“Dean, look.” Suma pointed above us, where small vehicles flew through the air like regular traffic. There were floating buoys separating lanes, and in the span of a minute, at least a hundred small ships must have flown by.
“I wonder if this is rush hour?” Slate asked, and then I noticed there were at least five more lanes above the ones closest to us.
“I don’t want to be a commuter here. This looks intense,” I said as a hover train soared between the skyscrapers, fifty yards overhead: their version of the subway. “Maybe we should take some notes for Haven. It looks like they’ve built quite the utopia here,” I said, and finally glanced at the tablet, my eyes spinning from staring at all of the hovering traffic.
“First things first. Let’s see if the Deltra can help us.” Suma took the lead and made for the tall glass building.
A purple gelatinous blob met us at the entrance, and it said something in its own language, which sounded like a series of burps. “Names,” it translated.
“Dean Parker to see Braylam of the Deltra,” I said, and my translator burped my response at the blob. It was semi-transparent, and I spotted organs through its surface, two hearts beating. “Are you a Cib?” I asked, recalling a similar creature with Cee-Eight.
It replied that it was indeed a Cib and directed us inside before telling us to go to the ninety-ninth floor.
“Kind of a posh place,” Slate said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it was surely different than this.”
We crossed a grand foyer; a couple of aliens loitered, chatting, by the far wall. I felt like I was in a New York Upper East Side apartment, complete with a gelatinous blob for a doorman. We made our way to an elevator and I scanned the console with my tablet, translating it to English before pressing the correct button.
We were on the far wall, and the clear glass wall of the elevator allowed us to see the impressive view as we rose high into the building. Another hover train raced by, sending Suma jumping backwards into Slate.
I hefted my pack on my shoulder and checked my collar, making sure it wasn’t janky. I’d been able to use the Keppe ship’s computer to print my own clothing, and I almost had a passable shirt and blazer to go with a pair of almost-jeans. It all felt a little off, like I was a cardboard doll with folded-over paper clothing.
The elevator stopped, a soft chime alerting us that we were at our destination. The doors slid wide.
The layout was an open floor plan, and a few Deltra were walking around, tablets in their hands. It appeared as though the city had fully-developed commerce going on. It was off-putting, but realistic.
I adjusted my translator to relay Deltra, and I waved down a tall bald man that reminded me of Teelon from so long ago. The memory stuck in my throat, and I cleared it before speaking. “We’re here to see Braylam.”
The man stopped, staring at us with wide eyes, and nodded. “This way.”
We followed him to a corner office, and he knocked before letting us in. A Deltra woman hovered in a chair, facing a wall-sized screen with 3D images scrolling over it.
“I’ve been expecting you,” the woman said in English. She had the same unaccented monotone voice that the Deltra I’d stumbled into on Earth during the Event had. It was unsettling.
“How?” I started, then saw her point to her throat.
“Modifications. Most of us have them now. There are too many races and languages to worry about translators. It’s already loud enough out there, we don’t need any more noise pollution. Have a seat.” She was bald too, tall and heavier-set than any Deltra I’d ever met. She wore long, dangling earrings and had multiple piercings on her face.
“We need to see if you can help us with something,” I said.
“I was briefed, but not clearly. What can I do for you?” she asked as she lowered to the ground and walked over to us.
I slung the pack off my shoulder and passed her the Relocator, almost not wanting to drop it into her outstretched hand. “I got this from one of your people. He was a good friend,” I said.
“Was? Is he passed?” She inspected the device.
“He did. A few years ago. We need to activate this device,” I told her.
She set it on the desktop. “I don’t know what it is. Are you able to share?”
I hesitated, but Slate nodded to me, giving me the boost I needed. If I couldn’t trust her with the information, I had no hope of finding out if it could be fixed. “We call it a Relocator. It saves a location, and the device transports you and anyone you’re in contact with to that spot.”
“Really? That’s interesting, and extremely handy. You say a Deltra came up with it?” She held it again, looking closely.
“Yes.” I didn’t tell her they’d also created the Kalentrek, a device capable of wiping out an entire species with the press of a button.
Suma cut in. “The power core is shot, as far as I can tell, but we can’t access one to work. We thought it might be a Deltra trade secret.”
The woman leaned in, her gaze lingering on the doorway for a second before she quietly asked a question. “What are you hoping to use this for, seriously?”
I decided to be honest. “It has a location saved in it, one from beyond this dimension.”
“And you think you can wield it to traverse the dimensional shift caused by the nebula?” she asked.
“Pretty much,” Slate said.
“Impossible. To do that, you’d need a conductor far more powerful than anything we have here.”
The intuition was paying off again. I opened the bag again and pulled out an Inlorian bar. “Test this. Could you make the power core out of this?” I passed it to her, and she grinned.
“I don’t know, but now you have intrigued me. Leave this with me and return tomorrow.” She set them both to the side and crossed her arms.
“I’m not sure…” I started to say.
“It will take time to analyze. I do not wish to steal, break, or do anything reprehensible with your device. I’m more curious than anything, and this is definitely Deltra, so it interests me. Also, I’ll duplicate the technology to a scalable device and make a fortune. In the meantime, I’ll see about getting you home.”
She seemed honest about it. “You have no interest in leaving this world?” I asked.
“All I know is here. My life is good. We have food, shelter, and everything we could possibly need. There’s nothing on the other side for me.” She sounded so sure of her answer.
“So tomorrow, then?” I double-checked.
“Tomorrow,” she replied, keeping her gaze on the Relocator. She ushered us out of the room and called a few of her staff into her office, barking commands as she shut the door.
“I guess we have no choice but to trust her,” Slate said. “We’re in the city, we may as well enjoy ourselves.”
Twenty-Four
“Are you sure Ableen’s up for this, Karo?” I leaned to whisper the question in his ear. The group of us were seated at a rooftop restaurant, overlooking a great ocean. I could understand why Braylam wouldn’t consider leaving for a galaxy she’d never even seen.
Ableen was staring at the food with wide eyes. She only spoke in an ancient Theos dialect that I’d never heard. Karo had always used English with me. He turned to her and softly spoke a phrase, and she nodded.
“She said the food is very good.” Karo was smiling, and I’d noticed the instant shift in his personality. He’d been brooding of late, and for good reason. Now we’d managed to find another of his kind, and he couldn’t have been happier.
The restaurant was busy; dozens of tables were occupied by all sorts of beings. Some were familiar, others far off my radar. But what struck me as amazing was how well they all got along. They’d really built something special out of necessity. The open-air space was a cacophony of alien chatter and laughter.
Our table was its own mix, with two Theos, Suma the Shimmali, Slate, Magnus, Natalia, and I rounding out the humans, and Rulo had a hulking Keppe with her
who gave me the impression he wasn’t her cousin.
“Can you ask her to tell us her tale?” Natalia asked from her seat beside Ableen. She reached out and set a hand on the Theos woman’s forearm.
“I know much of it, but will translate for you now.” Karo spoke softly to Ableen, and she met our gazes with a smile of her own. I couldn’t imagine being abducted then waking thousands of years later, and a day after, sitting with a view like this, with a bunch of strange people asking about you.
She talked, and Karo recited her story.
“Ableen was born a quarry miner’s daughter. This was before the Iskios were even banished. Then she’d had many Iskios friends, so she was shocked to hear when I told her about our race being extinct, and about the portal stones.
“She grew up as any other child on our world, taken care of and not lacking anything. She excelled in classes and quickly rose above her parents’ rank, venturing into engineering in the capital.” Karo raised a hand; his eyes were full of wonder. “I was there once as a child, before they extended my life to watch over things and await the Recaster’s arrival.” He shot me a look, and Ableen glanced over at me, averting her eyes. She seemed to think I was someone important.
Karo kept speaking. “The capital was being vacated when I was there, lines of Theos leaving to pour themselves into the stones. It was a sad sight. A majestic place with no one to walk the streets any longer. Anyway, enough about me; I’ll continue with Ableen’s story.
“She lived a simple life, even finding love after some time. She doesn’t recall much about the night she was taken by the Collector. Her last memory was walking home after a long day working on an experimental project. She saw a red energy bear down on her; green light zapped overhead, and the next thing she knew, we were pulling her from the display case on his ship.”
Ableen stopped talking and took a few absent bites of her dinner. I was sure there was far more to the Theos, but at least we understood the basics now. Karo would learn things in due time.
“We don’t know how long ago this was, then?” I asked.
“It would be hard to tell. Imagine what she’s feeling, Dean. I want to comfort her, but her wounds and losses are fresh. Her love, her family, all gone for thousands of years, and now she learns we’re the last two Theos in existence,” Karo said. “I’d be reluctant to pressure her, but I do hope she stays close to me. I would love nothing more than to reconnect with my own kind, even in a strictly platonic way.” He said this all in English as Ableen pecked away at the foreign food on her plate.
“Does she know that, Karo? Because she’s been giving you some serious sideways glances,” Slate said, and Suma threw an elbow at him.
Magnus ordered another Padlog nectar drink for the table and winked at me. “You sure love those things. I bet you were thrilled to hear they had it,” I told him.
“If we’re stranded here, there could be worse places,” he said. “At least there’s a city. I couldn’t image having been stuck on Sterona like the four of you.”
Three of that group were at dinner now; Mary was the only one back home. “Mary would have preferred this, that’s for sure,” Slate said, and I nodded.
I wished she and Jules were here with me. Maybe I should have brought them. Wouldn’t it be better to be stuck in a dimensional purgatory together, than to be apart? I decided I wasn’t sure, but I knew where my vote would lie.
“You must miss her,” Natalia said.
“I do,” I said as our Cib waiter came by, drink trays balanced on outstretched gelatinous hands. He passed my nectar over, and I took a long pull. It was really good.
“What about this Braylam? Even if she gets this Relocator to work, will it take you out of here?” Magnus asked.
Slate stuck his hand in the air, like a student waiting to talk. “I’m going to test it.”
I shook my head. “No, Slate. It’s my responsibility. I brought us here, I’ll test it.” I knew that even if Braylam suggested it was operational, our being across the dimension might affect it. There was a distinct chance I could be Relocated into the middle of space… or worse.
“That’s not fair,” Suma said. “We came here as a team, and we all voted on traveling through the Cloud. As one.”
“I know, Suma, but I’m going to be the one to try it. End of story.” I rested into my chair, letting a thin robot porter clear my plate. Suma didn’t argue, but I knew she was pouting about it. “We’ll go together in the morning and check on progress, is that better?”
“Sure thing, boss. But don’t make it too early,” Slate said.
“Why’s that?” I pressured.
“Because Magnus and I are going to stay up drinking these bad boys for a while,” he said with a laugh.
“You know what? I’m starting to enjoy this, pup,” Magnus said, lifting his glass in the air. Natalia rolled her eyes but raised her own glass.
“What are we raising a glass to?” I pondered.
“To us, Dean. To friendship!” Magnus stood, and the rest of us followed suit, clinking our metallic cups in unison, nectar splashing over our dirty plates.
“To friendship,” we chorused, but the whole time, I had a sinking feeling in my gut that I was never going to be able to leave this purgatory to get home to Mary.
____________
The suite was opulent, but even though it was well past the middle of the night, I lay awake, sitting up in bed staring out the window at the picturesque view. I’d managed a couple hours of uninterrupted sleep, but the second my eyes sprang open during a bad dream, I hadn’t been able to fall back under.
There were far too many thoughts bouncing around the inner reaches of my mind, including the bizarre Collector. What other races did he have on that ship? What could all of those beings teach us about the universe we lived in, or used to?
My ears perked up like a dog’s on the hunt as I heard light footsteps attempting to conceal their presence. My head jerked to the side, seeing my pulse rifle propped against the wall twenty feet away. Slate was next door, and I thought about yelling for him, but with the quality of this hotel, I doubted they made the walls paper-thin like a seedy motel.
“Who’s there?” I went for the direct approach. I moved to the ledge of the bed, a little closer to my weapon.
No answer came, but I saw the form lingering in the shadow by the suite’s entrance.
I didn’t wait any longer. I rolled from the bed, over the hard floor, and arrived beside the chair, grabbing my pulse rifle firmly. I hopped to my feet and jumped away, holding the gun toward the figure I’d seen seconds ago.
“Don’t be alarmed, Dean,” a voice said behind me.
I spun, and a slim hand waved in the air, knocking my gun to the ground. I bent to pick it up, but it stuck to the floor as if someone super-glued it there. I scrambled away until my back pressed against the far wall. “What do you want?” I asked.
“Dean.” The figure removed a hood covering their head, the shadows dissipating from her face. It was Braylam, the Deltra engineer. “Relax. It’s only me.”
“Relax? You sneaked into my room in the ungodly hours of the night!”
“I finished the Relocator.” The small device sat in her palm now, and she held it outstretched to me.
“And you came over here with it?” I asked, her story not quite adding up.
“Dean, I think you’re right.”
“About what?”
“The power of this thing. I replicated it, testing it with a normal power core. It worked fine, but when I used the Inlorian bar to make wire for the coils, my replication exploded. So I had to brace the original to withstand the power inside the new core. It worked.” Braylam’s usually monotone voice was filled with emotion I’d never heard from a Deltra, even from Kareem on his deathbed.
“What are you suggesting?” I stepped toward her, accepting the outstretched device.
“I’m suggesting this might just take you where you want to go: to the pre-set location saved
inside it.” She smiled thinly, and her hand shook slightly. She seemed to notice and shoved her hands into deep pockets inside her cloak.
“And you came here now to tell me this, why?” I pressed her.
“Don’t you see? If anyone here finds out you have the power to leave this place, there will be pandemonium.”
“I thought no one would ever want to leave this utopia?”
Braylam shook her head. “There are factions that do. But there are others that would smell profit in this.” She pointed to my hand. “They’d kill you ten ways to tomorrow for that thing.”
“Then why did you bring it to me?” I wondered if this even was the original. Braylam could have duplicated it and, when it failed, blamed the device, not herself.
“Because it’s too dangerous for me to have, and because you were given this by one of my people. We aren’t a very trusting lot, so that means something to me. The Deltra are an honorable race, Dean Parker.” Her eyes were wide, and I thought about all the real Deltra had been through. Betraying the Kraski, then us; but through it all, it was only about self-preservation, and I couldn’t blame them. They weren’t all that different from us.
“Thank you.” I peeked at it, seeing a glowing ring around it that was never there before.
“The core is strong, that Inlorian bar intense. A jump like the one you’re describing, taking you across this dimensional shift and countless light-years after, could fry it. If you’re lucky enough to end up at the right destination, the core may need time to recharge. I added a display bar inside.” She showed me, flipping it open. It had ten glowing green bars in a row. “If you use it to come here again, make sure all ten bars are charged first.”
“Do you really think it might work?” I asked, suddenly nervous to attempt it.
Braylam stayed silent for a moment too long, and her hesitation answered my question. “I hope so, Dean. I really do.” She started for the door, waving her hand over my gun as she walked by it. Now I saw a small glowing ring on her hand. It hadn’t been magic after all, just technology. I nudged the rifle with my toe and it moved freely.
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