by James Harris
“The problems are as many and varied as the tasks involved in running this monarchy, Kor.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your father is hardly a dawdler. There are many factors to consider. He must decide what’s best for all.”
“Get to the point. What’s the main obstacle?”
“Mainly it’s that the construction of spaceships diverts energy and attention away from the House of Abishot, and that makes us vulnerable to attack.”
“You mean Stell?”
“Well now it seems to be Stell. Although I seriously doubt that he’s in charge. We believe the real threat lies with his mother, the queen. She exploits his popularity to mount a fresh offensive against us.”
Kor picked up a handful of rubies from a creamy ceramic jar and threw them across the room at the wall where Stell’s face had appeared moments before. “He’s a fool, nothing but a puppet of that regime.” The precious gems bounced and scattered across the floor. “He carries his hatred too far. Now his own people suffer because of it. We should let him boil to death on this godforsaken rock!”
“Majesty! Silence, please. Everything you say goes on record. You don’t mean that.”
Kor recovered his senses. He kicked at some fallen gems, sending them skittering across the floor. “Perhaps not. I just wish that Stell had never found out about my father. That’s why he hates me. I can’t stand that he hates me and I have done nothing wrong. I don’t hate him, he shouldn’t hate me.”
Asunda touched the side of his head near his ear with his forefinger. “Pardon, an urgent incoming communication for me.” A look of consternation appeared on his face. He turned his back to the prince. The conversation was one-sided and short.
“Forgive me. I must attend to a matter of security.”
“What security are you referring to?”
“Able City’s biosphere has collapsed. I’m needed.” He knew it was impossible to deceive the prince. Always tell the truth and hope that stops further questions, he thought.
Kor was somehow suspicious of Asunda’s behavior but couldn’t find fault with the response. “Go then. I will return to my quarters to prepare for the summit meeting.”
“Your father requested that you stay here, in this chamber, where it’s safe.”
Kor smiled, raising his hairless eyebrows. “Remember, teacher, I’m not a child. I can take care of myself.”
“I have taught you many things. But there is more to learn, stallion. However, I see no harm in your returning to your quarters. The halls and your quarters are secure. Go with your guards and keep your aura in a state of readiness.”
“I will, Master Asunda,” Kor said. He studied the wizard for a moment. Something was amiss. Asunda was withholding something and Kor felt it had to do with Able City.
They left the Ruby Room together and sent a message for the king. He wouldn’t be pleased that his son had defied his request, but he wouldn’t be surprised either.
Asunda watched Kor and his CPD disappear around a corner. Asunda walked down another corridor and briefly squeezed his eyes shut. The central computer monitor read his intentions as he strode toward the next available con exit. He didn’t have to wait long. Doors slid open to a small empty platform. The transportation capsule hissed to a stop and a small door flicked open. He stepped inside. The doors clicked shut behind him and the Bullet blew away from the platform like a subway train on steroids.
“Able sector,” he said as he sat down. “Display grid map of Able City con.”
As the capsule rocketed toward the sector, the onboard computer produced a hovering 3-D real-time image of the area. It revealed the chaos and destruction of multiple bomb attacks. The main biosphere tube into Able was now breached in several places. The secondary route was also heavily damaged and the emergency evacuation tube was littered with ancient debris. Twisted metal, rubble, and boulders were scattered all about.
“Show optimal access to Able City.”
“None. All access is denied.”
“Continue en route to Able City,” Asunda said, giving the tiny capsule his access priority code. “Configure a sub-optimal access route.”
“Route established. Radiation levels are fatal. WARNING.”
“Understood. Alert when excess radiation is encountered. I will deploy personal shield.”
“Data indicate that humans do not have the capability to deflect the level of radiation present.”
“I do. Access my file.”
“Done.”
“Re-evaluate.”
“Done. Your shield capabilities exceed normal boundaries. You can survive the route chosen, but there is a failure risk of 25 percent.”
“Proceed.”
Kor had dismissed his personal guards and doubled back. He had peeked around the corner as Asunda was leaving on the Bullet. He had shielded his Signature as best he could. Asunda was so preoccupied with his mission that he hadn’t detected him. He lifted his head, squinted slightly and pictured his intentions in his mind.
“Sixty seconds, Prince Kor.”
Seventy-five seconds later, the capsule screeched to a halt in front of him.
He jumped in. “Follow the previous Bullet.”
The machine began to accelerate and then halted. “Access is denied.”
“What?” Kor said. “Access? Access where, and why is it denied?”
“Prior Bullet’s destination is Able City. Radiation shields are down. All access is denied.”
“Oh.” What am I doing? he thought. I could die. Uncertainty crept into his mind and so did indecision.
“Waiting. What is your destination?”
“Able City.”
“Access is denied.”
“Override, I invoke the Sovereign code.” He gazed up into the monitor.
“Prince Kor is recognized. Override is acknowledged.”
The machine began to accelerate away from the safety of the palace toward the deadly city of Able.
CHAPTER22
The Bullet carrying Asunda raced through darkened underground tunnels that led to Able city. It entered the city via the emergency evacuation bio-tube.
“Radiation detected. Equip shield.”
“Equipped. Take me to sector City Center.”
The con tube ended at what was left of the Alpha City’s main terminal. The terminal tube cavity was strewn with huge chunks of fallen rock, concrete, and other debris. The transporter halted abruptly thirty yards short of the platform, unable to bypass the obstructions.
Asunda jumped nimbly from the vehicle. Then he raced toward the Alpha City terminal platform, dodging debris and maneuvering over twisted metal bars and outcroppings. He leaped onto the stone platform and raced to the entrance gate. An eight-passenger Mobile Transport Vehicle, which had been summoned by the con tube transporter, was waiting for him. He jumped aboard.
“City Center. Shields on max.”
The MTV jerked ahead and bolted up the graduated incline from con level to street level.
It burst through the entranceway in a cloud of dust, flew over the sidewalk, and slid onto the deserted street. It navigated though the debris-clogged streets toward the center of Able City. The vehicle steered around mounds of damaged roadway and past abandoned vehicles. A pale-orange atmosphere hung over the city and seemed to cling to everything it touched. A steady rain of radioactive chemicals drizzled from the corroded domed ceiling a hundred feet above street level.
Barely noticeable at first, amid the rubble, were the half buried bodies of dead citizens of Able. They had died almost instantly in the explosions. Their limp, spaghetti-like bodies hung grotesquely from vehicles and open windows. Chalk-white corpses lay prone beside each other where they had waited for mass transit to evacuate the city. Their large eyes stared seemingly in disbelief at each other. The radiation shields and biosphere had malfunctioned and shut down, not only because of sabotage, but because the maintenance crews had all been killed.
Oxygen levels
were dangerously low. What little remained was periodically ignited by damaged energy grids. Smashed electromagnetic energy transmitters exploded in blinding lightning bolt flashes. Energy surges could be heard across the city snapping and popping like distant gunfire.
Asunda was repulsed by the multitude of bodies scattered around. The victims’ delicate forms took on a luminescent light-purple color, as though they were nothing more than dead worms beached on a sidewalk after a rainstorm.
Several bombs had been detonated inside the city’s biosphere. These bombs had all but destroyed the electromagnetic force field that had previously kept deadly gamma and x-rays at bay.
High-energy particles had penetrated the artificial atmosphere and magnetosphere allowing lethal dosages of radiation to corrupt the city’s fragile artificial atmosphere. The penetration of high-energy particles into the unprotected bodies of the population was inevitably – and often instantly – fatal. Solar protons with energies greater than a thousand mega-electron volts were recorded before the monitoring machinery went off-line.
The solar radiation was so powerful, given the sun’s proximity, that minutes of exposure were deadly, even at a depth of two thousand feet. Irradiated corpses lay in agonized postures, their hands still locked on their throats, their brains baked inside their skulls. Purple gas vapors and colorless water oozed through their nostrils and blood seeped out around their bloated eyeballs from burst blood vessels. For a few moments after the bombs hit, some people had thought that they were safe because they had escaped the immediate impacts. But their relief had turned to horror as fatal levels of radiation struck. Their eyes burned and their organs began to fail. They had watched one another thrash about, dying in agony. It was as if they were being cooked inside a microwave oven.
“City Control,” Asunda said, staring out of the dusty transparent fuselage of the MTV as it coursed through the city streets nearing City Center. His aura simmered green about his body shielding him from the radiation.
The transport bounced along the uneven streets at a levitation height of three feet. Bodies were strewn everywhere, causing the vehicle to veer erratically to avoid contact – sometimes unsuccessfully. Corpses splattered against the windscreen. In a macabre effect, the windshield wiper started automatically and wiped them away. Sections of walls, weakened by explosions and quakes, had tumbled into the streets like mudslides. Pieces of furniture, clothing, and charred domestic debris covered the roadway toward the center of the stricken city. Not a living soul could be seen.
Asunda stopped in front of an old-fashioned multi-pillared edifice. It was City Control, Able City’s city hall. He hurried from the vehicle. His green aura was an undulating snake surrounding his body, protecting him from the dying sun’s penetrating radiation. He raced up the ancient, worn, stone steps, three at a time. He wrenched open the massive ebony doors and ran inside.
His worst fears were instantly realized. Scattered on the gleaming white marble floor were several twisted corpses. Both staff and visitors were frozen in their death stances. The radiation had petrified each human in a grotesque ballet. Because of his Gift, Asunda was able to feel their Beings as he ran through the lobby, carefully avoiding their bodies. Death had occurred so quickly that their Beings didn’t have a chance to prepare for it. Confusion reigned. Beings swirled about him unable to dock with their earthbound bodies. Horror is the only word for what he was witnessing. The invisible Beings clustered around Asunda, the only living human available, like deerflies on a horse. They sought peace, comfort, explanation, continuity, and belonging. Even with his wizard’s power, his Mind and Being quickly became overwhelmed. He fled, dancing past the corpses in an effort to avoid contact. His protective green aura spiked and flared about his body like shards of green lightning.
In the con tube, Kor’s transporter skidded to a stop beside the one Asunda had used not long before. Both were covered in dust and debris.
“Radiation detected,” the vessel warned. “Equip shield.”
Kor leaped from the capsule and raced along the damaged terminal platform. He slid to a stop as he saw that he was surrounded by human corpses, littered among the rubble. His stomach churned and his normally steady hands began to quiver. He jumped over several dead bodies that were directly in his path, trying to avoid looking at their disfigured faces.
His youthful inexperience betrayed him. What was he doing here in this hell? He didn’t have a plan of any kind. Though he didn’t suspect Asunda of any crime, he knew he was up to something and he had to find out what. He had always been deeply fascinated by Asunda’s hidden life. He was so familiar and yet he had a quality, an element of mystery about him that was intriguing. He felt compelled to follow him.
Kor’s body began to shake. Be brave, he found himself thinking. He knew he was in danger but he needed to know more about Asunda. Why had he deliberately entered into a restricted zone? He corralled an MTV and leaped inside.
“I am …”
“Welcome aboard, Prince Kor. We are honored …”
“Yeah, yeah. Was there an MTV that took off from near here a few moments ago?”
“Yes, Prince Kor,” the machine replied.
“Do you know where it went? Do you link with the other MTVs?”
“Yes, Sire, we do.”
“A passenger, from the palace …”
“Do you mean the wizard Asunda?”
“Yes I do. How did you know?”
“The passenger identification was the wizard Asunda. Business has been slow, my liege. He has been the only passenger heading into the city in the past eleven hours.”
“The only one?”
“Everyone else has departed. Only you two are going in the opposite direction.”
“I see. Is there a problem locating the destination of the MTV?”
“Not a mechanical problem. A human problem, I am afraid …”
Silence.
“Are you still on-line?”
“Yes, my liege. Forgive me. I was attempting to communicate this fare to Central Office. It seems that our communication link is inconsistent. Forgive the inconvenience. I now have a track on the prior route of the MTV that transported Master Asunda.”
“Destination?”
“City Control.”
“Proceed to City Control.”
“Understood and acknowledged.”
Asunda dodged the bodies sprawled on the winding, white stone stairs ascending to the room he had known since childhood, the Mayor’s office. His father, the Lord Mayor of Able City, had allowed him to play there as a boy. He half expected to see his father’s body splayed across the floor as he entered.
He was relieved to see an empty room. Chairs were overturned, a sign of a sudden panicked departure. Quivering holograph monitor screens were a blur of gray static because all communication systems were off-line.
He had come to rescue his father and his sister. Neither was there. His thoughts flashed to his sister. Centra was a stubborn traditionalist who would have refused to abandon Able City and her aging father. It was a well-kept secret, but Asunda and Centra were twins, both very powerful wizards. He had chosen the course of a palace wizard, while she had chosen a path that involved a mate and a family – a path that meant relinquishing her status as wizard. That meant downgrading her Gift and skill set.
She must be close by, he thought. There was no time to abandon the building. He screamed out her name and was met with stony silence. But there was a ripple of … something … in the air.
Because they were twins, her Gift was similar to his, though less powerful because of lack of practice. Surely she would have used her power to escape. Or maybe not – not if that involved abandoning her father. She was incorrigibly stubborn and fiercely loyal.
Asunda paced the room like an expectant father. He was overlooking something. She would have left a message for him.
But there was no sign of Centra. Not even a message for her brother, whom she surely must have expected to co
me to her rescue. There was nothing. Asunda’s aura was waning. He didn’t have much time. He felt the weight of failure clinging to his body like a leaden cloak. Despondent, he turned to leave. Then he felt something. A push?
A headache – perhaps because of the stress? No, something else. He turned in a circle and his eyes scanned the walls more thoroughly. A message! Yes! A message was encrypted into the memory of the biowall across from his father’s desk. Asunda rushed up to the wall and placed both his hands and his cheek against the smooth cool surface. He focused. Through physical contact, his body became a biological receptor to the wall computer. He uploaded the encrypted memory message. A communication, a vision, began to come through. He struggled to decipher it.
Just then the MTV called and warned him that his shield was depleting and his time was running out. He must return immediately, it told him. He acknowledged the warning and instructed the transport to stand by.
An image appeared in his mind. It was his sister. Yes. It was clear.
She was in a small dark place.
Father was with her.
He was near death.
They were close by.
He began to walk around the room, letting his hands run like tendrils along the smooth cold walls. The image of his sister grew stronger and stronger. He felt he was getting closer to her. He kept pushing with his mind, looking for mechanical devices to open. Suddenly there was a soft click, and a hidden panel yawned open, revealing another room. He entered. Inside, slumped on the floor but still alive, were Centra and his father.
There was another stern warning from the MTV. “MASTER ASUNDA, YOU MUST LEAVE NOW.”
The two were wrapped in a blanket sheathed by lead and hydrogen gas. Asunda looked about the room quickly. The walls and door were lined with thick, dull, silvery lead. This was a secret radiation shelter. It had saved their lives. So far.
Asunda flared his aura protection, reaching out tentatively to touch the blanket.
He gently spoke the traditional greeting of all Gifted humans: “Centra. I see you.”
