The First Nexus

A jolt of fear ran through Ignacio as he sprang to his feet.

Thiago sat up, eyes wide. “What was that?”

Ignacio ran out of his room to the lounge, pressing his visor to cut the call with Thiago. Celeste lay on the couch on her side, her arms over her head and legs tucked in a ball. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks as he rushed around the couch to her, dropping to his knees.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asked, holding his hands out uselessly, trying to keep the fear from his voice.

“My… head,” she whispered, her tan cheeks turning red.

Every possible explanation ran through his mind at the same time. Was she sick? Had she not been eating enough? Ether-abduction?

Ether-abduction…

He grabbed her shoulders, using his bodyweight to lift her upright. She stared straight ahead, eyes sparkling with tears.

“I… can hear them,” she said.

Ignacio frowned. “What can you hear?”

She lowered her hands from her head, and slowly raised a pointing finger. “They’re coming.”

Tear marks stained her yellow pajama top, the finger she pointed with shaking.

“Who is? What do you hear?” Ignacio asked, following her pointed finger to the blacked out windows and powerless holo-projector.

A smile slowly came to her face, and she brushed strands of her dark hair from her cheeks.

“I can see it,” she said, opening her outstretched hand. “The Ethergeist.”

Ignacio frowned as he stood up, pressing the rim of his visor.

“Live call doctor Ivo,” he said.

An image of the Doc popped up, followed by a dialing sound and an eye symbol. The visors blurred as the Doc answered, and a blue holo-projection of him sat beside Celeste.

He looked up, the lens of his robotic left eye adjusting.

“I’m busy, Ignacio, what do you want?”

“Doc, it’s Celeste,” Ignacio breathed, his stomach aching. “Can you switch to live view?”

The Doc frowned, leaning forward and pressing something before leaning back.

His eyes widened. “By the state,” he muttered. “What happened?”

Ignacio’s heart thumped in his chest as he stared at Celeste, her hand still outstretched with a light smile, staring past Ignacio as if in a different world.

“Ignacio!” the Doc shouted, making him jump.

“Yes, Doc, I don’t know,” he said, grabbing his hair in his hands.

Not like this. Please, not like this.

She blinked, lowering her hand as she glanced up at him. The holo-projection of the Doc frowned as he lowered his chin, the lens of his robotic eye adjusting.

“Ace…” Celeste breathed, placing her hand to her cheek and staring at the tears glinting on her fingertips.

“Celeste,” Ignacio said, swallowing hard as he kneeled beside her. “Are you okay?”

She tightened her lips. “I don’t know.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

She looked down at her hands. “I was watching the news after you went to have a shower,” she said, a frown lowering her eyes as her smile widened. “And then I started falling asleep, so I switched the holo-projector off. And then this pain… and all of a sudden the room seemed to fade.”

Ignacio frowned, his gaze flicking to the holo-projection of the Doc as he started writing on air.

“What did you see?” Ignacio asked.

She flexed her fingers. “The room faded. And then, I was suddenly standing in a massive field with trees and mountains in the distance. And this giant blue dragon, or snake, or something, fell from the sky and crushed the mountains. And on the other side was a golden staircase leading to a beautiful temple with high, golden pillars and marble walls… with my name inscribed in some language at the top. I don’t know how I understood it. I just did.”

“She said she was watching the news?” the Doc asked, still writing something down. “Were you watching the Specterveil project?”

“Yes,” Ignacio said. “Doc, can’t I bring her in to the clinic?”

The Doc sighed. “You know you can’t afford it, Ace. And you’re not covered for this sort of thing by your tier one medical care subscription.”

Ignacio’s jaws clenched. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Ace…”

He glanced back at Celeste, and his jaw slacked. She lay on her side again, her eyes wide, chest heaving rapidly.

“No,” Ignacio shouted, rushing to her as a knife of fear cut into his heart. “Celeste?”

He held her shoulders, shaking her gently. Please, don’t leave me.

Nothing. He swallowed as he held back tears, a lump forming in his throat. He lowered his head, rubbing his forehead until it burned, his palm turning slick with sweat.

“Not you as well,” he whispered, looking back up at her with burning eyes. “Not you. Please, Celeste! Don’t leave me!”

“Bring her to the clinic,” the Doc said from his visor. “Now.”

Ignacio tapped his foot, interlocking his hands as they hung over his knees.

The Doc tilted his head side to side as he examined Celeste on the clinic table. She sat upright as if she were alone in the room, waiting for someone to get her.

It couldn’t be. She had to be sick, or developing some kind of condition. Why on Earth would anyone want to Ether-abduct a child who did nothing?

The Doc straightened, lifting the bulky pair of nano-goggles from his face.

He sighed, pulling off his gloves as his eyes moved to Ignacio. He slowly shook his head.

No… Ignacio thought, leaning back into his chair.

He pressed his palms against his eyes as he threw his head back, clenching his teeth.

What did she do? What did I do?

His body shuddered under the weight of his emotions, what little hope he’d had suddenly crushed and bleeding out of him into the tears on his palms.

A hand rested on his shoulder, and he grabbed onto it. “She’s all I got left, Doc,” he whispered. “Please tell me you can help her.”

The Doc sighed. “Ace… there’s something I need to tell you.”

Ignacio looked up, sniffling like a weasel. He hated crying. It made him feel like a damned idiot and a weakling. And those words dried up what few tears he had left.

“What?” he asked.

The Doc placed an arm under his, helping him stand. “Sit down, and listen to me very, very carefully.”

Ignacio backed away, sitting down on the chair without taking his eyes off the Doc.

The Doc sighed, tucking his gloves into the pocket of his white lab-jacket. “Have you ever heard of the First Nexus?”

Ignacio frowned, folding his arms against his aching stomach. “Y-yes, I heard of it.”

The Doc nodded, scratching his chin. “I need your word that what I’m about to tell you does not leave this room. Do you understand me? Nothing I share with you came from me, it’s a wild theory of yours. Understand?”

Ignacio nodded, then shook his head. “Doc, what are you-”

The Doc held up a hand. “Just listen. Never repeat. Caution takes precedent. Do you understand?”

Ignacio nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The Doc nodded, then placed a hand against the side of his face with a sigh. “Well, the First Nexus isn’t a marketing gimmick the way most people think it is. That narrative around the concept was a way of introducing it to public awareness without giving away the true nature of what they were looking for.”

“They?” Ignacio asked.

“Cypher Corp has been looking for someone who fits the criteria of being a Nexus for the better part of fifteen years now, Ace,” the Doc said, his tongue rolling against the inside of his cheek, the white glow from the ceiling casting a shadow to each wrinkle in his face. “You saw the Corpo and his two Reapers come in here earlier?”

Ignacio frowned. He’d completely forgotten what happened that day. The Corpos had been in the clinic? He opened his mouth to say it but tightened his lips instead. It didn't seem like a good time to just blurt it, not now with what the Doc was saying.

“No, I didn’t see them,” Ignacio said.

The Doc frowned. “Anyway, you’ve seen them before. Sleek hats, black coats, red ties. The Reapers are the-”

“Yeah, I’ve seen them. But you’ve never told me why they come here.”

“They don’t only come here, Ace,” the Doc said, rubbing his jaw. “They go to every hospital, clinic, prison and school in the world looking for someone fitting the category of being a Nexus. For someone who can enter the Ethergeist without using a Cypher-Zero.”

Ignacio shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, Doc.”

“I’m saying that I know what kind of symptoms they were looking for,” the Doc said, folding his arms as he lowered his head. “And I sent a recording of what Celeste did and said to them.”