Dark Matter (Interchron Book 3)

by Liesel K. Hill

  “But why, Doc?” Marcus asked. “This is important. Why keep this history a secret at all, much less once you realized who he was?”

  Doc spread his hands. “I don’t have a good answer, Marcus. Other than, out of habit.”

  Karl raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Habit?”

  Doc nodded. “When our brother disappeared, and we went into hiding, world politics were vastly different. Bartholomew was a turncoat who’d given a lot of information to the collectives. He became famous. As his brothers, and leaders of the B.C.O., Nat and I were two of the most hunted men in the world. To protect ourselves, to protect each other, we split up. Figured we'd accomplish more that way. Nat changed his name to Strellend to conceal our familial connection, and we parted. Oh, we had ways of communicating over the years and in the old days, Nat passed through often in his travels and stopped at Interchron to see me. It’s been years since it was safe enough for him to do that. Until he showed up at the base of Interchron a few months ago, with David in tow, we hadn’t seen each other face to face in…decades. It’s been even longer since either of us has been face to face with Bartholomew.”

  “I think I have.” Maggie didn’t mean to voice the thought aloud. She didn’t realize she had until she registered everyone staring at her.

  “You…have?” Doc asked, eyes narrowed.

  “In the memory Kristee helped me recover, I was with B in a round, glass room. The memory is still unclear, but I’m sure he was there in person, not in an inhabited body.” She felt the annoyance of her friends around the table as she spoke, and her face heated. She ignored their scathing looks.

  Doc sighed. “Perhaps that's so. Until you regain more of the memory, we can’t we certain. In any case, my name is no longer well known amongst what individuals are left in the world. Not outside of Interchron, anyway. After so long, hiding my past became a way of life.”

  Doc directed an apologetic gaze at Marcus, then spread it around the table. “And you’re right. All of you. I should have told you this a long time ago. I was sure—or maybe hoping—I'd never see Bartholomew again. Some of the things that happened back then, I’m…less than proud of. I saw no reason to tell anyone. Until now.”

  Maggie rested her head against the back of her seat. She needed blankness to consider all she’d learned today. So much to process. So much to keep straight.

  “So, what now?” Joan asked quietly. “Where do we go from here? What’s happening with this eclipse?”

  “Something,” David answered. “Something big.”

  “You sound like you know what, David,” Doc said.

  David turned more fully to face the group. His eyes fell on Maggie. “You said the energies were being woven together, like a tapestry?”

  She nodded. “Yes.” Then she remembered something. “You used a similar metaphor, David, when you talked about how the drones in the collective are linked.” She spread her gaze around the table. “He compared it to every person in the collective having long hair. Really long hair. And everyone’s hair being woven into the hair of each other member of the collective. Breaking free would be nearly impossible with everyone connected and unable to move or do anything without the rest of the collective complying.”

  Doc nodded. “An apt analogy. Interesting choice of words, Maggie. You said, nearly impossible to break away, but not completely. David did it. As in the analogy, though, I’m sure it is unfathomably difficult. And painful.”

  Most of the group turned eyes on David, who studied his hands again. Marcus didn’t look at him. From the corner of her eye, Maggie saw his jaw harden. She suppressed a sigh. Obviously, Marcus knew Doc’s words were for his benefit. It wasn’t just Maggie who accepted David. The rest of the team did too, and wanted Marcus to do the same. He insisted on being stubborn, though.

  “What is it you suspect, David?” Doc asked. “Why ask about the tapestry analogy?”

  David sighed. “Because they won’t leave it that way. Once they’ve woven in the neural energy of every human being on the planet, they plan to fuse the strands of the weave together.”

  “Fuse them how?” Nat asked.

  “I don’t know,” David answered. “Maybe that’s what the energy of the eclipse is for.”

  “What does that mean?” Joan asked. “To fuse the energies together?”

  “It’s like…melting sand together,” David said. “Grains of sand can fall apart. Glass doesn’t. Once the energies are fused, break away will be completely impossible.”

  Maggie shuddered involuntarily. The collectives planned to capture every human on the planet, and ensure they'd never get away. Of course they did.

  “Glass can shatter,” Karl said quietly.

  David shook his head. “No, that’s where the analogy fails. This energy, once fused, will not. Even if there’s a way to break apart the fused energy, it would destroy the minds of the drones. You won’t have freed them for anything other than vegetation and death. We can't let it to get to that point.”

  Maggie’s heart skipped a beat. We? David had included himself as part of the team. She’d never heard him do that before.

  “So once this happens,” Marcus said, and Maggie noted he studiously avoided looking at David. “We’ll no longer have any chance at freeing those already enslaved in the collectives?”

  Karl gave a mirthless laugh. “I don’t think we have a chance at that even now.”

  “We do,” David said firmly. “Maggie can unweave the energies.”

  Maggie’s head snapped toward David as a shocked silence fell. Surely everyone could hear her heart trying to sledgehammer its way out of her chest. Here we go again, she thought. Something else she should be able to do, and couldn’t. She swung her eyes toward Doc, hoping her face conveyed the alarm she felt.

  Doc glanced at her, but raised an eyebrow in David’s direction. “What makes you think that, David?”

  David shrugged. “If she can truly see all the energies, then she can also unweave them.”

  Maggie swallowed the fear clogging her throat. “Can you…teach me how, David?”

  He stared at her steadily, shook his head slowly. “No, Maggie. None of us can. We can only teach you about the energies of the abilities we have. Only you can see them all.”

  “Because you’re the key to the prophecy,” Doc said quietly, leaning back in his chair. He looked…shell-shocked. “Can it truly be that easy?” he whispered.

  “Easy!” Maggie burst out. “How is this easy?”

  Doc raised placating palms. “Of course, the unweaving will be complicated. A massive undertaking. If unweaving the tapestry of minds is something only you can do…perhaps it’s how you bring down the collectives.”

  Maggie considered Doc’s words in silence. No one else spoke for several minutes, either.

  “But how?” Maggie finally said.

  Joan answered. “I don’t think anyone here can say, Maggie. This may be a good thing. You’ve always been afraid your role as Executioner means you’ll have to kill people. If you can unweave the minds, as David says, that may translate into bringing down the collectives without bloodshed.”

  Maggie raised her eyebrows at Joan, feeling lighter. “That’s true.” She grinned at Joan, feeling the sudden urge to kiss the other woman. Joan smiled back.

  Karl, meanwhile, rubbed the bridge of his nose. “So…?”

  “So,” Doc said, heaving a deep breath. “Karl, double your efforts with Tenessa.”

  Karl immediately looked like he tasted sour milk. An instant later, he raised his eyebrows. The sour milk look remained, but now with resignation mixed in. “If you say so, Doc.”

  Maggie knew Tenessa wasn’t being the easiest guest. Karl often fought to keep his temper in check with her.

  “I do say so,” Doc answered. “She may know what's happening with this eclipse. Or be able to shed light on the weaving. Anything that might help Maggie.”

  Karl nodded. “I’ll see what I can get out of her.” He sat up straighter
in his chair and squared his shoulders, as though preparing to do battle with an Arachniman.

  “Marcus,” Doc continued, “get with Charles and let’s double up on security.” Marcus nodded. “Nat and I will talk to Tristan. I need to know what his abilities are. Joan, make sure all our evacuation plans are updated, and everyone in the compound is familiar with them.”

  Maggie frowned. “What are our evacuation plans?”

  Everyone around the table frowned at her, most looking vaguely alarmed. Maggie glanced around at them in surprise. “What?”

  “You knew them before, Maggie,” Marcus said quietly. “You helped draw them up.”

  Maggie’s shoulders slumped. “Oh.” With the exception of what happened when she’d been captured on the ship, most of her memories had returned. Still, often she wasn’t aware of them until she thought consciously about them. Such a strange sensation. Like accessing a file in a cabinet. The memory lurked there, dormant, waiting for her to consciously call it up. Then it would blossom in her mind like a midnight rose.

  “Think Maggie,” Doc said gently. “Try to remember.”

  Maggie took a deep breath, searching her knowledge base. Where would they go if Interchron was invaded?

  “Down, into the mountain, not to the surface.” She voiced the words before the thought finished forming. That happened to her a lot, too. She'd surprise herself by saying something before she entirely knew it. Except she always turned out to be right, which meant the knowledge came from somewhere in her head, and her voice found it before her conscious thoughts did. The whole process felt so…inverted.

  The others nodded, smiling with relief.

  “Maggie,” Doc said. “I want to spend some time with you. Try to coax out more of the memory you recovered of B. In a safe way.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes. “I’m all for it, Doc. When do we start?”

  Doc shook his head. “I need to talk to Tristan first, so not for a few hours. I’d encourage you to spend some time outside, looking at the sky. Try to discern, Maggie. Figure out what you’re seeing. Look for patterns. Try to see what’s being done and figure out how you can control it. I know it sounds overwhelming, but you must start somewhere. Observation is a good place.”

  Feeling dazed, Maggie nodded. “All right.”

  “Anything else we need to speak of before dispersing?” Doc asked.

  “Just one thing, Doc,” Nat said. “A personal thing for you. Not a secret,” he told the rest of the table, “but I doubt anyone else will care much. It’s something I found at the lighthouse.”

  “Lighthouse?” Maggie said, surprised. He could only mean one lighthouse. “You went back to the lighthouse?”

  It was Doc who answered. “After everything that’s happened, Nat decided to search the lighthouse for clues. The Remembrancer told the truth: the Concealment had evaporated. He walked right up to it.”

  “What did you find?” Karl asked, leaning forward eagerly. Maggie completely understood. That lighthouse had been one of the most mysterious experiences of her life. If Nat found anything relevant there…

  Nat shook his head. “Nothing much. An empty lighthouse. Falling to pieces, now. I wish I’d found more.” Nat got to his feet and retrieved a satchel Maggie noticed him place by the wall when they first entered. From it he took a thick, weather-worn, leather-bound book. The pages looked fat, as if they’d sustained water damage. Cracks and splinters decorated the spine.

  He crossed the room and held the book out to Doc, who frowned. He took the book gingerly from Nat, raising an eyebrow.

  “One of your old diaries,” Nat said quietly.

  Doc’s eyes widened.

  “She must have kept it,” Nat said. “But left it behind. I skimmed some of it. It includes the time when we first met Adaiah.”

  “Adaiah,” Maggie said. “Isn’t that what you said the Remembrancer’s real name was?”

  Doc now handled the book with reverence. He nodded, without taking his eyes from his old journal. “Nat and I knew her in our youth. She played a part in our quarrel with Bartholomew. I thought she died. For her to suddenly appear at that lighthouse…”

  Maggie shivered. It frightened her when Doc sounded so scared. He looked so vulnerable.

  Doc tore his eyes from the book and peered up at Nat. “Did you read it all?”

  “No,” Nat shook his head. “Only enough to get an idea of how old you were when you wrote it. I didn’t want to pry any farther.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded,” Doc said, dropping his eyes to the book once more. “Perhaps we should both re-read it. I suspect these experiences will mean something much different to us, now, after so many years.”

  Nat shrugged. “The journal is yours, Johann. I wanted to return it to you.”

  Doc nodded, keeping his eyes on the book now sitting on the table in front of him, as though afraid to tear his eyes away. Yet, they held melancholy, not fear.

  After several awkward moments, Karl cleared his throat. “I supposed I ought to get to work on the beast that is our Tenessa,” he said, getting to his feet.

  “More your monster than ours,” Marcus muttered, straightening his legs. Maggie followed suit and let Marcus take her hand, leading her toward the door.

  Karl shot Marcus an accusatory glance.

  Murmuring excuses, the rest of the team stood and shuffled out. Nat brought up the rear. He closed the door behind them, leaving Doc alone with his memories.

  Chapter 5: The Problem of Brothers

  March 12, 2156

  Natty and I met Adaiah yesterday. Bart brought her to dinner. I know now why Bart likes her so much. She’s striking with all that dark hair and those big eyes, dark in color but bright with intelligence. She and I struck up a conversation easily and talked at length of our views on the communal linking that’s becoming the trend these days. Though I’ve kept it hush-hush, I ended up telling her all about my project studying the communal bonds.

  I surprised myself by being so open. Natty raised an eyebrow at me, and rightly so. After all the negativity we’ve gotten—people seem to think we’re evil studying such a thing—it could have been a potential disaster to tell Adaiah of it. Her father, President Zealey, is on the high council of the BCO, after all, and he could shut me down entirely if he wanted to.

  I’m not worried. Adaiah seemed open to the idea. Said she thought it was smart to study the bonds and found it refreshing that I'm not as afraid as most people are.

  Bart, of course, instantly began criticizing, saying the bonds weren’t hurting anyone and I shouldn’t be studying them simply to figure out how to undermine them. Which is ridiculous, of course. I study them to understand them better. I’ll admit I would like to know how to undo such a bond, in case anyone ever tries to force such a thing on me. I can’t imagine anything worse than living as part of someone else’s mind. To be human is to be an individual.

  Bart insists such things will never happen. Why can’t he see the truth? Human behavior has the widest spectrum imaginable. People always manage to shock in both good ways and bad. Murder happens, though it shouldn’t. While I think they might be used in good ways, it’s also only a matter of time before someone uses these communal bonds for something nasty.

  Adaiah’s reaction to our little disagreement took me by surprise. She knows Bart best, so I'd have expected her to defend him, if only on principle. Or to simply sit quietly until our disagreement ended. It’s always awkward, after all, to be at someone else’s table and witness them having an argument.

  Yet Adaiah jumped in and defended me. Vehemently. Goes to show that right-minded people can see truth when they want to. It’s Bart who's being foolish about the communal bonds. Adaiah told Bart I was right and if we wanted any kind of control over our future, we needed to understand what we're dealing with. She even asked to help me with my studies. I felt quite validated.

  Bart’s eyes darkened instantly in that way they have when he feels slighted. Working with Adaiah is probably n
ot, admittedly, the best idea. I feel like I’m walking on eggshells with Bart as it is. Still, I felt intrigued. I can’t be certain—asking a perfect stranger about their neurochemical abilities is fast becoming taboo in good society; it’s considered the epitome of rudeness—but I've heard Adaiah is a skilled Prophetess. I don’t know if she can help me, but I’d relish the opportunity to learn more about her abilities.

  I teased her about perhaps Prophesying the outcome of some of my experiments.

  I noticed Bart’s expression grow darker as we chuckled together about her writing bibles for a new world while sitting next to my slime-filled test tubes. Suddenly, Bart leapt to his feet. “It doesn’t work that way and you know it, Johann,” he thundered. Then stormed out.

  I apologized profusely to Adaiah before excusing myself to go speak with Bart. Of course, he hid, and I never did find him. Natty kept Adaiah company the rest of the evening while I searched and the two of them seemed to hit it off as well. As least, when I glanced in from time to time to see if Bart had returned, the two of them were always chuckling, and I envied my little brother his opportunity to sit and listen to Adaiah laugh.

  The whole thing worries me, to be frank. I’ve never seen Bart so smitten with a young lady. I find it odd she would spend so much time in Bart’s company, since she seems to lean more toward my and Natty’s views on rising communes. Bart has strong views as well (who doesn’t these days?) but they are in opposition to Adaiah’s. Yet, according to Bart, the two of them have been inseparable for weeks.

  It makes me wonder if she and Bart are on the same page. I don’t think she envisions the same future for them that he does. I may be wrong. Each couple’s relationship is their own, but I feel trouble brewing on the horizon.

  Bart is so temperamental! I’ll never know why he always insists on taking the pessimistic view of things. Well, perhaps Adaiah can lighten him up. Perhaps they’ll marry, and I’ll get to work with her more, and she’ll bring Bart around to our correct way of thinking. One day, we can all sit around teasing him about how he used to put so much stock in collective thinking.