The Gate Keeper

by William Mezger III

  Chapter 4

  New Job

  I

  Henry got up the next morning; curious about what the day would bring. His weekend was already going well. He was hoping his streak would continue. He showered, and got dressed. He shaved the day before, and was able to skip that particular chore. He enjoyed the novelty of shaving when he first started, but it went away quickly. He was not looking forward to when he would have to do it everyday like his dad.

  He dressed warm, not sure what the day had in store for him. He left a note for his mom reminding her where he had gone. She had worked a double the night before, and was still sleeping. He grabbed some pop tarts, and walked to Ms. Roberts’s house.

  A man he had never seen answered the door when he knocked. He had always thought Ms. Roberts was single, but maybe he was wrong. The man was dressed in a black suit coat, and tie, a white dress shirt, and glasses. He had a pleasant face, and it was deeply lined with smile lines, which made him look very friendly. Although Ms. Roberts had silver colored hair, she looked the same age as his mom, and she was in her forties. This man looked much older, he did not think he was her husband.

  “You must be Henry,” the man said with a smile. “The Terminal Director is expecting you, please follow me.”

  “Yes, I was here to see Ms. Roberts?”

  “Please follow me,” the man said with a smile. Henry began to understand that Ms. Roberts must be the “Terminal Director” the man had referred to. Henry did not know what it meant. He realized that he had always seen her in a suit similar to the one the man was wearing, and wondered if she ran a business from her home. The front door opened into the living room, which was very nice. It was well appointed with a deep leather couch, and chairs. There was a very large flat screen television mounted to the wall. It was on, but the sound was off, it was tuned to some type of foreign channel. Henry could not read the words and was not sure what language it was written in. The man led Henry through the living room, and up a flight of stairs near the kitchen, to a door at the end of a short hall. The man knocked on the door, and Henry heard Ms. Roberts voice from the other side tell them to come in. The man held the door open for Henry. Ms. Roberts sat behind a large cherry wood desk.

  “Will there be anything else, director?” the man asked.

  “No, Philip. We should be okay here. We have VIPs arriving at 8:30 for a 9:00 departure. Would you please make sure they are comfortable while I get Mr. Thomas here settled in to his new job,” she said. Henry listened very carefully trying to understand what was being said, but could not really put the pieces together. Henry noticed that they both wore similar black suit coats with a patch, or logo embroidered over the left chest. He could not make out the design from this side of the room. Roberts soon turned her attention to Henry.

  “Please sit,” she said gesturing to a chair across the desk from her.

  “Okay,” Henry said taking a seat.

  “Well Henry, how are you today?” she asked.

  “Good,” he said. In all honesty Henry thought to himself that he was very confused. The last thing he expected was to be sitting in this finely appointed office.

  “Good, I have a unique opportunity for you Henry. I would like to show you somethings, and after I am finished if you are interested; I would like to offer you a job. Does that sound okay to you?” she asked.

  “Sure, I guess” Henry was still very confused. Roberts stood up, and walked to a door in the corner of her office. It was not the door he had entered through. He had assumed it was a closet, but found he was mistaken when she opened the door to reveal a hallway. He walked through the doorway, and was immediately disoriented. He stood at the end of a very long hallway; a finely grained marble floor stretched out before him. He was not sure how this was possible. On his right hand side was a wall of windows that ran the length of the hallway, but what was most disorienting was he appeared to be on the ground floor. He could clearly see the ground through the window, and he was not on the second floor like he thought he should be. The longer he looked out the window the more disconcerting the view became. Henry was looking into a lush green garden filled with flowering plants, and water features. He thought he had lost his mind; he was looking out into a bright summer day. He turned to find Ms. Roberts smiling at him sympathetically.

  “Yes, they are beautiful, but we have much to do, and I need to get back to my desk soon. Shall we continue?” She started walking, clearly expecting him to follow. He would have stood all day looking out the window, but was not willing to let his guide to this place get to far from him.

  The walls were made from the same finely grained marble that Henry had seen in the garden outside the house, but this was not engraved or sculpted just shaped into blocks. Besides the wall of windows, the hallway was empty except for three doors. The door he had come from that led back to Roberts’s office, and 2 others at different points along the wall facing the window. Henry thought the hallway dead-ended, but saw he was mistaken when they reached the far end. It was actually shaped like a large upper case L with the shorter hallway ending in a fourth door. Ms. Roberts opened the door, and Henry walked through, and his brain locked up again.

  There were people everywhere; moving, standing, looking at different display boards. There were people sitting to his left on a row of benches in front of a great curved window reading what looked like tablet computers instead of books. Roberts had not stopped walking, and was now standing at a large circular counter that dominated the center of the room. As he walked towards her he discovered he had been standing under the second floor; as came out from under the second floor balcony he was again impressed by the enormous size of the chamber he was in.

  Henry found himself under a high arched ceiling made of sparkling glass. The open space was as large as a football field. In the center of one of the long walls was a sweeping arc of windows. It was in front of these windows that Henry had seen the people reading on benches. There was a balcony surrounding the central open area creating a second floor filed with what looked like shops and seating areas.

  Henry’s mind was reeling from the shear size of the room he was standing in. The second thing to hit him was the impossible number of people moving around. The thing that took the longest for Henry’s already full brain to realize was the “people” filling the space were not humans. There were many creatures that were humanoid, but many more were creatures of all shapes, colors and sizes.

  “Where are we,” he asked the wonder evident in his voice.

  “We are on a planet near the intersection of the Galactic bar, and the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way. Welcome to the Milky Way Terminal of the Intergalactic Transportation System,” Ms. Roberts said proudly. He thought he should have been scared of a roomful of alien creatures, but maybe it was the way they were all going about their business that made it seem so normal. It reminded him of the time his family had flown out of O’Hare airport.

  Henry approached the counter where Roberts was talking to the people behind the counter. Henry could see they were all wearing the same black coat that Roberts wore. They also wore glasses similar to the ones he had seen the man wearing earlier. Above the counter floating in mid air was a large golden orb. It was made of some golden metal, and on the face of the orb was the face of what looked like a clock. There was one large white face for each of the four directions. He did not understand the numbering system around the edges, but the hands where such the classic configuration that Henry knew immediately what the orb was. It was some type of clock.

  He saw that Roberts had finished her business, and was looking at him expectantly now. She had mentioned something to him about a job opportunity earlier. The opportunity to work in a place like this was a once in a lifetime chance, even if he was only emptying garbage cans.

  “Well what do you think of my terminal Henry?” she asked. Henry remembered what the man had called her earlier, and the pieces finally
came together.

  “You run this place?” he asked.

  “Yes, I am the Terminal Director for this terminal. Do you like it?” She asked.

  “It is the most amazing thing I have ever seen, what do you mean this terminal? Do you mean there are more?” he asked. She laughed.

  “There is one for every known galaxy in the universe. This is the Milky Way Terminal. Think of them like human airports. Traveling is done through gateways from terminal to terminal. That is where you come in. I want you to be a gatekeeper. It would be your job to open the gates, and help people to travel in, and out. Would you like to work for me here Henry?” She asked. She stood waiting for his answer.

  His mind was swirling. He was almost incapable of producing words. He was so excited. He said the only word his swirling mind could produce.

  “Yes!!!”

  II

  Roberts quickly lead him back the way they had come to doorway just outside her office. She gave a cursory knock, and entered. Henry followed her in, and found a creature sitting across the desk from them. It was reptilian in nature, covered in millions of tiny scales of cerulean blue, and lavender. The scales were iridescent fading between the two colors as the light hit them at different angles. To Henry it looked like a chameleon he had seen at the pet store grown to man sized proportions sitting in a desk chair. Henry was not sure, but based on the clothes, thought the creature was female. Her head was shaped similar to that of a chameleon set in a pyramid shape with the eyes set farther apart than a human, and protruded from her head. A layer of the same colored scales surrounded the eyes. There were two ridges that began behind the eyes running above the eyes and coming together to a point about where the nose on a human would have been. Her mouth was just below the point where the ridges came together helping to create that pyramid feel to the shape of her head. There was another subtle ridge that began around the forehead going vertically back from her face down the spine disappearing into the collar of her clothes. She wore a white silk blouse with what Henry had started thinking of as the standard embroidered suit coat over it. Over her eyes where a pair of individual lenses shaped like bisected glass balls, a wire that ran across her brow attached them to each other. She looked up to Henry and smiled. Henry thought that it was a radiant smile and liked her immediately.

  “Uktu this is Henry,” Roberts said gesturing to him, “Henry this is Uktu,” she said it so it sounded like ook two.

  “Hi,” he said.

  “Hi,” Uktu said.

  “She is going to take care of your paperwork, and get you settled in,” Roberts said. Then she turned to Uktu, and said “I need him on the floor in 45 minutes at IG 12. I’ll need him fully equipped, and ready to run independently after the first gate. I put his schedule in the computer already. It should be ready to load to his information display. I have his uniform in my office, I’ll bring it to you while you get his biometrics in the system.” While Roberts was talking, Uktu was nodding all the while looking at Henry as if he was the strangest thing she had ever seen.

  “I can do that, it’s really true? He is really a natural, and a human?” Uktu asked.

  “Yes, it’s true, but please keep that bit quiet, as you can imagine this whole things is going to be odd enough for him with out extra attention. Take good care of him; I think he is still a little overwhelmed. I will take him to gate IG 12 to walk him through his first opening. After that it is up to you to keep him on schedule,” and then she was gone.

  Uktu smiled warmly at him, and stood up from her desk. She wore a knee length skirt. Henry noticed that the resemblance to a chameleon continued and that the ridge that started on her forehead ran down her back and onto a tail that hung between her legs stopping just above the floor. She wore a pair of sandals that allowed the claws that tipped her toes to be free.

  “Well, I never thought I would see the day I had a natural in my office, welcome to the team,” she said very warmly. “Let’s get started shall we, there is a lot to do, and it sounds like we won’t have a lot of time to do it. Please undress down to what ever under garments you are wearing.”

  Henry was caught off guard, suddenly more nervous than he had been all day. Henry was embarrassed, he was suddenly very aware of the marks covering his body. He was not sure what Uktu would think about all of the bruises. If he wanted to keep the job he had just gotten; he would have to do what he was asked. He tried to make conversation while he undressed to distract Uktu from his bruises.

  ”What did you mean when you said I was a natural?” he asked.

  Uktu was working on a keypad on her desk while looking at a display that Henry figured was a computer screen. She had long delicate fingers that ended in shaped claws painted like fingernails. She looked up from the screen stunned, and a little embarrassed.

  “I’m sorry I forget myself. I forget that humans are still such a young species. Young man you are a gatekeeper, and a natural to boot. Many people can learn to work the gateways. For most it takes years of practice and dedication. You are what we in the business call a natural. Please stand on the circular pad.” She punched another series of buttons and a circular pad lit up in the corner of her office. Henry did as he was asked setting his clothes, shoes and, socks on a chair in front of her desk. Henry had felt a little awkward at first, but she had a very warm presence about her. He stood on the pad. It began to glow brighter underneath him. Uktu continued her explanation.

  “A natural can open the gates with out being trained. I’ve never worked with a natural myself, but legend says it has something to do with the way you perceive the world around you. In actuality it has been so long since one worked for the ITS that all we really have is legend. You are from Earth, Chicago specifically is that correct?” she asked changing the subject. Uktu was looking through a cabinet full of little glass vials; she was obviously looking for something. She found what she was looking for in the cabinet, and was now holding up a small clear vial of fluid.

  “Yes, or just outside it really. What my people call a suburb,” he added. She placed the vial into something that looked vaguely like a gun, and walked towards him; he immediately felt nervous again.

  “Don’t worry, it is an inoculation. It will protect you from any germs the clients you are going to be transporting may be carrying. It is standard procedure for all employees. Each inoculation is tailored to the area you are from. They are made to include germs from other cities on your home world and specific reoccurring pathogens through out the known universe. It still won’t protect you from the common cold. There doesn’t seem to be any cure for that, but this should protect you from anything that is really dangerous. There you are.” She said as she injected Henry in the shoulder. Even though she injected the whole vile he thought that it had actually not felt that bad. It was less like getting a shot back home, and more along the line of a light poke. He was really starting to like Uktu; she had a smile, and sense of humor about her that put him at ease.

  As she was finishing the injections the door opened, and Roberts walked in carrying a garment bag.

  “Here is your uniform Henry. Is he ready?” She asked.

  “He just needs his gear, and he will be ready to go. You can put on your uniform Henry, I’m done with your body.” She said opening another cabinet. She pulled out two small boxes, and began opening them. Henry wanted very much to watch what she was doing, but Roberts was standing there holding his uniform. As much as he wanted to watch what Uktu was doing he wanted to put on clothes more. He took the garment bag from Roberts. She went back to her office. He unzipped the garment bag, and found a white dress shirt, a pair of grey trousers, black shoes, and socks. He was not surprised to find his very own black suit coat. He finally got a good chance to look at the logo embroidered on the pocket; the background was the Clock from the center hall with ITS stitched over the face of it.

  When he was dressed name badge, tie and all, he sat down in the chair ready for the next
step. Uktu had finished with her boxes, and handed him a pair of glasses like the ones he had seen Philip wearing.

  “Here put these on, the attached earpiece tucks into your ear,” she said. Henry did as she asked. He was suddenly able to read the labels on the cabinets around the room.

  “The glasses translate written language, and display it on the lenses. They will also visually scan travelers, and provide species information. The earpiece will translate words spoken by travelers into English. You will hear the translation in real time in your ear. As for the rest of your gear, the collar of your suit has a microphone that will pick up anything you say. This information will be transmitted to your suit coat’s speech encoder. It will translate, and project your words to travelers through a speaker located behind the logo on the left pocket. The language data is provided by the glasses so be sure to look at the people you are speaking to.” Henry was looking at the coat in a whole new way when Uktu slid across her desk his final piece of equipment. It was as thin as a sheet of glass, and clear. It looked like a rectangular piece of glass. It was about 4 inches wide by 6 inches high.

  “This is your information display, it is the heart of what you do here, it is encoded to your body, and it will display your arrival, and departure times. It will display a map of the terminal telling you gate numbers, and your location in regards to the terminal. It will also tell you where your next gate is, and when you are supposed to be there. When you reach the gate it will provide the information you need to open the gate. Roberts will show you exactly how it works when she walks you through your first gate,” she stood up, and walked the few feet to Roberts door, and knocked.

  “He’s ready for you Director,” she said.

  III

  Henry picked up his newest piece of technology. He was not sure how a piece of glass was supposed to do all of the things Uktu said it would. When he touched it, it immediately came to life in his hands. What looked like a flat piece of glass was really a tablet computer. The minute his hands touched it, it turned flat black like a sheet of onyx. The screen lit up with the words

  “Scanning for identity markers”

  “Syncing bio-electrical signals”

  Henry then heard through his earpiece the tablet talk to him as the words appeared on his screen. “Welcome Henry Thomas, activate interactive schedule, or interactive map function?”

  “Henry,” Ms. Roberts said next him, “You need to turn on your schedule, you can do that by either touching the interactive schedule icon on the screen, or by saying schedule.”

  “Interactive schedule please” Henry said.

  “Attention Keeper Thomas, incoming clients arriving at IG gate 12, please proceed to gate IG 12,” a voice in his earpiece said.

  The screen brought up a map of the terminal along with the words “Incoming clients arriving at IG gate 12, please proceed to gate IG 12.” The gate in question lit up on his map, and a path of travel was illuminated on his map from his current location. Another box appeared in the upper left hand corner it read “Time until opening 15min 12 secs, 11secs, 10secs, 9secs” Henry could see that it was a timer counting down. He looked to Ms. Roberts for further instruct

 

  “As you can see the tablet will tell you what gate number you need to open, and how long until it has to be opened. Please follow your schedule. I will go with you to your first gate, and help you open the first one. I would like you to follow your map, and see if you have any questions. I will follow you, but will not say anything unless you make a mistake.” she said.

  Henry did as asked. He looked to his tablet map, took appraisal of where he was supposed to go, and walked towards the terminal door he had been through before. Once in the terminal proper his map guided him through the center arrival /departure hallway labeled Intergalactic Travel. Once in the entrance he approached the security station. The two security staff members on duty saw Roberts, and let them pass with out comment. Once into the arrivals, and departures area he stood at the base of a large V. The arrival /departure areas were very long, and looking at the map Henry judged them to be about 300 feet or so, roughly the length of a football field. They were about 40 feet across with a long arched glass ceiling that arched over the center 20 feet of the hallway running the length of the hall. Every few feet there was a small podium with an agent in a Black coat checking what Henry assumed were tickets. There was a seating area for those people who had checked in with the agent at the podium, and were waiting to depart. Not all of the seating areas had people in them, he realized that either these gates were not being used, or were waiting for arriving clients. The map directed him to the left side of the V. He proceeded to gate IG 12 located on the far right side of the hallway.

  Henry approached an empty seating area, he could see on the sign above the gate that he had reached the gate designated by his tablet. When Henry stood in front of the gateway his tablet spoke to him again.

  “You have reached IG 12 display gate coordinates?” it asked.

  “That was a very good job Henry, ” Ms. Roberts said. Ms. Roberts walked over, and stood in front of what Henry assumed was gate IG 12. The gateways were different from any door that Henry had seen yet at the station. It looked familiar to Henry, and after a moment he placed it. The heart of the gateway was the same rose covered marble arch he had seen outside the entrance to the garden in Ms. Roberts yard. Like a flash of light, Henry understood that the garden gate was also a gateway. He realized that opening the iron gate was what had led him to this moment.

  Here however instead of being an iron gate was more marble wall. When Henry got closer, he saw there was an outline of an arched door inlayed into the marble wall. It was inlayed, in fine lines of gold metal. Within the inlayed outline the marble was carved into a finely grained wood door. The only thing protruding from the archway was a knob on the right side of the carved door; it looked to be made of the same gold material that was inlayed into the marble. It had been polished to a high shine.

  Ms. Roberts stood in front of a panel of the same glass material that made up his tablet computer. It was mounted at 45-degree angle on a slender sculpted glass rod about 5 feet in the air. The rod was carved into the same climbing rose pattern that appeared on the now familiar marble archway.

  “Please come over here Henry” Ms. Roberts said.

  Henry walked over to the glass panel. As he had thought, it was a computer screen like his tablet.

  “Did your tablet offer the gate coordinates when we arrived at the gate?” she asked.

  “It did,” he said.

  “Please accept them,” she said. Henry pushed the appropriate button on his tablet. His screen changed to display a series of numbers.

  “Okay Henry on your tablet should be a series of numbers, that is the location of the gate to which you are going to connect, please come touch the gate monitor,” she said. Henry placed his hands on the glass, and a keyboard appeared below his fingertips.

  “The keyboard appears based on the configuration of your hands, and species; it can be changed if you find a system that works better, but for today, why don’t you stick with the QWERTY set up,” she said. On the screen above the projected keyboard was a prompt that read,

  “Input receiving gate coordinates.”

  Below that prompt was a blinking cursor. He typed in the series of numbers that appeared on his personal tablet.

  When he finished typing the last number. “Aligning gate,” appeared on the screen along with a progress bar.

  “The computer helps the gates to align themselves properly.” Roberts said. “With time, and training advanced gate keepers can focus on the coordinates, and lay hands on the gate to direct its alignment with out help. Place your hands on the gate so you can begin to understand what it feels like.”

  Henry stood in the middle of the arch, and placed his hands on the carved marble, it felt warm to his touch. He could feel the thrum of some powerful energy
building as his hands maintained their contact with the gateway.

  ”It’s warm, I can feel energy building just below the surface. The only way I can think to describe it, is like a ball of light in my mind,” Henry said.

  “Good, tomorrow you will start the training that regular gatekeepers undergo, but for today let the computer help the gate to line up. Normally it takes training for gatekeepers to feel what you described. The computer says your gateway should be aligned. Now close your eyes,” she said. Henry did as she asked, and the ball of light refined itself to a golden ball. To Henry it looked like the clock he had seen above the information desk. He had not seen the information desk clock very closely, but around the edge of the clock face where the time should have been displayed; Henry saw the coordinates for the gate he was about to open. Henry heard Roberts speaking.

  “Now if you were doing this manually on the face of the orb, is where you would enter the gate coordinates, are they correct?” she asked. Henry did not know how, but instinctually recognized them as the right series of numbers. He told Roberts they were correct.

  “Okay, in your mind touch the center of the orb” she said. Henry thought hard, and did as she asked. He pictured his hands touching the center of what he now thought of as the orb’s face. In his mind a beam of light shot out from the back of the golden orb. Henry could feel the beam of light traveling through the black. It felt like a thrum in his chest. He could feel as it struck something, and reflected off in a new direction.

  “Can you feel the beam?” she asked.

  “Yes, I felt it leave. It feels like it’s hitting something that changes its direction,” Henry replied.

  “That is the gate you are trying to connect to. Now the computer can help you align the gate, but it is the keeper himself who actually creates the connection between the gates. That is what we are going to do now. When the gate is properly aligned the beam should be reflected back at you, use the orb to fine tune the link,” she instructed.

  He did as she instructed. Using the mental projections of his hands, he turned the orb a little to the left, like turning a ball. He could feel the end of the beam coming closer to him. He was not sure how, but he knew the direction the orb needed to be turned. Something in him just guided his hands. Within moments he felt the reflection of the beam strike his chest, and the current of energy increased two fold. He could feel the thrum of the gate now under his hands.

  “Okay, I think it is aligned,” he said. “What do I do now?” he asked desperate to move to the next step. He had never felt so much energy before. He felt more alive than he had ever felt in his life. He was connected to something amazing. He believed the power raging within him would consume him, and add his energy back into the universe that had given him life if he let it.

  “Now open your eyes“ Roberts said. He opened is eyes, and saw the golden metal that had been inlayed into the marble outlining the doorway blazing with light.

  “Now pull the knob of the door towards you,” she said.

  As Henry pulled the knob he could feel something being pulled towards him, it was heavy.

  “Do you feel the weight at the other end when you pull?” she asked.

  “Yes, it’s like trying to drag a mountain,”

  “That is the gate on the other side, you should feel a lot of energy in your chest. Focus on pushing the energy down your arms and into the knob then pull again,” she said.

  He channeled all of the energy that had built within him into the door. The outline of the door blazed so bright he thought he would see it long after it was gone. When he felt that his body could not channel any more energy he pulled again. He felt the gates slam together, and the door swung open.

  “Excellent job,” Ms. Roberts said. “You can release the knob now.” Henry realized he was still holding the doorknob. He held it so tight his knuckles were white.

  Before where there had been a carving of a door stood a fully actualized door of stone. It was open to a mirror of the chamber he now stood in. Henry saw that the room was similar, but not an exact copy of his terminal. The marble walls were pale blue as opposed to white, and the chairs were a different color. Those exceptions aside it could be the same departure area that he was standing in. He found that even though he was no longer touching the gate he could feel the energy of the connection in the back of his mind.

  Ms. Roberts walked through the door, and motioned for him to follow.

  “Henry, I need you to listen carefully to everything I say. In a few minutes it will be your job to let the attendant know that the gateway is safe for client travel,” Roberts said.

  “Yes Ms. Roberts,” Henry said. Henry opened his ears; ready to try to remember everything Roberts was about to say. He was very nervous, and excited. He could feel the power of the gateway coursing through his body.

  Roberts, and Henry passed through the gate. There was a group of travelers waiting in a seating area, but she walked over to the agent standing at the podium.

  “The gate to the Milky Way Terminal is now open. Are all clients checked in, and ready for transport?” she asked.

  The agent smiled at Henry, and nodded.

  The agent was humanoid in nature, but as he got closer he saw that her skin looked like it was made of stone. He did not know if her whole body looked like that, because she was wearing a uniform, but the exposed surfaces of her body appeared to be made of the finest white alabaster. The stone had a slightly pink undertone, with the veining, and texture of the stone an even deeper pink. She looked similar to the pieces of carved alabaster he had seen at the art institute. It was breath taking, she looked like a statue come to life. She did not look to be much older than Henry, but he realized that every species was probably different, and he didn’t know if a person carved from stone would age.

  He realized he didn’t know if she was actually stone, or just looked like stone. Her eyes were blue faceted topaz; they cast a faint light onto her cheeks. He didn’t know if her eyes were actually luminous, or if the facets, and crystalline structure of the topaz were refracting the light. Her hair was long, and hung around her face in a wavy sheet of white silk. She wore the same uniform that Henry wore, but where Henry wore a dress shirt, she wore a v necked blouse that showed some cleavage of the same stone skin. She was one of the most stunning women Henry had ever met in person. He wondered if he would ever be able to describe how much this person looked like art come to life, he was not always good at describing things to other people.

  “They’re ready,” she said smiling warmly. “Good afternoon Ms. Roberts,” the agent said.

  “Good afternoon, Amica. This is Henry, today is his first day as a keeper,” Roberts said.

  “That was an impressive opening, even from this side. One minute it was powering up, and then before I knew it, the gate was open,” she said. Henry was not sure how to react, at school he would just try to disappear when people were talking about him. She turned to Henry. “Nice to meet you, you have real talent Henry.

  “Thank you. Nice to meet you too,” Henry said.

  “You look human, are you from Chicago?” she asked. Henry was bewildered.

  “Yeah, south suburbs, but yeah. How did you know?” Henry asked.

  “I live in Calumet City, I recognized the accent,” she said. Henry was even more confused, and it must have shown on his face because Amica smiled.

  “Don’t worry about it sport, Earth is more complicated then you imagined, not everyone who lives on your planet was born there, some of us just blend in better. You’ll learn don’t worry,” Amica said. Henry wanted to ask her questions, he did not see how anyone who looked like her could blend in, but Roberts tapped him on the shoulder.

  “Henry, we have got people to move, Amica you better make the announcement.” Roberts said.

  “Oh right, sorry,” Henry and Amica said at the same time, and then looked at each other, and smiled. Amica pushed a button on he
r podium.

  “Travel will now commence, please check your area for any belongs you may have dropped, and pass through the gate in an orderly fashion,” she announced.

  The clients rose, and passed through the gate.

  “Bye,” Henry said. They went through the gate following the last client. Roberts turned to Henry, and smiled.

  ”You may now close the gate,” Roberts said. Henry grabbed the knob, and pushed the door closed. When the door was shut he could still feel the connection between the gates. He thought that if he pulled hard enough at that moment, the gate would still reopen.

  “Now we are going to release the connection. Close your eyes and picture the beam turning off,” she said.

  Henry closed his eyes, and he pictured the beam turning off as Roberts had instructed; the connection he felt in his head was gone. Immediately Henry felt the absence of energy cause his body to sag a little.

  “Congratulations Henry, you did a very good job with a difficult gate. Do you have any questions?” she asked.

  “What do I do now?” he asked unsure what the rest of his day held.

  “Follow your tablet. It will tell you which gates need to be opened, and when. When your shift is over, come back to my office, and we will find a locker for you to keep that uniform. Any more questions?” she asked.

  “I guess not,” he said. In truth he felt a thousand questions swimming through his head but could tell that Roberts really needed to get back to her office.

  “Don’t worry, you will do fine. I’ll see you at the end of the day,” she said. Then she was gone.