Aspirant 2: A Sci-Fi Harem Adventure

by Maxx Whittaker

  “Threvians?”

  She turns to me, eyes distant. “I don’t know. Communication has been cut off. I don’t know… If they’re even alive.”

  “Hey,” I say, taking her hands. “If the Threvians had found this place and killed the team, would the program still be running? They would have shut this down, right?”

  That earns a half smile. “I try to tell myself that. But I do not… I feel they would have found a way to send a message by now. John would have.”

  “John.” I shiver. “The name you called me?”

  “Yes,” she whispers. “My creator’s… Elise’s partner. Her lover, before she died and left me with her memories.” She sighs as I remember the picture in her study. Elise and her lover. “I am sorry for that, by the way. Calling you by his name. I don’t–”

  “I get it,” I say. “No worries. You’ve got another woman’s life banging around in your head. When shit gets crazy…”

  “Yes.” She takes a long, calming breath. “It can be hard to tell which memories are mine and which are hers.”

  “Just as long as you remember my name in the bedroom, we’re good.” I wink.

  “Bedroom?” She blushes scarlet. “But we… We haven’t… You…”

  “Kidding,” I say, holding my hands up and stepping back. “Please don’t stab me.”

  A laugh. “I wouldn’t. Ever. But you’re terrible, and I’m no good with flirting,” she looks down. “I’m still not sure if you should be.”

  “Like I said, we can talk about that later.” I glance to my wrist.

  00:06:14

  “So, back ways. Exits. We don’t have Mika to read the invisible shit anymore. What can we do? Know anything that might help? And once we escape, how do we find the others? Can we communicate with them? Where do we–”

  “Sam!” Astra stops me with a touch. “One thing at a time. Yes, we should be able to find them if we can get out of here. And yes, we can let them know we’re alive, might even be able to break into their trial.” She taps the wall. “Just have to get out of here first.”

  “Okay. Sorry. One thing at a time. What first?”

  “There should be a backdoor out of every convalescence chamber. But I don’t know how to find it.”

  “Can’t we go all… You know… Hulk Smash? Wreck up the place until we find it?”

  “Not enough time. Besides, these walls can’t be damaged. Not by normal means. But if we can find the right section of wall…”

  “How?” I swallow back rising panic as times ticks away. “Aside from the doors, they’re all identical. Made of the same weird material. I wouldn’t know how to tell one section from another. I can’t see any seams. I don’t even know what the walls are made of.”

  “Your power!” Astra turns, lighting up. “What did you do with the lock in the jail cell?”

  “You don’t know? I thought you watched up the last time we–”

  “I know, I know, but it doesn’t work like that. I know everything about you from before you came here. But the Citadel’s programming decides the powers you gain from convalescence. I don’t…” She swallows. “I didn’t control any of that. I just observed.”

  “So weird. Why put you in here, put you in charge, and then limit you? They don’t tell you where the back ways are, limit what you know about the Aspirants… Why hobble you like that?”

  Astra’s brow furrows. “I never really thought about it. I’ve always been more like a… A museum curator, or something. In charge of the exhibits. I made sure Aspirants and the Shepherd followed the rules. I had a lot of power. But…”

  Something’s picking at the edge of my mind. A suspicion. But I won’t mention it. Not yet. I need to ponder, turn it over in my head.

  Also, you know. Impending death and all that. “Okay. The lock. I just kind of… Felt it. Knew its shape, and texture, in my mind. I’ve been able to… Sense? Things… Since I first realized I had this inside me. Since the chamber set on Syl’s planet.”

  “Can you do it now?”

  00:05:14

  “I can try. But this might mess me up. Liquefy my brain, or whatever my power does to my head.” I smile. “It doesn’t happen right away, and I can take a lot more punishment than when this all started, but be ready to catch me.”

  “Not a problem.” She points up, circling her finger. “Convalescence chamber. Go nuts.”

  “Oh, hell yeah,” I grin. “Hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Just keep your powers to yourself, this time,” she snaps, softening her words with a half-smile.

  “Right. All business.” I’m tempted to give her a mental swat her on the ass and see how far I can push things. I don’t think she’d mind. But I’ve got no idea how long this will take, or even if I’ll find anything. Thoughts of Mika and Syl somewhere else, in their own chamber with five minutes left on the clock and dreading the next challenge elbow their way into my head.

  Yeah. Let’s do this.

  The power’s waiting at my core like always. It’s so easy to find now. So simple to grasp and mold, like a puppy waiting for its master after work. Ready, waiting, eager to escape and play. But this is a puppy that can kill me as easily as help me, so I take it gently, tapping the bright star in my chest with the lightest touch.

  And then I reach out, close my eyes, and stretch.

  It’s the only way I know to describe it. It feels like stretching after a long day at the oil fields, but with my mind. Through whatever voodoo magical shit this place has put inside me, I can see the shape of the room almost immediately. Four walls of equal length. Doorways on each side. The one behind us is inert, dead like a burned-out TV. Opposite, the exit door, the door we’re supposed to walk through in less than five minutes…

  My consciousness shies away from it. On other side of the door is chaos. Fire. Death. They’re just impressions, but my heart beats against my ribcage like a hammer as sweat breaks out over my entire body. It’s so distracting I almost lose focus and have strain to hold onto my power.

  Yeah, really glad we’re not doing the second trial.

  But Mika and Syl… They don’t have a choice.

  Shit. Need to speed this up.

  I push my mind further, battering the walls, looking for weakness. The material is alien, flawless, impossible to imagine actually existing. Which isn’t really weird at this point, considering it doesn’t; none of this is real. It’s all a simulation.

  A simulation I’m stuck in, along with three women I love. That are all counting on me to figure this out right now.

  But the walls are unyielding. Something about their shape and material baffles my mind. It’s like trying to find traction on a floor covered in oil; my mind slips across the uniform surface over and over.

  My breath comes faster as I push harder, then harder. Synapses in my brain fry and are instantly repaired by the convalescence lights; I don’t know much about biology, but this can’t be good for me. Blood beads on my upper lip, then wicks away into nothingness again and again. I’m vaguely aware of Astra at my side, hands wringing endlessly, chewing her lip as she watches my shaking body.

  This isn’t enough. It’s not working. Growling in frustration, I punch in every direction at once. It’s a hammer blow of power than echoes against the walls and accomplishes exactly jack shit.

  I sigh, exhaling. “Can’t… Can’t find anything… The walls…”

  Astra stands stock still, head cocked. She doesn’t answer.

  00:02:37

  Shit. I was lost inside myself for over two minutes? It felt like thirty seconds. “Astra, we have to…”

  “Hush,” she mutters, turning slowly in place. Her eyes are closed tight, and her expression is… She’s concentrating on something.

  What? We don’t have much time. I chew my lip, about to dive back into myself to try something else, anything, when she straightens.

  “Got it!” She crows, grabbing my hand and pulling me to a section of wall that looks like every other. �
�Here. Sorry. Whatever you did at the end, it smacked the walls so hard it took me a second to sort through the echoes.”

  “Echoes? I didn’t hear anything.”

  Astra rolls her eyes. “Computer, remember? Simple matter of air currents and… Well, never mind. Anyway. Here.” She touches the wall. “Feel here. There’s something on the other side. I’m sure of it.”

  I don’t question her. There’s no time. Best case, this works. Worst case, we brave trial two.

  I’m really hoping for option one.

  I lay my hands flat against the cool plastic-y surface. I have no idea if it’ll help, but fuck it. Eyes closed. Take the power. But this time, instead of stretching slowly, feeling my way through, I thrust my mind forward like a battering ram. At the same time, I throw every bit of power that’s left through my palms, twin beats that rival the strength I used to punch a hole through Valka.

  The wall thrums like a massive gong, bounces back at us so powerfully that we stumble back and fall on our asses. The power flees from me and my moan of pain at using so much of it is lost as the echo of my strike dies.

  But the sound of it… “You’re right,” I say, wincing as orange light pulses overhead. It feels like an iron spike’s planted in my forehead, but I shake it off. No time for pain. “Sounds like behind that spot…”

  “Yes,” Astra says, helping me up. “Emptiness. Not solid wall.”

  “Like a passageway.”

  Our traded grins die as we examine the wall. “Not a mark,” I say.

  00:01:18

  Silver ripples flow through Astra from head to toe as she chews her lip. Am I losing her? Is she freaking out? I wouldn’t blame her. We’re so close… So close to escape, but the wall’s not giving us any clues, and we’re out of time. If we have to give up when we’re so close… “I’ll try again.”

  “No, wait.” What I took for fear in Astra isn’t. Her brow furrows in concentration and her eyes narrow as she calculates. “Sam, it’s a door.”

  “Right.”

  “And pushing didn’t work.”

  “Right. What are you… Oh.” I’m an idiot.

  “Don’t beat yourself up,” she winks. “Like I said. Computer.”

  “Right. I’m sure it took one hundred percent of your mighty mainframe to come up with pull.” I shake my head, reaching out with my power one last time.

  The wall resists me, but now I know where to put pressure. I funnel more and more of myself into the core of light inside my chest, and… There. I’m on the other side. The passageway is silent, motionless like a shipwreck discovered after a thousand years. I reach a little further, try to sense if there are fire demons or swinging blades or some other horror just on the other side, but there’s nothing.

  “Seems… Safe…” I grit as I try not to lose grip on the power. “Pulling…”

  And I do. I take the far surface of the door with my mind, and I tug.

  It swings open effortlessly. It’s so unexpected, so sudden, that I lose my grip on my power and stumble back.

  Into Astra’s waiting arms.

  I grin up at her, blinking away sweat and pain. “My hero.”

  For some reason, this makes her blush. “We’re not close to even. Not yet.” There’s promise in her words… And resistance. So much meaning in something so simple.

  But I don’t have time to decode it all. Less than twenty seconds left.

  A three-foot section of wall’s swung open on invisible hinges. And behind it?

  Darkness. Utter black, so deep it seems to swallow the light of the little room.

  I swallow. Astra’s fingers tighten in mine.

  This suddenly seems like a terrible idea. But we know the second trial is going to be hell. This could be better. Easier. It could be nothing more than a dark tunnel.

  We step through the doorway together. There’s a small handle on the back of the wall; a clear message. Close this when you come through.

  I know why. The Shepherd.

  I take it as I pass, plunging us into fathomless midnight.

  5

  The Underneath

  Aspirant #1

  Room Timer: 00:00:00

  When I was young, my mom was apeshit for caves. At the time, I had no idea why she felt the need to drag me off on vacations and even weekends to tromp around in tunnels that all felt basically the same to a kid who just wanted to play his borrowed copy of Pokémon Silver on his used Gameboy Color. At the time, it felt like some kind of sick game; hauling me to the only places on Earth without enough light to play when Kevin wanted the game back in two weeks.

  Kids and their backlit screens these days. They don’t know how good they have it.

  Because I spent more time moping than spelunking, I don’t remember much. But one thing stands out, as crystal clear as the day I first experienced it. True, total darkness. That moment when you descend deep enough into the Earth, around enough curves and past enough forks, that reflected sunlight no longer penetrates. Something changes around you, like the air almost turns to ink. Where you can hold your hand a millimeter from your eye and not see it. Where it’s so still that speaking feels like a sin.

  The back ways of the Citadel are darker.

  Astra’s fingers strangle mine. The only sound is our suddenly ragged breaths punctuating our first stumbling steps forward. On an unspoken prompt, we stop at the same time and crouch low, waiting.

  For what? This is the Citadel, so I try to anticipate anything.

  There’s nothing. Not even the air moves. The longer the silence stretches, the more I’m sure there’s an army of slavering beasts or killer robots or deadly blades waiting. Sweat beads at my forehead. They could be inches away, and I wouldn’t know it. I take my power tentatively and reach forward, afraid of what I’ll find.

  More nothing. The hallway is long, and not much bigger than the one we woke up in just a short time ago. The walls are flat and featureless as far as I can tell, though I’m somehow sure they’re made of something different than the entrance hall and convalescence chambers.

  Weird.

  “Sam,” Astra whispers.

  I try and fail not to make a pretty unmanly noise. “Astra. You scared the shit out of me.”

  A pause. “Sorry.” The shame in her voice quiets her even more, but it still sounds like thunder in the heavy dark. “I didn’t know how long to let you stay inside your mind… There might not be healing here.”

  “Good point.” I rub the bridge of my nose as I reach to pull her close, wincing at the slightest tremor of pain at the back of my head. It’s bearable, a light headache, noticeably easier to take than even an hour before.

  Astra resists only a moment before shuffling far enough that our bodies touch. Her body is so warm, and even her clothes feel like they’re heated like her skin would be. Her lips are so close to my ear that I can feel the heat of her whisper. “What did you sense?”

  “Whole lotta nothing. Which means it’s something really horrible, right?”

  “Maybe not. The chambers are the tests, meant to shape and push the Aspirants to their limits. But this isn’t one of those tests… So maybe…” She grunts in irritation. “I’m not used to… Not knowing. Not being able to guide you.”

  “Hey. I know. It’s okay. We’ll figure this out,” I say. “Let’s stay low and work our way forward. Slowly. Just in case.” There’s confidence and certainty to my words that I’m surprised by. Maybe I’m just used to taking command at this point? I don’t know. Nothing about my former life really prepared me to lead a team of superpowered women into battle or through booby trapped hell chambers, yet it somehow feels so natural. Maybe it’s the girls’ faith in me, how even Syl follows without making me feel like a fraud. Or maybe it’s something else. Maybe it’s the reason the Citadel chose me?

  Astra notices my tone, too. She hesitates when I start forward, halting me with a light touch. Her words are low, concerned. “Sam, are you… Okay?”

  “Um… Yeah, I guess? I mean,
as okay as I can be, fighting for my life every couple of hours. Why?”

  “It’s just…”

  I can’t see her, but her tone… It’s like when someone has something horrible that’s been weighing on them, but they’re afraid to bring it up. My chest tightens.

  “Just… Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Is there something I don’t know? Alien hibernating in my chest, about to burst through my ribcage? Or is it something worse?” I mock gasp. “Oh no… Do… Do my new powers cause impotency?”

  A soft laugh. “Ask Mika and Syl.”

  “Jealous?”

  She smacks my shoulder. “See? You’re doing it again! Right now!”

  I drop all humor. It’s not working on her, and her worry is so palpable. “It? What’s it? Just tell me.”

  “I just… Less than a day ago I told you that… That you had to save the rest of mankind! That aliens have taken over your world! Humans are almost extinct! That so much rests on you… And you… You’re flirting with me! Cracking jokes when I’d expect you to… To break down or something! Have a panic attack! Lose it! I should be comforting you, not trying to resist you… It’s just… Just… Fucking…”

  “Whoa… Dropping f-bombs now?”

  “Yes!” She says with another smack. “Right now, it feels right, because I’m fucking confused. Everything I’ve learned about Aspirants, everything I know of people from Elise’s memories… I don’t understand how you’re so damned calm!” She finally stops ranting, breath heaving.

  “Okay, first off, I’m flirting with you because you’re kind of neurotically irresistible. And I care about you. We all do. As for all that other stuff… We’ll figure it out.”

  There’s a pause. I can almost imagine her mouth working. “That’s all? ‘We’ll figure it out?’”

  I shrug, even though she can’t see it. “Yeah. That’s what I’ve been doing since the moment I got here. It’s worked out pretty well so far.”

  Her fingers tighten at my shoulder. “Sam… Maybe you’re… In denial? Not realizing how important–”