Convergence (35 page)

“But why would the transporter machine work?” Will asked. “The machine would only work on those who’d touched the palm readers here.”

“He did touch the machine, though,” Gena noted, and Will nodded, remembering. “But we’d only set the machines up to use the signature in that nanogel the first time. The fighters on the Island didn’t have those signatures. He found a remote, likely one that fell from someone’s pocket after the gravity fiasco, and with it traveled to Eden.” She grimaced. “And that’s where he found me.”

Fil’s face fell at her words. “I apologize for freezing in the moment. But seeing you there was…”

“Seeing me there was a memory of the worst day of your life, Fil.” Sarah squeezed Fil’s arm, and Anna offered him a generous smile. “You’d have come around given enough time. Luckily, you didn’t need to.” She glanced at Sarah and Anna. “Thank you. But… how did you figure out where we were? He made every effort to mask where he was, and you certainly had no reason to think I’d made it to Headquarters.”

“We got lucky,” Anna admitted. “We made a critical assumption, namely that since there was no evidence of teleportation, Porthos hadn’t gotten to the Cavern or even to Eden. We also, unknowingly, made an assumption that Porthos hadn’t gotten an image of Gena in his mind from Adam and managed to use Energy to make another Aliomenti look like her.”

Everyone sat up straighter. “Wow, that thought never crossed my mind,” Fil admitted.

“It didn’t cross mine until later, honestly,” Anna replied. “Not until we got the net off Aunt Gena and her familiar Energy signal rebuilt.” She grimaced before continuing. “But as I said, we decided that the available evidence was that Gena came
here,
rather than Porthos going elsewhere to capture her. That was wrong, but it kept us in the right place. We figured he’d probably avoid Energy usage for travel in any form, and had heard from Ian that there were no missing flying craft. While he
could
have gotten on the monorail again, or taken a ground car to the village, we surmised he’d want to stay here while we all ran off elsewhere looking for him. Reverse psychology. We’d initially figured he’d want to stay here
because
it was the most likely place, and because he’d not want to be where we’d guess, he’d go elsewhere. He left—briefly—but returned here once he had his captive.”

“We were the first ones to happen by the screen,” Sarah said. “We saw Gena, and Porthos saw us. The lapse in the amount of time it took him to respond to us was another clue… he was responding without the slightest delay, so we had yet another clue that he was close. He ordered us to get the rest of you. We walked off to do so, and we did. But we went inside the building instead of returning to the screen.”

“Mom was the key,” Anna said. “She can move around in absolute silence… and without Energy, Porthos can’t sense her at all. We looked at the directory in the lobby, found his office, and moved outside. His office is pretty heavily Shielded against Energy loss, but it’s not perfect. I could trace him once we got closer, and his emotions told me when he was focused on the screen and not the door. Once he started bragging, and put the sword down, Mom went in without a sound.”

“How did it feel to knock him out cold like that?” Angel asked.

“It felt… really good,” Sarah admitted.

Everyone laughed.

Will glanced around the group. “We need to decide what to do with… the final weapon.”

An uncomfortable silence developed.

“I’m not sure I follow,” Angel replied at last. “I thought we’d only use it if things were going poorly.” She spread her hands. “We won.”

Will glanced at Hope. “That’s true. But… I wonder if our experiences show that we still need to activate the weapon. It’s no longer a weapon meant to end this war; it’s now a technology that will prevent a situation like this from ever developing again. If we activate the device now, no one else will ever need to suffer through the events of the past few days.”

There was silence once more as each pondered this concept.

Fil finally looked at his father. “It’s… this is not a decision to be undertaken lightly, Dad.”

“No, it isn’t,” Hope replied. “And the majority would no doubt argue against it, including the majority of who weren’t in any of the battle zones. We need to decide now if we’re going to use the device. If we go back to Eden and the Cavern, it will never be used.”

“Do we have the right to make that decision for everyone, though?” Gena asked quietly.

Will sighed. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “We were entrusted to make a decision to activate the weapon if the battle situation called for it. I just… I know we’ve defeated Arthur and our last known threat has been neutralized.” He glanced at Porthos’ bound, unconscious form. “But it only takes one person to become the menace we’ve just defeated. Twice, if you count Porthos’ short reign of terror.” He grimaced. “Have we truly won if there’s a chance something like this can happen again? If others will be faced with the horrors and losses we’ve experienced in such a short period of time?” He sighed. “I don’t know if we have the right, Gena. But I think we have the responsibility to make the decision and act upon it.”

Silence reigned once more.

It was Anna who finally spoke. “I think we should use it. The device won’t end the ability to do good in the world. But it will make it much more difficult for the type of evil we’ve just faced to rise to such a level of prominence once more.”

Fil smiled. “I agree with my brilliant daughter.”

Anna beamed.

The discussions continued among the survivors. But over the course of the next thirty minutes, each agreed with Anna.

The device was activated when a series of bands worn by a select group—who remained alive—were activated in tandem, using a complex swiping gesture unlikely to occur naturally. They each rolled up a sleeve and detached their bands, laying them upon the ground in front of them.

Angel, Fil, Hope, Gena, and Adam swiped their devices.

They’d left it to Will, their founder, their patriarch, their chosen leader, to perform the final swipe.

He had second thoughts. Activating the device would change his life, all of their lives, in ways he couldn’t yet imagine. But he’d meant what he’d told them. Those changes, he believed, paled in comparison to the devastation surrounding them. He hesitated, but his eyes found the tear-streaked face of his daughter.

If they’d activated this device sooner, he realized, Angel’s husband would still be alive.

He turned to Sarah. “In many ways, Sarah, I think the final swipe should be yours. You’ve earned us the final victory. And in many ways, you’re the one best suited to understand what this means.” He moved aside.

Sarah looked up from Fil’s side, surprised. But she nodded, and moved to Will.

She held her hand over the band. “And so it begins anew.”

She swiped the badge, and the device they’d spent decades creating and testing activated.

Nothing in the world would be the same.

One week later.

The emails still came. Will
sighed as he opened the next, this one from a man who’d heard the Headquarters Island invasion plan while in the Cavern and chose to initiate a trip Outside.

Will, something’s wrong. I can’t use my Energy. I can’t even feel it. I ran into some Alliance friends here and they all said the same thing. Do you know what’s going on?

He tapped out the reply.
Yes, I do. The Invasion of Headquarters happened. And then we detonated a device that destroyed all Energy in the world. The corruptive influence of Energy and the power it provides those with over those without led to the conflict, the suppression of the Alliance, and the exploitation of those we once called humans. We are all humans now.

He thought for a moment before adding one more point.
There are no Aliomenti and Alliance any longer. We’re all humans now.

He hit send, and then counted. One, two, three, four…

The reply popped up on his screen.
What? You destroyed Energy? You had no right to do that!

He sighed. He’d been right about one thing during that discussion on Headquarters Plaza as the fighting ceased. If they’d come back here and suggested detonating the device despite winning the fight, they’d be shouted down.

He shut down his tablet computer and went for a walk.

Eden had become a heavily populated region over the past week. They’d mended the injuries of the wounded and then began the time-consuming process of ferrying the humans—no, not the “humans,” the former workers from Headquarters Island rescued from their effective slavery—back to the mainland, each with sufficient monies to allow them to move to wherever they chose. Many asked to stay on Eden, but they’d refused.

“Will?”

He jumped.

After twelve centuries with Energy, the staggering void left behind was most noticeable in his inability to know when others approached. Adam’s approach had by no means been stealthy, but he’d failed to notice. “Hey.”

“Emails still coming in?”

Will nodded. “You, too?”

“A few. Not as many as you, I’m sure.”

He said nothing. It was only fair, he thought, that he get most of the blame. In many ways, it was entirely his fault. “I take it you didn’t come to ask me about my inbox.”

“No.” Adam hesitated. “Why did you lie about my mother?”

Will tensed briefly, then frowned. “Lie?”

“You told everyone that you asked her to go to Arthur, to give him information about you so he’d not actually kill us. We both know that’s not true.”

“It should have been true.” He thought back to the moment when he’d made the statement. “It probably wasn’t necessary. Nobody in the room seemed to think poorly of her for that choice. That, in part, was due to Arthur’s explanation and her physical condition. He made it pretty clear that she gave him just enough information to avoid making a catastrophic mistake, and it was clear that anything else they’d gotten from her hadn’t come willingly.” He hesitated. “I just… Eva was the first friend I made in the past. She’s been a huge part of my family’s life, and even its survival. I didn’t want her name potentially tarnished among the larger Alliance community when she couldn’t defend herself.”

Adam thought for a moment. “Thank you for that.”

Will nodded.

“I never really asked, by the way, about the weapon. How did you come up with the idea?”

Fil walked up to them at that moment. “That’s a good question.” He nodded at both men. “I think the last boat just left for the mainland. The formerly-labeled humans have left Eden.”

Will considered. “Hope and I had a lot of time to talk here while she recovered. We’d realized pretty early on in that process that once the known future history passed, we’d need to take action. Too many people died, too many lived in fear, to allow the Alliance-Aliomenti standoff to continue. We needed to push the issue before it got worse. That started the planning process. But Hope made the point that even if we won a battle of our choosing, even if we wiped out the Aliomenti entirely, we couldn’t change human nature. Someone with sufficient megalomania would generate sufficient power and decide they’d want to be in charge. For all we know, a child born today would be the one, a third or fourth-generation Energy user with immense power would decide the rules didn’t apply, and who’d stop them, right? We had to stop a person like that from taking control, just as Arthur did.” He shrugged. “Without Energy, Arthur can’t build an army of ten thousand powerful people who follow his every whim, who’ll happily sacrifice their happiness and even their lives just because he demands it. We realized that, as much good as Energy provides, it’s too much a temptation to think one’s self a god. It’s a narcotic, and an addictive one.”

Fil cocked his head. “We’ve built technology that replicates nearly every advantage gained with Energy, though. We’ve got portals that teleport people. The nanos can do things… well, they seem like magic at times, don’t they?”

“They do,” Will agreed. “But in the usage of that technology, you know it’s a tool, a machine, not an inherent part of
you
. And anyone can use them. There’s enough information about the technology out in the world now that anyone could, with sufficient focus, get near enough to what we’ve had for so long that there’s no longer a competitive advantage.”

Adam looked thoughtful. “I see the point.” He paused. “How’d you come up with the idea for the device itself?”

“In my youth, many fiction stories were written about something called EMP: Electromagnetic pulse. The idea was simple enough: detonate nuclear warheads not on the ground, but in the atmosphere. The result? All electronic devices immediately cease operation and can’t be repaired. There were novels written about the chaos that would erupt in such a scenario. The idea stuck with me, and when we talked about trying to end not just Arthur’s rule but Energy, the approach struck me. Could we make an EMP of sorts that would eliminate not electricity, but Energy? Could we make it so that the only people affected were Energy users?”

“And you did.” Fil nodded.

“And we did,” Will agreed. He offered a sheepish grin. “Based upon my inbox, the plan was overwhelmingly successful.”

“I’m confused, though,” Adam said, stroking his chin. “I’ve known you too long to think you’d design something, build it, and never test it out. You tested this device somehow. You knew it would work. But… how?”

“The question isn’t
how.
The question is
who.
”

Adam shrugged. “Okay, then. Who?”

“Sarah.”

Fil blinked. “What?”

“She knew she’d be on Eden for quite some time, and she wanted to help us in our efforts to defeat those who’d made that a necessity. She saw that same flaw, that we’d have to test it out on a smaller scale before activating it on the field of battle. And so she volunteered to test it out.”

“But…” Fil paused. “Wait a minute. Are you saying…?”

Will nodded. “She took zirple and morange and developed Energy just to test out the device. The first few prototypes didn’t work. She built her Energy up quite diligently, to the point she could even teleport around the Island.” He sighed. “And then one day, the device worked. No more Energy.”