The Secret of the Dark Galaxy Stone

by Pam Stucky

  When the clerk handed the credit card back to Eve, Chuck intercepted it. “How does this work?” he asked Eve, studying the card as they walked away. “Does it only work on Earth?”

  “It … well, okay, it’s not something everyone should know, so don’t go telling all the world, but it works everywhere,” she said quietly, once they were outside, well away from the clerk and any other listening ears.

  “How can it work everywhere?” asked Charlie, taking the card from Chuck to study it himself.

  Eve shook her head. “I don’t know. Dr. Waldo worked it out. He said it somehow conforms to a society’s method of payment.”

  “But that’s impossible,” said Emma. “That’s not science. That’s alchemy.”

  “What is alchemy but science we don’t understand?” said Eve. “If it works, that’s all that matters to me.”

  Emma was not convinced, but she let the matter drop. “Which way to the hardware store, Ben?” she asked, looking left and right down the street outside the café.

  As Ben consulted his iPert once again, a young woman came running up to them.

  “Eve?” she said, a little breathless from her run. She looked back and forth between Emma and Eve, her eyes finally resting on Eve. “Are you Eve? Evella?”

  The color drained from Eve’s face. No one called her Evella. No one on Earth, anyway.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “Are you Eve?” the woman asked again, wiping a drop of sweat from her forehead.

  “I’m Eve,” said Eve, hardly breathing, not taking her eyes off the woman. Emma reached out and put a hand on Eve’s arm.

  “A woman left a note for you. Kata? She told me to keep an eye out for you and if I ever saw you, to bring this to you?” She spoke with an uplift at the end of every sentence, making all her statements sound like questions. “My friend is a waitress in the café?” She nodded her head at the restaurant where they’d eaten. “She called me and was telling me about you guys … I mean, just gossip, you know, you’re out-of-towners …” She looked a bit embarrassed to have been caught gossiping, but the words continued to spill out of her mouth. “But Nat was telling me about you guys and suddenly I thought, that sounds like Evella, that sounds like how Kata said Eve would look? A lot like her? Your blond hair, your eyes, and Nat said you were talking about magnets?”

  Emma gasped. “What about magnets?”

  “I work at the new-age shop down the street,” she said, gesturing down the road toward the center of town. “I have magnetic bracelets and things like that. I gave Kata one once? She loved it, yeah? I just … well, I just thought I’d check, to see if you’re Eve?”

  “Where is she?” asked Eve, barely moving. “Where is Kata?”

  “She’s gone, yeah?” said the woman. “Left a couple of weeks ago.”

  Emma and Charlie exchanged a glance. A couple of weeks ago! But Eve and her father had been looking for Kata for a year! Where had she been before that?

  “There’s a note?” said Emma, reminding the woman why she’d come. “And I’m Emma, by the way,” she said, holding out her hand.”

  “Right, sorry, I’m Sophie,” said Sophie, shaking Emma’s hand. “Yeah, the note,” she said, and reached inside her pocket. She pulled out a folded, worn envelope and tried to smooth out the wrinkles against her thigh. “Sorry, I don’t have the first one,” she said, handing the note to Eve.

  “The first one?” said Eve. “What do you mean?”

  Sophie pointed to the writing on the outside of the envelope. “Read this second,” she read. “This is the only note she gave me. I don’t have the one you’re supposed to read first.” The look of distress on her face was sincere.

  Eve was stunned to silence, so Emma spoke on her behalf. “It’s okay. We … we already … it’s fine. We have the first note already. Thank you.” Read this second, she thought. This has to be for real.

  “How did you meet Kata?” asked Charlie. “How long was she here?”

  “Yeah, right, she came to town months ago? I mean, there are lots of tourists, right? So we don’t hear about every one, but there was something about Kata, well, people talked. And she was here a while, then she left, then she came back, and then she left again, but she gave me this note.”

  “Why you?” asked Emma. “Did you get to know her well?”

  “Yeah, right? She liked to come into my shop. She thought it had good energy.” Sophie smiled. “She’s right, it does, yeah? It’s nice. You should come by?”

  Ben suddenly remembered how the conversation had started. “You said you gave her magnets?”

  “Right. Yeah. A magnetic bracelet? She just seemed a little lost, right? She was out at the baths all the time, I saw her there, too. Looking for peace. I could tell she was a seeker, yeah? I knew she was seeking something. Magnets can help with balance, tension, oxygen in the blood, all sorts of things.” Sophie paused. “I don’t know if I actually believe all that? But a woman in town makes the bracelets and they’re quite nice. I gave Kata one, once, when she came into my store, just because she seemed a little lost, yeah? That was the first time she was in town. Then she left, and came back, oh, several months later. I almost didn’t remember her, but she still had that lost look, and she still had the magnetic bracelet. The second time she was here, she’d been here a couple days when she gave me this note to give you, and then she left again. We talked a long time when she came into the store, about life and the universe and everything. She told me she likes to travel, misses her family, tried to find them but they were gone. Sad, really, yeah? Do you know her family?” Sophie looked at Eve, expectantly.

  Eve hesitantly shook her head: No.

  “Right?” said Sophie. “I thought you might? You look a little like her? Anyway, she was a good woman. If you see her, tell her Sophie said hello? If she comes around this way again she should stop by.”

  Eve was still clutching the note tight in her hands. “Did she say anything else? Do you know where she went?”

  Sophie shook her head. “Sorry, mate, that’s all I know, just the note.” She smiled broadly. “I’m so glad Natalie called me! I thought the chances of ever finding you were none in a million! Right, that’s a load off my mind, yeah?” Sophie looked at her watch. “I’d better get back to my shop, right? Left my boyfriend in charge when Nat called, and he doesn’t know a cash register from his bum!” She laughed and turned. “Good luck,” she said. She waved and ran off again.

  They watched as Sophie raced back down the road. “Oh. My. Gosh,” said Emma. “Eve! The note! Read the note!”

  Hands shaking, Eve carefully opened the envelope. Before reaching inside, she reverently turned it over again to read the back for herself: “Read this second,” she whispered. “It’s from her,” she said. “I know it is.”

  “Well, why are we waiting to find out?” said Chuck, bouncing with excitement. “Read the note! Read the note!”

  Charlie joined Chuck in the chant. “Read the note! Read the note!” they cried.

  “Hush!” Emma said. “Shhh! We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves!”

  “Apparently we already have,” said Chuck. “That’s how Sophie found us!”

  “Hush!” said Eve, then to herself: “Focus!” She pulled the note out from the envelope and unfolded it. “Read this second. That means the first letter of the second word. Okay. Here it is.” She read the note aloud:

  My Love,

  So. Australia. You’ve found me. Good girl.

  I’ve been trying to find you,

  but you were gone when I went home.

  I really hope you are well.

  Me, I’ve been traveling.

  It’s never easy.

  But the universes call and I answer.

  I hope to see you soon.

  Love,

  Mom.

  As Eve read, Emma took out a notebook and wrote down the first letter from the second word of each line:

  L–A–B–Y–R–I–N–T–H<
br />
  “Labyrinth!” said Emma, a chill running down her spine. “Eve, that woman at the museum, Agnes, didn’t she mention a labyrinth? The ‘maze’ in ‘A-MAZE-ING’?”

  “Yes!” said Charlie. “We saw one! We were there! There’s a labyrinth out on one of the car door tours! We saw it!” He was bouncing with excitement, now, too.

  “The Green tour!” said Ben. “Yes! Banjo took us there!”

  “You’ve been there?” said Emma. “We have to go there!”

  “Wait. We still need to get a magnet,” said Ben, determined this time not to let the task be forgotten.

  “Right,” said Emma. “That woman, Sophie, she gave Kata a magnetic bracelet. I think we should get one just like it. If that’s what your mom had,” she said to Eve, “then I think that’s what we should try, too.”

  Eve nodded. “Where’s her store?” She peered in the direction Sophie had run.

  “If you give me the credit card,” said Chuck, “I’ll go get it, yeah?”

  Eve smiled. “Only if you promise not to buy anything else!” She handed Chuck the card, and he ran off.

  “How far is the labyrinth?” Emma asked Ben and Charlie. “Can we walk?”

  “And were there lots of people there?” asked Eve. “We don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t think we want an audience.”

  “There wasn’t anyone else there when we were there,” said Ben. “I don’t think we have to worry too much about that. But how far was it?” He looked to Charlie for help. “It’s walkable,” he said without enthusiasm. The day was already quite hot.

  Charlie shrugged. “To be honest, we were all goofing around and talking. I wasn’t paying attention. I’d say at least a mile.” He glanced at the sun, beaming down its unforgiving summer heat. “I suppose you’re going to tell me we have to walk there again.”

  Shading her eyes, Emma gazed up at the sun. It was after noon, and the heat hadn’t yet peaked. She’d overheard someone at the café discussing the day’s weather: 41 degrees celsius, which she’d calculated to be about 106 degrees fahrenheit. Definitely hot. Walking a mile or more in the heat would be anywhere from uncomfortable to dangerous.

  Emma caught Eve’s eye. Eve nodded.

  “Ben,” said Emma, “do you think you can target the labyrinth with the Dark MATTER? Do you know the coordinates?”

  Charlie pumped his fist in a gesture of triumph. “Yes!” he said.

  “I can probably find the coordinates,” Ben said. He went to work on his iPert. “Got it,” he said after a few moments. “Yeah, I can probably get us pretty close.”

  “So humble,” said Eve. “I have faith in you, Ben!” Eve beamed at the young man.

  Ben waved off the compliment, but blushed. He was saved further embarrassment by the commotion of Chuck’s return.

  “I got it!” said Chuck as he approached at a slow trot. “Dang, it’s hot! Any chance we could, you know, transport to the labyrinth instead of walking? That few blocks there about did me in.”

  Charlie patted Chuck on the back. “I got you, Chuck. We have arranged special transport on the Ben Express. Our man has the site in his targets, ready to beam us over.”

  “What did you get?” asked Emma. “Can we see?”

  Chuck reached into his pocket and drew out a bracelet of beads and magnets. “Sophie said this is like the one she gave your mom,” he said to Eve. “I figured we should get something as close to it as possible.”

  “Smart thinking,” said Emma.

  “Yeah, naturally, right? Mate? G’day? Bonzer?” said Chuck, tossing out all the Australian slang he could think of.

  Eve rolled her eyes but laughed. “Right!” she said. “Okay. Do we have everything? We might not be coming back for a while, so we should make sure we’re ready to go.”

  Emma looked around. Even though she’d told the hotel manager they would be staying a few days, they’d brought all their belongings with them. It was still a strange notion to her, the idea that they weren’t heading out on a simple road trip, but literally into the unknown. She knew from experience that using their various modes of interuniversal travel could land them anywhere. Setting the coordinates where they wanted to go did not guarantee that they’d actually get there.

  “This still makes me a little nervous,” said Charlie, echoing Emma’s thoughts.

  “You’re the one who didn’t want to walk,” said Emma. She reached out and punched him softly. “Dork.”

  “Dork.” He punched back, but looked her straight in the eye: stay with me, his eyes said. Charlie had almost lost his sister once from this traveling through the universes. She’d been unconscious. He’d been the one who’d had to deal with the possibility she was gone for good.

  Eve was watching this exchange with a bit of reverence. She’d never had siblings, much less a twin. The deep connection Emma and Charlie shared was something she envied. “You guys ready?” she asked.

  “Ready,” said Emma.

  “Ready,” said Charlie.

  Chuck affirmed his readiness with a salute. Ben gave a thumbs up.

  “Okay, then. Ben, take us to the labyrinth!” said Eve.

  As usual, it took the travelers a few seconds to recombobulate after they transported. “Is the heat making the air wavy like that, or is it just me?” asked Chuck.

  “A little of both, I think,” said Emma, rubbing her temples. She looked around to try to orient herself. Ben had intentionally dropped them a few hundred yards away from the labyrinth; landing smack in the center could have caused alarm if someone else were present. Shielding her eyes against the sun with her hand, Emma turned to see if she could find the maze. Though the surrounding area was dotted with the low trees familiar to the area, the labyrinth itself lay in a dry, flat clearing. They were, it seemed, right in the middle of a whole lot of nothing. The arid air and the desolate landscape suddenly brought to her mind a memory of the time she’d landed herself and Charlie on a deserted planet with a man who sought to destroy the universes. She shuddered involuntarily.

  “Looks a little like that planet where we found Vik, eh?” said Charlie.

  Emma nodded.

  “There,” said Eve, pointing toward the north. “Is that it?”

  Ben squinted in the direction Eve was pointing, then checked his iPert. “I think it is. Good eyes, Eve.”

  Still a little wobbly on their legs, the group trekked the short distance to the labyrinth.

  “This is it?” said Eve, puzzled. The labyrinth was not what she was expecting. This was no shrub-lined maze; it was nothing at all like the maze in Dr. Waldo’s Thought room back in the Experimental Building in the Hub. No, it would have been easy to miss this labyrinth from a distance: it was low to the ground, nothing more than earthen paths delineated by stones. The thousands of jagged rocks that lined the outer circle and the diminishing circles within virtually blended in with the surrounding dirt. It was only the shadows of the stones that revealed their presence.

  “Yeah, this is it,” said Charlie. “Surprised us, too, yesterday. Banjo told us a labyrinth is not really supposed to be a maze. It’s just a path; you walk it to sort of meditate and think. You could just walk straight to the center, but walking the path is supposed to sort of, I don’t know, put you in a trance or something.”

  “A trance?” said Eve. “Really?”

  “Well, maybe not a trance,” said Charlie. “But it’s supposed to sort of calm your mind. I think.”

  “It’s not supposed to be a maze,” said Ben. “Just, like Charlie said, a meditation thing.”

  “So do you think your mom intended us to walk the path?” Chuck asked Eve. “I mean, what else would we do here?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” said Eve. She walked to the entrance, a path about two feet wide, lined with stones. From there she could see that the labyrinth was made up of four equal quadrants, the paths within each winding around within each quadrant, before leading on to the next, and, ultimately, to the center.

>   “One, two, three …” Chuck counted the number of rings within the outer circle. “I think thirteen?” he said.

  “However many there are, let’s go,” said Emma, taking Eve’s hand.

  By unspoken agreement, Eve led the way. This was her mother they were seeking; this was her quest. With her left hand she tightly grasped Emma’s hand, and in her right, she carried the opal. The magnetic bracelet was wrapped around her right wrist.

  The group walked the meandering path in silent expectancy, not knowing what might happen, or when, or even how. Part of Emma thought nothing would happen; after all, they were nowhere near water, and she was convinced water was important. Another part of her half expected to be transported to another world at any moment.

  They walked slowly, as if already in a meditative state. The sun beamed down on them, its heat so thick it became part of the air. As they neared the center of the labyrinth, Eve paused, letting out a big whoosh of air. “Just realized I’d been holding my breath,” she said, looking nervously at the others.

  Emma grasped Eve’s hand tighter. “Are you ready?”

  Eve nodded. “Link up, people!” she said. With her free hand, Emma reached for Charlie’s hand. Charlie reached for Chuck. Chuck caught Ben’s hand, and the line was complete.

  “Let’s go!” said Ben.

  Eve led the group again, winding around the last few tight turns, the chain of people serpentining behind her.

  At the very edge of the center circle, she gasped and jumped back, bumping into Emma.

  “Did you see that?” she cried, her shock causing her to unintentionally drop Emma’s hand.

  Not wanting to be left behind again—that had happened to her before—Emma quickly linked her arm with Eve’s elbow. “See what?” she said, staring tightly into the center.

  “Shimmering. The air shimmered.” Eve looked around. “Or was it just the heat? Heat makes the air shimmer sometimes, right?”

  “It does,” said Emma, hesitantly, “but I’m guessing whatever you saw was more than heat.”