Brock pushed himself to his feet and limped forward. “I challenge you.”
“Brock, no,” Adriana said. “You need to stay off your leg.”
But Brock ignored her and held his two-handed sword above his head. While he was a large man, at least two meters tall, he was dwarfed by Blunderbore, who was almost four meters in height. It was by skill alone that Brock held off the giant’s attacks. Using his sword an extension of his arm, Brock’s blade searched for a chink in the dark giant’s defenses. Blunderbore swung his flamberge downward, but Brock parried the strike and countered with a pommel blow into the dark giant’s groin.
Brock heaved his Zweihänder in an overhand attack. Blunderbore took the blow on his forearm. The blade failed to bit, and the giant counterattacked with a punch to Brock’s injured leg. He roared in pain. Blunderbore followed up with a kick to Brock’s broad chest. The man flew against the wall, hitting his head against the rock, and fell unconscious to the ground.
Adriana ran to Brock’s aid, and Blunderbore pursued her. But, before the giant could strike, Adriana’s eyes rolled back in her head and a portal opened in front of Blunderbore’s face. The giant stopped in confusion. To his eyes, it seemed like Adriana and Brock had disappeared.
Seeing Blunderbore’s confusion, Cobol charged and slammed into the giant’s chest. The android wrapped his metal arms around the giant’s wrists like a pair of handcuffs. Gunfire rang from Jack’s side of the cave. Blunderbore’s dark flesh rippled with each impact, but the rounds tinkled harmlessly to the ground, doing no harm to the giant.
Blunderbore laughed, even as he struggled against Cobol. “No weapon can harm me.”
“No, but a key can,” Jenny said as she ran toward the android. “Kensei, throw me at him.”
“What?”
“Just do it,” Jenny insisted as she gripped the handle behind Cobol’s head and pulled the Riftkey free.
“I get it,” Kensei said as he took hold of Jenny’s uniform and tossed her up toward Blunderbore’s head.
Time to end it, Cobol said.
As Jenny flew through the air, she activated the Riftkey. The glowing blue edges ignited with a loud crack as Jenny passed through the veil of Adriana’s portal. As soon as she saw Blunderbore’s yellow eyes, she slashed with the Riftkey. A gray mist erupted from the blade as it bit through the giant’s neck. Jenny landed on the cave floor with a jolt and rolled to a stop.
The other Risi looked from the dead body of their champion to his head, which flashed orange and black as it rolled down the cave. One of the giants backed away. Soon, they had all turned and ran back toward the cave entrance.
“Let’s get out of here,” Jenny said as she returned the Riftkey to the virosuit, “before they change their minds.”
“Good idea,” Rygelus said as he tried to lift Brock off the floor.
“Let me carry him,” Kensei said. He slipped his long arms under Brock’s back and lifted the huge man onto his shoulder in one smooth movement.
As a group, they made their way up the tunnel. Jenny blinked against the brightness of daylight as she exited the cave. Below them, a crescent-shaped patch of trees surrounded the Tricaster, Rygelus’s crashed spaceship. Beyond that, a field of mud bubbled with hot, sulfuric gases. Brock looked even paler in sunlight.
Mazu pulled out a medkit from Jenny’s vest and tied a tourniquet around his leg to arrest the blood flow. “He needs medical attention right away.”
“Then, let’s go.” Jenny started back toward the Waypoint.
“Not that way,” Mazu said.
“Why not?” Jenny asked. “We could take him to Acacia City, right Kensei?”
“Yeah, I think I can carry him that far.”
“No,” Mazu said. “He won’t make it unless we operate on him immediately. We need to get in there.” Mazu pointed at the crashed ship, which, from this angle, appeared half-submerged in the rocky soil. Trees and undergrowth had long ago grown over the mound of dirt that was pushed up when the ship impacted.
Rygelus narrowed his eyes. “That spacecraft crashed thousands of years ago.”
“Trust me.”
Rygelus’s face was etched with pain. Looking out toward the ship, the place of this daughter’s death, he swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. “We will take him to the ship.”
Jenny slowly picked her way down the rough surface of the ridge. Loose rock tumbled ahead of her as she struggled to stay upright. It must have been much worse for Kensei, who was single-handedly carrying Brock.
Once they all reached the caldera floor, Mazu led the way to the derelict spaceship.
“How do we get in?” Jenny asked as they reached the ship.
Mazu ran her hands across the smooth silver surface of the spacecraft.
“There should be a door right around here.” Rygelus scraped moss away until the outline of a door became visible. He located a panel and pressed a silver button. “It won’t open.”
Kensei shifted Brock to his other shoulder.
Mazu pounded on the door.
“Adriana,” Jenny said, “maybe you can unlock it.”
“How?”
“You were the best at the electromagnetic maze; maybe you can see what’s going on with the door.”
Adriana looked at Brock and nodded. “I’ll try.”
Her eyes rolled back in her head, and two crystalline windows formed in the air. She pushed one of the portals into the wall, and a display of circuitry appeared on the other. It reminded Jenny of the third maze test, where they had to complete circuits to open the trapdoor. Adriana twisted and moved her portals inside the wall, and with a hiss, the door slid open.
“You know,” Adriana said, “I could almost feel the circuits. I bet with more practice, I won’t have to use portals to see them.”
Without Cobol’s glowing veins, it would have been pitch-black. Ceiling and wall panels were scattered on the floor, revealing the guts of the ship. Girders and supports were warped and broken. Walls were blackened by fire. It was cold inside the dormant spaceship, and the sweat on Jenny’s uniform caused it to cling to her skin like cellophane.
“This way.” Mazu led them down the curved hallway.
“How do you know where to go?” Jack asked.
Mazu looked at Brock and said, “We don’t have much time.”
They entered a circular room. Unlike the rest of the ship, the lights were on here, and everything appeared intact. It looked familiar. In fact, it was the same laboratory that Jenny had seen in her vision with Nimue. But it had changed since she’d last seen it. There were now two fluid-filled tanks, containing gigantic fetuses with asphalt-colored skin, and a third, smaller tank that contained a human-sized female fetus.
Mazu ran to a cabinet and pulled out medical supplies. She pointed at a stainless steel table. “Set him up there.”
Kensei laid Brock down on the table before collapsing onto the floor. Rygelus squeezed Brock’s huge hand and spoke reassuring words to his friend.
From the opposite side of the room, a voice spoke from behind a large black box. “Who’s there?” Then, Lance peeked around the box. “Mazu. What are you doing here?”
“Saving this man’s life,” Mazu said as she gathered supplies into the crook of her arm.
“It’s Lance,” Kensei said.
Adriana turned to Mazu, “Did you know that he was here?”
“Of course I did,” Mazu said as she set the supplies onto a tray next to Brock. “And be glad I did.”
After seeing Lance in this same room less than an hour ago, Jenny didn’t feel surprised at all. So, she instead asked to assist Mazu in opening and arranging the medical tools and supplies. After Adriana and Kensei overcame their shock, they joined in.
Rygelus couldn’t tear his gaze away from Brock’s face. He didn’t know anyone named Lance, nor did he care. “I knew this day would come”—Rygelus wrung his hands—“but I didn’t expect it to come so soon.”
“Don’t start mourning yet.�
�� Mazu set additional supplies on Brock’s broad chest and pointed at the blood-soaked pant leg. “Cut the clothing away from the wound.”
Rygelus picked up a pair of shears and cut Brock’s eviscerated clothing off. “Should we not remove this?” Rygelus touched the broken end of the arrow, which looked more like a broom handle sticking out of his leg.
“Not yet,” Mazu said as she cleaned the wound. “I believe it may be blocking an artery.”
“Rygelus.” Lance approached and put his hand on Rygelus’s shoulder. “It is good to see you again.”
Finally, Rygelus looked away from Brock and at this man named Lance. His eyes widened for a moment before turning his gaze back on Brock. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“He will live,” Lance said. “Mazu is quite skilled.”
After the wound had been cleaned, Mazu pushed a thick needle into Brock’s arm and set up a drip line of plasma. While holding a bandage to the wound, she pulled the arrow free and mopped up the dark blood that oozed from the hole. She inspected the wound and announced, “The artery is intact. He should be fine, but he’ll need to rest.” Mazu picked up a curved needle and a spool of black thread and sutured the wound.
Lance looked around the group and his eyes landed on the android. “Cobol?”
“Yes, sir.”
Lance studied the android and nodded in understanding. “I see that Lin had her own secrets.”
“Sir?”
“What are you doing here, on our spaceship?” Rygelus asked Lance.
“Continuing our original mission,” Lance said. “We were meant to produce an Æon, and train them to unlock the Terminal, so that is what I have been doing.”
Jenny recalled Nimue’s vision as she studied the embryonic tubes. “Were you trying to create life?”
“After being trapped in this realm for thousands of years, with no chance of escape, yes. Without all this,” Lance waved at the embryonic tubes. “There would be no Lin, no VRGo program, no Mazu.”
“What’s he talking about?” Jack asked.
Mazu ignored them and continued suturing Brock’s leg.
“Tell him, Mazu,” Lance said.
Mazu sighed and faced them. “I’m a clone.”
Lance shook his head. “You were born here, but you are not a clone. You are a genetically distinct engineered human.”
“Whose genetic material did you use?” Rygelus asked.
“Bits of Nimue and Astrea,” Lance said.
“You used my daughter’s DNA without asking?”
“You abandoned our mission, so I did what I had to.”
“You dug up her grave.”
“You buried the Riftkey.” Lance looked at Rygelus. “You abandoned the mission. After Astrea left, I believed that the Riftkey was gone forever, so I took her Waypoint key and left for Earth prime. I left to help all future Æons while you stayed here and sulked over your dead daughter.”
“Did you create Blunderbore too?” Jenny asked.
“Yes, along with Lin.”
“Why?” Adriana asked.
“I couldn’t count on discovering another Astrea, not by mere chance,” Lance said. “I needed Blunderbore to control the Risi, and I needed Lin to help me find another Æon.”
Just then, Jenny recognized what the large black box was that Lance had been working on when they came in. She pointed at the device and asked, “Is that Kett’l’s forge?”
Kensei looked where Jenny was pointing. “It is.” He looked at Lance. “Did you steal it?”
At that moment, all the dots connected in Jenny’s mind. “You used Blunderbore to steal the Waypoint from the Department of Transportation, and you took it to the Endeavor. Then, when Tyr attacked, you stole Kett’l’s forge and brought it here.”
“That means that you have a Waypoint here that leads back to the Endeavor,” Kensei said.
“Yes.” Lance pointed at the backroom through an open door. “A government like Tyr—who could enslave the Selkans—could not be allowed to have the forge. After Mister Torres revealed himself as a mole, I invented a plan to bring the forge here, and when a suspicious ship entered through the Terminal, I knew it was time to take the Waypoint.”
“You could have asked Kett’l,” Jenny said. “He would have understood.”
“I could not allow Kett’l to know the location of the forge, for his own safety.”
“Believe him,” Jack said. “I know firsthand how Victus can retrieve information.”
“You’re the one who brought him here,” Jenny said.
“Do not blame Mister Spriggan,” Lance said. “He is more innocent in all this than you know.”
“Did you kill Trey?” Adriana asked.
“I needed to find out exactly when Tyr would arrive, so I invited Trey to meet me in the forest. I planned to interrogate him, but Blunderbore jogged his memory a little too hard…”
“All this time”—Jenny shook her head—“Sadi has been taking her hostility out on me when it should have been you.”
“Miss Stevens has suspected me ever since I picked Mister Ward and her up the night of the raid. When she asked about the cargo, I told her that it was a new water pump for the Endeavor, but as you know, it was actually the Waypoint. I knew that she did not entirely believe me, but I could not reveal my plan to her.”
“You are just as bad as them.” Adriana glared at Lance. “You killed Trey, unleashed those monsters in Acacia City, and now you’ve turned your back on the Selkans. All for what, a big black box?”
“A box that made your keys.” Lance placed his hands on top of the forge and stared into its depths. “I do not expect you to understand the significance of such an invention. You could not know what lengths I would have gone to obtain this. That I have been trying and failing to reproduce this technology for thousands of years.”
“I know,” Jenny said as she recalled her vision with Nimue. “And you should also know that the forge won’t work for you,” Jenny said. “Kett’l was an Æon. The forge only enhanced his ability to craft nexum, much like the keys enhance our individual abilities.”
“Yeah,” Kensei said. “He’s like a quantum mechanic or something.”
Lance dropped onto the stool and ran a six-fingered hand through his hair. “That explains much. The lack of visible controls had me perplexed. After all this time”—he shook his head—“I am back to nothing.”
“No, not nothing,” Adriana said. “We could still save the Selkans.”
“How, Miss Thatcher?” Lance asked. “If you are here, that means Tyr has the Riftkey and the Selkans. Or am I wrong?”
“You’re not wrong,” Adriana said weakly, “but there must be something you can do.”
“Yeah,” Kensei spoke up. “If you save Kett’l than he can operate the forge. Plus, he built it, so imagine what else he could create in his lifetime.”
“You make a good point.” Lance smiled and stood up from the stool. “We must get Jenny to the Terminal. Follow me.” Lance walked between two worktables and put his hand on the doorway. “This Waypoint will take us to the Endeavor.”
“From there,” Jack said. “We can fly up to my ship and beat Victus to the Terminal.”
“What if the Tamarack follows us to the Terminal?” Kensei asked.
“I have a fleet near Mars that can defend you,” Lance said.
“You have a fleet?” Jack asked.
Lance shrugged. “You never know what’s going to come through the Terminal.”
Jenny and the others nodded in approval. It was a plan.
Over on the table, Brock groaned and stirred. “Rye,” he called out, half-delirious from the pain medication. “Where are we?”
“I am here,” Rygelus said. “We are safe.”
“Rygelus, will you be joining us?” Lance asked.
“No.” Rygelus looked into Brock’s face. “I will not abandon my friend.”
Lance nodded. “How about you, Mazu?”
“I have
a patient to attend to, and the next few hours are critical to his survival,” Mazu said. “Go, save the Selkans.”
“I…” Jack crossed the room and grabbed Mazu’s hand. “I just wanted to say goodbye, in case I don’t make it back.”
Mazu wouldn’t make eye contact with him, but she didn’t try to pull away. “Don’t even consider the possibility.”
Jack swallowed past a lump in his throat. “Look.” He took Mazu by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. “I never wanted to work for Victus. He tricked me. I know that what I did was wrong. But I’ll do everything in my power to make it right.”
“I know.” Mazu nodded and put her hand on his stubbly face. “Just get Jenny to the Terminal.”
“I will.” Jack clenched his teeth. “If it’s the last thing I do.”
Jack turned and joined the others as they entered the Waypoint room. Lance looked back at Rygelus one last time before he followed them inside. The five of them slid into the obsidian bowl of the Waypoint, then Lance inserted his key.
36
Gravity Well
Traveling through a Waypoint, on an ancient starship, with an android was a new memory for Jack to add to a rapidly growing list of new experiences. And, to say that he had experienced more in the last three days, than his previous thirty-three years of life, was significant for a veteran of a galactic war.
Jack, and the others, now stood in a dark room that was just large enough to hold the Waypoint. Color-coded pipes and conduits ran in parallel lines across the walls and ceiling. The chill air carried the scent of industrial lubricants, which reminded Jack of his workshop back home.
“Where are we?” Jenny asked.
“The engineering level of the Endeavor,” Lance said.
Jack wasn’t surprised that Lance, a Tyran, had engineered the attack on Acacia City. After all, they were known across the galaxy for their plotting and scheming. It was how they held the highest positions of power in each system.
There was an audible splash as Jenny stepped out of the Waypoint.
“Was that water, Miss Tripper?” Lance asked.
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