Fiction River: Universe Between by Fiction River

Author:Fiction River [River, Fiction]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: WMG Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2014-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

***

Lear returned to the bridge and there was something in his face that Grant had never before seen.

Terror.

No one had taken the rose, but someone had damaged it. The vandal had melted iron and dribbled it onto the device until it hardened into a rough, gray cap. None of the petals were visible.

“Can this be fixed?” asked Zombie, when he saw the damaged treasure. “Where’s Shekaran?”

“We got separated—” Lear began.

“Gone,” said Grant. “I’ll bet the security feed will show she took the last pod. She was the traitor all along. She tried to steal the rose and when she failed, she damaged it.”

“You are certain?” said Zombie.

“Well I know it wasn’t me.”

Zombie shook his head. “She is a fool. I’ll find someone to repair the rose and we’ll hire a new crew for this ship. She has delayed my plans—not stopped them.” His voice grew arctic. “And someday she will pay for this insult—if I have to hunt her through every last world in known space.”

The octopus turned to his lieutenant. “Signal the planet to send a shuttle to retrieve us.”

Lear nodded vigorously, only too happy to comply.

Grant pushed off against the deck, drifting away from Zombie and his soldiers. He didn’t believe a shuttle was coming—though it would take the octopus a long time to figure that out—and even longer to figure out why.

The lightspeed barrier was an absolute limit, an obstacle that could never be crossed. A rose could be used to change that barrier, to give human vessels some more head room, to allow them to go faster and faster, effectively reducing the distances between the stars.

But it could work the other way, too. It was possible that the rose could be used to reduce the speed of light. Grant thought of Chenowith’s bad fixes. He thought that was exactly what would happen if there was a lightspeed differential between Hole and the external universe.

Carolina had been in orbit for a week, and for every second of that week the speed of light had been growing slower and slower. So slow that interplanetary travel would take ages, shuttles wouldn’t be able to reach escape velocity. Maybe even the slow, steady beat of a human heart would push up against the new, slower barrier.

Everyone on the world below was a fly trapped in amber.

In his heart, Grant forgave Rad for abandoning him. She had no other choice. It had to be her that escaped, so Zombie couldn’t force her to repair the rose. It had to be her that escaped, so the corruption that had swallowed their world could be bottled up and never loosed upon the stars.

Besides, it was only fair. He was the one who had escaped last time.

Grant looked out on the stars for a long time and was surprised to find that he was not worried about his fate. It was true that he, too, would be marooned on this slow world, but that didn’t frighten him. For he’d been caught by love many years ago.

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