Dom sailed across the floor and slid into the seat across from her, “Good afternoon, Stateswoman Shae, I assume you reviewed my report on Conlan Paveling?”
Ayna smiled, “Yes, I just finished reviewing it. It was very thorough about Conlan himself. I am curious, however—do you know how he and Bobi started working together? I can’t imagine how Bobi would befriend someone of Conlan’s beliefs.”
Dom shrugged, “There is no clear connection between them, which means someone else put them in touch with each other. The most likely sphere of confluence is the crafting guild. While they both have connections to the remaining Underground Artificer groups, they are connected to different groups that are not working together on anything.”
Ayna nodded, “Let me know if you find out more on that.”
“I won’t unless I have something to offer the guild to bring me further into their trust.”
Ayna smiled, “I have just the thing.” She pulled up her summary on the Mars communications, placed her LightTab into protected mode and connected it to the desk to display the report on the glass desktop, “Read through this, and I will get us some tea.”
“This can’t be real,” Dom said as soon as Ayna entered the room with the tray of tea.
“I doubted it myself, but it’s very real. I ordered their satellite connected into the public SatNet, so they can read what’s on there—what little news of the new world there is. But, they need help. We can’t send them supplies, but we hoped that we could get them up and running to come home.”
Dom looked at her sharply, “Unless you left a lot out of this report, you don’t really think that is possible any more than I do.” She picked up the teacup and took a sip, keeping her eyes on Ayna.
Ayna looked away, “No. I don’t think it is. But they have another new source crystal there. That makes three.”
“Three?!”
Ayna smiled, “Yes, three. The Blight crystals, a purple crystal that was recovered from the Xenai in a skirmish, and now this Martian one. The artificers have been working on merging source with technology, so if they take that to the Mars team, we can get them to study it for us. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they could use it to power their ship. If not, then we’ve at least given them hope before they die.”
Dom looked away, “I doubt that will last when their supplies get too low to even make the trip back. Once they realize they’d just starve on the trip home, they won’t cooperate with our attempts to give them hope.”
“Yes, that’s why we have recommended that they consider who they need.”
Dom smirked, “You told them to kill the prisoners.”
“Not all of them. From what they shared, they have some scientists and other useful prisoners there. The fact of the matter is, we would put many of those criminals to death if they lived here. If they manage to get back here, that’s what would face them, anyway.”
“So, what if I take this project to the guild hoping it’ll get me more information on Conlan and what they’re doing with your Blight crystal data and then they are not forthcoming with data from this new project?”
“That is where you are going to earn my faith in you… Not to mention the pay.”
Dom smiled, rising from the chair and taking a bow, “You know, I am worth a lot more than you are paying. I expect that you’ll keep that in mind when you have openings Topside for the Academy positions.”
Ayna sighed, “I don’t have as much say in that as you seem to think I do.”
Dom smiled as she turned to leave, “I am sure you have significant influence with your husband, and he has influence with members of the Academy.”
Ayna smiled, “Perhaps.”
Influence I would never risk using.
33
Fiher
This is the way it will always be. There can be no peace because there is no understanding. Understanding can only come through experience. we must give them this experience of futility-- trying to defend their way of life so that they can come to understand or come to an end.
Fiher circled the camp, being careful to keep a buffer of darkness between himself and the light of the guards, even though most of them were only Terran. Not a single sound came from his movement as he crawled through the dry brush on all four limbs. He paused every time a new presence appeared to his Intuition. He examined the person, determined them to be no threat, and skirted further along. there was no sign of the girl.
The night wore thin and the fingers of dawn’s colors appeared in the sky. The Pact camp stayed still; the flurry of pre-battle activities from the morning before was absent. Even as the guards changed shifts again and a few more presences gathered around campfires near the edge of the camp, the girl’s presence hid from him. He reached out to the minds he could reach, probing for images of the girl within them—there had to be some clue. There was nothing.
He growled to himself and retreated from the camp until he found a thick cluster of bushes to crawl into, ignoring the sticks poking into him as he thought about the situation. He could continue in this way, searching for the girl, getting only a glimpse here or there. Or he could return to his own kind. He shivered. The sermon’s volume rose as he imagined the Xenai camp. It would be nearly impossible to ignore the call of the voice once he was surrounded by Xenai. Their minds would amplify the words, producing a continuous echo around him.
Could I fight it?
He closed his eyes, trying again to peer into the other lives and memories he could see. Flashes of thick crowds melted into images of the Xenai camp. He could see them crawling around the camp. Restless and eager, they circled their own space. They weaved around each other, each one determined to keep moving, even when forced to rub up against the Xenai next to them.
Just like home.
He thought of the great city that had fallen to become the home of the Xenai. Endless streets filled with Xenai slithering over each other. They never had a purpose or a goal, just the need to move. The movement of the camp was just the same, but with pent up anticipation. They had all come together to reach a goal, and the careless movement was gone. So many Xenai joined with purpose, it even frightened Fiher.
And yet, he would have to go there. He could do nothing to further his own goal here. Perhaps something at the Xenai camp would allow him to continue on his own path. He crawled out of the bushes, shivering again at the thought of what he had to do.
He made one last pass around the camp. The echoes of people in his mind were all unfamiliar. He sighed and continued past the camp to the west. The words of the sermon got louder and louder. He brushed it away by reaching down for his first memory of the girl.
“I won’t hurt you. I am Fiher.” He had told her.
“Fur?”
He smiled at the memory. She had been so small, but not fragile. She killed her first Xenai not long after that meeting. Fiher had been glad. She deserved to live freely. She was the reason he had been free for so long, after all. He reached the clearing that was filled with Xenai and slipped into the crowd. He took notice of how many more there were than had fought in the last battle. The Pact army still did not know what they were really facing. Pacing along with them, he continued replaying his memories of the girl. He clung to them like a log in the roaring rapids of the Xenai and the sermon.
We will gain the respect, power and standing that the Others keep to themselves. We will multiply our numbers and this world will be ours. Only then can we be free.
34
Tani
Tani had not eaten yet. The excitement of the followup with Mrs. Tatlock had quelled her appetite. With the high rejection rates and low source manifestation of the patients that came right after her, the fact that they had heard nothing from the Tatlock family was already good news. Today they would know exactly how good it was. Tani perched in the corner of the operating room, taking in every detail as Delilah walked in with Mrs. Tatlock.
“How have you been feeling?” Delilah asked her as she sat at th
e table where they had done her surgery. Tani remained wordless while the words exchanged skipped past her. Her mind filtered out most of it and keyed in to what was relevant as she studied the way Mrs. Tatlock moved.
Mrs. Tatlock smiled back at Delilah and made a point of glancing over at Tani, “The pain and aches have gone away and I’ve been able to help Mara with the chores again. Poor girl has been taking care of our room for years.”
Delilah was better with the patients. It seemed silly for Tani to talk to them when she had nothing to say, and they rarely did either. She hardly cared about who cleaned at the patient’s home, nor was it relevant data. Tani noticed that Mrs. Tatlock’s gesturing was not quite in sync with her words. There was a slight delay after her words before an appropriate hand motion, like the signal took a second too long to travel over the right synapses. She made a note in her and Delilah’s shared documentation on the patient, requesting for Delilah to test nervous system signal time via a sequence of movements without speech.
Mrs. Tatlock was droning on about how she was considering opening a food cart up. Her family recipe for rice and corn flatbreads had been famous locally, especially when they had stuffed them with marinated meats. It momentarily distracted Tani, thinking about a good flatbread. She brought her thoughts back into focus and messaged Delilah, “Keep her distracted and talking, but get her to stand and walk without help.”
Delilah glanced at her LightTab, then asked Mrs. Tatlock a question about the family recipe as she gestured for her to stand. As she stood, Tani watched as Mrs. Tatlock tilted too far forward. The forward lean extended all the way through her body, and she made no movements with her feet to catch up and keep from toppling over. It appeared instead to Tani as if some external force pushed Mrs. Tatlock into an upright position. She made another note asking Delilah to do more extreme balance tests.
The unnatural force to her movements continued as Delilah ran her through the tests that Tani kept adding to the list until she decided they had to take the testing to the next level. She messaged Vin and told him they needed the extra diamonds in the storage room. As she waited, she began setting out the tool trays at regular intervals around the table.
“Mrs. Tatlock, will you get back onto the table and lay down?”
Tani only had four trays, so she brought over the lights and anesthetics machine as well.
“Don’t worry,” Tani heard Delilah say, “We aren’t operating, we are just using the surfaces for a test.”
Tani looked up and only then noticed Mrs. Tatlock’s tight grip on the table’s edges as she watched Tani set up the room very similarly to how it was set up for surgery. Tani nodded, “Yes. Just another test, nothing is wrong.”
Mrs. Tatlock nodded back at her and placed her hands into her lap. Vin burst into the room with his usual lack of decorum, chewing a mouthful of food as he nodded at the patient and handed the bag filled with the gems to Tani. He left without saying anything, slamming the metal door.
Tani dumped the metal containers out of the bag onto the nearest tray and opened each, creating a small pile of diamonds of various sizes. She swiped the containers back into the bag and dropped it onto the floor before moving around the room placing the diamonds on the surfaces she’d put around the room, as well as placing two on top of the blood and medicine fridges behind the operating table. She started with the smallest diamond and increased the size with each platform.
‘’Alright, Mrs. Tatlock, I would like you to lay back and close your eyes," Tani said. Once Mrs. Tatlock had obeyed, she continued, “Now, I want you to focus on the tray at the end of your feet. Try to feel the diamond. Sense it. Let me know if you can feel it. “
Mrs. Tatlock sat with her eyes closed for several moments, her eyebrows creased as she focused. “I feel it,” she said.
“Great,” Tani said, “now, I want you to imagine it’s a part of your body. Imagine it’s attached to the end of your fingertip.”
“Um, okay.”
“Got the image in your head?”
“Yes.”
“Lift your hand off the table straight into the air.”
Mrs. Tatlock raised her hand, and as she did, the diamond raised off the tray in an arcing pattern, as if she attached it to the tip of her fingers. Tani heard Delilah gasp to her right.
“Put your hand back down.”
The diamond floated backdown to its original position.
“There are eight diamonds spread around the room. I want you to find them all—feel for them without opening your eyes. Let me know when you’ve found them.”
Mrs. Tatlock remained still for a long time before she exhaled heavily, “I can find three.”
“Okay. We’ll work with that. Think of yourself like the sun. The three diamonds are planets, orbiting around you. Imagine the lines of the circles of their orbit around you. It doesn’t have to be flat, they don’t have to stay where they are now. Make your own orbits up.”
Tani had barely finished her explanation before the diamond near Mrs. Tatlock’s feet and the two nearest to it rose off their platforms. The first stopped moving upwards in an arc, but the other two continued until a thirty-degree angle formed. The second diamond stopped, and the third continued moving up for another thirty degrees. Once it reached its endpoint, each diamond began its orbit around Mrs. Tatlock, creating a perfect band of rotating diamonds the height of her head outside the operation table.
“Good. Now, don’t try to find a fourth diamond in the room. Just imagine a fourth orbit path.”
A gem from near her head jumped into the air and rotated around her head. Delilah scooted uncomfortably beside her, glancing around at the other diamonds around the room as if to make sure they would not hit her if Mrs. Tatlock decided to use them. Tani suppressed her small smile at Delilah and told Mrs. Tatlock to add a fifth path. The lights caught on the facets of the largest diamond as it jerked off the base Tani had placed it on and zoomed toward Mrs. Tatlock.
“Add three more paths.”
One at a time, the final three stones floated into the air to join the now dense cluster of gems floating around the patient. Tani stood still and watched for a moment, enjoying the rainbow reflections on the walls. Delilah looked a little frightened. It was more than likely surprise, but they were nearly the same emotion for Delilah until she had quite a lot of time to process new information. Tani, on the other hand, had already leapt from surprise to curiosity to excitement to planning. She needed to get Mrs. Tatlock out of here so she could run her plans by the others.
Tani sat in the center of her cot, leaving Delilah and Vin to stand near the flap to her quarters. “Well, this is an amazing problem,” she said.
Vin took a bite of his apple, “I don’t get the big deal. Isn’t source connection one of the end goals of this whole thing?”
“Yes and no.” Delilah cut in, “We expected some capability to appear, but not this soon or this strong.”
“Or for it to be the true reason for the patient’s progress.” Tani said.
‘’How didn’t you expect that?" Vin asked, a few pieces of apple flying from his mouth.
“You really need to keep food limited to the meal hall... We expected the implants to do some natural healing. A sort of—subconscious healing Source cast. That is how the Illara’s figure out which children have a high enough attune to an element to become Source-casters. But, there was no evidence of that in Mrs. Tatlock today. The evidence from her tests instead points to her being able to use Lifecasting to suppress pain and move herself. She had no idea she’s doing it, like it’s purely intuitive. And while if she were to learn proper Lifecasting, she could heal herself properly—She could also figure out that she doesn’t just have a diamond implant.”
“Oh,” Vin said, turning over the apple in his hand and considering it before taking another large bite.
“Or since she is untrained, she could hurt herself. There is a pretty big difference between moving carbon based objects and healing with Lifeca
sting. Even blocking pain is just blunting receptors, not fundamentally changing the body’s anatomy. Maybe we should stop the implants for a little while,” Delilah said, glancing back and forth between Vin and Tani.
Tani shook her head, “No, the threat to our method only comes from Lifecasting. No one else could develop the source ability to sense what we did. We just have to suspend diamond implants or be honest with diamond patients. Given Mrs. Tatlock’s success, however, I want to talk to Odi’s mom. She’s completely bedridden. She’s the perfect candidate for phase two with diamonds, we will just have to be honest. What do you think, Vin? Can we trust them?”
Vin nodded, “With today’s success, I think so. They’re already on board with us completely. Alynn doesn’t have much time left. I think they’ll go for it and keep our secret.”
Tani looked at Delilah. She didn’t say anything, but nodded.
“Alright,” Tani said, clapping her hands in finality, “on to phase two!”
“Tani?” Delilah’s soft voice broke through her thoughts about the supply problems they were going to have to work around.
“Come in.”
Delilah stepped in and Tani heard her shuffling her feet as the flap fell back into position behind her, “I—uh—wanted to talk about Phase Two.”
“Okay, I’ve been thinking about a lot of things, too. We are going to have to get more of the crystals from the field. I’ll talk to Vin about it in the morning, but between the bigger implants and taking on more patients, we’re going to need considerably more. Do you think you could figure out what a month’s supply will look like?”
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