“Where is this?”
“Control room. No cameras in here.”
“Oh. Great. How come it’s empty?”
“It’s manned by three AI. All of whom have been summoned to deal with different security issues. We should hurry.”
“How convenient,” Ash said with a grin as she mixed ingredients. She gave a vial to AX as she downed the other, instantly transforming into a Silvert from the lower belt of Orion while AX stayed human, but transformed into a brown woman with a long curtain of ink black hair who was half his height.
Ash grinned down at him as she led the way out of the room, and with a harrumph AX followed her. They were able to skirt around the returning security AI but were stopped at the entrance to the west wing by a living being, towering over them and peering down at them suspiciously.
“Elvert Egbert and Dr. Maria Santiago from Mara Learning. We have an appointment with Dr. Uh…” AX turned to Ash, “what was his name? I keep forgetting.”
Ash narrowed her eyes at him. “Now you know you’re supposed to keep those details on file. Where is your AI?”
“We said they were probably not going to be allowed in anyway. That’s why we left them on the transport. I thought you would at least have-”
“People!” the being guarding the door interrupted irritably. “Are you looking for Dr. Linux? He’s in charge of the contagion.”
Ash and AX exchanged glances. “Very likely we are. Could you point us in his direction?”
“Straight down the hall and then twenty steps to the south-east.”
Ash nodded. “Thank you,” she said, making a point of glaring at AX as they walked away. As soon as they rounded a corner and were away from the guard, their shoulders sagged in relief.
“Now what? Do we finesse this doctor Linux or…?” Ash asked.
“Just follow me,” AX replied, leading her down a darkened corridor and then into a cavity in the wall that Ash failed to notice until she was pulled into it. The space was narrow and dark but AX kept one hand on her, his eyes glowing like torches. He walked unerringly without missing a step, and Ash figured he must have the building’s schematics downloaded. She followed him, actively not thinking about narrow spaces or suffocating. Growing up as a Drueerd, she was used to wide open spaces, spreading her wings and flying. Even being confined to a spacecraft sometimes felt claustrophobic. She had gotten used to that, however, and she would get used to this. Their mission was too important for distractions.
The passage widened after an interminable time and they came out into a brightly lit but empty corridor, the walls of which were made of actual stone. The temperature was only a little above freezing and Ash couldn’t help the shiver that rocked her. Drueerds tended to run hotter than most other species but, conversely, they also felt the cold more keenly. AX led the way down a corridor, oblivious to her suffering until they came upon a pair of swinging doors that led to a...morgue.
“What are we doing here?” Ash asked.
AX simply continued to look ahead at the empty cot in the middle of the room. “There’s only one way we can get out of here without arousing suspicion, and that is to take a body no one will miss…at least for a while.”
Ash stared in incomprehension first at AX and then around at the room. “What good will a dead body do us?” she asked.
AX was silent for a while.
“I am…aware…of the experiments, you carry out. The Flint squad that were miraculously all hit with a bout of severe diarrhea so we could get the Recover and Destroy mission on Pluto. I don’t know why you wanted us to go so bad…” He turned his blue eyes on her. “Care to tell me?”
Ash looked away.
“That time Jordan came down with an illness that swelled his tongue so much he was unable to speak; just when his uncle swung by for inspections, thus enabling him to escape without answering any questions.”
“He would have killed Jordan if he thought he might betray the brotherhood to us, even inadvertently. His uncle thinking that his father had exaggerated the problem is the only thing that saved his life,” Ash protested.
“Oh, I am not complaining, Ash. I vehemently agree with your actions. I am just pointing out that I had noticed.”
“But what has that got to do with why we are here?”
“The pet Chimpanzee that lived in my trailer on Six…he didn’t really survive the Ebola outbreak last year, did he? Everyone who wasn’t vaccinated succumbed, but you said he pulled through. That wasn’t true was it?”
Ash just looked at him.
“Why save the primate and not the other beings?”
Ash shrugged. “The primate could not report that it was previously dead.”
AX grinned. “Clever. So…it’s not just primates? You can reanimate…” His hand swept the room, “them?”
Ash looked at the cold chambers lining the walls of the morgue and then back to the cot at the center of the room.
“How will we get out?” she asked.
“I am open to suggestions,” AX said with a wry grin in her direction.
“Biological waste disposal? We can be collectors.”
“I’ll check the database for the company they use. Prepare some more potion.”
“I already have some in reserve.”
AX didn’t respond, his eyes flickering as he searched for what they needed. Meanwhile, Ash walked around, trying locks. None of them opened.
“AX? Do you know how we unlock these?”
AX didn’t answer, eyes still flickering as he did what he was doing. Ash leaned against a chamber, waiting for him to finish. Finally, he turned to face her.
“I have put in a recommendation from the Federation Environmental Department that any bodies older than a week should be disposed of to minimize risk and consequently they or we will be sending a couple of agents to retrieve and destroy. I backdated it to yesterday.
“Won’t that look suspicious?”
“Please, this is a public facility. Unless someone is paid to be suspicious, they generally deal with what’s in front of them and go home.”
“Okay…so, let’s get going.”
∞
“So let me explain this to you before we get going,” Uzochi said to Jordan. “How this skill works is as follows: I throw out my third eye and it searches the astral plane for a particular energy. Many times, the eye will go where it is called. To steer it in a particular direction is a difficult feat. This is where you come in. You have the gift of finding truth. If you can hone in on the wizard’s energy and take the eye with you, then I should be able to get something solid from him about his schemes.”
“That sounds great, except I don’t know how to ‘find this truth’ or ‘direct your eye’. I just blurt out honest things now and then, and maybe I can tell when people are lying, but it’s not something I’ve ever had to direct.”
“Maybe I should come too. I know his energy,” Zorica said.
Uzochi was shaking his head as soon as she opened her mouth. “He already had interest in you. If he should sense you, I do not know what he would do.”
“Uzochi is right,” Jaime chimed in. “It’s too dangerous for you, Zorica.”
Zorica backed down without argument, but Epone continued to watch her with narrowed suspicious eyes.
Uzochi turned to Jordan. “We can practice by doing a local search. We’ll try to find Zorica on the astral plane.”
Jordan nodded, swallowing nervously.
Uzochi held out his hands. “You have to surrender to me so that my spirit can cleave to yours and allow us to travail together.”
“How do I do that?”
“Put your hands in mine and surrender your will to me.”
Jordan slowly placed his hands atop Uzochi’s, watching him quizzically.
“Close your eyes,” Uzochi said. Jordan did as he was told. “Now take a deep breath and exhale. On the exhale, just let yourself relax into me,”
Uzochi said, his voice hypnotic and compelling.
Not only Jordan but also Jaime took deep breaths and then relaxed their whole bodies. Both Uzochi and Jordan went limp, and Epone and Zorica leaped forward to catch their bodies and lower them carefully to the ground.
They stood back, standing guard, all three of them tense.
∞
Jordan and Uzochi stood beside their bodies, facing each other. Uzochi held out his hands and Jordan touched his own to them. Jordan gasped, catching sight of the giant green eye in the middle of Uzochi’s forehead. It blinked at him, seemingly a separate sentient thing, and Jordan couldn’t help the shudder that shook his spirit.
“That is a freaky thing,” he said, surprised that his voice was clear and normal-sounding.
Uzochi smiled, and inclined his head. “This way,” he said and began to glide along what looked like a solid gold brick path.
Jordan followed, looking around him with wide eyes. He hadn’t been expecting this plane to be peopled with all sorts and to have structures rising from caves to skyscrapers. It was disconcerting. Even more disconcerting was the obvious mixing of time periods judging by the dress of those around them. Somehow, Jordan had conceived the idea that everyone would be unclothed in the spirit plane but this was not so.
“Umm, Uzochi? Have we started searching for energies yet?”
“No. This path is pulling me. I can barely resist. I think we should see where it goes.”
Jordan simply nodded and followed Uzochi.
The Seer came to an abrupt halt. There didn’t seem to be anything in sight that might have caused him to stop. Jordan peered around him and opened his mouth to ask the question, but Uzochi had already turned aside from the path and was walking off to the left.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Astral Plane
It got inexplicably darker as they walked, and Uzochi was unerring even though there was nothing to indicate a designated direction of movement.
The atmosphere became steadily heavier and it was difficult to progress. It was like some malignant force was pushing back, trying to create a barrier to forward progression. There were other things in here with them; shadows that flitted about them like a curious crowd of onlookers, peeking at them and discussing the new beings that had come to join them. Uzochi ignored them all, keeping to his own path. Next to him, he could feel Jordan like a line of heat and light. His light was strong in this place full of vague figures. He was easy to tap into and he suspected the directional pull was so strong because he was with Jordan. He had traveled in the astral plane many times but never with this much precision.
It got steadily darker the more they traveled, and the things that were present with them seemed to get more aware of them, and seemed to want to distract them from their path.
“This way,” one whispered. “Come hither,” another one said. “What you seek you shall not find, turn back,” a third hissed. Soon, they were surrounded by wraiths, blocking their way, trying to herd them to a different path.
“Ignore them,” Uzochi thought at Jordan. “Don’t be distracted. Keep to the path.”
Jordan simply nodded, face cool and collected.
They continued along the path until they came upon a maze, similar to the one in which Zorica had been trapped, bleeding veins of fire and walls of soot with faces trapped within its brick, trying to escape. The maze whispered to them of danger ahead. “Turn back now or abandon all hope. You will never return.”
Jordan gripped Uzochi’s hand and Uzochi turned to face him to find his visage grim yet determined.
“They’re lying,” Jordan whispered as if they could conceal anything in this place by talking in low tones. Uzochi simply nodded and held on to Jordan. They kept going.
The walls of the maze gave way to a field of tall flowers, all sentient. The flowers grew thickly, blocking the path, and they were forced to hack through them with their bare hands.
“His protections are strong,” Jordan said as his hand bled from the thorns within the flower stalks.
“Indeed,” Uzochi said, swiping a hand over Jordan’s, and clearing up the mess of bleeding. “Just remember that they cannot physically hurt you. And they can only penetrate your psyche if you let them.”
Jordan nodded his understanding and they kept going until they ran slap into a stone wall that stretched far far into the heavens.
“Now what?” Jordan asked.
Uzochi closed his eyes, stretching out his hands. “I need you to focus, Jordan. Think of the wall as a barrier set up by your mind and you need to smash through it as if it weren’t there. Can you do that?”
Jordan nodded, closing his eyes and imagining the brick in front of him was actually made of ice cream, easily penetrated. Uzochi made a sound of surprise and Jordan opened his eyes to see that his hand had gone through the wall.
“It’s cold,” Uzochi whispered.
Jordan nodded sheepishly. “Let’s go,” he said and let Uzochi lead the way through the wall. They emerged on the other side, wet, and cold and covered in cream and vanilla.
Jordan closed his eyes, visualizing a cabin built of luxurious imitation wood, a fire burning merrily in the fireplace, towels to dry themselves and new clothes to wear. He opened his eyes to find they were in the room, with fluffy white towels folded on a chair and a change of clothes.
“You’re getting good at this,” Uzochi said with a grin as he picked up a towel. “I don’t suppose you can just fast-forward us by smashing through all the barriers the wizard has put up at once?” he asked, sardonically.
“Don’t be impatient, Uzochi. We don’t know what the obstacles are that remain or what alarm systems he has in place. We should proceed with caution.”
Uzochi sighed. “I know it. I just grow tired of these games.”
“I expect as we get closer, it will get more difficult to penetrate the barriers he has put up?”
“Indeed, that is likely the case.”
“Then let us proceed,” Jordan said, putting down his towel and getting dressed in the dry clothes. He opened the door to find an icy tundra outside. The cold wind attacked at once, propelling him backward into the warmth of the room.
“Sweet Sauron, that was cold,” Jordan said.
“It’s a canny trick. Making us reluctant to leave our cozy lair and venture out there.”
Jordan gave him a look. “It's not real, right?”
“Real might not be the most accurate term. We are in the wizard’s mind. Whatever he conceives in here, is a reality.”
“But we can manipulate that reality too, can we not?” Jordan asked.
“I have never done it in another’s head but, with you here, it is possible. I think it is because you are a homing beacon for truth and therefore enchantments and glamours do not blind you.”
“Maybe. I prefer to think of it as being able to smell the bullshit. And I don’t even think it began with the curse. It’s just a bi-product of being in the Brotherhood. The curse only enhanced that.”
Uzochi shrugged. “Well, whatever it is, it is an advantage. So, how do you suggest we get around the icy tundra out there?”
“I think the easiest way is to conjure a sled, some Karna wolves to pull the sled and a couple of insulation suits to wear.”
Uzochi nodded. “Good idea. Except for the Karna wolves. Why not something tamer?”
Jordan gave a sidelong smile. “They’re my conjuration. I’ve always wanted to steer Karna wolves.”
Uzochi pouted his lips, shaking his head. “Well…let’s hope your fantasies don’t end up eating us.”
“Don’t worry so much, Uzochi. I’ve been gaming wolf simulations since I was a teen.”
“Mmm,” was all Uzochi said, but he stepped back so that Jordan could conjure what they needed.
Soon, they were flying across the ice, wolves howling in tandem while Jordan yodeled with glee as he drove them forward. Uzochi kept his mind on the path they needed to be o
n, fearing that Jordan’s enjoyment would distract him enough to lose them. Quickly, the weather warmed again, the ice became mud, and Jordan and Uzochi had to get off their sled and dispel both it and the wolves that propelled it. They took a step forward and promptly sunk in the mud to their knees.
“Quicksand?” Jordan asked.
Uzochi bent down, picked up a stone and threw it ahead in their path. It sunk like, well, a stone. Uzochi and Jordan exchanged glances.
“Any ideas?” Jordan asked.
“I was just about to ask you the same.”
“It might be time to try smashing through stuff?” Jordan said.
Uzochi’s brow furrowed as he thought seriously about it. Then he nodded.
“You will smash, I will keep an eye for whatever comes at us as a result.”
“You seem skeptical,” Jordan said.
“I am. But let us do this.”
Jordan nodded, closing his eyes without further ado and visualizing a straight path to the core of the wizard’s mind. He imagined a ray of light cutting a swathe through any obstacles the wizard might put up. He opened his eyes to see an actual ray of white light, illuminating the path ahead. There was no mud or any other barrier, just a straight road of light.
“Alright…that’s what I’m talking about!” Jordan said, supremely pleased with himself.
“Let’s go,” Uzochi said with a world-weary sigh. He went first, stepping into the light and feeling it cradle him like a nest of feathers.
“This is…different,” Uzochi said. “I have not encountered such engineering before in the Astral Plane.”
“Well, first time for everything I guess,” Jordan said, following him behind. They went cautiously, alert for any challenge but so far, so good.
They traveled for a while before Jordan looked up and saw a hooded figure in the distance, blocking their path.
“Incoming,” he murmured to Uzochi.
“I see him,” Uzochi murmured back.
“Plan?”
“Bulldoze?”
“I don’t know if that will work. Isn’t that the wizard himself?”
Mage Marine Misfits: Book 01 Page 21
