Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux (19 page)

QUEEN ELISE HAD REQUESTED OMAR’S PRESENCE at City Hall.
He filled her in on all of the information he had about Earth, Soterion,
and Musterion. She was particularly interested to hear about Caelsis.

“Your descendant, Queen Ariana, now rules. She is named after
your sister,” said Omar.

“I really do hate that I was not there to pass my wisdom down
through the ages, but it seems they have done fine. I still plan to see
that my support is given there, but I must rule here and bring order to
this planet,” she said.

Omar laughed, “Well, I am glad and will be willing to hand any
message along once I get back from earth.”

 

“How do you plan to do that?”

Omar sighed and shook his head, “I guess I am going to have to
enter the maze in hopes of finding the way. Nekar said it’s never been
done, though. It is… discouraging.”

The Queen giggled, “It’s been done before you silly goose.
Nekar just doesn’t know about it. I have been to Earth. I had to go, I was
too curious when I found the words of the Book. To find the way to
Soterion you need a human, but to find the way to Earth you need a
Kat-ken. Of which I have many,” she beamed with pride.

“Well, can I borrow one on my quest? Can you tell me the way
to go to get there?”

 

She giggled again. “You must go to the center of Musterion to
get to Earth, but without the Kat-ken it won't happen.”

“But why? I understand why humans are the only ones who can
solve the maze to Soterion. The maze requires a human mind to solve it
along with the vast amount of skills a human can learn, but I don’t see
what a Kat-ken can offer.” Omar tried to hide the annoyance from
showing on his face.
Besides, we are already at the core of Musterion.

“Some things are better seen than heard,” she responded. “I
will send Alora with you.”

 

“You do realize that she tried her best to kill me,” he said
shaking his head.

 

“And you will be taking her with you. I am done with you. I don’t
want to see you until you return from earth.”

 

Omar blinked at her dismissal.
What did I do? I better try harder
not to upset her.
“Yes, you’re Grace. Thank you for your help.”

He stood up and walked out towards the square where he saw a
crowd forming. He heard a familiar voice with a Russian accent to it.
Omar began sprinting full forced to the square. That was the voice of
Bogdan, one of Jack Raven’s people. When he reached the square he
saw a lion headed Hybrid with black wings and a scorpion tail with
Bogdan’s voice speaking to Nekar. Nekar looked over at Omar, pointed
at him, and said, “There is your man.”

Before the Bogdan voiced creature could react, though, Omar
noticed a Miyka flying straight towards him. He couldn’t move; it was
too fast. She literally tackled him.
Second time today...

They landed on the ground and when he heard her familiar
voice a joy boiled up in him that he couldn't contain. “Omar Metzgar, I
don’t care if you have blue skin with white polka-dots! I love you! I have
missed you and worried about you for the past three months.” Sasha's
voice was a comfort he had not had in 178 years. He had goose bumps
all over his skin, his heart beat erratically, and he became short of
breath. He had never felt this way before…
it must be love.
And then he
wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. It just happened. It was
the first time in Omar’s life that he had held a woman that he cared for
in such a way in his arms. He could not get enough. Her smell was
intoxicating, she was so warm, and she was so soft.

Omar knew that everyone in the square was staring at them. All
of the chatter had stopped, but he held her as tightly as he could. He
wasn’t sure whom he had become, but Sasha reminded him of whom he
was and the great love he had for his sister. She had been there for him
for years.
Of course she loved me, why couldn’t I see it? Maybe I didn’t
want to. Not anymore, now I need it.

She whispered to him with a bit of a laugh, “I can’t breathe.” He
loosened his grip on her. His face close to hers, he looked into her eyes
and said, “I should have held you in my arms long ago.” He thought he
might come off as nervous until he noticed that she was shaking. She
had wanted this for as long as Omar had suppressed it.

Nekar cleared his throat. “I hate to break up you two love birds’
reunion, but Alora is in a hurry to show us the way to Earth.”

 

Omar looked over to see the Kat-ken perched on Nekar’s
shoulder, and he did not look happy about her being there.

He turned back to Sasha who was still in his arms and stroked
her dark blue hair, “These changes have only improved your beauty. I
didn’t think that possible, but you look good as a Miyka. Sasha, I've
found a world called Soterion that is better than earth. I have not found
Misaki, but I think she is there. Either way, I am going to stay there. "

She looked confused, “Then why are you trying to find earth?”

How to explain it…? While holding her, Omar thought of the
room that he and Myles had discovered above Pneuma Carpos. For a
moment they were in both places and then they were in that room. She
gasped in surprise, “You did it!”

He pulled away, “What I was trying to get to is, will you stay
with me if I stay on Soterion?”

“Omar, I will follow you to the edge of the Universe. You are the
most brilliant, motivated man I know. When Jack sent for me there was
no question in my mind what I would do,” she admitted.

“So Jack did bring you. Where is he?”

 

She sighed, “He and the future Tyree stepped through a
different portal.”

 

Omar put his hand to his mouth in shock. “Those portals lead to
other worlds, Sasha… and other times. We may never see them again.”

 

She shook her head, “Poor Jack and Tyree. I hope they are
okay.”

 

Omar sighed, “I guess we need to get back to the waiting
crowd.”

She nodded her agreement, and they stood up before he
merged them back to their old location. The crowd had dispersed by
then, but Alora, Nekar, and Bogdan were still waiting for them.

“Okay, we have had a private moment which is all we needed.
We are ready to go,” he said with a sheepish grin.

 

“Good,” said Alora. “Then follow me.”

Alora walked to the edge of the city and moved some bricks on
the wall around placing them in a different order as if it was a secret
combination. The passage opened and she went through. Everyone
followed; even Nekar. They had begun their journey to the center of
Musterion, but Omar couldn’t help but worry about the rest of those
who had come with Jack Raven.

CHARLIE REALLY LIKED HER NEW CAT FORM. She felt sharper
and more alive. She followed Ignacio through the portal, but as she
reached the other side, pain stabbed through her stomach in the form
of his claws. She sank to the floor, unable to move. She had a gun but
not the energy to grab it, and her telekinesis did not work when she was
in a panic. Ignacio looked down at her with his crocodile eyes. “You
know, it’s a shame I gotta kill you, but you're only going to get in the
way. Plus, I don’t feel like having to lie to you the whole time in order to
complete my job.”

“Your job is to find Omar Metzger,” she said in a cold tone as
she tried desperately to hold her blood in her body.

He shook his head. “No, you are wrong. My job is from my
boss… not Jack “the fool” Raven. I am here to find and kill Myles
Callaghan.”

“Myles who?” she asked as her vision began to blur.

“Yeah, he is an illusionist con artist, I gotta go. You look well on
your way to being dead.” Ignacio turned away and then walked down
the tunnel in front of them until Charli could no longer hear him.

Her vision blurred some more and then everything went black.
The next thing she knew she was standing in the spot where she had
been stabbed. She felt weak but there were no wounds or scars on her
body. It was not a time loop because she could see her own blood still
on the ground and Ignacio was gone, but something had restored her to
life. Lucky her.
Oh he is going to really regret doing that to me…

It was completely dark when they emerged from the portal. It
was a good thing Jack had grabbed two night vision goggles for him and
Tyree. Their goggles revealed an artificially-made tunnel, seemingly
abandoned. When they found subway tracks Jack declared, “It’s Earth.”

“Yes,” Tyree agreed, “but which earth?”

 

“There is more than one?” he asked with a confused look on his
face.

Tyree laughed, “Without getting too deep into the patchwork
dimensional theory, I will say that there are possibly millions of
dimensions of earth. Dr. Metzger believes that Musterion is the center
of the dimensional galaxy spanning the entire universe; that you can
map all dimensions back to Musterion in some way whether they are
broken or working portals. But Musterion also leads to planes of
existence; Soterion is a world of dream and Pneumatikos is the spirit
world. These are two that we have defined. A new dimension of earth
comes into existence every time you go right and could have gone left.
It's more complicated than that, but we don’t have time for a lesson in
theoretical physics.”

Jack laughed, “What I am experiencing is less theory and more
fact.”

 

Tyree nodded, “This is true.”

As they walked they could see light coming from an area ahead.
In the subway, weeds and vines had begun to grow. Rats populated the
area and occasionally, as they stepped, they would feel one scurrying
away underfoot. When Tyree and Jack made it up from the subway they
saw a dull grey world. It looked to be New York City but with less color
and life to it. The sidewalks had grass and weeds growing through them
and the city had not been maintained in years.

People walked around going about their daily business. Beyond
the lack of color there seemed to be something very off about this place
but they couldn’t put their fingers on it. Jack went to talk to someone
walking by but they ignored him and kept going.

Jack turned to Tyree, “Come on, let’s get to the top of one of
these buildings so we can get a better view.”

As they walked along the side walk they saw a man step out to
cross the street in front of a bus. Jack cried out in warning but the man
ignored him and the bus did not stop in time. It hit the man hard,
sending him flying through the air, and when he landed there was a
loud smacking sound against the pavement. He lay there motionless and
Jack ran towards him. Before he reached him, though, the man got up
and continued walking across the street. Once he was out of the way,
the bus kept on its route. No one but Jack had reacted to the accident.

Distraught, he walked back to where Tyree was. “What was
that? He shouldn't have gotten up from that.”

Tyree looked disturbed rubbing his chin in thought. “Take a look
at these people. All of them look unkempt. Not in a way that would
hinder daily tasks, but in a way that doesn’t ultimately matter. They
have uncombed hair, some of their ties are not on straight or the
buttons on their shirt are undone. None of the guys are shaved, and if
you take a big whiff next to one you will notice that they stink.

They picked out a close sky scraper and entered; the security
guard did not stop them. Electricity seemed to be working in certain
parts of the city like this building. They walked to the elevator and
pushed the button. There was no waiting but there was still a steady
stream of people going up and coming down using the elevators.

They stepped in and pushed the button to go to the top floor.
Most buildings like this had limitations as to who could go all the way to
the top, but the security for this one seemed to be deactivated. When
they reached their stop, they found the stairwell to get to the roof. The
lock on the door had been broken and there was a line to the roof.
What is going on here? It just gets weirder and weirder.

They waited in line with everyone else. Jack tried to start up
conversations with people but the only response anyone ever gave him
was glancing at him and then looking away. Tyree started to cough a
little bit as they waited. Jack noticed he looked pale, “Are you alright,
Tyree? You look a little under the weather.”

Tyree just nodded, “Yeah, just a bit.”

The line moved forward out onto the roof and Jack turned his
attention back to the people in front of him. They led to a make do
shack with tinted windows. He could not see the person everyone was
lined up to speak to.

Jack turned back to Tyree who looked to be getting worse by
the minute. Jack helped him bumping into people as they walked. Tyree
staggered and Jack dragged him across the flat roof to the shack.

Jack set Tyree down. Tyree's eyes rolled into the back of his
head and he began to sweat. He coughed up blood and Jack started to
ask the person at the front if he could cut but realized he would get no
response. So Jack nudged him out of the way and the man just walked
to the back of the line. Jack spoke into the vent of the window. “Hey,
can you help me? I think my friend is dying. We are not from around
here.”

There was no reply from the other side. Jack banged on the
glass hard, “Hey! I have someone dying out here. Help!”

 

A guttural voice came from the other side of the glass, “
Dach
snei pu cheik snou
.”

It was not one of the five languages that Jack knew. Different
parts sounded close to several of the languages he knew, but the
pronunciation were all wrong. Jack looked down at Tyree who was now
motionless and got out of line to check his vitals. Tyree was dead.
No.
How? Why? No!

With tears in his eyes Jack walked around the shack to the door
and opened it only to find an ugly demonic creature inside. It was a mix
of shiny red flesh and metal. It stared at him with eyes that were
completely black. It snarled at him through a large metallic muzzle with
bolts in it and a strap that went around its head. It had long spiraling
horns and green glowing tattoos all over its body. Each hand had three
large clawed fingers. Each foot had three large clawed toes, and its long
limbs were very muscular.