by T J Trapp
Alec moved to the nearest drone and said, in Dronish, “Pass along the instructions: the mother says enemies are close at hand. Run!” The drone followed directions, and the two dozen drones took off in every direction. Several ran past the checkpoint without stopping. The mothers at the inspection point looked with annoyance at the scrambling drones and sent the clutchmen to round them up and bring them back.
All right, you distracted the clutchmen. Now feed me dark energy, thought Erin. Alec touched her and focused; dark energy flowed through him into her. Erin used her ring to feel the lines – she could feel bright lines all around her. The lines almost glowed. Erin identified the lines connected to the mothers at the checkpoint. She twisted the lines towards the mothers. The two mothers felt the twisting and started to twist back. The three of them were frozen for long moments in total concentration as each tried to twist the lines around the other. The strength of Erin combined with the flow of dark energy from Alec; Erin started to prevail, and the lines moved around the mothers, spinning faster and faster until the two mothers slumped over. Erin stopped twisting the lines.
“I do not have time to twist enough to kill them. They are merely disabled. We need to flee before the clutchmen return and we have to fight them. The clutchmen are well armed and there are more of them than us. I can’t twist the lines against them and you can’t use dark energy. In my weakened state it would be a long, tough fight,” Erin said. They scrambled past the two slumped mothers at the checkpoint and up the street towards the consolidator. The clutchmen were still chasing panicked drones, but it only took a few moments before the clutchmen responded to the downed mothers and re-grouped to chase the two of them instead of the scattered drones. Erin could hear the clutchmen calling for additional help. The street was deserted, so they made quick progress towards the consolidator building.
“It’s time to bring the dragon,” Alec said to Erin, panting.
“How?”
Alec focused and created a burst in the air – a loud bang was followed by a bright spectacle of colored light. He could hear one of the pursuing clutchmen shout in fear. He set off two more of the bright displays before Erin told him, “You can stop now. I sense the dragon. She has been called and is coming towards us. With the memories I now have from Suva’s rod, I could have taken control of the old dragon – the way she was before Suva’s crew ‘improved’ her. Now I need to either heal the dragon so that I can control her, or take the control stone away from the coercer mother to dominate the dragon. Either way will be difficult.” She let more memories from the rod flow into her brain. “However, I know a lot more than they do about what they are doing.”
“Why do you know more than them?” Alec asked.
“Because their ancestors are coercers and mine are protectors, Dragon Mothers. My ancestor’s memories show me secrets about the dragons that the coercers ancestors do not know.”
Alec looked at her. Now it was his turn to be confused. “Oh.”
“We will show them a few things they do not understand. I should be able to draw the dragon towards us.”
Erin sensed and let her mind feel the lines. She felt the lines that connected to the dragon and twisted the lines. The dragon resisted and twisted back. Somewhere, the mother who was controlling the dragon also felt the lines twisting, first by Erin and then the dragon. The mother tried to twist back, but two sets of powerful lines were too much for her – she lost control of the twisting lines and, with a scream of pain, was forced to release her control of the dragon. The dragon screeched as well as it felt the mother release her control.
Focus. Alec felt the source of dark energy – the dragon – moving toward him. Now. His side throbbed as he used his medallion to pull dark energy from the dragon. The dragon felt the dark energy draining from its body and screamed in pain, over and over, the sound echoing down the empty streets. The dragon’s pain radiated to the mother with the control stone and she screamed as well.
“Keep pulling the dark energy from the dragon,” Erin said to Alec. “The mother who is controlling the dragon has passed out from the pain. Obviously, she did not know that a mother controlling the dragon will feel all of the dragon’s pain if she is using the control stone. That’s because she is merely a coercer, not a Dragon Mother!” Erin laughed a triumphant little laugh. “We still have to face a raging, angry dragon, but one without any coercers driving her actions.”
“Keep up the good work – keep sensing where the beast is,” Alec said.
Erin sensed the lines as Alec provided her with dark energy. She sensed the dragon continuing to approach. The screams from the dragon bounced off the buildings and through the alleys. Now, only Alec and Erin were in the street – all others had apparently taken cover or fled.
“Okay, Wizard. I have succeeded. The dragon is angry, in pain, and coming for us,” she muttered to Alec.
“My turn,” he said. “Let’s give it a good target.”
They moved to the middle of the narrow street. Alec felt the reservoir of dark energy in the dragon and continued using his medallion to pull dark energy from the beast. The dragon screamed again and again in pain and rage. Erin sensed the dragon’s thoughts: She wants to destroy the gnats that are hurting her. She wants to swat us.
The dragon continued to fly towards them; it came into view above them, and they could see it lining up for its attack. I can see through her eyes, Erin realized. She sees two troublemakers in the middle of the street. She wants to kill them.
The street was too narrow for the dragon’s wings, so it pulled in its wings and swooped down towards them. It opened its mouth to seize them, long teeth exposed around its gaping mouth.
At the last instant, Alec released the dark energy; the pavement vanished underneath them as a deep, narrow trench opened, and they fell into the trench. The dragon’s body crashed onto the road above them and went sliding down the cobbles. Small rocks and dirt rained onto them.
Alec looked at Erin. “Are you okay?”
She nodded.
Alec stuck his head out of the trench. The dragon had slid down the street destroying structures on both sides for three or more times its length, ending with its head wedged in a house and its body hemmed between the buildings on both sides, its tail flicking wildly back and forth.
“She’s not badly hurt, but she is very angry,” Erin noted. The dragon rolled and flopped, trying to free itself, knocking down walls and crumbling storefronts to rubble.
“Let’s get out of here before it works itself loose,” said Alec.
The two of them climbed out of the trench and ran as fast as they could the last hundred paces to the consolidator building. Just as they reached the door, they heard the dragon scream again – the dragon had freed itself and located them, shambling towards them as fast as its heavy legs would allow.
They reached the outer door of the consolidator building, pushed it open, and dashed through just as the dragon reached the outer yard surrounding the building. Erin slammed the main entry door closed and sealed it with the deadbolt. Then she sensed the outside. The dragon had slithered up to the outer wall of the consolidator and was trying to climb to the top of the building, reaching out with its foreclaws to puncture the outer wall. But the power source inside the consolidator building pulled dark energy from the dragon, and Erin could sense the pain that the dragon felt. The building is hurting her! The dragon screamed a last long scream of rage and slithered away from the wall.
“We are safe now,” Erin said. “The dragon will not try to break the wall down. She is hurting too much. Also, the mother who is controlling the dragon is no longer a threat to us – she is feeling the pain that comes from the wall into the dragon. The pain from the wall is so intense that it will kill the controlling mother if she lets it continue. They will try to wait us out.”
✽✽✽
They looked around the outer chamber. Erin vaguely recalled the room from before. It was small and cold with no windows. Alec focused and
created a small light globe. A heavy inner door was set on one side of the room with a translucent stone panel beside it. “Remember how we did this before?” asked Alec.
Erin shook her head. “Not really, but it seems like it wasn’t that hard. I think it took both of us.” Alec put his hand on the translucent panel and focused. He let dark energy flow into the panel, but nothing happened. Erin put her hand on Alec’s hand and helped him to modify the dark energy flow until she could feel the rightness. The heavy door unlocked with a click.
“Enter, oh Daughter of Lian,” a voice intoned within their minds.
“After you my dear,” Alec said with a flourish and pushed the door open. The two of them stepped inside the concentrator, and the heavy door latched behind them with a solid click.
The room was as Alec had remembered it from years before – a large octagonal room lit by its own internal source. In the middle of the room was a transparent crystal sphere almost an arn in diameter. Small points of light moved inside the crystal, forming ever-changing patterns.
Alec walked to the sphere in the middle of the room and looked at it. He spoke, almost reverently, to Erin: “The technology it took to create this sphere still amazes me. It has a million little tricrystals inside the sphere that continually change with time to create a four-dimensional pattern.”
Erin squinted at the little lights. “What do we do now, my Great Wizard?”
“I am going to shut the power down and leave it shut down for the next day so that our riders can escape across the obscuring field. The dragon will not have enough dark energy to fly for the next day so it can’t chase them, and they already have a head start on any other elf pursuers.”
“And then we can leave this dreadful place and follow them?” Erin said.
“No, not quite. Unfortunately, this concentrator runs a cloaking device that protects the elves of Nevia from their enemies outside this world. If their enemies discover New Haven, they can come and destroy us all – including all of Theland.”
Erin sighed. “I need to get home. I need to see my children; make sure they are all right. My baby. My little son. I have been away too long already.” She looked at Alec. “How much longer, oh Great Wizard? How much longer must we stay here – away from all we hold dear?”
“Not too much longer,” Alec said, trying to sound reassuring. “Just another day. One more day. A day will give our people enough time to escape, but will not be long enough for outside influences to locate Nevia.”
Erin bit her lip, trying to hold back tears. “There is always something, isn’t there, my Consort? ‘Just one more day.’”
Alec scowled and put his hand on the outside of the crystal sphere. He took a deep breath and focused. He began to push dark energy into the sphere. The sphere resisted his effort. He pushed a little harder, the medallion in his side throbbing from the effort, and gradually the sphere began to accept his energy. He pushed more energy into the sphere and felt the sphere respond to him. After several minutes he released his focus and let the energy flow out of the sphere. The oscillating pattern went blank, and he felt the pull of dark energy stop. The room became oddly silent. And dark.
“Okay. The dark energy concentrator is off. There is no power to the city or to the obscuring field. Our people should be able to escape now.”
“Good. We have freed my people. Now, how about us? How are we going to escape? We have a city full of angry elves outside.” She crossed her arms and looked at him. “I trust that my Great Wizard has a plan.”
Alec looked at her, somewhat annoyed that she was not impressed by his feat in turning off the concentrator. “I have a day to come up with a plan. I wouldn’t want to get too far ahead of myself.”
“Does that mean that you have no idea how we are going to escape?”
“I’m afraid it does.”
Erin looked at him steely-eyed. No plan. “We were in this situation before. Why don’t we do the same thing we did last time?” Erin asked. “Make our way across the obscuring field with stakes and ropes to guide us through the illusions? It worked last time.”
“It isn’t the same as it was then. Before, the elves were running the power to the obscuring field at low intensity to make it easy for them to cross through it if they wanted to. But sometime since our escape when we were here before, they turned up the power – they have been keeping it at a high intensity. Even if we could escape the city tonight, the elves could restart the concentrator before we reach the obscuring field.” He spread his arms in exasperation. “I could destroy the main concentrator crystal, but it will blow up everything in this room.”
“‘Blow up’ is bad?” asked Erin, confused by the term.
“Yes, we would be dead if we were here.”
“We have come a long way to kill ourselves,” she said angrily. “Maybe there is another choice – one where we would not be dead – but I would not want to question the wisdom of my Great Wizard!”
Alec took her hand. Maybe you could learn to live in a world that isn’t totally literal.
“The other option I see is to use the concentrator and the crystal sphere to transport us. I have never done it, but it is what Alder was doing to reach this world from Earth – using a transporter. I know it can be done.”
“Lord Alder? Like his portal things? Out on the Grasslands? We could pass through it to somewhere else?”
Alec nodded, “Yes – sort of – except that with a portal, both sides are already established and the dark energy requirements are minimal. A transporter is like a very strong portal, but it can work with only one side established. However, it requires an enormous amount of dark energy. The one-sided features are why transporters can move people and materials across universes, but portals only work within a universe.”
Erin sat down, her back against the stone wall, arms crossed.
Still thinking out loud, Alec continued to provide additional information about the features of the two modes until he noticed that Erin had fallen asleep, tear stains running down her cheeks.
22 – Zero-Point
Erin woke up after an hour or so to find Alec still thinking and doing calculations in his head. Erin could sense a growing concern from Alec.
“Is something wrong?” she finally asked. “Or is there another problem in returning home?”
“I’m trying to do the math in my head, but without a good computer the calculations are too complex for me to be sure of my results – but it seems to me that we don’t have even close to enough energy in the consolidator to transport us to anywhere else in this universe. I am thinking about an alternative.”
After another hour, Erin sensed he was feeling both relief and anguish. She gave him a quizzical look.
“We can’t use the device to transport us home to Theland because it doesn’t have enough energy,” Alec said. “But we should be able to use the zero-point.”
“The what?”
“The zero-point. It’s sort of like a natural portal.”
“What?”
“You see, the fabric of space that separates different universes is thinnest at the zero-point. Since we are very near the zero-point, here on Nevia, I can use the concentrator to create a hole in the fabric of space between two universes. If I can link a low and high dark energy area of the two universes, then energy will flow from one to the other and create a strong dark energy gradient. Like a stream flowing downhill. Once the universes are linked, I can let the energy flow through the concentrator. That will give me enough energy to transport us from the higher energy region – that would be here – to the lower energy region. You can think of it as putting us on a river of dark energy so that we can flow down it. The arrival point will be on the other side of the zero-point.”
“What does that mean? Where would that be?”
“The only low dark energy world that I know is Earth.”
“Your homeworld?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t that what Lord Alder was trying to
do that was going to produce a ‘bad hole?’”
“Yes, a ‘black hole,’ and he was going to destroy both worlds.”
“And we are not?”
“With the elves’ four-dimensional time-stabilized crystal right here, and the information I found in the elf archives, we have a chance of success. But – since I have never done this, I have no idea how good a chance we have – and if we fail, we will never know about it.”
“Wouldn’t it just be easier to attack the elves on our own and fight our way out of here?” Erin asked, sighing.
“No, my love, it would not be. Because – even if you were at full strength, it would not be a reasonable plan – the two of us alone cannot fight against all the mothers and the dragon. We would surely be captured or killed.”
“But with your crystal zero plan, we might also be killed.”
“Well, yes. We might.” He cleared his throat. “If you wake up and we are dead, then you will know we failed,” he said in a feeble attempt at humor.
Erin did not laugh. “Well, my Great Wizard. You have brought us this far. If you think it is right, then I will follow you.” She frowned. “But – how do we get from your world back home to Freeland City?”
“We find the transporter Dr. Alder built and use it to return. Even though we disabled his original link, the multi-universe connection that I establish through the zero-point will allow us to find this world again. A roundabout trip, but it should work.”
“Oh. Simple,” Erin said, scowling.
Alec continued to perform calculations in his head. “I wish I had a good computer; then I could balance all of the parameters and do the transport without harming the crystal. I am having to estimate lots of things. If my estimates are wrong, the power flow I allow into the crystal may be more than it can handle without overheating. Any flaws in the crystals will cause it to shatter. That would be bad for us.”
“It has been a full day since we separated from the riders. I am ready to start the trip home, Great Wizard,” stated Erin.
