The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set

by D J Edwardson

  Adan gave a start. Perhaps it was just a good guess. Perhaps Adan’s expressions were simply easy to read.

  But perhaps not.

  Instinctively, Adan turned his focus to that place in his mind where he had connected to Will. But Gavin was not there, nor anything else. Gavin’s mind was as dark as if Adan’s bioseine had never been initialized.

  Gavin took a step towards Adan, a keen look blazing in his eyes. “Will initialized your bioseine? But how could that be? Tell me what he has planned, Adan.”

  Adan shrank back. Instead of answers, Gavin was giving him only questions. Just like the scientists. And just like with them, Adan sensed the questions were leading ones. He didn’t know how Gavin was listening to his thoughts, but Gavin was baiting him into thinking about Will’s plans. Adan forced himself to focus on something else: the rise and fall of the wind, irregularities in the texture of the char walls—anything to keep his mind from thinking about Will.

  Gavin held out his arm, pushing up his sleeve. On his wrist, he wore a black band with a flat, yellow crystal embedded into it.

  “Adan, I know this is making you uncomfortable, but please, hear me out. This is an inhibitor. It keeps me from connecting directly to other people’s minds. I wore it so that Will would know he was safe around me. But I need to find out what’s going on in Oasis. If I take this off, would you be willing to open your mind to me? I may be able to find traces of the Developer’s plans inside you as well. It would only take a moment and I promise only to look at what I need to.”

  Adan couldn’t decide if he was repulsed or perplexed by Gavin’s request. If he was a Developer, why was even bothering to ask permission? He could break into Adan’s mind easier than knocking down the compound door if he wanted to. That aside, if Adan had any say in the matter, the choice was clear. Letting a Developer mine his thoughts was the last thing he was going to agree to. There was no telling what he might do.

  “No. I can’t let you do that.” Adan said, trying to keep his mind focused on the conversation and nothing else. “Besides, you already seem to have a way of reading my thoughts. Why do you need my permission?”

  Adan tried to sound firm, tried to stand his ground, but he knew there probably was nothing he could do to stop Gavin from doing what he wanted to do.

  Gavin didn’t seem at all upset by Adan’s answer. “I understand. I’m a stranger and a very intrusive one at that. I’d have said the same thing if I were in your position.”

  Not for the first time, his response left Adan doubting his assessment of Gavin.

  “How do you do it? How do you read someone’s thoughts without the bioseine?”

  “Well, I was only reading surface thoughts. It’s not always accurate and it only reveals what the person is thinking at the time. It’s hard to describe what it’s like. The knowledge comes to you as a sort of intuition. It functions similar to the way a bioseine connection does. You find yourself knowing things about others just by wondering about them. But in other ways it’s completely different.

  “When you read from an esolace device, for instance, you can explore the information almost instantaneously. It’s stored in a form of universal thought that anyone with a bioseine can understand. But if you connect to the mind of another person with just your bioseine, you see only what they want you to see. If they don’t want you to know what they’re thinking, it will seem like a confused jumble. That’s because everyone organizes their thoughts in a different way, not in the universal language of the esolace. But memorants do not suffer from this limitation. We can understand someone else’s thoughts as if they were our own.”

  “But what do you use it for?” Thoughts of Will crept back in as he glanced at the door, but he pushed them aside, afraid they might lead to something he didn’t want Gavin to know.

  “To probe, to look for deviant thoughts—things which might be a threat to the Collective,” Gavin said.

  “And what do you do when you find them?”

  “We manipulate them back into what we want them to be. We call it ‘equalizing’. It’s a little like remapping, only less invasive, less extensive of a change.”

  So are my thoughts even my own? Are they telling me what to think even now, outside the Institute? Adan’s eyes searched the compound, as if he could spot the invisible presence of the Developers and unveil the way they were manipulating him behind the scenes. But everything looked normal, as dirty and run down as before, the furthest thing from the Institute possible.

  “So you can manipulate people’s thoughts. Are you doing that to me right now?”

  Gavin looked disappointed. “No. I don’t do that any more. Besides, that would require a direct connection. As long as I’m wearing an inhibitor, you’re safe. In fact, I should apologize for reading even your surface thoughts. It was wrong of me to do so and I promise I won’t do it again. It just caught me off guard when I learned that Will had initialized your bioseine. I didn’t know he knew how to do such things.”

  Gavin’s words seemed genuine, but they did little to relieve the tension Adan felt in his presence.

  “I want to believe you, but I have no way of knowing whether or not you’re telling the truth,” Adan said.

  Gavin sighed and gave a knowing nod. He turned his back and wandered towards the other side of the compound. It suddenly struck Adan how utterly alone he looked.

  “What made you want to change?” Adan asked, his compassion for this man pushing aside his reservations for the moment. “Why did you leave the Developers?”

  “The chronotrace,” Gavin said, turning back. A hint of life returned to his voice. “At least that was the key that opened the door to my cell. Someone else turned the lock.”

  Night was coming on. Adan tried to read Gavin’s face in the fading light, but his expression was as enigmatic as his answer.

  “The chronotrace? What’s that?”

  “A device with the ability to trace back in time. It lets you look into the past.” Gavin’s voice warmed a shade more.

  “Look back in time? Any time?” Adan’s mind swirled with the possibilities of such a device.

  “Well, in its present state, it can’t go very far back—yet. It’s still a prototype, and it’s far too inefficient; it requires too much power to go back for more than a short period of time.” Gavin patted his cloak, a thoughtful look on his face. “I have it with me, if you’d like to see it.”

  Was this another trick? He could have anything in there. But Adan’s curiosity crowded out his fears. He nodded in reply.

  Gavin reached inside his cloak, drawing forth a device not much larger than his hand. He held the black half-sphere with a sort of reverence which Adan found odd, admiring the shiny surface as if seeing it for the first time. He brushed the translucent crystal panel on top, though it looked perfectly clean. The silver ring separating this panel from the lower section looked to be in equally perfect condition. It made the shifter look rather shabby.

  “It uses predictive time-map branching to eliminate false events until it finds the single necessary condition for the moment in question,” Gavin explained, his tone positively brimming with enthusiasm now. “Running through the algorithm, over and over again, iterating back in time, a picture can be constructed which accurately shows what took place at a given location.”

  “Can you show me how it works?” Adan asked, excitement creeping into his voice despite his best efforts to contain himself.

  “I’m afraid I can’t. As I said, it takes enormous amounts of power. Out here in the Vast, we simply don’t have access to an energy array of sufficient size to use it. And besides, there isn’t time. It’s getting dark. It doesn’t look like Will is coming back. I should probably be going. It looks like I’ll just have to discover what’s going on in Oasis on my own.” Gavin slid the invention carefully back inside his cloak.

  “Are you sure you have to go back? Do you really think you can stop what they’re doing?”

  “I have no choice.�
� The look in Gavin’s eyes was one of determination, but Adan thought he saw something else behind that: fear. He sensed that Gavin knew he might not be coming back. Adan certainly understood his reservations. He had the same ones about Will’s plan.

  Gavin grabbed Adan’s arm unexpectedly. “Tell him not to go back.”

  Adan gave him a puzzled look. “How did you—you were reading my thoughts again, weren’t you?”

  “I’m sorry. Sometimes it’s hard not to notice things.”

  “I can’t tell him that,” Adan said, yanking his arm away. “Will has his own ideas.” You’re getting dangerously close, Adan. Think about something else—quick. He shifted his thoughts to the low moaning winds outside. Was another storm coming on?

  “Yes, but there is no point in throwing your lives away,” Gavin said.

  Gavin’s tone was full of compassion, but Adan trusted Will far more than he did a former Developer.

  “I know it’s dangerous, but he knows what he’s doing. I’ve seen it in his eyes,” Adan said, trying to keep his thoughts deliberately vague.

  Gavin drew his robe close around him. “Well, I can see you won’t listen to me, so I can only pray that you stay safe and that something keeps you from getting there. I’m glad, though, that at least Will has a friend like you.”

  Adan acknowledged the compliment with a nod, though he doubted he deserved it. He hadn’t done anything for Will yet, other than be weak and sick and drain his resources.

  “Whether you stay or go, be careful, Adan. There are somatarchs in this part of the Vast,” Gavin warned.

  “Will defeated them before. If they find us, he knows how to fight them.”

  “I wouldn’t count on the bioseine connection working the next time.”

  “Isn’t that how you defeated them?”

  “No. The ones I fought were different. They weren’t using any of the normal channels. And they were more intelligent.”

  “If you couldn’t control them, how did you defeat them?” He couldn’t help but think of Will out alone in the desert. He’d been gone far too long.

  “I brought an oscillathe with me when I left Oasis. I used it to kill the somatarchs,” Gavin said. “It’s a powerful weapon, but unfortunately it disintegrates its victim. I was not able to analyze their minds and discover what they knew or why they didn’t respond to the normal channels.”

  “If you have a weapon that can defeat an entire group of somatarchs, can’t the Welkin use that to protect themselves?”

  “The oscillathe uses esolace technology. It requires a bioseine to activate. The Welkin will be helpless if the somatarchs come again.” Gavin turned towards the door, barely visible now. The night’s grip on the compound was almost complete. “Well, Adan, I really must go now.”

  I want him to go, and yet…

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help,” Adan said. Somehow Gavin’s leaving filled Adan with sorrow. For all he knew this man was going to his death.

  “That’s all right. Please tell Will I’m sorry for the way things ended between us.” Gavin pulled his hood tight.

  “I will,” Adan said. He stepped over to one of the crates and pulled out a lumin so Gavin could see his way to the door. As the compound lit up, something glinted off to Adan’s right.

  “What’s that?” Gavin asked, turning to see what had caused the flash of light. Adan looked and there, resting on top of one of the barrels, was the extractor, its silvery sheen standing out amidst the dingy clutter of salvage.

  “Oh, that’s the—” Adan began before Gavin cut him off.

  “Where did he…?” Gavin started to say, but he didn’t finish the sentence.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Gavin stopped. Despite the light from the lumin, he was an ambiguous shape standing in the middle of the compound, looking as unfamiliar to Adan as when he had seen him for the first time.

  “Oh, it’s all right,” Gavin said. “I was just thinking. Adan, if I could have a look at that extractor—just before I leave?”

  Adan stared at him for a moment, trying to gauge his intentions. The details of his face melted into the shadows of his hood.

  “You don’t want to take it do you? I think it’s very important to Will,” Adan took a nervous step towards the extractor.

  “No, no,” Gavin said. “I just want to take a look at it. I didn’t realize Will had one.”

  Adan froze. He couldn’t think of a reason why Gavin would need to look at the extractor. And yet there was something in Gavin’s voice which made it clear that nothing else mattered to him at that moment.

  He’s a Developer. Adan thought to himself. And he can read my thoughts. He may be reading them right now. What should I do?

  Adan couldn’t think. All he knew was that he had to get the extractor and then he would tell Gavin something—some reason why he couldn’t let him examine it. The words would come to him.

  He picked up his pace. Marching as quickly as he dared to the extractor, holding up the lumin so that it gave off as much light as possible.

  As he got close, Adan thought he heard the sound of metal scraping against metal. It might just have been the door flapping against its frame, but the winds had gone strangely quiet. But he didn’t turn back. He had to get the extractor first.

  Staccato thumps pounded in the sand, coming up behind him. “I’m sorry, Adan,” Gavin muttered under his breath.

  Adan started to turn around, but he never saw a thing. Something hard and brutal connected with the back of his head. That was the last thing he remembered.

  Twenty-Three

  The Extractor

  “Adan…” the word came drifting in from far away. “Adan, come on…Can you hear me?”

  Adan opened his eyes. Will’s face hovered above his, lit by the light of the lumin he held in his hand.

  “It’s about time you came around,” Will said. “I thought I was going to have to give you some more almamenth. How are you feeling?”

  Adan lay sprawled out amongst the canvas bags.

  “I’m okay,” he said, sitting up. His neck was stiff, but other than that he was fine. “Where’s Gavin?”

  Will stood up and took a step back. “He’s gone. Do you have any idea why he did this to you?”

  Adan tried to recall what had happened just before he got knocked out. He was walking Gavin to the door when he noticed—“The extractor. Where’s the extractor?”

  Will turned to the side and pointed. It was right where it had been before, on top of the barrel.

  “What’s that got to do with anything? Did Gavin notice it?” Will asked, his face tensing.

  Adan rose and walked over to it. “He said he wanted to look at it. That’s the last thing I remember before I went unconscious.”

  Everything in the compound looked the same. The only thing that was different was a crooked metal tube that lay in the sand near the bags. That must have been what Adan felt hitting the back of his neck.

  “How did you know Gavin was here, anyway? You didn’t act surprised when I asked you where he was,” Adan said.

  “I saw him heading this way when I was out checking the sensors. I watched him go inside and then waited until he left. I’m sorry. If I had known you were in danger, I wouldn’t have left you alone.”

  “So you knew he was here the whole time?”

  “Yes.” Will looked away, obviously upset with himself. “I still can’t believe he did this to you.”

  Adan felt mixed emotions. On the one hand, he was upset Will had left him to fend for himself, especially in light of the way things turned out. But he wondered what would have happened if Will had come back.

  “He told me that something had come between you two. He also said he regretted what happened.”

  “He didn’t tell you what he said the last time we spoke, did he?” Will said, picking up the makeshift club Gavin had used on Adan. He shoved it into a nearby barrel with far more force than needed.

  Adan shook his h
ead.

  “He threatened to erase my memory, at least the part about Oasis.”

  After the way the encounter with Gavin had unfolded, this news didn’t really surprise Adan. Gavin clearly didn’t want Will having anything to do with that city.

  “Why do you think he wanted the extractor?” Adan asked.

  Will picked up the device and stared at it for a moment. Adan sensed his mind probing the extractor’s contents. “There’s nothing in there he doesn’t know already,” Will said at last. “It’s all copied from his own records. And he didn’t take it with him. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “He was surprised that you had it, I think,” Adan said.

  “Maybe he just wanted to know how much I knew. And he didn’t bother erasing it because he realized I’d probably learned everything I needed from it already.”

  “So you stole the information in there from Gavin?”

  Will crossed his arms defensively. “How else was I supposed to figure out how to stop Oasis?”

  Adan was starting to get the feeling he’d gotten caught between two people, neither of whom was entirely in the right.

  “Did he say anything else?” Will asked. “Why did he come out here anyway?”

  “Oh—I completely forgot. The Welkin. They were attacked again by somatarchs.” Adan’s mood shifted as he remembered the threat to the Welkin. The stiffness in his neck and the disagreement between Gavin and Will were small things compared to the safety of these people.

  “What?” Will exclaimed, casting the extractor aside so that it clattered on top of one of the barrels.

  “Several more died.” In his mind he heard the whistling shafts flying through the dark once again.

  Will’s grimaced in a mixture of anger and pain, like he was somewhere between rushing back to the Viscera and breaking into tears. Adan had never seen him this emotional.

  “But he defeated them, right?” Will asked.

  “Yes, but he said the bioseine connection didn’t work.”

  “That’s impossible. He’s a Developer. It should have been even easier for him than it was for me.”