Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

“You’ll have to teach me how to do that sometime,” Tane said.

  “Perhaps,” the alien said. “I’m sorry for my late arrival: I tried to time my jump to the most opportune moment.”

  Tane snorted. “I’d say the moment you chose wasn’t exactly opportune. You could have arrived before they injected me...”

  “Yes, but I did not have the work in reserve, and had to create it from scratch,” the dweller said. “When they injected you, I wasn’t yet finished the necessary Dark timeline.”

  “Ah, okay,” Tane said.

  The bones thinned out as the alien and human party continued, until soon there were no bones left at all, and the individuals trod only upon the bare concrete, leaving the dweller’s den well behind.

  Like Sinive, Tane was beginning to wonder where the alien was taking them.

  “So uh, Gall, you have to tell us where we’re going,” Tane said.

  Just as when Sinive had asked the question, the dweller didn’t answer.

  That, for Tane, was the last straw.

  13

  Tane stopped. “We’re not going any farther until you answer my question.”

  G’allanthamas paused to swivel his sideways-oriented head, as if to glance at Tane askance. “We travel to a station near the outskirts of the city, Doomwielder. Once there, we’ll wait until nightfall, and then surface. I have a shuttle waiting just beyond the city walls, hidden in the jungle. I can use that to take you wherever you wish.”

  “What about the distortion lens in this city?” Sinive said. “The one we were supposed to take back to our own universe?”

  “We can’t go there now,” Jed said. “Tane shared the coordinates with Lyra. The TSN will be swarming all over it.”

  “He’s right,” Tane said. “Our only hope is the second lens on this moon.”

  “Where’s that?” Sinive asked.

  “In a different city,” Tane responded.

  “Try not to be too vague or anything,” Sinive said.

  “No offense. I do trust you, but...”

  “You’re injected with the same control chip I am,” Sinive said. “You know my mind is my own.”

  “Sure, but I don’t know what subconscious commands they might have embedded in you,” Tane said. “Who knows, maybe if I reveal the location, you won’t be able to help yourself from transmitting it to the TSN.”

  “Maybe they embedded some subconscious commands in your mind as well,” Sinive retorted.

  “That is unlikely,” Jed chimed in. “The control chip must be programmed via voice instructions after the chip takes. I was there the whole time: the TSN didn’t have time to program our Outrim friend.”

  “Well either way, we have to go back for Nebb,” Sinive said. “And Lyra,” she added, as an afterthought.

  “No,” Jed said. “You destroyed one of their controllers, but they’ll have others. You go in there, they’ll take your mind again.”

  Tane remembered the lighter-shaped device on Nelson’s hips.

  “Why can’t they control Sinive and me now?” Tane asked.

  “The range is finite,” Jed said.

  “What exactly?” Tane asked.

  “About the same as your preexisting chip at maximum transmission,” Jed answered. “And although the control chip has no network connectivity of its own, it can piggyback on the connectivity of your existing chip, allowing it to connect to any nearby adhoc mixnets, as well as the Galnet.”

  “That’s why you told me to turn down the range of my chip,” Tane said.

  “Yes,” Jed said. “I’d also recommend turning off automatic connecting to the Galnet, or any mixnets outside of our own, for that matter. Otherwise, the moment we return to our universe you’ll very likely lose control of your body.”

  “Good idea,” Tane said. He disabled Galnet and private mixnet discovery. “Sinive?”

  “Turned mine off,” she confirmed.

  “Even with your range reduced, and mixnet discovery disabled, neither of you can risk getting close to the TSN at the moment,” Jed said. “If anyone goes back for Lyra, it will have to be me. And yet I know she would never forgive me if I left your side.”

  “Maybe you don’t have to permanently leave my side,” Tane said. “Maybe you can find a way to sneak into the TSN camp, or aboard their ship, and retrieve Lyra and Nebb alone.”

  Jed chuckled heartily over the comm. “I thank you for the vote of confidence, but you overestimate me, Engineer. I have some hacking skills, some subterfuge, some tricks of the Essence, but I’m one man. The odds of my capture are very high. All that my leaving would accomplish is my own chipping, I suspect. Now that the TSN knows you exist, none of your closest companions will be allowed to run free. The noose will slowly close until they have you. It’s part of their capture protocol.”

  Tane had a sudden panicked realization. “What about my mom and dad?”

  “They will be safe with the robots we left to guard them,” Jed said. “As long as they remain in hiding.”

  As long as they remain in hiding.

  His parents wouldn’t like that very much, and they probably wouldn’t remain in hiding all that long. Once he got back to his own universe, he’d have to tell them how important it was that they didn’t contact the authorities. Or even try to leave their homeworld.

  Tane walked in silence behind the hulking form of G’allanthamas for a few moments.

  Then he received an incoming call request from Jed, and accepted. The Volur obviously wanted to talk on a private line.

  “So where is the second distortion lens, Engineer?” Jed asked

  Tane hesitated. “How do I know the TSN didn’t chip you before I reached the command dome? Maybe you’re in their control at this very moment?”

  “We arrived seconds apart,” Jed said. “Review your map data log.”

  Tane rewound his map data log, which showed Jed’s position in relation to his own. The Volur was right, Jed had arrived maybe thirty seconds ahead of Tane. Not enough time to be chipped.

  Or was it?

  “So where?” Jed pressed.

  Tane decided he would have to trust Jed for now, as he didn’t really have a choice.

  “It’s in Matahepte,” Tane said. That was the largest population center on the moon.

  “That’s both good and bad,” Jed said. “Bad, because the TSN will suspect that as a possible lens location—it would make sense to place one there, at least from a logistics perspective. If one wanted to travel back and forth between the Umbra and our reality, the bigger cities are the most obvious places to do so: better chance of finding expensive equipment and loot. So a big city like Matahepte would be foremost on the TSN’s radar.”

  “All right, that’s the bad,” Tane said. “And the good?”

  “The city is big,” Jed said. “Very big. It’ll take the TSN quite some time to locate the lens, if they’re able to find it at all.”

  “They won’t find it,” Tane said, continuing to exclude Sinive and the dweller. “It’s inside a tunnel halfway between two grav tram stations. But still, that the TSN will be patrolling the city, looking for it, makes me nervous. How many of the troops will have controllers?”

  “Not many,” Jed said. “One or two of the senior officers. Though it’s possible they’ll send down more units once they realize you’ve escaped this city. We’ll have to be very careful to keep our distance from any TSN troops or drones we spot. And maybe drop our broadcast range down to a meter, or turn off external connections entirely.”

  “Might be a good idea... at least until we’re able to get these control chips out.”

  “Ah, yes,” Jed told him.

  The way he said those two words gave Tane pause. “You have a way to remove the chips, don’t you?”

  “We’ll deal with that once we’re back in our universe,” Jed said. “But returning to the broadcast range issue… for the time being I would recommend leaving the range at five meters. Simply because it’s easier for us to coordin
ate this way.”

  “Got it.” Tane closed the call and switched to the common band once more, looping in Sinive and G’allanthamas. He watched the overhead map fill out with details of the pedway system, wondering when he’d be able to ID where he was.

  He accessed the Dark Essence and prepared a work of Fingers of Ruin. When it was ready, he placed it in reserve above him. He created another as well, seeing as he was supposed to be able to have two reserves available now that he was level two in Dark Siphoning. When he finished, sure enough the globe took its place beside the other above him. He released the Essence at that point, since creating the two works back-to-back drained him; he was happy to see the two reserve globes remain.

  The dweller took a left down a side passage in the pedway, and the group emerged in another broad concourse.

  “There,” Jed said. He pointed out a blurry real world sign affixed to the wall. “Line C, Station Eran. Update your map locations.”

  Tane access the map on his HUD and set his current location to Eran Station, Line C. His coordinates updated, and he zoomed out to street level to get an idea of his surroundings. He was eight blocks away from where he had been rescued.

  “We’re still a bit too close to the TSN for comfort,” Tane said.

  “I’ll say,” Sinive added.

  A stair system on the far left looked like it led to street level, and Tane kept his D18 pointed at it the whole time. If kraals appeared, he would fire the weapon. If shielded TSN troops or dwellers showed up, he would unleash his reserve Dark work, along with an Essence Missile, because those would pass right through any shields.

  Jed and Sinive likewise trained their pistols on the upward leading stairs. G’allanthamas, meanwhile, seemed entirely unconcerned. His calm gait didn’t break a beat.

  As they entered yet another portion of the pedway system on the far side, Sinive spoke up, saying: “Once we’re back in our own universe, we’ll be able to remove these control chips we’ve got in our heads, right?”

  “We’ll deal with that once we in fact return,” Jed said, giving the same answer he had when Tane asked the question over the private line.

  “Oh, don’t give me that,” Sinive said. “Why keep us in the dark about this? At least if we know what’s coming we can start to plan for it.”

  “She’s right, you know,” Tane chimed in. “If you have a way to remove the chips, you should tell us. And even if you don’t have a way, that would be good to know, too.”

  Jed hesitated. Then: “Unfortunately, a military-grade control chip can’t be easily disabled. We can’t schedule an operation… the chip’s tendrils are thoroughly embedded in your gray matter. Any attempt at brute force removal will cause brain damage.”

  “Wonderful,” Sinive said.

  “Can’t we inject disassembling nanotech to take it apart?” Tane said. “Like an antidote?”

  “The chip has defenses to prevent against that,” Jed said. “The disassembly process takes time. The chips are coated in special proteins that detect any disassembly attempts, causing the production of antibodies against the nanotech. We’ll need the shutdown code to break down the protein coating before we can inject any nanotech targeting the chip.”

  “And where do we get the shutdown code?” Tane asked.

  “We don’t,” Jed replied. “It’ll be somewhere aboard their ship. Probably locked in a holographic storage unit in the vault of the captain’s quarters.”

  “Okay, then what about ‘Deactivate,’ the level six White Essencework?” Tane said. “Lyra used it on me before to remove an alien tracking device embedded in my lungs.” He glanced at the description on his HUD to confirm the effect:

  Essenceworks available to White Siphoning, Level 6.

  Shapist:

  Deactivate. Use to deactivate individual weapons, traps, and surveillance devices. At higher levels, can be used to safely destroy a tracker hidden inside a human body, and to disable robots. Stamina drain: medium.

  Jed shook his head. “A control chip is infinitely more complex than a tracker. It’s possible we might be able to find a Volur with a high enough level in Deactivate to destroy the controlling chip. In fact, I know of two potential candidates. Unfortunately, both are acting members of the Talendir High Council.” Talendir was the homeworld of the Volur. “If we went to them, after they removed the control chip there would be a good possibility they’d simply inject you with another. You would simply transfer control of yourself away from the TSN and to them.”

  “That bad, huh?” Tane asked.

  Jed nodded. “You have no idea.”

  “What about an EMP?” Sinive said.

  “That wouldn’t knock out the control chip,” Jed said. “EMPs only work on poorly grounded electronics. With a chip, your entire brain is essentially the ground, and any excess electrons generated by the EMP will simply flow into the surrounding neurons. The chip won’t be damaged. Your brain, on the other hand...”

  G’allanthamas led them through several twists and turns of the pedway system, backtracking once when they reached a concourse that swarmed with kraals. The large creatures had apparently detected the party from afar, and were waiting for them in ambush at the opening. When G’allanthamas turned one of them into a Dirac, the kraals quickly lost interest and fought for possession of their favorite food source instead.

  “Handy, that,” Sinive said.

  “Yes,” G’allanthamas said. “I was considering turning you into a Dirac instead, but I didn’t want to offend the Doomwielder.”

  “A-hole,” Sinive said.

  “Thank you,” the dweller said.

  Tane almost released his Fingers of Ruin reserves during the attack, but since he was still in the main pedway at the time, and the dweller’s large carapace had blocked his line of sight into the concourse beyond, he held back. So as the party retreated, Tane still had the fiery spheres floating above him, visible to his eyes only.

  “What level are you, Gall?” Tane asked. “You were almost twenty in Tiberius’ time, if I recall. You must be, what, double that by now?”

  “Ha,” G’allanthamas said. “Skills atrophy when not used. And levels revert. I’m not nearly what I once was. But am I high enough. Let’s leave it at that.”

  “High enough to create a beacon and install it in an artifact,” Tane said. “You know, I only really have a few definite memories about you. And one thing I’ve been wondering is, how did you and Tiberius meet?”

  “Later, Doomwielder,” G’allanthamas said.

  The party continued through the pedway system until they reached the underground grav tram station that was near the outskirts of the city. The translucent polycarbonate blocking off the grav tunnel ran along the entire right side, while on the left, the only exit from the platform was stairs that led to street level, where rays of blue-tinted sunlight trickled down from above.

  “We will rest here until nightfall.” G’allanthamas remained in the passageway that opened onto the platform. That location provided a good view of any intruders that might come down those stairs from the street.

  Tane had the sunset time for Durahepte available on his chip, so he set an alarm and sidled up against the wall next to the dweller. Since his shield was still active, he was careful to observe the half-meter clearance on all sides.

  “Do we really need to wait until nightfall?” Sinive said. “Won’t the city’s street lamps kick in by then, providing nearly as much illumination as the sun? And even if this is a darker quarter, if the TSN has eyes in orbit, it won’t matter. They’ll be beaming multi-echo LIDAR down here constantly. They’ll know where we are when we emerge, even if it’s pitch black out there.”

  “She’s right,” Jed said. “There really is no benefit in waiting. Not when we’re stalked by the TSN.”

  Tane turned toward G’allanthamas. “How far away is your shuttle from here?”

  “From here?” the dweller said. “Three minutes to the city wall. And two minutes to the shuttle i
n the jungle beyond.”

  “Five minutes,” Jed said. “We can make it in five minutes. Most of the security forces will still be downtown, fanning out in a search pattern.”

  “Downtown,” Tane said. “That won’t leave us much time when their eyes in the sky alert them. Especially considering how fast their armed drones can fly.”

  “It will be enough,” Jed said. “I’ll scout the street, first.”

  “Your invisibility won’t show up on LIDAR or other bands?” Tane asked.

  “It won’t,” Jed replied. “G’allanthamas, please send me the coordinates where you plan to breach the city wall. I want to make sure I’m scouting the proper area.”

  “There is only one exit through the wall, and it will be obvious,” the dweller said. “But I’m sending.”

  “Thank you.” Jed proceeded out onto the platform and hurried toward the stairs at a crouch.

  “You okay with leaving early like this, rather than waiting for nightfall, Gall?” Tane asked the dweller.

  “You are the Doomwielder...” G’allanthamas responded.

  Jed reached the stairs and became invisible before taking the first step. Tane glanced at his overhead map, intending to follow the Volur’s progress via positional sharing, but Jed’s blue dot was frozen at the five-meter range. Tane remembered that they had all dialed down their broadcast range, and he considered increasing it, but decided right then probably wasn’t the best time.

  Several moments later Jed reappeared at the base of the platform.

  “It’s clear,” Jed said. “But I should warn you, I did detect incoming LIDAR. The angle suggests an orbital source.”

  “So they have more ships in orbit after all,” Tane said.

  “Yes,” Jed said. “They’ll know as soon as we set foot out there.”

  “You still think five minutes is enough time for us to reach the shuttle?” Tane asked.

  “It will have to be,” Jed answered.

  The warrior stood expectantly in front of him. Tane realized he was waiting for him to give the go ahead. Tane still found it a bit weird that they all deferred to him, especially Jed, a powerful Volur.