“A structure they tried to destroy when they attacked the planet,” said Ondo.
She addressed the Aether Dragon directly. “The vision I got from the Radiant Dragon, the hole in the atmosphere tunnelling to the surface, can you identify where that would have been?”
The Mind of Ondo's ship took several seconds to complete the calculations before replying. “Assuming the location identified corresponded with the actual point on the surface then underneath you, the atmospheric tunnel would have terminated directly onto this large island.”
“How sure are you?”
“More than 99%.”
Good enough. “This is the gateway then?” she said to Ondo. “This Gamma Spinwards Tunnel the ship mentioned.”
“Or it was at some point. The Mind you spoke to within the core seemed to have a poor grasp of the passage of time.”
“It talked about metaspace tunnels. Is that a term you've come across before?”
“No, it makes little sense. Metaspace jumps are obviously inherently unstable near large gravitational masses. The notion of having tunnels through the void that terminate on a planet is incomprehensible according to all the physics we currently understand.”
“Except, our understanding is clearly flawed,” she said. “The Radiant Dragon proved that by pulling me out of the gravity well. Assuming there was once some sort of gateway on the planet, can you speculate where would it lead to?”
“I have no idea,” said Ondo. “But I'd love to find out. However, even if there was, once, a metaspace entry point on the planet, there's every possibility it is now inactive, given the environmental destruction.”
Selene considered their options. “The planet's atmosphere would be extremely hazardous to navigate, but it would at least offer us some cover to work under if we could reach it. The difficulty will be in getting there.”
She thought he was going to counsel caution, wait a few months or a few years for activity in the system to die down. Instead, he said, “Time may be short: the upswing in Concordance activity suggests they're acting. And now you've been seen there, there of all the places in the galaxy. If they were attempting to destroy this structure three hundred years ago, they may return now to finish the job.”
“A jump from metaspace directly into the planet's atmosphere would do it,” said Selene. “Perhaps that's something the Radiant Dragon is capable of, if the core Mind takes control of the ship.”
“It talked only about navigating metaspace topography to avoid a gravity well, not about deliberately flying into one. In any case, that Mind remains completely locked away. I've been trying to reach it, but it is unresponsive, closed off. So far as I can tell it isn't even there.”
Her own efforts had yielded the same results. “It took an imminent threat to get it to reveal itself last time. Perhaps we could engineer one, fly in-system under reaction drive and wait for Concordance to come for us.” She was joking. She was pretty sure she was joking.
“Too risky, even for you,” said Ondo. “Besides, we've been in imminent danger many times in normal space and this Mind has never shown itself. I think we have to assume its magical powers are limited to the effect you witnessed.”
“We have two ships, now,” she mused, “that could help. We use the Aether Dragon as a decoy, while we sneak in from the other direction aboard the Radiant.”
“We'll be lucky if the Aether Dragon can manage one more jump,” said Ondo.
“That's all we need. You come onto this ship and we'll send the Aether into the system, all weaponry blazing, making as much sound and fury as possible. It might buy us enough time to reach the planet.”
“We have precious few ships as it is, as you know. Losing this one, battered and broken as it is, would be a huge loss. But … perhaps it is the only way.”
“The fogging technology Concordance use. You said you were attempting to reproduce it?”
“I am, but I haven't been able to achieve anything like the effects they have. Aefrid had some fused components from the mechanism of a Concordance ship that she'd recovered, and I've been able to dig up a few more clues. They've given me some indications, but there's still much I don't understand in the functioning of the technology, especially in the way it obscures a ship's wake through metaspace.”
“Have you ever deployed the tech in the field, used it to avoid them?”
“No, it's never been ready.”
“But it's functional?”
“Barely.”
“Then, let's use it now, once we emerge from metaspace. It might give us an edge, especially if they aren't expecting it. Can you deploy it on the Radiant Dragon?”
“It's already there, I was using the ship for my experiments.”
“Then, let's go and hit Coronade before Concordance can muster the defences to stop us.”
“Yes, except, I wonder…”
“What?”
He took a few moments to respond as he worked something out. “The artefact you saw at the Depository: what if it wasn't merely decorative, but a part of a mechanism? It has to be connected somehow. If we had that with us, it might … activate the mechanism, or at least help us make sense of things. Or do something. I've uncovered mention of navigational totems over the years, along with the suggestion that they had some practical purpose. I thought maybe they were simple maps, but the presence of a bead like the one recovered from the hulk suggests to me now that the device has a computational function. At the very least it might be a datastore.”
“I got the very clear impression the Warden did not want me to take anything, and we have no clear idea what powers it has at its command,” said Selene. “And I'm not convinced the Radiant Dragon would be capable of making the journey again, not
