Avalon

Albright clucked his tongue “Come now. The more you help us learn about what’s happened to you, the sooner this will all be over.”

A horrible sneer twisted Marian’s mouth, transforming her beautiful face into something ugly. “It will never be over.”

The scientist sighed, then motioned to someone offscreen. The next moment, Jeth’s mother began to scream as her body convulsed, limbs straining against the straps.

Jeth’s fingers clenched around the sides of the armchair. “What are they doing?”

“Electro-persuasion therapy,” said Sierra, shuddering. “You’re mother was never a willing participant in these experiments.”

Jeth thought he might be sick. He realized that this wasn’t any different than the way Hammer had ordered him beaten.

Marian’s screams died a moment later. Jeth wanted to tear the self-satisfied look off Albright’s face as he said, “Are you ready now?”

Marian didn’t reply, but her eyes slipped closed. The next moment the red rubber ball disappeared from the table in front of her and reappeared across the room on the other one, the movement punctuated by bursts of bright light.

“Very good.” Albright made several notes on his tablet, then motioned to someone offscreen again. A woman in a white lab coat stepped into view and placed a square metal object on the table. Jeth thought it might be a battery of some kind.

“And again,” said Albright.

A second later the battery disappeared and reappeared. Next they had her phase a large rock so heavy it took three men to lift it onto the table. Then she phased a rat in a small cage. Then a rabbit and finally a monkey.

The monkey didn’t make it. At least, not all of it. The phase cut through its head, feet, and tail, slicing them off in a roughly circular shape and leaving them behind.

Jeth covered his mouth, revolted by the sight.

He fixed his gaze on his mother, ignoring the mangled remains of the animal. Tears streamed from Marian’s eyes, her body shaking with sobs. Like Lizzie, Marian was an animal lover. This was just another form of torture.

“Biological objects are harder to phase,” Sierra explained.

“No kidding,” said Jeth. “But why the implant?”

“It contains the same technology as the metaspace computers that communicate with the Pyreans.”

Jeth nodded, losing the ability to speak as he imagined all the suffering his mother must’ve endured these last few years. She wasn’t dead, but he didn’t know if this was any better. He resisted the impulse to finger the implant architecture in the back of his skull.

On screen, Albright ordered another monkey be brought out.

“No, I won’t do it,” his mother hissed.

The scientist engaged the electro-persuasion therapy again. Marian convulsed in pain, the torture lasting longer this time. When it stopped, she slumped against the chair, eyes closed as if unconscious.

“Ready to change your mind again, Marian?” Albright asked, his tone smug.

Marian’s eyes flashed open, and the look of hatred on her face made Jeth flinch. A bright flash of light burst across the screen, obscuring the view for a second. When it cleared, Jeth saw that one of the table legs had disappeared, only to reappear in the middle of Albright’s chest. For one brief second the man looked down at the thing sticking out from inside him, blood oozing around its edges. Then he collapsed.

The other scientists in the room converged on Marian, knocking her unconscious with a couple of stunner blasts.

Slowly, Jeth realized that she had done it. That his mother had phased the table leg right through the man’s heart. He swallowed, bile burning his throat.

“Turn it off,” Milton said.

Sierra did so, and nobody spoke for several long moments afterward, letting Jeth digest what he had seen. His mother was alive, but was she even still his mother?

Yes.

No. She killed someone with just her mind.

He deserved it. The ITA made her this way.

Jeth clenched his fists, his hatred so great that for a moment he thought he would go mad. He had to do something. They had to pay. Jeth took a long breath, wrestling his emotions under control. Anger would get him nowhere.

“So, is my mother a Pyrean now?”

“She’s the start of a new species,” said Milton. “At least, she would be, except she has become infertile. Cora’s birth was difficult for her, although they don’t know for sure if that caused the infertility or not. Any number of things could be to blame.”

Jeth wondered why his mother’s fertility would be a topic of study for the scientists, but he was afraid to ask. For now, all he cared about was that she was alive. If she’s alive, she can be rescued.

“Tell me the rest. Why did the ITA lie about her being executed? And what does this have to do with Lizzie?”

“They lied,” Sierra said, “because they needed the Aether Project to be as secret as possible. From what I gather, your mother not only refused to disclose the planet’s location, but she attempted to go public about the Pyreans. I don’t know why. She’s never spoken to me about anything that happened on Empyria. There are interviews on the data cell where the scientists try to get her to talk about it, but she sort of goes crazy at the subject.”

“You’ve spoken to her?” Jeth said. It was so hard to believe, so terrible and so wonderful at the same time. My mom’s alive.

“Yes,” Sierra said. “She’s the one who convinced me to steal the Aether Project and to rescue Cora. They never let your mom see Cora after she was born, but it was as if Marian could sense her. It’s strange, but there’s some kind of connection between the two of them. The scientists would sometimes run concurrent experiments on them, and Cora and Marian never failed to act in unison.” Sierra took a deep breath. “I would’ve rescued Marian as well, but I could only manage one. Of the two of them, Cora was in more danger.”