Ortai Legacy: Arrival

12.2 - Unexpected Call (L)

"-been flashing this whole time," a newt-looking guy named Felix said. "The aliens haven't got a clue how to charge it. They tossed it in a radioactive swamp, but it didn't work."

I used telepathy to ask Weylan, [Did you catch what they were talking about in the main group?]

"Of course. Their Interfaces are running low on Void arkegy, but none of them seem to have access to a Void Source—or knowledge of one's location.]

[And let me guess, there's no way I can help them out?]

"On the contrary, Wedol is more than capable of teleporting energy planetwide. It's much easier to transport than solid matter."

[Good, do that. Charge their Interfaces.]

"Huh." Felix flapped mantaray-like fins on his back. "It says it's charging now."

"Liza did that." Rowan glanced at me. "Didn't you?"

I nodded but couldn't find the words to explain further in front of all these people. [Hey, could you send a document to them explaining the basics of arka, Ortai—all that stuff you taught me before, just condensed? And tell them how we're working to remake the teleportation spell?]

"Yes," Weylan replied.

A notification appeared briefly, indicating that I'd sent a document. Chatter spread through the group for a few moments before falling silent as they began reading.

Before long, Coral—who looked like a cross between a crocodile and a shark—burst into tears. Jordan—a nix with too many antennae—tried to comfort her with platitudes while looking on the verge of tears himself. Felix and Alice were silent, expressions shell-shocked. Olivia took on the part of a host trying to hold their party together, repeating over and over that "It's only a few years."

Rowan sent me a text message. "I read about teleportation in the archives. Three years is optimistic, but you knew that already, didn't you? How do you know so much?"

It took me a minute to find the direct messaging feature. "Is it so hard to believe that I can read archives too?"

"No, but it is surprising that you managed to find anything useful without knowing the right terms. The database never mentions Earth by name, and information on the Migration is almost nonexistent."

"It's not hard to assume that we're on a different planet and used teleportation to get here."

"You'll need the coordinates of a spot on Earth's surface to teleport there. How do you plan to find Earth in the database's list of habitable planets, much less its current coordinates?"

That was actually a very good question, given that any devices that might've been able to sense Earth's location were long broken. "I'll figure it out and get back to you."

He rolled his eyes. "I could do my own research if it were in the database—but I don't know Earth's designation either."

Part of me wanted to shrug off his statement and continue on my merry way, but a stronger part of me refused to prioritize my own comfort if that meant instilling false hopelessness in others. I groaned inwardly, already dreading Olivia's reaction to the truth. "My Interface has an upgrade. It's an AI assistant thing that's basically a person. Yes, I know it's unfair. I'd share if I could, but it's linked to a physical cube, so that's not really possible. I can have it answer questions, though."

"Unfair??? That thing's our ticket home. Why don't you want to talk about it?"

I couldn't deny that he had a point. Maybe the others would be as happy as Rowan to hear about Weylan, and even if they wouldn't be happy—which I suspected would be the case—they had a right to know about anything that would determine our way home.