Keystones: Tau Prime by Alexander McKinney Read Free Book Online Page B

into the wormhole. But why? And what could Deklan do about it?
    His Uplink pinged again. Another file coming through, a much larger video file several minutes long. Deklan’s finger hovered over the screen. His unanswered calls and Cheshire’s last video had awakened doubt and fear. He didn’t want to open this new file; he didn’t want confirmation.
    Deklan bit his lip and tapped the screen.
    Susan burst into life on his wrist. She was leaning against a pole on a train, her posture betraying both exhaustion and satisfaction after a long day of work. Deklan took in the rest of her surroundings, including the tunnel flashing by in the window behind her. Everything looked normal and harmless. He’d taken trains like that five times since reaching the Terra Rings. Then came the red lights, however. They blinked the universal signal for warning. A voice came over the train’s speakers: “Habitat breach! Extreme caution advised! Habitat breach! Extreme caution advis. . . .” The speakers went dead.
    Susan’s reaction was immediate. She reached for her Uplink, a small and sleek tablet model, and pressed its surface with increasing intensity to no effect. Around her in the car there spread an air of panic. All electronic devices had died.
    For a moment Deklan wondered how there could be a recorded video if everything else nearby had died, but the playback pulled him back into the images.
    The maglev train canted forward at a crazy angle and slammed into the ground. The car’s front section tore into the metal below, while the aft section spun up like a pendulum, tearing through the steel ceiling above the train as though it were the softest of paper. Only an instant before impact with the ceiling, Susan’s body reacted.
    The timer in the bottom right of the screen slowed, showing the passage of time now in hundredths of a second.
    Deklan watched the transformation ripple through Susan’s body. A flame-like tongue of light appeared on her forehead and spread through her body and clothes. Instead of ash what it left behind was her new body composed entirely of light.
    He then saw her lose momentum and cease her forward motion. Walls caught up to her as she was pushed along by the tumbling train. Bodies careened into walls around her. Susan curled into a defensive ball, but Deklan could see that she weathered the storm of damage without injury as the train bent and tore around her. Sounds of rending metal screeched at Deklan from the video.
    The train next surged upwards, hitting something with violent force. Susan’s body configuration shifted as she uncurled and flew to the center of the moving carriage, hovering in the center of the chaos. Her face no longer held terror but instead a serene look of dispassionate interest. There was no disdain but no compassion either. With one final crash the train came to a stop.
    Susan was the only survivor in a cabin littered with broken bodies. Ignoring them, she flew over to a cracked window and pushed herself through the glass. For a second she did nothing. Then she left the wreckage of the train behind and headed down the track to the next station. Her speed made the sides of the tunnel appear to be nothing more than a blur.
    Susan didn’t pause at the next station, which was closed, but darted further down the tunnel. Moving lights ahead indicated an undamaged maglev train. Susan slowed and matched her velocity with the train’s before she pushed through the rear window.
    Again Deklan wondered how the footage had been acquired. Cheshire’s resources were alarming.
    Once inside the train Susan bolted through the crowds of people, flying over or under them when they wouldn’t leap out of the way of her glowing form. Fifteen carriages later Susan pushed her way out of the train and flashed down the tunnel, leaving it far behind.
    Moments later she flew into the next station. The video feed angled upward and centered on the roof, an enormous window to space. Susan darted to the