He stepped back as Calbas took over. ‘The Gate, who will be called Kevin, is the enforcer. He is equipped with immeasurable power and authority over all realms and kingdoms in order to maintain peace, stability and fairness. Your colleagues here are all Gatekeepers but you have become the Gate because you possess all the powers found in them.’
As he finished speaking, Kevin’s hands and legs spread wide and he levitated several inches above the ground, suspended in mid-air. He started to take his form as the Gate. His armour appeared, piece by piece, attaching to him as a whirlwind encircled him. He absorbed all the elements of liquid, sand, snow, shadow, metal, tree, wind, flame; he was suspended in front of them in the hollow shape of a man built of metal bars like an iron cage. He was fully encased in a metal suit that fit him perfectly: it was a replica of the one that had encased him during his programming. The difference was that he could still move, flex and run within this metal casing, unlike during the programming when he couldn’t move any part of his body.
A solid horizontal line of the same material ran from the back of his head, across his forehead and past his nose all the way to his chest. It joined a vertical line that went around his chest. Over his eyes, nose and mouth were vertical lines, all the way to the back of his head. It was as though he was wearing a netted iron mask. His hands were wrapped in a glossy black covering that fitted like a glove. It was part of his armoury.
Still in mid-air, he started to experience the powers that his colleagues had previously displayed. He was sun, wind, sand, fire and water; roaring thunder and flashing lightning emerged from his body. His physical body poured like water, burned like fire and drifted like snow before finally coming to a stop, returning to his human form and landing on the ground.
Calbas moved away and waved for him to follow. They walked next to each other with Tobus trailing behind. They entered the large room with the wonderful library. Calbas gestured for Kevin to sit at the table, which Kevin did without any hesitation this time. Calbas sat in the big armchair behind the table facing Kevin; Tobus stood beside him.
‘We have successfully returned your Earth suit to the street where you lived. Someone found it and rang the police. It was made to look like a hit and run, but the police couldn’t find the vehicle or the driver that committed the “crime”,’ Calbas said.
Kevin nodded but offered no further reaction.
‘This process was carried out to bring closure to your Earth family,’ Calbas explained.
‘I understand,’ Kevin replied. ‘With your permission, I would like to visit Earth to see my family one last time. Then I’m all yours.’
‘Very well, you may return to Earth. Tobus will assist you on your journey,’ Calbas said.
‘Should I take another Earth name?’
‘You’ll know what to do,’ Calbas said softly. He tapped Kevin gently on the shoulder and left the room.
Shortly afterwards, Kevin and Tobus climbed the stairs that reached the ceiling. Once they got to the top, the ceiling swung open and they climbed into the open and departed for Earth. They soared across the sky, Kevin sitting on Tobus’s spread-out carrier pouch. Tobus glided joyfully, and Kevin sat staring into the vast openness of space, which looked clear and lucid.
‘So, how do you feel?’ Tobus asked, after they’d been travelling for about ten minutes.
‘What do you mean? I feel normal,’ Kevin replied.
‘I was asking because we’ve never had your kind on our team before this,’ Tobus said, rocking from side to side as they swooped past the lights of other galaxies and realms. ‘We’ve never worked with a human so closely before. I mean, I know you’re no longer a living human but, because we’ve allowed you to retain most of your human knowledge, it feels as though you are. We’re even going to visit your human family. It’s strange, don’t you think?’ he asked.
‘Well, I guess I wouldn’t know,’ Kevin responded. ‘I just feel normal. But what’s really normal? I’m sure whatever I feel like now must be normal,’ Kevin said.
‘By the way, I was the one who suggested you be allowed to retain most of your human knowledge. Nice touch, don’t you think?’ Tobus said excitedly. But before Kevin could answer, he continued, ‘I thought, with your experience as a human, we might gain a deeper insight into how humans operate. That could help to make our working relationship with them even better and closer.’
After a quiet moment, Kevin said, ‘Honestly, I feel great. I’ve never felt more alive, not ever in my human lifetime. I feel like I could do anything. I feel like steel; I mean, it feels heavy, like I have the weight of the whole universe on my shoulders, yet I feel fantastic, like it’s also making me stronger. It’s like I’m standing in the face of battle and ready to fight. I could say, “Bring it on!”’ His voice was excited. ‘I feel supernatural, and yet I feel emotion towards humans. Like my family. It’s the best of both worlds.’
Kevin wanted to try out his flying skills. He rolled off the spread-out carpet and leapt headfirst into the sky. Tobus followed. They had a bit of fun, flying and rotating round and round. They glided alongside each other, bounced up and down, and even stood in mid-air suspended in one position. They laughed as they played in space. After a while, Kevin jumped back on Tobus’s carpet and sat down. He couldn’t stop his mind from wandering to his family.
‘Despite all this excitement, I still feel love towards my Earth children. I left without any warning. It wasn’t their fault.’ The wind blew his hair out of his face.
‘What about your wife and best friend?’ Tobus asked.
Kevin went quiet as he considered what he would do when he saw them, considering that he now had a great deal of power and could do as he pleased to address the matter. ‘Erm . . . I don’t know! I think I’ll decide when I see them,’ he said. He looked downcast.
‘A man may conceal hatred but his bitterness will always be revealed,’ Tobus suggested.
When Kevin was silent, Tobus tried to change the subject to distract him from his emotion. ‘Things have been quiet within our realm on Mars, which is better than I can say for some other planets. Especially since we collaborated with Earth’s astrobiologists to build the new city, rebels from other planets have been trying to hide out in Mars Rothadam. Some want to destroy the entire city, or at least destroy the work that’s gone into building it. The new city sticks out like a sore thumb around here. It’s like we’re waving a bright red rag at an angry bull. However, that’s what we do. We hold this whole universe together and we are equal to the task. It requires many skills, and we have them,’ he said proudly. ‘I know men find arrogance to be irritating and abominable. Thank goodness we’re not men!’ He laughed. ‘So we can speak as we like, knowing we both act with goodwill.
‘Before the completion of Mars Rothadam, we discovered that the Biddatals, who are from Venus, had flooded the city. They look like giant mythical creatures, which means they have both human and animal features but, because they are shapeshifters, they can take the shape of anything, including inanimate objects. They held our robots and human crew hostage for days. It was a tremendous battle but we finally destroyed some of them and drove the rest away without losing the fragile lives of our human crew or exposing our position. A wise person is more powerful than a bullish one. We wage and win all our wars with wisdom and skill,’ he said, as they continued to glide through the sky.
‘We conducted an intelligent operation that kept everyone safe and avoided casualties or excessive damage to the environment. Having said that, we did lose one migrant on his way to Mars in the Channel of Exchange. The Biddatals had camped out on a metal bridge that the migrants crossed. The Biddatals disguised themselves as nuts and bolts on the bridge and used their position to attack the migrants. It was lucky that only one life was lost. We caught all of the culprits and destroyed them.’
‘What are their issues with the city and the migrants?’ Kevin asked, surprised. ‘If they’re from Venus, what authority do they have over Mars?’
‘That’s what we asked them,’ Tobus said. ‘They don’t want to share outer space with humans for fear of humans polluting it with their activities. It caused a massive problem. We told them that human migration to Mars wouldn’t affect outer space, since the migrants would stay on Mars after their initial transportation there. Finally, the Biddatals accepted that and they are quiet for now. We’ll see how long it lasts.
‘On the other hand, we have been surprised not to have heard anything from our warlord neighbour Lord Varuk Bendy from Mars West, which is also known as Mars Vencin. We’ve had many struggles with him in the past and we were prepared for trouble. You don’t want to start a fight with him unless you’re prepared to withstand him. Although he’s been very quiet, we’re expecting to hear from him soon. Perhaps he’s busy planning an attack – but we know how to deal with him and his army.’
‘Who is he?’ Kevin believed that the Gatekeepers could defeat anyone and anything, so he was surprised to hear Tobus’s description of this western warlord. ‘You make it sound like you’re all afraid of him.’
‘Ha! Far from that. It’s complicated, that’s all,’ Tobus responded. ‘Believe me when I say we could take him out anytime we wanted, but it wouldn’t be productive to do so.’
‘Why not?’
‘Oh, look, what do you know? We’re here,’ Tobus announced, trying to avoid answering Kevin’s question. Through time travel they could have arrived on Earth instantly if they’d wanted to, but they’d chosen to travel at a leisurely pace for over an hour, having fun chatting and soaring across space and sky.
Kevin peered down at the Earth, which was shrouded by a thin layer of clouds. They could see the houses below in the early morning light. The further they descended, the clearer the houses and people appeared.
‘So, what’s the plan? Who would you like to see first?’ Tobus asked.
‘I really don’t know. I guess I should go to my house and see the kids before they set off for school,’ Kevin responded.
‘That’s too easy! Wouldn’t you rather have dinner with them? Oh, I forgot, your ex-wife or Matthew would have to be there,’ Tobus said.
‘Actually, that’s genius. That’s what we should do! But how are we going to get them to invite us for dinner at such short notice?’
‘I have a few tricks up my sleeve. We’ll get closer to them and make them feel grateful for our kindness, and then they’ll invite us for dinner. You leave the planning to me and follow my lead,’ Tobus explained.
‘Okay, let’s do this!’ Kevin exclaimed.
They landed in a quiet alleyway near Kevin’s house. Tobus took the form of a fine red sports car, a Ferrari 488 GTB, with Kevin as its driver. He drove straight to the street where he used to live and parked. Kevin supernaturally downloaded all the information he needed about Matthew, Cynthia and his whole family. He could sense that Matthew was moving in their direction; he knew that Matthew always went out for an early morning run before work.
Kevin knew that, after the police had informed Cynthia about the discovery of his body, Matthew had moved in with Cynthia and the children. Kevin’s sister, Kate, had pleaded with Cynthia to allow the children to attend their father’s funeral. At first Cynthia had refused, but finally she’d decided that they had the right to go. Knowing that made Kevin a bit angry but he held it together. Kevin’s family had been surprised to see the children at the ceremony. It was the first time Kevin’s mum Jackie had set eyes on them since Kevin’s disappearance.
Cynthia had dropped them close to the venue and picked them up afterwards; she didn’t want to show her face to the guests at the funeral. Matthew didn’t attend for the same reason. Learning all this made Kevin even more furious and eager to meet both of them again.
Jackie and Kevin’s dad, Paul, had not seen Matthew or the family since then and Jackie’s relationship with Cynthia remained hostile. Cynthia hadn’t allowed her children’s relationships with their grandparents or their Aunt Kate to continue beyond the funeral.
Kevin used his power to quickly change into sports clothes and started running in the direction from which his old friend was coming. He saw that Matthew was wearing earphones and he took advantage of that; it was easy for Kevin to make it look like an accident when he bumped into him.
Matthew pulled out his earphones and shouted, ‘Hey, could you please look where you’re going?’
‘I’m really sorry,’ Kevin quickly apologised.
Matthew did a double take. He thought he’d heard Kevin’s voice but he knew it couldn’t be. He looked back at Kevin before he ran on. He continued to reflect on the voice but he soon shrugged it off. How could I have heard Kevin’s voice? he thought. The guy is dead and buried. He figured that having moved in with Cynthia was making Kevin play on his mind.
He had suggested to Cynthia that they all move to a bigger house in another neighbourhood far away from here, but Cynthia didn’t want to disrupt the children’s schooling or move them away from their friends.
Matthew followed his usual route until he reached his goal, then turned around and started to run back. Just as he was about to cross the road at a quiet junction, a car came out of nowhere and flew through the intersection at full speed. It looked like it was going to run him over . . . and it would have, had Kevin not pushed him out of the way. The car didn’t stop as both men fell to the side of the road. When Matthew had regained his composure, he heard a man’s voice.
‘Are you all right?’ Kevin asked gently, this time the voice didn’t sound like Kevin’s.
‘Oh yes. Thank you for that,’ Matthew said slowly, feeling disoriented. First, he’d bumped into a guy who had Kevin’s voice and now the same guy had just saved his life.
Kevin got up and offered him a hand. They started walking towards a nearby bench and sat down. ‘Are you sure you’re all right? Shall I call an ambulance?’ Kevin asked.
Matthew replied, ‘Oh, no, I think I’ll be okay,’ rubbing his waist occasionally.
‘That car was going too fast for a residential area like this. If I had noticed the registration number, I would report them to the police. It might be worth petitioning the council to set up a neighbourhood watch or speed camera around this area. It’s unacceptable, don’t you think?’ he asked.
Matthew’s eyes were suddenly drawn to what looked like a man, though he was no more than three and half feet tall and his head was slightly bigger than normal. He was sitting across the street from them on another bench. The dwarf was watching them but he hid his face as soon as Matthew looked in his direction. ‘Why is that man watching us?’ Matthew asked.
‘Where? What man?’ Kevin said.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to actually say that out loud. He’s over there, across the road.’
They both looked but no one was there. Matthew’s eyes widened. He looked all around. ‘Where did he go? He was there a second ago,’ he said, feeling stupid. ‘Believe me, I saw a short man over there, staring at us,’ he insisted.
‘Erm . . . are you sure you don’t want me to call an ambulance for you?’ Kevin offered.
Matthew, still consumed with his thoughts, didn’t respond.
Kevin spoke again: ‘Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, of course,’ Matthew said, shaking his head as though to clear it. ‘Sorry, I was just thinking. You know, this is how I recently lost a very good friend of mine. He died in a hit and run on this same street. The driver was never found.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘No, you don’t have to apologise; you didn’t do anything wrong.’
As they talked, the street began to fill with smartly dressed people heading to work, as well as a few fellow runners.
‘Oh, look, the back of your hand is bleeding,’ Kevin said. ‘At least let me drop you at your house. My car is there,’ he said, pointing to a 1978 Lincoln Continental. Tobus had taken that form to blend in with the rest of the cars parked on the street. ‘You know, I can’t help feeling this was
all my fault,’ he continued. ‘If I’d acted faster, I could have pushed you out of the road before that car came anywhere near you. At least I should have got a good look at what kind of car it was and its registration number.’
Matthew glanced at Kevin’s car and at the bench opposite but there was still no dwarf. ‘Please! You shouldn’t say that,’ he said. ‘You saved my life. If it weren’t for you, who knows what would have happened? It’s lucky that I bumped into you today. By the way, my name is Matthew Adams,’ he said, smiling.
‘I’m Ashley Bart. Nice to meet you,’ Kevin said. In his guise as Ashley, he was handsome: he was tall with black hair, a defined facial bone structure and a beautiful smile.
‘Nice to meet you,’ Matthew said. ‘Anyway, thank you for your offer but I live close by. And I actually work at the hospital. I’ll just walk home slowly and get a check-up later on.’
‘Okay, then. I’ll help you up and you can be on your way.’ Kevin took Matthew’s hand and pulled him up. As he did so, his hand casually brushed Matthew’s hip, which immediately popped out of its socket. Matthew screamed in pain and immediately sat back down.
‘What’s the matter? Are you okay?’ Kevin asked.
‘No, I don’t think so. It feels like I might have broken my hip.’
‘Come on, let me take you to the hospital,’ Kevin said.
‘Okay, maybe you’re right,’ Matthew said. ‘I thought I could get home first but I’m not sure that’s the case.’
Kevin held Matthew’s arm to support him as they walked to the car and again at the hospital as Matthew hobbled in pain to the front desk. The nurses on duty were shocked by his state and quickly jumped into action.
Before a nurse took him inside, Kevin quickly touched Matthew’s hip again and, after a few minutes, Matthew started to feel better.
Kevin took a seat in the waiting room. Soon Tobus joined him, having taken the form of a man. They smiled at each other, pleased that everything was going to plan. No one else was in the waiting room at that time of the morning.
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