The Chronotrace Sequence- The Complete Box Set

by D J Edwardson

  “Run,” she shot back, but if he received the message, she couldn’t tell. His mind vanished. Off down the hallway a flash of white light was followed closely by the thump of a body hitting the floor. Booted feet thumped against rock, pounding their way down the hall. She hurried to the corner of the intersection and pressed her back against the wall. An icy chill seeped through her skin. She held her breath and clamped her teeth to keep them from chattering.

  Cradling the cutter with her free hand, she swiped the middle switch inside. The blade flickered from yellow to red. She dreaded what she was about to do, but she didn’t have a choice. She held her breath and waited for them to come.

  But the sounds of pursuit ended abruptly, replaced by a different set of noises. There were grunts, cries of pain, and something slamming against the wall. It sounded like a scuffle, but she had no idea if the assessors were being put down or if it was the other way around. She sensed four bioseine signatures down the corridor. She risked a glance around the corner and saw four people, their skin still bluish-white from the vault, standing over the bodies of two assessors in front of the first room, the one Sierra had tunneled into.

  One of them pointed at the fallen assessors and said, “How are you feeling now, Mr. Assessor?” His frozen skin obscured his features, but Sierra recognized his voice.

  She powered down the cutter, ran towards him, and threw her arms around his frozen neck. “Raif!”

  “Sierra, is that really you?” Raif said, hugging her back.

  “And what about us? Is Raif the only one you came to rescue?” Von broke in from behind her.

  She let go of Raif and turned to see Von and Nance standing there. She embraced them both, hot tears cutting fleshy channels down her frigid cheeks.

  “Von, you’re here! What about the others?”

  “I don’t know, I got knocked out as soon as I hit the bridge.” Von’s confusion somehow got lost in the moment.

  “How did you make it, Sierra?” Raif asked. His color seemed to be coming back faster than the others. Maybe it was from the fight with the assessors or maybe it was the excitement of finding Sierra, Nance, and Von there. Maybe both.

  “I just—” she began, but found she couldn’t finish. Joy washed over her like the frosty clouds slowly dissipating inside the cells, but there was sadness there as well, a cold, icy sadness that the joy could not entirely banish. She had found her friends, but she didn’t see Adan among them.

  “You can explain later,” Von said. More of the Sentients were wandering out of the vaults, half dazed.

  “Yeah. What’s the plan?” Raif asked. When Sierra stared anxiously at the assembled Sentients, he added. “You do have a plan, don’t you?”

  “There are ships outside,” Von said. “We need to commandeer some of them.”

  “Ships? Oh man, this almost makes me glad I got caught,” Raif quipped.

  Sierra brightened at his remark. They were going to make it. Somehow she’d find Adan before this was all over. Somehow.

  She sensed Raif’s mind connecting to hers. “Tell me everything I need to know.”

  With more half-frozen Sentients streaming into the hallway by the moment, she opened up her mind and shared all that she knew about Manx Core and how they were going to escape.

  Thirty-Four

  Collective No More

  “You’re sure you can rig those lancers to fly?” Sierra asked as they finalized their plans. By now all six cells had been emptied. They were ready to head towards the exit and into the hangar located outside the vault.

  “Lancers are not much different from levs,” Raif assured her. “If you rip out the bioseine interface then anyone can pilot them manually.”

  “Do you really think we’ll be able to outmaneuver the Collective? They’ll have the advantage of thought controlled flight and we’ll be forced to use our own reflexes.” The question came from Halerin, who had only just reawakened after the assessors’ attack.

  “It’s not as easy as using your bioseine, but that doesn’t make them better. It all comes down to making the right decision, not just who can react the quickest,” Raif replied.

  That might be true for you, Sierra thought privately. Raif was a natural with anything mechanical. But she wondered about the rest of them.

  “Couldn’t we just go back through the tunnel Sierra made?” Halerin suggested.

  “They know we’ve been awakened,” Von answered, impatient that they had not yet left the vault. “Going single file through that shaft, they would catch up to us and pick us off one by one, or head us off in the tunnels below. The ships are the only real chance we have of getting out together.”

  Von placed his hand on Sierra’s shoulder.

  “You take the lead, Sierra,” he said, “You’ve got the only weapon we have right now.”

  Sierra pulled back. “No, Von, I’m just a handler. Let me give the cutter to someone else. I really don’t want to do this anymore.” She stared down at the cylinder encapsulating her right arm. She was no fighter. Killing a somatarch had been one thing, but she wasn’t ready to lead these people into battle.

  “You’re the only one who made it here without being captured,” Von said, “I think you’ve got more in you than you realize.”

  Sierra met his steady gaze. She knew she wasn’t the best choice, but the look in Von’s eye made her realize she would be letting the others down if she didn’t do whatever she could to protect them.

  “All right,” she said, swallowing hard. Hopefully they got to the ships before it ever came to a fight.

  “One last thing,” Raif said. “What happened to the rest of the group? You said there were eight of you who came down, but Von’s the only one who got sent to the vault.”

  “Like I said, I don’t know.” Von’s expression was grim, even for him. “When the somatarchs showed up in the mines, we scattered. I jumped off the hauler and I remember landing, but then I blacked out. The next thing I remember is waking up in the vault.”

  Sierra felt the old sadness seep back in at Von’s words. She had grown close to the Waymen, especially Zain. Her stomach knotted up at the thought of what might have happened to them. Were they killed in the explosion? Did they escape? There was no way of knowing, and no way of resolving the emotions churning inside her until she knew for sure.

  And then there was Bryce and Adan. Bryce could take care of himself and somehow she felt no sadness at the thought that he might have perished in the mines. It was not that she didn’t care about him, but he had always seemed like someone who wanted to go down fighting.

  But though she had known Adan only a short time, she felt closer to him even than the other Sentients. Of all the people in the group, his absence was the hardest to take. She knew that if she let herself dwell on it her emotions would paralyze her. She took a sharp breath and tried to shake it off, but the slight quivering of her lips betrayed her.

  “Adan and I escaped together. But I lost him in the tunnels. Something knocked me out and then…” She hesitated, unable to finish without losing it completely.

  “I understand,” Von said quietly. “You did what you could.”

  Had she?

  Sierra turned and walked towards the main doorway leading out of the vault, trying to be strong, but feeling weaker with each step.

  The chunk of the door Sierra had carved out crashed onto the stone floor outside the vault, announcing the Sentients’ presence to anyone on that end of the cavern. The chamber which stretched out in front of her was made entirely of stone, smoothly carved away to create an arched ceiling. The floor sloped downwards and the walls gradually widened until they opened into an ample bay on the edge of a much larger cavern. Dozens of ships rested on the ground near the edge of the bay. Beyond that, yellow lights flashed in warning from the buildings in the main chamber.

  Half a dozen somatarchs and a pair of assessors were coming towards them from the other end of the chamber. The Collective forces stopped advancing once they
spotted Sierra and the others emerging from the vault.

  One of the assessors called out to them from down the stony slope.

  “You are not permitted to leave this area. You must stand down immediately.”

  The Sentients continued to fan out to either side of the opening. Von gave them a mental command not to move forward until everyone was through.

  “We’re not part of the Collective anymore,” Von said as the last of the Sentients emerged. There were over sixty of them in all. “We don’t want to hurt anyone, we just want our freedom.”

  “I warn you that we are armed with oscillathes,” the assessor shouted back, “And we have been authorized to use lethal force. Do not do anything foolish.” The somatarchs and assessors drew their silvery pistols.

  Sierra’s resolve wavered in the face of the assessor’s threat. She glanced down the line at Raif, Von, and the others spread out along the wall in front of the vault. None of them were armed, but they had all been instructed by Von about what to do if it came to a fight. Individually none of them would be able to overcome even a single somatarch, but together, they had a chance against the small security force before them.

  “They’re stalling,” Von told the others, “Waiting for reinforcements. We need to go now.”

  “But you heard what he said.” Sierra still was not sure they should go through with this. “If we move forward, people will die.”

  The rest of their group wrestled with the same fear, but slowly, one by one, their minds came to be of one accord. Going back to the vault was not an option. Whatever it was the Admins had planned for them, life in the Collective was no life at all. It was time to break free, no matter the cost.

  “We charge on Sierra’s signal,” Von declared.

  Still unsure why Von had chosen her, she nervously raised the cutter in the air. A crimson razor flamed to life on the end of her arm. She stared down at the small force of somatarchs and assessors.

  “You have no right to keep us here,” she shouted. “We are Sentients now. We choose our own path. Even if some of us fall, we will have our freedom or die fighting.”

  She thrust her arm in front of her and charged down the slope. The rest of the prisoners rushed after her, the sounds of their feet hitting the stone in a rumbling rhythm which reverberated across the cavern. Their lines widened as they picked up speed so that their enemies would have to pick them off one by one.

  “Sierra, keep your blade out in front of you. If you do, it will interfere with the evanescence and protect you,” Von instructed her.

  So that’s why he wanted me to have it. She did as Von instructed her, grateful for the kindness of her friend.

  The whispers came, swift and deadly. They were not close to Sierra, but she could still make them out as the invisible evanescence waves washed over the line. Eight people disappeared, their empty gray clothes shriveling to the floor in their place.

  The Sentients never faltered. The awful whispers rippled across their group once again. This time, one of them came close to Sierra, sweeping between her and Von and erasing the life of another Sentient.

  How many more would have to die. Memories of the dead pulled at her, begging her to abandon this hopeless charge.

  They had covered more than half the distance to the enemy. More oscillathe blasts poured over their lines. Each time the shots fired the results were the same, more Sentients disappeared. Their attackers never missed, but the Sentients still outnumbered them four to one.

  After each blast, the somatarchs and assessors fell back, but the Sentients were closing the gap.

  “Stay strong,” Von told those still running.

  Sierra was not as fast as most of the other Sentients. About a dozen of them had sprinted past her, desperate to reach their enemies before they fired again. The lead vanguard was almost on top of the somatarchs, who stood a few paces in front of the assessors. A heartless murmur consumed one of them, brushing past Sierra as it went.

  As she closed in on the enemy, her stride faltered. Was she ready for this? But her momentum and the slope kept her hurtling forward. It was the only thing left to do; fight until they won or she was consumed like the others.

  The somatarchs and assessors got off one more round of oscillathe blasts before the first of the Sentients reached them. There were only six Sentients, and they had no chance at defeating their enemies, but by engaging the somatarchs they kept them from firing again.

  Sierra and Von rushed one of the somatarchs. The first Sentient to attack it had already been knocked to the floor by a brutal blow to the head. As Sierra reached the creature, it swung at her head. Instinctively, she brought the red blade of her cutter up to deflect the attack. The creature’s fist connected with the side of her face, but the blow’s impact was barely felt as the somatarch’s forearm disconnected from its body and dropped to the floor.

  The loss of its arm did not even faze the creature. It pummeled her with its remaining hand. The blow would have been devastating if it had landed with full force, but Von deflected the strike.

  Afraid of cutting Von, Sierra shut the blade off and swung it like a club at the creature’s head.

  The somatarch jerked its one good arm and caught the cutter in the air. Before Sierra knew what was happening it ripped the tube off her arm and sent it clattering across the floor. Sierra jumped back in shock, just in time to avoid the creature’s follow-up kick.

  Von dove at its waist while another Sentient rushed in to take a swing at its head. The somatarch twisted as it fell, avoiding the blow and landing a jarring counter strike to Von’s chin. As the two dropped together Von’s head rolled to the side and he brought his arms up to guard his face.

  The somatarch’s blood drenched its robes, but somehow it kept fighting. Realizing they were not going to be able to take it down on their own, Sierra took off running for the cutter.

  The creature kicked the other Sentient in the face, knocking him senseless, and bolted after Sierra. It tackled her from behind, a step before she reached the cutter. The two went down hard on the rocks. Her chest pulsed with pain like the yellow alarm lights pulsing off in the distance.

  Another Sentient came rushing in, probably saving her life. He landed on top of the somatarch, but the creature snapped its elbow back and smashed the side of his head.

  The maneuver forced the somatarch to let go of Sierra momentarily. She scrambled over the rocks, reaching for the cutter.

  Her enemy slipped free of the dazed Sentient and knocked her legs aside, sending her once again to the rocky floor. She landed on her shoulder this time. The creature rolled her onto her back, its grave-like gaze boring into her and draining her will. She had no hope of defeating it. The dead bodies she had seen in the aftermath of the storm flashed before her eyes. She knew that she would soon be joining them.

  Out of nowhere, Von blind-sided the somatarch, knocking the creature clean off her.

  She lunged for the cutter, grasping the cold metal and ramming it onto her forearm. She turned and saw Von wrestling the somatarch on the ground. Though the creature was on top of him, its blows did not have nearly the force they once did. Von was able to deflect them with one hand while he held the creature at bay with his other.

  The loss of blood must finally have taken its toll.

  “Let it go,” she told Von. “I’ll finish it.”

  Timing her blow perfectly, Sierra thrust the red blade into the creature’s back as Von rolled away.

  Freed from Von’s grasp, the somatarch struggled to stand for a few moments, but fell back to the ground dead.

  The moment it stopped moving, Sierra turned to see another of the horrible creatures staring at her with hollow eyes and a pitiless face. It stood not ten paces away. Three Sentients lay dead or unconscious at its feet. Sierra watched, frozen in horror, as it pointed a silvery pistol at her.

  Her body tingling with terror, she forgot all about the fact that the cutter would protect her and turned to run.

  In
stead of the lethal murmur, a splitting, popping noise roared from behind. The heart-pounding whisper came next, but it flew over her head. Glancing back, she saw a great crack erupting from the ground beneath the somatarch’s feet. Then the whole world shifted and she went sprawling to the ground.

  ‘Up’ seemed like an indecipherable riddle. She could just as easily have been laying on the wall or the ceiling. Somehow amidst the revolutions, she found her feet and the spinning stopped. She saw that the somatarch had fallen as well, and that its leg was wedged into the crevice which had opened up underneath it. Large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, exploding into shards as they hit the floor. In moments the creature was buried.

  Everywhere she looked, the chamber shook uncontrollably. The ground convulsed and splintered. Chunks of the ceiling assaulted the floor, raining down on those struggling to escape.

  A quick scan of the cavern told her all of the somatarchs had been overrun or killed. The assessors were nowhere to be seen. A few dozen prisoners lay on the ground, unconscious or dead, but at least a dozen were still standing. The floor was still wobbling, but there was a lull in the intensity of the quake.

  “Raif, where are you?” Sierra asked, her thoughts skittering out across the Collective channel.

  “I’m okay,” he replied. “I just finished off a somatarch. The assessors have fled.”

  “We’ve got to go,” Von told them, coming up beside Sierra, trying to hold her steady on the trembling floor.

  “What about the unconscious ones?” A sickening chill washed over her as she thought about the Sentients still on the ground. “If we leave them here the quake will kill them.”

  “If we stay here we’ll all die too,” Von shot back.

  “But we can’t—”

  “We’ll come back for them once we get the ships,” Von promised.

  Sierra wanted to resist, but she knew he was right. With the whole cavern collapsing around them, the only thing to do was escape and come back when they could.