“If you type your code in, you can access information on each world.” He had me tap it, and then the icon for the first red one. What had to be a hundred language options appeared, and he showed me how to access English.
Trellion: Class three ice planet. Life forms: Core-dwelling bipedal. Intelligent.
The details went on for pages, and under different circumstances, I could have spent days reading about other worlds and learning why some were hidden over others. I thought back to the huge drilling ships we’d seen entering Earth’s atmosphere hours ago and knew I didn’t have time for that now.
“Where are the Bhlat?”
“They are here.” He had me scroll to the next page, pointing it out in the second row. “They live on multiple worlds now, but this is their homeworld, where their royalty lives.” Kareem let out a series of coughs, doubling over on the table. I lowered him to the ground, worried when he couldn’t seem to catch his breath.
“We have to get you back,” I said, reaching for the device.
“No. Let me die here. It would be an honor to die among the gods.” He coughed again, blood dripping from his chin. His skin was clammy, and he lay himself down on the stone floor. His breathing was ragged, and he closed his eyes between his hacking bouts. “Dean. This is your destiny. From the day you stepped foot in that restaurant in Central Park, you’ve been on a course. This is where you were meant to end up. Be the man I see you are. Change…the universe.” His words came out slowly, between breaths, and then it was over. His chest stopped rising and falling, and I sat there holding his thin hand as the last breath left his ailing lungs.
Change the universe.
TWENTY-ONE
“Thank you for following through on your word,” Leslie said, giving us each a hug. The normally cranky hybrid woman was in high spirits, having her friends back. The rescued hybrids were doing well, their ailments fixed and their body weights rising. We’d said goodbye to them before Terrance gathered us to fly us down to the portal.
“Look us up if you ever need anything.” This from Terrance.
“We will. You two take care of the others,” Magnus said with a wink. “And each other.”
The two of them looked at one another and smiled.
We left them behind, just the three of us on our way to another impossible mission.
“After it’s all said and done, I don’t mind those two,” Magnus said.
“You weren’t the one chasing them around on a fool’s errand,” Mary said, mirroring my own thoughts.
Soon we were back in the portal room, where Kareem’s body still lay. Some of his people had covered him with a veil, and a glowing shield surrounded him so he wouldn’t be tampered with. Mary looked at him uneasily, as if he would rise from the dead and walk toward us with his white sheet covering him. We were told the shield would prevent his body traveling with the portal.
“Time to get back to New Spero,” I said, scrolling to the right icon. The walls were glowing when I tapped the symbol for our destination, and when I opened my eyes, we were back in the mountainside portal room near Terran Five. I slid out the relocating device Kareem had gifted me and added this location into it. It would be a time-saver to be able to travel right here from Terran One later.
As soon as we got out of the tunnels and into the transport ship, exhaustion took over. We’d been up for a long time and needed to sleep before we took the next step. Running around alien worlds half asleep wasn’t going to do anything but get us killed.
My eyes fell closed, and as we took off for Terran One, I turned to a light sleep. Dreams of Kareem dying, of the dirty Siberian prison, and the impending trip to the Bhlat world hit me as my subconscious took over. In one of the visions, Mary ended up dying. It was a terrible glimpse into a potential future I was going to make sure didn’t happen.
When I woke, Mary’s head was leaned against my shoulder. Magnus was in the front piloting us safely back to the landing pad at the home base. It was dark outside, a cloud-covered night sky casting an unusual blackness to the surroundings. I woke Mary and hesitantly stepped down out of the comfort of the transport’s cab.
It was nighttime on New Spero, but that didn’t stop the base from being a bustle of activity.
“General, are we ever glad to see you back in one piece. Unless something happened, our fleet is due to arrive at Earth in less than two days,” a breathless uniformed officer said.
“Anything else, Tucker?” Magnus asked. He looked like he was almost asleep on his feet.
“One of our transport vessels went missing this morning,” Tucker said.
“Can’t you track it?”
The man shook his head. “The tracking was cut off. The culprit knew what they were doing.”
“Probably some kids going for a joyride. If nothing else is urgently needed, restock our supplies and charge our weapons. We leave at first light. Mary, Dean, are we good with that?” Magnus asked us. He was using his take-charge “general” voice.
“Yes, sir.” Tucker turned around and left at a brisk walk.
“You two want to go home for a few hours?” This from Magnus.
Mary nodded, and I knew Magnus was aching to see his family. I tapped the base location into the Relocator before we left. Then we were heading back down the dirt roads that had led us away from our house just a couple of days ago. So much had happened since then, and the weight of it all pressed on my temples as my head pounded.
Our house appeared, and we told Magnus we’d see him in a few hours.
“Say hi to Nat for us,” Mary said. “And Magnus?”
“Yeah?”
“Get some sleep. We need to be on our toes for this to work,” she finished.
He threw the Jeep in reverse and left us standing in front of our house in the dark.
Mary’s hand slipped into mine, assuredly squeezing my fingers. It was her way of telling me everything was going to work out, without saying it.
In less than ten minutes, we were both showered, hair still wet as we crawled into bed. The pillow felt like heaven as my head hit it, and I only had enough time to tell Mary I loved her before drifting off into a deep sleep.
Dreams riddled my sleep, and I tossed and turned as I future-projected our upcoming day. Every way I saw it, Mary ended up dead. In one of the dreams, I saw us walking fictitious streets on the Bhlat world, and I walked into a house where a thin woman lay on a bed. My old bed. The one I’d shared with Janine. Only it was Mary coughing up blood. She looked at me with sad eyes. “When the ships come…wear the necklace.”
I woke in a pool of sweat, fumbling for my neck, where the chain still hung after all this time. Mary was still sleeping soundly beside me, and I leaned in, kissing her cheek lightly. I couldn’t let anything happen to her, and while I knew it was my subconscious worrying, my gut told me she couldn’t come to the Bhlat world with me. I needed to do this by myself.
The floor was cold to the touch as my bare feet hit it. I nearly tripped over the pants I’d left on the floor, and I snatched them up, careful to not let the belt jangle.
I fumbled in the closet, found a long-sleeved shirt of an unknown color, and walked to the hallway with the clothes. Once dressed, I made for the kitchen, where a notepad sat beside a pen. Mary’s gardening notes were listed on the first few pages, and I ripped a blank page out from the middle.
Mary was going to be pissed with me, but I felt like there was no choice. Our fleet was arriving soon, and bringing in a half-dozen war machines wasn’t going to end well. We needed to beat them to the punch and use the warships only as backup.