Read The Abyss Beyond Dreams for Free Online Page A

said. His hands moved nimbly over various switches on the pilot’s console. Two thirds of the way along the shuttle’s lower
fuselage, a malmetal hatch flowed open. Four Mk24 GSDs (General Science Drones) emerged from their silo and began flying towards the Forest, looking like black footballs studded with hexagonal
diamonds.
    ‘Functionality is good,’ Rojas said. Each Mk24 was displaying a visual image on a console pane. ‘I’ll send them in one at a time.’
    ‘There isn’t a clear barrier,’ Ayanna said. ‘The effect simply increases as you approach the outermost layer of trees.’
    ‘You mean I’ll get an increasingly delayed telemetry response?’
    ‘Could be,’ Ayanna replied. Uncertainty tainted her thoughts.
    ‘The first should reach the trees in forty minutes,’ Rojas said.
    Laura kept looking at the view through the windscreen; she found it easier than constantly reinterpreting the images from the Mk24s. They weren’t getting much more than the full-spectrum
visual feed. Hard science data was sparse. The solar wind was normal, as was the cosmic radiation environment.
    ‘I wonder if this is what schizophrenia feels like,’ Ibu said after twenty minutes. ‘I wanted a new and exciting life; that’s why I joined the colony project.’
    ‘But not this exciting,’ Laura suggested.
    ‘No fucking way. But I have to admit, the Void is intriguing. From a purely academic point of view, you understand.’
    ‘I’ll take that over boredom.’
    The big man cocked his head to look at her with interest. ‘You were going to another galaxy because you were bored?’
    ‘I’ve had six marriage partnerships, and a lot more fun partners. I’ve had twelve children, not all of them in a tank; I’ve actually been pregnant twice, which
wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. I’ve lived on the External and Inner worlds and sampled every lifestyle that wasn’t patently stupid. I thought becoming a scientist on the
cutting edge of research would be infinitely thrilling. It wasn’t. Damn, unless you’re in it, you have no idea of how much petty politics there is in academia. So it was either a real
fresh start, or download myself into ANA and join all the incorporeal minds bickering eternity away. And I just didn’t believe that was a decent solution.’
    ‘Interesting. What faction would you have joined?’
    ‘Brandts traditionally join the moderate Advancers. That sounded more of the same. So here I am.’
    Ibu gestured at the vast silver stipple beyond the windscreen. ‘And is this not the infinite thrill you were searching for? You must be very content at what fate has dealt us.’
    ‘Hmm. More like infinitely worrying.’
    ‘Maybe, but we are in the middle of the galaxy’s greatest enigma. Unless we solve it, we will never return to the real universe. You can’t beat that for motivation.’
    ‘The more I see and understand,’ Laura said, ‘the more it seems to me we’re lab rats running around a particularly bizarre maze. What kind of power has the ability to
pull us in here, then apparently ignore us?’
    ‘You think we’re being watched?’
    ‘I don’t know. I suspect this place isn’t quite as passive as the captain believes. What would be the point of it doing nothing?’
    ‘What’s the point of it at all?’
    She shrugged, which didn’t work well in freefall.
    ‘
Vermillion
has decelerated into low orbit,’ Rojas announced. ‘They’re launching environment analysis probes into the planet’s atmosphere.’
    ‘It’s an oxygen nitrogen atmosphere,’ Ayanna said disparagingly. ‘And spectography showed the kind of photosynthetic vegetation we’ve found everywhere we’ve
been in the galaxy. Unless there are some hellish pathogens running round loose down there, Cornelius will give the order to land.’
    ‘He doooesn’t,’ Joey began. The erratic spasms afflicting his face and neck mangled the words, so everyone had to listen hard now whenever he spoke. ‘Ever ned