The Lifeline Signal

by RoAnna Sylver

  Xie paused, watching Aliyah’s face. She was frowning, but looking deep in thought instead of outright disapproving.

  “It’s because the new beacon frequency is really close to the one my mom used for the stream, the one we’ve been following,” Shiloh explained. “Almost ultraviolet—I’m sure I can copy that.” Xie wasn’t actually entirely sure. But even a slim hope was better than none.

  “We need all the boost we can get,” Annie added, still looking exhausted. She might have left the infirmary but clearly hadn’t slept. “Rowan’s down. And…” She cast a wary glance at Aliyah, who readjusted her feathers in an indignant sort of way. It seemed like an acknowledgement. She probably shouldn’t have even been sitting up, but insisted on hearing everything while as upright as possible. She studied Shiloh for a moment, then shot Jay a questioning look.

  “I mean, it sounds like a good idea,” he said with a slight shrug. “I dunno if it’ll actually work, but when’s that ever stopped us before? If it works, we could be done in a day instead of a week.”

  Aliyah looked over to where Rowan still lay and watched their chest rise and fall. The movement was slow and easy to miss—as Annie had already discovered a few frightening times—but still there.

  “Yeah,” Jay said, sounding like he wished he were saying anything else. “The sooner we get back to Parole, the better.” Aliyah looked back at him and the worried, pained expression she’d turned toward Rowan now sharpened into something firm and resolved. There was still a question in her face and he continued with even more reluctance. “And if it doesn’t work—we could undo everything we’ve done so far.”

  “Maybe one of us should go ahead,” Stefanos suggested, not sounding any more hopeful than Jay. “Take Rowan back to Parole. Everyone else can finish the job.”

  “We knew that was bull when Rowan said it,” Jay snorted. “And it doesn’t work any better coming from you. Like Annie said, we need all the help we can get, with half of us out of the action.”

  “Then what would you suggest?” Stefanos didn’t sound challenging, just tired.

  “Listening to Shiloh,” Jay said immediately. “I mean, what are our options? Go home now and Tartarus keeps spreading. That’s bad. Finish lighting ‘em up, and we lock Tartarus up, but the longer we spend out here…” He glanced over at Rowan, then back toward Aliyah, who still watched him carefully but was beginning to slump with fatigue. “That’s also bad. And when both options are bad…”

  “It’s time to take a third.” Shiloh was actually smiling. “Change the rules.”

  “That’s right, Nibling.” Jay grinned back, anxiety in his face overruled by pride. “We might have a chance yet.”

  “Fire everything at once and save the day?” Shiloh felt a shiver of excitement. Already the air around xir crackled with an electric charge. “Let’s light it up.”

  Aliyah took a deep breath and spoke her first slow, whispered words since the storm. “Worth a shot.”

  * ☆ *

  The FireRunner stopped around ten minutes before sunset. Before them loomed one of the dormant towers, stretching up into the vast sky. The gradual movement of the beacon’s long shadow marked the hours like a giant sundial. After the sun dipped below the horizon it would feel like all the light and warmth in the world had been extinguished. Shiloh didn’t have much of a problem with that. But it was still this crew’s job to make sure not every light went out.

  Aliyah stood on deck straight and tall, firmly holding the guard rail. “What do you need?” she asked, voice somewhat improved but nowhere near recovered.

  The question was overwhelming, as was the growing pain in xir head. The bright sun was painful, but anxiety made chiari symptoms grow worse as well, until it could no longer be ignored. But everything had a first step and Shiloh knew that one at least. “I need to be closer.”

  “Done.” Aliyah gave a sharp nod.

  “We’re doing this now?” xie asked, suddenly apprehensive.

  “Almost sundown,” she said, clearly trying to cram a great deal of thought into brief, difficult words. She nodded toward the beacon, then headed away in the direction of the bridge. “I’ll tell Stefanos and Jay to begin.”

  As the ship rumbled toward the tower, staying in its long afternoon shadow, Shiloh stood alone, stretched out xir short arms, and prayed this would work. Xie could hear Jay’s voice loud and clear; we are so related. “And I am so scared.”

  “Shiloh!” Indra’s voice cut through xir reverie and xie turned to see him hurrying up the nearest stairs from a deck below. “Figured you might want some company for this. Annie’s coming in a minute too.”

  “I…” Shiloh just looked at him. Suddenly xie couldn’t think of a single word that would possibly be enough. But xie could smile.

  “You doing okay?” Indra checked in, sounding about as anxious Shiloh felt.

  “I need to…” Shiloh wavered, chewing xir bottom lip. The deck vibrated underfoot as the ship moved toward the tower. They’d reach it in just a few minutes.

  “What do you need?” Indra asked quietly.

  “Not just closer…” Shiloh hesitated, trembling. Xie knew the answer, but didn’t want to say it. But xie made xirself turn toward the central mast. On it was the P.A. speaker and intercom for the top deck and a metal ladder leading up—to the crow’s nest. “I need to get higher.”

  “You sure? Like, absolutely sure?” Indra asked, looking up, and up. “That thing’s half as tall as the beacon.”

  “I know. I’ve never been this sure about anything,” Shiloh said, teeth clenched to keep them from chattering. “Listen. Ever since we woke up together in the tree, it’s been the weirdest, best time of my life. I know you understand.”

  “Yeah. Even when I’m awake.”

  “Then you have to know I’m serious about this. Help me. Please.”

  Indra hesitated, eyes wide, and mouth open with no sound coming out.

  “Or don’t. Because I’m going up anyway.” Here it was again. The uneasy, standing-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff feeling that everything was about to change. Like the calm before the storm, or the collapse of Parole, or the dragon in Meridian. This moment was the surface of a lake and there was something huge moving way down deep.

  Xie watched as Indra’s apprehension slowly faded into the smile xie knew would come. “And I’m right behind you. Ready?”

  “Yeah.” Shiloh put a hand on the first ladder rung, then stopped. “I mean no…” xie stammered and that stopped Indra too.

  “I’m right here. What else do you need?” Indra asked quietly, stepping closer, both hands on Shiloh’s shoulders. The ship came to a halt and everything was very still.

  Until a metal door banged open a level below. Annie stomped out, craning her neck straight up and shielding her eyes from the harsh setting sun. “Crap, it’s bright out here.”

  Shiloh smiled and the tension in xir shoulders melted away under Indra’s hands. “Her.”

  “What are you doing?” Annie yelled up at them.

  “Shiloh’s gonna light it up!” Indra called back, waving and pointing up at the crow’s nest. “All the way up!”

  “From up there?” She was either glaring or squinting in the bright sunlight. Shiloh still couldn’t tell which as she started up the stairs toward them alarmingly fast.

  Shiloh shot Indra a nervous glance, wondering if this was actually the good idea xie’d thought. “Uh, we thought—”

  “Without me?” Annie grinned, not a trace of doubt on her face. “Highest place on the ship. Really dangerous thing. But why?”

  “It’s the only way to get up level with the beacon!” Shiloh insisted, but slightly less confidently.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Listen, I know how it sounds, I know you guys think I’m—”

  “I don’t care how it sounds,” Annie said with the certainty Shiloh wished xie still felt. “I’m asking if you’re sure you can do this.”

  Shiloh looked up at the tower stretching up
into the sky, almost too high to see its top—then down at Annie and Indra, their faces filled with worry, excitement and faith. “I can do this.”

  Annie gave a firm nod. “We won’t let you fall.”

  All at once, the light overhead was gone. Like a massive candle being blown out, the beacon stood dark and dormant, and the world was much darker.

  “That’s Stefanos and Jay.” Annie nodded toward the extinguished light. “Whatever we’re doing, we better do it.”

  “Okay.” Shiloh gripped the first rung and immediately almost let go—even with the ship idle and the tower dim, the ladder was vibrating from the concentrated energy. But xie started up, hoping xie wasn’t about to topple to the hard deck below and die, taking xir friends down too.

  It felt like hours and vertical miles before they all found the relative safety of the crow’s nest. Eyes squeezed shut, Shiloh took a few seconds to orient xirself in this new height, holding on tight to the metal railing. Then xie looked up at the beacon. Xie absolutely did not look down.

  “You don’t have wings,” someone said, a rough voice coming from a speaker in the crow’s nest Shiloh hadn’t noticed. Xie carefully looked down to see Aliyah standing below, beside the mast’s lower intercom. She looked very small.

  “Shiloh needed to get higher,” Annie said back into the crow’s nest speaker.

  “It’ll work better from up here,” Shiloh added.

  Alilyah paused, probably evaluating the very solid danger versus yet-insubstantial rewards. Then she spread her hands and wings in a gesture that looked like a shrug. “First thing goes wrong, you’re down here. No arguing.”

  “Understood,” Shiloh said, not sure if xie was relieved or terrified.

  “Work careful, but work fast. Not much time.”

  “Is something wrong?” Annie leaned a bit over the guard rail, peering down at the captain, who even from up here seemed tense.

  “Not yet.” Aliyah shut off the intercom and it fell silent.

  The wind was picking up. It howled around the high mast, rushing around them like a fast-moving current. Even with the light dormant, the beacon’s energy sent a piercing vibration through the air.

  “I can feel it,” Shiloh shouted to be heard over the sound. “But I need…” Suddenly xie didn’t know.

  “Words aren’t doing it anymore, are they?” Annie asked when Shiloh hesitated. She smiled. “So don’t use them. They’ll be here when you get back. So will we.”

  “You got this,” Indra said, arm going around xir shoulders. “You got this, and we got you.”

  Shiloh smiled and closed xir eyes. One more moment of quiet. One more deep breath. “Okay, I'm ready.”

  Shiloh raised xir arms and the keening grew so loud Indra had to cover his ears. Annie plugged one with her free hand and pressed the other ear against Shiloh’s shoulder to shut out the noise. Shiloh stretched xir fingers to the sky as if drawing power down from the sun for once instead of just pain.

  Just like in Meridian, xir heart started to race. Xie’d felt it a hundred times now, the sense that they’d all been here before. The three of them stood together, higher than any of them had been in their lives. The tree from the dream was far below them. Everything was below them. Everything but one another.

  “It’s just like at the barrier,” Indra said in xir ear. “But now we’re on the same side!”

  Shiloh smiled as another familiar feeling rushed back. A beautiful, warm, electric surge flowing through xir veins; the opposite of fear, the opposite of suffocation, stillness, or death. It began in xir palms but it didn’t end there.

  Light rushed from xir hands, streaking up toward the beacon in long, flowing strings, energy sending shivers rushing down their spines, a wave of goosebumps so intense it hurt. Shiloh's hair didn't just feel like it was standing on end, but floating. All of them were floating. Like everything in the world was weightless, lifted by the most powerful magnetic force imaginable, charged and eternally linked.

  Above, the dormant beacon flared to life, answering Shiloh’s signal with all force. Instead of a plain, stark white, its light was now neon purple, so bright it seemed like a second sun had come down to earth, washing it an unearthly violet. Shiloh laughed, head spinning in a rush, feeling free, high, small, and terrified all at once. Xir hands curled into fists around the glowing cords and held on.

  “You got this,” Indra kept whispering to Shiloh, arms wrapped tight around xir instead of the railing. His teeth chattered and his voice shook with every syllable. “You got this, and we got you.”

  Annie planted her feet, one hand on his shoulder and one on Shiloh’s, her straining eyes fixed on the new light. “It’s working,” she said quietly. “But when does it—”

  The world disappeared in a flash of brilliant light. It took several painful seconds for their eyes to re-adjust. When it did, everything had changed.

  As before, the raw energy split from a single bright flare into a violet stream stretching out across the distance. But there were many now instead of just one, arcing up into the sky, crisscrossing and weaving together to form a huge network like a giant glowing spiderweb. Between the strands was the same iridescent, bubble-like forcefield as the one over Meridian. Maureen’s designs, power just turned up many, many notches. Shiloh smiled, soaking in the warmth of the energy strings flowing from xir hands all the way up to the beacon, and didn’t let go or look away.

  Below them, Aliyah was staring too. She didn’t move but she did spread her wings, feathers seeming to reach for the light.

  “There it is.” Shiloh stared in awe at the incredible sight. “I did that. Do you know how that feels?”

  “I kind of think I do,” Annie whispered back, shaking. “You okay?”

  Shiloh slowly nodded, face shining with sweat. Xir chest was filled with a tossing storm xie couldn’t begin to sort into words. Xie didn’t open xir fists, keeping the stream flowing.

  “Continue lighting the beacon,” a voice suddenly commanded. It was not Aliyah’s and it didn’t come from the speaker. Maintaining the streams, Shiloh turned to see the sun had set, and now bright searchlights sliced through the gathering dark. The harsh white beams, and the voice, came from another ship, and the distance between them was shrinking fast.

  “This is of the highest importance.” Major David Turret’s amplified voice cut through the wind and humming energy. “Thousands of lives depend on your success.”

  “What?” Shiloh whispered, turning to look back at the oncoming ship. Xie was so lightheaded and absorbed in the light streams, Turret’s words were almost nonsense syllables.

  “Oh no.” Annie’s grip tightened until she dug her fingernails into her friends’ shoulders. None of them seemed to notice. “Oh, God. Why is he here?”

  One of the searchlights landed on the crow’s nest, lighting them up as harshly as the beacon’s light, and blinding everyone inside.

  “Everything is going according to plan.” Turret’s voice sounded calm, but it still sent shivers down Shiloh’s spine. “Once the barrier is in place, Tartarus will be contained and neutralized.”

  “That ship,” Annie continued, sounding near-panicked. “That’s Turret’s voice, but Sharpe’s ship! Sharpe is here, these are the lights, no, no—”

  “What does that mean?” Indra yelled, covering his face to block out the light with his free arm.

  “Get down!” Annie cried, falling to her knees and trying to drag Indra and Shiloh down with her. “Sharpe is a sniper! We’re in the spotlight! He’s aiming a gun at us right now!”

  “Raise the barrier!” Turret’s voice was getting more intense; the ship had to be nearing fast. “Turn on the lights!”

  Shiloh didn’t move. Even with Annie and Indra both trying to pull xir down behind the minimal safety of the crow’s nest wall, xie stood firm, keeping the stream of light flowing up to the beacon and new barrier.

  “Get down!” Annie, or maybe Indra yelled, xie couldn’t tell anymore. “He killed Ash, he’l
l kill you too!”

  “Raise the barrier,” Turret repeated at the same time, words all jumbling together until they meant nothing.

  “No,” Shiloh whispered, staring at the new barrier dome; the light reflected in xir mirrored lenses. “That’s not right.”

  “Shiloh, get down!” Definitely Indra. “Forget the barrier! Forget the lights, forget the ghosts, forget Icarus, all of it! Just get down!”

  “Icarus…” Shiloh’s heart began to pound, fists trembling, not from pure adrenaline, but realization. “They want me to—”

  “Turn on the lights!”

  “No!” Shiloh fell backwards, wrenching xir hands away. The long stream followed behind, but it didn’t break. Xie almost let out a panicked yelp—now instead of controlling the energy, it held xir in place. The energy stream had become a tether and Shiloh was chained to the barrier, unable to break the connection. Both fists were locked, paralyzed, and xie couldn’t stop the stream no matter how xie tried.

  “What do I do?!” Shiloh yelled, voice straining and heart pounding. The overwhelming power was terrifying now and xie couldn’t turn it off. The barrier’s curve blazed so brightly it seemed about to eclipse the entire world. Xie could almost feel the crosshairs on the back of xir head line up with the spotlight. “It’s too much!”

  The answer came, but not from anyone xie could see. It didn’t even come from Turret.

  (Turn out the lights.) Shiloh heard the new voice without hearing it. It felt like someone was whispering in xir ear and from far away at the same time. Or maybe from a tree in a dream. Xie remembered dragons.

  “How?” Shiloh called again. Xie tasted salt and realized tears were streaming from xir eyes. “How do I do it?”

  (Icarus.) Suddenly all Shiloh could hear was wind in branches and crackling flames. Back where it all began. Clutching a branch instead of a stream of searing hot energy, trying just as desperately to hang on. Letting go meant falling into darkness and fire below. Hanging on a second longer meant bursting into flame.