by Amy Braun
Deciding we weren’t worth the risk, Poacher mumbled something and got his friends to leave.
Nash followed them and poked his head around the corner until he was sure they were gone, then came inside the engineering bay.
“They probably won’t come back. I’m betting they’ll start looking for food and weapons. If they don’t find those, they’ll start trashing the place.”
“Doubt there’s much to trash,” Gemma muttered, flipping open the lid of a toolbox on the table next to her and frowning at the insides. “Ship is probably picked clean.”
“At least it will give us more time,” Riley said, turning back to me. “What do you need to do, Claire?”
I looked at the Palisade, not even sure where to begin. I reached into my coat and took out my mother’s journal.
“I think it’s time we found out what really happened,” I said quietly.
***
June 10, 1834
We received our assignment today–create a machine that will be able to cut through the ether of the world and effectively open a new dimension. Dr. Wilcox told Captain Arturo that it’s possible, if we can create an electrical charge big enough. Joel is nervous about the idea, but I’m excited. I’ve been discussing the model with him while he writes his letter to Claire. I’m going to finish up some designs then do the same. I miss my little girl.
–––––––
August 9, 1834
Dr. Wilcox is getting impatient. He says we need something to show the crew soon. Arturo says there’s even talk of mutiny. We can’t afford that, not with the marauders that seem to be following us, so we’re doing the best we can. Joel’s building the conductors right now, but it will still take time. We’ve never done anything like this before. We’re making a storm. I’m worried the generators will overload and fry the machine. We could lose everything if we’re not careful.
–––––––
October 1, 1834
It worked! We tried it out this morning! The Palisade had to be rolled out on a cart with the generators and lifted in one of the service elevators to get to the deck, but that was the only problem we really encountered. Joel and I each pulled down the conversion levers and the electricity began to grow inside the tubes. It was incredible, watching the power increase until a million little lightning bolts were hitting the edges. Most of the crew was nervous, and I think Joel was on edge, but I wasn’t. I was amazed. We accomplished something incredible!
After the levers were down, at the exact moment the generators were at full capacity, we pushed the release button on both reactors.
I’ve never seen anything like it. The collected energy shot out of the central filaments, turning into one gigantic block of static power and light. It nearly blinded us, and the sound was astonishing. It was like thunder sounding right over our heads. The bolt continued to funnel into the sky, and then we began to see it. A huge, black opening, like someone had spilled black ink onto blue parchment. The gap grew and grew and grew, until it was wide enough that the Meridian could fly through. We shut the Palisade down and turned off the power so it wouldn’t burn out the generators.
Everyone is so excited. You can’t see much beyond the gap–they’re calling it the Breach–because of the heavy clouds, but Arturo says we’re going to sail through tomorrow. He’s told us all to get some sleep and prepare for travel first thing tomorrow.
Joel is still anxious, but part of him must be excited. How could he not be? Exploring a new world where our children’s children can grow and prosper? Finding new resources and materials to improve our way of life? It’s exactly what we dreamed of finding.
I need to write Claire before I go to bed. She’ll be so excited about this!
–––––––
Oct 2
It’s fallen apart. All of it.
Today we found alien life on the other side of the Breach. Hostile alien life.
We crossed into this new dark world. It looked completely volcanic. Mountains of black rock were everywhere, the sky was choked with ash and smoke. The Sky Guard had to outfit us with gas masks just so we could breathe.
In the middle of this wasteland was a huge building. It looked like a hundred tons of broken obsidian fell from the sky and built a castle of small daggers. Enormous man-o’-war ships hovered around it, watching like hawks. One of them approached us, and Arturo set up a bridge to meet with their leader.
He calls himself the Vesper, and he is terrifying. His robes look like they are soaked in blood; he wears a crown of broken bones on hair that looks like dripping oil, and his eyes… Looking at them too long could make a person go mad. Arturo is a strong man, but I swore I saw his knees shaking.
The Vesper demanded to know who we were and how we’d gotten here. Arturo told the truth. He explained that Westraven is crippling itself with over-population and that we need to find another place to support our ways of life. Trade with the rest of Aon isn’t suiting our demands. We need help.
Then Arturo told him that we created a machine to open the Breach. The Vesper looked at us, and I felt him in my head. In my head. He was there, poking into my thoughts, seeing what I had done, seeing my Claire. I would have been lost if Joel weren’t beside me, holding my hand.
The Vesper didn’t want to help. Arturo insisted, but then the Vesper did something to him. He grabbed his head and started screaming like his skull was being split in half. The Sky Guards tried to help him, but the Vesper did the same to them.
Then he waved his hand and commanded other monsters to come across the bridge onto our ship.
It was… It was a massacre. These creatures, all of them with red eyes and knifelike claws, they jumped on the crew and ripped them apart. Blood was everywhere, everyone was screaming. I thought we were going to die. Joel dragged me back to the bridge, and that was when the marauders arrived.
We didn’t think they would follow us through the Breach. We thought we lost them months ago. But the marauders came through. And not just any marauders. The Kendric Clan. The Wanderers.
They started opening fire at all of us. I figure that animal Davin Kendric started the cannons. Pieces of the Meridian exploded, debris everywhere, my friends being blown to bits. The monsters went back to their ship with the Vesper, and they started firing too. Their cannons are strong, but the Meridian was stronger. We focused all our attacks on the monsters, and even brought down a couple of their ships. Arturo managed to hold it together and get back to the bridge. He shouted at us to bring up the Palisade. Joel and I tried to tell him no, that it could kill us and everything around us, He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and we both knew we didn’t have a choice.
We brought the Palisade back up, which thankfully was fully charged. We didn’t take our time with it. We pushed it to full power and sent out a huge bolt of lightning. The air in this other world was much more conductive. The lightning streaked through the sky, cutting through the clouds like cracks in the pavement. It reacted to anything it touched, stabbing bolts onto the monsters’ ship. The sound of their screams… I’ll never forget that sound for the rest of my life.
The marauders saw what was going on and retreated, the cowards. We stayed. The Sky Guard continued to open fire, blasting at all of their ships. The Palisade suddenly overloaded. The conductors broke and the central filament snapped. We blew both the generators. There simply wasn’t a way to keep that amount of power going. I don’t know if it can be fixed.
But by then the battle was over. The monster ships were crashing. The marauders were gone. So many lives were lost today, and we gained nothing. We’re sailing home tomorrow. I’m glad. I thought this would be a sign of something good to come. But it’s become a disaster. I don’t know why I was so thrilled about this. We never ever considered finding new life on this expedition. I never thought that Joel and I would be the ones to end so much of it.
How could we have been so blind?
Joel is sleeping right now. The entire day exhausted him. I
need to be there with him. He’s my only anchor right now. I should have listened to his concerns before taking this job. I just hope Claire never finds out about this.
–––––––
Nov 1836
They came back. Have to be fast. Breach wasn’t closed. How stupid could we have been! We didn’t even think about it! Thought they were dead! Have to find a way to stop them. Have to protect Claire. My new baby. Abigail. Have to fix this. Have to fi
***
The journal felt heavy in my hands. I didn’t know what to do with it. Part of me knew I had the answers. The other part of me wanted to throw it across the room, and never look at it again.
“They started it,” Gemma whispered. “The explorers, the people on the Meridian, the marauders… They all started it. If they didn’t make that damn machine, they never would have found the Hellions.” She roared and pushed the metal toolboxes off the table. They clattered angrily on the floor and made me jump.
“It’s their fault! They couldn’t leave well enough alone!”
“The Hellions attacked them–” I tried.
“They tried to make them leave!” Gemma shouted back at me. “If they just left, the marauders never would have gone in! The Hellions would have left us alone!”
“There was no way anyone could have known what would happen,” Sawyer reasoned, though I heard the shake in his voice. I wasn’t sure if it was from anger or fear. “It wasn’t–”
“Don’t defend them!” she screamed. “Your father and brother came in guns blazing. They killed the Hellions, then ran when Claire’s parents finished the job.” She turned her angry gaze on me. “Damn good job they did, too. Two years later, the Hellions came back for revenge. And they got it.”
I dropped my head, blinking away the tears I didn’t want her to see. Ever since The Storm, I fought for my parents. I told everyone I knew that they had done no wrong, that it was the Hellions who ruined our lives, that the Discovery was an accident, but the humans were never the ones to blame.
A lie. All of it a lie.
“Gem,” Nash soothed, “calm down.”
She whirled on him. “Why? Why should I?”
“Because we’re trying to change it!” Sawyer yelled. “What the hell do you think we’ve been doing all this time? Our parents screwed up, and we have to fix it. Stop complaining about things that can’t be undone.”
Gemma’s balled fists shook at her sides. Nash stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders, either to comfort or restrain her. Sawyer glared right back, anger rippling from him in waves. I didn’t think he would ever hurt Gemma, but he was seconds away from snapping.
She shot me a black look. “Tell me you can do what they wanted. Tell me you can fix this.”
Every excuse I made died on my lips. I had been confident before, but now… Now I didn’t know. If I somehow installed the Volt into the Palisade, maybe it could recharge enough energy to power up again and reverse the process. But even if I could make the necessary repairs, even if I could bring the Palisade to the Breach and use an electric charge to close it, the chances of failure were high.
I didn’t know the Palisade had been used as a weapon. I didn’t know how its primary components worked yet. I didn’t even know if I would find the right materials to fix it.
“I’ll do my best,” I ended up saying.
Gemma narrowed her eyes. “Not good enough.”
“That’s all I can give,” I told her. “If I do everything right, if we’re lucky, it will still take months. I’m not my parents. I might not be able to get all the materials they used. This could take years, Gemma.”
The answer repulsed her. I imagined she wanted to hit me instead of Sawyer now.
“Arguing over who did or didn’t do something isn’t going to get us anywhere,” said Riley. I’d been so distracted that I didn’t even notice how close he’d gotten to me. “Sawyer is right. We can’t change mistakes other people made. We have to deal with what we have now, and to do that, we need to help Claire.”
He turned to me and smiled, taking my hand and giving it a gentle squeeze. I slowly relaxed.
“You can fix this machine, Claire. I know you can.”
He was right. I had come too far, sacrificed too much, to give up now. If my parents had found a way to open the Breach, I could find a way to close it.
“What kind of materials do you need? Are we going to have to get the Meridian back in the air?”
I looked at Sawyer, who sounded like he had to grind the words out of his mouth.
“No. The Stray Dogs had pulley systems in the Crater.” I watched Sawyer rub at his temple, pieces of dried blood flaking off while he grimaced, likely thinking about the pulleys that lowered a Hellion in the Crater to attack him. “Once the Palisade is repaired, I’ll find a way to power it down and we can create some sort of rigging system.” I smiled weakly. “Or we can find some explosives and blow a hole in the side of the ship.”
Sawyer blinked, though he probably intended to roll his eyes first. “And you tell me not to call you Firecracker.”
I glared at him, which took some of the tension out of his eyes.
“I need tools,” I said. “Any and all that can be found. Generators, wires, anything that could be magnetized.” I glanced at the tungsten blue lights illuminating the room. “There must be some kind of electron-cell or external energy source that I can jerry-rig for more power. I’ll have to find a way to magnetize the electric beam. That might give me a better chance at controlling it and directing it to the Breach.”
I didn’t even know what I was saying. I was throwing ideas into the wind, concepts that could fail disastrously if I made a mistake. It was impossible to know what would happen until we got to the Breach, but we couldn’t do that until most of the repairs to the filaments, conductors, and generators were made and we found a way to transport the entire machine.
“Then let’s go scavenging.”
We trudged out of the room behind Sawyer. Even Gemma, who seemed to relax for now. I dragged my feet after them, slowing down when I felt Riley’s hand on my shoulder.
“It’s not your fault, Claire. It never was.”
“Then why does it hurt?” Why did my heart feel like lead?
He turned me so I was facing him, staring into kind blue eyes and a smile that warmed every inch of me.
“Because you care. You want to do the right thing.” His smile wavered. “But the right thing is never easy, and sometimes it doesn’t take the form you think it will.” He squeezed my shoulder, digging his fingers in. “Sometimes you have to make choices you think you’ll regret for the good of those you love.”
His words were wise and honest, but I didn’t understand them.
“What do you mean?”
He considered me with a strange look, one I’d never seen from him before. At first I thought it was sadness. Then I realized it was pity. Guilt, and not for me.
Before I could ask him what he was really thinking, I heard the scream. The terrible, piercing shriek of a Hellion.
I whirled around at the same time the human screams started. Thirty feet away, one of the Stray Dogs was being dragged into the shadows by one of the monsters. Three more pounced on the rest of the large men, tearing their backs to strips and ripping chunks of flesh from their necks. When the blood began to spray, they pushed their faces into it and drank their fill.
Sawyer, Nash, and Gemma started running back, shouting for the other Dogs to follow. One of them tripped over his feet. His crew left him behind. Sawyer took a single step toward the man, but a Hellion shot out of the shadows and grabbed his head. He lifted it up and twisted his neck. There was a horrible, crunching snap, and soon the man’s bone was poking out of his throat. Blood spewed out of his throat in a thick, dark red stream that the Hellion tried to catch and shove into its mouth.