Antiquity's Gate: Sanctuary

by RF Hurteau

  Felix stayed where he was, holding the hatch shut against Laevus' futile attempts to escape. Penelope ran to Tobias who was cradling his injured hand. Felix watched his mother approach the first swordsman. He realized with a start that the Elf was still alive, his body convulsing slightly. His eyes rolled wildly, and pink-tinged foam filled his mouth, spilling out over his cheek. Felix looked at Onyx and felt his skin crawl. She didn't look upset or afraid. Instead, she watched the Elf before her with a look of disinterest, or perhaps mild curiosity.

  Ambrose walked up, studying the fallen guard. "That didn't look like a fatal shot."

  "They were poisoned," she said flatly.

  "Poisoned?" squeaked Tobias in alarm, and Penelope looked up, horrified.

  "You don't have to worry," Onyx assured him. Her features had returned to normal, and her tone was kind. "It doesn't affect Humans."

  "Well, it affected my hand!" Tobias pointed out indignantly. "At least, your spike did. How do you know the poison won't affect me?"

  Onyx came over to take a look. "I've learned a great many things about what will and will not kill Humans. You're probably better off if I spare you the details." She examined his hand briefly. "Sorry," she offered. She looked at Penelope. "It isn't terrible. We need to pull it out. Do you have any bandages?"

  "Yes," Penelope replied, "but they're in there." She pointed to the ship, from which Laevus' muffled threats could still be heard.

  Gavin crossed to where Felix stood, freshly reloaded crossbow at the ready. He nodded to Felix. "Open it," he said gruffly.

  Felix did as he instructed, and Laevus, looking furious, stepped out. He stopped short when he saw the crossbow, and he looked around at his fallen guards. Then, he looked at Felix, and his mouth formed a wicked smile.

  "Is this any way to treat your brother?" he asked. "I would have expected our first meeting to be a little less—" he shrugged, motioning toward the dead guards. “Macabre.”

  "Amazing," said Ambrose, coming closer, but keeping a cautious distance. "Is this true, Felix? It has to be true. He looks exactly like you."

  "You," said Onyx, pointing to Penelope, "get those bandages. You," she addressed Ambrose now, "find something to tie him up."

  "This was a bad idea, Mother," chided Laevus a few minutes later, as if scolding a naughty child. Ambrose had finished securing his hands behind his back and went to work on his feet. "A very bad idea. When the Council finds out, you're going to be locked in a very dark cell, for a very long time."

  "Mother?" said Tobias, looking up in surprise. "Then that means–"

  "Yes," replied Felix. "This is my mother, Onyx. Mother, these are my friends, Tobias, Ambrose, and Penelope. And this is Gavin," he said, gesturing. "Oh. And that's Laevus," he added as an afterthought.

  "So, pleased to make your acquaintance," simpered Laevus.

  Onyx said nothing, using Tobias' distraction as an opportunity to pull the spike from his hand. He yelped. Penelope hurried to dress the wound, but Onyx stopped her. "Let it bleed for a minute; then apply pressure."

  "Thank you," Ambrose said. "You saved us."

  "We haven't saved anyone, yet," said Gavin, who still had the bow trained on Laevus, even though he was now securely tied to a tree. "Onyx, I don't think you thought this through very well. We just killed three Envicti, and captured a Council member. This is going to get ugly."

  Onyx had a finger to her mouth, biting her nail absentmindedly as she pondered. "No," she said after a time. "I think this could work." She was nodding to herself now. "Yes, this could definitely work." She strode up to Laevus and bent down so that they were face to face. "How did you find them?" she asked.

  Despite his situation, Laevus appeared relaxed. He smirked. "Why, I was on my way to see you, dear mother."

  "Why would you be coming to see me?"

  "Can't a boy come home to share a cup of tea with his mother without an agenda?" he asked, feigning innocence.

  Onyx frowned. "If only that were the case," she replied, sounding genuinely sad.

  Laevus shrugged nonchalantly. "I wanted to bring you on a little trip."

  Onyx exchanged glances with Gavin. "Why?" Gavin asked suspiciously.

  Laevus ignored Gavin, continuing to address his mother. "We are meeting a Human ambassador for talks. As you are our resident expert on Humans, I told the High Elder I should bring you. He agreed."

  "That doesn’t make sense," she snapped. "Anyone who came back from Sanctuary could have told you whatever you needed to know about Humans. Nero could have told you for Thera’s sake!"

  He nodded thoughtfully, pursing his lips and raising his eyebrows as if this suggestion hadn't occurred to him before. "Yes, I suppose you're right there," he said, offering no further explanation.

  Onyx was clearly agitated. She stood, motioning for Gavin to join her as she walked over to Felix and the others. They moved a little way off and then spoke in hushed tones.

  "Something isn't right," Gavin insisted. "I don't like this."

  "I agree," nodded Felix. "He's too calm."

  "But he was being honest about the talks," pointed out Penelope. "He didn't have to tell us about that. He could have just made something up."

  Onyx motioned for them all to be silent. "I agree that something isn't adding up. But we've been presented with an opportunity more perfect than we could have dreamed. Look, Felix is supposed to sabotage the alliance talks, but until now, he had no idea how to go about it. Well, I do." She looked at Felix. "We're going to turn you into Laevus."

  seven

  Beneath the Surface

  Ben was angry.

  This whole thing had turned into a giant mess. After the incident in Core Operations, Sylvia had come to him in tears. Both Nelson and Edwin had reamed her for the damages caused to the defense systems, even though it had hardly been her fault. They’d agreed that the patients, after long months spent in pods recuperating, would benefit from a tour of the facilities. They’d both been there. Hell, even Denton had been there. No one had been able to stop it, yet they were looking for someone to take the fall. And Sylvia, his poor, sweet sister, was their scapegoat.

  Both of them were sitting on the floor of his office now, Sylvia with her legs drawn up to her chest, still sniffling, and him cross-legged in front of her. If Ben hadn’t been so angry, it would have been nice. It reminded him of when they were kids, staying up well past lights out and telling each other secrets.

  “They’ll get over it, Sylvia. It wasn’t your fault. They’re just being jerks.”

  She shook her head, her eyes puffy from crying. “Denton said it would take weeks to fix the damage. And we don’t know how long it will be before they come back through!”

  “Don’t be silly. We’ve been running this place for six months, and this is the first outside activity. You really think it’s going to go from nothing to a sudden thoroughfare of travel? It’ll be fine, Syl. Trust me.”

  “But what if—”

  Ben stretched his leg out, tapping her on the knee with one foot. “I said, trust me, okay?” He yawned and let his head fall back against the cool metal of the panel behind him. “Weeks, huh? What’d they do, give Denton a team of incompetent engineering wannabes?”

  Sylvia shrugged. She’d stopped crying, but her lips still formed a small pout. “Nelson said something about the control panel being unique since it was built specifically for the defenses. He said all the damaged parts are going to need to be reconstructed from scratch.”

  “I’m sure it’s not as bad as he’s making it out to be,” Ben assured her. “We both know Nelson’s got a dramatic side. If he said it would be easy, we wouldn’t be nearly as impressed when he swoops in to save the day!”

  At this, Sylvia seemed to brighten just a bit, and a small smile crinkled the corners of her eyes. “He is rather dramatic, isn’t he?” she whispered.

  “Oh, yeah,” Ben agreed, grinning. “Like a girl.”

  She crossed her arms in mock offense, but she was s
miling now, which made Ben feel better. He was still angry with Edwin, though. Edwin was supposed to be in charge now. Nelson, Ben could understand. But Edwin should be taking responsibility, not shirking it off onto others. Ben wanted to ask what would be done about the troublesome patient, but decided that would only make Sylvia more depressed. He’d find out later.

  “Tell you what,” Ben said, getting to his feet. “Let’s go grab some food, and then you can hang out with me for the rest of my shift. I’ve been making some really good progress. It’ll be fun.”

  Sylvia’s expression suggested that they had two very different ideas of what constituted ‘fun,’ but she nodded. “All right,” she agreed. “It would be nice to spend some time together. I don’t see much of you these days.”

  “Being in charge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be,” Ben pointed out. “Long hours, high expectations, no appreciation.” He shook his head. “Oh well, someone has to do it!”

  They chatted as they walked, and by the time they returned from the commissary, they were both feeling in much better spirits. It had been a while since Ben had just hung out with his sister, not worrying about work, or Elves, or any of the other ominous things that loomed over them all on a daily basis. Ben reached the door to Pods first and opened it for her, stepping aside with a bow to allow her to enter first. She giggled, but then her face went dark.

  “What is it?” he asked with concern.

  “It’s Edwin,” she said, pointing to her comm. “He asked me to meet him.”

  Ben scoffed. “Tell him if he’s ready to apologize, he can damn well come to you. You know what, never mind, I’ll tell him.” He reached up, and before Sylvia could swat his hand away, he had grabbed the device from her ear. He held it up to his own and pressed a button. “Listen, Edwin, you’ve got some nerve, man.”

  “Ben?” Edwin said, clearly confused, “Sorry, I was trying to reach Sylvia, I don’t know how I—”

  “You reached Sylvia all right,” Ben said, putting an arm out to fend Sylvia off as she tried to wrestle the comm back from him, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment. “You guys did a number on her. You ought to be ashamed! I just got finished cheering her up and now you gotta go and ruin everything again.”

  “Ben,” Edwin said pleadingly, “please, can I just—”

  “You can just come down here to Pods and apologize to my sister is what you can just. And I’m going to make sure it’s good and sincere, or you’ll need to find someone else to network your damn pods.” He pulled the comm out of his ear and slipped it into his pocket, feeling rather pleased with himself. Sylvia was staring at him, mouth agape.

  “You just threatened to quit your job,” she said, eyes wide.

  Ben waved a hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. It was an empty threat. I’m just trying to watch out for my sister, you know? We have to take care of each other, you and I!” He reached out and took her hand, drawing her in to the long, dim room. “Come on, let’s go.”

  “But what about Edwin?”

  Ben shrugged. “He’ll find us.”

  They took The Rat—Ben’s nickname for the giant, room-sized lift—to the lower level. They worked their way through the many people moving among the now-partitioned rooms, working on various pod-related projects. Sylvia was quite familiar with everything going on down here. In the beginning, she had been working in a room just like these, using trial and error to discover which types of pods would function best for medical purposes. Now that they’d narrowed down the selection, Sylvia had arranged for ‘her’ pods to be moved up to a vacant lab in the East wing.

  “Do you like your new lab?” Ben asked, and she nodded.

  “I liked working close to you,” she admitted, “but there was just something about being so close to the exit…knowing the Gate was nearby. It gave me the creeps.”

  Ben nodded stoically. “So, if the Elves come back and march in, I’ll be among the first to go, but at least you’ll be safe, right?”

  She looked at him in horror. “That’s not what I meant!”

  Ben laughed. “It was a joke, Syl. Just a joke.”

  Sylvia’s steps slowed as they approached one of Ben’s current project, and he sensed her hesitation. “You don’t have to look at them,” he said softly.

  “I don’t have to see them to remember,” she said, shuddering. “Remind me again why we can’t just…get rid of them?”

  Ben shook his head. “Until we know what the Elves were trying to do with them, our best option is to keep them alive.” He frowned. “If you can call it that.”

  He walked to the nearest pod and peered inside. “I don’t know. They’re growing on me. Kinda cute, in a hideous, give-you-nightmares sort of way.”

  “Ugh,” Sylvia replied with a grimace. “I just threw up in my mouth a little bit.”

  Ben looked around for something to keep Sylvia occupied while he got to work. Finding nothing, he pulled a chair up next to him, and she sat. Ben hooked his tablet up to one of the pods, scanning the information flashing on the screen as it scrolled past.

  “What are you doing?” Sylvia asked, curious.

  “I’m looking at the code,” he explained, his eyes not leaving the tablet. “I’m looking for discrepancies between this pod and others like it. I’ve only just finished writing the program to help me do it. Neat, huh?”

  “I guess,” she said, with a degree of uncertainty. “Why do you need to know if there are discrepancies?”

  “It will help me narrow down the purpose of the little munchkin inside.”

  “How?”

  Ben sighed heavily and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to remind himself that he’d invited her here, and the questions were to be expected. Still, it was difficult to concentrate when he had to explain what he was doing.

  “Sorry,” she said, reading his face. “I didn’t mean to…I can go. I should go check on my patients again.”

  “No, no, it’s fine.” Ben bit his lip, struggling to reconcile his programmer’s language with Sylvia’s layman understanding. “Okay, so it’s like this,” he began.

  “Sylvia!” They both turned to see Edwin striding toward them, hand in the air as if trying to flag them down. Ben frowned.

  “That didn’t take long,” he muttered.

  Sylvia clapped a hand over her mouth, reaching up with the other one to feel the empty space her comm usually occupied. “I forgot you took my comm, you jerk!” She said to Ben. “He’s probably been trying to reach me the whole time!” She stood up, wringing her hands. “Edwin, I’m so sorry,” she said, but Edwin was shaking his head.

  “No, no, I deserved it,” he said, and Ben nodded approvingly at the strong opening. “Listen, Sylvia, I’m really sorry about before. I’m under a lot of stress right now, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

  “It’s okay, really.”

  “No, it’s not. I’m in charge. I can’t blame someone else every time something goes wrong. I need to be better than that. And Sylvia, what happened in Core Operations…that wasn’t your fault. I should never have put that on you.”

  Sylvia was blushing again, her eyes downcast.

  “So?” Edwin asked hesitantly. “Can you forgive me?”

  Sylvia nodded, still looking at the floor.

  “Good!” Edwin said, turning to Ben and offering a nod. “There, that’s settled. Now, if you would be so kind as to return Sylvia’s earpiece, we do have matters to discuss.”

  Ben eyed him warily before reaching down and slipping the comm out of his pocket. He tossed it to Edwin, who handed it back to Sylvia. “Be nice to my sister,” he warned.

  “I intend to,” Edwin said with a polite nod. Sylvia’s rosy cheeks became a deep scarlet as Edwin offered her an arm. With a glance back at Ben, she took it and allowed herself to be led from the room. Ben spent a few moments gazing after them, trying to decide how he felt about the rapidly changing dynamic between his sister and his boss. He wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with the
direction their relationship seemed to be heading.

  Ben swiveled back, staring at the lines of code as each one appeared. As they were checked against their counterpart, they would turn green to indicate their correspondence. Ben found his thoughts drifting as green line after green line moved up and off the screen. He was close to a solution on the networking front; he could feel it. All they needed to do was get the different types of pods to communicate with one another. He’d been tinkering with the idea of a hard line, but that would be tricky. They’d have to link every single pod physically, and once done, moving them around would be a real hassle. They could add wireless receivers, which would keep the pods mobile, but that would also require adding code to each individual pod in order to recognize and utilize the additional components. Still, with a team, it wasn’t impossible. He’d already set about getting a small number of prototypes built to test before rolling out the plan to the Council.

  He wasn’t exactly sure how long he’d been sitting there when it happened. A line of code appeared, and instead of turning green, it went red. Ben was startled and watched without doing anything as two more red lines appeared. Then there was more green, and the red lines marched dutifully up the screen. They were about to disappear when Ben finally paused the program, reading the lines over and over again. The red parts were definitely data that had been input, not actual code. It made sense that this aspect would differ from the other pods since those were currently unoccupied. But just what was he looking at? For Ben, code was just like a story, only in a different type of language. He just needed to read it in context.

  He scrolled up a bit. This part had to do with source materials and processes. He looked at the numbers again. There was something familiar about them, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. He leaned back in his chair, absently sucking his front teeth. Where had he seen data like this before?