Prodigal (Maelstrom Chronicles) (17 page)

“Are they the same type of pod?” Claire asked. She unbuttoned her coat, responding to the high temperatures, too. Was the sauna for science or for comfort? Adam hadn’t been this toasty in as long as he could remember. That is, in about a week.

The cormoran scientist activated a machine with a huge data tablet as its top. “The ones we have seem to be, but as far as any other pods, we have no way of determining that.”

Claire scowled. “Jesus. Why are we here? Have you determined a single effing—”

Hurst interrupted hastily. “I’m remiss, friends. Allow me to perform the introductions. Adam, Claire, this is Raniya 87 GelDan-daughter. Raniya, I believe you’ve heard of Claire Lawson and Adam Alsing.”

“I’m the closest thing we have to a Ship matrix specialist,” Raniya GelDan said. Did she realize Claire had been about to cuss her out? Hurst seemed like a goofball, but he’d been quick on his feet with Claire’s temper. Adam could learn a thing or two from him. “I’ve been training with Ship to replace Dr. Bronson since we’re…would you Terrans call it excommunicated?” She blinked, slowly, and tilted her head slightly to one side.

“Excommunicated. Sure.” Claire lost the scowl, as if being reminded that the Shipborn had sided with Terra had calmed her down.

The scientist switched her attention to Adam. “I am glad you brought Mr. Alsing with you. I’ve wanted to speak to him. I hope the tests will provide new insights.”

“What tests?” Claire said.

“Not tests, interviews,” Hurst corrected.

“We filed our reports. Ship’s got ’em.” Claire shifted in front of Adam, partially blocking his view of Raniya. “You said you had updates for me? A breakthrough about these pods? It doesn’t sound like you’ve learned a damn thing.”

“There are limited facts we can determine when it is comprised of an unknown material and contains no mechanical components,” Raniya conceded.

Claire grunted. “So what the hell
can
you determine?”

Unruffled, she answered, “The pod did not originate in this dimension.”

Claire’s hands dropped to where she would have worn guns if she hadn’t switched to a blaster band. “The fuck?”

Adam hadn’t managed to catch up on theoretical physics in the past week. If the pods came from another dimension, what did that say about him?

Raniya continued. “Unfortunately, I’m not positive my training in IT, or with Ship, is helping here. The vessel appears to be inert, without a matrix or a power source.”

“It’s from the other side. The shade dimension.” Cullin KeshTaggert, who’d been pretty lackadaisical about that weekly reporting to Dr. Sieders, swaggered out of the pod. Unlike Raniya in her cool grey uniform, he wore a sleeveless T-shirt dampened with sweat in spots.

“So you’ve confirmed there’s another side,” Claire said, studying Raniya’s data table. “It’s not a void.”

“Of course there’s another side.” Cullin rubbed a cloth over his forehead. “Raniya hasn’t been feeding you that ‘we can’t prove it’ baloney, has she?”

“We can’t prove it,” she said mildly. “It’s a theory at best, and not one of your more likely ones.”

The guy shook their hands, Terran style. “Adam, you have any more symptoms? Anything for my update to Sieders? He’s been plaguing me.”

“No changes,” Adam said. “But I think we should focus on the pods right now.”

“What he said,” Claire agreed. “Talk to me about the possibility the pods are being used to transport the shades directly into the buffer zone. What are the odds?”

“It’s feasible, but we don’t exactly have a recording of it,” Cullin told her. “Let me put it in layman’s terms for you. The metal’s atomic structure is similar to tactanium, which doesn’t appear on Terra. It’s not a metal from any planets we’ve discovered, so it shouldn’t actually exist. What’s worse, the structure morphs. That’s why it doesn’t show up on general sensors. If I had to compare it to something, it’s most like the daemons we’ve autopsied.”

Claire shot Cullin a disbelieving glance. “You autopsied daemons?”

“Oh, yeah. When we take those suckers apart, they resemble creatures from this dimension, but at the same time, they don’t. And they morph, too. It’s like the cellular structure tries to mimic cells here and can’t get it right. This confirms in my mind that the pod is from the other side, but other people need more convincing.”

Adam crossed his arms and wondered what the side effects of a morphing cellular structure might be—superstrength and nightmares? The more Cullin jabbered about the pod being from another dimension, the twitchier he felt.

“So it’s definitely not a blimp,” Claire said. “It’s not flying here from the primary shade zone and shitting out monsters on us.”

“Shitting out monsters? Poetic, but no,” Cullin said. “Like Raniya said, no source of locomotive power. It’s a shell.”

A third scientist rounded the tip of the pod and hustled toward them. The blue-skinned sentient was another species Adam had read about—a masssian. Its face was a cross between a human and an octopus and several tentacles served as arms with very dexterous tips. Two sturdier tentacles functioned as legs. This particular masssian wore humanoid boots at the ends of its leg tentacles, plus grey Shipborn clothing. The sinuous tentacle arms, like Hurst’s silver arm and Cullin’s arms, were uncovered.

Hip Shipborn style statement? Or a response to the heat?

“Priiit, I thought you might be here.” Claire bowed to the masssian. “Explains why they’ve got the temperature cranked.”

“Claire. Ssso happy to sssee you. Thisss would be the Chossssen One. Thank you for bringing him to usss.” The masssian’s
S
s were drawn out in a way that wasn’t as much like a snake as Adam had expected. It was charming—and if he wasn’t mistaken, the masssian improved the room’s bouquet, adding a flowery aroma. “Hello, Adam Alsssing.”

“That’s me.” He mimicked Claire’s bow.

“I had heard of your resssurection, and I, too, believe you have returned for a purpossse. May the Mother blesss you, child.”

“Thanks.” He hadn’t known his strange new fan base extended to the Shipborn. The aliens seemed so science-oriented that irrational beliefs about Chosen Ones shouldn’t extend to them.

“I’m told you remember nothing of your time in the pod,” Priiit said. “Would you accompany me inssside to sssee if anything looksss familiar?”

“Sure.” He had no recollection of entering the pod or being inside it, just of leaving it. He couldn’t help unless he remembered something. The masssian disappeared into the silver capsule, and Adam followed. Claire came with him.

The inside was hollow, almost featureless. The walls didn’t block the light from the drones, which glowed through the shell like the stained glass windows. But it wasn’t silver or white, as it appeared from the outside. As the drones cruised by, colors slithered through the pod’s lining, almost quicker than his eyes could focus. Was that the morphing part?

Priiit gestured with one of its tendrils. “It ssseems to be a container. That doesssn’t explain how it appeared or disssappeared. Another power had to have been resssponsible for moving it.”

“Do you think people are using these to sneak shades into the buffer zone?” Claire asked Priiit.

“Who would thessse people be?” Priiit asked. “Terransss do not have thisss metal and could not create the podsss.”

“I don’t know,” Claire said. “It’s just the easiest answer, and it would be really satisfying to find the people responsible for the attacks.”

“I do not think it isss that sssimple,” Priiit offered.

The scientists had stuck sensors all over the walls, some twinkling, some not. A man in a welding mask hunched in the rear, applying a laser to the pod with no apparent effect. Priiit’s pleasant odor strengthened, and Adam realized the masssian had crept up beside him.

A tendril tentatively brushed his hand. “Isss anything familiar to you, Adam? Are you having memoriesss?”

“Nope.” This place was about as familiar as his past. He did like the opalescent lining, though. It was soothing.

“Looks like the inside of a giant egg.” Claire, hands on hips, inspected the pod. She paced its length, lips silently counting. “Not breakable, I take it?”

“We have not been able to damage it,” Priiit explained. “Not even usssing weaponsss that damage the entitiesss.”

“I shot through it,” Claire said. “Did you like the noise it made?”

“Very unpleasssant.” Priiit’s eyes swiveled toward Adam. They weren’t on stalks; they were just bulbous, with yellow irises. “I am happy to have you here. We already quessstioned the othersss.”

“You questioned my people without telling me?” Claire asked, eyebrows raised. “That’s not my favorite thing, Priiit.”

Priiit’s tendril tips undulated as if in water. “You were otherwissse occupied with town busssiness. All we did was asssk what they remembered of podsss they had ssseen and evaluate the resssidue. Now that we have you here, you can relay your versssion of eventsss.”

Claire nodded. “What do you want to know?”

“How big was the original pod?”

“About the same.” She glanced at him. “Do you remember, Adam?”

He thought back to the day she’d found him. “Maybe smaller, but I wasn’t focused on the pod at the time.”

“What a ssshame,” Priiit murmured. When it spoke, sometimes its eyes swiveled independently of one another. “Would you let me take readingsss from you?”

“Readings? Would that be Shakespeare or Milton?” Adam joked. “Ah, sorry. Another quote. Apparently I recite my movies.”

“Interesssting,” Priiit said. “We sssshall include that in our chartsss.”

“What kind of readings do you want to take?” Claire said, bristling. “He’s already had all the tests.”

“I can answer for myself.” He wouldn’t let her jam him into the role of minion when it was his life in question. “I consent to more tests. If my participation helps figure this out, count me in.”

“Is that why you asked us here?” Claire demanded. “You didn’t have a breakthrough—you wanted to hook Adam up to your machines.”

From the doorway of the pod, Cullin laughed. “We just got through telling you the pod came from another dimension. Your boy here was in a pod. He could be from the other side. Of course we need new measurements, and then some.”

The other side.
Cold that didn’t match the heated air shivered over Adam’s skin. What if it was true? What if that was where he’d been?

Cullin leaned against the doorway as if he hadn’t a care in the world, but he didn’t seem as boastful and self-absorbed as he had five minutes ago. He inspected Adam and Claire as if assessing test subjects—or threats. A blaster band glinted at his wrist.

Claire sensed the change in Cullin, too, and immediately confronted him, face to face. “Adam isn’t from the other side. He’s one of us. There’s another explanation.”

“You’re a scientist? Do tell,” Cullin challenged.

“We’re leaving. Now.” She was an inch taller than the man, and Adam wouldn’t bet against her in a fight.

But there wouldn’t be a fight. The scientists responsible for solving the mystery of the pods needed him to undergo more tests, and he’d agreed. If Claire picked a fight, the scientists would find out pretty quickly that he had superstrength and wasn’t afraid to use it on anyone who gave Claire a hard time.

But first he’d try cooperation.

“I gave my permission already,” he reminded Claire. If he had been on the other side, they needed to know.

“You don’t have to let her do anything,” Claire insisted.

“If this helps, I’m in. What do you want to do, Priiit?” Adam asked.

“I will take measssurementsss and sssamplesss.” She—apparently Priiit was a female—gestured with a tentacle for him to follow her to one of the machines inside the pod with a lot of complicated screens and buttons. “We want to determine if you disssplay the morphing cellular integrity we dissscovered in the pod and the daemonsss. Our physssicians didn’t check for it before. They would not have thought to.”

“We’ve run tests like this on daemons countless times,” Cullin reassured them with a sly grin. “It won’t kill him.”

Claire crossed her arms. “I don’t appreciate the subterfuge. Don’t do it again.”

Hurst popped up behind Cullin. “I warned them you’d feel this way. I also warned them you wouldn’t bring him if they asked straight out.”

“So I have you to blame?” Claire regarded the emissary more suspiciously than she had Cullin. “I’ve got your number, Hurst. I know what everyone sees when they look at you, and I’m not fooled.”

The man shrugged, his silver arm not rising as much as the other. “I’m merely the gopher. I’m familiar with Camp Chanute, and I’m not needed elsewhere in my territory right now.” He bobbed his head twice. “You do your job well, Sheriff Lawson. I do mine well, in my own way.”

“You’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” she accused. “I won’t forget this.”

“You have an excellent memory,” he agreed. But his sensor array lit up with a call again, and he disappeared.

Claire hovered over the scientists as the masssian and Cullin hooked Adam up to sensors that stuck to his skin with tiny bristles. Unlike the sensors on the pod walls, his were attached to wires, like a Terran heart monitor. He couldn’t help but notice Priiit’s scent had…changed. Her odor was now powdery, and he found himself breathing deeply with contentment.

Claire sniffed twice before cursing. “Hell. You’re doping us. Goddammit, Priiit. Cut that out.”

Priiit flicked on the machine Adam was attached to, and a mild electrical current fluttered through his body. “I didn’t dope you. I exude ssscents that have a number of trivial effectsss on sssentients with a sssimilar olfactory ssstructure to my kind. Trivial enough, might I point out, that you’re nearly imperviousss.”

The pleasant smell was intentional? Huh. The literature Ship had shared about masssians hadn’t included that. Then again, he’d boned up more on Terran events and on entities than Shipborn generalities.

“She doped you.” Cullin pressed a handheld medical device to Adam’s neck, snagging a DNA sample. It pinched. “Fracking annoying, isn’t it? When your boss settles arguments by spraying perfume?”

“It’sss to a degree inssstinctive.” She swiveled one of her eyes toward Adam. “Thisss may become uncomfortable as we flood your body with wavelengthsss in order to ssstimulate your cellsss.”