Chapter 8

It was like a roller coaster ride in a nightmare with the deafening roar of rocket engines, nearly complete darkness and a lot of screaming. It only lasted for a few minutes, but it felt like an hour! As soon as the engines were cut off, the feeling of gravity was gone again. Sarah grabbed her tablet and tried to access the computer network, Kaito was almost pounding on the intercom button in a futile attempt to contact the pilot and Danielle was trying to calm Alice down. Maren seemed to be the only one not in a panic.

Maren reached over and held Sarah's arm for a moment to get her attention. When Sarah looked at her she said in a calm voice, "Do you still have power for the radio?"

"Aye the radio," she replied, "let me check." The radio had been loaded into the shuttle and was hooked to its power, but it also had batteries for emergencies. Sarah unbuckled her seat belt and floated up. She used her hands to pull herself to the radio and hit the power button several times. When it didn't turn on she opened the battery compartment to see if they had come loose during the violent shaking. "They're gone! I know they were there yesterday. I put them in myself!"

"That's what I figured," said Maren. After everyone looked at her in confusion she added, "This was deliberate. We're being hijacked."

Kaito was the first to recover from the shocking news, "But why, what would anybody want with us?"

Maren looked at him for a moment before answering, "Do you know of any other person who can generate portals who could be kidnapped?"

"Any idea where we're heading?" he asked. He didn't bother mentioning that other than Tetsuo, Alice was the only portal generator that he knew of.

"Earth," said Sarah. "A burn that long means we're dropping out of orbit."

"A small island in the South Pacific to be exact," said Danielle as she hugged Alice.

All three of the others looked at her. Maren was the first to ask, "How do you know that?"

"I'm a telepath," she explained. "I wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but I think we all need to work together now."

"And you dinnae know that they intended to do this then?" asked Sarah.

Danielle shook her head before answering. "They've been thinking 'rendezvous point' all the time. I didn't think anything of it," she explained. "When the rockets fired, I looked deeper."

"So they know about you then?" asked Kaito.

Danielle smiled before saying, "No, as along as I don't go too deep they shouldn't be able to sense me. That is unless one of them is a telepath as well."

"How many of them are there?" asked Maren.

"Just the pilot and co-pilot," answered Danielle, "and no, I don't think it's a good idea to take them out. I don't think anyone here knows how to pilot a shuttle."

"Okay then, what options do we have?" asked Maren.

"Well, we could wait until we land before attempting to overpower the crew," Danielle offered.

"I dinnae like that idea," replied Sarah. "We have no idea who'll be there waiting for us."

"Wouldn't the city notice and send another shuttle?" asked Kaito.

"It wouldnae be able to get to us in time," answered Sarah, "unless Tetsuo opened another portal for it."

Kaito asked, "Couldn't he just open one here for us to be able to step through?"

They all thought for a moment before Danielle suggested, "Maybe he's not able to create another portal so soon after moving the city."

Alice turned to face Danielle and said, "I want to go home."

Todd was looking over the shoulder of the shuttle traffic controller. They were tracking the course of the shuttle and trying to determine where it was heading. Once the city had passed through the portal and it closed, they had attempted to reestablish communication with the shuttle. That was when traffic control had told him that the shuttle had changed course.

"I can't reach them at all," said Todd to Tetsuo. "Even the data link to their computer system has been killed."

"Have you determined where they're going?" Tetsuo asked the technician at the control station.

"Their current course will have them entering the atmosphere over the Indian ocean in a little over two hours from now, but we have no way to predict where they will touch down. That shuttle has the range to go anywhere on the planet!"

Tetsuo pulled an eCom out of his jacket pocket and dialed a number. "I want an armed security team to report to me immediately," he said before hanging up. He looked at his watch and cursed.

"Are you able to create another portal?" asked Todd.

"Not yet," answered Tetsuo as he looked at his watch again. "But as soon as I can, I want my people on that shuttle."

"How long will that be?" asked Todd.

"It depends on how far they get," he explained. "I can open a portal from here to anywhere in the city right now, but that distance will take more time. I'll be able to get to them before they enter the atmosphere."

Todd thought for a moment, trying to figure it out. "This doesn't make sense," Todd said. "They would know that. And that you would come after them. They must have some plan to stop you."

"Sir, you need to look at this," said the technician. As Todd and Tetsuo stepped closer to the screen the technician pointed to an object close to the Earth. "We've just picked up a high energy launch from Micronesia. It's on an intercept course for the shuttle." The course for both of the shuttle and the rocket had been extended with dotted lines until they met.

"Damn it!" cursed Tetsuo again. "How long?"

The technician double checked his numbers in order to stall before answering, "Unless one or both of them slow down, they'll meet in sixty-four minutes."

"Call me the moment that either of them changes course or speed," barked Tetsuo to the technician as he stormed out the door. The technician didn't even have time to answer before he was gone. Since there was nothing that Todd could do from the control room, he decided to follow Tetsuo, but almost had to run to keep up with him. Tetsuo entered a small room with a wall of large glass windows that opened to an enormous hall. Todd stepped closer to the window to get a better look. One section of the hall was filled with rows of shipping containers sitting on movable platforms under a sign labeled 'Outbound Items'. The opposite side of the hall was completely empty, but had another sign labeled 'Inbound Items'. It was clear that this was one of the main transfer stations in the city. A few people were moving about checking on the cargo that was waiting to be moved through a portal when it opened. Todd turned to ask Tetsuo a question when he stopped short. Tetsuo was sitting in a large comfortable chair that overlooked the shipping area, but appeared to be concentrating on something with his eyes closed. "Damn it!" he said quietly.

"What is it?" asked Todd. Tetsuo was startled by the question and opened his eyes. He seemed surprised that anyone else was in the room.

He recovered his composure quickly and said, "They're still out of range for me. I'm hoping that they'll start to decelerate soon."

"They really don't need to, you know?" Todd commented.

Tetsuo look confused for a moment before asking, "What do you mean? They'll have to slow down to be able to transfer to the other ship."

"Not really," answered Todd. "They just need to get a teleport within range of the shuttle."

"You mean a ship to ship teleport?" asked Tetsuo. "The timing needed to do that at their speed, they'd have to be insane!"

"I don't know about insane, but professional and organized. From what I see, they're well funded and have a clear understanding of your abilities," explained Todd. "Somehow they knew about Alice, and that she was safe to move. But the most important point is that they knew exactly when you would be vulnerable."

Tetsuo looked at his watch again and said, "If they're attempting a ship to ship teleport, then we have less than thirty minutes to do something." As the two men looked at each other, each hoping that the other would be able to come up with a plan, Tetsuo's eCom rang. He hit the talk button and said, "Yes? ... Okay pipe it through to my control room."

The speakers had a bit of static but a woman with a Scottish accent could be hear saying, " ... do you read me? Tenkei, come in."

Todd couldn't stop from shouting, "Sarah, it's good to hear you! What's going on in there?"

"The pilot and co-pilot have killed power in here," she said quickly. "Maren is powering up the radio."

"Is Alice alright?" asked Tetsuo.

"She's fine," answered Sarah. "She's been asking to talk to you."

Alice could be heard over the speaker. Her voice was quiet and further away from the microphone. "Oji, I don't like it here," she said. "Can I come home now?"

"Soon, Nyoko," he answered. "I'll come and get you as soon as I can."

"Sarah, did you bring your tools with you?" asked Todd.

"Aye, of course I did," she answered.

Todd never knew Sarah to go anywhere without some tools. He was happy that this time was no different. "Good, I need you to modify the field generator," he explained.

"But we're still running power into it," she objected. "I cannae modify anythin while it's running!"

"I know, but there's another ship heading your way," Todd really didn't have time to explain this, but knew she wouldn't blindly follow him. "You need to attach it to a bulkhead and modify the field to disrupt teleports."

It was now Tetsuo's turn to object. "That will allow Alice to charge up again! You can't turn it off!"

The delay in getting the changes done was starting to get at Todd, but he explained anyway. "The field generator is the only thing they have to stop a teleport," he said. "At the distance they are from the city and with the fact the Alice should be completely drained of energy, she shouldn't be able to start a connection to the singularity." He thought for a moment before talking to Sarah again, "I'll give you the configuration you need to set the field harmonics to. Do you have something to write them down on?"

"Aye," she answered, "give me the numbers."

The modification wasn't complicated and would only take a few minutes. Todd explained all the changes that were needed to modify the generator. Since the generator wasn't really designed to work at the new settings, Todd hoped that it wouldn't burn itself out too quickly. It wouldn't last long in any event, but it seemed that this was their only way to buy some time before Tetsuo could open a portal.

Maren cut the power to the field generator and Sarah made the changes before taping the whole thing to the outer hull of the cargo section. She told Maren not to power up it up until they needed it. Danielle was still sitting with Alice, trying to calm her down without much success.

Danielle finally gave up and said, "Okay, I'll ask them, but no promises." This seemed to satisfy the little girl and she smiled at Danielle.

"What's going on, Danielle?" asked Maren.

"Alice and I have been talking telepathically," Danielle started to explain. "When Alice said that she wanted to go home, she meant she wanted to open a portal of her own and take all of us to Tenkei."

Kaito responded first by saying, "She's never opened a portal deliberately, yet. How does she know if she can?"

Alice was getting tired of all the people talking, but completely ignoring her. "I don't know if I can, but I want to try!" she said loud enough for all of them to hear.

"I think Alice may be able to open the portal if she has enough power," explained Danielle. "I just have no idea how much power that is."

"I have a feel for how much power I need," Alice added, "but I have nothing to compare it to."

"What form of energy are you able to absorb?" asked Maren.

Alice looked a little embarrassed as she said, "I don't know. I know what it feels like, but I don't know what to call it."

"The type of energy she's thinking about isn't familiar to me either," Danielle explained.

"I think that the three of us have an understanding of almost every type of energy known," commented Kaito. "Could you compare it to what we know?"

Danielle shrugged and said, "Sure, as long as one of you and Alice envision the energy in a similar way."

Danielle looked at Alice and concentrated so that she could get a good impression of the energy pattern before looking for it in the others. She started with Kaito. He had been in telepathic contact with a few bio elementals during his career and was familiar with several forms of energy generated by the human body. Unfortunately, none of the energy patterns were familiar, or even close to the amount of power needed. The next person was Sarah. She was familiar with a far wider range of energy patterns, but again, none of them matched the pattern that Danielle was looking for. However some of the extremely high frequency radio waves were close. The last person to look at was Maren. The number of energy sources that she was familiar with was incredible, and the search took a while to compare them all, but finally a match was found.

"Okay," said Maren to Alice. "Now that we know what type of energy you can use, we need to know how much. I'm going to convert some energy and you need to let me know how much more you need."

Alice smiled at Maren and nodded her head. Maren floated over to the little girl and touched her shoulder. Maren was limited on the energy sources that she could use for conversion. The light was too dim to be of any use, and the micro gravity they were in was out of the questions as well. She could still convert matter to energy, even though that was always a bad reminder of an unpleasant experience. Alice was surprised by the sudden increase in energy level, but frowned when the source was cut off so soon.

"Is that all?" she asked. "I need a lot more that that."

"Wait," called Kaito. "You can't flood the shuttle with that kind of energy." He turned his tablet around to show the others the screen. On the tablet was a graph showing background radiation during Maren's test with Alice. The spike at the end of the graph was significantly higher than the time before or after. "That spike is showing gamma radiation. If you flood the shuttle with that we might be able to get out of here, but we won't live long!"

Maren chuckled for a moment before explaining, "I wasn't generating gamma rays. I'm surprised that your sensors picked it up at all."

Kaito was confused, if it wasn't gamma rays what was it? "What do you mean?"

"I've only encountered that type of energy from one source. I know it's not dangerous, at least not at that low level." Maren thought that it was interesting that Sanura's dark energy would set off a gamma ray detector. She wondered if Sanura knew about that. Maren had always wondered how Tetsuo had been able to harness the power of a singularity. Now she knew. "We have another problem though. I can't generate very much of that energy."

"Maybe we dinnae need that much," Sarah suggested. She turned to Alice and asked, "With the energy Maren gave you, are you able to recreate the link to the city's power source?"

Danielle suggested, "Close your eyes and look out with your mind. You should be able to see the energy source as a bright light in the distance." She noticed the confused look on the others and added, "I know it's not a light at all. It's just the image I saw in her mind before you were able to cut her off from it."

"I see it!" exclaimed Alice. "But it's so far away."

"I can try giving her a little more energy," suggested Maren. "See if that will help."

"Only if you're sure that it's not gamma rays," warned Kaito. "And no more than the amount you already generated. If the detector is reading gamma, I can't believe that it will no have any effect on us."

"Alice," said Maren, "I'll give you that same amount of energy again. You need to concentrate on the light when I do, okay?"

"Okay, I'll try," she answered. Maren placed her hand on Alice's shoulder again as she concentrated on the light. In her mind she felt like she was pulling herself closer to it. The closer Alice got the more energy she received until it flooded into her and she clutched her chest, moaning in pain.

"Are you okay Alice?" asked Kaito. "You need to stop if the pain is too much."

"It's okay," she said. "A control switch popped into my mind. I think I can handle it now."

The others looked at Danielle but didn't know if she had done anything. She blushed slightly before saying, "It was just a suggestion. I'm just as surprised as you that it worked."

"I'm getting it," Alice told the other. "It feels funny. Like someone is tickling me from the inside." She giggled as she tried to explain it to the others.

"Now for the hard part," Danielle said to the others. "Alice, you need to concentrate on where you want to be. Picture it in your mind with as much detail as you can remember, okay?"

A teleporter can appear in a lot of distinctive ways. Many of them make a popping sound as their body mass instantly displaces air. However the teleporter that appeared in the shuttle made no sound at all, he simply faded in. If he hadn't appeared right in front of Kaito, no one would even have noticed him in the dim light. The man had dark skin and was dressed from head to foot in black. It was also clear that he was well armed, including an odd looking gun that he held in his right hand. He quickly decided which of the two people near Alice to shoot. Since Danielle was facing him, he aimed at her. The dart that hit Danielle was very small but the sedative that it contained was extremely powerful. If there had been any gravity, she would have fallen to the floor, unconscious. Fortunately she was still strapped into the chair and didn't float away.

Sarah yelled to Maren, "The field, you need to power it up!" Maren was still holding the cable from earlier and she sent an electrical charge down the wire to the field generator. Instead of the quiet gentle hum that it had been making, the generator made a high pitched whine and sparks could be seen arcing across the surface of the shuttles hull. The teleporter attempted to turn in the micro gravity, but was only able to twist his body slightly to see where the sound was coming from. The man floated close enough to Alice to grab her arm. When he didn't immediately disappear he looked around, searching for the reason why. That was when Kaito made his move. He launched himself at the dark man with a hypodermic in his hand. The impact forced the contents into the back of the teleporter before the doctor bounced off and crashed into the hull again. The teleporter aimed the dart gun at Kaito and pulled the trigger in a single, smooth action. Kaito's momentum caused him to bounce off the hull again and float motionlessly through the air. The teleporter attempted to turn and fire his dart gun at the next person, but the drug was already taking effect. He blinked several times in an attempt to focus on his next target. He aimed his weapon at Sarah but couldn't hold it steady enough to get a good shot. The dart embedded itself in the chair behind her as he lost his short battle with the drug. His eyes rolled back as he passed out, the gun floating off on its own path through the air.