torg 01 - Storm Knights by Bill Slavicsek, C. J. Tramontana Page A
Authors: Bill Slavicsek, C. J. Tramontana
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the wake of the Sim's reality storms.
Using the chips Mara designed and built, Dr. Kendal and the rest of her team created the machine that would send the advisor to Earth cosm.
"Dr. Hachi, do you have a recommended candidate?" the World Council had asked her after clearing her of her self-confessed crime and accepting her proposal.
"Me," she had answered.
34
On a rocky outcropping on the Kimberley coast of Australia, an elderly Aborigine sat and watched the Timor Sea. The waves were rough and black this day, thought Djilangulyip, smashing angrily against the land. The sea was pounding on their door, warning them of the danger. But the people had lost the ability to see.
But Djil saw, and that made him responsible.
Far out to sea, where the islands of Indonesia interrupted the waves, an evil had invaded the world. And the world did not like that, oh no. And the world called to its children for assistance. But the children had lost the ability to hear.
But Djil heard, and it scared him so.
He looked to the horizon, and there, at the very edge of his sight, he could see the storm front where the world rebelled against the invaders. His hands moved over the rope he held of their own accord, tying knot after knot into the coiled fabric. He looked down at the knotted rope and knew what it was telling him. The world, like the rope, needed to be tied back together in the places the invaders had frayed. But how, world? he asked silently. How do you knot reality back together?
He contemplated the knots throughout the long night.
35
The air sled reached the parking garage of the Transference Facility, after having passed through three security checks.
"Go save a world," said the driver as he solemnly shook Mara's hand in farewell.
"With luck," answered Mara, remembering Randin-Six.
"Always pick the fast drop," he grinned, offering the best advice he could think of for what she was about to do.
Mara smiled back at him and said, "No other way to go."
Then she turned and entered the main lobby of the facility which had been built for the single purpose of sending her to another cosm. Once again dressed in her black jumpsuit after the cybertechs had plugged into her and jolted her, and the medtechs had prodded and poked her, after she had been issued a laser pistol and an assortment of enhancement chips and had stored them in her thigh pouch and in the pockets of her jumpsuit, she was ushered into the main chamber.
Around the periphery of the room, the other cy-bernetically-enhanced volunteers were plugged into the consoles at which they sat. Their heads were resting in the headrests of their seats. Their eyes were closed, and she knew they were lost in the sparkling, glittering pathways of the cybernet. It was their bio-electronic circuitry and their logic pathways that gave the transference machine its power. But it was something else about these people, some intangible constant that she had been able to measure but not identify, that gave the machine the final boost that allowed it to shove her into another dimension.
She tried not to think about being on the Earth world, stranded without this intricate machinery and the enhanced mentalities to help her make the trip home. She nodded to Dr. Mikkos where he sat at the main console. But Alec — Dr. Kendal — was nowhere to be seen. It hurt that he was not here to see her off, but time was running out.
Mara watched as Dr. Mikkos punched in the final codes of the starting procedure. He didn't like goodbyes, and she didn't force hers on him. During the theory and construction phase of the transference machine project, he had treated her as he would his own daughter, and had also come to think of her in that way. Mara, not having seen her father since her parents' divorce, responded to Dr. Mikkos as she would to her actual father. They had said their farewell over a quiet dinner the night before, and both of them were willing to leave it at that. Perhaps, they were
Using the chips Mara designed and built, Dr. Kendal and the rest of her team created the machine that would send the advisor to Earth cosm.
"Dr. Hachi, do you have a recommended candidate?" the World Council had asked her after clearing her of her self-confessed crime and accepting her proposal.
"Me," she had answered.
34
On a rocky outcropping on the Kimberley coast of Australia, an elderly Aborigine sat and watched the Timor Sea. The waves were rough and black this day, thought Djilangulyip, smashing angrily against the land. The sea was pounding on their door, warning them of the danger. But the people had lost the ability to see.
But Djil saw, and that made him responsible.
Far out to sea, where the islands of Indonesia interrupted the waves, an evil had invaded the world. And the world did not like that, oh no. And the world called to its children for assistance. But the children had lost the ability to hear.
But Djil heard, and it scared him so.
He looked to the horizon, and there, at the very edge of his sight, he could see the storm front where the world rebelled against the invaders. His hands moved over the rope he held of their own accord, tying knot after knot into the coiled fabric. He looked down at the knotted rope and knew what it was telling him. The world, like the rope, needed to be tied back together in the places the invaders had frayed. But how, world? he asked silently. How do you knot reality back together?
He contemplated the knots throughout the long night.
35
The air sled reached the parking garage of the Transference Facility, after having passed through three security checks.
"Go save a world," said the driver as he solemnly shook Mara's hand in farewell.
"With luck," answered Mara, remembering Randin-Six.
"Always pick the fast drop," he grinned, offering the best advice he could think of for what she was about to do.
Mara smiled back at him and said, "No other way to go."
Then she turned and entered the main lobby of the facility which had been built for the single purpose of sending her to another cosm. Once again dressed in her black jumpsuit after the cybertechs had plugged into her and jolted her, and the medtechs had prodded and poked her, after she had been issued a laser pistol and an assortment of enhancement chips and had stored them in her thigh pouch and in the pockets of her jumpsuit, she was ushered into the main chamber.
Around the periphery of the room, the other cy-bernetically-enhanced volunteers were plugged into the consoles at which they sat. Their heads were resting in the headrests of their seats. Their eyes were closed, and she knew they were lost in the sparkling, glittering pathways of the cybernet. It was their bio-electronic circuitry and their logic pathways that gave the transference machine its power. But it was something else about these people, some intangible constant that she had been able to measure but not identify, that gave the machine the final boost that allowed it to shove her into another dimension.
She tried not to think about being on the Earth world, stranded without this intricate machinery and the enhanced mentalities to help her make the trip home. She nodded to Dr. Mikkos where he sat at the main console. But Alec — Dr. Kendal — was nowhere to be seen. It hurt that he was not here to see her off, but time was running out.
Mara watched as Dr. Mikkos punched in the final codes of the starting procedure. He didn't like goodbyes, and she didn't force hers on him. During the theory and construction phase of the transference machine project, he had treated her as he would his own daughter, and had also come to think of her in that way. Mara, not having seen her father since her parents' divorce, responded to Dr. Mikkos as she would to her actual father. They had said their farewell over a quiet dinner the night before, and both of them were willing to leave it at that. Perhaps, they were
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