Edge of Time (9 page)

R
iley stepped out into a cool, dank tunnel of dark chiselled rock. The curved ceiling was so low she could almost touch it with her fingertips. The walls were practically oozing water, and here and there dark puddles had formed small mirrors in the depressions of the floor. Intermittent sconces held yellow, softly glowing lights, providing enough illumination to prevent tripping.

Dean carried Alec in his arms in front of her, blocking most of her view. Tyrell was right on her heels.

The tunnel sloped slowly downwards and the air cooled. After they had walked for several minutes, the tunnel curved and levelled. The walls widened out to form a crude room with several other tunnels joining at odd angles. There wasn't a door anywhere nor any indication what the room was for. Which tunnel led the way out wasn't indicated either. Perhaps none of them did?

Riley shivered. She wished they'd hurry up and get wherever they were going so she could change into dry clothes.

Two more Operatives, a man and a woman both wearing grey jumpsuits and both holding orbs, walked out through the widest tunnel. Neither looked particularly friendly.

“Scanned and affirmed,” the woman said to her companion. Both lowered their orbs. Tyrell nodded to them and walked past, entering the tunnel without a backwards glance.

The newer man came forward and scooped Alec from Dean's arms. “His readings are off the curve.”

Dean smiled. “Just so.”

“What does Logan say?”

“You know Orions. Never a word when silence will suffice.” Dean grinned. “Come along, Riley.” Too cold to argue, Riley fell in behind him.

Within steps, the tunnel stopped at a metallic double door, which was wide open. Several different-coloured lights grouped in unusual patterns on the wall blinked as she passed. Riley stepped into the room and stopped in awe.

The chamber was enormous. She craned her neck upwards, following the curved lines of the smoothly cut rock until it arched high overhead in darkness. Here and there, wide, flat panels of glowing lights hung over the floor space, illuminating the people below with a soft and pleasant yellow glow. Oddly, there were no cords or wires suspending the lights, nor were they held up from the ground. She squinted. What on earth was keeping them in place?

Someone gave her shoulder a gentle push and she automatically followed, but her feet trod without attention. She was too busy gawking.

The cave was nearly the size of a football stadium and partitioned with divider walls, most of which came up to her shoulders, no higher. By pivoting around on tiptoe she could see the entire room, but walking from one side to another might be complicated. The configurations of the dividers looked like a maze.

They passed what seemed to be a kitchen of sorts and some kind of recreation area, but Riley, trying to keep up with Dean's long strides, didn't have much time for a close look. The most interesting feature, apart from the free-floating lighting fixtures, was the movie screens. There were eighteen of them, she counted, all playing movies, but all silent. They lined three of the four walls and were nearly the size of those found in the local Cineplex. How odd.

Dean turned abruptly down a side corridor and entered what Riley immediately determined to be the medical facility. Several raised beds circled a large central console, like spokes of a wheel. Two women in white jump suits were in attendance: one at the console, peering at a screen with absorbed interest, and an older woman standing over Darius Finn. Darius, Riley noted, lay naked and pale under a grey sheet. Alec slept on the bed next to him.

The older attendant left Darius' side to inspect her second patient. She raised her orb, ran it about six inches above Alec's body in a waving motion, and frowned. Riley stood at the end of his bed and shivered.

“This child has expelled a formidable amount of Tyon energy,” the woman said, with a sharp rise of her grey eyebrows. “How?”

Dean nodded towards Darius' unconscious body. “He permitted him an orb, Martje. The boy is untrained.”

“Well, of course he's untrained,” snapped Martje. “He's a child. And a Terran. They have only potential, not skill or knowledge. And certainly not enough power to do this sort of damage. Who did it to him?”

“Apparently, he did it himself.” Dean shrugged one shoulder. It didn't have any effect on the older woman, whose aura of authority permeated the very air. Riley recognized it easily. She sat around a dinner table with it regularly.

“Nonsense.” Martje pulled a face. “It isn't possible. Finn must have channelled it or boosted it somehow.”

“He didn't,” Riley piped up. “Darius was underwater, drowning or something.”

The woman turned her eagle eyes in Riley's direction and held her immobile. “Terran?” she asked abruptly.

Riley nodded. “Yeah, what of it?”

Martje gave a sniff and turned away. She waved her orb again over Alec, pausing for a longer reading over his head.

The second attendant walked over and raised one of Alec's eyelids with a finger. “All the readings are correct. He did expend an extraordinary amount of power.” She gave Darius a pointed glance. “Two, in such a short period of time.”

“Must be the electromagnetic force of this planet,” Martje muttered in a low voice. “We must study this more closely.”

Two what? What made Darius and Alec so interesting to these people? And why weren't they as interested in
her
? Riley shivered again and this time her teeth chattered. She was about to demand something dry to wear when Logan and Anna entered the medical area and the temperature dropped even lower.

“Report,” Logan barked.

“The Terran Operative is suffering from exhaustion. He requires significant regen, but will recover. The boy is experiencing the same condition.”

Martje didn't seem particularly cowed by Logan's presence, but the other one didn't meet his eyes and shuffled her feet a bit too much. Logan directed his words to the older medic.

“Ensure both receive rapid regen, Martje. Conditions are deteriorating.”

Martje nodded. “He'll be ready by change over.”

“Perhaps that is too quick to be safe?” Anna ventured with no change in her placid expression.

“Scars are secondary.” Logan's tone brooked no argument.

Riley swallowed. What were they going to do to Darius that would scar him?

“The boy?” Logan asked.

Martje glanced with interest at Alec for a moment, and then resumed her implacable stance. “He is weaker and not trained to accept regen. I will have to proceed much more slowly.”

The lines around Logan's mouth tightened, but Martje didn't blink. Anna stared at Darius with a veiled look that Riley couldn't decipher and wasn't sure she wanted to.

The younger medical attendant spoke to Riley. “Come here and I will scan you.”

It wasn't a suggestion. Riley felt the invisible tug and immediately stiffened her spine. “You can cut that ‘forcing me with your orb thingy.'” The effect of her tone was undone by her chattering teeth. “Ask nicely.”

The younger attendant cocked her head, as if she were inspecting an interesting new species.

“Go on, Nara,” Martje said, fixing Riley with a pointed look.

Nara wasn't pleased, but did extend her arm to indicate that Riley could seat herself on a bed. With an impatient sigh, Riley hopped up and dangled her legs over the side. Nara pulled out her orb and waved it over Riley's body. There was no sensation.

“Mild hypothermia, physical fatigue, minor contusions, nothing else.” Nara addressed her comments to Martje.

Riley's interest burgeoned. This could be a cool tool in medical school if it both diagnosed and treated people. Maybe she
should
learn how to use one.

“Give her a uniform and a restorative compound,” Martje instructed Anna. “Have her rest. Use your orb if she resists.”

Riley scowled.
Use your orb
, indeed. Heaviness was settling in all her limbs and she found it hard to keep her eyes open. She wasn't able to stifle the yawn.

“Dean can do it.” Anna didn't bother even glancing in Riley's direction. Her eyes never left Darius. “They are my responsibility. I will wait until they are recovered.”

Martje pursed her lips but said nothing. She nodded at Dean.

The overhead lights took on a slightly reddish hue. Riley looked up in surprise and felt her heart flip. Not again.

T
he pilot from the submarine ran into the Med Ops and came to a sharp halt at Logan's elbow. He spoke tersely in an unfamiliar tongue.

Logan had already pulled his orb from his pocket and was staring intently into its yellow depths. Riley didn't need to speak the language to understand the profanity. He whirled around, his long strides taking him out of the Med Ops and down the corridor in the blink of an eye.

“What's going on?” Riley asked.

“Sensors indicate the presence of the Others,” Anna said as she turned and followed Logan.

Riley hopped down and took off behind Dean, ignoring Martje's shout. There was a sharp mental tug as someone tried to use their orb, but Riley instinctively grabbed her own and squeezed tight. She hurried after Dean, desperate not to lose him in the maze of corridors. Something important was happening and she sure as heck was going to be a part of it. The mental tugging stopped.

Dean turned right, then left, and left again. For a second she lost sight of him around a higher wall, but as she rounded the corner, she nearly ran into him.

Several Tyon Operatives clustered around a huge circular console, which rose up twice the height of Logan. Anna, Tyrell, Dean and several other serious-faced men and women peered at a variety of translucent, free-hanging screens, their fingers flying over the moving symbols. None of the symbols were familiar, but the glowing red image could only indicate trouble.

Logan pointed at his screen and Tyrell nodded, his fingers rapidly enlarging an image. Several Operatives gathered over his shoulder to watch, but his frown a moment later indicated the lack of success.

Logan barked several incomprehensible commands and the majority of the small crowd immediately dispersed. Only Anna stayed at his side, peering silently at the screen Tyrell had vacated. Dean hovered behind them, uncertainty on his face. Riley slipped behind him and gripped her orb as she willed herself to remain unobserved. She wished they would speak English, as they had at the medical station. It would make it much easier to learn what was going on.

Logan spoke sharply to Anna. Other than a tell-tale blush, Anna did not reply. Her eyes remained fastened on the glowing symbols. Logan growled something else and pointed towards the medical station. Anna shook her head.

Dean tugged on Riley's arm and silently pulled her away from the argument. With one last look, Riley allowed herself to be escorted back down the corridor.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“Logan thinks there is a traitor among us.”

Riley shivered at his words. “He thinks it's Darius, doesn't he?”

Dean pursed his lips as his strides lengthened. Riley almost had to run to keep up. “Finn is a Terran. Logan has always mistrusted off-worlders.”

“But?” she prodded. She could almost feel Dean's worry and some other conflicting emotion through her fingers on his arm, but of course, that was impossible.

“No one would willingly assist the Others. We're sworn to stop them.” Dean looked distressed. “When the Celestial Council created the Collective, it was the primary mandate. We've all taken an oath.”

“Not everyone takes promises seriously.” Riley was thinking out loud. Darius Finn was hardly the soul of sombre reason.

“Anna has access to his mind at all times. It was the agreement for permitting this posting. She would know if he was influenced or working for the other side.”

Riley bit her lip. Would Anna tell anyone if Darius had turned rogue? She'd seen the way the woman looked at him.

Above them the light returned to pale yellow.

“Is the threat over?” She glanced up at the hovering lights.

Dean nodded. “Initial readings suggested that the Others were somewhere inside the perimeter, but it must have been an anomaly. This compound is impervious to their invasion.”

Riley rolled her eyes but said nothing. She owed no allegiance to these people. In fact, she was a prisoner. An attack, like at the Toronto bunker, would only work to her advantage. She was more likely to be able to escape in a moment of mass confusion.

Her thoughts turned to the scene she'd just witnessed. The commander of this group thought Darius was some kind of mole working for the other side, and only Anna knew if he was or wasn't. The Others breached the bunker in Toronto and, now, here, despite Dean's assurances. But had Darius orchestrated it, or had he just been in the wrong place at the wrong time? Would you know if the Others had taken you over? Could Anna be under their influence as well?

Who could she trust?