Down below beyond, p.15
Down Below Beyond, page 15
The portal to Dive was still active. Floem had been clear she wouldn’t force Piper to stay if she didn’t want to. The mirror hung, vibrating in place. Floem’s human friend pulled up two chairs so they could watch Sevodan work. Piper thanked him and took a seat.
Floem introduced her friends and sat with them. “I know it’s a lot, but it’s been interesting. We can leave the portal to Dive open if you change your mind, but if you want to stay, you are welcome to. Even if you decide to leave later, we can always find a different Lodespace world to bring you to so you can return to your life. No obligations to stay.”
Piper wondered, What would Thea think of this? Personal portals. Worlds only a skip away. We spent so much time traveling by ship that suddenly, it feels old-fashioned to keep that up. Piper knew what Thea would recommend. She felt her sister’s warmth in her heart, and it brought her a smile to know she was carrying her with her across the universe.
“Shut the portal off. I’ll stay for a while if that’s all right,” Piper said resolutely.
“Why not try it yourself?” Vobsii asked. He held the gateslinger out in front of her. Piper looked down at the weird thing in the Resluni’s hand. It was curved and covered in strange letters. Three triggers lined its grip. She picked it up and held it like a smitegun.
Levort added, “Point it at the portal and squeeze any trigger. It’ll collapse it.”
Piper turned to the portal and held the device forward. For a moment, she held still, allowing the situation to sink in. This was a leap—longer than any portal could throw her. It felt like the early days of traveling with Thea, hopping rides on ships, and meeting new friends. Adventure awaited. Goodbye, Thea. I will have so many stories to tell you when we meet again.
A light flashed from the device and slapped the portal. It burst, and only the flower-filled horizon glistened in the setting sun beyond it. Piper took a deep breath and turned back toward the others. She held the device out for Vobsii, and he slung it into his holster.
“One of us!” Floem squealed with joy. “About time we had another lady around here. Skipper’s not much of a conversationalist, and I’ve been hanging out with these two fart-boys for too long.”
Piper laughed.
Levort waved Floem off. “It’s good to have you with us!”
Piper thanked them. “Floem mentioned the Beyond language. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t be able to read the tablet. Wish I could be more useful.”
Levort shook his head. “That’s no problem. It’s not about usefulness with us. We’re on the hunt for someone who can read the tablet. It might hold some keys to reaching the Beyond. The more of us who can portal walk, the more worlds we can cover.” Levort stopped for a moment and looked away. He added, “But we have to be careful. The Fessenog Fleet wants to hide the Beyond at all costs. There is another portal walker, but he’s…”
“We need to be careful to avoid him,” Vobsii interjected. “Luckily, he wouldn’t know you, so as long as we keep the portal out of sight, you’re as safe as can be.”
Piper nodded. “I’m aware of the risks.”
Floem spread her arms out. “She’s a tourist! She gets the drill. Space is dangerous, strangers are bad, and don’t eat the Yolmit. All that.”
Vobsii said, “A tourist. Great!”
Piper mentioned, “I had been traveling with my sister. I picked up a lot of skills along the way. Maybe I can put some to use.” She looked at the rusty tourist ship. “I’m a pretty good pilot. But I don’t know…”
Levort looked over his shoulder at the ship and laughed. “Yeah, the Tumbleweed is a work in progress. But we’ll get her flight capable again someday.”
Sevodan floated over to the group with their entourage of themself. The Mulptre said, “The shelter is complete. Would you like to see our work?”
Levort stood from his chair. “Lead the way.”
Piper followed the human, the Resluni, the Alberryan, and the Mulptre toward the shelter. It was perfectly built, a structure that would be considered luxury-class in most worlds. It was curved on one side, resembling an elongated half-moon, with windows facing the setting sun. The interior had multiple rooms but no furniture. “We will build anything requested. Bloom only has so much. We will need to portal walk to retrieve the correct materials,” Sevodan explained.
Long windows on the far wall of each room had curtains made of flower petals. The structure smelled like welded metal and flowers, giving it a new-spaceship-yet-wild smell. The floor was bare, but Sevodan explained, “We intend to make paneling once we secure wood. It is built to accommodate future enhancements.”
Levort shouted, his voice echoing off the walls, “This is amazing, Sevodan!”
The group finished the tour of their new shelter and enjoyed the sunset on Bloom. Sevodan showed them some fun tricks they could do, bouncing themselves together into various shapes while Piper and Floem enjoyed more wine they had brought from Dive. Vobsii casually drank Mubb while Levort tried to get his taste for the fermented algae with a lot of coughing.
TWENTY-SIX
A quarter cycle, Fleet Standard, passed.
Bayfo Niall needed a lead. He had been hopping worlds nonstop in all his waking hours. He had seen the skies of a thousand planets, each stranger than the last, but he had not run into Levort Aatra since his close encounter on Grotrane. Each failure put him in deeper danger. Bayfo knew Gulna might consider him a threat if he couldn’t deliver Levort.
Bayfo knew too much.
Alas, Bayfo also knew too little.
Wolil never explained the gateslinger to Bayfo. Having always been a quick study, he had gotten far on experimentation alone. But he was still flying blind. Bayfo planned to change that, so he took a risk and convinced Gulna to let him visit Wolil’s prison cell in the Yawning Lock.
The lift brought Bayfo down into the depths of Fernomare, the small world near Tayoxe’s star used as Gulna’s deepest, darkest prison. Captain Tegarl Myrs greeted him in the guard shack upon his arrival. She had been briefed and gave him access to the rest of the Lock.
A robotic jailor named Abnat guided Bayfo’s path. It was a dumb mechanical thing designed to do its job without mercy. It brought Bayfo down many layers in the cylindrical prison pit. Each cell contained a frost wall to prevent the prisoners from seeing and conversing with each other.
Bayfo had no idea why Gulna kept Beyonders alive. His treatment of them was baffling. Still, they were Bayfo’s ticket to the life he always dreamed of. They were his pathway to saving his friend from a dangerous cult—or a similar fate in the Yawning Lock.
Abnat came to a cell. The wall facing Bayfo was ice blue and cold to the touch, as were the cells flanking it. Bayfo turned to the robot and nodded his head. The robot’s inner workings clicked and whirred, and the iced wall melted away, revealing Wolil. She sat against the far wall with her arms on the floor.
Wolil shook her head as if she had been sleeping. She blinked her large eyes and whispered, “Wha… What?”
“I have some questions for you, Beyonder,” Bayfo said, standing outside the crisscrossed cell bars that had replaced the ice wall.
“Oh. It’s you,” Wolil sighed.
Bayfo unholstered the gateslinger and showed it to Wolil. “I need to know what the second trigger does.”
Wolil smiled and said, “Why not hand it to me so I can show you?”
“There’s no time for these games. Just tell me what the second trigger does,” Bayfo demanded. His tone grew hurried and frustrated.
“Or what? You’ll shoot me?” Wolil guffawed. “Please do. I’m getting really tired of this dreadful place.”
Bayfo shook his head and looked at Abnat. The robot nodded and moved to the next cell over. Wolil perked up and cocked a brow. The robot whirred internally, and the ice wall of the other cell melted.
Another Beyonder was inside the cell, curled into a fetal position. Like Wolil, he had four arms, was mostly nude, and had green and blue skin. He moved slowly, as if recovering from shell shock, and turned to Bayfo. He quickly shrunk away toward the back wall. “No, no! I already told you what I know!”
“Quiet. I’m not here for whatever you’re babbling about,” Bayfo said. “Your name is Reedor, correct?”
“Y-yes.”
“Reedor! I’ve been looking for you!” Wolil shouted as she slammed against the cell bars.
“Wolil?” Reedor whispered. “Oh no… They trapped you here too.”
“Quiet now, you two,” Bayfo warned them. He patted the smitegun in his holster.
Wolil sneered at Bayfo, her eyes crunched with worry. “What are you doing?”
Bayfo ignored her question. He held the gateslinger in front of Reedor and asked, “Can you tell me how this works?”
Reedor’s breaths became short, and his eyes darted from Bayfo to the gateslinger to Wolil. He shook his head in quick, uneven movements.
Bayfo twirled the device in his hand and asked, “What if I promised to free you?”
Wolil asked again, “What are you doing?”
“Promise?” Reedor whimpered.
“Reedor!” Wolil shouted.
Reedor ignored her plea.
“I promise to free you if you teach me about this device.” Bayfo stopped twirling the gateslinger and held it still. “I don’t even need much. I only need to know what the second trigger does.”
Wolil slammed her fist against her cell bars. “He’s lying, Reedor! Don’t fall for it!”
Bayfo shouted, “You had your chance! Reedor can benefit from your hesitation.”
Reedor cautiously shuffled toward the cell bars. He looked the device up and down and said, “Is-is it linked?”
Bayfo smiled. “You tell me?”
“Reedor! Don’t!” Wolil slammed her hand against the cells again. Abnat slid over to Wolil’s cell with a sickening speed and jolted the bars with electricity. Wolil was thrown against the back wall of her cell. She gritted her teeth and crushed her eyelids together to push down the pain that rattled through her bones.
“It-it looks linked,” Reedor said, stuttering in fear. “If it’s linked, that means the second trigger can do two things.”
“Please…” Wolil begged through her pain.
“Go on.” Bayfo had Abnat approach Reedor’s cell and unlock the door.
Reedor stepped out of the cell and smiled. He started shaking with joy. He took a moment to contain himself. Reedor pointed at the gateslinger and explained, “The second trigger is the Wide setting. It’s used to go to specific places. Since your tool is linked with another, it can portal to the same worlds the other has visited.”
“How?” Bayfo was practically drooling at this information.
Reedor pointed at the various symbols on the device. “Slide that symbol up. It means History in our language. From there, the other marks will change. Each one is the name of the planet the linked device has visited. You can change which planet you want to see by pushing them toward the front of the tool.”
Bayfo did as instructed and watched the symbols change. He still couldn’t read the words the Beyonders had given each world, but his pool of possible leads went from millions to hundreds. Bayfo’s eyes lit up at this revelation.
Wolil whimpered, “Reedor, no.”
Reedor ignored Wolil and looked Bayfo in the eyes. “Am I free?”
“Yes. Have your freedom.” Bayfo pulled his smitegun from its holster and shot Reedor in the chest. The bang of the gun echoed off the cylindrical prison. The Beyonder stumbled back as green blood oozed from the wound on his chest. He locked eyes with Wolil, his last moments filled with the realization of what he had done. Reedor took a couple steps back before silently falling over the railing into the abyss below.
Wolil curled into a ball and wept.
Bayfo holstered his smitegun and nodded to Abnat. Wolil’s cell frosted back over, sealing the Beyonder away until he needed to interrogate her again. Bayfo pointed his gateslinger and squeezed the second trigger. He laughed and walked forward into the lesser unknown.
“I’ll save you, Lev.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
Levort returned from another portal walk in the early morning hours on Bloom. The fresh hit of wildflowers and pure air smacked him in the senses every time he came back. Bloom was becoming the first stable home he ever knew. It retained a comfort Levort had never felt in his one hammock escape pod on Consonance Hub.
But it wasn’t enough.
The Beyond was out there, somewhere far off in space, waiting to be reached. Wolil had told Levort beautiful things about that hidden sector of space—the impossible technologies, the brilliant minds that thrived there—but they weren’t the reason he yearned to reach it. Levort knew if he remained in the Below, Bayfo would be searching for him. When once he hoped to see his old friend again, now he dreaded what might happen if they were to have another encounter. If he could reach the Beyond, he’d be free, and Bayfo couldn’t hunt him anymore. If Bayfo found him first…
Levort shouldered his sack full of foraged supplies from the forested world he’d returned from. Piper Cridhe sat outside one of the structures Sevodan built, sipping a hot cup of something caffeinated that they had discovered on a different world outside of Lodespace. She waved Levort over, and he approached and sat next to her. They watched the sunrise as Piper poured another hot cup for him.
“How was the trip?” Piper asked.
“No dice,” Levort sighed and accepted the mug of hot liquid, watching the steam swirl into the air. “It feels like we’ll never find someone who can decipher this Beyonder tablet.”
“Have you ever thought that we might not need to?”
Levort finished his sip. “What do you mean?”
“Look around, Lev. Bloom is a paradise. You built it with Vobsii and Floem. This is a homestead the original human pioneers would be jealous of.” Piper waved her hand in grand gestures before returning her palm to the warmth of her cup.
Levort looked around. Over the past quarter cycle, they had obtained more mouths to feed. Alien races, both familiar and strange, dotted the floral landscape. Floem was great at finding people from all over Lodespace and elsewhere who wanted to reach the Beyond. Resluni, Alberryans, Kurikoids, Fluctans, Marothallans, and some new races thrilled to be part of something larger helped where they could. Some tended gardens, others milled lumber and helped Sevodan build. Everyone they’d recruited helped maintain and build, and no one was required to stay if they decided to leave. None had left. There was a warmth in the air, a friendliness of gathered star travelers. The new residents of Bloom were officially a colony.
Still, none were able to decipher the Beyonder tablet.
“It would be better in the Beyond,” Levort stated.
“What would be?” Piper asked. “The horizon? The people? The friends?”
“We’d all be safer. What Wolil spoke about the Beyond was amazing.”
“Amazing, sure. Unbelievable, maybe. Impossible, probably. Safer, unclear. You told us you didn’t get to know Wolil well,” Piper mentioned.
“Well, no. But look at everything we’ve obtained because of her. I can’t accept that she was part of some dangerous cult when so much good has come from the technology she’s given us.” Levort shook his head. “The Beyond is real—and it’s out there. If we can get someone to read this tablet, we can get there.”
“We’re with you. All the way,” Piper said. “I only hope you are happy. Life is short. Make sure you appreciate what you have.” She looked into her steaming cup.
Levort placed a hand on Piper’s shoulder and said, “I am happy. You guys are my family at this point. I’ve never been in a place with so much love and friendship.”
Piper smiled.
“That is why I want to take us to the Beyond. I want the best for us all.” Levort looked back toward the horizon, removing his hand from Piper’s shoulder.
Piper nodded. “Okay, Lev.”
“Thanks for the wake-up juice.” Levort stood back up.
“Thanks for the company,” Piper smiled.
Levort tucked the Beyonder tablet into his cloak and walked toward the portal yard. Piper cocked her head and asked, “Already leaving again?”
Levort turned and walked backward as he answered, “Not going to find someone who can read this thing sitting around here.”
Piper shouted, “Just be careful out there.”
Levort approached the Tumbleweed and found Floem tightening straps on her exploring kit. Vobsii sat in the chair facing the yard, rifle laid across his lap and gateslinger in the cup holder.
“Let’s go together this time,” Floem said.
Levort looked at the empty portal yard, then back to Floem. “We cover more ground separately.”
“Yeah, but I’m getting lonely, stumbling around strange worlds all by myself. We’ll split up after this first one today,” Floem bargained.
“Okay, let’s do it.” Levort smiled. “Vobsii, would you be so kind?”
Vobsii grabbed the gateslinger from the cup holder. “Allow me to get the door.” He squeezed the Random trigger, and a light zipped out from the device and slapped into an oval in the yard.
Floem stabbed the jump-phone antenna into the ground and held the other piece in her hand. “All set?” Floem asked.
“Yep. Let’s go,” Levort said.
Together they stepped through the portal.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Levort’s boot sank into the sand. It was hot and dry in this new world, and the sun beat down through a blanketing gray sky. All around the portal were vast wastes, except in one direction, where a grouping of green spheres nested off in the distance.
Floem skipped out from the portal behind Levort and bent over herself. “Woah, this place is a scorcher!”
“Are you going to be all right?” Levort asked with concern. “I can handle this alone if you’d rather go through another one.” Even though he was worried about Floem’s health, Levort was unwilling to give up a world that could hold a tablet reader. His prospector’s gut wouldn’t allow him to pass up even the potential of a win.
