Cry For Tomorrow

by Dianna Hunter

  “I hate to admit it, but I think she’s right,” agreed Jake. “The whole point of merging the two worlds was to make life on our own world better.” He shook his head and waved his hand at what was visible of the city. “If this is their Big City, then I think we are in big trouble!”

  “I agree,” I said thoughtfully. “But before we make any decisions I think we should also talk with Rainor again, maybe give him a chance to explain a few things.”

  “So, which one of you is going to make him tell us what’s going on?” Kelly asked with a smirk. “Talk is cheap, guys. Who’s going to get the answers?”

  I poked my little sister in the ribs as I walked past her and whispered, “Watch it, kid, or we’ll make you do it.”

  “So, Prince Rainor-you’re not exactly an agent for under-world, now, are you?” Jake interrupted the intense discussion Ben and Rainor were locked in when we joined them.

  Rainor had the grace to look embarrassed when he turned around and faced us. “I’m sorry, my intention was never to mislead you in any way. The fact is our society is complicated, and I was afraid you wouldn’t come with me if I told you too much, too soon. Everything that I’ve been able to learn about your culture led me to believe that you might not respond well to a person you perceived as royalty, so I chose a station that you would, hopefully, interact with a little more freely.” He waved his arm to include the city around him. “White Rock City is the main seat of government for this sector of the world, but just as the over-world has several powerful sectors controlling your economy and politics, so does ours. My sister, Selena, is the ruling entity in this sector, but I am not currently in a position of power. In fact, with the way things are right now, my sister is just as likely to have me assassinated, just as she did my older brothers.”

  “So let’s put this bit of your lack of power aside for a moment and move on for a bit.” Ben’s face had grown red and he was visibly gritting his teeth. “What you’re telling us is that this—” he waved a hand to encompass the rambling collection of buildings stretched out before us, “is the largest and most powerful city in this sector?”

  We all returned our attention to what we could see of the city around us. The narrow, two-lane street running along the front of the depot, and the network of streets leading into the city, were lined with an assortment of buildings, none of them more than three stories high, none of which was very impressive. We could distinguish a food store, several clothing shops and various other small business between the scattered groups of people milling about in the streets, but there were no department or large groceries stores, or large anything to be seen. The maze of canals flowing between the clusters of buildings and streets reminded me of pictures I’d once seen of an ancient city. As with so many other places and things, it no longer existed. And if that were not enough to make us worry, well, then there were the people. To my eyes, the population of this city looked like escapees from a really bad nightmare. The phantoms and humanoids seemed oblivious to the throngs of ghouls, of both sexes and many sizes and types, that were freely wandering the streets.

  “Please, tell me that we’re just passing through some half-abandoned section of town and everything important is on the other side of the tracks?” Jake pleaded.

  “Yes, please do, and while you’re at it, explain to me where all the people are. You know, all the people you are going to bring to over-world to provide the work-force that was promised to return us to the modern world we lost when the worlds collided forty years ago!” Ben demanded.

  “I don’t know if I have the right words to make you understand,” Rainor began before turning way, evidently trying to collect his thoughts.

  In an effort to give him a little time to work things out, I nodded at the others before leading them to the edge of the small park lying between the depot and parking area. From this vantage point we were able to observe the streets, canals and clusters of buildings surrounding us. Our hearts grew heavier as we took note of the thin stream of bicycles and hover-craft on the hard streets, and the assortment of small air-boats and sea-horse drawn chariots on the water course.

  “Hey, I-I’m really sorry,” Rainor said when he rejoined us. “I felt that I had no choice except this deception. Would you have consented to accompany me if you’d known that Tereus had so little to offer in exchange for your help? The fact is, we are not responsible for the event that shifted the over-world off its axis and out of its natural orbit. The population of the under-world has been captive in your gravity and ravaged by the radiation emanating from your world for these forty years now. The merging is our only hope.

  “Since the beginning of this event, our scientists have tried everything in their power to find a way to either break away from the pull of your world, or to enact a merging, but we don’t have access to the level of technology that you have. Compared to your own culture, we’re pretty primitive. Our only mode of fast transportation is the hover-craft, as you see now.” He pointed at a passing flitter. “And we stole that tech from the over-world. The fact is, most of our world is covered with water and many of our sentient beings actually live in colonies under the seas. And, just as the Sil that you met earlier, they’re not truly human, either.” He held out one of his own hands, flexing the fingers to reveal the retractable webbing between his fingers. “Even less than we are.”

  “So, basically, you felt this justified your tricking us all into coming here, is that right?” demanded Jennie angrily.

  “Okay, now everybody, just wait a minute,” Ben interrupted. “Now, fact is that due to my current high security rating, I have been made aware of certain information. One of them is that there have been agents moving between the two worlds since the beginning, keeping track of things. Something changed about six months ago and this whole situation has turned critical and it no longer matters who was responsible for what. The two worlds have now reached a point where they must be allowed to merge to prevent a major seismic event involving both dimensions. What I don’t know is why there’s such a power struggle going on between the various branches of both governments. My sources have not been able to provide me with a viable answer to any of my queries.”

  Rainor coughed and turned to face us. “Let me enlighten you as to the true motivation behind it all. My informants have told me that this power-struggle will determine who gains control of the untapped wealth of metal ores and petroleum fields that are bigger than many of your continents, and the army of ghouls they will need to hold that control.”

  “And there will be another war,” Jake rumbled in dismay. “Maybe his time they can destroy life in both dimensions.”

  Ben’s face had grown red with anger. “Okay, humanitarian issues aside, I can see why my government’s military is so anxious to get their hands on this potential army, but, if I understand correctly, if these ghouls gain entry through a torn curtain, they will be much too violent to ever be controlled or trained to hold even the most menial jobs. Do you have any idea how the Company expects to utilize the raw materials they hope to acquire without a labor force?”

  “Now that’s where all those poor people you call freaks come in.” Rainor had a sick look on his face. “When successfully merge with the ghouls, they become very compliant, physically powerful workers, like the dry-landers you met earlier, and they breed like rabbits.”

  “So that’s how they plan to solve the fertility problems?” I asked incredulously. The image my mind was broadcasting was so horrible that I was afraid I was going to throw up. “And just what is it that you get when you breed these ghoul-freak creatures? Are they human?”

  “Not exactly,” Rainor admitted. “But they are easily managed and trained, which is just what your Company wants.”

  I stared at Rainor’s face. How I could have been so wrong about a person? Did he truly support this campaign? I shook my head in dismay. I had to be wrong. Rainor just didn’t feel like a bad person. In fact, he seemed at least as upset as we were about the whole bu
siness.

  “Rainor, why would you do this?” I demanded softly, but an answer was already forming in my mind. “Misty told us that there’s been a plague killing the adults here—is that true?”

  “Yes, it’s true. We are all dying long before our time.” He waved his hand around the streets at the people moving about. “What do you see? I’ll tell you what you see, a lot of children and young adults. Have any of you seen a person over the age of thirty?”

  “No, now that you mention it, I haven’t,” agreed Ben. “What’s causing this?”

  “It’s something to do with the radiation from the large mass of your world and the lack of full sunlight. Even before we were drawn into the shadow of your world, we were never in the full light of the sun. Our orbit keeps us always in the shadows,” Rainor told us. “If the merging fails, we will die.”

  “So your people are dying and our civilization is fading away,” Ben laughed dryly. “Heck of a mess now, isn’t it?”

  I was still trying to come to grips with everything our guide was dumping on us as I walked to the side of the small flitter. I was pleased to see that it was a close duplicate of the ones so common on over-world. After a turn around the flitter, I returned my attention to Rainor. “So, what I still don’t get is how, and if we agree to help, how are so few of us possibly going to affect this merging? We don’t have that much power.”

  Rainor joined me at the side of the flitter before answering. “The plan originally devised by the Source involved bringing as large a group of the psis as possible to the palace, where they were each to be given one of the energy crystals. The crystals were discovered a couple of years ago in a mine beneath Zodiac Six, which is one of our smaller under-sea colonies. Because the crystals magnify telekinetic energy, it is believed that the psis can use them to increase and focus the magnetic energy of their minds to slow the merging enough to allow the membrane between the dimensions to be absorbed rather than ruptured.” He paused in his narrative as if collecting his thoughts.

  “So, what’s happened to change that plan?” asked Ben.

  “Another crystal was found,” Rainor shook his head in dismay, “and this one is large enough and powerful enough to be operated by one psi—the right one. They call it the mother-stone because it is the largest of its kind ever found. In the hands of a psi, the stone has the potential to magnify the electrical charge to a magnitude that would be the same as a million lesser psis, which is why scientists on both worlds have been searching so determinedly for just one sane telekinetic with the ability to emit an electrical charge of a magnitude great enough to activate the crystal.” He raised his head and forced himself to look me in the eye.

  “And the world which controls the telekinetic, also controls the outcome of the merging,” I supplied when he couldn’t say it. That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach was back with a vengeance.

  “I’m sorry, but when I heard them talking about you at Headquarters, I knew you were just what we’d been looking for. Unfortunately, those fools on over-world had no idea why they were hunting you, they were just following orders to detain you at any cost. If I had not interfered, that moron of an agent that I had attached myself to would’ve killed all of you and never understood what he’d done.”

  “So you were intentionally hunting me?” I asked incredulously. “What if I hadn’t listened to you or refused to come with you?”

  He shook his head sadly. “If I had failed in my mission to convince you to come to the under-world with me then I would have had to return empty-handed to face my fate—and the fate I had doomed my people to. I, and the people of my world, or at least most of the people of my world, do not believe in forcing anyone to do something they do not wish to. I would not change that no matter the consequences.”

  “Wow, you mean that we’re responsible for deciding the fate of a whole world of people? That’s really a lot of responsibility to dump on a person,” Kelly said as she studied my face, looking for some kind of reassurance. I wished I had some to offer—I could’ve used it right then.

  “Well, actually, it’s the fate of two worlds, and they only need Halie to activate the crystal,” Jake supplied when no one else would.

  Everyone was watching me as if I’d just sprouted a tail or something, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. Who was it that had decided that something like this was my fate to choose? “Well, you know what? I think I would like to meet this person, the Source, who seems to feel that she has a right to make this kind of decision. I want to hear what she has to say before I make mine as to whether I will accept this or not.”

  Jerking the lever, I opened the hatch on the flitter and climbed in. Leaning out the side, I called, “Dusty! Come!” The dog eagerly leaped through the door and settled on the front passenger seat beside me.

  Now that we were airborne, it was possible to see the whole island stretched out below us. Nearly circular in shape, it looked to be about ten miles across. The streets and canals had been laid out across the natural landscape like a giant spider-web. At the center of the web, crouched like a great spider, rose a sprawling, multi-storied building that was obviously the royal palace. Even in the pale midday light, the composite elements of the building’s curved coral walls flashed brightly. Several tall towers sprouted from the main sections, reaching for the clouds with flapping streamers of colorful flags hung from every window and precipice.

  A steady stream of the city’s inhabitants could be seen flowing busily along the streets and canals that comprised the strands of the web. The large knots that periodically marked the strands were in fact more of the big depots like the one we had arrived at.

  “The whole place looks like a giant park,” exclaimed Kelly as she studied the city passing below us. And it did indeed, for it seemed that every exposed inch of the city, even on the porous coral walls of the buildings, was dressed in a suit of greenery, boasting jewels of flowers and fruit.

  “Yes, we have so little land above the sea that we cannot bear to let even the smallest space open to the light go to waste.” Rainor’s love for his home world was clear in the sound of his voice. He circled the palace once before aiming the nose of the flitter toward a small landing deck on one side.

  Setting the flitter gently down next to an open port, he turned off the engine and let it glide into the shelter before bringing it to a total stop.

  Jake and I were closest to the hatch on the passenger side, but when Jake reached a hand to open it, Ben’s hand was on his shoulder restraining him. “Let me go first,” he said softly and nodded at the empty hanger and the men barely visible in the shadows. “Our man Rainor didn’t choose this secluded docking space without cause.”

  Nodding, Jake moved back to let Ben open the hatch, and I was very much aware of his hand on the weapon concealed under the waist of his sarong.

  Exchanging glances, Ben and Rainor emerged from opposite sides of the flitter and moved to meet the men converging on them.

  “Prince Rainor, we have been awaiting your arrival,” announced the first guard to reach them. He gave a quick bow and came to attention. Five more men emerged from the shadows, closing in from all sides as we began jumping from the flitter.

  I kept a sharp eye on our escort as I took a position between the two men so I could get a better feel for what was going on here. I tried to be discreet, but I noticed that the guards stiffened, as if made uncomfortable by my examination. These guards were outfitted in uniforms of deep, royal blue sarongs just like the ones that had met us at the depot but, in contrast, they were much more heavily armed. Leather belts criss-crossed their chests and they wore taser weapons as well as knives and daggers of various sizes sheathed at their waists. The tridents they each carried looked seriously dangerous, and though they seemed to be of the same policing force as the first, these differed in their attitude and the stern, threatening way they looked at us. These men were not Rainor’s friends.

  Last out of the flitter, Kelly jumped to the deck and re
ached back to help the frogg untangle his fat feet from the straps of her backpack.

  “Come on, Ralph, just give me your foot so we can get you out of there!” Kelly grumbled at the awkward creature. Trapped behind the frogg and anxious to rejoin Halie, Dusty playfully nipped at Ralph’s backside.

  Croaking in surprise and insult, Ralph leaped for the deck with the dog on his heels.

  The two guards closest to the flitter spun about and aimed their tridents at the two animals.

  “No!” Rainor and I both shouted as we leapt to defend our pets.

  The commander waved a hand at the two guards who immediately lowered their weapons.

  “Sir, I apologize if we have offended you, but you know how strict the Source is about unknown entities on the palace grounds,” grunted the commander, “especially the froggs. We all know that they have been used to conceal weapons in the past.”

  “That is understood, Commander,” Rainor growled back, “but these over-worlders and the two animals are in my company, and they will be accorded full courtesy during our visit. Is that understood?”

  “Yes, Sire!”

  The guard’s answer was prompt and appropriate, but I was watching his eyes and body language when he responded, and I didn’t like what I saw. This man’s muscles and stance were much too stiff and his steely eyes never met Rainor’s.

  Jake and Jennie must have felt the danger and deceit in these men as well, for they moved in close enough to touch my arms and exchange anxious glances with me. They, too, felt like we were walking into a trap.

  “Her Excellency awaits you and your guests in her personal reception room, Sire,” the commander insisted. “If you and your companions will follow me, please?”

  “I do know the way, Commander,” Rainor snapped at the man. He shifted his pack to one shoulder, leaving his right hand free.

  I nodded my head at my friends, indicating that I would bring up the rear of our procession. I wanted to put some space between me and Rainor. There was something in the way he was moving that made me believe he had not expected this type of reception. He was stiff and watching the men escorting us very closely and his hand was hovering over the exposed butt of his taser weapon.