Leesa woke up. The power level of the containment center was positioned to “low” indicating 10 percent access level.
“I did not think you had it in you,” Rabia said entering the room. “Blatant insubordination of superiors.”
“You can’t keep Zosma locked in there.”
“Neight was right to fear you. The feats you achieve with limited access to energy truly make me wonder what you do at 100 percent.”
The lieutenant squinted and the operating table bolted to the floor flew into Rabia’s pathway. Telekinesis kept him from dematerialization and it hit him in the midsection, trapping him against the wall. Something went wrong, her knees buckled. Russell was at the machine with it turned off. No access. Zero percent.
“Most disappointing,” Russell said in Rabia’s voice, as he collected Leesa off of the floor.
NEIGHT CASTER
Washington, DC, May 2026
Neight spent much of his time scrying for information because in order to do, he must understand. It was one of the life lessons he tried to instill in Allister to wean him out of impulsive behavior.
Each zone where the dampeners functioned had been turned off, except for the prisons and the lab. Rabia’s plan to disrupt operations with Florence, Leesa and Bridget moving around the facility unchecked, succeeded. They were designed to follow the law of even distribution, but the dampeners became auto responsive to threats of power use. Recent activities elsewhere moved the dampeners’ focus away from the prisons. A fatal flaw in the system. The locations in the glass Neight had identified during his lengthy conversation with Nicolas, glowed with vibrancy. It wasn’t always about grand displays of power, exploiting weaknesses in construction worked well too.
Newly assigned soldiers noticed the alien’s hand movements and tapped the glass. “Stop doing that.”
Festive green light danced around his hands and eyes while he shifted positions methodically in the glass box. They shouted threats with charged weapons at shoulder height. Fissures, with the same colored energy, covered the prison wall. Fractured glass ruptured outward, killing all of the soldiers. The facility alarms alerted everyone that the maximum-security basement was compromised. Neight touched one of the dead soldiers, his shape and face changing to resemble him.
Soldiers yelled to each other to search for signs of him. Neight entered the infirmary in his soldier disguise, then transformed into a beautiful female doctor while passing through the hallway. He casually nodded to the frenzied troops without being questioned and checked the tablet charts outside of the hospital room. Neight used a phasing spell to travel through the door.
He’d lost his camouflage attire and stood over his enemy. The general’s eyes were so far back in his head, he looked dead. Shallow breaths proved the contrary.
“Until the knowledge desired is revealed, I hide the pain behind walls of numb. Awaken from your prison, and speak until all is known about what has been done.”
Nicolas panicked, not realizing where he was. “How?”
“I will ask the questions.” Neight froze the general’s hands before he pressed the help button.
Finally able to breathe on his own after weeks of suffering, he settled back against the bed. “I don’t feel anything.”
“It is intentional.”
“Can you fix me?” Nicolas asked him.
The alien raised the skin above his eye. Audacious was the word that came to mind first. “I can do anything I desire but I will not to fix you,” he replied candidly.
“I’m not surprised, after what I did.”
“My decision does not come from a place of vengeance,” Neight explained. “In this moment your life is as irrelevant to me as any other human life. However, your continued existence is detrimental to the future of the Infinity Cluster and for that reason, you must die. “
“I’m not afraid to die,” Nicolas mumbled.
“But you are afraid of pain and the spell will end when I receive what I seek. Not only from you but others as well. You will have some time to enjoy this.” Neight motioned to the open space. The intimidating helmet rested next to the sink. For the first time, he was ashamed of his failure to keep Leesa safe. “Leesa is in danger.”
“Why didn’t you protect her?” Nicolas pointed at him. “You’re the all powerful magic alien.”
“You had all the power. To teach her, support her, to empower her, even when it did not suit you.”
The general traced his hand on the tray next to him, accepting the blame in silence. Leesa was right, his wife would be ashamed.
Neight returned to Nicolas’s bedside and touched his arm. Information rushed through him like water through pipes. Disturbing files that didn’t align with the Andromeda Project initiatives had been signed off by only two of the directors from the board. They were tearing it apart from the inside, so only one organization was left standing.
“C20,” Neight muttered, “I must stop Rabia.”
“They’re coming for rounds soon. Go!” Nicolas turned over in anticipation. Voices closed in until the door activated, flooding light into the empty room. His vitals reflected an updated health status. Heart rate and brain activity spiked. The doctors ran tests to see what caused the recovery. A fresh set of cells had emerged, reinstating organ function. They were dumbfounded.
The once-inviting white aesthetic of Rabia’s lab was overshadowed by blue hues from the containment center. Zosma, once dormant, swirled around making her body indistinguishable. The energy-charged figure reformed and her hair made up the excess surrounding her. She opened her mouth but no sound came out.
“Not right, it’s not right.” Rabia shook his head and nearly dropped the new serum, startled by Neight’s presence. He bowed and took the sample to the lab table.
“You will destroy everything if you do not do as I say. Something is wrong.” Neight removed the facemask from his helmet.
Sorrow invaded his daughter’s face when she laid on eyes on him; Neight extended his hand but she disappeared into the cloud. His fist clenched.
Rabia hummed until he bent over to get a closer look at the two concoctions in front of him. “I’m listening,” he said, mixing the serum with something else. “Not for long, but I’m listening.”
Neight purposefully rigged the spell; if her access reached over 50 percent Zosma’s consciousness would gain memories and power until she was at 100 percent. In that scenario, Leesa’s consciousness would be destroyed forever, with no way of going back.
Rabia frowned, “I turned off her access to avoid such a catastrophe.”
“The spell was powered by the energy. Turning her off dissolved the wall separating their consciousness,” Neight explained.
Zosma discovered someone living in her body, using her power, and she wasn’t happy.
“I imagine she is more mad with you than anyone,” Rabia said.
“When she has access to her body again, Leesa will only be able to maintain control for a period of time before Zosma takes over. No one on Earth will be safe. Not even me.” Neight wanted Rabia to give him time to create a spell to keep her from going rogue and vaporizing the Earth.
Rabia declined. “It is what you came here for, yes?” he swished his new fabrication around inside the vial. “You know what your problem is, you’re self-centered.” He added the vial to a package of hundreds more on the table.
Neight’s hands lit up with telekinetic energy. “Power hungry fool and you always have been. This world will know what evil you are capable of.”
“I founded this power. Uragonians would’ve been nothing without me, Zosma would not exist without me.” Rabia walked around the table.
“For millennia you have controlled the most influential minds on this planet. It will go no further.”
The doctor threw his head back, laughing. “How you think you got here in first place?”
Neight’s helmet closed over his face while he pulled his energy together for an attack, but the dampeners in the lab
recognized his power and activated on maximum. Rabia accepted the provocation and vanished into the walls. A six-foot fist smashed into Neight. He stumbled away from it and another came from the other side. Shrapnel and pieces from the lab floor flew up, guided by the alien’s will. The fist retreated.
Rabia returned to regular form but the alien king waved his hand sideways across the room. A shimmering wall appeared. “You can’t stop me,” he yelled, bursting into mist to pummel the floor. It failed to penetrate. The mist went after the wall next. Rabia rematerialized after running into it and bounced back with three times the force, breaking a set of computers.
Neight ran to the containment center to adjust the access levels. The mainframe zapped him on first contact with a targeted energy jolt. It ran through his bare hand, underneath his armor and stunned his brain. Rabia misted out of the machine, merging with the other misty figure no longer trapped behind the barrier spell.
“You should have done more research on my people,” the doctor said.
A titanium-infused cage came up around the circular panel Neight landed on, sealing at the top with a cap.
“I had weapon made for you,” Rabia smiled. “Atomic separator. And does exactly what sounds like.”
It was Neight’s pride, if only he’d gone to rescue Allister and used the gems as planned. If distortion and unraveling of the time stream wasn’t in his line of vision then what transpired was meant to be? The mistake he made shifted everything in the future against him. Neight ran over the events of the last seventy years.
“I thank you for helping retrieve gems finally.” Rabia stroked his grown out head of white hair. “Not exactly way I wanted, but I will make Private Adams understand importance. We must reach Andromeda and rejoin Cluster.” It wasn’t always so simple, adjustments in strategy were crucial. “All this time you believed you’d found safe haven for your precious Zosma. We were centuries from intergalactic communication until I made upgrades to Arecibo Observatory in 1974. I was not in this body of course.”
Neight placed his hands against the sides of the capsule. He concentrated hard enough to locate a weakness in the device. Pulsating green energy spread to the inside; it retreated back down the unusually transparent metal and into his hands. Too weak.
“I made sure device perfect, down to minor details.”
Rabia pressed a button. The machine whirred to a start. Zosma’s blue eyes exclaimed horror and the computer warned of instability within the containment center. Neight felt his body tugged from all sides, as its intensity increased, ripping him to a million pieces in a vortex motion.
ALLISTER ADAMS
Washington, DC, May 2026
“Why should I care?” Allister asked. “From what I’ve seen there’s no difference between the two.”
“C20 is future, in matter of hours this place will be nothing but memory. I offer you chance to pioneer next phase in human evolution.” Rabia was selling a dream that Allister knew was a nightmare.
“By being a weapon? Or a test subject?” Spit escaped his shaking lips. “Go fuck yourself.”
Rabia stared at him, searching for a weakness in his psyche. His head separated into mist and splashed onto Allister’s face. It bounced away and reconstructed on his neck. Taking control the way he took over inanimate objects or regular humans wasn’t an option. “Energy protects you,” he grumbled.
And the ball remained in Allister’s court; even if he died the gems would return to the Cavern of Transports hidden elsewhere in the Universe. Far out of Rabia and humanity’s reach.
“Cooperation is in best interest.”
“I’ve got nothing to lose. What can you do to me?” He leaned forward. But even before finishing the sentence, he knew what Rabia could do. Hurt people he cared for.
“You may not die when I bring down this place but what about colleagues. Private Sparks, Private Xander.” With a bit of a struggle Rabia plucked a hair from the young man’s head and placed it into a test tube. Even the strand exhibited strength.
“I’m bringing lieutenant with me. You want to separate from her? When you’ve grown so fond of each other?”
“Where is she?” He rattled the shackles. It occurred to him she hadn’t been to check on him since his entrapment. Not part of their plan.
Rabia smirked. “Return him to vault. And make no mistakes or you never see Leesa again.”
Bridget and Dorian watched him forcefully escorted down the hallway. Without Florence there, Bridget wasn’t getting the medicine she needed. The other doctors on site refused to treat her. It was a daily struggle to keep her mood swings and outbursts under wraps, but electricity crackled as her body emotionally responded to his mistreatment. Dorian grabbed her arm. They’d kill her if she helped him.
They shut the vault door. Allister stood there shirtless, worked up, taking sharp jabs at the air. He needed clarity on the gems, on Leesa, and what he was supposed to do next. Florence was his only ally and she left him as soon as a more attractive offer came up. Neight might be inclined to help but who knew, he’d watched so much happen and stayed in his little prison. The gems were tied to emotions and thoughts like any other ability. He had to learn to activate them. Something Neight said to him popped into his mind. “Anger is a restrictive emotion, seek instead understanding.”
Deep breaths followed his miniature tantrum and he sat down cross-legged on the floor to meditate.
RABIA GIRO
Washington, DC, May 2026
“What is happening, Dr. Giro?” the Brazilian director asked.
“Alien and hybrid made contact. I had to turn her off to protect program and Earth, of course.”
No explanation was needed. The danger was clear and present.
The group murmured to each other then turned their aggression. “Consider General Delemar removed from duty on this project,” the Russian director said.
“We left you in charge in order to elude this disaster,” the North Korean director accused.
“I advised action against General Delemar previously. It might’ve avoided incident.” Rabia was more concerned with solutions than problems. They resumed an internal conversation while he waited.
“We are inclined to keep you on as sole commander of the Andromeda Project’s initiatives, as long as you find a way to use the gems and eliminate C20,” the UK director announced.
“Don’t make us regret this,” the Brazilian director added.
“We agreed hostile action against C20 was no longer priority,” the North Korean director argued.
Bickering continued between them. The US Director and the UK director against the North Korean director and the Russian director. The other two stayed silent. After a convincing speech by the western influence they agreed to go after C20.
Rabia sighed. His fingers snapped, cueing Russell to deliver Nicolas Delemar to the center of the room in a wheelchair.
“What is the meaning of this?” the UK director spit into the intercom.
“The Andromeda Project no longer suits my needs,” Rabia said, bowing to them. The engineer moved back robotically and stood against the wall. “I am building new humanity and it seems my efforts aren’t supported here.”
Nicolas attempted to protest but was cut off by the furious US Director. “Do you think this is a game you disrespectful idiots? To even suggest such nonsense.”
“I leave you with your ‘fearless’ leader and wish it all the best.”
“We don’t accept your resignation, Doctor,” the Brazilian director responded. Russell radioed the control room. The screens turned off. There were more important things to tend to. Rabia strapped a bomb identical to Dolores’s around Nicolas’s wheelchair and set the timer to one hour. It was plenty of time for them to get everything out. The containment center was already prepped for airlift.
“I won’t let you do this to me, I’ve worked too damn hard,” Nicolas sputtered, blood dripping from his chapped lips. Neight’s spell ended with him. The general slowed his
breathing down by inhaling deeply in between each word. “If I had…the strength, I’d…kill you…with my bare hands.” He dug his untrimmed nails into Rabia’s neck. The doctor squealed in pain, becoming liquid mist beneath the attack. Particles of skin stuck underneath Nicolas’s nails were dragged out by a strange force to reform the body part.
“You squandered your chance at power by being afraid.” Rabia sealed the secret room using his Cynque watch, the general whimpered in the dark, red numbers teasing at his final moments alive.
FLORENCE BELLADONNA
Washington, DC, May 2026
Florence’s efforts to spy on Rabia weren’t going well. She’d infiltrated the facility and the main lab using her psychic cloaking, but he was so well behaved. She recalled on one occasion Russell had arrived and Rabia told him to come back at a later time. It was then she knew, he knew she was there.
The Andromeda Project (The Cluster Chronicles Book 1) Page 29