Hidden Nature

by S. M. Savoy

  “When I questioned Sara after Joy’s resurrection, she said it felt like her nerves were on fire, and I think they were. It almost killed her to cast that spell. She was forcing too much power through those filaments and burned them out. I know it almost destroyed her ability to use magic. The regeneration of those nerves was extremely painful exactly like a newly infected wielder experiences when they first develop m-nerves. I recommend any dead magic wielder’s body be brought to her immediately.

  “Brenda has a rez as well, but Sara’s is more powerful. A sun priest has the most powerful resurrection spells, excluding druids. We have no druids though because no one wants to be trapped in animal form.

  “I have an idea about that too,” Liz went on. “If someone were willing to be a druid, Sara, Oz, or Brenda could dispel animal form. I think a druid could learn to do it themselves as well, either using their paws or their mind. I’m still convinced Sara used her mind to cast Call-For-Help, not her fingers. I know testing hasn’t been able to reproduce the results, but testing couldn’t reproduce the desperation either.”

  Campbell said, “I agree, especially now that we know the magic communicates through feelings. I read the reports they all made about the meeting and found it fascinating and disturbing. The magic took them all, granted they cooperated— but still.”

  Liz said, “They were all aware and weren’t trying to stop it. They were trying to help it. It would’ve been unable to speak without their help. Part of the reason Sara is so exhausted is that it was moving her or helping her move when she was trying to show it who could touch whom. She wasn’t able to move herself like that, she would’ve fallen flat on her face. Instead, she was leaning over shuffling hands for a few hours. The magic has no concept of physical limitations or harm. Sara is trying to show it. It doesn’t know anything about humans at all. The magic tries to help her but can’t because it doesn’t know. Like a two-year-old it acts before it knows what it’s doing. Like a two-year-old it has no concept of actions and consequences. It doesn’t feel bad it hurt her; it just feels bad when she does.”

  “Can we expect the others to develop the sorts of problems she has with it?”

  Liz grimaced ruefully. “Yes. Stasia is working on the same issues now. Her magic wants things she doesn’t and it’s confusing to separate its wants from her own. It’s hard to stop wanting something it does when you want it too. The older ones seem to have less problems with the magic pressing its desires on them but I don’t have enough data to be certain it’s the level of maturity and not a class effect.” Liz shrugged lightly. “Magic enjoys the feel of intimate acts when love is felt. When two magic wielders share magic during sex, it likes it, it wants to feel that again. It doesn’t understand inappropriate time and presses its desire on the host. I expect it will get easier for the younger ones as they mature and sex doesn’t dominate their minds so much.”

  Campbell huffed a short laugh.

  “It isn’t nearly as strong of a desire to mingle for the single ones as it is for the couples. Brenda and Mike don’t feel the need as sharply as Stasia and Rick or Sara and Charlie. I’m guessing it’s because they aren’t in love or not yet anyway. Brenda reports it’s getting harder to resist and her magic wants contact more so maybe she’s in love now.”

  She frowned as she considered a new thought. “It’s clear the wielders share a connection and I’m wondering if it can be seen by those who can see magic. Charlie has always reported Sara’s aura looks as if it’s made to mesh with his. I know the fissures he sees and thought were insanity in her aura have almost disappeared. I don’t think it was insanity, or maybe it is, but it wasn’t a personality defect but the magic imposing its will over hers. When she doesn’t fight the magic, the fissures disappear. She’s very strong willed. More so than she shows. It could potentially drive a wielder crazy to be deprived of their magical spouse or to ignore the magic’s needs. I’ll speak to them and have them examine the auras of the entire raid. I’d hate for one to slip into madness unnoticed over a separation.”

  “We’ll make sure the couples aren’t separated.” The general leaned back in his chair. “I don’t know what we’ll do about the raid composition. Single unattached people would be best, but then we run the risk of one falling in love outside the raid. Married couples are an option, but what if one falls out of love?”

  Liz shrugged. “It’s complicated, there’s no doubt about that. Add in the fact that both partners need to be happy and it gets extremely complicated. In Sara and Charlie’s case we’re lucky she doesn’t mind going wherever he goes. Stasia and Rick are both happy as active military and being in combat. We have to make sure future raid members have the same life goals. It would make the magic extremely unhappy if one partner wanted to do something that required them to go where the other partner couldn’t go or would be unhappy going.”

  “Yes, we won’t separate any ever again. We’ve learned that lesson. I’ll pass this information up the chain. Sara and Oz requested to be sent back to the Truman to work on the light shield and some other ideas they have. We’ll assign Charlie there as well. I’d really like to keep all magic wielders in the same zone, but is the same ship too close?”

  “I’ll need some time to determine how far they can be separated. They haven’t tried at all since the meeting. I wanted to clear the attempt to do that with you first.”

  “Do it, but slowly and carefully. Don’t stress any of them. Send the unaffected raid members away slowly.” He paused a moment in thought. “Keep Drew and Joy together, but let’s see how long she can go without seeing him. Don’t stress it. Let her see him if she needs to, but we need an idea on how long a magic wielder can go without seeing their non-magic wielding partner.”

  “We’ll need more guards. They don’t need to be in the loop, but they do have to be extremely discrete. They’re bound to see some unexplainable things. Speaking of personnel, we’ve been keeping Mike from his team. Now that the patchiness of his skin has cleared up enough to avoid comment, we should let him meet with them and tell them he was recruited to be a Scout. They were told he was on a special assignment.”

  The general nodded agreement. “Let him meet with them. I’ll need some time to find replacement guards. I want to speak with the president and Pierce first. That might be a good opportunity to test potential recruits, set them to guard duty to give them a chance to meet and mingle. I’m not sure though, we need to discuss it. We don’t want distracted guards either.”

  “It has pros and cons,” Liz agreed.

  “No offense, Liz, but I hope I don’t see you again for another year and half at their graduation.” Campbell stood to escort her to the door.

  She laughed. “Me too. I know we’re trying to give them as normal of a school experience as possible, but we’re failing miserably. We have full-time guards on both Sara and Oz now. We aren’t trying to be discreet. We’ll have at least one at their home full-time even when they aren’t there. They need a housekeeper and secretaries. I recommend they not only be vetted by Pierce but have defense training as well. Some of our worst threats to them weren’t magic related at all. Sara should never have been left alone in that lodge; she should never have had to deal with Philip or gang members robbing liquor stores. They need someone on duty with them at all times.”

  The general said, “I agree completely. We managed to keep them under the radar magically and dropped the ball for normal dangers. We assumed normal people weren’t a threat because of their abilities. I think they’re more of a threat because they aren’t prepared for them. They aren’t suited up and aren’t in a team. A simple sedative can kill her.”

  “She’s working on that too with her magic,” Liz assured him. “She’s trying to teach it what to do if someone on the no touch list gives her one. It’s slow going; it’s a complicated thing to teach. I’ll keep you informed. Right now, sedatives work as normal. She convinced it she was being hurt, not helped when it tried to remove it last t
ime. The good news is once her magic learns they all know.”

  “That’s also the bad news,” the general said dryly.

  Liz saluted and left to return home.

  - 9 -

  World Domination

  General Campbell met with President Carmichael, Pierce Taylor, and Major Nelson. He told them what Liz had told him and showed them all the files and passed on her requests and recommendations.

  “I’m glad they got a handle on this as quickly as they did,” Carmichael said as he flipped through the reports.

  Pierce placed his copy of the report on his knee. “We learned a lot. It’s worth letting them keep the raid near them and not using them for the advances Oz and Sara make.

  Carmichael held up a photo of Oz’s new engine. “They’ve made some huge advances. Skeins will revolutionize the power industry. We’re scrambling right now to get ready. Our economy will take a hit, but foreign economy will plummet. We need to assure our allies of our support. His power supply is genius and simple, it’s inexpensive to make and safe to use. His technology is patented, but that won’t stop other countries from reproducing it. We’re looking at the end of the oil age. There’s bound to be turmoil. Oz and Sara keep me informed, not only of what they’re currently doing, but also of their ideas.”

  The president used his wristcomp and showed them an email. “Oz wants to launch a probe to the moon. He sent me a two-hundred-page report on what they think they can do on the moon. I’m telling you, they scare me to death. It’s exciting and terrifying what they’re capable of. My campaign managers assure me that their ideas are brilliant and bound to boost my poll numbers by at least thirteen percent. Sara’s website and the few small ads they ran have changed public perception of her completely in less than two months. The ease with which they can manipulate public perception is frightening.”

  “The only thing holding them back from world domination is their ADD.” Pierce chuckled. “They’re easily distracted by their next great idea.”

  “You’re joking, but it’s true.” The president sat back and crossed his legs. “They’re perfectly content to design new and better ways to do things. Well, he is anyway. Sara is obsessed with protection. She sends me reports like this one.” The president handed them a printout of one of her emails. “Yeah, I don’t understand the math either, but look at the summary. She’s made a shield. It isn’t like hers, but she thinks it’ll work and wants to test it. If it passes the tests, she wants to install it on the Truman.”

  The president slid them another printout. “I haven’t shown anyone else this. Ignore the math, you’d need ten years of college to understand it. She’s working on a smart ray-gun. I call it her death-ray. The ray-gun is based on her smite. She made her smite ignore line of sight and thinks she can do that eventually with the ray gun. In other words, if she’s in the zone, she can kill you. Once she targets you there’s no escape. Right now, smite will dissipate when it hits walls or other objects— she assures me her ray-gun won’t. The ball of light the ray-gun sends will hang outside the door waiting for it to open then smite you. Can you imagine a world where you can just program a ball of light to find and kill someone?”

  He waited a moment to let that sink in. “She wants to do that. She says she can make it have a stun effect. She says anything they can do she should eventually be able to reproduce, so Stasia’s knockout punch put in a ball of light with Hawk’s tracker or Oz’s locate.” He grinned ruefully at them as he rubbed his temples. “I know, it’s terrifying. I’m glad she’s so worried about defense instead of offensive. She’s designing ways to avoid those scenarios as well.”

  The printout in his hand shook a moment before he ran it through his shredder. When the last small bit was confetti he turned to Pierce. “Major Harris can now operate on her and they’ve been doing some experiments. Nothing too invasive, they’re waiting for her to fully recover, but what they’ve already learned...” The president leaned back in his seat and swiveled it side-to-side. “Charlie informs me her goal is to wipe out terrorism. To make it impossible for terror tactics to work. We had a long talk. Several of them, in fact. He’s sure that she’ll not only succeed in eventually making her heal available to everyone, but will insist on it being available to everyone, not just Americans. The ramifications of that are staggering. If she can do that— she can make her purify available and a population explosion will follow. Our defenses here better be impregnable, our armament fierce. I’m pretty sure I’ll be reelected now. Over the next four years I’ll search diligently for a successor that you can all work with. These changes will start soon and happen fast. Oz already started his motor production. The water motor will be available by next year. Who knows how long it’ll take Sara to make her heal, but she’ll have her shield up in a year. The death-ray will take longer. I’m hoping she leaves development of that for a while at least. I’m going to ask her to concentrate on personal protection. Something safe and affordable for the average person.”

  He stood and paced behind his desk with his hands behind his back. “No matter what I do— no matter who we share these developments with, the United States will be the world power. No one will be able to compete with us. We need to prepare for that— for the fury of the rest of the world.”

  “My top analysts have run scenarios.” Pierce handed the president a folder. “Imaginary what ifs with our best strategists. Keep in mind none of our strategists are nearly as intelligent as Sara and Oz. I propose we ask them. They can’t be unaware of the fallout from their discoveries. We should tell them our concerns and see what their ideas are.”

  The president resumed his seat at his desk. “I will as soon as Sara is stronger. Liz assures me stress is very bad for her right now. It can wait the two months for her full recovery. We won’t use any of them for any situation until we have a better handle on the magic.”

  “We can use Stasia and Hawk,” Campbell disagreed. “I wouldn’t use them causally, but in an emergency they could be separated from the rest.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend it.” Pierce shook his head, leaning back in his seat and grimacing ruefully at the general. “Yes, they’d agree to help, but the others will be angry. You’d do better using Brenda and Mike or Marcus. Team Valor shouldn’t be separated if we want them to keep cooperating. You run the risk of magical backlash if Brenda, Mike, or Marcus is harmed but not the risk of their anger. Talk to them about using the other magic wielders in an emergency. Don’t use any of them without telling them first. Don’t ever try to use Rick without Stasia. And ask their permission before sending Joy anywhere for any reason.”

  “I’ll speak with them personally,” the general said. “We won’t use anyone without permission.” He sighed. “My dream of a magical army is dying.”

  “Someday you’ll have one. We just need to figure out what the magic wants and how forgiving it will be to changing hosts,” Pierce said. “In the game you never die, you can always be rezzed. In real life, everyone eventually dies. Yes, they’ll live a long time baring violent death. Liz estimates as much as three hundred years. A heal can’t turn the clock back but it can keep you perfectly healthy, which slows the rate of cell decay. In effect, you age between heals. Potentially, if you used a heal daily you could live a thousand years before you grew old. But sooner or later a human dies, it’s inevitable and the magic will have to accept that. It’s one of the many things the priests need to talk to it about.”

  Nelson said, “Project Erasure needs to stay current. I’ll have to speak to the teams and recheck our plans with these new develops in mind. We should develop a new plan to slow them down.”

  “Project Speed Bump,” Pierce said, and the president winced.

  He said, “I’ll speak with them personally, but I’m not convinced we need to slow them. What we need is to manage them better. We need to build our reputation back up so that we can guide them and make sure they work in our best interests.”

  “Are they though?�
�� Nelson asked dryly.

  Pierce said, “Time will tell.”

  - 10 -

  Holographic Technology

  The commandant gave Sara permission to use the school cafeteria to throw Stasia a surprise party. She and Amy spent an hour in the morning setting small black boxes and round glass balls that housed holo projectors around the room. A week’s worth of programing transformed the space. The entire student body was invited as well as all of Stasia’s other friends and family. The Scouts attended as informal guards.

  Charlie wasn’t certain if he was proud or embarrassed. Speculative glances had followed him all day. The weight of his classmates’ stares, the whispers and questions had increased as the day progressed. He supposed he’d need to get used to it. Rumors were rampant on campus about what VI was working on. Few of his classmates took the classes but the entire student body was now aware that the new computers were revolutionary. Once the Valkyrie operating system was officially launched, he was certain it would be more than just his classmates hounding him for the inside scoop.

  “Wow!” Dave exclaimed as he and Jeff entered the cafeteria behind Charlie.

  “You finished it?” Paul called happily and hurried to Amy.

  She turned and grinned, waving them forward. A monster sitting in a broken lounge chair beneath a tattered beach umbrella yawned and used a four-inch golden claw to pick its brilliantly white teeth. The teeth glowed slightly, glints of light shining on the long canines. It shook its head and the purple fur covering it rippled. The hair flowed and waved as it moved, revealing highlights as it stirred and settled, and it continued to stir with realistic movement along its torso and limbs as though the monster breathed and flexed. Its glowing green eyes fastened on Paul as he approached and the monster heaved itself to its feet, crushing the chair, which faded to mist as the monster winked and turned away.