by A. K. DuBoff
“She’s Gifted; the perfect test candidate for the tethering.” Brandon began adjusting controls on a console.
I won’t be a part of this! Leon yanked open the door to the other room and ran inside to the captive young woman.
She had a blank look in her eyes, as if she’d been drugged.
Leon leaned close to her. “Hey, I’m here to help you.”
She turned her head to the side, gazing at him in a way that made it seem like she was staring past him.
Looking at the young woman, a thought suddenly struck him. “Are you Melisa?” he whispered.
The woman blinked slowly. “No. Rachel.”
Well, it was worth a shot. He shook his head. “Rachel, I’m going to try to get you out of here.”
It was a hollow offer. He had no idea how to get free himself, let alone to escape with someone who, in her current state, could barely string together a sentence, let alone stand.
Before he could think about what to do, hands grabbed him roughly and pulled him back. He fought against the sudden restraint, only to feel cold metal against his neck. Though he couldn’t see what type of weapon it was, the implement would no doubt definitively end any attempt to escape.
“We’re all professionals here,” Brandon said in Leon’s ear. “Let’s act like it.”
The hands released Leon.
He stood there in silence, his pulse pounding. I can’t leave her like this. They’re going to kill her!
Even so, he didn’t know what he could do for the young woman. They were both prisoners here. He had no way out.
Brandon prodded Leon out from the smaller testing room back to the observation lab. “Where are we with the lock, Nora?” he asked.
One of the other women in the group of scientists replied from her station. “Synchronizing the energy fields now.”
Leon watched the team, trying to piece together what was going on. His best guess was that they intended to turn Rachel into a ‘Keeper’ to direct the actions of the transdimensional bioweapon. They had mapped her genome and had linked certain genetic markers to tether her to the living weapon. Were it not for the alien tech and extradimensional oddities he’d witnessed over the past several years, he would have thought such a feat impossible. As it stood, though, he was seeing the reality play out before his eyes.
“Link established!” Nora reported.
Scientists at the other stations began shouting out various readings and status reports. Leon only half-listened, more concerned about what was happening to Rachel in the other room.
She started to writhe in her seat, the restraints biting into her flesh. Her skin was flushed and had a radiance to it that could have been beautiful were it not for the agony twisting her features. Energy was building within her, every cell becoming supercharged with power flowing from the higher dimensions.
Leon kept a close eye on the readouts. The numbers were creeping upward without any sign of stabilizing. He did the math. If this rate continued, Rachel would certainly die. Not only that, but the energy would need somewhere to go. It would be released as a single explosive charge with enough power to take out the facility. In fact, if the connection didn’t automatically sever, that reaction could conceivably spread.
“Shut it down,” Leon urged.
Brandon ignored him.
Leon stepped closer. “It’s not safe. Shut it down.”
“We have everything under control,” Brandon said.
“No, you don’t. Have you looked at these numbers?”
“This isn’t your area of expertise. Leave it to us.” Brandon turned back to the work.
“This woman is the only stopgap, and that control will cease the moment she dies. It doesn’t take a doctor to see that you’re killing her!”
“There are always sacrifices—”
“You’re not listening to me!” Leon shouted. “If she dies, there will be nothing to hold back that energy well. You will rip open a gash in spacetime to the higher dimensions, and it will disintegrate everything it touches. You won’t just kill her, you’ll kill us.”
Finally, the words seemed to land. Brandon looked at the readouts with fresh eyes. “They said this was the way to do it…”
“I don’t know what in the stars they were thinking, but this isn’t a bioweapon—it’s a foking transdimensional energy bomb! There is no way to do any of this ‘safely’,” Leon insisted. “The entire concept is an affront to science.”
“Maybe we should shut this down,” Carla voiced in Leon’s support. “We need more testing to learn how to regulate the energy transfer so we can stabilize the bridge.”
In the other room, Rachel was close to glowing. Her breath came in ragged gasps, and she was trembling uncontrollably.
“Stop this now, or you won’t be able to,” Leon said, about to push the other man aside and take over the controls himself, even if that meant the guards shooting him.
“Shut it down, Brandon.” Carla’s tone was calm but firm. Her eyes, however, were darting between the controls and Rachel, clearly running her own assessment that things were about to get beyond their control.
With a grunt, Brandon tapped the requisite commands into his console to terminate the test.
Immediately, Rachel stilled in her chair, eyes closed and panting. The glow faded from her skin.
Carla leaned against her console and took an unsteady breath. “That was close.”
“It shouldn’t have been. You shouldn’t be doing this at all!” Leon backed away from the equipment, his cheeks burning.
He was about to rush over to help Rachel in the other room, but two of the other scientists were already on their way in to tend to her.
“There are always risks with progress,” Nora said.
“You call this ‘progress’?” Leon scoffed. “This is perverse madness.”
Edward stormed into the lab. “Why did you abort the test?”
Leon rounded on him. “This ‘test’ was going to kill all of us. I told you this won’t work in the way you intend it to.”
“So make it stable.” Edward spun on his heel and left without another word.
Un-foking believable. Leon quivered with rage. There was no regard for the sanctity of life. He was in a waking nightmare.
“You heard the man,” Brandon said. “Let’s analyze this data and see what went wrong.”
How about ‘everything’? Can’t they see this is fundamentally flawed? Leon shot Carla a desperate look for help, silently pleading with her to back him up that they were going down a disastrous path.
She shook her head, almost imperceptibly. “We have to. It’s what we’re here to do.”
In that moment, he realized that she did know this project was immoral. She also recognized that opposition would mean a swift death sentence.
I’m trapped, but I’m not alone. He gave Carla a nod of understanding. There was nothing they could do for now except get back to work.
Chapter 21
The research team on Earth was nowhere near finished with their investigation, but the information they had uncovered so far had forever changed Raena’s perception of history.
She looked up from her tablet at Ryan across the lunch table from her. “This is huge. I need to talk with my dad.”
“What’s the latest?”
“That weird pit they found in Belize? It wasn’t the only one. It looks like they’re part of some kind of ancient energy grid.”
“Have you sent the survey data to the TSS?”
“Yeah, a little while ago.” Her handheld buzzed. “And here he is!” She grinned at Ryan and accepted the vidcall, placing the device on the table so they would both be in frame. “Hey, Dad.”
“Hi, Raena, Ryan. I just looked over the report. You have no idea how timely it is,” her father said.
She tilted her head. “Is that so?”
“We’ve been finalizing the designs for the power cores and new shield generators to start production. The crazy thing is,
I recognize some specs on those devices you sent.”
Ryan’s mouth dropped open. “How? Aren’t those pushing a hundred thousand years old?”
Wil nodded. “Yes. And it seems to be an older iteration of a design that ended up in the Aesir’s technology Archive.”
Raena leaned forward, her forearms resting on the tabletop. “What does it do?”
“It’s a large-scale spatial distortion generator. But here’s the thing: in the Aesir’s write-up, it was considered only theoretical.”
“What’s a real one doing on Earth, then?” Raena asked slowly.
“A very good question to which I don’t have an answer.”
“Huh.” Ryan rocked back in his seat. “This keeps getting weirder and weirder.”
Raena pursed her lips. “Do you think the devices on Earth are functional?”
“They’re very old and have been sitting unused for an incredibly long time,” her father said. “I would be quite dubious if it powered on with no difficulty. Not to mention, I wouldn’t try. We have no idea what it might do, despite our best guesses, and it may never have been operational in the first place.”
“Yeah, it was buried,” Raena realized.
“It fits with my new ark theory, though,” her father continued. “I think Earth may have been set aside as an isolated colony to preserve the species in the event something happened to the core Taran civilization.”
The assertion caught Raena off-guard. It did fit shockingly well with the new discoveries about her home planet. “I take it you have a whole breakdown of how that hypothesis maps to the archaeological record?”
“Yes, and I’d be happy to go over it with you another time. For now, my point is that it’s becoming clear why the TSS has always had a mandate to watch over Earth. The Priesthood might not have had all the details, but they certainly had some information that underscored the historical relevance of the planet.”
Maybe it’s not a coincidence at all that they arranged for Mom to be born there. It made Raena’s head hurt to think about—millennia of planning and manipulation to guide the development of a galaxy-spanning society. “I’ll keep passing on the information as I get it from the investigation teams.”
“Thank you. I’m amazed by the synergy here. It goes to show that there really is a bigger pattern to our experience.”
“Speaking of which,” Ryan said, “do you have any updates on the attacks in the Outer Colonies?” The hits on the ports, in particular, had been a blow to DGE, so he’d been following the situation closely.
“I’ve assigned the ongoing Coalition investigation to Jason,” Wil revealed. “Have you spoken to him recently?”
“Not for a couple of weeks,” Raena replied.
“Oh. Well… maybe put in a call and get an update.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, nothing bad. I think he could benefit from your perspective right now, that’s all.”
She nodded. “Okay, I’ll check in with him.”
“I’m going to finish going through these notes on Earth,” Wil said. “Thank you again for sending along the information right away. This is exciting stuff.”
Raena smiled. “It is. I hope your other projects go well. Talk soon.”
“Love you both. Take care.”
“You too.” She ended the vidcall and looked at Ryan, slack-jawed. “Earth was a backup for Tararia?”
He crossed his arms. “What does it say that that’s one of the least surprising revelations lately?”
She laughed. “I have no idea.”
“Hey, what do you think your father was hinting about with Jason?”
“Maybe he got a promotion or is working on something new?”
Ryan shook his head. “I don’t know, the way he said it made it seem more… personal. I wonder if he met someone?”
“Huh. Maybe. It would be good for him.” She knew he’d been struggling with Tiff’s death and the loss of that relationship. It had been several months, so it would be wonderful if he was ready to open his heart again. “He deserves to be happy. He likes to come across as a loner, but he’s always been at his best when he’s with a partner.”
“We can all use some stability and companionship in these uncertain times.”
Raena looked down at her hands before meeting his gaze. “On that note, there’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about.”
“Hmm?”
“It’s finally happened. My grandfather broached the subject of ‘legacy’ last week.”
Ryan swallowed. “Oh.”
“No pressure, really, just that it’s something we should start thinking about.”
“He’s not wrong. It’s crossed my mind more than once recently.”
It has? She raised an eyebrow. “Not that I’m opposed to the idea, but I’ve had other things to think about.”
“Of course. And I wouldn’t say I’ve given it a lot of thought. Still, I’m coming up on thirty, and now that DGE has its legs under it, it would be nice to have a path for the company’s future.”
“That’s pretty much what my grandfather said.” She sighed. “It’s ridiculous that ‘thirty’ is a ticking-clock threshold when we’ll live to be well over one-hundred.”
“Being highborn is weird. I don’t think most civilians these days have kids until their late-thirties or forties, based on what I’ve heard.”
“Yeah.” Raena crossed her arms. “None of this should come as a surprise. We knew in no uncertain terms that agreeing to this political path meant being beholden to the expectations of others. All the same, I didn’t appreciate the magnitude of that mandate back when I was a teenager.”
“Are you having regrets?”
She hastily shook her head. “Not at all. I look forward to having a family with you—it would just be nice to be able to do that on our own timeline.”
“Like you said, there’s no rush. We can find an opening in that detailed timeline of yours.”
“Well, it’s pretty packed, so it will be a matter of making time. But yeah, we can talk about it more once things calm down a bit.”
He took her hand. “We should also be prepared for the possibility that things won’t get easier. I’m not saying it’s a priority this second, but at some point, we may need to take that step even if circumstances aren’t ideal.”
“I know. So long as we have each other, we’ll figure it out.”
— — —
Since the startling revelation about the ancient technology that Raena’s team had unearthed, Wil had been revisiting his other recent observations with a new perspective. In particular, he found himself contemplating other instances where former Taran leaders had potentially built backup plans into their systems.
There was definitely a pattern emerging, such as Cytera’s genetic records to complement the Priesthood’s Genetic Archive on Ryla. There were also smaller instances of things he’d never considered before, like Lower Dynasty operations that mirrored the High Dynasty industries. Those businesses had always been considered ‘subsidiaries’ of the High Dynasty infrastructure, but once he dove into it, he realized that they were structured far more like wholly independent companies. Most notably, each of those critical ‘backup’ corporation’s interests had received funding directly from the Priesthood at one point or another in the past several hundred years—specifically earmarked for infrastructure improvements.
He did have to give the Priesthood credit for their planning on that front. The recent issues with MPS had revealed just how fragile the High Dynasty corporations could be if something went wrong, so having some manner of redundancy in place was critical. Unfortunately, it seemed that even the Priesthood hadn’t foreseen a shortage of voydite; MPS had kept that hidden very well.
The other major secret that was now coming to light was the awful treatment of Gifted people on Cytera. He’d barely heard mention of the planet before, and it wasn’t until Lexi’s appearance that he’d had sufficient reason to
look into any details. From what little he’d learned in the interim, there had clearly been a failure on the part of the Taran government. While the policy was to allow each world to govern itself, it was the responsibility of those in charge on Tararia to ensure that all citizens were protected, especially children. To find out that groups of people had been essentially sold into slavery generation after generation was a shocking and horrific discovery.
How did we miss this? Wil felt especially to blame as the leader of the TSS—the organization that was the face for those with abilities and had been such a strong advocate for ensuring Gifted were treated as full citizens. They were hunted and used like the Priesthood abused their test subjects. We failed them.
It appeared that the caste system had finally broken down around the time that Lexi had fled the planet as a baby. That predated Wil’s leadership of the TSS. It would have fallen in the post-Bakzen War years when his father was serving as interim High Commander, when there had been so much cleanup on worlds decimated by the enemy that internal civil disputes hadn’t been a priority.
That’s not an excuse. This went on for hundreds of years. He hated when hindsight revealed a different course of action—when help could have been offered back when people needed it most.
Though the worst of the injustices on the planet may already have been rectified, that didn’t meant that there weren’t still problems to address. And mysterious backgrounds to solve.
What is your legacy from this planet, Lexi? What went on there? Her genetic trail might reveal more than any news article about the planet’s history.
Lexi’s genetic profile was on record from her medical exam following her extraction from Duronis. Wil had felt bad about his ill-timed and blunt request at dinner, so he’d delayed running the analysis, as curious as he was about what it would reveal. Having been so often classified by his own lineage, he tried not to reduce others to those terms. Now, though, there was too much in play with his son and the political state of the Empire.
