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Part 2 - Traveler

Chapter 6

Meriah heard the door hissing shut behind her and she looked in wonder at the room beyond. She'd seen parts of the Master's house that had electronics and other human inventions, but for the most part, Marcus had shunned a great deal of technology on his estate. Some things that eased the life of the servants were allowed, as were the pulse rifles that he kept for sport hunting, the same kind that he had lent Meriah just a few days ago.

Here, though, lights flashed and blinked all over the small room, along both walls and in the ceiling as well. When she looked at the floor, she could see lighted arrows pointing the way to another door, this one more circular shaped and much heavier looking than the one she just arrived in. A flashing red light to the side caught her attention, and as she looked over, it changed to a solid green.

With a hiss of escaping air, the door in front of her swung inward, it's travel silent after the initial sound. Meriah craned her neck to look around, trying to see what awaited her. When it was fully open, she looked down a long tunnel and the light of the sun filtered through translucent plastisteel, lighting the way much more than the lights along the side did. At the end of the tunnel she saw another door opening, this one looking much more old and corroded, but still with the heavy vault-like feeling of the first.

"Please proceed," a soft female voice said from above her.

Meriah jumped and hunched over, looking up at the ceiling with flattened ears and the fur on her tail and the back of her neck rose. She relaxed when she realized that it was merely a computer speaking. She carefully stepped through the door, holding her bag tightly to her back with her off hand while her dominant hand rested close to the knife on her belt. Marcus had done a lot of talking to get them to let her keep that blade, and it would be a shame if she managed to let someone best her simply because she didn't use it.

She walked down the tube with slow, cautious steps, getting closer and closer to the end where the door to what she presumed to be the ship loomed. In the back of her mind, she could still feel Marcus, the concern that he had for her, and she realized that he must not have left, that he must still be standing on the other side of the door to the spaceport. She could turn around right now and run back to him, but something deep inside her told her that would be foolhardy. She knew as well as he did that someone would be coming to look for Jacques sometime soon, and if they found her, and found out about what she did, then she'd be taken away. Not only that, they would probably find something equally horrible to do to Marcus, since he was the one that harbored her.

She also noticed, though, that as she made her way down the tunnel, the constant push of the other Mrr'tani on the planet started to lessen. Little by little, the small lights that she pictured the links as started to dim and go out. She stopped in the middle of the tunnel and frowned. Something was wrong, and she didn't know what. She'd spent so long trying to figure out a way to get those voices and those links to leave her alone and go away, and now that they were, it felt wrong. Her mind was almost her own again, and for the first time since she noticed that the links were there, she felt empty.

But she could still feel James, and Marcus was there in the very corner of her mind, his link dim, but still there. She brought James' link to the forefront of her mind, and she could feel him answering her concern with a wave of assurance and love. She could feel the trust that James had in Jason, and she clung to it as she started to walk again. The strength of that trust brought her steps to even, confident strides and she walked the rest of the way down the tunnel and into the waiting room.

It looked almost exactly similar to the one that she had just left, but there was something different about it. The same green light glowed solidly on the same panel on the wall and the same arrows lit up on the floor, but the scent was so much different here. There was no trace of human on this side of the tunnel, only the familiar and comforting musk of Mrr'tani. She didn't know why the scent surrounding her put her so much more at ease, as she wasn't one to find solace in the company of others of her kind, but it did. A tension that resided so deep in her that she didn't know she carried began to ease. Something inside her recognized the scent and the feeling and she finally realized that it was the atmosphere of home.

The green light turned to a flashing red and she turned and watched as the large door slid shut. This one finally rang with the sound that she was expecting, a deep and resounding thud that seemed to echo through the walls around her and vibrate the floor. There was another hiss of air and a short breeze blew her fur and her whiskers on her face before the red light turned back to green. She heard a rumble and turned back to face forwards as the large door on the other side of the room rolled aside, locking into place with a soft click. Standing on the other side of that door was a beautiful Mrr'tani male.

Meriah blinked and shook her head. She couldn't find the words in her head to describe the man in front of her. His fur was sleek and jet black with only a thin line of white that started beneath his chin and ran down his throat. There was no trace of any other color in the long, lush fur covering the rest of him. Eyes the shade of amethyst regarded her and she couldn't pull her eyes away. She'd never seen another Mrr'tani with that color eyes before, and it was some time before she could even control herself enough to drag them downward in an appropriate show of respect. As she did, she caught the smirk on his lips.

"You must be Meriah," he said, smiling. His voice was as deep as the color of his fur, something that made Meriah think of dark nights with only the stars lighting the forest. She could only nod in reply, as her voice seemed to have failed her.

He chuckled and stepped forward, his hand reaching out to take her jaw in his fingers. She could feel his strength and his restraint, but oddly enough, she could not feel him in her mind. The only presence still there was Marcus, and it was so dim that she could hardly tell it was there. He lifted her chin so that she looked up at him, and she realized how tall he was. He almost towered over her, a head and a half taller at least than she.

"You are a free Mrr'tani, Meriah," the dark Mrr'tani said. "You need bow to no one."

Again, her eyes met his, and she saw an intensity buried deep behind them that matched something inside herself. The sound of his voice washed over her and she felt the strength and the pride behind the words. She didn't even realize that she was standing straighter and beginning to meet his eyes with her own sheathed steel core.

"That's better," he said with a soft smile. He let go of her chin, and she could see the glint in his eyes almost daring her to look away again. She didn't. Now he'd made it a matter of pride, and she wasn't about to let someone think that she was ashamed of who she was.

"Yes," she squeaked, not quite under control of her voice. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes, I'm Meriah."

He smiled wide enough that the tips of his fangs shone at the corners of his lips. "Good. I'd have hated to pick up a stray. Marcus would have had my ass." When he laughed, Meriah felt her heart jump in her chest. Her whiskers bent forward and she had to focus on his eyes to keep her mind from wandering, something she rarely had to worry about.

She saw his eyes wander to her bent and bandaged ear and his gaze softened, though she noticed the small narrowing at the corners and the tightness in his lips before he controlled his expression.

"I see someone's already had a go at you," he remarked, fingers delicately touching the bandage.

Meriah kept herself from wincing, happy that for once the pain was finally absent. "It will heal," she said simply.

He smiled at the simple declaration and the stalwart core behind it. "I'm Jason. You don't have to worry about anything while you're here on the Pride, Meriah. It's just you and me and Micah here."

"Micah?" she asked. She wasn't expecting anyone else.

"Greetings, Meriah," a gentle male voice said. The sound came from all around her, though the volume was far quieter than the voice in the spaceport.

"That's Micah, the ship's AI. We've gotten to know each other pretty well, and I'm sure he's looking forward to having someone else to talk to."

"Nonsense, master Jason," Micah intoned. "I will never tire of your company."

Meriah narrowed her eyes and looked around her. "That sounds like Fath- I mean like the Master."

Jason chuckled. "It should be, I asked him for his voice sample when I reprogrammed the ship. I hope it doesn't bother you, but Marcus and I have a very long history."

Meriah shook her head. "No I don't mind at all. It's comforting."

"I know what you mean. Come on, I'll get you set in your quarters. One thing I've got more than enough of is space on this thing."

He waved her along as he turned away down a corridor. Meriah followed, and she couldn't stop looking around in wonder at the totally different environment that surrounded her. She felt slightly claustrophobic in the tight enclosed space. She was used to the wide open world of the forest and the dome, and even her small cottage had more windows than it probably needed. Here she couldn't see any windows, only clean and well-maintained metal and plastic everywhere she looked. She paid attention as he showed her the way down the main corridor and then down a side hallway.

"There are two main corridors, Meriah," Jason explained as he walked. "The alpha corridor, this one," he pointed to a small symbol on the wall, "goes from fore to aft. The front of the ship to the back. It's the main entrance to the cargo bay. The beta corridor goes port to starboard. Left to right for you folks with no space legs." He turned and smiled at her with that comment, blunting the bite a little, and Meriah nodded her understanding.

"There are other passageways off those corridors, and if you get lost, all you have to do is ask Micah to direct you where you want to go. Micah, take us to Meriah's quarters, please."

"Of course," Micah said. Along the side of the wall, the plastic panels lit up and a glowing green strip began to travel down the hallway.

Together, Meriah and Jason followed the strip of lights down the first passageway and turned into another, stopping in front of a door with her name on it. Meriah looked in astonishment at the placard on the wall by the door, and then at Jason.

"Marcus told me about you when he commed me. Just luck that I happened to be in the system. Figured you might like something that's just yours."

"Thank you," Meriah said, still wondering about the relationship between this big Mrr'tani and the man she considered her father.

"The door is coded to you, Meriah. The only time it will ever open for anyone else is if you allow it, or if there's an emergency. In an emergency, all doors override for the captain. But otherwise, if you don't allow Micah to open the door for me, he won't."

Jason held out his hand to the scanner on the wall by the door. It looked different from the one in the spaceport and she reached out to touch it. Nothing happened at first and she looked at Jason curiously. Then she remembered the glowing in her hand when Marcus had encoded something beneath her skin. She turned her hand over and the panel beeped once before the door slid open.

Meriah's eyes widened in surprise at the sight that awaited her on the other side of the door. There were plants, and the familiar scent of her forest hit her nose as the air from the room spilled out into the passageway. She jumped as Jason's voice sounded even closer than she was expecting.

"Marcus said you had a thing for the forest, and I don't blame you. I remember Lyria's cottage, and I found a lot of the plants that she always had around it. Marcus said you didn't change much."

Meriah looked beside her at Jason and shook her head. He stood there calmly with his hands behind his back looking into the room over her head.

"Thank you," she managed as she stepped into the room. Her room was even larger than her small cottage, and there was plenty of room to move around. Some of the free space in the room was taken up with the plants that he said he put there just for her. A bed larger than she was used to was set against the far wall beneath a large window that looked out over the spaceport grounds. Along another wall, there was a small seating area with a comfortable looking set of chairs and a table between them. A light in the ceiling illuminated both chairs from above and there was a small electronic device on the table near the chair closest to the bed. Across from the seating was a door that stood open, leading to the bathroom.

She paused inside when she didn't hear Jason's steps behind her, and she turned and looked at him, trying to figure out why. "Oh. You can come in," she said with a flush lighting her face beneath her fur. It seemed that he was just as true to his word that he would not enter her private space without her express invitation. It was something she'd never had to think about before. The Master - her father - could come and go into her home whenever he felt like it and she would never think to say anything against it. When she remembered back, though, she realized that he had never actually used that power.

"Thank you," Jason said as he stepped in and looked around with a satisfied smile on his face. Meriah watched him and tried to reach out with the link, still wondering why she couldn't feel him at all, or why she couldn't feel anyone but her father. She didn't want to seem weak to this man, though, and she hid her consternation and her worry behind eyes that were still filled with wonder as she surveyed her room. It was almost as large as her cottage at the estate, but even here, there was no trace of any human scent.

"Are your accommodations satisfactory?" Micah's voice asked.

"Yes, thank you, Micah. They're lovely." It was going to take her a while to get used to talking to someone she couldn't see or smell.

"If you'd like, Meriah," Jason said, "you can leave your things here, and come forward with me. There's an extra seat on the bridge, and you can watch the liftoff."

Meriah could tell by the look in his eyes that he very much wanted her to accept his offer, and though the thought of leaving the ground at all, to say nothing of leaving the entire planet, made her heart beat a little faster and her claws want to hang onto anything she could find, she felt herself nodding. "I'd like that." When she thought about it after a moment, she realized that she really would.

She set her one bag down on the bed, noting that it looked more comfortable than even the one she had back in her cottage. Her eyes stopped her before she turned around and she saw something peeking out from the foot of the bed. Her hands pulled back the plain green blanket that rested on top of the bed and beneath it she found familiar warm red tones. The blanket that she'd slept under since she was a kit laid there, and when she turned back to Jason it was with wide eyes brimming with tears.

"Marcus sent it ahead. He said it was to make you feel more at home." Jason chuckled and pulled the plain green blanket off the bed and folded it over his arm. "I had to hurry to get it in here and the bed all made up before you came aboard. Marcus can be a right sneaky bastard when he wants to be.

"I know, but I wouldn't want it to be any other way," Meriah said, letting the small tears flow. She chuckled and rubbed her hand across her face, wiping them away as she sent a quick wave of love and gratitude down the link to her father. She could feel the barest answering pulse before the link faded the rest of the way into the background. He must have been waiting by the door for her to find the gift and now that she had, he was gone. It left her feeling more empty and lonely than she'd ever felt in her life.

"Come on, Meriah. Let's get off this ball of dirt," Jason said, offering his hand.

Meriah hesitated for only a moment and then she put her hand in hers and followed him out the door. He didn't ask Micah for directions this time, and Meriah tried to keep her mind on the directions they were taking. It was just like in the forest, except here, she didn't have a solid east and west to align her senses. She focused on the markings in the passageways and then the difference between the passageways and the corridors. The ship wasn't big enough for her to get too lost in, she realized, and the thought calmed her significantly. Once she realized that there was no way for her to be so far away that Micah couldn't get word to Jason where she was, there was no longer any reason to fear.

Any other time, she would have been worried about being trapped anywhere with someone that she didn't know, especially in the aftermath of what happened with Jacques, but for some reason, she didn't feel that around James. He exuded a kind of calm that was infectious. Even the way he walked showed that he was not worried about anything. He took relaxed and easy strides down the corridor towards the front of the ship, and she could tell by the relaxed tone in his hand that he was the master of his surroundings. He was big enough that he could easily overpower her, do whatever he wanted to her, but she was as sure that he wouldn't as she was always sure that the sun would rise in the morning.

Jason hit the button on the wall beside a door at the end of the alpha corridor and when it slid aside, Meriah didn't know where to look first. There were so many things that she didn't understand on this ship already, but everything that she'd seen before was nothing compared to all the technology she saw behind that door.

"The seat on the right is yours," Jason said, stepping out of her way.

She looked at him with wonder clouding her eyes and then stepped through the door. The bridge was twice the size of her room, but it was so packed with computers and controls that it felt smaller. Every surface blinked with lights and readouts and large screens rested in front of both chairs. The controls that she saw in front of her when she sat down seemed duplicated on the seat to her left and she tried to guess at what they all did. She couldn't even begin to figure out most of them, though the controls for steering the craft were similar to what she'd seen in one of the cars on the estate. What really caught her attention, though, was the view through the large windows that stretched out in front of her and above. The spaceport was so different from what she was used to that she couldn't sort out everything that was going on. Vehicles traveled here and there along roadways ahead of the ship, and she could see the small figures of humans and Mrr'tani as they worked around the ship and farther in the distance. Meriah couldn't even begin to guess what they were doing.

"Kind of a cool view, isn't it?" Jason asked as he flopped into the seat next to her.

Meriah nodded. "What are they doing out there?"

"Lots of stuff. Mostly they're making sure that we're disconnected from all the lines. There's fuel lines, air lines, waste and scrubber lines, water lines... you name it. And they're closing the cargo doors."

Meriah looked where he was looking and saw a red light flashing, then turning to green.

"Cargo?" she asked.

"Yep, This bucket takes a good amount of funding to keep going, and Marcus is one of my number one clients. We're taking a shipment of stuff from him to his business partner out on Avalon. Didn't think you'd mind a bit of R&R out there now that you're free."

"Avalon? Where's that?"

"About 2 weeks relative," Jason answered as he started to flip switches. The screens in front of them lit and started to display schematics and a checklist. Meriah started to read it, but was distracted again by Jason going through his routine. He was so sure, and he moved so easily, and yet Meriah couldn't feel any of it. It brought more of her curiosity to the fore. The Mrr'tani sitting beside her was so much more interesting to her than any of the technological gadgets surrounding her.

"What does that mean, relative?" she asked.

"Well, we'll hit the jump gate and that'll throw us into hyper. So it means that while it will be two weeks for us, it's going to be about three for people outside hyper. I don't know all the calculations, that's for the scientist types. I just fly the cargo."

Meriah nodded and smiled. She wouldn't have a clue where to begin to understand these calculations that he was talking about, but she trusted his explanation. "So, Fath- Marcus will age more than us?"

"You can call him what you like, Meriah. I call him Marcus because he's my friend. I know that he wouldn't mind you calling him father. He's always been proud of you." Jason looked across and smiled at her. "But yes, a little bit faster than us. It happens when you travel a lot. He used to make up for it with all his traveling, but I think he and Susan have decided to settle down finally."

Meriah nodded and looked back out the window at the spaceport, noticing a large truck pulling away from under them. "Is that the cargo hauler?" she asked.

"Yep, that's it. Just waiting for him to clear and we'll be on our way."

Meriah watched as he ran through the rest of the list on the screen and the lights in front of him went from red to green and finally to blue where they glowed steadily as he ran his hands over the screen. It changed to a different set of readouts and Meriah felt a vibration slowly grow throughout the ship.

"Engines to standby," Micah's voice said behind her. She had to tell herself that he was only a computer and he wasn't actually standing there right behind her.

"Thank you, Micah. Check outer doors."

"Outer doors secure. Airlock secure. Cargo bay secure. Interior pressurized, no breaches detected."

Meriah sat quietly and listened to their exchange, still curious and still bursting with questions, but she knew that now wasn't the time to ask them.

"Umbilicals?" Jason asked.

"All umbilicals detached. Boarding tube retracted and secured. Spaceport mainframe gives green light for full disconnect."

Jason reached out and flipped another switch.

"Cunningham control, this is Mrr'tani Pride. Green light from mainframe, request permission to depart. Full cargo and two souls."

"Mrr'tani Pride, this is control," came the answer. Meriah could hear the disdain in the other voice as they acknowledged the name of the vessel. "Copy green light. Full hold, two souls. Departure lane is clear, you are good to burn. Safe journey."

"Thank you control. Burn in 10, see you again real soon."

Jason switched the comm off with a smile and turned to grin at Meriah.

"They hate having to say Mrr'tani Pride. This place is better than most of them. Some'll just use the reg number."

Meriah grinned back, feeling for the first time just a little bit of his pride and, she realized, a bit of optimism at what was going to be coming. If she had to leave her home and her father, there wasn't someone she would have felt more comfortable with than this big, laid-back Mrr'tani next to her.

"Hold on," Jason said.

Then he reached out and dragged one of the levers between them forward. The quiet rumble from before became something much louder, and the ship shook beneath them. She could see dust and smoke billowing from beneath them in the windows, and as she watched, the ground seemed to drop away as they rose straight up into the air. It didn't take long before it dropped all the way out of sight and all she could see was blue sky.

Jason's attention was firmly focused on the screen in front of him and he worked the controls with a calm confidence. She could see the numbers ascending as they rose, and suddenly they turned red. A moment after, Jason pulled the throttle back and dragged another lever all the way to the front. Meriah felt the weight of three men suddenly flatten her into the couch, pulling her lips back in a grimace and squeezing her breath from her lungs. It lasted for only a few seconds before it disappeared.

"Inertial compensators active. You really should turn them on before you boost, master Jason," Micah said in an indignant tone.

"I like to feel the G's, Micah," Jason said with a laugh.

Meriah gasped as soon as the weight lifted off her and she looked across at Jason with a frown.

"Sorry, Meriah. I forgot you've never done this before. I'll warn you next time, okay?"

Meriah nodded and then sat back in the chair to watch the sky out the window. The blue was growing darker and darker and eventually it faded to black and she could see the stars, so many more than she could see in the night sky from her cottage and she gasped in wonder, leaning forward in her belted chair.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Jason asked.

"I've never seen anything like it. Not even on a no moon night," Meriah said, her voice full of wonder.

"I know. I used to look up at the stars on the fields there and wonder what it would be like to just live up here. It's pretty much everything that I ever dreamed."

"Do you miss the dome?" Meriah asked.

"Sometimes, but then I remember that down there I was someone's property, and up here, I'm my own man. No one to answer to or anything. Just me and the stars."

Meriah nodded. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw something in the widow. "What's that?"

"That's the jump gate. We'll hit that and we'll be on our way. Speaking of," he turned and typed a command into the screen.

Meriah watched the speck growing closer and closer as it drifted from the side of the widow to the very center. As it grew, she could make out the ring shaped structure. The center of the ring was bright and she could almost see it twinkling like an extremely bright star.

"Micah, transmit clearance codes and destination to Astro Control, request immediate jump clearance."

"Transmitting, stand by."

"The AC boys love to have everything by the numbers. If they don't have the horizon set just right they might jump us back to old Earth or something," Jason said with a grin. Meriah tried to pretend that she understood what he was saying.

"Clearance granted, approach vector received. Horizon alignment in five zero seconds. Arrival at horizon in niner zero seconds," Micah said.

Meriah looked back through the windows and realized that the ring had gotten larger than she ever thought a structure could be. The ring was only visible through the side windows and the center swirled like a whirlpool eddy in the creek near her cottage, only instead of a darkened center, this one was brighter than anything she'd ever seen. And they were flying directly into it.

"What happens when we hit that?" she asked, her nerves showing in her voice.

"Most people don't feel anything," Jason answered. It's going to jump us into hyper, another dimension, basically. Some people get kind of sick, though, so you might want to hold this." He handed her a plastic bag, held open on one end with a hard plastic ring. "There's electronics and things in here, and they'll get damaged if you throw up on them, so if you feel sick, hold that over your muzzle, okay?"

Meriah took the offered bag and held it tightly in her hands, nodding. She couldn't take her eyes off the glowing center of the horizon in front of her as it grew to engulf every sight through the window. It's flickering light illuminated the bridge and she finally had to look away from its intensity.

"Horizon contact in 5...4...3...2...1..." Micah counted down.

Meriah found herself counting with him, and when the count reached the end, the world exploded.

Pain like she'd never felt before coursed through her head and she felt the links opening once again, this time more numerous than anything she'd ever felt. There were so many minds inside her head that she thought she was going to explode. She vaguely heard her voice screaming but it was muffled by all the other voices and minds in her head. The feeling of her hands trying to hold the pressure in her skull was similarly muted, drowned out by the feeling of countless hands touching countless things, countless eyes seeing countless skies on countless worlds.

She couldn't tell how long it lasted. Time seemed to stop and speed up all at the same time, but eventually, mercifully, it all faded to silent blackness.