Vector Prime — Chapter 1
The Rift crackled like ravenous locusts as it consumed the only world Djorn Pallander had ever known. His legs burned as he sprinted up the stairs of the emergency broadcast station and his lungs felt like they might explode. Three more floors. He was his planet’s last chance. Panic threatened to freeze him, but he couldn’t give up hope.
Hope was the only weapon he had, and the rumor that another world had held off the digital conquest of the Rift with a specifically tuned broadcast through loudspeakers. There was no proof that it had worked. He had to try.
He reached the top floor of the station and hit every switch on the wall until the control panels at the three workstations lit up. Long, open windows let the breeze in. The Rift smelled of burning metal. It was several kilometers away, and the sound of digital churning still reached him. It grew louder.
The western quadrant had already been digitized. Where there were once gradations of shadows within the forests, now the landscape was pixelated into millions of separate values of light. A jagged representation of the natural world devoid of feeling. The same thing had happened to the townships there. And the people.
Djorn couldn’t let the East and South quadrants fall. Contact had been cut off with the North, but they could still be alive and fighting. If he was successful with his broadcast, then they would learn of this new weapon against the Rift.
He rushed from station to station in the control room, dialing the emergency broadcast speakers to their maximum. Hopefully, enough time remained to experiment with the frequency of the sound in order to push the Rift back.
But he didn’t have enough hands to operate all the stations at once. His heart raced as his fingers fumbled to turn the controls. He turned to run back to the first station and skidded to a stop.
A figure stood in the doorway, staring at him.
“Kara!” he called out. “Remember the rumor we’d heard from that refugee? If we can find the perfect wavelength, we can fight the Rift.”
His sister remained motionless, expression calm.
“I need you on station two.” He pointed at the controls. “We can do this together.”
Outside, the Rift crackled closer.
“Kara,” he begged. “I need you to help me.”
“I am helping you.” She glided into the room and wrapped her hand around the power cables to one of the stations. With improbable strength, she tore the cables free. Sparks blasted out and bounced across her face but she did not blink.
“Sister!” He rushed to reach the next station before she did, but Kara was too fast. She yanked the power cables out and the hum of the broadcast station quieted.
“We were born of the same blood,” she said flatly, “and you stood in one spot while I moved forward. We are no longer kin.”
Behind him, the Rift raged near enough to crackle static across his skin. “What are you doing?”
“I’m helping you, and everyone, find peace and order,” she said. “You were never smart enough to join Vector Prime, but now you’ll see how aiding the Rift to take our world is the best thing for us.” She walked toward him. “The chaos you feel, the beating of your heart, driven by fear and doubt, it will all be gone. We will be ruled by the truth of data. Clean and orderly.”
Djorn met her in the middle of the room and tried to push her back to the doorway. The impact shook him like he’d hit an iron wall. He sprawled backward onto a control station. Kara was unnaturally serene. She had been his sister, and now he had no idea what she’d become.
“I am helping us evolve,” she said as the Rift swept up the building, in the window, and through Djorn’s body and consciousness.
