New Light

by Ben Johnston

  Jonathan put his finger back onto the communication device. Its light turned white. A voice came out. “Communications.”

  “Yes, this is Director Weaver, again.”

  “How may Central Communications be of service, Director Weaver?”

  “Can you please reflect me to the Medical Tower General Hospital.”

  After a moment of silence, a woman’s voice sounded out from the device. “Union General Hospital, how may I help you, Director?”

  “Yes, my nephew Tom Weaver and my colleague Christopher Cernon are there with a patient called. Well, the Golden Girl, you probably know her.”

  “You mean Anniya Hawkins. Would you like a message sent to them?”

  “Yes, please, immediately.”

  Tom stared at Anniya laying in the bed. “Suns and ruin, Doc. Look at that. They stuck a needle in her arm.” The young man’s brown eyes followed the clear tube connected to the needle in Anniya’s arm. The tube was a narrow, clear hose that ran up to a clear bag of fluid. He frowned.

  Christopher nodded. “Yeah. That’s standard medicine on fuel world hospitals.”

  Tom looked away from Anniya to Christopher. “Did you see her eyes, Doc’? Something isn’t right.”

  Christopher gave a slow, thoughtful nod, then shook his head. “Yeah, no. Her eyes looked weird, Sparky.”

  “My MDs say they’ve never seen anything like this.” Christopher and Tom turned to the doorway to see a kind-faced, older woman in a shiny gray suit enter the room. The woman bowed. “I’m Hospital Director Margeret Sarin.”

  They all turned to look at the sleeping Anniya.

  Margeret drew in a breath. “Our staff can’t detect anything wrong with her. Almost every medical test we run on her simply fails. We get no results from our standard suite of monitoring and scanning devices, and our sample devices either don’t register a thing, or else the device itself will actually disintegrate or vanish when it tries to make a reading.”

  Tom blinked rapidly. “Lumical materials disintegrate when they touch her?”

  Margeret nodded. “Lumical materials dephase instantly on contact with her.” Her gray eyebrows gave a slight jump. “Still, I’m happy to say that in spite of this, our lab was still able to do some standard microscope work and performed an array of non-lumical tests on her blood. Actual chemical tests.”

  Tom frowned. “Chemicals?”

  Margeret nodded. “Chemicals. The lab believes the results show some evidence of lumical poisoning.” Gazing down at the sleeping Anniya on the hospital bed, the hospital director frowned reassuringly and nodded. “We need to run more tests.”

  “But, not to worry.” The old doctor turned to Tom and Christopher with a fresh, soft smile. We’ve got the hospital’s entire records staff searching through every age in the medical archives. If there’s a non-lumical test we don’t know about, they’ll find it in the archives.”

  Margeret exited the room, leaving Tom and Christopher looking at one another.

  Tom spoke first. “This doesn’t sound good.”

  Christopher shook his head. “I’m sure they’re doing everything they can..” He stared down at Anniya in the bed. “I just don’t think it’s gonna do anything.”

  Another figure brisked into the room, a slim young man in a tight-fitting uniform. He held out his hand at Christopher, offering a transparency chip. “Message for you, sir.”

  Christopher took the chip. The courier promptly saluted then left. The bearded archeologist then phased the chip up into a transparency and read the message aloud.

  “Chris, Tom. The Tower directors believe Vectus may be planning to launch a massive attack against the Union. In response, the Towers will be locked-down. The general hospital is inside the medical Tower, so you’ll be safe, but you won’t be able to leave the Tower. If you hear the alarm, it means it has begun. Otherwise, if there is no alarm, the Towers will open. So just stay where you are. Stay safe. We’ll see each other again after this storm passes.”

  Christopher looked at Tom. “Something’s about to happen, Sparky.”

  Suddenly, the sound of an alarm wailed through the hospital and across the Tower floor’s plain.

  At that moment the skies across a million Union worlds darkened as sky-blanketing armadas of Vectan battleships came out of sliplight, millions appearing suddenly, directly above all the cities and countrysides to immediately unleash their great weapons onto the surface. Like a hail of blinding stones, the skys were cluttered with gleaming, bright bolts being thrown down from the battleships, a heaven of colorful shooting stars streaking down from the dark skies to smash into the cities. Blinding lines of fluorescent light explosively seared and upended the countryside below the sky-covering battleships.

  The Towers stood tall on Administra as the skies around them darkened with smoke and the huge shadows of the shining Vectan battleships. Huge, blinding bolts impacted against the massive Tower walls only to fizzle away leaving no mark or trace on the huge gray surfaces. Outside the Towers, the sky burned from the rising fires and falling bolts. Buildings were obliterated in tremendous explosions and hillsides were blown-away in volcanic-like eruptions by the pure-colored lines of neon light lancing down from the great leviathan craft.

  Inside of the Towers, the alarm ceased. In the general hospital, in Anniya’s room, there wasn’t even a rumble or hint of a shudder. All was quiet.

  Frantically, Tom spun to Christopher. “Doc, what do we do!? We can’t just sit here, hiding in a Tower! We gotta do something..”

  Christopher was smiling. “Listen to you, Spark! You’re ready to go out into the big world!” He made a fist and swung it in front of his chest. The archeologist then dropped the fist and his smile and stared at Tom with a flat expression. “But the Towers are sealed, Tom. Nobody is leaving.”

  “I am.” Anniya sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed, her eyes still black and silver.

  Christopher and Tom snapped around to stare at her. Tom spoke. “Anniya. You’re. You’re what?”

  “I’m leaving.” She stood. “I can save the Towers. I think I know what to do. Or I think I know where to find the answer.” Her eyes gleamed with shadows and shiny lines.

  Tom spoke. “Anniya. You should rest. Right now, we’ve got bigger problems than the Towers falling in five years. Besides, you can’t even leave the Towers. Nobody can. The Towers are sealed. They’re closed. We have to wait until the directors unseal them.”

  She glanced down, seeming to see something that wasn’t there. She turned her silvery gaze up to Christopher, then to Tom. “Goodbye, guys.” She vanished, leaving Tom and Christopher stunned.

  Chapter 54

  As the battleship-darkened sky glittered with the downpour of deadly bolts, next to the great Towers, bigger than a storm system, an enormous, pitch-black rupture opened in the sky itself. From this storm-system-sized rip emerged a vast, horizon-spanning shadow.

  The Shadow Sword.

  Battleships plowed through cloudbanks, making way for the great black sword as it pushed through the sky towards the Towers. It struck high up, the shadow tip of the great black ship, and as it pierced the first Tower, on impact, a blinding butterscotch flash issued forth, coloring the assaulted city and landscape around the Tower, painting the smouldering wreckage and distant exploding farmlands with a deep yellow hue.

  From that flash point high up, out of the glowing spot where the view-dominating black sword in the sky pierced the Tower, there issued forth a gleaming, spherical, shockwave. The shockwave grew out like a great bubble, drawing curved lines of light and vapour on the tower where the shockwave’s surface met the wall, disrupting the atmosphere, creating a misty cloudfront on its outward-expanding, spherical surface as it descended towards the ground.

  The massive shadow of the sword in the sky continued to sink into the tower, the edges around its entry glowing sun bright as the glowing spherical shockwave from the initial piercing impact finally reached the ground.

&nbs
p; With a tremendous, chest rattling, body-slamming, boom, the trees and buildings were struck by the churning energy of the shockwave from above. Trees swayed violently, broken branches and leaves were thrown into the air as if in both a quake and a hurricane. The sword continued to drive through the tower until, in another sunbright butterscotch flash and explosion, the tip emerged, exiting out of the back of the Tower. The explosive exit of the Shadow Sword threw out a slow-motion cone of blinding, bright debris, big pieces of the Tower which disintegrated in the air like melting suns, landscape-illuminating glares brighter than the hail of glaring bolts falling from the dark ceiling of battleships.

  Chapter 55

  Anniya stared at the sharp shadows of Tom and Christopher. Their white-silver edges gleamed. She looked down at a point of light. Through the black, roaring downpour, she took a step down, towards the little shining light. As she took the step, the dark rain rushed upwards at her, striking her at a slight angle, leaving swirling patterns of black liquid in the air above and behind her as countless shadows shuffled by. Then the great looming shadows of the Towers were behind her, tremendous shadows rising away forever, while also being within arms’ reach.

  She shook her head and glanced away from the mind-bending Tower shadows. All around her stood the silver outlines of trees. Looking up through the roaring black rain, she gazed at a sky undulating with activity, boiling with battleships slipping into and out of the realm.

  She dropped to one knee.

  There was no black rain falling around her, no silvery shadows curving and overlapping.

  She kneeled in a forest smelling of warm ground. Now, instead of a steady roar, there were ear-pounding booms and claps blasting out all around. The sky, dark with battleships, flashed like a lightshow while her short auburn hair whipped gently in a random wind.

  Suddenly she was lit from above with a blue light. Glancing up with her silver-shadowed eyes, she drew in a deep breath, then vanished. With a blinding flash and a deafening, percussive explosion, a white-blue bolt slammed into the ground where she had been standing.

  The dark drops that fell from the sky were drawn to Anniya. Most drops shot off after coming into contact with her. Others bounced off more gently, some curving back to bounce once or twice more before finally launching themselves away from her at high speed.

  The loud roaring around her faded. The black rain vanished. Anniya was perfectly dry.

  She was inside the Library of the School standing beside the glowing Pillar. Even more noiseless than usual, the Library of the School was deserted. The great silence of the big space was gently visited by the occasional muffled sound of distant explosions. The white marble floor shuddered slightly.

  After the shaking stopped and all was again quiescent, Anniya walked forward to the glowing Pillar, drew in a long, deep breath, then vanished.

  She looked around her, surprised. There were no shadows. She glanced up. There was no black rain. She held her cupped hand to her ear, blinking. There was no roaring.

  Her eyes went wide. “I can breathe!” Her eyes remained wide as she exhaled swirling patterns of vapor.

  Bathed with a butterscotch light from beneath, Anniya looked down at a blinding object. Her eyes, two huge round balls of silver shadows, were fused to the thing. She mumbled to herself. “When I was in the Vectan prison. That’s what I saw through the sliplight. All the way from the other side of the universe.”

  It was a simple ball of pure gold shining with blinding light.

  The blinding object floated in the air, just a short distance away from a glowing pedestal. Anniya stared for a moment, transfixed on the pure object of burning gold.

  Then, breaking away from the golden object, her eyes slid to the surrounding darkness. “Is someone there?”

  A voice, rich and pleasant, spoke. “I am here, Anniya. I’m happy to see you again.” From out of the still and silent darkness came a fox. His golden fur and the faint coppery swirls, filigrees and sigils that adorned his coat were not just shiny, but shining with light. His eyes blazed pure white.

  “Spirit!” With a face-stretching grin, Anniya dropped down to Spirit’s level, reaching out and scratching behind the gleaming fox’s ears. Spirit’s bright eyes closed and his jaw fell open as Anniya moved to a quick chin scratch. She gave the little, incandescent fox a final pat on the head, then stood.

  She glanced at the floating sphere of flowing gold, then fixed her gaze on the glowing pedestal. She drew in a breath of the perfectly neutral air, then exhaled curving and curling trails of vapor. “Why can I breathe in here? This isn’t Tower thirteen, but it is too. It’s like the sliprealm here, but there’s no shadows.”

  The shining, golden lightfox sat atop the glowing pedestal. “This is not the slip realm, Anniya. This is the interstice, the plane between the planes.” He looked down with his gleaming white eyes at the pedestal upon which he sat.

  Anniya followed the intricate patterns of light woven across the pedestal’s surface. All the swirling patterns flowed together to meet at the concave depression in the center of the pedestal’s top surface.

  The lightfox stared at her. “And this, Anniya.” He glanced down again at the sigles and curls of light on the pedestal. “This is the end of the patterns.”

  Anniya stared at the little golden fox. Spirit met her gaze. “I have always followed a pattern, Anniya. That’s why I have followed you. And these patterns show us coming here, Anniya. And the pattern shows what you do.”

  The fox turned his shining eyes to the blinding sphere of gold floating in the air. “The pattern shows that is the goldenlight seed.” The fox looked back down at the patterns on the pedestal. “The patterns show you taking the goldenlight seed and placing it over your heart. The patterns show you with great power. The patterns show you safe and free.” Spirit stared at Anniya. “Forever.”

  “And the School? What happens to the Towers?”

  Spirit glanced back down, focusing his bright eyes on the glowing filigrees beneath his shining paws and copper claws. “The patterns show that in five years The towers will fall.”

  Anniya stared at the floating ball of blazing gold. “But if I am to take that golden thing and become so powerful, won’t I be able to save the Towers?”

  “No.” Spirit was staring at her.

  Anniya stared back with low brows. “No? Why not?”

  Spirit returned to gazing at the bright lines of sigils and filigrees on the pedestal. “Because the patterns show that if you take the golden seed into your heart, then in five years, the Towers will fall, Anniya.”

  Anniya glanced down at the glowing pedestal, then tilted her head, staring at the concave depression in the center of it’s top. “Spirit, did you notice that the golden seed is exactly the same size that the goldenlight sunstone was?”

  Spirit nodded. “I did notice that, Anniya.”

  Anniya continued to stare at the depression on the pedestal. “What would happen if instead of placing the goldenlight seed into my heart, I instead put the goldenlight seed into the pedestal?”’

  Spirit didn’t look up. “That would go against the patterns, Anniya.” The shining golden fox continued to gaze at the patterns on the pedestal beneath his feet.

  “So what? Do the patterns say what would happen?”

  “Yes. The patterns show what would happen if you place the goldenlight seed into the depression. They show that placing the seed into the pedestal goes against the pattern. They show an imbalance. Everything swirls in the wrong direction. The patterns show that if you place the golden seed into the pedestal, then you will lose goldenlight. The seed will fuse with the pedestal and the goldenlight plane will fuse with the Towers, all bound forever.”

  Anniya grinned. “So if I put the seed in the pedestal, the Towers will be saved!”

  The little fox looked up from the swirls of lights on the pedestal, staring at Anniya. “Yes, Anniya. The Towers’ goldenlight would be renewed. But if you did that, the goldenlight plane wou
ld be lost. This would shatter the shadow plane. The sliplight and anything that has the sliplight in it would be destroyed.”

  Anniya placed her hand on her chest. “The Vectans’ sliplight interactors would be destroyed. I could save the Towers. The Vectans would never be able to use the sliprealm again. It would be gone. Broken. I can give the Union and the School a chance. Chris and Tom can...”

  She glanced at the palm of her hand. “Everything that has the sliplight in it will be destroyed.” In her palm, a small dim point of light appeared, expanding into a floating mirrored disc. She looked at herself in the mirror, staring at her completely dark, silver-shadowed eyes.

  The mirrored disc in her palm vanished. She stared at the glowing fox, his golden reflection in her black and silver eyes. “Do the patterns say if I would be destroyed?”

  The little fox stared at her with his bright white eyes and did not answer.

  She shifted her focus to the blazing golden seed floating in the air. She looked down to Spirit who was now at her feet. “Oh, Spirit. I keep falling back, running away.” She glanced at the floating, glowing seed, then turned her head to the shining fox who was now sitting on her shoulder. She gave the golden lightfox a warm smile. “Hey Shiny Guy, I know you can’t tell them, but if they ask, when you answer them, could you please let Tom and Acida know that I’m sorry I ran away? And could you let Chris know I said thanks?”

  Spirit, now on the ground in front of her, nodded. “I will, Anniya.”

  She kneeled down and patted the gleaming, glowing, golden fox. “Goodbye, my friend.”

  The shining, golden Spirit watched with glowing white eyes as without hesitation, in one motion, Anniya stood, reached, and pulled the glowing seed from the air, then turned and set it into the concave depression on the pedestal.

  Instantly the seed, the pedestal, and Anniya herself shined with blinding light, like three suns. In the next instant, swirling lines of rich light shot out across the floor of the vast dark space, branching and swirling into blindingly-brilliant swirls and patterns. Spirit shined all the more brilliantly, his mirror-golden coat reflecting the dazzling light show, sparkling as the sun-bright patterns climbed the distant surrounding wall.