When the world emerged from the purple blur a moment later, they were standing together in a bland metallic room. Immediately Jake noticed that something was wrong. The floor was curved slightly. He walked a couple of steps up the floor and was disconcerted by the fact that the direction that felt like down had changed: gravity felt wrong. Ming smiled: “Welcome, Jake. Let’s go see Riojme.”
The door out of the room was not quite like the ones he had seen before in 2286. It seemed much thicker and quite determined provide an airtight seal. When they emerged from the small room, Riojme was there to greet them. She was so excited she jumped over and gave Jake a peck on the lips. Jake was even more thrilled and his body tingled. They had never kissed when they had been together before but this time Riojme had initiated it. She immediately started talking to him with happy excitement but he couldn’t understand her. It was then that a middle-aged dark-skinned Asian looking lady made herself noticed. She stepped forward and interrupted Riojme who stopped talking and handed Jake a headband. Jake put it on and after a couple of seconds the Asian lady spoke up again. This time, Jake received a transcription of her speech through the headband.
“Welcome, Jake Martinez. My name is Jang Mang. I’ll allow Riojme to explain where you are and what we’re doing here.”
Riojme then resumed talking: “I’m so happy to see you, my love. I suppose that Ming hasn’t told you that we’re not on Earth anymore.” She then motioned them to go around a corner in the room.
Then Jake saw where they were through a huge transparent wall. Outside were the stars and two huge planets that felt so close he could touch them. One was a bluish gas giant. The second one was earthlike but from what he could see the water bodies were much smaller. He stood in awe.
Riojme continued: “The big one is known to you as Tau Ceti F. The smaller one is its moon. Rebyrespa-plini is its official name but we usually call it Replin. Replin is a moon of Tau Ceti F and we’re in a space station above it.”
Jake was amazed beyond words. Even after visiting the 23rd century, he never ever would have imagined he would get to visit another planet. The power of the orbs that the Aye had made was incredible. He knew they could allow time travel but he never had any idea that space travel was possible. People in 2286 had traveled by vacikarce which was enjoyable but relatively slow. He wondered why they didn’t just use the orbs.
