The Mir Chronicles- The Complete Series

by Leisa Wallace

  "Looks like a mass grave," Tern said, walking towards it.

  "Who did this?" Lena asked, falling into step beside him. "Who would go against Selene and take time to bury the dead? Who would go against her ruthlessness?"

  "Don' know," Tern said. "But if the Priestess knew 'bout this, and found them, they'd be as good as dead."

  As they approached the mound Tern bent down and picked up a rock that lay at its base. Running his fingers across the surface, he handed it off to Lena and picked up another one.

  A name was carved on the crystal's surface. A name she recognized as one of the refugees who had come to Everleigh in the years when her father had welcomed anyone who needed a home, a place among the crystal mountains.

  Lena bent down and picked up another stone. The same thing had been done to it. A small name carved on the stone.

  "Whoever did this, it was someone who knew these people," Lena said showing Tern the name roughly etched into the surface of the stone.

  Who had done this? Lena wondered. She was under the impression that the people in Everleigh had died or been taken prisoner. Were their more like Suki who had hidden and escaped? She put the stone down and scanned the mound. She wondered if her parents had stones here. She wondered who else could have survived the bombing and escaped the Priestess.

  "Ya know what this means, don' ya," Tern said.

  Lena could feel a wave of excitement building inside of her. "Yes," she answered. "There are other's willing to go against Selene."

  Tern nodded with a hopeful look of his own. "From what I heard abou' the number of people who died, it would have taken more than one person to do this." They stood in silence looking at the monument. It was getting to be the time of evening that the sun used to hit the citadel and shine with rainbows through the crystals that made the city.

  "Come on, I better get ya back before Thora tears down the mountain lookin' fer ya.”

  Lena pointed to the setting sun. "Just a few more minutes," she said. But as she said it, the sun cast its first rainbow across the ground. Within minutes, thousands of other rainbows joined. If destruction could have a positive moment, this was it. The city was bathed in rainbows. The jagged edges of the building seemed to make even more points for the sun to shine through.

  "Would ya look at that," Tern said, smiling as he took in the beauty of the city.

  Lena looked over the city and then back at the mound again. "We're not alone," Lena responded.

  Tern nodded. They didn't wait for the rainbows to go away. Instead, they walked back to the cave with rainbows dancing in the setting sun behind them.

  ***

  When Lena made it back to the cavern, she saw Tarek and Suki sitting in one of the many lounge area's. Evren stood over them, his arms moving in large motions as he described something to them. Suki said something that made Tarek laugh. Suki laughed with him.

  The usually reserved Tarek looked totally at ease next to Suki. Something he usually wasn't.

  Lena hurried over to them. It wasn't until she was practically in front of them that they even noticed her. Evren straightened his messy hair and looked slightly embarrassed when Lena caught his eye.

  "Evren, I'm so glad you were able to come," Lena said. She looked between Tarek and Suki.

  Tarek blushed when he saw Lena watching them.

  "I though' ya were supposed to be looking' fer Lena," Tern said.

  Suki flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Na, we knew once you started looking it wouldn't take long. Plus, Evren wanted to fill us in on some stuff," she said. "Did Birdee finally go to sleep?"

  "Ya, Aaron said her pain is under control with the meds he's given her, but she's still pretty exhausted. He said he'll operate on her tomorrow."

  "So where'd ya find her?" Suki asked, motioning to Lena.

  "Everleigh," Tern said.

  Suki widened her eyes in surprise.

  "I found an exit that came out by the lake in Everleigh," Lena said. "I went to explore my home and fell asleep. I guess I didn't realize how tired I was. I slept most of the day."

  Suki nodded like she understood. Evren just looked at her with wide eyes and slightly pink cheeks.

  "How did you get here so fast?" Lena asked Evren. When Lena glanced at him he tried again to tame his hair. But it didn't help.

  "I was close," Evren said as he stopped trying to straighten his hair and put his hands in his pockets instead. "After the auction at Monmark I monitored where you went through the lens. I thought that maybe you might need me for something, so I stayed close."

  Lena had forgotten about the lens. She had taken it out the first night in the cavern and didn't put it back in.

  She looked back to Suki.

  "Do you know what happened to my parents bodies?" Lena asked.

  Suki gave her a questioning glance.

  "In Everleigh. There are no bodies. Just a mass grave. Were my parents buried in that grave?"

  Suki looked haunted. She took a moment to reply. "When I left, there were still bodies everywhere."

  "Including my parents?" Lena asked.

  "I didn't look," Suki snapped at Lena. "I couldn't look. It was too much. My father was there too you know, and Migel. I had to leave them both in order to survive and I haven't been back to Everleigh since then.”

  Lena instantly felt guilty. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. I can't imagine what you had to go through.”

  Suki released her breath and flipped her hair over one shoulder. "I'm sorry I snapped. I don't like to remember that day. And I haven't been back since then. At one point, right after Everleigh fell, when I was still healing, I heard rumors that Everleigh had been cleaned. But I didn't ever look into them."

  Thora walked up behind them interrupting their conversation.

  "Evren, I assume Suki filled you in," Thora said in an authoritative voice that Lena was used to hearing when they worked in the Defense Training facility together.

  "Yes, ma'am," Evren replied a little more respectfully than Lena was used to hearing from him.

  "Can you have what I need completed by the time I leave?" Thora asked in a way that made it feel like she wasn't really asking, but more expecting her request to be completed.

  "I've already got most of it compiled together. I'm just having the computer run some analyses to make sure it fit's the criteria that you asked for.”

  "Very well," Thora said, then looked down the end of her nose at Lena. "You don't need to be running away just because you were upset," she stated.

  Lena raised her chin to meet Thora's gaze. "I wasn't running away. I just needed time to think." The reply sounded weak even to Lena. But she still held her stance.

  "The caverns are large and you can get lost. I don't like you wandering around by yourself."

  "I was in Everleigh." Lena said, hoping it would solidify her first response. When Thora didn't reply, Lena glanced at Suki who urged her to continue.

  "The caves exit at our lake. Did you know that?" Lena asked.

  Thora gave Suki a look that said she wasn't happy with the unspoken encouragement and Lena could see Tarek's poor attempt to hide a smirk.

  "Yes," Thora said, turning away from Tarek and Suki and looking pointedly at Lena. "There are several exits and entrances to the caverns. Ones you shouldn't be off finding on your own. And you either, Tern," she said, making Tern look like he wanted to slip into the shadows and hide. Even though it was him who had found her.

  "I am capable of taking care of myself," Lena said. "I did make it all the way here without you."

  "Not by yourself, you didn't," Thora said.

  Of course, she hadn't been by herself, Lena thought. Gideon had helped her. Jonah had helped her. And neither were with her now. Lena felt like her breath had been taken from her just thinking of them. She swallowed.

  "How is Gideon?" Lena asked, not feeling as confident as she had before.

  The mood dropped even further in the group. Tarek lowered his head and Suki
gave him a concerned glance. Lena only then realized that she wasn't the only one worried about Gideon. They all were.

  "He asked to be left alone," Tarek said. "When I checked on him last, he was sleeping."

  Lena wished it was her checking on him. She wished she were the one taking care of him. Not Tarek. When no one added anything to Tarek's comment, Thora put a tender hand on her shoulder.

  "Come on, we've set up a room for you and Evren," Thora said. "You'll be able to work on the gadget that Dorry gave you. Hopefully, the two of you together can figure out Dorry's technology and then we can all stop worrying about Gideon.”

  Tern excused himself to go be with Birdee, and Tarek took the opportunity to leave as well. He didn't need to say where he was going. He was the only one they trusted with Gideon.

  Suki stretched out on the couch. "I'm going to catch some sleep," she said. "Not all of us got to nap the day away.”

  Lena and Evren followed Thora past the infirmary to the next open room. It was filled with worktables and walls with tools on them.

  "It's not a formal workshop," Thora said. "But Dessa and Remiah can get you anything you might need and bring it to you here."

  "Yes, I've already talked with Remiah when I arrived," Evren said. "He is already getting me the things I thought I might need."

  "Then I'll leave you two," Thora said.

  Evren walked towards the worktable in the middle of the room. It already had the control device blueprints floating above it. The broken pieces of Dorry's anti control device lay on the table.

  "We've got the control device inside Gideon head and the anti-device here on the table.I've been thinking there are just too many devices. So I've renamed your anti-device, the Nulli. These pieces—when put together properly—render that ineffective." He pointed back to the blueprints of the device inside Gideon's head.

  "What?" Lena said, "Nulli? That makes no sense whatsoever."

  "Oh, yes you're quite right it wouldn't make any sense to you. It will make the control device ineffective. That is what nullifier means. Nulli for short."

  Lena bobbed her head. "Okay. Nullifier it is."

  "Nulli," Evren corrected. Then he pointed to pieces on the table. "I had already been working on fixing it before Suki found me. This is what I've done so far." He touched a screen and another image floated from the table. "I copied each of the pieces of the Nulli so we could move them around on the hologram. Kind of like putting a puzzle together. Then I created a program to simulate different way of putting the pieces back together." He hit a button on the screen and the hologram images rearranged themselves into a completed device. "But it's not working quite right.

  Lena studied the images, her eyes moving back and forth between the pieces on the table and the hologram. "So, these highlighted sections are the pieces or places that are broken or missing?" Lena asked.

  Evren nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix them. I have a program running different simulations and specifications but I've never worked with this type of technology before so I don't know how the missing pieces are made."

  At Lena's dejected look, Evren quickly continued. "Don't worry, I've written a program that will analyze Dorry's technology and hopefully be able to replicate what it learns."

  "You can do that?" Lena asked.

  "By studying Dorry's technology the computer can learn how he thinks and therefore give us options on how he would have made the Nulli."

  "Before Gideon kills me.”

  Evern looked uncomfortable.

  "Evren. We have to fix this. How long do you think it'll take to fix him?"

  "I don't know Lena. This type of technology has never been used before. I'm working with new parameters I didn't know even existed. But, Thora said Dorry taught you how to fix things. You know how he thinks."

  "I don't think anyone knows how Dorry thinks," Lena said.

  "You don't have a way to contact him do you?"

  "I wish," Lena said. When Evren didn't reply, she sighed. "Come on, let's figure this out."

  Hours went by with Evren and Lena talking about ways Dorry could have possibly made the device. Lena was sure it was late into the night when she felt the frustration building. Nothing was working. She pounded her hands on the table and let out a groan a frustration. And while Evren didn't react the same way, there were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was even messier than when they had begun. He had a habit of running his fingers through his hair when he was thinking.

  After several unsuccessful hours, Evren turned to Lena. "Let's call it a night," he said. "We can start again in the morning."

  Lena nodded and pushed herself away from the worktable without saying anything to Evren. She walked back to the room Thora had assigned her to share with Suki. Suki was already back in their room, laying on a bottom bunk.

  She glanced at Lena. "That bad?"

  "There are just so many pieces lost or broken. And they've never been made by anyone but Dorry.”

  "Suki held up her hand. "I don't really care about how it works, only that you can and Evren fix it.”

  "That's the problem," Lena replied. "I don't know if we can."

  Chapter Three

  Lena lay for several hours staring at the bunk above her. Suki's deep breaths were the only sound in the room.

  "Eves," a voice said from the room's intercom. Lena didn't need to be told who it was. Only one person ever called her Eves.

  She jumped from the bed and ran to the room's com device that was attached to the wall. Pushing the button, she replied a little louder than normal. "Gid." She glanced guiltily at Suki, hoping she hadn't woken her. Suki shifted in her sleep.

  "How are you doing?" he asked.

  Lena couldn't help but smile as she heard his voice. "I've had better days," she said.

  "Me too," he replied.

  Lena's smile faded. Both of them were silent for a bit longer than normal conversation.

  "Gideon," she began, "I went back to Everleigh. And we're not alone in standing against Selene." She told him all about finding Everleigh and her mom's diary. She told him about the courtyard and there being a mass grave. She was ready to hear hope in his voice, but when he spoke there wasn't any hope at all.

  "Eves," he said over her voice.

  Her heart dropped at the despair in his tone. She stopped talking for him to continue.

  "If you can't fix me..."

  "We're going to fix you!" she interrupted, trying will all her might to not lose the bit of hope she had felt.

  "But if you can't, I can't bear the thought of not being able to protect you. I won't live this way, Eves.”

  "Don't talk like that," Lena answered. "You can't talk like that. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to fix you. We're not alone. We can stop Selene."

  "Okay," he said, without any conviction. He paused. "Eves, I just need you to know that finding you again was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I wouldn't take that back. Not ever."

  "You're making this sound like goodbye. Gid, I'm going to fix this. You're going to be okay." Any hope she had felt at all that day, was shattered.

  Silence filled the space between them. When he didn't respond, Lena's anxiety peaked. "Gid, are you still there?"

  "I'm here." He sounded depressed. "Always remember that I love you, Eves."

  The com went silent.

  "Gideon," Lena called. She punched the button on the com device. "Gideon," she repeated. When he still didn't reply, Lena punched the button over and over again, calling his name.

  Suki—who had woken up during the conversation—got out of bed to and gently pulled her hand away from the intercom. "Lena, he's not going to respond."

  Lena fell onto the couch next to the com and started crying uncontrollably.

  Suki sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

  "He acted like he was giving up," Lena said through the sobs. "He can't give up. Not when we've come so far."

  Suki's arm tigh
tened around her waist. "He just needs reminded that he has you. He's not going to fight this alone and neither are you."

  "I love him Suki. I can't do this without him." Lena buried her face into Suki's shoulder and cried until there was nothing left inside her.

  ***

  The next morning, Lena still couldn't shake the feeling that Gideon was saying goodbye. She stared at the pieces of the null but didn't feel any better about the possibility of figuring it out than she had the night before. She stared at the hologram and then at the pieces laying on the table and then at the hologram again. Gideon's voice kept echoing in her mind.

  The sound of Even's pounding shook Lena from her daze. He was destroying one of the cavern's service bots.

  "Want help?" Lena asked grabbing a hammer of her own.

  Evren looked up and frowned at the hammer in her hand. "No, I need you to fix this."

  Lena tossed the hammer aside. "It was working fine before you broke it."

  ""If I can capture how Dorry's mind worked, then I can write a program that will tell me how he'd have fixed the nulli. And maybe even how he made it all to begin with. Then I can possibly fix the control device inside Gideon. In order to do that, I need to see the process Dorry took in teaching you how to fix the service bots." He handed her a screwdriver.

  Lena gave him a slight smile and shook her head. "A screwdriver is the wrong tool for this," she said.

  Evren shrugged and turned back to the blueprints. "You may begin."

  Lena nodded, even though she knew Evren wasn't looking at her and started to fix the service bot.

  After several hours of Evren breaking the same bot over and over again and Lena fixing it repeatedly, she felt the irritation at the lack of progress swelling inside of her. It was even worse than she'd imagined it would be figuring out how Dorry's mind worked. She felt like they were grasping at straws.

  "Evren, this isn't working," Lena snapped after one very technical repair. She slammed the bot on the table breaking it before Evren had another chance. She rubbed a tight spot on the side of her neck.

  "Well, then you come up with a solution to this problem," Evren snapped back as he slid away from the computer.