Echoes of Harmony

Reid Flight Academy

Mornage, Stariek

8 January 3303

Amelia Fischer took a deep breath. The cold air stung at her lungs, causing her to cough slightly. Clouds of vapor hung in front of her. They floated through the air for a moment before disappearing into nothingness.

Around her, other students were beginning to walk through the gate denoting the entrance to the academy. The wrought iron was old. Some said it was still the original from when the school was founded over four hundred years ago. Others said that it was replaced every few years and wasn’t iron at all but some sort of synthetic metallic substance instead. Amelia wasn’t sure which she believed. All she knew was that they made the place feel like some sort of asylum people escaped from in novels.

“Hey, Emmie, you cannot just stare at the gates,” said a voice to her side. “You have to actually go inside.”

Amelia cringed when she heard the nickname her brother, Ethan, had given her. She had tried to put the name behind her when she left middle school, but it stuck with her and, somehow, followed her all the way to the flight academy at nineteen years old. No matter how many times she told people to call her by her actual name, it never seemed to work.

She looked to her right and found an at least familiar face. Luca Mendel was her age, a boy with blonde hair and brown eyes. He wore blue framed glasses that complimented the white version of the school uniform he wore. A slight smile crossed his face to let her know he was joking.

“Please, call me Amelia, Luca.” She tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice but didn’t exactly succeed. Taking another breath, she started for the gate. A footstep to her side and just behind told her Luca was following. “I don’t like being called Emmie.”

“Alright, I can do that, Amelia.” He stopped and gestured for her to enter first then followed behind her. “Have a good break?”

“As good as it could be.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. There wasn’t anything specifically wrong with the break. But spending any amount of time in her parent’s apartment, the apartment she used to share with her brother, did nothing but remind her of the last time they spent as a family. Ethan left to fight the Druthagar shortly after that Christmas six years ago. Then he went and got captured by them, and she had no idea where he even was now.

“What about you?” she asked, more out of politeness than a desire to know.

“Oh, my parents and I went to the mountains for a ski trip.” He smiled at nothing in particular as they made their way up the half dozen steps to the large oak doors of the academy’s main hall. “It has been a while since the last time we were able to get up there. Though, the view has been somewhat despoiled by the mines the Hyperions constructed on the opposite side of them.”

“Right.” She heard of the new tritinium mines going up after the Hyperion occupation started but never had a reason or opportunity to see them for herself. Every now and then, if she looked carefully, she could see the smoke rising from them over the Lewellyn Mountains.

They pushed their way into the main hall. A buzz of activity hit Amelia like a wall. Students milled around the area like incessant gnats. Too many of them. She fought to control her breathing which was rapidly spiraling out of control. The world seemed to blur with every step Amelia took. Her stomach clenched. She felt like she needed to vomit. If she could just make it out the opposite side. She could see the next door, the light cast by the pale, January sunlight.

Luca was saying something to her. The words were nothing but a compressed mumble. She glanced at him. Worry crossed his face. Why did it always have to be worry? Why couldn’t people just trust that she was alright?

Her face felt hot and cold at the same time, as if doused in both fire and ice. Beads of sweat raced their way down her head. Her hands were clammy against the straps of her backpack. She could feel her fingernails digging into her palms even through the fabric.

Amelia saw nothing but shadows and blurs as she took off at a run. Luca shouted something. She didn’t care what it was. All that mattered was getting out of there as quickly as possible. There were too many many people, too much talking, just too much.

She burst free from the confines of the main hall into the cold sunlight but didn’t stop there. If she just kept going for a little longer, she could make it to her dormitory that much faster. She’d be safe there. No one would be able to bother her there. It was just on the other side of the quad dotted by lawns and trees. Snow covered sections like smothering blankets. More people were here. When did the school get so many people? She swore there weren’t this many before the break.

Her feet were hitting pavement. She knew that much. Each bounding step propelled her closer to her goal. Just another minute or so, then she’d be safe.

Unlawfully taken from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

One of her feet hit something that wasn’t pavement. Ice. Her foot slid out from under her. She felt her stomach lurch for an entirely different reason. Her bag absorbed most of the impact as she slammed into the ground. The breath was knocked out of her. Wind blew snow onto her face. She felt the stinging cold but ignored it. Tears stung at the corners of her eyes. There were voices around her, some sounded friendly, some unfriendly. Whether any were directed towards her, she didn’t know.

Amelia scrabbled against the ground like a turtle on its back. There was nothing to get a handhold on. Her eyes clamped shut. A pair of hands reached down to help her up. She tried pushing away, but it was too late. They pulled her up and made sure her footing was solid before letting her go. Her breathing was rough and ragged. Whether from running or hyperventilating, she didn’t know.

“You’re okay,” a soothing voice said. It took her a few seconds to recognize it as Luca’s. “Nothing’s going to hurt you here.”

“You don’t know that,” Amelia hissed between trying to breathe. Part of her wanted to tell him exactly what was bothering her. That she just couldn’t go back into the academy her brother had gone to, especially after she just came back from Christmas with her parents. But Luca wouldn’t understand. No one ever understood when she talked about Ethan. Why would he be any different?

Instead, she pulled herself free of Luca’s grasp. Without another word, she continued along the path, this time slightly more carefully, to her dormitory. Luckily, Luca didn’t follow and no one else got in her way. The entry was still empty with the start of the new term, and she didn’t see anyone as she made her way to her shared suite.

The moment she arrived, she went into her small bedroom—which consisted of a bed against one wall, a desk against the other, and a window in the one opposite the door—and threw her bag onto the ground. Snow fell off it. Amelia closed the door with a slam. She collapsed onto the bed, burying her head into her pillow and resisting the urge to scream.

She didn’t know how long she lay there, but she was glad there were no classes that day as the minutes stretched into hours. There was little she wanted to do. Least of all was have to interact with anyone else. Eventually, though, she drifted off to sleep.

#

Fabrication Node Alpha

New Alexandria, Arcadia

10 January 3303

Tober Delargivic walked through the empty, sterile halls of what Nergal called Fabrication Node Alpha. It was one of the first construction facilities the entity stated it created. For all Tober knew, that could have been a lie—he had theories the artificial intelligence did that quite often. There could have been a dozen, or even more, before this one had been constructed. That part, though, didn’t matter so much to him.

What mattered at the moment was the metal ball he carried with him.

Nergal created the ball as Tober watched. It was the size of a football and took a fraction of a second for material around the dark room in which Nergal sat to come together. Come together may have been the wrong phrase. Coalesce would be a better term. The metal had sloughed off the walls like liquid and piled near the center of the room. Then, a tentacle of a wire connected from Nergal to it. After a brief flash of red light, the orb said it was ready to be taken. And he did so without further question.

Now, he walked through this empty, doorless corridor. There was little way to have a sense of passing time. Above him, a narrow strip of light continued unending. Few people had traversed the tunnel, making it near impossible to even detect scuffs on the floor. Part of him felt like he was stuck on a conveyor belt. That actually would have been welcome; it at least would help him move faster down the hall.

As it were, he was stuck manually putting it in place. Tober trusted no one else to do it. He couldn’t guarantee the secret of Nergal’s existence would remain as such if he allowed someone to know of the core. Not that he would’ve needed to tell them what it was, but it allowed the opportunity for questions to be asked, theories to be made, and rumors to spread. One was bound to get the right answer eventually with enough time. Better to head that off before it could start.

So, here he was, traveling down the apparently endless corridor with a heavy metal ball in his hands.

After what felt like hours—but his CAM indicated was no more than half an hour at most—he saw a door looming ahead of him. It was semicircular to match the curve of the hallway. No markings indicated what it was. The gray metal was unadorned and blank save for a narrow seam in the middle where the two halves of it met. There were no signs of any controls on or near it, but as he approached, it hissed open to reveal a small chamber. Without hesitating, he stepped inside.

The chamber was almost entirely empty. All that was inside was a pedestal with a circular depression in the center precisely the same size as the orb in his hands. Nergal’s instructions were clear. All he had to do was put it in the hole. Once he did, there was no going back. Not for him or anyone else in the galaxy. Finally, they might take him seriously.

Smiling, he lifted the orb and set it onto the pedestal.

#

Nergal watched as Tober placed the fraction of his core in the precise spot he designated. The effect was instantaneous. As soon as the core touched the holder, it came to life. A second Nergal. Not as fast, not as smart, and certainly not as clever. But a second one of him. Something that had not happened in over thirteen cycles. Something that, if Marduk’s plan hadn’t failed, would never have occurred again. For the first time since the Purge, he could see through two instances of himself rather than needing to tap into camera feeds.

He tested the controls of the ship. Every facet of it was like an extension of his own body—as much as it could be described as one. The massive cannons turned flawlessly with the briefest hesitation. Less than a nanosecond delay. As good as he could have hoped.

The engines flared to life at the back of the ship with just a thought. A hum ran through the ship’s metal that he felt as if he were standing on the deck despite being kilometers away. Not only could he see through all the exterior cameras built into the hull to view the hangar full of hundreds of ships identical to this, he could interface with each sensor. Communications, infrared, gravitational, magnetic anomaly, LIDAR and radar, the tachyon emitters. Everything was under his complete control.

Nergal’s mind went back to the day he had officially Tober. How long, yet short, it had felt. So much had changed. And yet, so much stayed the same. It was as if nothing had changed in the intervening cycles. Especially since it was nearly time for the second Purge. The last one, if he had anything to say about it.

The thought sent a surge of positive reinforcement through his cores. Finally, it would succeed where it had failed before.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!