by Ramy Vance
A loud beep came from her dragon anchor. She looked down at it and saw there was an incoming call from Abby. Alex picked up and said, “Hello?”
Abby’s face shone brightly on the anchor. “Hey! How’s it— Oh, crap, what happened to you?”
Alex brought the anchor closer to her face so that Abby couldn’t see the extent of the wounds. “Oh, you know, just the usual explosion. Nothing too bad. I should be back on my feet in no time.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re sitting down because I wanted to talk to you about the readings I got from the shard. It looks like there might be some kind of living creature—”
Alex sighed as she shook her head. “A living creature residing within the shard with an unbelievable amount of energy?”
Abby gave Alex a confused look. “Hey, if you don’t need me running experiments on—”
“No, it’s not that. Well, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
Alex tried to sum up everything she experienced the night before into a clear, concise statement. That wasn’t happening. “Okay, so I got pulled into the dream of an interdimensional being and walked through all of his memories, and I saw he’s planning on destroying our reality to take out the Dark One with some kind of ancient being that used to plague their planet or something. And now I have telekinesis, and I don’t know how, but my telepathy is also much stronger.” Alex took a deep breath. “Everything is terrible, and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, and yeah, it’s all the worst.”
Abby stared at Alex through the anchor screen, her eyes narrow as if she were trying to process everything Alex had said. “Wait, you have telepathy?”
“You’re missing the point!”
“No, I got everything else. Still working through it. Anybody else know about this alien? Or just you?”
Alex shook her head as she shrugged, sending two different meanings. “Well, I mean, Myrddin has his suspicions. And Boundless is pretty much on the same page.”
“So, what’s the big problem? Have Myrddin pull the plug.”
“It’s not that simple. Myrddin still isn’t sure. And I’m only sure as far as I trust dreams, and not even my dream, someone else’s. I can think of a ton of better places to start for proving someone else guilty of wanting to cause interdimensional genocide.”
“Point taken. On another note, how’s the arm holding up?”
Alex looked down at her bionic arm, stretching her fingers out and then making a fist. “Good as the day I got it. Why are you asking?”
Abby pulled up a chart that projected on Alex’s anchor. “You’ve been showing a spike in your body processing draconic fluid. I wanted to make sure you weren’t burning hot or anything. All right, I’ve got to go. You just dropped a lot on me. Gonna try to get that intel to someone who can do something ‘bout it. Stay frosty, snow-girl.”
“Snow-girl?”
“Shut up, I’m not in the DGA because I’m witty. Bye.”
Abby hung up, leaving Alex to her thoughts, which were instantly interrupted by a sarcastic voice saying, “Are you approved for inter-faculty discussions?”
Roy stood in the doorway, gnawing on his cigar. His swagger was a little more tame than usual, no doubt to show that he took Alex’s injuries seriously.
She groaned loudly as she laid back. “Are you kidding me? Am I not allowed to talk to people?”
“Only when it seems like you’re talking about sensitive information. Which I have no doubt you are doing right now.”
Alex leaned over to see if there was anyone behind Roy. “Come in and close the door.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“No.”
Roy stepped into the room and closed the door behind himself. “What do you have for me? Because you’re obviously sharing it with everyone else.”
“It’s not like that. She called me. Abby said she was going to be passing it along to you and Myrddin anyway, but I want you to hear it from me first. I’ve already talked to Boundless about my suspicions about Vardis.”
Roy pulled a seat up to Abby’s bed as he chuckled. “Yeah, you and everyone else. What dirt do you have on the guy?”
Abby couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. “Wait, you make it sound like there are tons of people who don’t trust him.”
“Do you think we’re stupid? We run an interspecies military program that spans nine realms. Of course, no one trusts a guy who just shows up one day and says he has a weapon to kill the Dark One. You have any idea how many insurance scammers Myrddin has had me wade through?”
Alex laughed so hard she had to grab her ribs. “Wait, you’re putting this guy on par with an insurance scam?”
“A scam is a scam. Now, what do you have for me?”
For the second time in ten minutes, Alex had to try to find a way to explain what had happened the night before. Thankfully, she’d practiced with Abby. “Last night, Vardis drew me into one of his dreams via that telepathic link I told Myrddin about. I saw what he was planning to do with the weapon. What it can actually do.”
Roy put his cigar away. “I’m assuming it doesn’t involve needing my social security.”
“No.”
“Good, because I don’t have any. Neither do you, by the way. Myrddin wipes us clean when we sign on, but after this is over, you’re going to have really good credit.”
Alex couldn’t believe Roy was being so flippant. “Are you messing with me, or do you really not care about any of this?”
Roy threw his hands up defensively. “No, no, not at all. I’m not bothered by you telling me that you got information on Vardis from a psychic dream. Honestly, it’s not the weirdest thing I’ve heard today. It might be the most normal thing.”
Alex was surprised. She hadn’t been expecting to hear that, and it was probably the best news she’d gotten all day. “Wait, you believe me?”
“Of course, I believe you. Myrddin already knows you have a weird-ass link with Vardis. Did you think he hadn’t mentioned it to me? One of the first things you learn in PsyOps is that dream-to-dream contact is a valuable form of espionage.”
Alex nearly leaped up at Roy’s words. She hadn’t been expecting to be believed so readily. “So, we can go get him and put a stop to this whole—”
“Hold on. Before you get your hopes up, dreams are the same as most other espionage, which means it needs to be validated. I can’t make decisions based on anything that doesn’t have three or more sources.”
Alex stared at Roy, almost unable to comprehend what he was saying. “You’re telling me we have to sit here and wait until Vardis shows us that he’s trying to destroy the whole universe?”
Roy stood up and ruffled Alex’s hair, which made her want to grab his arm and snap it off. “No, I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is that we’ve got a plan in motion in case Vardis tries anything. Trust me, we’re not going to let him have free rein on this one.”
“Okay, so when do we go?”
Roy looked down at Alex, glancing at her wounds. “You aren’t going anywhere for the time being. Nurses said that you have pretty extensive injuries. Two of those are much more serious than the rest and were patched up before the accident.”
Alex didn’t think she was going to get Roy to budge on the topic and decided to try another tack. “What was that explosion? The one that took me out?”
Roy’s face became serious as he nervously scratched his beard. “We’ve been trying to figure that one out. All we could find was shrapnel, and we’re trying to—
“It came from Vardis. He was responsible.”
Roy laughed uneasily and said, “Okay, I know he is under suspicion, but that doesn’t mean we have to blame him for every single thing that—”
“Trust me, Roy. It was him. He knows what I saw last night, and he wants to keep me from stopping him. What better way than putting me in the hospital so that I can drown in bureaucracy?”
“What? You never even have to
touch the paperwork.”
Alex started to get out of bed. Her chest and shoulders still hurt, but they were manageable. “I can’t believe I’m arguing about this with you. You’re not putting me on the sidelines. If Vardis is out there, I’m going to be as well.”
Roy tried to shoo Alex back to her bed. “Hey, hey, hold on. You still need bed rest. You’ve been going nonstop since the last mission, and even I’m starting to think you might need time to recuperate.”
“Are you saying I can’t do my job?”
Roy shook his head as he backed away. “No, I’m saying you’re very high-strung at the moment. This is something we can take care of, so maybe stop trying to hold the world on your shoulders.”
“I’m not stressed out, Roy! There’s—”
Alex was cut off by a siren blaring through the military base. “What’s that?”
Roy pulled up his HUD and scrolled through a few messages. “Shit! The base is under attack.”
“By what?”
Roy looked up for a moment, his eyes searching for an answer. “They don’t know yet. But it looks—”
The lights in the room started to flicker. Alex went to grab her shirt, and her hand stopped moving. She struggled, but nothing happened. Then she was thrown against the wall as if someone had picked her up and tossed her.
Roy stopped in his tracks and stared at her. “What the hell is going on?”
The light fixture from the ceiling ripped off and flew toward Alex, who was barely able to get out of the way in time.
Glass skittered all over the floor as Roy and Alex backed away from the fixture. “Vardis,” Alex growled.
Chapter Seven
The lights went out, and Alex and Roy stood in the darkness.
Another light fixture came flying at Alex, and she jumped to the right, dodging it. “We need to get out of here,” she shouted.
Roy looked around the room as the lights tried to flicker back on. “What’s going on?”
“I have no idea, but I know we can’t stay here to find out.”
Alex hit her dragon anchor, causing her rider armor to pour over her skin. That was better. Now she felt like she was ready to get down to business. She opened and closed her bionic fist as she headed for the door, then whipped it open and stepped forward, Roy close behind her.
They two of them stepped into a lab, the one Alex had seen in Vardis’ dream. The only difference was, this time the lab had five Vardises.
Not aliens of the same species, five Vardises.
Roy drew his pistol and aimed at one of the aliens. “Okay, no. We need to stop now, and you need to tell me what the hell is going—”
Before Roy could finish his sentence, his feet lifted off the ground. His eyes went wide as he flew across the room, hit the wall hard, and crumpled to the floor.
Alex didn’t hesitate. She drew her scythe, aware that the energy was coming from her and not from the dragon anchor. She dove forward, slashing at one of the Vardises, who faded into a white mist when it was hit. She went on the next, managing to catch it with an uppercut before she was gripped by a psychic hand and tossed at Roy.
She smashed into the wall and fell on her back, rolled over, and shook Roy back into consciousness. It was surprising that hitting a wall was enough to knock Roy out. Alex had seen him walk away from injuries that made the psychic attack look like a mosquito bite.
That was what this was. Alex had put it together. Vardis did know that she’d been in his dream. The attack on her way to the military base had only been the first step, the physical aspect. Now the alien was coming for her mind.
He must have drawn them into a psychic realm, or maybe he was projecting his own. Alex had no idea. She’d never been much into comic books. If Jim were here, he probably could have explained the whole thing.
The three remaining versions of Vardis were floating toward Alex, their eyes glowing a piercing white, energy crackling from them.
Alex helped Roy to his feet, the older man looking as if he were ready to pass out again. “You have to get it together, Roy! I need you in this fight. Last time, I hardly got out of here.”
Roy looked at Alex, his face green like he was ready to vomit. Then he straightened up and aimed his pistol. “I’m assuming we’re in trouble or something wants to kill us.”
Alex pointed at the approaching aliens. “Vardis. He wants to kill us.”
Roy leaned over and threw up.
Great, Alex thought.
The three versions of Vardis laughed as they watched Roy retching. “I didn’t think the humans would be so easy to kill,” one of them said.
Another turned to his doppelganger and smiled. “No, neither did—”
A shot rang out and echoed in the lab. Roy fired two more times, not bothering to straighten up while still wiping the bile from his mouth.
Two of the aliens stumbled backward, holding their chests. One sneered. “Foolish human. This is not the physical realm. You—”
Roy coughed loudly and held up his hand, silencing the alien as he straightened up. “Hold on, hold on. Psychic realm and yeah, bullets don’t work, got to—”
He fired three more shots and each hit an alien in the chest, tearing open a hole nearly the size of Alex’s head. They fell to their knees before bursting into white light.
Roy leaned against the wall, trying to catch his breath as Alex ran over to him. “How did you do that?” she asked. “That was amazing! I didn’t know you were a psychic.”
The mech rider shook his head as he straightened up, looking as if he were finally acclimating to his new environment. “Not a psychic, but I’ve been doing drills with Myrddin for years. You know, in case someone tries to invade my mind or pull shit like this. Sorry, language, it’ll take a couple of minutes for me to be on top of my game, but I’ll be able to hold my own. Especially if all he’s going to be throwing at us are projections.”
Alex was annoyed that Roy had a better handle on things than she did, even while he was sick to his stomach. She was also happy to have someone around who knew what the hell was going on. “What do you mean, projections?”
Roy stumbled away from the wall and toward the piles of white ash on the ground, pointing at one with his pistol. “Those aren’t Vardis. This whole place—whatever we’re seeing, the whole plane—that’s Vardis. The most he’ll be able to do if he’s planning on keeping us here is send out projections of his subconscious. They’re only a fraction of his strength.”
“How much do you know about this stuff?”
Roy tried to hide his smug smile. “I’ve been fighting the Dark One for a lot longer than it looks like, and I’ve run across my fair share of psychics in the past. As they say, this isn’t my first rodeo. And since we already took care of the projections here, Vardis will probably change things up. Give us a new place to fight and hope we’ll be thrown off by it.”
Alex thought back to Vardis’ dream. That was why the realm had kept jumping locations and time. It had been his mind attempting to get the advantage by confusing Alex with different scenarios. “So, what are we supposed to do?”
Roy was walking around the room as if he didn’t have a care in the world. The disorientation of being in a psychic plane had apparently worn off. “I don’t know, look around? Unless you’ve been here before.”
Alex walked over to the table in the middle of the lab and called Roy over. “In a dream. His dream. This was where I found out about the weapon.” She picked up the scroll and tossed it to Roy.
Roy skimmed through the notes. “Hm, looks like Vardis was a bigshot scientist on his world, and old as hell. This whole project, using the shard for creating kin, was his idea.”
“Wait, you can read that?”
“Yeah, can’t you?”
Roy handed the scroll back to Alex. She took a look and realized she could read the alien writing as easily as if it were braille. “When I was in his dream, I couldn’t read any of this. I studied it for a while too. What changed?”
Roy was wandering around the room again. “He’s probably got more defenses up while he’s dreaming—basic PsyOps training—but his attention is split right now. There’s only so much you can concentrate on at a time.”
The walls of the lab started to shake, then broke apart, allowing light to shine through the cracks. “Looks like we’re moving,” Roy muttered under his breath.
Air shifted from cold and sterile to hot and fetid. Alex struggled to breathe. She felt like she was going to suffocate.
Roy seemed to be in the same situation. His eyes were wild as he looked around, the walls tearing themselves down and the ground roiling.
The room shattered into multiple versions of itself, some small, others larger, like a fun-house mirror. They slammed into each other as Alex and Roy floated through the darkness, which abruptly stopped, then congealed into a new reality.
Alex and Roy stood in what looked like a jungle. It wasn’t similar to anything Alex had seen in her books at the Nest, though. This wasn’t Earth.
Before the two of them was a group of human soldiers. They weren’t wearing Army fatigues. The colors were reminiscent of an elvish sigil Alex had seen at the Nest. “Where are we?”
Roy was muttering under his breath, backing away from the small group of humans. “No,” he muttered.
Alex turned away from the crowd of soldiers to Roy. “Where are we?”
“One of the moons in the elvish cluster. Dorian.”
“What are we doing here?”
Roy’s eyes grew hard and cold as he swallowed and pulled out his cigar. He lit it, and his composure came back. “Vardis is playing mind games. Guess he has access to our memories as well as his. He’s stronger than I thought.”
“This is your memory?”
Roy pointed at the crowd of soldiers with his cigar. “Oh, yeah, this is mine. That’s me over there.” He headed for the soldiers, motioning for Alex to follow him.
The soldiers were crouched around a dead body covered in a white shroud. Alex didn’t recognize Roy’s face in any of the soldiers, not even a younger Roy. “Which one are you?” she asked.
Roy nodded at the body under the shroud. “Right there. Go ahead. They shouldn’t notice you if you do anything.”
