Zoe Thanatos

by Cierlak, Crystal

“So it’s possible they may not be reprogrammed at all?”

  “It is.”

  “And you’re asking me to go with you? Without any certainty that I’ll be able to come home?”

  “I’m asking if you want to.”

  Zoe could tell from the look in Eva’s bright blue eyes that even she knew how ridiculous she sounded. She looked around the room, taking in the sight of every project she had started and finished or was in the process of completing. A mess of her own creation was easy enough to fix, but what she was being asked to do was something else entirely. She was still trying to reacclimatize herself to the life she had neglected to live. How could she leave when she was only just starting? There wasn’t enough time in any world to make that kind of decision.

  She’d been rescued from one jump just to make a much bigger one. There wasn’t enough time to figure out what the right decision was.

  “So there’s a possibility that either he never comes back, or I never come back?” Zoe asked.

  “A possibility? Yes. How certain is that possibility? I have no idea. This could just be the Queen overreacting. For all we know she’ll have the gates reprogrammed as soon as these residents are dealt with and everything will go back to normal.” Even she looked like she didn’t believe that would happen.

  “And the worst case scenario?” The question lingered unanswered in the air between them. What if their Queen wasn’t overreacting? She knew enough history to know that stealing from those in power, especially the government or monarchy, was never a crime that went without punishment. Not to mention the King’s kidnapping; if someone high up in the government was kidnapped there would likely be no lack of severe punishment. She would never consider involving herself in the politics of another country or civilization, and Terra was an entirely new universe of unknown possibilities. She had no desire to encroach on a potentially unstable environment.

  “Has this ever been done before? I mean, has anyone from Terra ever brought in an outsider from another universe?”

  “No,” Eva admitted. She hesitated before continuing. “We don’t make a habit of involving ourselves in the lives of others. We observe and learn from other cultures, but never at the expense of our own civilization.”

  How ironic, Zoe thought. Although it did offer some explanation as to why Evan was so hesitant to answer her questions. However, he had interfered in her life to begin with, so it wasn’t as though he had much of a choice. “How do you know it will even work? What’s going to happen to my body?” How did one travel between universes? What did a gate look like? Would she be safe? She had more questions than answers.

  “I don’t know for certain but I have a feeling you’ll be fine. Technically speaking you shouldn’t even be able to transport to other places like we can, but you were able to with Evan.”

  “So your theory is that if I can survive that I can survive traveling to Terra?”

  Eva’s lips curled into an uncertain smile. “Theoretically? Yes. Even I don’t understand the specific science behind it but I’m quite certain you’ll be fully reassembled on the other side of the gate.”

  “Fully reassembled?!” Zoe exclaimed. The decorative pillow fell discarded to her side.

  “Technically. Look I know it’s a risk but I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you would be fine. Believe me, the last thing I want to do is kill the girl my brother is interested in.”

  Zoe looked at her incredulously. She couldn’t ignore the bad feeling settling inside her. She wasn’t the type of person who would drop everything in her life for someone else, irrespective of their experiences together. She could barely manage everything in her own life, let alone take on someone else’s. Throw in the fact that it was another universe and the whole situation seemed more trouble than it was worth.

  “Like I said, I know how this all sounds and I know it’s a tremendous decision on your part. Think of it as an adventure! How many people in the world can say they’ve been to another universe?”

  “Besides you, your brother, and countless others from Terra?” Zoe retorted.

  “Yes, and I give you my word I will do everything I can to make sure you have a way to come home.”

  Zoe hesitated. “I don’t know. I don’t want to be some pathetic girl who drops everything in her life just to accommodate the guy she likes. That’s not the kind of person I want to be. Not to mention the scope of what you’re asking me to do. I can barely believe the words are even coming out of my mouth.” It was too much to comprehend and even a lifetime seemed too short to fully appreciate how upside-down her world had turned in just a short span of time. She could only take things at face value for so long.

  Eva nodded, seemingly resigned to Zoe’s reluctance. “I understand. I owed it to my brother to try.” She stood up to leave but turned to look at Zoe again. “I know my brother better than anyone. If anyone can find their way back, it’s him. He may not realize it but I can see that after two days with you he is a different person; a better, happier, lighter person.” Zoe felt her stomach flip in her chest again, this time for a different reason.

  As touching as the sentiment was it was still not a valid reason to drop everything in her life for a man. “I’m sorry,” was all she could manage. Eva would have to understand.

  Zoe stood and wished Eva a safe trip home, nearly apologizing for having wasted her time. Eva produced an object similar to what she had seen Evan with. Up close she had a better view of it, and nearly doubled over when she realized the same thick glass was identical to the box she had found in the wall only moments prior..

  “What is that?”

  “It’s a Communicator. Like a phone, I guess.” Before she could finish Zoe ran for the office and retrieved the box and opened scrolls. When she returned she put them in Eva’s hands, certain she would recognize it.

  “Where did you get this?” She turned the box over in her hands before picking at the scrolls, reading the ones Zoe had already unraveled.

  “It was hidden behind a wall in my office. Inside were all of these scrolls but none of them made any sense to me. I forgot all about it until I saw your Communicator-thing.”

  Eva picked up the scroll containing the map and stared at it, her eyes growing bigger the longer she looked.

  “You recognize it, don’t you?”

  Eva didn’t say a word. She picked up the one with the family tree of names and slowly took her seat on the couch again. Her mouth was gaping open, but no sounds escaped. She was completely transfixed on the hierarchical tree.

  “Eva?” Zoe put her hand on Eva’s shoulder hoping to break her trance.

  “I don’t think you should come to Terra to see my brother,” she whispered, her eyes never leaving the scrolls as she examined each of the scrolls. “I think you should come because it’s your home.” She turned the scroll around in her hands and pointed to a line of script Zoe had missed on her initial examination. At the top written in a fine ink the color of gold, was: Lineage of the Original Family of Terra: Thanatos.

  The blood drained from Zoe’s face, leaving her ashen and lightheaded. “No, that’s impossible,” she nervously laughed. Her body dropped back down to the couch, her back and legs sinking deep into the cushions.

  “You were able to transport with Evan,” Eva whispered. It was as if the conclusions were dawning on her one at a time.

  “That was Evan!” All she had done was pass out.

  “I couldn’t figure out why your name was so familiar to me. Thanatos. That’s the name of the original family.”

  “The original what?” She didn’t like the sound of that, nor the tone in her voice.

  Eva placed the glass box next to her and turned to face Zoe. “The first ruling monarchy of Terra. Of course! That’s why the book was stolen!”

  “What does that have to do with me?”

  “The woman who stole it claimed it told a different version of how the Stratons came into the Crown.”

  Zoe felt the hysteria rising in her
veins. “Who are the Stratons?”

  “She claimed her name was Thea. Look!” Eva cried, pointing to the name near the bottom of the tree. “This has to be you!” Her finger moved to Zoe’s name. “This is your family. Thea is your mother.”

  “No. I can’t be from another universe!” Zoe scoffed incredulously. There had to be some enormous misunderstanding.

  “Why not? Because it isn’t possible?” Eva asked incredulously.

  “No! Because I think I would know if was from another planet!” she laughed. “Just because you are doesn’t mean that am too.”

  Eva looked at her pointedly. “Then where’s your family?” Zoe’s mouth opened and shut. “You do have one?”

  “Of course I do!”

  “Where are they? Tell me about them!” she demanded.

  Zoe stood and walked away from the couch, stopping in the middle of the expansive living room. Of course she had a family. She had to have come from somewhere and that somewhere was Santa Barbara, the very place she’d lived her entire life. She tried to picture the faces of her family but could remember none. Places and events were accounted for, but the people were missing.

  “You don’t have any family, do you? At least not here.”

  Zoe turned and looked back at Eva. She tried to find something, anything to say but could do nothing more than stare with her mouth open. Eva picked up the box and scrolls of paper and handed them back to her.

  “These are pages from a book belonging in the Royal Anthology. How could you have possibly come upon these by accident?”

  “I don’t know!”

  “Think about it, Zoe! A woman claiming to be Thea from the original family - the Thanatos family - risked her life to steal a historical book from the Queen, a book that chronicles the founding monarchy of Terra. These scrolls are from Terra and they happen to be hiding in your house here in Gaia? How many people do you think have the name Zoe Thanatos?”

  “Eva, I…”

  “Zoe,” Eva whispered. She took the glass box and papers from her again and set them down on a chair. She took Zoe’s hands in her own and squeezed them gently. “How many coincidences is it going to take for you to realize that you are from Terra? What other explanation could there be?”

  Zoe shook her head. “If any of it is true then I’m not the person I thought I was. How does someone live for 25 years without knowing their true identity?”

  “I don’t know, but you can find out. I’ll help you.”

  Zoe looked up into Eva’s blue eyes and saw a little bit of Evan in her face. She trusted him once, hadn’t she? Who was to say she couldn’t also trust his sister? How could she not draw the lines between coincidences? Her name was written on a piece of ancient-looking paper that supposedly came from a book in another universe. The glass container she found the paper in was identical to the Communicator both Eva and Evan had used. On top of it all, she had no recollection of any Earth family. Surely there must have been someone? Who had raised her? Who had bought the house she lived in; earned the money she lived off of?

  What were the odds that she had lived a lifetime in one universe and then randomly met someone from the universe she came from? Was everything, even sitting next to Evan on the boat to Santa Cruz Island, nothing more than a string of coincidences?

  This was her fresh start, wasn’t it? She hadn’t ended her life like planned and was trying to fill it with something meaningful. Perhaps Terra would reveal all the answers to her. If it truly was her home, didn’t she owe it to herself to know for sure? And to the woman who was possibly her mother?

  “Okay,” she sighed. “I’ll go.”

  Chapter 13: Two Sets of Gates

  “So how exactly is this going to work?” Zoe placed the glass box in a small carrier with the rest of her belongings and tightened the strap around her shoulder. Initially Eva protested, saying she wouldn’t need to bring anything from Earth, but Zoe insisted. If she came back and needed to get home by herself, she would need money and identification to do so. Eva may have thought it was unnecessary, but it made Zoe feel safe.

  The glow from the Communicator lit up Eva’s face as she consulted it. “First we go to the gate’s location, and then we use it to go to Terra. It won’t take very long.”

  “Will it hurt?”

  Eva looked up from the Communicator and smiled. “It isn’t painful, it’s abnormal. Although, technically you’ve already done it so it might not feel like anything at all.”

  Zoe looked down into the contents of her carrier, feeling an odd trepidation at their impending travel.

  “As soon as we arrive I’ll take you to our residence. We’ll need to change your appearance.”

  Zoe blinked in surprise. “What? Why?”

  Eva looked her up and down, taking in everything from her hair to the designer denim and shoes. “Because you look like you’re from Earth.”

  I am, Zoe thought. She looked at her clothes, then Eva’s, and knew she was right. She wouldn’t look like she belonged even if she technically did.

  “Do you really think Thea is my mother?” The word sounded unfamiliar to her as it whispered out of her mouth. She knew she had many questions about the woman, but it still didn’t seem real to her.

  Eva shrugged apologetically. “I really don’t know. If she is your mother then we have a lot more to worry about. She’ll soon be in the custody of the Crown and I doubt the Queen will be lenient. We’ll need to be careful.”

  “I know,” Zoe conceded. She couldn’t put too much stock in Thea being her mother just yet. She could only handle one monumental life event at a time.

  “Do you have everything you need?” Zoe caught Eva looking at her bag and smiled. “Anything you’re going to need we’ll have.”

  “I know. This is what I need for Earth.” Zoe felt a thread of defense in her words. She watched as Eva’s face registered her resolve.

  “Let’s go to the gate.”

  Evan watched as Alcander bound Thea’s hands together, ready to take her to the Military Complex for detainment. The Elder woman’s dark eyes burned as she glanced back at him. The conversation didn’t feel like it was over. He would have to find a way in to talk to her, to find out more about the original family, and specifically about Zoe.

  Despite having seen the words with his own eyes he still couldn’t believe it. Thanatos was, nor rather, is the original family. Did Zoe know? Nothing in their time together suggested she lied about her origins, yet alone even knew about them. Not to mention the total shock and disbelief she exhibited when he told her stories of Terra. Whether or not she knew, her life was on Earth, and she was better off there for the time being. He would find a way to see her again, and soon.

  Alcander pulled Thea by her restraints and lead her in the direction of the Military Complex as the other Crown Soldiers escorted the remaining prisoners behind them. Hector rounded out the group, following last in the processional.

  The King appeared at Evan’s side, his arms clasped behind him as he watched after the departing party. “What do you make of her?”

  “Does it matter? She’ll likely be dead soon.” The thought troubled Evan. The Elder must have had a plan. Would she really go through all that trouble just to be executed? It didn’t make any sense. Even if she did have a plan, how would she follow through with it while locked up?

  What if she had an accomplice? Someone close to the Crown, perhaps? No. No one would be foolish enough to help her when the risk was so great.

  The King cleared his throat. “Well, either she’s very stupid or very smart. One way or the other we’ll find out, won’t we?”

  Evan merely nodded. “I suppose so, Your Highness.”

  “Well, run along and tell the Queen I’m home now. I’m sure she’ll be wanting that back as well,” he nodded in the direction of the book Evan held in his arms. He had forgotten about it completely.

  “Don’t you want to see the Queen yourself?”

  The King shook his head carelessly. �
��I’m sure the news will be just as good coming from you.” Perhaps any other man in his position would smile and pretend he didn’t understand the King’s undertones, but Evan didn’t. On some level he imagined that the King knew about his relationship with the Queen and understood there was little he could do about it. Evan wouldn’t disgrace them both by pretending it wasn’t happening.

  The King turned and stalked off in the opposite direction of the Crown Soldiers, leaving Evan alone. With a sigh, he headed back to the Straton’s residence, and to the Queen.

  Zoe rubbed her hands over her arms in rapid succession, silently cursing whoever decided to put the gate to Terra in the middle of a frozen field on the other side of the globe. Eva was focused on the Communicator, swiping her finger over it in every which way. She was starting to have doubts.

  For a moment she considered the possibility that they were too late and the gates on Terra had been deprogrammed. A part of her wished it was true, but deep down she wanted to take part in something no one else could lay claim to. To Evan, Eva, and the others from Terra, going to another world was an ordinary event; as far as she knew she was the first person from Earth to do it.

  “It shouldn’t be long now,” Eva announced.

  “So what exactly is a gate?” Zoe asked, hoping the answer was interesting enough to distract her from the hypothermia settling into her body.

  Eva considered the question for a moment, her attention momentarily taken away from the glowing glass device. “Have you ever taken an elevator?”

  Zoe tried to keep from rolling her eyes. Maybe Eva didn’t know as much about Earth as she seemed to. “Yes, of course I have.”

  “Think of it like an elevator: one starting point and destination, a pathway in between, and a vehicle to carry you between each point. That’s what the gate does.”

  Zoe imagined a long and never-ending elevator shaft plummeting up into the sky far beyond where the eyes could see. It took just over three days for the astronauts on Apollo 11 to reach the moon, and that was only 238,900 miles away. In minutes she would be in another universe entirely. The comparison had considerable gravitas.