She listened to the quiet pad of her bare feet on the heavy wooden planks of the drawbridge. The sounds of her footsteps were nearly washed out by the thunder of falling water pounding the cliffs nearby, all else hushed beneath the overarching dome of the beautiful morning sky. The air was crisp, fresh, her eyes were locked to the impossible form of the Reaver waiting on the other side. Ramp down, door open. It was a good hundred yards away and yet so huge as to seem right there, close enough to touch. Big as the inside of a football stadium. Bigger than the castle, seemingly, though that probably wasn’t the case. The optical presence of the Reaver’s dark mass, a singular, cohesive shape, dominating the open space on which it sat, struts planted in an aggressive stance, aft portions sweeping forward and wide, like a falcon with outstretched wings before the strike …
She glanced behind her and noticed dozens of the Fist up on the walls, nearly shoulder to shoulder, staring at it. Way more than had been on the walls when she and Galfar approached on horseback the first time she came. It looked as if they’d been up there all morning, simply staring at this monstrosity of unfathomable wizardry. If anything it must be driving home her pedigree even more.
She was their priestess.
She turned her attention back to the field across the bridge. The Reaver was as much a character in this as any of them. As Jess drew closer she looked up and down the warship’s flanks, the scars of battle, the marks of heavy use. The Reaver had been through plenty, and was without peer, and as she made her way across the cool, soft ground, nearing the point at which she would set foot on the Reaver’s metal ramp, she felt a certain kinship with the ancient Kel craft. The Reaver was of a different caliber altogether. No other like it. Surrounded by those who would also fight, other players in this game, ones who would help but, in the end, it would be relied on as the shining star that would save the day.
Much like Jess herself.
Hello, she admired the great machine’s power, its majesty as she stepped aboard, sensing that camaraderie; kindred spirits, worn yet proud, full of strength, ready for the next fight, and as she walked up the hard metal ramp and through the open door she felt a tighter bond. The personality of the Reaver’s presence welcomed her.
Steadily she strode the halls in her loose, knee-length dress, a primitive human invading a technological wonder, natural light at the entrance giving way to the purple trace lighting of the interior. A ladder and another hall and she was entering the bridge to find Nani, as expected, hard at work. She paused at the doorway.
Nani had re-dressed in her Anitran uniform. She looked up as Jess entered and they shared a strained moment. No matter that they’d decided to move on, this new change in reality was going to take some getting used to.
“Did you sleep?” Jess continued over to a chair beside Nani’s workstation and sat.
“A little.” Nani had been the last to doze as their slumber party wound down, and she’d been nodding fitfully when Jess herself lost track and fell asleep. From the looks of things here Nani was already immersed in work.
“I think I found a way to read the cubes,” she said. “Or, at least, it will need some testing.” Though the Codes promised to unlock untold mysteries, there was the undercurrent of worry that there would be no way to understand them.
“The molecular lattice is organized into what appears to be holographic storage,” Nani tapped screens. “A huge amount of data can be compressed into those small spaces. If each node of both cubes contains data …” She looked up. “It’s a lot.”
Jess gave a cursory glance around the bridge, finding no evidence of the cubes or the briefcase. They were probably in the heart of the ship, in the science room attached to a scanner of some sort.
Part of her didn’t want Nani to understand them. Not yet. It would be dangerous to replicate that data and store it elsewhere, even aboard the Reaver. For now it was better if everything remained in one place; the cubes themselves. Soon enough Jess would take them and hide them again, probably back at the Necrops, or elsewhere.
But Nani was shaking her head.
“Thing is, even if I’m reading them right, I have no key for what I’m reading. I’ve extrapolated information, I’m sure of it—it’s too organized not to be—but what I’m reading is formatted in a language I can’t understand.
“I’m hoping there will be a key somewhere as part of the data.”
“How old are they?” Jess asked. “Can you tell?”
“Older even than ancient Kel. The materials are something else. Not that the Kel couldn’t have made this, possibly, but it’s a few steps beyond their knowledge of the time. I can kind of gauge the date of the construction and it precedes the last Kel dynasty by an order of magnitude.”
Nani grew pensive. “The last Kel Dynasty was at war over ideologies,” she looked to the far wall. “I’m starting to wonder if these weren’t what caused it.”
Jess knew for a fact that they did.
“Hey,” Bianca said from the door. Nani and Jess looked to her as she entered. She, too, had put back on her Anitran clothes. They were a bit frumpy, hastily pulled on, and her hair was tangled in a bad case of bed-head.
“Hi,” Jess returned. Nani said Hi as well.
“What are you guys talking about?” Bianca came over and sat in a chair beside Jess.
“The Codes.”
Bianca yawned. “Oh. Those things?”
Jess gave her a thin smile. “Yeah. Those things.”
“So what are we going to do with them?” Bianca looked between Jess and Nani. Like figuring out where to go for dinner. Not entirely that cavalier, and Bianca was probably still a little sleepy, but she didn’t seem to grasp the full importance of what they held.
“We have to keep them safe,” said Jess. “First thing I’ve got to do, believe it or not, is hide them again.”
“Can’t we use them?” Bianca looked to Nani for support. “Can you figure them out? I thought they were the answer to everything.”
“They are,” said Jess. “But they aren’t. They solve nothing right now. We don’t yet understand them. And when we do … there’s still a lot to figure out. For now we need to make sure, above all else, that the Kel don’t get their hands on them.”
“How do you know all this?” some of Bianca’s disbelief of last night returned. “I mean, I get everything you told us, but how do you really know?”
Nani, unknowingly, came to the rescue.
“For now we’ve got to get back,” she stressed. “The short answer is it’s going to take a lot to figure them out, and we’re in the middle of preparations for war. Big war. Unfortunately, amazing as this is, it will have to wait. We can leave Jess here with the Codes, if that’s what she wants, but you and I need to get back.”
Jess took a deep breath and exhaled. “I think that’s going to be best.” She thought a moment, then leaned back in the chair and put her feet up on the console between them. “I’ll start seeing what I can find out.” She watched the exchange between Nani and Bianca, the way they looked at each other, and it was her turn to ask questions.
“So what’s the deal with you guys?” Though she was pretty sure she knew the answer. “Are you two …”
Bianca looked to Nani, demeanor changing as she smiled dreamily and sighed: “Yes.”
Nani seemed a little surprised to have this out in the open, and a little uncomfortable. Though it was obvious she was totally in love with Bianca.
Jess asked her directly: “Have you ever been in love, Nani?”
Nani looked away. “I’ve always been too busy.”
Jess smiled at her weak excuse.
“Well don’t hide it.” She got her to make eye contact. “Take my advice. Share it like it’s the greatest thing in the world. Because it is.” She wiggled her toes and smiled.
Bianca’s smile grew. “She’s right,” she got up and went over and took Nani’s hand. The two love birds made eyes for a minute, then kissed as Jess watched happily.
&n
bsp; “Not to take away from that,” she said, “because it’s amazing and fantastic and I’m so happy for you both, but Nani, have you been able to learn anything from the USB stick? That could come in handy right now.” Jess truly did wish they could just continue with slumber parties and hanging out and discussing relationships but the impetus that drove her awake was pushing, and they needed to figure out their next steps.
“I did,” Nani released Bianca’s hand and went back to her screens. “It was one of the first things I looked at this morning.” Just how long had she been up? She probably didn’t even go to sleep. Jess knew she had a history of all-nighters. “The insight on what your teams on Earth developed is remarkable. These guys were geniuses. Do you know how they figured this out?” She glanced to Jess as she pulled up what she’d found, tapping screens.
Jess kind of shook her head. The lead hacker, Fang, was brilliant, no doubt.
“I mean, they’ve engineered a very robust back door,” Nani was impressed. “We’ll be able to build on this and use it, for sure. I don’t see how they could’ve done it, even with access to captured Kel hardware. It’s incredible.”
And Jess remembered: “They found the tablet you gave us.” Of course. Somehow that had slipped her mind. “The one you gave Zac and me for the mission on Earth.”
Nani cocked her head. Stopped tapping. “They found the tablet?”
Jess nodded. “They found it in the club. They had it all along, and when Zac joined them he was able to unlock it. After that I think their efforts really began to come together. It was the missing ingredient.”
Nani looked a little shocked. “Do they still have it?”
Jess shrugged. “They should.”
Quickly she was back to tapping, now on a different line of thought. Then she laid a bombshell: “I might be able to ping it.”
Jess sat straight in her seat.
“You can reach it? From here?”
Nani was shaking her head, slowly, side to side, uncertain with this brand-new idea but curious. “Maybe.” She tapped from screen to screen, pausing and checking, tapping some more, looking and, eventually, deciding.
It looked as if she could give it a shot.
“Won’t the Kel be able to track it?” asked Jess.
“Not sure. I can encrypt it so they can’t intercept it, but they might be able to source the signal. That’s what I’m checking. I may have a way ...” Then, as with a fresh epiphany: “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.”
Jessica’s pulse had begun to race.
Zac would be with the tablet.
“I can craft a response vector so that when it kicks back to us the signal source is hidden,” Nani looked with dawning excitement between Bianca and Jess. “It will direct the return signal with an intermittent pulse dispersal they won’t be able to source.”
Nani went back to tapping.
“First we check the connection.” The intensity of her focus on her screens increased. “If it works … If it works we can pass info in that direction, prior to the assault. This could be huge. We could pass schematics, things we know, and get back info on updates to Kel positions …” Her focus was entirely absorbed by what she was checking. “This could make a big difference.”
CHAPTER 46: CONTACT
Satori still kind of hurt. Not major aches, dull ones, here and there, and from the feel of the worst of them she figured they would probably last a while. It also kind of sucked to have only one eye.
Slowly, though, she was starting to feel herself again. At least, as far as one could feel oneself after what she’d been through. The recap, in her own mind, made her head hurt. A headache that came not from physical injury, though there was certainly that, but an ache that came from the overwhelming consideration, not only of what had happened to her, personally, but of what still lay ahead.
This war was only beginning.
“Hey guys,” someone called from across the room. The voice carried over the hubbub of the safe house and people looked up from what they were doing. The voice belonged to the Earth guy, Bobby, and he was getting everyone’s attention.
“The tablet,” he waved for Drake and Fang and the other hackers. The smart guys were at their screens, as always, settled into this new location and hard at work. Slowly they paused what they were doing and got up. Bobby looked pretty damn excited.
Groups of others went toward him, compelled by the edge in his voice, then most of the room was congregating. Willet ambled over too, but he stopped by her as he passed, pausing where she sat away from the crowd, resting. Resting was mostly all she’d been doing for the last however-many days. Getting her strength and catching her breath.
“Hey gorgeous,” he smiled his wickedly handsome grin and sat gently beside her. She harumphed and he shrugged. “You look even sexier in that damn eye patch.”
“Please.”
He leaned and kissed her.
But Bobby’s rising excitement, added to by the other voices, was too much of a siren song. Willet rose again and went over. Satori debated the effort it would take to join them. For a second it was too much, then she overcame it, stood unsteadily and made her way to the jumble of bodies.
“Who is it?” Zac was asking, voice dominant above the rest. He was in the thick of the crowd near Bobby.
“It’s a signal from Jess.”
“What’s she say?” Zac’s false patience was thinly veiled. Satori managed a view of the ancient Kel tablet in Bobby’s hands, the one she recalled so well. The one Nani gave Jess and Zac for their mission to capture the Bok. The tablet that had proven so helpful, from what she was told, in crafting the primary parts of the mission that, ultimately ended in her own rescue. She tried to make out what Bobby was doing on the screen.
That tablet and her had a lot of history.
Bobby tapped it, waited and tapped again, feeling his way. Now Satori could see more clearly.
Words were coming through.
**
“What did they say?” Jess leaned in. “Is Zac with them?” This was incredible. Nani’s idea worked.
“Not sure yet,” Nani was fine tuning it at the bridge controls. “But we’ve got a connection. It’s them.”
It was like Instant Messaging between the stars.
“I’m checking test pings. I just sent a message burst. So far I think it should be hidden from Kel detection. It looks like I can hide discrete, focused packets.” Which, to Jess, meant communication would remain like texting, rather than streaming.
Fantastic.
“I’ve instructed the tablet to respond in kind,” said Nani. “Let’s see what they say.”
“I’m going,” Jess said impulsively.
Nani looked up. “Go?”
“You can establish a location using the tablet, right? With it you can see where they are on Earth?”
Nani didn’t answer, but Jess knew she could. Setting something like that was the least of Nani’s abilities.
“What are you talking about?” Bianca wanted to know.
“I’m going to get Zac,” said Jess. Then, to their worried looks: “I want him here. With me.” It was time. Zac, of course, would be lost to the greater cause if he was here with her. It would remove a potentially significant weapon from the coming fight.
She didn’t care. She’d forfeited too much already for the sake of the cause, too much of their relationship, and right here, right now, she and Zac would be together.
**
“It’s definitely them,” Bobby enthused. Satori watched as the messages went back and forth, simple sentences, briefly describing what had happened, that Jess made it through and she’d connected with her friends from the other world. Satori waited with all the rest as Bobby typed and sent responses, Zac insisting on dictating the conversation to Jess.
The big Kazerai was beside himself.
So was everyone else. Pretty much everyone in that room had a high, if not god-like, estimation of Jess by then, and now this. Sa
tori had to admit, from her own personal experience, that reputation was not wholly undeserved. She knew well what Jess was capable of, and from the stories she’d heard from this little group the things Jess had done since Satori’s capture only continued in the remarkable vein.
And now she was coming back. To bring information and get Zac. On the other end Nani was already issuing instructions and the group here was getting ready and soon, very soon, it seemed, Satori would see Jess again, live and in the flesh.
**
“So it looks like here,” Nani was saying, triangulating points on an overlay topographical map of the Earth, floating ghost-like on the wide forward screen. The Reaver had all data on the Earth, and so aligning the tablet coordinates with existing maps gave them their placement.
England. Just up the coast from St. Ives.
The bridge door opened and the sound of footsteps. Jess pulled her gaze from the screen to the new arrivals. Bianca had gone back to the castle to get Egg and Darvon—
“These guys caught me on the way,” B announced as she entered. In step behind her was Arclyss, head just barely clearing the door frame of the bridge, and Haz, helping Galfar as he clacked along with his cane. Egg and Darvon were the next through, right behind the Hamonhept natives, and the door shut as they came in. Bianca looked up, way up, at Arclyss, then at Haz and Galfar, then back to Jess. She shrugged.
“All I could do was smile.”
Jess turned to them. “Hello.”
She proceeded to bring everyone up to speed, alternating between English and Kel, telling them what they’d found, explaining she would be going back to her home world to get a friend, the one Haz and Galfar knew of, Zac, and then return here. Meanwhile Bianca and Nani would return to Anitra and, she assumed, Egg and Darvon would return as well.
But that, apparently, was not to be. Upon hearing of this discovery and the details of the plan, Darvon wanted to go with Jess to Earth. It seemed like an impulse request, but he gave several reasons why this should be, how much of a difference he could make as a liaison to the resistance there, how he had no role on Anitra and how he was a part of the history that led her there and how he’d earned being a part of the history that made the Golden Age, none of which held a lot of water, but as he continued his passionate request Jess realized his desire was no different than her own, and so she conceded and Nani agreed that she could handle the settings.
Star Angel: Prophecy Page 52
