“Strangely familiar. Comfortable.” The room allows me to feel a connection with many other beings like me, far beyond this world. We’re all looking at the stars, but from behind them. It is an odd sensation that’s impossible to understand. Yet, it seems natural to me.
“Amy, you’re among a very rare group of beings in the universe. We call them pilots. Etch is one. With the proper training, pilots are able to navigate these ships through the unimaginable emptiness of space. Unfortunately, Thresh is also among your kind. This room is a pilot house. It works to magnify your ability and to navigate the ship.”
He jumps in the seat. “The technology the pilots use takes advantage of your ability to see things that most of us can’t see or experience. Some call it telepathy. It’s really just a way of perceiving the energy that’s created by life. Thinking and feeling are just other forms of energy and you can harness them. I don’t expect you to understand all of this, although with time, you will.”
I’m confused. “So, what does this have to do with the miracle here on earth?”
“Across the mountains is a place where the heat contained inside the earth bubbles up toward the surface. It acts like a magnifying glass for tiny organisms that live there. They naturally do what this ship does — provide a way to travel long distances by opening a hole in the universe. In it, you can see all of creation and travel among the planets, stars, and perhaps other places as well. But there’s a catch. Someone with a natural connection to the earth and the innate skills of a pilot needs to be there to control access to the portal or doorway that they create.”
“So, Mister Fromer, you’re telling me that I’m that person?”
“You or Thresh. There may be others, but I don’t know who they are. If Thresh reaches the portal and learns how to control it, this wouldn’t bode well for earth or for the worlds beyond it.”
I think of Flip. He’d never have been able to handle the job. Now Fromer, the god or alien, has dumped the responsibility of protecting earth and other worlds on my shoulders. The responsibility of tending the garden overwhelmed me. I hope the infection in my leg kills me so that I don’t have to face this anymore. And I wonder what this means for Eliza. Will she have to inherit the burden from me someday?
I consider the creatures ravaging the countryside — that destroyed my home. I ask, “What about the fog and the grubs? Where do they come from? Did they arrive on a ship like Etch and the others from space? Do they have a side with the Institute or the other group, the FRT?”
“No. They’re seeping through the doorway across the mountain, like pus from a wound. There are other things beyond the doorway that are not of this time and space. They’re jealous of life and want out. They had a taste of freedom on another world and they’re bringing some of what they discovered with them.”
“The brown fog?”
“Yes, the fog was created by a human — a brilliant scientist — and he used it on another planet, a place where life had not yet arisen. He intended for the mist to help bring life to that world, like seeds and compost for a garden. Instead, the creatures that exist beyond the portal found this fog, stole it, and now are using it to possess living things and roam earth. They mold it like clay to do their bidding. And, I’m afraid they’ve found a friend in Thresh.”
“So, the fog can be used to make monsters and raises the dead?”
“Precisely, Amy. And more of it is pumping out of the portal each day. It needs to be stopped.”
I feel the familiar tugging and Fromer vanishes. I open my eyes and am lying on a comfortable cot in a small room. The handsome, dark-haired man I saw when we first arrived at this camp is working at a small table and hasn’t noticed that I’m awake. My leg hurts again, which I take as a promising sign. I shift and the man turns around.
“Good to see you awake.” He smiles. “I’m Grey. You’re leg’s healing. We did the best we could. You’ll be able to keep it, but you’ll have a bit of a limp. We only gave you a mild sedative — didn’t expect you to pass out like that.”
“Where are the others?”
“They’re fine Amy. We’re trying to piece together what’s happening out there.”
“I need to talk with Etch.”
“I’ll go get him.”
The dark alien arrives. “Good to see you feeling better Amy Marksman.”
“I just saw Fromer again.” I tell him about my experience, while he stares at me with his thoughtful, buggy eyes. He’s eating something that looks like bread but smells like rancid cheese.
After I’m finished talking, he wipes his hands on his pants. “I suspected that there was something afoot here on the surface. Another door, very interesting. The other pilots will sense it with time. We need to get you to that place quickly. There, you will find your husband and father. And we will need to determine how to control the opening or destroy it.”
“What do we do about the fog?”
“I hope that we can stop it by controlling the portal. The beings that are behind this exist beyond our universe — all this. They need the fog to survive in this reality as the beasts you call grubs and spread. If we close the door, they will be unable to control it.”
“And Thresh?”
Etch grumbles. “I will tear her apart.”
I shake my head. “Only if you can get past me. I get first dibs.”
Grey peeks his head in the door. “Do you mind if I interrupt?”
Etch stands. “I think we are finished for now.”
Grey hands me a strange piece of food. “It’s called a sandwich. Two slices of bread and one of my favorite things, peanut butter. Here, take a bite. You need to heal up.”
I’d heard of peanuts but could never get them to grow in our soil. I take a bite and the mixture of salty, sweet, and gooey richness makes my head spin. “Thanks,” I mutter, my mouth glued together.
Grey smiles and hands me a sweating glass of milk.
I wrinkle my nose. “How’d you get this? I didn’t see any cows around.”
“When’d you get a chance to look around?” He asks.
I hesitate. “Just assuming.”
“Well, we can generate basic food materials using raw materials from the surroundings. No cows necessary.”
I think about Troll’s compound. The same must have applied to the food and drink it provided to us. I suppose I was naive to think the robots were tending a farm for us. “What’s a raw material?” I ask.
“Just about anything can be reconfigured. Most simply, our waste.”
“By waste—” I’m afraid I won’t like the answer.
“Leftover food, excrement, and urine are the most basic ingredients. But even that stuff runs out of key nutrients. The rest we find in the fields and the ocean or grow in our garden. Etch occasionally hunts and fishes for us as well.”
My appetite wanes. I push the milk away. “You eat compost.”
Grey laughs. “You’ll get used to it. I am the one who grows the crops. I’ll show you in the morning.” He gathers a robe and gestures to me. “Why don’t you try out your leg?”
“It’s broken. I can’t use it yet. It’ll take months to mend properly.”
“On your own, perhaps. However, basic field medicine always includes a kit for annealing bones. Come on.” He reaches to me.
I sit up and swing my legs over the cot. Grey holds my hands and I stand. I’m a little shaky, but my sore leg holds. Grey drapes the robe around my shoulders.
“Come on out for a bit. It’ll help you heal by keeping active, with caution of course.”
We leave the small building and enter the courtyard of a small, makeshift compound of metallic buildings. The Fuerst is in the distance and the ocean is only a couple of hundred yards away. My dream self didn’t notice the wonderful salt air and warm breeze. The artificial light is dimmer, less harsh than it was when we entered earlier. “How long was I unconscious?”