Pins and needles. Every nerve felt like it had fallen asleep and was being woken up simultaneously in one full-body cramp. Electricity crawled under my skin and ate into my head. The sensation started in the back of my neck and ran through my veins to the ends of my limbs. My eyes couldn’t open.Had the itch been on the outside of my body, I would have scratched every inch of skin bloody. If this kept up any longer I’d go mad. My thoughts started entertaining the idea that the sorority girls had taken me to the basement of AΦΧ to perform evil sorority girl rituals. The lids of my eyes were struggling to pull open when, abruptly, the torment ended. Air filled my lungs as my muscles relaxed. Dammit, why wouldn’t my eyes open? This was like one of those nightmares I got as a kid: something bad out there kept hurting me but there was no visual input.
For a long while I remained in a state of half-consciousness, floating between sleep and attempts to wake up. When I finally surfaced, my eyes cracked open to a white ceiling. Since it wasn’t decked out in holiday cheer it couldn’t be my dorm. A hospital? Maybe the RA unlocked the dorm to save me. If there was a get-well card with a googly-eyed animal on it I’d know for sure. Dizzy relief held me suspended for a full minute. I could see. I was alive.
Mom was going to be angry. The thought carved into my stomach.
“Your mom’s crazy-level paranoid,” Terra had said when she heard Mom waived all my student health fees. I couldn’t use the campus clinic, or even access my own health records without her permission. “What does she think the doctors will do to you?”
I’d like to think of Mom as a rational person. She was a young mother who tried to do everything right despite everything going wrong. My father forced a divorce soon after my birth, and she was left alone with a sickly baby. Her attitude toward doctors built up as years of expensive consultations yielded no results. All that post-traumatic stress built itself into a monster that needed something or someone to blame. Her boycott of modern medicine was extreme, but it had a psychological purpose. I was old enough now to understand that much. Besides, I was glad she’d given up on the tests. As long as we didn’t know what was wrong with me, there was hope that it wasn’t serious.
The instant my neck turned, pain flared. I let out a curse. Carefully this time my cheek rested against a pillow that definitely wasn’t mine. A lump bulged seamlessly from the bare mattress, its foamy texture molded against my face. There were no sheets, but I felt quite warm.
I examined my surroundings. If this was a hospital, Mom was going to be charged a fortune. The place looked less like a recovery ward and more like a bedroom out of a modernist magazine. The bed itself was ginormous; it would fill my entire dorm room. Beyond an expanse of white walls and carpet sat a legless glass desk. A monstrous chair was tucked underneath, its high back and cushions fit for a CEO. The evil sort, with his chin on templed fingers and a Persian cat in his lap.
Light came from a semi-opaque window. Apparently the storm had passed. My eyes flicked to the shiny black table protruding from the bed frame, but it was empty. Vaguely disappointed at the absence of a googly-eyed card, I eased myself back around to the other side. This side had an identical desk with two smaller chairs. Whoever owned this place loved a sterile atmosphere.
Since the pain seemed to be dormant for the time being, I risked sitting up. Silky pajamas clung to my skin. I peeled back one of the sleeves to discover what the odd feeling underneath was, and stared at an electronic bracelet. Coded script glowed on the surface. This was certainly an upgrade from the typical paper hospital bracelet.
After taking a calming sigh, I swung myself off the bed. Chill air washed over me so abruptly that my arms crossed in a shudder. The temperature in the room felt like it had dropped twenty Fahrenheit degrees in a second. Was the mattress heated? I reached back to test the theory, and froze with one hand over the bed. Warmth tingled halfway up my arm, as if my hand had plunged through an invisible wall of hot air. Moving slowly, I waved in and out of the bubble. Technology was advancing so fast these days. Maybe I’d been in a coma for fifty years. No, that was stupid. If that were true, where was all the beeping hospital equipment, the IV drip, the heart monitor? Why hadn’t someone noticed I was awake and come to explain the situation? For now it was best to ignore disturbing thoughts and focus on gathering clues. Being logical wasn’t going to be easy until I oriented myself.
The window was too opaque to see through. I continued around to the desk. The Evil Lord Chair was immensely comfortable, but it was set so high that my feet barely brushed the floor. Did giants live here? As my elbows touched the table, I shoved back with a hiccup of surprise. Colored rectangles had bloomed across the surface, each one decorated with the same weird script as my bracelet. When the images remained stationary I dared to extend a fingertip against one of the boxes. It followed the path of my finger as I dragged downward. A touchscreen computer—I’d never used one before. I leaned over the virtual paper and studied its foreign letters. What language was this anyway?
Okay, clear your head, Erin. Try to think without hyperventilating. I needed to get out of this room and demand answers. The only flaw in that plan was the realization that there was no door. A mad giggle spurted out my lips, arms clamping my stomach. There’s no such thing as a room without a way out. A door had to be somewhere, there had to be a freaking—there! Near the left corner was a door shaped outline. The rectangular panel was metallic, but otherwise it blended perfectly with the wall. Pushing on the door had no effect. Neither did banging. Where the hell was I—a quarantine chamber? The room was too posh to be threatening, but there was no reason to lock me in. Claustrophobia punched through my attempt to stay calm, and suddenly there wasn’t enough oxygen in the room. If I didn’t get out of here, in ten seconds I was going to start screaming.
I was three seconds from zero when the door split apart and two people emerged. The instant they entered the room, I was convinced this was all a nightmare.
First to appear was a man in a black uniform. It was Tall Man—only it wasn’t. The last time I’d seen him, he’d had ordinary brown eyes. Now his eyes were uncannily shaped a centimeter too long to be human. His irises were bluish white; it was the same awful color I wore contact lenses to hide. Despite the changes, his aura had the signature of the man who had followed me off the bus.
Behind him towered a woman even taller than Tall Man. She had identical eyes. From the moment she stepped in, the woman gave me a half-appraising, half-disgusted glare. I cringed without knowing what I was apologizing for. Her look was a Taser to my brain synapses, and my questions shriveled away.
“Nia akreija?” The man’s voice broke the standoff. His needle-eyes fixed on me as if I was supposed to answer. In the way of dreams, his question’s meaning formed in my head. Are you well? I realized my jaw was open in a half-formed scream, and snapped it quickly.
“Uh, uh,” I grunted. “Aren’t you the guy who followed me off the bus? But your eyes…” They have my color. I thought I was the only human on Earth with that weird eye color. Tall Man’s lips quirked into a smile as he drew a capsule from a pocket. I watched mutely as he tilted back his head and shook clear droplets into an eye. When his neck straightened, I jerked and hit my tailbone on the bedside table. Tall Man’s left eye was still inhumanly long and blue. On the other side, tears leaked from a normally sized brown eye, the same one I’d seen in my compact mirror. He blinked and cleared his face with a sleeve. Not just the color, but his eye socket structure had changed. That’s not possible. I’m dreaming. As soon as my shock thawed, all the questions burst at once.
“Where am I!? Who the heck are you!? I was in my dorm room, I got really sick, and then…” my hands waved through the air to emphasize each point, “Is this a hospital or a clinic? But you aren’t dressed like doctors. Am I dreaming? Hallucinating that I’ve been abducted by aliens?” Why do I always have the weirdest lucid dreams when I’m sick? I wondered with a mental pinch. “Please tell me you can speak English,” I added.
The woman stared as though I’d started singing the college rally song, and the man winged his eyebrows. Their aura was really pushing my nerves. If anyone could sit in the Evil Lord Chair and look like they belonged there, these people could. They’d look more intimidating than dictators at a United Nations peace conference. Could I really hope this was only a nightmare? Was my brain that sadistically creative? Maybe I was asleep in a hospital. Maybe they were performing surgery on me right now, and the gas anesthetic had gone to my head. Fingernails bit into my palm, stamping four dark lines. The pain felt disturbingly real.
“Ska shyagrn ŭtroke?” The woman’s chill voice made me tense. Again, after a delay, meaning drifted into my mind: what did she say? Her partner reached back a hand. The gesture must mean “calm down,” because her lashes flickered and she relaxed. Where did I hear this language before? I was ingesting the words like an old memory.
“We are on Shaian,” the man enunciated slowly in English. “In a private home. Xsiani and I spent the past few hours saving your life. It was fortunate I recognized you in time to notice that you needed saving.” He rubbed a palm over his brown eye, grimaced, and took out another capsule. “Lie down. Your body has been through great trauma, and what I am about to explain will likely stress your mind just as much.” Stomach acid coughed into my throat, and I swallowed painfully. He saved my life? He really was a doctor? Given that were true, why had he brought me to his house and not a hospital? Thinking back, did he just say we were on Shaian? English was obviously not his first language.
On theother side of the room, Tall Man and—what did he say her name was? She-on-ee?—the woman were murmuring fluently together. Tall Man had returned his eyes to blue with the magic eye drops.
If I had been abducted, Chel and Rachel and all their friends would have seen everything. I could piece things together like this: Chel heard my scream, panicked, and ran outside yelling for help. As the only person around with medical training, Tall Man agreed to take responsibility. If so, I was the one who should apologize.
But that story didn’t explain his facial change. Or the foreign language that I could miraculously understand. Blood noise gurgled past my ears. My pulse was beating strongly enough for two hearts.
“Okay,” I said, “please tell me what’s going on. You said you saved my life. That means I’m safe now, right? I’m not going to die?”
“You will not die,” he answered seriously, “but had we not found you, in a year or two you would have. You are lucky to have survived this long.” I was that close to death!? my mind tripped. What’s more…he understood my disorder? “What is your age?” he asks with an intent look.
“Eh, ah...I’m eighteen.” The casual lie was so ingrained that I didn't think to correct myself.
“Incredible. Most in your condition do not live beyond ten years. Had the scan not picked up your vital signs, I never would have believed your existence possible,” he continued. “You were in the right place at the right time. As soon as I confirmed you were one of us, I transported you home.” Huh? One of us?
“Uh, I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re on about,” I said with a nod. “Is this a recovery home for persons with rare genetic disorders?” The man blinked.
“No. You really should lie down before I begin to explain.” He gestured to the bed.
“I’ll stand.” I didn’t want to be put in any sort of vulnerable position. The man frowned, but kept talking.
“Because of the absence of vitamins called zei, your body was shutting down. Zei starvation is usually fatal within ten years. Fortunately for you, the underdevelopment of certain organs slowed the damage.”
“I’ve taken a full alphabet of supplements all my life. All my problems stemmed from missing some vitamins? I’ve never even heard of sheen-zay,” I interrupted.
“Zei does not exist in your universe. Nothing will fix your confusion until you accept that infinite universes exist, and you happened to be born into one that is isolated from the nutrients you need to survive.”
There was a silent moment as he waited for my reaction and I waited for him to laugh. When that didn’t happen, I started to giggle myself.
“Ha. Ha, ha. That eye trick almost makes me want to believe you. Is this a test to see that all my mental facilities are sound? Like when doctors ask concussion patients math problems? Actually, I’d rather you tested me on calculus than on my gullibility.” My pupils did a quick dance across the room. There was nothing to defend myself with, not even a lamp. The chair? Too heavy.
“Indeed, I would have been surprised had you believed me straightaway,” he said with a half-smile. “It will take more than a few words to enable you to process the truth. Until then, listen and absorb what you can.” Claustrophobia closed in again. These people were honestly insane. I’d been kidnapped by a psycho cult; I knew there were strange noises coming from that fraternity across the street. Elbows dug into my stomach to halt a burst of nausea.
“We are on Shaian now, a world in a universe different than the one Earth resides in. Earth is in one of thousands of terrarium-universes. It is observed, but left in its native condition. Our State only influences worlds that have been fertilized by Seeds—viruses crafted millennia ago to genetically improve humankind. To date, six worlds have come under State jurisdiction via Seeds’ natural spread. Your existence proves that Seeds have managed to permeate Earth’s universe barrier.” The edge of the table dragged over my spine as I took slow sideways steps.If this was the sort of nightmare that happened when I neglected eating nutritious meals, I promised to never stray from Mom’s dietary plan again. “A species called vasithryn engineered the Seed virus to reshape the DNA of human fetuses. These children have a close resemblance to vasithryn’s greater physical and intellectual capabilities.”
Interesting story, if only I could be sure it was all a hallucination. My mind ticked back over the foods I’d eaten in the past twelve hours. Was it possible Chel’s candy corn had been laced with LCD? I did feel dizzy.
“You’re telling me a virus from another universe mutated my fetus into an alien species.” My voice was flat-line.
“You could illustrate it that way.”
“And I’ve been sick all my life because the vitamins I needed were in an alternate reality.”
“Alternate universe. All universes are equally real.”
“Can I go home?” Air wedged into my chest, popping out in a burp that I stopped with a fist over my mouth. All my senses were hyper-aware; every movement of their bodies made me brace myself.
“Soon,” Tall Man returned after a pause. “We have done enough to stabilize your condition. I should check that you have made a full recovery—physically, anyway.”
He began to step toward me, quickly. I tried to remember tips about self-defense: aim for the eyes and throat, and escape as soon as there’s an opening. The man looked more monstrous the closer he came, and I shrank against the wall, unable to do more than ball my fists.
“Nia mor hŭ eaxo.” Calm yourself, he said. A crazy man had me backed into a wall and he commanded me to be calm. A high pitched scream I didn’t know I was girl enough to muster tore from my throat as he reached for my neck.
With an exhale he dropped his hand.
“Xsiani. Nshi’ai ska’lr?” The woman strode with a similar gait, halting shoulder to shoulder with him. Finally I parsed the words: Help me with her.
“Stay away from me.” What I hoped would be a threatening growl came out as a gurgle.
“I realize the situation is overwhelming,” he said. “Try focusing on one thing at a time. For now, all you have to do is trust us. If you cannot manage that, I will settle for simple obedience. Sit down.” They cornered me at the bedside, and my knees folded. I dropped backwards into the bed’s pool of heat, shocking my skin into a convulsive shiver. Tall Man sat close, ignoring my recoil. “Relax. We are not going to harm you. The heart of the shiin circulatory system is in the back of the neck, and I need to see if the reconstructive surgery was a success.”
“Surgery!? What did you do to me!?” I screeched into his face. The room was starting to blur. Not good, not good. If I fainted here, they could do whatever they wanted. Please let this be a nightmare, I prayed as I covered my face with my arms. If I tried to stand up and run now, I’d blackout for sure. Dreams usually made sense when you were in them. When A: a dream made no sense even to your dream self and B: the people in it looked like they wanted to kill you, it was time to abort. Wake up, wake up, wake–
Warm fingers dug into the base of my neck. My eyes flashed open the same instant electricity exploded under my skin, static pulses bursting from his palm deep into my muscles. Arching my back in a scream, I raked fingernails through the air, aiming for his face, trying to hurt him, distract him so I could break free–
The agony stopped. I concentrated on getting my breath back in order to fight.
“—level eight,” Tall Man was saying to Xsiani in their foreign tongue. Translation for his speech came with a second’s delay, as though the connection between my ears and brain were a poor Wi-Fi signal. “That should calm her enough so she will not be a danger.” Xsiani stooped on the bed frame, a cylindered tool in her hand. Her arm darted forward before my gasp finished, and I felt a bee sting of pain touch my arm.
At first I thought I really was fainting. Vertigo hit like a dropped elevator ride, and nausea followed. The slightest movement made my head swim. Once the initial punch settled, things came back into focus. Xsiani’s face was alarmingly close, eyes inches from my own. Glossy black hair swept over my cheekbones.
“Dka nshir’ni je hta yi,” she hissed. We’re trying to help you.
“Luh, luh…” Like demons from hell, I tried to say. Even my tongue was paralyzed. Her face disappeared as Tall Man took her place, forcing his fingers behind my neck where I’d found scratches after the shower.
“Cooperation is too much to ask,” he sighed.
“Wuh—!” Wait! I screamed inside my head. Electric fire erupted in my neck, stinging so intensely I thought I might wet myself as my muscles contracted. The static turned into the pins and needles I’d experienced earlier. It burned all the way down my legs before pulsing again in my neck. This time the power ran into my skull, making tears gather in my eyes. I whined and tried to kick, but my muscles were lifeless sandbags. Slowly the million millipede legs torturing my nerves withdrew and crawled back into the man’s palm.
Muttering foreign phrases, Tall Man slid his hand away.
“—reconstruction was successful and will naturally mature,” he finished with a mid-sentence switch to English when he noticed I wasn’t processing.
“Whuh yuh do da me?” I slurred. Whatever they’d drugged me with made me feel sleepy and dumb. “Maybe in the ruh, real world they’re jump sh-sharting my heart. Thah would ‘splain why I’m dreaming ‘bout being ele’cuted by aliens.” Tall Man gave another sigh and adjusted his sleeves.
“I tested your shiin’s feedback response. Shiin is a circulatory system separate from blood. It conducts fluid from its heart to your palms, which can conduct radiation. Vaii—low-frequency shiin radiation—is what you felt from me. Shiin is our greatest physical deviation from humans.” The man’s words swam through my head. She-een? Vigh-ee? Radiation?
“You’re both psychotic. Did you just give me cancer?” I spat. Feeling was starting to come back into my arms and legs. My fingers twitched.
“Of course not. Vaii is perfectly safe. Considering that we saved your life, I expect you to regard us with courtesy, at the very least. You will address me as Keiyron-arshir and Xsiani as Xsiani-arshir.”
“Kay-yer-on: ‘kay, you’re on. She-un-ee: she funny without the eff. Are sheer?” The sounds spun out my mouth in total disconnect with my brain.
“‘Arshir’ is an honorific title. Never speak our names without it, or Xsiani will not tolerate you in the house.”
I could only sustain a glance at Xsiani for half a second. Catching her unblinking stare was like trying to look into the sun. I’d never met anyone who exuded intimidation like she did. It wasn’t a violent or insane expression, but the superior disdain of an elitist coming across the forsaken under a bridge. Worse than that; a scientist observing bacteria under a microscope. Under her giant stature, I felt remarkably protozoan. “Listen well,” Keiyron said. “Now that we have reconstructed your damaged systems, you are a functioning vasithryn. Luckily the human doctors did no permanent injury to your body, other than some cosmetic surgery around your eyes.” Keiyron tapped the end of an index finger. A pale white screen appeared above his hand. Okay, so that was a point in favor of proving they weren’t bullshitting me. The word alien rose from the swamp of my mind like a hideous monster. If that floating rectangle was an illusion, he was a convincing magician. After gesturing at the screen, Keiyron put it in front of my face. Its surface showed a body scan detailed with veins and organs, breathing and beating in natural fluctuation. I realized as my hand twitched again that this was a live visualization of my own body. Veins were color-coded red and blue, altogether forming a thicker map than a regular bloodstream. The shadows of unfamiliar organs were present in my neck and the palms of my hands.
Close eyes. Breathe. They were watching, waiting for my reaction. I pictured a cobwebbed ceiling with red and green lights. I tried to smell popcorn, lavender perfume, anything beyond the strange chemical scent in my nostrils. Breathe. My eyes peeked open. The ceiling was bright, white, and clean. I looked sideways at the black robed man, and at the woman next to him who was watching me with a hawk-eyed gaze of distrust. This was real.
I stopped breathing. I tried to lurch upright, but the weight of my body held me down, only managing a feeble twitch. “The paralysis will wear off in a few minutes,” Keiyron said. “In the meantime, there are important matters which I must confess.” He took my dazed silence as acknowledgment. “At present, no one knows of your existence but those in this house. If we were to inform authorities that Earth has become a host for Seeds, the planet will be unstable for at least half a century during forced annexation to our State. Until then, Earth will be closed to all but militia.” His brow creased as he glanced at Xsiani. She touched his wrist questioningly. “For your safety,” his voice rose, “you would not be permitted access to your home world during social reconstruction.”
The mental fuse for processing this sort of world-overturning scenario had already blown, so I ignored his voice for now. I practiced flexing my legs. I could move them now, with effort. Should I try to run, or trust his promise to take me home? “I’m not in favor of that outcome; although I can only speak for myself.” He glanced again at Xsiani. “If enough Seeds have colonized Earth, the State will detect it in time, maybe in a decade at most. I think it would be considerate to offer you that time to transition from your past life. When the time comes, you can allow yourself to be ‘discovered.’” Nope, definitely not going to let those words sink in. “There is a portal nearby, but it may be tricky to override its security system. Give me a moment.” He rose from the bed, beckoning Xsiani to follow a short distance away. The man’s native tongue ran far too fast for my head to parse this time. Xsiani shot an incredulous glare at my bed, answering him in hard, quick syllables. With concentration I was able to translate bits and pieces:
“Why...issue!? Oldest surviving...I agreed...on condition. She...important child. Codes...break. If they find out—” Keiyron did the “calm down” hand-spread gesture and she fell silent. His voice is much slower.
“My decision is precisely because she is the oldest survivor in history. The psychological stress of being suddenly removed from her home world might cause her to be permanently institutionalized. If we go about this carefully, she can gradually adjust. In the worst case scenario where we are discovered, I will take responsibility.”
“Throwing her back into that degenerate society is abuse of the worst order. I will not risk our family for your whim,” was the gist of Xsiani’s response. Something in Keiyron’s expression at that moment made my gut squeeze. His posture loosened, but that very calmness struck me as a kind of threat. When he spoke again it was indecipherable, quick and low. After his sentences, the fire shrank from Xsiani’s eyes and her face became a plaster mask. The sudden change was bizarre.
“I will override the portal. But that is the extent of my involvement. The rest is entirely your responsibility,” she said finally.
“Thank you.” Keiyron reached a hand to the woman’s shoulder, but Xsiani stepped back with crossed arms.
My gaze shifted to the window. Whatever lay beyond that pane could make or break my sanity. Suppose I was on a different planet, and everything Keiyron said was true. I refused to believe it, not until I saw the outside. Having an unidentifiable disorder and an unusual eye color didn’t make me an alien. Mom would have told me if my anatomy were so strange it couldn’t be classified as human; surely there would have been signs during her pregnancy. That video could have been a fake overlay of my body meant to gaslight me. On wobbly elbows I shoved upright. Both vasithryn turned their heads toward me with such speed that I flinched and hugged myself defensively.
“Um, ah,” I mumbled, “May I see outside?” Keiyron’s expression dropped back to normal.
“You won’t see much that way,” he pointed at the window, “but you’ll have a view as we walk to the portal at the end of the block. Can you stand?”
“Think so.” I gripped the table as I stood. If they were going to lead me out, I might as well act compliant. If I recognized what was out there, I’d bolt to the first sane person for help.
“Xsiani-arshir? The Earth-child is awake?” a tentative young voice spoke from the doorway. Oh fantastic, another one? A...boy? girl? neither?...about Terra’s age stood just outside the room. Long white-blue eyes pinched into a frown, studying me intently. Their black hair wasn’t quite as long as Keiyron’s, but long enough to be tied back. The person’s clean features and delicate poise were confusingly androgynous.
“Hiarou-se, return to your room. The child is a xie’nya, and dangerous,” said Xsiani. Dangerous? my mind echoed. I’m dangerous? And what did “xie’nya” mean? By her tone, it was something derogatory.
“Will she join our family?”
“No more questions. Leave.” Hiarou-se bowed and started to turn.
“Wait!” I surprised myself by interrupting. This new person looked young enough to speak honestly with me. They froze, and turned back. “Hee…Hee-ah-row-seh? I uh, I’m Erin. Can you speak English?” I fumbled. Hiarou-se’s eyes darted between me and Xsiani as if waiting for her permission to talk.
“I am the only one here who speaks English,” Keiyron answered for them.
“Oh.” My shoulders fell. “Why can I understand your language?”
“In the process of repairing your body systems I borrowed a Sathrian language implant. As you have realized, it only works one way,” he explained. My scalp immediately began to itch. Xsiani pointed at Hiarou-se to leave, and they gave me one last curious stare before disappearing.
“Ask permission before sticking things in my brain,” I pronounced tightly.
“Once you have absorbed enough language I can remove it. I have an obligation to return it before it’s missed.” I did not want to think about the implications of him ejecting a chip from my brain. My fingers pulled from under my hair where they had been massaging my scalp.
“Erin, is it?” said Keiyron. “We have agreed to send you home for now. I will guide you back to Shaian in two days’ time, when we can formalize a plan for the future. You will have to change clothes once we are inside the portal house.” They were really letting me go just like that?
A section of wall slid sideways under Keiyron’s palm, opening a small room full of dully glowing panels. He vanished inside for a bit and returned holding a bundle of clothing. It was mine. A sick pain jabbed my chest at the thought of him undressing me. The man held out the bundle, and I snatched it with downcast eyes. Pajama pants and a t-shirt. No underwear, I noted with relief. The ones I was wearing must be my own. “As long as you keep your head down and your tongue still, we should be safe on the street. Wear this over your sleepwear.” Keiyron handed over an additional black robe. “It’s Hiarou’s, but it will fit you better than anything else.” I nodded demurely and began to slip into the sleeves. The garment drooped over my body and dragged on the floor. Ignoring my backward stumble, Keiyron kneeled and adjusted the fabric. Every time his hands brushed me I wanted to scream.
He stood and beckoned toward the door. I followed him into a hallway with a high arched ceiling. White floor, white walls. The cleanliness gave me an urge to soil the place somehow, to leave a mark that would fracture the perfection into something more comfortable. Whoever or whatever these people were, they were obviously very, very rich. I stroked a cold white banister on the way down a staircase. Keiyron’s footstep a stair behind scared me into moving faster.
The entrance hall was paved in black marble, and led up to an enormous metallic door. Around the staircase, closed doors lined another wide hallway. Pale light from an unseen source filled the hall with a dull, industrial atmosphere. There wasn’t so much as a hint of decoration or softness. Xsiani waited for us at the entrance, her face still devoid of soul. She pressed her palm to the front door, and it slid silently away. Fresh cold air billowed indoors. I stepped through like a sleepwalker.
At first I thought the street was a river. Black stone flooded the ground without a wrinkle, mirroring an overcast sky. The same obsidian-like stone broke upwards into an endless row of mansions, masses of sharply angled walls and hazy windows. Every building was identical, without so much as a distinguishing bit of outside adornment. Jagged mountains twinkled in the foggy distance. Lights like fireflies darted between them, so many that the clouds in that direction formed an orb of bluish white. Disbelief slammed through my brain so hard I bent double, burying my face in my clothes and making a weird moaning sound. Keiyron’s hand clamped my shoulder. “If you are going to be ill, do so once we are inside. We cannot risk catching someone’s attention.” I breathed deeply, in and out. The familiar scent of my shirt and jeans, of cheap flowery detergent, grounded me enough to stay upright. I shoved his hand away and hugged the clothes with white knuckles. “Stay behind me.” His heels clicked toward the street. If Xsiani hadn’t herded me from behind I might never have moved from that spot.
For the next five minutes I shut down, refusing to process the sensory impulses that told me this was real. Every step was a burning slap of cold against my bare feet. My chest and throat stung. The vasithryn had to constantly stop and start to allow me to catch up to their long stride. I strained my eyes for a familiar clue that would tell me this world was a lie, that I was somewhere on Earth. I had a strong impression that we weren’t moving at all, but were stuck in an infinite loop of identical scenery, an artificial backdrop. The silence outside our footsteps was as oppressive as the fog. When the houses finally ended at a street corner, we paused. A solid ten-meter-high wall extended down the sides of the next block. The structure on the corner reminded me of a church; a pointed roof speared the heavens with a rod. I blinked. The rod wasn’t really there; it was a ghostly pillar of green light, spotlighting the clouds as a signpost.
“The portal is in here,” Keiyron announced with a finger point. I hung back as they approached the door, hugging my clothes like I would a teddy bear. A garage door sized slab of metal marked the entrance. As Keiyron stepped close, green letters blazed to life over its surface. The man bent forward, his finger moving from symbol to symbol. He looked back twice to Xsiani as if for reassurance. Indecipherable messages flashed, and the vasithryn spoke together quietly.
While they were occupied, I wandered to the other side of the street. Like a Find the Differences picture, I shifted my eyes from house to house, but found nothing dissimilar. Every contour had the same mold. The houses’ black stone was a dull mirror, only glossy enough to reflect shadows. I wandered closer. Not a single window was transparent. Did aliens really live inside all these buildings? Although in this case I was the alien. From the sky, this place must look like a factory-cut grid, a beehive of connecting cells. I was still staring when a hand grabbed my upper arm and yanked back.
“Ouch, hey!” I gasped as Keiyron dragged me back across the street.
“Stay close! We have to hurry, the door will shut in ten seconds.” Static stood my hair on end as we passed through the gaping entrance. The door rolled shut, and we were left facing a grey tunnel that sloped into a dim recess. Like a clean subway tunnel without the tracks, I thought in a quick pant.
We descended to an expansive underground room. Xsiani waited around the bend, standing so rigidly I might have mistaken her for a switched-off android if not for the angry vibes pouring out her eyes. I flipped my head before she had a chance to look my way. Solid flooring broke off after a few paces, beyond which metal latticework covered the floor, walls and ceiling. The only light was over the stage at the entrance. Past our enclosure, darkness sat thick and heavy. A frightening electric hum filled the place. My eyes strained against shadows that swirled like heat waves. It was hot. There was no fresh air. I pulled back against Keiyron’s hand. I wanted out. I wanted out now.
“The manual controls are at the far end,” the man said with a gesture. “When we send you through, the computer will log the transaction. Let us hope that no trouble comes of it.”
“This is a giant microwave. You’re going to crisp me in a radiation experiment. You’re–don’t leave me here!” I cried as Keiyron took off into the humming dark. The clank of his boots on the grille grew distant. Xsiani didn’t stir from her mannequin pose, watching as I paced panicked circles near the tunnel. Would the door open for me if I ran? Where would I run to if it did? I was on a freaking alien planet! I slid into a crouch, eyes closing to images of meadows and happy penguins.
The birds were in the middle of a tap dance when clanking footsteps returned. Regretfully my eyes opened, and I wiped a few tears on my knee.
“It’s primed,” Keiyron called. His figure emerged in a jog from the abyss. He sounded pleased with himself, like a boy who had successfully hacked past his Internet's mature content filter.
“Should I inject the narthin—”
“Yes, hurry.” Blue pupils turned my way. Xsiani came at me, hand in her pocket as though she were about to pull a gun and fire. I scrabbled back on all fours. She knelt so close her knees touched mine, and a small box came out of her pocket. The woman’s long fingers undid the clasp in a spider-like flurry of movement, opening to a kid’s nightmare of syringes and vials.
“Oh no. No no no. That’s not happening. Erin–” I pointed to my chest, “does not appreciate–” I pointed to the box, “needles,” I finished with an X of my arms. The vasithryn seemed to get my message, but her fingers continued loading a vial.
“A narthin injection will suppress your shiin from being active. Accidentally releasing its radiation is a disaster worth avoiding,” Keiyron explained.
“Hey!” I squeaked as my arm was snatched. Fingernails nipped my skin as Xsiani dragged back the sleeve. Blood drained from my palm in sharp tingles under the woman’s grip.
“Let go!” She ignored my shout and aimed the needle to a vein. My eyes scrunched the moment before she went for it. A sting kicked through my nerves. I fell back against the wall, fingers fumbling around my left arm. Damn, that hurt worse than I remembered from past immunizations. Xsiani snapped shut her box-o-evil-scientist, turning her back. I nursed my arm with a tongue.
“Ow! That freaking hurt!”I swore. Keiyron kneeled just as close as his partner had done. My personal-space bubble was a puddle around my feet.
“Sorry. Unfortunately, shiin vessels are tougher to penetrate than blood. If we only needed to modify your eye color, I’d have given you the topical option. You should be able to use the portal after a minute.”
“After how much pain!?” Anger masked my fear, and I considered kicking him.
“Listen. When you are ready, enter the portal and press the correct launch symbol. Because we are breaking through a fresh barrier, we can’t guarantee an accurate land-point. I will track you from here to see that you arrive in the proper vicinity,” he said. His face blurred as hot, acidic tears burned my cheeks.
“So, I might not make it home alive?” I panted, “I could appear on top of a building or in the middle of a freeway?”
“…Of course not. You will arrive with both feet on solid ground.” Keiyron’s hesitant pause was not reassuring. “Now put your native outfit back on.”
I skittered my gaze from him, to the pajamas I was holding, to Xsiani ignoring us by the stairs, and back to my clothes.
“Um…here?”
“Unless you prefer changing on Earth’s streets.”
“Changing in front of alien strangers is hardly preferable,” I said. Keiyron just looked perplexed.
“Why is that?” he asked. He was serious.
“Um, privacy? Modesty? Or is that just a human concept?” Keiyron blinked slowly in reply, which I took to mean yes.
“If it pleases you, we will leave beforehand. I trust you can take care of yourself once you reach Earth, but remember that narthin’s effects will fade in about fifty hours. I will find you before it becomes a noticeable problem.” He tapped his index fingernail. Hand motions conjured a screen marked with a single letter. The screen glued itself a short distance from my eyes and followed the horizontal movements of my head. Keiyron gestured at Xsiani, and without farewell ceremony they both started up the tunnel.
“Wait a minute!” As much as I wanted to get away, I did not want to be left alone in this underground pit. Only Keiyron heeded my call, pausing in a half-turn. “How do I know this won’t kill me?” I asked.
“We arrived through this same dock. It is reliable. You have two choices: use the portal, or turn yourself in to an Akathshi—police authority—station.” I tried to gauge from his expression how serious he was, but it was impossible; his face was bare again. The surrealism of the entire situation caught up to my brain. A giddy sense of unreality broke the circuit of my worry. It took a full five seconds to gain the lucidity to speak.
“I want to go home,” I answered. The air pushing up my lungs was either laughter or a prelude to a sob.
“Then go. I will see you again soon,” said Keiyron. He continued climbing after Xsiani.
And he was gone.
Silence. Heat. Emptiness. It was illogical to be claustrophobic in such a wide open space, but darkness like this could make infinity feel small. Being in outer space must feel this way, I mused as I changed into my pajamas. My bare feet shuffled toward the grilled floor. I seemed to be floating in unreality. Pounding a fist against my chest made me hiccup, and hiccuping made me giggle. Whatever emotion the pressure in my chest was, I was laughing now. I stepped onto the grille.
It was like stepping through a wall of invisible water. Ears went deaf, then opened again with a pop. I’d thought the atmosphere of the anteroom was stuffy, but here was worse. All breathable moisture was gone, and with it my sense of getting enough oxygen. Metal bars cut into my feet as I trotted deeper in. My faith in Keiyron’s word waned as I searched for an end to the chamber. Another hiccup, another giggle. Go ahead Erin, walk into an underground pit in an alien city. Trust them. If I kept going, I’d surely find bones of other human children.
Green light erupted over the metal floor. In a strangled yelp I froze with braced arms. Something was going to explode, I was going to die, I– I peered over my elbows. Ah. I’d found the end. The light manifested into a mess of screens and buttons. How the hell was I supposed to work this?
The floating screen-card Keiyron gave me stayed obediently level with my face as I paced back and forth. After the third pass I convinced myself of the matching symbol. The sign lit up with the touch of my finger, and script flashed over the biggest screen. Hopefully the message meant I was successful.
My feet tripped backward as the darkness turned a blinding white from floor to ceiling. Once my sight adjusted, I looked back across the chamber. An entire army and its arsenal could fit in here and burst into action anywhere on Earth. The subtle hum I’d noticed since arriving escalated into a roar. My palms clapped over my ears. Thoughts of microwave ovens spun through my mind, but I was in too much of a dreamlike state to care. Either I was going to teleport home, or I was going to wake up in a hospital. Or an insane asylum.
Static crawled over my skin. This was my fourth experience today of being eaten alive by pins-and-needles. The floodlights turned up their power until the room was engulfed in whiteness that obscured the walls and floor. Vibrations ate into my stomach. If heaven was this bright, I demanded sunglasses. I closed my eyes.
ns 18.68.41.175da2
