Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux

by Randy Blackwell

  Tyree looked confused.

  "You had turned into one of those zombies," said Jack.

  Tyree's eyes got big in disbelief, "Really? I never even got bit,"

  Jack shrugged, "I guess that isn’t how it really works." The water sprayed everywhere and the people who had been turned back were gathering the water into whatever container they could find, filling, and splashing it onto those who had not been turned back yet. Word spread around the city and people carried the water around making sure that everyone was turned. The aliens left the moment the dragon had been defeated.

  Tyree looked to Jack, "Why did the virus get me and not you?"

  Jack shook his head, "I really have no clue. But I think I know someone who might know."

  Tyree cocked his head, "Oh?" Jack nodded, "Yes, there were messages written all around the city that lead me to strike the rock with the staff. They were by a man named 'Nekar'."

  Tyree sighed, "I know of him. He lives on Musterion and serves a mysterious Master. We should go back and ask him."

  Jack nodded. He looked around him. Everything the water touched seemed to bring back the color and life. "What about these people?" Tyree looked around, "I think you have done enough. You might have saved an entire world of people."

  Jack shook his head, "Nah, the credit goes to this man named Nekar." As they walked away several of the people called out to them. Jack turned as a crowd ran after them. A man in a suit stepped forward. "My name is Andy Tobias, I’m a Senator. I don’t know how you did it but you saved us. Come with me, I have some people you should meet."

  Jack shook his head, "I have other obligations, sorry.”

  He put his hand on Jack's shoulder, “Please, at least tell us your name.”

  “The name of the man that has saved this world is Nekar. That is all you need to know,” said Jack as he turned back around and walked away. From behind him Jack heard the Senator proclaim to the crowd, “Did you hear that folks? From this day forward this day will be celebrated as Nekar’s Gift.” The people cheer and Jack smiled as they headed back toward the subway.

  OMAR, SASHA, and BOGDAN RETURNED TO THE CENTER OF MUSTERION with the thousands of archways. Omar looked around. "I bet one of these leads back to Pneuma Carpos."

  Bogdan looked into the distance as if recognizing something. "I know where it is."

  Omar whipped around and gave him a questioning look, "And how is that?" Bogdan shook his head, "I don’t’ understand this. But I am positive of the archway that leads to Pneuma Carpos." He looked around some more, "In fact, I can tell where all of these go."

  Omar shook his head, "Impossible." Bogdan nodded his head, "And yet, it is possible." He looked to Omar, "Just trust me on this. Follow me through this one archway and if I am wrong then I am mad. If I am right then I have some kind of understanding of this place that I did not have before."

  Omar shrugged. Knowing which archway to go through from here was better than traveling back for several days... maybe weeks up that hill. "Alright, let’s put it to the test."

  Bogdan led them to the archway that he had noticed and he went in first. Omar waited a few minutes, then Bogdan came back through. Bogdan laughed, "I was right. It is the right archway!"

  Omar went through the archway followed by Sasha and Bogdan. He found himself in the same room he had entered Pneuma Carpos through. It was the ceiling room above Pneuma Carpos.

  They flew to the city and landed at City Hall wasting no time. Omar was surprised to see Alora waiting for him. "Queen Elise is busy with other matters but I imagine you are here to see me. Omar, I passed the device on to another Katken who I trust. I am not sure how much time has passed for you but I spent 6 months on earth and it seems 2 months have passed here."

  Omar smiled at Alora. She is very precise isn’t she? "Have you considered joining the Magi?" Alora shook her head with a bored and disinterested look in her eyes, "I gave up clubs when I was a Kitten. I was part of a guild when I was on Soterion but that was only to learn skills. Since then I have found joining a group of people too limiting for my skill set."

  Omar shrugged, "It is your choice."

  Alora smiled, "Indeed it is, but I will be accompanying you back to Soterion."

  "Oh?" asked Omar curiously. Alora nodded, "Yes, Queen Elise wants to make sure that Queen Ariana benefits from her wisdom. Over the years the Queen and eye have become the most trusted of friends and even think alike in many ways. Every queen needs an advisor."

  Omar nodded, "Well, Nekar is dead. But before he died he told me that Myles is going to return with my sister. I am very anxious to see her. I need to get those supplies we left behind and then I would like to hurry back to Soterion."

  Sasha stepped forward and examined the teleportation device on Omar's arm. The screen read "Ready". She looked up at Omar and said, "It seems to have righted itself."

  Omar smiled, "Good, I will be right back." He changed the setting on his monocle so that he could see invisible objects and then teleported to the duffle bags. He lay upon the bags and concentrated on bringing them with him then teleported back to the wagon. Then he simply touched the wagon and brought himself and the wagon back to City Hall in Pneuma Carpos.

  Bogdan raised an eyebrow, "That was quick."

  Omar looked at them all, "Ready to go?" Bogdan shook his head. "I am staying here. I must wait for Jack and I want to see if I can find this 'Master'. I would like to speak with him if possible."

  Omar nodded. "Ok then," he said. Then he pulled a pen and paper from his supplies and wrote a letter. He rolled the letter up to look like a scroll then handed it to Bogdan. "Please, make sure this gets to Jack."

  Bogdan nodded, "Safe journey Omar."

  Omar grinned, "Same to you."

  Omar then took the key from his pocket, opened a portal, and stepped through it. Sasha and Alora followed. JACK AND TYREE FOUND THE PORTAL and went back through it. In the tunnel on the other end was a cat... standing and wearing period clothing. It walked toward them and behind it was Bogdan. Jack smiled at the sight of Bogdan. The cat stepped forward. It wore a white suikan. From studying ancient cultures Jack knew the suikan of the type of clothing. It was a sort of soft white linen over-robe. It had very large sleeves that were only attached for a few inches behind the shoulder. The body was a singlepanel of fabric wide, and the sides of the body were left open to display a shimmering silken robe beneath. The cat himself had what looked like cowprint markings. He said, “I am Meu Kou, advisor to Queen Elise the Queen of Musterion and grandson of Alora. I have a message from Omar. “He bowed then stepped forward and handed him a scroll.

  Jack stared at the walking talking cat for a moment and then looked down at the scroll in his hand. He unraveled the scroll and read it aloud, "Dear Jack, what a great friend you are. Bogdan and Sasha found me and Sasha is with me. Please know that there are not words to express my gratitude for your actions in coming here to 'rescue' me. I assure you that I am well and do not need rescuing. But there is something I need greatly. I need you to return to Earth and ensure that my project continues to get funding. Tyree, not the one you are with but the one back on earth, will have a teleportation device. I have left instructions for him to figure it out and replicate it. If he does so I will need you to get the board together and regain the military funding I had. Thank you, I knew I could rely on you. ~Omar"

  Jack nodded. "Alright, I was hoping to find Omar but I can always come back for him. Let's go," he said. Bogdan led them through a series of tunnels and secret passages until they found a tunnel with an archway that had a shifting light passing through it. Meu Kou made a running jump through the archway and somehow deactivated the light passing through the archway.

  "Hurry up," called Meu Kou and Jack and Tyree made it through just in time before the light started back up. There was a portal on the other side. They all followed Bogdan through the portal. They entered and stared in wonder of the beauty of the center of Musterion. Then Bogdan led them to an archway that had sc
ratch marks by it.

  "That is the way that you will go," said Bogdan.

  "You aren’t coming back to earth with us? You have a large sum of money waiting for you there," said Jack.

  Bogdan shook his head, "I don’t belong there. Take that money and split it between the others you owe. I have no need of it."

  Jack shrugged, "Alright Bogdan, have it your way."

  Meu Kou shed his clothing and got down on all fours. Then he looked to Jack, "I will be coming with you."

  Jack cocked his head, "Really?" He nodded, "You may need some proof. I think I can provide that by just speaking to them but you need to promise me I will not end up in some lab on earth."

  "Of course," said Jack. Then he looked to Bogdan, "I will be back. I will need to find the others at the very least... Maybe even pay a visit to Omar at his destination."

  Tyree then spoke up saying, "I am coming too. It will be nice to see earth not at war or with a virus."

  Jack laughed, "You have more than earned that." Jack motioned for the others to jump through the archway. They did. Then he looked to Bogdan and said, "Take care old friend." Then he jumped through after them.

  As Jack came through the other side of the portal he saw General Elder and Tyree there studying the piece of tunnel there with a team of scientists. As they came out of the tunnel they saw that they had several rifles trained on them by military personnel.

  General Elder had the men lower their weapons. Younger Tyree approached them, "You are back so soon. Where is your team?" Jack put his hand up, "It’s a pretty long story. Shortened, Sasha is with Omar and Bogdan is looking for the rest of the team. I know you have received a device from Omar that can teleport people. I’m here to ensure that the project regains military funding and continues in Omar's absence."

  Old Tyree walked up to General Elder. One of the soldiers with him trained a rifle on him but Old Tyree didn’t flinch. He handed his military identification to the General. Old Tyree made a point to glance over to young Tyree and then put a finger over his lips. The Old Tyree and Young Tyree looked different enough that the Young Tyree could likely look right at him and not know that they were the same person.

  The General looked at the identification wide eyed but nodded in agreement to Old Tyree that he would say nothing. "We will talk later in private, soldier," he said.

  General Elder turned his attention toward Jack. "I will need you all to come with me. You will be taken to a clean room where all of your vitals will be checked. After that, we can talk."

  The general and young Tyree gave Jack an odd look as he picked up Meu Kou. Meu Kou pinned his ears back showing his disapproval at being picked up. One of the scientists went to take him from Jacks hands and Meu Kou clawed and hissed at him. As the scientist backed away Jack said, "The cat comes with me."

  The scientist looked to General Elder who waved his hand to dismiss the minor issue. "Let him keep his cat," said the general in an almost mocking tone.

  Jack was ushered to a lab where his vitals were taken and his blood was drawn. When the scientists went to draw Meu Kou's blood, Jack refused to let them and they finally left with just Jack's blood, skin sample, and urine. After about an hour of waiting the general made his way into Jack's room.

  "I am sorry it took me so long but I needed to visit with Tyree first. It seems that you, Tyree, and Omar intend to create another timeline where I never recruited Tyree into the marines and I never sent him into the portal. Tyree has also given me vital information that can help the United States stop wars that are supposed to happen before they happen. I find a lot of what Tyree has told me hard to believe. But when we tested your skin cells we found that your skin cells are regenerating at a much more rapid rate. They are still deteriorating but at the rate they are regenerating you will age much slower. This is consistent with what Tyree has told me. I feel I need more evidence to the outlandish stories though."

  Jack nodded and looked to Meu Kou.

  The cat stood up and bowed, "I am Meu Kou. Queen Elise of Musterion sends her regards." The general who was normally cool mannered jumped out of his chair and was on the other side of the room before Jack could react to calm him.

  The General stared at the creature with eyes wide open. "You are a talking cat named Moo Cow?" Meu Kou turned away so as not to show the anger on his face. "Yes, it is... It's not cat, the proper racial turn is Katken. The name is because of the unique markings I was born with." Meu Kou paused and thought for a moment and then began speaking again, "Before you begin trying to have me dissected on a lab table you should know that your associate, Jack, promised me protection."

  Meu Kou was now pacing making hand gestures as he spoke for dramatic flair, "You found the stories told to you hard to believe but my family has traveled through the portals to many of the Bridge Worlds that Musterion is the gateway to. There are limitless earth dimensions. This, where we are, is true earth. Don’t ask how I know, it’s complicated but I know."

  Meu Kou jumped up on the hospital bed that Jack was sitting on and climbed onto Jack's shoulder standing there so that he would be eye to eye with the general. "But you must know that dimensions are not the only places that the portals lead. The Bridge Worlds include endless earth dimensions, a dream plane, the spiritual plane, and other planets so far away that the human race could never reach them otherwise."

  He jumped down to the hospital bed, "Now, the truth of the matter is that the teleportation device that was given to Tyree is child’s play to the discovery that Omar Metzger made in finding a portal to Musterion. In comparison, for lack of better terms, it ten times more important than the discovery of space travel and the invention of the car. Man-kind can now eternally go where they have never gone before. The true age of exploration is upon you and you have one of the only three vehicles on Earth. I would say that America is at a great advantage because of Dr. Omar Metzger's discovery and it would be the greatest act of stupidity in all of history to deny him the funding he needs to keep his project running."

  General Elder cleared his throat, "That was some speech."

  Meu Kou laughed, "It was a first for communication between earthen human and Katken, I wanted to make it count." The general nodded his head, "And indeed you did. I will do everything in my power to make sure that this project continues to gain funding but I will need your help."

  "I will help you on one condition," he said.

  "What is that?" asked General Elder. "To ensure my safety, I will need a replica of the teleportation devise for personal use. It is to ensure that I always have the upper hand should anyone try to capture me and take me for experimentation or dissection," said Meu Kou.

  The general nodded. "I will do that and better. I will also promise you that I will not let harm come to you if it means my own life. And I promise you access to all of Doctor Metzger's equipment and studies."

  Meu Kou smiled, "Good, that is a good start."

  Jack shook his head, "Well, I will let you two hash out conquering the universe. I need to go check on Tyree." He walked down the hall and heard a familiar unwelcome voice. It was General Klaus and he was yelling at the top of his lungs. Jack peeked his head in the door to see Tyree locked at attention as General Klaus chewed from one end of Tyree to the other. Does he realize how lucky he is that he has not yet triggered any PTSD? This isn’t right. I won’t stand for it.

  "I cannot believe you came to General Elder before me! I ran this project! I canceled this project, the Secretary of State gave the orders to me!"

  Jack spoke from the door, "And you abandoned this project, you tried to abandon it from day one."

  The general whipped around to see Jack at the door. "You stay out of it rich daddies-boy. This is a classified meeting."

  Jack saw Tyree stiffen. Tyree could probably kill this guy with one punch. Jack shrugged, "It's a good thing I have Top Secret clearance. Or did you forget that a civilian can hold that clearance. And if that doesn't cover it General Elder is down the hall. Last
time I checked you had four stars on your shoulder and he has five. Should I go get him, since we are pulling grade and rank? I’m sure he would love to join in on this completely appropriate classified conversation you are having with Tyree."

  The general turned toward Jack, "Don’t you threaten me, boy." Jack shrugged with a grin and then reached for his cell phone in his vest. "Let's see which speed dial number was it for the Secretary General? Have you told him yet? About the device?"

  The General knocked the phone out of his hand but Jack reacted quickly and punched General Klaus in the throat. The General grabbed his throat and made a choking noise. Jack moved in on the General who was backing up with a look of panic and surprise on his face. Tyree put his arm out blocking Jack from advancing. Just then General Elder walked into the room.

  "What are you children doing?" he asked. "Have we suddenly resulted to school yard tactics at resolving disputes?" He pointed to General Klaus, "Bullying," and then pointed his finger in Jack's face, "Fighting?"

  The General shook his head, "No, I will not have it under my watch. The only one here who is acting in order and in place is Tyree." He took ahold of Tyree's arm and looked at the many scars running down it from the lashes of Drakoni whips. "This man has served as a United States Marine for several hundred years. I would say you were retired a few decades into that. So not only does the military owe you back retirement pay for several hundred years, you can consider yourself a retired Marine (ranking at four star General with a purple heart) meaning if this man yells at you again I expect to see you knock his block off. And if he lives through it, he might actually learn from it and not abuse the power that he has again."

  General Elder turned to General Klaus. "I have spoken to the Secretary General and I am now in charge of this fully funded project. As this now involves other planets it falls under the jurisdiction of Air Force Space Command which I am over. Thank you General Klaus for your many contributions to this project but you will no longer needed. Now get out of my face before I have one of those stars."