And then….

(Insert disclaimer)

Warning: This is a work in progress–which means I come by every now and then and make changes that seem necessary as I’m slowly puttering along on the rest of it….

[b]REDUXX[/b]

PROLOGUE:
[i]THE SONG OF THE BRUNNEN-G[/i]

They were the first of the human races. By the time the second human wave reached the stars, their origins and history were shrouded in legend. By humanity’s third wave, they had done everything, seen everything and been everything.

When the insect civilization attacked, they recognized an ancient foe. And in the depth of memory they found their warrior instincts intact; the Romantic Warriors of the Brunnen-g sang again and mobilized the human defenses.

It was a war that raged across two universes; destructive, relentless, no quarter given or received. But in the end, the Brunnen-g led humanity to their greatest victory.

And in victory, they were ruthless: hunting the fleeing insects, obliterating them one by one. When all traces of the enemy had been eradicated from the Light Universe, they returned to the insect’s home. They set that planet on fire from the inside out, leaving behind a melted lifeless hulk. For they knew this second victory would have to be lasting. A third war and the insects would have become too strong, visiting final ruin upon humanity.

And when they had secured the Two Universes, the Brunnen-g retreated to their own home; they put their warrior’s gear aside, and tried to wash away the stench of blood by building a society of art and refinement, of philosophy and ideas. Romantic Dreamers now, they became explorers of the worlds beyond the physical, of the zones beyond time and space, and finally of the regions beyond life and death.

The Brunnen-g dreamed of the music of eternal consciousness but they were human and gave in to the temptation of eternal sensation. Yet in the end all their dreams returned to the place they had risen from; with the death of their second home world, their songs again merged into the greater consciousness, and lived outside of measured time. Then finally, when the last Brunnen-g was gone, all was ready…..

CHAPTER I

[b]1.1[/b]
The Earth exploded, spitting huge chunks of matter into space at terrifying velocities, completing the destruction of the last habitable planet in the darkest part of the Dark Zone. Fleeing the explosion was a vessel moving at speeds unknown to the inhabitants of the splintered world, scrambling for the safety of the emptiness beyond the solar system.

Only seconds after the explosion came another eruption, more horrendous; one that reached out in silence and blackness to call back the shards of the destroyed planet and swallow them. A black hole no larger than the diameter of a pea quenched the surrounding light and sent out an ever growing wave of devastation, engulfing all matter that it touched, becoming denser and more powerful with each surge. Fleeing from the darkness was another ship, speedy as well, but much different from the first: alive, a little unsteady, confused in the rippling, unstable space surrounding it.

Second by second, the density of the black hole increased, a cascade of even deeper black poured from its heart and began to send shudders through the fabric of space closest to it. Hidden gates began to stretch and open and close again, space/time slipped in and out of zones long closed to normal matter. The torrent moved outward, deep space becoming a chaos of intersecting realities in its wake.

[b]1.2[/b]
In the Dark Universe, space is deep and space is cold; the unrelenting winds of time sweep through it.

But inside the black hole–there is no deep, only black; there is no cold, only black; there is no time, just a slide into deeper black until finally, nothing is where no thing can be.

A solitary mote, last spark of a sudden flame, lies silent and unresisting among the screams of moons and planets drawn inexorably into the darkness…

[b]1:3[/b]
Prince was already out of sorts. He realized space travel could prove to be unbearably dull. Standing in front of the Noah’s large viewing window, hands behind his back, he watched the unchanging darkness as the ship’s particle accelerator hurled them through space and sighed in exasperation. It was the same view he’d seen since they sped away from the shrinking black hole that had swallowed the fragments of the Earth and its sun. He spread out his arms, he tingled with lightness, his release from the souls that held him to Fire and Water, that kept him tied to Earth, clearly accomplished this time. He was free to explore the whole universe of the living. But that exploration would not get very far until they managed to find their way out of this lifeless sector of space. Lifeless and dangerous, with eddies of turbulence formed by the wake of the great black wave.

He turned around. The view was hardly more stimulating. This was a very small kingdom for one accustomed to a grander stage. Sitting near the control console was President Priest, Bunny giggling into his ear while robot arms whizzed by periodically, intent on their incomprehensible errands around the ship. Prince shot Priest a perfunctory scowl, getting a second’s enjoyment out of the President’s nervous twitch. Bunny, as usual, looked uneasy, casting apprehensive glances at Prince. No challenge there he thought, slightly irritated by her, as always. He decided to remove the irritation for a while.

“Bunny, perhaps you should spend some time with the Professor’s girls, I’m sure they’d appreciate your company.”

Bunny looked at him in bewilderment.

“Now?” she squeaked.

“Yes, now would be a good time.” Prince smiled blandly.

“I don’t know where they are.”

“I’m sure you can find them if you try.” Prince turned away, done with Bunny, bored with the conversation.

“Go ahead Bunnikins”, Priest glanced nervously at Prince’s back. “Maybe I can join you later.”

“All right Mr. President, don’t take too long.” Bunny started to blow a kiss at Priest, but retreated quickly when she saw Prince’s impatient shrug.

Prince turned to his aide. He had forgotten, or maybe never actually known, how this simpleton had become his primary tool. But it was so, and Priest was destined to be his companion in the great adventure. No matter, he was malleable enough.

“So,[i] Mr. President[/i], now that things are settling down, let’s see if we can make some sense out of this ship’s controls”.

Until now, Prince had not bothered to worry about their transport. The ship had been more or less running itself, the nanobots taking care of all basic functions, the navigational systems engaged by the Professor before takeoff guiding them from one pocket of calm to another.

The tension of escaping from earth, the hysterics of his passengers, the novelty of this totally new environment, all had kept him from an examination of the Noah itself. The ship was not sentient, Prince knew he had no power over it–it was not in his nature to worry about such things until the time came. He sat down, and began a cursory examination of the Noah’s instrument panels.

“Our escape has succeeded, my Prince. Where shall we go first?” Priest asked, joining him at the controls.

“I can practice my arts anywhere” Prince answered dismissively. He realized he had no idea where the ship was headed, but their actual destination [i]was[/i] almost immaterial.

“I can now savor the decline of hundreds of planets, engineer their descent into chaos”. He smiled in anticipation. “I will speed the process up when I want…”

“Or slow it down on a whim” Priest chimed in.

“I will make deals with fresh uncorrupted souls and bring them over to me,” Prince continued with relish,

“Yes, fresh souls to play with” Priest echoed.

“But for now…”, Prince fell silent and stared at the controls. He was impatient to get somewhere. He had not expected to feel the passing of time like this. He never had before. It was… unsettling.

Prince realized the controls made little sense to him. He had never found mechanical contrivances of interest. Others had taken care of those things–it was one of the advantages of being Prince.

Priest was watching him, waiting to be told what to do.

“Well,” Prince said, “we seem to have a slight problem don’t we.”

He leaned back in his chair, this was an unforseen complication. There had to be a way to get control of the Noah. He had entered the television set and controlled it, could he do the same with something so large and complicated? Unfortunately, he really had no idea how he actually ended up in that TV. He closed his eyes and tried to feel the ship around him.

He felt the buzz of the power plant, the hum of the circulating air, the slight whirr of the nanobots as they made miniscule adjustments to the equipment. He felt nothing living in the machinery, it was an impenetrable wall. He tried to concentrate one more time, and came upon the wall again. Annoyed, his mind started to wander. Never had he really been at a loss what to do: he did what he did, and was what he was, it was the way of things. Never had he really wondered about his existence until the dead man asked him what he was. In the end he had given Kai an answer; he thought at the time it might even be true. But each answer brought more questions. Hurtling through space with ties to no solid ground had left him untethered… suddenly a voice crept into his head: [i] “I try to understand the difference between the living and myself”[/i]. An odd thought to have, he was not accustomed to stray thoughts either. At least he was not aware of having them before.

Prince shook off that disquieting realization…. why did the dead man keep nagging at the edge of his mind? Perhaps, Prince thought, because he was not used to losing the games he engaged in. Of course he had won in the end. In a way. He stood up and in a fit of pique, kicked a handy robot arm down the nearest corridor. He turned to Priest, and found that he was alone on the bridge. The fool had taken advantage of his distraction to slip away. Prince scowled, he would go look for his “crew”. With luck, one of the girls would have an aptitude for chess…and perhaps other things.

[b]1:4[/b]
The passage from the sleeping area to the bridge of the Little Lexx was short and lit by glowing translucent membranes that made it seem almost inviting. Stanley Tweedle wished it were longer though, he walked slowly with his head down, delaying his return to the bridge. He knew he had made another mistake. A big one.

He came to the entrance of the bridge, and hesitated. He thought of the sudden exhilaration of seeing the Little Lexx emerge from the shards of its father, the intense relief of knowing that he would not die just yet… And he remembered the pride of having been chosen to receive the key. The Little Lexx had chosen Stanley Tweedle to be its Captain.

Xev had embraced him then, their close escape from death affecting her as well. But their euphoria had been momentary, they were still far from being out of danger. Little Lexx had tried to follow his instructions to get them out of there as quickly as possible; straining to escape from the exploding planet and pulsing black hole.

“What do you want me to do Captain?” Little Lexx had asked as it sped away from the earth.

“Let’s just try to keep going for a while. We need to get far away from this stupid planet. Things will calm down then.” Stanley found himself trying to sound positive for the sake of the young ship.

“Where should I keep going to Captain?”

Stanley frowned. “Just get as far away from here as fast as possible. Whichever direction looks easiest.”

He and Xev peered intently out the viewscreen as the ship gathered speed. But there was nothing for them to see, or at least nothing to recognize. The space around them darkened and churned periodically; stars disappeared only to reappear again a few minutes later. They watched without speaking much, both lost in their own thoughts, neither wanting to admit how uneasy they felt. Each dark wave became more turbulent than the one before, until finally the Little Lexx was shaking, the space surrounding it in flux as starfields were shrouded in roiling clouds of blackness and light. Stan and Xev were holding on to whatever they could, trying to keep themselves upright each time the turbulence hit, unable by then to communicate with each other or with the ship. Finally, there was a moment of calm, they straightened up slowly, not sure how long the stillness would last.

“Captain”, the Little Lexx called out plaintively.

“Yes, Little Lexx?” Stanley straightened his hat and climbed onto the control stand, coughing a bit to hide the break in his voice.

“This is not a good space to fly in. I don’t know where we are.” The young ship was scared.

Stanley looked nervously towards Xev, but she was still staring intently out the viewscreen as though she could find what they needed to know there. He wracked his brain for something reassuring to say to the ship.

“I know, but just keep going. I know what I’m doing.” was the best he could do.

Xev did turn around then to look at him but said nothing. Stanley shrugged unhappily.

“You are my Captain, Stanley. I will try to do as you ask.”

“I know you will Little Lexx. We’ll get through this together.”

To his surprise, the ship accepted his assurances. But it remained skittish, too young to know its own capabilities, expecting a guiding hand from its Captain as it tried to navigate through the currents of space constantly swirling around it.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been looking out into the darkness, trying to help Little Lexx find its path, when Xev finally spoke.

“Do you think we’ll make it out of here?”

Stanley looked at her, taken aback by the question. She was staring at him intently, her eyes glittering.

“Yeah, sure, of course Xev” he answered automatically, wondering what she was really asking.

“I’m not so sure” she replied. We don’t know where we are, we have no idea where to go, we have no help.”

“We’ll be alright Xev”, Stanley found himself in the unusual position of reassuring Xev as well as the ship. He reached out hesitantly and touched her shoulder. “I miss him too”.

Xev’s face was cold. “It was his choice. Everyone leaves, everything dies. We will die too.”

Her strangeness alarmed Stanley. He stepped down from the control stand and put an arm around her. Her shoulders were rigid, her skin icy.

“No Xev. We’ve come through too much to die now. We have the Little Lexx, we still have each other…Kai wanted us to go on. We can’t give up now.”

Xev moved away from him without answering.

Stanley stared at her, unsure what to do, but a new wave of turbulence hit then, and the Little Lexx demanded his attention. How long had he stayed on the control stand after that, talking to his charge, keeping the little ship from panicking? It seemed like forever, but for once, he had not minded the burden. For once, he had really felt like a Captain. He knew Xev had left the bridge at some point with an odd look at him, he worried but he could not follow her. Finally, exhausted, he glanced to his right, to the empty spot where Kai would have stood. They had been thrown from disaster to crisis to the next disaster. There had been no time yet to reflect on what they had lost, on the end of the last Brunnen-g. He knew the dead man had finally found the only thing he wanted. He would not understand regrets. The living on the other hand…

Stan sighed; he didn’t know where that thought was going, he just wished Kai were there to help them, standing on the bridge, knowledgeable and imperturbable as ever. Of course the dead [i]are[/i] imperturbable. But Stanley knew that was unjust. He had asked Kai once if he had ever just frozen in fear and confusion while he was alive.

The dead man had looked at him with his impassive gaze, leafed through his memories, and had said “No.”

Stanley believed him. And had even resented his certainty. Had it remained with him? Was it still there when he faced his death this time? He had regained his life for a moment, did he also, just for a moment, regret his death? There had been no hesitation in his actions….Stan did not wish to think about it. He looked up at the viewscreen instead. The view had not changed. Hell, at this point, even 790’s help would have come in handy. Stan shook his head; [i]that[/i] he would never admit to anyone.

Stanley still stood at the entrance, then took a deep breath; that was only yesterday. Today…he slowly walked onto the bridge. Silence greeted him. He stepped up to the control stand and gingerly put his hand on the template. Nothing. He tried again, knowing it was fruitless. The silence weighed on him, he slid down and sat on the edge of the pad, holding his head in his hands.

“Stanley.”

Stanley looked up in surprise. “Little Lexx?”

“You are no longer my Captain, Stanley. Why?” The ship sounded perplexed.

“I….I lost the key.” Stanley found he was embarassed to explain further. “How come you can still talk to me? Lexx could never do that,” he asked, changing the subject.

“I can speak to whomever I choose to speak to–unless my Captain forbids it. I chose [i]you[/i] as my Captain Stanley, didn’t you want to be my Captain? I know I am not very smart yet.”

“Yes of course I want to be your Captain Little Lexx, you are going to be a great ship–but sometimes things happen…men have certain needs…” Stanley was becoming agitated, he didn’t like feeling guilty.

“I chose you, Stanley,” Little Lexx repeated stubbornly.

“And I appreciate that. I want to be your Captain. I [i]will[/i] be your Captain again,” Stanley found himself promising, wondering exactly how he was going to do that.

“Why did you let the key go?” the ship asked plaintively.

“Oh for God’s sake” Stanley almost shouted, “she’s a love slave, what did you expect me to do?”

…to be continued