by S. W. Ahmed
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” he said, shaking his head.
The Volonan took something out of its pocket and pressed a button.
“How does that sound?” a lively female voice said in English.
Marc nodded approvingly. “Much better! Is that a translator?”
“Why, yes, that’s what it is,” the Volonan said, looking at the small device she was holding. “And it detected both our languages! That’s not too bad, not too bad at all.”
“Who are you?”
“Who am I? I’m not the stranger here. Who are you?”
After some hesitation, he said, “I am Marc Zemin, a human from the planet Earth.”
“Human? Earth? Never heard of either. Where is this ‘Earth’?”
“It’s a part of the, uh, Mendo-Biesel star system.”
The Volonan smiled. “The MendokenRepublic? Well, young human, you’re certainly a long way from home! That does explain a few things, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why those drones were after you, for one. Let me guess, you broke out of your virtual world?”
“Yes, I did. Are you, uh, not virtual?”
The Volonan laughed, making a screeching sound that almost pierced Marc’s ears. “Nope, I’m the real thing!” she said. “But believe me, I’m the only Volonan you’ll find who is, on this planet anyway.”
He stared at the Volonan, confused.
“It’s a long story,” she continued, flapping her big ears and letting out a sigh.
An uncomfortable silence followed, during which the Volonan peered closely at him from top to bottom. Finally, she touched his forehead with her hand. “Zorina is the name. Pleased to meet you.”
Marc picked up her hand with his and gave it a shake. “Pleased to meet you too. Thanks for saving my life!”
“No worries. Just remember – the way to dodge those drones is to stay absolutely still when they’re close by. They can only sense abrupt motion, not bodies that are stationary or moving very slowly. That’s how I always evade them.”
“Is that how they distinguish between those in virtual worlds and those that aren’t?”
“Hmm, smart these humans are. I like it!” Zorina sat down on the floor of the cave, and leaned back against the wall. “Well, time for a little nap.”
“A nap? Now?” Marc was surprised. “What about those drones?”
“Oh, they won’t be back for a while. Besides, I have to take a nap every couple of hours. Otherwise, my body tires out and I get very irritable. You wouldn’t want that, would you now?”
Marc wasn’t sure what to say.
“Nothing unusual for us Volonans, I assure you,” she said, closing her eyes. “Real life is a lot more tiring than virtual life.”
Before he could open his mouth again, she was already snoring heavily through her trunk.
He sat down as well, opposite her on the other side of the cave. There was nothing else he could do at the moment, other than wait for her to wake up again. Whoever she was, she seemed his only hope for any chance to get out of here alive. As he watched her sleeping in peace, he wondered whether all Volonans were like this. If they were, then they were clearly a far cry from the evil, treacherous monsters he had imagined them to be.
A half hour passed. The dust from the falling bridge debris had completely settled now, giving a clear view outside through the mouth of the cave. Marc could see the far wall of the gorge, only about 30 feet away. He turned his head to look the other way into the depths of the cave, but all he could see was darkness. He began wondering if there were any strange creatures lurking about inside. But before those thoughts turned to irrational fear, he was delighted to see Zorina stir awake.
“That was nice,” she said sleepily, letting out a big yawn. She blinked and looked at him, apparently taking a moment to remember who he was.
“I’m glad you got some rest,” he said.
She took something out of her pocket, broke it into two pieces, and handed him a piece. “Hungry?”
He stared at the dark green bar in his hand, and realized how hungry he was. All those tasty dishes that Iman had fed him in his virtual world – that seemed so long ago already. It was probably better he didn’t know what the Volona had really been feeding him all that time to keep him alive.
“Come on, it’s just sparli,” Zorina said. “It’s very nutritious. Contains all the necessary nutrients for survival, it does.”
He analyzed the bar closely. It actually felt like bread, though it had a more pungent smell. Taking a chance, he bit into it. It was surprisingly soft, and tasted a little bitter, kind of like solid beer. The inside was yellow.
“There you go!” she said, chomping away. “Isn’t so bad, is it?”
“No, it’s actually quite good!” He gulped it all down quickly.
Next, she took out a bottle from another pocket, causing him to wonder how many other pockets she had and what else she had in them.
“Here, some ale to wash it down,” she offered.
Feeling more at ease now with Volonan cuisine, Marc took a swig. He expected it to be bitter, just like the few times in his life that he had drunk ale back on Earth. But this was sweet, with a fruity taste. He liked it.
“Now, can you tell me where we are?” he asked, handing the bottle back to her.
“In a cave, obviously,” she said, glancing around between swigs of ale.
He frowned. “I mean this place, this planet!”
“Ah, well say so! This is Nopelio, the fourth planet in the Volo-Gaviera star system. We are in the city of Krasia. Well, one of its suburbs anyway.”
“This is… a city?” Marc felt it was more like a collection of trash heaps.
Zorina didn’t seem to take offense. “We Volonans don’t care what our real world looks like anymore, because we never spend any time in it. Our cities haven’t been maintained at all since we began moving into the virtual realm.”
“I figured as much. But you – why exactly aren’t you sitting out there in a daze, like the others?”
She flapped her ears. “As much as I’d love to return to the virtual world of my dreams, doing so would immediately result in my detection.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So you’re out here because you’re… hiding? From whom?”
“Let’s just say I’ve upset some powerful Volonans. So it’s better I lie low for a while, out of sight.”
“And they can’t find you here, because now you’re disconnected from the virtual realm, right?”
“Hmph, these humans really are smart!” Zorina said, bobbing her head up and down in apparent content. “All Volonans are connected to the Virtual Translation Grid. It’s a central system that functions across the Empire, keeping track of the individual choices of all Volonans and letting them live whatever lives they choose to in their own virtual worlds. Some choose to just do nothing in the real world and live out their virtual lives in daydreams, like all the Volonans you probably saw earlier on the streets. Others actually perform real jobs, like the troops that brought you here and those that man our ships. The Grid takes care of all the necessary translations between what they do in their virtual worlds and what they actually end up doing in the real world.
“Now that’s all very nice, but one of the unpleasant side effects is that any single Volonan connected to the Grid can be located at any time by the imperial authorities.”
“But if that connection is severed, then you’re free?”
“Freedom is a relative term, my friend. You’ve seen the state of the real world here. But yes, you’re technically correct. If the connection is severed, the Empire loses track of me. They might have a general idea of where I am, but they have no way of pinpointing my exact location at any moment. The most they can do is to send those drones with hopeless firing aim after me, same as they did for you.”
“Why don’t they just send some troops into the real world as well, to come and find us?”
&
nbsp; She laughed. “Volonans will never voluntarily come into the real world, no matter how high the stakes. It’s also not an easy process to break out of a virtual world, believe me.”
He smiled. “Oh, I believe you. I just went through it!”
“True. It can be quite taxing on the mind, eh?”
Marc was silent for a moment. He was taking a liking to Zorina, and he felt quite comfortable talking to her. It was the same way he had felt upon meeting Sibular for the first time.
“Why did you save my life?” he finally asked.
She looked at him and smiled. “Any enemy of those drones is a friend of mine. Besides, it’s not often that I get to meet another non-virtual individual. Life can get quite lonely in these parts, you know?” After a short pause, she asked the question he had hoped she wouldn’t ask. “Now tell me, how did you end up here?”
He was silent.
“I’m no friend of the authorities, if that helps,” she said. “I have some fundamental differences with Adrelina.”
“The ruler of the Empire?”
“The same. The main reason I’m here.”
“Who exactly are you?”
Zorina flapped her ears again. “You first, young human!”
“Very well,” he said. “I was on board a Mendoken vessel that was destroyed by Volonan ships.”
“By a triangular formation?”
“Yes – your ultimate weapon, from what I’ve heard. It was by far the most frightful thing I’ve ever seen. The entire ship just exploded around me! But what I don’t understand is how I’m still alive.”
“Oh, that’s easy enough. The triangulation weapon generates a spatial anomaly – that’s where it gets its destructive power from. Problem is, it often generates unwanted smaller spatial anomalies on the side. You were probably pushed into one of those during the impact of the main anomaly, and its shield protected you from the explosion.”
“You mean like a bubble?” Marc asked, astonished. “Filled with what – air?”
“Well, whatever atmosphere was on your ship. And after the explosion, one of the Volonan ships probably picked you up, had you connected to the Grid and dropped you off here. My question, though, is why were you attacked? Where was your ship?”
“We were right here, in this star system.”
She looked very surprised. “Inside the Empire? How did you cross the border?”
He hesitated. “By a consar,” he finally said, realizing that he had no other way to explain it.
“A consar? The Mendoken have consar technology?” She looked even more surprised.
“They do now.”
“And you were a prisoner of the Mendoken, I presume?”
“A prisoner? Oh no! I was on board voluntarily.”
“What! And why, may I ask?”
“Well, in a nutshell, to respond in kind to your people’s attacks on Mendoken worlds.”
“Attacks! What attacks?”
“The ones using consars!”
“Consars? What nonsense!” Zorina laughed.
“You think this is funny, do you?” Marc said, starting to get annoyed.
“Young human, I’ve been living totally alone in this dump of a place for what feels like eternity. Considering the comfortable virtual life I left behind and where I am now, I can assure you that humor is far from my mind these days!”
He tried studying the expression on her face, but realized he wasn’t particularly knowledgeable about Volonan facial expressions. “You really don’t know, do you?” he said.
“Know what? Will you kindly elaborate?”
“Your people have been using consars to bypass Mendoken defenses, to attack planets and space stations deep inside Mendoken territory.”
She laughed again. “So these are the lies the Mendoken have been feeding you, eh? It’s no different from the rubbish they keep claiming officially. That’s how they justify their continuous attacks against our border defenses.”
Marc’s face flushed with anger. “They’re not lies!” he shouted. “I saw a Volonan consar attack on an unprotected Mendoken planet with my own eyes!”
“Rubbish! The Mendoken probably showed you an act, just to convince you to help them against us.”
“Now that is rubbish!” he yelled.
Zorina sneered. “Are you the one who showed them how to travel through consars?”
In his fury, he opened his mouth right away to answer, but then he changed his mind and stayed silent. Regardless how trustworthy Zorina seemed, he couldn’t imagine any Volonan appreciating the fact that he had helped the Empire’s archenemy to such a large extent.
“Now you listen to me, young human!” she said. “My people don’t have the technology to use consars. Consar research was banned many years ago across the galaxy, and we have strictly honored that ban. Consar capability would give us no benefit in maintaining or protecting our virtual worlds, the only purposes that we do any scientific research or development for. So what the Mendoken have been telling you is impossible.”
“How can you be so sure of that? You’re just a recluse and an outlaw – you admitted as much yourself!”
“I’m Adrelina’s sister, that’s how.”
Chapter 21
When Sharjam came to, he couldn’t immediately remember where he was or what had happened. The first thing he felt was a sharp pain on the back of his head, right at the spot where he had been hit. Then he felt an even sharper pain in his arms, and looking up, he realized why. His hands were pulled up above his head, attached to a latch in the ceiling with thick rope, and his feet were similarly fastened to the floor. With his body stretched out to its fullest, he couldn’t move at all.
“Not a very pleasant situation we’re in,” Dumyan whispered, already awake. He was a few feet away from his brother, and in exactly the same position.
Sharjam groaned. “It hurts!”
“To put it mildly. The pressure on my hip is unbearable!”
Sharjam could still feel the tingling pain in his own wounded leg, so he could only imagine the agony his brother was going through. Their injuries from the landing on Droila were still far from healed. He tried his best not to think about it, and instead focused his thoughts on his surroundings.
It was dark all around, with only a tiny amount of light trickling in through an oval window. But the light was enough for him to identify the room they were in – the small prayer chamber located right at the front of the Boura-class ship. The window was located on the far wall, built into the only door to the room.
“It appears we’re being watched,” Dumyan said, gesturing towards the window with his head. Every now and then, a shadow passed by outside.
“Are you surprised?” Sharjam remarked.
“Not really.”
“How long have we been here, hanging like this?”
“I’m not certain. Several hours at least. That’s what the pain feels like anyway. So how long did you last after me?”
“Back in the cockpit? No more than a minute.”
“Did you notice any others?”
“Yes. A female.”
“A female?” Dumyan tried to grin in between the throbs of pain. “Was she pretty?”
Sharjam scowled. “That’s all you can think about?”
“What else should I do? We’re stuck, after all.”
Sharjam couldn’t argue with that. “She was pretty, actually,” he said, grinning sheepishly.
“She was the one who knocked you out?”
Sharjam was reminded of the splitting pain in the back of his head. “Yes, and she’s probably the one watching us from behind that door, since Ozwin is piloting the ship. How do you know this Ozwin anyway?”
Dumyan sighed. “He is a most ruthless and vicious character. I had the misfortune of running into him in the Afta-Gouran star system.”
“Where the Eelaks lived?”
“Yes. I was sent there on a mission by our father, when he was still in power. It was to understand
the source of the Eelaks’ discontent with his rule, before they began spreading all that slander about him across the Dominion.”
“I remember you leaving for that journey. I was in the middle of my final clergy examinations. But I didn’t know that about Ozwin.”
“I mentioned it to our father upon my return. Ozwin was living on Eelatan at the time, the home planet of the Eelaks. He was quite the champion in Eelak leadership circles. They refused to meet with me even once without him being present.”
“How did he become such a hero?”
“By teaching them our way of life, our religion and our scientific knowledge. They gladly scooped it all up, eager to learn from a people much more advanced than their own.”
“But it’s against the law to teach our ways to less advanced species!”
“It’s only against the law to do that to any species that has not yet been accepted into the galactic community. We had already lifted the silupsal filter around Afta-Gouran, so the law no longer applied to the Eelaks. Ozwin knew that when he arrived on Eelatan.”
“In hindsight, clearly a big mistake on our part to lift that filter.”
“That is an understatement. The Eelaks had reached a certain level of technological progress, but intellectually they were still far behind the acceptable norm.”
“Well, Afta-Gouran was strategically a very important location for us, as far as I remember. Right on the Phyrax border.”
Dumyan nodded. “That was the reason. And the presence of the filter on that section of the border was preventing us from guarding it. It was, in fact, the only section of our entire border with the Phyrax Federation that was not fortified. Our father was very worried that the Phyrax would invade the Dominion through that system. By lifting the filter, we were able to bring our ships there and guard that section of the border as well.”
“But look at the horrible chain reaction that rushed decision caused.”
“Who would have known? At that time, Wazilban was a nobody, just some monk on some remote world. We had no idea who he was, let alone how he and his band of thugs were plotting to topple our father. I had no knowledge that he was the one who had sent Ozwin to the Eelaks, with this elaborate plan to instill dissent across the Dominion with their help.”