“Your hand…”
Rebecca focused on Samuel and then looked up at her right hand in the air wielding the weapon from another planet. Her hand was covered in ash. The mess got thicker and thicker the closer it got to the sword until her finger tips were pure charcoal. Rebecca lowered her arm, moving her hand closer to her face for inspection.
When she rubbed the ash with her other hand nothing came off. Rebecca’s left hand was clean. No matter how hard she tried not a hint of ash came off of her skin. Rebecca dropped the sword and coiled her arm back, shaking her head, trying not to panic. It was over. Samuel was safe. The fire had gone out. Now she could move on. But all she could do was worry.
What the hell just happened to her?
Samuel got to his feet and gathered his strength. He put his arm around Rebecca and began walking her back to Ground Control. As they moved away from the sword Rebecca lost all forward motion. Her mouth dropped in the realization that she no longer had complete control over her own body. Samuel got behind her, forcing all his weight into pushing the back of her shoulders. Rebecca fell just a step forward and the sword moved behind them in the same direction. They both looked back at it. The sword had dug up a little pavement when it moved.
Rebecca quietly sobbed while Samuel couldn’t take his eyes off the sword. He tried pushing her again. They made little headway and each time the sword pulled behind them. Samuel was running low on energy after the night he just had, and Rebecca was running low on resolve. He huffed and puffed and after getting his breath told her, “You’re going to have to pick it back up.”
“No!”
“I’m sorry, Rebecca.”
“There has to be another way.”
“We have no idea what we’re dealing with here.”
“We can think of something. You always do.”
“Occam’s razor.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit.”
“Sorry, Doctor, but the simplest answer is often the right one.”
“It’s already covering my hand. What if I pick it up and I’m never able to let go of it again?”
“There’s no reason to think you won’t be able to drop it just like you did before.”
“I’m scared, Samuel.”
“I know, so try to think about it like this, once you get it to Mission Control you never have to touch it again,” Samuel ruthlessly lied for her benefit.
“I don’t know.”
“It hasn’t hurt you.”
“No, it hasn’t.”
“And it saved our lives.”
“…from itself.”
“From whoever was trying to kill us by starting that fire.”
That’s when Rebecca remembered why she had come all the way over to the cape from the prison in the first place. And immediately she began to consider that maybe the two attempts at murder were linked. Rebecca turned and picked up the sword with her charcoal-dusted hand and began walking back to the control room.
“We have a lot to talk about.”
She told Samuel that she already met Graham, which is how she found him. Then she debriefed him on what had happened at the prison with Echo. And instead of telling Atticus about the tone of one of Job’s remarks that resonated with her, she ended up telling Samuel; who came to the same conclusion as Rebecca did. They had to get back to the prison, but not before a brief pit-stop for Graham’s sake.
When they arrived he was still awake, eagerly anticipating their return by the camera. Rebecca walked in behind Samuel, careful to keep the sword out of frame. She knew what kind of moment this would mean for Graham. With little hesitation he asked Samuel over the comm-link what they found.
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“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
For the first time since they met and maybe the last time in his life, Graham smiled. Rebecca held the sword proudly and they both joined with Graham and took a good long look at the mysterious blade from the stars. The edges didn’t look very sharp, almost like a massive charcoal slab with a refined handle. The matted ash-covered blade twirled into the hilt becoming a smooth, rigid grip with a cross-guard that was wide enough and short enough to perfectly cover the top of Rebecca’s hand. The blade had a slight curve in it, caressing the spine all the way to the tip; causing it to resemble dark smoke rising in the wind.
Graham couldn’t help but admire it, “It’s both elegant and archaic at the same time.”
“That’s not all, it has inconceivable properties,” Samuel explained, “Its origin is completely clandestine. Rebecca cannot get its ash off of her hand, and when she lets go of it, the sword remains in a three foot radius at all times.”
“What does that mean?” Graham speculated.
“Now or never Doctor Pratt…” Samuel nudged.
Rebecca took her cue and dropped the sword on the table between them and the big screen. Thankfully, it released without an issue. When Rebecca tried to step back, she only got two paces before feeling the same resistance from before. She turned around in her locked stance and tried to get low. Samuel helped her again as it looked like they were both facing one-hundred-mile-an-hour winds from Graham’s point of view. They were able to nudge it. The sword burrowed into the metal table.
Graham pressed his finger against his lips. He adjusted in his floating stance as if he was deep in thought. Samuel and Rebecca both sat in the position Rebecca was stuck in.
Graham concluded, “Did you try putting some ash from the fire on it?”
Samuel and Rebecca both looked at each other and laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
Samuel got up, “It was a long night.”
“Long morning!” Rebecca corrected him as he walked away from them, “Where are you going?”
“To get some ash.”
“You don’t have to-”
“It’s ok, I got another car rigged. Be back in a jiffy”
Samuel wasn’t lying.
Rebecca took the time to raid a vending machine for granola bars. Clearly no longer having an issue picking up the sword, she strolled over to it and tapped the glass into a million pieces with the tip of the blade. She ate one right away, letting the sword rest on her hip, and then filled a plastic bag, carrying it back to the dented table before the main screen. So when Samuel returned with the ash Rebecca had breakfast waiting for him.
They ate before the experiment. Even Graham enjoyed some- as he called it, “space-goo.” And then Rebecca left the sword on the table and tried to walk away from it. Once she hit resistance Samuel poured the ash over the sword. Rebecca was immediately released forward.
Being that close to the sword, Samuel could not help himself. He picked it up out of the ash. He walked around with it, swung it, and put it back down on the table.
“Incredible,” Graham said through the screen, “It didn’t leave a mark on you.”
Rebecca looked at her own hand which still had the ash from the sword sealed onto her skin. Rebecca ran into the nearest bathroom. Luckily for her Samuel did not have to tinker with anything else for running water. Unlucky for her water, soap, and even bleach cleaner could not wash away the ash.
“Rebecca!”
She ran back into the main room. The sword was squirming on the table.
“Look”
They approached the sword Samuel had put back on the bed of ash. It was leaking clear fluid that spilled out into the ash, blending the liquid black before dissolving into nothing. Rebecca was now beyond terrified. She made her way to the door.
“I have to get back to the prison.”
` “Rebecca, wait!” Samuel tried to stop her before she slammed the door in his face.
That didn’t stop Samuel. He pursued her outside, letting the door slam again behind him.
“Rebecca, I’m leaving.”
“Come back with me. Get away from that thing.”
“I have to start building. If you go back there you’re just increasing your chances of dying-”
They could hear shaking and then smashing from inside, but before Samuel could go check it out, the door they just exited out blasted apart from the sword lunging through the air right back into Rebecca’s hand.
She caught the sword in stride and said, “I think I’ll be okay.” The terror was getting replaced by a newfound sense of purpose as she got in the jeep with her new weapon.
Samuel watched her drive off with his car, trying not to think about how to break it to Graham that she took the sword with her.