Midnight Sky (Dark Sky Book 2) (23 page)

I reached into my coat and felt the leather of my mother’s journal. I regretted not reading more of it before coming here. There were secrets in the hollow walls of this ship, and not knowing those secrets could have devastating consequences.

“We’re here,” Riley said.
 

Hearing his voice took me out of my thoughts. If he hadn’t said anything, I probably would have kept walking until I reached the end of the ship. I turned to face the only set of closed doors in the entire frigate. Above the entrance were thick letters that read “ENGINEERING BAY.” My pulse increased at the sight of them.
 

I stepped in front of Riley, looking at the double doors and the keyhole in front of them. I handed the torch back to Riley and lifted the skeleton key from my neck. I ran my thumb over it, hoping this was what it was for.

Holding my breath, I put the key in the lock. It fit perfectly. I turned and heard a click. But the door didn’t open.
 

Frowning, I stepped back and looked over the door again. Then I looked to the side, and saw a thin box sticking to the right side of the door. I walked over to it and flipped the panel open. The door was operated opened by a key, but powered by electricity.
 

I took out the Volt, the only electrically charged device I had with me.

“What are you doing?” Sawyer asked. He sounded anything but pleased.

“The door needs an override,” I explained. “Just a simple jump to get it open.” I looked at him with a playful smile. “It won’t be like last time, I promise.”

He narrowed his eyes and frowned. The last time I needed to jump an override, I electrocuted myself while we were crashing the
Behemoth
.
 

Not waiting for his next argument, I put the magnetized end of the Volt in between the dead wires. I connected a few of them, then looked at the group. “Find something to hold the doors open,” I instructed.
 

The Stray Dogs glared at me. Gemma and Nash were the only ones who seemed ready to follow my request, searching the corridor for something to stabilize the doors. Taking a quick breath, I tapped the button on the top of the Volt.

Electricity burst and spat white sparks in my direction. I stepped back and listened to the doors grind open. I rushed around and grabbed the key from the lock. Nash and Gemma darted into the engineering bay, dragging two heavy metal crates with them. When they were placed on either side of the doors, I tapped the Volt again and stopped the electric flow. I did it fast enough that I wasn’t hurt, but I gingerly took the Volt out of the control panel and slipped it back into my belt.

Without waiting for the others, I swung around the doors and entered the engineering bay.
 

My breath caught in my throat.
 

The lights in the long, rectangular room glowed blue, probably a leftover charge from when I jolted the door open. Two worktables, dented metal crates, forgotten toolkits, spare transformers and generators sat uselessly against the walls.
 

But in the middle of the room was a machine. Two large columns of thick, clear glass stood on metal dais, forked connectors and jagged filaments placed on the top of each tube to channel the electricity. Wires and a larger, wider filament connected both of them. At the bases were control panels with switches, buttons, and levers. Heavy cords were plugged into generators and transformers that connected the machines. I ran over to the largest generator on the left of the room and flipped on the main power switch.

The room instantly filled with a dull blue tungsten light, the emergency power being rerouted from the backup generator my parents had probably created in case of an electric failure. A steady buzz and hum came from the machine, little green lights flickering to life on each dais.
 

The very air felt alive with energy. I could feel the enormous power coming from this device, the thing that could have opened the Breach.

The Palisade. The machine my parents built.

Chapter 13

“They made it,” Riley whispered. “They actually built it.”

He gaped at the Palisade, like he couldn’t actually believe it existed in the first place, despite seeing the sketches in my mother’s journal and knowing Davin had stolen my father’s design plans.
 

I nodded, taking a step closer to the Palisade. For all its power, it was a simple design. As I walked around it, I began to understand how it worked.
 

The generators fed the power into the transformers in each dais, increasing as more generators were connected. The electricity was channeled into the second tube, effectively doubling its power as it coursed back and forth. All that energy would build but have nowhere to go. It had to be released, like a massive bolt of lightning.
 

“That’s what they did,” I muttered.

“Did what? What the hell are we looking at?” grumbled Poacher as he and the rest of the party stepped into the room.
 

“They made lightning,” I told them.

Everyone looked at me blankly. As I started to explain how the Palisade worked, the fear began to set in.

“It creates a massive electric charge that needs to be released, and can potentially burn up anything it hits.” I hesitated, then added, “even the space between worlds, if the air is thin enough.”

“Wait,” one of the Dogs snapped. “Are you saying that this thing,” he pointed accusingly at the Palisade, “is what opened the Breach?”

I was about to say yes, but the anger coming from the Stray Dogs felt like a powder keg at that moment.
 

“You said the machine can close it,” Sawyer reminded, effectively stopping the Dogs from acting rashly and violently.
 

“It can,” I repeated, though I was far from sure. “If I find out a way to reverse the charge, I might be able to have the lightning grab onto the edges of the tear and pull it back together.”

“Sounds impossible,” another Dog said bitterly.

It very well could be,
I thought. “I need time.”

Sawyer read my face and faced the Dogs. “Search the ship. Make sure it’s empty.”

“You don’t give us orders,” Poacher growled.
 

“It’s not an order,” countered Sawyer. “It’s the chance for you to do something useful with your time instead of standing around with stupid looks on your faces.”

Poacher balled his fists and stormed forward. Nash pulled in front of Sawyer and shoved his old crewmate back.
 

“Get lost, Poach. You don’t want to be here anyway. See if there’s anything that hasn’t been looted.”

The Stray Dogs wanted to fight. They looked at the five of us, thinking the odds would be on their side if they rushed us now and took a couple of us down fast. But Sawyer, Nash, and Riley had fought three Hellions in the Crater and lived. Gemma was standing tall with her hands curled around the hilts of her knives. I had the Volt, the weapon they saw nearly annihilate their entire crew.
 

Deciding we weren’t worth the risk, Poacher mumbled something and got his friends to leave.
 

Nash followed them and poked his head around the corner until he was sure they were gone, then came inside the engineering bay.

“They probably won’t come back. I’m betting they’ll start looking for food and weapons. If they don’t find those, they’ll start trashing the place.”

“Doubt there’s much to trash,” Gemma muttered, flipping open the lid of a toolbox on the table next to her and frowning at the insides. “Ship is probably picked clean.”

“At least it will give us more time,” Riley said, turning back to me. “What do you need to do, Claire?”

I looked at the Palisade, not even sure where to begin. I reached into my coat and took out my mother’s journal.
 

“I think it’s time we found out what really happened,” I said quietly.

***

June 10, 1834

We received our assignment today–create a machine that will be able to cut through the ether of the world and effectively open a new dimension. Dr. Wilcox told Captain Arturo that it’s possible, if we can create an electrical charge big enough. Joel is nervous about the idea, but I’m excited. I’ve been discussing the model with him while he writes his letter to Claire. I’m going to finish up some designs then do the same. I miss my little girl.

–––––––

August 9, 1834

Dr. Wilcox is getting impatient. He says we need something to show the crew soon. Arturo says there’s even talk of mutiny. We can’t afford that, not with the marauders that seem to be following us, so we’re doing the best we can. Joel’s building the conductors right now, but it will still take time. We’ve never done anything like this before. We’re making a storm. I’m worried the generators will overload and fry the machine. We could lose everything if we’re not careful.
 

–––––––

October 1, 1834

It worked! We tried it out this morning! The Palisade had to be rolled out on a cart with the generators and lifted in one of the service elevators to get to the deck, but that was the only problem we really encountered. Joel and I each pulled down the conversion levers and the electricity began to grow inside the tubes. It was incredible, watching the power increase until a million little lightning bolts were hitting the edges. Most of the crew was nervous, and I think Joel was on edge, but I wasn’t. I was amazed. We accomplished something incredible!
 

After the levers were down, at the exact moment the generators were at full capacity, we pushed the release button on both reactors.
 

I’ve never seen anything like it. The collected energy shot out of the central filaments, turning into one gigantic block of static power and light. It nearly blinded us, and the sound was astonishing. It was like thunder sounding right over our heads. The bolt continued to funnel into the sky, and then we began to see it. A huge, black opening, like someone had spilled black ink onto blue parchment. The gap grew and grew and grew, until it was wide enough that the
Meridian
could fly through. We shut the Palisade down and turned off the power so it wouldn’t burn out the generators.
 

Everyone is so excited. You can’t see much beyond the gap–they’re calling it the Breach–because of the heavy clouds, but Arturo says we’re going to sail through tomorrow. He’s told us all to get some sleep and prepare for travel first thing tomorrow.

Joel is still anxious, but part of him must be excited. How could he not be? Exploring a new world where our children’s children can grow and prosper? Finding new resources and materials to improve our way of life? It’s exactly what we dreamed of finding.

I need to write Claire before I go to bed. She’ll be so excited about this!

–––––––

Oct 2

It’s fallen apart. All of it.
 

Today we found alien life on the other side of the Breach. Hostile alien life.

We crossed into this new dark world. It looked completely volcanic. Mountains of black rock were everywhere, the sky was choked with ash and smoke. The Sky Guard had to outfit us with gas masks just so we could breathe.
 

In the middle of this wasteland was a huge building. It looked like a hundred tons of broken obsidian fell from the sky and built a castle of small daggers. Enormous man-o’-war ships hovered around it, watching like hawks. One of them approached us, and Arturo set up a bridge to meet with their leader.

He calls himself the Vesper, and he is terrifying. His robes look like they are soaked in blood; he wears a crown of broken bones on hair that looks like dripping oil, and his eyes… Looking at them too long could make a person go mad. Arturo is a strong man, but I swore I saw his knees shaking.

The Vesper demanded to know who we were and how we’d gotten here. Arturo told the truth. He explained that Westraven is crippling itself with over-population and that we need to find another place to support our ways of life. Trade with the rest of Aon isn’t suiting our demands. We need help.

Then Arturo told him that we created a machine to open the Breach. The Vesper looked at us, and I felt him in my head.
In my head.
He was there, poking into my thoughts, seeing what I had done, seeing my Claire. I would have been lost if Joel weren’t beside me, holding my hand.

The Vesper didn’t want to help. Arturo insisted, but then the Vesper did something to him. He grabbed his head and started screaming like his skull was being split in half. The Sky Guards tried to help him, but the Vesper did the same to them.
 

Then he waved his hand and commanded other monsters to come across the bridge onto our ship.

It was… It was a massacre. These creatures, all of them with red eyes and knifelike claws, they jumped on the crew and ripped them apart. Blood was everywhere, everyone was screaming. I thought we were going to die. Joel dragged me back to the bridge, and that was when the marauders arrived.

We didn’t think they would follow us through the Breach. We thought we lost them months ago. But the marauders came through. And not just any marauders. The Kendric Clan. The Wanderers.
 

They started opening fire at all of us. I figure that animal Davin Kendric started the cannons. Pieces of the
Meridian
exploded, debris everywhere, my friends being blown to bits. The monsters went back to their ship with the Vesper, and they started firing too. Their cannons are strong, but the
Meridian
was stronger. We focused all our attacks on the monsters, and even brought down a couple of their ships. Arturo managed to hold it together and get back to the bridge. He shouted at us to bring up the Palisade. Joel and I tried to tell him no, that it could kill us and everything around us, He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and we both knew we didn’t have a choice.