Jago: The Millennium Galaxy Race

Chapter 36: Origin

"The name's Balt," he said.

I didn't like the thought of him following me, but I didn't have time to try and lose him.

"Sarth," I answered back.

"I know," he said.

What's with this guy? Claiming he knows everything.

"I have a Premon and a Mechanite in my crew. We're looking for the Vo stones as well."

I didn't know what a Premon was, and PC told me through my earpiece. "Premons: A type of species that can see into the future."

Well, that explained how he knew everything and why he was here. I was wary of him at first, but now he didn't seem like such a bad guy.

Wait ...

"If you have someone who can predict the future, how did you fall into the trap?" I asked.

"We fell for it intentionally," he explained. "It was also predicted we'd both get the antivirus."

If he could predict that then I was headed in the right direction, and I felt a heavy burden lift off my shoulders.

I thought of another question. "Do you know who'll win the race?"

He laughed. "That's the one thing we can't see."

He continued to follow me to the location of the jumper. As long as he didn't hinder me, I didn't care what he did.

We came to a small city with a few Mechanites wandering around. It seemed like a normal city, but even for a lower class, it was immaculate and beautiful. If I had time I would've liked to study the many architectural aspects of each building because they were all different shapes but made from the same white stone.

The only weird part was that everyone had the same straight Mechanite face, and no one veered off course of their destination, except when they saw us.

I didn't know if it was the suit or the fact that we were humans (or looked human), but once they saw us they immediately changed direction in an orderly fashion, avoiding us like the plague. I continued farther into the city, and somewhere along the way Balt disappeared.

That was fine with me. I didn't have time to deal with any of them. I ran through the city following PC's arrow to the huge entrance of a large building. Everyone had scattered. I was about to run through when a few large mechanical droids dropped down from an upper level, right in front of me, and took out large blasters.

Without thinking, I whipped out my shredder and waved it through them as I passed by, shredding through the droids easily. They crumbled to the ground in pieces. PC was already ahead, waiting for me at one of the many different doorways.

"Welcome back, Balt," PC said, and I turned and noted him behind me.

"Just went to park my shuttle. I see you got through okay," he said, smiling at me. He was now wearing a full battle armament suit with a large blaster in both hands. Seeing him up close, he looked to be in his mid-thirties and was built like a tough, experienced soldier. "Does this lead to the jumper?" he asked.

"Indeed," PC said. "We'll be taking a smaller, discreet jumper to the safe station. Although, once we jump to Origin it seems we will encounter resistance."

He scoffed. "Yeah, I expected that."

PC led us into a small circular white room.

"It'll take a moment for the jumper to activate," it said.