“You are Home. It is hard to explain. May I show you?” He held out his arms in a request for permission to lift her.
She looked around, gauged the feeling in her feet and legs and nodded. “Please.” She held out her arms like a child, and he lifted her easily.
He walked out of the room that resembled a medical bay crossed with a hotel room, and he carried her onto the balcony.
“This is now your home.”
She looked up and gasped. She was inside the swirling of stars. Nebulas twisted in the darkness, star systems spun happily and asteroids made their tireless journeys. Kali knew every star chart in the Alliance systems, and they were outside of any known space.
“Where…”
“We are between, between time and space, now and then, past and future. We will get you some clothing, and from there, a meal. Then, I will explain whatever you need to know.”
She looked around her as he held her tight, but in a moment, they had gone from the balcony to a room with folk in a line and machines whirring away.
A few folk turned to look at her, and she smiled. After living in a tank, she had no illusions of modesty. Being naked in a tube where she was visible on all sides had the effect of burning out all urges to hide.
“How did my hair grow?” They were moving up in line, but she was eager for something that was not silence.
“The Orb of Time provided me with enough energy to restore you to consciousness, and it brought your body back to health, including your hair. It is very pretty.” He smiled with sensual lips that caught her attention.
She stared at him, willing him to speak. As she took in his pointed ears, smoky skin tone in a deep ashy grey and the swirling stars in his black eyes, she still could not place his species.
“Why are you staring, Kaliana?”
“Call me Kali. I was just trying to figure out what race you are. I keep drawing a blank.”
He grinned, and those sensual lips twisted in an intriguing way. “Are you familiar with Nishans?”
She was so shocked, she almost pushed out of his arms. His chest felt solid where her hand was pressed against him. “How can you be a gas cloud?”
He chuckled. “A few of my people have exerted themselves to take a physical shape. We can hold it as long as necessary for tasks in the more physical areas of the Alliance. I was working as an Enforcer during the Piffca riots. I was knocked out, tied up and a fire was started around me before I could shift shape. Fire is not one of my favourite elements. It is the only one I cannot escape from.”
She nodded. “That would tend to kill someone. So, that was you on the station, the mist that surrounded me?”
“It was indeed my true form. I wrapped around you and transported you here.”
“Why?”
She watched as he puzzled how to answer her, but they were at the front of the line, and she saw the selector screen. “Put me down so I can get scanned for size.”
He chuckled and set her on her feet.
Her hair was long enough to create a decent-sized cloak. Kali pursed her lips and selected a loose robe in lightweight black gauze. It would be easy on her sensitized skin and conceal everything decently.
The computer chirped and whirred. A few seconds later, a box was set in front of her.
Kali slipped on the robe and the robotic arm removed the empty box. “Thank you.”
She pulled the length of hair out from under the robe and let it swing down her spine. “I think I am hungry, though I have no idea what the end result will be. My stomach hasn’t had to deal with food in quite some time.”
He smiled and offered his arm. “Would you care to walk?”
She bit her lip. “Is it close?”
Odin’s laugh was amused. “When you are a Nameless, whole planets are only a few steps away. Yes, it is close.”
When she realized that he answered her, she took his arm, and they were wrapped in light once again.
Scents that she could only vaguely remember worked their way into her thoughts. “I am not sure about this. It normally takes weeks or months to get a Relay back on their feet.”
“I will catch you if you should fall.”
His words were encouraging, and as she took a tray with weak arms, she headed over to where the breakfasts of two dozen races were aligned in a buffet.
Cream of wheat, honey, cream and some jam were her choices, and when she faltered on the way to the seats, he did indeed catch and support her. “Thank you.”
His arms held his own tray, and she looked down to see a thick column of mist wrapped around her lower body and more mist wrapped around the tray.
Odin settled her in her chair and left her for a moment, returning with a spoon for her.
She didn’t ask him anything but tasted and adulterated her food until she was satisfied with the flavour. If it tasted good going down, it might not hurt so much coming up.
Kali ate her meal and waited for the inevitable return. Nothing happened.
“What are you waiting for?”
“My body to reject the food. It isn’t happening though and that has me confused.”
“The Orb filled you out, provided you with body fat and regrew your hair and eyebrows. Perhaps it reset your digestion.” He shrugged and consumed the stew that he had in front of him.
“What is the Orb?” She kept her gaze pleasant and waited for an answer. It was not long in coming.
She sipped at a cup of tea and asked every question that she could think of. When he was finished, she had even more questions, but something was telling her to hold them for another time. There was someone else to ask and that someone would be with her very soon.
Chapter Three
Kali shocked herself when she realized she was hungry again. Despite the obvious reaction that she had been expecting, her body had betrayed her and instead welcomed nourishment via something other than a tube.
Odin didn’t mind, so she got to her feet and made her way back to the buffets, this time selecting salads, meats and a roll that made her mouth water. She had always been a girl who liked her carbs, and having an array of bread and butter in front of her was almost too much to bear.
Her body felt steady and far sturdier than it had been in years. She moved carefully back to the table where Odin waited and noticed a glow on his skin.
“Why are you glowing?”
He looked down and then up at her in surprise. “I am being summoned to a moment in time. I will contact Ravikka to take charge of you.”
She frowned. “How long will your mission take?”
“I don’t know. Sometimes hours, sometimes days, other times it is minutes.” He shrugged.
She twisted her lips. “Where is the council hall?”
He raised his brows and turned to point out the huge window. “That building there.”
She smiled. “When I am done here, I will walk there. No problem and you don’t have to summon anyone. Okay?”
He gave her a long look through those dark eyes. “All right. If you are still here when I return, we will go to the seven together.”
“Agreed.”
With only a small frown line between his eyebrows, he glowed bright and disappeared.
Shrugging, Kali continued eating course after course until her body finally felt full and hunger was no longer prodding her.
A good meal was just what she needed, and her early days as a chronic dieter had prodded her to start each return trip to the buffet with vegetables.
Sighing, she pushed away her tray and watched it disappear. Odin told her that Acquisitions took care of dishes just like they did the beds in the quarters of the Nameless, but since he didn’t need a bed, it was not an issue for him.
She glanced around and located a restroom. Once she had scrubbed her hands and face, she was ready for the next part of her day.
Locating the council hall was easy enough, and all of the other inhabitants came and went, popping in and out of space with only a few taking the walkways. Usually, the folk on the walks were couples, arm in arm.
Kali smiled. Apparently, there was love after death. It was reassuring on a number of levels.
There was atmosphere on this piece of another universe. It ruffled her skirt and tugged at her hair. In the distance, she noted dust devils forming and swirling in jewel-toned dust. Something was coming, and she had the inevitable feeling that she was walking right into it.
This feeling had plagued her once before, years earlier. The day was burned into her mind. It was the moment that she had put her peculiar mind on offer to the Alliance and they had accepted.
When the doors of the council hall loomed in front of her, Kali knew that this was what she had been pushed toward. This moment was the ultimate direction of her life or rather afterlife.
Kali stood on the threshold of the hall and waited until the butterflies in her stomach settled. When she felt relatively calm, she reached out, and the doors opened before her.
The Council of Seven, with a woman in the centre, waited for her.
“Kaliana Borning, Relay of the Alliance, born of the Alliance Protectorate of Terra. Welcome Home.” The woman smiled and inclined her head.
The others sat and did the same.
“Thank you for your welcome.” She curtseyed as gracefully as she could manage. Her limbs still fought her control, but she managed not to fall on her face.
“Are you prepared to meet the Orb of Time and become one of the Nameless?” The woman’s black eyes were watching for something.
“I am. I am as ready as I am every going to be.” She straightened her shoulders, and her hair lifted in a breeze.
The councillors looked a little surprised, and it took Kali a moment to figure out why. The doors had closed behind her, so there was no breeze in the chamber.
She smiled brightly, trying to hide her nervousness. “Shall we?”
The female, the speaker, got to her feet and took Kali’s hand. “I am Ravikka. You will know me better in a moment.”
With that enigmatic statement hanging between them, Ravikka led her to a dark hallway that trailed into a spiral staircase and coiled lower under the hall.
Power started to lap at Kali the moment that she put her first foot on the step. It continued to swirl and caress her while she walked with Ravikka and the rest of the seven followed them.
Her instincts took her around the spiral that was suspended over empty space. Her life in the tank had not prepared her for this image, but it had a homey feel despite its unfamiliarity.
The rest of the seven ranged around the edge of the room, and to Kali’s surprise, Odin coalesced on the far edge of the room and watched the proceedings.
At a predestined signal, the seven pressed icons around the room and light flared high, locking those icons in the open position.
A ball of light separated itself from the swirling of stars under Kali’s feet. She knew that ball of light, and more to the point, it knew her.
The ground shook as the mass got closer to the building, and surprised murmurs from the folk around her made Kali a little more afraid of what was about to happen than she had been before.
The light filled the room, spinning slowly. Kali heard a voice in her head that she had not heard in years.
My dear Kaliana. You are truly everything I have ever wished for in an Avatar.
Um…thank you?
No, thank you for becoming everything I had hoped for.
Unsure of how to respond, Kali stared up into the light and saw her entire life flash before her eyes.
Her awkward childhood staring at the stars, the mocking of her cousins when she couldn’t understand their obsession with time, her difficult time in school where her mind could not grasp linear functionality and finally, her life in the florist shop where everything was an emergent event. She could function there. It was easy to do everything as it came to her attention. Her boss quickly figured out that she could do amazing work, but only if everything was a rush. It involved some fancy paperwork, but they created a working situation that was mutually beneficial.
Finally, she saw her application to the Volunteers as well as her acceptance into the relay program.
And now you are here, and with your help, I shall awake.
Kali didn’t have a chance to say anything else, a stream of light came toward her and poured into the blank spot in her mind, filling it and making room for more at the same time.
Her body rose on tiptoe as endless power coursed into her and made itself at home. She shivered as the true Nameless entered her and settled in.
As the light died to a normal level, the astonished faces of the seven caught her attention. With each face, she now had their entire life story. Ravikka’s bearing her child in a snowstorm and losing her life the same day. Gwetho’s finding his true love and losing him within hours of their meeting.
The others had similarly tragic tales, life and death in their last moments, inexorably entwined. The moment that they died, an agent of the Nameless had come to them and brought them Home.
Once in this place outside of time and space, their bodies had been restarted using energy from the dead universe, giving them the ability to move through both time and space.
A tremendous chunk of that power now resided within Kaliana, and she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do with it.
Chapter Four
Instead of following the path in an outward spiral, she simply floated directly to stand in front of Odin. “Hello again.”
I sent him on a bit of a tour so you would have a chance to explore a bit of Home on your own.
That explains the pissed-off and confused look on his face.
Odin lacks a sense of humour since he was burned to death, but there is no one more loyal. He will guard you while we commune.
Commune?
We have much to discuss, and if there are any Nameless who disagree, he will stand between you and death…again.
Kali didn’t have time to request an explanation. She was dropped on her feet, and she swayed. Odin caught her.
“Hello again, Kaliana. I assume that you have taken the Orb within you?”
She nodded and smiled weakly. “I am guessing yes.”