“You want to find the Bhlat homeworld? We don’t like to speak of them here. Though they are far away, the tales of their power have reached even our distant world.” Sarlun gestured with his four arms as he spoke.
“So you don’t know where they are?” I asked, feeling my hopes crumbling quickly.
“They are not on our Shandra table.”
“Does that mean they don’t have a portal?” If they didn’t have a portal, our plan was going to be almost impossible with the time crunch we were under.
“Not necessarily. The Shandra were created ages ago by the Theos, long before any races of beings lived on the worlds on which the portals existed.”
My fingers were going numb. Sweat beads ran down my back, and not just from the humidity. He was telling us a race of gods had created the portals before any of us existed. Was that possible? “How do you know this?”
“We’ve studied with dozens of other beings, compiling and contemplating religion, history, and science. This is the truth we have come to know.” Sarlun sounded sure of himself.
“Could there be worlds with portals that aren’t on the table?” Mary asked, and I chided myself for not thinking of it. It was nice to have her analytical mind around.
“Yes. We believe some have been shut off. Whether they were removed as a safety precaution, or for other reasons, stands to be seen. We believe the Deltra had something to do with it. They were always trying to get ahead of their time: a young race with highly skilled scientific minds. Last we heard, they were under the thumb of the Kraski, but if your tale is to be understood, they are gone now.”
Guilt at his casual discussion of our destruction of the Deltra aboard the Kraski mothership echoed through my body.
He continued. “If there was any hope of opening the hidden worlds from the Shandra, they would be the last resort now.” Sarlun’s black eyes stared hard into mine. He knew we’d killed the Kraski off, and most of the Deltra with them. I judged his people to be a peaceful one, but I wondered what he would do if his world was threatened. He seemed to have an understanding with me.
“The Deltra may not all be gone,” I said, watching his expression change and his snout twitch.
“Is that so?” he asked, his usual deep squawk now lighter, airier.
“Can you help me find a world on the table? I have the coordinates in here.” I pulled out my tablet with the location of the hideout planet Kareem was on.
“Come with me.”
An hour later, we were in Sarlun’s private office, which was substantially cooler than outside. Everything on this world was so cold and sterile on the surface; then you would see a splash of color and understand how much they appreciated the arts. Less is more might have been their mantra. His office was no exception: cool white walls, with one small bright piece of art in the center of each.
We stared at the star chart: a wonderful 3D hologram of the system in question appeared. The planet was highlighted, and the icon for its portal was showing on the wall screen.
“That’s it. We haven’t been there for over a century. Last time we arrived, there was nothing but flora and some wildlife. Dangerous creatures.” Suma sat beside her dad, staring up at him as he spoke.
“Dean, where’s Slate?” Suma asked, sipping green liquid from a glass.
“He’s in danger. That’s why we’re here. All of our people are in danger.” I hoped we’d find the answers we were looking for with Kareem.
“Dad, is there anything else we can do?” she asked.
“Where was their town?” Sarlun asked.
Mary took over and directed him to the spot where we’d landed and walked to their village.
“The Shandra is not close. We’ll supply you with a few things to assist you along the way.” Sarlun hit a comm-button and started squeaking out orders, turning off his translator. “The supplies will be ready. I have something else to share with you.” He reached down, pulling out four small devices, and handed them to Mary.
“What are these?” Mary asked, carefully looking at them.
“They will allow you to communicate instantly with anyone, no matter their distance in space,” Sarlun said.
“Thank you. These will come in handy.” Mary passed one over to me, and I noticed it looked much like a cell phone, but with a clear crystal casing.
“Thank Suma. She wanted to be able to reach you.”
Suma sat in her chair, her legs hanging down, and her snout lifted slightly. “I’ll show you how it works.”
Ten minutes later, she considered us able to communicate between the devices. Once we were able to lock in her frequency so she could talk to us, she was happy we understood how to work them.
“With these, you might have an advantage against your enemy. Or they might have the same knowledge, but at least you’ll be on an even playing field.” Sarlun stood up, his large frame making the office feel small. “Whatever happens, do not utter our names to the Bhlat. We haven’t had dealings with them and would appreciate staying out of their way. We do these favors as friends, but that friendship only goes so far. We are a peaceful world.”
I stood up and stretched a hand out. He took it with his lower right arm, and I shook. “Gatekeeper Sarlun, you’ve been more than helpful. I look forward to sharing stories with you when this is all done with.”
“I as well. Come, we’ll escort you to the Shandra.”
Mary chatted with Sarlun on the way down, and Suma sidled up to me in the hallway. “Dean, please make sure you save Slate. I like him.”
“I like him too.”
“And be sure to contact me whenever you like. I need to get updates.”
“Suma, thank you so much for everything. You’ve been a godsend.” The squeaks and squawks that came from my translator sounded excited.
She looked up at me with her big seal-black eyes. “Who would have thought that being abandoned on that world would have turned into the most fun day of my life?”
Fun? I wished I could look back at it and feel the same way. “It was meant to happen.”
We walked the corridors, passing numerous white-uniformed Shimmalians. Some spoke greetings; others kept to themselves. It wasn’t long before we were at the Shandra room, where two guards were stationed at the doors. They saw Sarlun, bowed, and let us through without hesitation.
Inside the large white room, I spotted supplies by the gemstone and table. It had me thinking that we could transport larger items than just people from planet to planet, depending on how large a room the Shandra at the other end was housed in. New Spero’s room wasn’t that large, but a room like this could take a transport vessel or a large group of people.
“This should be enough to get you there. These will allow you to move quickly.” Sarlun pointed at two vehicles that looked a lot like motorized scooters. You sat on them, but there were no wheels. “The tutorial is on it, and we loaded your path into the mapping system already.”
“Thank you,” Mary said, running a hand over the cool metal of the machine. She loved motorbikes, so taking a rip through an alien planet on a hovering scooter would be just up her alley.
“We also have provided cooling tents. From what you said, the temperatures are similar to our planet, and if you’re stuck outdoors at night, you’ll get eaten alive outside or sweat too much inside. Our tents will keep you safe from both.”
I was eternally grateful for their assistance and hoped the combination of their supplies and ours would be enough to get us to Kareem, and home again quickly. We didn’t have time to spare.
Suma ran to me, giving me a hug, and hesitantly gave Mary one too.
The pair started to walk away, and Sarlun stopped, turning to us. “Be careful. May the Theos guide your path.” With that, they left.
His words rang in my mind, sending goosebumps over my body.
“Mary, are you ready for this?” I asked, knowing her answer.
She nodded, and we found the icon for the planet Kareem, Leslie, and Terrance
were on. At least we hoped they were still there. Mary took the honors and tapped the table. Blinding light enveloped us, and then it was gone.
FOURTEEN
When I opened my eyes, the room was black. I hit the LEDs on my suit, and so did Mary on hers. We found ourselves in a room, four posts in the corners, and it couldn’t have been more than forty feet by forty feet in size.
“You good?” Mary asked.
“Just looking at the room. If the Theos made each of these rooms, why do they look so different from each other?” I asked.
“Some of the races may have updated or adjusted the aesthetics. Do you think Suma’s people found theirs like that? I’d say they moved and upgraded it to suit their Gatekeeper needs. See the walls here? Wood supports with dried vines. They used the local plants and supplies to build the room, and it appears we’re underground too. So they dig it up, support it, install their columns, carve their hieroglyphs, and voila; we have a Shandra.” Mary waved her arm in a flourish.
“Sounds plausible. Let’s see if we can get out of here.” The hover scooters sat on the ground, propped up on their bases. Mary tapped the screen and we watched a quick tutorial, using our earpiece translators to decipher the message. In a matter of minutes, they were up and running, blue light softly glowing underneath as the scooters lifted off the ground.
We slung our supplies over the seats and moved for the doorway, which wasn’t mechanical like the others we’d seen. It was a large wooden door, ancient-looking, on thick black metal hinges. It squealed as I pushed it open, and I wondered when it had last been used. Maybe Kareem had come to the planet using it, contrary to his previous story. I wouldn’t blame him for trying to keep the portals a secret. I’d done the same, even with my own people.
With the scooters hovering along with our hands controlling them, we wound our way down the dark soil-walled corridor. At times, it was too narrow to walk side by side, and I took the lead, rifle ready for anything coming at us. Nothing did. It was silent and sealed off. The incline told me we were underground, and that an exit would appear soon.
The end came abruptly, and only a short distance from the portal room. We used the door, both of us having to use all our weight to pry it open, and soon the humid night air hit us. We were outside. When we closed the door, we noticed it was well hidden away in the face of the hill, a wooden handle almost invisible among the shrubs and rocks placed beside it.
Mary tapped her screen. “I’ll mark our location.”
“Good idea. I’m all out of bread crumbs.” The joke didn’t stick, and I let it go. I was nervous. Anxious about traveling a couple hundred miles at night on a floating Vespa, and not knowing whether Kareem would cooperate. That was if they were still on this out-of-the-way world.
“Terrance and Leslie aren’t going to be happy,” Mary said as she straddled her hover scooter’s seat.
“We’ll make the promise again.” I had already told them I’d get try to get the other hybrids on a ship to unite them here. I’d failed to do that. It weighed on me alongside everything else I’d done and would have to do.
Mary didn’t reply. She just donned her EVA suit’s mask, which would give us night vision and better oxygen supply as we raced into the night. I copied her and felt the rumble of the hover device as I sat on it.
I’d never been one for riding motorbikes or all-terrain vehicles, so the concept was a little foreign. The tutorial had made it seem so easy, and when Mary sped away, I hit the map function, showing the terrain and a line leading to our destination. This unit was all hand-controlled, and I hit the thruster. It started me forward too fast at first, and I nearly flew off the thing. In a couple of minutes, I caught up to Mary, who was clearly waiting for me.
“Do you have the hang of it?” she asked through my helmet’s earpiece.
I gave her a thumbs-up and nearly bucked myself again. I needed both hands.
Once I was going at a decent speed, and not worried about falling off or hitting a cliffside, I started to look at my surroundings. A large moon hung in the sky, light from the close star showcasing the lines and craters of the celestial body. The area looked much the same as I remembered the planet: mossy, warm, and lined with the large trees we’d seen before.
The map showed us making good time, and though it was on a different time system than we understood, I estimated another two hours before we arrived. An hour in, and the scenery was getting repetitive; I already wished the journey was over. My mind wandered to the task at hand. A lot of pieces needed to come into place in order for us to defeat the Bhlat, but did we need to defeat them? I set the goal in my head to work with them, to show them we were strong and not someone to be walked over, but that we also had compassion. Would a malevolent race understand the concept of compassion and empathy, or was war so engrained in them from birth that they were well past negotiation?
The base we’d arrived at almost a year ago had shown me a different side of the Bhlat. We didn’t know much about them, and the details we’d downloaded from their base were mostly military. But there were children, women, and scientists on the base, telling me not everyone was a warrior. That was a good sign. The downside to that whole scenario was…I’d killed them all. I could still see them when I closed my eyes some nights, mixing together with the image of the Kraski puking out green bile, and the Deltra becoming all but extinct as we blew up the Kraski mothership.
Every one of them wanted to take our world, so I had to let it go. It still hung over my head like a dark cloud most days. As if on cue, real clouds rolled in as the wind picked up.
“Hang on,” Mary said.
The wind blew from the west, pushing us to the right as we generally headed north. The speed was picking up, and rain began to fall on us: light drops at first, then fat heavy drops that made our visibility near nothing.
“What should we do?” I asked, fighting to stay upright.
From a few yards away, Mary fiddled with her map. “When I zoom, I see hills a couple miles to the east. Let’s head there and hunt for some reprieve from the storm. If this is anything like a tropical storm, it may only last a short time.”
I agreed and followed her lead, the wind pushing hard at our backs now.
The ground changed from swampy moss to something a little firmer-looking as it became unlevel, small hills protruding from the surface. Moments later, we stopped on the far side of a large hill, with a flat cliff on the east side. We were protected from the wind and most of the rain as we stepped off the scooters and leaned our backs on the soft wall of the knoll.
“I guess we wait it out,” I said, wiping my face mask with a gloved hand. The night vision was on, and it gave me a basic view of the dark swamp that stood before us. It went on as far as my eyes could see, and I tried to step farther away from it, remembering the creature that had pulled me under the last time we were on this planet. I didn’t want a duplication of that, especially at night in a storm.
Mary got off her scooter and started to walk along the hillside, looking for a spot for reprieve from the onslaught of rain. I joined her, jogging to catch up.
“Doesn’t look like much… wait, what’s that?” She pointed to a crevice where two hills met up. They were pushed close together, but there was enough room to walk between them, and trees grew from both sides at angles, creating a makeshift canopy.
“Looks good to me. Better than standing beside this swamp.”
We grabbed our supplies and brought them over to our new resting spot. My stomach rumbled as we settled along the wall of the opening, small splashes of water dripping down from the trees above, giving way to the torrential downpour.
Unclasping my helmet, I set it to the side and reached for my pack, when I heard howling. Mary was moving around, and I raised a finger to my lips. She stopped, and the howl rang through the night air again, this time closer.
“Can’t we find a liveable world with no deadly animals on it? Just once?” I joked, grabbing my pulse rifle.
&n
bsp; “Let’s just hope they stay away, and the rain subsides sooner rather than later so we can keep going.” She passed me an energy bar. “Here, take this. We may need it.”
We sat back to back, watching each end of the opening we sat in, guns in our laps, and chewed on our bars.
“Just once, I want something to be hassle free. Remember our old lives? We used to complain about having to get up in the morning to go to work. But at the end of the day, we could just relax and watch the game on TV with a cold one. I guess those times are gone.”
“I never felt that way. I was in the Air Force and loved doing it. What’s that old saying? ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’? That’s how I felt,” Mary said.
“I was an accountant, so working on small business ledgers wasn’t something I could classify as loving. Though there was something calming about going through the sheets and balancing on the first try. It acted like a meditation for me at times. There were worse careers I could have chosen.” I shifted closer to Mary, moving away from a drip from the rain above. “Do you miss it?”
“I do. I miss the schedule of it all. Waking up at five in the morning, working out before breakfast. But even though we’re in a crazy situation, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I met you. I needed to meet you.”
“Do you think our first marriages even count?” I asked.
“How do you mean?”
“The way I see it, we were duped: married to aliens. That can’t really count.”
Mary laughed and leaned her head on my shoulder. “I suppose you’re right. I like that idea. How about you? Could you go back to pushing paper and doing someone’s books?”
“No way. All of those years of practice, and now I don’t need the skill.”
“Every skill makes up who you are. You think a certain way because of it, and that’s proven to be valuable. I won’t be flying F-16s any longer, but that training allows me to succeed in our new universe. One that’s rapidly expanding.” Mary stretched her legs out.
New World (The Survivors Book Three) Page 11