The Spiral Path

by Lisa Paitz Spindler

  He let go of her hand and rushed back up the gangway.

  She chased after him. “Mitch, what’s happening? What are those?”

  He stopped but didn’t turn around. What did he know that could sever their close connection of moments ago? “The Interlace’s escape pods.”

  He jogged away from her, back up toward the yacht and the prime minister.

  If the crew had made use of the escape pods, then the Interlace must have been destroyed. Certainly a portion of the crew must have been injured and some might even have perished.

  Was Rafael among them?

  Chapter Seven

  Interlace Chief Petty Officer Sean Timms swiped the air at a figment only he could see. “Your brother got us out, ma’am. Without him, all of us Terrans would still be stuck with the Revenant.”

  Lara glanced up at Mitch across Timms’s hospital bed. “Commander Soto negotiated your escape?”

  Timms nodded while his eyes darted around the room. His Union blacks had been replaced with an exam gown that billowed every time his body shifted out of phase, which was every few minutes. For hours after their arrival, most of the Interlace Terrans appeared incoherent and in pain. For some their phase had stabilized, but others continued to shift.

  “Oh yes, he talked to them.” Timms scrunched up his face. “At least I think he did. I can only remember bits and pieces. At first they held the senior staff on the bridge.” He let his head fall back on the pillow. “They kept—they kept asking questions.”

  Lara narrowed her gaze on Timms. How much could he be trusted? “What sort of questions?”

  “About how we got there.” The chief pulled at his hair. “And sometimes pain. There was this white energy that they shot into our bodies, in our mouths and ears. It was suffocating. They kept asking questions we didn’t understand.” He sighed. “You say we were in the wormhole?”

  Mitch cleared his throat. “For sixteen days, yes.”

  “Sixteen days?” Timms’s eyebrows shot up. “How is that possible?”

  Lara moved away and paced. She scrunched up her eyes to block out images of Rafael being tortured so. “We were hoping that’s what you could tell us, Chief Timms.”

  Timms shrugged. “I have no idea.”

  Mitch shifted in his seat next to the bed. “Can you describe the ‘Revenant,’ Chief?”

  Timms frowned. “There was more than one. Sometimes they seemed solid, but often they were—were—I can’t think of the word.” He cupped his hands over his ears. “Shifting phase. That’s it. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. The whispers never stopped. They seemed to control the exotic matter.”

  “But you saw Commander Soto alive?”

  “I’m not sure you’d call that existence living, sir, but yes, Commander Soto was there. He stayed behind. He could talk to them. All the Chimerans could, but they seemed to like him the best. Especially one. What was her name?”

  Lara turned back toward the bed. “Her?”

  The chief bit on a nail. “Yes, female. I think her name was Cal—Cal-something. Calendra.”

  Lara whispered the name to herself. A Creed name? One from a childhood fairy tale and a particular favorite of Rafael’s.

  Timms shifted to nearly transparent for a few seconds and then solidified. He shivered, pulled the covers up to his chin and murmured to himself.

  When the man recovered a bit, Mitch shook his hand. “Thank you, Chief. Please get some rest now. We may return later with more questions.”

  “Anything.” Timms glanced at Lara. “Anything for the commander’s sister. He talked about you, ma’am. Said you could help.”

  Lara started to reply, but Mitch motioned her into the hallway.

  He waited for two doctors to pass them by and whispered low. “What do you think Timms meant by the ‘Revenant’?”

  “I’ve heard the term before, but in a children’s story. Calendra is an old Creed name. Can we trust anything he or the other Terrans say? They were stuck between phases for over two weeks. We have no idea what kind of toll that takes on their bodies or their minds. Clearly Timms is only partially coherent.”

  She had to hope that a rescue wasn’t already too late. She clenched a fist, wishing she could share her twin’s pain.

  Mitch caressed her arm. “It would be just like Rafe to secure their release ahead of his own. I hate to think what he sacrificed to make that happen.”

  Lara nodded but couldn’t meet his gaze. “I need to know those coordinates, Mitch.”

  Rafael might be in pain right now. Was Timms telling the truth about seeing ghostly beings made of light or had his mind been damaged in the wormhole? No one knew the effects of long-term wormhole exposure.

  “We have to be careful. I don’t want a repeat of what happened on our trip here. I can’t go off searching for the Interlace with half the crew incapacitated.”

  “Who knows what kind of torture Rafael could be living through right now? My brother is living in agony for the lives of the Terrans here in this hospital. Does the Union value Chimerans so little that they’d leave them to suffer?”

  “You know that’s not true, especially of me. Don’t start jumping to conclusions.”

  Lara pointed a finger at him. “Then why are the coordinates classified? Why hasn’t the Union sent out a fleet of ships hunting down the Interlace? Why haven’t you released the logs to me?”

  Mitch rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ve told you everything I can right now.”

  “Bullshit, Mitch. You said you understood how the Chimerans have been treated differently and I believed you. I should know better.”

  She stepped away, but Mitch grabbed her arm before she could walk very far.

  “I do understand.” His dark eyes narrowed and he glanced down the hall. “This way.” He pulled Lara into an empty exam room. Supply carts were stacked against one wall and heavy drapes pulled over large windows. A sliver of golden sunlight speared through the gap between the curtains.

  Finally. Lara crossed her arms. “Tell me.”

  Mitch sat on the edge of an empty bed. “I can’t tell you everything.”

  Lara turned to leave.

  “Lara, wait. C’mon, you’re not part of the Union anymore. You’ve made that clear. Do you want me to betray the Union? I really can’t tell you everything, but there are a few details I can share. I’m trying here. Are you?”

  Lara turned, let her arms fall wide and leaned against the closet. “You’re not giving me much to work with.”

  He sighed. “The Interlace was on an experimental mission. We’re not ready to fill the Creed in on the nature of their expedition.”

  “You have to now. This is no longer a search mission, but a rescue. If the rest of the Interlace crew is being held against their will by this ‘Revenant,’ we can’t go after them alone. It’s suicide.”

  Mitch slid off the bed and wandered to the window. His back to her, he opened the drapes, and warm orange light glowed around his tall form. Her ire melted on an exhale, and melancholy wrapped itself around her heart. Deep down, Lara needed Mitch to trust her even if that meant betraying the Union, but he would lose her respect with that disloyalty. The Union still meant more to him than she did. That hurt, even if her expectation was unfair.

  Taut shoulders revealed a body filled with tension. Unlike all those years ago, the man was now caught between two worlds. Mitch still needed to preserve order, any kind of order. In his book, order equaled peace. Eleven years ago, he would not have even tried to find some common ground, but now he reached out to her as far as he could.

  She owed him the same in return. Years ago, for a little while at least, they’d been happy, living in their little apartment by the canal. If the Chimeran decree had never happened, they might have stayed together.

  Lara crossed to Mitch, wrapped her arms around his chest and rested her cheek on his back. Listened to his heartbeat. Mitch settled a hand over hers and interlaced their fingers. On a sigh he turned in her e
mbrace and pulled her close.

  “I want to tell you everything,” Mitch whispered in her ear, and a dam broke, flooding her insides with yearning. He kissed his way from her brow to her lips. “I wish I could.”

  His touch became more insistent as Lara wound her hands under his jacket. They moved as one across the room. The edge of the bed brushed against her thighs just before they fell onto it. Mitch tugged open the collar of her jacket, hesitated for a moment when he noticed she still possessed the triple-star tattoo there. He caught her gaze and his lips quirked in a small smile before he kissed the mark. One hand slid down her thigh and pulled her leg over his hip.

  Did Mitch still have the same symbol on his neck? The three of them had gotten those tattoos at the end of a long celebration after passing their midshipman examines. Ale may have dampened the needle pricks, but not their bond. No matter where they went after the Academy, they’d wanted to stay connected. She’d never had the guts to have hers removed.

  Lara kneaded the warm, smooth skin of his back and wanted to believe him.

  Her commlink pinged on the Gryphon’s executive channel. Mitch dropped his forehead to her shoulder and sighed. It pinged once more before Lara caught her breath and tabbed it on.

  “What is it, Rossa?”

  “Sorry to bother you, Captain, but the countess and the defense minister have been asking after both you and the commodore. They’re requesting a meeting as soon as possible.”

  Mitch sat up and ran his hands through his hair. On a deep breath he seemed to mentally gather himself. He turned to her, a look of resignation on his face. “Tell them we’ll be at the yacht in twenty minutes.”

  He’d been about three minutes from getting Lara out of her clothes. Out of that damned leather jacket. Nearly telling her everything.

  Lara studied the holotablet, ignoring him. Mitch yearned to tell her the whole truth and bit his lip to keep the words from tumbling out. The door shifted and the prime minister entered with a few cabinet members following. Lara had been right. Mitch was going to have to tell them everything and find a way to live with himself afterward.

  With pleasantries out of the way, Sabine wasted no time in getting to her point. “We’re sending out search parties, Commodore Yoshida. Without your assistance, the search for our Chimeran children may take some time, but we can sit still no longer.”

  Mitch considered all the frustrated faces in front of him, which included Kade and a handful of Osai’s cabinet. “Relations between our worlds have been amiable for almost forty years, Minister, but we do not share all our activities with each other.”

  Sabine took a seat next to her daughter. “Continuing to withhold the last known location of the Interlace will strain Creed’s friendship with Terra, Commodore. This should be no surprise to you.”

  Lara set the holotablet aside. “Perhaps we can find some sort of middle ground?”

  Sabine regarded her daughter. “What are you suggesting, Captain?”

  Mitch clenched his jaw to keep his mouth from falling open. Lara Soto was willing to compromise. Despite all the chaos surrounding their situation, he’d maintained peace and order by keeping his own counsel. Lara lived by her own rules, however, and right now Mitch wasn’t sure what those rules were. Had he ever known?

  Lara looked him in the eye. “What if you appointed an intermediary? Someone both of you trusted, plus one other Creed.”

  “You, I assume?” Mitch moved to the window, his surprise barely in check. “Who else?”

  Lara nodded. “Myself and the prime minister. No other Creed need know the location. They trust me to act in their best interests. A few Creed ships could accompany the Gryphon—under your command—on a rescue mission.”

  He stared out the window. “The Union doesn’t want to be responsible for the welfare of Creed lives, Captain. Neither do I. Why are you comfortable with this arrangement? I didn’t think you cared any more for Creed than you do for Terra.”

  “As I pointed out earlier to you, Commodore, this is no longer simply a search mission. The Chimerans on board the Interlace are being held prisoner by a group called the Revenant. This is now a rescue mission. Even I’m not arrogant enough to think the Gryphon alone can take on what must be a fleet of Revenant ships hiding out in a wormhole somewhere.”

  Mitch clasped his hands behind his back. “We don’t have time to retrofit Creed ships the way we altered the Gryphon. Since this incident, the wormholes have been unstable. It’s too dangerous.”

  Sabine glanced at Kade. “You underestimate how quickly we can recondition our ships, Commodore.”

  “You know I’m right, Mitch.”

  He shrugged. “If you’re wrong, this could cost me my career.”

  “It’s worth the gamble to save forty-one lives, yes? To save Rafael’s life?”

  She might as well have punched him in the gut. He was responsible for the whole situation. They’d both wanted to restart those long-ago experiments, but Mitch set Rafe on the path that led the Interlace disappearing. A maelstrom spun around him, whirls of confusion beyond his control. As had always been true, Lara Soto was an agent of chaos.

  Now his carefully laid plan had fallen apart because Lara had seen her brother in the wormhole. What if it hadn’t been a hallucination and Rafe had managed to contact her? Right now he could be suffering. Mitch had to give them something.

  Just not everything.

  “I want your promise this information won’t go any further than the two of you.”

  Lara smiled. She’d expected him to capitulate. “You have it. I want the Interlace comm logs too.”

  Mitch nodded. Sabine motioned the cabinet members out of the room with a twist of her wrist. This was his best shot at getting Rafe and the rest of the Interlace crew back, so he had to take the risk.

  He would die trying to fulfill his promise to get them free.

  Chapter Eight

  Rafe wandered the nearly deserted Interlace, at least the parts that were accessible. Outside the infirmary viewport, the wormhole rift swelled as exotic matter continued to leak out of the void. At least he’d managed to free the Terrans, who’d been suffering more than any of the Chimerans on board. By now, though, even the Chimerans were succumbing to the immortal nothingness of the wormhole.

  He actually preferred the pain to this growing numbness.

  Holding out his hands, Rafe noticed how his skin had paled and that his phase shifted constantly. More troubling, the exotic matter outside beckoned to him like sirens to a sailor. He sensed its vibrating pulse beat throughout his body, its tendrils ready to do his bidding, just like Calendra. With a single thought, he could be out there melding with it. Losing himself in it.

  Rafe had spent days by Calendra’s side, immersed in a world of their own. They didn’t need words; in this place thoughts were enough. He learned much about the woman Calendra had been—gifted scientist, loving wife and affectionate mother. She’d been ripped out of a plentiful life and, when coherent, still ached for it.

  Who awaited Rafe’s return? No one yearned for his presence the way Calendra did. His parents and sister would miss him, but they were strong. They would move on eventually.

  Meanwhile, Calendra would be marooned here for all time.

  Sweet, sweet. Where are you?

  Calendra floated across the infirmary ward, a ghost leading clouds of pale exotic matter in her wake. Before he could think, Rafe called up matter from the wormhole in response and stared as tendrils of his own branched out toward her. His body hungered for her. He needed to touch her, to touch someone, to alleviate the intense loneliness of this place.

  Calendra clasped his hand and the shock of her touch reverberated along every nerve ending. “I’ve been looking for you.”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “I wanted to see the rift.”

  She nodded and leaned into him for a kiss. Their telepathic link had so far been weak, forged only one way by Calendra. Now Rafe yearned for a deeper communion, a more comple
te bond. Their tendrils enmeshed and he pulled her close.

  Then the Interlace began to vibrate, his bones and sinew humming in tune. Into the rift the ghost of another ship appeared. Their only connection to the outside world.

  Calendra ran a fingertip along his lips. “Your sister? So soon?”

  Rafe closed his eyes, searched for Lara’s presence. “No, it’s a Creed ship. The Bayne.”

  Calendra breathed deep as if inhaling the delicious scent of food. “There are Chimerans on board.” She clutched his hand, prepared to whisk them away to the Bayne.

  “No, Calendra! Don’t harm them.”

  “I need them. You know that, Rafe.”

  “Promise me.”

  Calendra sighed. “Very well. But don’t forget that they have what I want—to exist in both dimensions. My people can interact with them, we can even hurt them, but we can’t go with them when they leave.”

  Rafe nodded. Calendra’s misty tendrils swirled about them and a thousand shrieking voices echoed in the infirmary. The whirlwind carried them to the Bayne’s bridge.

  Bedlam greeted them. The captain slumped in his seat, blood dripping from his forehead. Every Chimeran on board was rolling on the decking in pain while the rest of the Creed crew tried to stabilize the ship. Unknown to any Creed on board, other Revenant skulked the bridge, waiting for a sign from Calendra.

  Rafe didn’t have much time. He knelt by a young Chimeran woman, clasped her hand and dampened the chaos around them. Her face relaxed as her pain eased. “Will you help me?”

  The woman’s eyes widened as Calendra approached. “H-how could I possibly help you?”

  Calendra settled a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, Rafe, but I want to play.”

  “Help me free us from this place, Calendra. Please. You don’t have to live this way anymore.” He turned back to the Chimeran woman. “Will you relay a message for me?”

  She nodded. Rafe let his guard down and his body rapidly switched between its two phase frequencies at random. He called up the exotic-matter tendrils and wound them around the three of them, several seeping into the woman’s ears, others whipping around his body. In seconds, her eyes rolled up into her head and showed completely white. He gave her one simple directive. “Find Mitch Yoshida. Tell him the experiment failed.”