The Last City

by RMGilmour

  The sky was a cloudy shade of sunset red, from what little I could see. And I could hear waves rushing upon a shore, though it was faint. I was sure we were still on Threa, but I could have been mistaken. For all I knew, we could have been on Earth.

  “Where are we?”

  “Rathe.”

  I gasped at his response, and wished I could look out upon this new world, to see if it was similar in any way to my home.

  “Are we staying?”

  For a while, he said to my mind.

  Jordan, I whispered back to his. And even though I wanted to ask him questions, I could feel him slipping into dreams. His sentences came to me in disjointed waves, and were soon followed by his feelings and memories. Some soft, some sharp, some happy, some filled with love, some with fierce protection. But these were soon followed by pain and terror. The loss of his son, white light protruding from my chest. He moaned and gasped my name. His fingers tensed around mine for the briefest of moments, and then he was still. And I knew he was awake again.

  I wished more than anything to have been able to put my arms around him, and comfort him, the way he had done for me on so many nights. I felt helpless lying next to him.

  “Lydia,” he whispered in my ear, and then paused, taking several deep breaths before he continued. No more promises. Just always come back to me.

  My love, I began, my thoughts moving with his, as I responded. Wherever you are, that’s where my soul will be. And if chance should separate us again, I will always be waiting for you, or find my way to you.

  I could sense his exhaustion taking over once more, his thoughts jumbled together as images came and went. But this time I sent him my thoughts, my feelings, my hopes and my memories to mingle with his, to keep his nightmares away.

  Sleep came easy, and I dreamed with him.

  ∞

  Upon waking, I moved before I realized I could, and then smiled at finally being able to stretch my arm across him and around him, but he wasn’t beside me. I could move my arms and my legs, but my body from my neck to my butt, remained firmly in place. And instead of him, I felt softness beneath me and the warmth of a blanket wrapped around me.

  “Well, it’s about time,” came a voice. I opened my eyes to see an older man, hovering near.

  “Sater?” I asked. I was sure it was him. He looked exactly the way he had in the memory table. Except, now he was solid.

  “Yes,” he said, and smiled.

  “I’m healed?”

  “You are…”

  “But,” I urged him to continue. I knew from his pause that there was something he needed to say. But I refused to let my thoughts run rampant. And I waited calmly for his response.

  However, he didn’t answer. Instead, he looked toward the other side of the room, and I followed his direction to see Jordan staring at me, like he hadn’t seen me before.

  “What is it?” Bad news, it was bad news.

  He walked over to the bed and sat beside me. He covered my hand with one of his, threading his fingers between mine, then slowly, he rose my hand to my face. The surface was strange. It shouldn’t have been smooth. Not that side. There should have been fine ridges and bumps, and my breath caught, fearing this time, that I had been inserted.

  Shh, he soothed my mind. “Sater healed your face before I could stop him. He only left the scars on your arm and your leg at my insistence. But he still doesn’t believe that you want to keep them.”

  It’s gone? I had to ask and ran my fingers over the surface once more. “What do… does it look like?”

  He laughed and said, “Like the other side of your face.”

  I hadn’t seen my face without scars for a very long time and I wasn’t sure if I was ready to, out of fear of seeing a stranger staring back at me.

  You’re still you, he reassured me. “Just like I said the first time I saw you. You’re beautiful. Just as beautiful now as you were then.”

  “You sound like you preferred me with scars,” I said, raising one eyebrow at him.

  But he only laughed at me again. “There is no right response to that statement,” he said, and then reiterated, “You’re still you, just minutely different now, that’s all.”

  While I remained immobilized, Jordan cared for me every day, smiling a wicked smile as he cleansed my skin, and changed my clothing. And as he did, his fingers teased me with promises I knew he would keep.

  And once I could stand, I looked out upon the horizon. Our room was mostly outside, protected by a shield from the elements, and whatever else lurked out there. The rest of our living space was inside a cliff wall. The caves were meticulously carved into handcrafted rooms, filled with soft furniture, both functional and welcoming. The brown stone walls and ceiling gleamed with minute gems embedded in the rock. Illumination glowing from every corner and crevice, sent its waves of light and warmth across the ceiling and down the walls, catching the tiny glimmers as it went.

  Our cliff-side setting stared out upon a deep aqua-green ocean, but like on Threa, the pale sun did not touch its surface. The sky was an ashen-red, dusted with clouds, and it appeared as though it was sunset. But the sun, pale behind the mask of clouds, was high in the sky.

  The color was unnatural, it should have been blue, or blue-ish at least, but the red that appeared behind the clouds cast a sadness across the sea-scape, as though it was missing important pieces that made up its whole.

  “It is missing pieces, so to speak,” came Sater’s voice from behind me.

  Jordan and I turned in unison to face him.

  “Glad to see you are up and about,” he smiled. “What you see was not always our sky. We do have a field similar to what is on Threa, an atmospheric web of protection, but ours is transparent, allowing the colors and changing sky beyond its protection, to be seen. But unlike Threa, we did this. We destroyed what we had through our need to constantly outdo ourselves. And we almost lost everything.”

  As Sater stared out at the horizon, I could only stare at him, and wonder what they could possibly have done, to have caused the condition their planet was in.

  “We tried to save what we could,” he continued. “And debated for centuries about whether we should terraform back to what we were. But we waited too long. We have survived this way for so long now, that the natural dynamics of the planet have been altered. We’ve changed, the plants have changed, the animals, the very light we see, even the air we breathe. All of it.”

  He moved toward the edge of the canopy and ran his fingers along the shield that protected the room. Slowly rippling its surface, as though caressing it.

  “We can’t go back. And we shouldn’t. We’d be destroying the life that thrives here now. This is our home. This is what we’ve made of it. And the planet itself is safer, both from us, and from anyone else who would choose to come here.”

  He seemed to be talking more to himself, and I didn’t want to interrupt him with the multitude of questions about his home, that ran through my mind. And I decided to wait for another time, when I was up to leaving the room.

  “Are you in contact with anyone from Threa? Is Dax…?” I began, but I couldn’t finish. It was too much to hope that even Sater could help him.

  “He’s healing, resting mostly. But he’ll be fine.”

  That wasn’t anywhere near the answer I was expecting, and I felt my forehead wrinkle in confusion.

  “Y…you healed him?” I asked. I thought Mya had taken him to be inserted, but apparently, he’d been brought here instead.

  “In the process of,” Sater corrected.

  “Lena’s here as well,” Jordan said, with a smirk. “She’s anxious to see you, but hasn’t wanted to leave his side.”

  “Watch who you’re talking about,” came her voice as she stepped into the room. “I don’t get anxious. Healed already?”

  “Changing the subject?” Jordan teased.

  “Shut up,” she threw back at him.

  “
Make me,” he finished.

  I could only stare at her for a moment. She seemed to be a lot calmer than when I last saw her. No longer needing to kill Jordan or Mason. Their friendly banter however, while annoying, was comforting. They were like rival siblings.

  She returned my look of annoyance, no doubt at my thoughts, and then I realized I hadn’t yet spoken, not even a hello. My instinct was to run to her and throw my arms around her, but I was sure that would only annoy her more.

  However, as she stepped further into the room, she didn’t stop. She kept coming at me, and hugged me instead.

  “I’m sorry I tried to kill you,” she said, and I knew she was smiling as she said this. “But there may come a time when you may wish I had.”

  I felt Jordan’s hand stroking the back of my head, and I was grateful for his touch, for it helped keep at bay, any fears that may normally have arisen from her statement.

  When she released me, her hand caressed my newly healed cheek. “Don’t worry about this,” she said, holding back a grin. “Dax has plans for you. You’ll look like us in no time.”

  I refused to think about the plans he may have, or the disappointment I may cause them both. I was no longer sure if training with them, was the best thing for me. But instead of dwelling on that point, I questioned the events on Threa.

  “From the moment the militia settled on the planet, there were a few amongst them that were reading everyone’s thoughts, those that were open to them, anyway,” he explained. “Yours especially so, because you were with me. And once we were sure of this, we let them, for the most part.”

  “One of the reasons, Mason gave you his data,” Lena finished.

  “You knew the whole time?” I asked her.

  “Of course not! He and Mason counted on us to show resistance,” she said, indicating Jordan with a throw of her head.

  “I thought you were going to kill Mason,” I told her.

  “I was going to kill Mason. If the ward hadn’t…” but she stopped and only stared me, waiting for my reaction.

  I wasn’t sure how to react, or even if I should. However, I found instead, that I felt nothing at hearing of him. I was used to his attacks, and I was sure there would be more.

  And instead of continuing with her sentence, she gave Jordan a look of defiance. “Sorry about your house,” she said, as though trying to change the subject again.

  “What did you do?” he grumbled at her.

  “Just helping you redecorate,” she began with a smirk. But then instead of fighting, she held up hands, and said, “Nothing that can’t be undone.”

  “Where is he now?” I interrupted them, and tried to remember my last conversation with the ward. There was something he’d said. Something important that needed to be remembered. But I was giving myself a headache trying to remember it. If, and when, we returned to Threa, I would let Mason or Aleric pull that memory out of me.

  When neither of them spoke, I looked from one to the other.

  “They don’t know where he is,” Sater spoke for them.

  “He disappeared, almost the same moment I reached you,” Jordan said, and he paled as he touched the center of my chest.

  “He can’t leave Threa, can he? I mean…”

  “No, he can’t do that,” Lena insisted.

  “You hope,” Sater interrupted again, and I was grateful for the uncertainty that he exposed. “But if he can and follows you here, I will know immediately. I can sense every being on this planet. When they come, when they go, and where they are.”

  I tried to smile at him, grateful for his confidence in his control over Rathe. But there were always holes in every reassurance I’d ever been given. He could sense every being on the planet, but the ward was not of this planet.

  “What of Shaylen?” I asked. And there was another name that came to mind. A name that seemed to cause Lena pain, and I could feel Jordan’s thoughts traveling in that same painful direction at hearing Shaylen’s name spoken. But even if there was a way for me to un-say her name, I wouldn’t. He needed to hear it. He needed to put his memories into perspective, and only hold onto those that were precious. The pain I could feel him suppressing needed to be felt. He needed to heal.

  “They’ll get what’s coming,” Lena responded.

  When Jordan next spoke, the sound of his voice filled me. His soothing tones, tried to conceal the harsh reality of his words, but despite this, his underlying anger still pierced his tone.

  “They’re watching. Waiting,” he said, and slid his arms around me. “But so are we.”

  I was not looking for reassurances anyway, not when there were none to be had. The only reassurance I needed was Jordan’s presence mingling with mine, his voice in my ear, the touch of his hand, and the warmth I felt in his arms. That, and my endeavoring for the rest of eternity to earn his forgiveness.

  “Hey,” he whispered, hearing my thought, and he caressed my cheek with his hand.

  I looked up at him, entranced by the love in his eyes. This time however, I was not trapped in his gaze, instead I felt fortified by it. And I leaned into the warmth of his palm.

  “You and me, remember?” he said. His other arm around my waist, pulled me closer, and held me tighter. “To the edge of doom.”

  “And through to the other side,” I responded, and tried to smile.

  However, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from turning to my family on Threa, hoping they were ok. Although, I’m sure either Jordan or Lena would have said something if they weren’t. And I knew our stay on Rathe would end all too soon.

  But despite the danger, a small part of me was anxious to get back. I wanted the war over with, I wanted the militia gone. But most of all I wanted Jordan to have the love he deserved, the life we both needed. And I vowed one way or another, we would find it.

  ∞

  Epilogue

  Duplication

  “That was a close call, with Lena,” Aleric said, as he entered the room. The door had barely closed behind him.

  “Too close,” Mason agreed.

  “Don’t do that to her again.”

  Aleric studied his friend. Mason hadn’t yet looked up from his screen to acknowledge that he had a visitor.

  “I really should stop manipulating her, shouldn’t I?” Mason responded, but he couldn’t form the smirk that should have accompanied his question. “And besides, I gave her snow, just like she wanted, so I don’t know what her problem is.”

  “Mason, I came here with the intention of helping you save all you could of this world. And that question right there, shouldn’t even be asked, sarcastically, or otherwise.”

  Mason wanted to continue the joke with his friend, but there was not a drop of humor left inside him. All that life, those lives… the words went round and around his mind. The worlds they’d populated, the people… all gone. The images, the memories haunted him. He stared at his air-screen a moment longer, before closing his eyes, and then squeezed with his thumb and forefinger, the small space between his eyebrows. He sighed and dropped his head, grateful Aleric had arrived when he did. He could sure use a second pair of eyes.

  He leaned back against the cool wall, and folded his arms across his chest, unable to spend another second with the air-screen that floated before him.

  “Please tell me I’m reading this wrong,” he said to Aleric. He’d scanned the details several times over. And it didn’t matter how long he stared at it, he couldn’t stare the information into changing what it divulged.

  Aleric pulled the screen away from Mason, moving it so that it floated instead, in front of him.

  Mason closed his eyes. He already knew what Aleric was going to say. He really didn’t need to hear another’s opinion. But the information was too disheartening to be believed.

  “I see the same thing you see,” Aleric told him.

  “The Guardian,” Mason began.

  “Was duplicated,” Aleric ended.

  Be
fore responding, Mason shook his head, still in disbelief. During the attack, the Guardian had granted them minimal access to its systems, to allow an exchange of information. And while reviewing the data collected about Shaylen and her crew, Mason had discovered the duplication program. The Guardian had allowed him to analyze it, but only so he could ascertain that the duplication was not a threat. However, that was where Mason’s access ended, and where his apprehension began.

  “Look at where the duplication program originated.”

  Aleric studied the details on Mason’s screen, revealing the initial moment that the command to duplicate began.

  “It duplicated itself?” Aleric asked. “But from all I’d seen, it hadn’t advanced that far.”

  “It had autonomy,” Mason reminded him. “It had access to all of the information in the CU. Sentience was inevitable. And what do sentient beings do to preserve their species?”

  “We forced its hand,” Aleric said, and sighed. But they’d had no choice in the matter. He knew if they hadn’t taken it offline, the ongoing war with Shaylen could have ended in one of Lydia’s worst-case scenarios. But Aleric still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The Guardian had duplicated its entire system, and embedded it somewhere…

  “Mason,” he continued, almost afraid to ask the question. There were too many possibilities. “Where did it duplicate itself to?”

  “Follow the trail,” Mason groaned. “It leads to the one person we didn’t pay enough attention to.”

  “We… couldn’t have known this would happen.”

  “We weren’t careful.”

  “But with all of the Heart and the Rathe at the Spire, and the wards that were working with us…”

  “He still got to her,” Mason drank from the flask that he kept in his pocket, and took a seat at the table, opposite Aleric. It was hard to think straight with another person in the room. Aleric’s thoughts however, often fed into his ideas, but right now, he needed to think in peace. This was one worst case scenario that they couldn’t allow to roam free.