Chapter 11

MILLENNIUM

PART 1

Another night, another visit. This time Kali found herself in a cluttered antiques shop, dense with wood, porcelain, glass and books, all stacked to the ceiling on smooth white stone shelves.

Ahead of her, a cloaked figure stood at the only accessible bit of counter, haggling with another, likely the owner, over the price of some object hidden from her view.

“Look, you and I both know what this is. You can either sell it to me at a fair price or I'll stoop to your level- The enforcement bureau has a branch just down the street…”

“You wouldn't dare-”

“I would, if you continue to insist this is worth three gigs- At most it's a couple hundred megs, even with ‘handling’.”

“Look, relic imports are tough these days, the scouters are coming back with less every run, and a lot aren't making enough to stay in the game. Now you come in, looking for a specific item, which I've graciously procured, so this is worth every watt I can get… Lowest I can go is two.”

“Three half gigs and you'll have yourself a return customer.”

“…Fine. Just don't hassle me next time, this business is tough enough as it is without infighting.”

Easing her way forward, Kali tried to step around the clutter spread across the floor to get a better look at what the two were haggling over.

However, just as she reached the end of the aisle, Kali flinched as a loud zap erupted from the counter, and the cloaked figure swiped whatever it was from the counter, quickly turning away from her to head out the door.

Behind the counter, Kali saw the shop-keep, a bipedal mech in a white and gold color scheme- Far sleeker and stylish than anything she'd ever seen in Somniantes.

Hesitating out of habit, Kali waited to see it the shopkeeper would notice her, but as always, she was no more than a ghost to them.

Shaking her head, Kali tucked the loose blonde strands of her hair behind her ear and made to follow the cloaked figure out of the shop.

She wasn't sure where these dreams had come from, or why she always seemed to visit this world, but something deep within her knew they meant something.

Dashing out just as the sliding glass doors slid closed behind the cloaked figure, Kali joined the rogue under the afternoon sun, another thing she’d only ever seen in her dreams.

Hanging low in the sky, the bearer of light, the small orange disc in the heavens, was far larger and closer to the stone rooftops than she'd ever seen in Somniantes.

The city bustled around them, for they were smack dab in the middle of a sprawling metropolis of stone white buildings overgrown with an overabundance of green fauna.

Spanning every direction her eyes could see, Kali rarely saw the same locale when she visited in her dreams, but no matter where she was, there were no people, just machines that resembled the idea of people.

Realizing she might lose the tail of she didn't stay focused, Kali glanced around, searching for the rugged leather cloak in a sea of metal and questionable fashion choices.

It took a moment, but Kali wasn't a peak tracker for no reason- Across the street, she a bit of familiar burlap whip around a corner, dodging away the mass of the crowds.

Dashing after it, Kali wove between the rolling tracks of ‘people’ that were completely oblivious to her presence, dipping and sidestepping as she went to avoid getting the pudding knocked out of her- A tried and tested method to send her sorry butt right back to the waking world.

Reaching the narrow side street she'd seen the figure head down, Kali saw she had a good amount of ground to make up and pounded full-speed down the road, the padded soles in her boots deafening any sound to a murmur, not that she was even remotely worried about being overhead in this place.

Making quick work of the remaining gap, Kali caught up to the figure just as they turned into a ‘metro’ building and headed down the large flight of stairs to an underground rail line.

Still managing to stay one step ahead of her though, the cloaked figure had already finished at a glowing kiosk by the time she made it down the stairs, giving her only a moment to catch up before the figure passed through the gated entry- With her only just barely making it after them, trailing just a step behind their cloak.

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It wasn’t Kali’s first rodeo with the ‘Metro’, the first time she hadn’t made the gate in time, and when someone else finally came through, she’d already lost her trail in the hub-bub. Now though, the station was relatively empty, only a few figures strewn about, waiting for the next cab to arrive.

Pausing to scan the room themselves, the figure she was trailing opted to take the opportunity to sit down at a bench facing the tracks, finally giving Kali a good look at their appearance beneath the folds of brown- Confirming that, once again, she was following the same figure as her previous ‘excursions’.

Beneath the hood was a black chassis, somewhat lean, with a large head supporting two sets of four red eyes that looked more like light bulbs and camera lenses than anything with a pupil- Deciphering its gaze was a practice in futility.

Kali had still yet to learn its name, but one thing she had noticed throughout her visits, is that this one was different from the rest of its peers. The others had schedules, routines they kept to, but it was never up to the same thing twice, at least in her experience.

Whoever they were, they appeared to possess a small fortune with no obligations to maintain it, their actions always seemed to stem from a personal interest and seemed completely non-sequitur.

The world it lived in was one of machines, preoccupied with time and cost, which was far from foreign in her own experiences, but from what she’d seen, they’d taken such concepts to the extreme, but this mech was fundamentally different from the rest.

On one of her visits, the red-eyed mech had been hunting another- They’d spent all day wandering through various activity centers, and she almost didn’t notice, but part of her noticed the tell-tale signs of something stalking its prey.

Another time, she’d seen it sheltering other mechs in an underground facility, and even went so far as to leave and distract the drones when they got too close for comfort.

Who they were and what they wanted remained as two unanswered questions that ate at her curiosity ever time she encountered the individual with eight red eyes- Did they have morals? What were they fighting for, and against who?

This world was so radically different from her own, mechs living together as a society, that there was no doubt in her mind that it was the source of her life-long obsession with mechs in her own world- A right oddity for elf to pick up as a hobby, and this mech was the catalyst for it all.

Two quick beeps, broadcast throughout the platform, announced the incoming arrival of the engine-less cabin cars, which was immediately followed by the light squeaks of metal wheels shaving off speed to bring the ‘metro’ to a halt.

Looking back to the eight-eyed mech, Kali managed to catch a glimpse of the ‘relic’ it was carrying beneath their brown cloak- A hefty tome filled with aging parchment and bound in flaking leather, which was quickly shunted out of sight as the figure pulled their cloak tight and made to board the passenger car.

Stepping out of its way, Kali let the mech take the lead and followed it aboard, where she opted to stand with a hand-loop while the figure took a seat a few chairs down from the door and gave the whole cabin a once-over, taking inventory of the seven other mechs that shared their carriage.

With three more chimes announced over speakers hidden from sight, the doors of the car slid closed with fine precision just before the floor rumbled and the ‘metro’ set off into its maze of underground tunnels.

The whole thing was really a novel concept, accessible mass transport linked to every reasonably desirable destination- A rather inspirational idea, if something could be done to prevent monster nests from forming in the tunnels, a similar network could revolutionize both safety and efficiency for trade and travel in Somniantes.

Leaving behind the well-lit station, Kali watched as the walls of the tunnel swallowed them whole, plunging the world outside the windows into darkness, now the only light came from the overhead bars of white that encircled the ceiling with a soft glow, bathing the entire car in a dim gray as the tracks rumbled ever faster beneath their feet.

The passengers around them painted a decent slice of the average populace Kali had encountered throughout her numerous ‘visits’- A third opted to wear what she’d consider relatively ‘normal’ clothing, though a the colors tended towards the more vibrant side, and the textiles themselves were a mystery- Usually some kind of synthetic blend that was both durable and flexible, both the forms and presentation varied wildly.

Another third still opted for clothing, but that was stretching the term- Two of their fellow riders were wearing what could be better described as wearing ornaments rather than garments, but they were ordained in some form of additional decor.

However, the latter third fell into the same camp as the shop-keep, their bodies enough of a statement to forgo traditional clothing, the three that joined them prime examples of that. One was clock-work in design, the golden frame of their chassis formed in the make of an artistic exoskeleton, housing a myriad of internal gears and mechanisms.

Another appeared to be a member of the local ‘soldier’ regiment, their form that of a white knight with silver-blue trim, with a helm that only held a slit of shadow to see the world through.

The last, however, was the exception to the rest, a bare-bones chassis devoid of any decor or compliment- The only defining features of their rigid metal skeleton was the sharp white of numerous barcodes labeling serial numbers that spread across its matte black paint like a vicious rash.

Turning back to the cloaked figure she’d followed in, Kali was surprised to find the red-eyed mech to be doing something other than silently watching- Its preferred past time in social settings.

Startlingly, despite all the secrecy forgone in transporting the thing, the cloaked mech had pulled out the disintegrating tome atop their lap, and appeared to be reading from its illegible text.

Suddenly, Kali felt the carriage shake while the overhead lights flickered, and the whole vibe of the car took a turn towards a feeling she’d never experienced before, not her in dreams at least- Dread.

With eyes seemingly aglow with more red than usual, the eight-eyed mech looked up from the tome and stared directly at Kali as the pages between their metallic digits began to flutter, flap, and flip as a silent gust of wind encircled the book.

Without giving her any more time to gather her thoughts, their train car shook once again, this time far worse than the last, and a sudden screeching cried out from the wheels as metal grated against metal, causing the lights overhead to flash bright then cut out completely, plunging everything and everyone around them into the indecipherable dark.