by Adam Matlow
“We brought you back here, to this very room, with the intention of interrogating you, but after months of being in a coma we had pretty much given up any hope of you recovering. Only Kali held out any hope you would wake up; and one day, you did just that. With total amnesia.”
“Wait, Kali was there too?”
“She spent quite a bit of time at your bedside. She said it was for security reasons, in case you woke and tried to murder us all. But, I think she felt responsible. After all, she was the one who shot you.”
Kali wanting to shoot Marcus was the one thing which seemed believable to him at this point.
“We kept you close by - under observation. It quickly became apparent you couldn’t remember anything, so you were not a threat to us. Even your memory from those first few weeks eventually faded. We decided to keep you close by, so you’ve been working for me ever since. We also kept the existence of this place hidden from you. We could never be completely sure your memory wouldn’t return, or the implant wouldn’t reactivate itself. We couldn’t risk exposing the headquarters for the underground. That’s why you were never told about it.”
Marcus felt his stomach churn.
“This thing in my head, can you remove it?”
“Not without killing you. It’s buried in there quite deep.”
“So why did you have me searching everywhere looking for these missing people if you knew Davon was kidnapping and implanting them?”
“I hoped it would help jump-start something in your memory. Something we could use against Davon. Or maybe help you remember your past.”
“Why can’t I remember? Or even not know I have forgotten it? If that makes sense?”
“Memory is a funny thing,” said Doc. “When something doesn’t make sense to us, or is contradictory to our normal experiences, the mind will tend to fill in the blanks with something that does make sense. Think back Marcus; what did you do before you came to New Hope for the first time?”
“I…” struggled Marcus. “I don’t know. It’s a strange feeling, knowing there is a part of your life you can’t remember. So, who was I before I worked for Davon? Where am I from?”
“We have no idea. We did some digging around but were never able to turn up any information about you. Your past is as much a mystery to us as it is to you.”
“Do you think I’ll ever get those memories back?”
“Honestly I don’t know. I suspect your memories are still there, just … blocked, which would explain the headaches. It’s possible one day you will remember everything. Of course, it is also possible you never will. We’re dealing with an alien technology here, and I’m afraid to say it’s beyond my understanding.”
“But perhaps not Vana’s,” said Marcus.
“Of course!” cried Doc, “I hadn’t even considered that. It would be worth talking to her about it. Perhaps she can help you - and Amara.”
“So, Amara? She has one of these implants in her head as well?”
“Yes, but thankfully due to our experience with you, I was able to deactivate hers fairly easily. Like you, she has some memory loss. She can remember everything clearly until she was taken by Davon’s men, then things get a bit sketchy. She described it as trying to remember a dream. She is understandably confused and disorientated and wants to be left alone for now.”
Doc stood and walked towards the door. “I should check in with Vana,” he said.
“How’s it going with her anyway?”
“I grasp some of the fundamentals of what she is saying, but the practical application of it is mind-boggling. Without the parts she salvaged from her ship, there would be no way of building this thing. The technology simply does not exist - not on this planet anyway. Half the components are made from some material which technically shouldn’t exist. At least from my understanding of physics anyway - which she keeps correcting me on. I think I have learned more about how the universe works in two days with her than I did in the last thirty years.”
“You left her to it?”
“It was her idea, I needed a break. But secretly I think she was getting fed up of me constantly asking questions. I was only slowing her down. She reckons it will take a couple more days to complete and test it. With the amount of energy we’re talking about here, I’ll be glad if we don’t blow up this whole continent when we switch it on.”
Marcus allowed himself to smile and looked at Doc who was wearing a serious expression.
“Oh, right, so that’s actually a possibility?”
“Now you understand why I needed a break,” he said. “It will be fine, Vana knows what she is doing. Or at least she is putting on a good show.”
“Well you’ve convinced me Doc,” said Marcus, utterly unconvinced.
Doc stood to leave the room but paused at the door. He turned to Marcus, “I don’t know what happened to you, or Amara when you were in the Forge with Davon. Maybe it would be better if you never remembered. Maybe it would be better for both of you.”
He didn’t wait for Marcus to reply, but simply turned and left. Doc was probably right thought Marcus. If his dreams were any indication, he didn’t want those memories back.
◆◆◆
Marcus made his way back to the central area, which had been converted into a makeshift workshop, tools and cables lay haphazardly on every surface. Vana was busy screwing a cable into a machine the size of a desk, which hummed slightly and made the hairs on Marcus’s neck stand on end whenever he got near to it. Doc had already returned to work and was busy fiddling with a bunch of cables, connecting them to various ports and sockets on the ever more complex looking device.
“How’s it going?” he asked Vana as he weaved his way towards her through piles of scattered equipment heaped haphazardly across the floor.
“Much better than I expected,” she replied, grabbing another loose cable and attaching it to the device. “Doc has been a great help, shouldn’t be more than another day and I think we will be ready to go.”
“Already? I thought this was going to take longer?”
“I wasn’t counting on Doc being so efficient. I’m impressed.”
“Hah,” snorted Doc, “I’ll take the compliment, but I feel like a Neanderthal who has just been shown the space shuttle.” The Doc had a wide smile on his face.
“I have to admit though I am enjoying this. I could learn so much if only we had the time. Which we don’t of course. We have to put a stop to whatever Davon is doing.”
Vana stopped to wipe a bead of sweat from her head with the back of her hand. She stood back from the machine and examined it, tightening cables and double-checking connections.
“I think that’s why he has taken people from the nearby settlements, to use as soldiers. He’s building an army for something.”
“So, he could be implanting people with those things right now?” Marcus tapped the scar on his temple, “That doesn’t sound good.”
“No, it doesn’t,” said Vana, “I suspect he only took people before whom he thought would be compatible. It’s possible many people will die in the process of him implanting them.”
“Then we have more reason to stop him. We don’t want an army of fearless totally loyal soldiers against us, but equally, we can’t let people die in the process of them being implanted. We have to rescue them somehow.”
“At the moment we have no idea where they could have been taken, but when we get aboard Davon’s ship we may be able to download the information from the onboard computers.”
“Does the Sentinel have a range limit?” asked Doc. “It may help us narrow our search.”
“In a way it does. Theoretically it can open a portal to anywhere in the galaxy, but in practice, it gets more tricky the father you want to travel. The more distant the portal, the more inaccurate it becomes. For example, over a short range, you can move a ship, or a person, with pinpoint accuracy. Further out, you start to get drift. If I were to try and send you across the galaxy for example, you could find y
ourself lightyears away from your intended target.”
“I suppose there is also the chance you could appear inside a planet, or a star,” mused Doc.
“Exactly. Although space is vast, and the actual chance of appearing within a planet or star is infinitesimal.”
“That’s still an insurmountable distance,” said Doc, “we can barely navigate our way across the Earth, never mind mount a rescue mission to an alien world.”
“Right now, we don’t have any hard facts about where they are,” said Marcus. “We should wait until we know where Davon took them before we get too involved in planning a rescue mission. Besides, we need to work out how we are going to get into Davon’s compound in the Forge. I have an idea, but I need to speak to someone first.”
◆◆◆
Marcus reached the steel door, paused for a moment and gently rapped on it. It opened enough for Amara to peek out through the crack.
“What do you want?”
“Can I come in for a moment? I spoke to your father, he said I could come and see you.”
She seemed to think about this for a few seconds but finally opened the door fully, inviting him in. She stood by the open door and didn’t close it - as if leaving herself with an escape route.
“Why are you here?” she asked. A slight tremble in her voice told Marcus she was not comfortable having him around.
“I thought I may be able to help you,” he said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. “You see, I’ve been through what you have. I just found out myself, I had no idea until Do-- your father told me. I was under Davon’s control like you. He brought me back here and tried to help, but something went wrong, and I ended up losing most of my memories. I know what you are going through.”
She stood silently by the door, looking away from Marcus, her mind elsewhere.
“I’m glad I can’t remember much,” she said finally. “I’ve heard about what I did. To you, and to other people. I don’t want those memories.”
“It wasn’t your fault you know,” said Marcus, “You were not in control of your actions. How could you have been responsible? He used you… us, as a weapon.”
“It doesn’t make me feel any better about it.”
“Look at it this way, it means you are a good person. If you weren’t you wouldn’t be so upset. It means you care - and that’s pretty rare around here.”
She wiped a tear from her eye, “If you say so.”
“I do, but now I have to ask you to do something very difficult, to help more people. I need you to remember.”
Chapter Twelve
Marcus left after speaking with Amara at great length, and returned to the main hall, to find Vana busy working on the portal, now taking shape. A large metal frame, big enough for several people to stand within had been built in the centre of the room. A thick pile of cables linked the device to the power cell from Vana’s ship. Various other cables and indistinct bits of machinery were attached to the outside of the frame, seemly at random. Doc had fallen asleep on a nearby desk, his head in his hands, snoring loudly.
“You know, you should probably get some rest too,” Marcus said, as he approached Vana. “We’re going to need all our wits about us when it comes time to do this thing.”
“It’s nearly ready, just a few more calibrations and we can start testing it.”
“Vana, I need to ask you something,” said Marcus. She stopped working on the device and placed a piece of equipment on a work surface next to her.
“Is everything alright?”, she asked.
“I just found out I… I mean, there’s something Doc told me that-- well I was once like Amara.” There was no change in Vana’s expression. “Davon used some sort of implant to control me. Doc tried to remove it, but something went wrong, and I lost most of my memories. I don’t know which of my memories are real anymore.”
Vana looked away from Marcus, biting her lip.
“I knew,” she said, her voice faint against the whirrs and clicks coming from the device she was working on. “When we were joined. I felt it.”
“Joined? Oh, you mean the city,” said Marcus, the memory of the experience still vivid in his mind. “Does it work both ways? Can you see the memories of someone else?”
“It’s possible. If the other person is receptive. I can’t force them to show me anything they don’t want me to see. It doesn’t work that way. After all this time I’m not sure how many of your original memories will remain intact, but we can try.”
“I don’t want you to retrieve my memories,” said Marcus. “I want you to help Amara retrieve hers. My memories, if they are still even there, are years out of date. It’s possible all the information we need is locked away inside her head somewhere.”
“But don’t you want to know about your past?”
Marcus sighed and shook his head. “I’ve had a pretty good life these last few years. What if there’s something in my memory that changes all that? What if I find out something about myself that I wish I hadn’t? I’m happy not knowing. For now at least. We don’t need any more complications.”
“So, if you don’t want me to try and retrieve your memories then—” A flicker of understanding crossed Vana’s face. “Have you discussed this with Amara?”
Marcus smiled. “Nothing gets past you, does it? Yeah, I’ve spoken to her about it. She’s not exactly thrilled at the idea of remembering what she was forced to do, but she understands there are lives at stake. She wants to do the right thing.”
“I can’t make any promises, but if she’s receptive we can try.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I need to get some sleep.” Marcus reached over and shook Doc by the shoulder. He awoke with a snort and looked around groggily.
“Surely it’s not morning already,” he said through a yawn.
“Not quite Doc,” said Marcus. “Where can a guy get his head down around here?”
Doc pointed to a door at the opposite end of the room. “There’s plenty of rooms down that corridor, enough for dozens of people. Some of them have got bedding in them already. We were planning on relocating many of the underground members down here at some point, so everything is already in place.”
He stretched his arms, gave a yawn and headed out towards one of the rooms, leaving Marcus and Vana alone. She stepped back from the device, folding her arms and examining her handiwork.
“Is it finished?” Marcus asked.
“Almost, but we can’t use it until we have a plan for getting access to Davon’s ship. Doc’s right, we should rest. I’m going to need it for Amara.”
“Let’s check out those rooms Doc mentioned,” said Marcus. “I don’t remember the last time I had a proper night’s sleep.”
They left the main hall and headed towards the first set of rooms Doc had pointed out.
“He wasn’t kidding when he said this place could house dozens,” said Marcus as he walked past door after door, each one a room that could comfortably house either four or eight people. Faded nameplates over the doors listed the rooms as simply ‘Dormitory’, with an ever-increasing number after them.
Vana and Marcus picked one of the first rooms in the corridor, labelled ‘Dormitory 4a’ and entered it. As promised there were two bunk beds and bedding. A small metal table sat against one wall, with two stacks of chairs stood neatly on top of it. A third wall was lined with various shelves and cabinets, all empty except for a thick layer of dust.
Vana climbed up onto the top bunk of one of the beds and laid down; staring at the ceiling.
Marcus walked to the door to leave. “Sleep well,” he said as he reached for the handle.
“Marcus wait. Would you mind staying? I’d rather not be alone in here.”
“Sure thing, if it makes you feel better.”
He pulled his hand back from the door and walked over to the second bunk bed, and jumped onto the top one. He never liked being on the bottom. He couldn’t help but imagine the top bunk crashing down on him in th
e middle of the night and smothering him. It also made him feel a little less claustrophobic, despite the fact they were buried in the ground. He made himself comfortable and glanced over at Vana, her expression vacant as she stared at the blank ceiling.
“What were your plans? I mean originally before everything went wrong? Were you planning to go home to your people?” asked Marcus.
“My people live like this. Underground, hidden away. Not out of choice of course. With the Sentinel gone we would be much safer. Perhaps even safe enough to come out from hiding and to be able to rebuild our civilisation. If we even can anymore, after so many years of paranoia.”
She’d dodged the question, but perhaps it was not something she felt comfortable talking about. She’d tell him when the time was right, he was sure of that.
“Tell me about your people? I know almost nothing about you,” said Marcus, changing the subject.
“My people… well, what can I say? You’ve see us at our best. The vision I shared with you. That was just one of many cities on our world. All that came to an end with the Krall. There’s nothing but rubble now where those cities used to stand. Now we live underground, on a world that is not our own. Cowering from the Krall, and never daring to venture out from our hiding place. We couldn’t continue to live like that – I couldn’t live like that. Not with all the wonders of the galaxy out there, waiting to be discovered. And so I left, against the wishes of my people. If they won’t do anything about the Krall then I will. At least, that was the plan. You know how that turned out.”
“It must have taken a lot of courage to leave all that behind,” said Marcus. “What did the others think when you told them you were coming here?”
“At the time I didn’t know I was coming here at all. You must understand I started this journey years ago, it’s possible my people left that world after I did - just to be on the safe side. I didn’t have their blessing for this mission. I undertook this myself, against their strongest wishes. That’s why I’m here alone, with what’s left of a stolen ship - desperately trying to salvage a plan from all this mess.”