The Touchstone Trilogy

by Andrea K Höst

  I guess this is an opportunity to catch up on all the school work I've been ignoring, which I will get to right after I'm done with some important worrying and sulking.

  March

  Sunday, March 2

  Aether

  'Aether' is an Earth word, I'm sure of it. Or, at least, 'ether' is, and I know that's an anaesthetic, but there's another definition. I've read it in fantasy novels, used for the 'atmosphere' in one of the afterlifes or something. There's a phrase, 'off in the aether' isn't there? Aether is a word on Tare, as well. I found that out...it's four days ago now, I think. The day which was supposed to be Boxes Rotation.

  I spent the morning on the roof doing homework and enjoying the sunshine. It was a rare cloudless day, really nice. After lunch I lolled about on my bed, watching news and sampling dramas and trying to read the descriptions of online games I'm considering subscribing to because no-one would treat me as a stray in a game – just a noob. But they all look a bit daunting because it's played inside your head and though they're not 'in-skin', they'll still be vastly more than I'm used to. The things you might do in a 'full' virtual reality are more than I'm willing to take on just yet.

  I was labouring through the description of one when an appointment was entered into my calendar, and I had just looked to see that I was supposed to be doing a 'Retrieval' starting five minutes ago when Zan "opened a channel" to me, which is Tare-speak for calling me, except that when someone opens a channel you don't get any choice about answering your equivalent of a phone – their voice is just abruptly there in your head. Only people with a certain amount of authority can do that, generally for emergencies. This was a big one.

  "Cassandra, come as quickly as you can to Green Lock," she said. "Ready for entry into the Ena."

  I was glad I wasn't still on the roof. "Something happen?" I asked as I quickly stripped off the clothes I'd been slopping around in.

  "The Pillar investigation teams have gone down," Zan said, which was enough to make me run along the corridors, after I'd made a lightning-quick bathroom stop and had my uniform sprayed on. I was too scared to ask what exactly 'gone down' meant, just hoped 'retrieval' meant something more positive than bringing back bodies. First Squad are pretty much making this planet bearable for me, and the idea of anything happening to them made me sick.

  I wasn't the last to arrive. Both Twelfth Squad and Tenth Squad were gathering, more than a few of them looking mussed and sleepy since they were on an earlier shift than mine and would have been in bed when the call came. The only person I'd worked with before was Zan, and the implications of that kept my mouth shut altogether as they waited for the last stragglers to arrive. To use two squads who had just come off-shift, and to put me with them when they're not squads I'd tested with, was more than enough to underline how bad it was. I didn't even need to see the worried glances they kept exchanging.

  This was the first time I'd seen any of the Setari really fretting. The Tenth Squad captain is a guy named Els Haral, who looks incredibly laid-back and speaks with a soft voice. He was having a really good calming effect on everyone else, but the situation wasn't one you could tamp down on thoroughly. And there was one guy there from Sixth Squad called Juna Quane, who had brought the news back and was barely able to stand the delay while everyone assembled. Haral created a shared space for both squads, Quane and me, and began briefing everyone as the last few were heading toward us – one of the advantages of the interface.

  "Following our regained access to the Pillar space at the beginning of Shift Two," he said, "all but one of the monitoring drones were recovered intact. These revealed an unvarying energy signature from the Pillar, but no other activity. The space itself is exposed to deep-space and heavily frequented by roamer Ionoth: primarily swoop-type, and some larger. Third and Fourth Squads were deployed to perform an external examination and, if satisfied, to commence investigating the interior. Given the calibre of Ionoth, First, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth were assigned as support.

  "Sixth Squad was stationed in the adjoining entry space to observe, and the primary teams entered without incident and commenced the external examination. Here is the schematic of the Pillar prepared following external scanning and observation. We'll move into the near-space now."

  We broke neatly into our two squads and Tenth Squad went through the gate-lock first. Zan had kept her call to me open and said: "Stay on my left as we travel, and tell me on this channel if you can't keep pace, or feel any threat."

  There wasn't much I could say to this except "Yes," and I looked over the schematic during the brief pause while we waited to go through.

  The Pillar was a lot bigger than I'd realised. With nothing around it except white or washes of rainbow colours, I'd judged its height by the door. If the schematic was correct, then the door was nearly three times as tall as 'normal' doors. The Pillar seemed to have a hollow inner tube running all the way from top to bottom which was marked 'power core'. The gap between the inner and outer wall didn't seem to have any stairs or levels or more than possibly some structures on the ground floor. Built, if anything, like a giant thermos.

  Once we were all in near-space, Haral and Zan both gave the order for a quick march in formation. The squads each settled into three pairs and we started off, with me settling beside Zan and Lenton, while Quane played offsider with Tenth Squad.

  "During the external examination," Haral continued, "three groups of swoop-types and one tarani attacked. These were well within projections, and easily dealt with. A little over one zelkasse ago, the decision was made to open the Pillar."

  A kasse is about two and a half Earth-hours long, and a zelkasse is a quarter that, so it had started less than an hour before Zan collected me.

  "There was no apparent locking mechanism, and the doors were opened easily using a drone. When no negative reaction was detected, Third and Fourth engaged in another set of scans preparatory to entering. They had not yet completed when this happened."

  We'd reached the first gate out of near-space, and though all these spaces would have been recently cleared, Haral and his partner did exactly the same pause, scan and clear through that had become familiar, but he gave us all a fragment of recorded memory to digest first. It had a 'mission display' overlay and had "Quane" written in the lower left and a little 'life monitor' for the rest of the squad along the right side, which of course made me think of gaming in a far from positive way. No infinite lives or save games here.

  The first image was of the Pillar space through the gate from the Platforms space. Quane had looked left, where there was only white flatness with a rainbow-tinted backdrop, and a handful of Setari. Then he'd looked right, back past more Setari to the tower in the distance. It was a lot further than I'd thought, maybe a hundred metres away. The doors were open, and Third and Fourth Squads were standing well back from them, playing with a drone.

  I saw Ruuel just before he moved. He turned his head sharply and I think he shouted, but it was too late.

  White light. A massive beam of it, roaring out of the open doorway, spreading to completely block sight of the Pillar and the Setari. For about ten seconds nothing could be seen and Sixth Squad bit back startled comments. Then the whiteness began to lift, or drain down, quickly clearing at the top. The hazy outline of the Pillar came visible first, and then black shapes, lying in a settling mist.

  "Kormin sent Ammas in, and confirmed aether effects," Haral went on, while we were still watching the end of this. "He was able to reach Tsennan with talent and return, bringing him out, but even that brief exposure left him debilitated. Tsennan's vitals were steady, but he showed no immediate sign of recovery. At that point Kormin sent Quane with the emergency call."

  We reached the next gate, and after we were all through Haral switched to handing out orders.

  "On reaching the Pillar space, Kantan will enhance and create a vortex, drawing up as much of the aether as possible. Then the Telekinesis talents will enhance and bring out as many of the fal
len squads as can be reached. Our major challenge will be successfully reaching the most distant squads while suffering the effects of aether. And Ionoth."

  That was a big 'and'. I wasn't sure what swoops were, but it was obvious that they'd deployed a lot of squads to ward them off. At about this point I was starting to really have to work at not slowing down, and was glad the space before the Platforms space was this short remnant of a flagstone road, all tumbled and broken and not the sort of thing you can jog straight across. And then we were in the Platforms space, and Sixth Squad weren't waiting for us.

  "Twelfth, stay with me," Zan said curtly, as Tenth and Quane doubled their speed and dashed up the criss-crossing white squares. She increased her pace, and lifted me easily with Telekinesis. Then Tenth reached the top and someone cursed, my interface only telling me "(Profanity) (profanity)."

  "Mane, that's in your normal range," Haral said, unflurried, but with just a hint of tightness in his voice. "Ignore the swoops and pull them back here."

  One of the girls from Tenth Squad stepped through the gate. Another turned to a trio of blacksuited figures lying unmoving on the platform just above the one next to the gate. Zan, jogging up, glanced through the gate as she returned me to my feet, and said: "Ice seems safest."

  Haral nodded, eyes narrowed as he watched over Mane's shoulder. I could see what seemed like a pair of pearly pterodactyls, but less awkward-looking. Swoops.

  "Lenton, enhance and stop them before they follow," Zan said, adding a hand gesture to tell her squad to spread across the nearest three platforms. Me she had stand just to the right of the gate entrance.

  Lenton, who seemed to have left his temper behind today, brushed a hand against my shoulder and stepped through immediately, slipping past Mane as she returned. She had three limp Setari hovering behind her, and everyone moved back so she could bring them through, Haral catching her by the shoulder as she looked likely to fall over herself.

  The nanosuits are good protection, really resistant to piercing and cutting, and automatically self-repairing, but they're not invulnerable. And they left the faces bare. Of the three Setari Mane brought back, two had gaping rents down their fronts, slick and wet, and the third looked like something with a wide, small-toothed mouth had tried to bite off his head, and not quite succeeded. I recognised Dahlen from Seventh, but not the other two.

  "Kantan, enhance and start," Haral said.

  Kantan was a tall, fairly dark guy. He touched me on my back, stepped around the cluster of people trying to do something about the injured, and walked resolutely out into the knee-high mist. Lenton had made two massive balls of ice with swoops in the centre, which fell to the ground and stayed still. He paused a moment, looking around, then stepped back through, staggering as he came but managing to stay upright. He was sweating, but said steadily enough: "Another cluster of swoops to the left, approaching fast, and what looks like a stilt in the far distance behind the Pillar."

  "Darm, enhance and take care of the swoops," Haral said. "And tell Kantan to come back in before he collapses. Namara, will you go after?"

  Zan nodded as a curvy Setari went through the gate and turned left. Kantan was a Wind talent – I could see the stirring agitation he was causing in the mist thickly covering the ground. Like Ketzaren he needed time to set up anything really strong, but managed to start up a twisting spiral, sucking the mist toward it, before he returned obediently and stood shuddering and shaking his head. "That will draw for a while," he said, as Zan touched my arm. "But more was flowing from the Pillar."

  "Rest," Haral said, watching Zan step through. "You may be able to strengthen it later, and it's at least pulling some of it away from this gate. Drysen, prepare to enhance. Status on injuries?"

  "Dahlen and Roth will keep," said Nels, the Setari who had been doing most of the medicking. She'd somehow made most of the wounded's uniforms move aside, and was busy spraying what I guess was liquid bandages everywhere. "Ammas is critical and getting worse."

  "Quane, Sherun, get him back to base," Haral said. "Drysen, go through. Tens, Charn, get ready to take some of these."

  The difficulty was not the weight of the Setari, but distance and numbers. I'd already learned from testing that picking up multiple small objects is harder than one big one. Zan, the strongest of the telekinetics, had gathered eight fallen at once, and started feeding them quickly through the gate into the waiting arms of the two Haral had ordered forward. Others stepped up to ferry them further away from the crowded entrance, and then Zan came through, stumbling. "Darm's down," she said, voice slurred. "Drysen's fetching her. One swoop of that cluster still coming, no more in sight."

  "Kiste, take care of it and come straight back in," Haral said. "Mane, how's recovery?"

  Mane, the first of the telekinetics who had gone through, was sitting two platforms up, looking green, but she stood up when he spoke and came back down to the gate. "Doesn't wear off quickly," she said, grimly.

  "We'll pause when Kiste's back in," Haral said, surveying the still forms around him. They'd managed to get less than half out so far. Drysen, when he returned, had Darm and three others. One of them was Zee, which made my heart give a little joyous skip, but the toll on the two rescue squads was obvious. They'd brought in every Setari who was close, but almost all of First, Third and Fourth Squad were still out there.

  And all that time I'd been staring at the glowing mist and remembering moonfall on Muina. Liquid light. But moonfall hadn't hurt me, as it was so obviously hurting the Setari.

  "What aether?" I asked Zan through our shared channel, since she was sitting down with her eyes closed and was probably the least busy that I'd get her.

  "A form of energy," Zan replied, opening her eyes, but keeping her answer in the channel. "We encounter it occasionally in the spaces, though I've not seen any reports of such concentrated amounts outside the major interplanetary gates which cut through deep-space. It's very common around them, and we need to use vehicles to survive passing those gates."

  "It do what you?"

  "Initially pain, like being burned or frozen at the bones. Interference with control of movement and talents, then loss of consciousness, increasing paralysis. Death within a kasse, if you remain in it." She closed her eyes again, but added: "We'll reach them yet."

  "Is other sorts aether?"

  She gave me a puzzled look, but then Kiste came back into view and fell through the gate, landing on his hands and knees. "That stilt's heading this way," he said, panting. "Circling, but definitely coming for here, and not slowly."

  Haral was looking grimmer by the second, but his voice was still relaxed and calm as he said: "Kantan, enhance again and do what you can. Mane, be ready to follow. Signal if the stilt's in my projected enhanced range." He went on as Kantan touched my shoulder. "Given the effect of the aether, we can't take a stilt lightly, no matter how enhanced. We'll try an initial group of myself, Lenton and Tens. If everything we can do doesn't bring it down–" He paused, and I suspect he'd realised he'd run out of conscious heavy-hitters. "If we can't bring it down, Kiste, make whatever attempt you can while Namara and Drysen pull everyone they can reach to the gate."

  Mane followed Kantan through before Haral finished speaking and Haral waited a few seconds then touched my arm, watching without change of expression as Kantan collapsed at Mane's feet. He'd managed to strengthen the wind vortex, but the glowing mist didn't seem to be getting much thinner. Lenton waited the bare minimum of my prescribed delay before enhancing himself as well, while Tens stepped up to help Mane, who was struggling not to fall while bringing Kantan and another – it was Alay – through the gate.

  "Stilt will be closing in a count of twenty," Mane said, folding into a panting tangle almost on top of Alay. "Gainer was the only one left in my range."

  Tens touched my shoulder, and exchanged a glance with Haral. I think they were trying to accept not succeeding in getting everyone out.

  I never saw the stilt myself. Only later, in extracts of
the mission report which Zee showed me. Black, nearly as tall as the tower, with a long, sloping body and spindly legs like vine tendrils. The underside of it was all covered in more tendrils, long ones and short ones, and I think that's where its mouth was, because its head was just this sort of triangle with eyes. Haral, Lenton and Tens concentrated their attacks on its underside, anyway, with Ice and then two balls of lightning. The first was a little low, but the second was placed nicely, shattering frozen tentacles in a spectacular orgy of blasts. One of its legs was blown apart, and it fell.

  Lenton passed out, and Haral and Tens carried him back between them, staying upright themselves but moving very slowly. "Go," Zan said to Drysen, who touched me and headed out, face bleak. I saw the same expression on Zan's face as she waited her turn. Everyone who'd gone in a second time had collapsed. With the continuing Ionoth attacks, it was no wonder all of Sixth Squad had ended up unconscious. The few Setari remaining had no chance of getting the other squads out. When Drysen didn't even manage to bring back one more person before going down, Zan lifted her hand toward my shoulder. And I caught and held her still, just long enough to take advantage of her surprise and step through the gate myself.

  I'd almost convinced myself that it would hurt. Genetically, I'm the same as these people, and every one of them had flinched a little walking into the mist and then acted like it was slowly crushing them. But it was just the same as Muina's: chilly but bringing a pleasant warmth, a feeling of wellbeing. The wind from the vortex made it swirl around me ominously, but I felt fine.

  Drysen wasn't a little guy. There was no way I could carry him through the gate, but I could drag him closer and lift him partway so that Zan and the one called Nels could haul him the rest of the way through. I paused before following, taking a good look about, but could see no sign of more Ionoth for the moment. I was wondering if not trying to go through before was a big screw-up on my part, but it's not as if I would have been able to fight off the Ionoth. Besides, I would have had to waste time arguing with everyone, and the picture I was presenting was definitely worth a thousand words.