Dark Matter (Interchron Book 3)

by Liesel K. Hill

  To her surprise, David stood beside Doc, staring up into the heavens. The instant Marcus noticed him, he stopped in his tracks, heaved a deep sigh, and then kept going. At least he hadn’t said anything.

  As they reached the place where the other four stood, Maggie immediately crossed to Doc and put a hand on his shoulder. “How are you, Doc?” she asked. The question itself felt insensitive. He’d just lost his brother. How would anyone be?

  Doc turned a pale face to her and shrugged in a forced sort of way. “We must move forward, so I’m here,” he said dully.

  David had turned at Maggie’s voice. The four of them now stood facing one another in a misshapen circle.

  Maggie suppressed a twinge of nervousness in her stomach. She needed to talk to all of them about Clay, but worried. Not so much about what they’d say, but about how it would affect them all emotionally. Still, the subject needed to be broached.

  “I need to tell you something,” Maggie said, glancing at David to include him. “I didn’t want to say it in Medical where Kara might hear.” She related her strange experience with Clay, followed by the landscape with purple lightning.

  When she finished, the three of them stared at her, including Marcus. She’d told him there was more to what she’d experienced, but hadn’t given him the details.

  “What…does it mean?” David asked, looking worried.

  “I don’t know,” Maggie said.

  “Well it…must be a memory, right?” Marcus asked.

  Maggie studied Doc’s hand. The Healers in medical did their best with the burn. It left his hand scarred, though. He would carry the scarred hand for the rest of his life. However long that ended up being. Maggie no longer felt certain of anything.

  “What is it, Maggie?” Doc asked.

  She squashed the dread in her stomach, knowing she needed to tell them. “The second batch of flashbacks I saw, we can’t explain yet. Such as Karl being badly injured. Bleeding on some rocks by the sea.”

  Marcus and David nodded, as they’d both heard this before. Doc looked more alarmed.

  “No one remembers some of those things happening,” she continued. “So, they can’t be memories, right?”

  “Maybe the second batch are dreams, Maggie,” Marcus offered, resting a hand gently on her shoulder. “Nightmares.”

  Maggie nodded. “I’d be happy to write this off as a strange dream or vision. A result of the trauma I experienced at the Cimerian’s hands, and missing Clay. Except…”

  She swallowed and placed her fingers lightly on Doc’s scarred hand. “Except for this.” She turned to Marcus and David. “Don’t you remember the other flashes?”

  Understanding dawned in Marcus’s eyes first. “A hand with an ugly burn on it.”

  Maggie nodded. “It didn’t look like this, all Healed. I saw your hand right after you were burned, Doc. Smoke rising from the skin.”

  Doc’s eyes widened. “You…saw my hand be burned?”

  Maggie nodded. “Before it happened.”

  “Some of the flashes you’ve seen,” David spoke for the first time, “are in the future?”

  Maggie shrugged helplessly.

  “You…are a prophetess, Maggie,” Doc said, his voice awed. “Like Adaiah.”

  Maggie stared at him. The weight of what he’d implied made her tremble. It didn’t surprise her, exactly, after what had already been suggested about her needing all the abilities listed in the prophecy. But she trembled all the same.

  “Do you think she absorbed it, Doc?” David asked. “From that woman, when they met at the lighthouse?”

  Maggie felt her own eyes widen. She hadn’t even thought of that, but it would be in keeping with what the group had already hypothesized.

  Doc’s eyes remained dull. He stared, almost lifelessly, at the ground. “Perhaps. I couldn’t say much of anything for sure right now.”

  David frowned. “Yet the gift of Prophecy itself isn’t named. It’s not required to bring the collectives down.”

  Doc shrugged again, his voice flat and emotionless. “Even so. If Maggie has seen the future, she has the ability for Prophecy.”

  “Maybe it has to do with the fact that you can Travel,” Marcus said

  “What do you mean?” Maggie asked.

  Marcus shrugged. “Could you have Traveled to the future at some point and seen the future? You still don’t know if all the memories have returned. Perhaps you saw them in the future, so they’re memories to you?” Marcus looked confused by his own words and shook himself. “I don’t know.”

  “No,” Doc jumped in. “Don’t dismiss it, Marcus. That makes a great deal of sense. Another Maggie from the future appeared in the Canyon. Now you’re seeing pieces of the future. I have no idea how or why, but those things must all be related.”

  David cleared his throat. “Regardless of any other flashes Maggie has seen, Clay is brain dead. Whatever you saw with him,” he addressed Maggie, “can’t be the future.”

  Maggie sighed. True enough. If her interaction with Clay had been real, it must have been a memory. Yet it didn’t feel like a memory. Or a flash forward. It felt real. Like she’d lived it for the first time as it happened.

  “Dare we hope Clay might recover?” Marcus asked softly.

  “We do not dare,” Doc said firmly, almost angrily. An emotion rarely if ever heard from him.

  Maggie’s heart stopped at the anguish in Doc’s voice. It only started again when he went on.

  “Clay is dead.” He visibly forced himself to relax, raising his chin and fixing his eyes on the heavens. His eyes looked misty. “As is Nat.”

  Maggie told herself to breathe. It terrified her to see Doc this way. The team’s rock was crumbling.

  The four of them stood awkwardly for several seconds. Maggie could tell no one knew what to say next. She certainly didn’t. Finally, Marcus broke the silence.

  “Why did the orb burn you and not Maggie, Doc?” Marcus asked. “Any ideas?”

  Doc didn’t answer right away, keeping his eyes on the heavens. His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed.

  “I’m curious as to who made it, and how,” David said. “It must take a great deal of neurochemical energy to construct and more to hold it steady.”

  “Steady?” Maggie asked.

  David nodded. “It’s tremendously unstable. A matter/anti-matter thing.”

  “It’s made of anti-matter?” Marcus sounded shocked.

  “It’s light energy,” Doc finally said, his voice sounding firm again. “Such pure, high-intensity energy burns the human body. Can even transfigure it,” he stared down at his burnt hand. “So light and truth, as you can see, literally hurts.” He winced. “I used light energy to create the Binding. Its light energy would have collided with Bart’s dark if he’d attacked Nat or me. The resulting backlash would have hurt him more than us.”

  “Couldn’t he have used light energy to get at you, instead of dark?” Maggie asked, knowing she didn’t entirely understand the definition of these things.”

  Doc seemed lost in thought again. She didn’t think he’d heard her.

  “The threshold between light and dark energy is relative,” David said. “It has to do with the frequency of the energy’s vibration. You can’t define the line between the two, anymore than we can define the line between good and evil in a person. Chances are, Doc’s brother doesn’t have the ability to use energy that vibrates high enough to break through the Binding.”

  “Exactly,” Doc said, coming back to the conversation. “Freedom always vibrates higher than slavery. Individuals will always be capable of higher-frequency energy than the collectives. Bart couldn’t defeat the Binding on his own.”

  Marcus’s head came up, understanding in his eyes. “So, he used the orb to do it, which is made of light energy.”

  Maggie tried to wrap her head around the conversation. It made a strange sort of sense. “Why didn’t the orb burn me, Doc?”

  He frowned and shook his head. �
�That I don’t know. It should have, but it didn’t.”

  Silence fell.

  “What do you make of the other thing?” Marcus asked. “The purple lightning?”

  He’d addressed Doc, who gave him an uncertain look.

  “It sounds to me like the Dark Lands, where the Cimerians come from,” David said.

  Doc nodded. “You may be right, David. I think the Cimerian tries to absorb free will through memories.”

  “Not only memories,” David said quietly, his eyes far away. “Memories and emotion.”

  Doc nodded slowly. “It may explain why you got rid of your memories on the ship, Maggie. I think you ended up in the Cimerian’s head somehow. In his memories. If not, perhaps you saw a representation of what he tried to do: take your free will. If you and David had stayed any longer, he might have turned you into mindless shells.”

  “Drones,” Marcus said grimly. “We have to find some way to guard against this,” he said. “Maggie is vulnerable. If she enters his mind, or he hers—”

  “How?” Maggie asked. When he’d mentioned her being vulnerable, his voice had gone hard. “I’m all for being safe, Marcus, but we don’t understand how this all works.” She turned to Doc and David. “How can we possibly safeguard against it?”

  They all frowned in silence. Maggie knew no one had an answer.

  “I’ve been thinking,” Marcus said. “Doc, when we leave to stop the eclipse, I think you should stay behind, at Interchron. Karl agrees.”

  Doc kept his eyes on the firmament while Marcus spoke. Now, he turned with an arched eyebrow. “Why?”

  “Because the Binding is gone. You’re vulnerable. The instant you set foot outside of Interchron, Bart may be able to kill you, even from a distance. He’s had the ability for a long time, but hasn’t used it for his own sake.”

  Maggie immediately saw the sense in Marcus’s suggestion. “We can communicate with you through Tristan,” she offered. “Marcus is right. We need to keep you safe. That means staying here.”

  Doc’s eyes became far away again. “I half-way think I might drop dead of old age at any moment."

  Even Marcus looked alarmed at the comment.

  "Old age?" Maggie sputtered. What the hell did that mean?

  Doc nodded. “I’ve always thought our slow aging must have something to do with the Binding. I don’t know for sure. If it does, I may start aging normally, now. Or my body may race to catch up.”

  Maggie tamped down fear in her chest. They couldn’t deal with another team member’s death. She hoped Doc was wrong.

  "We need to mourn for Nat," Marcus said quietly. "But the assimilation will happen in a few hours. We'll have to wait to bury him properly until after we get back."

  Maggie nodded. Doc showed no reaction. He, Marcus and Karl must have already discussed it.

  "He can't stay behind, Marcus," David said quietly. "We need him."

  Marcus gave his brother a look so cold, Maggie's heart lurched.

  "Doc getting killed will not help us, David," Marcus growled. His voice held the ring of cold steel.

  "Marcus is right," Maggie said quickly. "Doc can help us from here, through Tristan."

  David peered at Maggie in a way she couldn't quite read. He didn't look like he agreed with her, but didn't object again.

  "What about Maggie?" Marcus said, heat still in his voice. "Is it safe for her to come? She's vulnerable now, too."

  Maggie’s cheeks heated. "I'm fine, Marcus—"

  "You Drilled her,” Marcus roared in David’s face. “Now she has headaches. She’s physically weak, with no time to recover. You made her vulnerable to the collectives."

  "It was the only way," David said. His voice was firm, but soft, not defensive.

  "I asked you to save her, not make her more vulnerable.” Marcus seethed anger, but looked at the ground, visibly checking himself. “I’ll never ask you for anything again,” he grated softly.

  David’s head came up, eyes blazing. “I will not apologize for helping her,” he said darkly. “Nor will I keep apologizing for the past when I’ve proven my loyalty several times over.”

  The two men glared at one another, and Maggie’s heart tried to pound its way out of her chest.

  Marcus’s jaw twitched with anger. Even in the relative darkness, Maggie could see the white of his scar standing out against the red of his face. When he spoke, his voice grated through gritted teeth. “Maybe I could believe your loyalty, brother, if you left Maggie alone.”

  David’s eyes narrowed. “Why do you of all people have a problem with me helping her when she needs help?”

  “I don’t,” Marcus shouted. He heaved a deep breath, but the volume of his voice didn’t lower much. “If you truly saved her from…anything. Death, enslavement, even a little bit of pain, of course you have my gratitude. For that. My problem is what you presume. She isn’t yours to save.”

  “Well someone needed to.”

  Marcus balled his fist and struck David square in the jaw. David went down hard.

  “Marcus!” Maggie grabbed Marcus’s arm, attempting to hold him back. His muscular arms pulsed with heat. If he lunged for David again, she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

  Doc stepped forward, putting a hand softly on Marcus’s chest. He might have been invisible for all Marcus noticed.

  Behind them, David struggled to his feet. Chest heaving, he watched Marcus for several seconds. When Marcus didn’t move, David turned his back pointedly, his chin jutted out stubbornly, and turned his gaze toward the heavens.

  “Marcus,” Doc said softly.

  Maggie watched Marcus’s gaze shift from David, to the ground. It took another five seconds for him to raise his gaze to Doc’s.

  “I know you need to hash this out with David,” Doc said, his voice heavy with tears. “Brothers should work through their issues.”

  That, at least, caught Marcus’s attention and he looked into Doc’s pain-filled eyes.

  “But it can’t be done now. Too much is at stake.” A tear escaped Doc’s eye and scurried down his cheek.

  The tension drained from Marcus’s body and his shoulders slumped. Maggie knew he regarded Doc as a second father. Doc’s emotion deflated his anger instantly.

  “Come on, Doc,” Marcus said quietly, putting an arm around the older man’s quivering shoulders. “Let’s get you back inside.”

  Doc sniffed, wiped his face, and nodded. The two men moved back toward the entrance to Interchron. As they moved past David, he dropped his eyes from the heavens and spoke, keeping his back to them.

  "You said you wouldn't ask me for anything again, brother. I hope you don't mean it.” David did turn to look at Marcus, then. “The collective woman we met on the riverbank that day. She said we needed one another."

  "Exactly,” Marcus said over his shoulder. He’d stopped to listen to David, but they still faced toward Interchron. "She was a collectivist. I don't trust what she said. If she thinks we need one another, maybe we should stay as far away as possible."

  "Are you not curious as to what she might have meant?" David asked.

  Marcus opened his mouth, then checked himself. “Doc, why don’t you head inside. I’m right behind you.”

  Doc cast Maggie a worried look, before nodding and trudging up the slope. Maggie was glad Marcus sent him away. Marcus and David did need to hash this out, but Doc remained too fragile after Nat to be in the middle of it.

  When he’d moved well out of earshot, Marcus glared at David. “Do you know what she meant? Did they talk to you about it in your precious collective?"

  David stared at Marcus before slowly shaking his head. "They never mentioned it. Not in all the years I lived among them. They wanted to bring us both into the collective, brother. They wanted to control both of us. I think they kept silent because they had what they wanted. You and I were separated, which meant we weren't a threat to them. Now, I think we must find some way to work together."

  “Maybe you should have thought o
f that before hurting Maggie.”

  “Marcus,” Maggie said softly. He was using it as an excuse, now.

  "So,” David said, “because an enemy said something more than a decade ago, you’ll push me away? Doc's brother is dead, Marcus."

  "I know that!" Marcus snarled. "Is this why you came back? Because of what the collectivist woman said?"

  David dropped his eyes. "Maybe on some level," he said quietly.

  Marcus ground his teeth. Maggie both heard it and noticed his jaw harden. His eyes found Maggie’s.

  She gave him a pleading look. “I’m fine.”

  Marcus’s eyes turned sad. “You hurt her, David. It might be her doom. And ours.”

  “I also saved her,” David said. “Maybe the ones that break us are also the ones who save us.”

  Marcus’s jaw hardened, but his eyes and face remained unchanged. Turning to follow Doc’s path, Marcus disappeared into the mountain.

  *******

  "Are you okay?” Maggie asked, when she and David stood alone on the mountainside.

  David didn’t answer or look at her.

  “Can I ask you,” Maggie said, changing the subject, “what made you say the thing about emotions?”

  He raised a questioning eyebrow. “When Doc said the Cimerian used memories to steal free will, you said he uses emotions as well. Can you explain more?”

  "It simply…makes sense to me." David said. “People enter the collectives with negative emotions. When their emotions are mediated, they can't escape, because they no longer feel those emotions. They don't feel the passion to motivate them to break away."

  "You did," Maggie said.

  David nodded. "I don't know how, exactly, but I used positive emotion to break away. I hadn't thought of it that way before.” A brief silence descended. “Why do you ask?”

  “I still don’t know why I dumped my memories in the first place. I think Doc was suggesting I did it to preserve my own free will. I’m not sure whether to be comforted by that.”