The Spiral Path

by Lisa Paitz Spindler

  After Rafe delivered the last of his message for Mitch and Lara, Calendra dispatched the Bayne out of the wormhole. They were alone once again.

  The aches and pains wouldn’t leave Mitch now until he left Creed’s dimension. The wrist patch darkened daily, but he didn’t need it to tell him how quickly his cells were losing integrity. He lay in the dark of his Nessa quarters, unable to stop clenching and unclenching his muscles even though such attempts to mitigate the tension were futile. Even the rhythmic whir of the waves outside couldn’t soothe him.

  He didn’t belong here. As much as Mitch wished for the freedom of both worlds, only those like Lara possessed that. Mitch liked Creed, possibly because while here he usually could forget about his troubles on Terra. Forget about how his home world changed since Lara left it.

  The door chimed, but before Mitch could get out of bed, it chimed again. And again. Someone really needed to see him, so he didn’t bother pulling on a shirt and answered the summons in only his loose-fitting black workout pants. The door dissolved and he squinted at a knife of sharp yellow light.

  Lara breezed past him into the dark room. “You look like Hellas.”

  A whiff of fruity scent followed in her wake, the same fragrance from earlier today when they’d kissed. He couldn’t stop thinking about the press of her warm lips.

  “I was sleeping. Is there a problem?”

  She grabbed his arm and flipped his wrist over. The heat from her hand seeped into his skin. “You’re shifting a little quicker than expected, aren’t you?”

  Mitch snatched his arm back and rubbed his wrist. “I’m fine. What’s going on?”

  Lara frowned and walked to the window, her lithe body taut with anxiety. This was not good news. Lara Soto always looked him in the eye.

  He sat on the bed. “Tell me what’s happened.”

  Lara scrubbed her hands over her face. “My mother sent a ship into the wormhole.”

  Good thing he was sitting down. “We haven’t retrofitted any of their ships yet. Sabine promised me she wouldn’t—do you now see why I didn’t want to reveal the coordinates yet?”

  “She just wants her son back, Mitch. Can’t you understand that?”

  “What she did is dangerous. Call the ship back immediately. Sabine has no idea what she’s done.”

  “Too late.” Lara crossed her arms. “The Bayne has already returned. The wormhole shot it back out almost immediately, but not before depressurizing two decks and gutting an engine. The ship nearly ripped apart.”

  Mitch rubbed the back of his neck. “How many are dead?”

  “We haven’t confirmed it yet, but we estimate about fifty people are missing. Another thirty are in an infirmary suffering from phase fluctuations.”

  Mitch swore under his breath and searched for his T-shirt. “The doctors aren’t having much luck stabilizing the Terrans from the Interlace. Do you think the wrist-syncs could be reconditioned to help?”

  Lara hadn’t moved from the portal window. “We have a bigger problem.”

  “Bigger than two crews dying from phase destabilization? What was your mother thinking? I hope she feels it was worth those fifty-some lives.”

  “While in the wormhole, one of the Bayne crew, a Chimeran, received a message from the Revenant.”

  Mitch had found his shirt finally, but at Lara’s words he didn’t bother putting it on. The fine hairs on his arms stood on end. “What was the message?”

  Part of him had been expecting this. He deserved it.

  Lara crossed to him and put one hand on his chest. Her eyes were so wide, he could see the whites even in the dim light.

  “It’s you, Mitch. The Revenant have a message for you.”

  The infirmary pod smelled of antiseptic. Lara breathed shallowly and tried to ignore it. Like all Creed medical pods, this one could connect to any large city-pod to handle triage overflow issues or disconnect in quarantine situations. Late afternoon sunlight filtered through the corridor’s small portal windows as she walked with Mitch to the ward where the Bayne’s Chimerans were being housed. Outside, the noise of landing supply shuttles rattled the walls.

  She’d looked up Revenant in the history archives and found only the name of an ancient ship that had disappeared a thousand years ago when the Creed still lived on land. A fairy tale.

  Mitch held his shoulders tight, his muscles a bundle of tension and his stride stiff. “The Bayne was in wormhole space for merely minutes. How is it possible for the Chimerans on board to have been affected so?”

  Lara shrugged. “The Creed who returned were unscathed.” She quickened her pace to keep up with Mitch. “None of the Chimerans are shifting phase like the Terrans from the Interlace. They’re just all incoherent or, worse yet, comatose. This patient has been asking for you since she regained consciousness.”

  They turned a corner and found a group of medical staff clustered around a doorway. A single, clear cry rose above the din of voices.

  “Mitch Yoshida! I need to speak to Commodore Yoshida!”

  Mitch faltered a step but kept going. “No doubts now.”

  Lara and Mitch pushed through the crowd. The last of the group moved aside to reveal a pale woman in the hospital bed. Her long brown hair hung limp around her face and dark circles rimmed her eyes.

  The woman noticed Mitch immediately and held out a hand. “You’re here!”

  Mitch moved closer and clasped the woman’s hand as Lara motioned the crowd to disperse.

  She smiled and her papery skin crinkled. “I have a message for you.”

  Mitch nodded. “From whom?”

  “He said his name was Rafael.”

  Lara’s breath hitched in her throat. A tingle snaked its way down her back. Mitch seemed composed, but Lara noticed the rigid line of his back. She shoved her hands in her pockets to refrain from rubbing the tension out of them.

  Mitch kept his voice even. “What message does Rafe have for me?”

  The woman squeezed Mitch’s hand tighter and he bent closer. Lara stepped forward, but as she neared the bed her vision shrank to a tunnel and she stumbled. Mitch moaned and fell forward over their clasped hands. Wait, what—what had that woman done to him?

  Around her swirled a frothy whirlwind of white clouds. Static noise thickened to voices, hundreds of voices. Forked tails of currents pushed her in all directions. Lara staggered to the bed and caught herself from hitting the floor. Someone helped her stand and turned her around.

  “Lara.”

  She should have known.

  “Rafael!” Lara jumped to hug her brother, but he held them apart.

  “I have only a few seconds. This Chimeran proved exceptionally pliable. I had no other choice. Listen to me, without the upgrades such as your ship had, the negative matter in the wormhole affects Chimerans differently. This woman is now able to project her own thoughts and feelings, even sense a little of your own. She agreed to be a conduit for me.”

  Mitch moaned again. If Lara concentrated, she could feel his discomfort as the muscles of his limbs contracted and his heart raced. Destabilization sickness. His time was running out. Through the pain she heard Mitch’s heartbeat, however, and hoped he would be all right for the next few minutes. Was this ability her own or amplified in some way from Rafael?

  Rafael smiled. “Mitch can hear me too.”

  Lara grabbed Rafe’s arm. “How can I get you out of that wormhole? Are you suffering? Who is the Revenant?”

  “It’s not just me. We have to free the others as well. Their pain is mine. I can’t leave them here.”

  “Don’t sacrifice yourself for them.”

  “The experiment failed. Follow the trail of negative matter. Examine the Interlace’s comm logs. Do it quickly!”

  Rafael shucked off Lara’s hand and his image faded.

  “No!” Lara fell onto the bed. She fumbled for Mitch and found him almost unconscious, bent over the guardrail. She pulled his heavy weight off the rail and panted with the effort. Felt fo
r a pulse and sagged against him when she found it. The Chimeran woman also seemed unconscious. Around them alarms blared. Her mind struggled against Rafael’s instructions. A trail to follow, comm logs, thought projection. At least her twin was still alive.

  Strong hands pulled Lara away from Mitch, and seconds later bright lights were shown in her eyes. Other hands searched her body for broken bones. The alarms had stopped.

  “She’s conscious. What about Commodore Yoshida?”

  “He’s coming around.”

  Mitch called her name and her heart twisted. Had Rafael inadvertently hurt him? As much as she wanted to trust her brother, Calendra clearly held sway over the man.

  “I’m fine.” She shoved the medics aside and stumbled over to Mitch.

  The medical personnel had Mitch lying on his back on the floor while others worked over the Chimeran patient. Lara flipped over his wrist. The phase patch registered nearly black. In just a few minutes, he’d destabilized so much that his time was up. Whatever voodoo Rafael employed could be speeding up the process. Lara smoothed a lock of hair off Mitch’s forehead and tried to ignore the panic setting in that he could die.

  He clasped her hand and opened fully dilated eyes. “I talked to Rafe.”

  Lara gestured the medics away. The sensation was fading by the minute, but now that he was conscious, she felt Mitch’s strong pulse despite what the phase patch displayed. He would be all right, for now.

  “I know. We both spoke to him.”

  “He said to follow the negative matter trail.”

  Lara nodded. “We will, but you’re destabilizing. First we need to leave Creed.”

  “Out of the question.” Sabine stood in the doorway, one hand on her heart.

  “We have to leave before Mitch and the other Terrans destabilize much more.”

  With a nod from Sabine, several medics left the room with just two remaining to stabilize the Chimeran woman on the bed.

  Her mother stepped forward and looked over the Chimeran woman with wide eyes. “There will be no more Trans-D travel until we figure out what happened to the Bayne.”

  Lara clenched a fistful of Mitch’s uniform. “What happened to the Bayne was you gave the go order before upgrades were complete. People died because of that hasty decision.”

  “Regardless, Trans-D travel is suspended.”

  Mitch pulled himself up to sitting. “You can’t hold Terran citizens here, Prime Minister.”

  Lara stood up. “I’m not a citizen of Creed and I will not allow you to hold the Gryphon here against our will. You’re sentencing the Terrans to death. Is that what you want?”

  “What I want is my son back. And I don’t want my daughter throwing herself into needless danger either. What if the Revenant attack? I have to think of the rest of the lives on Creed.”

  “You can’t hold us here.”

  “Watch me.”

  Chapter Nine

  “I forbid you to go.” Sabine met Lara’s stare straight on.

  Lara wrestled down a roiling nausea. “You’re asking me to sentence Mitch to death.” A whirlwind of fear and anger churned inside her and demanded that she whisk Mitch off Creed right now. To safety, away from this place that was breaking him to pieces.

  She followed Sabine’s gaze as it drifted to the closed door of the private hospital room. Beyond it Mitch lay in the dark, his muscles probably painfully convulsing with phase fluctuations. In about a day his molecules would lose cohesion entirely. Meanwhile, she was arguing with her mother like the petulant teenager she used to be.

  Lara squared her shoulders and swept a glance over the empty corridor. “We’re leaving for Alpha Haven in a matter of hours, with or without your approval.”

  “Do you want me to beg?” Sabine clutched Lara’s hand. “Get down on my knees right now? I’ll do it.”

  Lara stepped back and wrenched her hand free. She’d never seen her mother so desperate. “No, I don’t want you to—”

  “Rafael might already be dead, Lara. I—I don’t want to think about that any more than you do, but if saying it out loud scares you into staying here safe with me, I’ll do it. I can’t protect you if you leave.”

  Lara squeezed her eyes shut. No, no, no. “Rafael is not dead. I would know it.” She slapped her palm on her heart. “I would feel it.”

  She backed away from her mother and sidled up to Mitch’s door. There would be a new emptiness inside if her twin were truly gone. No matter how much time, space or dimension separated her from Rafael and Mitch, the family bonds they created while at the Academy still held. During her short time at school, the shuffling between her parents’ worlds had ceased. The revolving chaos of her life had stopped with Mitch at its axis, the eye of the storm.

  “It won’t work, Lara.” Her mother pointed at the hospital room. “Whatever this thing is you’re doing with Commodore Yoshida won’t work, just like last time.”

  Lara’s heart cracked right down the center. “You want him to die.”

  “I most certainly do not want the Commodore to die, but he let you go once, my dear. He’ll do it again.”

  Lara’s breath shortened and she swallowed a curse. That Star Union edict had indeed derailed all her plans and ruined her life. She still mourned what could have been, but it was time for the truth. When she finally spoke, her voice sounded raw. “I pushed him away, Mother. I didn’t want a lifetime separated like you and dad lived.”

  Sabine’s chin lifted. “You had the best of both worlds.”

  “I had no home. We could all never live together as a family. I’ve never even shared a meal with the both of you.”

  Her mother’s expression fell and the corridor quieted except for the rhythm of the waves outside. After a few moments Sabine pulled back her shoulders and gathered her wrap. Her clear aqua gaze pierced Lara from across the hall. “We did the best we could, a grai.”

  Lara blinked away unshed tears and nodded. “I know.”

  “I still just can’t let you go into Trans-D space. Whatever has captured Rafael might come here. I have to protect all of Creed even if I can’t protect my own children.”

  “And I can’t stay here, Mother. I won’t. It’s not just Mitch. The Interlace Terrans can’t live here indefinitely either.”

  Sabine sighed. “Will you at least delay one more day? We can meet with Mitch in the morning. As the Terran envoy, he deserves to be part of this decision.”

  Arms folded in front of her, Lara broke eye contact. “We’re running out of time.”

  “Please, Lara.”

  If this were anyone else but her mother… She nodded. “Fine.”

  With a murmur of thanks, Sabine departed, leaving Lara more alone than she’d been that first cold night after leaving the Star Union behind.

  The wrist-sync’s interface glowed green in the dark. Mitch held the device up and watched the light blink double time every few seconds as it rebalanced the phase difference with its environment.

  I pushed him away. Lara’s words to her mother in the corridor echoed in his mind, the sharp edges slicing away at him. He really shouldn’t be surprised. Lara might have pushed him away, but he let her go. Both of them had been equally daunted by what their future might have held. He’d been a coward, a fact that had ached every day since.

  The spasms rolled over him again and he clutched the wrist-sync. The tremors began with a sharp pain in the gut that doubled him over. Joints contracted and crunched as if full of glass shards. Mitch’s stomach roiled, and only with panting did he keep down dinner. He crammed his eyes closed and waited for the seizure to pass.

  Enough. Judging by the argument outside, he would probably fade to oblivion before those two found a compromise. He knew what had to be done.

  Tuning the wrist-sync to the frequency Rafe used in his experiment might kill him, but so would doing nothing. Time had finally run out. The right spin value had been burned into Mitch’s mind from the moment Rafe transmitted it right before the Interlace disappeared. T
he experiment had worked for a few seconds at least before everything went to Hellas. Of course, now, Lara would need to be told and she would hate him for it. If this worked, at least he would be alive and could try to change her mind.

  Mitch’s damp fingers slipped on the tiny keys and his hands shook, but he let out a sigh when the green light blinked speedily again, finally. Before he could put the damn thing on his wrist, though, muscles seized again and nausea churned.

  The device fell to the floor.

  Lara pushed away from the corridor wall but refused to watch her mother march away. A decade ago she’d decided not to live under someone else’s rules and wasn’t about to start now—even if those rules were her mother’s. Besides, she had a plan to get them all back to Alpha Haven and soon.

  As she entered Mitch’s dark room, something clattered to the floor and the man groaned.

  “Mitch?” Her voice wobbled and her heart fluttered. They had to have enough time for her plan. They just had to. Lara wasn’t ready to say goodbye to this man yet.

  Mitch cleared his throat. “The wrist-sync. Hand it to me?”

  Lara picked up the device and helped him wrap it around his clammy wrist. “What are you doing?”

  The device’s interface lit up, rebooted and stabilized Mitch’s phase. What the—

  Mitch sighed and his whole body loosened in the bed, his face still in shadow. “I thought I’d try. What did I have to lose?”

  “It shouldn’t be working for you. The wrist-syncs only work for Chimerans.”

  “I tinkered with it. Figured I couldn’t be worse off.”

  Sadness welled up as a lump in Lara’s throat, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. They had wasted so much time and now might not have any left. Her mother wanted to take those remaining moments away, all to protect her.

  Lara clenched her jaw and crossed the room to the things she’d brought with her last night. The hospital room’s couch wasn’t the most comfortable, but she’d slept in worse conditions.