A Light in the Dark

by A. K. DuBoff

  When we began walking toward the lift up to Central Command, Toran and Maris emerged from their cabins.

  “Calling us back already?” Toran said as he jogged to catch up to us.

  “I’d just fallen asleep.” Maris sighed. “I guess we’ll all need a pick-me-up.”

  A moment later, a green wave passed over me, leaving me refreshed. “Thanks, Maris.”

  She smiled. “Anytime.”

  The healing magic wouldn’t sustain us long-term, but it would buy extra hours in between proper sleep. Not knowing what we were about to walk into, I’d take any advantage I could get.

  We were buzzed through the entry door to the bridge when we arrived, and Colren was talking with the helm officer. One of the techs motioned for us to wait in the corral of workstations near the entry door.

  After concluding his conversation, Colren turned around to acknowledge us. “I know I promised you some rest before the jump, but we’ve uncovered some new information buried in the signal.”

  “We’re ready to help in any way we can,” Toran replied.

  “It may be nothing, but I wanted to get your impression of something since you’re the only ones to have visited a world in Darkness.” The commander swept his hand, and the front viewport changed from the view of a starscape to a split screen image depicting the darkened surface of three infected planets from a high elevation. “We left probes at the worlds we visited with you,” he continued. “We just received footage from Yantu, Erusan, and the Valor artifact world. In and of itself, the footage isn’t that remarkable. However, when we synced the time stamps and compared it to your combat log, it took on new perspective.”

  He waved his hand again and the three videos began to play. At the same time, an audio clip played. I instantly recognized my voice and the sounds of fighting during our engagement with the shadowcats earlier. The images of the planets were each of dark, swirling clouds. On the surface, tendrils of dark energy like we’d seen on Windau flowed across the landscape. The moment I slayed the final shadowcat in battle, however, there was a shudder in the energy flow on the other worlds—almost imperceptible.

  My eyes widened. “That’s not a coincidence, is it?”

  “Was there anything significant about that battle?” Colren asked.

  I flashed to my use of a fireball, but quickly shoved it aside. Kaiden has used plenty of magic before. Unless… “Were there any other instances like this in the recording?” I asked.

  “Nothing from during your most recent mission. We haven’t checked others,” the commander replied.

  That confirmed it wasn’t the use of magic itself. But me wielding it couldn’t be all that different. At least, that’s what I insisted on telling myself. There were plenty of other explanations.

  Kaiden glanced at me, but he said nothing.

  I swallowed. “We were tapped into the crystal at the time. Maybe that augmented whatever natural link exists between the worlds through the crystalline network.” Logically, that made more sense than the odd behavior being the result of me casting magic. The timing, though… I couldn’t explain why the Darkness has reacted at the moment it did rather than showing constant signs throughout the sync when the other shadowcats had been slain.

  “Given that the signal seems to be everywhere, that makes sense,” Kaiden agreed.

  Toran nodded thoughtfully. “If we can learn how to tap into the crystal’s controls ourselves, we may be able to fight back against the Darkness.”

  “It’s something for us to observe further, I suppose,” the commander said after a pause. “Nothing more we can do at present. Now, I’ve kept you from your rest for long enough. I’ll see you after the jump.”

  We bid our farewell and filed out from the bridge.

  “Really, they had to wake us up for that?” Maris grumbled.

  “It was a very strange observation indeed,” Toran stated. “I can’t think of anything that stood out in that moment compared to any other.”

  “Definitely strange,” Kaiden said quietly. He caught my gaze again, and I gave a subtle nod.

  Whatever was happening with my abilities, it may have given me more of a connection to the Darkness than anyone realized.

  10

  I stared out at the alien starscape, hoping for a clear sign of why the signal had pointed to this specific location. The aftereffects of the spatial jump still clouded my mind, but the adrenaline rush from reaching our destination was quickly bringing me back to full awareness.

  Next to me, Kaiden frowned at the void. “Something doesn’t feel right about this place.”

  “I know what you mean,” Maris agreed, arms crossed. “I feel like I’m being watched.”

  I wanted to tell her it was all in her head, except I wasn’t sure she was wrong. The aliens could be watching us, waiting to strike. I hated feeling like I was waiting in a trap. “How long are we going to hang out here?”

  Toran shook his head. “At this point, I believe the commander intends to wait until we make contact.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Was I really going to be on the welcoming committee for the first alien contact in generations? “How long might that take?”

  “Stars if I know.” Kaiden sighed. “Say, doesn’t this ship have some sort of interface with the Master Archive?”

  “That won’t do any good now that the Archive is sealed—same reason we didn’t use it to get any leads over the last week,” Toran replied.

  Kaiden waved his hand. “Not for new leads—looking backward. Before the Archive was sealed, did they extract any more information about which worlds would be affected?”

  “Pretty sure Colren would have mentioned if they had anything like that,” Maris said. “Sounds like the information source was cut off as soon as we were done.”

  “But they knew there were blank points in the Archive,” Kaiden insisted. “So, they must have some information beyond what was real-time a week ago.”

  Maris screwed up her face for a couple seconds, thinking. “I dunno. Maybe, I guess.”

  “Well, if there is something the commander didn’t share with us, it might be in the same directory as data we extracted since it’s all connected to the Darkness,” Toran suggested.

  “Do you remember where that is?” I asked.

  “I think so.” He stepped over to the table in the center of our lounge room and began navigating through the computer network.

  “Why haven’t we gone looking for this info before?” Maris wondered aloud.

  “Probably because we thought we were being told everything,” Kaiden muttered.

  She tilted her head. “And what makes us think they’re keeping anything from us now? We were promised last week that we had been told everything the Hegemony knows.”

  “As much as I want to believe that’s the case, Colren was way too casual about coming here into an unpredictable situation facing likely alien contact,” Kaiden replied. “Do you really think we’d be here with no backup if the circumstances were as uncertain as they seem?”

  “That’s a good point,” I realized. “What do you think they’re keeping from us?”

  Maris’ eyes widened. “Do they know what the Darkness is?”

  “Doubt it. Colren has seemed genuinely surprised by every bit of information we’ve brought him,” I said.

  “Then what else?” she prompted.

  I looked to Kaiden. “Any thoughts?”

  “I think it has something to do with the Master Archive or the records,” he began slowly. “Every time he’s been especially cagey, it’s been connected to records of past events—or the things that are in the record that haven’t happened yet.”

  Maris frowned. “I still don’t get how that’s possible. If it hasn’t happened, it can’t be history. Time travel isn’t a thing.”

  “Not time travel. A reset,” Kaiden said.

  “Yes, the Archive appears to exist in a different plane that might not be
subject to the physical resets,” Toran stated while he browsed through files via the tabletop interface.

  I eyed him. “Meaning, there has already been a universal reset.”

  “I’d believe that sooner than I would time travel,” he replied.

  “If there’s been a reset, then why don’t we remember it?” That was how it always worked—our cognition remained intact.

  “It could have been well before our lifetime,” Kaiden replied. “Resets don’t have to be limited to going back only hours or days.”

  “But decades or centuries would mean…” Maris massaged her temples. “Nope, can’t do it.”

  “Makes my head hurt, too.” I rubbed my eyes. “But it’s all speculation. We might be reading way too much between the lines.”

  “Except, we’re not,” Toran murmured. He fanned out a set of documents on the touch-surface tabletop. “Bandwidth issues in the crystalline network could explain the memory issues. And, they do have evidence of a prior reset.”

  “Wait, really?” I came to attention. “From when?”

  Toran released a long breath. “That’s not clear—but a long time ago. They also noted something strange, like the same record had been overwritten multiple times… and that anomaly matches up with the present, as near as anyone can tell.”

  My chest constricted. “Are you saying that we might have gone through a reset we don’t remember?”

  “It’s possible,” Toran replied. “There are scientific models to support it, but it’s still in the realm of theory.”

  I groaned. “I’m getting really sick of speculation. We need answers!”

  “Let’s take a step back here,” Maris cut in. “The reason we were looking into this is so you could see if there’s talk about the alien fleet, or whatever. These other potential resets are another matter entirely.”

  Kaiden huffed. “There are too many threads to chase.”

  “You’re right, Maris,” Toran conceded. “We need to focus on clues related to what we’re about to face—the distant past isn’t important right now.”

  “And what can you glean about that?” asked Kaiden.

  Toran laughed. “Absolutely nothing.”

  I did a double-take. “You’re joking, right?”

  He held out his hands to encompass the tabletop. “When I said they have evidence, I mean there’s a single note on this file where someone circled some weird data points and scribbled, ‘Universal reset???’ with, yes, three question marks.” He pointed to it.

  Sure enough, the red text stood out from the jumble of nonsense displayed on the screen. Dots and bars formed lines, which had gaps and intersecting branches, but each of the points could mean anything. Codes were attached to some of the lines, though it was unclear if that was a product of the data extraction procedure or if Hegemony researchers had added the notations. My head swam as I tried to wrap my mind around the implications of resets on top of resets, but I didn’t know where to begin.

  “Can you make any sense of this?” Toran continued. “I hate to say it, but I think Colren is just following whatever clues we give him. There is no grand strategy here. They weren’t truthful in the sense that they do know there was a universal reset at some point and didn’t tell us, but they don’t know anything else about it. The code from the Archives may as well be random splatters of paint on a wall.”

  I stared at the data he’d spread out in front of us, and I was inclined to agree. “So, that’s it? We just have to sit around and wait again, hoping that everything works out okay?”

  My friends’ shoulders rounded.

  “The only thing I can tell you is that, like Colren told us before, there are records indicating events past our present time,” Toran said. “Assuming that’s true, then at least some people must survive whatever’s coming.”

  “But if everything works out okay, then why was there a reset?” I asked.

  Kaiden’s brow knit. “Yeah, that’s a good point.”

  “There’s too much about this that we don’t understand,” Toran said. “We may be looking at this all wrong.”

  “Then what are we supposed to look at? I have no idea what to suggest we should do.” Kaiden sighed.

  “The commander thinks we should wait and see,” Maris pointed out.

  I nodded. “But he’ll listen to us if we bring another suggestion.”

  “I still think we must be missing something in the signal,” Kaiden insisted. “The commander may have come here on faith alone that things will work because of what’s recorded in the Archive, but that’s not good enough for me.”

  “Yes, there is still the question of why here,” Toran stated. “With so many systems to choose from, there must be significance to why the aliens selected this location.”

  “That’s assuming the intersecting lines do have any significance,” I said.

  “It was all too perfect,” Kaiden countered. “You saw it—there was nothing random about it.”

  Maris paled. “What if it was a test?”

  I looked at her. “What do you mean?”

  “What if they embedded all of that in the signal as a test to see if we were smart enough to figure it out. Create a map, see if we follow it.”

  “And if we show up here, we pass?” Kaiden asked.

  “Or lose, depending on what they might be trying to measure,” Toran replied.

  I swallowed. “If that’s the case, this wasn’t us hacking into their secret plans at all… we might be playing directly into their hands.”

  Kaiden bit his lower lip. “If so, what do they want?”

  “Well, it gives them information about our reasoning ability as well as technological capabilities,” Toran said.

  A chill passed through me. “None of that matters when we’re delivering a whole ship. An investigation of the unknown—any civilization would put their best foot forward. They may have been trying to bait us into handing them the Hegemony’s best tech, signed, sealed, and delivered.”

  “Stars, if that’s the case—” Kaiden cut off as a warning claxon sounded.

  My heart leaped into my throat. “No…”

  “Spatial anomaly seven thousand kilometers to port. Crew to battle stations,” a woman announced over the central comm.

  Maris’ face twisted with terror. “What do we do?”

  I looked down at my white shipsuit—hardly battle-ready attire. “We need to get our gear.”

  “Tami’s going to be a little preoccupied,” Toran said.

  “Do you want to only be wearing this is we’re boarded?” I gestured to my onesie. “Yeah, no.”

  “Can’t argue with that. Let’s go.” Kaiden headed for the door.

  “We should stay here and wait for instructions, not go wandering around the ship,” Toran insisted.

  “Sure, I’m all for waiting this out—after I have my sword in hand.” I followed Kaiden to the exit. Foolish or not, I wasn’t about to leave my fate entirely in others’ hands. It seemed especially prudent for me to retrieve my weapon considering our ‘no magic’ rule on the spaceship, but I also suspected those rules might be bendable under the new circumstances.

  As Kaiden and I entered the corridor, Toran and Maris jogged to catch up. Though I never had any doubt that they’d accompany us to the hangar, it was still a relief to have the team sticking together. Now, more than ever, was the time to make sure we didn’t get split apart.

  The corridors, which were typically devoid of too many passersby, were now abuzz with activity as crew members ran toward their various posts. Most individuals barely seemed to notice our presence, but now and then, I caught a sidelong glance from the occasional higher-ranked crewman. On the fourth such instance on our way to the lift, a dark-haired man with a petty officer insignia held up his hand as we passed by.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “To retrieve our gear,” I replied.

  His dark eyebrows drew togethe
r. “That can wait.”

  I stood my ground. “Can it? What’s the reason for the alarm?”

  “A spatial anomaly—”

  “Yes, we heard the commander’s announcement. But if that anomaly turns out to be an alien ship, we need to be ready.”

  “We’re under orders to keep you secure,” the petty officer replied.

  “Great, then that supports our objective of being able to defend ourselves. We’ll come back here as soon as we have our gear.”

  The crewman looked like he was about to protest further, but Toran cut him off, “We can look after ourselves.”

  “Fine, just stay out of everyone’s way.” The man continued to jog down the corridor.

  I pressed forward. “I kind of feel like we could get away with anything on this ship.”

  “We do seem to have more freedom than I’d expect,” Toran agreed.

  “No complaints from me.” Kaiden pressed the call button for the lift when we reached it.

  “I guess the ‘last, best chance designation’ does afford some autonomy to do things ‘our way’,” I said.

  Maris chuckled. “Which appears to be getting in the middle of the mess and then miraculously finding a way out.”

  The lift doors opened and Kaiden stepped inside. “The part about overcoming the challenges is key.”

  “Sounds like we’re about to face a whole new mess,” I replied. “We’ve sort of gotten a handle on fighting the Darkness creatures planetside, but how in the stars are we supposed to fight something in space?”

  “Assuming the aliens behind the Darkness are anything like those creatures,” Toran countered.

  “Why else would they make those changes to the planets if it wasn’t to make it hospitable to them? Yeah, they might not be exactly like those black monster things, but I bet some of the attributes carry over.” The lift arrived at the hangar level and I led the way out.