Music of the Spheres (11 page)

Terry flushed red.

Jose, a pleased smile on his lips, motioned to Carlos and
the other men. “Let’s go secure the prisoners.” As he left with them, he called
back over his shoulder to Terry. “You can stay with Captain Gruber and help
him.”

Gruber gave Terry a level look. It was obvious what the
pilot was thinking: Terry’s status in the movement was on a downward slide.

When Jose and the other Cruzados were gone, Klaus took a
step closer to Captain Gruber. “Once we have everything aboard, I need you to
set the autopilot to point the liner back at the Sun. With any luck, the
authorities will waste time trying to save a ghost ship. By then, we’ll be very
far away. We have a lot of work to do, and we don’t want to be interrupted.”

Terry started to say, “But, I thought…” And once again, he felt
the heat rise in his neck and cheeks as Klaus looked at him with an amused
smile.

“What,” Klaus said, “did you think the governments of Earth
were just going to give in to our demands if we turned over the cargo and
hostages? Restore you to your rightful place as ambassadors to the stars? Ha!”
This time, his laughter had the sound of a threat in it. He was obviously
growing tired of entertaining Terry’s ignorance.

Terry knew he was pushing the limit of Klaus’s tolerance,
but he had to ask one last question:

“If we aren’t holding the Kinemet for ransom, what are we
going to do with it?”

There was a chill moment when Terry thought Klaus was going
to order his uncle to shoot him where he stood, but then the younger man’s face
broke into a wide grin.

“I’m glad you asked,” he said to Terry. “Because I need you
to work with me to complete the translation of the scroll, and uncover its
secret. For that, we need the Kinemet, and a few test subjects.”

With that, Klaus gave his uncle a nod, and then headed in
the same direction as Jose and the others.

Captain Gruber gave Terry a tap on the arm with the back of
his fingers. “Let’s get moving.”

∞

Trying not to be too obvious about it, Terry took a careful
look at the unconscious hostages as they were loaded on gurneys and transported
one by one from the liner to the
Ultio
. Aside from a few bruises here
and there, and an overall pallor of gauntness from lack of nutrition, they all
seemed to be healthy.

He did notice the one woman among them, a civilian, and
recognized her from the news. It was the captain from the missions to Pluto.
Terry was quite surprised to see her, but made sure to keep his expression
neutral around the other Cruzados.

Within an hour, the hostages and the Kinemet were
transferred to a safe hold on the
Ultio
, and Captain Gruber asked Terry
to help him fire up the
Diana’s
engines and set its course for oblivion.

For the most part, Terry had no idea what he was doing, but
whenever the captain said to press this button or that, he did. Soon, the liner
was fully prepped and ready for its final voyage into the Sun.

“If we aren’t going to return to Earth or Luna,” Terry asked
after screwing up his courage, “where are we going?”

“You know, you ask a lot of questions,” Captain Gruber said
in German. Though the translation came across in a pleasant programmed voice,
the captain’s original tone had been acerbic. He switched to English. “Curiosity
could get you in trouble. If Jose wanted you to know, he would have told you.”

Terry forced himself to keep his voice light and casual.
“Maybe it slipped his mind. He’s quite busy.” When the captain didn’t
immediately reply, Terry asked, “What’s the big secret, anyway? I’m going to
find out soon enough. So what’s the surprise?”

Eyeing the young Mayan, Captain Gruber took a minute out
from his final preparations and flicked on a backup navigation holoscreen. He tapped
in a few commands on the haptic console and the image of a familiar planet came
into view.

Terry’s lips fell open as if to make an exclamation, but no
sound came out. He finally found his voice. “I would never have guessed.”

“Precisely why Klaus chose it,” Captain Gruber said. “Not
only is it right there in plain view, but who would think to look for us in a
ball of poisonous gas and sulfuric acid?”

The captain finished programming the computer and got up to
leave. “My boy, if there is such a thing as hell, where we’re going is the
closest thing to it in this universe.”

18

NASA NewsFlash :

May 2102 :

Nearly one hundred
and forty years
after Venus became the object of the first successful interplanetary mission, the
Lucis Observatory orbiting Earth’s sister planet is now vacant and abandoned.

Citing budgetary constraints and lack
of public support for the research station, NASA’s board of directors voted
early last year to cease manned operations to Venus. The final crew disembarked
this morning after finalizing the automation of the remaining sensor equipment.
They should be arriving home by the end of the month.

For more details, please follow our
MeshSite…

19

Canada Station Three
:

Lagrange Point 4 :

Earth Orbit :

The one thing
Kenny insisted on was to record the experiments on holo.

Since they wanted to keep the administration of Quantum
Resources out of the procedures until they could come up with some solid
conclusions, both Alex and the physicist decided to conduct their tests in
Alex’s apartment after official hours.

For the most part, Alex’s involvement in the core research
at the lab had become minimal—there were only so many experiments they could do
without any Kinemet. It had only been on Kenny’s original insistence that Alex
had been there on a more regular basis the past few weeks. Now that Kenny’s
official reports did not show any progress, Alex was allowed to spend his time
as he saw fit, so long as he remained on call should the need arise.

Since recharging himself with the Kinemetic radiation on the
liner before it was hijacked, Alex was completely restored. He had not,
however, reported his recovery to the administration, and wouldn’t until he and
Kenny had a chance to do some of their own research.

His complexion was hale, his legs were strong, and he had
more energy than he’d had for years.

He had not gone to see Doctor Amma for his regularly
scheduled checkup, but sent her a message that everything was going well for
him. Although the doctor had the best of intentions, Alex knew any diagnosis
she reached would not provide him with any great insight into his condition. It
would, however, raise some serious flags back on Earth if they reported he had
gone into complete remission. For the time being, he could not afford that kind
of attention.

Alex wanted time to investigate other aspects of the Kinemetic
ability without the hindrance of the scientists who had spent most of the last
ten years getting him to perform the same useless tasks and scratching their
heads when they couldn’t figure out what it all meant.

In Kenny, Alex saw the spark of someone who wanted to know
the answers without using the knowledge for their own political or professional
gain. Although Kenny had come on strong—trying to prove himself—once he had a
glimpse of what Alex was, and what he could become, Kenny’s primary instincts
kicked in.

Most scientists initially entered their fields in the
pursuit of knowledge, to be the first one to solve the puzzle. After years of
the politics and squabbling inherent in the scientific community, many lost
sight of their purpose. Right under the surface, Kenny was still motivated by
his original passion, and Alex recognized it.

But while NASA and Quantum Resources
wanted
to know
the extent of Alex’s condition, Alex
needed
to know. And if it meant
going behind the backs of the administration to find those answers, so be it.

At first, when he no longer needed the hydraulic braces,
Alex was certain someone would notice him walking around Canada Station Three
under his own power, but after years of dismissing his presence, no one seemed
to be able to tell the difference. Still, Alex kept mostly to himself in his
rooms, except to go to the mess hall, or to the labs when he was called.

He didn’t need to go to any physical location; once again his
clairvoyant ability allowed him to visit any area on the station without
leaving his room. All he had to do was close his eyes and concentrate. It was a
simple matter of will for him to push his senses outward. Like a ghost or an
astral walker, he could frequent every corner of Canada Station Three.

Alex was
able to see Kenny with his ability long
before the physicist arrived at apartment for their nightly experiments.

A moment before Kenny pressed the buzzer, Alex extended his
thoughts to the door panel. While it was just as easy to walk over and press
the release, or even use voice control to allow the door to open, Alex
preferred to exercise his electropathic ability to trip the switch. It was good
practice.

“Hello, Alex,” Kenny said as he stepped inside.

Without any additional preamble, Kenny pushed a cart filled
with equipment toward Alex’s computer station and began to connect the sensor
leads to the bus ports.

“You had an idea, Kenny?”

The physicist nodded. “Yesterday I noticed that there was a
fluctuation in the ambient temperature when you used your
sight
.
”
He glanced over at Alex. “I hate using the word ‘clairvoyance.’ Sounds like
something a fortune-teller would say.”

Alex shrugged.

Kenny continued explaining: “I’d like to run a series of
tests to measure the temperature change around you in relation to the distance
that you extend your
sight
. It could be important; if you require more
energy to see farther, it could make a difference to how much Kinemet someone
would need to pilot a ship to different locations.”

“I keep telling you, piloting a ship in
that manner is not what was intended. That’s just incidental.”

Kenny looked up from the computer and
nodded. “Yeah, I know. But if we’re going to get the government corporations on
board with this—and get you more of the Kinemet—we need to give them some
tangible purpose. They want to see black on their profit and loss statements,
not red. They need results. Things they can get behind; like cheap space
travel.”

“All right. But tonight I’m going to try to
push my
sight
farther than I ever have before,” he said, adopting Kenny’s
word for the ability.

“What do you mean?”

Alex lay back on the sofa while Kenny
trucked the cart over and placed the sensors around and on Alex.

“The very first time I experienced the
sight,
I saw the entire solar system laid out for me. It happened over a four-hour
period, but in my memory, it was more like an afterimage from a bright flash.
There was no controlling it. It was almost like something in my mind was
calibrating my senses, getting my location.

“After that, my range was considerably
less. I could only see about a hundred and fifty kilometers away. Before I went
to Centauri, I used that ability to help the group who was sheltering me, by
warning them of incoming ships. When they went on salvage missions, I would
scout for them. I had plenty of time to practice and push my ability.”

Kenny asked, “You worked for the pirates
who kidnapped you, right?”

“We came to an understanding.” Alex closed
his eyes and tried to relax. “I’ve never been able to go farther than about a
hundred and fifty kilometres, and when I try, it’s been an enormous strain.” He
looked at Kenny. “I can sense there’s something out there, beyond the limit of
my clairvoyance—my
sight.
Maybe there’s something out there I can only
see if I’m quantized.”

“You mean, when you shift out of our
reality?” Kenny paused to look at Alex.

“Yeah. But when I enter a quantized state, I
don’t have any senses at all. It’s like I’m in some kind of stasis. I know
that’s not the way it’s supposed to be, but… It’s like I’m a baby bird that has
ventured out of its nest for the first time and sees the limitless sky. It can
tell it’s supposed to be able to fly, but hasn’t figured out how to use its
wings yet. Until I can complete my transformation, I won’t know what I’m
capable of when I become quantized.”

“So what is it that you are proposing
tonight?”

Alex breathed deeply, and paused to collect
his thoughts. “When I spent those few hours on the
Diana
recharging
myself with the Kinemet, there were others there who were also exposed to the Kinemetic
radiation.”

“Yes?” Kenny’s interest was piqued.

“Perhaps if I focus on them, since they’ve
been marginally irradiated, I’ll be able to bridge the gap between us.”

“And,” Kenny added, a knowing smile on his
lips, “perhaps get a location on your kidnapped friends?”

Alex nodded. “That’s the plan.”

“I’m on board with that. Let me just finish
hooking you up.”

It only took Kenny a few more minutes to
complete the set up. As he tested the sensors and got an initial reading before
they started their experiment, Kenny looked as if there was something he wanted
to say.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked.

“It’s only been three days since you were
restored,” Kenny said. “I know you’ve used your abilities far more than what
I’ve seen.”

Alex admitted, “Yeah. So?”

“So, the Kinemetic radiation in you is not
unlimited. You’re going to run out of juice at some point, and we have no idea
when we’ll get more for you.”

Alex leaned back into the sofa and smiled
dismissively. “I know, but I’m good for a while longer. Let’s get on with this,
Dr. Frankenstein.”

Once Kenny finished attaching the sensors
to Alex, measuring his vital stats as well as brain waves and electromagnetic
emanations, he flipped on the spectrograph and gave Alex a thumbs up gesture.

Shutting his eyes, Alex willed himself back
into that transcendent state. Over the past few days he had become quite adept
at the technique.

This time, instead of visualizing the
station and allowing his senses to float through the corridors and rooms, he
pushed his senses outward. Trying to ignore anything tangible within the scope
of his
sight,
he focused on any Kinemetic energy signatures in the area.
There was a link between him and that element, and if he could simply train his
extra-spatial senses to detect it, he was certain he could send his incorporeal
form out to find Justine and the others.

As he scouted in a sweeping pattern outside
the station, he felt an extrasensory tug, accompanied by a note or two of the
haunting melody that always seemed to be in the periphery of his senses when he
was using his Kinemetic abilities. Without being conscious of what he was
doing, he gathered all his will and pushed himself in that direction.

At first, his spectral senses soared at an
alarming speed, but it was as if he were on the end of a giant elastic. Once
Alex reached approximately a hundred and fifty kilometres distance from the
station, the effort to move himself even a meter more became exponentially more
difficult. Like a marathon runner who reaches their glycogen limit, Alex felt a
sudden burning fatigue and lost focus.

Disoriented, he suddenly could not
determine which way to return to his body. He was lost, adrift in space, and he
didn’t have enough energy to sever the link and snap back to reality.

Alex panicked, and he felt his
consciousness fade away into a nothingness as dark as the farthest regions of
space.