The Rising Tide

by J. Scott Coatsworth

  Jayson stared at the pile of black rock. Taking the main elevator would have been so much easier, but it was certain to be a death trap. Davian would know they were coming and would stop them. This way, they had a chance. “You sure about this?”

  Aaron shrugged and then grinned. “It’s all we’ve got.”

  “Fair enough. Let’s get to it, then.”

  One by one, they hauled away the rocks that had covered the door. As they worked, a corner of the door and then the top few inches emerged.

  It was a thick steel door set into the rock, looking like nothing so much as an old bank vault.

  They worked in the dim light under the clouds, and Jayson glanced up at the storm every now and then as he tossed rocks down the hillside behind them.

  At last, they removed the last of the pile.

  The door had a round metal “spindle” handle that looked like it had once been painted red but now had only flakes of paint left.

  “Here goes nothing.” Aaron grasped the handle and turned it. Or tried to. “Holy crap.” He grunted as he tried to get it to move. “Damn, I’m getting old.”

  “It’s probably jammed with dirt and water after all this time. Here, let me help you.” Together, they grasped the spindle and tried to turn it.

  It wouldn’t move.

  “Here, let me try this.” Jayson picked up his walking stick and wedged it into the wheel. The wood was strong, formed from one of the world roots. He took a deep breath and put his whole weight on it, and the wheel turned. Just a little, but it turned. “Want to help me?”

  Aaron stepped up next to him, and they managed to move it a quarter turn, and then halfway around.

  They stopped, their breaths coming in ragged spurts. “Saving the world is a lot harder than I imagined it would be.” Aaron grinned.

  Jayson burst out laughing. It felt really good, a releasing of the tension that had held him tighter than a bowstring since the day before, when he’d had the premonition that something bad was coming. “It is. It really is.” He slapped Aaron on the back affectionately. “Shall we try again?”

  They reset the walking stick, and this time, the spindle moved a little easier. One more hard push, and it spun freely.

  Aaron turned it until the latch clicked and then pulled open the door with a loud groan of protest.

  Jayson peered at the vacant space inside. There was a cable that extended up into the darkness “I thought there was an elevator?”

  Aaron stepped into the dark room. “I thought so too. I don’t see any controls.”

  Jayson looked around in the dimly lit space. “There are stairs. An awful lot of stairs.”

  Aaron frowned. “Yeah, about four kilometers of them, straight up.”

  Nighttime arrived as they explored the small space, plunging them into darkness.

  Aaron’s voice carried through the inky blackness. “I hope one of us brought a phostorch.”

  NIGHT PASSED over their small patch of the world, thrusting them into darkness.

  It was time.

  Andy looked back at the broken compound. Her life had been a series of leaps from one thing to the next—from the overrated “safety” of Transfer Station to Forever. From a hoped-for life as an artist and sculptor to the teacher and protector of a remarkable set of children.

  And now this.

  Jayson’s life, too, had been remarkable, but in ways that were so much worse and more painful than hers.

  All that missed time, when he had been here, on Forever, when no one but Davian had known.

  “It’s time.” Keera’s eyes were wet.

  “I suppose it is.”

  Her mother hugged her. When she finally let go, her eyes were red, and her cheeks were puffy. “I’m so proud of you, Andrissa.”

  “I love you too, Mom.”

  She squeezed Keera’s hand.

  “If you find your Dad and Jayson… you guys take care of each other, okay?”

  “We will.” Andy turned to her brother, determined not to let him see her cry.

  Andy hugged Sean fiercely, which was a little awkward through the bulk of the space suit. “You take care of Mom and Dad, okay?”

  He nodded. “I will. Love you, sis.”

  SANTI FIRED up the hot air balloon, preparing it for takeoff. He’d have three passengers this time—Keera, Matt, and Sean.

  It was time for their little party to split up, with some of them carrying on the fight, and the rest of them going back to Micavery in the balloon. Maybe they could do something to help there, while the others were off trying to save the world.

  Poor Matt was beside himself at the thought that Marissa was going on without him, but there was no way to squeeze another body into either of the two spacecraft, and Andy had been strangely insistent that Shandra had to come.

  She was hiding something, but what it was, Santi couldn’t decide. He trusted her implicitly, but it made him uneasy to forge ahead without all the information at his disposal.

  Eddy approached him, his face grim. “I wish you were coming with me.”

  “I do too. Are you sure about this plan of yours?”

  Eddy laughed ruefully. “Sure? No. Not even close. But it’s the best we can come up with. Going through the storm… that’s just crazy. This is marginally better.”

  “What are you going to do once you get there?” Santi refused to say if.

  “I’m leaving that up to the Liminals. I’m just the bus driver.”

  “Bus… another word destined for the dustbin of history.”

  “Yeah, probably so.” Eddy put his hands on the side of Santi’s face and kissed him, and Santi melted. When they separated, Eddy wagged a finger at him. “Be careful. Take care of yourself and our friends.”

  “Hey, I’m not the crazy one, taking a century-old spacecraft out for a test spin. I’m just taking a sedate balloon ride through friendly skies.”

  Eddy glanced at the storm clouds. “Maybe not so friendly. And hell, the Moonjumper might only be ninety years old.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s so much better.” Santi pulled Eddy close again. “You be careful too.” He kissed his man.

  “I’ll see you on the other side.”

  STANDING ON the tarmac next to the Moonjumper, Matt took Marissa’s hand. “Can I feel him?”

  Marissa nodded and put his hand on her belly, over her suit. She reached into her little boy’s mind, and Matt squealed in delight. “I can! I mean, really touch him, inside of you.”

  Marissa nodded. “He’s so pure.”

  “Can I talk to him?” Matt’s face was radiant.

  “Sure. He won’t understand your words, but the emotions will come through.”

  Matt knelt, still touching her belly. “You’re going to be an amazing person when you grow up, because you have an amazing mother.” He kissed her belly. “But I need you to do something for me. I need you to look out for her while I’m gone.”

  A burst of warmth came through Marissa’s bond with her son. “He will.”

  “I’ll see you soon, little guy.” Matt stood and pushed a loose strand of blonde hair behind her ear, and then he kissed her. “We still have so many things to do, you and me.”

  She looked down at her feet. “I’ll be back. I have to do this.”

  Matt kissed her forehead. “I know. I’ll be with you all the way.”

  Eddy came back from his own farewell with Santi. “We gotta go.”

  “Okay.” She looked at Matt and ran her hand through his hair. “Love you, tiger.”

  “Love you too, Ris.”

  “ALL STRAPPED in?”

  Marissa shot Eddy a nervous glance. “Yes.”

  Matt had disappeared into the darkness in the direction of the balloon.

  Eddy closed the Moonjumper’s door.

  “Yes.”

  He squeezed her shoulder in reassurance, and she flashed him a weak smile. “It’s gonna be okay.”

  “How can you know?”

  Eddy shrugged. “I
don’t. But it’s what you’re supposed to say.”

  He opened the radio channel, dialing down the signal power to transmit in a short radius. He didn’t know if the world mind could pick up radio transmissions, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. “You two ready to go?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Okay, initiating liftoff.” He’d decided not to use the main jet. The auxiliaries would run less risk of toasting the escape capsule while they had it in tow and would use less fuel too. “Here we go.”

  Eddy fired the jets, and the craft lifted off the ground. “Maneuvering over your position.” He eased the Moonjumper over the other craft. “Engaging the x-drive.”

  There was a solid thunk as the drive pulled the Moonjumper down and the escape pod up.

  “Gotcha. Okay, here we go.” He lifted the two craft up off the ground about thirty feet and then shifted two of the jets to send them off in the direction they’d come from in the balloon, south toward Micavery.

  Andy and Marissa were 90 percent sure they could open the massive air lock at the South Pole. He prayed they were right.

  Then again, maybe he should have taken his chances running the storm.

  But once they were out, they would be free from Davian’s grasp.

  The little ship raced through the darkness toward the South Pole. He guessed they’d get there in about two hours at their current speed.

  “So,” he asked over the radio, “what are we going to do once we finally get to the operations center at the North Pole?”

  Andy’s reply shook him to the core. “We’re going to kill the world mind.”

  DAVIAN FUMED. He’d lost track of his most important quarry.

  He had been thwarted by Gunner—the one they called “Jayson” now. He was dead, along with his family at the outpost called the Eire.

  But the others had vanished.

  Ghosts of the other Immortals haunted him, their thoughts shooting through his with alarming frequency. That religious freak Jackson was reciting something or other from the bible, and Lanya was waxing eloquent about her little valley, or some river in Russia. It was hard to tell.

  He tuned them out.

  He had no more bug drones to send out. Colin had managed to destroy most of them before he’d locked things down, and it would take time to make more.

  His quarry had been in Agartha—the schoolhouse, they called it now—and then they were gone.

  Maybe they were all dead.

  Somehow, he didn’t think his luck was that good.

  He particularly wanted to find Eddy, Andy, Shandra, and Marissa to make them pay for what they had done to him, both in Agartha and ten years later in vee space. He owed them a blood debt, and he intended to pay it in full.

  Well, if he couldn’t find them himself, maybe the storm could.

  He unspooled it, loosing the winds to push it along.

  It started extending tendrils of itself out along the spindle. Soon it would grow and make life difficult for anyone who still lived in the physical world.

  With any luck, he’d take out the remaining resistance in one tempestuous blow.

  Then he could get on with raising his new society from the ashes of the old.

  Chapter Nine: Flames and Thunder

  “I THINK I need to sit down for a minute.” Jayson looked up the stairway and the open shaft and then back down the way they had come. “I’m too old for all this.”

  Aaron laughed ruefully. “You and me both. I’m two years older, you know. Sixty this year.”

  Jayson sank down to the ground, grateful for a moment of not climbing. “They say up here on Forever that sixty is the new seventy.”

  “Sounds about right.” Jayson leaned over the shaft, shining his phostorch down into the blackness. “What do you think is going on out there?”

  “I don’t know. Nothing good, I’d suppose.” He closed his eyes, remembering a time, not so far past, when things had been easier.

  “I don’t understand.”

  JAYSON STARED at the pandemonium on the schoolhouse grounds. There were kids everywhere, of all sizes and shapes and colors. “How can all these be mine?”

  Andy put an arm round his shoulders. “You were… busy back in Agartha. You don’t remember any of it?”

  He shook his head. “Women have never been… um… my type.”

  Andy laughed. “Yeah, sorry, can’t really sympathize with that part.”

  Andy, Shandra, and the schoolhouse kids had welcomed him to their home after the Dark Day. He’d had no place to go. He didn’t know anyone, and most people—especially the ones here—had ample reason to hate him.

  And yet here he was.

  Andy must have seen the pain on his face. She squeezed his hand. “You can stay with Shandra and me until we can build you your own place. Come on. I’ll show you around.” She kissed him on the cheek.

  “Jayson, look over here!” One of the kids—Timothy?—was doing a handstand.

  “Very nice!” Jayson flashed Timothy a thumbs-up.

  “See? You’re a natural daddy.” Andy led him by the hand toward her cabin. “I think you’ll fit right in.”

  And he had, for four years, until the kids had all gone away to other homes.

  JAYSON OPENED his eyes.

  “Hey, I think I see something up there.” Aaron was shining the light up the shaft.

  “Yeah?”

  “Take a look.” He handed the phostorch to Jayson and stepped back.

  Jayson peered upward. “Yeah, looks like there’s something there. Come on!”

  They clambered up the stairs three more flights. Sure enough, the elevator was suspended in the shaft, caught on a piece of railing that had bent outward, stopping its downward movement.

  Jayson and Aaron exchanged a look. “Do you think there’s anyone inside?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Let’s have a look.” He handed the phostorch to Jayson and climbed farther up the stairway until he was above the roof of the elevator. Levering himself over the railing, he reached out, grasped the cable, and pulled himself onto the top of the metal box. It swayed a little, then steadied.

  “Careful.” Jayson watched his brother nervously.

  “Got it.” Aaron knelt. “A little light please?”

  Jayson complied.

  Aaron found the latch and opened it with a loud screech. “Hand me the torch?”

  Jayson handed it over carefully. They didn’t want to lose their one source of light.

  Aaron peered inside. “Oh crap.”

  “WHAT DO you mean, we’re going to kill the world mind?” Eddy was sure he must have heard it wrong.

  “I know. It sounds insane.” Andy’s voice was ragged. “But it’s the only way to root Davian out. Otherwise he’ll enslave or kill us all.”

  “But we can’t live without the world mind,” Marissa protested. “Forever would die.”

  “There’s a plan” was all Andy would say.

  Eddy whistled. It better be a goddamned good plan.

  The little Moonjumper ran ahead of the storm, buffeted by the oncoming winds. Eddy glanced backward. He couldn’t see directly behind them, but what he could see worried him. “Davian’s gotten tired of waiting.”

  Marissa nodded. Her face was white.

  “You okay?”

  “Not really.” She gritted her teeth.

  “First time flying?”

  “Yeah.” She gripped the seat arms tightly.

  “You’re gonna be fine.”

  A gust of wind slammed the little craft, knocking it sideways.

  Marissa yelped.

  “I’m going to take us up, get closer to the spindle. It should be calmer there.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  He nudged the little craft upward. The first tendrils of cloud were starting to envelop them now. He looked down and got one last glimpse of the ground before the storm closed off the view. They were almost over the Anatovs.

  It suddenly went dark all around, and the
craft bucked and rattled as the winds increased. Lightning flashed in the darkness, and Eddy grimaced.

  “Are we okay?” If Marissa had been white before, she was positively green now.

  “Give me a sec.” Up, up, up….

  He could feel his weight dropping as they soared away from the ground, and he started to float up in his seat, but his seat belt held him down.

  Then they burst through the cloud top into the clear. The spindle shone brightly just above them.

  Eddy flicked on the radio. “Things are gonna feel weird for a bit. We’re in close to zero gee.”

  “Got it,” Andy replied over the radio.

  He left the connection open and stared out at the tunnel of clear air, surrounded by angry clouds. They were in the eye of the storm, only this eye extended for miles and miles in front of and behind them. It was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen. If it was anything like Davian’s last temper tantrum, he feared for everyone on the ground.

  He could see the South Pole ahead in the distance. “You guys said you had a way to get us through that wall, right?”

  “We think so.” Andy’s voice sounded tinny and hollow over the radio connection.

  “Could you figure it out soon, please? Otherwise we’re gonna be stuck inside this beastie or worse, and she seems to have a bad case of indigestion.”

  “Marissa, can you reach to me?”

  “I’ll try.” She had a little more color in her face now.

  “Quickly.”

  MARISSA CLOSED her eyes and reached.

  Normally she was in physical contact with the other person when she did this, or at least within eyesight. Having access to the loop network or the world mind and vee space made it easier.

  She tried to picture Andy, sitting in the escape pod beneath her.

  There was something. A spark of light.

  Marissa dove toward it, and it expanded into a tiny star.

  She reached out to touch it, and Andy was there.

  “Hey, kiddo. You ready?”

  Marissa nodded. “What do we need to do?”