In Death's Shadow

by S. F. Edwards

  “Just a soda for now.”

  “What’s up?” he asked, pulling out a cup and filling it.

  “Why don’t you guys just install an autocook or a nano-assembler to do all that? Why go through the hassle of making it all?”

  Derjin shook his head. “But where would be the show, the spectacle?”

  Jell knew that answer was coming and rolled her eyes. “Please, it would make your job so much easier. Sheol, just let people order from a console or their macomm like other clubs. Then you just have to deliver the drink, not mix it up.”

  “Then I would just be a waiter. I make the tips I do by putting on a show and adding that little something. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.”

  “That’s not the way I live,” Jell replied with a coy smile.

  Derjin smiled back at her. “In that case, I could just pull you across this bar and have my way with you. That doesn’t mean I should.”

  Jell leaned in closer, her breezy summer outfit flowing open to reveal that she wasn’t wearing a bra beneath. “Who says you shouldn’t?”

  “Don’t tempt me, girl, people talk enough as it is.”

  “I’ve been seen sneaking out of your place often enough to fill the gossip mills for an annura.”

  “Well, you could always move in with me.”

  Jell sipped at her drink and instantly regretted her choice, wanting something stronger. If she didn’t have plans with her study group later, she’d order it. “You know I’m not ready for that.”

  “Why not?” he asked, as he assembled the snack tray.

  She glanced up into one of the mirrors over the bar. She didn’t like the way she was looking this cycle. The dress was fine, but she’d been up late studying so much that she’d acquired bags under her eyes, bags that reminded her too much of the few images she’d seen of Kamden Krain. “If you didn’t keep yourself so far from my family, then maybe. It’s like you’re hiding something. You wouldn’t even come to my brother’s wedding two tridecs ago.”

  “Babe, you know I had to work that cycle, plus I really don’t do weddings.”

  “I know, but you keep making excuses. My grandparents aren’t going to live forever and I’m getting tired of their questions. If you’d at least let me image you, show them that you’re a good guy, then maybe they’d back off.”

  “What about your grandfather’s, what did you call them, shadows?”

  Jell nodded.

  “If he’s as smart as you say, he could take that image, figure out where I work, and fill this place with them. I thought you wanted here, and me, to be your escape from that life.”

  I hate it when he’s right.

  At the other end of the bar, several club workers sat watching the news on the holoprojector while others cleaned and reset the holographic projectors. Those watching the news gasped as a report finished and one of them ran back to the two of them. “Hey, did you hear?”

  Derjin looked up at the man and grimaced. “Hear what?”

  “You’re both Energy Gatherers right? Well the queen of the Electrolites, she dead man.”

  Derjin gave him an odd look. “What are you talking about?”

  “Kamden Krain, man.”

  Jell shook her head and reached up to touch the bags under her eyes. She hated hearing that name. “Kamden Krain died over twenty five annura ago. What are you talking about?” Jell asked. Thank you, granddad, for keeping the Vaughnt name!

  “Are you kidding? They just found her spirit orb.”

  Derjin scoffed. “They’re not spirits. Those are just memory imprinted quantum wavicles. If they don’t disperse after death they form into orbs, feeding off ambient energy. Read a study on them sometime instead of your mystical crap.”

  The other man chuckled. “Believe what you want, man, spirits, wavicles, whatever. They found her and they sealed her.”

  Derjin’s eyes went wide and he looked away.

  Jell gasped and turned towards the man. “They found her. My parents passed beyond, or dispersed, whatever you want to call it, and that critch stayed behind?!”

  Derjin turned back, fixing her with a hard gaze. “Watch your words.”

  She looked back over at him. “What, Derjin? Don’t tell me you believe in the Electrolite cause.”

  He paused for just a moment before shaking his head. “No, but sealing an orb, that’s some serious schreg. When did it happen?”

  “Uh, around,” he turned back to the man at the holoprojector. “Hey man when did the report say that happened? The Kamden thing.”

  The other man backed up the report. It took him a moment then he called back. “Around one thirty two.”

  Derjin frowned. That was over five tridecs ago. “And we’re only just finding out about it, why?”

  “Dunno. They said it happened on some super hush hush top secret base or something. They didn’t say what she was doing there, either.”

  This disturbed Jell more than she could let Derjin know. She had spent her youth hearing horror stories of Kamden’s exploits. Her grandparents held Kamden up as the example of how not to act as an Energy Gatherer. She was a moral lesson for Jell and Blazer against misusing their abilities. To learn that the last leader of the Electrolites was still out there plotting, even if she was just a spirit orb, left Jell feeling numb. What could Kamden’s spirit have been up to all this time? Was she planning some revenge against the Vaughnts? Jell had heard of other orbs, those of great leaders, or even criminals continuing to plot and plan their previous ways. It hurt her to know that Kamden’s spirit had been free.

  Derjin just stared off into the space, his gaze hard and haunting.

  “Is something wrong?” Jell asked. Why is he so bothered by this?

  He shook his head and looked back at her. “No, it’s just interesting to hear. Kamden Krain was a powerful Energy Gatherer. Her death shattered the Electrolite cause, most say killed it.”

  Jell rolled her eyes “Oh please, the Electrolites were just another group who thought that their genetic specialty made them superior to everyone else.

  Derjin looked back at her, lightning bolts dancing between his fingers. “You don’t think we are?”

  Jell smiled, cockeyed at him. “I’m not saying we’re not superior to the blanks.”

  The other man at the bar drew back in mock surprise and shock. “Hey! I’m standing right here.”

  They both shot him a look and he walked off laughing. “But come on. Saying that one subgroup is superior to another, no I can’t believe it, even this ability of ours,” Jell said pulling apart her middle finger and thumb to show an arc of electricity, “has its drawbacks.”

  “Good. That’s the kind of talk that can get you into trouble if people hear you say it in public. It makes people think you’re an Electrolite or something.”

  Jell gave him a wicked smile. “Well, I will say that there’s something about being with another Energy Gatherer. It is the most intense experience I’ve had my whole life,” she went on breathing in deep enough to throw out her chest, remembering the last time they’d made love.

  “You have no idea, darling. I’d rather be with an EG girl any cycle.”

  She leaned across the bar and gave him a kiss. “Good, that’s what I like to hear. Now what were you saying before about doing me right here on the bar?”

  He smiled back and pulled her across the bar towards him. “Too many eyes. Storeroom, let’s go.”

  Star System: Classified, UCSBA-13, Dorm Room 513

  As Blazer returned to his and Marda’s new room after classes, PT, and his study group, he found the call light on his console blinking. He rushed to the console and saw it had come from home. It had to be late there, nearly Midduwn. Bracing himself for an emergnecy, he slapped the answer key. Jell’s agitated face appeared and he could not hide his surprise to see her waiting for him. She’d never called him before. “Jell, what are you even doing up?”

  She waved off his question, an upset look on h
er face. “Did you hear the news?”

  What is she on about? He read the cyclic news brief every dawn and there was nothing in it that should have upset her this much. At least nothing he saw. “What news?”

  She looked back and forth to make sure that no one was listening in.

  Why is she being so secretive? The Admiral and Grandma have to be in bed by now.

  She leaned in close and answered, just above a whisper. “Kamden.”

  Blazer shot a look over his own shoulder. Marda’s schedule would bring her home from her own study soon. They had planned to have a late dinner together, but she wasn’t due for a few more pulses. “Yeah, I heard.”

  “And you weren’t going to tell me? How long ago did you find out?”

  Play it cool. Any news report would have minimal information at best, and this isn’t a secure link. “What did the report say, that you saw? I hate to tell you something you already know.”

  “I looked it up after I got home. There’s not a whole lot of info on the weave, just that it happened on some top secret Confed facility and that a medium found and sealed her.”

  Blazer read a quick report on his micomm confirming what she’d said. Most of it was just a history of Kamden’s crimes. “True. Any names listed in what you read?”

  Jell’s eyes went wide. “No!”

  “Wait, Jell, don’t say anything. This isn’t a secure link.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “I wish I was.”

  Jell went to say something then stopped. “How long was she there?”

  Blazer considered that. “Maybe you should ask the Admiral.”

  She scoffed at him. “I tried asking him earlier and he said it was all ‘need to know.’ He doesn’t even trust me enough to tell me about that little shadow of his that follows me.”

  “How long have you known about that?”

  “You knew?!”

  Blazer threw up his hands. “I only found out after the incident with Kamden. How long have you known about them?”

  She sighed. “I’ve known for a while. I’ve gotten really good at ditching them, too. Grandpa doesn’t know where I hang out anymore. They can’t follow me if I don’t want them to.”

  “Jell, they’re for your protection, in case any Electrolites are still out there and know who we are. To use us or…”

  “I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself. But how long was she there? Where has she been hiding all this time?”

  “She’s been here the whole time.”

  Jell gave him a confused look, like she’d misheard him. While the psi-comm link allowed for near instant communication across the galaxy, it still had dropouts in the audiovisual sometimes.

  “I mean she’s been here, the whole time,” he repeated, then pointed at Jell before pointing at himself and running his finger in a circle in the air around his head.

  Jell’s eyes went wide and her hair began to stand on end. “You’re kidding me,” she hissed in a low, shocked voice.

  “No. She’s been there our whole lives. It looks like you had good reason to not like having her around.”

  “And nobody knew?”

  “Don’t ask me how. She disguised her identity.”

  “So how did she get discovered?”

  “She slipped up and let a medium she was talking to know little clues about her identity. She revealed her by accident, then sealed her.”

  “Good, then I owe her a kiss next time you come to visit. Where’s the old dead critch now?”

  “No idea.”

  Jell didn’t look convinced.

  Before she could reply, he went on. “No, I’m serious. I have no idea. After she was sealed, the rest of the orbs hauled her off somewhere. That’s the last I’ve seen or heard of it.”

  “All right, well, next time you come home we have a lot to talk about, big brother.”

  “Tell me about it. Sorry we didn’t get much time to talk the last couple times I’ve been home.”

  “You were busy. Trying to nail your girlfriend, then marrying her of course. I just wish you could have met Derjin.”

  “The mystery boyfriend has a name, does he? It would have been nice to check him out. Has he even met the Admiral or Grandma yet?”

  “No, he keeps evading it. He doesn’t want to say where he works and have my shadows find me there. He respects my privacy.”

  “Good. Well, next time I come home, you’ll have to bring me to see him then. I need to make sure he’s good enough for my little sister. Tell me more about this guy. I swear I won’t tell the Admiral.”

  “You better not,” and Jell proceeded to talk to Blazer for close to a hect before Marda returned.

  Anul System, Planet Anul, Capben, Club Soren

  Long after Jell had returned home, Derjin had proceeded back into the supply room to get more bottles for his customers. The noise of the club reverberated through the shelves, nothing more than a dull thrum as he made his way to the back. Once he was sure that no one was around, he pulled out his macomm, and placed a call to his handler. “I found out about Kamden being sealed a few hects ago. How long have we known? Why was I not informed?”

  He looked at the spot where he had taken Jell, earlier. The floor still bore stains where they had knocked over several bottles and discharged into them when they climaxed, setting the liquid ablaze.

  “The girl and I are becoming more serious. We are no longer on plan. Request instruction on how to proceed.”

  He got his orders, signed off the macomm, and grabbed two fresh bottles of whiskey before heading back to the bar. As he closed the door, a spirit orb hovered out from behind the bottles. It examined the spot on the floor and twittered in excitement before racing away.

  UCSB DATE: 1001.309

  Star System: Classified, UCSBA-13, Flight Instruction Room 514

  Arion felt like he could reach out and mold the tension in the room as they waited for Grunt to arrive. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this group so nervous before. Almost all of them just sat there cradling their composite domed helmets, staring into them with mixtures of gleeful anticipation or terror.

  Sighing, he set his own on his console and found Gokhead sitting as calmly and cooly as ever. “You think you’re ready for this?”

  Gokhead nodded. “I’ve been ready for Level Five practically since we started.”

  “You’re not worried at all? I mean Level Four was intense enough, but you still felt separate from your fighter, this is a whole…”

  “It’s a whole other level. We’ll become one with our fighters. We’ll feel everything as if it was a part of us. When we go atmo, we’ll feel the wind over our wings.”

  Arion shook his head, Gokhead was far too intimate with machines for his taste. “You’d upload your brain into a synthetic intelligence in a moment wouldn’t you?”

  To Arion’s surprise, Gokhead shook his head. “No, implant my brain in a robot body, maybe. But go full on trans-sentient, no, there are too many factors that could go wrong. If I had no other choice, maybe, but not now.”

  “Room ten’hut!” one of the Nip Tails called from the back of the room, ending their conversation.

  Everyone in the room jumped to his or her feet, several helmets falling to the deck. A few reached down and retrieved their errant equipment and placed them back on their consoles. The sound of the falling domes made Grunt wince.

  He strode to the front of the room without uttering a word, his face set in an unreadable mask, the cadets staying at attention. He reached his station and set his helmet down on his seat, handling it with the same care as he would his own fresh-from-the-womb, pouch-bound infant. The room stayed at attention as he walked over to his podium and pulled out a ceramic jar.

  “At rest,” he called out.

  Everyone slackened their pose and turned to look at him.

  He held up the empty jar. “This is your skull. This is what happens to your skull without a brain bucket,” he called out, throwing the jar to
the deck.

  The jar shattered, fragments flying out across the floor. Seated in the front row, Arion winced as the shards bounced off his boots.

  Helmet held high, Grunt roared at the cadets. “Your brain bucket will save your life, if properly cared for. Do not drop it. Do not let it roll around on the deck. Your helmet can take a lot of abuse, but it’s designed to break before you do. It must be properly maintained. Now pick them up!”

  Arion heard half a dozen cadets drop to the floor and pick up their helmets before resting them on their consoles.

  “I never want to see another brain bucket on the deck, ever again. Seats.”

  Grunt replaced his helmet on his console while everyone dropped into their seats, then walked back to the podium. He looked the group over and touched a control on the podium. A chart lit up on the board behind him. The chart listed each cadet in the room along the vertical axis and along the top of the horizontal axis the five interface levels. Within the grid were markings for when each cadet achieved a specific level. All of the cadet had levels one through four dated, but none had the level five row marked in. Grunt tapped another control and the final column filled in with this cycle’s date.

  The cadets looked about the room, nodding at each other then turned back to face Grunt.

  “Some of you have been ready to make the transition to level five for several decles now, but we had to wait until everyone had caught up, and also for your fighter type announcements.”

  Arion rolled his eyes as Gokhead and several others puffed out their chests at the proclamation.

  “You’ve all mastered the first four levels of your interfaces and while the wait has been frustrating, I assure you, it was necessary. When you reached Level Four, you reached a sense of unity with your ship, but were still separate from it. Level Five takes that last step and makes you one with the craft. The line that separates you and it disappears. You become the ship,” he looked around the room.

  Arion exhaled and nodded, his nerves steady. Let’s do this.

  “There is something else, though. In Level Five you become legion. You will network with the other fighters in your squadron and will be able to feel not only your own craft, but each others’. The lines between you will blur as a result.”