“What’s that?”
“The electromagnetic activity is causing some problems with the ship’s systems. We were prepared for this, but we couldn’t prepare for every contingency. We might intermittently lose some minor systems from time to time.”
Marie glanced back at the screen as one of the much larger pieces—easily twice the size of the first two, though probably larger—rose from the ocean floor and began to follow the others. She reached her hand to her face and began rubbing her chin as she stared thoughtfully at the screen. In her right cardigan pocket, her other hand was now balled into a tight fist.
***
Jane was sitting next to Mike on the floor. She had leaned against him and let her head fall sideways onto his shoulder. She was about to fall asleep when the door beeped. She lifted her head quickly and looked at it. The security panel was blue, which indicated the door was now open. Then it beeped again, and the panel turned red once more. Another beep and the panel turned blue again. This time, it stayed blue, and they heard the click of the lock. The heavy door creaked open by a single inch and then stopped. The three of them exchanged shocked glances as they stood up and stared through the crack into the open hallway.
Jane acted first, racing across the room to the door and placing her arm into the opening, lest it closed on them once more. Ciara quickly took a position in the corner of the room on Jane’s left. Jane watched her as she examined the space beyond. Then, after a moment, Ciara nodded at her, giving her the all clear. Jane pushed the heavy door open and turned around. Outside, just beyond them, was a narrow corridor, but down to the left it opened out into a central area. Jane remembered this from when they had first been escorted down these corridors; that was the area that opened out into one of the science stations below. She leaned out further and glanced to her right. The corridor on that side continued for thirty feet and then split off in either direction. She immediately thought of Morris, and at that moment, her heart was set on only one thing.
She was pulling herself back in through the door when there was a flash. She jumped, startled, as her vision filled with light, and the world around her was gone. She saw the outside of the ship; she was hovering over it. In the center, the sea crashed in a tremendous wash of white foam. She could see the sections of what she knew was the Machine rising up out of the water. Then there was another flash, and the vision was gone.
Ciara and Mike were at her side immediately.
“What?” Ciara asked desperately as Mike placed a hand on her back.
“They’re raising it,” she said, blinking. “It’s massive. I never imagined it would be so…”
“What?” Mike asked.
She looked at him. “So alien. It is truly ancient.” She grimaced, but shook the memory of the object free from her; she had other things to think about right then. “Come on,” she said as newfound determination rose up within her. Max’s words had proven correct. The Machine was dangerous, and she knew they would have to do something about it.
The three of them stepped into the hallway.
“What now?” Ciara asked, although the expression on her face betrayed her foreknowledge of the answer.
“I have to find him,” Jane replied. “We need our powers back. You two find the suppression device and deactivate it.”
“How are we going to do that?” Ciara asked.
“Can’t you feel it? Whatever’s happening with that Machine, it’s affecting this ship somehow—and its systems. When one of those waves comes again, focus, and you’ll find it.”
“She’s right,” Mike added. “I’ve felt spots of telepathic ability over the last ten minutes. I thought I might have been imagining it, but it’s real.”
“Right. If you tune into that, you’ll be able to locate it.”
They parted ways, with Jane trying desperately to quell the feeling of trepidation at leaving her friends. She looked right, down the corridor, having seen Morris led in that direction and knowing it was her best lead. As they left, they glanced over their shoulders, watching each other as they went in separate directions.
“Good luck, Jane,” Mike called.
“You too,” she yelled back. She had already broken into a light jog and looked over her shoulder again as she said this. She saw Ciara nod at her and acknowledged the look of doubt on her face. It read: Can you do this alone?
Jane searched for the answer as she turned away and continued on down the corridor. When she came to a point where it began to curve to the right, and she would lose sight of her friends, she found the answer. It was a clear yes, and her pace picked up.
CHAPTER 12
ORBIT
Jane stalked the corridors alone. She had taken a right turn at the end of the first corridor, then followed this until she came to a crossway. On the right, there was a second open area where scientists were working. She ducked out of visible range, waiting for her path to clear. Then she glanced around the corner, and when it seemed nobody was looking in her direction, she leaped to the opposite side of the crossway, into another passage that led away from that area.
As she approached the end of the secondary walkway, anticipation grew within her. Somewhere just ahead, she could hear a faint buzzing sound. She placed her back flat against the wall as she approached a window from where bright light poured out. On the opposite side of the narrow corridor were flat-screen monitors, and she glanced at these. She gasped, but quickly stifled the sound, placing her hands over her mouth. Morris was on the screen in front of her. He was inside a room, hovering in midair and surrounded by medical devices. His half-naked torso was visible, and a silver-colored blanket covered the rest of his body.
She knelt low to the ground and crawled across to the end of the corridor, just underneath the window to the room where Morris was being experimented on. She stopped when she reached the half-meter section that separated the window from the end of the wall and placed her back flat against this empty space. A speaker from inside the room had been left on, and she heard one of the physicians speak through it clearly.
“There are implicit instructions that he is not to be operated on until we have word from Donaldson,” one of them said.
“I’m not going in deep. I just want to see how much control I have over him with the implant.”
There was a pause, and before he spoke again, Jane could almost feel the crackling of tension in the room, despite the absence of her telepathic ability.
“This information could prove important later on. We need to get as much as we can now,” said the same man, whose voice betrayed his obvious authority.
Jane turned around and slowly raised her head so that her eyes peered just above the bottom of the window. Inside, she saw a clean and sterile white room. Morris was hovering at the center, where two beams of light shone from devices on either side of him, suspending him in midair. She had never seen this technology before, and she marveled at it briefly. The buzzing sound changed slightly, and the beams shifted as Morris was slowly turned over until his back was facing upward. The man, whom Jane presumed had spoken last, was standing to Morris’s left, and now he turned toward a console just next to them. While still looking at Morris, he tapped the control panel.
Jane had no warning and almost jumped as the lights around them flickered. A cabinet in the corner of the room rattled for a few seconds and then came to rest.
“How did you do that?” the other physician on the right asked.
“Direct access to the psionic faculty.”
“What else do you think we could do?”
“Who knows? But I’d like to find out.”
Jane’s eyes widened, and she ducked back down below the window. I have to get him out of there, she thought as she looked around desperately. But on either side, she saw nothing but empty corridors. Without access to her powers, she didn’t have a chance.
***
Ciara and Mike passed by the science bay that
was just below them to the right, keeping as close to the wall on their left as possible. Thankfully, the space above the railing that lined the edge was covered with transparent monitors. These displays were filled with complex information and imagery, and so their presence was largely masked.
Ciara stopped for a second, placed her back against the wall, and turned to Mike, who had stopped just next to her. She nodded at him. “Where do you think we should go?” she asked, glancing to her left. Just a few feet away, the corridor narrowed once again and split. On the right, the pathway continued around the upper level of the science area. The left side led to a separate corridor that she could only see the beginning of, and light from beyond there was scattered on the floor just a few feet from where they stood.
“The power is fluctuating, like Jane said. It’s something to do with the Machine. Wait for another flicker, and then try to find out how the field works here. If we can discover where the generator is, we can disable it, just like we did back at the facility. I don’t think it’s going to be as heavily guarded this time.”
“Good idea,” she said, nodding.
They waited, and after a few tense minutes, Ciara felt the shockwave coming. It spilled through the ship, and she felt it penetrate the wall behind them. Then it washed over them, and she glanced above as the electrical systems lost power for a moment. The lights flickered, and the screens straight ahead began to flash intermittently.
She didn’t wait for Mike’s prompt, feeling the flicker of power come to life within her, like a candle in a dark room. She shone the light as far as she could, and immediately, her mind’s eye took her down the corridor to the left. She rushed down a section that must have been a hundred feet long, then swung quickly to the left. She rushed past personnel, most of whom were working on tablets and running down the length of the corridors, apparently disturbed by the power fluctuations. Finally, she slowed, and her focus turned to the right, to a room where a single guard sat staring at a large monitor on the left wall.
“I found it!” Ciara exclaimed, opening her eyes. “It’s this way!” Grabbing his arm, she said, “Come on!” They ran together toward the left, taking the passage that opened into a larger corridor. Out of the corner of her eye, Ciara saw one of the scientists shift below her and glance up at them.
“STOP!” the man yelled, but Ciara was moving too fast to care and was too close to her goal to think about anything else.
As they ran down the corridor, they approached an employee who had his head buried in a tablet. He glanced up and held up his hands as they neared him. Ciara deftly ducked beneath him, and turned to see Mike ram into him solidly. The man huffed, was lifted off his feet, and landed on the floor. His tablet hit the ground and smashed into pieces that clattered away into a far corner. Mike squealed and grabbed his shoulder, but kept running. Still, he had slowed somewhat.
“Keep moving!” he yelled after her.
Ciara gasped, turned again, and broke into a run once more. She reached the end of the corridor where she had seen it branch off and took a left. She slowed down twenty feet from the door where she knew the lone security officer was guarding the suppression device. Leaning against the wall on her left, she stepped sideways. Slowly, the room came into view, and then she could see him. He was wearing a basic uniform that was clearly meant to distinguish him from the other employees.
The man turned toward her, and his mouth opened wide.
Ciara froze, but then another shockwave washed over them, and she felt the power return.
He rose to his feet, unlocked the door quickly, and lunged at her, but Ciara was quicker. Somehow, on instinct, she knew what to do. Deftly, she stepped sideways, reached a hand up to his neck before he could react further, and reached into his mind. With little difficulty, thanks to the adrenaline flooding her veins and urging her on, she rendered him unconscious. He fell on the floor in a heap. She looked down at his body and exhaled.
Mike appeared in the doorway, still clutching his shoulder and grimacing in pain. “How did you do that?” he asked, glancing at the guard on the floor.
Ciara was staring down at the man, and now she looked at her hands. “I… I’m not sure. I had an idea. It just occurred to me.”
“Nice going.”
The sound of loud footsteps resounded through the hallway. They turned to the left in unison, just in time to see two men and one woman wearing lab coats appear at the end of the hallway.
“Ciara…”
“I know.”
She turned around and stepped into the small room. On the left-hand wall, she saw a large monitor displaying cryptic information about the state of security onboard the vessel. The walls were covered with wire mesh, and a desk lined the room from left to right in a semicircle.
“Ciara!” Mike yelled from the hallway.
“I can’t find it!”
She heard him gasp behind her and turned to see him being wrestled to the ground by two of the scientists. The third was standing behind them. This man was holding a small, plastic container. She watched as he opened it and took out a small injection shaped like a gun. Without ever having seen it before, she knew that it was meant to put Mike to sleep, and that was the very last thing she needed right then.
“Damn it!” she yelled.
Another shockwave washed over them.
The man was knocked off his feet and fell to the floor, pushed by Mike’s brief display of power.
Ciara focused, closing her eyes. Turning back around, she reached her hands out in front of her, scanning the small room. Immediately, her senses were drawn to the area directly behind the monitors. In her mind’s eye, she pushed through the thin wire mesh and the wall beyond it. Her focus discovered a locked cabinet where the device sat silently. It appeared to be of the same design as the one that had kept them restrained at the first New York facility.
Then the power was gone again, like a light flickering out in the dark. Ciara opened her eyes and turned around to see the man getting to his feet. He had dropped the small injection and was now on the ground searching for it frantically. After a moment, he found it, and he once again approached Mike, who was struggling against the other two technicians who were holding him down. The man was reaching down toward him when the ship shook violently.
Ciara grasped a handrail over the desk to her right to avoid falling over as she felt the tremendous rocking motion grab at her, threatening to knock her off her feet. She saw Mike’s leg kick out toward the man in front of him, hitting him squarely in the shin. The man yelled out in pain and fell to his knees, but Mike was still wrestling with the other two who were trying to keep him on the ground.
Ciara braced herself, turning around once again toward the back of the room where the wire mesh covered the blank wall. She could feel the wave coming this time, bigger than before. It hit, and the power was back. She reached out with her mind and moved back through the wall. Knowing there was little time, she went directly into the device itself, found a delicate section of circuitry, and released the full force of her power on it.
She opened her eyes to see the wall in front of her tremble as the Machine inside exploded. The room shook, and the wire mesh that covered the walls trembled all around the room. Smoke billowed from somewhere underneath the desk. Ciara turned around to see the man once again standing over Mike, preparing to administer the tranquilizing agent. Without warning, he rose into the air and was flung backward violently, out of her sight.
Ciara rushed to the door and looked down to see Mike finally getting a handle on the situation. He reached out his left arm toward the second man. She could see the powerful shockwave emanate from his hand and impact the man’s chest. The man was lifted into the air and slid along the side of the wall. Then he flew backward down the hallway and, landing hard, he slid a further ten feet on the smooth surface, grunting in pain.
The woman turned in shock but still pulled her fist back, readying to strike Mike with a seriou
s blow. Now it was Ciara’s turn, and with the help of the adrenaline spike that still surged through her, she merely nodded, and the woman was lifted off her feet. She rose into the air and was thrown backward, flying along the passageway in an arc that carried her only four feet off the ground. She landed close to the other man, and Ciara heard her yelp in pain as she fell hard on her left arm. Ciara glanced down at Mike, who was recovering and getting to his feet.
He turned to his right, where Ciara saw that the man and the woman were helping each other up. “Get out of here!” he yelled at them. “Before you force us to do something worse. GO!” he screamed.
They turned, and Ciara saw that the man was grasping his cheek where a large red spot was growing. The woman’s mouth was trembling, and a few drops of blood were dribbling down her chin as she turned away. She took hold of the man’s arm as he limped, and the two of them left together down the hallway as fast as they could, disappearing into the distance as it curved around to the left.
Ciara looked left and saw that the other man, the one who had tried to incapacitate Mike, was lying unconscious on the floor. She turned back toward the long corridor from where they had initially come. At the end, a hundred feet away, she could see in her mind’s eye more people running toward them. Most of them were holding weapons. She shook her head, shaking free her psychic grip on the area, and turned to Mike. “They’re coming. Come on!”
She grabbed his hand, and the two of them ran in the other direction, down the same path from where the other two scientists had escaped. Ciara had no fear that they would run into them again; she knew they could handle them easily enough. She was more concerned about finding Jane, and outrunning the horde of people who now appeared to be pursuing them.
***
At Jupiter’s orbit, there was a flash of light as he moved with immense velocity. He crossed the orbital path of the planet’s diameter in one minute. As his consciousness formed, becoming more refined, he was able to read the situation more clearly, but his reach was still limited. He could see the Machine pieces rising, but it was dangerous to interfere at this juncture, and he knew he would have to wait. He picked up speed once more, knowing he would have to apply incredible strength of mind to slow his velocity down once he reached Earth’s orbit. These speeds were fine for the void of space, but anything beyond hypersonic velocity inside the atmosphere could prove dangerous, both to him and anything within his vicinity.
Rise (The Ethereal Vision Book 2) Page 14