D. MacHale: The Reality Bug

So were the holograms. Gunny and I were left alone in the big empty room, staring at a dark flume.

“I’m going after him,” Gunny announced.

“No!” I shouted. “We’ve got to figure out what he did here on Veelox.”

“He’s going to start in on a new territory, Pendragon,” Gunny declared. “What’s done here is done.”

“We don’t know that for sure,” I countered. “Just because he said it, doesn’t mean it’s true. He’s not exactly an honest guy.”

We were at a crossroads. What was the best thing to do? Stay here and do damage control, or stop Saint Dane from digging into a new territory called Eelong?

“You’ve been here before,” Gunny said. “You know the Traveler. What’s her name?”

“Aja Killian.”

“Right. The floating head. I think you should find her. She’ll know what Saint Dane has been up to.” “What about you?”

“I’ll follow him to Eelong and see what we’re up against there. Then I’ll be back.”

“I don’t like splitting up,” I said. “Remember what happened on First Earth when Spader took off on his own? That was nearly a disaster.”

“I know,” Gunny reassured me. “But this is different. Spader had his own ideas. You and I are working together,”

I didn’t want him to go, but if we had the chance of heading off Saint Dane before he could get started on Eelong, we had to take it.

“Promise me you’ll bolt if something wacky happens,” I demanded.

Gunny laughed. “Shorty, seems to me like everything is pretty wacky.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Course I do. Don’t you go worrying; I’ll be fine,” Gunny said.

The two of us hugged, then Gunny pushed me back and asked, “What was the name of that territory again?”

“It sounded like ‘Eelong,’” I answered.

Gunny stepped into the mouth of the flume, stood up straight, and faced the tunnel. “Eelong!”

On cue, the flume sprang to life. The moment before he was taken away in the shower of light and music, he smiled at me and said, “What is it that Spader always says?”

“Hobey-ho, Gunny.”

“Hobey-ho, Pendragon. See you soon.”

I hoped so. An instant later he was gone and I was alone. I stood there, trying to collect my thoughts. The idea of Gunny being lost to me was horrible. I was a fraction of a second away from jumping in the flume and going after him, when I heard a familiar voice.

“What took you so long?”

I spun quickly to see a giant face. It was Aja Killian. The hologram-head was back. I looked up at the bizarre image and said, “You called. I’m here. Now what?”

The head vanished. A second later I heard a faint sound from across the room. I looked to see a door opening, by itself. Light spilled in from whatever lay beyond.

It was time to meet Aja Killian and get my first look at the territory of Veelox.

(CONTINUED)

I found myself in a long, narrow tunnel that stretched far off in two directions. Light came from overhead bulbs, but it was pretty dim because every other bulb was burned out or smashed. Slam!

The gate shut behind me. It was a plain, metal door that practically disappeared because it was the same gray color as the cement walls around it. The only thing that told me it was there was the star symbol that marked it as a gate. I hoped I wouldn’t have to find it again in a hurry.

I saw that I was standing on tracks. Uh-oh. Another subway. My adrenaline spiked. Was I going to have to run from a speeding train? A closer look showed me there was no danger. Big chunks of the track were missing and a thin coat of brown rust covered the silver steel. There hadn’t been a train through here in a very long time.

“Walk to your right,” Aja’s voice boomed from nowhere. “You’ll find a ladder.”

“Where are you?” I shouted. I was getting tired of all this mystery. “Why don’t you just show yourself?”

“Find the ladder, Pendragon/’ Aja’s voice commanded.

Fine. Whether I liked it or not, the mystery was going to continue. As I walked through the tunnel, I wondered if the people on Veelox were giants. If Aja’s projection was life-size, then I was in for a whole Gulliver’s Travels adventure. That wouldn’t be fun.

I came to a metal ladder that disappeared up into a dark opening in the ceiling. I was about to climb up, when a thought hit me. I was still wearing the flannel shirt and jeans you loaned me on Second Earth, Mark. We weren’t supposed to mix things from other territories, including clothes. But there hadn’t been any Veelox clothes at the flume. What was I supposed to do? I actually had a quick thought that since I had only seen Aja’s head, maybe the people on Veelox didn’t wear clothes at all. How’s that for an image? Big, floating, naked giants. Sheesh. No way I was taking my clothes off.

The ladder led up through a round shaft that wasn’t much wider than my shoulders. A few more steps up the ladder and I hit the ceiling. I tested it with a push. It moved. This was it, my portal into Veelox. With a quick breath to calm myself, I pushed the heavy hatch up and climbed through to get my first look at this new territory.

I’m not sure what I expected to see, but this wasn’t it.

First off, I was relieved. Since Saint Dane had said he had already done his dirty work here, I was nervous about finding a territory that was on fire, or laid waste, or had people running around screaming in panic. But there was none of that. What I did see was totally strange, if only because it wasn’t strange at all.

Veelox looked like Second Earth. I found myself standing on a city street that could have been a neighborhood from home. The hatch I had just climbed through was a manhole in the street. The buildings were city-style brownstones. There were sidewalks and trees and even streetlights. If I didn’t know any better I’d say I had pulled a U-turn in the flume and landed back on Second Earth.

Still, as familiar as this place was, something felt off. I looked around, trying to figure out why I was getting such a strange vibe. It took me all of three seconds to understand.

The place was deserted.

Not just empty, I’m talking desolate. No people, no cars, no music, no nothing. The only sound was the whisper of wind as it blew through the buildings and rustled the trees. It was totally eerie. The place was… dead. That was the word. Dead. Veelox was a ghost territory.

Great. Giant, naked, floating ghosts. Could this get any stranger?

“Over here!”

I spun to see a welcome sight. Standing on a street corner not far away was Aja Killian. The real deal. I was relieved to see she had a body to go with the head. Better still, she was normal size. Still better, she was wearing clothes. Phew.

I jogged over to her. Aja was shorter than I was, and I’m guessing a little bit older. She wore a dark blue jumpsuit that fit her pretty well. She was kinda cute, with big blue eyes behind those yellow-tinted glasses. The only thing non-Second Earth about her was a gizmo she had strapped to her right forearm. It was a wide, silver bracelet with lots of buttons that looked like a high-tech calculator.

And she was cute, too. Did I say that?

“Hi,” I said, being all sorts of charming.

I held out my hand to shake. She didn’t take it. Aja snapped angrily, “What took you so long to get here?”

Whoa. Where did that come from? I had been here for a grand total often seconds and she was already giving me grief. Not a good start.

“What are you talking about?” I asked.

“I’ve been trying to contact you about Saint Dane, but you haven’t been responding,” she scolded. “I was ready to give up on you when-“

“Whoa. Hang on,” I interrupted. “I didn’t get your message because my ring was stolen. The second I got it back, your message came through and here I am.”