Chapter Fourteen
For a few weeks, Kest and I tour Ohalessa, visiting all of its diverse regions. The world is so unfathomably beautiful that I shed tears just thinking about it. For all of Earth’s truly breathtaking majesty, Ohalessa captures the soul of time and life itself. We climb cliffs behind waterfalls that seem to ascend higher and higher, roaring with raw fury. Kest takes us underwater in his ship to see coral reefs that are home to millions of aquatic species; when they swim by, they flash a bright, diverse palette of color that leaves me speechless.
When I’m feeling as though I’ve seen it all, we fly to the site of an active volcano. Magma sprays in the air, glowing neon pink until it rejoins the flowing lava. Later we go underground to explore expansive caverns full of crystals that shimmer and glow. Kest claims they’re alive, and that they absorb light and sound, preserving their energy.
“Now you’re part of this universe forever,” he says, running my fingers over the cool, smooth crystal.
In the forests, jungles, and vast grasslands we see animals that are exotically beautiful and hysterically adorable—some are weird and ugly, but those are the ones that taste delicious. I even manage to hunt a few with Kest’s bow.
“Maybe when we get back to the Dominus I’ll requisition you a bow of your own,” Kest offers. “One a little lighter and easier to handle.”
“I’d like that.”
Throughout our time on Ohalessa, I never tire of sleeping underneath the stars, which we do most nights. I don’t ask Kest to point out Earth again, and he doesn’t offer it. Some of the nights we sleep naked, unafraid of anything. On others, Kest teaches me to fashion garments from the local foliage. Some of it is surprisingly comfortable, and it makes me feel like some kind of Polynesian island princess.
On our last morning in Omardu jungle, Kest cooks us a pair of small reptiles, then loads all our gear back into the ship.
“Where to next?” I ask.
He smiles, pulling me in for a long kiss. I taste the smoke and salt on his breath and smell the musk he built up during his hunt. He clutches my rear, hugging my body close to his, and I can feel his heart beating with mine.
“I was thinking before we have to head back to the Dominus that we might go somewhere that will remind you a bit more of home: the city of Orandropa.”
A city! A real, live alien city!
To be honest, I had, at times, gotten homesick—not necessarily for New York, but for the one thing you can’t get out in nature: the activity of lots of people. I could sit outside at a café and watch the city go by for hours, wondering about everyone’s stories. No matter where you go in the city, there’s culture everywhere. It’s an experience—for better and worse—that can’t be found anywhere else: crazies proselytize in the streets, musicians and buskers fill the lonely silence between arriving subway trains, colorful characters share anecdotes and don’t care who else is listening.
The thought of encountering all of this on another freaking planet makes my heart soar. What will it be like? Will it feel like home, or be undeniably different? Even on Earth, there’s no place quite like New York. Of course, everywhere I’d been to on Ohalessa had made me tremble in awe—I don’t see why Orandropa would be different.
However, one big concern worms its way into my mind—one I haven’t worried much about in weeks.
“It sounds wonderful, but… what about Bakan? Wouldn’t it be easier to find us in the city?” I’m a good foot shorter than every Dominar I’ve seen so far; I somehow doubt I’ll blend in.
Kest nods. “Perhaps, but we’ll be surrounded by my people. Even if he finds us, he wouldn’t dare try anything. If you like, you can wear something to cover your face. It’s not unusual for some of the more possessive Dominars to conceal their pets’ beauty.”
“Like, a mask?”
“Or a veil. Or nothing. Whatever you prefer. Just think of what you’d like, and your nanites will send the design to be fabricated.”
“Okay, Kest. Let’s do it.”
As our ship lifts off, I imagine a black, feathery mask with a pretty violet trim. While I’m at it, I imagine myself a pair of heels and a sleeveless, strapless pencil dress to match my mask. Though it reaches down to my ankles, it hugs my figure in just the right places. I make Kest turn around until I’ve put it on, and when he finally turns to see it, he smiles and licks his lips. “You look lovely, pet.”
“Thank you, sir,” I reply, doing a twirl.
“There’s just one thing missing.”
As I watch, a black telering rises from a compartment and floats on over to me. I lift my chin and let it fasten around my neck. A hologram springs to life: a reflection of me so I can see how I look. The collar matches my outfit perfectly.
Not wanting to be outdone, Kest creates a dashing black tuxedo. Considering the practical jumpsuits he usually wears, seeing him in a tux is bizarrely… alien. However, he looks smoking hot, his broad chest flattered by the perfectly bespoke fabrication.
“I give humanity credit, the fashion is superb.”
I laugh, taking his hand and giving it a kiss. “What are we going to do first?”
“We’re going to the Ohalidium.”
“What’s that?”
Kest makes a show of straightening his black bow tie. “Imagine the Louvre, only it’s tens of thousands of years old and has collections from countless species and planets.”
I’ve never been the best appreciator of art, but how could I say no to that? “Can we see exhibits from planets you’ve been to?”
Kest pauses, and a look crosses his face: surprise and regret, almost wistful, as though I’d salted a still open wound.
“What’s wrong?”
He sighs. “We can see them, but it may not be a happy experience.”
Oh. I think I get what he means. “All the more reason why I should.”
He nods with solemnity. “As you wish, pet.”
Soon the city Orandropa comes into view. At first it looks the same as any city skyline, though more modern; its towers rising in graceful curves, with massive arches and high spires. However, it takes me a moment to realize that Kest’s ship is flying above the clouds, and I’m only seeing the very tops of the massive structures.
“Holy shit,” I blurt out.
Kest chuckles. “My people don’t have a concept of heaven; we have a real one.”
His ship dives gently and passes through the fluffy white. When the mists clear away and visibility returns, I nearly faint: Orandropa extends as far as the eye can see, a mammoth metropolis that glimmers with light. I don’t get a true sense of scale until Kest takes us even lower, toward a landing platform on top of a high-rise that would dwarf all but the tallest skyscrapers on Earth. Here, it’s just one of many.
Kest activates the autopilot, allowing it to move us into a lane of passing ships. I stare out the window, shocked by how many are flying by in the other direction, just like on roads back home. It never occurred to me that there would have to be lanes in the sky, but why not? It would be chaos if everyone just flew anywhere at any time.
When we arrive at the platform, Kest’s ship drops us off, then heads off on its own to a proper docking station. We take a lift down to the planet’s surface, while inside my nanites download a map of the city. Like on Earth, Orandropa has a mass-transit rail system, a serpentine nest of tunnels that I doubt I would have figured out without the help of the nanites.
However, we’ve landed only a few blocks away from the Ohalidium; at Kest’s request, we walk.
“Give me your hand,” he says. “And try not to stare.”
“Yes, sir.”
I don’t do a great job of obeying. Now I know what it must be like for tourists seeing Times Square for the first time: there’s so much to take in all at once, all of it vying for my attention. Foot traffic is thick, with Dominars of all colors and dress making their way. Some travel in pairs, and many I can tell are clearly pets: they wear collars, telerings, and face coverings, or walk with their arms locked behind their backs or at their sides.
All around, aromas from restaurants waft outward, enticing patrons inside. Musicians play from balconies and acrobats leap between buildings, spinning in the air and landing on their feet.
“This place is incredible. I can’t believe people actually live here.”
Kest laughs. “This district is more for visitors than residents, but I know what you mean.”
While making our way to the Ohalidium we attract more attention than Kest expects, causing him to hurry his pace. More than one Dominar looks as though he’d like to inspect me closer, but is instead forced to settle for a quick glimpse as we go by.
Shaped like a dome, the museum itself occupies several city blocks. Surrounded by lush gardens full of fruit trees, hedges, and flowers, the dome is covered in blue vines that glow with luminescence. Rows of statues line the outer perimeter of the gardens; depicting revered Dominars, they face inward, expressions stoic and calm.
However, the most impressive visual splendor on the museum’s outside comes in the form of a massive hologram that hangs over the dome. I grin happily, realizing that I actually know what it is: the Milky Way. Though I’ve seen pictures of our galaxy, I’ve never seen it in such glorious detail. I watch, open-mouthed, as the galaxy slowly turns.
“Do you see how many of the stars have a blue ring around them?” Kest asks me.
I nod. There must be thousands of them in the projection.
“Those are all the worlds owned by the Dominars.”
Good God.
He lets me stare at the hologram for a time, then urges us inside. The Ohalidium is so enormous, elevators alone aren’t sufficient: it has its own internal transit system conveying visitors from one end of the building to the other. We ride a ways, finally stopping at a floor marked Primitive Species, Past and Present.
Although there are banks and banks of artifacts, much more is presented through interactive holographic displays.
“And if there’s something you see that you want to know more about, just request it, and it will be downloaded to your nanites,” says Kest.
I nod, barely acknowledging him. The exhibit is riveting: many of the races presented are just like humans, from appearance to historical development. The museum have examples of their technology, from weapons as basic as spears, to computers far surpassing humans’ current level. Holograms of their planets show cities as dense as New York, as beautiful as Paris, and as dangerous as Baghdad.
Throughout my hours of exploration, Kest never loses patience. He lets me browse, only interrupting to tell me which of the worlds he’s visited.
“I lived on Mlins for only twenty years. They advanced so quickly, by the time I arrived, they were nearly ready for the Dominars to make contact,” he explains, smiling proudly. “I was almost disappointed; I would have liked to stay a lot longer.”
“What about this one?” I ask, pointing to the display of a man who looks more like a caveman than a human.
“Vraka? No, I wouldn’t go there. They’re barely sentient hominids. They won’t be ready for millions of years.”
After a while, I’m starting to grow drowsy. Kest takes my hand. “Tired, pet?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Come with me. One last exhibit, and then we’ll get dinner.”
I do as told, and soon we’re entering a new wing: Primitive Species, Extinct.
The title releases a burst of adrenaline. As we make our way through the exhibit, much of what I see is similar to the one we just left. The major difference is the holograms of their worlds, which often look barren and burned. Some are utterly covered in thick clouds, obscuring their surfaces. Others look pristine, as though intelligent life never existed there in the first place. A few have visible ruins: cities blasted and crumbling, being retaken by nature following the death of their societies.
“Is this what will happen to Earth?” I ask, zooming in on an abandoned city.
“Possibly,” Kest answers. “In my professional opinion, yes.”
I turn in place, realizing that the extinction wing goes on and on. There must be thousands of exhibits.
“Why are there so many?”
Kest sighs. “When you sow seeds in a garden, you plant many, hoping a few will grow.”
“What do you mean?”
He takes my hand and ushers me toward the exit. “My people have seeded almost every habitable world in the galaxy, Haley. Sometimes, when a society falls, we reseed the planet, when it’s ready. Not every world survives.”
“That’s awful,” I mutter, shaking him off. “If you created them, you should care for them.”
He nods, turning away. “I think so too, but not all of my people do. Just as the gardener doesn’t expect every seed to sprout, neither did the ones who first seeded planets like Earth. They felt that if their progeny couldn’t survive on their own, they didn’t deserve to.”
“Tough love.”
“The toughest.” Kest drapes an arm over my shoulder, and this time I let him. “Come on. I don’t want your last memories of this trip to be unpleasant. Let’s go eat.”
* * *
He takes me to a dinner at a restaurant that would put Earth’s best chefs to shame. I thought the animals we hunted tasted great; the same meats, prepared by Ohalessan culinary experts, blow away my every expectation. If I could have eaten for hours, I would have.
My mood improves as my stomach fills, and Kest tells me of his exploits on other worlds. Frequently funny and occasionally embarrassing, he recalls them nostalgically, sometimes straying on wild tangents that are no less entertaining.
“When I got back to the Dominus, my ship reeked of Umba eggs. Even interstellar hyperspace couldn’t wash the stink from the ship’s hull. The Council scolded me for interfering in primitives’ lives. I told them I’d learned my lesson, but I think we all knew that wasn’t true.”
I smirk, squeezing Kest’s hand. “I’m glad,” I say. “Or I’d probably be dead.”
He raises a glass of wine. “To never learning.”
Laughing, I clink my glass to his. “To trusting your instincts.”
After dinner, Kest takes me to a concert not far away. Combining both operatic singing with alien instruments, the heavenly music moves me to tears. Otherworldly in beauty, physically intense and uplifting beyond anything I could have imagined, each song separates me from my body, out of physical space, and into a place of pure aesthetic fulfillment.
Finally, to wrap up the night, Kest gets us a transport to the edge of Orandropa, a gorgeous beach that runs for miles in every direction. Now, at night, it’s largely deserted. We hold our shoes in our hands as we walk; sand slips between my toes, and for a second I feel like I’m back on Earth, walking along the Jersey shore.
“Is this what you’ll make of Earth if you succeed?” I ask, looking back at the city.
“No, not at first,” says Kest. “We don’t just show up and turn planets into paradise. We’ll prevent society from collapsing on Earth, but it’s up to humanity to figure out the rest.”
I frown. “Can’t you just tell us how to make the world right? It would be so easy.”
He shakes his head. “Human parents could easily do their children’s arithmetic homework. But then the child doesn’t learn.”
“The children go to school,” I counter. “Will you at least do that for us?”
Kest stops and takes me by my shoulders. “Yes, but only if the Council decides to invade. Otherwise, to them, Earth may as well not exist.”
And all of human civilization will probably end up a tiny booth in the Ohalidium, possibly in the extinction wing.
I look out at the waves crashing up on the beach, and then up to the stars. Despite the bright lights of the city, many twinkle from up on high.
“Kest, I have a favor to ask.”
He gathers me in his arms and looks to the sky with me. “What is it?”
I take a deep breath. This won’t be easy to ask. “If the Council sides with Bakan, and decides to leave Earth to its fate, I want you to take me back.”
Kest doesn’t answer at first, and I can feel his heartbeat quicken. His body tenses, his grip tightening. “I understand why you’re asking,” he says at last. “But I don’t want to agree.”
Despite the warmth of his body against mine, I feel a chill. “No?”
“I don’t want to let you go, Haley. Especially if that means leaving you on a doomed world. I can’t do it. Please, don’t ask that of me.”
Tears roll down my cheeks. “I’m sorry, but I have to try and save my world. If your people won’t help, then what choice do I have?”
Kest kisses my forehead. “I understand, I do. Okay, I’ll do it, if I have to.”
“Thank you,” I say, turning to kiss his cheek.
He smiles. “This means I have to succeed with the Council.”
I take his hand and grip it tightly. “No, it means we have to succeed.”