by Amy DuBoff
“Is that really a good idea to do while we’re, you know, inside the rift?” Jason asked, his arms crossed.
“The remaining rift still encompasses the equivalent area of three Sol-sized systems,” responded Wil without turning from the window. “You don’t have to worry about it collapsing around us.”
On the projector, a bright point of light flashed just outside the center of the thread bundle. In response, several of the threads began to unfurl, gravitating toward where the flash had been. Several more flashes appeared in the ensuing seconds, which resulted in the coarse bundle distributing into a more uniform grid pattern. The frayed edges remained, though—the ends of broken threads swaying as if eddied by an unseen current.
“What you just witnessed is a technique of sending focused energy pulses toward where you want the grid to move,” Michael explained while Wil continued to work with Ryan. “Spatial fabric naturally wants to right itself, but sometimes it needs a little push in the right direction. We offer that guidance.”
As he spoke, the ends of a broken thread moved into alignment, and a new, silvery connection formed between them. Tendrils slowly wove together between the two pieces until they were re-joined.
“Once the grid is close enough to its preferred state,” Michael continued, “the real repairs can begin. The key is to offer enough—shall we say, coaxing—to break apart the damaged sections without causing additional damage. It’s a very slow process, but the technique works.”
“Except for nearby spatial jumps,” Jason interjected.
“A repair does take about two days to fully take,” Michael added. “So, the team will typically move deeper into the rift before jumping out.”
“Why not perform the repairs from normal space?” Raena asked.
“We can,” Michael said, “and sometimes do. But, after experimenting with all the methods, it’s easier to work in here. Once we get close to the end, we’ll make the final push from normal space.”
Wil and Ryan had worked their way along the visible length of the former knot, and now only four unsecured thread lengths remained. Several more flashes lit up, and those final pieces wove together. Out the window, the blackness at the edge of their view seemed to advance closer to the ship.
As Wil pulled his attention to back inside the common room, the holographic projection vanished.
“That was amazing,” Ryan breathed. “I’ve never felt anything like it.”
“You’re a natural,” Wil said with a smile. “You had very good intuition for where to direct the pulses.”
Ryan smiled back. “Thanks. It just felt… right.”
“Much of what we do is driven by intuitive feeling,” Wil said with a nod. “Learning to listen to your instincts is just as important a skill as actual mastery of the telekinetic manipulation.” He looked out over the Trainees around the room. “Any questions before we proceed with the one-on-ones?”
No one spoke up.
“All right. Let’s get to it.”
Michael gathered the holoprojector from the table and explained that the one-on-ones would take place in a conference room down the hall. Tiff was the first student, with Ned up next, and Michael stated that the next two people in the queue would be summoned by the returning individual.
Given the unknown time until her turn, Raena settled back into her plush chair and Ryan returned to the adjacent seat.
“What was it like?” Raena asked him while they waited.
“This is going to sound weird, but it was almost like looking back in time.”
“What do you mean?”
He shook his head. “It was as though I was witnessing something ancient—and beautiful. There’s something timeless and enduring under what we see in everyday life, and making those repairs was returning order to that ancient web. When everything fell into place, there was this feeling of profound happiness.”
Raena smirked. “Like the universe was thanking you?”
He laughed. “Hey, I won’t turn down some good cosmic karma.”
Across the room, Jason was talking with Leon, who showed him his handheld. Jason scowled at the device and then approached Raena and Ryan.
“Looks like we’ll be the last two up,” her brother said. “No surprise.”
“I’m curious to see how your experience differs from mine,” Ryan commented.
Jason glanced at the other students nearby and then perched on the broad arm of Raena’s chair. “I think they brought us here for different reasons,” he said telepathically. “I’ve been reading some accounts from people who lived in the rift for extended times. They’ve talked about chance encounters with the Aesir.”
“They told the Aesir to leave us alone for five years,” Raena pointed out. “Why would they go out of their way to force an encounter now?”
“Because that was Day One for us. Now they know we’re not fragile newbies. It’s no secret between the three of us that we should not be able to do the things that are already second nature for us,” Jason countered.
Raena frowned. “But still, what would be gained from another brush with the Aesir?”
“They have that place where you can see things,” he replied. “Like, a glimpse of your destiny, or something. I bet they have no idea what to do with us and are looking for some direction.”
“And this hypothesis is based on… what?” Ryan asked.
“Intuition, of course.” Jason grinned.
Raena rolled her eyes and gave him a playful shove. “You’re impossible. These sorts of guessing games aren’t productive.”
“Maybe not, but I’d rather be prepared than caught by surprise,” her brother replied.
She eyed him. “How can you possibly prepare when we don’t even know what we’d be getting ready for?”
He shrugged. “Fine, then I’m prepared to be prepared.”
“Good luck with that,” Raena said with a mental chuckle. But, she knew he was right. There had been far too many unexpected developments to assume that past decisions would hold. She needed to be ready for anything.
CHAPTER 4
It was two hours before Jason was finally called for his one-on-one evaluation, and Raena was left to wait in anxious anticipation with Ryan.
“Why do you think Dad left me for last?” Raena pondered aloud.
Ryan cast her a sidelong look. “You really have to ask?”
She didn’t, but it was habit for her to try to downplay her uniqueness. Growing up on Earth, she’d always had trouble blending in. Only after she learned her parents had spent most of their lives on another planet did it make sense that she’d never quite felt at home on Earth. She belonged elsewhere, and not just in terms of a physical place—she’d been born as an heiress to help lead an entire civilization, and her profound telekinetic abilities made her an even greater rarity. She and her brother were the children of the prophesied Cadicle. A little special treatment was sure to come with the territory.
Raena shrugged off her original question and waited in silence for Jason to return. After seven minutes, he appeared in the doorway to the common room, looking shaken.
“You’re up, Raena,” he said.
She walked over to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Jason replied. “Dad will explain,” he added telepathically.
Raena nodded and left the common room with a parting smile back to Ryan. She traversed the hall of the Vanquish leading to the conference room that had been set aside for the private meetings with her father.
Inside the room, Wil was staring out the window. He turned around when Raena entered. “Hi.”
“Hi,” Raena replied, then noticed that Michael was also in the room, standing along the front wall out of view from the hallway.
Michael looked Raena over when she entered. “I’ll leave you to it, then.” He departed, closing the door behind him.
“Dad, what’s going on?”
Wil clasped his hands behind his back. “We’re in a diffic
ult spot. I’d expected you to need time to train like most students, but in a matter of months you’ve progressed easily to the level of a Junior Agent—and with very little coaching.”
Raena felt her face flush. “I guess.”
“This isn’t the time for modesty,” her father said. “Honestly, have you been holding back?”
She met his gaze. “I haven’t even tried to push myself.”
He nodded. “That’s what I suspected. However, my hope is that your fellow trainees—with the exception of Ryan and Jason, of course—don’t realize just how talented you really are.”
“I thought you didn’t want us to hide our abilities?”
“In the end, no. But right now, it’d make things easier on Tararia if you appeared to be on a more traditional training path.”
That makes sense. She glanced out the window. “You didn’t bring us all the way out here to tell me that.”
“Correct. But I wanted to establish that before we got to the real reason for this trip. I needed to make a show of it with a large visitation group so it didn’t call attention to one individual. But truthfully, Raena, this was all so you can help me.”
Her breath caught in her chest. “Me help you?”
He inclined his head. “You see, I reached out to the Aesir.”
“Why?”
“Because I wanted to make sure that we’ve accounted for all the variables. I have reason to believe that you can help me see something I haven’t been able to see myself.”
Raena shifted on her feet. “How? I don’t understand.”
“The Aesir’s test,” Wil explained, “offers a glimpse of some universal truth specific to you and your life. There’s a place they call the nexus that makes this vision possible. But, I think the rift—and these properties that heighten our abilities—serve a similar purpose, on a smaller scale. The Aesir won’t allow me to look into the nexus again, as I already learned my truth—the true nature of the Bakzen. However, there’s something else they want me to know, and they made it sound like you could help me see it.”
He’s the most powerful Agent there’s ever been. What does it mean that he’s turning to me now? Raena took an unsteady breath. “Of course, I’ll help. What do I need to do?”
Wil smiled with relief. “Well, I need to teach you astral projection.”
“Isn’t that a bit… metaphysical?”
“No more so than telepathy or telekinesis,” her father pointed out. “Consciousness is energy, too. Disconnecting from your physical self is quite freeing.”
“Yeah, I bet.” Raena took a step toward him. “How does this work?”
Wil beckoned her the rest of the way to him and gestured for her to sit on the ground cross-legged as he did likewise. “It’s easier in freefall, but this will have to do,” he stated. “Close your eyes and focus on the energy of the rift around you. Clear your mind. I’ll find you.”
Raena did as she was instructed. The sweet power of the rift called to her at the edge of her consciousness. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but her physical self was holding her back. It was so tantalizingly close, and yet the power was just beyond her grasp.
Then, a presence appeared at the outer reaches of her mind. “I’m here,” her father said.
She sensed a power that she’d never experienced in person—a force that was both comforting and terrifying. Other Agents always appeared as bright spots in her mind, but her father’s presence was like trying to look at the sun in comparison to a full moon. Her instinct was to withdraw into herself, but she resisted. She knew he would take care of her and there was no need to be afraid.
“I sense the energy of the rift,” Raena said when her breathing had settled. After taking some time to adjust, Wil’s presence was no longer so overwhelming.
“Good. Now follow my lead.”
Raena was aware of the room around her and Wil seated a meter in front of her. However, the presence of her father began to move away from his physical form.
“Wait, where are you—?” Instinctively, she followed him, focusing only on his presence within the emptiness of her mind. He raced ahead of her, just beyond her grasp but not so far ahead that she lost track. After what felt like several seconds, his pace slowed and she caught up with him.
It was then that she realized she was no longer attached to her physical form.
Behind her, she saw the Vanquish. At least, she knew it was the TSS ship she had been on moments before, but her vision wasn’t the same as when she viewed her surroundings using her corporeal eyes. Rather, everything was an outline of its main physical form, but she could simultaneously detect each object’s energy signature down to a subatomic level. The details were too much to reconcile in her mind at once, so she didn’t even attempt to delve deeper than the surface.
Her father appeared in her mind as the version of himself she knew in day-to-day life, but she recognized that was only for her benefit—really, neither of them were floating in space outside the ship.
Whoa! It’s like I’m on a spacewalk without a suit, she realized when it occurred to her that she perceived the echoed starscape of the rift behind her father.
Looking at the Vanquish, she spotted the window to the conference room where their physical forms were waiting for them. An invisible thread bound her to herself—the tether she could use to trace back no matter how far she roamed.
“This is incredible,” she said to Wil.
His image smiled back at her. “I thought you’d enjoy it. But this is nothing.”
He extended himself to her, as though taking her hand, and then raced into open space. The Vanquish became a tiny speck in a split-second, and within moments, even the echoed image of the nearest star was just a distant dot.
Wil stopped at the far edge of the rift. “We can go as far as you can imagine in normal space, but this task requires us to stay here.”
“I see what you mean about it being freeing,” Raena said, feeling an elation like she’d never experienced before.
“Yes, but now we must evaluate,” Wil said, his tone turning serious. “There’s something the Aesir want us to see, but I don’t know what it is.”
He fell into silent meditation in the near-empty blackness.
Next to him, Raena probed around herself, willing an answer to come to her. She could detect the ancient energy and felt the discord within the rift where the Bakzen had unnaturally altered the pathways to create their home.
Then, she sensed a different energy signature. It beckoned her, and she heeded. Wil followed behind at a distance, letting her set the path.
She raced across the expanse until a black pit came into view.
Behind her, she felt her father tense.
“What is this place?” she asked.
“It was the Bakzen homeworld,” he stated, his mental tone pained. “I destroyed it.”
Raena was moved by the hurt emanating from him, but she couldn’t allow herself to become distracted by the past. There was something about the site that had drawn her in.
She probed the blackness, seeking the origin of the call. And then she saw it—a minute tear within the fabric of space, not to subspace or normal space, but to somewhere else entirely.
“This,” she told her father. “I think this is what we were meant to find.”
Wil assessed the tear, and she sensed his worry.
“I was afraid of this,” he said eventually.
“Do you know what it is?”
“A doorway—to a reality other than our own.”
Raena didn’t know what to make of the statement. “Like… another dimension?”
“Yes, something like that.” Wil stared into the black pit, his cerulean eyes glowing in the darkness. “Come. We’ve seen what we needed to see.”
He led them back to their bodies on the Vanquish, and Raena found it fascinating to see herself from the outside. She lingered just a moment to observe herself and then returned her consciousness to her physical fo
rm.
Her eyes opened with a start. Everything around her seemed so flat and plain after the depth she’d seen around her while in the state of astral projection.
Wil rose from the ground and ran his fingers through his chestnut hair. “Don’t speak of what we saw to anyone—not even Ryan or Jason.”
“Why not?” Raena stood across from him.
“Because there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it,” he replied. “So long as that tear exists, there’s no way we can completely close the rift. Maybe the Aesir know a way.”
She nodded. I don’t like the idea of keeping anything from Ryan, but worrying about something we can’t control doesn’t help anyone. I hope I can forget about it myself.
“How did it feel out there?” Wil asked.
“Incredible. I’m surprised you aren’t out there all the time.”
“I do venture out occasionally,” he said with a slight smile, but it didn’t hide his worry over what they’d seen.
“So, Dad,” Raena began after a slight pause, “what you said about me meeting with the Aesir… Do I need to wait four more years to meet with them?”
“Were you any less gifted, I’d advise waiting as long as possible. But as things stand, you may meet with them whenever you feel ready. Honestly, the sooner we have your vision to guide us, the better off we’ll be.”
Her heart leaped at the prospect of meeting their mysterious Taran brethren. “Then I’ll go. Soon.” I want to know what I’m supposed to do, too. There are so many potential paths…
Wil placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’re incredibly talented, Raena. I have no doubt you’ll succeed, no matter what’s ahead of us.”
“Thanks.” She smiled.
He pulled her into a quick embrace and she hugged him back. “Your mom and I will support you in any way you need.”
Raena released him and stepped back. “Thank you.”
Wil smiled. “All right. Now, you should probably get back. You’ve been gone for at least twice as long as anyone else.”
“Okay.” She headed for the door. “And Dad?”