The End Again, page 14
Tiera frowned, but then snorted and smiled, if tightly, at her little sister, who wasn’t a small person in any fashion. Then she nodded.
“That device is...” She seemed hesitant, but Timon nodded, rather suddenly.
“Agreed. That’s finished.” He moved in and patted the cross-legged woman on the shoulder. “Tess? You’re done. The magic is finished.”
He had to say it a few times, but her eyes fluttered open, and, without groaning, she stood up, then looked around at the lack of water on the floor and glanced over at Morgan. Only after that did she respond to anything around her, she startled a bit, jumping and shook her head.
“Ah! Here, I have this... I should move closer to the fissures. I’m not sure if this will work...” She clearly wasn’t, but oddly enough Timon just moved, heading into the private dwelling, not asking about what was needed for the device to work. Tess followed, running.
So the rest of them did as well, even if they weren’t needed. Each of them, including Sara, clearly read the back wall, as Tess Baker placed the stone device on it. It didn’t have a glowing sigil, but the whole thing provided light, in a clear golden color. Then, impressively, instead of just smoothing everything in a given area, a glowing pattern showed up on the back wall of the place, with every fissure being showed in red.
In a few places there were light hints of blue, but only two of them and they were showed as being very isolated from everything else. The whole thing looked deep, heading back and up, finally showing more blue, which was a lake of water, of course.
Tess explained it for them, even if it was kind of clear what was happening, at least to Sara.
“The blue is water, the red lines show the gaps. If anything was living in the covered zone of the field, that would show up as green. Heat shows up as yellow, but it has to be pretty intense before it would be even a light glow. Now, once this is on, we can just close things off by using a hand to wipe the glowing line away. That will cause the rock, or dirt, even dust, to merge together. It should be close to instant, but you don’t have to touch the stone to make it happen. That way other workers can help seal a breach, in an emergency.”
Timon didn’t speak, just moving forward without hesitation, touching the wall and rubbing over the red lines. He didn’t touch them, but the intent was enough to get the red lines to vanish rather nicely. Sara moved in herself, with Fox and started doing the same thing. It didn’t take dozens of attempts to make it happen, either. You thought about wiping a line away and made a little movement like trying to clean a bit of ink from a whiteboard, and it worked. Perfectly.
Everyone else started in as well, so, in a few moments, they had the fissures closed off. Tess moved to the left by about thirty feet, and changed the angle of the field by about forty-five degrees and showed where there was even more water, being held in other fissures, off to that side.
The attractive brunette woman let her lips curl upward.
“Those lines don’t open up inside the city, but there’s water in the ground out there.”
Sara nodded, and instead of removing the water for them herself, she cleverly moved to the hallway, to find Morgan just standing there.
With a serious air to the moment, she waved for the girl.
“Morgan? We have a bit more to do? No rest for the...” She paused and then shrugged. “Well, in this case, no rest for the super hero. This way?” She didn't ask if her school friend could go on. She either would or wouldn’t. That was how such things worked, after all.
Instead of whining, or saying anything that could be taken the wrong way, breathing only a little hard, Morgan jogged inside the dwelling, seeming determined. When they got inside it didn’t take her a long time to work out what the blue filled lines, looking like static lightning, meant.
“Ah. Okay, I can do this. One...” It didn't take her long, the lines that were showed turning red almost instantly as she closed her eyes. The blue ran backwards, the color shifting faster than seemed normal at all.
Fox ran up, and making sure he wasn’t trapping any water in the rock, wiped the red lines away, as Tess held the small glowing tile to the wall. When they were done with that, they had to do the other side of the large front room, and just to be careful, moved to the dwellings on either side, down the hallway. Not one or two, but about an eighth of a mile in either direction. That meant knocking on a lot of doors, and asking people to let them inside their house,
Not even one person didn’t do it. The closest they came to that was a fellow who skeptically asked why first. When he found out the reason, he’d taken them back to the far wall himself and even volunteered to go with them, if it was needed, after the lines were removed. They only had the one unit, so it wasn’t needed, but Sara felt pretty happy about the whole thing.
It took them about three hours to get done, but they only located two other major fissures of note that would have, possibly, broken through, eventually. A thousand little lines and fractures, but none of those seemed to be that serious, thankfully. Sara walked with them, but wasn’t actually needed to do anything. Most of them weren’t. Just Tess, with her magic, Morgan, who moved the water for them and Fox, who was making certain they didn’t miss anything, using both field reading and Tess’s magical device.
The rest of them stayed anyway, in case something changed, of course. Nothing did. The working group had it.
Then, at the end, Tiera got on her handheld, and tapped a single name. Sara didn’t know who she was going to be calling, and didn’t bother to check, even if she probably needed to be doing that kind of thing on a regular basis. She didn’t want to spy on her friends, but not doing that was dangerous. Possibly for them, at times. In part it was mainly because of how she was feeling, in the moment, she knew.
Scared.
Mainly that she was going to lose all of her friends if they found out about her secret. Being a class ten was one thing, but being her, that might well drive everyone she knew away. Even the ones who had seemed fine with the information earlier. When it hit them, their minds might well change. The same could happen there, on the Moon and in Noram, as well, with her other people.
So she was kind of not reading anyone’s mind. Which was a bad plan, really. A thing she needed to stop, right that moment. She brought up a copy of Cindy Mableton’s power and noticed a single name, floating over Tiera’s head.
Nick Feddy.
Sara didn’t know who that was, but there was no greater description in the floating words, at the moment. She could have tried for more, of course, since every piece of data carried extra information with it, but before she could, Tiera lit up, fake smiling at the man in her hand. A person who, it seemed, she wasn’t that fond of.
At the same time, he was her second favorite of the nine councilors of the Moon. More words came into play then, many of them in bright, ugly, red, thinking about those other people. Feddy was practically a saint, compared to most of them, it seemed.
Still, the Ancient of the Moon smiled and tried to mean it, a little harder. Feddy was a bit vain and a little greedy, mainly for fame, but it wasn’t outside of what most people seemed like to Tiera.
“Councilor? The water breach has been sealed. The other several hundred potential problems have as well. Has anyone found out who made that lake?”
Tiera tensed then, her eyes going hooded. Her thoughts showed that she feared it would be yet another problem that should be handled with violence, but couldn’t be, since the rules there didn’t allow for such things.
Not openly.
Sara could understand the thought, of course. Tiera Baker wasn’t an evil person, but her very nature made her into a fighter. A person who tended to want to solve problems with violence, even if they didn’t really need to do it that way.
On the other hand, Feddy, who had been the man that had connected with her in the first place, was just a man. Not too tall, dressed in a funny striped robe that seemed vaguely African to her, and with nicely tanned skin. He wasn’t ancient, either, but his thoughts, when she focused and read them, even at a distance, were calm and relatively well collected.
“We did. A Marcet family, out of Austra. Their idea is to form a recreational town, around the edge of the lake they’re making. Unfortunately, they didn’t realize that there would be any fissures in the rock like this. They started in a medium sized crater, and didn’t think that there would be damage left from the initial impact. We didn’t have air breaches along that wall, of course, so why would they consider that kind of thing?” The man was being mildly placating.
As if he suspected what Tiera was actually thinking.
The woman froze, her mind turning toward the idea of routing an entire family from her Moon, or simply causing them to vanish, so Sara cleared her throat a bit and nodded.
Then pretended to be mildly impressed.
“That sounds ambitious of them. Would they allow us to tour their facilities and plans? Just to check for any further problems with fissures or leaks in their ocean? Them getting in early and building things like that is clearly a way to familial wealth, and future political power, so we should help them, if we can at all.” She didn’t really care, but Tor, standing back and to the side, wearing a dark red robe that stopped about an inch above the white stone floor, nodded.
“That’s a wonderful idea.”
Even Tim shrugged, seeming a bit less impressed with the whole thing.
“Unofficially? I can see why Tess was fine with us interfering on part of this, but managing people’s lives like that might not go over too well.” The fellow actually turned to her, to say the words, focusing on Sara totally, not on any of the others.
Clearly trying to forestall problems that her words might have created.
She stopped for a moment, then started to nod, slowly.
“Oh... There’s truth to that, isn’t there? Okay, Tess, can Councilor Feddy borrow your new magic, in case there are other issues that way? Then we just send... Morgan along?” If there was water that needed to be shifted, the girl was going to be needed, after all.
Feddy coughed, but smiled. That was upside down to Sara, but she could see it taking place.
“I can use that magic? I’m not certain who Morgan is? My failure, I’m certain.”
Tim laughed a bit and shook his head, just a little. It got attention, mainly from Morgan. The man was good looking, after all.
“Morgan Ponds. She came from a different reality to help us here today. She has the ability to control water, and held the entire lake back, using force of will alone, while we waited for Tessalyn Baker to create a new magic to fix the issue. That magic is...” He smiled a bit. “Honestly, we need to make copies of it and make sure every city on the Moon and possibly Mars has a set of them. Especially Mars, since they don’t have a real atmosphere yet. Anyway, without Morgan, we might well have lost half of Second City today. I don’t know how we pay for her efforts, however. She doesn’t live here and isn’t part of our system, at all.”
The man didn’t seem dire over the matter, but several of the others there flashed to thoughts of Cin Mableton, for some reason. To pay her for her works, the King of Noram had allowed her to torture and kill people, several times. A thing that everyone there understood wouldn’t work with Morgan at all.
She wasn’t a psycho killer, after all. A thing that could be easily understood, it seemed.
Sara shrugged.
“She’s a superhero.”
Morgan blushed at the term, and Fox, being helpful, nodded firmly.
His voice was rather stately, for a younger man, when he spoke, as well.
“True. Meaning we can’t actually pay her for such things, at all. We can only speak of her well and spread the word of her good deeds. At least when she comes to save people. A lot of people from my world are like that. Sara, for instance.” He nodded, looking at her, as if he were teasing.
She grinned.
“There is that, isn’t there? Not that it works for everything, but the life saving efforts? Almost always for those, really. We need to keep that in mind. So... I’m not sending Morgan off with a strange man on your first meeting, Councilor Feddy... Who would you like to attend her?” That was teasing, but Tiera sighed and nodded.
“I’ll stand as chaperone? I want to look at this new village with my own eyes. I... Well, I was thinking of it as an illegal operation, but there are no actual rules about building on the surface, as of yet. Others have done it, including making lakes and even another small ocean. This one just had some issues. We need to look at the rest as well?”
She looked over at Morgan, who seemed a bit out of her depth, suddenly. The girl had always been a little shy, after all. Fox, seeing that, tilted his head, but Parker was the one to step in.
“I’ll go along as well? I’ve been doing some work on surface building projects, for the resorts? I may be of some aid in this.” She looked at Tiera and then shook her head. “If not, I can at least help you move the bodies? I’ve been working on my lifting and toting skills, of late.” She bent her arms, as if showing how her muscles stood out. They did, a bit, though without it being a vast matter or unusual for the group they were standing with.
It was a joke, but the tall woman looked at the girl with something approaching a new found respect. Then nodded, her face going almost sly.
“We’ll avoid that, of course. Too many people know where we’re going today. Still, we should make plans for that, in case it comes up later?”
Sara understood that the woman was half joking, herself. If Parker was willing to actually plan such things, it would be recalled and possibly even happen, if the need ever arose. It would, strangely, also push Tiera to feel friendly toward her, even if it was a weird thing for them to consider.
Fox nodded.
“We do have jump ships. That pretty much allows for a lot to be done that way, if need arises. The trick would be in making the trip out seem normal, I have to imagine.”
Sara snorted, and shook her head, and faked being exasperated. That came with crossed arms and an overdone frown.
“Hey. No planning that kind of thing in public. Now, if that’s set up, and I’m not needed for it... Well, I should probably talk to some people here. There’s some news. Important to me, but minor to most of you.” She waved a bit, with an open hand, toward Tim and then, a moment later, Tor.
Tess scowled a bit, for some reason. When Sara glanced over her head, the woman only felt she was being left out, however. Also, that she and Sara were friends, so that was out of bounds. Covering, since that part was, apparently, the truth, she waved at Tessalyn as well.
“I get to go over this with a few others as well, I think. We can... Meet off in space? The surface here might work, as well. Again, big to me, but not anyone else, really.” That might be a lie, but she was willing to do that, in an attempt to keep her friends.
Fearing everyone was going to leave her alone. Like she had been at the end of the world, for a very long time.
That, going off to a location that would be hard to hear, indicated a secret, but it wasn’t a thing anyone there was going to care about finding out about. They just barely understood what the Infection was there, after all. On the good side, they didn't hate it.
It was just an interesting anomaly from another world.
That was all.
At least she hoped that was the case.
What happened after that went differently than Sara would have thought. Instead of walking off to a port, or going to a transport unit, Timon led them all down a sketchy seeming back hallway, one that was dark and needed to be swept, which wasn’t a thing Sara had ever noticed on the Moon before. There was Moon dust in the corners, and, after several minutes of walking, they came to an external hatch. That was made of shield material, the device it was on not having an off switch at all, Sara noticed. It didn’t glow either, and had been merged with the wall, near the edge of the door that was formed there. It didn’t seem special in any way or anything, being a plain, pale, gray. Much like Moon dust itself. The stone of the hallway, too.
Tim waved at it.
“This is one of the original external hatches. We can go outside from here, but no one really uses these things, since they’ve been kind of forgotten. Now it won’t let all the air out, when we open it. Before... Well, let’s just say that you had to be careful when you used them? People were discouraged from trying it, because of that.”
The tone spoke of it having come up a few times, for some reason.
A thing Sara could see being useful herself, once she knew such hatches existed. They were using one at the moment, for secret reasons, for instance. Not that it was that big of a deal to anyone there. Except, of course, each of the others held trepidations and were wondering if Sara were going to ask something fantastically massive of them. To be involved in a plot, perhaps.
Interestingly, each of them had a different thought as to what that might mean, even if they were all working the basic idea. Tess wondered if they were going to be requested in an effort to remove Fox from the sights of their sister, Taman. The woman had been a bit aggressive in regard toward getting married to the boy after all, and while that was legal there, it was clear that those from the IPB world were only letting it move forward for political reasons.
Which, while true, wasn’t a thing Sara was going to get involved with. After all, Taman was a catch, in any world. Even if young, Fox was too.
Tor on the other hand, had been told that the Royal Guard of Noram had tried to kill her. Then Sara had tied them up, using some form of magic that he couldn’t understand yet, but had otherwise held her hand. He feared she might want to punish them, or might even wish to punish Richard, who had been king at the time, now that he no longer was.
On the good side, he trusted her enough to assume that any such action would be survivable for the former king. Not necessarily helpful or welcome, but there was an innate a trust there that seemed off to her. As if Tor Baker knew her to be a good person in a way that he couldn’t possibly understand for real.
