“That’s because the dimension stretches you out into a long, thin line. Three-dimensional objects can’t exist there, and you end up bending to the rules of that dimension. When you exit the dimension, it returns you to your normal state, because three-dimensional objects do exist here.”
“Why didn’t we just portal right on top of where we need to be?”
“That’s fine for people, but these planes are big, and we want them airborne when we appear. It means portaling into low orbit and then dropping down toward the ground.”
“How do you know where to appear?” Pale bits of clouds went shooting past the window, but there was no sign of the other spaceplanes yet.
“We have low-orbiting satellites all around Earth. We just lock on and portal to them with our ships.”
The intercom clicked. Raptor spoke. “We’ve got to make this fast.”
Aerion pointed the nose of the spaceplane straight down and went into a controlled dive.
Andrew chanced a peek at the ground. The darkness helped mask how high up they were. However, a dial on the console spun around counterclockwise, counting down the distance to the surface.
For once, his fear of heights did not get the better of him. The world from this high up seemed to stand still. As he watched, the lights on the ground separated into individual sources, and Paris’ skyline broke out of the mass of pinprick buildings. After a few minutes, he could make out streetlights and cars. He could even see the tail of a river running through the city. But one dark area caught his attention, and the Keepers veered right for it.
Aerion flipped a pair of switches in front of her. The entire canopy quivered, as if a ripple had run across it.
Thin glowing lines outlined Raptor’s and Tech’s spaceplanes. They flew on either side of Aerion, now clearly visible in the moonless sky. Even things on the ground had the same line around it. It made it easy to differentiate between trees and cars.
Andrew flinched as the plane lurched and all the objects he had admired from above rushed into view. With the wind roaring around them, the plane hovered in place about thirty feet off the ground in a grassy clearing.
The Eiffel Tower stood about a hundred feet away, with a faint glowing line around it and rows of trees planted on either side. A few abandoned cars sat on the other side of the Tower, including a dented BBC news van with a massive satellite dish mounted on the top of it.
The spaceplane outlined the crystalline creature, which rested motionless around a leg of the Tower. It shone a faint green, like glow-in-the-dark paint.
“Hit it hard,” Raptor said over the intercom.
A pair of missiles from each of the spaceplanes hit the creature, exploding on contact in a dim flash of light. Andrew had expected a giant fireball, but it never came.
The creature fell to the ground with a tremor. The glow from it faded away, leaving a black lump of ooze on the ground.
“That’s it?” Surprised, Andrew wondered if it had been worth all the anxiety to come along just for this.
“It’s an E.M.P. burst. We can’t see it, and we’re shielded from its effects. Looks like it worked too.”
“Now we have to get rid of its body.”
Aerion leaned over, her eyes fixed on the ground, maneuvering the plane as if to land. Andrew, however, watched the fallen creature. He saw a tentacle flex as it started to glow.
“It’s up!” he shouted. The crystalline mass launched itself into the air toward the Keeper ships, its body covered in a hypnotizing array of colors.
Aerion wrenched back on the control stick and pressed the throttle down, sending her plane surging upwards, out of the way. One of the other aircraft was not as lucky. The crystalline creature grabbed it and crushed it like a tin can. Then it ripped off a wing and slammed the wreckage to the ground. It all happened in the blink of an eye.
“Tech!” Aerion shouted into the intercom.
The speaker stayed silent for several seconds too long. Then a whisper came through. “I’m fine, just a broken leg,” Tech said. He sounded shaken. “Managed to get the shield up in time.”
“He’s really okay?” Andrew asked, as he tried to peer over Aerion’s shoulder. The crystal mass continued to pound on the wreckage of Tech’s spaceplane. It tore off sections of metal and cast them aside.
“Yeah. These cockpits are reinforced, for reasons just like that.”
“Oh crap,” Tech said over the intercom. “It’s prying the doors open.”
Surging her plane forward, Raptor opened fire, shooting her remaining missiles and a spray of bullets at the creature. It collapsed to the ground, the lights from it fading once again.
“What’s she doing?” Andrew asked with a note of alarm as Raptor maneuvered her spaceplane closer to it.
“Rap, get out of there,” Aerion said over the intercom.
“I’m going to buy him some time. We need another plan, fast,” Raptor said. The creature awoke, tentacles reaching out for her aircraft. She veered out of its grasp and then accelerated away.
The crystalline mass pulled itself up and chased after her. Flying under the legs of the Eiffel Tower, Raptor took a sharp turn and went over a row of trees, out of sight. The creature followed, clambering over the vegetation like a gelatinous octopus.
Several silent moments passed as Aerion hovered in the air. Mouse spoke over the intercom. “I’m portaling him now.” Sure enough, most of Tech’s spaceplane vanished a moment later. Just a few metallic scraps remained.
Raptor came into view again—the creature right behind her. It lashed out at the ship with its tentacles. It did not gain any distance on her but seemed intent on trying anyway.
Andrew had no idea what to do or how he could help—a witness to a situation he could not control. He kept wishing Raptor would move out of reach of the creature, but she just kept leading it around in a circle.
“Shoot it or something,” he said to Aerion.
“It’ll buy her a few moments at least!” Aerion let her last pair of missiles fly. They slammed into the creature just as it crested over the tops of the trees. It stunned the crystalline mass, and it dropped down among the branches with a great heave. This allowed Raptor to put some distance between herself and the creature.
Glaring, Andrew wished he could reach up and squish the crystalline mass between his fingers. He lifted his hand and made a fist.
The mass lurched awake, but it did not get far. It seemed to be stuck in the trees. Tentacles withered about as it flayed at the foliage, but it could not escape.
Andrew focused on how he wanted to squeeze the life from it. The trees limbs moved, twisting themselves together and tightening around the crystalline creature.
Aerion pushed the intercom and spoke in a hushed tone. “Rap, it’s the kid. He’s controlling the trees.”
“I see it. Just let it happen.”
Ripples of electric jolts ran across the crystalline creature’s body. A dimensional portal opened above it like a lightning bolt in the sky. The creature reached up. The tentacles vanished into the portal and the rest followed, oozing itself free of the trees. Within seconds, it had slipped away and the portal had closed.
Snapping to his senses, Andrew asked, “What happened?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. It’s gone now.” Aerion stared at him, her eyes wide. Pushing the plane forward, she veered closer to the trees.
The branches were twisted upon themselves, gnarled and misshapen.
“Did I …?” he started but could not find the words to ask what it meant.
“Yeah, kid, you did. Welcome to the Keepers.”
“Head home now! We’ve got company,” Raptor’s voice shouted over the intercom.
Far in the distance, bright points of white lights approached them. Airplanes, Andrew guessed, probably from the air force.
Aerion pulled the nose of her aircraft up as she pushed the throttle forward. The spaceplane surged upwards, leaving Paris behind.
“What if that
thing reappears?” Andrew asked.
“Until we know how to stop it, we can’t keep engaging it. And it can jump dimensions, meaning we can’t trap it either.”
“I can’t reach Mouse,” Raptor said in a panicked tone over the intercom.
Aerion reached up to her ear and touched it. “Mouse? Mouse, come in.” She took a deep breath and then glanced at Andrew.
“Nothing?”
Aerion frantically shook her head. Mashing down on the intercom button, she said, “What do you think is going on?”
“I think our teleporting caused a power failure. It’ll take at least ten minutes to get it back up,” Raptor replied.
Clicking the intercom button, Aerion said, “Let’s get back, fast.” Andrew noted the concern in her voice.
“Communication isn’t supposed to go out, is it?” Andrew asked.
“Short ranged should have stayed up. Something else went wrong.”
The two aircrafts ascended a considerable distance from the surface. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, the sky filled with stars. It reminded him of stargazing in the barren desert at night with his dad, watching shooting stars zip by overhead.
Andrew sank down into his seat as Raptor’s warnings came back to him. If he left the Keepers after his powers manifested, he would carry a hole in him forever. She had not warned him, however, about the hole he already felt for his family.
“Hold on, Andrew, we’re about to make the jump,” Aerion said. She punched in numbers on the control pad, followed by the yellow button. The panels snapped shut over the canopy, and she pushed the red button.
Andrew braced himself once more as a surge of power built behind him. He felt a strange tingling sensation, and then he was stretched out into a long string.
Everything sprung back to normal after a few moments, and the panels on the front of the ship slid open. Below them, the icy moon of Europa glimmered a brilliant white, red cracks and deep gouges marring its surface. Jupiter loomed at the edge of the horizon, sinking away as the ships veered for the moon’s surface.
Minutes crawled by, until the crater came into view just below them. In the center of it rose three mountain peaks, and steep cliffs surrounded the edge. A dark material laid splattered around the outside of the crater.
Andrew wondered why they had not appeared in the Keeper base. “Wait, you have to have something to portal to, right?”
“Yeah,” Aerion said.
“Why didn’t we just appear in the base like we’ve been doing? What’s stopping you?”
“Weight. People are small, but these ships weigh fifteen tons—thirty tons with full armaments—and most of that is fuel. It’s a huge strain on energy to move them through dimensions, especially a small dimension like this. Mouse had to override the system to teleport Tech in, and now we’ve lost all communications.”
“But the energy is spent anyway by the ship, isn’t it?”
Aerion smiled, lifting her index finger up. “Now you’re thinking, but you’re missing one key detail. We’re about fifty feet under the ice, and you square the energy cost for every foot of solid material. Our satellites help us avoid things like passing through a planet, but we’re traveling along the thread of the singular line dimension inside this universe.”
Thinking about it for a moment, Andrew said, “And for people, that cost is low, because they’re small.”
The Keeper base came into view, hidden in the semi-darkness of the crater wall. Andrew could just make out a shadow of three separate buildings buried under the ice with long tubes connecting them. Aerion made her way toward one of them. A hard jolt rocked the ship as it came closer to the base.
“What was that?” Andrew asked.
“We just entered the gravity well for the base,” Aerion said. She maneuvered the craft toward a large platform. Painted on the surface in red were a dozen octagons and one square. Aerion landed in one of the octagons.
“Artificial?” Andrew asked.
As the platform descended into the tunnel below at a steady pace, Aerion explained, “Godlin and Gadget built a device that creates a gravity field in a funnel shape, right below the base, using super compressed matter—something small, dense, and heavy. It’s all neatly contained and shaped to only affect this base and won’t mess up the orbit of the moon or anything. I’m just glad it’s still on.”
The plane vibrated briefly, and then Andrew heard a clunk from underneath the spaceplane as two pieces of metal struck each other. There was a brief pause before they started to move again. The plane lowered from the ceiling of the hangar into the Keeper base.
Andrew fidgeted in his seat, impatient for the lethargic ride to end. The panel lights set into the ceiling were dimmed, providing just enough light to see by. As the platform reached the ground, he unbuckled his seatbelt and pushed the canopy open.
There was no obvious damage in the hangar bay, but Andrew felt the silence weigh upon him. A faint, distant humming sound had permeated the Keeper base before. He missed it now that it was gone.
Aerion pushed a button near the canopy door. A compartment outside the plane opened, and the ladder telescoped out of it with a series of clicks. She climbed out first, and Andrew followed her. As they reached the ground, Raptor came over to them.
“Be on your guard,” Raptor said in a hushed tone. She then started toward the door.
Andrew saw what remained of Tech’s spaceplane laying on the ground near the far rear of the hangar. He hardly recognized the big pile of junk—mangled and broken—as the spacecraft. Tech was nowhere to be seen.
Across the way, the double doors had been wedged open just wide enough for someone to slip through. The control box for the door hung open. Attached to it by several wires was a small, round orb, which glowed a faint blue.
Andrew asked Raptor in a whisper, “Are we under attack?”
“The way my day’s been going? It wouldn’t surprise me. Something always gets in when we lose power, I swear.” Raptor tried to make light of the situation, but her expression remained firm—her eyebrows drawn together and a frown of concern hanging on her lips.
Andrew could not muster a grin at her joke.
Raptor paused long enough to peek through the open doorway into the hall and then crossed through.
Andrew started through the door after her, but Aerion grabbed him by the shoulder. “Wait for the all clear. We don’t want to walk into something.”
On the control box next to the door, Andrew noticed a pair of bloody fingerprints smeared across it. His mouth went dry as he followed a trail of tiny, dark red drops into the hallway with his eyes.
“Let’s go,” Raptor called from down the hall.
Aerion slipped through the door, followed by Andrew. As soon as she passed the threshold, she broke into a run, leaving Andrew to catch up. Eventually, they reached the end of the hallway and another set of double doors. Aerion and Raptor worked to open them. One was at each door, pressing sideways against it.
Tech sat on the ground near the door, working on the control box. Connected to the circuits in the box was another glowing orb. Blood stained one of the legs of his pants.
“Uh,” Andrew tried to talk, lifting a quivering hand to his forehead. The sharp, metallic odor of blood hung in the air. Andrew had never seen so much of it at once.
“I’ll be fine. Just keep out of the way,” Tech said to him.
“What-what happened? What’s going on?” Andrew asked.
“Base is in lockdown because of the power loss. We’re trying to override the doors,” Aerion replied. “But this one seems to be stuck; the combination key isn’t working.” She grunted as she strained against the door.
“Turn it the other way, Tech,” Raptor said.
“I know what I’m doing,” Tech said as he fiddled with the orb. He twisted it one direction, then another, much like a combination lock. “Try opening it again. Or turn into something and force them open.”
“I don’t want to damage them mo
re than we have to.” Raptor tensed her body and strained at the door. It budged an inch. Andrew heard a scream.
“Tran, hang in there!” Tech called out. He franticly turned the orb again. Raptor and Aerion each had a grip on their respective doors now. They grabbed hold of it with both hands and pulled.
Chapter Thirteen
Clunk. Aerion and Raptor strained again. Clunk. The doors pulled apart just enough for a person to pass through.
Tech slumped against the wall, closing his eyes. “I’m in no condition to fight. Come get me when you’re done.”
Raptor inclined her head and moved through the door first. Aerion and Andrew shadowed her movements.
“Stay close,” Raptor said, creeping through the hallway with deliberate, but cautious, steps.
Tran came running around a corner toward them and ducked behind Raptor.
“What’s going on?” Raptor asked.
“A giant tick is attacking us,” Tran responded, closing his eyes and shivering. He motioned down the hallway. “Last I saw it, it was chasing Godlin.”
“Take me to it,” Raptor said.
Tran whimpered, but Raptor gave him a glare. He took off down the hallway and made the corner, heading toward the computer room. A low thud resounded throughout the base as something heavy slammed into a wall.
Andrew peered into the computer room. The monitors slept—dark and silent. He could have sworn the sound had come from that room.
A yelp came from the next room over. Andrew jerked back, preparing for an attack.
Mouse came darting out the doorway of the next room down the hallway. Right behind him charged a monster.
It was not a tick. It was a slug, a giant, oozing, slimy slug. Andrew could not understand why Tran would mistake it for anything else. It burst out of the room as it chased Mouse. Narrowly missing him, it slammed into the wall across the way, knocking itself senseless. It wriggled around on the ground, trying to right itself.
Andrew hated slugs. Their bulbous bodies left trails of slime everywhere, plus they ate his precious plants and made squishy noises when you stepped on them.
Stone of Power (Keepers of Earth Book 1) Page 17