by Ramy Vance
The briefing was to take place in the quarantine area of the base, which was where the shard was being kept. Alex wondered whether that was where Vardis was being kept as well. She doubted it. Even if she had her suspicions about Vardis, it wouldn’t have sent the alien the right message.
As Boundless made their way toward the quarantine area, Jollies floated around Alex’s head, complaining. “We should have more days like this. The last time we got a day off, it was a national holiday. And then this whole thing happened. It wasn’t even a full day off.”
Alex swatted Jollies away. “That’s why we got two full days. It’s not like you can just call a timeout in a war. If we’re needed, we’re needed. When was the last time you had a day off, Abby?”
Abby wasn’t listening. She was looking down at her datapad as she was walking. “Hm… What was that? I was running diagnostics on your arm. There might be things I can upgrade so it runs a little smoother.”
Jollies giggled as she flew over to Abby. “Doesn’t look like she takes a break even on her days off. She was up all last night working.”
Abby shrugged as her nano-parts absorbed the datapad back into her body. “I don’t need as much sleep as I used to,” she explained. “Part of being a cyborg, I guess. Didn’t wanna keep everyone up by blabbing. Used to hate when my sisters did that.”
Brath, who had returned to his usual disgruntled demeanor, caught up with the girls. “Glad to hear you didn’t. Jim and Gill wouldn’t shut up last night.”
Gill and Jim exchanged glances that hinted they might be hiding something. “It was a riveting game of chess,” Gill said. “One that went on for far too long. Alex, you are lucky you made us take it outside.”
Jim clapped Gill on the back and laughed. “Yeah, it took like six hours or something. And Gill doesn’t believe in trash-talking during games of strategy. I had to teach him a lesson or two.”
“Your trash-talking didn’t help you win.”
Jim strolled away nonchalantly. “Yeah, but it did make it harder for you to win. You gotta admit that.”
“True. Perhaps that counts as a strategy. Wouldn’t say it’s a winning strategy, though.”
Abby laughed at Jim’s and Gill’s banter. “Kinda nice to be ‘round folks my age,” she said between giggles. “Everyone’s so serious at DGA. I think Anabelle’s the only one who ever laughs.”
Alex wracked her mind, trying to remember the names of everyone she had met on their mission with the DGA. “That’s the elf, right?”
“Yeah. She’s cool. Really cool. I like her a lot. I mean, as a teacher or whatever. But, yeah. It’s a pretty serious place.”
The kids arrived at the quarantine area, and the soldiers guarding the office let them in. Myrddin was already in the room, as were Vardis and Roy, the latter doing a double-take when he saw Abby. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the DGA? Don’t tell me you can teleport now with those nano-bots.”
Abby shook her head as she walked farther into the room, which was separated from the shard by a thick sheet of glass. “Got a couple of days off. You might want to try it sometime. My pa used to say you can work a horse to death but then all ya got is a dead horse.”
“Your country wisdom gets more morbid each week, you know?”
Abby peered through the glass to get a better look at the shard. “Just savin’ the best ones for last.”
Alex went up to the glass to look at the shard as well. “So, you said you wanted to wait until we were all here to talk about the shard, right?” she asked.
As Myrddin prepared to speak, Alex looked inward and found her voice, turning it outward and projecting it at Abby. Hey, don’t react. At all. Otherwise they’ll know what I’m doing. But can you hear me? Answer or rest your right pinky on the glass.
Alex didn’t hear a response, but Abby did place her right pinky on the glass. She kept her eyes trained on the shard.
Alex nearly jumped out of her skin with excitement. Perfect! Okay, it might be weird to talk back while trying to listen, but that shard looks just like the last one, doesn’t it? Like it’s made out of the same stuff the Dark One was using to separate us from our dragons.
Abby’s voice came through, small and squeaky as if it were uncertain of itself. Yeah. I’m running a diagnostic. They look to have the same basic mineral structure, but I’ll have to get my hands on it to pull a sample.
Can you do that?
Abby tapped her pinky on the glass. No one could have seen it but Alex, whose dragon eyes magnified everything. A single nano-bot crept out from under Abby’s nail and jumped onto the glass, cut a nano-bot sized hole, and went for the shard. Don’t worry, it’ll seal everything up when it’s done, Abby assured Alex.
Alex and Abby turned around to face Myrddin, who was waiting for everyone’s full attention. “This is less a briefing and more a meeting,” Myrddin explained. “I’m glad Abby-Lynn could join us as well. Her knowledge always proves to be invaluable.”
Abby modestly waved away Myrddin’s compliment, conjuring old Southern manners into Alex’s mind from books she’d read in braille. “Hardly. Don’t know much about alien tech yet.”
“I believe you said the same thing about gnomish aqueduct restoration last week, as well, a topic Brath would no doubt want to hear about at some point. But on to business. The shard, a weapon Vardis proposes we use to destroy the Dark One once and for all, has been retrieved. Vardis, would you care to explain how this weapon would do that?”
Vardis stood and walked toward the shard. He rested his hand on the glass, and Alex hoped that Abby’s nano-bot had returned. She also made sure she was guarding her thoughts. “The dragonriders witnessed a fraction of what the shard was capable of on the moon. The defense matrix used—”
Brath cleared his throat loudly. “Oh, yeah, the matrix that malfunctioned and almost killed all of us. How did that happen again?”
Vardis slowly turned, his eyes neutral, and an apologetic smile crept across his face. “The system was hacked from off-site. If anyone had managed to get as close as we did, they would have been killed. I’m surprised we survived. But you can at least attest to the power of the weapon.”
Gill raised his hand as if he were in a classroom. “This is a meeting, correct? We are all welcome to share our opinion?”
Roy good-naturedly nodded. “If you have something to say, get it out. This ain’t that rank B.S. You guys were on the ground floor. We need to hear what you have to say.”
Gill stood, his calmness wielded like a weapon. “We saw an attack by the Dark One’s ship that looked capable of taking us out in one blow. The shard weapon defense wasn’t able to stop five riders, and we were operating in a very limited manner. How would this weapon be able to destroy the Dark One if it could hardly handle us?”
Alex could have kissed Gill. She wouldn’t have, but she could have. With everything that had been going on, Alex hadn’t had a chance to stop and ask herself how a weapon that couldn’t handle the dragonriders could handle the Dark One.
Vardis didn’t seem perturbed by the question. “Ah, a good observation. Simply put, the weapon was also under a handicap. It was only using 0.05% of its energy. The defense that was summoned would be akin to your dragon batting its eyelash to shoo a fly. Outside the defense matrix, the weapon will operate at 100%.”
Gill glanced at Myrddin, looking somewhat disappointed by the answer. “Will you explain to us exactly how this weapon works?” the wizard asked.
Vardis pressed his hand to the glass, and the shard began to glow. “Your team witnessed it firsthand. The shard is capable of summoning constructs from my dimension. The constructs take on the physical properties of whatever is used to summon them. They are nearly impossible to destroy at full power, but their true potential is in their volume. Millions of kin can be summoned at a time—a force to easily overrun the Dark One’s.”
Myrddin ran his long fingers through his silver beard. “What are these kin?”
Vardis turned away
from the glass, and the shard ceased glowing. “They are biological constructs engineered in my dimension for the sole purpose of war. Elementals. One of the reasons they could be defeated was due to them being forged of rock, the weakest of elements. But if we were to use fire—a volcano on Middang3ard, for instance—they’d be unstoppable.”
Roy scoffed as he folded his arms. “You’re saying your weapon is an army. You think we should give you the resources to build an unstoppable army? For all we know, you could be just as bad as the Dark One. The only difference is his army isn’t made up of hyperdimensional elementals, just flesh and blood like the rest of us.”
Vardis’ eyes darkened in that way only Alex seemed to notice. Even if she hadn’t, she could feel the hatred coming off of Vardis. It hit her hard. This time he wasn’t trying to hide it. Even if anyone else in the room didn’t have telepathy, there was no way they couldn’t sense this.
When Vardis spoke, you could hear the rage in his voice. “The Dark One took everything from me. I am nothing like him. Once he is destroyed, I want nothing else. You can keep the damn shard.”
Roy backed off, and Vardis relaxed. “Besides,” the alien went on. “’Unstoppable’ is just semantics. The kin can’t be defeated, but they have a limited life span. That’s their failsafe. They have to be implemented wisely in a decisive battle, one where the Dark One is exposed. They only live for so long.”
There was silence in the room while everyone weighed what had been said. The more Vardis had explained, the more of a gamble this sounded like. The decision was not straightforward.
Myrddin sat down and crossed his legs. “If it is amenable to the rest of you, I’d like to discuss and come to a final decision with Roy. That is unless any of you have a strong opinion about our next course of action?”
The members of Boundless looked at each other. Jim finally spoke. “We all trust Alex enough for this. Just let us know what’s coming next.”
“Thank you. You are all dismissed.”
As Boundless and Vardis left, Abby walked past Alex and said, “Catch up with you later.”
The two hugged quickly, and Alex whispered, “Yeah, see you in a bit.”
Alex and Roy took seats across from Myrddin, who was deep in thought. Roy, on the other hand, looked as if he hadn’t been paying attention to the whole conversation. “Thoughts?” Alex asked.
Roy hardly seemed able to hold himself back when he spoke. “I think it’s a real friggin’ stupid idea. Give an unknown quantity control of an entire army. He didn’t mention anything about how he was going to control them. How we were going to. All he mentioned was a time failsafe, and he neglected to say how long that time limit was. I think it’s a crap idea. We should ditch it and destroy the shard.”
Myrddin nodded as he listened to Roy. “What do you think, Alex?”
Alex had mentioned she had spoken with the Dark One in her initial debriefing. It wouldn’t come as a surprise to Myrddin or Roy. “The Dark One seems pretty intent on stopping this weapon from being used. He said it was because it would destroy all life. I don’t know if that’s true, but he was willing to let Boundless live as long we kept the weapon from being used. We know he’s afraid of it, at least.”
Myrddin sighed as he hung his head, looking more tired every moment. “I do not like unknown quantities. We now know the Dark One fears this weapon, at least.”
Alex felt a coldness in her heart over what she was about to say. “We should use the weapon. If Vardis tries anything, we kill him. It’s that simple. Even if he raises his own army, what good is it without a leader?”
Roy seemed to be thinking the same thing. “A little ruthless. Definitely not something he’d be expecting from a bunch of kids. I’m in.”
Myrddin slowly stood, taking his time since his body was creaking. “Then it’s decided. We’ll prep the collider for your return trip to Middang3ard. Then we will start looking for a viable place to use the weapon. Until then, you have a little more time off.”
Chapter Nine
The members of Boundless all had different ideas of what “time off” meant. Almost immediately after the meeting, Gill and Jollies separated from the rest of the squad, practically locking themselves in the barracks to binge-watch any form of human entertainment they could get their hands on. After watching an elvish movie, Alex could see why.
Brath couldn’t stay still, and he didn’t want anyone’s company. Alex had tried multiple times to talk to Brath or spend some time with him. As usual, he was bristly and untalkative. Unless it had to do with taking down the Dark One, he didn’t seem interested in discussing it. The exception was his mistrust of Vardis.
Alex could see similarities between Vardis and Brath, but she was honestly surprised by how different they were. It was no secret that Brath was obsessed with the Dark One’s destruction. He didn’t mention it often, but when he did, it was obvious that it was on his mind all the time.
Vardis held the same desire, but the motivation was different. Alex had only heard Vardis speak about how much he wanted to kill the Dark One. Brath had many reasons, the one brought up the most being his love for his homeworld. Alex could easily tell Brath was concerned about his people being free and having a home again. His hatred for the Dark One was incidental.
Vardis had mentioned a few times that the Dark One had taken everything from him. Alex was curious about what he had taken from the alien.
Jim could hardly be found. He spent most of his time wandering through the hallways of the military base. Even though Alex tried to talk to him a few times, he seemed distant. Something was on his mind, and it wasn’t anything he was willing to talk about.
So, Alex spent most of her time waiting with Abby. Neither of them had any problem with that. Abby had woken Alex up at the crack of dawn to rush her to the medbay to take a look at her cybernetics.
Alex was initially annoyed since she was not a morning person. When she saw how happy Abby was to have a chance to look at her arm, she couldn’t stay angry. They spent most of the morning with Abby running tests on the arm, trying to find different augments she could add to beef it up.
By the time Abby was done, Alex’s arm was not only running smoother but also had the addition of a small plasma cannon that operated using the draconic fluid running through Alex’s veins.
When Abby was done working on Alex’s arm, she leaned back and started checking through her notes. “So, what’s the deal with this draconic fluid?” she asked. “You know exactly what it’s doing?”
Alex tried to find the words to explain it to Abby. “It’s their blood or their life force. The augments tear into their bodies, and the fluid comes out like pus. If it’s left on their skin or they have too much inside, it sears through. So, the anchors absorb the fluid and convert it to energy.”
Abby was listening intently, yet her eyes never left the computer screen. “Okay, I got that. Your anchor should be processing the fluid. Why is it in your blood and no one else’s?”
“That is the real question. I haven’t been given a straight answer. Makes me think it’s not a common thing. I haven’t been able to find any information about it in our books, either. Part of me thinks no one has told me anything about it because they haven’t seen it before.”
Abby turned to face Alex and held out her hand. Her nano-bots poured out of her pores and started to build a small tracking device. “Could I install this in your arm? Just as a way to keep track of the fluids in your blood so we can get a better idea about what’s going on. I can tell you from experience, you shouldn’t have things messing with your body that you don’t know about.”
“What do you mean?”
Abby’s skin shifted from its usual dark brown to a metallic black. “I injected myself with nano-bots when I first started with the DGA. Now I have an AI living in my brain, and I’m not sure if the nano-bots are trying to replace all of my organic material or not. They don’t talk.”
Alex had never thought there might be a n
egative effect of the draconic fluid. She believed Chine would have told her if that was the case. Maybe he didn’t know. “You think something bad might happen?”
Abby’s skin returned to normal as she shook her head. “Nah, not really. But I thought the same thing when I pumped myself full of robots. Might be better to be safe than sorry.”
“Won’t those try to infect me?”
“Nah. These bots are tuned to my body. Once they’re out, they’re just standard constructions. No will or anything. But I thought I should ask before adding stuff to your body.”
Alex gave Abby her hand. “Thanks for that.”
Abby installed the tracker in Alex’s arm. After she was finished, the rider stood and stretched. “Ugh, we’ve been in here all day. Let’s go for a walk or something. Maybe grab some food.”
Alex’s stomach gurgled loudly, and Abby laughed at the sound. “I always forget to eat.” She chuckled. “Don’t get hungry much anymore. Nanobots are always trying to make my body more efficient.”
“You still like food, though, right?”
Abby smiled devilishly. “Oh, wait until you see me eat.”
The scientist hadn’t been lying. Alex watched Abby put away two lunches and three rounds of dessert. Abby didn’t talk when she ate, she merely inhaled her food. Alex didn’t know whether to be grossed out or amused.
When Abby finally finished eating, she let out a small belch and leaned back in her chair. “Sorry. I haven’t had human food made by humans in a long time. Makes a huge difference. Ain’t as good as the fam’s, but it’s close.”
Alex snatched a leftover biscuit from Abby’s plate. “You could still eat more, couldn’t you?”
Abby patted her stomach as she smiled. “Best part of having nanobots regulate your body. They compensate for everything.”
Suddenly Abby’s face went serious. “Got something on my mind, though. That guy, Vardis. What’re your thoughts on him?”