The Final Nexus
by David Clarke
Chapter 17
"I've never seen you in uniform before," I remarked as we headed down the ramp. "I hadn't even realised you were a colonel."
Mr Narj shrugged. "Since they put me in charge of the Nexus project I've spent most of my time with politicians or contractors, and I felt more comfortable talking to people like that in civilian clothes. Besides, we're not really a very military sort of people. The only reason I put the uniform on today is because it would look silly wearing a tin hat with a suit."
"You're likely to need to keep wearing it, unless someone can think up a way to stop the Greys using their portal," I pointed out. "What will you do? This time the Greys know that both Hubs exist - at least, I presume you repatriated the ones who survived at Hub Two instead of just shooting them. And that means you can't simply abandon the Hubs and hope the Greys don't stumble on them this time."
"No, we can't. We'll either have to destroy them, or at least remove all the computers. Of course if the Greys really can open an interface to anywhere, and not just to here, we won't be the only ones who need to worry. And in that case they won't need our Hubs so badly anyway."
"No, but they'll want the information on your computers. It'll help them to decide where to send their tanks next - after all, they probably don't want to risk invading some hi-tech world by mistake."
We went back along the tunnel to the office.
"It doesn't help that today is an Ertday," he said, sitting down in front of the computer. "It means we won't be able to start getting anything done properly until tomorrow, and by then it'll be almost too late. Still, I can inform the militia offices in Molnarhass and Kolmar, which are likely to be closest to the Grey portal, and I can try to get things moving in Temishar, too."
I sat back out of the way and let him get on with it. He was using a sort of videophone program on his computer, which I guessed worked like an instant messenger program, or like Skype, in my native world, and it was obvious that he was only managing to reach fairly junior figures who had the misfortune to be scheduled to work on a rest day. And in each case the person on the other end of the line went from disbelief to panic.
"Just call in your commanding officer," advised Mr Narj in each case. "I'm trying to get something moving in the capital, so if your chiefs call in there later today we can hopefully get moving before it's too late."
Things went slightly better with the call to Temishar, because at least here there was a general actually on duty, though it took time to convince him that the threat was both real and imminent. Finally the message seemed to sink in and Mr Narj was able to close the connection and allow the headquarters types to take charge.
"All right," he said to me. "What do you want us to do about your Arvelans?"
"Nothing just yet. I'd say send them home, but there's no direct portal and I really don't want them going back through my world in case they're feeling vindictive. They know where my parents live, after all. And if General Lee has demolished Stonehenge they wouldn't be able to go that way anyway. Just stick them in a room out of the way for a bit."
"All right. But I want to get back to Hub Two - it's closer to the probable invasion point, and I want to start thinking about dismantling the computers. I expect you'll want to come with me, because then you'll be able to get back into either Elsass or your own world, and you'll need to do that before we shut the Hub down. So we might as well take the Arvelans with us, too."
So we went back to the surface to fetch everyone else, and ten minutes later we were back on the Capsule. We parked the Arvelans in the second carriage with most of the militia to watch over them, making sure the soldiers were commanded strictly not to remove their helmets, and the rest of us sat down in the first carriage.
"Will Elsass be able to help?" I asked. "You have a full alliance with them, after all."
"Well, I'll ask, obviously," said Mr Narj. "But they haven't got an army, either, just a militia that's even smaller than ours. And as far as I can tell the rest of Europe is exactly the same. Nobody expects war these days. I suppose we've never really thought about invaders from other worlds. Even last time we put it down to no more than bad practice on our part: after all, it was our portal the Greys used to invade, not one of their own. We thought if we just mined the tunnels at the Hubs that it couldn't happen again."
"We could ask the Horde to help," said Sam. "They love fighting. If General Lee was right and there are other crawlers in this area they might be able to get here in time to help."
"I don't know," I said. "I know what a crawler can do, but up against four hundred tanks I don't think it would have a chance. And I'm sure that Grey infantry won't hesitate to shoot at Horde cavalry, either: I don't think the Greys know what 'bad form' is."
"Maybe, but if there's a chance of them being able to fight in a real war and we don't tell them about it, they'll be angry," said Sam.
"Angry, but alive," I said. "I don't like to think of boys like Xan and Vanya charging with lances against a mass of Grey tanks. But... we're going to have to call them anyway to find out if Stonehenge has been destroyed or not, so I suppose we could mention it. Do you think you'll be able to raise them?"
"They'll be listening out at nine this evening," Sam reminded me. "Provided that there's a decent transmitter here, I'll raise them."
I translated that, and Mr Narj confirmed that there were radios Sam could use, though there was a much more powerful radio station down on the plain. He advised using that one as the transmission would probably get a lot further from there than it would with a weaker transmitter up here where we were surrounded by mountains, especially if the intended recipient of the calls was somewhere to our west.
When the Capsule reached Hub Two Mr Narj arranged for the Arvelans to be taken upstairs to the briefing room and held there, but before we left them I thought I ought to let them know what was happening.
"Irfan, did you manage to read what I was talking to Mr Narj about back at the portal?" I asked.
"The reptiles are about to invade," he replied.
"Right. Don't worry, I'm going to make sure we get you out of here before it happens, but we can't just send you back the way you came because it's quite possible that you won't be able to use the portal at Stonehenge."
"Why not?" asked Aarnist.
"Because it might not be there any longer. There's a chance that General Lee will have destroyed it."
"Who's General Lee?"
"The commander of the crawler where you found me."
"But we closed the portal to his world, so how is he going to be able to get through?"
"There's a way," I said. I didn't want to say any more because if anything went wrong with the plan I didn't want to get Dec into trouble, but of course I was dealing with Konjäauml;ssiem here.
"The crippled kid's a Konjäauml;ssi?" exclaimed Irfan, clearly seeing what I was thinking yet again. "Damn! How did I miss that?"
"He was trying to look inconspicuous. I suppose it worked. But yes, the plan was for him to get the portal reopened and for the general's men to take the circle over, and if it worked you won't be able to get back that way. We think we can probably get you home through the Horde world - that's the one the crawlers are based in - but we won't be able to find out until this evening. If there's a crawler anywhere near here it should be possible for you to get into their world, and after that it's just a question of getting back to England: even if the circle has been destroyed I expect the general can find a way to open a portal back to your world, because I'm pretty sure he'll keep all the computers and records from the work Gordiss and his colleagues have done. And the crawler computers are really efficient: they opened a portal into this world in less than an hour.
"Of course, if the circle hasn't been destroyed you can go back the way you came. We're going to try to radio the general this evening, and once we've done that we'll know how to get you home."
"So you're not thinking of having your friends just quietly shoot us, then?" asked Aarnist.
"No, of course not - not even you," I added, looking at Irfan. "After all, you haven't done me any real harm. Of course, if I knew for sure that you were going to send me back to Laztaale things might be different, so it's a good thing Dec isn't here to ask you that question, isn't it?"
"Not really," said Aarnist. "I don't think I'd have done that. But you'll just have to take my word for it, won't you?"
We went back downstairs, and when we went through to the office we found another familiar face: Jean-Patrick was sitting on a chair in a corner looking thoroughly scared. He jumped up when we came in.
"Stefan!" he cried. "What's happening? What is this place? Nobody here seems to speak French..."
"You're not in France any longer," Stefan told him. "This is a country called Kerpia."
"But... of course I'm in France! I went up to the hut to leave the message Jake's mother sent, and there were two men there. They took me down a ladder and through a couple of tunnels to get here, but it can't have been more than two or three hundred metres at the most - so I must still be in France!"
"Not exactly. You've moved into a different world. Jake comes from your world, but I don't, and nor do any of these other people. But you don't have to worry, because they're friendly - in fact the man in charge is a good friend of ours. The only reason they brought you here is because the people who found you didn't know what to do with you, but now that we're here everything will be fine."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm certain. It's just that the people here are a bit worried at the moment because..."
I suppose Stefan realised that it wouldn't exactly help to calm Jean-Patrick down if he told him that the country was about to be invaded by intelligent reptiles.
"Well, they've got a few things on their minds," Stefan concluded.
Yes, I thought: about four hundred things, and all of them armoured and hostile. And that wasn't counting their infantry support
"Can I go home, then?"
"I expect so," said Stefan. "In fact, we'll come with you. There's not much we can do here, and I expect Jake would like to call his parents and let them know that he got here safely."
That was a very good point, and so when Stefan went to find Mr Narj, who had left the office again, I went with him. Mr Narj said that Jean-Patrick could certainly go home - after all, they could hardly hold him indefinitely - but that we should try to impress upon him the need not to tell anyone about the hut: there were already too many worlds with portal technology without having it spread to my world as well.
We went back and collected Jean-Patrick from the office. Sam asked if he could come too, since there was nothing useful he could do here until nine o'clock, and so the four of us walked back through the tunnel to the Nexus Room and then back through Door Eight and along to the foot of the ladder.
"This is where the actual portal is," Stefan told Jean-Patrick. "The ladder is in your world, but everything beyond this door is in Kerpia. Maybe Mr Narj will let us show you some of the other worlds once everything calms down a bit."
"I'd like that!" he said. "Are they very different to my world?"
"Some of them are."
We climbed to the top of the ladder and stepped out of the hut. Apparently the engineers had finished their work before taking Jean-Patrick to the Hub because there was now a blanket of mist surrounding the hut. But Stefan had his compass with him as usual, and that allowed us to head away from the hut in the correct direction. Once we were fifty yards or so away the mist thinned and then disappeared.
"Some of the worlds don't look very different to this one," Stefan went on. "But the history is always at least a bit different. Everyone you have met so far except Jake comes from a different world: I'm from a world where Germany won the last war; Nicky is from a world where a huge asteroid changed the climate and caused massive floods - in his world your house would be under water; Killian is from a world where Atlantis actually exists - in fact that's where he comes from; and Sam here is from a world where Europe is all communist."
"Wow! But... don't you have problems understanding each other? And how come you can all speak French?"
"The Kerpians have this great machine that can teach you a language in about four days, and they gave the technology to the people of the world where we live. Jake and Nicky speak French naturally, but Killian and I had it implanted. Maybe if the Kerpians decide they can trust you they'll be able to arrange something for you, too. But... look, JP, this is really important: you can't tell anyone about this... well, maybe we could tell the Webers. But no adults! If the Kerpians find that anyone else has found out about it they'll probably have to close this portal permanently, and then we won't be able to come and visit you, and Jake won't be able to go home to see his parents. Are you sure you can keep this a secret?"
"Definitely!" he said, nodding vigorously. "And especially if you can get your friends to teach me to speak English and German - that'll save me a lot of time at school!"
We walked on down to Orschwiller, and once we got to Jean-Patrick's house I was able to phone my parents and let them know that everything was okay.
"I won't be able to get back home for a while, though," I said. "There's a bit of a problem we've got to deal with first, and I'm not sure how long it might take. As soon as I have any news I'll call you."
Obviously they wanted to know more, but I said I couldn't really talk at the moment because I was on Jean-Patrick's phone and I didn't want to run up a big bill - and, besides, there wasn't a lot more I could say at the moment.
Next we walked round to the Webers' house, where we found the three brothers playing video games. They seemed glad to see that I was safe, but Didier and Sébastien were even gladder to see Stefan.
"Are you going to be around for a bit?" Didier asked him.
"Well, we don't have to rush off for a few hours yet. Why?"
"Because when you're here we can keep Luc from getting too lippy. He knows you can beat him in a fight with one hand tied behind your back, after all."
"Crap!" declared Luc, which of course led to Stefan demonstrating that he could at least pin Luc down using only one hand.
"This is fun!" declared Didier, watching his older brother squirm. "Luc gets taught his place and Bastien and I don't even need to move a muscle. I wish Stefan lived with JP permanently."
"No, you don't," said Stefan. "You enjoy dealing with him yourself, too. I've watched you, don't forget."
"Well, that's true," admitted Didier. "But it still makes a nice change watching someone else doing the work."
"Did you ever get that money back?" I asked. "Or did you have to bury him in a snowdrift like you threatened?"
"No, he repaid us as soon as he got his Christmas money. We knew he would - like he said back then, he always does. But it might have been fun to strip him and bury him in the snow. We'll have to remember that one for next winter."
"Stefan," said Jean-Patrick, as Stefan got up and helped Luc to his feet, "can we...?"
"Yes, I suppose so," said Stefan. "Just as long as they remember what I said about not talking to grown-ups about it."
"What are you talking about?" asked Didier.
"We've got a secret," Jean-Patrick told him. "It's a really important one, too, so you have to promise never to tell anyone else about it, and especially not your parents. Do you swear?"
All three brothers duly swore.
"Well, you know that hut up behind the castle?" Jean-Patrick continued. "It leads to another world."
This was predictably greeted with a chorus of scorn.
"It's true!" insisted Jean-Patrick. "Stefan doesn't even come from this world!"
"Stefan's an alien!" said Didier, laughing. ""He comes from the Planet Blond!"
"Go on, Stefan, tell him!"
"Well, I don't come from another planet, but I do come from a different version of this one," said Stefan.
The Webers seemed less inclined to laugh at Stefan, but clearly they still thought this was a joke.
"Alright, then," said Jean-Patrick. "Come up to the hut with us and we'll prove it!"
"Okay," said Luc. "Let's do that."
So we set off through the village and up the two tracks to the hut, which was of course still surrounded by mist.
"That's odd," commented Luc. "You don't often get mist in the afternoons - at least, not at this time of year."
"It's not natural mist," Stefan told him. "It's artificial. It's to make it harder for people to stumble on the hut unless they know it's here."
"Then why wasn't there any last time we were here?"
"Because they only fixed the generators this morning. Come on."
Stefan unlocked the door and led us inside.
"Oh, yes, it's obvious now," said Luc. "This is definitely a different world! Just look at that alien bunk and that completely foreign chair! Come on, JP, just admit you're winding us up."
"Do you want to bet?"
"Yes, okay," said Luc. "You prove this is a different world and I'll give you ten euros. Otherwise you pay me. Easy money!"
"You're on, but we're not in the other world yet. You have to go about another three or four metres."
"Whatever," said Luc. "Do we have a bet?"
"Yes, we do. Go on, Stefan, open the trapdoor for us."
"What trapdoor?" asked Stefan, completely deadpan.
"Oh, come on, Stefan! I know it's there - I used it earlier. I just don't know how to open it."
"Well... all right, wait there." Stefan took two steps towards the kitchen but then stopped.
"Listen!" he said.
We all went quiet, and then I heard it, too: there were noises beneath our feet. And a second or two later the trapdoor swung open and Nicky climbed up into the hut, with Killian just behind him.
"Jake!" he exclaimed as soon as he saw me. "You're alive!"
And he threw himself into my arms and hugged me hard.
"There's going to be some party at the Résidence tonight," he said. "Everyone's been really worried. And then when Stefan got taken too we thought we'd never see you again. We were just coming to see if Jean-Patrick had any news... but... are they supposed to know about this place?"
"They do now," I said. "Actually Jean-Patrick found out for himself this morning, so we thought we might as well tell the others, too. Didn't you see Mr Narj down in the Hub? I'd have thought he'd tell you himself that we're back."
"We didn't see anyone, but then we didn't go as far as the Hub. We just used the hut in Elsass to get to the Nexus Room and then came straight here."
"So the Elsass portal here is working again? I didn't know that."
"It's been up for ages - it's the first one they opened after the one to your world. We asked Mr Narj if he could open it as soon as we knew what had happened to you. We told him we'd probably want to visit your world quite often to find out what was happening, and it takes too long to go all the way to Strossburi, use the portal there and then come all the way over here. It's much quicker just to get the train to Schlettstadt. And today we didn't even have to do that, because Alain gave us a ride in his car."
"Alain's got a car?"
"He got it a couple of weeks ago. It's not exactly new - in fact I think it's older than he is. But it goes. And today he was going to take Oli for a drive up into the mountains as a sort of birthday celebration... actually it was Oli's birthday a week ago, but Alain was working last weekend. Anyway, he was going to go up to the Bonhomme and maybe do a little walking - you know, find a quiet spot somewhere. There are some great views up there. So he said he'd drop us off on the way and then pick us up again at about five o'clock."
We'd been speaking English, so I switched back to French and suggested that we should go and see what was underneath the hut. Of course the Webers were already starting to believe Jean-Patrick by now, and when we reached the Nexus Room and we explained that there was a different world behind every door - even if at that point a lot of the tunnels were still blocked - they were obviously coming to the conclusion that we hadn't been winding them up after all.
"That's the way to the world where we live,' Stefan told them, pointing at Door Twelve. "We'd take you to see, but our version of Orschwiller isn't very different from yours, and it would take too long to walk all the way down to Schlettstadt. Maybe we can do that one day, if everything works out okay. Anyway, come and see the Hub, and then maybe we can show you the Kerpian version of Orschwiller: that is a bit different."
There was no sign of life in the hall at the Hub. It was an Ertday, of course, so probably most of the people working there had taken the day off before we discovered about the Grey plans. So we crossed the hall and went up the spiral staircase to the dome on the surface, and then we walked down to Orschwiller - or Ortsvil, as it was called here. And once we got there it was obvious to all of the French boys that this was a different world: the church wasn't there, the village was quite a bit smaller, and the road signs and shop names were written in a completely different alphabet.
"That'll be ten euros," said Jean-Patrick, and for once Luc paid up without a second's hesitation.
"This is incredible!" said Luc. "And you said there was another different world behind every door in the round room? And nobody in our world knows about it except us?"
"That's right," I said. "And it has to stay that way, too, okay?"
"Sure! But... can we explore through the doors?"
"I don't know. We'd have to ask Mr Narj. But not every world is friendly - in fact, quite a lot of them aren't. In any case you won't be able to do any exploring for a while yet, and maybe not at all, because this world - the one we're standing in - has a big problem at the moment."
I hadn't originally intended telling them about the imminent invasion, but now that they had been given a taste of what the Nexus Room could offer I thought I should at least explain why they might not be able to use it for a long time, if ever again: if the Grey invasion succeeded I thought it highly unlikely that the portals would be reopened any time soon - at least, not by the Kerpians. So I told them what we had discovered.
"You should be safe enough," I said. "Our world is too advanced for the Greys to take on even if they managed to develop a portal leading here. But the Hub is likely to be closed down as soon as the invasion starts. If that happens, you'll find that the ladder from your hut just goes down into a small room with no exit.
"Come on, let's go back to the Hub and find out if there's any news."
We returned to the Hub. When we got there I went into the office and asked Mr Narj what was happening and, more important, when he intended closing the Hub down.
"Things are moving," he told me. "We've got engineers destroying most of the bridges over the Thur, Doller and Ill and mining the others, and we're trying to organise an evacuation of the towns close to the likely point of invasion, though of course it doesn't help not knowing exactly where that is. We'll never get everyone evacuated in time: there are three quite large towns in the area, Tann, Sennhass and Gepvil, and a lot of smaller places. We're trying to get people either up into the mountains - the Greys will concentrate on the plain at first - or back north of Kolmar at least. And if things get really bad we'll be able to get quite a lot out into Elsass through the portal at Utkravar, because Elsass has agreed to help as much as they can.
"We're trying to get what guns we have to screen the major cities: we're going to try to hold the Greys south of Kolmar and west of Molnarhass, but even with help from Elsass it's going to be difficult: most of our heavy weapons are right at the other end of the country, on the Lettrian border, and it'll take days to get them here.
"Our only real hope is to spot the portal as soon as it appears and destroy it, though even that will only give us a brief respite: now that they have the technology they'll be able to open one wherever the geography is compatible. Our worst nightmare would be if they have the capacity to open several simultaneously in different places, because then our defences would be stretched far too thin to cope. So if your friend Sam is able to persuade his friends to come and help we'll be only too happy to accept.
"As far as closing this place is concerned, I've been thinking about that, and I've decided that it would be better to keep it open as long as possible: after all, we can use it as an escape route if the Greys get too close. We can destroy the computers and the power generator before we leave. So you don't have to worry about getting caught here: we'll make sure you can get back to your world before we blow this place up."
Well, that was a relief, anyway, though otherwise the situation sounded highly unpleasant. The main problem would be that the Greys now had the ability to launch an invasion anywhere and at any time, so even if by some miracle this invasion could be beaten back, in the long term the Greys were sure to succeed.
I went back to the hall and gave the news to the others. None of us was in immediate danger - we'd all be safely back in our own worlds before the Greys arrived - but if the Hubs closed it would be difficult, if not impossible, for me to return to my own world in future to visit my parents, and of course it would be impossible for Jean-Patrick or the Webers to go anywhere. So we cheered ourselves up by returning to the hut in my native world and spending the rest of the afternoon playing forfeit games. With nine of us playing nobody got forfeits too often, not even Luc and Killian, though when we switched to playing in partnerships, with the three brothers forming one team, things got a bit livelier.
I didn't suffer too many bad forfeits - as usual, Luc and Killian seemed to get hit with the worst of them - but I did find that running around in the mist outside the hut with nothing on wasn't at all comfortable, especially as when I'd completed my three circuits I found that they'd locked me out. By the time they finally let me in I was feeling distinctly clammy, though once I got back inside Stefan did his best to warm me up, which almost made it worth it.
"Pity Dec isn't here," observed Sam at one point. "He'd really enjoy this."
"If at least one crawler doesn't get here before the Greys do we might not even see him again," I replied. "Look, Sam, if you can't get to the Horde world before the Greys get here you can always come and live with us. Everyone speaks English. You'll fit in really well."
"Thanks, Jake. Except... well, now you've got Stefan back... you know."
"Don't worry about that," I said. "You'll get plenty of chances to make friends of your own. You're good-looking and you're fun to be with. Loads of people will want to be friends with you."
We kept playing until around half past four, and it was a lot of fun: Killian was as good at adding to our enjoyment of the game as Dec had been, and everyone clearly found it thoroughly entertaining. But at half past four we said goodbye to the Webers and Jean-Patrick.
"We'll try to let you know what happens," I said. "If our friends in the Horde world can open a portal back to this one we'll get a message to you, but you should stay away from the hut for a bit. If things go wrong the Greys could take over the Hub, and you don't want to get caught by them. If by some miracle things work out we'll arrange for you to come and visit us at our place."
We saw them off, returned to the Nexus Room and went back to Elsass. I was glad to be back: there had been times over the past four months when I'd thought I'd never see this world again - even if this was only likely to be a very short visit I was happy to be here. We walked down to the point where the track met the road and there we waited until almost twenty past five, and when Alain saw me and Stefan waiting with the others he almost crashed the car. He skidded to a halt, leaped out and hugged me hard.
"Oli said you'd come back," he told me. "Are you alright - no injuries this time?"
"No, I'm fine... hey, Alain, your voice has changed!"
"Finally," he said. "I was starting to think I'd never catch up, but at last I'm beginning to look and sound like I'm really seventeen. I didn't even have to show my papers when I bought the car, either."
I looked at the car, which was a small electric machine, painted a nondescript grey and looking distinctly old-fashioned by Elsass standards. On the other hand, car ownership was comparatively uncommon, so owning any sort of a car was quite special.
By now Oli had also come to join in the hug. Both he and Nicky had had their fourteenth birthdays in the past week, but whereas Nicky now looked fourteen - he'd got taller and his voice had broken, too - Oli still looked no more than eleven or twelve.
"I'm sorry I missed your birthday," I told him. "Have you had a good day?"
"It was brilliant! We went way up high into the mountains and found a place where you can see right over into Baden-Bayern, and we sat on a rug and had a picnic and then did... stuff," he said, tailing off as he saw Sam. "Who's this?" he asked. "Another new recruit for the Mad Hintraten Stokers?"
"I'm not sure yet," I said. "That depends what happens over the next day or two. Anyway, his name's Sam, and he speaks English - so maybe we should all use that instead of Kerpian?"
"Alright," said Oli, in English. "Hello, Sam. I'm Oli, and this is Alain, who's sort of my brother and sort of... well, a special friend. What sort of world do you come from?"
"Actually, his world is quite like yours," I said. "He lived all his life on a farm, just like you did."
"Really? Alain will probably call you a yokel, then," said Oli, grinning. "Tell me, what sort of work did you do?"
The two of them started chatting while I steered Alain to one side and gave him the news about the Greys.
"So the three of us are going to be staying here for another day or so to see if our friends in the Horde world can help," I finished. "Make sure you keep your chipfone on over the next few days. If I can find a way to charge mine up - and I expect the Kerpians can come up with some sort of adapter - I'll call you as soon as I know what's happening. Are you working this week?"
"Yes, but if you need help I'll tell them I'm sick and bunk off. I have a perfect attendance record so far, so if I say I'm not well they'll believe me."
"I'll try to avoid making you do that. Anyway, if you could tell Mr Jaecklin that Stefan and I will be back shortly - just in case he's thinking of giving our room away again..."
"I don't live at the Home any longer. Oli and I have an apartment in a complex a couple of hundred metres away. It's small, but there's enough room for us. We'll have a party for you and Stefan when you get home and you can come and see for yourself."
"Great! You're really doing well, aren't you, Alain? Not bad for a bone-idle layabout!"
"Hey, watch it! Though... to be honest, I suppose I was like that. But I wanted to get a place for Oli as much as for me. That's why I got the car, too, so that we could go out together. If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't bother getting up in the mornings, but as he's officially my responsibility now I have to make an effort. Anyway, I'll nip in and see Mr Jaecklin when I drop Nicky and Killian off. I'm sure he won't have tried to put anyone else in your room, though: remember what happened last time he tried?"
"Markus almost led a full-scale rebellion," I said, grinning at the memory. "I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again. Hopefully it'll only be a day or two. Anyway, we'd better get back. Drive safely!"
"I always drive safely!"
Oli heard that and gave a snort of laughter, which led to Alain grabbing him and tickling him. I collected Stefan and Sam and we slipped quietly away.
"At least everything seems fine back home," I commented to Stefan. "I suppose we should just hope that the Greys are satisfied with Kerpia for now and don't decide to come looking for new worlds to invade for a long time."
"They haven't taken Kerpia yet," Sam pointed out. "There might be fifty crawlers ready and waiting for them when they get here."
"More likely there'll be none at all," I said, gloomily. I just couldn't see how this could possibly turn out as anything other than a complete disaster.
At a little after eight o'clock that evening Mr Narj took the three of us down to the radio station he'd told us about. This proved to be just outside Oriavar, which in turn proved to be yet another name for Sélestat or Schlettstadt. He took us inside and showed Sam the equipment, and Sam almost drooled at the chance to use such a powerful transmitter. At nine o'clock he was sitting in from of the radio, and as the minute hand on his watch reached twelve he started transmitting. For a minute or so he got no reply, but then we heard a voice speaking Horde Common through the speakers.
"Hello, Sam," the voice said. "This is Sanjay. Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," said Sam.
"Good. I'm handing the microphone to the general."
"Hello, Sam," said General Lee's voice. "What is your situation?"
"We're free of the Arvelans, but we have another problem. First, though: is Dec with you, and what happened at the circle?"
"Dec is beside me now. We took the circle as planned and we have all the computer equipment we could find, along with some metal sheets that Dec said were important. The Arvelans surrendered without a fight, so we didn't have to kill anyone."
"Did you destroy the circle?"
"No. It seemed a pity to destroy something that old if we didn't need to, and Dec assures me that the Arvelans won't be able to use it until they have installed new computers, retrieved the back-up computer information that was sent to their capital and made some new metal connecting rods - we took the ones they had with us. According to Dec, destroying the stones would not have prevented them using the other method to open portals elsewhere anyway."
"All right. Now, about our other problem: there's going to be a war here in less than two days' time: we're expecting an invasion from the reptiles Jake told you about. Were you able to raise any other crawlers, and are there any close enough to where we are - between the River Rhine and the mountains called the Vosges - to be able to help?"
"How soon exactly do you need them?"
"As soon as possible, but we expect the invasion to start the day after tomorrow."
"We might be there ourselves by then."
"What? How come? Surely the crawlers can't go that fast!"
"We can maintain a steady fifty li per hour if we have to, though this is a longer distance than that sort of sustained speed has been used for before, at least by either ourselves or General Khan. He's with us, by the way: he decided he needed to return to the continent to refit anyway, so we're travelling together. We were going to come to try to surprise the Arvelans and rescue you, but a full-blown war is an even more demanding cause.
"There are also two other crawlers that should be able to reach you tomorrow. We'll send the generals concerned the information they will need to open a portal into Kerpia. We've already tested the equipment ourselves, and it is possible to open a portal large enough for a crawler to pass through.
"There are two more rather further away. We haven't bothered to contact them yet, but if it's a question of war I would like to do so. So if our crawler and Khan's can maintain the speed we've been doing we could get as many as six crawlers to you, though probably not all in time for the deadline you mention. Still, I assume that it's a case of better late than never, no?"
"I think so," said Sam. "Thank you, General. Shall I contact you again tomorrow?"
"Yes, but not until the evening. We had to stop and open a portal into Kerpia to set up the radio antenna, and it took us a while to find somewhere that the portal could be opened. I'd prefer not to stop again until this time tomorrow: there's still a long way for us to come. Can you give me your exact co-ordinates? I'll pass them to the other generals."
Sam looked at me, and I asked Mr Narj the question and relayed the answer to Sam.
"We're at 48° 15' north and 7° 25' 30" east," Sam reported. "Can you find us from those co-ordinates?"
"I imagine our computers can translate if necessary," said the general. "Right, we'll listen out at this time tomorrow. And if the reptiles arrive before we do, mind you save some for us!"
"We will. One other thing, General: Jake says the reptiles won't observe the rules of war that you're used to. He says you should not use cavalry: the reptiles have tanks, and their infantry have rapid-fire weapons and would not hesitate to shoot at riders. Use infantry and your crawler armaments only."
"Noted," said the general. "Lee out."
"Well," said Sam, turning the radio off, "it sounds as though we should have at least two crawlers here when the reptiles arrive."
"It won't be enough," I said. "In fact, not even six will make a lot of difference if we can't hit the portal quickly enough. Four hundred tanks will smash a crawler to pieces in no time. It's a hell of a big target, after all."
As we travelled back up to the Hub in a Kerpian militia vehicle I tried to cheer myself up: after all, maybe just the sight of the crawlers would make the Greys think twice, and I knew what the main armament on a crawler could do. On the other hand, I'd managed to shoot straight through the armour of a crawler with my second shot, which I thought meant that it wouldn't be thick enough to repel tank shells. I suppose if all six crawlers were able to reach us in time it might slow the Greys down a bit, but I didn't think it would stop them.
When we got back to the Hub I went to tell Aarnist what was happening.
"You can't go home via the circle," I said. "It's been cleaned out of equipment, computers and instructions. But we're hoping that one or more crawlers will get here tomorrow, and in that case it might be possible to open a portal directly back into your own world. Gordiss, has your computer got information about the portals you opened at the circle?"
"Some," the scientist replied, guardedly.
"Then the computers on the crawlers should be able to use it to produce a reciprocal set of co-ordinates."
"What's he talking about?" asked Aarnist.
"My computer will have the co-ordinates to get from our world into a different one: he thinks this crawler computer he's talking about should be able to reverse them to obtain the co-ordinates to get back to our world," Gordiss explained.
"And do you think it's possible?"
"Given a powerful enough computer, I don't see why not."
"Well, that's the idea, anyway," I said. "As soon as a crawler reaches us - and we hope the first one might get here tomorrow - we'll get you aboard it, and you and their scientists can find out how to open a portal back into Arvelan territory. I'll be able to interpret for you, although I think that if they plug you into their central system it has a built-in translation device anyway. Even if it takes the computer a while to find the co-ordinates we should be able to get you back home before the Greys get here."
Aarnist and Irfan had a muttered conversation for a few seconds.
"Irfan tells me that you're completely sincere about wanting to get us home," said Aarnist. "Thank you, Jacob."
"No problem," I said. "If the Greys win here they're likely to start looking for their next target, and although your own continent should be safe, they might easily try breaking into your territories in Europe. You probably ought to try to persuade your government to increase the size of your army in France."
"That might easily provoke a war with the Kaiser," Aarnist pointed out. "If we suddenly build up our army on his border he might decide to attack us before we can attack him."
"Then get your people to talk to the Germans and warn them about the Greys," I suggested. "After all, there's Grey territory on the other side of the Rhine, too."
Aarnist laughed. "I don't think even my own people are going to believe this easily," he said. "If we start talking about this to the Germans they'll be certain to think it's a plot of some sort. But thanks for the warning, anyway. I'll pass it on to Laztaale if we get back."
I went back to the dormitory and got ready for bed. Twenty-four hours earlier I'd still been more or less a prisoner of the Arvelans; now I was free. But I felt a lot less happy now than I had on the previous evening.
I woke up next morning feeling no better than I had before I'd gone to bed. The Hub's alarm sirens hadn't gone off overnight, so at least the Greys hadn't appeared yet, which I suppose was something.
I washed and got dressed, and then I got my bag and dug into the side pocket: I wanted to make sure I was wearing Stefan's swastika from now on. Wearing it in the battle at the Hub in 2009 might not be why I came through that battle unscathed, and I'm not generally superstitious, but I wanted to wear it anyway. Besides, Stefan and I had been apart for too long, and I wanted to show him that my feelings about him hadn't changed. Actually I'm sure he knew that, but still...
I found the swastika, and I also found something else, and five seconds later I was running out of the dormitory and into the tunnel that led to the Nexus Room. When I reached it I opened Door Twelve and ran back to the hut that was in Elsass. The hut was surrounded by trees, of course, and so I followed the usual route away from it, found the track and jogged down it as far as the road. Just across the road from the end of the track was an open space that I thought was big enough, so I stopped, pulled Kirk's bracelet from my pocket, slid open the panel and pressed the button beneath it.
I didn't know how long I would have to wait. I supposed that it would depend where the Tammid ship was - if it was on the far side of the planet I would have to wait until it came around to this side. But I was prepared to wait for as long as it took, because now I was convinced I had the solution to our problems: no matter how good the Greys were and how many tanks they had, I was pretty sure that the Tammids would be able to deal with them. You don't make intergalactic flights without some pretty awesome weaponry.
It was about half an hour before I heard a faint noise, and when I looked up I saw a triangular Tammid ship dropping rapidly towards me. I ran back across the road to be out of the way, but I needn't have worried, because the ship came to a stop about ten feet above the ground and then settled very slowly to earth. The ramp at the front opened and a Tammid travel box emerged.
"Kirk?" I asked.
"I am Kirk," replied the Tammid. "Hello, Jake."
"Sorry I didn't recognise you," I apologised.
"Our boxes are identical. You could not have distinguished mine. How may I help you?"
"Well, our Kerpian friends have a problem. You see..."
I explained the situation and ended by asking if the Tammids could come through into Kerpia - once the crawlers arrived I was confident that we could open a portal large enough for this size of Tammid ship to pass through - and fight on our side.
There was a pause.
"I am sorry, Jake," said Kirk. "This will not be possible."
"Huh? Why not?"
"There are strict rules regarding interference in the affairs of other planets. It is unusual for there to be any interaction with the natives at all, and even if there is contact, as is the case with your planet, we are strictly forbidden from entering into acts of warfare. We can observe, but we cannot participate."
"But this isn't simply a war between different countries," I argued. "This is an invasion from what is, to all intents and purposes, a different planet. Surely you can do something to prevent interplanetary war?"
"No, we cannot without a formal alliance agreed by the parent hive on Tamman. And this is not 'interplanetary' in the sense in which the word is generally understood: the parallel interchanges are unique to your planet, and their use does not constitute a war between planets as such. Again, I am sorry, but we cannot participate in your war."
My shoulders slumped. I'd been convinced that this was going to solve everything, but now it looked as if there was nothing that could prevent Kerpia being overrun by the Greys.
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