by Toby Minton
The Gateway pulsed a deep sound wave that Gideon could hear and feel even as he faded. It pulsed again, and a wave of blue energy erupted out, carrying Hale with it. The energy snatched up Gideon and the predator, carrying them over the wasted land in a roaring, blinding wave.
Then they slowed and seemed to go weightless as the energy gelled, holding everything inside it in place. Gideon could barely feel the creature still latched onto his ruined right side for a breathless second of peace before the wave contracted. The last sensation he felt before losing consciousness was a dragging rush as they were sucked back toward the Gateway with ever increasing speed.
Chapter 22
Nikki
“When I regained consciousness, I was as you see me now,” Gideon said, holding up and flexing his taloned right hand, grimacing at it as he did so, whether he realized it or not. “The genesis that poured from the collapsing portal repaired me in the most heinous way imaginable. It fused me with my attacker.”
“And you were where when you woke up?” Michael asked. “The lab isn’t still there, is it?”
“No,” Gideon replied. “When the Gateway overloaded, it flooded both sides of the portal with massive levels of genesis. On the Earth side, the element reacted with the excess electricity flooding into the doorway. The reaction vaporized everything within sixty kilometers of the facility, turning most of Mesa County into one broad crater. If the epicenter hadn’t been so far underground…” He paused and squeezed his eyes shut for a second before continuing.
“When I came to, I was in the crater,” Gideon went on. “I didn’t see Hale or SETI VII, just scorched earth and a darkening sky. I thought I was still on the other side of the Gateway, for a while. When I reached the edge of the crater and realized the destruction I had caused was here on Earth, I wished I had never made it back.
"As you know, the blast alone devastated Colorado and Utah. The earthquakes it triggered leveled structures as far away as South Dakota. The fallout from the blast turned most of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma into a barren dead zone before the dust and debris in the atmosphere could be captured. Crops even farther away were affected. Today, the Wasteland covers most of what used to be the nation’s breadbasket. And those were just the direct effects. The economic impact of millions of displaced Americans swarming the edges of the country—all because of my mistake, my failure to do what had to be done.”
“I don’t mean to be rude,” Nikki said, “but weren’t you trying to explain the Hunter? I think you got a little sidetracked by the guilt train somewhere in there.”
Nikki got some ugly looks from Michael and Mos—no surprise; a frown of disapproval from Elias—pretty much as expected too; and a dark, almost-grin from Gideon—so not expected.
“Quite so,” Gideon said, looking back at the map and hitting a few buttons, presumably collecting his thoughts.
Nikki wished he would collect faster. She was well past done with this confab. Six hours of storytelling—or however long it had really been—had not done her patience any favors.
“As you no doubt surmised,” Gideon said, once he was happy with his collection, “SETI VII survived the Event as well. Like me, Seven was bonded with what it was carrying when the genesis wave engulfed us. Specifically, the predator DNA in its sample tanks bonded with Seven’s organic brain. The Hunter, as Savior now calls it, is a killing machine that thinks and acts like the creature it encountered on the other side of the Gateway.”
“You mean that creature,” Nikki said, pointing at Gideon’s right side.
“Possibly,” Gideon replied. “Same species definitely.”
Sam and Kate walked in, Sam holding a cold pack to the back of his neck but otherwise looking no worse for wear.
“Hey!” Nikki called, smiling for the first time since Gideon’s history lesson had started. “It lives.”
Sam smiled back and nodded at her and then Michael before he looked to Gideon. “You rang, boss?”
“You did?” Nikki looked at Gideon, wondering when he’d called for anybody. She was sure she hadn’t fallen asleep during his talk. Well, pretty sure.
Sure enough though, Coop, Impact, and the pudgy old guy who’d been in an engine the first time she’d seen him, presumably Kate’s grandfather, filed in and found spots to lean or stand so they could see Gideon.
“You all know we’ve been having communication security issues for some time,” Gideon said.
Everybody nodded like they did know, even Michael, which didn’t make a bit of sense unless she’d fallen asleep for a lot longer than she’d thought—not that she had fallen asleep. Kate chewed her lip and kept her eyes on her shoes after she nodded. She seemed to be taking this pointless news pretty hard.
“After today’s events,” Gideon went on, “it’s obvious the issues are more widespread than we feared. Savior is either guessing our every move or he is somehow intercepting our every transmission. The former we can work around. The latter is a problem.”
He paused and looked around at everybody like he was waiting for something. Nikki gave him a nod and wink when he looked at her. She was with him so far. She wasn’t quite sure how ladders were involved, but she had the gist. She did squirm a bit in her seat though. She was getting to know this chair a little too well for her liking.
“Until we rectify the problem—”
Nikki snorted until she could get her hand to her mouth to stifle her giggle. The image of Gideon “rectifying” a ladder was just too much for her tired brain. Michael’s mouth thinned at her snort, but nobody else seemed to notice, except Sam. Across the room, he was fighting a smile and shaking his head at her.
“—no one is to leave the base or make any transmissions,” Gideon said.
A couple of people grunted or groaned, but all of them nodded, including Michael. In other words, no one reacted appropriately until Nikki stepped up.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What?” she said.
All eyes turned to her.
“You mean no one from your gang, right?” she said. “You don’t mean us?” She jerked a thumb at Michael and herself.
“I mean no one,” Gideon stated. Then he looked down and said, “Dismissed,” and people actually started moving to leave like the discussion was over.
“You’re planning to go along with this?” she asked Michael, her tone making perfectly clear what his answer should be.
“Yes,” he said.
Her brother was notoriously bad at interpreting tones, but he really should have caught on to that one. “After I—but—I was on my absolute best behavior today, and you’re asking me to stick to this guy’s curfew?” she shouted. “Are you kidding me? Did you see me out there? I was all about the team. I totally put the ‘i’ in team today.”
“You know there’s no ‘i’ in team, right?”
“Don’t change the subject,” she barked. “And don’t be a boob. Why else would people say they put the ‘i’ in it.”
“They say there is no ‘i’ in team. That’s the point.”
“I’ve heard plenty of people say they put the ‘i’ in it.”
“They’re being sarcastic.”
“You’re being sarcastic,” she snapped. “OK, genius. How do you spell it then? With two ‘e’s?”
“What? Are you serious? T-E-A-M, Nikki. Come on.”
“That’s stupid,” she laughed. “It’s pronounced teem not tee-am. Why the hell would there be an ‘a’ in it. No wonder people want to put an ‘i’ in there.”
Michael rubbed his hands on his face, indicating she was about to win her second argument of the day. “Fine,” he said. “I’m sorry I brought it up. The point is, I think we should stay.”
“And my point is NO. I did everything the way you wanted today, but instead of hitting Seattle with me, you want to reward me by playing lockup? Where’s the incentive to play nice here?”
“I know, Nikki,” he said, looking around at the people who’d stuck around to l
isten to them fight. He looked back at her like he wanted her to lower her voice. That was so not going to happen.
“But Gideon is right that Savior has been finding us way too easily since Sky City,” he went on. “We need to lie low for a while, and this is the most secure spot right now.”
“Well on that we agree,” she grumbled. “This place is a prison.”
She stood up to storm out but thought better of it. That wasn’t going to get her what she wanted. Besides, what she really wanted most right now was a shower and some food, and both those things were inside. She’d deal with the lockdown garbage when she was ready to roll out.
Michael stood with her and walked toward the door and the others who’d stayed to watch, which looked to be just Mos, Sam, Coop, and Hong Kong Katie. “So you’ll stay here with me for now?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t get all weepy. I’ll stay put, for now. At least until I get a bloody shower. I’ve got a case of the swamp nipples going on like you wouldn’t believe,” she said, squirming and adjusting her top.
“The what?” He looked at her like she was crazy. Mos chuckled as they passed him, and in front of them Kate looked as confused as Michael sounded.
“You try wearing a glorified swim suit top while fighting all over San Whatever and then tell me what you’d call it.” She shifted again and looked around. “So does anybody have a shower that doesn’t have a sink in the way? I’m dying here.”
The guys just laughed, which Nikki didn’t think was very nice. Well, Sam didn’t laugh. He just smiled and shook his head at her as he headed out. And Michael didn’t really laugh. He dropped his head and rubbed his temples.
Surprisingly, it was Kate who jumped in to save the day. After staring for a second, she took Nikki’s arm and said, “Come on. I’ll get you sorted. We need to go through my clothes to see if there’s anything you like anyway.”
Score one for Hong Kong Katie.
When they got out in the hall and away from the guys a bit, Kate lowered her voice and said, “You really didn’t see the sink retracts into the wall?”
Chapter 23
Michael
As he stepped into the hall to watch Nikki walk off with Kate, Michael knew there was going to be trouble. His sister had gone along with staying at the base far too easily. That meant one of two things: either that’s what she’d really wanted all along—not likely—or she was planning to jump ship the first chance she got—almost a definite.
“She’s something, isn’t she?” a gravelly voice said from behind him.
Michael hadn’t noticed Gram lingering in the hall. He also hadn’t noticed the heavy older man approaching until he spoke as he limped up beside Michael to watch the girls walk away. “One of a kind, if you ask me,” Gram said.
“She’s that alright,” Michael said. He looked away from Gram in time to see the girls turn the corner toward the living quarters. “Good thing too. I don’t think the world could handle more than one Nikki.”
“Right,” Gram grunted. Every time he spoke, his voice had a sort of low, gurgling resonance under his words, a lot like the sound an old hostel water heater made as it got up to temp.
“I think you know I wasn’t talking about your sister,” Gram said. “Just like I know that’s not whose caboose you were watching.”
Michael struggled for something to say. He felt a flash of something close to panic as he remembered Gram’s relation to Kate, and he wanted to deny that he’d been doing any such thing. But he couldn’t exactly say, “No, no, I was looking at my sister’s caboose.”
Gram put his hand on Michael’s shoulder and squeezed, hard. “I’ve got a lot of work to do, son. Why don’t you come to the hangar and give me a hand?” His tone made clear, as did his vise-like grip on Michael’s shoulder, that his request was in no way a request.
“I’d be happy to, sir,” Michael said.
Gram laughed as they started walking, the gurgle becoming a thin wheeze. “How old are you, son?”
“Going on eighteen,” Michael answered.
Gram grumbled something Michael couldn’t make out then said, “This ain’t a musical, son. I didn’t ask what you were ‘going on.’ I asked how old you are. Call it what it is.”
“Seventeen, sir.”
“Uhn,” Gram grunted. Whether that was a positive or negative response, Michael didn’t know. He got the feeling it wasn’t a good thing. The hallway was suddenly starting to get a little warm. “My Kate’s twenty. ‘Going on’ twenty-one, if you understand that better. Did you know that?”
“Yes, sir,” Michael said as they passed the galley. Cool air was blowing down the hall from the hangar up ahead, but it wasn’t making Michael feel any better. He was starting to sweat like they were running instead of slowly walking. He felt worse when they reached the open doors to the hangar and Gram stopped and turned Michael to face him.
“You’ve ‘sir’d me three times now, son. You trying to insult me?” Gram grated, holding Michael’s gaze with eyes that were unreadable but in no way friendly and cuddly like Kate had described him.
“No, s—”
Gram’s thick eyebrows shot up at the slip, and he waited what felt like a full minute before he went on. “Thirty-seven years in the service before I retired.” He held up his hands so Michael could see his thick calluses and scars. “These hands look like I told other people what to do?”
“No.”
Gram nodded. “Damn right, son. I worked for a living. Hell, I still work as much now as I ever did, and I’m retired. So don’t you ‘sir’ me again. Call me Chief or Gram. I answer to either.”
“OK…Chief.”
Gram grunted and stepped down into the bay, favoring his left hip and wincing at the bottom of each step. “Well don’t be bashful, son. This generator won’t rebuild itself.” He threw Michael a look that was a hard mix of challenge and disapproval. “Let’s see if you know your way around an engine. And while we’re at it, let’s get a few things straight about my granddaughter.”
Nikki
Nikki hated to admit it, but Kate had some pretty cool clothes. She’d expected everything to scream “bubbly” and “nerdy,” even though what she’d seen Kate wear was normal enough. Nikki’s first impressions just tended to stick no matter how hard she tried to shake them. With Kate, her first impression had been all happiness and computery smartitude. But these clothes weren’t half bad.
They were in Kate’s room, which was laid out the same as the others Nikki had seen—same fold-down bed, same confusing bathing area—but it felt a lot warmer and almost…homey.
For one thing, Kate had painted the concrete a pale peach color, except for the slanted ceiling, which was a darker umber. She’d also decorated simply, which Nikki liked—probably because she’d never had enough stuff to decorate any other way. She’d replaced the locker with a small bamboo dresser, stained a darker brown, and had only a few odds and ends on top, including a handful of figurines. She’d hung only one small picture on each wall and a set of colorful narrow banners with hanji marching down them flanking the heavy door. Between the door and dresser stood a gardenia almost as tall as Nikki, its two white blooms turned toward the skylight. How she’d gotten a plant to grow down here, Nikki had no idea. She felt like she was withering and shrinking after just a couple of days underground.
Nikki held a faded T-shirt up against her chest and checked herself out in the mirror.
“You can borrow any of this stuff,” Kate said from where she sat cross-legged on the bed watching Nikki paw through the stack of clothes she’d pulled out. “You don’t have to pick just the old junk.”
“Are you kidding?” Nikki said, her face scrunching as she eyed her reflection. “This is the best one yet.”
She meant it. Yeah, it was an old faded gray, which maybe wasn’t even its original color, and the burning phoenix spreading its wings across her chest was barely more than a yellow and orange Y, but Nikki loved it. It was a baby-doll tee with sleeves
barely long enough to cover her shoulders, and the fabric was so soft with age and wear that just the feel of it on her hands made her smile. Plus, something about the phoenix just felt right to her. It was perfect.
“Really?” Kate said, cocking her head and smiling at Nikki’s reflection. “Then keep it. Please. I was just going to get rid of it anyway.”
“Are you sure? OK,” Nikki said. She folded the shirt with care, still smiling, and added it to the small pile of clothes she’d chosen.
She’d limited herself to just a select few items even though she liked most of what Kate had set out and nearly all of it had fit pretty well. Kate was a just little shorter, which was fairly rare for Nikki. She was also just a little skinnier, which didn’t make sense. Nikki was sure somebody like Kate had never gone without food like she and Michael had. Could be she was one of those loonies who starved herself for body image reasons, a common enough type of crazy among those who spent time overseas in the land of their overlords.
“Most of this stuff looks a lot better on you than on me anyway,” Kate said. “You’re so toned. How do you keep that up?”
Nikki grunted a half chuckle. “Smacking my brother around. You should try it. It works wonders,” she said, but she regretted it instantly. The mischievous, interested look in Kate’s smiling eyes was so not what Nikki wanted to see.
Nikki looked at her little stack of clothes and then at the pile she had yet to go through. She was torn. Part of her hated to walk away from so much new-to-her stuff. Growing up on the streets, she’d learned to never turn down free anything, even if it was loaner anything. But the more stubborn part of her knew she had no intention of sticking around long enough to wear even half of what she’d already taken. If she took more, she’d have to change clothes every hour to get through it all before they rolled out.
