Spooky Nguyen watched Trissk sleep curled up on a divan in the corner of Roger’s sumptuous virtual reality space. He ached all over from sparring with the big cat, even if the effect was largely psychosomatic, but was happy he had finally tired Trissk out. “Thank the gods,” he said as he poured himself a tall glass of virtual Scotch. “Can you keep him under a little extra time?”
“My ethics will stretch that far, yes,” Ezekiel replied drily. “He’ll never know the difference, and it’ll keep us all from going bonkers.”
“No sign of your mother?”
“If there was, we’d know.”
Spooky sipped from his glass, leaving the obvious unspoken: maybe she’s dead. More than eighty years had passed since they’d left Earth’s solar system. Anything could have happened. “At least the broadcast from your sister is good news.”
“Yes...” Ezekiel mused. “But we’re light-hours away from Jupiter, and from Earth for that matter.” He stood and swung his arms. “We have to head back, I think. All the action is going to be on Earth. We need to be there to help foment rebellion. For all we know, she’s there now.”
“Fine by me,” Spooky replied. “You think we can sneak by the Meme?”
“We have the latest codes from the Sentries, and we’ll keep on our toes, so yes, I think so. If not...we’ll run back to Conquest like a scalded dog.”
“I’ll feel better when I’m down on a planet,” Spooky mused. “I’m at my best among people.”
Ezekiel snorted.
“What?” Spooky swirled his Scotch.
“Yes, you’re such a people person.”
Spooky did not reply. Instead, he asked, “Can you make this thing go any faster?”
“I can make it seem that way, if you want. I’ll just have Roger speed up your sense of time passing until something happens. Take a seat.”
Sitting down, Spooky set his glass on an end table, closed his eyes and folded his hands. “Ready.” A moment seemed to pass, and then Ezekiel was calling his name. “Yes?” he said, opening his eyes.
“We’re entering translunar space. You want to see what’s going to kill us?”
Standing up, Spooky saw that Trissk was awake again, and he and Bogrin stood at the wide plate glass forward port. Through its preternaturally clear non-substance he could see Earthrise over Luna. Near the moon loomed eight Destroyers, scaled up by Roger’s organic VR to be visible. Behind he could see Earth’s four orbital fortresses, superdreadnought-sized weapons platforms composing a relatively cheap last line of defense.
Spooky cleared his throat. “I’m no space tactician, but this seems like a poor route to take, straight past all the enemy eyes.”
Ezekiel smiled, reaching out to manipulate large, shiny metal controls. In response to his adjustment, the view swung radically, as if they themselves had been thrown magically sideways and upward. “I just wanted you to see that view. In reality, we’re coming in as far from the Destroyers as possible. I’m counting on their underlings on the orbital fortresses not looking too closely at a Meme-grown ship like Roger.”
“So this is a true view?” Bogrin rumbled from Ezekiel’s other elbow. He gestured at the single orbital fortress visible well off to one side.
“Yes. Earth is between us and Luna, and since the Destroyers are all parked there next to the Weapon for mutual defense, they can’t see us directly. We have Meme recognition codes...why do you ask?”
“Because the orbital fortress’ main weapons array seems to be lining up on us. You may want to ask Roger to begin evasive maneuvers.”
“Shit.” Before Ezekiel completed the expletive the view swung wildly, though the four bipeds inside Roger did not feel it through the VR. “Roger, get us down and into the water as fast as you can!” Abruptly their perspective stabilized, rock-steady except for its motion past the orbital fortress. “I’ve reset the program so it appears as if we’re pointed toward the enemy, but in reality, Roger is blasting for splashdown.”
Ponderously, the spherical orbital continued to turn itself and its large cluster of lasers in their direction. When it seemed to line up, it fired. Beams lanced out, visible only because of the simulation, crisscrossing around them but not striking. The artificial steadiness of the virtual reality made the danger surreal. In reality, just one of those beams would instantly fry little Roger and everyone within. They would never feel a hit before they died.
Slowly, slowly their point of view sank toward the blue surface of Earth, dodging lasers and railgun bullets. The glow of atmospheric friction crept in from the edges of the viewport, and moments later they plunged into the waters of the western Pacific. “I’ve brought us down near the Marianas Trench, and that’s where we’re –”
Then the clean, comfortable simulation shattered, and Spooky found himself naked and immobilized inside his biogel coffin. He almost threw up as his body and mind tried to reject the transition and crawl back into a place that wasn’t there anymore.
Whatever happened must have been severe, even catastrophic. Only Ezekiel or Roger knew, but Spooky wasn’t about to just lie here like cake in a pan. Scrabbling with his hand, he found the large biomechanical pushplate and shoved on it with all four fingertips.
In response, living probes withdrew from all of his orifices and the coffin he was in opened to vomit him out onto the warm, living deck. Rolling over and coughing effluvium, he crawled to the largest coffin nearby and began to pound on it, his fist making meaty smacks.
Whether from his efforts or something Bogrin did, the enclosure split, revealing the half-ton Sekoi inside and repeating the procedure that had ejected Spooky. A moment later, the two stood, looking at each other.
“Well, friend,” Bogrin said, his real voice rough in the moist air, “we live.”
“For the moment,” Spooky replied. “I’d feel a lot better if I knew what was going on. Is Roger injured? Should we try to wake Ezekiel?”
“As Blend, I monitor some of Roger’s sensations. I believe laser struck water above us as we descended into ocean, flash-boiling it. Ship is in pain, but will recover. Cannot maintain VR space for us. We must wait.”