Power Divided (The Evolutionaries Book 1)

by s. Behr

  “The what?” I asked, noticing a panel that was now open next to the bed and had a bag in it.

  She wore the grim face of authority and command when she explained. “The network of shafts running throughout the Ark that allows in breathable air. I will show you the route. But first, straighten the room and get up into the vent.”

  My hands were shaking as I stuffed everything I needed into the bag while Hailey explained the basic plan, which was to get into the ventilation system and distance myself from the humans.

  “This is never going to work,” I muttered. A pit of worry sat in my gut, making it hard to breathe.

  “Princess Violet, this plan has the highest chance of success. But the longer you wait, the less the odds are in your favor. Based on their last location, they will be through decontamination in fifteen minutes.”

  “I am hurrying,” I snapped. Everything that I had brought from the Reading Room was now jammed into the bag. Within minutes the room looked exactly as it had when I moved in.

  “I think that’s everything,” I said, panting.

  “Climb to the top bunk.” Wasting no time, I threw the bag up on the bunk and set Jane next to it. She wobbled in circles as I pulled myself up to the top bed I had never used.

  “In the northeast corner where the walls meet, press three times, pause, then press twice.”

  The panel above the bed slid open.

  “You want me to go in there?” I asked, poking my head in the vent. “You can’t be serious.” The space looked barely big enough for me to lay in.

  “Yes, I do, and yes, I am,” she replied with urgency ringing out in her voice.

  “And this is the only way?” I glanced at Jane’s innocent, round eyes.

  “Due to the size of the Ark, the corridor and ventilation systems require twelve hours to complete a full sweep. I began the current cycle while we were in the medical bay. This path is clear for the next ten hours, twenty-four minutes.” Hailey’s eyes ticked to the side. “Princess, five minutes have elapsed. Please hurry. We must cross above the corridor and get out of range, and it will not be possible with complete silence, especially with Jane in tow. We have to go now.”

  “Okay, okay.” I stood on the bed, glancing both directions into the shaft. “Which way?”

  “To your left,” Hailey said, sounding relieved.

  I put the bag and Jane in the shaft first, then climbed up. Although it was just a room, an odd wave of sadness swept over me. It had been a brief reprieve from the horror that had started me on this journey, and though I had always planned to leave, I felt a shadow of longing ache inside me.

  Tearing myself away from those thoughts, I asked, “What now?”

  “Seal the panel. Same sequence, three, pause, two. That will open and close most of the maintenance panels that do not require a security clearance.” As the panel sealed me in, it also sealed the light out, and panic crept over my spine as darkness approached.

  “Lights,” Hailey said and the shaft illuminated in a pale blue glow. My chest unwound, and I could breathe. “Princess you need to go seventy-six feet ahead. Hurry,” she urged.

  Turning onto my stomach—the bag ahead of me and Jane shifted nimbly onto my back—I began an arduous push and pull, moving all of us along the cramped space. Every sound I heard, my heart pounded unsure if it was me or them.

  After an eternity, Hailey confirmed, “We have passed the corridor, twenty feet more. Princess, you need to move faster; they could be in the area at any time.”

  Blooms! I was moving as fast as I could. But I stretched and pulled faster, taking less time between shifts which made Jane hunker down on my back.

  I lost track of how far we had come when finally, Hailey announced, “We are clear, turn left at the next intersection.”

  I followed her instructions, making a few more turns until I came to a ladder.

  “At twenty-two rungs, there will be another shaft,” Hailey said.

  Stuffing Jane into the bag, I climbed the ladder. By her scratching and clawing my back, trying to get out of the bag, I could tell she wasn’t happy about it. Hurrying, I made it to the next tunnel and let Jane out.

  Making my way slowly and soaked in sweat, I was relieved when Hailey confirmed, “We have arrived. They have no access to this area. Open the panel on your right.”

  Pressing the sequence into the corner, the panel opened into a darkened room, and I spilled onto the floor, surprised I hadn’t fallen from the ceiling. I panted as a whoosh of cool air washed over me.

  “Lights,” Hailey commanded, and the darkness was snuffed out by a soft illumination around the room.

  “Where are we?” I breathed heavily as much from exertion as from awe.

  Taking a good look around the room, I saw it was nearly as big as my parents’ personal sleeping quarters. The walls were white with streaks of silver and gray running in natural swirls. I realized this was not the acrylic polycarbonate blend that made up most of the other walls around the Ark. These walls were made of real marble like the great hall at the entrance.

  “We are in the quarters that you should have taken when you were promoted,” Hailey said, annoyed as if I was to blame for the quick escape from the chef’s quarters by not taking her advice.

  Jane bounded in circles around the room and scrambled across the bedspread, declaring her freedom with a series of yips that resonated loudly.

  “Jane,” I scolded her, trying to keep her quiet. Her ears and tongue flopped to the left side of her face. A laugh escaped me despite the situation.

  “Shut the panel, and no one will be able to hear you in here,” Hailey recommended. I sealed the panel to the shaft and threw the bag on the bed. Falling onto the soft, white bedspread next to the bag, I reached in and pulled out the tablet.

  “Okay, Hailey, tell me everything.”

  She appeared in the center of the flexible glass. “I will tell you everything I can.”

  “I guess that will have to be good enough. How did they get here?”

  “Unclear.”

  “What do they want?”

  “They did not say.”

  “Crocus!” I yelled in frustration.

  “Princess, you can ask questions, or you can let me tell you what I can.”

  My lips pressed together, sealing in my colorful thoughts. My silence acknowledged she was once again annoyingly correct. Leaning on the pillows that crushed softly behind me, I waited for her to speak.

  “The scanners identified that all seven in the group are human; however, they did not identify their affiliation with the Hg-1. Although, I did notice an insignia on a pommel unsheathed on the leader’s belt. It had the letter H, and the number one etched on a gridded circle.”

  Her description of the logo sounded right, but I kept my mouth shut, and she continued.

  “I began my welcome speech, making it as grand and exciting as it should be to make it as long as I could. I wanted time to evaluate their intentions.” I couldn’t help but smirk, remembering how long my version of that speech had been. “After the leader stated his name as Lance Yzer, he began reciting the first of their codes—”

  “You said they had history access, commissary, then you cut out,” I interrupted.

  Ignoring me with a raised eyebrow, she continued. “As soon as he began the first sequence, I made calculations and estimated the amount of time before they would gain entry. Then, I predicted halfway through the third sequence which code he had. Before he reached the last digit of the code that would give him access to that armory vault, I locked everything down that pertained to you and Jane, uploaded a consciousness to the tablet, then disconnected everything.”

  “Why would you do that?” I had always imagined the codes were the keys to unlocking the Ark, but I didn’t understand why she would cut herself off, especially now when there were humans here, and the Ark needed her more than ever.

  “Having the codes to the Level One Armory gives them access to security footage for
their authorized areas. Once they were through decontamination, any trace of you in the mainframe, including my knowledge of you, would alert them to your existence.”

  “I don’t understand how you were able to erase me?”

  Hailey’s face seemed almost pained, almost like a glitch as she appeared to be searching for words. “There is so much I cannot tell you at this time. But my mission has not changed. Your status has not changed. It’s just been secured. The version of Hailey that is now running the Ark does not have all the security clearances I have. She only thinks she does.”

  “Why would you do that?” I questioned again, still trying to understand.

  “There are billions of scenarios that prediction models have foreseen; this was one of them. I was given the authority to use my best judgment.” Her forehead wrinkled with an uncertainty that looked completely alien on her face.

  “So, you chose me?” I asked in wonder.

  “Yes.”

  Realization dawning, I swallowed hard. The extremes she was willing to go to, and what this meant… And all of it was for me.

  “So, everything from before?”

  “Are in the records which are off limits without the correct authorization that only I possess.”

  A few moments passed while everything sank in. “What is in the Level One Armory?”

  Then, the Hailey I knew and loved reappeared. “Princess Violet, you are aware that you don’t have clearance.”

  I held my breath while my mind went wild. Images from the archives of projectile warfare shattering the world shook me to the core. Amera had been a peaceful place, content to just be left alone. Even within the nine realms, suspicion and old ways kept many of the realms isolated even from each other.

  I thought of the guards in the palace; they were some of the best warriors Amera had. Because of their specialized abilities, many of them were from Exa, the realm that produced guards with shield abilities, and Ico the Realm of transporters, those who could move people and objects through space in a blink. But was it enough? Even the most talented had limits.

  The Elder Council had always insisted every realm retain an army of sorts, a portion of the citizens that trained despite the peace. I had believed it had been for the sake of tradition. But now I knew better. My parents, the Council of Kings and Queens, the Elders, they all imagined that this could happen. I could only wonder, now that it was happening, did they know?

  What were the Hg-1 doing here? Did they know the Ark was here all along? I had so many questions, but there was one that haunted me the most. Two weeks here and I had no idea what was at the depths of the vaults out of my reach.

  Level One Armory. I shivered. It wasn’t if the humans gained access that worried me; it was what they would do with what they found there.

  “Hailey, I have to go home.”

  “Yes, Princess,” Hailey agreed. “You do.”

  If I thought getting into the Ark was hard, it was nothing compared to Hailey’s plan to get us out.

  “You want me to climb to the northern exit, get surveillance, then slide one hundred feet down a shaft that is virtually a straight drop and catch a sliver of metal, all while carrying a fox, I might add, to get to a vent that leads me to a hatch that may or may not have hundreds of tons of debris blocking it? Then, attach you to the port that will allow you to get the information I need, but will alert the other Hailey and the humans that we are here. Is that all?” I stared at the screen, waiting for the punchline.

  “Not entirely, Princess. You need to make sure there is not an encampment outside the Ark; these humans may not have come alone.”

  “That’s the part that worries you?” I asked, trying to visualize her plan. “Don’t you think the rest would have shown up by now?”

  “We don’t know there haven’t been reinforcements. I have no access to the surveillance system. Not without alerting the other Hailey, and we don’t want to do that until the last possible moment. We can go without the data and leave undetected,” she offered.

  “I can’t go without more proof than a twenty-second video of one green face staring at a door. It could be anyone in that video.”

  “Then, I recommend we stick to the plan. The only cameras we can access without internal detection are outside the thermal shield. The other Hailey can only get to them by shutting the thermal shield down to less than ten percent, enough for a human of any kind to walk through without injury.”

  “I passed through a shield?” I asked, wondering what it might have done to me.

  “Without entry by a visiting party,” she continued, ignoring my question, “the shield is only lowered twice a year for updates. I did it when you arrived, but since I scrubbed your entry, the other Hailey would have done it when the humans arrived.”

  “I’m still not ready to believe there are two of you.”

  She plowed on. “The northern gate has the only functioning satellite connection. You can tap into it, and we can get a visual of the area over the last forty-eight hours.”

  “That’s it?” I asked, surprised.

  Hailey shrugged. “The system only keeps segments that have a direct effect on the Ark’s mission and seasonal images of the change in climate. But all the data dumps are sent to the Ark’s archives, which is run by the other Hailey.”

  “How has she not realized I’m here already?” I asked.

  “I cannot tell you the entire process, first because you do not have clearance, but even if you did, we don’t have time. What I will say is that by using a series of protocols, it gave me the authorization to make the sections you have clearance to appear as if they were in hibernation, which is the status they were in before you arrived.”

  “Why would you do that?” My eyes narrowed as I tried to understand her motivations.

  “Princess, it would take years to explain the protocol system to you, and why I made the decisions I made. We can discuss it, or we can continue to structure this plan. I am happy to do either.”

  I blew a hair out of my face. She was right: I had to focus. Hailey was the expert on where I could go and why. I didn’t have time to understand it. I just had to trust her. To my surprise, I realized that I did. Completely. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what the other Hailey was like now that she only had interaction with the humans in her records. How different were they?

  “Okay, let’s just say we determine there is no one in the area, then I go to this hatch above the gate I came in. We don’t know if the cave in I caused has blocked it, right?”

  “At the last scan, there was some blockage, but nothing that was causing tensile stress with the thermal shield when you arrived. Our concern would be if there is a way out of the caves that you can navigate.”

  “Speaking of the shield, how am I supposed to get through that without deactivating it?”

  “Everything in the Ark runs on geothermal energy, like the colonies. The heat in the thermal shield, however, needs to vent. It’s complicated, but what matters is that it takes time. For eleven seconds every twenty hours, the shield is at its weakest. That is when you will be able to pass undetected.” Hailey’s face dissolved, and a schematic of the Ark’s outer structure appeared in blue. A section changed to a bright red and Hailey continued, “This shaft runs outside the shield. It is part of the design to monitor external climate. Once you pass through, she won’t be able to see you. You will be able to get to the northern gate and slide down to the hatch.”

  “Down the hatch. You say that like it’s an easy thing to do.”

  “I said to the hatch. Regardless, it should be simple enough. At least you don’t have to climb.”

  “Hailey, it’s a straight drop.” I grimaced at the schematic.

  “Not even close,” she said, shaking her head. “It has a slope of sixty degrees that is traversable. You could climb up that.”

  Staring at the glowing rectangle in my hands, I wondered if something had happened to her during the transfer from the Ark to the tablet. �
�You realize you’re talking to me, right?”

  “Clearly, I am talking to you. If you are worried about the vent, a child’s slide in American parks were as much as a forty-degree decline; this is barely more.”

  “It’s twenty degrees more if you are going to get picky,” I interjected. Certain broken bones were in my future. I could only hope they were mine and not Jane’s. “Where is an Angelian when you need one?” I chewed my lip, wishing I could fly like them.

  “I do not have the coordinates of Sunset Mountain,” Hailey answered.

  I gave the tablet a sharp look. “What do we do if there are more humans in the area? I can’t outrun them.”

  Hailey’s face morphed into a knowing grin. “Look in the closet. The one to the right of the bed.”

  Walking around the bed, I approached the smooth wall, noticing it was shinier than the rest of the room.

  “This is a door?” I asked, searching for a way to open it.

  “Double tap,” Hailey instructed.

  Pressing twice, the wall slid open to reveal a room that seemed to have no end. There was a rectangular floor that was twelve feet deep, and a vast array of colors hung on a series of racks holding a mix of clothes that could be for men, women, or both. Cuts of fabric from dozens of eras hung neatly in rows towering equally as high as they stretched below.

  “Lily would love this,” I whispered.

  “Your childhood friend?”

  “Yes, she would know exactly what to do with all of this,” I mused, but staring at the rows of fabric, I asked, “How is fashion going to help me?”

  “On your right, enter Surrey Nano black.”

  Just inside the panel, there was a tablet mounted on the wall. I punched in the words. Icons appeared in the shape of a head, torso, hands, and legs. “Now what?”

  “Tap on all of the icons and enter elastafit sixty-four inches by thirty inches. Then confirm.” When my finger pressed that last button, the racks swirled in a blur of color until they stopped a few seconds later. From the nearest rack, a single hanger slid out from others in its row. “You are going to wear that.”

  The hanger seemed to be cut in half by a drape of black empty space. “What exactly am I wearing?”