Tevun-Krus #100

11 - Sometimes, Spheres Don't Come Back - @dvdvnr - Multiverse

Sometimes, Spheres Don't Come Back
By dvdvnr

"Good hunting," crackled over the comm as Clara climbed up the metal ladder and entered her allocated sphere.

Closing the airlock she grunted an acknowledgement. She wasn't in the mood for conversation.

"Just let me do my job," she thought. "Maybe it will take my mind off..."

She snapped the collar around her neck, feeling the brain interface engage. She hated the invasion of her privacy – but it was essential security in the battle against sensual manipulation once she was away from Earth Prime. The collars had been a mandatory requirement ever since – well, she'd seen the videos of what had happened to those earlier explorers before the collars hadbeen invented. Nowadays, of course, the collar was locked into the sphere's systems and it would go absolutely nowhere unless the pilot was wearing it.

She powered up the sphere – its vibrations pulsing through her body as she secured herself intothe seat. On the dashboard all the important lights glowed green. The only orange one showed that the onboard supplies were getting a bit low on coffee.

"Who cares," she muttered. "Hate the stuff."

A sign on the dashboard lit up – it said: Coordinates Locked.

Clara hit the Go button and the sphere piloted itself away from Earth Prime and into the grey of Between. As it did so, her eyes scanned the readouts, but her mind wasn't fully on the job, whichcould be fatal.

"Damn him to hell," she hissed. "Damn all men."

She'd dissolved their contract on the train during the morning's commute out to the hangar. It had been simple – and not the first time she'd needed to do it.

"Why me?" she sighed. "Why do my relationships always crash and burn?"

The hum inside the sphere changed slightly indicating that they were exiting Between.

"So, that pretty much makes me homeless," Clara muttered. "Maybe Tannelle will let me sleep on her sofa for a while."

She grunted once more, telling herself. "Stop daydreaming, you idiot, let's see what we've got here."

According to the readouts there was nothing. There was nothing to see outside the window, either. Clara couldn't make out any variation in the greyness beyond the four centimetres of armour-reinforced glass.

She poked a few more buttons on the console but the readouts were unanimous. Nothing, they insisted – not even a whisper of a solid body. What particles existed beyond the sphere's outer shell were diffuse and unable to form molecules of any sort – it couldn't even be called a gas.

The sphere's screen duplicated what the window showed – only greyness persisted. This alternate dimension was effectively empty – not even a slime world. The Borderlock shield held at ninety-eight point three percent – the rest was just noise.

She hit the return button. Vibrations shuddered through the sphere once more as it wrenched itself back. A few seconds later it materialised back into its allocated slot in the hangar.

"Nothing," she shouted into the comm. "Give me another."

She punched the Go button a second after 'Coordinates Locked' lit up on the dash.

The sphere went through the same process as before except that the swirling grey clearedquickly, separating into blues, greens, yellows and browns before those colours resolved into shapes.

The sphere landed and Clara stared out of the window in disbelief.

"Wow," she gasped, seeing verdant trees punctuated by meadows and streams under a blue sky. Flowers of all shapes and colours decorated the meadows in abundance. A light on the dash confirmed a breathable atmosphere.

Clara hesitated – she'd heard about things like this. "Too perfect," she said. "Illusion?"

The readouts indicated otherwise, but she needed to make sure her perception of the readouts wasn't also part of the illusion.

She thought her password at the collar, enabling it to do its job. If it had sensed any danger to her then it would have automatically cut in already. An answer came back within seconds: it detected no anomalies within her brain functions – therefore there was no obvious manipulation of her senses. What she could see through the window and on the screen was actually there.

Her gaze returned to the dashboard. Danger levels registered as barely negligible.

She flipped a switch. A panel lit up which required her hands to be scanned to give the required authority that allowed disembarkation. The remote popped out of its hiding place and she secured it to her wrist.

"Here we go," she said, deactivating the Borderlock.

As the airlock hissed open, she was greeted by the opposite of the overpopulated stench of Earth.

"Oh, sweet," she said, standing at the top of the steps, inhaling deeply. "Paradise or damn near."

She descended the ladder and stepped onto the grass – yes, it really did look like proper grass. Keeping the sphere in sight at all times she explored the immediate surroundings. Things resembling butterflies lazily drifted between the flowers.

After an hour of exploration, she sighed, "It would be a shame to despoil all of this with hordes of humans. But I wish I could stay here myself."

"Why don't you, then?"

She spun around. A shimmer coalesced into a shape and Clara gasped.

Female, doubtless.

Beautiful, undeniably.

Exciting, definitely.

Erotic, indisputably.

Naked, obviously.

Clara's pulse raced. "Oh, my God."

"No, not a deity."

"English. How?"

"We learn quick."

"What exactly are you?"

"Your desire, manifested."

Clara frowned. "But I'm not..."

"Aren't you?"

"Well..."

"Denial would be untruthful."

Clara sighed. "Okay, well I suppose it explains a lot of things." She realised she'd been in denial for a long time.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Clarity."

"Oh, totally appropriate."

Clara took Clarity's outstretched hand and knew she never wanted to let it go.

"Yes. This is what I want," she whispered. The collar and remote fell to the ground. So did her clothes.

Clara glanced back at the sphere and smiled.

Sometimes, spheres don't come back – now she knew why.