Fragment of Destiny
Chapter 21 - Hacking

The door clicked shut behind Tess as she entered Yami’s dark living quarters. Tapping the lighting panel, she upped the brightness to seventy percent. She couldn’t understand why Yami liked huddling in the dark whenever he was alone. The entry room was remarkably clean by Yami’s standards. Meaning there was a clearly defined path and more or less neat piles of assorted parts, papers and books. The faint odor of burnt flux still hung in the air though it was clear Yami had tried to mask it with air freshener. If this was what passed for cleaning in Yami’s world it was no wonder he was still single.

Yami reclined in his high-backed chair watching Tess maneuver across the room. It seemed every time she saw him, he was in front of a terminal. Four massive view screens filled with countless tabs of scrolling data made up the console from which most of Yami’s world seemed to revolve.

“I thought you were taking me to Central today?” Tess said holding back her annoyance. Yami was still in plane shorts and a pullover shirt. Not exactly standard fare for the Imperium capitol.

“Not today.”

“Then where are Demetrius, and Samuel? Have you taken them, hostage, or something?”

“You know I considered that, but in the end, I decided it was really too much work,” Yami said bringing out his signature smile. “No instead, we will be visiting them courtesy of the Imperium security network,” Yami said as he rolled a smaller chair around and motioned for Tess to sit.

She knew Yami was skilled at computers but he made hacking the Imperium network sound as routine as brushing your teeth. It was amazing to think of all the things Yami had mastered even without an ascension crystal. How much more powerful would he have been with one? Or would having a specific ability have suffocated his natural talents?

“Who did you want to check on first?” Yami asked, drawing Tess from her introspection.

Tess’s heart leaped at his words. This would be the first time she had gotten any news about her friends since they had parted ways at the academy.

“Can you show me Demetrius?” She asked.

“Sure. Give me a minute. I will let you know when we are in.”

She watched as he toggled back and forth from program to program disabling and bypassing systems until he gained access. The symbol for Lab Corps flashed on the screen. Had Demetrius really landed an assignment with the lab? But was he a scientist or maintenance?

A moment later hundreds of small images popped into focus on the upper right display. Bringing a single image full size on a separate view screen, Yami quickly toggled from camera to camera. Instantly Tess felt a flood of nostalgia as the view came to rest on Demetrius leaning back in a chair, eyes closed with hands interlaced behind his head. A look of serious contemplation creased his face. Tess felt a stupid smile tugging at the sides of her mouth. It was a relief to see him in a scientist uniform instead of a janitorial one. It had been scarcely more than a year and a half but already he seemed like a real adult.

In a moment Demetrius snapped awake and began typing on his terminal with a furious intensity and confidence of movement that seemed foreign to Tess. Unlike her, Demetrius looked to have grown into his ability well. Without warning, rage flared up inside her. She didn’t hate him, she couldn’t hate him, instead, she despised herself and her worthless crystal.

She wanted to be happy for him but all she felt was betrayal. That should have been her. He was doing the work she had always dreamed of, while she had lost everything. She had been at the top of the ascension class, and she had watched over him every day of their training together. It was a miracle he had survived the trial at all.

Tess paused a moment and attempted to put herself in his shoes, but all she could think of was how after everything they had been through together Demetrius had never once even tried to contact her. At least she had tried, and he had ignored every link and every message. In the midst of her tormented feelings, her father entered the lab room. Even without sound, she could tell he was yelling at someone outside the door.

“Is it possible to get audio?” Tess asked.

“It's through a different system I have been working on it. Should be almost there.”

A few moments later the audio started to come through. The quality was not nearly as good as the video feed, but at least she could hear what they were saying.

“…I have been able to successfully replicate individual organs through the cloning process, at least digitally, but I am nowhere close to achieving a fully functional human clone. It seems like a colossal waste of our time to order this project only to cancel it before we make any meaningful progress,” Demetrius said.

“I would not say, no meaningful progress, and it is not canceled. They are simply taking the project in a different direction for the time being. I know your mother and the rest of the medical staff at the hospital will be excited when you finish the organ cloning.”

Even from the awkward top-down view of the cameras, Tess could tell Demetrius was displeased.

“I could continue working on the full-human clone digitally while I do all the tests necessary to produce the cloned organs the hospital wants. It wouldn’t be hard or take any extra time. I may even come across something useful.”

“I know you could, but the regulators don’t want you to have…” Her father made air quotes with his fingers, “Split attention between the two projects.”

“like that is even a problem.”

“I know. Which is why I am authorizing you to continue the project for now, but if I feel your results are suffering because of It, I will have to limit you to just the physical organ project.”

“Alright turn it off,” Tess said not wanting to watch a second more. The longer she watched the more she felt herself placing the blame for everything that had happened to her on Demetrius. She knew it was not true but watching him with her father had awakened something ugly inside her.

Yami raised an eyebrow in her direction, “You alright?”

“Yeah I’m fine,” Tess lied, “How about Samuel. Were you able to see where he is?”

Blessedly Yami toggled the view-screen back to his coding box and his keypad began clicking like a full auto rifle. Then the display went dark. A moment later hundreds of images filled the screen. Each of an empty room. Again, Yami scrolled from shot to shot. Tess stopped him as they came to a large skimmer docking bay with two military skimmers inside.

“Where is this?”

“This is the enforcer training facility at Shallows Point. It seems your friend Samuel got himself a gig as a novice.”

The only thing she could think was, how? Samuel was smart, one of the best, but he was a Halsinion. Out of all the possible assignments, she could have conceived of, an enforcer had not been on the list.

Yami continued to scroll through the images, a mess hall, gym, and barracks but no sign of anyone. Then he reached the reel of external cameras. Black military skimmers sat arrayed in the distance over the snow-covered plane. They had taken up formation around the facility as if expecting an attack from the east.

“Everyone out on a training exercise?” Tess asked, her hands clamping down on the back of Yami’s chair as she stood.

“I think they are in position to repel aggression from the second winter malravian migration,” Yami said.

“I never realized they got so close.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FindNʘᴠᴇl.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“They don’t. At least not too Central or Crescent. Here, look at this,” Yami said pulling up a grid on the forth view screen.

The grid showed the land the Imperium controlled from The Rocks to the east, The Abaddon to the west, south to the port city of Shale by The Great Rift, and the border of the Halsinion nation to the north. Smack dab in the middle between Central and the Halsinion’s was Shallows Point. It was one of the few significant land formations between the two.

Touching the display Yami drew the path of the seasonal migration. The malravians followed a shallow valley across the plane that kept them mostly contained as if they were the waters of a raging river that only came twice a year.

“Following the valley puts them on a collision course with Shallows Point,” Yami said.

Tess watched the horizon start to shimmer as thousands of malravians approached the line of waiting skimmers. The sheer number of beasts was astounding. How could these few skimmers hope to repel them? Tess licked her dry lips and tried not to dig her nails into the back of Yami’s chair. She knew Samuel would be in one of those skimmers.

A moment later the view shook violently as a bolt of fire streaked across the sky and detonated on the horizon. The blast looked like the rising of the second summer sun as it consumed everything around it. Tess sighed with relief, she had thought the skimmers would have to do the fighting on their own. All at once every skimmer began to move. Instead of engaging the malravians they were retreating.

“What’s going on, I thought they were supposed to fight them off?” Tess asked.

“They were,” Yami said as the display went dark. “Hang on I am trying to find out what’s going on.”

Yami began digging his way through more lines of code and connecting to other parts of the enforcer network. Suddenly the viewscreen snapped back to life, this time from an enforcer heads-up display. The sound nearly blew out her ears as Yami dove to lower the volume. The roar of gunfire was the only thing that could be heard as the view jostled violently. The enforcer was in the gunner’s loft of a moving skimmer. Tess watched in horror as round after round from the heavy auto cannon punched into the oncoming horde, turning the front line into a gory pulp that was quickly replaced by even more malravians. Alongside them, a second retreating skimmer was swallowed whole by the surging mass, its gunner still firing as it disappeared. From the sky above a volley of rockets gave a brief reprieve and a dusk blade strafed low over the malravians tearing the front waves to shreds with a large door mounted autocannon.

Then they came too low. A dark mass shot from the pack and latched onto the cockpit. The creature was far smaller than the rest of the malravians and looked almost human. Despite its size, its strength was devastating as it began ripping the dusk blade apart. A moment later the dusk blade plummeted on a collision course with the remaining skimmer. Tess closed her eyes and her entire body tensed, when she opened them, the display was blank.

“Holy shit,” Yami said leaning back in his chair and continued muttering something unintelligible under his breath.

“Please tell me that was not from a skimmer at shallows point,” Tess said, her entire body covered with icy pinpricks. “No that was from the enforcer team deployed to the east of Crescent.”

Tess let out a heavy sigh. At least Samuel was still safe.

“Some of the enforcers got too close sparked aggression. With the loss of two skimmers and a dusk blade orders have gone out to pull back and let the bombardment cannons do the work.”

“Are you able to get back in and see where Samuel is?” Tess asked letting out a long unsteady breath.

In response images from the inside of the facility flickered by until they came to rest on a squad of five faceless enforcers switching out weapons and putting on tactical body armor. A moment later Yami superimposed name and rank over each enforcer. Immediately she recognized three of the names. Samuel who was hurriedly loading bullets from a large ammo box into a line of empty magazines, Elroy Grimwald who sat at a terminal, and Seth Coramoth who was looking over Elroy's shoulder. They were an unlikely trio to be enforcers and even more unlikely to end up on the same squad.

With everyone finished gathering ammunition all eyes turned to Seth as he addressed the group. The entire room shook, and immediately everyone looked to Elroy.

“What just happened?” Tess asked as the thermostat of her anxiety bumped up a few rungs.

“I don’t know. Yet,” Yami said.

On-screen Samuel, Seth, and two others Tess hadn’t recognized rushed from the room. Yami kept pace with them jumping from camera to camera down to a skimmer maintenance bay. The squad fanned out quickly as they entered the room then slowed to a cautious pace. The floor was covered with ruined bits of rock and large chunks of dirt. Twisted metal hung suspended by frayed cabling where a skimmer lift gate had been. Behind it, large holes exposed malravian tunnels into the facility.

Tess watched through the convulsing screen as huge malravians burst from the walls. Chunks of rock and tangled metal flew through the air as the scene turned to pure chaos. Before Tess had time to flinch huge malravians barreled towards Samuel. Muzzle flashes and gore filled the room. The blood was everywhere. The floor, the walls, the enforcers, but the onslaught kept coming. Samuel's weapon clattered to the slick floor and he doubled over clutching his left arm.

“Samuel!” Tess shrieked.

As if her voice had somehow reached his ears he miraculously recovered. Scooping up his weapon he cut down the remaining malravians in a shower of bullets that left the floor and ceiling pockmarked with impact points. The blood bath for all its intensity was over in mere seconds. Tess let out a heavy sigh, all of the enforcers had survived. She rested her weight on the back of Yami’s chair as her knees threatened to buckle beneath her.

Without missing a beat, Seth began working on something near one of the tunnel entrances. Without warning, Seth abandoned his work, as he scrambled back to his squad. With the intensity of prey before a predator, they rushed from the room leaving a trail of crimson as they went.

“What’s going on?” Tess demanded.

“I don’t know, but no way it’s good,” Yami said, tension thick in his voice.

Right, of course, he wouldn’t know. He was very, very good, at getting into information other people deemed secure, but he was by no means omniscient. Sometimes she had to remind her self of that.

Tess bounced on the balls of her feet as each passing second filled her more completely with dread and panic. She didn’t care if they defended the training ground. All she wanted was for Samuel to get as far away from there as possible.

The squad returned to where they had left Elroy and his bodyguard. Everyone stripped off their helmets and tossed them to the enforcer who had not been in combat for a scrub down. The rest of them were busy restocking on ammunition while Seth consulted Elroy. Seth announced something to the group and it was clear they didn’t like what they heard. With no sound, Tess couldn’t be sure what was going on but it was clear that Samuel and Seth were having a heated disagreement which looked to be on the edge of coming to blows. What was Samuel thinking? Not only was he being grievously insubordinate, but unless he was prepared to shoot Seth there was no hope of winning a hand to hand fight. With one swift strike, the confrontation was over.

Samuel had Seth by the wrist seemingly able to hold back all of his superiors ascended strength with a single hand. To Tess’s astonishment, not only did the rage disappear from Seth's face but he backed down. Pointing at the stunned enforcers Seth began yelling. In a matter of seconds, everyone had their helmets back on and they were streaming out the door.

At the end of the first corridor, the squad split sending Samuel and Seth towards a flight of stairs and the others down an adjacent hall. Toggling the view Yami follow Samuel who bolted up several levels of stairs three to four steps at a time. When Yami reached the hall at the top of the stairs they found the floor streaked with blood and bullet holes marred the walls. Heaps of mangled malravian corpses were stacked in a corner at the end of the hall where a squad of enforcers waited with weapons at the ready. Behind them, mangled metal doors hung limply on their hinges.

A moment later the door connecting the hall and the stairwell flew open and Seth came out first with a fuse saber at the ready. Samuel followed quickly behind kicking the door shut. There was a brief moment of hesitation when Samuel and Seth saw the fleet of guns trained on them. Despite the hostile posture of their fellow enforcers, they swept past the defenders with no contest.

Behind the shatter doors lay a command center with a wall-size view screen sectioned off into hundreds of simultaneous images. Tess began to bounce on the balls of her feet again, the weapons were not being pointed away and soon someone with the insignia of an under marshal was shouting at Samuel and Seth. Despite this, Samuel did not slow his pace. Instead, he rushed the main terminal and clamped down on the forearm of the under marshal. Rage flared on the man’s face, as he ripped his arm away. Then his face went scarlet and he shouted at the defenders who quickly turned their guns back to the empty hall. Tess let out a squeak of relief and she realized she had been panting.

Samuel and the under marshal had a brief exchange before the commanding officer turned to the nearest terminal. A moment later he slammed both fists on the viewscreen cracking the glass. Once again, he was shouting orders, this time everyone began to move.

“The defense cannons just stopped,” Yami said. “He turned them off!” Yami fidgeted in his chair and began to bite his knuckles.

“What!” Tess shrieked. “Why?”

“I don’t know!” Yami yelled nearly slamming his hands on the terminal keypad. “He set the self-destruct timer. They are abandoning the outpost.” Yami said and quickly toggled the view to show what was happening outside.

“My god,” Tess muttered taking it all in. Never in her life had she imagined so many malravians in one place. They stretched out like an endless tide that threatened to swallow up Shallows Point. High above dusk blades pelted the mass with rockets and autocannon fire to little effect.

Tess grabbed Yami by the shoulders and shook him violently, “Where is Samuel?” The only thing she could think was, escape. He had to escape and now.

Yami toggled the screen back and shifted through the images until they found a group of enforcers huddled near a fleet of skimmers. Both Samuel and Seth were providing cover for the rest of the teams as they rushed past. Tess beat on the back of Yami’s chair silently screaming for Samuel to move. After nearly four minutes of tense waiting thinking that at any moment Samuel could be washed away by a flood of malravians, he slung his rifle and bolted for the final remaining skimmer.

“Come on, come on…” Tess heard herself mutter in unison with Yami. Several seconds later the screen went dark. Instantly Tess felt a pit in her stomach.

“Did they make it?” Tess shrieked nails digging into the fabric of Yami’s chair.

In reply, Yami ran his hands along the keypad in a frenzy until the view screen came back to life. This time from the perspective of an enforcer heads up display. The modest hill that had been Shallows Point was gone. In its place was a flaming heap of rubble. To her surprise, the malravians ignored the fleeing skimmers even while being pelted from the sky. With the facility destroyed they seemed content to continue their migration.

“Did they make it?” Tess asked.

Yami only growled as he began jumping from one heads-up display to the next until he came to Samuel. Like a rush of wind, Tess could feel a massive weight lift. She clutched at her heart, he was alive. A moment later the view vanished. Lines of code sprayed across the screen and each keystroke sounded like a thunderclap.

“Wait what about Samuel?” Tess said.

“He made it, he lived. I am sorry, but I have to go. I am late for a very important meeting,” Yami said his voice harsh as he closed all of his working tabs and quickly powered off the terminal.

“I will leave this with you,” Yami said as he hefted the sensorium and placed it in her hands. A reminder that she still had a session to complete while he was away. Yami looked around the room for a moment as if he had forgotten something before, he hurried out the door toppling several towers of books and papers in his haste. Tess frowned after him as he went. It wasn’t like Yami to up and leave like that even when late for important business. Sinking into Yami’s chair Tess set the sensorium in her lap. Her entire body trembled and all she could do was stare at the blank view screens.

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