug’s face changed abruptly, from a contemptuous grin to an angry, threatening stare. ”I don’t think you get this. Give me the jacket and all the money you have and we’ll refrain from scorching your ass to a fine crisp.” He moved closer, and the professional part of Ranie’s mind noticed that the man kept from being in the way if his friends had to fire their guns. He also felt that he had to put a stop to this ridiculous situation. ”If you don’t back up I may have to cause permanent damage to your neurons,” he said loudly and matter-of-factly. The four thugs laughed. ”Are you really, corporation man? In all honesty, I don’t see that happening. Now let’s have a closer look at that fancy jacket of yours.” The thug moved closer and reached for the lapel of Ranie’s jacket, but right before he got a hold, his legs gave way under him and he abruptly dropped to the floor with a meaty thud and remained there, not even a twitch going through him and his body limp, as if dead. There was a silent second as the other muggers tried to understand what had happened. Ranie and Valo still had their hands up, and neither had moved. ”What the hell...” one of bandits uttered incredulously. The three of them stared at the lifeless form on the deck, then at Ranie. The muzzles of their guns followed suit. ”What the hell did you do? I’m gonna kill you for that!” As soon as the bandit had uttered the words, he also silently collapsed, and a split second later he was joined on the deck by the last two of his comrades. Ranie dropped his hands to his sides. ”Shall we continue?” he said and walked to the elevator-pod. Valo stared at the four unconscious assailants for a second before he also started moving. ”What did you do? Are they dead?” ”No, they are in a coma. They’ll wake up in half an hour or so.” The doors shut and the pod resumed its journey towards the hangar level. ”And are their neurons damaged, like you said?” ”Possibly. That happens sometimes, but not if I did it right.” ”Did what right?” ”I can’t tell you that.” The two occupants of the pod neared their destination in silence until the doors opened, more slowly this time, and Ranie exited the pod and found himself on the hangar deck. Valo just stood there and did not move, his expression tense. ”I can’t take the risk of going with you anywhere if you don’t tell me what you did to them,” he said flatly. Ranie saw that he meant it and shrugged. ”As I’m sure you’ve figured out, I used advanced technology.” ”How does it work?” ”I have a device sewn into my uniform. When I give the signal, it induces a tiny electrical charge in a cubic millimeter of space. I aim by simply focusing my eyes on the opponents forehead, and the charge is released three centimeters behind the focus point. Which means inside his brain. The synapses get overloaded, which results in a loss of consciousness.” ”And there’s no physical contact? Is there a beam of some sort? How do you trigger it?” ”I don’t think there’s a beam. It’s a sub-atomic phenomenon, apparently. I trigger it by going through a certain thought-pattern in my mind. And before you ask, I don’t know how that works, either. Satisfied?” Valo sighed and came out of the pod, slowly and without enthusiasm. ”Your ship or mine?” Ranie was almost surprised at the ease with which Valo agreed to fly with him in the Viper. He would have thought that the man would prefer the safety of his own craft, but curiosity and the opportunity to fly in an INRA ship probably proved impossible to resist, Ranie decided. It didn’t matter to him; it wouldn’t be the first time he’d had outsiders with him in the cockpit. Valo went to get his pressure suit from his ship and returned a few minutes later with a bulky package. As they sat down and strapped in for launch, Valo looked around the cockpit appreciatively. ”Well, if ever I doubted that you were genuinely INRA, I now see the error of my ways.” ”Yeah, our equipment is pretty advanced. I thought that if you wouldn’t be satisfied with the Thargoid artifact as ID, I could try to drag you in here and let you take a look.” ”I was a bit curious how you were going to identify yourself. But I had to be sure that you were the genuine article.” Ranie maneuvered the heavily modified fighter out into space. New Africa hung in front of the ship, a blue-green ball of life. Not that different from Earth, Ranie thought. ”Where to?” ”Four.” Ranie entered the planet Veliaze 4 into the autopilot and engaged it. The Viper sped rapidly away from the station, but not nearly approaching the massive acceleration it was actually capable of. Ranie thought it best not to draw attention to his ship. Valo interestedly prodded and stroked the exotic instrument panel and the materials in the cockpit. ”So INRA does still exist,” he said at last. ”Yes. And before you go on, that is pretty much all I’m allowed to tell you.” ”I can imagine. Are the Thargoids coming again?” ”I can’t tell you.” ”Oh, come now. When INRA starts showing itself there is a reason for it. And what better reason than to prepare for war?” Ranie looked over at his passenger with a gentle smile that was intended to take any sharp edge off his words. ”You know, Valo, this is going to be an annoying trip for both of us if you keep asking questions that you know I can’t answer. I’ve already told you too much. We’ll be at Four in half an hour, so how about this: tell me who you are and what you’ve found. After all, you contacted us.” The man shrugged. ”Sure.” He sat back in the seat and stretched his short, but muscular legs. ”I’m an archaeologist. Got my education at Hope in Gateway. Not much to dig up there, though, so I tried a few other systems. But all populated planets are pretty much sewn up when it comes to determining their history. Swathes of my colleagues have been on it for centuries. Not much for me to do. But in the anarchy systems, like Veliaze, nothing in the way of science has been done. Too dangerous, you see. Scientists don’t like danger.” ”Except you, obviously,” Ranie smiled. ”Except me,” Valo nodded. ”I was able to secure a scholarship from the Alliance to do an archaeological survey of the entire Veliaze system. An insane project, of course. Far too much for one man to do. But then again, they couldn’t care less about the science. They wanted me to act as an informal agent, to tell them what was going on in Veliaze, you know, politically. I suspect they have a long-term project with the goal of annexing this entire system. It’s probably a good idea. No reason why this should be an anarchy. Incredibly valuable, you know, with a terraformed planet and an orbital station.” He drew a sinewy hand through his short, blond hair in a slightly impatient gesture. ”But anyway. They pay me to hang around and remain inconspicuous, and I get time to do some digging. Pop by Molotov once in a while to have something to report to the Alliance.” Ranie judged that they were by now far enough away from the station that he could safely gun the drive and make some real progress. Both the occupants of the ship were pushed back into the seats as the vessel surged forward. Valo made an appreciative sound and continued talking, quickly but clearly. ”Didn’t waste much time on the rocky planets. Destroyed by impacts and full of craters. Nothing to be found. Went straight to Four. Has an atmosphere. Methane. Dark and cold. Generally unpleasant and hostile as hell. But promising, from a scientific point of view. Made a few discoveries, wrote a few articles. Nobody read them, of course. Only of interest to me. Still, science is science. After a year or so, I came across the...ehm... artifact I’m going to show you. But I can’t explain it. You’ll have to see for yourself.” ”When was this?” ”More than twenty years ago now. Didn’t tell anyone. No idea what to do with it. Conceivably dangerous. Go to look at it myself from time to time. Not least to confirm to myself that I haven’t just been dreaming the whole thing.” They sat in silence for a while. ”So what kind of archaeologist are you?” ”Omni. I can do all kinds of digging. From geological through paleontology and exobiology to historical. All areas. But I tend to specialize in exobiology.” ”So there is life on Veliaze 4?” ”Of course. There’s life on practically any planet or moon that has an atmosphere. Microorganisms, mostly. Nothing that makes headlines. Not even in the scientific journals. But making headlines was never a goal for me.” ”Then what is your goal?” Valo was quiet for a moment, then spoke again, somewhat slower. ”The best feeling I ever have, or should I say... ahem... the second best feeling, is when, on the workbench in my mobile laboratory, I have the first specimen of a new life form. Can you imagine? A new life form! Never before discovered. Never described. And I’m the first to see it. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a fungus. I get a feeling as if I’m looking at the very meaning of the universe. I get dizzy just thinking about it. The room swirls around me. Can’t describe it.” He folded his hands in his lap and looked straight ahead, far out into space. After a long pause he spoke again. ”Don’t know if it makes sense to anyone else. But it gives my life meaning. A meaning far beyond the practical problems of mere survival.” Veliaze 4 was indeed hostile, and there was a terrible storm raging in the night side equatorial area where they landed. The atmosphere was brown with a seemingly impenetrable layer of whirling dust, blown hundreds of meters up by the strong winds. The instruments showed that it was also highly corrosive. ”We’ll have to suit up,” Valo said. ”Hope you have the proper equipment.” Ten minutes later they were out on the surface, engulfed in deep darkness. Both wore pressure suits, Ranie’s much lighter and more flexible than the unwieldy and battered contraption in which Valo had encased himself. The storm was blowing hard, but because of the low atmospheric pressure it didn’t exert as much force on them as Ranie had thought. Even if it whistled past their helmets in ungodly howls, they could move fairly easily against the wind as it sprayed the visors of their suits with tiny dust particles and sulfuric acid in heavy, crystal clear drops. The gravity was a lot less than on Earth, and so the two men could move with some speed across the hilly and rocky terrain, illuminating each other spookily in the powerful searchlights on the suits. As usual, Valo led the way and Ranie soon found himself at the foot of a large, rocky hill. The archaeologist quickly made his way around it, familiar as he was with the terrain and the location. Ranie lost sight of him as he went around an outcropping, and when he caught up with Valo, the energetic scientist was standing by what was undoubtedly the opening to a cave. ”When I first came here,” Valo said through the radio link, ”there was no opening. But I could tell from the scanning instruments that there was a big cavity inside the rock. So I brought out the explosives and made a hole myself. Let’s go in.” The hole was indeed barely large enough to allow Valo to enter, but in his lighter suit Ranie could crawl through it quite easily. The wall of rock was only half a meter thick, and after that, the tiny tunnel broke through into a cave. Or rather, an enormous cavern. The searchlights on the front of Ranie’s planetfall suit could barely illuminate the wall on the other side, and the head-up display in his helmet showed that it was more than three hundred meters across. ”Look,” Valo said and pointed up at the wall behind them. Ranie turned around and saw that the walls of the cavern were not uneven and rocky as expected; rather, they were as smooth as the polished tip of a navy-grade missile. He extended his gloved hand and hardly felt any friction as he pressed it against the wall. But he could see that it was basically stone, the natural rock of the hill polished with immaculate precision. As he looked down, he noticed that the floor was also polished, but not to the same meticulous degree as the walls. Dumbfounded, he turned again and tried to get an impression of the shape of the cavern. He adjusted the searchlight to maximum strength, and the whole cave was bathed in a sharp blue-tinged light. It was a dome, or more correctly, a half-dome. For not the whole surface was curved in a perfect, quarter-circular arc. To the right of where they entered the cave, the dome was bisected by a flat wall, as smooth as the curved surface, but quite obviously of a different material. It looked black, and as Ranie shone a concentrated beam on it, the light was reflected perfectly. It was a giant mirror. Exactly half-circular, with a base line of nearly four hundred meters, it spanned an area of sixty thousand square meters. All perfect, shining and reflective. Using the visual magnifier in the helmet of his suit, Ranie saw the reflections of himself and Valo, tiny specks against the otherwise empty hall. ”I don’t have to tell you that this can’t possibly be a natural formation”, Valo said into the awe-induced silence in Ranie’s helmet. ”No, you don’t.” As they walked closer to the mirror, Ranie sensed that there was something very threatening about it, something that inexplicably made him want to turn and walk very quickly back to his ship. He suddenly felt very, very small and defenseless. He noticed Valo looking up at him through the helmet. ”You feel it too, huh? You can bet I did, the first time. And I was alone. But something happened that made me hang around.” He turned to look at the mirror. ”At the university they had a big collection of ancient databanks from Earth, some dating back to the beginning of the space-flight era. Fascinating stuff. There’s a whole department of scientists who take years learning the myriad of old languages it’s all written in, and then they carefully translate the interesting pieces they find. Invaluable source of historical information. Some is fiction, of course. I read a bit of that, and one piece, especially, made an impression. Don’t know why. It was basically an unrealistic story about a child who walks through a mirror and finds an inverted and bizarre world behind it. Written in such a style as to suggest that it was a prophecy of some sort. Surrealistic and illogical. Absurd, almost. But strangely compelling. The moment I laid eyes on this mirror for the first time, my mind was taken right back to that story even though it was years since I’d read it. Or even thought about it. Can’t explain it.” Valo slowly walked closer to the mirror, and Ranie followed a few paces behind. ”But if that hadn’t happened, I would have run out of here and taken a long holiday on New Africa. As it was, my curiosity prevailed. I just had to take a closer look.” They stopped about five meters from their reflected images. ”Have you seen it yet?” There was something very strange about the reflection. Something fundamentally wrong. Ranie stood still for a second, then slowly raised his right hand. ”You’ve noticed,” Valo stated calmly. Ranie stood transfixed as the reflected image of himself also raised its right hand. The image wasn’t inverted as in a mirror; instead it gave a true, geometrically correct image. It was exactly as if he was facing a perfect copy of himself. ”Yes,” he whispered at last. Valo made a sound in Ranie's helmet, like a low chuckle. ”Try this,” he said and walked right through the mirror. On this side, there was no cave, but a ledge on a hillside. Behind them, the reverse and identical side of the mirror they had just walked through. Before them, a strange world. An uneven, orange terrain, rocky and barren. A red sky, where the giant, glowing ball of an orange sun hung low over the horizon, throwing long, dark shadows across the desert-like landscape. And silence. They stood there for a minute, taking in the surroundings, before Ranie could ask the one question he had to know the answer to. ”Where is this?” He could hear that his own voice was hoarse, almost a whisper. The unreal experience made him feel as if he was standing beside himself, just watching. ”I don’t know. Doesn’t correspond to any planet I know. Can’t even tell which star that is. It’s a class K sun. But definitely not Veliaze.” ”Have you done any research here? I mean archaeological?” ”Very limited. I get the major creeps every time I come here, so I tend not to hang around. Digging wouldn’t be of any real value anyway, as long as I don’t even know where this is. I have taken some samples of the soil, of course. Absolutely seething with micro-activity. That’s all I can tell you.” The sun fell towards the horizon with such speed that they could see the shadows growing longer by the second, indicating that the planet rotated very quickly in its orbit. It was all very alien. Ranie checked the atmosphere readout display inside his helmet. ”I’ve seen all I need to. Let’s go back.” They walked quickly and quietly back through the half-dome hall and out into the black acid storm on Veliaze 4. The footprints they had left in the dust had long since disappeared in the howling gale, but without him even giving it a second thought, the navigation system in Ranie’s helmet led them back to where the Viper waited on its simple undercarriage, all its navigation lights and searchlights beaming out into the darkness on full power. They took off their pressure suits in thoughtful silence before they sat down in the cockpit. Ranie handed Valo a water bottle, because he knew from experience what the recycled air in a standard environment/pressure suit could do to the fluid balance. He half-turned in his seat to face his passenger. This was not going to be easy. ”Listen, Valo. I have to tell you that your discovery is not really a discovery. What you have found is an old INRA installation. You can never go there again. It’s INRA property. I’m sorry.” Valo, having just taken a swig of the bottle, spluttered and coughed before he could reply, spraying water all over the instrument panel. ”What the hell do you mean?” he said, agitated. ”No way is that a human installation. You don’t have that kind of technology!” ”Now, listen...” ”What do you think you are, coming here and thinking you can steal my site? INRA property, my ass. That cave is the greatest scientific discovery ever, and you know that very well. I won’t stand for it. Believe me, its not the first time I’ve had to protect a site from a bunch of damned grave-robbers and pseudo-scientists.” Ranie stared at the deck and offered no resistance, and Valo continued. ”Well, if you’re not interested in doing this the right way, I can always go to the Alliance. They’ve always acted with integrity. Or better still, the Universal Scientist. They’ll be most interested. Or what, are you going to fry my neurons, like you did to those lowlifes back at London?” He gradually ran out of steam and sat stiffly in the seat. ”Well, that’s it. We’re going back to London Depot right now. Come on, kid, fire it up.” Ranie made no move to take off. Instead he sat immobile for a while, then started talking in a calm, soft voice. ”During the Thargoid war, INRA discovered that the Thargoids could travel between systems without taking the route through witchspace. They called it teleportation. I’m sure you’ve heard about it. All our resources, and you wouldn’t believe how gigantic they are, were then committed to developing a similar technology. It was a success, but it took a hundred years. That mirror back there,” he pointed with his thumb over his shoulder, ”is what they built. That is to say, they built several. That’s just one of them. But not long after, a new hyperjump drive was developed which suddenly made that technology completely obsolete. It’s cumbersome and has only limited range in comparison. So we don’t need it anymore, and haven’t used it for years. But we didn’t forget it.” He took a swig of his own bottle. ”So when we first saw your message on the message board, we had a pretty good idea about what you’d discovered. But we had to check. Had to be sure. When you said Veliaze 4, I knew. I had to play out the charade, of course. Besides, I was curious. Had never seen it with my own eyes. Pretty impressive at first glance.” He put the bottle down. ”Apparently, back when it was shut down, INRA thought that the cave was pretty well concealed. They were quite obviously wrong.” He smiled thinly. ”For security reasons, not least the personal security of those who might stumble upon it, INRA doesn’t want anyone to know about the existence of this technology. Which is why you must never go there again. I left an advanced motion sensor behind, near the opening. If you show up, we will know it in the same instant. INRA forces will be there within ten minutes to ensure your absolute silence, and I hope you understand what I mean by that.” Ranie sent Valo a significant look, emphasizing the words. ”I’m very sorry about this, Valo, but it’s the way it has to be.” They sat in a tense silence for a minute and Ranie saw that Valo knew he had lost. The little man just sat there and stared out at the storm that engulfed the ship. Yes, Ranie thought, it would have to be quite a blow to learn that what he had thought was a brilliant discovery was someone else’s property. Not to mention that it was not remotely as important as he had assumed. For a scientist like Valo, who had effectively given up an ordinary life in a civilized system for his beloved science, the blow must be especially hard. He tactfully looked away and busied himself with the instruments while Valo slowly came to terms with the situation. ”So what you’re saying is that you’re taking my site and you’re going to kill me if I go there again?” ”It was never yours, Valo. It always belonged to INRA. And yes, we are.” New silence. ”When you asked me on the other side, about where we were... that was just to find out how much I knew?” ”It was. I can’t tell you what planet we were on, but it wasn’t as far away as you think.” Valo sighed heavily. ”So now what?” Ranie fired the rocket engines, making the Viper take off with a jolt, then set course straight up from the planet surface at maximum acceleration. ”Now, Valo, I am going to show you something.” As Ranie had predicted, Valo was most impressed with the hyperjump capabilities of the heavily modified Viper as it traversed sixty light-years in half a second and a single jump. He was also enthusiastic about what he saw in the star-system where they arrived. They spent a few hours there, and at the end, Ranie presented Valo with a suggestion. ”Now that is science,” the archaeologist declared at last. The door to the briefing room on the Explorer opened, and Colonel Tunk entered, a strange gleam in her eye. Ranie started to get on his feet, but a casual wave from Tunk had him relax and sit back down. He gripped around the mug of hot chocolate on the table in front of him with both hands. ”Right, Major, we have reviewed your report and the recording.” The door shut behind the colonel, and she remained standing, seemingly collecting her thoughts. ”As I told you when you were briefed before the mission, Veliaze was where we first encountered the Thargoids centuries ago. What I did not tell you is that we have always wondered if there might be something special about that system. We thought it strange that we only came across the aliens when they were practically on our doorstep. But we never found anything. And of course, that was why a discovery made in Veliaze might be of interest and why we sent you to find out. We did not expect anything to come of it, but it turns out to have paid off in a way that we would never have dared imagine.” She took a deep breath before continuing. ”To put it short, it’s a stunning discovery. We have been able to establish that, in accordance with your assumption, it is indeed a gateway to the Miackce system, which we believe to be a key Thargoid stronghold. The planet is Miackce 1, and the strategic significance is, by all accounts, inestimable. This may well be exactly what we needed to get at least one advantage over the aliens when the war comes. It could give us a fighting chance.” The colonel shook her head in happy disbelief. ”I can’t begin to describe what an incredibly valuable asset this will be if handled correctly.” She leaned back against the edge of the desk. ”The High Council is very happy about this, not least the way you handled the situation. That was very smooth. You have a real gift for thinking on your feet, Major. Giving the man a whole uncharted planet to explore all by himself was most creative. And psychologically correct on so many levels. Excellent that you were able to find a suitable planet that quickly. It’s a hospitable planet, isn’t it?” ”Yes, it’s very Earth-like. A bit warmer, perhaps. After years on Veliaze 4, I think he’s earned the privilege of working in a more comfortable environment. And there’s lots of wildlife, apparently. He seemed pretty happy about that.” The colonel nodded. ”And about the two million credits, I suppose. That should keep him with shovels for a few decades.” There was a short pause during which Ranie took a sip of the sweet chocolate, while the colonel peered down at the deck and seemed to shuffle her feet. ”Tell me, Major, did you get the impression that the man can be trusted, or should we ensure his silence on a more... ah... permanent basis? It is absolutely vital that no word of this gateway ever gets out.” Ranie wiped his mouth. ”No,” he said with conviction. ”He will not mention it to anyone.” Tunk nodded thoughtfully. ”All right. So be it. Congratulations on a mission superbly handled. Well done. Go get yourself some supper.” She straightened and left the room, her mind seemingly already busy with planning. As the door slid shut behind her, Ranie wearily rose from the chair and went over to the viewport. By coincidence, this side of the ship was facing the general direction of the Core systems, and thus several thousand inhabited planets were in his field of view. On one of them lived an archaeologist who had made the discovery of a lifetime, but could not be allowed to know. ”No,” Ranie repeated softly to himself. ”Not at all.” Outside, a million stars blinked eagerly at him, as if they agreed. He lifted the mug to his lips and took another sip of the hot, swirling liquid. It really was quite delicious. paolo.mariani@spray.no  |
paolo.mariani@spray.no