by Eliza Green
Stephen couldn’t see how they might achieve that. ‘By what means? We cannot read the GS humans’ minds, so that rules out an attack.’
‘By more conventional means, Stephen,’ said Serena.
‘Exactly.’ Anton stopped pacing but Stephen sensed his wild energy. ‘The rogue humans want to overthrow the ITF policing structure, which will weaken the influence the GS has over matters.’
Stephen smiled and shook his head. ‘That won’t work. The GS have no interest in matters on this planet.’
‘He’s right; they don’t,’ said Serena, looking at Anton. ‘What can they gain from that?’
Anton had no answer. But Arianna suggested one. ‘What if the humans have no interest in the GS humans, but are using it as an excuse to gain the Indigenes’ trust?’
‘For what purpose?’ said Stephen. ‘Why take over the ITF? It will make no difference to the activities here.’
Anton’s eyes grew large. ‘What if the rogue humans don’t care about the ITF hierarchy, Stephen? Maybe they just want to destabilise the treaty and ITF, to upset the balance.’
Arianna continued. ‘So a new power can take over?’
Anton smiled as though something clicked into place. ‘Just like what happened on Earth.’
At least Stephen understood one side’s motives in this. ‘So this is about power. The GS and their lack of interest in affairs have created a natural crack in society. Some elements, one of whom Bill Taggart has met with, wish to widen the crack. Forget about Earth. We all know what happens when humans rock the status quo. We end up a casualty in this war.’
Everyone nodded. He recalled the events of eight years ago that had led to the treaty’s establishment.
But he still didn’t understand the motive of the rogue Indigenes. ‘We know what the humans set to gain in this disruption, but what do the Indigenes get by disbanding the peace treaty?’
Arianna stepped closer and lowered her voice, even though the room was soundproofed. ‘I felt something from them as strong I feel your worry, Stephen. They’re sick of being told what to do. The younger ones don’t remember the issues during Pierre and Elise’s reign, only the events that have happened since the treaty came into force. They don’t see its purpose. They’re restless and on the hunt for a new way to live.’
It didn’t surprise Stephen to hear that. Gabriel faced the same issue in District Eight. ‘That’s the young’s motives sorted, but their peers who remember life before the treaty—what do they want? Don’t they realise the treaty is a good thing?’
Serena touched his arm. ‘Don’t take it personally, Stephen.’
‘I don’t.’
He eased his arm away. He had negotiated the treaty but should he have pushed for more? For equal rights to the humans?
‘The older ones want what we do: equality,’ said Arianna.
‘It’s not possible.’
He’d negotiated the best deal available at the time.
‘Yet we are friends with the powers who run this world—the ITF.’
Stephen shook his head. ‘The ITF does the bidding of the old system, of the GS humans. Bill and Laura do not operate with autonomy. There is no government here, only a police force. There’s no way to make a new treaty stick. We do not live in a democratic society, or even an autocratic one. Our society sits atop a shaky treaty that’s about to be ripped apart by radicals on both sides. Ironically, we need the GS humans. If they didn’t exist, the ITF would have been overthrown years ago.’
‘So why not overthrow it now?’ said Anton. ‘Why meet with Bill in a civilised way when it would be easier to demand his power?’
‘Because this isn’t Earth,’ said Stephen. ‘The criminals aren’t in the majority here. Enough good people live here to keep our treaty alive. And Bill has his underground contacts. These radicals have to know about them, just not who they are.’
Serena folded her arms. ‘I sympathise with both sides, but can’t we find a solution to suit both parties?’
Stephen didn’t know if it was possible. But one question remained unanswered. ‘Anton, Arianna, did you find out anything about the GS humans’ plans from your dealings today?’
To his disappointment, they both shook their heads.
‘Besides stealing a bit of power, nobody knows more than that about them,’ said Anton.
At least they had someone on the inside of the rogue groups. An Indigene called Clement.
20
After a night of restless sleep and a day spent worrying, Stephen needed to clear his head. Maybe a hunting trip would do just that. He dressed in a grey tunic to match his ashen skin. It would blend him in with the surroundings. While Serena used the Nexus, he used the alone time to take stock of the situation they faced.
He climbed the stone stairs leading to the hatch that protected their main access point to District Three. The hatch squeaked open and Stephen stepped outside into the environmentally-controlled hunting zone that encompassed not only an area of three miles squared but also the entrance to their district. Inside the bubble, they didn’t need the air-filtration device to breathe. Stephen patted his pocket where his own device was—a just-in-case measure, because animals rarely followed the rules of the zones. Not only that, but the wolves had learned to recognise the change in atmosphere signalling the perimeter, and kept their distance.
Stephen stretched as he prepared to enter hunt mode. He sniffed the night’s air to pick up on any nearby scents. When he couldn’t find any, he strode to the edge of the zone and stepped outside where his sense of smell was stronger.
There you are.
The scent was faint. He stepped back inside the zone. He and Anton had crossed the boundary several times during their hunting trips, but it was easier to hunt when he wasn’t fighting for air. Stephen dug his filtration device out of his pocket and popped the pieces in both nasal passages and the back of his throat.
If the animals wouldn’t come to him...
The soft encasing of the zone yielded to his form a second time. Leaving the zone felt like walking through a stiff breeze. There was resistance but not enough to stop him.
With his device controlling the air to his lungs, he sniffed the air again. But the scent had vanished. Either the animals were too far out or his sense of smell wasn’t working. Maybe his instincts were off. Maybe he’d been out of the Nexus for too long. But his speed still worked and he ran several miles out, following the arc of the zone’s circumference. His vision still worked and he saw several beams of light in the distance that presented like a prism of colours. The humans’ torches acted like beacons to the Indigenes. But he couldn’t hear the humans.
The still night, with no breeze, felt odd. Ever since the GS humans had built the environ, Stephen had felt out of sync with his abilities.
He continued to move farther from the edge of the three-mile circumference to the land where he knew the animals liked to roam. It was why the hunting zones had been set up here, in the areas where the animals were most active. The hunting patterns of the Indigenes forced the animals to adapt.
So where were they now?
He looked around, sniffed the air again. No trace of them.
A low growl set his nerves on edge and he turned to see a pair of shining eyes close to his location. A lone wolf stalked closer as it hunted him. Stephen sniffed the air again, still not picking up the wolf’s smell, let alone its fear. What was wrong with him? It had to be a defective air-filtration device.
His thoughts slowed him down enough for the wolf to edge closer without him noticing. Stephen switched to hunt mode, crouching low. He’d hoped the animal would set more of a challenge—he needed to let off steam—but he’d take what he could get.
The wolf stopped and watched his movements with the same precision of his own observations.
Hunter against hunter.
But the wolf lunged and caught Stephen off guard. He stumbled back when the wolf’s teeth clamped on to his arm. It hung on with bared
teeth, digging farther into his flesh. Stephen muffled his cry, not wanting to draw attention to his location. The wolf shook his arm, unclamped its teeth, then lunged for Stephen’s leg. Stephen scuttled back while the animal stalked him. He scrambled to his feet and ran for the zone. The wolf followed as far as the perimeter, then broke off when Stephen passed through to safety.
Stephen watched the pacing wolf outside the zone, clear Indigene blood dripping from its bared incisors. His heart raced as he examined his arm and leg wound. Neither wound was healing at the speed he knew it should. He removed the air-filtration device on his way back to the district and the hatch. Inside the district, Indigenes gasped as a limping Stephen passed them. He moved as fast as possible, not wanting to hear what they thought of their inadequate leader.
He searched for Serena’s voice only to find a whisper of her in another part of the district. Their normally strong connection had become paper thin, but more so since they had returned from seeing Gabriel. Clement came to mind. Another like Serena? Stephen didn’t want to think about what that meant. He shuffled along trying to mask his pain from others. Clear fluid leaked from his wounds and stained his grey tunic, but at least the flow from both bites had stemmed since the wolf’s attack.
How had he not sensed its presence?
Stephen reached the nearest tranquillity cave, the one above which the GS had built their environ. He used the stone steps to climb into one unit and positioned his aching body on the floor. He calmed his thoughts and closed his eyes, concentrating on the golden lattice that replaced the solid wall. The Nexus sent a lone tendril through the lattice. It wrapped around his arm and pulled his energy inside.
The Nexus had changed since Serena’s arrival to District Three. Before, the connection points and the Nexus had been separated by a black chasm. Discord had existed inside the space that Stephen hadn’t noticed until her presence had ignited a change. The Nexus, a young, evolving, organic being, had reacted sharply to Serena the first time she’d entered it. But her presence had not been a threat. She had given the Nexus something it could not get from other Indigenes: the ability to learn and evolve. Serena had taught the Nexus to make better use of the space, to increase its efficiency.
Now, the Nexus wall no longer separated the connecting energies. It enclosed the units where the energies connected to the space. Stephen slipped from his unit to the centre of the surrounding Nexus wall where a bright ball of energy collected. Before the change, energies used to be scattered far and wide and didn’t always connect with the Nexus wall. Now, he could find them easier and use their combined energies to heal faster—a much more efficient use of his time.
His wounds healed on the outside, but his mind refused to let go of the tight band of worry that encased it. The energies healed him. But he also sensed a trace of hostility from them. Stephen deflected the negative energy back to the Nexus so it could cancel it out.
Stephen lost track of time while inside the Nexus. Three hundred minds connected at one time provided a powerful source of energy to draw from. Adding his own energy to the mix gave back what he took from others—a trade of sorts. But the energy around him felt weaker than normal.
He focused on the Nexus wall surrounding the collected ball of energies at its centre. It seemed no different than usual, pulsating in time with the active minds, acting like the conduit it was. But weak points in the wall presented themselves where the Nexus appeared to not shine as bright. Stephen floated away from the energies towards the part of the wall that had caught his attention. Only then did he see them: tiny micro strands of light, similar to the tendrils that pulled his energy inside, reaching up to the ceiling of whatever confined the Nexus. His gaze followed the strands that extended to an unseen point in the black expanse above him.
In the Nexus, not everything was as it seemed. Blacks were not black. Oranges were not orange. Space was relative, or irrelevant. He had no idea what the Nexus space looked like other than how his mind interpreted it. The strands looked like tiny hands reaching for something—or someone.
Stephen floated away from this extrication of energy that appeared to be attracted to some outside force. The micro tendrils continued to draw away from their original purpose to another undisclosed place.
He returned to the centre, to the healing on offer. Then something clicked into place. The GS environ sat above this very tranquillity cave. Bill said they had stolen energy from the New London main feed to power something in that environ. Now, that something drew micro tendrils from the Nexus wall.
The Nexus was such a powerful healing entity; others would kill to access it.
An agitated Stephen ignored the calming energies in the centre of the Nexus urging him to join them. He needed to get out.
He disconnected from the Nexus with one long breath and climbed out of the hole. He startled to see Serena at the top, waiting for him.
‘Are you okay, Stephen?’ She helped him out of the unit. ‘I felt you inside the Nexus. I felt your anxiousness.’
‘You were inside?’
Why hadn’t he sensed her?
‘Yes, I sensed you connect,’ she said. ‘I was worried about you so I disconnected shortly after you. What’s the matter?’
Stephen straightened up. ‘I know what the GS are doing.’
‘What?’
‘They’re stealing power from the Nexus to heal.’
‘What? How?’ Serena’s eyes grew large. ‘I didn’t think it was possible for the Nexus to exist in the real world.’
‘Their machine, their collection of power. It’s only minor draws but I saw it for myself, in there.’
‘If it’s just a small amount, that’s good, right?’
Stephen shook his head. ‘You don’t understand; at some point they’ll want more. They always do after they experience the true power of the Nexus. This district might not be in danger now, but trust me, that won’t be the case for much longer.’
‘Have you seen it?’ said Serena.
It would be easier if he had.
‘No. I have no timeline for when it will happen. But the GS have sampled what the Nexus can do. Imagine if they had access to its full power?’
21
‘We’re getting a visitor.’
Laura looked up when Bill shook her shoulder and popped one bud out of her ear. They had spent the evening relaxing together in their apartment—if she could even call it relaxing. Bill did research on his monitor while Laura listened to a backlog of communication chatter from the Wave that Julia had recorded before it got erased.
‘Who?’
Bill shrugged. ‘Stephen.’
‘Really?’ She stood, feeling anxious. She had no idea why. ‘When?’
It had been years since Stephen had set foot in her and Bill’s apartment, once at the beginning of their move to Exilon 5, and again when he was doing recon. But Serena, Anton and Arianna had agreed it would be safer for Stephen, one half of District Three’s leadership, to remain close to his charges in the district. Any trips to the city could be construed as a conflict of interest among those Indigenes who didn’t understand the history Stephen and Bill shared.
‘He says he needs to talk. Plus, he was after a change of scenery.’
Laura glanced at the clock. It was 11pm. ‘Well, at least it’s dark outside. We should prepare for his arrival. When’s he due?’
‘Any minute now,’ said Bill.
‘Now?’
A flustered Laura turned off the main lights until a gentle glow filled the room. Bill wasn’t wrong about the timing of Stephen’s arrival. A minute later, she heard a soft knock on the door. Bill opened it and a tall figure dressed in a long, brown trenchcoat and Fedora entered.
Her eyes raked over his appearance as Bill closed the door behind him. ‘At least you look the part.’
Stephen removed his hat. ‘Bill said I should dress like a human. It raises fewer suspicions.’
‘It must feel strange to wear human clothes again.’
The last time Laura had seen Stephen in this attire was eight years ago. He’d followed her back to her apartment in Sydney. She’d thought Stephen was going to attack her, but then he’d surprised her by asking for her help to locate Bill.
‘I remember that.’ Stephen nodded and smiled as his mind fluttered briefly against hers. ‘But this is not strange.’ He swept his hands over his outfit. ‘Nostalgic, maybe.’
Bill pointed at the coat. ‘Is that the exact outfit you wore?’
Stephen nodded. ‘When this all began. I don’t know why I kept it. Serena understands because she remembers her human life. Anton, Arianna and I don’t have human pasts like Serena. Anton told me to get rid of it for weeks after Pierre’s death, said it was a bad omen. I don’t know why I kept it.’
He brushed his hand over the tan-coloured material.
Bill gestured inside the room. ‘Please, take a seat. Can I get you something to drink?’
‘Unless you have animal blood, I’m fine. This won’t take long. I’m already feeling uneasy about being inside the city. I’d like to get back to the district.’
Bill sat down on the sofa, an action Laura would have mimicked, but with Stephen present she felt drawn to her Indigene side and remained standing, like him.
‘What can we do for you?’ she said.
‘I came for a few reasons, but first tell me how your visit with Patterson went.’
Bill sighed and rubbed his face. ‘He’s playing me, wants me to get him weapons. Says the GS are being a nuisance and he wants to protect his property.’
‘And what does he really want?’ said Stephen.
‘I don’t know,’ said Bill. ‘But it’s not to protect property, that’s for sure. I offered to send some security to the site, but he refused. There’s something else. He confirmed that the GS humans are drawing double the power from the grid.’
‘We know,’ said Stephen.
