by Josi Russell
Ethan turned away.
Kaia’s voice came again to his mind. “We’ll have to try it, Ethan.”
“No. There has to be another way.”
“There’s not. At least not one we can find quickly enough. We don’t know how long it will be before more guards are sent and our cover is blown.”
“We should have through the night, at least.”
“We might not.”
“Kaia, it’s too dangerous. What if it kills you?”
“Then you’ll have to go back and formulate another way in.” She moved toward the gate. “Besides, the Alorans felt it very likely that I’d be able to heal quickly if it doesn’t work. We’ve got to try. If I can get past that gate and get to the panel on the other side, we’re in!” She was standing in front of the pulsing entry now, trembling slightly. “I’m going in. You should step back a bit. We’re not sure if you have any healing abilities yet.”
He heard the determined sound of her thoughts, he felt her desperation to get back to the ship she knew, and he stepped back to let her try.
She reached out to the gate, then quickly stepped forward and plunged her arm into it, just as she had done with the wall of water when they had fled the city. Another flash of energy rippled the air, and Kaia’s limp body flew, landing several meters away in a small heap.
Ethan flew to her side. He turned her over and saw burns covering her arms and torso. Her chest moved slightly as she took shallow breaths. Her overalls were shredded down her right side, the skin underneath protected only by the holster holding her energy pistol.
As he rolled her over, he noticed something steel and shiny on the ground underneath her. It was still surrounded by bits of fabric from her pocket. He picked it up, recognizing after a moment the attenuated laser she’d worked so hard on back at the ship. She must have been carrying it the whole time. He felt a pang—maybe homesickness—and yearned to be back on the ship, safe and unaware.
He tried to remember what to do for burns. As he peeled back the scorched grey material, he was surprised to see that the burns were not as bad as they had first looked. The angry, weeping blisters had smoothed over to crusted, tough skin. He closed his eyes in relief. She was healing.
Taking her in his arms, he lifted her gently and carried her over close to the wall. He laid her down and sat beside her, holding her head on his lap. They stayed that way for a long time.
* * *
When Kaia stirred, Ethan found himself bathed in the light of the Aloran moon.
Kaia sat up stiffly and groaned. He could see the shining smooth scars where the overalls hung away from her skin.
She followed his gaze and turned, running her hand up her side. He felt her horror. She met his eyes. “Well. I do heal,” she whispered aloud.
“I’m sorry, Kaia.”
“It’s okay. I should be glad to be alive . . .” Her eyes dropped to the ground and he saw them widen. “Ethan!” She scrambled forward and snatched up the laser razor. “What if we can use this?”
“Is that possible?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know anything about the minerals this wall is made of. It’s not impossible . . .”
She pointed the laser at a rock near her foot and activated the beam. Nothing happened. The dot of light wavered harmlessly on the rock. Kaia switched it off and tinkered with the settings, and then she tried again. On the fifth try, Ethan saw a hint of smoke from the rock.
“There! There! That’s doing something.”
Kaia turned up the intensity and cut a small circle cleanly in the rock. They beamed at each other. Turning to the clear wall, Kaia aimed the laser at it and activated it. The beam hit the wall and its light dispersed through the energy barrier in its transparent surface, making the wall light up. Quickly she switched it off.
She turned to Ethan with wide eyes. “I hope they didn’t see that!”
He shook his head. “The walls are opaque to them, remember? They won’t be able to see the light.”
She nodded and set to work attuning the laser. After several tries, the laser cut through the wall and left a small, neat hole for them to climb through. Ethan hugged Kaia hard and they scrambled into the city.
It was dark inside. Kaia moved to the panel beside the gate and pried it open. Ethan checked the two unconscious guards and then joined her. Shortly, Kaia shut down the energy pulses that made up the gate. Their shimmering waves disappeared abruptly, leaving a gaping dark hole in the wall. Ethan held the image of it in his mind, trying to send it to Sybillan, who was waiting with the true Alorans beyond the crest of a hill directly outside the gate.
Before Ethan knew what was happening, a huge contingent of true Alorans appeared at the gate and entered the city.
Hopeful, even jubilant waves of emotion flowed from the Alorans as they moved silently through the darkened and deserted nighttime streets. The group got smaller as contingents branched off and worked toward the substations. Ethan thought again how much easier it would be if they could simply teleport around the city, as the Others did, but without the bulky armor plates the true Alorans would be vulnerable to the neural overload caused by the energy field in anything they tried to teleport through. Ethan and Kaia walked close together, unable to shake their fear as they caught sight of the huge, smoky skyscrapers.
Sybillan’s clear voice came into their heads. “We must get to the statehouse. We will need your help once again in order to infiltrate it.”
Ethan and Kaia nodded in unison. They knew what the next stage of the plan would bring. He didn’t balk at the thought, though it would most surely mean losing his freedom again.
Chapter 29
Ethan felt Kaia’s hand in his; small and strong, she squeezed his fingers fiercely. He tried smiling to reassure to her. As he did so, he caught her eye and the fear he saw there gripped him harder than his own.
“It’s going to be okay,” he thought to her.
Her thoughts were shielded from his own, but he felt her squeeze his hand again.
Suddenly, he felt agitation in the Alorans around them. He looked up. Ahead of them, the street was filling with the bulky shapes of the Others.
“You must go,” Sybillan thought to him. “Continue on and we will meet as soon as possible. You must get to the statehouse.”
The Alorans swarmed around the two humans, hiding them from the view of the Others coming toward them.
“GO!” Sybillan’s thoughts had an intensity that Ethan had never heard in them before. Perhaps this mission meant more to the Aloran than he had admitted.
Ethan and Kaia ducked down an alley between two of the large buildings. They wove up and down the streets and alleys for several minutes until the din of the conflict behind them faded.
After what seemed an hour of walking, they slipped down another alley. It was dark here, even more so than it had been outside the outer wall. Inside the translucent buildings beside them were more labs, similar to the lab where they’d been experimented on. Ethan noticed the strange phenomena of being able to see through the buildings. Inside, he saw the interiors of the labs lit up, but the light didn’t penetrate into the alley.
He saw, in one lab, the corpse of a lovely fishlike alien being, flayed open and lying on a table. Three of the hulking Others stood around it, arguing and poking at it. Ethan looked away quickly, feeling sick.
Kaia slipped closer to him, up under his arm. He felt her warmth beside him and longed, briefly, to be laying with her again on the wide leather couch in the Caretaker’s hold. He ran a hand up her side, feeling the soft skin where her overalls fell away. She held him tighter, and their steps slowed.
They reached a lab that was dark inside except for a few blue lights far back in the room, and he felt his eyes relax. He could see slightly more clearly in the dark alley without the competing light from inside, and he glanced down to see the pale sheen of Kaia’s dark hair and the soft glow of her skin.
“Kaia,” he said softly, stopping and pulling
her to him, “I want you to know that nobody else could have gotten us this far.” He leaned against the wall and felt her in his arms.
She smiled up at him. “Turning soft, Ethan?”
“Maybe.” He slid his hands down her back, pulling her close and feeling her breathing against him. They stood quietly, the press of their great responsibility held at bay while they held each other. “I—I lied to you.”
She tucked herself closer into his chest. “When?”
“When we talked on the ship. I do—I do love you, Kaia.” He hated himself for saying it, but hated more the feeling he was lying to her. “I don’t want you thinking that I don’t care for you if—if something happens.”
“I know, Ethan. I know how you feel. I’ve seen into your mind, remember? You love me, but you will always belong to Aria. She was loyal to you, and you’ll be loyal to her. I know you won’t betray her. I’ve seen exactly how you feel.”
This time, when she kissed him, he kissed her back. He let himself, for one moment, feel her surrounding him.
And then he heard the sound. The low, guttural grunt that could only mean they’d been discovered. Turning, he saw a huge hulking creature shuffling toward them down the alley.
“Taking a break?” the monster growled in Xardn.
Ethan put himself between the creature and Kaia. “Don’t come any closer.”
The creature continued to advance. “The ruler has put a nice price on your heads,” he growled. “Bringing you to him will win me much favor.”
“You don’t look like a soldier,” Ethan said.
“I am no soldier.” The creature sounded disgusted. His claws clicked agitatedly. “I simply work in the labs, cleaning up all the waste from the experiments. I was not considered clever or strong enough to join the ranks of the leader’s elite. But perhaps your capture will force them to see me differently.”
Perhaps, Ethan thought, only the soldiers possessed the ability to use the mind shackles. Surely by now they would have been immobilized if this creature had such a power. Before he could think, he was testing his hypothesis: “What makes them so elite? So much better than you?”
The monster snorted. “So many things. They can bend others to their will.” He stopped his awkward shuffling toward them and shifted the plates of armor across his shoulders, as if working out a kink in his neck. “All others must bow to them. If you cannot make others bow, then you will be the one on the floor.”
“So they treat you cruelly?”
The creature’s eyes twitched. “You are trying to trick me. You think you can learn secrets from me. You think I will help you.” He snorted again, and then, without warning, he lunged forward, claws snapping.
Ethan felt Kaia jerk away from the creature. He stepped back with her but caught her hand and held her from going any farther.
“Ethan, we’ve got to get out of here,” she said softly.
Ethan nodded slowly. “He doesn’t seem to be armed. He can’t immobilize us. I think we can outrun him.”
“Okay,” she said, her voice trembling slightly. She stood still but let go of his hand as she tensed to flee.
“One,” Ethan counted, turning slightly toward Kaia, “two.”
“Stop mumbling,” the creature said impatiently. “Even if I am inferior to the leader and his soldiers, I am far superior to you. I will take you to him.”
“Three!” Ethan spun and he and Kaia began running down the alleyway.
Behind them, the creature bellowed his frustration, anger, and surprise before starting his pursuit. His heavy steps followed them, the armor on his heels clanging against the stone street. Ethan knew he was getting closer.
“We’ve got to run, Kaia!” Ethan shouted. “Faster!” Something inside him snapped, and he found himself racing to the end of the alley. Suddenly, he knew he had gone too fast for her. As he reached the main road, he glanced back to see her small form clasped in the arms of the Other.
Ethan whirled back towards them and sprinted. The translucent walls around him blurred as he braced for impact and threw himself at the creature. He realized too late that though the creature did not have the ability to shackle them, he did have the ability to transport.
Ethan saw them fade as his momentum carried him through the space they had occupied and slammed him onto the cold stone floor of the alley. Pain shot through him as he hit, and so did the sickening realization that Kaia was gone.
Chapter 30
Ethan scrambled to his feet. Frantically, he paced from one side of the alley to the other, looking for a clue as to where she might have gone. He knew, though. The monster had taken her to the statehouse, to Traxoram.
Ethan tried to block out what they might do to her. They would probably keep her alive, at least as long as they thought she might be useful. They would try to get information from her, he was sure, and he knew Kaia well enough to know that she wouldn’t give it to them.
Unless. . .
Ethan knew the creatures would not mind torturing her to get what they wanted. He had to get to her before that happened.
He strode down the alley to the main road. Checking carefully for Others, he slipped along beside the big buildings. There was no foot traffic on the street. The Others preferred to remain inside, working in their labs. He remembered the pictures of the city Sybillan had planted in his head and looked down the long street toward the center of the city: the statehouse at the hub of the wheel. If he could get through the city to the series of walls surrounding the statehouse, he might have a chance at getting to Traxoram. And to Kaia.
Her absence was like a ragged hole. As he moved stealthily, pausing, ducking behind garbage bins or into doorways, he felt the weight of her loss. He knew he couldn’t have stopped the creature from transporting, but somehow, he felt that if he had been quicker, more focused, more careful, he could have kept her with him.
The city was still and quiet. Above him, through the red lens of the force field, he could see the lesser Aloran moon, ragged and sharp in the sky. It glowed bloody above him.
He was nearly halfway to the statehouse now. He could see, far down the street, a bright orange glow that he assumed to be the outer wall of Traxoram’s estate. It seemed so easy to simply dash down the long straight street and end the skulking through back alleys, but Sybillan had told him to take a more or less spiral route through the city, avoiding being on any one street for long.
Still, he could make a lot of progress if he took the main street for just a few more blocks. He was wild to get to Kaia before something happened, something he couldn’t undo. So he peered as carefully as he could down the red-washed street and cut directly for the orange glow. He made it several blocks before he realized his mistake.
He heard the clicking sounds before he saw them: the Others patrolling the tops of two major buildings along the thoroughfare. He realized that they were stationed on the main street sides of the buildings, so if he had stuck to Sybillan’s route they would have been unlikely to see him.
Their excited clicking grew in intensity as he started to run down the nearest alley. Others began to appear around him, and he knew it would be only seconds before he felt the shackles.
And then he heard another sound, a small sound, like singing. As another of the Others appeared directly in his path, he stopped his headlong dash and looked frantically for the source of the singing.
Without thinking, without understanding, he rushed to the side of the alley and stood in front of a garbage bin. The singing was coming from above him. He looked up and saw a window in the building open just enough for him to dive through into the room beyond.
He stood and instinctively fled from the great mass of Others who were appearing outside the transparent wall. Already they were clawing at the opening he had gone through. Ethan ran out of the room, through a hallway, and into a cavernous inner room. He slammed the door behind him and then turned and saw the singer that had saved him from the Others.
Its black eyes
blinked back at him from a table in the center of the great room. Its iridescent scales caught what little light emanated from a single tiny lantern on the table. It was Tesuu. The little Zumiin held out a fragile paw.
Ethan walked cautiously towards him. He reached forward, watching the animal’s catlike eyes focus on him. As its tiny fingers reached out, it made contact with Ethan’s hand. Both froze.
Ethan was overwhelmed with images and thoughts flowing from the little being. Another place, a vast grassland. Another creature like this one, beloved. The Others. And death. So, so much death. He tried to pull away, but the little animal caught hold of his hand with both of its hands and pulled its body into his palm.
“You helped me,” it said in a language Ethan was sure he had never studied but that he knew nonetheless. It wasn’t simply telepathy, as it had been before when he’d met Tesuu. His linguistic ability seemed to be enhanced as well.
He opened his mouth to speak, and the Zumiin words were clear in his mind. “You just helped me, too,” he replied, surprised at the easy way in which his mouth formed the syllables of the alien language.
“They will come here,” the little creature said. “We must go below and wait.” He gestured toward a row of cabinets that sat on the floor at the back of the room. “Hurry.”
Ethan carried him back to the cabinets and followed his directions to the third one from the right. He pulled it open and the little animal jumped inside, scurrying off to the right inside the row of cabinets. Ethan cautiously leaned inside, curling his shoulders inward in order to fit through the hole. Behind him he heard the voices of the Others growing closer in the corridor outside. He pulled himself inward with some effort and closed the cabinet door behind him.