Analyzing

Anya-28 felt more useless than at any other time in the past three years. And that was saying something. Her whole life basically had to restart from scratch on her Induction three years before. Overnight, she'd gone from one of the most gifted and celebrated gymnasts in the Solar System to a bottom-tier novice Watcher. The tremendous skills and talents that had filled her life with excitement and glamor suddenly meant nothing. She wasn't even allowed to maintain extreme physical training on her own time, since it was deemed too risky to let a Watcher perform such "stunts."

And what had her former life been replaced with? Confusing, tedious, esoteric training at a purely cerebral ability for which she had very little talent. All of the other Watchers showed far greater promise than she, and it had only gotten worse the following year. Suddenly, a puny sickly child genius had shown up, and he instantly displayed greater raw talent than any other Watcher in history. Worse, she couldn't even hate him. Niko was so mild, so friendly, and his condition regularly put him through more pain in a single day than most people had to deal with in a lifetime.

Only Klaus made her feel at all confident in her new life. He encouraged her to keep up physical training on the side, so far as was deemed "safe." He even tried, hilariously, to join in. That man didn't have an acrobatic bone in his body, and he spent most of their exercise sessions wiping out. But she leaned on his advice every day. On how to cultivate her newfound powers. How to keep her morale up. How to celebrate her former career, instead of just mourning it. Although Klaus had ultimately taken on Niko as his protégé, he'd never stopped giving Anya as much time as she needed.

And now… he might be gone. For good. And Anya had been utterly useless. It didn't matter that everyone else had been useless too. Hundreds of people had searched in person, and all the other Watchers had been doing the same as she. But somehow, Anya felt the weight of their shared failure as a very personal thing. If Fawzia weren't seventy, Anya would be the weakest of the eighteen Watchers, and Fawzia had seventeen times her experience with the Organization. As the weakest link among the Watchers, Anya had a nagging dread that, somehow, she was responsible for this. As if she might have found Klaus, and not doing so would lay his death squarely on her shoulders.

All of her best talents meant nothing now. Physically, she was by far the strongest of the Watchers, despite half of them being men. And in terms of athletic skill… forget about it. Pit her against all of them in any sport, and she likely would've won alone and with little effort. And her confidence in front of crowds, her ability to win over a room?

None of it mattered. In this new life, in a role that all of humanity lauded her for… she was weak, clumsy, dumb, and–

"Anya, I think you'll be the best at this."

She blinked, confused. That was Duri-22 on the line, and she had no clue what he was getting at. "Sorry, Duri, could you repeat that last? I just withdrew from my rig a moment ago, and I missed whatever led up to that."

"Fawzia's down, with a migraine so bad Watching will likely be impossible till tomorrow. Peng already Watched for seven hours prior to the search, and he's basically ready to black out. I'm not doing much better. And Niko? He's had two panic attacks in the last ten hours, and his biometrics warn that he might be due for a nerve flare at any time. He's psyching himself up to endure hours of torture, and he'll probably still be wrecked this time tomorrow. Even Charlotte's wearing out. She's the strongest of us, but that's partly due to how totally she can throw herself into Watching."

"So when you say I'm 'the best at this,' you simply mean I'm the only option left for whatever you have in mind."

"Well, that's one way to look at it," Duri said, sounding a bit exasperated. "But think of why. You're by far the most physically fit Watcher, to a degree that's actually kinda crazy, and that has direct bearing on overall stamina. Further, all your prior training gives you pain tolerance second only to Niko. Both of those factors mean you have the potential to Watch way longer than most."

Anya thought back. She vaguely remembered Klaus mentioning she might have such potential. But that was three years ago, and her training since then had always focused on increasing her clarity and range.

"You may not have power yet, but who cares?" Duri made her deepest insecurities seem minor. "We only need someone Watching the surrounding ice sheet. It finished snowing shortly before Klaus went missing. The rest of us are either exhausted, or about to be. But you can still look for footprints or other tracks."

For someone who was once the best in the room at everything she did, being valued only for her stamina sure wasn't much…

But it was way better than nothing.

"Plugging back into my chamber," she said. "Let the others rest. I can do this all night."

A coworker lies dead in the morgue, and I can't afford to give it any attention. What rotten timing. Doctor Supriya Sharma, Chief Medical Officer, would have felt far more comfortable in the Infirmary, examining the body of Samantha Gross. But with a Watcher missing, even the slight chance of Supriya having useful insights mattered more than the autopsy, which had been passed off to an underling. Instead, she was stuck in an Archival Study room with two department heads that had far more relevant skills than her own.

Tácito Nelson, Head Archivist, and Renya Baldwin, Head Scientist, each had far more to add to this discussion.

They also happened to be three times her size.

From the poorest Province of India, Supriya hadn't received the childhood hormone therapies that would have cured her rare form of dwarfism. Though proportioned like an ordinary adult woman, she was barely a meter tall. The matronly Renya and the extraordinarily tall Tácito each made Supriya look like a child… but that was true with nearly all of her colleagues.

"Here we go," Tácito said. "Another section has been fully rendered. Projecting now." A high-resolution hologram filled the center of the room, and Tácito immediately began rotating it and adjusted the zoom. Although Watchers perceived their visions as if they were physically present, their subconscious mind actually observed in every direction. Thus, archivists frequently learned far more after the fact. In this case, Supriya noted two children in a little boat on a stream, and it was clear Klaus hadn't noticed them yet. One was laying down under a blanket, while the other sat straight, unnaturally still. Tácito advanced the recording ten seconds, by which time Klaus had begun drawing his perspective toward the boat.

"Hold on," Renya said. "Rotate one hundred eighty degrees." The hologram rotated, and Sypriya understood Renya's interest. Blindspots in the recorded perspective prevented a clear view, but they saw enough. "That child is an Unwanted. And not just any Unwanted. Klaus saw that boy mere minutes earlier, many kilometers away. How did he end up out here?"

"Wait a moment." Tácito brought up an alert off to the side. "The girl matches the description of a Person of Interest Niko-29 flagged shortly after the search ended. Apparently, he saw a girl just like her earlier today, and she may be the single most important discovery related to the Elpis Anomaly."

Niko's audio note played, describing the disturbing, reality-defying arrival of a girl referred to as "Lamia," the inability of normal people to see her, and her total power over an Unwanted girl.

"We're finally on to something." Renya leaned in eagerly. "I don't know if this will in any way help us find Klaus-21, but at least we may be nearing a breakthrough regarding the Unwanted."

"There's barely three minutes of unrendered data left." Tácito sounded worried. "What are the odds that Klaus just happened to find this 'Lamia' girl mere minutes before vanishing if there's no connection?"

"That's both good news and bad, then," Supriya observed. "Since coincidence feels improbable, we likely will learn something relevant to the Klaus-21 situation. But do not expect the news to be good. If this Lamia girl is invisible to normal humans and can pass through walls and can move Unwanted with her mind…" she trailed off. That was a very troubling combination of impossible traits.

Tácito continued to manipulate the hologram, advancing at half the speed Klaus would have experienced. He and Renya clearly had their attention on the Unwanted boy and the mysterious Lamia. But Supriya noticed something that didn't make sense. "Is that a visual artifact or a rendering error?"

"Which part?" Tácito paused the playback.

"The dimples on the side of the boat. There's nothing to explain those indentations."

"What…" Renya was rarely at a loss for words, but she was right now.

"I… I don't know," Tácito admitted. "But it certainly could be an error. Look at the miscellaneous data folder." With a keystroke, he brought it up. "There's a spike of junk data at this moment. It could be data corruption or minor fluctuations in Klaus-21's brain function…"

But he trailed off. Those indentations certainly didn't look like a random error. They looked like the surface of the rubber raft was being pressed against by two invisible objects.

Supriya knew far less about Watcher footage than her two colleagues. But perhaps that was a good thing. Without decades of patterns and expectations getting in the way, she could more freely ask "stupid" questions. "If a Watcher ever experienced sensory input other than sight or sound… what would our equipment do with such brain data?"

A moment of silence passed, during which the eyes of both Renya and Tácito slowly widened as new concepts dawned on them. Tácito recovered first. "We don't have any systems in place for categorizing such data, since it's never been needed. So it would end up in the miscellaneous folder…"

Renya jumped to her feet. "Do we have any full immersion VR rigs?"

"Of course," Supriya answered. "In the training sector of security. All of our soldiers regularly train by experiencing simulated injury or even death. I hate what they have to go through, but it works wonders for their courage and pain tolerance. Those rigs are top tier."

Tácito commed the Security Chief. "Hasina, we need to commandeer one of your VR Training rigs. Ideally one in a larger chamber with full holo capacity."

"Understood," Hasina answered. "I'll grant you access to our very best, the one the boys call the 'Holodeck.' You're going to be displacing Captain Martins though. Even after a full day of searching, he can't sleep. I think he's simulating our nastiest training program, pitting him against an entire Division. It's how he unwinds at the end of a stressful day."

"Tell him to pop some sleeping meds and turn in for the night," Supriya said. "Doctor's orders. Our best combat asset—by far—needs to take better care of his health."

With that, Tácito finished routing their data to the training room in question, and the three department heads jogged toward the nearest elevator. Skinny Tácito's crazy-long legs let him instantly shoot ahead, and the two women groaned as they fought to keep up.

This is it… The flare's starting… and it's gonna be a bad one…

Niko-29 lay in the Infirmary, hooked up to scanners and diagnostics gear, and he tried to keep his breathing steady. He'd gotten pretty good at noticing the early warning signs of his condition, and he'd made it to the Infirmary with time to spare. Charlotte and Duri had offered to stay with him, but he'd refused. They needed their rest, especially Charlotte. Niko wouldn't be in any condition to Watch tomorrow, so only Charlotte would be able to study Elpis.

And with Doctor Supriya busy helping with the analysis of Klaus-21's last Watch, he wouldn't even have her to keep him company. That's ok. I need to get to where I can handle this alone.

The pain started in his fingers and toes. For a moment, it was manageable. A sharp tingling sensation.

Then, it started to burn.

It'll be ok… It's only pain… The fire isn't real.

The sensation spread. His hands and feet tingled. His fingers and toes now felt like they'd been dipped in boiling water.

It's just a lie. It's not real.

The tingling spread up his legs and arms. His hands and feet now boiled.

Bring. It. On.

The burning intensified. For it to get so bad so fast… it was gonna be as vicious as it ever got.

If Klaus is right, this pain might be part of why I have so much talent for Watching. My nervous system has been trained and toughened by a thousand hours of torture.

It trained his body too. Little Supriya often said that Niko had no need for exercise. Whenever his CPN-Ω flared up, it counted as an extreme total body workout. The pain hadn't even maxed out yet, and he already felt his body going taut. He doubted there were many sedentary preteens as hardened as him, to say nothing of his ability to endure pain. If he ever decided to join Anya in her private gymnasium, he might just surprise them both. But man, this was not a fun way to train…

He focused on his breathing, noting his heart speeding up, and decided it was finally time to try something. Klaus once suggested there was a chance these flares might one day work with his Watching, instead of against it. If so…

"Hey there, tough guy." The voice was gentle, but with a core of respect. Niko opened his eyes, and was surprised to see Captain Benicio Martins. The man's face showed signs of recent agony.

"Hi there, Benny." As far as Niko knew, he was the only person outside of Brazil to have been given direct permission to use the nickname. "You look like you had a rough day." The tingling now affected his entire body, and the burning was spreading into his core.

"Yeah, my training simulation got kinda dark," the elite soldier said. "They took me alive. A rare event triggered, and they started torturing me for intel. I could've just terminated the session… but then I thought of you."

The tingling sensation reached Niko's head. The rest of his body now felt like it was boiling. "I'm… glad… that I can inspire someone as strong as you to push even harder."

Benicio smiled, and put a hand on Niko's shoulder. The point of contact was torturous, but Niko chose not to mention it. "Kid, I've taken some nasty hits in my time, and the Simulator can get rough. But I've never known anyone who's endured what you do."

"I've met twenty-two." His voice was strained, and quivering, now that the flare had fully engulfed him. The boiling heat shifted to something more like fire, then a burn more like acid, then back to boiling. "Last year, on Visitation Day, Hasina arranged for more than just my family to visit. Every other person in the Solar System with CPN-Ω was brought in too. One came from as far as Europa."

"Like Charlotte?" Benny asked.

"Yeah, but of Chilean descent instead of Canadian. And she'd never visited Earth before." Niko had to pause briefly, as the pain surged, overwhelming his ability to speak.

Benicio filled the silence. "I wish I'd already worked here. Seeing twenty-three of the toughest humans alive all in one room would've been an honor."

The surge subsided, leaving Niko's body merely on fire. "None of 'em were older than twenty. This condition has a prognosis that was, until recently, 100% accurate: Suicide within eight years of first onset of symptoms. Two of the people I met were right at that limit. And I could see it in their eyes. They were… done. They viewed that visit as their last experience. At least at the start… before I gave'em a reason to hope."

The Captain's expression darkened. He gave Niko's shoulder a squeeze. It hurt more than could be described, but the boy chose to view it as comforting. Welcome. He didn't want Benny to stop. Because what it meant mattered far more than how it felt.

"You won't do that," Benicio said. "You're the only person I know who's stronger than me. And it's by a lot, kid. No matter how hard it gets, you'll never give up. In my book, you've been a man since you were nine."

"Oh, I probably would've given up, eventually." His heart pounded now, and sweat soaked his body. At the thought of choosing death, he nearly shed a tear. But it would have been for himself, and that path led to a bottomless pit. "Hasina saved my life by bringing the others to visit. And she saved their lives too." Now he could safely let the tears flow, for them, and it was a beautiful release.

Silence fell. The elite guard wasn't actually much of a talker, and he trusted Niko to open up at his own pace. Once he'd composed himself, Niko did so. "Not one of those twenty-two has taken their life since that visit. And it's because of me. I'm a Watcher. We're given higher priority than anyone. Not even a Head of State or the Minister of Colonization is given V.I.P. status on par with ours. And because of that, this condition isn't hopeless anymore. Before meeting me, those twenty-two people had nothing to look forward to except years of torture, wondering how long they'd last before finally ending it. The only official act regarding this condition was to legally allow such a decision if the patient was deemed to be in sound mind."

The next surge of increased agony was possibly the worst Niko had ever felt. Every atom of his existence was pure fire. But right now, Benny was with him, honoring him, and he was speaking of the single most important truth in his life.

The pain could not stop him. "Chronic Promethean Neuropathy: Omega Variant. A condition so rare, with so few victims, and so little relevant data… there was simply no hope of a cure ever being found… until I was Inducted." The latest surge sent his body so taut he almost blacked out. His back arched, every tendon and tiny muscle standing out brutally, adding still further to the overall pain. Benicio stayed silent, patient, his presence more comforting than he likely knew. For him, Niko could continue. "With a Watcher suffering from it… everything changes." Tears again flowed, when he thought of just how much this meant to the others who shared his pain. "Lots of medical institutions and drug companies have fully shifted their research. There's so many doctors and scientists working on CPN-Ω, it's only a matter of time before they find a cure."

The hope on Benny's face nearly brought on more tears. The man gave his shoulder another agonizing squeeze. "You're worth it, kid. Humanity will do whatever it takes to help you, so that you can help us in ways we never could."

Niko managed to smile. The pain surged, but he forced words out anyway. "After that visit, I'm so glad I'm going through this. If I were healthy, the others would have no hope. But they're hanging on, they're enduring, and they expect a cure, because of me. My pain means theirs won't last forever."

"Kid, I've got nothin' on you," the Captain said quietly. "Every soldier needs to accept that they might suffer or die in the line of duty, hopefully to save lives. But you? A twelve-year-old kid, who goes through thirty to fifty hours of torment every month… and you're glad, since it means others will finally be cured?"

"I'm not as special as you think. I'm pretty sure most people would feel the same after meeting the others." A wave of agony reached a level where he started to shake uncontrollably. Two nurses came over, but they were familiar with his flares. They couldn't meaningfully affect his pain 'd only intervene if it looked like his heart might take damage from the strain.

The older nurse gave Captain Martins a disapproving look. "You're supposed to be sleeping right now."

Completely ignoring her, Benny shook his head in wonder. "Niko… you're one of a kind."

Though the fire in his flesh would likely last for hours, the most recent surge subsided. "Benny, I'm gonna try something. Something Klaus thought I might be able to do someday. I'm gonna try Watching… right now."

The guard tilted his head slightly. He didn't know enough to really understand how crazy that sounded. Niko's panic attacks, which were way less harsh than his current suffering, were always enough to break his Trance and end his Watch. But right now, Klaus was in trouble. Maybe… maybe that would be enough.

Niko closed his eyes, and focused. This was very hard. Every cell in his body screamed at him, shrieked at him, for his attention. His entire nervous system erroneously believed that he was boiling alive. But if he could force his mind out of his body… maybe all that pain could alter the rules in some way. Perhaps, his Watch could be more useful…

Without the equipment in his Chamber, Niko wouldn't be able to reach out far, even if he succeeded. Headquarters was encased in a unique form of faraday cage specifically designed to block unenhanced Watching. That had been vital to finally sway public opinion mostly in favor of the Watchers. The threat to personal privacy Watchers represented had caused serious problems in the early days of the organization. HQ had such powerful defensive systems due to the legitimate threat of terrorist attacks, or even military strikes. Many societies, cultures, and organizations had not accepted the fact that a small number of government employees could see anyone, anywhere, at any time, with no checks or balances.

The solution had been to shield HQ. Now, a Watcher could only extend their awareness outside of their Antarctic base when plugged into their Chamber. And since their Chambers recorded all of their Watches in extreme detail, unauthorized invasion of privacy could never be covered up. Only twice since the addition of the faraday cage had a Watcher gone off the rails and Watched citizens without permission. In both cases, the Watcher had stood trial for the crime, although there were hard limits set on how stiff their punishments could be. The unauthorized footage had been destroyed after the trial, and the guilty Watchers had learned their lesson. They hadn't had an incident in thirty years.

Still, if Niko managed to Watch at all during his flare, it would be a major breakthrough. Fawzia had gotten pretty good at Watching despite migraines, and Anya's pain tolerance allowed her to Watch even when her whole body ached from prolonged strength training. If they could do it, maybe Niko could too.

He strained, and strove, trying to bring his full awareness into his mind alone. His body called out to him in agony, begging him to intervene, despite there being nothing he could do. The doctors and scientists agreed that any pain meds capable of reducing this agony would risk serious damage to his brain or nervous system. That might even, perversely, lead to future flares being even worse. All past attempts to put him under with general anesthetic had backfired. His overcharged nervous system fought the anesthesia to the point that it would require a lethal dose to have any effect.

Again and again, Niko tried to push away all awareness of his body. He needed his full focus only on his inner world. And that inner world was agony too. His brain suffered the greatest pain of all, as it had by far the greatest nerve activity.

That's it… Niko realized. My whole body hurts, but my brain actually hurts more… Normally, during these flares, he'd try to focus on the pain throughout his body, to distract himself from the agony in his head. That way, he could at least try to think, to converse, to take more cerebral measures to cope with the pain. But if I instead focus only on the pain in my head…

This was easier than expected. The agony behind his eyes was so terrible, turning his full attention to it blocked out all other pain. Even Benny's latest shoulder squeeze barely mattered. With his mind fully focused on its own torment, all other sensation faded.

With a burst of brutal power, Niko's awareness blasted through the base's faraday cage, across seventy lightyears of empty space, and he found himself Watching the colony of Elpis.