I nodded. "Soon after that last time, he left. Rumors abounded as to why. He apparently had a reputation as a troublemaker, and the Force finally had enough of him and shipped him back to Colberra." I paused and looked over at Suyef. "But something did happen that might have instigated their decision.
"You see, the memories wore on me. Just as I'd begun to bury them, he rehashed them all again and added new ones. That part of me, screaming inside, needed them to go away." I held up the rock. "I wanted to fling them away like those rocks that one night." I let my hand fall back to my lap. "So, I started envisioning that very thing. Balling my memories up, wadding them tightly together and ridding myself of them. Throwing them into the abyss that is our world."
Suyef eyed me, head cocked to one side. "That's a ... complicated bit of Altering," he whispered, lowering his eyes to the fire. "Even more so than what you did with that earlier."
"You're not kidding," I said, nodding in agreement. "It was impossible to figure out. I had no clue how to do it. Imagining them all in a ball and throwing it." I shook my head. "Didn't work. I could form air into a ball and fling it, but how do you grab a memory out of here"—I pointed at my head—"and make into something tangible you can throw?
"In my frustration, what was actually happening had completely eluded me. Here I thought flinging a ball of air was safe. It didn't dawn on me that that ball of air kept going in the direction it was sent. The thing nearly leveled a building along the edge of the settlement." I looked at Suyef. "That was incident number one. The second incident occurred a week later. I sent a rock soaring over the settlement and it nearly destroyed a Seeker speeder. They weren't able to prove who did it, so everyone without a good alibi was punished." I glared at the Nomad. "They never even used those things because you Nomads never let anyone leave the settlement, but by the way they reacted, you'd have thought the water control station had been damaged."
Suyef chuckled. "People can be very particular about their stuff."
"That's the truth," I agreed. "Finally, about a week after that incident, in another attempt to ball my memories up and be done with them, my anger pushed me to light a rock on fire and use it to graffiti the side of a building. Seemed pretty cool at the time, flaming letters spelling out the Coding that frustrated me." I shrugged, shaking my head and smiling slightly. "Those fires were fueled by my rage, unbeknownst to me, and they just kept burning. I went home and just sat there, raging inside over my failure, finding anything to keep my mind from drifting places it didn't need to go. Music played a big part in this."
I looked over at Suyef—a cold, hard look. "Someone discovered them hours later when they burned through the wall. I remember the alarms going off, and my father rushing out of the house. My mother kept us behind, just to stay out of the way. We heard all about it when he returned.
"The entire structure was lost, the fires gutting an entire supply building in a matter of hours. The suppression systems prevented the flames from spreading to any other building, but my father insisted that they couldn't put the flames out. They just wouldn't die." I leaned over toward Suyef, voice lowering. "Until shortly after my father arrived. He said that when he got there, the flames had started to die down, and only then were the suppression systems able to extinguish them."
I eyed the Nomad, waiting for him to put it together. For his part, Suyef shrugged and waved me on.
"No guesses?" I asked, eyebrows raised in question.
He nodded. "The fires were connected to your anger. They lost the connection."
"Exactly," I exclaimed, raising a finger to the skies. "Right when we found out about them, and my father ran off. Up until then, I'd been fuming and raging alone in my room. When we heard the alarms, I stopped doing that." I dropped my hand to my lap. "I was thinking of other things, and I lost the rage. The instant that happened, the flames died down and were put out."
"So what happened to you?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. They never connected me to the fire." I cocked my head to one side, a sly grin breaking out on my lips. "He did."
"Your father knew you were connected to it?"
I shook my head. "No, my father never put that together. The guy who did all that to me. He took the fall for what happened."
Suyef frowned. "They blamed him?"
I nodded. "They weren't able to pin it on anyone but everyone except him had an alibi. So, the Force used the incident as an excuse to get rid of him."
Suyef frowned. "Not exactly what you call justice for his actions, but I can't say I feel sorry for him." He looked at me. "So, did you try again? With your memories?"
"Didn't need to," I replied, holding the rock up, then chucking it into the distance. "The Force did it for me."
"The Force didn't take your memories away," he retorted.
"No, but they took my tormentor away, and they helped me push my memories down and not focus on them. That's as good as what I was trying, and a whole lot safer."
"So, do you specialize in anything else?" the Nomad asked, his head turning to look out into the desert. "Besides failed attempts at memory wipes, tossing rocks, and lighting things on perpetual fire?"
I made a sour face at him before answering. "I've become quite adept at moving things, as our practices have shown you. Pushing them and pulling them around, tossing them up. And fire has become my servant, per se." I held up a hand and the entire fire leapt from where it was to float in a giant ball above my hand.
Suyef reacted like he'd been shot, jumping toward me and waving at the fire. "Stop that!" he hissed, eyes darting around. "Put it back!"
Frowning, I turned my palm to face the Seeker device and the fire fell back to where it had been. "What's your problem?"
The Nomad stood there, eyes roaming the horizon. "We need to move."
And so we did. We packed up, mounted our speeders, and took off into the dimly lit desert. We traveled for several hours before coming to another pipeline, one of the many we now knew was empty. Suyef followed it north toward the shell center until we came to a control station. He stopped on a hill overlooking the tower.
"Is it just me, or do they always build these stations in small valleys?" I asked, staring down at the facility.
"Maybe," he replied, nodding as he shifted. "Let's go."
We moved our mounts down and parked them near the tall, cylindrical building. Soon after, I found myself sitting before yet another control panel, using the sensors on the mounts to scan for anyone approaching. Suyef stood near the door, as usual, watching me.
"You mind telling me what that was about?" I asked, tapping open another panel on the screen and continuing my study of the water station control coding.
"Do you have any idea what those Seekers might do to us if they see you Altering like that?" he hissed, pointing at the door. "Especially with a Questioner around?"
"You didn't seem to mind the first time."
"They were gone, then."
I focused on him through the translucent panel. "So all that time later, there was a better chance they'd be back?"
Suyef frowned at me. "You shared your secret. My turn." He waved a hand at the panel. "It's all well and good, using the sensors like that. Especially with us inside. Outside, however, I've got other ways of tracking."
I focused on him through the panel. "You Script to track?"
"Passively. It's second nature to me," he explained. "Remember, Altering isn't taboo among Nomads as it is among your people. I've had many years of training in it." He nodded at the panel. "As a result, I learned a long time ago I have a sixth sense about what's moving about near me. I can feel the changes in the Code when someone approaches."
I whistled. "That must be annoying in crowded locations."
He nodded. "It can be. It took years of practice to learn to tune out the unwanted input." He smiled at me. "Unlike you, I tend to do better when focused."
"His own to each," I muttered, going back to the panel. "So, were the Seekers coming back?"<
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"I sensed someone approaching, and it was safer to assume it was them than take the chance you'd again do something foolhardy," he stated, walking over to stand just beyond the panel. "You're from this shell. I shouldn't have to explain this to you."
I glared at the Nomad. "Considering you let them sneak up on us in the first place."
His nostrils flared, eyes widening. "You think I let them sneak up on us?"
"Well what else would explain them showing up out of nowhere? You let them come to us?"
"I thought that much was obvious by what I said after they left," he retorted. "Are you really so daft you can't put all this together?"
I pushed myself up, somewhat emboldened by being taller than the Nomad. "If you let them come to us, then what is your issue?"
"My issue is with you showing off your Altering ability for every Seeker this side of the mountains to see," he said, his voice dropping to forceful whisper. "My issue is with your blatant stupidity in nearly blowing our cover."
I moved away from the panel, Suyef following me. "All I did was play with a little fire. At your request!"
The Nomad stepped close to me, finger pointing at my face. "I didn't request a thing. I simply asked what else you'd been working on with your Altering. I said nothing of a demonstration."
I knocked his hand away from my face. "My apologies if I felt the need to show you," I stated, stepping closer to the Nomad. "It's not often someone asks me to show off my abilities with fire."
Suyef looked up at me, eyes going back and forth on mine. The next moment, he chuckled and looked away.
"What are we doing?" he asked.
Tension I hadn't noticed creeping into my back relaxed, and a breath I'd been holding without realizing escaped my lips.
"Being asinine?"
The Nomad barked an even louder laugh, smacking me hard on the shoulder. "You have a knack for being blunt, Offlander. I'll give you that." He rested a hand on my now-smarting shoulder, his face serious. "Don't get me wrong, Quentin. I am impressed by what you do with fire. I've known other Alterers whom you would learn a lot from. Just be smart with it."
I nodded. "I wasn't thinking they might come back," I replied.
Suyef pointed at the panel. "Your search. Any luck?"
I shrugged as I turned back to the panel. "I need some time to study this station's coding and compare it to others."
He nodded and waved me back to work. "I'll check the supply situation," he said, stepping near the panel and tapping a program open.
I leaned over his shoulder. "So, you do actually know how this works," I muttered.
He made a sound like a grunt. "Have known all along," he said, finishing his task and nodding at his panel. "That will tell you if anyone comes close. I've tied our speeder sensors into this station and sent them up to the top of the tower to give them better reach." He stepped around the panel and made his way toward the walkway leading above. "If anyone does come, just call out."
That said, he disappeared to the upper levels and left me to work. I stood for a moment, staring at the opening to the second floor before shaking my head. Nomads, I decided, were a bit too complex for their own good. Focusing on my work, I examined the coding for that station, going through line by line, reading each symbol. I pulled my padd out and tapped open a program to help me with translating the symbols. Suyef would probably have called that cheating, too. I shook my head and focused on the coding. It took me all of about ten minutes to find my answers.
"Suyef!" I called to the Nomad, who was still out of sight above. "Suyef!"
Apparently, my tone indicated trouble, as the Nomad bolted into sight, sliding down the ramp to face the door. I raised my hands, making a placating motion with them.
"Whoa, easy there, man," I said.
Suyef looked at his panel through the translucent screen, then nodded once. "You found something?" he asked, stepping around the terminal.
I pointed at the file. "Just look at that, right there," I said, tapping a particular column.
He leaned in close, and I watched his eyes move around, reading each column of coding. Finally, he shook his head and looked at me.
"I understand it, but loosely."
"No worries," I replied, waving a hand to indicate the entire construct. "This is the base program coding for how much water moves through this station." I looked pointedly at him. "Rather, how much water used to run through it."
"So this water line is dead as well?" he asked.
I nodded. "Been so for a decade." I pointed at the coding. "And this column is the reason why. It took a bit to notice it, as it's blended in so well with all the rest."
Suyef read the column. "It's just a quota coding, yes?"
"Correct," I answered. "A limiting quota. It's establishing an ever increasing limit on the water flow." I held up my thumb and forefinger and looked at him through the gap. "It's a tiny one, multiplying over time." I reached over to another panel and brought up a system layout of that particular water pipeline. A tap of a few symbols, and each control station blinked red on the line. "I'll bet you several nutrient packs that we'll find the same coding change at each of those." I tapped the panel again, and the view changed to an overview of all the pipelines reaching out to the shell. "You know what I'm going to say next."
Suyef nodded. "That's not a bet I'll take," he said, then looked at me. "Can you verify your finding at those other stations from here?"
I shook my head. "That coding is internal to each station. It probably can be done, but not by me." I pointed at the column. "Someone was."
"You don't know they did that from somewhere else," the Nomad stated, nodding at the station door. "They could just as easily have come here to do it."
I held up three fingers. "Three possibilities. One, they did this from a distance, say from the Citadel. Two, whoever did this physically came to each station to add that piece of coding. Three, they had help, someone no one would question coming to each station and altering the coding."
"Seekers," Suyef whispered.
"Seekers," I said, nodding in agreement. "The question is, why would Seekers want people to leave the Outer Dominances?"
Suyef held up a hand. "We still don't know it was them," he insisted. "All we know is they might have done it, either on orders from within or from the government."
I shrugged. "Seekers are the government on Colberra," I retorted. "The Central Dominance founded them, and the two have been wedded at the hip for centuries."
"That still doesn't answer who did this and why," the Nomad replied, pointing at the screen. "All we know is that someone altered the coding at this station and the few we've visited to decrease the water flow to the outer shell. We suspect the Seekers because they have the ability and the freedom to move around to do this." He held up a cautionary finger. "But ability does not equal motive."
I shrugged, shaking my head. "I don't really care what their motivation was or is," I stated, pointing at the panel. "I just know that is a complex bit of coding, hidden in a simple addition to the control code. To do that, you need to know this system forward, backward, inside out. Only the Seekers and the Dominance have that kind of knowledge."
Suyef looked over at me. "Yet, you found it."
I pointed at my chest. "I had a mother who bucked the system to teach me coding." I pointed off in the general direction of north. "Most of the people on this shell don't get that kind of education." I plucked at the cloak I wore. "Except Seekers."
Suyef nodded and pointed at the panel. "I'm not disagreeing that this was most likely done by Seekers. It still begs the question—why?"
I shrugged yet again, waving a hand at the access terminal's giant screen. "Why else? To stop the water and make the people living in the Outer Dominances move into the Central Dominance."
"Why do that?"
I paused, contemplating the answer. "I'm not sure," I finally said. "Could be any number of reasons. Water shortages, system failures, politics." I held
up a finger. "One thing you can count on in Colberra is politics. That and Seekers."
Suyef pointed at the panel I'd brought up. "What about that last active line, the one out to the west?"
I looked over at the screen, reaching over and tapping the indicated line to bring it to the forefront. "I can't tell from here, but I wouldn't be surprised to find the same bit of coding going on there."
"Yet, the line is still active."
I nodded, looking at the Nomad. "The lines we've encountered show a progression of sorts." I brought the shell map back up and pointed at a settlement we'd passed. "That's the one where they changed all the timing so we couldn't tell when it happened." I pointed at the water lines next in both directions. "The records we have show these all had their own problems in a progression forward in time heading out from this line."
"Meaning that one was first and whatever happened moved east and west around the shell from there," Suyef said, continuing my thought.
"With a few exceptions," I replied, nodding in agreement. "They skipped these lines leading to Seeker outposts on the shell's edge."
"And stopped short of the raider outpost to our east."
I pointed at the last line that was still active. "According to all the records we've found so far, most of this started nearly two decades ago; most of these settlements emptying around ten cycles ago." I tapped the active line. "I can't say for sure until we get to it, but this problem must have hit that line long before now."
"So, for some reason we don't know yet, something or someone is keeping that line active," the Nomad said, holding a hand toward the screen.
"Or, what they did to that line is just moving a lot slower," I said, never taking my eyes from the map on the screen. "Either way, the answer lies on that line."
Suyef shifted toward the door, then stopped. "You said before someone was accessing files you were looking at?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at me.
"Haven't noticed it in a while, but initially, yes," I answered.
Suyef frowned, looking at the panel.
"What are you thinking, Nomad?"
He shrugged. "I'm not sure, but if someone out there has figured out what you've figured out, maybe they're the ones trying to find the same answers as you?"
Rise: Paths (Future Worlds Book 2) Page 12