by James Walker
As he contemplated his impending ascension, his lips split into a hollow smile.
45
Cena led the contact team out of the streets of Light's Edge and into the surrounding forest. They followed a dirt trail that wound its way through the brush and zig-zagged up the side of a steep hill. At the top of the hill, they came to a sheer ravine about ten meters across and twenty meters deep. The trail crept down the ravine's rocky face and terminated at a stream that flowed through the boulders and brambles strewn along the bottom.
“Down here,” Cena said. “Watch your step. The path's pretty narrow in spots.”
She led them down the side of the ravine. Vic kept a tight grip on Astral's hand and helped her to navigate the rough spots. About halfway down, Cena stopped and ran her hands along the cliff side. She brushed aside a sheet of moss, revealing a small control panel set in the rock.
She pressed a button on the panel and announced, “Code Reach Out. This is Sergeant Cena Northwood, formerly of Aqualung, now with the Greenwings under the command of General Rick—I mean, Colonel Guntar Artega. Serial number 4A6F616E. Requesting contact.”
There was a long pause, then finally a static-fringed voice replied, “Copy, Sergeant Northwood. But I thought General Childers was in command of the Greenwings.”
“General Childers was killed in action,” Cena replied. “Colonel Artega of the Quicksilvers is our new commander.”
Another pause, then the voice answered, “Understood. Sergeant, we have your files on record. Can you confirm your identity via biometric verification?”
Cena spread her fingers and placed her hand on a screen next to the control panel. A green bar appeared at the top of the screen and swept downward. Once it completed its scan, she withdrew her hand and waited.
“Identity of Sergeant Cena Northwood confirmed,” the voice said. “You are authorized to enter. Be quick about it. We'll only keep the door open for ten seconds.”
Something shifted beneath the stone, then part of the rock face slid upward, revealing a corridor stretching into darkness. Cena and the others rushed through the opening, then the false door closed behind them with a grinding crash. Dim blue lights ran along the sides of the passage, providing barely adequate illumination. Cena led the way down the dim corridor, the group's footsteps echoing through the deserted passageway.
“What can you tell us about Aqualung, Sergeant?” Pierson asked. “I'm not very familiar with this cell.”
Cena explained, “The commander is Lieutenant Colonel Amos Lane. He's a veteran from the earliest days of the resistance, before it was even called SLIC. They use Inverted Sound's access to the sea to conduct piracy operations. They also have a unit of Union battle drones that they captured and reprogrammed.”
“We seem to be going down,” Esther observed.
Cena nodded. “We're going under the sound. Aqualung's base is a former underwater marine research facility.”
They followed the corridor in a straight line for over half an hour. Finally, the corridor terminated at a reinforced door monitored by a ceiling camera. After a moment, a green light flashed on the door and it slid open.
The contact team entered a domed chamber with a gleaming silver floor and walls. A glass panel at the top of the dome shone with the undulating turquoise ribbons that comprised the waters of Inverted Sound. The fluctuations of the water were reflected on the floor's polished surface, where a pair of guards flanked a stocky officer with rounded features and curly brown hair. The officer stepped forward and saluted Guntar.
“Colonel, welcome to Aqualung's underwater facility. I'm Amos Lane, the commander of this cell.” Amos' gaze fell upon Cena and he smiled. “Welcome back, Corporal Northwood. Wait, it's Sergeant now, isn't it? I'm sorry to hear the circumstances of your return. The loss of General Childers is a great blow to us all.”
“A lot has happened, sir,” Cena replied. “I'm sure Colonel Artega and Major Cutter will fill you in on the details.”
“Major Cutter?” Amos turned his gaze on Pierson. “I don't know how I didn't recognize you immediately, Major. It's an honor to have a man of your reputation visit our base.”
“Not at all,” Pierson replied. “Tell me sir, how much do you know about our recent activities?”
“Nothing,” Amos shrugged. “All our attention has been focused on harassing Union shipping.”
“Then here's the short version,” Pierson said. “We managed to acquire a container of great value to the Union. They deployed an entire task force to get it back. After suffering heavy losses, we finally managed to throw them off and escape with the container's contents. And what was inside is...”
He turned and nodded to Vic. Vic gently guided Astral forward, then pulled her hood back. Her silver hair came spilling down in a curtain and her third eye stood revealed, swiveling as usual in random directions.
“What is she?” Amos breathed, staring at her in astonishment.
“We don't really know,” Pierson replied. “We're hoping you can help us find out. Are your facilities equipped for that?”
“This is a former marine research station,” Amos said. “It was originally built to study mutations to marine life arising from the xeno-adaptation effect. For that purpose, it's equipped with a robust bio lab.”
“That's perfect,” Esther exclaimed. “Can you take us there?”
Amos nodded. “Follow me.”
Vic pulled Astral's hood back over her brow, then he and the others followed Amos through a series of chambers and passageways. The entire complex exuded the same technological sterility as the antechamber. They passed several Aqualung agents, some of whom recognized Cena and greeted her as they passed.
Finally, they reached the biology lab. The laboratory was packed with storage containers and various scientific instruments. The right wall was constructed entirely from transparent plating, which provided a view of a water tank with several alien-looking marine specimens floating inside. A thin, balding man wearing a lab coat and an ocular headset stood in front of the tank, taking notes. He turned to face the contact team as they came in.
“This is Dr. Lox, chief of research for Aqualung.” Amos then introduced the others in turn. When he came to Astral and Vic drew her hood back, Lox cried out in surprise and rushed forward.
“My, what is this lovely little creature?” he asked, bringing his face within centimeters of Astral's, her youthful features reflected within his cybernetic eyepieces.
Astral darted around Vic and peered out from behind him, clutching the sides of his jacket. “Vic, he's scary.”
“Um, personal space, Doc,” Vic said.
Lox straightened up and clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Well now, it's hard to examine a new specimen if you aid and abet its attempts to hide, you know.”
Amos looked apologetically at the others. “Please excuse him. He's always had a fascination for the unusual. The ostracization of his fellows in Light's Edge has made him a bit socially awkward. We decided to give him a place where he could do what he loves and not be shunned for it. I guarantee his abilities as a researcher.”
“Well, Doctor,” Esther addressed Lox, “we're not sure what Astral is. That's why we've come here. Can you help us?”
Lox tapped his chin with a spindly finger. “Well, she seems capable of human speech. That should provide a more efficient investigation vector than less developed life forms. Why don't we start with an interview?”
“A surprisingly sane suggestion,” Guntar remarked.
“I suppose finding out how much she knows would be the best place to start.” Esther dropped to her haunches and smiled at Astral. “What can you tell us about yourself, Astral? Do you have any idea why the Union created you, and why they're so desperate to have you back?”
Astral shook her head. “The scientists who made me died before they could tell me why they created me.”
“They died?” Esther asked. “How?”
“Some of my siblings went berser
k when the scientists made a mistake in their specifications,” Astral replied. “I was the only survivor.”
“I don't like the sound of that,” Guntar said. “There's no chance of you going berserk, is there?”
“I was the perfect specimen,” Astral said. “The only success. At least, that's what the scientists called me before they died.”
“Is that a no?” Guntar pressed.
“It should be impossible,” Astral said, “because my dual genetic sequences are in a stable equilibrium. But that's only theoretical. The only empirical evidence to support the hypothesis is every second that passes without me going out of control.”
“This is not filling me with confidence,” Guntar said.
“Excuse me, Colonel,” Lox interjected. “The focus of your questioning is entirely misplaced. May I take over the interview for a while?”
Guntar gestured to Astral. “Be my guest.”
Lox turned to Astral and asked, “What do you mean by 'dual genetic structures'?”
At the researcher's mechanical stare, Astral shrank behind Vic, but she answered, “When I was created, my human embryo was merged with a foreign organism. Both sets of D.N.A. exist within me simultaneously.”
“What is this foreign organism?”
“I think it was artificially created,” Astral said. “Never meant to exist independently. I don't know the details. They never told me anything about how I was created. I just overheard their thoughts sometimes.”
There was a pause, then Lox asked, “Did you say you overheard their thoughts?”
“Astral can read minds,” Vic answered for her. “I've experienced it firsthand.”
Everyone looked at Vic in surprise. “Is that true, Corporal?” Pierson exclaimed.
“Yes,” Vic nodded. “She's read my mind several times. Even while she was still in the Cage, I could hear her calling me, inside my mind.”
“Why on earth didn't you report this?” Pierson asked.
“Would you have believed me?”
Pierson paused. “Maybe.”
“I wouldn't have,” Guntar said. “I'd have said the kid was going bonkers on us.”
“Has anyone else experienced this?” Esther asked.
“Only Vic,” Astral said. “I tried calling out to everyone, but he's the only one who heard me.”
“Really?” Lox redirected his mechanical gaze from Astral to Vic. “Why you, Corporal? What makes you so special?”
“I don't know,” Vic stammered. “Astral is the one that's special, not me. I'm just an ordinary person.”
“Yet you have experienced something which no one else has,” Lox said. “That strongly suggests that something is different about you from other people, does it not?” He chuckled. “Yes, indeed. It seems we have something in common, you and I.”
Vic had never considered this before. What could possibly be different about him? Behind this one question rose a multitude of others, each more disturbing than the last. Assuming he did possess some special characteristic, how could he find out what it was? Would it involve tests? What would people think of him? Would he be feared, hated, scorned for his difference?
And finally—was this how Astral felt, with practically everyone interested not in her, but only in what made her different from them?
Pierson cut through Vic's thoughts by adding, “Reading minds isn't the only thing that Astral is capable of. In the aerospace hangar during the attack on the Spacy base, Director Nimh swung his sword at her and Falsrain, intending to cut Falsrain down. Yet his exosuit froze in mid-swing and then impaled itself with its own blade. Normally I would write that off as a bizarre malfunction, or the result of some kind of experimental interference weapon, but under the circumstances, I'm inclined to say it was Astral's doing.”
“Is that true?” Lox asked Astral. “Are you capable of controlling the movements of physical objects without touching them?”
“Um, well...” Astral shrank back in the face of so many fascinated stares. “I don't remember what happened in the hangar very well,” she said in a tiny voice. “But theoretically, it's possible. Anything which is capable of independent movement should be susceptible to the actuation waves that propagate along the extra-dimensional fold, so...”
“This is incredible,” Pierson said, his gaze drifting between the faces of his comrades, his eyes aglow. “You all realize what this means, don't you? The lab that created Astral, they did it. They've brought into being something that up until now existed only in speculation, fiction, and pseudoscience. They created a psychic.”
46
As the others stared at Pierson, transfixed by his intensity, he continued his fervent monologue. “It all makes sense now. Do you see? It's no wonder the Union would sacrifice so much to get her back. Imagine if they had a monopoly on this technology. The elites of society would be converted into psychics, able to read minds and control matter with their thoughts, while the citizens continued living under the limitations of the old strain of humanity. The rulers' continued dominance over the lower classes would be secured for decades to come. Who could possibly oppose them if they wielded such powers?
“But what if the technique for creating psychics became common knowledge, outside the Union's control? An entire race able to communicate by thought alone—the Union would be powerless in the face of such a people. In one stroke, their repressive surveillance state would crumble to dust as all of the sophisticated technology they use to monitor people and control their thoughts and actions was rendered useless.”
“That's true,” Amos said. “If the key to creating psychics lies with this girl, then the entire future of the Union might well rest on keeping possession of her.”
“But it goes beyond merely breaking the Union's shackles,” Pierson continued. “All of human society, our old ways of communicating and interacting with one another, all of it would be rendered obsolete. An entirely new way of life, unlike anything seen before it, would rise up. Maybe this is the key I've always dreamed about, the key to freeing the spacers from Thera's foolish hostilities and prejudices. This girl represents the face of a new, better humanity that will come into being out here in the depths of space.”
“That sounds a bit far-fetched,” Guntar replied.
“I don't know that it is,” Esther said. “The ability to communicate through thought alone would revolutionize human interaction as nothing has before it. Who can say what a society where everyone has that capability would look like? It would be the end of lies and secrets, for starters.”
“Um,” Astral said quietly, “I'm sorry to interrupt, but according to the definition of 'psychic' in my knowledge base, that's not really what I am.”
In the silence that followed this pronouncement, all eyes turned to Astral, who was still half hiding behind Vic.
“Could you explain that in more detail?” Lox asked.
“A psychic is someone who can directly read other people's thoughts, or move objects just by thinking about it; that sort of thing, right?” Astral said. “I can't do those things.”
“But you just said you can,” Pierson objected.
Astral shook her head. “I never said that. Vic said I could read people's minds. He was almost right, so I didn't correct him, because I didn't know it would cause so much confusion.”
“Then what is it you actually do?” Lox asked.
“I hear a Voice,” Astral said. “A Voice that comes from some place far away. When I can hear the Voice most clearly, its thoughts merge with my own, and then I can sense perturbations of actuation waves in extra-dimensional space. Seeing people's thoughts is something I can do as a side effect. In theory I could even manipulate those waves when they're at least two levels removed from an originator, which I suppose I might have done in the aerospace hangar if your report of those events is accurate.”
Guntar looked at the others. “Did any of you get that?”
“Not a word,” Cena said.
Esther shoo
k her head. “I've studied theoretical physics, and I couldn't follow any of that.”
Astral looked abashed. “I'm sorry. I'm only repeating what I overheard from the scientists.”
“It seems your physics weren't theoretical enough, Doctor,” Lox said. “Young lady, can you explain in simpler terms what differentiates you from the common conception of a psychic?”
“Well, one important difference is that I can't do it whenever I want to,” Astral said. “Only when I hear the Voice. I'm not the source of these powers. I'm just channeling them.”
The others paused to ponder this, then Esther said, “I'm still a little confused. I'm starting to get an idea of her capabilities, but there are still some pieces missing, and her explanations are just theoretical expositions that none of us has the background to understand.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us, Astral?” Vic asked. “I know you're tired, and I'm sorry we're asking so many questions, but this is important to us.”
Astral shook her head. “I've told you everything I know. I'm sorry, but I don't really understand myself very well, either.”
The conversation died as all present contemplated what they had learned. Finally, Lox's squeaky tones broke the prolonged silence. “It seems that's all the information we can get from an interview,” he said. “Perhaps running some tests will provide further enlightenment.”
“You're not going to do anything to hurt her, are you?” Vic demanded.
“Of course not,” Lox replied. “Harming such a rare specimen as this would be unthinkable. My honor as a researcher would be destroyed for all time.”
“I have a medical license and some knowledge of molecular biology,” Esther said. “I'd like to help you run those tests, if I may.”
