2.29.2

Peak Performance

For an hour, they waited. The Statics fed them, to ensure their wards stayed properly fueled. The Opposition kept them from running, exercising, or otherwise expending their energy, and Astrid quickly ascertained why.

All that energy needed to be saved.

Paulsen disappeared at one point, though presumably, his colleagues knew his whereabouts. Astrid only deduced, when he came back to announce that, though the capital building remained in session, fewer resided inside than they hoped.

Their original plan staged their scene on the last day of a long legislative week, when most votes would be cast, and most politicians, and news stations, would be in attendance. But Astrid’s premature exposure thwarted that, at least.

Nevertheless, it seemed the S.O. judged little choice but to proceed. And one of the agents said something about making a call. To see if they could get any reporters or cameras heading their direction.

Astrid looked to the sky whenever she thought she could get away with it without being noticed. But no familiar shapes, or sounds, greeted her.

Her anxiety rose while the rest of the Channelers pacified themselves in their new environment. The teenagers grew introspective and anxious. But the kids hadn’t been so delighted in weeks.

Finally, just before dusk, they ran out of time.

Paulsen took a place at the head of the group. He and his fellows gathered the children into sections, much like their arrangement in the auditorium. He stood between the assembly, and the grand building across the street.

The lady conductor shifted and changed kids around as though she took her job very seriously. Even while Paulsen spoke over her in a neat suit.

“I am now pleased to share that the Governorship here, on Septimus, has invited you all to participate in a festive and historic celebration! Take heed, this is a great honor, and I do hope you’ll do yourselves proud!”

His false cheer made Astrid sick to her stomach.

“Come, come,” he gestured to Rue at the back. “Bring our special guest here to the front. We want the vids to catch that face.”

Rue marched Astrid through to the front, where the specialist glowered at the grandstanding man.

Already her training resurfaced. She needed to anticipate what would happen if her plan, and her team’s plan, failed.

She wasn’t just a Channeler, as London reminded her. She was still soldier who took an Oath of Service. And she would not just stand there like a lump while this craven narcissist framed her people for a terrorist attack.

She tested her bonds for perhaps the twentieth time. She tried, just for a bleak brief moment, to light her crystal. But the collar around her head zapped her in the attempt.

Surprised by the sharp jolt, Astrid hissed a curse, much to Rue’s amusement.

“The Governance of Septimus has opened talks over Channeler Integration!” Paulsen revealed. He spoke as though the prospect pleased him, but Astrid knew it to be an act. Nevertheless, younger children buzzed, giddy with the prospect.

“In jubilation, and thanks, they wish to announce their compact with a display of wonder from the precious little souls of young Channelers like yourselves! Here, in the Colonial Capital, for all to see!

“Now line up, just as we’ve taught you, and imagine the grand piano…there!” Paulsen turned to extend a long index finger to the largest of the cylindrical rotundas. “Inside is a great light fixture, much like those we practiced with! Tonight, your aim is to power the bulb so bright, it can be seen all across the city!

“So that all of Septimus knows you’re here! And that a new day is dawning!”

Already, the children whooped in excitement to such grandiose promises.

“It is a larger vessel than you’re used to, and we want to light up the sky! So, remember,” Paulsen stressed, “think bright! Think hot! The greatest and grandest of fireworks! A force of energy and light, the likes of which the colonies have never seen!”

“You’re not afraid your friends will show up?” Astrid tossed desperately to Rue. The one person that still heard her words over the enthralling revelry that broke out around them.

“On the contrary, I’m afraid they won’t,” Rue replied. “We need someone able to recognize the body.”

Paulsen traded places with his choral director.

This time, no music accompanied the notes that the woman drew from her charges. But the Channelers knew the tune well by now.

Men and women in suits, ties, and coats slowed on the street when they saw a gathering of children in the gardens, with a choral soft song in the air.

As the volume rose, they gathered more onlookers. And more, to observed what looked a merry recital.

Discreetly, the S.O. backed into the trees and away from the pack of ‘students’.

And the children continued to sing.

Astrid counted four pulsar sticks in view. And two guns.

She twisted in her ties, but Rue caught her and held her still. “Stay put, sis. I’m going to step away and you’re going to stand here. Or I start shooting. And I won’t begin with you.”

Rue slipped away before the song, and its powerful drain, began in earnest. She joined her cohorts that waited in the wings of the park, partially covered in the bushes and trees.

Just ahead in the capital building, a soft glow hummed with the Channelers’ song. So faint, Astrid almost believed she imagined it in her paranoia.

But under her feet, and those of her neighbors, grass browned, then blackened.

Whether the kids didn’t notice, or found it familiar, even expected after all their practice, the tune continued to rise in volume. Light brightened around the frieze of the rotunda. Astrid could only imagine the bloom of power they surged inside.

“Louder! Harder! Let all of Septimus feel your presence!” Paulsen shouted from the back. Astrid darted her eyes through the lines behind her.

Hands clasped in rows, the younger ones willfully pushed themselves, encouraged and certain to fulfill their task.

Astrid sought the gaze of Maya. And Finn. Then Menloh, Ivy, and Jeremy, with her eyes. She even tried for Leia, Neema, Georgie, Nigel, Zeke. Even Kelvin, the spitfire she met only momentarily.

They each clasped hands with their shorter neighbors. And slowly, but surely, the older kids restrained and fought the flow.

But the rotunda flared as though a white fire stoked within. The blackened lands on which the Channelers stood stretched forth like a spreading blight. It singed at the nearest bushes and trees, drained mercilessly for the power now channeled ahead to the capital.

Dozens of crystals gleamed in perfect formation where the Channelers assembled. Enchanting illuminations to all wandering eyes on the street.

Witnesses that didn’t, and couldn’t, understand the testimony before their eyes. Astrid found one camera, then another, rise to catch the spectacle of a performance about to go horribly wrong.

All the children synched together couldn’t conceive of the power they channeled. And across the street, buried behind the squall of song, came the first of distant screams.

“Damn it!” Astrid tried to stem the tide. But each time she reached to join in the flow, her crown zapped her painfully.

She bit down on her teeth and lips while she wrestled with her bonds.

Another scream, this one clearer, rang from the capital building. Some on the street heard and turned to the noise.

The slightest wane of power signaled that some of the Channelers caught on. Astrid turned her face to see the teenagers. Their faces set, their hands still grasped those of younger children.

But behind them, another tree, and another palm, just like those used in demonstration, wilted away.

The light ahead blared. The rotunda shimmered as though a mirage of light altogether.

“Keep singing!” Paulsen shouted from a position even further away. The S.O. continued to retreat with the spread of dark patches in the gardens. A distinct expanding borderline to what they drained.

Astrid stood at the head, in a field of blue glowing crystals, and watched with horror while the most innocent of her people funneled raw energy onto the Governorship of their greatest potential ally.

Just when Channelers, and passersby alike, began to recognize the damage wreaked, and identified an attack on the capital in progress, a ship flew into view. But it didn’t arrive in the amber and sandstone color Astrid most wished to see.

The Defiance slowed to a hover and sank down into the park. To put a stop to the assault and save the capital.