Strangers and Shadows

by John Kowalsky

  After a few seconds, Kid replied, “It is enough. Goodbye, Father.”

  Before Desmond realized what was happening, the rings swelled in size and then contracted down to nothing. They were gone, and Kid with them.

  Desmond stood and stared at the empty place the rings had occupied with tears in his eyes. “Goodbye, Son.”

  Steady Now

  Julia’s new body was wet. She opened her eyes. She was on the floor, no, she was in the shower. Her new body must have fallen when the transfer took place.

  One by one, Julia checked her limbs for motor function. It took a few seconds, but finally her hand responded to her mind’s bidding.

  She reached up and shut off the shower. The water ran down the bottom of the tub, tickling her spine before exiting into the drain.

  Every little sensation was extraordinary. She could feel the wind caused by her exhalation. Every water drop that ran down her skin sent tingles through her nervous system.

  Julia stood up, flexing the muscles in her new legs. She had forgotten how it felt to be young. Her old body had been fit and in perfect health, but there was something different about a body maintained by nanites and one that was naturally maintained by raw youth.

  She stepped in front of the mirror and admired her naked body. It was beautiful. She turned left and right, twisting, watching the way her body glistened in the light.

  Julia moved her face closer to the mirror and stared into her own eyes. “Hello, Ava,” she said. “Are you still in there somewhere?”

  It mattered little to Julia where Ava’s consciousness was. She was in control of Ava’s body. But the thought that Ava might be in there somewhere, unable to do anything but watch, actually gave Julia a perverse thrill.

  Julia let her new hand trail down her flat stomach to the warmth in between her legs. “Oh my,” she gasped, a bit surprised at how much the thought of Ava watching excited her.

  She quickly but reluctantly dismissed the feeling. There would be time to explore her new body’s capacity for pleasure later. For now, she had to make sure the invasion was proceeding according to plan.

  Julia dressed, exited Ava’s apartment, and entered the lift that would take her to the transport. Once aboard the hover, she thought back to the expression on Desmond’s face when he received word of the invasion. You weren’t able to see that coming, were you, Dez, she thought. She would have liked to transfer earlier, but without the gateway, she had no connection to the Mother. Lucky for her, the false memories she had constructed gave Desmond no warning of the gateway’s arrival. Not that he would have been able to stop it, even if he had known. But if there was one thing she had learned during her time in the Sixth, it was, to never underestimate her estranged husband.

  She turned her mind to the undertaking at hand. The Mother Brain Construct would be her gift to all of mankind—an arc for humanities many consciousnesses, but more than that, it was eternal life. A way to be reborn, again and again, with no loss of memory or personality. It was an improvement to the design flow of humanity.

  Never again would a parent lose a child, or a husband lose a wife to old age or war or freak occurrence.

  Julia arrived at the hangar and stepped into absolute chaos. There was no sign of the portal rings, and soldiers were scattered all around. Some were getting back to their feet, but most were lying on the ground barely stirring. Goddamn you, Desmond. Somehow he had already beaten her back and found a way to close the portal.

  She instructed her nanites to broadcast her rank and found the nearest ranking officer. “Report, Major.” Her tone reflected her displeasure.

  “We were ambushed… We’re not sure how or who…” the Major reported, his voice trembled slightly as he spoke.

  “What about the gateway? What exactly happened here, Major?”

  “From what some of the men have told me, it just vanished. I was knocked unconscious, myself… Most of us were, ma’am.”

  “Where is Dorian?” Julia barked. Obviously if she was to learn what had happened here, she would have to find a more competent source of information.

  Before the Major could answer, a voice called out. “Julia, Is that you?”

  She looked up to see Dorian making his way through the mess of discarded equipment and personnel. “Dorian, hello.” She gave him a wicked smile, momentarily forgetting her state of ire. She spun around slowly, showing off her new body. “What do you think?”

  Dorian laughed. “I knew you’d find a good use for that spoiled little brat.”

  “Perhaps later I can show you some of those uses I’ve found…” There was a devious twinkle in her eyes. “But right now, I need to know what happened here. How many troops got through the gateway, and have we made contact with them yet?”

  “I was in the control room when it happened. I’m still trying to figure out how he managed it. The system should have prevented it, but our computers don’t show any signs of intrusion or tampering.”

  “What about the troops? How many made it through?”

  Dorian paused a moment, collecting the data through the nanites from the main frame. “Roughly sixty-three percent. Colonel Travis has reported from the other side. They’ve managed to set up a dead zone HQ in the heart of Cairo, and they’re preparing the next phase now.”

  “Good.” The news put Julia in a much more relaxed mood. “So, with the exception of a smaller force, everything is right on schedule?”

  “That’s correct.” Changes to the plan would have to be made, but the overall goal would remain the same: Take over the major population centers and begin the injection of nanites into the citizens of the Sixth. Finally their two verses would become one race of equals and the Mother would serve them all, granting peace and eternal life.

  “Inform Colonel Travis that I expect hourly reports on the developments,” Julia said. “And get this place cleaned up.” She turned to the Major. “You will be in charge of that… and for God’s sake, get the EM field back up around the complex. I don’t want anymore surprise visits from our soon to be brothers and sisters.”

  Desmond arrived back in his office in Cairo, not sure what to expect. None of the soldiers back at the hangar knew anything significant about the invasion. From what he had gathered from their minds, they only knew that they were to go through the gate and receive their orders on the other side. Most of them didn’t even know where the gateway led.

  As it turned out, Desmond should have picked a better place to jump back to. He immediately felt different… empty. Something was wrong. He reached out and searched for others around him and felt nothing.

  The damn EMF generators! He should have suspected something like that from Julia. It would be the only way to keep her troops from being easily overtaken, and with the aid of the EMF’s, Desmond and his people would be essentially powerless against their attack.

  They would target the major cities first, Desmond was sure of it, and trap as much of the population before a plan of resistance could be implemented.

  Desmond sat down on the floor and crossed his legs in the lotus position. His powers might be gone temporarily, but the ability to clear his mind wasn’t. A plan began to form, but he would need all the help he could get.

  The first thing Desmond did was pull out the old communicator he had stashed in his apartment. There were countless people from the Sixth who would undoubtedly frown upon such technology being in his possession, but he had always been the careful type, planning for every contingency. He was thankful for that now.

  “Wizard, are you there?” Desmond waited for the old man to respond and hoped that he hadn’t been found out. There was danger in using the comm. It could be traced and eventually decrypted. If they were monitoring the frequency he was using, his plan might be thwarted before it ever got underway.

  “Desmond, is that you, old friend?” Wizard’s voice was warm and welcome on the other end. Wizard had used the distraction of the invasion to jump back to the Seventh while Jack and Celia too
k Asher for help. With most of the Seventh’s attention focused on invading the Sixth, it gave him the best opportunity to return undetected.

  “Wizard, listen. I don’t have much time to explain. I’m stuck here in the Sixth. I need you to get in touch with Celia and make sure she doesn’t get stranded here as well. Also, do you remember that little theoretical conversation we had a few decades back?” Desmond desperately hoped he did, as he didn’t have the time or the secure line to go into any more detail. “I’m afraid the day has come for the solution to that problem. They’ve gone too far. I need you to get it ready and bring it to me. That’s all I can say right now, I don’t know who’s listening. This is the last time I’ll contact you on this comm. Goodbye, old friend, and good luck.”

  Desmond turned off the comm and then pulled it apart piece by piece. The hundred or so parts swirled around in a miniature tornado before sweeping through an open window where Desmond dispelled them in a final blast of energy. Or, at least, that’s what he tried to do. His abilities were still being jammed. Instead, he smashed the comm under his heel several times, giving it one last grind before gathering the pieces up in his hands and taking them to the window, where he flung them out into the wind filled sky.

  The lapse in memory carried a significant lesson. Desmond was grateful to have learned it without dire consequences, this time, at least.

  Outside the window, he could see the Seventh’s soldiers moving through the mostly empty streets. Here and there, some of his people were being chased down by armed men. They turned, some making motions with their hands, only to realize as Desmond had, that the intended effects were not forthcoming. With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Desmond watched as the group of people surrendered, unable to do anything else.

  This was the lesson Desmond had learned. Without their abilities, his people were blind. To forget that for even a moment could be disastrous. They would have to adapt quickly if they were to have any chance of mounting a resistance.

  A flash of light turned Desmond’s attention from the window, where he found his daughter and her companion, Jack Spade. “Of course,” Desmond muttered. There was a sense of resignation to his voice. He could tell it was going to be one of those days, when nothing was easy.

  “Why the long face, Dad?” Celia asked.

  “No matter, dear. I had hoped to send word to you before you tried to come home, but I take it my message did not find you in time.” Celia gave a quick shake of her head and Desmond continued. “You’re probably noticing something different about the place right around now.” He waited a moment for realization to dawn on her. When he saw she had grasped it, he went on. “In your absence, your Mother has invaded our world. I had thought her content with imposing her will on the Seventh, but, apparently, her ambition has no bounds.

  Celia paused and reflected on the circumstances she now faced. She didn’t know how to feel about her mother. It was one thing to be estranged from her, but, now, her mother’s actions put her firmly in the role of enemy. The shock of being without her abilities had her wired enough, but to realize her mother was behind all of this was actually hurtful.

  A tear spilled down her cheek. “Well, she’s made her decision then,” Celia said, more to herself then anyone else. She had been a grown woman for decades now, but some wounds never fully heal, no matter how old they are.

  Jack put a caring hand on her shoulder, but she quickly shrugged it off.

  “Now’s not the time,” she snapped. Jack pulled his hand back, as if she had been a snake about to strike him. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she apologized. “I didn’t mean to be like that.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jack said, instantly regretting the last few moments of his life.

  Desmond stood, watching the two of them interact. He was mildly amused with the pairing. It reminded him a little of himself and Julia, back in the beginning, anyway, before all of this.

  “So... What’s going on here, then?” Jack asked.

  Celia answered first. “Our abilities are gone. No doubt being jammed, much like they were back in the Third. Apparently, we have my bitch of a mother to thank for it. That army outside is hers. The question I’d like to know is why? What does she gain by invading the Sixth?”

  “So you guys can’t do your magic trick thingy anymore?” Jack smiled.

  “Nice to see you can still make jokes at a time like this, Jack.” Celia punched him in the arm. Hard.

  “Son of a bitch!” Jack smarted, rubbing his hand over his arm. He’d forgotten how strong she was.

  “And for my next magic trick thingy…” Celia said, eyeing his body for a good place to land another blow.

  “Alright! I get it!” Jack raised his hands in mock surrender. “You can still hurt me without your abilities.” He backed out of reach. “Where does that leave us?”

  Celia turned to face Desmond. “Dad?”

  Desmond stood silently for a moment before replying. “An excellent question, Jack. It leaves us here…” he motioned with his hands, “stranded in this Verse. At least for a while. I have Celia’s uncle working on a solution, but that may take some time. In the meantime—”

  “What about this?” Jack asked, holding up his left hand and twisting it. Around his wrist he wore a jump watch.

  “Ahh, yes,” Desmond breathed. “That is excellent. I hadn’t thought of that. Then again, I wasn’t planning on either of you being here.” He held his hand out, gesturing for the watch. Jack slipped it off and placed it in Desmond’s waiting palm. Desmond gave it a quick once over, noting a few scratches in the otherwise shiny metal, and nodded his approval. “With this, at least you two can get out of the Sixth, and maybe help Wizard, should he need it.”

  “What about you? What will you be doing?” Jack asked. “Wouldn’t it be better if you came with us?”

  “He can’t come, Jack.”

  “Well, that’s not entirely true.” Desmond said, not sure why he was contradicting his daughter.

  Celia shot her father an icy look, followed by a quick smile. “He can’t come if both of us go.” She turned and looked for Desmond’s approval. “There… Is that entirely true?”

  Desmond laughed. “Sorry, Celia, I’m not sure why I said that.” He faced the window, looking at the city spread out before them. “What my dearest daughter says, is true, Jack. The watch can only open a portal for two, at best. Any more and the wormhole might collapse before we all cross through.”

  Celia winced. “It’s not a pretty sight. Sometimes body parts are left behind, cleanly cut, blood oozing everywhere. Sometimes nothing at all is left behind, but nothing will show up on the other side either.”

  “Jesus, is it safe to use these things at all?” Jack was beginning to have serious doubts about traveling back and forth between the Verses. Had he already cheated death before, and not known how close a call it might have been?

  “Relax, Jack, it’s perfectly safe,” Desmond reassured him. “Provided that you don’t exceed the safety parameters of two people.”

  “Yeah, I remember when they were testing these things… I was just a little girl. We were visiting Uncle Wizard while Mom was attending some state meeting, when the news came in over the nets. Before Uncle Wizard could shut it off, they’d shown a video of the test run.”

  “If I recall correctly, you had nightmares for months after that,” Desmond said.

  “Ugh, yeah. It was terrible.” Celia remembered the horrible dreams that started after that news cast. She would wake in the middle of the night and run into her parents’ room, bawling her eyes out. Her dad would always be sitting up in bed, already waiting for her, the psychic distress she was under alerting him before her little legs could physically carry her down the hall into his room. Mom would wake up a second later, full of concern and comfort.

  Remembering the way her mother used to be made Celia sad. How far apart they had grown since those childhood days, so many years ago.

  Jack snapped her out of the daydream, qu
ite literally, his fingers popping repeatedly in front of her face. “Hello, Earth to Celia… You in there?”

  “Yes. Sorry. Got caught up for a moment there.” She shivered.

  “Wait, why don’t we just make two trips?” Jack asked. “I could jump out with Celia, and then come back and jump out with you.”

  “That would probably work, sure, but I need to be here, anyway, organizing a resistance, and gathering any intelligence on this invasion that I can,” Desmond replied. “Most of my people haven’t had any experience with the Seventh or any of their technological ways. I can’t just leave them here to deal with this on their own.”

  “Alright, sounds good. You wanna tell us what the plan is? How do you and the old man expect to win this thing?” Jack asked.

  “Wizard will fill you in. It’s best if he tells you, just in case you’re captured before you reach him, you’ll have no knowledge of it.”

  Celia and her father said their goodbyes as Jack watched. Single tears ran down their cheeks as they hugged. They kissed each other on the cheeks, embraced once more and parted without speaking. Desmond turned to him. “Take care of each other, Jack.”

  He shook Desmond’s hand. “You have my word.”

  Desmond nodded his appreciation, his cheek still wet. “You two should go now.”

  Wordlessly, Celia walked over to where Jack stood and slipped her arm through his. She entered their destination into the watch on Jack’s wrist and opened a gate into the MultiVerse.

  “I love you, darling,” Desmond told his daughter.

  Jack and Celia stepped into the gate, and with a flash of light, they were away.

  Gollum In The Gears

  Julia woke up in a sweat. In her dream, the darkness had been about to swallow her. It had sharp pointy teeth. It was the darkness she had unleashed on the Fourth.

  She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Sweat trickled down her chest as she looked over at Dorian asleep next to her in bed. His naked torso protruded from the sheet. He looked peaceful, and Julia hoped that his dreams were more serene than hers.