THIRTY
JASS
COUNTERWEIGHT
Reza’s mind shuts down and opens itself to me all at once. Her eyes remain open, but I can tell she’s fallen unconscious. The energy inside me acts of its own accord, reaching out for the energy that exists within her, and the two threads of power twine together, twisting into one unbreakable rope, feeding back into me. The sensation is heady and unbearable, a wave of so much energy that it threatens to overcome me. I grind my teeth together, wrestling to harness it, but it doesn’t want to be harnessed. It wants to whip free of me, discharging of its own accord outward into the universe. I must contain it, though. I have to leash it if I’m going to save her.
It takes everything I have and more. It snakes its way into me and through me, lashing against my mind, fighting me, but I do it. I tighten my grip around its slippery wraithlike form, and I command it to obey.
Reza’s body flies back toward the Oraxis, crashing through the cargo doors. As soon as she clears the open secondary airlock, I access the ship’s systems, and the heavy steel doors slam closed. An alarm sounds, and the airlock doors come down, the sound booming through the craft.
The Oraxis’ life support systems kick in immediately, flooding the ship with atmosphere, and the gravity generators spur into action. Reza’s body drops to the deck like a stone. My need to rush to her, to funnel this life-giving energy back into her body, is so strong, but there’s something I have to do first.
Sucking in a ragged breath, my head tilts and spins from the rush of oxygen flooding my starving body.
“Cutting it a little close!” Col hollers from the cockpit. “I thought you were both dead.”
Coughing, I run to the airlock doors and look out of the view port. The Nexus is practically on top of us. I can sense Regis’ wrath, so near now that I can almost touch it. The crates containing the plasma cartridges are nowhere to be seen. Either the monstrous ship behind us has already moved past them, or they are right under the belly of the beast. “Get ready to cut the hyperdrive!” I shout.
I hope Col’s heard me. If he hasn’t and we’re still here when the crates explode, we’ll share the same fate as The Nexus. There’s no time to make sure Col knows what to do, though. There’s no more time at all.
I cast out my mind, hunting for the med scanner. It’s still close. Not as close as I’d like, but close enough. With Reza’s energy coursing through me like an electrical storm, it only takes a thought to create the spark I need. I feel the cells inside the med scanner fuse, and then…
Light.
Light, burning so bright it sears into my retinas. It’s happening. The plasma cartridges are igniting. “Now, now, now!” I scream.
The Oraxis lurches, surging forward. I can’t tell if we’re jumping out of hyperspace or we’re caught in the blast wave of the explosion that’s ripping apart the blue and white streams of hyperspace behind us. I can’t see a thing. The world flips and spins, and then…
Stars.
A blanket of white pin pricks as far as my blurred vision can see.
“We made it!” Col sounds even more shocked than I am. “Is The Nexus gone?”
Flames lick at the inside of the cargo bay, sparks erupting like fireworks from one of the electrical manifolds. I’m by Reza’s side in the blink of an eye, fingers searching for a pulse at her throat. Her skin is ashen, her lips tinged a worrying shade of blue. Her skin is as cold as ice.
“Please. Please. Please don’t be fucking dead,” I chant. I’ve never cared about another soul enough to give a damn if they lived or died. I care more than I can comprehend right now, though. If she dies, I will be true to my word. I will travel the length, breadth, and width of this galaxy until there isn’t a single life form left breathing. I will exact my infinite grief on everyone I find.
There’s no heartbeat.
The energy inside me expands and contracts, throbbing frantically. I tip Reza’s head back and I force a hurried breath of oxygen into her lungs. Her chest rises and falls once. Just once. “Come on. Come on!” Again, I breathe for her, waiting for her to start choking and coughing as she comes back to life.
Nothing happens.
Again, and again.
Still nothing.
I compress her chest. Her ribs protest, and then one of them cracks under the force of my hands, but still she doesn’t draw in a breath. “Goddamn it, Reza. Stop being so damn stubborn.”
She doesn’t hear me. She remains unresponsive as I work furiously, pumping her heart for her. The wall around her mind is completely gone; a hollow, empty abyss is all that remains. No thoughts. No memories. Nothing at all. Not even the faintest glimmer of her. I step inside the vacant space of her mind, yelling as loud as I can.
“REZA! Don’t do this! Don’t you kindle me back to life and then fucking leave me. I won’t allow it!”
I wait for her to emerge out of the shadows of her mind, angry and affronted that I’ve broken my way in. She doesn’t show up, though. Doesn’t even try to shove me out of her head. There is an absence here that chills to my core. No life whatsoever.
I’m getting desperate. Energy pulses in my chest and in my hands, straining against the fragile hold I have on it. It’s far more than I could have imagined, wild and hard to suppress. It would take all of my concentration just to keep it calm and at bay, and right now I’m have other things to worry about.
The Oraxis shudders, more anti-rad tiles showering down from the ceiling, the very structure of the ship groaning. Obviously we’ve sustained some critical damage, but even that isn’t enough to distract me. I keep on working. I keep on compressing Reza’s chest. I keep on begging her to wake up.
The energy surges again, flexing, sending a crippling wave of pain through my nerve endings. I cast the discomfort aside, redoubling my efforts, but in the end the pain won’t be ignored. My hands are burning white hot. My flesh is about to crack open. I sink back onto my heels, fighting the need to scream as the energy twists and turns beneath my skin.
I have no choice. I can’t keep a hold on it anymore. I mentally cut the ropes I’ve been trying to lash the power down with, and it surges out of me like a river of white light. I can’t see it. Not in a traditional way. It’s more of an innate sense of color, shape and form. The energy snaps through the air like a striking snake. It hits the cargo bay wall, and the metal shatters into splinters, creating a hole two meters in diameter. Thankfully there’s another room beyond the cargo bay, otherwise we’d all be dead
I try to pull the energy back, but it won’t listen. It strikes again, and this time it hits Reza’s lifeless body. As soon as it makes contact, something clicks in my head. This is how it was meant to be. How it was always meant to be. One person isn’t strong enough to house the entirety of a force like this. Reza and I are counterweights, balancing each other out. I am a conduit, channeling the life back into her. I’m eaten alive by pain as Reza’s half of the energy returns to her, but it’s helping to heal her. I feel it. Her right hand twitches, and I could die from relief.
“Jass!”
Slowly, the darkness that claimed Reza’s mind begins to retreat, pulling back inch-by-inch.
“JASS!”
Hands pull and poke at me, violently shaking me. I open my eyes and Col’s face is in mine, urgency contorting his features. He knocks his fist against my forehead, right between my eyes. “I hate to interrupt, but The Nexus… It wasn’t destroyed. Not totally. They just dropped out of hyperdrive. And they’re pissed.”
“Reza—”
Col shakes his head, hand under my arm, yanking me to my feet. “She’s waking up. She’s breathing. Even I can see that. Now tell me what to do.”
There are only a handful of things we can do to save this ship and all of us in it. I’m about to start at the top of the list, when my mind hitches on a voice. One I have trained myself to listen out for for cycles.
Regis.
I hear his thoughts, and everything tilts upon its axis. He didn’t allow me to escape through that asteroid field. He’s been playing me all along.