Duhyle finished the synchronizer before midnight. It wasn?t a temporal synchronizer, properly speaking, but a device to synchronize three command levels to "real time," although it could have been adjusted to any temporal base. That was, if he?d had any way to measure another such base. He?d installed it where Helkyria wanted. She insisted that they?d done enough and persuaded him to go to bed and get some rest.
Although that was what she had said, Helkyria held tight to him, and sleep was postponed for a bit. That alone concerned Duhyle, or would have, had he not been both tired and relaxed, but the concerns surfaced immediately when he woke-alerted by Helkyria sitting up on the side of the bed and beginning to dress. The orangish light diffusing through the "window" indicated it was barely after dawn.
"You?re tense again." He rolled over and sat up. "This could be more dangerous than you said." He grinned. "Or last night."
The slightest hint of pink suffused the ends of her disarrayed hair. But she did smile before she replied. "Much more…but not so dangerous as not doing something to stop the Aesyr from continuing to use the Hammer as a weapon."
Duhyle scrambled into his tech uniform, then accessed the monitors while he waited for Helkyria to finish washing up in the small chamber that served as a bathroom. The operating monitors showed no sign of the Aesyr. The cargo vessel or the submersibles could have been moored directly to the north of the station against the canal wall, where Duhyle would have had no way of knowing-except indirectly, but there were no vibrations or electronic emissions on any standard frequency.
Helkyria waited for him, and they hurried down to the lower compartment that served as a mess room.
Captain Valakyr was waiting.
"The Aesyr haven?t returned yet, but they will," announced Helkyria before the captain could say anything. "Most likely, they?ll devote the day to severing our power connections. In the meantime, we?ll be working on another way to thwart them."
"Ah…you will be working?"
"We worked late into the night, Captain. Determining how to operate trans-temporal shadow control systems requires a certain amount of mental acuity, which tends to fade when one operates with no sleep at all…and no food."
"Yes, ser."
"You should eat, too. One way or another, food won?t be an issue." Helkyria took a ration kit and sat down at one end of the table.
Duhyle thought about taking two. Instead, he followed her example, then sat to her left.
They ate quickly, but when they returned to Helkyria?s makeshift laboratory, the Aesyr had lifted a mechanical digger onto the canal wall. Two older figures were consulting handheld screens, and a crew prepared the digger. Several squads of Aesyr, each squad bearing both stunners and what looked to be projectile rifles, were positioned facing the station. Each squad directed weapons at where the doors and windows were.
"They?re beginning to trace power flows," Duhyle said. "They?ve also got sniper squads targeting doors and windows. What do you want me to do?"
"Give me five minutes warning before it appears as though they?ll sever a power cable."
"I can do that. Anything else?"
"Answer Symra?s questions when she appears." Please!
Duhyle smiled, but he wiped the expression away as he heard the sound of Symra?s boots on the stone behind him.
"Might I ask what?s happening, ser?"
"She?s occupied, Subcaptain," replied Duhyle. "The Aesyr have brought a power excavator. They?re tracing power flows to find where they can dig and sever cables. The commander is working to thwart them. She?d appreciate not being interrupted. You might convey the situation to Captain Valakyr before you return to convey future developments as they occur."
"Yes, ser." Symra turned, a bit stiffly, and headed back down the ramp.
Duhyle doubted the honorific had been addressed to him, even though he?d been the one speaking.
Helkyria said nothing.
Duhyle glanced to the side at her, noting the fine sheen of perspiration on her forehead, partly, but only partly, a result of the higher humidity in the station. He transferred his attention back to checking the surviving monitors, one after the other.
The Aesyr finally completed their preparations, and the digger moved across the stone at the west end of the station to the southeast. It stopped just south of the sunken thermasteel compartment that shielded the power cables feeding into the station conformer.
More consultations between the digger operator and the two Aesyr with tracer screens followed. Then the digger moved farther southwest. Duhyle kept that monitor screen as the one physically projected into the chamber. He did not look up as Symra returned and stood back, midway between Helkyria and himself.
After the digger turned and the operator repositioned the digging blades, he said, "I?d say we?re looking at five to ten minutes before they sever the cables from the cliff turbines."
"Thank you."
Duhyle quickly checked the other screens. Nothing had changed.
"Let?s try this…" murmured Helkyria.
The light in the chamber became sharper. That was the way Duhyle would have described it if anyone asked him. No one did.
Symra didn?t notice. Her eyes were chained to the image that appeared short of the Aesyr?s digger-that of a golden ring, hanging in midair, about head high.
"Frig…" muttered Helkyria, almost under her breath. "Not there…too circular…"
The golden ring expanded, then shrank, dwindling, dropping, and vanishing into the stone of the canal.
Duhyle wanted to comment on how Helkyria?s efforts might lead to treasure-hunting along the canal…or stories about hidden gold created by the ancients, or even golden rings linked to mysterious powers. He refrained. The single muttered curse-and the flickers of purple-black from the tips of her silver-blond hair-was enough to tell him that she was worried and struggling.
"This…"
Both Duhyle and Symra stiffened-and so did the Aesyr. A tall stern woman appeared before the mechanical digger. Her hair was silver-blond, and her garb was fitted and silvered armor comprised of small diamond-shaped plates that ran from her wrists to her neck and then down to shimmering silver boots. She held an upraised sword whose blade comprised flickering rainbow lightnings. The warrior woman was Helkyria.
"What…?" Symra choked off the exclamation.
Duhyle said nothing, but concentrated on all the monitors and the reaction of the Aesyr. They all appeared as stunned as he was…for several moments.
Then one of the snipers turned and fired at the Helkyria image.
The projectile exploded a half-yard short of the image, and fragments dribbled from midair to the ground. The "projected" Helkyria touched the mechanical digger with the tip of the rainbow-fired blade, and the machine and its operator disintegrated into a pile of granules, but those granules were heavy enough that the light breeze raised no dust at all.
Then the image vanished.
Duhyle turned toward Helkyria. She wasn?t there, yet he?d heard no movement at all.
"Where did she go?" demanded Symra.
"She can?t have gone anywhere." Not in the way we know it. Duhyle checked all the monitors and all the systems. There was no sign of Helkyria. Then he focused on the south outside monitor. The Aesyr were looking at the pile of granules and small fragments of metal and who knew what else.
"Duhyle…"
At the sound of his consort?s voice, Duhyle turned. Helkyria was sitting where she had been.
"Where…what…?"
"We were right. There?s a certain…temporal displacement associated with the canal and the station." A wry smile crossed her face, and vanished, along with the greenish tints to her hair that signified a sardonic outlook. "There need to be certain…modifications to the synchronizer. For now, anyway."
"How did you do that?" Duhyle asked.
"Do what?"
"Destroy the digger."
Helkyria looked at the monitor. "It?s gone."
"We know. Someone who looked like you destroyed it with a rainbow-flamed sword."
"I didn?t do it. For a moment, I was somewhere else, surrounded by flashing silver lights. It had to be some sort of temporal displacement."
Symra looked to Duhyle.
Duhyle shrugged.
"What about the Aesyr?" asked Symra.
"The ones outside are the least of our problems, I fear. Baeldura has threatened to loose the Hammers on Vaena if we do not surrender the station."
"Tell the First Speaker to threaten to turn Asgard into slag if a single Hammer is loosed on Vanira," replied Duhyle.
"She already has. Baeldura has reconsidered…for the moment. The First Speaker is pressing for us either to use the secrets of the canal in a way to stop the Aesyr or to allow a negotiated settlement where both the Aesyr and the Vanir share the discoveries."
"She doesn?t want much," said Duhyle
"That "negotiated? settlement would be a surrender, ser," added Symra.
"You?re both right," replied Helkyria. "That doesn?t change things. We don?t have that much time."
"Can?t the Aesyr see that using the Hammers will destroy them as well before all that long?" asked Symra.
"They believe that they and all life are doomed anyway, that the ice will sweep down and that the entire Earth will turn to ice, and that the Frost Giants will rule. What matters to them is the glory of the struggle."
"But we?re not those mythical or metaphorical Frost Giants," protested Symra. "We?re fighting the ice as well. That?s why you?re here."
"Facts are always irrelevant to true believers," interjected Duhyle.
"No," corrected Helkyria gently, "just those that conflict with their beliefs. The others they use like hammers."
"Or the Hammers," returned Duhyle. What now? he private-linked.
"You?ll need to make those modifications to the synchronizer. They don?t look too difficult, but I?m not the engineer. The Aesyr are doubtless reporting the destruction of the digger and requesting instructions."
Duhyle checked the outside monitors again. "The Aesyr look as though they?re pulling back…and rather quickly."
"That?s not surprising," noted Helkyria.
"How…if I might ask…" ventured Symra.
"You can…they have reinforcements coming, and they don?t want to destroy their own forces unnecessarily. As for what we will be doing, I?d tell you if I had time. It?s connected with the canal?s control system. Tell the captain that it remains unsafe to leave the station." Helkyria stood.
Symra did not flee. She did depart as if from unquestioned authority, not even looking back over her shoulder.
Duhyle realized his consort had acquired something…an additional presence, strength. She embodied what he?d seen in the warrior image.
"We?ll need to work as quickly as possible," Helkyria said. "SatCom has relayed images. There?s a vessel that dwarfs the Skadira headed our way." Helkyria referenced the link.
Duhyle picked the locator up and focused on the image. He swallowed. The dark-hulled warship-for it couldn?t be anything else-looked to be almost a kay in length. "Where did they get that?"
"From the ice in Niefl, I suspect. It?s been refitted, but the lines aren?t Aesyran or Vaniran."
"We aren?t the only ones trying to decipher the past, are we? Do you think that?s where Thora came up with the idea for the Hammers?"
"It?s possible. It?s also possible that ancient vessel is only a platform that happened to be convenient. Or that something on the vessel led her to develop the theory and the Hammers."
"That ship has to have been time-protected…like the canal."
"I didn?t tell you that." Helkyria smiled and raised her eyebrows, showing the cerise of amusement.
"That?s the only possible explanation. For both that monster vessel and the canal."
"There?s more than that…but we need to get to work."
After seeing the satellite image of the massive dark vessel speeding toward Vanira-and the station-Duhyle had to agree, although logically the size of the ship shouldn?t have made any difference.