Birth of the Alliance (10 page)

The trip took a week, courtesy of the upgraded propulsion system the
Nautilus
boasted. They targeted Waterloo, Sebastian’s most recent place of residence. Will wanted to get as close to him as possible without actually being seen. The travel time gave them a chance to check and retest the “armor” he’d wear, clothing woven of fibers constructed from the artificial scutarium. Gloves, boots, a mask, and goggles completed the outfit, ensuring no exposed skin to generate Energy leakages Sebastian might detect.

Will was at the greatest risk. If the armor failed, he’d probably only know when Sebastian arrived, with Tacitus in tow to Damper him, and thus he might not return. Hope was to wait for two hours after he left. If he’d not returned, she was to proceed to Eden and wait for him there for two days. If he didn’t meet with her there, she was to return to the Cavern and inform the Alliance that the scutarium suit had failed.

Hope didn’t like the plan. At all. “Why are you the only one at risk? I’m just as much a part of this as you.”

“It’s a practical choice, Hope. Sebastian already knows my Energy signal, and you can believe that if he senses me he’ll come running, likely with Tacitus in tow. He does not know your Energy signal, and in fact doesn’t even know you exist. If you set your Energy off near him, he’ll think it’s an Aliomenti from another outpost coming to visit. That's hardly something that would draw him out. You still have your anonymity with him. Let's keep it that way.” He shrugged, but inside he recognized the other practical reason to put him at risk, rather than her.
He
wasn’t necessary to bring their children into the world, for young future Will would still exist if he was captured or… worse. “This is going to work. With this clothing and scutarium homes on the Outside, we’ll all be Shadows soon. I’ll be as invisible to Sebastian as the rest of you.”

Hope scowled, partially for the words, but in part for the thought of his lack of importance going forward. “I should be there with my swords in the event he
does
find you. I can still stay hidden from his Tracking that way, and it’s one less way you’re at risk.”

Will shrugged it off. “If he shows up, I'll teleport to the old cave near the old North Village. Sebastian won’t be able to get that far.”

“What if he teleports to you and has Tacitus in tow, Will? What if Tacitus gets his hands on you? How do you plan to teleport so far away with huge chunks of Energy gone?”

“It won’t matter, because I have another gift from the future, Hope. He literally won't be able to touch me this time.”

Hope’s eyes narrowed. “
Another
gift? What type of gift?”

Will sighed. He explained the concept of the nanos, and showed her how they responded to his mental commands. “I can literally form invisible armor with these. He may think he's making contact, but he won't be. These little machines saved my life that night.”

Hope was staring at the small chair Will had formed out of the nanos in front of her eyes. “I should be upset that you didn’t tell me about this… but I’m not. I struggled with the idea of thinking machines I could see. Now you're talking about thinking machines that are so small they’re invisible.”

“I appreciate your generosity in not being angry with me,” Will said, the relief evident in his voice. “I've had them for ages. They were put in me, in some cases before I knew what they were, before I traveled back in time. After a while, I simply forgot that I hadn't mentioned them. In the rare cases I've used them recently we haven't been around each other, and—”

Hope put a hand on his arm. “Relax, Will. Am I slightly annoyed? Yes. I don't think you meant to hide it from me for this long, and I suspect that my reaction to seeing the sub for the first time probably made you worried about how I'd handle news of tiny thinking machines that fly around and do all sorts of amazing things. But, now that I do know…” Her face filled with mischief. “How do I get some?”

Will laughed, and moved to the galley to grab some drinks. “Well, you've had some for a while, though none that can do…
that
.” He gestured at the chair. “They created some specialty machines that heal you from the inside. I put some in you when… Elizabeth ceased to be.” She winced at the memory, still able to feel each blow seven centuries later. “They helped to make sure that Hope existed. I thought I'd taken all of them back after you were completely healed, but I hadn't. And each time I've seen you since, I sent a few more your way. The morange, the zirple, and the ambrosia will keep you very healthy. These machines, these nanos, will heal traumatic injuries very quickly… stabbings, bruises, and the like. You have half of the ones I was given so long ago.”

She looked surprised, then nodded. “Thank you.”

He nodded. “What you don't have, and what I can't move from me to you, are the nanos that let you
talk
to all of the machines that are owned by you. You can't send those healing nanos back to me until you get those communication nanos, for example, not that I’d want you to send them back. I'd love to give you half or more of the nanos, and I would, but you wouldn't be able to use them. But… I'm working on creating them now, or at least the earliest version of them. It's my next big project. It's my belief that they will help us see how the ambrosia changes the body, and then we can figure out how to reverse the effects.”

Hope frowned. “If you already have these machines in you… why not try them out on the new recruits? It can't hurt them, can it?”

Will shook his head. “No, no chance of that. I actually
did
try that with the second batch of recruits. The parts that could send images back didn't work inside the cells. I don't know why. But if they don't work, I'd need to know how to make them and adapt them to fix the problems. That's what I'm working on in the Cavern now. I’m hoping at some point that work will lead future Alliance members to create the nanos that they’ll give me in five hundred years.”

Hope frowned. “It’s so strange…” She paused, thoughtful, and walked toward the galley to grab a piece of fruit. She waved at a dolphin swimming by outside before returning to sit next to Will. “Our children should know the predicament we're in now, the peril it brings to their own lives. If they've built these… nanos… in the future, and they're capable of looking inside our bodies…” Her frown deepened. “Well, why not send back nanos that could see inside the cells? Why leave it to chance like this?” She shrugged. “I suppose I should remind them of that little detail in the future, shouldn’t I?”

It was Will's turn to frown. Why indeed? “Thus far, everything they've done—or
not
done—has had a purpose.” Will spoke slowly, reasoning everything out as he did. “One of the biggest mysteries to me thus far was whether the Purge they gave me, or the food they fed me, contained ambrosia. I don't think they did. Most of this journey has relied on me acting as… well,
me.
The diary has almost always given me data, like a mixture for concrete, but has never given me guidance on choices. Think about it like this. I wanted to take you from the North Village immediately. If I’d done that, we probably head south, never find the Ambrosia forest, and by now you’re long gone from old age. They would know I wouldn’t want to live an immortal life if you were gone. So they’d not send me back in time as an immortal for that reason. No, they knew once you told me you didn’t want to leave that village until you’d put everything you had into reforming Arthur, that I’d stay, and because of that we’d end up traveling with Eva, not south, but northwest. So… if they didn’t give me the ambrosia then, it means we were meant to find it now.”

“Which means that if they didn't send back that type of machine, it’s because it's critical that we invent them ourselves for some reason,” Hope said, nodding.

“Or they never figured out how to build the machine themselves… and the method to find the solution is something we haven’t even thought of yet.” Will's voice was quiet, and amidst the thrum of the submarine engines, the tone seemed even more ominous than the words. A small bit of conditioned air blew against them, and Hope shuddered at the chill of artificial wind and words.

“OK, enough of that.” Will clapped his hands twice, as if to snap their attention to something different. “We're here to test scutarium. I'll teleport just outside the ship and use the nanos to propel myself to shore. I'll stay out of sight, but attempt to confirm visually that Sebastian is here. If I do, I'll cover myself entirely—gloves, mask, and goggles—and expend Energy. If Sebastian doesn't come for me after five or ten minutes, I suspect it's safe to assume he hasn't sensed me. I don’t think he’d come after me on his own; he’ll want to find Tacitus and possibly others to try to subdue me, and that’s why I'll need to wait for a few minutes. If he finds me, I'll meet you at Eden within the next few days.”

Hope nodded. “Sure you won't change your mind and bring me onshore? I wouldn't mind taking a few additional swings at Sebastian and his friends.” Her face darkened, and she simulated slicing a sword through the air.

Will smiled. “If you come ashore and he sees you, he'll run away in terror and we'll never know if this works.” He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I'll be back soon.”

“You'd better be.”

After assembling his scutarium-based clothing and establishing his nano exoskeleton, Will teleported into the sea water just outside the
Nautilus
, and used the nanos to propel himself to the shore. The water slid off him, so he wasn’t wet; the nanos kept the liquid away from his hair, skin, and clothing. He trudged through the soft sand, inhaling the familiar air and scent of this oceanside outpost area, and felt the warm sun on his skin.

He was able to detect loose pockets of Energy from the Aliomenti living here, and ensured he avoided those spots. It had been forty years since he'd been in this area, but given Aliomenti lifespans, there would still be plenty of residents here able to recognize him on sight.

He slid into the forest near the shore, noting the change in temperature as the strong rays of the sun were absorbed by the trees, and he gave an involuntary shiver at the sudden, relative chill. The trees gave off a fragrant scent, not quite so sweet or powerful as ambrosia—the Aliomenti would never plant those trees outside their protective walls—but nonetheless very pleasant. Will used the nanos to float into the upper branches of some of the taller trees. The spot provided him with a view over the outpost walls and directly into the community. Will’s eyesight was exceptionally strong. If Sebastian was still living here in Waterloo and moved around the community, Will would see the man and carry out the next part of his test. He scanned the community, and while it was buzzing with activity, he was unable to spot Sebastian.

He did see Victor walking around, hands clasped behind his back, observing the behavior of his fellow Aliomenti. Tacitus, now grown to adulthood, walked in a similar loop. A scroll was pinned between his left arm and his side, and he carried a quill and parchment with him as he walked. He'd stop periodically, frown at an Aliomenti who passed him, consult the scroll, and then scribble a note on the parchment. Will sighed. He remembered Tacitus reciting a list of supposed crimes he had committed. The man was no doubt on patrol, trying to catch his fellow Aliomenti committing some “crime” for which they should be imprisoned, punished with the temporary loss of Energy only Tacitus could promise.

Will had nearly concluded that Sebastian no longer lived in Waterloo when he heard the man speaking below. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

“…hasn't spent the past forty years sitting around doing nothing, I'm sure.”

“Then what
has
he been doing?” The second voice was Arthur's, and Will nearly fell from the tree. “He spent a lot of time away from outposts during the last four or five centuries. Nobody seems to know where he went or what he did
then
. Nobody, therefore, has a good sense of what he might be doing
now
, or
where
he might be.” There was a deadly pause. “I had expected you to be able to answer the
where
question by now, Sebastian. I grow tired of waiting for Will Stark to simply fall into our laps.”

If the tone or accusation rattled Sebastian, he didn't reveal it in his tone of voice. “I can detect people from a distance, Arthur, but that distance is finite. If he's fifty miles away? Sure. If he's… I don't know… if he's moved to the Colonies, then I'm not going to detect him unless I'm there and relatively close to him.”

“Fifty miles is not enough, Sebastian. That gives people like Stark far too much of the world to use as a hiding place. You
must
increase your Tracking distance.”

“So I've been told, Arthur. But this is one of the many reasons why I've argued for expanding to the Colonies. When he left, Stark knew we had no presence there, and no plans to expand there, either. They say the land is fertile, the business opportunities outstanding. If I were Will Stark, that's where I'd go. We'd have a better chance of finding him if we dispatch a large number of Aliomenti across the Atlantic. And while we're at it, we can make a lot of money in the process.”

As he listened, Will carefully made sure that the scutarium suit, gloves, cloak, and face-covering mask were in place. He started generating Energy inside his body, as if trying to warm himself on a cold day, or in preparation for teleportation or flight.