Chapter II

The cold tendrils of nothingness loosed their biting grip upon the vessel with fierce reluctance.  Cascades of neutral energy grated across its hull as the ship pulled into the nebulous clouds of thought and dream.  It picked up speed, charging through the mire of myth and legend, thrusting with wild abandon in its final burn towards the obsidian shoals of reality.  Screaming past the point of no return, it erupted through the veil, leaving a scorched trail of anti-matter tumbling in its wake.

The ship changed during the journey, its skin morphing into a coarse and blackened metallic husk, while sweeping fins and sharply curved wings blossomed from its flanks.  As always, it restructured itself for the optimal configuration of this reality, a universe it had never visited before.   

The view from the bridge stirred Cozy’s soul.  The coronas of energy and storms of rupturing matter lashing the viewport had felt like a baptism, their unbridled ferocity breathing fresh life into him.  In his early days here, when he’d had fewer responsibilities and craved nothing more than to renew his purpose in life, tripping the veil had always given him this rush, this surge of vitality.  In recent years that thrill had dissipated. For the first time in a long time he’d taken the time to appreciate it, and felt shadows of that old surge again.  

Missions had been coming in fast and furious lately and this small dose of rejuvenation did him good.  Breathing deeply in the afterglow, he allowed himself a moment of serenity before turning to his crew and considering the mission at hand.  He stretched, breathing the cool air of the bridge deeply, balling his hands into fists while arching his back with a long exhale. Before him lay their destination: a glowing sapphire sphere turning silently while basking in the heat and light of its yellow sun.

His quarry would be there, and he’d ensure that he and his crew were ready.  On the surface, the operation seemed simple enough, but sometimes potential consequences didn’t reveal themselves until you were evaluating all contingencies on site.  And the fact that they had gotten such an unusual amount of lead time on this one had been eating away at the back of his mind. Premeditation was the only logical possibility, but with the nature of their secret sciences, Cozy knew that was nearly impossible.  That quandary would have to wait until later since no other explanation fit the facts. That meant today’s action would likely be only the first step on a very long road. 

Deciding it was time to get to work, he turned to walk across the translucent deck, a shimmering plane of razor-thin amber energy, and tapped at a virtual console hanging in the air.  A holo snapped to life in the center of the bubble shaped bridge, displaying the ship’s new configuration. A flare sparked in the aft quarter where an unwanted heat signature was radiating.  Cozy studied it for a moment, then called across the bubble to his engineer, “Hey, Marren, you seeing this? We need to reconfigure the plating back there?”

“Already on it.  I’ll just need to…”  His voice faded out quickly in mid-sentence, then came back in a moment later, as though someone were fumbling with a volume knob, “…quintary patch sequence to keep it in phase.” 

“We’ll hold solid?”

“Yeah,” Marren replied.  “I’ll give it a more thorough once-over back at Sanctuary, but I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Good.”  Cozy cleared his throat and walked to the other side of the bubble where Kalend and L’Renz were running a mapping routine on a planetary holo.  Their stealth was more than up to the task, but Cozy wasn’t one to leave things to chance. The beings on that world were apparently unaware of their presence.  Cozy was fine with that. It was when they were indifferent or hostile that things became a problem. He’d had run-ins with both before, and wasn’t anxious for an encore performance.  “How’s the survey going?”

At this point, Kalend’s planetary scan was more a formality than anything.  Cozy was pretty sure the breach would open somewhere in or around the coastal city where all the others had been appearing.  Nothing they could detect had ever been sent through, but someone had been regularly surveying the area, and their target in particular.  Just how that was happening, and how they had gotten breach technology, he had no idea.

“It appears clean so far.”  Kalend’s voice was clear and tinkling, crystal wind chimes on a breezy summer evening.  She looked at Cozy quizzically, “Are you sure this is the correct world? What about their satellite?”

“Yeah, I…I,” he cleared his dry throat again and coughed.  “I could use a drink. But yeah, I’m sure. Finish the survey and let’s get the probability extrapolation up.  I think we’re just too early. Not that I’m complaining.” He tabbed at a virtual console on the rear bulkhead, the only opaque and metallic surface on the bridge.  A moment later, a cup with a steaming orange liquid popped out. Cozy took a long slow sip while watching the survey.

Outside, the blue and green world drew closer, revealing the craggy edges of the continents, the frosty white of the polar ice caps and the swirling knots of clouds.  He couldn’t help but notice how alien it was from the worlds he had known as a boy. But then they always were, some more so than others. At least this one was spherical.  Well, for the most part. His keen eye noticed its slight equatorial bulge.

Behind them, the hatch irised open.  Val strode in with his signature rhythmic and heavy gait, fitting a primer pack into a pistol.  He tucked the weapon into a compartment on his chest armor and looked out through the bubble. The husky whisper of his voice rose over a gentle thrum of gears as he raised an instrument to his eyes, “Our gear is all set.  We should be able to go in with standard weapons, as long as the recon data we have is correct. Heh, no surprises I hope?”

Cozy shook his head, “Not so far.  Let’s hope it stays that way. I can’t remember the last time we had an early warning like this.”  

“Not since I’ve been here.”

That was a considerable stretch of time, which only fragmented Cozy’s puzzle further.  A repeated dull thunking drew his attention back to the immediate task. He looked over to see L’Renz drumming his fingertips together before tapping away at his console.  A golden pulse showered the planetary holo. A brighter area developed over a large section near the edge of a northern continent. 

“That’s it.  Hold it there.”  At Cozy’s command, L’Renz stopped the rotating holo.  Cozy pulled Val in to take a closer look, “The probability curve is painting that section.”  

“As expected,” Val confirmed.

L’Renz studied it for a moment.  “Yes, that correlates to the warning data we were given, but so far I see nothing distinctive.  It could come in anywhere along that sector.” He keyed a quick sequence on the virtual console but nothing changed.  

“Yeah,” Cozy grunted, taking another sip from his cup.

“Smooth so far, Captain,” Marren said, trying to sound positive.

“Don’t call me that and don’t jinx it.”  Cozy rubbed his eyes, “Where is he now? You able to pin him down?”

“I have him,” Kalend responded.

“Let me see,” Cozy ordered.  

An image appeared of a young man walking back and forth in a room backed by wide windows that overlooked a quaint city.  The man was pointing to a large image of what appeared to be a beverage container as he spoke to several other people sitting behind a long table.  

“That’s him, huh?” 

“I see nothing special,” Kalend commented.

Cozy arched his eyebrows, “Yeah, well somebody’s been watching him.”  He looked for something, anything, that would make the man a target. Nothing jumped out at him, and he knew with the reality of the situation, nothing had to.  It was likely something unseen. Deciding to move on he said, “All right, let’s do a temporal run on the probability scan and see what we get.”  

Cozy and the three others joined L’Renz at the center of the bubble where a curved holo was emerging above his virtual console.  It was a wide longitudinal wedge, stretching from the northern ice cap to a spot well below the equatorial line, complete with cloud cover and shifting tides.  A vast ocean filled a good portion of the image, while the edge of the continent filled the entire right side, its topography clearly visible.

“Cozy, these people are land based, are they not?” Kalend asked.

“Yeah.  I’m pretty sure we can rule out the ocean.”

“Maybe it’s going to happen on some kind of seagoing vessel?” Marren offered.

Val grunted, the corners of his wide mouth turning down, “Bah.  Close quarters? That’s a tactical nightmare.”

Cozy nodded in agreement, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”  He pointed at the chronometer, “C’mon, run it.”

L’Renz keyed a sequence on the console and as the chrono sped forward the golden pattern above the wedge sharpened and intensified, losing its gauzy aura to become a deepening red focused on the northern half of the holo.  The chrono raced ahead, and as it peered into the possible future the shroud of red narrowed itself down further while becoming more dense. Knowing the limitations of such a simulation and the usually vague results, Cozy wasn’t hoping for much.  

Tweaking his controls. L’Renz closed in on the planetary area beneath the red shadow.  Finally, after lurching far enough ahead in time, the deep scarlet cloak settled firmly above a small spit of land jutting north.  The chrono slowed dramatically to run at double time and the map zoomed in further to show the coastal city.  

“Kalend is that the same city you just showed us?” Cozy asked, already knowing the answer.   She confirmed his thoughts with a nod.

It was a moderate sized city, though not sprawling, and surrounded by water on three sides.  A bridge on the northwestern end threaded its way across a bay to another peninsula and many vessels cruised across the azure waters beneath it.  The heart of the city housed the only buildings of any respectable stature, though even those were mere huts compared to the soaring towers Cozy had seen on many highly developed worlds.

Once the sun in this probable future set, Marren said, “Cozy, look.  We’re getting in deep enough. It’s starting to fragment.”

Cozy looked up at the smear of red hanging above the city and saw Marren was right.  The red patch was branching out, like a root system busting its way out of a seed pod.  “Okay, slot it back to relative speed and make a composite,” he ordered.  

L’Renz did as ordered and everything in the city snapped back to its normal speed.  The scarlet root system descended and melded with the living map. The main pod sat squarely on a spot where the land and water met, its branches stretching into the city streets, snaking past homes, shops and larger buildings.  The fact that everything was rooted to a single junction is what got Cozy’s attention. All probabilities led to everything beginning at that spot. The mountain of data they’d collected on this man after the alert, every iota of his personal and professional life, every scrap that could be extrapolated from his emotional and psychological profile, all of them indicated life would deposit the man there at that time.  Alone from the looks of it. 

Kalend was focused on matters beyond the man.  Raising a finger to the thickest line, a jagged trail which headed east and ended where several vessels were docked in a harbor, she noted, “There.  That one has the densest probability imprint.”

“Heh, we’d best get this right the first time,” Val snorted then pointed at two spots on the holo.  “There is a small naval station here and what looks like a military depot only a little further inland.  This could become explosive quickly.”

“How explosive?” Cozy asked pointedly.

After running a series of calculations L’Renz answered, “The potential for immediate escalation is not that high, but the depot has a sizable ammunition stockpile.”

“That’s where it gets messy,” Marren added.

“Correct,” said L’Renz.  “The probability curve leans towards devastation there, leading towards catastrophic…” 

“Enough I get the picture,” Cozy snapped.  He stopped himself and took a deep breath, regretting the nasty tone.  After all this wasn’t just his crew, they were his friends. No, they were more than that.  They were his family and he loved them all. But what had started as a simple intercept and retrieval mission now had the chance to lead to disaster.  What the hell could be coming through? he wondered.

And there was still the larger potential danger surrounding their main target that represented a whole new series of problems, the least of which was having to take someone against their will.  He didn’t like doing that. It rankled his integrity. But he was under orders and knew the risks of damage to the Quanta if he didn’t follow them. He and Syon had discussed them all too thoroughly before departure.  

After another calming breath Cozy assured the others, “We’ll do everything we can to make sure it doesn’t get that far.  It’ll be a quick take down.” He took another long sip of the simmering orange liquid. “I want a detailed look at that coastal spot.  Roll it back to just before the split.”   

The scarlet root system faded from the map and disappeared as L’Renz complied.  The holo now tightened up to show the coastline. The tide had just passed its low point and would slowly start creeping back in beneath the glow of the single moon.  The simulation showed a lone figure, the man they’d spied earlier, meandering aimlessly and alone on the long sandy stretch. There was a flash of crackling light before him just as the holo began breaking up, showing fuzzy images distorted by chunks of interference.  

“There are too many probabilities beyond that point,” L’Renz explained.  “That’s the best simulation we can get.”

“Not bad.  Was that flash from a breach?” Cozy asked.

“Looks like it,” Marren confirmed.  “Obviously we can’t be certain of that exact time.” 

Cozy waved that off, “Given everything else, I’m willing to bet it’s pretty accurate.  I don’t remember a probability scan ever getting that precise before.”

“We’ve rarely had that much data ahead of time,” L’Renz said.

Kalend added, “Or such a firm target before the fact.”

“Right,” Cozy said as he processed it all.  “Bottom line, something’s definitely coming through there.  Something that can cause damage. And I’m thinking it wants our guy.”   He knew the job would be delicate and require care. Any abrupt and preemptive action by them could result in disaster, so now it was a waiting game.  Not his first choice, but he’d roll with it. “Okay, L’Renz, let’s see him again.”

The holo image of the beach shrank back as two images popped up beside it.  The first was a freeze of the earlier scene, with the man in the windowed room.  The second showed him sitting alone at an angled desk and sketching. 

Pointing to the images Cozy said, “We know who we’re here for.  And it looks like we know when and where too. He pointed at the figure in the holo then gulped the last of his drink.  “So that’s where we’ll be waiting. We make it a fast containment and keep risks to a minimum all around.”  

“Give me a little time before insertion if you can,” Marren requested.  “I want to reconfigure the redundant stealth systems.”

Cozy patted him on the shoulder, “Good idea.  Let’s all be on top of this one, guys. Check and recheck everything.  And keep him under surveillance. I don’t want any surprises.”