"One minute to estimated T4 outer wall," she said then. She sat down at the command table, moving her virtual controls in front of her, and strapped in. Raibert did the same as Benjamin closed his reports and joined them.
"Now inside the estimated wall region," Elzbietá said. "Bump incoming."
A minute passed.
Two minutes.
Three.
"Did we cross it?" Raibert asked.
"Not yet."
Five minutes.
Ten.
"Kleio, what's going on?" Elzbietá asked. "We're well past your wall estimate. So where is it?"
"I do not know Agent Schröder. My estimate is based upon the available data and should be accurate to within a margin of error of no more than eleven percent. It is, however, possible that unknown parameters have affected the wall's position since that data was collected."
Fifteen minutes.
Twenty.
"Where the hell is the wall?" Elzbietá said.
"No T4?" Raibert asked.
"I don't know. It's like the outer wall of T4's universe wasn't even there. We're still in the transverse."
"Should we keep going?" Benjamin asked. "Like Kleio said, something might have shifted the wall's position."
"Maybe, but . . ." Elzbietá's brow furrowed. "But that can't be right. You don't just move a universe's dimensional boundaries, Ben, and —"
The ship lurched forward, so suddenly and violently their safety straps strained to hold them in place.
"What was that?" Raibert demanded, gripping the railing built into the command table's circumference.
"Warning," Kleio said. "Maximum design limits exceeded. Speed now at seventy-one kilofactors. Seventy-two. Seventy-three."
"But this ship can't go over seventy!" Raibert protested.
"I know that!" Elzbietá snapped.
"Look!" Philo materialized next to her, his avatar immune to the vibration jostling his corporeal companions, and pointed at one of her displays. "Local chronotons are all surging in one direction!"
"That must be what's got us! Kleio, disengage the impeller! Emergency phase-out!"
"Impeller off-line. Phase-out unsuccessful. Speed still increasing."
"Not good!" Elzbietá jerked her omni-throttle, spinning the ship physically around on its graviton thrusters. "I'm switching the impeller back on! We've got to fight whatever's pulling us and get back to T1!"
"I'll see what I can do to increase power to the impeller!" Philo vanished back into the chronoport's infostructure.
The entire ship bucked again, even harder, as the impeller powered back up. Elzbietá fought to maintain control, and Raibert felt gravity switch off as Philo redirected the reactor's output.
"Speed at eighty kilofactors," Kleio reported. "Ninety. One hundred."
"One hundred?" Raibert blurted.
"Whatever this is, it's really got us!" Elzbietá shouted.
Something slammed into the ship with an enormous clang that shifted it bodily sideways, but Elzbietá corrected their course.
"What was that?" Raibert demanded.
"Wish I knew! Philo?"
The Viking reappeared at Elzbietá's side.
"We're fine, whatever it was! Just a big dent in the armor!"
"And the impeller?"
"It's as hot as I can make it, but I don't know how long the power lines will last at this output!"
"Hang on, everyone!" Elzbietá warned.
Raibert tightened his grip on the railing as Elzbietá clicked two icons on her impeller control, then shoved the omni-throttle forward. The entire ship trembled and a high, singing vibration filled the bridge, as if they were trapped inside a giant tuning fork.
"Come on baby!" she shouted. "You can do it!"
"Is the ship supposed to be shaking this much?" Raibert demanded.
"She'll hold together!"
"Speed stable at one hundred nineteen kilofactors," Kleio reported. "Speed now dropping. One hundred eighteen. One hundred seventeen. Deceleration rate increasing."
"There we go. Told you she could do it!" Elzbietá eased the throttle back a hair, and the vibration lessened. "Philo?"
"Output holding. The superconductors are probably glowing right now, but we're still below danger levels."
"Good. We should be okay as long as we —"
A great screeching catastrophe shrieked down the ship's length. The concussion threw all of them painfully against their restraints. Elzbietá's controls vanished. Philo's avatar looked up for an instant, then disappeared. Every light on the bridge, both real and virtual, winked out.
The three corporeal crewmembers sat in complete darkness as their ship plunged through the void without power.
"Well," Raibert said. "Shit."
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