Portals of Infinity: Kaiju

by John Van Stry

  "So eventually you became a champion?" I asked.

  "I became a champion when my father, who was even more incensed now that I had not only refused to go off to die a beggar's death in humiliation after being disowned, but had instead distinguished myself in honorable combat for the church, attacked the church in an effort to kill both the high priest and myself.

  "I slew him in single combat before the altar. It was glorious," She sighed.

  "What about your family?"

  "Well, Ryzona had already been married off to a neighboring prince. Andre was furious. He was too much like our father, and two days later I slew him too."

  "Seath?"

  "Seath came to the temple only to be coronated. He only spoke to me once, never again, and that was only to tell me that while he sided with me and with what I had done, he had to treat me as 'other', because I was our god's champion, and because I had killed his father and his brother."

  "That must have been rough."

  Suzona nodded. "I left the next day; I quit as my god's champion and took up with another god in a far away country. That was many years ago. My brother has long since died; his son has taken over. As far as I know, they have no idea I even exist anymore."

  I moved around to sit next to her, and put an arm around her.

  "I'm not looking for pity," she grumbled.

  "This isn't pity, this is comfort." I gave her a hug, "I would think recounting all of that didn't sit very well."

  "So, now it is your turn," she said.

  "I have nothing to compare to that, trust me," I chuckled.

  "Still, I would hear about you."

  I shrugged and told her about growing up; going to college, getting recruited, though I didn't tell her I was married. I told her about being dropped blind in the center of a sacrifice with no prior warning, and going on to win the war, then taking the city.

  "For someone not brought up in the ways of war, you have done remarkably well for yourself," Suzona said.

  "I've been lucky, and I admit it."

  "I think there's a bit more than luck going on there," She smiled. "Fortune favors the bold, as well as the strong."

  "Well, I've had some very good teachers along the way and a lot of very good friends and allies."

  She stretched and yawned and I admired the view while she did.

  "What do you say we wake Joseph and Jane, and go to bed?" Suzona said softly.

  "I'd say that sounds like a very good idea."

  Eleven

  1st World

  Ruins

  "Well somebody looks rather pleased this morning," Joseph said sidling up next to me as I was putting on the jumpsuit from my backpack.

  "Do I?" I asked, sitting down to lace up my sneakers.

  "You, not so much," He laughed squatting down next to me. Evean had decided that we'd all shift back here, well out of sight of the tower's dwellers. Everyone had agreed on that, feeling this wouldn't be a good place for surprises.

  "Why is it that everyone is so hot to get laid anyway?"

  Joseph looked at me strangely, "What?"

  "Pretty much every time a group of champions gets together, at least when I've seen them, everyone is on the make with everyone else. I mean they're all champions! Don't they get laid enough at home?"

  "Equality" Joseph said.

  "Huh?"

  "Most of the people you sleep with back home know what you are, they're not going to treat you like an equal. Because you're not, and you're not really going to stand for anything less than being treated as what you are, which is a champion."

  "Oh I don't know about that!" I protested.

  "You ever send anyone to their death, Will? I don't mean killing someone, I mean telling somebody to go out there and die for your god like they're supposed to?"

  That brought me up short. Because I had done it. Oh I hadn't quite realized it at the time, but I'd done it.

  "We're all the same here, we can all relate. It's even worse for the women in some cases. Most women want a male who is at least their equal, if not more so. Do you really think that a woman like Suzona is going to find a man like that among the followers of her god?"

  "Well, when you put it like that," I said slowly while thinking about it.

  "And us guys aren't really any better, look at you, you married the queen! Me? I all but married a goddess!

  "Normally we're wary of other champions, possibly even at each other's throats when we're in the same place. But when we all have to go off together like this, when our gods are working together as allies, it gives us the chance to be with people who we can actually relate to," Joseph shrugged. "So yeah, we 'hook up' as people like to say."

  I had finished with my footwear and was checking my weapons before putting my pack back on.

  "And after years of being able to speak our minds and approach whomever we want, we're all kind of blunt about it now as well, right?" I asked him.

  "Pretty much. You talk to gods and goddesses all day and you're bound to develop an attitude, right?"

  I laughed at that, he had a pretty good point.

  "All right, everyone! Let's get this show on the road!" Evean called out.

  "What a strange expression," Joseph said looking at me.

  "Yeah, she has a knack for them," I grinned. "Time to go."

  "So, now what?" I asked Evean as we looked over the rise with our binoculars again at the tower. There were quite a few people there, engaging in all sorts of activities, as we watched one group got into something that looked like a massive halftrack and drove out of the walled enclave and off towards one of the hills.

  "Might as well walk down there and find out," Evean said. "I don't see any obvious weapons and on the whole, they do seem to look like us. Let's find out what they know, and what they can tell us."

  We all got up then and started to walk down the hill towards the enclave. We got about halfway there when one of those halftrack-like vehicles came out and drove towards us. I didn't see anything that looked like a weapon on it, though that didn't mean that it didn't have any.

  It stopped about a hundred yards from us, and a woman got out and walked towards us. We all stopped and watched.

  "Greetings," she said. "Where are you headed?"

  "We're not quite sure," Evean said. "We're on a quest to find something for our people back home. Many years ago, one of our people found it, but he never told anyone where he went, other than this way."

  "What is it that you are looking for?"

  "We are looking for a way to deal with a very large monster."

  The woman shook her head, "That does not sound like anything I am familiar with, however there may be someone who does know."

  "Then we would speak with them."

  "I would search all of you first, before you are allowed entry into our home."

  "That is fine. What items are we not allowed to take there?" Evean said smiling.

  "I will tell you, if I should find them."

  "I'll go first then," Evean said.

  "Strip please?"

  Evean shrugged and as we watched she stripped down to her underwear and the woman went through all of her things rather carefully.

  "Swords and knives are not allowed inside," She said, taking the short sword that Evean had brought.

  "Can we give them to you to hold on to, so we can reclaim them when we leave?"

  "Of course," She said.

  We all pulled out our swords and knives and dropped them on the ground. She looked up rather surprised at that.

  "Why so many weapons?"

  "We've been walking quite a distance. May I get dressed?"

  "Of course. Next?"

  An hour later we were sitting in the back of the halftrack and riding to the tower. All of our weapons were in a bag that had been stored in an external lockdown box on the outside of the vehicle.

  Our hostess had introduced herself as Mahnii before we'd been loaded onto the transport. Evean had introduced each of us t
o her by name.

  The ride in was fast and rather comfortable. There were small windows we could see out of, and we were escorted off of the vehicle as soon as it had passed inside the gate.

  But more importantly than that, there was a portal here, and we could all feel it.

  "What is the name of your place here?" Joseph asked Mahnii.

  "White Tower," She replied.

  "How many stories tall is it?" I asked, curious.

  "Two hundred and six," she said and after a brief paused added, "As of last week."

  I looked around at the others in surprise; they all looked suitably impressed as well.

  "You said that there would be someone we could talk to?" Evean prompted, "About our search?"

  "Yes, please, come with me," Mahnii said, and led us towards the tower.

  As we walked into the tower I got a bearing on where the portal was, which was just outside of the tower compound. It was in the direction of the smaller compound which contained the docks, making me wonder if it was inside there.

  The portal being close to the tower had to have some sort of significance, I found it hard to believe that the one human habitation we'd come across was just coincidentally located right next to one.

  The entry we took into the tower was large, easily big enough to drive a small truck into, and I could see another one that was larger still, one big enough for the machine we'd ridden in. We started up a concrete ramp, as the entrance was a good twenty feet above the ground, then passed through the opening, which had other people coming out of it, and after passing through a second doorway about thirty feet further inside, the ramp started back down.

  The angle of the ramp going down was about the same as the angle going up had been, and it was long enough that I wished I had counted my steps on the way inside, because we were definitely going a much longer distance as we descended, which would mean we were now underground.

  When the ramp leveled off, we found ourselves walking down a well lit, wide, and very long hallway with doors and openings to either side of us as we traveled. Some of the openings were other hallways; some were large areas that looked suspiciously like stores of some kind.

  The other people we were passing as we followed Mahnii were all dressed in a variety of outfits that were all basically composed of trousers and shirts, though the types and colors weren't very uniform and those worn by the women were much more flattering in appearance.

  I did quickly figure out that there were either soldiers or police among the people, as there were quite a few who wore the exact same outfit, and they were armed with what looked like nightsticks. They tended to watch us as we passed, but we were already attracting attention as we were all wearing the same basic jumpsuit.

  Three times we turned, and on the third it was into a stairwell that took us down several flights before we exited. Then a short walk and we were led into what was obviously an office.

  It was a large room, with a line of desks bisecting it. On this side of the desks there were several rows of chairs, a waiting area I guess. On the other side there was a large array of low walled cubes with desks in them with people working at them.

  The row of desks that split the room were only partially occupied and Mahnii led us up to one of those.

  "Ah, Mahnii, these are the people you found on the surface?" A rather old looking gentleman seated behind a desk asked.

  "Yes."

  "Fine, who is in charge of your group?" He asked us.

  "I am," Evean said.

  "Fine, have a seat here," He gestured to a seat besides the desk. "The rest of you can go get something to eat if you wish. Mahnii will show you where."

  I went and stood behind Evean as she sat down, Suzona and Loomis went over to a line of seats by the wall where they both sat down to watch.

  "Go, eat," Evean said to the others making shooing motions with her hands as they stood looking undecided. Well, not all of them were looking undecided; Joseph, Gregory, and Teshes were already following Mahnii.

  The rest followed then and the man looked up at me.

  "You are?" He asked.

  "Her assistant," I said and smiled.

  "Well then, pull up a chair."

  I grabbed one from another desk that was empty and sat.

  "My name is Sakauwa, you are?"

  "Evean."

  "Interesting name, and you?" He asked looking at me.

  "Will," I said and gave him a polite nod.

  "So, Mahnii says you are looking for a device to kill a monster?"

  Evean nodded, "Yes. That is correct."

  "Well, I must say that we have neither weapons nor monsters here."

  "Do you know who does?" Evean asked him.

  "You are not from here, are you?"

  Evean smiled and shook her head, "No, I thought that was obvious. We are from far away."

  "So why have you come here?"

  "As I said to Mahnii, many years ago a man came here and he found tales of the monster we now face and the weapon that was built to destroy it. We are in search of that weapon, as the monster has found our homes."

  Sakauwa pondered that a few minutes.

  "How many years ago did that man come here?"

  "About forty-five."

  "Hmm, our lives were much different then, the tower above had only just started construction and we had only recently finished the first of our underground cities."

  "How long had you been living underground then?" Evean asked.

  "Ten years, since the shelling had started. The war had finally ended the year before, and the decision to keep everything underground had only just been made. It was a different time."

  "I am sure it was. So who would know of tales of monsters and the devices made to kill them?"

  "Back during that time," he continued, ignoring Evean's question, "we had discovered a way to travel to another place. A place that had not been touched by the war here. It was the people there who told us how to build the towers, the seven towers of our homeland.

  "They told many stories from other places that they had visited or heard of. It is perhaps there that you will wish to travel."

  "The portal outside the walls of the tower compound?" Evean asked.

  "Yes, exactly. That one."

  "Ah, good," She said, "Then I guess we should be going," she said and started to stand.

  "There is a problem however."

  "What?" Evean said frozen halfway up from her seat.

  "Travel through the portal has been cut off. We do not understand why."

  "Cut off? What do you mean?"

  "No one is able to walk through it anymore, and no one has come out of it for over two decades."

  Evean looked at me, "Can a gate be closed?"

  I shook my head, "Only temporarily. They can be blocked however." I looked at Sakauwa. "Can you take us there to examine it?"

  "What good what that do? Our own people have tried to examine it for years now," he said scowling at me.

  Evean turned back to him, "Because it couldn't hurt, now could it?"

  I could feel that she put some power in to her words.

  Sakauwa pondered that a moment, "I guess it could not hurt. I'll summon an officer to escort you."

  "Do you think you could come with us?" Evean asked.

  "I was planning to," he said with a nod.

  A half-hour or so later, Sakauwa, Evean, Suzona, Loomis and I, plus four officers, were driving out of the tower compound to the portal.

  The portal was in the port compound as I had suspected, it was about thirty feet from the water's edge. There were some markings painted on the ground, along with a couple of railings that were set up, but off to the side of the portal.

  "Come, let me show you," Sakauwa said, getting out of the half-track rather slowly. He led us over to one of the markings painted on the ground, and motioned at the empty space before it.

  "When our people walk over the line there, nothing happens," he said.

&nb
sp; "What do you know about the gateways?" Evean asked, giving each of us a sharp warning glance as she then started to slowly walk around the perimeter of the spot they had marked out.

  "They are connections to another world. Our scientists believe they are some sort of tunnel through space to another place."

  "Did your people ever venture through the gateway alone? Or did they only go with the ones who came out of the gates?"

  "Both," Sakauwa said.

  "And did the ones who went through on their own, did they come back?" Evean stopped in her circuit of the area they had marked out for the gate, and made a gesture as she talked, touching the actual portal for a moment.

  "At first they did, but then they stopped. We can only assume that something happened to them. Because when others came out here, they could not go through."

  "Very curious. Could you come here, Will, and take a look at this?" She asked.

  I nodded and walked over to where she was standing and looked at the empty space, even squatting down a moment. In the process I put my hand on the actual portal as well. It felt fine, though I didn't recognize the feeling it gave me. It didn't feel dangerous at all.

  But I knew from experience only natural dangers could be felt. Manmade ones you wouldn't know about until you stepped through. If it was blocked, by a physical object; then I guess that you would rebound off of the gate, Fel had told me that was what happened with portals from the underworld, or negative plane. I'd have to ask him if the same was true for regular portals as well.

  "This is curious," I said after staring at the space for a minute and coming up with what I hoped was a good line of bull. "I need to think about this for a while, perhaps sleep on it."

  "So, you see something?" Sakauwa asked looking at me skeptically.

  "Yes, I do. But each of these gateways is different. They leave a faint pattern on the ground, caused by faint eddies in the wind currents that play through the interface between the worlds. The way the blades of grass are moving, it does not look right." I stood up. "I really need to meditate on it for a while."