Cacophony Read online

  “Dr. Ben thought there was no other way. He left me to die! He left my daughter to die.”

  “She was here. At this school?”

  “Yes, his school. Dr. Ben’s. When he cut us all off, I figured out a way back here. You see, he had programmed his TF3 to be the only one with clearance to pass through. It turns out, I had one of his old TF1’s I had brought with for spare parts for my machine. It was not a surprise. We shared everything when we were friends. He had unwittingly gave me the clearance to travel through the barrier. I didn’t realize until the jerk hung up on me, and I heard the sound. You’d be surprised what anti-aging does for your hearing. At first, I thought I’d disable the barrier and let people leave the planet. Vortexes appeared across the globe, entire cities were swallowed, and people died by the billions. Dr. Ben was smart. He knew people would try to disable the barrier, so there were too many safeguards. By the time I froze the world, most people were dead. The vortexes ate everything. At least I could save my daughter. Who knows? Maybe we’d figure out how to start again.”

  “What happened to them?”

  The man laughed. It wasn’t maniacal like before, but almost like a man reliving a happy memory. “The same problems that have plagued civilizations since humans first climbed down from the trees. What to do with limited resources? We can farm. The Life Sciences building had seeds to start the process. There is still weather. The oceans were depleted but not gone. The problem was that there wasn’t enough land to farm for all the people who happened to be saved. The food from vending machines and the food court wouldn’t sustain everyone until the first crops arrived. In short, I had saved too many people.”

  He looked toward the back of the lab, where there was a sizeable frosted glass wall with a set of sliding doors in the center. He turned to Patel. “I suppose I should show you, but I want you to know that it was the only solution. You see, I had built a machine, one capable of punching through the barriers, be them natural or humanmade. I built another one here in U-1. One that would bring us back to the world I had fled. It was the only way. I had already weakened the barrier between both worlds during my first trip. It was either that world or stay here and watch them fight over the limited resources. It would take one person contaminating the soil to kill us here. So, I rationed supplies and lied about the storage we had. Once it was clear everyone would starve, I showed them it was the only way. However, someone needed to stay behind to operate it. I was that person. I imagine their descendants are still on that world. The indigenous people were barely one step above primates, and I had used the locals up just to get me here.”

  Patel’s hand went for her sword, but she realized she had left it in 78f. Dr. Ray pressed a button on the computer terminal, and the frosted glass at the back of the lab cleared so she could see what was on the other side. It was the same machine on the cultists' homeworld. The one where they almost killed Hailey. There was a skeleton hooked up to it with all sorts of spikes and tubes and a pile of bones on the floor. Patel remembered the kid they had murdered before strapping Hailey down.

  Before Patel had time to react, Dr. Ray tapped her with a small electronic device he had hidden in his pocket. A jolt of electricity coursed through her body, and her nervous system collapsed. She fell to the floor. He stepped over her and inspected her ears.

  “Yes,” he said. “You’ll do nicely. Maybe good for about one trip. It’s a noble sacrifice.”

  She attempted to struggle but couldn’t move her limbs. He knelt on the floor and inspected Patel.

  Dr. Ray spoke as he worked. “My daughter, she was a spitfire. She was brutal but cost-effective. Whenever a company hired her as a consultant, half the workforce would be laid off, benefits cut, but you know what? The company would be profitable. Lay off half to save the other half. I knew she would have what it took to survive at all costs. That’s why I invited her here with all of her followers. They knew that when resources are limited, it’s you or the other guy. Make sure it’s you. No matter what the cost.”

  “That’s insane,” Patel attempted to say, but her tongue was like sludge in her mouth, and it came out as a wheeze.

  “That’s what Dr. Ben never understood!” Dr. Ray yelled while he dragged Patel to the other room. “We could have had the entire multiverse at our fingertips. Instead, we had security councils and wrote protocols. No weapons? That’s nice until some other universe not even on our maps brings weapons. It’s okay; I wrote the protocols, I can disable them. I think. I just need to get to the universe my daughter built.”

  Patel tried to speak again, but her words jumbled and were incomprehensible.

  Dr. Ray laughed. “You weren’t the first, you know. A young boy named Hector appeared one day with another girl. I convinced them to bring more friends. Promised Universe One support. I thought that I needed more people. One to get me there. The others for the treatment. I was running out of injections, you know. They never came back. I’m not going to make that same mistake with you. I have to trust that my daughter’s ancestors lived on. She’s a survivor. There’ll be people there.”

  He dumped her limp form next to the terminal in the lab. He pressed buttons, and the machine powered up. After it was running through some routine diagnostics, he turned to disconnect the long-dead victim used in the exodus from Universe One. He removed the bones and brushed off the two large spikes intended for her ears.

  “Yes,” he said and glanced back at her. “This will do nicely.”

  4

  The Tuners had voted Hailey as the point person for taking back the station despite Jon’s vocal dislike of the idea. She could care less about the guy. While the relationship was fun while it lasted, he was too much of a control freak to ever get serious with him. No one could tell her what to do.

  Even though she didn’t like the direction the Tuners had decided, she enjoyed seeing her friends die even less. Patel and Hector were too hard to take. Hailey wouldn’t see anyone else go even if it was in service of Jon’s crazy plan. Furthermore, if she had enough time with them, maybe she could convince them to see the error of their ways.

  Hailey stepped into the fitting room of the store made from trees in U-132 and listened for HQ. She heard the faint familiar sound of what her home had been since she had started with the Tuners. It was hard to believe that most of the friends she had left behind would be starting college soon and living a normal life.

  There was no normal for her, and she was okay with that. While most girls her age had pink rooms with four-post beds and various fantasy pony-related products growing up, she had soccer player bobbleheads and listened to music generally reserved for boys and had the posters to prove it. Pants were always preferable to dresses, though leggings with skirts crept into the wardrobe when the teenage years hit.

  She was the girl in her school that could kick the crap out of most people and looked good doing it. Of course, that all came to an end when Hector took her in. He taught her to use her head rather than react to her gut. That’s why she knew Jon more than he knew himself. She had been that person. The one to bulldoze through life.

  No matter what anyone thought, she couldn’t bash through anything now. Taking back HQ required more than just gumption. Ludie had outwitted them all. They were in a chess match and not a battlefield. That’s why it had to be her. She knew when to strike and when to conserve her energy. Hector had taught her that. She missed the guy.

  Without a second thought, she hit the tune button and hopped from the dressing room to a dark storage area in the bowels of HQ. Her faceplate misted, and she could tell right away that life support wasn’t yet active. It took a few moments for the suit to regulate and control the mist that had formed. Once it did, she turned on her headlamp and saw that everything in the storage room was frozen.

  She trundled to the doorway and discovered that it was opened. The body of a cultist lay in the door. Hailey stepped over it and continued down the hall. Bodies were everywhere. Ludie certainly had succeeded ridding
them of the menace. Even though there weren’t any hordes to chase her down, Ludie wouldn’t hesitate to strike, at least if it were Jon.

  However, considering the suit she was wearing was almost form-fitted to her body, she had to assume he had made it for her. Hailey knew he had a crush on her, even back before she realized he was a megalomaniac psychopath. The kid was jealous of Jon, but she figured that he’d get over it. Some people don’t find the person that’s right for them until out of college anyway, and by the time Ludie was ready to retire from the Tuners, he would be able to hire any matchmaker he wanted.

  However, now that she knew he intended to kill every one of her friends and spare her, she understood how dangerous he could be. Even though the kid was misguided, she did have one advantage: there was a chance he’d listen to her. If that didn’t work, she would have to kill him, which was different than the nuclear option the Tuners had chosen. Ludie had made his choice, and there was a risk that even if they stranded him on a benign universe, he might stumble across Universe One tech and start the process over. Whereas the cultists might have innocent people on their world, she found it hard to believe they couldn’t figure out how to trap them there.

  The halls of the station were eerie. Not only did it feel like the pitch black was closing in around her, but the bodies of the cultists felt like they could get up and move at any time. The temperature froze them in time, and their faces were contorted in their last breath. The frigid zombie army was the least of her concerns; Ludie could be around any corner, and her headlight was a giveaway of her presence. Because he lacked time to install any sort of optics, they would know about each other, and there would be no sneaking up on him, which was a shame. She was good at hiding.

  After searching through a few floors with no luck, a realization hit. He was probably trying to break into the vault. Only Hector knew the code, and considering the cultists didn’t have all the experimental tech the Tuners had collected over the years, there was a good chance Hector didn’t give it up when they had tortured him. Hailey turned and went for a stairwell.

  When she got to the bottom, she turned off her headlamp. If there was any chance for surprise, it was now. She held her breath even though the suit would have masked her breathing anyway and proceeded with caution. She pushed the door open slightly.

  Sure enough, the first crack revealed light on the other side. She opened it more and stepped outside. She closed it quietly and backed up into the shadows. There was a drill on the vault door. It was grinding away at sturdy Universe One material. However, what surprised her was that there were two people standing next to the drill.

  Other than herself, Ludie didn’t like anyone. Her first thought was Alex, the bounty hunter, had betrayed them. However, on closer inspection, that wasn’t quite right either. They were both too big to be Alex or Ludie for that matter. Had Ludie hired bodyguards? The kid was too awkward and sure of himself to involve anyone else.

  She crept closer and realized they were cultists. Before she could backtrack, one of them spotted her in the shadows and pulled out a gnarled blade. She was quick with her daggers and flung two of them out. One was knocked away with her opponent’s sword. The other one stuck in the armor but didn’t penetrate deep enough. The cultist plucked the weapon out of its shoulder and tossed it to the floor.

  Hailey readied two more daggers and parried the swipes from blades. She attempted to roll out of the way of an attack but was too slow in the armor. The blade cut her suit, and it hissed. She was losing pressure and had to end the fight. She found her way around the two, blocking their blows. Eventually, she maneuvered behind one of them and forced the other to impale his friend. She used the shock of the moment to climb over the fallen soldier and hop on the shoulders of the other. She stabbed her dagger repeatedly until his helmet cracked and the faceplate shattered.

  Hailey jumped down and surveyed the room. There were supplies for the drill. She kicked the crate over and saw what she needed. She grabbed a can and shook it. The thermal protection on it was intact, and there was still liquid inside. A chill sank in as the environmental controls on the suit failed. Death would come from the temperature before the oxygen had a chance to leak out. She aimed the can at the tear and sprayed a grey mist. It solidified instantly.

  The gauges on her suit returned to normal. She could feel the warmth returning. Hailey tossed the can and turned toward the staircase.

  The High Priest stood there with two massive guards.

  “I see the Flame has reunited us,” the High Priest’s voice came out of his helmet.

  Before she was able to get her daggers out, the guards grabbed and restrained her. The High Priest opened a panel on her armor. He punched a few buttons on a keypad. The oxygen gauge went down to a bare minimum. Her eyes grew heavy. She passed out at the High Priest’s feet.

  5

  Patel didn’t blame Hector for her impending death. He was a victim of the crazy doctor as much as she was. What irked her was that due to the man’s lies, Hector’s final act to guide them to Universe One only ended in failure. What hurt even more than the physical pain she was about to endure, was that Hector wouldn’t view it as a mistake. He would have said, “It was a Hail Mary. The important thing is what you learned.”

  While Hector had taught her to learn from defeats as well as successes, this failure was their last chance to turn their situation around. She was lucky in some respects that she had time to reflect on her condition. Dr. Ray had some trouble hooking her up to the machine. He said it hadn’t been used in years and needed some maintenance after one of the spikes intended for her ear snapped in his hand.

  It gave her time to think and maybe even figure a way out, no matter how remote the possibility. The electric current that paralyzed her was now constant. He dialed back the device he had used and left it running. She could feel it pulse whenever she felt sensation about to return to her muscles. There was a chance that if she could only move her limbs, she could knock it away.

  She could hear him working and muttering to himself. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but for a brief moment, she could move her arm. After contracting the muscle, the paralytic device fell to the floor. It would only be a matter of time before full sensation would return.

  The feeling of pins and needles coursed through her body. Her face remained neutral during the excruciating pain. It was intense, but she couldn’t afford to tip her hand until she could fight back.

  The muttering from Dr. Ray stopped. Footsteps walked closer to her. There was a pause, and then Dr. Ray leaned over and popped back up, holding the paralytic device. “I think you dropped something.”

  Patel attempted to raise her arms, but it was too much. They flopped at her side. She tried to stand, but her body wouldn’t respond.

  Dr. Ray said, “I think we need to up the dosage.”

  He set it next to her again, and a pulse hit her. Everything went numb.

  The man returned to work.

  ∆∆∆

  Later—she wasn’t sure if it was days or hours; it was hard to tell when she had nothing to do but stare at the ceiling of a windowless room—Dr. Ray stepped over and grinned.

  “It’s time,” he said, and she could feel a spike pierce her eardrum. He installed countless others on her body. Finally, when they were done, a black liquid came down from a tube from the top of the device. When it hit her body, she cried out in pain. It felt like someone had set her on fire.

  He switched on the machine, and it got worse. She heard the sound of the cosmic background radiation that was the signature of each universe. Except it wasn’t a quiet noise in the distance. The noise was amplified to the extent that it sent waves of pain through her head. The burning sensation was nothing compared to it.

  The volume increased, and it felt like her brain boiled. Everything faded out. There was nothing but sound and pain.

  Then, as quickly as it started, it stopped. A few seconds later, the spike was taken from her ear. It
took a while for her to regain her senses, but when she came too, Anya was leaning over her. She propped up Patel so she could get a look at the room.

  Alex was there too, poking around the equipment. They grinned and said, “Can you believe that mother was holding out on us all these years? The stuff here is worth a fortune.”

  Patel was still recovering from the machine. The pins and needles from Anya removing her restraining device seemed like nothing compared to the way she felt.

  Anya said to Patel, “Don’t pay attention to her. We came here to save you.”

  “Consider it pro bono!” Alex said, “And I get salvage rights to this whole area. And, sister, it’s them. Quit being an insensitive tool.”

  “Patel almost died, and I’m the one who’s being insensitive?”

  Patel could feel a tear welling up. She wasn’t sure if it was from the pain or being saved.

  6

  Jon paced around Forever 21, checking his headphones every few minutes for any sign of HQ becoming active. The clerks murmured to each other and glanced toward him. Meathook grabbed Jon by the arm and pulled him towards a clothing display, “Bro, have you forgot your training already? We are supposed to look like we are shopping. Could you at least pretend to look for pants?”

  Meathook flipped through a rack of jeans, and Jon followed his example. While the clerks didn’t get to the point of calling security, they were keeping a watchful eye on the pair. Jon didn’t even bother to thumb through pants his size; he perused through the forty plus diameter waist that would look like clown pants on him.

  “Hailey should have turned off the barrier by now,” Jon said. “She has been gone for too long.”

  “Relax, bro,” Meathook said. “She probably just encountered Ludie or something.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “That twerp? He couldn’t last a second in the ring with any of us, even when you were a noob. Hailey has that guy beat.”