Etheric Explorer

by S. R. Russell

  "Do I have to deal with you also?" Anne demanded as she tried to tear the vest off Jinx without hurting her.

  "Ouch, damn!" Anne cursed as the fingernails of her right hand grew to three-inch-long claws that pierced her palm. Anne carefully opened her fingers to free her claws from her hand with minimal damage.

  As she held her bleeding hand up to her face, she thought she heard Peter mutter something about her not needing any more advantages. Anne watched in fascination as the puncture marks stopped bleeding and healed. She carefully flexed her fingers to make sure her hand hadn't taken any permanent damage. She noticed her blood was beading into little droplets on her new claws like water would on the hood of a freshly waxed car. A quick flick of her hand saw blood droplets fly across the room, and her claws were once again in pristine condition.

  It took Anne a few seconds to figure out how to get the claws on her left hand to disappear while retaining the claws on her right. Once she had mastered that trick, she told Jinx to hold still as she inserted the tip of one claw under the vest that had been locked onto her friend.

  Peter coughed faintly. “You know you could just break the lock?"

  "Dummy me," Anne commented as she concentrated on getting the claws on her right hand to retract. "I didn't think of that."

  Anne stuck a finger into the hasp, took a tight grip on the body of the lock, and yanked with all her strength. Anne found herself struggling to remain upright as the hand pulling on the lock flew up in front of her face, sending metal sailing across the room.

  Peter knelt and started stripping the vest off Jinx.

  "You know a little tug would've done, don't you?" Peter asked quietly as he observed Anne looking at the lock in shock.

  "But it's a metal lock!" Anne protested.

  "You need to get a grip on who and what you are. Like it or not, you're what we used to call a vampire. The term nowadays is ‘Enhanced Human’ since you people no longer need to drink blood to survive." Peter raised an eyebrow. “You know who Nathan Lowell is?"

  "He's Christina's dad, right?"

  Peter sat back and howled with laughter. “Oh, oh God! On...on...only you," Peter finally choked out, "could reduce the bogeyman of the Wechselbalg nation to 'Christina's dad!’"

  Anne looked at Peter like he had gone crazy. “But he is, right?"

  Peter nodded. “He is, but for several generations, he's also been the bogeyman. Were mothers would tell their kids if they didn't behave, Nathan Lowell would come for them."

  "Seriously?" Anne stared at Peter.

  “As a heart attack," the Guardian Commander confirmed. "And as big and tough and scary as Nathan Lowell is, he has a saying about vampires. I'm paraphrasing, but it's something along the lines of ‘If you know where a vampire is, you need to be somewhere else.’"

  Anne's "oh" ended in a sigh.

  "It doesn't matter if it was the good Kurtherians or the bad ones, both sides were looking for combat troops." Peter pointed a finger at Anne. “You are one side’s version of human combat troops." He pointed a thumb at himself. "And I'm the other side’s. How long do you plan on leaving John there?"

  “I’m thinking five minutes should get the message across. If it’s my combat abilities he wants to test, I think abandoning an enemy in the Etheric is a pretty good tactic,” Anne replied somewhat sourly.

  Anne was still crouched beside Jinx. Give me a moment once we get back to the Etheric. I want to see if I can make the mist around us thicker, then you hit him from behind. Don’t stay on him. Just distract him enough that I can grab him to drag him back to the MR.

  Jinx growled her agreement.

  Anne brought them into the Etheric far enough away from John that she’d have a few seconds to test her theory.

  Concentrating on her desired results, Anne swirled her finger like she was mixing chocolate syrup into milk.

  John Grimes had been in the Etheric enough times with Bethany Anne that being stuck there didn’t freak him out like it had done to some of Bethany Anne’s victims. However, after several minutes, he had to admit the swirling mist was unsettling.

  John was standing quietly, wondering how long Anne would keep him waiting, when his right arm was hit from behind by one hundred and thirty pounds of angry German Shepherd.

  John was well-trained, with a lot of combat experience. He simply rotated with the blow to negate the force of the attack. As he realized that Jinx wasn’t biting down with the full power of her jaws, he was hit from the side at knee level.

  John hit the floor of the training room and sprang to his feet. A quick survey of the area showed him that Jinx and Anne were bracketing him.

  “Are we done?” Anne asked.

  “What? No, we—” John broke off and shook a finger at Anne. “All right, I’m willing to admit that dropping someone in the Etheric is a good strategy. BA has used it on occasion.” John smiled at fond memories as he finished.

  He watched Anne, his smile fading to concern when a ball of dark energy formed over her hand and started to split into orbs about the size of chicken eggs, if chicken eggs were round.

  Remembering the charred and dead body of an alien when three idiots had tried to steal Jinx, John nodded, acknowledging the orbs for the weapon they were.

  Not wanting to find out what it was like to be hit by them, he asked, “What sort of control do you have?”

  Anne’s expression indicated her level of concentration as she answered, “Pretty good, actually. I’ve been stepping into the Etheric and practicing.”

  John glanced around and noticed Peter was holding the vest they had placed on Jinx. Willing to admit the vest might not have been his brightest idea, he nodded at the Guardian Commander. “Set that up against the wall, please?”

  As soon as Peter had moved away from her target area, Anne started the orbs moving in a circular pattern above her hand. The pattern sped up briefly, then one after another of the orbs peeled away from the pattern and streaked over to impact the vest.

  Glancing at the charred and smoking ruin of the vest, John was glad those orbs hadn’t struck him.

  He queried, “If I apologize and admit it was wrong to do that to Jinx, will you forgive me and go a couple of rounds of hand to hand with me? So I can get an evaluation in to Bethany Anne.”

  Anne stood glaring at John for several seconds before finally nodding. “Sure,” she agreed with a smile.

  After several more seconds had passed with Anne not moving, John asked, “Well?”

  Anne shrugged. “Still waiting.”

  John swallowed his automatic reaction and evaluated carefully. Bistok shit, he thought to himself. This one’s smart in a prickly sort of way.

  “I am sorry for putting that vest on Jinx. Several people told me it was a mistake, and I ignored their warnings and advice. Please forgive me,” John declared solemnly.

  Anne nodded and smiled brightly. “You’re forgiven,” she declared. “This time.”

  John returned her smile and inclined his head in acceptance of her implied warning. “Shall we?”

  Anne was soaked with sweat and sore all over. Along with that, she had a much better understanding of Jinx’ complaint regarding fighting something that outmassed you significantly.

  Her Pod-doc upgrades had definitely been worth the time. Although she had bruising over a lot of her body, she hadn’t suffered any broken bones. It was just that John was so much bigger, in every sense of the word, than she was. This meant she had no way to stand against his attacks. He was always forcing her backward. Even using her claws had only granted her an additional second, more from surprise, she thought, than damage. He had healed almost as fast as she could cut him.

  John rubbed the odd spot that was sorer than the rest of his body. “Well done,” he praised the young woman. “You did yourself and your trainers proud. Bethany Anne will be very pleased with your progress.”

  “But I lost,” Anne proclaimed dejectedly.

  “Against a larger, more experienced o
pponent, while not using any of your special attacks and with no help from Jinx,” John said, pointing out all the advantages Anne would have in a real fight, not wanting to demean or depress the girl.

  Anne’s lips were compressed in a straight line as she considered John’s words. “I guess,” she finally admitted. “Are we done? ‘Cause I could really use some time under a hot shower if you don’t mind.”

  John chuckled. “A hot shower or a tub of ice water,” he commented with a nod. “I’ll figure out which I want by the time I get home.”

  Chapter Nine

  Anne was silently fretting about the time it was taking to get 3PO operational, so she nearly wet herself at the voice in her head.

  “Anne?”

  Anne clutched her chest. “Empress, you gave me quite a shock.”

  “Well, at least you’re not like Tabitha, questioning if I’m me.” Bethany Anne’s mental voice clearly indicated her amusement.

  “Seshat can talk to me through the implanted transceiver, but only you and Jinx can talk to me telepathically, and you’re not Jinx,” Anne commented reasonably.

  “Except for Achronyx, I think I’m the only one talking to Tabitha in this manner. That doesn’t stop her from asking if I’m me,” Bethany Anne declared.

  “Well, Tabitha is one of a kind, and if you ever doubt it, she’ll tell you so herself. What can I do for you today?” Anne decided the only way to settle her nerves at being contacted by Bethany Anne was to get to the point.

  “Meredith has deduced that with Guardian Connors outside your apartment, you are probably home. Do you have time for a visit?” Bethany Anne asked her young friend.

  “Certainly, Highness. Where do you want me to meet you?” Anne responded nervously.

  Bethany Anne must have sensed Anne’s nervousness. “Relax, your front door will be fine. Just warn Arthur I’m dropping in. See you in a couple.”

  Knowing that Bethany Anne didn’t need “a couple” to show up somewhere as close as her apartment, Anne hurried to the door to inform her guard that Bethany Anne was incoming momentarily.

  “The ‘she’s coming down the street’ dropping in’ or the ‘don’t move from where you are’ dropping in?” Guardian Connors asked.

  “That one. The ‘don’t blink or you’ll miss her’…and good evening, Empress, Ashur!” Anne shouted happily as Bethany Anne and Ashur appeared about ten feet from her doorstep.

  Bethany Anne watched in amusement as Anne was almost knocked down as Jinx pushed past the girl to greet her sire.

  “Good evening, Guardian Connors.” Bethany Anne offered a friendly smile to the head of Anne’s guard detail. “Are you two fuzzy butts coming in to join us, or are you going to run wild in the park?”

  “Run wild,” Ashur declared with a howl, followed by an enthusiastic yip from Jinx.

  Anne stepped aside to allow Bethany Anne to enter. “Have fun, guys,” Anne told the canines as she closed the door.

  “I have cold Coke,” Anne informed her guest.

  “Sounds perfect.” Bethany Anne smiled and nodded.

  “Have a seat, and I’ll be right back.” Anne’s voice faded as she headed to the kitchen.

  Returning with two Cokes, Anne gave one to Bethany Anne and opened the second one for herself, then settled in to find out why she was being visited by the Empress.

  “Relax,” Bethany Anne ordered. “Now that you’ve been fully upgraded, I figured I should inform you of the, let’s call them ‘vampiric traits’ to make it easier. From your experience with that quack therapist, you know you’re starting to develop mind-reading capability. That’s one possible trait. Having heard John say his clothes looked like an advertisement from a slice-and-dice commercial, I imagine you found you can produce claws.” Bethany Anne held up a hand with four-inch claws extending past the ends of her fingers.

  Anne nodded, conveying both her confirmation and acceptance of Bethany Anne’s information. “They don’t seem to be too effective. They barely scratched John, and he just shrugged it off,” Anne said morosely.

  Bethany Anne took another sip from her Coke. “They will be a lot more effective against non-enhanced beings. You’ll get there,” Bethany Anne encouraged, then continued, “Super-speed, super senses, mind-reading, claws.” She ticked the items off on her now-clawless fingers. “Those are some of the possible traits.”

  After Anne nodded, Bethany Anne continued, “You’ve heard of Michael?”

  Anne swallowed hard. With no way of knowing how to talk about Bethany Anne’s lost boyfriend, she just nodded.

  “It’s all right.” Bethany Anne took a deep breath. “I’m still hurting, and I’m also still pissed with him. Let’s not talk about him. I just brought him up because he could make cutting edges along his arms out of Etheric energy. He could also turn into a gaseous form that was invisible. He taught me the Etheric edges thing, but I could never Myst. On the other hand, he could never learn to enter the Etheric the way you and I can.”

  “What determines who can do what?” Anne asked, relieved to see the hurt expression fade from Bethany Anne’s face.

  “TOM says there is not enough data to do any significant analysis,” Bethany Anne declared. “My personal guess is it has something to do with an individual’s ability to adapt to the nanocytes. The greater the adaptation, the more the individual can do.”

  “That would make sense.” Anne nodded in agreement.

  “Good. With me so far?” At Anne’s smile, Bethany Anne continued, “Other traits we know of are the ability to project fear and to dominate. It’s referred to as compulsion when you touch the minds of humans.”

  Bethany Anne smiled at Anne’s half-raised hand. “Yes?”

  “Mind reading, projecting fear, compulsion—are they related?” Anne asked, curiosity gleaming in her eyes.

  Bethany Anne started cursing internally. How did we miss that? she asked TOM.

  Possibly because we’ve been busy trying to save the universe? TOM replied blandly.

  Oh yeah, good point, Bethany Anne returned brightly.

  “I just checked with TOM, and I’m embarrassed to say, we hadn’t even considered it a possibility. As TOM suggested, saving the universe has been keeping us preoccupied,” Bethany Anne admitted.

  “No kidding,” Anne responded. “That’s one of the reasons you have people like me. Would it be all right if I looked into those possibilities?”

  Bethany Anne’s expression was a strange mix. She was nodding and frowning at the same time. “We’re fighting a war. We might not have an active battlefront at the moment, but we’re at war nonetheless.” Bethany Anne held up a hand when she saw Anne wanted to interject. Once Anne subsided, she continued, “It might eventually be useful to find out if we could train or develop vampiric traits based on whatever markers make them viable for an individual. However, I expect we’ll be in a shooting war soon, and if you can invent something that improves the odds of winning and keeping our people alive, that’s where I need your focus.”

  Anne’s expression was suddenly somber as the responsibility Bethany Anne was living with daily made itself evident in a way Anne could feel. “Am I a bad person for being glad you’re the Empress and not me?” she asked timidly.

  Bethany Anne’s smile was heartfelt. “There are days I don’t want to be me, so I won’t hold it against you.”

  She paused for a moment to let Anne process the information, then continued, “Michael was the first attempted conversion and TOM didn’t have a chance to optimize things, which made it extremely painful for Michael. He left the Pod-doc before he was ready and had to drink blood for the majority of his life to supply enough Etheric energy to his nanocytes so they didn’t kill him.”

  Bethany Anne chuckled as Anne’s face scrunched in disgust. “Any questions?”

  Anne sighed. “That’s such a large information dump that it will probably take me a couple of days to determine if I have questions.”

  Bethany Anne smiled as she rose. “You know
where to find me if you do. I’ll be doing my Empress thing.” Sticking her tongue out at Anne, BA stepped, leaving a somewhat stunned Anne.

  Jinx’ message, Bethany Anne stopped by to get my sire, and I’m on my way home, got Anne’s mind in gear again.

  Chapter Ten

  Genevieve Hamilton paced for several minutes before she finally worked up the nerve to make the call. The attractive brunette that was the avatar for Anne’s computer answered her call. Gina was in awe; the voice that came from her tablet was so completely synched to the image, she couldn’t tell it wasn’t a real person.

  “Good morning, Genevieve. How may I assist you today?” the AI asked.

  “Umm, hi?” Gina forced out, then stumbled to a stop.

  The avatar of Anne’s computer giggled and stuck out her tongue.

  “I sense you are nervous, so let me start. I am Seshat. I was named after the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and a few other things I won’t bore you with. I started life as an EI, but thanks to Anne, and to some extent Jinx, I have become self-aware and am now classed as an AI. And, just so you know, Anne refers to AIs like ADAM and me as EPs, as in Electronic Person or people.”

  “That is so cool!” Gina blurted. “Oh, and call me Gina, please.”

  “Very well, and thank you, Gina. Now, what can I help you with?” the EP responded.

  “Well, I was hoping I could take Anne up on her offer for employment.” Gina bit her lip and crossed her fingers behind her back.

  “Excellent!” Seshat exclaimed. “Anne is busy with the end of her school year this week. How does next Monday sound?”

  “Next Monday is good with me, thank you.” Gina struggled to maintain her excitement.

  Once the details had been decided and the call had been disconnected, Gina picked up her son and spun him around. “Mommy has a new job, little man.”