His abilities appeared to have improved throughout the course of the testing. At first alpha, beta, and gamma radiation had been capable of penetrating his sphere of influence, but with time that ceased to be a problem. He could now walk through a nuclear reactor or the explosion of an atomic bomb unharmed.
After a month of testing Calm was again approached by Baldstone. “We’ve tested you against everything that we’re capable of,” she said. “Are you willing to try yourself in the Oort Cloud?”
“If I say no, I can walk away with five hundred million dollars right now?”
Baldstone looked away and played with her right earlobe before looking Calm straight in the eyes. “Yes.”
Calm allowed Baldstone to fidget for a few seconds before answering. “Let’s do it.”
Helena’s eyes widened, and she pulled her head back a few centimeters. It was one of the most overt reactions Calm had seen on her part. “Pardon me?”
Calm thought about just how dull his life had become. “Let’s go see what’s out there.”
Transit to the Oort Cloud was slow and uneventful. Calm’s outrageous compensation helped his patience but didn’t ease the tedium. He hoped to visit a few of the habitats, and the Dyson Rings on the way back, anything to ease the boredom of the trip out.
Approaching FAME Station 5, Calm felt excitement. This was rare for him. His Keystone ability didn’t just negate forces but tended to dampen strong emotions. As the transport vehicle docked at the station, his excitement barely lessened.
After arrival there Calm was introduced to a whirlwind of people he already knew something about from dossiers read on the trip. They were much more excited to meet him because of both his celebrity status and anticipation regarding his abilities.
Almost as soon as they arrived, he was escorted to a new ship named
Explorer
. In order to take maximum advantage of Calm’s abilities,
Explorer
was equipped with a tiny craft,
Armstrong
, which boasted an impressive array of sensory equipment and processing power.
Calm was briefed on the operating parameters of
Explorer
and his duties, which included his remaining in place and not distracting the
Armstrong
’s pilot. Keeping the two of them alive went without saying and added an extra layer of anxiety to the entire affair.
While traveling to the artifact, Calm found himself restless and unable to remain still. Despite his muted emotions, he was on the verge of either death or incredible discovery. The scientists surrounding him exuded a palpable sense of tension.
The artifact was displayed on several screens from many angles. There was no question that it was of non-human origin. A wide-based cylinder tapered toward a rounded top but otherwise looked unimpressive. The rocky ground on which it rested was barren and featureless, hardly unusual for a meteorite.
Calm and his companion made their way to the
Armstrong
. The craft was as stripped down as possible. Less than two meters across and four long, it required both men to wear environmental suits to protect them from the vacuum of space.
The real test would begin when Calm left the
Explorer
. The event horizon for damage from the artifact had been well documented by probes. Calm’s first job was to survive. He looked at his gloved hand and pictured himself closing the distance and touching the artifact. He wasn’t ready for the spike of fear that invaded his thoughts.
For the first time since that first fire, the one that launched him to fame, he recognized a danger that made him uncertain. It was terrifying; it was wonderful; it was intoxicating.
As the
Armstrong
crossed the boundary that promised destruction, Calm became aware of hostile forces attempting to breach his field of protection. Purple splashes of energy danced around them like lightning attacking a goldfish bowl. A handful of spikes penetrated closer to the ship, infiltrating his sphere of influence. Calm’s breath caught in his throat, unable to complete the journey to his lungs. Fear of failure and fear of death became real to him.
Over the com system he heard, “
Armstrong
report! Are you undamaged?
Armstrong
report!”
“Yes,” Calm replied succinctly, unsure whether his voice could be trusted.
“Do you still have live data feeds from our sensors?” queried his companion.
“Data feeds are online.”
“Then you should have known that we were uninjured. Continuing approach to the artifact.”
Calm watched in silence as the fury of the energy surrounding them intensified. Inside his suit he was sweating, and his heart hammered in his chest. Even the most arduous of the tests that FAME had run on him failed to induce a physical reaction. Yet here he was besieged, and he felt the need to succeed.
Panting shallow breaths, he was amazed to feel himself challenged. “Bring us in quickly,” he urged. “I don’t know whether I can maintain this indefinitely.” The landscape ahead swam closer as the
Armstrong
accelerated.
Spots flared in Calm’s vision, but still his sphere of protection held. Once he was within one hundred meters of the artifact, the energy that had cascaded around them vanished and with it the pain. Calm’s heart slowed, and the rapid pace of his breathing eased. “It appears that we are no longer under attack,” he reported.
There was a brief silence on the com system. “Could you care to clarify that statement?”
“I’m not being forced to protect us anymore.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’re the scientists. You tell me.”
The
Armstrong
then touched down on gravel in front of the squat artifact. Up close it was apparent just how large it was. “What do we do now?” Calm asked.
“Nothing. Let the sensors do their work.”
Calm waited for the
Armstrong
to complete several sweeps of the artifact’s perimeter before he spoke again. “Are you getting any information?” he inquired.
“Yes.”
“Anything useful?”
Silence was the only response.
Cay
Cay stared at the white ceiling above him and thought about the decisions that had led him to his cramped and windowless cell. The only view of the outside world was of the hallway seen through his transparent door. The cell was only four meters by two meters. It was his entire world.
He had years left to spend in this space. His bed was spartan and uncomfortable. The matte steel walls were devoid of even basic decoration. He wasn’t even allowed an Uplink. A few paper books rested on his table.
He had developed his Keystone ability while quite young, and he had reveled in it. Doors unlocked themselves and opened to his touch. When he learned that electronic systems would roll over for him, a whole host of delights presented themselves. Bank accounts, private e-mails, and videos were at his fingertips. All that should have been secure was his for the taking. Looking back, he realized that his arrest had been inevitable.
The most interesting information was that which belonged to people in the public eye. These people also tended to have longer arms than most others. Cay had specialized in upsetting them.
Now he spent his days in a cell with a door that wasn’t locked but welded shut. He was never allowed out, and he was forced to accept his meals through a slot in the door because it was a more cost-effective solution than hiring guards to prevent his escape.
After a year in that prison he wasn’t sure whether he regretted his crimes or just getting caught, especially now that he realized there were legal ways for someone with his particular talent to make money. The terms of his sentence dictated that upon his release he wasn’t to use his Keystone ability for twelve months. He had to prove that he was a reformed man and no longer a menace to society. Whatever that meant.
A voice called through his meal slot, “You have a visitor.”
Cay jerked in surprise, twisting to stare into the hall. A visitor? Who was it? Not even his family was allowed to see him.
Standing there was his usual guard and an unknown woman dressed all in black. Her face was serious, her hair pulled back in a severe bun. Wrinkles etched deep grooves in her forehead. Her mouth was surrounded by lines, none of which seemed to have been formed by laughter.
Cay’s voice was hoarse from lack of conversation. “Who are you?” he croaked.
Her crisp, businesslike voice was impossible to read. “My name is Helena Baldstone. I believe that you may be the answer to a problem I have.”
Cay glanced left and right before he popped a single eyebrow. “You may have noticed that I’m kind of limited in here, right?”
When she spoke, she reminded him of school administrators. “Yes, yes I have.” She tapped the transparent pane in his cell door. “Would you like to get out of here before you finish your sentence?”
Cay’s thoughts leaped at the idea, his eyes traveling the confines of his small cell, a journey they had made a thousand times a day. He did his best to keep the enthusiasm from his voice. “Who are you?” he asked.
“I’m from FAME, and I am authorized to commandeer your services.”
“Can you get my records expunged?” Cay replied.
Baldstone shook her head. “What good would that do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You are the only Keystone to have been imprisoned. Do you think that getting your records wiped clean would hide who you are or what you’ve done?”
This was a reality that Cay usually refused to contemplate. He would never be able to escape his past. “What do you want from me?” he asked in a smaller voice.
“I want you to unlock something for me.”
Cay’s heart bounced around in his chest like a ball thrown hard against a wall. “Oh, I could do that,” he scratched behind his ear, “but it would be a violation of the terms of my sentence.”
“Those are not immutable.”
A spark of hope lit in Cay’s soul, and for a moment he didn’t trust himself to speak. “They’re not?”
“Not right now, and not if you succeed.”
Cay tilted his head and looked at her. “Not right now?”
She held an Uplink up to the glass. “I have a test for you.”
Cay licked his lips. An Uplink! Not having access to one had been like missing a limb. Baldstone was only in the periphery of his vision as he looked at the device. It was a small tablet model, similar to others that he’d used. Not powerful, but functional. He was certain that it had been released since he’d been jailed. He also knew that it was more than he needed for whatever test she had in mind. “What do you want me to do?” he inquired.
“This Uplink is password-protected. There are two accounts in my name at two different banks on Callisto. One has no funds; the other has ten thousand dollars in it. I want you to transfer the money from one account to the other without tripping any alarms.” She cleared her throat and nodded at him. “You are to do this through that door without touching the Uplink.” She pulled up a timer on the Uplink’s screen. “You have less than a minute.” Her finger pressed the screen.
Cay didn’t know how to explain his power. He simply reached toward things with his mind, and they did his bidding. Not having been able to practice in a year, he worried for the briefest of moments that he was out of practice. As his mind concentrated on the Uplink, the familiar touch of quantum-photonic circuits banished all such concerns.
The encryptions meant to keep him out were weak things, somewhat like an army of newborn puppies assigned to stop a tiger. It felt so good to interface again. Cay’s desire to impress competed with his desire to continue interfacing, but the former prevailed.
When Baldstone’s finger hit the timer, it failed to start. She looked at it confused and tapped it again.
Cay coughed into his hand and said, “Done.”
The Unlocking
Before his imprisonment Cay had never thought that he could be so excited about anything, but seeing a man cut open his cell door had been bliss. He’d hopped from one foot to another as he waited for him to finish.
Helena Baldstone had been waiting for him with an itinerary, and she’d taken him from his cell to a spaceship with no stops in between. Cay had been surprised to find out that his assignment wasn’t in the Callisto habitat. It was in the Oort Cloud. He’d never left Callisto, but he was out of confinement and could use his ability again. That was all he cared about.
Small though it was, the ship on which he was berthed was much larger than his home for the past year. During the trip he was given an endless supply of files that were considered difficult to decrypt, but they weren’t. The files’ contents were junk, but the thrill of using his ability again after so long was electric. He was also given a simulator for a spaceship with a very strange configuration. Cay couldn’t figure out why something so small that it required passengers to wear EVA suits would be at all desirable.
Reveling in his freedom, Cay didn’t mind the travel time or the new people, new food, new clothes, new codes, and new rooms. Every day spent not staring at a ceiling was a great day.
After a month in transit he was still delighted by his new circumstances, but even more delighted to reach their destination, FAME Station 5. Upon disembarking he was surprised by just how minimalist it was. It was as though the designer of his cell had been asked to design a space station. There were no decorations or frills. Everything was purely functional and devoid of aesthetic considerations.
Other small things threw him as well. For example, the lights were a different color than he was used to. On Callisto all of the lights in public spaces were a uniform color; the same was true here, but it was a
different
color. It was a small thing, trivial even, but it kept him aware of just how far from home he was. The air tasted and smelled funny too, another change that he’d not expected.
Cay had noticed such disparities on the ship but had been willing to put them down to the vagaries of shipboard life. He could have asked someone about them, but he didn’t want to draw attention to his inexperience or give anyone the idea that he’d be interfacing in proscribed ways to answer questions.