Chaos Theory (34 page)

The hologram winked out.

Kali died.

28.

Kali’s head rolled to the side lifelessly. Blue gripped her
shoulders, staring at the side of her face. His Kali didn’t feel
gone, wouldn’t have left him like that.

What he’d felt when he’d delved into her mind was …
strange.

His feelings for Kali before all of this were unquestionable
and intense, yet there he stood, detached and unable to accept she
was dead. Irrational as it was, he didn’t care the body he clung to
held no life. That confused him with its illogicalness and his face
twisted in reflection of his inner turmoil.

Howl suddenly jumped and danced on the spot, barking
excitedly.

Natalya hissed, pointed ears flat to her head. Her dark eyes
darted around suspiciously. They didn’t fix on anything in
particular, just wheeled around as if what she sought was
everywhere.

Kali’s eyes flew open, piercing, and snapped to
Blue.

Frightened, Kenshin lurched back, the laser scalpel falling
from his fist.

The odd angle of her head made the stiff fixation of Kali’s
eyeballs creepy, but Blue stared back, and was sucked into a vortex
of impressions.

Icy cold. Slimy wet. Isolation.

“
I’m trapped here,
Blue
.” Her desperate whisper echoed in his
ears, the same haunting voice from his dream. “
I’m cold
.”

Thick tubes pierced his flesh. They were stuck in his stomach,
his chest, and the back of his head. He tasted bitter liquid
swilling in his mouth and wanted to gag. His skin felt grimy and
shrivelled. A dark cloud of hair floated around him, and his eyes
burned when he peered through the murky water he was submerged in.
Bone-chilling fear had him struggling to move from the restraints
holding him spread-eagled as the white shadow drifted closer then
pressed its face to the glass. His heart pounded in fright at the
bulbous obsidian eyes, colourless skin, and pitiless mouth filled
with fangs.

The connection was cut.

Blue was hurled back into his own mind.

Lara and Igor grabbed their heads. Kenshin fell to his knees,
eyes rolling out of sync as blood seeped from his nose. The Humans
jerked away from the Hybrids, terrified by them and the moving
corpse.

High-pitched screeches bounced off the walls. The frequency of
the mental communication increased to a painful trilling, and the
vibrations shattered the thin crystal beakers strewn across the
ransacked medical bay.

Kali’s pale, dead face twisted in agony. Her neck cricked
oddly. An excruciating punch of telepathic energy blasted through
the room. “
HELP ME!”
The guttural cry echoed loudly. Kali’s mouth wrenched open
and froze agape. She screamed. The bloodcurdling sound didn’t come
from her gaping mouth, but through the ghostly mental connection,
exploding with apocalyptic force. It ripped past the Hybrid’s
mental defences and rattled the room.

The body on the crystal table trembled violently. It turned
translucent black then disintegrated through Blue’s fingers, a sand
so fine it flowed like water and sparkled like crystals. It gushed
over the edges of the tabletop and sifted onto the floor in a
gentle rush.

Silence descended with a faded ringing in the air.

In delayed reaction, Christabella shrieked hysterically. Her
whole body quaked with the sheer force of the noise erupting from
her.

Creighton convulsed then rolled over and vomited electric pink
LiquiNu onto the titles. Mixed with his stomach acid, it stank, and
made their eyes water in the enclosed space.

“
Somebody tell me what’s
happening
?” Zeke’s bellow crackled over
the ComLink. “Push collapsed. She’s bleeding from her ears. Oi? Can
anybody hear me?” There was a tinkle as the transmission
cut.

Groaning, Kenshin lifted himself from the floor. He swiped at
his bloody nose. “I need to work on my mental barriers.”

“
There was no stopping that,” Lara gasped. She rubbed her
temples, cheeks pink. “When I realised what was happening I tried
to erect a block, but my wall was torn apart like tissue
paper.”

“
The touch was strong,” Igor rumbled. “Clumsy, but powerful. I
did not sense hostile intentions, only the desire to be heard.
Natalya! Quiet.”

The leopard immediately stopped snarling at the clipped
command from her master.

“
What,
the
fux
, was that?” Max mumbled.

Prying Christabella’s hands from her temples, he helped the
traumatized girl onto her feet. He tucked her head on his chest to
stifle her cries as he glared at the dark piles of sand that used
to hold the form of his best friend’s body.

Howl padded into the room and stopped beside Blue. He sniffed
at the sand then chuffed bad-naturedly. It was the first time he’d
come anywhere near Kali. He barked then sat at Blue’s side, his
golden eyes knowing.

Blue placed a hand on the FetchMe’s downy head.

He had not been as physically affected as the others by the
mental push, being stronger in his psychokinetic ability yet it had
shaken him to the core. He was certain the message had been meant
for him. His mind raced as he pieced it together, and the relief
that stole over his body bowled him over. To hold himself upright
on shaky legs, his palm flattened on the crystal table, grains of
sand rubbing into his skin as he stared at the opposite
wall.

“
Wasn’t her,” he said finally, eyes closing briefly. “My Kali
didn’t die. It wasn’t her.”

“
The FetchMe knew,” Lara said, visibly shaken. She pushed her
hair back from her face and clasped her throat. “This whole time.
That’s why he wouldn’t go near her.”

“
Remarkable,” Kenshin breathed, crawling forward to sift his
gloved hand through a silky pile. “Fascinating.”

“
What was that thing?” Max demanded again. “Why did it look
like Kali?” He shook his head in disbelief. “No, I’m sorry, but I
know that girl like I know myself. That was Kali.”

“
Did they trick us when we saved Madeleine and Creighton?”
asked Christabella in a small voice. “What if more of us are like
that?”

Though she doubted the people around her, she clung onto
Max.

“
She was in my head,” Igor said quietly. “Kali. She’s screaming
inside. I felt tubes all over my body and such pain in my mind.” He
dragged in a breath. “It did not come from this body. The call for
help came from somewhere else.”

“
The Creator,” Lara said. “They released
this …
thing
.”

“
Then why did she not attack us or relay our plans to raid the
slave encampment?” Igor questioned.

“
You think this thing was sent by the real Kali?” Lara frowned.
“She’s never met us. I admit it’s odd the replica didn’t try
anything suspicious, but it wasn’t on our side.”

“
Replica?” Christabella groaned, looking faint.

Igor was uncertain. Lara was not making sense to him. “The
touch to my mind was familiar. It felt like Kali knew me.
Personally.”

“
Just because the replica appeared good, doesn’t mean it
was.”

“
She couldn’t have managed this.” Creighton stared at where his
daughter used to be. “Kali wasn’t a Hybrid before they took her.
Her eyes were normal and so was her hair. No sharp teeth. She hid
nothing from us. She was considered a genius and never hid it. She
showed no telekinetic or telepathic–”

“
Latent inherent ability, perhaps.” Kenshin was on his knees by
the black sand, thoughtful. “You can’t classify what you can’t
see.”

“
The muscle memory,” Max murmured.
“She
couldn’t
throw that knife.”

Creighton snapped his gaze to the younger man.
“What?”

“
She was different, but it doesn’t matter. We can’t leave her,”
Max pressed urgently. “She wouldn’t leave me, any of us, if she
knew we were in trouble. We have to go back.”

“
Like Lara, I doubt the real Kali met us,” Kenshin said. “I do
not think she is at the encampment. The call originated further
than that.”

“
Please,” Creighton whispered, emotionally flattened. “Help me
find my daughter. We have to go back to look for clues.”

“
Speculation is counter-productive and
inconclusive,” Lara stated. She slapped her hands together. “You’re
grasping at straws. We can order Zeke and Valiant to turn the ship
around in the hope of finding Kali at the slave encampment, but we
all know how stupid that would be. Evidence suggests she’s not
there, and the area has been compromised by the Creator’s viral
weaponry. Do you honestly believe we’ll be able to escape if we do
find something? The Host and the Creator are on alert after our
raid.” She gave them hard looks to reaffirm that she thought the
concept of going back ludicrous. “We continue as we
are,
safe
and
alive
.”

“
Listen to what you’re asking,” Blue seethed. “They could move
Kali or destroy evidence of where she might be. Her trail would go
cold.”

“
Finding a clue to her whereabouts back
there holds a minimal chance of success. You’re Hybrid, stop
thinking like a Human, and
do the
math
, Blue. There is a high likelihood of
success if we return to the bunker. Making impromptu changes to our
short-term goals remains the superior plan. It is illogical to turn
back.”

“
I agree running away is logical,” Igor said. “But is it the
right thing to do?”

“
It’s not running away,” Lara shot back. “It’s
survival.”

“
I can no longer reconcile my feelings to follow cold logic.”
He shrugged at her. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m being
honest.”

“
This is ridiculous,” Lara shouted. She spun to Creighton. “I
am sorry for all that you have lost. Truly. I fought to keep the
replica alive, but I won’t run head first into certain danger
without a damn good reason.”

“
We knew her before the invasion,” Christabella said. “Can’t
you understand that?”

“
People die all the time. Thousands have died in the last few
days, and your entire species is being enslaved as we speak. Shit
happens. It’s sad the wonderful Kali Loklear got swept up in that,”
she waved her hands theatrically, “but we need to regain focus. We
already risked everything for Kali to find her parents, and look
where that brought us.”

“
Dreamed of her,” said Blue. “She’s been reaching out to me
this whole time, and I ignored her. Couldn’t see past what she put
in front of me.” His head moved from side to side, in admiration.
“It wasn’t the Novae. Kali’s been astral projecting her etheric
body into this one.”

Kali had felt different to him when he’d found her. Even the
replica had been confused as to why the connection was no longer
there. They’d both decided maybe they weren’t as compatible as they
first thought, but there were odd moments when he looked into her
eyes and felt that special connection.

Those glimpses of what he felt before she had been taken now
made perfect sense.

“
She believes everything is connected on a plane below
subatomic,” he explained, because he saw they weren’t having the
same epiphany as him. “The containment of energy gives us mass,
matter, and she transformed the energy of the material she had to
hand into her.”

“
You’re pushing this because the replica said she woke up in
sand,” Lara protested.

“
Really?” Kenshin’s eyes were round. “Lara, that strengthens
his argument.”

Blue nodded. “When the replica died the energy reverted to its
pre-manipulated state. Kali was somehow still connected to it. She
felt the death, and in desperation sent a final mental touch to
reach us.”

Blue repeatedly thumped the tabletop with both hands in
agitation, all the pieces falling into order. The strength of her
mind blew him away. How many people would fall apart in the hands
of an extra terrestrial captor? How many would use their
intelligence to reach out like she had when they were physically
bound?

What she had accomplished humbled Blue.

Her mind was beautiful, and when he found her, he would tell
her so.

“
Blue, stop. Breathe. Listen to what you’re saying and you’ll
realise it’s moon mad.” Lara planted fists on her temples. “Even I
couldn’t focus enough psychic power to accomplish that. You’re
talking about manipulating billions of particles on the subatomic
plane, and altering their oscillations without screwing up their
dimensional super symmetry.”

“
Princess studied that,” Creighton said, ready to accept any
explanation if at the end of it he got his daughter back. “Super
symmetric string theory.”

Lara bade herself to be calm. She spread her fingers at her
waist and inhaled deeply. “Did she? Granted, what Blue is
suggesting is theorised, and within the realms of Theory Of
Everything,” she said calmly. “But to think that a Human could do
this thing is insane.”