Gestern

by J. Grace Pennington

  But why?

  “You don’t have any way to reach anyone outside the country?”

  He shook his head. “Internet, phone, and radio have all been down ever since Edmunds backed off. I thought it was just lack of funding, but now I’m wondering if he wasn’t also blocking the signals.”

  “So we can’t leave. We can’t contact anyone. We can’t even do any research.” My chest tightened as I looked at him.

  He pinched his lips together. “We know they want you dead. They’ll find some way to make that happen, even if they have to nuke the castle and be done with it.” He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. “We should probably sleep in the bomb shelter tonight.”

  “And after that?”

  He sighed. “You ask a lot of questions.”

  Heat rose to my cheeks. “Maybe it’s because I’m worried about my brother and sister.”

  I felt bad as soon I said it, but he only looked at me and said, “You need sleep.”

  “I don’t feel like sleeping.”

  “Neither do I, but we still need it. We can’t do anything right now, definitely not when we’re this exhausted.”

  Frustration stabbed at my heart. “There has to be something we can do. We can go out and rescue them. It’ll be dark soon.”

  He spoke evenly and, again, too calmly in reply. “I’m guessing we’re outnumbered and they’re armed. They want you dead, remember? And if you die, there’s definitely nothing, that we know of, keeping the other two alive.”

  I closed my eyes, weariness sweeping over my body. He was right. And I hated it.

  “Where is the bomb shelter?”

  CHAPTER XIV

  We kept quiet as we gathered food, pillows, and blankets and headed to the bomb shelter. It was deeper underground than I’d been yet, and I could feel the weight of gravity increasing with every step as I followed him down further below the castle.

  Even all the way down there he’d installed electricity. Simple electric lights hung along the stone stairway, and when we reached a thick wooden door at the bottom of the stairs he opened it, fumbled inside, then flipped on an array of old-fashioned light bulbs wired along the ceiling. He entered the room and I followed, shifting the load of blankets and pillows as I walked through the door.

  The vast, windowless stone room was more than a little sparse. A small temp regulator and microven sat against the far wall, two cots to the right, and a minuscule wooden table to the left. That was all.

  The first thing Dred did was set his box of food on the table, step across the room, and drag one of the cots to the opposite wall. I smiled a little and wanted to thank him, but I didn’t feel like breaking the silence. I stumbled over to the remaining cot and let my soft bundle tumble to the floor beside it.

  Galactic Lucy fell out and thumped softly against the stone at my feet.

  My throat filled with a large lump and my vision blurred as I picked it up and stared into its plush, perpetually smiling eyes.

  “I hope you’re safe,” I whispered.

  Footsteps echoed and Dred’s hand entered my field of vision but stopped just short of the doll. He said nothing but I handed it to him, feeling like he’d torn a piece from my heart as he took it.

  “Did she tell you where she got it?” he asked, his voice cracking a little but otherwise calm.

  “Yes.”

  He just kept looking at it. “I gave her all the other toys. But this was the one she loved best, of course.”

  I tried to read his emotion. Did he resent that she loved the doll from her mother more than those from him, or was he only sorry for her loss?

  He handed the doll back to me but I made no move to take it. After a moment he retreated to his side of the room and propped it against his cot.

  I didn’t want to eat, talk, or even think. I just wrapped myself in blankets and laid on the soft but rickety cot. Was it even night time yet? I didn’t know. All I knew was coldness, exhaustion, and worry.

  Lord... keep them safe. Keep me safe. I looked across the room at Dred, who was seated on the edge of his cot working with a large-screened pad. Help... us know what to do. Please keep the Doctor safe... send help... Lord, I’m scared. I closed my eyes and tried to rest in Him, as the Doctor had taught me to. Hadn’t our God pulled us safely through a dozen other terrors? How many would it take before I trusted Him instead of feeling this constant unrest and fear?

  August... I hope you’re safe. I love you.

  I focused on my breathing until I fell asleep.

  The beginning of the dream was becoming familiar now. A black space. Bars. A little girl. Cold. Wet. Crying. Alone.

  This time though, her hair was golden rather than black.

  “Doctor?” she called.

  I called. Me this time. Small me.

  Footsteps sounded. I straightened up, hoping against hope that it was the Doctor coming to take me home.

  Instead a nearly white face with dark, dark eyes appeared. Eyes so dark they hardly seemed to be eyes—more like holes in the paper-white face.

  August.

  I was confused. Should I be scared of him, or not? I knew instinctively, as if I were aware of the dream, that I had no reason to be afraid. August. So unassuming. So quiet. So very undangerous.

  So why was my blood frozen?

  “Where’s the Doctor and Crash?” I whimpered.

  “Gone,” he said in his distinctive accent.

  “Gone where?”

  “Just gone.”

  I looked around in all directions for them. “Doctor! Crash!” I screamed.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, still standing at the bars. “They’re gone.”

  Like an actor rushing on stage after missing their cue, fear rose in my chest. I started screaming, looking desperately to both sides for the Doctor or Crash, and as I looked and screamed August just kept saying, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” over and over.

  This time when I flew awake there was no one hugging or shaking me and no hand on my forehead. Instead I panted, alone in the dark, mind still screaming at the felt loss and confusion.

  Not so alone. “Andi?”

  Dred’s voice, hesitant, but nearby. I turned my head and saw him standing a meter away from the cot, his thin face barely visible in the light from the pad in his hand.

  “Are you okay?”

  I didn’t know what to say. I managed to enunciate a single syllable in my disorientation. “Yeah.”

  “Do you need a minute?”

  I wanted to say no but my heart still pounded, pulse thumping in my ears, so I said yes. I let my head turn back again and sucked in a few deep breaths.

  Breathe. Just breathe. Just a stupid dream. You’re okay. Everything will be okay. It will.

  I finally calmed my pulse and wrestled myself into a sitting position, untangling myself from the blankets as I went. “What time is it?”

  “Four a.m.”

  I nodded, blinking, still trying to ground my thoughts.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I’m fine. What do you need?” I looked up at him and focused intently on his angular features, trying to shut out all other mental processes.

  “I think I figured something out.” He stepped forward and glanced at the cot. I scooted over to give him plenty of room and he settled down next to me and put the pad in front of me. I squinted against the light but tried to interpret the words on the screen.

  “What is this?”

  He laid a forefinger on the surface. “I’ve been going over and over Erasmus’s findings. Radialloy is from a mine on Qandon, right? But the mine was destroyed when the star went supernova.”

  This was old news and I nodded, still trying to shake the grogginess.

  “I have all of Eras—well, your father’s records. I’ve been trying to use that information to synthesize radialloy for years, but I never could get it quite right. I could come close—within two elements, but never any closer. Leeke and Mars thought
if we had the actual substance we could clone it, which is why they tried to find you.”

  “Okay.”

  “Here’s the thing though. I’ve been watching your father’s experiments all night. He put the radialloy through hundreds of tests to study its effects. Radiation was the only thing that affected it. He even tried subjecting it to extreme heat—I’m talking millions of degrees Celsius.”

  I wasn’t following. I looked up at him. “What does that have to do with Edmunds?”

  He pulled the pad back into his lap. “Andi... what if it wasn’t the supernova that destroyed the radialloy?”

  What if? I tried to let that idea sink in.

  He went on. “There was no way for Erasmus to simulate that level of heat, but he got as close as he could with no effect on the alloy whatsoever. Not the tiniest iota of molecular change. Nothing.”

  “You’re saying... heat...”

  “The supernova might have just scattered the radialloy rather than destroying it.”

  My mind finally began working, slowly at first but speeding up rapidly. “But how is that possible? The machine my father used to find me would have detected the other pieces.”

  “I know. It must have been scattered into microscopic dust, if not atomically altered. But the supernova couldn’t do that.”

  I thought back to the piece in my knee and what was causing it to die. I stiffened. “Radiation?”

  He nodded.

  “You don’t mean...” My head started hurting a little as my thoughts raced. “Edmunds destroyed it somehow? But why would he?”

  “What if he didn’t mean to?”

  I just stared at him, trying in vain to force my sleepy brain to follow his line of thought.

  “Doesn’t it seem like a coincidence that there would be a supernova and radiation that destroyed the radialloy both at the same time?”

  It all clicked into place and my heart thumped. I met his eyes in the dim light from the pad. “A common cause.”

  We knew Edmunds wanted power. What greater power could there be than the power to cause supernovae and wipe out entire planets or solar systems?

  He stood up. “He doesn’t want to find a cure for Langham’s disease. He wants to cover his tracks. If anyone realizes the supernova didn’t destroy the radialloy, they’ll start digging. I’m guessing there’s something incriminating out there. Something he can’t get rid of.”

  “That’s why he funded your research,” I realized aloud. “He wanted to make sure you didn’t get too close to the truth. Plus if you really did discover an alternate cure, nobody would care about radialloy anymore.”

  “And when he finally tracked you down, he figured if he got you out of the way and destroyed the last bit of it, the case would be closed. No cloning. He would probably wipe me out and all my research, too. Just leave it one big unsolved mystery. Without any of your father’s research or any surviving specimens, nobody could hope to duplicate the radialloy, so they’d move on to something else.”

  I jumped up. “But if the Qandon supernova was a test, what’s next?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not exactly sure,” he said, letting his pad screen go black, “but I think it’s a safe bet that it involves Earth.”

  October 23rd, 2321

  10:14 p.m.

  Baltimore, United States

  Captain Trent took a last look at the Surveyor as he exited, admiring the gleam of its white exterior in the moonlight. The repairs were well on track to be finished by their slated completion time. “It’ll be good to get going again,” he told the ship, patting her hull as he started down the ramp.

  Guilders was waiting for him just outside the station doors, arms behind his back, bushy white eyebrows lowered over his eyes.

  “Why so glum?” He poked Guilders in the ribs with one forefinger.

  Guilders remained unmoved and held out a small pad. “Gerard wants to talk to you.”

  Trent immediately went serious and took the pad. “Hello? What’s up, Gerry?”

  The voice coming from the speakers was more worried than he’d ever heard it. “I haven’t heard from Andi or August for days. When I try to call or send a message, it won’t go through. And I can’t find any information on Crash’s case. I don’t even know where he is.”

  Trent’s chest tightened. “Your senator friend can’t help you?”

  “He said he doesn’t know anything. He called the Austrian police personally but they won’t tell him anything about Crash. And no one has seen Andi or August since they left Vienna.”

  “When was that?”

  “Four days ago.”

  Trent’s mouth went dry and he tried to swallow, thoughts racing. “I’ll look into it, Gerry. Tell me if you hear anything.”

  He hung up and looked at Guilders. Guilders just looked back, waiting.

  Finally Trent asked, “How do you feel about a quick trip to Germany?”

  Guilders raised his eyebrows.

  CHAPTER XV

  Dred talked while he loaded his backpack upstairs in the kitchen. I sat and listened, my own pack full on the floor next to me.

  “Edmunds doesn’t know everything,” he explained. “There are some passages that aren’t on the plans I sent him; we can get out through those. If we’re lucky, we can get past his men and get away.”

  If God protects us, I silently corrected. “And if we’re caught?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t think they’ll wait much longer to find a way to get you here. Which means they won’t need your brother anymore. So I don’t think we should wait any longer.”

  “And Ursula?”

  I watched as his gaze shifted to the smiling, blonde doll on the table. “Hopefully they’ll keep her as bait.”

  He handed me some freeze-dried provisions to add to my backpack. “Worst case scenario, they catch us and we can try to talk them into just taking the radialloy instead of your life.”

  “But...” my stomach twisted. “I’ll die if they take it.”

  He paused to look me in the eyes. “Not right away. You’ll definitely die if they kill you.”

  I swallowed. “But... why would they let us go, even if they do get it?”

  “They might think no one would believe you. But it might not come to that. I’m hoping that once we get far enough away we’ll be able to call for some help.”

  I unzipped my pack and put the food inside. “And what happens with Ursula if we do rescue her?”

  He didn’t look at me. “I haven’t gotten that far yet.”

  I didn’t ask my final question. How do I know you’re telling the truth about any of this? August was right. I could be too trusting at times. I remembered how easily Leeke and Mars had taken me in, and how entranced I had been by our last adversary, Captain Felix Holloway, not to mention Edmunds himself. What if all this is a trap? What if he’s just leading me to them?

  The thought terrified me, but one thing I knew for sure: he loved Ursula. She was too young to lie about his treatment of her. I remembered her little hand smoothing my hair just two nights ago and nearly choked on the lump in my throat.

  As long as my safety complemented hers, I was as safe as he could keep me.

  He slung the backpack on his shoulder and looked at his wristcom—useless for communication and now good only for the telling of time, like the watches of old. “The bats will be coming back in about twenty minutes. They’ll be enough distraction to hide us from any noise or motion sensors Edmunds’ men may have trained on the place, if they’re out there. Once we’re in the woods we just get as far away as we can, then you can try to contact your friends.”

  I slipped my arms through my bag’s straps. “Do you have anyone to contact for help?”

  Bending slightly, he picked up Lucy and held her gently, staring into the lifeless eyes. “No. No one.”

  I resisted the tug on my heart.

  He slipped the doll into his bag and faced me. “There’s one more thing I need to do, then we can head to the
passage and wait.”

  I followed him into the second lab, the one from which he had procured the rat earlier.

  “Can you help me?” he asked. I was about to ask what we were doing, but stopped when he opened the nearest cage and left its door swinging free. I smiled a little.

  In five minutes we had all the cages open, and rats and other vermin were already beginning to hesitantly slip from the openings to the cold floor.

  “I’ll disable the poison release system for the door we exit by and leave it open,” he explained, alleviating the question I was only beginning to form. Then he took a few steps to a nearby desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a hypo. He reached back to put it in his backpack, then without comment, he started back through the kitchen, leaving the squeaking and chattering behind us.

  We wound through a maze of doors and passages and more doors and more passages until I completely lost my sense of direction. I had no wristcom to check the time, but it must have been close to a ten minute walk before he finally slowed as we approached a small flight of stone steps.

  He nodded up the stairs. “That’s the exit. It opens a few meters from the edge of the forest, against the east shore.”

  I nodded, panting a little, and leaned back against the wall, just barely aware of its rough, cold texture through my sweater. He leaned opposite me, and I could barely make out his features in the dim slices of first light that came through the edges of the door.

  We waited.

  When the silence began to seep into my body, I asked something I’d been wondering for days but hadn’t dared voice. “What was my father like?”

  I regretted asking immediately, as I’d known I would. Yes, he’d known Erasmus Sandison—also known as Erasmus Howitz—but it had been in the days before he lost his humanity, before bitterness about and because of me shaped him into a heartless manipulator.

  Before the loss of my mother sapped him of whatever good qualities she saw in him.

  He spoke slowly when his reply came. “Not the way you think of him, probably. I never liked him very much, but he was... kind of quiet. Unobtrusive. Extremely smart. He had a sort of... assurance that he was right and that he could accomplish whatever he put his mind to.”