by Skyler Grant
An airlock let them into the facility one at the time. Everybody but Kalisa stayed in their suits, she couldn't seem to get out of hers fast enough.
Whoever the aliens had been, they'd been large. The doorframes and halls were tall and wide. Whatever they'd been built for took up a lot more room than humans.
"What about the atmospheric systems?" Dela asked.
"Built primarily for helium at a pressure twice the level we're comfortable with. We had to adjust them for us," Kalisa said.
Dela shot her a frown. "That was bad archeology. You should have kept the natural environment. The atmospheric changes could have done all kinds of harm to the artifacts here."
"I agree with you. I didn't do it. Clan Fangtusk," Kalisa said, and shook her head. "They were hoping for weapons. They're always hoping for weapons."
As far as Quinn could tell that went for pretty much everyone in Chaosian space. It was rare to see a ship or person unarmed, which wasn't all that surprising given their near total lack of laws.
Almost every wall of this complex was lined with equipment that looked made of the same greenish metal that composed the dome, groves and swirls carved into the surface.
"The swirls are definitely significant. Perhaps an interface, although the markings outside suggests it is a language as well," Dela said.
Kalisa pulled a scanner from her discarded suit, checking it. "No higher energy readings than those recorded in the past."
"Is your magic picking up anything here?" Quinn asked.
Kalisa tilted her head as if listening for something. "Yes, but fainter than aboard the station. Whatever we're looking for definitely is aboard it, not here."
That was bad news. If it had been here, they could have simply tried taking the station away. A moon that made people disappear wasn't their problem, but so long as the effect applied to the station, it remained unusable and their problem.
"This place is still connected. It started here and that matters," Dela said, casting her gaze about the equipment. "This facility isn't huge. Where are the quarters?"
Kalisa led the way. It was a short walk to the largest chamber yet, dominated by a central pillar that looked to be made of smoky quartz. Four halls extended from it. Kalisa pointed to one.
"That way are the barracks. The hall we just came from and the opposite seem dedicated to study equipment. To the right are what we think served as a dining room and possibly recreational facilities," Kalisa said.
Kara walked up to the crystal column and rapped on it with her knuckles. "Pretty. What is it for?"
"We don't know. Some of their technology we've figured out, but much remains an unknown. I suspect it is some sort of computer."
"That is the way we want," Dela said, moving towards the hall with the supposed dining room.
"What are you thinking?"
"While cultures differ, some things are pretty standard. People trying to sleep don’t want to be woken up, so you move them away from activity. That means away from work, and that means travel," Dela said.
"Sensible. What makes you think a travel apparatus would be located this way, instead of down one of the work halls?" Kalisa asked.
"Every pilots’ lounge has a place to get a bite. You need to fill up," Quinn said.
Dela smiled. "See, now you're thinking. The physiology might be different, but people are people."
"Everybody wants to fill up before and after traveling," Kara said and paused. "And during. Now I'm hungry."
"You're always hungry," Dela said.
This hall was less equipment-studded than the ones they'd been through. There were several rooms, and one large hall attached to what Kalisa informed them was probably a kitchen. The rest were far more inscrutable.
"I'm at a loss," Dela said with a frown. "I was hoping my implants might pick up something when we were here."
Kalisa checked her tablet. "Prior to the disappearance of the scientists, one of the rooms in this wing was under study. It's been checked, but let’s see if we can find anything."
Even Quinn could feel something different entering the room. It was an electric tingle in the air, a lot like the feeling of being near the mana stores aboard the Centauri Bliss.
"Is there mana here?" Quinn asked.
"None reported," Kalisa said, taking a long and deep breath. "And we don't have a scanner with us, but yes—yes there is."
Kalisa searched the room before going to a section of wall that looked much like all the rest. Her runes flared red and the wall vanished to become a red-tinted mist.
Behind it was liquid mana, swirling in deep groves much like those they'd seen on equipment everywhere here.
Exposing it had been a mistake. A red spark leapt from Kalisa and the world seemed to dissolve into a rainbow-colored blur. The glimpse of a might-have-been flickered at the edges of Quinn's consciousness, a universe in flames.
9
It was dark. Not a little dark, but pitch black. Fortunately, that darkness lasted only for a moments as the suits detected it and the lights came on.
They hadn't moved and were in the same room, yet things weren't right. There were subtle changes, and some not so subtle. The panel that Kalisa had just removed was back in place, and Kalisa was struggling desperately for breath.
No suit, she wasn't wearing a suit, and whatever had happened they no longer had an Earth-friendly atmosphere.
"Kara, grab her. Back to the entrance," Quinn said.
With her enhanced strength Kara had no problem picking up the gasping Kalisa and they ran for it. The facility wasn't large, but when they got to where they'd abandoned her suit it was gone.
Quinn's senses wouldn't stop buzzing, something was wrong, deeply and powerfully wrong.
No suit, and now that Quinn looked—no airlock. It didn't look so much like it had been removed as that it had never been installed. There was a hatch though, human-sized, and not of original design in this place.
There would be time for questions later. Right now Kalisa was dying and they needed to get her into atmosphere. Quinn could feel the power coming from her, she was already using magic to help keep herself alive.
The hatch was forced open and Quinn climbed out, Kara pushing Kalisa after him before exiting along with Dela.
No Tango. At this point Quinn hadn't really been expecting one. However, there was a shuttle of Chaosian design, it would have to do.
They dragged Kalisa into the airlock, her runes flaring brilliantly as they slammed shut the hatch and cycled the airlock.
It was an agonizing fifteen seconds until a light flashed to indicate the cycle complete.
Kalisa was still taking deep and ragged breaths, discolored blotches everywhere upon her skin slowly shrinking away. A powerful Unshackled still wasn't as good at healing as Jinx, but they gained at least some ability at it.
"What the hell just happened?" Dela asked.
"My magic spiked. Activated the system early," Kalisa said, strained. They made their way into the shuttle proper. It wasn’t spacious by any means.
"And everything is different because?" Kara asked.
"Three possibilities. One more likely than the others," Kalisa said, heading for the cockpit and settling into the copilot seat, hands already flying over the controls to active the systems.
"I'm guessing the most likely one is we were teleported just like we thought would happen. We just fled from a different facility than the one we entered," Dela said.
"Or we traveled backwards in time. After the facility had been discovered, but before an airlock had been installed," Quinn said.
"Dela's idea is sensible. Quinn's is utter foolishness. And as it turns out both are completely wrong," Kalisa said with a frown at the controls. "Same date and we're in the same system."
"My magical senses are going crazy," Quinn said.
"I'm not surprised, given your particular abilities. We must be in a different universe. What you call a might-have-been," Kalisa said.
"What
about the others aboard the station? Is there even a station here? If they were transported, are they in space?" Quinn asked.
"There is a station, although it isn't one of mine. It and this shuttle both are property of the Clan of the Blood Queen," Kalisa said, troubled.
"Well, that’s an intimidating name," Quinn said.
"The Blood Queen, an Unshackled, and the name given to her after the battle of Feltori. The Emperor and his agents were pushing us back on all front. He sent twenty thousand men into Feltori, a farming colony of under a thousand who weren't trained soldiers, but they were infected," Kalisa said.
"What happened?"
"Mahara went in to help. Battle lines moved elsewhere. We assumed her lost and after two weeks got a call to pick her up. Her and seventeen survivors from the colony were surrounded by twenty thousand dead. She'd gone in with a single rune and emerged with four. At the time it made her the most powerful of any of us. I can't imagine what she must have gone through to earn them," Kalisa said.
"I've heard that name before. She was with Ilinar. The Emperor wiped out a whole system hoping to get to them," Quinn said.
"He would have killed a lot more. You know that we all manifest different powers. Mahara was a breaker—as near as we ever determined, the true opposite of the powers of the royal line on the side of Order," Kalisa said.
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning she breaks things. Wills, systems, hearts, souls. Opalia saved all of us with her sacrifice. We all took some piece of Order, but Mahara the least of any of us. I doubt she could," Kalisa said.
"You don't like her," Quinn said.
"I am terrified of her just as I was terrified of the Emperor. I am hoping to make my apprentice a better woman than either of them. In our universe the Emperor never succeeded in killing her, but the Divide robbed Mahara of the battle she always wanted. She and her clan went off into the farthest reaches and were never heard from again. I was quite pleased to see them go," Kalisa said.
It sounded scary, and that just made it more important to make sure the others were safe.
"We need to get up to the station," Quinn said.
"We do. But you should know, there is an Unshackled there. I don't know who, but even from this distance I can feel them. They'll be able to feel me as well."
"Is that a problem?"
"Of course it is. We don't get along, any of us, but you can take some comfort that we also don't freely murder each other off. We'll make the best of it we can," Kalisa said.
Right. Quinn would have preferred to keep things quiet, but if that wasn't going to be an option, they'd see where things led.
10
This was no science station that they were approaching. This was a defense station. Any Chaosian structure tended to have a lot of guns and this one had some huge ones. Quinn was well aware of that fact with most of them tracking the shuttle as they approached.
A comm signal indicated they should land at an upper pad and gave them directions to find it. That wasn't normal—there wouldn't normally be any sort of traffic control. It must be because they sensed Kalisa aboard.
As soon as the shuttled settled down shields sprang up around them, blocking any sort of retreat.
"I'm not feeling welcome," Quinn said.
"Let’s take things as they come. Let me do the talking, but don't be too cowed. The clans can respect authority but they don't bow to it. You're all members of my entourage," Kalisa said.
"I can play bodyguard," Kara said.
There was a reception party waiting for them. Three magic-users, all recognizable from the runes upon their skin, and about twenty clansmen bearing guns aimed in their direction. All three of the magic-users were women, and all dressed the same in only a red loincloth and nothing else. Quinn didn't recognize the one in the middle who looked to be in charge, but the two others were both familiar—one very familiar.
Besides wearing even less than the one he was used to, this version of Jinx had obviously taken some very different choices in her life. Her nipples were both pierced, as was her nose, and she bore two runes that Quinn could see from this angle, one upon her right breast and one on her left hip. Both glowed a dull red.
The other was Rena Vartan, in their version of reality a smuggler and a thief who was recently considered in contention for the throne of the Imperium. Here she bore a rune curving around her belly button.
Kalisa was putting on a good act that she didn’t recognize either of them, saving her attention for the woman in the middle. With a dip of her head she said, "My respects, Mahara. You don't need all the guns, I didn't come to cause trouble."
Mahara was a small woman, she barely hit five foot if she even managed that. Still, with her hands upon her hips and her chin jutting upward she radiated power. Quinn counted seven runes on her, and even if her posture didn’t hide any more she really was incredibly powerful.
"Kalisa, I wondered if I would see you here. Your arrival isn't a surprise," Mahara said.
Kalisa paused for a moment. "Of course not. My researchers and security teams must have arrived quite some time ago."
Mahara turned her eyes over them and they narrowed at Quinn. "One of us, but not of your line." Mahara gave a sharp gesture of one hand and Quinn's atmosphere suit didn't so much fall off as dissolve into nothing. "No marks, either."
"I guess he likes what he sees," said this version of Jinx as she stared at his groin.
"Can we play with him, Mistress? I promise, we'll break him," Rena said.
"Business before pleasure, girls," Mahara said, her gaze drifting back to Kalisa.
"This rudeness doesn't become you," Kalisa said.
Kara started to raise her gun and suddenly it wasn't there anymore, turning into a red mist much like Quinn's clothes.
"But it perfectly suits me. You see, I have a mystery to unravel. The Kalisa I knew died fighting the Emperor forty years ago," Mahara said with a tilt of her head. "So you can imagine how surprised I was when her agents started appearing. And now ... now as I come here and I’m feeling the approach of a powerful force of Order, here you are."
The Divide hadn't been down forty years ago, at least not in their universe. Obviously, Mahara had never left because of it. Quinn remembered his brief flashes when first arriving here, a universe at war. Was this why?
"And you can tell that isn't me. Use your senses. The Mahara I knew did have some," Kalisa said.
The words were no more uttered than Kalisa fell screaming to the ground, flickers of red suffusing her flesh.
Kara moved to help but Kalisa waved her off, tears in her eyes as she stood with her own power rippling around her.
"Nobody help me. Whatever she does. She can kill you all with a thought," Kalisa said.
"I can, although I probably wouldn't. Corpses are useless for interrogating," Mahara said. "You're stronger than the Kalisa I remember. Not strong enough, of course, but I do appreciate the fact."
"Glad to hear it," Kara said as she charged forward, aiming a punch at Mahara's face. It didn't connect, Mahara smoothly gliding out of the way even as Kara's weapons and armor dissolved into nothing. Mahara's counterpunch caught Kara in the back of the head she surged past and sent Kara sprawling unconscious on the deck.
"We've Yek shocktroopers here too," Mahara said, working her shoulders loose. "It isn't that hard to counter their physiology."
It explained why Kara went down with one punch, and only reinforced the danger of this situation.
Dela offered a weak smile. "Not magical, not throwing punches. I hope that means I get to keep my clothes."
"It does," Mahara said, before she glanced back to the clansmen. "Haul her and the Yek off. Selina, break their minds, find out what they know."
Jinx didn't go by her nickname here it seemed.
Selina looked pleased. "Fine."
"Rena, the man is yours. Toy, apprentice, or both. I really don't care. A reward for the way you handled yourself on Faldinar," Mahara said.
> Rena gave Quinn another long look over. "Only if he's entertaining enough to keep around."
Kalisa screamed again and fell back to the floor.
"And you I'll handle myself. You'll tell me everything I want to know," Mahara said.
Quinn had lost his wristcomm along with his clothes, but a glance at Dela’s showed the timer still running. Three hours and ten minutes. The real Jinx obviously wasn't here, but it was three hours until she would be and Mahara killed her. They had three hours to figure out how turn this situation to their advantage.
11
Rena didn't so much guide as pull Quinn through the crowd of clansfolk, leaving the docks behind and into the corridors beyond. As soon as they'd cleared a small bit of distance she pushed him against the wall, body hard against him as she leaned in to nip at his neck.
"Things aren't what they seem. Play along. I'll erode your resistance if I must, but I'd rather not," Rena whispered before pressing a kiss against his ear.
Things weren't what they seemed? That could be mean many things. Quinn knew Rena, or had known Rena. She'd never been a particularly great Marshall and it was no surprise that she'd become the head of a criminal empire. Of course, Quinn was a former Marshall too and now one of the most wanted men in the Imperium, so he hardly had any room to criticize. If he had a choice, trusting her was about the last thing he'd want to do.
Quinn didn't see where he had a choice.
The next time Rena's lips moved near his he snagged them for a kiss and as her hands played along his body he let his drift along hers. There was an electric tingle when he touched her rune, a sharp flare of power. Unmaking, undoing, the falling apart of everything. The power that radiated from it was absolutely the same as that of Mahara. Whatever else might be true Rena was certainly her apprentice.
It was a long trip through the halls. There wasn't really anywhere in Imperium space where a naked man and a woman half going at it in the halls wouldn't raise some sort of fuss, but here it seemed perfectly acceptable, drawing only the encouraging word or laugh from the clansfolk passing by.