Shadow Over Avalon

by C. N Lesley

  Arthur watched the departing back of his brother in amazement. Kai possessed undeniable depths, and as he said, they might not have another chance to talk. For the very first time in his life, he felt a sense of belonging. It seemed so natural to share with Kai, almost as if they were meant to be together. Lost in a whole new inner world, he didn’t realize the meeting had broken up until Shadow slumped down in a seat opposite.

  “Kai’s very persuasive when he sets his mind to a task. He said you might stay open for a while.” Shadow glanced at the departing men. “They go to prepare an immediate sortie.” She sighed, straightening in a replica of Kai’s earlier action. “We didn’t get off to a very good start, and now there’s no time. What we do is too important for personal consideration, or I’d prefer that you join Morgan.”

  “The safe path perhaps, but maybe not the wisest, and I’m not a child to be protected.”

  “No, my son, Ector tells me you wear the mantle of manhood well. This shield you spoke about—will you need help?”

  “The Archive will know if others aid me by the flavor of my mind.”

  “Then you must open totally to it?”

  “There’s open, and there’s open. Expected behavior patterns will not be cause for suspicion, and it doesn’t know I suspect it.”

  Shadow leaned forward, frowning. “Arthur, I think you had better tell me what it is you’re planning.”

  “If the Archive finds me, then it can see and hear what I experience, yes?” He paused as she considered this. “If a false set of actions fall into normal behavior, it will assume where it thinks I am is where I actually am.”

  “You’re suggesting effectively splitting your mind in two. I agree it can be done on a limited basis as you already showed me, but what you intend— who you intend to deceive, requires total concentration of effort. No one can be in two places at once.”

  “I can. I’ve had lots of practice in Sanctuary. I can keep up a shield for approximately three hours. Will that be sufficient?”

  “How will we know if the deception is successful?”

  “It gloats when it thinks it’s scoring points. I can detect traces of its emotions.” Arthur looked her full in the eyes daring her to argue more. She looked away to the entranceway and then stood up.

  “I’ll make sure the others leave you alone. Please begin.”

  Arthur began to build memory sequences into a journey around Avalon as he followed her out of Ector’s house. He included details he would notice with the same frequency normal for him. He’d had time to decide what he would have done if he hadn’t been helped by Shadow; now he followed through. One such as himself could be expected to slink back to Sanctuary, after a certain degree of soul searching. He would have to pay the price for escaping their clutches – they would expect no less. That meant he needed to access the mind of a seer to validate this mobile dream.

  Circe’s psi rating was about average for a seer, and she had a personal score to settle with him. When he’d contacted her from Elite barracks, she told him what she thought of his stupid decision and that she didn’t want to see him again, unless he changed his mind, surrendered to Sanctuary, and fulfilled his eugenics duties with her. Her betrayal hurt more than he wanted to admit.

  Sanctuary kept the surface world hours, so she would be sleeping, and thus an easy target. All he had to do was start a dream sequence, and then hang on tight while she played it out for the Archive. He reckoned it gave about three hours grace in all, if he had to activate it.

  Since the Archive would imagine him dead or dying, it probably wouldn’t be looking for him. Boasting to gain admittance to the quest was one thing, delivering, entirely another. Seers presented easy targets, but the Archive? The thought broke him out in a cold sweat. What if he was wrong and the end of that dark passage led to moldering construction records or obsolete secrets? The picture of Ector dozing off in front of his eyes as he tried to discuss racial survival surfaced. Another image of the Archive reverting to an archaic mechanism when confronted by Shadow and himself with details of inner Nestine activity blazed into his mind. Kai’s disclosure of an inside agent betraying years of hard won victories in weeks weighed the scales further. Ector, Shadow, and Kai were real, living people. Who was he, with his pathetic half-life, to put his own fears before their safety?

  Fear was the enemy. Fear could also be friend. Fear produced adrenalin rushes to enable flight or fight. He’d fight. He’d use it. Arthur finished his internal dilemma at the same time he emerged behind Shadow in the alley. Ector’s ground runner waited with Ector in the driving seat, Ambrose beside him and Kai behind. He followed Shadow to the rear seats.

  “Is your shield up?” Ambrose said.

  “It isn’t necessary yet.” Arthur strapped himself in. “The Archive will be monitoring exits from Avalon on a routine basis, and will not expect accelerated plans. Please do not think of these, or of the enemy. I know this will be difficult, but the longer it remains in ignorance, the longer I’ll be able to shield.”

  “Arthur gives us three hours after activation,” Shadow said. “As I have no idea how far the dark zone stretches, I suggest we all think of the most boring routines imaginable. Perhaps Ambrose will give us a weapon cleaning drill.”

  “A blade rusts on constant exposure to water,” Ambrose began. All except Arthur and Shadow joined in the automatic training response.

  She nudged him in the ribs, but he shook his head.

  ‘I need to be watchful,’ he thought at her. She nodded, joining in the second response when it came.

  Arthur let himself sink into meditation as they traveled. He didn’t know, or want to know, their route. He did need to cast his consciousness loose to scan for that great mind. It had a unique flavor he’d come to recognize from frequent exposure. He couched his thoughts into the sort of general wish most residents of Avalon subconsciously expressed on retiring; that the being would continue to watch over them, adding to that thought a general sweep sent out for the reassurance of its presence.

  Arthur’s heightened abilities detected it engaged in fishery controls, while at the same time involving itself in an extensive sweep of outlying medi-tech stations. Not what he’d hoped for. A second later he almost lost his concentration when a presence touched his mind.

  ‘Don’t,’ he thought back at Shadow. ‘It’s busy, and maintaining secrecy is too delicate a line to walk for distractions.’ The pressure desisted.

  The Archive switched its venue to another station, also on the periphery. Arthur started to sweat. He guessed it acted so because his body hadn’t been discovered; thus he could have turned up at a station as comatose without identification. It had visual recordings of all exits to barracks, so it must assume he’d changed clothes somewhere in the city without its knowledge. When it couldn’t find accomplices, it attempted to backtrack whenever it found his location. Interesting that it must think him so smart.

  Arthur reined in his thoughts as he realized he was doing the very thing he asked the others to refrain from doing. The sentience continued its intensive search with increased vigor when several of its workloads diminished during night hours.

  Arthur tried to concentrate, but again his thoughts strayed. He began reviewing the number of medi-tech stations that had facilities for in-patient care and reckoned seven as the Archive started on the third. At the rate it sifted, he had about ten minutes before it began re-evaluating its strategy. With a guilty start, he paused in his speculation, but the sentience didn’t waver. Deliberately now, Arthur let himself think of the times he had evaded seers. It occurred to him that he had long ceased to keep his full attention on deception. As if triggered by this discovery, his mind jumped to a higher level of awareness. Every nerve tingled, every sense sharpened, and that small part of him keeping watch on the Archive registered no increased interest as the sentience moved onto the fifth venue. Even as he acknowledged this factor, his will grew beyond any level he’d previously experienced.

  A
s Ector pulled into barracks parking lot, he knew, without accessing others that they intended to use his own escape route from Sanctuary as an entrance. A logical choice, since the least expected action gave an advantage. Ector’s calculated selection of parking had to be admired; out in the open in his usual lot looked normal. Much better a ploy than trying to conceal the transport in an alley to shout of some nefarious action in progress. Arthur noted the Archive moving on to the sixth station.

  Ambrose, Ector, and Kai shouldered backpacks, confirming Arthur’s suspicion the quest was intended for three. Shadow stood rearguard while each slid down the exact same garbage chute Arthur had used weeks before. He recognized the pattern of Brethren training overlying strategy: put in the lead one who knows the way, who is competent and expendable. Save for yourself the hindmost place to both deal with pursuit and analyze ongoing problems ahead. Ambrose led, followed by Ector, Kai, himself, and then her.

  They had almost reached Sanctuary by underground ways when Arthur turned to Shadow, signaling for a halt. The Archive had finished the seventh station. He didn’t want to be surprised in Sanctuary cellars, or the dark zone. The others grouped around him, each face betraying anxiety.

  “Arthur?” Shadow’s crisp voice came across in the semi-gloom.

  “It searches for me, and is about to change tactics. I need—” but he didn’t get the chance to finish. The Archive directed every shred of its capabilities in a search and locate pattern aimed at him. He didn’t attempt to block it; instead, he willed himself into deception, letting his senses register his predestined route.

  “It’s found us,” Ambrose said.

  “Be quiet.” Shadow’s angry whisper silenced him. “He’s under attack. Blank your minds of him, the quest, each other and where we are.”

  *

  In his carefully constructed vision, Arthur’s phantom self ran along an overhead walk in the eastern quadrant to leap onto a passing railpod when it slowed at an intersection. He registered mild amusement from the faces of fellow travelers at the pranks of an Elite recruit, bent on stretching rules. He had seconds until it reached an obligatory pick-up point. He boarded another pod, traveling in the opposite direction, again having substance in his own mind. The Archive gleefully alerted security at each stop point for any incoming transport. Round one to him.

  Arthur refocused on a group of worried faces, picking out Shadow. “The chronometer has started ticking. I’ve twelve minutes before I need another halt. Can you get us through to the dark zone before?”

  “Yes, in seven. Is there anything else I can do to help you?”

  “Continue as you did. I don’t need distractions.”

  “You all heard him. Move!”

  Arthur concentrated, aware of Kai steering him around obstacles in physical reality, and then helping him climb down into the darkness. He couldn’t try the same deception with transport hopping again, since the Archive wouldn’t be fooled a second time. Now he needed to give it something it wanted, before it destroyed him. He gambled the acquisition of his seed was worth the stay of execution, having noted security sent by the Archive to catch him on his mind journey had their weapons set to stun.

  Kai put shields on his eyes. “Arthur, if you can hear me, prepare for high-pitched sounds and a burst of light.”

  “What’s he going to do?” Ambrose asked.

  Shadow pried up the rusty entranceway with Ector’s help. “Kai’s made a study of ancient pyrotechnics. He modified a certain type to detonate with a whine rather than a bang. We need noise, light and movement to trigger sentinels I found at the first gateway before we risk passage, but not enough noise to bring seers running.”

  A flash followed by a hurtful sound set five laser bursts at the target object. Ector took aim and fired at the apertures. Kai sent another incandescent burst through the gateway. This time, all remained peaceful.

  “Quickly, we have less than four minutes,” Shadow urged.

  Smells of ancient must assailed Arthur’s walking corporeal body as his astral self waited for the final pod stop. They reached sight of the next gateway with one minute to spare.

  “I’ll scout ahead,” Ector volunteered when Shadow joined the rest.

  “No, I miscalculated the distance. We must wait. Arthur can’t have any feedback from any of us until he’s through with the trail he’s laying. Meditation everyone.”

  Intent on his image-self, Arthur waited on the Archive’s action before he continued to the next false trail. When the last stop failed to produce a captive from the innocent railpod, the Archive let its rage surge to unimaginable levels for a split-second. It now searched for an echo, rather than a presence, so Arthur released a picture of him sneaking into Sanctuary from the eyes of a passerby. The Archive began to pick through every mind within, starting at the ground floor up. Arthur obligingly left a trail to Circe’s room, having accessed her sleeping mind moments before.

  Fear of failure released adrenalin, but not to strengthen Arthur’s will as he’d gambled. His mind made a peculiar flip, moving up into new realms, where he could feel rage as a hot wave of hate and power.

  Hate was irrelevant, but loathing such as he felt represented constructive use of emotion, since it didn’t impair his judgment. He activated the Circe program, letting it run while he dealt with the problem in his physical world.

  “It’s been too long,” Ambrose said. “We have to move, or he’ll take us down with him.”

  “Ambrose—” Shadow started.

  “Look, we can’t keep stopping for him. We must continue without him, or abort.”

  “Shadow, either keep him quiet, or remove his ability to vocalize, I don’t care which,” Arthur ordered. He heard, rather than saw, Shadow’s sword drawn.

  Chapter 32

  Earth Date 3892

  Circe responded to his phantom kiss. Her dream sequence altered to his suggestion. The Archive entered her mind seconds later. It wanted him badly yet . . . it backed off to wait until he’d finished, satisfied he couldn’t escape.

  Arthur looked up to find Ambrose pinned against a wall with the point of Shadow’s blade brushing his neck. She released him at Arthur’s nod.

  “We have at least forty-five minutes of uninterrupted progress,” he said. “You can let him go now.”

  “How do we know we have that long?” Ambrose demanded, red-faced.

  “Because I’m currently visiting with Circe,” Arthur said.

  “Less than five before security raid her room and find her alone.” Ambrose dismissed the notion.

  “Who’s Circe?” Kai wanted to know.

  Arthur grinned. “She’s a seer breeding mistress who’s wasted a large amount of her valuable time trying to get viable seed out of me. Now she dreams of gradual success.”

  “I’ve had enough of this fabrication. No one manipulates seers, and this lad claims he’s controlling the Archive. Whose word are we taking for truth that the Archive is aware of our quest anyway? Do we have any corroboration? No.” Ambrose shouldered Ector aside to continue. “I say this boy is merely voicing precisely what he’s supposed to say to implicate us all beyond redemption.”

  Part of Arthur’s mind registered irritation. He relaxed the barrier sealing away his ongoing encounter with the Archive to release a confined broadcast, cutting straight through privacy shields of all within his vicinity for the space of sixty heartbeats. Each face registered shock, and some looked embarrassed, while others were awed by the time he ended the transmission.

  “Not . . . one . . . more . . . word,” Shadow glared at Ambrose. “He’s more than proved himself. Interrupt him again, and I remove your ability to interrupt, permanently.”

  Ambrose looked away; his shoulders slumped, unwilling to face a circle of hostile stares.

  “Mother, I make it forty minutes now,” Kai said.

  “Keep together and no one move near any sentinel until we have tested it for activity. Same formation as before.”

  A more cautious group ed
ged forward in almost total darkness for fifty paces until Kai called a halt. He fumbled in his backpack for a moment to withdraw a metal ball. “On your knees, everyone,” he called, rolling it ahead of them. Nothing happened. Kai rummaged again for a pyrotechnic. He lit the fuse and hurled it as far as he could. A brilliant blue cascade would have temporarily blinded the party without eye shields. Again, no response to the prod. Kai unhooked a flashlight from his belt. They stood no more than ten meters from an obvious portal. It remained inactive.

  “Advance slowly,” Shadow called. “Let’s have more light.”

  Ector and Ambrose both unhooked flashlights. At Shadow’s signal, all removed eye shields. They moved forward with caution.

  Ancient walls oozed malevolence around them. Ancient dust rose from every step to coat their lungs. They passed Shadow’s first barrier and traveled unknown territory. Two more sentinels proved identical to the first and Kai disarmed each with ease. Ahead, a faint break in the wall alerted Ector. He caught Ambrose by the shoulder to halt him. The others grouped behind.

  “What have you seen?” Shadow said.

  “Maybe nothing. An irregularity. Kai . . . would you please?”

  Kai went through his complete repertoire to no effect. He looked at the rest. “I sense danger. Our odds have just plummeted.”

  All gazed ahead. The passage stretched into infinite gloom, but the walls looked clear and there laid the danger. No one imagined easy access after the elaborate traps behind them, not with Kai’s warning still ringing in their ears.

  “I guess this one’s down to me,” Ambrose said, by way of general apology.

  “Don’t go past that break in the wall unless you’re certain—” Shadow began.

  “No more than a body length near,” Ector broke in.

  One step at a time, Ambrose advanced, shining his flashlight on walls, ceiling, and floor, and then he stopped for a long time.