Engineer Zero: The Waves Trilogy: Book One, page 27
The pressure eased, a few moments of relief outside my cocoon was not much of an improvement, aside from reminding me life still clung to me. Lungs battled to raise my chest. I lay weak for an indeterminable amount of time waiting for the pressure to once again force me into my cocoon. But something was different. The vibrations did not squeeze, they wandered freely and dissipated through the walls and floor into the surrounding cells.
Beep beep beep. I turned my head to focus on the sound. Beep beep beep. I drew upright, straining into the darkness. Impossible! I thought and almost began whistling, but my crack lips would not purse. There was no melody accompanying the beeping, but I knew the rhythm. I rolled and scooted over to the exit where subtle energy from a force field holding me in could be felt.
The beeping continued, repeating the same rhythm Pa used when whistling in the fields. “Pa,” I instinctively whispered. I rapped the rhythm with my knuckles on the floor. The beeping stopped. Did I just imagine it? The imprisoning field flickered and dropped. A blue glowing drone no larger than my thumb hovered in front of me.
It zipped behind me and attached to the port at the base of my skull. “Go,” was the command pressing my mind. I wobbled to my feet and followed a path directed by the drone. The drone told me to stop and I obeyed quick as thought. Muffled steps approached. I pulled myself as tightly as I could against the wall and held my breath. Agents stopped near me, around a corner, dim blue shifted back and forth from their visors.
Through the drone at my neck I heard, “A weak heat signature around here?” one asked to the other but not verbally. Somehow the drone plugged into their marks.
“Take a look around,” the other said. The blue glow circled.
“They are scanning a narrow range of frequencies. You are safe,” alerted the drone. One of the Agents was about to turn the corner right into me when the drone detached and raced to intercept them. The Agents pulled back and moved on down another corridor at a leisurely pace. The drone returned and reattached to my neck. Are you getting me out of here? I asked in my head.
“Attempting,” was the response.
“They will know I am out of my cell.”
“This is a little used and no longer fully functional facility. There is space for irregularities,” the drone replied. The drone led me to a door with hushed purple light around its edges. Silence, save for a bassy hum tickling my bare feet. I nervously put my hand on the door. What if this is some trick from Guo Ziyi, some test, watching me sneak around with this drone, recording my brain activity? I have no choice now, I thought.
“No you do not,” the drone responded to my thought.
I may not survive if Guo Ziyi gets me alone again. I hope you can help.
I pushed, and the door slid to the right, revealing a highly polished gold and black floor spread out over a large space. Dense azure blue pillars ranged high throughout the room.
“What is this place?” I whispered.
A sharp zap hit my knees. The drone urged me to make haste, slapping my sticky feet into motion. Squeaks pinged around the cavernous room.
The drone compelled me to run by activating parts of my brain. What are you doing? I asked and ran clumsily careening like a drunk. My weak legs could not adjust to maintain my balance. I slid headfirst right into one of the pillars. The pillar vibrated, alarms in nearby rooms sounded.
“Get up. Move,” the drone said.
“Well if you had not…” I started to shout but another zap punched my lips. I shook my head, got up, and ran of my own will. The drone commanded me to dive to the floor, where there was a small passage not meant for humans. With the alarms blaring, I obeyed, got on my belly, and squeezed my way through the darkness. With every breath, I squeezed a little bit more. Are you sure I will fit? I thought as I grunted, slithering through the tube.
“Yes,” responded the drone. I came to an end.
Now what?
“Hit. Hit.” I wiggled to try and give my arm, which was extended in front of me, some room to strike the panel. After a few weak attempts, I received a surge of instinctive power from the rez or the drone activating a sort of spasm throughout my upper body. Thanks. The panel fell away clanging on the floor as the alarms went silent, and all lights cut out.
They know where I am. Sensors have picked up my signature.
“Perhaps, but you are not caught. Go!” said the drone. I threw myself out of the cramped passage and landed on my shoulder and hand with a hard thud in a pitch-black room. “Run!”
I began racing as fast as I could, following in the dark a route the drone had planned, or I had hoped it had planned. I rounded a corner, and at the end of a corridor, vague outlines of agents materialized. Lights started coming on along the corridor illuminating agents and a woman behind them. They all turned in my direction and I froze despite the drones constant begging for me to move. The drone detached and hit me in the face then flew through another door. I followed and found myself in a room full of hardware, flashing sheets of nano-nets and a large window, sweeping from above my head to the floor, looking down onto the Nether.
The drone said, “Trust the waves,” and moved to the giant window. The tiny drone tapped against the window in the rhythm it awoke me with.
“This is your escape plan! You want me to somehow jump out of here?” I knew it was some sort of test.
“Not my first plan but you fell…no time to explain.” The drone reattached to my neck. It was known: The window is made of wave resistant material, crafted to emit constantly evolving waves––a design of the Watcher/Tessitore cooperation, and you must get through it.
“They are coming for me! How am I supposed to get through?” I asked as I tapped on the clear material.
“Use what you know to find a way. I know you can do it. What you did in the meadow…and you almost reached Galton through a zero-wave cell. And you are not mad from being in the cell! If you only knew your own power. Trust the rez and your intuitions.”
Pa? Who are you? Why are you helping me?
“I’m someone who loves you and has since before you were born, but you must get out now. They will find you soon. You must survive…for the prophecy.”
Mother?
I put my hands on the flawlessly clear material and peered on to the tops of clouds. Okay. Just like finding the vibration of a tree. How hard could it be? I sought out patterns, hoping to feel the material’s waveforms, like when my hand started to enter the door that held Pa. Like discovering the pitch of a taut string by activating another string of the same pitch, but these vibrations were twisted and curled and had millions upon millions of variations.
The drone pleaded, “Hurry, Aris. I cannot keep them from finding you much longer,” then detached and buzzed frantically around the room.
I slammed my hands on the smooth surface. Without Pa or the Pioneer to guide me or the pain of the cell to force me, I could not find the frequencies. Chills throbbed at my palms as I pressed harder. Fear of being caught and brought back into the sickly hands of Guo sped my heart and my breathing came in ragged puffs. I took a few steps back and began running in tight circles around the room; like in the meadow. I picked up speed, it was working I could sense the energy within me. The drone swooped around, beeping wildly. At top speed, I broke from my circle and slammed into the window. I dropped back on my butt and saw stars floating across my vision. Not so special now, huh? I thought.
“Rise and do not be a fool!” the drone chastised. “Running into the glass like that!”
If it were not for the reality of the pain within that cell I think I would have sat there and laughed, waiting to wake up. I had to find one pattern, a path into this system of vibrations. I put my hands back on the cold glass and the rez activated. White crept from the edges of my vision as the frequency took hold of my body. Soon white was all I saw or knew. In the white, ripples activated a thin membrane floating atop an angry sea. Rain, or new vibrations, fell and merged with the membrane and flowed through it, then splashed off, only to recombine again. Each drop brought a new twist to the patterns. The slightest of tweaks altered the entire sea. Maintaining a hold on this was hard enough, but nano-changes made it impossible to keep up. How can I isolate a way to move through this? How can I align my own vibrational signature with the mighty infinite?
The rez forced my mind to dive into the white chaotic sea. I had never experienced anything like this. Where the cell was restrictive, this was liberating. To make it through I had to become a nexus, the swell that scoops up smaller waves and creates a macro-wave. The material wobbled. I trembled and shook it into phase.
“Aris, they are at the door. You are out of time,” the drone declared somberly.
“I can do this,” I may have said, but at this point, I no longer felt like I had a body. In an instant, my palm slipped into the material, deathly cold, no energy despite all the activity. I pushed heat into the material. It shifted into an arrangement following my instructions. The glass bulged like liquid in a balloon. I knew the doors to the room had opened, and boots stormed in behind me.
“Almost impressive,” the voice sent renewed ire into my bones. I had my hands half lodged within the material and toes entering. “E-zero material, you will not make it out.” But his voice was not sure. “I gave you this chance. The cell and everdeath await you.”
“My pa lied to both of us,” I shouted into the window. “My mother never died.” Whether true or not with these words I gave a final exertion that blasted the material at my palms. The change in atmospheric pressure ripped me out of the room and into a free fall through the high-altitude clouds. Whatever may happen I was free, free to plummet to the end of my path, never to return to the Apex or to the horror that is Guo Ziyi.
My breath returned in desperate sips and gasps. I must have passed out in the thin atmosphere. My head pounded, and I could not open my eyes, nor did I particularly want to now. The ground was coming for me, or rather I for it, and it might be easier not to know when. Solid chunks of the E-glass smashed into my back, sending me into a spiral through dark clouds cracking with thunder and dumping rain on the land below. Impossible to judge the distance to impact. I will fall to my death with so many regrets: not knowing the truth from Pa, pulling Maks, Leona, and Asher into something terrible, all the Nether sacrifices that were sent in the name of the gods are partially hung around my neck. Collin Iactura.
In despair, I could hardly believe it, but a soft heat brushed past my freezing cheek. Then again. She’s with me! She slowed my violent spiral to a leisurely twist. Could she save me? How close was she? Huge waves with crests and troughs as tall as mountains surged my way. The first crest scooped me up and threw me higher into the air. I rode the fall toward the surface. It lifted me back up again. Over and over, slowly working me closer to the fields. On an upward thrust, the waves stopped, and my lungs tightened. The Watchers’ wave suppression. I balled myself up to prepare for the crash and hummed one of Pa’s tunes, one reserved for death.
FORTY
Aris
Raindrops followed my temples and dripped off my eyelashes. I may have been weeping and if so then it was for life, a chance to absolve regret. Icy rain filled the tiny crater excavated from my impact. I survived. The Pioneer must have saved me. A headache raged, pounding with every pelting raindrop. A moonless night. Mounds of mud piled up around me. I hesitantly unfolded my legs and straightened my back to stand up. How could any of this be? I should be dead! Everything hurt and shook with cold. Maybe I am, I mused half-jokingly. My hands sunk deep into the mud as I got to my knees. “Ahhh!” I hollered out into the gloom and tottered back into the hole flat on my back. The wind swept in to set the cold fast and deep. I lifted my ankle out of the brown water; it hung at an unnatural angle twinging with pain, but twitched when I commanded.
Dull thumps plopped around, pieces of the window material now reaching the surface, smacking the soupy soil. Countless tiny lights penetrated the black storm cloud––drones. I will not waste this chance. I flipped over, used my good leg to push while my arms pulled, and belly crawled toward where a well house should be. I did not need to look up to know agent platforms had descended through the cloud cover. Ahead a rickety shack rattled in the storm. It would provide little protection, but it was a goal. I scraped my body up the wooden planks hoping for a miracle, one with scars and power or maybe the rez around my arm could get me out of this. I clawed up the door and fumbled with a brittle clasp. The wooden clasp gave way and the door caught the wind slamming me back against a wall. The door closed and opened on its withered hinges. I worked my way over to the threshold and rolled into the well cabin. A piece of scrap wood shoved into the door worked to wedge it shut.
My only hope now was to hold out long enough for the Pioneer to come find me. I steadied my respiratory functions but my eyelids drooped for extended periods only to fly open and scan the rain-drenched hut. Where are they? I’m so hungry. The drones should be here. Agents should be hauling me up to face Guo again.
In between blinks, I gazed up at the water dripping through the low ceiling. Memories of home, of Pa, came with the sodden smell of wood and the rain: a toothy smile peeking out from his burly beard, his never-ending energy even after long days of labor––now I knew it was probably because he has solar-enhanced skin. His everastute and quick-witted mind that gained him friends and foes––also probably a genetic modification and updates. Squinting as if seeing something you could never be blessed enough to witness––maybe enhanced eyes too. He had seen what most will never imagine, especially those of the Nether. A human crafted from lies, yet he was all I had, all I knew as family, I missed him, and I failed him. Lightning flashed through the cracks in the shack, illuminating my pathetic attempt at hiding. Thunder rumbled the old structure while more lightning popped off over the fields.
When it would storm like this, he would tell me one of his favorite stories, the fable of the lightrunners, to calm me down. He said without these people who could move as fast as lightning there would be no now, no us, and no universes…he said it would not have even begun. At the time, the stories mesmerized me and helped me enjoy the lightning rather than fear it, but now there is a whole new meaning to his tales. The update contained no information about lightrunners, but why would they put that in my head anyway. According to Pa, lightrunners are rare wavers—only two have ever been known to exist. Somehow, they move as light does and could even move past light speed. Pa never said what was past light, only that it was outside of time and our space.
My senses prickled––clarity or despair?––reaching out for the lightest of indications I was found out. A hum hardly louder than the creaking shack circumnavigated beyond the soaked wood planks. It circled, I held my breath. Thwack! It knocked itself between some boards. It went to the roof and tried to squeeze through the thatch. A beam of light spread out on the floor and swept up to the far wall then worked its way across the floor toward me, illuminating drops in sheets along the light. The scanning light neared almost to my toes, where I curled them in just as the light was about to touch them. The drone beeped and jiggled deeper into the thatch but could not get through and could not get an angle to scan the entire space.
Surely it ran heat and x-ray scans and it could not detect me? Lucky this was not a micro, I thought.
The drone dislodged itself and continued trying to get in, slamming itself into holes in the wood. Without warning, it stopped and emitted a high-pitched beep, beep.
Frag! It’s equipped with nano-scouts!
No running, no hiding only waiting for an inevitable that began long ago. I curled up in a corner of this well house, wrapped my arms around my legs, and reflected on the good I once had before the waves. Why did Pa want me to learn about them? Look what it has brought me! I thought to no one or nothing, simply a thought without direction.
After some moments, I realized the microdrones had not entered. I saw their tiny lights flicking in the chinks, but they too could not come in, though they could easily fit.
The Pioneer! She is here or coming, I reasoned.
Mud squished outside. She is here! I thought. But the all too familiar sapphire hue from the agents’ helmets streaked through the cracks. They released a couple more drones that began burrowing through whatever field was protecting me. My time was up. The drones broke through and spun wildly in the middle of the room. The door caved easily under the boot of an Agent. The Agents lowered their helmets to me. A young man appeared in the corner next to me. His whisper blended with the sounds of the Agents, drones, and rain, “If you want to live to save your papa, you must trust me.” He wrapped us in his cloak. It smelled of fresh pine and dirt.
“Your plan is to hide under a jacket?” I could not stop myself from whispering. How is this going to protect me from drones and Agents?
He pressed his cheek next to mine, and immediately our rhythms locked in sync. He breathed faster, filling his lungs and expanding his chest. His light breath tickled the fine hairs at the nape of my neck. My body followed his.
The agents’ boots thumped around on the wood floor. The drones buzzed and zipped around the room. The person covering me in a jacket had to be a waver.
The agents must be running all this data back to the Watchers, trying to figure out what was happening in this little shack. The boards creaked, then a metallic scrape, then silence, save for the storm continuing to saturate the earth.
I peeked through the weave of the coat and saw the agents leaning casually in the doorway.
