Keystones: Tau Prime

by Alexander McKinney

  Deklan then reviewed everything else he could think of associated with Teal Class Transport Ships. They were ideal for getting in and out of small spaces and moving large numbers of people as well as housing units. Each of their four floors could accommodate one hundred and seventy cabins equipped with bunk beds. Tens of thousands of such ships had been used to move colonists to new lives in habitats across the solar system. It would be an ideal transport for escaping Sanctuarians if they were aboard or if the Tau Primans weren’t using the ship as a killing zone.

  Deklan realized that he was thinking of the remaining Sanctuarians as being helpless against the Tau Primans, but that might not be the case. Darya, Arkady, and Veronika were Keystones. “Arkady,” he asked, “are there any other Keystones among your people who could fight back?”

  “Fight back? Yes, I’m sure. We won’t let them take our freedom, not now.”

  “How many of you are Keystones?”

  “All of us,” answered Arkady. “Everyone on Tau Prime is a Keystone. Isn’t that also the case on Earth?”

  Deklan’s mind reeled, unable to comprehend the implications of so many super-powered people in such a small population. “No,” he replied slowly, “not everyone, perhaps millions, but not everyone. How could everyone on Tau Prime be a Keystone? We’ve seen almost no of their abilities here.”

  “Those fools on the ground hid their abilities and called them ‘Tainted.’ If any Tau Primans demonstrated a supernatural power, others killed them. In the days after The Sweep they executed thousands who couldn’t hide what had happened to them. Small things like hair or horns or”—Arkady tapped her temple—“scales. They’re indoctrinated brutes, all of them.”

  The atrocity didn’t surprise Deklan, but he circled back to the main question. “Are all of your people Keystones?”

  “Yes, but not all of them have big gifts. Talia, for example, can change what color something is.”

  Deklan’s attention drifted. If hundreds of refugees from Sanctuary had boarded The Bloody Fox to flee, he should have been able to see or hear them. Instead the ship was silent as a graveyard at midnight. There were no noises of doors opening or closing, no movement visible down the length of open doors between sealable sections. All was still, though from outside he could hear the sound of distant gunfire.

  The Bloody Fox, Deklan decided, wasn’t the ship that held the Sanctuarians. Jonny probably had been helping the escapees to hide elsewhere, indicating that there was another ship nearby, maybe another Teal Class Transport Ship or several, where people were fighting for their lives. “Arkady,” said Deklan, “there’s no one here. Could your people be taking other ships, and if so how would we find them?”

  Arkady stood motionless, her eyes lit with thought. “I lost everything when I shifted,” she answered, “and there’s no way to find something here.”

  “Can you shift again here?”

  “No. I have to be under water.”

  “Under water or just wet?” So much depended on her answer.

  Her eyes went wide. Without answering him, she tore off the tunic that Deklan had given her and dove into a nearby body of water. It was like watching an accelerated video. Her skin changed first, turning into a rich and textured brown. Then emerald highlights bloomed all over her body in diamond patterns, followed by the emergence of finely detailed scales spreading over her temples. Next came physical expansion. The greatest proportional increase was in her back as her spine lengthened. Arms and legs thickened, and a snout grew from the center of her face. Each of her eyes, larger than Deklan’s body, acquired the vertical pupils of a crocodile. The sudden metamorphosis carried her head and legs out of Deklan’s field of vision. All that he could see was her immense torso.

  The effect of Arkady’s transformation on the hangar’s environment was immediate. A shockwave of towering water radiated in all directions, changing the milieu from a refractive maze to an aquatic trap.

  Visibility gradually improved. The pathways to ships could be seen from a distance, but sounds were more muffled than before. Blurred outlines of people nearby looked as though they were seeking refuge in three more Teal Class Transport Ships. Deklan hoped that they could swim their way to safety.

  Deklan realized that after Arkady’s transformation they needed to decide on a plan of action. Calm needed a rejuvenation tank or medical attention as soon as possible. Without him they didn’t have a pilot. And they also needed to assist the remaining Sanctuarians.

  “Deklan,” said Jamie, “we can’t keep going like this. I need to get Calm into a medical bay.”

  “We first need to figure out which ship has people on it,” he replied.

  “They’re on that ship,” said Calm.

  “What do you think, Jamie? Do we join them?” Deklan asked.

  “It’s our only chance.”

  A blinding flash of light was followed by Arkady’s high-pitched bellow. When it subsided, he saw that Arkady had shrunk back to human form, hanging limp and naked in the air. “Help me to get her,” shouted Deklan.

  Transported by Jamie to Arkady’s side, he could see a black tracery of burns extending from her crocodilian feet to her face. She obviously was unconscious. A hand then pushed down on Deklan’s shoulder, giving him purchase against the floor. “Catch up,” Jamie said before whisking Arkady away.

  Just then Calm miraculously shot through the air to Deklan’s side. If Calm could keep going under these circumstances, thought Deklan, so could he. “What do you think we’re going to find on that ship?” he asked.

  “A lot of scared people.”

  Deklan nodded. “Let’s go then.” He pushed off the ground and flew toward the ship’s entranceway with Calm flanking him. Jamie appeared at the entrance and gestured them forward with a sharp jerk of her hand. “They’re ready to leave!” she yelled.

  “Can someone pilot this thing?” shouted Deklan.

  “Yes,” answered Jamie. “They have pilots.”

  “Where are they?”

  “At the ship. We have thirty seconds before liftoff.” Jamie winked at him before flashing away with Calm in her arms. Deklan shot down the passageway that led to the ship’s airlock.

  A broad-chested man with flowing hair stood there to block entrance. White energy crackled between his fingers. “Are you Tobin?” His voice was gruff but sounded vaguely similar to Daniil’s.

  “Yes.”

  “You certainly took your time.” He then stepped aside and let Deklan come aboard before slamming a finger down on a button that cycled the airlock closed before the passageway detached from the ship. “It’s time to go,” he declared, pressing another button.

  As a screen showed Deklan that the ship was backing out of the yard, the pilot asked, “Do you have the beacon?”

  “Yes.” Deklan felt relief at the prospect of finally leaving Tau Prime.

  “Good.” The man pointed a thumb at his chest. “I’m Konstantin.” He turned in a way that made it clear he was done talking. When Deklan didn’t follow him, Konstantin said, “Come. We want you with your friends on the bridge.”

  Calm, thought Deklan, shouldn’t be on the bridge but in a medical facility. Nevertheless, he followed Konstantin. While they were en route there, the ship was alive with the sounds of life. Children’s laughter reverberated, and adults with Nordic hair and eyes smiled in silent greeting as the duo made their way to the bridge.

  The winding path they took made Deklan realize that the bridge was in the rear of the ship, an unusual design choice. There he was reunited with Jamie and Calm before he took stock of the rest of the room. Large screens and sensors showed their current location and the progress that they had made in fleeing from Tau Prime. A collective sigh filled the room. At last they were free.

  “Captain,” said a voice, “he has the beacon.”

  Deklan pulled the beacon from his pocket and held it up. “This is our way home,” he declared.

  “Deklan, this is Captain Andrei.”

 
A blond-haired and blue-eyed man inclined his head. He wore no clothing to set himself apart from the others, but from his posture and self-confidence it was unmistakable that he was in charge. “Good,” he said. “It’s a start. AnnaLea’s men never read it, and we can do better. Unlike them, we haven’t lost much technological savvy.”

  One of the bridge’s crew took the beacon from Deklan and looked it over with appraising eyes. “Give me an hour, maybe two, and I can access this.”

  “Captain,” came a report, “we’ve cleared the minimum distance.”

  “Engage the Doppler Bubble Drive.”

  As gravity returned, a secondary screen showed a close-up of the enormous wormhole, which looked far bigger than that in Earth’s solar system.

  “Captain, is this safe?” a crewman asked.

  “It is necessary,” replied the captain imperturbably.

  Gravity vanished again while they were in the wormhole, and the Doppler Bubble Drive went offline. A swirl of activity erupted below them.

  “Evasive maneuvers,” shouted Andrei.

  The wormhole canted as the ship spun in search of an unobstructed pathway. Nearby vortices of energy came at them like the fine hairs at the ends of aggressive roots.

  When they’d last gone through an unstable wormhole, Decklan worried, the maelstrom of energy hadn’t sought them out, but now he sensed a guiding intentionality.

  “Something’s wrong,” said Calm over the ambient noise.

  Purple lightning invaded the ship’s bridge. Gone were the former computer screens. Instead Deklan saw a room in a Victorian mansion where a young man was calling out for someone named “Cay.”

  “I found you again!” said Cay.

  “Cay,” Calm said, “can you help us? We’re in a wormhole, and it’s unstable. Can you do anything to shield us?”

  “Can’t you?” answered Cay.

  “No. I’ve lost my abilities.”

  Indecision danced in Cay’s eyes for only a second before he held out his hand. “Here. I feel the disturbance. This should. . . .” Purple lightning washed over him and Calm, obscuring them both, before it forked over to Deklan. A light purple invaded his vision and hid the room as a wellspring of energy surged deep in his being.

  Fatigue, worry, and fear all faded. It was like having an electric current pumped through his soul. As the purple haze receded from his eyes, the room came back into focus. Cay stood there shaking hands with Calm. The image of a Victorian mansion was most vivid around them. Calm looked different, less beaten, with a smile playing over his lips and his hair whipping in a breeze.

  A breeze in the room could only mean a pressure breach, but Deklan didn’t have time to experience fear before the breeze kissed him. Pressure breaches were rapid and constant, whereas this was inconstant and warm. It was like standing in a tropical wind.

  “What just happened?” Cay asked.

  A deep-throated rumble came from Calm. “Restoration.” When he held up his left hand, the image of the mansion thinned, revealing the bridge where he stood. A look of growing confusion was spreading over Cay’s face. The visual overlay then disappeared.

  “What just happened?” Cay asked again.

  “Yes, what just happened?” said Captain Andrei.

  “We found our solution,” answered Calm, who then pointed at the beacon. “Cay, that little beacon has the way home on it. Do you think that you can speed up the retrieval process for us?.”

  Cay didn’t answer but instead placed his fingers on the edge of the screen nearest to him. His voice was quiet, and his focus was on his fingertips. Deklan strained to hear what Cay was saying. The boy moved like a man in a dream, touching people and flat surfaces.

  The Sanctuarians were silent, their eyes wide and locked onto Cay.

  “The computers here are old,” Cay said, “very old.” Addressing the entire room, he asked, “Are you all from Tau Prime? Calm, how did you get to Tau Prime?”

  “The beacon, Cay, the beacon,” Calm said with one outstretched hand pointing at the technician who held it.

  Cay’s eyes flicked up to Calm’s face and then trained on the beacon. Screens around the cabin whirled with new data as star charts and pathways were mapped.

  “What is this software?” asked the Captain.

  “It’s not software. It’s Cay,” answered Calm.

  “Actually,” corrected Cay offhandedly, “it is software, new software, and that’s the way home.” He pointed at the main screen where the mapped-out path turned from red to green. “That is the edge of known Tau Priman exploration. That is where Serenity found The Burningsworth. From there you can follow the green path to reach the Terra Rings.”

  Deklan felt immense relief upon learning that there was a way home. Jamie standing next to him gave him a quick squeeze before turning to the others. “Captain, it’s time to get Calm to the sick bay for overdue attention to his gunshot wound. Now that he has shown you the way to safety, I need to treat him.” Her voice was clinical and firm, just as on the first time she and Deklan had met.

  Captain Andrei inclined his head a few degrees. “Agreed. Take him to the medical bay.”

  Jamie dragged Calm out of the room, taking the feeling of a tropical breeze with them.

  “Tell me more about this route to Earth,” Andrei said to Cay.

  The boy casually rolled his shoulders. “What do you want me to say? It’s the way back.”

  “But how did you decrypt it? How did you put it on our systems?”

  “It’s what I do. You must have heard of me.” A smile crossed his lips. “I’m the criminal Keystone.”

  Cay was supposed to be able to open locks and penetrate any encryption, manipulating computers at will. In an age when every aspect of life was recorded digitally, his trial had prompted mass panic

  “We’re all Keystones here,” replied Andrei.

  Cay didn’t say anything, but his eyes scanned the room. “All? How?”

  “The Sweep changed everyone here,” Deklan said, breaking into the conversation and feeling better than he had since before reaching Tau Prime. “Keystones aren’t rare anymore. There are hundreds of millions of us, and we’re all different.”

  “Not entirely,” said Andrei. “Mikhail and Vladimir have the same ability.”

  Deklan was sure that fact was important, even if he wasn’t sure why it was important. “What’s their ability?” he asked.

  “They both stretch like rubber.”

  A man who hadn’t been introduced to Deklan raised a hand and waved it. The fingers and palm ballooned out to massive proportions in mid-gesture. It seemed like a fun ability to have, albeit a useless one.

  “Is anyone here not a Keystone?” inquired Cay.

  The bridge was quiet as people exchanged glances, except for those who were busy ensuring that the ship avoided more lashes from the wormhole’s walls.

  “So you’re telling me,” continued Cay, “that there are more Keystones on this ship than there were in all as a total before I went to jail?”

  “Yes,” said Deklan.

  “What else can everyone do?”

  The conversation was interrupted by a loud yell. “Incoming.”

  The images that Cay had placed on the main screen were swept away, and a tidal wave of uneven purple energy was shown crashing toward them.

  Captain Andrei’s response was less relaxed than before. “Evade it,” he ordered.

  As Cay held up a hand, Deklan could feel the ship lurch, even in the zero-gravity environment.

  “Controls have gone dead!”

  “No, they haven’t. I’ve taken over.” Cay sounded distracted, and the images on the screen canted to new angles as the ship dove through a break in the energy. Earlier the craft’s movement had been stodgy, slow and reliable but predictable. Now the ship was more like a hummingbird in flight, fast and agile. The entire character of the ship felt different.

  “Are you doing this?” Deklan asked Cay.

  “Yes.” His head
was back and his eyes unfocused.

  Maelstroms of energy rose around the ship in towering pillars through which Cay wove. The bridge was silent. Every crew member had his eyes riveted on either the screens or the boy.

  “Where did you come from?” blurted Deklan in what seemed a non sequitur. Even he hadn’t anticipated the question.

  “I don’t know,” Cay replied. “I think I’ve been wandering inside the wormholes since Calm and I saw the artifact.”

  “Stop distracting him,” ordered Captain Andrei.

  Cay’s sudden appearance on the ship raised many questions for Deklan. He hadn’t asked Calm about him since they’d first met Cay while crashing through the wall of the wormhole, but now he yearned for answers. How was it possible that Cay had been inside a wormhole? How was any of what he did possible? Calm’s restoration by the encounter with Cay gave Deklan every reason to hope that he also could undergo a similarly restorative healing.

  Just then Captain Andrei announced, “All non-essential personnel are to leave the bridge.” Deklan wasn’t sure where he ranked on that scale, but the Captain solved the mystery for him. “That includes you, Mr. Tobin. Konstantin, take him to the medical bay and then to his quarters.”

  The mountainous Konstantin swiveled to make eye contact with Deklan. “We go.” The guttural utterance made Deklan feel as though he was about to be shot in an alleyway.

  He followed the big man out of the bridge and into the corridor. Unlike the bridge, which was situated at the rear of the ship, the medical bay was located close to the entrance airlock. Deklan idly wondered whether its being so positioned was for the purpose of shaving off seconds of transit time for any injured crewmen. It was something that the documentaries he’d watched had never addressed.

  In the medical bay six massive rejuvenation tanks squatted in a row against the far wall. Five of them were empty, and their glass panels dusty. The sixth tank was different. It was lit from the bottom, and its surfaces were polished. Calm floated there in the tank’s translucent fluid. His hair drifted over his head in a dark cloud, and his eyes were shut above the mask that covered his mouth. A tube ran from the mask to the surface of the tank. Deklan knew from experience how uncomfortable it was to have those tubes inserted and also how uncomfortable it was to have them extracted. A glob of thicker goo covered the site of Calm’s wound.