On the Line (Alternate Places Book 3)

by P. S. Power

  He scratched his head, then rubbed it, clearly thinking. He stopped and then looked down at his plate, his face serious.

  “My guess? Between one hundred and two hundred million dollars, maybe another couple million in advertising. Figure twenty people working for two years full time, that's at least four million right there, and that's not even paying them top dollar. You know, I never really thought about the cost like this before. I guess because I just figured I'd somehow magically do most of the work myself, or that some big company would pick it up. I can see why so few really good games get made now and why they all get sold for sixty bucks a pop. Now I almost feel bad about all the games and movies I've downloaded for free. Of course, if I didn't do that, I wouldn't have ever played them, so it's really not a loss for the companies that made them, but if everyone does it...”

  Val snorted, one of the few people Kate knew who could pull that off and still look sexy doing it, but didn't comment. Eventually she noticed everyone looking at her and took a bite of the small meat pie in front of her. If Zack were there it would have had only vegetables, but Merri used meat for everyone else's food, unless they didn't want it. Kate followed suit, the crust flaky and tender, perfectly so. If it weren't for the fact that she literally couldn't get fat, well, not unless the societal view of attractiveness changed drastically, she'd probably weigh four hundred pounds already.

  When Valerie spoke, it was with a slightly sexy nod.

  “Just thinking... I could probably finance that game for you myself, and not even notice I'd done it. Zack gives me a ninth of what he makes each week, since we're married and all, which is more than a lot of small countries bring in during a single year.... Not bragging, but if you really want to do it, say after you finish school? Someone around here should be able to help out. Even if you get mad at Kate for sleeping around all the time, we won't hold that against you.”

  She purred the last part at him, which made him smile.

  "Don't worry about that. I mean, it goes against everything that I've ever been taught about relationships, but I think I understand the basic idea. You guys have to have a lot of sex, and even if you don't need it for energy reasons, your cultural adaptations are pretty well set. Besides, Kate... Well, with her everything was put out there up front. I know the situation, and haven't let myself... You know, fall for her." Glancing at Kaitlyn he tilted his head before going on. "So that won't be a huge problem. What I worry about it Blaine and Britney. I've known them for months, and we're all kind of close, but my ideas about them are all wrong. Plus, let's face it, I've already kind of developed some issues there. I mean, I really like Brit, and she's been pushing me away the whole time, so... Yeah. Plus, now I know that Blaine badly wants to get with me. It will probably make me wonder if he's really just looking at what's on my dresser while I'm changing, or if he's checking out my butt. It could get awkward."

  Then he ate for a bit. They all did. In silence. The whole time he looked directly at his plate, but when he glanced up his eyes were on Valerie.

  “I mean, I've wanted Britney since I first saw her. Sure, now I know that I pretty much had to want her, but in all this time it's been me pretty much hinting and her solidly hinting no back. Even while she slept with everyone else capable of movement. Then there's Blaine, I mean I'm pretty straight, jerking off Kyle last night aside, but Blaine's just so much louder than say, you two,” He pointed at Val and Kate. “Energy wise I mean. I'd wake up at night with a boner and find him getting a blow job across the room. Or going at some girl, or even guy while I tried to sleep. I know now that this is really as much a curse as a gift, but that whole time, it kind of ate at me. I'm worried now that I may not be fair to them, even knowing what I do. I honestly do like Brit, but I don't know if I could ever be as understanding as I would have to be in order to make it work, and seriously, Blaine? Maybe if he could be a girl and be happy about it, but I don't think I could handle being more than his friend as a male...”

  Libby looked at him, and smirked a bit.

  “Dude, you jerked off Kyle? He's a total babe, isn't he?”

  Don laughed instead of answering. No one had a good response for him, but after they finished eating Val took him away to her room for a while. They didn't reemerge until nearly nine, when Zack brought everyone home from work with him.

  Without saying much, Zack instantly took Don and Kaitlyn by the hand very carefully not mentioning to anyone else where they were going she noticed, and walked out with them, carrying them through the rift into the back of the gift basket shop. Zack turned, looked Don in the eye, giving him the instructions that he'd need to survive most likely, Kate realized. She'd never seen him do it without speaking out loud though. After a minute he stopped and looked at Kate.

  “Good. He's ready. I'm going to cover both of you at first, then when you're ready, I want you to pull yourself in as tightly as you can Kaitlyn. If you do it right, I'll let go of you and let you hold yourself together in the void. Ready?” He stared right at her while speaking, and winked when she gave him a slightly shocked look.

  Without waiting for an answer, he stepped into the node, carrying both of them with him.

  She felt a slight twinge of fear for her friend, who had no clue what he might be getting into at all. Then she realized she'd better focus now, since she could find herself dissolving in the void if she didn't. Not that Zack would do that on purpose, but he'd have to focus on Don right now or else he could easily go insane or even die.

  It took what felt like several minutes to draw her mind into a highly disciplined and focused state. It could have been longer, but she really didn't think so. Time was really subjective here and ran funny as a rule. Still, she could usually tell the difference between a minute and a month. Normally at least. She concentrated first on feeling her shape, an amorphous thing, vague and wispy in the dark. She could tell, eventually at least, where she ended and Zack began. She pulled her energy inward, as tightly as she could, trying to make sure she'd hold together. If that was even possible for someone other than the Line Walker.

  Then she felt it. Zack wasn't there with her any more. She nearly panicked, but locked that down and pulled herself together again. Feeling the void pulling on her at the fringes, she pulled back, over and over again, until it became automatic. She did this a hundred times, then a thousand, then, eventually, millions more times than she could have ever counted.

  After a while she became aware that a voice spoke to her in her head. It had probably been doing it for a few years when she noticed it.

  Hello, little one.

  It repeated this over and over again, the voice. It felt like it came from inside her, but she knew it wasn't her voice, or even of her own making.

  Zack? She returned, even though it didn't sound like Zack to her.

  No, I'm not the little shadow, but his friend. Perhaps he's mentioned me? He calls me Big Shadow... I don't really have another name. I never needed one, until I met him.

  This shocked her. If she'd been physical right now she would have stammered and probably made a complete fool of herself. No one else had ever gotten to meet the Big Shadow before, it hadn't even been possible she realized. She told it that she felt honored, since Zack had indeed mentioned it before, many times. Normally in glowing terms.

  Then the Big Shadow taught her how to see in the void. Not the same way Zack saw, she knew. Not in shadows and impressions, but in colors and feelings instead. The Big Shadow explained to her that being of the lust eaters, her powers and abilities would always show up differently than her friends. That was the way things were designed, after all.

  Still, focus and concentration are always useful things. Plus, this way, I have another friend to talk to now! It gets long between visits here, with only the Little Shadow coming when he can.

  After a while she noticed a bright pulse of color next to her, two of them she realized, with tendrils of thought moving from the outer one to the smaller one inside of it.

 
; Is that Zack and Don?

  The Big Shadow told her it was and that she could talk to Zack, by forming the thought and casting it on a line to him. If she noticed, she spoke this way already. After a few moments of focusing, it could have been a few years, it being hard to tell, with nothing to work with as an internal or external clock, Kate saw that she had been doing this indeed. Mainly by reviewing the lines that had come out of her and the Big Shadow, which she saw clearly now, though she hadn't moments before.

  Throwing a single thought she tried to catch his attention.

  Zack?

  A moment later she tried again, making it bigger, and she hoped, more powerful.

  Zack?

  He responded to her, and told her he loved her then. She felt it, even though she could also feel that he wouldn't have sex with her. That didn't matter too much to her, not here at least, as long as she had his love. Bright rose colored lines came off of him, many directed at her. Nearly as many as went to any other single person.

  Kaitlyn! We'll be ready to go soon. Hang on a bit?

  She thought back at him that she'd wait and pooled her thoughts tightly, memorizing this sense of the void, so that she wouldn't lose it. After a long time, not a few moments at all but longer than she'd been in the void all together so far, Zack covered her again and pulled them all out of the nothingness, back into the small gift basket shop.

  Don stared at the wall, which was plaster board covered with a brown paint. Lines of attention coming from his eyes sharply, clearly cutting through the near dark in the room. He looked at dust and specks that clung to things, energy bouncing to the wall and back again, making slow ripples in the lines. His concentration was intense she knew, because she could see it. Zack moved in beside her, taking her hand.

  “How did it go? I see you're still alive, which I knew already, but how do you feel?” He didn't look worried at all, just interested in her response. Lines of green and blue danced around and through him, following circles in the air.

  “I feel pretty good actually. I can see a lot more now, and I think I know what more of it means. I... Believe I can read emotional connections more easily, too. Plus the thoughts carried with the emotions. I can see the energy circulation around you now. Though I think it must look different for me, because I just see a few lines running around like this.” With her finger, she traced lines in the air.

  Don had turned to stare at them.

  “That's what I see, but it's moving all around you, constantly, flowing like water, not just in single lines, I think I can follow what she's seeing too, a little. Odd. They look like gaps in the greater pattern.” He sounded flat, emotionless. She remembered that in herself, the first few times she came back from the void.

  “How long were we gone do you think?” The boy, no longer a boy in any real sense, though his body still looked the same as when they'd gone in, which couldn't have been long. He addressed this to Zack, who he now shared a strong, blue line with. Energy passed from one to the other easily. As she watched it started fading, but it told a story of closeness and familial ties. She shared a line like that with Zack as well, though it looked a little different, maybe because she was an Alede?

  “I think a little over four hundred years for us. I think Kate's experience would be about the same, as the focus that set it in motion came from me originally, unless you changed it, Kaitlyn?” Moving toward her he reached out, taking her by the shoulder, establishing contact so that she'd remember to speak out loud, she understood, since he sent this information to her directly on a line of focus.

  “No, I just rode what you started. Well... that took a while. We'd better be getting back now, don't you think? I have work to do tomorrow, and so does Don.”

  They went back to the house quickly, traveling in silence, but moving eerily as one, walking in step, moving left and right as a group without thinking. When they walked back into the kitchen, Merri stared at them, watching them all carefully. She pointed to the stacks of boxes and baskets on the table, which was enough food to last them for several days, the four of them, she said.

  Don walked to her and took her hand. Instead of saying thank you, he bent over and kissed her on the cheek. Then he took a large stack of boxes and walked into the living room and waited, holding the large packages without moving. After a moment the other two followed, also carrying large arm loads.

  It took three trips to get everything across, but they did it. Before leaving, Zack bent over and whispered to the other man for a long while. Soon circulating forces moved into and around him, just like they did Zack, though weaker and more shallow seeming.

  The Line Walker gave her a kiss good night, then left them both there, staring at each other.

  She made herself smile.

  “Remember to go to class and eat. Especially for the next few days. It's going to take time to readjust to this world. I've never been gone for this long either. It's... Interesting, isn't it?”

  The boy, the ancient boy in front of her, told her it was and promised to do his work, brush his teeth and keep on top of things. Then, after giving her a hug that lasted for several minutes, he left her alone, saying that he needed to go and get some sleep.

  She envied him that right now, sleep.

  He could walk away from the world for a while, find rest, at least she hoped he would, and come to terms with things later. She had to do it all right now, and find activities to keep her busy while she waited. She finished her paper, then wrote another, the words coming easily, the sources pulled from memory with near perfection, so that she could easily look them up online. In six hours she'd written nearly eighty pages on specific examination of Etruscan art, and how it influenced trade and even monetary practices throughout not only the Etruscan region, but the later empire of Rome.

  The lines she saw in her mind painted a clear picture, including some things she didn't bother to mention, such as how the Etruscan religion with its negative presentation of Gods influenced the Christian attitudes that came later. The god of the old testament had clear links going back to that time period.

  She bound it up and went to her classes as usual. After art history, she waited for Professor Eilis, and asked him if he'd look over the longer paper for her.

  “I know it's not on the syllabus, and may not be very good, but if you could check and make sure that I'm not just smoking crack on the theories, that would be great!” She put her hand on his arm, hoping he'd take it as flirtatious, he grinned at her instead and thumbed through it quickly.

  “Sure, but if it sucks I'm making you rewrite it until it's at least readable, all right?” He put his hand out to be shaken, the lines coming off of him showed interest in her. Honest interest in her mind, not her body. How unusual, she thought, while she shook his hand, trying to make herself seem normal externally.

  Dinner tasted of nothing, as she and Don waited for their friends. Jelly sat next to her and kept trying to hold her hand, which was fine, since she didn't want to eat anyway. The twins finally walked through the door carrying trays and scoping out the room, neither of them settling for a while, as they searched for other kinds of food in the crowd around them. She hadn't realized just how preoccupied they were looking for sex all the time until now. She didn't blame them, of course, but she also wondered how they missed all the interest they caused.

  They moved to practice fighting like normal. Don surprising them both with his new focus. He wasn't untouchable, but he moved cleanly now. At least as well as Blaine did and slightly better than Brit. Kate however had become nearly untouchable, the others trying to chase her around the room, punching and kicking at her, all of which she avoided easily, without anyone even coming close.

  She showered and changed quickly to make her meeting with Jelly. That was already off to a promising start for her, she knew. The hand holding had been sweet, but also worked to move them past that portion of things. Now she just had to get the girl back to her room later, and start in on taking things much farther
.

  The Geology Museum was actually fascinating. After a while she realized that Jelly had grown bored, even though geology was her major. Kate took her by the hand, and led her back to her room, which wowed the girl nearly as much as it had Britney, a little over a week before. It impressed Jelly so much that she hardly even noticed as her clothing came off. Kaitlyn harvested the energy from her as they had sex, trying to help the girl reach as much pleasure as possible. Without cheating at least. An Alede could pump excitement, and pure pleasure into a person pretty easily, but she just used her skills, not wanting to addict her friend. After several rounds of this, she remembered to orgasm herself, since the other girl's ego was involved in it, she realized.

  They cuddled in the afterglow. If Jelly noticed how distant Kate felt, she didn't mention it. From the lines coming off of her, the other girl just seemed very happy, and a little in love. Not so much that Kate needed to worry. Not yet. It could happen here, in this situation, she knew, but all life held risk. You couldn't avoid it perfectly and still live.

  After Jelly left, a mere walk to another floor in the same building it turned out, Kate sat and did nothing for a while, but stare at a wall. Her mind relaxed and her focus increased over time. Eventually she sent out a tendril of color toward the wall. Red... did nothing. Black made a small thumping noise. Blue and green had no effect, not on the wall. Silver did something, it made the wall glow for a while, but nothing else happened as far as she could discern.

  Having nothing else to do, she finally masturbated, laying on the bed and thinking of Zack. Her fingers working quickly, finding her clitoris as she'd learned in school and the spot slightly to the left of it where the main nerve line actually ran in her personally. She triggered an orgasm after a few minutes and just kept it going while she kept working on herself. Finally, ten minutes later she grew bored with that too, and moved to school work.

  The only thing she had due soon was math, but there was no reason she couldn't work the problems that hadn't been assigned as well, checking them to make sure she did the other work right, since the answers to them were in the back of the book. She got most of them right the first time, but had to recheck a particularly tricky one for a while before she found that she'd simply forgotten to carry a two in the simplest portion of the thing.