by S Breaker
Once they were in position, Noah turned to Laney. “Good to go?” he prompted, his eyebrows raised.
Laney took a deep breath.
It was the first time that she was going to make a quantum jump without Eleanor’s interdimensional insulation. She wasn’t sure what to expect.
Going Home
Laney felt as though she had been spewed out of the quantum shear.
She tumbled on the floor, rolling to one side. “Holy—OW!” she groaned out a curse, squeezing her stinging eyes shut as she curled up, coughing.
Then she heard a familiar chuckle.
“Welcome back.”
Laney was still grimacing as she looked up to meet Maia’s sunny gaze.
Behind Maia, she could see the wavy sparkles of blue light reflected against the interior of the large metal capsule of Berry’s submarine that Laney thought she’d never see again.
She almost sighed in relief.
But first, she cast a glance to her side where Noah was collapsed on his knees, recovering himself.
“Jeez, Noah!” she exclaimed her complaint. “How the hell have you done that so many times?” she gasped, still trying to catch her breath. She didn’t want to move at all. “I feel like I’ve been thrashed, skinned, burned alive, and squashed all at the same time.”
Berry chuckled next. “Aaand welcome to the club.” He moved to the control panel to push some more buttons.
Noah cleared his throat. “Why couldn’t it have been that easy?”
“You call that easy?” Laney’s face was in stark disbelief.
“It could have been!” Berry insisted. “If we’d had time to wait for the first traversal path to complete, it would have been a cakewalk. But the way I see it, you had luck on your side. As you’ve already seen, some worlds do tend to change unexpectedly.”
“Where are we now?” Noah straightened up to look over Berry’s shoulder at the navigation console.
“We’re on the way back to Wellington now,” Berry replied, referring to a little radar map. “We’d been waiting at a waypoint off the coast of Northland.”
Laney let Maia help her up and she put her arms around her. “I’m so glad to see you. Did you have any trouble with The Alliance?”
Maia shook her head. “Fortunately, the University got away with only minor damages. The attacks were mostly concentrated in the docks and the government buildings. Your typical sort of anarchy.”
Laney threw up her hands. “Oh, that’s just great. I broke your world even more. Maia, I just broke your freaking world.”
“Look, Laney,” Maia began. “You didn’t cause any of this. Whatever unrest happened, the problems have always been there, hiding in plain sight, bubbling beneath the surface trying to get out before you even arrived.”
“Yeah, but I was the catalyst.” She pressed her hands to her face in frustration. “Your President warned me about this. I guess I’ve done exactly what they were afraid I’d do.”
“From what I’ve heard, The Alliance is calling for more transparency in the government, more specifically in terms of potentially world-altering GNR programs—the good and the bad,” she relayed. “They’ve gathered a lot of support. If you ask me, maybe The Community finally wants to live in the real world.” She braced her hands on Laney’s shoulders and nodded. “This is a positive change.”
Laney shot her a grateful look, unable to help a chuckle. “Of course you would think so.”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Berry cut in with a sheepish look. “But we’re going to have to do this right away. Before anything else happens,” he added meaningfully.
Laney nodded in understanding.
“One more jump to go.” Berry paused, giving her a ceremonious look. “The last one.”
Laney’s heart was pounding in her chest in anticipation. She turned to give Maia another hug. “Thanks. For all your help.”
“I’m just glad I can say a proper goodbye this time,” Maia told her.
“Here.” Berry handed Noah a fresh new memory serum syringe.
Laney eyed the syringe, pursing her lips almost in reluctance. She looked away as Noah put it in his pocket and she took a moment to look around the steel and brass compartment of the submarine, and then at each of her friends as though hoping to brand their memories in her brain, even as she knew they were about to be wiped. Because she also knew, deep down, even if she forgot absolutely everything, she would never be the same again.
Berry met her gaze and gave her a mock salute. “It was a pleasure serving with you, Miss Carter.”
“Thanks, Berry.” She smiled at him. “You’re brilliant. Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.”
Noah was already waiting on the platform when Laney stepped back onto it. He leaned toward her the slightest fraction of an inch to vow under his breath.
“Not one minute.”
She beamed, her chest feeling full, and when she looked up at him, the expression in his eyes mirrored her own. She averted her gaze after a beat then she wrinkled her nose in consideration. “You know, ‘relativity’ is a stupid code word.”
Noah rolled his eyes, exasperated. “Then you should have come up with one, if you’re such a genius.”
Berry was chuckling again as he gave the big red button a firm whack with his fist.
The swirling vortex of doom crackled as Laney and Noah stepped through it, just before it dissipated, leaving no trace, as if nothing was ever there at all.
Berry straightened up, clapping the proverbial dust off his hands as he stepped back from the console. “Those two,” he remarked with an amused shake of his head.
Maia smirked before musing up to Berry, “Do you think yours will feel like that?”
“What?”
“Your primary.”
He shrugged after a moment. “I hope so. Maybe with a little less antagonism.”
Maia laughed. “Not me. I hope mine is exactly like that. With the fighting and the antagonism. How do you know it’s real otherwise?” she quipped.
Berry laughed.
After another two minutes, everything in the lab turned a reddish hue as a quantum shear formed again for Noah’s return.
Berry watched expectantly, but his jaw dropped when he saw who actually emerged from the shear.
Maia’s eyes nearly popped out. “Laney? What the hell?”
Noah stepped off the platform.
With Laney. Again.
She fell to her knees on the platform, coughing.
“What happened?” Berry looked bewildered, eagerly waiting for answers, even as he watched Noah recover for a minute first.
Noah tried to catch his breath. “It didn’t work.”
“No kidding.” Berry rushed to his toolbox to grab some things.
“The memory serum,” Noah relayed. “It didn’t work like last time. I gave her the shot but she could still remember everything.”
“It didn’t work?” Maia pressed, turning to Laney in incredulous disbelief. “What the hell, Laney? Does nothing normal work on you?”
Laney glared up at her, sounding highly annoyed. “I didn’t do anything. It’s not my fault!”
“I don’t understand how you even got her back through the shear again,” Berry said as he approached Laney to take some new readings. “It’s a miracle she’s not dead.”
“Well, I wasn’t about to leave her there like that.” Noah’s tone was sharp.
Maia’s eyes were wide with concern. “Also let’s not try that again, just in case?” she suggested pointedly.
Berry was frowning over his tools, shaking his head. “She must have built an immunity to the memory serum,” he posited. “We won’t be able to give her another memory wipe.” He shook his head, meeting Laney’s gaze. “When The Alliance tried to fix you in that machine last week, it must have affected your ability to absorb these specific proteins. Or your exposure to the supernova has somehow altered your absorption rate.”
“Oh, that is just great!”
>
“Can you make a new serum?” Noah looked up at Maia.
Maia’s lips were curled in uncertainty. “I’d have to work from scratch to reformulate a new one. It took me years to synthesize the first one.”
“Years?” Laney echoed with a desolate groan. “Ugh, I need some air,” she mumbled, straightening up.
Berry’s eyes lit up. He clicked on his walkie-talkie. “Sammo, surface!”
***
Noah climbed out of the hatch to see Laney standing by the railing on the exterior platform, looking out toward the city.
The submarine had come to the surface halfway into the Wellington harbor, except the city looked barely recognizable.
There were no airships in the sky. Part of the old-fashioned brick building of the airship terminal had crumbled. Several buildings along the waterfront were either collapsed altogether or had visible signs of significant fire damage. There were still traces of black smoke wafting up from what looked like several pockets throughout town from the unrest that had taken place.
It was a pretty gloomy sight at first light.
Noah stood beside Laney, silently, if only to share in the grim view.
The hatch opened again and Berry popped out. “Maia says she’ll get to work on the serum as soon as she gets back to her lab,” he announced. “But in the meantime, she’s making celebratory waffles. I think she’s pretty happy you’re staying,” he added with a wry tone.
Laney scoffed, only slightly amused. Staying? She looked out at the devastation in a bit of disbelief. Even with the threats of the interdimensional windows closing, her homeworld resetting, and all the confusion about Noah, it had to be the memory serum that inevitably threw a spanner in the works.
Berry walked over to stand at Laney’s other side and he leaned forward, his expression guarded. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Am I?” she quipped.
Berry shrugged. “Well…the tracking solution is gone,” he reminded her. “The Bleed is over. You’re free.”
“But I’m still stuck here.”
He made a face. “Don’t think of it as being stuck. Think of it as a…prolonged hiatus,” he suggested.
“Prolonged hiatus,” she repeated in mocking. She knew that if there was even a small chance her homeworld hadn’t reset yet, the odds were that it certainly will have by the time Maia got a new serum developed. It was likely this would indeed be a very prolonged hiatus. Then again, Berry did say that she could survive on a world as long as there was no threat from one organization in particular.
“What about The Alliance? They’ve finally come out of hiding,” Laney mentioned.
“Which is a good thing,” Berry pointed out, his eyebrows raised. “Now we can deal with them properly and the odds are they won’t be so cavalier as to attempt to abduct you again. If you ask me, they’ve just given up a huge advantage. Either that or they’re finally being civilized.”
Laney sighed heavily. Maybe… “But they’ve ruined everything. Look at your beautiful city.” She gestured toward the ravaged cityscape.
“Cities can be rebuilt.” Noah’s tone was somber as always.
Berry nodded in agreement. “And don’t forget we’re still waiting on that earthquake that could level the city altogether. It’s supposed to be a big one,” he said with a catch in his tone.
Laney shook her head in mirth. She knew Berry was trying to make her feel better but at the moment, everything felt bittersweet.
“Don’t worry, Laney,” Berry reassured with a brief pat on her shoulder. “We’re all here for you. We’ll figure something out.”
Laney managed a small smirk. “So?” She threw up her hands. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
Berry and Noah exchanged looks: Berry’s concerned. Noah’s pensive.
Berry shrugged again, at a complete loss. “Shoot if I know. Whatever, I guess.” He peered at her face again. “Want to learn some Physics? I could use an assistant.”
Laney stifled a desperate incredulous laugh. Somehow she was feeling an odd sense of calm. And at least it was a comfort to know that her family and friends would be fine. They would all likely just adapt to the new world.
And so would she.
She even knew for an absolute fact there were worlds she could be stuck in that were far worse.
She blew out a huge resigned breath even as she was still frowning in deep thought at what the future might bring.
She glanced up to look at Noah.
Noah was looking as intense as ever. He dropped his eyes briefly before meeting her gaze again.
Laney felt Noah take her hand in his.
“Ready?”
And she smiled.
***
The End.
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S. Breaker (Sara Bellcamp) writes offbeat, quirky teen/young adult science fiction and fantasy books. Easy reading, feel-good love stories, and other fiction. Short books, great reads.
She lives in New Zealand with her husband and two kids and publishes independently on Amazon in a likely futile attempt to pay for her writing addiction. She also writes under Sara Breaker.
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In the mood for some Epic Fantasy romance?
Sneak Peek: The Secret of the Phoenix
Sixteen-year-old Sarah Peters gets magically sent to another world. And now the bad guys with the big, scary robots want her dead. Enter tall, hot, and brooding Prince.
***
He grabbed my arm. “How do you know about the phoenix?”
“Ow,” I said pointedly, loudly, and he dropped his hand. I gave him a fake gracious look. “Well, your stupid ‘phoenix’,” I relayed, motioning quotation marks with my fingers in mocking, “appeared in my bedroom, and the next thing I knew, I was here. You do the math.”
“The stupid phoenix,” he echoed, sounding offended, “is the insignia of my country.”
“What country? Thailand?”
“Centeria.”
“What?” I knew I sucked at geography but I was pretty sure I’d never heard of such a grandiose-sounding name for a country. “Where in the hell is that?”
“You have to come with me,” he said, pulling me along behind him.
“Ow—stop grabbing me.” I shrugged him off, exasperated. “Now, I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers here,” I declared.
He had started to groan when he paused, his gaze halfway to the sky. “I have a feeling you’ll be changing your mind.”
I shot him a wry look. “Yeah, sure.”
Then I heard what sounded like an explosion from behind me and looked over in time to see a huge black and indigo robot crash through two building structures. The ground shook and I held on to the wall. “What the—?” My jaw dropped as I recognized the robot from the vision I’d seen this afternoon on the street, just as the thing seemed to look over and point a mechanical arm weapon in our direction—in my direction.
A shot fired and hit the top of the structure above us and debris crashed down. I jumped aside and to the ground. “—the hell?” I asked, gawking up at the thing.
“Change your mind yet?”
No time to a
nswer, I scrambled up and started running down the street again. I looked around, baffled. I’d watched enough television to figure that robots were supposed to fight other robots. But these ones seemed to be chasing us—not anyone or anything else. This has to be the stupidest dream in the entire world!
***
Enjoyed the preview? The Secret of the Phoenix is also available to purchase on amazon.com
Other Titles by Sara Breaker
Sweet Romance
The Perfect Deal
Just an Alternate
Change of Mind
The Real Thing
Insert Happy Ending
Switch on Christmas
Sneak Peek: Change of Mind
School president Allie and popular jock Troy have been the best of enemies since the beginning of time. But things change...
***
Troy swung into the door to his Physics class in a casual non-hurried manner, nodding his head to some beat, scanning the chairs nonchalantly to find a place to park. He stopped short and tilted his head slightly to the left to check if he wasn’t seeing things.
The only seat left was beside none other than the infamous Allie Alberts.
Troy groaned inwardly. Normally, he’d never pass up the opportunity to poke more fun at her, but there was something weird going on with her lately, and he didn’t wanna be around when she finally popped. Unfortunately, since he had arrived late, there wasn’t any other option.
Table #6 was right in front of the teacher’s desk, the kind only brave souls dared to occupy. Troy couldn’t help but shake his head and think that it was incredibly typical of Allie to have chosen that seat. Teacher’s pet, he thought to himself and only then realized that Allie shouldn’t be in this class in the first place.