Alpha Rising (15 page)

“
Remarkable.”

“
A small effort to stay
ahead of the enemy,” the elder replied.

“
Don’t others wonder how
you can tell when it’s in death lake phase or antiseptic
phase?”

“
I told them I’ve broken a
rhythm code to the lake’s cyclical patterns.”

“
That sounds logical.
What’s the EMOG look like?”

“
Two inches top to bottom.
U-shaped. Semi-flexible, transparent, brilliant blue in
color.”

“
U-shaped?”

“
Yes. For a reason I don’t
understand, it works only in that configuration. And there’s a
major drawback, a nasty side effect.”

“
What’s that?”

“
It scrambles electronic
equipment across the entire spectrum.” He flinched. “Ruined a
roomful of lab equipment the night I invented it. No sleep that
night while I came up with an energy blocking material to
neutralize the force. I lined my hovercart with the material, and I
hide the EMOG there. I’m trying to perfect a second EMOG for Star,
but can’t seem to get it right.”

“
If the EMOG scrambles
electronic equipment, how do you get the device to the
lake?”

“
I ride the cart through
the spaceport to the hangar and into a ground transporter, then fly
off on business as usual. Tried more than once to find a way to
condense the insulating material down to something easily
transportable, like a pocket-sized box, but so far no luck, and no
time.”

“
Yeah, a small box sounds
like a great idea. Just don’t invite me to come along when you
test-fly with the prototype in your pocket.”

“
Discovery requires a leap
of faith,” Altemus replied matter-of-factly. He returned to his
notes, mumbling, rapping his fingers on the logbook’s open pages
and loudly expelling breath from his lips. “Much to do: install new
radar unit, life-support management systems, bonded alloys, convert
to solid fuel.”

Bach stepped to his partner’s side. “Add a
remote controlled ramp in the Wizard. When we travel to the other
planets, disembark and lock up, we’ll need to get back in from
outside.”

Altemus grumbled, “Remote controlled
ramp.”

*****

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The workday had long ended in Dura’s massive
research center, but Bach worked late, frustrated and exhausted.
The restoration project had fallen behind schedule and he had ideas
to move things along, but needed to record the details in private.
For security, he used a pressure-sensitive electronic data pad, and
a retention pen that left no print on the pad and encrypted up to
five hundred lines of text in memory. He would upload it later to a
decryption computer. The pen beeped verification at the end of each
written line.

Bach wrote: Program robots to work at higher
efficiency. (Beep). Acquire a sixth robot. (Beep). Activate
refrigeration systems in portions of environmental module and
animals’ module. (Beep). Turn on simulated sunlight in hydroponics
chamber. (Beep).

Several sentences later he
realized the pen hadn’t beeped for a few lines. He shook it and
wrote again on the data pad. No beep. “Oh, no, I can’t lose my
data.” The power indicator showed active, but to be sure, he stuck
the pen into a charging unit and inspected the pad. Then he noticed
something odd; a brownish spot, like a watermark, on the pad’s
surface.
A watermark? That wasn’t there
before. And nothing would imprint on that pad
.

Little by little, the spot gained
definition. The Specter’s hypnotic eyes stared from the pad and
taunting words rolled from his flickering silver tongue. “Don’t be
misled by Dura’s sorcerers, Bach. The Ultimate World is not evil.
Dura is evil. Unite with me. I can bring harmony to all of
creation.” He seemed to wait for a reply, then became resolute. “If
you don’t, I’ll have Kaz forget you … perhaps fall in love with
Lynch.” The pupils in his eyes funneled toward another dimension.
“If you want Kaz and your crewmates back, just share the fuel
formula. You’ve won Altemus’s favor with your devotion and virtue.
You’ll be his confidant before he dies.”

The Specter’s message sliced through Bach’s
mind like a razor blade. He slammed the data pad against the
workstation then heaved it across the floor all in one motion,
watching as it skidded to a stop where Lavender Rose had sat. It
took him a while to calm down.

After retrieving the damaged device, he
hurriedly uploaded the information he had stored in the pen to the
decryption computer before anything else could go wrong. In a
post-adrenaline state of exhaustion, he didn’t hear approaching
footsteps.

“
So…,” Wilde grabbed a
nearby chair, spun it around alongside Bach and straddled it.
“keeping yourself company a lot lately, huh? You’ve virtually
dropped out of sight, and Altemus is riding you like a one-man
rescue craft. Tell him to back off and let you have a social
life.”

Bach searched for words and, at the same
time, noted Wilde’s odd attire—not the standard jumpsuit, but a
white shirt and satiny black pants, both trimmed in shiny silver.
“Uh, just enjoying, you know, learning. This technology’s
incredible. If we were to get this far on Earth we could change
conditions there, turn things around.”

The oddball genius swiveled his chair side
to side, eyes fixed on the computer panel.

Bach jerked the retention pen from the
download slot. A morphing display of shapes and colors flickered on
the panel.

Wilde tapped his fingernail on the glass
panel and raised his eyebrows. “What did I catch a glimpse of,
temperature controlled environments? Looked interesting. Maybe I
can add insight.”

“
It’s a hypothetical design
for eventual intergalactic travel. Pure speculation on space
environments. Just having fun.”

“
Fun? We don’t see you all
day then you spend long nights here. That’s not fun.”

“
I’m learning as much as I
can from Altemus. He knows his time is short, that’s why we’re
together so much. He tells me his visions for Jenesis. This new
technology challenges me to bring them to life.”

“
A noble goal. But now, old
buddy, it’s time to log off, exit, and shut down. You’re coming to
a party.”

“
No, thanks, I’m out of
place in group situations. And when I do pack up for the night, I
plan to decompress and get some sleep. I’m tired.”

Wilde stood firm. “I insist!” He rose from
his chair. “It’s a big event. We’re rewarding our internal
investigation team for exposing a Rook among us. Poor guy.”

“
What happened to
him?”

“
A dip in the death lake.”
He jostled Bach’s shoulder. “Log off, buddy, you’re a free man
tonight, and—”

Bach talked over him. “I don’t have
time.”

Strengthening his grip on Bach’s shoulder,
Wilde said, “Bad excuse … won’t work. Log off.”

Bach spoke into a microphone attached to the
computer. “Save. Close. Exit.” The panel went dark, and the system
shut down.

#

Wilde and Bach entered the Skyprism’s party
facility, an oversized room resembling a cave, complete with rocky
walls, ledges, and crevasses. Silver foil streamers swirled from
air jets high in the domed ceiling, and tiny rotating lights
flashed off hundreds of mirrored chips embedded in the concave
walls. On a stage off to one side, a band played a pulsing tune,
and dozens of Durans on the dance floor in their black and white
clothing with silvery trim hopped up and down to the beat. Ghostly
blue lighting stripped the color from their faces, making them seem
more like robots than living beings.

Bach watched for a minute
then turned to speak to Wilde, only to find he’d slipped away.
Staring into the sea of blue-tinged faces, he talked to himself,
“Sneak out and go to bed. No one will miss you.” As he turned to
leave, cheers, applause, and laughter broke from a group playing
electronic games on the far side of the room. The energy and
excitement enticed him.
Maybe Wilde’s
right … I should loosen up.
He made his way
to the gaming area and stood to one side, uncomfortable as the only
one wearing the standard silver jumpsuit. The group separated into
four teams of six, and a moderator reset two electronic games that
projected images onto midair particles visible within an area the
size of a movie screen. Troubles faded from Bach’s mind and he
enjoyed a strategic game of good versus evil played in real time.
When the electronic bad guys destroyed the good guys with one
strike, he moaned and groaned with the spectators, then moved on.
Turning his attention back to Durans on the dance floor, he noticed
their moves now resembled dancing on Earth.
I’m still out of place.

As Bach looked for Wilde in the crowd, a
pretty, blond woman smiled at him from about thirty feet away. He
inadvertently smiled back and noticed she was headed his way. He
looked down at his feet. “Oh, no.”

Before he could look again, someone clamped
both hands over his eyes from behind. He winced, then sighed.
“Lavender!”

“
How’d you know? I just got
here. You didn’t see me come in.”

“
Your fragrance gives you
away.”

Lavender swung around in front of him and
leaned close to his face. “Glad you like my DNA.” Her voice seemed
more coarse than usual. “You know I miss being near you in the comm
center. It’s no fun in spec oversight. I hate it. But tonight,” her
voice lowered, “I have you all to myself, away from all that
tiresome stuff.” While Lavender rambled on, Bach scanned the crowd
for the blond. He didn’t see her, but couldn’t miss Wilde standing
near the dance floor on the other side of the room, staring right
at him. Wilde’s staunch, motionless presence made the dancers seem
a blur.

Lavender noticed Wilde at the same time and
quieted down. He signaled for her to join him. She flipped her head
and turned around, only to find that Bach had slunk away. She
chased after him and tried to lead him onto the dance floor, but he
stepped back to resist and bumped into someone. He turned to
apologize and found Wilde.

“
You need to relax,” Wilde
said, grasping Bach’s forearm and shoving a glass with smoke rising
from it into his hand. “Join the party. This stuff makes me true to
my name, it’s
wild!”

The opaque white drink had a weird glow,
like milk under a blacklight. Bach grimaced.

“
It’s Axxis, spelled with
two
x’s
,” Wilde
said, “so named because it’ll rotate you right off
yours
.” He laughed and
walked away.

Lavender pushed the glass to Bach’s mouth.
“Try it.”

With the steaming Axxis under his nose, Bach
inadvertently inhaled the strong licorice aroma. His gut twisted,
remembering one day as a kid when too much licorice sent his
stomach contents airborne. “Really, Lavender, I don’t want to drink
anything. I want to go to bed. I’m tired.”

“
Just try it. It’s not
intoxicating. It’s a power juice … jolts you with
energy.”

He shook his head.

She plucked the glass from his hand, slugged
down the Axxis, and licked her lips. “Whooo. Now I’ll be awake
until tomorrow.”

“
Terrific,” he mumbled,
stepping back to scan the crowd. “Is Star here?”

“
Oh Star, Star, busy little
researcher, trying to find a way to save our planet. Oh, excuse me,
I digress. No, she’s not here.”

Bach changed the subject, “Wilde wasn’t
kidding when he said this party was a good one.”

“
Yeah, they always
celebrate when infiltrating Rooks are discovered and relieved of
their positions.”

“
They
celebrate?”

“
They, we, us … you know.”
Lavender’s eyes blinked rapidly. She threw her head back and
mimicked the drumbeat. “Boom, boom, boom.”

Bach tried to get away, but the
Axxis-overdosed fanatic followed in his footsteps. He saw Reno
approaching and yelled and waved. “Hey, Reno!”

Reno walked up with a big smile and shook
Bach’s hand. “Bach! Glad you joined us. We haven’t had a party in a
while.”

Bach looked like he was smiling, but he was
whispering through his teeth. “Help. Get me away from her.”
Pleading eyes flashed toward Lavender Rose.

Reno put his arm over Bach’s shoulder and
spoke loudly. “Let’s head over to the refreshment table. I’ll point
out a few good snacks.”

Walking away, Bach took a quick peek over
his shoulder. Lavender waved. The hazy blue light gave her pale
skin and gray eyes a creepy, luminescent look.

At the snack tables, Reno poked a plate into
Bach’s hand. “Elan and I got this fruit on a co-op hop. Planet Maon
had a growth season. Have you learned yet about the unusual
properties of certain foods? Firefruits, quees, and camlings, to
name a few.” He pointed to a fuzzy red berry. “Firefruits terminate
intoxication.”

Bach smiled. “I already know about that
one.”

Reno held up a brittle-looking yellow object
the size of his little finger. “This,” he said, “is a quee, a cross
between fruit and vegetable … result of experimentation. Looks dry,
but has a liquid core. Put a flame to a quee and it launches sky
high. Great source of amusement at times.”

Bach held a quee in his palm and poked at it
with his finger. “They’re edible?”

“
Yeah. Burns a little going
down, sour, but good for cleansing the palate.”