Jules sank into her chair, knowing he was implying her actions that day across the wormhole.
“The Arnap deserved far worse,” Natalia said, backing her up.
“I agree. I would have made them suffer first,” Slate said softly.
Papa shook his head. “This isn’t about that, and let’s agree that we all loved Magnus, okay? His crew died too. The Arnap are bad, and were consequently dealt justice.”
Fontem sat forward, elbows on the table. “That’s not my point. Regardless of Jules’ reason for killing them, a Zan’ra was able to snuff out twenty thousand lives with the blink of an eye. Do you see why the Deities wanted to remove their mistake from existence?”
Jules cringed at his words, and her mom seemed to notice from across the table. She passed Jules a reassuring smile, and she somehow managed to return it.
“Jules is not a mistake,” Dean said beside her.
“That’s right, she’s not, but Fontem’s theory is sound. We can understand why they may have decided they’d created something dangerous. But…”
Mary finished. “The Four escaped.”
“And locked them away?” Slate asked.
Jules had thought about that for a long time. Just who had trapped the Deities? Who’d destroyed the cities on Desolate, and placed the symbol of the four circles with the X?
“Four circles. The Four,” she said, pushing back from the table a bit. Jules stood, moving for the digital board behind Karo, and drew the symbol.
“That’s it,” Papa said. “Why didn’t we think about this?”
“We had too much on our plates,” Slate said. “This is good, Jules. Now we have to assume the Zan’ra retaliated after evading capture.”
Jules smiled at Uncle Zeke, appreciating how he’d said the Zan’ra, not indicating her.
“Keep an eye out for that symbol and be cautious on those two planets,” Papa said, looking at Dean, then her. “If the Deities are indeed there, make notes.”
“We know the drill. Observe, record, report.” Dean said the three words the Academy had engrained into their minds for years.
Slate and Suma nodded proudly, since they’d been their professors on some important subjects for a few years.
“And, Jules, you have the…” Her dad clasped a hand around his left forearm, implying the crystal device Professor Thompson had used on her.
“I have it and will use it as needed,” she assured him, imagining pulling O’ri’s power from Patty.
Her mom updated them about recent Alliance updates, talking about New Spero, Earth, Haven, and Bazarn Five, and Jules listened, but only half-heard the conversation. She was too deep into thought about her revelation. Now that she saw the symbol for the Zan’ra, something felt different inside her. She was more connected to Desolate, the world with the Deity under the ocean’s surface.
The meeting went on for another hour, everyone having a turn to discuss their roles and the work of the crew members around them. This was a time they could make suggestions or talk about issues, and Papa would listen, offering advice or telling them he’d consider their proposals.
Eventually, they were dismissed, and she lingered, staying with Dean and Natalia as the others left. Her parents waited behind, Mom shutting the door.
“Nat, it’s good to see you. How are you?” she asked.
Natalia actually laughed. “This is strange, isn’t it?”
“What is?” Papa asked.
“This. Us sitting here, months after Magnus died, talking about stopping a businessman from killing us. Jules and Dean, our kids, are chasing after gods and teenagers with superpowers. It’s all… too much.” Nat’s laughter ceased, and Jules spotted the worry and stress slipping into her previous façade.
Her parents sat far across from them, and the table suddenly felt overwhelming in size. “Remember our first trip to Washington?” Papa asked, changing the subject.
Natalia nodded. “I’d never been to the States before that. Magnus was like a tourist, pointing out everything like it was supposed to be of significance to me.”
“Do you remember how out of our element we were?” he asked. “At least I was. You and Magnus were tough, experienced in combat. Mary was a damned Air Force pilot, and then there was the thirty-something-year-old accountant from upstate New York, treading water, trying to stay rational in the boat dragging us along.”
Jules smiled at him. She could hardly imagine the man in front of her scared and not in charge of anything. He was always so sure of himself.
“You seemed to do fine to me,” Nat told him.
“I did, but only because I had you guys around. We were a team, remember?”
“It was a long time ago,” Dean’s mom said.
“That doesn’t matter. We were a team then, when things sounded impossible. And what happened?”
Jules’ mom answered when it was clear Natalia wasn’t going to. “We won. We fought the Kraski, defeated the Deltra. We chased Leslie and Terrance out there, stopped the Bhlat, and kept going until we made it all these years later, with kids of our own, and starships to captain. We’ve created multi-world alliances and saved so many lives along the way. As a team.”
“What are you trying to get at?” Natalia asked. It had been some time since she’d worked with Jules’ parents on a mission, not since she’d accompanied Mary while Papa dealt with the Hunter on New Spero. Jules had been a little girl then.
“We need you on this one,” Papa said.
“No you don’t.”
“Mom, give him a chance,” Dean told her.
Natalia let out a cheekful of air. “You want the old Nat at your side, ready to pull the trigger and make the right calls, but that’s not me any longer. I did it because of him. He demanded a lot of me, and I was there. The balance to a relationship.”
Jules straightened at her word: balance. It was something her dad liked to talk about, the balance of the universe.
“Then recalibrate. Balance your son, balance your daughter. Balance me, for God’s sake, but do it, because whatever we’re about to fight is going to be bad. Ruthless and cunning. We need you in this fight, Nat.” Papa’s voice lowered, and his frown eased slightly. “I need you.”
This was what she wanted to hear. It was evident instantly. She sat up, her face softening. “Fine. I’m in.”
“Good. Lom’s not going to know what hit him,” her dad said, adding a wink.
____________
The meeting went as well as it could have. It was obvious Sergo had nothing to do with the Padlog Lom had been referring to, but if there was one thing the tricky insectoid was good at, it was extracting data from nothing. I was confident he’d be able to find out who was feeding Lom information and taking orders from him.
It was late, but I was jacked up, nervous for so many reasons, but also excited to be nearing the end. I’d been worried about Lom since Jules was a baby. Sixteen years with the threat of him looming over my head, never quite leaving my train of thought.
Jules had gone to bed an hour ago, but when I glanced towards the hall, I saw her light was still on. She was exactly like me, probably anticipating our upcoming adventures the same as I was. Her path was different than mine, and she’d excel at it. She always did.
“You did a good job in there,” I told Mary, walking behind her on the couch. I rubbed her shoulders, which were extremely tense, and she set her cup of tea down. Maggie was beside her on the couch, legs kicked out to the right. She snored lightly as I gave my wife a light massage.
“You too. We weren’t wrong. We do need her. I remember our first meeting,” Mary said. “You’d already spent some time with the pair, but I had no clue who they were. All I saw was a big, loud Scandinavian man, and a demure but powerful woman who wouldn’t speak. They made quite the pair.”
“Did you ever think they’d end up married, and that we would too?” I asked, moving around the couch to sit with her and the dog.
“Not right away. It was so sur
real, seeing you, and hearing Bob had met you and your wife,” Mary said.
“She wasn’t really my…”
“You know what I mean. I get that Janine and Bob were fakes, spies or whatever, but it felt different then,” she said. “Everything was so confusing, and there you were, this man taking charge. I was impressed with you. I won’t say I was hearing wedding bells, but I did feel a little heart fluttering, maybe.”
I laughed faintly, resting my head into the couch cushion. “It’s hard to believe he’s gone.”
Her cool palm found my arm, and she nodded. “I know.”
“I don’t blame Nat for hiding from everyone. I think I’d do the same thing,” I told her.
“No you wouldn’t. Not Dean Parker.” Mary glanced over the couch, toward our daughter’s room.
“She’ll be fine. Jules is capable,” I told her.
“If the Deities are freed, they might kill her,” Mary said.
“Jules will know what to do. She always does,” I said, with more confidence than I felt.
“I hope you’re right. Want to go to bed?” Mary asked me.
“Sure. I’ll be there in a few.” I watched her leave, taking Maggie for one last bathroom trip. I headed to the fridge, unable to stop thinking about Magnus tonight. I opened the door, seeing his favorite beer still sitting there. We’d been planning on drinking them together. I’d managed to procure a case from Udoon Station, since it was the only thing that compared to the Padlogs’ syrupy drink in his books.
I pulled one of the beverages out, popped the top of the plastic bottle, since it wasn’t human-made, and took a sip. It was as awful as I remembered. Magnus’ taste buds must have been broken. I sat down at the island, smiling as I drank the beer.
Ten
The Crystal Map was a convoluted tool, but one Jules was quite accustomed to using. She’d studied it for hours, then days, then weeks, when she’d first started her Portals class at the Academy. She knew the symbols for hundreds, maybe over a thousand, and could match almost that many to the planet’s description. There were some she didn’t remember, mostly due to the fact that they were yet to be explored and recorded by the Gatekeepers.
Some of them were far away, too distant to travel by ship, even with their current technology. Papa wouldn’t let her go to any of those places, and for good reason. Sarlun was of the same mind, but claimed they would eventually investigate some of the locations. That there was so much out there that members of the Alliance had never seen fascinated Jules to no end. She used to dream of fairy-tale lands, with princes, swords, and strong queens leading thriving nations.
Now she suspected most of the planets were vacant, empty husks without life, but these portal planets were different. The portals had been placed there on purpose. The Theos had created many of them, emulating the technology they’d discovered in stones like the round one she’d found in the Nirzu valley, but some had already existed. Actually a lot did, like all of the Shandra that had appeared after she’d fixed the entire network on Karo’s planet.
Those were older, ancient, from someone else’s hand. They still didn’t know who created them, not for sure, but Jules guessed it was the very same Deities. From what she could tell, there wasn’t a lot they weren’t capable of, which didn’t explain how they’d allowed themselves to be trapped.
“Are you going to stare at that all morning, or are we going to leave?” Dean asked, nudging her with an elbow.
The map held so many pinpoints, and she decided they’d hit the closer of the two brand-new destinations. Without any reference on what was across, she was nervous to travel through, more nervous than she could recall when standing near a Shandra. She pointed to the icon, which was quite simple in its design. It was a single circle with a line through it. She thought there was something familiar about it, but it was a common shape, after all.
“Why that one, not the other?” Dean asked.
Jules shrugged, shoving the tablet into his chest. “Gut feeling.” It wasn’t, really, but she wanted him to be confident in her choice.
“Good enough for me.”
They’d already said their goodbyes, and Jules was glad their parents had allowed them to leave by themselves. It was a far cry from a couple years ago, and while she appreciated the courtesy, she almost wished Papa and her mom were outside, waving goodbye to them.
“Are you ready?” she asked, and he nodded, rapping his gloved knuckles on his helmet. She did the same, smiling at him, and activated the portal.
For a moment, she expected Lom to stop her in the portal’s netherworld, but nothing of the sort occurred, and they arrived inside a stone-walled room. The portal stones cooled quickly, and they were different than most of the crystals powering the Shandra. These were rounded, where the others had hard lines and flat surfaces. These were older; Jules could feel it.
Out of habit, she’d shot a sphere around her and Dean, lifting them from the ground. It surprised Dean, and he tripped on his feet, sprawling into her. “Can you at least warn me when you’re about to do that?” he asked, frowning through the facemask.
“Sorry.” She let it go, and their feet dropped a foot to the room’s rocky floor.
“Where’s the exit?” Dean asked, using a light on his arm to scour the dark stone walls. The room was eerily quiet, their voices carrying through earpieces.
“I don’t know.” Jules stepped forward, finding the room didn’t have a door. “I think we can just walk out.”
“This feels strange. It’s not like the portals we’ve used,” he told her, and she nodded in agreement.
She was almost in a trance, her footsteps tender as she moved for the exit. The ground was on a slight incline, and after a few minutes, she saw a sliver of light ahead. There was something familiar here, like she’d visited it before. “Dean, I pressed the proper symbol, right?”
“You did. I watched. Why?”
“Because I swear I’ve been here.” Her voice was a whisper, and Jules continued forward.
“No way. Wait, is this like you at Menocury L05?” Dean asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“That was scary. You were almost possessed or something,” he told her with a slight waver to his voice. She remembered it all so distinctly.
“Wait, Dean.” She lifted an arm, and he stopped beside her. The tunnel had begun to shrink, driving them closer as they neared the opening to the underground passageway.
“What is it?”
Jules stared at him, seeing her green eyes glowing in his facemask. “That’s it. I projected when I was there. I touched the stone, and I saw Regnig, I saw Mom… I saw Papa as he was trying to stop Frasier.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“The stones… that’s how Dal’i came to see me!” Her heart thrummed, and she wanted to turn around, to head to the Nirzu’s new planet, where they’d uprooted the ancient round portal stone and brought it with them.
“I don’t understand,” he admitted.
“I think I can reach her, Dean!” She wanted to kiss him but settled for resting her helmet against his.
“Patty?” he asked.
“Maybe. I may try Dal’i first, since I know she’ll listen. She can help us, I’m sure of it.” For the first time in months, Jules thought she was on the right track.
“Let’s return, then. Go to the Nirzu…”
“Not yet. This place is important; otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. Why would they open up after all this time, right when we’re dealing with the Zan’ra and Deities?” she asked, but he didn’t have an answer.
Dean kept walking, taking the lead now. He pulled his pulse rifle, and Jules fed stored energy through her arm to her fingers, ready for anything as they reached the opening.
Whatever she’d been anticipating seeing, it wasn’t this. They stood close, peering through a circular hole into a valley. Things like stubby palm trees grew everywhere, the bright blue sky was cloudless, and giant flowers clung to
the ground in random patterns throughout the region.
“It’s beautiful,” Jules whispered.
Dean pulled something from his pack and released it, sending the drone high into the air. “Let’s see what’s going on here.”
They climbed from the gap, Jules scanning the area for any threats. She heard nothing but the trilling of a million insects. Her suit was cooling her skin, telling her it was hot outside, and she glanced in the distance to see wavy heat lines. They were slightly elevated here, and she spotted a lake a couple of kilometers from their position.
“Not much to see.” Dean flipped his tablet around, showing her the drone’s camera feed. It hovered over the landscape, past the lake and through the valley.
“Take it above the ridge.” She pointed to the left, and he used the controls to do just that. A minute later, they watched the feed as it showed them another valley, this one much the same.
“I don’t see any signs of civilization, but we’ll send another couple of drones up, let them advise us when they spot anything useful.” Dean pulled another two from the pack and sent them away.
Jules started to walk in the direction of the lake, and Dean grabbed her arm gently. “Where are you going?”
“I’m not staying here. We have things to do, Dean, and waiting around isn’t one of them,” she told him.
“We’re supposed to observe, record, report. Remember?”
“I know the protocol, but we’re a little past that, aren’t we? I need to find out why this world opened up to us and what’s hiding here.” Jules continued on, using her abilities to lighten her heavy pack. “What’s the gravity at?”
Dean took a few steps, nodding to her. “You’re right. It’s a little stronger than we’re used to, by five percent.”
Each world they’d lived on was slightly different, but Earth, New Spero, and Haven were almost identical in nature. This was a little different, but manageable.
“Looks like the air is breathable, but I recommend we leave the suits on,” Dean told her, and Jules didn’t argue. It would be safer that way, because they had no idea what was here. There were cases of Gatekeepers thinking they were protected, removing their helmets and dying from a simple bug bite.
Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen) Page 10
