Aliomenti Saga 6: Stark Cataclysm

by Alex Albrinck

  And that was without outside help. Without being told who he was or who he’d be. Or who he’d been.

  He sensed that Will was awake and moved into the room, watching as his pupil felt his Energy without realizing what it was. He gathered his Energy into a ball and threw it at a nano-chair; the device shattered. Adam was impressed; nano chairs typically didn’t break like their wooden counterparts. The technology continued to impress.

  He complimented Will and invited him to come outside.

  Will was quite tentative. He’d known only the interior of the room to this point, and was skittish about what he’d find outside the walls. Will moved slowly through the walls, though, taking thirty seconds to move from inside to outside.

  He spotted Adam looking his way and shrugged. “I’m still struggling with the idea of walking through a solid wall. That… pause in the middle there helped it become real for me.”

  Adam nodded. “I understand. We’ve not always had buildings like this, and it took some time to get used to it. But you will reach a point where doors seem an oddity.”

  They moved past the scutarium mist shield, which Will didn’t notice. He didn’t know to look for it, of course. Adam wouldn’t tell him about it until weeks later. They started walking through the trees. He did it in part to let Will get familiar with the surrounding terrain, but also to get them away from the others in camp who’d undoubtedly want to watch. “Angel’s given you a basic understanding of Energy. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve understood so far?”

  Will frowned. “It’s a warmth, a sensation in your body not unlike electricity. You can control the movement of the Energy with your mind. As you develop the ability to create and store more, you develop new skills and become more proficient at performing the old.” He glanced at Adam. “How’d I do?”

  “An excellent summary. Based upon your demonstration earlier, I’d say you’ve already progressed through the first stage of mastery. Most people take time—sometimes months, sometimes even years—before they trust that feeling of warmth. They think it’s their imagination, or some odd placebo effect, or even a post-Purge illness. You didn’t; you trusted that the warmth meant something and you experimented. That’s good. Experimentation is the key to development. The more you practice and try, the better you’ll become with your new skills.”

  Will nodded. “Practice makes perfect. I will practice every day until I can’t stay awake.”

  He nodded. “I have no doubt about that, Will. None at all.”

  He spotted a stick about three inches long. “Let’s try something.” He put the stick on his open palm. “I want you to take the stick from me.”

  Will took a step forward and reached out his hand. Adam closed his own hand around the stick. “Not that way. Use your Energy.”

  Will frowned. “How do I do that?”

  “Think about what you did when you threw the Energy into the chair and see what you come up with. I won’t always give you exact answers. The corollary to the experimentation credo is that you learn best what you learn for yourself. I’m telling you that you can, right this minute, take this stick from me with Energy. Now… do it.”

  Will seemed ready to protest. That was normal. Most students expected him to walk them through each step of the process. He’d tried that and found out that the more he gave them, the less they truly learned; they’d only develop once he left them and they were forced to learn new skills on their own. Once he forced the thinking and learning back on the students, however, the acceleration in competency was staggering.

  Will’s face relaxed. He held his hands out in front of him, and Adam sensed the growing orb of Energy building between them. When it reached the size of a baseball, Will pulled his hands back, a look of surprise on his face. Adam smiled. Will thought he’d need to maintain contact with his Energy to sense and control it, but that wasn’t the case. Will nodded and the orb of Energy began to move toward Adam, settled over the stick, and lifted back up.

  The stick remained in Adam’s hand.

  He wanted to provide guidance, but at this stage, silence was the best teacher.

  “It’s not glue,” Will muttered. “It’s a glove.”

  Adam wasn’t certain what that meant, but Will was thinking. That was a positive sign. The orb descended to his palm once more. This time, though, it wrapped around the stick in finger-like tendrils, replicating a human hand. When the stick lifted from Adam’s palm, Will cheered.

  Adam reached out and took the stick back. “Good. Now… do it better and faster. Think of this stick as something held by one of the Hunters. What if it’s a weapon? Do you think they’ll stand still and hold out their open palm and let you take it?”

  Will looked angry. “I just started this an hour ago, you know.”

  Adam nodded. “You did. You’ve made excellent progress. Now… make more progress.”

  They repeated the exercise. Each time, Adam increased the level of challenge. He tightened his grip. He moved his hand around. He ran away from Will. It took time, but with each exercise, Will thought through the best approach and tried it. Adam would offer only mild corrections. Four hours later, they stopped.

  Will looked disappointed. “I can keep going.”

  “I’ve no doubt of that, Will. Remember, the fact that I’m not around doesn’t prevent you from trying something. I do recommend getting your rest, though. I know I’ll need some.”

  Will nodded and followed Adam back to the camp. Adam showed Will both the kitchen and shower facility, uncertain as to which Will found more incredible. His pupil ate, excused himself to take a long shower, and found his way back to his quarters. Adam knew, from the video camera ability in each nano in the walls, that Will began practicing telekinesis with a rock he’d snagged from the ground on his walk to his room.

  Adam headed to the Mechanic’s quarters.

  Fil looked up. “How goes it with the star pupil?”

  “Bugger took a stick out of my hand while I was on a dead sprint.”

  Angel’s eyes widened. “Wow. On his first day? That’s usually six months of work, isn’t it?”

  “He’s highly motivated to make progress by his need for vengeance in whatever form it might take. He’s also in possession of above average levels of Energy immediately after the his Purge.” He thought of Gena’s theory, that exposure to Energy awakened Energy in even those who’d not gone through a purge. “I suspect that Hope’s Energy triggered his above average initial sensitivity and growth in Energy compared to the norm. He’s going to see streaks of pink in his clothes soon, and not due to poor laundering skills.”

  The Mechanic chuckled.

  They worked on telepathy. Adam projected numbers at Will, who learned to separate the chattering voice of his mind with the images received from the outside. He brought in Ashley, and the two of them both transmitted ideas, forcing Will to distinguish which thought came from which sender. Once he could read thoughts in others, he learned how to send thoughts to the willing.

  “It’s important to understand the power you have because of these abilities, Will. You can read thoughts of others, but is it appropriate? It’s the equivalent of eavesdropping. You’ll find people out there who effectively shout their thoughts at the world. As with loud talkers, it may be impossible to tune them out entirely. Do your best to tune them out anyway.”

  Will nodded. “Angel read my mind not long after I got here. I felt… I’m not sure what the right word would be, but I didn’t like it.”

  “That’s important to remember. You didn’t know she could do that at the time. Imagine what you might reveal to someone like Angel who didn’t let you know she could hear every thought you processed. We prefer to treat telepathy like a telephone conversation. You don’t pick up a phone in another room and eavesdrop. If you want to communicate with someone, you must first ask their permission in thought. If they don’t respond or decline, you don’t pursue.”

  “That’s sensible,” Will replied. He frowned.
“Those men, the Hunters… do they follow the same rules?”

  Adam sighed. “Honestly? I really don’t know for sure. My suspicion—and that’s all it is—is that they follow those rules within their own group. If they locate one of us, they won’t hesitate to use telepathy. I suspect they don’t prowl human minds due to a belief that there’s nothing interesting to find.” He thought of Gena and Porthos. “Unless they think a human knows something about one of us, of course.”

  They worked on empathy by walking around the camp. Will would identify the emotion detected in each person they passed. Adam corrected him repeatedly early on. “As with telepathy, you must separate out your own emotion from that detected by others. You must also separate out your biases in identifying emotion.”

  Will bit his lip before nodding. “Meaning that Fil’s not always angry.”

  Adam nodded. “Correct.”

  When Will learned that he could project thoughts and emotions into others, he was intrigued and horrified at the same time. “Wouldn’t that give you the ability to force someone into a behavior you desire?”

  Adam nodded. “There are more spectacular abilities like teleportation. But the ability to push our Energy into others as thought or emotion is our most feared ability. The Assassin… he uses that technique on victims. They are so terrified before he ever enters the room that they’re unable to run or fight back.”

  Will shivered. Adam’s empathy sense had no trouble identifying what the man was thinking. His wife and son cowering in terror before the man with the sword, unable to fight or scream before the blade ended their lives.

  Will came to him one morning covered in bruises. “I tried to fly. It didn’t work very well.”

  “Talk to me. How did you approach the idea of flying?”

  Will paced around. “In my mind, flying is basically telekinesis applied to your whole body. I did what I’ve done to move objects. But the amount of Energy it took, the concentration, made it something I really don’t want to do. It was exhausting rather than exhilarating. Flying should be fun, shouldn’t it?”

  Adam chuckled. “It should be fun, that’s for sure. Your approach to flying was reasonable with what you’ve learned thus far. There are more… efficient ways to go about it, though. Your approach will keep you airborne long enough to move back to stable ground if you ever fall out of a tall building or something.”

  Will looked at Adam with concern. “Is that a standard occurrence around here?”

  He couldn’t help but chuckle. How would Old Will react when he learned his son had jumped off the top of a forty story building? “No, not really. My point is that it’s an approach that’s defensive in nature. You can use it in a bind right now. We’ll go through the appropriate technique for flight as your Energy reaches the stage needed. I’ll give you a clue, though. What is it about birds that best enables them to fly? The answer, in this case, has nothing to do with wings.”

  Will looked thoughtful.

  The weeks passed. His routine worked much the same each day. He’d spend time with Will, answering the questions the man devised during his own exhausting private practice sessions. Adam would answer the questions, privately making note of Will’s Energy growth and clothing coloring. The rapid jumps made it clear when he’d started his work with the tree.

  It had been one of the more interesting revelations in the videos. Will had found a sapling among the giant old trees in the forest. His compassion took over, and he fed the tree with Energy, hoping it would help the tree grow and match its peers. What he found was that the giving of Energy produced a feedback effect, a synergy that empowered both man and tree beyond what either could do alone. The tree grew in a day what should have taken years.

  Will’s Energy did the same.

  “The growth is amazing,” Angel said. “It won’t be long now before the Aliomenti can detect him.”

  “Have you talked to him about Porthos yet?” the Mechanic asked.

  “Only indirectly,” Adam replied. Will hadn’t wanted to hear much about the Hunters; to him, they were nameless murderers who deserved imprisonment or death. Adam couldn’t argue the sentiment. “He knows people have noticed his growth, though. He’s getting a lot of second looks as he walks through the camp.”

  Fil snorted. “That’s not the reason he’s getting second glances.”

  It was true. Will had been in the camp for over forty days, and the novelty of having their founder around hadn’t worn off. They all knew the explosive Energy growth would happen. While they complimented Will and encouraged his growth, they were far more awed at the opportunity to meet the man.

  Speaking of Porthos, though… “He’s hit orange, or close enough to orange, that he’s ready to learn teleportation.”

  Fil looked at the Mechanic and Angel. “We’re supposed to have this conversation outside, aren’t we?”

  The Mechanic nodded.

  The two stood and walked outside.

  Fil’s transformation outside the safe room was impressive. His face tightened, his mouth took on a near-permanent scowl, and his tone became harsh toward everyone. Nobody felt his wrath more than Will. Which was exactly as planned.

  “Will’s Energy growth is concerning,” Fil told him. “I don’t know how he’s doing it, Adam. I’d like to know; perhaps we can use it to help others. But the larger concern is this: he’s getting strong enough that Porthos will be able to sense his presence soon. You need to work with him on Shielding.”

  Adam sighed. Porthos had already detected the Energy of young Will. He’d not yet triangulated on the location of that Energy, but that would happen soon. In fact, if memory served, the Hunters would arrive this very day. “I know. I’m planning to work with him on teleportation today before he accidentally transports himself into an Aliomenti camp. That—”

  “No, Adam.” Fil stopped moving and fixed him with a piercing stare behind the mirrored sunglasses. “You need to do Shielding today. If you don’t, your lesson tomorrow will be with the Hunters, not Will.”

  Adam nodded. “You’re right, Fil. I’ll work with him on Shielding today.”

  He walked over to Will’s room. They were getting to the point where they needed to get Will his communication nanos and get the general purpose nanos here transferred. Except that they hadn’t even talked about nanos yet. Given the events yet to unfold today, they’d need to handle that after they moved to the new campsite. The Hunters were on their way with a flotilla of flying warships. He needed to get the lesson in before they arrived so they’d have a chance to evacuate camp before the fireworks started.

  Will wasn’t in his room.

  Adam stopped short and looked around. Will wasn’t hiding, and at the stage of his life wasn’t likely to spend time plotting practical jokes. And he’d not learned to Shield his Energy, as Fil had recently noted. Will couldn’t hide from Adam in a space this size. Not yet, anyway. After twelve centuries of practice, the man might be standing next to him right now and Adam wouldn’t know. He reached out a hand as if he might touch the invisible, older Will, but met nothing but air and his own sense of foolishness.

  Where might Will be?

  He snapped his fingers. Of course. He’d be at the tree. Adam pictured the tree in his mind and teleported to the spot. The tree—once a mere sapling—had experienced astonishing growth, surging upward to the top of the forest canopy, stretching its limbs into the open air above, leaves soaking up the precious bits of sunlight. What struck Adam, though, was the powerful Energy signature coming from the tree itself. If he’d been tracking, he might mistake the tree for Will. He put his hands to the trunk and jumped back, startled. The current of Energy running through the bark and into his hands was electric.

  Will appeared, acting as if they’d merely missed each other in camp. Adam explained the peculiarity of the tree, the uniqueness of the Energy signal coursing through leaves and bark, that the tree might register pink on its own.

  Will’s brow crinkled. “Pink?”

>   Had he forgotten to explain the colors? “Our clothing measures the volume of Energy in our bodies. True neophytes register pure white, and each new color along the visible light spectrum represents an order of magnitude increase in Energy levels. The darker the color, the more powerful the Energy user.”

  Will cocked his head. “What does Fil’s color mean?”

  He’d noticed there was only one person in the camp with black clothing, then. “Fil is… a special case.”

  Will snorted, but said nothing. Adam suspected he had his own interpretation of what “special” meant.

  He felt the vibrations from the approaching warships before he heard them. Will’s face clouded in confusion. “Is that a thunderstorm?”

  Ah, if only. He looked up at the sky as the first aircraft appeared. The Aliomenti had brought the lighter, faster ships, which meant they were learning. During a test evacuation a decade earlier, they’d arrived with huge aircraft that couldn’t change direction. The Alliance team accelerated away from the spot and beyond sensor detection before the Aliomenti could turn.

  No such luck this time. “No, not a thunderstorm. It’s the Hunters. They’ve found us.”

  Will’s face fell and he looked at the ground. “No, they didn’t find us. They found me.”

  Adam said nothing. It was true, but it was necessary. Will would think he’d failed until much later in his life. There wasn’t time to worry about that now. Adam raced for the camp and the safety of the scutarium mist. Ashley, Charlie, and Eva had added additional nanos to the screening device, and anyone looking down at the camp from above would see nothing but a canopy of trees. It didn’t work at ground level, but the Aliomenti wouldn’t look for them on the ground. Not until it was too late, at any rate.

  He saw Fil running at them and knew what was coming. Fil, in character, would be furious at Will for endangering the camp. He’d be enraged that they’d have to pack up and leave. Adam suspected that the administration of the Purge had been the biggest challenge to Fil to date. As Fil tackled Will and began throwing punches at his father, though, Adam knew that the younger man was suffering each blow he landed far more than the man he struck.