Daughter of Time 1: Reader (24 page)

At his side was a white-coated woman, Asian features, long midnight hair tied up in a bun. She was likely an attending physician. It was clear that Richard was a dying man.

“Waythrel will need to wait outside,” he began. “Richard insisted on meeting Ambra alone this first time. He wishes to commune with her as a Reader. Human to human.”

“It is understood,” answered Waythrel, although its translator conveyed an annoyed tone.

The doctor interrupted. “I’m Emily Chan,” she began, “I am the ranking human physician in the medical wing and have been overseeing care of Richard Cross. We apologize for this inconvenience,” she said, gazing between Michael and Waythrel. “In the medical unit, we are only too aware of the aid the Xix have given in all our efforts.”

Michael glanced with some annoyance toward the doctor but then motioned for me to follow. I walked behind them, down the hallway, nearly to the end of the medical wing, where we stopped in front of a set of double automatic doors. He turned to me and looked me gravely.

“Behind those doors you will meet the most powerful Reader in the Resistance. He has guided our strategies, risked his life, his health, his very sanity to serve our cause. Don’t underestimate his vision.”

Dr. Chan twitched uncomfortably at my side. “Michael, stop antagonizing her! This is
Ambra Dawn
. She unlocked an
Orb
, faced down the Dram, and has been brought to us by the Xix. She has the potential to surpass anything any Reader has yet done, if she has not done so already. We
need
her!”

Michael set his jaw, his anger plainly visible on his face. “Whatever rumors you have heard of this girl, until she has served the Resistance as Richard has served, she is nothing more than another lost Reader who has been found.”

“So, why is she here? Why has Richard desired to see her?”

“The Council believed in her potential.”

“Which means you don’t, I suppose.”

“What I believe is not of consequence.”

This back-and-forth about which freak would win in a throw down reminded me too much of what was juvenile in our species, arguing about our heroes, superheroes, our gods. All I could think about was that behind these doors was someone who could finally understand me, someone who maybe had enough of my experiences to have some clue about what life was like inside my head. Maybe, in this seemingly indifferent universe, I might not be completely alone.

My frustrations boiled over. “We don’t have time for this! I’ve come a long and horrible way under knife and death and madness. Now I stand near the blackened Earth to listen to your bickering?” I nearly shouted. “Richard has asked to see me, and I
will
see him before he passes.” I held up my hand as Michael began to protest. “Yes, he will pass. And it will be soon. I can see it even in the distortions of space-time he causes. Just like I can feel your anger at this future you do not wish to accept.”

“I don’t care who you are!” shouted Michael. “I won’t have you speak like this!”

He took a step toward me, but before he could follow through or the doctor stop him, I sent a hard thought into his mind. Not enough to hurt him, but enough to stun him momentarily and shake his anger out in surprise. Plenty of surprise, as well as a little fear.

I will meet with your Richard. I have hoped to meet him for some time. I will not let you stop me. I have too much I need to learn and share with him.

Michael stepped backward, his eyes swimming, an awed look on his face.

“Michael, what is it? Are you okay?” Dr. Chan asked as she glanced with concern at the paleness spreading over his face.

“I’m fine, Emily,” he said hoarsely. “Just…just let her through.”

Both stepped aside, opening the space between me and the doors. I took a deep breath and walked forward. The sensors detected my presence and set the machinery in motion.

The doors opened.

37

While God waits for his temple to be built of love, men bring stones. 
—Rabindranath Tagore

I walked into a dark room. The lights were off except for a few that dimly illuminated a countertop directly across from me. Between me and the counter was a hospital bed surrounded by numerous instruments of human and Xixian design. Many wires and tubes from these machines led towards the bed, and converged on a prone figure: Richard. As I drew nearer, I could see that his back had been opened up, revealing his spinal column, into which numerous tubes and wires entered. These invaders of his flesh were surrounded by an odd plastic, likely of Xixian manufacture, coating everything and sealing it off from exposure. Likewise, a number of tubes and wires also entered into his skull, giving him a look of some nightmarish dreadlocked singer. His lungs breathed regularly, too much so, so that it was clear that they were aided by machinery as well. I felt a great sense of pity swell in me. Here was another who had paid a great price for his talents and his choices.

Out of some indefinable respect for this price, I withheld any probing of his mind. Slowly, I made my way around the machine to a chair that had been placed at the front of the bed, likely used by those who wished to speak with him. As I approached, his features became more clear. A black man, tall and thin, perhaps once of athletic shape now shriveled to near-skeletal form. His eyes were closed, and yet still I did not probe to see if he still had conscious thoughts. I sat quietly and waited. After a few moments, his eyes fluttered open, and he spoke.

“I knew you were here before you even landed on this barren rock,” he croaked out. “It’s amazing. You distort the very space you move within.”

I smiled. “So they tell me.”

“I apologize. I cannot give you a better welcome. I can hardly look you in the eye. But then again, you see so much, and not with your eyes, am I right?”

“You are right. I am blind.”

“And yet not blind,” he continued, and a short coughing fit took him. “Ah, that hurts. The Xix have been so helpful. I know it looks horrific, but all this, it keeps my mind as free from the Dram poisons as possible, while also maintaining my life functions. Without all this,” he gestured with his eyebrows and a slight motion of his head, “I would have been in the throes of dementia and death months ago.”

“The Dram have little mercy.”

“No doubt, you know too well. You have seen it, I suppose, my capture, my torment, and escape from their dungeons.”

“Yes,” I said, feeling a tear in my eye. “In dreams long ago, and in visions more recently. The Xix were never suspected in your escape, although many humans died.”

“Yes, our greatest burden, Ambra. That so many would die, that we might live.”

I could say nothing. My pain was too great.

“And yet I did not see it coming. This greatest of calamities. I have waited to speak to you for so long, while fate kept us apart. I had so much to tell you, to inform you, of this universe, of Earth occupied, of our long plans to set it free. Now, after what has happened, I don’t know what to tell you. I have no more words of wisdom. Only the question of why this terrible thing never revealed itself to me.”

He began coughing again and motioning to his throat, indicated that he could no longer speak.

That will not keep us apart, Richard.

His eyes widened, and then closed, and I allowed myself to fully enter his mind.

This is more than I could have imagined
, his thoughts relayed.
You have grown powerful beyond the dreams of even the Dram.

It is a power that is limited, as you can see. Earth is reduced to ashes despite all I can do.

Why, Ambra? You had foreseen it. Why didn’t you stop it?

I can’t explain, Richard. But I could show you. Do you have the strength?

I don’t know. But I would rather die knowing and also experiencing even a small piece of your vision, than live a few more hours in ignorance.

So be it.
I focused my thoughts, stripping away all that was not necessary. I had to show him the bright path through the maze of destruction, so that he could understand. Whether he could accept humanity’s sacrifice for the rest of the galaxy, I did not know.

I reached out as gently as I could, and joined our minds, letting the flow of visions enter his. His strength was barely up to the task, and the machines blinked and beeped in consternation as his vital signs approached dangerous levels. His body shook, trembling softly as the shock roiled through him.

And then it was over. I withdrew from his mind to give him time to recover, keeping a tendril of contact to know when he was voicing his thoughts again.

I am sorry this had to be placed on you, Ambra. So much you have had to endure and carry. So alone. At least I can tell you, I can feel more than anyone the toxins you have swallowed.

I felt tears well up in my eyes. I reached out with my hand and touched his head. “And I know yours, Richard, in seeing your broken body and in communing with your mind,” I spoke aloud.
I only wish our parting would not come so soon. I don’t wish to be so alone again.

Yes, soon. Even my visions are fading, which means the poison has finally reached my central neurons. I am fortunate that the Xixian treatments have slowed the progress so much, that the rest of my body is nearly destroyed and will fail before I go completely mad. But it grows dim, even dark at times. And yet, I believe I still can see something you cannot.

Tell me.

I can’t see you, Ambra, because you twist all space-time around you. But I can see your form, like a glacier crushing everything in its path, carving out a new landscape by your power. Your form is constantly being made and unmade. But now I understand why I did not see Earth’s destruction. In my mind, Earth still exists in our future, even though it does not now. How can this be?

His thoughts faded as the machines began complaining again. His body was truly dying now.

Richard? Please, are you there?

I reached deep into the recesses of his blurring mind. His consciousness was now fluid, trapped at sea, bobbing above and below, knowing thoughts only in those moments of breaking through to the air and taking a breath before plunging downward into near oblivion.

Fading…Ambra…You are turbulence in the path…Blinded me…

Dr. Chan came springing into the room, followed closely by Michael. She glanced at the monitors and called a code to other nurses in the medical wing. I closed out their efforts. Time was short. I focused on his dying thoughts.

Ambra…events are fluid…like the sea…turbulence…can’t see into it…but I can see—after. A miracle. So much light…the voices of heaven singing…

I didn’t know if he was sane any longer. True visions? Or hallucinations of his dying mind?

Fingers of Divinity, Ambra….through you they will speak…you only need to touch it, and the course of everything is new.

There was a team of Xix and human medics standing around him now. Waythrel turned toward me.

“Ambra! You must stop! The strain is too much for him! He’s dying!”

Don’t listen to them, Ambra…better I die now than live empty and only for suffering. Goodbye, Reader. It has been my privilege to know you…so much light…

His thoughts became silent, lost in a more primitive boiling of mental functions, and I didn’t know if he had lost all consciousness. I glanced up at Waythrel.

“It is his wish to share with me before he dies.”

Michael looked over at me in horror and back to his leader with pain etched on his face.

“I’m sorry,” was all I could offer him.

Ambra….
The thoughts came as if from far way, deep within the cave of his mind.
Ambra, change the course…they will help you…you…must…change…its course.

His mind went completely dark, and the machinery became ominously silent. The frantic activity around me stalled, and for a moment, everything was as still as empty space.

“He’s dead,” said Dr. Chan. “There’s nothing we can do.”

I heard Michael weeping as he knelt beside his leader, burying his head next to his fallen friend. I also felt a palpable sadness in the Xixian minds. They mourned the passing of a friend and a powerful force in their fight against the Dram.

Even so, I felt their hopes reorient and turn toward me, however unsure and directionless in their uncertainty of my abilities to take up that role. The hopes of entire species, and the remains of a massacred human race, all became set on Ambra Dawn. It felt like the weight of a star.

Even that was secondary as I stared off into space. I had lost the only person who could remotely understand me, someone with whom I could relate fully as a Reader and as a human being. Richard had left his last thoughts with me, urgent thoughts that conveyed something he had seen that I could not, something about me that he had strained to convey as his mind died.