In the distance was a glowing portal with strange vines blocking it. This was the fissure between their worlds. The only known doorway that breached this world with the magical world. The creatures within the portal, nearest it, were dangerous. Even worse, those on this side might gain access to powers not allowed in the human world for thousands of years. Torrik had cast a special spell creating these vines to block access. Very few could hope to get through them, and even if they survived the dangerous vines, the creatures on the other side would attack.
“I am ready.” Torrik whispered these words, a hint of sorrow in his voice. He touched the vines, and they slowly slithered away, revealing a clear path home.
Turning once back, looking where he had come, he could see the world long thought lost to his kind. In the skies, as tiny dots at this distance, were the Ren Spheres. The world trembled in their presence still, unable to understand where to go next.
“I wish I could have done more to protect you. But this problem is bigger than one Satyr.” Torrik stepped through the portal, the vines returning to block it the instant his second hoof passed by.
***
A young agent of BADGE walked down to the main floor of operations and handed a computer tablet to Gar. “Sir, the hourly report on the spheres. No change.”
“Thanks.” Gar said, “Take command. I will bring this to Director Nova.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gar left the operations center and sped down the lift to the main floor. In the mess hall, there were students sitting and chatting as they ate their lunches. Exhaustion was evident on their faces. No one has fully recovered from the experience in the virtual world; they haven’t had the time.
Walking through the station, Gar entered another lift and journeyed up to the training level. Various training rooms and theaters filled this corridor. Here, students and heroes could put their skills to the strictest tests; they could also examine tactics and previous performances on the movie theater screens. Right now, all the training robots were gone, sent down to join the others in the relief efforts across the planet.
Gar stopped at a door and pressed a button. It opened to reveal the inside of the largest movie theater on the station. A theater that could seat up to four hundred had only one occupant.
Gar walked in and sat down next to Chase, his eyes on the screen. International News Network, or INN, was relaying the news of the day.
The news anchor spoke as visuals appeared to punctuate the stories.
“Relief efforts continue across the planet. At this time, the death toll from the Renn Wear incident has increased to fourteen hundred. Among them are heart attacks, nutritional issues, and other health conditions not addressed while inside the virtual world. Thanks to massive efforts from BADGE, twenty thousand medical robots have been quickly assembled in the fifteen robotic plants and sent out to tend to the population. Even after a month of recovery, the World Health Organization still designates the entire planet a health crisis. -
“Pockets of unaffected people have been found across the planet. Most are in secluded locations. However, some superheroes could protect tiny portions of the population during the Renn Wear incident. Those people have stepped out to help and provide aid in our time of need.-
“The World Health Organization still advises people to be cautious of consuming any food that was left out during the incident. Canned, jarred, and frozen foods are preferred. All grocery stores have cleared produce and outdated food from shelves. Restocking is taking time, which is creating a food crisis planetwide. Rationing will go into effect in many highly populated areas until the food situation levels off.-
“Finally, the United Nations has issued a warning to all nations to be careful. Paranoia is high at this time with the Renn Sphere’s still in the skies and no sign of an answer to removing them. Nations across the world have armed their defenses and issued over ten thousand threats against Renn Tech and Drocha, warning that they will defend this planet. BADGE has not commented on this rise in defenses at this time, but they too have massed defenses in case of further incident.”
Chase turned the sound off while the news went to the weather.
“You have the hourly report?” Chase asked with weary in her voice.
Gar nodded and handed the computer tablet to her. “Nothing’s changed.”
“Good... well, not good. I want this to end. It’s like Drocha is purposefully driving us crazy by doing nothing. Those damn spheres hover over this planet like bombs waiting to destroy us. Drocha has vanished, and Renn Technology is utterly dead. It feels like we won, but yet our enemy is just waiting to pounce.” She was venting, and it wasn’t just because of the lack of information about Drocha or the spheres.
Gar quietly asked, “Where is he?”
Chase let out an irritated sigh. “In his quarters, with the baby.”
“We should go see him,” Gar said.
“I agree. He’s taking this harder than I expected. We need him active, not babysitting.” She got up, pressed a control button on her chair that turned off the screen, and marched right past Gar toward the exit.
Gar followed her.
Stepping into another elevator, Chase pressed her comm unit against the control panel and said, “Authorization, Chase, Beta Pi Alpha.”
BEEP! The computer needed Gar to speak.
“Oh, right. Authorization, Gargoyle, Seven Delta Pi.”
The lift zoomed away toward a top-secret, highly secure location. Very few people on this station even knew this existed. Those that did could show no one else without Nova’s personal permission.
When the lift stopped, the doors split open right into one person’s private quarters. Loud music met them at the door. A massive chorus of voices accompanied symphonic sounds.
Chase walked into the room with Gar. The room was the largest quarters on the station. Artifacts littered the walls and shelves, many of which would give archaeologists euphoric delight just to be near. Weapons and stone tablets, sculptures and tapestries. Each one depicted an ancient warrior who had lived through them all. This was the life and times of the greatest hero Earth has ever had.
That hero walked around the room, rocking softly to the music as a baby slept in his arms.
“Director?” Chase announced as loud as she could over the music.
Nova looked up and then said, “Computer, pause playback.”
The symphony stopped abruptly. Chase asked, “Was that the Carmina Burana?”
Nova smiled at the sleeping baby. “Krystal loved that piece of music. The first time she and I did anything together outside of work was to go to a performance of this in London. She played it often while pregnant, and it seems to calm the baby down.”
Chase snorted out a chuckle. “Unusual bit of music to lull a baby to sleep.”
“Whatever works. I’ll do anything to remind this baby of her parents.” Nova walked over to a crib in the corner and slowly lowered the sleeping child down onto what looked like pelts. Nova mused, “Lief Erikson’s crib, a gift from his mother after I taught him to swim as a little boy.”
Chase said, “Sir, I know you’re taking the loss of Alex and Krystal hard, but we need you. The spheres are still out there and...”
“I’m not standing around doing nothing.” Nova calmly interrupted her.
“All you do is pay attention to that baby. You haven’t even been to a single briefing. EB and Justin are planet-side helping with relief efforts; Arx, Gar, Quark, and I are doing our best to keep things moving. You don’t know what is happening.” Chase held back the anger in her response out of respect.
Nova smiled at her as he walked across the room. “I know. The spheres are still out there, unchanged. The world is arming itself in case Drocha shows up. Drocha is oddly absent. And the recovery efforts are moving forward. And we still don’t know what Drocha needed in making that AI algorithm with human minds. Did I miss anything?”
Chase said, “That’s about it. But... how?”
Nova moved aside an ancient Sumerian shield, revealing a high-definition display. He put in a code, and a complicated encoded signal unscrambled itself. Finally, Justin’s face came through clearly. “Time for another update?” Justin asked.
Nova said, “A brief repeat of our early meeting from this morning. I think it’s about time we bring Chase and Gar in on what we’ve been up to.”
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