Entry Three:

Entry Three:

            Gavin awoke as a tingling sensation shot up his arm. At first he thought he was having a heart attack, but then he realized it was his wrist unit vibrating. It was as if it knew he was awake, because as soon as his eyes focused on it, it displayed a map of the station, with the orders, “Report to docking bay 19-C at 08:00.”

            Gavin pulled himself up. He had fallen asleep on at the dining table, but he didn’t feel any worse for it. Deborah was curled up on a couch in the seating area. The news played on the projector, but the volume was on mute.

            As he rose from the bench, Goldie opened the door to the bathroom. “Did you get the message?” she asked. Gavin tried to remember if he was hearing her speak for the first time. She had a very soft voice.

            “Is this from command?” he asked blearily.

            “They’re shipping us out already,” Goldie told him.

            “Fantastic,” Gavin said sarcastically. “Is everyone getting the same orders?” His questioned was answered when Deborah lifted up her arm to look at her wrist unit. Lance emerged from the bedroom and Lara came out a moment later. Fredriks was the last one out after Video. “Everyone here sleeps in their clothes?”

            “It’s not like we have anything else to wear,” Lara complained.

            “Right, well I guess we only have a fifteen minute window to get down to the dock,” Gavin opened the main entrance. He wondered if he had to lock the door after everyone, but they had no possessions and there was no lock.

            Video looked considerably paler at the news they were expected to meet at the dock. Fredriks was the least concerned and could hardly call the lift fast enough. His finger pounded at the call button repeatedly until Deborah practically slapped his hand. In the lift, Fredriks turned to Video and looked him over. “How’d you get the name, ‘Video,’ anyway?” he decided upon asking to break the tension.

            “AV was my field of specialty in Engineering. Most other people thought it was pretty useless skill, so they started calling me, ‘The Video Guy,’ to make fun of me. I can’t quite remember what my real name was supposed to be. ‘Bob,’ or something. You’re assigned the name you respond to when you’re born, so it changes in utero. The more creative types get the more creative names.”

            “So you consider yourself the creative type?” Fredriks surmised.

            “I’m created to create,” Video replied with a shrug. “Engineering is the only creative-minded job available to me, and it’s pretty bland by most standards.”

            “You can be creative in any field of work,” Fredriks argued. “You just have to be creative.”

            Video laughed at that and the lift doors opened. They emerged into a cavernous area lined with space shuttles aboard their elevated launch pads. A select few looked like the types of ships Gavin was use to. Others defied description, and he was not certain if they were even capable of flight. One looked like a sphere with a pyramid on top. Another looked like a metal box. Many pads stood empty, however, likely due the crisis. They were in docking bay 15, and had to proceed to the left to find their destination. Workers milled about mostly ignoring them. These were not the First, but rather seasoned veterans and professionals. There was a variation to the colours and cut of their uniforms, and Gavin guessed that this signalled their rank with the Corporation. After a stroll, they arrived at 19-C. The docking platform had a short vessel on top. It looked like an upturned paper airplane with a bird’s tail all in chrome with the wings on backwards. There were no visible windows or doors. The only blemishes to its surface were the jets under and behind the wings and tail. These were not large jets, but instead they each were no bigger than his head and quite shallow. He could see his own reflection in the surface of the vessel with a rainbow effect like on tarnished silver. It measured about thirty feet from front to end with the wingspan about two-thirds of that. It rested on a single foot that ran down the middle from the front to the back and pooled out at the bottom. He had no idea how something like that could even fly. That they expected him to be able to fly it was baffling. He didn’t even know how to get in.

            Deborah casually walked up to the rear base of the foot and pressed her hand against a panel. A narrow doorway opened up, with a steep ramp leading upwards into the vessel. Gavin was the last to enter. The floor was illuminated with blue lights and the air inside was like a metal shop. On top of the ramp were two rows of benches along the walls. At the front was the open door to the cockpit, with two work stations lining either side. There was a large workstation at the back. Above one row on benches was an area for cargo. Above the opposite was the kind of sleeping cabin you’d get on a train. A few containers were bundled up in the storage compartment, but the beds were empty. The area before the workstation and behind the ramp at the back was reserved for large cargo pallets. There was one tarped crate sitting there in the two designated spots. There was no one else inside the cabin but them.

            “Are we supposed to be in here?” Gavin asked.

            “Why don’t you ask them?” Video nodded towards the cockpit. There was someone in the pilot’s chair with their back to them.

            Gavin walked up to them. He passed a bathroom opposite a kitchenette outside the cockpit. The person didn’t turn to face him as he approached their chair, but he recognized the grey cloak they were wearing.

            “Sit down,” the woman’s voice said without turning. She didn’t tell him where, so he sat in the co-pilot’s seat. Lara had come up behind him, anticipating her role as co-pilot. The woman didn’t talk, or look up at him. She tapped away at a command panel before her. There were dual control sticks on either side of her arm rests, much like the chair Gavin was sitting in. The front wall showed the docking bay, along with a list of stats. Gavin waited patiently for her, but she still showed no interest. At last, she looked up, and he saw her face was like his. Her orange hair was unkempt except for a single band at the back holding it in place. “X-77,” was all she said. Her eyes were searching his.

            Gavin swallowed hard and nodded.

            “I’m Kylie Dales,” she said, looking back at the panel. Her hands fell to her lap.

            “Dales? Are we… family?” Gavin was confused. “Are you my sister?”

            “No,” Kylie laughed at him, and it sounded empty. Her cheeks were more sunken than his own, as if she hadn’t eaten properly in quite some time. There were bags under her round eyes. “I only had one family. You and I, we’re just different versions in the same series. Pilots. Maybe they made you to replace me. Maybe they want me gone.”

            “But you look just like me. You have the same last name,” he insisted.

            “And we probably came out of the same vat. We’re Generates, not people. We don’t have brothers and sisters. Look,” she pulled up her shirt at the waist to reveal her stomach. She had no belly button. It never occurred to Gavin to check his own. “You think I could have this and still be related to you?”

            “I’m sorry,” Gavin stammered. “I don’t know how this works.”

            “If you’re lucky, you might live long enough to find out,” she told him as she pulled her shirt back down. “I know about you, though. They brought you out early, like the rest of them. That’s why they called me in to fly for you. A newb like you wouldn’t be ready to handle one of these for years.”

            “Are you going to teach me?” Gavin asked hopefully.

            She laughed again, a bit more mirthfully. “I’m not going to spend the next few years babysitting you like I’m your big sister. This is a one time deal. I fly you in, I take you home. That’s it.”

            “Fly us where?” Gavin asked. “What’s our mission?”

            “Search and Rescue,” Kylie answered. “Communications with other-dimensions is temporarily offline and our away teams can’t call in. A-6 has been missing since before the attack, though. We lost all contact with them the second they left the station and crossed over, but we knew they would be flying in blind. Part of their mission was to set up a communication link on the other side and report back. They either failed their mission, or the interference we’re all experiencing is affecting them as well. In either event, we need to find them and bring them home.”

            Deborah was in the doorway by Lara. “Aren’t they presumed KIA?” she asked.

            “Not by me,” Kylie snapped. “This is A-6, not X-77.”

            “It doesn’t matter what rank they are,” Deborah retorted. “The virus could have easily have wiped them out.”

            “You think I don’t know that?” Kylie bounded from her chair. Deborah hastily drew back, as she thought Kylie was about to lay hands on her. “Why do you think I’m shacking up with you newbs? My whole crew is dead! B-7 is gone except for me. Fourteen people dead and you’re just crawling into this world.” Kylie slunk back to her seat and turned around. “Get in your chairs. We need to make our departure time,” she said softly.

            Before Deborah could even open her mouth, Kylie had turned on the engines and they could feel a faint humming under their feet. Gavin looked around panicking for his seatbelt. Lara took up the Navigation chair behind him on the right. The others took their cue and began to strap themselves in. Despite the sudden onset of the engine, the ship remained stationary. Kylie began to go through the long pre-flight checklist while they waited nervously. “Don’t worry about flying, Gav,” she told him when she finally got her clearance and the ship was raised on its platform. “It’s in your blood.” The bay doors opened overhead, and Gavin felt a sudden weightlessness as they found themselves in space. This was temporary, as Kylie activated the ship’s gravity generator and he felt his stomach settling. “This ship is the Aurora. It belonged to B-7. Now? I guess it’s yours. Treat her kindly, won’t you?” With that, she pulled away from Last Point. There was no window, but there were numerous screens within the video monitors that encompassed the cockpit. Gavin looked back at Last Point as saw it looked like a giant teething ring. It was round with bumps along the rim covered by glass domes. They had come out of a central hub like the spoke in a wheel. He couldn’t quite get a bearing on how large it truly was, but it looked like a fair-sized city to him. Most of the station was in utter darkness save for a few lights inside the domes. There was no sun to shine on it.

            Last Point quickly faded into nothing. There were fewer stars in the sky than he had been taught, but all of his teaching had been centred on Earth. Deborah had told him they were on the edge of the know universe. One horizon was nothing but a foreboding blackness, as if nothing existed beyond that plane.  “How far are we from Earth?” Gavin asked Kylie.

            “That dustball? Couldn’t say. I’ve never been out that far in our universe. Who’d want to go there, anyway?” she asked. “Nobody lives there but the super-elite and the super-poor. We’ve got a multi-verse to explore. We’re heading for New Gaia in U-928201-B. It’s as close to Earth as you’re ever going to get.”

            “How far away is it?” Gavin asked.

            “Let’s see,” Kylie looked at her instruments. A moment later, all the monitors went blank and for the second time in his life, Gavin felt as if he were in two places at once. He swore that he looked over to Kylie and thought he was looking at the back of his own head in front of him. Trying to reaffirm himself, he looked down at his hands gripping the seats. There were two pairs of hands in the place of one.

            “Wha…?” Gavin tried to form the words, but everything snapped back into place the next instant. The monitors came back to life, bathing them in their glow.

            “It’s about that far away,” Kylie told him, nodding to the screen. A blue world with a purple tinge was before them. Great formations of clouds swirled about farthest hemisphere. Around it circled two moons. One was little more than rubble, while the second one was practically a world unto itself, albeit barely in the gravitational pull of the world itself. He was close enough to make out mountains on the planet’s surface. From the perspective he was in, he had no idea how large it was. “This is New Gaia, or at least that’s what they call it here. It may look pretty, but it’s dangerous down there. It’s a big planet, but only a small section of it is inhabitable, and those are the places currently at war.”

            “War?” Gavin asked, alarmed.

            “Not with us,” Kylie shook her head. “They have their own petty squabbles. They’re not interested in the larger pan-dimensional issues we’re interested in. This planet was originally pegged for it’s natural resources, which the inhabitants are unable or unwilling to capitalize on. A-6 was sent in to open negotiations for mining those resources. It might not have gone so well.”

            “Are there aliens down there?” Gavin asked her.

            “They’re less alien than you or me,” Kylie told him as she adjusted their flight. “The people here emigrated from their Earth generations ago. They’re natural born humans and act the part. That’s why there’s so much conflict. We don’t have enough intel on the exact nature of their struggle. We just know who’s winning, and that’s all that matters in these situations. Still, you should try not to get involved. I’m opening scanners now,” she pulled up a second window on the monitor. “The Corporation imbeds tracking devices into our nodes. They’re one of the few things left behind when they surgically remove them.”

            “The virus attacked the Corporation through our node receptacles,” Gavin recalled as he gingerly touched his. He wondered how long it was going to be there.

            “It made them impossible to detect through normal means,” Kylie explained. “The bio-scanners don’t bother searching our nodes because of their inorganic nature. Even if A-6 is…” she stopped herself. “Even if they’re in trouble, we should still be able to ping them by their homing beacons. The virus itself only affects organic tissue while living dormant in the node.”

            “So we can find them?” Gavin hoped.

            “I…” she checked the scanner results. “This is…” Kylie visibly paled and slunk back further into her chair. “I can find five of them but they’re scattered across the planet. There’s no trace of the other nine, or their ship.”

            “So where do we start?” Gavin caught on to her stress and tried to alleviate it by distracting her. “With these two?” he suggested as he pointed to a pair of dots on the monitor.  “They look as if they’re the closest together.”

            “They’re still hundreds of miles apart. This looks like it won’t be an easy mission after all. Damn it,” Kylie swore. “I’ll have to stay earth-side with you until this is over. I’m going to fire off a messenger probe back to the station to compensate for this interference, then we’ll set her down. The two you saw are near the main capital of this world’s super power. It’s as good a place to start as any, but it’s the most heavily defended. This planet doesn’t have a system in place where we can hail the local authorities and request a landing, so we’ll be going in hot. The Aurora could be fired upon, but I’m a damn good pilot and they might as well be shooting flint arrows.” Kylie entered a list of commands into the console, and there was a slight shudder in the ship as she fired off her probe. The monitors showed it trailing behind the ship and then disappearing completely. “Is everyone ready to land?” she asked, checking the monitor for the ship’s interior. The rest of the crew were still in their seats, looking nervous. “I’ll admit we’re travelling light on this one. We only brought enough gear and supplies to last a week. That should have been more than enough. Normally I could pop back to Last Point and requisition better equipment for this, but we’re in a bind and they’re not going to let me leave you here by yourselves. Besides, it’s not going to look good for you new recruits if we go slinking back home with our tail between our legs at the first sign of trouble.”

            “Understood,” Gavin nodded.

            “From here on out, you’re the one that supposed to be giving orders,” she told Gavin. “This ship is my domain and I’ll have to stay behind to look after her. You’ll have to travel by foot and make contact with our operatives and bring them back to the shuttle one at a time before we can clear out of here. I don’t recommend splitting up, or taking arms into the field. You’ll only end up getting captured or killed, even by the friendlies. I’m going to patch through all relevant intel to your wrist units. With your node still in place, you should be able to uplink key information directly into your brain. You’ve got two Engineers on your team, so the logistics part of that shouldn’t be a problem. Now let’s go,” Kylie dropped the ship into orbit and slowly made her descent. There was a little turbulence as they raced through the ozone. The thin air around the shuttle heated up, but there was no sign of stress on the hull. Gavin wondered what it was made of. They dove into the cloud cover and Kylie used it to conceal their movements as she neared the capital. As she flew, she checked various sites for a prospective landing zone on her long-range scanner. “You’re going to be more than a few miles away from your first target. I’m just getting the vitals on them now. It’s… It’s Victor,” she breathed as for the first time her expression changed. “He’s alive.” She looked over to Gavin for confirmation. “When I saw the feed-back I thought…” she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He’s alive. We can save him.”

            “Who’s Victor?” Gavin asked, knowing that she obviously had a connection to him.

            “Victor’s…” she stumbled, “is one of the best. He’s everything you should aspire to be as Captain,” she told him. “That’s why he’s in charge of A-6. This changes everything,” she decided. “I’ll have to accompany you to find him. His signal doesn’t pinpoint his exact location. It’s only accurate within twenty-square miles. Still, it shouldn’t be too hard to find someone like him, even in a thriving metropolis.”

            “Wouldn’t that change violate our mission parameters?” Deborah’s voice came over the intercom. Gavin didn’t know they even had an intercom, or that Deborah had been listening the entire time.

            “You think everything we do ends up in a report?” Kylie asked her by pressing a button on her wrist unit. “In the field you do what’s necessary.”

            “I don’t think your company will be necessary,” Deborah replied. Gavin glanced at his own wrist unit and saw Deborah’s face being projected. “You said yourself that the ship should be your top priority.”

            “The Aurora seals up tighter than a vault and it’s harder to scratch,” Kylie snapped back at her. “You’re completely inexperienced with these types of matters. I know Victor and he knows me. I can have him back on this ship faster than any of you. You should just feel grateful I’m letting you tag along.”

            “Uhm…” Gavin tapped his armrest. “You’re kind of doing a 180 on us, Kylie, and it’s obviously you’re under mental stress. Are you sure this is the best decision?”

            “Absolutely. I’m completely capable of acting on this,” Kylie retorted.

            “It just seems…” Gavin thought of how to delicately approach the topic. “Well you act as though you know Victor a little too intimately. Your entire mood changes when you saw he was alive.”

            Kylie blushed furiously. “What are you saying?”

            “I’m saying you may be making a rash decision based on personal feelings,” Gavin, scratching the side of his mouth nervously.

            Kylie blinked at him, still blushing. “Yes, I am. Gavin, all my friends are dead. Victor is the only one I have left. Do you think I’d leave his safety up to a clone with boy parts?”

            Gavin didn’t know if he should be insulted, or if that what he legitimately was. “You volunteered for this, didn’t you?” Gavin realized.

            “Of course I did. I’m the one who pressed them on this mission, but they wouldn’t give me a crew,” Kylie admitted. “Then, when I saw your name…Well…”

            “You had them pick us,” Gavin finished for her. “In the docking bay, we were the only ones prepping. You had them rush this assignment.”

            “Don’t put this all on me. I’d love to have a more experienced crew with me, but there simply aren’t any available,” Kylie told him. “Time is of the essence here. The sooner we can bring back all relevant data from the field and whatever survivors we might have, the closer we’ll be to unwrapping this mystery. For all we know, Victor could have the one clue we need to our attacker’s identity.”

            “And then what?” Gavin grew frustrated. “Strike back? Everyone tells me we’ve been decimated. Knowing our killer’s name isn’t going to resurrect the dead.”

            “Would you rather lie down and die?” Kylie glared at him. “I can open up the back hatch if you like.”

            “Never mind,” Gavin sighed. “Right now I know as much about you and the Corporation as I do about the people out to destroy us all. It’s a difficult to know where to put my trust.”

            Kylie looked at him for a long time, then said, “Damn it. You are me.” With that, she dropped out of the cloud and quickly dove towards the ground. Mountain, hills and fields sped past the monitors, until they approached an urban area. The buildings in the were tall, flat, and pointed like picket fences. Rows of trees lined every street in uniform height, but aside from the greenery there was little colour. The buildings were grey and mostly featureless. The sky itself was of a violet hue, and somewhat too bright for his liking. Vehicles flew by in the distance, but they did not turn to follow them as they passed.

            Kylie landed the Aurora in a wooded area, but their landing was less than perfect. They snapped a young tree in half and crushed several bushes underneath their foot as they settled down from a hover.

            “Every second from here out counts,” Kylie told him. “Grab all the gear you can carry with you. We’re still miles away, and we’ll be lucky to make it to the city by nightfall. It may take days after that to find Victor.”

            “Victor’s not the only one we’re looking for,” Gavin told her. “What about this other agent? Smith: Navigation?” he checked his wrist unit.

            “Victor is all that matters right now,” Kylie insisted.

            “We might not even find him,” Gavin argued, “but I agree it’s as good a starting point as any.”

            “Then it’s settled,” Kylie was barely paying attention to him as she made her way into the back and got down her backpack. Gavin struggled to undo his belt buckle. Lara gave him a very worried look on his way to the back of the ship. The rest were already on their feet and looking to him for their orders.

            “You heard her,” Gavin sighed. “I guess it’ll be a hike.”

            Deborah came up to him and grabbed him tightly by the arm and pulled him away out of earshot by the cockpit door. She glanced suspiciously over at Lara, who was still in the cockpit before continuing. “Gavin, she’s disobeying Corporate. That’s a serious offence. If this gets out she could be demoted and we’ll take the rap with her.”

            “You have a better idea?” Gavin whispered back. “She’s the only one with half a clue what we’re doing, even if her head’s not in the right place. If we go along we should be able to get this over with faster. Isn’t that the point? Who cares how it gets done.”

            Deborah was shocked with him. “Aren’t you worried about being demoted?”

            “How could I be? Besides, I thought we’re already at the bottom rank,” he told her.

            “You’re supposed to be Captain, Gavin. You have to look out for the rest of us. Any screw-up is going to hurt our careers,” Deborah pleaded with him.

            “Right now I’m more concerned with our lives. We were just told we’re walking into a war-zone. The city looked peaceful on the monitors, but who’s to say what will happen to us out there? I’d rather go with her experience and have us live,” Gavin told her.

            “You’re caught thinking in the short-term, Gavin,” Deborah warned him.

            “Short-term is all I know,” Gavin replied. “Besides, Deborah, a day ago you were telling me how Corporate screwed us over. Now you’re looking to play nice with them? I still don’t even know who they are, only that they think they can dictate my life to me.”

            “I just…” Deborah fretted. “I just don’t want to be stuck with this rank the rest of my life.”

            “I’m sure we won’t. You’re probably smarter than the rest of us, Deborah, and more level headed,” Gavin told her. “If something goes wrong I’m going to be the one taking the blame as Captain, I assume. It doesn’t bother me, and it shouldn’t bother you.”

            “Thank you,” Deborah relented. “I just want you to know there’s more at risk than you might think.”

            “Survival comes first,” Gavin told her. “I’m only a day old and I don’t want to die yet. We’ll take as few chances with that as possible.”

            “Would you two love birds get a move on?” Kylie shouted back to them. Deborah blushed at that and turned back into the cabin. Kylie had already lowered the ramp while the others had yet to even find their gear. Lance and Goldie looked at the bundles overhead and shrugged at each other, not knowing what to take. Lance still offered to take the lion’s share of the load from her, though, at which point Video quickly stepped in and offered his help as well. She was left with only a small pack to herself.

            “We should evenly divide some of the supplies in case we get separated,” Gavin suggested, thinking ahead.

            “If you get separated, you’re dead. Just take what you can carry,” Kylie told him as she bounded down the ramp. “Hurry, I want to lock up.”

            “This…” Gavin shook his head in defeat. “Maybe there’s no way to prepare. We’re on an alien world in another dimension. Up until this point I would have thought the air would be unbreatheable.”

            “As Generates, we’re able to adapt to a variety of atmospheric conditions,” Deborah explained to him helpfully as she reached for a pack. “This world’s air content isn’t that much different than Earth originally was.”

            “That’s right,” Gavin remembered. “You’re our Researcher, aren’t you? You’re supposed to be able to tell me about this kind of stuff.”

            “I can tell you as much as the data tells me,” Deborah replied as she handed him some gear. “I was able to upload all the files we have on New Gaia during the short flight over. To give you a snapshot, New Gaia’s larger than Earth, but has smaller icecaps and more inhabitable land mass. With a population of only half-billion, only about 7% of the surface area has been cultivated. It was originally settled about two hundred and fifty-eight years ago as a mining colony, but quickly became a central hub because of the abundance of good farm land. New Gaia is rare in that it can be completely self-reliant, but it still deals heavily on foreign trade. It’d almost be a tourist destination, but most of the local complain about the weather.”

            “So if they’re just a bunch of miners and farmer, what are they fighting about?” Gavin asked her. Goldie, Lance and Video had headed out after Kylie. Fredriks and Lara were waiting for him.

            Deborah shrugged. “The reports vary, but it’s all the normal stuff. Religion and resources. It seems as if a large section of the population emigrated directly from Earth to escape their main religious order. Trouble seemed to follow them. Here on New Gaia, the religion in question has more of a cult following, but they’ve been linked to numerous terrorist activities. I couldn’t get much clearer information than that because the reports are heavily biased.”

            “We’ll try not to get involved,” Gavin hoped.

            “Religion and politics are two topics best avoided,” Fredriks advised as he adjusted the shoulder straps on his pack. “Unfortunately, it looks as if we’re headed for the capital, so they’ll be plenty of both. If this Victor is there, he’s either a guest or a prisoner. The only way we’ll get to him is through the ruling party.”

            “I wish we could be more incognito,” Lara frowned. “We’re going to stick out like sore thumbs.”

            “They probably already know we’re here. The Aurora should deflect radar, but we don’t know how advanced their scanning systems are,” Deborah told him.

            “We’ll have to be upfront with them,” Gavin decided. “They must already know about A-6, so we should come as no surprise, even if we are invading.”

            “What about all the missing members?” Lara whispered to him. “Do you think they’re dead?”

            “If they are, it’s probably due to the virus,” Gavin didn’t really believe it himself.

            “Their ship is missing too,” Deborah reminded him. “Perhaps Victor sent the rest of his crew home when he lost contact, and for whatever reason they haven’t reported in yet.”

            “That’s wishful thinking,” Gavin replied, “and it wouldn’t explain why the rest we found are scattered across the globe. Anyway, let’s get going before Kylie busts something.”

            “You know what’s she’s up to with Victor is completely unprofessional, especially with someone of her rank,” Deborah leaned in and whispered in his ear, “not to mention his.”

            “We don’t know what they are together,” Gavin replied. “For all we know she just may have a crush on him.”

            “Don’t fool yourself, Gavin, you saw how she reacted. They’re lovers. They’ve probably been keeping it secret for a while now. They’ll be lucky if they’re not demoted the second they step back on Last Point,” she said quietly.

            “Why? Are you going to tell on them?” Gavin asked suspiciously.

            Deborah grew angry, but kept her voice low, “I’m not a little snitch.”

            “I never said you were,” Gavin said as way of an apology, “but here we are gossiping about someone we met an hour ago.”

            “Whom did you want me to gossip about? I only know two handfuls of people,” Deborah said as they reached the ramp.

            Gavin burst out laughing, but he kept his hand over his mouth. Lara, who overheard the whole thing, snickered as well. Deborah smiled a little as well, and her anger seemed to have subsided.

            “Would you girls please stop snickering amongst yourself about boys and makeup and get down here?” Kylie poked her head into the hatch to voice her impatience. Gavin knew her words were direct at him.

            Outside, it was far brighter than Gavin had suspected, and he shielded his eyes from the sun. The adjusted quickly, however, and he gazed up at the violet sky. Great clouds rushed by high overhead, while there was only a hint of a breeze down below. He breathed deeply, and marvelled at how good the air felt. He felt invigorated. The canopy of trees around them had a hint of a honey smell to them. Their leaves were broad, with needle-like extensions to their tips. He imagined it was Spring where they were, if the planet could be said to have the same seasons. The sun itself was a quarter of the way up the sky, but on an alien world the day could pass by in a matter of hours or weeks by his standards. He’d have to reference it with Deborah or his unit to find out. For the moment he was content to explore.

            “Come on,” Kylie beckoned them forward. The forest floor below them was spongy, and riddled with roots as thick as his fingers. It was difficult to manoeuvre around them, and Video tripped several times, only to be helped up by Goldie. Gavin himself was feeling quite spry and practically bounded over every obstacle. Deborah soon caught his liveliness and chased after him. It became something of a game as the two ran ahead after Kylie, and quickly surpassing her, even though they had no clear idea of where they were headed.

            The woods faded and soon came to a clearing, from which they could see the distant city. Gavin could see a few squat, domed houses far a-field. They were spaced out quite far from each other along dirt and gravel roads. He wondered as to how people got around aside from flying, and soon saw an angular looking vehicle pass down one of the roads. He realized how remarkable his own eyes were, and he could make out the tiniest details in the distance. He tracked the flight of a yellow bird from slanted tree to tree. “I like it here,” Gavin decided. He felt like he had been cooped up his whole life, and realized that it was literally the case.

            Kylie motioned for them to follow a path that would take them away from the roads and out of plain view. She would check occasionally with her wrist unit for directions, but it was clear where they were going. The city had the only tall buildings across the horizon. They soon came across a babbling steam, and Gavin wondered if it was safe to drink. On a foreign world, he imagined it wouldn’t. Deborah’s footing grew a little unsteady as they tried to cross over on the rocks, and he reached out to help her.

            “I saw that,” Kylie said as she glanced back at them.

            “Are you trying to embarrass me?” Gavin asked her as he let go of Deborah’s hand on the other side. Deborah herself blushed.

            “Yes, it’s pretty fun,” Kylie admitted. “You’re nothing but a bunch of dumb teenagers, gawking at everything you see. Try and keep those mouths closed by the time we reach the city or they’ll think you’re a bunch of country bumpkins.”

            “This is like my second day alive,” Gavin protested.

            “Happy birthday,” Kylie smirked and turned back to the imaginary path she was following. She drew a knife out of her boot that Gavin hadn’t noticed before and sliced through a thicket.

            “Why are you wearing that cloak, by the way?” Gavin asked her. She had drawn up the hood once they got outside, as if she found it cold. Gavin thought the weather was rather pleasant, although the clouds had made it grey. All the clouds seemed to be moving from the city itself, where the skies were clearer.

            “Why are you wearing that expression?” Kylie shot back.

            “We have the same face,” Gavin furled his brow.

            “Only I look good,” Kylie said without looking back.

            Gavin just shook his head and trudged along. “Is it really okay to leave the ship there?” he asked her. “Isn’t someone going to find it.”

            “Of course they’re going to find it,” Kylie told him. “It’s thirty-feet long and all chrome. Did you see me camouflage it?”

            “So why leave it out in the open?” Gavin asked her.

            “Because I have no way of disguising it, and because I already set off virtually every alarm this planet has by dropping into the atmosphere. The only reason we don’t have guns pointed at our heads right now and planes flying overhead is because their forces are otherwise occupied or woefully inept.”

            “How are we supposed to talk to them once we meet them?” Gavin wondered.

            “They speak English,” Deborah explained. “The Queen’s English, if you prefer.”

            “That… doesn’t make sense,” Gavin blinked. “How could we go to another dimension and another world and still people speak English?”

            “This is an alternate reality,” Deborah explained. “At some point in history, our universes diverged like cells dividing. Things changed. In this universe, the British Empire never really abated. They held control of America, India and China. Pretty much everyone speaks English as a result. Of course their accents are a little hard to understand, but our implants take care of that. We should be able to talk to them and understand them perfectly.”

            “Implants?” Gavin paused.

            “It’s part of the node. The main part of your node uploads data into your brain. That’s supposed to be surgically removed before you’re born. They leave behind a part that works as a universal translator, along with a tracking device,” Deborah explained.

            “So I’m just a walking cyborg?” Gavin asked, touching the back of his device.

            “You’re more genetic upgrades than anything else,” Deborah explained. “In the old days they kept the nodes in, but they’re considered unsightly by most of the cultures we deal with. Like you said, people think we’re cyborgs. It makes for awkward situations.”

            Fredriks, who was trailing behind them coughed into his hand. “Most cultures look down on things like cloning, genetic manipulation and cybernetic implants, so it’s best not to mention them.”

            “I’m not so sure about this place,” Deborah disagreed. “Robots look as if they’re fully integrated into their society.”

            “Down,” Kylie hissed and waved frantically with her hands as she dove into the bushes. Gavin and Deborah stood there stunned for a moment before catching on. Gavin dove down onto the dirt and covered his head, not knowing what the danger was. He hadn’t heard anything. Kylie was lying motionless, as were the rest.

At last, Gavin looked up. “What are we…?” he began to say.

Something crashed through the bushes. For a moment, Gavin was level face to face with the creature. It looked at him for a moment, then dropped it’s tusks and charged.

Gavin pushed off the ground with his hands and bounded up, jumping higher than he thought he could. Still, the beast caught him by the ankle and sent him tumbling back down to the ground. Pain shot up his leg and he imagined if he had torn his ankle. Deborah screamed behind him, but it was more of fright at seeing him injured than herself being at risk. The beast had already lopped off into the bushes, but Gavin could hear it turning around.

Gavin was able to get up on one knee and meet the beast head on as it jumped back out at him. The creature hadn’t been able to get much of a running start, so with quick reflexes, he was able to grab it by the tusks and wrestle with it. It crashed into him, bowling him over onto his back. He could feel it’s foul breath against his cheek as its slobbering maw gaped open. Rows of crooked teeth tried to reach him, but he was able to keep it at bay. Its hooves dug into his chest, but couldn’t tear through the fabric of his uniform.

In an instant, Kylie was on it with her knife, stabbing wildly into the thing’s back. Gavin recoiled as blood sprayed him. The thing made a rasping squealing sound. Gavin gasped, as he thought Kylie’s knife might pass clear through the thing and into his own stomach, but she was more careful than that.

Gavin and Kylie were able to knock the thing away, and it stumbled off a few steps before collapsing. It looked at him imploringly before dying while Gavin sat shocked.

            “Are you okay?” Mindless of the blood Deborah grabbed him desperately by the shoulders and shook him while Kylie stood with blood dripping off her knife. At last she leaned down and wiped the blood clean on the grass before depositing it back in her boot.

            “I’m fine, stop shaking me,” Gavin told her as he tried to stand. His ankle hurt, but he could walk on it. Deborah offered him her support while he tried his footing and he leaned on her.

            “A wild boar,” Kylie said as she walked over and kicked the creature over to look at it. “Looks like they brought it straight from Earth. Don’t know why. Must be a cultural thing. Oh no…” Kylie listened. She could hear the tall, yellow grass rustling around. “Run!”

            Fredriks has already bounded past them in a blind panic, while Video and Lance were hurrying Goldie along. Deborah looked at Gavin, who nodded to her as he began to run with them. Pain shot up his leg with every step, and he knew he must have hurt it worse than he originally though. Still, he was able to keep steady on his feet. He had to push Deborah in front of him because of her concern for him was keeping her back. Two more boars with thick, matted fur tore out of the bushes nearby and scurried after him. Their tusks were as long as pencils and each has to weigh more than a hundred pounds. It didn’t look as though he was going to be able to outrun them.

            Deborah stopped in her tracks and scooped up a fallen tree branch that was about as thick around as her wrist. She wielded it awkwardly and swatted at the first of the boars as it came up. The beast was rather unfazed, but it couldn’t advance for the moment.

            Gavin had no idea what to do. The second boar was on him, so he turned and kicked it as hard as he could. This was unfortunately with his bad foot. The kick connecting with a cracking sound, and for the moment he didn’t know if the sound came from the boar or his foot. By the way the boar reacted, it was from it, but the pain in his foot said different. The boar was stunned by the blow and scrambled back. Gavin, meanwhile, winced and limped off closer to Deborah as she swung her stick around.

            As she tried to defend herself as best she could, another boar narrowed in. This one was at least twice the size as the others, with tusks to match. Gavin merely stared at it, wide-eyed, and tried to time his next leap.

            As it narrowed on them, Deborah raised her stick high up into the air, ready to bring it down.

            Suddenly, the beast fell dead, and the others followed. Smoke plumed up from their sides as blood pooled beneath them. Gavin hadn’t even heard the shots. He turned back to look at the others, wondering if it had been Kylie, and what type of gun she had. She stood with her empty hands raised high into the air, and he saw the others use her example. He followed where their eyes were looking as Deborah dropped her branch and raised her hands.

            Two figures with white helmets and dark visors stood behind a pair of bushes. In their hands they held small rifles, one of which was trained on Gavin himself. A golden badge shone on each of their breasts.