****
Geming turned and started to walk away, but River scrambled to her feet and called after him.
"You can't just leave us in here. What was that cube you got us out of and the silver snowflakes?"
Geming turned back to look at her and she saw the gems flash green.
"They weren't snowflakes," he said with a sharp edge of bitterness in the words, "they were information."
"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.
"They were information," he repeated. "They contain all of the history, the thoughts, memories, family trees, innovations, facts…everything about this planet is within them."
This planet. River repeated the phrase in her mind, trying to process what it meant. Not only were they no longer on Earth, but this sexy, intense man standing in front of her was certainly not human.
"What is that cube?" Jordan asked.
Geming sighed and gestured for them to follow him, seemingly resigned to their continued presence. They moved deeper into the warehouse, passing through large sections of the walls that stood open like they had been abandoned partway through closing. He led them onto a set of metal stairs and River hesitated before stepping onto them.
Jordan stepped close behind her and touched a warm hand to her lower back, offering encouragement and comfort as she moved up the stairs, the sound of their feet on the metal reverberating loudly through the warehouse. It made her relax, emboldening her enough to peer over the railing and count the remaining steps to the landing. She repeated the numbers as she climbed, putting each behind her until she finally stood on the landing at the top.
Geming led them along a catwalk overlooking the empty floor of the warehouse below and into another room. This space had a soft yellow glow from illuminated strands that hung around the top of the walls. An odd assortment of furniture and other items filled the floor, creating the impression of an apartment thrown together from discarded odds and ends.
He dropped down onto a low circular cushion and they followed suit, settling onto a thickly padded curved bench in front of him. He waited until they were still before he spoke again.
"Everything that can be known by anyone born on this planet is within those bits of information you called snowflakes. Thousands of years ago, our kind traveled to your planet to create an alliance. These representatives agreed to help build a massive wall to aid in the protection of the country in exchange for the protection of our collective wisdom."
"The Great Wall?" Jordan asked.
Geming nodded not moving his eyes away from River.
"It offers no benefit to the people of Earth, but it is everything to us. Only a very few authorized members of our society are allowed access to the information and can share it with others."
"With the picture frames on the walls?" River asked.
"Yes. These teachers can attract to them the information that they desire and display it on the screens. That is how they control who learns what information and when. It's meant to protect everyone."
He didn't sound convinced that this was the actual result of the process and River leaned toward him. His body replied in kind and she could feel a strange, engaging heat building between them.
"Are you a teacher?"
"No. That is why they're after me."
"Because you got near the cube?"
River knew she sounded confused, but she was having difficulty following what Geming was saying.
"The problem isn't the cube, it's the Wall. Everything we know as a collective is within the Wall. The elders stored it there after the completion of the Wall. You stepped through the portal between the two planets, something very few of either of our kinds have ever done."
"Why?" River asked.
Geming sighed and looked away, his eyes holding dark emotion that kept him from making eye contact with them.
"That cube was not designed to teach, but to weaponize. Any of my kind who steps into it takes on all of the information contained within the Wall. Every thought, emotion, innovation, memory, and moment of history goes into that person, empowering him to destroy other people, other planets—even the entire galaxy if he so chose. The teachers keep this information tightly controlled from most and use it as a weapon in others."
"Knowledge is power," Jordan whispered and River suddenly remembered the engraving on the door in the Wall.
"Yes. The guards in China protect the knowledge within the Wall and the portal to our planet not because there is a threat to Earth, but out of tradition that has passed through the generations since the Wall was built. It is this history and tradition that keeps them in their place."
"Isn't that a good thing, though?" River asked.
"Tradition isn't always best," he stood up sharply and crossed over to a window in the curved wall, "Now that you're here, going back will be extremely difficult. You should rest tonight and we'll make plans tomorrow."
"Plans for what?" Jordan asked.
"You should go up to the roof before you go to sleep," Geming said, ignoring Jordan's question, "Tonight is the meteor shower. I promise it is like nothing you have ever seen before."
River felt Jordan take her hand and pull her to her feet. He led her across the room to the window. Geming pushed the glass out of the way and Jordan helped her climb out onto a fire escape. It felt out of place and strange to stand on something so mundane as a fire escape surrounded by the sleek buildings and impossibly fast vehicles, but at the same time it was oddly comforting having a moment so familiar.
"What are we doing?" she asked as Jordan continued to guide her onto a metal ladder that led up the side of the building.
"We're going to watch the meteors."
"Really?"
"We're here," he said as if that was all of the explanation she needed.
They reached the roof and Jordan lowered himself to the flat, rubberized surface and she settled beside him. It felt soft and resilient beneath her, a definite contrast to the hot asphalt she was accustomed to on the roof of her apartment building at home.
The immense sky stretched above River as she laid on her back, staring up at it. All of the light from the city seemed to have dimmed to near nothingness, making the sky seem almost tangible in its blackness and the stars so vivid, she felt like she could reach up and fill her palm with them like the shards of silver in the cube.
Suddenly one glowed an incredible pink and shot out of place, streaking across the blackness with such brightness it left a sparkling trail that lingered for a few seconds before seeming to rain down. Another repeated the stunning show, this time with a color like tropical water. River jumped to her feet and rushed across the roof and started back down the ladder.
"River," Jordan called after her, "Where are you going?"
"Wait there, I'll be right back."
She climbed the rest of the way down to the fire escape and found Geming still standing at the window, his head leaned against the frame as he stared up at the sky. The gems embedded in his skin were grey, emphasizing the heartbreaking beauty of his face.
He looked startled to see her appear in front of him and she reached her hand out to him.
"Come watch with us," she said.
Geming looked at her with a touch of intrigued confusion and she extended her hand more insistently. Finally, he took it and let her pull him out of the window.
They climbed up the ladder onto the roof and took their places, River lying between them as they gazed up at the explosion of colors now streaking across the sky as though someone had dipped a paintbrush into a swirl of colors and shaken it to splash them across a black canvas.
She took a long breath, suddenly very aware of the men on either side of her.