She turned her back to the cage, looking carefully at each of her implanted rats. She heard Vin retreat out of her cube. She considered each rat in turn, wondering if she should implant some of the new samples in any of them. The most successful Blight implant had been the rat whose bones she had broken.
It’s too soon. I can’t know if the Blight alone has any side effects.
Too bad Ayna was smarter than the Feeds gave her credit for. She had locked down Mrs. Tatlock’s autopsy data with an air gapped network in the U Labs. If Tani had just been able to get that data, she wouldn’t have to be messing with rats to replace imaging she didn’t have the time to steal.
She sat on her cot, staring at the cage, placing the samples next to her, then pulling out her study notes. She shuffled through each page that contained detailed notes on each subject that had been implanted with the Blight crystals. Various types of cancers, broken bones, amputations, organ regrowth, induced thyroid disease and seizures. The Blight crystal had helped with the cancer, the broken bones, and regrowing limbs. It hadn’t helped the hypothyroid rat at all. She had induced the seizures by injecting it with copious amounts of estrogen, lowering the seizure threshold, and the crystals didn’t seem to assist the rat in re-balancing its hormones.
“Goddamn it!” she yelped as she mentally compared the rats to Olivier’s nearly eternal youth.
Vin apparently had not gone far, as her cube flap was pushed aside and his head popped in. He raised an eyebrow at her. “Figured it out?”
“Figured out an experiment I should have done on Olivier. I’m going to need more rats, Vin.”
He smiled. “I figured. Odi has a half dozen he already said he could bring by tonight.”
Tani laughed, standing and carefully placing the samples into the storage compartment. “I guess that gives me a few hours to pull the crystals out of these guys…”
“Um, weren’t you supposed to be doing an op today?”
“Shit, yeah. Can you have Delilah prep? I really need a few hours of sleep if I am going to operate on something Terran.”
Vin nodded. “I’ll let her know.”
“Thanks. And thanks for going with me last night. I don’t think I could have done it alone.”
He looked at her with such intensity; she turned away so he wouldn’t see the worried look on her face. She crawled onto the cot and hit the light switch near her head. The flap shut, and she drifted off to sleep.
55
Ayna
Two days was enough to turn Ayna’s already chaotic world into something she couldn’t even recognize. Kaiban had been surprisingly congenial about the Blight implant. So, too, had his husband. They approached Ayna, asking for Jahwo to be a second trial. He was Terran, and so he fit perfectly into the experiment that Hunt was designing. Although they had been pleasant with her, Ayna saw the desperation within them. It had been easy to see that they hoped the crystals would prove powerful, and that the two of them could use that power. Likely to escape, then to bring Ayna down. Of course, Kaiban had no idea about the purification protocols she had made Hunt put together. If any test subject displayed powers they couldn’t control, the testing chamber would be incinerated. Consequently, she agreed to their request.
Jahwo was implanted the day after Kaiban. They were both moved to the first testing chamber that was constructed. Ayna brought in some basic items from her home and moved them into the apartment she had put together for the couple. She was going to be spending a lot more time at the lab.
Teams were working on the Nagata, pulling more of her paneling apart to bring it into the lab. It was the only material available to them that would be able to contain the fire, if they needed to enact security measures. Inside the constructed rooms, a smaller containment chamber was built with the thick glass windows that were left from the generation ship. They would allow one of the science team to enter and speak with the subjects while being a little protected from the purification process. Within each living chamber, they placed a series of eight LightTabs locked down to have a constant video and audio feed from the room. Ayna hoped they didn’t have to use the purification protocols. Losing subjects would be hard, but eight LightTabs were nearly irreplaceable. It would take weeks to scavenge up parts to build new ones, assuming the Ditch even had enough working parts to piece together.
Her prisoners were marked to come to the labs once the containers were constructed. She had picked two more Illara, another Terran and an Inari. She had thought about approaching Kingston and taking him up on his offer, but she feared his casters would talk to him about what she was doing, and Kingston would never agree to locking them up at the U Labs.
So for now, construction raged on as Hunt and his team kept a close eye on Kaiban and Jahwo. Despite their insistence that they were recovering well and not experiencing anything new or strange, Hunt had made pages of notes on their behavior. Ayna read the report as he updated it on the private lab server as she watched the team scurrying around below the balcony of the second floor.
Kaiban seemed to find the entire world, or what he could see of it from the cell, absolutely fascinating. He would point things out to his husband, like how the reinforced metal wove together like a tapestry once you could see all the connections. Jahwo seemed to accept his statements as obvious, while Hunt and his team zoomed the cameras in on the metalwork, then declared him insane. It wasn’t until Tabitha came in for the evening watch that his statements started to make a very small amount of sense. She zoomed in on the latticed metal, took a snap, then started drawing all the patterns the craftwork made by tracing over the photo with a handful of contrasting colors. When she was done, the metal Wall had been transformed into a pile of multi-colored threads, all flowing like water from an origin point in the center.
“He’s not crazy,” she said, almost with disdain, as she shoved her LightTab into Hunt’s hands.
He looked at the photo, “If he’s seeing this everywhere, he might be.”
Tabitha just laughed in response, “Maybe someone put some bad mushrooms in his lunch—or some fantastic ones.”
Hunt looked at her, confusion written across his face.
God, was he ever normal?
Although they all seemed most interested in Kaiban’s erratic behavior, Ayna found herself more interested in Jahwo. He remained calm and spent the past two days silting on the bed in the room. Occasionally, he would tip his head, as if trying to hear something, even when Kaiban was not speaking. He seemed to react whenever someone entered the containment chamber. She appeared to be listening to them, beyond their silence.
Ayna sent a note to Hunt suggesting both subjects go through auditory and visual stimulation tests. He responded instantly, “We’ll start with that in the morning.”
* * *
Ayna pushed herself up out of the bed in her lab apartment. She ached all over. Her back seized up tight as she went to stand. She fell back down to a silting position.
I will need a new mattress in here.
It was a miracle that Jahwo hadn’t complained about this thing. It was so bad, Ayna suspected she might sleep better on the floor. She took a deep breath and pushed off the bed, groaning as she straightened her back to stand upright. She twisted in a stiff motion, grabbing her jacket off the back of the tufted chair next to the bed. She slid it on, fighting to keep her back straight as she glared out her pain at the rips in the chair’s upholstery, where chunks of stuffing poked out.
It was getting late--she’d have to skip the trip to the kitchen and head down to the lab.
As she made her way to the platform, she noticed a stack of paintings. Tabitha fluttered over them like a protective mother. Ayna stepped up next to her, peering down at the first painting. The painting was of Prin, with the Nagata featured prominently at sunset. The splash of orange and purple hues reflecting off the Nagata’s hull that remained, with the light filtering through the ripped off sections. The shadows and buildings of Prin were all cast in a deep, saturat
ed blue. It was stunning.
“Is this your work, Tabitha?”
Tabitha looked at Ayna with surprise. “Yes, uh—I told them it was just my private art collection—please, don’t tell them. It’s hard enough being the only girl on the team without being judged for my non-scientific pass-times.”
Ayna looked again at the painting and pulled it forward to reveal the next painting stacked behind it. It was a beautiful rendering of the source trees. “They’d be foolish to judge you. These are phenomenal. But, I know the feeling; I won’t say a word.”
Tabitha smiled at her, then stepped away, giving Ayna a moment to look at the other three paintings that remained.
Hunt walked up, glancing at the last piece of artwork as Ayna admired it. “Surprising she wasted money on them,” He said, with a little too much volume. Ayna heard Tabitha suck in her breath behind her.
“I don’t know what she paid for them, but I’d happily double it to take the collection back to my home.”
Hunt rolled his eyes, reaching over to grab the painting at the front. He jerked it into his hands without looking at it and started towards the cell that contained Kaiban and Jahwo. “I want both of you taking notes.” He ordered Tabitha and the other assistant. Kased?, she thought.
She walked behind them as they all approached the cage. They opened the first set of doors and Hunt stepped through, up to the inner tempered glass doors. He opened the food slot and, with a distinct lack of ceremony, shoved the painting through the hole. It scraped the edges, and Ayna winced. She sidled up next to Tabitha, who had retreated from the door to inspect what was happening to her work through the LightTab cameras. “I wasn’t joking about buying them. Even after Hunt’s rough handling, they are amazing. I think they’d go well in my office—actually. A reminder of what I am serving.”
Tabitha offered a weak smile, “I’ll think about.” She had moved her face inches away from the oversized display panels, scrutinizing the painting.
Hunt and Kased closed the outer doors and came to the panel. Hunt tapped the icon that would allow him to speak into the room. “Describe the painting to me. Kaiban first.”
Kaiban was already holding it, running his fingers over it, causing Tabitha a great deal of discomfort. “Amazing. The light, the buildings, the connections between them—so vibrant. Captured as perfectly as any simple Terran could.”
Simple Terran?
Jahwo stepped up next to Kaiban. He remained silent, but reached out and touched the painting, closing his eyes.
“Well, what do you see, Jahwo?” Hunt interrupted her as he swayed in time with the movements of his hands across the dried colors.
His eyes snapped open and he looked directly at the LightTab above him, the one Hunt was focused on. “I see everything.” He turned his head to look into another LightTab; the one that Tabitha was viewing. “I see heartbreak. Loneliness. A lost love? No... a brother. Gone. Painted from the rocks on the outskirts, you would sit on with him and talk for hours. Your only real friend.”
Tabitha sucked in a deep, shuddering breath. Ayna glanced at her. A single tear ran down Tabitha’s cheek as she fought back more.
56
Hafi
It wasn’t that everything was shit. Just the one thing Hafi didn’t want to be shit. Shara’s reports on finding Blight Crystals were bad enough. Now, Hafi had to deal with the blasted Source-casters trying to play with the damn things. At first they had all been rightfully terrified of the stuff. But, again, boredom won—the fear turned into a game of dare, which escalated into a competition over who would achieve Source-casting fame. It had taken all of a week since the first patch was found.
When Kerina had come running into the command tent, Hafi was certain that he would be rounding up more casters for using the crystals, but instead, the boy huffed something about the scouts. Haft grabbed him by the shoulder and swiveled him into a chair, “Breathe, child.”
The kid gulped down some air and then spit out another breathless sentence, “North scouts got jumped. Still alive, but they stole their LightTabs”
“Jumped by Xenai? That makes no sense. They don’t leave people alive and they don’t use LightTabs.”
The boy shrugged, breathing at a normal pace, “They didn’t have any idea either. They said the Xenai looked at the LightTabs and headed east.”
It dawned on Hafi what they were doing, “Our game might be up. They are using the Tabs to track Shara. She’s the only thing east from there.”
A look of panic swept over the boy’s face and his voice cracked, “Well, shit. They’ll come for us if they get her.”
Hafi glared at the boy, “There’s a lot more at stake than just them coming after us.”
He spun around and grabbed his own tab off the table, sending a message to Shara, “Xenai are using LightTabs to track you.”
It’s not enough. I have to do something!
He tossed the Tab onto the table and whirled around to face the boy again, “Go to Phoenix squad and the Source-casters—tell them they’re heading out to find Shara and bring her back safely.” He paused, “Hell, tell Dragon and Shadow they’re going too.”
The boy balked, “Seventy-five soldiers to bring her back? What if the Xenai attack us while they’re gone?”
Hafi grabbed the boy by his wrist, pulling him from the chair, “Question my orders again and you’ll be running water for me, not commands.” He pushed the boy towards the entrance of the tent.
The flap closed behind the boy, only to be shoved open again as a soldier entered.
“Sir!” The soldier saluted, snapping his heels together.
Hafi dismissed the salute with a casual wave, “Why are you here?”
“We’ve analyzed the Xenai movements, using the stolen LightTab data and scout reports.”
“Do you want praise for doing your job or do you hare something to report?”
“Uh—yes, sir. I mean, I have something to report, Sir.”
Hafi looked him over when he stopped talking, “... And that something would be?”
“They’ve mobilized most of their army. They’ve been combing through the mountainside to the northeast.”
“I’m aware, they stole the Tabs and are going after Shara.”
“Well, yes. But it’s not just the one team. They sent everyone. And the scout patterns for the last few weeks match the LightTab data. Not long after she left camp, the entire Xenai army broke into groups, like they were searching for her before she started ambushing the Xenai.”
Hafi felt the alarm jolt through his body. An echo of Ayna popped into his head from ten years before, when a large group of Xenai charged the northwest Prin gate, yelling Shara’s name. “We knew nothing about them until today. Now we know they want Shara. To kill her, or for some other purpose, I don’t know. But, I know we can barely fight them. Without our walls, they’d wipe us out. If they want her, then we must keep her safe. All of Prin’s survival relies on them not getting what they need.”
A sinking stone of terror descended with a crash into his stomach. “It’s all been a lie—a distraction.”
The soldier looked confused, “What?”
Hafi snapped at him, “I can’t explain to you right now.” He pointed to the door, “Out.”
This changed everything. He grabbed the Tab again, commanding Shara to head south then loop around west to camp, he was sending a few extra squads to meet up with her. He started a frantic message to Ayna, tapping on the screen in a frenzy.
You were right; they are after Shara. No idea why. We shouldn’t have brought her here. Should we use her to bait them from Prin or send her home? They have thousands of reinforcements.
He stared at the message, trying to think of some reassurance to add, but he couldn’t think of anything. There was no light for him to find in the situation. If she went back to Prin, she would bring the hordes of Xenai down upon the city. If she stayed, she’d bring them down on the entire army. The impending disaster, whichever option
of the two it was, bore into him, darkening his thoughts. Ayna would have to make the call; Hafi couldn’t decide which group to condemn to death.
Before he could send the message, his Tab chimed, and a message popped up, marked with an urgent symbol. He tapped on it. An update from the western scouts.
“Reinforcements have arrived at the Xenai camp. We are estimating over ten thousand new troops.”
Hafi threw the Tab onto the table with such force it shattered, glass shards flying in every direction. He slammed his fist onto the table, the burning pain of glass slicing into the side of his hand almost felt like relief. He roared in frustration, “Fuck!”
57
Ayna
Ayna was surprised in the morning when she walked into her assistant’s area outside of her office. A large group of people filled the area. She recognized Conlan and Dom at the front of the crowd. A chorus of calls went up as they all caught sight of her.
“Mrs. Shae!”
“Ayna!”
“Stateswoman!”
Conlan and Dom said nothing. Conlan stepped forward from the group, raising a hand which instantly silenced them rest of them.
“Stateswoman Shae, we have a few very important topics to discuss, as I am sure you have ascertained from the group of Artificers with me. Would you like to discuss them out here or in your office with Dom and I?”
Ayna gave her best welcoming smile, “Lets step into my office.” She stepped past Conlan and Dom, only to be greeted by an unmoving wall of people. Conlan cleared his throat behind her and they parted, allowing her access to her own office. She slid her hand into her pocket and held down the graphical button on the bottom. Matt had programmed it to send an alert to security when held for five seconds. Her new assistant needed to be better about doing these things without her guidance.
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