Masters of Fate Read online

Maris glanced between Kaiden and me. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s the only thing.”

  I flushed in spite of myself, hoping the low lighting in the shuttle hid it. I really hadn’t been thinking in those terms, but snuggles did sound amazing after the day we’d had.

  Kaiden brushed his foot against mine under the table. “I’m sure we could all use some downtime,” he deflected on my behalf.

  “Don’t get too comfortable,” Toran warned. “We still have quite the debrief to go through.”

  I sighed. “Oh, can’t wait…”

  After docking and completing the standard decontamination procedure, we headed for Central Command.

  “Now I really hate leaving my sword behind,” I whispered to Kaiden as we exited the hangar.

  “I know, I was just thinking the same thing. But, if we can’t trust Tami, we have bigger issues to worry about—she could kill us in a hundred different ways every time we step onto one of her shuttles.”

  “Good point.”

  Maris seemed miffed. “I wanted to show off my new shield.”

  “You’ll get the chance soon enough,” Toran assured her.

  When we reached Central Command, we were immediately buzzed inside to find Commander Colren waiting for us. He looked us over expectantly. “Well, what did you learn?”

  I took a deep breath. “Boy, do we have a story for you.”

  13

  Colren stared at us from the other side of the conference table, dumbstruck. “That isn’t how I expected this recon mission to go.”

  “We didn’t either, but there you have it,” Kaiden replied. “The question now is… well, everything.”

  The commander steepled his fingers. “I wish there had been a clearer indication about what the ‘Saps’—as you now call them—are after.”

  “Yeah, that’s been a sticking point for us, too,” Toran admitted. “It seems to have something to do with the properties of the crystalline network, which appears to function on a higher dimensional plane than we ‘visited’, if you will.”

  “Do the scientific models point to anything?” Colren questioned. “I know you’ve been in contact with the Hegemony’s research team.”

  Toran shook his head. “We hadn’t discussed anything beyond the idea that the aliens might actually be hyperdimensional beings. Guess that’s been confirmed.”

  Colren gave a disbelieving chuckle. “I still can’t wrap my head around what that means—the notion of a sixth-dimensional being existing above time.”

  “I assure you, it’s even more disorienting to spend the better part of a day walking around somewhere only to discover that no apparent time has passed in your home dimension,” I said.

  He leaned back in his chair. “Yes, I could see that.”

  “So, Commander, we’re at a bit of an impasse here,” Kaiden said in the intervening silence. “We know where the aliens are—sort of—but the new knowledge about their hyperdimensional position means the previous attack plan won’t work.”

  Toran folded his hands on the tabletop. “Yes. Unfortunately, the spatial disruptor is only a 5D weapon, and the Saps are 6D.”

  “What does that mean for the anomaly site we attacked?” Colren asked.

  “It’s still too damaged to traverse—this new information doesn’t change that,” Toran explained. “Think of it like paralyses due to scar tissue—the limb is still there, but it doesn’t have feeling any longer, so it can’t be used.”

  That analogy hit a little too close to home for me, and my right hand instinctively went to my left shoulder, remembering the injury that had shaped much of my outlook on life, before we were transformed.

  “Meaning, we’re still protected from an attack at that location,” the commander determined.

  “Yes, but that may now be one of the only places,” Toran continued. “Our glimpse of the hyperdimensional plane on which the Saps reside showed that they have a densely populated world and a substantial fleet. I think the only reason they haven’t sent more ships to our planets already is because there are only a few ‘access points’ for transitioning from 6D to our spacetime reality.

  “Based on what we’ve observed, and learned—” he omitted Hoofy’s presence, “—there are specific places that allow interaction across the different planes. The viewing crystals are one such trans-dimensional access point, in addition to their other functions. The local-reset crystals offer more limited points of access, and it seems like there’s at least one main control crystal on each planet, which provides an intermediate degree of functionality; I think that’s how the Darkness first spread, entering the main crystal and then spreading through the rest of the planet’s network. But, there aren’t many of these points in open space, which makes it difficult to move a fleet. Either the Saps will find another location to use as a jump point to bring their fleet into our spacetime, or they’ll take a land-based approach through the crystals on each planet they want to conquer.”

  I thought back to the infection of my own world and how I’d seen the Darkness in the canyon’s crystal but not in my town square. The planet’s control crystal must have been in another city—maybe the planet’s capital—and that’s what prompted the order for a planetary reset.

  “To determine which option they’ll pursue—continue trying to find a solution for their fleet, or revert to a land-based assault—we need to know what their goal is,” Colren mused. “As insightful as this information is, it doesn’t actually help us.”

  I hated to admit it, but he was right. We’d learned more about the nature of our enemy, yet we still had no large-scale way to effectively fight back or even know where to head them off, since we had no idea where they were going. I couldn’t keep a frustrating groan from slipping out. “You’d think learning the secret nature of the universe would answer a lot more questions.”

  “Yeah, if only we knew more about the dimensional planes above the Saps, maybe there’s something that could help us there,” Kaiden mused.

  “There is someone who might,” Toran said.

  For a moment, I thought he was about to reveal Hoofy. However, Colren nodded. “Bounce some ideas off her. Something may stick.”

  “Excuse me.” Toran rushed out of the conference room through the bridge.

  “Sorry, did I miss something?” I asked.

  “One of the Hegemony scientists Toran has been working with,” Colren explained. “She has the kind of brilliance you can’t train—incredible at making connections and bringing grounding to the extraordinary.”

  “In other words, exactly what’s needed right now,” Kaiden said.

  The commander smiled. “I think we could all use some answers.”

  “Definitely.” I recalled Toran mentioning a scientist acquaintance the other day, and I was happy to get a trusted outside perspective on our recent experience.

  “Well, while Toran gets more into the science and engineering, can you offer any more insights into the tech you observed during your vision of the Saps’ society?” Colren asked.

  “Something isn’t right,” Hoofy said suddenly in my mind. Based on how Kaiden and Maris tensed, I suspected he’d spoken to them, too.

  “It was a lot to take in,” I said, hoping the commander might reveal more of his intentions before I said anything too specific.

  “Do you get any sense of their manufacturing capabilities, or their power source?” Colren pressed.

  “He is asking on behalf of his superiors,” Hoofy said. “They want the core.”

  I swallowed, not sure if I should listen to the commander or our new hyperdimensional companion. Though Colren had once left me to die, it was under unavoidable understandable circumstances; Hoofy, on the other hand, I didn’t know at all. Yes, he’d led us through the 8D maze to the exit point, but could we trust him implicitly?

  While I was still trying to figure out what to tell Colren, Kaiden brushed his foot against mine under the table, a signal I’d noticed hi
m use over the past week when he saw me struggling to answer a relationship question and he was about to jump in to field it.

  “Their structures all look organically grown,” Kaiden said. “Couldn’t say any more at this point with certainty.”

  The commander nodded. “Very well. I know that wasn’t the focus of your investigation.”

  “Maybe we can take some time to sort through what we saw and talk more tomorrow,” Kaiden suggested.

  “Yes, of course, you must be exhausted.” Colren rose, and we followed his example. “Thank you, as always, for your efforts.”

  I forced a smile. “Here to help.”

  Colren adjourned the meeting, and I led Maris and Kaiden to a private section of corridor outside Central Command.

  “What was that about? Do you think the Hegemony is after the alien tech?” I asked after checking that no one was around.

  Kaiden shook his head. “Why wouldn’t they be? I can’t believe I didn’t think about that before.”

  “What do you mean?” questioned Maris.

  “We’ve come across a race that’s potentially figured out how to tap into the crystal control interface and use the crystalline network’s innate properties to rearrange matter. Think about how valuable that kind of control would be to the Hegemony—you could remake an entire planet in a very short time, or maybe even scale the tech down to manufacture anything you could imagine.”

  I gaped at him. “Stars, you’re right.”

  “The Hegemony is fairly stable and united at the moment,” Kaiden continued. “But what if knowledge about this tech got out? Use it for the military, and private industry would get upset. Give everyone access and risk it falling into the hands of someone who’d use it to hurt others… It’s a total gamechanger. Introducing this kind of tech is what sparks civil wars.”

  “Makes you wonder what really happened on Crystallis,” I murmured.

  Kaiden scoffed. “It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the civilization took out itself and the Saps had little to do with it.”

  Maris crossed her arms. “That’s a disturbing concept.”

  I lowered my voice to a whisper. “Look, I think I trust Colren, but the people he reports to have shown some really bad judgment. We should be careful what we say.”

  “Agreed,” Kaiden whispered back, and Maris nodded.

  “Should we go see what Toran is up to?” I asked, returning to a normal volume.

  “May as well. I’m curious what an outsider has to say about all this,” Kaiden said.

  We took the lift to the level that house our lounge and living quarters.

  As we neared the door, Kaiden gently tugged my arm, holding me back. “Go ahead, we’ll be right there,” he said to Maris.

  She raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips then sauntered into the lounge. The door closed behind her.

  I gave Kaiden a questioning look. “Why did—” I’d barely gotten the words out before he leaned me against the wall, kissing me deeply. I happily relaxed into his arms, releasing my tension from our crazy day.

  “I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” he murmured as we eventually parted.

  “Same.” I smiled up at him, still wanting more.

  The doors to the lounge hissed open down the hall, and Kaiden hastily took a step back from me.

  “Cool it, lovebirds,” Maris said with a smirk as she poked her head out of the room. “The biology lesson can wait—Toran is all amped up to give us some schooling in quantum physics.” She disappeared back inside.

  Kaiden shook his head, holding in a snicker. “Wow, how long do you think she’s been waiting to use that line?”

  “Probably days,” I replied.

  Still chuckling, he gave me another kiss. “To be continued.”

  We followed Maris inside to find Toran leaning over the touch-surface table. A holoconference was in progress with a woman who appeared to be in her late-forties, graying hair pulled into a messy bun.

  “Elle, Kaiden, this is Lisa Manswell,” Toran introduced. “She’ll be modest about it, but she’s the Hegemony’s top scientific mind when it comes to theoretical physics.”

  Lisa brushed off the compliment with a wave of her hand. “I muddle through. I must admit, Toran’s account of your recent experience has introduced some interesting notions.”

  “Yes, I believe you were just about to offer an explanation for what we’ve been experiencing,” Toran said. “I figured you’d all want to be here for that.”

  “Absolutely. So, what are we dealing with?” I asked.

  “Dimensionally ubiquitous, zepto-elemental singularities,” Lisa replied.

  Kaiden raised an eyebrow. “Come again?”

  “There was never any direct evidence of these singularities, but your observations are in line with what had been considered hypothetical models on the scientific fringe,” the scientist explained. “They appear to be some kind of sub-fermion singularity with a quantum entanglement link spanning the dimensional planes.”

  I blinked at her. “Zepto-what?”

  “Dimensionally ubiquitous, zepto-elemental singularities,” the scientist repeated.

  “Nope, that name is never going to work,” I stated. “D-U-Z-E-S… How about we call them ‘Duzies’?”

  Toran sighed. “Elle—”

  Lisa’s brow knit. “That’s so…”

  I smiled. “A little ridiculous, I know, but it’s short and memorable.”

  After a moment, Lisa smiled back. “You know, I actually kind of like it.”

  Toran flushed, casting the scientist a pleading look she seemed keen to ignore.

  Kaiden smirked. “So, Toran, what were you saying about the Duzies?”

  “I’m not going to call them…” Toran took a deep breath. “Anyway, these elemental singularities can explain everything we’ve experienced with our abilities. Theoretically, they are the building blocks of everything in our physical reality, extending into the hyperdimensional planes we recently visited. If we’ve been granted some sort of control-level access to those singularities, that might explain how we can now redirect the matter and energy around us into what appear to be magical effects.”

  “Did that happen when we were re-formed with the bioprinter?” I asked.

  “Duzies almost certainly have something to do with the process, but I expect there’s more at play than that alone,” Lisa replied.

  “Maybe something to do with our artifacts?” Kaiden suggested.

  “Perhaps. The artifacts seem to be linked with the Duzies, maybe are even saturated by them,” Lisa continued. “I couldn’t tell you for sure without getting them into my lab, but I get the impression you won’t be heading back to the Capital anytime soon.”

  “No, we won’t, but we can say for certain that the artifacts exhibit strange properties,” Toran said.

  The scientist nodded. “I have no doubt about that. In lieu of the artifacts being in my lab for detailed analysis, I’ll review the scans of them taken during the decontamination procedure and also look over your medical records with the biologists on our team. We may yet be able to get you more detailed answers about the mechanism behind your abilities.”

  “I really don’t care so long as they work,” I said.

  For practical purposes, yes,” Kaiden said, “but understanding how our abilities function might yield more information about the crystalline network itself—or what the aliens seek to control.”

  “We don’t yet know what is above the eighth-dimensional plane we experienced,” Toran said.

  “Well, there are three options that we know about,” Lisa replied.

  I came to attention. “You know what’s there?”

  “In theoretical models, anyway. Before today, we never had any firsthand accounts of anything beyond 6D,” she said. “The science suggests that 9D, which the sword seems to be linked to, is the crystalline network itself, 10D is consciousness—the part of ourse
lves that resyncs after a reset— and the eleventh dimension is the domain of the barely-understood dimensionally ubiquitous, zepto-elemental singularities. Duzies really are a doozy.” She grinned.

  I laughed. “I was waiting for someone to do it. Well done.”

  She bowed her head. “Delivering bad science puns is my second job.”

  While we were joking, Maris stood with her eyes wide. “Consciousness is above the crystalline network storage?”

  Lisa composed herself. “It’s important to distinguish between ‘thought’ and ‘memory’,” she explained. “Our memories are the organic constructs, which are recreated through neural pathways during the reset process. It’s our consciousness—our internal self-awareness and volition—which utilizes our memories and creates our thoughts, bringing in the near-term feelings and recollections from the time after a reset point is established. Memories, consciousness, thoughts—all of those components make us ourselves.”

  “What about the universal resets?” Kaiden asked.

  Toran nodded. “I’d pieced together some of it before, but I didn’t have the dimensional map to complete the picture until now. See, all of our physical traits and memories are stored in 9D via the crystalline network backups. Restoring that much information during a universal-scale reset must eat up almost all of the available ‘bandwidth’ in the crystals—so there’s only enough data for our 10D consciousness to recall memories for various past moments in time. Therefore, memories of previous-futures, which could be innumerable and incredibly complex, are lost or lose focus. Localized resets, by contrast, don’t put nearly the same amount of strain on the crystalline network, so we are able to get an accurate ‘download’ of our memories from previous-futures, as well. That’s why, after the universal reset, we could sense something was missing but couldn’t grasp it. I think it was only due to our proximity to the locus of the reset event that our team was able to remember; the network dedicated a little extra bandwidth to enable a partial download of our previous-future memories since we initiated the reset.”

  “This reset thing is a whole lot more complicated than I realized,” I said.