Seeing is Becoming: Antibiotics (Part V)

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Saga trekked through the mud and thicket of the Diamond Forest with determination. Despite being natives to this land, her small search party found themselves easily falling behind her. They informed her that their home continent had more mountains and lakes, and fewer forests and deserts. She, on the other hand, was used to extreme terrain. Her job required adaptation, and she absolutely loved it. Sometimes she was miles and miles away from the nearest human. She found comfort in being alone, not because she didn’t like people, but because it left her to her own devices. The knowledge that the smallest of problems could lead to death made life that much more exciting. It was then that she realized that, aside from Vearden, she was probably lightyears from the nearest human. That was enough to make her shiver. Isolation is one thing.

Saga kept pushing forward, and eventually found herself in a clearing. The land was much flatter and barren ahead of her. When she looked back, the forest was gone. She had been transported again, but to where? Up ahead was a small white building. It could have been a home, or a one-room schoolhouse. She hadn’t really seen how the common Orothsew live, so she very well could have still been on the same planet. The rest of her group hadn’t come with her, though, so she shrugged her shoulders and moved on. There was obviously nothing more she could do to find Vearden.

Seeing no other option, she knocked on the door. A man answered it. He looked exhausted and scared, and barely noticed that she was dressed in unusual garb. She was so shocked that she barely noticed he was wearing unusual garb as well. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“Um...I was just wondering if you...had a telephone that I could borrow?”

That woke him up. “A telephone?” he said with a bit of a laugh. “You have about a decade before the telephone is invented, if I recall correctly. It’s 1868.”

“Oh, really?”

“What year are you from?”

“21st century,” Saga said. “You?”

“20th.” He looked a bit relieved. “Don’t tell me what happens.”

“Are we on Earth?”

“The hell else would we be?”

“Never mind.”

“You wouldn’t happen to be a doctor, would you?”

“Nah, I’m sorry,” Saga replied. I’m just a photographer.”

He was phenomenally disappointed. It did seem that she was sent there to help. They didn’t know who was sending them through time and space, or exactly why they were doing it. But the...powers that be, let’s call them, appear to have some kind of reason. It couldn’t just be random. The fact that she was sent back to Earth, but over 150 years earlier, had to mean something. Either she was there to help him, or he was there to help her. She was sure of it.

“But I did happen to have a medical kit when I slipped back.”

“Do you have antibiotics?”

“Indeed, for animals.”

“I thought you took pictures.”

“Yes, but you can’t usually buy human antibiotics unless you’re already sick. Survivalists buy from pet stores to be prepared.”

“You’re beautiful,” the man said. “Come on in, please. My name is Sam, by the way.”

“Saga,” she volleyed. She stepped inside and began to dig through her pack.

“Interesting name. Common in the future?” He led her into another room where a woman was sitting up in bed. She was coughing and sweating profusely. Another man was keeping her cool with a wet towel. “Who is this?”

“Our savior,” Sam answered. “She has antibiotics. Right now, we’re the only people in the world who can effectively treat pneumonia.”

“She does?” the other woman asked.

“Are those the things that kill germs and cure diseases?”

“They are,” Saga confirmed. “In so many words.”

“Looks like we’ve encountered another salmon,” the second man said. “I’m Edward. This is our friend, Lorena. Those two are from the future. I’m from the past.”

“Saga,” she repeated. “Future.”

“Are those them?” Sam asked.

“Uh, yeah.” She handed him the bottle. “Here, sorry. I just didn’t expect to meet anyone else like me. Have you been doing this long?”

“Well, with time travel, it’s a little hard to tell,” Sam said while he took a couple pills from the bottle and gave them to Lorena. “But it’s been at least a year. She and I come from the same time, and we keep meeting him at different times. Something is pulling us together, just like it pulled you here.”

“That’s fascinating. I just started. There’s no way to tell what year, though; not where I was.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’m not sure you’re ready for that.” She pointed to Edward. “I know that he isn’t.”

Edward laughed. “I think I would surprise you.”

“How many of these can you spare?”

“Every last one of them,” Saga said. That there bottle is yourn.”

Lorena nearly spit out her water. “That’s the spirit. You’re already acting like it’s 1868. You’ll fit right in. But where did you get those clothes?”

“That’s what you’re not ready for,” Saga said teasingly.

“Just tell me one thing,” Lorena started, sitting up to get more comfortable. “Do they still remember Kurt Cobain where you’re from?”

Saga shook her head affirmatively. “Of course we do.”

“Was it Courtney? I’ve always thought she did it.”

“Still just rumors, far as I know.”

Lorena grew sadder. “Could I ask you a favor?”

“I’ll do whatever I can. I can’t be sure how long I’m staying here, though.”

“We consistently head backwards in time. Edward has agreed to look him up if he reaches that point, but I was hoping you would too. It’s my son. I left him in 1994.” She began to choke up. “I don’t think I’ll ever see him again. But if you only just started, there’s a chance your pattern lets you go back and forth.”

Saga breathed in deeply. She had been hesitant to explain herself, but it was probably inevitable. She didn’t want to lie. “It’s true that I don’t know my pattern, and that my foray into 1868 was...unexpected, even after my first jump. So there’s a chance I’ll run into him. But I feel it’s only right that you know that I’m not, strictly speaking, a time traveler. I was sent to another planet. That’s why we didn’t know what year it was while we were there. I promise to look for your son if I can. I fear, however, that such a thing rests in the hands of whatever entity is controlling us.”

“I know,” Lorena agreed. “We do not appear to have control. I would still like to think that they listen to us. Maybe the three of us are stuck with our patterns, but maybe you’re not. Maybe you don’t have a pattern at all, and they really will take your feelings into consideration. I’m very religious. And I actually don’t believe in the powers that be. I believe only in God. And I trust in him.”

“I sure hope you’re right, Lorena. After these last couple of days, I’m not certain I’m not already home. But for you, I’ll pray to go back, if only to check on your son. What’s his name. Where might I find him?”

Lorena gave her the information. Sam had a few requests as well, but nothing quite so profound. To their surprise, Saga remained with them in the mid 19th century for the next three years. At that point, a portal opened up in the middle of nowhere, and she felt drawn back through it, knowing in her heart that Orothsew was where she belonged at the time. She stepped through and looked back at the friends she had grown to love deeply. Sam and Lorena disappeared to continue their travels in time, leaving Edward behind alone. He smiled and waved as well. The portal closed.

“Where did you just come from?” Vearden asked. He then took her in a bear hug.

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Microstory 85: The Eighth Seal

And then I looked up in horror as the eighth seal was torn open. Limbs fell from the trees, sparks flew out of the junction boxes, sewage bubbled up across the roads, and gas exploded on every corner. 2 Rain dripped between the shingles, the internet became spotty, and orange cones littered the sidewalks, but never near the many holes in the ground. 3 My car broke down in the middle of nowhere. The cell towers tumbled, and there was no reception. 4 The air conditioners and heaters failed across the world, and no one knew how to turn on fans or put on coats. 5 The traffic lights were lit up with all three colors, or none at all. 6 And ye, it was a frightening sight as dozens of service trucks began to terrorize the city. They parked at least two feet from the curb. The operators smoked cigarettes and made lewd comments to the passersby, but they never did any work. 7 A man who was their leader danced wickedly on the largest of the service trucks, and the service truck was yellow, for that is the grossest color for a vehicle. He answered the phone and claimed to the people that their call was important to them, and that a representative would help at the earliest possible moment. 8 And once all of the seals were brought together, the world ended.

Microstory 84: Telekinesis

When a citizen of The Core reaches 16 standard years (a little over 18 in our terms) they are eligible to receive some kind of telekinesis. They are born without it so that they may grow up learning problem-solving skills, and how to do things for themselves, rather than relying on the easy way out. There are two major types: enfixed and germ. Germ TK utilizes a completely natural genetic component already within each and every one of us. It cannot be enhanced, undone, or otherwise modified. If you choose the germ route, your telekinetic abilities are limitless, but they require practice. You are only as powerful as your own understanding of that power. Enfixed TK is far more common. Unless your profession requires superstrength (such as construction work) you'll only be marginally stronger than you are without TK. For instance, you won't be able to lift a car, but you can open the door without having to touch it. There are variants of enfixed TK that depend of what you need it for. Surgeons, chefs, and law enforcement authorities have an untraceability variant, to prevent cross-contamination, since regular enfixed TK leaves behind a harmless but detectable residue. But this is not needed for pilots. Instead, as you might expect, they are particularly exceptional at flying.

Enfixed TK can be taken away and replaced, and everyone with the same variant will be on equal footing. In order to surpass the norm, you're going to need the germ. The danger with that is that if you're just not any good, telekinesis may simply not be very useful to you. Unfortunately, however, you will be biologically incapable of switching to enfixed. Some of the variants may be quite obvious. There is a way to lock a door telekinetically, so that only certain people can open it, even without actually using TK (so that children may enter their own homes but remain safe from strangers). Authorities are of course capable of bypassing these restrictions, for health and safety reasons. Some variants may not be so obvious, though. Chefs only allow themselves something called “literal telekinesis” that responds only to the movements of their hands and fingers. This maintains the artistic nature of cooking, while allowing a higher level of sanitation. Only one Earthan human has ever received any form of telekinesis. He's turned out to be one of the most powerful people in the universe; even rivaling the witches. It is academically assumed that Earthans adapt more dramatically to the change, and that is one reason you've not heard any of this before.

Microstory 83: See The Future

“I was born with the ability to see the future. Since it was second nature, it took me a long time to realize that such a thing was not normal. Whenever someone was surprised by an occurrence—a vehicular collision, a friend tripping on the sidewalk, or a pop quiz—I would ask them why they didn’t just look into the future and prevent that from happening. They just laughed at me, or acted like I was crazy. I legitimately didn’t understand it. I see time like a road. There are events behind me, and there are events ahead of me. All I have to do is open my eyes and prepare myself for things to come. What I’ve since discovered is that this ability is shared amongst all others; but for me, to a higher degree. Every time you pass by someone else and don’t run into them, you’re measuring the future. You’re calculating your own route, and you’re predicting the route the other person is going to take, based on where they’ve been, their speed, their likely intention, etcetera. I do the same thing...just better, and more accurately. And that’s why you’re here today, right? You’ve come to this hotel ballroom to learn what I know. I can’t guarantee that measuring the future will ever be as easy for you as it is for me. But I can guarantee that you’ll get better at it, and I’ll give you the tools to train yourself further even once this seminar ends...or your money back. You in the second row, might as well come get it back now, because you’ll never be happy with my teachings.”

Microstory 82: Chemtrails

Have you heard about these things called chemtrails? They’re the streaks in the sky you see after an aircraft passes by. The common scientific explanation for them is that they’re simply contrails; condensation left behind when water vapor in the engine interacts with the air around it. But this is a lie. There are chemicals in the trails that are designed to manipulate a fraction of the population’s brains. The government will routinely deny that conspiracy theories are true, but there is no way to dismiss them entirely, so they need a way to allow them to exist, but minimize their effectiveness. That’s where chemtrails come in. They target people born with a certain gene that predisposes them to paranoia and misinformed judgment. The chemicals released from the jets harness the fear in the conspiracy theorist’s weak mind, and encourages their unhealthy thoughts. But they also bend their rationale, and impair their communications skills, so that they appear to be crazy nutso cuckoo to everyone else. If these chemtrails did not exist, then the conspiracy theorists would actually be able to run legitimate investigations, and the public would be more likely to believe them. Then where would we be?

Microstory 81: Eternal Fall

If you are going to travel faster than light, then you’re going to need a few things. First, you’ll need a vessel capable of withstanding and protecting you from the plex radiation. Next, you’re going to need a machine called an astral collimator. This will tilt your ship over into the desired simplex dimension. Gravity is much, much stronger in the simplex dimensions than it is in mithgarther (where you live). As soon as you enter one, you’re going to start falling, and the only way to navigate to the location you want is to use gravity transfunctioners to direct your fall. You can fall towards any degree of a sphere, because there is no up or down. If you don’t want nature deciding which direction you’ll go, you have to control it. One amazing thing about simplex dimensions, is that they’re full of energy. If you have a tuplodeler, then it will gather this ambient energy, and essentially keep your vessel in working order indefinitely. This is important, because crossing dimensions will potentially use nearly 100% of any energy stored. This is why travel to a complex dimension—which will have no ambient energy—is a one-way trip unless you have a power source on the other side.

One day, a ship named Tresteria was making a journey between galaxies when they suffered a cataclysmic failure. Their collimator was overheating, and needed to be jettisoned, so they were unable to tilt back into mithgarther. Their gravity transfunctioners were damaged, so they were unable to navigate. Their communications were down, not that it mattered; no one was around to receive a message anyway. To save lives, they decided to enter stasis pods, and wait for help. But there weren’t enough pods for everyone. After plex travel was discovered, suspended animation was largely considered unnecessary. Those left out sacrificed themselves so that others could live, but they perhaps were the lucky ones. The Tresteria has been uncontrollably falling through astral red for the last few billion years.

The Advancement of Mateo Matic: April 3, 2027

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Mateo opened his eyes. He was on the side of a hill. The sky was swirling with beautiful shades of purple and orange. Lightning danced across the clouds. A light mist overcame him. The wind was simultaneously moderate and powerful enough to make him feel like he was flying. A gentle stream began to roll from his left side; the dirt separating to give it room. It continued to flow listlessly in circles around him. In the unpredictable stream, he could feel the distant comfort of his family. He sat alone on the hill for fourteen years before the water concentrated in a singular mass and began to form the figure of a person. Details of the mass appeared little by little, until he could recognize it as that of his Leona.

“You’re here,” he said to her.

“It’s about time,” she replied.

“I’ve only known you for a couple of weeks. But I kind of think that I’m in love with you,” he divulged.

“It has been much longer for me,” she said sadly. “There is no question that I’m in love with you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m now closer to your age. Had we met at that hospital, for some other reason, you would have ignored me as a child.”

“Is that why I’m jumping through time? Was I just waiting for you?”

“Have you considered that?”

“So...you think I’m done? Do you think they’re going to let me stay, now that we’ve found each other?”

“Might could be.”

“That sounds like wishful thinking.”

“It’s pronounced optimism.”

He laughed.

“Thank you so much for the kidney.”

“I think I would have given my heart. Had you needed it.”

“Theoretical hero.”

He laughed again. “You have my heart anyway, though, I suppose.”

“Don’t be so sappy. I really mean it. You’re giving me the gift of life. Truly. That is a debt I could never repay. I will be forever grateful for you.”

“Wait. Are you here?”

“Of course I am.” She gave him a strange look. “Hell you talkin’ ‘bout?”

“I mean, are you real? Is this not just a dream?”

“Oh. Yeah, it’s my dream.”

“No, it isn’t. It’s mine.”

“I think we’re sharing a dream, Mateo. We must still be in surgery.”

“That explains why I’ve been in the same place for a dozen years, and why you used to be a stream of water.”

“I used to be a what huh?”

He hugged her tightly from the side. “I feel like it’s time for me to wake up now. I’ll see you soon.”

“Have fun. Thanks again. I shall begin to repay you in the real world.”

When Mateo woke up, Dr. Sarka was standing over him. “How are we feeling today?”

He struggled to get his eyes open. He just wanted to stuff himself into the covers and disappear. He whimpered a bit, and felt the urge to whine like a baby. “How is Leona?”

“She’s perfect. There were zero problems. Her new kidney is already doing its job. You did an amazing thing, Mateo.”

“Why are you covered in blood?”

Sarka looked down at his own chest. “Oh, sorry about that. I was a field medic in World War I for a few weeks while you were sleeping. I just got back here.”

“I thought you were only a doctor for salmon.”

“The entire battalion was from the future. The Central Powers won in the original timeline.”

That was an interesting bit of information, but Mateo was far too tired to delve deeper into it, so he just fell back asleep. It seemed like sleeping was one of only two things that he was doing with his life.

When he woke up again, he had been moved to a much larger bed. Leona was lying next to him. “She insisted on it,” Daria whispered to him. “She said that your kidney wasn’t quite ready to be that far away from its counterpart.”

He kissed Leona on the forehead. “I agree.” He looked over to his aunt. “When did you get in?”

“I’ve been here for a couple hours,” she answered. “It would seem as if the powers that be have set up visiting hours for you. Your father is here as well.”

Mateo looked around the blurry room. “Where?”

“He stepped outside when you started waking up. He isn’t sure that you want to see him.”

Mateo took a deep breath. “Seeing as that I can’t get up, could you please inform your brother for me that he needs to get his ass in here. He’s missed twenty-eight years. A few minutes isn’t asking much.”

“You know it wasn’t his fault, right?”

“Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean he should waste what few opportunities he has.”

“True,” Daria said. “I’ll go get him.”

Mateo woke up again hours later. Leona was gone from his side. “What happened?”

“You fell asleep again, honey.”

“Is that normal,” Mateo struggled to say. “I have dry mouth. Am I about to teleport?”

Daria took a noticeable step back from the bed. “I sure hope not. But I do believe dry mouth to be a side effect of morphine. You were in quite a bit of pain. You were screaming and crying. I’m glad that you do not remember that.”

“My father was here.”

“I still am,” Mario said from the other side of the bed.

The morphine was starting to become more obvious for him. He was talking in a way that was unlike him. But he couldn’t help it. “Mario. Mario!”

“Yes?”

“Mario! Answer me.”

“I’m here,” Mario said patiently.

“Mario. What’s your middle name?”

“I actually do not have one,” his father answered. “It’s not a part of our family’s tradition.”

“It’s not a part of mine either. My father never gave me a middle name.”

Mario couldn’t help but laugh. “No, he didn’t. You’re right.”

Mateo rubbed the sheet between his hands, and then pounded on the mattress with his fists.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to start a fire! I’m hot! This place is dangerous!”

Daria and Mario looked at each other, not knowing what to do. “This doesn’t sound like morphine,” she said.

“Isn’t it supposed to make you feel happy and calm?”

Mateo narrowed his eyes and looked between them with caution. They were conspiring against him. “What are you two talking about? You sons of bitches are gonna pay. I hear you whispering over there. You think I can’t, but I can. Where’s my mother!?” he screamed. Where’s my mother? Where’s my mother? Where’s my mother?” Mateo started freaking out; thrashing around in the bed, tearing up the pillow case, and screaming obscenities to Mario and Daria. They tried to hold him down. “It’s your fault!” he yelled up to him. “You were supposed to protect her. You were supposed to be there for her. You were supposed to be there for me! Where were you? Where did you go? What was so important that you have to travel through time instead of taking care of your freaking family!”

“Mateo,” Daria comforted. “Please calm down. Everything is going to be okay. We can explain things to you. But you have to be still.”

“He’s supposed to be with her,” he spat.

“I know,” Daria agreed. “And he would have if he could have.”

“He says he loves her, but how can he? How can a man love a woman when he’s only there one day out of the year? Leona has to spend all that time alone, and what does he do? He just runs out on her. What kind of man leaves the woman he loves? She was just fifteen years old. She was just a kid! How could he do that to her? How could he get her mixed up in this? Leona doesn’t deserve this.”

“He’s pretty messed up,” Mario said. “I don’t know if it’s an allergic reaction, or what, but Sarka better get back here fast, or we’re screwed.”

A young man burst into the room. “I’m here!”

“Who are you?” Daria asked.

“I’m a healer. I was told that this is my latest appointment.”

“Sarka is the doctor,” Mario said.

“I didn’t say I was a doctor. I said I was a healer.”

Daria was struggling to keep Mateo from kicking her in the face. “What does that mean?”

“He just needs a transfusion.” The man opened a drawer and began to draw blood from himself.

“I know you!” Mateo yelled in paranoia. “You were there; at my party. I saw you. I met you. You shook my hand. Did you do this to me? It was you, wasn’t it? You piece of crap! What is it? What did you do to me? Take it back! I don’t want it anymore! I just want to stay in one place!”

“He didn’t do this to you.” Mario turned his attention to the stranger. “What exactly are you doing?”

“I’ve been spending the last year, going around the country and healing people with my blood.”

“I’ve never heard of someone who could do that,” Mario said skeptically.

Even through the protests of Mateo’s father and aunt, the man injected Mateo with his own blood. He immediately felt better. His paranoia dissipated, and tranquility spread across his body before settling down the drain and leaving him in a state of normalcy. The debacle was over.

“It’s something I picked up from another planet,” the man explained. And with that, the wall behind him changed. It turned into some kind of portal to another location. It was in the middle of a forest. The wind even blew a few leaves into the recovery room. The man looked back at it and breathed a sigh of relief. “And they are finally letting me go back. It sucks there, but I left my best friend, and I need to find her again.” He started to walk towards the portal.

“Wait,” Mateo said. “What’s your name? Just so I know who to put on the thank-you note.”

The man smiled and stepped outside. “It’s Vearden.”

After the portal closed, Mateo fell asleep once more, and didn’t wake up until next year.

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Seeing is Becoming: Boarders (Part IV)

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“You want me to do what now?” Vearden asked.

A Gondilak doctor was standing in front of him, hands on his hip. “I would like you to cut yourself. With that knife. It doesn’t have to be too deep, but it can’t be too shallow either.”

“I’m not into that.”

“We just have to see what it looks like.”

“You do it.”

Dr. Reeder—translation unclear—rolled his eyes. He moved shockingly like a human. “Fine.” He took the knife back and carelessly ran it across Vearden’s arm.

“Oh my God!” Vearden screamed. “Does it always hurt like that?” The cut sealed up almost as quickly as it was created.

“For us, we get used to it,” Reeder replied. “Especially for those of us living so close to the Orothsewan border.”

“I was to understand that Orothsew was the name of the entire planet?”

Reeder cut Vearden on his other arm.

“Ouch again! Jeez, you never told me you were going to do it again.”

“Did I not?” He stabbed Vearden in the leg. “The Orothsew and the Gondilak evolved on two different continents, separated by a treacherous ocean. Each culture had named this planet on its own before the Orothsew progressed enough to discover us. We’ve been warring for decades. They only recently made claim to their sliver of land on our continent, which they were able to do with slightly superior technology.”

“Do you get aliens on this side too?” Vearden dodged a few more attacks, but a stealthy archer shot him with an arrow from behind.

“We do occasionally,” Reeder said while he was breaking the arrow. “But humans only ever help the Orothsew.” He pulled the back end of the arrow out quickly. “We do not know why.” He lowered his gaze, obviously preparing to drop the knife on Vearden’s foot.

“Let’s...stop this for now,” Vearden said, gently taking the knife. “I think you have enough data for the day. And I need to contact my partner.”

“She is still with them.”

“Well, it’s not my fault that you only took me.”

“Not my fault either. That is not my job.”

He sighed. “Do you have a telephone, or a carrier pigeon, or something?”

“I have no idea what those words mean.”

Vearden thought about his options for a moment. “Okay. She’s going to try to find me. But she doesn’t know the terrain, so she would request a guide or a search party. Assuming they agreed, where might we be able to intercept them? Where would they start their search for me?”

“Well, they would go back to where the ambush was, probably. But that’s still in their territory. Our operatives took great risk to get you but that’s only because they value you. For her, the leaders would never agree to cross that deep past the boundary. Your next best chance is in the Diamond Forest.”

“You have a forest of diamonds?” Vearden was excited.

“It’s shaped like a diamond,” the doctor condescended. “Calm down. Anyway, I doubt they would let you go. You are, as I’ve said, valuable to them.”

“I don’t need their permission. I am not a prisoner here.”

Reeder shrugged. “Semantics.”

“Can you help me or not?”

“I can’t help you, per se. But I can lead you to someone who can.”

He gave him directions on where to go, but it wasn’t necessary. His new liaison-slash-bodyguard took him there. They walked into a tent and found themselves with a crowd of both Gondilak and Orothsew. One such of the latter was clearly in some kind of position of authority.

“Ah, the human,” she said. “What is he doing here?”

“I was told that you could help me get back to my partner. She’s with the...um, you know, with you guys.”

She laughed. “Don’t look so surprised. This war is based on land; not race. The Orothsewan government would like you to believe that they are following a singular vision, but they are most certainly not. The majority of the population on both sides disapprove of the war, and a few of us have temporarily defected in hopes of forming a new culture, composed of the entire planet of Orolak, free from segregation.”

“Ked rihl,” one of the other Orothsew muttered in his native tongue.

“Quiet, Mujel. It isn’t a pipe dream. And please speak English in front of our guest. Those are the rules.” She looked back over to Vearden and extended her hand. “I am Uhyiopa.”

“I can’t help but notice,” Vearden admitted, “that there is a surprisingly high number of people here who speak my language. Even with the supposed hundreds of human visitors, most of you should not be able to speak it, especially not so fluently.”

“We teach it in schools now. We have determined it to be the most widely spoken language in the galaxy.”

“It is?” he asked. “How is that possible?”

“You have heard that Orolak is some kind of natural hub for alien visitors?”

“Indeed.”

“In the spirit of that, Earth seems to be a sort of ambassador homebase. It’s true that only a few hundred have come here total, but a not insignificant number of those few hundred have been transported to planets besides ours. You’re like a colonizing race, but without all the conquering. The strange thing is,” she paused for effect, “not a single one of you appears to have any control over it.”

Vearden took a second to process the information. He had already known that he and Saga weren’t the only ones. But it seemed to be so much bigger than that. The people in charge had some kind of grand design. They plan these missions, and they send their unwitting minions out into the field. No one knew who they were, or why they were doing this, but there was clearly a consensus that they existed. No one was even so much as entertaining the possibility that there was no plan at all. What if it was all just random? What if these...what should he call them, powers that be, aren’t there at all? What if people just didn’t realize that this was how the universe worked; a strange form of chaos theory where sometimes you’re simply teleported somewhere else?

“I need some air,” Vearden said, nearly hyperventilating. He walked over and pulled the flap of the tent back. What he found there was a change in scenery. He had been transported, just like before to Orolak, but this time he was back on Earth. At least, he assumed it to be Earth. He saw no Orothsew or Gondilak. The buildings looked more familiar. And he saw humans.

“Vearden?” came the voice of his sister.

“Allison!” he cried out. “It’s so good to see you.”

“You too,” she agreed. She didn’t act like he had been missing at all. “I honestly thought that you would crap out on me again. But you’re here. On time. And on the day that I asked.” That wasn’t right. Not only had he spent a few days on Orolak, but he had set out for this summer camp a day later than he had promised. Even if the powers that be had moved sent him back to Earth the moment after he first left, he would have been late, according to his sister’s schedule.

“What day is it?”

“What are you asking, V?”

“Just humor me. Please.”

She eyed him suspiciously, but felt like it wasn’t worth arguing. “It’s Tuesday, May 19.” That was the proof. He left for Orolak on Wednesday, and had already been scolded by Allison about that. He had traveled back in time.

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