Infinite Horizons

Cassia was fairly confident that the attractive redhead who had fallen out of the ceiling was insulting the stranger behind her, but she often struggled to grasp sarcasm. The woman made to move around her towards the door, and Cassia blocked her way. The redhead’s eyes widened in surprise and then her whole body tensed. Cassia held up her hands to cut her off.

“Wait. Are you Melissa Pro-”

Mel groaned loudly and Cassia stopped abruptly.

“Quit saying that fucking name! It’s Mel,” the redhead said. “Now get the hell out of my way.” Cassia nodded in satisfaction. Finally she could proceed to the next phase of her plan.

“Come with me then, Mel,” she said as she turned towards the door. “I’ll fill you in on the way to the Impound Center.”

“Are you with the IPF or something?” Mel asked, having not moved an inch. “Why should I follow you anywhere?” Cassia smothered her irritation and turned back to the other woman. She probably deserved an explanation anyway.

“I need to access the Impound Center so that I can steal a Pathfinder,” she said calmly, watching Mel attempt to hide her surprise. “Specifically, I am looking for the Pathfinder Odyssey.” Cassia kept her face expressionless as Mel was unable to stifle a gasp.

“Why would one of those be in the Impound Center?” she asked incredulously. Cassia shrugged.

“To my knowledge it was damaged on its last mission, and was dropped here temporarily,” she replied. “It may not be here for long, and I will need your help getting in. You have my word that I will drop you in the location of your choice if you help me acquire the Pathfinder.” Cassia stuck out her hand formally. On most Earths that was the preferred way to make a deal. Mel stared at her hand suspiciously before finally grasping it.

“Deal. You should know that the entire IPF is probably shitting themselves looking for me right now,” Mel said. “I’ve actually escaped twice today, and I was already at the top of their list.” Cassia nodded curtly.

“I’m aware,” she said. “Let’s move.” The woman moved towards the doorway, only to stop in surprise at seeing a man there.

“Hey,” he said sheepishly, “can I tag along? I have absolutely no idea what is happening, but you seem, er, capable.”

“Who the hell is this?” Mel almost growled and the man tried to hide in place.

“This is Kevin, apparently,” Cassia answered. “He filled your cell when they moved you to the Hole. He knows where we’re headed, so we bring him along or incapacitate him.” Kevin started visibly and Mel laughed.

“What are you, some sort of weird fucking robot chick?” She pointed at Kevin. “If you let me punch you once for getting me caught, then you can stay. I’m not the unhinged criminal the IPF likes to say I am.” Kevin seemed to have trouble deciding, so Cassia just nodded at Mel. The woman stepped up and slugged him in the gut. Kevin grunted and doubled over, and Mel leaned in close.

“If you ever do that again, I swear to anything that I will make you all the way dead. Not part of the way, but all the fucking way, do you understand me?” Kevin nodded weakly and Mel stood up and grinned at Cassia.

“Ok then, welcome to the team, Kev! Let’s go get a spaceship or some shit! This way to the Impound Center.” Mel darted out into the hallway and took off. Cassia rolled her eyes as Kevin followed. She’d read the intel on Mel, but the actual version was something entirely different. As long as she had the skills she purportedly had, though, everything should work out fine. Cassia raced down the hall.

They all arrived safely at the entrance to the Impound Center, though the trip had not been without incident. An IPF officer had stumbled upon them and Mel had reacted with brute force. Cassia frowned slightly. Brute force was probably an understatement. The man had fired at Mel with a weapon that released some sort of energy bolt, and she had immediately charged into him. A solid punch to the gut, similar to the one she’d given Kevin, had doubled the officer up and she had followed that with a full smash of his head into her knee. The man had not moved again.

Cassia shivered slightly, remembering the sheer brutality of Mel’s response. Still, had she not reacted in that way, who knows what would have happened. As it was, the alarm had only really been raised a minute or two ago. The wailing klaxons were a strain on the senses, so much so that Kevin had resorted to plugging his ears. She studied him briefly as she waited for Mel to finish picking the lock on the giant hangar-like door. He was an odd man, in that he didn’t seem to know much about anything that was going on. He claimed he had no idea why he was on this Earth, or even that the multiverse existed, but Cassia had learned to not take anything at face value. Besides, anyone who was wanted on Earth One surely had to know about the multiverse.

“Hell yeah!” Mel shouted triumphantly over the wailing of the alarms. She punched a button on the keypad and the giant door slid open with a mechanical whirring. The large room beyond slowly lit up as the automatic lights blinked on. Cassia frowned. She’d expected there to be more resistance than a simple locked door. Yet there was the Pathfinder Odyssey, in the back right corner of the room. It sat there almost gracefully, a giant matte black orb. The color was such that her gaze almost slid off when she looked at it directly, and there didn’t appear to be any obvious doors.

Mel didn’t have any of Cassia’s misgivings. She shrieked and ran towards the ship, almost skipping like a child. Five feet from the ship a blueish laser line appeared at waist height, circling all the way around the ship. Mel barely stopped herself from sprinting straight through it. As the other woman shouted expletives, Cassia couldn’t help but smile. This was the type of resistance she’d been expecting, which meant this must be the Pathfinder Odyssey she was looking for.

“Identification required,” said a robotic voice, as Cassia approached. Kevin jumped in surprise and Mel swore, then waved a hand in the air.

“They got cameras hidden in here somewhere?” she wondered, and then she yanked Kevin’s arm down so his shirt sleeve passed through the laser beam. There was sizzling noise and Kevin lurched backwards with a three inch line burned through his shirt and an angry red streak on his skin. The laser barrier flashed red.

“What the hell!” he yelled, somewhat squeakily.

“Identification required,” the computer repeated. Mel turned to Cassia.

“Well, it sure doesn’t want us in there,” she said. “Got any plans? Toss this one through and see what happens?” She gestured to Kevin, who glared back at her. Cassia sighed internally. Mel certainly had a brute efficiency in getting things done.

“I think we can avoid Kevin’s untimely death for now,” she said, “I believe that Mel has something we can use.” She watched Mel frown, then pull an identification card out of the waistband of her pants.

“This old thing?” she said, waving it in the air. “I’d forgotten I had it.” Almost immediately there was a loud clunk and the laser beam flashed green, then disappeared. Mel looked around suspiciously for cameras as Cassia strode confidently up to the ship. There were no obvious entrances, in fact, the entire thing appeared to be solid. She placed her hand on the outside, and was surprised to find that it was somewhat warm, like a sidewalk after being warmed by the sun. There was a small pulse, and she yanked her hand back. Slowly, silvery lines began to form across the dark surface, outlining an entrance. Mel muttered an oath under her breath, one Cassia was fairly certain she hadn’t heard before.

Nothing else seemed to be happening, so Cassia placed her hand back on the ship’s exterior, this time within the boundaries of the new outline. She felt another small pulse, and the wall seemed to dissolve into nothingness. As she watched, the same silvery lines began to flow along the interior of the ship, almost acting as rope lights. The silver light lit up the interior with a somewhat ethereal glow. Cassia slowly made her way further in, with Mel and Kevin right behind her. There was a shared silence, until Kevin broke it.

“I’ve never been in one of these….er, ships? But shouldn’t it have a window or something?” Cassia nodded her agreement. She’d been thinking the same thing. The interior of the ship had four flight chairs that seemed to simply be growing out of the ship, but it didn’t have any viewpoints. Or a control console, she noticed.

“None of us have been in here, idiot,” Mel retorted. “This ship is probably worth more than all of Earth One. Or maybe it’s a defect because they forgot the damn windows.” She sat down in one of the flight chairs.

“It is strange that there is no way to look outside,” Cassia agreed. She stepped up to where a control panel would typically have been. Resting her arm on the empty dashboard area, she felt the same hum and warmth she had felt from the outside, and it sparked an idea.

“Viewing window,” she spoke firmly, and instantly felt the strange pulse through the ship. Again, silvery lines appeared on the wall in front of her and begin to make a wide outline. As soon as the shape was completed, the black wall seemed to dissolve, and they could see the large hangar. Unfortunately, they could also see the twenty IPF officers looking back at them, weapons at the ready.

“Oh shit,” said Kevin, to which Mel raised an eyebrow. One of the officers raised his hand to his mouth, and they heard his voice amplified throughout the hangar.

“Cassia Moreng, Melissa Alfaro, and Kevin Crane, please exit the Pathfinder with your hands up. If you come out peacefully, no one will be hurt.” Mel rolled her eyes at this, but Cassia could tell she was unsure. Kevin asked the obvious.

“So…do we go out there? Does this thing even turn on?”

“Yeah, can we just jump out of here?” Mel had stood up from the flight chair and was glaring out at the IPF officers. Cassia said nothing as the lead officer repeated his message, this time with more urgency and more threats. Then she reached down and pulled a small, crystal clear, cube out of her boot and set it on the dashboard. For a long moment nothing happened. Then a small opening materialized below the cube and the object fell into it and disappeared. Cassia felt an increased hum through her hands on the dashboard. Silver lines appeared on the dashboard, spelling out words that disappeared to be replaced by others.

Cassia Moreng…31 years, 4 months, 211 days…New Command Accepted…

The ship suddenly vibrated strongly. The IPF officers in the hangar backed up warily, and Cassia realized the ship was hovering a few inches off of the ground. She couldn’t help feeling like it had just stood up.

“What were those words?” Mel asked from behind her. She had gone back to a chair when the ship moved.

“It was my name, written in my native language,” Cassia replied in a wondering tone. She was going to say more, but was cut off by the impatient IPF officer.

“Be advised that the continued operation of this ship will result in extended sentences for all of you! IPF officers will breach the ship in sixty seconds. It would be better for you to surrender now!”

“What a douchebag,” Mel remarked. To Cassia’s surprise, Kevin laughed. But then he looked to her.

“What now?” he asked. Cassia smiled.

“Now we jump.”