“Regardless of obstacles…” Alex murmured. “That means you’re not being broken down into particles and transported to another location, right? If you were, you still wouldn’t be able to teleport through objects.”
Teleportation technology relied on particle theory, which was breaking down an object of a certain mass into microscopic elementary particles, and then transporting those particles somewhere else. Because particles still had mass, even if it was around 1/1,000,000,000 the mass of a regular human, they couldn’t move through solid objects. Energy shields of any kind were also a problem.
“That’s right! This uses dimensional technology. By tearing a rift in this dimension, I ascend to another dimension, which lets me pass through objects located in this dimension.”
“T-that’s incredible!” Alex exclaimed. “What kind of theory is that based on?”
“It’s based on the theory of multi-dimensionality.”
Dimensional Theory, known as the theory that hypothesized the existence of hundreds of thousands of other dimensions. It wasn’t a new theory, but it was considered a stagnant one. The reason was because there was no way to prove it, since no one knew how to hop dimensions—or so he’d thought.
“Whoever made that must be an incredible inventor.”
“Thank you!”
Alex paused. Why would she…?
It can’t be…
“Did you make this?” he asked, a tremor in his voice.
The girl beamed. “Yes! Mr. Teleport is my own invention. I made him in my free time.”
This girl knows dimensional theory? How? Who is she?
He studied the girl again. Long silver tresses. It wasn’t a natural hair color, though his father’s hair had been a similar shade, if not containing the same glossy sheen. Her eyes were green, a vibrant emerald color, which appeared to be unusually bright. It was the ears that he found truly odd, however. Human ears weren’t long and pointy.
A mutation of some kind?
“So, were you testing your invention or something?”
“Oh, no.” The girl shook her head, her smile suddenly shifting. The sadness now radiating from her threw him off guard. “I was being chased.”
What?
“Chased?”
“Yes. My ship was disabled by the people chasing me. I didn’t have any other choice. I had to use Mr. Teleport or they would have captured me.”
Someone was chasing her. Slave traders?
Alex had heard that there was a big market for slaves. According to the commander—to Karen—the slave market had boomed since humanity expanded their territory across the solar system. With her beautiful and exotic features, it was easy to imagine slavers chasing her to the ends of the galaxy.
“What about your parents?”
The girl tilted her head, inquisitive eyes gazing thoughtfully into the distance. “I imagine that Papa is still on Angelisia, though I don’t know where Mama is.”
“Angelisia?” Alex blinked. “Is that a city on another planet?”
“No, silly,” the girl said, smiling as if he’d said something funny. “Angelisia isn’t a city. It’s a planet.”
“A planet?” Alex’s eyes widened. He understood the implication of her words, and they caused him to stand up and point a quivering finger at the girl. “T-that means you’re an alien!”
Several people looked his way, though they stopped paying attention when nothing else happened. The girl tilted her head. Seemingly in thought, she nodded after a moment.
“Yeah, I guess that by your terms, I am an alien, aren’t I? Tee-hee. I’ve never been called an alien before.”
Alex was in shock. Sitting before him was a real-life alien. It had been theorized that there was life in other solar systems, but because galactic travel was still out of humanity’s reach, no one had proven this theory… but now. Now he had proof that aliens really did exist. He didn’t doubt her words about being an extraterrestrial. No human could have created a device that allowed someone to travel through dimensions.
I’m in front of a real-life alien.
“What’s your name?” Alex asked.
“Oh! I never introduced myself, did I?” The girl placed a hand against her chest. Alex felt guilty when he caught himself staring at her chest. “My name is Gabrielle Angelise. It’s really nice to meet you!”
“My name is Alex. Alex Ryker.” He returned her smile. “It’s a pleasure.”
5
When Gabrielle had eaten her fill, Alex decided to let her stay with him. Since she was being chased—and was an alien from a planet that he’d never heard of to boot—she didn’t have anywhere to stay, and he was loathe to leave an innocent girl to fend for herself.
“Thank you for letting me stay with you,” Gabrielle said as they walked up to his house.
“It’s no big deal.” Alex shrugged off her thanks. He’d never been comfortable when people thanked him, perhaps because he was so used to Commander Karen berating him. “You don’t know the first thing about Mars City, right? There’s no way I could let you go off on your own.”
Gabrielle’s lips curled delightfully as if he’d just said the nicest thing she’d ever heard.
Alex’s house was a basic two-story structure with a flat roof. It had been designed like the older model homes found on Earth. White plasteel walls, a single sliding door, and a small backyard with a porch were its most prominent features.
“I’m home!” Alex called out as he entered through the front door.
Gabrielle followed behind him. The sound of bare feet padding along the tiled floor echoed down the hall. Gabrielle’s long ears twitched, making him wonder if they were more sensitive than human ears.
“Hey, Bro,” a young voice said seconds before someone walked into the entry hall.
Alice Ryker was a young girl of fourteen. Brown hair, doe-like eyes, and a cherubic face made her look completely different from Alex. She was much shorter than him. Currently adorning her figure were pajama bottoms and a white t-shirt that was several sizes too big.
Despite calling Alice his sister, they were only siblings in name. Alice’s mother had married his father when he was three and Alice two. Regardless, he’d always treated her like his little sister. She was, and always would be, one of the people that he treasured the most.
“Bro, I’m hungry,” Alice continued. “Can you make me… some… some…” she trailed off, her expression turning flat. “Who is this?”
Alex looked at Gabrielle, who had caught his sister’s attention. Coughing into his hand, he turned back to his sister and said, “Alice, this is Gabrielle Angelise. Gabrielle, this is my little sister, Alice.”
“Hello!” Gabrielle greeted in a cheerful voice.
“Hi,” Alice said, her own voice emotionless.
Alex sensed tension coming from his sister, and, being a good older brother, sought to defuse it before something happened—even if he didn’t know what that something was. “So, Gabrielle is going to be staying with us for a while.”
“Uh-huh… why?”
“Um, because right now she has nowhere to go?”
Alex and Alice stared at each other, the tension somehow rising. He would have wondered about this unusual pressure, which felt like a sudden increase in Mars’ gravitational pull, but, after another second had passed, Alice shrugged and the tension dissipated.
“Whatever. It’s not like I can tell you that someone can’t stay over. Just try to keep anything you two do down to a 14+ rating.”
While Gabrielle’s expression properly conveyed her bemusement, Alex’s cheeks felt like a fusion engine set on high. “Nothing like that is going to happen! I-I’m just letting her stay here because she doesn’t have anywhere else to live!”
Alice shrugged. “If you say so. Anyway, I’m hungry. Bro, make me some dinner.”
“You’re so bossy.” Alex sighed. When Alice gave him an almost imperceptible frown, he waved dismissively. “Fine, fine. I’ll make you some dinner. Is
curry okay?”
Judging from the smile on her face, which was wide enough to reach her ears, curry was exactly what she wanted. It made sense. Curry was her favorite meal.
“I’m just going to show Gabrielle around first.”
Alice didn’t seem to care. She waved her hand as she turned around and made for the living room. “Sure. Fine. But, curry comes after you show her around.”
“Come on.” Alex gestured to Gabrielle. “I’ll give you a tour of the house.”
“Kay!”
“By the way,” Alice called out suddenly. “Grandpa called. He said something about wanting to talk with you.”
Freezing, Alex clenched his fists as he thought about his grandfather. “Is that so? Well, I’m not too keen on talking to him.”
Alice shrugged. “I figured. I just thought I’d let you know he called.”
“Thanks.”
While Alice wandered back into the living room, no doubt to watch the holovid, Alex took Gabrielle on the promised tour.
Their house consisted of two floors and one basement. The first place that Alex showed her was the second floor, which had three bedrooms—his, his sister’s, and the master bedroom.
“This is going to be your room,” Alex said as he opened the door to the master bedroom.
The master bedroom was twice the size of his and Alice’s rooms. With soft beige carpet, white walls, and basic furnishings, it didn’t have any personal touches anymore. Alex had removed his parents’ stuff and stored it in a closet.
“It’s kind of small, isn’t it?” Gabrielle asked.
Alex furrowed his brow. “Small?”
“Yeah. Aren’t bedrooms supposed to be bigger?” Gabrielle observed the room a second longer, and then nodded to herself. “Well, I don’t think that will be a problem.”
Alex had no clue what she was talking about, but he didn’t question her. He was sure that he didn’t want to know.
The tour continued. Alex didn’t show her Alice’s room since it belonged to his sister, and she was touchy about letting people into her room. However, he did let Gabrielle see his room.
“Wow! This is even smaller than the first room!” was the first thing that she said.
Alex twitched. “I’m sorry that it’s so small.”
“Why would you be sorry?” Gabrielle asked. “I like it. It seems cozy, somehow… less lonely, I think.”
“O-oh… well, thank you.”
Alex’s room wasn’t that big, and because it was filled with some of his more… harmless inventions, there wasn’t much space. It had a bed, a desk, and a closet. Several shelves lined the walls, upon which some of his inventions sat. Posters also lined one of his walls. All of them dealt with mechanics and engineering.
“What is this?” Gabrielle asked, grabbing a small bipedal object. It looked somewhat human. It had arms and legs and a head, though its body was much blockier and inorganic—a robot.
“That was one of my first inventions. It’s an automaton that uses a basic solar engine to power itself.” Grabbing a small controller from the shelf, he held it out to Gabrielle. “You use this to control it. Go on. Give it a try.”
Gabrielle set the automaton on the ground, grabbed the controller, and fiddled with it. The automaton started up. Its eyes glowed bright green. Gabrielle laughed delightedly as she used the controller to move it around.
“So cool! What sort of mechanical system does this run on? It doesn’t look like an artificial nervous system, or even a basic exo-system.”
Alex had no idea what an “artificial nervous system” was, never mind an
“exo-system.” Those must have been advanced alien technology, or something.
“It runs on a basic robotics operating system that I designed myself. I made it with linear actuators, which normally requires a pneumatic or hydraulics system, but I created this one to use solar power.”
“So it doesn’t run on universal energy?”
“What’s universal energy?”
“It’s the energy that permeates the universe, of course!”
That doesn’t tell me anything…
For the sake of not appearing stupid, Alex didn’t ask her to elucidate, even though he really wanted to know the specifics of this “universal energy.”
“Well, let’s continue the tour, shall we?”
After his bedroom, Alex showed her the kitchen and the living room.
“You almost done with your tour?” Alice asked.
She wasn’t facing him. She was watching the holovid—a large holographic screen that was projected in the air. The show that she was watching was Titan Girl, which was about a teenage girl who had the strength of a hundred men. She fought evil and rescued people. His sister loved it.
He could see the appeal. A part of him wished that he could be a hero like Titan Girl—well, a male version of Titan Girl.
“Almost,” Alex said. “I just have to show her the lab.”
“Are you sure you should take a girl down there?” Alice’s tone suggested that she thought it was a bad idea.
“It’s fine. I don’t have anything dangerous down there.” When Alice finally turned around and gave him a flat look, he looked away. “… Right now.”
“… Right,” his sister’s dry response made Alex break out in a cold sweat.
I don’t have anything dangerous in my lab…
… Do I?
6
Alex’s lab was less of a lab and more of a workshop. Advanced machinery used for building was arrayed haphazardly around the room. A precision laser, which he used primarily for fusing circuits, welding, and cutting, sat in the center of the room. To the left, a rack hung from the wall. Tools of all sorts, from fusion cutters to hydro-spanners, were attached to it. Even more mechanical contraptions sat on the right.
“Ah!” Gabrielle’s face glowed as she spun around like a child in the middle of the Mars Day festival. If Alex didn’t know any better, he would have said that she was physically glowing--and were those strange wing-like contraptions attached to her suit flapping? “This is so cool! Is that a molecular scanner?!”
Alex looked at the object that she was pointing to. “Oh, yeah. It is.”
“It’s so much bigger than the one I have!”
“You have a molecular scanner?”
“Um!” Gabrielle’s index finger glowed as she swiped her hand through the air. A hologram appeared before her, some kind of menu, it looked like. She pressed a button and, appearing out of nowhere, was a small square device that he vaguely recognized—only it was about ten times smaller than what he was used to.
“That’s a molecular scanner,” Alex stated in disbelief.
“Yep! I made it myself! I call him Mr. Scanner.”
She made her own molecular scanner, and it’s so small!
Molecular scanners were some of the most advanced technology that humanity possessed. They were large because they needed to be, because there were so many components that were necessary that they couldn’t fit into a smaller container. Apparently, that wasn’t the case with alien technology.
How much more advanced are her people compared to humans?
The urge to inundated her with a barrage of questions about her people, her culture, her technology, everything, nearly overwhelmed him. He held himself back, but only because he didn’t want to be rude. He could ask questions after she settled in.
“Anyway, I’m going to make dinner now. Alice is probably starving.”
“Kay!” Gabrielle wasn’t even paying attention to him. She was looking around the lab, her eyes sparkling like glowing emeralds.
“Um, do you want to head back up and watch the holovid with Alice?”
“I think I’ll stay here,” Gabrielle said absently.
“Oh… okay…”
“Do you mind if I make a few modifications to your lab?”
Alex didn’t know what she meant by “modifications,” but he shrugged. “Sure, why not?” he said.
After all, it wasn’t like someone who didn’t have any large-scale equipment could make any serious modifications to his lab.
7
The kitchen. It was probably the third most important place in the house—the first being his lab and the second being his bedroom. It was also the place where Alex spent around a third of his time when he was home. For the past five years, ever since they’d started living alone, Alex had done all of the cooking. He was damn good at it, too.
Alice couldn’t cook to save her life.
Though it required the use of a complex combination of herbs and spices, curry was a relatively simple dish to make. After gathering the ingredients, pots, pans, and utensils he fired up the fusion-powered convection oven. Then he added and mixed the ingredients.
Curry took 35 minutes to cook. Alex used that time to set the table, remembering to add one more plate for Gabrielle. He hoped she would like his cooking. Alice always said that his food tasted great, but she’d been living with him since he started. Her opinion was biased, likely because she remembered a time when his cooking hadn’t been so great.
“Alice?” Alex called out as he entered the living room. “Curry’s almost ready. Could you please get Gabrielle? She’s still in the lab.”
“Kay,” Alice said, her eyes not leaving the screen.
Alex frowned, but he went back into the kitchen and finished preparing dinner. Then he waited for Alice and Gabrielle to arrive.
And he waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Glancing at the clock, Alex frowned. It was 1800 hours. It had been 1750 when he’d asked Alice to get Gabrielle.
Don’t tell me she’s still watching the holovid.
Entering the living room, Alex prepared to lecture his sister—only to pause when he realized that she wasn’t there. The holovid had been turned off. The room was empty.
Are she and Gabrielle still in the lab?
Alex went down to the lab. He paused at the door when several strange noises came from inside. With a strange pit settling in his stomach, he took several slow, deep breaths, and then opened the door and walked inside.
“Alice, Gabrielle, it’s time for din… ner…” he trailed off, his eyes slowly widening.
A Most Unlikely Hero, Vol. 1 Page 3