In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (34 page)

“It’s
an hour until open, we are good. I don’t care about your
hot
date,” he replies.

“If
we get in trouble, I’m not standing up for you anymore asshole.”

They
walk to the back of the vehicle.

“Just
drop it, I’ll do the talking.” Intei touches the handle of the back door.

It
unlocks.

It
lets off
a
psst
sound as it
opens up. Rect sees eyes, twenty four pairs of them.

Human.

Locked
in a large metal cage, chain-linked metal bars them from the outside. Bermea
works his way to the front of the cage, pushing past the naked
,
scared and hopeless.

“Go
get the lifter,” Rect says to Intei.

They
push the cage on a lifter, toward large loading doors. A Serephin man, half
their size, an alpha
,
stands in front of them.
An older fellow, with a few more wrinkles than
the
younger Serephins and blue colored spots freckled on his sickly green skin.
Despite his age and height, he has a certain elegance to him, with his red and
gold silk robes that flutter in the airless alleyway and his poised
I’m
better than you
demeanor.

“You
are late,” he says with a commanding tone, his imposing voice vibrates through
the alleyway like a master opera singer.

“Sorry
Sherif we—“

“Excuses,
I have a business to run, Intei, this isn’t the first time,” Sherif says.

In
the cage, one of the humans looks out into the alleyway. Axe Simpson, a big
burly bear of a black man. He swears he heard something. He sees movement behind
a trash bin on the wall across from him. A glitter flashed in his vision. The
three Serephins are arguing, the rest are just staring at them.

This
is his chance.

He
leans against the cage, he tries to get a better look. Something peeks out at
him. It’s a small human girl and a giant rat like beast that towers over her.
The girl looks in surprise, she notices him noticing her. She and the beast
disappear behind the bin.

“Wait!”
he yells. The arguing stops behind him. He glances back at Intei and Rect. They
throw a gander at him but then continue their business.

“So
where do you want them?” Intei says with a smug grin. Sherif pushes Intei off
the lifter.

“I’ll
be taking it myself.”

“We
have to go. We have another job to go to!” Intei says.

“Well
you’re just going to have to wait, like I have been for the last few hours. I
like to show the new arrivals the place so it is going to be a minute. I’ll
sign your papers then.”

“But—“

“That’s
the end of it boys,” Sherif replies. Rect punches Intei in the shoulder. Intei
just slumps down. Sherif smiles as he pushes the lifter into the building.

They
go into the back area, a long hallway with doors labeled
with
everything from dressing rooms and bathrooms. It looks like
the back of a theater stage. Employees pass by them as they go through the
hallways. They’re dressed in extravagant blue and golds to match Sherif. They
all greet him with
good morning
sir’s
and the
such.

“Sorry
about our earlier delay, I’m sure you are excited to see where you will be
staying,” Sherif says to the humans in the cage. Bermea made his way to the
front again.

“Even
in an advance society such as ours, we still have insufferable fools to bring
us down.” He pauses, waiting for a reply. He was hoping that would’ve broken the
ice a little bit. “Hmm, no reply.”

He
pushes the lifter again, heading for the double doors at the end of the
hallway.

Bermea
looks up at him. His instinct tells that he can trust him, maybe.

“Don’t
worry, you’re in the safest place on the Skyeater. We will be conversing freely
soon enough.”

They
burst through the double doors.

“Welcome
to my world, the most magical place in the universe. The Sherif
Lubitec
Menagerie.” Bermea visual sensory overloads
instantly. The main foyer is filled with five giant cages and a light display
to make the local deep space auditorium light show jealous. A machine in the
middle of the foyer shoots off orbs of lights in every direction, filling them
with hundreds of blue and gold colored orbs that swim majestically in the air
like an unbroken wave. The colors swirl through the rainbow in an instant as
Bermea stares at them in wonder.

 “The
colors change based on your emotions and brain sensory, figuring out and
matching the best color combinations to keep your interest.”

“You
own all this?” Bermea asks.

Sherif
looks down and smiles. “Why yes, it’s my pride and joy.”

He
pushes the lifter again, away from the lights and wonder and toward the bestial
area.

“When
I was a kid I used to want to be a multitude of things when I grew up. At first
I wanted to be a scientist, to research the workings of the universe and to
understand where our powers came from. Then when I became a little older I
wanted to be a soldier, to fight in the Councils army. But when I started to
learn that all of that would, in the long run, be useless. I decided I wanted
to do something, something that could inspire people and make them forget about
their problems and troubles.”

There
is a proud glimmer in his eyes.

 “So
I set out to create the greatest non-medicated stimulating experience that any
species can experience. Of course, being on the Caelacis greatly inhibits my
operations but I make do with what I have.”

He
pushes them out of reach of the light show.  

Bermea
presses himself into the cage to get a better look. His junk sticks out of the
cage, unlike the others, he’s never been uncomfortable naked, in fact when he
still had a home he would walk around naked all the time.

There’s
something overhead, with the metal cage blocking his view he couldn’t tell that
this place was powered by natural light. The ceiling is made out of a glass
like material, a dull blue light shines through it.

The
Skyeater’s star.

Thousands
of shadows move through it, painting the ground with muted black shapes.

It’s
an aquarium, filled with thousands of water breathing beasts and fish from all
over the galaxy. A giant white whale-like creature swims overhead, casting a
shadow over the entire foyer. It snakes over four hundred feet long. Bermea
stares in awe at the beast. How in the hell did they capture that?

“Ah,
the great leviathan, the
Omecatar
. It’s one of our
newest additions. We were lucky to capture it as a child, to watch it grow to
its true size.” Sherif finally goes into the bestial area. “Sorry I don’t have
time to show you that area today, but I can still show you this area.”

He
takes a left down a giant corridor.

The
hallways is filled with different creatures in open air cages. They all come in
different shapes, sizes and colors, they all look very intelligent to an
extent. They all stop what they’re doing and watch as the humans are pushed
down the hallway.

“This
is just one of the many areas of my palace.”

Bermea
looks back at the eyes of the creatures who watch them. They don’t seem scared
nor do they have any fear in their eyes. They just seem content and some even
look happy.

What
the hell is going on here? Maybe Sherif is right. Maybe they are safe here.

Sherif
continues to show them around. He goes down each and every hallway and corridor
in the bestiary. Showing off and naming every single species they have.

Every
species cage is different, some have the normal dirt and vegetation like trees
and bushes. But they vary in color and design. Some cages are arid and dry like
the desert planets its inhabitants came from and some have pools of water and
mist conferring planets to keep a humid and wet environment for its occupants.

 Bermea
is the only one who converses with Sherif, while the others just stand back.
Bermea knows he’s a good judge of character and of all the Serephins he’s met
so far, Sherif seems to be the one who is who he claims to be. 

“Your
race is one of the more intelligent ones we’ve gotten lately. Not to say that you
are anything special since we do have some far more advance than your culture
but we don’t have many and you’re in the top few.”

“Thanks,
I guess. Since we are so intelligent you should let us go, so we can preserve
ourselves since we are so intelligent and can inspire to be much
much
more,” Bermea says. Sherif just laughs.

“Nice
try, but no.”

They
finally come up to a giant empty open air glass cage. It’s filled with greenery
and shrubs.

It
has five main open areas, a large pool area with lounge chairs and smaller
ponds for washing, a waste disposal area with ten large urinal like machines in
the open, a eating area that has floor level tables and bean bag like seats for
sitting and a food compositor, an area with plush mats built into the ground for
sleeping, and an giant grassy knoll with a small lead up to a hill that watches
over the entire cage. The back of the hill against the white walls of the
enclosure.

It’s
scattered with plush seats and exercise equipment. The top of the hill is flat
enough for four people to lay on top of it. The only thing separating the areas
is a thicket of trees in between them.

“Welcome
to your new home.”

A
human-sized hole opens in the glass. The bars disappear in their cage.

“Well
go on
,
there is work to be done.” Sherif says.
Bermea looks behind him, this would be his perfect chance to escape, but going
into the enclosure feels right, and he doubts he can escape from the Serephins.
His instincts has never been wrong before.

He
walks out the cage and toward his new home. His toes curl on the freezing
marble-like floors and stop when his feet lands on grass. He wiggles his toes
on the grass, it feels like his parents front lawn when he was younger.

He
sniffs. He can smell the air, it smells just like Earth, he looks at a
tree
. A mechanical bird looks back and flies into
another tree.

His
goosebumps disappear, the air and temperature is perfect, not too humid, not
too cold, not too dry. Whoever made this place has it down to a tee. The other
nine make it in before the glass melds close.

 Sherif
taps on the glass.

“I
don’t have time to update you on everything in your new home because we are
opening soon, but please be on your best behavior and your stay
with us will be
that much more marvelous and it
will benefit the both of us. We open in thirty minutes and you do whatever you
want in your new home, since it
is
your new home. And that means
anything,” Sherif says with a wink.

They all just stare at him.

He sighs.

“You
can breed, eat whatever you want, play around,
sleep
all day, as long as you don’t do anything too awful.”

He
looks behind him.

“This
will be goodbye for now. Have a nice time.” And then he was gone, leaving the
humans to themselves. 

They
are alone now, Bermea can see the other enclosures around them. But he could
look at them later, for now he should explore his new crib.

Everyone
splits apart and go their separate ways to explore. He saw something he was
interested in since he was first abducted. He walks through the trees and comes
into the eating area. He eyes a food compactor. It’s a large metal rectangular
box, with ten small doors on it with small displays next to each door.

He
walks up to one of the door and taps the display. ‘Chose your food’ shows up on
it. First, it asks him what variety of food. It has everything from crab to
beef to
vegan
central
dishes
.
He wants to keep it simple so he chooses beef, it then shows a map of Earth,
grouped by country. He chooses
the US
. Then
every single somewhat major popular beef dish shows up on the menu. It has
everything from just a plain burger to steak with a side of butter and potato
wedges.

“Wow,”
he mutters, this just might be the best place in the universe.

He’s
going to get so fat.

He
clicks on a normal burger. He chooses medium rare with a side of double fried
fries and hits ‘Start’.

He
stares into the window.

“Oh
my god…”

In
the window, a cup of what looks like simple dirt is placed in the middle of the
compartment on a plate by metal tongs. The dirt lights up and stretches and
molds into his burger. 

How
is such a thing even possible?

Energy
cannot be created or destroyed but it can be converted. And that’s what this
machine is doing, creating an edible meal from what he thinks is dirt.