“We must wake them,” Karo said. His voice held a tinge of reverence to it. I’d seen him call Tagu “Father” in the vision, and knew it must be hard for him to stand here, where so many powerful Theos had been infused inside the stone.
I touched the gemstone now. It was larger than any from the other portal sites, perfect in its symmetry. This one was wine red, and it stood as a good symbol for the blood the Theos had sacrificed to do what they thought necessary. I wondered if any of the Balance they spoke of really mattered, but I’d tell Karo whatever it took to get the tools to save Mary.
“Are you okay with this?” I asked the gray-faced ancient alien.
“My father trusted me to know what’s right, and I feel their energy thrumming to be released. They know something is afoot, that the Iskios are back. They want to fight. I can feel it!” His voice rose, and his eye went wide. “Don’t you feel it, human?”
I didn’t, but I nodded along. “How do we wake them?” I thought about Barl and the decisions he had to make. Would I ever be able to sacrifice everyone I knew and loved for the sake of others? I knew I wouldn’t be able to. He was a much stronger being than I. Maybe his way wasn’t right. Maybe you lived with the threat of danger and fought to keep your own safe. In the vision, I’d been inside his skin. I’d felt what he felt, and it was a weight all too familiar to me.
“The code is entered. Take your gloves off. Touch the stone. Feel the Balance. Breathe them in. They will come.” Karo stepped back, and he kept walking as I removed my gloves, feeling the dampness of my nervous sweat on my palms. I wiped them on my pants legs and looked back at my host. He was still moving away, as if fearful of what was about to occur.
“Karo, where are you going?” I asked, worried now.
“Touch it!” His voice was ferocious, and I instantly didn’t trust what I was about to do. Did I have a choice? Was I being tricked again?
I closed my eyes and pictured Mary in the throne room within the crystal pyramid. She stood there, mist pouring into her beautiful eyes. I saw my wife inside there and knew I had to do this. I had to do something, or she was going to be lost forever.
“Touch it, Dean Parker! Breathe the Theos in, and change the universe!” he demanded, and his last words set a trigger off inside me. I pressed my palms to the cool red stone, and light shot out of it. My teeth chattered with an energy force so powerful I nearly fell off my feet.
I took a deep breath, and another, feeling my head go light with each intake of air. I kept doing this until the energy stopped flowing at me. My eyes were still closed, the light too bright to see anything without damaging my retinas.
I could still hear Karo yelling behind me, a sort of crazed encouragement mixed with sobbing.
When I opened my eyes, I was two feet off the ground, a white light emanating from my body like a mist of illumination. I faltered, but instead of falling, I floated to the ground. My arm darted out, and I rotated my hand to see light lifting from my semi-transparent skin. My bones were visible through the hand, and I closed my fist, trying to catch the light.
I felt the same, but altered in a way I couldn’t comprehend, like I was washed away in a river of endless emotions that carried me downstream. Karo was breathing heavily behind me, and I turned to see him staring, tears streaming down his face. “Father?” he asked.
“I’m here,” a voice came from within me, not my own. “Son, thank you for your sacrifice. You have done well.”
Karo stepped closer and fell to his knees, his white locks covering his face as he bent forward. “What was it like, Father?”
“It was nothing. And everything.” I said the words and tried to swallow them away. I blinked hard, willing myself to be in control. I found my own voice. “Karo, there are too many of them.” My heart didn’t race, sweat didn’t pour off my body, but the pressure in my mind was extreme. So many voices trying to shout out at the same time. Everyone wanted to be heard.
Barl came forth; I recognized his emotions as he pushed the others down. “Dean,” I said in his voice. “Focus. You can stay in control, this I know.”
“I’m trying. What can I do?” I asked myself. This must have looked bizarre from the outside.
“You must remember yourself. Your mission, your drive. Focus on it. Stay in control, Dean.” Barl’s energy slowly departed, and I pictured Mary in jeans, her hair in a ponytail, digging out the garden at our home on New Spero. The clamoring Theos stilled, and I helped Karo up from his position on the ground.
“Your father is well. Don’t worry about him. He loves you very much,” I said, and Karo’s eyes firmed up, his lips pursed, as if setting a resolve he hadn’t had a moment ago.
“Thank you, Dean.” He was still looking at me strangely. What did I appear like to him? Was I different?
“You must put one back,” Barl said through me.
“Put one back?” I asked, unsure what he meant.
“The portal must function. Put me back,” he said, and I understood.
“No,” another voice said from inside me. “Let me stay here.” Tagu wanted to go back into the stone. I’d happily return them all at that moment if I knew I didn’t need them. I felt ready to burst with all of them trapped inside me.
“How?” I asked, unsure who I was even asking.
Karo spoke. “Press your palm to the stone and breathe out. Do you recognize my father’s energy now?”
I did. I allowed him to come up from the depth of my mind. You are returned, I said, and touched the stone again, feeling a stream of light leave my body and enter the now pale-rouge stone once again. His reunion had been short-lived.
“Karo, I need to leave,” I said.
He nodded absently. He was still staring at the stone. “You know how to do this now. Repeat this at any portal, but remember, that portal won’t work again after you use it. My father cannot sustain more than one energy transaction on his own. It will be closed after you leave.”
I realized then the final sacrifice his father was making. His last energy would be used to power the Theos portal, and none would return here by the Shandra.
I nodded, still feeling the Theos uneasily within. “Farewell, Karo.”
“Farewell, Dean Parker.”
I hesitated. “Karo, why stay here? Come with me. I have somewhere you might enjoy. They’ll keep your identity a secret. They never need to know.”
He looked ready to dismiss my idea, but surprisingly, he stalled. “What would I do?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. You could live a life. For yourself, not built on sacrifice and duty. You could live a life you want.”
“I don’t know if I’m suited for something like that.”
I felt the tug of the Theos telling me this was the right thing. “Come with me.”
“Go with him, Karo,” Barl’s voice projected, and I pushed it back. I couldn’t let them think they could jump into the pilot’s seat any time they wanted.
Karo shifted on his feet before standing up straight. “I’ll go.”
“We can always bring you back if necessary,” I said.
This seemed to solidify his decision.
I moved to the portal table and noticed the lights on it were dim, faded to an outline. I didn’t know where Mary was, or how I could stop her, but I had the first step inside me. I had the power of the Theos. And I knew just where to get the latest news of the Unwinding.
Haven.
I tapped the icon, and Karo and I disappeared from the Theos home world.
Twenty-Nine
Mary watched impassively as the Unwinding continued. Forty planets now, not nearly enough. Vessels flew at her, a whole fleet of nuclear attacks and rail guns, firing at will, hoping to end the vortex, to end her.
None of it worked. The nuclear devices just added to the destructive energy she was wielding. The fools. She let them unleash everything they had before she waved a hand, shooting green energy at the horde of attacking ships. She latched on to them and pulled them int
o the swirling maw of the vortex, and felt it grow slightly larger.
She let out a laugh before feeling a shift. She screamed now, a pain ripping through her mind. They were gone! It was all their fault, and now they returned? It couldn’t be. The thought repeated in her mind like a mantra. The Theos were back. They were but a glimmer of light in the darkness of her Unwinding, but it was enough to cast doubt somewhere in the depths of her mind.
Another fragment of Mary’s mind thrummed with joy. He’d done it. Dean had brought them back. She tried to take the moment of fear in the Iskios inside her and usurp the invaders, but she was shoved back with a ferocity unlike any before. She cowered inside her mind, hiding in the corners, trying to flee their uncontainable anger.
The Unwinding would continue. A star was close, and with that, she would move on. The galaxy was becoming more populated, and she exalted each life she snuffed out with the vortex.
The small part of the woman hiding away kept hope to herself. She wouldn’t share it with them. It was hers only, hope that Dean could stop what she was doing.
____________
“Dean, I couldn’t tell it was you. You nearly had me sending every armed person on Haven to the portal.” Leslie paced in front of us, eyeing us both suspiciously. “What happened?”
I still hadn’t seen my reflection. What was she so worried about? “I’m fine, Leslie. Meet Karo. He’s a friend of mine.”
She rolled her eyes. “If you won’t tell me what’s going on, I’m not sure I can be of much help.”
We were outside the caves on Haven, alone with Leslie and a transport vessel. “Where’s Terrance?” I asked.
“He’s at home, sleeping. We had some unexpected guests arrive yesterday, spinning some crazy tales.”
“Did it have anything to do with a large destructive energy force?” I asked, smiling at her.
“I should stop being surprised by you. Yes, they did happen to mention that.”
I smiled again, this time for real. I knew this was the right place to come to. The gossip flowed freely here, though a lot of it wasn’t factual. I needed to know where the Iskios were last sighted. Then I’d be off again.
“Where are the others? Slate came here looking for you,” she said.
“When?”
“This morning! He said you were just with them when you got separated. He also asked me to send a message if you showed up.”
I raised a hand, and white mist lifted off it. I tucked the hand into a pocket, but Leslie saw the whole thing. “Don’t do that. They’re in danger. I have to do this alone.”
“Do what?” she asked.
“Don’t tell them where I am. Take us to town, and I’ll talk to you about what’s happening.” I started walking for the transport vessel, and Karo stalked behind me. He was still wearing his cloak but left the hood off to reveal his lengthy white hair and big green eyes.
Leslie watched him suspiciously. She sidled up to me and whispered in my ear, so closely I could feel her hot breath on my cheek. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
“Trust me. I don’t have a choice,” I whispered back, hefting the weight of my borrowed EVA helmet and other supplies from Rivo up on my shoulder. “You’ll understand soon enough.”
“You better not be bringing trouble to our little Haven, Dean.” She looked to Karo, who remained stoic, facing the lander as if he knew he was being spoken about.
____________
“The Jespal system? You’re sure?” I asked.
“That’s what they told us.” Terrance sat across from me at their kitchen table. It felt strange to be going over this information here. Part of me wished I was in a war room somewhere, smelling a freshly polished wood table and pointing at large 3D maps on the walls. This felt too amateur. The whole mission suddenly felt impossible, a task far beyond a simple accountant’s skill set.
I saw my reflection in the glass-doored cabinets along the dining room wall and changed my mind. I wasn’t just Dean Parker any longer. My eyes were now pure white. Light misted out of them on occasion, floating drops of energy. My hands shone, and I’d put my gloves on to hide the fact, but Leslie had already seen it. There was no hiding the Theos’ effect on my body. I wasn’t going to be able to walk the streets any time soon.
“Can you bring up the map?” I asked, and Leslie brought out her tablet. She turned the lights off, and an image of the Jespal system appeared. “And they said it’s all gone? The planets, the star, everything?”
“We didn’t believe them. Thought they must have been lost, or had an error in their coordinates, but if you’re saying Mary did this, then… whoa.” Terrance leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his dark hair.
I stood up, knocking my chair backwards. Karo was the only one who remained unaffected. “Mary didn’t do it! She’s only the vessel. The Iskios did this!” I yelled.
“Dean, calm down,” Leslie said, lifting a hand in the air and pointing her palm toward me. She was right. Shouting at them wasn’t going to help anything.
I picked the chair up, feeling sheepish as I sat back down in it. “Where’s the neighboring system?”
Leslie zoomed out and showed two options. “They’re probably heading for either of these. This one is far closer.” She focused in on it, and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“I know that world.” I pointed to a planet fourth from the system’s star. It was the same world we’d met Suma on. What were the odds? Insurmountable.
“How?” Leslie asked me, and Karo studied me closely as I told them the story.
“That was right before we came to see Kareem, and when you came with us to Earth.”
“It almost seems like it was meant to happen, Dean Parker.” Karo spoke for the first time since we’d sat down at the table.
“Maybe, or it’s a fluke. Either way, it changes nothing, except I know where she’s heading now.” Butterflies danced in my stomach. It was time.
I thought about my supplies: a box with some concussion grenades Rivo snuck into the pack, a gun, and the EVA from Garo’s vessel. I felt my pocket, and the familiar circular Shifter was there. I wasn’t sure if it would come to needing it, but I was comforted by its existence.
“We will help you, Dean,” a voice said from my mouth. Damn it. The Theos inside me had been silent since the portal room at their home planet. Leslie and Terrance stared at me, jaws open.
“What the hell was that?” Terrance asked quietly. His mouth hung wide open in shock.
“I may have a few travelers in me right now.”
“As if we couldn’t tell something was off about you. Seeing how you have light escaping your body and your eyes are white and leaking lumens. Who are they?” Leslie asked.
“The Theos.”
“What?” It was Leslie’s turn to stand up. “How? Why?”
“I needed their help.” I explained the Balance as I understood it, and Karo sat quietly, refraining from adding to the story. By the end of my monologue, they were both nervously glancing at Karo, the last remaining living Theos.
“Hello, Karo,” Leslie said, then turned to Terrance and said just loud enough for me to hear, “I wish we’d cleaned up a little more.”
“Hello,” Karo said. “Thank you for taking me in. Do you have any pizza?”
____________
Using the portals felt strange now that I understood how they were powered. If I ended up taking more Theos to help my cause, I’d effectively destroy more portal pathways, and if possible, I didn’t want to end New Spero’s access to Haven.
“Good luck, Dean. Are you sure we can’t help you?” Leslie asked as she gave me a cautious but firm hug. I could tell from her glances that she wasn’t entirely sure the new glowing body was actually me.
“It’s too dangerous. They said the vortex destroyed an entire fleet from the Jespal system. I’ll get her back.” The last was said as much for her as it was for me.
I was in my EVA, and I told myself I was prepared for wh
atever came my way. In truth, I was terrified. The Theos inside me told me they would help, but I still didn’t know what that meant, and they weren’t handing out answers to my internal monologue.
Karo was with Terrance at the house, and they were trying to figure out a back story for the unique being.
“It’s time,” I said, and Leslie – looking so much like Mae had, only with a short haircut – smiled softly and walked out of the room, leaving me alone with the Theos in my head.
The portal stone lit up as I found the right symbol. I remembered it from that first trip Slate and I had unsuspectingly taken. How things had changed since that day.
It was time, indeed. I pressed the icon and felt the Theos in me talk to those in the stone for a moment before I appeared in another familiar portal room.
“They’re close,” Barl’s voice said through me.
“I know,” I replied. “I can feel them too.”
Thirty
It felt like only yesterday when Slate and I had arrived at the portals on this vacated planet. I hadn’t given much thought to that day since, but now it felt odd. The only reason we even found the portal in the first place was because I was drawn to it. I now understood the Theos had been behind it. They had to be. Barl confirmed this for me. It must have had something to do with what Regnig called me: a Recaster.
“If the stones are powered by you, then why did we need to power up the city block to get the portal reactivated?” I asked in the empty room.
Barl’s voice replied, “You didn’t. You were meant to meet the young Shimmali here.”
Suma. All this time, I was drawn to the portal to meet Suma, and of all places, to the same planet where I’d face the Iskios in their full force. It was too much to be a coincidence. I felt the tugging of the puppet strings and didn’t like the feeling. What else had been done by their volition? The Event? The Kraski attacking us? The Bhlat attacking them, only to get me to this spot at this time?
The Survivors Box Set Page 104