Chapter Text
“You must sever the connection hinge. Now!”
“Not until you’re up here!”
“There is no time, Wrecker. Plan 99.”
Omega was dreaming. She knew it because she had been here a hundred times before. She stood in the railcar watching Wrecker try to hold the broken car in place to keep Tech from falling. She knew what was coming. The dream was always the same.
“Don’t you do it, Tech,” Wrecker growled through the strain.
Tech’s resigned sigh. His last words. “When have we ever followed orders?” The shot. All familiar. All just as painful as they had been in real life.
But in the dream, Omega did not stay in the unbroken railcar as it shot down the track. In the dream, she jumped after Tech. She somehow miraculously navigated around the broken railcar and sped through the air down to her falling brother. She grabbed his arm. “I’ve got you!” Their descent slowed.
Because in the dream she could fly. She unclipped the repel cable connecting him to the ruined car and lunged to one side in the air. They both moved out of the way of the wreckage as it plunged past them. She didn’t have the strength to lift Tech in the air and get him back to their family, but she could slow him down like a parachute. She didn’t know why that was. Dreams made no sense anyway, so she should have been able to pull him back to safety. But instead they drifted down through the clouds, dodging prickly pine trees and massive rock formations, until they landed, unharmed, in the grass far below with a gentle plop.
Omega would let go of Tech then release a breath. “You’re safe now.”
That was when she usually woke up. But this time, Tech replied, “You must stop revisiting this, Omega.”
She looked up at him. He looked just as she remembered him on his final day. Wearing his weathered armor, fully equipped with his belt of gadgets, brown eyes sharp behind his goggle lenses. There was one difference. Those lenses were cracked.
“You could not have helped me,” Tech said. “Torturing yourself with impossible scenarios is futile.”
“I can’t help it,” Omega said. “You left so suddenly. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I can’t help imagining that I somehow saved you.”
“But you did not. You could not.”
Omega blinked and Tech’s helmet was gone. She gasped. His cheeks were sunken in on a pale face. As she watched, his reddish-brown hair fell out, sprinkling the ground like drops of seafoam.
“I am already gone.”
His skin sagged against his skull. It oozed and melted like wax until all that was left was a skeleton wearing cracked goggles. “I am dead and decaying. And you could not stop that.”
Omega shrieked as she scrambled away from him. His armor hung off his bony frame. He reached a skeletal hand out toward her. In a voice that sounded like metal grating on metal, he said, “I am dead. This is all that’s left of me.”
The skeleton collapsed. The bones broke apart into a heap on the grass. But the hand remained intact and moved on its own to grab her ankle.
Omega screamed again, kicking wildly to free herself. The disembodied hand held on tighter.
“I am dead. You cannot change that, Omega.”
“Omega! Wake up!”
Omega opened her eyes with a jolt. She kicked her legs. Something still had a hold of her foot. She flailed. Pain flared in her wrist when she hit it against something hard.
“Omega! Take a breath, kid.”
The voice finally registered. Her eyes focused through the panic and she found Hunter kneeling at her side. It was dark. She was in her room in their new house on Pabu. The window beside her bed was half open, letting in a gentle sea breeze. Her legs were tangled up in her sheets.
Hunter rested a hand on her shoulder. “Easy.”
Omega fell back into her pillow. It was a dream. Just a stupid dream. She shut her eyes and willed her pulse to slow down. She listened to the sound of waves lapping at the distant shore. She heard the nighttime insects singing their song. She smelled the hint of salt that was always in the air on Pabu. She counted to ten.
Then she opened her eyes again. There were the stars she and Wrecker had painted on her ceiling with bioluminescent paint. They had tried to recreate a map of the galaxy with the little green-glowing dots. It really just looked like an accidental splatter, but she liked it all the same. She slowly turned her head. There was her dresser, full of a new wardrobe befitting island life. Sitting on top of it was the collection of seashells she had gathered over the last three months ever since becoming a permanent resident of Pabu. Including the big pink shell Crosshair pretended he just happened upon instead of hunting for it specifically to add to her collection. There was her full-length mirror. There was the chest where her energy crossbow and leather cap were safely stored away.
And there was Hunter, right beside her bed waiting for her to calm down. He was dressed in the long, loose trousers and soft shirt he had taken to wearing at nighttime here on Pabu. Gone were the days when he slept in full armor with a knife strapped to his arm. His hair was loose, free of its bandanna. If it weren’t for the tattoo on his face, he wouldn’t have looked much like a soldier. Not anymore.
There was movement through her open doorway. Omega always slept with her door open. Having it closed felt too similar to her cell on Tantiss. She thought she glimpsed Crosshair in the dark hallway before he disappeared again. Heavy footsteps and a canine whine indicated that Batcher was out there too.
She threw her sheets off her legs and sat up. “I’m sorry. Did I wake everyone up?”
Hunter’s hand was still on her shoulder. “Not everyone. Wrecker’s still out.” He smiled a bit, apparently going for levity as he added, “His ability to sleep through the sound of you screaming is a little concerning, if I’m honest.”
Omega didn’t return his smile. She couldn’t. Images of Tech as a rotting skeleton still galloped in her head. “Sorry,” she said again. “I didn’t mean to scream.”
“It’s okay, kid.” Hunter stood from his position on the floor and instead sat next to her on her mattress. This was far from the first time he’d come to soothe her after she woke from a nightmare. But Omega thought she was getting better. After her first return from Tantiss, even though she was back home on the Marauder and finally reunited with her family, she’d had nightmares almost every night. She had them while on Tantiss too, but then there had been no one to sit with her when she woke up crying.
After her second return, once the Imperial base on Mt. Tantiss was largely destroyed and all the surviving prisoners set free, things got better. The Batch made Pabu their permanent home. They got a house. She had her own room. She could play with Lyana and Jax and Eva and the other children any time she wanted. Hunter, Wrecker, and Crosshair were all here and all safe. Nightmares came less often. But they still came.
Hunter lightly bumped her shoulder with his own. “What was it this time? Tantiss again?”
Omega shook her head. She stared at the turquoise and orange woven rug on her floor. “Tech.”
Hunter hummed. She’d told him about some of her dreams involving Tech before. And he’d told her, in those vulnerable moments in the depths of night, that he dreamed about him sometimes too. “Want to tell me about it?”
She shook her head again. This one had been so much worse than usual. Normally she dreamed about saving him from his fall and then woke up crying when she realized it wasn’t real. This time she’d been given a horrifying reminder about something she usually tried hard not to think about: Tech’s body must still be on Eriadu somewhere, decaying in the wilderness. Imperials must have found it and retrieved his goggles to flaunt in front of Hunter, but she doubted they buried him. He died alone, and what was left of him was probably still alone.
A shudder ran down the length of her spine. She leaned into Hunter, resting her head on his shoulder. His strong, quiet presence was one thing she knew she could always rely on. It was the one thing that never failed to raise her out of these low points and coax her back into the light. His skin was warm through his shirt. She closed her eyes and imagined that warmth soaking into her cold cheek and spreading throughout her body. Maybe most thirteen-year-olds were past the age where they needed comfort from their big-little brother/pseudo father after a bad dream, but most thirteen-year-olds hadn’t been held captive for months by a doctor who specialized in human experimentation. Most kids hadn’t watched their brother sacrifice himself to keep his family safe.
Hunter waited. He knew what she needed by now. He didn’t push her to talk when she didn’t want to and would sit with her for as long as she wanted. She loved him so much.
“Do you think Tech would have liked our house?” she asked after a little while.
“I’m sure he would have,” Hunter said. “But he would’ve made a hundred adjustments to it by now.”
That did make Omega smile. “Yeah. What do you think he would change?”
“Ah, he probably would have upgraded the cooker and the chiller in some unnecessary way. And he would have come up with a more advanced security system than the perimeter sensors we installed.”
“And before all that, he’d have found a new ship for us, even if we don’t need one anymore,” Omega said. She picked at a loose thread on her sleep tunic. “I wonder how upset he would have been to lose the Marauder.”
“Hard to say,” Hunter said. “He loved that ship. But I think overall he would have just been glad that none of us were seriously hurt when it was destroyed. If he had been there, he might have been on board at the time. So that’s one thing to be glad of, I guess.”
“That’s true.” Omega yawned. She lifted her arm to rub her eyes and noticed a dark spot on the back of her hand. It was a scrape slowly oozing blood. “Oh.” She must have gotten that when she accidentally smacked the wall in her dream-hazed flailing. It must not have been deep. It didn’t even hurt.
Hunter took her hand to get a better look. He tsked. “Better patch that up. I’ll get the medkit.”
Omega rolled her eyes. “I can clean my own cut, Hunter.”
“Go clean it, then. I’ll still pull the medkit to get a bandage.”
They both stood, and once they were in the hallway, he gently pushed her in the direction of the ‘fresher. Omega ran her hand under cold water in the sink. How nice it was not to have to worry about conserving their water supply on a starship! She rubbed the cut with soap and then rinsed it. Bloody water swirled against the granite and down the drain. Her hand was still bleeding even after it was clean, so she grabbed a spare hand towel and pressed it to the scrape.
When she left the ‘fresher, she found Crosshair in the hallway leaning casually against the doorframe of his bedroom.
“Aren’t you supposed to be asleep?” he drawled around a toothpick.
“Aren’t you?” she countered.
“I was. Until someone woke me up.”
Months ago, before Omega got to know Crosshair, she might have felt guilty by his implication that he was annoyed to have been awoken by her nightmare-fueled outburst. But she knew him well enough by now to recognize that this was his way of asking if she were alright. “Well, you can go back to sleep now. I will too.”
“And you’ll stay that way this time?”
“If you want, I’ll come sleep in bed with you so next time I wake up thrashing, I’ll punch you instead of the wall.”
“I’ll pass.” He stood up off the wall and squeezed his toothpick between two of the fingers on his prosthetic hand. “Take the hound with you. She keeps trying to crush me in my sleep.”
Omega giggled. She clicked her tongue. “Batcher, come.”
The lurca hound lumbered out of Crosshair’s room at her call. Despite Crosshair’s insistence that she was Omega’s pet, Batcher often chose to spend her nights in his room over any other member of the family.
The hound sat on Omega’s rug as Hunter came back in. He took the towel from Omega and wrapped her hand in two layers of sticky gauze. “There,” he said when the wound was covered. “That should do it.”
“Thanks, Hunter.” Omega’s hand did hurt a little now that there was pressure on it, but she knew it was necessary to stem the bleeding. She lay halfway down in bed and tried to untangle her covers.
Hunter took over, pulling the sheets out straight and draping them over her. “You going to be okay? Want me to stay a while?”
Omega hugged Lula to her chest. The images of skeleton Tech were fading into the background of her mind as dreams always inevitably did. If she focused on something good while trying to go back to sleep, the nightmare might not return. Hopefully. “No, I’ll be okay. Batcher is here.”
At the sound of her name, Batcher plodded over to the bed and lowered her head. Omega reached one arm out of her covers to give the hound a scratch.
“Alright. You know where I am if you change your mind. Try to get some sleep, kid. Can’t have you collapsing at the festival tomorrow.”
Omega immediately brightened. “Oh yeah!” Tomorrow was a big day for Pabu. According to Lyana, it was their annual festival to mark the changing of the season. There would be games and shows and lots of good food. She’d promised to take Omega around and show her all of it. Omega raised herself up on one elbow. “You think there’ll be time to do everything? And try all the food? Lyana said it’s really big. Entertainers and vendors come in from other islands and everything. I want to see all of it.”
Hunter gave her a playful shove so that she slipped onto her back again. “We’ll see, kid. But sleep first. Then festival.”
* * *
Omega only managed a couple more hours of sleep after that. She teetered between excitement about tomorrow and actively suppressing disturbing images from her dream. She was up as soon as the sun broke the horizon, wanting neither to wait any longer to start a promising day nor to spend any more time dwelling on the painful past.
Of Omega’s brothers, only Wrecker had shown any interest in attending the festival, and he mainly wanted to sample all the food. Omega was free to spend the day with Lyana and her other friends, but she had convinced her brothers to join her after sunset for the floating lantern finale Lyana told her about. Apparently, it was a family thing. Each family group on Pabu came together and lit their own lantern to send off into the stars. It was supposed to be really pretty. Omega usually managed to coerce participation from everyone—even Crosshair—when she stressed that an activity was an important family event.
So, with the agreement to meet in the evening, Hunter gave her a handful of Pabu currency and told her to have fun so long as she kept her comm on her.
Omega patted the satchel she wore across her body. “I’ve got it. See you later!”
The festival was just as big as promised. Not only was the main square at the top of the island packed with booths, but the winding lanes of upper Pabu were lined with vendors too. Omega and Lyana played every game they came to. One was a booth equipped with dart guns that a player used to shoot at moving targets. Omega hit every one on the first try.
“Aw, that’s not fair,” Lyana lamented. “You were literally raised by soldiers!”
There were also plenty of sweet treats and bands playing live music. After stuffing themselves with honey-filled pastries, the girls joined a group of kids around the weeping maya tree who played a game involving throwing colorful streamers at one another. That was where they found Eva and Jax.
Of the children rescued from the Tantiss vault, Eva seemed to be adjusting to her new home the best. Sami had gone with Echo to her homeworld of Pantora where Senator Chuchi promised to help her find her parents. But Eva and Jax’s families were proving harder to locate. When Rex looked into the locations the kids last remembered living, their parents were nowhere to be found. He sent the word out through his contacts to try and find them, but in the meantime, two Pabu families had stepped up to care for the children until other arrangements could be made. A human couple took in both Eva and Jax, and a gotal couple adopted Bayrn, who was unlikely to ever return home since he was too young to tell them where he came from. Eva, at least, didn’t let it hamper her spirits. She always wore a smile when Omega saw her.
“This is great!” the little Iktotchi girl said. She was missing one of her front teeth. “I’ve never gotten to run so much in my whole life!”
“Yeah,” Jax said. “We couldn’t exactly play tag in the vault.” He huffed and let the blue streamer he was holding trail on the ground. “It’s really tiring, though. How is everyone still running? We’ve been at this forever.”
Omega had noticed that the children from the vault tired easily compared to other kids. But she couldn’t blame them. They had spent years locked in one room hardly exercising. It would take time to build their strength up. Just like it had for her when she first left Kamino with her brothers. “Let’s sit over here for a while,” she said. “I could use a break too.”
She, Eva, Jax, and Lyana sat beneath the shade of the maya tree sipping on iced fruit juice while children shrieked as they darted about the square and a quartet somewhere nearby played a lively tune.
“What is this festival for anyway?” Jax asked.
“It’s the Autumn Moon Festival,” Lyana said. “It’s always held just before the rainy season begins. Some people say it helps attract the spirits of our recently departed ancestors. Some think they don’t go to their rest until we light the lanterns at night to close out the festival.”
Omega lowered her cold bottle of juice into the grass. “Really?”
“That’s what people say. My mom used to say the spirits of our loved ones hover in the stars until we light the lanterns each year to guide them to their new home.” She went quiet for a moment. “We wrote her name on our lantern three years ago.”
Omega grabbed her hand and squeezed. “Then I’m sure she found her way.”
Her friend nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure she did. Maybe you can write Tech’s name on your lantern tonight.”
All the happiness of the day sank into Omega’s stomach. She gazed up through the branches of the maya tree. No stars could be seen in the daytime of course, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. Could Tech really be hovering somewhere out there, waiting to be guided to a place he could rest? She didn’t like to think of him like that. Alone. Lost. Drifting.
“Maybe your ancestors are drawn to the festival because it’s so bright,” Eva said. “Everything here feels like the sun. Shining light.”
Omega’s brow furrowed. She wasn’t sure what she meant. The Batch never got a comprehensive answer about what “M-count” meant. Only that it was something in the blood that had to do with a jedi’s power. Hemlock said the children kept in the vault on Tantiss all had high M-counts. But the kids never said anything directly about their supposed powers. It was more often things like this. Comments about things they had no way of really knowing or unusual ways to describe things.
“Yeah,” Jax said. “Except for that one tent. Darkness was gushing out of there.”
“What tent?” Omega asked.
“The one with the sign that said there was a fortuneteller inside who could grant wishes. I felt cold when I walked by it. I’m not going that way again.”
Omega glanced at Lyana. Her friend shrugged. “Must be a visitor from another island. We don’t have any fortunetellers on Pabu that I know of.”
Omega raised her bottle and sipped more juice through the straw. The idea of a person who could grant wishes and felt “dark” was intriguing. In her experience, some people caught up in darkness were really just confused or desperate or angry. Like Benni, the boy who’d stolen the Marauder and acted tough and aloof, but was actually just hungry. Or Emerie, who had been groomed by Hemlock to follow in his footsteps but cared about her fellow clones and chose to help them in the end. …Or Crosshair. If Jax had met Crosshair back when he was with the Empire, would he have felt dark to him too?
Maybe what this fortuneteller needed was someone to reach out and show them there was another way. And even if not, Omega would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious to see if this person could really grant wishes. She had been to a lot of places in the galaxy now, but there was so much more still to see and learn. The jedi had powers she didn’t understand. Maybe other people did too. She bet Tech would encourage her desire to discover something new.
She set her drink aside, stood up, and stretched her arms up high. “I think I’ll go comm Hunter and the others real quick and see what they’re up to. Maybe I’ll get a snack with Wrecker. I’ll come find you guys in a bit, okay?”
“You sure?” Lyana said. “I thought we were going to watch the fire throwing show.”
“I’ll be back in time. Promise. See you soon.”
Omega strolled through the square until she was out of her friends’ sights. Then she jogged to the edge of the colonnade. She wandered around the perimeter, but didn’t see the tent Jax mentioned. Most people had open booths displaying their wares, not tents. She went down one of the streets leading down the east side of the island, but after a few minutes, the booths ended, giving way to homes, and she doubled back. Maybe she should have asked Jax where he saw the tent. But if she had, she had a feeling her friends would have tried to persuade her not to do what she was currently doing. She loved them all, but she found their senses of adventure lacking.
It wasn’t until she tried the road on the southern part of the island that she found it. A small tent was set up at the end of a line of booths selling textiles and yarn. It was a square structure draped in dark, heavy curtains on every side. A painted sign hung from a tassel on the outside that read: “Fortunetelling, dream reading, wishes made real.”
Omega approached the tent and paused. It felt like she should knock, but that was hard to do on walls made of fabric.
“Come in,” a feminine voice said from inside. “I can feel you lurking out there. You have questions; I can give you answers.”
Omega found the opening formed by two curtains overlapping and pulled one aside. It was dark inside the tiny space. Blue and green-glowing lanterns hung from the poles that formed the ceiling. They cast an eerie light on the woman sitting on a cushion behind a low table. Omega didn’t know what race of sentient she was. She was near-human, but had a set of short spikes sticking up from her skull. They poked through her short brown hair like a crown. A pattern of dark streaks adorned each of her cheeks. It stood out against her tan skin. Omega thought it might be a tattoo, but she also knew some races had naturally-occurring facial markings.
The woman was dressed in a green robe that opened in the front to reveal a brown dress and a necklace with a long gold chain. She reached a hand out to Omega and the wide sleeve of her robe pooled on the table. “Come in,” she said again. “Have a seat. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Omega stepped in and let the curtain fall behind her. “You’ve been waiting for me? Do you know me?”
“I didn’t know who was coming. Only that I should come here today to meet someone who greatly needed my help. So, tell me what it is you seek.”
Omega sat cross-legged on the cushion across from the woman. “I don’t really need anything. I just wanted to meet you. One of my friends said there was a fortuneteller here, and I was curious. He said this tent felt dark to him.” She glanced at the dim lanterns. “I don’t think he meant physical darkness. I think he meant the other kind. But it seems okay here to me.”
The woman folded her hands on the table. “Does it now?”
“Mhmm.” Omega looked over the woman again. She held herself in a controlled, measured way, but somehow Omega thought that was an act. No one was that effortlessly composed. It reminded her of how Crosshair acted directly after leaving Tantiss. So desperate to project strength, denying anything was wrong, never letting on that he wasn’t okay. Omega saw through him. And she didn’t know why, but the woman gave her the same feeling. “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”
The woman’s mask of calm cracked for a split second. “What makes you say that?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling. What’s your name? Where did you come from?”
The woman’s green eyes considered Omega carefully. “My name is Jorrah. I do not live in any one place. Not anymore.”
“Why not?”
The woman leaned back, lowering her hands to her lap. She never took her eyes from Omega’s face. “You’re a strange child. I’ve had many clients. All either wanted to know their future or wanted me to grant some petty wish for them. And all made their requests known immediately. You are the first to ask my name.”
“That seems rude,” Omega said. “Why wouldn’t they want to know your name?”
“Most people are intimidated by me, I suspect. Especially once they realize the kinds of things I can do.”
Omega smiled. “Well, I like you. I don’t think you’re scary. No offense, but I’ve faced huge monsters and hundreds of people who wanted to kill me. You don’t seem like them.”
Jorrah chuckled. “A strange child, indeed. Do you always make judgements about people so quickly?”
Omega shrugged one shoulder. “I guess. But I’m usually right.”
A thin smile lifted Jorrah’s lips. “Alright. Since you asked, I don’t live in one place anymore because the Empire took my home from me.”
Omega sagged a little. That must have been what it was. The reason this person didn’t feel threatening was because they had something significant in common. Omega had been right. The darkness didn’t stem from evil; just sadness. “I’m sorry,” she said. “The Empire destroyed my home too.”
“Dathomir was not destroyed,” Jorrah said. “It was quarantined by the Emperor. No one gets in or out. I was away when the order was given. Now, I cannot go home. I am a wanderer, travelling from world to world and earning credits by reading fortunes and making use of my particular talents in the magick arts.”
“So you really do grant wishes?”
“In a sense. I can make a lot of things happen. And I can often grant a person’s request, though perhaps not in the way he anticipated. For the right price, of course. So I’ll ask again, curious one. What does your heart desire?”
Omega looked up at the lanterns again. She was about to say she already had everything she wanted, but something about the heavy cloth above her stayed her tongue. Though it was a thick material, there were tiny holes in it in places where it was beginning to wear out. Pinpoints of sunlight seeped through the holes like stars struggling to shine through a black sky. She thought about what Lyana said about the spirits of loved ones hovering in the stars, waiting. A brief image of dream-Tech’s skeleton flashed through her mind, and she shuddered. If she could truly wish for one thing…
“I know your desire,” Jorrah said. “Someone was taken from you too soon.”
“Yes,” Omega said. “How did you know?”
Jorrah ignored the question and instead asked one of her own. “And what would you do to bring that person back? What price would you be willing to pay?”
Omega’s eyes snapped back down to her. “My brother can’t come back. He’s dead.”
“Death is not always as permanent as most believe. But you didn’t answer me: what would you be willing to do to get him back?”
“Well, I…” Omega blinked. She felt like her brain was just catching up. “Wait, are you serious? You can actually do that?”
Jorrah leaned forward again, clasped hands resting on the table. “The magick arts are strong. Unruly. I have been trained to wield them in many ways, but there are some spells frowned upon by my coven. Others on Dathomir practice the dark spells more freely. I learned some of these from them. It’s why I was not on Dathomir when the Emperor cut off contact with the planet. I was banished by my clan for delving into powers they were too afraid to touch themselves. But not before I learned that there is a way to retrieve a soul that has departed this world.”
Omega leaned over the table. Her hands clasped her ankles tightly. “You can bring Tech back? You really, really can?”
Jorrah’s face grew somber. “Yes. I normally would not risk that level of exposure to dark magick. But you are different. I believe I was meant to come here today to do this for you. For a price.”
“I’ll pay it! I don’t care how much it is!” Omega faltered. “But—I don’t have a lot of money.”
“The price is not money.”
“Then what is it?”
“I can’t be certain. Dark magick is unpredictable. In my opinion, it has a mind of its own. All I can say for certain is that the toll will be heavy upon the person who makes the wish.”
Omega’s heart pounded. Was this really happening? Was she really going to see Tech again? A voice in her head that sounded a lot like Echo told her not to trust this. It warned her this was a scam. And another voice that sounded like Hunter begged her not to do anything risky. It implored her to call her brothers before making any rash decisions. But the hope building in her chest drowned them out. If there was any chance this was real, any chance at all, she had to take it.
“I’ll do it,” she said. “Whatever it takes. Just tell me what I have to do.”
Jorrah nodded. “Very well.” She patted the tabletop. “Come and sit here.”
Omega left her cushion and went to sit atop the low table as Jorrah leaned back.
“You said this person was your brother,” the fortuneteller said. “In order to locate his spirit, I will need a piece of the thing that connects you. A few drops of your blood should suffice.” She reached into her robe and pulled out a small, sheathed knife.
“Wait,” Omega said. She peeled back the bandage around her hand and winced as the new scab ripped partway off. Fresh blood oozed from the barely-healed spot. “Will this work?”
“That will do. Let three drops fall on the table.”
Omega tilted her hand. After a few seconds, one drop plinked down onto the wood by her feet. Once two more had followed, she pressed the bandage back into place as best she could. Jorrah closed her eyes. Her right hand hovered over the blood drops as she started to hum. It sounded more like pure vibration than song.
A strong wind stirred up, rattling the tent poles and making the curtains ripple. The lanterns overhead winked out. The tent was plunged into darkness save for three tiny lights. The blood drops were glowing. Omega’s eyes widened. As she watched, the drops drew themselves together and then split out into a thin line. The line travelled out in two directions around the perimeter of the circular table before coming back together behind her. She was now surrounded by a string of yellow-orange light.
Jorrah began to chant in a language Omega didn’t recognize. The words were low at first, but as they got louder, the light of the blood circle intensified. Omega felt a prickling on her skin. It started on her toes, then seeped up her legs and onto her middle. She squirmed against the itchy sensation, but found it was difficult to move. The light was pressing in on her. The prickling continued to the rest of her body. When it reached her arms, she was able to move her head just enough to see that a pattern was spreading itself across her skin. It glowed the same color as the blood circle and looked like curling vines with wicked thorns protruding from them. She grit her teeth as the feeling reached all the way to her scalp. She wanted to rake her fingernails all over her skin.
The pattern began to burn and Omega flinched. Her pulse raced. What was she doing? What had she agreed to? Why didn’t she stop and call Hunter first? She thought about the comm device in her satchel. If only she could move enough to retrieve it… Her hand twitched as she tried to move it toward her satchel. She strained with all her might, but the twitch was the best she could do.
Jorrah’s chanting became louder and faster. The glowing marks on Omega’s skin burned hotter. She made a groaning noise in the back of her throat. It was all she could do aside from squeezing her eyes closed and clenching her jaw. Her body was on fire.
Wait! she wanted to cry. I’ve changed my mind! Make it stop! She couldn’t open her mouth. What if she had been wrong to trust this person and whatever she was doing to Omega wasn’t bringing Tech back but just hurting her? Oh, she so should have contacted Hunter!
Suddenly, Jorrah’s chanting switched to Basic.
“Answer the call, the call of the amber dawn.
Come to the light, the light of the amber dawn.
Soldier marching far away, return to the amber dawn.
Soul bind to the light, the light of the amber dawn!”
The searing orange light surrounding Omega flared until it was a solid column. The markings on her skin flared in time with the surge. Even with her eyelids closed, the light burned her eyes. It was consuming her. A single word scraped through her tight throat: “Hunter!”
The fire washed over her, and her grip on reality wavered. The world turned white.
* * *
Waking was a slow process. Something rough pressed into her cheek. Cold wind raked over her body, eliciting a shiver. Omega peeled her eyelids open. All she could discern was a green haze. She closed her eyes again and lay still for a time until an abrupt noise dragged her back awake. Someone coughed.
She groaned. She squinted until her vision at last focused. She was lying on a thick bed of grass and fallen leaves. There was an enormous trunk of a pine tree not far away from her. The airy sound of wind through high branches mingled with birdsong. She sat up slowly, rubbing her eyes.
The fog in her mind began to ebb away. She turned her head from side to side. Where was she? The vegetation looked nothing like Pabu. The grass stretched out before her endlessly, interrupted by tree trunks, boulders, and fallen logs. A forest. She was in a forest. Was she on one of the other islands? How did she get here? She patted herself down. She was still dressed in the short-sleeved shirt, vest, trousers, and boots she had been wearing to the festival.
Omega gasped. The festival. The fortuneteller. She quickly examined her arms. There were no burn marks. The glowing, curling pattern was gone too. And strangely, so was the scrape on the back of her hand. The bandage had come off partway. She pulled it the rest of the way off to find her scab completely healed. In its place was a single mark that looked like a thin brown triangle. She rubbed it with the fingers of her other hand, but it didn’t come off.
Her head was reeling. She didn’t know what to think. How did she get here? She was relieved to find her satchel still slung across her torso. She dug into it and grabbed her comm.
“Hunter,” she said into it. “Do you copy?”
Static answered her. She clicked the button on the side to switch to the channel shared by all her brothers. “Does anyone copy?” More static.
“Okay… Okay, don’t panic,” she told herself. The first thing to do was figure out where she was and how she got there. Maybe if she moved to a different location her comm would work better. It was a short-range comm, but it should work as long as she and her brothers were on the same planet. Being on a different island shouldn’t matter.
Omega stood up on legs that were a bit shaky. She took two steps and then froze. Someone coughed again. The sound came from behind her. She whipped around.
Her legs immediately lost strength again. Her knees hit the ground hard. She let out a choked whimper.
Because in the grass just a yard away from her—whole, breathing, and gradually shifting his head—was Tech.