The Confluence: A Space Opera Adventure Series (The New Dawn Book 6)

by Valerie J Mikles

  “She’s not supposed to be here,” Carr said. “You’re not supposed to be here!”

  “Carr, upstairs. Report to Colonel Vega,” Santos ordered, spinning the frantic man about.

  “Sky, it didn’t work,” Janiya whispered, using the cage to pull herself up. It was easy to touch with the shielding disabled.

  “Still using Moonspeak,” Sky observed. Janiya’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

  Not changing course, she sat with Hawk, pulling the semi-conscious man into her lap. Hawk’s body had been fighting to heal itself before Parker’s experiment, and the room still seemed to bend around him trying to focus that energy, especially when Sky touched him.

  “Hawk, how are you feeling?” Sky murmured, speaking to him in Trade. Sky spoke so many languages, and Janiya couldn’t get any to come from her lips.

  “Benedict. I want Benedict,” Hawk moaned.

  “He’s getting rescued,” Sky assured.

  Hawk murmured words in his native language and Janiya pressed her lips together in frustration. She rolled away and a pathway opened, drawing her through. She found herself lying on the floor next to her torturer, Colonel Rhodes. A broken skewer stuck out of his neck and his eyes were clouded by death. Janiya screamed and the ground shook.

  “Did he come back?” someone cried.

  “No, that was her,” another answered.

  “Shh. Janiya!” a dark-skinned soldier-type said, pulling her away from Rhodes’ body. She hadn’t left the basement. This new room was smaller and there was no cage, but it had the same shackles and blood-stained walls. “My name is Saskia. I came with your husband, Damien. We’re going to get you out of here. Or maybe you’re going to get us out of here. Can you understand me?”

  She spoke Lanvarian, and Janiya found that easier to understand than the Terranan. “Can you understand me?” Janiya asked, but the words that came to her lips weren’t Lanvarian.

  “I understand,” another young woman said, peering over Saskia’s shoulders. Janiya felt the words order themselves in her brain as the telepathic link formed.

  “Amanda, ask if she’s okay,” Saskia said. The more she touched Janiya, the more she seemed like a medic and not a Guard.

  “Damien’s hurt. Can you teleport him to a hospital?” Amanda asked.

  “Will they help?” Janiya asked. Rhodes had punished the nurse who splinted Janiya’s broken leg.

  Damien lay on the floor, shirt open, bare chest exposed. A man knelt next to him, dressing a puncture wound on his side. The young man looked like he’d endured torture as well. Janiya settled next to Damien and drew her finger over the marks on his flesh.

  “Are you going to heal me?” he asked, his voice weak, but loving.

  Touching his face, she concentrated on healing. If she was still using Moonspeak, then there was still spirit energy around to be forced into the task. His lips puckered and he blew her a kiss.

  “Close enough,” he whispered. His head dropped, but then he jerked back, fighting for consciousness.

  “Damien,” Janiya said. She knew that word came out right, because he smiled.

  When the medics came for Damien, Saskia ushered Amanda out of the room. She glanced back toward the wall they’d collapsed to come in here, but the quake at Galen’s disappearance had caused more of the wall and part of the ceiling to cave.

  “Mr. James, Hawk is asking for you,” Santos called, joining them in the hallway.

  “General. You came,” Saskia panted, tearing up in relief. He looked calm and in control of the situation, and Saskia needed his help to get her people out.

  “Made a deal with your captain,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods yet. Whatever happened down here caused structural damage to the Marble.”

  “Danny?” Amanda murmured, rolling in Saskia’s embrace. Her clothes were covered in Rhodes’ blood, and Saskia didn’t want to explain that to the medics.

  “I told him to wait upstairs,” Santos replied.

  “And he listened?” Saskia chuckled.

  “I’m not okay,” Amanda groaned, thumping her head against Saskia’s shoulder.

  “Amanda Gray. That’s Amanda Gray,” Lieutenant Carr gasped.

  “That’s not your concern, Lieutenant,” Santos warned. “I told you to report to Colonel Vega.”

  “You killed my partner,” Carr said, forcing himself between Saskia and Santos.

  “I know,” Amanda whispered.

  Saskia clamped a hand over her mouth. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.

  “I thought maybe Galen had possessed you, but I saw you run to him,” Carr continued. “It was both of you. You held the weapon. And Galen wasn’t helping when you killed Rhodes.”

  “Lieutenant—”

  “You’re not in charge Mr. Santos,” Carr snarled. “Amanda Gray, you’re under arrest for the murder of my partner, Addison Tavos.”

  In a flash, Amanda splayed her fingers and a slew of pellets shot from her glove, exploding in Carr’s face. The hall filled with noxious pepper fumes, and Saskia pushed into the next room. It was crowded by Hawk, Sky, Benedict, and two medics.

  “Sit with Sky,” Saskia ordered, guiding Amanda to the floor next to Hawk and Sky. She turned to deal with Santos, but he pushed past her and grabbed Amanda, stripping the long glove off of her.

  “What is this?” Santos growled.

  “Self defense,” Saskia tried. “You cannot arrest her.”

  “Careful! Do you want a full-blown schizophrenic fit happening in here?” Sky hissed, putting a protective arm over Amanda’s shoulders. “Hold it together, Pip. You have to hold it together. We’re almost out.”

  Amanda squeezed her eyes shut and ripped at her hair. The blood on her sleeve left red streaks across her face.

  “Danny’s upstairs, Amanda. Let’s go there,” Saskia decided.

  “She’s not a wrongfully accused bystander,” Santos argued.

  “Something’s wrong with Hawk,” Amanda said into Sky’s lap. She lifted her head just enough to set it on Hawk’s chest. Hawk gasped, his face paling at the pressure, but one hand relaxed from its clawed position and rested on Amanda’s head. Galen had said a part of him remained with Amanda, and Saskia hoped it might be a healing part for Hawk’s sake.

  “Let’s go before anyone else tries to arrest you,” Saskia said, looking to Santos for permission.

  “Something’s wrong,” Amanda said again.

  “I know. We’re going to get him to the hospital,” Benedict said. His fingers traced Hawk’s lips, and he offered soothes as the medics strapped his body to a stretcher. His burnt legs were covered with a thin sheet, sealed to the stretcher to prevent infection.

  “Am I seeing things?” Amanda asked, looking around the room for answers, not seeming to see any of them.

  “Yes,” Saskia said, pulling Amanda into a fireman’s carry. They weren’t going to solve anything down here and Amanda was still pliable enough to be manhandled.

  Hawk shouted in agony when the medics lifted the stretcher. He brought his hands over his face, shielding his fear-stricken eyes. They barely made it to the hall before an explosion rocked the building, knocking Saskia off her feet. Amanda curled into a fetal position, catching Saskia’s head and keeping her from hitting the floor. The electric walls sparked, and the ceiling came down over the cage that had kept Janiya prisoner.

  “Did she just try to blow us up?” Santos accused.

  “That wasn’t her,” Saskia said, keeping an arm around Amanda’s waist. “Keep going. We have to get out.”

  “No,” Hawk said, then he switched to Moonspeak. Saskia’s eyes widened, alarmed by the development.

  “Hawk, talk to me. What’s going on? Is Parker trying to come back?” Sky asked, sweeping her pulse rifle around.

  “I don’t feel a gravity gradient,” Santos said.

  “Hawk, what do you see? Tell me what you see?” Sky begged.

  Hawk’s bloodshot eyes looked up and down, and he spoke in punctuat
ed gasps.

  “He says it’s cracked,” Amanda said. “The wall is cracked. That’s what’s wrong.”

  “I’m sure the cracks are worse now with that explosion,” Santos said. “We have to get out before this building comes down around us. Can everyone walk?”

  “He’s not talking about the building,” Sky said.

  “He wants to go back into the room,” Amanda said.

  “The ceiling collapsed,” Saskia pointed out, but she helped Sky and Benedict move the stretcher onto the pile of rubble just inside the threshold

  “The rest of you, get out of the building. Evacuate the building. The whole building. Lieutenant Turner, you’re in charge of the evacuation,” Santos said. “Tell Colonel Vega… we’ll be out soon.”

  “He says Parker took control of him,” Amanda continued ominously. “He did something to that room.”

  “And what? If you leave, the room blows up?” Sky asked. “That’s not acceptable. There has to be a way to undo it.”

  “He’s been trying to stop it since Janiya teleported out of the room,” Amanda said. “He doesn’t have the strength to stop it again.”

  “Stop what?” Saskia asked.

  “The explosion,” Hawk rasped, the words coming out in Trade this time. “I stopped it, but I’m so weak. And my legs hurt. And I… “

  “So there’s more exploding left to do?” Saskia asked.

  “This room is designed to focus the Confluence,” Amanda said. “There’s Hanyu stone and something like avalan around the cage.”

  “I’m not putting Hawk in a cage,” Sky said adamantly. “I’ll stay with him. The rest of you get out.”

  “You can’t,” Hawk rasped. “You’re making it worse, bébé. You’re glowing and it’s drawing the explosion toward you.”

  The fallen plaster and moon-slate made the room weaker, but Amanda still felt the residual energy that had forced Galen into this realm. It made her skin crawl, and worse, it made her feel like she might Disappear before she could help her friends.

  Hawk’s pained cries were sourced from physical injury. Amanda tapped her temple, and tried to tune out the disturbing sound, but then all she could think about was Jo and her parents. She wanted to remember her family and her childhood, but Galen said it would never come back. And she’d died. How many times?

  “Where do we put it?” Hawk asked, his fingers brushing over Amanda’s hands. It was disturbing tapping into his power, especially now that his eyes were partially healed. The energy from the other realm seemed to hover in the room like a red fog, and Hawk twisted it into shades of purple and funneled it through channels created by this room’s special architecture. But the more he tried to move it, the more the room seemed to fill. Amanda just hoped she could help plug the holes in the dam long enough to get out of range of the flood.

  “I’ll stay with them. You two get out,” Santos said to Saskia and Benedict.

  “General, you go. Hawk is my charge. I’ll stay,” Saskia said.

  “You’re going to need help carrying Hawk, especially if she loses it again,” Benedict added, nodding to Amanda.

  “Santos, you have to keep the peace up there,” Saskia insisted.

  “I’m not in charge,” he said.

  “Who is?” Saskia challenged. “Cheoff’s dead. Parker’s gone. Rhodes is dead. Who’s next in line?”

  “Secretary Venton,” he replied.

  “And when was the last time she left the 3?” Saskia asked. “Call her in. She’ll trust your advice. But you need to step up and keep this world going. At least until we can arrange an election.”

  “An election? A real election?” Benedict smiled.

  Amanda remembered having a mock election in grade school. Or rather, she remembered Johann telling her about it, the day she got her new teeth. Back then, she had hope that the memories would return on their own if she listened to his stories long enough. Now, the one person who knew her stories was gone forever. Disappeared.

  “Madness, isn’t it?” Saskia teased.

  “Stop stalling,” Amanda begged. She wondered if she’d die this time, or if she’d wake up in Galen’s arms again.

  “I’ll have the building cleared in three minutes,” Santos promised, herding the last of the medics and guards into the elevator.

  “Are you sure you want to stay? There’s a good chance we’re all going to die,” Saskia asked Benedict.

  “At least we won’t die slowly,” he quipped.

  “Benedict James,” Hawk whispered, his voice imploring. He couldn’t complete the thought, but when Benedict squeezed his hands and kissed his fingers, Amanda could feel strength emanating from the bond. She wished for Johann. She wondered if he dreamed about the baby they’d never have, or if a dead woman could have a baby with anyone. She wondered if the reason her medicine never quite worked right was because it was meant for the living.

  “Okay, three minutes,” Saskia said, combing her fingers through Amanda’s hair. “Are you ready to move?”

  “Where’s Janiya?” Amanda asked. “She can help. Where’s Sikorsky?”

  She’d accidentally tapped into Sikorsky’s teleport ability once, and she felt that kind of energy lurking in the air. Here, it could land her in Elysia with Galen. With Johann.

  “Amanda, focus. Can you walk or do you need to get on the stretcher with Hawk?” Saskia asked.

  “Walk,” Amanda said, lifting her head from Hawk’s chest. It took concentration to keep helping him while she moved. She swore she saw Galen’s silhouette forming from the red cloud. She couldn’t let him take her again. Grabbing Saskia’s stunner, she fired at the cloud, and then she felt a blast of icy air as she was pulled through.

  “Galen!” she shrieked, firing again. But her hands were empty, and she landed on the floor of the ambulance. Janiya gasped and dropped a Hanyu stone on the floor. It wasn’t Galen; it was her.

  “You have to get the rest of them,” Amanda begged, touching the stone, but finding it too hot to pick up. She couldn’t tell if the ground shook or if the ambulance hit a bump. She saw Galen again, flying over her. She saw Johann and birds and the water of Quin. Something wasn’t real.

  “Virp. I need a Virp,” she said, holding her hands out. They looked like deformed stumps to her eyes, but she felt pressure on her ear.

  “Morri, can you hear me? Morri?” she called. She heard Damien’s deep voice stirring her fear, making horrible threats in her ear. Then she heard Morrigan.

  “I hear you, sweetheart,” she said, her voice barely cutting through.

  “They’re dead. They’re all dead,” Amanda said. She pulled her coat closed and felt the blood on her sleeve from the man she’d killed.

  “Is Danny with you?” Morrigan asked.

  “I’m dead, too,” she cried. Danny had told her Galen was evil and he wouldn’t take care of her if she went back. She wanted to believe Elysia was good, but Galen had let her die.

  34

  “Amanda!” Saskia cried.

  She’d turned her back for a second to focus on carrying Hawk and the stretcher, but then a fresh blast knocked her off her feet. She swore her ribs cracked as she flew through the air, landing just shy of Benedict. The stretcher with Hawk hit the floor and tipped, landing hard on top of them. Hawk screeched in pain and the ceiling behind them came down. Falling lights crashed onto the stretcher, and Saskia quickly released Hawk so they could use the stretcher for cover.

  “Move, we have to move!” Benedict cried.

  Saskia considered the elevator, then the path back through the power plant where they’d broken in. She wished she knew whether it was this building that was coming down or the whole city. Once in that elevator, there was nothing to protect them from anything overhead.

  “This way,” she decided, grabbing under Hawk’s shoulders, hauling him away from the elevator.

  “No!” Benedict protested, but he scooped under Hawk’s knees so that his injured legs wouldn’t drag. “This is crazy. All the power con
duits run through there.”

  “Hawk can control those,” Saskia said. “He’s good at that.”

  “When he’s conscious,” Benedict argued.

  The hole they’d blasted had partially collapsed and only a narrow opening remained. Saskia sent Benedict through first, then handed Hawk through.

  “I’m going back for Amanda,” Saskia said. “Follow that big pipe back to the plant, and holler for help until someone finds you.”

  “Saskia, no,” Benedict said, grabbing her wrist. “Amanda wasn’t there. This day is getting weirder and weirder, and if I hadn’t already seen a flying horse eagle thing, I’d never accept it, but she disappeared. We didn’t. We need you.”

  Saskia looked over her shoulder, but Benedict did not let go. How was she going to tell Danny that Amanda was gone again? He’d spent so many years searching for her. Saskia had spent years rescuing him from that search. Amanda had taken her stunner; what had she fired at?

  Another chunk of ceiling fell and the electrified walls in the interrogation rooms crackled. The opening caved again and Benedict retracted his hand.

  “Saskia!” he cried.

  “Get out of here! Go!” she ordered. The opening was too small now. She took quick stock of the weapons on her body—her back-up stunner, her knife, and a few grav-disks. It seemed any blast would just hasten the collapse. Maybe something in Rhodes’ torture kit would help. She dashed back to the interrogation room, but his supplies were gone. Hidden so the medics wouldn’t know the truth about this place. When the ceiling caved, she dove under the table.

  Danny was shocked to see Sky come out alone with Santos. He could see that she was shaking with regret, despite the squared shoulders and raised chin. The Guard had evacuated the Marble and the neighboring two buildings, sending everyone to the opposite side of the Plaza, begging them to disperse and go home once they’d been accounted for. Lieutenant Carr sat on the grass, head down, hugging his knees. An emergency triage area had been set next to him, and maybe he needed an ambulance, but he refused anyone who tried to talk to him, even after his husband came to sit with him.