Dark Matter (Interchron Book 3)

by Liesel K. Hill

  “Black holes are in different dimension?” Jonah asked.

  Lila stared at him.

  Jonah felt a stab of resentment. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Sorry if I never took physics in college.”

  Lila’s face softened. “The weight at the bottom of a black hole is so massive, it bends the space around it into another dimension. The point is, we don’t know much about dark matter. Some people thought it might be made up of material humans hadn’t gotten around to discovering yet. You know, before we shot ourselves in the feet and retrograded our society to the stone ages.”

  Jonah waited, but she didn’t speak again. “That’s it?”

  She shrugged. “Unless you want to get so scientific it doesn’t sound like English anymore, yeah. That’s why Maggie is so freaked out by it. There’s so much we simply don’t know.”

  Jonah sighed, wishing there were some way to figure it out.

  “Come on,” Lila said. “No more talk. Back to work.”

  Jonah practiced calling constructive energy toward him, and how to direct it. He’d begun to understand some of the terms he’d heard Maggie and the rest of the team use. The energy felt like a living thing. When he summoned it, it came like a wave of water. He felt it around him, moving, undulating. Yet at the same time, it did his bidding. Lila showed him how to manipulate it using simple thoughts and feelings. When he wanted it to do something, he willed it so. It needed to be a positive feeling, though. Belief that it would work for him. If he tried to force or dictate the energy in any way, it simply sat at his fingertips, stubbornly disobedient.

  “Good. Now harden it into a shield, Jonah,” Lila said.

  He obeyed, willing the energy in front of him to spread out like a brick wall and then imagining energy being packed into the wall to make it rock-solid.

  Ten feet in front of the wall, Lila did something. He couldn’t tell exactly what, but she gathered energy of her own. He sensed it accumulating in the ether around her. Amazing how quickly the understanding of what he sensed came. Three days ago, he wouldn’t have sensed her gathering the energy at all. Now he felt it as surely as the shield he’d constructed.

  The energy she’d gathered came at him. He felt it like a rush of wind, although there truly wasn’t any wind and the sensation seemed more mental than physical. The shield he’d constructed shattered and the backlash of the energy felt like a giant rubber band snapping him in the torso. He fell to one knee, clutching his chest.

  “Jonah, are you okay?” Lila ran to kneel by him on the floor.

  Jonah took several deep breathes. The pain receded quickly. “Geez, Maggie never told me how painful all this is.”

  Lila frowned, looking upset. “It shouldn’t be, Jonah. I think you’re still trying too hard.”

  Jonah stared at her. “I’m trying too hard? Doc told me to try hard.”

  Lila shook her head. “No, there’s a difference between being focused and trying to force it. I think it’s the same as when we tested before. It’s like you’re too stressed out, trying to make it happen. Of course you have to be focused, but you have to let it happen naturally, too.”

  Jonah took a deep breath. He needed to get this. He had to. “Okay, let’s try again.”

  “How’s it going?” Maggie breezed into the room. She looked so fresh and energetic, Jonah felt a stab of resentment.

  “Fine,” Jonah muttered.

  “Great!” Lila said, turning a beaming gaze on Jonah. “He’s doing really well. I threw my worst at him, and he kept his shield intact. I’m not as powerful as the Trepids, of course. That’s why Maggie’s here. Your shield is standing up perfectly against everything I’m throwing at you. Maggie’s turn. Attacks from the Arachnimen will be closer to her level of force.”

  Jonah registered mild alarm. He’d seen what both Maggie and David could do, and he didn’t relish being attacked by either of them.

  “You’ve got this down, Jonah,” Lila said reassuringly. “You’re a fast learner.”

  He smiled at her praise.

  “Sometimes, when a lot of energy hits his shield, it’s still causing him pain, though.” Lila said.

  “That’s not normal, is it?” Maggie asked.

  “No. Doc thinks it has to do with that memory jam. We don’t have any more time to work through it until we get back.”

  Maggie frowned worriedly at Jonah. “Maybe you shouldn’t come, if you’re going to be in pain the entire time.”

  Jonah shook his head. “I’m coming,” he said firmly. “The pain isn’t bad. It’s really more of a tightness. I can still maintain the shield, even when I feel it.” He looked at Lila for help and she nodded.

  “He can, Maggie. It hasn’t hindered him.”

  Maggie appeared somewhat mollified. She glanced back and forth between them both, then nodded. “Good. Because we need you both.”

  “We’re both coming?” Lila’s eyes danced with excitement.

  “If you both feel up to it,” Maggie said.

  “We do,” Jonah shouted in unison with Lila. He threw a smirk at her. She wasn’t smiling. Rather, she’d fixed Maggie with a challenging glare. Jonah did his best to hide a smile.

  “Okay, Jonah.” Maggie stood at one side of the room with Jonah on the other. Lila watched from the sidelines. “Send your mind out and gather all the energy you can. You’ll need as strong a shield as you can manage.”

  Jonah felt a stab of confusion and held up his hands. “One second. Can I just ask what that means. I’ve heard a lot of you use that line to describe doing various things, and I have no idea what it actually means.”

  “Which line?” Maggie asked, frowning. “You mean ‘sending out your mind?’”

  “Yes,” Jonah said. “I mean, we’re obviously not talking about cracking open our heads, lifting out our brains and hurling them into space, right? So what do you mean by that?”

  Maggie’s lips corkscrewed into a smile, but it faded quickly and her brows furrowed in thought. She opened her mouth several times, but then closed it again, as though unsure how to begin.

  Lila stepped forward, holding a hand out to Maggie. “Allow me.” She turned to Jonah. “Human beings give and receive energy all the time, Jonah. Most of the time, we simply don’t register it. In fact, when I first ran the neurochemical test on you, you said something relevant. Remember, you said you felt an energy behind you, but it didn’t seem intelligent enough to be a human? More like backing up against a tree or something?”

  Jonah nodded, remembering the conversation.

  “That’s exactly what I mean. If there were nothing behind you, if it didn’t give off some kind of energy that you picked up on, you wouldn’t sense it there.”

  He nodded uncertainly. “Okay.”

  “So,” she went on. “That said, it’s also possible to send particles of your brain out into the universe. It’s not your physical brain. It’s energy particles. You can use them to explore, observe, gather materials, search for specific things. You name it. That’s what Maggie and all of us mean when we say that. It’s just a way of explaining how we use our neurochemical abilities.”

  Jonah frowned. “Does the information come back immediately, or do you have to…wait for it.”

  Maggie shook her head. “It’s instantaneous.” Then she frowned. “I think. If there’s any delay, it would be so small you wouldn’t register it. The particles of your mind that you send out are the essence of…you. And you’re in constant communication with them. I’m sure the information travels at the speed of light, or faster. So basically, the instant the particles observe something or come into contact with it, you know.”

  “So,” Jonah tried to wrap his head—no pun intended—around the idea. “Is that what I’m already doing, when I construct shields?”

  “Essentially, yes,” Lila answered. “You’re pulling energy toward you, but really you have to send out your mind and tell the energy to come, or else it wouldn’t. It all happens instantaneously, so you don’t cons
ciously register it. It’s possible to focus in on that energy and learn to interpret it as it happens. Like anything else, it just takes practice.”

  Jonah shrugged his shoulders, feeling overwhelmed. “If you say so.”

  Lila grinned.

  The practice continued for another hour, Maggie hurling massive amounts of energy at Jonah’s shields to get him used to the amount the collective goons would use against him. Jonah couldn’t believe the amount of energy Maggie handled. He felt new respect for his sister.

  “Remind me never to ever piss you off again,” he muttered.

  Maggie smiled sweetly and hurled enough energy his way to level a skyscraper. Or at least it felt that way. Jonah enjoyed a stab of satisfaction when his shield held under it.

  When Jonah didn’t think he could stay on his feet much longer, he raised his hands in surrender. “Mind if we call it a night, Ladies? I’m famished and ready to fall asleep on my feet.”

  Lila grinned. “Okay. Before you leave, I want to run one more scan on your brain. Okay?”

  Jonah glared at her. He made sure his voice dripped sarcasm. “Sure. Why not?”

  She grinned. “It’s something I noticed during the test the other day, Jonah. You have pockets of energy all over your brain. It’s not uncommon in people who haven’t tapped into their neurochemical abilities yet. I’d like to prod them and see if I can tell anything about their properties. It may shed some light on why you’re in pain. Will you help me, Maggie?”

  “Sure,” Maggie said. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

  “I’m going to prod the energy. How they react may reveal some of their properties. It might not tell us anything, but it might. Give me five minutes, Jonah. Then I’ll let you go find some food. Promise.”

  Jonah rolled his eyes. He didn’t see the point of arguing.

  “Maggie, I’ll need you to watch the computer. I can’t be part of the test and watch the screen at the same time.”

  Maggie nodded and crossed the room to stand behind Lila. Lila punched buttons on the computer screen for several minutes and the silence stretched. Jonah fantasized about a soft bed with fluffy pillows.

  While he waited for Lila’s test to be ready, Jonah studied his sister. He’d been wanting to ask her about something. After days observing everyone at Interchron, he’d begun to understand the dynamics in the team’s relationships. But some things still baffled him. “Can I ask you a question, Maggs?”

  Maggie raised an eyebrow at him from behind Lila. “Of course. You can ask me anything, Jonah.”

  He glanced at Joan and Lila. “Well, it’s kinda personal. Maybe we should talk later.”

  Maggie glanced at Lila, who still studied her computer screen, and shrugged. “I don’t keep any secrets from the team, Jonah. You can ask in front of her.”

  He took a deep breath. “What it is, exactly, that’s so complicated between you and Marcus and David?”

  Maggie’s smile faded. Lila stopped typing and raised her eyes.

  “I mean,” he hurried on, “there’s something complicated between the three of you. I just can’t understand what. Or why. I mean, aren’t they brothers?”

  Maggie studied her hands, as though gathering her thoughts.

  “Yes, Jonah,” Lila answered for her. “They’re brothers, but up until a few months ago, they hadn’t seen one another for fifteen years. They aren’t like you and Maggie: siblings who grew up together and know one another well. They’re practically strangers, still getting reacquainted.”

  “Because David just came out of the collective?” Jonah asked.

  Maggie nodded in tandem with Lila.

  “Still,” Jonah couldn’t keep the scorn from his voice. “There’s a code. You don’t go after…well, any guy’s girl.”

  He noticed Maggie shrug her shoulders uncomfortably. He thought he saw blooms of color in her cheeks

  “Much less your best friend’s,” Jonah continued. “Much much less your brother’s.” He glanced at Maggie. It had become obvious to him that she, and most of the rest of the team, trusted David. And David had saved both Maggie and Jonah’s own life. Yet, from what he could tell, the guy was a bit of a tool.

  “I don’t think I need to answer your question,” Maggie said quietly. “You’ve already figured out most of it.”

  “Keep in mind,” Lila said softly, addressing Jonah, “when someone goes into the collective, all individuality is stripped from them. In my opinion, they barely keep their humanity. ‘Guy code’ is bound to get lost in the mix.”

  Jonah considered that, but ultimately rejected it. “He didn’t go in until he was a teenager, right? So, he still remembers being an individual. Shouldn’t he snap back to it?”

  “In many ways he has,” Maggie said. “He’s adjusted remarkably well, all things considered. I think it’s an emotional stagnation thing.”

  Jonah saw Lila frown. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Do you remember us telling you,” Maggie said, addressing Lila, “that at the lighthouse, the Remembrancer touched Marcus on the forehead?”

  Lila nodded.

  “When he and Karl went looking for Colin, he started to recover a memory, of the time when David went into the collective. Marcus didn’t realize he’d lost the details until they started to return. He told me all about it after the Canyon. Part of the reason David was so vulnerable to the collective influence is because he liked some girl he met as a teenager, and she died. The grief drove him, at least partially, into collective life. The collective moderates emotions, so they’re never actually dealt with. David emerged as the exact same person—when it comes to individual emotions, anyway—as when he went in. He hasn’t worked through any of his issues. The grief is still there, hovering.”

  Lila’s eyes grew wide while Maggie spoke. “That,” she shook herself, blinking, “explains a lot about him.”

  Jonah didn’t answer, but he agreed. It still didn’t excuse David so blatantly pursuing Maggie, but Jonah immediately felt more sympathy for the man. That kind of thing couldn’t be easy. Especially for a teenager.

  “Yeah,” Maggie sighed. “David doesn’t have romantic feelings for me. He couldn’t. We barely know each other. I’ve wondered more than once if maybe he’s latching onto me because I remind him of her. This girl he lost.”

  “There are lots of women at Interchron,” Jonah objected. “Why doesn’t he latch on to Lila…or one of the others?”

  Lila give him an irritated look, which he ignored.

  Maggie shrugged. “Maybe I look like her. Maybe my personality is similar to hers. Maybe it’s a neurochemical thing. No idea. Whatever the reason, he’s trying. We should all cut him some slack.” She sighed. “Heaven knows Marcus isn’t.”

  “Yeah,” Lila said. “Why is that? I know David left him and his father for the collective, but it happened years ago. Marcus is usually more forgiving than he’s been with David.”

  Maggie glanced between Lila and Jonah, as though debating. Finally, she nodded. “It has to do with the same memory. It’s not only that David left. He betrayed Marcus and his father to the collectives at the same time. They were nearly assimilated.” Lila gasped and Jonah looked grim. “In trying to fight them off, Marcus’s father got hurt. The injury led to his early death not long after.”

  And…Jonah’s sympathy for David went right down the tube again. As a kid, David had obviously been pretty messed up. Even so, Jonah suddenly felt more sympathy for Marcus than ever before.”

  “So,” Lila said firmly. “Marcus has good reason to be angry.”

  “Yes,” Maggie sighed. “I still wish he’d be a little more open minded. I think it’s important they reconcile.”

  “Why?” Jonah asked. Something about Maggie’s tone said she knew more than she’d already said.

  Maggie glanced at him. “Marcus remembered something one of the recruiters from the collective said back when he and David were teenagers. Something about them needing one another. I think that�
��s why the collective tried to assimilate Marcus as well. It wasn’t random. Not just them wanting another drone. They needed both brothers for some reason, and we don’t know why. They only got one, and I keep thinking if Marcus and David worked together, they’d be a major asset against the collectives. If they can’t, we’ll never know how powerful they can be.”

  “Probably true,” Lila said. “You can’t force forgiveness though, Maggie. It has to come in its own time.”

  “I know,” Maggie said. “I wish ‘its own time’ would hurry the hell up. Besides, I’m not asking Marcus to forgive everything and be best friends with David. I only want him to be civil, give his brother the time of day, you know? Like you do, Lila. You’ve always been kind to him.”

  Lila nodded slowly. “He and I are more like acquaintances than friends. He talks to me, but doesn’t confide in me. It’s not a tell-all-your-deepest-secrets kind of relationship.”

  Jonah frowned, and cast a sidelong glance at Lila. “Do you…want him to tell you all his secrets?” he asked, nervous for the answer.

  Lila shrugged. “Not especially.”

  Jonah felt relieved.

  “He seems lonely,” Lila continued. “He needs someone to talk to. I feel bad for him. If it’s not me he talks to, fine. But someone.”

  “He wants to talk to Marcus,” Maggie said. “Or me. He’s not getting much traction with Marcus and talking to me ratchets the tension up from every direction.” She scrubbed her hands vigorously over her face, looking exhausted.

  Jonah sympathized.

  Before anyone else could speak, Karl appeared with Tenessa in tow. "Hey, Maggs. I need to go help Marcus. Can you babysit her for a minute?" He jerked his head toward Tenessa, who gave him a cold look.

  "Sure,” Maggie said. “Help Marcus with what?” Maggie asked.

  Karl’s face turned sad. “Doc isn’t doing well.” Without further explanation, he disappeared into the corridor again.

  Jonah noted the worried expressions on both Maggie and Lila’s faces as they gazed after Karl. He’d observed Doc’s grief along with everyone else, and he didn’t know the man well enough to judge his resilience after such a crushing blow. “Do you think he’ll be okay?” Jonah asked. “Doc, I mean.”