The Constructs

The Constructs

By Vic James

vicjames2@hotmail.com

Copyright 2014 by Vic James

http://www.vicjames.com

If you enjoy this story or the other stories at Nifty, please make a donation at: http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html

This story is fiction. None of the characters are based on real people. You can see a list of my stories at http://www.nifty.org/nifty/authors.html#vicjames

Seven

"Can you understand me?" a Tiktik asked us. I assumed it was Egelleron---I couldn't tell the Tiktik apart, yet. His voice sounded exactly like Retna's. I supposed it was actually a translator program that we were hearing. I could hear the Tiktik's natural voice in the background. It sounded a little like a seal barking, lots of aarf, aarf, aarfs.

"Yes," Mike said to him.

"Are you Egelleron?" I asked him.

"Yes. Would you like to leave, or do you need to mate again, first?" Egelleron asked.

If a human had asked that, I would have thought they were being sarcastic. With a Tiktik, I had no idea. I looked at Mike and he looked like he was trying not to laugh. I was a little embarrassed. But after all, we were the ones who put on the show.

"I think we've mated enough for now," I said.

"We are newly mated," Mike said. "Do Tiktik mate a lot when they first find their mate?"

"Yes. It is common," Egelleron said. "It wasn't the case with me. My mate was chosen for me before I was born. We have little in common and avoid each other when possible."

I felt a little sorry for him. I looked at Mike and smiled. I had a wonderful mate.

"We will leave now," Egelleron said, pointing a clawed finger at one wall.

I looked for Retna, but he was already gone. We got off the table as a door opened. We followed Egelleron out of the room, walking down a short corridor that looked exactly like the room we had been in---sealed, white, and featureless.

"How do you feel about my ownership of you? Tell me what you are feeling and be honest," Egelleron said, as we walked.

I looked at Mike and he shrugged. I thought about the question. It was a very good question and my feelings were all over the place. I tried to voice some of them.

"I was sick on Earth. I would have died had I not been taken by Clicker and Ship---I mean Retna. It was Retna's knowledge that saved my life. Human doctors had no cure for my illness. I am glad to be alive. I know my mate is glad about that, too. I don't know enough to have more than vague fears about being here and being owned by you."

"Vague," Egelleron said.

I nodded, but then realized he probably wouldn't know what a nod meant. "Yes. I know---we know---nothing about Tiktiks, or any other intelligent species. Clicker offered me a chance for life and I took it. I have no regrets, but I still have too little information."

"A good response," Egelleron said.

He turned to Mike.

"And you?"

"I was very bored with my life on Earth," Mike said.

"I assume you had sex with your mate constantly," Egelleron said to Mike.

Mike grinned.

"Will agreed to become my mate on the ship that brought us here," Mike said. "And that makes me very, very happy. We might be able to answer your question better if we knew what you expect of us as our owner. I would like to know why you want to own us."

"You have no responsibilities, if that is your concern. You are not my employees." Egelleron paused for a moment. "It takes knowledge to make a sale and to be successful. Some Tiktik choose to acquire a deep understanding of money---of finance and investment. That can lead to success, but that sort of thing bores me. I am more interested in knowing how diverse beings live and think. They are my potential clients and that knowledge can lead to financial success. But I also just find it fascinating. I have learned that races of beings who share the same body shape usually think similarly. Isn't that interesting?"

I nodded, then said, "Yes, it is."

It reminded me of what I had thought on the ship about beings evolving in the same conditions looking similar, like dolphins and sharks, or like Tiktik and ostriches. It seemed it extended to the way they think, too.

"I published the observations that led me to that conclusion and it sparked new lines of research among biologists. They call it Egelleron's Rule. That appeals to my vanity. An exotic being appeals to me esthetically and professionally. And the two of you are very different from the other humans who have left Earth. I want to find out why you two are different from other humans. That appeals to me intellectually. By learning about you, I will learn more about humans than I would from humans who aren't different. You know what is normal, but what would normal humans know about you? You asked what I expect of you. I won't be testing your bodies, I'm not particularly interested in how they work. I want to know your minds. I want to know your opinions about everything, and why you formed them. How do you feel about Retna, the machine? I have hired him as your medic."

"We both like him," I said.

It seemed Egelleron really had good reasons for wanting us. He wasn't some rich, bored alien wandering around his home zoo, which is how I had begun to picture him. His enthusiasm was kind of contagious.

As we walked the walls alongside us came to life with pictures of various things. Egelleron ignored them. The pictures disappeared as quickly as they appeared, and I couldn't really tell what they were. They might have been news broadcasts, advertisements, or something unique to the Tiktik. As we approached the end of the corridor, a door appeared. It opened, just as Egelleron reached it. Then we were outside.

I stopped, stunned. I grabbed Mike's hand and leaned back against the building we had just left. I saw many Tiktik, but they seemed to flash into and out of existence. There was a building opposite us---a beautiful building that had facets like a crystal. But my attention was drawn to what was behind it: a planet, as seen from space. The continents were green and brown and the oceans blue. Clouds were present and it was stunningly beautiful. The planet was as tall as a skyscraper. What was it? Remeskil? And how could it be resting on the ground? And why?

"We are in the spaceport area of the city. That is the public transit system you see," Egelleron said.

"You mean the planet?" Mike asked.

"Yes. Would you like to see how it operates?"

"Yes," Mike said.

Another Tiktik greeted Egelleron and then disappeared into thin air. I watched one suddenly appear on the other side of Egelleron. Was it the same one? I had no idea. Above us, something was moving. It was a tube of something silvery-blue, but irregularly shaped and undulating. Then I saw things that looked like legs protruded from the underside.

"I think that's water," Mike said, pointing at it.

I realized he was probably right. The water was in motion, flowing fairly rapidly and that was what made it undulate. A small animal leaped out of the side of it and 'fell' back into the water.

"Yes. It is a river," Egelleron said. "You can jump up into it, if you enjoy being in the water." I saw a Tiktik smaller than Egelleron---a child, maybe do just that. He disappeared into the water. I shook my head. A river at least one hundred feet above the ground with no riverbed!

"What holds it up in the air?" I asked.

"Gravity, of course."

"What are those things sticking out?" I asked.

"People are swimming in it," Egelleron said. "The river is not deep."

I started to feel nauseous when I saw what was obviously a boat pass us on the river. It was travelling upside down, as were its occupants. Some Tiktik on the boat were looking down and pointed at us. I couldn't help fearing they would fall out of the boat and into the street. I looked away. Then I closed my eyes. I'd seen enough.

"Why are people appearing and disappearing?" Mike asked.

"They have personal transportation," Egelleron said.

I leaned against a wall and Mike stayed with me. I was overwhelmed and had only just caught a glimpse of Remeskil. I was starting to understand why the other humans Egelleron mentioned had been so afraid. I opened my eyes, finally. Egelleron had kept walking. He turned and saw us. He walked back to us.

"What do you think? Not like Earth, is it?"

"No," Mike said. He pointed at the river in mid-air. "What is the purpose?"

"It is recreational and beautiful," Egelleron said. "It is also the area's water supply."

"What is the personal transportation?" Mike asked. Tiktik were still flicking into and out of existence around us.

"Are they converted to energy and then reconstructed elsewhere?" I asked.

"No. That sounds like killing them and replacing them with constructs. No one would choose to travel that way," Egelleron said. "They use personal wormholes. One end of the wormhole must be fixed, but the other end can follow them."

I stared at Egelleron and realized my mouth was open. I shut it.

"We learned a little about constructs on the ship. That copies of people can be produced, as well as copies of things like food. Why don't people use it when their bodies wear out?" I asked.

"Many do," Egelleron said. "However, a construct is not legally the original. Legally, the most he can be is an heir. An estate is distributed upon death of the biological body. The construct can be one of the heirs, but it cannot receive a greater percentage of the estate than the dependent receiving the largest portion of it. For example, if a Tiktik has one child and chooses to continue as a construct, what usually happens is the child receives fifty-one percent of the estate and the construct forty-nine percent. This can lead to resentment from the child, who would otherwise have received one hundred percent upon his parent's death. Of course, some children are delighted that a parent still lives in construct form."

I nodded.

"We are constructs," Mike said.

I stared at him, open-mouthed. That was our big secret! Egelleron looked at us. I wondered what he was thinking. What was Mike thinking? Vague fear had disappeared, to be replaced by near- terror.

"The ship couldn't repair the original Will," Mike said.

Egelleron was silent. The silence stretched on. I looked at Mike and mouthed, "Are you crazy?"

"I decided it would be worse if he discovered it on his own," Mike whispered. I thought about that.

"Why did you tell me this?" Egelleron asked, finally.

"I didn't want to spend the rest of my life worrying you would find out. I thought it better to get it out of the way and face the consequences," Mike said. He squeezed my hand and looked at me, I guess for approval. I sighed. Maybe it was best--- probably it was---but I wished Mike had warned me. "And you have the right to know."

Egelleron tilted his head.

"That's not a right. Buyer beware."

'That's not a right'? Did that mean Egelleron didn't have a 'right to know'? I wondered what that meant. 'Buyer beware' sounded like it meant it was Egelleron's responsibility to discover---whatever. But I knew way too little to make any assumptions about anything, most especially what his reaction would be to this news.

"I wondered about the machine's knowledge of your anatomy and medicine," Egelleron said.

"He told us he created virtual copies and experimented until he could eliminate the illness. Then he constructed a new Will. My family is susceptible to the same disease---cancer. Many of my relatives had died from it. I am now immune to it," Mike said.

"Were you near death?" Egelleron asked me.

I nodded.

"I was very sick. I expected to die very soon. I was in a lot of pain, too."

"And he didn't have time to discover how to heal you before you died," Egelleron said.

"I suppose not. Humans couldn't heal me, we don't have the knowledge. Are you angry?" I asked.

Egelleron didn't answer immediately.

"Yes. But I would be at least as angry if you were sold you to me when you were near death. I can't deny she made a good choice when she selected the two of you. After all, your admission of it tells me a great deal about you. Honesty is not a universal virtue among us, something I have often regretted. But I do value it in my household and personal dealings." He was silent for a moment. "Yes. She made an excellent choice. I shall certainly want to ensure there are no other copies of you. We will not speak of this, again, and you are never to mention this to anyone, other than your medic Retna. And then, only in private."

I nodded. Egelleron seemed to think the matter was closed. It really was a relief to have that out of the way. Mike had been right. How do you keep a secret from a super-intelligent person for a hundred or more years? But would Clicker suffer for it?

"Can I ask one more question on the subject?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Will anything happen to Clicker because of it?"

Egelleron was silent for a moment.

"No. 'Buyer beware', after all. And if I pursued the matter, I would be admitting my error. Revenge in this situation is petty and beneath me."

Egelleron began walking towards the large globe that he said was public transportation. I started to get cold. Both Mike and I were naked and I guessed the temperature was in the mid-60's. Pleasant enough when clothed, but too cool for me when I was naked. I looked around as we walked. The river was above us, but in the sky behind us was a large, ringed planet, several times bigger in the sky than Earth's moon, as seen from Earth. The daylight washed it out. I wondered what the planet looked like in the night sky. All of the buildings we saw looked unique. There didn't seem to be any consistency to the design. Some were simple boxes while some were incredibly ornate fairy castles. Some of the buildings were very small. I wondered if they were restrooms. Even the boxes had beautiful facades, though.

"All the buildings look different," I said to Egelleron. "I mean the way they are designed."

Egelleron turned around.

"Yes. They represent the design styles of the various Tiktik worlds their owners came from. Esthetes often complain about that very thing," Egelleron said. "Of course, they want all the buildings to look like their personal idea of beauty."

Egelleron resumed walking.

I smiled at Mike.

"I'm an esthete!" I whispered to him.

"Yes. I've seen how you admire my penis," he whispered back.

I laughed. Then I rubbed my arms to warm them.

We walked up to the building in front of the globe. It was really beautiful. Sunlight was refracted through the facets and it sparkled in different colors. Suddenly we were on the other side of it. I had no sensation of movement. I turned around and saw the back of the same building we had approached. I turned back around. The globe was directly in front of us. I gasped as I saw a Tiktik near us jump towards the globe. He shrunk in size until he disappeared into the globe. Another Tiktik did the same thing. Egelleron waved his hand and the globe turned. He pointed at a spot. A light flashed on the globe.

"We are going there," Egelleron said.

Suddenly we were in the air, flying towards it. I had no sense of motion, but still I closed my eyes. I no longer thought the other humans were primitive for being afraid around the aliens. Just the surroundings could do it. If I had been suddenly plucked from Earth and brought here by myself, I would probably have curled up into a little ball on the ground. I shivered, and only partially because I was cold. It was completely overwhelming. I held tightly to Mike's hand, while my eyes were closed just as tightly.

"We are here," I heard Egelleron say. I opened my eyes slowly. We seemed to be on a lawn. A lawn on the ground, where it should be and not in the air! It looked like grass, anyway, and it felt very soft under my bare feet. It was warmer at that location. There was another 'air-river', for want of a better word, flowing fairly close to us. I saw the river split into two tributaries. I felt rather numb at that point. There didn't seem to be anyone in that river. There were no legs sticking out the bottom and no boats floating on it upside down. I looked around. The planet I'd seen in the sky was not visible. We must have travelled a long way. There were many low buildings which looked like they were made of mother-of-pearl. Many of them featured carved columns at their fronts.

"This is one of my estates and where you will live, for now. I have an employee who will be responsible for seeing to all your needs. I will not have a great deal of time to devote to you, a fact I regret. I will be observing you remotely. If you have questions your keeper cannot answer, save them for the next time I visit with you. This is your home."

I looked around. Movement caught my eye. I turned to look. Large rocks looking like blocks of granite floated in the air. Water flowed upwards from the ground, hit the rocks, cascaded up them, and then flowed upwards into the river in the sky. I gulped. It was a sort of inverted waterfall. With floating rocks. I quickly looked away. I really didn't want to see any more marvels. I was beginning to feel strange---detached from everything but Mike's hand, which I held.

Egelleron pointed at a smaller building, which we entered. Another Tiktik stood just inside the building. He dipped his head towards Egelleron.

"I am your keeper, Malevek," the other Tiktik said to us. "I am responsible for most of Egelleron's beings. Will you be mating soon?"

I was too overwhelmed to laugh. We were at the top of a few wide stairs leading downwards. The living quarters seemed to be below ground. We were facing another, smaller globe of the planet floating around ground level.

"Is that for travel?" Mike asked, pointing at the globe.

"It can be used for that," Malevek said. "You can also use it for virtual travel, if you wish to sight-see without leaving your home."

"Very handy," Mike said.

I looked at him. He seemed very calm, but I felt very odd. I could hear blood pounding in my head. I hoped I wasn't getting sick. Mike put his arm around my waist and that made me feel calmer.

"See to their needs," Egelleron said to Malevek.

"Are there any restrictions?" Malevek asked his employer.

"No. None. But notify me for any over one hundred thousand."

Egelleron turned and walked out of the building.

"No. None," Malevek repeated, after Egelleron was gone. Malevek was not looking at us when he said it. I wondered why he repeated it.

Malevek descended the stairs and we followed him.

"Does the temperature suit you?" Malevek asked. It seemed to be in the mid-70s. Mike and I nodded.

As we descended below the globe, I saw the living quarters extended underground below the lawn and were larger than the building on the surface.

"Who all lives in this building?" I asked Malevek.

"Just the two of you."

We reached the bottom of the stairs. The area looked very human and familiar---a very large living room, as big as a hotel lobby. I saw a golden pyramid on a perfectly normal coffee table. I hoped it was Retna. I smiled when I realized that some of the furniture matched items in my uncle's cabin at the lake. I breathed a sigh of relief for some normality. I supposed Retna had scanned the cabin while scanning us. It did make me feel more at home.

"Retna, is that you?" Mike asked the pyramid.

"Yes, it is."

Directly above us was the globe of Remeskil. There was a small patch of white at what I supposed was the southern pole. I guessed the globe was about fifteen feet across.

Malevek looked at us for a long while and I got uncomfortable. Was he waiting for us to say something or do something? I couldn't read his facial expressions, if he even had any. After what seemed like several minutes, he finally spoke.

"As you have been told, your bodies have been implanted with a translator, but a device was also implanted that prevents you from committing any violent actions. I understand humans are quite violent," Malevek said. I wasn't sure I was going to like Malevek, and that was odd, considering the fact I liked the big, ugly bug who abducted us and considered the golden pyramid on our coffee table a friend! "Were you to decide to attack me, you would find your muscles would not respond," Malevek continued. I started getting angry. Mike squeezed my hand.

"Not all humans are violent, Malevek," Mike said.

"I suppose we will see about that. I plan to monitor how often that device is triggered. And you know much more about humans than I do, of course. Knowledge of humans is very limited, which is one of the reasons your owner paid so much for you."

"It did seem like an awful lot," Mike said. I decided he was being diplomatic.

"It was a completely ridiculous amount. More than all the other beings in his collection combined," Malevek said. That surprised me.

"Are there any other humans on Remeskil?" Mike asked Malevek.

"No. There have never been, as far as I have been able to determine. There are two on the planet Nescar, which is not far from here. But they are in a private collection, as well and little is shared about them."

Malevek turned away.

"Let me show you the rest of your quarters."

Two of the rooms were set up exactly like the two bedrooms in my uncle's cabin, right down to the glowing red numbers on the digital alarm clocks next to the beds. I wondered if they would show the time on Earth. One of the bedrooms had a TV.

"I wonder what channels we can pick up here," Mike said, pointing at it. I laughed. "Maybe the Weather Channel, so we will know when it is raining at home."

Home. I missed it. Not that I wasn't glad to be alive and healthy, but the TV reminded me of everything we would never see, which was basically everything we had ever known.

Another room duplicated the kitchen in the cabin. I wondered if the microwave oven worked. What would we cook in it if it did? Maybe constructed corn kernels.

"Do you live here, on the estate?" Mike asked Malevek.

"No. I live on the southern continent. I can be here in an instant, however, when you need me. Simply call my name. There is a permanent wormhole between my home and this estate. It is as simple as walking into the next room." If he said so, I thought. But the word 'simple' didn't really seem to apply.

He and Mike both seemed to be back to normal. I hoped so, anyway.

"How does the travel by globe work? Are those temporary wormholes?" Mike asked.

"I am a biologist, not a physicist," Malevek said. "It all involves manipulating gravity, but I don't really understand it and you wouldn't either, even if I could explain it to you."

"That's for sure!" I said.

"The computer can function as an educator, or you can have the machine that brought you to Remeskil operate as an intermediary between the computer and yourselves," Malevek said. 'Machine that brought you,' he said. I looked at Mike. Did he mean the ship that brought us from Earth or Retna or something else? Then I remembered Egelleron saying, 'Retna, the machine,' so I figured Malevek meant Retna.

Several rooms were completely empty. Malevek told us we could put anything in those rooms we wanted. When we finished the tour, I sat on the sofa with Retna directly in front of me. Mike sat next to me. A backless chair rose up out of the floor and Malevek sat.

"I would like to know more about human perversions," Malevek said. "Are all members of your family perverts? Is it inherited?"

My mouth fell open. Mike was holding my hand. His grip tightened.

"How else does your deviance manifest itself, besides sexually?"

"Between three and ten percent of humans are oriented that way," Retna said. "I'm not sure you can consider the behavior of ten percent of a population as perverted. And if it was an inherited trait, it would have died out of the population long ago, since same sex mates can't have offspring."

I grinned. Thank you, Retna! But what was Malevek up to? It seemed like a deliberate insult. But a device was translating Tiktik speech into English. It could be a translation issue, not the insult it seemed. Somehow I doubted that. I had a feeling Malevek was very good at being insulting.

"Do not lecture me, machine," Malevek said, stamping one foot. Retna didn't respond. I had no idea what was going on. Things seemed wrong, but I had no idea what 'normal' was in a situation like that. Was 'machine' an insult, like 'perverts'? Had anyone actually been insulted? It seemed that way, but I was afraid of the implications, if we were being insulted when we had just met Malevek.

"Do Tiktik have assholes?" Mike asked Malevek.

I turned and stared at him. That was absolutely an insult.

"Of course," Malevek said. I was glad he didn't seem to realize Mike insulted him.

"What are your interests?" Malevek continued.

"I'm interested in biology," I said. "I would like to learn about different kinds of beings."

Malevek tilted his head. "You are in the right place for that. You can study several without leaving the estate. However, I would expect that most of them are more intelligent than you."

That was an insult, I was sure. How did he know how intelligent we were? He admitted how little he knew about humans. I started to feel sick. Mike would keep insulting him back until- --who knew what would happen? We were powerless, though. I knew that.

"I would love to learn about Remeskil," Mike said. I was relieved that Mike didn't respond to the last insult, but I could feel blood pounding in my body. Ironically, I was also starting to feel detached from my body. "Retna told us this planet was engineered," Mike continued.

"Well, the engineering field is going to be meaningless to you," Malevek said. "I doubt that you would understand the simplest concepts, even if they could be translated into your language. Which is doubtful."

I could see how it might be true that the knowledge couldn't be translated. If no human had ever thought of something, how could it be translated into English? Still, Malevek managed to make it seem like one more insult.

"I thought humans wore clothing," Malevek said. "Is flaunting your sexual organs part of your perversion?"

"We haven't been given any," Mike said slowly. I could tell he was angry. I was getting angry, too. Why was Egelleron so much nicer to us than Malevek? Malevek didn't respond to Mike. Things did not seem to be going well. We were trapped on an alien planet with an alien who seemed to hate us.

"Are we supposed to make our own clothing?" Mike asked our keeper.

"Can you? I would enjoy watching that," Malevek said.

"I'm sorry. I was wealthy on Earth," Mike said. "Employees--- " Mike paused. "Made all my clothing."

I stared open-mouthed at Mike. They did? He had a personal tailor? I had seen him in T-shirts. Were they custom made? Who did that? I looked at Malevek. I couldn't read his expression, but I watched as he scratched the floor with the claws on one foot. That didn't seem like a happy thing to do. It looked downright threatening. I looked at Mike, again. I didn't understand. Then I did. Mike didn't have a tailor. He had just insulted Malevek, who was an 'employee', while were not. It had to be deliberate. I felt like asking him if he was crazy. I started shivering. We were completely at this Tiktik's mercy. And he seemed to hate us.

"You have no employees," Malevek said. Malevek drew the claws on his other foot across the floor. The claws were about three inches long and looked like they could be very lethal as weapons. I sure hoped Egelleron was keeping an eye on us.

"I have manufactured clothing for you," we heard Retna said. "I don't want you getting sick. After all, that is why I was hired." An opening appeared in one wall. Blue jeans and shirts were there. Malevek turned to Retna but didn't say anything. Mike and I walked to the clothes and got dressed. We didn't have shoes or underwear, but that could wait.

"Do we have any responsibilities?" I asked Malevek, trying to change to a safer subject. I couldn't take to Mike privately at the time. Then it occurred to me that we probably wouldn't ever have complete privacy. "I really have no idea what is expected of us."

"You must make yourselves available to Egelleron whenever he wishes. As you heard him say, that will probably not occur often. Other than that, your time is your own."

Malevek turned.

"Why is the percentage of same sex mating humans so variable? Is the average three percent or ten percent? I would imagine it would be a simple statistical average."

"Some religions are opposed to it, so many are unwilling to admit it," Mike said.

"Yes. I've read that Earth has many religions."

I nodded my head.

"What are your religious beliefs?" Malevek asked. The tension in the room seemed to decrease. Still, I was very aware that I sat under an enormous globe of the planet. That alone made me a little nervous.

"I don't really have any," I said.

"Me, either," Mike said. "Do any other races have religions?"

"Oh, yes. Most primitive species develop them as a means to explain their environments and the reason for their existence. Once they understand their origins scientifically, they are generally abandoned. My people had several, although there are few adherents to those religions today. I'm not speaking of the creator, of course. His existence is acknowledged as a fact by most."

"What?" I asked, surprised. "Believing in a creator is not a religion?"

"Not is it is based on fact. Our current model of this universe shows that it was artificially created in a single act. We know nothing of the creator---or creators---and do not know whether he, or they, still exist. In fact, we know absolutely nothing about the creator or his motive. That makes it less a religion than a scientific mystery waiting to be resolved. Let me show you."

Suddenly the room in front of us filled with views of space. There were explosions and galaxies forming and we seemed to be zooming around. At that point, I started feeling numb. I read Future Shock in high school. I had it. Future shock. It was too much. My life would never be simple, again. Mike would be the only other human I would ever see. I would never read a book, watch a TV show or a movie; see a flower, or a highway, or a dog. I would never even hear a woman's or a child's voice. Nothing would be familiar for the rest of my very long life. And I had a keeper who thought I was a primitive pervert.

I found myself being shaken. Suddenly I found myself floating in space. My stomach felt like it was trying to climb up my throat. I looked around and saw I was by myself in space. I screamed Mike's name. There was no sound and no answer. I closed my eyes and curled up into a ball. I felt myself being shaken, again and I heard Mike's voice. I wasn't alone. I stopped screaming and slowly came out of it. Mike's arms were around me. I could hear him saying, "It's all right." He repeated it over and over. I opened my eyes. I was still on the sofa. Had I actually been anywhere? A Tiktik stood in front of me. I thought it was Egelleron, but I wasn't sure.

"How do you feel?" the Tiktik asked.

"I was in space, by myself," I said, squeezing Mike's forearm.

"Ouch!" Mike said.

I loosened my grip. The Tiktik scratched a claw slowly on our floor. It scratched the stone surface of the floor. I guessed that was a sign of anger.

"I have discharged Malevek," Egelleron said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Retna said you were in obvious distress and it appears Malevek deliberately tried to worsen your condition by sending you on a virtual trip through space by yourself."

I closed my eyes and felt tears forming. Eventually, they dripped down my cheeks.

"Retna has agreed to be your keeper for now. I apologize for Malevek's actions. As employer, I am responsible. He is obviously insane. I thought he was merely lazy. He has never been particularly good at his job, which is why I hired Retna. But Malevek is a relative and wanted the job." Egelleron was silent for a moment. "Are you feeling better?" he asked me.

"Yes, thank you."

"Good. I'm sorry, but I have urgent business that requires my physical presence. Retna, contact me if his condition does not continue to improve."

"I will," Retna said.

I could hear Egelleron's claws clicking on the stone floor as he walked away. Then they stopped and I assumed he zoomed off somewhere.

"I'm afraid you've made rather a bad enemy of the Wicked Witch of the West," Retna said.

If you enjoyed it and want to read more, let me know.