The fizzing in the back of Doc’s head went off the charts just before the ground started shaking.
All this because Fixie had flipped the master switch on the equipment in the mat-trans chamber. As promised, he’d gotten Hammersmith’s system ready for activation within the hour. There had been no unexpected failures, and he’d brought everything online in short order.
But whatever the system was doing to fulfill its programming, Doc’s head had reacted badly. The fizzing, which had been strong since he’d arrived at the core, shifted into high gear and pushed into his eyes.
By the time the earth started moving, the fizzing had turned to crackling. The noise was so loud that Doc couldn’t quite tell if it was still inside his head or part of the quake.
Groaning from the surge of noise and feeling, Doc doubled over in the middle of the room. Then he stayed that way, planting his hands on his knees and taking slow, deep breaths against the tide.
The whole time, Fixie was too caught up in fine-tuning the system to notice Doc’s reaction. “The nuclear batteries are working! The power flow is steady!” He ran from console to console along the room’s periphery, adjusting controls and seemingly taking no notice of the earthquake in progress.
Doc’s body flooded with heat from head to toe. The sequence of physical responses was familiar from before, when he’d first tuned in to impending changes in the Shift, but they seemed faster and more intense this time. That fit with what Fixie said the system would do, converting the entire region into some kind of Garden of Eden. It made sense that Doc’s reaction to such a major transformation would be extreme.
That, however, didn’t make it any easier to handle, and the quake itself didn’t help, either. The tremors got so strong, they nearly knocked Doc over. He stumbled forward and caught himself on a stepladder under an open ceiling panel, barely staying erect as his body flared internally with what felt like blazing white light.
“Fixie!” Doc had to shout to be heard over the loud rumbling of the quake. “Is this what is supposed to be happening?”
“This and worse!” Fixie shouted. “It’ll take a lot of tectonic activity to reshape the entire Shift!”
An especially strong tremor rocked the chamber, and Doc braced himself on the stepladder. “What if you bring down this entire facility?”
“What if?” Fixie spun dials and laughed. “More like when! The forces we’re unleashing will be especially strong here, at the epicenter.”
Clenching his teeth, Doc wrapped his arms around the ladder and rode out the waves that were buffeting him from within and without. He felt completely disoriented on every level, overwhelmed with fever and motion sickness.
Lights flashed from control panels and displays around the room, bathing him in flickering rainbows. The ground shook harder, as if trying to shake him loose from his anchor. He hated to think how bad it would get, if this was just the beginning.
“Sorry, but I cannot help you anymore.” Doc swung himself around to the other side of the ladder, closest to the door. “I need to…need to go…”
“Anywhere you go within the Shift will be the same,” Fixie said. “Nothing but upheaval now. You’re as safe here as anywhere for the time being.”
Doc cried out as the white light burned like a nova inside him. His gorge rose, and he felt as if he was going to throw up at any moment.
Gathering all his will and strength, he let go of the ladder and aimed himself at the door. He had to do something, had to get out, in spite of what Fixie had said.
Doc stumbled across the floor as it bucked underfoot. He nearly fell once, then twice, but managed to stay upright and cross the distance to the door.
When he had almost reached the exit, however, the quake suddenly surged. The fiercest tremors yet rocked the mat-trans chamber, sending him toppling forward, completely out of control.
Before he could hit the floor, however, someone darted through the doorway and caught him. The save was just in the nick of time; Doc had missed hitting the floor face-first by inches.
As his rescuer lifted him by the shoulders, Doc finally got a look at his face…and instantly wished he hadn’t. The first thing that caught his eye was the red-and-white-striped candy stick hanging from the corner of a crimsonfaced sneer.
“Dear, sweet Hammersmith.” Exo’s high-pitched voice cut right through the crackling in Doc’s head and the rumbling in the room. “What the fuck have you gotten yourself into now?”
Doc recoiled from Exo’s rancid breath as it gusted in his face. “We were just… We were…” He dug deep for the smart thing to say and came up empty. “It is fixed.”
“Good boy, good boy.” Exo shook Doc like a rag doll. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to go kill that guy over there.” With that, he tossed Doc aside, slamming him into the wall, and marched toward Fixie with purposeful steps, unaffected by the lurching of the earthquake.