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see a face in the clear substance that made up the tube. There was a sleeping person in that tube.
    She felt cold as they continued inside and when she saw the warehouse full of stacked canisters wired to support systems. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. A dozen Raiders were working on the stacks of the tubes and the number exceeded what she could count without doing a lot of math.
    Talents. There had to be talents in those tubes and this explained the rumours of folk being turned in and disappearing off the face of Resicor. Someone had been storing them.
    Fury rippled through Trala but there was still no clue as to what was hiding the area from Resicor.
    Envix touched her arm and guided her through the aisles of stacked tubes. He didn’t need to speak, she knew that whatever was hiding this from Resicor had to be hidden even deeper than the tubes themselves.
    A line of power cables snaked into the depths of the cave. Trala noticed a few security systems but Envix’s shadows kept her wrapped securely and they moved passed the sensors without any alerts going off.
    She wanted to know how he knew where he was going, but he kept following a path she couldn’t see until they were standing in front of a door with enough security systems to make her stare.
    She whispered, “What is behind that door?”
    “The true holder of Resicor. She is in there and she is creating a blind point for the world.” There was sad emotion in his voice.
    “How do you know that?”
    “She is my aunt. She has been used by the Vorwings for centuries.” His voice was tight. “Can you open the scanning system?”
    Trala flexed her hand and walked toward the lock with Envix holding snugly to her backside. She pressed her palm on the scanning pad and used light to burn it out.
    Locks opened and the door slid aside.
    Wires, cables and tubes filled the room. A nude woman with grey skin, grey hair and tired grey eyes floated in a wide tank in the centre of the space.
    A display was placed on the front of the tank. The woman blinked slowly and smiled in an exhausted manner. She pressed a hand to the tank. Envix. It is good to see you again.
    He bowed. “I have tried for a long time to get to you, Aunty Io.”
    It is time now. Let me go.
    “We are here to free you.”
    I have seen too much, done too much. I will never be free. I want to go. Except for you, all that I love are long dead. Let me go.
    Trala blinked and stepped out of Envix’s shadows. “Who are you?”
    I am Io Vix, broadcasting null. I have lived over a thousand years past my lifetime and I have seen and caused sorrow. Envix can tell part of my story but it ends here. Unplug me and let me pass into the next life. I have lived past my time.
    “You could start a new life here. There will be plenty of room for new starts.”
    Avatar, I know what my presence here has cost the people. I would not forgive myself for what I have done. I could not live knowing that I was instrumental in holding people out of time and destroying their families.
    Resicor reached out through Trala and touched the woman, flinching once before creating a solid link. The years and the horrors flicked between them before Resicor came to a decision.
    “Unplug her, Envix. If she wishes to go, she will go. If she fights to live, we will rescue her.”
    He looked at Trala. “Are you sure?”
    “It is what she wants. You know how old she is. She has lived every moment of that lifespan. This is a choice she has made.”
    The woman in the tank nodded her head.
    Envix pressed a hand to the tank and his aunt did the same. While they faced each other his tendrils of shadow reached out and ripped all the moorings from the tank.
    Liquid drained rapidly and Io slowly dropped to the bottom of the tank, vomiting fluid and shaking violently. She knelt on the bottom of the tank and looked up with her features surprised. “I am not dead.”
    Trala smiled. “You are not. The tank was life support and stasis. You are