by R. L. King
“You could kill her—or yourselves. I beg you, don’t do this!”
Stone studied the man. He was in his middle fifties, with uncombed graying hair and wire-rimmed glasses. His expression was pleading. He looked more like a harried civil servant than a mad scientist.
“You are stalling,” Harrison said, and turned back to the lock.
“I’m not! Please!” The man took a hesitant step forward but then stopped, his fear of the intruders obviously warring with his terror over what might happen if the containment chamber was breached. “You don’t know what that is in there.”
“She’s not a what,” Stone growled, remembering to use his American accent. “She’s a who. And you haven’t got the faintest idea who she is. Stay out of the way.”
Behind him, a little bzzt sounded as Harrison overloaded the keypad.
Stone glanced over his shoulder in time to see him shoving open the door.
“No!” The man sounded nearly hysterical now. He backed off a few more steps.
“She’s not going to infect you with anything. We’re taking her, and I wouldn’t advise trying to stop us.”
“How could I stop you? You’re just going to kill me anyway. And her too.”
“She’s already dying, just from being here. She isn’t where she belongs. We’re going to fix that.”
“Are you—extraterrestrials, too?” A faint flash of scientific curiosity poked its way past the man’s fear.
A sharp knock sounded on the glass chamber, and Stone spun.
Harrison was inside now, standing at the foot of the bed. He jerked his head toward the Traveler, his meaning obvious: you do this, or I will.
“Sorry,” Stone said to the scientist. “No more talk. Things to do.” He hurried to join Harrison inside the chamber, moving to the Traveler’s side. Her complexion, normally grayish, was blotchy and uneven. Someone had put a surgical cap on her head, covering her silvery-green hair. A series of electrodes were attached to her forehead.
“They’ll never let you out of here, you know.” The man’s voice shook. “The alarm’s already sounded. They’re coming. They’ve probably already got the place surrounded. Please—give yourselves up before you destroy our work.”
Stone gently began removing the electrodes from the Traveler’s forehead, looking into her still face as he did it. She had the same otherworldly look he remembered from Jeritha, the woman who’d navigated them through the Wastes in Harrison’s mechanomagical airship, but her face was thinner and rounder. She looked very young.
“Are there any other guards?” Harrison asked.
“I—I don’t know. I don’t know how many you killed.”
“We didn’t kill anyone.” Stone had finished removing the electrodes, causing one of the machines to emit a strident alarm tone. “And we’re not going to. Just stay out of our way and you’ll be fine.”
“Who are you? How do you even know about us here? This place is top secret.”
“Quiet,” Harrison said.
Stone moved as quickly as he dared down the Traveler’s body, disconnecting IV lines and more electrodes, but stopped when he pulled down the light blanket covering her. “I think they’ve got a feeding tube hooked up to her.”
“Yes!” The man’s voice shook. “I’m telling you, you’re going to kill her! She hasn’t awakened since they brought her here.”
Stone studied the tube. “I don’t know how to remove this without hurting her.”
“We must go,” Harrison said. “Cut it, and plug the end. They’ll take care of it when we arrive.”
“Arrive where?” the man demanded. “Didn’t you hear me? There’s an Air Force base not far from here—it’s why we don’t have a lot of security onsite. The alarm went out as soon as you entered the facility. They’re probably already here, surrounding the place. You aren’t going anywhere.” He stared longingly at the Traveler in the bed. “Please don’t kill her. We have so much to learn from her…”
“Lesson’s over.” Stone used magic to pinch off the tube and cauterize it. Another alarm added its cry to the chorus already going off. He turned to Harrison. “I think that’s got it. Let’s go.”
Two more guards burst in through the door, and Harrison dropped them with another casual gesture.
“Oh, my God,” the scientist breathed. “You are extraterrestrials!”
Stone faced him as Harrison gently lifted the Traveler from the bed, blanket and all. She looked tiny and thin in his arms. He almost denied the man’s statement, but then grinned and stepped back next to Harrison. “Beam us up, Scotty.”
He barely caught a glimpse of Harrison’s withering look as the room faded around them.
16
It had been a whirlwind of activity since they returned to Calanar, reappearing in the strange starry chamber on the top floor of the Nexus. Harrison had immediately strode from the room, barely paying any attention to Stone as he carried the unconscious Traveler toward the teleport pad. If Stone hadn’t hurried to catch up, he might have been left behind.
When they appeared in what Stone recognized as the tower’s infirmary, several others immediately converged around them, taking the Traveler from Harrison and laying her in one of the magical healing beds.
As they surrounded her, talking in quick, clipped statements, Stone recognized two of them: Ilona, New Argana’s lead healer, and Tanissa, the Talented woman who’d joined the settlement after escaping from her life in Temolan, one of the Talented’s floating cities. Neither acknowledged his presence; they were both fully focused on their work.
To his surprise, he also saw two Travelers among the group surrounding the woman. One male and one female, they had the same gray skin, silvery-green hair, and slight build as the patient, but they both looked older. Their faces were set in grim lines, their solid-black gazes focused, their expressions fuzzed out as they obviously examined their fellow Traveler with magical sight.
Nobody seemed to be noticing Harrison, either, which Stone supposed wasn’t a surprise—he wasn’t known for being any better at healing than Stone was, which meant both of them were superfluous at the moment.
“Do you think they’ll be able to sort her out?” he murmured to Harrison.
“I do. But it may take some time.” He looked as calm as ever; his intensity at the Kansas facility had departed as swiftly as it had come.
“So…we wait?”
“I wait. You return home. There is no need for you to remain here.”
“Oh? Just like that, then?” Stone wasn’t sure how he felt about that. On the one hand—he was back on Calanar, after two years. He wanted to see New Argana again, catch up with Errin and Tanissa and Kira—hell, he even missed Anzo, the little mechanomagical construct who’d shepherded him around the Nexus last time he was here.
But on the other hand—his business here was done for now. Harrison had already told him there wasn’t time at the moment for any further training, and not only had he promised Jason he’d look into his new situation, his own curiosity about it burned hotter than ever. The rescue mission had pushed it to the side temporarily, but now that the Traveler was out of the government’s clutches and as safe as she was likely to get, it was time to get back to his own life.
“Yes,” Harrison said. “Whenever you’re ready, I will return you to the Obsidian. Mr. Nakamura can arrange for the hotel’s jet to take you home.”
Stone looked at the Traveler. He could barely see her now, past the healers crowded close to the bed. He shifted to magical sight, grateful to discover his acclimation to Calanar seemed to be permanent, and immediately noticed a bright, flickering magical glow surrounding the unconscious patient’s body. They’d already removed the remains of the feeding tube and tossed it aside in disgust, healing the breach in the Traveler’s abdomen where it had been inserted.
“Let me wait for a short time, if you don’t mind. I know she might not wake up for quite a while, but I’d like to make sure she’s all right before I go.”
>
“Of course. If you’ll excuse me, then. Inform someone when you wish to leave, and I will return.”
And just like that he was gone, sweeping out of the room with barely a glance toward the scene around the bed.
Stone didn’t take it personally—he’d learned a long time ago never to take anything Trevor Harrison did personally. Instead, he found a place out of the way and sat down, watching the healers work over the patient. Eventually they backed off, the two other Travelers taking seats next to the bed, vigilant and focused. Ilona left the room with a brief wave to Stone.
Only Tanissa stopped next to his chair. “It’s been a while,” she said with a smile. “I wondered if you’d ever return.”
Stone wondered how long it had been, but didn’t ask. He didn’t understand how the Nexus worked, but Harrison had implied it was some sort of interdimensional differential, allowing travel between two dimensions without taking into account the different speeds at which they ran. He wasn’t sure he wanted to find out the two years he’d been gone had translated to over fifty years on Calanar—or that it hadn’t. The whole thing made his brain hurt. It was far more complex than portal science, and that was saying something. Harrison had said he was willing to teach him if he wanted to learn, but he wasn’t sure yet whether he did. Not yet, anyway.
“I rather wondered the same thing,” he admitted. He indicated the bed. “But I was glad I was able to help.”
“Yes, so am I.” She looked serious. “I’m told you discovered her. It’s so strange she turned up where you come from. Do you have any idea how that might have happened?”
“I’m…working on it.” He had no idea if she even knew about the existence of other dimensions, and in any case, he didn’t want to share anything about the rifts with her, even if he could.
“I expect everyone will be very interested in discovering the reason, so it doesn’t happen again.”
“Indeed.” Stone glanced at the Traveler. She shifted slightly, and her green aura already seemed stronger. Perhaps she would come through this with no lasting ill effects. “How have things been here? Harrison didn’t tell me much—he was a bit preoccupied.”
She chuckled, but then her expression clouded. “I’m not surprised. Things have been…tense. There’s a lot of unrest among the cities.”
“Oh, indeed? The floating cities, you mean?”
“All of them. The Talented are growing more distrustful of each other. They’re all convinced the others are conspiring against them. Several high-ranking officials have been assassinated, and others have defected to different cities. And of course, they all continue to do their best to squash any sign of rebellion among the non-magical.”
“That doesn’t sound good at all. How much are you lot involved? I thought you kept your nose mostly out of their affairs, as long as they don’t affect you.”
She looked down. “But they do affect us. It’s harder to find people to bring here—that’s one of the things that’s keeping Trevor so busy. It’s dangerous to go into the cities, so of course he insists on doing it himself.” She sighed, then gave him a faint smile. “But…even after all of that, things are good here.”
“You’re happy, then? You made the right decision, coming here?”
“Oh, yes. I can never thank you enough for helping me. I’m working with Ilona now, learning healing techniques I’d never have had the chance to use back in Drendell. Of course, I do miss the people there. I hope someone else has stepped in to help them. That’s my only regret.”
Stone didn’t answer. There wasn’t anything he could say that wouldn’t sound like a platitude. Instead, he stood. “I suppose I should be getting home. I was going to wait around to see if she woke up, but I’ve got no idea how long that will be. There’s not much point in me hanging about here. I’ll let you get back to your work. It was good to see you, though. Could you let Harrison know I’m ready to go?”
She gave him a wistful smile. “Yes, of course. I hope you’ll come back again.”
“Me too—but that’s up to Harrison, isn’t it?”
The trip back to Las Vegas was as anticlimactic as it had been the previous time. Harrison took Stone back to the Nexus, indicating for him to stand in the familiar spot.
“Right, then,” Stone said. “Hope everything works out for you, and for the Traveler. Any chance there might be a more reliable way to contact you than sending messages via Nakamura and hoping you pop ’round to collect them before it’s too late?”
“Not at present. There has been little need for immediate contact.”
“Except when there is. That woman could have been in a lot of trouble if we hadn’t got lucky and you picked up your messages.”
“That is true.” Harrison pondered. “I will see what I can do.”
Stone wasn’t sure if that was a promise or a brush-off, but either way it didn’t matter at the moment. “Anyway, I won’t say it was fun, but I will say it was interesting. It’s not every day I get to break into a top-secret government facility and rescue an extraterrestrial.”
Harrison raised an eyebrow. “That reminds me—I had meant to ask you something before you go.”
Uh-oh. Was he finally getting around to asking about how the Traveler might have ended up on Earth? “What’s that?”
“Who is ‘Scotty’?”
Stone laughed—he couldn’t help it. “You have got to start watching more television, Mr. Harrison.”
17
Stone texted Jason as soon as he got home. Raider was happy to see him, twining between his ankles as he put together a special treat for him from the refrigerator. The magical feeding device he’d created had worked great, but cat did not live by kibble alone—at least this one didn’t—and Raider was all too happy to inform him of this fact as soon as he came in the front door.
So…he sent. I’m back. Ready to sort out our mystery?
The reply came back nearly instantly. Yeah, for sure. Amber’s busy tonight—want to get some pizza or something?
Stone smiled. It was hard to convey eagerness in a simple text, but Jason managed. Come by whenever you like. I’m as curious about this as you are.
Jason showed up at seven, bearing a large pizza box. “Sorry I’m late—got hung up at work.”
“Quite all right.” Stone had spent the day preparing the circle in the attic workroom and reading through Melvin Whitworth’s notes again—not that they’d provided any more insight than they had before. “Verity get home?”
“Yeah. She’s up in SF. Said she needs a day or so to decompress and dig her apartment out from under all the dust and spiders. She’ll probably call you tomorrow.” He flashed a self-conscious grin. “I know she hates to hear me say it, but I’m glad she’s back safe. Yeah, I know she can take care of herself better than I can these days, but I still worry.”
“You’re her brother. It’s your job.”
Jason put the pizza box on the table and guarded it against Raider as Stone brought out beers. “So…how did your…whatever the hell it was go?”
He chuckled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“We broke into a secret government base and liberated an extraterrestrial.”
Jason tilted his head. “Hey, if you don’t want to tell me—”
“It’s the truth. Well, except that she wasn’t precisely an extraterrestrial.”
Jason’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a sec…of course. That thing Gina found. You found it? It was real?”
“It wasn’t an it—it was a she. And yes, of course she was real.”
“And you broke her out of a secret government base.”
“Yes.”
“And…did what with her?” He glanced at the ceiling. “She’s not up in your guest bedroom, is she?”
“No. She’s safely home where she belongs.”
“Which is…where? And…wait. You said ‘we’. Who else was in on this with you? It wasn’t V, was it? She wasn’t lying to
me about where she was?”
“No, it wasn’t Verity. Far as I know, she hasn’t lied to either of us. It was Harrison.”
“Seriously?” Jason tossed his half-eaten pizza slice back on his plate. “You know, I have a feeling there’s a hell of a lot more going on with you two than you’re admitting to.”
“You’ve found us out, Jason.” Stone flashed him a sly grin. “We’ve been carrying on a torrid clandestine affair for years.” The thought was so absurd he had to laugh.
Jason glared at him. “Yeah, okay, whatever. None of my business. Message received. But it’s over now—this thing with whatever Gina found?”
“I hope so. Like I said, she’s safely home, so I doubt I’ll be hearing any more about it. Tonight, I’m focused on figuring out what’s going on with you. I’ve got the circle all ready to go, and I’ve been studying Whitworth’s papers all day. Which I’d like to say has got me some new ideas, but I’d be lying.”
“So you still don’t have any idea what’s going on?” Jason reclaimed his pizza slice and took a big bite.
“Not much of one, no. I think my best bet is to focus on your magic-battery ability, but I’m not sure exactly how to do that. If we don’t get anything useful today, I might consult Verity and see if she or Hezzie can bring some alchemy skill to bear. Might require giving them a bit of your blood, though.”
“Hey, whatever it takes. I want to know.”
Stone pushed his plate aside and used gentle magic to nudge Raider away from the pizza box. “Have you been trying anything else?”
“Just more of the same. Like I said before, trying to lift heavier weights, run faster, jump higher, that kind of thing.”
“But still nothing?”
“Not a damn thing. Far as I can tell, I’m the same as I always was.”
Stone didn’t miss the discouragement in his friend’s voice. “I promise, if there’s something to find, we’ll find it. I’ll keep bringing in experts until I find one who can do it. Hell, I’ll even see if Kolinsky wants to take a stab at it, if we don’t get anywhere. But let’s exhaust our own possibilities first.”
