The Next Thing I Knew (Heavenly) (25 page)

The journey to Zalista wasn't really a journey in the usual sense.  Kyle, using his host Bob, swiped a few commands on the holographic console.  Once we left Earth orbit there was a slight moment of disorientation as the Shaval craft shifted space.  Kyle was fascinated with the process and tried to explain it to me.  He told me that the ship shifted into a parallel universe where physics worked a little differently and there the ship travelled faster than light.

"Is there another Earth in this universe?" I asked.

"No.  It's still very young."

"But there are other universes with other Earths?"

"Might be.  Shaval space-time theory allows for multiple universes but so far they've only discovered five.  The universe we share with them is the only one with life according to their probes."

"Is Heavenly another universe?"

He nodded.  "I guess so.  I'd love to have Shaval scientists give me the lowdown on that."

I looked through the holographic window as the stars of another universe streaked past like white lasers.  "Do you believe in magic?"

He chuckled.  "Luce, I believe in a hell of a lot more now than I did before dying.  That stuff going on in Heavenly fits my definition of magic."

"So maybe there are universes where things work a lot differently than our own.  I wish I understood how we ended up there and why we aren't all truly dead."

"Yeah, well welcome to the universe, kiddo."

"Maybe the deaths of billions of people all at once created a new universe."

"I'd like to think we're that important," Kyle said, "but it's a stretch."

"Humans are most definitely not the creators of Heavenly," Harb said from the entrance to the cockpit.

I whipped my head toward him.  "Yeah, so what do you think?"

He smiled.  "I think the universe has many great things in store for me."

"For you?"

"For us, of course.  I see a certain order to things now."  He turned and left.

I faced Kyle.  "I think Harb is treading the thin line between sanity and lunacy."

"Nah, he's just a kid, Luce.  He wants to feel important.  Let him have his fun so long as he does his job."

I wanted to remind Kyle that we were all just kids, still teenagers for the most part but I didn't want him to think I lacked confidence.  Instead, I sat back and watched the lights flash by.

* * * * *

A couple days later, the ship slowed, stopped, and shifted back into our universe.  A glowing blue orb hung in the void outside.  The colors looked familiar but the landmasses were obviously different.  A thick gray ring circled the planet like a metal bracelet.  Vague shapes zipped and drifted between the ring and the planet.  A monstrous ship to our left (or port as Kyle insisted was the correct geek terminology) hovered upside down relative to us.  It was sleek and organic in design, similar to our own ship, only a heck of a lot bigger.

Kyle let out a long whistle.  "That's one of their battleships."

"That thing has a crew of only five?"

"According to their records."

Shaval symbols flashed on the screen.  Harb stepped forward in Azriel's body and sent symbols back.  Another symbol appeared, allowing us to proceed.  And we were on our way to the planet and its capital city, Chandara.

Zhrrii and Ciirr trembled as the world grew larger in the view port.  I'd asked them to accompany us as the two Rrilk I knew best.  I could trust them with our corpses which in essence still held sway over our lives.  Zhrrii locked the Shaval in their room.  I called a meeting in the conference room to go over final plans.

Kyle located the closest battleships.  Three of them were in orbit around Zalista.  The rest were deployed to parts unknown.  Considering how the Shaval had killed us I wondered why they needed such massive things.  Throwing a switch had been a clean way to commit genocide.  Not as messy as blasting a planet to ruins.

Eight people were going with Kyle to carjack the battleships.  Eight were going with me.  Although most committees rarely met in person, the permanent committees were required to meet in person at regular intervals.  Our target, the database committee, had a meeting scheduled in two Shaval days.  In the meantime my team would split up and locate their assigned members by address.  All eight of us had to be in control of our hosts by the scheduled meeting.

That set my nerves on edge.  It would be hard to keep an eye on their progress even though we'd be meeting every day.

Kyle's team would divide into groups of two since each ship had two executive officers that controlled ship activities.  We planned to have them take the ships to Earth where we'd disembark the crews and detain them.  Kyle had agreed to take Harb on his team.  Harb had consented without much comment.  I hoped he'd take orders and do his job.

"You nervous?" Kyle asked as our ship settled down in Chandara's primary spaceport.

I gazed out at the amazing spires and unearthly fluid, curved structures of Zalista's capital city.  The city itself seemed alive and the buildings like tenuous molds of mercury that could change at any moment.  Silvery curved vehicles, like smaller versions of our ship, zipped back and forth between buildings and through the air.  Pink-tinged clouds served as backdrop to the cityscape while the sun set.

"I'm terrified," I said.  "You sure nobody's going to come snooping around the ship?"

"Everything appears automated so I don't think anyone will notice that nobody disembarked the ship.  We had the other Shaval on Earth send their relatives messages saying they wouldn't be back for a few cycles due to meetings, so that base is covered.  We should have a few days to get things done."

As we talked, the sky grew darker.  The city lit up around us.  I stared in wonder and could think of nothing comparable on Earth.  Many lights had no obvious origins.  Such a damned shame the occupants of this place were the neighborhood bullies.

"I hope you're right.  I can't help feeling anxious."

"Think how Zhrrii and Ciirr feel.  They can die a lot easier than us."

"True."  In the event they were found, it was likely we'd all die together.

I pulled my crew together for one last pep talk and we split up, leaving for the homes of those we needed to control.  Chris would assimilate the database administrator.  I was headed for the committee chairperson.  I wondered if "person" or "people" were correct terms to use in reference to an alien species and decided since the grammar Nazis were all dead, I could do as I pleased.  In fact, if we were successful in reviving the human race, I'd be sure to get in on the ground floor when it came to rule making.  That way our successors could wonder just what the hell we were thinking when we came up with all our stupid rules.

I arrived at my soon-to-be host's place.  I'd tried to think of a name for her since transliteration from Shaval made no sense at all but gave up.  It was hard enough keeping up with the names of the Shaval we had on Earth, much less the ones we'd be in control of here.  She lived in one of the mercurial high rises near the edge of the city.  It overlooked a vast natural park that extended for miles.  I'd planned to take the elevator or whatever the Shaval used to go up floors in the building but quickly found that what they used to zip between floors wasn't anything like what I'd expected.  Individuals simply stepped into the hallways and an invisible force pushed them up through the floor as if it were a tenuous membrane.  It was magic.  Then again, I guess magic is anything that's beyond the beholder's ability to understand.

Since I couldn't very well hop inside one of their bodies and go along for the ride, I was at a loss.  I exited the building and watched as aircars glided to various points up and down the high rise and docked.  Portals opened in the organic material and the drivers simply stepped inside their apartments.  Apparently most inhabitants didn't even need to use the elevator.  According to information, my target lived at coordinates which placed her on the side facing the park around the 200
^th
floor or so.  That meant I'd have to count the blasted levels.  I grimaced.  Some of the levels didn't have windows since the inhabitants created them as the mood suited them.  Just like doors, they would form out of the amorphous material of the building.  Living inside something like that would scare me to death.

I started counting and noticed translucent symbols along the edge of the building that I wouldn't have seen if I hadn't looked closely.  They were numbers.  I cheered, thanking whatever genius had such brilliant foresight to put them there.  Trills of excitement and joy echoed from above.  I looked up in time to see two young Shaval rocketing straight down, wings folded back.  At the last minute, they opened their wings and whizzed over the trees and into the park.  I watched as they glided lower and disappeared into the canopy.

An older couple launched from a few stories above me, opening their wings and gliding into the park.  As the sky grew darker, a group of lights focused on a large clearing in the park.  Soon the sky was filled with the gliding forms of Shaval as they went toward the clearing.  I watched in wonder, trying desperately to hold onto my sense of worth as I drank in the magnificent sight.

No wonder the Shaval think they're such bad asses.  They kind of are.

I forced myself to ignore the view and flitted up to the proper level of the high rise.  Another set of coordinates on the building led me to the proper spot where the committee head supposedly lived.  A window morphed open and she stepped out.  The pictures in the Shaval database didn't do her justice.  She looked exactly like Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas.  That is if Fergie was over nine feet tall with wings and an extra set of arms.  She wore a tight t-shirt with the monochromatic image of a handsome male Shaval emblazoned on the front and a knee-length black skirt.  I wondered if the man on her shirt was the Shaval equivalent of Che Guevara or Justin Bieber. 

I decided to name her Fergie since she seemed pretty hip.  It was better than "Bob" any day.  Kyle had told me he planned to name his new host Fred.  He obviously hated the Shaval.

Fergie launched herself from the window and glided toward the park.  She looked to her right at a neighboring female who was also gliding the same way.  They spoke aloud, warbling and trilling and making a racket as they talked about how hot they thought the neighbor in 22.4 was and how stupid his girlfriend acted.  Wow.  Just wow.  And our captive Shaval criticized us for being petty.  These beings were no better.  Screw Diana and her bunch of elitist snobs.

Just like humans had done in the past, the Shaval weren't above justifying their criminal behavior when it came to wiping out or enslaving other sentient beings for their own selfish reasons.  I listened to Fergie and her neighbor prattle on like two teenagers until they reached the park and went separate ways.  Fergie joined up with a group of friends.  They were standing around drinking what looked like cocktails to me.  A tall male, easily over ten feet tall, was boasting about the important things his committee was doing with regard to regulating some substance that I couldn't translate into English.  One of the ladies was all over him.

A platform bubbled up in the center of the park, growing out of the ground and made of the ubiquitous stuff that formed the buildings.  It was the color of the dark green grass that carpeted the clearing and almost looked like a natural formation except for the flatness.  A group of Shaval glided in from the darkness around the clearing and landed on the new platform.  One of them bellowed out thanks to the attendees and warbled out how cool Chandara was and how great it was to be back home.

This was a rock band?  I wondered if Fergie might join them and sing about her lovely humps.

Then they sang.  From the first notes to the last I was entranced by the amazing harmony and melody.  They spread their wings, creating intricate patterns that mirrored the melody and sang in a range that extended to notes I probably couldn't have heard in physical human form.  As the concert went on, I found myself swaying to the sound of their voices.  Tears formed in my eyes and chills ran down my back.  Music had never affected me this way.  When it was over, I wanted more.  Fergie and her friends gabbed on for a while after, then she hugged some of them goodbye, waved to the others, and walked to a clear area of the field where I'd seen aircars landing and picking up their owners.

Her vehicle landed.  Like the others, it had its own shape and color which I assumed could probably change at her whim.  I slid into the portal behind her.  It closed and the vehicle took her back to her apartment.  I wondered why she hadn't flown back using her wings.  I hadn't seen any of them flying back, now that I thought of it.  Maybe they were too lazy, or maybe the wings couldn't handle lifting off.

Once we reached her apartment I wandered around looking at the decorations.  There was no kitchen.  The bathroom and bedroom looked like the ones on the spaceship.  She had holographic images, presumably of family, and nice wooden furniture like tables and chairs, albeit much larger than the human equivalent.  I wondered if they were real or holographic.

Fergie hit the sack after cleaning off in her mist shower.  I followed up with my usual meditation techniques and started the process of assimilation all over again.  It was getting to be old hat.  By the end of the night I felt comfortable enough to completely merge with her.  I marveled at how quickly I'd been able to hit that point, but then again, I'd gathered some experience with her kind.  Fergie's thoughts were every bit as complex as Diana's but I didn't bother searching her soul or trying to understand what made her tick.  I found her consciousness triggers and tested them once she started to wake up.  She winked back out.  I took over and walked her around, scratched her butt, ran in place, and did a few more tests until I was satisfied that I could do it again.