Fractal

by Rachel J Mannino

  Anna rested her head on his shoulder. Flames coiled and uncoiled inside the firepot. He clasped her hand in his. She nuzzled his jaw with her forehead, breathing in his spicy, dark male scent. A familiar tingle of anticipation twisted low in her belly. The ferocity of her need for him surprised her. They were together only this afternoon, and now she wanted to be with him again.

  A soft thud sounded behind them. Varick tensed. He withdrew his arm from around her shoulders, and motioned for her to be quiet. “Stay perfectly still,” he whispered

  He rotated his head. Nothing in the room moved, but Anna caught a shadow moving on the balcony. Varick drew his sword, and stalked to the balcony doors.

  A figure glided up to the doors, hooded in a dark cloak. The figure took a few tentative steps inside. He pounced on it. The shape let out a high-pitched scream. He seized a lock of hair and jerked, pressing the blade of his sword against their neck. The person’s hood slid off, revealing the delicate features of a woman

  She jumped out of her chair to face her intruder while the doors burst open, and the guards charged in.

  “Please,” cried the figure in Varick’s arms. “I came to beg your mercy, Your Majesty.”

  Her graying blonde hair cascaded around his firm grip, and her thin and bony hands clutched at his arm.

  “You came to beg her mercy by climbing in through the balcony?” Varick tightened his grip on her hair. “Tell the truth.”

  “No, please. I had to speak to the Vadana alone. I am Vadon’s wife, and I’ve come to beg for his life.” The woman pleaded with Anna, her eyes bulging with fear.

  “Let her go, Varick.” Her tense shoulders relaxed.

  He glared at her, his brows furrowed. “No, absolutely not.”

  “I am unarmed, Protector. You may search me.” The woman dropped her hands to her side.

  “Varick, search her, and then let her go. I will hear what she has to say.” She raised her chin.

  Varick ground his teeth. He motioned to the guards to come forward. His two soldiers searched the woman. They found nothing, and stepped away. Varick took his time withdrawing his sword and releasing the woman’s hair. She remained still for a moment, clutching her hand to her heart, trying to breathe deeply.

  “Would you like a seat? Some water?” Anna gestured to the pitcher on the table.

  “I would, Your Majesty. You are too kind.” The woman took a seat at the dining room table.

  Varick waved the guards away, and pulled out a chair for her a few seats away from the woman. Then he stood between the two. He offered the woman a glass of water, and she drank from it in large, thirsty gulps, swirls of it dribbling down her chin to drip onto the table. With the glass empty, she fixed her gaze on Anna.

  “Please pardon me, Your Majesty, for climbing onto your balcony and frightening you as I did. It is a matter of life and death for my husband, and there is no way for me to get into the citadel. I doubt they will let you leave it. Your balcony was the only option I felt I had.”

  Anna nodded once in acknowledgement, and her gaze sharpened. “What is your name?”

  “Decana Alorna.” She bowed her head.

  “Tell me about your husband. Did he tell the townspeople I would be arriving today?” She folded her hands in her lap and surveyed Decana.

  Decana held up her hands, palm out. “No, Your Majesty. He told me, but I know he would tell no one else.”

  “Telling you would still be an act of treason,” Varick interjected.

  Anna cast him an impatient look, before she shifted her attention to Decana.

  “I know he told only me, but he was anxious to tell me the news—to prepare me. I was in the market at my shop. I am sure others must have overheard him telling me. He did not mean to cause you any harm.” Decana’s eyes pleaded for forgiveness

  Varick gripped the chair in front of him. “Why couldn’t he have waited to tell you at home?”

  “He was…nervous, afraid.” Decana fidgeted in her seat. “It just spilled out of him the moment he saw me. We were not expecting news of the Vadana’s return so soon.”

  “That still does not excuse him of the crime,” he raised his voice.

  “Please, you must understand that the Vadana’s return means I must leave him here,” Decana pleaded

  Varick shook his head. Anna gave him a pointed look, but he ignored her. She might never get used to his kind, caring, and yet overly protective manner.

  “I will trade my life for his.” Decana peered past Varick to her. “If you free him, then I will come with you to serve you on your mission.”

  “Our mission is far too dangerous for civilians, and that offer doesn’t weigh against his offense.” Varick straightened. “He must go to trial.”

  Decana raised her hands in supplication to Varick, then to her. “No, please. They will condemn him to death without even hearing his defense. Your Majesty, I can be of service to you in your task. That is why Vadon told me of your impending arrival—why he was so upset. I am not from Assis. I was on the science station when the accident began, but I escaped to Assis while I could. I know what happened. I know what went wrong.”

  Anna held her breath

  Varick glanced at Anna, then at the woman. “You’re lying. No one from the science station survived. It was in ruins within hours.”

  “I did. I was on Mincelin’s research team. I know what experiment he was working on. There were problems for weeks before the accident, but he kept pressing forward. I was only an intern. On the day of the accident, his assistant, Medona, handed me the keys to her spacecraft and told me to leave and never speak of my work again. She was frightened, terrified. They all were. They knew what they were going to do could end in destruction. They didn’t know how much destruction, or how much of our world would be engulfed by it, but they knew they would most likely not survive the day.”

  “How do I know you’re telling us the truth?” Varick’s eyes bore holes into the older woman.

  “I…well, I am telling you the truth, Protector. I don’t know how to assure you.”

  Varick cocked his head. His eyes narrowed. Anna fidgeted, waiting for him to accept Decana’s words.

  “Tell me something that only you would know. I know Mincelin’s file cover to cover. Tell me something that isn’t public knowledge.” He rested his hands on the table as he challenged her.

  “I…I don’t know…” Decana crumbled in her chair. She contemplated the table, shaking her head, as if the table could tell her the right answer. “I remember a few things. It was so long ago, now. Mincelin’s wife was a botanical engineer. She used to send us bouquets of whatever she concocted that week. Medona used to bake all the time. I didn’t work too often with the others. Mincelin was allergic to chocolate…” Decana peeked up at Varick.

  He shook his head. Decana looked lost for a moment, and then her eyes widened and she leaned forward in her chair. “No, I remember something you would know. Mincelin was feuding with his brother, a Guard of the Realm. A few days before the accident, he filed a claim with the Protector that his brother was harassing him.”

  Varick tilted his head, his expression lightened. “Yes, you’re right. He did do that. That was not public knowledge.”

  “You believe me now, then?” She clasped her hands together.

  He scrutinized her for a moment. Anna reeled at their good fortune—to have found someone to shed light on the cause of the accident. Neither Varick nor Councilman Meroca knew the details of Mincelin’s research at the time of the accident. They didn’t know how to reverse the effects of the accident because they couldn’t begin to guess at the cause. Decana could give them the information they needed so desperately.

  “Yes, I do.” Varick finally admitted.

  She smiled at Decana. “Then I hope you’ll be able to help me, Decana. I know almost nothing about this accident. Prior to our ship’s return, you must tell me as much about it as you can.”

  “No, I must come with you, Your Majesty. Th
e experiment must be shut down, and I’m the only one left who knows how.” Decana placed her hand over her heart

  “We have to go to the science station?” Varick seated himself in the chair next to her.

  “Yes, we must,” Decana replied.

  “That’s impossible. It’s in ruins.” He dismissed her suggestion with a wave of his hand

  “It’s the only way to reverse the process.” Decana lifted her hands, spreading them wide in frustration

  “What process?” Anna asked. “What was this experiment?”

  Decana sighed and settled her hands in her lap. She relaxed for the first time since she came through the balcony doors. Anna felt for the poor, brave woman. To be desperate enough to climb up onto the balcony to save her husband. It was heroic.

  “Mincelin was attempting to alter basic atomic structures. His father made drastic advances in cloning, but Mincelin was convinced he could go further. He was trying to clone DNA, but alter it at the same time. You could start with replicating a vala egg, and have the process produce a full-grown child, or a flower, or anything. He discovered he could make minute alterations at a sub-atomic level.”

  Anna’s brow furrowed as she concentrated on Decana’s words. She had thought the “darkness” was a disease or some biological weapon accidentally unleashed. This was far more complicated than she anticipated

  “As the particles replicated in fractals, the entire DNA chain would change. He called it the ‘god process’ whereby he could become god. A lot of us thought him foolish for calling it that. We told him he was tempting fate. We had completed a whole series of experiments with minerals and plants when we moved onto animals.” Decana paused and reached for her water glass.

  “What happened when you moved onto animals?” Varick asked. “The files that survived tell us nothing about the particulars of his experiments.”

  “Mincelin only reported to the Inam Science Foundation. Those reports were infrequent at best. He was paranoid someone would steal his ideas, you see. We started the animal series by replicating a dire egg and transforming it into a candra. A candra is a peaceful animal, Your Majesty. They’re known for being docile and very sweet—they make excellent pets. A few days after it was finished, this candra viciously attacked the woman feeding it. It tore several of her fingers off before someone killed it.”

  Anna winced. This piece to the puzzle almost made it a horror story.

  “The next experiment produced a tirel, another normally peaceful animal, though much larger. This one also became brutal and violent. At this point, Medona suspected some flaw, but Mincelin refused to stop. The third experiment produced the same result. Mincelin refused to listen. He claimed they were all flukes, that they were animals born into captivity and that’s why they were angry.”

  Decana shook her head. Anna agreed with her. This Mincelin guy sounded like a man obsessed.

  “Or he would blame his brother for breaking into his lab and destroying his experiment somehow. He couldn’t see that his work was the problem. He wanted to move on to humans. That’s the day Medona told me to leave. I don’t know what happened to go so horribly wrong, or how it spread to our other planets, but the experiment is still running, and we must shut it down. I can help you.”

  “It would be easier to simply destroy the science station.” Varick grimaced as he made the suggestion

  Decana’s mouth dropped open

  “That would be a travesty, Protector. The files and computers there store our greatest advances in science. Experiments and documents that haven’t yet been released, and won’t be, until we have access to the station again. And that’s even if you can surpass the defense system. I have the codes that will allow us to land on the station itself, but there’s no one alive that can take the defense system offline long enough to destroy the station.”

  Varick slid his glance over to her. “It would be simpler to just destroy the station, but Decana is right. No one has been able to develop a way to take the defense system offline.”

  Anna sat forward in her chair, her eyes locking with Decana’s worried gaze. “But with your codes, and your knowledge of the pulse emitter, we should be able to land on the station and perhaps shut the experiment down?”

  “Yes, yes. Absolutely.” Decana laid her hands palms down on the table.

  Anna sat in silence for a moment, thinking it all over. “Thank you. I’m glad you came to us. I’ll have to talk this information over with the Protector and let you know what our decision is.” She rested her chin on her knuckles. “I will ask the Chancellor to give you rooms here in the citadel until we come to a decision on how we will proceed.”

  “Your Majesty, I must come with you—”

  She raised a hand. “We’ll have your husband released and brought to you. He was beaten before we knew he had been taken into custody. The doctor has already seen him, and assures us that he will be fine. You should be forewarned that he is not well, and he will need to rest here and mend.” Anna rose.

  Decana nodded, and Varick went to the door. He told the guard to summon the Chancellor and that the woman would need a room. A few minutes later, the guard returned with the Chancellor, a blue wrap thrown around his white, shimmering dressing gown.

  Varick ordered him to release Vadon, by order of the Vadana, and explained their meeting with Decana. The Chancellor, pale and trembling, bowed and offered to show Varick where Decana and Vadon could stay. Varick left with Decana and later returned to her alone.

  “What do you make of all this?” Anna resumed her seat by the fire, and he settled down in the chair beside her.

  “I don’t know. It sounds plausible. I certainly believe her.” He took her hand.

  “How will we get to this science station?”

  “If this experiment is active, and we don’t have a way of counteracting its effect, then there is no reason to even try. We’d all go mad before we get there and kill each other. I’m not letting you near our planets until they’re safe.”

  Anna smiled, running her thumb along the side of his hand.

  “I don’t have to go. I don’t want you or Decana to go either. I hope she can just tell us how to shut the experiment down. I didn’t want to pursue that tonight. It’s too late and too involved. We’ll have to work all of this out.”

  “We should go to bed, then. We have a good deal to discuss tomorrow.”

  Anticipation slid down her spine, and his grin widened. She couldn’t comprehend the depth of her desire for him. This constant hunger—thrilling and frightening—was new for her.

  Holding hands, they strode to the bedroom to feed their mutual desire. He left her sometime later to return to his room, but the warmth of his affection remained. She curled into it and fell into a deep sleep

  ~ * ~

  The next day dawned, and the citadel was baking in the sun by mid-morning. Anna threw open the balcony doors, but no breeze came in off the lake. In fact, the lake appeared to be a glass puddle at the edge of the city wall. They cowered indoors, out of the sun, in her room.

  “No, Your Majesty, I must come with you.” Decana folded her arms across her chest. Anna rubbed her hand over her right temple. They had been talking about this for over an hour already

  “Just let her come with us.” Hannah rose from her chair and paced. “She’s not going to give it up. If she can fix everything, then she should come with us.”

  Anna pursed her lips and shot Hannah an impatient look across the table. “Decana, what is the experiment doing? How did it change biological matter?”

  “It’s a little complicated. There is a pulse emitter that sends out a concentrated radio frequency. It affects the arrangement of sub-atomic particles in cells.” Decana ran her hands over the intricate carvings on the table

  “How can we go to the science station without being affected?” Varick placed his hands on his hips. His mouth drew into a thin line.

  “I’ve been working that out for the last few years. I used to reprogra
m the pulse emitter, so I know the frequency Mincelin planned to use that day. I’ve developed a schematic for a device that could shield us from the frequency range until the experiment is shut down. The problem is that I haven’t been able to build it yet. We don’t have all of the parts on this planet. But we should be able to build it on Marsra.”

  Anna raised an eyebrow. “Marsra?”

  “A refugee city and military outpost. It’s on a small abandoned planet right outside our solar system.” Varick offered.

  “Yes, once we get to Marsra, I can build it.” Decana laid her hands flat and pushed herself to a standing position

  “And test it?” Varick asked

  “There is no other pulse emitter in the galaxy. Mincelin designed it himself. There is no way to test that it works without going to the science station.” Decana surveyed everyone in the room as they took in that bit of news.

  Anna grimaced. Varick shuffled his feet, his hands coming to his hips.

  “It will work, Your Majesty, I promise you. We’ll send out a small scouting party to test it. If we see any signs of trouble, we’ll bring them right back to the ship. Once they’re out of range of the emitter, they should return to normal.”

  Anna smiled faintly. She studied Varick, and he conferred a thoughtful nod. It was the only viable option they had.

  “Now we need the ship to come for us. Then we’ll go to Marsra. The Vadana and I will consult the Oracle, while you build the shield we need.” Varick folded his arms over his chest.

  Hannah snorted. “You’re still going to see that Oracle? Do you really believe in all of that?” Hannah propped her hip up onto the table

  “Hannah,” she hissed.

  Varick and Decana turned puzzled stares on Hannah. “Yes, of course we do.” Decana straightened. “You don’t have faith in a greater power where you’re from?”