Forgotten Relics
Page 15
“Why Yeke, do I sense a bit of a protective streak?” Rei folded her arms in front of her.
“I agree with Yeke,” Kuv said before he could respond. “What happened from your perspective, Captain?”
“I’m not going to be much help there,” Rei admitted. “All I remember is the same light following the images like Chia said, and that’s about it.”
“So much for the hope that we might get something more.” Yeke put his head in his hands, elbows propped up on the table.
“I still say until we better understand this, we pause our current course and evaluate if this is worth it,” Kuv said.
“I’ve never known you to be overly cautious on a job,” Chia said.
“We went in with little information and it ended with our Captain sleeping for seven days,” Kuv pointed out.
“We’re going to just keep arguing in circles about what to do,” Aede said as her fingers rapped against the desk. “One thing’s clear. We are at a dead end now.”
“Not quite,” Chia said.
All eyes in the room fell on the engineer. “Explain,” Rei said quietly.
“Once I realized what we were seeing, I pulled out the recording device I brought with me. I kept it going after the light show started on you. I haven’t looked at it yet because I was busy trying to get this—” she gestured to the devices and pedestal around the gem on the table “—set up.”
“And you just now mention this?” Yeke said.
“It slipped my mind because it might not provide any new information.”
“It’s a starting point,” Rei said. “More than we have right now. When you’re done looking at it, I want the footage destroyed.”
“Why?” Chia’s voice teetered on the edge of pure outrage. “Just from watching it while it happened what the gem contained has the potential to advance knowledge of what Essence can do by years, possibly centuries.”
Rei sighed. “Exactly why that we were given the job of deleting it—some things are better off left alone, so it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.” Their eyes met and she silently implored Chia to understand and let it go without more arguments. After what seemed to be an eternity, the engineer nodded and Rei let out the breath she had been holding. “As for the rest of this job, I want to keep going.”
The others around the table exploded, except for Chia, who jumped up and down on her stool. Rei sat there as their protests and arguments blended around her into one incoherent, jumbled mess.
“All right,” she said in hopes of bringing them back to order. “All right!” Silence descended. “We keep going. Because we know what to be on the lookout for now and if we can study the next gem before we trigger it we’ll learn how to avoid future situations like this. In the meantime, Chia and Aede can look at what Chia was able to grab and see what answers it provides.”
She felt like she needed a drink, though she was certain the medics would disapprove of anything alcoholic. The pitcher of water that someone had set far from any possible collisions with the electronics around them, floated over, accompanied by an empty glass. They hovered in front of her at eye height.
“Uh. Rei...” Yeke said. “I’m guessing that’s your doing. That water’s pretty blue.”
Rei snatched both out of the air and slammed them down on the workbench. She poured herself a glass and took a sip. The water remained blue, though it was lessening by the second.
“Essence can bleed into things that much in that short amount of time?” Foniac’s eyes were wide.
“It can’t,” Aede said, her purple gaze narrowed in Rei’s direction. “I thought you said you were fine?”
“I am fine.” Rei sighed. “My Essence’s just a bit more responsive at the moment.”
Chia hopped over e to a separate work pace she had spread several devices set out. She selected one that was just larger than Rei’s hand and came over. “May I?”
Despite the feeling of dread rising in Rei, she nodded. “What does it do?”
“It’s far from perfect, but it should help us gauge the exact levels of Essence you now possess. I’ve always found simply sensing levels to be rather imprecise. There’s still the need for adjusting, trying it again and again as you hone in on the exact levels needed to overcome someone or a spell... plus the danger...” Someone coughed around the table. “Anyway! After the light faded, I thought it might be useful to come up with something to solve that issue so we can see exactly what we’re dealing with.”
“Glad to be some inspiration,” Rei mumbled.
Chia turned on the device. It started to beep low, slowly increasing in volume and frequency. A number flashed on the screen, and Chia whistled. “Well?” Rei asked.
Chia didn’t answer, her dark eyes considering the others in the room. “Yeke or Aede, come over here.”
“Why?” Aede asked.
“Because you two are next closest to Rei’s ability levels and I need to compare numbers before I give a verdict.”
“Fine,” Yeke took a step forward. “I’ll be the brave one.”
Chia aimed the device at him. The beeping began low and grew louder, but nowhere near as shrill or frequent as it was with Rei. The number read out and Chia considered it with a slight tilt of her head. “Well, that’s interesting.”
“Are you going to fill everyone in?” Foniac asked.
“Rei’s more powerful than the rest of us...”
“And you’ll find no one arguing you on that point. Cut to the chase, Chia,” Kuv said.
“If these readings are right, at the moment, she’s measuring much higher than I would have placed her. Rough estimate, she added a fifth of Yeke’s power level to her own.”
“Rough estimate?” Aede echoed.
“Well, since I don’t have a reading from before we went into the city, we don’t have a benchmark. I’m using a combination of data that isn’t exactly compatible to draw my comparison.”
“Didn’t you say she was still glowing after she had collapsed? Do you think the source of the light caused it, maybe merged with her somehow?” Foniac asked.
“I’d need to review what footage I have before drawing that type of conclusion. No matter what caused it, you’ll be dealing with more responsive Essence for a while.”
“Oh, joy,” Rei groaned. “Now that I’ve been scanned for the tenth time today, we should set off for Seletta. Well, unless we have some stuff we need to still get onboard.”
“After we got you back to the ship, we loaded up some of the gold and other treasures in the cargo bays. After what happened to you, we weren’t about to leave empty-handed,” Yeke reported. “I was going to go down with Chia and Kuv to safeguard the rest until we can come back for it.”
“Good idea. I want to contact Nalju to start getting rid of some of our load after we get this next gem. We might as well start collecting what we can since we won’t get our client won’t pay until we get all the gems. Anything else need my immediate attention?” The others shook their heads. “Then, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to change and take a nice long shower.”
~*~
Rei was almost to the lift when she heard her name being called. She turned to see Yeke hurrying toward her.
“I don’t like it,” he said bluntly. “That thing incapacitated you for days and now you’re dealing with more Essence than normal.”
“That makes two of us,” Rei admitted. “Something doesn’t add up about all of this. I’m certain Foniac’s right and it comes down to that light.”
“What do you think it did?” He asked, concern filling his eyes.
Rei tried to search her fuzzy memories. “I’m not sure. I... I can’t... The only thing I do know is that it wasn’t in the briefing I got when I accepted this job for the crew.”
“What are you going to do?”
Her mouth twisted as she considered him for a moment. “Remember when you wanted a chance to sit on a meeting with Gen?” He nodded. “You’re about to get your chance.”
>
“When?”
“Before we set down on Selatta.”
He nodded. “In the meantime, shouldn’t you be in the infirmary, especially when you’re dealing with this Essence thing?”
Rei turned toward the window and watched the star field pass by. “You know how I feel about that place. I’m fine. Really. I was even good and let them check me out before I left. Besides, even if I braved it long enough to get prodded some more, I doubt there’s much more they could do about it.”
Yeke fell silent, for a moment she was certain he was going to press the issue. “After you shower and change, why don’t you meet the rest of us in the Drunken Inventor? We’re going up for a celebratory drink in honor of you being awake. I’m buying.”
“I’ll be there with bells on if that’s the case,” Rei replied, though her gaze remained on the stars.
Yeke started to walk back to Aede’s workroom, then stopped. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked quietly.
Rei glanced over her shoulder. “You shouldn’t worry so much, Yeke, it’s not good for you. You’re worrying about the wrong person, anyway.”
“Who should I be worrying about, then?”
She smiled at his confusion. “Whoever is responsible for this mess. I’ll see you in a bit.”
He accepted the dismissal and left. Rei watched the stars for a few more minutes before her gaze fell back on her right hand. The illusion fell away and allowed her a clear view of the scars before it gave the pretense that she had smooth skin once again. She exhaled deeply, flames appearing in her palm. Resolution that had only been a spark on her way down to Aede’s workstation had become a raging fire.
She wouldn’t voice it to Yeke until she spoke to Gen, but something in her gut told her this was something he expected. Maybe even planned for. And if it turned out to be true, he was going to answer for it. She was done with the manipulation and the games. And the beauty of it was that Gen or his Federation handlers wouldn’t even see it coming.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cianien Bloodstone has been penning stories since she began cutting her teeth on science fiction, fantasy, and most things geeky well over a decade ago. She started the Rogue Element Series as an escape from all the academic writing of college and grad school.
Cianien lives in Michigan with her family.
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