Recall

by M. Van

  “I’d wonder who would ever come up with that idea,” she said. I shook my head and mouthed, “No.” She shrugged, but in the back of my head, I knew this might become a problem. Turning toward the door, she asked, “Can we go now?”

  With information scrolling down my screen and Kyran’s voice in my head, Saera and I moved through a maze of hallways. Unlike the insides of other buildings that I had seen, this one had a soothing environment. The walls were a pallet of soft greens and blues as if they were painted in a time before the wormhole mishap changed our lives. Actual wooden side tables stood in different places to decorate the hallways and paintings in all shapes and sizes hung on the walls. An eerie silence drifted around us as we crossed the thickly carpeted floor.

  “The second door on the left should be Sulos’s office,” Kyran said.

  “Is that wise?” I asked.

  “Just go,” Kyran replied.

  A glance at Saera told me she had absolutely no problem with entering Sulos’s office. Fortunately, the hallway to the office stood empty, and we had no problem entering.

  “Wow,” I said under my breath as I entered the room. “I know there isn’t that much in my head to compare it to, but this is unreal.”

  I stopped to let Saera enter before closing the door behind me and glanced around as Saera took a couple of steps inside.

  Thick, plush carpet covered the floor with a comfortable-looking seating area on one side of the room. On the other side of the room, the carpet edged over into what looked like a hardboard wooden floor, indicating a workplace. A massive desk stood in the middle of that area. Statues carved out of wood or stone decorated the interior along with paintings, and curtains were drawn to block out the view of the expanded sun hovering over us. Saera walked over to the work area and knelt to knock on the floor.

  “This is actually wood,” she said, sounding amazed. I had no interest in the wooden floors or any of the other lavish items. My eyes went up to the light source hanging in the middle of the room. Tubes emitting light extended from the center, curving into a flowery shape. A black marble sat in the middle of the piece, slowly turning on its axis.

  “Already got that one,” Tyrel said, anticipating my question. The marble was placed too obviously into the piece to be decorative, and the turning indicated a monitoring device. I kept my eyes on the device a little longer and hoped Kyran and Tyrel were as good at defusing the security systems as they claimed to be.

  “Over here,” Saera said, standing behind the desk. I hadn’t seen her go over to it, but by the time I got there, she had already found Sulos’s access terminal. She tapped her fingers on the smooth surface of the desk to turn the thing on as I lifted the head-up to set it on my forehead.

  “Just sit back and relax,” Kyran said. “Oh, and Maece, please stay close this time.”

  “Me?” I replied, appalled, and I raised my eyebrows at Saera.

  “Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t ask you to follow me,” she said.

  “If I hadn’t, you would have ended up in a bioprinter,” I said. “Or worse, I could have scrapped you off a wall.”

  Waving a dismissive hand at me, Saera decided to take Kyran’s advice and plopped down in Sulos’s desk chair. She raised her legs onto the desk and stared at a screen hanging on the wall opposite from us. Within seconds, the colorful images of stars and solar systems switched to black pop-up screens filled with green letters.

  The tapping of fingers echoing inside my head made it impossible for me to relax.

  “Tyrel,” I said, “are you monitoring the rest of the building?”

  “Me and three others,” she replied. “We’ve got you covered.” This didn’t reassure me, but it felt nice to have them try.

  Kyran’s fingers moved as if possessed, and the movement translated into red letters blinking across the screen.

  “Come on already,” Saera said under her breath. She wasn’t as relaxed as she wanted to appear.

  An Access Denied screen flashed several times, but the line on the other end of the coms stayed silent. Either Kyran didn’t wish to explain or was too focused on his task to do so.

  “Maece,” Tyrel said, “you might be interested to know that you’ve been recalled for evaluation.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Saera said before I could.

  “It means that the scientists want to pick you apart,” she said. “A do-not-incinerate order has just been issued to your fellow enforcers.”

  “Great,” I said. I rubbed the back of my neck and moved around the desk, so I could sit on it while I waited for whatever Kyran was doing. With the heads-up resting on the top of my head, I pinched the brim of my nose. The device felt more and more like a burden strapped to my face, but I didn’t dare remove it. If anyone found us inside this room, I would need it.

  “You okay,” Saera asked. I tilted my head to one side to stretch the muscles in my neck and then glanced over my shoulder to face her.

  “My head feels…I don’t know…heavy,” I replied.

  “That’s called a headache,” she said.

  “Right,” I said just as the screen flashed Access Granted.

  “Yes!” Kyran’s excited voice boomed over the coms. Although the string of words and images quickly shifted into a stomach-churning affair.

  Chapter twenty

  Maece

  My eyes were glued to the screen, taking in the information as it scrolled by. Kyran had filtered out the everyday company dealings and narrowed the data down to specific search subjects. They ranged from the self-destruct capabilities of the device stuck in the back of my head, ways to get the device out of my head, and the increase of power generation. However, the peril threatening my head seemed to have taken a backseat. Most of the images dealt with the current and past conditions within the power plants. But then judging by those images, the urgency was imminent.

  Over the past twenty years, the ArtRep company with its CEO Harand Sulos had increased the power plants’ output without any regard to its employees or the people living in and around those plants. The power plants were much like cities of their own, buried deep underneath the ground where they would use the inner core’s heat to generate power. Routed back up to the Combined Districts of Tenebrae, the power would be used to support the dome shield, the oxygen plants, and the general population.

  The pictures of gaunt faces and bodies that were no more than skin over bone spoke of the desperate situation of the people living at those plants. ArtRep had an extensive security presence stationed in and around the plants to keep the population in check, and from the looks of it, the stationed enforcers used force to maintain it. The sight of the men, women, and even children working the heavy machinery was heartbreaking.

  “It has gotten worse,” Saera said, her voice a mere whisper. From the corner of my eye, I saw her wipe a tear from her cheek. “Why are they doing this?” Sorrow was evident in her voice.

  “All the power they are generating would be enough to overload the dome and every other system hooked up to it,” Kyran said.

  “If it’s too much, what are they doing with it,” I asked.

  The screen shifted, and a map of the known surrounding area appeared. With some nifty keystrokes, Kyran followed the power lines leading out of the city.

  “That is near the outer-rim landing platforms,” I said as Kyran zoomed in on the map.

  “They are packaging and shipping it,” Kyran said. The sight of those discarded energy cylinders down that alley where Saera and I had stopped to talk came to mind. The vessels used to store power came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Smaller models were used inside the speeders that crowded the streets, while bigger ones were used to power Hymag lines.

  “But where?” Saera chimed in.

  “Here,” Kyran replied, exasperated.

  The grid zoomed out until Tenebrae became only a mere dot on the screen and even further. Blackness surrounded the earth where the sun couldn’t reach the emptiness of
space. Kyran zoomed out until even the sun became a speck of dust among a galaxy of stars. Then he started to zoom back in.

  Avoiding our solar system, he homed in on a nearby system that on the map only seemed to be a short hop from ours, but was probably trillions or hundreds of trillions of miles away. The screen focused on a planet surrounded by two moons and something else.

  “What is that?” I asked. My eyes lingered on what looked to be a man-made structure that in size came nowhere near the size of the smallest moon, but must still have been enormous as it drifted in orbit of the planet.

  “Those are the beginnings of a new world,” a voice replied.

  At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, I whirled around and with a twitch of my head dropped the heads-up back over my eyes. In the same swift motion, I drew my weapon and pointed it an elderly gentleman.

  Saera nearly fell from her seat at the sound of the man’s voice but recovered quickly.

  “Who are you?” I asked as my weapon pointed at the man’s head. Creases lined the short man’s face, and his gray eyes blended nicely with his white hair. His tailored suit was made from a lightweight fabric, but unlike the usual sandy colors worn by Umbras citizens, his was a near-black color of blue.

  “I should be offended,” he replied in a calm voice. Too calm considering he had a weapon pointed at his head. He lifted his arms and indicated the room. “You are in my office after all.”

  My heads-up started working in overdrive, trying to determine where the man had come from and if he had any company. The device didn’t detect any other visitors, but it did find a hidden door just as a panel in the wall slid back into place.

  “I thought I would introduce myself,” he said. “Although I am disappointed that Colrin hasn’t shown up himself.”

  Without turning my head, my eyes shifted to see Saera. She had drawn her own weapon, but she held it at her side. Her adrenaline levels spiked even higher than after she had dangled from the roof, but her exterior looked calm and collected. The man, who I probably should have recognized from his pictures to be Harand Sulos, stood seemingly unnerved as he watched us with his hands slightly raised at his sides. Was he waiting for a reply from us? As we stood there, I silently hoped Harp would present himself over the coms and tell us what to do, but it stayed eerily silent on the other end.

  “Well, I’m sure he’s listening in,” Sulos said, looking smug. “I want to congratulate you for finally achieving your goals.” He said the words in a loud voice, addressing Harp who wasn’t even inside the room. Saera’s grip on the gun handle tightened, but this only seemed to amuse Sulos.

  “I’d always had my doubts when your protégé showed up at our doorstep,” he said, turning his gaze on me. “It just felt too convenient to have captured this prominent member of the Subterran resistance and turn her into one of our pets.”

  My heart slammed into overdrive, and I focused on my breathing to at least keep the rest of my body steady. The way he was looking at me with that smirk on his face made my stomach churn.

  “No one believed me when I told them it was a trick. No one believed someone belonging to people so technologically inferior would ever be able to crack our code and set an enforcer free,” he said as he slowly lifted his hands. I tilted my head slightly, my weapon aimed at the space between his eyes. On the other side of the desk, Saera’s hand twitched, but he would be long dead before she would even be able to raise her weapon.

  To my surprise, the man started to applaud. Loud claps filled the room as he said, “It might have taken you two years, but you have successfully infiltrated my company to expose our plans, and now I have a proposition for you.”

  It remained silent on the other side of the coms, and I figured one of us would have to say something. It seemed he hadn’t informed security, or at least they hadn’t kicked down the door shooting their weapons. I wanted to keep it that way.

  “We’re listening,” I said, keeping my answer short. If Sulos knew Harp, then I could assume he knew the man wasn’t a talker. Saera’s head whipped sideways to give me a hard look. Like me, Sulos ignored her, and he gestured toward the seating area.

  “I’m an old man, Ms. Lux,” he said, taking a step in the direction of the couch. “If you don’t mind.”

  Without lowering my weapon, I took a step back to let him pass. Sulos didn’t seem at the least impressed by the weapons as he sauntered across the room to the seating area. Saera moved around the desk, and I waited for her to join me. Standing next to me, she whispered, “What are you doing?”

  “How should I know?” I whispered back. Sulos was out of earshot, but I didn’t want to take any chance. “Where’s Harp?”

  When no one replied, my blood started to boil. I couldn’t believe they would just keep us hanging here.

  “Did we lose the connection?” Saera asked. I checked my screen and shook my head. She drew in a deep breath and glanced around the room.

  “Well, we’re not dead yet, so maybe you should go talk to him,” she said.

  “What, why me?”

  “Because he didn’t address me before, so I’m guessing he doesn’t wanna talk to me,” she replied. “Besides, you’re the protégé.”

  I could almost taste the bitterness in her voice at the last words, but she had a point. Saera lingered behind me as I cautiously moved toward the seating area. My screen informed me our immediate surroundings were clear, but then I had thought that before Sulos showed up. He watched me as I approached with a gleeful expressing on his face.

  “Please sit,” he said, indicating a chair.

  “I’ll stand,” I said, my weapon pointed at his head.

  “Suit yourself. Then I’ll talk,” he said. “By now, your leadership will have seen a copy of the intel you have recovered from my workstation—correct?”

  “Agreed,” I replied with no idea if that were the case.

  “Then they know of our little resort in another part of this galaxy.”

  I gave him a quick nod to satisfy his questioning look, and he continued, “It has taken many resources over many years, and we are not done yet. We need to continue our efforts to build a new home, and we need the resources of this world to do it.”

  “And you’re willing to abuse the people of Subterra for your comfort,” I said in a bitter tone.

  Sulos raised his old body to sit up straighter and punched his fist on the armrest of the chair. Apparently, I had hit a nerve.

  “This is not about our comfort,” he said, raising his voice. “This is about saving our civilization. This planet is dying and the only way—”

  Getting tired of his rant, I cut him off.

  “These cities and this civilization will be able to survive for several hundred more years. Your goals could have been accomplished without enslaving the people of Subterra, so don’t tell me you’re not doing this for yourself.”

  “Besides, we’re not interested in your reasoning,” Saera said as she moved to stand by my side. “Just tell us what your proposition is.”

  Sulos crossed his legs, straightened his jacket, and relaxed into his seat.

  “Do nothing,” he said.

  My eyes narrowed as they met his to determine if his intentions were sincere, even though the software running a check on his facial expressions told me he was.

  “Leave everything the way it is, and we’ll make sure there is room for your leadership along with enough people to help us build a new world.”

  At my side, Saera looked as stunned as I felt before she snorted a laugh.

  “Yeah, right,” she said sounding amused, “I don’t think that’s going to work for us.” The words had barely left her mouth as her expression changed, and her eyes grew cold. “You think we’re willing to sacrifice thousands so a few can have a life of comfort.”

  Sulos had no trouble matching her expression, except that, along with the coldness, something evil hid inside his eyes. He shook his head in a slow, deliberate motion and lifted a finger to wiggle
in a similar manner.

  “No,” he said, “if you do not comply, we will use our technology to open up another wormhole and drain the remaining energy from the sun and leave this planet for dead within a year.”

  As he spoke, my eyes took in the green letters scrolling down my visor, and I took in the information downloaded from Sulos’s workstation.

  “What you call the beginning of a new world is nowhere near finished, and I doubt you have even started on the planet itself,” I said. From what I had gathered, that space station or whatever it was supposed to be was only the first step. For whatever reason, the planet that had the station orbiting around it wasn’t ready to sustain human life. It would probably need terraforming, and that could take decades. “You won’t risk this planet until you can be sure you’ll have a place to escape to.”

  Sulos chuckled before clearing his throat. “My dear,” he said, “it is true that we would prefer to continue as we have. The resources this planet provides us with will certainly expedite the process, but make no mistake about it: if need be, we’ll be ready within a year to leave you all behind to die on this miserable planet.”

  Sulos narrowed his eyes as he looked straight at me, and I wondered if he wanted my heads-up to confirm that he spoke the truth. He added, “Make no mistake: we are both willing and able to flip the switch that will bring on the destruction of this planet, but we are not fools and are also willing to seize opportunities where they lie—the question is, is your government ready to make the right choice?”

  For the first time since Sulos had entered the room, Saera lifted her weapon to point it at him.

  “You’re not going to get away with this,” she said.

  “My dear, I’m afraid you won’t have a choice in the matter,” Sulos said. “The choice lies with the Subterran leadership. We’ve had many dealings with them over the years, and I’m sure they’ll know what’s best.”