by Hanna, K. T.
“What is?”
“The core. The thing I taught her to use is trying to feed off her.” The feeling in the pit of Sai’s stomach must be revulsion. Loathing at the knowledge she introduced that thing to her friend and to so many others. But she can’t think about the others yet. Can’t think about any of them.
“Feed off her?” Dom’s tone sounds dubious, and he stands up to stretch out his limbs.
“It’s trying to—”
“Lure her into its center and keep her there, feeding off her until they both burn out.” Jeffries stands at the door, looking tired. “You’re right. I just got the tests back. If the chemical readings are anything to go by, she’s been overusing her power. Even though Mason said she hadn’t released it before collapsing.”
He glances up from the readings in his hand. “I think these are telling me what happens when the core is used.”
“I’m killing us?” Sai can’t push her tired brain past the fact she’s led everyone she’s ever known to their doom. Why can’t she stop the killing? All she ever does is kill people.
“You’re not killing us.” Jeffries shakes his head as he gently pushes her back down onto the bed. “Stop stressing. It’s not going to help your head any. And it’s definitely not going to do me any good either. It’s not easy dealing with one of you, let alone all three of you.”
He moves to the other side of the room before coming back and placing a compress on her head. It’s a small pack he puts at each temple. “That should reduce the concussion. I didn’t have them charged before. It’s been a bit hectic in here as of late.”
Sai tries to protest and sits up again, checking herself and the strands of her power.
“If you don’t lie down voluntarily, I will have you strapped down, Sai. I really don’t have the time or the patience for this sort of self-involved behavior. So cut it out.”
She blinks and nods.
“Good. You aren’t killing them. Nothing but old age is currently guaranteed to kill them. But what it seems the core is guaranteed to do is to lull you into a different state of mind.” He pinches his brow for a moment before continuing. “This core you discovered is indeed the root or the source of our abilities. For some people, it is a huge pool of gleaming white power. For others, it’s just a tiny marble, a trickle of what you or Bastian or Aishke would have. With me so far?”
“Yes,” Sai answers, her voice small.
“It seems the more you tap into this core of power, the more you use it, the less you will be able to resist doing so. It’s like a drug that’ll permeate your system and eventually try to take it over. In a sense, every time you use the ability, it’s giving yourself a chance to be taken over by it.”
“Sort of like leaving our consciousness there. Like we’d be in a catatonic state until it bleeds us dry?” Sai looks up at him, the question in her eyes.
“Exactly.” He leans against the bed, an odd eagerness in his eyes. “Now, how did you figure that out?”
“I saw her, huddled in this tiny space, trying to break out of the confinement. All the while, the shining light around her just wanted to keep her—and me, too. It even tried to reach out to me, lulling me into a false sense of belonging. It was odd and scary and made me burst the bubble too fast and rebound the way I did.” Sai can hear the panic in her own voice and takes a deep breath. “What does this mean?” It’s hard for her to put the vulnerability out there, but if she doesn’t know—if she can’t use her abilities to their utmost without endangering people or at least knowing what potential consequences could be—then she’s more of a detriment than a help.
“Don’t give into it. It’s that easy. Do not use your core unless you have to. Don’t let it become the easy way out. Don’t listen to it and tap into it just because you can. Use it only when you have a dire need and a guaranteed will to escape—that will get you back out. You may have pulled Aishke from its maws today, but I can’t guarantee that, at this point in time, anyone else will be able to accomplish what you did.”
“Use the ability only when absolutely necessary or suffer potential consequences.” Sai closes her eyes. Got it. She should have known the core was too good to be true.
“Not even to practice, Sai.”
“Understood.” She sighs before continuing. “When do we get her out?”
“I’ll send you back in, with heavier monitoring, once you’ve had some rest. She’s almost in the clear, I think, but it’s still tapped into her somehow, like a trickle.”
Sai watches the shallow rise and fall of her friend’s chest and tries to belay the panic that rises within. She nods slowly, digesting Jeffries words, and wonders if maybe Aishke’s core has been leeching at her this whole time. After all, she was blasted awake.
He squints over at Aishke and back at Sai. “Get some rest. We’ll wake you in a few hours and try it then. But you’ll need to be careful because I can’t let you do this unless you’re alert enough to.”
“Sleep, heal, and recharge. Got it.” Sai closes her eyes after one last look at Aishke. There is no way she’s letting another friend die because of her. Not ever again.
Dom leaves Sai in the infirmary once she’s finally finished helping Aishke, and heads to see Mathur. The last time they worked on the pulse device, he fried a kernel. Dom has to see it and make sure the plan they have is still viable. He’s starting to get those weird feelings Sai always talks about.
Dael, Evan, and Joe are puttering around the laboratory when Dom walks in. Each of the dominos nod at him, but only Dael approaches him.
“How are the implants?” they ask, genuine concern on their face. “We heard you were repaired by Garr?”
“She did a great job. The additional adrium has almost fully integrated with my original body. I barely notice the difference between them now. Almost back to myself.” They don’t need to know his reservations or his fears. Neither do they need to know his wariness of everything around him now.
“You had us worried. We didn’t realize we could get injured.” Dael watches him for a moment. “Did you really take on thirty attackers?
“It’s a bit of a blur.” A bloody blur of a strange need for carnage he still isn’t quite sure how to express. “And it was probably closer to forty myself. Why?”
“That’s impressive. That much coordination, that much control. I’m not sure I’d be able to do that and come back to myself.” Dael reaches forward and pats him on the shoulder in an awkward gesture of camaraderie.
Dom pauses. “What do you mean? Not sure you’d be able to do what?”
Dael blinks. “Give control over to the adrium.” They look confused now.
“How do you know that? I mean…” Dom stops and tries to rephrase it. “Giving control over—you sound like you’ve done it before.”
“Twice.” Dael shrugs. “The parasite can be tempered by our humanity and the humanity is strengthened by its will to survive, but it can be reckless. That you came back from so much…is admirable.” This time they smile and Dom nods.
“I didn’t think of it that way.”
“None of us did before…” Dael gestures around them. “Before this became our home. We’re still finding out who and what we are. Thank you for guiding us.” They incline their head and head back to their workstation.
Dom walks over to Mathur. “Hey,” is all he says, mind still on the conversation with Dael.
Mathur doesn’t even glance up from his work, but raises an eyebrow and responds in kind. “Hey.”
Dom glances around the lab and frowns. “How goes the device? Any more hiccups?
Mathur’s hands hesitate, and he blinks rapidly a few times before shaking his head.
A few moments of silence lapse, and Dom tries to change the subject slightly. “Close to finished yet?”
“Almost.” Mathur smiles this time. “It has been a lot easier to work on with Dael, Evan, and Joe here. These old fingers are not quite as nimble as they used to be.” The smile crinkles the lin
es around his eyes, making Dom realize the man is far older than he acts or than Dom remembered. That the Exiled are relying on him so much, placing so much pressure on the man…doesn’t sit well.
He pats Mathur on the shoulder. “You should rest up some. Is there anything I can do to help you?”
The man doesn’t look up when he answers. “Heal yourself.”
Dom tries again. “Not everything rests in your hands, you know. We’ve got a pretty good idea of how to handle this.”
This time Mathur smiles at him.
Mason sticks his head around the doorframe. “You got a moment? We need to convene for a bit.”
“Without Sai?” Dom asks, an eyebrow raised in question. It’s strange how he can still feel mimicked expressions.
“She’s still asleep and needs it. Ash is…” Mason looks away, but not in time to hide the wetness in his eyes. “Ash is recovering slowly.”
Dom leans back, crossing his arms. “What happened, Mason?”
Mason’s shoulders sag, and he enters the room, limping slightly on his left leg. “She took point because of how much she’s trained and how much I think she wanted to prove that Sai doesn’t need to do everything. There were two patrols left behind. We took out the first without using any core abilities, but something went wrong with the second. The power she gained was huge—a pull from myself and Darrien—but a child ran out from the rubble just as she was releasing.”
He takes a breath and looks down. “She pulled part of the release back into herself and screamed. Still managed to disable most of the patrol so it was easy to put them down with minimal effort, but when we were done and the child was safe, Ash was huddled on the ground, shaking and staring at nothing. After about an hour she just went still, breathing shallow. I thought we’d lost her.”
Dom glances through the door at the deserted hallway. He isn’t sure how he’d handle that happening in front of him, especially if it was Sai. “You didn’t. Sai and Jeffries managed to disconnect her core completely. You’re not too well yourself.”
Mason smiles, but it sags against his face like his skin doesn’t quite fit anymore. “I’m well enough to do what needs done.”
Jeffries’ entry into the room cuts Dom’s retort off. The man perches himself on one of the tall lab stools.
Finally, Garr enters and Dael closes the door behind them—a strange sound of finality.
Mason clears his throat. “We pulled some of you out of bed—” His gaze falls directly on Kayde, who has the good grace to blush while she yawns. “—and the rest of you out of your work because we’ve had some disturbing news.”
Jeffries stands up and clears his throat. He glances down at the reader in his hand.
“As you all know by now, we had an incident during the scouting mission we just returned from. We’ve only just been able to determine that, while attempting to assist in the destruction of one of the Damascus patrols left behind at the destruction of Mobile Phi, Aishke pulled some of the power back in on herself and injured her channels to such an extent she sought refuge in her core. This resulted in her entering a comatose-like state.
“To cut a long story short, if you or anyone under you is utilizing this core, you need to start being very careful. It’s not something that should be played with or practiced with. If you can access it, you can access it. But too much of it…seems addictive.” He shakes his head.
James frowns. “Darrien?”
“Darrien is fine. I checked him over, but it’s like a drug, James. Any of your troops who’ve been exposed to its usage, anyone who has accessed it even for a short period of time, will be subject to its pull.”
“It makes sense.” Kayde murmurs the words, and Dom snaps a glance at her. She’s nodding slowly, squiggling some strange calculations on the tablet in front of her. Her brow is scrunched, and there’s a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. But it’s not happiness…
It’s excitement. He can sense it.
“What do you mean, it makes sense?” Mathur moves closer, his eyes scanning whatever formula Kayde is fiddling with.
She holds up her right hand, still scribbling away. Her strokes become smaller, more definite. “That has to be it.”
She stands up, oblivious to the glares leveled in her direction. Dom leans forward, half-scared and half-eager to hear what it is she’s about to say.
“Psionics didn’t enter our systems until after the meteors hit.” She shakes her head, frowning slightly at the words. “Psionics only started occurring after the meteors hit, right?”
Mathur nods, as does Jeffries and Mason. Everyone’s eyes are on her, and a slight blush suffuses her cheeks as she continues. “And it was after the onset that we realized that psionics had become a gradual modification to the genome.”
Jeffries smacks his hand on the table in front of him and blushes before motioning for Kayde to continue.
She grins, her eyes sparkling, and for a moment Dom doesn’t resent her. There is no jealousy.
“As the modifications multiplied, creating the psionic gene and the dormant genes, we’ve had a gradual increase in psionics born. Many of these have been…tapped out by the GNW.” Her mouth twists in distaste. “But what we’ve overlooked this whole time, even almost a century after they landed... is that the metal inside was alien, and therefore whatever it sent into our atmosphere that gradually adjusted our species’ makeup…was alien, too.”
Mason is pale, and his breathing rasps throughout the room.
James speaks softly, a tremor around the edges of his voice. “You mean to say…the meteors are what caused the psionic gene?”
Kayde grimaces. “Sort of. The meteors housed adrium, along with its parasite. When they entered the airstream—much as I’m doing with Ebony—there are certain conditions that enabled them to sync with some of us. It has to be it.”
Dom takes a step back, horrified. In her eagerness, has she even realized what it is she’s saying? Doesn’t she understand? “You all have it, too.”
Kayde nods, and the shine to her eyes disappears as her jaw sets. “Every single one of us with a psionic ability has an active parasite inside us. Just a small one that tugs on our life force, feeds off our electricity, and if it can get us in the right place, it’ll feed until there’s nothing left. Like the GNW does, but inside us.”
The room falls silent. Dom scans each person. Dael’s eyes are shooting through a rainbow of colors, but skipping red. Joe and Evan aren’t moving either. Mason takes two steps and collapses heavily into one of the smaller chairs. He seems frail, defeated almost.
“If we use it too much, it drains our life force until all that’s left is a husk.” Jeffries’ tone reflects a sadness that’s almost tangible.
“Wait.” Mathur holds up a hand. “I have used much of my psionic abilities. I have never used my core, and I am not draining.”
“You’ve probably got enough latent power that it doesn’t need to feed you more. I don’t know the exact science. I only just came up with this calculation. I need more time to study it, but the theory…” Kayde shrugs. “That’s solid.
“What do we do?” Mason coughs, and it’s rasping and sickly. Dom watches him, suddenly acutely aware that Bastian’s brother isn’t just worn out. He’s using too much of his own life force to generate his psionic abilities.
Jeffries shrugs. “You don’t give into the pull. That’s all we can do.”
“It’s easy for you to say.” Mason’s grin is crooked, and his eyes appear haunted. “You don’t have a ton of defenses triggered to your imprint.”
“Reassign them.” Dom steps forward. “I can take them. Dael can…we can help.”
Mason nods. “I didn’t realize it was consuming me. I thought I was just worn out.”
Dom doesn’t want to harp on the fact that the man looks like a walking corpse.
“So there’s no cure?” James face is flushed with annoyance now.
“If you get caught up in it, there is no cure.
Just a way for Sai to ‘disentangle’ you.” Jeffries pauses for a moment. “Sai may not always be available, though. I’d rather she use her abilities less than usual for now. I’m not sure how much of her power is human to begin with.”
“To be fair, Jeffries,” Dom pipes up, even though his mind is racing with the new development. “She’s only out of it right now because the force sent her flying back into the floor. If she didn’t have the concussion, she’d be fine.”
Jeffries smiles back, but Dom can tell it’s with effort. “True. Still, she’s not a one-stop-fix-everything shop. People need to take responsibility for their own actions and just limit the contact they have with their core and the amount they give into the lull for power.”
“But is it just the core?” Kayde’s voice is soft, but Dom knows the whole room heard her. The collective gasp is indication enough.
She blinks up from her screen and winces. “Sorry. Thinking out loud.”
“What do you mean?” Mathur ventures, running a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair.
Kayde hesitates, but squares her jaw. “While it could be the abilities as a whole, there’s a chance it emanates from a central position. In this case, the core. I’m not completely certain of any of this. I mean…”
She flickers through several screens, a frown on her face, muttering, “I don’t know why no one stumbled on this before…”
Jeffries sits down. “They never looked for correlation before. It was always about controlling it, not understanding it.”
Mason clears his throat and speaks up. “Hopefully Sai can answer some questions for us when she’s recovered.”
“Why her?” Even Dom can hear the irritation in his voice.
“Because both she and Bastian have been willing to push their abilities, to figure them out more than anyone I’ve seen before.” Kayde’s eyes glow this time, her excitement obvious. “How long will she be out for?”
“She’ll be fine by tomorrow. She’s healing herself regardless of what I say anyway.” Jeffries leans back in his own chair, but there’s no smile. The room’s mood has lowered to somber.