The Spiral Path (3 page)

The pain began almost as soon as the
Gryphon
decelerated to full stop and the exotic-matter shell closed around them.

A shrieking cacophony ripped through Lara’s brain and would probably have shattered her eardrums if she’d heard it with her ears. Instead the chorus of screaming voices came from inside her own head. And she wasn’t alone.

Chandra slumped over his station. Cam white-knuckled her terminal with slackening limbs. Lara settled deeper in the command chair and dug her boots into the decking to keep from sliding onto the floor. All the while, the ship’s countdown clock ticked away the hours until they emerged into real space. Creed space.

“Report!” Lara bent over, hands clasped over her head. The pain drilled down into her brain like a firecracker set off behind her eyes. The pressure jackknifed, her vision blurred and her stomach heaved. She slid off the chair, but Mitch caught her before she hit the deck.

They settled on their knees and he held her upright by the arms. “Lara, what’s wrong?”

Her eyes watered and she clutched his jacket. “Can’t you hear it?”

Mitch gazed around the bridge. “Only your crew is affected.”

The ship’s blue-tinted light indicated that their trip in the wormhole tunnel was continuing normally and no alarms blared. What the Hellas was going on? If the
Interlace
had suffered this same fate, Lara would not let it happen again. She was not giving up anyone to the wormhole.

With Mitch’s help, Lara stood on trembling legs. Every Chimeran on the bridge was incapacitated. “Call up your crew.” Her voice sounded raw with the effort to tamp down her screaming ego’s protest.

Mitch nodded and executed the order. Lara leaned, shaking, against the command seat while medics carted off her crew and Terrans replaced them. She could not help them any more than she could help herself. Every muscle ached and every nerve ending crackled, intimately attuned to the deafening echoes thrashing her brain. Her mind spun with the possibilities of what might have caused this state.

“Lara.”
The dissonance coalesced into the semblance of a voice, at once a multitude and singular, that twisted down her spine. When she felt a hand on her shoulder, Lara’s heart drummed a staccato beat, but her feet refused to move. She glanced back.

Rafael stepped out of the bulkhead wall.

The wailing continued, but as Rafael clasped her hand, the discord faded to only an annoying hum. Her twin brother stood on the
Gryphon’
s bridge, slim and fine-boned as always.

“I need your help.” His voice buzzed around her like a faraway radio signal.

This couldn’t be happening, was not possible. Lara blinked glistening eyes and squeezed Rafael’s hand tight. Her brother felt solid enough, but she could see right through his body. His dark hair and mismatched eyes barely blotted out the bulkhead behind him.

Trick or not, Lara wasn’t letting her brother go. “Anything. Come with me—”

She stepped away, but Rafael tugged her back. “I have very little time. I am not alone here, Lara.”

She gazed across the bridge, expecting to see the
Interlace’
s other Chimerans, but instead all around Lara her remaining crew had fallen, even Cam. The Terrans continued to run diagnostics, but no one noticed Rafael, even Mitch who glanced her way, his lips pressed in a pale, thin line.

“What’s happened to you, Rafael?” She pulled him away from the bulkhead, but the man held his ground. “Why can I see right through you?” Thoughts buzzed around her, but she could grasp only one—
must get him away from here. Must get him home safe.

“There are others here, trapped like us. The Terrans aren’t faring well.” Rafael slouched and his form faded a few degrees. “I’m trying to send them out first, but they won’t let anyone go.”

“Who?” Rafael’s grip slackened and Lara jumped closer. The discordant din grew louder. “I’m losing you!” She couldn’t catch her breath. Sweat beaded her neck. Somehow she knew Rafael was leaving and she was powerless to stop him.

Rafael looked over his shoulder at someone or something that Lara couldn’t see. “She’s coming. I have to go. I can save them all. Tell Mitch I just need the research.”

“Wait. Rafael!”

Her brother nodded toward Mitch as he approached. “He can’t see me, but you can trust him. Take another look at the
Interlace’
s comm logs.”

Rafael let go and stepped away.

“Rafael, no!” Lara lunged forward, but her legs gave way.

Mitch stepped between them just as her brother faded back into the bulkhead. The shrieking ratcheted up again and she grabbed Mitch’s arms to stay on her feet. Had to stay on her feet. Rafael needed her.

“He was here. Rafael was here, Mitch. He needs our help.”

She searched the bridge for any traces of her brother. She probably seemed nuts to have been speaking to the bulkhead, but she didn’t care.

Mitch clasped her elbows. “Come to sick bay, Lara. Maybe this is what happened to the
Interlace
crew. Maybe a sickness started with the Chimerans.”

“No. Rafael’s trapped.” Her gaze darted around the room, searching every corner. “He said so.”

Mitch carted her across the bridge, her feet scraping the floor as they went.

She locked her knees at the exit and shoved Mitch away. “I’m not going anywhere until we find Rafael. Send out another buoy.”

“Lara, listen to me!” He stepped close and loomed like a boulder in front of her. “Your pupils are dilated and you’re phase shifting. See for yourself.”

He yanked her arm out in front of her, but she barely sensed it. Sure enough, her arm seemed almost as transparent as Rafael was moments ago.

Lara cleared her throat and tried to ignore the worry etching Mitch’s brow. The worry swirling around in her own heart. “If you need me, I’ll be in sick bay.”

After a few hours of fitful sleep, Lara rolled onto her back and twisted out of the sheets. She clicked through the settings on her wrist-sync, glad the device had bought her and her crew time enough to complete the trip to Creed.

They still didn’t know what caused—or stopped—the shrieking, the Chimerans’ phase shift or Rafael’s appearance. Every single one of her crew had heard the voices, but only Lara had witnessed her brother. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. Maybe seeing Rafe had been a hallucination. Maybe he was dead.

No, no, no.
Lara ground her palms over her eyes. Rafael asked for her help, something about research. Unless someone tried to take her away in a straitjacket, she was going to help him.

Even though she tried to dissuade him, after the bridge incident Mitch had escorted her to sick bay and waited on the doctor’s evaluation. The ship’s surgeon couldn’t tell them much, except that her crew’s bodies were shifting in and out of phase. It was Cam who suggested the wrist-syncs might help.

Lara’s wake alarm beeped, but she didn’t tab it off. What was the point? Mitch ran her ship, a ship she might have lost control over earlier. The experience could have been the beginnings of a phase contagion that also took the crew of the
Interlace.
No one knew enough to make any conclusions. Strike that, she could make one conclusion—lying around on her ass wasn’t helping anyone. With a sigh, she pulled herself from bed and showered.

Her desktop terminal was blinking when Lara stepped out of the sani-unit. Towel wrapped around her, she opened the message. Mitch’s baritone voice filled her quarters and she clasped the towel tighter. She hadn’t been this naked and alone with the man in over a decade.

“The buoy data is in and I’ve analyzed the sensor logs. Let me know when you’re up to a meeting.”

Lara scheduled a meeting in fifteen minutes and was eating a breakfast of scrambled eggs, her hair still damp, when Mitch arrived. He carried a holotablet and joined her at the table.

She poured him a cup of tea and took in the dark circles under his eyes. “You haven’t slept?”

“We only have a couple duty rotations left. I can sleep later. You seem to be feeling better.”

“I am. The wrist-syncs are compensating nicely. You should take a rest duty.”

“I don’t need—”

“I’m not asking. You’d do the same if the tables were turned. Now, tell me about the buoy measurements and what you found in our logs.”

Mitch sipped the tea and pushed the tablet toward her. “I don’t know how the shell is remaining stable. There’s enough out-of-phase negative matter in the tunnel to unbalance everything.”

Sure enough, the data didn’t lie. According to Terran and Creed calculations, the tunnel should have collapsed by now.

Lara tabbed through the log data and her pulse quickened with hope. “Maybe this erroneous matter is out of phase enough not to influence the equations?”

Mitch shrugged. “Maybe. According to the logs, some of it spiked on the bridge when you claim to have spoken to Rafe.”

“You didn’t believe me?”

He looked away. “I do now.”

Wherever Rafael was, he wasn’t safe. “He needs our help, Mitch.” Her brother told her she could trust Mitch. “He’s looking for some kind of research.”

Mitch’s lips thinned into a line. “I don’t know what he meant by that, but we’re vulnerable here. You’re vulnerable here, Lara. We should drop out of the tunnel now.”

“No.” She stood up, wanted to scream, but held it in check. “If we drop out, who knows where we’ll end up? We could be light years away from Creed. The wrist-syncs are working. We can make it another two hours.”

“What good will you be to Rafe if you’re stuck just like he is?”

“Rafael was on a Terran ship. They didn’t have the wrist-syncs. We’re continuing on to Creed.”

“We need to get home.”

“We need Creed’s top scientist.”

Mitch scrubbed his face with his hands. “Fine. I’d better rest up then before I meet her.”

Lara nodded. “My mother doesn’t make exceptions for anyone, let alone sleep-deprived Terrans.”

“I want to be the one to tell her.” Lara kept pace with him as they jogged the perimeter of the ship.

“Of course. You should be the one to break the news of Rafe’s disappearance to your mother.” In the
Gryphon’s
corridors more than anywhere Mitch noticed the Creed aesthetic of soft corners and soothing tones. He tried, unsuccessfully, to concentrate on the ship’s architecture and ignore the sway of Lara’s dark ponytail and the long-legged swath of golden skin revealed by her black workout shorts.

She tilted her head and smiled at an oncoming crew member, and for a second his brain flashed to lounging on the grass at the Union Academy Commons, nuzzling that spot just below her ear. A memory he relived way too often.

Oh, his kingdom for a couple of light years’ distance from the woman.

Mitch cleared the hoarse longing from his voice. “Though the
Interlace’
s mission is still classified.”

They turned a corner, and she cast him a sidelong look but didn’t argue. A few minutes passed, and still no grilling.

“You aren’t the least bit curious about the
Interlace’
s mission?”

Lara swept a hand over her brow. “Of course I’m curious.”

“Then why aren’t you interrogating me about it?”

She ignored the question and lengthened her stride.

Mitch smirked. “Who are you and what have you done with Lara Soto?”

Lara’s lips thinned with a held-back smile of her own. “Do you need a brush-up on Creed mission protocol? Do you have any questions before we make landfall?”

Mitch chuckled. “Hardly. This is my thirtieth mission to Creed.”

She stopped midstride and gulped in a heavy breath. “What was that again?”

“Thirty. I’ve now been on thirty Trans-D missions to date as the highest-ranking Creed Liaison Officer.” Mitch folded at the waist and touched his toes, tried to slow his jackrabbit heartbeat.

Lara circled him to cool down or possibly just buy a few seconds to process his words. “Have you ever met my mother? When she was teaching physics—before she became Prime Minister maybe?”

Mitch sighed and moved to the corridor viewport. “And be blamed for her daughter’s roguish life? No, thank you, I’ve never met your mother.”

Of all the communities he’d visited, he’d never once met the Countess of Nessa Pod, Sabine Osai. On purpose. By all accounts Madame Osai possessed a calm and grounded temperament, but he wouldn’t blame the woman for holding him somewhat responsible for Lara’s defection and dangerous Chimeran lifestyle. After all, he’d let Lara go. Any such meeting would have been in the least awkward and, at most, explosive.

And now that Rafe had gone missing, the woman could rebuke him for the fates of both her children.

Outside the viewport floated Creed, its two visible continents covered in verdant green. The two landmasses, as well as a third located on the planet’s dark side, were off-limits to human colonization. Generations ago the Creed moved off-land when the waters rose. They planted huge, lush forests to make the most of the woodland’s natural CO2 processors. The population lived on colossal manmade pods floating on the nearly infinite ocean, each one home to fifty thousand Creed. A few of them were visible as tiny dots on the waters.

Mitch clasped his hands into fists. The
Gryphon
had dropped into real space barely an hour before, and already his fingers tingled from the effects of the phase shift. With each passing moment his body’s molecules faded a little bit more, but he pushed the potential aside. That first Terran crew, Lara’s father included, had spent more than three months on Creed before experiencing phase-sync problems. Terran scientists learned later that with every trip, one’s grace period shortened. Cross-dimensional missions—whether Terrans visiting Creed or vice versa—were now intermittent.

He had about a week, tops. His stomach flopped over and cold, hard dread filled him. The patch on his wrist would tell him for sure when it turned from green to black. Since the launch Mitch had wanted to pick apart one of Lara’s wrist-sync devices. Terran scientists had tried for years, with little success, to figure out what enabled Chimerans to exist in both dimensions indefinitely. Maybe the wrist-syncs—and Rafe’s research—held the key and could buy him more time.

“You okay?”

Mitch caught Lara staring at his hands.

“Fine.”

“Your hands are shaking.”

Mitch stuffed his hands into pockets. “On my last few missions I’ve noticed an hour or so of transition when traveling to Creed. So many missions often have that effect.”

Lara pulled a hand from her pocket and traced her fingers over his knuckles. “You’ll tell me if it worsens, won’t you?”

For a second Mitch’s brain froze. The warmth of her fingers spread through his cold palm. The transition always brought on this frigid sensation, as if death’s icy fate prodded him on the shoulder each time. That Lara’s pride allowed her to reach out literally or figuratively surprised him.

Mitch’s mind snapped back into motion and he turned his palm over to clasp hers. “I have plenty of time.” Part of him wanted to reveal his seven-day expiration date, but Lara didn’t need to know that now. She’d expect a standard three-week mission. Could he trust her yet with that kind of information, or would her temper rear again at any time?

Lara looked up at him then, and he didn’t miss the split-second her liquid bi-color gaze fell on his mouth. “Thank you.”

She started to say more, licked her lips even. Mitch smiled. He never expected to see Lara Soto stumble. With one single tug she could be in his arms again. With one single step he could be kissing her neck again, pulling out that ponytail—

“Thank you for earlier, on the bridge. For taking care of my crew.”

And me.
Lara would never say it out loud.

Mitch let out the breath he’d been holding, but not her hand. “You’re welcome.”

Soon his missions would have to stop. Except for Chimerans, a body could only take the shifting between dimensions so many times before disintegration became imminent.

No matter what, at least he’d be spending his last remaining moments with Captain Lara Soto.

Rossa awaited them at the end of the boarding ramp next to the shuttle
Calypso.

“We’re clear to depart, Captain. Should I ready the crew for R&R as usual?”

Lara shook her head. “Not yet, Rossa. I have no idea how the countess will react to the news of the
Interlace.
”

Mitch winced. In less than an hour he was going to have to face Lara’s mother as she learned that her son had gone missing. And it was all his fault. Sure, Rafe could act just as stubborn as his sister, but the original mission had been Mitch’s idea. Just another way for Terra to get ahead of Creed.

And then there was the transmission Rafe had made just before the
Interlace
disappeared. Mitch had been the last person to speak to Lara’s brother, but if he revealed that much, he’d also have to tell her what Rafe said to him. Doing that would end his career for good.

Lara started up the gangway with a strong stride that in no way lessened the sway of her hips. “I’ll send word about how long we’re staying on Creed as soon as I know.”

Rossa nodded and Mitch followed Lara up the ramp. Inside the small shuttle, Chandra sat in the pilot’s chair and powered through checklists. The interior design of the
Calypso
followed suit with the aesthetic of molded controls and soft tones. Lara took navigation and motioned for Mitch to man the comm links. With a smooth launch, they left the safety of the
Gryphon
and in minutes were hurtling through Creed’s atmosphere.

The shuttle knifed through the cloud cover and soon Nessa pod loomed before them. Its fluid circular shape undulated in a small mountain on one side and a valley opposite. Stories of housing, farming, water recycling, business and recreation were wrapped in its efficient lily-pad form. Pods functioned as city-states that convened a parliament several times a year. The communities met regularly for festivals that allowed trade between the communities.

Chandra landed the shuttle cleanly. Out the viewport, Mitch recognized the bright and smooth lines of Nessa’s only mountain. Many other community pods were built in a similar shape, but Nessa’s was the most recognizable. Mitch also enjoyed Nessa’s regional cuisine the most—especially drinking its rich dark
kafve.
He snapped off the restraints and noticed that Lara hadn’t moved. Instead she stared out at the landscape.

Mitch smoothed the back of his hand down Lara’s arm. “Captain.”

Lara shook herself awake and unlocked the restraints. “Home sweet home, right?”

Before he could answer, she bolted out of her chair and palmed open the launch doors. Chandra continued running through landing protocols.

She snapped up her coat’s leather throat flap. “Chandra, stay here until I know how long we’ll be.”

Together they marched down the gangway toward the Creed receiving line. At the head of the line stood Sabine Osai, her short crop of steel-gray hair tipping him off from photos he’d seen of the woman. Lara had inherited her father’s olive complexion but resembled Sabine in the angle of cheekbones and chin. Countess Osai greeted them clad in a brocade aqua dress, ornate in its decoration but simple in its cut, her beads of office decorating a slim neck. The woman’s sea-foam green eyes stared up at him with a wary expression as she embraced her daughter and made Mitch doubt any kind of warm reception.

The Countess of Nessa and Prime Minister of Creed smoothed a strand of hair away from Lara’s face. “It’s been too long,
a grai.
I can see already that something bothers you. What is it?”

Mitch followed Lara’s glance up at the rest of the receiving line with a sinking heart. No sign of Rafael. Asking about her brother in front of Sabine’s entourage could stir up rumors.

Lara grasped her mother’s elbow. “Not here. Can we speak in private?”

Sabine’s expression sobered, but she linked her arm through Lara’s. “Of course. We must go through the pleasantries first, but it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.” She glanced over at Mitch, assessing him from head to foot with a glance. “I suppose you should bring the commodore along as well.”

Lara’s step faltered as Sabine led them down the walkway to tall plasti-glass doors ahead. “Mother, please don’t—”

Sabine patted Lara’s hand. “I have assumed for some time, my dear, that the commodore’s plan was to meet every single Creed podmate before me.”

Lara entered the lush salon first and sat while her mother dismissed the staff. Heavily embroidered fabrics adorned every inch of furniture, but all in soothingly muted tones contrasting with the vivid blues of the sunlit sea and sky. The heat might beat down upon them beyond this room, but under this roof all was calm and cool.

Mitch stood by the window with hands clasped behind his back and a half smile on his face, but one quick glance at his tight shoulders told Lara he was not so tranquil as their surroundings. Neither of them had said much on the inbound trip, but Lara had been too distracted rehearsing her words to worry much over his silence. Still, Mitch would support whichever version of the truth she revealed to Sabine. He had no choice. Upsetting his Chimeran and Creed hosts would not bode well for diplomatic relations.

Lara was obliged to tell her mother that she’d seen, even talked to, Rafael during their Trans-D trip from Terra, even if her mother disbelieved it. She’d only told Mitch about the conversation with her brother, but even he might think it was just some figment of her imagination. Rafael’s appearance had not been the work of an overactive mind and Lara was determined to prove it. Let them think her crazy if the end result was Rafael’s safe return.

I am not alone here, Lara.

She heard Rafael’s voice again as if he stood here in the room, yet she still had no idea who he’d been referring to. Her skin broke out in gooseflesh and a shiver licked down her spine. What entity was entrapping him and the
Interlace
crew between dimensions? Unless Mitch was lying—and the man was many painful things, but not a liar—then someone other than the Terrans were in play here. Either the Terrans were lying to Mitch or they had an as-yet-unknown mutual enemy. Telling her mother those suspicions might cause her to do something rash. Lara wanted to bring back Rafael herself.

Sabine clicked the door shut behind her. “Now we may speak freely.” Her eyes darted to Mitch.

He stepped closer. “If you would prefer I wait in the hall, Countess, I am happy to do that.”

Sabine sat beside Lara and clasped her hand. “No, no. If my daughter trusts you, then so do I. For the most part.”

Mitch sat in a chair opposite them. “Then you may have more faith in me than your daughter does.”

Lara ignored their tension. All she could think about was her brother and hope that, over time, Mitch and her mother would come to terms. “Mother, is Rafael here on Creed?”

Sabine shook her head. “I spoke to him a few weeks ago. He was about to leave on a new mission and promised to visit afterward. I’ve been expecting him any time now. How nice it will be to have both of my children home together again.”

Lara’s fear erupted all at once and the panic she’d held in check since seeing Rafael on the
Gryphon’
s bridge finally took hold. Her twin could be dead. She choked back a sob.

Sabine’s grasp tightened. “What’s happened?”

Lara sucked in a breath and dared a split-second glance at Mitch. For strength. “Rafael’s ship, the
Interlace,
went missing two weeks ago, Mother. The Terrans have tried contacting you, but interference has affected wormhole comm transmissions. Have you heard from him?”

The countess closed her eyes. “Two weeks? With no word at all?”

Lara sighed. She had to tell her mother about seeing Rafael on her trip through the wormhole. “I’ve spoken to him—”

Mitch stood up. “Lara, no—”

“I have to tell her. Even if you don’t believe me, I have to tell her everything.”