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Part Four: Echoes and Worries
The Christa sped away from the system through hyperspace, sublight sails tucked closely in on the hull, thrusters flaring brilliantly behind the ship. The ship itself was quite content to leave that barren, desolate system, but her crew felt completely differently.
The crew worked quietly, solemnly at their posts, no-one wanting to break the profound silence that had settled about them. However, their minds were obviously not on their duties, their action reflexive and mechanical. And on the mind of every crewmember was one thought: Why did this have to happen to us?
Thelma, however, was not thinking that at all. She was busy calculating the probability of the other Christa having saved her two crewmembers by dumping them into another reality.
What she saw was staggering.
Koan was angry; Koan was always angry. Suzee had never remembered her childhood friend being so full of anger and arrogance as she had found him to be. She'd known him all her life, they'd gone through classes together. He'd been her friend in a way Catalina, not being in this dimension, couldn't be. Now, he'd given in to pride and a superiority complex. The way he spoke of people who didn't have the advantages of a Yensidian... It was just plain bigoted.
She was sitting in her living room, along with Koan and Catalina. Cat was still absorbed by the Basics of Quantum Physics, and Koan was ranting on and on about the inpropriety of keeping Connor in her room, and how he should be taken to stay at a hospital, and Suzee was just generally tuning him out. She was thinking about her friends back on the Christa, and about how much she missed all of them... While she was on the Christa, she always thought of going home. Now, she wanted to go back.
And then there was Connor. She just wasn't sure what she thought of him, or why his image kept popping into her mind. Maybe I'm just worried about him, she thought, or maybe...
"SUZEE!" Koan shouted.
Suzee refocused on the world around her, and began to notice a few things. For instance, Cat was looking at her strangely, and Koan was flustered with anger. Also, that strange Trannik fellow was standing by the door...
"What?" She asked.
"You were just staring off into space," Cat pointed out, "with a goofy looking smile on your face. Thinking about that Connor guy again?" Cat had a sly look on her face, combined with a knowing smile, which made it all the more annoying.
"No, no, no." Suzee said hurriedly, "I told you, it's not like that, really..."
Koan was staring at her intently.
"Don't you dare do that, Koan." Suzee knew what he was up to. "Don't enter my mind."
But, it was too late. Koan's eyes glowed yellow, and Suzee could feel his consciousness separating itself from him, moving towards her...
Her defenses were useless...
He slid into her mind with all the subtlety of a Spung Killcruiser. First he looked at her surface thoughts, then he pushed deeper, sifting through her memories, continung on into the deepest recesses of he mind. He was learning everything about her, her deepest secrets, the way her mind worked...
And then he was gone.
Suzee collapsed in a heap on the ground, shaking and sobbing.
Cat turned on Koan.
"Why did you do that? What did you do? What is your problem?"
"Shut up," he said to her, "or I'll do worse to you."
"I thinks you'd better leave, yes?" Trannik put in, from the doorway.
Koan smiled at them both, a malicious smile, without any real joy in it.
"Make me."
Koan tried entering Trannik's mind, but the strange creature resisted. Their mental battle consumed all of their concentration. Cat decided that it was time to end this.
Her sonic blast tore through the living room, shattering crystal cups and even the plastic windows. Koan stumbled backwards and fell out the front window, onto the lawn. When the blast subsided, Koan found himself standing alone in the front yard. Cat was staring at him from the window.
"And don't come back." She said.
Koan turned down the street, and walked away.
Aboard the Christa, Thelma was explaining the possibility of parallel realities to Commander Goddard and Miss Davenport, without much success.
"And so," Thelma went on, "the other-Christa used its hyperdrive and time-altering systems to send its passengers into another reality... Or, possibly, another dimension in this reality. Either way, without knowing where they were sent, or, for that matter, how to perform that sort of a jump, there is no chance of finding them. They are lost, if they did survive the destruction of the ship."
"Well," Goddard said, "that's not very encouraging. There's no way, then, to find out if they survived?"
"Actually, Commander, if we could get back to that system within four hours, sixteen minutes, and fifty-two seconds, we could detect any energy trail left behind by the jump. However, at best speed, it would take us four point five hours to get there, and any energy trail would have disappeared."
"In that case, we'll just have to go better than best speed."
Goddard headed towards the jumptube with an air of determination.
"Commander," Davenport put in hurriedly, "you can't be serious. We've already ran into one Spung ship there, what if we find another?"
"Then, we'll just have to fight."
With that, he disappeared down the tube, leaving Miss Davenport and Thelma alone. They turned and looked at one another simultaneously.
Thelma shrugged.
When Connor finally returned to conciousness again, he was alone in the darkened room. His mouth felt like cotton, and he was certain that his brain had decided to crawl out from inside his skull. Well, he thought, I'd better go get some water, and something for my head.
He sat up, an ordeal which seemed to take hours, and swung his feet gingerly off the bed. As he leaned forward, putting weight on his legs, an incredible scream once again tore his universe into tiny little pieces. The world shifted sideways, and he suddenly was resting on the ground. A little too suddenly.
"Ow," he managed to croak out.
Trannik went upstairs to check on Connor, leaving Cat to attend to Suzee. As he opened the door to the bedroom, he felt a hand grasp his ankle.
"What... What is going on?" Rasped a voice from floor level.
Looking down, Trannik saw that Connor had a solid grip on his ankle. The young man's face was still puffy from his reaction to the rallumph, and it had become uncharacteristically pale.
"Ah... Yes, well... Why are you, ah, out... Of bed?"
"Ummm..." Connor paused, licking his lips, "well, I just, was hungry. That's all, really."
There was an awkward moment, then Connor realised he hadn't been answered.
"So, what is going on?"
Trannik thought about it for a second, and responded:
"Ah, yes, you see... There was a... Disturbance, and the rainbow-haired girl was forced to stop it. She, ah, screamed, yes?"
"Oh, okay..." Connor vaguely understood, he thought, but didn't have the ability to focus on just what it was he knew. Oh well, he thought, maybe I'll just get some sleep...
Then and there, he passed out.
In the debris field, the Christa was scanning for the energy signature Thelma had designated. It was long, tedious work, and the crew's boredom was plain. Harlan was almost asleep at the helm, and the rest of the crew wasn't much better. All except Rosie, who was humming to herself as she helped Thelma scan various frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Commander Goddard was being driven insane. And Davenport's attitude wasn't helping, either.
Suddenly, Thelma stopped scanning.
"Commander." she said, "there is a powerful energy surge heading towards the ship."
"What?" Was all he had time to say.
The world was consumed in light.
The sound was horrid. Like a thousand voices screaming, all discordant, without any harmony at all. Flashing lights, all clashing and strobing. And the pain. Like thousands of tiny flames bursting to life, just under his flesh. Firepainlightfirepainlightfirepainlightfirepainlightfirepainlight...
Connor woke up from the nightmare, on the couch in Suzee's living room. There was a nice breeze coming in from the remnants of the window. Even still, he was sweating. Just a dream, he told himself, it was only a dream.
Surprisingly, much of his strength had returned during his rest, and his mind was clear once again. He even managed to stand up. After getting a snack, he went upstairs, on a whim.
He passed by the door to Suzee's room, which lay partially open. Looking inside, he could see her sleeping. She seemed so peaceful, just lying there. He felt... Well, he didn't know what it was that he felt, and it really confused him. Either way, he stood there watching her for half an hour.
Power slowly returned to the primary operating systems aboard the Christa, and the lights on the command post flared to life. Radu was the first to recover from the energy surge, and was examining the readouts at its post. He didn't like what he saw.
"Commander! We're over fifty parsecs from our previous location!"
Goddard took a few moments to pull it all together, but the revelation was a bit of a problem.
"WHERE are we though, Mr. Radu?"
Radu checked the starcharts accessible through the infocore.
"Um... Somewhere near... Oh, no..."
"What now?" Goddard asked impatiently.
"Commander, we're almost in Spung territory."
Morning on Yensid was not all it was cracked up to be. Sitting on the patio in the back of Suzee's house, Connor, Suzee, Catalina and Trannik were eating breakfast. Connor was eating cautiously, even though he'd recovered quickly from his reaction to the rallumph. Suzee was picking at her food, and wouldn't look anyone in the eyes, though Connor had no idea why. Catalina seemed upset about something, and her eyes kept passing from Connor to Suzee, and back again. Trannik seemed to be oblivious to everything around him, and was devouring his food with a gusto that rivaled Bova's.
No-one had said anything past "good morning".
Catalina decided to take the initiative.
"So, Connor," she asked, "what are you going to do when we all get back to the other dimension?"
"You mean 'if', right?" Suzee broke in cynically.
Connor's confusion grew.
"Suzee," Catalina began, "just let it go, okay? What happened happened, so, get over it."
"Oh, I'm sorry." The other girl responded, "I figured that being betrayed by one of my oldest friends was something horrible. I didn't know what is was like for another one to betray me afterwards."
Suzee got up, and walked back inside, full of anger.
Trannik looked up from his plate. Connor cocked an eyebrow, confused.
"Umm..." He began.
"Oh, it's a long story, Connor... You remeber Koan?"
"Yeah, that really arrogant guy, right? I remember him. Didn't like him much..."
'Well, me neither. But, he's one of Suzee's oldest friends. And he... Well, he misused his Yensidian mind-jumping powers, and, um... Violated her, I guess."
"I don't understand."
"You wouldn't," she said, shaking her head.
Connor rose from his seat, and started to head inside.
"I'd better go check on her."
Cat just sat there for about five minutes, eating her meal. Trannik, having finished his meal, began eating what was left on Suzee and Connor's plates.
When Connor returned, he'd gone pale, and seemed to be worried about something.
"What's wrong?" Catalina asked.
"It's Suzee..."
"Yeah?"
"She's... She's gone."
Koan paced about in the center square of the city. It was too early for anyone in the city to be up and about their business.
Decadent fools, he thought to himself, soon, I'll teach them, I'll...
Someone else had entered the square. Koan looked over at the intruder, and smiled.
"Ah, It's about time you got here..."
The end of part four: Echoes and Worries
Up next, part five: Gates, Keys, and Whispers in the Dark
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