The Discovery' (Alternate Dimensions Book 4) Read online

“What? I can’t tell through the air purifying system in here. I’ve got to be out on the ground.”

  “Great. That’s very useful.” Angel sighed. “How about I go park it by the others and we get out of this trashcan?”

  “Whatever you say, Captain.”

  She flashed a smile at me and winked. In those little moments of levity, it was easy to see the wise-cracking revolutionary that what little history I had read painted her to be. “Oh, I do so like it when you call me that.”

  We shared a weak laugh, then the half-kin maneuvered us over to the side wall where another scrapper stood. Once we were parked, she opened the door and dropped the ladder to the empty bay.

  Just as I started climbing down, there was the sound of another door opening on the other side of the room. I craned my neck over my shoulder to see several workers come out and begin to sort through all the metal we had dumped. Well that wasn’t good.

  I clambered right back up the ladder and stuck my head into the cabin.

  “Uh, guys. It looks like we’ve got company.”

  “Dammit. I was afraid this would happen. You two get out of here. We’ll be after you in less than a tick.”

  I blinked at her. “What is a tick, and where exactly is out of here?”

  “You are so lucky that you’ve got those magical vomit powers,” she grumbled before taking off her technofied wristwatch and slapping it onto my own pale arm. “This is sending our pings to get readings of our surroundings. It should take us to a power source, and if I can get to the nearby regulator, we’ll have a chance to hack into their system.”

  “Oh, is that all?”

  And back I went, down the ladder with Janix coming out soon after me. We kept our heads down and tried to walk casually as the band beeped quietly. The closer we got to one of the walls, the more rapidly it beeped, which I took to mean that we were headed the right way. Granted, if there wasn’t a door that way we were going to look both stupid and suspicious trying to walk through a wall.

  Then again, I had teleported myself across a prison and into a cell once. Who knows what I could do given the proper amount of adrenaline and need to escape.

  Luckily enough, there was a door. Just like almost every other entrance I’d come into contact with on every station, holding facility or whatever, it had a scanner pad. I quickly rifled through Poitre’s pockets before finding an ID card that I quickly buzzed in with. Janix followed a beat later and we both paused on the opposite side of the door to regard each other.

  “You okay?” he asked, as cool as a cucumber. He was really settling into this hero of the universe thing, wasn’t he?

  “Yes,” I replied a bit breathlessly. “Just a bit excited. And anxious. We’re almost there but so much can go wrong.”

  He squeezed my hand. “Don’t worry. None of us will let anything harm you or your bestie. The Strangers brought us all together and I guess together we’re stuck until this is all over.”

  I smiled, and I was so tempted to lean down and plant my lips against his, but an explosion of pink flashed in the room right beside us. It puffed up against the door like a burst of unicorn-infused smoke, silent but sparkling.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked, eyes wide.

  “My credits would be on Angel.”

  Surely enough, a pound sounded on the door, and we slid it open to have two small figures come tumbling in, fabric tied about their heads.

  “Whew!” Angel cried, pulling her makeshift helmet off. “I did not think that would work.”

  “I think that’s the mantra of the day,” I said, patting them both on the back. I wanted to hug them, but they had never been quite as touchy as Janix and I.

  “All right, hand over the mini-comm.”

  “What? But I just got it!”

  “I don’t care. You probably don’t even know what half the things of it mean. Come on.”

  I grudgingly took it off and tossed it to her. She fiddled with it for a moment, punching things in, before nodding like it told her something affirming.

  “Right, so this way.”

  She marched on like she owned the place and we didn’t have much choice but to follow her. “Where are we going? Should we just be walking out in the open like this?”

  “Yeah. We’ve got image scramblers in all our ear pieces. We’re essentially invisible to any sort of video of thermal feed they might have.”

  Visy’k let out a small bit of a whistle. “So, a cloaking device without a cloak? And you let me talk so much trash earlier. I feel like I’ve got a bit of egg on my face.”

  “Well it doesn’t work on the naked eye, but it’s good in a pinch.”

  “What, are you being humble? Who are you, and what did you do with Angel?”

  “She’s busy trying to find a place where we can hide while getting a layout of the land, so to speak.”

  “Right then, carry on.”

  We continued quickly along the hall until she turned abruptly to the left and ducked into a room. It was strange that there wasn’t a card reader, or a scanner to the door, but I didn’t question it.

  We were in a dark, cramped space that I could only describe as a new age janitor’s closet. Yet again I was reminded of Serkasis Labs and all the hours of orientation video I had watched. I suppose that made sense, given that Genesis had a hand in the creation of both locations. It was a bit terrifying to step back and think of how thoroughly he had infiltrated this dimension.

  It also made me wonder if my own world was drenched in its inky, bitter darkness and us humans had absolutely no idea? It would make sense, given the political sphere and every other way it felt like earth was falling apart.

  Several beeps sounded from Angel’s mini-comm, drawing my attention from my melancholy pondering. “Looks like we’re in an outer ring where all of the workers keep the facility going, but on the inner ring it appears it all automated.”

  “Really? You little doo-dad can tell all that?” I knew that technology was thousands of years ahead from my own time, but even that seemed like a bit much.

  “Of course not,” She answered with a short laugh. “It just pings local databased for whatever readings I’m asking of it. The delay is it’s finding an answer from another machine that has that specific purpose.”

  “Oh. That’s handy.”

  “I would say it was wristy.” Janix smirked evident across his face. I responded simply by stepping on his foot. “Ow! You’re a spoilsport, aren’t you?”

  “Yup, four reactors,” Angel continued. “We were right on that.” More beeps, more pressed button, and then a small hologram that displayed itself in the air in the center of our little circle. “It does seem that their cannon is also automated, although there are personnel assigned to take care of the maintenance.”

  “And what about Jyra?” I asked, all the banter and puns fading from my mind. They could only cushion so much against the reality of what was happening for so long.

  “Nothing yet. But give me time. I’m sure that’s going to take a lot of poking past firewalls.”

  “But you can do it, right?”

  Another snort. “Do you think I would have allowed us to come to this planet if we couldn’t?”

  “All right then. I’ll try to be patient.”

  “Good girl.” The hologram expanded between us, leveling off into an easy to read layout that grew a touch every second. “It’s taking a while to ping all the different outputs here. This place really is massive. It’s like a station on a asteroid. Why would they do that? Why not just build a station?”

  “There’s gotta be something special about this colony then,” I said before a singular thought dawned on me. “What if the sabotage here was intentional?”

  “Of course, it was intentional. It wouldn’t be corporate sabotage if it wasn’t.”

  “That’s not what I mean,” I countered. “What if it was Genesis? What if this ball of a celestial object has something special about it that he wanted?”

 
Angel’s eyes widened at that and suddenly the hologram was gone as she pressed a different series of buttons.

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “I need a scan of this asteroid’s chemical composition now. As in right now.”

  “Yes, Captain! A full read out will take about a minute or two.”

  “Not good enough.”

  “But Captain—”

  She disconnected the comm and looked at us with haunted eyes. “How deeply does that beast’s tendrils burrow into the fabric of our reality?” she murmured. “Just when I think we have its wheedling out, we uncover a new plot.”

  “I’m sure I’m wrong,” I said, surprised that I had caused such a row with my careless suggestion.

  “I don’t think you are,” Angel said. “I’m already sure that whatever my crew is going to get back to me is going to confirm exactly what you said. I don’t know how yet though, and that’s the part I’m dreading.”

  As if on cue, her mini-comm beeped yet again, and she answered, “What did you find?”

  “Sending over a full report now.”

  Angel waited a moment, then displayed yet another hologram, this time, one I recognized as a 3-D representation of the very celestial object we were standing on. The Captain said nothing, her eyes scanning over the info streaming in several graphs along the bottom.

  “Ship,” she barked, her voice tense.

  “Yes, Captain?”

  “Have you read this?”

  “No, Captain, I sent out the report as soon as it compiled. I haven’t even had time to open it.”

  “Well open it and tell me if I’m crazy or not.”

  “Yes, Captain. Loading the file now.” The suspense was thickening and the three of us exchanged looks uncertainly. The half-kin paid us no mind, however, her eyes firmly locked onto the hologram. “Oh, uh… this can’t be right.”

  “You see it, too, then?”

  “Yes, I’m seeing it, but this isn’t possible. Like at all.”

  “What?” I said. I was never much for cryptic build up. “What’s impossible?”

  “There isn’t an asteroid here.”

  “Wait, what?” Janix barked. “What do you mean there’s not an asteroid?”

  “I mean that there’s a crust, and incredibly thin outside that’s been terraformed. But that’s it. There’s no core, or ore, nothing.”

  “Then what are we standing on?”

  “…nothing.”

  “Nothing?” I found myself parroting. “What do you mean nothing? We can’t be standing on nothing. The crust can’t just be covering nothing. That’s not how this mini-planet thing works. Even primitive me knows that. What, is there just a bubble of space inside like some sort of comet balloon?”

  “I don’t think you’re quite understanding,” Angel said, voice low. “There’s nothing inside. Not space. Not star matter. There is a complete and utter absence of even a single molecule of anything. Even radiation.”

  “So… a black hole with no event horizon?” Viys’k added, sounding just about as mystified as I felt.

  “It could be. Or it could be something that our sensors don’t have the ability to read. Something not from our universe.”

  Her eyes flicked to me and a slow, cold understanding began to dawn on me like the worst sunrise ever. “It’s Genesis. You think this entire place is Genesis.”

  She nodded slowly. “That’s my theory.”

  “Shit.” Such a small, four-letter-word, but I had no idea what else to say. Suddenly my unease and anxiety had just exploded into outright panic. My heart leapt into my throat, my hands began to sweat, and my tongue went dry. “This is its home. It’s HQ. This is its heart, homebase, tu casa.” Why was I just spitting out synonyms? It was like my brain couldn’t compute the possibility.

  “It’s got to know we’re here then, right?” Janix asmed, concern written clearly across his face. “Call your ship and have them send us a rescue right now.”

  “No,” Angel said, her face becoming steely as her eyes hardened. “We’re going to blow this entire place to smithereens.”

  Chapter Four: How to Smash a Planet in Three Easy Steps

  “Are you sure that’s wise?”

  “Who gives a shit if it’s wise?” she snapped. “This poisonous ball-sack of a monster’s schemes caused the enslavement of my people and hundreds of thousands of deaths. Now, he’s almost wiped out another species and is about to turn our galaxy on end. If I have the chance to make a boom big enough to scatter him back to the hell he came from, I’m not going to pass it up.”

  “Let’s think logically for a moment,” Viys’k said, her voice both cool and level, “how are you going to get explosives big enough to damage it, considering we’ve seen it survive pretty much anything and everything that’s been thrown at it?”

  “What if it hasn’t survived?” I injected. “What if the little chunks we’ve seen did die. The one that I ate. The one that was caught in a ship blast. The one that Maven crashed into. But these were all just extensions? Just little bits of itself that it sent to give itself more reach.” I felt a giddy sort of smile spread across my face. “Which means we can kill it.”

  “I dunno, I feel like these are a lot of logical leaps to the conclusions you two are putting out.”

  Angel let out a deep breath, but it didn’t feel like it was impatient, or condescending, just that she was trying to order the no doubt turbulent thoughts spinning around in her head. “I know it probably seems that way, but that’s because you’re firmly rooted in this dimension. It’s almost impossible to explain, but I can just feel that we’re right. Something has been bothering me about this little mini-world since I landed, and now I know why.”

  Janix’s electric eyes went to me. “Is this true?”

  I nodded. “I thought I was being paranoid, but I realize now I was sensing the enemy. They’re here. I know it. I can feel it. And this must have been what Jyra was trying to warn me about.”

  “She talked to you?” Angel asked before realization clicked behind her eyes. “Right. You two can converse outside the Meeting Place. I’m still not over that.”

  “Yeah. She tried to tell me that I didn’t understand, it just wasn’t until now that I get it. She didn’t want us to come here because she thought it was too risky.”

  “Funny, for such a rule breaker then she wants to play it safe now.”

  “Well that’s Gee-Gee for you. Always risking everything for everyone else but nothing for herself. She tore the galaxy in two to find me, but doesn’t think she’s worth a rescue.”

  “Gee, if only I knew anyone else like that.”

  I ignored the comment and looked straight to Angel. “So, what’s the plan? How are we going to blow ourselves out of the sky and take Genesis down with us?”

  “Still think that’s a stupid name, but if I can get into their system, I can probably rig the reactors to explode. So, if you can get me into some sort of console that’s hooked up to the mainframe, I’ll get that going while you rescue your little girlfriend.”

  “Oh, it that all?”

  “Yup, that’ll about do it.”

  “So, how exactly are we getting to the inner circle of the facility?”

  She clicked on a few more buttons and the hologram between us changed backed to the layout. “Looks like we go right out of here, continue down the hall until we reach the only access port.”

  “And how do you recommend we get past that? It’s got to be loaded with guards, scanners, the works, really. And it’s not like we can gather up enough uniforms, backstories and codes to just slip on past. It took you days to do that for Serkasis labs.”

  “Simple. We’re coming up with very few life signs, and it’s only a matter of time before Poitre and his friend manage to tip the rest of the staff off. They already know somethings wrong with our little scrapper-eggy, so why don’t we just blow that up, too? It’ll be a nice little warm up. From there, we just make a break for the passpoint into the center
ring and no one will be any the wiser.”

  “So, we’re going to make a distraction? That’s our grand plan?”

  “Hey, don’t know it till you try it,” Viys’k said, nudging the mooreerie with her elbow. “You’d be surprised how much tried and true tactics work, even in this time. We’ve evolved, but not that much.”

  “It’s not like I’ve got a better suggestion.” He then wavered a moment before continuing. “Actually, I do. I’m fine with blowing up the scrapper, but I think making a dash for the most likely heavily guarded passage is not the way to go.”

  “Well, what do you suggest? Having Andi teleport us through the walls? Because I’ve seen her do that, but it was just once and I’m not sure I’m confident on her ability to do that again.”

  “I second that,” I added quickly.

  “No. No teleporting. I don’t like relying on her jack-in-the-box abilities more than anybody else. I’m just looking at this from a smuggler’s angle. Their collecting scrap, and we just saw workers sorting it for processing. That means it has to be used for something inside, so why don’t we just find what that is and use that for our way in. They’re either sliding it through its own system, or loading it up and passing it through the one entrance you’re picking up, but my money is on the first option. Otherwise why would they sort it right on the floor?”

  “Huh, it’s real easy to forget that you’re actually kinda smart,” Angel mused.

  “That’s the secret. Always make people underestimate you. No one’s careful around someone they think is an idiot.”

  “I’m seeing you in a whole new light,” Viys’k said, teeth sharp as she smiled. “I don’t know what to think now.”

  “I think we should get out of here,” Angel said, cutting in with that same serious expression on her face. “I’ll go up to the ship and set up our sabotage. From there, we’ll head to where the scrap workers are and see if we can either procure some uniforms or find out where to get them.”

  “You mean the area you just bombed with sleeper gas?”

  “It should have dissipated by now.” She tapped her chin. “You know, I think I can use the explosion as an excuse for them all passing out. A gas leak, of sorts. Should keep suspicions off us.”