Aeon Legion: Labyrinth (11 page)

Delphia
pointed to the tall city buildings in the background. Terra watched
it fade out to be replaced by a similar view of the city except
closer. She then pointed to the glowing line they stood on like a
neon sidewalk. “It is called a
fadeline
.
This allows the people of the city to move from zone to zone quickly.
Faster than horses. Safer than vehicles.”

As
the center of the city drew closer, she learned that bigger fadelines
took one further away than smaller fadelines, which faded into
shorter distances. Delphia grabbed Terra's hand again and led her off
the fadeline when she spotted an icon on the ground labeled
VI
.

“Where are we now?” Terra
ask as Delphia walked off the fadeline. The smell food filled the air
along with the rumblings of a large gathering of people and music.

“This is the Convivium in
zone six.”

“What's the Convivium?”
Terra asked.

“It's the recreational zone.
Many gather here every night to celebrate.”

“Celebrate what?” Terra
asked, looking at a sizable crowd of people both leaving and entering
the area, all with silver hair. These people wore more varied dress
than the uniformed staff at the timeport. They all appeared in their
mid twenties with no children or elderly in sight.

Delphia considered for a
moment before leading Terra again. “I guess they are celebrating
being in Saturn City. Festivities are held here every night.”

Terra continued to gaze as
Delphia led her through the crowd. They passed many buildings with
some hosting foods belonging to specific cultures and time periods
though Terra did not recognize them all. Other buildings were bars or
what she assumed to be night clubs.

There were other attractions.
She passed several bands playing in open areas or on stages. Other
places hosted numerous crafts and hobbies, too many for Terra to
count. Many things she only barely recognized; a group playing a kind
of sport, a couple dueling with strange holographic creatures like a
video game, onlookers watching a holographic play, and a person on
stage reciting poetry.

“How many zones are there?”

“Twelve in total. Four
residential zones, a park, a preserve, the timeport, the prison
facility Tartarus, and a few other areas. This is the most popular
zone.”

After leaving a large crowd,
Delphia found a quiet spot next to a lake that reflected the lights
of the city. They sat at an empty table. After Terra sat, Delphia
scooted closer which caused Terra to shift back. Terra looked around
to see that most Saturnians stood or sat close to one another.

“Mother said she would meet
us here,” Delphia said while holding her shieldwatch hand out, palm
facing up. She touched the glass face of her shieldwatch with her
other hand and a ring formed above her open palm. As it circled, it
left a dish of steaming hot food in its wake.

Terra narrowed her gaze,
staring at the plate. “How did you do that?”

“Were you not instructed on
how to use the shieldwatch before entering the city?”

“No. I was pretty much
deserted here with no explanation about anything.”

Delphia grabbed Terra's
shieldwatch arm and moved it in front of her. She then touched its
face and dragged a holographic disc from it. “This is called a
holoface.” she said while sliding it in front of Terra. The disc
shaped holoface had a thin border on the edge with twelve small
buttons arranged like numerals on a clock. The center of the disc
displayed a list of food categories.

Terra touched the holoface
which made the tip of her finger tingle. “Huh,” she said after
seeing one of the categories expand to show her even more choices.
Terra then touched one of the buttons on the edge and found she could
drag the holoface around to wherever she wished. Then she touched the
opposite edges with both her hands and discovered she could scale the
holoface's size.

After a moment of shifting
through menus, Terra touched one of the options. A holographic image
of a dish of food appeared in front of the holoface vertical to
Terra. She touched it again and a ring appeared. It circled around
the holoface, forming the dish exactly as the hologram had appeared.
But, the plate dropped to the table and shattered after forming.

Terra cringed. “Is there a
trashcan here?”

“Trashcan?”

Terra gestured to the broken
plate. “To clean that up.”

Delphia moved her shieldwatch
hand above the plate. A small transparent sphere flickered briefly
around the plate as it reformed.

“How did you do that?”

“The shieldwatch is
singularity technology. I just moved the plate back in time before it
broke. Don't worry about discarding refuse here. The City's hands
erase unwanted items from the city every hour.”

“How does food appear out of
nowhere though?”

“A shieldwatch can take a
single instance of time and save it in a state. It can then recall
that state whenever needed. In more simple terms, the shieldwatch
rolls back time until when the food was near it. This allows a
shieldwatch to replicate most things using time. Your shieldwatch has
many such items saved into its states directory.”

Terra stared at the plate,
thinking. No wonder they had no concept of money here.

Delphia pointed to the large
metal structure overhead that passed over them. “This is the minute
hand. It passes over the entire city once every hour, cleaning as it
goes. The second hand moves over the city once every minute and sends
information back to the other hands. The hour hand passes over the
city twice a day and makes any major changes to the city to return it
to normal such as Restoring a collapsed building.”

Terra stared at the titanic
metal structure that moved over the city. She pointed to the bright
orb in the center of the city that glowed blue in the distance.
“What's that?”

Delphia looked at the light.
“That is the Temporal Singularity. It powers the city and its
technology.”

Terra scratched her head.
“I... have no idea what any of that is.”

“You should ask Minerva, the
Saturn City's artificial intelligence, about it. She would have more
technical and historic details. Though I doubt you would find such a
thing interesting. Temporal immigrants seldom care for long, boring
histories or science,” Delphia said, averting her eyes.

Terra shook her head. “Oh
no! I love boring history. Hard to bore someone who digs up rocks for
a hobby.”

Delphia turned to Terra with a
slight smile.

“Why are you smiling?”

Delphia still spoke in an
aloof tone, “It's just, I rarely find those who genuinely listen to
what I have to say. For someone to take me seriously is an uncommon
enjoyment for me.”

Terra smiled. Had she made a
friend? “So where is the Academy?”

“The Aevum Academy is in
zone eleven. Many citizens and time travelers take classes at the
Academy. I start classes there soon myself since my boring hobby is
astronomy.”

“Astronomy?”

“I love the stars and the
sun. Light in the dark. Things of beauty and power.”

A young silver haired woman
approached them. She waved at Delphia.

Delphia waved back. “Mother!”

She smiled and sat with them.
She wore a shawl in similar coloring and style to Delphia, though
hers was far more revealing. The shawl fit over a short, form fitting
dress that showed off much of her well toned body. A gold flower
ornament held a loose bun of silver hair in place with a single lock
falling to the left side of her face.

“Terra,” Delphia said,
gesturing to the woman. “This is Vita, my mother. Vita, this is
Terra. She's trying to join the Legion.”

“Good ages, Dhimmi Terra,”
Vita said in a friendly tone. Like other silver haired Saturnians
Terra had met, she appeared youthful. In fact Terra could have
mistaken this woman for Delphia's sister.

“Hi,” Terra said, feeling
awkward at her own ignorance of what the proper greeting was in the
city.

Vita looked Terra over.
“Apologies, but you certainly look like a newtimer if ever I have
seen one.”

“I just got here today,
actually,” Terra said, trying to appear natural.

Vita looked at Delphia. “And
you didn't even offer to get her new clothes? Manners Delphia. How
could you let the poor lady wander our city without at least offering
her the option of trying our fashions?”

Delphia glared at Vita.
“Crashing End Mother! I did tr–”

Vita waved a finger at
Delphia. “Watch your language, child.”

Delphia stiffened, glaring at
Vita. Her normal aloof tone changed into a low growl. “I am not a
child. I am twenty one–“

Vita sighed. “I doubt you
even offered to help this poor girl.”

Delphia's face turned red as
she stomped off, tears forming in her eyes.

Terra
raised an eyebrow as Delphia left.
She cries too easily
,
she thought. Terra would never run away from arguing with her mother.

Vita sighed. “Youth. Much
like the Oracles of Yakarl, they take everything too seriously.”

“Actually,” Terra said.
“She offered to help. She said I could ask you if I could stay in
your guest room. I was abandoned at the timeport so I am in a bind.”

Vita nodded. “Not many
legionnaires take a direct interest their squires now. They know we
Saturnians will take care of them. If you wish, you may stay at my
home until the training starts at the Academy. We haven't used the
guest room in some time and you wouldn't impose for very long since
recruits are required to move into the Academy's dorms for the
training.

“Thank you so much!” Terra
said, grateful that she solved at least one problem today.

Vita smiled before sitting at
the table. She then slid close to Terra. “Well then. If this is
your first time to the city, then let me be the first Saturnian to
offer you a drink. What do you wish?” Vita said looking at a
holoface she called up with her shieldwatch. It had a lengthy list of
drinks displayed on it. “Do you like wine, mixed drinks, or
liquor?”

“What? No! I'm not even
twenty one yet.”

Vita stared, expressionless,
at Terra for a moment before laughing. “We don't have a legal
drinking age here. Go ahead and pick something. Anything you desire.”

Terra shook her head. “No
thanks.”

“You
sure? Don't worry about a hangover. Just use your shieldwatch to
Restore
yourself in the morning.”

Terra scratched her head,
wondering what a Restore was.

“Well just tell me if you
change your mind,” Vita said before replicating herself a drink.

Terra narrowed her gaze at
Vita. “Is everyone always so friendly to time travelers here?”

“Of course. The Sybil would
have you arrested before you caused trouble. Besides, I have had the
same company for nearly a thousand years. It would be nice to
converse with someone new for a change.”

Terra blinked. “A thousand
years? You're that old?”

Vita sighed. “Why do they
always find that surprising?”

Terra
knew the Saturnians were older than they appeared, but she had no
idea they were
that
old.

Vita pointed to her
shieldwatch. “We can just restore our bodies with a shieldwatch
indefinitely. A fountain of youth on our wrist.” She paused.
“Sorry. I doubt you understand that reference.”

“No. I got that one,” she
said before looking at her own shieldwatch. “How many centuries old
is Delphia?”

“Delphia? She's only twenty
one. That's why her hair isn't silver. I was lucky to win the baby
lottery and have her.”

“What's with the silver
hair?”

“It's a tradition. For every
lifetime a citizen of the city lives, they dye a lock of their hair
silver.”

Terra scanned the crowd.
Almost everyone had a full head of silver hair. “What's to stop
someone from just dying their hair even if they are young?”

Vita chuckled. “We would
know. Youth is like a nostalgic aroma. We can smell it on you. Even
if you dyed your hair, your actions give you away,” Vita said as
she drew out a small container. She opened it to reveal several
colorful pills. “Want one?”

Terra stared at the small
colorful spheres. “Candy?”

Vita
grinned. “Oh nothing
that
dull. Take a green one if you want to feel good, red gives you a lot
of energy, blue calms your nerves, yellow gives you visions, and the
purple ones make sex amazing.”

Terra blushed at the mention
of the last one. “Um. No thanks. I don't want to get addicted to
drugs.”

“Addicted?” Vita said,
rolling her eyes. “You are as bad as the Trivian Purifiers. Just
use a Restore on the shieldwatch. You temporal immigrants. Always so
obsessed with consequences.”

“I am still getting used to
the city. I feel like Alice down the rabbit hole.”

“Lewis Carroll, 1865
Continuum Iota. Though I think he used a pen name. It has been a
while since I read it.”

“You've read that?”

“You read a lot when you're
immortal. Regardless, I wouldn't worry about being new to the city.
You are welcome to stay in my home until the training starts. Poor
thing. You must still be reeling from future shock,” she said as
her shieldwatch beeped. Vita then typed on a holographic keypad,
responding to a message she had received. “Oh. I better add you to
my friend's circle on the shieldwatch contact list.”

Terra narrowed her gaze,
watching many of the natives stare at their shieldwatch face.
“Actually, a few things here seem rather familiar.”

As Vita finished typing on a
holoface, a silver haired man approached. He had the same tan skin as
the others Terra had seen though he wore no shirt over his muscular
chest which the shawl only partially covered. He slid close to Vita.