“Have I muddled things up?”
“No.”
“Where are we now?” she asked as she pulled away from him, patting the beautiful material of his coat.
“Between things. You somehow created a bubble just as we were heading back to Earth. This place exists outside of time. We still have work to do, though.” Max looked up and around him. “Once this temporary reality collapses, we’ll be back where we started with our plan.” He regarded her with quiet eyes. Jane could see they were filled with pride. “Are you ready for this?”
“Yes,” she replied, and then almost immediately, the pub began to shake. She looked up and saw dust falling from the cracks in the wooden ceiling. The chandelier shook at the center of the room, and the one lone man in the brown trench coat at the bar turned toward them and looked at Jane with weary eyes.
“One of yours?” she asked Max.
“Sort of,” Max replied, glancing at the man. Max nodded at him, but the man showed only the slightest hint of a gesture before he turned back to his drink.
A light appeared at the center of the space on the opposite side of the pub, near to where they had first appeared. They both turned fully, and watched as the light became an opening which spread out around the interior, revealing the temporary nature of the construct. Beyond it was blackness. Max took a step forward, and Jane followed immediately. She was about to step beyond the boundary of the light as it passed close to her feet when everything stopped again. She frowned and looked up at the frozen room. Half of the pub had vanished as the veil of light had passed over it like a lasso, and beyond it, there was only blackness.
It’s not over.
Jane turned to the sound of the voice. It had come from the Rose, or rather, through it. She looked at the beautiful object once more.
What do you mean?
This is only the beginning. You’ll see.
She took a step forward but didn’t manage to get far before a firm wall of force held back. She placed her hands up to it, confused, but it would not budge.
I need to know more, she demanded, frowning.
There is no more for you here. In this final communication, Jane heard the voice begin to echo into the distance, becoming more difficult to understand as the sound receded into oblivion. It was as though it had become a thousand languages, all blended together, and the last words were only barely decipherable.
The force she had encountered just moments before wrapped around her, lifting her off her feet and turning her back around once more to the disappearing wall. Time resumed, and the ring of light passed under her feet. Without any other choice, she returned to motion quickly and stepped into the blackness with Max.
CHAPTER 23
MANY WORLDS
Whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand, Jane.
That was the last thing Jane had heard before they stepped into the ring of light with the intention of completing their plan.
I’m taking us to Earth, Max said with an air of defiance in his voice.
You’re going to use the Machine.
Yes.
Jane focused on the one place that she knew wouldn’t be hard to reach. Out of the blackness they had stepped into, a tremendous energy built all around them, and for a moment, it seemed as though every cell in her body was vibrating. The blue light enveloped them once more, and then the energy was gone, and they were falling.
She held his hand and looked at him now to find him simply staring downward. Glancing around, she saw that the swirling cloud of vapor on the perimeter of the vortex still enveloped them, and her vision was filled with this golden-orange hue. The Machine’s pieces still turned around each other, making a droning sound. Jane had not yet had the experience of seeing the Machine up close from this vantage point. Her eyes grew wide as she marveled at its magnificence. She realized then just how truly ancient and advanced was the race that built it.
She felt Max hold her hand tightly, and glancing up at him, she watched as he rotated his position so that he was facing her. As they fell, the wind caught his coat and caused the magnificent black garment to flutter all around him. He took her other hand so that they were connected and facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes. They had been falling downward, and she felt his power grip her once again as they stopped moving, frozen in the center of the vortex.
Are you ready? she heard him ask in her mind.
Jane paused for a moment, distracted by the massive clouds swirling over his shoulder.
Yes.
He smiled. I’ll guide your mind where it needs to go—where the Machine pieces need to go. Just reach out with your thoughts and feel for each of the sections—we’re going to send all of them away together.
OK, Max. She frowned. Do it.
His eyes narrowed to slits, and as she felt his thoughts reach into her mind, the rapidly swirling clouds behind him began to slow down, until after a few seconds, they appeared to stop completely, though Jane could still see a modicum of movement. The swirls were only moving by mere centimeters. There was a flash in Jane’s mind as she saw an incredible vista—another world—and she gasped as she felt her body gripped by a strange, electrifying current.
In the vision she saw now, that world was covered on both the top and bottom by dense layers of cloud. Swirling columns of silvery energy and light rose from the bottom to the top of the upper and lower surfaces. As Jane stared at them—her view of the Machine now gone completely—she knew that she was looking into another world, filled with both wonder and immense power.
Max! What is this?
It’s another plane of existence, Jane. You don’t have time to look at it.
There was another flash, and the beautiful vista disappeared. This time, in her mind’s eye, she glimpsed a rocky world, and above it, a purple-lit plasma-like substance covered what Jane could only presume was the sky. It rolled across it in vast swirls. Balloon-like protrusions of that mass appeared out of nowhere and then vanished back into the sky just as quickly. The rocky surface appeared to stretch into forever, though vision itself seemed to have a different meaning here, and Jane wasn’t sure if she could trust her senses. In the distance, every now and then, there were enormous columns of light, and Jane could only presume these were lightning strikes, though more powerful than any she could have ever imagined.
Then, the rocky world disappeared, and more of the dimensions appeared to her. Each one seemed more primordial, more distant to the one that came before. But the more she saw, the more she didn’t really see; the more of the worlds she witnessed, the less she understood. Eventually, her mind touched on a world that was just a complex mass of moving geometric structures that stretched into infinity. Although Jane could appreciate the beauty, she had no understanding of what she saw.
You don’t need to see any more of these worlds, Jane. Feel out for the rings. Grasp them in your mind and SEND THEM TO THESE PLACES! DO IT NOW.
She knew he was right. She was already caught in a daze of some kind as she glanced from one world to another. It was time to act. She reached out for the rings. Quickly, she ran the mental hands of her mind down over each and every section, feeling for them. When she felt she had a hold on all of them, Max spoke once again.
That’s it. You know what to do now: Send them away!
As he said the words, she realized that the Machine could indeed be moved. She grimaced, feeling the weight of what she was trying to do, but as she pulled on the ring sections, she began to feel them moving, obeying her will. A tremendous groaning sound filled the air around them, as though something was ripping at the very air itself.
Open the windows, Jane!
She felt out for the transport mechanism, her intent guided every step of the way by Max’s towering, incredible mind. Over his shoulder, she saw a kaleidoscope of light fall across the sections of the rings one by one. She pulled her gaze away from Max to see this incredible,
rainbow-like color envelop each section. Then the rings twirled back into motion and disappeared almost immediately, leaving only a minute trail of prismatic light in their wake, which swirled around both of them for a moment and then vanished. Only the sound of the crashing waves below them could be heard as the orange-red vapor slowed down, stopped moving, and began to fall toward the ocean, dissipating as the strange, anomalous cloud that it was.
Max was looking around with a grin on his face. Then his mouth opened and his lips curled into a wide smile. “You did it! Wonderful, Jane!”
Jane tried to smile, but grimaced instead as all the energy in her body was suddenly gone. She fainted and fell into his arms.
***
Jane woke again to the feeling of wind blasting her face. She was about to ask Max to slow them down when she felt the strong arm of his mind do this very thing, and immediately, their speed decreased, until they were drifting slowly toward the sea. Glancing down, Jane could make out the ships, and as they drifted down further, she could see people spill out onto the deck of the lead vessel. More daylight had faded—though not much—and the sun was now just below the horizon. |How long was I gone? she wondered. It seemed like hours had passed while they had travelled through the various places that the Machine had given them access too. Here though, it seemed that not much time had passed at all, and she thought that it couldn’t have been more than an hour. Looking upward, she could see a point of white light in the sky flickering in intensity. As she stared at it, it appeared to become smaller. She glanced away from it and looked downward.
Yes, she heard Max say in her mind, the portal is still open. It will close soon enough. There’s a lot of residual energy remaining there.
Jane nodded. They were approaching the surface of the largest ship, from where she had left, and she could see her friends staring up at her. Morris stood tall behind Mike and Ciara. A pang of regret rose within her when she saw her friends. She thought about what had happened with the Rose. How could she have done that? How could she have been seduced by the simple possibility of mere power? Did Max know that had happened?
Max, I’m sorry, she blurted out without thinking.
For what? he asked, a smile appearing on his thin lips.
For going after the Nexus. I almost left everything behind. Including you.
He looked at her, and at first, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Then he shook his head. No. You did well, Jane. You let it go. Much quicker than most would have.
The realization that he was correct almost brought tears to her eyes. The deck approached rapidly, and Jane’s heart beat faster. She gasped as they reached it, and Max broke their fall, dropping to his knees and holding her up with his power.
Her friends ran to embrace her, and Morris came first. She threw her arms around his neck, and he locked his around her waist tightly. They held each other, and then he pulled back and kissed her. As she pulled away, she was almost afraid to look into his eyes, but he lifted her chin gently with his hand, turning her head toward him and looking at her. She could tell he immediately knew about the depth of her experience. In truth—although she wasn’t aware of it now—Jane’s eyes would betray the things she had seen for the rest of her life. Still, Morris smiled at her, and she found herself smiling back.
She glanced around and saw that Max was still standing there. He nodded at her and smiled. It took her a moment to smile back at him; she realized she had been afraid that he would have once again vanished. She would need some time to get used to his flesh-and-blood, mortal form.
But how long will it last? she found herself wondering, and frowned.
Max’s smile faded, and Jane watched his gaze drift behind her. She turned around to see Marie approach from the door that led to the control room of the ship. She was staring at Max.
“Who the hell are you?” she asked.
Jane turned back around. Max’s coat fluttered in the breeze, and he gazed at her, but he said nothing. Men and women followed Marie out to the deck and were carrying advanced weaponry; Jane was momentarily afraid that they would be stupid enough to raise them.
None of that mattered, though, as, without warning, a terrible, yet familiar screeching sound began to rise up around them. Jane covered her ears. She noticed everyone else gradually doing the same thing. It took her a moment to realize that the sound was coming from above, and she looked up to see the dim portal still flickering. A tearing sound filled the skies. After a few moments, the screeching reached a crescendo, and the portal turned black. Then, the presence that Jane had become familiar with during her passage through the Machine came through it and flew right toward them.
Jane backed away, gripping Morris’s hand tightly. She was glad to feel him pull her closer at the waist as the black mass darted through the air at them. Max raised his arms upward and rose up off the deck to meet it. He stopped twenty feet in the air, hovering above them with his arms outstretched at an angle. Jane could feel the power coming off him in waves. But it didn’t matter. The black mass stopped a hundred feet above the ship. It took the rough form of a human shape and appeared to regard them for a moment.
A different sound now came from it, and to Jane, it seemed as though it was communicating with Max. There were the sounds of dripping, indecipherable words being spoken, and she could hear them both telepathically and physically, but she could make absolutely no sense of them.
Then, without warning, a colossal wave of energy rose up around the black mass, encircling it as an invisible field that perturbed the air. The entity rocketed off toward the horizon and was gone—invisible within two seconds. Max pulled his right arm back, then the same energy built up around him; a spherical, translucent wall that spread out from his entire body, and then he too rocketed away, chasing the entity. An immediate sonic boom raced back to them, knocking them backward.
Jane had held up her arm to shield herself from the shockwave, but as she looked back up, the sky was empty. Max was gone again. Her hair blew up around her, but she did not falter. MAX! she screamed out telepathically as she ran to the edge of the ship and grasped the railings. “MAX!” she screamed aloud. Tears spilled down her cheeks. She stared out at the horizon, which to her, at that moment, may have indicated the end of the world. She felt Morris’s hands on her shoulders, then they ran down her torso and gripped her, pulling her toward him. She took a breath, his touch electrifying her, and then she turned back around.
She stared into his eyes as panic rose up within her. “Morris, I don’t know what to do. He’s gone. He went… He went after…” She frowned as she realized something had changed in her immediate environment, but the dimming light had prevented her from noticing it. The men with weapons, who had followed Marie onto the deck, now all had their weapons trained on her and her friends. What was just seconds ago sadness was quickly transmuted into rage at the sight of this. She stepped out past Morris and clenched her fists.
Marie gaped, and she took a step backward.
Jane’s friends turned with her, and fierce electricity built up around them as the men aimed their weapons. The first shot was fired on sheer nerve. It was a head-on target for Ciara. Jane reached out, erecting a shield in front of her rapidly. She had seen this weaponry before; it was the same incredibly high-powered Taser Lucas had used on her inside the ship. The blue bolt impacted the shield, and Jane grimaced as she felt its energy reverberate inside her. An explosion of electrical energy engulfed them, and Jane heard Mike yell out in shock at the force of the energy bolt.
Ciara was knocked off her feet, pushed to the deck by the force of the shockwave.
Morris reacted quickly, and with a nod of his head, lifted the same man off the ground. He threw him back toward a bulkhead, which the man hit hard. The man then fell to the deck and remained there, unmoving.
Another man in the far back was right next to him, and now, after turning and looking at the first man’s limp body, he drop
ped his weapon and ran for the door. There remained two men and one woman, and without hesitation, they turned and began firing.
Morris raised his arm, and the air in front of them warped into a shield. What seemed like a barrage of blue fireworks began to explode against it as the bolts of energy impacted it.
Jane glanced right as she saw a flash of light build up there quickly. She was just in time to see Mike disappearing. Seconds later, she looked ahead to see him reappear behind one of the men with a gun. He reached up both hands—each of them beaming with light—and brought them down hard on the man’s face. The guard yelled out and fell to the ground unconscious. One of the remaining men turned immediately and aimed his weapon at Mike. Raising his hands, Mike disappeared with a flash just before the man fired the high-powered weapon at him. The bolt of blue energy flew out over the top of the ship and disappeared into the sky beyond. A few seconds later, there was another ripple of light, and Mike appeared right next to Jane.
Morris was holding off the weapons’ fire with some difficulty, as the one remaining man and woman were now concentrating their fire on him. With each impact of the blue bolts, a swell of fire built up in front of him, illuminating the translucent shield and creating a cascade of ripples that fell over its surface.
Jane had a plan, and she moved behind Morris. As she did, she began to hear Marie’s scared, almost incoherent rambling.
Can’t let them escape / Atlantic Object gone / never explain this to the Committee / Lucas! / Where the hell is he? / How the hell am I going to get out of here?! / Got to slip away now…
Ignoring Marie for the moment, Jane stood behind Morris and focused her power. She placed both her hands on his shoulders and saw him nodding, recognizing her intention immediately. She stared at the scar on his neck and closed her eyes, sending all the energy she had his way, and the shield began to build up in front of him. She could hear him groan as he captured the energy from the weapons, and in her mind’s eye, she saw the blue ball of light grow in front of him. Then it exploded forward, and everyone—Marie included—was knocked off their feet from the force of the explosion.
Rise (The Ethereal Vision Book 2) Page 34
