Adan opened his eyelids a sliver. He waited until the assessor reached towards him and then shot out his hand and yanked the neutralizer band from his wrist. The band worked through the movement of the muscles in the wrist. Adan shoved it on and flexed his fingers before his opponent knew what was happening. A white light flashed between them and the man collapsed on top of him.
Adan shoved the man off. He didn't bother to get up, extending his body in the direction of the other three assessors. Two quick bursts of light caught all of them at the legs just below the knees. Standing so close together, they had no time to react to Adan’s sudden attack.
Adan sat up, the only conscious person in the tunnel, though he had no idea why.
Adan’s heart was thumping so loud he half thought it should be echoing off the cavern walls. What had just happened made no sense, but there wasn't time to try and figure it out. He hurried about the tunnel, pulling off the neutralizers from the remaining assessors. One of the bands had been sliced in two. So he had managed to strike true, though it hadn’t done any good. He put on one and shoved the other two good ones into his garrick.
He twisted the one on his wrist, reversing its field. The neutralizers could be used both to knock someone unconscious, or revive them if they’d been knocked out. Since they were powered by zoetic energy, Von’s disruptor had no effect on them.
Adan reached Sierra and grabbed her shoulder. There was a short, buzzing snap and her eyes fluttered open to momentary confusion.
“What happened?” she asked.
He took a moment, trying to think of how to explain it. “I used the neutralizers against them.”
Confusion etched itself deeper upon Sierra’s face. “How did you manage to avoid getting hit?”
“I’m…not sure. Listen, I’ll explain later.”
He took out one of the spare neutralizers and put it on her wrist. He sent her a quick mental message on how they worked and then added, “Go wake the others. I’m going to attempt a hard link before the assessors come to.”
Sierra nodded and went over to revive Zain.
Adan rushed to the nearest assessor, knowing he had to work fast. He had taken over people’s minds before using the esolace, but this was different. Hard linking was something he had only heard about. Gavin had described it once in explaining how he had accessed Darius’ thoughts after he’d been knocked unconscious. Adan would have to impose his will onto the man’s subconscious.
He knelt beside the assessor, absentmindedly touching the small bulge of the chronotrace in the pouch at his belt, as if that could somehow guide him through what he was about to do.
Adan closed his eyes and turned his focus within. He could sense the presence of Sierra’s mind, bright with the light of conscience, but the assessor’s minds hovered like clouds of smoke, intangible, yet still able to be perceived. Their minds shimmered, trying to grow brighter, trying to solidify themselves. It would only be a matter of time before they awoke.
He reached toward the mind of the assessor beside him. The moment he made contact, the man’s thoughts seemed to fly in a hundred directions at once, like motes of darkness fleeing from the light. Adan grasped for them, but caught only a few. Still, he held onto the ones he did catch and sent his thoughts speeding after the rest, imagining a hundred hooks which tentacled out in every direction. He caught a few more here, a few more there, but they proved frustratingly elusive.
It was mentally exhausting, but after catching a thousand or so stray thoughts he sensed he had them all. He drew them together, packing them tight like a ball of mental vapor. He wasn’t quite sure how he managed to keep something so intangible together, but he knew if he kept his focus on the gossamer mass it would not be able to escape. He pressed his awareness inside the haze, pushing his mind into the assessor’s thoughts, searching for what he needed.
The first thing he found was the man’s name, which was Faron. Soon details about his life, his position, his interests, and his memories followed, all rushing by in a blur. Adan ignored all of that and hunted for anything he could find about Gavin or the prisoners who had been taken from Oasis. The haze cleared and the assessor’s mind grew more defined. Images of people flitted through his thoughts, ephemeral remembrances he had acquired over the course of his short life. It was clear there were gaps in his memory, but Adan passed over these as well. He concentrated on the people, trying to find out who they were, hoping that some of them might turn out to be Sentients.
He soon discovered that some of these people were real, but some existed only inside the esolace. Faron had come to see the distinction only recently and there was still a great deal of confusion in his thoughts about how this could be. But Faron still held on to the esolace memories as important and needed. In fact, the majority of his identity was built upon the relationships he had formed and the things he had done there. There was a whole world inside those experiences which Adan could not help but marvel at it even as he passed quickly through it. It was a world which Adan had never known existed. He saw oceans and mountains covered in white, palaces and stadiums, swiftly running rivers coursing through sprawling grasslands, with grass blades waving in golden light. And everywhere there were people, walking, running, resting, talking; they came in every shape and size, and wore every type of clothing imaginable, but none of them were the prisoners he sought, no one there was even remotely connected to Manx Core.
Adan burst through the other side of that constructed world, the world of the esolace, and found himself standing in a crowd of assessors inside a large, vaulted chamber. At last he was starting to get close.
His awareness swept onwards until another memory rose before him.
Faron was standing in front of another assessor, but they were not looking at each other. Both of them were staring at a metal wall across the room, their eyes unfocused, their thoughts flitting back and forth in a mental exchange. They were using a channel called the ‘quorum’. Adan had never heard of it, but inside Faron’s thoughts, he intuitively understood how to use it.
“How many did you bring to the vault today?” the other man asked. He had only recently joined the ranks of the assessors, having been a simple technician before the storm.
“Only two,” Faron answered.
“And yesterday we didn’t get any.”
“It will be all right,” Faron assured him, “Malthus has another force of somatarchs awaiting activation in the Command Center. And once we’ve got enough Collectives in the vault we’ll begin training them as assessors.”
“I hope so. I don’t really trust that many vacants to follow their directives when they aren’t under direct control.”
“There have been plenty of tests. They’ve got the kinks worked out this time.”
“I sure hope so. I’m tired of living down in this pit. We need to get back up on the surface as soon as possible.”
“I’d rather be down here and safe than face an army before we’re ready.”
Faron’s thought spun around in the other assessors mind, as if he were waiting for it to stop and make sense to him, but it never did.
“You really buy all that Delegation talk?” came the other man’s reply at length. “I think they’re just trying to scare us into believing that so they can keep us motivated. The only thing on this sand encrusted husk is us and the andros. All the scans say the same thing.”
“This isn’t the same Collective, Kaz. The Admins are shooting straight with us now. War’s coming. The simulation is over. This one’s for real.”
Though Adan was alarmed by what Faron was telling his companion, he didn’t pursue the memory further. There wasn’t time. Instead he backtracked to follow the trail of thoughts associated with the Collectives they had mentioned.
A moment later, he found the memory he was looking for.
Twenty-Three
The Life of the World
Faron trailed the two chromium carts as they hummed down the wide ramp into the cavern. In all the cr
owded complex, this was the one section that remained relatively open. No one came to the vault unless they were picking up or dropping off prisoners. It was a monotonous trek and one of the least pleasant aspects of Faron’s duties. It was during times like these he wished he still had access to the Oasis esolace. There had never been any monotony back then. In contrast, the Manx Core system had little to offer. It was functional enough, but far less powerful. It lacked the full immersive capabilities of what they’d had in Oasis.
He arrived at the doors to the vault. They were not much wider than the carts. The carts slid into the opening in the cavern walls and floated into the metallic hallway beyond. He followed the cart past two chambers on either side, each framed by a glowing strip of blue lights. At the end of the hallway the passage opened up to the left and right.
The carts drifted somberly to the last door on the left. Faron commanded the door to open with his mind. Inside, the carts slid the bodies resting on top of them onto the floor next to half a dozen other frozen figures. Their cargo unloaded, the carts floated out of the chamber. Faron stood outside, silently directing them. Even from out in the hallway, he could feel the chill wafting across his skin.
Watching the memory play out, Adan flinched when he recognized the frosted forms of the two men on the floor. It was Raif and Nance.
He severed his connection to Faron’s mind and opened his eyes.
All the other Sentients were up and standing nearby, staring at him.
“I found out where the prisoners are being held,” Adan said. “And I know how to get into the Manx Core system.”
“Good,” Bryce said. “You can fill us in on the details while we get moving. Von, get the cutter and start ripping out the bioseine interfaces on those skiffs.”
“Right.” Von grabbed the metal tube off the ground and headed off to the closest ship. “I'll have us up and running in no time.”
Despite removing the bioseine controls so they could not be tracked, the Sentients had little trouble using the manual steering columns to fly their hijacked skiffs. They were far more stable than the skimmers and they had collision algorithms which helped them avoid the sides of the tunnel.
Von piloted one of the ships and Bryce flew the other. The other two ships had been beaten up too badly when they crashed. There was just enough room for four to ride on a single skiff together. Adan rode along with Zain and Sierra in Von’s ship.
As they zipped through the tunnels, thoughts flitted back and forth between Adan and the other Sentients. Though Faron’s access to the quorum channel had proved helpful, it was not complete. It didn’t give them access to high security areas or even the ability to fire Bryce’s newly acquired oscillathe. But it did give them access to no military equipment and also provided them a map of the tunnels surrounding Manx Core—at least the tunnels Faron knew about—and that was enough to find out where the Sentients were being held prisoner. They also found the location of the Repository, but as tempting as that was, it would have to wait. Gavin’s rescue was vitally important, but he was only a single person. There were many more Sentients locked in the vaults.
Based on the map, the fastest way to get to the Sentients was through a nearby mining cavern. Von and the Waymen had expressed concerns that the mine would be occupied. They didn’t have access to the oscillathes mounted on the skiffs to fight their way through, but that was fine. They wanted to avoid conflict if at all possible. Instead, they planned on abandoning the skiffs just outside the entrance and sneaking through the mines on foot.
No one spoke as they sped down the tunnels, but Adan could see from the look in Sierra’s eyes that she was still shaken from the encounter with the assessors. Things had not exactly gone well up to this point.
As if Zain were the one who could read thoughts, he placed his hand on Adan’s shoulder and, with a meaningful glance towards Sierra, mouthed the word, “pray.”
It was the best thing he could possibly do, not only for Sierra, but for himself and everyone there.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
Numinae, if you can hear me down in this dark place, please help us find our friends. We need your help, but I think Sierra needs it especially. I don’t know why, but there is something about her. I don’t know what it is. There is so much I don’t understand. But you do. And I know you will do what’s best.
He had no assurance that anything would change because of this simple petition, but it did not matter. He had done his part. He had placed his concerns before the one who alone would know what to do with them. Hope swelled inside him as he opened his eyes again.
The skiffs continued on, following the light rails until a dim glow appeared up ahead. Von and Bryce brought the ships to rest on the tunnel floor, about two hundred paces from the light, and everyone dismounted.
Even though they were not yet in the mine, loud humming sounds assaulted their ears from up ahead.
“We stick to the left wall,” Bryce said, raising his voice enough to be heard over the racket as they huddled together behind the skiffs. With all the racket going on inside the mine, there was no longer any need to use the hand signals. “If for some reason we get separated, make your way to the vault on your own. We’ll wait there until exactly one slice from now. If you haven’t made it by then, we’ll have to go on without you.”
“But the Waymen don’t have access to the map,” Adan said. “How will they find their way if they get lost?”
Bryce nodded and took a moment to pull the Waymen aside and explain to them as best he could the layout of the tunnels. Adan remained doubtful even after he finished, but he supposed there was nothing else they could do about it.
“Do not worry about us, my friend,” Zain said with quiet confidence. “Most of us have been in the Welkin tunnels before, often with far less information than what has been provided. We will find our way should we get separated.”
Bryce motioned for them to head off, single file, down the hallway. Sierra and Adan lingered at the back of the group, waiting to fall in behind the others.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said.
Adan could sense her mind closing in on itself, curling up in a ball of fear.
“You stood up to the assessors,” he told her, trying to draw her away from the edge of panic. “I know when it comes to it, you’ll find the courage to face whatever happens. Your friends need you—I need you. We’ll get through this.”
She nodded stoically and looked into his eyes. He could not be sure, but he thought his words might have had some small effect on her.
Looking at her, the same enigmatic influx of emotions he’d felt at the start of the journey rippled through him again. The only clear part of them was that something inside of him was drawing him towards Sierra in ways he did not fully understand. He was almost grateful to turn his concerns back to the dangers of crossing the mine. At least that was a problem he could comprehend.
From where Adan crouched, he could barely see the end of the cavern. Veins of neophosphorous ran through the ceiling and along the far walls, giving it a haunting blue glow reminiscent of the Basin, but brighter. Machinery crowded the expanse, but most of it wasn’t moving. It was only on the far side, some distance away, where any activity could be seen. The noise, however, was everywhere. It ranged from low, droning sounds to loud, whining noises coming from a group of machines working along the back wall of the cavern.
Bryce and the rest of the Sentients studied the mining operation for several microslices, trying to determine the best route to take across the cavern.
Many of the vehicles and equipment here were of types Adan had never seen before, but which, from his bioseine, he immediately recognized. The largest of these were the haulers, massive hovering platforms which held stacks upon stacks of chromium crates. The crates not already loaded onto the haulers floated about the room, waiting to be filled by the tunnelers: long, low cylindrical vehicles which emitted bright yellow cones of energy on one end
. This sustained funnel of energy was used to carve through rock in the same manner as a cutter, only on a much larger scale.
Trailing behind the tunnelers were groups of somatarchs, their white robes visible here and there in the cavern’s omnipresent light. Whenever they passed near the massive boulders being carved out by the tunnelers, they would touch the rocks with the end of a short black fractal rod. After a moment the boulder would crumble into piles of smaller rubble. Floating discs of locus energy would eventually pass over these piles and suck up the smaller rocks onto their shimmering circular surfaces and deposit them into the nearby carts.
The cones of one group of three tunnelers blazed a bright blue. They were working on a large exposed vein of black rock at the back of the cavern. These tunnelers were twice the size of the others and yet they were having little success cutting into the rock. This seemed mostly due to the fact that they only ever attempted to do any cutting for short intervals before stopping.
“Why aren’t they using the yellow spectrum since it’s inorganic material?” Adan asked Bryce, who was crouching next to him.
“That’s not rock,” Bryce said, eyeing the formation with intense interest. “It’s celerium.”
Wik pointed at the rock and muttered something to the Waymen which Adan missed, but he caught the word viviendo in it somewhere, which meant “life” or “living”.
Adan nudged Zain, who was hunched down on his other side. “What did he say?”
“The Life of the World,” Zain whispered, awestruck. “No Wayman I know has ever seen it. It is only spoken of in the legends.”
“What is it?”
“They say there are veins of rock like that running all through the deepest places of this world. The land cannot survive without them. Only a fool would ever attempt to disturb them as these men are doing.”
As amazed as Zain and the other Waymen were, Bryce was just as enthralled by the presence of this rare material. The look in his eyes showed clearly that he had something in mind for the celerium, but Adan couldn’t tell what.
The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set Page 55
