“Hold it. Was that a threat?” Two huge gloved hands pushed against my chest, stopping me in my tracks.
“Surely not. He’s not familiar with the ways on Bazarn. Let us enter, and we’ll keep to ourselves,” Sarlun said. He slipped the disk out of his own pocket and placed it on his palm. The guard shrugged and scanned it again, this time with a smaller device.
“You may pass but be careful. There’s something brewing in our midst. A rival house may be making a move against the Alnods. We’re doing everything we can to ensure no harm comes to them, or to anyone else on Bazarn Five, but we’re dealing with cunning and very wealthy beings here.” They moved out of our way. “And leave your weapons in your bags, out of sight. It won’t do you any good getting picked up by the Protectors.”
I had a feeling my foot might get caught in my mouth a few times on Bazarn, so I had to ensure my safety. “How can I reach Rivo? Is she here?”
“She’s here. Arrived by this very portal two cycles ago. Your Gatekeeper will know how to reach her parents.” With that, we walked into the center of the wormhole painted on the wall. I passed through a containment field, sensing an energy buzz around me.
“They imprint everyone entering their world,” Sarlun said after he passed through the barrier.
We might as well have traveled through a wormhole, because I felt like I had to be on another world. We were inside a gargantuan cavern. The portals were almost always found underground, and I thought about the Theos powering this portal. Did it know the luxury it was surrounded by, or was it no longer aware of anything at all? Was there more than one inside it?
The cavern was quiet, though there were a couple dozen various beings lingering about it.
Images of the world above shone on the flat walls of the cave to our left, showing videos of tourist destinations. In the span of two minutes, I saw a video stream of small ships racing over calm green waters, a hike up a tall thin mountain with clouds hung halfway up it, and a group of round orange beings played in a floating swimming pool above a lush rainforest.
I couldn’t even register half of what I was seeing. It came in flashes and made my head spin.
“Where are we?” Natalia asked, her voice quiet and full of awe.
“We’re not in New Spero anymore, hey, Auntie Em?” Magnus joked.
“I, for one, need to see those ship races. Now that’s something Mary would – ” Slate cut himself off.
I was getting annoyed, but I told myself they had my back. Just because they were impressed with the traps of this rich world, that didn’t mean they weren’t here to do a job and leave.
Sarlun, sensing the tension, stepped forward. “Dean, let’s go to the surface. We have rooms waiting.”
I looked to his pocket. “Sarlun, what’s on that disk?”
“Creds, of course.”
“You paid to get here?”
He shook his head, his long snout waving back and forth slowly. “No. We got here by the portals. I paid to get past the guards. There’s a difference.”
“And the second time?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow in curiosity.
“That was for the guard’s patience. He’ll keep an eye out for us, and should we need protecting while we’re here, he’ll answer my call.”
“How many times have you been here?” Natalia asked the Gatekeeper.
“A few. I can’t afford it often, nor can I afford most activities here.”
That surprised me. From everything I’d seen, Sarlun was as well off as a Shimmali could be. Just how many creds did someone need to vacation here?
We carried on, heading across the ornate stone floor to wide sweeping steps ahead. Statues rose from the end of each step, all taller than me, each portraying a different race.
As I was about to step on the first stair, a purple being appeared before me with a pop. Energy swirled around her before dissipating. Slate pushed me out of the way, ready to protect me from an assault. He fumbled for a pulse rifle that wasn’t strapped to him, since it was inside his pack.
“Easy, young one,” Sarlun said. “Greetings. We’ll be staying at the Peaks. Thank you.” He turned to us, frowning. “Set your bags down. They’ll bring them to our rooms.”
I thought of the device Suma had gifted me and was glad I’d left it in my pocket. I didn’t want anyone going through my belongings and getting their hands on it. We placed our packs on the ground before the newcomer.
“Greetings, Gatekeeper.” The purple being was stunning. Her long legs were casually hidden under a flowing pink dress, complementing her skin tone. Her six arms were thin, flowing before her like a harp player in mid-song. Large blue eyes glinted in her oval-shaped face; wispy white hair hung past her narrow shoulders. “Your possessions shall be in your dwelling as specified. Enjoy your stay on Bazarn. May your trip fill you with incomparable dreams.” With that, the air popped again, and she was gone, along with our bags.
“That’s one hell of a busboy,” Magnus said, getting an elbow from Natalia.
“Welcome to Bazarn Five, everyone,” Sarlun said, urging Leonard forward up the stairs.
We walked up no more than five steps when I noticed the energy field ahead. Sarlun walked through it first, disappearing from our view.
Slate grabbed my arm and lifted a finger. “Let’s go at the same time. I don’t want an ambush.”
“Honestly, who’s going to ambush us here? No one even knows us.” I strode up and through the field, stepping down on an unfamiliar pavilion near a busy street.
As if on cue, before I could get my bearings, someone slammed into me, knocking me hard to the ground.
Twenty
I lay there, a body on top of me. It struggled to loosen itself from our entanglement, but I held on, not letting the perpetrator get away. Slate was there now, standing like an angry statue above us. He bent down, picking up the attacker with one hand.
“What do we have here?” he asked the wriggling alien.
A series of rushed words translated in our earpieces. “It accident. In the way.”
I got a look at the wiry alien. It was thin, with the face of a rodent and a flickering tail to match that swung behind it, uneasy in Slate’s firm grip.
Magnus walked up, giving me his hand, and I hopped back on my feet, wiping dust off my white suit. “Dean, you better check your pockets.”
I patted them. “Why?”
“Because this is the oldest trick in the book. It seems some things translate universally. A pickpocket hangs out in the busy promenade, waiting for an unsuspecting rich tourist to pop out of the caverns below. When the prey appears, he knocks them over. ‘Oops. Sorry. I’m just a clumsy kid.’ And you’re down five hundred bucks and an engraved lighter.”
“It sounds like you know this from experience,” Leonard said lightly.
“Could be. Natalia may or may not have witnessed it,” Magnus said, looking sideways at Nat.
“But you didn’t have a Slate around to catch the kid then,” Nat said.
“It’s gone,” I whispered. The device Suma had given me wasn’t in my pocket, where I’d left it for safekeeping.
“Hand it over,” Slate said, lifting the rodent thief higher.
“I don’t have,” the rodent said.
I finally got a look around us and couldn’t help but be reminded of a futuristic Times Square. Sky-high towers rose in every direction, reflecting stunning sunlight with a purple hue. The ground was golden even here, apparently a color the people running Bazarn couldn’t get enough of. People of all kinds milled about, and now a few of them made way for two figures approaching us.
“What is the problem?” one asked. It spoke an unknown language to me, but my translator still allowed me to communicate.
“This thief took something from me. Knocked me down,” I said. Slate lowered the perp to the ground but kept a firm grasp on its shirt.
The newcomers were dressed in black cloaks, their faces hidden from sight. I saw a badge of sorts on their left
breast. These must be the Protectors the guards had mentioned.
“What did she take?”
“She took something of value to me. Small device. It has to be on her.” I pointed at the rodent’s pockets and the small pack on her back.
“Fine. Here,” the attacker said, deftly flipping the gift from Suma between crooked clawed fingers.
“Come with us.” Slate relinquished his hold on the rodent to the Protector, and they hauled her away, but not before offering a word of wisdom. “Watch your backs. There is always something looking to do wrong, even in paradise.” He tossed the device in the air, and I caught it, quickly slipping it to another pocket.
His last words were said with a hint of sarcasm, and I wondered how safe this world was going to be. It reminded me of Volim, the Padlog home world. Above ground, everything seemed elegant and innocuous, but there was a seedy underbelly, like in every city, in every country, and now on every world.
There were others in the promenade, appearing from thin air and looking around with wonder. Beings of all shapes and sizes: some were corporeal, while others looked to spend only part of their existence on the same plane as us, as they vanished and appeared at will.
Lines of small ships formed at the end of the square, and Sarlun led us to one. Smells of every nature hit me as we crossed the way, and I was surprised to see food stations set up along the other side to the promenade.
“Food trucks? At Bazarn?” I asked Sarlun.
He shrugged. “They recently wanted to cater the experience to the well-off. Most of them won’t travel to their own world’s city centers, so they built a safe version filled with the sights and smells of over a dozen major shareholders’ worlds.”
I was about to remind him I’d been mugged two seconds into my trip but didn’t bother. Maybe that was part of the experience. Leonard looked around, and I saw him making mental notes for his comic series. The kid was always thinking of his big cover shot, and it inspired me. He was still doing something he loved, even among the chaos of our new lives.
Nat and Magnus stayed ahead of us now, seeming to know our destination. Only Slate stuck close to me, his watchful eyes scanning every alien we walked by.
We neared the ships, and Sarlun went to speak to one of them. We were then ushered into a shiny golden transport vessel, its gullwing doors opened on either side to let us in. It reminded me of a minivan with wings.
Sarlun tweeted something I didn’t hear, and we were off. I sat at the window, curiously staring out at the square below. Smoke from the restaurants poured into the sky, hundreds of people moved from point to point like ants, and I saw it for what it was. The whole area was walled in. Within the walls of Bazarn’s entrance was the city feel, but as we lifted above and away from it, I saw the real Bazarn.
Lush green landscape carried for as far as the eye could see to the left; widespread hotels ran along impressive bodies of water. Huge trees rose from the ground, so high we had to lift up in the transport vessel to avoid one. Nestled above the ground was an intricate city among the trees. Streets led from one tree to the next; lights were on inside round windows cut into the hollowed-out tops.
I knew I didn’t have time to do sightseeing, but the young Dean inside me wanted to spend a night there, with nothing but three hundred feet of air between me and the ground. The ultimate tree fort. It would be a quiet paradise with Mary at my side. I shook the thoughts away and focused on the impending reality before me.
To my right, I peered over Natalia and Magnus, seeing a yellow-gold desert. Sand carried forever, its undulating dunes mesmerizing. The only respite from the sand was occasional resorts, their floating swimming pools showing rare water among the dry landscape. Just how many biomes did this world have?
“We’re not far,” Sarlun said.
“Quite the place,” Magnus said from beside me.
“It is. I wonder where we’re staying?” I asked. Sarlun hadn’t told us much about our arrangements, just that he’d take care of it. We hadn’t had a lot of time between getting home and coming here, so it was a whirlwind. I hadn’t even told Sarlun about my Theos theory yet.
The transport started to lower as we passed the borders of both the desert and the lush tree city, and entered a rocky scene. White-tipped mountains rose from the ground before us, incrementally getting larger the deeper we flew into the region. They reminded me of shark teeth, and I had the feeling we could easily get eaten on Bazarn.
“This is it,” Sarlun said from the front of the vessel.
“This?” Slate asked from the back.
We lowered toward the tip of a huge mountain. As we got closer, I saw the building hidden on the side of the peak. It was carved out of the curve of the mountains, and as the sun was lowering behind the far side of the crag, lights were turning on to highlight the natural beauty of the lodging.
The ship settled on a flat outcropping in front of the complex, and the doors opened simultaneously.
Without preamble, we exited and watched the ship rise into the sky, leaving us behind atop the mountain.
Two lumbering shapes headed toward us, and the ground shook slightly with each step.
“What are those?” Slate said under his breath. Only Sarlun didn’t look concerned by them.
“They work here. The Peaks of Duup are legendary, and when their star threatened to die, they were transported here. The Duupa came with them,” Sarlun said.
The Duupa arrived, and I looked up to their towering ten feet. They were half again as wide, and they looked to be cut from stone themselves.
When one spoke, it sounded like gravel rubbing against pebbles. “Greetings. Welcome to the Peaks at Bazarn. Can we assist with anything?”
The low grumbling speech translated for us, this time from small speakers on their belts. I was still amazed they had our language in their system, or that their software could recognize us as human. Sarlun had explained that once he’d loaded it into his database, it was shared with countless other worlds.
The Duupas’ heads seemed to melt into their shoulders, which gave the appearance of an absent neck. They wore thin gray outfits; the uniforms rested loosely but were unable to hide their tree-trunk legs and bulky chests.
“We’re fine,” Sarlun said. “Our things are inside already.”
“Anything else before settling in?” they asked as another transport vessel sat down behind us.
“Can you send me details on the Eklack hours? We have some work to do this week.” Sarlun stepped forward, and the two hosts separated, creating a path.
“Of course, sir. They will be in your rooms. Please don’t hesitate to buzz, should you need it.” The larger of the two passed Sarlun a tiny pen-shaped object. “Have a wonderful stay at the Peaks.”
Four beings fell out of the vessel behind us, thick smoke following behind them. They were furry, with no faces or eyes in sight, and wore something akin to brown leather on their bodies. Each of them held a bottle of pink liquid, and judging by their inability to stand straight, they were here to party.
We turned and walked toward the hotel. It was amazing, and I forced myself to remember why we were here. I needed to find everything I could about the Theos, and more importantly, about the portal stones. They were the key I needed to solve our nightmare. Mary was out there, waiting for me to retrieve her. I knew it.
I walked behind our group, wondering how many suites must be in the place. It was at least a mile wide, but I had no way of knowing how deep it went. The ground changed from black slate to patterned rocks, indicating a pathway to the hotel’s lobby. Massive stone pillars were cut out of the rock face, the same symbol repeatedly carved into each pillar. It must have been the portal symbol for Duup. I wondered if it was still there, or if the star had destroyed the world after all. Had the Theos inhabiting the stone died with the world?
Wide terraces were cut into the front of each suite, and even from here, I could see unknown beings standing on them, admiring the view as a family.
Before we entered the Peaks, I spun around, catching the breathtaking vision. I’d been so hung up on the hotel that I hadn’t taken the time to look in the other direction. With the sun behind the mountain we stood on, the valleys below were dusky. A large flowing river wound below, looking like a tiny garter snake from this vantage point. Other buildings were etched into the various mountains around us; some had lights on, smoke pouring from chimneys. I imagined the Duupa lived among them, a race without a home planet any longer.
We had something in common.
“Dean, you coming?” Slate urged from the doorway.
I ran to catch up and patted my young friend on the back as I passed him. The air was thin and cool up here, reminding me of the time I’d been up the crater on Maui.
Another giant Duupa greeted us and led us through the lobby, which was lit by torches on the walls, and down a hall wide and tall enough for their race to easily maneuver through. I looked at Slate and Magnus and thought how happy they must be to finally be somewhere with ample room for their large frames.
“Here you are.” Gravel spilled out as words as the Duupa opened the door to the suite on the left and scanned each of our hands with a device. “You will each have room access now, and also to our amenities. May I recommend the hot stone meditation?” He glanced at Natalia, who did her best not to scowl at him.
I knew Nat just wanted to get the information we came for and get out of there. It was all over her face. She wore her emotions on her sleeve, and when it came to battle, it was all anger.
We all entered the double-wide doorway, and then the room. I’d expected it to resemble a cavern like the lobby, but inside, it was like something out of a palace. Polished gray stone floors led to an open room full of shelving stocked with art from around the universe. A circular fireplace sat in the center of the area, a low flame glowing hot already. There were chairs and cushioned seats atop pieces of carved rock.
“Everyone has their own room,” Sarlun said. “Go refresh yourselves if needed, and we’ll make a plan.”
The Survivors Box Set Page 98