Apparently, the knowledge had been rediscovered by the technicians laboring
for Operation Chronos. A
few months earlier, inside the Thunder Isle facility, they had discovered a
special encoded program called Parallax Points. Brigid and Lakesh made several
visits to the facility, salvaging what could be salvaged. Most of the
machinery was damaged beyond any reasonable expectation of repair, but the
data pertaining to the so-called Parallax Points was retrieved and put to use
including the black, protective garments Kane had named shadowsuits.
After weeks of study, they learned that the Parallax Points program was
actually a map, a geodetic index of all the naturally occurring vortex points
on the planet. That discovery spurred Lakesh to build the
second version of a device he referred to as an inter-phaser, or to be
technically precise, a quantum inter-phase matter-transmission inducer.
Decrypting the Parallax Points program was laborious and time-consuming, and
each newly discovered set of coordinates was fed into the interphaser's
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targeting computer.
Sea of Plague 259
Kane, Grant and Brigid had endured weeks of hard training in the use of the
interphaser on short hops, selecting vortex points near the redoubt or at
least, near in the sense that if they couldn't make the return trip through a
quantum channel they could conceivably walk back to the installation. So far,
the interphaser hadn't materialized them either in a lake or an ocean or
underground, a possibility that Kane privately feared. He knew an analog
computer was built into the interphaser, which automatically selected a vortex
point above solid ground.
Due to the wide usage of the interphaser, which wasn't bound by the
limitations of the mat-trans units, the Cerberus redoubt reverted to its
original purpose for the first time in two centuries not a sanctuary for
exiles or the headquarters of a resistance movement against the tyranny of the
barons, but a facility dedicated to fathoming the eternal mysteries of space
and time.
One of the vortex nodes downloaded from the Parallax Points program happened
to be within the shrine to Shiva, in the Goalpara province of Assam. This in
itself wasn't unusual, since many holy sites were constructed above naturally
occurring vortices. Most temples and places of worship in the ancient world
were built on intersection points of geomagnetic energy.
As Lakesh completed his check of the interphaser, Kane pawed through his
backpack, examining the labels on the MREs. He found one marked Rice Pilaf and
under Madi's mystified gaze, he opened it and mimed eating the contents. Then
he handed it to her.
The girl sniffed it tentatively and after a moment's
260 JAMES AXLER
hesitation, placed a delicate pinch of the food in her mouth, as if she were
doing so only to be polite. She chewed slowly, her eyes narrowed with
concentration. Then suddenly, her eyes widened and her face lit up in a wide
smile. She began stuffing the food into her mouth with her fingers.
Domi laughed. ' 'I think she likes it. I guess the kid ain't eaten since her
last meal."
Kane grunted, eyeing the girl's stick-thin limbs and sunken, dark-ringed eyes,
her belly swollen with
malnutrition. "Which was a long damn time ago."
Lakesh sat down across from Madi, but said nothing. He felt a cold sickness
surging in his belly. He remembered from his youth how the poverty-stricken in
outlying areas of Kashmir treated females from poor families. He knew Madi
would spend her young life in sexual servitude either among the stronger of
her people, or for sale to anyone who could afford her. Once she was worn out
or lost her appeal, she would be cast out to survive on her own or die.
As Madi blunted the sharpest edge of her hunger, Lakesh drew a story from her
in start-and-stop spurts. It wasn't an inspiring tale, nor had he expected it
to be.
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Her people had lived in the Goalpara province near the banks of the
Brahmaputra river region for many, many generations. Their settlement was
located on high ground and they drew sustenance from groves of mango and
plantain trees. They also grew rice and fished the river. It might not have
been a rich life, but it wasn't as hard as it could have been.
Unfortunately, her people lived in a state of per-
Sea of Plague 261
petual hostility with the Naga tribe, who dwelt primarily in the hills.
Although the struggle for survival in the harsh realm was often desperate, the
Nagas and her village observed semicivilized rules of warfare.
After Lakesh translated that bit of information, he added approvingly, "The
Nagas were very formidable warriors. They helped resist Japanese encroachment
during the Second World War."
As Madi continued, she described the situation between her village and the
Nagas as essentially antagonistic, but during infrequent engagements, no
massacres were conducted by either faction, nor were captives enslaved. Their
chief, a man named Avanisa, who enjoyed a reputation of being tough but not a
monster, was rumored to have embraced a philosophy known as the Nirodha. The
general consensus was that Avanisa was so enthralled by the Nirodha movement
that he no longer had any interest in earthly matters. Then the situation
changed.
Almost within the time period of a single day and a night, a plague struck not
just Madi's village, but the surrounding region, as well. A devastating plant
blight had consumed the area only a short time before, information the
travelers from Cerberus had already deduced before embarking on their
hyperdimensional journey. Satellite pictures showed miles-long bands of brown
and dead vegetation.
The pattern of plant death was strangely geometric, the areas cut in cleanly,
with sharply defined boundaries and parameters. The implications were
disastrous. If Sam or Thrush could contaminate the soil and plants of the
world whenever and wherever he
262 JAMES AXLER
wanted, he could conceivably starve humanity into submission, threatening to
overwhelm entire countries with seas of plague. He would promise food or the
antidote only if his demands were met.
And of course, Sam would keep an ace-on-the line to play certain lands and
even nations would continue to be productive and provide food for his
followers followers who swelled in ever growing numbers as their stomachs
shrank. The imperator could simply bide his time until famine and riots held
sway, slowly turning the knife in the bellies of the starving masses.
According to Madi, over the next few weeks signs of Naga activity all but
disappeared, and her fellow villagers began to suspect they had perished or
migrated. Then one dawn, the Nagas surrounded their settlement and they were
armed not with bows and arrows, but with guns.
Chief Avanisa announced they were now subjects of the Scorpia Prime. The young [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]