Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  The limo headed downtown, right to one of those five great ‘mushroom’ skyscrapers. The closer they were getting the higher those buildings seemed to be. About seven hundred meters tall, each one. And with smaller buildings under them it looked very complicated.

  The gravicar stopped near the giant house. A little spherical drone flew to the driver-side door. It had several sensors outside, and the bottom part of it was spinning. The driver lowered the window for the drone to scan him. The soldier showed his passcard, and in a second the drone flew away.

  The gravimobile continued its movement straight towards the wall. When it came closer, a rectangular shape glowed on the perimeter, and the gate became semi-transparent. Just as the car drove in, the force field was restored. From inside, the door looked like an enormous blue glass rectangle surrounded by a yellow wall.

  They were in the garage. It was of tremendous size. The whole place had a large gravimobile stock, with lots of racks holding those vehicles like wine bottles. The stands held the cars from the floor to the ceiling, the passes between them were tight enough for a single car to come through. JB assessed the place, there was no way he could park a vehicle there.

  Passing half of the parking space, the limo stopped near another gate, which led from the backroom to the central area. Soldiers left the car first, then an ambassador with his assistants. JB and Gibson came out last. The short people took the lead and their guests followed them. Their severe behavior had disappeared at some point; no one was pushing the mutant anymore. Something had changed. Yet, Bridgers didn’t know what. On his way with others he looked back at the car. A droid of triangular shape flew towards it. It took a better position and a blue volumetric lasso came out of its electrodes to merge over the car. The droid went up, the vehicle was dragged along. They both went somewhere through one of the rows.

  The group walked into the next room. It appeared to be a round chamber with quite a few round elevator doors inside. This one was much brighter and cheerful than the garage. The walls were made of an unusual semi-transparent material, which looked like jelly full of greenish streaks inside. One could even notice liquid movement in those green particles.

  The elevator was a spherical capsule large enough to carry about ten people. It was made of a transparent material with a greenish refraction. The front side of it rolled over to open up for the passengers. JB looked around, it felt comfortable enough for him. A fresh air current blew from below. A holographic projection appeared on the wall, it was a control panel with a destination search field. The writings were in English there, JB felt relieved about that. But then, the ambassador’s assistant changed it to their own language, shown by strange symbols. With the destination chosen the capsule moved.

  Another surprise for newcomers was that they didn’t just go upwards, like in a regular elevator, but it moved through the arc shaft. Going faster and faster it soon gained a pretty solid speed. Yet, the passengers didn’t feel any discomfort. JB looked silly when he bent down his knees, taking the steadiest position. But it was just his instincts driving him. Soon he saw that it was a tilt of the sphere that changed according to the speed and movement direction. That was supporting a gravitational balance inside.

  The tunnel had brought the sphere outside of the building. A magnificent view opened up for the passengers. There were other tunnels which lay over the building through those transparent walls. Gibson wondered about that system functionality. He supposed that the main principle was to drive an elevator for most of the distance from the outside and then redirect it back into the shafts for a final destination. It seemed very interesting to him. But there was so much going on in that city, so his concentration was losing its focus very easily.

  Soon the lift reached its destination. The new room was a round hall, with four more elevator doors next to the one where the group came out from. There were three elliptical doors from the other side of the room, and a glass desk to the left of them – the working area. A young woman sat behind the glass desk there. The hall had a yellow-green coloration, just like the rest of the building. Each spot of the free space was taken by green plants: near the walls, between doors and furniture. The plants were growing from glass capsules filled with dark green liquid.

  The girl that was there differed from those people who had brought there Jerry and Mark. She was tall, about one point eight meters, light skin, long pearly-gold hair, with green eyes. Her outfit was a dark blue suit decorated with a white stamping of the letter ‘A’ surrounded by two ellipses.

  There was no screen or keyboard on her desk. Just four lenses that formed a holographic projection over the table’s surface. The woman was typing over a similar projection directly on the desk. JB noticed some kind of stickers on her fingertips, those had to be the manipulators.

  At some point, all those interesting things that were surrounding them fully occupied the visitor’s interest. Even JB had lost his focus of anger. The old world had been pushed somewhere in the background, and he started adjusting to the new one.

  Gibson, on the other hand, reacted differently. Everything looked alien to him, he couldn’t bear calmly the impressions of all those things that he didn’t know much about. It felt irritating to him when he couldn’t tell how the mechanisms around him were working. The scientist tried to stall, hold for a while near one thing or another, to study it. But the soldiers rushed him all the time.

  The soldiers stayed near the elevator, the rest of the group went on. They came to the girl. Soon as they got close enough, she minimized all of her work and looked at them smiling. Then she put on a bracelet over her wrist. Only then the woman stood up to meet the guests.

  “Plemestu mas indengi, Abundinatus,” she addressed the ambassador with a slight bow. (Greetings to you, sir Abundinatus.)

  “Plemestu vili, Nea,” (Greetings to you, Nea) the ambassador bowed in return with his hands crossed over his chest. “Li en pledupledel i smiem meet, ni lode clihnie.” (I didn’t call for a meeting, but this case was urgent.)

  “Li vili yusluva, esl,” (I’m listening, sir.) she looked at the short man all the time, not even glancing at JB of the mech.

  “Eteh yuldey lik navle si glaneame adgili em bule, ine givil ak vili, lik lemistam hi u vili,” (We’ve found these men beyond the city, in the storm. They speak like you; we’ve brought them to you) he said.

  “Hilivi, esl,li etem emsyazaym. Ent il tu mili edl ku gispiden lem idnyaseg?” (Fine, sir, we’ll take care of them. Do you have any business with the mayor?)

  “Ent, li ib si ivilstmiem pigivilel si gicpiden merom, ong haccey lik ninu tiid. Di svedane, Nea,” (No, I would be pleased to talk to the mayor, but we have to go now. Goodbye, Nea.) the ambassador said.

  “Di kplopsom,” (Goodbye) she replied.

  When the talk was over, the ambassador turned to JB and Doc to bow as a gesture of goodbye. Gibson leaned the mech’s body to bow in return. JB, on the other hand, just stayed there making a grimace of disgust, waiting for the ‘shorties’ to leave. The people in silver clothes silently left the room.

  The woman turned to the strangers to take a good look at them. Firstly, she scanned JB, then – the mech. Both of them were filthy and bruised, JB’s skin was all in cuts and the mech was in scratches. They didn’t fit in that city by any means. The streets and buildings there were so clean that one could think that the locals might not know about dirt at all.

  “Welcome to Atlantis. My name is Nea. I’m the mayor’s first assistant,” she introduced herself and reached to JB with her hand.

  “JB,” he replied. Just as she wanted to turn to Gibson, the mutant continued. “Uhm… This is Mark Gibson.”

  Nea lingered for a second and looked up at him once more.

  “You must be rangers? Volunteers for the Atlantis defense mission?” she supposed. Her English was perfect, with a western accent, perhaps. “Mayor Van Deen will receive you shortly.”

  “A mission… As you say, why not?” JB said thoughtfully. “Alth
ough, we aren’t locals. Would you mind getting us up to speed?”

  “Sure,” Nea’s look changed to being surprised. It was hard for her to believe that someone could not know about that program. “The volunteers’ mission is to assist the fleet in guarding of the Solar System. All of the details you may find in any info-directory of the city, or on the web.”

  Yet, that still-clueless expression on the mutant’s face made Nea rethink her impression of their awareness.

  In fact, listening to Nea, JB was clueless about what she was saying. Still, the mutant and the scientist had an impression that they were mistaken for someone else. Neither of them rushed to break that illusion. They had to find out more about that place first. Something weird was going on, after the plane crash. At first it was the mysterious island, then a hovering futuristic city. And the girl narrated about some Galactic Union and cosmos traveling.

  “Excuse me, I need to report to the mayor about your arrival. Please, make yourself comfortable.”

  Nea walked the guests to the rest area, where they could sit on a sofa and have some refreshments. As for herself, she walked into the one of those three doors at the end of the hall. Just as she entered there, JB rushed after her to spy on what was going on inside. To his luck, the door hadn’t closed completely, a peephole was left so he could hear everything. His enhanced hearing served a good use again.

  There were two voices heard from there, the first one Nea, the second the mayor.

  “Excuse me, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt, but we have urgent business.”

  “Yes,” the mayor’s voice was cheerful, it seemed that he wasn’t upset with her interfering with the meeting.

  “Nenofianies have brought us two strangers. The security system couldn’t identify them, but they look like miners from the surface.”

  “Who are they?”

  “Undefined…”

  “So why were they brought to us?”

  A few seconds of silence followed. JB suspected that he could be spotted. But then the mayor continued.

  “How much do they know?”

  “I pretended to take them for the rangers volunteers, they tried to play along, but it seemed that they weren't aware of anything. And one of them wasn’t identified as human… Should I call for security to apprehend them?”

  “Rangers, you say? Did they believe you?”

  ‘No, I don’t think so.”

  “Not a human, right?” the mayor’s tone became more thoughtful. “Did they show hostility of any kind?”

  “No.”

  “Fine, let them stay for a bit longer. I want to talk to them personally.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  An upcoming shadow showed up at the door, Nea was coming back. JB returned to his comrade right away.

  “And Nea,” the mayor spoke to her again. “Please, notify the internal affair service about the nenofianies. Those dwarfs have become too arrogant lately!”

  Soon the mayor’s assistant returned to the guests. They got up and walked to her. JB couldn’t break his stare from her. She was uniquely beautiful. When he got closer, the mech wasn’t around anymore. Bridgers got so charmed, he didn’t even notice when Gibson changed his direction towards the working area. The scientist wanted to study the computer’s interface there. Firstly, he waved robotic hands through the hovering light hologram, then his attention switched to the projectors. It drew attention.

  “Is he alright?” Nea wondered.

  She looked uncertain. Her light smile ended with dimples on the cheeks. Her eyes expressed interest, they were switching their focus between the mutant and the mech, exploring them both. Nea’s look was saying something like: “Guys, you’re weird but quite interesting.”

  “Who knows what’s on the mind of these eggheads?” JB shrugged and smiled.

  Nea was also interested in those two, in JB especially.

  “So are you…” she was going to ask JB something when the conversation got interrupted by the opening door.

  Nea switched her attention to the mayor’s office. Strange creatures were coming out of that door. At first, JB took them for a dressed-up people, but when taking a closer look, he recognized them as humanoids, not humans. Even though the structures of those races were similar to human’s, it spoofed JB quite a bit.

  In the lead, there were two gigantic beings in dark-orange suits, with broad shoulders and large humps on their backs. They had massive heads, wiry necks and broad foreheads. Their eyes were small and pushed inwards. Their suits looked warm, perhaps the local temperature was too cold for them.

  Another three beasts, which were following first two, were of a different kind. They had a pale blue coloration. Their heads were long with three pairs of black eyes. Noseless. Two spurs were growing out of their upper lips, coming down in about a half meter long. Structurally the eyes were similar to frog eyes, with smudge retinas. Their bodies were thin and long. Each one had two pairs of hands, with three fingers on each. The fingers ended with suckers on the tips. These creatures were dressed in thin robes of highly specular greenish-cyan color.

  “Da fuck?!” JB spoke out of excitement. He tensed up, trying to stay away from the aliens. Skittish like a dog in a close encounter with a bull. “Gibson, can you see that?”

  Two men came out last ones. One of them was young, thin, with pale skin and red hair, dressed in a blue suit. The second one seemed older, about fifty from the look, a bit shorter and had a heavy complexion. JB took him for a mayor. His face was round and the hair black, but getting silver partially. The mayor wore a golden tuxedo, dark blue pants and black shoes. The marking on his tux looked similar to the one that Nea had.

  Ignoring what was going on in the hall, the mayor walked the alien delegates to the lift. Then his second assistant took over and went on with the group into the elevator sphere. After the lift had moved, the city head was ready to speak to his new guests. Nea ran her finger over the bracelet, the light blinked on the mayor’s bracelet right away. She walked towards him. Meanwhile, JB and Gibson stayed near her desk.

  “Sir, the president of Mars called you. Also several invoices came in, SN-10 and YR-24 fuel offers. I’ve sent you all of the processed documents.”

  “Thank you, Nea. I’ll get to it later,” the mayor replied.

  He turned to the mutant and the mech.

  “These are the volunteers that I’ve told you about,” Nea introduced the strangers.

  “Hello, friends! Welcome. My name is Aghastos Van Deen. I’m the mayor of Atlantis. You’ve had a hard time there, I see,” the mayor looked cheerful and happy. “Let’s go to my office.”

  “I’m JB,” the mutant shook the mayor’s hand.

  “JB,” when shaking his hand Aghastos looked over Bridgers bottom-up. “You’re strong! An excellent stimulators choice!”

  JB and Doc exchanged looks.

  “Mark Gibson, bioengineer,” the scientist introduced himself.

  “A man of science! How wonderful!” the mayor honored him with a handshake on the mechanical hand. “Bright minds are the most valuable treasure, aren’t they?”

  Evaluating the situation from the new perspective, JB got suspicious about the city head. There was too much flatter in his words, especially towards strangers.

  “Look, Aghastos, we didn’t have a chance to explain,” the mutant started talking on the way to mayor’s office. He looked at Nea and understood that if he didn’t break that charade, no one would. And coming out of his own gangster experience: in the long run someone would lose big time because of those lies. “Those hobbits, which have brought us here, who are they?”

  “Nenofianies. They live separately, in the southwest part of the city. They have their own ways. Very rarely folks like yourself may intersect with them.”

  “In other words, what I’m trying to say is that we are not who you think we are,” JB explained.

  “Mr. JB, are you saying that you aren’t rangers, and you aren’t here to volunteer for Atlantis defense mis
sion?” Van Deen wondered smiling.

  “I’m saying that we have no idea who these ‘rangers’ are and what is this place in general.”

  “Who are you then?”

  “We’re not alone! We’ve been taken by these nanofinies…” the Doc interfered.

  “Nenofianies,” the mayor corrected him.

  “Right! We were taken by Nenofianies, sir, right where the second ship had arrived. There are thirty-one people more with us,” Mark said with concern.

  “Hold on. Did you come along with those people?” Aghastos's smile vanished.

  “So you already know about them? Where are they?”

  Mayor and Nea looked at each other for a brief moment.

  “I’m afraid, fellows, that if you’re with them, you have an explanation to give. Because your friends have been apprehended already. They are the Immigration Service’s problem now,” the mayor took a seat in his vast armchair and invited the guests to sit along with a gesture. The table’s top expanded to make another two spots. “It’s a rare case for our city for so many unregistered persons to be caught at once. It brings out certain suspicions, don’t you agree?”

  “I have no idea what’s happening…” JB said.

  “Please, tell us your story,” Aghastos smiled again.

  The doctor and the mutant gave each other a couple of those long looks.

  “There is an island several thousands of kilometers away, a quite unusual one,” JB started. “Ten weeks ago, the plane that we were on crashed there. Some shit went down after. A day ago we found transportation means there, which we used to get off the island. And then, after we had flown away, the first civilization that we found was your city,” he explained briefly.