Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of Moebius

Chapter 1

 

400 years in the past:

“Really? Slugs?” Conner asked. He, Oliver, and Mara sat in a circle in the cabin of Black Fire as it coasted through the ghostly green tunnel of hyperspace en route from Proserpine to Moebius. The intense snowstorms at the beginning of the Proserpinene deep winter had quieted, and the people of Oridion had finished clearing a landing area. Finally, the lovebirds Oliver and Mara could see each other in person again. Mara had agreed to visit Moebius for a few days, and Conner had volunteered to go with Oliver to pick her up, though admittedly he had felt like a third leg for much of the trip back.

“Of course,” Mara said. “Slugs are full of nutrients, and they cling to the hot water pipes, easy for the picking. They taste really good too when fried.”

“But . . . slimy,” Conner said.

Mara threw up her hands. “Look, you eat squid.”

“Yeah? So? Squid’s normal.”

Mara made a disgusted noise and shook her head.

The hyperspace tunnel evaporated, and the sea of stars making up the Shaper’s Path filled the view. To the side of the galactic center, Shaper’s Back appeared as an extra bright patch, and behind them, Conner knew, Shaper’s Next shone spectacularly amid the intergalactic void. Three versions of their own galaxy, four hundred years in the past and future respectively.

The computer console lit up with information, tracking the usual traffic of thousands of ships entering and leaving Moebius orbit. A message blipped, and Oliver confirmed their landing location outside of Daylight City. He turned to Mara and said, “First thing we do when we land is show you what fried squid tastes like.”

It was dark by the time Conner headed home across the bridge to Cackorey Island. The cool salty sea air was refreshing after the tropical heat of the day. Out in the middle of the bridge, the lapping of the waves against the shores was so far away that it could not be heard, and the only noises were Conner’s footsteps, his breathing, and the faint breath of the wind. It was relaxing in a spooky kind of way.

An aircraft rumbled overhead, and Conner looked up to see a set of lights fly over him, descending toward the island in front of him. That was weird. Cackorey Island didn’t have any airports or spaceports, so why would anyone land there instead of at Daylight? Conner started to run. Sleep could wait, he had a mystery to investigate.

He dashed through the woods and the streets of the town lit by blue lamps, grateful that his hobby of playing tennis kept him in shape. Fields of cassava covered the land for the few kilometers between the village and the coast, along with a grove of banana trees. As Conner ran, he scanned the dark, indistinct land for the shape of a plane or spacecraft. He was sure it had landed along this line. Could he be off? Might it have landed to the left or right?

There. The tail end of a craft. It had rocket nozzles, so it must be a spaceship. Conner stopped to catch his breath, crouching so he wouldn’t stand out above the plants. Then he approached slowly and cautiously.

What kind of ship was it? It was about twice as big as Black Fire, so probably the same type of vessel, a personal hyperspace vehicle for a small group of people that could double as a space mobile home in a pinch. That or a passenger shuttle, but there was no reason for a passenger shuttle to land here.

As he got close and could see it from more of a side angle, he realized he recognized this ship. He placed his hand on his chest. “Oh no.” He had only seen one of this model of ship before, and it belonged to his, Oliver, and Mara’s rivals while they had been looking for the elemental medallions: Senna, Durgna, and that other guy whatever his name was.

Which begged the question, why in the galaxy would they be here? Arguen was just a small island nation in the middle of the ocean. There were very few attractions, no major trading centers, no secret science bases (that he knew of), nothing. There was no point for a random group of travelers to land in the fields of Cackorey Island in the middle of the night.

Unless they were coming after Conner, Oliver, and Mara, except not Mara because she lived on a different planet and they wouldn’t know she was coming. Which meant they were probably sneaking down this very path right now, going toward Conner’s house.

He leaped into the nearest row of cassava plants, holding his breath, listening for footsteps. He didn’t hear any. Maybe they hadn’t come out of their ship yet, or maybe they had taken a different route. Or maybe they were hiding in the crops like he was, waiting to jump out at him when he walked by.

He needed to warn Oliver and Mara. The problem was, that would mean going back to his house for the telephone, where Durgna and his gang might be waiting. But what else could he do? He supposed he could alert the police, but they were probably sleeping, and it would be awkward, so that was off the table. Really all he could do was go home and use his phone. He was an athlete, so if he ran he might be able to beat them there.

When he got home, he saw no sign that anyone was there. Well, now that he thought about it, it wasn’t as if they would give themselves away by turning the lights on, or, you know, leaving footprints on the concrete.

Conner approached cautiously. The door was locked, so far so good. He slowly and silently inserted the key, and slowly and quietly turned it, putting barely enough pressure so that it would turn without making noise. Once it had turned all the way to unlock it, though, he lost patience and turned it back and removed it more quickly.

Inside, with the door closed and locked once more, he snuck over to the telephone without turning on the light, and dialed Oliver’s number.

After a few rings, the other side picked up. “Hello, Oliver Iansmith here.” Good, he hadn’t gone to bed yet.

“Oliver, it’s me,” Conner hissed. “You won’t believe it. Durgna is here.”

“Where, in your house?”

“No. Yes. Maybe.”

“You’re not making sense.”

“Their ship is outside Cackorey Village.”

“What, really?”

“Yes!”

“Hang on.” Oliver’s voice grew muffled. Conner waited, and the Oliver spoke again. “Mara and I will be over soon.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t you want to find out what they’re up to?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

Conner waited in the dark, every shadow looking like an evil spirit ready to pounce. A knock at the door shook him out of zoning out or a light sleep or something. He went to the door and opened it to find Oliver and Mara waiting for him.

“Did you go to bed?” Oliver asked. “Why turn off all the lights?”

“Well, I, uh,” Conner fumbled for an excuse. The fear that Durgna and his gang were waiting in his house to jump on him seemed rather silly by this point. “Are we ready to go?”

“Don’t forget your tennis racket,” Oliver said.

Conner lifted it from its rack by the door and grinned. “Never.” He slung it over his back.

Conner wanted to run back to the ship, but Oliver and Mara got tired after a few minutes, so they went at a slower pace.

“There,” Conner said, when they got close enough to see the ship.

“All right,” Oliver said, crouching, “let’s go in slow and quiet. Hopefully they won’t---”

“Oh come on,” Mara hissed. “It’s clear you have no experience sneaking.” She stepped in front of the group. “Follow me and do as I do.” She pushed two rows into the cassava plants and crouched low so that her head was more than a foot beneath the plant tops. Oliver followed and Conner brought up the rear, blankets of leaves reminiscent of green hands passing by above them. Conner’s legs got sore quickly, and when Oliver stopped and sat down in front of him he gladly did the same.

“We’re at the end of the field,” Oliver whispered over his shoulder. “The ship is right in front of us.” Conner craned to look around him. He could see Mara, but not out of the bushes.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s home,” Mara said. “Oliver, pop your head above the plants and take a look around.”

“Why me?” Oliver said.

Mara pointed to her bright red hair and gave him a “why do you think?” look. Of course. If someone scanned a light across the field, they would spot her immediately.

Oliver raised himself up very slowly and peeked over the plat tops. He looked around tentatively, and then bobbed up a little higher. His eyes lit up, and he stood up completely. “I see something,” he said.

Unable to contain his curiosity, Conner stood and followed Oliver’s gaze. In the field across the path, there was a dip in the plants with blue-white light glowing from beneath.

“I think we’ve found our friends,” Oliver said.

He beckoned to Mara and she stood up cautiously.

“What are they doing?” she said.

Now that he knew there was something going on nearby, Conner thought he heard earthy noises coming from that direction. “Digging?” he guessed.

“Well at least it seems they’re not looking for us after all,” Oliver said. He looked at Mara and said, “Want to go see what they’re up to?”

“Actually, kinda yeah.” They waded back to the path and then crouched to sneak through the shrubs on the other side.

“I didn’t know you were trained in sneaking, Mara,” Conner whispered.

“My dad sometimes took me hunting on the surface during summer,” Mara replied over her shoulder. “It’s a generational tradition.”

As they approached, the sounds of digging got louder, and they heard low voices. Mara stopped and waved Conner and Oliver to come up beside her. They had reached the cleared area. A pile of dirt and uprooted crops lay beside a pit, and in the pit they found three people with strikingly black skin digging. It was them, Durgna, Senna, and the other guy Conner could never remember.

Conner hissed to get his friends’ attention and grinned. He pulled his tennis racket off his back, and then stood up and cleared his throat loudly. Startled, the three offworlders looked up. Conner tapped the neck of the racket in his hand like a nightstick and said, “Just what do you think you’re doing, digging holes in Farmer Sned’s field?”

A shape moved next to Durgna’s boot, a shadow opening its slanted visor-like red eyes, a jagged snarl appearing beneath them. The Disassembler lived. “You dare interfere with our task?” he said in a deep menacing voice.

Conner watched in shock as the nightmare scurried up the side of the pit, only to be snatched up by the sides of his face, tiny legs and arms flailing in the air on a body several times too small for a head that size.

“He’s sooooo cuuuute” Mara said, making baby eyes at her prize.

“Unhand me, filthy peasant,” the chibi dark lord demanded. “If my claws were grown in I would tear you limb from limb.”

“You’re adorable. I want to put you on a leash and keep you in my house.”

The boy whose name Conner couldn’t remember pointed a gun at her. “You’re going to regret those words.” Conner ducked back into the cover of the plants so fast he practically fell down. Mara shrieked, and the Disassembler made an indignant muffled noise that sounded like Mara was clutching him in a vice grip.

“Put the gun down, Bloar,” Durgna said sharply. Then, directed outward, “We’re not looking for trouble. Return the Disassembler and walk away, and we’ll leave once we’ve found what we’re looking for.”

“And what’s that?” Mara asked. Then more quietly she said, “Bad. No biting.”

“You can’t just tell them,” Senna said to Durgna. Her voice brought back memories of times Conner was deeply embarrassed about. No matter. His days of awkward cringe behavior around girls were over. Because he was fifteen now instead of fourteen.

“There’s no reason to keep it a secret any longer,” Durgna replied. Then more loudly he continued, “You may have wondered why we call ourselves agents of the Tarran Empire, when Tarran refuses to acknowledge us. It is because we are from the Tarran of Shaper’s Next, four hundred years in the future.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Oliver shouted. “There are hundreds of thousands of light years between galaxies on the Shaper’s Path. Even with hyperspace, it would take a whole lifetime to make that trip.”

“Ah, but we didn’t use hyperspace. We used one of these.”

“If you think we’re going to poke our heads out so you can shoot us,” Conner said, “you had better think again.”

“Relax,” Durgna said, “the guns are down. Besides, I can tell by the fact that all of you are talking that none of you have run yet. If you were going to, you already would have.”

He had a point, Conner thought. Why hadn’t they run yet? They still could. That would probably be the logical action. But if they did, they would be left forever wondering about what they would have missed. He scooted himself around and peered through the shrubs.

Durgna held a glowing blue trapezoidal crystal. It combined with the Tantalians’ lanterns to bathe the pit in ghostly light.

“There you are,” Durgna said. “Come on. I suppose ‘don’t be afraid’ isn’t going to do a lot of good?”

Rustling nearby implied Oliver and Mara were coming forward too.

“Just. Let. Go.” the Disassembler said.

“What is it?” Oliver asked.

“This,” Durgna said, “is a chrono actuator. When hooked up to a hyperdrive, it can open a gateway to the same place in either neighboring galaxy, offset by stellar drift.”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Oliver said. “And I know science.”

“They’re extremely rare,” Durgna replied.

“So why are you here digging up Sned’s crops?” Conner demanded. “You’re not going to tell us you came to our tiny little islands because one of those was buried here, and you just happened to dig it up while we were talking.”

“As a matter of fact, we uncovered it right before you arrived.” Durgna held both hands out wide, his other palm facing up. “So that’s the whole mystery. Now you know everything about us. So please just release the Disassembler, and we’ll be on our way in the Eternal Duty and you will never hear from us again.”

“Eternal duty?”

“It’s the name of our ship.”

“Why did you tell them all of that?” Senna said, through clenched teeth. The other guy---Conner could swear Durgna had just said his name---looked furious.

At that moment, Conner got an idea. “Go on, Mara,” he said.

“But do we really want to let the evil dark lord go, even four hundred years in the future?” Mara asked.

“I’m not evil!” The Disassembler said. “I just have a hunger for conquest and rending flesh.”

“Assuming they’re even telling the truth,” Oliver said.

“No, uh, I think we should.” Conner looked at his friends and winked with the eye the Tantalians couldn’t see, and then realized his friends probably couldn’t see it either because there was no light on that side of his face.

They seemed to get the message anyway, because Mara tossed the Disassembler into the pit. The Tantalians cried out together, and Senna rushed forward and caught the baby-sized cyborg demon. After making sure he was okay, Durgna looked up. “All right, scram.”

Conner, Oliver, and Mara did just that. As they pushed their way back to the path, Oliver said, “Just like that, we’re going to let them go?”

Conner grinned, even though they couldn’t see it. “No, we’re going to get into Black Fire and follow them.”

“I like that ide---um, what do you think, Mara?”

Mara was quiet for a moment, and then said, “Oh what the heck. With you boys it’s always an adventure. Just remember, we yumans need to sleep sometime.”

The rumble and lights of Eternal Duty passed over the trio in Cackorey Village, prompting them to make the rest of the way in record time. Before long, Black Fire was giving chase.

When they broke the atmosphere, Oliver checked the sensors and frowned.

“Did they get away?” Conner said.

Oliver hesitated. “Maybe. There’s no sign of their ship, but there is some kind of strange warping. I’ll put it on the screen.” The view through the windshield was replaced by a zoomed in projection of a circle that looked like space was falling into it like a waterfall.

“I guess they were telling the truth after all,” Mara said.

“Well?” Conner said excitedly. “Come on, let’s follow them!”

Oliver gave him a sidelong glance. “It’s generally a bad idea to fly into strange holes torn into the fabric of space.”

“How many times have you looked up at Shaper’s Next and wondered what life is like over there? Like, maybe we have hyperspace cities or flying skateboards. We’ll go, check out the future, and then Durgna and those people can send us back.”

“They’re not our friends,” Mara said.

“Yeah but, you’re curious too, aren’t you?”

Mara looked at the space portal, which had shrunk slightly by now, curiosity brewing behind her eyes.

“This may be the only chance we evern get,” Conner said, “and it won’t last much longer.”

“All right,” Oliver said.

“Let’s do it,” Mara agreed, slapping the dashboard with her fingers.

Oliver boosted the Black Fire toward the circle. It was becoming an uncomfortably small target for a spacecraft, but Oliver and the computer were an unbeatable duo, and they slipped right into the center with plenty of room on all sides.

Conner looked in wonder at the blue foamy streams running alongside them. “Is this another kind of hyperspace?”

“I have no idea,” Oliver said, his voice hoarse. “I’m trying to think of what kind of science would make this, but I’m coming up blank.”

“There’s the end,” Mara said, sitting forward and pointing. Sure enough, a black circle with stars in it was growing in the view.

“Already?” Oliver said. “But we barely started a minute ago. Could we really have traveled to an entire other galaxy in such a short time?”

And then they were out. Stars filled the view, Shaper’s Next in one direction and the galactic core and Shaper’s Back in the other. Oliver looked at the readings and squealed in delight. “It worked! By the relative positions of the stars due to stellar drift, we’ve gone four hundred years into the future! We’re a fifth of a light year away from Moebius, the exact distance it would have---has---orbited around the galaxy!”

“First impression of the future,” Mara said, “space is still big and empty.”

The time tunnel closed. A moment later, a bright beam streaked past the window. The three friends leaped to attention. “They’re shooting at us!” Conner cried.

Oliver punched the ship into evasive mode, which sent it accelerating in random directions as strongly as the inertial dampeners could compensate for.

“I’m beginning to think this wasn’t such a good idea,” Mara said as another beam shot past something like twenty meters away.

“I didn’t think they would try to kill us,” Conner said. “Can we talk to them?”

“On it,” Oliver said, pressing buttons.

Durgna’s face appeared on the screen, along with Senna and What-was-his-name. “You utter imbeciles,” he said.

“Why are you shooting at us?” Mara said.

“Because we have no reason not to anymore. You don’t belong in this time. No one will miss you. The easiest way to avoid any mess is to erase you now.”

“Hold on,” Conner said, “that’s not fair. At least send us back to where we came from instead of killing us!”

“No,” Durgna said firmly. “The chrono actuator only has one charge left. It is valuable, and it is property of the Tarran Empire.”

“But you took it from us!” Conner said.

“You had no idea it was under your field,” Senna said. “And if you had, what would you have done with it? Probably put it in one of your pagan shrines as decoration.”

“So what? It was on our land.”

“This conversation is over.”

“Wait!” Oliver said as Durgna reached to turn off the comm. “There must be something you want or need, something we can help you with in exchange for being sent home.”

“Surrender your ship and perform three years scrubbing our toilets and cooking our food,” the boy Conner couldn’t remember said.

“Nothing,” Durgna said. “The chrono actuator belongs to the Empire.” He reached for the button again.

“Wait don’t kill us!” Conner said. “If you leave us alive, then when the Disassembler’s new body grows up he would have the opportunity to hunt and disassemble us.”

Mara turned to him. “Are you crazy?”

The Disassembler’s jagged red glowing smile appeared. “I accept your generous proposal.”

“As my lord commands,” Durgna said without missing a beat. The plasma fire stopped.

“Until next time,” The Disassembler said. “I look forward to it with relish.” He signed off and the Eternal Duty leaped into hyperspace.

“What was that all about?” Mara demanded.

“Buying us time,” Conner said. “See? They let us live.”

“For a year or two,” Oliver said, “until the Disassembler’s claws grow in.”

Mara looked as sick.

“And by that time,” Oliver said quickly, “we’ll have gotten the chrono actuator back and escaped out of their reach.”

“Yeah,” Conner said.

Mara stared at nothing. “I hope you’re right.”

The three sat silently for a long while. They were stranded in another time, with everyone they knew long dead. Focus too strongly on that right now, and they could suffer a collective panic frenzy.

“Well,” Oliver said, “it would seem we have two options. The first is to look for another chrono actuator. Which won’t be easy, considering how we didn’t know they existed until an hour ago and how valuable Durgna and those people see it as. And the second,”

“We go get it back from them,” Conner finished.

“Right.”

Mara stood. “You two figure out what we’re gonna do. I’m going to bed.” She left the cabin.

“Can our computers tell where the Tantalians went?” Conner asked.

“Not exactly,” Oliver replied, “but based on what they said and the direction of their hyperspace window, I would guess they’re going straight to Tantalus.”

“I vote we follow them. If we can catch them before they turn their crystal in to their government, it will be a lot easier to get it back.”

“Makes sense to me.” Oliver entered the address into the computer. “Get ready for a several days’ trip. Tantalus is pretty far away.”