Part 2
14
Meeting the Locals
Luke reflected on his life. He had been a normal person, he was sure of it. He was a good child, went to school, and got good grades. He went to college and got a degree and then a career in software programming. Everything was going fine.
So how then did he find himself flying across the damn Arctic in a helicopter dodging spears of ice thrown by a tribe of Yeti, all while the robot that was supposed to be walking him through flying for the first time was instead screaming about doing barrel rolls?
“How do I barrel roll? Better yet WHY do I barrel roll?” Luke screamed as he barely managed to avoid another icy projectile.
“You just double tap the right bumper!”
“What? Look just help me! If we crash we die, or worse we have to walk the rest of the way in the snow!”
“Shoot them with missiles” AJ yelled back
“We specifically chose a helicopter without all that crap so we wouldn’t accidently blow ourselves up. Didn't you bring something we can drop on them?”
“No! These grenades are mine, they are my precious!”
AJ hugged his pack protectively.
“You brought grenades? How many?”
AJ didn't answer
“You ONLY brought grenades?”
“There is no problem that can’t be solved with the proper application of explosives!”
Luke rolled his eyes and almost took a direct hit for it, “Great, apply the explosives then. Liberally"
“No I just got them we haven’t even made it to the city yet.” AJ whined
“Throw the damn bombs or I'll throw you, maybe the Yeti will be satisfied with a new friend"
“but… agggh fine!”
AJ opened the backpack revealing that it was indeed full of nothing but grenades. There were several different varieties most of which neither of them recognized. AJ selected one at random and pressed a button on its side. The sphere started blinking red and AJ threw it from the helicopter toward a particularly tall hill with several Yeti on it.
The grenade went off before it landed sending a plume of yellow smoke out around it. The Yeti hesitated as the smoke drifted around them. One Yeti breathed in the smoke and started roaring madly at the others around it. The smoke seemed to have an enraging effect on the Yeti as they quickly devolved into a brawl, several of the ones closest to the grenade who got the most smoke picked up their spears of ice and stabbed each other.
Luke was so distracted by the scene he failed to avoid a spear which hit the wind screen and spider web cracked it.
“Shit, I can't see anymore" Luke yelled
“What’s there to see? Fly forward get us out of here.” AJ called back as he tried to find more of the yellow smoke grenades
Unable to find more of that variety AJ picked another random grenade and threw it at another cluster of Yeti. This grenade just burst into flames but the flames seemed to stick to and burn everything even the ice.
“How are they throwing things this high anyway?” Luke asked
AJ shrugged as he selected a small green ball from the pile, “I don't know, how are they living out in the ice? How do they know we are coming even though we should be traveling faster than they could spread the word? Does any of that matter?”
“Well it might if we can figure out how to stop them" Luke reasoned
AJ threw the green ball out but missed the Yeti he aimed for, instead the ball flew back next to the helicopter shooting lasers at the Yeti as they went
“That one’s nice, got anymore of those?” Luke asked appreciatively.
“No, and I don't want to use all my new toys, just fly better”
They continued bickering as they flew along but the grenades seemed to be doing their job as the Yeti slacked off on the return fire and began to take shelter instead.
When it had been several minutes since they saw the last Yeti Luke got a message
Skill Unlocked: Evasive Piloting
Evasive Piloting: Level 1
“Is that all of them?” Luke asked
“I hope so" AJ muttered
The robot held the now empty pack upside down and shook it sullenly.
“I only managed to save two" AJ whined holding up the grenades in question
One was a regular looking fragmentation grenade, the other looked more like a small watermelon, it even had the stripes of different shades of green.
“Any idea what they do?” Luke asked
“No"
“Awesome, any idea how I can see again?”
AJ sighed, “There are cameras, press the button next to the screen there"
Luke complied and an image of the sky and ice in front of them appeared on a display.
“Huh, that’s convenient now it really is like a flight simulator. Why didn’t you tell me about this when the windshield broke?" Luke said
AJ just shrugged. The cameras proved to be quite useful when night fell and they switched to a low light mode. With his modifications Luke had low light vision but the cameras were quite a bit more effective. Neither Luke nor AJ needed sleep and the helicopter drew in enough M energy to fly without stopping so they continued day and night.
The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful and Luke was so bored he actually didn't mind AJ's rambling nonsense for once. As they neared the old border of Alaska and Canada the pair decided to set down and make some plans on how to deal with whatever unknown they were walking into.
The maps and information they had were lacking even when they were made and weren't centuries out of date. It wasn't clear to Luke how much time had passed and AJ wasn't sure as he hadn't been online for the entire time, but their best guess had it around the year 2950. Their maps were last updated in 2597. Anything could have happened in that time so it was best to make plans before they passed some unknown point of no return.
“So what if there isn't anyone or anything left?” Luke asked
“mmm that’s unlikely," said AJ, “Nomed clearly has better information than we do and they told us to upgrade your implant here. They wouldn’t have sent us here on a wild reindeer chase"
“Goose”
“What?”
“It’s wild goose chase”
AJ shook his head, “Mmm no I’m pretty sure its reindeer"
“I'm telling you, it's wild goose chase”
“That doesn't make any sense, the saying means to chase after something that doesn't exist, geese exist, AND they are probably more likely to chase YOU than the other way around.”
Luke got a contemplative look on his face, “I mean… you’re right about that… but reindeer are real too.”
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“No they aren’t"
Luke sighed, “Fine, so the upgrade is probably still there. What do we do if there are hostile people there?”
AJ shrugged, “I have a grenade, and you have a gun and a spear"
“They are probably better equipped than us, our gear was state of the art half a millennia ago, they could be on lightning guns, psychic blasts, and attack unicorns by now.”
“So… then we do nothing, if they are that far ahead of us then we can't fight them anyway.”
Luke grimaced, “That's probably right. I just don't like the idea of walking into something we can't walk back out of.”
AJ laughed bitterly, “You think I want to wind up trapped again? I just got free. We have to do something though, Nomed is old and powerful by all accounts. If we don't do what they asked we are trading a possible enemy with unknown strength for a certain enemy with way too much strength.”
“So we go in hopeful that we won’t be immediately blasted, and try to play nice with whoever we find.”
“That’s about the size of it Jimmy”
“Alright, lets start fresh in the morning, if we run into people it should be during daylight.”
They made a quick camp which just consisted of closing up the helicopter and breaking out a small M powered space heater. The cold wasn't nearly as much an issue as it had been, now that Luke had modifications AND skills to help fight it, but the warmth was welcome anyway.
They passed the time telling stories and jokes through the night. Just before sunrise a knocking sound startled them. Luke lent AJ the handgun and readied his spear before opening the hatch. Outside was a group of five people in snow gear wielding rifles.
“Who the hell are you?” The man in front asked with more surprise and curiosity than hostility.
Luke started to panic on seeing the firepower, “Ahh we are just travelers, we…”
he was interrupted by a large man in the back who stood out for his bright red snowsuit and epic white beard.
The rotund man shook with mirth and called out in a jolly voice, “Oh ho, That was our mistake, if you’re Travelers then you should have said so! Come, come, the guild hall is only a short trip. You can take your ride to the air docks to the west, once you pass the barrier you’ll see it. We'll meet you there and show you to the hall. I’ll buy the drinks if you bring the stories!”
The leader spoke again, “Nick, you need to slow down. We know nothing about these two. They could be from the Illuminated trying to get in and sabotage the barrier.”
Nick ignored him though and pushed Luke and AJ back into the helicopter.
“I'll tell you what I’ll ride with you, make sure you don’t get lost and all that.”
The leader of the party seemed as overwhelmed as Luke felt and reached out as Nick bulldozed his way into the helicopter, “Wait you just want to sit in the heat you can't…”
The leader’s objection was cut short when Nick slammed the door closed.
“Ho ho, thank you two. I was about sick of trudging through the snow, you have no idea how boring it is being on night patrol outside the border.”
“Was that alright?” AJ asked
Nick chuckled, “What that? don't mind them. It's part of our duty to see travelers safely into the border. That goes double for Guild Travelers. They'll be miffed that I got to ride back a little early and in the heat, but it’s only right to help guests.”
Luke wasn't sure what these people were patrolling or what barrier Nick was talking about, but they had a guide and a friendly one at that so he warmed the helicopter up and checked through the cameras that the others had moved away. The patrol had indeed moved off and were signaling the takeoff by raising one specific finger to the sky, very kind of them.
It seemed Nick had the wrong idea about them and Luke wasn't sure if he should straighten that out.
AJ decided for them, “What is the Traveler Guild?”
“Oh? I thought you said you were travelers?” Nick exclaimed in surprise but made no aggressive moves so Luke relaxed.
“We are traveling, but I think Travelers are some special title or something. We uhhh, aren't from around here.” AJ clarified
“HA, that's clear, but you must be from a hole in the ground if you haven't heard of the Travelers. They're a guild of people who… travel… professional like. If you want something important escorted or delivered or what have you, a Traveler is the one you call.”
“So is it a problem that we are just regular people and not Travelers?” Luke asked
“No of course not. Putting aside the idea of a robot and a human traveling by way of magic helicopter for a moment, everyone is welcome in Turbeir. Just don't actually claim that you are guild Travelers and you’ll be fine.”
“Noted. So which way?” Luke asked as they rose into a good cruising altitude.
Nick pointed the direction they had been traveling the day before, “Due west, you should be able to see the nearest border town in about twenty minutes I figure.”
As they flew through an empty icy wasteland with nothing but snow and ice in every direction they looked, AJ finally asked the question burning in their minds, “So… how do you live out here? There's nothing, what are you even patrolling?”
Nick grinned, “Juuuust wait, any minute now we will break through the barrier and you’ll see. You picked a good location to cross over.”
Luke and AJ looked at Nick with clear skepticism but he just smiled like he knew some joke they didn't. It was another five minutes before they passed through the barrier and Nick was right, they did see.
Luke found himself desperately wishing the windshield hadn’t been damaged as he looked at the display screen in awe. One moment there was nothing and the next there were fields and woods. It looked like a storybook version of a quiet countryside and even held a small brook that passed through the woods and into the distance. The barrier was apparently some sort of illusion. On one side there was nothing but ice and snow, once you passed through you could see back into the icy world outside through a faint blue wall. Inside the wall was an entirely different climate.
The helicopter shuddered and jerked as it passed into the totally different air pressure.
“Aye sorry about that,” Nick apologized, “I haven’t been across while flying yet so I only heard stories of the transition. Apparently some birds that are allowed to cross get terribly sick for a while when they do, not rightly sure why it's like that.”
Luke waved the apologies away only having eyes for the oasis of life hidden in a frozen wasteland. Some of the fields were clearly being farmed and there were even people visible. They had stopped their work to stare at the sudden intrusion. Nick pointed them to a cluster of buildings visible in the distance and they made their way to the town, slowly so as to take in the sights.
The air docks were as obvious as advertised. A wide construction of tiered platforms served as a storage for various flying vehicles. There was a section with a short cable assisted runway with several areas for airplanes and jets to park. The runway didn’t seem long enough even with a cable for braking but then Luke noticed a massive turbine that seemed to be for aiding with landings and takeoffs. There was an area which Nick directed them to but he needn’t have bothered as it was clearly meant for helicopters. The section had a massive rotating series of platforms where the helicopter would land then the platform would move it into a tighter storage area while a new empty platform was moved into place. The machines for flight were actually in the minority though.
There was a pen for flying creatures of every variety Luke could imagine, from pegasus, to drakes, to griffins, there was even a flock of ravens harnessed together. A section held vehicles and even small buildings that didn't appear to be capable of flight, until a worker moved a tool shed to make more room. The shed sprouted wings made of garden tools that definitely shouldn’t have been able to move let alone fly, but the wings flapped and lifted the shed into the air nonetheless.
Luke had to stop gawking and focus on landing. He had gained some skill and Skill in flying the thing, but a controlled precise landing around people was still nerve wracking. Once they disembarked and stepped off the platform into the catwalks the helicopter was shuffled away for storage. Luke received a ticket with a number and a mechanic's business card from the attendant.
“Umm I don't really have money… or even know what money is used here…” Luke confided to Nick
“Not to worry friends, the docking fees are only charged when there are many vessels at once. The King funds the air docks all across Turbeir. There aren't that many people traveling these days, you only see this many because of the Cycle.” Nick explained
They made their way off the catwalks and to an official looking building next to the docks.
“What cycle?” AJ asked
Nick’s brows raised and he whistled in surprise, “You are really lost wanderers huh? Welp I will help explain, but it will be best if an official fills you in.”
Inside the building was a small lobby that split off to several different areas. Luke only managed to catch a glimpse of a sign as Nick led them past the receptionist with a flash of a badge. The sign was fortunately in English which made Luke realize Nick and his group had also been speaking English.
The sign indicated a public tavern, an inn, and the way they were going was listed as ‘Public relations and requests.' More signs pointed through other doors and hallways but they were already queued up in a short line to meet with some sort of tired looking man at a desk.
The line moved in fits and starts, a few people would be quickly turned away and then one or two would speak with the man for minutes at a time before leaving. Eventually it was their turn.
“What's your business?” The man had bags under his eyes so big they had their own bags.
Nick didn't care about the man's plight and laid the cheer on thick, “Heya, we got some more folks just wandered on in and got no idea ‘bout anythin. They need a rundown of what's what.”
The man slowly closed his eyes and took a long deep breath, and slowly let it out before reluctantly opening his eyes again.
“Where are you from? Whom do you serve?”
Nick shook his head and chuckled, “nope, believe it or not, they are straight out of the wilderness. Couple of unaffiliated wanderers here"
The man's eyebrows rose but he still sounded exhausted when he said, “That is… rare. I can't help you, I have to go through new arrivals and Party applicants.”
He jotted something down on a slip of paper and handed it to Luke, “Take this to Fashlitha. She’s the Lizard kin looking all menacing back there,” he jerked his head indicating the back of the room, “That’s the supervisor and she can handle a foreigner orientation.”
With their new target the group made their way to the back where they found a bipedal lizard with black scales that seemed to shimmer in the light. Menacing was an understatement for Fashlitha. The lizard woman was seated but still had to gaze down at them as they approached. Fangs that wouldn't be able to fit in a closed mouth hooked around to the sides of her long crocodile like snout, and her yellow eyed gaze pierced their souls.
None of the group could speak as they were crushed under the heavy scrutiny and Fashlitha had to break the silence herself, “What?”
AJ was the only one not sweating and shaking in fear so the responsibility of speaking to the dinosaur fell to him, “hmm you must be Fashlitha? That incredibly tired looking gentleman over there said you could give us some kind of newcomer orientation. He gave us a note for you…”
AJ elbowed Luke who reluctantly approached and offered the slip of paper.
Fashlitha didn't read the note , instead setting it to the side and crossing her surprisingly short arms.
“Newcomers, what sort of ‘orientation’ are you expecting?”
Nick managed to answer surprising Luke who had retreated quickly after delivering the note, “They need a primer on everything, they been livin under a rock with particularly good soundproofing. Don't know a elf from a dwarf they don't.”
The lizard woman grinned wickedly which somehow didn't manage to push their fear any further. Luke decided he had reached max terror.