Walking an Endless Path Pt. 03

"Hello?" he said.

The powered suit suddenly leapt backward, and he could no longer see the being. Just to be safe, Joe sat up but remained where he was. He looked down at himself and grimaced. He was covered with dried blood and gore, with dirt thrown in for good measure. He must look like some kind of savage! Well, there was really nothing he could do about that. The pressure in his head slowly resolved to words. He felt the pain slip away as the words became clearer.

"...cuh al et come out of the building!" the voice in his head said nervously.

"Telepathy?" Joe asked aloud and stood up. He stepped slowly outside and faced the being in the suit. They stood there facing each other. Aside from being small and frail, the being was light grey in color and had most of the usual humanoid-like structure: two legs ending in broad foot pads, two arms ending with multiple thin tentacle-like appendages, two wide and currently nervous eyes, a wide mouth and a kind of small flap where the human nose would be. Its movements were very fluid—more fluid than they would have been with a rigid internal skeleton. Maybe this was why it was wearing the augmentation suit? It would be at a disadvantage if it were only capable of gentle motions. The mech-suit likely compensated for that.

"What are you? Why do I feel the presence of a Fahrchar?" its voice demanded in his head.

Joe didn't know how to talk mind to mind, so he just spoke aloud, hoping the alien understood him like he understood it. "My name is Joe Neumann. I'm a human from a planet called Earth. When I was just a baby, some beings called the Ello came to my planet and merged me with a Fahrchar."

"No! That is not possible!" it said to him firmly. "The Fahrchar are sacred and protected, and no one could have taken one from Sehsra."

"I don't know anything about that, but the Ello had three of them when they got to my planet. My birth parents were burned to ash when the Ello tried the merging on them, but somehow I managed to survive the process." Since the alien considered Fahrchar sacred, Joe felt it wise to leave out the part where his adopted dad shot one. He was definitely getting a male vibe from the alien.

"The Fahrchar cannot merge with any race other than the Kel," he blurted into Joe's mind.

"Well... it worked with me. Sorry," Joe said.

The being stood there looking at Joe like he'd spontaneously burst into flames. Joe couldn't read his expression, but his face was certainly going through a few. It suddenly collapsed against the harness that held it in the suit. This freaked Joe out, but he thought he saw the being breathing. Joe snapped his eyes to black, and there was motion in the body. So maybe it just passed out. He let his eyes go back to normal.

Thinking of how much Agent White would love to meet this guy, Joe slipped his phone from his pocket and snapped a quick shot of the alien slumped in his harness.

Afterward, he felt a little bad about taking the picture without the guy's permission, but... he kept the shot and took a few of the parkland he seemed to be in. Then he put the phone away.

He realized it made him feel better to take the pictures as it felt like he could share them with his family and friends one day. It gave him hope.

Joe took a more thorough look around and realized this place was nothing like the wild forested world he was expecting. He felt lighter than he had on the forested planet, too, so the gravity here was definitely less. Before the Vershoo took him to the jungle world, the world they'd passed through had been all tall forests and rugged mountains with rough-hewn cabins made from the local timber. This place looked like a carefully groomed city garden. Huge expanses of short grasses and orderly flowerbeds for as far as his eye could see. There were carefully laid out walls of privacy shrubbery and serene pools of water dotting the field with a walkway meandering between them. This was NOT where the portal should have taken him.

Looking at the water, he decided that he would get cleaned up. The suit was not actively paying attention to him, and the being slumped in it was either asleep or unconscious, neither state he could help with, so he walked over to the closest pond and stripped off his dirty clothes, including his boots and socks. He knelt on the small beach and began cleaning himself off. After a short time, he felt reasonably clean again, so he took his cell phone from his shirt pocket and carefully washed his shirt. He used handfuls of sand to abrade the dirt from the fabric. Then he moved on to his socks and pants. Once they were relatively clean, rinsed, and rung out, he laid them out in the sunlight to dry and brought his pack out of the shed as well.

He took one more look at the being in the suit and was relieved to see it was still breathing. Joe walked over to his drying clothes and set the pack down. He sat cross-legged on the grass, tied his boots to the sack, dug out some rations, and ate them slowly. The sunlight felt wonderful on his skin, and his clothes dried fairly quickly.

Joe had his pants back on and was pulling his shirt on when he heard a high-pitched whine. Once his head was free, he saw the glint of sunlight off something metallic approaching at speed. Joe sank to a cross-legged position again and waited with his hands palms up on his knees, relaxed. Considering the rate this vehicle traveled, the thought of running was ludicrous.

When it finally arrived, Joe saw it was some kind of flying car. This was the first one he'd seen on his journey amongst the stars, and he was sad to say it was a little underwhelming. No flashy chrome, stylish fins, or blinking lights. It was a dull, greenish-gray rectangle built to be functional.

It had an open cockpit and a large flatbed platform behind that. He couldn't see a windshield, but considering how quickly it moved, there was probably something to protect against the wind and the occasional bug.

What caught his attention, though, was the larger being driving the vehicle. "Female?" he wondered, as that was his distinct impression. Larger than the male in this species, maybe.

She watched him carefully as she maneuvered the car between him and the dormant suit. She did something on the car's controls, and the suit came to life, stepping onto the open platform. It settled onto its back, and the female lifted the vehicle into the air again. With a final look at Joe, she sped away back in the direction she'd come from.

Joe waited, but it didn't look like she was coming back any time soon, so Joe looked around for where he'd arrived on this planet. The smear of blood and guts on the grass clearly identified the spot. He stepped a few feet away on a clean section of grass.

Joe pulled out the two portal machines and pressed the buttons sequentially, but nothing happened. He tried again, but nothing. Moving back over to the grizzly section of grass to ensure he was exactly in the same position the portal had been in the prior night, he tried the buttons again. Still nothing.

His bad thought from the night before about the boxes failing after the alarm seemed to have come true. He was fortunate to be on this side when they did.

He walked back down to the shed, but there seemed little point in waiting around. He took the fang from the shed door where it had fallen and tied it under the straps on his pack. If he ever got home, he wanted to show his parents the tooth as proof of his adventure.

He looked in the direction the flying car had gone and sighed. He tugged on his socks and boots and just started walking. He had no idea how far he'd have to go, but he had little other choice. The grounds were quite lovely, and the path was soft. He walked all day, and as the sun approached the horizon, he began to look for a place to rest for the night. Then he heard the high-pitched whine again. He stepped out into the open, and the vehicle's sound immediately changed as it rapidly decelerated. As it got closer, someone in a powered exo-suit jumped from the back of the platform. As it passed him, a second person in a powered suit jumped out on the other side of him. The hovering car continued to circle overhead as the two armored men approached from both sides. Each carried a long metallic rod with a small cylinder on their business end.

"Hello?" Joe tried, hoping for a friendly response.

Instead, the man behind him slammed the rod into the pack on his back, shoving him forward. He saw the other rod coming in fast at his chest. He spun and yanked the rod from the suit's hands, causing the man to lose balance and fall on his chest. The armor protected him at the last second, but he was badly slammed against his harness. Meanwhile, Joe used the stolen rod to bat away the other man's weapon each time he stabbed it forward. He pressed no attack of his own but waited for the man to give up. He also kept his eye on the man getting back on his feet and on the circling vehicle. This was really starting to piss him off. Finally, he grabbed the other rod after a careless jab and yanked it away as well.

"STOP!" he growled loudly, and surprisingly, the two men on the ground staggered and stood still, looking at him nervously.

Pressing the advantage, Joe looked up at the man in the car and bellowed. "YOU! COME DOWN HERE!"

The car wobbled and then descended to land next to them. Joe finally got a good look at his assailants. All three were like the first man he'd spoken with. Small, light grey, and frail. He could see distinct color pattern differences on their faces, but their bodies were very similar.

"You two, get on the platform and kneel down," he growled, and they moved to obey, looking dazed.

Joe tossed the weapons away, climbed on the platform, and sat cross-legged, facing forward. "Take us back to where you came from."

The car gently climbed back up to tree level and began moving forward, gathering speed as it went. Joe felt no wind, nor did he feel the momentum. There was no risk of him being blown off or falling off from sudden direction changes. Something about the cargo area of this vehicle protected what it carried. He thought that was pretty cool.

It lost its luster after just five minutes, and the trip was just plain boring once the sun went down. After about forty minutes of flying in the dark, he could see lights up ahead.

Soon, they descended into a well-lit courtyard. Joe looked around and realized he didn't see anyone else moving around.

He turned to the two men in the powered suits. "Where is everyone?"

They looked at each other. Finally, he heard the voice of one of them in his mind. "They are in the main house."

Joe hopped down to the ground with his pack.

"What should we do?" the other suited man said.

"I don't care. You were very rude to me. I don't want to see you three again. Why don't you just go home?"

The men left the car and walked out a door on the far side of the courtyard. Soon, Joe heard the whining sounds of vehicles moving away. He looked around again and listened to the silence in the yard. There was one door that looked like it led into the main house, so he walked over to it and looked for a doorbell or a knocker. Then he recalled that he was already inside the property, so there wouldn't likely be one. He touched a plate on the door panel as he'd seen the men do when they left, but nothing happened. Maybe the door was locked. He tried knocking and calling out, but nothing happened.

Joe discovered that none of the doors in the courtyard would open for him. He was basically trapped. Short of vandalism, he was stuck. He looked around and saw a nice covered seating area in the courtyard next to some windows that looked like they might open like patio doors. He tried them, but they were locked as well. He walked over to the couch, sat down, and immediately felt better. The seats were really comfortable. It had been over a month since he'd slept on something as soft as his old bed. He undid his boots and kicked them off. Stretching out on the couch, he sighed and immediately fell asleep.

Hours later, a ray of sunlight passed over his eyes, and he awoke. The courtyard was still empty and silent, and the inner coverings on the windows were still closed. He decided to have breakfast, so he dug some rations out of the pack and ate them slowly. He was rationing as he still had no idea where he was or what he could eat here.

He started pulling stuff out of the pack and stacked his supplies on the table surface before him. The ration bars were placed in little stacks of ten. He counted one hundred and five remaining. Next, he laid out the belts but didn't feel up to investigating every pocket. Lastly were the various sundry devices he'd taken from the dead Vershoo, including the two portal machines. He carefully examined these last two as they were his ticket home if he could get them working. He couldn't see any damage.

There was a sudden noise behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder. The glass panes had opened as he expected they could, and the man he'd originally met was wobbling his way over to him with what Joe thought was an angry look. He was certainly striding forward in a determined manner.

"Where did you get those!" the being demanded, pointing to the two devices.

"Hello. My name is Joe. Remember? We met yesterday. Why is everyone on this planet so rude?" Joe was more than a little frustrated.

"What?" the man jolted to a halt at the end of the couch.

"This is the part of the conversation where you introduce yourself," Joe hinted.

"I am Kennt," he said.

"Thank you. Look, I'm sorry I slept on your couch last night without your permission, but the other guys dropped me in your courtyard, and none of the doors would open for me. No one responded to my knocking and calling, so I just got some sleep. It was a weird day yesterday. But then they've all been weird for some time." Joe stopped when he found himself rambling. It had been a long time since he'd had a conversation.

The man was still pointing to the machines.

"Ah, yes, the portal machines. The Vershoo were using them to open black doorways. When they took me from the Ello, they used these machines to move us from planet to planet until we reached a jungle planet. They had a huge fight amongst themselves, and everyone died except me... obviously. I was trying to get the devices to take me back to the previous planet we'd been on, but the portal I activated looked a little odd, and it brought me here."

"They are Gate Generators, not portal machines, and they open Gates, not black doorways!" Kennt said testily, then his expression changed to confusion. "Vershoo had my Gate Generators? Why would they have them?" Kennt practically whispered.

"I don't know, but they had them when they arrived on the Ello homeworld," Joe offered. "Are you sure they're yours?"

The man looked at Joe again with that... okay, he had to call it an angry look. Reading alien expressions was tough, but Joe was really picking up an angry vibe.

"No one else on Sehsra has the skills to build portable Gate Generators so small and elegant!" Kennt boasted.

"They are very sleek and worked like a charm many times except when I tried them last night. It was the first time I'd used them myself. I'd never seen a Gate with bands of white light rushing down the sides. Maybe I activated it wrong?" Joe made sure to use Kennt's name for the tech.

"Ah! Wait... let me think... white bars, not bands. Yes! That was a failsafe setting. If the Gate Generators were ever compromised, being used by a non-Kel-Fahr, for instance, when a Kel-Fahr activated them, they would create a Gate to my workshop. Then, I'd be able to read their destination logs and provide evidence against the abusers. Ah, it's all coming back to me!"

"That garden shed is your workshop?" Joe asked.

"Don't be insulting!" came a terse reply. "My factories once spanned from just past that outer wall to the garden shed, as you so insultingly called it."

"What happened? Where are the factories now?" Joe asked.

The steam seemed to go out of the man, and he sank into the chair facing Joe. "Off planet. It was all taken off planet a very long time ago."

Seeing the man was upset, Joe tried to bring back some of the spirit he'd shown previously. "Can you read the logs from the devices now? If the Vershoo were responsible for stealing the Fahrchar from Sehsra, maybe the proof is in the logs. Uh, by the way, am I on Sehsra now?" he asked.

Kennt seemed to come back to himself as he looked at the devices, but when Joe mentioned being on Sehsra, he began to shrink in on himself and made a shrill keening noise.

"What did you do?" a female voice yelled in his head. Joe was still having some trouble with the fact that no one here spoke out loud. He looked over his shoulder and saw the female storm out of the patio door and kneel at the man's side.

"I just asked what planet this was!" Joe explained.

"My father isn't well. You are pressing his mind too strongly," she scolded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. I'm new to this whole planet jumping thing, and up until recently, I'd never left my planet or knew aliens actually existed," Joe said.

"How is that possible?" she asked. "Every citizen of every planet on the Gate Network is schooled on the laws of civilized society and the rules for interacting with the other races."

"That's great, except my planet isn't part of the network," Joe said.

"What? Then how did you get here? OH, SES! YOU'RE NOT KEL-FAHR!" she screeched. Her father's keening grew louder.

"STOP THAT! Both of you!" Joe yelled.

The noise immediately stopped. The two sat frozen, watching him.

"Let's act like reasonable people and work out exactly what the issue is and how we can resolve it quietly and in a civilized manner," Joe admonished them.

They continued to stare at him. He noticed the woman wasn't looking directly at him. Her gaze was more over him. He suddenly got the impression that she might have a vision problem. Considering how well she'd driven the car the previous day, that was more than a little impressive.

"First off, what is your name?" Joe asked the female.

"Kennha," she said quietly.

"Kennha. Thank you. Now, what is the issue with me being here?" he asked.

"Only Kel-Fahr are allowed on Sehsra. No other race has ever, in all our extensive history, set foot on our planet. It is an absolute law, punishable by the final death," the female stated.

"Okay, that sounds bad," Joe remarked. "So optimally, it would be best if we could get these Gate Generators working so I could leave the planet as soon as possible, right? I'd really like to go home."

"Only my father could do that, but he hasn't worked for a very long time," Kennha said, looking sadly at her father.

"When did he build these?" Joe asked.

"Long before I was born, over one hundred and eighty cycles ago," she said.

Joe's mind had some trouble translating the time period. A frame of reference was missing, but he got the impression of a very extended period.

"My father is one of the oldest Kel-Fahr on Sehsra, but even the Fahrchar have limits on how long they can maintain our health. The Kel brain is substantially superior to all other species, and when augmented with the Fahrchar, there is no match. But that power places a tremendous strain on the symbiosis. It is a wonder that my father has survived as long as he has, considering the brilliance he displayed his entire life," Kennha said while gazing in her father's direction.

"So Kennt was a master builder of Gate technology?" Joe asked, struggling to keep from rolling his eyes during her brag session.

"Yes, he perfected the machines, ensuring the network will survive long after the species they are built for pass into dust. He also miniaturized them so they could be carried by the Tik, who assist the Mediators. And he even made two sets of portable Gate Generators. The ones you have and the disassembled prototypes," she answered.