Fractal

by Rachel J Mannino

  “Oh, God,” Anna breathed in his ear.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Hannah groaned behind her.

  “Don’t look at them.” He closed his eyes and fought the wave of nausea. He grabbed Anna’s hand and pulled her into a rough embrace. His palms grazed over her hair, turning her face toward him

  “We don’t have many options, do we?” Hannah shouted. “They’re everywhere. There are dead people everywhere.”

  Hannah’s voice quavered. Anna held one arm open for Hannah, and she rushed forward and buried her face into Anna’s shoulder. “We have to keep moving, Hannah.” Anna croaked. “We have to make it right. Or all these people died in vain.”

  Varick squeezed Anna closer. She looked up, and her eyes were clouded over with unshed tears. He swallowed hard and blinked furiously. Hannah dashed away tears with her hand. He concentrated on looking at the ceiling, carved with a number code sequence.

  “Mincelin’s laboratory is this way.” Decana waved in the direction of the corridor on the right.

  They followed her. The numbered tiles changed into carved fractal patterns, each more complex than the next. A number of them were painted bright colors, dimmed under a layer of dirt and grime.

  When they rounded the corner, the fractal patterns on the wall produced a mesmerizing glow. It was the only part of this entire building that seemed even remotely alive.

  Decana stopped at a door almost halfway down. She stared down at the skeletons surrounding it. She pressed one trembling hand to her lips and let out a small sob.

  “It’s Medona,” Decana said. “I recognize her lab coat.”

  Anna regarded the skeleton laying half in and half out of the laboratory entrance. The blue lab coat had a vibrant fractal pattern on it, which glowed like the paint of the hallway. She rested her hand on Decana’s shoulder and squeezed.

  “She was the woman who saved you?” Anna’s voice filled with quiet sorrow. It made everyone pause in reverent silence.

  “Yes,” Decana gasped before she let out another guttural sob. “Mincelin is beside her there, against the wall. The one next to him—in the green lab coat—is his wife.”

  The skeleton in the brilliant-blue lab coat lay next to one wearing a red lab coat. Mincelin had a blue fractal pattern painted on his at the collar and sleeves, with his name written in bold lettering. He clutched the hand of his wife.

  “This is so much harder than I thought it would be.” Decana wiped away tears. “I don’t know what I expected, but I didn’t think it would be…carnage.”

  Anna hugged Decana against her. “I’m sorry. I don’t think any of us expected this. I promise—I promise—that every one of these people will be given a proper burial once we can return to our own planet. First, we have to go inside that laboratory. Are you ready?” Anna took a hold of her shoulders and looked Decana in the eye.

  “Yes.” Decana sniffled away the rest of her tears.

  Decana took a tentative step into the room until Jessick blocked her and entered first, his hand on his sword. He scanned every surface. Varick edged in behind him

  The room had a number of stations with flickering screens. The computers still worked, powered by geo-thermal energy, but they remained in sleep mode, which flickered to life violently as they passed by. The motion sensors apparently still functioned. Chairs littered the floor, some broken into pieces, and others cast aside under tables. A long bank of science stations ran down the center of the room in a long oval. Others lined the walls right and left.

  Overhead monitors displayed a number of camera angles. One focused on a series of empty animal cages, another the front door, and another a darkened room. Decana pointed to the last screen. “That looks at the lab room where the experiment is running. It’s at the end of the main room on the left.” Decana nodded to the door at the end of the long room.

  Varick moved in that direction. The hairs on his neck rose. Adrenaline thrummed in his veins. He motioned for them to stand back from the doorway. He touched it, and it disappeared.

  A skylight provided some light at the other end of the room. The black, tiled walls made the room appear dark and ominous. He waved his hand into the room, and the light level rose. There were a number of skeletons on the floor, but less here than anywhere else. There was no sound, no movement from anything.

  A glass partition with doors separated the main part of the room from a bank of computers and monitoring stations. Some glass had broken off, and it lay shattered all across the floor. A large pole as thick as a tree trunk extended from the bank of computers. It curved up and through the glass partition, aiming into the center of the room.

  Decana let out a mirthless laugh behind him. “To think that we thought Mercer glass would protect us from the effects of the pulses.” She shook her head.

  Varick grimaced. Mincelin would never know what his experiment had truly cost. No one might ever know. “Decana, can you shut this thing down from there?” He pointed to the bank of monitors at the other end of the room

  “Yes, I’ll get to work on it right now.” Decana hurried forward, opening the glass door and shuffling along the row of computers to the very end. She sat down and tapped on the keyboard.

  “Exactly what was I needed for, again?” Hannah tapped her foot on one grimy tile

  Varick wondered the same thing. He offered her a rueful smile.

  “Oh no.” Decana exclaimed

  “What?” He sprinted toward her. “What is it?”

  Decana raised her head, her eyes wide with fear. “I can’t get into the system. Mincelin changed the passcode.” She tapped more desperately at the keyboard, her fingers sailing over the keys

  “Perhaps you’ve forgotten it. Just take a moment and think.” He kept his voice light and calming

  “No, it says the date that the password was changed. It was the day I left.” She let out a strangled cry. “Creator, help us.”

  Varick put his hand on her shoulder as she typed another passcode. The computer rejected it.

  “I’ve tried every passcode I ever knew.” Decana held her head in her hands

  “Was there ever an override passcode? Something that would allow you to recover the system even if the passcode was lost or forgotten?” He lowered his voice and willed her to think. There had to be a way.

  Her jaw trembled. “I…I don’t remember.” Decana’s voice became strained and high-pitched.

  “Just take a deep breath. There must be another way,” Varick squeezed her shoulders. She raised her head

  “Yes. There is. Mincelin always carried a key card. It was disguised as his name-badge. He always had it on him. In his lab coat pocket.” Decana’s eyes shined with new hope.

  She vaulted out of her seat, but he stopped her. “I’ll get it. You stay here and be ready.”

  Varick ran from the lab and out into the hall. Anna and Hannah hovered in the doorway between the lab and the main room, watching him as he knelt down beside what was left of Mincelin. He uttered a prayer to Oman and the Creator, and felt around in the lab coat pockets. His fingers latched around a hard card, smooth on one side, and dimpled with a key code.

  He pulled out the card and stared at Mincelin’s ID badge. A satisfying thrill swept up his arm. “This is it. I have it.”

  A low, guttural growl echoed in the corridor. Varick’s head snapped back to the hallway. Tael sprinted straight for him with his electric sword raised and ready. Captain Fayn wasn’t far behind him, armed and smiling with glee.

  His heart slammed into his chest. It was too late for him to avoid Tael’s swing. So, he pitched to the side to protect his life, and he prayed again. The blow glanced off his arm, leaving him with a deep, bleeding wound while he writhed in agony on the floor as the electricity coursed through his body

  Tael stood over him, eyes wild with rage and madness. Tael raised his sword, and he took what he was sure was his last breath. Then a long metal tube smashed into Tael’s face. Tael staggered from the blow.

>   “Get away from him. We won’t let you hurt him.” Anna screamed.

  “No.” Varick tried to yell, but it came out as barely more than a moan.

  Anna should’ve been hiding from Tael, not drawing his attention away. She couldn’t see Captain Fayn or the menacing look in his eyes that told Varick he wasn’t here to help. Powerlessness filled him with dread and terror. As the electric shock wore off, soreness and fatigue weighed him down.

  With monumental effort, he turned his head a fraction of an inch to the left, to see Anna standing at the far end of the bank of computers. She was enraged and frightened, armed with a pistol and a knife. Jessick emerged from the lab

  Tael bared his teeth at Anna. He stepped over Varick and ran toward her. Every cell in Varick’s body cried out for him to jump up and intervene, but he couldn’t move. Anna clamored up and over the bank of computers and down the other side. Jessick traded blows with Tael, their swordplay moving farther into the lab itself and out of his sight line.

  A familiar light touch skimmed his side, and Varick stared up into Anna’s clear, blue eyes. Panic settled in his chest and dizziness threatened. Her gaze searched him, going to the open wound on his arm, which covered him in blood. A blade appeared at her throat

  Anna turned her face up to stare into the Captain’s sneering smile. She shuddered as the cold steel of his sword pressed against her throat

  “Your Majesty.” Fayn produced a mocking tilt of his head. She slipped the knife into the pocket of her jeans, while she pushed her pistol under Mincelin’s lab coat and out of sight. Captain Fayn seized her arm. He twisted and she cried out in pain.

  Her cry was drowned out by the shouting of Hannah and the other guards as they tried to contain Tael.

  “What do you have in your pocket?” The captain let go of her arm to grab the hilt of the knife and pull it out. He tossed it down the hall, where it rattled a pile of bones

  “Why are you here, Captain?” She raised her chin.

  “To make sure that this mission fails.” He pressed the sword more firmly against her neck

  “Why?” She asked with a breathless gasp. “Don’t you want to go home?”

  Anna risked a glance at Varick. He longed to say something, but he couldn’t. He tried to tell her with his eyes to keep the Captain talking

  “My ship is my home. Unlike everyone else, I know my life is better without a central government to rule over me.” He grabbed her arm. “Without you, I go where I please, when I please. I don’t need a Vadana to rule over my every move. Especially not a slut who gives her favors away to this lowly, conniving coward.”

  Anna inched away, gripping the pistol behind her. Her eyes held the Captain’s cold gaze. Shouts and fighting continued in the lab. He tried to move his fingers, but they wouldn’t budge

  “I’m not like other Vadana’s. I can give you as much freedom as you want. You don’t have to do this.” Her gaze shot to Varick. Her eyes were filled with panic. He tried again to move his hand closer to her, and he succeeded, but the strain left him exhausted. A wave of dizziness swept over him and he fought the darkness that lined his vision

  “Apparently, I do.” The Captain glanced at the chaos in the control room.

  “I had hoped the Netrites would pay me handsomely for you. They can sell beautiful women at a high price. The Protector, unfortunately, got you away before I could surrender. At that point, I had to call off our deal. When I caught you and the Protector cavorting in the atrium, I hoped the councilman would have Varick executed and the Star Alliance would finish you off. Commander Vok promised me leniency and the ship in return for turning us in. Unfortunately, the councilman bent under your will and didn’t execute your bedmate, and you very cleverly got us away from the Star Alliance.”

  Captain Fayn sneered at her. Varick let out a guttural growl. It was all he could do to express his fury.

  “While that escape plan was most impressive, it means I needed to step in and kill you myself. You’ve proved to be much harder to eliminate than I anticipated. Fortunately, I found a willing accomplice when I followed you here.”

  Rage flowed through his veins like ice water. It was him all along. Everything that went wrong on their mission. No matter how bad it was between him and Fayn, Varick had never thought him capable of treason

  She gripped the handle of her pistol tighter. A scream of rage came from inside the lab, and it echoed inside Varick’s ribcage.

  The Captain laughed at her. “Now, I just have to decide whether I kill the Protector first or his whore.”

  The Captain hissed his insult at her, but Anna didn’t flinch. Varick growled beside her, and his arm twitched toward his sword. Captain Fayn stomped on his sword hand, and he writhed in agony as bones popped.

  “It would be much better if you watched her die first. Then you’d know how badly you failed at being Protector.” Captain Fayn’s eyes flicked to Anna and he raised his pistol

  “Get away from my sister.” shouted a voice from down the hall.

  The Captain and Anna both whirled in the direction of the voice. Varick turned his head with excruciating slowness. Brendan stood halfway down the corridor. He hurled bones at the captain, and they pelted Fayn’s face and shoulders like gruesome snowballs. Captain Fayn used his raised arm to protect himself as he cursed viciously.

  Anna pulled her pistol from her side and shot him square in the chest. Shock widened the Captain’s eyes for a moment. Brendan stopped throwing bones. With a growl, the Captain lunged for her, and Anna scrambled out of the way. He landed hard amid the bones scattered in the hallway and never moved again

  Brendan ran into Anna with enough force to almost knock her down.

  “What were you thinking? How did you even get here?” She gripped his shoulders in a bruising hold

  “I saw the captain skulking around the ships in the cargo bay. He hid in one of the cargo compartments. So I did the same. I wasn’t just going to let him get away with whatever he was up to.” Brendan stared down at the captain’s still body.

  Anna crushed Brendan to her chest. “It isn’t safe here, Bren. Stay with me and do whatever I tell you to do.” Anna met Varick’s gaze

  Brendan nodded against her shoulder. She released him, grabbed his hand, and crouched over Varick, placing a trembling hand on his chest

  “How badly are you hurt?” She surveyed his arm

  “Scratch,” he muttered. “Just recovering from the electric shock.”

  She ran her hands over his chest, examining him herself. Then she snatched the key card out of his numb fingers.

  “No,” Varick moaned

  ~ * ~

  “Stay here. Brendan, help Varick hide if Tael comes out this way.” Anna stood

  Varick glared at her. “A Protector does not hide. The Vadana does.”

  His words didn’t matter. She was already running toward the lab. As she entered, Anna took in the chaos. Tael was trading sword blows with Jessick, while two of the other crew members were trying to attack him with short knives or bits of scrap metal. Dadon and the other two guards took their turns trying to bring Tael down without seriously injuring him. Hannah and Decana stood watching everything from behind the glass partition.

  Anna slipped down the side of the room. She had to get to the glass door. The sooner they shut down the experiment, the greater the chance Tael could be saved as well as everyone else. She crept along the tiled wall, but Tael spotted her. Spitting like a mad bull, he charged toward her, swiping a crew member off his feet as he went. She sprinted to the glass door. I’m not going to make it

  Hannah swung open the door. “Toss it.”

  Anna threw the key card into the air, praying her aim was good enough. The card sailed into Hannah’s hand as she dove to the floor for it

  Tael was on top of her, snarling and throwing her to the ground. She stared up at him, as he pinned her down with his knees. He raised his sword above his head to deliver a deathblow. Anna thrashed beneath him

&nb
sp; Before his sword could fall, Tael cried out, his body spasming. Jessick snatched Tael’s sword from his hand. He gripped Tael’s shirt collar and slammed him to the ground. The two crew members pinned Tael down, and fixed his hands behind him.

  Jessick knelt beside her. “Are you all right, Your Majesty?”

  “Yes.” She sat up and fixed her eyes on Decana and Hannah. They were leaning over the computer console. She glanced at Tael, his cheek pressed against the tile floor, two guards holding him. He stared at her in abject hatred, and a shudder racked her body. Decana and Hannah cheered, and Anna swerved her head around to look at them

  “That’s it. It’s off. The experiment is shut down.” Hannah ran to her.

  “It’s shut down? It’s over?” Varick’s voice sounded from the doorway behind her

  Varick entered the room, leaning heavily on the doorframe. He was still dripping blood, his clothes covered in it. Brendan appeared behind his shoulder. Anna pulled herself to a standing position, ignoring the shakiness of her limbs and the trembling of her hands

  “Yes. It’s over. Our people can come home now.” She sounded more calm than she felt.

  Hannah and Decana enveloped her in an exuberant hug. She laughed, the weight of the world, the weight of three worlds, now lifted from her shoulders. Tears stung at the back of her eyes and throat. Pulling herself away from the two women, she ran to Varick, who was grinning from pleasure and relief.

  Anna wrapped her arms around his torso and kissed him in front of everyone. When she pulled away, he seemed dazed, but he didn’t protest.

  “We have to get you doctored up, or you’ll never make it to the star craft. We have to find bandages, and water.”

  “I’ll find the lab’s medical kit. There must be something in there that can help.” Decana sped away, out of the lab and into the main computer room.

  Anna badgered and forced Varick into a chair. When Decana returned with the medical kit, she and Anna cleaned his wound and bandaged it. The wound was not as deep as Anna first feared, and she was now sure he was in no danger. Once that relief sank in, the joy of triumph lifted her spirits. Wrapping her arms around him, she kissed him on his full, sensuous mouth.