The Spiral Path (6 page)

Rafe wandered the nearly deserted
Interlace,
at least the parts that were accessible. Outside the infirmary viewport, the wormhole rift swelled as exotic matter continued to leak out of the void. At least he’d managed to free the Terrans, who’d been suffering more than any of the Chimerans on board. By now, though, even the Chimerans were succumbing to the immortal nothingness of the wormhole.

He actually preferred the pain to this growing numbness.

Holding out his hands, Rafe noticed how his skin had paled and that his phase shifted constantly. More troubling, the exotic matter outside beckoned to him like sirens to a sailor. He sensed its vibrating pulse beat throughout his body, its tendrils ready to do his bidding, just like Calendra. With a single thought, he could be out there melding with it. Losing himself in it.

Rafe had spent days by Calendra’s side, immersed in a world of their own. They didn’t need words; in this place thoughts were enough. He learned much about the woman Calendra had been—gifted scientist, loving wife and affectionate mother. She’d been ripped out of a plentiful life and, when coherent, still ached for it.

Who awaited Rafe’s return? No one yearned for his presence the way Calendra did. His parents and sister would miss him, but they were strong. They would move on eventually.

Meanwhile, Calendra would be marooned here for all time.

Sweet, sweet. Where are you?

Calendra floated across the infirmary ward, a ghost leading clouds of pale exotic matter in her wake. Before he could think, Rafe called up matter from the wormhole in response and stared as tendrils of his own branched out toward her. His body hungered for her. He needed to touch her, to touch someone, to alleviate the intense loneliness of this place.

Calendra clasped his hand and the shock of her touch reverberated along every nerve ending. “I’ve been looking for you.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “I wanted to see the rift.”

She nodded and leaned into him for a kiss. Their telepathic link had so far been weak, forged only one way by Calendra. Now Rafe yearned for a deeper communion, a more complete bond. Their tendrils enmeshed and he pulled her close.

Then the
Interlace
began to vibrate, his bones and sinew humming in tune. Into the rift the ghost of another ship appeared. Their only connection to the outside world.

Calendra ran a fingertip along his lips. “Your sister? So soon?”

Rafe closed his eyes, searched for Lara’s presence. “No, it’s a Creed ship. The
Bayne.
”

Calendra breathed deep as if inhaling the delicious scent of food. “There are Chimerans on board.” She clutched his hand, prepared to whisk them away to the
Bayne.

“No, Calendra! Don’t harm them.”

“I need them. You know that, Rafe.”

“Promise me.”

Calendra sighed. “Very well. But don’t forget that they have what I want—to exist in both dimensions. My people can interact with them, we can even hurt them, but we can’t go with them when they leave.”

Rafe nodded. Calendra’s misty tendrils swirled about them and a thousand shrieking voices echoed in the infirmary. The whirlwind carried them to the
Bayne’
s bridge.

Bedlam greeted them. The captain slumped in his seat, blood dripping from his forehead. Every Chimeran on board was rolling on the decking in pain while the rest of the Creed crew tried to stabilize the ship. Unknown to any Creed on board, other Revenant skulked the bridge, waiting for a sign from Calendra.

Rafe didn’t have much time. He knelt by a young Chimeran woman, clasped her hand and dampened the chaos around them. Her face relaxed as her pain eased. “Will you help me?”

The woman’s eyes widened as Calendra approached. “H-how could I possibly help you?”

Calendra settled a hand on his shoulder. “Oh, Rafe, but I want to play.”

“Help me free us from this place, Calendra. Please. You don’t have to live this way anymore.” He turned back to the Chimeran woman. “Will you relay a message for me?”

She nodded. Rafe let his guard down and his body rapidly switched between its two phase frequencies at random. He called up the exotic-matter tendrils and wound them around the three of them, several seeping into the woman’s ears, others whipping around his body. In seconds, her eyes rolled up into her head and showed completely white. He gave her one simple directive. “Find Mitch Yoshida. Tell him the experiment failed.”

After Rafe delivered the last of his message for Mitch and Lara, Calendra dispatched the
Bayne
out of the wormhole. They were alone once again.

The aches and pains wouldn’t leave Mitch now until he left Creed’s dimension. The wrist patch darkened daily, but he didn’t need it to tell him how quickly his cells were losing integrity. He lay in the dark of his Nessa quarters, unable to stop clenching and unclenching his muscles even though such attempts to mitigate the tension were futile. Even the rhythmic whir of the waves outside couldn’t soothe him.

He didn’t belong here. As much as Mitch wished for the freedom of both worlds, only those like Lara possessed that. Mitch liked Creed, possibly because while here he usually could forget about his troubles on Terra. Forget about how his home world changed since Lara left it.

The door chimed, but before Mitch could get out of bed, it chimed again. And again. Someone really needed to see him, so he didn’t bother pulling on a shirt and answered the summons in only his loose-fitting black workout pants. The door dissolved and he squinted at a knife of sharp yellow light.

Lara breezed past him into the dark room. “You look like Hellas.”

A whiff of fruity scent followed in her wake, the same fragrance from earlier today when they’d kissed. He couldn’t stop thinking about the press of her warm lips.

“I was sleeping. Is there a problem?”

She grabbed his arm and flipped his wrist over. The heat from her hand seeped into his skin. “You’re shifting a little quicker than expected, aren’t you?”

Mitch snatched his arm back and rubbed his wrist. “I’m fine. What’s going on?”

Lara frowned and walked to the window, her lithe body taut with anxiety. This was not good news. Lara Soto always looked him in the eye.

He sat on the bed. “Tell me what’s happened.”

Lara scrubbed her hands over her face. “My mother sent a ship into the wormhole.”

Good thing he was sitting down. “We haven’t retrofitted any of their ships yet. Sabine promised me she wouldn’t—do you now see why I didn’t want to reveal the coordinates yet?”

“She just wants her son back, Mitch. Can’t you understand that?”

“What she did is dangerous. Call the ship back immediately. Sabine has no idea what she’s done.”

“Too late.” Lara crossed her arms. “The
Bayne
has already returned. The wormhole shot it back out almost immediately, but not before depressurizing two decks and gutting an engine. The ship nearly ripped apart.”

Mitch rubbed the back of his neck. “How many are dead?”

“We haven’t confirmed it yet, but we estimate about fifty people are missing. Another thirty are in an infirmary suffering from phase fluctuations.”

Mitch swore under his breath and searched for his T-shirt. “The doctors aren’t having much luck stabilizing the Terrans from the
Interlace.
Do you think the wrist-syncs could be reconditioned to help?”

Lara hadn’t moved from the portal window. “We have a bigger problem.”

“Bigger than two crews dying from phase destabilization? What was your mother thinking? I hope she feels it was worth those fifty-some lives.”

“While in the wormhole, one of the
Bayne
crew, a Chimeran, received a message from the Revenant.”

Mitch had found his shirt finally, but at Lara’s words he didn’t bother putting it on. The fine hairs on his arms stood on end. “What was the message?”

Part of him had been expecting this. He deserved it.

Lara crossed to him and put one hand on his chest. Her eyes were so wide, he could see the whites even in the dim light.

“It’s you, Mitch. The Revenant have a message for you.”

The infirmary pod smelled of antiseptic. Lara breathed shallowly and tried to ignore it. Like all Creed medical pods, this one could connect to any large city-pod to handle triage overflow issues or disconnect in quarantine situations. Late afternoon sunlight filtered through the corridor’s small portal windows as she walked with Mitch to the ward where the
Bayne’
s Chimerans were being housed. Outside, the noise of landing supply shuttles rattled the walls.

She’d looked up
Revenant
in the history archives and found only the name of an ancient ship that had disappeared a thousand years ago when the Creed still lived on land. A fairy tale.

Mitch held his shoulders tight, his muscles a bundle of tension and his stride stiff. “The
Bayne
was in wormhole space for merely minutes. How is it possible for the Chimerans on board to have been affected so?”

Lara shrugged. “The Creed who returned were unscathed.” She quickened her pace to keep up with Mitch. “None of the Chimerans are shifting phase like the Terrans from the
Interlace
. They’re just all incoherent or, worse yet, comatose. This patient has been asking for you since she regained consciousness.”

They turned a corner and found a group of medical staff clustered around a doorway. A single, clear cry rose above the din of voices.

“Mitch Yoshida! I need to speak to Commodore Yoshida!”

Mitch faltered a step but kept going. “No doubts now.”

Lara and Mitch pushed through the crowd. The last of the group moved aside to reveal a pale woman in the hospital bed. Her long brown hair hung limp around her face and dark circles rimmed her eyes.

The woman noticed Mitch immediately and held out a hand. “You’re here!”

Mitch moved closer and clasped the woman’s hand as Lara motioned the crowd to disperse.

She smiled and her papery skin crinkled. “I have a message for you.”

Mitch nodded. “From whom?”

“He said his name was Rafael.”

Lara’s breath hitched in her throat. A tingle snaked its way down her back. Mitch seemed composed, but Lara noticed the rigid line of his back. She shoved her hands in her pockets to refrain from rubbing the tension out of them.

Mitch kept his voice even. “What message does Rafe have for me?”

The woman squeezed Mitch’s hand tighter and he bent closer. Lara stepped forward, but as she neared the bed her vision shrank to a tunnel and she stumbled. Mitch moaned and fell forward over their clasped hands. Wait, what—what had that woman done to him?

Around her swirled a frothy whirlwind of white clouds. Static noise thickened to voices, hundreds of voices. Forked tails of currents pushed her in all directions. Lara staggered to the bed and caught herself from hitting the floor. Someone helped her stand and turned her around.

“Lara.”

She should have known.

“Rafael!” Lara jumped to hug her brother, but he held them apart.

“I have only a few seconds. This Chimeran proved exceptionally pliable. I had no other choice. Listen to me, without the upgrades such as your ship had, the negative matter in the wormhole affects Chimerans differently. This woman is now able to project her own thoughts and feelings, even sense a little of your own. She agreed to be a conduit for me.”

Mitch moaned again. If Lara concentrated, she could feel his discomfort as the muscles of his limbs contracted and his heart raced. Destabilization sickness. His time was running out. Through the pain she heard Mitch’s heartbeat, however, and hoped he would be all right for the next few minutes. Was this ability her own or amplified in some way from Rafael?

Rafael smiled. “Mitch can hear me too.”

Lara grabbed Rafe’s arm. “How can I get you out of that wormhole? Are you suffering? Who is the Revenant?”

“It’s not just me. We have to free the others as well. Their pain is mine. I can’t leave them here.”

“Don’t sacrifice yourself for them.”

“The experiment failed. Follow the trail of negative matter. Examine the
Interlace’
s comm logs. Do it quickly!”

Rafael shucked off Lara’s hand and his image faded.

“No!” Lara fell onto the bed. She fumbled for Mitch and found him almost unconscious, bent over the guardrail. She pulled his heavy weight off the rail and panted with the effort. Felt for a pulse and sagged against him when she found it. The Chimeran woman also seemed unconscious. Around them alarms blared. Her mind struggled against Rafael’s instructions. A trail to follow, comm logs, thought projection. At least her twin was still alive.

Strong hands pulled Lara away from Mitch, and seconds later bright lights were shown in her eyes. Other hands searched her body for broken bones. The alarms had stopped.

“She’s conscious. What about Commodore Yoshida?”

“He’s coming around.”

Mitch called her name and her heart twisted. Had Rafael inadvertently hurt him? As much as she wanted to trust her brother, Calendra clearly held sway over the man.

“I’m fine.” She shoved the medics aside and stumbled over to Mitch.

The medical personnel had Mitch lying on his back on the floor while others worked over the Chimeran patient. Lara flipped over his wrist. The phase patch registered nearly black. In just a few minutes, he’d destabilized so much that his time was up. Whatever voodoo Rafael employed could be speeding up the process. Lara smoothed a lock of hair off Mitch’s forehead and tried to ignore the panic setting in that he could die.

He clasped her hand and opened fully dilated eyes. “I talked to Rafe.”

Lara gestured the medics away. The sensation was fading by the minute, but now that he was conscious, she felt Mitch’s strong pulse despite what the phase patch displayed. He would be all right, for now.

“I know. We both spoke to him.”

“He said to follow the negative matter trail.”

Lara nodded. “We will, but you’re destabilizing. First we need to leave Creed.”

“Out of the question.” Sabine stood in the doorway, one hand on her heart.