by A. K. DuBoff
“One down, two to go,” Kaiden said.
“How do you feel?” I asked Toran.
He examined his hands as he rotated his wrists front to back. “Different, but I can’t quite explain how.” He thought for a moment. “You know that moment when you first woke up on the Evangiel, and you selected your discipline? It’s like that—imbued with a new sense of power, only more intense.”
Kaiden smiled. “I have a feeling you just became even more badass.”
The other man shrugged. “I can’t say I was anything special before.”
“You one-hit those rock things. I think that counts for something,” I said.
“I suppose I did.”
“Plus, you saved me,” I added. “Thank you. I should have said that earlier.”
“Of course, Elle. We’re a team. We’re in this together.” Toran smiled warmly.
“Well, I guess we got what we came for, right?” Kaiden asked.
“I believe so,” Toran replied.
Kaiden nodded. “Then we should head back. We still have two more artifacts to pick up, and who knows what that will entail.”
We turned to head up the hill toward the shuttle.
“Which one should we go after next?” I asked.
“I still think the Spirit artifact might be the most complicated,” Kaiden said. “Yeah, I’ve technically practiced more than the two of you, but I’ve only had these powers for a week. I’m by no means an expert.”
I nodded. “Mine then?”
“Are you okay with that?”
“Sure,” I told him. “I mean, we all helped with this, even though Toran ended it. I know I won’t be going into it alone.”
“Of course, we’ll have your back,” he assured me.
“Okay, then Strength—er, Valor—artifact it is!” I grinned. I’d survived this engagement, so now it was time to prove myself as a capable leader in my own challenge.
We returned to the shuttle and Kaiden piloted it back to the Evangiel. When we had docked, Tami seemed pleased to see that we hadn’t ripped apart the vessel’s interior again, and she was especially happy to hear that the rope in our new supply kit had come in handy. Since we’d left the previous length on the planet, as it had been mostly buried in the soil when the giant disintegrated, she provided a new bundle to replace it.
With Toran sporting the new gauntlets, we took the lift to Central Command to give Colren our report.
“Good, you’re back,” the commander said as soon as we were buzzed through the door to the Evangiel’s bridge.
“We got the artifact,” Toran announced, showing off his new gauntlets.
Colren barely glanced at them, much to my surprise. “I’m glad to hear it, but there’s no time to revel. We need to head out right away; we just got word another world is about to be tainted by the Darkness.”
My heart sank. “That’s awful.”
His expression was one of someone who’d already experienced loss too many times to feel it anymore. “It’s another chance to extract someone,” he said.
Toran’s eyes widened. “Oh. I’d thought it would just be us.”
“This is a large task for three people alone. The more we can add to your numbers, the greater your chance of success.”
I didn’t necessarily agree with the commander’s logic. Sometimes, more people complicated a situation rather than helping it. “How does it work?” I asked.
“We need to jump to the world. You can watch the extraction procedure, if you like—assuming we are able to lock onto anyone.”
I looked at my comrades. “I’m curious to see what happened to me from an observer’s vantage.”
“Yeah, I skipped the others, but I’m curious, too,” Kaiden said.
Toran nodded.
“Very well,” the commander said. “Get to your jump pods. I’ll meet you when we arrive at the world.”
12
After another stomach-churning jump, we gathered in the room where I’d first woken up.
The bioprinter pod was situated near the interior bulkhead, next to a control workstation. On the opposite wall, the shade over the exterior viewport was drawn. Colren directed us to stand along the forward wall to observe the extraction, a position where we’d be out of sight of the newcomer when they first awoke. With the disorientation of waking up still fresh in my mind, I appreciated his concern.
“How does it work?” I asked Colren, who was seated at the workstation adjacent to the pod.
He glanced up from the monitor. “The technical specifications are beyond me. Suffice to say that the alien tech is able to isolate a single hyperdimensional consciousness. Someone who’s been altered by exposure to the Darkness has a unique signature. The equipment tries to snare a candidate and draw them in. When it does, it reverse engineers a physical form based on the image in the candidate’s thoughts.”
Kaiden crossed his arms. “It’s strange to think of a person in a way other than their body.”
Colren smiled. “We could spend years debating the nature of existence. But right now, we need to try to get someone out of limbo.”
“How do you pick which candidate to extract, or is there only one option?” Toran asked.
“We focus on whichever signal is the strongest,” the commander replied. “But there isn’t someone receptive on every planet.”
“And now?” I asked.
He nodded. “We have three candidates, and hopefully we can coax one of them here.”
We watched him work in silence, not wanting to compromise the procedure. I couldn’t decide which discipline I hoped we got to add to the team. Maybe it was the immediacy effect from our recent mission, but Toran’s toughness was coming in handy with our engagements.
“Okay, trying to draw the consciousness here now,” Colren said. He pressed a control switch, and the lights turned off in the room. Only the faint glow from his monitor offered any illumination.
The bioprinting pod whirred to life. In the faint light, I saw it lay the foundation for a new form with long, slim limbs. Frosted glass around the torso obscured the details as it filled out the blank, but I could make out the general shape of curvy hips and breasts.
“I think we’re getting another girl,” I whispered to Kaiden next to me.
“I noticed that.”
When most of the body was formed, Colren rose from his workstation and approached the pod to begin the syncing sequence. “Are you a boy or a girl?” he asked.
The young woman blinked, but her eyes stared blankly ahead. “A girl,” she replied in a high, lilting voice.
“What is your name?”
“Maris.”
The bioprinter added the final layer of details to her body, caramel skin, dark hair, and hazel eyes. She looked to be a year or two older than me—though, as we’d discovered with Toran, that didn’t necessarily mean anything. When the physical features were complete, a white jumpsuit appeared around her.
Colren activated the holographic projector inside the pod, displaying the sword, shield, and wand icons. “What is your strength?” he asked.
“The wand,” Maris answered after several seconds.
“Are you sure?” Colren asked.
“Yes.”
The bioprinter had completed its work, but Maris arched her back like something had just been done to her. Then, a pendant just like Kaiden’s appeared around her neck.
Thinking back to my own experience, I realized that I’d felt different after making the final selection, too. Maybe there was something to the alien tech being tantamount to magic.
“You are a caster. Use your power well,” Colren stated as he stepped back. The door on the pod swung open. “Welcome.”
The young woman took an unsteady step, smoothing her hands down her white jumpsuit. “Where am I?”
“You’re on board the Evangiel, a Hegemony ship. I’m Commander Alastair Colren.”
“Wha…?” She looked around
. “I don’t understand.”
“I know this is disorienting,” Colren soothed her. “Come, sit down.” He beckoned to the table where I’d had my first conversation with him.
She noticed us standing along the wall and took a rapid step in the opposite direction. “What’s going on? Who are you people?”
“It’s okay, I went through this two days ago,” I told her. “I’m Elle.”
“Went through what?” Her tone was downright shrill now that she was agitated.
“Your world was infected by a Darkness. We extracted your consciousness to a new body designed to your specifications,” the commander explained.
The look on Maris’ face was probably just like the one I must have had when I was told the same thing. “This is insane,” she said.
“I know it’s a lot to process.” Colren gave her an abbreviated overview of the details he’d shared with us over the past two days.
By the end of the explanation, Maris looked like she was about to cry. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“You have strength of spirit or you wouldn’t be here,” Colren said. “Now that you are, we need your help.”
She tucked a length of her long dark, hair behind her right ear. “Can’t you just send me back?”
“Doesn’t work that way,” Kaiden said. “But hey, at least you’ll have people to show you the ropes.”
“Heh, we did some great literal rope work earlier,” I said.
Maris tilted her head. “Was that a euphemism?” She glanced between Kaiden and me.
“No!” Kaiden hastily replied. “We were fighting a rock titan.”
“For an artifact,” Toran added.
“Artifact?”
I sighed. “We have some more catching up to do.”
“I’ll leave you to get acquainted,” Colren said. “The jump drive is recharging, but we’ll jump in forty minutes to the planet with the next artifact.”
“We agreed to go after the Valor item next,” Kaiden said.
The commander frowned. “With a new caster on your team, I suggest you retrieve the Spirit artifact next.”
Kaiden looked to us. “Do you care?”
“I’m fine waiting for mine,” I replied. “I don’t feel like I’ve really tapped into my latent skills yet.”
Toran nodded. “If you’re comfortable, Kaiden, I will support whatever decision.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, Spirit artifact next, I guess.”
The commander inclined his head. “I’ll arrange the jump. Prepare to depart as soon as we arrive.” He left the room.
Maris stared at the three of us with a knit brow. “Does anything you just said actually make sense?”
I laughed. “It does sound like gibberish, doesn’t it?”
The new woman looked all of us over from head to foot, and she took a step back when she evaluated Toran. “I don’t know what kind of cult you’re running—”
“Whoa! No.” I held up my hands. “I know this all sounds crazy, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything. Well, mostly reasonable.”
“Ninety percent sensical,” Kaiden agreed.
Maris paled. “You’re all completely out of your minds.”
“We’re not. It’s the universe that has gone crazy,” Toran said in as soft a tone as his bass voice allowed.
“I want to go home,” Maris whined.
“Not an option.” Kaiden walked over to the viewport and activated the shutter.
The covering opened, revealing a view of a blue planet. Except, there were dark tendrils weaving around the world, slowly consuming it.
“Stars! What is that?” Maris took a sharp breath, her face twisted with horror.
“That’s the Darkness,” Toran stated. “This world has been corrupted. You can’t go back there.”
She crossed her arms. “Colren said that we’re immune. Are we or aren’t we?”
I was all geared up for a defensive response against her constant objections, but I caught myself. She brought up a very good point. The commander had insisted that it had to be us to accomplish the tasks because we had a special immunity to the Darkness due to our partial exposure, yet all of his statements were about where we couldn’t go.
Kaiden and Toran appeared to have the same revelation. We exchanged glances.
“I suppose we haven’t actually tried,” Kaiden admitted.
“Okay, so let’s go,” she said.
Toran shook his head. “It’s not worth the risk.”
“If anything you’ve been told is true, there shouldn’t be a risk,” Maris insisted.
“Fine, then what’s the benefit?” I countered. “We were in the middle of something before this detour to come pick you up. Is there something valuable on the planet we should retrieve?”
Maris worked her mouth. “I don’t know. I just… I want to go back to Yantu.”
“Look at it.” Kaiden pointed at the Darkness, which was continuing to spread around the world. “That’s no place to be right now. Wouldn’t you rather help find a solution to return your world to how it was?”
She nodded slowly. “But what can we do?”
Kaiden gave her a reassuring smile. “Let’s go over some basics and get you geared up,” he said. “You’ll get to learn the rest in the field.”
We started explaining the artifacts and what we’d learned about the clues to open the Master Archive while we walked Maris down to get prepped for our upcoming mission. We had just reached the equipment room door when we finished going over the most relevant details.
She shook her head. “I don’t like it.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I dunno, just sounds like a lot of tedious work. I’ll pass.”
I glanced at Kaiden and Toran. “You’re in this now, like it or not.”
“This is the best way you can help your world,” Toran said.
Maris threw up her hands. “But I’m no one! I can’t imagine taking out a giant the way you did.”
“You may surprise yourself,” Kaiden told her. “You haven’t even tried to use your new abilities.”
She hesitated. “I don’t know where to start.”
“Not here,” Toran cautioned. “We don’t need any more close calls.”
Maris tilted her head questioningly.
“I maybe accidently almost punched a hole through the hull with a fireball when I was trying to show off to Toran when we first met,” Kaiden admitted.
I smirked. “Oh, that’s what happened.”
Kaiden flushed slightly. “Ancient history now. But, at any rate, we have a rule for no significant magic use on the ship.”
“Why don’t we get your equipment and you can come with us on this next mission?” I suggested. “You can play around with your new abilities and get to know us a little better. If you still don’t want to participate, you don’t have to come on the next one.”
Maris searched my face. “Why are you being so nice to me?”
“Why wouldn’t we be?” I asked.
“I called you crazy.”
The three of us laughed.
“We’d think you were if you didn’t,” Kaiden said. “I mean, we can cast magic now. That’s wild.”
“I won’t believe it until I see it,” she replied.
“Soon enough,” I told her. “Let’s get you some proper clothes and a weapon in the meantime.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like weapons.”
I stepped toward the door to the equipment room and it opened automatically. “Believe me, you’ll want something if a rock lizard comes after you, or a golem.”
“They aren’t friendly,” Kaiden agreed. “I hope we don’t get into a lot of fights, but you need to be prepared just in case.” He followed me inside.
Toran beckoned for Maris to enter the room. “You’ll find you have new skills. Actions will come naturally for things
you never would have thought you could do.”
She stepped inside the equipment room. “If you say so.”
“Step onto the scanner,” the synthesized female voice stated.
Maris jumped. “Wha—”
The illuminated ring appeared on the floor.
“Oh.” Cautiously, Maris stepped forward.
The scanning ring took its readings of her, and then the holographic mesh appeared around her body and the menu popped up.
“Whoa,” she murmured.
“Starting with the armor seems like it’s easiest,” I suggested.
Maris selected that option from the menu, and the different clothing options appeared. “What do I pick?”
“Our white onesies make a good protective base layer, we were told,” I replied. “Beyond that, it looks like we’re locked out of the cool stuff like powered armor. You should be able to find something in the civilian catalog with ballistic fabric.”
She turned around, her face draining. “Ballistic-rated clothing? What are we going up against?”
“These textiles are a trifecta of awesome,” Kaiden jumped in. “Projectile, magic, and slash resistance. Just take our word for it—it will come in handy.”
She eyed his cape. “Is that so?”
“You’re living in adventure-land now, Maris. Embrace it,” I advised.
She returned her attention to the holographic menu and began making selections. In the end, she picked out an armored corset that accented her chest way more than seemed appropriate for proper armor, tight pants, and a knee-length hooded cape in a deep maroon shade. The accompanying heeled boots seemed entirely impractical, but clearly we had different definitions of ‘battle gear’ given her other choices.
“You’ve come around to the pro-cape camp, I see,” Kaiden commented.
She smiled at him. “Looks good on you.”
I fought the impulse to roll my eyes. “Still need to pick out a weapon.”
“Do I need a wand for casting?” she asked.
“No, I think these crystals focus our power,” Kaiden replied, touching the pendant on his neck.
“Why the staff, then?”
He held it horizontal and thrust it forward. “Makes a good stabby and blocky thing.”
Maris flipped through the options in the weapons menu, pausing on a set of throwing daggers. “I still don’t like the idea of having to attack anything.”
