---Chapter 14
The airship was made ready to leave and, with the well-wishes of many people, the travelers prepared for the next dimension jump. Just before they left, a voice called breathlessly from below, “Sa! Ha! Wait a moment. Last present. From emperor. Must take with you. I come just in time.”
They looked over the side to see a gangling, buck-toothed man grinning up at them, pushing a sort of wheelbarrow leaden with a large chest.
“Not to open until well on way,” he explained in a broken tongue, “surprise. Yes, yes. Open late, not now. Lift up with rope?”
A line was dropped down to him and the chest was hauled up. It was heavy, but not too much so for its size. When they tilted it over the railing, they heard a slight sliding noise and rattle from inside, but nothing further. It was carried off by Patch and Raggsy, who stowed it in the hold and stood around tapping on it wondering what could be in it.
They had just decided to ‘peek’ when Jax’s voice called them from above, warning that the jump would happen soon and they must be in place before he initiated it. They hurried away together, still spinning fantasies of piles of gold or special provisions. Patch had already found a small sack of gold and silver coins to take with him from that world, in the chest in the caves where Kei had been. He also had the decorated knife and armband to go with it, but more was always better to him.
“This voyage has been a great resource o’ loot,” he chortled as he grabbed on to the metal frame of a bunk with one toughened hand. “When everything is swabbed up and we get home, I’ll buy the biggest ship a pirate ever laid eyes on! Or perhaps I’ll buy me a little house near a bay, instead, and a pinnace to sail on the waters whenever I feel too retired. What do ye think, matey?”
“Whatever you like most,” Raggsy snickered, “I’m gonna see if I can get sent to Amber’s world and help 'er build a new steam-train. Then I’ll be th’ firerat and always have good eatin’ coming my way.”
It had already been decided that they would travel to Jackal’s world next. It was their best hope of finding more fuel for the airship, though he had never heard of the particular gas it used before. It was also closer than Raggsy’s world, which was the only other one they had not yet visited a second time.
“Only two Power Cores left to go!” Jax said as he flipped through the worlds on his Di-jump, “think of it, just two more and then EX-2!”
“As long as no more have been made by then,” Leaflow commented darkly, “some are going to be quicker for him to to find than others, I fear.”
“What do you mean, Leafy?”
“You saw the color in Dansei’s eyes and the odd way he was acting.” Leaflow shrugged. “I’m afraid EX-2 has already touched him in some way. In that case, it won’t take long for him to form a bond. I suppose we really should have stayed behind to deal with Dansei if that happened...but somehow I think he has that in mind himself.”
“You mean, suicide?” Amber looked at him with wide eyes. “But that’s horrible! We saved you from being a Power Core. Couldn’t we have saved him?”
“Without the Sissionbeam Cutter?”
Lenny clenched his hands in embarrassment, then shook his head. “You said yourself that taking him through the world barrier would have stopped EX-2. Why didn’t we insist? We could have saved him!”
Leaflow returned his cold look with an imperturbable one. “Not against his wishes. It is every person’s choice whether they live or die and how they meet those goals. If we had taken that away from him, he would have been nothing but a pet or a child. I gave him a choice; he took it.”
“You have a careless way of looking at life and death.” Lenny could not keep a bit of challenge from creeping into his voice. “Don’t you think it’s worthwhile to save a friend from destruction, especially at their own hands?”
“So giving a person no choice in life is better than having your own ideals hurt by what they choose?” Leaflow countered, still calm. After a moment, he added, “which is not to say that I think suicide is honorable. It may just be the coward’s way out. But it was not my place, nor yours, I believe, to drag him kicking and screaming into a life that may be unbearable to him. Besides, you heard what he said: EX-2 had found him even in another dimension and forced him to go home. Could he run at all?”
“I’m not talking about his choice now, but your callous view--”
But their debate was broken up by Jax saying in a small voice, “um, guys, can we get going now?”
And it was only when he was grasping the frame of the balloon that Lenny cooled off enough to realize that he had not been arguing because he really could not stand Leaflow’s eccentric opinions, but because somewhere deep inside he was afraid that he had become callous to death himself. And worse, that he was not even ashamed of it.
---
Jackal’s world had now been subjected to the influence of the corruption longer than any other. Jax’s had been attacked first, but it was already cured and free. This one still had EX-2 in charge through the Power Core. The world was starting to crumble. The air did not simply have rents of unreality in it. The sky was a huge pool of darkness, edged in purple around the horizon. Strange, violently magenta stars burned across the darkness, pouring lavender light down on the land below. It was like being under an open eye; it made the crew feel as if they should cower in tininess beneath it. The crazy light illuminated a patchwork of purple grass and black pools of morass across a seemingly endless plain. No sun was in sight. No clouds covered the naked glare of the twisted sky. It was an alien planet being eaten alive by EX-2's power.
Jackal stood looking up, gripping the rail in his weather-worn hands. Eventually he turned to the rest of the crew and said, “it reminds me of a rotten plum. Let’s try to throw it away before it goes moldy.”
There seemed to be no movement on the open plains other than a deathly wind through the grass. Nothing the size of a man or larger could have hidden from them nearby. Further off, it was difficult to tell what hollows or humps could be lurking with something behind them.
“Direction, Len?” Jax hinted, moving away from the Di-jump. Lenny looked down at the compass in his hands to see that the needle was pointing away behind them, towards the faint, dark line of trees on the horizon in that direction. He could not tell if it was north, south, east or west because there was no sun. All directions seemed equal across the curved edge of sky. His optics could have told him, using the magnetic field of the earth, but he did not want to waste power on that alone.
“That way.” He held out an arm. “And it is at some distance, as the needle is almost pure gold.”
The airship was brought about to align with the indicator and made to hover at about a hundred feet above the tops of the tall grass. Then it was set on its course and Amber lashed the wheel in place so that she would not have to tend it as they flew. There were no obstacles between them and the smudge on the skyline, so there was no fear of crashing into trees, mountains or houses. The balloon could simply make its own way across the sky.
They all stood for some time as the ship moved, gazing up at the heavens or across the weirdly lit land. There seemed to be little to say about it, though it was so eerily strange. They knew that it was EX-2's doing, though what it meant or what part of outer space was being reflected in the air was a matter of debate. It could have been the stars of that world, seen through a tortured sky, but Jackal said that they did not look like they were in the right places. He could not recognize any of the constellations. Jax thought that it must be the space around EX-2's own planet being shown, but there was no way to be sure.
After a time they decided to descend into the hold and find out what gift the emperor had sent in the chest. All of the travelers were curious enough to straggle down into the cramped, gloomy space and light up the lantern hanging from the roof. In its light the hold, where hammocks were slung for some of the men, took on a cozy look. The chest and others supplies were stored in the very bottom of it, to act as ballast and keep the airship on an even keel. They crowded around and the chest was opened, leading to surprise at how large a chest had been used for a small amount of goods. A pair of wine bottles, both very fine, were packed in straw at one end. On the other side two cured hams with golden tags on their shanks were just as carefully stowed. But as the chest was inlaid with silver and had intricate carving on the base, they decided that it itself was a gift. So they put their other presents in it, all except for the knives and boots, so as not to be carrying the weight of gold bands and capes around with them.
Then there was nothing to do but take out a wine bottle and broach it in the cabin, pouring out a small glass for each of the crew. There was not enough cups to go around at once, but Raggsy and Patch did not mind in the least using bowls and Amber had a teacup. She sipped at hers thoughtfully as the others talked and joked around the table, trying to find some relief for the feelings the broken sky had inspired in them.
Worrying that she had not fastened the wheel carefully enough in place, Amber drifted to the door and out of it. Still carrying her glass and sipping it slowly (it was an extremely fine wine, as she knew by comparing it to what her family had kept at home) she went to the wheel. It was still perfectly lashed, so she went to the rail and watched the grass go by underneath. It was only after a few minutes of looking down at the stained earth that she glanced up again and realized that she was not alone on the deck. Someone was sitting near the bow against the rail, one leg drawn up and head resting back against the boards.
Amber drew in a tight breath and clutched at her cup, wondering what she should do. Call for her friends? Challenge him?
Screaming did not even cross her mind. She was simply not the sort to scream. But then her eyes went wide as she realized that the man’s face was turned towards her and she recognized him.
Moving closer until she was right beside him, she gasped, “Dansei?”
The Ninja had a bare, long knife balanced on his knee, which he raised to his lips in a sign for quiet. “Yes, it is I. Shh, I do not want the others to know I am here yet.”
Amber crouched beside him. “But, how? I thought...we thought...”
“You would not see me again?” A bitter smile touched his face for a moment. “I thought so as well.”
“I’m glad you decided to come. What changed your mind?”
Instead of answering directly, he touched the stiffened metallic fingers of her right hand with the tip of his knife. “I did not hear how you got those. Was it in a fight? Were you ashamed, at first?”
The young woman shook her head. “No, not in a fight. It was an accident. I was playing with a small steam engine in my workshop, making it run various things, and I neglected to watch the pressure close enough. The release valve must have jammed: the boiler blew up. I guess I was lucky to lose only three fingers. Other people have lost much more in the same circumstances. But, yes, I was terribly sensitive about it at first.”
“And then...?”
“After a while I realized, well, it didn’t matter unless I made it matter. It’s the same as having brown hair or a penchant for inventing things. It wasn’t something I could change. I built myself new fingers and they became part of me. Shooting, writing or other delicate things are harder with that hand, but I make out just fine altogether. Trying to hide them or being ashamed would only make things worse.”
Dansei gave her a thoughtful look. “You are much braver than I. I was afraid of the crew seeing what had happened to me, so I hid. That was not worthy of a Shinobi. Now I have a plan.”
“Of what to do if EX-2 comes for you again?”
“Yes.” It was hard to tell if his dark eyes were still colored with purple, or if that was only the reflection of the strange light around them. “When I fell from the ship the wyvern’s wing hit me. I don’t remember what happened then, until I awoke in the palace of our enemy--”
“His palace?”
Dansei nodded. “I have seen it twice now. He has been calling me...it is a large place made of purple bricks, with wires, tubes and other strange things packed into it. There was a glass, perhaps it was a window. Through it I saw the form of his projected spirit. He told me that I was to serve him and threw me back through the heavens into my own dimension.”
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The Ninja made a tossing motion with one hand. “As easy as a boy throws a ball. But this time, if he calls me to his palace, I am not going to sit there helplessly.”
From his sleeve he took a thin tube of bamboo, sealed off at both ends with a thread dangling from one of them. He lay it on the deck of the airship beside the knife.
“I am going to break as much of that infernal contraption as I can.”
“It will be dangerous--” Amber began, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.
“Do you tell the fish that water is wet? That is my path now. I will take it.”
They heard someone coming up the ladder onto the deck. The Ninja picked up his weapons and gave her a wink as reminder to keep quiet, before disappearing behind the cabin. Amber stood up and held on to the rail, looking out across the horizon unseeingly. Lenny came up beside her. “Is everything alright?”
She gave him a wry smile, sweeping a hand towards the landscape. “Besides the obvious?”
“Well, yes.” He grimaced. “I guess that was a silly question.”
They stood surveying the plain of lilac grass for a time, saying nothing. Looking in the direction they were traveling, Amber saw that the smudge had grown and now could be seen to be a line of trees, growing along a river bottom. Moving to the wheel, she asked Lenny for another direction check, to make sure that they were still on course.
“Here.” He gave her the compass. “You can keep that for now, if you like. You need it more than me and I never really wanted to keep it. I already messed up with the S.B.C.”
Amber hesitated, but she was curious about the device and wanted to inspect it. After making sure that the needle still pointed straight ahead, she began to turn it over and look for any way to open it or access its innards. But there was no panel on the back or any way to take the indicator apart. It seemed to be one solid piece except for the needle, which was fastened firmly on a tiny pivot point. After a moment she slipped it into her coat pocket, opposite the vial of healing potion.
Everyone else was coming gradually back onto the deck and Raggsy joined her by the wheel. He was always a faithful companion and kept her company with his conversation or simply his presence. She almost decided to confide the truth about Dansei to him. But then she remembered their rivalry and held back. It would do no good to have Raggsy searching the ship for the Ninja, determined to have the full truth out of him at any cost. Dansei never had told her how he got out of his room onto the ship, though she guessed it had to do with the chest that had been a 'gift from the emperor’.
The lighting changed after a stretch of time, though there was no sun above them. It became a little darker and more subdued, the tinting shifting to plum more than lavender. The stars did not go away and the black sky still gaped above them but they all felt that night time was coming on. The most dangerous time on any of the conquered planets because, for some reason, the Power Cores preferred to unleash most of their creatures in the night.
Just as things were becoming a darker shade of purple, the engines began to splutter. With a few coughs and desperate chugs, they came to a halt. Amber hurried over and checked the fuel gauge, before looking up with a grim expression. “Well, that’s that. We’re out of fuel.”
The balloon drifted slowly through the air as the propellers stopped turning. After floating for a short space it came to a stop and dropped in altitude until the grass was only a few feet below it. Then it hovered there, hanging between earth and sky. Any little gust of wind made it shift, bouncing in the airways like a lost toy balloon.
An eerie quiet came across the deck of the airship. Nothing but the rustling of the grass seemed to fill the air for miles about. It was a real effort to break the quiet and speak, but Lenny did it. “I guess we camp here for the night, keep a watch for any attack, and continue on foot in the morning.”
“We’re much closer now.” Amber looked at the magic compass. “The needle is brown instead of gold.”
“What a bummer!” Jax moved to the edge of the ship, where the rail was broken away. “Everything had been going so good, too. Oh, well. We’ll take this next Power Core by storm and he won’t even know what’s happening! Then there will only be one left and we’ll be done with this whole ‘travel around and kill the Power Core’ thing. Sheesh, I can’t wait to get back to dimension jumping normally.”
“Speaking of.” Lenny gestured at the cabin. “You’d better take down the Di-jump for now and carry it with you. We wouldn’t want anyone to steal it while we’re gone, tomorrow.”
“Good one, man.” Jax hurried over and disconnected the Di-jump, cramming it into his coat so that it disappeared through the Telestorage.
Watches were arranged then, so that some of them could rest while the others kept an eye out for enemies. It had not been a full twelve hours since they slept on Dansei’s world, but they knew they should get rest while they could. An anchor of sorts had been thrown overboard, made of a rope attached to a cask of water. Patch stood at the prow of the ship, looking out across the gloomy plains, while everyone else retreated to the cabin. Later, he was replaced by Raggsy, and then the Ratperson awoke Lenny when his time was up.
“So far, nothin’ out there,” Raggsy reported in a whisper, “everything is really still and quiet. But I don’t like it. Somet’ing’s wrong about us not bein’ attacked. If EX-2 has all this power here, makin’ the sky black and all, why don’t he use it? Like I said, things just ain’t right out there.”
“I’ll be careful.” Lenny moved out onto the deck and looked up at the warped sky. The magenta stars, huge and threatening, still burned in the mind-sucking blackness. He shivered, both from cold and fear, before moving over by the wheel to stand his watch. It was not entirely dark out, but rather a sad-hued gloom that made details hard to discern, though you could see for some distance across the plain. He looked all around, before staring straight down at the deck and blinking drowsily. After a moment he shook his head and began marching back and forth to keep alert, frowning to himself as he thought over all they had done and still had to do.
How were they ever to defeat EX-2 on his own planet? If Leaflow could make up dragons, tigers, poisonous mushrooms and a copy of himself with part of that power, what would they do on a planet run entirely by it? EX-2 could probably conjure black holes to crush them in an instant, when they were on his turf.
Lenny was still considering all this when he heard a slight noise over by the edge of the ship where the rails had been broken. It was not much of a noise, just a little scraping sound, but he felt that it was his duty to check it out all the same. Doubting that it was important, he wandered idly across to look over the side. At first, he did not see anything in the shadow of the ship. A shape moved and he was just about to open his mouth in a warning cry when something shot out of the dark and struck him on the head. He saw a burst of light and staggered, losing his balance on the edge and falling to the ground below. The grassy plain rushed up to him, he tried to gasp enough air for a shout, then he struck and everything went dark.
Hands pulled him into the shadow of the ship and he was bound with ropes. More ropes were thrown over the side, with grappling hooks attached to their ends. With soft clinking noises they latched on to the wood, before a group of dark shapes swarmed onto the ship. On the deck, they conferred together for a moment, before sweeping it from one end to the other. Once they found the deck clear, they decended into the cabin.
Some of the crew slept lighter than others, or hardly slept at all but just dreamed. They jumped up as the dark shapes swarmed in, crying out warnings to the others. A battle broke out in the confined space, but the dark figures were in greater numbers and had surprise on their side. They lost a few followers, but after a time all of the travelers were subdued, either unconscious or tied up. Then they were carried out onto the deck, lowered over the side and hauled away by the almost-silent invaders. In the dim light it could be seen that the attackers were shaped like men, wearing low hats and bandannas over their faces, but no details could be made out.
The balloon still hung in the purple sky, held in place by its mooring line. Around it the grass rippled, browned heads hanging in shame. No sounds came to break the silence once the dark figures and their hostages were gone. But a lone shape slid without noise down the mooring line and skipped to the ground, following the trail of the attackers stealthily.
---
Lenny was not sure where he was as he gradually came to. At first, he had a misty idea that he was asleep in his bed in the apartment room in Belltoh, where he could just roll over and softly touch a contact for a light to come on. Then he remembered everything that had happened recently and he thought that it was time for him to take his watch on the deck of the airship. It was only when he pried his eyes forcefully open that he recalled having already gone on watch and walked to the edge of the ship to see what was over the side of it.
He was sitting in a dim room in what appeared to be a ranch house with poorly chinked walls. The boards were warped and shrunk so that bands of ugly orchid light came through. He was in the kitchen, with a table over against one wall, rough wooden benches and a wood-fired cooking range covered in spots of rust. A fly or two buzzed over it with a continual sawing sound. Nearby, Jax and Amber were sitting in chairs, heavy chairs made of rusty iron, with their arms tied to the sides of the chairs at the elbows, another rope fastening them back to it at the waist and a third securing their ankles. They were set so close together that their shoulders were almost touching. Lenny was at a little distance beside them.
When he tried to move he found that he was bound in a like manner. He noticed that both of his companions were awake, but there was a bandanna belted around each of their mouths to keep them quiet. Jax looked at him with wide eyes and made humming noises of concern, flapping his fingers around uselessly. Lenny was not similarly hampered, as he had been unconscious, but he was still too fuzzy to think of anything to say.
They had been caught by someone, that much was evident, and brought to an abandoned or poorly kept house to be held hostage. But where were the others and who held them captive?
There was a sound of boots on boards and three men entered the kitchen. They were dressed in dark jackets, leggings and boots, with various shades of hat on their heads. One man carried a coiled horsewhip in his hand, while the other two had guns. The one with the whip was the brawniest, but it was an older, stubbier man who spoke first, in a tone of command.
“Take the gags out. But if they start hollerin’, hit them until they stop.”
The bandannas were torn away from Jax’s and Amber’s face. Jax immediately made as if to go off on one of his rants, but stopped with his mouth open when the brawny captor made a fist at him. It looked like the young man had already been hit a few times and did not want any more.
“This one’s awake.” The leader kicked Lenny’s shoe with his toe. “So we can begin. Bull, Timmy, you pull back a little. I want to look them all in the eye.”
With mutters of, “alright, Coggs” they got back out of the way.
Coggs leaned against the table and crossed his arms, looking them all up and down. Lenny searched his face carefully, but saw no sign of purple corruption in it. His heart rose a little and he wondered if this could all be a mistake.
“Wh-where’s our friends?” Jax finally shot out, his held-back words almost choking him, “what did you do with them?”
“They’re somewhere safe, for now.” Coggs shrugged. “They were simply too dangerous to keep tied up in the same place as you kids. Kept fightin’ us and makin’ trouble. So I had them locked up in the cellar, where they’ll be safe. Now, it’s my turn...”
He gestured with his pistol at all three of them. “First, where did you come from?”
“The airship,” Jax told him sullenly.
“I know that, son.” The boss put his gun right up against Jax’s chin for a moment, forcing the traveler to look him in the eyes. “Before that, I mean.”
“None of your business!” Jax shouted, and then spit in his face.
Coggs jerked back, wiping a hand across his eyes before signaling to the powerfully-built man. “Bull, the whip.”
Bull stepped forward with a grunt of pleasure and drew back his arm for the blow.
“Wait!” Lenny jerked against his ropes in fear for his friend, speaking quickly, “wait a minute, I’ll tell you. You don’t need to hit him.”
“‘Course I don’t need him to, but I might want him to,” Coggs reminded them, but gestured for Bull to hold back. “So, where did you come from?”
“We’re travelers, from a distant land.” Lenny improvised on the truth. “We’re journeying on our airship in an attempt to find a way to stop the corruption that’s spread over the world.”
“What distant land?” Coggs leaned in close to him, face run into many angry lines.
Lenny froze for a moment, not knowing the names of any country in Jackal’s world. But this man might not know of all of them either. So Lenny picked a name at random from his memory. “Belltoh. It’s...it’s a small country across the sea.”
“Hmm.” Coggs leaned back again and looked at him for a long moment, then shook his head. “I’m sorry, it just won’t do. There’s somthin’ strange about all of you, somethin’ otherworldly. You don’t look like foreigners. You don’t talk like foreigners. You act like invaders from another planet!”
“Try again. This time, tell us the truth.” Coggs waved at Bull. “Or else my friend here will have a little fun with you and then you’ll tell it to me.”
“Okay, okay!” Jax twisted his hands up as far as they would go in a sign of defeat. “We’re not just from another country, we’re from another dimension. You know what that is? Even further away from here than another planet. See, that’s why we’re weird. But we did really come here looking to free this world from the purple corruption, that’s the truth. So if you’re looking for the Power Core or whoever is responsible, we’re not it. We are just peaceful interdimensionals.”
Coggs squinted at him for a long moment, slowly rubbed a hand over his gun and then shook his head.
“I still don’t believe you, or even understand a word you’re saying. I think you’re responsible for all this purple stuff. Tell me the truth now, like a good boy.”
“Idiot!” Jax screamed, at the end of his patience. “I am telling the truth!”
Coggs snorted. “I’m sick of this young upstart. Timmy, shoot him.”
The third man drew his gun, moving over to put it to the boy’s head. At that, three things happened at once. Amber leaned closer to Jax in an attempt to shield him, shouting, “no!”
Jax pulled something from his coat with the tips of his fingers, face turning white with fright as he slammed his thumb down on it.
And the gun went off, firing into empty air.
Neither Jax nor Amber were there any longer. Jax had hit the ‘Panic’ button on the Di-jump. But since it was not connected to him with a wire, it got left behind on the chair.