It was always difficult to be apart from my family, but it was a necessary evil. With as King and Ethan as his shadow, learning from him, their place was in the capital, but I still had my own responsibilities in , because of that I needed to stay away from them for a few days and spent time in there. Besides my responsibilities as the governor of , I also had some duties to perform as the new Queen of Mzansi, but I actually enjoyed them, and if compared to everything I had to do while ruling the Dominion, my new jobs were easy.
“Did you call for me?” Fatima asked.
“That’s right, I need your help. As you know there is a storm moving our way, we already took all necessary precautions, but I still have a bad feeling, I need you to help me evaluate the situation, I need to make sure that we will be fine and there is no risk lurking our way.”
“Are we talking a walk through the fog?”
“That’s right. I need you to act as my anchor, if there is really a problem in our future, I can’t risk losing myself in the fog, the storm is almost upon us.”
“This is not our first storm, I’m sure that everything will be fine. Besides, you know you can count on me for anything you need.”
“I know, and I’m grateful for that.”
was not the same it used to be. At first it had been designed to be completely hidden, undetectable, but once the refugees had left it and I had been in control of the Dominion, the need for secrecy had decreased, so we had decided to make a few changes. A floating platform was created to connect Aquarium with the surface, it was easier to reach it and more accessible for other that needed to travel there. But it was still a safe place, and even if it was easier to locate it, not everyone could get inside. It was the same with its security features, Aquarium had been designed to withstand the harsh ocean environment, there was no reason why the storm could affect us, and still, the feeling wouldn’t go away, and normally my feelings had a reason to be, I couldn’t just ignore them, that would have been dangerous.
Fatima and I went to a safe place, with a couple of warriors that would make sure we were safe while we were in a trance. As always, walking into the fog was a unique experience, the different paths extending in front of me were an overwhelming sight, but at the same time it was a spectacle worth enjoying, not many had the chance to experience something like that.
The easiest way to search for the problem was to look into the paths connected to me, if something was going to happen to , it would affect me directly, once I found the reason of my bad feeling, I would be able to walk a different path until I found the root of the problem.
It didn’t take long to find the problem, found the cause was harder. Despite the initial evidence, I refused to believe that someone in Aquarium would be capable of sabotage us, even if everything pointed to that. Luckily for me, in my search for the cause of the problem and a way to avoid it, I was able to find that it wasn’t intentional, but an unfortunate accident, but that didn’t make our problem any less dangerous.
Fatima’s presence kept me anchored, and I was able to find my way back easily, still, our time frame was less than ideal. I was aware that every research had its risks, but it had been so long since we started Aquarium and we had never had any issues, that I had stopped worrying about it. It was just bad luck that our first accident was at the same the storm was going to hit us, limiting our scape routes. Without having to exchange words, for Fatima at least had an idea of the danger we were facing, we moved to the level where the laboratories were located. Once visions had come to me as both a blessing and a curse. Not knowing the reason for my bad feeling, I had wrongly assumed it was directly related to the storm, not thinking that the danger could come from inside, and I had lost a lot of time, time that was running out on me.
Using my powers I called some of my guards, and by the time we reached the level, some of them were already there, which of course, had caused a lot of agitation, it wasn’t normal to have soldiers there.
“What’s going on?” Matthew asked, he was in charge of the laboratories, and he had been one of the main collaborators in the Aquarium project.
“We have a problem, one of the experiments you are running is going to have unexpected effects. I’m not sure what we are looking for, but I know is in one of the chemistry labs, and that is something that’s going to cause a toxic gas. Do you have any idea what could do that?”
None of our experiments should cause the effect you describe, but you know that every experiment that has even the smallest risk takes place in the most protected part of the lab. We designed the place so it could be sealed in case of accidents. We are safe.”
“That’s not what I saw in my vision, and by my calculations, we don’t have much time. Take me to the area you describe, maybe once in there I would be able to tell which lab is the one at risk.”
We were just going into the area marked as restricted, a place where not many were allowed in, when a young man, visibly shaken, stepped out, one look was enough to know that he was the one in my visions, the one responsible for our problem.
“Doctor,” he called Matthew, trying to control himself, “we have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Matthew’s tone showed concern, he had refused to believe something could happen, but with the young man’s appearance, that belief was turning to ash.
“One of the experiments went out of control, we don’t know if there was an error while programing the environmental variables…”
“We don’t have time for details, tell me what the problem is,” Matthew ordered, which was good, we didn’t have much time.
“The environment where we were studying the toxins went out of control and the samples overheated, some of them exploded and combined with some other substances that were in the lab, those reacted with each other and right now they are producing a toxic gas, one that, based on the samples we were working with, could be lethal.”
“Why do we have lethal toxins in ?” Fatima asked.
“Many toxins have properties that can be used to make medicines,” Matthew explained, “many of the samples we have been working with, come from marine life we don’t usually work with, because they are hard to find in other places. But we also have a lot substances in the lab that we use for testing, and that could be dangerous by themselves, but still, if that’s the case, we shouldn’t have a problem, we just have to seal the area, and use the extractors to clean it and then disinfect it, all of those tasks are programmed in the protocols.”
“The extractors are not working, and the seals are , it appears the gas is also corrosive. If we don’t contain it immediately, it can expand to the rest of the lab, even the inhabited areas. It would be best to evacuate the area, maybe even Aquarium, until we can fix the problem.”
“We can evacuate,” Ivan, who had finally arrived, said. “The storm is practically over us, it’s not safe to move to the surface and even if we get there, it will be extremely dangerous to take any transportation method. We still have a few submarines, but those were designed to transport people from the surface to , are not big enough to hold all the people.”
“We need to find a way, we can’t stay here,” the young man insisted.
“This place is full of scientists and researchers, are you saying that you can’t find a solution to this between all of you?” Ivan asked, voice laced with incredulity.
“With time we could find the problem with the systems and make the extractors work, but even if we do that, I’m not sure it will work, the gas has proven to be extremely corrosive,” a woman said, she was wearing a suit that was still wet, as if she had been through a sanitizing shower, she had a helmet in her hand that was dripping water to the floor, forming a small puddle next to her. I don’t understand the reaction that caused the gas to form, but it already went through the first seal, I think it could do the same to my suit, and any other containing method, I’m not sure I can say that the structure will be able to survive it if exposed long enough.”
“Does the gas has a color?” I asked.
“The gas is kind of grayish, but how is that relevant?” the young man asked.
“If I can see it, then I can contain it,” I said. “That would give you time to study it and find what happened to it, then find a way to neutralize it. This is not my field, this is Kimball’s, but as I understand it, every has an antidote, every acid a base to neutralize it, isn’t that right? Maybe once you get a chance to study the gas you will find a way to neutralize it.”
“That’s a possibility, but is a gas, those are practically impossible to contain, and you need a high concentration of gas to be able to see the color, when it is dispersed, you can’t see it, it’s possible you won’t be able to contain it all.”
“Gather your scientists and start working on something to deal with the problem, I will work on containing the threat.”
“Are you sure you can do it?” Ivan asked, concerned.
“We don’t have many options, I have to try, at least.”
“If you are going to try something like that, you need to wear one of the suits,” Matthew suggested, “that way you will have some protection in case something happens.”
“Understood, for now I suggest you start moving. Every person capable of working on this needs to come and up, everyone else needs to be taken to a lower risk area, at least until the storm passes.”
“Exactly how long do you think this will last?” Fatma asked.
“The visions weren’t clear, but I’m thinking this won’t be easy.”
And just as I suspected, it turned out to be a titanic task. Everyone was right to worry, containing a gas was practically impossible. On other occasions, when I had to deal with dangerous gasses, it was always to keep them away from me, but the situation demanded a different approach, I needed to contain it, something a lot harder. The suit was making things even harder for me, because I couldn’t really connect to the air around me, the problem was that it was too dangerous to take that protection off, there was no way to know the damage I could sustain by getting in contact with the gas.
I was finally able to extend my senses to the edge of the area, connecting, little by little, with everything familiar within it, then I started moving what I couldn’t identify, I was aware that I may have been moving more than the gas, since I wasn’t familiar with much of the in the place, and that maybe I was making a bigger mess, but it was my only option. As it usually happened with gasses, once I started compressing it, it occupied a much smaller volume, and soon the substance that had previously been spread all over the lab, was now occupying a little more than a cubic meter of space. The effort of sorting the substances and containing the gas had taken all my focus, the power of my double mind, so I was vulnerable, trusting my guards to be able to protect me.
I felt the scientist moving, and taking a sample of the gas so they could work on it and do their experiments. Like I had told them before, I had no idea how that worked, that’s why I had Kimball and even Ethan knew enough about that to make it work, but I worked in a different way, I could connect to things, controlled them, but just their function, their form. At that moment, all I could do on my task. Unlike what I usually did, my work with the gas was a constant, because I couldn’t connect directly to it, but I had to connect to everything around it, like the woman had pointed out I couldn’t trust my eyes, because in small quantities it was almost invisible, and just a particle could do damage, to touch it could be lethal, that’s why I was focusing on finding the odd thing out, something that required a bigger effort.
Time went by and they kept working, just as I was focused on my own task. It wasn’t easy, my head was hurting because of the effort I was doing, I knew that if I kept going, I was going to end up with a psychic headache. The silver lining was that since all my focus was on my task, I didn’t have time to worry or wonder about what was going on, time because an abstract concept, nothing could touch me.
‘Kaiserin,’ the whisper reached me, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from or what it meant, ‘they are ready, you can let go,’ the voice asked in my mind. I could understand what they were asking, but not why, all I knew is that it was very important for me to keep doing what I was doing. ‘The scientists did their part, now you must do yours.’
The voice kept insisting, and because of that I realized something had changed, the gas I had been containing was now surrounded by something else, something unknown, but somehow familiar, since it wasn’t triggering my powers. Little by little I started letting go of my hold, noticing how the gas was to take the form of the new container, but it was stopping there. My powers confirmed that whatever they had built, it was working.
“Are you ok?” a voice that sounded like Kimball asked, but I knew it couldn’t be him.
“Tired,” I said, looking for the owner of the voice, and finding that it was actually Kimball. “What are you doing here? How did you get passed the storm?”
“The storm left hours ago, you have been in trance for over 30 hours,” he explained, leaning over me and wiping some blood running out of my nose. “I know you don’t like to, but I believe that you have a psychic headache, and you need to activate your suppressor.”
Kimball was right, the headache was strong, and I was feeling like my head was about to explode, when I lifted my hand to my necklace to activate it manually, I realized it was shaking. I managed to grab the brooch and activated the command for the suppressor, the horrible pressure went out, the calm letting me know how much it was hurting me.
“I’m tired,” I repeated, looking at Kimball, whose face had deep worry lines. “I think I will sleep for a moment,” I said, before letting the darkness claim me.
Kaiserin Novel 