by A. K. DuBoff
There was nothing. Just quiet and cold.
Come on! Where could it be? It was possible she was too far away to detect the control room. Logic, then. Which direction makes the most sense?
She studied the physical features of the tunnel, looking for indications of movement. After a minute of searching, she spotted a recent disturbance in the dust on the floor. It indicated people walking to the right, which was the same direction Magdalena had gone when she left after her speech. The logic tracked.
Okay, to the right. Lexi took off at a deliberate yet cautious pace, watching, listening, and feeling her way to make sure nothing caught her by surprise.
After what felt like two hundred meters or so, Lexi sensed a different energy in the air. It was the kind of intense electromagnetic signature she had been hoping to spot that would suggest a high-intensity power usage. She headed in its direction.
After another hundred meters, the signature increased in intensity. She was close now. A mechanical hum and the distant murmur of voices entered her awareness.
She crept closer, staying near the wall where she would be most hidden if someone came out the door up ahead. It was open; no one would be expected down here aside from those working for the cause.
There was no way to get a look inside without potentially revealing herself, so she listened.
“Remote pilot initiated,” a woman stated. “Taking control now.”
“Take them out,” a man instructed.
“The area hasn’t cleared yet. There are children—”
“All part of the sacrifice for our independence.”
“On it,” she confirmed without hesitation or remorse.
“When will we have access to the grid?” the man asked.
“Almost there. Gimme two minutes,” a voice she recognized as Josh replied.
Stars! I need to do something right now. She thought about trying to cut the power, but that wouldn’t be enough. They might have other communication devices that would be able to get out a message about what had happened. They might even locate her. She needed to do something that might look like an accident when it was investigated—something that would abruptly end their activities without providing an easy transition for others to continue the work.
These walls are old. I could cause a cave-in, she realized. The thought of it turned her stomach. That would kill everyone here.
It wasn’t a decision she wanted to make, but she was faced with a hard reality: these people were willing to kill innocent children without a second thought, and she could help save those lives.
They’re monsters and need to be stopped. This wasn’t just people doing their job. They were choosing to go about achieving their ends this way. There wasn’t an excuse for hurting innocents like this in any context, but especially not while claiming it was to help people.
The anger welled in her, fueling her abilities. A charge of energy built up in her, waiting to be released. When she felt like she was about to burst, she focused the energy at the ceiling inside the control room, breaking the bricks free from their mortar.
As the room began to crumble, Lexi was greeted with the sound of breaking monitors and the thud of bricks pelting the people inside. There was an initial cry of surprise before the roar of falling bricks, concrete, and dirt drowned out other shouts of pain or fear. Once the ceiling gave way, a cloud of clay-scented debris poured into the tunnel as the walls fell inward in a cascade of structural failures.
It all seemed too quick and quiet for ending lives, but Lexi didn’t feel anything except relief. They needed to be stopped.
The ceiling in the tunnel trembled. With a lurch in her gut, she realized that she may have destabilized the entire place. I need to get out of here!
Lexi pulled her shirt up over her mouth to help filter the dust. She couldn’t go back the way she came because she was supposed to be outside the office. So, she’d need to find another path to the street and then return to the office that way. You know, like a normal person that didn’t just kill a bunch of people!
She recalled seeing a ladder a little ways back, hanging halfway down the wall and rising to a hatch in the roof. Squinting against the dust and flickering lights, she ran back that direction to find it. Fortunately, the structural damage hadn’t reached that far.
Negotiating the ladder with only one good arm proved challenging, but she managed to shimmy up. At the top of the ladder, she found herself in a basement. Based on the musty smell, no one had been in it for a long time. It was unlit, and only thanks to her enhanced senses was she able to perceive some features. Her footsteps were soft underfoot in a thick layer of dust, which wafted up and tickled her nose.
One benefit of the dark was that any light source was obvious. She spotted the faint outline of a door half a story above her—the right elevation to be at street-level, given how far she’d descended initially and had come back up since. How do I get up there?
It was then she remembered that she had her handheld in her pocket—still safely offline but powered on.
She pulled out the device and activated its flashlight. Piles of old crates suddenly sprang into view in the pool of illumination as well as sheets draped over old equipment. The only thing that mattered, though, was the concrete staircase leading to the doorway.
Lexi jogged up the stairs and felt along the door for a way to open it. There was no handle or even a sign of a bolt. She shoved against it, only to find it solid. Just my luck.
She backed up a few steps. Well, there’s one way to deal with this!
With a burst of telekinetic energy, she shoved against the door. It groaned on its hinges but remained firmly in place. She gave it another shove, harder this time. Part of it gave way, bending with a loud groan of rending metal. A jagged triangle of light in the upper left showed where it had started to give way.
Come on! She kept beating at it with all the strength she could muster. She was still exhausted from earlier and out of practice. Even at the height of using her abilities, she had never done so many intensive feats in such a short span of time.
She kept at it, beating with telekinetic blows as the door slowly pulled away from its bolts. Almost there…
At last, Lexi broke through the final section. She stumbled out into the well-lit night street amidst a cloud of dust and rust. The sound of the door giving way reverberated on the hard surfaces, sending a clanging echo down the alley. She coughed as the grit hit her lungs and waved her hand in front of her face to clear the particulates while she jogged away, wishing she’d kept her shirt raised.
She sagged against the concrete wall where the air was clear, finding the cool surface refreshing after the intense physical activity. Her head pounded from exertion and her limbs tingled, trembling, and throbbing slightly like she’d just run a marathon.
After resting for a couple of minutes, the dizziness had subsided enough to move. She brushed herself off with a telekinetic breeze to remove any evidence of dust from the incident. Figuring that the racket must have called attention, she should get as far from the site as possible—if not to avoid anyone on the outside, then to steer clear of those underground who were no doubt already investigating the odd cave-in and might spot her escape path.
She went out to the main street, realizing she was across from the transit station closest to the Alliance’s building.
Leaning against a wall on the opposite side of the street was a woman with short red hair, staring at her; from that vantage, she would have had a view of the door Lexi had busted out of during her escape. Based on her interested expression, the act had not gone unnoticed.
Shite, was it obvious I was using telekinesis? Probably, if she was being honest with herself. There was no chemical explosion, and a door had been flung from its hinges. The only reasonable explanations were telekinesis or advanced augmentations.
The woman had been leaning against a wall with one foot up, and she now was tracking Lexi from a distance as she walked toward the
office. After another two blocks, she was still shadowing Lexi.
Fok, this is all I need. Lexi picked up her pace while looking for a good side street to duck down. However, she was close to the office now and didn’t have a lot of options without going out of her way. She broke into a jog, causing her sprained elbow to throb with each stride.
The red-haired woman matched her pace and then started to overtake her. Finally, she crossed the street. She was pretty in a tough sort of way and looked to be around thirty. “Hey,” she called out as she approached, “you look like someone who could use some help.”
Lexi cradled her injured arm. “I’m fine.”
The woman followed her. “You really did a number back there. Don’t see skills like that too often.”
“I don’t know what you think you saw, but you’re mistaken.”
“You should be proud of Gifts like that.”
“No!” Lexi wheeled around to face her. She dropped her voice to a harsh whisper. “Don’t say anything, please.”
“Why? It’s legal now.”
“The people around here make people like me disappear.” Lexi pivoted on her heel and resumed walking back toward the office.
“I’d really like to help you. Sometimes, when you have nowhere to turn, someone answers your call.”
Hold on, that’s not something a normal bystander would say. Lexi stopped and turned back slowly. “Wait, are you…?”
The red-haired woman smiled and shrugged. “Oh, me? I’m here to get involved in a cause. I heard the message loud and clear and want to be a part of it.”
Lexi couldn’t be certain, but it seemed like this woman was speaking in code. Is she working undercover? She didn’t detect any abilities, so she couldn’t be an Agent. But the TSS also had the Militia division. If that was the case, this might be the answer to her desperate plea. “You’re late.”
The woman looked her over. “Sorry, just got here. But I take it you’ve had a bad day?”
“Let’s just say I did a big thing, but no one can know I had any part in it.”
“I’ve had plenty of those kinds of days myself.”
That certainly seemed like the kind of response someone with a military background might give. Lexi looked her over, not sure whether to laugh or cry; she really could have used someone like her about half an hour earlier. “Well, the Alliance is looking for committed people with skills.”
“I like to think I can handle myself in combat. And my fiancé happens to be a geneticist. I heard that might be one of the skillsets you’re looking for?” She tilted her head questioningly.
Lexi’s heart leaped. For the first time in months, she felt a glimmer of hope. “Uh, yeah. Yes. You sound like exactly the kind of people the Alliance is looking for.”
“Great! How do we join up?”
CHAPTER 21
Wil awoke to the chime and vibration of his handheld, a tone reserved for urgent communications. He sleepily grabbed the device to check the caller. Immediately, he snapped to full alertness.
“Dahl, what can I do for you?” In all the years they’d known each other, the Oracle had never messaged Wil in the middle of the night.
Saera sat up next to him, listening intently.
“We have sensed something coming,” Dahl stated. “It is close.”
“What do you mean?”
“These beings beyond the Rift. We believe they intend to use one of the rifts near the galactic core as a doorway.”
Wil’s heart pounded in his ears. I should have thought of that possibility.
The largest known rift, and the one that demanded a good deal of his attention, wasn’t the only spatial tear in the galaxy. It was unique and attracted so much interest because it was manufactured—ripped open by the Bakzen before the start of the centuries-long war. There were, however, smaller, natural rifts. These other pockets were essentially thin spots in the dimensional veil, and the Aesir had taken up residence in some of them in order to be closer to the cosmic energies. Of course, it made sense that the transdimensional beings would be able to use any rift as an access point to spacetime.
Fok! What can we do? He realized that he hadn’t acknowledged Dahl’s statement and the ancient man was waiting for a response. “Is this something you have seen in the pattern, or have you seen physical evidence?”
“For now, we have only foreseen it. But, as you know, those visions are glimpses of the pattern’s threads that have already been pulled.”
Wil had learned long ago how to decipher the metaphorical language used by the Oracles. He knew Dahl spoke of the cosmic energy web connecting places and people at critical junctures; he’d seen it for himself when he’d looked into the nexus as a young man.
His glimpse of the web changed his perception of the universe, but the greater impact was the realization that he was one of the focal points in the energy network. The Aesir had spoken of him restoring balance for Tarans and how he must fulfill his role; it was the motivation that had seen him through the war in the final push. He’d taken solace in the thought that defeating the Bakzen and seeking justice with the Priesthood would free him from his place in the web. These recent events, though, had changed all that. I’ll never be free. Even now, the Aesir are turning to me. Before now, it was I who turned to them.
He was embedded deeper than ever. No escape. The realization struck him as a physical weight.
“It has to be you, Cadicle,” Dahl said in the hushed silence. “You must be the one to guide us.”
“I don’t know anything about them. What am I supposed to do?”
“You will know the path when you see it.”
Wil wished he could end the call and have that be the end of it. The cryptic statement was one of Dahl’s favorites, and it annoyed Wil to no end. The only thing that kept him calm was the irritating truth of the statement: somehow, Wil did know what to do when it mattered most. Those instincts had saved him and his people in countless engagements. This felt different, though. None of the other enemies or conflicts had been anything like these transdimensional beings.
“I’ll go to Tararia,” Wil said. “I’ll try to speak with the beings.”
“We are behind you.” Dahl bowed his head. “May the stars favor us.”
The communication ended, leaving the room dark and quiet. Wil could feel Saera watching him, waiting for a reaction.
He spoke the only truth he could at the moment as the fate of his people once again fell on his shoulders. “I will say to you what I can’t to others: I have no idea how to fight them.”
Saera moved closer and wrapped her arm around his middle. “We’ll figure it out.”
“That’s the thing, though. I don’t know if we can.” He shook his head. “Everything that we deal with is within the scope of our own experience. Despite our great Gifts, we’re still limited to our perception of spacetime.”
“I’d argue that many of the things we do are at the borders of those limitations,” Saera pointed out.
“Perhaps. But I’m not sure it will be enough.”
“If we can’t fight them directly, then we’ll find another way forward. Not everything has to be about shows of might.”
Maybe there is another way to go about this. He nodded. “You’re right.”
“You can handle this, Wil,” Saera said. “I believe in you.” She hugged him tightly.
“I wouldn’t want anyone else by my side. What do you say we leave Michael in charge around here and tackle this one together?”
“Bring it on.”
— — —
Raena checked the time when she saw the image of her grandfather stifle a yawn on the viewscreen. It was after midnight for her, and he was in a time zone two hours ahead. “Stars! Sorry, I didn’t realize it was so late.”
“No, it’s all right,” he replied. “These kinds of matters take priority.”
“Not our first late night,” Ryan said.
They’d been going over the information from Duronis
for hours. The events didn’t add up. Armed private mercs had seized control of two supply freighters at the planet’s primary spacedock, and then everyone had spontaneously walked away. Reviewing the security and scan footage, they had detected a lone shuttle had circled the planet’s nav beacon and then returned to port at the same time as the other mercs left. The only conclusion that they’d been able to draw was that a takeover attempt had been aborted, but it was unclear why.
“I don’t get it,” Raena murmured yet again. “They were in position. Why did everyone walk away?”
“I suspect there was another piece of the plan we don’t know about, and that must have fallen through,” Cris stated.
Ryan frowned. “A failure like this will make them want to hit even harder the next time.”
“No doubt,” Cris agreed. “At least now we know what to look for—and the kind of resources they wield.”
“Which are significant.” Raena hadn’t personally dealt with mercs, but she had a cursory understanding of how much quality armor and weapons cost on the black market. Given the number of merc and their gear, there’d been a hefty price tag associated with the operation. No one spent that much and then walked away mid-act without a compelling reason.
Cris rubbed his eyes wearily. “This close call reinforces the hypothesis that there are major players behind this disruption. Those with credits to burn in order to get their way.”
“Like Lower Dynasties with grander political aspirations?” Raena suggested.
“Arvonen certainly wasn’t an isolated case.”
She sighed. “What do we do about it?”
“For now, monitor the situation. The Guard has taken renewed notice of the planet’s activities in light of these events, so it will be a while before the perpetrators have the breathing room to try anything else.”
“All right, we’ll let you get to bed.”