Void

by Kate Sander

  "About the book telling you a hell of a lot."

  "Well, it tells me we're in the future," Senka said.

  "That doesn't really do much though, does it?"

  "No. Can't see how it could."

  "So thanks for lying."

  "Anytime."

  2

  Tory

  Cass Crumpler pulled her mink coat around herself, being careful not to catch anyone’s eye. She heard a rumble behind her as the steam engine pulled away from the train station, leaving her on the platform, a long way from home. Hating how tight the coat was over her dress, she pulled at the sleeves, trying to warm her hands in her thin gloves.

  March of 1895 had been exceptionally cold.

  It was late, too late.

  "It's not good for a young woman like yourself to be going to New York so late," her father, Arthur, had said to her before her journey.

  "I think it's good for her," her mother, Rebecca, had piped up. She had just finished with a patient and had walked into the room. "Mr. Tesla is a fine gentleman. He will keep his promise and meet her at the station, I have no doubt about it."

  "I don't trust a white man to take care of my daughter," Arthur said grimly.

  "She'll be fine," her mother had said. "Mr. Tesla is a European. They had no slavery over there. And we're on the Eastern Coast now, things will be different for our daughter. Plus, we all know why it needs to happen." And her mother had given her a severe look.

  With that, Cass had gone on her way (with a little extra prodding from her mother). The longest trip she'd ever taken alone.

  And now, no one was on the platform and it was getting to be very late.

  Cass looked around nervously, trying to fight off the cold breeze. This job was important to her. Her mother had arranged it all and Cass needed to do well and make a good impression.

  Clip-Clop-Clip-Clop

  The hooves of a horse drawn carriage coming down the street. It only took a few moments when it pulled up at the station.

  "Miss Crumpler?" the driver yelled, hopping off the front.

  "That's me," Cass said softly.

  "Sorry I'm late, Miss. This wind has my horses all in a tizzy," he said, picking up her suitcase and hauling it to the carriage for her. "Mr. Tesla is in one of his moods," the driver said, helping her into the back of the carriage. "I hope you got some sleep on the train, as he wants to start the experiment tonight."

  Excitement built in Cass' chest to hear that, tonight, she'd be making her debut as a research assistant. Visions of matching her mother's prowess danced through her head. The world wouldn't just be talking anymore about Rebecca Crumpler, the first black female physician. They'd be talking about her daughter, Cass Crumpler, the black woman inventor.

  Cheers, awards, accolades all swam in her head as she watched the beauty of New York City on a snowy night pass her by.

  Knowing her parents wouldn't approve of her motivations, she kept them private, only now allowing herself to dream of the fame.

  She'd learn all she could from Mr. Nikola Tesla, then she'd branch out and make her own amazing electrical discoveries. Even her older sister Lizzie would be jealous.

  Lost in thought, the trip to South Fifth Avenue went quickly.

  "Do you have the time, sir?" she asked the driver when they pulled in front of the handsome four story building in Manhattan.

  "It is one o'clock in the morning on March the thirteenth, Madam. And you should be asleep, but as I said, Mr. Tesla gets on tangents and likes to work late sometimes. Rarely sleeps, these days. You'll get used to it."

  Cass nodded and stared at the building nervously.

  "I'll bring your things up to the fourth floor. Mr. Tesla has a room set up for you in the back. You will be assisting him with research. You can read?"

  Cass was affronted, but she knew that she'd have to prove absolutely everything in this work. She had to be smarter and work harder than any white man to prove herself, just as her mother had.

  "Of course. I would not be wasting his time if I couldn't."

  "Ay, I suppose that's fair," the driver said.

  "I didn't catch your name?" Cass said politely as he led her to the front door.

  "My name is Sam O'Neil," he said lightly. "First generation Irish man, at your service."

  The door opened to a landing on a set of stairs.

  "Mr. Tesla is in the basement," Sam said. "I'll meet you down there."

  Cass nodded and ventured alone into the dark, unlit stairs. A loud WHIIRRRR was emitting from the basement. BANG. The whole building shook. Dust fell off the walls and Cass coughed. Another loud BANG and electric lights lining the staircase flickered on, blinding Cass. Stumbling, coughing and with stars in her eyes, she barely made it down the stairs in one piece.

  Raising her hand to knock, she paused for a moment to wipe her eyes.

  The door flew open and Cass jumped back, astounded at the man in front of her.

  "Cass Crumpler!" he yelled in a heavy Eastern European accent. "You look just like your mother. I met her last year at a gala in Boston. My name is Nikola Tesla." He showed her through the door.

  The room was filled with machinery that was absolutely amazing. Massive coils lined the walls, floor to ceiling and easily ten feet across. Large glass balls filled with electricity shocked and danced as they walked by. Paper was scattered all over the floor showing half-drawn machines and mathematics.

  Cass was ecstatic. Pride filled her. She couldn’t wait to learn about all of it.

  Tesla, after his outburst, now remained silent, skipping through the basement. Cass wanted to ask him about everything, but it was overwhelming and she didn’t want to seem annoying.

  Tesla led her to the back of the basement. A single wooden chair was placed carefully on a large X painted on the floor. Four large metal coils were on each corner and were wired together by copper at the top. Inside each coil was a large tube of silver liquid that floated and danced.

  “You, Madam, came just in time,” Tesla said.

  Cass jumped. The sound of his voice scared her.

  As did the single chair.

  “You will sit there,” he said, grabbing her hand. “We are trying to send matter to a different place. I have succeeded with radio waves. Now it’s time to try matter. I have a similar station set up across the street in the basement. I need you to hold this,” he brandished a large red ruby the size of her head. “And to hold your breath, dear. If I’m right, the stone will be sent to the basement across the street and you will stay here.”

  “Ummmm,” Cass said. “Why can’t you just put the stone on the chair? Why do I have to be there too?”

  “Such a question!” Tesla smiled. “I did well to pick you as my assistant. See we need your brain energy. An odd concept, but one I can explain better at a later date. However, I can tell you now that I theorize that brains have waves, much like what we use in radios. The math says that we need something to stabilize the stone once I destabilize it with the power. Now, these brain waves I told you about should do the trick.”

  Pulling nervously at the side of her dress, Cass looked at the lonely wooden chair.

  “And… And you’re sure it’s safe?” she muttered.

  “Very much so, yes!”

  “And… I just have to think about the stone?”

  “Indeed!”

  Breathing deep to steady herself, “Okay. Let’s do this.” The need to prove herself ran deeper than fear. Plus, her mother knew this man. She trusted him. She couldn’t let her mother down.

  Tesla smiled and handed her the giant ruby.

  “I will give you that when we go and get it from across the street!”

  A weak smile was all she could muster.

  Sitting in the chair, she noticed it creak under her weight. She was a small woman, and that small moan made this entirely more nerve wracking.

  The man couldn’t even build a chair. And she was going to let him… do what exactly?

  “Ummm
, Mr. Tesla?” She said weakly, clutching the ruby to her chest.

  “Yes, dear?” he said from halfway across the basement. The loud WHIIIIRRRR started again, this time from the coils around her.

  “I…I don’t want to do this.”

  “Pardon, dear? I can’t hear you over the noise!”

  His eyes were manic, crazy.

  The WHIIIIIRRRR got louder.

  “I SAID I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS!”

  Blue electricity fired up the coils and joined at the cables. Cass clutched the ruby to her chest. The sound was so loud she couldn’t think straight.

  A loud BANG.

  A blinding flash of light.

  Cass felt pain all over her body.

  And then nothing.

  “Hold on,” Tory muttered to herself, staring at the Remiel, trying desperately to hold on to the vision. She needed to see what happened to Cass after the blinding flash of light. Narrowing her eyes, she stared deeper into the stone. She cleared her mind, and saw it.

  Tesla and Sam O’Neil were standing over the dead girl’s body. The ruby had turned jet black and was lying beside her.

  “What happened to her?” Sam asked. “I liked her. I was gone five minutes and you fried her?”

  Tesla looked shocked. “But… The calculations…”

  “Obviously were wrong. What are we going to do about this?”

  Sam went to lift her up, then jumped back, swearing.

  “Shit. She’s still alive? She’s breathing. We have to get a physician.”

  “No,” said Tesla. “I need her here. I need to do research…”

  One of the coils sparked, lighting some paper on fire that had blown towards it in the blast of energy.

  “Pick her up and get her out of here,” Tesla snapped. “Take her to our house. No one is to know of this.”

  Sam did as he was told. Scooping up the young woman, he ran for the door.

  Tesla picked up the stone and chased after Sam, the fire spreading fast behind him.

  They made the street, where Sam had thankfully kept the horses. Sam tossed the girl in the carriage and Tesla hopped in as well.

  Fire licked the inside of the windows, a soft orange glow illuminating the glass.

  “Drive them hard, Sam.” Tesla said softly, completely ignoring the girl barely breathing beside him, so wrapped up in staring at the beautiful jet black stone. “We must never have been here.”

  Sam snapped the reins and the two horses ran hard, slipping slightly on the icy streets.

  “What do we do about the girl?” Sam called. “Her family knew she was coming.”

  “We will wipe her from the history books,” Tesla said. “From now on Cass Crumpler never existed.”

  Tory gently removed herself from the vision.

  She’d just witnessed the start of the Zoya. Breathing hard, she tried to make sense of that city with lights and buildings. It was such a foreign concept, so she’d have to talk to Senka about it.

  Exhausted from the effort, she went back below deck. After much convincing, they’d finally gotten Senka aboard a ship to go to Langundo. They would be there any day. Then the war against the Ampulex would start for real.

  They needed as much information as they could get.

  Climbing into her bed, she called out with her mind, "Black Eyes, I need to speak with you.”

  Exhaustion took over and she fell into a deep and much needed sleep.

  3

  Tory

  Tory woke with a start and nailed her head against the low beam over her bed.

  "Ugh, not again," she muttered as she rolled out of her bed onto her knees, trying to gather herself and figure out where she was. Sometimes, sleep could be too deep.

  The sound of retching reached her and brought her back to reality. She was on a boat with Senka, Ujarak and Eris. They were headed to Langundo. Headed for war.

  "Sorry," Senka said from the corner of the small room. "Boats, man. I fucking hate boats. Being pregnant doesn't help, either."

  Tory crawled over and sat beside her. Senka looked at her apprehensively then, pale, returned to puking in the bucket. Tory rubbed her back.

  "I'll tell you what I saw, if you can focus on two things at once."

  A thumbs up was her answer.

  "There was a city. A beautiful city. It was a cold evening in March. I was Cass. It's hard to explain, but I felt what she felt and saw what she saw." Tory ignored a new bout of retching from the pail. "I think it was called... Maidhatten?"

  "Manhattan," Senka said, removing her head from the pail and wiping her mouth. "Ugh." She sat heavily beside Tory and they both leaned against the wall. "It's a part of New York. A city from my time."

  "Someone picked her up from the train station in a horse drawn carriage," Tory continued.

  "Okay, so before my time. Sorry," head back into the bucket.

  Tory smiled and continued the story. Senka was a good listener, all things considered. Tory recapped everything from her vision, while rubbing the puking woman's back.

  It was a peaceful moment.

  "Tesla," Senka said when Tory got to the end. "Are you sure."

  "Positive," Tory said.

  "Whelp, I'm guess that's the start of the Zoya, then. Who would have thought that Tesla started it?"

  "Who is that?"

  "A scientist, an inventor. He invented AC electricity. Changed the world. Apparently changed it more than once. I guess that confirms we're in the future. Wonder what happened to the buildings?"

  That whole concept was foreign to Tory. They didn't speak about the past or the future. The Melanthios were just... alive. They breathed, lived, fought, fucked, then they died and went to the spirit world. A pretty uncomplicated existence.

  "How much in the future, I don't know. I'm thinking a long time if you take into account the lack of ruins from my time mixed with the crazy ass monsters I've been fighting."

  "There's another thing," Tory said. "The woman, Cass. She had a stone. It turned black when she was near dead after the experiment."

  Senka was starting to fall asleep. "Hmm, and you have the Remiel, 'cause it was brought over here?"

  "I do."

  "’Betcha they are linked," Senka said sleepily, resting her head on Tory's shoulder. "I need to talk to Carter. He's in my world. Sorry. He's in my time. Guess it's all one world." She let out a massive yawn.

  "Yes," Tory said, smiling with her eyes closed. "My ghost, Black Eyes, is with him."

  "Oh... Good. It won't be too much trouble then."

  Senka drifted to sleep. Tory enjoyed the weight of Senka’s head on her shoulder. Black Eyes hadn't responded to any of Tory's requests to speak. Tory had been so entirely ignored she wasn't even sure if Black Eyes could hear her.

  And Senka needed to talk to Carter.

  Not too much trouble, indeed.

  The door blew open, completely shattering the moment of peace. Eris, the teenager, burst in, khopesh drawn, breathing heavily. She was no match for Senka, who went from a dead sleep to upright and holding her tantos, ready.

  "Tory, step over to me. I have her covered," Eris said, glaring at Senka. "You," she barked at Senka. "Keep your swords where I can see them. Nice and easy, Tory. She won't hurt you."

  Senka dropped her sword tips and burst into laughter.

  "Where'd you find this clown?" Senka said through giggles.

  Eris blushed, the redness rising to her forehead, but she didn't lower her curved sword.

  Tory smacked Senka in the side. "Be nice. She's young and she doesn't know you."

  "No, she doesn't," Senka smiled wickedly. "But I bet you I know her. You were high up, weren't you? A Princess maybe?"

  When Eris' blush deepened, Senka laughed. "See. You're used to talking down to people. To yelling and whining and getting exactly what you want." She lowered the tantos and walked closer to Eris. "Well, little girl, I hate to break it to you, but you're not the only Zoya in this room. And you may be used to getting what you wa
nt, but you cannot threaten me."

  "I heard a fight. I'm protecting my friend," Eris snapped. "You should try it sometime."

  Senka laughed and Tory rubbed her forehead.

  "You care to tell her, dear Tory? Or should I fill her in about what sacrifice truly means." She looked Eris up and down. "Trust me little girl, it's more than just running away from mommy and daddy for a week and having to fend for yourself." She leaned in. "I know real pain. In ways you couldn't even imagine. The kind that would make you puke. You have nothing on me, little girl."

  "Senka, stop," Tory snapped. "Lower your weapon, Eris. Senka is of no danger to us. She's just sea sick and I hit my head getting out of bed."

  "But... in the forest..."

  "I seek revenge," Senka said. "If you hurt me, or one of my friends, you die. Easy concept."

  Senka brushed past Eris out of the room and disappeared somewhere on the boat. "Make sure you don't hurt someone I love, little girl." she called on her way out. "I'd hate for us to test how good a Zoya you really are."

  "She's... interesting." Eris said, returning her khopesh to her back. "Where did you find her?"

  "I've known her a long time," Tory replied. "And she's right, you know. Though respect is earned, Senka has gone through more in her life than you could possibly imagine. Try not to piss her off."

  "Look, I'm just trying to watch out for you, like I did in the forest."

  "I don't need your protection," Tory snapped. "I used to be a General. Even though I'm not a Zoya, I can handle myself."

  "You couldn't the day I met you," Eris fired back. "If I wouldn't have been there-"

  Tory was doing everything not to yell. "I appreciate what you did for me in the forest. You're right, those assholes had the drop on me. But a little humility would go a long way."

  "I am a Princess, I don't need humility," Eris snapped.

  "NOT ANYMORE!" Tory yelled. She'd had it with this teenager's attitude. "You fled from the Ampulex. You chose to come with us. You decided that the Ampulex were doing things that were fundamentally wrong, did you not?"

  Eris hung her head, "Yes. I did."