Engineer Zero: The Waves Trilogy: Book One, page 26
“Or perhaps he is turning us in,” Asher stated.
“He would not do that,” Leona almost shouted.
“Even if it meant he could fulfill exactly what Aris is here to do?” Asher angled his goggles and drab ill-fitted hood at both Leona and me. Would Maks do that to unplug his guides? Was that why he was so interested to help?
Maks snuck back and joined our group. “What was that all about Maks?” Leona asked with a hint of apprehension.
“Relax, I needed some data from that agent, so we can get through some doors. What did you think I was doing?” Maks panned to each of us and received no answer.
“Let’s keep moving,” Asher commanded. We crouched single file through the maintenance bay toward the interior of the structure. We reached a dull black door. Maks stepped forward and pulled out a device that presumably had the agent’s data to get us through.
“This will be short term, ten arcs at the most, then internal security will start to find irregularities in the movement of this agent,” Maks told our little band. We all nodded, and he proceeded to open the door by sending the thin black device to slip in the edge of the door. After a few distinct pips, the door whooshed open and we barreled in and skidded to a stopped. A few agents turned and looked right at us. Their blue visors and coal suits sent chills through my skin. The rez at my arm tingled, I should fight. The agents stepped to the door and we parted to let them by. The door closed with a snap and the agents continued their course rounding a corner.
“Frag! That was nova! This unentangled material really works. Their span did not even register our presence,” Maks said.
“Do not break into a dance Masakatsu, we must hurry,” Asher said and started at a brisk pace in the opposite direction of the agents. After twisting through dim corridors encountering only a few agents with the same results Asher stopped at the entrance to a large room. “Adjusting to time-heat mapping.” He tapped a few buttons on his goggles. “This is Guo Ziyi’s command space, if your father is as important as you believe then we should be able to follow where Guo has been to find where your father is. Just a reminder, this is not a rescue mission, this is a discovery. According to everything in Jiǎo your father is not here so we are simply here to confirm the truth.”
I nodded but knew that was not what this was for me. I would do everything I can to save him now. The Pioneer’s words about torture and existence worse than death gave me resolve.
“This way,” Asher said. Our soft booted feet made no sounds on the hard nano-weave flooring. Much of the compound appeared neglected, rows of empty rooms, non-lit passages, and a distinct lack of drone presence. A heavily reinforced door came into view, right where the heat signature led. “This is it,” Asher said. “There will be more survs at that door, Masakatsu?”
“I have-” Maks and Asher froze. We all stopped and could hear the smallest of breathing sounds reflecting within each of our suits.
“What is that sound?” Asher asked. We stared at various points along the walls straining our ears to pick up what Asher detected.
“I don’t-” Leona began but was cut off by a growing hum.
“Drones,” Maks stated. “They have discovered the irregularities faster than I thought.”
“Or they picked up on this!” I poked at a tear in Leona’s suit.
“Did you-” Asher started, but I cut him off.
“This is no time for blame. They can’t see us, right?” I asked.
“The drones will shift into sentinel mode and will scan on more wavelengths,” Asher said. “We won’t make it through that door. We have to abort.”
“My pa is behind this door! I am not leaving him!” The rez flashed with energy pulling me toward the door.
“Help her! Finish this and find him. I will stall,” Leona said with authority. “It’s the least I can do.” She squeezed my hand then ripped off all the unentangled clothing, alarms instantly blared through the corridor. She rushed away from us before we could protest.
“Maks, Maks! Let’s make it worth it.” He pulled some gear from his pack and passed it over the door.
“Can you do it?” I asked.
“I think so, but I would have to span with Jiǎo. They already know someone is here and they will not believe Leona worked alone.” Before I could protest Maks pulled his hood off and worked furiously to get the door open.
Zmmf! Zmmf! Drones ripped through the corridor skimming the ceiling and floors a blue glow ahead of them.
“Come on Maks!” Without the hood and goggles Maks’ face flushed with doubt, yet somehow that doubt turned to determination. He furrowed his brow and worked the device over the door. I knew he was using all the tricks he knew to get me through to Pa. Asher shoved me back. A blast struck the door and sizzled, knocking Maks across the corridor. Asher held me against the wall behind a slim out column. Maks grabbed his ears and fell in agony. Because he spanned they now had access to his mind and body. Another blast raked across his shoulder. Maks bellowed and rolled uncontrollably. Somehow the door opened.
“Go!” Maks roared. Asher hauled me through the door shielding me with his body. He reached back to grab Maks’ hand. A disruptor blast shredded through Maks’ arm and sent Asher and it flying through the passage. The door snapped shut encasing Asher and me in a strained dark silence. Only faint taps could be heard on the other side of that door. Maks’ arm lay lifeless. By Naram-Sin! I never thought it would come to this.
“We can still find him,” Asher said and shook me. It was complete stillness, low energy states all around. In this low energy surrounding the heat-signature lit a bright path to a cell. Asher removed his hood and spoke to the space, “Elect Asher Lee requesting data.”
A brief pause. “Denied,” he told me.
The rez vibrated. I removed the gloves and placed my hand on the door. “Aris, what is that?” Asher asked.
“A way to free Pa,” I said and channeled my energy into the cold cell. My skin melted into the nano-carbon, fusing with the vibration signature. The already dark space evaporated around me, Asher’s form circled in my periphery. “He’s here!” I tried to say. “Pa is behind this door, I can feel it.”
Like a single ember falling into the Gihon, all heat left me, and all light disappeared.
A voice pierced through in sharp focus. “Aris Mozi tck.” I snapped out of my altered vibrational state, suddenly face to face with Guo Ziyi.
“Leave her alone!” Asher slammed his fist into a force field.
“tck tck System work, bringing her to me,” Guo said and stood directly in front of Asher.
“Don’t listen to him. He’s lying! I would never.” Asher went silent when Guo drew a long shining black blade from his cloak. A waveblade: Banned by the Hundred Year Doctrine, a weapon specifically designed to sever and kill wave vibrations. He raised it above Asher’s head and brought it swiftly down through the force field slicing off slivers of the greyed clothing.
“I’m not an underdwelling pre-tier, tck you will suffer in other ways.” He flicked his hand and Asher dropped face down to the floor. “tck Even as an Elect there will be severe consequences for this treachery. However, tck she is like an ancient monkey and can be treated in ways only animals of her station can understand.” Asher’s face scrunched in impotent anger. Guo turned to me. “You will be my tenant from now on. tck Whoever was protecting you has now lost all authority tck,” Guo said. “I do not know why you have drawn such interest from the precipice. Surely tck it can’t be simply that you are the daughter of, Galton Mozi, the most famous villain in the ascending.” His gorilla-like body stood solidly in front of me. He placed a gigantic foot on Asher’s back.
“Release him!” I screamed at the beast. “I made him help me. And Pa has done nothing but toil in the fields!” I was so close. I felt Pa’s faint heat, he was alive but suffering.
“Done nothing! tck He murdered your mother tck tck! You should rejoice in his suffering as I do. You will understand tck truth and respect soon enough,” Guo growled in my face. “Your filthy waver father will suffer for as long as our star burns tck. He will receive no release from pain and torment. You may join him tck if I so choose.” His flat yellowed face swam in my teary vision. The rez shot my fist up at his armored gut. He drove the wave blade into my leg quicker than thought.
Hrraa! My arm went limp at my side and I dropped to the floor. He grinned towering over me.
“Wave resistant armor, an invention of your father’s. Now youngone, we will take you to a more appropriate tenement, one where you do not have the pleasure of being so close to him.” Two agents came from behind and lifted me to my feet and dragged me through the dim compound away from Asher and away from Pa.
THIRTY-SIX
The Ascending
ENCRYPTED SPAN: GUIDING COUNCIL
A confident male voice was known, “She has shown aptitude, meeting the threshold of need for further discovery.”
“Council Members Lee, is it your stance that she could in truth be a catalyst?”
“Indeed, it is. She has already met with an ancient Tessitore, the Circle of the Dawn remnants have attempted contact and the Watchers are overly concerned and protective of her. All witness the potential held within Aris Mozi; yet don’t agree on that potential’s path. Council members this may be homo cosmos’s time and space to yet again phase into another tier of progress. Aris Mozi could be the catalyst, and we must find out.”
“Even if it defies the Hundred Year Doctrine?” A confident alto chimed in.
“If the Council approves then Jiǎo will see there is no transgression against the Doctrine,” Council Members Lee responded through the secured tunnel through Jiǎo.
It became known to the Council that the twenty-eight members concurred.
“Keep the informant close until we can remove Aris from Agent possession, that half-tier Guo will surely ruin our path if he is made aware we want her,” one of the elder members advised.
“Have Guo understand he has our support until we make our move. It will be evertedious to perform this around Jiǎo and the Watchers, but she could be the one, the mutation we have been waiting for…fathom tier eleven!”
ENCRYPTED TUNNEL COLLAPSED
THIRTY-SEVEN
Aris
My eyes would not open. A ballooning vague sensation wove around me like coarse rope, spreading rotten numbness to my feet; goading instincts to separate my limbs, let them bleed out on the floor and preserve my core vitals. Erratic messages detailed the status of my body with bulbous signals radiating from my thigh. My fingers went to investigate. They traversed my midsection, past my hips to report taut perforated skin, ridged with thick tissue. I’m alive. Pa, Asher, Leona! Maks.
A voice intoned from outside my blindness, “tck An axiom I subscribe to is the following: Words lose their potency, whereas pain is constantly tck new.” These words fell dead in the space with a force that would have knocked me down if I was not already flattened out. I had heard that saying before, from Pa’s stories. According to Pa, this was the saying of the Prince, the vilest creature in all of history in all the universes.
“I will take an up tck close look at those famous eyes.” Whatever was keeping my eyelids shut now dripped down my temples, into my ears. A single slat of slightly less black cut across my pupil. After a few hard blinks, I tried to take in my surroundings but only witnessed darkness, save for a faint blue dot directly above me. “Your eyes indicate an everness to you tck, but a piece of Galton’s ancient prophecy that will alter the course of homo cosmos that I will tck not partake in.” His enhanced lenses allowed him to see me, but I could not see Guo or even detect if he was in front of or behind me.
“Galton tck would be proud, you are as arrogant as he.” My head felt light. “He thought he could hide from me tck and you thought you could save him from the power of the Agents.” Guo’s stilted speech faded in the pitch-black room.
I struggled with my lips. “In this space tck, I will be doing the speaking. Verbal communicating has its charm tck.” He inhaled and exhaled. I pictured his bulk filling the cell. I did not shiver, though my heat seeped into the floor. “Your parents and I were once on the same tck side of this, the ascending versus wavers, for the good of the species. Together, with the Tessitore and the Pioneer, we brought an end to the Wave Wars that threatened homo sapiens. tck Witnessing you up close in such a state brings me nova pleasure because it will cause your father suffering to know I have his tck precious daughter, his eversought prophecy. Yet you resemble your tck mother to such a degree that I suffer to be near you.”
A tingling in my stomach twisted up through my neck at the thought of this creature longing for my mother and now me.
“Your thin neck tck, slight frame, and cheekbones bring vivid memories of Nikol’s evershining glow,” – from the darkness his fingers stroked my eyebrow down my cheek to my chin – “tck she was a true unique much like you.” His hand stopped at my neck and like a spider wrapping its prey, his fingers clutched. “But Galton tck took her from me! From us! He must be humbled! tck.” He squeezed the life out of my throat. He suddenly released me with a deep gasp and a puff of sour air forced a series of internal gags and coughs from my closed mouth.
“Galton is a coward tck, used your mother for his own selfish reason, never loved her. tck Nikol is dead and you are the result of her sacrifice. You know the truth? She disappeared, her mark dropped from Jiǎo. I searched for annorums. All that remains of her is a private tunnel to tck me. I found her in the Nether atop a rock, but it was too tck late. I witnessed as she burned, burned in front of you youngone for tck Galton’s desire for power!”
My nails bit into my palms and sweat trickled down my forehead. Pa may have lied, but he would have never sacrificed mother, he loved her.
“Trepidation to this truth is futile tck, the universes grind against your perceptions and will soon crush them to a fine powder, and you will understand who Galton really is.” He took a sour breath that wafted around the cell. “tck In truth he designed this cell, it captures every minuscule vibration and forces it to bounce around forever. Quiver by tck quiver the pump of your heart and vengeful thoughts will fill this space with claustrophobic, maddening waves that will drive you to wish to take your own life. I will give you time to think upon what I have said about your pa and who among your compatriots alerted me. tck If only it was you who died and not her,” he finished.
Ringing in my ears began oscillating from rumbling drums to head splitting whistles. Then constriction in my chest. I tried to sink into the floor to get away from the terrible pressure, but all I managed was to lay still, powerless. What was I thinking? Who were Pa and Mother really? The waves pushed, suffocating, trapping air in my throat. Gold and silver-rimmed spots popped across my internal vision going from black to white with red splotches. Torture, but no relief from death. If Pa could not escape what hope do I have?
THIRTY-EIGHT
The Ascending
PRIVATE SPAN BETWEEN LINEAGE LINKS
A gentle voice was known: “I should have never allowed her out to go find him, we should have taken her to hide when we had a chance.”
A firm and angered voice replied, “You are responsible for encouraging her to seek him. Frag Galton and his ‘she must navigate her own path’!”
“Can you free her? I can’t imagine what that everbeast Guo is putting her through. You know how he despises Galton. I should have spanned you. But if you would allow me to do more.”
“We cannot risk both of us, besides we know this is my problem, it has always been my problem. The Council will not allow her to exist with the power she already possesses. In some ways, she has already surpassed Galton and Rieaya.”
“You are proud of her? Proud of your decision to pursue the prophecy?” the softer voice probed.
“I pursued nothing, despite unlimited knowledge you understand so little. She may bring waves back, not as a force of terror, but one that will bring all of humanity into the evertime. Galton and the Tessitore will ascend and guide with an eversight the Council or even Jiǎo cannot contend with.”
“Then, in my ignorant opinion, you must save her,” the calmer voice quipped.
“Truth!”
PRIVATE TUNNEL COLLAPSED
THIRTY-NINE
Aris
A stinging reek drew tears. I had not bathed in who knew how long, and my skin had shifted to a more bark-like crust composed of salty debris. Cautiously, I wiggled my toes and loosened the crust and joints. My once long jet hair was now twisted and cropped at sharp angles, leaving some sections long and some short and ragged. Swollen lips split open, yet no blood came forth. No spare liquid for losing blood or swallowing. I forced a stronger than normal exhale to make sure I was truly alive. A twitch of my nose sent thin shocks of pain to my teeth. I probably looked like a winter twig dressed in a loose patch of leaves, dead, simply waiting to break away and flutter down to the earth. Is this where I should be because this is where I am, Pa? I sure wish I was on another path, I argued. This is my unique path as the Bringer of a Dawn or youngone from the Nether? This is surely an end to my path, sorry to let you down. Guo will kill me, no matter who is trying to protect me. He hates me because he hates you. Guo spoke with delight at finally having Pa and me to avenge my mother. I wanted it to make no sense, yet there may have been truth in his words.
In the cell, time moved but not forward or backward. Those words no longer had meaning; the Pioneer’s peculiar repeating speech kind of made sense here. I had slipped into what I dubbed my survival cocoon, a shell of silk protecting me against the ever-growing wave pressure. I was surviving but only just so. Would my mind return from the thin edges of conscious existence I was forced to travel to? Unknown.
In this state, I relived alternate paths, but they all returned to this cell. Leona, Maks, and Asher must be fragged, but did one of them really betray our mission? Or was it Mera? I did not know what to think about them. Guo was just planting doubt. Surely, they will release Leona. And Asher is an elect. Nothing serious will happen to him, even though he said he was risking a great deal to help me. And Maks, my body shuddered in earnest at the memory of his arm being blown through the door by the drones, landing lifeless, not a twitch. They must be okay.
