Polished

by P. S. Power

  He tapped the fake glass of the mirrored wall again, and repeated what he’d done before, trying to pull faster on the mental rope. That had him back in about the same amount of time as the second trip had taken. Interestingly, little Sara rolled her eyes at him as soon as he stepped through.

  “One-twenty-seven… It’s imagination, Richard. Just imagine that one tug pulls the light close to you, faster… Duh. I mean, really… You should have that one already.” She dimpled at him, as if what she was saying didn’t sound more than a bit bratty. He winked though, since she was clearly reading his mind, in one way or another. It was the only way for her to know how he was thinking of things.

  His considering that got her to shrug.

  “Cindy’s power. I learned to read well enough for that, finally. In Standard, though I can do English now as well. It’s a lot clearer than Brie’s ability, in a lot of ways. Simpler to keep track of. Not that it isn’t easier here anyway. There are just fewer people. She’s having troubles back home, due to that. Trivia, I mean. It’s why she’s been struggling for the last few years. This world has about one and a half billion people on it. We have nearly eight billion, back home. It would probably help for her to have a break. She could come here for a bit? You can bring her, after you learn to use your powers better.”

  For a moment that idea didn’t seem right to him. That he might be able to move himself across realities kind of did. Tabitha, his cat, had done that, once. Moving into his subconscious mind and then being carried out into the world of Noram, having started on the base back home. It probably meant that he could do the same thing, going in reverse, since they were linked, mentally.

  That didn't have an adult human being moved that way. At least not without ending up linked to his subconscious mind like the tiny cat was.

  Sara waved at him then. It was sharp enough to get his attention and her face was wry, in the moment.

  “There are ways for you to do it. Lots of them, really. You already sort of worked things out. Your power isn’t about mirrors at all. It’s teleportation. Not that your current tricks aren’t a good way of doing things. It’s decently clear and you can see where you want to go. Anyway, just reset the idea, mentally and you’ll be a lot more powerful. One tug on the rope will bring the light to you. Make it big and know it will happen. If you want a mirror to appear, you can do it in your head. Brie told you that already and she isn’t wrong. Once you have that down… Well, you have the power you need, already. Just don’t be a dumb head. Do it again, please.” There was a small smile, to prevent the name calling, as strange as it sounded, from being too insulting.

  That try had him in front of Tor nearly twice as fast. Then, after many more dozens trips back and forth than he really loved having to do, he managed to step into the mirror, do one honest tug on the rope and step through to the other side. Smoothly.

  Tor, looking at his handheld, actually lit up. His face beamed, his smile so wide it seemed like it wanted to split his head in two for a moment.

  “Three seconds! That’s not bad at all. Now… I have a mirror wall like this set up on Harmony, on the Moon. It’s in my sister Tiera’s place. Go there. Three seconds, just like this. It isn’t any further for you. Sara assured me that your power doesn’t care about distances.”

  It took longer than three seconds. Finding the right mirror was harder, for one thing, though the lasso trick and single pull on it worked just as well once he found the right glowing spot. When he got there, a decently familiar tall woman waited for him. She had a handheld in her palm, with Tor on it, already. As if actually expecting him to actually do a good job of things, for some reason.

  Instead of saying hello, or doing anything other than nodding, she simply spoke, her voice hurried.

  “Fifteen seconds. There’s a small mirror in the fleet, with Erath the Ysidril on the other side of it. Find him and go there. Then go back to Tor directly. He’s moving rooms and will have a smaller mirror with him. Hurry.” She looked serious about things, even though Richard had to fight a yawn. He’d been up for long enough it was probably affecting his ability to get things done well.

  Then, Tor had said he’d help with his training and clearly was. Rich was managing things he’d never even come close to, before, working on his own. There had been no mention at all of the process being comfortable or easy, from the other man, however. Hard work generally wasn’t.

  Finding the small Ysidril, Erath, wasn’t that difficult to do, really. Richard just imagined using the lasso on the nearest mirror to the small Ysidril, which was about three feet from the boy. Then, when he stepped through, the four armed, four eyed being let his mouth fall open. Just a bit, since it was a real smile.

  Behind the boy was a larger Ysidril, a male that Richard didn’t know at all. He turned and waved at them both.

  “Hello, Erath. I… Don’t recognize your friend. I’m Richard Drake… The one who used to have the appropriate amount of eyes and arms?”

  The other man spoke, in English, which was interesting. Most Ysidril didn't speak that language, after all. That an alien had learned to speak his language like that left him feeling once again lazy and slightly annoyed with himself. It was one of the things about his new job that was actually bothering him, day to day. He was staying in a different world and couldn’t make himself understood to most people on his own.

  “I’m Tom. Erath’s father. One of them. We were requested to aid in your training in matter teleportation. Which you have successfully accomplished to this point. Congratulations, that is a most worthy skill to possess. Your next goal is to find Tor Baker and then you will come back to another location, where I will be waiting for you. Can you recall my being, do you think?” That he might not be able to seemed to make sense to the alien fellow. It was written all over his face and body language.

  Richard just looked at Tom for a while, then nodded.

  “I think so. Ever since I was turned back into a human, I can tell the difference between Ysidril. I should get a symbol going… That facial blindness towards humans you all have is rough. We really do all look the same to you. Really it’s a lot easier for us to learn what different Ysidril look like, I think, than the other way around. Let me…” Instead of making a small sigil or mark show up, he thought for a moment, then looked at Erath. “Can you help me on this one? Maybe my name, in Ysidril, on my front?” His hands spread across his chest, which had the kid smiling again, his mouth barely opening.

  “Yes! That is the best idea, I think.

  Then all will know you and be able to call you by name. Let us…” The boy moved forward and touched his sleeve, gently. A tracery of what seemed like spider webs flowed into being, on the front of his jacket. Richard looked at it for a bit, trying to commit the symbols into memory. It wasn’t that complex, after all. Different and not like the English words he was used to, but there were only four letters or whatever they were. After a moment, he removed the things, then tried to replicate them.

  It took five tries before he got it right, but Erath nodded, when it was done correctly.

  “There! That is it. Do it that way, each time. Now, you need to find Tor Baker and then you will return to where father is. I must get in touch with Tor before you leave, for timing purposes.”

  That took a moment, and when Richard got into the mirror world and found him, the man had gone to Mars, attempting to trick him, and was sitting with a small floating mirror in a café. No one screamed when Richard suddenly appeared, though at least ten people looked at him closely when it took place. About half of them even smiled at him, instead of reacting in fright or shock.

  Tor, looking at his palm, where there was a clock, spoke almost instantly.

  “Seven seconds. Now, can you locate Tom at all? The Ysidril man you just met?”

  Touching the mirror, he entered it and did just that. The man was in a different location then, with a new Ysidril standing next to him, both of them clearly waiting for him to get there. This one a w
oman. A decently pretty one, if he recalled that kind of thing correctly. She was someone that he’d seen before, when he’d been a Ysidril himself. Just before he’d changed back.

  Not that he could say her name. She tried his however, reading it from the front of his suit jacket.

  “Rish?” A three fingered hand pointed at his front, clearly reading the letters there.

  He nodded, since that honestly was close enough for him. It wasn’t as if it was his real name or anything.

  “Richard Drake. Rish works. I hate to be mean but I need a name for you that I can pronounce. It’s embarrassing, but I can’t pronounce what I heard before when we met. Not yet. I don’t even speak Standard yet, much less your language. It’s a failing on my part. I’ll try to fix that, as soon as possible.” It felt rude of him to say it out loud like that.

  The woman let her mouth drop open. A lot, meaning it was a fake smile. Still, a thing that she bothered doing, which was polite of her. Ysidril didn't seem to have a rude version of a smile at all. If they did it at all, it meant they were, at the very least, trying to put a person at ease.

  “What should I be called, for humans?” Her English was flawless, with no accent of note at all. Less than Tom had going on even, and he was perfectly understandable.

  Thinking for a moment, Rish looked to the left, thinking.

  “What does your name mean?” It might not mean anything, of course. It could just mean her. The woman bounced in place a bit then translated it.

  “It means the area under an arc. I do not know a word for that, in any other language.”

  Rish didn’t either.

  “How about Arc, then? What is that in Standard? We should use that, even if I can’t speak it yet. Most of the people you’ll meet from Earth will, I think.”

  Tom bounced, then spread all four of his hands.

  “That would be Arc. Which is the same in your language. The two linguistic structures are very similar. That is a pretty name, I think?” He looked away a bit, from the woman. As if trying to covertly sell her on the idea of a fake name to use for the slow humans.

  She bounced again, a few times. This time she let her mouth drop open fractionally. A real smile, as if the idea left her feeling happy.

  “Call me Arc, then. Now, you are to find my child, Neesa and her Mentor, Hess. They will be on Mars, in the human system of worlds, held well away from any reflective surfaces. They have your next location.”

  That one was harder. He had to find Mars first, then locate the two Ysidril. There were others there of that kind, so it wasn’t as simple as it sounded like it should be. At first, he kept coming back to what seemed like a meeting of some sort, with five of the aliens sitting on the floor of a large room, on pillows. They had a reflective surface to the side though and all looked red in color, with no scales. They wore human style brown magical clothing instead. It was a very different look for them, he had to admit. Even if he knew it was more natural. Ysidril didn’t have scales. They all just wore scaled clothing. At least the ones that he’d seen before had.

  He’d met Neesa twice, however, so was able to tell who she was, if he could see her. Once he found her and another, male, Ysidril he had to step out of a faint reflection which proved to be a bit of shining metal on the side of an ice cream machine. It wasn’t a mirror but he was starting to understand that he didn’t really need that kind of thing at all. It was easier to see where he was going, of course.

  Of interest, when he appeared in the room, two people stood behind him. Neither of them was a Ysidril at all. One of them was the rather pretty Countess Thomson, who was wearing a nice blue dress and a white and green apron. It said Yogurt World on the front of it. In English.

  Behind her was Eve Benson, who smiled at him, instead of hitting him for being behind the counter of a functioning work place.

  “Um, Richard?”

  He nodded, feeling slightly awkward.

  “Hey! I didn't know that you’d be here. Either of you. I’m currently learning to use my super powers, finally. Tor Baker has me running all over the place. Teleporting, kind of. I’m supposed to find Neesa and Hess. They’re hiding from me, staying away from anything reflective, as if that’s going to work? Anyone have a hint for me? Otherwise I have to run around screaming their names for a while. They should be close, since I was able to see them from here, sort of.”

  The Countess went wide eyed, but pointed, toward the back of the room. His speaking, even in English, had the two beings walking out of the back of the space. The smaller one, Neesa, the Ambassador to Earth, waved to him.

  “Richard Drake…” Her eyes looked at the the front of his jacket as the male of her kind read what was there out loud.

  “Rish. That is most clever! None can mistake you, wearing such a thing!”

  Eve looked at it then screwed her face up.

  “I can see it, but… I don’t know that language. Ysidril?”

  Neesa nodded, then moved forward, toward the pale lady, who was a vampire from another reality.

  “I can place such on you? Eeth.”

  The woman didn’t ask why the pronunciation of her name was shifted. Clearly, Ysidril didn’t have all the same sounds, even if the aliens seemed to do a good job making them. That probably meant they were even smarter than Rish had figured on, really. He wasn’t even certain he could hear a sound he didn't know, much less make it come out of his mouth like that.

  Eve nodded, almost eagerly at the new idea.

  “Nifty! I’ll memorize it and wear that when I’m here.”

  Neesa got to do not only Eeth, but also made a lettered design for Dersee. That being as close to Terlee as Ysidril could come up with. If either woman was offended by their names being changed, it didn't show on the surface at all.

  When that was finished, Neesa looked at Rish and bowed, as if he were from Noram. That meant doing it back, in case it was a Martian custom as well.

  “Now, as is to your lesson of the cycle, you must use a mirror in your mind, one that is not physically in existence, to travel to Torrance Baker. He is in the first room? That is all I was told.”

  Rish let a puff of air out and made a face.

  “That… might not work. I mean, the mirrors are how I get into my subconscious mind. I’ve never actually done it without using one. How should I do that?”

  Eve made a face at him then, not speaking for a minute.

  “You clearly don’t need a real mirror, or Tor wouldn’t have given those instructions. Just imagine one. That will work, if it’s just your own mind that you’re dealing with. Really, just close your eyes and do it. Before you go though, I expect you to come and visit me, soon. I’m not a one-night stand, you know?” She smiled, as if she were playing with him.

  Rish agreed though. After all, he hadn’t been thinking of her that way, even if it had been about two months since they’d slept together. His new, or renewed, hormones really liked the woman, after all. She wasn’t hard on the eyes and even better, she wasn’t a kid. The woman was over a thousand, as it turned out, even if she only looked to be about twenty or so. Plus, it was clear that she was easy to get along with. Those things added up to a very special woman. One more than worth spending some effort on.

  “I should be able to go to other realities, I guess. If I can learn how. At least little Sara thinks so and she’s been right about my powers so far. If I can pull that off, I should be around… Eventually. I have a lot to do suddenly. Oh… Eve, get with Tiera Baker? We need to get her hooked up to get into the line walker training program. We can talk about that when I come to visit in a few days? It was nice seeing you. All of you. Right now…” He closed his eyes, trying to do what he’d been told to.

  It was all in his head, and still took real focus but he imagined a mirror in front of himself then touched it with imaginary fingers. When he opened his eyes he was in the mirror world, having nailed the move on the first try. Quickly, as well. Hopefully that looked impressive for the people he’d l
eft behind.

  Then he had to try something really new.

  Imagining a mirror in a place he wanted to go to, where there wasn’t one. Trying to find Tor didn’t really work, but when he imagined a mirror in the room he’d started practicing in, and lassoed it to himself, he was able to see the giant man, sitting in a chair, waiting for him. There was a white mug with liquid in it, resting in the man’s large left hand. The image was perfectly clear, showing him taking a sip, carefully. The fellow seemed exhausted.

  It was simple enough to touch the mirror then, appearing in the room with Tor. Almost as if by magic.

  The man stood up, fast enough to slop his drink partially out of its container. It looked almost clear, like tea.

  “There you are! I wasn’t certain you could do this portion of things, without more training. Now, I want you to find your Marcia Turner, then move away from her, so you don’t appear in front of her, I mean. Then go to her physically if you can and come back here, directly. Can you do that inside… Call it a minute?”

  Richard made a face, then shook his head.

  “Not a clue at all. There are just too many factors outside my control on that one. For instance, I’m not walking into her bedroom in the middle of the night, if that’s where she is, so it might take longer for me to get in touch with her if it’s the wrong time of day. I don’t really want to die, so it would be a good idea not to shock her too much. Let me see?”

  It was no harder to move across realities than to go through any other mirror, as it turned out. Not at all, really. He just had to touch the mirror with his hand. The tricky part was working out how to push his mental mirror away from the spot he was focusing on, into the lobby of the command center. He couldn’t touch it to get the work done, even with a mental hand or he’d go directly into the room, since that was his triggering signal. Eventually he used his mental lasso to pull the thing around, by force. That was interesting, and took some walking on his part but worked, eventually.

  The whole thing took far longer than a minute, though. On the good side, it was only about three, which wasn’t horrible, really.