by Jacob Holo
“Did it not go well?” Vierj asked, leaning against a column, appraising him with her silver eyes. Dominic had provided her with a selection of popular Grendeni fashions, and she’d selected a light cream ensemble with dark-red trim that hugged her youthful curves.
“No, it went fine,” Jack said. “I’m just tired.”
“Does his death bother you that much?”
Observant of her, he thought. Dangerously observant of her. I need to be careful.
Jack sighed. “Yeah, it bothers me.”
Vierj sat next to him and placed her hand on his. “The boy was nothing more than a lesser form. Why does his death matter?”
“Vierj, he was Seth’s son. I should have expected someone like him would be out there. I screwed up.”
“If we are to find the Gate, such deaths are to be expected. You should not dwell on them.”
Jack shook his head. “It’s not that easy.”
“I used to think like you do.”
“Yeah?”
“A long time ago.” Vierj squeezed his hand. “You are not the only one who has faced allies in battle.”
“How did you deal with it?”
“I harden my heart. I refuse to feel sympathy for those who oppose us.”
“Yeah, that’s not working too well for me.”
“Fighting Zophiel was a million times more painful,” Vierj said. A specter of dark emotions passed over her face and then was gone.
“Zophiel?”
“A name best left forgotten.”
“Comrade?” Jack asked.
“My son.”
“Oh.”
“And one of my worst mistakes. He was a failure without equal.”
“That had to hurt.”
“It did…” Vierj smiled suddenly, but the gesture held no warmth. “Perhaps I should not judge. You may deal with your comrades as you see fit.”
“Thank you, Vierj.”
“Enough about the past. Please tell me how your meeting with the Executives went.”
“Sure,” Jack said. “It actually went surprisingly well, though it took us seven hours to get there. How anyone could be so in love with their own voice, I will never understand.”
“Did they consent to the attack?”
“Yes. Even with the losses at Valiant Artisan, they have enough for the assault. They’ll get us to the planet and cover our withdrawal.”
“And so we shall return to Aktenzek with a powerful fleet,” Vierj said. “Initially, I had my doubts, but the results of your cunning are undeniable.”
Jack shrugged. “I do what I can.”
Vierj turned around, suddenly distant.
“What is it?” he asked.
“These Grendeni peasants are trying to listen to us again.” Vierj closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. “There. The problem has been dealt with.”
“Did they hear anything?”
“Of course not. These primitives are not as clever as they think.”
Hypercast transceivers, Jack thought. Just how can Vierj sense them? It was an incomprehensible talent, much like Vierj’s other abilities, and one Jack had learned about almost too late during their return.
“If you think they might break through, we could return to the Scion,” Jack said.
“You underestimate my abilities. That is not necessary.”
He laughed. “Underestimating you is the last thing I’d ever do!”
“I am glad to hear that. However, perhaps your caution has its merits.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you considered that these Grendeni might be becoming suspicious? Perhaps this spying game they play has given them a clue.”
“I know it’s risky being here,” Jack said. “But they’ve agreed to the attack. It was a worthwhile risk. And besides, once we reach Aktenzek who cares if they find out?”
“And if they realize we have fooled them?”
“The Aktenai and the Grendeni will keep each other busy while we claim the prize. I’ll still give them the location.”
“Why not withhold it?”
Jack shrugged. “Well, if only the Aktenai know where the Gate is, they’ll try to stop us. If both the Aktenai and the Grendeni know, they’ll fight over it.”
“And we will slip in while they occupy each other.”
“Exactly,” Jack said. The best lies were a mix of truth and omissions, after all.
“The Gate is so close.”
“And the Homeland beyond it. I’m excited to finally see what all the fuss is about.”
“Oh, Jack Donolon, it is paradise compared to this stunted and accursed universe. When you experience it for yourself, you will understand. It is where humans originated and where we are destined to return.”
“Looking forward to that.”
Vierj clasped her hands and sighed, grinning. It was perhaps the happiest Jack had ever seen her. “I will enjoy these coming battles. It has been a long time since I used the full scope of my talent.”
***
“I don’t like this, Dominic. I don’t like this at all.” Administrator Gurgella paced across the Righteous Anger’s dimly lit control room. An array of visual feeds from throughout the schism gave the room a ghostly glow. Around the administrator, a dozen technicians analyzed the few scraps of data they’d obtained so far.
“I do not understand your reluctance, administrator,” Dominic said. “We have two individuals who, by all estimates, are the most powerful seraph pilots in existence. They are willing to assault Aktenzek and even retrieve the Gate’s location for us.”
Gurgella tossed his jacket aside and began fussing with his sweat-soaked collar.
“There are too many questions,” he said. “And the Executives are not asking enough of them.”
“Administrator, everyone has secrets.”
“But not ones like these!” Gurgella charged up to a screen and plastering his hand over the center. The screen’s visual feed came straight from Jack Donolon’s northcity residence.
It was completely black. Seven bead-size transmitters communicated with the control center via secure hypercast channels. There was no physical way the signals could be interrupted.
And yet those signals had been blocked with incredible precision.
Dominic shrugged. “So Jack and his girlfriend want a little privacy. Is that so unusual?”
“That is beside the point.” Gurgella slapped the empty screen. “This is not physically possible!”
“Administrator, with all due respect, I agree that this is impossible from our perspective. But remember, our understanding of chaos physics is based on far less empirical data than Aktenzek’s. And furthermore, these are two extremely powerful pilots. Does it not make sense that they are capable of feats other pilots are not?”
One of the technicians cleared her throat and stepped forward, awaiting permission to speak. She was short and slender, with prim black hair and a calculating look in her dark eyes.
Chief Technician Shollin, Dominic thought, recalling the data from an archived portion of his mind. He found his eyes drawn to the light pen twirling between her fingers. She stopped the nervous habit and clasped her hands tightly behind her back.
“Go ahead,” Gurgella said. “Speak your mind.”
“Administrators, if I may offer my humble opinion,” Shollin said. “We have an extensive library of battlefield encounters with seraphs. We also have the direct experimental data from the seraph pilot Mezen Daed and his reverse-engineered craft. Never in all those encounters have we seen a seraph pilot interfere with hypercast transmissions.”
“So noted,” Gurgella said. “Well, Dominic? What do you say to that?”
“What can interfere with hypercast transmissions?” Dominic asked.
“A few extreme circumstance sets exist,” Shollin said. “Fold engines can briefly introduce mild static onto a signal at the source or destination, though this is quite rare. Also, close proximity to a black hole can interfere or
even block the transmission.”
“And we know one of those isn’t inside the schism.” Gurgella faced the blank screen and shook his head. “Well, if you find out anything, let me know.”
“Of course, administrator.”
“Pull up the seraphs,” Gurgella said. The visual feeds switched to live images of the two seraphs stored in the Righteous Anger’s archangel catapults. “Analysis.”
Shollin gestured to the black shadow of Vierj’s seraph.
“We have made one hundred two attempts to breach the black seraph’s barrier and analyze its interior. All one hundred two attempts have failed. As far as we can tell, its barrier is impervious.”
“Seraph barriers are almost invincible normally,” Gurgella said. “Are you sure there’s something special about this one?”
“Yes, administrator. Even across a very powerful barrier, it only fully manifests when needed. For example, at the impact point of a beam weapon. Under such circumstances, a barrier will momentarily become opaque, and only near the impact point. This barrier has maintained complete opacity since we first began observation. And it’s done that without the pilot physically in the seraph, which we didn’t even know was possible.
“Also, a normal barrier radiates waste energy through light,” Shollin continued. “Each pilot’s frequency is unique and serves as an absolute form of identification even if they change the seraph’s frame. However, this barrier has no frequency. All waveforms impacting on the barrier are not returned.”
“Sort of like the room,” Dominic said quietly.
“Eh? You say something?” Gurgella asked, turning around.
“No, administrator. Just mumbling to myself.”
“Well, don’t mumble so loudly,” Gurgella said. “Continue with your analysis, technician.”
“We do have one important exception to report,” Shollin said. “During one test, we fired hypercast transmissions at the seraph. As expected, the hypercast transmissions passed through… most of the time. Signals had a failure rate of less than one percent, but I believe this suggests controllable permeability to hypercast signals, which of course is imposs—”
“Yes, impossible. That must be why we keep seeing it happen,” Gurgella said. “Do you have anything useful to add from your analysis?”
“Ahh, useful? No, not really.”
“Then, to paraphrase your long-winded oratory, you don’t have a clue.”
“I suppose that’s one way to put it, administrator.” Shollin frowned, looking wounded.
Gurgella shook his head. He wiped the sweat from his reddened brow. “And your analysis of the white seraph? Have you made any better progress with it?”
“Sadly, no, administrator. Our one attempt to study the white seraph’s interior ended in failure, and we decided to discontinue the analysis.”
“Why?”
“Because the seraph moved without a pilot,” Shollin said.
Gurgella and Dominic shot her disbelieving looks.
“And not a little, either,” Shollin said. “The seraph made it quite clear it was not to be tampered with.”
“What? Did it ask you not to touch it?” Gurgella asked.
“No, administrator. Please observe.” Shollin linked to the nearest screen and brought up the archived imagery.
Jack’s seraph stood motionless in a cramped bay, shoulder to shoulder with ranks of archangels. A mobile trolley accelerated across a track running the length of the bays, then stopped directly above the seraph. Its maintenance arms folded and reached for one of the seraph’s wing clusters.
The seraph twisted around, too fast even for Dominic’s enhanced vision. It grabbed the maintenance trolley, ripped it from its moorings, and crumpled it in a fist. The seraph dropped the mechanical carcass, turned, and looked directly at the camera.
A moment later, the seraph’s fist filled the screen, and then the screen went blank.
“I hope you will bear with the repetition,” Shollin said. “But what you just observed is impossible.”
Gurgella blew out a frustrated breath. “Too many accursed questions.”
Dominic found the behavior of Jack’s seraph curious, but not impossible to explain. Seraph pilots did not require actual physical contact with their machines to supply power, though proximity improved performance. Add to this Jack’s unique experiences with his seraph, and Dominic saw no deep mystery.
It was the other seraph and its female pilot that drew Dominic’s attention. Something nagged at the back of his mind, as if filed away long ago and forgotten until now. The seraph’s barrier and their failure to see into the room seemed strangely familiar.
A barrier capable of preventing anything from passing through it, capable of defying science with its impossibility. Why does this feel so familiar?
Dominic knew he’d seen this before. He walked past Gurgella and Shollin, who had meandered into some irrelevant topic, and stepped in front of the screen showing Jack’s residence.
A completely black screen. Nothing got through. Not light, nor heat, nor even hypercast. Nothing came out either, as if the room didn’t even exist.
But it had to exist. Dominic could walk into that room any time he wanted to…
Any time I want to…
Dominic lingered on this last thought, tantalized by the sentence for some reason. He pondered the words, rolling them around in his mind, playing with them, but nothing came of the exercise.
And so Dominic tried a different tactic. If I could command the laws of physics to change, how would I do this? These are not just seraph chaos barriers. There is something else here, something different.
So, in order to prevent anything from getting through, how would I do that?
Or perhaps I’m not looking at this right. There doesn’t have to be a physical barrier. All I have to do is stop anything coming in. Stop it dead in its tracks.
But how to do that?
…
Hell, that’s easy! I’d just freeze it in time!
In that instance, Dominic had the answer in totality. A shiver of fear washed over him. He staggered back from the screens and looked at the black seraph again. There it stood beneath its impervious cocoon. He wondered if anything in this accursed universe could stop it.
“Dominic? What’s the matter with you?” Gurgella asked.
“Oh, nothing.” Dominic collected himself and stood straighter. “I was just wondering if we’ve taken adequate precautions.”
“We already have assassin squads standing by. What more do we need?”
Could something so mundane stop such a being? I doubt it.
“Administrator, I suggest we make arrangements for something more drastic. We should equip the assassin squads with antimatter charges.”
Shollin gasped.
An explosion of that magnitude could rip the whole schism apart, Dominic thought. Would even that work? Yes, that would surely do it. Even if she can’t die, she would float helplessly through space for the rest of eternity.
“That seems a bit extreme,” Gurgella said.
“I merely suggest we prepare for the worst.”
“Are you sure, Dominic?”
“Yes, administrator. Quite sure.”
“But didn’t you just telling me I was overreacting? Are you all right? Has something unnerved you?”
“No, administrator. I am quite fine. I’ve simply come to appreciate the large number of unknowns we’re dealing with. These two pilots are extremely dangerous, as you have often pointed out.”
“Hmm, very well,” Gurgella said. “Yes, perhaps we should take another look at our termination options.”
The meeting dragged on, but Dominic paid it little mind.
Jack, he wondered. Just what is it you’re after?
***
Finding somewhere he and Jack could have a private conversation was not easy, but both had worked in EN SpecOps. Dominic in particular knew everything about the Righteous Anger’s surveillance network, including t
he best ways to defeat it. Finding a place he and Jack could meet secretly other than Jack’s carrier wasn’t too difficult.
Like many Grendeni cities, the Righteous Anger’s northcity had existed for centuries. This meant that layers of construction, demolition, refurbishment, and revitalization lay piled one atop of the other. Beneath the gleaming exterior of silver, metal, and glass was a labyrinthine underground of dark tunnels and old buildings filled with the underclass.
Dominic walked along one such tunnel, still wearing his administrator uniform. Even in these parts of the schism, rank had its advantages, and people took steps not to be around him or even to notice him.
Light strips ran the length of the gently curving tunnel. Shops and dwellings grew out of the walls in three levels. Dominic leaned against a shop façade on the second level and waited for Jack to arrive.
Jack descended in a lift from the third level. He stepped off and walked over.
“Okay, Dominic. What’s so important?”
“Is she with you?” Dominic glanced at the balcony behind Jack.
“No, Vierj went back to the Scion. I should be over there as well. The Scion is supposed to rendezvous with your fleet before we make the final push for the solar system.”
“I know, but this is important.” Dominic scanned the area for surveillance devices. Nothing.
“And you don’t want Administrator Gurgella or any of the Executives involved in this?”
“This isn’t about what I want. This is about what you don’t want people to know about that woman.”
Jack folded his arms across his chest. “All right. You have my attention.”
Dominic bobbed his head towards a small corridor that broke off from the main tunnel. Jack followed Dominic into the corridor, which snaked left then down, passing dormant machinery the size of buildings.
“Where are we?”
“This used to be part of the northern factory zone,” Dominic said. “Back when the northcity was a lot smaller. It’s all been decommissioned, but some people still live down here.”
“Wonderful.”
Dominic stopped at a dimly lit cul-de-sac. Black passages led to the old unseen factories.
“Okay, Dom. Talk.”
“Let’s cut to the chase. I’ve got only one question for you. Who is Vierj?”
