Read Online The Abyss Beyond Dreams by Peter F. Hamilton - Free Book Online
Authors: Peter F. Hamilton
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thoughts were cheerful at demonstrating how she could fly Fourteen
just as well as Rojas. The off-white sphere itself was soon lost against the flickering phosphorescence within the tree’s folds, but the navigation strobes kept up a regular pulse that
remained visible against the massive alien object.
‘Positioning burn complete,’ Rojas eventually reported. ‘Holding station two hundred metres from artefact’s surface.’
When Laura checked through the windscreen, she saw the strobes flash about a quarter of the way along the tree from the slim end. ‘Ibu, I’d like to ride your optics,
please.’
‘Sure,’ his voice came back.
Laura shut her eyes and settled back in the couch. Ibu’s vision expanded out of a green and blue eye symbol in the middle of her exovision, and she looked round the restricted interior of
the exopod. Rojas was next to Ibu, held in what resembled a standing position in front of the exopod’s small port by a web of broad straps. The cabin walls were mostly display panels, lights
and handholds.
Ibu slipped a helmet down over his head. Rojas was doing the same thing. Then several of the lights surrounding the pair of them turned from red to purple.
‘Vacuum confirmed,’ Ibu said. ‘Opening pod airlock.’ He disconnected the webbing straps that were holding him in place, and twisted round. A third of the cabin’s
rear wall had dilated. Ibu carefully crawled out into Voidspace. Just outside the airlock lip was a rack with a free-manoeuvre harness. He wriggled his way into it, and the clamps closed round his
shoulders and thighs. ‘Testing harness.’
Little spurts of cold gas coughed out of the nozzles on the harness extremities, like puffs of white dust. ‘Function good. Heading over.’
He drifted slowly round the bulk of the exopod. The tree rose round the curving grey-white globe like planetdawn on a gas giant’s moon. This close it was massive. Just seeing it through
human eyes made Laura shiver. Something that big, quite possibly alive, and thoroughly alien, was somewhat intimidating. Curiously, it disturbed her more than the Void itself.
‘I don’t think the trees are part of the Void,’ she murmured. ‘I think they were pulled in, just like us.’
‘What makes you say that?’ Ayanna asked.
‘If they were part of it, they wouldn’t be trying to change Voidspace. They’re prisoners, like we are. That’s bad.’
‘How so?’
‘Their control over mass and energy is clearly more advanced than ours, and they’re still here.’
‘If they are from outside,’ Ayanna said hastily.
With her eyelids still closed, and her vision still coming directly from riding Ibu’s eyes, Laura smiled. ‘They are.’
Ibu was gliding slowly along the top of the ridge which the drone flock had scanned. The data feed from his suit was undergoing micro-second dropouts, making the vision flicker every few
seconds.
‘Going inside,’ he said.
The little jets of gas puffed again. Then the crystalline wall was sliding past his helmet. He held his course level, staying a constant fifteen metres away from the side of the vast fold that
opened into the tree. His entire silver-white oversuit shone with the weird radiance that slithered through the crystalline structure. Laura was aware her heart rate was increasing, and she
wondered if it was some kind of telepathic feedback from Ibu.
‘You’re approaching the zone I designated,’ she told him, reading the inertial coordinates from an exovision icon.
‘Yeah. Noticed that.’
Laura grinned. ‘I also have some eggs I’d like to show your grandmother how to use.’
‘I’m sure she’d welcome it.’
Ibu halted close to the bottom of the ride. Fifty metres away, the crystal curved sharply to form the base of a narrow valley. The other wall of the ridge was only seventy metres behind him.
‘Beginning phase one,’ he announced.
Laura’s relayed vision wobbled as he reached down and removed a deep-scan package
just as well as Rojas. The off-white sphere itself was soon lost against the flickering phosphorescence within the tree’s folds, but the navigation strobes kept up a regular pulse that
remained visible against the massive alien object.
‘Positioning burn complete,’ Rojas eventually reported. ‘Holding station two hundred metres from artefact’s surface.’
When Laura checked through the windscreen, she saw the strobes flash about a quarter of the way along the tree from the slim end. ‘Ibu, I’d like to ride your optics,
please.’
‘Sure,’ his voice came back.
Laura shut her eyes and settled back in the couch. Ibu’s vision expanded out of a green and blue eye symbol in the middle of her exovision, and she looked round the restricted interior of
the exopod. Rojas was next to Ibu, held in what resembled a standing position in front of the exopod’s small port by a web of broad straps. The cabin walls were mostly display panels, lights
and handholds.
Ibu slipped a helmet down over his head. Rojas was doing the same thing. Then several of the lights surrounding the pair of them turned from red to purple.
‘Vacuum confirmed,’ Ibu said. ‘Opening pod airlock.’ He disconnected the webbing straps that were holding him in place, and twisted round. A third of the cabin’s
rear wall had dilated. Ibu carefully crawled out into Voidspace. Just outside the airlock lip was a rack with a free-manoeuvre harness. He wriggled his way into it, and the clamps closed round his
shoulders and thighs. ‘Testing harness.’
Little spurts of cold gas coughed out of the nozzles on the harness extremities, like puffs of white dust. ‘Function good. Heading over.’
He drifted slowly round the bulk of the exopod. The tree rose round the curving grey-white globe like planetdawn on a gas giant’s moon. This close it was massive. Just seeing it through
human eyes made Laura shiver. Something that big, quite possibly alive, and thoroughly alien, was somewhat intimidating. Curiously, it disturbed her more than the Void itself.
‘I don’t think the trees are part of the Void,’ she murmured. ‘I think they were pulled in, just like us.’
‘What makes you say that?’ Ayanna asked.
‘If they were part of it, they wouldn’t be trying to change Voidspace. They’re prisoners, like we are. That’s bad.’
‘How so?’
‘Their control over mass and energy is clearly more advanced than ours, and they’re still here.’
‘If they are from outside,’ Ayanna said hastily.
With her eyelids still closed, and her vision still coming directly from riding Ibu’s eyes, Laura smiled. ‘They are.’
Ibu was gliding slowly along the top of the ridge which the drone flock had scanned. The data feed from his suit was undergoing micro-second dropouts, making the vision flicker every few
seconds.
‘Going inside,’ he said.
The little jets of gas puffed again. Then the crystalline wall was sliding past his helmet. He held his course level, staying a constant fifteen metres away from the side of the vast fold that
opened into the tree. His entire silver-white oversuit shone with the weird radiance that slithered through the crystalline structure. Laura was aware her heart rate was increasing, and she
wondered if it was some kind of telepathic feedback from Ibu.
‘You’re approaching the zone I designated,’ she told him, reading the inertial coordinates from an exovision icon.
‘Yeah. Noticed that.’
Laura grinned. ‘I also have some eggs I’d like to show your grandmother how to use.’
‘I’m sure she’d welcome it.’
Ibu halted close to the bottom of the ride. Fifty metres away, the crystal curved sharply to form the base of a narrow valley. The other wall of the ridge was only seventy metres behind him.
‘Beginning phase one,’ he announced.
Laura’s relayed vision wobbled as he reached down and removed a deep-scan package
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