Beyond (12 page)

Aimee hauled her hand from left to right and the door disappeared. She shrieked
in delight.

"You did it." Zak smiled.

That look of approval made her stomach lurch. Maybe the cereal did not agree with her. She distracted herself by taking a step into the chamber. It appeared they had found a back entry into the huge assembly hall she was in this morning. It looked ominous cloaked in deep shadows now that the young ones were gone. She glanced back at Zak standing in the doorway.

"JOH can turn on the illumination for you."

"That’s okay. Can I still see your
terra angel
? Isn’t that what you call your ship?"

She thought she sounded pathetic.

He considered the question and a shadow of doubt crossed his face.

"Yes, and briefly," he cautioned. "At least the main deck is near the flight level. I will be able to get you back to Vodu."

"Thank you."

Zak
hesitated at the sincerity in her voice. He looked at her long and hard. With the back light, his eclipse was a
formidable one, and yet she did not fear him.

"I said briefly," he reiterated.

"No, thank you for showing me how to
see
around this place."

"You would have figured it out soon enough." His gaze was heavy. "You strike me as being very astute. You picked it up much quicker than any visitors we have had before."

Pointing out that she had a scholarship probably wouldn't have inflated his opinion any.

"How is it possible?
These walls.
What are they made of?"

"An ore used in the homes on Anthum. This technology was commonplace there."

Aimee nodded. She would have liked to have seen this planet. It sounded like a bunch of dork engineers such as
herself
.

"You're welcome." Zak's deep voice cut into her thoughts. He wasn't smiling. He was just looking at her like he wanted to add more, but he jerked his head and turned back into the light. "Come on. You can tell me where the lateral transport is."

She had to smile at that. He was tossing her the proverbial bone. "Deal," she beamed. “Lateral transport. That’s the horizontal elevator, isn’t it?”

She was learning. Learning made her happy. So did this teacher.

The launch bay stole her breath with its magnitude. Science fiction movies could not do it justice. It had to be the size of an aircraft carrier. What struck her far more than the enormity of the bay was the fact that several hundred yards away sat a gaping
hole.
And beyond that portal lie the yawning chasm of outer space. There was no protective barrier. If she were to stroll to the end of the platform, she could simply leap off into the stars.

Aimee inhaled deeply, wondering how it was even possible to draw in oxygen. The air smelled acrid, but that could be the giant vessels rumbling in their bays as silver-suited men clambered around them like caterpillars hanging onto leaves.

"There is no oxygen in outer space. How or
what
are we breathing?"

Zak was in full warrior mode now. His expression was tense, and his eyes keen. He assessed every flourish of activity with the vigilance of one in charge. Men approached him with questions to which he offered somber guidance. He never stopped moving and Aimee found herself jogging again to keep up.

"Oxygen is piped in," he explained, never hesitating in his stride. "Though the bay is always open, we have a vaporous barrier that
traps the oxygen inside."

His pace slowed and she watched his expression transform. A look of contentment settled over him. He stopped and stared, and she detected that dimple toying with the corner of his mouth again.

Aimee followed his gaze and drew in a sharp breath.

"Is that it?" she whispered.

"Yes." The quirk of his lips conveyed pride and awe.

Having suffered a series of overwhelming experiences in the past few hours, this craft did little to settle her stomach. It was sleek and narrow. Not as big as she would have expected—as if there could be any expectations in this surreal world. As best she could describe it, the vessel looked like a creature from the ocean depths. There were minimal contours to the body, enabling it to glide easily under the waves. It was crafted of a brilliant silver alloy, the reflection off the vivid veneer capturing her pensive expression.

Its shape was that of an automatic weapon.
A large-scale Uzi.
It had a long nose and a cockpit that hung beneath the body of the craft. A band of glass wrapped around the middle of that cockpit. It appeared tight, designed for a single occupant. The rear end of the craft flared into large cylinders that dwarfed the front-end.

"Did you name it?"

"What?" Zak looked puzzled. "It is a
terra angel
. That's its name."

"Come on," Aimee prodded. "Everyone has a name for their vehicles. I had a name for my bike, and the old clunker of a car I just put a down payment on."

She might as well have been speaking Greek, but her point was conveyed. There was a glint in Zak's eyes, but it was a sad glint.

“I call her Zari.”

A her
.
Men’s cars were always female.

“Zari.”
Aimee cocked her head, thinking the vibrant, pistol-shaped craft didn’t meet the pretty expectations of the name. “Named after a girlfriend?”

Someone like Zak had to have girls lined up by the dozens.

His expression was quizzical again, as if he didn’t understand the term.

“No,” he denied quietly. “Not a girlfriend.”

He climbed up the small set of stairs that led up to the cockpit and traced his fingertip just beneath the rim of the glass. With a soft hiss, a doorway slipped open and Aimee was allowed a glimpse into the interior.

A dashboard of black and gold housed an intricate circuitry panel. The driver's seat looked like a narrow soup ladle meant to hug its passenger in tight. The design of the cockpit was to afford complete control to the occupant of that seat. There was no room to stand or move about except for a small cargo area directly behind the chair. That area was stacked with what she could only guess were weapons. The sight of them jarred her.

As much as she understood Zak's role as a warrior, the impact of it had not struck until she saw the guns that he could wield in an effort to destroy his enemies.

She retreated. The motion did not register with
Zak as he picked up the first sleek weapon.

She took another step backwards and this time he glanced over his shoulder with an arched eyebrow.
His stare halted her retreat.

"Are you afraid of me?" he asked in that husky voice.

She barely heard him amidst the din of activity in the bay. Rooted to the ground, she lost her voice until finally Zak nodded and uttered, "
maybe
you should be."

Before she could respond he continued. "Can you find your way back to the deck?"

She swallowed and bobbed her head.

"Good. And you remember that if you get lost you can always ask JOH?"

Again she nodded. This time she detected a grin on Zak's lips.

"I think you will master the halls of the Horus now, Aimee."

His encouragement made her stomach tumble.
Space sickness.
Had to be.

"I have to get ready to head out," he reminded.

Aimee cleared her throat and croaked, "Thank you for showing me the atrium, and for teaching me—"

"I didn't teach." This time a full grin appeared. God, he was handsome. "I just told you to relax.”

Zak turned his shoulder back towards the cockpit and reached for another mysterious weapon.

That you did
, she thought.

Aimee's feet woke from their daydream and
started to cooperate. She waved a farewell, but
Zak
was focused on the task at hand. Her whisper of
goodbye went unheard.

***

It amazed Aimee how easy it was to find her away around the ship now. Granted, she could not read the symbols which probably referenced locations and directions, but she could see into the compartments and identify whether it was a place she wanted to be. A JOH startled her by hovering in the middle of the corridor and blocking her path. She stepped to the right and it shifted to the right with her. She stepped to the left and it mimicked her motion. Finally she tapped its screen and the big blue face smiled up at her.

"What?" she scowled, not as happy as this technologically advanced box of hovering
circuitry.

"Chara is looking for you. May I tell her I found you?"

JOH might be the source of all knowledge, but at least he respected privacy. Zak told her he would do that.

Zak. An image of him gazing up at the stars in the atrium clashed with the
portrait of the warrior
possessing
a deadly weapon. He had warned her to be afraid of him. He had also taught her how to orient herself in these halls.

He beguiled her.

"Aimee?"

"Oh, umm, yes, please tell her I'm on my way."

JOH's eyes flattened into slits.

"What?" she asked.

"I'm telling her. I am also telling her that you have learned to navigate your way around. She will be very—" he flickered, "—proud."

Aimee smiled but she didn't know if the smile was at the prospect of Chara being proud or for the way JOH struggled to define the word.

This lust to learn her way around the Horus was simply a product of survival. She did not want to rely on others. She needed to be self-sufficient.

"JOH, can you tell me what those symbols say?"

Specifically she was interested in the most ubiquitous
hieroglyph, an X with a line through the center and two points on each end of the line. It appeared at every intersection.

"That symbol represents the brain of the Horus. What you call the
deck
. Follow the symbol and you will find the brain.”

Cool.

"And this one?"

It looked like a teacup, but with a ray of sunshine spouting from its core.

"That would represent the closest eatery."

Aimee cleared her throat to disguise her glee at beginning to learn the secrets of this not-so-complex ship.
"And this one?"
It was a dismembered circle, dissected into equal, unattached
pies.

JOH's eyes flat-lined again. He was thinking.
"The scientist quarters."

Doubting that he meant their sleeping
accommodations, Aimee guessed that it was their laboratories.

"I can accompany you to the deck where Chara is waiting, Aimeeeeeee."

Aimee grinned at the earnest blue face with its eyes now cast into a pair of triangles. "I think I can find my way, JOH. But if I get lost, I'll catch up with you down the hall, okay?"

"You are smart, Aimeeeee."

Approval from this floating computer shouldn't mean anything, but Aimee felt a brief flash of self-pride.

"Thanks, JOH. You're not too bad yourself."

"I am never bad," he stated. "I am always good."

"I believe that." She shook her head and laughed. "Tell Chara I'm on my way."

Aimee gently tapped the screen and continued to smile at the empty panel.

Her eyes slid to the wall, as she tried not to notice the occupants behind it deeply engrossed in a book. It was disconcerting to watch their private moments, but they chose to be on display. On the other side of the corridor the wall was blank. The room was
locked
. Whoever was behind it elected not to be
seen.

Aimee reached an intersection and located the X with the line through it emblazoned on the wall to the left. She turned that way. A few feet later another X marked a spot in the middle of the hall, not at a juncture. Aimee took a deep breath and relaxed, and there it was, a familiar oblong panel. She reached into the air to her left and swung her hand to the right. The doorway to the lateral transport slid open.

So cool.

Pleased with her success at locating the lateral transport, and for having figured out how to commandeer it...all that was left was to determine when to stop the thing. Previously, she had been preoccupied with the view. Now she faced inwards, away from the windows, and noticed a series of symbols flash by at a rapid pace atop the door. They rushed by so swiftly that it was like watching an animated cartoon. There was barely time for the images to even register in her mind. She finally recognized the X and slammed her palm down on it. The transport slid to a stop and the door skidded open.

Across the hall an X was lit up towards the right. She exited the chamber and headed in that direction.