“It’s not moving.” Tessa frowned tiredly. Beside her, the kindly old face of Doctor Foster wrinkled into a soft smile.
“Give it time, Major.” He breathed a gentle sigh. “Give it time.”
Tessa pulled in a deep breath, held it briefly. “It’s just an extension of my T.K, a modification of my natural abilities.” Her lips creased slightly in thought, eyes never leaving the chunk of steel sitting motionless within the cylindrical sample container. “I mean, the Horus tie-ins are all autonomic and passive, right?” She glanced back at the doctor for a moment, caught his blank, half-smile. “I just have to visualize the molecular cohesion of the object changing, becoming fluid and. . .” She stared hard at the object, willing it to change. “And, voila.” She frowned. In the container, the steel stayed solid, refused to shift or move.
“Maybe if you try. . .” Jiri stepped up, eyes on the chunk of steel, then tracing back absently to meet Tessa’s curious look. He stroked his chin absently. “Perhaps. . . try visualizing fragment as already in flux, already in movement.” He paused, made a hesitant gesture. “Look at fragment as liquid, not as solid. “
”Okay.” Tessa closed her eyes, took a deep breath. Liquid, not solid. The exhale came quietly, left through her nose. Liquid, not solid.
“Now,” Jiri gestured at the sample. “Try increasing speed of molecular movement.”
Shifting in her stance, Tessa’s mind focused on the fragment, looked into and through it, saw the component pieces within it, crystalline and solid but, on a deeper level, still ultimately in flux. She could see the hints of movement there, the traces of life in what outwardly seemed dead. Increase speed. Brows knitted, forehead creasing with the strain, the tingling pain that seemed to stab up and down her nervous system in tiny, needling waves as she focused on the subatomic structure of the steel, forced it to move, to oscillate at a speed and frequency that the metal as a whole resisted at first, but ultimately began to fall into sync with.
“She’s doing it.” Doctor Foster smiled softly, entranced by the data. “I’m picking up movement within the core of the sample consistent with readings taken on Coralate-controlled samples. Astounding!”
“Excellent.” Jiri breathed, awed. “Now, expand it outward, Major. Will the entire sample to move as cohesive entity.”
Tessa’s closed eyes tightened as she swallowed, voice hoarse with the effort. “Okay.” Jiri glanced at her, eyes concerned, lingering on her for a moment, checking for signs of pain, weakness. She winced, pulled in a deep breath.
“If it hurts, we can–”
“No.” Tessa cut him off, shook her head, then pulled in another deep breath as she forced herself to focus on the sample. “I– I can do this.” Jiri looked up at Foster, caught his slow, steady nod.
The steel seemed to hesitate for a long moment, a static stillness eager to quiver, to become alive, but as seconds stretched on, Tessa’s face became paler, her features more strained. Fingers trembled with the effort, the concentration. Jiri opened his mouth to say something–
And then, suddenly, the sample shifted. In one smooth movement, it shimmered and turned to mirrored chrome. Rough edges became glassy curves of liquid alloy, and as Tessa struggled to hold the shape, to speed up the inherent movement without losing the overall cohesion of the piece, Jiri pulled in an amazed gasp.
“Incredible.”
“I’ve almost. . .” The creases in Tessa’s forehead intensified, deepened, lips drawing back, thinning over bared teeth. “Dammit, I. . .” Pain rose within her, ate along neurons like runaway fire. Sparking suddenly, the pain shot into her, stabbing through her spine on a wave like a jagged spike of living ice, hands spasming uncontrollably. Losing her hold on the sample, she felt it drop away suddenly, slip through her grasp with a sharp crack that echoed in her mind like the whipsnarl of imminent oblivion, of finality. When she opened her eyes, she blinked reflexively, stunned.
Jiri bumbled silently off to her right as Doctor Foster stared on, noteputer falling away slowly, coming to rest at his side.
“My god.” Tessa breathed, shook her head, unable to find the words as she stared at the cracked sample container, the sharp, thin lattice of glassy steel suspended within it by the long, needle-like spires that had solidified as the entire sample had exploded into a quasi-liquid suddenly, trying to razor its way out and into open air. Just like that day. She blinked, swallowed. Just like the shards of Coralate steel that killed Izzy.
She looked at her hands reflexively, fingers quivering with excitement, fear, hatred and loss all shot through with a burning, inescapable pain that consumed every nerve and fiber in her flesh, left her shaking on the ebb and flow of a stabbing, electric ache. She bit her lip in the tangle of emotions that ate at her, left her stunned, unable to move. Blood dribbled across her chin, stained the collar of her Ultima Thila uniform.
My god. Her lips drifted open.
What have I become?