We got off quickly. It was way too high for comfort, but fortunately, the crowds were nonexistent up here.
“Are you sure we are in the right place?” Jay suddenly asked.
Strange, he usually has a strong sense of orientation.
“Of course it is. This way. The Professor’s office is on the right wing.”
He followed me with the same cocky expression, his usual know-it-all smug and of course, that overly confident amble. For Jay, the world owed him a favor for existing, and he would gladly remind everyone that with his attitude.
Nevertheless, our department was indeed poor and not so popular, but the greatest Chroniclers of all time had passed from here. And Professor Virgil was one of them.
The name tag was almost ready to fall off the door. I was not sure why they still used name tags up here, but it was relatively easy to find the right office, even if you didn’t know who you were looking for. You just had to hear the screams at the end of the hallway.
When Jay first heard the Professor shriek, he broke down the door with ease and charged inside. When he saw her behind her monitor, reading one of her books, he stood still and glared at Professor Virgil and me one after the other.
“I’m sorry Professor. I didn’t know he would smash his way in. I should have warned him.”
Honestly, I wasn’t sorry at all. It suited her well
Chapter Nineteen
Jay
I thought that I couldn’t get more surprised by humans, but every time I said that, I ended up on the wrong side. Passing through all those amazing places to get up here, in this rundown place, it kinda pumped me down. We could have spent another minute investigating that lab in the first floor with those shining swords, or the place where you couldn’t even talk. Not this forgotten by gods place.
The blonde woman with the short hair was sitting behind a small desk, calm as if she was just ready to fall asleep. I looked around me, searching for the one that screamed before, but the only one in here washer.
“Who are you? Hello, Eladia my dear. I hope you’re doing okay.”
I considered not replying to her, but her authority was greater than Eladia’s. This woman actually demanded my answer.
“I’m Jasih. And you must be the so called Professor.”
If I knew better, I’d say that this woman flirted with me. But I didn’t know. Humans could be so complicated at times.
“Jasih. Interesting name. Are you sick Jasih? Your skin is sickly pale, almost silver I’d say.”
She didn’t even bother to stand, or stop reading. The only time I saw her eyes was earlier, when I broke down the door of this room.
“No, I’m perfectly fine. You wrongly assumed that I’m human. I’m an Esuh of the Two Faces, a Prime Officer of my people and a First Kind.”
Suddenly, the woman yelled again and hit her hands on the desk. She was on her feet now, watching me straight into the eyes. This one was crazier than Eladia, than everyone that I had ever met.
“You didn’t! Is this one a new species?”
Did she refer to me as this?
“Yes, Professor Virgil. Silver found no reference to his species in the Archives. I visited all seven Great Mystery Libraries on my way back to Yaerus, but not one of them even mentions anything about the Esuh. He’s another great mystery.”
She moved closer to me. I examined her face from up close, and I noticed that this woman was slightly older than Eladia, maybe a year or two. I was not an expert in human ages, but she had the same skin color and elasticity as Eladia, but her eyes were darker and deeper. It was like she had seen the wonders of the galaxy and got mad in the process.
“So, a new thread to the Great Mystery unravels. What about the relic you described in your message? What about it? Have you brought it here? Did you run every diagnostic test? What’s the pragmatic difference between the age you discovered it to the age it actually found itself on Primordial Earth? Quickly woman, answer me!”
There she goes again with the loud voices. I mean, is she deaf or something?
They spent some time talking gibberish to one another when the blonde woman, the Professor, suddenly turned serious looking at the black-haired one, Eladia.
“Okay, talk to me Eladia. What’s your guess here? What is this?”
She referred to the cube, and maybe a little bit to me.
Honestly, I give up!
Eladia seemed to regain some of her old spark, the one she had in Primordial Earth when hunted by every kind of predator.
“After careful consideration and thorough analysis, I don’t have the slightest idea what this cube is. I tried to compare the Morph Relic to this one, but besides sharing the same material, those two relics have nothing else in common.”
She continued.
“The cube was huge when we first found it. It was changing sizes, shapes, and color frantically before ending up in Jay’s hand for no apparent reason. I was in the same space as Jay here, but it didn’t seem to show any hesitation. It headed straight to him. Honestly, if I wanted to be ambitious and take a wild guess, I’d say it is a data cube of some sort?”
We had discussed many times about what could possibly be hidden inside this tiny cube. For me, since this was probably not a weapon I could use or something to help me find the truth, it had no use at all. But for these two women, it was a hot topic, a subject worth building a career from.
At least that was what I had heard Eladia say at Silver one night. The blonde woman, the crazy one, spread her hand towards me with her palm open wide.
“What?” I asked.
“I want to examine it. Give it to me.”
“Okay. It’s all yours,” I said and took it out of my pocket.
The small cube was as warm as the day I first found it on my chest back on the other planet, but nothing else had changed since then. Still, after I left it on her hand, even before I pulled it away, it started moving towards me.
Another shriek. This time, she said something in a strange language. “This is not a data cube Eladia, not by a long shot. It has absorbed his bio-imprint, and it now follows him everywhere around. This one is the key,” she said and pointed at me. “Your data might hide inside of this cube, but for now, the outside is the lock, and your man here is the key. Oh my, I have to go downstairs and study.”
And just like that, the woman ran off like she was the guest and we the ones holding this office. But Eladia didn’t seem all that surprised.
“Does she do that often?”
She shrugged .
“Yes and no. Last time I was here, she attacked me, trying to punch me in the face. If Silver wasn’t here back then, she would have injured me really bad.”
“And why you respect her so much?”
She shrugged again.
“Because she’s the only one that believed in me and paid my mission to find this relic.”
Just then, Zan and Silver appeared at the door. The part-hologram, part-mechanic Android seemed genuinely concerned.
“Eladia, are you okay? Did she try to punch you again?”
The black-haired woman shook her head. I walked next to Zan and lowered my head to talk to him. “Humans are crazy, kid. Be glad you didn’t evolve to be like that.”
The hairy kid, which now seemed less hairy than before after Silver had groomed him a month ago, looked at me and smiled. I bet he didn’t even understand a thing of what I had just said.
Chapter Twenty
Eladia
Visiting Professor Virgil was, at the very least, a fruitless endeavor.
She actually ran out of her office straight to the Research of the Archives department to search for more clues about my case. She couldn’t even wait for me to finish talking before running away.
Even so, somehow, I didn’t feel all that disappointed after all. To make someone like her run behind her books, well, that was as important as agreeing that I was on the right track.
Being a tad bit more eccentric than the re
st of our colleagues, for Virgil to actually focus on my project gave me a tint of satisfaction.
Okay, a lot of satisfaction.
But, if there was someone that could help me crack this code, then Virgil was the one. But, while our visit was a small, personal victory for me, it was an utter failure for Jay. Seeing his troubled expression made me feel responsible for raising his hopes. Professor Virgil was kinda his last hope.
When Silver and Zan appeared at the door, we were still standing still, dumbstruck by Professor’s sudden disappearance. Silver, afraid that the events of our last meeting were repeated, she seemed quite a bit concerned when she barged in.
After reassuring her that everything was perfectly fine, she calmed down. Well, at least things were mostly fine.
“This place is huge!” Zan suddenly exclaimed.
I kept forgetting that Silver had been teaching him English.
“Yeah, Zan is really excited that we visited the Institute. The poor kid got bored back at the support center, all alone and countless Android examining him.” Silver showed her usual affection towards him.
Jay snorted and walked outside. Frankly, I wished that after six months traveling together, Jay would finally show even the slightest bit of affection towards me.
Everything between us had turned from unbearable to plainly desperate. At least, he now talked more than before and didn’t finish a conversation by storming out of the room. The only thing that was better was that he had become somewhat more considerate of my feelings, and that made me happy. Happier than I dared to admit.
“Okay, now that this mission turned out to being a failure, where are we going next? Any other unnecessarily big buildings to visit? Any other crazy Professors?”
He sounded bitter, I knew I would have been bitter if I didn’t remember anything about my past. Still, I had run out of ideas and places to visit. Human planets had their share of research centers, but we had visited them all.
“We’ll figure something out, don’t worry. I just need some time to think.”
Jay snorted again. Okay, he was annoying me without a reason now. We headed to the hovering platforms altogether, and we rode one each. Our descent to the main floor felt more boring than before. Passing through the same departments again, I focused my attention to Jay. His troubled scowl disappeared as soon as we found our way to the interesting parts of the Institute.
His eyes shone watching all the experiments and technology he could see. Everything he didn’t understand amazed him. I felt my stomach twisting in a tight knot thinking all those things. He could look cute after all, not that I had ever thought otherwise.
If only we could spend the rest of the day here, going up and down the departments, giving him a VIP tour of the place, making him forget our most recent failure.
And then, it finally came to me.
I floated closer to Silver’s platform.
“Hey, Silver. Do you mind taking care of Zan for the night? Jay’s feeling a bit down, and I want to take him for a stroll around the city, to show him the place and get off his head from his people. He kinda needs it.”
The Android looked at me quizzically, trying to understand what was wrong with me.
“Okay, but are you sure you’re going to be fine? What if that guy appears again? I don’t want you to be alone with him if that happens.”
Frankly, I hadn’t thought about that possibility. She was right. If Dark Jay suddenly appeared, I could be in grave danger. But, for the last six months, there had been no incident of him waking up, and after extensive discussions with Silver, we figured that he only woke up when certain events took place, stressful events like hitting his head hard or getting seriously injured.
“Nah, it’ll be okay as long as I don’t hit him in the head or something, right? What might go wrong? We’re gonna be fine,” I said to her, but she didn’t seem all that confident.
“Have your phone on standby, and if anything happens, call me. I’ll make sure even the army comes to your rescue” she said to me.
Zan was trying to understand what we meant. He looked confused. He smiled at me, although it could be a snarl. I still hadn’t figured out if he liked me or not.
“Not worry miss Eladia. Zan will save you if something bad happens.”
His deep, resonant voice made him sound both cute and surprisingly mature. Zan would definitely be a good-looking man when he would grow up. But he still had some way to go.
The trip back to the main floor seemed shorter than the way up. I kept my eyes on Jay for the most part of our descent, trying to understand what was going on in his mind. He showed no emotion, and it felt like he was furious about something and yet he kept his calm.
I was trying to figure him out from the day we found his crashed ship on Primordial Earth. To this day, I had no idea what was wrong with him. I only knew that I found myself observing him more often than not. It was like when we were in the same room, my eyes came to life and did their own bidding.
I heard the fuss of the big crowd roar below me, we were getting close to the hell called reception hall. Against all my hopes, people still swarmed in, in thousands, and I felt even less comfortable than before. At the very least, I wished we would have spent another hour or two back in the Professor’s office, so I would have had time to calm down and get ready to go through this again, but it seemed I was wrong.
We stepped off the platforms, and I could already feel the presence of countless people choking me. Silver was on my left side talking with Zan and Jay was on my right side, making people stare at him for being this unusual being that nobody had ever seen. Even though I was with people that I could trust, I felt more lonely than ever. People scared me, especially when in big crowds.
I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move, but I always acted as though I could so people didn’t have to see me shake like a fish out of the water. Breathing became a choice and moving was difficult. And yet, among the endless sea of heads, there was one that I would rather not see now. Or never.
“Eladia Matthews. What are you doing here?” A red-haired man with a groomed stubble and big, inquisitive eyes appeared before me.
“Sean. Who would have thought we would run to each other here?”
The man looked at me, then Jay, then Silver and Zan. He didn’t seem one bit surprised about my unusual company, which either meant he had already heard the news of my arrival, or he just acted that way to seem cooler. Either way, he was still damn hot.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?”
Sneaky bastard. He was taking advantage of my weakness. He knew I couldn’t refuse him while in a crowd.
“Yes...yes of course. You already know Silver. This is Zan, a friend from Primordial Earth, and on my other side is Jay. Jay is...another friend from Primordial Earth.”
Jay and Sean noticed my qualm.
“I’m not from Earth, and my name is Jasih,” Jay hurried to correct me, but luckily for me, Sean didn’t seem to care.
“Nice to meet you all. I’m sorry, but I have to attend a meeting in ten minutes. I hope I see you again, love. Take care,” he said and passed between Jay and me with an elegant squish.
For a moment, I thought that somehow I had managed to get away with the minimum damage, but knowing Sean, he always left the best for last. And that was what he did again, only this time, he made sure to go big.
“Oh, huge guy...what was it again? Jasih. Make sure to take care of this girl. When we dated before, she used to run in trouble all the time. Come Tora, they’re expecting us,” Sean said and left, with a tiny robot flying to his side.
Tora, as well as Silver, was a mandatory Chronicler assistant. Every Chronicler had to choose one while studying their major. But that didn’t matter now. I slowly turned to see Jay’s reaction, but by the time I found him, he was long ahead of us towards the exit. I only had time to spot his head before rushing behind him.
Damn you Sean. You and your big mouth
. But, the big question is why the usually thick Jay is suddenly so upset? What happened?
Chapter Twenty-One
Jay
I walked through the crowded hall, trying to find the exit to this place. My head was pumping, and I wanted to get some air. It was like the world was sitting on my chest and I couldn’t breathe. I had never felt anger like that in my life, or at least, since the time I had woken up.
That funny looking human with the red hair intimidated me in any possible way. Our whole mission was a failure, and everything seemed to take the wrong turn today, especially when it came down to me. But this Sean human was the drop that spilled the cup. I wanted to hit his face too bad and erase that slight smirk off his face.
Alien Romance Box Set: Romantic Suspense: Alien Destiny: Scifi Alien Romance Adventure Romantic Suspence Trilogy (Complete Series Box Set Books 1-3) Page 79
