Countercurrent: Book Four of the Atlas Link Series

by Jessica Gunn

  I gulped, fingers restless. I smoothed out my hair, my pants, and finally gripped the railing around the command center so hard, my fingers left indents. When I couldn’t stand it, I told Weyland to call up Atlas. “Ready?”

  Precious seconds ticked by with each unanswered moment.

  Trevor’s voice crackled over the speaker. “Almost there. Also, these lines aren’t secured yet.”

  I cringed. Fantastic. “See you, then.”

  “Travel safe, Valerie.”

  The weight in his words was almost too much. I blinked back building tears. Now wasn’t the time to lose it. We still had a job to do. But maybe it was the fact that so much of it depended on the super soldiers around me, on their engineered ability to time-travel, that set me on edge. I wanted to do something, and helping to teleport the crew of both ships to safety was, so far, the only thing I could offer.

  “All right, soldiers,” I said to my group. “Get ready.”

  Sophia and Weyland started the human chain, each person grabbing hold of the person next to them, each end of the line placing their free hand on the station’s hull. Lemuria had long suspected, and Sophia and Chelsea had confirmed, that super soldiers actually time-traveled when they teleported. They usually showed up a second or two out of sync. Therefore, they could share the connection like Sophia and Chelsea so often had when they’d both worked for TAO and used Link Pieces. With any luck, we were about to teleport both SeaSat5 and Atlas to the Sargasso Sea. Or we’d all get lost in the time void. Either extreme was possible.

  On Atlas, Chelsea and Charlie were inevitably doing the same thing. With our preparation for teleportation complete, all I could do was wait for Trevor’s transfer of data so SeaSat5 would become as hard to track as Atlas.

  “Now!” Trevor’s voice rang out across the Bridge. “Move in ten… nine… eight…”

  The command center console pinged and I uploaded Trevor’s code as fast as possible.

  “Seven… six…”

  “Done!” I said. “Shields up, people. We don’t know what we’ll be walking into.”

  If anything. We assumed General Allen would target the cache in the Sargasso Sea. We’d left it untouched because when we’d gone to Atlantis, we’d used the major world events Link Pieces that once rested inside the outpost. There shouldn’t have been anything else there for him to use, but we had to draw him out somehow. Hopefully, the three other Link Pieces we’d found—ones that Linked to other major world events—would be enough. If the General needed more time energy, fixed points like those events would give him enough juice to last him a while. Or feed his countrymen.

  Or to rule over them mercilessly, which I suspected was the case.

  A chorus of ready statuses sounded off across the Bridge and I braced myself for the teleport. This would be rough no matter what.

  “Three… two… Atlas away,” Trevor called.

  Chapter Forty-One

  TREVOR

  Chelsea cried out in pain as soon as we landed the teleport. I rushed to her side, but it wasn’t just her who was calling for help. Lexi and the others screamed as they looked at their hands and arms.

  My brow furrowed and I pulled Chelsea’s arms from her chest, where she’d crossed them. “What is it?”

  Her arms had turned blue, a bumpy surface rising on her skin. I ran a finger over the blue tint. It was almost scaly and definitely not normal.

  “It’s hard to breathe,” she said, gasping. “It’s like it was too much.” Her gaze roamed over her arms. “I had this a little when I took the map from your head.”

  In Atlantis? I’d been so out of it when I’d come to that all I could focus on was Chelsea’s voice and face, not anything else. And it’d been gone the next day, whatever this was.

  “Time burn,” she said. “I think. We used a lot of power to get here.”

  “Will it go away?” I asked her as I took stock of everyone else. The extent of their burns varied, with Charlie having the most next to Chelsea. Was it because they were the most practiced among them? The most powerful? Lexi didn’t appear to have much on her at all.

  Chelsea nodded. “It should. Breathing’s already getting easier.” She pushed herself up off the ground. “Come on. We have a job to do.”

  But as we ran for the Captain’s Quarters, where we’d stashed two of the four Link Pieces we’d rigged up, my mind worked a mile a minute. Chelsea and Sophia had moved SeaSat5 through time three times, although each had been with the assistance of a Link Piece. Once with the station as the literal Link Piece and twice from outside the station itself. What about teleporting the station to the same time period, just in another ocean, made it so difficult? What made it so their own time energy burned them? Was it because it’s unnatural to move sideways instead of forward or past?

  We rounded the corner to Tessa’s quarters and each grabbed a backpack with a Link Piece. After we returned to the Bridge, we teleported with all but one of the other super soldiers onto SeaSat5. Lexi had stayed behind, ready to do her part when the time came.

  “Ready?” Chelsea asked them.

  Sophia and Weyland each also had a backpack, although the shield Weyland carried didn’t fit quite right.

  “Yes,” Sophia said. “Let’s get this over with. I don’t enjoy the idea of what we’re about to do.”

  “None of us do,” I told her.

  The four of us along with the rest of the Atlantean super soldiers teleported over to the outpost.

  “Hopefully, this will be a matter of seconds.” I slipped off the backpack and took out a Link Piece. Just one of the four more powerful moments in history that we could think up.

  “For the record, and I know no one wants to hear this, but each of these Link Piece devices has one charge left,” Charlie said. “There might be enough juice for a Return trip, but I wouldn’t count on it.” On the assumption we won’t be making it. That was what she didn’t say.

  We all knew it. We’d all accepted that this might be a one-way trip. In the far future, there could be a huge cache to pick from, Link Pieces that could send us home. But nothing was guaranteed.

  Nothing except General Allen’s tyranny over his people. The rest of our world was up next, a world where not many people believed in the myths and powers of Atlantis and Lemuria. A world not ready for what General Allen had planned.

  “We know,” Valerie said. “Let’s make this count then.” If we didn’t trap General Allen on the first try, there might not be ship enough to carry out our plan.

  We settled in for the short wait, Chelsea’s hand gripping mine. Just when I thought the plan wouldn’t work, that he wouldn’t fall for the bait, his soldiers appeared in seas of forest green and turquoise. The fighting broke out the second the last White City teleport landed. Our Atlantean super soldiers hopped into action. I joined, too, cocking my gun and letting loose with the only weapon I had against these overpowered monsters. My bullets tore through limb and flesh as I moved between Valerie and Chelsea’s semi-protective movements. They fought with the precision of enemies meant to kill each other, except they were working together against a greater foe. Fire and water, ice and lightning clashed and weaved together until it was impossible to tell where the attacks were coming from or whom their intended targets were.

  It didn’t matter. I went through two clips before the blue encased my vision, brighter and more intense than I’d ever seen it. Dates and times, places and artifacts—god, it was so overwhelming. The light blinded my eyes, made it hard to breathe and see and hear, as if a flash-bang had been detonated in the center of the room. I stumbled, catching myself on a White City soldier. He looked over his shoulder at me, growling as a streak of lightning followed his hand through the air at my face. I ducked back and covered my eyes, bracing for the pain, but none came. I opened my eyes in just enough time to watch his form disintegrate in slow motion in wake of the Waterstar maps.

  What? The map didn’t do that, couldn’t do that. It wasn’t a weapon; it was a m
ap.

  This soldier wasn’t alone. One by one, the White City soldiers crumbled into nothingness, a purple steam rising up from their ashes and flowing towards General Allen, until all that stood was our small army and the General himself.

  He breathed in deep, pulling the rest of the purple energy steam from the air around us, and roared like a lion. The Waterstar map pulsed with power that sent goose bumps tidal waving up my arms.

  He’d done it. He’d forced the map into Abby and then stolen it from her.

  Rage consumed me. Rage for Abby and her death. For her innocence lost to this war at such a young age in a horrific way. Rage for what she’d been through, for what Abby had been forced to do on behalf of Atlantis—all for it to end this way, like this.

  Rage for Chelsea and Valerie and all they’d each lost. For the super soldiers fighting with us, banking on our plan working so they could return to the normal lives we’d ripped them out of. Rage for Weyland and how he may not be there to see his son’s birth.

  For every single person who’d died so that General Allen could do this. Could obtain this much power and for what? He surely wasn’t going to use it to bring his people home, not after all of this. No. He was going to use it to enslave them. To rule over time itself—the past, the future, the realities and times and histories in between. He’d know the location and direction of every atom, he’d break every law of physics.

  And then he alone would have the power of the universe. Unfathomable power.

  The rage lit a blue-hot fire inside of me, so hot it was cold, and before I knew what I was doing, I’d jumped from the upper level of the outpost, reaching out for General Allen.

  My fingers made contact with the skin of his neck and colors from all over the spectrum lit across my mind, like life itself had appeared.

  The power of the universe slipped from General Allen’s skin to beneath my own.

  My body began to burn.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  CHELSEA

  I screamed as Trevor leapt for General Allen. What was he thinking? How did he think he would win against him when the rest of us barely held our ground?

  But as Trevor held on and General Allen couldn’t knock him off, as this weird blue-white energy exploded from where they stood, gradually shifting from General Allen to Trevor, I began to understand in horrifying clarity.

  “Trevor!” Valerie shouted. She wasn’t the only one. Sophia and Weyland and I all rushed General Allen, the other super soldiers not far behind. We got within inches before the blue-white light became a wall that shoved us all backward, sending us flying into the air.

  I landed hard on my hip and shoulder. Valerie skidded past me. I reached out and grabbed hold of her arm to stop her. Together we stood and watched our favorite person on this Earth do strange battle with the devil himself.

  The blue-white light seared their bodies, and while I could make out both General Allen and Trevor individually, a transference was happening between them. Trevor was trying to take General Allen’s power from him!

  “He can’t,” Valerie said. She could barely stand. Her body shook and her ear was bleeding. Not good, not good. “He’s not strong enough!”

  As the transference ended, the light moved entirely from General Allen, leaving only an elderly man in its wake. He collapsed to his knees. Trevor stood above him. His eyes glowed blue-white, like a super-hot fire. Like the center of a supergiant star.

  Trevor was malleable, yes. But this malleable?

  When he spoke it was like a hundred other men spoke with him. He lifted his hand and it felt like he’d moved the entire room. “Do it.”

  “Do what?” Valerie asked him.

  “End it,” he said. My heart dropped. “End him. End this war.”

  By killing him? Again?

  No. If Trevor had taken General Allen’s power, that made Trevor immortal and unkillable. And killing General Allen now would be pointless. Our plan had worked, but we’d planned to lock General Allen in the far, prehistoric past. With nothing but dinosaurs and giant flora to keep him company until his eventual death by meteorites alongside said dinosaurs or being buried alive and trapped beneath the rubble for eternity.

  I would not do that to Trevor, his love of dinosaurs be damned.

  My gaze met Valerie’s and her eyes said she thought the same about Trevor’s wish.

  “What else can we do?” I asked her.

  Her gaze skittered back to Trevor, whose body was shaking. Scaly shapes like the marks that’d been on my arms appeared on his. But instead of blue, they glowed like cracks on the surface of the sun.

  He wouldn’t be able to hold his power for good. When it blew, would it seep out into the world or would he simply implode like a supernova?

  I didn’t want to find out. “Valerie, there has to be something. The station, Atlas—something.”

  Her eyes darted back and forth between Trevor and me, and I could visibly see her brain moving fast, sorting options, taking up time we simply did not have.

  Finally, she sprung up. “Trevor, can you hear me? Are you there?”

  He nodded, fists clenched at his sides. “Not for much longer.” His voice sounded like less men were talking now, but it still wasn’t Trevor. My power-less Trevor, strong enough without them to move the mountains guarding my heart. Now here he stood, burning up from the power. From the magic.

  An idea surfaced, bright like the supernova Trevor was turning into.

  I grabbed Valerie’s shoulder. “Valerie, can we burn General Allen up? Like the power’s doing to Trevor?”

  Valerie nodded quickly. “Already ahead of you, girlie.” To Trevor she said, “Put the power back. I have an idea.”

  He shook his head. “There’s no time. Val, I can’t hold this.” As he spoke, the other men dropped away until it was just him. Until his voice was only a whisper and the cracks in his skin had spider-webbed all over his arms and face.

  “We brought both ships so we’d have a way home, right?” Valerie asked.

  We both already knew the answer. Yes, we had. Because I could make SeaSat5 a Link Piece again, one powerful enough to bring us back from the Cretaceous period. One that connected me to home; once, Atlantis had been home, that was how I’d done it.

  “Think, Trevor,” she said. “We can overpower him.”

  Trevor froze for long moments, long enough that I thought it was too late. General Allen chuckled beneath him.

  “Stupid Atlanteans,” he said. “Prideful Lemuria. You come here to end a war and all you end is the universe itself.”

  “No,” said Trevor. “Not today. Not on my watch.”

  He slammed his hands back on General Allen and forced the power back into him.

  “Now, Valerie!” Trevor shouted. “Back to your ships everyone! Now!”

  Valerie’s hand clamped onto mine.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  VALERIE

  Trevor teleported onto Atlas alongside Chelsea and me. He still had a hand on General Allen, still had himself tapped into the General’s power, but not for long. “Get to SeaSat5,” he said to me. “Take Chelsea with you. I can handle Atlas with Charlie.”

  Chelsea looked like she wanted to object, but I didn’t give her a chance. As Trevor barked orders to Charlie, I dragged Chelsea with me to SeaSat5 and deposited her at one of the stations with self-destruct available. Then I handed her the ring on my finger.

  “Use this,” I told her. “Now. Think about Germay and about that future. It’s far enough.”

  She looked up at me with confused, angry eyes. “What? Tell me what you’re planning, Valerie.”

  “No time,” I said. Especially no time considering Chelsea knew very little about physics and the universe. I tapped the comms unit to speak to Atlas. “We’re all on board. Chelsea’s making a Link Piece now.” I tossed her the Link Piece manufacturing device. “That’s the last charge on this one. Don’t screw it up.”

  Well, hopefully there’d be enough juice to ge
t home. Maybe with the collective power of the super soldier army we had, we could squeak out more power. One thing was for sure—I did not want to be around when our plan went down. Because holy god, it was going to go down.

  Chelsea didn’t argue but made the Link Piece. When she held the device between her hands and looked up to me, I nodded and called Atlas again.

  “Ready,” I said.

  “Us too. Meet you there,” came Charlie’s voice. “Valerie, he’s losing control. General Allen is almost—”

  “Go!” I shouted. I didn’t want to hear the end of that sentence. I could not—would not—lose another friend today. Another member of my family. “Do it, Chelsea.”

  She moved us to the far future, to 3001 A.D., where Trevor and Chelsea had met Germay. Where they’d first become telepathically connected.

  “Keep the channel wide open,” I said to Trevor. The feedback from the double-open channel shrieked at us, but I ignored it. To my group, I said, “Get together and get ready to send us home, Chelsea. Make something into a Link Piece. Anything.”

  Her face screwed up. “Tell me what the hell is going on right now.”

  “We’re going to blow Atlas,” I told her. “That’s what the White City was trying to do when they attacked Pearl months ago. They wanted to use the Link Piece drive to rip a hole in space-time and go home to their reality. But you and Weyland had destroyed the Link Piece drive before they could detonate Atlas. We can recreate their desired conditions. We can make a black hole on Earth and trap General Allen and all the time energy inside of him for all of time until the energy burns him from the inside out. He’ll never be seen again and the White City will no longer be a threat. They only hated us because we harbored him for so long, and then we allowed him to get the Lifestone and use it for himself.”

  Chelsea’s face went blank for too many moments as she digested what I’d said. Finally, she said, “Yes, just make a damn black hole while we’re right here.”