Crystal Core Read online

  The whole thing probably took about a day, experiential. In the outside universe, that probably wouldn’t be enough to register at all. Not even half a second would have passed. Probably not a real fraction of that. In short, Willum had time to focus on the book and make certain nothing at all was going to get through with him, or harm his prize. Nothing dangerous at least.

  That kind of thing was nearly impossible to do, since it took sorting on the tiniest level possible. He was good at focusing, but that didn’t mean he was perfect. It was like sorting grains of sand, and trying to pick the light tan ones from the beige.

  There was something on the leather, he noticed. It wasn’t exactly nano machines. No, when he examined it, removing it all from the cover carefully, hoping it wasn’t the secret that would defeat the enemy and was just a trap for anyone touching the book, he got what it was. A virus. Possibly more than one, from the shape of the things. At least four. Some of it would probably be left, but the truth was, if he took out enough of them, it would be fine. A single virus wasn’t going to hurt anyone really. It took millions of them to become lethal, most of the time. He thought that was the case, anyway. How many of them it actually took was kind of outside of his schooling, now that he thought of it.

  When it was clean and free of what traps that he could find, Willum turned his mind to where he needed to go. That would be, surprisingly enough, to a point in space, around Earth. His version of it. Not onto a space craft at all, but, he thought, directly onto a space station.

  In theory he knew that those existed. That didn’t mean he’d ever been on one of them before. Oddly enough, that hadn’t happened in any reality, that he knew of. They were a bit like the energy ships, but vast in size. Big enough for a million people to live on each of the twenty or thirty of the things that floated in space. Not all of them around his planet, either. Several were in place around Mars, and at least one was up in orbit around the Moon. He wasn’t certain, but Willum thought that there might even be one around Venus. If so, it was being done in secret. Why he thought that, he didn’t know.

  It was still probably correct. That there were things going on behind the scenes, secret missions and programs, simply made sense. If he were in charge, and there was a war to destroy everything, he knew that there would be a lot more going on than just one kid from the backwoods acting as a spy. Especially since he hadn’t really done anything of note yet.

  There had been some intercepted messages, but this, what he was clutching to his chest as he stepped out of the nothingness into a tiny room that glowed red, was the first real thing he’d tried. An actual mission, instead of just passively waiting for things to come to him. Not that it had paid off, yet. For all he knew, it wouldn’t at all.

  That wasn’t his part in things though. He’d been assigned a task and done it. Now it was up to others to capitalize on it. Which rankled, more than he wanted to admit. To him it felt like he, Willum Baker, was the only one fighting the war at all. That everything was resting on his boney shoulders. It was compartmentalization. That was what he’d been told. It left him feeling alone, but it wasn’t the truth. Others were in the fight. He just didn’t see them doing anything.

  Glancing down, the red glow of the transport hut surrounding him, the blue glowing words and sigils moving in places, as new huts were put in the system and others had their names changed, he finally saw what he’d gotten.

  A book, as he’d suspected. It was covered in brown leather, and looked old. Ancient, to be truthful. On the front, it said, nothing at all. Really, it was tempting to crack the thing open and have a quick read, if he could. It was free of traps, after all. The paper was supple enough not to fall into dust or anything like that as well.

  Duty though, demanded that he not do that kind of thing. It was frustrating, but the truth was, out of all the people they had working on the project, only one of them was constantly at risk as far as he knew. Him. Sure, he was strong and hard to find in the reality scheme now, but that didn’t mean his mind might not be read, either by a telepath or a machine. Torture might even be arranged, using magic or technological tricks he simply didn’t know. Hence him being kept out of the loop. Even to the point where he often didn’t know what he was doing, really.

  That anything could happen was the one hard and fast rule of multiple realities. Everything that could happen, had. It would again, as well.

  Reaching forward, bending a bit, his left index finger touched the smooth interior of the transport hut wall. Right on the blue star sigil, which opened the front of the thing.

  Only to find himself in a room, all alone. It was a light yellow in color, on the walls, though the floor was a burnt orange carpeting. Along the left-hand side was a familiar vision. The Earth, spinning slowly, with a lot of blue and white easily seen that day. As he moved out of the hut, taking several large steps, the door to the room opened. It happened silently, since nothing in space made a lot of noise. It was all made of energy, or more accurately, potential energy. It held in the air and heat, but was basically made of the same stuff that his personal protection shield was.

  It wasn’t clear though, which made it seem like a physical object. Even if, when you examined it right, the whole thing was more of a really good idea.

  The closest natural world thing he could think of that felt at all like it was actually lode stone. Magnets, as some of his friends called them. They gave off powerful instructions, telling the world how to organize itself. This ship, or space station, was like that. Only different, being visible about what it was doing.

  The people that came in then didn’t shock him all that much. They were all people that were in his chain of command, after all. They were the only ones that he worked with, for the most part. The first was Alice Orange, the Space Fleet commander. Admiral Orange, when they were in public. At least he thought that was the way it worked. Smiling, since he had a mask on still, he made it vanish. Right after disguising his face, using his new make-up amulet.

  That one, the work on it, had taken him several days to get right. Three tries, as well. The trick to it wasn’t that hard, or didn’t seem like it should be, but had been more in depth than he’d thought it might be at first. It allowed him to program in up to six different faces, then call them up exactly, with a simple desire to look a certain way and a bit of concentration.

  When he’d made the first one, it had been useable by him and Taman, but no one else who’d tried the thing. It just took too much focus to make the selection. She hadn’t even scolded him over it or demanded that he redo it. That had been all him. Not because it had to be easy for him to use, but because he was making a hundred of them for friends of his. Almost none of them would have had the needed skill to make it function correctly, the way it had originally been designed.

  Which meant he’d ended up dumping two hundred perfectly good disguise amulets that only he could possibly use in the field. Well, him and any of the other wizards or line walkers.

  On the good side, he had a shipment ready to go off to another world, as soon as he got the time. It had been an assignment, put to him by Taman. Almost on a lark. That or to give him something to do that might feel useful. Also, a thing that he should have been working on all along, once he learned how to make magic happen at all. His friends in the IPB were powerful, but faced incredible hazards, almost daily. That it had taken another person to point that out to him was shameful, or should have been.

  It had been, for about half a day, then it faded, like all his emotions did now.

  Behind Alice, stood Patricia Baker. She was tall, being a noble woman. Nearly half a foot taller than he was, even though he’d grown a lot in the last nine months. He was six feet tall and a bit now, which wasn’t that bad, for a kid from the woods. Nobles tended to be giants, as often as not. Some pushed into being over ten feet tall. Here though, Patricia was the tallest person in the room.

  Her hair was a deep brown that tended toward natural curls. It was pulled back, and dra
ped nicely down her thin neck. The woman wasn’t as bare bones as some, but she was on the slender side. They all were, in that room.

  The last person was interesting, being William Smythe. They’d met and were friendly, but the idea of him coming to the most secret meeting they had going on in regards to the war so far was different. At least as far as Will knew. Not that the young and muscular seeming man wasn’t important. All of them were immortal, after all. Only Alice was actually old, being over three thousand in the real world. He might technically be older, but that was in void time, which almost no one else thought of as real. It counted with the line walkers, having lived every moment of it, but the rest just assumed that it wasn’t valid.

  “Everyone! So nice to see you all.” He looked at each of them, finally hitting William Smythe. He seemed to be about the same age as Will, and had a good name, being almost like his own. The fellow had blue eyes at the moment, and his hair had been changed, for some reason. Probably something involving Austrans. It was in three tones now, with the roots being deep black, and the center of it being a pearl like color that shifted as the light hit it. The tips… Those glowed a bit, in a deep green color. As in the man would be easily seen in a pitch-black room.

  “I love the hair. Have you been visiting Austra?” It wasn’t an insult to ask that.

  People traveled a lot more now than they used to. It was the incredible transport huts that Dareg had made that allowed it. There were about ten thousand locations in the system now, so visiting almost anyplace was more than possible. It didn’t even cost coin to use one. You just stepped in and pressed some sigils. If you couldn’t read, then you had to get a friend who was willing to do that for you, but even strangers would help you out, as often as not. After all, it took about twenty seconds of work to deliver a person to a different location and no longer to come back.

  The man, who was pushing ninety or more, even if he looked eighteen, smiled widely, his hands coming out a bit. Then he touched the tip of his hair on the glowing part.

  “You’d think, but no. I was roped into being a volunteer for some of Master Tor’s students. We did it in the Noram Capital, of course. The new program is going wonderfully, for life shaping, but we had a day where only nine volunteers were available from Ambassador Mableton’s world. Meaning new hair, so that all of the mages could practice. It grows this way as well. It’s a bit… Distracting, I think.” He seemed to mean it, which got Patricia to move in and run her hands through it.

  “I’ll say. You should grow it long, William. Then we could turn the lights off and wrap ourselves up in it.” She grinned, clearly teasing the fellow. Not that she wouldn’t have paid off, if he wanted to take her to bed. Given that she was attractive and so was he, it had most likely already taken place. The woman didn’t make that kind of thing hard to manage, or rare.

  Willum had turned her down that way, but the truth was, he’d had to turn her, his non-biological aunt, down that way. Several times. It was a cultural thing, he knew. Nobles tended to have a lot of sex, with a lot of different people. It was supposed to draw them closer together. If it worked or not, he couldn’t tell. Not on a societal level.

  There was an odd feeling in the room, as he read their fields, calming his mind to do so. They were themselves, at least, so that part wasn’t the issue. Even as they all acted tense and a bit closed down, emotionally. It wasn’t about them being fake people. No, it was that they were preparing themselves for him to have failed in his mission. They were, as a group, ready to try and soothe him, if it was needed.

  Which showed love for him, if not great faith. Then, it also made sense. Going off to find the singular key to defeating the enemy was a long shot that almost had to not pay off. That he’d found even what he had was kind of interesting. Which could mean it was a trick or a trap.

  He lifted up the leather-bound book.

  “This is what I found. In a room that had no door, made of stone. A special pourable type, so there were no seams. In the middle of the room was a thick-walled steel box, filled with tricks and traps. I removed those, after taking the whole thing into the void.” His voice was a bit deep and a little dramatic. When he thought about it, he realized he was trying to impress the women there.

  Which was all about sex, not his job. Not that he changed what he’d done as he went over it all. It took a few minutes, since Alice and the others kept demanding he expand on certain points. Mainly those involving why he’d done things the way he had.

  “Then, I dissolved the traps in the void and removed the viruses from the book. It should be safe to look at now. Of course, if I was supposed to be getting copies of the super death plague to wipe out our enemies, then I botched the task horribly.”

  It was a real worry for him, but Patricia waved that away.

  “If that’s the case then you probably saved us all, at the same time. Um, what does botch mean? That’s English, right? I don’t know that one.”

  “To fail. Often in a very bold and grand way. Good point, though. So, shall we… Or I guess, shall you, look at it?” It was so tempting to do that himself, but it was Patricia Baker who moved forward to take the prize. Instead of holding it in her hands, shut to deny the others a glimpse inside, she closed her eyes and called a table into being. The flat surface matched the walls in color, but reminded Will a lot of focus stone. It was the hardness of the thing and the rounded edges.

  Which was all about the style used, not the material. Focus stone was just compressed dirt, so could be cut or shaped to be almost anything. Rounded edges were just more pleasant to touch. If it was just cut, then it left things sharp. That, working in focus stone, was actually a good idea. He’d apprenticed in wood working, but it was obvious that the basic ideas were similar. If he wanted to, Will could make specialized tools for the task now, himself. Even compressors, which were what made the product to begin with.

  There were worlds where that kind of thing would go over well, he thought. If he ever had the freedom to do the kinds of work he wanted, instead of his duty to his people. Not that he had the freedom to indulge in a simple task like making furniture at the moment.

  There were chairs, as well, after a few seconds. Made of the same basic material type, but large enough for all of them to fit into. As they moved, Willum realized that he’d made a mistake. He’d figured Patricia for the tallest one there, but it seemed that Smythe was just a fraction of an inch larger than she was.

  The short one was Orange, only being about five-nine.

  In all, they had enough size to seem important. Not that it mattered. Willum had seen people that were no higher than his waist, who were kings and queens of their own people. Size wasn’t nearly as important as some liked to make it out to be.

  The book was opened to the first page, but not touched, just in case it might leave a mark. That was his aunt doing it, her face screwing up into an expression that seemed complex.

  “A language I don’t know? It’s… English?”

  It was printed, but hand written. The words weren’t English, but the letters were correct for it. Moving around the table, and peering over her shoulder, Alice shook her head.

  “No. This is in code. Check the other pages.”

  That showed the thing was a lot different than Willum would have thought. There were a lot of letters, and many dots between them in places, to show where the spaces should be. After looking at it for a minute, he nodded.

  “Right. This is written right to left, and I think the top of the page has been put on the bottom. The words are still in code though. I can’t see it, off the top of my head. The marks here are probably just spaces. It…” He looked at the whole thing, focusing as he did it.

  The whole thing was just a puzzle, which had been part of his training. His aunt had kind of tortured him into being good at things like that. Plus, he was decent with languages. Even codes, as much as they tried to hide it, were an expression of that kind of thing. He just had to find a starting point. A bit of com
monality that would allow him to bend the thing open.

  There was some pushing involved, from one of the people with him he thought, not that he was truly aware of it. When he came back to himself, after a very long while, the others sitting there, holding drinks that hadn’t been there before, he snorted.

  “This one? The letter ‘m’? It’s really the letter I. The whole thing is based on a mathematical formula… except that I don’t know what that is, or if it’s even the kind of math we use. It isn’t just going forward four places or anything that simple. Of course, while I’m pretty sure that this is the letter ‘I’, we can’t be certain yet if the alphabet used is truly the English one we’re used to. I don’t see any letters that look out of place, but the use of dots instead of spaces could mean something specific.” The truth was, he couldn’t tell a lot more, at that moment. It wasn’t that hard of a code though. Even just filling in the one letter might give them a chance at working the whole thing out. If, of course, the words were spelled the same way he was used to. That wasn’t guaranteed at all.

  Instead of getting upset with how little he’d come up with, Alice slapped him on the shoulder. Firmly, but it didn’t hurt.

  “Good work, Baker. You can get this done in short order then. Which is significant, I think. Try breaking one page. If you can do that, I bet we can get the rest of it done. Though…” She shrugged then, and looked out into space. At Earth. It was night on the side they were on at the moment.

  Then, she just didn’t speak at all. It was clear that the woman was projecting her thoughts, for some reason. What she was saying wasn’t all that clear to him, at the same time.

  It was a bit eerie, to tell the truth. Even more so when Patricia’s communication device buzzed suddenly. It was in her pocket, on the right-hand side, so was pulled fairly quickly. They all had them there. Even Willum did. His was a bit different than the others, being new and made by himself. Meaning it was fancier than what anyone else had yet.