Bender of Worlds

by Isaac Hooke

  “Fight it,” Tane said.

  “I can’t,” Lyra said.

  And then Tane couldn’t move. It was as if a giant invisible hand had squeeze tightly around him. Lyra was using Telekinesis to bind him.

  The beam hilt floated out of his hand, hovering a meter in front of him. At first he thought she was going to turn it on him, but the weapon merely floated there.

  The Restrainer, which he had swatted away from his forehead, must have rolled off the ramp and landed in the grass, because it floated upward now. Lyra had obviously seen where it had fallen, and she intended to attach it to his forehead.

  Yes, Tane had gravely underestimated her. She was just as great a threat as Xescartes had been. Maybe more so.

  Tane had never tried to create a second work while another was already in progress, but he attempted it now: he didn’t want to give up the progress he had made on Repel Nanotech.

  The concentration required was immense. He had to continue the Dark timeline, dousing the searing flames of chaos and growing the cold stellar wind of the White around it, while at the same time sprouting another sapling from the White ribbon that emerged from his core, and growing it, too. He worried he would lose the Dark and White work, but somehow he managed to partition his mind and create the new tree independent of the first. He knew he wouldn’t be able to make more than two at once, not at his current experience level. He also knew it would be more draining than usual when he was done.

  He was only able to redirect a small portion of the stellar wind, since the majority was being used for the Repel Nanotech work, and the Essence Missile he created was weak, barely a level one even with the bonus from the Feral Necklace, but it was all he needed for his purposes. He threw it at the Restrainer, melting it entirely.

  Yes, that small work was definitely more draining, though it wasn’t as bad as he thought, probably because the Missile had ended up being so feeble.

  He once more partitioned his concentration and followed up with another weak Missile, this one aimed at Lyra. The Volur Deflected it easily. He realized it probably wouldn’t have mattered if he had released an Essence Missile at full strength: she would’ve escaped it just the same.

  She’s simply too high a level compared to me.

  More drones flew in, these headed toward Lyra, but they crashed in turn before touching her.

  “I have a clean shot on the witch!” Gia said.

  Tane couldn’t move his jaw, so he texted a reply via his thought interface.

  Fire a few tentative shots. Drain her shield.

  Plasma rounds impacted, and Tane could see the convex glow a half-meter in front of her as Lyra’s energy shield absorbed the blows.

  Scepter robots were leaping down from the ramp now, which had lowered halfway.

  Tane partitioned his concentration a third time to create Persistent Flame. He was at a point in the Dark and White work where the Lumina needed was at an ebb, so he could pour more of the stellar wind into the new sapling. He was able to create a full level two work with the boost from the Feral Necklace, and when he flared it into a stream, it reached Lyra. She couldn’t Deflect something that wasn’t made of the Essence, and would have to rely on the shield generator...

  Her already weakened energy field blinked off, and Lyra shrieked, covering her face and turning away from the flames.

  Tane was free. The beam hilt that floated in front of him dropped, and he scooped it up, relishing in the Endurance boost. He activated it and when the energy ax exploded forth, he turned toward the scepters.

  Ground-based delivery robots rammed into the scepters, draining their shields. The scepters opened fire at the incoming targets, and Tane leaped at the distracted robots, swinging his ax to and fro, and in moments none of them were left standing. It helped that Sinive and Gia had fired at them as well.

  Nebb was crouching down on one knee, slightly behind Lyra. He had withdrawn his sawed-off rifle from underneath his trench coat, and was firing toward the positions of Gia and Sinive.

  While he was distracted, Tane fetched a spare Restrainer from his storage device and leaped at Lyra.

  But before he reached her he was struck by an outward expanding shock wave sourced from the Volur. It had to be Shove, a level seven Essencework; he was thrown backward and release the energy ax, landing on his back three meters away. He almost stepped out of the Essence and lost the Dark and White mix. Almost. But he continued it, despite the pain of the impact.

  Nebb meanwhile was thrown in the opposite direction, the weapon flying from his grasp. She had forgotten to exclude him. Or maybe she hadn’t—maybe the TSN’s hold upon her wasn’t as firm as they thought.

  Lyra turned to face Tane. The skin on her hands was red and blistered where his stream of flame had eaten through her energy shield. One side of her beautiful face was just as red, though it didn’t have the nasty welts.

  She had replaced her beam hilt and was now holding a silver staff of Chrysalium, no doubt retrieved from her storage pouch.

  Once more Tane felt the invisible vise holding him in place.

  “It’s pointless to resist,” Lyra said.

  Tane was nearly done with Repel Nanotech. He had to get to her side so he could touch her when the Dark and White mix finished, otherwise it would dissipate and he’d lose the past two minutes of work.

  More scepters were leaping down from the ramp, which had lowered completely. Nelson conspicuously remained aboard and out of sight. As did Xescartes—some of the scepters had probably conveyed the Volur to sickbay, but Tane doubted the man was even still alive.

  Sinive’s hacked robots continued to come alternately running and flying in. They targeted the scepters, and for the most part Lyra ignored them.

  Tane glanced at his overhead map. According to the indicators, both Gia and Sinive had repositioned in the park nearby. Sinive was firing from where she had ducked underneath the lip of a fountain, while Gia had taken cover behind a tree. With Jed’s weapon, Sinive was raining havoc down on the combat robots: one shot from the powerful pistol easily pierced a given scepter’s shields, and the follow-up shot, the underlying armor. She also occasionally launched a weak Essence Missile, making ample use of the Chrysalium accessories Jed had lent her.

  Gia was also taking down robots just as fast, concentrating fire from her two sawed-off plasma rifles to inflict double the damage on a single target.

  But the robots kept coming.

  And Tane was running out of time.

  “I have the witch in my sights,” Gia sent. “I can try to wound her.”

  No! Tane texted. It’s too dangerous.

  “If it comes down to a choice between your capture, and injuring her...” Jed transmitted.

  But Tane wouldn’t have it. She’s the reason why we’re here. She will not be harmed.

  Tane had to find a way to get Lyra to touch him. He had to.

  He found that he could move his lips.

  “Lyra, hold my hand,” Tane pleaded. “Lead me inside. So I don’t go to my doom alone. Please.”

  Lyra ignored him.

  The Restrainer he had retrieved from his storage device floated from his grip, toward his head. He was in the process of finalizing the Dark and White work, which required a boost of stellar wind—he couldn’t spare any of the White to create an Essence Missile. It looked like he was going to have to abandon the work after all if he wanted to prevent the Restrainer from touching him.

  And then several smears of darkness flitted past him. One of them struck the Restrainer and it cracked open. The rest headed for Lyra.

  Lyra gasped, and narrowly Deflected the smears. The invisible hand released Tane.

  He glanced over his shoulder: G’allanthamas emerged from the treeline, where he had no doubt landed—or crashed—the shuttle.

  The staff ripped from Lyra’s grasp, and her arms splayed outward.

  The timeline was almost done.

  “Bringing her to me!” Tane shouted.

  A
n unseen force instantly drew her toward Tane, courtesy of the alien.

  He was ready. He held out his open palm, and when Lyra’s forehead touched his skin, he completed the Dark and White work and released Repel Nanotech into her brain.

  Her eyes widened. Tane released her and stepped back.

  “What did you do to me?” she said, her arms still splayed outward.

  Tane merely shook his head.

  “What have you done?” Lyra asked again.

  And then her head lolled to the side. If G’allanthamas hadn’t been holding her with the Dark, she would have collapsed.

  “Let her go,” Tane said over the comm.

  She fell and Tane caught her before she hit the ground. He lowered her gently the rest of the way and held her torso in his arms.

  When she looked up at him, her cloudy eyes were clear.

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  The scepters had dodged behind the ramp to take cover from the bolts launched by Sinive and Gia. Some of them had noticed G’allanthamas, and they were opening fire at the dweller in turn, forcing him behind a small monument near the treeline.

  Nebb was also back on his feet, and he had taken cover behind the ramp. He was firing his plasma rifle to the south toward Sinive and Gia’s locations, no doubt at the behest of his masters. He hadn’t noticed what had happened to Lyra.

  She got up, and glanced at the dweller hiding behind the monument. “He’s with you I take it?”

  “He is,” Tane said.

  “Interesting.” Lyra walked through the crossfire toward Nebb.

  “Careful not to hit her!” Tane said over the comm. “I’ve destroyed her control chip.” He looped Lyra into their shared channel and she appeared in the online column.

  “Welcome back, Lyra,” Jed said over the comm.

  “I never left you,” Lyra said. “Not in spirit.”

  Apparently the scepters hadn’t yet realized that Tane had freed Lyra from the TSN’s control, because she was allowed to approach without any of them firing at her. She retrieved her staff from the grass along the way.

  When she reached Nebb behind the ramp, she rested a hand on his neck. He turned, questioningly, to look up at her.

  “Good night, Nebb,” she said above the noise of firing plasma bolts.

  “What?” Nebb said.

  “Good night,” she repeated, her voice sounding hypnotic.

  Nebb slumped, falling into sleep. Still holding the staff, she grabbed her beam hilt in the other hand and activated the energy ax, which emerged as a blinding white streak, and she proceeded to attack all the robots in cover.

  Some tried to flee. They ran straight into Tane’s own energy ax, which glowed just as brightly. The blade ate through their shields gleefully.

  “Gall, join us,” Tane sent. He threw out his Essence Sight lifeline so that he could observe the battle from a top-down, isometric perspective.

  More TSN scepters streamed out, some leaping off the uppermost edges of the ramp, others racing all the way to the bottom until they reached the grass. They were spreading out, dodging behind whatever cover they could find nearby, mostly tree trunks or park benches.

  Sinive and Gia remained in hiding, and unleashed their plasma rounds into the scepters as fast as their weapon recharge rates allowed.

  Tane and Lyra launched Essence bolts from the tips of their axes as the scepters attempted to take cover, or cut down any robots that came too close. G’allanthamas joined them, and produced a large energy launcher from a storage device; he used his tentacles to manipulate the weapon and fire at the robots. Tane suspected he had used up all his reserve offensive works, and was busy making new ones.

  “Gall, you still have a distortion tunnel in reserve?” Tane asked.

  “Of course,” G’allanthamas replied. “Say the word, Doomwielder, and I’ll create a tunnel to the beacon.”

  “Sinive, Gia, get over here!” Tane said. “We’re creating the distortion tunnel. It’s time to go. We’ll cover you!”

  33

  Tane moved out in front of the ramp and hewed down incoming scepters, while G’allanthamas and Lyra concentrated their attacks on clusters of combat robots that had already taken cover behind the different trees and benches.

  A robot dashed at Tane from one of the trees to his side, forcing his attention away from the ramp. He hewed it down, and started to turn back toward the ramp just as three more scepters appeared at the top, inside the ship. They fired energy nets down at him.

  Tane knew he wouldn’t hit the nets in time. He tried anyway. He would have missed, but before the three struck him, all three deviated in random directions and landed harmlessly in the grass.

  He stepped back underneath the ramp for cover.

  “That’s the last time I can use Telekinesis,” Lyra said. Her face was pale, and covered in sweat. Her features sagging.

  Tane had worked up a sweat himself by then in that heat, and he was definitely feeling the drain. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up without a rest, either.

  “Sinive, Gia, we’re waiting!” Tane said. He unleashed an Essence bolt from his ax toward a cluster of robots hidden behind three trees; they were firing in the direction of Sinive and Gia.

  “Can’t move, we’re pinned!” Gia said. “We’re taking fire from both in front and behind! We got Mancers and Essence Warriors streaming out of the Red Grizzly behind us!”

  Mancers and Essence warriors were different types of TSN infantry. Mancers mostly operated from afar, healing troops, creating distortion tunnels, or unleashing ranged attacks, while Essence warriors got up close and personal. Though weaker than Volurs, as Tane had discussed with Sinive and Jed during the planning phase of the mission, they were likely using Chrysalium to boost their abilities.

  “Mancers!” Jed said over the comm. “The TSN is definitely breaking the treaty now.”

  “I guess risking war to capture me is worth it, for them,” Tane said.

  “Now doesn’t that just make you feel special?” Sinive transmitted.

  “Not really,” Tane responded. “Bet you’re glad you wore those spacesuits now, huh?” Their energy shields would be useless again the Essence weapons the Mancers possessed. Tane glanced at Lyra. “Can you open a small distortion tunnel to them? So they can join us, and Gall can jump all of us out?”

  Lyra shook her head. “Even with my Chrysalium staff, I’m far too weary to do such a thing now.”

  “What if we link?” Tane asked.

  “Even if that helped, we’d have to break the link at some point to pass through,” Lyra said. “Since the tunnel won’t be wide enough to fit the two of us. And at that point it will close, potentially maiming one of us.”

  “Okay, forget that,” Tane said. “I guess it’s time to call in the cavalry. Jed, whenever you’re ready...”

  “Already on my way,” Jed said.

  “The TSN obviously spoofed the Red Grizzly’s ID to hide the passenger load,” Sinive said over the comm. “But the question is: how the hell did they fit so many inside that tin can in the first place?”

  “Obviously they packed them into the corridors as well as all the cargo holds,” Gia said. “Couldn’t have been fun.”

  Tane was keeping his gazed fixed on some scepters hiding nearby when a distortion tunnel opened beside him and several men in glowing battle armor rushed out. Some carried pistols that shone with the halos of Essence enhancement, others held glowing Chrysalium swords like Jed. All of them gripped energy net launchers in their free hands.

  “Essence warriors!” Lyra said.

  Tane swung his bright ax at the closest warrior, chewing halfway through the armored torso. Another warrior fired an energy net at Tane, but Lyra stepped in its path and hewed the net in half, following up with an Essence Missile that carved a blast crater into the man’s chest and sent him flying backward.

  Some warriors threw their nets at G’allanthamas, and the items wrapped harmlessly around his shield. T
he energy field flashed violently, and Tane knew those nets were draining the shield sharply.

  G’allanthamas swept a tentacle across the nets, and they all wrapped around the appendage, ceasing the damage to his shield. The alien then kicked outward with one of his eight long legs, knocking the closest warrior backward. The man crashed into another behind him, and that warrior in turn hit the edge of the still open distortion tunnel, causing him to be split vertically in half down the middle: the left part of his body passed into the tunnel, while the right half continued falling backward on this side. Blood spewed everywhere.

  “I’m ready to release the little surprise I’ve been working on,” G’allanthamas said.

  Three small, dark spheres shot out, striking three of the warriors, two males, one female. The female and one of the males turned on their nearby companions, while the third dashed through the distortion tunnel and attacked the Mancers and other warriors lurking on the other side.

  Tane and Lyra cut down another warrior each, and G’allanthamas fired his energy launcher into the tunnel at the Mancers waiting beyond.

  Tane followed his lead, as the two confused warriors on this side were dealing with their brothers and sisters well enough; he aimed the tip of his ax into the tunnel, toward a woman wearing a glowing armored robe on the other side—presumably a Mancer. She appeared deep in concentration. He released an Essence bolt and it struck her.

  The tunnel abruptly winked out.

  The two TSN warriors finished off their men and then turned on themselves, violently killing each other.

  “You dwellers have some interesting powers,” Lyra commented.

  “Thank you,” G’allanthamas said.

  “But I’m willing to bet it wouldn’t work on me,” Lyra continued.

  “Probably not,” the dweller admitted.

  “We’re still pinned down here,” Sinive said.

  “Maybe we can join them...” Tane said.

  But as he said the words, another distortion tunnel opened up between his position and that of Sinive and Gia, and more warriors came through. Tane was forced to defend all over again.