by Elin Wyn
“What you have just watched is a typical rift opening between here and Glymna before the extermination of the Xathi,” Fen explained. “Did you notice anything particular about that rift?”
None of us answered for a moment, then Rouhr cleared his throat. “It looked like a standard rift with the bright colors nearly blinding us, the two or three steps everyone takes inside it, then the exit. It always looks like a tear in space to me.”
Fen nodded. “That’s exactly what the rift is. It is a tear in space. You see, what a rift does, is it folds space and brings two points together.”
“Wait a minute,” Jalok cut in. “What do you mean it ‘folds space’?”
“Friend Jalok,” Fen nodded to him. “If you could imagine the universe as a piece of paper, infinitely long in any direction.”
“Okay. I guess,” Jalok said. “So, you’re going to say that the rift folds the universe like I can fold a piece of paper?”
“To a point, yes.”
“But that makes no sense,” Jalok argued. “If I fold a piece a paper, then both sides of that paper are either touching or really close to touching. If you’re folding space with the rift device, then how come only a single point connects to the other side of space?”
“That is a valid question,” Fen responded. “When the rift folds space, it only folds the two connection points to one another. However, it does not connect the two points to one another, that is why you must walk through the rift before arriving on the other side.”
Jalok opened his mouth, but Rouhr held up his hand to stop him. “Okay. But, what does all of that have to do with you not opening a rift for us and what’s happening with the humans?”
“Patience, General,” Fen answered. “The next video was what I wanted to show you.” She minimized the first video, then brought up the second one. “This second video is of a rift opening taken a couple of days ago.” She pressed the play button and we watched. Rouhr shot forward in his chair, but I wasn’t sure what he was looking at. It looked like a rift to me, just like all the others. Perhaps the edges looked a little different, but I’ve never paid attention to each individual rift I’ve gone through.
“What are you showing us, Lady Fen?” I asked.
“Perhaps once more,” she said. She replayed the video and I looked again.
It looked like a tear in space, like all rifts do. The rich blue, green, and purple lighting was hard to see through. I could see the other side of the— “Oh, skrell,” I said out loud. “What the rek?”
“You see it, don’t you?” Fen said.
Everyone looked at me, Fen looked pleased, Rouhr looked upset, the others looked lost. Suddenly, Tyehn’s eyes went wide and he twisted his head to look at the screen again. “What colors were the rift last time?”
Each of them gave me a different answer, which was typical whenever we used the rift. Everyone always described it differently.
“Okay, what are the colors on that video?”
Each one of them said “Blue, green, and purple.” They all looked at one another, then back at me.
“That’s right,” I said with a nod. “We’ve never seen the same colors, in the same order, at the same time before.”
“That’s not all,” Rouhr said. “The first video showed that the rift looked like a tear in the fabric of space, but it looked like a tear that was made with a knife, you know?”
We all nodded.
“This time, this tear looks like something just reached out and ripped it apart,” Rouhr said. We all looked at the screen and studied the rift. Fen put the picture of the other rift from the earlier video up via split-screen and we could see it. The original rift looked as though someone had cut space, then ripped it open. The second rift was jagged and broken, as if someone had grabbed a cloth between two hands and pulled apart as hard as they could.
“That is correct,” Fen said. “The rifts have changed. The space between the openings, that is an unknown space that exists outside the known boundaries of the universe. I believe that something has come out of that space and entered our own.”
“But what?” Tyehn asked before any of the rest of us could.
“I’m not certain,” she answered. “However, look at these.” She tapped the viewscreen and sent the rift videos away, then brought up brain scans. “These are two separate brain scans from one person. The one on the right is their healthy brain. The one on the left is after they suddenly turned against you.”
“How did you manage to get a brain scan for a before and after?” Rouhr asked.
“Dr. Evie Parr is a remarkable person. And she also had remarkable luck. This particular human had come in for a routine check-up after the dome was erected and Evie had conducted a brain scan then. This same person was one of the ones arrested the other day,” Fen explained.
“What are we looking for?” Navat asked. “I don’t see anything.”
“Very good,” Fen said. “Look closer, however. Right here.” She pointed at a part of the brain on the left and zoomed it in for us.
“Is that, what is that?” Navat asked.
“That is a parasitic presence within the human brain,” Fen answered.
“Show us the other scan,” Rouhr ordered.
Fen zoomed in on the same section of the brain as the one on the left. There was nothing there.
“You mean that there’s a chance that something came out of the rift and started taking people over?” Rouhr asked.
“Yes, I believe so,” Fen answered.
“But how?”
“I wish I knew,” Fen said. “It is something that I must continue to study.”
“Then we need to—” Rouhr started saying before all of our comms erupted in alarm. Rouhr clicked on his, listened for a few seconds, then jumped to his feet. “The offices are under attack. We need to leave, now.”
Phryne
“Have we gotten a head count yet?” I spoke into the comm.
I’d taken cover behind an overturned desk. This was the first chance I’d had to get information from everyone since the first shots went off. It’d been total chaos ever since. I went down to the first floor to find madness. The gates at the front had been breached, with at least two dozen radicals pouring into the lobby, and more standing by. With two out of three strike teams gone and the majority of the ground teams out patrolling, we were quickly outnumbered and in retreat to more defensible positions.
“Of the radicals or of us?” Iq’her of Strike Team Two called back.
“Radicals.”
“Enough to overrun the first floor and cut off all exits.” As if I didn’t already know that.
“They’re aggressive,” Karzin joined in. “They intend to kill. Should we switch to lethal rounds?”
“Not yet.” As much as I wanted to vaporize every single person who’d threatened me and mine, the radicals were more valuable to us alive. “Tranq rounds, paralysis rounds, and sleeper gas only.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“They’re fighting to get to the stairwell,” Rokul called in. “Some ground team members are covering the elevators.”
“Someone needs to cut power to the elevators,” I ordered.
“On it.”
“I need a status update.” General Rouhr’s voice sounded muffled. He must’ve been using a comm system built into an aerial unit.
“The first floor is overrun. We’re trying to get everyone up to the second floor. We’re cutting power to the elevators. The radicals will have to take the stairs and bottleneck themselves,” I reported back.
“Where’s Vidia?”
“She was making her way to one of the safe rooms when I last saw her.”
“I saw her enter the safe room unscathed,” Sylor reported.
General Rouhr loosed a sigh of relief.
“Does anyone have eyes on Sk’lar?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Strike Team Three is out at Aurora village with me. They’ve been notified of the situation,” General R
ouhr replied. “I jumped in an aerial unit the second I heard about the attack. They shouldn’t be far behind me.”
“Still no rift access?”
“Negative.”
“Damn it. What about Strike Team One?” I asked.
“Negative, as well. They’re in Glymna.”
I bit my tongue so I wouldn’t shout. Why the hell was our team so scattered when security threats were so prevalent? At least most of my Alpha team was here. I didn’t have to worry about being in constant communication with them. They were trained to deal with things like this. Granted, none of us ever thought this would happen.
I should check on Tona and Skit after this. They were far from incompetent, but they weren’t trained by me. They wouldn’t automatically know how to fit into our operations.
“Power’s cut to the elevators.”
“Fall back from the elevators,” Karzin barked. “Get all personnel to the second floor.”
“Yes, sir.”
“They’re going to have to fight through a lot of radicals to get to the stairwell,” Iq’her warned. “Might be a good time to switch to lethal rounds.”
“Not yet,” General Rouhr ordered. “If this turns into a massacre, the radicals still win.”
He was right. If we used lethal force, that would only reinforce the idea that the aliens were out to harm humans.
“Force them to crowd into the stairwell,” I said. “Limit how many can attack at once.”
Before anyone could reply to me, I clicked to my team’s personal frequency.
“Tona. Skit. One of you come in,” I barked.
“Ma’am.” I think it was Tona.
“Location?”
“Second floor, top of the stairwell,” he replied.
“Where’s Skit?”
“Moving non-combat-trained personnel into the safe rooms.”
“Excellent. Are you alone?”
“No, I’m with the other members of your team.”
“Great. I need you to do something for me.”
Footsteps skittered past me. I carefully peeked over the desk. Two radicals moved through the room, probably to join the others.
“Stand by, Tona.”
I leaped up and fired a sleeper round at the radicals’ backs. One quickly succumbed to the airborne tranq gas. The other was more resilient. He turned, and with a crazed look in his eyes, charged at me.
He was bigger and stronger than I, but he was untrained in combat. All he knew how to do was throw punches. I ducked and evaded with ease before nailing him right in a pressure point. He slumped into unconsciousness at my feet.
I tapped the grip of my blaster, fighting the urge to blow a hole through his forehead.
“Ma’am?” Tona’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Yes, I’m here. I need you to go to the control room and call back the city patrol teams. Tell them to prepare for a fight, but to avoid killing if they can.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I clicked back to the general channel.
“Is the first floor clear?” General Rouhr asked.
“Can’t say for sure,” Karzin asked.
“I’m still down here,” I said. “I don’t see any other allies.”
“Get up here when you can. We need all the help we can get,” Karzin said.
With the elevators shut down and the stairwell clogged with idiots who’d like to kill me, I needed an alternate plan. I visualized the emergency exits. All the ones leading to the street were no doubt clogged with waiting radicals.
There were the remains of an old fire escape still attached to the building, but that was old even before the Xathi attacked. Still, it was better than nothing. If I remembered correctly, the ladder was positioned on the southeast side of the building.
I crept over to the window. Once I was certain none of the radicals were waiting on this side of the building, I opened it.
The ladder was only half unfurled. I climbed out the window and stood on the sill for extra height. With a grunt, I leaped from the sill, barely grasping the bottom rung of the ladder. I hauled myself up. The ladder was so rusted I worried it wouldn’t hold my weight, but somehow it did.
Once safely on the landing of the fire escape, I kicked at the ladder until it broke off. If I figured this out, one of the radicals would figure it out eventually. I couldn’t risk being followed up here.
I saw the backs of my colleagues through the second floor window. I knocked, startling them.
Karzin opened the window for me.
“You could’ve warned us,” he said.
“I didn’t want anyone overhearing my plan. Status?”
“Just like you predicted, the radicals bottle-headed themselves.”
“Bottlenecked,” I corrected with a smirk.
“Someone had the good sense to bring extra ammo up from the armory. We’re rotating.” Karzin gestured to the group of soldiers and security officers surrounding the stairwell door. “I’m reloading my weapons and then I’ll relieve someone who’s running low.”
“Fantastic.” The knot of tension in my chest released. “The radicals will run out of energy or out of ammo sooner or later. Think we can hold out?”
“Reinforcements will be here in ten minutes,” Tona announced. “We can definitely hold out.”
“Good work,” I nodded to him.
“Thank you, ma’am. That means a lot.”
“Don’t get sentimental on me yet, solider. We haven’t won this fight.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I gave Tona a pat on the shoulder before making my way to the stairwell entry. Two of my team members, Mekinna and Cyrus, stood to attention briefly before each launched a sleeper grenade down into the stairwell. A few yards ahead of them, strike team members and officers held the radicals at bay with shields surrounded by energy fields.
“Status report?”
“They’re losing energy,” Cyrus said. “The sleeper gas is most effective.”
“Do we know what their reload capabilities are?”
“Most of them have extra rounds in their pockets, but they’re burning through them fast.”
“Any casualties on our part?”
“A few grazes. I suspect the radicals are using homemade rounds. They’re incapable of puncturing our armor,” Mekinna reported.
“That’s a relief.”
“There’s something odd about the radicals,” Cyrus said as he launched another grenade. Violet-colored gas exploded in the center of the cluster. Some radicals fell back in a coughing fit, others pushed forward despite their sloppy movements.
“Something in their eyes?” I guessed.
“Affirmative,” Mekinna said. “They appear to be under the influence of the same substance that the radicals at the riot were under.”
“Not surprising.”
A radical forced himself through two of the shields, despite the electric pulses shooting through him from the energy fields. His eyes gleamed in an inhuman way. I lifted my weapon and sent a tranq dart into his neck. He collapsed and slipped down the stairs, taking out several others as he fell.
“Reinforcements are here,” Tona reported through the radio.
“Remind them to avoid lethal force,” I warned. “I want to question as many of these brutes as possible.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The radicals farthest from the second floor turned their attention to face the onslaught coming from behind them. Between the unfaltering forces at the top of the stairs and the wave of fresh forces below, the radicals soon found themselves outmatched.
“They’re retreating,” I barked into the radio. “Move forward and restrain whoever you can catch.”
Within moments, the sound of weapons firing echoed through the first floor.
“They still have ammo,” Karzin reported. “They must’ve saved some rounds for their retreat.”
“Proceed with caution,” I advised.
“They’re determined not to leave anyone
behind,” Karzin reported after a few moments.
“How many captives are we looking at?”
“None.” Karzin was frustrated. “They clearly had an extraction plan. They’re using ammo they didn’t use during the actual attack.”
“What kind of ammo?”
“Looks like some kind of homemade casing containing jagged bits of shrapnel,” Karzin said. “They tore the officers’ armor to shreds.”
“Any deaths?”
“One male took a bad hit in the chest. If we get him to Evie, she’ll probably be able to help him.”
“Let the radicals go,” I instructed. “Don’t let anyone put themselves at risk. It’s not worth it.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Well, that was disappointing. As I returned to the first floor, I wondered why the radicals would bring such intense ammo to only use it while retreating. Clearly, they all knew something that was more important for them to keep secret.
As much as I wanted captives to pump for information, I wasn’t going to call this a loss. We’d held our own and driven the radicals out. Between one step and the next, exhaustion hit me as the adrenaline drained out of me. I glanced at the timepiece on the wall. The radicals had attacked two hours ago.
I slumped down on a broken chair and took a breath.
“Strike Team Three has returned,” someone called through the radio. I perked up from my seat just as Sk’lar and his team entered the first-floor lobby.
“What’d I miss?” he asked with a grin.
“One hell of a party.”
Sk’lar
Placid, calm on the outside, belly roiling with anxiety on the inside, I wondered if anyone else at this emergency meeting felt as out of their element as I did.
Here on the top floor of the Nyheim official building, we were treated to a magnificent view of the setting sun as it lent dying scarlet light to the city. Everything seemed safe and tranquil, belying the recent chaos which had rocked this metropolis.
I had grown used to General Rouhr, and Vidia, and of course I didn’t feel uncomfortable around Phryne, but there were some heavyweights here.
