by Mara Amberly
With her bag on her shoulder, Pandora made her way to the lab where she was due to begin work. She noticed something was different as soon as she walked in. The people there didn’t seem to be working on their separate tasks as they usually did; they were standing around a desk talking, and all looked up as Pandora entered.
“You’d better not be plotting my demise,” she said jokingly as she made her way over to them.
The look Helene gave her suggested it might not be an appropriate thing to say.
“What’s going on? I was told by someone that I’d been excused from work for the day. A man approached me in the library.” These were people she worked with every day. Helene, Martin, and many others.
“It’s been endorsed by the council. Two men came in not long ago and told us you’ve been transferred to Davenport Settlement. That has to be a first.”
Pandora was shocked. “I’ve never heard of that happening before. Davenport? I live here. I have a partner here. I don’t even know much about Davenport – I thought no one really does, except for the council.”
One of the oldest and most respected of the Scientists, Doctor Matthias Davine, seemed more at ease than the others. “It’s a transferral request, not an order. If this isn’t what you want then I would suggest you tell them as much. It’s a rare opportunity but one that they can’t force you into, Pandora. It may just be that you are under their leadership and not ours if you accept their offer. You may find they’ll work with you even if you decline, and were I in your situation, that would be my suggestion.”
Pandora looked grateful for Doctor Davine’s advice. “I’ll talk to them and see what opportunity they’re offering me. I don’t want to be permanently transferred but I wouldn’t be opposed to working with them. Thank you for your advice, Doctor Davine. I feel so much more comfortable and relieved since you said that.”
Pandora didn’t bring up what it was about exactly, but she didn’t need to. She couldn’t be sure what had already been said to those present, but it was a matter she didn’t feel overly comfortable discussing. She even wondered a little if her prying had somehow brought this about, but she didn’t think so.
Pandora felt strange leaving the lab when she’d normally have been in work. It didn’t feel like a day off at all, and she wasn’t sure if she’d be returning, except to collect her possessions. She paid more attention to her surroundings than usual as she walked through the building. There seemed to be no one watching her, more than usual at least, but there could be technological eyes on her.
Pandora knew that Kailen often worked in the engineering core. It was the main power centre for the settlement and it helped generate the energy that ran through the shield.
There were a lot of engineers and it took some searching before one of Kailen’s co-workers agreed to find him. Pandora was restless by then and more jumpy than she’d have liked to admit. Kailen looked concerned when he finally made his way out to Pandora. There was no sign of the man who’d gone to get him; just Kailen in his hardhat and overalls.
“What’s going on? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” It wasn’t her way to find him at work unless something was going on. He took her hand, then pulled her into a hug.
“Kailen, thank goodness. Someone from Davenport Settlement tracked me down, and I was told in the lab that there’s a request to transfer me there. I want you to know I’m not going to accept their offer. I’m with you, you know? This is my home, even though I want to see what’s outside the dome.”
“Say what?” he asked, his concerned expression growing more worried. “So they are here? I figured as much. What do they want with you?”
Pandora hugged him in return then relaxed, still holding his hand. “Do you remember what we were talking about? If they’re being honest, it has to do with the fact I could tolerate the environment outside as a baby. They want to run tests on me to find out how or why.”
Kailen grew increasingly concerned as Pandora spoke. He trusted her, but he didn’t trust that others necessarily had her best interests at heart. “Tell them no. They can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”
Pandora tried to reassure him and she found just being close to him reassured her. “I’m not going to agree to their terms, but I’m considering working with them unofficially if it lets me see outside the settlement. I’ve wanted to go out there forever.”
Kailen held her closer. “This is because they want to use you as a guinea pig, Dora. They might not accept no for an answer if they think they can get away with it. They might leave you out there to die.”
Pandora could hear the tremor of emotion in Kailen’s voice.
“We won’t let them, and I haven’t seen anything to suggest they want to hurt me – or would let that happen. They want me to meet with them sometime soon and I’m wondering if you’ll come with me. That way I won’t be alone and you’ll know where I am if I have any problems.”
Kailen looked unsure about the meeting, but he wasn’t going to leave Pandora to go alone. “I have your back but I’m worried I might not be able to help you. If you’re outside on the planet, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to go after you. Other people need to know about this.”
Pandora hugged Kailen reassuringly. She always thought things through but she could be a bit reckless at times. She’d heard it was a family trait and maybe in a way it was.
“I promise I’ll be careful. This is something that the council already knows about–” or is it just their claim that the council knows? “I mean to go see them now – the Scientists or whoever those people are from Davenport Settlement. If I do that, will you come with me or are you tied up with work right now?”
She didn’t want to risk interfering with Kailen’s job or get him in trouble, but he was quick to agree.
“Just let me talk to my supervisor, but I want to come with you. Should I bring a weapon?”
Pandora shook her head. “It shouldn’t be necessary, and if they catch you, it’s better if you aren’t armed.”
Kailen nuzzled her neck before letting her go. “You might be right, but I’d feel more comfortable with a weapon of some kind, even if it’s not a conventional one. Give me a minute.”
He left her standing near the entrance to his workplace, and while she had confidence in Kailen above all others, she wondered if she was getting him – and herself – into trouble.
Kailen was only gone for a few minutes. Pandora’s mind had wandered to darker places in his absence, and when he returned, she was playing with the ring he’d bought her. Kailen had a rucksack with him, which was a tan colour. He held it by the strap and from the way the fabric fell, she could tell it looked heavy.
“It’s not your average weapon,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I have several hefty tools in there, and a portable laser-cutter. If they catch me I might have some explaining to do, but I use these regularly in my job. Given enough time, the laser cutter could cut through damn near anything – including the dome if the power flow was interrupted. I didn’t want to be without options, Dora.”
Pandora’s eyes widened at his statement. People didn’t cut through the dome – ever. It had the potential to harm a lot of people and damage the settlement... or did it? She found herself questioning that belief for the first time.
“Let’s not do that, shall we?” she asked almost jokingly. “If you had to... and I’m not saying do, because what I really mean is don’t... don’t please, it should be beside the terraformed zone.” She smiled when Kailen nodded. “Let’s go,” she said.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Visited Dimension;
Forest Location – 12:54 p.m.
“The further we get from the portal, the less comfortable I feel. What if we can’t find our way back? What if it rains? It looks kind of grey and it could wash away the chalk. There aren’t that many ribbons.” Nessa looked edgy at best and paranoid at worst as they made their way overland. It had begun to look a lot like James’s world
, which was encouraging.
“Can you worry silently? You’ve got a compass and we’ve followed it precisely north-west. You have a trail right there. Between the compass and the markings, and tracking the time we’ve been walking, we should be alright.”
She looked slightly annoyed. “Did you just tell me to shut up?”
James chuckled. “Yeah, I kind of did, didn’t I?”
Nessa grinned, despite her worries and dark mood. Somehow it helped defuse the tension.
“I’m surprised you’re not more worried about crushing the flower in your purse.”
Nessa glanced at it. “My purse can’t be flattened entirely. Not unless you stamped on it or something like that. It was the most protective one I could find.”
James nodded, and then stopped to rest. There was a steep hillside to their left and woods off to their right. Walking between the two, the ground was hard earth with grass and small plants here and there. The sun was almost directly overhead, and according to the time on Nessa’s watch, which she had tucked into her pocket and checked on occasion, it was almost 1 p.m. The time on this world didn’t seem any different, which was consistent with James’s own world.
“If this is my world, we ought to be coming up on the main road that leads down to the city, as well as the castle. So far it looks like it, but I’m not out this way often enough to be sure. Besides, I have no idea how many alternate worlds there are that look like this one.”
A hill lay ahead, which they carefully climbed up, and then James raised a hand to encourage Nessa to stop. She crouched closer to the ground, as did James slightly ahead of her, and looked out over what cover they had. The road was there, as was the city, and the castle towered high in the distance, just where it ought to be. A billowing flag carried the symbol of the King.
“Oh my God, Nessa. I think we’ve found it. I think you’ve brought me home.”
Inwardly, Nessa was relieved but she wasn’t quite prepared to get her hopes up yet. There were said to be any number of parallel worlds, so she wasn’t sure if this was the same one or even if it could be. If it was then she may have found a correlation between sources of scent – or similarities in scent, and their connecting worlds. If this was James’s world, she might be able to return to see him, and as she smiled over at him hopefully, she realised that she wanted to. She hadn’t known him for long, but she was growing to like him and it seemed sad that they might go their separate ways and never see each other again. The universe was a strange place but this made it so much harder to run into someone again by chance.
“I think you should remain here, Nessa. I’ll go in and make sure it’s the same place, and then I’ll come back out here to you.” It seemed the safest option to him.
“I suppose. I can stay here and keep watch. Just – please be careful, and I hope luck is on your side.” She had James’s best interests at heart but she still felt awkward wishing him luck. Nessa wanted him to see his son again and be where he belonged. If only I could visit you...
Her heart sank as she watched him smile and leave.
Nessa’s thoughts turned to home – Katy was likely still working in her office and Spotness would be curled up somewhere comfortable or wandering around, doing what cats do. It occurred to Nessa that her life had been erratic before she’d come to live with Katy. That had changed, but she wasn’t satisfied being a house guest forever. She wanted a place of her own and it would be nice to have a partner again. Right now, she was dedicated to helping James with his task. She wouldn’t have called it a ‘quest’, but in many ways, that’s what it was.
Nessa wasn’t the most patient of people, and it seemed like hours passed as she waited in the sunshine. She started to wonder if James was taking longer than he ought to, and it began to compound with her worries about finding their way back. If they couldn’t find the portal again by nightfall, they’d likely have to stay in town or in the woods overnight. She wasn’t sure yet whether James would be leaving with her but their chances of finding the portal in the dark would be slim to none. Back on their own world, Katy would probably send the police out after her, though she ought to know by now that Nessa spent time away sometimes. Just the thought left Nessa with a warm fuzzy feeling, because it meant that she cared.
Light glinted off an object in the distance and Nessa instinctively ducked down. Slowly the source came into view and she saw that it was a wagon drawn by a horse-like creature. She’d never seen one like it before – it was brown and its head was smaller than a horse’s, and it was shorter and plumper. Strangest of all was the fact it had a long tongue, which it was using to clean its ears.
“Madness,” she said, laughing softly.
There were two men in the wagon – an older bearded man with silver hair and a younger man beside him with light brown hair that curled at the ends. He looked like he might’ve been the older man’s son. The wagon was made of timber and quite bulky. Interestingly, it had tyres like a car, only far larger, with rubber treads. The combination of old technology and new was strange to her; but then that was something she’d noticed before during her travels.
I wonder what else I’d find if I could take more time to explore this world. There might be larger cities than this with more strange technologies. I bet some of the corporations... and governments, for that matter, on my world would kill for a chance to explore other worlds’ technologies.
The wagon was drawn quickly toward the city by the horse-beast, and glancing around, Nessa could see some men off in the distance working in the sun on outlying properties.
“Oh, I don’t have the patience for this,” she murmured to herself, and climbed up over the embankment. She straightened her dress, tidied her hair, and walked along the road James had followed, like she belonged there.
No one had told her she couldn’t return to Derin when she was freed last time, although she did say she wouldn’t be back. Besides, she didn’t know if this was the same world. James wouldn’t be thrilled that she chose not to wait, but it wasn’t his decision to make.
It was a short walk, and then she smiled as she received a few glances as she approached the open gate. This looked like the Derin she’d visited before. It was a different gate to the ones she’d walked through, but it seemed distinctly like the same city. Once inside, it was bustling, but few people were coming or going from the city itself. There was no immediate sign of James. He probably went home to see if his son was there and if everything was the same – that’s what she’d have done – but there was the small complication that Nessa didn’t know where he lived. She thought he’d likely come out through the same gate again when he was ready to find her, if he didn’t run into trouble.
There were people out in the street just going about their business. She saw a woman in a gown simpler than her own dress, only much more covering; she was pushing a pram with a baby inside. At first Nessa wondered if her own dress might be too revealing – its hem fell above her knees, but there were other ladies similarly-dressed. Some of the men wore suits and others uniforms, much as James had worn a Guard’s uniform when they’d met. It looked the same to her, which suggested once again that this might be his world. She looked into a tavern nearby called the King’s Head, and saw men and women drinking and talking, but there was no sign of James. Stepping back out, she wandered along the street, hoping he hadn’t returned to the hillside without her. She didn’t like being away from him on this world, which seemed odd given how she’d often travelled alone before. It just made her uncomfortable. She eventually reasoned that it might be because of the bad experience she’d had in Derin.
A loud laugh nearby caught her attention and she saw an elderly woman in a lacy hat pointing at her. “Funniest thing I’ve seen all day!” she declared.
Nessa didn’t know what it was about – maybe her outfit was more different than she realised? It was insulting; she wasn’t used to being laughed at by anyone. “I could say the same,” she shot back, before walking on. Bitch.
She didn’t care what world it was; there was no good reason for that woman to make fun of her, especially in the street. She passed a well as she walked down a paved road, feeling more self-conscious than she had before. She stopped just past the well and returned to look down into it. She saw the glitter of coins at the bottom and a little bit of water. It seemed to be a wishing well.
I could use some luck right about now. That and James making his reappearance!
She reached into her bag and pulled out a coin. It was a dime. She sometimes carried money on the off-chance the currency was the same. She considered the implications of what might happen if someone harvested the coin later – or worse, captured her – and found a queen on one instead of a King. That’s if this world was the same as the one James had come from. So far it looked the same, and some of the people were shaping up to be jerks, which looked much the same as well.
“Out of my way!” an elderly man shouted as he barrelled past.
How is it James avoided this behaviour altogether? He’s actually nice. Maybe it’s not universal. It’s like living in a large metropolis or something, only this city isn’t all that large.
There was a break in the peace when she heard a sharp and sudden scream. It came from one of the side streets off to the east. Wondering if James had got himself into trouble, she hurried along the paved street looking out for danger. She would’ve preferred to try and preserve her ladylike appearance by not running, but the scream worried her. It was him! She saw James was alright, but it was no wonder the woman had screamed. He was hammering what looked like a giant severed head on to a spike right on top of the wall.
