Kent could not remember the last time he had a dream.
But today....
He dreamt of a ship: one he vaguely remembered from his childhood, imposing and nonsensical - he knew every detail about it.
It was a continuation of a dream he had long ago, he had been here before.
He saw the tear across the deck of the ship where a tower used to be.
He knew every person - each hiding below deck.
And he knew people were missing, but not who
He woke up
He stared up at the ceiling absorbing that dream.
Around him was a heavy silence, what sounded like static in the distance.
He was on a bed
Kent Barbado
'Too early, no alarm...'
He had his clothes on still - as if someone had just tossed him there.
He saw distant fluorescent tubes, and a ceiling of empty darkness
He jolted up from the hospital bed
The walls around him were particle board, makeshift.
The top of the wall did not reach the ceiling.
The gap was ten... fifteen meters or more
Kent Barbado
'Shit... where are you, Kent?'
There was a single knock at the open door to his right
More of a slam really, a moment later it came again.
Kent's head throbbed - pulsing in rhythm to the darkness receding from his vision
Another slam on the door
Silence and then
Another slam
It was then Kent noticed the leg sticking partway into the room
Kent rushed to the door.
He nearly slipped on a hospital gown by the bed
He found a woman on the floor, having some sort of seizure
Her leg jerked. It banged against the door again.
Kent looked both ways down the hallway she was in
All was silent - but down to the right there was another person on the floor
Kent Barbado
'Right, fucking cardboard palace - chemistry...
Should you be breathing though a filter?'
The air seemed fine
He was calling into a void
He felt at her pulse
It was steady, and her breathing seemed fine
Kent Barbado
'The fuck is happening?'
Kent rushed over to the other person down the hall
They too were stable.
Kent was in an abandon building
He supposed he must not have been moved far
Kent Barbado
'Is this the lab?'
Kent wandered down the hall
It reminded him more of a hospital, the floors were linoleum.
But the walls were bare wood - free floating.
The ceiling unconnected to the hallway walls; And distant fluorescent lines flickered along a dark expanse above.
There were no signs for exits, nothing was 'up to code'.
There were others lying on the ground - all in the same condition.
In the distance he heard a sound.
A sort of static that grew to a high pitched whine: the sound of a CRT TV
He walked toward that sound
He eventually made out a voice
Reporter
"If you are driving, stop driving, turn off your car and lie down."
Reporter
"Stop what you are doing and lie down, we don't -"
They Stopped talking
Male Voice
"This is a recorded message."
Kent opened the door
The room was an office, and had a CRT TV cradled in a boom arm sticking out of the wall.
A channel logo was playing, then suddenly the reporter came back on
Reporter
"Some sort of illness is striking millions of people every minute causing seizures.
This illness is everywhere, and we don't know how it spreads, but on the street - people keep falling.
This is happening everywhere - put down any sharp objects and lie down.
If you are driving, stop driving, turn off your car and lie down.
Stop what your doing and lie down, we don't -"
The reporter's face twitched violently to the side and they let out what looked like a silent scream
The reporter fell.
They were caught by some arms racing in from off camera
The screen turned back into the logo
Male Voice
"This is a recorded message."
The TV continued to loop
Kent Barbado
"Did that happen to me, I fell asleep right?"
Kent felt at himself
He felt fine
Kent Barbado
'Okay Kent, what to do, what to do...'
His stomach growled
Kent Barbado
'Food soon, should start crawling.
Maybe carry a pillow...'
He wondered if he could find some tape
Kent Barbado
' duct tape and pillows: a perfect helmet.'
Then he thought of what he would find outside
Kent kneeled down and started crawling
If he was going to fall down, it wouldn't be from far
Kent Barbado
'Better safe than sorry...'
Either way Kent had to see outside.
It was so quiet
Kent Barbado
'Where did Felix go, or the chemist?'
Kent ran through his options:.
Finding Felix in a place this large while crawling would be less than ideal.
He didn't know where the exits were anyway
Kent Barbado
'You could have a seizure at any moment...'
Kent Barbado
"How long had that been playing?"
Kent Barbado
'Maybe it was in a loop for hours...'
He sat there and considered how long he could have been out for.
There were no clocks on the bare wood walls.
He waited, listening: nothing happened for several long minutes.
He considered going back to sleep, he was still tired
Kent Barbado
'And it seems like you would not be missing much, them being asleep and all...'
Kent Barbado
'Okay... What could be up?'
Kent Barbado
"You got everyone doing this thing except for you..."
Kent started crawling back the way he came
Kent Barbado
"I didn't see any squigglies on the TV.
So if it's that: it didn't spread through the TV..."
Kent considered more
Kent Barbado
'Could be a virus, bacteria...'
He reached the room he was in, and stopped
Kent Barbado
"Back to square one - what do you know?
I woke up in this room..."
After a brief inspection he found that both the bed would fit though the door, and was on wheels
Kent inspected the woman who was still twitching by that door
Kent Barbado
'Her watch!'
A mechanical watch with shattered glass, broken from the fall
Kent Barbado
"Okay - perfect - how long has it been?"
He asked, politely
Kent Barbado
'As you do to unconscious people you are asking for information...'
Across his room was a station for a person, computer and all.
Comparing the times between the watch and computer, Kent saw hours had already passed
He sat there, absorbing that
Kent Barbado
"Now, million dollar question, am I going to have a seizure like these nice folks?"
Kent continued down the hallway, crawling
Kent Barbado
'If you fall and break your hip like your grandmother, Kent: I am going to be so mad at you!'
Felix was nowhere to be found, but the Chemist....
The Chemist was right around the first corner he encountered
Still crawling, Kent dragged and heaved the Chemist to, and then on to the bed
It was a struggle, the Chemist was small but portly
Kent Barbado
"right, vial..."
Kent found it rolled next to where the chemist had been - thankfully intact
Kent Barbado
'Time to go outside...'
Kent stood up
Hunching over the bed, keeping it to brace his fall if it should happen.
With the Chemist in tow, Kent found his way out of the building.
And into a city on fire
%%%%
The Lux was not a human, it was more than the sum of two humans.
It was also the space between.
Synchronistic thoughts and ideas unspoken but known in harmony.
Merged together: Lenny and Jochek were but voices in the mind of this new entity.
The Lux.
And the Lux was in the link.
Which was disconnecting from itself.
Thoughts and memories, ideas - hopes... were selectively spreading apart.
Growing isolated into compressed islands, surrounded by both a blindingly white light, and what the Lux presumed to be Al-tok.
A gathering mass of void, hardened by some sort of dark despair.
It was a storm of sorts, a rushing sensation - not wind, but gravity, pelted them from all sides
The Lux steadied themselves
The Lux felt a ripping sensation - from their center
Lux
'We can still get there.'
Even the Lux themselves were breaking apart.
A zippering sensation down the center of their being
Jochek
'Lenny would find a way.'
The Lux let themselves relax further apart
Lux
'They are spreading apart.'
It was like a storm receding in the distance.
The ideas, the dreams were funneling away from the Lux
Lenny
'They are coalescing.'
They thought so
Lux
'We need to pick one, quickly!'
Jochek
'Two preferably...'
Lenny
'We were close, I think any of these will do.'
The islands of thoughts and memories grew distant from each other.
The lux were unsure if they could span the distance.
Physical distance was not a factor - it was mental distance - each island of thought was unconnected to every other island of thought.
The distance grew great enough that they were sure they could not find two islands close enough together
Lux
"We're going to have to split!"
Jochek was already on it.
The ripping sensation continued down the core of their being
Their hearts separated and were immediately filled with Algera
Lenny finally recognized what that white light actually was, he had tasted Algera before
He, along with Jochek, were assaulted by several small infinities.
As they traveled instantaneously from the beginning to end of a much larger infinity
They did not know how much time this took.
The Lux had not fully dissolved, and realizing something was wrong:
Their hearts drew together
Reforming
Half of them knew
Lenny
'The link is broken, flooded with Algera - we should get out of here.'
Pressed together, their hearts rung dry, dripping Algera into the aether
Jochek
'Well, first we find bodies...'
The disconnecting link was almost complete.
Their options thinning.
Every island of thoughts and ideas isolated from every other island of thoughts and ideas
Lenny
'We just have to use one then, get them close to someone else, physical link.'
The Lux saw one of those options, a coach driver a few miles away in a small Romanian town
Lenny
'Old, but has horses...'
Lenny
'That is the link, we road with him years ago: same horses.'
They fought their way into the old man
What would normally have been easy they were repelled by.
Still, it was two against one
His struggle subsided, then Lenny of the Lux took control
Lenny felt the coach driver fall into a void.
He couldn't tell which, the blinding white, or the absent dark
A physical link, a touch to the arm on the first person Lenny saw and a short moment later Jochek joined him.
It was the a portly man that was his fare, who had been slumped over in coach unconscious.
Jochek looked down at their new body
Jochek
"Could have waited to find someone more fit?"
Lenny shrugged
Lenny
"These are temporary, I'm not putting any work into this one."
Jochek checked their jean pocket for a phone, and found none, nor did he find keys.
Lenny found a phone, but no keys either
Lux
'Onward to Ada, us two.'
Lenny
'Fastest just to take the carriage...'
A short time later - after finding everyone around them unconscious, the Lux road in silence toward their destination.
Șolomanță, a palace that held many incredibly dangerous things.
Things more frightening than an atomic bomb: secret things.
Almost chief among them was The Way Out
Jochek
'Should we use different bodies?'
Lux
'No, speed - we need to get there now.'
Lenny
'Think she is alright?'
Lux
'She was as disconnected as you can get...
So maybe?'
The Lux drove on in silence.
In the Romanian country side there was a ravine not on any map.
Earth riven in a jagged scar on the scale of legend.
A castle built into the cliff-face, flush and without entrance, at least visibly.
The main entrance was a hatchway that opened up top.
Though an unknown road, winding along the lip of the ravine, the Lux reached their destination
%%%%
Martha was greeted to a scene of chaos.
Deckhands of all shapes and sizes, and
Martha Crisp
'Is that a fish?'
It was, manning a rope at the side of the ship
Lana Alacira
"Gerald, what happened!"
Outside the storm darkened, slowly in patches it was replace with a void
Gerald looked around
He located the captain's voice through a radio on his hip
Gerald Whitewater
"Come on, she's at the helm."
He pressed the button on the radio
Gerald Whitewater
"I picked up Miss Crisp, and Flanagan was there."
Lana Alacira
"Did he do this?
The link is breaking."
They reached the entrance to the tower in the center
Gerald turned to Martha
Gerald Whitewater
"What exactly was your plan there?"
As they ran down the hall he clicked the button
Gerald Whitewater
"Flanagan is unconscious, and she wasn't much better."
Gerald took his finger's and whistled
Gerald Whitewater
"Sonny!"
Sonny stepped in from a corner room
A short wiry red haired woman in a white coat, Martha guessed she was in her 40's
Gerald Whitewater
"Trouble in the bubble: one unconscious."
Sonny nodded and whistled herself
It was a signal to two large tarantulas, about the same size as her, covered in fur
Martha Crisp
'Oh fuck: fucking spiders!'
They crawled out from the room on the side wall and ceiling.
Martha instinctively flinched.
The spiders followed Sonny, ignoring Martha as they passed
Gerald was already at the elevator door, waving at her
Martha Crisp
'Keep it together...'
The elevator doors opened
Gerald Whitewater
"What was your plan?"
Martha Crisp
"Well. We were going to distract it, and poke it, and drain it."
Gerald Whitewater
"Drain it?"
Martha Crisp
"Of the Algera."
Gerald Whitewater
"Drain it into where?"
The elevator doors closed and Gerald pressed a button
Martha Crisp
"It was supposed to be my heart, me, but..."
Gerald Whitewater
"Do you know how much that thing has eaten?
That would have...
Is that what happened to Flanagan?"
Gerald watched her patiently
Martha Crisp
"Him and everyone else, but me."
Gerald Whitewater
"Everyone but..."
Gerald moved from comprehension to shock
Gerald examined his hand
Gerald Whitewater
"Not everyone...
Not me, or anyone out there.
The ship is properly encapsulated."
Gerald nodded
He took a breath
Gerald Whitewater
"No...
I'll let the captain explain."
Martha Crisp
"I know what I did.
Now everyone has these powers."
Gerald Whitewater
"No.
You don't."
He sighed
The elevator button dinged, and the doors opened
Alacira and a team of men were busy at control panels along the side of the room.
The crew were a rhythmic hum of activity.
Coordinated, choreographed.
In front were several large windows revealing a shrinking storm.
And a growing void
Gerald Whitewater
"So..."
Gerald explained what happened to the captain
Lana Alacira
"Are we sure that's what happened?"
Gerald nodded.
Alacira lowered her head
A look of defeat, yet fighting for the best loss
Alacira turned back to the control panels, she pressed a button and a red light flashed
Her voice echoed throughout the ship, tinny though the speakers
Lana Alacira
"Emergency plan x everyone!"
Alacira lifted a covered button and pressed it
Impossible to miss blaring beeps sounded
The people previously at the controls scattered as Gerald took the helm
Lana Alacira
"Gerald, just get us down anywhere if you can, I'm going to talk to miss Crisp in my quarters."
She turned and strolled out of the room, Martha following
Behind closed doors, The captain poured herself a drink
Lana Alacira
"So...
Why don't you tell me why you did what you did."
Martha Crisp
"To bring down a corrupt..."
Lana Alacira
"No...
Why did you do it, not the manifesto."
Martha Hesitated
Martha Crisp
"To free them."
Lana Alacira
"To free them..."
Alacira took another drink
Lana Alacira
"You know enough to be dangerous."
She coughed lightly
Lana Alacira
"Do you know why most people are kept ignorant, asleep?
So they don't do stupid shit like that.
Knowledge itself is dangerous.
Do you think this power is more powerful than a gun?
The powers of creation in the mind of a toddler - that is what you did!
You just gave everyone, children, toddler's even apparently in your recklessness, a power more dangerous than a gun.
Now everyone has a gun glued to their foot - or worse.
You have given every terrible person the power to amplify their vitriol."
Martha started at that
Martha Crisp
"No, good people will fight back."
Lana Alacira
"Good people fight fairly - it's what makes them good and why good loses.
Evil cheats - every chance it gets - it will always gain ground."
Alacira sighed and poured herself another drink
Lana Alacira
"This ship is breaking apart because the Link is falling apart.
Everyone is waking up, and the dream is ending.
And that's not the worst of it."
The floor vibrated, a loud shearing from some other part of the ship
Lana Alacira
"Shit, come on."
Alacira stood up, and walked out into the bridge.
Martha Followed
She saw beyond the glass a void - encompassing the ship.
She saw emptiness for the first time clearly.
It wasn't a color, it was the lack of color, the lack of space
Lana Alacira
"Gerald, we have anything?"
Gerald Whitewater
"Aye - we can park the ship in the Navigator, most of the crew too."
Gerald Whitewater
"Everyone below 0.1/aps."
Alacira surveyed the ship through the glass
Lana Alacira
"The bubble then, for the rest - we should fit in there."
She turned and walked to the elevator in the back.
Gerald and Martha followed
Gerald Whitewater
"Flanagan is with Sonny."
Lana Alacira
"She comes too, how bad is he?"
The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside
Lana Alacira
"The worst part about what you did."
Alacira turned to Martha
Lana Alacira
"This is what happens to someone experienced who was blindsided.
He was built for this: through years of training.
It still fried his brain.
Even with ways to channel that Algera - that was too much - even for him.
And you gave that to everyone...
You have erased hopes, memories and dreams and overwrote those precious things with power.
Power that will be twisted, abused, stolen and consolidated again into something echoing what we had before.
You haven't made people better by giving them this power - you've just given the chance for new scum to rise to the top."
Martha Crisp
"He wanted to put all of that into me."
Alacira paused
Lana Alacira
"That would have killed you."
The elevator doors opened
Alacira set the pace between brisk and velocious
Lana Alacira
"Regardless - we'll see the..."
Alacira stopped
Lana Alacira
"Over 0.1... Gerald - what about the waypoints?"
Gerald Whitewater
"We're ejecting that part of the ship."
Alacira frowned but nodded, then started walking
Lana Alacira
"We won't be able to recollect all of those."
Gerald pulled out a small mirror as they started walking again
Out on the deck of the ship, before it was bustling: now quiet
Gerald Whitewater
"I snagged this one - it was the last one for her."
Martha saw the red haired Sonny in the bubble next to Flanagan - who was still laying down.
She didn't see the spiders anywhere
They entered the bubble
Before Martha passed the membrane she heard footsteps behind her
Martha waited halfway in the bubble, and turned around
That fish-man was running toward the bubble raising his arm
Martha Crisp
'Is that a watch?'
He hand human arms, but a catfish's head: sticking straight up, not angled like a human at all
He brushed passed her and into the bubble
It was getting crowded in there.
Gerald had taken the seat, and Sonny was over Flanagan in the back.
And there were the spiders, above her - clinging to the ceiling.
Long strings of web hung down from them - as sonny had fashioned those streams of silk into nets.
Large glowing sacks of spider silk were next to Sonny
She scooped out with the net some of the Algera inside Flanagan
The process was like using a bucket on a sinking canoe.
Flanagan remained solid - so far as Martha could see.
But she saw Sonny push her hands and wave the net deeply inside him
She turned away
The fish-man was showing his watch to Alacira, which was emitting a beep every few moments
Martha Crisp
'More like a geiger counter, not a watch.'
He had is head turned to the side - so that one of his eyes, was looking at the captain
Martha Crisp
'God how awful to not be able to look straight forward.'
The fish-man kneeled down next to Gerald, settling in
Male Voice
"Count is down to three."
Gerald picked up the radio at his side and replied
Gerald Whitewater
"I have Sonny and Wilbert here."
Wilbert made a gurgling noise: an affirmation, Sonny followed suit with some high pitched chittering
Male Voice
"Count's at one."
Martha caught movement at the corner of her eye
The navigator was running up to them, out of breath.
His face was partially carved out, from where the acid from that alien had splattered him.
He had only one eye - he was wearing an eye patch
He stepped into the bubble
Gerald Whitewater
"Counts at zero!"
Lana Alacira
"Right then, Gerald?"
Gerald pushed the button on the radio
Gerald Whitewater
"Breaking off the tower now!"
Gerald looked outside at the tower in the center of the ship, and sighed
Gerald pulled down on a lever, and pushed a button.
Outside the ship shook
With a horrible metal's cry of shearing - the tower shaped like a wing broke off.
The tower floated away lazily until it touched the barrier against the void
It was ripped into the void by some turbulence
It turned to dust - and then to nothing as it passed the outer shield of the ship
Gerald nodded
Gerald Whitewater
"This might be a rough ride everyone.
Sonny get us some seat belts."
Sonny nodded, looking at the spiders above
A moment later Sonny had passed out small belts of silk with two sticky ends
She petted them as she chittered and clicked at them
Lana Alacira
"Everyone ready?"
They were
Alacira nodded to Gerald
Gerald detached the ship - and it too was flung into the void