Thirteen Forgotten Worlds (Seam Wardens Book 1)

by Brant Williams

  As a ten-year-old boy, I had been quite smitten with her, and looking back, I was pretty sure she felt the same – back then, anyway.

  “I remember a lot more now,” I said.

  That seemed to surprise Alexa. “You do? Like what?”

  I grinned wickedly. “Tomato.”

  “No!” The look of pure, awkward horror on her face was priceless. “You remember that?”

  Being a redheaded girl, Alexa had always wished she were more tan. So, on a day-trip with her parents out to the Bahamas – one of the perks of growing up in a Seam Warden family – she had lied about putting on sunscreen so she could get a tan. When she had come back that night, she was bright red all over, and some of the other kids had started calling her tomato. We had both gotten into fights making sure that nickname didn't stick. If anyone did use that name for her after that, they sure didn't do it in front of either of us.

  I nodded. "I also remember that you were so curious about what happened to me. You came to visit me every day in the medical wing, and we talked for hours."

  Alexa blushed. “I know. I was kind of a pest.”

  “Not even remotely true. I really looked forward to seeing you. I hated it when they made you leave so I could get more rest. Besides, I think I asked you more questions about the Seam Wardens than you did about what happened to me.”

  The sound of a chair scraping next to me got my attention. "Hey, guys," Gabriel said and sat down next to me.

  Great. So much for that private conversation. Gabriel was a nice guy, but I really just wanted to continue my conversation with Alexa – alone.

  I caught Alexa’s eye, and I could tell that she felt the same way. We both wanted more alone time together, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

  Over the next several minutes, the rest of the cadets filed in for breakfast. Sierra sat down next to us as well, her blond hair woven into a long braid down her back.

  "Today's the big day," she said. "We get our enhancers. I've wanted these since I got here. I wonder how many each of us will be able to take?”

  "With my luck, it will be just one,” Gabriel said. “I had an uncle who couldn’t take any. He got close to the enhancers and passed out before he could even get one. That would just be too embarrassing.”

  Gabriel’s comment about his uncle gave me a sinking feeling. “Is the ability to take on multiple enhancers genetic?” I asked.

  “How do you mean?” asked Alexa.

  “If you have parents who both took on multiple enhancers, are you more likely to be able to take on multiple enhancers?” I asked. I had a sinking feeling that would be the case, and for someone like me who had no Seam Warden family, that would mean I would likely get a single one – or worse, be like Gabriel’s uncle and pass out before I could get even one.

  “I don’t know that they’ve done any scientific studies, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work that way,” said Alexa. "I know that at least one of the people who has three enhancers was the only Seam Warden in his family.”

  I gave Alexa a grateful smile. That was exactly the reassurance I needed.

  “What happens if a Seam Warden takes more enhancers than they should?” I asked. “Will it kill you? Reid and Abby kind of glossed over that part.”

  Alexa shook her head. “Yeah, I noticed that, too,” she said. “It won’t kill you flat out, but it will drive you insane.” We all stopped talking and looked at her. “It doesn’t act the same way on Seam Wardens as it does on normals. You don’t lose the ability to sleep or things like that. It’s… more subtle than that. It basically makes you evil,” she said.

  “Evil?”

  "Evil is probably not the right word for it, but it does come close to explaining what happens. In reality, it lowers your inhibitions and your ability to feel empathy,” she said. “Things you would never think are okay to do suddenly become reasonable options. And I’m not talking about minor things either. I’m talking about torture, murder, killing puppies. Stuff like that.”

  That was enough to make you pause on the day you would be ingesting the very things that can cause that issue.

  “How do we know this? Has this happened to anyone before?” I asked.

  “Only once that I know of,” said Gabriel.

  Alexa nodded. “Marcus Booking. He was a first responder who got injured on a mission. He was attacked by an Edelgrim, and it did a number on him. The Edelgrim slashed up half his face and part of his neck, as well as severing his spine in four separate places. He had two enhancers which kept him from dying, but they couldn’t fix all the damage. He was left with a lot of scarring and was paralyzed from the waist down. He felt betrayed that his enhancers and the other Seam Warden technology couldn’t make him whole again.

  “He went to Delphi without permission to get an answer for how he could restore his legs.”

  We had learned about Delphi in our lessons. Delphi was named after the ancient shrine at Delphi where the Oracle would answer petitioner's questions.

  This world was strange, even by Seam Warden standards. It was a world that not even Seam Wardens could remember. When people went in with a question, they often came out with an answer very clearly articulated in their mind, but with no recollection of how they got the answer or any memory of what they observed in that world.

  Recording devices couldn’t pick up anything but blackness in that world, but clearly there was someone or something in the world of Delphi that wanted to remain a mystery.

  Alexa continued telling the story. “When Marcus came out of Delphi, he had his answer: Taking four more enhancers would allow him to walk again. He requested additional enhancers from the monks of Uchima, but they told him it was too dangerous. So, he stole the enhancers and took them anyway. Whatever it is in Delphi that answers questions is never wrong. It did tell the truth – taking extra, unauthorized enhancers did fix his legs, but it also changed him.

  “He lost access to many of his emotions – including the ability to be compassionate or care about others. He received great speed and strength, and his powers of cognitive thinking were increased, but as a result, he lost any filter of right and wrong. It pretty much turned him into a sociopath.

  "After the Seam Wardens had discovered what he had done, he refused to release the other enhancers, so he was sentenced to Rund.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  Alexa shuddered. “It’s a high-security prison where they lock up dangerous criminals or creatures that can't be killed. It's another piece of technology we got from Parse. It was supposed to be inescapable, but after several years in there, he managed to use his understanding of Seam Warden protocol to trick an unsuspecting guard into accidentally letting him out. To this day, he is the only one who has ever escaped.”

  “Did they ever catch him?” I asked.

  “No. He’s still out there. He knows so much about our methods and capabilities that he has managed to keep from getting captured. He’s been dealing in all sorts of illegal things. He’s like the Seam Warden equivalent of the mob.”

  “Classy. So, the moral of that particularly uplifting story is that we shouldn’t take more than the recommended number of enhancers?” I asked.

  Alexa rolled her eyes. “I guess it depends on if you want to be a sociopath.”

  After breakfast, we assembled outside the entrance to the Seams. The Seams themselves were clustered together in what was essentially a giant bunker. The Seams were technically above ground, but the bunker had been built around it with ten-foot-thick concrete walls reinforced with iron. Apparently, the mythology about iron hurting magical creatures had at least some basis in fact.

  There was no outside entrance to the bunker, and the only way in or out was through the large metal door that connected the Seams to the Seam Warden's Headquarters. The massive metal door that served as the entrance was about as imposing as they got. It was twenty feet high and at least that wide. It had to be strong since it was the only physica
l way in or out of the actual Seams themselves and was designed as a failsafe in case anything nasty came through.

  All the cadets were present and accounted for, and Reid, Abby, and Elias accompanied us. We milled about talking excitedly to one another, the energy around us practically tangible. This was something that all kids born into the Seam Wardens looked forward to their whole lives. Those of us who stumbled into this world later in life may not have been waiting as long, but we were just as excited to get what were essentially super powers.

  After a few minutes of waiting, the huge metal door opened. It took a several maddeningly slow minutes to do so. Once the way was clear, we filed into the Seams. I tried to stick with Alexa as best I could, and surprisingly she seemed to be doing the same thing. It had felt good to talk with her again. I felt like I had reunited with an old friend.

  But it was more than that. I was starting to feel some of the same feelings that I felt for her back when I was ten. As more memories came back, I realized what a huge crush I had had on her then. And since in the intervening years she had become way hotter and even more awesomely dangerous than ever, it was no wonder I was starting to fall for her.

  I had gotten a glimpse of the Seams when Reid came through here with his second skin, but seeing it in person was a completely different feeling. There was a sense of scale that I hadn't understood when watching it in the observation room.

  Three heavily-armed Seam Wardens greeted us as we walked into the bunker. They each carried a set of Boom Sticks and large rifles that had the word OPEN engraved on the stock. I had heard about these guns but had never seen one in person. OPEN was an acronym that stood for Organic Penetrating Exothermic Nanites. The OPEN gun shoots a projectile that can penetrate almost any organic matter, no matter the density or hardness. The projectile senses when it is about to encounter dense organic material, and right before impact, it blinks out of phase with our dimension and then comes back a tenth of a second later. This allows it to penetrate any shell or thick hide that would normally protect a creature. It is the Seam Wardens' weapon of choice when dealing with large and dangerous monsters.

  The three guards saluted Elias, Abby, and Reid.

  “Enhancement day?” one of them asked.

  Elias nodded. “What gave it away?”

  The guards laughed and motioned for us to follow them.

  The inside of the bunker was essentially a long tunnel about fifty feet wide with a rounded ceiling over a hundred feet high. The walls were plain and unadorned concrete, with a few signs and notices on metal plates that were attached to the concrete walls with large screws.

  The first thing we passed was the storage and charging units for the second skins. The Seam Wardens kept them inside the sealed bunker so they were close to the Seams and could be easily accessed in case something got into the bunker that needed eliminating. That had never happened since the Seams had been sealed, but I was glad someone was thinking about contingency plans.

  Seeing them in person, I realized just how huge the second skins actually were. Each of the second skins was at least ten feet tall and as wide as an SUV. I hadn’t realized they were quite this large. It made me realize just how massive the Gorasaur that chased Reid had been.

  We continued walking down the corridor and passed several wall racks filled with various emergency equipment – weapons, gas masks, and helmets. Apparently, they had run into some problems before and wanted to make sure anyone here was well armed.

  I just hoped the creatures that came through weren’t intelligent enough to use the weapons against the Seam Wardens.

  Next, we started passing the actual Seams themselves. I had only seen one before when Reid came here using a second skin. The movement of the second skin had made me lose my balance, and I hadn’t been able to pay enough attention to the details of what was around me.

  We passed the first seam, and I mentally recalled the name of it – Parse. This was the world where all this technology came from. The seam itself was not huge and ragged like Primor had been. This seam was a perfect circle about ten feet in diameter. It looked like it had been traced with a compass and then cut out of reality with precision. Like all the Seams, you could see just a bit of motion and some color inside, but not much more. In front of the seam was the Electromagnetic Repulsive Field – ERF. I wondered how effective it was on beings from Parse since they were the ones that sold us the technology. It would make sense that they would have a way of circumventing it if they wanted to.

  The second seam was Marodan. The entire world is – as far as we can tell – completely undersea. The creatures there are at our same level of intelligence. However, since they are non-humanoid and need water to live, they don’t fit into our human world very well, and mostly just keep to themselves, although there is reportedly a fair number of them exploring our oceans.

  The third world we passed was Dulon. It is mountainous and dry – practically a desert. There are sentient creatures there that we can communicate with called Haddrick. They typically dress in loose, white robes and look mostly human – if you don’t look too closely – but with some essential differences. Their features tend to give them a distinct boar-like appearance. It isn't enough to make the average person question if they are human, but many of them keep their faces covered as a precaution when they are in our world.

  However, when they get angry or frightened, they grow long tusks and bone ridges form on their head. The ridges have the dual purpose of both protecting them and allowing them to use their head as a weapon to ram others.

  The Haddrick have sent many of their youth to our world to learn our ways and have multiple established colonies on earth. Some have even trained as Seam Wardens.

  Kevin spit on the ERF covering the seam to Dulon. I remembered that his mom had been killed while on duty by one of them.

  Next was Morlis. As far as we know, this is a world without life. It had been populated once, but no life forms larger than a single microbe appear to be left. It is as if the entire population was completely removed. There are no bodies to examine, no pictures to look at, or any record of what these beings physically looked like. Everything we know about this world has been gleaned from speculation and the objects they left behind.

  Once we passed Morlis, we came to Primor. This was the one world that I had been in – sort of. I still had vivid flashbacks of the enormous Gorasaur slicing open its head on the immovable barrier that covered the portal.

  Next was the Void. This is a world of absolute blackness. There is a flat and solid ground, but nothing else. The Seam Wardens have sent in second skins to explore, and after hundreds of miles, have never found anything other than an endless expanse of solid ground.

  After Void was Dasadora. In a lot of ways, this world is similar to Primor. It is covered by a primitive, lush, jungle. Dasadora doesn’t have the large predators that Primor does, but it is home to many smaller and highly intelligent creatures. In a lot of ways, this world is more dangerous than Primor because the inhabitants there work together and learn from what we do. We know they are intelligent, but even with the sophisticated translation equipment we have acquired from Parse, we still can’t communicate with any of their inhabitants. All we can understand are basic emotions like hunger, fear, and anger.

  A few dozen feet later we came to the world known simply as Beautiful Death. They no longer let anyone into this world. The entire world appears to be a trap to lure in prey. If you go there, you will see whatever it is you desire. Anyone who attempts to chase after their heart’s desire gets lured farther and farther into the world. Once you are far enough in, what you are chasing disappears and you are left alone facing a beast so horrific that the Seam Wardens determined it was better to simply stay out of the world than try to kill it. It is the same concept as the angler fish in the deep ocean – lure them in with something desirable and then kill them when they get close enough to attack.

  So, yeah, we were all more than happy to keep out of that
world.

  The next world whose entrance we passed was Delphi. This was the world Marcus Booking went into and received his answer about enhancers healing his legs.

  It seemed like the ability to have questions answered would make this a popular world. Why wouldn’t Seam Wardens go in there and get all our questions answered all the time? Well, Marcus Booking was far from the only person to come out and have their answer turn out to be a mixed blessing at best. People who come out with answers seem to have a disproportionately high rate of horrible things happen to them in the following weeks after getting an answer. Even the most scientific of the Seam Wardens have seen this pattern and correlated it to such a high degree that they have to admit something they can’t fully explain is happening.

  Which means everyone now believes Delphi is either cursed or some scientific phenomenon is happening that is indistinguishable from being cursed. This has resulted in only those who are most desperate for an answer daring to go there.

  The tenth world we passed was Maldabard. It's a world not unlike our own in many ways – climate, vegetation, animal life, etc. But in this world, almost all the creatures have multiple forms. Stoki, Bryling, and most of the other humanoid were-creatures come from this world. The majority of them are of human-level intelligence and can pass for humans when they choose to. Many of these creatures have ancestors that migrated here hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. Those settlements that had been established before the Seam Wardens were founded had been given the opportunity to form sanctioned colonies in exchange for promises to leave humans alone and provide specific services stipulated in a set of agreements called the Inclusion Accords.

  We had already been assigned to read the entire Inclusion Accords, but at some point in our training, we were going to have to memorize key aspects so we can know what behaviors are and are not allowed – like what Spencer and Tamara had done with that Stoki we ran into at the Thai restaurant.

  The next world was fondly referred to by the Seam Wardens simply as Hell. The pictures they showed us of the beings in this world were truly terrifying. This world is engulfed in eternal flames, and populated with what I would best describe as demons. Our popular conception of demons and devils probably came from partial memories of these creatures roaming the earth and destroying everything in their paths before the Seams had been sealed up.