Psychic Warrior by David Morehouse

Author:David Morehouse
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-10-14T04:00:00+00:00

Kathleen was responsible for my next mission. She had selected the target in accordance with Levy’s wishes and was waiting in the monitor room when I arrived.

“Go ahead and get hooked up; here are your tasking sheet and coordinates. It’s pretty simple today, no tricks or heavy stuff. Okay?”

“You bet. I should be ready to go in about five or ten minutes. I’ll give you a holler over the intercom.”

I hooked myself up in ERV Room Number Two and took my position on the platform.

“Okay, I’m ready to start the countdown.”

“Fine,” said Kathleen. “Start talking to me as soon as your eyes clear and you’re in the target area.”

I said nothing as her voice faded and I began my separation. The fall through the tunnel seemed longer this time and I never hit the membrane at all. It seemed to me that I’d traveled a great distance, or perhaps had missed the coordinates.

“My throat seems constricted, and there’s a harsh chemical smell, like some caustic solvent.”

Kathleen watched my respirations on the monitor. “Concentrate on your breathing, David; keep track of it, and remember, nothing can hurt you there.”

“I’m having trouble breathing; my throat’s sore. It feels like it’s being burned inside. All I see is a desolate-looking landscape, very lunar. The soil is amber and there is no atmosphere—should say, no oxygen. Where is this place?”

“You tell me. Take a look at the horizon—do you see anything familiar? Look at the sun or whatever the light source is; does it look familiar? Do you see anything out of the ordinary that might help you determine where you are? Come on, now … you need to learn to look for these clues on your own.”

I looked to the horizon, a staggering landscape of jagged mountains and rock outcroppings. The sky was black, not blue, and I saw no moon. The stars had an odd shimmer, not like what I remembered looking into the night sky in New Mexico or Wyoming. And the sun was very different, smaller and colder.

“This isn’t Earth, I know that much. I can see distant ranges of mountains, an open landscape littered with rock of all sizes and shapes. There’s a fine dust covering everything, and a harsh wind seems to be kicking up in the distance, spreading the dust. A giant red cloud is climbing upward from the effect of the wind.”

“Are you alone there?”

That stopped me in my tracks. “I certainly fucking hope I’m alone here. Why? Am I not supposed to be?”

“I’m asking for your impressions of the target. Try not to second-guess me even if the question seems a little leading. I merely want to suggest that you look for something that might not be obvious.”

“I don’t know. I don’t see any structures or anything that remotely looks like a structure, not even any caves. I’ll try to search backward in time.”

I let the signal line drag me into the past; present time gave me little information. I closed my eyes to ride the movement out, and I opened them to a landscape that hadn’t changed a bit.

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