Fractured Worlds (Worlds Away #1)

Brela Chapter 6: New Life

The next morning was very much like the last, reading the package with a cup of coffee in my hand. Edoline collected me again before I was able to get into the depth of my morning reading. We headed over to Mae's office, for what I hoped was my first mission.

"Mae, a level three fracture has occurred on World 37," a voice said through a communication system on Mae's desk. Edoline eased the door shut behind us as the voice spoke.

"Thank you, Averial, I'll be down shortly," Mae said, hitting a button on a black receiver. The director's attention turned to me. "How do you feel about fixing a fracture?" she asked.

"As long as you're there, I'm ready to try," I said, shrugging.

"Perfect," Mae said. She looked at Edoline. "Would you like to tag along?"

"Certainly," Edoline said, reopening the door. The three of us moved out of Mae's office. I followed Mae and Edoline through the crowd as they approached the central station.

"Give me more on this fracture," Mae said as soon as we arrived at the circular desk.

"It was an instant level three," a woman, clearly Averial, said in a professional tone as the orb over the desk transformed, changing into a world that wasn't my own. A single dot appeared and started blinking, probably indicating where the fracture had taken place.

"So, it was someone who caused the fracture, showing something that went against the world's laws," I said, testing out my recently acquired knowledge. Averial nodded her head to confirm my statement.

"I'm glad it wasn't information; that would be much harder to track down," Mae muttered. She noticed my look and elaborated. "With a fracture caused by information, it's much harder to find and eliminate. This is due to us not knowing who had been told the information. Some people will cause a fracture when they learn the information, and others won't; it all depends on the person and how confused they are." Mae turned back to Averial. "Anything else?"

"The fracture wasn't caused by one of our own. No one in MEPA has been to that world in over a month."

"Good to know. This will be a perfect mission for our new recruit," Mae said, turning to me. "Thank you, Averial; we'll take this one."

Averial nodded her head and typed something into her computer. After clicking around, Averial gave Mae another nod. We left at that.

Mae led us to a new room. It was labelled camo and somehow, I knew the name wasn't meant to be literal. The room was small and completely open. A single machine, which looked like a small vending machine, sat against the wall directly in front of the entrance. There was a screen directly in the centre with a small, coin-sized slot near the bottom right-hand corner.

Mae and Edoline walked over to the small machine as I looked around the new space.

"What is that for?" I asked, eventually following them deeper into the room.

"We try not to create fractures, so we must blend in with the population. Wayne built this," Mae explained, tapping the screen. "It allows us to blend in with the population, but still look like ourselves. It places an illusion over our clothes and physical appearance in order to look natural to others." Numbers appeared and Mae selected the world number and the required quantity of illusion.
"The disks that create the illusion also have a built-in translator. Since everything we hear is translated to our native language, we don't know what language is being spoken to us. With the disk, the language it hears is what it translates our speech into. Our appearances and actions aren't the only things that can create fractures."

"Translator and illusion in one? That is quite something," I muttered, in awe at just how good Wayne was.

On the screen designs appeared. Mae tapped a few as she said, "Yes, it is."