Read Online The Last Dragon Chronicles: Fire World: Fire World by Chris D'Lacey - Free Book Online Page B

again. He paused the simulation and pointed to a region of red dots at the top left of the structure. “This is a still, of course. But look at the red in active mode.” He ran the program again. Instead of staying where they were, the red dots began to flash in different areas of the rift.
    Harlan Merriman breathed in sharply.
    “Thought that would excite you,” Bernard said. “The sim always maintainsits structure. But when you run a fine traceon the strand trajectories you discover thatindividual strands are popping in and outat light speed – but they never come backin the same locations. They’re moving, Prof. Swapping places. What you’relooking at there is not one rip—”

    “But an infinite number of possible rips,” Harlan said quietly.
    Bernard nodded. “I’ve revised my previous opinion, by the way. Even if David is ec:centric, I don’t believe that anyone on Co:pern:ica could imagineer something of this complexity.”
    “Then what does that say about the firebirds? How could they possibly   be involved in this?”
    Bernard parted his hands. “How are they able to pass through our constructs? How did they evolve on Co:pern:ica in the first place? Where do the feathery little wotsits go at night? I don’t know. Let’s stick with the phys:ics for now. Do you want to see the really spooky bit?” Harlan switched his gaze sideways. The tech:nician was chewing his lip. “Here’s a

full-colour sim from the normal view.” Without  waiting  for  permission,   he uploaded another series of routines. Immediately, the rift was fizzing with
    energy,   almost  sparkling  around  its perimeter and tips. Every third sec or so, as if a small current had been passed along its length, a changing gradient of colour rolled from top to bottom, then bounced back again.
    “It’s beautiful,” Harlan said. “Can we go into it?”
    Bernard nodded again. “It’s fractal, but it doesn’t obey any of the known systems or processes. Watch what happens if I push into the core.” Using the pad, he sent a small cursor into the pattern. The rift responded as if it had been punched. There was a blooming of colour in all

    directions. And yet, wherever the cursor was moved to, there remained an image of the rift.
    Harlan Merriman opened his mouth and out came one small word, “Wow.”
    “It self-replicates,” Bernard said. “In any number of simultaneous dimensions.”
    “And the spooky bit?”
    Bernard swallowed hard. “Although the spatial possibilities are infinite, the time point, wherever you set the cursor, is fixed. In other words, what turned up in David’s dream was not a little ripple in the envelope of space. More like… ”
    “A portal,” Harlan said, pushing back his chair. “So if you or I – or David – had stepped into that rift, we would not have travelled through time, we’d have passed into a different dimension, but in the same

    time frame as the one we’d left behind.”
    “That’s how I read it,” Bernard said, a little shakily. “But the portal, by its nature, must operate both ways. So given David’s reaction in the film, one can only conclude that whatever created that rift was looking for him – not the other way round. It sounds ridiculous, but based on the evidence we have, it would appear that something was trying to contact your son. Something from another   world .”

    14

    The taxicar that came to take Eliza Merriman and Aunt Gwyneth away waslike none that Eliza had ever seen before.
    It was roughly the same size and ellipticalshape as the standard carriages, but itsouter skin was grimy and badly dented (inseveral places), as if it had been involvedin a number of collisions. Aunt Gwynethassured her new charge there was no needfor concern, but did add that the journeymight be a little ‘bumpy’.
    Where exactly are we going?   Elizacommingled.
    Back to the beginning , the Aunt