Breaking Point

by David Alastair Hayden

  An amorphous wraith drifted nearby. Galen kept breathing deeply and tried not to look at it. “So it’s dangerous to move back to real space in some areas?”

  “Things can get ugly fast if you jump in ignorance. Unless you like the idea of appearing inside a boulder or a hundred meters off the ground.”

  “Do you have a map to work with?”

  “No.”

  “How do you know then?”

  “Mostly, I just know. And the cube won’t let me if it detects danger when pinging the other side.”

  The amorphous wraith disappeared. The sudden rush of relief brought unbidden tears to his eyes. “So the device can’t always know for certain?”

  “Apparently not.”

  “So what exactly is the cube?”

  “Next question.”

  He didn't press her. He didn't need to be an empath to see there was no point in asking that right now, maybe ever. "So where are we going?"

  “To my home, a place where we’ll be safe from the Tekk Reapers.”

  “I’m not sure any place can be safe from them.”

  “They cannot follow us there.”

  He spotted two more forms and shivered. He was starting to lose his focus. “How much farther?”

  “About an hour’s walk, assuming we don’t stop for breaks.”

  “An hour?!” A wave of nausea struck, but Galen fought back the urge to dry heave again. “I won’t make it that long. I’ll collapse into a sobbing mess. Or go nuts.”

  “We have to press on.”

  “Is there somewhere safe nearby in real space?” He was trembling now, his focus nearly shot, panic building. “Somewhere I can rest?”

  “If you can make it for half an hour, there are mining tunnels on Titus II that can take us to the corresponding point to where we ultimately need to be in wraith space. The tunnels will provide cover and protection while we travel a while through real space.”

  Terror raged through Galen. “Please for the love of all things benevolent tell me that your home isn’t in wraith space!”

  “It isn’t. But we will use a wormhole in wraith space to travel a long way to a place far from this planet. And, unfortunately, that part of the journey will be even more difficult for you.”

  “More difficult?”

  She eyed him angrily. “Do you have trouble hearing?”

  “N-no.”

  A wormhole? Galen didn’t allow himself to even think about that. He simply steeled his nerves and picked up his pace. “Let’s get to those tunnels as fast as possible. The less time I spend here, the better.”

  The emotional turmoil subsided, but even as it did, the number of wraiths and the dizziness he experienced increased. Worse, the apparitions began speaking to him, their words mostly unintelligible but no less menacing. And so his extra effort failed after only a few minutes.

  He stumbled then bent over trying to catch his breath. Tamzin straightened him up and hooked one arm around his waist.

  “Lean against me. Keep your feet moving. Close your eyes. Ignore everything but my voice. If you experience any unusual sensations, ignore them.”

  “I’ll try.”

  They walked through wraith space for what seemed an hour, but according to Tamzin, only a few more minutes had passed.

  “You’re slowing down again,” she told him.

  Galen walked faster. “Maybe you can tell me something about yourself, something that would keep my mind off this place.”

  “I don’t talk about myself to strangers.” She fidgeted and ran her hands down the sleeves of her jacket. “I rarely talk with people, and I don’t have friends. I avoid social interaction. Sometimes I have to hit someone, do a bit of bargaining. Once or twice I’ve shot someone… Okay, more than twice. But only in the line of…doing what I do.”

  Galen assumed she was a bounty hunter, but he didn't ask. Tamzin seemed to be on edge. It was best to let her be and figure it out later. She might be taking him somewhere dangerous, but it couldn't be worse than the Tekk Reaper ship. And he could worry about escaping her later, once he was well. Although…

  “Why are we going to your home?”

  “Because you will be safe there.”

  “Yes, but what then?”

  She shrugged. “Next question.”

  “About the device…”

  Tamzin spun around and grabbed him by the shirt. Her eyes met his and narrowed. “Enough questions.”

  Galen didn’t say another word. He merely kept his eyes shut and trudged along. It was getting harder and harder to focus.

  A pitiful crying sound made his eyes snap open. He’d heard that sound once before, as his wife had died. Before he could even process what he was hearing, the mists cleared to reveal an expansive, barren landscape. And out of nowhere sprang a giant monster with three heads at the ends of long stalks. The bobbing center head mirrored his while the heads to each side matched those of his daughters.

  “You abandoned us,” the heads to the sides whispered. “And now we will suffer…suffer…suffer…”

  Galen cried out and broke free from Tamzin. Mists spewed up from the ground, and within moments he was hopelessly lost in the fog.

  5

  Galen Vim

  The monster was gone, though Galen feared it was searching for him. “It’s not real,” he told himself. “It’s just a wraith. It’s not real. It’s not real.”

  He collapsed onto the ground crying. “Tamzin! Tamzin, I need you!”

  She appeared moments later. Looming over him, she shook her head. “Your time here is done. They may catch us before we get to the tunnels, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

  She sat and patted him on the arm awkwardly. He took the gesture to be comforting. It was obvious she didn't spend much time with people.

  “We’ll rest here a short while,” she said.

  “I’d rest better in real space.”

  "I'm sure." She glanced around, chewing on her lip. "But we’re about a kilometer away from the tunnels, so once we get to real space, we'll have to run out in the open. We won't have time for resting."

  Galen closed his eyes, hunched over, covered his ears, and sang the lyrics to Dream Summer by the Cult of Orange. It had been a favorite of his growing up. Though doing so made it harder to catch his breath, it was worth it. He couldn’t rest if he couldn’t block out wraith space.

  Minutes later, Tamzin brought him to his feet, wrapped her arms around him, and clicked the buttons on the black cube. Energy swirled around them, and they slipped back into real space.

  He breathed in the fresh air and baked in the warm sun of his reality. He hadn't realized until now that the atmosphere on the other planet had been so different, heavy and acidic. He wondered now what had lit that other world. He'd seen neither sun nor moons nor stars in the sky.

  As his mind cleared, he felt intense emotional relief, as if a terrible burden had been released from him. He collapsed onto the ground and dug his fingers into the sun-warmed earth.

  “Thank the Benevolence we’re back.”

  Tamzin yanked him up. “Move! The Tekk Reapers have patrols out on skimmers.”

  Following Tamzin, he raced across the rough grassland, heading toward a cluster of prominent hills. She was a natural sprinter. Galen was not. He was also woefully out of shape.

  Dehydration and the bruises from being tortured only made things worse. At best, he was running at about seventy-five percent of what he was capable of on a typical day. So despite how many times Tamzin yelled at him to run faster, there wasn't anything he could do.

  A stitch had burrowed into his side, and his lungs burned like a furnace. Halfway to the tunnels, his legs failed. He tripped and plowed into the earth. Lips pursed, Tamzin towered over him. He wiped turf from his cheek and forehead and attempted an apologetic smile. Eyes simmering, she glared in response.

  Through his empathic sense, he picked up that it wasn't just their need to reach the tunnels quickly. She was disappoint
ed in his lack of fitness. He wished he had the energy and focus to read her properly. It might make dealing with her easier.

  He intended to rest a few minutes. He got thirty seconds before Tamzin cursed and spat, “The Tekk Reapers have locked onto us.” She glanced around. “And there’s nothing we can do but keep running.”

  “How many?” he gasped.

  “Two skimmers carrying four reapers each. One skimmer’s ten kilometers closer than the other.”

  She took off the small backpack she wore and dug through it. She pulled out four hand-sized, silver disks and clamped them to her legs, two to each side.

  He glanced at her questioningly, not wanting to waste any breath.

  “Magnets and metal studs on my pants,” she responded.

  He wanted to tell her he wasn’t stupid, that he could figure out that much. He cocked an eyebrow. She cocked one back then rolled her eyes. Given her mood, it wasn’t worth the breath to ask. He’d find out about the devices sooner or later. If only he had his chippy, he’d know what they were and a lot more.

  She replaced her pack and drew her the laser rifle she kept slung across her back. “Let’s go!”

  He struggled to his feet and stumbled along after her, his seizing leg muscles refusing to let him hit anything more than an awkward jog.

  “Run idiot!” Tamzin said. “Think of what they’ll do if they catch you. Think of your daughters and how they need you. Think of what’s at stake and run.”

  He didn’t care about what the reapers would do to him anymore. He focused on Oona and Kyralla and found the strength to hit a sprint for a while and then maintain a steady run.

  But that turned into an awkward jog again as the turf turned to gravel, and they headed uphill.

  When they reached a large boulder, Tamzin paused. “Keep running. Straight ahead.”

  He grabbed a few breaths.

  She took a position behind the boulder and braced the laser rifle. “I’ll catch up.”

  Galen nodded and continued…slowly. A toddler could have outrun him, but it was the best he could do.

  He heard the sizzling beam of the laser rifle as it fired once…twice…and then a third time. An explosion boomed and echoed off the hills. Glancing back, he spotted a plume of smoke. He tripped over a stone and nearly plowed into the earth again.

  Tamzin caught up with him. His jog was so pathetic she could keep up with a loping walk.

  "I took out a skimmer. Those four will have to go the rest of the way on foot." She glanced derisively at him. "I don't know how fast they can run, but they will catch up."

  “You could’ve…stayed and…shot them.”

  “Reapers are tough, and some of them have personal force fields and shields.”

  “You took out…the skimmer.”

  “I caught them off-guard. Their skimmer’s shields were down. If they had known I had a laser rifle that powerful and that my aim was that good, they wouldn’t have made that mistake.”

  “Their skimmers…have shields?”

  “Tekk reapers, of course, have shields. But they don’t run them all the time because it would drain too much power.”

  “Still…” he gasped “…wouldn’t it—”

  “Save your breath, dumbass,” she snapped. “I could’ve stayed back and tried to pick one or two off and hold the rest at bay, but the other skimmer’s closing in. They would’ve driven right past me because they don’t give a shit about Tamzin Moi. This is all about you.”

  While Galen trudged along, Tamzin dropped back every minute or so. She would fire a sweeping beam with her laser rifle then sprint back to catch up to him.

  They rounded a prominent outcropping and began a steep uphill climb. Tamzin detached two of the silver disks. She tossed one immediately then waited a minute before tossing out the other.

  “They’re almost on top of us. Run! Now!”

  Crying out, he surged forward. But his feet were lead, his legs coils of jelly.

  The Tekk Reapers opened fire seconds later. Crackling like miniature bolts of lightning, plasma bursts blasted into the earth behind them, nipping at their heels, as if they intended to blow his legs off. That would stop him from running away. The captain had promised they only needed a functioning brain.

  One bolt punched into his right thigh and spun him to the ground. Pain lanced through his leg as flesh and cloth sizzled. Crying out, he dug his fingers into the rocky soil and dragged himself uphill.

  Hunched over with her head ducked as low as possible, Tamzin darted in, grabbed his hands, and pulled him up along the path and behind an outcropping. The white rings of a neural blast whooshed overhead while plasma spattered into the rocks.

  She lifted him and placed a shoulder under his left arm. Leaning his weight on her, he limped toward the tunnel entrance. The shots continued, and soon they would be exposed. Tamzin didn’t seem concerned.

  An explosion thundered behind them. A second followed moments later. Flames spouted into the sky. Metal crashed and tore into rock. A howl of agony pierced the roaring blaze.

  "They just drove their skimmer over my proximity mines," Tamzin said. "It took both to get the job done. Told you I got lucky the first time." She sighed. "You'd better be worth the effort because those stealth mines cost me a thousand credits each."

  Together they closed the last few meters to the open mine entrance. They stepped over the debris left from an old wooden barrier and pushed through a curtain of vines.

  Tamzin released him, and Galen groaned as he fell back against the wall nearby. Tamzin knelt and examined his leg.

  “It’s a nasty wound, but you’ll be okay.”

  How she could tell that much in the dappled light entering the tunnel, he had no idea.

  “I can’t keep running,” he gasped. “I was done before…I got wounded.”

  “You’re not going to have a choice,” Tamzin said. “And I’m not strong enough to haul your ass there.”

  She sorted through her backpack and pulled out a roll of bandages. She tossed it to him, along with a vial of dark liquid and two white pills.

  “The wound’s cauterized,” he said.

  “If you keep using it, the wound will open. You can’t afford to lose blood.”

  He held up the unlabeled vial. “Am I supposed to pour this on it?”

  “No, idiot. You drink it.”

  Galen rolled his eyes. How the hell was he supposed to know what to do with it? “What is it?”

  “It’s a stimulant…mostly.”

  Comforting. He drank the sour liquid and nearly spat it out. He could only imagine shit tasted better.

  “The pills?”

  “Painkillers,” Tamzin replied. “I made them myself.”

  “I need water.”

  Her face crinkled in annoyance. “To swallow pills?”

  “I’m dehydrated.”

  She drew a canteen from her pack and shoved it into his hands. “Don’t drink it all.”

  He downed the painkillers and several gulps of bitter, acidic-tasting water. He’d thought he’d be able to down the whole canteen at once, but his stomach started hurting by the time he’d drank half.

  Tamzin positioned herself at the tunnel entrance and peeked out through the vines. “The explosion killed one reaper and injured another. The first four are closing in on foot.”

  He started wrapping the bandage around his leg. “How long can I rest?”

  Tamzin glanced back. “As soon as you finish that, we need to get moving.” She fired a shot. “Don’t take your time. I can’t hold them back for—”

  She ducked as a plasma bolt burned through the vines and flared down the tunnel. She returned fire then grabbed him by the arm and hauled him to his feet.

  “I’m not finished wrapping it.”

  “It’s good enough.” She tore the bandage and tossed the roll into her pack. “We have to go now. They’re closing in and another skimmer’s inbound.”

  6

  Galen Vim

&nb
sp; Galen stumbled through the pitch-dark tunnel, careening one way then another, bouncing off the jagged rock walls as he followed Tamzin, who knew precisely where she was going, by sight and memory. She kept forgetting that he’d never been here and couldn’t see in the dark as she apparently could. She also kept forgetting he was wounded.

  The bandage they’d hastily wrapped around his thigh had come loose. Blood leaked from the wound in a slow but steady stream, and it hurt like hell with every limping step he took.

  Tamzin had said the pills she’d given him would stop the pain, so he’d be able to run on it. He couldn’t decide whether she had lied to keep up his spirits or whether the wound was worse than she’d thought.

  He nearly missed the fork in the tunnel, hearing her footsteps only at the last moment. If something happened to her or he fell too far behind, he was lost— utterly lost. They had taken dozens of forks and turns. He’d never make it back out on his own. Not that it would matter. The Tekk Reapers were right on their heels. If he stopped, they’d catch him.

  Galen stumbled into Tamzin. She caught him roughly and nearly fell with him. She was surprisingly strong for someone so slight of build.

  “You’re falling too far behind.”

  “Doing my best,” he gasped. “The bandage came free. My foot’s getting numb. The pain in my thigh is getting bad.”

  “Stay here.”

  As he slumped down against the wall, gasping for breath, Tamzin ran back to the fork in the tunnel. Something clinked far down the tunnel in the direction they’d come from. She ran back, panting. “That was my last proximity mine.”

  She had tossed the third sliver disk not long after entering the tunnels.

  She squatted beside him and pulled out the tiny flashlight she carried. By the flashlight's dim, red glow her quirky features appeared sinister, more like the apparition he’d seen in wraith space than the cute, elfin girl she seemed in the daylight. Especially given her much larger than average eyes, oddly pointed teeth, and the arsenal she carried.