Trespassing on Hallowed Ground (The Tes Simms Anthology, Book 3)

A Strange Introduction

It takes ten minutes of tense deliberation, but we eventually convince the man of two things: we are not hostile, and we've seen him before in another universe. And somehow the former was harder than the latter.

"So you said I'm an agent of some sort in your universe?"

"That was the most Tes got out of you—him—before we were sent to Alpha Centauri. What do you do here?"

"I'm trying to save my country from the Necromancers, is what. The name's Dwight. I used to be the Cadet chief before anarchy took over."

"Cadet?"

"Yeah, police. So then, what are your auras? Both of you?"

"Are auras our powers?"

"Yeah, so like mine is positivity."

"I don't know. We didn't have auras in our universe."

"What? How? It's like one of the most basic building blocks in our—you know what, we need to take you back to base. There's someone I need you to meet."

"I'm still so very confused by everything that's happening here."

"Don't worry, we can walk and talk. In this universe, we call that multitasking."

"Okay, smartass."

Dwight gives a smile. "At least you have humor in your universe. Something we've been lacking as of late."

We walk together as a group of six through the bush maze of Maxima Park, stopping a few times for ambush spots and suspicious noises, until we make it to the end and find ourselves in a tight alley between dozens of buildings.

"So, seeing as you likely don't know anything about what's happening, I'll start with the basics. There are two groups of aura civvies: us normal folks, and the Necromancers. For hundreds of years, the Necromancers were social outcasts, solely because of the auras they have. Which, mind you, is not controllable. Three years ago, they decided to finally change that, and forced the city under their control. Carmsborough has been torn between the two sides ever since."

"Honestly, that name is the only thing I recognize," Holly says. "So what, you guys are born with auras or something?"

"Exactly. Which is why it's strange that you two claim to have never had auras. Although, I guess there could be some logic behind it. If you come from a universe where this certain atom behaves differently, or you don't even have that atom, maybe when you arrived here it mingled with your bodies, and..."

"And I thought Omega Centauri was a lot to deal with."

"Omega Centauri?"

"It's a long story."

"Well, we have a while before we get to base."

"Okay, so it all starts on a field trip to Egypt..."

It's interesting listening to Holly's perspective on everything that's changed in the past week—two weeks?—and the things that have happened to us in that timeframe. She skips the heavier parts, like losing the people that we have known for so many years, but has no problem talking about all the deaths on Alpha Centauri. Maybe it's fresh enough that she doesn't even give it a second thought.

Or maybe we've already become numb to it somehow.

Either way, the former Cadet chief eats it up, as if this were a story you tell a three-year-old right before bed. He has so many questions, like what the galvaknights looked like, about the ghosts in the Hindenburg, where Aurora fits into all of this, and how we think the technology works.