Homeward

6 - Andheyb

Just as I began to open my mouth and say something along the lines of, "Well how the hell are we going to get up there?", I felt a strange and now familiar feeling. Blue light--something similar to what I had seen swirling inside inside the robot, enveloped me.

A moment later I was no longer standing on top of the ancient dock; I was on Andheyb. I say "on" because I have never been able to shake the feeling that the city is really a ship. In the city and on the ship.

I barfed.

Talson was squirming inside my pocket and I let him out. He jumped down to the blue-green mosaic tile floor and promptly began walking away from me in a jittery, unsteady line. He hadn't faired the teleportation beam any better than I had. Now that we were out of the woods, it felt a little strange to be keeping this lizard-monkey-thing with me as a defensive measure, but what can I say. I had become attached to the little guy. Or, maybe more accurately, I had become accustomed to the feeling of security that having him gave me. Security because of his monster-zonking scream, and security because he was something I had control over. Here, on the teleportation pad, I was beginning to feel like I was the one inside of the breast pocket of someone or something which was much larger and with several more thumbs than me.

For a city, Andheyb is small. For a ship (at least one still inside the atmosphere of a planet), it is huge. Skyscraper huge. The only reason I hadn't seen it before is because I was distracted by the need to not fall off the edge of the ravine. That, and maybe it hadn't wanted to be noticed.

I had one remaining zam berry in my pocket. I bit off half of it and gave the other half to Talson, who seemed to have recovered his senses. He lazily settled down and began cleaning his fur, biting at what I hoped weren't some sort of parasitical mite with his beak. I supposed he had decided that staying with me wasn't such a problem after all, if I kept giving him berries at regular intervals.

"Finally," said a voice of unknown origin. I spun around, looking for its source.

The voice continued: "Don't worry about the mess! I can get that cleaned up, no problem!"

"Who are you? Where are you?" I kept turning around, looking in all directions. I was in what seemed to be a small square or park--though there were no plants, just crystal formations--on top of a diamond-shaped pattern made of blue, green, and white tiles. Around me, tall rectangular buildings jutted up among slender towers of almost-clear crystal. To one side, I could see the sky and the top of the hill that I had just come from; I was one hundred or so meters from what must have been the edge of the city-ship. To the other side, buildings stacked and rose higher, forming the central pillar of the city's architecture.

"Why, it's me!" The robot, which I had completely forgotten about in my new surroundings, whizzed into my line of sight. I could still hear its bleeps and blips, but on top of that I heard the high-pitched and friendly-seeming voice.

"Oh, that makes sense. You don't have the receivers. Should have thought of that! I suppose you can't see me, either. We'll fix that in a moment. I wondered why you ignored most of what I was saying! Duh!"

The robot spun around me and then shot off into the distance, toward one of the blue buildings just off the square. 

"Follow me! I promise you we're almost there. Promise!" it said as it sped away. All I could do was grab Talson and follow. Talson hissed a little at the sudden movement, but let me carry him in my hands.

Soon enough we had left the square an entered into one of the many buildings. It was cool and slightly humid inside. The walls were unmarked and unadorned, and the ceiling was tall but not lavish. Whoever had designed this place had been roughly humanoid, I mused.

Down one corridor and through an archway that led to another hallway and another arch.

"Where are you taking us?" I called out, panting.

"To... me!" said the robot. The sound of the robot's voice seemed to come from all around me, as if from the walls themselves.

"Nice speakers," I whispered to myself. Talson squirmed while we rounded a few more corners. Every few dozen meters, a hallway would branch off from the one that we were walking in and I could see that those hallways led to small rooms packed with what seemed to be scientific equipment. We must have been in some sort of science facility, though I could not tell whether it was a university chemistry lab or a military-grade weapons design facility. There was no writing on anything, and the equipment was practically covered in knobs, toggles, switches, and buttons.

I recalled an early lesson in my Agency training: "They're not gemstones, and the voice isn't coming from God," my instructor had said. Talson had said. "Just as many agents have fallen prey to theo-morphism as to anthropomorphism. Remember: There's no such thing as magic, and just because an alien species seems to possess untold riches doesn't mean that you should consider them to holier, or smarter, or better in any way. For all you know they shit out those 'gemstones' and plaster them all over everything as part of the mating ritual."

Someone in the class had giggled at that, and Talson thought it was funny, too. "Calm down folks. I'll leave that discussion to your xenosex instructor." We all laughed at that. Talson was our xenosex instructor...

Pay attention! growled Glant from just behind me. He moved so silently it was easy to forget that he was there sometimes.

I refocused my attention on what was happening to me then and there: The robot. Andheyb.

"What do you mean you're taking us to meet you?" I asked of the robot.

Just then we passed through one more archway into a larger, taller room. Each of its six walls supported four horizontal cylinders that faintly glowed with bubbling blue-green liquid. Inside each tank, bubbles lazily rose between the exposed skeletons of the long-dead occupants. Only the faintest remnants of preserved tendon and ligament kept the skeletons standing; actually, several had indeed fallen into piles at the bottoms of their tanks.

"Oh," I said. "Failed preservation tanks." I set Talson on the floor.

"That's right," said the robot, who had finally stopped its mad dash. "Failed, except for one!"

There was a large pillar in the middle of the room. Maybe pillar is the wrong word, it was too wide around. Something somewhere went click! and steam shot out from several valves on the pillar. The whole thing--really another, hollow cylinder--started to retract into the ceiling, revealing a new, larger tank filled with roiling bubbles.

"My name," said the robot, who hovered at my side. "is Princess At-Han-Thas-Al-Thar, Fated Sovereign of the Men-Hal-Tap-Na, Regeant Royal of the Four Moons of Thnaard, Inheritor of the Shal-Tathoon, Knight Protector of Laal."

I looked down at the robot, surprised. Its gentle blue light was swirling slowly.

"I see," I said.

"Nice to meet you," it said.

Once the protective cylinder had fully retracted into the ceiling, the bubbles in the central tank calmed enough that I could see what was inside. A body. This one was well preserved: Its--her--upper body was entirely humanoid, but from her waist down she had the body of a fish or a dolphin or a yaaltir.

Somewhere, lost in space, I had just stumbled upon the preserved body of a mermaid princess.

"Nice to meet you," I replied.

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Author's Note: Finally! Is that what you expected the robot, er, Princess, to lead Prim to? If you're enjoying the story, please vote and leave a comment! - Gabriel