Oblivion's Peril

by M. H. Johnson

  Julia's sympathetic gaze pierced his heart. "Val..."

  Then a coughing wheeze.

  Sten lurching up with a cry, gasping and shuddering.

  Elise, near catatonic, sobbed and cried out, grabbing her love with tender shaking arms. "Sten, Sten, you're alive! Thank all the gods, you're alive!"

  Brown eyes blinking with wonder, horror, and the strange thousand-yard stare of someone who had walked in the valley of death gazed into Val's own. "You did it, didn't you. Somehow... you... how?" He shook his head in a daze as Elise held him and sobbed.

  Val couldn't help but smile and wipe the corner of his eye, but it was Julia's gaze that snapped him back into focus.

  "There are others, Val!"

  "I know." Heart in throat for the still forms covered with sheets, Val paused only long enough to hand Sten and Elise both freshwater jugs and the Jordian equivalent of salt tablets.

  "Your body's salts are probably still out of whack. Take those with the water, and sip slowly," Val said, as Julia raced to the small emaciated figure of Gregor. Val's eyes widened, afraid they were too late, but Gregor's heart still beat, and it was a cautious Julia, still glaring at Val for earlier slipshod madness, who carefully inserted a drip line, infusing the tiny gnome-like man with fluids at as fast a rate as she felt prudent, gazing at Gregor with the eyes of an experienced physician, for all that she was younger than Val.

  "We're still going to give him a healing potion, but not until after this bag, unless his condition destabilizes."

  Val grinned. "Whatever you say, doctor."

  Julia couldn't help grinning back. "It really is amazing, that chart Mother made me master, the way I can just see all the variables in play and get a rough sense of exactly what I need to do." She shrugged. "It's not perfect, of course. The insights are general but, as mom would say, best practices more than 90% of the time. That extra 10% you only get with twenty plus years of dedicated experience in the field."

  Val turned to Elise, gazing at them all over Sten's head as she held him close, beautiful violet eyes radiating such gratitude and awe that it left him speechless. "Is Halvar still in his implant-induced coma?"

  Elise's eyes widened. "How on Jordia do you know that, Val?" She chuckled softly, shaking her head. "At this point, nothing you do could surprise me. Yes, Val, he is."

  Julia paled. "Oh shit." She actually began to tremble as she looked over Halvar's comatose form.

  Val blinked. "What's wrong?"

  "The chart. The chart doesn't have best practices for rehydrating someone in a coma like he is! And with all those implants?" She actually began to tremble. "No, no, something's wrong. I should know. The chart should show it. It's a self-actualizing proof!"

  Val held her tight, trying his best to soothe her. "It's okay, Julia. This is just one of those curve-balls life throws at you. Your chart probably assumes no one would be in a coma who wasn't a recent victim of an accident or medically put in a coma with proper support. This is just one of those extreme cases."

  Julia actually began to sob. "No. This feels wrong, Val, so wrong! Like suddenly finding that 2 + 2 = 5. It makes no sense!"

  And strangely it was Elise that was gazing at Julia with sympathy and odd understanding. "Is this your first chart mastered, child?"

  Trembling, Julia swallowed and jerked a nod.

  Wordlessly, Elise exchanged a glance with Sten. He actually found the energy to flash a tired smile so reminiscent of the roguish captain at his best. "Talk to the girl, Elise. I'll be fine."

  Wordlessly, Elise wrapped Julia in a gentle hug. "It's all right. It's always scary when you first find flaws in a paradigm, any paradigm we master. It's the disadvantage of how most people imprint the patterns. Their neurons imprint it as if it were an absolute truth, like mathematics. It would be more accurate to say it's a flexible para mathematical field. And medicine? No field has more variables than that. When you're ready to pursue your university studies on Phoebe, you'll probably be expected to memorize at least a dozen medical charts. Each is its own separate reality, each simultaneously incompatible with the others, yet completely interchangeable. Medical residency for our people is as much intuiting which chart to use in both diagnostics and surgery as much as it is mastering the charts themselves. But don't worry. 90% of the time you will use baseline, but surgeon specialists are expected to have mastery of even the most exotic applications."

  She gently rubbed Julia's brow. "Or are you being trained as a generalist? Learning the baseline charts to assist in whatever department or field might need a flexible cognitive? Flexibility and adaptability can be just as vital as specialization for explorers, settlers, entrepreneurs, and inventors. Of course, a true scholar seeks mastery in multiple fields, but you have centuries to pursue that path."

  Julia, still trembling, shook her head. "No. No, I just went to normal school, but the math was really, really easy. Just basic puzzles, you know? The answers so obvious! Mom was so impressed that she showed me real math; puzzles and proofs beyond anything in geometry or calculus, and somehow, somehow the whole field of medicine was tied in with it! It took me several frustrating summers and my grades slipped in my junior year because Mother was getting all intense, but then it finally clicked! The next day I joined her in the ER, and strangely no one said a word when I joined everyone in rounds. I didn't know mom was a Psionicist then, probably telling everyone to chill, and I just understood what was wrong and how to treat everyone we saw! Mother was so proud and I was so surprised, but she never said there were other charts I had to master!"

  All this said in a rush as Julia clenched Elise's hands tightly, still coming to grips with a flaw in her reality. Elise's eyes widened. She turned to Val. "Don't tell me..."

  Val grimaced. "Yes. She's human. Like me. Or half human, anyway."

  Elise swallowed, gazing at Julia with surprise. "Val, are you saying..."

  "No time!" Val snapped, "I have to check up on Halvar! Julia, chart or no, let's look at this logically. An IV can't hurt. Comatose people get IVs all the time. We'll just go low and slow and avoid the healing potion unless he rapidly declines or your mom says we should give it to him, okay?"

  Julia jerked a nod. "I... okay... it makes sense, but, I can't find the proof for it! It's wrong, it feels so wrong, and now my head is throbbing!" She did her best to push away her discomfort, frowning intently as Val set the IV line, now strangely uncertain in all her movements. "Okay, I think he's stable. Yes, I'm sure of it." She closed her eyes in sudden relief. "Okay. Now I feel better. He's comatose, stable, we're rehydrating him. I'm sure everything will make sense again in a day or two."

  She frowned, gazing at the lip of the crater. "Shit. Now we have to get everyone safely back to the veli."

  Sten's soft chuckle washed over them. Val couldn't help but grin as warm brown eyes smiled into his own. "You do manage to find us in the most catastrophic of situations, Val, and damn glad I am for it." His gaze turned intent. "I owe you my life, kid. Twice over. You ever need an ace pilot, I'm here for you."

  Val winked. "I'll remember that, Captain. We still got to figure out a way out of here." He turned to Julia. "Stretcher?"

  Julia grimaced. "It could work, but carrying them up the lip of the crater? Honestly, I think my arms would give out pretty quick."

  "Don't worry about it, I'll take on as much weight as I can," Val assured, and soon enough a rather surprised Sten found himself seated in the back of the veli, he and Val helping to support and keep steady both Gregor and Halvar while Julia and Elise sat up front.

  "If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't believe it. Just how strong are you, Val?"

  Val grinned at Sten's awed expression, his muscles even now tingling with energy. In numeric terms, between his PRM-infused cells and his intense conditioning, his strength was 18. Less than 1 in 200 people were as strong as he was now, and at 23, his vitality was off the charts. His muscles had been pushed almost to the limits with Halvar's massive, implant-reinforced frame. Yet by the
time he had gone back down the crater to retrieve the Elementium that Gregor had left in stasis and Val effortlessly stored back in his dimensional rift, so useful for depositing magical or psionic items within, his throbbing muscles had already recovered.

  Val shrugged. "Let's just say the Intense Conditioning I got training under Halvar really paid off, and now I'm just returning the favor."

  Sten flashed his all too familiar cynical frown before abruptly chuckling, looking genuinely happy for all that his face was worn with exhaustion and exposure, saluting Val with one of the flasks Julia had handed each of them, tasting almost exactly like his favorite sports drink back home.

  "You know what, Val? That's good enough for me." He turned his head, gazing fondly at Julia and Elise, now chatting animatedly in hushed voices before bursting out into warm laughter. "We better be careful, my friend. If our girls team up, we're both in a world of trouble."

  Val chuckled at that. "I think we're definitely in trouble then. I'd be very surprised if they didn't."

  Sten raised a polite eyebrow, but Val smiled and said nothing, deciding it would be Julia's decision when to share her secret. He was surprised Elise hadn’t already figured it out, and grateful she was paying them such respect, holding off from instinctively probing their minds.

  But as they approached their destination Elise's happy chatter slowly trailed off, gazing at the fast-approaching villa in utter silence. Hands like claws clutching her seat, she said not a word. Julia, so intently driving and focused on their destination, hardly seemed to notice Elise's reaction.

  Val nodded at Sten, carefully shifting his position, gently patting Elise's shoulder who flinched. "It's okay, Elise. You're among family and friends."

  Elise stilled. "By all the gods. You know." It was not a question.

  Val nodded, saying what he had to. "Tytus is dead. Solena is dead. The assassin that was dispatched to take out your family instead fell in love and tried to help. Your mother's greatest regret was that she couldn't save you from the madman who trained you so cruelly."

  Elise turned her haunted gaze to Val, who instinctively lowered his gaze, though he did not move his hand from her shoulder, wanting that connection even if he always had to protect his mind. "Val?"

  "Yes?"

  "Were you that assassin?"

  Julia jerked to a stop as they approached the manor. She gazed at Elise in surprise. "Are you serious? Val's only 22! He's as human as I am!"

  Elise frowned, gazing at them both in confusion. "I'm not sure I understand."

  "Elise! Oh gods above, you’re safe!" Val turned his gaze to catch sight of Christine dashing from the front entrance of the manor, and before Elise could even register her shock, her mother had swept Elise into her arms, holding her tightly, sobbing and laughing. "Oh my precious child, how I had mourned for you, for so many years!"

  Elise's shocked expression melted into sobs, now holding her mother just as tightly, both of them sobbing and laughing and talking so fast Val could barely make it out.

  Sten just shook his head and smiled, and Val could swear he saw the man wipe a tear from his eye. "Family reunions. Something else, aren't they?"

  Val smiled and nodded, heart suddenly aching for the mother he had loved so fiercely as a boy, wondering what it would be like to hug her tightly and share the story of his life; leaving out the bitter, keeping only the sweet, knowing she'd do the same.

  Julia wasn't shy with her tears, smiling as they streamed down her cheeks, and never had Val thought she looked so beautiful. She smiled into his eyes. "I love happy endings. And now I have a sister!"

  Sten's eyes widened, and Elise gasped, gently stepping back from Christine, gazing at her and Julia both with wide eyes. Julia grinned, not hesitating to meet her gaze now.

  "I knew you were hiding something when we were driving back, but I wasn't going to pry, not after what you did for me. But the chrome ports, the love I felt between you and Val, and now this... " Elise turned to Val. "The girl you saved was my sister?"

  Val couldn't help smiling. "I guess it did sort of turn out that way. When I jumped through the gate before it had even been properly attuned, I was trying to hold onto Julia. To keep her safe. And then I come to in a massive vat of infused Silbion…"

  "And saved us all from an exceedingly gruesome end, kid," Sten commented, flashing Val a tired smile as he gripped his shoulder. "More than once."

  Val blinked away a stinging prickle he refused to acknowledge as tears. He smiled at the sight of Julia, Elise, and their mother laughing, crying, all of them talking at once. "Damn, but I love a happy ending," he said, instinctively pivoting to catch Sten as he came close to falling over.

  Sten blinked. "Halvar must have trained you something fierce. I don't recall you being this strong before, kid."

  Val grinned. "I maxed out my PRM skill. It's now Rank 10. Now Jordia's magic is sort of infusing all my cells with extra potency. My strength stat is now 18. My vitality? 23. I don't think humans normally get that high." He chuckled softly. "My legs are itching for a good workout even now. I wonder how long I could run at a dead sprint?"

  Sten's eyes widened. "You're still thinking of all of this as a game?"

  "Not a game,” said a rapidly approaching Dirk. "For us, it's just quantized."

  Sten blinked and pivoted towards the newest voice, quick on his feet for all that he was still weak, and had been on the verge of death just hours before. "Who the hell are you?"

  Val had already blinked and turned, faster even than Sten, though keeping his arm steady for his friend, pleased to see his Terran friends approaching even now, brow furrowing as he realized how very similar in looks and temperament Sten and Dirk both were.

  "Name's Captain Dirk Striker. Mage by class, warrior by temperament. Head of Guild Ottalaus." His smile turned to a frown. "Your brown eyes. Normally they're a giveaway we've run into another player. But you're not, are you? Your face is just off enough to be handsome in a way we can relate to, but somehow I don't think you ported into this game."

  He turned to Val and grinned. "He looks like he came straight out of Nova Wars, doesn't he?"

  Val flushed and didn't say a word. It was a thought he had often had himself.

  Sten furrowed his brow. "Val, what the hell is going on?"

  "These are my Terran friends, Sten."

  The ship captain blinked. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

  "That we all ported into the game? You got it in one!" a cheerful Yin, squeezing Dirk’s hand, happily chirped, before her graceful features formed a frown. "That is, well, until we jumped through. Now we're here. For real." She swallowed and shivered, her eyes widening as if the stark reality was only now hitting her.

  "It will be okay, Yin," Dirk soothed. "We'll get back somehow."

  "Wait! These Terrans, they're real? I thought it was all just delusion!" quipped none other than Gregor, a shock of curly black and white hair rising as the small man slowly righted himself, gazing at Yin and Dirk with no small surprise.

  "I've never seen an exotic like her. You really are Terrans!"

  Yin nodded enthusiastically. "I started as a mech-warrior, but now I'm cross-training as a mage. What class are you?" Her eyes widened. "Oh my god, you look just like a little mini-me version of Einstein! How adorable!"

  Gregor's exhausted eyes widened. "What are you talking about? What class? Your words are almost making sense, but you have the strangest accent."

  Yin frowned. "I just got Dominion language mastery. You should be understanding me perfectly!"

  Dirk turned to Yin. "I was wondering how you were speaking so fluently. I thought you were going to study it the same way I had, the old-fashioned way "

  Yin rolled her eyes. "We're on a foreign planet, Dirk, with people who'll lop your head off with Psiblades if you dare offend! I'm not a mind reader like Julia. I can't read the thoughts behind the words and translate languages automatically like Val seems to do, and we don't have the luxury of six month
s to learn the language the old-fashioned way. Besides, it didn't cost me anything! I know we're all holding onto our points because it feels crazy strange but like something momentous is going to happen, and the option popped up in my head for free this morning. And you know how much I like grabbing free treats when I can." She flashed a teasing smile and Dirk suddenly flushed.

  Gregor paled, turning to Val. "Saints above, it's true. You humans really are strange!"

  Val blinked and turned, noting the odd silence. Elise looking at him so strangely, Christine as well.

  "So it's true," she whispered. "Everything you told me. Even about your ability to level up, as you put it. As if this were all some sophisticated role-playing game."

  Christine nodded, gently squeezing her daughter's shoulder. "That is correct, Elise. Do you remember when I first told you about quantized universal triangulation, some twenty odd years ago?"

  Elise turned, giving Christine the strangest look. "Yes. I was just a girl then, having found my passion, eager to understand how the universe worked in all its wonder. To master the physical world." She swallowed, trembling, Christine's hand slipping into her own. "Then my awareness opened up to the realm of the mind. And that's when the nightmare truly began."

  Christine smiled and nodded, bittersweet tears streaming down her cheeks. "Yes, my love. You blossomed in ways I had only dreamed you would, and then you were taken away." She squeezed her daughters close. "And the fates have given me the greatest gift of all. The means to get you back."

  She kissed her daughter’s brow and stepped away, still squeezing Elise’s hand for comfort. "Elise, do you remember the core of that research?"

  Elise frowned. "It was so long ago… Wait, it got awful metaphysical, didn't it? Something about the soul."

  Christine nodded. "What's at the heart of our faith, our dark religion as some might say?"

  Gregor paled at that, quickly looking away.

  Elise trembled. "The path to greatness for any Highlord is either the path of contemplation, centuries spent striving to master the mysteries of our universe, or the path of blood." She paled, perfect violet eyes pinning Val's own. "To seize the power and potency of every foe to fall to our blades, all their endless potential becoming our own."