Anthony DeCosmo - Fusion

“Wait a second. Wait just one second.”

He smiled to himself as an idea came to mind. He felt certain he had discovered another piece of the mystery, one that could explain why his personal library of genetic memories included skills from alien races. Trevor took that idea and filed it away for another day.

“Ah, shit, enough of this,” Trevor muttered as he realized he needed to get this over with in order to attend the upcoming meeting. “Okay then-give it to me…”

He stepped closer to the glowing sphere. The feeling of energy grew as if the ball might be a fire and he stepped closer to the flames; closer to the raging heat.

“C’mon-give it to me…”

The memories came in bunches, but not in a recognizable manner. Images floated through his mind. He saw an ancient catapult pulled taut. He heard the battle cry of Zulu warriors. He felt the cold in the bloody snow at Stalingrad.

Trevor did not know which specific memories or skills entered his mind. They would rise to the surface when needed.

“I want more. Give it all to me.”

The energy crackled around him in a cocoon of static and fire. The ball glowed more intently. He closed his eyes and the images poured into his mind. A cloud of deadly mustard gas floating over a trench. A wall of water 150 meters high crashing into the Minoan ports on the north side of Crete. A Prussian general leading columns of Fusiliers toward Waterloo.

“More.”

Trevor held his hands just above the orb. The membrane pulsated and rolled like churning sea water. His hands shook as the energy tried to repel his reach.

It came. All of it in a line of images, sounds, and ideas. Trevor saw concepts on blackboards and computer chips from the inside out, weapons factories, and rockets carrying the first satellites to orbit. Shouts of victory, screams of pain, tears of anguish-one after another.

But he needed more. He needed it all.

He already stood closer to the sphere than ever before. Now, he took the final step.

Trevor grunted and plunged his hands into the orb. The membrane bent then popped in a flash. Tendrils of energy wrapped around his arms up to his elbows. He cried out as the power deluged his mind. The energy crackled across his entire shaking body. The sphere warped oblong, then round again, then its surface splashed and kicked in a turbulent storm.

Trevor no longer felt grounded in that sub-basement room. His eyes snapped shut and his mind floated through time even as the pain shocked his brain like a thousand electric eels swimming in his mind.

Colonial minutemen marching to battle-Shogun warriors fighting for honor-Genghis Khan’s hordes sweeping across the steppes-and-and…

— ancient Hivvan tribesmen first mastering the use of a cross-bow like weapon and using it to down a giant shaggy beast terrorizing their village-a Witiko scientist test-firing a powerful rocket across a jagged red landscape boiling under a red giant-a Chaktaw trainer subduing a monstrous Jaw-Wolf with an electric rod-warring tribes of duck-billed Duass battling through the night in a swamp filled with spilled blood-formations of Centurian soldiers marching in neat order under the heat of two suns…

The library of genetic memories flashed and unloaded. The beautiful sphere of blue and gray withered and crumbled into grains of black sand which fell into the open chest below. Trevor stood there, his hands clutching at nothing, shaking as the last impulses of energy bounced around inside his body and mind like ricocheting bullets.

And then the flood came, of information and memories, languages and skills, images and thoughts. The collection overwhelmed his senses and he fell to the soft floor of the secret room.

“Whiles trembling horror did his conscience daunt,

And hellish anguish did his soul assail.”

— Spenser

The door to the utility closet under the stairs in the mansion basement swung open and Trevor stumbled out. He pushed the door shut behind and fell forward catching the conference table with one hand in order to remain upright.

“Trevor?”

The voice came from the basement stairs. Trevor barely mustered the strength to remain balanced against the table, let alone strike a more dignified pose.

Lori Brewer approached him with wide, curious eyes.

“Where’d you come from? I checked all around down here including the armory,” she referred to the heavy door leading to a stockpile of weapons and munitions. She added with a wise-ass tone, “Don’t tell me, you came out of the closet.”

The buzzing in his brain faded slowly and he found enough strength to stand. Sort of.

He noticed she held her official Imperial Administrator notebook. It kind of clashed with her otherwise casual outfit. Nonetheless, Trevor felt a twinge of panic. Exactly how long had he been out? Had he overslept the meeting?

Trevor glanced at his watch. The hands had frozen at 10:03 a.m., just about the exact moment he sunk his fingers into the mystical orb. That energy had nearly fried his brain. Apparently it had fried his watch.

He looked to Lori and spoke,”Welche zeit es ist?”

She shook her head, and asked, “What did you say? Have you been drinking?”

Lori examined his skull for a head wound. He raised a hand to his forehead, held it there as if checking for a fever, and then moved it to the back of his neck and massaged.

Let’s try this again.

“Okay, um, what time is it? Did you understand me?”

Lori did.

“Well, you don’t look injured. Just hung over or something.”

“Lori, what time is it? Did I miss the meeting?”

“Miss it? Oh no, it’s about quarter of twelve. I came early because I wanted to talk to you.”

Trevor stood straight, breathed deep, and took a few practice steps. The room did not spin quite as much.

“You? Early?” He cracked despite standing on wobbly legs. “Now that’s something.”

She followed as he walked in an effort to clear his head and gain control over his body.

“Yeah, well look, it’s not a big deal but I invited a guest to the meeting.”

Trevor still concentrated mainly on finding his balance, but he did hear her.

“A guest?”

They did laps around the conference table.

“A consultant. I wanted someone who could give us a little more insight into things going on at the front. Are you sure you’re okay?”

Trevor knew that the meeting would include several Generals as well as himself, all people who fought on the front lines. Therefore, her statement sounded off. Furthermore, the hesitation in her voice made him suspicious.

“What? Lori, listen, this is a-a-” he stopped and put a hand on the back of a chair at the empty table, breathed deep again, and then continued walking and talking with her following a step behind. “This is an important meeting, not some damn focus group. It’s not for outsiders.”

“I know that,” she sounded offended. No, actually it sounded as if she had forced the tone of offense. “This person has been in these meetings before, just not for a while. I’m telling you, it’s not a big deal.”

Trevor stopped so abruptly that Lori nearly walked into him.

“Lori. Who did you invite to the meeting?”

“Well, Captain-I invited Captain Forest to the meeting.”

Trevor slowly turned to face his old friend. His eyes widened.

“You’re joking, right? That’s a bad joke.”

“Look, Trevor, she’s hitching a ride with Shep so she’s in town. I bumped in to her yesterday and she was, well, scoping out the estate. Sort of visiting her old stomping grounds.”

“Lori,” Trevor pinched his nose. “I don’t need this right now.”

Her eyes drooped a little, then narrowed, and her head tilted in the slightest. This served as her counselor’s face, and it meant she was either prepared to listen or preparing to preach.