by A. K. DuBoff
“Yes,” the unicorn acknowledged. “The ship must have moved.”
I tried to hold back the panic threatening to take hold. “Well, where is it?”
That wasn’t part of the plan at all. We should have only been gone a few moments in relative time in the lower planes. It was next to impossible that the Evangiel could move on so quickly.
“Uh oh,” Toran murmured.
“No, Toran, ‘uh oh’ is not an okay thing to say in this situation.” I peered further along the bridge, hoping that maybe we hadn’t gone far enough.
“Well, last time we were in 8D and no apparent times passed in our normal reality,” Toran said. “This time, though, we were in 6D and 7D. They’re still above spacetime, but maybe it’s… different.”
Kaiden wiped a hand down his face. “Why didn’t that occur to us earlier?”
“Because this idea seemed straightforward and easy at the time.” Maris winced. “Sorry.”
“That should have been our clue.” I took a deep breath, committed to not lose my cool. “How can we tell when or where we are?”
“From here? I have no idea,” Toran admitted.
“But we do know that the Evangiel should be here, and they know it,” Kaiden said. “I’m certain they’d loop around for another pass as soon as they realized we weren’t on board.”
“Regardless, how do we get back?” I questioned.
“Can you help us find the ship?” Maris asked Hoofy.
“I’m already trying. However, we will not be able to remain on this bridge. The ship is no longer in proximity to any of these hyperdimensional paths.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Okay, so where do we go?”
“We will have to cut through another part of the plane,” Hoofy replied.
“Can we do that? Is there anything there?” I asked. After all, we were technically in a place that corresponded to open space relative to our home plane of reality.
Hoofy trotted to the edge of the bridge and touched his horn to the mist. An opening formed in the clouds, revealing an open plane that seemed desert-like compared to the pastoral scene we’d witnessed earlier. “Nothing is completely empty.”
Maris hesitated. “You said before that you were not welcome to enter that place anymore.”
The unicorn shifted on his feet. “Getting you back to your ship is more important. Come.” He leaped through the opening onto the scrubby grass.
“No argument here.” Kaiden jumped through after him, and the rest of us followed suit.
As I passed through the opening, the light level flickered and I sensed a change in the ambient energy. Everything around me felt charged and vibrant, though there were no discernible landscape features or signs of life.
We raced forward in the general direction we’d been following on the bridge but angling away from it. Hoofy loped ahead with the rest of us running to keep up. It was easy to keep pace in the strange gravity of the place, but I found it disorienting to not have any landmarks by which to gauge our progress.
Hoofy stopped short. “No, they are not supposed to be here.”
I leaned back on my heels. “Who? What?”
In answer to my question, ten heads with distinctive crystal horns appeared in front of us, and with a ripple through the air, the rest of their equine bodies came into view. I wasn’t sure if they’d just entered through a transition point or had been cloaked in some manner, but these were clearly members of Hoofy’s former herd based on how they were glaring at him.
“You were not supposed to interfere,” the lead unicorn said, stomping forward.
Hoofy stood his ground. “This was too important for us to stand back and do nothing.”
“It is not our place,” the other insisted.
“So was declared last time, and look where it got us.” Hoofy tossed his golden mane. “I will not make the same mistakes you did.”
The other unicorn turned her attention from Hoofy to us. “You do not understand the forces at work.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, you can say that again! No frickin’ clue.”
She squinted at us, to the extent her unicorn features allowed. “You think this funny?”
“No, not at all!” Maris hastily cut in. “We’ve had a really weird week. Well, several weeks. We’re kind of at the point where we don’t know what to believe or who to trust anymore.”
“Yet, you have aligned yourselves with this traitor.” The elder unicorn glared at Hoofy.
“Traitor?” So, Hoofy hadn’t told us the whole story, after all.
“It is true, I was not forthcoming with you,” Hoofy revealed.
“What do you mean?” Maris asked, her tone pained.
“Fanciful notions and rash actions,” the elder replied. “Stars know why you freed him.”
I held up my hand. “Whoa, wait. You trapped him on the other plane?”
The elder unicorn huffed. “Nonsense. The fool got himself trapped by going where he did not belong.”
“Enough dancing around it. What happened?” Kaiden interjected.
Hoofy hung his head. “For generations, the Overlords have been building their energy grid. We knew your kind were at risk, but the others insisted it was not our place to intervene. But during our migrations, I watched the echoes of ancient times, when we used to roam your forests and share our knowledge with your kind. I could not bear the thought of your falling victim to their evil—not after the friendship our people had shared.
“I saw a chance to thwart the Overlords, by means of an anomaly that crosses the planes. I believe it has been expanding since they brought their power core online, and all it needs is the right nudge to wall them off. Unfortunately, I did not have the correct tools, and I found myself trapped.”
The elder snuffled. “That is what happens when you wander from the herd.”
Hoofy met her gaze. “You would not take action.”
“Right or wrong, that’s in the past now,” I said. “Now, we’re already a part of this. Sorry if a collaboration wasn’t on your wish list, but we’re invested now. And, we have a ship to get back to.”
“They have overcome their influence. They are integrated now,” Hoofy told the elder.
She evaluated us. “Is that so?”
“They have mastered the artifacts,” Hoofy continued. “They are the best chance to see this through.”
“We swore to not involve ourselves. You broke that code, and nothing can undo that. However, that also means we cannot stand in your way now.” The elder took a step back.
Hoofy bowed his head. “I hope eventually you will see that this was the best way forward.”
“If you are successful, then perhaps we will. What has already happened is not always destined to remain.” The elder and rest of the herd faded from view as suddenly as they had appeared.
Kaiden scratched his head. “I have to say, that was one of the stranger encounters we’ve had.”
“Agreed,” Toran said. “I was worried that we might get stampeded.”
“They would never behave in such a fashion,” Hoofy said.
“Fine, then shoot us down with rainbows,” I offered as an alternative.
Kaiden smiled. “Or choke us with magical dust.”
“Do unicorns do magic dust? I always thought of that as more of a faerie thing,” I said.
“Definitely pixies,” Maris cut in.
Toran cleared his throat. “The ship is getting farther away with every moment.”
“Stars! Unicorns are very distracting.” I resumed running in the direction we’d been heading, with Hoofy once again taking the lead.
“I sense it is close,” he said, followed by an image projected in our minds. An echo of the Evangiel was overlaid on the landscape in front of us, with a more distinct bright point where the sphere resided in the viewing room. The ship was pulling away from us ever so slightly.
“Faster!” I urged my frie
nds. I could see the sphere now in my normal vision.
We picked up our pace and began gaining on the sphere. It was so close…
“Get your artifacts ready,” Kaiden said. “We need to do this at the same time.”
I drew my sword in preparation. Just half of the ship’s length to go.
We sprinted the final distance, dropping our pace just enough to match the travel of the ship.
“On three,” I said, extending my hand. I counted down, and we simultaneously touched the sphere.
Reality folded, going black for an instant before there was a bright flash. The viewing room resolved around me, with the solid sphere between me and my friends. My stomach flipped as I was struck by the sensations of being in my normal physical self.
“What happened? You disappeared,” Colren asked from where he was still standing near the doorway. “It’s been nearly two minutes.”
“That’s going to take some explaining,” Toran replied.
“All right, so I guess we really do ‘go somewhere’ after all.” I took a shaky breath, overcome with a wave of nausea. “I never want to go there again.”
Kaiden gave me an apologetic smile. “Well, you’re going to have to. Like, soon.”
“At least we’ll get the bad guys,” Maris offered.
There was that. And I was definitely ready for it to be over.
20
In his usual fashion, Colren listened patiently while we gave an account of our experience as the five of us stood in the viewing room. The explanation was fairly straightforward until we got to the part about the fight near the energy core.
“But then Hoofy wasn’t there to help us transition,” Maris said.
I winced. It was only a matter of time before one of us slipped.
Colren’s brow drew together. “Hoofy?”
“Erm,” Kaiden hesitated.
I took a deep breath. “So, we didn’t tell you everything before.”
The commander crossed his arms. “What did you leave out?”
“On our earlier venture into 8D, we came across a sentient being,” Toran explained. “His name is Huefneril, but we’ve been calling him ‘Hoofy’.”
“You say that like you’re still in contact,” Colren stated.
“Because we are,” I revealed. “He’s been helping us negotiate the transition between the planes.”
“And what kind of being is this Hoofy?”
I bit my lower lip. “A unicorn.”
His eyes widened. “A…?”
“Turns out they’re real and actually hyperdimensional beings,” Kaiden said.
Colren worked his mouth. “Why didn’t you say anything about this sooner?”
“Because we were worried it would sound like we’d lost our minds,” I replied. “And we weren’t sure it would be important, but it turns out that the information he’s led us to is actually pretty critical to bringing down the Saps.”
“And I’m supposed to trust you after you withheld details?” he eyed us.
“Well, we’re telling you now,” I pointed out. “We have every intention to do what’s necessary to take out the Saps and restore our worlds. Do the details really matter so long as we’re working toward that common goal?”
He paused in thought. “And you can trust… Hoofy?”
I nodded slowly. “His motivations were unclear at first, but now I believe we can trust him, yes. His heart is in the right place, though we need to keep his zeal in check.”
Colren let out a long breath. “I suppose I’m in no position to pass judgement on this matter. You were given autonomy.”
“It’s been a crazy few days,” Kaiden said.
“That it has,” the commander agreed. “Now, tell me more about the energy core.” There was a hunger in his eyes I hadn’t seen before.
I exchanged worried glances with Kaiden. “It’s at the center of everything for them,” I replied. “Destroy that, and it will cripple them.”
“Everything, even their ships?” Colren pressed.
“It appears to be hyperdimensional in nature,” Toran explained. “We’ve witnessed the strange vine-like structures everywhere we’ve encountered the aliens. I believe the vines are networked conduits, which simultaneously draw on and transmit the energy. Since the network is hyperdimensional, that direct connection is not necessarily apparent as a physical tether in spacetime.”
The commander nodded thoughtfully. “How do you know that core is the only one?”
“We have only the word of our guide,” I said. “But, he took great risk to help us, so I believe he’s telling the truth. As a hyperdimensional being from a higher plane than the Saps, he knows more about the Saps’ civilization than we ever could.”
“That kind of technology would be lifechanging for the Hegemony,” Colren stated.
There it was. I knew the pronouncement had been coming, and now we were officially in a bind. While I agreed that an infinite power source would be revolutionary, I was also too acquainted with the Saps to want anything to do with their technology. For all we knew, it was constant contact with the power source that had twisted them into the evil creatures they were. Hegemony’s wishes or not, I had no interest in helping them get hold of that device or get plans for how to make their own.
My friends seemed to have similar misgivings, based on their expressions.
“The energy technology and the Saps can’t be separated from one another,” Toran replied on our behalf. “If we make any attempt to preserve the core, we risk our worlds and future.”
“That isn’t a decision for us to make,” Colren said.
Toran’s face darkened. “You haven’t seen what we have.”
The commander shook his head. “And you have no idea what kind of threats the Hegemony has faced in our history. We go to great lengths to protect our citizens from the evils of this universe, but one of these days we won’t be able to stop them. If we have a chance now to get something that will give us an upper hand in an inevitable future engagement, that’s an opportunity we need to seize.”
“I don’t disagree with that sentiment, but this tech is not the answer,” I insisted. “The Darkness, the beings, the vines, the energy core—it’s all part of the same hyperdimensional organism. If we try to adapt that, we’ll just infect our worlds all over again.”
“You can’t know that for sure,” Colren responded.
“No, and you can’t be sure that it won’t. It’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” I wasn’t sure what would come from standing up to the commander, but I figured we had little to lose. It’s not like anyone else could actually go after the energy core if we refused.
Colren paced in a circle. “Leadership won’t be happy about your lack of cooperation.”
“The goal has always been to get our worlds back. Why the sudden interest in the alien tech?” Kaiden asked.
“We’ve always been a curious race, and greedy,” Colren mused. “No one can remember where we came from or how we came to be—we’re always focused on the future and the next phase of our development.” He chuckled. “It’s kind of funny, when you think about it, considering how much we rely on resets to fix our mistakes.”
“And once we reset, no one is going to remember what we did or didn’t do in this moment,” Kaiden pointed out. “But our decisions now will affect what happens to our people in the future. Do we want to leave them—and ourselves—open to future danger, or do we want to end this once and for all while we have the chance?”
“There will always be danger,” Colren murmured.
“And fighting one evil with another isn’t the answer,” I said. “If we really want to reach that ‘next phase’ for our society, we can’t go stealing tech we don’t understand. We need to make those discoveries for ourselves.”
The commander glanced at the viewing-sphere. “I’m in an impossible position. I can’t officially order you to do anything, and I also can’
t ignore my own orders.”
“In that case,” I said slowly, “we understand our instructions, and we’ll do what we can to fulfill your request while completing the mission to the best of our abilities.”
He cracked a slight smile. “Thank you. I trust you’ll do what needs to be done.”
My friends nodded.
“We will,” Kaiden said.
“Now that that’s settled,” Colren continued, “I believe you were just about to explain this alien attack?”
I nodded. “Right, when they used their telepathy.”
Toran gave an account of his experience with the rest of us interjecting anecdotes. Hearing the encounter from other perspectives, it was quite clear that Toran had had a very different experience than the rest of us.
“Why do you think you were able to resist them?” Colren asked.
Toran shook his head. “I have no idea. I could feel the creature trying to control me, but it just didn’t… take.”
The commander tilted his head. “Could this have anything to do with your abilities?”
“I honestly can’t say,” Toran admitted. “We didn’t exactly get a User Manual to go along with our transformations.”
“Fair enough.” Colren chuckled. “Well, it might be worth another chat with the science team to see if they have an explanation. That seems like a crucial ability worth investigating.”
“We’ll do that,” Toran agreed.
We finished recounting the end of the fight and our return to the Evangiel. Since Hoofy was a sore topic, we glossed over the exchange with his herd, only noting a few highlights which supported our argument that the unicorn was on our side. My advocacy would have been halfhearted a day earlier, but after seeing how he stood up for his actions to help us, my perspective had changed. In many ways, I now saw him as an idealistic teenager like me—making rash decisions without thinking through every aspect of the plan, but those actions coming from a place of good intentions. Regardless of age, we were all entitled to mistakes. What mattered in the end was making it right, and that’s exactly what he was trying to do with us.
