I’d asked Jules for her opinion, and she didn’t think they were linked. The core on the Theos’ work acted as the central focal point, and Jules would know better than any.
“Can we interrogate this Katherine when we return?” Slate asked.
“Maybe.” I’d been putting it off. I wanted to rid the universe of the planet that could fuel Lom’s dimensional merging technology. Once that was done, I could breathe a little freer.
Things were progressing. The last seven or eight months had moved quite slowly as we took the long trip toward Fontem’s destination, but we were finally seeing some traction. With Lom’s Padlog contact dealt with, and his present-time contact from PlevaCorp in our possession, we were getting somewhere.
We started into the Shandra room, when I heard someone calling from down the hall. “Hold up! Mr. Parker, I’d like to join you!” Dean arrived, holding his helmet under his arm, looking like a high school football star posing for a picture after the big Friday-night game.
“I thought you’d be with Jules,” I said, raising an eyebrow. They were rarely apart.
“She told me she wanted to go to the Academy solo, so I thought I’d come with you guys,” Dean told us.
“Okay, what the hell.” I clapped him on the shoulder and ushered him into the room.
Slate stepped toward me, speaking low. “Are you sure about this?”
“The kid needs to be involved, and he’s a smart young man. Better having him under our watchful eye than letting him leave again,” I told Slate, and he nodded.
Natalia had been keeping busy, and she’d even offered to be part of the bridge crew during the last few weeks. She was spending more time there than I’d expected, and was looking better after having something to take her focus off the loss of her husband. We’d seen Leslie take a long time to acclimate to her new life after Terrance had died, and I didn’t want Nat to end up isolated and alone.
We piled in, the room feeling full with all of us in EVAs. There was no breathable atmosphere on Lainna, and I found the symbol for the temporary portal Suma had brought with her to the crystal planet. When we’d first visited the world, the only option was to fly there, but the Alliance had since created a portable Shandra that could be moved and delivered by ship, making this trip a lot easier. It also gave Suma the ability to leave quickly when she was finished.
Luckily, Lom didn’t try to stop me this time, and our group arrived on Lainna. The portal room looked much like the others, but half the size. It was built into a mid-sized Shimmali cruiser, and we were cramped inside the space.
Fontem was the first to leave through the doors, and I waited until everyone was out to exit behind them.
“Captain, it is good to see you,” a robotic voice said, and I peered to my right to see W the android pilot walking toward me from the bridge.
“Dubs, how are you doing?” I asked.
“Well, considering. Suma and Hanrion aren’t much for company.” Dubs greeted the others.
“We’re about to check out the operation, if you’re interested,” I offered, but he declined with a shake of his head.
“I’ve been instructed to have the ship ready at all times, in case a quick escape is necessary. From what I hear, the machines they are constructing are temperamental and extremely volatile,” Dubs instructed me.
“Then maybe you’d better stay put. See you soon,” I told him, and he turned away, lumbering toward his pilot’s seat on the bridge.
We left the cruiser, and I grimaced as I saw the world waiting for us outside the spacecraft. I didn’t have fond memories of this place. Leonard had also been taken captive here by a remaining Iskios, but we were confident they were vacated by this point. I warned the others to be cautious, regardless of our assumptions.
This sector of the world was green, reminding me of Jules. Varying shades of the color imbued each crystal shard jutting from the hard ground. The rock formations were erratic, forming sharp ridges and flamboyant mountain peaks.
I didn’t have to ask where Suma was. The thrumming of energy from their creation sent vibrations through the gemstones and resonated towards us, and Slate pointed to the source of the sound we heard carrying across the landscape.
“It seems they’re making some progress.” Slate’s voice traveled through my earpiece.
“Let’s check it out.” I took the lead and noticed that Dean stayed close to me. He stared at everything around him with a genuine interest, or perhaps fear. I knew he was thinking about my daughter when he saw the emerald crystal formations.
Suma and Hanrion’s device was directly on the planet’s equator, and it was larger than I’d expected. The nullifier was positioned at least thirty meters in the air, with drones surrounding the structure. Harvested local gemstone sat in organized piles outside, and I spotted Suma in an EVA, studying a tablet with the four-legged Hanrion beside her.
I used my arm console and searched for Suma’s connection. When I found it, I spoke softly so I didn’t startle her. “Suma, look behind you.”
Her head swiveled around, and it was hard to miss her beaming smile, even from fifty meters out. She waved us over, and our group picked up the pace. Dean nearly tripped on an upright piece of clear stone, but I caught him to avoid injury. He acted sheepish as we kept going, his gaze stuck to the ground.
The entire building shook constantly, and I felt the vibrations in my hips. “Suma, how are things?”
She looked tired, but the erratic Hanrion seemed calm and collected behind his facemask. “We’re almost there, Dean. We’ve had a couple of setbacks, but…”
“But what?”
“Hanrion created a time bubble again, optimizing our efficiency,” she told me.
I stepped closer. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve been working on this for over a year,” Suma told me.
“What?” Dean blurted beside me, but I ignored it.
“That’s dangerous. Was it the only way?” I asked.
Suma nodded, holding the tablet out to me. “It was. This was far more complicated than creating a nullifier to pause a research building. You wanted to create something colossal enough to envelop a planet, and we’ve managed to do just that.” She indicated we should follow her to the structure. Hanrion remained behind, continuing to work on a tablet.
She led us inside a doorway, and my visor’s auto-tint kicked in immediately. The room was so bright.
Before any of us could ask a question, she continued, “This is the inside of our nullifier. The crystals you saw outside were used to make the bubble, but with this, we’re going to harness the world itself. With the amount of energy stored here, we’ll have no issues fueling our merger.”
“Walk me through it,” I told her.
She strode deeper into the space, where whirring electronic panels and ten-foot-high black boxes with blinking lights sat in long rows. “We’ll activate the device remotely.”
“From orbit?” Slate asked.
“Even farther,” Suma answered. “We’ve dug into the core of the world, and it will utilize the power of the planet to bring the nullifier to life. We’ve set the parameters at five hundred kilometers on each side of the world’s diameter.” She pressed on, and we all followed, stopping at a screen along the rear wall. A table of computers with two chairs sat there, and she used one of the keypads to bring up an image. “We’ve also set the explosives within the core, and in ten locations around the world, for good measure.”
Slate grinned at this. He would always appreciate a big explosion, no matter how old he was. The image showed a map of Lainna with ten surface icons blinking, and one large one in the center of the 3D picture.
“When we activate the device, it will pull every version of Lainna from each dimension. Hanrion thinks there might be millions of them. They’ll unite in the same timeline momentarily, long enough for us to destroy them all.” Suma turned to us, her snout drooping.
“You don’t want to do this, do you?” I asked h
er.
“It’s not that. This technology is terrifying, Dean.”
“We’re not going to use it again. It’ll be destroyed with the planet,” I reminded her.
“I know.”
“How long before it’s ready?” Karo asked, staring at the paused image on the screen.
“We can have it done tomorrow,” Suma said.
“Meaning you’ll still be in the time bubble for a while?” Dean asked.
“You pick up quickly. Yes, I guess it’ll be another month inside our bubble,” she said. “I could possibly finish it in the next five minutes, but every few days inside, I need to come out. Otherwise…” Suma didn’t have to finish. This was taking a dangerous mental toll on her.
“Can we do anything to help?” Slate asked.
“Hanrion and I have a surprisingly good system, and the drones complete our instructions quickly. We’ll have it done. If you want to stay on the ship, I’ll come find you in the morning,” Suma told us.
“Good work here, Suma. I’m proud of you,” I told her.
“Me too,” Slate offered.
The three of us had been through a lot, and I was asking even more of Suma now. I made a mental note to force her to take a long break after this. An extended vacation. Her father would love to spend some quality time with his daughter.
We left, heading for the ship. Hanrion scarcely noticed us as we passed by, and I saw Karo was trailing behind the group. I slowed my pace, waiting for him. “You okay?”
“This place was once important. I find it hard to believe we’re going to destroy it.” Karo kept walking, not meeting my gaze.
“Do you have another suggestion? If we managed to remove Lom’s possible fuel source for his merging device, he won’t be able to win,” I reminded him.
Karo shrugged. “Even so, changing the universe is a big deal.”
My old friend Teelon’s words echoed through my mind the second Karo said it. Change the universe. Was this what he’d meant? I didn’t think so, but the parallels were there. This would disrupt a lot of things, and not only our timeline. But given the dire circumstances, if Lom were able to create a device like this to accomplish his goals, we had to beat him to it.
“I learned a long time ago that change is a part of our lives. If we don’t change and adapt, we die,” I said, point-blank.
“You’re right, Dean. If I hadn’t met you, I’d never have discovered pizza,” he said, laughing to break the tension.
We piled onto the ship, waiting for tomorrow, when we could finally thwart Lom of Pleva’s master plan.
____________
Jules hated lying to her parents, and the way her mother trusted her so implicitly made it even worse. But now was the perfect timing, with Dean with Papa and the others, so she’d told them she was off to see Regnig, rather than to Katherine’s secret ship. It was close to Bazarn, and Jules hoped this wasn’t another elaborate ruse where she’d be trapped. No one would even know where she’d gone.
The promenade on Bazarn was busy, and Jules wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead. She was in casual clothing: a gray hoodie with leggings and white sneakers. She looked like a normal human kid on vacation, and she wore wide tinted sunglasses to hide her obvious eyes.
She moved to the edge of the space, behind a Padlog dining vendor. The smells of roasting food were strong here, and she glanced around, making sure no one was paying any kind of special attention to her. Jules activated her shield, leaving it invisible as Dal’i had shown her, and she raced up, moving from the crowds and into the sky. She went as fast as she could and doubted anyone even noticed her small form arcing from the surface.
Jules thought about the other Zan’ra as she traveled through the clouds, pushing out of the atmosphere and into space. She flew around the countless satellites in orbit and avoided one of the many defense drones Rivo had installed after her father had passed.
Katherine had given her specific instructions to find her vessel, including the exact coordinates of the system’s tiny moon it was nearby to. Jules slid her sleeve up, observing the round screen strapped to her wrist. She was getting closer.
Bazarn was beautiful from above, the perfect place for opulence and wealth. It wasn’t necessarily Jules’ style, but she could appreciate people wanting to escape here for a few nights.
The star was bright and orange, and gave Bazarn the perfect climate for tourism. She turned her back to it and raced away, heading for her destination.
Convincing Katherine to turn on Lom had been too simple, but Jules thought perhaps the woman had already been thinking all of the things she’d brought up. Deep down, Katherine knew she was nothing more than a slave, and she was caught in a cell on an Alliance vessel. She was in self-preservation mode, and Jules had done her best to persuade the PlevaCorp executive she wouldn’t let her boss do any more harm.
Papa was going to be so angry with her, but in the end, he’d agree it was the right action to take. She hoped.
Even at her fast speed, it took two hours to find the right moon. It was a small and misshapen hunk of rock, and the ship was right where Katherine had described it. Jules approached with caution, searching for signs of life. It was dark, powered down, and still. No defenses attempted to stall her as she neared the exterior.
Jules had pushed through walls before, when she’d stopped the Arnap from killing her father and Slate. At that time, she’d been filled with fury and rage, but now she felt none of those things. Could she still manage the feat? She closed her eyes, visualizing moving through the hull. Her entire body began to vibrate, the shield with it, and she floated forward, passing through the metallic barrier with ease. When she was inside, she cut the power off and laughed out loud.
The life support was on inside, but she still kept her shield up as she exited the storage room she’d arrived in. This ship looked identical to the PlevaCorp freighter Patty and Lan’i had stolen from Light months ago. Something shifted, and Jules glanced to her right to see one of Lom’s robots rolling toward her.
She shot a tendril of energy at it, frying the circuits. Its face screen flashed as the green beams flickered over its surface before stopping in place. She continued through the dark corridors. Tiny lights glowed from their recessed positions along the walls, and she followed them, heading for the room Katherine had told her the device was inside.
The ship was quiet, and Jules moved stealthily, anticipating more robots attempting to block her. By the time she reached the crew quarters, she’d stopped another two of the bots with ease. She opened the door to Katherine’s suite. Everything else on this ship was plain and robotic, but the interior of the room was adorned with bright art, lush bedding, and fancy glasses. Katherine had good taste and hid her personality here. Perhaps there was more to the hybrid woman than met the eye.
She stepped over to the desk and found the drawers were locked. Jules gripped the handle tightly and tugged, adding her power behind it. The lock snapped, and she saw the device inside.
This was it. Her way to communicate with Lom from the future.
Jules sat at the desk, tapping the flat device to life. There was a message waiting. She read it and smiled. She waited a moment and keyed in a response, pretending to be Katherine.
Nineteen
Suma had come in the early hours of the morning, after we’d managed three or four uncomfortable hours of sleep. The portal ship wasn’t built to house as many guests as us, and we were sprawled out across any available space. I slept near Dean on the bridge, while Dubs stood on his charging station.
When Suma arrived, we all had something to eat, and several hours later, we set course. “Dubs, can you go here first?” I pointed at the map, and without a word, he shifted our trajectory.
“Where are we going?” Dean asked.
“I have to see it one last time,” I told the young man.
Slate stood beside me. He’d been there that day, and I knew he understood why I had to return.
We arrived
twenty minutes later, and it looked the same as it had. The crystal mountain was formed like a pyramid, and the symbol was embedded along the ground, water still filling it. The entire region was blue.
“This is it,” Dean said quietly. He’d been a little boy when Mary was taken, so he’d have no memory of that tumultuous time in my life. “This is where they took Mary. With Jules inside her.” Magnus’ son stared at it, jaw open. “You ended up finding her.”
I nodded along, feeling every memory of that day course through me. Those had been the darkest months of my life. “You know, things have a way of working out, Dean.” I told him this, hoping it would make him think of his Zan’ra-infused sister.
“Thanks.”
We slowly flew around it, and a minute later, I asked Dubs to take us out. “No more trips down memory lane. Let’s do what we came here to accomplish.”
He pressed the throttle, racing through the atmosphere, and we distanced enough from the nullifier’s range to feel safe.
Suma stared out the viewscreen at the planet beyond, and I couldn’t believe she’d spent a year of her life inside that time distortion to make this happen.
“Thank you, Suma,” I told her, putting an arm over her shoulder.
“You’re welcome. It was quite the experience working with Hanrion on this,” she told me. “He’s eccentric, but brilliant. I learned a lot from him.”
“I can imagine. What will he do after this?” I asked.
She glanced over at the man. “He wants to go home.”
I nodded, not blaming him one bit. “To continue his research?”
“That’s what he said.”
“This is the best move, right?” I asked Slate on my other side.
“Cut the supplies, remove the threat.” He nodded in agreement.
We gathered in the rear of the ship, where Hanrion was already bent over the complex controls. Karo and Fontem were there, letting the mad scientist take the lead.
“Is it ready?” I asked Hanrion, the words translating through a speaker attached to the ship’s wall.
Old Secrets (The Survivors Book Thirteen) Page 18
