Masters

Chapter 3

Nick had arrived at Iaso's central town's gates. Like most main towns across the universe, a wall of solid concrete surrounded it with turrets placed around the top at regular intervals. The gates themselves were solid steel and covered with soldered bolts and reinforcing plates. Nick walked up to the gatehouse, a concrete cube next to the left door with a sliding porthole, and pressed the buzzer. A few seconds later, the porthole opened and a guard with a grey beard and a leather helmet appeared from behind it.

"Business?" asked the guard. "I'm here to catch a ship to another dimension," replied Nick. "Anything to declare?" asked the guard. "Just some basic supplies and sundries, a few weasel beetle proboscises, and some assorted anti-monster sidearms and tools." The guard furrowed his brow for a second and said, "Alright, you can pass. Just don't let me catch you using those weapons on people, or there'll be oblivion to pay! You can find the ship depot in the middle of town, just take one of the main roads and you'll get there with no problems." replied the guard before closing the porthole.

After a moment, there was a loud buzzing alarm and the gates began to slowly open outward with a loud mechanical grinding sound. When the gap between the doors was wide enough for a person of Nick's size to comfortably walk through, they stopped. Nick walked through into town as the gates closed behind him.

The outer part of the town was the storage sector. Most of the buildings were warehouses with walls and doors made of steel sheets. The road was devoid of people until Nick made his way further into the town. After the storage area was the business district, and since it was in the middle of the day the town was bustling. There was a great variety of shops that sold things that ranged from candy to anti-monster artillery weapons. Each building was a different arrangement of shapes and sizes with windows that displayed signs advertising their goods and services. As Nick approached the inner section, he came across the red-bricked houses and buildings where the majority of Iaso's citizenry made their residence.

After Nick came upon the crest of an upward curve in the road, he could see his destination, a thirty-story conical tower that served as Iaso's ship depot. He could see wooden ships of many sizes entering and exiting Iaso through portals that opened in the sky high above the city either to or from the docks built into the sides of the depot, each with a hover sail cut into a shape and size to accommodate its intended purpose.

After walking a distance more, Nick came upon the entrance to the depot, a pair of rectangular entryways on top of stairs that people were streaming in and out of. When Nick entered, he marveled at the sheer scale of the building. The inside was hollow, with various platforms and decks built into and curving around the inside. People traveled between these places on various elevators, escalators, and lifts. His life confined to the woods of Iaso and his house with a few visits to the central town on occasion. He had heard that sights like this were common in the more urban dimensions, including the one he was going to, and was unsure if he could adjust to such an environment.

Nick walked to the ticket kiosk, which also served as the central pillar that held up the whole depot. After waiting in line for what seemed like forever, he was able to approach the window and speak with the teller. He was a middle-aged man in the uniform of a blue dress shirt, a black vest, a tie with red squares on black background pattern and a name tag that said Hello, My Name is Frederick!

When Nick was in front of the window he smiled and said, "Hello, how may I help you?" "I would like a ticket for the ship to Helgram please." Frederick got out a binder and flipped through the pages, frowned, and said, "I'm sorry, but the ship to Helgram is completely booked, maybe you could catch a ride tomorrow!" Nick was shocked. "But... but... I can't go tomorrow! The Master Academy only accepts registrations today!" "I'm sorry I wish I could- wait, did you say you were on your way to become a Master?" "Yeah...?" Frederick paused for a moment with a stressed look on his face and said, "Would you happen to know anything about a little boy with a monster-napped kitten?" Nick scratched his head and said, "No, but earlier today I brought back a monster-napped puppy to a little girl." Frederick closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, held it in for a moment and calmly exhaled. "That little girl was my niece, I just heard about it on the phone from my sister in law. Would you be willing to travel uncomfortably to get to Helgram?" Nick's eyes widened in shock, "I'd sit on a chair of needles if it meant becoming a Master!" Frederick looked around nervously and quietly said, "I'm really not supposed to do this, but I can give you a pass to ride in the cargo hold. We're only supposed to do this for special situations like if a person needed emergency surgery or if someone was transporting volatile resources. But for what you did for my family, I'd be willing to look the other way. Here, take this, show it to the ticket handler and he'll let you into the cargo hold, no questions asked." Frederick gave Nick a wooden plate with the letters SC chiseled into it. Nick took the plate with a shaky hand and said, "Geez... I... thanks a lot!" Frederick smiled and said, "No, thank you. Now hurry to the twenty-fifth floor! The ship leaves in a half hour!"

Nick raced off to the nearest elevator. It was a wooden cube with walls made of wooden grating pulled up and down by a rope along four wooden shafts. It may seem structurally unsound, but certain trees in Iaso could secrete a lacquer that, when applied to plant-based resources, could make them as hard as any common metal depending on the amount applied to the surface Nick pulled back the jointed grate door and entered with a few more people. They started going up and when it reached the second floor it stopped. An attendant in the depot's uniform opened the door, a few people left and some entered. After stopping at three more floors Nick decided to take his chances with the escalators. He ran along the carved railing past a small cafe with people sipping steaming cups while sitting on folding chairs with woven seats and backs. Most people found heights to be very disorienting, but not Nick. He spent years climbing the tallest trees in Iaso, climbing rock piles, and he even did some free-running after climbing the houses in the central town.

Nick had made it to the fifteenth floor riding the escalators, but in doing so he had wasted more than half the time he had left, so he decided to take drastic measures. He walked towards the back side of the floor until he came to the hand-railing that kept people from accidentally falling into the beams that held the floors to the wall of the depot. Nick took aim at one of the upper beams, readied himself and leapt to it. When he was within grabbing distance he managed to catch on with both hands and swing his body into a standing position onto it utilizing his own upper body strength and the momentum of his jump. He continued to swing from beam to beam, ascending the floors faster than most conventional methods would allow him. Because he was focusing everything into what he was doing, Nick hadn't noticed that some astonished people had seen him out of the corner of their vision. The only thing that they could make out was a red blur racing up the beams, which later led to the creation of a rumor that there was an escaped circus orangutan living inside the depot.

After Nick had counted nine floors, he swung over the railing of the next one and landed on his feet. He had finally made it to the twenty-fifth floor with only six minutes to spare, but he couldn't afford to relax yet. Nick continued to race towards the dock, weaving between people in the crowds. He could see the sunlit opening that leads to where the ship was currently moored and raced onto the dock. Along edges of the dock were multiple crates and barrels of different sizes, some of which the sailors were loading and unloading from the ship using hand-cranked cranes. The edges of the dock had a rope barrier to prevent anyone from falling off. They were just finishing up preparations to depart and were already starting to unfurl the hover-sails. As he was coming up to the side of the ship, he finally caught sight of the gangplank and raced towards it. He was about to take his first step on the gangplank when suddenly a strong hand grabbed and yanked Nick around to face a scowling grizzled sailor in an old and patched dark blue naval captain's uniform with fraying yellow trimming and a white cap with sweat stains.

"An' just wha' do ya think yoo're dooin' boy?" spat the clearly upset sailor. "I was just-" started Nick but the sailor loudly interrupted him. "Noo, yoo're not! I knoow foora fact that the last a' the passengers have already come aboord. An' I don' appreciate wanna-be adventurers who wan' ta do the whoole 'romanticism' thing and stooway on ma' ship! We kick off all stooways at the next dimension! Noo exceptions! Next time I see yoo try ta boord ma' ship, I'll tan ya' hide soo hard yoo'll look moore like'a leather belt than a boy! Now git outta' ma' sight!" Finished the sailor before giving Nick a hard shove towards the depot.

Nick decided that he was the kind of man who better understood actions rather than words. Nick stuck his hand into his pocket and yelled back at the sailor, "Hey barnacle beard!" The sailor turned around with his mouth wide open about to scream obscenities when it suddenly snapped shut at the sight of what Nick had in his hand. "I bet you didn't think that I might have tried to board your ship so late for a good reason, did you? I wonder what would happen to your reputation as a sailor if word got out that you like to throw off people before they have a chance to explain their situations?" At the sound of that threat, the sailor made a small squeak and stood at attention, momentarily forgetting that he was the commanding officer of the vessel. "Noo! Uh, noo need for that now... Charlee! Git oover here!" A blond sailor in a red bandana and a leather aviation jacket who was taking inventory of the oncoming cargo looked over and ran up to them.

"Yes, Captain?" "Mister Charlee, please escoort our, uh, esteemed passenger to a private cabin with a vyoo please." ordered the now flustered sailor. "No thanks. I don't need anything too fancy, the cargo hold will more than suit my needs." smugly replied Nick. "...uh, right! Yoo heard the passenger Mister Charlee! Oon the double!" "Sir yes sir! Follow me please" Said the sailor before walking up the gangplank with Nick following.