The Betwixt Book One

  Chapter 12

  “No, we aren’t.” My voice came out as a rasp, my throat coated with the dust from the mini cave-in.

  “It’s okay.” Jason had a hand up. “It’s okay—”

  “Let her go,” Doctor Cole snapped as she half-jogged, half-ran over to me. “Where is it?” Her eyes were wide and unforgettably intense, “Did it—”

  “Oh, it’s still alive.” I was still finding it hard to talk – even harder when I knew that talking wasn’t getting us away from here. “We have to get out of here – now.”

  Jason was following our conversation like a hawk – his head ticking our way. “What the hell is going on? What are you talking about? Are there more Tarians—”

  “No.” Doctor Cole’s voice was strained and way too fast. “Tell me it didn’t break containment—”

  “What are you talking about?” Jason faced his mother – a huge black menace with both arms crossed. “You tell me now.”

  Doctor Cole threw up her hands but didn’t turn away from her son. Her eyes were blazing, her skin slicked with mud-crusted sweat, but she didn’t fob him off – she could tell he was serious. “It’s nothing, Jason—”

  “What is it? If my men are in danger, I need to know—”

  “You wouldn’t even believe me, Jason,” Doctor Cole chuckled bitterly. “So why ask the question—”

  “Tell me—” Jason began, hitting the release button on his helmet. It disappeared into the back of his armor with a fancy swish.

  “Alright, enough,” I cut in. I couldn’t believe I was doing it – but we didn’t have time for a family spat right now.

  I didn’t have a chance to explain. A low, mournful cry hit the air and might as well have made it burn – because it sucked the oxygen right out of me, my breath escaping like I’d been struck in the belly. It was accompanied by the sound of rocks – heavy rocks – crumbling or being thrown to the side.

  I closed my eyes like you might in a nightmare – to check to see if the horror went away.

  “What the—” Jason grabbed the gun locked against his back.

  “Oh my god.” Doctor Cole’s voice was barely there.

  I felt like time was slowing down, trickling around me like the last water of a dried-up stream. Jason’s face was frozen – alive with fear, determination, and shock all at once. I could see the flecks of dust from the ceiling flick by like single frames from a holomovie – some landing in his short black hair, some collecting on the wide shoulders of his armor.

  I could see the others – the other GAMs and dig crew. All with their heads turned toward the sound, expressions a mix of pure fear and confusion.

  I could feel it behind me. Its presence was like a great, cold cloud where my shadow should be – haunting my footsteps with unthinkable menace.

  What was I going to do? How…. All these people? How was I going to save them?

  Time sped up, back to where it should be – back to people shouting and receding in horror, trying to get away from the sound. Back to Jason lifting his gun and pointing it down the tunnel, face so compressed with concentration, it was hard to recognize him. Back to Doctor Cole staring with hollow eyes.

  I took a breath. Od was at my arm. “What do we do? Collapse the tunnel; try to make it up the ladder? Concentrate fire—” he spluttered, uncharacteristic fear warping his voice like a recording bursting with static.

  What would She do if she were here? My mother, my people – what would they do? How would they fight? How would they think?

  Jason moved off down the tunnel in the direction of the scream as it resounded over and over again like a battle cry. He motioned for his men to join him with one flick of his black, armored hand.

  “No,” I said through a breath. “No.” I tried to put a hand out to stop him, but it glanced off his smooth armor with no purchase.

  “Get up the ladder – get all these people up the ladder. Unit Four, you’re with me.”

  No! That thing would kill them all. We had to get out of here, had to find a way—

  I felt like sinking onto my knees and waiting for it to end. My eyes were heavy, my head dropping toward my chest as if I were ready to fall asleep. I felt lethargic, overloaded with the realization that I couldn’t do anything. The other side of me, Her side, it didn’t seem to be anywhere in reach. After its defeat in the chamber, it had obviously fled to the dark recess of my mind where it had always resided.

  “No!” Doctor Cole snapped, her reverie giving way. “Jason! Don’t go down there. We have to seal off this tunnel; it’s our only chance. Edward, find me a sonic drill.”

  Commander Cole didn’t stop at her words, just kept heading toward the scream, gun at the ready.

  Od looked up at me meaningfully. He didn’t say anything, but that was enough.

  I couldn’t give up. This was my responsibility now. But how to fight a creature that can’t be defeated? I either needed a hell of a more powerful weapon or a method of defeating it without destroying it – of incapacitating it.

  My mind whirred like a ship gunning its engines to take off. If we all got out then collapsed the whole dig site, would that be enough? Did we even have the time?

  No, I needed something else. I needed something from my people – that would be the only way—

  “Od,” I dropped to my knees right beside him, “I need that thing – that thing you use to keep the Twixt. I need it now!”

  Od’s eyes lit up, his skin seeming to glow. “How will you—”

  “Give it to me.”

  He pulled it from the folds of his robe, and I snatched it from his hands before he had a chance to open them fully.

  The answer was, I didn’t know what I was going to do with it. I knew two things – this was the technology of my people; I could feel it. It also held a Twixt I could fight. I didn’t know how the last one would help me, but I had a feeling it could.

  I sped off down the corridor in the direction of the Commander and his Unit. A couple of other GAMs tried to stop me, but I twisted away from them without a second thought.

  Wait for me, Jason. Don’t go and do anything stupid.

  As I ran, I twisted the catch on the device. Having it in my hands, I could feel it as if it were an extension of my being – as if my senses extended to the machine. The prickles of energy along my skin began to flow in and around it.

  I still didn’t know what I was going to do. I was running on instinct, and that was the single most unifying experience I’d had so far. I wasn’t torn between my two halves – I was operating between them.

  I could see the Commander before me at the lead of a group of five GAMs. The tunnel was narrow but large enough for them to spread out in a V as they headed forward. As I pelted up behind them, Jason turned, and he shook his helmeted head.

  “Get out of here.” He managed to scream over the top of the harsh cry of the Twixt.

  I didn’t answer. I ducked and rolled out of the way of a GAM who tried to grab me. I launched into a long dive roll that brought me between the rest of the soldiers. Springing to my feet, I performed a full layout right over Jason’s head.

  I landed a meter in front of him at the turn of the tunnel that would lead to the cave-in.

  I heard the Commander swear, and I would have paid a million Central Credits to see his face. Not every day a diner waitress out-maneuvers a crack GAM unit.

  I let go of the device in my hand, releasing it fully. I threw it onto the ground and watched as the Twixt appeared in the middle of this narrow, rocky tunnel.

  It stood there silently. I watched it with the same tunnel vision I always had for the Twixts. It was like I was alone with it, standing face-to-face with nothing else that could come between us.

  “Mini.” Jason caught my arm. “Mini – what are you doing?”

  I turned toward him. The cry of the mutant Twixt became loud and clear as if it had made it through the wall rock. I heard one final stone shatter against the side of the tunnel, felt the almigh
ty shudder beneath my feet, and saw the dust dislodge from above.

  Jason, hand still on my arm, tried to shift me behind him, training his gun on the mouth of the tunnel.

  He couldn’t see the Twixt standing right there – the black shadow I’d released. I could. I could make out the wild look in its amorphous eyes – the manic twist of its mouth. It knew – it could feel the creature. It stretched its neck up and let out a howl, unheard to all but me.

  It sent a wave crashing over me, every hair on my body standing on end as if scorpions had been poured down the back of my space suit.

  The cry of the mutant Twixt changed. It faltered, pitched up and down and leveled into a croaky scream. It was primal, so primal that it spoke directly to the human part of my brain, trying to freeze her in place with the most suffocating fear that had ever been felt.

  But I wasn’t completely human, was I?

  I reached for the gun on my back, twisting loose of Jason’s grip as it faltered at the sound of the mutant Twixt.

  I could hear it powering toward us. It would reach the lip of the tunnel soon.

  It came into view as I raised my gun and shot at the small device holding the real Twixt in place. A blast scorched right into it – popping and blistering the metal until it lay in a charred heap. I sunk two more rounds into it until the device erupted in a cloud of sparks – the same faint green symbols that had been on the ring holding the creature in place appearing then disappearing along the device’s broken remains.

  The Twixt before me was no longer trapped. It was free.

  The mutant Twixt – with its distended, disgusting, gray form stood – for one hellish moment at the mouth of the tunnel. It was facing us, head twisting to and fro as it looked at the GAMs. It was playing with them, waiting—

  Jason shot first, raising his gun faster than even I could have and letting round after round sink into the creature with perfect aim. Every volley struck true in the center of the mutant Twixt’s chest, knocking it backward but not sending it to the ground in a heap of charred flesh.

  Jason didn’t stop and began to walk forward, body crouched, gun still firing.

  I wasn’t about to let him cross the path of the real Twixt. I ran in front of him, pushing him to the side with my shoulder as the Twixt leaped toward him.

  “Trust me!” I shouted as I rolled again, falling free of the Twixt’s lunge.

  The other GAMs held their fire, their Commander in line-of-sight between them and the monster.

  I think I knew what to do. It probably wouldn’t work, but it was the only thing I could try.

  I brought my gun around in an arc, slamming the butt into the side of the real Twixt, an explosion of light meeting the blow.

  “What the hell?” Jason breathed from beside me as he managed to push to his feet. His face twisted from the creature to the sudden powerful spark of light that had seemingly come from nowhere.

  Sure enough, the mutant Twixt screamed. This wasn’t an ominous cry heralding an attack; it was a tone of pain, the wavering pitch of confusion.

  It was the light – the light was hurting it.

  I had to get them closer.

  I launched at the Twixt, twisting around in a kick until my foot collected it right in the center of the chest. I shoved into it with all my momentum and might.

  A spark erupted as the Twixt fell backward right into the body of the mutant Twixt. This time, I could see the spark rip into the flesh of the mutant. It was as if the damage were transferring across from the Twixt.

  It must have been a sight for the GAMs. They couldn’t see my Twixt. What would it look like to see me kick at something, connect to an invisible form, and send it crashing back into the giant monster Twixt at the end of the tunnel? The stuff of nightmares?

  “Mini!” Jason sprang toward me, reaching out a hand to pull me out of the way.

  “Shoot it. Shoot it – shoot it!” I screamed, bringing my gun up and letting volley after volley slam into the smaller Twixt.

  Jason couldn’t see the smaller Twixt, but if he kept shooting where I was aiming, he would get it anyway. With each blast, more light leaked from it – eating into the mutant Twixt behind it like light destroying a shadow.

  Jason brought up his gun and fired, strafing forward until he stood by my side.

  The mutant Twixt was almost done – the sparks having sunk so far into its skin, I could see the reddish-gray flesh visible underneath.

  It was the light that came from a Twixt that was destructive. Nothing else. The weapons didn’t harm them; they just caused them to let out the light. It was almost as if the form of a Twixt was a container, a wall between us and the light.

  We fired at the same time, Jason and I, and that’s all it took. The mutant Twixt let out a terrible moan and crashed forward.

  I waited for it to puff out of existence like an ordinary Twixt, but it didn’t. It wavered, the veins through its skin becoming extra visible and fat like—

  Jason put a hand on my shoulder and twisted me out of its way as the mutant Twixt exploded in an enormous ball of light. The flash was blinding, so searing – like opening your eyes and staring at a thousand suns at once.

  Jason covered me from the bulk of the explosion with his suit.

  Nothing came from the creature – no chunks of rotting flesh, no splashes of brown-red blood. Just the light.

  Soon, it was gone, leaving the gloom of the tunnel to return.

  I stumbled forward, hands clutched over my face. Though Jason had acted quickly, the flash of light had been too powerful. All the GAMs would have had blast protection built into their helmets – light filters that would keep them safe from such blinding explosions.

  My eyes felt on fire. They were full of the light, brimming with it, bursting with it. I clutched at my face, trying to paw away the pain.

  I felt an arm move around my middle, straighten me to my feet.

  “I’m getting you out of here,” Jason said.

  His voice was there but so far away – behind the light somewhere.

  He snapped commands to the rest of his men, and he moved me forward. I couldn’t see anything, couldn’t even open my eyes. I had to trust he wouldn’t let me fall as he guided me forward.

  “What happened? Jason! Jason!” Doctor Cole called. “Is it gone? Is it – what happened?”

  I could make out her voice only if I concentrated hard as if it were several rooms away in a huge, huge house.

  Someone tried to put a hand on my face, to pull away my hands. I twisted away, shuffling backward until I came up hard against someone’s armor.

  “What the hell was that thing?” I heard Jason’s voice behind me, rumbling up through the armor I leaned against. “What the hell were you doing here?”

  “Is she hurt?” Doctor Cole was close by, her voice the faintest bit louder through the fog of my mind.

  Someone kept trying to pry my hands from my face, but I fought them off, twisting backward, trying to get away.

  I couldn’t bear to face it – to face opening my eyes, to let in more light from out there. There was already too much light in here – in my eyes, trapped in my mind, held within me. I couldn’t let it out.

  “We have to get her to the ship – that thing…” Jason trailed off. “There was some kind of light. She copped a full-face of it. She’ll need retina transplants—”

  No. No, no, no. They weren’t going to make me open my eyes.

  I struggled harder, trying desperately to break free while still clutching my face with all my might.

  “Hey.” Jason wrapped his arms around me, trying to fix me in place. “Don’t struggle. We’ll get you to a doctor, even if you don’t like them.”

  I pushed against him, planting my feet into the ground.

  “Mini. Don’t struggle.”

  This was my light now, and I wasn’t going to give it up.

  “Don’t let her go,” Od spoke. Of all the voices in the room, I could hear his perfectly. It was almost like
it was right here in my head with me. I wanted to swat at him to go away and leave me in peace with my light.

  “What the hell is she doing?” Jason demanded, still holding onto me tightly. “What’s going on here, anyway? That thing – the light? And Mini fought like a freaking Crag warrior back there – what’s going on?”

  “I will tell you everything, GAM Commander,” Od spoke, sounding as if he stood right in the center of my mind. “Do not let her go. She’s taken too much of it in – she faced the light and now doesn’t want to give it back.”

  “What are you talking about?” Jason’s grip around me was like steel, but he was weakening the more I fought.

  “Just don’t let her go. We have to get her eyes open – before it’s too late.” Od spoke from inside my mind again, clarion voice disturbing my peace like a scream by my ear on a silent night.

  I thrashed about. I had to escape, had to get away, had to stop them from taking it back.

  “What—” Jason began.

  “Get them open!” Od’s voice was so loud, such a sharp, harsh cry, it made me want to pry him out with a knife.

  Jason stopped asking questions.

  “Trust him,” Doctor Cole said. “Trust me if you can. Do what the Kroplin says.”

  Jason leaned into me, driving me down, stopping my threshing from having much of an effect. He brought one arm up and laced it through my arms – pulling them down from my face with the force of his armor-assisted strength.

  I fought against it with all my might, but my strength wasn’t there – nothing was, just the light, twisting and spiraling around me.

  My hands broke free from my face, but my eyes were still screwed tightly closed – like the bearings of a great spaceship holding the hull in place against the cold, airless vacuum of space. I couldn’t open my eyes to the outside; I would die, I knew that. No, worse than death – it would be worse than death.

  I could feel Jason bring a hand up to my face.

  No, no, no, no.

  “Open them, child,” Od said. It was so loud; his voice was so loud. “Open them, human.”

  Human. No, I wasn’t a human.

  Jason touched his gloved fingers to my eyes, the pressure light but still gripping my skin. He was trying not to hurt me, trying so hard despite my efforts to push him off.

  I bucked and heaved, trying with all my might to shove him off.

  His fingers tried to pry apart my eyelids, gloves gripping onto the skin, hand anchored against my cheek.

  “Mini,” he said, “Just let go – don’t fight it.”

  Let go. Let go.

  I lost the battle. He opened my eyes.

  There wasn’t an explosion, no great spark of light, no pure flow of illumination erupting from my eyes. I didn’t feel it trickle down my face like some lost precious fluid.

  I….

  Jason was staring down at me, his helmet so dark above me.

  I felt dazed, like I’d woken up from the longest, strangest dream. My head hurt – bursting with a pain that tried to eat through my temples.

  I moaned – at least I think it was me. I was having trouble tracking things, understanding my environment – everything was such a blur.

  “You can let her go,” Od said from somewhere. “It is done.”

  “What’s done?” Jason released his hands from my face, standing back from me while still propping me up with his other arm. “What the hell was that?”

  “Something ancient to this universe, something primal, something fundamental—”

  “You aren’t answering my question.” Jason’s voice was so quick, so damning. “What was in her eyes?”

  “A question for later—” Od began.

  I’d found my voice, somewhere between the ache and confusion in my mind. I needed to know what had happened to me. “What was that?” I could feel myself swaying on my feet as if I was nothing more than a wisp of fog that was slowly, slowly solidifying back into some form. Jason held me so I couldn’t fall flat on my already aching ass.

  “I think you have had the greatest lesson you could possibly receive on the origin on the Twixt.” Od’s statement was cryptic but struck at something in my heart like a knife snaking out from nowhere.

  My thoughts were beginning to make sense again, normality returning like the tantalizing whiff of rain on the wind.

  The origin of the Twixt. I had never thought about it, but everything has to begin somewhere. I hadn’t bothered to question where the Twixt had come from. They weren’t of this dimension – how could I even hope to fathom their origins?

  Now the questions were lighting up within me, illuminating in flashes like candles lit in a dark room. Where did they come from, what were they, and had they always been Twixts?

  My vision was blurry; I could hardly make out more than the Commander beside me. It was returning slowly, bringing with it the details of Jason’s suit – the matte finish of the metal, the shine along the seals, the curve of the shoulder.

  He was facing me, head tilted down toward mine, helmet still on.

  “What do we do now?” he asked.

  I wasn’t sure if the question was directed at me or the room at large.

  What do we do now?

  I had to find out more; I had to answer the questions that were lodging themselves in my skin like bullets.

  What were the Twixts? More importantly what was the light?