by Jessica Gunn
Sweat beaded her dark brow, her eyes narrowed in concentration. She clenched her teeth and responded only with a nod.
“Isn’t that a bad idea?” Any clots the rebar had formed simply by being there would go away and he’d bleed out. “Will Weyland even be able to help?”
“Not now, Trevor. I’m already doing what I can to stop the blood loss, but it’s not much. I’m not good enough at this yet.”
Slowly, so very slowly, Sophia lifted the Major’s deadweight from off the rebar. Sophia moved carefully to lift his body, her fingers twitching with the effort. She’d said she’d practiced—practiced on who? When? Then it snapped together. She’d been working closely with Abby. Maybe Abby had been helping Sophia, too.
Abby. Where was she? Guilt tore through me. She should have been my very first thought, but instead, I’d followed Sophia and Valerie, tagging along like some useless twig in a swordfight.
“Where was Abby?” I asked Sophia.
“On the other side of the building in a room with an exterior door,” Sophia grunted out. “In case of fire.”
She’s probably fine. Hopefully. Major Pike first, then Abby.
Got Abby, I heard in my thoughts. Chelsea. My eyes closed at the sound of her voice, simple though the reassurance was. Chelsea hadn’t been killed in the attack.
Where are you? What’s going on? I asked Chelsea. She must be close if she heard me.
Outside. I evacuated as many as I could. A lot of people were hurt or fell through when the floors collapsed. Abby’s here with me, helping me treat the wounded as best we can. General Holt’s called for help.
Good. Better off than we are.
I swore I could feel her head nodding. I won’t rest until we know why the Atlanteans attacked us here of all places.
“Trevor,” Sophia said, dragging me back to the task at hand. She’d managed to get Major Pike lifted almost to the top of the hole during the time it took Chelsea and I to have that conversation.
I bent down to help her retrieve him, but didn’t know what was safe to grab. Blood seeped through his clothes and dripped to the basement floor beneath us, on top of all of the debris. Scarlet drenched his middle. His eyes were closed, his face a mask of pain. How he was even conscious, I had no idea. There was so much blood. So much.
“Here we go,” Sophia said, lifting him the last inch into our room.
I grabbed his arms and pulled him over the edge. Before the floor could collapse beneath us, Sophia reached down and put a hand on both Major Pike and me, and we were enveloped in a sea of blue.
I’d never been inside the ICU on SeaSat5. Sophia teleported us onto the closest floor and we carried the Major into the room, trying not to jostle him.
What was Pike even doing in the Artifact Room to begin with?
That question plagued my mind the entire run to the ICU, breathing becoming difficult with every inhale. I still felt the press of the Waterstar map in my head, beckoning me on the horizon of my mind, fended off only temporarily by the medicine Valerie had given me. I still couldn’t believe how bad it’d gotten this time. Maybe I should tell Chelsea… at least while I still could.
No. Don’t think like that. Would it even matter after today? After the next few weeks?
Atlantis had attacked TAO, something they’d never done before. This war was going to end soon and I had no idea who would still be standing when it did.
But why attack TAO if it was Link Pieces they wanted? They were just Link Pieces. They didn’t go anywhere special, didn’t mean anything. A good couple dozen had already been used and couldn’t be used again.
None of it made sense.
Dr. Gordon was ready and waiting with a medical team when we got there. She ushered us inside, hugging a medical department tablet to her chest. “Put him on the table.”
“I’m here!” Weyland shouted as he sprinted down the hallway behind us. He met Dr. Gordon’s eyes, sweat dripping down his neck. Maybe he wasn’t so healed himself. “Everybody step back.” Weyland came to Major Pike’s side and took in the sight of the wound and the coppery, nasty smell overwhelming the space. Weyland paled. “I haven’t seen anything this bad since—”
“Chelsea, I know,” I said, forcing the memories of her lying on the Bridge, bleeding out, dying, as soon as they surfaced. “Do your best.”
And he did. Slowly, the wound stopped bleeding, clotted up. Skin pushed back together, grew anew over the wound from the rebar, until it closed all together. For the next few minutes, Weyland wavered on unsteady feet, eyes closed, hands roaming over Major Pike’s abdomen. He must’ve been trying to repair the internal organs.
Long, impossible minutes passed until Weyland finally looked up and backed away, reaching for support against the closest wall. “It’s done.” His breathing ran ragged, his chest heaving. He paled and looked more tired than I’d ever seen him.
“Are you okay?” I asked him.
He waved me away. “I’ll be fine. Growing pains.”
Dr. Gordon glanced down at her tablet then up at the machines surrounding Major Pike. A scanner, a horizontal red line emanating from a camera above the bed, ran up and down his body. Dr. Gordon tapped through windows on her tablet. “I’ll be damned.”
“What?” Sophia and I asked at the same exact time.
Dr. Gordon looked from Weyland and Major Pike to her machines and back again. “There’s still some muscle damage, though that’ll heal. But the major organs are intact. Do you understand what this means? What it could mean for us? For medicine as a whole?”
Major Pike groaned from the table. “Son of a bitch.”
Dr. Gordon moved to his side immediately and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t move, Major. Your body took one hell of a shock.”
Pike’s hands slid over his stomach and he raised his head enough to examine it. “What the hell? I was sure I was—then you,” he said, looking at Sophia. “What?”
“I healed you, sir,” Weyland said. “I hope that makes us even now.”
Major Pike locked eyes with Weyland. No words were said. He reached up and put his hand on Weyland’s forearm. Weyland returned the gesture and just like that, everything was right again. On SeaSat5 at least.
I turned to Sophia. “We have to go back and salvage what we can.”
She held a hand out to me and we left for TAO.
29
Chelsea
They’d taken everything. Every Link Piece, every artifact; even the 2D version of the Waterstar map that had been TAO’s only guideline until Trevor and I had come along.
Everything.
The resounding question as we all gathered around the briefing room table on SeaSatellite5—General Holt, Major Pike, Sophia, and Dr. Hill included—was why?
Major Pike had made a full recovery. But in return, Weyland looked like complete shit all hunched over in his chair, trying his best not to look like the walking dead. I saw right through it. So did everyone else.
“So what now?” Valerie asked the group at large.
She’d taken a seat on the other side of Trevor, unwilling to leave her friend. I didn’t blame her. In fact, with everything going on, especially after the attack on TAO, I wasn’t planning on leaving Trevor’s side, either. He didn’t have powers, couldn’t teleport himself out of trouble. And trouble was all we’d ever found together.
“Now we go on the offensive,” Captain Marks said, looking over at General Holt. “We take the fight to them. We don’t need any of those Link Pieces to get to Atlantis.”
“But what did they need them for?” I asked. “That’s the real question. Maybe they have some sort of weapon powered by Link Pieces.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Valerie said. “And impossible. What would it do?”
“I think that’s Chelsea’s point,” Trevor pointed out. “We don’t know. Until a few months ago, we’d barely even scratched the surface of what their powers can do, let alone their technology.”
The conversation went on and on, running in c
ircles around the same topics: SeaSat5’s security, if we should attack, how we’d power an attack like that. Each time, we kept coming up short.
Finally, I stated what I thought was pretty obvious at this point. “The Atlanteans want full control over the ability to travel time, as does Lemuria.”
“Yeah,” Valerie said. “So?”
“That’s why they took the Link Pieces,” I answered. “But we know they can’t be trusted with them. So that makes the Lemurians’ goal of keeping Link Pieces away from Atlantis concerning. And since we’re on the same side as them…”
Valerie and Trevor shifted uncomfortably. Both had renounced their ties to Lemuria, but that didn’t change who they were by blood.
“What are you saying?” asked Dr. Hill.
“I’m saying that Atlantis is at fault. They had a reason for doing what they did, and that since the Lemurians haven’t exactly stopped them from collecting and abusing all these Link Pieces over the course of the last two thousand years, that maybe the Lemurians don’t know anything at all.”
Silence filled the room. I continued in its wake. “I think it’s time we question my parents.” I swung my eyes to Captain Marks. “Find out what they know, and if they really are on our side, they’ll tell us where to hit Atlantis so it hurts. Then we go to the city and follow through with the plan. That’s what I think we should do.”
Captain Marks appeared to think it over, eyebrows furrowing. Finally, he leaned back from the table and met eyes with General Holt. It was the epitome of an unspoken conversation, something I didn’t think I’d ever be capable of, even with Trevor. Together the two leaders decided the course of action without speaking a word.
General Holt nodded and Captain Marks turned to the rest of us. “We bring the fight to them as we’d planned to. Chelsea, get Lieutenant Weyland as up to speed as possible with what being a super soldier means. The rest of us will prepare as necessary. Trevor, I need you to up SeaSat5’s security and offensive capabilities. Use whomever you need, SeaSat5 personnel or TAO’s, I don’t care. If there’s someone from the outside you want brought in, say the word.”
Trevor’s face hardened. They can’t be serious.
They are, I thought. It’s time. I agree with them.
He sighed. Suppose you’re right.
“I’ll do what I can, sir,” Trevor told him.
“Chelsea, I want you to talk to your parents,” Captain Marks continued. “See if they can shed any light on what target might be something worth hitting. As you said, I believe there’s a reason Atlantis needed all those Link Pieces, and that reason might be tied to something that could cripple them.”
“Destroying the entire city quickly would be the best way,” Valerie said. “But we’d have to be a heck of a lot quicker than the Athenians were.”
In Plato’s version of events, the Greek philosopher said Athens was sent to destroy Atlantis. People without powers, just the faith of the gods. We were different. And we could definitely do this.
Captain Marks nodded deeply. “Exactly why we need to know what Chelsea’s parents know.”
“I’ll go to them as soon as we’re done here,” I said.
“Good,” said General Holt. “Until then, everyone needs to hang tight. This will all be over soon, one way or another.”
I was outside the guest quarters before long. My parents let me in their guest room without suspecting anything. It’d been obvious in the way my father opened the door before I’d even knocked on it, and in the warm smile my mother gave me. They were so happy to see their daughter after twenty-two years that they never stopped to think for one moment that I might be deceiving them as much as I assumed they were deceiving me.
But were they really? Did my father hear these questions as I thought them?
My stomach churned. I didn’t know what to think, only that my first instinct when any of this came up was to run back home to Boston, to my sister and the parents who’d actually raised me. The ones who’d come to my band’s shows and who’d been there for my graduations. Who’d seen my heartbreak over Ray, and the smiles I gave Trevor from the Franklin’s stage.
“We’re sad we’ve missed those things too,” my father said, his face drawn.
I offered him a hug. He seemed like a nice enough man. He had my nose and eyes, and stood barely taller than me. He was friendly and warm, and despite the mental intrusion I knew he couldn’t help, I wanted to believe their words were true. That they weren’t here to trap or hurt me, or anyone I cared for.
“Believe me, the only people we distrust are the Lemurian girl and your powerless boyfriend,” my father said.
My mother’s eyes narrowed. “Something is off about him.”
“I love Trevor,” I told them without hesitation or reservation. “He was there for me in this mess of a war before you two ever came around. Same for Valerie. Yeah, they’re both Lemurian. But right now, I trust them a whole lot more than I trust anyone from Atlantis.”
“Your super soldier friends not included, I presume?” my mother asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I trust Sophia and Weyland with my life.”
And, apparently, Valerie’s girlfriend, Charlie, too. Funny, thinking about it now, how jealous I used to think she was of me for being with Trevor. It really was all about his career accomplishments after all.
“Hmm,” my mother said. “We’ll see about that.”
I took a deep breath, trying to settle my frayed nerves, to soothe them before I lost it altogether. “Look, I didn’t come here to discuss my relationship or the company I keep.”
“You want to know how to stop Atlantis,” my father said.
Sometimes I hated his ability. Other times I loved how it helped cut right to the chase.
“Yes,” I said. “They’ve attacked TAO, my ally, and stolen the contents of their artifact cache—their Link Pieces, both used and unused.” The latter part especially made no sense. What good were Link Pieces to time travel if they’d been used? None. “We know they’re obsessed with time travel. That they’ve cocooned themselves in an undiscovered time-place, where they stockpile Link Pieces. I’m here to ask why and, if possible, how to stop them—what the best plan for that might be.”
My mother pulled in a deep breath and urged me to sit beside her. I put her earlier words about Trevor and my friends out of my head and sat.
“There’s much you must learn,” she said.
I looked her in the eyes. “So tell me.”
She looked over my shoulder to my father. “Should I tell her the rumors?”
“Yes,” he said. “That could explain why they took Link Pieces and nothing else.”
“They took lives, too,” I said. “Don’t think for a second the Link Pieces were the only things forfeited. In attacking TAO, they’ve created another enemy for themselves. We were always going to fight them, but now… now they’ve moved up that timeline. If you’re on our side at all, if you’re really about to rebel against your captors—against the people who created me—you’ll tell me all you know.”
My father was the first to speak. “It is true that the Atlanteans love their Link Pieces, that they collected them as blissfully as others collect stamps or flowers or pottery. But there are rumors, horrible rumors.”
“About?” I asked.
“That the Crown Prince, years ago, had volunteered to become the Keeper of the Map. He hasn’t been seen since.”
My thoughts swam and I realized, belatedly, that maybe I didn’t know as much about Atlantis as I thought I did. “Crown Prince? I know Atlas was the first king of Atlantis…” I tilted my head sideways as if it’d help bring forth all the facts I knew, which weren’t many. “Well, assuming Plato was right. There’s not much evidence either way.”
“Atlas was always meant to be king,” my mother said. “But his father sacrificed him to their cause, forcing his hand regarding the map.”
“The Waterstar map?”
My father nodded. “Yes. You see, back
then only the super soldiers saw the whole thing at will. Lemurians see it a Link Piece at a time and the regular Atlanteans struggled to handle their small powers. But super soldiers—oh yes, we had it all.”
“Until we didn’t,” my mother scolded him.
“Right, yes, until we didn’t,” my father corrected. “Rumor has it that the position Atlas volunteered for ended up being something more intense.”
A light bulb went off in my head, firing across synapses. “Atlas, the man who held the world on his shoulders. Were they the same person?” Atlas the Titan versus Atlas the King of Atlantis. Now I’d heard everything.
“In a manner of speaking,” my father answered. “Rumor says he’s the Keeper of the Map, the person in charge of the entirety of the Waterstar map as the Atlanteans have recreated it.”
“Recreated it? I thought you said they couldn’t see it without super soldier help?”
“They couldn’t,” my mother said. “It’s been almost two dozen years since Atlantis fell, which means that should the rumors be true, they’ve had twenty-two years of uninterrupted Link Piece collecting. According to the rumors, the Atlantean High Council used Atlas to create a physical representation of the Waterstar map that was complex and more intricate than you can possibly understand.”
Somehow I doubted that.
My father inclined his head my way. “It involves other dimensions. How versed in those are you?”
Okay, maybe not. “So what? Are you saying that this place actually exists?”
“Supposedly so,” my mother said. “If it does, it’ll be the center of the time travel universe. They’ll have nearly every Link Piece in existence in one place. This at once makes the Atlas Cache both an easy target and a supremely dangerous one.”
“Should this be our mark if we go to Atlantis?” I asked them.
They shared some brief, unspoken conversation with each other. I got the gist of it even without being able to read minds. They hated what Atlantis had done in making them into super soldiers. They despised what Atlantis had almost done to me and to others. That was why they left. But Atlantis had been their home, had been where their family and friends had lived with them.