Birth of the Alliance (9 page)

The first thing he noticed was the strange, blue-tinted rock that lined the entirety of the inside, much as the gold had plated the walls of the caves he’d seen. It gave the cave walls an almost watery appearance, and he had the strange feeling that he was inside the cabin of the submarine. The crystal-like stone and its bluish tint made him feel like he was under water.

Could this blue rock be the secret to the shielding effect he and Hope had experienced?

He turned his attention away from the walls and toward Hope, and momentarily forgot about the rock.

The inside of the cavern was littered with skeletons, most of which were seated at wooden tables spread throughout the interior of the cave. An interior section of the cave included a small graveyard, and when Will moved in that direction, he found tombstones engraved with words written in a language he didn't recognize.

Eden had been inhabited long before he'd arrived.

Or, as Hope had suggested, had the people in this cave been living here for at least part of the time he’d been on the island?

“This whole scene doesn't suggest a peaceful end. They wouldn't have sat down at tables to die like that, would they?”

“That’s what I was thinking as well.” She looked at the ground and toed the dirt. “Do you think they were poisoned?”

“That seems likely,” Will agreed. “If there was poison in the food they were eating, and it acted quickly… well, you’d find a scene like what we have here.”

She glanced up at him. “But who did that to these people? And why?” Her features tightened. “And… where did the killer or killers go, after?”

The chill Will had experienced returned. “Perhaps the killer is one of the dead.” He shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll ever truly know. These people have been dead for a very long time, since long before I ever arrived. The only thing we know for sure is that others found this island at some point. Whether the people here are the last of those who found it, or whether there are others who left and kept knowledge of it alive… we just don’t know.”

Hope nodded. “I don't think we’re in any imminent danger of attack. But I feel awkward standing here, like I'm disturbing the dead. We should leave.”

Will nodded. “I agree, but there are some things we need to do first.” He pointed at the blue stone. “I think that stone is what caused the telepathy issues earlier. We should test that theory, and if it’s correct, we should mine some of the stone and take it back to the Cavern with us.”

Can you hear me?
Hope asked.

Will acknowledged her. “So we can communicate when we’re both in the cave. Count to one hundred and try again.” He turned and jogged from the cave, teleported back to the river, and counted to one hundred himself, slowly, then walked back to the cave. He projected to Hope as soon as he left the cave, but heard nothing from her.

When he walked into the cave, though, he could hear her thought immediately.

“I take it you couldn’t hear me at all?” Hope asked.

Will nodded. “And I was projecting back to you the entire time. It’s not exactly a thorough test, but I think it’s safe to say that this blue rock is a natural Shield for Energy. I’d like to take enough back with us on this trip to line a room where people can practice their Energy skills. It could also be a place where people who are able to do so could teleport in without fear of detection by Sebastian or other Aliomenti.”

Hope sized up the cave and the volume of rock. “Think there’s enough to line the entire inside of the Cavern? As much as I'd hate to damage this cave, it would be wonderful to know we could train safely anywhere in the Cavern, not just in a single room.”

“I like that idea,” Will replied. “I don’t think there’s enough, though, and I’d hate to just take all of it. When we get this rock back to the Cavern, we can figure out how it works, and ideally make materials with the same effect. If we can manufacture it, we can line the Cavern without any difficulty.”

“And we can plate the inside of the subs as well,” Hope added. “And depending on the form the manufactured rock takes, we could even send people with enough of the… substance… to line the inside of their homes out in the world.” She paused, and then smiled. “I supposed we should name the blue rock something other than ‘blue rock’ though.”

Will thought about that. “Latin seems to be the language used to name all manner of substances. This rock acts as a shield, and the Latin word for shield is
scutum
, or
scuta
if it's plural. Why don’t we call it
scutarium
?”

Hope considered the name briefly, and then nodded. “That makes perfect sense. Here's hoping that
scutarium
provides ample protection from the evils of the Aliomenti now and in the future.”

Will thought for a moment, remembering his own distant past, events that would unfold centuries into the future. He thought of the invisible Energy shield he learned had surrounded the Alliance camp. He remembered, vaguely, being told in a letter sent to him from that future that he'd need to teleport a future Hope and Josh from their home into a hidden bunker. He suspected that the only way such a bunker could work was if Hope had known of scutarium. She would have used it to line the inside of the bunker to prevent Sebastian—by then known as Porthos—from detecting where they'd ended up.

"What are you thinking about?" Hope asked. “You seem rather… distant.”

Will laughed, and at her look of confusion smiled. “It's an ironic question between people who are strong telepaths.” Hope laughed as well, as Will continued. “I was thinking about future uses of this. When Sebastian, Victor, and Tacitus come after me and William comes after you and Josh… I've been wondering why Sebastian couldn't detect me teleporting you and Josh out of the house and into the bunker. As sensitive as he is to Energy, he should have noticed it and been in that bunker instantly. Or, at a minimum, he should have noticed the Energy surge needed to teleport the two of you away from William the Assassin. The fact that he didn't tells me that something was going on with that house and that bunker.” He nodded toward the walls of the cave, and the blue stone found in such abundance in the walls. “I think we have the answer.”

“You mean we put this into the walls of the house.” It wasn't a question. “And I put it into the bunker. But….” She looked down at the ground, and her voice dropped. “How? Even if the Alliance figures out how to make this scutarium into something that could cover the walls of the Cavern, how do we get it into our house, Will?”

Will pondered that. “Perhaps the rock could be ground up and mixed into the paint used for the interior of the house. So when the house is being built, you would buy the paint, mix it in, and give it to the painters. By the time I… vanish, we may have some type of technology available that makes the process even simpler.”

Hope looked at the ground, and Will didn't need his empathy skills to know something was bothering her. “What's wrong?”

“Outside the fact that we're talking about lunatics attacking you when you were defenseless and me having to watch another come close to killing me and our son?” Hope smiled faintly. “How am I going to get the scutarium? I suppose that I could come back here and chip some away, but I suspect that the younger you would notice if I vanished for a while and showed up with a strange colored rock that I wanted to put into paint on the interior of our house. And there's no way we can know for sure that the supply of stone won't be gone by then.”

Will frowned. How, indeed? This plan called for Hope to do too much. It truly wasn’t fair for her to carry the burden of protecting their son from premature discovery, along with figuring out how to get the scutarium needed to make their home a safe place for her and Josh. It was far too much for one person to handle, even if that person was Hope.

One person? Will’s eyes widened. “It's like you told me, Hope. You don't have to do it all yourself.”

Confusion clouded her face. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, it's time for us to recognize that the Alliance is not the Aliomenti and act accordingly. You should come back to the Cavern with me and meet everyone. They'll be able to provide that type assistance to either or both of us as needed. And there will be no place safer from Arthur and the others in the future. You don’t need to hide and be alone all the time any more. And shame on me for not recognizing that fact earlier. It’s time to go home, Hope.”

Hope's face lit up.

She’d never be alone again.

VI

Shadows

1740 A.D.

They crowded upon the beach, watching and waiting as Will and the woman walked from their home toward the subway pod docked near the Cavern end of the underground tunnel river. They came and watched, for it was a momentous journey. A successful completion would decree their full safety and secret isolation from the Aliomenti.

If the trip was unsuccessful, they might never know, for the travelers might never return.

Will and the dark-haired woman wearing a cloak had arrived seventeen years earlier. Little was known about her by residents of the Cavern, save for: she was very much involved in the life of their founder, Will Stark; she’d developed Energy skills outside the walls of the Cavern but was not a member of the Aliomenti—and her Energy levels were rivaled only by Will; and it was critically important that no one from the Aliomenti ever learn her true name. She’d be known as the Shadow, for she’d lived much of her life in the background, doing good for untold numbers without recognition or thanks. She was, in many ways, an ideal they’d all strive to reach.

Seventeen years ago, the duo had brought with them an amazing substance, a blue-tinted rock they’d called scutarium. Scutarium prevented Energy from transferring through its mass; if it lined a room or a cave, one could practice Energy skills without detection from anyone, even the Aliomenti known as Sebastian. Three of their number had attracted his attention on the Outside, and the three hadn’t returned. The rock was a true gift, but the quantities were so limited that they could do little with it.

Unless they could create it themselves.

They’d done just that, and internal tests indicated that the artificial version worked well. They’d traveled to a small, uninhabited island off the southern coast of South America, constructed a building, and plated the inside. Will expended sufficient Energy to set the building on fire, and attempted to communicate telepathically, and even the strongest Energy users among the Alliance sensed nothing.

The true test would come if
Sebastian
couldn’t sense anything. That was the purpose of this mission. They’d recreate the test right under Sebastian’s nose. If he showed no indication of sensing Energy… even from Will… they’d consider it safe for wide use throughout the world.

A cheer erupted as the couple approached, the sound reverberating even on the soft sands of the beach area. It was high noon local time, and the couple was illuminated by the artificial ambient light, the fresh breezes generated by the fans installed in the Cavern walls tossing and billowing their hair. The Shadow didn’t wear her hood up any more, and they could clearly see her grateful smile. Trips to the outside usually weren’t acknowledged with such fanfare, but then, most trips weren’t so critical to the future safety of all of them.

Will and the Shadow acknowledged the crowds, and then teleported into the subway pod, which whisked them with quick efficiency to the end of the river tunnel linking the Cavern to the outside world. They teleported to the waiting
Nautilus
, the first of its kind and name, and the submarine began its journey toward the Iberian Peninsula. The
Nautilus VIII,
with five Alliance members aboard, moved to berth at the dock, taking the place of its namesake.

Will glanced at the Shadow, who was still beaming from the adulation. “I think they like you.”

Hope laughed. “They’ll like both of us a lot more if this works.”

“There’s no way it won’t work,” Will said. He’d insisted upon this final field test, because failure carried such a catastrophic cost, but he’d seen the tests, had participated in nearly all of them. There was no doubt in his mind that the artificial version of the scutarium worked just as well as the original.

“So, let’s take a nice holiday, perhaps to Eden, and just tell everyone the test was successful.” Hope’s eyes twinkled.

“I’m sure that would work perfectly well. At least until we tried to tell that story to two hundred telepaths and empaths who’d spot the lie a mile away.”

She punched his arm. “Not if we were still in the scutarium suits.”

He laughed.

He’d been thrilled by the reception Hope had received. The Alliance members learned that she’d been creating her own form of change for centuries, and that she’d fight against any efforts by the Aliomenti to infringe upon the ability of the Alliance to do their work. They quickly recognized her as one trustworthy beyond question. Hope found herself in a true family, the likes of which she’d experienced so rarely in her life.

This mission was her chance to protect her family, against the same people and mindsets that had so far destroyed every other semblance of family she’d known.