WATCHING CORONA: From Our Dimension to Yours

by Holly Fox Vellekoop

  “Now, let’s forget about all this,” Wheeler said, managing a sinister smile and swaying his tail. “Just be on your way and we’ll take it from here. Unless of course, you want to make something of what just happened to that bottom-feeder Flora.” His look dared one of them to say something. He patted his pocket where Flora’s remains were encapsulated.

  The smaller creatures started to glide to the door with Golden in the lead.

  The Homeling leader hesitated. Golden just couldn’t let it alone. She wanted the reward that all of them had risked so much for.

  Golden turned back and said, “But…” She looked expectantly up at Wheeler.

  “But what, Golden?” Wheeler asked, hoping she’d step out of line. His suction cupped feet clapped his damp body close to hers. His slimy face leaned down and into her space.

  Golden was silent.

  Wheeler grinned. “Oh, you want your payment, too.” He bent further over the much shorter being, his body dripping yellow serous fluid on his prey. He curved to look directly into her golden eyeband. More serum coursed down his body as he spoke. “You want your fee, right? The card that gives you just about anything you desire, at our expense, in any universe or world.” His sinewy tail curved around behind Golden’s feet.

  “Right,” Golden said. “I earned it. Then I’ll get out of the way. No one’ll hear from me again. Unless, of course, you need me for something.”

  “You weren’t paying attention, were you? That’s always been one of your many weaknesses. Inattention.” Wheeler said. “You want the same as Flora?” He twitched his tail and then his shoulder.

  “No,” she said cautiously. “I just thought you could give me the card and I’d share it with the others who were part of getting you what you wanted,” she said. “We worked hard for you Valers. We did everything you asked of us so you could get your specimen.” She looked at the bagged Corona. “We never spoke about you per your instructions and never gave away any of your plans. We just think we deserve something for that.”

  “Liar.” Wheeler was shaking with rage. “You spoke about me to Corona. I heard about it. I despise your lying and I despise your ilk who betray their own kind and your leader for a payback. You have no idea how… I… hate… you. If you stay in my presence any longer, you’ll get what you deserve.” He tapped a pocket where another dart rested. “Now get out of here while you can. Before I wonder why I’m letting you go.” Wheeler’s long, narrow, split tongue darted in and out, testing the air for hormonal evidence of panic and alarm, which was noted. Golden’s fright fed his desire to destroy her.

  “Hold on, here. Why am I letting you go?” he said.

  One of the Valers reached to open the door and usher the In Situs out. He tried to get it open by tapping the wall but nothing happened. He bumped it harder. It remained closed. He looked at Wheeler, who started to say something but never got the message out.

  Instead, Marva and her crew burst out of the pantry while more of her aides released the door and came in from the outside, weapons raised.

  “What’s going on?” Wheeler said. He tensed his dart-throwing shoulder, unsure of whom to aim it at first.

  Golden and her companions pressed themselves together, away from the action, against the wall, and behind other beings for protection.

  The Travelers cowered. Some soiled themselves from fear.

  On the table, Corona was beginning to come out of her stupor, mumbling and turning her head from side to side. Though conscious, she was stiff and unable to quickly move her body. Her eyes widened at the scene.

  From his hiding place, The mistake breathed a sigh of relief that Corona was okay. His heart hardened as he thought of ways to make her enemies pay. He could do things they never thought about and it was time he showed them what they were. Pulsating waves of hate emanated from his core. If they hurt or killed her, he would lose his chance at a close relationship with someone who might be nice to him. He was not about to let that happen.

  Hearing Corona’s mutterings, Jocka’s attention turned to the human.

  Wheeler took advantage of Jocka’s distraction and shrugged his shoulder in an effort to dislodge another dart Marva’s way.

  Marva sensed what was coming and, even before Wheeler could put his thoughts into motion, her palm was already up. The secreted erosion link, a tiny, slotted wheel, released deep into Wheeler’s chest before he could finish his own maneuver.

  The Valer’s body imploded with a ‘poof.’ His green dust clumped where Flora’s had been earlier.

  Marva threw a mesh patch over the remains so they wouldn’t be sucked into the cleaning system.

  Upon Wheeler’s demise, a chilling laugh erupted loudly from a hidden nemesis, surprising everyone. Lightning strikes from the mistake hit Golden, Gessie, Raney, Sondo, and the rest of the Homeling supporters, including Uni and all the Travelers.

  The twins hugged each other and shrieked when they were struck.

  One after another, the lightning-struck bodies erupted in hot, blue flames and vivid streaks. Smoke rose above the room and disappeared into a hole that had burned through the ceiling. Nothing of them remained - not even a speck of what they had once been.

  Marva and her group looked around for the source of the attack, and saw a tiny, misshapen body, with the hairy head of a human, an orange eyeband, and suction-cup feet racing up the wall. His infant-sized arms and hands waved frantically. Baby feet made sucking noises as they suctioned to the wall and grasped holds that lifted his deformed self up to the ceiling, through the burned-out hole.

  “Let it go for now,” Marva said to aides who were attempting to go after him. “We’ve got to get rid of Wheeler’s remains right away. He had a flesh-eating colony in the vile containing Flora’s dust when he was hit and he may have had more in other darts he carried on him. I don’t want you infected if any of it survived in his remains. So, be careful cleaning it up.”

  An aide produced a lined envelope to gather Wheeler’s dust, opened it, and moved closer. He went to bend down to the pile when a massive, strategic lightning bolt from the mistake hit Wheeler’s ashes before the aide could get to them. The pile disappeared in a puff of smoke with nothing left where they had been. A dainty wisp of dust drifted skyward then disappeared in a loud, cracking, flash of electricity.

  The mistake squealed with glee at getting the last laugh at his creator who had made his life the miserable wreck that it was. His infant-sized nose and moist mouth quivered with delight. The hatred he’d been carrying inside his heart disappeared along with Wheeler’s remains. No longer did he feel malevolent toward everybody and everything. He felt liberated. Casting a crooked smile and a brief wave at Corona, he ran through the space above the ceiling.

  His laughter was heard overhead, first loud and echoing, then fading.

  Pointing at the spot where Wheeler’s soot had been on the floor, Marva said to her surprised aides, “Get rid of anything left there.”

  One of them wiped a treated cloth over the area and tucked it into a black envelope and handed it to Marva.

  Marva looked at the envelope which possibly contained microscopic flecks of Flora and Wheeler. “Looks like Flora and Wheeler will be spending a lot more time together than they thought. Wherever that is,”

  Jocka nodded. “What about the rest of the Korsa?”

  “The others I sent others to intervene at the crematory should’ve gotten them off the belt. We’ll join them.”

  “What about the mistake?” Jocka asked. “Should we try to find him?”

  “No. I don’t think he’ll cause anyone any more trouble,” Marva said. After Wheeler’s death, she felt the release of anger and pain from the mistake’s troubled mind and spirit. She discerned the peace now within his heart and was comfortable with it.

  “After all he’s been through, he’s entitled to a different life than the horror they’d created for him. Justice and revenge. All in one lightning bolt. Fascinating.”

  Corona opened her e
yes and squinted. Because of the drug which was gradually being metabolized by her organs, she couldn’t immediately understand what had happened or where she was. Then she jerked her head aside to look at Marva. “What’s going on? Where am I?”

  “You’re safe, Corona,” Marva said. “At least for now and your friends are safe, too. We’ll take you to them.”

  “And Flora, is she okay?” Corona asked.

  “No. She’s not okay,” Marva said. “She was your enemy. We’ll talk about this later when you’ve recovered.” She turned to Jocka. “Have someone take Corona to my office for fluid and nourishment. We’re not finished here yet. Hurry”

  Jocka gave instructions for the cleansing of the room after Corona was gone. With the risks involved in passing over to the desert, he wanted everything done manually. Looking up, he witnessed the ceiling repairing itself, as expected, from the mistake’s damage.

  “Now, off to the Bin,” Marva instructed Jocka. “We must deal further with the traitors.”

  The matrix provided a swift track to where Corona’s companions had been taken for reduction and disposal. Beings and landscape blurred until their vehicle came to a stop.

  Marva, Jocka, and followers bolted from their transports and rushed inside the disposal building. Weapons drawn, each In Situ took a strategic position with Marva leading the group. None of them had ever been inside to personally observe the Bin in action, causing a wave of anxiety through the ranks. They’d seen the crematory building but never witnessed where and how bodies were sent for reduction.

  The interior walls were well-lit, providing the group with a good view. Nothing seemed out of place. Per normal protocol, deceased In Situs from the Goodbye Room were seen being propelled forward on energy lines toward the opening for their final act of disposal.

  Marva watched the row of bagged remains, one after the other, flowing through the wall opening unhindered. The welcoming mouth of the transparent Bin opened, fluctuating closely to accommodate each body as it went through. Upon transport inside the Bin, a robotic arm removed their shroud which fell down over the line. The exposed deceased were in various stages of decomposition with black bony prominences decaying, oozing gaseous, foul-smelling odors. Streaming corpses were obscenely lit from the pulsating radiant reduction ray. An incessant ping was heard as one after the other of once-vital creatures were reduced to less than a thimbleful of dust in full view of the room’s occupants.

  A musty odor permeated the space, prompting several In Situs to touch their caps to activate barriers for protection from potential contaminants.

  In the back of the crematory, a smaller belt propelled the remains of little ones from the Ward, lying lifeless in bags on the line to the Bin. A sweet odor and misty colorful crown floated above the belt as each rejected bladder and contents, with a barely audible sigh, met its end from the Bin’s ray.

  “Fancy,” Marva called out. “Are you alright?”

  “Marva, is that you?” a voice queried from behind stacked crates.

  “Yes, it’s Marva here.” She looked around. “We’ve come to help you. Are you and the others all right?”

  Stanley, Sarah, and Fancy appeared, followed by more of Marva’s trusted inner circle.

  “What’s going on? They wouldn’t tell us anything,” Fancy said. “Where’s Flora? And Corona. Where is she?”

  Sarah and Stanley strained to hear the answer, their eyes averted from the source of the pinging.

  “Corona’s okay. She’s waiting for you at my office. Flora won’t be joining us anymore,” Marva announced. “She was a traitor working with the Valers to dispose of our Hybrids. She was eliminated by Wheeler, with whom she was aligned. Poor choice on her part. Especially true considering Wheeler’s end.”

  Stanley and Sarah relaxed a little, knowing Corona was okay, but were shocked to hear the news about Flora.

  Marva’s aides who had rescued Fancy and the Hybrids from their bagged fate, closed ranks around their charges.

  “Are you sure?” Fancy asked. She expressed surprise that her fellow Passer had been working against the program she claimed to support.

  “I’m sure,” Marva said. “We’d received anonymous board communications that one of you was conspiring with the Homelings and Valers to kill all humans here and to kill the Hybrids in their dimension. I’d monitored for a long time, whom both of you met, what was talked about, and what was written on your boards. All that was kept in our communications storage until we could go through it and find out what you were up to. There’s no doubt of the plans to kill off the humans and sell Corona to Wheeler. Flora tried to implicate you as being the only one involved in the deceit, Fancy. She tried to make it look as if you were the only guilty one. She was not your friend.”

  “What do you mean?” Fancy asked. “You sound as if you think I was involved. What was Flora trying to get and what could I have possibly hoped to gain?”

  “Power and the Valers’ card,” Marva stated matter-of-factly. “From what we learned, Flora promised to help the Valers learn about our Hybrid program since their effort turned out to be the mistake. And, she made arrangements for Corona to be handed over to Wheeler. In return, Flora would receive a powerful position in the Valers’ Hybrid program, if she wanted it, and a reward card entitling her to practically anything she wanted in the known universes where Wheeler had established contacts. That’s a heady offer for any being to refuse. Look. We all knew what Wheeler was. He had no serious intention of including an In Situ in his upper tier. He considered Flora a traitor to her own kind and thought her untrustworthy. Her ridicule of her own universe and its inhabitants was distasteful to Wheeler who prized loyalty. The Valers were interested in Corona’s abilities, hoping to isolate them for improving their own capabilities. They also wanted to craft a superior group of Hybrids, devoid of any desire except working for the Valers. They would be a devoted pack that wouldn’t get away. Wheeler’s private board postings to Flora spoke of human Hybrids serving the Valers in many capacities, but there was something else that was more frightening.” Marva’s deep purple eyeband glowed brightly with anger.

  “Corona would’ve suffered a living dissection so mind veiling could be studied to find a way for the Valers to use it and to get any other gifts she possesses.”

  “That’s horrible,” Fancy said, pretending to care.

  “That’s not all. Through DNA manipulation, the Valers planned to create a group of full-bodied, strong humans with weaker minds for the Valers’ entertainment.”

  The Hybrids became frightened at how close humans were to being overthrown and used like slaves. It reminded them of past cultures they’d studied.

  Corona wondered if Valer’s plan was any different from the fiercely loyal Corps of young In Situs which the All used.

  “The little ones considered to be flawed, along with those in their bloodlines, wouldn’t be destroyed as they are now,” Marva said. “Instead, they’d be sent off to a dimension on the other side of the Valers. For what purpose we’re not sure, but we know it wouldn’t be good since that dimension is one of flesh eaters. Even Wheeler didn’t know what they wanted with the rejects. And he didn’t ask. He was pleased he could earn something from them, both the good and the defective.”

  “Sending faulty full-term infants to another dimension for an unknown fate is not something I support,” Fancy lied.

  “We came very close to losing to an evil agent,” Marva said. Her eyeband dimmed. “Wheeler won’t be interfering here again. We must resume our work with the Valers to help our universe improve. This time, we’ll make it clear that the All will not tolerate the direction Wheeler was planning on taking us.”

  Fancy agreed. This was way too much for her to comprehend at this time. Marva exposed Flora and Wheeler as traitors and they’re now dead. Her own narrow escape from being implicated in their plotting and death sent shivers down her spine. She didn’t relish thinking about the human dust being disposed of in the desert land, either. That c
ould be a big problem for them in the future. She was beginning to think she’d pulled off her part and started to relax.

  Marva motioned for Jocka to get behind Fancy and slowly glided to where she could face her.

  “Feeling comfortable now, are you?” Marva asked of Fancy.

  Caught off guard, Fancy’s eyeband dimmed. She was too frightened to answer.

  “Fancy,” Marva said slowly. “Do you really think we didn’t know your part in the deaths at the human camp? Your helping the Homelings and everything else you did? Hmmm?” Marva asked.

  “I don’t know what you mean. That wasn’t me. It had to be Flora. She’s the one who’s the traitor. You said so yourself.”

  “She’s the traitor dealing with Wheeler,” Marva said. “You, Fancy, were the traitor aiding the Homelings and the disgusting Travelers. All those secret meetings with them. Giving them information. Helping Gessie manufacture the Curmonin. Helping Golden get the Bonds from their sailboat.”

  Stanley and Sarah gasped.

  Marva motioned to Jocka who stuck a slender needle at the base of Fancy’s spine.

  Fancy stood still, alive yet paralyzed and upright, understanding everything.

  “Good job Jocka. Much more advanced than the archaic flesh-eating colony Wheeler used. Neater too, don’t you think?”

  Jocka nodded and pulled a bag over Fancy’s body which remained upright.

  One of the other aides pushed on her bagged chest with his foot and Fancy’s stiff body fell backwards onto the floor with a ‘thud.’

  “It’s time we get out of here,” Marva said to Stanley and Sarah.

  As they left the building, Marva gave an understanding nod to Jocka.

  Fancy’s body was placed on the moving belt leading to the Bin. A ping was the next sound heard.

  Stanley and Sarah were shocked at everything they’d witnessed. Flora and Fancy’s traitorous actions and Wheeler’s plans for humans were difficult for them to understand. His idea of enslaving the human race while eliminating those who don’t measure up to Valer standards was a frightening future for their world. A part of their psyches was relieved to know their own lives were no longer in jeopardy. At least for now. The friends were ready to go home.