Keystones: Altered Destinies Read Online Free PDF

sentient structure. He felt both welcomed and intimidated.
    There was a teasing sensation in his mind, something just out of reach. He pushed at the feeling, which was elusive and slippery. It was incredible that something with so large a footprint would be so hard to pin down.
    Whereas breaking encryption felt like slicing through flimsy ribbon, here he was unsure of his target. He wasn’t even sure what he was using to reach it when, without warning, he felt himself slide into a crack. There it was! An avenue of approach. It was like wedging his fingers into a crevice while dangling from a cliff.
    Cay held on, then pushed. As he did so, the artifact in his mind’s eye lit up with lines of light like alien graffiti. The sensor screens exploded with unfamiliar data. His mind was sent adrift in swirling currents, the likes of which he had never encountered.
    He swam through a rip tide of data, the deeper meaning of which he couldn’t begin to fathom. No previous experience had prepared him for this, or even given him any clues as to what tactics to try. He improvised with glee. Not only was he interfacing again, but it was also an invigorating challenge. Whatever the artifact held, after a year of boredom he was once more alive. He was aware of an underlying structure, a foundation to which he could cling. If only he could find the right perspective and the right rules!
    All technology had rules, but comparing a computer system to this artifact was like comparing a match to a volcano. Whatever it was, he knew that it must be a repository of incredible information. That knowledge drove him forward, fueling his curiosity.
    Cay imagined himself standing up, ignoring the intense light that radiated off the artifact, and walking across the violent sea of energy. Throwing caution to the wind, he placed both hands onto different lines of glowing light. A purple radiance emanated from the artifact and stretched out in an elliptical plane, sweeping around the asteroid before encompassing the entire solar system.

The Sweep

    Cay’s eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed, a marionette whose strings had been cut. Calm caught him and stared through his face plate. The radiance had passed through his own sphere as if it were no impediment. He felt naked, unprotected, vulnerable.
    A voice roared over his intercom, “Report! Report! Abort mission.”
    The urgent voice brought Calm back into the moment. “Cay has collapsed,” he said.   “We’re returning to Explorer .”
    The exotic energy that had enveloped the Armstrong on its forays to and from the asteroid was absent. Calm was aware of this anomaly while focusing on Cay. The kid appeared to be alive but unconscious. Why had Cay collapsed? What was that light? What had it done to them?
    Upon docking they were met by support staff who carried Cay through the airlock to remove his suit and test his vital signs. Meanwhile Explorer headed back to FAME Station 5.
    Calm watched the men attending to Cay. There was an intensity to their actions that conveyed a sense of immense urgency. People rushed by in the passageway. The ship reminded Calm of a disturbed anthill—frantic activity everywhere.
    He grabbed one of the passing workers and asked, “Why is everyone so panicked?”
    “They’re gone!”
    “Who’s gone?”
    “Earth! The Sun! They’re gone!”

Day 2

Morning Fears

    Deklan awoke uncomfortable.
    Again.
    Details came rushing back to him, overwhelming him.
    He remembered the fight; he remembered speeding; he remembered losing control and jumping the guardrail. He remembered the timeless fall of his car that had dragged on for an eternity. He remembered the pain. He remembered waking in the morgue.
    Deklan forced himself to focus on the cat that had just landed on his chest. Mittens. This was the first time in his life that the overweight feline’s crashing onto his chest was an improvement over the previous day.
    He pushed her off with ill grace. She was an