The Kota

by Sunshine Somerville

  Ryu nodded. “Perfect sense. I feel it too.”

  They sat in silence as people around them talked about what they’d bought while shopping.

  “So what do we do now, sis?”

  Alex looked back at him, tears welling. “I don’t know. It’s been such a strange few months, Ryu. The only way I’ve kept myself going was to focus on finding you. I’m so happy now that I can’t think straight. What do you think we should do?”

  Ryu thought a moment. “We need to keep on the move. Whoever abducted you might have more up their sleeves, so we have to keep you safe. We don’t know anything yet, but I’ll protect you. They won’t be able to take you from me again.”

  She smiled at him.

  He looked around. “Besides, there are Dominion operatives assigned to search for MOB who might be useful to Cruelthor. I’ve had one following me since El Miret. I’m pretty famous as the Bear, so he keeps finding me whenever I have to fight. But, since coming to Angeles, I’ve kept out of the clubs. Hopefully I’ve lost him. Still, I’ve had to be careful not to get noticed.”

  And I’ve been lucky everyone here is distracted, he thought. But that won’t last…

  “We should get out of Angeles as soon as we can and stick to the smaller towns. I hear things in the east are better, but I’ve never been there because it’s so expensive. Maybe that’s the direction we should head.”

  Alex looked at the people in the food stopover. She was at a loss for words. She really had been focused on finding him and held back everything else.

  She’s traumatized, thought Ryu. She might not even realize it.

  “We’ll figure this out, sis. We’re together now. Everything will be okay.”

  Alex smiled back at him. “You look so much older than I remember. It’s only been a year, but you’ve grown up so much. I scanned your memory and saw everything you’ve done. Thank you, Ryu. You never gave up on me.” As she took his rough hand in her small one, Alex finally let her tears fall.

  17

  “Destiny mumbo jumbo”

  Real time

  Alex and Ryu had spent the last five years traveling. Their journeys took them back and forth across the Continent, and they never stayed in any one place too long. They shared an unexplainable urge to find…something. The passing time allowed Alex to practice with her abilities. Ryu taught her basic exercises so that she gained a bit of muscle tone. Although she could do little for her naturally petite frame, she was strong enough now to walk the great distances they traveled without growing weary. Her blond hair had grown to her mid-back, and she easily blended in with the people they encountered in the cities.

  On the other hand, Ryu’s eye-catching stature presented a problem because of Dominion operatives still on the lookout for the famous Bear. Ryu had completely abandoned the spotlight, and he paid a black market dealer to remove his ID tag. He went by the name Drake Anders thereafter. He’d added to the transformation by shaving his head. Ryu now only fought in clubs when they needed kronar to survive, and he never fought more than three matches before moving on. They stuck to the minor cities in the regions they traversed, and so far they’d avoided Dominion detection.

  In Elite Dhar’s southern region, they stopped one evening at a hotel on the outskirts of a small town. They were deep in desert country, and the landscape outside the hotel consisted of rock-strewn hills. The locals referred to a cluster of trees behind the hotel as a ‘forest,’ but the Collins siblings recalled the forests of their origin and couldn’t help but laugh. The residents of the southern town were peculiar in the ordinary small-town way, but they didn’t ask questions.

  As Alex settled down in her room, the sound of squealing tires pierced the thin walls. This wouldn’t have been terribly odd except that she soon heard shouts as well. With a gulp of fear, she went to her door and exited into the hall. Ryu, dressed like the world’s buffest farmer, also emerged from his room. Several other guests on this floor also entered the hall.

  Ryu motioned for her to follow him downstairs. “Come on. Let’s see what’s up.”

  “If we need to make a run for it,” he thought at her, “it’d be easier from the ground floor.”

  Alex nodded, and together they descended the stairs.

  Here, in the main lobby, a crowd gathered around a farmer standing on a chair. The crowd looked a little rough, so Alex stayed close to Ryu.

  “I saw it,” shouted the man on the chair. “They’ve been playing the newscast on the public terminal in town for the last hour! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes!”

  An older woman barked at him to explain what he was babbling about.

  The man turned to see the people around his platform. “You remember Lenny, my neighbor who disobeyed that stupid law about fencing permits. We were all there when the drones took him to be factored. The Dominion factored Lenny and sent him off in one of those transport ships to the Mainland-Euro DuoPort. Remember?”

  A murmur of confirmation rose from a cluster of locals.

  “Well, Lenny just came out of our Continent’s DuoPort! I saw it on the newscast in town! He wasn’t a factor anymore either! He was completely his old-” The man went on to colorfully describe Lenny’s questionable personality.

  A ruckus of discussion erupted throughout the crowd, and Alex locked her eyes on the man’s to enter his mind and verify his claims. Images from his memory raced inside her head, but she’d grown used to this ability and was able to concentrate. A public terminal screen shows the Northern Continent’s swirling DuoPort. Naked people of every age are slowly lowered by the portal’s red lights until they reach the ground. Dominion drones run across an open lawn to the people, hauling them to their feet and dragging them away to transport vehicles. One naked man breaks through the drones and runs into the crowds that have gathered to observe. Several other people from the portal see him and follow his lead. Chaos breaks out, and people run in every direction until the drones start firing. The camera scrambles from the jostling, and the terminal screen switches to another newscast.

  “Sis,” called Ryu’s deep voice.

  Alex’s mind snapped back to her surroundings, and she looked up to whisper at him. “It’s just like he says. People are coming out of the Continent’s portal! They must’ve been the factors banished through the Mainland’s portal, but now they’re coming out of our Continent’s portal! They’re completely healed!”

  Ryu raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “How could that-”

  “And,” she interrupted, “they come out of the portal in a red force field of light! It’s the same light that returned me after my abduction! I really must’ve been taken into the space dimension!” Alex looked at the crowd as she tried to think.

  “I have to get out of here before they find out about me.”

  “Sis, we-”

  “Shh.” Alex again looked in the direction she’d been facing. “I just heard someone’s thoughts. I think someone here is one of those healed factors! Someone here came back through the portal!”

  “Who?” Ryu looked around uselessly.

  Alex tried again to focus on the crowd. “I don’t know. Wait here a second. I’m going to find whoever’s thoughts I heard.”

  Ryu nodded without argument.

  Alex walked through the lobby, searching for whoever’s mind she’d glimpsed. She looked in every pair of eyes she encountered, but she didn’t feel the intense thoughts she’d picked up a moment ago.

  “Oh, right. Molly asked me to pick up groceries.”

  “I wonder if Lenny will remember I owe him kronar.”

  Alex spotted a petite, dark-skinned, young woman leaning against a wall and looking into the crowd. She had obvious concern on her face. Catching the woman’s eye, Alex sensed the emotion she was searching for – fear. Alex herself was shaking, but she swallowed and forced herself forward. Alex was only noticed when she stood close beside the woman.

  “What do you want?” the woman asked with con
trolled suspicion.

  “I…” Alex debated, then said in her mind, “I’ve been through something too.”

  The woman’s eyes widened. She glanced around to ensure no one was listening. “Who are you, cha? What do you want with me? If you try to report me, I’ll-”

  “I’m not going to report you. I just want to talk. What you’ve been through-”

  “I can’t help you.”

  “Maybe you can. Or maybe I can help you. I don’t know, but I think we should talk.” Alex was surprised by the confidence in her voice.

  The woman scowled. “I have to leave soon. What do you want to know?”

  “Did you come back through the DuoPort?”

  The woman’s jaw clenched. “Yes. I came back a few weeks ago, but it was night and no one was around to catch us. I snuck away. So did the others.” She took a deep breath and bit her cheek. “I suppose you want to know more, and since you’re a telepath I guess I can’t hide anythin’. My name is Lilae, and I was in the Dominion until I disobeyed orders. I was injected with the DRK and factored. It was very, very horrible. Catchin’ the virus is bad enough, but having it directly pumped into your body…” She grimaced.

  I’ve seen videos of people factoring, thought Alex. I can’t imagine how awful that must be.

  “Anyway, things after that are kinda a blur. The Dominion sent me and a bunch of other factors on a transport ship through the Mainland-Euro DuoPort. As soon as we were in the portal, a ship picked us up. We didn’t know what was goin’ on, considerin’ we were half-crazed factors. All I remember was going into a medical facility and being injected with a strange liquid. They gave the injection to every factor from the transport ship. We recovered health in a matter of minutes. Once we…returned to ourselves, we cacked the extra liquid.”

  That triggered a memory, and Alex gasped.

  Lilae looked at her without much sympathy. “What?”

  Now was Alex’s turn to look around in caution. She explained in a hushed voice, “I’m not sure what happened to me or why I was taken, but I disappeared for a year. When I was returned a few years ago, I was lowered to the ground by the same red light that lowered you from the portal. Besides that, I vomited mouthfuls of a strange liquid. Are you saying it was the DRK treatment?”

  “It must’ve been. We factors must’ve been given more of it than usual because we had to come out of a fully factored state. That’s probably why we cacked the extra.”

  Now came the big question. “Who saved you? They must be the same people who abducted me!”

  Lilae looked doubtful. “I don’t know why the Magi would’ve abducted you. I wasn’t with them long enough to learn much about them, but they seemed nice. Were you a factor when they took you?”

  Alex shook her head. “Who are the Magi?”

  “I don’t know,” said Lilae irritably. “All I know is they had a ship, they had the DRK treatment, and they un-factored and returned us to Earth. They asked where we lived, and they said they’d send us back through the Continent’s DuoPort so we could get home easier. The Magi live in the portals. They knew how to get us back. We didn’t ask many questions because we were just happy to not be factors. I don’t know why they took you, so don’t ask. Maybe they gave you the DRK treatment because they thought you were infected. That seemed to be their job. Look, I have to go.”

  “Please,” said Alex before Lilae could bolt, “is there anything else? You must know something that can help me.”

  Lilae paused. Alex must’ve had a very pitiful expression on her face, because Lilae softened. “Listen, just be careful. I doubt the Magi meant anything bad for you. They seemed like good people. As for the Dominion, they’re runnin’ around tryin’ to capture anyone who knows anythin’ about this. Don’t let anyone know what happened to you. And remember, the treatment we got from the Magi is only a temporary safeguard, not a permanent cure. That’s why stayin’ on the DRK treatment injection schedule is so important – it wears off eventually. If the Magi gave you the treatment a few years ago, then it’s out of your system by now. Be careful.” With that, Lilae turned and walked away.

  Alex found herself alone.

  That was unexpected! she thought. Deep down, I’ve always believed the Dominion was behind my abduction. Now it doesn’t look that way. These Magi aren’t a part of the Dominion if they’re working against the whole factor thing. But now I just have more questions! Who are the Magi? What did they want with me? Was it only to give me the DRK treatment? But why go through the hassle of abducting a random girl? No, the treatment can’t be why they took me – they wanted to boost my abilities, for some reason.

  Alex jumped as she heard Ryu’s deep voice calling her name. Turning, she saw her large brother walking toward her. The hotel guests had returned to their rooms, but a few locals were still milling around, discussing Lenny.

  “What was that about?” asked Ryu.

  Alex swept back her hair with a sigh. “Now I’m even more confused.”

  All I have are questions, she thought. Every time I teleport, I’m reminded I have no idea why I can do it. My abilities are amazing, but why do I have them? Going for so long without answers has strained my nerves…

  Once again, she found herself crying.

  Ryu understood her tears and hugged her. “It’s okay. Come on.”

  Together they walked back upstairs. Ryu led her into his tiny room and shut the door. Alex sat on his bed because there was no other room, and Ryu stood against the wall by the lone window. By themselves now, Alex recapped what Lilae told her. When she was finished, Ryu looked equally surprised.

  “Well,” he said, “it’s more than we knew before. At least this means the Dominion didn’t abduct you.”

  Alex nodded, knowing this was good news.

  “What do we do now, sis?”

  “I don’t know. This whole time, I haven’t known anything. Now I have some leads, but…”

  “Maybe we should just watch the public newscasts and keep an eye out. These locals are obviously chatty, so we should lie low. Lilae was right about needing to be careful. I don’t think it’d be safe to investigate these Magi with the Dominion sniffing around. Of course you want answers, sis, but now we know your abduction is something the Dominion would kill to know about.”

  She took a breath and nodded. “You’re right.”

  “For now, let’s get some sleep. We’ll make plans in the morning.” Ryu grinned kindly and rubbed his shaved head the way he always did when he was at a loss for what else to do.

  He’s such a comfort, thought Alex. At least I feel safe with Ryu. I want answers, but I’m not in danger. I’m not one of the Dominion’s projects. Whoever these Magi are, they can’t be as bad as the Dominion.

  With a final sniffle, Alex smiled at her brother and rose from the bed. “Okay. Good night, Ryu.”

  “Good night.”

  Alex opened his door and headed for her own tiny room.

  It was warm that night, and Alex slept soundly for hours before an odd feeling crept into her mind, making her squirm in bed. She woke and saw a red light coming through the open window. Alex sat up in horror, convinced the Magi had returned.

  But nothing happened. The reddish glow stayed outside. Her heart slowed its frantic beat, and she managed to breathe.

  Well, she thought, it’s better to know than not know…

  Alex rose from her bed, tiptoed the few steps it took to cross her hotel room, and leaned out the window into the night. She gasped.

  A swirl of red and yellow light hung in the cluster of trees behind the hotel. As she watched, the lights went out and disappeared. It hadn’t been as big as a DuoPort portal, but…

  It wouldn’t have to be, would it? she thought. The portals that abducted me and returned me weren’t like the DuoPorts. They were probably just like this one. But now it’s gone.

  After a moment’s debate, Alex closed her eyes and teleported out to the cluster of trees.

  Opening her eyes, Alex
shrieked. A stranger stood directly in front of her.

  Alex backed away from him, but she didn’t run. For whatever reason, she was mesmerized by the man. It wasn’t his physical appearance that captivated her attention – everything about him physically was average, and he wasn’t even handsome. He was somewhere in his forties, but he seemed ancient just the same. The wind blew through the trees and ruffled his hair, but he didn’t seem to notice. He simply stood and didn’t move. In fact, he hadn’t moved a muscle since she’d been examining him. A strange armband was overtop his coat, and its blinking was the only movement about him.

  Alex looked into his eyes and tried to enter his thoughts. Instead, flashes of memory flew into her head. Images of people. Writings in an ancient language. Foreign places. Scenes of people and places. More scenes. More. More. An instant later his mind closed off, and she looked at him in surprise.

  “What do you want? Who are you?”

  Although he wasn’t nearly as tall as Ryu, the stranger still had to look down to smile at her. “My name is Trok. I’m sorry if I frightened you, Alex. I didn’t know how else to drop in on you. Ryu wouldn’t know what to think of me, and I didn’t feel like a beating. I figured you’d at least get a little insight into my mind before assuming I’m a threat. You’ve already poked around in here, haven’t you?” He tapped his forehead before smiling again. “Let’s walk farther into the trees. I don’t want any local ruffians to see you out here in those pajamas and come looking for trouble.”

  Alex self-consciously crossed her arms.

  With a bob of his head, Trok headed into the denser population of trees. “Come. Let’s walk.”

  Alex paused, wondering why he spoke as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Not sure what else to do, she followed him.