Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

  “We’ll come back here,” Fletch assured, reading his mind. “It’s better to do the air surfing first so we’re not all wet.”

  Again they traveled around the perimeter until reaching the next hall for air surfing. There was no water at all in this area, but instead jet streams of different colors shot across the room in intricate paths. Levi watched a young girl float by them on a jet stream of yellow-tinted air and brace herself for a soft turn ahead. He winced at her form and the impending impact. Indeed, as she turned the corner the board whipped out from under her feet and she went tumbling onto the mat below. He enjoyed watching the air surfers whip up and down and around in a unique sport that combined surfing and snowboarding in a type of skateboarding obstacle park.

  “Almost there.”

  They finally reached their destination, the more advanced air surfing room. Levi and Fletch hopped off the conveyer belt with their wing-boards under their arms. Levi surveyed the room. The obstacle courses were so intense that instead of mats, trampolines covered the ground.

  “Let’s get a locker. Trust me, I could make a living scavenging personal items on the trampolines in here.”

  They locked away their phones and wallets and grabbed a helmet. Levi was glad to be wearing one as he watched people fall left and right all over the place. He caught sight of a surfer spiraling upwards towards the ceiling on a red jet stream until he reached about fifteen meters. He rode at this height for a short distance before launching off what looked to be an air cliff. He plummeted downwards, spinning and flipping in an intricate display. Suddenly he straightened and caught the jet stream at the bottom, which whisked him away.

  “Katen is such a show-off,” Fletch grumbled good-naturedly.

  “You know him?”

  “Oh yeah, super popular guy at our school. Also Indian, but the real kind.”

  Katen was one of the only surfers Levi had not seen fall.

  “Hey, Fletch,” Katen yelled, tucking his board underneath his arm and walking towards them.

  “Hey, Katen. Meet Levi Avondale. He just moved here…groundie,” Fletch said.

  Katen turned to Levi. “You’re pretty tan. I bet you’re a Florida boy.”

  “California, actually.”

  “Ever air-surfed?” Katen asked.

  “No.”

  “Hmm. You might want to try the hall next door. This might be a little advanced for you,” he said in a way that was meant to be thoughtful, but came out patronizing.

  Levi’s body started pumping massive amounts of testosterone through his veins. “Well, I’m here so I might as well give this hall a try.”

  Levi walked over to the edge of the hard platform and saw green, yellow, and red jet streams shooting out of the wall. Next to him he saw a young Ryley woman get a running start. She jumped into the air and landed squarely on a red current, which whipped her around a loopty-loop ahead.

  “You might want to start with green,” Katen warned. “It’s the easiest one.”

  Levi walked to the yellow. He knew this sport was going to take a whole new skill set, but trusted that his instincts and sheer athleticism would work in his favor. He positioned his board so that half of it was hanging off the ledge and leaned forward. Splat. He went straight through the air and landed on the mat below. He lay there, stunned.

  “Hahaha!” Katen was roaring with laughter on the platform above Levi. “I’vvee nneeevverrrr seen that befooree,” he squeezed between guffaws.

  “Why did I go straight through?” Levi asked frustratingly. He climbed up the ladder that led him back to the platform, trying to ignore Katen.

  “You didn’t turn your wing-board on. That’s my fault, Levi,” Fletch added apologetically. He grabbed the board, turned it over, and flipped a switch on the bottom. Suddenly, a slight buzzing sound started coming from the board. “‘Air surfing’ is kind of a misleading name for the sport. There is gravity here, albeit artificial, and it still has to be overcome with some type of force or you cannot surf on the air. The board and the air carry opposite magnetic poles that repel each other, but the board’s magnetism needs to be turned on first. I guess “electromagnetism surfing’ just doesn’t have the same ring to it.” Fletch said with a smile.

  “Let me guess…it’s science?” Levi said, proud of himself for understanding most of what Fletch had just spouted.

  “Yep.” Fletched grinned wildly.

  Katen huffed. “Nerds.”

  Levi looked once more at Katen, and felt another pump of testosterone tighten his muscles. He had not fallen because of ineptitude, and regained his sense of competition. Again, he walked to the edge of the platform and leaned forward. This time he was whisked down the ramp of magnetic air, gaining speed. It was exhilarating. He hit the trough of the airwave and began moving upwards again, bending his knees to compensate for the drastic change in slope. Levi could hear Fletch cheering him on from the platform. Pride filled his chest as he braced for his first turn and then…plop. He fell and hit the trampoline, which bounced him up and down like a laughing diaphragm. Instead of being angry or embarrassed, Levi smiled. Like surfing in the ocean, this sport would not tolerate arrogance or reward faulty execution.

  For the next couple of hours, Fletch and Katen taught him the sport of air-surfing. Levi found himself enjoying being the student for once. He even began to enjoy the company of the cocky Katen, who seemed to love correcting Levi’s misshaped lines and misplaced feet. Katen’s sense of superiority actually became quite entertaining for Fletch and Levi, who would laugh when Katen would say, ‘no like this,’ and then fly off on a jet stream showing off moves that had nothing to do with what he had just taught verbally. When Fletch hopped on a yellow wave to demonstrate some of the techniques, Levi couldn’t help but compare him to Marco. Other than being incredibly talented with a board, Fletch and Marco were so alike; both embodied wisdom far beyond their age and he felt blessed to know them both.

  After much practice, Levi had improved drastically. He even made it half way through one of the red courses, which Katen grudgingly admitted was unheard of for a first-timer. When Levi and Fletch’s muscles screamed for them to stop, they collected their belongings and hopped back on the counterclockwise conveyer belt. Levi loved the afterglow of a good workout, like he had paid his dues for a big juicy burger. He and Fletch sat in their cart, talking about what extra-planetary animal Levi was going to try next and then…it couldn’t be.

  Levi caught sight of her in Hall I. She was not a mirage or a hallucination this time. She was real. Talon Terry was on Ohmani. Her magnificent auburn hair was flying uninhibited in the wind as she surfed a wave near the right side of the room. As the wave carried her toward the beach like it was nature’s pedestal, Levi stared in a trance. Her form was perfect, both her surf form and her God-given one. Without thinking, Levi leaped off the conveyer belt and ran across the beach towards her.

  “Talon!” he yelled, waving his arms.

  Talon’s head jerked upward, causing her to lose her footing. She fell off her surfboard and summersaulted in the wave. She stood up, wiping the salt water from her eyes and staring towards the beach. Levi popped up beside her, water dripping off his muscled form.

  “Levi, you scared me,” she chided with her hand over her heart.

  He wanted to put his hand there, he thought. Instead he gave her a hug. “Tal, I can’t believe you’re here. I haven’t seen you since…,” Levi stopped, feeling stupid for the miss-step. He was going to say funeral. The last time Levi saw her she was leaning over a casket, giving her mother a final kiss goodbye.

  “It’s okay, Levi,” she said understandingly. “Let’s go back to the beach.”

  They swam towards the beach and settled down next to each other. Levi’s heart was skipping like a school boy as he sat next to his secret crush. He hated having to always play it cool around her.

  “Feels real, huh?” She picked up a handful of the warm white sand and let it flow between her fingers. “They put heaters
underneath the floor to keep the sand warm.”

  She felt awkward to Levi. There was something she was nervous about. “Why are you here?” Levi asked, not that he wasn’t happy to see her.

  Talon bit her bottom lip in much the same way as her mother, and his mother. Suddenly he made the connection.

  “You’re here about your mom?” Levi asked, hoping it wasn’t true that she was actually going to testify on Wednesday at the preliminary trial.

  “Yes.”

  “But our parents were best friends. We grew up together. How could you possibly think my mother was capable of doing something like that?” he questioned, pain ripping through him.

  “Vi, I…”

  Levi would not let her finish. He was too hurt by her admittance to hear anymore, and he knew he was about to say something he would regret to a woman he cared deeply for. He sprung up and spun around, almost running into Fletch.

  “Hi, I’m Fle…”

  “Let’s go,” Levi said sharply

  They hopped back on the conveyer belt and rode through the tunnels in silence. Fletch didn’t need acute senses to know anger filled the air around them. Levi would be bone dry by the time they reached the front of the Waterdrome with all the water evaporating into steam off his seething body. When they reached the front room again, Levi soared past a couple of giggling, gawking teenagers, threw his surfboard down on the rental desk and said ‘let’s go’ in much the same abrupt manner as he did before.

  They walked the ten blocks in silence, boarded the PB and shot into the sky. As his body began to float in the seat, he also felt some of his initial anger float away. Finally, he spoke. “I can’t believe she would do this.”

  “I know, I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t get it. All the holidays and dinners and soccer games and school plays. Talon and Pila sat at our dining room table for Thanksgiving every year. We are all practically family,” Levi said with an inner wince. He loved that Axella and Aunt Pila were best friends because he got to know Talon and grew to love her – but over the years his affection had morphed from platonic sibling-like love to deeper romantic feelings. She was the reason Levi couldn’t bring himself to be with anyone else. And she just broke his heart. Levi grew incredibly sad. It was for the best anyways. Talon never showed any romantic interest in Levi, probably because she still viewed him in the role of a childhood sibling.

  “Well, to be fair, her mother was murdered. I’m sure she’s just trying to find answers. You said yourself that the investigation on Pila’s death went cold.”

  “So she decides to testify against my mom?” Levi sniped.

  “She never said that at all. I heard the whole conversation. You kind of just cut her off and stormed away. She said she was here for her mom, not yours,” Fletch argued gently.

  “Why else would she be so far from home? They obviously re-opened Pila’s murder case and my mom’s trial is a few days away.”

  “Maybe she’s helping to organize another funeral or she’s here to see family. Perhaps without her mother in that tiny town of yours she wanted to move to a place where she would be more comfortable and accepted.”

  Levi shot Fletch a confused look, not following his logic.

  “Uh oh,” Fletch sucked air between his teeth. “I guess you didn’t know she was a Sydces then?”

  8 TO KISS AN EAGLE

  Levi sat there stunned for several moments, a million neurons firing a lifetime of memories. Talon Terry was an alien? No, she was so norm….human. He thought back to Kierra’s comment about everyone thinking Talon was weird. It was true that she never exactly had a plethora of friends. But he would have known…she would have told him.

  “I think you’re wrong,” Levi finally stammered.

  “Smell doesn’t lie,” Fletch wrinkled his reptilian nose.

  “A Sydces? Like those beautiful girls we saw in the Underground?” Though, Talon was much prettier and a whole lot classier, Levi thought.

  “The wild horses, yes. They are known for their beautiful hair,” Fletch added.

  Her hair…it was unmistakable. He trusted now that he had seen her twice on their travels to Ohmani last week. But why had she been on the airplane and in the spaceport before Axella was ever arrested? Suddenly he realized he had not thought this through before he jumped to conclusions. Something didn’t make sense and he wanted to know the truth.

  Levi whipped out his phone and looked up ‘Tal’ in his contact list.

  Sorry for running off before you could explain. I’m really stressed out about my mom’s trial and think I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. Tell me what’s going on.

  Talon’s reply dinged immediately on his phone: Meet me at The Tunnel tonight. 9 o’clock. I’ll be at the bar in a red shirt.

  The Tunnel was the dance club he had tried to get into with Fletch, but was barred thanks to the bouncing hairball. He should have studied harder in high school so he wouldn’t have to deal with being treated like an untrustworthy child. Levi contemplated suggesting they meet somewhere else, but was so grateful Talon even agreed to see him that he wasn’t willing to change her rendezvous parameters. Talon, the alien. Levi still could not believe it. How could this woman make him feel so many emotions in the span of thirty minutes? Because you love her.

  Fletch and Levi took separate taxis once the PB put them back on the ceiling. It was already seven o’clock and Levi had to take a shower and eat dinner before meeting Talon. His stomach summersaulted at the thought. He pulled up to the hotel, and as he counted out money for the taxi driver he overheard a wonderful laugh – a laugh so rich and real the muscles in his cheeks automatically curled in reaction. He instinctively looked up and was surprised to see that this contagious sound was coming from his very own mother.

  Levi had never heard his mother laugh like that. But now she stood radiating happiness as she talked with the hovering Caleb Burger. Her body language subtly communicated her interest in the doorman. Was she flirting with a machine? He didn’t know, but he loved to see her so joyous. She deserved to be happy, even if it was with an android, after Kaylan had abandoned both of them. Levi tried to remember there was an amputee on the other side of it, probably happy to have his personality be the thing that Axella was loving instead of his appearance.

  “Pull around to the back please,” Levi told the driver. Over the course of the last week he had gotten to know much of the hotel staff. Hopefully one of them would let him in the back so he wouldn’t have to interrupt Axella and Caleb’s conversation. After an employee let Levi into the building, he took the rear elevator to the seventh floor. He took a shower, making sure to scrub off every speck of dust, dead skin cell, and stinky molecule. Deciding not to go in his usual relaxed beach-look, he put on a nice pair of dark jeans and a white button-down shirt. Dark grey. No, black. You’re being ridiculous. Grey.

  He sat down to eat dinner with Bockie, who was watching the alien version of an old Earth show, The Bachelor.

  “Can we watch something else by chance?” Levi suggested after watching two hairy Hamza’s make-out.

  “I hope my grandson is not a speciest,” Bockie voiced with her eyes glued to the TV. “Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

  “Are you quoting Shakespeare for a reality show about twelve women vying for one man?” The notion did not seem very romantic to Levi, even without the fact that they both had little mustaches. If only Bockie knew he was in love with an alien himself.

  “I am quoting Shakespeare for you, lover boy. I can see you’re about to go on a date with Kierra. My hand already feels gummy at the thought of touching your gelled hair.”

  She was mistaken of course, but he hated talking about his personal life, especially with Bockie, so he stuffed his mouth with a huge forkful of food instead.

  When the clock struck 8:30 he got up from his seated position with a flutter of his heart. The entrance to the Underground was only a few blocks from the
Stellar Grand, so it wouldn’t take him long…if he could remember how to get there.

  “Good luck lady-killer,” Bockie winked.

  “Maybe not the best choice of words considering our family’s situation, Bock,” Levi pointed out. “Love you.”

  He took the back way out of the hotel again and walked down the ever-bustling street. Luckily a good sense of direction and a decent memory led him the right way. When he finally walked down the stairs to the Underground’s nightlife network, the musky odor of a thousand bodies hit his nose at once. He made a left down the dark corridor, past a vendor selling gothic-looking jewelry and a boy street-performing with an instrument shaped like a guitar with a mouth piece on the end. The boy took a deep breath and blew in the apparatus, striking the cords to produce a euphonious melody that sounded like an Indian blues.

  Levi walked for ten or fifteen minutes until he saw the red flashing sign for “The Tunnel.” The same bouncer sat outside, looking as hirsute as ever. How was he going to get in there? Levi stood contemplating his options, which included disguises, fake ID’s, and ninja moves. Finally, he surrendered to the fact that he was horrible at lying and too big to be a ninja. He took out his phone to text Talon, rather embarrassingly, that he was prohibited entry and that they would have to meet somewhere else…and then he felt wetness on his earlobe.

  He jumped instinctively and turned to see what had caused the sensation. The beautiful ebony wild horse stood smiling at him with her dark hair cascading over her delicate shoulders like a mane. Her herd of beautiful friends were missing this time.

  “I like a man with sensitive ears,” she cooed.

  A light bulb went off. He dredged up his best falsely sincere smile and said, “Err, hello again.”

  “Couldn’t stop thinking about me, huh?” she asked, giving him the most seductive look he had ever seen.

  Would it be wrong to use her? It took him all of two seconds to decide no. After all, wasn’t she using him too?