Unfathomable Chance

by K T Munson

  “Where would you like to go, Bearer of the Cosmos?” the cat asked as the spaceship came to life with a quiet purr.

  “Can you call me Diana?” she asked politely.

  “Of course, Diana, Bearer of the Cosmos,” the cat said, looking back at her as the door closed. “I am called Shadow by my primary provider, but my mother named me Kal Zed.”

  “That is a very good name,” Diana managed politely. “Where would I be safe?”

  “There is only one planet that is neutrally owned by the entire universe,” Kal Zed informed her as they started to rise. “Epselon Five.”

  Suddenly realizing what she was doing, she felt a little sad. “Before we leave, can we go to one place first?”

  Kal Zed nodded. “Where do you wish to go?”

  Three minutes later they landed outside her childhood home in Pullman, Washington. The white fence had recently been repainted, and her brothers weren’t home yet. They had decided to use their father’s tuition waiver and attend school locally, though she suspected Harry would be picked up by NASA any day. She stepped out of the ship and into the yard.

  Diana went up the steps and was about to knock on the door, but hesitated. Instead she hurried around the side to peek into the kitchen window. Her mother was kneading bread, leaning over it while she half stood and half sat on a stool. Her mother had retired after the boys started high school when she’d broken her leg at work and it had never healed properly.

  Diana dropped down before picking up her phone and calling home. Her mother stood, and she could hear her staggered steps as she half limped to the phone. Cradling the phone against her face, she fought back the tears.

  “Hello?” her mother said. She was one of the most technologically challenged people Diana knew—her mother never looked at the caller ID.

  “Hi, Mom,” Diana said.

  “Hey, isn’t it early?” her mother said, and Diana could imagine her checking her watch.

  “It’s almost noon my time,” Diana said.

  “Already that late?” Mary-Ann said absentmindedly. “Well, happy birthday!”

  “Thanks,” Diana said, biting her lip. “I wanted to let you know I’m going to be really busy over the next few days, but I‘ll see you at my graduation. So don’t worry if I don’t call.”

  “Of course!” her mother said into the old corded phone. “I can’t wait to see you.”

  “I love you, Mom,” Diana said, trying to keep her heart out of her throat.

  “I love you too, Diana,” her mother said before Diana hung up.

  Blinking, Diana made her way across the lawn to the ship. When the spaceship’s door closed behind her, she instinctively looked down at her phone. The screensaver was of her family from the previous Christmas and it pulled her heart strings. It had been so hard not to run into the house and throw her arms around her mom, but this was something far beyond her mother’s soothing kisses.

  “I want to get it off,” Diana told Kal Zed as the ship powered up.

  “Off, Bearer?” the cat said, turning to look at her.

  “I don’t want to be ‘Empress of the Universe,’” Diana spelled out for him, air quoting. “Take me somewhere where someone can tell me how to take the bracelet off.”

  “The Archive,” her guardian said, though he didn’t look pleased.

  “Take me to the Archive,” Diana ordered.

  “I must warn you,” the cat said as the ship started to rise. “The Archive does not give information for free. He will want an item, a favor, or information.”

  “I’ll figure something out,” Diana said and sat back on the couch-like protrusion as the fake sunlight warmed her skin.

  Chapter 7

  Diana awoke hours later to the sound of purring. She opened her eyes slowly, a little disoriented as she pushed herself up. Kal Zed was lying above her head on the couch. He was wrapped up in a small ball with one paw over his face. It was hard to remember that despite everything, he was still just a cat.

  Stretching her arms above her head she felt her muscles strain. It took her a moment to realize that the spacecraft’s humming had all but gone silent. She looked down at the cat, hesitant to leave him. He had been born on Earth like her, and he was the closest thing she had to home.

  Before she could decide what to do her gaze dropped to her bracelet. It glowed softly, showing every color to her eye. She looked deep into the gem and saw the swirly cosmos within. It was hundreds of galaxies swirling within a universe. Once she looked at it, she couldn’t look away; it was drawing her in.

  The universe flashed before her eyes. Stars and planets swept by her face like dust particles, and she felt them harmlessly brush against her cheeks. Just like that she was standing in an open hallway lined with Greek pillars, and above her the universe swirled and sparkled on into eternity. Diana looked to her right and saw a great tree, as tall as a three-story house. It was covered in white flowers, and petals swirled around it as though caught in a perpetual wind. Drawn to to it, she held her hand out and fingers stretching. A petal brushed against her hand as her fingertips reached for the tree’s colorful bark. Time seemed to slow as her hand moved gradually towards its goal.

  The spacecraft’s door opened and the hiss of depressurization startled her. Diana was suddenly back in the ship and back in her head. Her hand was raised like she was still reaching for the tree; she quickly dropped it to her side. Kal Zed jumped up from the couch and came to stand in front of her.

  “Come out,” a robotic voice called. “The Archive wants to see you.”

  Diana glanced down at Kal Zed. “Should we go?”

  “You wanted to see the Archive,” the cat responded, though his eyes betrayed his worry. “It appears he wanted to see you as well.”

  Diana nodded and strode out of the little white ship. Stepping off of the ramp and onto the metal of the ground Diana put her hands on her hips. Two men with guns were waiting, watching her closely. Diana assumed they were guns because of the way the guards were holding them, but they sure were strange looking—like modified super soakers. The guards were dressed in ancient, Roman-looking clothes, and they even had capes. They were both tall and muscular and had impressive beards. She eyed them warily.

  “The Catorian stays here,” the guard said, gesturing towards Kal Zed.

  Diana looked down at Kal Zed. “Catorian?”

  “That was our home once,” he informed her. “Catoria.”

  “Well, the Catorian is my guardian,” Diana said and bent down to pick Kal Zed up. “He goes where I go.”

  The guards held still for a moment before one finally said, “This way.”

  The planet was made of metal and appeared to be mostly flat. Besides a strange metal tower in front of them, it seemed desolate. The tower rose quite a distance and didn’t seem to have a single window. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw a planet that was mostly blue, like her own.

  “This planet is like your moon. However, this planet is powered by hydrogenerators infused with the planet’s surface,” Kal Zed informed her as he looked back over her shoulder. “The atmosphere adapts to its visitors since the guards are all robotic.”

  “They’re robots?” Diana hissed as they neared the tower. She would have preferred to know that before they left the spaceship.

  “This entire planet is,” Kal Zed said.

  “What about the Archive?” Diana whispered as the guards stood on each side of her.

  “No,” Kal Zed responded soberly as a set of double doors opened in front of her. “The Archive is something else entirely.”

  Diana hesitated only a moment, but her hold on the cat tightened. She swallowed down the extra saliva that had formed in her mouth and then entered. Inside was a complex and sprawling library. Diana glanced around before setting Kal Zed down. Wandering to the closest bookshelf she picked up a book. She might not want to be Empress of the Universe, but she was going to love every moment she was trying to get the blasted bracelet off. Diana knew a
n opportunity like this, to explore the universe, couldn’t be passed up.

  “We should continue on,” Kal Zed warned as he trotted over to her.

  Diana opened up the book and found words moving across a page, as though someone was typing them at that very moment. Turning a few pages she found them blank. Flipping back, she saw the text moving steadily across the page. She put the book back and picked up another one. This book was nearly complete, but it, too, had blank pages in the back.

  Diana replaced the book before moving down the row of bookshelves. There, beside double doors, sat a woman, tall and willowy with long black hair and a face too thin to be human. She wore a strange gown with a high collar that was shorter in the front than the back. She unfolded her arms and came forward. It was then that Diana noticed her limbs were freakishly long.

  “Are you the Archive?” Diana asked.

  “Oh goodness no,” the woman said, laughing as her voice chimed like a bell. “I am the Caretaker.”

  “Of the library?” Diana inquired.

  “Of the Archive,” the Caretaker clarified. “He is waiting.”

  Kal Zed sat down and looked up at her. “This last part you must walk alone. Those that go before the Archive must go with a question in their heart. I have none.”

  Diana nodded as she tried to smile reassuringly. “It should only take a moment.”

  Striding past the Caretaker she went through the door behind her, which the Caretaker had indicated with a gentle sweep of her hand. Inside the door’s open maw, she saw, for a moment, a room with red curtains. When she blinked she was in a large old library. A child, perhaps ten years old, sat writing on a desk with books open before him.

  “Excuse me,” Diana said, closing the door behind her. “I am looking for the Archive.”

  “No. You are looking for an answer,” the boy said without looking up from the dozen or so books in front of him.

  “Are you the Archive?” Diana said incredulously, walking closer.

  “What is it you offer?” the boy asked as he turned the page of one book and then another.

  “What would please an Archive?” Diana asked, sitting down stiffly in a chair across from him.

  The Archive stopped turning pages to look up at her. “The Archive knows all, though I have not had a human in my presence in some years.”

  Diana was clearly taken aback. “Others of my kind have come?”

  “An answer requires payment,” the Archive replied, going back to his page turning.

  “There is something that has been not written,” Diana informed him. “I know a secret I could share.”

  The Archive continued to turn the pages. “I know every secret.”

  “Not this one,” Diana said and realized that he was uninterested in her because he did not know who she was or what burden she bore. “My secret could be worth two answers, or perhaps more.”

  “No words are worth that much,” the Archive said, studying her.

  “If it is,” Diana insisted, “will you give me my two answers?”

  “There is nothing that has happened in your life that I don’t already know,” the Archive said, looking her dead in the eye. “Child of Earth, born Diana Harriet Williams on April twenty-eighth to mother Mary-Ann and father Howard.”

  He returned to turning pages as disappointment clogged her throat. “Then why did you permit me entry?”

  “Curiosity,” he answered carefully.

  Diana’s eyes narrowed on his features before she took a blind shot at the answer. “Because you can’t find any record of me after I was a little girl?”

  The Archive’s eyes shot up in surprise before going back to the book and turning a page. “Perhaps.”

  His reaction confirmed her suspicion, and confidence swelled in her chest. “My two answers?” Diana asked.

  The Archive hesitated mid-page-turn before answering, “Granted.”

  Diana lifted her arm and pulled up her sleeve, revealing the bracelet. “I am Bearer of the Cosmos.”

  The Archive jerked when she said that and partially tore the page he had been turning. The book screamed. Diana jumped to her feet, startled. The room changed suddenly, as though she were seeing it for what it really was for the first time. The boy before her was suddenly not human. He was half organic and half robotic. His face had a plate on it and a strange lens over his one organic eye. His skin was tinted blue, and there was a black tattoo of some sort at his throat. The room itself was now covered in strange circuitry and was smooth grey metal. The Archive stood, clearly surprised, as the former image of the room returned and he once again appeared to be a boy in a nice old English library. Diana felt her hairs stand on end as she looked around, alarmed.

  “A human?” the Archive said, sounding outraged. “The bracelet chose a human?”

  “I want my answers,” Diana demanded as she continued to study the room nervously. “How can I remove it?”

  “You are a subpar species whose only significant contribution is as a study on untapped and wasted potential,” he continued, ignoring her question. “Why would the bracelet pick you?”

  “Hey!” Diana snapped. “My secret was worth my two answers. I want them now!”

  The Archive focused on her again. “Very well. There is no recorded historical reference to a Bearer of the Cosmos removing the bracelet. The Bearers have always selected their Emperors with honor and ruled with a fair hand.”

  Her heart sank at that news. She had pinned everything on the hope that there was some way to remove it. Her mind reeled knowing there was nothing she could do. She was stuck being the next ruler of the universe. Bummer.

  “Your second question?” the Archive asked.

  Diana’s eyes flickered over to him and then to the ground. She had been prepared to ask where to go to get it removed. Now she stood without a second question. She tried to focus out the hum of the planet as she tried to think of a new one.

  An idea suddenly hit her. “Where was I last before you couldn’t follow me anymore?”

  The Archive tipped his head and after a moment answered. “Your mother wrote down directions to the Pevensey Castle.”

  Diana nodded her head, remembering her trip to England when she was a girl. She would have to return to Earth and try to find where she acquired the bracelet. Perhaps then someone could tell her how to get rid of it, or at least explain some way to live normally.

  “Although you only asked for two questions when your secret was worth more, I will give you information that could help you,” the Archive said. “The bracelet is far wiser than am I, and it chose you for a reason. I must respect that.”

  “Is that an apology?” Diana asked, eyeing him.

  “A compromise,” he responded tartly. “On Matzil, the fourth planet of solar system Helion, there is a woman who served four centuries to many Empresses. She is nearing her death and has returned home to give her light to her daughter. There is a chance she may be able to help you.”

  “Thank you,” Diana said. She was about to turn and leave when she paused.

  Before she knew what she was doing Diana went back to the Archive and threw her arms around the boy. She felt him stiffen. For some reason, he had seemed so sad to her, and she just wanted to comfort him. If she was honest with herself she was not very good with children, but perhaps this small gesture would be enough since he was not entirely a child.

  “What are you doing?” the boy asked, clearly distressed.

  “Hugging you,” she said and then eased back awkwardly, keeping her hands on his shoulders.

  “No one is supposed to touch me,” he said but he seemed more distressed than angry. “No one ever touches me.”

  “Does something bad happen?” Diana asked, suddenly worried. She hastily lifted her hands off his shoulders.

  “No,” he said softly. “No one ever tries.”

  “That must be lonely,” Diana said, looking at his young face. She gently took his hands in hers. “If I can’t get out of thi
s bracelet, I will come back and visit so you won’t be lonely.”

  He jerked his hands free from hers. “Why?”

  “No one should be alone,” she explained before straightening. “Not even you.”

  Diana didn’t wait for a response as she headed for the door. Kal Zed was waiting for her, his tail flicking back and forth as she hurried past the Caretaker. The sound of her own shoes hitting the metal world echoed loud and hallow like her disappointment.

  “Did you find your answer?” Kal Zed asked as the doors opened for them.

  “Not what I hoped,” Diana answered as she glanced back, “but we have another destination.”

  “Where to?” Kal Zed asked.

  “The planet Matzil.”

  Chapter 8

  “That is where the servants of the Star Throne are,” Kal Zed said as the ship powered up. “Why would we go there?”

  “What is a Star Throne?” Diana asked, looking out at the expanse of space.

  “Your rightful place as future Empress of the Universe,” the cat explained as they left the metal planet and the Archive behind.

  “How could I forget that?” Diana rolled her eyes. “The Archive told me that a woman there might know something.”

  “The Matzili are one of the races that live a long time. They are like living history books,” the cat said. Diana leaned against the wall beside his controls and gazed out at the universe. “They will want you to take your place and find a mate.”

  “Right, the whole ‘me getting laid’ thing,” Diana said with an exasperated sigh.

  The ship rocked to the left, and Diana gave a startled cry as she fell back. A blue light appeared around the spacecraft as Diana pushed herself up. Kal Zed was still in his seat, but it was bright red instead of the pale sunlight it had been.