Free Spheres of Influence-eARC by Ryk E Spoor Page B

sits in one place, but dances like a butterfly you can never quite catch.
    Worse, though, was Maria-Susanna. I don’t understand. Even with their explanations. She was…always so nice. She stood with us, fought with us, learned the ways of the enemy and found how we could turn their weapons against them…she was a friend, a warrior-sister.
    Wu glanced around. The strange control room was not very large; he sat next to Ariane, as was fitting for her bodyguard. Behind her was Simon Sandrisson. The wise one who found the way to go beyond the sky.
    Ariane spoke, her voice strong and cheerful. “All crew verify readiness.”
    DuQuesne’s familiar deep voice responded over the sound-thing they called an intercom. “Power, Maintenance and Controls, all secure. Ready when you are, Captain.”
    “Drive and System Oversight, all secure.” Simon’s dry, oddly-accented voice replied.
    “Medical all ready, and as usual here’s hoping I won’t be needed.”
    There was a pause, then he remembered it was his turn. “Oh! Sun Wu Kung, Security, ready,” he said proudly. Saying ‘security, all secure’ would have sounded silly, I think.
    He knew there had been four others in the crew when the Holy Grail first left, so Simon and DuQuesne were each doing the jobs of more than one person. Ariane, he remembered proudly, had assigned him his new position. “Right now it’s a division of one,” she’d said, “but if DuQuesne’s right—and he usually is—I guess we’ll need more sooner or later.”
    He looked to his other side, where there was nothing but smooth bulkhead. I wish the others were here. He suddenly smiled, and the smile hurt , because it was a smile of memory of loss as much as of fondness. Sha Wujing, Zhu Wuneng, Liu Yan…they could not come, because their world…was not real. The bright golden one, Maria-Susanna, was no longer bright, but dark. And Sanzo was not here.
    “Prepare for Transition in ten seconds,” Ariane said. He looked at her and heard her voice, and for a moment he wondered if, perhaps, Sanzo was here, in a way .
    “Good luck, all of you.” Saul’s voice carried all his concern somehow just below the words. “Take care.”
    “We will. Thank you, Saul,” DuQuesne said quietly.
    “In four…three…two…one…Transition!”
    Sun Wu Kung gasped at a sudden, indescribable sensation of twisting compression, of expansion beyond measure and crushing force pushing him down into nothingness. It ended, and it seemed to Wu almost as though a curtain had been drawn aside, a storm had passed and cleansed the air, for suddenly the ship seemed brighter, the smells sharper and clearer, the sounds of humming machines and even the breath of his companions stronger, as they passed into a new universe.
    “Wow!” he heard himself say. “That was fun! That is one of the strangest things I have ever felt! That was new! ”
    Ariane laughed. “Strange, yes, though I admit I wouldn’t think of it as… fun.” She also seemed…distracted, just for a moment; he noticed a similar odd expression on Simon’s face. Maybe the Transition-thing affects them a little differently. I am…a Hyperion, after all.
    He didn’t exactly like thinking of himself as “a Hyperion”—he’d never been anyone or anything except himself. But it was what he was here, and it made him something like DuQuesne’s brother, and that was a fun thought.
    “This new world…is very dark,” he finally observed, noticing that there was no sign of light on the forward screen, which had shown many stars and other lights a few moments before.
    “Ha!” DuQuesne’s voice came, amused. “Here, yeah. The inside of the Sphere’s darker than a whole sackful of black cats. But you’ll see plenty of light later on, don’t worry.” A more serious tone. “Ariane, anything on radar?”
    “I’m not getting anything new. The model solar system, the Dock, nothing else. I suppose her ship could be in the radar shadow of the Sun