Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

  His thoughts were interrupted by a male pre-recording coming from the metal support shaft of the Airbrella. “Rainfall not detected. Turning air off now.” The pink air and white noise from the gushing wind dissipated in seconds, creating an almost deafening silence that was broken with a high-pitched shriek. Kierra had been standing just beyond the pink air, and when it faded, she stood facing them in all her naked glory.

  “Oh, my God!” she squealed, quickly covering herself. She was a beautiful woman, with bronzed skin, a slender frame, and shoulder-length white-blonde hair laced with multi-color wisps that were a full inch longer that the rest.

  Levi turned his head away quickly but Marco gawked open-mouthed. Why hadn’t she been changing in the jeep, or along the tree line? Now she stood in the moonlight covering her breasts with one hand and her front with the other.

  “Don’t look! I forgot that stupid thing was set on automatic.”

  She was as good at acting as she was at surfing, Levi thought with an imaginary eye roll. And she had a whole lot of goose bumps…everywhere.

  “This is so embarrassing. I’ll go finish dressing in the jeep. Marco, close your eyes,” she scolded as she began shuffling backwoods into the darkness. Silence fell between them and Levi waited for Marco to speak. Surely, he was going to be angry this time.

  “Wow, I’m so lucky,” Marco muttered softly to Levi’s astonishment. Marco then sat in blissful muteness, trying to push his short-term memory into rerun overdrive.

  Love really is blind, Levi thought. He wouldn’t know, he had never been in love. If he had ever been, however, he highly doubted an act like the one he just witnessed would fly over his head so easily. He decided to open up to Marco. Although he had originally wanted to keep Marco’s night on a positive roll, Levi suddenly did not mind if his best friend’s date was ruined with this woman. Besides, he had three days to do this. No better time than now he supposed.

  “Marco, I have to tell you something,” Levi began hesitantly.

  “What’s up, bro?” Marco instinctively caught on to the serious tone in Levi’s voice.

  “I really don’t know how to break this to you.” Levi ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath. If he didn’t say it out loud would it not come true?

  “Come on, man. Is it about Kierra? Oh God, what is it?” Marco asked.

  “No, no. Nothing to do with her,” Levi quickly denied.

  “Is it Bockie?” was Marco’s next guess.

  “Seriously, Marco?” Although Levi had to admit that wasn’t such a bad second guess. “No, she’s fine. I was out here tonight because I was upset about something. Ugh, this is hard for me to tell you.” Levi took another deep breath. “Ok, I’m just going to say it. Marco,” he began, “I’m moving to Ohmani in three days.”

  “What?” blinked Marco, who sat with a rather blank expression on his face.

  Was he still thinking about his naked girlfriend? Levi decided to lay it out a little more plainly. “You know. The big rock orbiting around planet Earth. Came this close to destroying all of humanity at some point.” Levi held out his thumb and forefinger. “Yeah, there’s a welcome mat waiting for me up there as we speak.”

  “Hold on. What!?” Marco exclaimed with a little more comprehension. “I don’t get it. Like, you’re going there for a vacation?”

  “No. I’m moving there. I’m leaving in three days and I don’t know when I’ll be back. Mom got a job there. I’m gone on Friday,” Levi explained. “I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

  “Dang.” Marco looked at his childhood friend. “I can’t believe this.”

  “I know,” Levi shook his head solemnly.

  “You lucky bastard!”

  Levi would never place bets on Marco’s reactions after tonight, he thought.

  “I’ve always wanted to live there. I can’t wait to visit you! We are going to party it up, and by up I mean way up,” nodded Marco, happy with his witticism.

  Levi’s mouth fell open.

  “Don’t look so shocked. Everybody wants to live there. The Las Vegas of Space.” He motioned his hand in a large arch. “It’s just one big party…hotels, casinos, clubs. You are so lucky!”

  Levi shot Marco a doubtful look.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m an idiot. Did you know there’s a waiting list to even visit that place as long as the spaceway off this planet? I don’t even know what you’re so upset about, this is a great opportunity, Vi,” Marco concluded with a brotherly nudge.

  “I don’t want what everyone else wants.” Levi was slightly disgruntled at Marco’s reaction. “You know what I’ve got here. I thought you would understand.” Levi didn’t know why he was getting upset. Was it because his best friend didn’t understand his feelings or was it because he felt like Marco wouldn’t miss him?

  “What do you have here that you can’t have there?” Marco asked.

  “The water,” Levi answered without hesitating.

  “The water? You really don’t know much about Ohmani do you?”

  “I know enough,’ Levi replied dryly. “I know it’s a big space rock and, therefore, has no ocean.”

  “It doesn’t have an ocean but it does have the Waterdrome,” Marco informed him with a sidelong look. When Levi did not reply Marco continued his explanation. “It’s only the largest artificial body of water from here to the moon. They had a huge TV special on it. It’s like every surfers dream to surf at the Waterdrome.”

  “Sounds pretty artificial to me,” Levi countered with a sour wrinkle.

  “Artificial? What isn’t artificial these days? You think the thirty minute rain shower from seven to seven-thirty was natural? Do you think the ten, then twenty, then forty foot wave sequence at the US Open in Surfing is natural? You saw Kierra’s boobs…awesome, but not natural.” Marco paused in blissful recollection. “That’s just the way of the world these days. We control everything…the wind, the amount of sun entering the atmosphere. What isn’t regulated? What isn’t touched in some way for our benefit or safety? And hell, sometimes artificial is good. It’s certainly keeping us from killing ourselves. For me, it’s not even the comforting order of it all. It’s a reminder of what is real and authentic. Very few things are…but dreams, relationships and attitudes, those are the few things no government, alien race or media outlet can control…at least not yet,” he followed thoughtfully. “Those are the things that we have to recognize and hold on to.”

  Levi spent a minute thinking about what Marco had imparted. As artificial as it had become, the ocean was still real enough – the feelings the ocean evoked were certainly real. In actuality, the government’s control over the weather had worked in his favor. Surfing had now become more of a recognized and competitive sport due to the newfound uniformity of the waves. Before weather regulation, the inconsistency of waves during surfing events made it difficult to judge surfers technique and air-moves fairly. Although in his heart he was a purist, the regulation of wave formation gave him the opportunity to pursue surfing as a career.

  He thought about what the ocean meant to him. Perhaps he was holding on to something that felt real, but wasn’t real. Not the ocean, but what the ocean represented. The water had become a pseudo-father of sorts, but was he using it as a crutch? A way to forget about a real void he didn’t wish to address? Was he holding on to his small little hometown because it was safe and comforting? Was he so hurt by the way his father abandoned him, that he was afraid to expand his world and open himself up? Indeed, his life, dreams, feelings, and attitudes evolved around something that didn’t truly love him back.

  Why had he gone to the ocean for comfort, when he had two living, breathing human beings waiting for him back home? Without a doubt, the women in his life would sacrifice gladly for him any and every day. Did he reciprocate as selflessly as they? Although Levi did not know the natural color of their hair, or how many wrinkles they were supposed to have, there was no façade when it came to the love the three of them s
hared together.

  Suddenly, Levi realized he had taken Axella and Bockie for granted and he felt awful. The strength of these two women was admirable in the least. Both had been betrayed by the men they loved, and he would not be added to that list. While he had run away to the ocean, they had faced their hurt and sense of abandonment head on. They were strong. Levi was not like them. As soon as his subconscious swam up he would take his surfboard out and drown it back to the depths it belonged. Levi shook his head as an epiphany came to light. For the first time in his life, he thought the ocean might actually be holding him back from growing as a person.

  “I see your wheels turning,” Marco broke the silence.

  “Yeah,” whispered Levi, threading his fingers through his hair. “I just…wow. Thank you,” was all he could muster.

  “You’re one of the strongest people I know.”

  Levi snorted.

  “Really, you are. You’ve taken the pain from your past and turned it into passion and healing for others. You’ve used it for good and that was a real choice,” Marco said. “This moving thing should be seen as an adventure. You’re going to meet so many friends, hang out with some aliens, and kick butt at the Waterdrome. I’m not even kidding when I say I am so jealous!”

  For the first time all evening, Levi cracked a smile.

  “I’d place a bet that in three years you won’t even want to move back down here,” Marco predicted. “After living up there, Fort Bragg will be more like Fort Drag.”

  Levi huffed. He was definitely not going to like creepy alien town enough to stay there, but trust Marco to help Levi see the positivity in a situation he thought was life-ending just an hour before. “I’m going to miss you, man,” Levi meant sincerely.

  “I’m going to miss you too, but we can HoloChat,” replied Marco, squashing any sentiment in the moment. “Man, the ladies are going to miss you!” he added jokingly.

  “Why are the ladies going to miss you?” Kierra had walked back into view, dressed in her bathing suit and a little more make-up.

  Marco looked at Levi for permission to share the news. Levi nodded.

  “Levi’s moving to Ohmani in three days!”

  Kierra stood flabbergasted with her mouth open.

  “I know, I couldn’t believe it either!”

  Kierra then buried her face in her hands and burst into tears.

  3 GoodBYE GROUND

  Three days came and went in a flash. Levi didn’t have much time to settle into the reality of the situation between packing and tying up loose ends in the life he would leave behind. On the ride to the airport, all Levi could feel was a sense of surrealism. He would slump miserably into the leather of the taxi, but then Bockie would call him “Banana Back” and begin some long-winded, health-related speech which would somehow circle back to cancer. Instead he sat straight as a rod in the back seat and stared out of the car window consumed by thoughts of the very near future.

  The taxi would take them to Sacramento airport where they would hop a plane to Santé Fe Spaceport. They would then launch from the summer heat into the sky, through the atmosphere, and into space until they arrived at Ohmani Spacestation – his new home. Late at night when the light pollution was low, Levi could see Ohmani glued to its spot across the void. Its metallic surface was more reflective than the moon’s crust, and he oftentimes watched the suns light dancing over its potholes and craters. He rather liked the vision from a distance.

  His eyes caught sight of his mother’s wringing hands. Axella had a bad habit of biting her lip, and she was now chewing on it nervously. She hated heights and despised flying, but Levi could sense an aura of excitement underneath her anxiety. He internally promised himself he would try not to ruin this journey with his negative attitude. Actually, he thought suddenly, Ash Wednesday was coming up. Could he give up complaining for Lent? He wasn’t Catholic, but enjoyed the challenge of fasting from some guilty pleasure or bad habit for a period of time. Today would be a good test.

  It was a little over an hour drive to Sacramento on the skyway. The skyway, built approximately one and a half kilometers above the surface, was a set of lanes populated with fast moving, fully automatic vehicles. Most people who were able to take to the skyway for travel were in a tax bracket well above his family. Stellar Grand, the company Axella worked for, organized and paid for the relocation. As a result of using the skyway, their travel time would now be cut in half. He had only taken the skyway once in his lifetime when he was six. His aunt Laura had passed away and, because Axella had refused to fly by conventional means, she put down the money to make it to the funeral in Arizona via the skyway. Apparently in Axella-logic, one and a half kilometers high in a car was better than 12 kilometers high in a plane. That trip on the skyway, so foreign to him then, was one of Levi’s most cherished childhood memories. In fact, the only thing he remembered about the funeral was thanking his aunt for dying.

  At the moment, he couldn’t help but feel the same delight as he peered down at the bustling metropolises hundreds of meters below him. Levi looked at the people in the self-driving cars passing them, busy on their laptops or talking animatedly on their phones. To them, taking the skyway in a robotic vehicle was an everyday, normal event. Levi grew up in a small surfing town — a town that held on to as many simplicities as it could despite the rapid technological advances taking place all around the world. He was grateful for that fact, for he believed machines and gadgets were replacing true human connection…true earthly connection. Yes, he felt excited to be experiencing skyway travel with the elite at the moment, but he didn’t wish for it permanently. He knew he didn’t have a choice. His senses would soon be overwhelmed with all the high-tech things that had been introduced since The Great Rescue, and to him, most of it would be new.

  “Turn up the radio! I love this song!” Bockie hollered, breaking the silence. She began thrusting her arms in a punching motion above a swinging head.

  Levi couldn’t help but break a smile. Trust his grandmother to know a top forties electronica tune. Her energy reminded Levi that she would most likely survive the twenty-seven hour journey ahead. This theory helped him to relax a little more.

  Bockie shoulder bumped Axella who gave a half-hearted laugh and began to bounce too, releasing some of her own tension. Even the taxi driver began to sway in her seat to the contagious beat. There is way too much estrogen in this car, Levi thought.

  “Oh, come on, Sour Sue,” Bockie jested. Levi mustered a rhythmic shoulder shrug.

  “The Avondale’s are flying in the sky,” began Bockie in a rap. “Flying high, soon to fly two thousand clicks high, to sky city, we’re the sharp committee…,” she stopped suddenly trying to think of a word that rhymed with ‘committee.’

  Levi thought his grandmother was such a conundrum. One minute she would say things that were out-of-touch and the next she surprised him by being more with-it than a teenager. Was this a common symptom of aging? She was still looking up and bouncing her head with various words in her vocabulary, still coming up short with a rhyme. He felt a pull in his heart and found himself adding to her horrible rap.

  “We’re the sharp committee, bout’ to get gritty in Ohmani, free, of gravity, as a fam-i-ly...,” Levi began.

  Bockie laughed wildly. “Now, that’s my handsome grandson!”

  Are we there yet? Levi thought. And in fact they were. It was still no contest that he would rather listen to a ninety-year-old woman rap badly than move to space.

  The taxi drove up to the appropriate gate and turned into an opening along the curb. A bagger quickly surrounded the taxi to greet them.

  “Good day, sir.” The plump man welcomed with a nod.

  “Hello,” Levi replied politely.

  The cab driver popped the trunk for the bagger. Before Levi could help Axella and Bockie out of the car, the man had already pulled out the luggage with impressive speed and was scanning it. The bagger’s eyes widened as he read the information on his display screen.
r />   “Final destination, Ohmani, eh?” he queried with eyebrows lowering and raising rapidly. The bushy dance was a little distracting.

  “Uh, yes.”

  “Lucky bastard!” the bagger exclaimed a little too enthusiastically.

  Why did everyone speak of living in a giant metal rock in the sky so positively? Lent challenge.

  “You’re looking a little nervous, lad. Don’t worry, everyone gets a little anxiety bout’ flying on the ships,” he explained, a slight Scottish burr becoming more and more distinguishable as their pleasantries went on.

  Actually Levi hadn’t given much thought to the flight itself. It was mostly the living in a terraformed rock cage that gave him anxiety. The bagger looked at Axella and Bockie, who were pulling a couple of things out of their suitcases to transfer to their carry-ons. He then peaked over his right and left shoulder and reached into his pocket.

  “Here lad, these should calm those nerves.” He held out his hand and dropped three small blue pills into Levi’s palm. “Put em’ away, put em’ away,” the bagger whispered quickly, “save one fer take-off.”

  “What is it?” Levi asked hesitantly.

  “Those are the same pills they were handin’ out before The Great Rescue. That there will put out a horse.” He pointed to the pocket Levi had dropped the pills into. “You’ll sleep like a bairn, lad. An’ when you come to, the only thing you’ll have to worry bout’ is the fun that awaits ya…beautiful, exotic women and glorious debauchery.”

  So extra-terrestrial was synonymous with exotic now? “Err, thanks.” Levi did not trust this guy or his sleeping pills.

  “Ah,” the man began again with a sigh, “the last time I popped one o’ those I woke up with a flask of brandy in my hand and a nice pair o’ Ryley breasts in me face. Ever seen a pair o’ those, lad? Like wee white chocolate truffles, they are. Much prettier than a Hamza’s,” he shuddered ever so slightly and continued to blabber, “Oh you’re in fer a treat I tell ya. Specially’ with those looks you’re sportin.’” Before Levi could digest what the man had just said to him, the bagger patted Levi on the shoulder with a firm hand, wagged his brows one last time and carried the luggage off to his personnel vehicle.