Birth of the Alliance

by Alex Albrinck

  Hope considered the name briefly, and then nodded. “That makes perfect sense. Here's hoping that scutarium provides ample protection from the evils of the Aliomenti now and in the future.”

  Will thought for a moment, remembering his own distant past, events that would unfold centuries into the future. He thought of the invisible Energy shield he learned had surrounded the Alliance camp. He remembered, vaguely, being told in a letter sent to him from that future that he'd need to teleport a future Hope and Josh from their home into a hidden bunker. He suspected that the only way such a bunker could work was if Hope had known of scutarium. She would have used it to line the inside of the bunker to prevent Sebastian—by then known as Porthos—from detecting where they'd ended up.

  "What are you thinking about?" Hope asked. “You seem rather… distant.”

  Will laughed, and at her look of confusion smiled. “It's an ironic question between people who are strong telepaths.” Hope laughed as well, as Will continued. “I was thinking about future uses of this. When Sebastian, Victor, and Tacitus come after me and William comes after you and Josh… I've been wondering why Sebastian couldn't detect me teleporting you and Josh out of the house and into the bunker. As sensitive as he is to Energy, he should have noticed it and been in that bunker instantly. Or, at a minimum, he should have noticed the Energy surge needed to teleport the two of you away from William the Assassin. The fact that he didn't tells me that something was going on with that house and that bunker.” He nodded toward the walls of the cave, and the blue stone found in such abundance in the walls. “I think we have the answer.”

  “You mean we put this into the walls of the house.” It wasn't a question. “And I put it into the bunker. But….” She looked down at the ground, and her voice dropped. “How? Even if the Alliance figures out how to make this scutarium into something that could cover the walls of the Cavern, how do we get it into our house, Will?”

  Will pondered that. “Perhaps the rock could be ground up and mixed into the paint used for the interior of the house. So when the house is being built, you would buy the paint, mix it in, and give it to the painters. By the time I… vanish, we may have some type of technology available that makes the process even simpler.”

  Hope looked at the ground, and Will didn't need his empathy skills to know something was bothering her. “What's wrong?”

  “Outside the fact that we're talking about lunatics attacking you when you were defenseless and me having to watch another come close to killing me and our son?” Hope smiled faintly. “How am I going to get the scutarium? I suppose that I could come back here and chip some away, but I suspect that the younger you would notice if I vanished for a while and showed up with a strange colored rock that I wanted to put into paint on the interior of our house. And there's no way we can know for sure that the supply of stone won't be gone by then.”

  Will frowned. How, indeed? This plan called for Hope to do too much. It truly wasn’t fair for her to carry the burden of protecting their son from premature discovery, along with figuring out how to get the scutarium needed to make their home a safe place for her and Josh. It was far too much for one person to handle, even if that person was Hope.

  One person? Will’s eyes widened. “It's like you told me, Hope. You don't have to do it all yourself.”

  Confusion clouded her face. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, it's time for us to recognize that the Alliance is not the Aliomenti and act accordingly. You should come back to the Cavern with me and meet everyone. They'll be able to provide that type assistance to either or both of us as needed. And there will be no place safer from Arthur and the others in the future. You don’t need to hide and be alone all the time any more. And shame on me for not recognizing that fact earlier. It’s time to go home, Hope.”

  Hope's face lit up.

  She’d never be alone again.

  VI

  Shadows

  1740 A.D.

  They crowded upon the beach, watching and waiting as Will and the woman walked from their home toward the subway pod docked near the Cavern end of the underground tunnel river. They came and watched, for it was a momentous journey. A successful completion would decree their full safety and secret isolation from the Aliomenti.

  If the trip was unsuccessful, they might never know, for the travelers might never return.

  Will and the dark-haired woman wearing a cloak had arrived seventeen years earlier. Little was known about her by residents of the Cavern, save for: she was very much involved in the life of their founder, Will Stark; she’d developed Energy skills outside the walls of the Cavern but was not a member of the Aliomenti—and her Energy levels were rivaled only by Will; and it was critically important that no one from the Aliomenti ever learn her true name. She’d be known as the Shadow, for she’d lived much of her life in the background, doing good for untold numbers without recognition or thanks. She was, in many ways, an ideal they’d all strive to reach.

  Seventeen years ago, the duo had brought with them an amazing substance, a blue-tinted rock they’d called scutarium. Scutarium prevented Energy from transferring through its mass; if it lined a room or a cave, one could practice Energy skills without detection from anyone, even the Aliomenti known as Sebastian. Three of their number had attracted his attention on the Outside, and the three hadn’t returned. The rock was a true gift, but the quantities were so limited that they could do little with it.

  Unless they could create it themselves.

  They’d done just that, and internal tests indicated that the artificial version worked well. They’d traveled to a small, uninhabited island off the southern coast of South America, constructed a building, and plated the inside. Will expended sufficient Energy to set the building on fire, and attempted to communicate telepathically, and even the strongest Energy users among the Alliance sensed nothing.

  The true test would come if Sebastian couldn’t sense anything. That was the purpose of this mission. They’d recreate the test right under Sebastian’s nose. If he showed no indication of sensing Energy… even from Will… they’d consider it safe for wide use throughout the world.

  A cheer erupted as the couple approached, the sound reverberating even on the soft sands of the beach area. It was high noon local time, and the couple was illuminated by the artificial ambient light, the fresh breezes generated by the fans installed in the Cavern walls tossing and billowing their hair. The Shadow didn’t wear her hood up any more, and they could clearly see her grateful smile. Trips to the outside usually weren’t acknowledged with such fanfare, but then, most trips weren’t so critical to the future safety of all of them.

  Will and the Shadow acknowledged the crowds, and then teleported into the subway pod, which whisked them with quick efficiency to the end of the river tunnel linking the Cavern to the outside world. They teleported to the waiting Nautilus, the first of its kind and name, and the submarine began its journey toward the Iberian Peninsula. The Nautilus VIII, with five Alliance members aboard, moved to berth at the dock, taking the place of its namesake.

  Will glanced at the Shadow, who was still beaming from the adulation. “I think they like you.”

  Hope laughed. “They’ll like both of us a lot more if this works.”

  “There’s no way it won’t work,” Will said. He’d insisted upon this final field test, because failure carried such a catastrophic cost, but he’d seen the tests, had participated in nearly all of them. There was no doubt in his mind that the artificial version of the scutarium worked just as well as the original.

  “So, let’s take a nice holiday, perhaps to Eden, and just tell everyone the test was successful.” Hope’s eyes twinkled.

  “I’m sure that would work perfectly well. At least until we tried to tell that story to two hundred telepaths and empaths who’d spot the lie a mile away.”

  She punched his arm. “Not if we were still in the scutarium suits.”

  He laughed.

  He’d b
een thrilled by the reception Hope had received. The Alliance members learned that she’d been creating her own form of change for centuries, and that she’d fight against any efforts by the Aliomenti to infringe upon the ability of the Alliance to do their work. They quickly recognized her as one trustworthy beyond question. Hope found herself in a true family, the likes of which she’d experienced so rarely in her life.

  This mission was her chance to protect her family, against the same people and mindsets that had so far destroyed every other semblance of family she’d known.

  The trip took a week, courtesy of the upgraded propulsion system the Nautilus boasted. They targeted Waterloo, Sebastian’s most recent place of residence. Will wanted to get as close to him as possible without actually being seen. The travel time gave them a chance to check and retest the “armor” he’d wear, clothing woven of fibers constructed from the artificial scutarium. Gloves, boots, a mask, and goggles completed the outfit, ensuring no exposed skin to generate Energy leakages Sebastian might detect.

  Will was at the greatest risk. If the armor failed, he’d probably only know when Sebastian arrived, with Tacitus in tow to Damper him, and thus he might not return. Hope was to wait for two hours after he left. If he’d not returned, she was to proceed to Eden and wait for him there for two days. If he didn’t meet with her there, she was to return to the Cavern and inform the Alliance that the scutarium suit had failed.

  Hope didn’t like the plan. At all. “Why are you the only one at risk? I’m just as much a part of this as you.”

  “It’s a practical choice, Hope. Sebastian already knows my Energy signal, and you can believe that if he senses me he’ll come running, likely with Tacitus in tow. He does not know your Energy signal, and in fact doesn’t even know you exist. If you set your Energy off near him, he’ll think it’s an Aliomenti from another outpost coming to visit. That's hardly something that would draw him out. You still have your anonymity with him. Let's keep it that way.” He shrugged, but inside he recognized the other practical reason to put him at risk, rather than her. He wasn’t necessary to bring their children into the world, for young future Will would still exist if he was captured or… worse. “This is going to work. With this clothing and scutarium homes on the Outside, we’ll all be Shadows soon. I’ll be as invisible to Sebastian as the rest of you.”

  Hope scowled, partially for the words, but in part for the thought of his lack of importance going forward. “I should be there with my swords in the event he does find you. I can still stay hidden from his Tracking that way, and it’s one less way you’re at risk.”

  Will shrugged it off. “If he shows up, I'll teleport to the old cave near the old North Village. Sebastian won’t be able to get that far.”

  “What if he teleports to you and has Tacitus in tow, Will? What if Tacitus gets his hands on you? How do you plan to teleport so far away with huge chunks of Energy gone?”

  “It won’t matter, because I have another gift from the future, Hope. He literally won't be able to touch me this time.”

  Hope’s eyes narrowed. “Another gift? What type of gift?”

  Will sighed. He explained the concept of the nanos, and showed her how they responded to his mental commands. “I can literally form invisible armor with these. He may think he's making contact, but he won't be. These little machines saved my life that night.”

  Hope was staring at the small chair Will had formed out of the nanos in front of her eyes. “I should be upset that you didn’t tell me about this… but I’m not. I struggled with the idea of thinking machines I could see. Now you're talking about thinking machines that are so small they’re invisible.”

  “I appreciate your generosity in not being angry with me,” Will said, the relief evident in his voice. “I've had them for ages. They were put in me, in some cases before I knew what they were, before I traveled back in time. After a while, I simply forgot that I hadn't mentioned them. In the rare cases I've used them recently we haven't been around each other, and—”

  Hope put a hand on his arm. “Relax, Will. Am I slightly annoyed? Yes. I don't think you meant to hide it from me for this long, and I suspect that my reaction to seeing the sub for the first time probably made you worried about how I'd handle news of tiny thinking machines that fly around and do all sorts of amazing things. But, now that I do know…” Her face filled with mischief. “How do I get some?”

  Will laughed, and moved to the galley to grab some drinks. “Well, you've had some for a while, though none that can do… that.” He gestured at the chair. “They created some specialty machines that heal you from the inside. I put some in you when… Elizabeth ceased to be.” She winced at the memory, still able to feel each blow seven centuries later. “They helped to make sure that Hope existed. I thought I'd taken all of them back after you were completely healed, but I hadn't. And each time I've seen you since, I sent a few more your way. The morange, the zirple, and the ambrosia will keep you very healthy. These machines, these nanos, will heal traumatic injuries very quickly… stabbings, bruises, and the like. You have half of the ones I was given so long ago.”

  She looked surprised, then nodded. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “What you don't have, and what I can't move from me to you, are the nanos that let you talk to all of the machines that are owned by you. You can't send those healing nanos back to me until you get those communication nanos, for example, not that I’d want you to send them back. I'd love to give you half or more of the nanos, and I would, but you wouldn't be able to use them. But… I'm working on creating them now, or at least the earliest version of them. It's my next big project. It's my belief that they will help us see how the ambrosia changes the body, and then we can figure out how to reverse the effects.”

  Hope frowned. “If you already have these machines in you… why not try them out on the new recruits? It can't hurt them, can it?”

  Will shook his head. “No, no chance of that. I actually did try that with the second batch of recruits. The parts that could send images back didn't work inside the cells. I don't know why. But if they don't work, I'd need to know how to make them and adapt them to fix the problems. That's what I'm working on in the Cavern now. I’m hoping at some point that work will lead future Alliance members to create the nanos that they’ll give me in five hundred years.”

  Hope frowned. “It’s so strange…” She paused, thoughtful, and walked toward the galley to grab a piece of fruit. She waved at a dolphin swimming by outside before returning to sit next to Will. “Our children should know the predicament we're in now, the peril it brings to their own lives. If they've built these… nanos… in the future, and they're capable of looking inside our bodies…” Her frown deepened. “Well, why not send back nanos that could see inside the cells? Why leave it to chance like this?” She shrugged. “I suppose I should remind them of that little detail in the future, shouldn’t I?”

  It was Will's turn to frown. Why indeed? “Thus far, everything they've done—or not done—has had a purpose.” Will spoke slowly, reasoning everything out as he did. “One of the biggest mysteries to me thus far was whether the Purge they gave me, or the food they fed me, contained ambrosia. I don't think they did. Most of this journey has relied on me acting as… well, me. The diary has almost always given me data, like a mixture for concrete, but has never given me guidance on choices. Think about it like this. I wanted to take you from the North Village immediately. If I’d done that, we probably head south, never find the Ambrosia forest, and by now you’re long gone from old age. They would know I wouldn’t want to live an immortal life if you were gone. So they’d not send me back in time as an immortal for that reason. No, they knew once you told me you didn’t want to leave that village until you’d put everything you had into reforming Arthur, that I’d stay, and because of that we’d end up traveling with Eva, not south, but northwest. So… if they didn’t give me the ambrosia then, it means we were meant to find it now.”

  “Which mea
ns that if they didn't send back that type of machine, it’s because it's critical that we invent them ourselves for some reason,” Hope said, nodding.

  “Or they never figured out how to build the machine themselves… and the method to find the solution is something we haven’t even thought of yet.” Will's voice was quiet, and amidst the thrum of the submarine engines, the tone seemed even more ominous than the words. A small bit of conditioned air blew against them, and Hope shuddered at the chill of artificial wind and words.

  “OK, enough of that.” Will clapped his hands twice, as if to snap their attention to something different. “We're here to test scutarium. I'll teleport just outside the ship and use the nanos to propel myself to shore. I'll stay out of sight, but attempt to confirm visually that Sebastian is here. If I do, I'll cover myself entirely—gloves, mask, and goggles—and expend Energy. If Sebastian doesn't come for me after five or ten minutes, I suspect it's safe to assume he hasn't sensed me. I don’t think he’d come after me on his own; he’ll want to find Tacitus and possibly others to try to subdue me, and that’s why I'll need to wait for a few minutes. If he finds me, I'll meet you at Eden within the next few days.”

  Hope nodded. “Sure you won't change your mind and bring me onshore? I wouldn't mind taking a few additional swings at Sebastian and his friends.” Her face darkened, and she simulated slicing a sword through the air.

  Will smiled. “If you come ashore and he sees you, he'll run away in terror and we'll never know if this works.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I'll be back soon.”

  “You'd better be.”

  After assembling his scutarium-based clothing and establishing his nano exoskeleton, Will teleported into the sea water just outside the Nautilus, and used the nanos to propel himself to the shore. The water slid off him, so he wasn’t wet; the nanos kept the liquid away from his hair, skin, and clothing. He trudged through the soft sand, inhaling the familiar air and scent of this oceanside outpost area, and felt the warm sun on his skin.