by David Burke
“I think I would know if I had a way to get everyone across,” Amelia snapped back.
“How about this, if you can’t figure it out in one minute and I can, then you owe me,” Jay said.
“Owe you? Owe you what?” Amelia asked back.
“One whatever I want, no questions asked, no refusals,” Jay said, smirking.
“Huong and Ava are rubbing off on you too much. But not sure if that is a fair deal for just thinking of one thing that I can’t think of. We all know you were a gamer geek so you probably have ways of knowing things,” Amelia said.
“And the inner attorney comes out. Wanting to negotiate are we? How about this? If I can come up with three ways for you to get us all across and demonstrate that they work. Then you both owe me one whatever.”
“Wait a second here, how did I get sucked into this?” Trina asked.
“Because you are a team and a team succeeds or fails together,” Jay said.
The two girls looked at each other. Their expressions made it look like they were both daring the other one to chicken out first. They finally both agreed and Jay laughed as he said, “Okay, one minute now.”
The thing was that Jay knew they were both smart girls but this wasn’t their environment. Amelia was better with sneaking around a problem and Trina with smashing through it. He figured either way he won. If they learned to work together then all the better. If not, then he won the bet and that had opportunity written all over it.
The minute went by and the two girls were practically yelling at each other. “So, any ideas?”
“Nothing that will work, I’d open a spatial hole but I don’t know how to control it or make it stable enough for us to move people across moving objects,” Amelia said.
“Very good, but now it’s my turn. I want you to open a spatial hole and we will walk through it to whichever island you put the other end on,” Jay said.
“Didn’t you just hear what I said,” Amelia asked.
“Yes, I did but all you have to do is ask Ava for instructions. You are fused to her, you can connect with her telepathically even from here.”
Amelia’s shoulders slumped as she started to do exactly that. Trina said, “That’s only one though, you still have to come up with two other ways for us to move the party across.”
“Yeah this is the medium one, I’ll save the easy one for last,” Jay said.
Sure enough within short order, Amelia created a stable portal and they all walked through. She seemed to be of two minds, proud that she had learned such a valuable power and yet also upset that she hadn’t thought of it.
“So what’s next?” she asked.
“Next is the hard one. This is gonna be a strain on you but your partner can make it easier I think,” Jay said. “You will need to assume your ectoplasmic form and while holding onto someone else force them into ectoplasmic form. Then simple as that, you will be able to float across.”
“Simple as that? Even with my boosts from the fusion, I don’t think I have enough PSI to do that without stopping to fully recharge every time. Maybe if Daphne was my partner or something,” Amelia said.
“No, your partner is even better for this. Once, I got PSI Sight from Alexis, it helped me to realize something about your ectoplasmic form. It is what we will call negative energy. Meaning if you were in that form and shot by the Forlorn weapons, you would actually be recharged, up to whatever your capacity for holding energy was. So, it is my theory that Trina can supercharge you with her power and you won’t have any trouble going Danny Phantom on us and carrying everyone over,” Jay said.
“Danny Phantom?” Madison asked.
“Don’t worry, nothing you super-hot girls would know anything about. Just a cartoon from my childhood, the solace of us gamer geeks,” Jay said with a laugh.
They were slow to make it work, but it turned out that Jay’s plan was exactly correct and Amelia was actually able to move very quickly hauling a person at a time across. The best part of it was that when it was over, Amelia and Trina gave each other a high five before realizing that they were supposed to not like each other.
“So, that’s two. Now are you ready for the easiest one of all?” Jay asked.
“Sure, what are you thinking this time?” Amelia asked.
“Sadly this time it will have to be all Amelia but that’s okay. I could have used this method too but I didn’t want to give you the idea,” Jay said with a grin.
It must have dawned on her at that moment too because Amelia groaned then grabbed Jay and used Phase Burst to cross the open area. Because they were temporarily out of phase with the natural world, they were not subject to things like gravity. Thus they made it to the other side.
“You know this will only work for the smaller jumps. I couldn’t make anything over a hundred feet or so this way,” Amelia said.
“Yep but you are the lawyer. You should have read the contract. There was nothing in there about how far the jumps had to be. Now go get the rest of them.”
Once they are all over Jay said, “Don’t think I won’t be collecting, but for now, I think I can see the far end, so it is Faith and Daphne’s turn to show us what they can do.”
After all the drama leading up to this it was overly simple. With the redhead powering her, Faith was able to jump the entire group across several miles to the far edge of the island. When they got there, Madison said, “I’m pleasantly surprised that there was nothing here trying to eat us.”
Amelia, Charlotte, Trina, and Jay all looked at her and said “Shhh.”
“What?” she asked, wide-eyed.
“Saying stuff like that jinxes it. Now, let’s get onto the eighth floor before we suddenly are in an updated version of the Birds,” Jay said.
Chapter 34- Seeing Through
Once they stepped through the environment completely changed. The team was feeling confident, laughing and joking with each other and in Jay’s mind this mission had gone about as well as it could. The other side of the door was not what he had expected.
They walked into something that looked like nothing so much as a carnival hall of mirrors. As Jay tried to scan out he found that his signal bounced back. The mirrors seemed to reflect everything and so even when he pushed more PSI into it his readings were all distorted.
“Everyone stay together, we don’t want to get lost in a place like this,” Jay said.
Then looking back at everyone he added, “But try to have fun with this too.”
They began wandering the halls and after half an hour of what appeared to be an endless labyrinth of mirrors they stopped. Amelia said, “Okay as much fun as it is looking at my face again and again, I think we should probably come up with a way to make sure we aren’t going in circles.”
Jay replied, “I swear we aren’t going in circles. The hallways just keep moving on us.”
Charlotte laughed and said, “Look at you two. Just like an old married couple fighting over asking for directions. Why don’t we just start marking the mirrors.”
“Okay, I can do that,” Trina said as she raised her hand up to blast one of the mirrors. Unfortunately the power started just bouncing around reflecting from one mirror to another. Most of the girls dropped to the ground and Jay created a shield to cover them until the reflected energy dissipated against his shield.
“So maybe we don’t do that again,” Jay said.
“Uh, yeah, sorry,” Trina squeaked out.
“How about you make one of those thread things and we secure it in one spot and then start moving from there,” Esseme said.
Jay nodded and they tried that for a minute, but no matter how they secured the end of the strand it always ended up coming loose. Jay started to get frustrated and in his anger punched one of the mirrors. He didn’t put all his power behind it, but it still cracked. As it did so a light burst forth from the mirror and scanned Jay head to toe.
A moment later the mirror flashed again and it appeared that Jay stepped out of the mirror. One
of the girls from the back called out, “Is that a hologram.”
It didn’t even register with Jay which one it was because his precognitive sense was going off like crazy. He raised his arm to block a punch from the creature and it sure as heck felt real. From there he started grappling with it.
The thing was strong. Not as strong as he was but still nothing to trifle with. It could have easily crushed any of the girls in a wrestling match. He eventually got tired of it and threw it back up against the wall. Amelia shot it with a shadow bolt as soon as it was free of Jay and that seemed to cause it to dissipate.
The next thing they knew though all of them were being scanned repeatedly from different mirrors. And then duplicates of each of them stepped out of the mirrors. The fighting got hectic for a minute as it appeared that none of the others were as strong as the originals but they were still wearing them down.
Amelia and Trina’s energy worked great to break them apart. Jay’s kinetic blasts did it too but not as efficiently. Faith kept trying to teleport away but Jay yelled at her not to get too far away. Charlotte’s arrows worked but the quarters were too cramped and Madison’s power didn’t seem to have any effect.
Once they knocked the second set of them apart Jay yelled, “Get close to me.” As they did he created a sphere around them and then started pushing out with it. The mirrors were eventually shattered although he noticed he had to push with most of this strength to make that happen.
Eventually Jay stopped pushing and said, “You realize we are going about this all wrong. I keep thinking like a gamer and that is going to get us killed. This isn’t really a dungeon. It isn’t really some magical trap. This is a sick experiment made by aliens who want to use us. We don’t need to beat their test, we just need to reach the next floor.”
“Okay, so what are you suggesting?” Trina asked.
“I need you and Amelia to help me. I’m going to channel energy into you and create a circuit. Once I have my full power then, Daphne, you need to boost me as much as you can. I am just going to rip this floor apart until we either run out of steam or we find a doorway,” Jay said.
They all nodded, and so he began. First he put the energy into Amelia. It was just like back in the tempus fugit field, and with his PSI sight now it was super simple. He felt the power resonating back into him and once again felt incredible. Once he pressed it onto Trina, he had to work harder but eventually forced their channels to merge as well.
The PSI swelled within him till it was over four hundred thousand. It was only a fraction of the power he held during the creation of the tempus fugit but it still made him feel godlike. He refined it into a long slender PSI blade and then coated the edge with Sofia’s molecular separation power.
The blade began spinning around and slicing through entire sections of the mirrors. Everywhere the blade cut the disintegration power started to dissolve the mirrors. He felt the storm of power as the others around him heard the glass breaking.
Eventually they ran out of mirrors. Jay was glad that the area here had been much smaller than many of the floors. He dropped the power and let the two exhausted girls catch their breath as he surveyed the damage. For half a mile in every direction their power combined had laid waste to mirror after mirror. Shattered ruins of glass, metal, and machinery were everywhere, but most importantly on the far side was another doorway.
It only took a few minutes to navigate the minefield of jagged edges and reach the doorway. When they got there, they saw that it was actually two not one doorway, they were just sunk further into the wall in an alcove. One was marked for the ninth floor and the other for the tenth.
“Well great, now we can skip a floor,” Amelia said.
“At least D’varn was telling the truth about that much,” Jay said as he opened the door to walk through.
There was a sudden sense of rushed movement and then they were all standing in the jungle of the first floor. Jay would never forget this place. Something had to have gone wrong. “Faith, can you take us back to the doorway to the tenth floor please.”
Nervously, she replied, “Maybe with Daphne’s help.”
An instant later they all stood before the doorway again. Trina said, “Maybe it takes a woman’s touch. Let me try.”
Jay shrugged and moved out of the way. When Trina opened the door he once again felt the rush of movement and suddenly they were standing inside the caldera of the fifth floor. This was not funny.
“Faith, can you take us back there one more time?”
She looked weary but nodded her head and as they all held hands they were instantly moved back to the end of the eighth floor.
Jay reached out and put his hand on the door but said, “Before I open this, I want everyone to focus your minds on the tenth floor. Maybe this works by intention too, so we need to focus.”
After watching everyone nod in agreement, Jay opened the door and this time they ended up standing on the great icy lake of the fourth floor. Pissed didn’t even begin to describe Jay’s mood. This had to be a trick from D’varn or S’vanth or whoever. He didn’t really care. He just wanted to be done with this place.
“Faith…” he began.
“I’m exhausted but I can do one more jump, sorry for being so weak,” she said.
“Don’t apologize. We don’t have any expectations of you but that you do your best. You have done that all day long. And besides hopefully we can do something about making you stronger. Now though, can you take us all back to the tech building on the sixth floor?” Jay asked.
She nodded and before he knew it they were back there.
“Thank you, everyone, I need some alone time to think about this. I’m afraid I’m too angry to be fit company. So, if you don’t mind could I have the conference room to myself? You should all go get a good meal and relax. You earned it. I’m very proud of you all,” Jay said.
Chapter 35- Just Us
Jay walked into the conference room. It was really just a fifteen by fifteen room with a round table in the middle and six very plush chairs sitting around that table. There was the A’skarnart equivalent of a smart board upon the wall, but otherwise it was low tech.
He was so pissed. The feelings threatened to overwhelm him. He felt like they had gotten close and now the A’skarnart were just playing games with them. It was a bit ominous if S’vanth or D’varn or whatever other unknown forces were actively engaged in keeping them from reaching the command deck.
That got his mind raging back and forth. If they wanted a fight, he would take it to them. The problem was that hurting the ship now hurt his people. This was the only home they had left for the moment and Jay didn’t like that one little bit. It felt like they were trapped.
He plopped down in one of the chairs and sat back to relax. This problem was his to sort out and he needed to come up with a solution. His people needed to be protected, but they also needed freedom. He wasn’t quite ready to start screaming about liberty of death but he also knew that he wasn’t willing to settle for life inside a petri dish.
Jay closed his eyes and he tried to breathe deeply. They were all relying upon him to lead them and he wanted to come through for them. Then he heard the door open up. He almost opened his eyes to look at who it was, fully intending to ask them to leave.
That was old thinking though. Even after all these months in the experiment his natural tendencies were still sometimes to think like a normal human with just five senses. He had far more at his disposal than that and needed to remember to think differently. The solution to their problems might require evolved thinking.
Truthfully he didn’t need to open his eyes. He already knew who it was, or rather who they were. It was just a matter of accepting the input that was flooding his mind all the time. He knew where his fuses were at any given moment, but now he was mostly just curious about what could bring these two particular individuals to him at the same time.
He anticipated it was an argument of some sort. Apparently it was too
much for him to have five minutes to think in private. Fine, if they could invade his privacy he would return the same. Jay’s eyes stayed closed but his mind opened up more as he reached out to listen to their thoughts or rather the telepathic conversation they were having. He hoped it would give him some insight into how to react.
“Is he sleeping?”
“I don’t think so but even if he is, this will be a good way for him to wake up.”
“Are you sure, I don’t want to press my luck. He has turned me away every time so far.”
“We already talked about this. A lot of that was because of me. Jay was just being faithful to his wives. The rest of it is him trying to get past the conditioning he had in his old life. But, enough, don’t make me regret that I agreed to this.”