Chapter 93

FREEDOM

Annie charged at him. She was at least as big as a draft horse, maybe larger. Metal scales glinted across patches of her hide, stitched into leathery flesh like armor plates. Metal claws tipped her elongated fingers. Metal teeth flashed in her open jaw. Too many of them.

A mutated Spinosaurus. Much smaller than the real thing, but still massive enough to set his heart racing despite knowing it was her. Alexander noted she had the same powerful front legs as the one she fought.

She skidded to a stop maybe ten meters away, momentum carrying her forward into a stumbling crouch. Sand sprayed everywhere.

Annie tried to speak.

What came out was a garbled sound, halfway between words and a growling hiss. Her jaw structure was wrong for human speech, elongated and filled with those metal teeth.

Her eyes widened. She tried again, with similar results.

Alexander started laughing.

She glared at him. Then her form rippled. The claws shortened back into fingers. Her jaw reformed into something that could actually form words. The leathery hide smoothed away. The metal scales reformed into clothing. Within seconds, she was just Annie again, grinning and breathless.

“Did you see that?!” she shouted, throwing her arms wide. “I’m a fucking dinosaur!”

Alexander pushed himself to his feet, still smiling. “I saw. Very dramatic entrance.”

“Right?!” She bounced on her toes, excess energy still burning through her system. “I can turn into a dinosaur! How cool is that?”

“Pretty cool,” he admitted.

Annie’s grin faded slightly as she took a good look at him. Her eyes tracked across his face, noting the sweat, the exhaustion in his posture, the way he’d braced one hand against the boulder when he stood.

“What were you doing down here?” she asked.

Alexander just grinned.

“Oh, come on!” Annie stepped closer. “You look like you just ran a marathon. What were you testing? Was it your new powers?”

He shook his head, still grinning.

Annie stared at him for a moment, then threw up her hands. “Whatever. Talia sent me to get you anyway.”

That got his attention. “Why?”

“We’re back from Astra Omnia. Healer fixed my ribs and leg, no problem.” She slapped her thigh. “But that’s not the important part.”

He remained patient. “What’s the important part?”

“The Syltharian woke up!”

Alexander’s expression shifted immediately. The grin vanished, replaced by focused attention. “When?”

“Not long ago. Talia’s waiting at the house.” Annie turned, already starting back toward the path. “Come on.”

They started up the beach together. Annie fell into step beside him, chattering as they walked.

“The healer was this grumpy old guy with extra arms. Like, cybernetic arms he could control, not because of his power. He kept two of them folded while he worked and used the others to poke at my ribs before healing them.”

She demonstrated the poking motion. “Gave me a whole lecture about reckless combat tactics.”

“Shocking,” Alexander said dryly.

“Right? I told him I won, didn’t I? That’s what matters.” She glanced at him. “You okay? You’re being quiet.”

“Just thinking.”

“About the alien?”

“Among other things.”

The Cultivator’s Core had provided him with immediate insight into his powers, bringing them together to coordinate, to synergize, as others had explained they should. Something that had never felt quite natural to him, likely because of having to learn about them one at a time.

But there was more to it. He was certain of that. It had merged with his superpowers, rather than granting him the ability to manipulate qi. Perhaps he might learn to cultivate his power directly, filling his own body. Or maybe he could use it to bind the individual powers together, beyond simple synergy.

They reached the stone steps leading up from the beach. Annie bounded up them with her usual excitement. Alexander followed more slowly, wishing he’d slept in more.

The terrace came into view. Talia stood near the doors dressed in casual clothes, arms crossed, waiting. Her expression was calm but alert.

Annie waved. “Found him.”

Talia’s eyes moved from Annie to Alexander, assessing.

“You seem pleased with yourself,” Talia said as they approached. “What were you working on?”

Annie immediately pointed at him. “See! I asked the same thing and he wouldn’t tell me.”

Alexander felt the grin trying to return. He let it. “Figured out how to fly.”

There was a brief pause. Annie’s mouth fell open.

“What?” she shouted. “Already? I’ve barely started figuring out how to dinosaur!”

“Sort of,” Alexander amended, the grin fading into a frown.

Talia’s expression shifted to interested focus. “Explain.”

Alexander rubbed the back of his neck. “I worked out why I could only lift myself very slowly or throw myself around. I’m the frame of reference for my powers. They flow from me, centered on me. I can’t change that fundamental truth. Moving external objects works because I’m the fixed point they move relative to. But trying to move that fixed point itself...” He made a frustrated gesture.

“I can see how that would be a challenge.”

“Right. So I tried generating an oscillating wave that flows through the anchor points instead. Chest plate, belt, boots, with each wave pulsing at different times. The continuous wave smoothed out the motion completely.”

“But there’s still a problem,” Alexander continued. “The energy drain increases with altitude. Ten feet is manageable. Fifteen is harder. Twenty and I’m burning through power almost too fast.”

“How much harder?” Talia asked.

Alexander frowned, trying to recall the feeling. “Doubling the height felt like it took maybe... four times the energy?”

Annie’s eyes started to glaze over.

Talia’s expression sharpened. “That matches wave mechanics. Energy scales with the square of amplitude. If you’re doubling your height, you’re quadrupling the energy demand.”

“So it’s just going to keep getting worse?”

Talia gave him an amused look. “Are you still the frame of reference when you create the wave?”

“Yes. It’s a limitation I have to work with.”

Annie shifted, staring hopefully at the doors.

“You’d have figured it out if you weren’t so tired,” Talia said. “You’re generating the wave with yourself as the reference point, then amplifying it to increase altitude. It’s an elegant solution.”

Alexander frowned, thinking through the mechanics.

“But you should be releasing the wave when you reach the crest,” Talia continued, “and generating a new wave from your new reference point. That way you avoid the increasing energy cost of maintaining one steadily increasing wave from wherever you started.”

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Alexander stared at her for a moment. Then he closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

“I’m an idiot. Thank you.”

Talia’s smile was small but genuine.

Annie threw up her hands. “Great! Science happened. Can we please go see our new friend now?”

Alexander shook his head, amused despite his own eagerness to see the Syltharian. “Alright. Let’s go.”

Annie was already moving, pushing through the doors into the house. Alexander and Talia followed her through the living room. Some of the aliens were scattered across the furniture, watching the holo display.

With a thought, Droney fell into position over his shoulder.

As they made their way across the open space, Alexander noticed Augustus was no longer in the kitchen. Something simmered in a pot, but the rest of the meal looked almost ready.

Annie led them to the stairs descending to the basement level. Her usual boundless energy carried her down two steps at a time.

“Where’s Augustus?” Alexander asked.

“With the Syltharian,” Talia said. “They’re stable, and everything seems fine so far, but I thought it best to leave someone with them.”

They reached the basement hallway. Ahead, the medical facility’s viewing windows glowed with soft white light. The remaining aliens had clustered there, appendages and limbs pressed against the glass, peering inside with obvious interest.

The trio moved around them toward the door. Alexander was about to reach for the handle when one of the aliens turned. The crystalline being chimed softly, the translation coming from Droney immediately.

“May we visit as well?”

Talia stepped forward, her tone professional but kind. “Not just yet. We need to assess their condition first and ensure they’re comfortable with visitors. It won’t be long.”

The alien chimed acknowledgment, stepping back.

Alexander pulled the door open. The three of them slipped inside.

The medical facility was exactly as Alexander expected. White walls and clean surfaces with advanced equipment. Augustus stood near the examination bed, one spectral hand hovering nearby with a water glass balanced in its translucent palm.

The Syltharian sat upright in the bed, watching them enter with alert attention.

Alexander took in the alien’s appearance. The head remained elegant and alien, with purplish iridescent skin stretched over elongated features. Almond-shaped eyes tracked their movement, spiral pupils shifting subtly. One arm matched the head’s coloring, slender and natural. Delicate wings lay folded against its back, and two slender tails curled at its sides.

The rest was still wrong. The torso, the other limbs. An amalgamation of mismatched parts that didn’t belong together. The collar graft points stood out starkly at the shoulders, hips, and neck, where metal fused to bone beneath the skin.

The Syltharian’s eyes lingered on Alexander. What he assumed was recognition flickered across its features.

The team gathered at a respectful distance. Annie shifted her weight, clearly trying to appear non-threatening. Talia’s expression remained professionally neutral.

Augustus spoke quietly. “They woke not long ago.”

The Syltharian made a series of sounds. Musical and flowing, the alien tongue carried a melodic quality even in its weakness.

Droney translated immediately, the words projecting from its speakers. “You are the one who freed me.”

Alexander nodded. “Yes.”

“You killed the doctor, I think. Memory is difficult.”

“He’s dead,” Alexander confirmed.

“Truly dead? Not unconscious, not injured. Dead.”

“Crushed under a lot of metal,” Alexander said. “I made sure.”

The alien’s eyes closed briefly. When they opened, something had eased in its posture. It spoke again, the musical voice carrying more strength.

Droney translated. “Thank you. For ending him. For releasing me from the restraints. For bringing me somewhere I am not bound.”

“You’re safe here,” Alexander said, then changed the subject. “I’m surprised that you understand English.”

The alien’s head tilted in what might have been a nod. When it spoke again, the sounds were brief.

“Yes. I understand your words. I cannot speak them with this mouth.”

“That works,” Annie said, stepping forward slightly. “Droney’s got you covered.”

The alien’s gaze shifted to focus on her, then Talia, then back to Alexander. It spoke again.

“Where am I?”

“Private island,” Alexander explained. “You’re under our protection.”

“How long was I unconscious?”

Talia answered this time. “Several days. Your healing rate has been remarkable. We’ve been monitoring your condition.”

The alien’s gaze moved to her, studying. “The others from the facility. Are they safe?”

“They’re here,” Augustus said. “All of them survived.”

Another visible easing in the alien’s frame. It shifted slightly in the bed, wincing. The mismatched limbs moved awkwardly, not quite coordinating properly.

Talia stepped forward, her tone shifting to professional assessment. “We need to discuss the collars.”

The alien’s entire body went still. Its eyes fixed on Talia with sudden intensity.

“We left them active,” Talia continued. “Out of caution. You were healing so well on your own, we didn’t want to interfere with that process by disabling them without understanding the effects.”

The Syltharian made a sound. Sharp and urgent. The musical quality took on an edge that needed no translation.

Droney’s translation carried the desperation clearly. “Can you disable them? Please. They are… I cannot...” The alien paused, then continued with visible effort. “Miller used them to control my power. To allow only partial transformations. Each time I tried to shift, only pieces would respond. The suppression would catch the rest.”

It gestured at its mismatched body with its natural arm.

“This is the result. Multiple attempts, multiple failures. Each transformation incomplete. Each partial form trapped until another takes its place.”

Annie made a small sound of horror. Alexander felt his jaw tighten.

“My power is to touch non-sapient creatures and copy their forms. To keep them as templates I can return to. Miller forced forms into me by injecting blood and flesh and bone, then tried to make it work on the others. On sapient beings.” The Syltharian’s musical voice took on a harder edge. “It cannot. The power refuses. But he kept trying anyway.”

Talia’s expression had gone cold with anger.

The Syltharian’s eyes moved between them. When it spoke again, its tone carried a note Alexander recognized despite the alien quality. Pleading.

“If you can disable the collars. Please. I have been trapped across multiple forms, unable to correct it, for...” It paused. “I do not know how long. Time stopped meaning anything.”

Alexander glanced at Talia. She held his gaze for a moment, then nodded once.

He reached out with Technopathy. The collars responded immediately to his awareness, complex mechanisms designed to suppress and redirect power. They were eager to obey, even when he commanded their complete shutdown.

“It’s done,” Alexander said. “They’re off. Removing them physically will be harder. They’re grafted to bone. That’ll take surgery.”

The Syltharian closed its eyes.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then its body began to shift.

The mismatched limbs flowed like water, skin and muscle and bone reforming in a wave that spread from the natural parts outward. The torso smoothed into elegant purple-skinned grace. The wrong legs became slender and proper. The borrowed arm returned to matching its twin.

The sound that escaped the alien was purely musical. No words, just a note of profound relief that resonated in Alexander’s chest. The kind of sound that needed no translation. Within seconds, the Syltharian sat whole. All purplish iridescent skin, slender limbs, delicate wings, two graceful tails. Beautiful and alien and finally, completely itself.

For a moment, no one spoke. The team stood watching the Syltharian settle into its restored form, the purple iridescent skin catching the medical facility’s soft light.

Alexander broke the silence. “In Miller’s lab, I saw you copy my Metallokinesis. And your arm shifted into an elephant’s leg right after you touched me.”

The Syltharian focused on him. When it spoke, its translated words carried a thoughtful quality.

“Yes. Miller believed I awakened that power in desperation. That my desire to escape was so great that it gifted me a second after the first had awakened.” The alien paused, considering its words. “It copies powers on touch, but they merge with a transformation. I cannot control the copying, or which form it connects to. The copied power is only usable while in the form it merges with.”

“You have Miller’s power too,” Alexander said. Not a question.

“Yes.” The Syltharian’s voice took on a harder edge even through the musical tones. “His ability to manipulate perception and sensation. He was fascinated by the irony. That I had copied the very power he used to torture me, but could not use it to escape.”

Annie made a sound of disgust. Talia’s expression had gone cold again.

The Syltharian shifted slightly in the bed, wincing. Its slender limbs trembled with effort.

“Earth’s gravity,” it said quietly. “It is painful. My bones are hollow, my musculature designed for lighter worlds. May I transform? Something more suited to this world’s pressure.”

“Of course,” Talia said immediately.

The alien nodded its thanks and slipped from the bed, standing on unsteady legs. Its body began to flow.

Purple skin shifted to golden-brown fur. The elegant elongated form condensed and reshaped. Delicate wings folded into shoulder blades. Within seconds, a Golden Retriever stood where the Syltharian had been. Medium-sized, healthy-looking, with intelligent eyes that still held those distinctive spiral pupils.

It opened its mouth.

“Much better,” the dog said in clear, but rough-sounding English.

Annie gasped. Even Talia’s professional mask slipped for a moment.

“You can speak English,” Alexander said, stating the obvious.

“In this form, yes.” The Golden Retriever sat, tail wagging slightly. The gesture looked natural despite the alien intelligence behind it. “The Doctor made me copy a colorful bird. It spoke your language.”

The dog tilted its head, the movement distinctly canine.

“Miller’s collars taught me something, that I can partially control the change across templates. This body is primarily the dog, but I have merged the bird’s vocal structures with it.”

“That’s incredible,” Annie breathed.

“The collars were torture. But they taught me this.” A pause. “Perhaps that is something. And this form is far more comfortable than my natural one under your world’s gravity.”

Augustus cleared his throat. “I was preparing dinner before all this. Perhaps we should all eat. The others wanted to see you, too.”

The Syltharian’s ears perked up at the mention of food.

“Given your current form,” Augustus continued, “should I prepare something specific, or would cooked meat be suitable?”

“Meat would be acceptable,” the Syltharian said, standing and stretching like any dog might. “As long as it is suitable for this form’s digestive system.”

Augustus moved toward the door, already discussing options. The Golden Retriever padded after him, continuing the conversation.

The door closed behind them.

Annie stared at it for a moment, then looked at Alexander and Talia. “Did Augustus really just walk out having a conversation with an alien dog about dinner?”

Alexander nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“Oh my god!” Annie exclaimed, startling both of them. “We didn’t ask their name.”