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I clutched at my head. “The day after Tobias hit me, I read his mind and discovered he’d turned wild bee. I knew that reading him had left me with his echo inside my head. It wasn’t a problem back then, just the mental equivalent of having a splinter in your finger, but now that echo has suddenly grown to be tremendously powerful. It’s not just swaying my emotions, but speaking words using my mouth. That shouldn’t be possible.”
“It’s all right, Amber,” said Buzz soothingly. “You can trust me to help you deal with this. You can trust all of us to help you deal with this. I want you to find the area of your mind that holds Tobias’s echo, and focus on keeping it contained. Can you do that?”
“I’ll try,” I said.
Buzz’s voice abruptly changed from soothing to giving a crisp order. “We need to get Amber back to the unit immediately.”
“Confirm that,” snapped Lucas. “Bodyguards, bring Amber home as fast as possible.”
Adika picked me up and started running. I did what Buzz had said, and searched for Tobias’s echo in my mind. It was easy to find. The size and strength of it meant it couldn’t hide. Echoes didn’t have a fixed physical form, because they were just lingering impressions of powerful personalities left on a telepath’s mind. The current appearance of this one reminded me of the beetles I’d seen in parks. It was on a vast scale, with a heavy carapace protecting it, and claws digging deep into my brain. No wonder my head was hurting so much.
I was vaguely aware of the conversation continuing on the crystal comms. “Chase team gather on red group’s location,” said Lucas. “Liaison, we’ll need a medical team to join them and collect Caleb.”
“A medical team is already on its way to transfer Caleb to our unit medical area,” said Nicole. “Megan has contacted Atticus, and he’s coming to carry out whatever surgery is needed.”
“And what do we do with Tobias?” asked Rothan.
“You can drop Tobias down the nearest lift shaft,” said Adika savagely. “Falling eighty levels to the bottom of the Hive should stop him from causing us any more trouble.”
“Chase team will wait to hand Caleb over to the medical team,” said Lucas. “They will then take Tobias back to the Therapy Unit and remain there guarding him. Rothan, you will not, under any circumstances, release Tobias until his memory has been reset a year. Any messages to the contrary should be ignored, even if they appear to be from Gold Commander Melisande herself.”
“Understood,” said Rothan.
“I’ll want Buzz to go and supervise Tobias’s reset, to make absolutely sure he isn’t left with any residual memories of our unit,” added Lucas. “That naturally has to wait until she’s finished helping Amber.”
I was concentrating on Tobias’s echo, and trying to will it into retreating to the outskirts of my mind. It seemed to be shifting its position, but I wasn’t sure whether it was going to retreat or attack. I’d never met a single echo this strong before. I felt it was studying me, looking for weaknesses, and I was sure it could sense my fear.
Adika was still carrying me and running at a steady speed. “I don’t see how Tobias’s echo can be this powerful. Amber has read far more difficult targets in the past, and none of them affected her this badly. It was only when she’d been weakened by an accumulation of echoes that she showed fragmentation symptoms.”
“Those more difficult targets weren’t members of Amber’s unit, and she normally only read their minds once,” said Buzz bitterly. “You may be capable of adjusting rapidly to someone changing from being friend to foe, Adika, but Amber can’t. She’s been trained to trust her Strike team with her life.”
Buzz paused. “Amber’s trust in her Strike team is one of her greatest strengths as a telepath. It allows her to close her eyes and focus completely on target minds, while other telepaths get distracted by events happening near their physical body. In a situation like this though, Amber’s trust in her Strike team is also her greatest weakness. It makes her especially vulnerable to Tobias’s echo. It got a strong grip on her mind when she first discovered he’d turned wild bee, and reading him again this evening has hugely magnified its power over her.”
Adika gave a grunt that seemed to mean Buzz’s explanation made sense to him. It made sense to me too. Being trained to trust Tobias was bound to hamper my attempts to defend myself.
“I knew that hunting Tobias would be a massive strain on Amber,” said Lucas, in a voice of deep self-reproach. “She hates ordinary conflicts between her unit members, so she’d obviously find it traumatic to have her Strike team members trying to kill each other. I didn’t have any other choice though. Sapphire was available, but her team couldn’t reach the Therapy Unit in time to catch Tobias. If we’d let him escape with weapons and equipment, then Amber wouldn’t have been safe in our own unit, let alone ...”
Buzz interrupted him. “Lucas, if I’d felt you were wrong to send Amber after Tobias, I’d have argued against it. I didn’t do that because I knew you were right about Tobias being an extreme threat to Amber’s life. Now we need to focus on helping Amber. Is Megan on the crystal comms, or is she still talking to Atticus?”
“I’m here,” said Megan’s voice.
“Good,” said Buzz. “Is the expansion section ready yet?”
“All the major structural planting was finished yesterday,” said Megan, “and the new security door into Amber’s apartment was installed earlier this evening. There’s still a problem with the waterfall though, and a couple of the suns aren’t working.”
Buzz made an impatient sound. “Are the animals and birds in there yet?”
“Yes,” said Megan. “The animal care team spent all day putting the nest boxes in place and setting up the feeding stations. We’ve delayed the fish and reptile delivery until the waterfall’s fixed.”
Buzz made the impatient sound again. “I’ve never heard Amber mention reading the minds of fish or reptiles, so I don’t think they’re relevant. Are the animals and birds well-fed and happy?”
“They should be ecstatic,” said Megan. “The animal care team say that our area is their equivalent of Level 1 accommodation.”
“Wonderful,” said Buzz. “Now, we’ll need to give Amber the chance to cleanse herself of the echo of Tobias. I was expecting there to be problems after this run, so I started working on how to give Amber a break Outside before you even located Tobias. It’s not just winter Outside, but late evening as well, which means it will be freezing cold and dark. I asked Liaison to call Hive Defence and arrange for an aircraft to be on standby ready to fly Amber to one of the Hive’s outlying supply stations. The problem is that Hive Defence has warned us there’s a storm approaching.”
“We’ve seen what those storms are like,” said Adika in alarm. “It isn’t safe to send Amber up in an aircraft during one of them.”
“Hive Defence says this isn’t a severe storm,” said Buzz, “but even if it was safe for Amber to fly, the experience could do her more harm than good. It would be difficult enough for her to face both her fear of heights and Tobias’s echo, without adding storms as well. We’ll try taking Amber to be with the animals and birds in the expansion section until the storm moves out of our area.”
She paused. “Are the suns in the expansion section still on at full brightness?”
“Yes,” said Megan, “but the transition to the moons and stars programme will be starting soon.”
“When Amber arrives back at the unit, Lucas and I will meet the lift,” said Buzz. “Everyone else needs to stay out of the way entirely. We can’t have Amber surrounded by a crowd of panicking people.”
“I need to meet the lift as well,” said Megan. “Reading wild bees doesn’t just put severe mental stress on a telepath. It’s a physical strain on their bodies as well. I have to scan Amber to check if she needs medication.”
“That’s true,” said Buzz grudgingly. “You can meet the lift, but you mustn’t give Amber any medication without my approval, and especially not sedation. She can’t fight Tobias’s echo if she’s unconscious. Once she’s inside the expansion section, I’d like the lights to stay at sun brightness for another fifteen minutes before transitioning to the moons and stars programme.”
There was silence on the crystal comms after that. Adika was still carrying me and steadily running. I didn’t know if we were still in the park, moving through corridors, or on the belt system. I had my eyes closed because I was busy fending off the thoughts and emotions of Tobias.
There was a period when I could only hear pounding feet and heavy breathing, then Tobias’s echo started slowly circling my mind. Its claws were ripping at me, leaving an agonizing trail in its wake, so I was entirely lost in pain.
Eventually, I felt myself being passed from one set of arms to another, and then heard Adika’s voice give a sharp order. “Jump belt.”
That was followed by another long spell where I was swamped by pain, then I became aware of the distinctive sensation of being in a lift heading upwards. There was the sound of lift doors opening, and again I was passed from one set of arms to another. I felt someone kiss me on the forehead, and Lucas’s voice spoke.
“Amber, you’re back home now. Everything is going to be all right.”
The pain hammering at me eased. I opened my eyes and saw Lucas’s anxious face looking down at me.
“It’s going to be all right,” Lucas repeated. “I’ll carry you to the expansion section now.”
There was a sudden rush of footsteps from my left, followed by someone shouting. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with my sister?”
That was Gregas’s voice! I turned my head, and saw he was running towards us, with Rafael chasing after him.
Megan and Buzz stepped forward, their arms outspread to block Gregas’s way. “Your sister has just got back from a very challenging emergency run,” said Buzz. “You mustn’t bother her now.”
“But Amber was screaming. I’ve never heard her scream like that before. I’ve never heard anyone scream like that before. What’s happened to her?”
I was confused. Had I been screaming? I’d been in a lot of pain, but I hadn’t been aware I was screaming.
Rafael caught up with Gregas and grabbed his arm in an iron grip. “I told you that you needed to stay in your apartment until the emergency run was over.”
“But it is over, my sister’s back, and ...”
The rest of Gregas’s words were lost as Rafael dragged him away down the corridor that led to the park. I looked guiltily after them.
“I’ve frightened Gregas.”
Lucas gave a choking laugh. “Absolutely typical.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You’ve got the echo of Tobias trying to take control of your mind, but you’re still worrying about Gregas rather than yourself.”
Lucas hugged me close against his chest, and carried me towards our apartment, while Buzz and Megan moved into bodyguard formation on either side of us. I saw Megan was aiming a mini scanner at me.
“There’s no need to carry me, Lucas,” I protested. “I can walk.”
“Let Lucas enjoy playing hero for once, Amber,” said Buzz.
“Yes, it’s my turn to play hero,” said Lucas. “You need to focus on fighting off Tobias’s echo. What’s it doing now?”
“It keeps circling around the fringes of my mind, and tearing at me with its claws,” I said unhappily. “I’ve been trying to contain it, but it’s too strong. I’m in less pain now that I’m back here with you, but my head is still throbbing, and I keep getting hit by waves of outraged fury.”
“I could give you some painkillers, Amber,” said Megan.
Buzz shook her head. “Painkillers would only help Amber with physical pain. I think what she’s feeling is an attack on her personality rather than her body. She should feel better once she’s inside the expansion section.”
“Where’s the door, Megan?” asked Lucas.
“What door?” asked Megan, in a distracted voice.
“You said that the new security door was installed earlier this evening. I don’t know where you put the door, and we’ve got a very big apartment.”
“Oh,” said Megan. “Well we had three possible positions where we could put the door, but security issues ruled out ...”
“Lucas just needs to know where the door is, Megan,” interrupted Buzz, “not the reasons for putting it there.”
“The door is in the empty room next to the main living room,” said Megan.
Lucas paused by our apartment door, and I held out a hand to open it.
“Amber and Lucas should go on alone now,” said Buzz.
“I have to go with them,” said Megan.
Buzz spoke in her most imperious voice. “Amber and Lucas must be alone in the expansion section.”
“Amber and Lucas can’t get into the expansion section without me,” said Megan, in an irritated voice. “We’ve just installed a brand new, palm operated security door, and I’m currently the only person authorized to open it.”
“Good point,” admitted Buzz. “In that case, we’ll all go as far as the security door.”
As Lucas carried me on through the apartment, I had a sudden awareness of animal minds nearby. We went past the door to the living room, and arrived in an empty room with a security door in the far wall.
Lucas finally put me down on my own feet. There was a brief delay while we each put our hands on the door and Megan set us to be authorized users. Then she stabbed a finger in Buzz’s direction.
“Before you say anything, I’m going to remove myself from the authorized users, but not until Amber and Lucas have checked they can open the door themselves. There’s nothing worse than making an error setting up a security door, and leaving yourself in the situation where no one can open it.”
I put my hand on the door, it opened, and I walked from the standard lighting of an apartment room into the extra richness of the park sun-effect lights that held the full spectrum of the Truesun itself. There was the usual gentle park breeze, the warm, earthy scent that I associated with newly dug flowerbeds, and the air had the humid taste that meant there’d been a recent spell of pre-programmed rain. This place had the normal sounds of a park as well, with birdsong coming from overhead, but the sight of it bewildered me.
I was used to parks where groves of trees were scattered among open areas of grass and flowerbeds, but I was standing in what looked like a room with walls made of leaves. My first reaction was disappointment that the animal and bird area was so small, but then I realized that the walls were closely planted bushes and young trees that were well above my head height, but nowhere near as high as the ceiling. There were also gaps between the bushes, where paths led off to other places.
I followed what was obviously the main path, which led straight on into another, larger room-like space. I paused to admire a picnic table next to trellises covered with pink-flowered creeping plants, then continued to where there was a pool with scattered waterlily leaves floating on the surface, and a single, golden waterlily flower. I heard the crunching of gravel behind me, and turned to smile at Lucas.
“There are lots of small spaces here.”
The voice of our unit park keeper spoke on the crystal comms. “The expansion area won’t have any noisy park events or many visitors, so it’s been set up as one of the Hive’s special breeding areas for shy species. Dividing it into small spaces provides a variety of habitats, and good sites for nest boxes or natural nests.”
“There are a few extra things to make it comfortable for you as well, Amber,” added Megan’s voice.
I looked at the bench next to the pool, and laughed. “Things like picnic tables and benches.”
“I can already see how much this place is helping you,” said Lucas. “You just laughed. You aren’t in pain any longer.”
I gave him a startled look. “You’re right. My head has stopped hurting, and Tobias’s echo seems weaker. No, not actually weaker. It’s as strong as before, but it’s feeling uneasy here.”
“Amber, I think you and Lucas should leave the crystal comms now,” said Buzz’s voice. “When it starts getting dark, you may want to follow the main path. If you have any problems, or want the suns to stay at full brightness for longer, then just call my dataview.”
“Thank you, everyone,” I said.
I took the crystal unit from my ear, turned it off, and dropped it into my pocket, before walking over to the bench and sitting down. Lucas put his crystal unit away too, and came over to sit beside me. He took my hand, and we sat in silence, looking at the pool.
I knew there weren’t any fish in the pool yet, because Megan had said something about the fish and reptile delivery being delayed until a waterfall was fixed. There was plenty of other wildlife interested in the water though. Five magnificent red and black birds flew down to the edge of the pool to drink, clearly two adults accompanied by their three fluffy offspring. Two tiny monkeys came leaping through the bushes to drink as well, one with an even tinier baby clinging to its back, peeping out from among the fur to look at me with curious eyes. I noticed there were insects too. Two blue butterflies fluttered randomly by, while a green dragonfly skimmed across the pool to hang on the edge of an iris flower.
Finally, I closed my eyes and focused on Tobias’s echo again. I wasn’t perceiving it as a gargantuan beetle any longer, but as Tobias himself. The two of us were standing and facing each other like duellists.
“You’re uncomfortable because this place is new and unfamiliar,” I said. “You know it’s been specially designed to help me. You’re aware that you’re on my territory, on my chosen battlefield, and every living creature in this place adds to my strength. Your original has left my unit, and it’s time for you to leave my mind.”
The Tobias inside my head didn’t speak, but I could feel him broadcasting a mixture of anger and fear. He’d been confident of his dominance over me earlier, but now the power balance between us had changed in my favour. He’d have retreated if he could, but he had nowhere to go. He was only a lingering impression that the real Tobias had left on my consciousness, and couldn’t exist outside my head.
“You’re far more powerful than any normal echo because your original was one of my Strike team,” I said sadly. “They are my brothers, my friends, my family, and it’s hard for me to let go of one of them, but I have no choice. Your original has grown more destructive with every passing day. Now he’s shot Caleb, there can be no going back for either of us. Tobias is no longer my brother. He is no longer my friend. He is no longer part of my family.”
The echo of Tobias was growing thin and transparent. When I was searching for a target, I reached out with my telepathic sense, but now I did something that was almost the opposite. Not reaching out at all, but letting my mind expand to take in everything around me, the dazzling wonder of Lucas’s cascading thought levels, the soft contented glows of the animals and birds in the expansion area, the anxious emotions of people in my unit, and the vast quietness of Outside above my head.
As my mind expanded, I felt a corresponding surge of power, and a wild sensation like the storm winds of Outside swept through my head, cleansing me of everything that wasn’t truly Amber. The echo of Tobias clung onto me for a last few desperate seconds, before being swept away, breaking into pieces, and vanishing.
I felt a moment of pure desolation. Tobias’s echo had been erased, and soon the real Tobias would have his memories of the last year erased too. He’d never think of me again, but I’d always remember the days when he’d risked his life to save mine, and wonder if I could have done something to stop him taking a one-way belt ride to disaster.
I opened my eyes and discovered Lucas was kneeling in front of me, staring intently at my face. “You’ve cleansed yourself of Tobias’s echo?” he asked.
I forced myself to speak in a brisk voice. “Yes, he’s gone.”
“I worked for Keith for three years,” said Lucas. “He doesn’t have to cleanse himself of echoes, because they get wiped away whenever his telepathy stops working. I’ve seen you do this a couple of times before, but had no idea what was happening inside your head. It was fascinating to hear you talking to Tobias’s echo.”
I blinked. “I hadn’t realized I was talking aloud. That must have sounded ... deeply strange, but I find it helps if I visualize what I’m fighting. It’s a way of separating it from myself.”
Lucas smiled. “I understand what you were doing, Amber. At least, I understand it as much as anyone can who isn’t a telepath.”
He paused and looked up at the sky. “It’s getting dark now. Would you like to go back to our apartment, call Buzz to ask for the suns to stay on longer, or take her advice to follow the main path?”
“I think we should message Buzz to say that I’ve dealt with Tobias’s echo, and then follow the main path,” I said. “Buzz’s advice has worked well so far.”
Lucas stood up. “It’s worked incredibly well. You’ve got rid of Tobias’s echo without leaving the Hive, which is a hugely significant step forward.”
