You raise an eyebrow.
“She was a weirdo,” Guy says, caressing your ass for a second before you take the hand off. “Still got what I wanted.”
You giggle a little.
The lights dim and brighten, signaling something is about to begin. Farson puts his blazer back on then takes you roughly by the hand. “Let’s go get a good bird’s eye view, shall we?”
You follow dutifully behind him as he elbows or otherwise slams others out of the way, and you make it through the heavy doors that lead to the deck outside. The warm Pacific wind blows steadily, increasing in power. You feel slightly drunk after your one and a half drinks. Children in pajamas, slightly-to-fully-intoxicated adults, and the crew are all hands on deck, waiting for the big show to begin. You can see the other lights of the small fleet, waiting, each ship full of settlers to The Oberon. Guy takes out a cigar and lights it and lights yours as well. Your cigar blows out after a second.
A crack of thunder rolls out. Guy points to the crow’s nest, that single white tower that juts up and above the deck. He goes over to it, nonchalant, and climbs up the ladder, ignoring the obvious Do Not Climb sign tied to a rung. After a moment’s hesitation, with the wind blowing your hair this way and that, you spit out the cigar and begin to climb, looking at all the white stars that mark the thick black sky. You get all the way to the top, thirty feet up from the deck, and without being detected. Everyone is looking out over the ocean instead. Even the crew, who are mostly away from their posts at this time.
There is a strong and heavy wind from the west, almost blowing you and Guy completely to the side. Deafening metallic horns, a mix between a foghorn and the cry of a whale, echo out over the entire ocean. The wind and the horns then stop. And lights in the sky begin to flash.
The once black sky begins to fill with a bioluminescent cloud of blue and gray light. The cloud takes over the southern horizon you are all staring at. This light comes from the right hand side and quickly passes to the left. Streams of gray clouds, partially obscuring the original light, are generated from some far-off source. Others coming from the opposite direction meet these streams. A red and orange cloud—long, thick, distorted—begins to cruise over the ocean with little pinpricks of white flashing in its core. The cloud is the size of an island, maybe thirty or forty football fields across, and high up into the heavens. Where it came from you cannot tell. It has just simply appeared. Guy Farson, standing next to you on the crow’s nest, whistles out loud. He’s taken his glasses off.
A rumbling begins and the cloud stops in front of you all. Dry lightning flashes all around. As the cloud begins to dissipate, a thick column of water rises up to the sky, something so large and awe-inspiring that it reminds you of something out of those old newsreels that would show the hydrogen bomb detonations in the atolls.
After the water descends, it appears. There is utter stillness, no lightning, no clouds, no horns. No sound again.
Miles upon miles wide, blacker than the night it is framed against, stretching from one end of the horizon to another, is the primary Nemo Gate. It is a superstructure so large that it seems it has enveloped one end of the Earth, with a distinguishable peaking towards the middle. At its center it is blacker than black, emitting no visible light.
The Nemo Gate is the height of the Empire State Building in New York. Its perimeter is covered in fantastical and frighteningly large sculptures of creatures, either strange dragons or cephalopod in shape with long and terrible tentacles. Smoke trails from each sculpture’s mouth. Designs of armored humans and Ni-Perchta wielding serrated swords are also on its sides. The sea does not lap against the Gate’s sides; it has stopped dead in its tracks against the massiveness of the thing that has just appeared.
Finally, as if the whole entire Gate is a giant television slowly switching on, the utter blackness that has been at the center changes. Lights flash in its dark center.
As if you are looking through one incredible window, you can see another world in the middle of the Gate. A portal is open. You can see that the ocean leads into some other incredible ocean, and that on the other side there is not a night sky, like in our world, but a brightening morning sky with seven ghostly moons shining through the heavens. Strange manta ray-like creatures fly in the far-off distance, their tails trailing across the sky. “Good Lord,” you whisper, your hand over your mouth.
Farson smiles. He has these beautiful gray-blue eyes.
“We will go through and dock at Solomon’s Bay, and in seven weeks, the Gate will disappear like it was never here. You won’t see the Gate up and open until next June.” Your eyes meet, and you look at each other for a moment too long. You kiss him lightly on the lips.
“Hee hee,” Guy says. “Your husband doesn’t know…”
He motions for you to climb down from the crow’s nest. You do, then endure a scolding from an officer or someone official-looking. Guy disappears into the crowd.
You find Jaime there, in his pajamas and jacket. He looks slightly upset. “You didn’t wake me up,” Jaime says in a sad whisper. His forehead is glistening with fever sweat.
No one dares to be the first one to move away from deck as everyone drinks in the incredible view of the Nemo Gate and its sight into another planet.
“Oh, snap, sorry. Sorry about that. Jeez, did you see it?”
“I did. Barely in time,” Jaime says. “Who was the guy?”
You shrug. “That guy was Guy, Guy Farson.”
Jaime mutters a, “Meh,” and then explodes into an excited burst of energy. “Wasn't that freakin’ awesome? Oh my god, we did it! We’re gonna cross! We are going to cross big time!”
Jaime looks much healthier and happier now, much more himself. He takes in the view with a sigh as he looks over the shoulder of another girl your age. Jaime starts talking to her, smiling and laughing. You excuse yourself and walk back to the now empty and cleared lounge. You suddenly feel a little ill.
You make it to the women’s bathroom where you are by yourself. You stare at the mirror for a long moment, seeing a slightly disheveled, tired-looking young woman with brunette hair. You splash some, thankfully, cold water onto your face and exit the bathroom, only to run into him again, Guy, walking down the hallway. Guy sees the look on your face.
“I’ll see you on the other side,” Guy says with a kind smile. His eyes look over your shoulder. You follow his gaze and see a massive black wall advancing forward, seemingly eating every part of the Queen Mary. Your ship is passing through the Nemo Gate, you realize with a start, and Guy puts a hand on your shoulder. “It’ll be over in just a moment. It doesn’t hurt.”
The black wall keeps advancing and advancing to the point that it is just a few feet away from you. You inadvertently step backwards onto Guy’s left foot, and he hisses a little in pain. Then the wall hits you. You have this particularly strange feeling of being pinched on every square inch of your body. You see only blackness for one moment, and then you feel like you are watching stars explode and a white ring grow and grow.
A moment later you are again standing next to Guy, who pats you on the shoulder and turns to leave. Reality hits you very hard—you are now in The Oberon, millions of miles away from anything you’ve ever known.
Guy turns back to you, waits a moment, tilts his head and asks, “I will see you back at the lounge?”
You slowly nod, and then shake your head. “No, no, Jaime. My Jaime is going to be- well…”
Jaime comes into the corridor, happy as can be. “Eighteen more hours to Solomon’s Bay! Eighteen more hours! I’m going to go take a nap! So tired and so sick!” Jaime squirts out, leaving you standing there with Guy Farson.
You tell Jaime’s back, “I’ll, I’ll be taking a nap soon.”
Jaime, who makes an exaggerated yawn, states, “Okey dokey!” He claps his hands together twice.
Jaime continues to walk down the corridor; you wait until he is well out of earshot. You turn to Guy Farson. “I’ll see you back in the
lounge.”
~~~~
GUY asks you if you want something to drink but you shake your head as you meet him back in the lounge. The room is now full of bright morning sun, filling every inch of the lounge that is still in full party mode as dawn streams in. You breathe in the air of the new world, feeling a sense of accomplishment—a minor sense of accomplishment, but one all the same.
You are lost in thought and don’t notice that Guy has just bought you a glass of champagne and placed it onto the bar’s counter right in front of you. There are couples dancing around to the new wave of music coming from the band that’s playing during this early off-world hour.
“All of our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Guy raises his drink to you and you clink your glass of champagne against his.
“Cheers.” You sip the champagne. “Thanks for the drink I didn’t want. Whose quote is that?”
“Motherfucking Walt Disney. But it rings true, eh?” Guy leaves his now emptied glass on the counter after taking one mouthful. “See you in Winkie Country.” He leans forward and kisses you for a long time. “Good luck out there.”
“You taste like alcohol, schoolgirl,” Guy says with a wink.
Chapter Four: Solomon’s Bay
You make it back to the bow where the Queen Mary, now under a darkening and dusky but still very much daytime sky, is steaming forward to your first stop, that medieval city you once saw as a model back on Earth.
You find Jaime again, looking so happy and excited, until he looks at your face and seems to remember something very important. The look on his face of shock and horror scares you so badly that you immediately and unconsciously touch the little crucifix hanging from your neck. “What, what is it?” you ask.
Jaime swallows a few times and says. “I forgot. Well, Sarah, I forgot about the whole, uh, well-”
“The computers and the iPods, right? You forgot to give them to the purser. Oh Jesus, I even talked to the purser Jaime. People still use their computers carefully out there, now my Hungry Birds scores, my Manowar songs-”
“Angry Birds,” Jaime interjects.
You are too annoyed to keep speaking for a moment though your mouth keeps up a sort of speaking motion. “Whatever.”
Jaime looks at you. “Hey, hey, you forgot to wake me for the coolest part of the trip! So there!”
Jaime’s stupid mistake here has put you into a really nasty mood now, squashing away any fear and trepidation and replacing those feelings with anger and annoyance. You keep your face in a tight frown for the next few moments until the first firework goes off in the sky, welcoming you into The Oberon.
You notice that there are now large bonfires lit on that far-off shore. The bonfires are flickering under this massive statue you see in the distance—a statue so large it almost seems to block the setting sun. The statue is of a creature with two faces: one angry, one calm. It holds with one slightly lower hand what looks like an entire medieval city. The back of the hand is just above the ocean. In the center of its large palm, on a real or artificial hilltop, is a very large temple or castle made out of a dark wood that looks to you like a Japanese temple set on top of a giant wooden barge that still has oars sticking out of its sides. Giant flags or sails are at the four corners of this temple, facing towards the almost-set sun.
In the other hand, forever floating above its palm, are seven massive stone spheres, representing the permanent moons. A crown of demonic looking skulls is on the statue’s brow. The stone has been cut to look like flames are surrounding the statue.
Jaime points out the city. “Solomon’s Bay, Solokon-Bi in Perchta. First stop.”
You start to see these custom fireworks, spruced up with orichalcum, being set off in celebration of the first ship coming through the portal. There is a fireworks explosion that is made to look like little robots that dance across the sky, while other fireworks, detonated just seconds before, keep burning in the sky for minutes afterwards. Fireworks made to look like scary bats and dragons fly back and forth over the sea. You watch in awe.
At the very end, right after a gigantic finale when it seems to you like every firework in the world is shot off at once, the blue and white overlapping circles of the Off-World Network symbol appear in the sky.
~~~~
THE Queen Mary, by ascending somehow, is now docked next to the palm of the statue’s hand, which holds the city of Solomon’s Bay. The Queen is in actuality floating in the air next to the city in the statue’s palm, bobbing on top of sheer nothing. Other ships from the portal fleet are nearby too, as well as some strange others that are also floating in the air next to the palm. Small wooden ships with red Chinese-style sails that seem to jut out from their sides, hang from strong ropes that are wrapped around large blimp-like balloons. Some you see are heavily modified and even have a couple of cars hanging from their sides on hooks; the cars are either being used for ballast or being transported, you really are not sure. One of these airships floats out over the ocean, disappearing into the distance.
You and your “husband” Jaime disembark amidst a sea of other humans stepping off the gangplanks and platforms and onto the stone docks of the city. The area right outside the docks is listed in your brochure as the Free Market. It is a large space full of open shops that are under three or four story stone towers where you assume the city’s Ni-Perchta live. Most of the towers have flat tops. There are a few that are ten stories tall with slanted, wooden roofs of premium craftsmanship. Only a few buildings have glass in their windows—the rest just have shutters and silk curtains that flap in the sea breeze. You follow Jaime, who is carrying all the bags.
“Sarah, Sarah, could you carry some of this?” Jaime whines.
You respond, “Consider it penance for the computer screw up back there. I just lost all my Mano- I mean Bieber songs. All my Justin Bieber songs.”
You catch something from Jaime saying Bieber sucks donkey you-know-what, and you shoot him a look. “When did you start talking like that?” you ask.
Jaime shoots you a look back and says nothing.
You see your first Ni-Perchta up close. This one is helping a couple of humans into the back of his horse-drawn wagon, which is not so much a wagon as an old El Camino station wagon on moldy rubber tires being pulled along by horses.
Bunches of Ni-Perchta aliens are standing around, doing business in the same way they have for hundreds of years—their fantastical and medieval lifestyle mostly seems unchanged; their clothing and demeanor are things from a fourteenth century golden age. People and Ni-Perchta wander about. No store has walls or doors to keep anyone away—they are all counters and tables and open spaces under the apartment buildings and the pillars that hold up each structure. Only a couple of buildings have some electricity. The smell is incredibly strong—a mix of random spices, Ni-Perchta candles, and the steamy smell of tasty things cooking.
Some of the shops are makeshift cafes. You see one where a couple of people and Ni-Perchta are cracking open the boiled shells of trilobite-like things. The trilobite things’ shells are bright red like boiled lobsters. A sign showing a painted picture of one of the creatures reads Boiled Trilos in English. The restaurant-goers are stripping the shells off and chowing down on the meat. It looks like the entire things are composed of one giant lobster tail underneath the shells.
Seeing a Ni-Perchta close up after years of hearing rumors and reading explanations of their features is frightening to you—here are beings in front of you as intelligent as any human being, but they are not human.
Their skin color is something else, a gray-white, making them look almost as if they are the inverse of a photonegative. Their eyes glow a little red in the darkness, but you find out later that in regular daylight they are a dull gray color. Their ears are slightly pointed. Other than that, they are very human-looking, though everyone seems to be on the tall side. From all the “scientific” reports you’ve read in Cosmopolitan magazine, you know that it is possible
to have kids with them, though the Ephors, the police of the Witch-Lord, will kill or abduct any product of such relations.
You nudge Jaime along, quietly berating him for staring at the Ni-Perchta driver and say, “Look around for a cab. We are going to Nikh-Cunm Station for the steam mono.” He nods in understanding, but then Jaime trips over something that is sticking out of the cobblestone street and falls over, right onto your bags.
You curse under your breath, picking him up as a few people and Ni-Perchta look over at you. “Quit making a scene, Jaime,” you say.
He replies loudly, “You quit making a scene!” attracting even more attention.
At this moment, you see the Ephors for the first time; there is a group of five heading over. They come from nowhere, walking past a very large art deco-type building. On its wall, a neon sign powered by electricity reads: Ori Wholesaler 1 and Network. You see dirty and dusty humans carrying boxes and bags into the building after unloading all the things from an old 1950s semi-truck.
The Ephors, the Ni-Perchta warrior-police of the Witch-Lord of The Oberon, are dressed in golden and green armor that is as ornate as it is tough, made of individual plates that almost look like hand-crafted leaves or feathers. Each wears a half-mask made out of black cloth to cover their mouths, and the one in front wears on his head a half-crown with one wing. Each is armed with a long, serrated blade and an ancient-looking black ori-staff with a few small orichalcum stones embedded in the hilt.
Jaime looks so happy to see them as they come up to you; they’re about six feet away. You unconsciously touch your little crucifix necklace.
“Oh wow, Ephors! I’ve read about them,” Jaime says before the lead Ephor lowers his half-mask and stares at Jaime, who suddenly shuts up for a moment. Then he says, “I’ve read about you. Hi, I’m Jaime Van Zandt and this is Sarah, er, Sarah Orange. I don’t think we changed the- well sorry, let me start again.” Jaime spoke further in accented and stilted Perchta. You can recognize only his name and your name in his mini speech.
The lead Ephor holds up his right hand and speaks in clear, if accented, English. “I am Dwelka Storma, and I am the Ephor inspector of off-world barbarians and their customs.”