He turned his head and looked to the wall. Against it was something like a row of shelves. He saw a cluster of recognizable items on them, like a small pillow and a notebook. But next to those was a group of odd things, misshapen and colored strangely.
He looked to the girl. The room around them was shaped like a large cube, its surfaces glowing in a gentle white. Just like the previous room, and the hallway that connected them.
"This is unusual," Jo said. "We don't usually bring people here unless we're recruiting them. You're a unique case. I wonder what we'll do with you."
Jeff rested his chin in one of his hands and stared eye-to-eye with Jo, who continued.
"I assume he got away without a trace?"
"Yes. We were too late."
Jeff bolted upright. He hadn't heard the third person enter the chamber, and now turned with widening eyes toward a being who looked like a wireframe drawing of a character without texture, all bright red lines and angles. The body was humanoid but jagged, translucent with pink hues throughout, and narrowed at the joints. The low-poly figure had a "face" that consisted of two horizontal lines for eyes and one for a mouth (presumably), as they articulated along with his throaty, masculine speech. Jeff felt like Star Fox looking up at 16-bit Andross.
"What do you think of it?" The red one nodded toward the item that Jo held.
"You're the only one who can confirm its authenticity, obviously," the girl replied before standing to her feet and holding the artifact out in front of her. "But I don't think the outer metal ring was an original part."
Just as Jeffrey Davidson was beginning to recover from his wormhole-induced motion nausea, here he sat and watched as what looked like a sample of computer artwork accepted the object from a preteen girl. He rubbed his forehead a bit.
"Very good," the wireframe nodded, taking the specimen in question and examining it in his sharp-edged hands. "This is definitely a piece of the Key. I'm sure the Shapers will want it back, without the added ring. I think the ring poses more of a danger as an added variable than any benefit it offers as a clue. Moss should be able to remove it. I've already called for him."
Jeff blinked, breathed, slouched back into his seat, and felt like he should be taking notes.
"All right," Jo responded. "Next, I'm curious what you think of our new visitor. Jeff, meet Crys. Crys, this is Jeffrey Davidson."
"Crys?" Jeff mouthed without making any sound.
Crys faced Jeff and studied him for a moment. He turned back to Jo.
"Right. I don't understand his purpose in this. Surely the Thief could have returned the piece to us without traveling to Earth. This human is unexceptional."
Jeff frowned.
"Aphael assumed that the Thief must have chosen him for a reason," Jo replied.
Crys crossed his arms. "Either this 'Jeff' was merely a messenger, in which case he is expendable, or he is an agent working with the Thief and we have now foolishly allowed him into Haven. In that case, we should kill him immediately."
Jeff looked between the two in rapid shifts, his jaw dropping as he tried to speak but only managed to make a guttural choking sound before Crys continued.
"But. He is also the first person to see the Thief in three years. He was close to him. He saw his ship. He may be the best lead we have if we decide to track our quarry any further."
Jo smiled. "Also, you said yourself that he is clearly unexceptional -- he poses no threat to us. And if there really is a reason the Thief chose him, it's better to have an opportunity to figure it out eventually than lose our chance altogether."
A corner of Crys's mouth pulled upward almost imperceptibly. "I agree. But I also suspect you just want to have another Earthling around here."
Jo furrowed her brow and crossed her own arms. "Would that be so bad? If you're so worried, you can always tag 'im."
Crys laughed at this, giving a synthetic sort of rounded chuckle. "An hour ago we had no idea who Jeffrey Davidson was. And now you want to give him a badge."
Jeff's ears burned at this remark. He could feel blood rushing through his cheeks and a knot forming in his gut.
"Ah, there you are."
"Hi Moss!"
Jeff yelped and pulled his legs up onto the seat-cushion beside him. The three now moved their attention to the floor in front of the sofa.
There was a small, flat, rectangular thing crawling there. It looked like a dingy-gray carpet sample, or maybe an ironically weird, unappealing hairy cell phone cover. It moved like a creature somewhere between an inchworm and a millipede, its body undulating as a whole across the floor yet twitching at the corners sometimes as well. This was Moss, apparently.
Crys knelt, and placed the Key piece onto the floor in front of Moss. Jo leaned toward Jeff and explained, "Moss might be the most powerful member of the Riftguard. Moss... absorbs things. Anything."
Jeff nodded, with some hesitation. All watched as Moss crawled onto the artifact. His body appeared to stretch somewhat, then contort, as he wrapped himself against the silvery ring around the item. His body pulsed. There was a modest puff of smoke, and some hissing sounds.
Then Moss crawled off the Key piece, and it looked as though the metal ring had never been around it. There were no weld marks, or other burns. No cracks, dents, or discolorations could be seen.
"Thank you Moss," Crys said as he retrieved the piece. Moss had already begun crawling back out of the room.
"Jo, you know I have to tell the Council about this," Crys said, as he held the object aloft.
"Ugh, do we have to involve them?"
"Yes. And they may have an opinion about Jeffrey, too. I'll let you know."
Crys exited the lounge with silent steps, overtaking Moss well before the doorway.
The girl sighed, and retook her seat across from Jeff. She massaged her temples for a second, only to clap her hands onto her knees and address Jeff in a mild tone.
"Hey. How are you holding up? Would you like some water?"
Jeff gave a breathy laugh. "Sure. Why not?"
Jo grabbed the tablet that was next to her and began flitting her fingers across its screen. It really did seem pretty much like a typical iPad. Then, as Jeff watched transfixed, a perfectly circular portion of the floor between the facing sofas rose upward in a smooth, seamless motion; like an object pushing against an elastic plane, only without stretching it. The column then receded back downward partially. The part that sank had left behind a perfect glass of clear water, like an advanced 3D printing.
Jeffrey sat for a moment. He pointed to the cup, and looked to Jo. "That was really cool," he said.
The girl shrugged. "Yeah. I don't understand how it works, completely, but every square inch of this place seems able to form itself into anything. If you're here for long enough, you'll start to notice all the multi-colored bits of material that float around just beneath the glowing surface. They move, like schools of fish, toward spots where new structures are built. It's almost eerie."
Jeff finally grabbed the glass, and brought it to his lips. He took a sip. He swallowed. He took a fuller drink. He gulped. He sighed. ... He kept drinking.
"Uh, anyway," Jo said, and swiveled toward the wall that was wholly featureless and bare. "Let me explain a few things."
She tapped her tablet screen a few times, and the room went dim. Jeff shifted more comfortably in his seat. He had finished the water. He spent a quizzical moment searching for a spot to place his glass, and ended up setting it on the floor. Jo began to speak.
"There is a small group of beings called The Council. They live on a planet by themselves, and have volunteered their lives to the purpose of monitoring the universe for threats to its survival and offering their services to help solve problems brought to them by any race advanced enough to make contact. This assistance could be anything from counsel on a trade issue to intervening in natural disaster relief. They represent considerable resources, both in their knowledge and tangible materials."
As Jo spoke, a wide section of the wall showed accompanying video footage, like an enormous flatscreen television. The members of the Council filed by quickly, a handful of beings that varied in their appearance, from an unstable pseudospirit to a fearsome beast. They met in chambers that appeared rather rustic and wooden, like they lived in connected log cabins or conducted business inside of a giant tree.
"One day, they were contacted by a Shaper. The Shapers are a reclusive, ancient race, probably one of the very oldest in the universe, and possibly the most advanced. With nothing but their bare hands, they seem able to create new matter from nothing, even in sophisticated technological arrangements. They have not shared how they are able to do this, and are very quiet in general. They conduct their research in an almost religious fashion, with ritualistic elements."
The wall showed the Council seated in a half-circle, facing a single humanoid being. Their visitor was clad in plain, earthtone clothing. A simple tan tunic over pants and soft shoes was capped off by a head totally wrapped in light fabric. Not a square inch of skin was visible.
"The Shaper explained that their race had been working on a new technology for a very long time, one that would enable them to transport anything in the universe from one place to another without needing to be near its point of origin nor its destination. But during a critical operation near the end of its construction, something happened to one of its components."
On-screen, a half-dozen Shapers were marching across the barren surface of a dry, arid planetscape, rocky and cast in sandy hues beneath a hazy yellow-gray sky. They carried an instrument that was as large as any of them were. Behind them trailed dozens of other Shapers. They advanced in uniform silence.
Suddenly, a figure crash-landed to the ground close to the procession, with enough force to send out a rumbling shockwave and a cloud of dust. In the short moment it took for a handful of Shapers to regain their composure and draw weapons, the newcomer had already swung a staff to hit the two whom still carried the instrument. They dropped it, so he grabbed it, and leaped straight up into the skies above.
Jeff took a deep breath and scooted closer to the wall-screen. He recognized this interloper as the same alien he had encountered outside his apartment building earlier tonight.
The display continued, as the saboteur tore higher into the atmosphere as bolts and rays of energy fired at him in vain from below. While the Shapers were still scrambling to find their starships, the one who interrupted their ceremony was escaping low orbit and flying into the darkness of space.
The video scene returned to the Council meeting room.
"The Shaper, named Rorrund Laeh'nai, explained the component that had been stolen was something called The Key. However, it was not yet finished, and what happened next would alter the course of the universe forever."
Back over the Shaper homeworld, the Key-stealer was moving into the vacuum of space. He held the Key, and began trying to do something to it, manipulate it somehow. But there was a flash, and then there was darkness. A globe of impenetrable blackness now blotted out even the stars behind it.
"This is the Rift," Jo said. "It is an expanding sphere of nothingness. Not just empty space, and not a black hole, but something that shifts all it touches into non-existence."
On-screen, the initial globe indeed began to grow. While it was difficult to 'see,' given that it was a pocket of non-space, its boundary cut a dramatic swath as it ate away at the Shaper homeworld, the planet silently sliding into nothingness within the maw of the Rift. A few ships were able to escape this fate, but not many.
The scene transitioned back to the Council, as they listened to Laeh'nai's tale.
"The Shaper representative explained that the Rift threatened to swallow the entire universe, everything in existence; however, there was hope. The few remaining Shapers had succeeded in the one task they were all-consumed to now complete: Building something called the Anchor which, as long as it was intact, prevented the Rift from expanding any farther."
Jeffrey chuckled at all the self-important titles given to everything. Key this, Rift that, and now: The Anchor.
"This is where things get a bit tricky," Jo said.
"Ah," Jeff said.
"Laeh'nai explained that the Anchor was very fragile, extremely delicate in its high-precision workings, and relied on avoiding absolutely any interference in order to operate. The Shapers were too few in number to be able to protect it while also work on a solution to close the Rift permanently. At their current pace, they were spread so thin that the Anchor would inevitably fail before they could finish a solution. This quandary led them to make contact with the Council."
On-screen, the lone Shaper was still addressing the seated Council, but conversation was getting more involved and animated, as Council members began waving their appendages and otherwise voicing their feelings. Jeff only now realized that the footage had all been silent, and Jo was providing the only soundtrack.
"After discussion, recess, and a chance to verify the status of the Rift independently, the Council and the Shaper came to an ambitious accord. The Council agreed that it served the universe best for the Shapers to be able to focus entirely on sealing the Rift. In order to do so, the Council would create the Riftguard, an initiative to form an elite combat unit recruited from throughout the universe to counter any threats to the Anchor. In return, Laeh'nai would remain with the Council to oversee this new project and assist in constructing Haven, the new Riftguard headquarters, along with lending the services of Moss, an artificial being the Shapers had created as part of the development of their original teleportation technology but whom would now be on loan until they could return to that process. He also created Crys, and the two would exchange regular contact."
Jeff nodded, and blinked, and really tried to remember everything. Jo continued.
"The actual location of the Anchor is kept a secret from the members of the Riftguard, but they are frequently sent on missions to discourage certain factions or powerful individuals from gaining a foothold in any nearby sectors. There are a few primary groups that we encounter frequently, such as the Dictatorship and the Lo'kythians. The A.I. collectives usually aren't so aggressive, surprisingly, and besides, they... unlike the, say, um... the..."
Jo's voice grew quiet, then silent. Jeff had furrowed his brow, focused on watching the images on the screen. The scene had shifted. No longer were there peaceful beings holding conversation in Council chambers. Instead, that vision had been replaced with up-close clips of battles and skirmishes.
The monk-angel, drawing an enormous blade and mowing down a formation in precise, brutal strokes. The soldier Jeff had met earlier, now shown in action, popping off shot after shot of plasma that burst through the flesh of violet-skinned aliens, operating with cold efficiency, dropping two more before he knelt behind cover. A reptilian warrior, letting forth an open-jawed roar before using nothing but claws and muscles to tear a larger opponent into two ragged-edged halves. A piece of rock caving in someone's skull. A cloud of gas descending on an encampment. Someone being chased in the dark.
Jo turned to Jeff, who kept staring at the unfolding vistas of raw violence.
"We kill a lot of people," the girl said. "I think it's worth mentioning. And it may be best to remember that we are a combat unit, and to think of these engagements as part of a real war. I believe our cause is worthy, and the stakes cannot be higher, but there is a cost."
She looked down, to the floor. At that moment, she appeared in the video. On-screen, Jo's small body emerged from the tight squeeze of a metallic shaft and fell onto an imposing foe below. She grit her teeth and strained as she brought an object beneath his chin and locked it there, pulling from behind. The item she used for strangling was long, thin, and flexible yet sturdy. On closer view, it was also hairy -- a leg she had torn off something else from an earlier encounter.
She applied a choking pressure, the beastly target growling and flailing his arms, trying to get her off of him. She had kicked against the wall beside him with both her feet. The two tumbled to the floor. Jo leaned to one side and crossed her wrists over each other, making the giant-insect leg press visibly into the tender neck of her target. He began to panic, kicking his legs and clawing at the exoskeleton limb at his throat, even as his body weight threatened to crush Jo.
Soon, he was moving no longer.
"Anyway," Jo said from the sofa, "You're not a normal recruit, so we can skip a lot of this." She tapped her tablet screen, and the playback began to fast-forward. Still, Jeff could detect fleeting images here and there. Anatomy diagrams, text descriptions, presumably more information on the enemies they encountered most frequently.
"In fact, let me just show you one last thing to bring you up to speed." On-screen, the being who stole the Key was surprised by a portal opening in front of him. The Riftguard began pouring out, although there were only a handful of them back then.
"We assumed the Thief was lost in the Rift, so we were surprised when Crys found him one day. Haven was still so new, and there were not many of us at the time. Recruitment had hardly begun. But we had our chance, and took it. Still, even with Aphael and Moss leading the charge, the Thief escaped unharmed."
Indeed, a clip played that showed the Thief moving with unnatural speed, evading any of the Riftguard's attempts to close their distance. He leaped over buildings, he dashed around tight corners, he flung his body through impossible gaps. Soon he escaped their sight fully.
"That was years ago. After that encounter, the Thief faded back into obscurity, presumably now tipped to our attempts to track him. Which is why you're here. Not only have you had contact with the Thief, but he even left you a piece of the Key. We had assumed that was lost in the Rift, too. How can we be sure of anything, anymore?"
She shook her head, and tapped her tablet a couple times. The wall-screen went blank, now appearing as a normal part of the room around them, which now also lit up to its standard brightness.
Jo looked to Jeff. "I know it's a lot. Thanks for listening. Do you have any questions?"
Jeffrey laughed a sputtering, boiled-over kind of laugh. "Yeah, just a million or two, y'know." He smiled, though, as he looked back at her. "How old are you?"
"Ten years," she replied.
Jeff nodded, and looked around the room at nothing in particular. "Yeah, that's. Okay. I don't understand a lot of this, but I don't think I'm a complete idiot. You're telling me about the end of the world, and this Riftguard here to protect it, like the Avengers in space, and it's made up of all these different badass alien mercenaries or something. And then I come in. I'm unusual, not a 'normal recruit' as you said. Except, I'm not even the only human here. There's two of us from Earth, me and you. Me being here, that's just random, nobody knows why I was chosen and it's confusing people. But, you? You were here first."
He spread his arms to his sides and frowned at the air around them before returning to eye contact.
"How did you get caught up in all this?" Jeff asked.
They were interrupted by a gentle, repetitive tone that emanated throughout Haven.
Boop! ... Boop! ... Boop!
The sound effect was accompanied by a flashing band of red on the walls in a circumference around the entire room, about six inches tall and about six feet above the floor.
"That's the convening signal," Jo said, and got up to her feet. "Now we all gather in the Theater for the mandatory mission briefing. If you were tired of my talking, you're in luck: We're about to see some action instead."
She walked away, out the door.
Jeff frowned, again. He sighed. He hesitated. He got up, and followed her down the hall.
> Read Chapter 3
You know, your self-deprecating chapter title notwithstanding, this was as well-handled and interesting an info-dump as I’ve ever seen. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThank you much!
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