The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set

by D J Edwardson

  “It’s good to see you again,” Senya said finally, the kindness in her voice matching the expression on her face. “When you left…you had a look in your eyes like you might not be coming back.”

  Gavin cleared his throat, acknowledging her words with a nod. With their utterance he felt the anxiousness chains within loosen, at last freeing him to speak.

  “I’m glad our paths have crossed again, but as Halerin has told you…”

  “I know. You don’t remember us anymore. You’re like Will was at first. They…did something to you, didn’t they, in that city the elders told us not to speak of?”

  As the tension in the room eased, Gavin’s memorant abilities began to quicken and return. He could finally read the emotions running through her. She felt sorry for him, and yet there was a kind of reserved respect there as well. She remembered how kind he had been to her family, but wasn’t sure what to expect from him now.

  “Yes, but my memories are not what’s important at the moment,” Gavin said. “What is important is that you’re here and you’re safe. Even though I may have failed in what I set out to do, that much, at least, came to pass.”

  A cold ball of nerves rolled down his back as he spoke, but Senya reached out and placed her hand over his. “Thank you for saving us,” she said, squeezing it softly. “If it were not for you, Adan, and your friends, we would have all been killed.”

  A pleasant warmth washed over Gavin as he returned her gaze. He struggled to find a fitting response, but words eluded him. It was not from awkwardness this time, but simply because he realized that words were inadequate for what he felt at that moment. He couldn’t remember ever being in the presence of someone so obviously honest and good. Hope radiated from her, promising that, despite all that had happened, everything would turn out all right in the end. As much as he wanted to give in to that hope, his analytical mind would not surrender so easily. The loss of Adan and the other Sentients, as well as the fact that the Collective was reestablishing itself in the city of Hull, weighed heavily upon him.

  “Senya, one of the things Adan gave back to me was my memory of the eidos and the revelations of Numinae. He said that most of the Welkin believe in him too, especially you.”

  “Yes, that is true. He is the source of my hope.” Senya’s eyes searched his, as if she sensed the doubts lurking in the back of his mind and sought to banish them through the light of her gaze.

  “Do you think he will help us? As safe as you may feel here, everyone else on this ship in terrible danger. And I really don’t know if I can fix things this time. There are so many things out of my control.”

  “Gavin, it’s not your fault we were captured by Waymen,” Senya said.

  “If I had stayed I could have protected you.”

  “But you told us that leaving was the best way to protect us. And, as you said, that part came to pass.”

  Gavin withdrew his hands to he edge of the table, rubbing the corners nervously. The material was so unyielding, the flawless surface immune to scratches and blemishes. Why was it not the same with the human will? Why did it have to waver and collapse in upon itself so easily? Why could men not impose their will upon the events of life in the same way they produced this perfect rectangle of purpose and design?

  “Senya, there’s something I have to tell you. Halerin would have told you earlier, but he was too busy looking for me.”

  “Is it about Adan?”

  “No, it’s about your daughter and the rest of your knit. Halerin said that they fled east of the Basin after I left.”

  Senya’s hand went to her lips. It trembled as she spoke. “Is she all right? Did something happen to the knit?”

  “No, not that we know of. But they may be in danger and I thought you should know about it.”

  “Oh, Gavin, what is it? The Waymen? More of those flying ships?” For the first time the light in her eyes wavered.

  “No, it’s the land itself. It’s not stable. Something’s not right. The tunnels of the Viscera are collapsing in on themselves and we don’t know why. It may be that the part of the Viscera where your knit fled to remains untouched, but we just wanted to let you know that we’re doing everything in our power to—”

  Senya reached over and clutched his hand once again. “Take me to them. Please, Gavin, you can do that, right?” Tears tumbled down her cheeks. “Oh, Lila, my little girl…”

  Gavin covered both her trembling hands in his. “Senya, that’s one of the reasons I came to see you today, to find out where your people fled to so that we can go and find them.”

  Senya made no effort to wipe her tears, but the hopeful light in her eyes blazed anew.

  “Of course I will tell you where they are. Anything to find my Lila and help our people. But before I do, you asked me about Numinae. You asked if he ever intervenes. I believe he does. I’ve seen terrible things happen to our people, but I’ve seen help come at unexpected times and in unexpected ways as well, ways that could only be from him. He will help us if that is his will.”

  Gavin sighed, his hopes buoyed as much by the light in her eyes that shone through the sadness as by her words.

  “I used to know him, didn’t I?” Gavin asked plaintively.

  Senya brushed her tears away at last and quickly grabbed his hand. Her touch was no longer desperate, but gentle.

  “Your faith was very strong, Mendigo. That’s what we used to call you. It means ‘beggar.’ You told us that you came seeking the truth and so the Maneusis chose that name for you.”

  “Beggar…an odd word. We had no need to beg in Oasis. We had everything we needed.”

  “Not everything. Otherwise you would not have left.”

  “You are right,” Gavin said. “And it seems that Numinae had a hand in helping me see the emptiness at the heart of that city. Even abundance can be lack if he is not a part of it. I just wish I knew what he was planning now, so that I could go and do it. I feel so helpless.”

  “We will seek him, then, as we did in our hogar when you were with us. And he will hear us now as he did then,” she assured him. “And it may be that, in time, he will also reveal to us what his plan may be.”

  Then, at a nod from Gavin, she bowed her head and lifted her hands in prayer.

  It turned out that the part of the Viscera where Senya’s people had fled to was two and a half days away from their present location. It was a place the Welkin referred to as The Catacombs. These tunnels served as a burial grounds for their dead, though many caves within the Catacombs had yet to be given over to this purpose. Normally it was uninhabited, but in times of emergency, the Welkin sometimes fled there since the Waymen feared to come near it. The Maven, with Halerin at the helm, set a course for this place based on the information Senya provided.

  Gavin spent the rest of the day and most of the night in the lab, tweaking the chronotrace, trying to improve its capabilities without the use of the celerium core. Though it still had a small celerium wafer inside it, this proved inadequate to re-enable the thought mapping or accelerated temporal projection algorithms he needed. Early in the morning, he gave up and retired to his quarters. He was still recovering from his ordeal in the desert, so he applied some almamenth to his skin before going to sleep.

  Barely two slices later, Halerin invaded his consciousness with a mental message which roused him from sleep.

  “Gavin, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I have some important news. It’s the celerium, it seems to have made a complete recovery during the night. We’ve already connected it back to the energy mesh and everything seems to be working perfectly.”

  Gavin sat up and groped for the lab coat which he’d cast at the end of the bed. “Wonderful. I’ll meet you in the Command Center and we can plan where to go from here.”

  “I’ll see you in a bit, then,” Halerin replied.

  Gavin rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Donning his robe, he stepped out the door. He turned to head down the hall, but hesitated when he spotted Kelm emerging f
rom his room at the same time. Though the two shared quarters next to each other, this was the first time Gavin had run into him since their arrival.

  Halerin had informed him that Kelm had been asking several of the Sentients about the chronotrace, specifically when he would be able to recover the information about his past. The other Sentients had done their best to explain the situation to him, that the chronotrace was not functioning properly, but Kelm did not take the news well, accusing Gavin and the other Sentients of treachery and false promises. On one occasion he had even attacked one of the Sentients and had to be pulled off him by two Waymen who happened to be nearby. Kelm had backed off rather quickly after being confronted, going so far as to apologize for losing control.

  Gavin had planned on addressing these matters at some point, but had wanted to wait until they got the chronotrace working. Now, as Kelm hurried his way, it looked like Gavin would be forced to address the situation sooner than he had hoped.

  “Oh, Gavin, you’re up,” Kelm exclaimed. “I couldn’t sleep either. Were you up all night working on the chronotrace? Is it fixed?”

  Gavin took a quick breath. “I’m going to talk to Halerin about it now. I’ll let you know as soon as everything’s ready.” He made to take his leave at that point, hoping that would be enough to resolve the issue, but Kelm stepped in front of him, blocking his way.

  “So there’s hope that you’ll be able to find out about my past soon? Do you think it will be today?” Kelm asked.

  Gavin sensed Kelm fighting to control his emotions, to not let his desperation master him.

  “Not today, Kelm,” Gavin said, regretfully. “But don’t give up hope. It should be very soon. As I said, I’ll let you know as soon as I start the trace of your past. Right now, though, I’ve got to go. I’m on my way to a meeting with Halerin.”

  “I—could I go with you? Maybe I could help?” Kelm offered, his voice sounding feeble and pathetic, as if he hoped to move Gavin into a display of compassion.

  “I’m sorry, Kelm,” Gavin said firmly. “I’m afraid I need to meet with him privately. I hope you understand. How about if I stop by your quarters tonight and fill you in on what we find out? Would that be all right?”

  Kelm started grinding his teeth. Gavin sensed an outburst might be imminent so he took advantage of Kelm’s momentary hesitation to dart past him. “I’ll talk to you tonight,” he blurted out over his shoulder as he strode briskly down the corridor. He didn’t bother looking back and thankfully Kelm said nothing in reply. Gavin hoped he would not take this further delay too hard and do something rash.

  Twenty-Eight

  Incident in the Lab

  With the energy mesh finally back at full strength, Gavin and Halerin focused their efforts on coordinating the rescue of the families of the refugees they had taken in from Hull. The two Sentients met with representatives from the various Welkin knits and Waymen thrals on the ship to discuss their plans. Since Senya’s knit was the closest, it was decided that they would be the first to be rescued.

  But even though this decision made sense, it generated some resentment among the Waymen. This in turn set off Malloc, the leader of Senya’s people, who glowered at the Waymen gathered and shouted that none of them deserved to be rescued at all. Both sides fell to bickering, the Waymen claiming that they had been on the ship first and the Welkin recounting the atrocities they had endured from the Waymen raids. The two groups nearly came to blows. Only by hastily adjourning the meeting was an out and out brawl avoided.

  As the agitated gathering dispersed Gavin hurried towards the Command Center and tried to put the meeting behind him by turning his thoughts to the chronotrace. He was anxious to find out what the Collective planned on doing with Hull, but more than that, what they had planned for Adan and the other captives. He had some ideas and none of them were good.

  The thoughts of Dillon, the chief energy systems technician in Raif’s absence, came to Gavin through the esolace. “The majority of the bismine reserves should be fully charged before the end of the day. We will be near one hundred percent by tomorrow.”

  “I would like to renew my work with the chronotrace as soon as possible,” Gavin replied. “Do you think we could transfer the core to my lab before the reserves are fully charged?”

  “If necessary. Even with the reserves at half charge, we can power basic flight capabilities and normal operational systems for up to seven days.”

  “I should only need it for a day or two to complete the traces I need. Whenever the reserves get to fifty percent, have the core sent over,” Gavin replied.

  He sensed Dillon’s mind interacting with the system monitoring the bismine reserves. It was a little like watching someone assemble a puzzle, only at a very fast pace. “We should hit that in just over four slices from now,” Dillon informed him. “We’ll have it in the lab half a slice after that.”

  “Excellent. I appreciate all your work, Dillon.”

  Finally, some good news at the end of a long day.

  Once again, the intrusion of someone else’s thoughts shook Gavin awake. It was Dillon.

  “I’m sorry for waking you, Gavin, but I thought you should be alerted. There appears to have been a malfunction with the chronotrace. Its energy signature is no longer appearing on the system.”

  Gavin rolled over and threw one leg off the edge of his bed, still half-asleep. “That’s odd. When did it go off system?”

  “Almost half a slice back. I’m sorry. I was doing some optimization on the energy mesh and didn’t notice it had gone down.”

  “Perfectly understandable. I’ll head down to investigate the issue.” Gavin had learned his lesson from last time and had slept in his lab coat.

  “I have a team on the way,” Dillon told him. “You don’t have to go yourself. I just wanted to let you know what was going on.”

  “No, I would prefer to see it first hand. The chronotrace is my invention and I would like to find out what went wrong and resolve the issue as soon as possible. Every moment we lose delays us finding the Sentient captives.”

  “Very well, should I recall the two men I sent?”

  Gavin was about to answer yes, but then thought better of it. If the problem was with the celerium core someone might need to transfer it back into the energy well for testing.

  “No, I will meet them there,” he replied.

  He slipped on his shoes and headed out the door. Quick steps soon brought him to the lev shaft at the end of the hall. With a brief mental command, he called for a disc to carry him down to the lab level, but the esolace informed him that the lev in that particular shaft was out of commission. He tromped away from the access door and headed to the ramp. He picked up his pace to make up for having to take the long way. When he came out on level five, he finally stopped to catch his breath, looking down the corridor towards the lab. Immediately he realized that something was wrong. The door was open. Doors never stayed open on the ship; they always closed automatically. Looking closer, he noticed someone’s hand laying across the threshold, unmoving.

  Gavin rushed forward to see who it was. The lab entrance was about fifty paces away, but when he got within thirty, a powerful, acrid odor crawled up his nose. He became lightheaded and staggered, catching himself against the wall. His thoughts became fuzzy, but he had enough clarity of thought to send a message across the Maven’s esolace before his mind went all the way under.

  “Halerin? Halerin, are you there?” His mind groped through the mental darkness. There was no answer. Halerin must have been asleep, Gavin reasoned, but then he couldn’t remember whether or not that would have made any difference. He forced his thoughts in a different direction. “Dillon, something’s wrong. I can’t find Halerin. Do you know where he is?” He slid down something smooth and hard. Or maybe he was being pulled up instead. He couldn’t tell. He was so dizzy.

  “Gavin, what’s wrong? Your mental signature is fading. I can barely make it out.” After that Dillon’s thoughts collapsed i
n a mangled heap of unintelligibility.

  Gavin’s mind dimmed to almost black and then, unexpectedly, his head began to clear.

  “Gavin? Gavin, can you make out what I’m thinking?” Dillon pressed him.

  “Yes, it’s getting better. I can think again.”

  “Good. You started to fade on me so I ran a diagnostic and found a high concentration of namarin in the air at your location. I recycled the vents in that sector hoping to neutralize it before I lost you.”

  “Good thinking. You need to let Halerin know what’s happening.”

  Dillon paused briefly before answering. “I can’t reach him. It looks like he disconnected from the system about two slices before midnight. No trace of him after that.”

  “Strange.”

  “What about the namarin? Do you know where that came from?”

  “We had some in the lab for surgical purposes, but it was stored in gel form, not as a gas. Something must have gone wrong in there, an accident of some sort,” Gavin conjectured.

  “Did Anders and Quinn make it? They’re the technicians I sent,” Dillon asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Gavin worked his way to his feet, his legs still lethargic from the effects of the gas. “I think at least one of them passed out from the gas. I see a hand in the doorway, that’s all.”

  Dillon’s thoughts clouded over. Tension often made a person’s thoughts opaque. Like the rest of the Sentients, Dillon had only been awakened from the Collective a few days ago. He had no idea how to handle a situation like this.

  “Dillon, I need you to focus,” Gavin attempted to draw him out, but it was no use. Once again, their connection began to fade. Gavin started thinking of random things. Unconnected words and concepts popped into his brain. Neon, spastic ribbons, floundering cloth jars, crusty fuchsia clouds. Whatever odd thing he could think of. It was a memorant technique to shock someone’s mind into letting him in. After a few more moments of technicolor speculation it worked. Dillon’s mind came back.