Young Writers Society

Stepping into another world seemed far too easy, as simple as allowing Willion to pull her into his Transport Room and choose the Homeworld. He looked at her then, both of them in his Room, his hand hovering over a globe of the Homeworld, all their luggage “piled” around them. Willion had mentally included it in what would be coming with them as they teleported.

“Ready?” he asked, eyes sparkling. Now that he had finally made the decision to come, he had been acting a lot more excited about it.

Analia nodded. Here goes nothing.

He checked his watch. “…Now.”

He selected the spot on the globe, and immediately everything around Analia collapsed into a point. Analia felt as if she were collapsing too; every sense had been cut off and the pressure on all sides was so great she was sure her ribs must be cracking –

And then everything expanded again and vision blossomed, revealing a small room with an open door that lead to a crowded hall. For a split second, Analia looked down and saw that she was inside another person, but before the panic could hit, she fully materialized and was pushed out of the way, stumbling to the floor.

The person – had she really been inside him? – hurried to help her up, apologizing for not having gotten out of the way quickly enough.

No sooner did she say “It’s fine” than Willion came up behind her, shoving some luggage into her hands and ushering her out.

“We’ve got to get out before the next group arrives,” he explained. “There’s barely a minute interval between arrivals.”

They hurried through the door and out into the Central Station. Analia would have stopped right outside the door to gawk, but Willion pulled her out of the way quickly, and they stopped by the side of their cubicle.

While Willion took inventory of their luggage, Analia drank everything in. The station was a huge, circular dome that arched at least fifty feet above their heads and made entirely of glass. Outside, all Analia could see was a never-ending field of white, and if she looked up, she could see snowflakes landing gently on the dome. We really are at the North Pole, she thought.

All around her, people were streaming out of the small cubicles that filled the dome, arranged in lines leading out from the center like spokes on a wheel. Businessmen, hurrying past, talking avidly to someone on their personal holoscreen. Families, mother and father desperately trying to manage screaming children. The tourists were the easiest to spot – they lingered the longest, gawking at the snow-covered ceiling and taking group pictures.

Willion interrupted Analia’s sightseeing. “We’ve got everything. Let’s move out.” He didn’t seem nearly as interested in the dome, but then again, it wasn’t like it was his first time seeing it.

They wound their way through the crowd, dragging their suitcases and making their way to the center of the dome, where an elevator led down to Immigration and the airport. They descended far enough that Analia had to swallow to force her ears to pop.

Immigrations was tedious. The plane ride took even longer, but was a lot more enjoyable after they recalibrated their holoscreens for the Homeworld’s satellites. Analia would have appreciated the irony that it had taken them no time at all to travel an unfathomably large distance, but was taking hours to travel a few thousand miles, but she was too busy losing herself in checking and rechecking the details of her new job and making sure she knew how to get everywhere. Lithen, the capital city, was enormous.

She still didn’t know what she was supposed to be doing for the Absolutes here. Egrand had said they would contact her, but she didn’t know how or when. She only hoped she’d be able to keep her involvement secret from Willion – and everyone else, too.

She was remembering the dome and the feeling of teleporting when a question occurred to her. “Hey, we’re supposed to land at the exact North Pole, right? Then how come we landed in one of the little cubicles? How do they organize that sort of thing?”

Willion shrugged. “They just redirect you somehow, I guess.” He had never been particularly interested in the mechanics of the Three Powers.

Analia frowned, and decided to ask Verona instead.

/That’s definitely odd. I’m not sure how – maybe some sort of localized Blocking field? One that redirects instead of just stopping?/

/I’ll check the Holonet./ But even the Holonet couldn’t give her the specifics, only repeating Verona’s assumption.

They landed a couple of hours later in one of the biggest airports in the galaxy and hurried to catch the tram that would take them to their apartment complex. The airport was huge, with long, concrete runways on the top of the skyscraper, stretching out over the city like an angel’s wings, but with the blur of checking baggage and figuring out where to go, Analia only took a cursory glance out the windows to confirm that yes, they were high above the ground.

When the tram was fully loaded, a bulkhead in the side of the opened and light flooded in. They accelerated slowly, moving smoothly from the station to the rail outside. Analia craned her neck, trying to see out of the window. She prodded Willion. “Come on, move over. Who let you have the window seat, anyway?”

Willion didn’t respond for a moment. He stared downward, then looked back at Analia and croaked, “It’s amazing.”

Analia leaned over and looked out the window. All around her, she saw the tops of enormous skyscrapers, some filled with solar panels, others bursting with rooftop gardens. One even had a full-blown water park, open to the sky.

Then she looked down and saw a jungle. A jungle of steel girders and concrete walkways and tramlines and hovercar lanes. Each skyscraper was a massive tree, and hundreds of walkways and tramlines connected them at all levels as if someone had strung them with concrete tinsel. Analia peered downwards, ignoring the pervading sense of vertigo, but the sunlight petered out before she could see the ground. Was there even a surface down there?

And the people! They carpeted every available surface and walkway, congregating at the entrance to every building and at the tram stations that were marked by a sudden tangling of the lines. Suddenly, Analia understood how one city could hold three billion people.

She sat transfixed for a moment longer, then pulled back. “It’s wonderful,” she said in awe. All those people, living and working and playing around her, and now she was one of them.

Willion nodded fervently. “This is the place where everything happens, Lia. The center of the human race.”

A moment later, the tram started down a steep incline, and they descended into the maze.