The man walked in and motioned for permission to approach Frantz. Catty nodded but Emmeth stayed as a barrier between the strange man and his best friend. The man looked like a cross between an old English settler and Buck Rogers. He had what looked like a Victorian-style cape flowing from a jacket that looked like a 50's interpretation of "space clothing". His pants were of the same style but his hat looked like it had time traveled from 1587 in relatively good condition. Emmeth stared down the man whose face bore the look of genuinely wanting to help before letting him by.
"Try anything and you're dead, you hear me?"
"I'd never hurt my descendants, you have nothing to worry about."
His words further confused everyone in the room as he took off his hat and hovered it all over Frantz's body. He put it back on and a small display appeared in front of his face. He started motioning and moving things around on his screen before he expanded the data for everyone to see, 3 silent minutes later.
"Good news, your friend seems to be perfectly healthy."
"I would not call this healthy, whoever you are."
"OH! My apologies! My name is Tobias White."
The man bowed in reverence to everyone in the room. He took their awkward stares as a moment to continue his analysis.
"It looks like your friend gained regenerative talents."
"That's impossible, I clawed out his - his eye, weeks ago..."
Emmeth shrunk as the scene played out in his head and Tobias took note.
"I saw he's missing an eye. But your bodies have gone through such an immense change that some things are taking longer to uh, activate, for lack of a better word."
He blew up a digital reconstruction of Frantz's eye which was currently being regrown.
"See! It's fascinating! I took the liberty of cataloguing the changes to your bodies and understanding how they've been changed. I have a pretty comprehensive file about everything that's happened to our people."
Panzer's eyes lit up at the news.
"That's amazing! You can come back with us! Back to Earth and..."
"No. I can't go back, not now. You forget, where we are right now. A constantly moving space station that doesn't exist and I fly a ship that also doesn't exist; both wanted by the Political Stadium."
"The hell did you do?"
"Oh, ask him about me."
"Ask him about a voice in my head? No thanks."
Panzer tried to speak under his breath but Tobias heard him and swiped away the diagram of Frantz eye. He looked closer at Panzer and waved his hat around him. Panzer didn't move but he had a confused look on his face.
"What are you doing? I'm perfectly fine."
"You're a telepath right?"
Tobias placed the hat back on his head and gasped at his little screen then immediately swiped it away and spoke in a hushed voice.
"One moment."
He grabbed 8 tiny pylons out of his pocket and placed them around the room. It immediately became covered in a light blue mist and Tobias spoke at a normal volume.
"What did she just tell you?"
"What did who just tell him? No one said anything!"
Emmeth was confused but Catty, having heard the mysterious woman before, listened as intently as everyone else. Panzer looked at the room and started to feel anxious.
"Just breath, no need to worry about Toby."
Panzer took a few breaths and spoke slowly. "She told me to ask you about her, 'Toby' "
Tobias's eyes widened in shock and he took a few steps back.
"I've never met one of us like this before." Tobias looked like he'd just ran into a long lost family member. "I probably know as much about her as you do... She's from the other side! I've never been over there."
"Over where? Other side of what?" Panzer's curiosity was about to drive him mad.
Tobias was hesitant to speak the word and only after looking at each of the pylons to make sure they were still working did he finally say the word that was on the tip of his tongue.
"Infinitum."
Tobias was gauging the look of confusion on everyones face and noticed only Lancieta, Yora and Roisin seemed un-phased by the word. Then a look of recollection crossed Panzer's.
"Wait. Chein sent me to Doctor Syhn for my tail. She said that word was the password for my prosthesis case."
"So Chein found you first. That's good. He said he was going to take a break from searching but heh, clearly." Tobias said exhaling in relief, motioning to Panzer.
Emmeth was a little annoyed now.
"What the hell are we talking about and when is Frantz going to wake the hell up?!"
"His regeneration should kick in fully within the next 6 hours or so. After that you could cut off his hand and he'd grow a new one in hours or minutes. But this! You all don't know what this means! You're the second! He's the second one born on Earth!" Tobias said frantically gesturing to Panzer.
"Second what? What are you talking about and who is this voice in my head!"
Tobias stood up and paced around the room a few times passing Roisin more than once, sat back down took off his hat, stood up again paced around a little bit more and put his hat back on.
"I swear to god if you don't stop that I'ma knock your ass out."
"Sorry... Emmeth was it? It's just... ok. Over the centuries Humans have been taken from Earth in small groups from 2 to 20 at a time. They were listed in the annals of history as missing or presumed dead. Now, there is a ship that, even to the intergalactic community, remains shrouded in mystery. The most people ever to disappear from earth that were connected to this ship lived in a new colony in the early days of America and the name people know these settlers by is Roanoke. This ship is directly connected to The galactic planet of myth, Planet Infinitum." Tobias paused to guage everyones reactions which were mostly just confused faces. "We already know that ship I'm referencing is the one I'm on, Croatoan. The reason the ship came to Roanoke was because of converging events. My Soul-mate was born on Infinitum, I was born on Earth. Her mother interpreted one of her premonitions. In that premonition a massive storm was going to hit the Roanoke colony and I would've died."
"Hold on that means you're..."
"Around 500 years old, yes. Many inhabitants of Infinitum are born with a soul-mate in a far off system. Most of the time we can't find them, other times they die before we can reach them. When your ship..." He said motioning to Lancieta. "...crashed into Earth every injury Panzer got from his car flipping was shared by this woman. Whom by the way refuses to tell anyone her name!"
He said the last part a little louder than necessary. Panzer heard a giggle in his head as her response.
"It was a rare thing to happen. But then, well, what happened to Earth was also a rare thing. In fact nothing like it had ever happened... well in my lifetime anyway, but Genetic Weaponry is another history lesson."
Tobias focused on Panzer, looking him in the eyes as he spoke and walked laterally towards Roisin and stopped right next to her chair.
"When your car flipped, your soul-mate shared every broken bone with you as well as every genetic transformation. I haven't seen her but she told me you aren't the same species, of animal that is. However, all soul-mates are... 'compatible' if you catch my drift."
Nik chuckled but Panzer's mouth was agape.
"She told me to find Outwhere a few weeks ago and I finally got here. I even got a room in this Inn but I was across the station with my wife on Croatoan when the sequence junkies called me about a frantic Android named Roisin."
The voice decided to speak again.
"Go with Toby."
"What d'you mean?"
"I mean go aboard the Croatoan and come to Infinitum."
"I... I can't. I have Ambassador duties and..."
"Yall realize we can hear you right?"
Catty spoke outloud and telepatically, glaring at Panzer. Lancieta, Roisin and Yora were the only ones unable to hear the exchange and felt awkward as Panzer looked around. Tobias's voice filled their heads.
"You know soul-mates meet each other when they have to, ma'am."
"It's not fair Toby!
"What's not fair is having your soul-mate die before you find them."
There was no response from the female voice for a few seconds.
"I'll talk to you later."
Emmeth became uncomfortable considering the subject. He patted Frantz on the forehead and walked out of the room silently.
Catty noticed Tobias look to Emmeth filled with question and waited for Emmeth to close the door before speaking.
"His husband didn't survive the teleportation. I don't know what you mean by soul-mate but them two definitely were."
"It means the same everywhere, psychic differences aside. I'm truly sorry for his loss."
Tobias stood up and moved to gather the pylons but paused at the first one.
"My wife is telling me we have to go. One of you needs to tell this to Emmeth but everything we just talked about can never be said to anyone you don't absolutely trust with your life. There are people out there who will do anything to find Infinitum... and that cannot EVER be allowed to happen. Like I said before, Frantz will be fine in a few hours. If you need me try reaching out to your soul-mate. It seems like you don't understand how yet but you'll figure it out. We all do eventually."
With that he collected his pylons and left the room with a bow. Nik sat down next to his brother and opened the eyelid for his regrowing eye. It looked like there was a type of ooze covering everything and there was a thin see-through film that had formed over the cavity beneath his eyelid.
"That shit's nasty." Nik said before letting go.
Lancieta was wringing her hands nervously, unsure of what to say to Panzer.
"If you want to talk about... Well, you know we're all here. I'm gonna go check on my ship if you need me."
Panzer smiled and waved bye as Lancieta left the room pulling Yora out with her. Roisin went to stand up and noticed something fall. She picked it up and turned it about curiously in her hands, then it dawned on her. She ran out of the room with a giant smile on her face, across the hall to her own and shut the door. For the next few hours Catty, Nik and Panzer sat in the room, striking up a conversation every few minutes until they fell asleep.
*****
"I CAN SEE!"
Frantz's exclamation woke his four friends up and Catty drew her standard issue pistol. Panzer and Nik shot up into fighting stances looking around frantically. Emmeth's head slipped off his hand as he woke up looking confused and irritated by the noise. Frantz leapt out of his bed, tripped over the covers and ran into the bathroom to make sure he was experiencing what he thought he was.
"It's really here dude! I mean, it's there! Whatever! I have my eye again! Wait, the scar is still here -- how do I have my eye again?"
The four explained as best they could about what happened while he was unconscious. By now nighttime had fallen on Outwhere and after getting over the excitement of his new eye Frantz was hungry. Roisin insisted on staying in her room while she worked on something but everyone else went downstairs to have dinner.