Escape Vector by Heppner Vaughn

Author:Heppner, Vaughn [Heppner, Vaughn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B08NCTMLNC
Goodreads: 55884341
Published: 2020-11-11T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-One

At the end of a long corridor, Dr. Halifax followed Magister Uldin onto an open lift with a knee-high rail around it. The lift had the space of a normal elevator floor. The bottom whined softly as Uldin made a motion with his fingers.

The lift began to sink through a shaft, which hadn’t been visible until the railed lift began lowering. The motion caught Halifax by surprise, and he stumbled against Uldin. An electric shock from the Rhune caused Halifax to jerk away and he staggered until he crashed against the moving shaft. He leapt from that, the friction tearing his smock.

“Please pay attention, Doctor. Your buffoonery is annoying.”

Halifax touched a friction-burned forearm. He was trembling, frightened—did magic allow Uldin to act like an electric eel, able to shock? No, no, I don’t believe in magic. It must be his robe, an advanced technology net. No doubt, a secret unit in his hand controls the lift. He’s deliberately acting like a magician…to terrify me, trick me. Why do that, though? Ah, to baffle me so I’ll do something he requires.

The lift exited the shaft from the bottom, floating into a vast hangar bay.

Halifax groaned, reflexively knelt on one knee and put out his hands so the fingertips touched the floor of the lift. Even that was hardly enough. He wanted to lie on his stomach and clutch something in case this thing tilted and he slid off to his death.

“Your posture shows poor self-control,” Uldin said. “I shan’t let the lift tip sideways, so you’ll spill. Or don’t you trust me?”

“I…I can’t help it, Magister. We’re too high up for me to risk standing.”

“A fear of heights is a primitive reaction. I would have thought that the advanced intelligence you originally exhibited would put you beyond that.”

Halifax was breathing too hard to worry about the insult. Intellectually he believed Uldin wouldn’t tip the lift. The reptilian part of his brain thought otherwise. He debated closing his eyes…

What’s that?

Down there on the hangar-bay floor was a gargantuan vessel that dwarfed the Descartes. It wasn’t as large as Tarvoke’s free trader, though. The ship—it’s a spaceship—was long and curvaceous and was approximately the size of an ocean liner.

Well, well, well, a spaceship, one that could take me home. Halifax licked his lips. How could he hijack the ship? There had to be a way to leave this nightmare world.

“It is the Jinse Tao Star Cruiser,” Uldin said, “or you might think of it as the Golden Way Star Cruiser. We’re almost ready for travel.”

With his mind and hopes awhirl, Halifax kept staring down at it. “Do you plan on challenging Graven Tarvoke’s rule of the system?”

“A pox on that,” Uldin said. “We’re leaving the pocket universe—as you conceive of it—and reentering regular time and space, yours in particular.”

Halifax looked up in shock. “Why mine?”

“For a variety of reasons,” Uldin said. “My ancestors originated in your space-time continuum. That was long ago, and that is the second reason.”

“I don’t understand.”

“There’s no reason you should.

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