“What I didn’t take into account was that, without a catalyst, I had no way of reversing the process. I could float for months or years before I burned off whatever radiation I had in me. In my theory, a properly conditioned star traveler should be aware while quantized; I was not.
“If I hadn’t been pulled into dock in the alien space port, I most likely would have drifted until I died.”
∞
Frank: “Stop right there! Alien space port! Alex, are you saying you made contact with aliens? If so, this is a serious breach!”
Alex: “No. No aliens. I didn’t lie to anyone about that.”
Frank: “Okay. Continue.”
∞
Alex: “I assure you, the spaceport—the source of the signal—was completely deserted. Everything on board was fully automated. I can only assume their sensors detected me and retrieved the escape pod. I was pulled inside a large hangar. There was a series of platforms that looked as if they were docks for ships of all sizes, but besides my pod, there were no other vessels. The hangar itself was very sparse. I couldn’t see any windows or bay doors anywhere. The walls looked like they were made from some kind of polished stone, rather than metal.
“My first thought was to open the escape pod to step out, take a look around, but my pod’s canopy was jammed. Besides, I didn’t have an EVA suit, and I didn’t know what kind of atmosphere the port had, so I had to remain where I was. There must have been a quantity of Kinemet there, because I began to feel rejuvenated, almost immediately.
“Automated arms extended from along the platform and attached themselves to the pod. At first this scared me, because I thought they were going to open the canopy, but the gauges on the pod indicated that they were merely refuelling me with oxygen and electricity.”
“Once the pod was recharged, another set of arms affixed a large object to the underside of the pod. I couldn’t tell what it was, but I have to assume it was attached with some kind of magnetic clamp. The moment the mechanical arms retracted, the pod began to move away from the dock. I had no control over the navigation systems as the pod moved towards a tube. Inside, I built up speed and was shot out from the port at what I would imagine would be the escape pod’s maximum speed.”
“The entire process from the moment I regained consciousness was less than five minutes.
“As my pod left the space port, I was once again quantized. I have to assume the object they attached was some kind of temporary portable Quantum engine. The next thing I knew, I was in orbit around Pluto, and the ground crew were trying to contact me on the radio. The portable quantum drive had been completely consumed during the flight.
“The rest you know.”
∞
Frank: “Alex, I’m not sure what to say. That’s an incredible story. Are you leaving anything out?”
Alex: “You don’t believe me?”
Frank: “Well … that’s not for me to say, but, I have to warn you that, well, pretty much everyone who reads this transcript is going to dismiss your report as wild speculation at best, and juvenile fantasy at worst. The problem, unfortunately, is that we can’t corroborate any of this.”
Alex: “I know.”
Frank: “You understand that it would be extremely difficult for people to reconcile your story with established scientific fact.”
Alex: “Yes. Sometimes the most closed-minded people are scientists.”
Frank: “Be that as it may, I don’t think the board of directors are ready for this information. As a matter of fact, I think they will dismiss it out of hand.”
Alex: “I’m sorry I don’t have any evidence for you, but I’m sure it’s there if someone wants to look, they just have to return to Alpha Centauri. The space dock is sitting there, empty and waiting.”
Frank: “That, my boy, is easier said than done. To be honest, your account raises more questions than it answers.”
Alex: “I’m sorry if I’ve upset you.”
Frank: “I’m just not sure how to present this information to the board … or if I should.”
Alex: “The world needs to take a closer look at Kinemet, and understand its relationship with human beings.”
Frank: “If your story is true, then I agree, but we need verification … All right, well, at this point, all I can do is to submit the report and get it on record. I’ll leave it to the board to decide.”
Alex: “So what happens now? I mean, to me?”
Frank: “For all intents and purposes, ‘Captain Alex Manez’ is a commissioned member of the Canadian Space Force, and will be honorably discharged. You, on the other hand, share nothing with him other than a name. Once we release you, you will be free to do as you will. I believe the current CEO of Quantum Resources, Calbert Loche, has spoken with you about a position in the R&D department on Canada Station Three?”
Alex: “Yes.”
Frank: “That sounds like a very good deal. But I want to remind you: to speak about your experiences in Centauri to anyone outside of this room will be considered a breach of contract and could be actionable in court. That would be very unpleasant for you.”
Alex: “I’m not a child. I understand.”
Frank: “I hope you do. Now, is there anything you would like to add before I submit the report and end the debriefing? Alex…? Alex…?”
Alex: “No. That’s everything.”
32
Lucis Observatory :
Venus Orbit :
It was the most unique and wonderful sensation Justine had ever experienced.
Although she was no more than a collection of photons held together by her electropathic ability, she was aware of herself and her surroundings. Alex had remarked to her that he had no recollection during the quantized state, as if he were in the midst of a deep sleep.
In her corporeal form, Justine was blind, and could only use her senses of touch, smell and sound to interact with the world; now, she had a sense of sight that was far more powerful than human vision. When she concentrated, she could zoom her consciousness in to any object—as if through a powerful microscope—and see the very particles of matter in their continuous ballet.
She could also sense the planets in their inexorable orbit around the Sun. It was as if she could feel their presence in Sol System, hear the sounds of their heavenly song.
In a more subtle manner, she could sense the alien monument on Pluto, the Dis Pater, like a dim beacon in the dark of space. Beyond that, if she strained to the limits of her ability, she could also sense an entire network of those monuments—thousands of them—spread throughout the galaxy.
Justine had a moment of consternation when she sensed another presence within Sol System. It was like a very faint flash in the distance, and it took her a minute to realize that it was another Kinemetic being: Alex!
She wondered if Alex would be able to sense her, now that she was irradiated with Kinemet.
When she focused on him, it came to her that he was incomplete. His physical form was in one location, but his consciousness was someplace else.
Alex’s essence was adrift, lost in the depths of this ghost world they inhabited. Justine pushed her senses out to search for it, but could not detect his consciousness.
It took her a moment to work through it. Alex wasn’t in a quantized state. He had spoken before about the clairvoyant ability he had, and was able to utilize when not in a quantized state. Justine assumed it was the same as what she was currently experiencing—only, when she was in the quantized state, it was an extremely powerful ability, far more than anything Alex had described. In the back of her mind, she hoped that when she returned to normal, she would retain the sight as Alex had. That would more than compensate for her blindness. But she would worry about that later.
Right now, there were three issues she needed to address. One was trying to figure out where Alex’s consciousness was.
The more immediate problem was that, as she moved her photonic essence out of the lab, she saw that the main roo
m had turned into a war zone. People were dying.
There were two casualties already, though she did not recognize their faces. She spotted Lieutenant Jeffries on his knees holding his hand to his bloodied face while Corporal Marks wrestled with Klaus’s uncle.
Four other soldiers were busy restraining two Cruzados, while Klaus seemed to be aware of Justine and was staring at her with a startled look on his face.
The third thing Justine realized was that she was burning through the Kinemetic radiation in her system at an alarming rate and would very quickly run out of fuel. Like someone suddenly experiencing a pang of hunger, she knew she would require more exposure to Kinemet if she was going to continue existing in a quantized state. And she guessed that she wouldn’t be able to help Alex if she was corporeal, nor would she be much use in the fight.
So, last thing first, she needed to refuel.
It only took a moment for her to sense where the cache of Kinemet was kept in the observatory, and though it was difficult for her to cause her photonic particles to move in tandem through physical space, she put all her concentration into the task and exited the lab in a flash.
Klaus screamed after her as she left.
∞
She tried to devise a plan while she pushed her photonic form down the hallway. In her quantized state, she had the ability to affect electrical impulses—a quick test on a nearby light proved it—and she figured that would carry over when she returned to normal, but only if she was irradiated by enough Kinemet. When Alex had been depleted, he lost both the clairvoyant and electropathic abilities, though he had retained his eidetic memory (which, she surmised, might have been a more permanent physiological aspect of the Kinemetic transformation).
Although she had only seen a dozen or so Cruzados on her journey through the hall, she knew there had to be many more of them. Even if Lieutenant Jeffries and his men were able to overcome Klaus and his uncle, they were still outmatched by the rest of the observatory’s complement of rebels.
Justine was not a trained fighter or tactician, though she had taken the basic mandatory courses in boot camp. They were outnumbered, under-equipped, and malnourished. Brute force was not the answer, but she had a thought that she might still be able to user her newfound abilities to their advantage.
She sent her vision out, tracking ethereally to where the Kinemet had been stored on the observatory’s lowest level, near the docking bay.
Though she was reduced to a mass of protons, she was still unable to pass through solid matter, and she had to take the long way. In her photonic-quantized state, it was actually more difficult for her to move her essence through normal space than if she were solid matter. All of her photons, held together either by some kind of mental force or physical attraction, were in constant motion inside that intangible bubble.
When she finally reached the end of the hall, she began to wind her way down the flights of stairs near the elevator.
Two floors down, she ran out of Kinemetic radiation, and abruptly rematerialized into her human self. She was, however, a meter and a half in the air and was still in motion.
In solid form, she arched and fell sharply to the landing in a tangle of barked shins and banged elbows. The breath knocked out of her, head ringing from impacting it on the wall, Justine lay in a stunned heap for almost a full minute, naked and vulnerable until her breathing returned to normal.
Very slowly, and with great care, she gingerly gathered her arms and legs under her and pushed herself up off the floor. Resisting the urge to vomit from the combined effect of the de-quantizing and nausea from hitting her head during the fall, Justine took a moment to steady herself by leaning against the wall.
Once the feeling returned to her hands and feet, she took a deep breath and oriented herself. There was a thin dribble of blood coming from just under her hairline. She touched the wound experimentally, and winced at the sharp resulting pain.
Now that she was corporeal, she had hoped that she would retain the ability to see beyond herself, but couldn’t because she didn’t have any of the Kinemetic radiation left in her system. She felt a sharp pain of ethereal hunger. She needed Kinemet. If this is what Alex had gone through for the past few years, no wonder he had deteriorated physiologically.
Justine would have to find her way to the stash of Kinemet from memory, and she found that, as Alex’s memory had improved, she now possessed a perfect image in her mind of the layout of Lucis Observatory.
Conscious of her nakedness, she drew one arm over her breasts and resumed her descent of the stairs barefoot, hoping against hope that none of the Cruzados had heard her crash and come to investigate.
∞
When she reached the bottom of the stairwell, she stopped at the door and leaned her head against it, trying to hear any sign of the rebels on the other side.
The resounding silence prompted her to pry the door open a crack. She paused, listening, then opened the door all the way and tiptoed down the hallway.
When she got near to the docking bay, she started to feel an electrical buzz. The hairs on her arms stood up and she felt a warm tingle go through her. The Kinemet was close.
As she moved farther down the hall, the sensation intensified, and once she arrived at what she assumed was a storage lockup, she knew the Kinemet was secured inside.
She tried the door, but it was locked. A sudden bout of panic hit her. She had come all this way only to be stopped by a door lock.
Mentally, she kicked herself. Although the Kinemet was in a different room, and most likely inside the titanium container, there was a trickle of radiation leaking out. That was how she was sensing it. All she had to do was stand there long enough to build up enough of a radiation level to regain her electropathic ability, and then she could easily pop the lock and gain entrance.
Pressing the entire length of her body up against the cold door, she stood there, allowing the Kinemetic radiation into her system. She was painfully aware of how vulnerable she was, and prayed that her luck would hold out a little while longer.
She worried that by the time she was in a position to help Lieutenant Jeffries and his men, it would be too late, but there was nothing more she could do until she had recharged.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a few minutes, she felt the flow of energy course through her veins as if she had just taken a vitamin shot. The energy level in her was akin to a drop in a bucket, but it was enough for her purpose.
A mere flicker of thought was all it took to trip the electronic lock, and she darted inside the room. The door was pneumatic, and automatically closed behind her.
A few more moments closer to the titanium container charged her with enough radiation to open the lock that stood between her and the full force of raw Kinemet.
Once it was open, the Kinemetic influence washed over her like a tidal wave. She remembered the ecstatic look on Alex’s face when he was in the presence of the rare metal, and for the first time, completely understood it.
The clairvoyant vision started to return to her in stages. At first, she had a disconnected awareness of her surroundings, and then the objects closest to her slowly resolved into discernible forms.
She figured it would take at least an hour for her to be fully irradiated; but less than a minute in, she heard the sound of a footfall in the corridor outside the room.
One of the Cruzados threw open the door. He was momentarily taken aback, glancing at her bare breasts. But then, with a roar of anger, he swung his ion pulse rifle in her direction.
Just as he fired, Justine quantized herself, and the ion stream passed right through her photonic self, doing no harm.
With a look of abject surprise, the Cruzado took a few steps inside the room and let out a curse in Spanish.
Justine floated past him and out the door before it closed. The man charged the door, but before he reached it, Justine used her ability to engage the lock, and then blocked the power to the device.
Th
e Cruzado hurled more muted curses as he tried to physically knock the door down, to no effect. He was fully locked in the room as if it were a maximum security prison cell.
This proved that Justine’s plan would work. Unable to overcome the greater force of Cruzados, she would have to take them right out of the situation. The entire observatory complex was run on electronic doors and locks, and Justine was now a master of any electric current she sensed.
As she pushed her essence back down the hall toward the stairs, she hoped she could get back to the lab before it was too late, and before she once again ran out of Kinemetic radiation.
∞
Outside of the workshop’s main door, Justine paused and extended her sight into the room.
There were several men on the floor, and the remaining five were in a standoff. On one side of the room were Klaus and his uncle, Captain Gruber, who was holding one arm limply to his side, blood soaking his shirt sleeve. They had knocked a metal lab table over and were hiding behind it. They each held a weapon. Gruber had an ion pistol in his good hand. Klaus, holding a pulse rifle, was spitting out curses at the three soldiers who blocked his escape.
Corporal Marks was dead, Justine saw. There was a trail of blood on the tiles from where Gruber had shot him to where he now lay. It looked as if he had not been killed right away, and had been pulled out of the line of fire—in vain, as it turned out.
One of the other soldiers, Private Townsend, was face down on the floor, also dead.
Justine felt a sudden pang of loss and anger. Over the past week she had become fond of all the soldiers in Jeffries’ squad.
Lieutenant Jeffries and two men—Privates Vic Genero and Tomas Hodges—were holed up behind a bank of computer servers. Between them, they only had one pulse rifle, obviously taken from one of the dead Cruzados. All three soldiers evidenced wounds and bruises, but nothing looked fatal. The situation was dire, Justine saw when Vic checked the rifle’s meter and gave Jeffries a helpless look. The rifle was void of any electrical charge.
Music of the Spheres (The Interstellar Age Book 2) Page 22