She smiled. “Thanks.”
“OK.” He reached out a hand, and without question, she took it. Immediately, the desert flashed by at what must have been a thousand miles per hour—or more. They rose into the sky and passed through clouds and the atmosphere. Eventually, the stars swirled past them. Jane lost her focus for a second. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw that they were once again on the road.
Max let go of her hand and walked in front of her. “This should do,” he said.
Jane looked around at the beautiful blue field of stars in front of her, and the blobs with outstretched arms in the distance that she knew were actually galaxies. She took a few steps forward, and for a moment, in this place of pristine beauty, she forgot everything that was going on. She forgot about the entity that was pursuing them, who had been imprisoned for a long and unspecified length of time, and she forgot about having seen her father on the road—and that he might have indeed seen her.
She walked a few feet further and glanced at Max for just a moment. He raised his left hand into the air, palm facing upward, as a glare of light began to coalesce there. She wasn’t sure what he was doing, and for the moment, she wasn’t overly concerned with it. She looked up and around once again, noticing that the road seemed to have shifted just slightly. Now, the Milky Way was further off on their right, taking up perhaps just a quarter of the stars below. On her left, in the near distance, was an enormous column of light and illuminated cloud that she knew to be a nebula. It stretched up above them for what she presumed was light years. Various shapes had formed around it, and it appeared unmoving.
“Max, I wasn’t aware that nebulae existed in intergalactic space,” she said, turning to glance at him. He was staring at the glowing ball of light held in his palm.
“Oh, yes,” he replied. “They are quite common. In fact, they are the beginnings of some galaxies.” He stared into the light for a moment longer before speaking again.
She watched him as the dancing shimmer played off the beautiful features of his angular face.
“OK, Jane, we don’t have much time. He has a connection to you, and it won’t be long before he finds us, so I need to show you this quickly.”
“What will he do if he finds me?”
“He will attempt to coerce you to let go—to cede control of your mind to him so that he can use the Machine.”
“To use it for…”
He smiled. “You might be playing with fire if you want to know the exact answer to that question. But something tells me you’re not going to let go of that subject too easily…”
“OK,” Jane said, as though initiating a gambit. “Let’s go.”
Still watching Jane, Max grasped the ball of energy in his palm, and the road disappeared. They rushed through space, rapidly moving toward the Milky Way below. Somewhere, in the vacuum of space that flew past them, Jane reached out and found Max’s hand, grasping it tightly. They passed through a vast, bright cloud of yellow dust, and then slowly, the edge of the galaxy came into view. They veered down toward it at tremendous speed. The blue, outer rim of stars approached quickly, and somewhere, Jane felt her blood pump in her veins.
It’s OK, Jane.
I’m not afraid. I’m just… freaked out.
I understand.
The outer stars approached and grew large in their vision. The rim of the galaxy was predominately blue, and the stars there were, too. They passed by them, and as they moved inward through vast clouds of gas and stellar dust, they moved by brighter, yellow stars. Jane noticed that many of them were surrounded by huge, intricate solar systems—some of them very different from earth’s. These star systems whizzed past in a blur, and after a short time, Jane saw that they were coming upon a source of light.
This is it, Max said in her mind.
They appeared to be leaving one section of the galaxy—the outer arm—and approaching an inner, darker portion where the sky was sparser. Up ahead, Jane could see a star; it was somewhat dimmer than earth’s sun and surrounded by an aura of light.
The sun was brighter before. This happened a long time ago, Jane, around the time we made the decision to imprison him, Max said.
They approached the outer planets, which were mostly ordinary. On the outer rim, there was what appeared to Jane as a ball of white ice—a frozen world. Then there were others, and one gas giant that swirled with enormous orange storm clouds. They moved past these one by one. Next, technology appeared around them: vast constructs beyond Jane’s imagining. There were large space stations and geometric structures that spanned for miles. Many of them were destroyed—in pieces—and drifting through space in a ghostly fashion. They passed through these as they began to slow down.
They finally approached a large world. At first, it appeared to be surrounded by a gray mass, but as they drew closer, Jane realized this was more technology. A haze of satellites—most of which appeared to be nonfunctional—surrounded the planet.
The world is mostly dead. There are some inhabitants here, but the technologies are abandoned, their psionic faculties mostly forgotten.
Because of him?
Yes.
They passed through the layer of satellites and various other technologies, which appeared gargantuan to Jane in comparison to earth’s small orbital vehicles. Then they approached a layer of gray cloud tinged with blue. After moving through this, Jane could make out the terrain below. There were mountains straight ahead with some green foliage in the massive crevice at the center. On the left, there was a dark ocean, but they were moving toward the right automatically, and she looked in this direction now.
She gasped as she noticed that the land they were approaching was completely barren. Clearly, a large-scale cataclysm had occurred here. There was no vegetation, and there appeared to be no sign of animal life. The ground approached quickly. After a few moments, the surface was rising toward them rapidly, and Jane could feel Max’s arm at her back, holding her. They set down gently, and Max went straight into motion and walked ahead of her.
“How much time do we have, Max?”
“Not much. I’ve accelerated our neural processes greatly, so what we see in here—inside my mind—should only take minutes in reality.”
Jane frowned. “OK. Thanks. Now I understand,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Max walked forward, and Jane hurried along beside him. His magnificent coat swirled around his feet as he walked, its flowing, elegant design contrasting with the blackened, burnt earth below.
“The complex was here, near to the sea,” he said, stopping. He turned around and faced the ocean, which Jane thought must have been a hundred miles away. “Once the detonation went off, I tried to vent some of the force of the explosion toward the water, but I wasn’t powerful enough. There was just too much energy. The explosion triggered a chain reaction that ran across the power systems that lined the entire continent.”
“Why did he do this?”
Max glanced at her and then turned around again and faced forward. “I’ll show you. I’ll have to recreate it for you, though. We’ll be speaking English, but that was not the language we were speaking then, obviously.”
Jane felt the illusion projected from his mind instantly as the world in front of them once again changed. She looked up in wonder as, all around her, the scenery began to alter. Walls appeared in the distance, and outlines of technological constructs appeared around them. Within moments, the recreation was complete, and they were inside an enormous facility. To Jane, it appeared to be easily as big as a football field. A complex series of metallic pipes crossed the ceiling above them. In the four corners, there were four large cylindrical vats held up on columns. These were filled with a blue-purple liquid of some kind. It’s a coolant system, Jane thought automatically, not knowing how she could know such a thing.
Directly in front of her,
about thirty feet away, was a larger cylinder, about thirty feet in diameter, that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Running up its center were gaps in the casing—rings, each about a foot in width—beyond which, Jane could see dim light emanating in pulses.
“That’s the central reactor,” Max said aloud. He paused, glaring straight ahead. “This is what happened.”
After a few seconds that were filled with silence, there was a flash of white light about ten feet in front of the reactor, and a being appeared there. He was not human, but humanoid in appearance. He was wearing a torn, brown cloak of some kind, which flowed behind him as he stepped forward toward the reactor. Jane caught a glimpse of his face and could see a thick ridge over his eyes and a high forehead. His skin was a light shade of pink.
Walking right up to the reactor, he stopped and examined it, gazing in through the slits at the light that came from them, as though it held great significance for him. Slowly, he reached up his hands toward it.
There was another flash on his right, and Max appeared there, wearing similar clothing, but looking slightly younger. His face bore an expression of terror.
“Please stop,” the younger Max said.
The being turned to face Max, but only regarded him for a brief moment before he returned his attention to the reactor in front of him. “You know where I’m going,” he said quietly, “and you know what I need to get there.” He paused for a moment as he regarded the reactor, as though he was staring at some kind of deity. “Power.”
Jane watched the exchange between them. The other Max grew silent, his expression fierce. She had no idea what the other being was referring to, but she instinctively knew it was both important and dangerous.
“It’s not for us,” Max yelled.
The other being glanced back at Max. “Tell me, in what time—in what place—did The Presence last communicate with you? She is like a distant, mossy rock, turning over in some ancient, unknown land. She means nothing—she does nothing. She watches over us like a puppet master, dropping in every millennia or so with a few instructions.” He paused and glanced back toward the reactor again. “I’ve had enough of that.”
Jane watched, fearing what was about to happen, as the other Max began to grow desperate. He took a tentative step forward.
“It’s not for you to decide.”
There was no response.
“Look,” the younger Max said, “I know what you speak of. I know you think you deserve greater enlightenment about her plans. I know you feel… diminished. I sometimes do too. But I trust her. And we absolutely have to factor in the inadequacies that we bring from our mortal existence. I know you come from a difficult world. Are you sure—”
“Silence!” the other screamed as he whipped his head around toward Max.
This past recreation of Max was now lifted off his feet violently, as though blown by a gust of incredible wind, and knocked into a piece of equipment that erupted in an explosion. Incredible arcs of electrical energy streaked out from the impact site, snaking up around the room and impacting various other equipment. The younger Max was barely visible among the flames, and he seemed to be struggling to regain his footing despite the incredible power that Jane knew he possessed.
She turned back toward the other being and watched as he raised his hands again, placing them on the casing of the reactor. The other Max freed himself from the growing electrical fire and stood up just in time to see the other being place his hands flat against the surface. The younger Max seemed to find some greater will inside him; a fierce expression stole over his face. Reaching behind him, he twirled his hand around in the background. The fire, which had initially been just a small electrical explosion, had grown rapidly to encompass the entire area. It was now blown aside at Max’s bidding—as though by a huge gust of wind—and extinguished almost immediately.
The entire building—massive as it was—began to rumble. Jane grabbed hold of the Max she knew—the one of the present, the one who looked only years older than the one she was watching in this recreation.
“Listen to me!” the younger Max screamed over the growing cacophony around them.
The being’s hands began to pulse with an iridescent white light, and glowing spheres of energy cascaded down his arms. Within moments, his entire body, including his flowing brown cloak, had begun to glow with this light, which grew brighter as the moments passed.
Max screamed again. “If we were meant to reach the Nexus, it wouldn’t be as difficult as this. There would be some way—something. The Machine, for instance… it wasn’t built for us.”
“Is that why you hid it from me?”
The younger Max hesitated, and Jane gripped the present Max’s hand more tightly.
“Yes. Our task is not a light one. We are granted these powers, only at the apex of the evolution of our species, in return for vast responsibilities. We do not interfere with other cultures until they are ready. We use our vast psionic potential only for the benefit of life. And most important of the edicts, we do not attempt to transcend these limitations.”
“In other words, we take what is given to us.”
“That’s not how I see it. I’ve been given access to the vastness of the cosmos. It is something I could never have dreamed of in my mortal existence. I’ve experienced life through the eyes of a thousand worlds and their cultures. Surely that’s enough?”
The being now beamed with the light that it seemed to be absorbing from the core. The face of the younger Max was bathed in this glow, and it seemed almost translucent. The rumbling grew louder as Jane put her hand up to shield her eyes.
“Please! PLEASE STOP!” the younger Max screamed, and it seemed now that his voice was no longer being projected physically, but rather, psychically.
“No. I’ve lived in this shadow for too long.”
Through the incredible haze of light, Jane saw the younger Max reach out with his hand in a final effort to avert what was happening. In a display of power unlike anything she had ever seen before, reality itself seemed to warp around his palm, and a beam of white energy rushed forth from it. The other being stepped away from the reactor in time, reached out a hand with unnatural rapidity, and grasped the beam of energy. For a moment, his very body shimmered. Then he pointed his hand upward and redirected the energy that Max was projecting at him toward the ceiling.
Jane ducked to the ground as half of the ceiling on the massive complex was shredded to pieces. The beam of energy flew through it and, presumably, continued into space.
The being reached out his other hand. The younger Max gasped and lurched forward as he was caught in a tremendous grip. He rose off the floor, seeming to struggle for air.
Jane looked up to the Max who held her hand, and saw him watching the scene unfold, his face flat and expressionless. She searched for regret, but she could find none. She frowned at his lack of emotion. He looked down at her, and his face continued to show no expression. She quickly realized why; he had gone over these moments a thousand times in his mind already.
The younger Max squirmed, held in the grip of the other being, who Jane knew instinctively was newly empowered by the energy of the device. She heard him call out for help in a telepathic whisper. Moments later, shimmers of energy began to appear around the vicinity in a circle. They became more humanoid in appearance as the seconds passed, and then transparent beams of energy erupted from each of them, appearing to connect to the entity, encasing him.
“These are the others,” Jane yelled over the cacophony. She looked up to see Max nodding in agreement.
The being, now glowing from head to foot with fierce, incredible energy, screamed. Jane placed her hands to her ears, for it was unlike anything she had ever heard before. It contained the frustration of eons, and the entire history of a race could be heard within it.
Jane’s heart sank, for she already knew the end of the
story.
Knowing its defeat, the being struck out defiantly with its left hand, shredding the incredibly thick casing of the already energized core to pieces, and then there was nothing but a blaze of light.
***
For a moment, Jane was gone from existence. She appeared again just below the atmosphere, hovering. Max was floating next to her, and she looked at him now.
He nodded but indicated for her to look at the ground.
As she did, she saw that the nuclear fire was spreading out rapidly from a central point. Within moments, it had covered an enormous mass of land, erasing towns and even entire cities. It seemed the very landmass that the reactor had been contained upon was being torn up and vaporized.
“Max,” she said with a heavy heart. “I’ve seen enough of this. I want to go back to the road.”
She turned toward him and could see the reflection of the roiling fire in his eyes. After a moment, he nodded. Then they were moving backward, first through the atmosphere and the gray clouds that it contained, then through the vast network of ancient technology. She saw the planets pass by her. After that, they moved quickly through the other stars, toward the outer reaches of the galaxy, moving more rapidly with each passing second. With a jolt, she found herself standing on the road again. She took a deep breath and let it out.
She looked up at the beautiful dark-blue sky again, which was still littered with glittering smudges of light here and there, some more distant than others. Indeed, some formed together into clumps—into what appeared to be clusters of galaxies, which glimmered like incredible jewels.
Jane took a step forward, taking in the vista for a moment, but still the burning fire clouded her thoughts; the noise and the sounds of the vast cities and buildings being ripped and blown to pieces were difficult to put aside. She had to force the images away. When she had cleared her thoughts, she turned back around to Max to find he was looking directly at her, and his eyes were once again watery like pools—portals to the far reaches of the universe. For a moment, she merely stared into them, feeling that someday he would slip away from her. She winced, and the silence around them grew to an awful crescendo, though she didn’t move. She did her best to stow away the memory of him as he was now, knowing somehow that they had reached the apex of their journey. Finally, he spoke.
Rise (The Ethereal Vision Book 2) Page 29
