Illumination

Jack felt numb all over.

It was a strange experience, to say the least. She knew that her cheek was pressed up against the ice, which should’ve already caused her frostbite.

The first thought she had was, Where’s Bailey? She tried to chuckle at this thought, which felt stupid to her, since why would she care about Bailey? But her lips felt so swollen and tender that Jack was forced to shut them again.

Amidst this strange cacophony of silence and strange thoughts, a voice floated down to her ears. It was Robin. “Jack, you alright?” A pause, then, “Jack, speak to me. Please.”

“I’m okay,” she muttered; her voice sounded dim and far away to her own self. Jack slowly opened her eyes and found herself staring at her own hand, which was a light red color and covered in what looked like brown sores. Jack found that the rest of her arm was decorated in a similar fashion; yet as she moved it up and down, it wasn’t as tender as she’d thought it would be. I didn’t get burned that badly, she thought, and this lifted off some of the burden from her chest. Bailey, her mind hissed again, and she rolled over in the ice. A few dozen yards away, she could see the flaming buggy, now completely engulfed in flames. The ice around it had melted into a watery slush. Poor Robin. Well, it wasn’t his buggy, Jack thought to herself.

“Hey, you’re up.” Liam approached, leaning over Jack and staring down at her. “You good?”

“Uh, yeah.” She sat up, cheeks flushing red as she thought back to what Bailey had said back when they were lost and looking at the light grenade. He is stubborn and stuck-up. But maybe...not as much as I thought? “Hey, where’s Bailey?”

“She’s right over there if you want to talk to her.” He helped her stand up and pointed over to where Sierra and Bailey were sitting. The former was eating out of a ration pack and rocking back and forth. The latter was leaning against a pile of several satchels that were acting as pillows. Her skin was blistered and her face had turned ashen from the fast-acting frost of a sunless world, the effects of which Jack was also beginning to feel. Bailey’s white bandanna had been wrapped around her forehead with a chunk of ice underneath as a coolant. Her foot was propped up on a rock, bare and pointed at a wrong angle.

Jack walked over, her legs giving from underneath her as she reached Bailey’s side. Her skin felt like it was stretched too tight over her frame—she collapsed by the other girl and looked up at the black void of the sky. She couldn’t see Bailey’s face, which was hidden by shadows and the lack of Illumination on it. Without Illumination, anything can hide anywhere. “Hey, how are you doing?”

Without opening her eyes, Bailey responded with, “Eh, I’ve been better. You?”

“Same.” Jack didn’t know what else to say. The two of them sat in silence for a while before Bailey broke the ice.

“Thank you.” She rolled over onto her side and stared at Jack with bloodshot eyes, possibly from the fire or from the Illuminator pointing at her face. “You know, it really shows something when your friend risks her life for you.”

“I’m not your—”

“My what, Jack?”

Surprised at this new name, Jack stuttered, “W-wasn’t. I mean, cool now, right?”

“Right.” Bailey smiled in a wry, dangerous manner, then returned to her resting position against the satchels. She closed her eyes and rested her hands on her chest, as if shutting down the rest of the conversation. Jack let out a huff of breath and watched it mist away into the dark sky. A piece of the puzzle, back into place. She smiled despite the circumstances.

After a moment of watching the two lying side-by-side, Robin came over and sat down in front of his sister. He stole a satchel from behind Bailey’s head and opened it up to reveal cream ration packs—a rare delicacy in the colonies. “Eat slowly. I saved them for emergencies.”

Jack did her best to sip at a slow pace, despite the fact that her body tingled with warmth all over, the hot cream felt surprisingly good on her sore throat. When she was done, she crumpled up the packet, licked her lips, and stuffed the wrapper back in the pack.

“Where did the solfect and the Apex go? Who won? And how long have I been out?” These questions rushed out of her mouth as soon as they came to her mind.

“Slow down. The solfect drove the Apex away, then stayed with us for close to an hour before Ben appeared. He didn’t have Dad with him and was in solfect form. He just stood there and stared at us. Then Ben pointed at the cave door and left, taking the smaller solfect with him.” Robin paused and then added, “He also left this for us to use.”

He got up onto his knees and went over to where another, large pack was sitting, distant from the others. Unlike the other, standard packs that came from the colony, this one was unusually leathery. Jack twitched as Robin brought it over, almost expecting it to morph into a solfect. That memory had already been branded into her like a scar. “Let’s take a look…” Robin said as he fiddled with the clasp. Jack forced herself to get off of the ice, which was rapidly becoming frigid to the touch. She sat up and let her brother bring the bag over to her and pull out the contents.

The first item was a square of thick, green cloth. It was about the size of her hand and had the words “inflatable” written on it in black text. What is this? Jack repeated this thought out loud.

Robin shrugged. “Inflatable tent, I guess. One of those fancy, five-room ones.”

“Five rooms?”

“Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and an office. They come standard in every 6-XG fighter jet. Now that we don’t have a buggy, this’ll be useful. Now, we just need power.”

As if on cue, the second item was a holotanker. “Why all this fancy flight stuff?” Robin grumbled, a little miffed. “What’s in here?” He carefully shook the bottle-sized tank up and down, making sure not to press the button to expand the tanker and its content. “Is this some sort of power source for the tent?”

“Don’t know.” Jack was too busy staring at the third item, which was a note taped to the inside of the pack. Against her own wishes, she reached in, wincing as her blistered fingers brushed up against the leather. She ripped off the note, leaving a little scrap of the paper behind, and read the message aloud. “To the Amundsens, Griffiths, and Katadolos. Not only will this be useful now that you don’t have a buggy, but it should prove helpful for the extraction of the fragment.” There was no signature, but there was also no doubt who it was from.

“What are we supposed to do with all this?”

“Just put it back into the pack,” Jack suggested. “My pack burned up in the fire so I can use that one to hold supplies.”

Robin pushed the bag back over to her and Jack threw it over her shoulder. The straps cut into her arms tightly, but she couldn’t adjust the length of either of them. Guess I’ll just have to settle.

“Guys, come over here!” Liam called. He was over by the metal door in front of the cave and was crouched in front of it. “I think I might’ve found something to open it. But I need to test it out.”

Three of the others got up and made their way over to where the Brit was kneeling. Bailey chose to stay where she was, but she rolled over onto her right side so she could watch. Her eyes followed Jack as the girl walked past—Bailey made a small, unusual, snuffling sound before her eyelashes closed.

“Look at this.” Liam got up from the ground as his companions approached and ran his hand over the door. Ice crystals fell off at his touch and dust billowed up in clouds before settling on his boots. “I was taking a look at the door and I found this string of numbers written on it.” He pointed with one gloved hand at the top left corner of the door, which was just out of Jack’s reach. But she could see the numbers “186-277-368” written in peeling letters. The handwriting was lopsided and trailed downwards, as if whoever had labelled the door had been in a hurry. Or just had really sloppy handwriting, Jack thought.

“Great, some numbers. There’s ‘186’ in there too,” Sierra noted. “What do the numbers mean?”

“I don’t know, but I was snooping around the edges, trying to find a handle, and I discovered this underneath some rubble. Clearly, it’s been here for quite some time.” Liam took a few steps to the right and brushed off some debris from the side of the mountain wall to reveal a button built into the side of the hill. It was actually built into a monitor box which had the same set of numbers inked on it in the top left corner. The button was metal and rusting with age, but Jack could see a heat signature detector in the center of it.

“Have you tried, uh, pushing it yet?” Robin asked, somewhat sarcastically. He tapped the heat detector on the button and watched a blue light on the box flicker once and then die. “Seems to be working.”

“I wanted to wait until you guys were all here. In case we need to act quickly.” Liam strode back over to the door and dug his fingers into the ice right in front of it, pulling back and shovelling the snow away from the hinges. “Okay, who wants to do the honors?”

“Oh, me!” Sierra’s eyes lit up with manic excitement. She raised her hand and glanced around contemptuously until the others finally backed off and let her approach the button.

Jack’s sister held down the button with giddy delight. There was a rusty groan as the light on the button’s monitor flashed cyan and began to blink rapidly. “It’s moving!” Liam called and Jack and Robin ran over to where he was standing. The door was being lifted up like a garage door, revealing an icy tunnel through the crack underneath.

“C’mon,” Jack said, sliding under the door and gesturing for the others to follow. Robin ran back to grab his pack and Liam joined her on the other side, eye wide with wonder at the ice tunnel they were in. “Sierra, join us!”

“Okay!” her sister called, letting go of the button and dashing over.

But as soon as she let go, a loud alarm sounded that echoed over the plains. She stopped halfway to the door and stared back at the button in fright.

“Heat signature not fully detected—self defence mechanisms activating,” a speaker attached to the side of the monitor box informed.

“Self defense?” Jack cried, just as a loud rumbling echoed through the tunnel. “Liam, look out!” The roof of the ice tunnel was shaking and large cracks were spidering their way down to the ground. She grabbed her companion’s hand, turned, and flung herself down the tunnel and away from the door.

The roof of the tunnel collapsed in a loud roar. Huge chunks of ice and hard rock filled the space, hiding the door from view. There was an aftershock of rumbles that Jack could feel in her bones, then all was quiet again.

“Hey, you okay?” Liam asked, bending over her and blinking hard. “Thanks for saving me back there.”

“No problem.” Jack blushed and sat up next to him, looking back at the wreckage. “It was a trap.”

“Based on the activation response, it hasn’t been used in years.”

“Stop theorizing and start digging. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Jack jumped to her feet and began pulling debris off and throwing it to the side. Liam watched her flounder with an expression of amusement. “Ah, there’s too much ice. We’ll never get through it all.” Jack sat back on the ground and leaned against the blockage dejectedly.

“Never say never. As my old survival teacher used to say, always evaluate your surroundings before coming to a conclusion.”

Jack couldn’t help but snort despite the circumstances they were in. “Is that the same guy who said talking to yourself helps you make decisions?”

“Probably.” Liam backed up and turned to survey whatever new place they were in. “What the—”

Before he could finish the sentence, Jack was up and running past him, her mouth agape. What is this place?

They were standing at the edge of a large cavern made of ice, easily the size of a Sector. Perhaps even bigger; Jack couldn’t tell since the space was so open compared to the two Sectors she’d been in. The ceiling reached at least forty feet high, meeting at one point at the top where a cluster of icicles hung precariously. Even stranger was the huge pile of shining, icy debris to one side of the cavern. Almost like a landslide or a collapse had occurred recently. Maybe there’s another exit hidden under the debris? Jack thought to herself.

Liam apparently had the same thought, for he chased after her and stopped in front of the ice pile. “You start digging. I’m gonna radio Robin.” Jack remembered the radios built into the wrist monitors. Too bad I never got one with my new uniform. Liam turned on the radio and began saying into it, over and over, “Codename Victory calling in. Codename Bird, do you read?”

After a minute of tense silence during which Jack began digging into the debris, Robin’s voice crackled out of Liam’s wrist monitor. “No need for codenames, but yeah, Li, I’m here. Nobody’s listening to us.” As Jack’s brother talked, the Brit went over and joined his companion in clearing aside the ice. “Are both of you okay? Nobody’s hurt?”

“My burns are itching but I think I’ll be fine,” Jack responded for Liam. She then added, “Hi!”

“Glad to know you both weren’t hurt. We’ve all got enough on our plate already.” There was a loud exhaling noise, as if Robin was running and out of breath.

“What are you doing?” Liam asked out of curiosity.

“Taking care of Bailey. Her burns are starting to peel,” Jack’s brother answered. Ew, gross. She gagged and stepped away from the wrist monitor, her own hands blistering underneath the gloves from working so hard. “We’ve managed to open the door by putting a rock on the button. I’ve got an ice drill that I salvaged from the buggy’s trunk. Bailey and Sierra are manning a pump and hopefully we’ll be able to break through in a couple of days.”

“Days?!” Liam started at this news and glanced back at the ice tunnel. “We can’t afford to wait that long. Me and Jack are working on finding another exit.”

“Okay. Check back in a few hours with your progress.”

“We will.” There was a beep before the feed went silent. Liam turned off his wrist monitor after checking his vitals and went back to work.

Jack couldn’t help but watch him out of the corner of her eye as they worked together. Liam also glanced at her with his one eye, a tangled knot of hair obscuring his bad one. His gaze was so piercing and magnetic that she couldn’t look away; they stared at each other for a second.

“Are your burns hurting you? Is something wrong?” the Brit asked, hands clutching a chunk of packed ice.

“Nothing. You just...stopped talking,” she said awkwardly. “I’m not used to you not talking.”

“Oh.” Liam blinked a few times before turning around and focusing on his work. After a moment, his companion followed suit, frazzled by their short conversation. Why am I like this? Must be the shock getting to my head.

After about a half-hour of digging endlessly, the two of them managed to clear the area of all the smaller pieces of rubble. Now the bigger pieces remained, the ones that would be harder to tackle. “Maybe we break them into pieces before handling them?” Liam suggested, crossing his arms.

“I’ve got a better idea.”

“For once.”

“Di—did you just roast me?!” Jack asked incredulously, turning to stare at him with a grin.

“Did I just—no,” he blurted out, before a smile flashed across his face. “Sorry. What’s your plan?”

“Here, let me show you.” Jack bent down and set her pack on a slicker patch of ice, where it slid backwards before resting against the debris. She reached inside and pulled out the bottle. “What is this stuff?”

“Fire juice?” Liam shrugged and watched as Jack uncapped it. “Don’t tell me you’re going to expand the bottle here. We don’t have room for a super-sized...tanker. Well, at least not right next to the debris.”

“If anything, Ben’s prepared. This fire juice should do the trick.” Jack poured a drop on one of the larger chunks of rock. There was a loud sizzle that echoed through the large cavern they were in. The two of them watched as the fire juice dripped down the rock for a moment before melting into it. Warm, icy rivulets streamed down the side of the rock and there was the sound of running water—faint and foreign to Jack’s ears. The rock was melting. This is strong stuff! “Fiery. I like it.”

Liam smiled that strange smile again and took the bottle from her. “Let’s not use it all in case we need to power that inflatable tent Ben gave us.”

“But we know that it works. If we expand the tanker, will the juice inside expand with it?”

Liam didn’t answer at first, as he was too busy staring at the melting rock, which was splitting in half. “I don’t know. Hey, take a look at this.” He bent down and pointed towards a small gap in between two of the rocks. Jack walked over to where he was standing and looked in the gap. She gasped at what she saw.

Light. Pure, raw, light. Light brighter than the brightest of light grenades. It was so pure that it looked like a void. Light so bright that Jack fell back, startled, white spots dancing in her eyes. So bright that Liam also collapsed as it was revealed further, crying out in pain.

After looking up at the ceiling for what felt like ages, Jack finally gained the courage to get back up and recover. She went over to where Liam had fallen and helped him up before rubbing her eyes and glancing back at where the light had been shining. Now that Jack was more prepared, she strode over, wrapped her hands in the protective ythafone from her pack, and lifted up a block of ice from where it was sitting on the new light source. The underbelly was slick and dripping moisture, yet surprisingly not melted. Jack stared at it and then picked up another block of ice. The same went for all the pieces she examined. “Why doesn’t it melt?” she thought out loud.

“Bring a piece to me and I can examine it overnight,” Liam said, tugging at his shirt collar and squirming under a new wave of heat that rolled through the cavern. “But I think I know what this is.”

“The ice, you mean?” Jack squeezed a small, half-melted fragment that she was holding and watched it slip out of her hands and fall to the ground.

“No, the light.” Liam walked past Jack and went to the other side of the wreckage, where he began digging out more, smaller pieces. “Come help me dig here. The ice is slushier and easier to pull off.” His companion hesitated, looked around, and then joined him. “This is more like snow. It’s been resting underneath the light source for a while, as you can tell. I’m not good at dating crystal degeneration, but it’s certainly sat for at least a while.” He held out a piece in one gloved hand.

“The significance of the ice’s age is…?” Jack prompted, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Well, not so much the age but the fact that there’s ice on the bottom layer. This means that the light source is a big object. Like, really big.” Liam let out a huff of breath that misted around him. He put his helmet back on, which partially obscured his face, and resumed his work. Jack joined him and together they dug out the left side of the debris pile.

As they were working, Jack became aware of a strange, hissing sound coming from underneath the ice. The more they dug, the louder and closer it became. “Do you hear that?” she asked her companion, who nodded in agreement.

A few moments later, she realized what it was as she pulled off another chunk of rock and revealed the light source again. This time, the hiss rose to a climax as a sudden burst of yellow gas sprayed out at Liam and Jack’s faces. Even though they were both wearing their helmets, it wormed its way inside and as Jack inhaled it, she felt as if fire was going down her throat—a horrible flashback to her rescue in the buggy.

“What is this stuff?” Liam choked out, trying to fan the toxic fumes away. The world spun around Jack as she stepped back and doubled over. She took off her helmet and let the noxious gas wisp away into the air. But her head didn’t clear for a minute after that and she was forced to sit down on a rock and rest. Liam joined her, watching thin plumes of the gas peel off from the bright fragment that was still half-hidden underneath the ice. “I don’t understand. If this is what I think it is—a piece of the Sun, why isn’t the ice melting instantly? I’ll need to analyze the compounds of the ice. But I’ll grab a sample later.”

“What about the gas?” “Yeah, I’ll “Do you think we should radio Robin and the others about this? Seems like pretty big news to me.” Jack crouched down and ran one finger over the stitches on her glove.

“Sure. I’m gonna get those samples while you do that. I think I have the tools I need in my pack.”

“You’re like the king of science, aren’t you?”

“Guess so.” Liam’s eyes were already sparkling with the idea of conducting research. He checked his vital signs, frowned at whatever numbers showed up, and pulled off his wrist monitor. “Tell him I say hello.”

“You’re gonna be right there,” Jack started, pointing to the ice pile, but it was no use. Liam was already off to the other side of the debris, opposite the gas, rifling through his pack. She sighed and watched him work in a sort of daze before snapping out of it and picking up the wrist monitor. Jack dialed Robin’s comm number and waited a few seconds before he picked up.

“Hey, Li, what’s going on?” Robin greeted her.

“It’s actually Jack. Liam’s doing some field work right now.”

“Oh, hey!” Robin perked up at the sound of her voice. “How’s the work going? Are you digging on the other side of the tunnel?”

“Oh, well...no,” Jack admitted, frowning. “See, we found this pile of debris and Liam thinks that there’s a Sun fragment underneath that’s making the huge heat signature that Ben detected. But it’s also spewing strange gas that may or may not be poisonous.” She swallowed and gasped at the pain it caused as if to prove her point to no one in particular. “But we’re...y’know, fine.”

“Toxic gas? A piece of the Sun? Doesn’t sound like you’re fine to me.” Robin paused and added, “So anyways, we’ve got the pump up and working. Bailey’s recovered and is helping Sie with it while I use the power to drill through the ice. We’ve almost chipped through to the door. The ice is sticking together and it’s hard to dig without part of the tunnel collapsing, so we’re choosing the safer option instead.”

“Well, you might want to hurry. The gas keeps coming,” Jack said, trying to keep her voice calm. The flow of gas had slowed just a little bit, but it was a steady stream and the cloud was now expanding into other parts of the cavern, curling up to the ceiling and then bouncing back down. She took a deep breath to test out the air and was surprised by the sting in her lungs that she got.

“Okay, check back in a couple more hours when you’re setting up the tent.” Jack could just imagine her brother flashing a nervous smile as he said this. “Good thing you took the pack and not me. You’ll need the protection in there.”

“Bye for now.” Jack sighed and hung up the call, placing the wrist monitor in her lap for safekeeping. Her hands were shaking. You’re okay, you’re okay. They’ll find you soon. Gonna be okay.

“Jack, come here!” Liam waved her over from where he was lying on his stomach, chipping away at a piece of ice.

“Is this about the analysis you’re doing? Of the fragment and the ice?” Jack did her best to stay away from a plume of yellow gas that was wafting towards her. She put her helmet back on and shivered at the rush of warmth to her head.

“No, but if you’re interested—”

“I’m not.”

Liam stared at her for a moment before continuing, “I think we’re in deep ice here. Deeper than I’d previously thought.” His eye looked troubled; he furrowed his brow and sat up. “Look here.” He held up a tall jar which contained a faint cloud of the yellow gas that the Sun fragment was producing. “I’m about to blind you with science.” He chuckled at his own joke before his expression turned serious again. “I was looking at and analyzing the gas. One of the components is lupium.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Jack turned white, remembering her chemistry classes from highschool. Lupium. One of the deadliest gas strains in New Earth, it was highly rare and only found in deep, underground caves where gas buildup created highly toxic fumes. It was harmless in small amounts, but when inhaled for a long amount of time, would corrupt the lungs and rust them like buggy metal. Lupium? In a cave this close to the surface? Jack voiced these thoughts aloud.

“I don’t understand it either, but it only proves my theory that this light source here is a fragment of the Sun.” Liam pointed at the blinding light that was shining in between chunks of ice. “So, there’s good news and bad news then.”

“Tell me the bad news first,” Jack said, folding her arms over her chest and looking into her companion’s eye unsteadily.

“The bad news is that the gas will soon become too concentrated in the air and we’ll die,” Liam told her, meeting her gaze with a brave kind of fear; a contradiction of emotions.

Jack gulped and glanced at the Sun fragment nervously. “Okay...what’s the good news?”

“The good news is that we have approximately two days to tunnel out before that happens. Then, the amount of lupium will overwhelm us and we will die a slow, miserable death,” Liam announced

“Two days!? Great job, Mr. Optimist.” Jack tried to be sarcastic, but couldn’t keep her voice from trembling. “Let’s get to work then.” She ran over across the cavern and began to dig at the rubble that blocked the tunnel. She tried to listen for the sound of drilling, but it was too far away. Or Robin just isn’t drilling right now. Jack turned back and looked at the Brit, who had taken the wrist monitor and was examining it anxiously.

“Well, uh, thanks?” Liam walked over to where Jack was and joined her in chipping away the ice. But after a few minutes, he gave up and returned to the rock to radio Robin with their progress. Jack chose not to listen in and instead began setting up the tent. She was getting tired from all the work and her burns were starting to itch again.

“Do you have any idea how to set up this thing?” she asked snappishly. “We shouldn’t waste our time inflating it. We’ve got work to do.”

“We can’t break through from our side, Jackie.” She blinked at the nickname but didn’t say anything. “But yeah, I’ll help you set up.” The Brit walked over to where Jack was standing and held out his hand, saying, “Tent, please.”

“Oh.” Jack took the cloth, which she’d unfolded into a mess, and handed it over to her companion reluctantly.

“Just press the inflate button. All it needs is guidance after that to make sure it doesn’t wrinkle,” Liam instructed, walking over to a flatter patch of ice that lay on the other side of the cavern, away from the debris and expanding gas cloud. “Alright, this should be good enough. Just set it down.” He went into the center of the flat patch and began refolding the mess of a tent that Jack’d made. Once it was back in its standard square form, he set it down in the center and pressed the button.

There was the sound of rushing air as the tent began to inflate and mold itself. Liam, of course, felt the need to explain the entire process as they watched. “Using particle formation, the nodes on the sides of the tent shoot Illumination light beams at each other, bouncing off clusters of other nodes that have been packed inside the tent. This forms the furniture.”

“All that matters is that there’s a place to sleep,” Jack grumbled as they finished. She looked back at the pile of rubble just a few yards away. The gas was still flowing. “C’mon, let’s head inside. I need to take a break from digging.”

So they went inside, closing the tent flap behind them.