Journey to Ohmani (Across the Infinite Void Book 1)

by Ashley Grapes

  “I am so sorry for the inconvenience, sir,” he overheard Bockie saying on the phone one day. “I will send someone up right away to take care of that. We would like to offer you a free spa day pass to make up for your troubles. Mm hmm. Yes. Of course. You’re so welcome. Have a wonderful day now. Bye bye.” Click. “You stupid piece of worthless crap!”

  Levi heard several female employees giggling like school girls.

  “And that’s how it’s done, ladies,” Bockie crowed.

  “Let me try,” he heard one of them say in a mousy voice. “Hello? Mr. Hanesworth? I am calling you back concerning your complaint about the internet speed. We are so sorry about that. Yes, I know you’re here on business. I understand. We will gladly take two days off your internet bill during your stay with us. Of course, sir. My pleasure. Take care.” Click. “You big, fat…pile of…of whale poop!”

  More giggling. His grandmother was quite the mentor.

  One week after they had arrived, Levi was watching sports on the TV when he heard his phone make a sharp ding on the coffee table. It was Kierra.

  Hey haven’t heard from you. Where are you?

  At first Levi was not going to respond. He didn’t want to lead the girl on or have to explain his family’s drastic turn of events. Then he thought about how Kierra had practically saved his mother and grandmother’s life by getting her father to help escort them out of the spaceport the non-explosive way. He also thought about how lonely he would feel if he was in her shoes. She had her father for now, but after he left, she would be here alone. He picked up his phone.

  Seventh floor. Suite five.

  Can I come say hi? I’m here staying with my dad.

  Sure.

  A few minutes later Kierra was knocking on his door in a mini skirt looking as bubbly as ever. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts into his chest. “Mm, good to see you,” she hummed.

  “Yeah, likewise. How are you?” His nostril’s stung under the sharp scent of her perfume.

  “I’m okay,” she replied, her energy then seeming to deflate from her body like a punctured tire. Kierra grabbed his hand and led him to the couch. She beckoned him to sit and proceeded to rub his thighs.

  Levi felt uncomfortable.

  She sighed. “I know about your mom,” she blurted.

  “What? How is that possible?” Levi asked.

  “This ugly woman named Shay and some guy named Charlie Glass came to our apartment this morning wanting to know what happened the night of the bomb. They asked my father…”

  Bockie stormed into the suite gasping and huffing. “I knew it! That woman next door was a little liar.”

  “You mean the woman who was murdered? Jivine?” Levi asked. So much for not speaking ill of the dead.

  “More like Lie-vine. Where is your mother? Oh, hello dear,” she welcomed, seeing Kierra for the first time.

  Bockie fetched Axella from her cave of a bedroom and sat her down on the couch with Levi and Kierra. Bockie was still fuming and muttering under her breath. “This dead lady next door told Axella she was the new front desk manager.”

  “She wasn’t the front desk manager?” Axella said perplexed.

  “Well, no, she is…was. Anyways, she had just transferred to that position a couple of weeks ago, but she’s been an employee here for only three months. Before she became front desk manager she was security manager.”

  “How do you know this?” Levi asked.

  “Women talk. Why do you think I wanted this stupid job? I finally earned the staff’s trust and once that happens, information spits out of their mouth as fast and sure as a ten year old boy who’s just discovered his p…”

  “We got the picture, Bockie, thanks,” Levi interrupted before she could finish describing that analogy.

  “Right. Well, then I asked what she did as the security manager and guess what I found out?” Bockie said with raised brows. “Her main responsibility was organizing hotel security and confidentiality for people coming here to attend that conference. Like your father, dear. I think something happened and she felt like she was in danger. They said she started acting really weird and jittery and asked for a reassignment out of the blue.”

  This felt like something big. The police suspected the bomb at the spaceport was meant to kill Vernean Wharran, who happened to be staying in this very hotel. It was no coincidence that Jivine asked for a job transfer a couple of weeks before a bomb almost killed the Ambassador she was supposed to be keeping safe…a bomb that went off on the same night she was killed herself. Relief and excitement washed over Levi. Bale needed to hear what Bockie had just told them. He picked up the phone and called Axella’s lawyer with newfound optimism.

  An hour later, Bale’s massive frame was taking up their small green loveseat. “We can definitely work with this. Bockie, you might have just saved your daughter from a lengthy and very public murder trial. Great job. I need to get statements from the employees who told you this information and confirm Jivine’s job transfer. It seems possible that Jivine, and her murder, may somehow be connected to the bombing. Now Kierra, Levi tells me Stanton and Glass, the prosecutors assigned to Axella’s case, paid your father a visit this morning to talk about the events leading up to the bombing. What did they say?”

  “Well, they saw Axella and Levi in wheelchairs next to my father at the spaceport when the media coverage aired. That’s why they wanted to interview him in the first place. They wanted to know every little detail about that night. They asked a lot of questions about how my dad met you all…something about Bockie hitting him over the head with a magazine, but my dad assured Shay that you were asleep, Ms. Avondale. Then she asked a lot of questions about how drunk you were and about the explosion.”

  “What about the explosion?” Bale probed.

  “Like how everybody in the elevator fell. How Ms. Avondale hit her head.”

  “Hmm.” Bale tapped his chin thoughtfully. “She is probably going to say that Axella is a possible alcoholic with an abusive parent,” he paused looking hard at Bockie, “who, under the influence of alcohol and head trauma, murdered the maid next door without cognitive awareness. Perhaps, she will even say that you got drunk because you were so upset about your best friend, and after hitting your head your subconscious wanted to reenact the death of Pila to get closure.”

  “What? That’s ridiculous!” Bockie exclaimed, her eyebrows raised so high they had practically disappeared into her hair.

  “I know, but this is a preliminary trial. Stanton and Glass are not paid to sound credible, just plausible. Well, thank you, Kierra, for the head’s up. I can now prepare a better defense. With this new information, I may even stop this going to trial. I will be in contact.”

  Levi didn’t know if it was the tone of confidence in Bale’s voice, or just the sense of protection he generated with his massive physique, but they all sat there a little less worried. Kierra was subconsciously touching Levi’s thigh as she chatted with Axella about the ridiculousness of the Ohmani judicial system. This woman might have just saved his family again. He didn’t know whether to shoo her or kiss her.

  7 The waterdrome

  Over the next few days, Axella seemed in much lighter spirits thanks for Bales reassurance. She even ventured out for the first time on a trip to the grocery store. Levi cringed at the suspicious looking purple-spiked fruit now resting on their kitchen counter. He stuck to the apple next to it. On Sunday morning, Fletch came over to see them.

  “It was so awesome seeing my family,” Fletch said after Levi asked him about how his visit home went. “I haven’t seen my nephews in a year. It’s crazy how those little jeejee’s grow up so fast. By the way, Miss Avondale, this liguiti is amazing!”

  “Linguini. Thank you, Fletch.” Axella flashed a smile. “It’s nice to be cooking again.”

  “So what did you do while you were home?” Levi asked.

  “We went to the movies, and to the zoo, and surfed…”

  “Y
ou surf?” Levi asked excitedly.

  “Oh yeah, I love surfing. I come from a town on the water, too. Do you want to go surfing today at the Waterdrome?” Fletch asked.

  A fire lit up inside Levi. He looked over at his mother.

  “You should absolutely go,” Axella encouraged. “There’s some money on the counter. You know, Fletch, Levi is the best surfer in Fort Bragg. Just to warn you, you might have a little competition,” she remarked with a wink.

  “Great use of your eyelids.”

  They all laughed, remembering how they first met. Ten minutes later they were out the door heading to the Waterdrome.

  “Your mom is so awesome,” Fletch gushed as he and Levi headed for the elevator.

  “Yeah, she is. So, do you want to hear about my spring break? It was pretty unbelievable.”

  On the way to the Waterdrome Levi retold the happenings of the past week from the moment the police knocked on the door up to Bockie’s discovery working as the new hospitality manager.

  “Whoa, that’s crazy!” Fletch chimed intermittently throughout the tale.

  “I know,” Levi agreed.

  “Bockie as a hospitality manager. The universe really has turned inside out,” Fletch jested. “But seriously, anyone who could believe your mom is a killer doesn’t deserve my tax money. You know,” he continued, “this Midaki-UN conference going on here really is a pretty big deal. Everybody was talking about it back home.”

  “I would say a bomb emphasizes just how serious it is. What were they saying?”

  “People were split down the middle in their opinions. The midaki purists do not want to include humans in the Dedrake Space Organization because they don’t think your race is quote un-quote ‘ready.’ We are a much older civilization and have sustained our planet without the help of others. Earth has suffered greatly under human inhabitation. Many believe if we hadn’t saved your race and given you certain technologies, your planet might not have lasted much longer. Purists just don’t believe that humans fit the core DSO principles or can be trusted with the same interstellar responsibilities we have taken on. The reformists think the purists are being speciest and over-protective. They believe it’s not fair to exclude humans in cosmic affairs or to treat you all like inferiors. Plus, they don’t want to piss the humans off because of the rumors of war. Our planet has not had a war in over fifteen hundred years and the reformists are eager to avoid one. And, of course, a bomb going off in the spaceport is making people wary about traveling here. If this Jivine lady really did find out something about the bombing she shouldn’t have, there are definitely people on either side who would have wanted to shut her up.”

  “Interesting,” Levi meant, suddenly wanting to know more about this conference and the politics behind it all. He had vowed to protect his family, and he needed to be better informed if these current events could possibly lead to war.

  The two young men continued to chat on their trek through the city. Levi realized this was the first day since moving to Ohmani that he was actually enjoying himself. It was nice to get out of the house and spend time with Fletch, and he even forgot about the trial for a little while. Levi found himself getting excited to take the passenger bypass back down to the floor of the asteroid. He loved the weightless feeling half way through the ride in the glass tube…without the barf.

  While up in the sky, he could see the city illuminated in the daylight for the first time…although it wasn’t real light. The thick, cylindrical rod that shot lengthwise down the middle of the asteroid was beaming artificial white light instead of emitting that greenish glow he first witnessed at night. The asteroid was slightly ovoid rather than completely round, and only the two longer arcs actually contained the city itself. The shorter ends were covered with the greenery that supplied Ohmani with oxygen. Levi took out the monocular on his watch and peered over to one side, seeing a lush forest of trees and plants growing happily undisturbed. He didn’t know the dimensions of the outside of the asteroid, but if he had to make a rough estimate of the carved-out inside, it appeared to be about thirty kilometers long, twenty kilometers wide and five kilometers high.

  “Why are we in an asteroid, anyways?” Levi found himself asking.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, why not just build a space station or something? That’s what they did in all the movies. Seems like they went through a lot of trouble hollowing this city out.”

  Fletch flashed Levi the largest grin yet. “The curious learner in you is showing. That’s a good question. The asteroid is the best protection one could ask for, not only from other asteroids and space junk, but from the silent but deadly killer…radiation.”

  Fletch pointed out the Waterdrome from their aerial position on the PB. It was a massive structure that seemed to take up more space than any other building he could see. When they reached the floor and were finally standing in front of it, Levi could not even see the edges of the palatial white dome. The building had no windows, and the walls would have been flat if it weren’t for the beautiful ridges curving all over the building like someone had taken a giant hand to the drying plaster and swirled downwards to the rhythms of the ocean. Water was spilling down the sides, following the intricate patterns of the creases before disappearing into the ground at its base to be recycled again at the top. Every now and then Levi would see a flash of rainbow as the water stream bent the light in a prismatic dance.

  “Incredible, isn’t it?” Fletch asked.

  “It really is. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  They walked up a few flights of stairs toward the main entryway of the building, which was a small projection that broke the perfect dome shape.

  “Do you want to go water, air, or plasma surfing today?” Fletch asked.

  “I’ve only been normal surfing so I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Levi replied honestly.

  “You’ve got to get over this word, ‘normal.’ Normality is just another word for comforting. To me it’s also synonymous with boring. Let’s try air surfing then since it is not normal for you.”

  The two of them paid at the front counter and rented out a pair of boards from the equipment station. Unlike his surf boards, these came with a curious pair of short wings. In the back of the room was an extended archway, and as they walked through the short tunnel, warm air blasted at them from all directions. Bathing suit clad people were stopped in the hallway, letting the warm gusts dry the wetness off their skin. They continued walking through the archway and entered a room that was completely boxed off, except for two small openings on opposite sides along the wall. These openings were connected by two parallel conveyer belts; one moving from left to right and one moving from right to left across the floor of the room. Attached to the conveyer belts were half-moon shaped carts with bench seating, each facing them and moving slowly along about two meters apart. A cart full of laughing children emerged on the left side of the room. They hopped off of it dripping with water and excitement. The cart continued to move across the floor and by the time it disappeared on the right side of the room, a pair of shirtless surfers hopped on, their long boards propped up between their legs. Levi turned his attention to an information board, which took up most of the back wall.

  “This place contains all of those places? Oceans?” Levi asked in amazement.

  “Well, they are very small oceans, but yes. This is the one-stop spot for all water-filled entertainment. The Waterdrome is even famous on my home planet,” Fletch added with a nod. “It is shaped like a big oval with the conveyer belts making a big round trip around the outside edge wall. The middle of the Waterdrome is where all the non-public stuff is; pumps, tanks, electrical work, storage, offices, control centers. There’s also a whole underground network too. I’ve got a friend working here for his careers class.”

  They stepped on the conveyer belt moving clockwise and sat on the wet meshed seat. Once the cart disappeared through the opening in the wall, it swiveled around t
o face the inside of the Waterdrome. The cart continued its journey through a low ceilinged tunnel.

  “Please remain seated until you have reached your destination hall,” a male recording spoke from the speakers in the seats. “The belt is under surveillance. Anyone not seated between halls will be asked to leave. Approaching Hall H, Water Surf Level 1 through 3. If this is your destination please exit the car now, if not please remain seated.”

  The tunnel opened up into a massive room the size of at least two football stadiums. A fake beach encircled the front of the room and behind it was a massive body of water. They had painted the back walls and ceiling so realistically that Levi did not know how far back the imitation ocean went. He watched in bewilderment as dozens of surfers waited patiently near the break, bobbing up and down with smiles on their faces. One rather large boy caught a wave and was riding in toward the beach, leaning left and then right and then left again before it died and he sat back down on his board with a wet slap.

  “I can’t believe it. It looks so real. It even sounds real and,” he sniffed, “smells real.”

  Fletch smiled but said nothing, allowing Levi to take in his surroundings uninterrupted. After a minute of exposure to Hall H, the cart disappeared into the tunnel again. Levi felt as though he was in a suffocating shaft after knowing that beautiful worlds existed along the way. After a few moments of travelling, the recording let them know they were approaching Hall I. It was another enormous room that looked similar to the one they had just seen, but with rougher seas. He saw one surfer diving underneath a big wave and watched another tumble into the white froth of the turbulent surf. He wanted so badly to hop off the cart he was on at that moment.