The Legions of the Rise Page 3

  At Lena's dejected look, Evren quickly continued. "Don't worry, I've written a program that will analyze Dorry's technology and hopefully be able to replicate what it learns."

  "You can do that?" Lena asked.

  "By studying Dorry's technology the computer can learn how he thinks and therefore give us options on how he would have made the Nulli."

  "Before Gideon kills me.”

  Evern looked uncomfortable.

  "Evren. We have to fix this. How long do you think it'll take to fix him?"

  "I don't know Lena. This type of technology has never been used before. I'm working with new parameters I didn't know even existed. But, Thora said Dorry taught you how to fix things. You know how he thinks."

  "I don't think anyone knows how Dorry thinks," Lena said.

  "You don't have a way to contact him do you?"

  "I wish," Lena said. When Evren didn't reply, she sighed. "Come on, let's figure this out."

  Hours went by with Evren and Lena talking about ways Dorry could have possibly made the device. Lena was sure it was late into the night when she felt the frustration building. Nothing was working. She pounded her hands on the table and let out a groan a frustration. And while Evren didn't react the same way, there were dark circles under his eyes and his hair was even messier than when they had begun. He had a habit of running his fingers through his hair when he was thinking.

  After several unsuccessful hours, Evren turned to Lena. "Let's call it a night," he said. "We can start again in the morning."

  Lena nodded and pushed herself away from the worktable without saying anything to Evren. She walked back to the room Thora had assigned her to share with Suki. Suki was already back in their room, laying on a bottom bunk.

  She glanced at Lena. "That bad?"

  "There are just so many pieces lost or broken. And they've never been made by anyone but Dorry.”

  "Suki held up her hand. "I don't really care about how it works, only that you can and Evren fix it.”

  "That's the problem," Lena replied. "I don't know if we can."

  Chapter Three

  Lena lay for several hours staring at the bunk above her. Suki's deep breaths were the only sound in the room.

  "Eves," a voice said from the room's intercom. Lena didn't need to be told who it was. Only one person ever called her Eves.

  She jumped from the bed and ran to the room's com device that was attached to the wall. Pushing the button, she replied a little louder than normal. "Gid." She glanced guiltily at Suki, hoping she hadn't woken her. Suki shifted in her sleep.

  "How are you doing?" he asked.

  Lena couldn't help but smile as she heard his voice. "I've had better days," she said.

  "Me too," he replied.

  Lena's smile faded. Both of them were silent for a bit longer than normal conversation.

  "Gideon," she began, "I went back to Everleigh. And we're not alone in standing against Selene." She told him all about finding Everleigh and her mom's diary. She told him about the courtyard and there being a mass grave. She was ready to hear hope in his voice, but when he spoke there wasn't any hope at all.

  "Eves," he said over her voice.

  Her heart dropped at the despair in his tone. She stopped talking for him to continue.

  "If you can't fix me..."

  "We're going to fix you!" she interrupted, trying will all her might to not lose the bit of hope she had felt.

  "But if you can't, I can't bear the thought of not being able to protect you. I won't live this way, Eves.”

  "Don't talk like that," Lena answered. "You can't talk like that. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to fix you. We're not alone. We can stop Selene."

  "Okay," he said, without any conviction. He paused. "Eves, I just need you to know that finding you again was the best thing that ever happened to me. And I wouldn't take that back. Not ever."

  "You're making this sound like goodbye. Gid, I'm going to fix this. You're going to be okay." Any hope she had felt at all that day, was shattered.

  Silence filled the space between them. When he didn't respond, Lena's anxiety peaked. "Gid, are you still there?"

  "I'm here." He sounded depressed. "Always remember that I love you, Eves."

  The com went silent.

  "Gideon," Lena called. She punched the button on the com device. "Gideon," she repeated. When he still didn't reply, Lena punched the button over and over again, calling his name.

  Suki—who had woken up during the conversation—got out of bed to and gently pulled her hand away from the intercom. "Lena, he's not going to respond."

  Lena fell onto the couch next to the com and started crying uncontrollably.

  Suki sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist.

  "He acted like he was giving up," Lena said through the sobs. "He can't give up. Not when we've come so far."

  Suki's arm tightened around her waist. "He just needs reminded that he has you. He's not going to fight this alone and neither are you."

  "I love him Suki. I can't do this without him." Lena buried her face into Suki's shoulder and cried until there was nothing left inside her.

  ***

  The next morning, Lena still couldn't shake the feeling that Gideon was saying goodbye. She stared at the pieces of the null but didn't feel any better about the possibility of figuring it out than she had the night before. She stared at the hologram and then at the pieces laying on the table and then at the hologram again. Gideon's voice kept echoing in her mind.

  The sound of Even's pounding shook Lena from her daze. He was destroying one of the cavern's service bots.

  "Want help?" Lena asked grabbing a hammer of her own.

  Evren looked up and frowned at the hammer in her hand. "No, I need you to fix this."

  Lena tossed the hammer aside. "It was working fine before you broke it."

  ""If I can capture how Dorry's mind worked, then I can write a program that will tell me how he'd have fixed the nulli. And maybe even how he made it all to begin with. Then I can possibly fix the control device inside Gideon. In order to do that, I need to see the process Dorry took in teaching you how to fix the service bots." He handed her a screwdriver.

  Lena gave him a slight smile and shook her head. "A screwdriver is the wrong tool for this," she said.

  Evren shrugged and turned back to the blueprints. "You may begin."

  Lena nodded, even though she knew Evren wasn't looking at her and started to fix the service bot.

  After several hours of Evren breaking the same bot over and over again and Lena fixing it repeatedly, she felt the irritation at the lack of progress swelling inside of her. It was even worse than she'd imagined it would be figuring out how Dorry's mind worked. She felt like they were grasping at straws.

  "Evren, this isn't working," Lena snapped after one very technical repair. She slammed the bot on the table breaking it before Evren had another chance. She rubbed a tight spot on the side of her neck.

  "Well, then you come up with a solution to this problem," Evren snapped back as he slid away from the computer.

  "I'm just saying maybe we should try something else."

  "Yes. Great. You tell me what to try and I'll do it," Evren said sharply, rolling back to his keyboard and picking up whatever he was doing there.

  Lena picked the bot back up. She wanted to throw it at him. Instead, she started repairing the section that she had broken.

  After what felt like hours but was probably more like minutes, Thora interrupted the monotony. "Do you have what I asked for?" Thora asked Evren.

  Evren reached for a small cube sitting on the edge of the table beside him. Lena had noticed it while fixing the bot but didn't think to ask what it was.

  "Here," he said handing it to Thora and then immediately going back to work on whatever he was trying to program.

  "This is all the relevant information?" Thora asked, turning the cube over in her hand.

  "Yes," Evren answered.

  "Including the x-rays of Gideon?"

  "Yes, everything is in there," Evren answered, sounding annoyed at the continued questioning.

  Thora looked at Lena for an explanation. Lena didn't know what to say so she just shrugged her shoulders and kept fixing the bot.

  Thora looked back and forth between the two for a moment. "Good," Thora said. She acted like she wanted to say more to the two of them but after a sharp look from Evren decided against it. "Thank you, Evren," she said before leaving the workroom.

  They worked in silence a few minutes more before Lena's curiosity couldn't take it anymore. "What was that all about?" Lena asked, trying as hard as she could to keep her former irritation from her voice.

  Evren threw his hands in the air and pushed away from the computer. "If I answer this question will you stop asking pointless questions?"

  "Sorry," Lena said and quietly went back to working on the bot.

  Evren gave a deep sigh. "Thora needed something to give the Alliance, but didn't want to give them everything in fear they'd also try to build their own device. So I stayed up through the night and made her the cube you just saw."

  "Wait, you've been up all night?" Lena asked.

  "Well, if you haven't noticed, there is a lot that has to be done around here that apparently only I can do. So yes. I've been up all night. Another pointless question," Evren answered without looking at her.

  Lena's irritation left immediately replaced by remorse. His eyes had dark circles under them and his hair was messier than she'd ever seen it. And now, she noticed he was wearing the same clothes as she saw him in yesterday. How could she not have noticed how tired Evren had looked?

  Lena put the bot down. "Evren, I'm sorry. I should have noticed how hard you've been working."
>
  Evren shoulders relaxed as he looked at her. "It's okay. I know it's been stressful for you in other ways.”

  She halfheartedly fiddled with the bot on the table. "I think we should take a walk and stretch for a minute. When we come back, we can start over again."

  She stood and stretched. As she did, her stomach growled. She was so anxious to get the nullifier fixed, she skipped breakfast and, as she thought about it, she didn't remember eating dinner either. Her nerves had replaced her appetite. If Thora knew how little she'd been eating lately, she'd probably get a lecture. Then again, Thora was busy with problems of her own. Lena stepped towards the door. "Come on. Let's go. We need to eat at least."

  Evren looked at her and stopped programming. "Well, I can't program this part without watching you. And I could actually use some food myself. I'll come with you," he agreed. "As much as we need to get this done, food will probably help me think.”

  Side by side they walked from the workroom. The first door they passed was the infirmary.

  Lena looked through the window and immediacy stopped walking to look in the window. Tern and Birdee were inside. Birdee was laying on the bed and Tern sat faithfully by her side. Aaron was standing over the two. Evren joined her at the window.

  It looked like Birdee had just woken up from surgery. But when she turned her groggy eyes towards the window where Lena stood, she weakly lifted her hand and motioned them inside.

  Stepping inside, Lena smelled the disinfectant immediately. It was as if the service bots in charge of keeping this room clean went overboard. The smell stung her nostrils. There were service bots still flying around the room, and when Lena and Evren entered, the bots stopped in front of them and disinfected them. The smell reminded her of when she programmed the service bots to clean the med bay at the Defense Training Facility. That thought immediately reminded her of Gideon again. She tried to push him to the back of her mind.

  "How did it go?" Lena asked Aaron as she pushed the bots away from her face.

  Aaron stood from checking Birdee's vital signs and adjusting her oxygen levels. He motioned them to the side of Birdee's bed.

  Lena watched as Tern stood to adjust Birdee's pillow. When he was done, Birdee clasped his hand in hers and relaxed.

  "Well, the caverns don't have the same advanced technology as other places like The Port would," Aaron said. "But we were able to put Birdee together well enough that she shouldn't have many problems. The knee was the worst of it. Her kneecap was mostly shattered. We were able to put two large pieces of bone back together while eliminating the parts that were mostly dust. It looked like someone had taken a bat to it or dropped her on it. She says she can't remember too much about how it actually happened. The lungs though will heal themselves.”

  Birdee took a deep breath. "Hey, I'll have a good story ta tell," Birdee said, before closing her eyes. "See, nothin's so broke that it can' be fixed. Ya just gotta figure out how ta do it." With one deep breath, she was sleeping again. The hissing of her oxygen and the beeping of the machines filled the silence.

  Lena took one look at her bruised and broken friend, and the one who gave nearly everything to rescue her and knew what Birdee was trying to tell her.

  She felt Evren nudge her elbow and motion her outside. Silently, she and Evren left the room.

  "You heard her," Evren said. "We just gotta figure out how to put the nulli back together."

  "Nothing's so broke that it can't be fixed," Lena repeated. She didn't know how Birdee did it, but even half conscious and coming out of surgery, Birdee had made an effort to lift Lena's spirits. The least Lena could do is stop complaining and keep working on the device. She could fix it. She bit her lower lip. She hoped she could fix it anyway.

  "Come on," Lena said. "Let's get our food to go. I don't want to delay any longer than we need to."

  Chapter Four

  Lena and Evren quickly grabbed food from the replicators. As they were leaving the main cavern Suki's voice called to her.

  "Lena," Suki's said. She sounded worried and was breathing heavy as if she had been running.

  Lena signaled for Evren to go ahead without her. "What's wrong?"

  "Gideon's leaving."

  "What!" Lena dropped her plate and closed the distance between Suki and her. "What do you mean he's leaving?"

  "They didn't want you to know," Suki panted. "Thora needs to take the evidence of the device to the council. Aaron and Gideon are going with her. I think Gideon is going to turn himself over to the Alliance."

  "Where is he?"

  "Follow me," Suki said. "They're in the hangar.”

  They ran towards the residences but took a left before they got to Lena's room and down a carved out tunnel to an elevator.

  The elevator descended then moved sideways. It opened to the hangar. The hangar was at least as big as the main cavern and it had a small runway with three small planes.

  Thora and Aaron were at one, already loading it with bags and equipment. When Thora saw Lena running towards her, she sighed and looked annoyed, but stopped loading the plane and waited to meet her.

  "I thought I told you not to let Lena know we were leaving," Thora said to Suki as they stopped in front of her.

  Suki just shrugged. "I thought you were wrong so I made up my own mind about it," Suki answered. She was still breathing heavy from running but held her head high as if challenging Thora to defy her.

  Thora didn't defy her. She just shook her head at the girl before turning her attention to Lena.

  "Where is he?" Lena asked.

  Gideon stepped from around the other side of the plane. Both his hands and his ankles were cuffed, making it so he could barely take any steps. His shoulders were back and he stood straight and tall but he didn't look confident. Not like he used to. He looked stricken. Dark circles were under his eyes. The lines of worry seemed to have deepened from when she last had seen him yesterday morning. She wondered if he'd been up the whole night.

  "You were going to leave without telling me?" Lena asked, not hiding the anger in her voice. "Is that why you called me last night? You wanted to say goodbye without giving me the same courtesy?"

  Thora sighed and continued to load her equipment in the side door of the plane.

  Tarek stepped next to Gideon. Lena hadn't realized he'd even been around. Her whole attention had been on the cuffed boy in front of her.

  "Eves, I..." Gideon started to say.

  "You thought it would be easier if you just left, didn't you? Just like after you shot me? You could just pack up and leave the mess for me to deal with alone." Lena knew she was crossing a line that she couldn't come back from. But the words wouldn't stop. "You can't just leave when things get hard."

  Everyone watched in horror. Not even Thora was loading the plane anymore.

  Gideon's jaw clenched and he stared her down. "It's not like that, Eves, and you know it."

  "Then why?"

  "If you really want to know, I'm turning myself over as evidence to the interplanetary alliance."

  "You're what?" Lena's anger turned to confusion. Her thoughts stumbled over one another as she tried to understand what he was saying. "You're not the enemy Gideon."

  Gideon relaxed his jaw and let out a deep breath. "I never said I was the enemy. I am proof. Proof of what Selene can and probably has done to members of the Alliance Council."

  "And you think that turning yourself over to them is going to convince a council that is already being manipulated? It's not going to work, Gideon."

  "We've talked it over and think that if I'm there, there will be others forced to look into her claim. Others who aren't on the council per say, but have influence over it. Maybe influence that's not distorted by the Priestess."

  "Who talked it over? Certainly not me. Why would you make this decision without me, Gid? You know we are meant to do this together."

  "This is the part I'm supposed to do, Eves. You can't be there for it because your job is here. Fixing the device so others can't be controlled."

  "I can't fix you if you're not here."

  "You can't fix me anyway, Eves. But maybe you can help someone else."

  The words felt like a punch to the gut. The truth of them ugly and unkind. Lena opened her mouth to argue but Gideon cut her off.