Center of the Universe (Only the Inevitable Book 1)

by N E Riggs

  “I suppose it would be, to you,” Brigid laughed, not looking up. “But it’s delicious. Don’t worry, all five of my travelers have liked it! Two even asked for the recipe! Also, the word’s Bantonan, not Bantongian.”

  David didn’t say anything to that. She’d only had five travelers before him? No wonder it sometimes seemed like she was trying too hard. Also why she was awful at changing the subject. But then, maybe an experienced Lost Priest wouldn’t help him become a priest himself. He supposed he shouldn’t complain.

  While he waited for Brigid to finish, two people entered the room. David sat up straight and stared at them. They were short, under five foot, and stocky. The man had reddish skin and orange hair, with a beard that nearly reached his waist. The woman also had reddish skin, but her hair was strawberry blond. They wore leather tunics and carried stone axes. Both, he noticed, had translators on their temples, just like he did.

  “Dwarfs!” David blurted out. The two short people turned to stare at him, the woman glaring fiercely and the man fingering his ax. “Sorry, I’m an idiot,” he said quickly.

  “Forgive him,” Brigid added, looking up from her cooking. “He’s only been in Bantong for three days.”

  The short people shared a look. The woman sighed and said, “Since you ask us to, Lost Priest, we will forgive, but only this once.” She turned to David. “That term is very insulting! Never call us that again! We are as much human as you are!”

  “Yeah, sorry, I won’t,” David said, holding up his hands while his stomach twisted. He felt awful – he grew up black in a mostly white area. He knew what it felt like to be judged in advance by how he looked. “Um, I’m David Kemp? From Earth?” He held out his hand.

  The short people stared at his outstretched hand blankly. Apparently, their people didn’t shake. Finally, the man said, “I am Kemi Fandrel. This is my sister, Keri. We are also from Earth,” he added, frowning harder.

  “A different Earth, if our Lost Priest is to be believed,” Keri said.

  “Yeah, apparently there’s thousands of worlds called Earth,” David said. “I’m from number... um... five thousand something.”

  “5297,” Brigid called.

  “What she said,” David said. “What about you guys?”

  “Our Lost Priest said our world is numbered 1247,” Keri said.

  David paused, glancing towards where Brigid was still busy cooking. “Do gateways to your Earth open often? Apparently, gateways to my Earth are very rare, so I’ll be here a while.”

  Kemi said, “We were told that gateways to our Earth were uncommon, but one would open two days hence.”

  “Well, that’ll be nice,” David said, trying not to feel jealous. If he was only stuck in Bantong for a few days, he’d have no objections. It was a lovely place for a vacation. Well, he assumed it was lovely – he hadn’t been outside since he first arrived. But Brigid had said it might be months or years before he could go home. He sighed, tried not to think about how much his life sucked, then smiled at the twins. “We were just gonna eat. You wanna join us?”

  The twins shared a look. “Very well,” Kemi said at last, and they joined him at the table. David cheered mentally. So far, he’d met a couple of people from Bantong, but he’d not met anyone from another world. Unless he counted the griffins, which he didn’t. “You wear strange garments,” Kemi said, looking at David’s jeans.

  David glanced down at them. “Um, yeah, I guess. I got them here, but I wear similar clothes on my world. You should try them. They’re very comfortable.”

  “Among the wonders of Bantong, your clothes are least of them,” Keri said. She pointed up. “The ceiling lights itself up. Doors open of their own accord. Small people live inside the wall in our room and speak of many things.” She leaned closer to David. “Does your Earth contain such wonders?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” David said. “But there’s plenty here that’s weird to me too.”

  “Your weapon is wondrous indeed,” Kemi said.

  David reached down and touched Bramira. “It is.”

  “Is it from your Earth?” Keri asked.

  “No,” David shook his head. “It’s from Bantong. But it was given to me, so it’s mine now. This woman called Cethon--”

  “Bah!” Brigid exclaimed. When David turned to give her a strange look, she said, “We’re out of kamchee! I can’t make flook without kamchee! It’s expensive for the cookers to make, but I have some in my office, I think. David, I’ll be right back. Behave!” She shook a finger at him.

  David laughed and winked. “You’re sure you want that?”

  Brigid blushed again and hurried out of the room. David watched her rear as she left. He wondered if all the women in Bantong were as good looking as Brigid. If so, maybe he shouldn’t mind being stuck here for a while.

  “Whatever you do, you can’t fall in love.” Cethon’s words echoed in his mind. He pushed it aside. He was just admiring Brigid. That had nothing to do with love. And, okay, maybe he did like her and would like to sleep with her, but that wasn’t love either. So it was fine.

  “Are there many such weapons here on Bantong?” Kemi asked, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “Huh?” He glanced down at Bramira again. “Well, I haven’t seen others like this; it’s special. But there are tons of weapons in the gymnasium, where I’ve been practicing. Like agitators maybe – I’ve seen them, and I’d really like to try one. There’re probably even axes there, like yours. Well, maybe not stone axes, you know?”

  Keri nodded. “This gymnasium sounds interesting. We are warriors on our Earth. It is a dangerous place, and we might wish to practice our skills in this gymnasium. Where is it located?”

  David thought for a moment. “Um, floor 17-HB. Er, you guys know how to use the elevators, right? The, um, boxes that take you to other hallways?”

  “Yes, they are wondrous devices indeed,” Kemi said. “We did not know what they were called. Thank you for your directions, David Kemp. We will not forget you.” He stood from the table and bowed, his knuckles pressed together in front of his chest. Keri too stood and bowed.

  “Er, yeah, no problem,” David said, waving his hands. “I hope you have fun practicing and stuff till you get home.”

  “We should go now, brother,” Keri said. “We have idled about on this world for nigh on five days, and our skills grow rusty.”

  “Indeed we should, sister. Goodbye, David Kemp,” Kemi said. The two siblings left the room, walking quickly.

  When the door closed behind them, David snorted and leaned back in his seat. “Okay, they were weird. Even weirder than the natives.” He wondered if all travelers were as weird. He remembered the Vikings with cell phones and the roman ladies with laptops and the club-wielding man in the tuxedo. He wondered if they were travelers. If so, he was the only sane traveler on Bantong.

  Brigid came back about a minute later, smiling broadly and carrying a small, orange packet. “Oh, did the others leave?”

  “Yeah, right after you left.” David grinned. “So it’s just you and me again. I like it better like that.”

  “Tease,” Brigid said. She returned to the kitchen and dumped the contents of the packet – the kamchee, David assumed – over her concoction. “I’m glad you had the chance to meet other travelers,” she said as she cooked. “It can be lonely otherwise.”

  “They were even weirder than the locals,” David said. “Er, no offense, of course. Just how many travelers are there on Bantong?”

  “Hundreds of thousands,” Brigid said softly. “They aren’t just here, but on the Bantonan worlds too. Over half of them are from worlds with stable gateways, of course, and those come and go freely. They are as used to Bantong as any native. But there are many like yourself as well.”

  David leaned back in his chair. “They said they were human, but what were they really?”

  Brigid looked up at him, frowning. “Human, of course.”

  “Are you sure? Humans with that skin colo
r don’t have that color hair. Not without dye, at least.”

  She laughed. “Maybe not on your world, but on some worlds they do. Orange is unusual, it’s true, but humans come in every color imaginable. You saw people with body modifications the day you arrived.”

  David considered that. He remembered the first day he’d been here, and seeing purple-skinned people on his way to Brigid’s office. He guessed those people had been human too, strange as it seemed. He wondered what their home worlds might be like, that they would have skin that color.

  Well, he wouldn’t judge in the future. Back home, plenty of people gave him shit for being black. Even the few black people he knew gave him crap, because his parents were African, not African American. The orange and red combination threw him, especially combined with the lack of height, but he would do better in the future.

  He wondered, if his stay in Bantong continued long enough, whether such strange colors might one day seem normal to him. He frowned; was thinking things like that racist? Probably.

  With a groan, he rubbed his forehead. Why couldn’t at least one thing in Bantong be normal?

  David reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The power was running low. He didn’t have his charger, and he hadn’t seen any plugs, so he kept it turned off most of the time. He found John’s number and tried to call, but there was still no reception. “You said it might be months before another gateway opened to Earth,” he said with a sigh, putting his phone down on the table. “Will the same amount of time pass on Earth?”

  There were plenty of stories on Earth of other worlds, stories he now thought might be based on Bantong. In a lot of those stories, it didn’t matter how long the people stayed in the other world, when they returned to Earth, it was as if no time had passed at all.

  But Brigid said, “Time is the same here as any other world, David. Your absence will be noticed.” She paused then said softly, “I’m sorry. I know you miss your family.”

  “I don’t have any family,” David said, staring miserably at his phone. “My parents died years ago in a freak accident.” There had never been any mention of other family, not even after he was orphaned. Both his parents left home at young ages and never had any desire to go back to Ghana or Nigeria. Probably he had family in both places, but they were strangers to him. “There’s only John and his family.” He swallowed around the lump in his throat. “He must be looking for me.”

  John had been his best friend all his life, all but his brother. John’s family had taken him in when his parents had died. He owed them so much and had never even tried to pay them back.

  It had been three days since he was dragged into Bantong. John would have noticed he was missing by now. David wondered if he’d tried to call, if he’d gone looking for him at David’s tiny apartment.

  He wondered what his life would be like when he returned to it after months absent. His apartment would be gone, since his rent would be unpaid. He had few enough things, most of which were unimportant. The only thing he cherished was his old photo album, full of pictures of his happy childhood. He wondered if John would save it for him. John knew that David had his spare apartment key hidden beneath his welcome mat, so he could get into the apartment if he needed to. He wondered if John would think him dead or abducted.

  There was a line in The Guide that he remembered. It said, ‘By the time you find a gateway back to your home world, you may find you don’t want to leave Bantong.’ It had gone on to talk more about the wonders of Bantong, making it seem better than any other world. But maybe travelers stayed on Bantong not because Bantong was wonderful, but because their home had moved on without them, and they no longer had a place in it.

  It would be so easy for his Earth to leave him behind. No home, no family, no job to miss him, only a few police hunting for him because he had one friend.

  He stared down at his phone and wished that he had some way to contact John, to tell him that he was alive and well and working on a way to get home. Then he jerked, sitting up straight as he remembered something he’d thought while talking with Kemi and Keri.

  “Brigid! I saw Vikings with cell phones! And Rolan had a blue tooth!”

  She looked up from her cooking, her spoon dripping into the pot. “What are you talking about?”

  He waved his cell phone. “This! People on Bantong have these, or something that looks like this. Do you have a network to call people? Can I call home?”

  Brigid winced. She stepped away from her cooking and placed her hands on his arm. “Oh, David, I’m so sorry. Yes, we do have communication devices. Some travelers have devices like yours – what did you call it? Sell pone? Bantonans have com pads, which sync up to our translators to make it easier to hear through them.” She pulled the playing card-sized white square that flipped into a computer out of her pocket. “If you make Sword Priest, you’ll be issued a com pad. We could maybe get your sell pone to work on our network, but it won’t reach your home world. If a gateway was open, you could use it, but without one it won’t help.”

  “But... But John will think I’m dead.”

  She wrapped her arms around him and held him close. He buried his head in her shoulder, his tears wetting her jacket. Earth held little that he would miss. He was starting to see the beauty of Bantong, the opportunities Bantong held for him, and maybe one day he’d want to stay here. But he couldn’t not go home, he couldn’t leave John wondering about his disappearance.

  He had to get back home. No matter what.

  After a few minutes, he pulled away from Brigid, wiping at his eyes. Brigid let him go and returned to her cooking. She must have been nearly finished, because she brought him a dish a few minutes later. She placed a glass of water beside it. On her bowl, Brigid tapped the rim six times with the side of her hand before picking up her fork.

  David sniffed and stared into the bowl. It was full of vegetables and pieces of meat, all covered in a dark yellow sauce. He picked up a fork with three prongs instead of four, but only to push the food around in the bowl. He’d lost his appetite.

  “Try it,” Brigid said. She sat beside him with her own bowl. “Flook makes everything better, I promise.” David continued poking at it. “Please? For me?” She placed a hand on his arm.

  “Okay,” David said. He skewered a vegetable he couldn’t identify and ate it. Brigid smiled softly as he chewed.

  Then David’s face twisted and he spat out the flook. “Oh my God,” he choked, chugging his water. “What the fuck was that? That was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten!”

  “What?” Brigid cried. “Flook is delicious!”

  “Totally gross,” David said, scraping any remnants off his tongue with his fork. “Seriously, Brigid, I like you, but never cook for me again.”

  Brigid crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, if you’re going to be that ungrateful about it, I won’t cook again.”

  David took another long drink of water. “Good,” he said with feeling.

  Then Brigid laughed. David gave her a strange look. Smiling, she said, “Didn’t I say flook makes everything better?”

  He couldn’t help laughing a little. “Yeah, you did.”

  * * *

  Brigid pulled him away from his training again on the fifth day of his stay on Bantong. He’d been running and stretching and lifting weights in between his practices with Bramira, and he was in the best shape of his life. He’d never been out of shape, but other than conversations with Brigid and reading The Guide at night, it wasn’t like he had anything else to do.

  Besides, practicing kept him from thinking too hard about his predicament.

  “Come on,” Brigid said, pulling him away from the gymnasium. “You should see more of Bantong beside the practice rooms.”

  David laughed and let her lead him back to the parking garage and her wonderful, old-fashioned flying car. “This is nice,” he said as she pulled out of the parking garage. He drew in a long, deep breath, tasting fresh air for the first
time in days. Bantong smelled funny. Not bad, but different than Boston. He wondered if it was because there was less pollution – or maybe more – or if it was just because he was at a different latitude or altitude or something, but there was definitely a difference. Even the air here was different from home; he repressed a sigh and reminded himself that he was going to enjoy the day.

  “So we’re currently in Kumarkan, home of the Lost Priests,” Brigid said as they went around a corner. “It’s part of Pardis.”

  “Pardis?” David asked, frowning at the name. It sounded like it should be familiar.

  “Pardis is the largest, most populated city on Bantong. It’s the center of our government, and therefore the center of the entire universe,” Brigid said. She pointed to the left. “See, this is the building you’ve been staying in, the Hagen Guidance Center. It’s named for a Lost Cardinal who lived thousands of years ago. Anyway, most priests live in Pardis, in different districts. We’ll drive through all of them today.”

  David nodded, staring up at the building she’d indicated. The Hagen was massive. He couldn’t see the top. It was taller than any building he’d ever seen, surely topping anything on Earth. It was wide too, spanning at least four city blocks. He stared at the rows of windows that seemed to stretch never ending into the sky. He wondered if he was looking at the window into his room. Carvings of bells covered every available surface of the building. He wondered what special meaning a bell had here.

  They spent many minutes in Kumarkan, Brigid pointing out important buildings. Some she just named, but some she explained the purpose of as well. The Hagen was where travelers stayed, learned, and studied for vocations whilst being settled. It was also where Lost Priests had their offices. Most of the other buildings in Kumarkan were the sort found in any city: residences (including her apartment building, two blocks from the Hagen), shopping centers, restaurants, entertainment centers, schools, and so on. The only thing unusual was the lack of commercial or industrial places of work. Brigid explained that only Lost Priests and their families lived in Kumarkan.