{"id":225,"date":"2012-08-12T00:18:49","date_gmt":"2012-08-12T04:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=225"},"modified":"2012-08-18T20:22:05","modified_gmt":"2012-08-19T00:22:05","slug":"thirty-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=225","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Thirty-Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay, so maybe it’s not as late as I thought it was going to be.\u00a0 I actually hit a decent, suspenseful stopping place.<\/em><\/p>\n

On to the chapter.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n

Bring to me the Gifted you have forsaken, the Lost Ones you have rendered broken, those poor souls who you fear because of what they can see behind your eyes.\u00a0 Give to me the Children of Delphi, of Akashwani, of Chilanes, Awka, Arochukwu.\u00a0 Send to me the Get of the Runesisters and the Kuten.\u00a0 I will take the sons of Psyche and the daughters of Mimir and make them my own.\u00a0 We are blood, bone, spirit, soul.\u00a0 We are many, we are One.\u00a0 We are knowledge.\u00a0 We are the Guard.<\/h3>\n

— Annals of the Psychean Guard, 5th Edition, c. 4530 PD<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

15 Novem, 5249 PD<\/strong><\/p>\n

The night was chill and clear, stars and a sliver of a silver moon lighting the world outside.\u00a0 They crept out into that darkness from the warmth of the house through the back door, the one that led out to the garden.\u00a0 Lindsay paused a few steps away from the step-down to wait for Frederick, who slid out with more flexibility than she expected and pulled the door silently shut behind him.<\/p>\n

He gave her a conspiratorial smile.\u00a0 \u201cI feel like a teenager again,\u201d he said as they moved past Rachel\u2019s garden and out into the grass beyond it.\u00a0 \u201cSneaking out of the house in the middle of the night and all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay choked back a laugh.\u00a0 \u201cWas that what it was like on Mimir? I don\u2019t think I ever had to actually sneak<\/em> out.\u201d\u00a0 Unless I didn\u2019t want Alana to know Brendan and I were going somewhere, but usually if we told Aunt Rachel she found a way to distract \u2018lana.<\/em><\/p>\n

Frederick nodded, his face ghostly in the starlight.\u00a0 \u201cYes.\u00a0 Parents still tried to keep their children safe, their teenagers out of trouble, and hoped their adult children would find happiness on whatever path they chose.\u00a0 But until the day we became adults<\/em>, we were all watched like hawks.\u201d\u00a0 He smiled faintly.\u00a0 \u201cIs it not like that as much here?\u201d<\/p>\n

She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cNot really.\u00a0 I think in some ways we grow up faster, become responsible more quickly.\u00a0 Brendan\u2019s been training pilots for years.\u00a0 Most of his students aren\u2019t even twenty and a lot are much younger.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like Chinasia or the Compact, of course, but we get started early.\u00a0 Earlier than Mimir, anyway, if I\u2019m to believe what I\u2019ve been told.\u201d\u00a0 She shoved her hands into the pockets of her light jacket.\u00a0 \u201cWas civil service really compulsory?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo years of it, unless you gave your services to charities or the Commonwealth itself.\u201d\u00a0 The corner of Frederick\u2019s mouth twitched.\u00a0 \u201cMy civil service turned into my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the Inspector General\u2019s office.\u201d<\/p>\n

He nodded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWould you really have left after the Mimir investigation?\u201d\u00a0 After Mimir fell, it seemed like you wanted to, in that vision I had of you and my father, when he told you to go.<\/em><\/p>\n

His gaze focused on the trees, like ink and shadow against the night sky as they wandered down a wide trail that wended its way toward town.\u00a0 \u201cI thought I would have,\u201d he said after a long silence, their shoes crunching on fallen pine needles and twigs, crushed seeds and leaves.\u00a0 \u201cI was angry.\u00a0 I had just lost my homeworld and the Commonwealth hadn\u2019t stopped it.\u00a0 Sephora\u2014someone I trained back in those days\u2014told me I was being an idiot.\u00a0 How was the Commonwealth supposed to stop something they didn\u2019t know what about to happen?\u00a0 I told her that I wasn\u2019t convinced that was the case.\u00a0 She told me that if I was so damned sure the Commonwealth could have stopped it, I should be the one to figure it all out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure that\u2019s what I wanted, though, so I went to Mimir.\u00a0 I found your father and begged him to let me help.\u00a0 He turned me away.\u00a0 This was months after the initial bombing, while the fighting was still going on, while it was a free-for-all.\u00a0 Every conglom was scrabbling for a piece of what was left there, Idesali and the Compact most of all.\u00a0 He told me to get the hell out of there, that I was the only one who had a prayer of figuring out who killed our world.\u00a0 So I left.\u00a0 I went back to New Earth, to my job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked right into my boss\u2019s office and said I was volunteering to investigate the bombings on Mimir.\u00a0 I told him that if we didn\u2019t investigate the bombings, whether or not the fighting was still going on or not, whether it was safe or not, we would be remiss if we didn\u2019t begin our investigation.\u00a0 We\u2019d already been waiting for too long, letting politics<\/em> stand in the way of the truth.\u00a0 He told me I was right.\u00a0 He assigned me to the task that very day.\u201d\u00a0 Frederick shook his head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cI half regret it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Half regret it?\u00a0 Because of what happened?<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cOnly half?\u201d<\/p>\n

He chuckled softly.\u00a0 \u201cOnly half.\u00a0 It was necessary, what I did.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t seem like it did much in the long run for the Commonwealth, though.\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head slightly.\u00a0 \u201cBut it bought years.\u201d\u00a0 He glanced at her and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cAnd now I\u2019m an old man walking in the woods with the daughter of old friends that I never thought I\u2019d see again.\u201d<\/p>\n

She swallowed hard against the lump that rose in their throat.\u00a0 \u201cBrendan and Ezra and Alana will bring them home.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019ll bring themselves home.\u00a0 In one piece, I hope, but something\u2026<\/em>\u00a0 Her lips thinned and she shivered in the evening chill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAye,\u201d Frederick said softly, then took her hand and squeezed.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve only met Dr. Grace, but I imagine all three of them are made of pretty stern stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

They stepped out of the woods and onto one of the quiet, winding paths into Nova Spexi proper.\u00a0 Lindsay could feel the quiet weight of sleeping minds spread out before them.\u00a0 She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you all right?\u201d\u00a0 Frederick asked.<\/p>\n

Lindsay smiled and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m fine.\u00a0 It\u2019s just that there\u2019s a reason that Brendan and I live so far out of town.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh.\u00a0 One of those?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay nodded again.\u00a0 On Mimir, they\u2019d called children like her Geists, psychics whose sensitivity was so high, their talents so strong that they were barely able to be controlled.\u00a0 Many on Mimir had to control their abilities with drugs.\u00a0 Here, on E-557, that hadn\u2019t been necessary, though it had been a near thing.<\/p>\n

If I didn\u2019t have Brendan, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d have done.<\/em>\u00a0 Having him near did seem to make the load lighter sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou handle it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you.\u201d\u00a0 She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.\u00a0 \u201cWell, I guess this is where the tour begins.\u00a0 This is Nova Spexi, the administrative heart of the colony, such as it is.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got other settlements that I\u2019m sure you know about\u2014Fort Solace and the like.\u00a0 Nova Spexi\u2019s not that big, but it covers a pretty wide area because of all the green space.\u00a0 Ezra\u2019s clinic is that way about a quarter mile, backing up to the woods.\u00a0 He says being on the edge of town with all the natural beauty around helps some of his patients cope.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s true or not, but I suppose it could be.\u201d\u00a0 Lindsay gestured toward the roadway as they stepped onto it from the footpath, the cobbles smooth under their feet.\u00a0 \u201cThis is Main.\u00a0 It runs straight through town to the square and then beyond it to the sea.\u00a0 It was out in those shallows where Chinasia tried to invade almost thirteen years ago.\u00a0 Most of the wreckage has been cleared away now, or swept into the deep water, but you can still see bits and pieces in a few places.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s when your Brendan came here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lindsay nodded.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s the only one that survived.\u00a0 He was piloting one of three dropships that came down filled with shock troops.\u00a0 They came apart in the atmosphere and things just got worse from there.\u00a0 Brendan was lucky to live.\u201d\u00a0 For a lot of reasons.<\/em>\u00a0 \u201cThat wasn\u2019t the last attempt one of the congloms made at invading this place, but was<\/em> the most significant one.\u201d\u00a0 She tucked her hands back into her pockets, the chill nibbling at her fingertips.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t understand it.\u00a0 How can we be that big of a threat to them?\u00a0 We just want to be left alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople fear what they don\u2019t understand,\u201d Frederick said softly.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s why they feared the Psychean Guard and it\u2019s not a secret that most of the Guard\u2019s survivors came here when Mimir died.\u00a0 It\u2019s not safe to be a psychic anywhere else\u2014I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s entirely safe to be one here, either, because I honestly wouldn\u2019t know, \u00a0but at least here people don\u2019t automatically assume that you\u2019re some kind of freak of nature, an aberration that needs to be sterilized or destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A shiver shot down Lindsay\u2019s spine and she nodded, lips pressed tightly together as her stomach did some sort of backflip.\u00a0 \u201cIs it all as awful as I\u2019ve always been told?\u00a0 Truly?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorse,\u201d Frederick said, pain and mourning in his voice.\u00a0 \u201cWorse, and I\u2019ve seen it for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shivered again and swallowed hard.\u00a0 \u201cI suppose I can understand why so many ran in the early days.\u00a0 I was always taught it was bad, read reports, all of that, but I\u2019ve never really known<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something someone can describe to you in words, is it?\u00a0 It\u2019s something that has to be seen, experienced.\u201d\u00a0 Like what I saw in those visions.\u00a0 Like what Brendan saw once or twice when he was young, when he saw things that weren\u2019t meant for his eyes.\u00a0 Like that one glimpse I had of what Alana had seen before she came to us, before she became one of us.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIndeed,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cMimir was a haven, then.\u00a0 The Guard and the Foundation were the only congloms where psychics were celebrated.\u00a0 A few were accepting, had protections in place, but most\u2026most feared them at best, hated at worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thunder rolled in the distance.\u00a0 Lindsay glanced up toward the cloudless sky and frowned.\u00a0 \u201cWhat was that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly thunder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of a clear sky?\u201d\u00a0 Lindsay half turned, brows knitting.<\/p>\n

A strange glimmer of\u00a0 light, almost like a falling star, caught in the corner of her eye.\u00a0 She spun toward it, trying to track it.<\/p>\n

She lost sight of the first, but another came in its wake.\u00a0 Then another, and still another.<\/p>\n

What in god\u2019s name\u2026?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAre you seeing this, too?\u201d she breathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAye,\u201d Frederick said, squinting into the night.\u00a0 \u201cI wasn\u2019t aware that we\u2019d be having a meteor shower tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Me, neither.<\/em><\/p>\n

The screams began.\u00a0 She stumbled back a step, into Frederick, who stumbled sideways, crashing down to one knee.\u00a0 She sat down hard next to him, gasping in ragged breaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cLindsay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t you hear them?\u201d she asked in horrified whisper.<\/p>\n

\u201cHear what, lass?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe screams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frederick\u2019s eyes widened and he grasped the young woman\u2019s shoulder in a grip that belied his apparent frailty.\u00a0 \u201cNo one here is screaming.\u00a0 All\u2019s quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must be up there.\u201d\u00a0 Lindsay turned her eyes to the sky in time to see a brighter blur of light falling through the sky, plummeting down from the heavens.<\/p>\n

The bottom dropped out of her stomach.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a ship.\u00a0 There are children aboard.<\/em><\/p>\n

And they\u2019re screaming and no one can save them from crashing to the earth.<\/em><\/p>\n

She wanted to vomit.\u00a0 Instead she lurched to her feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cGo back to the house,\u201d she snapped at Frederick.\u00a0 \u201cWake Uncle Adam.\u00a0 Tell him I\u2019ll need help down below the cliffs north of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone has to help them!\u00a0 Tell Uncle Adam to find me.\u201d<\/p>\n

She launched herself to her feet and sprinted toward the far side of town, her stomach sour and her gaze on the flaming ball that would hit just beyond the city, at the bottom of the seaside cliffs.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re refugees, like me, and they\u2019re screaming.\u00a0 Oh god, they\u2019re <\/em>screaming.<\/em> She tried to force the mental cacophony that left her head ringing aside so she could think.<\/p>\n

Focus, damn you!\u00a0 Focus!<\/em><\/p>\n

She threw her consciousness toward Kara Grace-Forester\u2019s home, feeling her longtime friend asleep.\u00a0 Giving the other woman a mental slap, she tried to urge the Consul awake before she sped onward, toward the cliffs she\u2019d climbed as a child.<\/p>\n

The ship was coming apart as it came down.\u00a0 Everything felt like it was in slow motion.\u00a0 Lindsay watched as bits and pieces of the vessel peeled away even as it hurtled downward.<\/p>\n

Please.\u00a0 Please let them live.\u00a0 Please.<\/em><\/p>\n

The ship hit with a thundering crash and brilliant flash of light.<\/p>\n

Searing pain shot through the Oracle.\u00a0 She screamed with the voices in her head.<\/p>\n

Then she ran on, heart in her throat, knowing deep inside that for the children inside that crashed ship, she was the only hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay, so maybe it’s not as late as I thought it was going to be.\u00a0 I actually hit a decent, suspenseful stopping place. On to the chapter. Bring to me the Gifted you have forsaken, the Lost Ones you have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-last-colony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25yjF-3D","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}