Binary Cycle - (Part 1: Disruption) (14 page)

They were going to be ok.

He set the robots on a path heading upward and then shook his head out of the illusion. His mind snapped back to the control room.

The scene that awaited him was startling. 

Jonathas turned his head around to see everyone in the operations room staring at him in shock, nobody even blinking in their confused states.

The miners were saved, why was everyone staring at him like he’d just committed murder?

“Jonathas, how did you…” Matt could barely speak.

Cornelius came forward, anger in his eyes instead of relief. “I don’t know what tricks you’re pulling Jonathas, but you’d better explain yourself, and fast.”

“What do you—” Jonathas started but the tech interrupted.

“Jonathas, I meant for you to find and activate the drones, not tunnel a small army into the room. How the hell did you do that?”

“Well...” he looked around at their unforgiving faces. “I activated a group of drones and tunnelled them through the floor. I thought that we had to work as fast as possible, try and save those miners?”

The tech shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. We haven’t trained you yet, so I only activated the map and droid activation portion of your module. The remote controls weren’t even hooked up. There’s no way you could have moved those drones.”

“Well, I did, your machines must not be working properly.”

“No, I’m telling you it wasn’t hooked up.” Matt held up a loose power cable, the other end of which disappeared into the central station in the middle of the room. The other operators stared dumbly at the cord hanging from his hand, looking equally astonished.

“Man, I don’t know how you did it, but you weren’t using the control module to control those things. You did that all on your own.”

“Somebody call security,” Cornelius towered over him, his hands balled into trembling fists. “We need to get him locked up until we figure out what the hell is going on.”

“I don’t… I don’t know, I’m sorry.” 

Jonathas closed his eyes and was instantly back down with the group of tunnellers. They were making good progress through the rock, and the last thing he saw before losing consciousness was the troop of excited miners, trudging along in the drones’ dusty wake.

The dying sunlight
Sings a mournful song of death
To those who listen

Cassidy turned away from the sunset, from the two glowing suns. She let out an exhausted sigh as if she alone shouldered the world’s problems. Skyia suspected her mom was taking too much of the blame onto herself for unearthing the evidence that proved Taran’s impending disaster.

“Skyia, this isn’t all I came out here to tell you about. The second extinction layer… that’s not all we found in Ganji. There was something else. Something inexplicable to our sensors, deep in the jungle. We were trying to pinpoint its exact location, but we need more time to realign our sensors bands so we can locate it.”

“What is it?” Skyia asked.

Cassidy shook her head. “We don’t know, there’s not enough information. It’s some kind of object, denser than any material we’ve ever seen. We sent our findings over to the same scientist teams studying the orbital disruption hypothesis. If they’ve found out more about it, they aren’t telling us. They only said that we may be able to use whatever it is to help get us out of this mess.”

“So you’re going back to Ganji? When?” 

Suddenly Skyia felt panicked. Could her mom really be abandoning her again?

“We’re leaving almost immediately. It’s almost Night here, but on the other side of the planet, in Ganji, it’s just about to become Dawn.”

“
We
are leaving immediately?” Skyia wasn’t sure if she heard right.

“Yes, dear. I want you to come with me this time. Who knows how much time we have left? I don’t want you out of my sight, not for anything. It’s going to be dangerous, especially in the jungle, but I’ve hired someone to come along with us, a
bodyguard,
so to speak.”

“Oh, is
that
who’s been leaving messages with MiLO? For a while I thought you had found a boyfriend that you weren’t telling me about.”

Her mom laughed. “No, of course not, I would tell you if I found a man. Yes, he’s likely tried getting a hold of me, I’ll have to check my messages when we get back to the Tower. His name is Banner and he comes highly recommended. His expertise were search and rescue missions in the jungles before he went private. We’ll be safe with him.” Her mother hopped back up into the buggy and dug into her pocket for the keys.

“Mom, I’d absolutely
love
to come with you. I can’t stay here anymore without you, especially not at Night.”

Her mom’s green eyes crinkled in a smile and she kissed Skyia’s forehead. “That’s my girl. MiLO can stay here and monitor the Signal. You know, I think he only pretends to need our help,” she winked.

“I know, I often feel the same way. Oh, I’m so excited!” Skyia leaned over and hugged her mom, grateful for this opportunity. She pulled back with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe it’s going to take an apocalypse to finally get us together out there.”

Skyia couldn’t help but grin, she was so overwhelmed with joy. Yet, at the same time she felt a new sadness: a growing ache in her chest. What if they weren’t able to save their world? What if everything they’d built on Taran would prove to be for naught?

Skyia imagined the journey they would take into the heart of Ganji Province, excited for the adventures they would share together. As electrifying thoughts whizzed through her mind, a cool breeze rose up out of the valley, whipping dust particles through the air, buffeting them against the buggy.

Cassidy’s communication band chirped, breaking Skyia’s reverie.

“Yes, MiLO?” Cassidy spoke into the receiver.

“Cassidy, you and Skyia must return to the tower at once.” 

MiLO’s voice had an urgency to it that Skyia didn’t know he was capable of.

“Why, what’s going on?” Cassidy asked.

“The tower has received a message.”

Cassidy frowned, glancing at Skyia, a worried look overtaking her stoic features.

“From whom?”

Skyia held her breath as a forest dove called out, searching for its companion amongst the clouds.

“From Earth, Cassidy,” MiLO sputtered. “We just received a message from Earth.”

Thank you for reading!

Keep an eye out for part two of the three part series due out July 2013.

Binary Cycle: Revelations will continue the adventures of Jonathas, Reggie, Skyia and Cassidy, as well as introducing thrill-seeker Kenneth Sparling. 

While traveling in Shangjai City, Kenneth stumbles across secret information which sets him down a path that will change his life, and the fate of the planet. The events in part two set the tone for the thrilling finale Binary Cycle: Skyward.

If you enjoyed this story, and love Hugh Howey's WOOL series, check out my two bestselling fanfiction silo stories THE RUNNER and its seqiel, THE DIVER, both available in the kindle store. 

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Thank you
to all my beta readers: Zachary Bonelli, Atina Tan, Jim Larranaga, David Uebel, Ali McTear, Chris Alloways, Daniel McCarthy, Sue Davies, Jamie Davies, Don Davies, Evan Davies, Michael Holden, Matt Holden, Bryan Sukdeo, Tony Mazerolle, Tracy Seenstra, Neil San Gabriel, Tom Hiley, William Carroll, Noah Wilson, Raj Ondhia, Mike McColl, Dan Rishea, Patrice Fitsgerald, Jason Gurley, Thomas Robins, Michael Bunker, and Lyn Perry.

Binary Cycle is a much stronger piece because of all the hard work you put into helping me edit and work through ideas. I really appreciate all your assistance and feedback.

Thanks Jason Gurley and Aubry Andersen for the incredible cover art and illustration. I wish I had even half of your artistic talent. 

Feel free to contract me. I love hearing from readers and do my best to respond right away. 

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