Reading the resolve in my face, Tycius turned to Reno. “Thoughts, Captain?”
“Not ideal timing,” she replied. “But I guess that depends on where the tether leads us. We have a few days before we’re due back on Denza. If we took the Eastwood off course, the Senate wouldn’t notice we were missing right away.”
Vanceval paused in his preparations. “Ah. So finding Marcius has not been officially approved?”
Reno and Tycius exchanged another look. “Not exactly,” Ty said.
Vanceval considered this. “Then, all the more reason to proceed,” he said. “Now that Arkell is aware that the boy has a cosmological tether, it’s unlikely to stay a secret for long.”
My uncle crossed his arms, still not sold. He stood protectively close to me. “Some basic training, at least . . .”
“Doesn’t that thing you slipped into Dungeon count as training?” I asked, conveniently leaving out how that experience had put me into a coma for a couple hours.
“That was a game,” Ty replied. “It’s like comparing a kiddie pool to deep-sea diving. Actually navigating the Vastness is infinitely more complex.”
“Please, Uncle,” I said, realizing for the first time just how badly I wanted to do this. I wasn’t just caught up in the momentum. I wanted—needed—to find my father. I needed answers to those whys that I’d been chasing my entire life. “Let me at least try. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“Brain hemorrhage,” Ty responded.
“Oh.” I swallowed.
“I want to find him too, but . . . ,” Tycius said, hesitating.
“Now, I’m not an expert on these things,” Reno said, leaning against her console, “but won’t the tether guide him to where he’s supposed to go? Isn’t that the whole point?”
“He’ll still need to open his mind to the Vastness,” Ty replied. “He’s untrained.”
Vanceval stepped back, his preparations complete. I sensed energy pulsing through the goggle mechanism that hung over my head.
“His exposure will be minimal,” Vanceval said. “Besides, most Wayscope training begins with the assistance of a cosmological tether to reel a cadet’s consciousness back in. Accidents are exceedingly rare.”
“See?” I said to Tycius. “Brain damage odds are low.” My uncle frowned, so I pressed. “I have to start my training at some point, right? What better time than now? You’re here to keep an eye on me.”
I could tell Ty’s eagerness to find my dad was gradually outweighing his reservations. He finally cracked and nodded to Vanceval.
“Please sit back,” the older Denzan said. “Beneath the mechanism.”
I pushed myself back in the seat, which cradled me like a lounger. Vanceval tapped on the console, and, with a whir of gears, the Wayscope descended until the lenses were directly in front of my face. The massive goggles inched forward, gently sealing at my temples. Through them, I saw the space just outside our ship. Peaceful and endless. A cozy recliner with a view of the stars—this would’ve been a pretty chill place to catch a nap.
“Be aware of the warning signs,” Tycius told me. “Don’t take in more information than your mind can handle. If your head starts to hurt or you begin to feel completely disembodied—”
“I’ll let you know if my brain starts to melt,” I said. “Don’t worry.”
“Cadet, I order you not to let your head catch on fire,” Reno said gruffly. She’d taken a backseat in the discussion between Tycius and Vanceval. I realized the captain wasn’t exactly well equipped to deal with matters of Denzan technology. Her voice was sincere, though. “Good luck out there.”
“Sydneycius, you should put the ring on now,” Vanceval said.
I did as I was told, not fumbling at all even though I could no longer see my fingers. I’d slipped my dad’s ring on a few dozen times since I’d gotten it back, so I had practice.
I stifled a gasp as a cool coil of ultonate flowed from the armrest and enveloped my hand. The view through the goggles changed. The Vastness flickered and stretched, the stars throbbing, the Wayscope magnifying the galaxy, trying to connect to the coordinates stored within the tether. A message popped up in my face.
LOCATION ENCRYPTED. DNA MATCH REQUIRED. PROCEED?
“Um, yes?” I said aloud. “Proceed?”
“You may feel a pinch,” Vanceval warned.
I barely noticed when the Wayscope pricked my finger. I was locked in on the space beyond the words. The Vastness beckoned to me.
DNA VERIFIED. ACCESSING.
Using the Wayscope was a bit like looking through a really intense telescope—or more like becoming a human telescope, with my mind functioning as the lenses. The Vastness spread out before me, the stars pulsing and calling me forward. My mind expanded. I could see the local planets of this system, the wormhole we’d passed through hours before, and the places where this galaxy butted up against others in the overlapping structure of the universe. I could drink it all in if I wanted, pull the entire universe into my mind and . . .
“Easy, now . . .” Ty’s voice, in my ear, like an anchor. “Focus. Don’t let it pull you out too far.”
I dragged my consciousness back. It was like squinting your eyes to not let the light in.
“Do you see the tether?” Ty asked. “Try to hold on to that.”
There. A glowing blue line leading into the distance, cutting through layers of the universe. The real-life version of the star system in my father’s ring was out there, at the end of the lifeline. I reached toward it—or, more accurately, I urged my mind forward. Once I’d focused on the tether, I sensed it tugging me. I could see the layers of the galaxies, like an onion, star systems on top of star systems, a zigzagging map that I would need to follow, through the buffer dimensions that connected the galaxies. I opened my mind a little more, trying to absorb the winding path that would lead me to my dad.
I could see it. The place where he was stuck.
A distant planet. Ash gray. Dead-looking. I urged my mind closer. I sensed the way. We could jump through three existing wormholes, but then we’d need to open a new one to reach the system where this barren little rock was hiding.
I tried to speak and found using my mouth to be like groping around in the dark for a light switch, my sensations all confused.
I tried to focus, but there was something wrong. There was static at the edges of my vision. More information seeping into my mind—unnecessary paths through the subspace, distant wormholes stacked on top of one another, bizarre swirls of asteroids. Useless babble, burying the glowing path that led to my father. It was like the faucet had been turned on inside my mind.
And the water was boiling.
“Syd?” my uncle asked, raising his voice. “What do you see?”
I tried to say something, but I tasted blood. I’d bitten my tongue.
“What’s wrong with him?” I heard Reno shout.
“He’s off course,” Vanceval answered. I was vaguely aware of him clicking buttons on the Wayscope. “He’s taking in too much data.”
“Pull him back,” Tycius commanded.
“I’m trying,” Vanceval responded.
My body seized, and I felt my shoulders smack against the back of the chair. The goggles felt like hot lava against my face, but I was powerless to pull them off. It felt like my eyelids had been forced open, peeled back, and then the rest of my skin too—like I was an exposed skull. Hundreds of suns burned through my brain, the entirety of the universe trying to force itself into me. My mind skipped across the molten surface of a small magma planet six galaxies away. At the same time, I was hyperaware of meteoroids whipping through the rings of a gas giant in another galaxy entirely.
It was too much, and it was tearing me apart.
And then, suddenly, there was something else. Something clear and bright and easy to focus on. Not the lifeline of my father’s tether. A ripple of energy. A golden spike. The energy coalesced from the Vastness, summoned from the in-between. Huge and br
ight, with skin that bubbled like cosmic fire.
An Etherazi.
The thing was enormous, much bigger than the one I’d seen attacking Denza, its jagged gold body five times the size of our ship. Through the Wayscope, I could see how it stretched between dimensions, parts of it still tied to the spaces in between, a bit of its tail coiled in the past, one of its claws poking tenderly at the future.
I could anchor myself to that. All of the garbled data that I’d accidentally accessed via the Wayscope—this singular shape cut through all that. The searing pain in my forehead subsided. My muscles relaxed. I couldn’t take my eyes off the golden aura. It was like a scab on reality that my mind couldn’t help picking at.
It saved me.
And it looked back at me.
It was coming toward me.
Coming toward us. It swam between universes with ease. It didn’t need a ship. It was fast. Faster in space than in atmosphere.
A voice roared to life in my mind. It was like ice water splashed directly across my brain.
HELLO, LITTLE ONE. BE THERE SOON.
“Disconnect!” Tycius shouted. “Pull back!”
Too late.
The Etherazi knew where we were.
17
I pitched forward from the Wayscope and landed on my hands and knees, scraping the top of my head on the goggle apparatus on the way down. My eyes were filled with stinging tears, like they’d been pinned open for hours. My nostrils were filled with a burned smell that I’m pretty sure was coming from somewhere inside me.
I’d almost just died from data overload. TMI. I was never going to use that stupid acronym again.
I’d survived, though. When the Wayscope had overwhelmed me, when I’d opened myself to more of the Vastness than a normal mind could handle—that Etherazi had arrived. A creature of psychic energy. A monster.
Its presence had pushed my consciousness back into my own body.
“It . . . talked to me,” I murmured, my mouth feeling stuffed full of cotton.
I don’t think my uncle heard, even though he knelt on the floor next to me, his hand on my back. The sirens blaring throughout the Eastwood were too loud.
“Etherazi sighted! Closing fast!” Captain Reno shouted over the comms. “This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill!”
A golden dragon. That’s what I’d seen, basically. That’s what had saved me from the overwhelming Vastness.
“Sydney, are you all right?” Ty’s voice in my ear—gentle, but with an edge of panic. “Can you stand up?”
I grunted and got shakily to my feet, leaning on Tycius. I wiped my sleeve across my eyes, but that didn’t clear the huge black spots that were floating through my vision. My ears were ringing, and not just from the warning siren. My knees felt wobbly, like I was on the deck of a boat in a squall.
Some of the others had rushed onto the bridge when the alarm sounded. Aela stood next to Reno, typing quickly on a console. Hiram and Darcy watched from the doorway. For all his bluster about this being a boring trip, Hiram was now pale and obviously spooked. Darcy looked from me to the Wayscope and raised her eyebrows. I shrugged in response, sensing that I must look insane—blood dripping from my nose, eyes swollen, singe marks on my temples.
“Aela,” Reno said. “Can you confirm these readings?”
“Ten minutes,” Aela said without the usual metallic chipperness. “It’ll be on top of us in ten minutes. Even at maximum burn, we can’t outpace it.”
“Shit,” Reno said. “Not enough time.” Then she started barking orders. “Hiram and Darcy, you’re with me. I need help prepping my Battle-Anchor. Haven’t worn the thing in going on fifteen years, but sure, now seems like a good time to take the old girl for a spin.”
The Battle-Anchor. The mechanized suit that Denzans built for humans to fight off the Etherazi. Reno’s was on board, so we’d at least have a chance if the Etherazi attacked. But something nagged at me . . .
“I think . . . I think it just wants to talk to me,” I mumbled.
Captain Reno sized me up. “So much for a fourth set of hands to get my armor on; the kid’s delirious,” she said, turning to my uncle. “Get him to the escape pod with the other Denzans.” Reno turned to Aela. “You’re in charge of making sure that escape pod launches, Aela. Don’t pull the trigger until the Etherazi engages with me or the Eastwood. We want him distracted so the survivors can get away.”
With that, Reno, along with Hiram and Darcy, sprinted from the bridge toward the docking bay. I wanted to help them, but there was no way I could keep up with them in my condition. Tycius tossed my arm over his shoulders and helped me toward the exit. Vanceval was on my other side, his hand on my elbow—it wasn’t much help, but the old man was doing what he could.
I glanced over my shoulder, surprised we were leaving Aela behind on the bridge. “Wait, Aela—”
The exo-suit’s head turned in my direction, the magentastreaked cloud swirling within. “Don’t worry about me, Syd. If the ship is destroyed, I can survive in the vacuum of space.” Aela’s head cocked. “I’m rooting for your survival. The death of my entire crew is not an experience I’m eager to encounter.”
“Good luck to you, too,” I said.
As we stumbled into the passageway, my uncle turned to look at me. “What were you saying before? About the Etherazi?”
I shook my head. “I . . . I don’t know. In the Wayscope it felt like . . . like it saved me?”
“Impossible,” Tycius said.
“Sydneycius, I am truly sorry,” Vanceval said.
I could still feel my dad’s cosmological tether on my finger, the metal band warm. “No biggie, Vance. Just a beginner’s aneurysm. We’ll try again.”
“Optimism,” Vanceval said. “Yes. Good.”
We rounded a bend and encountered the others, also heading for the escape pod. Arkell stood gripping both Melian and Batzian by their shoulders, steering them forward. Melian looked absolutely terrified, tears in her eyes, lips shaking. Batzian was doing a better job of keeping it together, but I could tell he was shaken. They were too young to have lived through the invasion, so this must have been like a nightmare come to life.
“The escape pod is lined with ultonate,” Batzian reassured his sister. “We’ll be fine.”
“He could still destoy us,” Melian said.
“For what it’s worth,” Arkell added morosely, “I’ve heard it’s better to die in a fiery explosion than to let the temporal madness take you.”
“That’s not worth a damn, Arkell,” Tycius said.
“Damn, dude, you look wrecked,” H’Jossu told me as he shambled up behind the others. Without asking, he brushed the Denzans aside and hoisted me up in one of his huge arms. I actually didn’t mind. After having your mind shredded by the contents of the universe, it was comforting to be hugged by a giant sloth creature. Even a moldy one.
Zara popped up behind H’Jossu. The Vulpin had her dagger at the ready—the same one I’d seen her use to carve out Kungo’s eye in her cherished memory. I didn’t think a knife would do a whole lot of good against a creature like the Etherazi, but I admired her spirit.
The nearest escape pod was situated in a spoke around the corner from the gym. Our group had just reached it when Aela’s voice came over the comms.
“I’m sorry for the troubling update,” Aela said, “but the Etherazi has picked up speed. It’s closing rapidly.”
Melian let out a squeak, and Batzian hugged her close. Tycius slapped the panel on the wall that opened the doors to the escape pod. The thing was basically the size of a minivan. It was going to be a tight squeeze.
“Get in, get in,” Ty said.
Meanwhile, Captain Reno shouted back at Aela over the comms, as if the wisp could somehow slow the Etherazi’s approach. “Not yet!” I heard the clatter of metal and Hiram cursing in the background. Apparently, the Battle-Anchor wasn’t ready to deploy. “Damn it, Aela, we need more time—!”
“You do not have it
,” Aela said. “I’m sorry. It’s upon us.”
As the others piled into the escape pod, I broke loose from H’Jossu. The Panalax said something to me, but I wasn’t listening. I couldn’t listen. The voice in my head was too loud.
DO NOT RUN. I HAVE COME ONLY FOR YOU.
“Did you hear that?” I asked as I stood rooted in place, staring at the blank wall of the passage.
H’Jossu’s floppy ears twitched. “Hear what?”
“Sydney!” my uncle shouted. “Get in the pod!”
“What’s he doing?” I heard Melian ask.
“He wishes to die facing his enemy,” Zara replied. “I approve, but I will not be joining him.”
The entire Eastwood lurched. Something huge had just brushed up against us. I could sense the Etherazi out there. In fact, I could see it. Ripples of its golden energy filtered through the wall before me, defying logic and physics. The way the Etherazi’s aura moved through the solid wall of the ship reminded me of bubbles floating to the surface of boiling water—and that made no sense. My sense of textures and space was thrown out of whack being so close to the thing. Behind me, I heard Arkell cry out in pain. I remembered the vision Aela had shown me, how gazing upon the Etherazi could drive a Denzan mad.
I turned around and shoved H’Jossu into the escape pod. He was a big boy, so I had to use some force—he almost took out Batzian on the way down. My uncle, shielding his eyes from the Etherazi’s glow, lurched toward me.
“Sydney! Wait—!”
I slapped the panel on the wall, sealing up the escape pod. I was alone in the passageway.
GOOD.
The screech of rending metal stung my ears. The Etherazi ripped a hole in the wall in front of me. A new batch of sirens went off as this section of the Eastwood lost atmosphere. Emergency airlocks crashed into place at both ends of the passage, maintaining the rest of the ship. I was sucked toward the opening—no amount of strength would’ve stopped me from flying toward that jagged gap and the airless vacuum beyond.
Ashfall Legacy Page 15
