by Drew Seren
“I’ve got some friends there. If it’s what you want, I’ll put in a good word for you.” Felonia rubbed her chin. “I’m presuming you haven’t been able to match up the other symbols yet.”
Del nodded. “Correct. There are so many languages in the universe—it may take a while. I’ve got an image match program running in the background while I handle the things the director wants me to be working on. It’s really exciting stuff. So much to learn.”
“Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun,” Skylar said, feeling a bit left out of the conversation.
“Even if I get a full-time position, I could never learn everything I have access to. It’s great.” Del gushed in a way only he could. Skylar knew other kids who loved learning things, but none of them would geek out over just about any new knowledge the way Del did.
“Glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Solaria said. “We’re dealing with some kind of ancient mega-psychic who’s determined to wipe everyone off the planet.” She grinned. “It’s better than hunting.”
“A mega-psychic?” Melody looked pale. She tapped one of the unlit symbols. “This glyph is the most repeated on the images we received. I think it may represent someone, or something. Del’s not sure. He thinks it could just be a preposition of some kind.”
Felonia nodded. “It could be either. We’ll be back to the dig site shortly. I’ll check with the crew there and see how much more of the writing has been uncovered. When I put it through our translator program, I’ll also send copies to the two of you. You’ve made more progress than we have since we uncovered it two weeks ago. I have to ask you to be very careful about showing anyone else this. It could be a very important archeological find.”
Del and Melody both nodded.
“We’ll keep it quiet,’ Del said.
“Right,” Melody agreed. “You guys keep us posted on your ancient mega-psychic.”
“Will do.” Skylar gave them a thumb’s up with the hand that didn’t have the hologram coming out of it. Then the image faded away.
Felonia frowned at them again. “Although I appreciate the headway they made in deciphering the writing, I need you both to understand that we can’t be just spreading this information across the net. We have to be very careful about who knows what.”
“Sorry, Mom.” Solaria looked at her lap. “We’ll keep it just between us.”
“I promise,” Skylar added. He hadn’t stopped to think that the Unicas might want to keep what they had discovered quiet until they had all the data. It made sense.
“Hey, do we know anyone living in Wegascu?” Skylar asked, wanting to change the subject. He never liked dwelling on things he’d screwed up, even if they had been with good intentions.
Solaria pursed her lips and hummed for a second. Then her shoulders slumped. “Mutanio. The Leapanno family is fairly high in their local hierarchy.”
After finding Leonada in Glacier City, Skylar was worried the other people he knew from school might also be in trouble. Mutanio might’ve had some major anger issues, but he was still a student of Stars’ End. Skylar didn’t like the idea of anyone else dying because of the thing rampaging across the planet.
“Don’t you three even think about going out there to find him. Aniu and Phil are there, and that’s enough members of this family in the line of fire,” Felonia said sharply. “When we get home, I want the three of you in bed. The odds are we’ll be part of the search and rescue team again tomorrow. We all need our sleep.”
Felonia’s com beeped. She tapped it. “Aniu. What do you have?”
“Not much,” Aniu replied. In the background, it sounded like things were exploding. “I’m not even sure how I’m getting this signal through—there’s a lot of EM radiation coming off that thing. So far, we haven’t even gotten a clear look. It’s dark and she seems to blend in. O’Byrne has some portable psy-scramblers that are keeping the worst of the effects away from us, but only just. They’re giving Phil a major headache. They don’t work well with feelers.”
“Both of you be careful.” Felonia reached for the hologram as if to touch his head.
“Doing our best. The damage is worse than Glacier City.” The signal broke up and the hologram flickered. “O’Byrne’s pushing us to get closer. He thinks a psychic attack might be the answer. I just wanted to see you before we do that. I love you and Solaria.”
“We love you too,” they said in unison.
There was a strange squawk and something exploded on the other end. The connection was lost.
Felonia closed her eyes.
Solaria took her mother’s hand. “He’ll be okay, Mom. I just know it.”
Skylar turned away. He felt like he was intruding in a private family moment. Out the window the frozen night landscape zoomed past.
“There is a major psychic disturbance to the northeast,” Filzbalm said, speaking for the first time since they left the council meeting. “I’m unsure what is causing it, but it is stronger than anything I’ve felt outside of the Mother’s presence.”
“You know the Mother of Drakes could be fairly scary to some of us,” Skylar replied. Having Filzbalm talking to him gave him something else to focus on instead of feeling like he was eavesdropping on Solaria and her mother’s grief and worry.
“Is it strange that I want to go see what’s causing it?” Filzbalm seemed to ignore Skylar’s comment about the leader of his people.
“No. I want to too. We’re out here to explore the universe. That’s part of what the Mother of Drakes tasked us with. Finding what is doing this falls into that category…I think.” Skylar wasn’t sure how they could go about doing that without really upsetting Felonia.
“I agree. But we must honor Felonia’s wishes.” Filzbalm rubbed his head on Skylar’s neck. “Is this what caring about others is all about?”
“Yes, it is.” Skylar found it interesting how Filzbalm understood some things and had to have others spelled out for him. Emotions were the hardest things to grasp. The Solar Drake operated on hard logic and sometimes failed to understand why Skylar did some of the things he did.
“It is odd to put someone else’s wants and desires ahead of your own. Although we Solar Drakes can work together, it is unusual for us to reach out to anyone beyond our mates and children. We are not Felonia’s children. Yet, she is putting us in her thoughts, trying to keep us safe. It feels like she is worried about us as us, and not just Solaria’s friends. She is treating us like family.”
“That she is.” The idea that they were being accepted as part of the Unica family spread a warmth through Skylar, something that had been missing since his mother had died.
Felonia’s com chimed again as they pulled up to the house. She tapped it, but didn’t activate the hologram. “Yes. Okay. I’ll be there shortly.” She tapped it off. “Solaria, go in and make sure your Aunt Blizza is all right. I’ve got to run to the dig site. They’ve uncovered more of the writing. I’ll get images and send them to you and to Del. Maybe with more data, we can get this figured out and stop her.”
“That would be good.” Solaria opened the door and slipped from the hover car. “See you later.”
Skylar followed her example. He so wanted to head out to Wegascu and help before it was just a rescue mission, but he knew he wasn’t as trained as Phil or Aniu were. There were probably a lot more highly adept psychics than him there to defend the city, if defense was even possible.
They managed to get the front door closed before Aunt Blizza descended on them.
“What’s going on?” the older Pantherian demanded.
“We’re not sure yet, Aunt Blizza,” Solaria said. “Have you eaten?”
“Of course I’ve eaten.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at them. “What do you and your parents think I am, an imbecile? I know how to feed myself. If I wanted to I could probably go hunting for myself, not that your father or mother would let me do any such thing.”
She paused for a breath and gave Solaria an opening. �
��Good. Mom was worried that you might not have eaten. Mom said we all need to get a lot of sleep.” She yawned and Skylar was sure it was more for effect than out of need. “We might have to go to Wegascu and help out tomorrow.”
Blizza frowned. “I can feel it getting worse.” She held up her wrist with the dampener on it. “Even with this, I can hear their screams. Every night people are dying and there’s little we can do. Only a source of light can help us right now.” Her gaze fell on Skylar.
Fear that she was about to repeat what she’d said that morning went through him, but she stayed silent.
“Then we should hope this light shows up soon,” Solaria said, then turned her aunt toward the stairs. “Okay. Let me get you tucked in, then Skylar, Filzbalm, and I are going to eat something before we turn in.”
She shook off Solaria’s hands. “I know my own way to my room.” She continued walking down the stairs, moving with an awkwardness that was unlike any Pantherian he’d met to that point. She moved even slower than she had earlier. It was like the things she was feeling through her muddled state were draining her. He wondered how bad she would be if she didn’t have the dampener on. He hoped he never got that powerful. It was scary.
Solaria stood there on at the top of the curved hall until Blizza disappeared down below, then she sighed and turned. “Okay, let’s go find something to eat.”
Skylar hadn’t realized he was hungry until she’d mentioned food. His stomach growled.
“Food sounds really good.” Filzbalm crawled out of Skylar’s hood and flew ahead of them. It was just warm enough in the house and he’d been a little antsy most of the way home. Since he hadn’t flown all day, Skylar figured that was the biggest part of the problem.
In the kitchen, Solaria went the cold storage cabinet. “Warm meat for all of us?”
“It’s better than cold meat.” Filzbalm lighted on the counter next to her.
“Filzbalm says it’s better than cold meat, and I have to agree.” Skylar hopped up on the island across from her. “So what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know.” Solaria pulled out a platter of meat and put it in the warmer. “It feels like a hunt I’m being left out of. I want to be out there helping. I want to do more than just search for survivors.”
“Me too,” Skylar agreed. “But I don’t know exactly what else we can do. Until we know what we’re up against, we don’t know how to fight it.”
“Right. Maybe Del and Melody will have something more for us when Mom sends them the new pictures.” Solaria pulled the platter out of the warmer, then frowned. “I guess I need to actually cook yours and not just warm it.” She pulled off some for herself and Filzbalm, then put the rest back in the warmer.
“Sorry I’m just human,” Skylar said, even though he wasn’t actually sorry about his species. “You know, we don’t have any kind of pictures of what it is that’s attacking. Its EM manipulation makes that impossible, but is it because she’s disrupting electronics, or is she disrupting the storage devices?”
“What do you mean?” Solaria asked around chewing her warm, raw meat.
“What if there are images being captured, but because they’re being stored locally, the storage media is being affected by the EM field? Maybe if some cameras could be rigged up to multiple storage locations around the planet, we could get an image, and with an image we might be able to figure out what she is.” He wasn’t sure if he was reaching for an idea or not. He was trying to think of what Del would be doing, or saying about then.
Solaria chewed thoughtfully. “Okay, so let’s say we could get some long-range cameras set up to send pictures to a distant storage location, something outside her area of effect—then you’re right, we might be able to get an image. This is a good idea. We just don’t know where she goes after she attacks a city. It was if she completely disappeared during the day. It’s like she’s allergic to light or something.”
“So you think she might only be active at night? Like a Corelinian Vampire?” Skylar slid off the island and the warmer beeped, indicating his food was ready.
“Corelinian Vampires only exist in that game you and Del play. They aren’t real, but that was what I thought of when she disappeared after hitting Glacier City and then hit Wegascu right after dark. Even through the officals searching for her didn’t find anything in the ice and snow during the day, it doesn’t mean she wasn’t somehow hiding somewhere.”
Skylar picked up a knife and fork to start cutting up his meat. “Exactly. She’s hiding somewhere during the day.” He thought of Blizza mentioning light and wondered how that played into everything. If they were dealing with some kind of vampire creature, light would be its nemesis, or at least it was in all the legends.
“So we need to figure out a way to track her in the ice and snow.” Solaria finished off her first piece of meat.
“Maybe we could get Del to hack into Pantherian satellites and have them scan for a heat source in the ice,” Skylar suggested. As they brainstormed the situation, his thoughts got to churning. Even if they weren’t actually out fighting the thing, they were doing something constructive. Maybe if they could come up with a few good ideas, they could get the adults to act on them.
“The Pantherian communication system is open to the public.” Solaria chewed slowly, and the mouthful of food distorted her voice slightly. “We wouldn’t have to hack into it.” She got up and walked over to a desk sitting at the end of the counter. She started tapping things, then a hologram popped up above it. “If we ask the system to get a thermal reading from the area near Wegascu we might be able to track what’s happening.” The view shifted, and there were just a few red dots in the area of the city.
A chill went through Skylar as some of them slowly faded away. Those were the bodies who were quickly cooling in the frigid climate. A bright red glow radiated out from the center of the city. It was too bright to be a person’s heat signature.
“What’s that?” He pointed to the glow.
“I bet that’s the geothermal shaft that powers the city.” Solaria zoomed in on that section of the city. “Most of our cities are powered by geothermal energy.”
An idea hit him. “Was Glacier City?”
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“How about Indruias?”
“No. We’re too small. We’re strictly wind and solar.” Her voice trailed off. “Wait a minute.” She waved her hand through the projection of Wegascu and the hologram scrolled across the planet. “There’s no geothermal signature in Glacier City.”
As a thrill of discovery went through him, Skylar pointed at the hologram. “I think we might be on to something. If there was a geothermal source there previously and there isn’t now, she might not be after the people at all, but the power. The people are just in the way.”
Solaria stood and stalked a few feet from the desk, then turned back. “But if that’s what’s going on, she may be trying to get more powerful.”
“And that would be very bad.” Filzbalm finished off his cup of meat and carried it over to the sink. “She’s powerful enough already.”
Skylar shuddered again. “She’s so powerful, Aunt Blizza can hear her even through the dampening bracelet. If she can absorb all the power from a geothermal source—”
“Then she’s something more than just a psychic,” Solaria butted in, finishing his thought. “We need to figure out where she’s sleeping and take her out before she gets strong enough to kill us all.”
As he stared at the dark spot where a massive energy source had been, Skylar wondered if she wasn’t that strong already.
17
Thoughts And Prints
“IS THERE any way to get the cities built over geothermal power sources evacuated?” Skylar asked as soon as Felonia shuffled into the house carrying a large gray plastic box like the ones they’d seen at the dig site earlier. Solaria’s mother looked exhausted. Her eyes were half closed and her ears drooped. She set the box down on top of several more just lik
e it.
She blinked at him, and then Solaria. “What?”
“She’s going after the geothermal power,” Solaria said as she hopped off the desk she’d been sitting on. “There’s no heat signature left in Glacier City, and while looking at the satellite feed, we watched Wegascu go dark.”
“Wait a minute.” The information seemed to enliven her. “You two think you’ve found what she’s after?”
“Maybe,” Skylar said. He tapped the screen and played back the loop of the heat signature of Wegascu disappearing. “It’s just speculation, but it’s all we have at the moment.”
“But, Mom, if she is somehow destroying the geothermal power sources, that means she’s super-powerful,” Solaria added. “We need to figure out a way to stop her.”
Felonia let out a long breath and closed her eyes. “And save as many people as possible in the process. I’ll call Zhetallia and let her know what you two have found. Skylar, send me that vid you just showed me, so I can send it to her. It’ll take time, even with Intergal already here—evacuating cities isn’t something that happens quickly.”
As he sent the file to her, a warm, happy feeling filled Skylar. He loved being able to help, and finding a clue as to what was happening and hopefully taking a step toward stopping the destruction made him feel like he was helping.
Solaria paced around the living room. “Have you heard from Dad since we got home?”
“No.” Felonia rubbed the bridge of her nose. “But they haven’t been there too long. I figure Wegascu will be very similar to Glacier City.”
“Are we going to go help again?” Skylar didn’t want to just go comb through the wreckage of another city; he wanted to help find whatever the being was who was doing the damage. There had to be more he could do.
“Probably. Right now, why don’t you three get some sleep? Tomorrow is most likely going to be another long day.” Felonia dropped onto one of the couches. She tapped her com, and waited.
Skylar scooped Filzbalm up from the desk where he’d fallen asleep right before Felonia returned.