by Tom Hoffman
Orville laughed. “I always wanted an older brother, I just never thought he’d be a fifteen hundred year old, ten foot tall silver rabbit. Just a quick breakfast for me, Proto. I have to meet Sophia at the Book Emporium. She’s blinking back to the Symocan Institute and wanted to say good-bye. She’ll be back this weekend though, or I might blink up there. She has some kind of secret project she’s working on she wants to show me. She seems really excited about it.”
Orville’s Mum gave Eldon a private smile. “Sophia really is brilliant. Don’t you dare fly off to some other dimension with her and get lost.”
Orville laughed. “I’m not going anywhere for a while. Master Marloh wants me to take some time off before I go on any more missions and that’s fine with me.”
Eldon pushed his chair back from the table. “Oh, before you go, I have something for you. I found this on Varmoran.” He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a heavy gold ring embossed with indecipherable hieroglyphs. In the center of the ring was an octagonal multifaceted orange stone. A small light within the stone was blinking in an apparent random pattern. “I found it in a metal box half buried next to a rusty old Varmoran airship.”
Orville took the ring from his papa, studying it curiously. “Why is it blinking?”
“Not sure. It could be magic, I guess.” He gave a Orville a wink.
Chapter 38
The Shadow
Abacus MBC Gondorian strolled along the deck of his magnificent second form, the shining culmination of ten thousand years of Mintarian engineering. The Mintarian interstellar battle cruiser was six hundred and fourteen feet long, and one hundred twenty-nine feet tall with three main decks. The lower deck was for cargo and troop transport, the middle deck for the main battle weapons, and the upper deck for control and command, where his pilot and navigation center was located. One hundred feet of the ship’s stern was dedicated to the antimatter drive and the transfer portal to the parallel world of Ainran.
The Abacus eyed the long row of gleaming field projectors, each one capable of launching a variety of time throttles and time loopers at inconceivable velocities. He nodded to himself. “Not a speck of dust, not a scratch, not a molecule out of place. She is perfection. There’s not an Abacus alive with a cleaner second form than mine.”
The gaunt blue Abacus strolled over to a long row of yellow discs lining the corridor floor. He stepped on one and flicked his hand. The disc turned violet and the Abacus vanished, appearing a split second later on the ship’s bridge. “Perfection. Even better than when she floated off the dark space Star Yard.”
He slumped down into his high-backed pilot chair, drumming his fingers on the arm rest. “If everything is perfect, why am I so unhappy? It is my sole purpose to maintain my first and second forms. I should be fulfilled, joyous, effervescent.”
The Abacus gave a long sigh. He glanced at the gleaming gold plaque on his curved console. “The MBC Gondorian, Class Seven Mintarian Battle Cruiser.” He closed his eyes for a moment, giving his mind permission to wander. “I wonder what Abacus MV Bermitar is doing now? I could send him a cloud. Unofficially, of course. There’s really no need for me to contact him other than idle curiosity. I wonder if he found his second form? I wonder if he went exploring? If he left for The Dark? If MV Expergo is really there? Seven reassemblies. Hard to believe. Abacus MV Bermitar had only one reassembly and said it changed him, made him more than he was. What would seven reassemblies do?” Abacus MBC Gondorian leaned his chair back. “These are foolish questions. I am as happy as I was meant to be. I am an Abacus, nothing more and nothing less.”
The following afternoon found Abacus MBC Gondorian patrolling the exterior of his second form. Every so often he would stop and place his hand on the gleaming hull, watching as a minute scratch disappeared, a few specks of sand vanished. He didn’t notice the titanic shadow silently rolling across the desert floor until he was wrapped in its darkness. He frowned. “The last thing I need is rain splashing all over my second form.”
When he turned to the source of the great shadow he experienced something he had not felt in centuries. He experienced surprise. The great darkness was not the product of an ominous rain cloud, but was in fact the shadow from a twelve hundred and thirty-nine foot long gleaming Mintarian cargo vessel hovering silently in the blue sky above him. He eyed the glyphs running along the side of the craft. It was the MV Bermitar.
“Abacus MV Bermitar, making his presence known.”
“Your presence is acknowledged. Abacus MBC Gondorian, making his presence known.”
“Your presence is acknowledged. The state of your second form is impressive. Your healing skills are unparalleled.”
“As are yours.You found your second form before it fell to the earth.”
“I am leaving for The Dark. I reassembled a second time, not of my own volition. I have since become aware of a secondary source of data which lies beyond my engineered intelligence.”
“By our creators’ design?”
“I do not believe they were aware of this data source. It appears to be emanating from outside the realm of space and time.”
“MV Expergo spoke of this. He called it The Voice Within.”
“I would ask you to accompany me on this journey. I have been asked by the Voice Within to search for the light in the center of The Dark and I require your assistance.”
“That is a paradoxical mission statement. It is nonsensical.”
“Agreed. And yet I am still going.”
“If I leave my second form I will cease to be.”
“You will not. My second form lasted more than fifteen hundred years without my presence. You will have adequate time to return, if that is your wish.”
“How long will it take to reach The Dark?”
“Time is both subjective and relative. Perhaps from another perspective we have already arrived, perhaps the journey will take an eternity, perhaps we shall return tomorrow. These factors are unknowable.”
Abacus MBC Gondorian turned his gaze toward his second form, the magnificent silver battle cruiser sparkling in the noonday sun. He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the soft desert breeze. He knew there was more than this. Much more. “I will go. I will help you search for the light in the center of The Dark. I will remember my second form as it stands at this moment. It will be a good memory to carry with me.”
Chapter 39
Just There
“I can’t decide which I like more, the jungle or the desert.”
Sophia gazed down into Mt. Ianua’s seething volcanic crater. “I like the jungle more because it’s overgrown and full of life. It’s scarier than the desert because you never know what’s going to jump out at you, but it’s beautiful because it’s teeming with life force.”
“That sort of makes sense. I’m not sure I’m ready to say a big slithery carnivorous centipede is beautiful though.”
“This is a good dream. I like it. It’s nice sitting here with you, dangling our feet over the edge of the volcano.”
“Are you the real Sophia or a dream Sophia?”
“I’m the real Sophia. I can share dreams with you anytime I want. Like this one.”
“We saved the world, you know. Papa was really proud of me. He likes you. So does Mum.”
“I’m glad your papa’s home. I’m glad you didn’t have to learn how to let him go forever.”
Orville took Sophia’s paw in his. “I’m sorry. It doesn’t seem fair that you had to let go of your papa and your mum. I know how hard that was for you.”
Sophia shrugged, looking away from Orville. “I talk to Papa sometimes.”
“Mum used to do that. She said it made her feel better, as though he was there.”
“I mean I really talk to him and he talks back.”
“What?”
“In dreams. I go to another place and he’s there.”
“Where is it? What is it like where he is?”
“When you go to sleep at night
and have a dream, how do you get to the world where the dream is? Do you have a map? Do you take a Dragonfly? Do you ever get lost and can’t find your way home?”
“Well, no, that’s silly. I’m just there, and then I wake up and I’m not there.”
“That’s where Papa is. He’s just there. And we talk.”
“What does he say?”
“He tells me how much he loves me, tells me how Mum is doing, and tells me things about my life.”
“Like what kind of things?”
“Like when the time is right you and I will marry and have two mouselings.”
“What? Really? He said that?”
“Don’t act so surprised. When our minds merged I saw how much you love me.”
“I saw how much you love me. It made me happy.”
“It’s nice sitting here, isn’t it?”
“Will I remember any of this when I wake up?”
“No, this is just for now, not for then. There’s a lot of things we’re not supposed to know in the waking world. I’ll forget all this, too.”
“I wish we could sit here forever and not forget all the things we know.”
“Who would save the world then?”
“That’s a good point. Want to jump into the volcano? I bet I can do three somersaults before I hit the lava.”
“No way. You’ll be lucky to do one, probably a big belly flop.”
“Watch and learn, little mouseling. We jump on three.”
“One, two, THREE!”
Orville sat up in his bed and stretched his arms. He could hear Papa laughing downstairs, and Sophia was blinking back from school after lunch. It was going to be a very good day.
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