(Disclaimers in the prologue)
A man and a woman stood before the window in a brightly coloured café. Their view consisted not of a road, nor a car-park, nor any earth-bound location, but of bright pin-prick stars and dark, empty vacuum; the infinity of space.
They were surrounded by this void, with no means of leaving the small pocket which sustained them. They had been lured, trapped and finally imprisoned. The last, mocking words of their enemy had chilled them to the bone:
"This place is nowhere. And it's forever."
The two of them had stood there for a long time; though whether time had meaning within this place was, of course, debatable. The room was everything, now. It defined all boundaries. A room, a window, and the stars and the vacuum.
The woman's name was Sapphire. She was dressed in blue and her blonde hair teased her shoulders. She was slim and tall - slightly taller than the man in the heels she wore - and breathtakingly beautiful. And though her gaze meandered across the empty vista before them, her eyes retained a focus; an intensity which indicated the strength of her mental powers.
Her companion's name was Steel. Where Sapphire was a flash of colour, he was grey; strong and sharp and well-cut, but still grey. His straight fair hair surrounded a handsome face with expressive eyes, though they lacked the focus of his colleague's. His chin was dropping to his throat, almost imperceptibly, and his shoulders slumped.
A vaguely disbelieving frown between his brows revealed how much of a novelty these feelings of despair were. Even when the odds had been really stacked against them - even when it had seemed as though they could never win through - there had always remained a glimmer of confidence. A glimmer of hope. But no longer. Now, with his butterfly wings pinned back beneath a frame of perpetual nothingness, hope had deserted and he was having difficulty quelling the waves of panic undulating inside.
Whilst Steel despaired, Sapphire attempted to remain calm by furiously backtracking over every event, every action, every word which had led up to their imprisonment. Shutting out the claustrophobia by forcing her thoughts to dwell elsewhere, she looked for the clue; that one element which would reveal a means of escape. Unlike her colleague, she believed it existed somewhere.
She worked through the recent history. The Transient Beings had intercepted their usual line of communication and transmitted rogue instructions. They'd set up a small pocket of reality and enticed Sapphire and her partner to this destination, and she hadn't realised it was a trap until it had been too late.
So there they had found themselves, supposedly at a roadside service station, awaiting some kind of time-break. The trap had been sprung around them as soon as the time irregularities had started. Despite her own disquiet about the scenario, Sapphire had been drawn into investigating the fluctuations which, in retrospect, had been a side-effect; a distraction.
Sapphire shook her head slightly, attempting to clear her thoughts. She was unused to the sluggishness with which her mind was now functioning and, with a twinge of fear, wondered whether the slow loss of her faculties was a symptom of the place they were now in. Total destruction seemed preferable to the prospect of losing her mind. She glanced at Steel, seeking reassurance in the familiar presence of her closest ally, but his eyes were glazed in a manner she had never seen before. She didn't like it and turned away, shivering.
Sapphire concentrated on the sequence of events. After the fluctuations, the shadows had started to arrive. That had given them something else to investigate. They had been so busy fitting the new arrivals into their theories that they hadn't noticed the enemy massing around them, closing in ready for the final strike.
They'd looked at the car. It had been important, she recalled. A lovely old car, shining silver ...
... silver ...
Now she knew there was something she had overlooked. With a conscious wrench of effort, she broke down a wall in her mind; a mental wall which she knew was not of her own building. Pausing only long enough to feel sickened by the idea of something manipulating her private thoughts, Sapphire accessed the memory which had been denied.
"Silver!"
Her clear voice cut through the thick silence. Her sluggishness began to ebb slightly, as though she was stirring from a daydream. She turned to Steel again, pleased to note that his face now wore a puzzled frown. Good. Anything was better than his previous dull defeat.
"Steel, can you remember?" Her voice contained all the sudden excitement she felt. "I know it's strange, it's like trying to remember something from eons ago, not recent at all. But don't you remember, there were three of us!"
"I ... remember," Steel replied, falteringly. "Where is he? I mean, we weren't standing so very far apart, he should be right here, he should have arrived with us!" He squinted, as though the clarification he sought might be visible. For a moment both agents' minds worked frantically through a mental haze, before Steel exploded with frustration and spun into the room, venting his fury at this unfamiliar impotence on one of the nearby tables which, hitherto, had been securely bolted to the floor. He wrenched it from its brackets and hurled it to one side with a cry of anger.
In spite of the danger they were in, Sapphire saw the humorous side of this display. All their fellow Operators spoke of Steel's cold reserve. It was renowned within their network. Steel was considered emotionless, uncaring, frigid even. And Sapphire knew, as nobody else did, that this carefully cultivated image was simply that; no more than an image.
Silver's voice echoed in her head; well-trodden, boyish, flirtatious comments trying to persuade her that Steel was unworthy of her affection, that she deserved someone who was actually capable of responding to her. What would he say to this display of passion?
She continued to smile even after Steel noticed her reaction. Sapphire watched his anger fall away from him and felt rewarded by his slow, self-deprecating grin. He glanced at his hands, red lesions from his violence shrinking back into the skin. The torn fixings lay twisted and mangled on the floor. He stepped around the damage and went to sit at one of the tables which remained intact, lacing his fingers neatly to demonstrate his return to self-control.
"I don't know my own strength, sometimes," he observed, as Sapphire came to sit beside him. He glanced at her sharply as she took his hands in hers. "Sorry." He squeezed her hands then pulled away a little self-consciously, succeeding only in increasing Sapphire's humour.
"You're laughing at me, aren't you?" he accused after a moment.
"Of course I am. I'm in the privileged position of being the only Operator who can get away with it. But if your little tantrum is over, I think we should turn our minds to the problem at hand. Agreed?"
Steel nodded, massaging the sides of his head. "They've done something to us, to our memories. When did they get access to our minds? Surely you would have felt a probe, even if I didn't?"
"I'm certain that it didn't happen at the garage. Like you say, I'd have known. So, it must have been sometime between leaving there and arriving here. Those devices, the travel games; I think we must have been rendered temporarily unconscious when the two of them came together. I certainly don't remember anything between the standoff at the barrier and stepping through the door to this place."
Steel nodded again. "And we were both very disoriented when we arrived," he mused. "Let's assume you're right. Now, they won't have been anticipating two devices, because Silver duplicated the original. That suggests to me that their plan had to change, and change fast, to accommodate these new variables. Which could explain why they've tried to prevent us remembering certain things, and why they probably didn't have too much time in which to do so ... hence the lack of success."
"Is that what you really believe, or what you're hoping?"
"Hoping," he conceded. "I like the idea that their plan isn't going entirely smoothly. If I'm wrong, it might be that this very conversation we're having right now has been predicted. Pre-programmed."
Sapphire nodded gravely in agreement. "We should avoid thinking like that, though. We'll go insane if we start trying to second and third guess ourselves all the time. And anyway, they've got us. We are, in effect, trapped; exactly where they want us. I think it's unlikely that their immediate plans extend much beyond this, this ... incapacitation." She watched her partner raise a dubious eyebrow at her choice of word. "So, in the meantime, let's work through the problem the same way we always do."
"All right," Steel replied. "We'll start at the very beginning ..."
~~~
After he had been confronted with the same flash of emptiness which his two colleagues had seen, Silver had fared quite differently. He had activated a device which had been in his possession from the very start of the recent case, and found himself directly back at the Hub, arriving in front of the same authorities which had sent him.
He got his bearings quickly, shrugging off the disorientation which he knew he had no time to indulge. Silver acknowledged his superiors, the three of them seated with the appropriate pomp in alcoves around the chamber.
"You were right, of course," he started without preamble. "It is the Transient Beings. And our people are in danger, we have to do something. They'd be finished if you hadn't glimpsed the Transients' actions and given me the chance to -"
The central figure interrupted. "Tell us all the details from the start, but first we need to know - were Sapphire and Steel aware of why you were at the location?"
"Sapphire was uncomfortable about my presence, she couldn't see the reason, but she only shared that with Steel and, to a lesser extent, myself. I only noticed it because I was looking for it."
"What about the Transients?"
"Well, obviously they couldn't ask me why I was there without giving their game away. So I acted all protective of Sapphire, flirted a bit, and I think they were persuaded that I was there because I was drawn to her."
"Easy enough to believe, about you," said the figure to the left, with a rare show of humour. "But your silver tongue is wagged in vain. Sapphire and Steel have a communion of their own which simply doesn't allow for others. They're our most ... effective pair because of it."
"Let's hope we can keep talking about them in the present tense," returned Silver, slightly put out that his playful courtship's lack of success was such common knowledge, and less than convinced that the word 'effective' had been the figure's first choice.
"Tell us what happened, then," said the central figure again. "We'll have to assume that your presence didn't arouse suspicion with the Transients until it was too late, and that they've only just realised you aren't where you're supposed to be. This whole operation is too important to fail." The figure barely repressed a shudder. "With the Transients free, no law will be safe."
Silver seated himself on the chair which materialised in the centre of the chamber and addressed the room.
"Well, I arrived before our two, as we planned ..."
~~~
The two agents discussed the case from start to finish. On no other occasion did they encounter a mind block. This was reassuring, but did not necessarily mean there weren't any more. Only after every detail that could be remembered had been retrieved and both individuals were exhausted, did they rest.
"I can't remember the last time I felt so tired, can you?" murmured Sapphire, as uncharacteristic lethargy swept over her.
"No, I can't," came the reply. "I don't usually require rest, certainly not while on assignment. This worries me, Sapphire."
"In what way?"
"Would you agree that this fatigue is unnatural? It's being inflicted upon us."
"Yes. It's not a natural tiredness."
"Well why bother? The fact remains that we are trapped, here." Steel glanced irritably at the walls and ceiling, as though a pointed stare might obliterate the cage. "In fact," he continued, "it seems significant to me that we could even survive in this place for a long time. The environment in this ... this 'pocket' ... will sustain us indefinitely, so far as I can tell. There's no sign that the oxygen levels are depleting, there's a comfortable temperature."
"You're right, it is significant. Any theories?"
Steel sighed through his exhaustion. "Cruelty, perhaps? The old chestnut of wanting your enemies alive and suffering rather than dead?"
As he spoke the words, Sapphire saw Steel shudder, and his trepidation reminded her just how frightened she was. Fear was another enemy right now, forcing them away from logic and control and, ultimately, away from a solution to this predicament. She clamped down on her dread and made sure that her reply sounded calm and steady. Steel needed her mental strength more than anything, at this moment.
"That sounds reasonable. The Transient Beings have never been noted for their philanthropy."
Steel expanded on this train of thought. "They've gone to a lot of trouble to ensnare us and put us here. But we are alive and retain some of our abilities." [Like this one], he thought at Sapphire, and she nodded in recognition of their telepathic link. "And we're together, which surely leaves us much more dangerous to them than separated."
"We can be sure of each other, then?" asked Sapphire, pointedly. "Remember the woman, the implants? She seemed genuine enough, even to me, yet she was a tool, completely under the Transient Beings' influence. Could they have done that to one of us?"
Steel frowned, as he considered the possibility of an interloper, a doppelganger, but a shake of the head revealed how he discarded it. "We know each other too well. I've known altered copies of you immediately, on previous occasions. Remember the railway station?" Sapphire nodded as a fleeting memory played a smile over her lips. "Call it arrogance if you like, but I'm sure I'd know. What about you?"
"I agree, but undo your collar anyway."
Sapphire's request startled the agent momentarily, before comprehension dawned over his features. He unknotted his tie and undid the top buttons of his shirt, forcing it open so she could see that no controllers lurked below his collarbone. It was by no means a foolproof method of verification, but it gave them a start. Sapphire copied the gesture despite Steel's declaration of trust, going through the ritual very deliberately, as much for her own benefit as her partner's.
"We're sure of each other," he asserted, their eyes locked together. Sapphire nodded at the statement, so Steel sat back and returned to his theories, frowning with the effort it took to resist the ever growing fatigue.
"There are two reasons, as I see it, for keeping us alive here. Either this is all they had planned for us and they've underestimated our ability to overcome the present difficulties, or this situation is a temporary measure - a holding cell - and they'll be back to finish us off."
Sapphire shivered involuntarily and Steel grasped her hand, this time with no sign of self-consciousness. She was glad of the contact, and it renewed her optimism. "But Steel, either way, we have the opportunity to do something about this. If it's the first reason, we've got as long as we can last here, otherwise we've got until they decide to return. It's just a question of time."
"To do something, yes. But what?"
~~~
"This woman," interrupted the figure in the central alcove. "You're sure she was human?"
"Well, spot analysis is more Sapphire's field than mine," replied Silver. "But Sapphire never once seemed worried about the origin of the woman, and that was good enough for me."
"And the man? Did she seem concerned about his origin?"
Silver considered, and realised that the authority had a point. "The man was Transient. And no, Sapphire voiced no concerns about his origin while we still thought that they were just a couple of eloping lovers. They must have done something to her sensory abilities."
There was a pause as the three figures conversed silently. Silver was not privy to their discussion and fidgeted slightly in his seat. As he waited for a signal to continue his account, something caught his eye. It was a flash of movement, but not local to the room. Inter-dimensional jet-stream, he mused, wondering why it affected this chamber.
The figures returned their attention to him and indicated that he should continue.
"Well, after the first fluctuations, Sapphire sensed the imminent arrival of the next player; scruffy fellow by the name of Johnny Jack ..."
~~~
"Let's go back to Silver," said Sapphire, as she and Steel repeatedly probed each section of the puzzle, waiting to turn over the piece which would reveal the escape route. Their tiredness had become intense, weighing very heavily both mentally and physically, though neither wanted to sleep for fear of not being able to wake.
"Can't get him out of your mind?" sneered Steel, fatigue revealing more than a hint of jealousy.
"You're very human sometimes, you know," Sapphire said, with a mildness which was deceptive.
"Watch who you call human," rejoined Steel sullenly, before he looked at his companion and let chagrin replace his peevishness. "I'm sorry. What about Silver?"
"What could have happened to him?"
A pause, while they thought, then Steel replied. "Three possibilities. He is either destroyed, imprisoned somewhere else, or free. I think the first is unlikely, as they would have destroyed all of us at the same time if that was their aim. I think the second is unlikely because it would waste energy and resource building a separate prison to this one for Silver. And Silver's technical abilities make him very difficult to incarcerate, remember. Which leaves the third."
"But how could he be free?" pondered Sapphire. "I suppose he could either have been turned loose or escaped, but both seem improbable."
"If they went to the trouble of luring him to the same spot as ourselves, they must have intended something for him," agreed Steel.
"That always worried me though, Steel. Why was he there? We've discussed their reasons for wanting us out of the way - jealousy of our allegiance, our competence and independence. But Silver doesn't fit into that, he's a resource we sometimes need, a specialist, nothing to do with our own partnership."
"All right, let's take it one step back. In order to get to that place he must have received instructions. Assuming he received them from the same source we did, then he's either more important to the Transients than we can appreciate at this moment, or ... or ... or he's actually part of the plot against us," he concluded, unnerved by his attempt at logic. Steel turned to his companion. "You know him better than I do, Sapphire. Could he be persuaded to join them?"
Sapphire thought hard through the veil of her exhaustion. "It's difficult to be unbiased regarding a friend, but I really don't think so. What about you?"
Steel frowned. "I respect Silver for his ability. His savoir-faire annoys me, but I suppose that's just in his character. And it certainly doesn't make him a traitor. I've wished for a silver tongue myself before now."
"There is another possibility," said Sapphire. "He could have got his orders from some other source."
~~~
"There were three Transients, and two of them were sacrificed?" The central figure demanded confirmation and Silver nodded. "This all led up to the standoff, one box against the other."
"If they hadn't lost the box and I hadn't copied it, it would have been very easy for them to force us all into a corner and trap us in a dimensional pocket or even fling us to our deaths. But when they realised I had seen the box and possibly duplicated it, they needed to get us in one place, in front of their remaining box without letting us successfully corner all of them. So two of them became victims of our box - sent back about two hundred million years, I believe. And our confidence went up - we really thought we could beat them, then. Which is what they wanted, because we went for the confrontation and allowed ourselves to be manipulated."
"What would you have done otherwise?" asked the figure.
"I suppose we could have arranged to play it more defensively; kept away, worked on the barrier."
The central figure nodded understanding. "So the standoff was the point when you activated the home device?"
"That's right. I didn't know whether it would have functioned from wherever they intended to send us. Forgive my urge for self-preservation." Silver had the grace to appear ashamed at his desertion.
"Not at all, you've done very well." The figure brushed off the manner in which Sapphire and Steel had been abandoned. "We need to know only one more thing, and then we can spring our own trap on the Transients. Put them back where they belong."
"Yes?" asked Silver.
"Where are Sapphire and Steel now?"
~~~~~~~
Continued in Chapter 2
Back to Transients, by Zircon
Back to EvA's Fanfic Page