“What’s this?” Dean asked, indicating a platform circling around the center of the long corridor.
“That’s the lift; the elevator our parents told us about.” She stood on it, pulling Dean beside her. She didn’t use any controls; instead, she urged it to rise with her mind. It obeyed, stopping on the floor where she sensed the puppet.
The lights flickered on at their movement, and she knew she’d surprised the Collector when the golem her father had told her about sprang to life from its resting position on the floor.
It moved slowly, lifting at the feet until the lumpy, faceless clay creature stood a few feet away from them.
“Jules, what do we do?” Dean asked. He jumped in front of her, moving her away from the misshapen figure.
“I told you we have nothing to fear from the Collector,” Jules told him. She knew this was true. Her powers coursed through her like never before. She no longer felt a barrier, and for the first time in her life, she was free from its restraints. This was her. The real Jules; not the human, but something more.
“What is this?” The voice carried from the speakers along the halls. It held a slight echo, as her father had described to her.
“Hello.” Jules stepped around Dean. “I’m Jules Parker.”
“You seem familiar. Did I own you once?” the voice asked, the golem’s arms making jerky movements.
“No one owns me,” Jules told him, and he stopped in his awkward footsteps.
“We’ll see about that,” the voice said, sending a blast of light toward her. She deflected it with a palm. The light vanished as it neared her, and the Collector screamed out in anger.
“How dare you! Yes, I have seen your kind before.” This sent a shiver through Jules, casting the first doubt she’d felt since leaving the cavern with the smooth crystal ball.
“You lie,” she told the golem.
“I do not lie. He’s on deck seven. I was paid handsomely for his capture too,” the Collector said.
Deck seven. Was there really someone like her on his ship? Would he have been able to capture someone with powers like hers? Either way, she was done with his games.
“Ahem. Jules. There’s Loweck,” Dean said, pointing three cases down the corridor. She hovered behind the glass, frozen like the rest of them. Beside her was a Nirzu, which meant it had to be Lolin’s betrothed. He was young, like her, thin and a pale green color, his forehead ridges slightly less pronounced.
“Let them go,” Jules said, keeping her voice even.
“Which one? You are here to barter?” the Collector asked with a happy lilt in his voice. It was clear he lived for this, for the trading of lives, always trying to improve his collection. “Perhaps yourself?”
“I don’t think so,” Dean said, and the golem sent a beam toward the teenage boy.
Jules was too late, and Dean lifted from the floor, being dragged toward the lumpy golem.
“Perhaps I’ll take this one. He is much fresher than my other human,” the Collector told her.
Dean was frozen already, and an empty case on the far side of Loweck opened up, Dean’s body floating inside it. Jules didn’t even attempt to stop it from happening. Everything calmed inside her, and the warmth of her new power filled her.
“You own no one. They are all free,” Jules said, waving her hand. The energy coursed from her, rolling through the hall.
“Noooooo! What have you done?” he screeched.
She heard groaning from behind the see-through walls as the ship’s time-freezing generator failed. Each captive struggled to escape their trap. Jules walked forward, moving through the corridor, and as she passed each unit, she sent a branch of energy toward it, shaking the doors wide open, allowing the trapped beings to leave their cases.
“Jules, be careful.” Dean was climbing from his case, a gun in his hand. She thought fondly of how protective he was. If only he knew what she was really capable of. She didn’t think he’d stand so close to her.
“Stop it. Put them back!” the voice yelled, and she felt the real Collector moving through his ship. She knew there were eleven stories on his vessel, and he floated through them, arriving at the top as the golem fell to the ground, shattering into pieces.
The Collector revealed his true self. An angry red mist hovered a good twenty meters away, the voice still carrying through the ship’s speakers. “You have interfered with the wrong Collector, Jules Parker. Yes, I will trap you, and have the greatest Collection there ever was.”
“Do you have a Yuver here?” she asked, knowing her father had tricked the Collector by trading one for Ableen.
The red mist shuddered in annoyance. “How do you know that?”
“I know everything,” she told him. “I know your days as a Collector are over.”
Dean was crouching beside a Keppe woman, who spoke to him in her native tongue. He moved to Loweck’s side, and Slate’s partner gazed around groggily. The other aliens were coming to, talking amongst one another, the entire floor sounding like the Tower of Babel.
“You are wrong.” The Collector moved toward her, pulsing with angry red energy. Jules lifted a hand, and it stopped. She squeezed her fingers into a fist, and the red mist began to shake.
“I think it’s time you spent a few thousand years in your own case,” she told the being, and it floated into one of the open cavities. She closed the door and flicked a finger, sending a beam of green energy at the Collector.
“You won’t escape….” It stopped. The ship shuddered, the lights blinking a few times before remaining on.
Dean was at Jules’ side, grabbing her face with two hands. He stared at her, and she saw the glowing green reflection of her own eyes in his pupils. “Jules, how did you do that?”
She shrugged. “I just did what made sense.”
Loweck stood with Dean’s help and hugged Jules. “My sweet girl. Thank you. And to think, your parents didn’t want you to come with us.”
Dean laughed, and Jules smiled as they began helping the freed captives.
She barely heard Dean calling for her as she went to the platform, lowering herself to deck seven. The captives were each trapped on the other decks, but Jules would free them all. She needed to see this with her own eyes. Here she saw a tiny bird-like creature, looking like a more delicate version of Regnig; a female, perhaps.
A few cases past, there was another person that caught her eye. There was a tag, and she tapped the screen, seeing the display light up. It said two words: Terellion and a word she knew to mean male. There was only one Terellion she’d ever heard of, and that was Fontem. Oddly enough, his nickname had been Fontem the Collector. It was no wonder Fontem had vanished from the universe. Regnig and her father were going to be so excited to meet the man whose stowed-away devices had saved so many lives.
She stared at him, his large eyes open and unblinking. He was quite humanoid in appearance, his arms perhaps slightly out of ratio to hers, his neck a little longer. She remembered the story about his immortality and how his wife had died, driving him insane with the desire to travel through time to save her, or maybe just to spend more time with her.
The time travel device he did find was safely tucked away through a portal underneath Papa’s house on Earth. She was the only person to know about its existence, and where it was currently located. Fontem would have so much to tell her if this was him, and every instinct said it was. She ran a hand over the glass, not wanting to open it quite yet. She had one more stop to make.
Jules closed her eyes, feeling the draw to the end of the corridor. Here she saw a different case. This one had a thick metal frame. Behind the barrier floated a young boy, his skin pale pink and smooth. His eyes were glowing bright blue. They were intense, and she knew this was the one. The other one like her.
She thought back to the warning she’d seen with Regnig a short time ago.
“Jules, are you okay?” Slate’s voice carried down the hall, and she stood there silently staring at the boy with th
e blue eyes.
Slate arrived and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in close. “I’m glad you’re safe. I heard what you did. Pretty amazing stuff.”
He stared at her, but he didn’t flinch for a second at her bright green eyes. He didn’t ask her about it or judge her; he only stood beside her.
The tension of the day and the rush of her powers surging back drained from her, and she felt a sob building inside. She wrapped her arms around Uncle Zeke, and he stroked her hair, softly telling her everything was fine.
____________
“You have to go, Dean. I’ll take care of this,” Amada told me.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I’m sure. Go.” She took my seat, and I didn’t wait. For a split second, I wondered if I was making the wrong decision. Maybe she really was going to fly it into Earth, but I needed to have faith. I’d made it this far by trusting my gut, and I was going to do it again.
“Take this.” She pressed a little device into my palm. “It will reactivate your suit.”
I raced away across the platform, retracing our path through the station’s corridors. When I thought I’d gone too far, I saw our EVAs piled in the hall. There it was, the bay we’d parked the ship in. I was out of breath but guessed the run had taken me a good three minutes. I had about one left before the ship exploded. I pressed through the door and saw my Kraski ship beyond the energy field, no longer cloaked, the blue thrusters burning hotly as it flew away from the ticking space station.
It was too late. I remembered the EVA, and anxiously began jamming myself into my suit, latching it as quickly as I could. When I used the device from Amada, the EVA came online once again, and I tried to count down from thirty in my head, taking my time between seconds. When I had the helmet secured and sealed, I was inside the docking bay, and I was counting down from three.
With a shove off the wall, I ran with all my might across the room, my boots clanging loudly against the hard metal floor. I hit the suit’s thrusters as I jumped, and sped through the energy barrier into space. The thrusters were pushing me away from the station, roaring at full power as it sped from Earth.
For a second, I wondered if Frasier had screwed something up, if maybe he hadn’t placed anything to detonate on the ship, or if PlevaCorp had given him faulty equipment. I let out a maddening laugh a couple of heartbeats after my internal countdown stopped. I was still using my suit’s thrusters to race away when the station began to explode.
It began on one side, sending the immense structure spinning, then another and another as the blast grew, and before I knew it, the shockwave of the massive explosion hit me.
Everything went dark as I hurtled through space.
Twenty-Five
Jules stood outside Lolin’s village, among the huge group of recovered beings. Slate and all twenty students walked around, trying to explain what had happened. The translator he wore only worked for a percentage of the people, as many were unknown to the Alliance’s databases.
Jules watched it all with a smile on her face. She finally felt more like herself. Whatever had overcome her in the cave had remained, but the control it held over her had dissipated slightly. She remembered every moment and knew it had been her own actions, but it was so strange.
“That was so cool, Jules,” Wentle told her.
“Yeah, you are a real hero!” Kira said, hugging her tightly.
Jules laughed. “You would have done the same thing.”
“Sure, if I was a hero like you. I can’t believe you saved everyone. I bet they graduate you when we go home,” Extel Four said, her six arms lifting in the air in celebration.
“I doubt that, but I’m glad we were here.” Jules stared at the ship. They’d freed every captive, with the exception of the last one on deck seven. Even though she knew the boy was like her, she needed to be sure he wasn’t dangerous. With Regnig’s warning and the hint the Collector had made about being hired like a bounty hunter to trap the boy with powers, Slate and Suma had agreed with her decision.
Jules was happy no one seemed overly concerned at her new appearance. By now, most of them had seen her using her powers, but she wasn’t able to place the barrier up any longer. The stream of energy was too strong to barricade, and the truth was, she didn’t want to hide who she was any longer. She was Jules Parker, daughter to Dean and Mary Parker, but she was also something more. With Regnig’s help, she was going to find out exactly what that meant.
She closed her eyes and tried to recall what the stone had shown her. It was distant, but at the time, she’d felt such a sense of connection to the crystal. There was a reason she’d been able to fix the Shandra network at such a young age, and it was all connected.
“Where are you going?” Dean asked, breaking away from talking to one of the freed beings. They were all in shock, some dealing with their current situation better than others.
Jules blinked, finding herself walking the path toward the cavern again. She hadn’t even noticed she’d been heading for it. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. There’s something I need to do.” Dean started following her, and she added, “Alone.”
He nodded grimly and turned to talk with a tiny winged creature who had basic knowledge of Padlog speech. Dean waved Wentle over, and Jules left them as they clumsily talked. It was dark, but the path had lights around the edges of it, guiding her way. She didn’t need them. She knew where the opening in the cliff face was.
The compulsion to enter and find the stone had vanished, but she was drawn by the desire to touch the crystal once more. As she walked through the cleft in the cliffside, she noticed the symbols all remained glowing. If this wasn’t a portal stone, it was something stronger, built for her or people like her. Perhaps an early iteration of the portals, giving the Theos a base to build from of so regular beings could transport between worlds.
Jules moved through the corridor and stopped at the cavern entrance. The stone was there, silent but beckoning with the promise of a destination. She thought about her dad, wondering where he was now. What had happened after the vision she’d seen of him? Had that been in real time, or had it happened days ago, or would it happen in days yet? She couldn’t know, but she focused on Papa. His energy had an imprint, and she concentrated on finding it as she stepped closer to the smooth crystal sphere.
She caught glimpses of Papa as he ran through a space station. She watched in jerky images as he struggled into an armored EVA and jumped from the docking bay into space. She nearly grinned as she saw him floating in space. He hated being out there without the protection of a ship around him. The grin faded quickly as she saw the explosion in her mind’s eye. She realized she was looking into the stone, and that it was the source of her sight into her father’s well-being.
Her dad was racing away from the impact, but was soon swallowed by the growing flames before they vanished at the lack of oxygen. Soon there was no space station, and no sign of Papa either.
Jules gasped. She needed to help him. Without further consideration for herself, she knew what she had to do. She slapped a palm on the stone and pictured the image for Earth’s portal. The room flashed white, and she blinked away the brightness inside the room in the Giza pyramid.
She ran from Earth’s portal, being stopped as she passed through the stairs. “You have to sign in,” a woman said, sticking a tablet toward Jules.
“Jules Parker,” she called as she pushed past the guard.
Another man tried to catch her as she raced outside into the night air. It was cool, a strong breeze sending sand into her face.
“Stop where you are,” the man said, holding a gun up.
“I’m a kid,” she said. She knew she must look insane, her hair pulled into a messy ponytail, her eyes glowing brightly. “Dean Parker’s daughter. He needs me.” The man lowered the weapon, and she pressed out with her powers, making an orb of protection.
At least three people were here, surrounding her, and they stepped away, fearful of
what was happening. She didn’t say another word, only lifted from the ground and flew upwards, to the last spot where she’d seen her father before he’d vanished.
____________
Alarms rang inside my helmet. I opened my eyes, my head pounding painfully with each pulse of my heart. The suit was alerting me of something important, and I tried to focus my blurry vision long enough to read the information on the HUD.
Three minutes until life support system deactivated. Backup power at one percent.
I heard the robotic voice warn me, and I shook my head, attempting to make sense of what had happened. Eventually, my eyes cleared and I peered around. I was moving quickly through space. I tried to activate the suit’s thrusters, but they failed with an alert: Not enough ancillary power to complete this task.
This was bad. “Magnus, come in. It’s Dean. I’m pinging you my location.” I tapped the controls, the same message chiming out. Not enough ancillary power to complete this task.
Two minutes until life support system deactivated.
I thought maybe the life support might last longer if the suit stopped talking to me. The explosion propulsion from the station had sent me reeling, and I wasn’t sure how long I’d been unconscious. I guessed the suit hadn’t fully charged after Amada had drained it with that device. If only I’d had longer to ready myself, instead of seconds to evacuate the station.
Amada. She was dead now, blown to a million pieces along with Frasier’s dreams of destroying Earth. Our first space station was also gone, but I didn’t really care about that. I was going to join Amada and Frasier in the afterlife if I couldn’t think of a way to let someone know where I was.
Old World (The Survivors Book Eleven) Page 22