The Sealed Planet

The Crossroads

George Atmell

George here. So, to start, at this point, we were already off from Arkari. Our destination: Vyrn.

First off, the ship I was in was Zarya's spaceship. She was the female Vyrnian we befriended on planet Arkari and was our pilot and healer for the duration of this journey. I never would've imagine travelling through the stars without worry, given that out here, my obligations as a wyvern rider was no longer valid. Well, that did not mean I was slacking off. Things had not happened yet.

Then there was an issue of acceptance. As I was no longer on Earth, I could no longer use magic. The mana in my body was the only mana reserve I had throughout my adventure. I would only use them when it was an absolute emergency. Zarya told me that I would die if I used up all the mana in my body. I believed her. Even on Earth, a mage who expended all his mana would die, so I knew the risk. Still, it felt like I lost a part of me. Imagine having to lose your hand to save your life. It felt the same, except no body mutilation was involved.

By the way, the ship may not look very big if you were a Vyrnian, but for me, it was huge! The thing is, if you're an eight to nine feet tall alien who looked similar to wyverns at first glance, then you got the idea of the scale. That, and the fact that this ship had a good lighting makes it even better. I don't like dark places. They hide a lot of things, especially in cramped places.

The ship was more of a personal ship that acted like a 'home away from home'. Right after we got in through the side door/air lock, we quickly found ourselves in the relaxation area. To the left was a room that could fit at least four Vyrnians and a toilet that was rather big for me. To the right was the kitchen and the cockpit. It was complemented by the off-white colored wall made out of some material that shielded us from the heat and the radiation that might hit the exterior of the ship, which was made by the same type of metal that starships nowadays have. Zarya told me that it was intended to fit at least 5 to 6 Vyrnians, so given that fact, it was rather spacious for me.

Anyway, we had a lot of things to expect after leaving the planet. Well, I had a lot to expect. It would be one heck of an adventure.

As we boarded her ship, Zarya gave me and Arcturus something she called a 'tablet'. Well, she wasn't wrong. The thing was like those stone tablets of ancient times, except it was far lighter and was obviously not made out of rock. There was a glass surface at one side, which was reflective like a mirror. Well, given that it was black, I'd say that it was a black mirror. A book-sized, black mirror.

You know, back then, I thought I looked silly when I looked at my reflection thinking that it was a mirror. Only when Zarya directed us on how to turn the device on by pressing the button on the side did it showed what it was capable of. The tablet was rather simple and easy to read, along with conserving space. Basically, it was an encyclopedia, a book, a journal, and a sketchbook, all in one.

"I once used them for my healing works," said Zarya. "I feel that you two need to know how to use the tabs, since everyone is using them anyway. Still, they are old models from 5 years ago, so expect some lag when accessing the net."

"The...net?"

"The information database of the whole galaxy. Consider it an encyclopedia of everything we already know and not lost. For Arcturus, you can study more about our history since your sleep, and for George, consider this your gateway to everything you'll encounter from this point on. Oh, you can also access your credits from it, too."

The way she said it made me feel like I'm back at the Academy, learning how to care for dragons and even proper riding techniques. The only difference was that all those thick and heavy library books were now replaced with a handheld tablet, which was rather efficient. Unlike most other Riders, I was someone who learned more with books than practical applications. Well, practice makes perfect, but for me, it was to prove something, not for practice. Still, unlike on Earth, I had virtually no knowledge of what was beyond it. For starters, I read things I had heard before, such as warp, warp drive, spaceship, Vyrnians, and such. It helped and confused me, but it also contributed to my excitement to space travel to the point of not even considering a trip home. I mean, I was on a ship capable of warp, practically better maintained than the Orian ship we crashed earlier, and Earth was some hours or so from Arkari. Maybe the mention of 'just some hours' made me thing that I could travel for a while and return. Well, unfortunately, I never got a chance to go home. Things happened, and I put that in low priority, even though I knew that if I die out here, no one back on Earth would know.

I could see Arcturus and Zarya talking about something near the pilot's room. They were talking like friends would, and I could not see a hint of romance in it. Still, it would be a shame that nothing came from it and they simply ended up as friends. They seemed to be compatible with each other.

I did not remember exactly what happened for the next three hours, but I remembered hearing a beeping noise before the ship abruptly stopped, almost throwing me off the couch I had been lounging in. I wondered what happened, so I rushed to the pilot's room and asked, "What happened?"

"No time! Arcturus, pull that lever to the right of you, and quick!"

Arcturus quickly complied. He pulled the lever. Just before he did so, I could see the door behind me closed and a sound of something exploding went on behind me. I was, of course, surprised by this sudden development that I forgot to even ask what's going on. All I could do was look at the two Vyrnians frantically doing something to the pilot's console such as pushing buttons and pulling levers and such.

"Done!" said Zarya while panting, apparently out of breath. She leaned on the console, apparently wracked by emotional distress. I looked at her with an expression that somehow told her something in line with "Are you out of your mind?" or something like that. She understood my look and said, "Someone out there needs help."

I was the first to get to the central room, where the air lock was, and saw what she meant.

"A Cait Sith?" was the first thing I could say when we saw who we saved. This person looked feline and looked almost like those subterranean cat 'demons', except maybe this one had no horns. Still, without it, they had all what a Cait Sith would have: feline head and face, body covered with black fur, and similar size with a human.

"No," said Arcturus. "A Felinian. But why is she out there in the vacuum of space?"

"Either air lock mishap or she got thrown out," said Zarya as she examined the shivering and barely conscious Felinian. "I am thinking the latter. She does not wear a shield generator."

I was confused of what Zarya was talking about. Felinian? Shield generator? I wanted to ask, but then I remembered I had an encyclopedia in hand, so I resorted to the net and tried to find any information about Felinians. There were tons of it on the net, so I picked the top result.

It was said that Felinians achieved space travel a thousand years ago. They had a matriarchal society in which the females were the head of the family. There were many information about them having a very long lifespan. They could live up to 900 years old! Still, I was rather intrigued by what the text had to say.

"Illegal colonies?" I said.

"They have problems with over-population," said Zarya. "Many of their citizens are poor and unable to find work. Like Orians, there are a lot of Felinian pirates out there."

Then, as if to put us back on track, the Felinian, barely conscious, coughed out a considerable amount of blood. Zarya quickly went to work. She healed the Felinian, but then said, "Her injuries are extensive. We need to get her to a hospital, fast."

"No!" said the Felinian weakly and coarsely. "No hospital. 20-30-14-E...120..."

She lost consciousness afterwards.

"Is she...still alive?" I asked.

"She is. I've stopped her internal bleeding, but we need to get her to a better facility more well-equipped than this ship. What did she say? 20-30-14-E...something?"

"E120," I said.

"Space coordinates," said Zarya. "Computer, check coordinate. 20-30-14-E120."

We waited for a little while before the computer's omnipresent female voice replied with, "Coordinate references check. Displaying map on screen."

On the small screen nearby, we could see something that looked like a photo of nowhere. I instantly assumed that it was a trap and said my concern to Arcturus and Zarya, a notion the female Vyrnian agreed on. Not Arcturus, though.

"It's worth a shot," said Arcturus. "In my experience as a former soldier, a dying person will never lie. You can't afford to do so if you're dying. She's dying."

"Look, Arcturus," said Zarya. "I don't want to say that you're a gullible, kind Vyrnian, but you're acting like one. There's a reason why she's out there in space. She was clearly beaten up and dumped in space to die."

"And we're going to let her die?"

"No, we should get her to a hospital. Her refusal only fueled my suspicions that she's a shady character."

"May I suggest something?" I asked. "I say we check this coordinate and determine if she's desperate or still in her right mind."

"By then, it's already too late," said Zarya. "George..."

"I know. But consider this. I checked the coordinate. It's closer than a space station by five light years away. We can get to this coordinate in just 15 minutes. As far as we know, she might be directing us into a trap, or maybe to someone who can treat her without complicating matters with the officials."

"What if it was really a trap?" said Zarya.

"Then we all die and that's the end of it."

"You know, for someone who came from a pre-space civilization, you're a risk-taker."

"I never expected anything to work the way it should. Believe me, I had experience."

"And me, too." Zarya sighed. "Alright, then, George. Remember this. I'm gonna hold you responsible if this turns out to be a trap."

"I am not planning to die yet. I'm not backing down from a gamble, either."

I could see Arcturus smiling on the side. He seemed pleased. Both Zarya and Arcturus then manned the pilot's seat and set the controls to the coordinate. As Zarya's hand prepared to push the throttle lever, she turned to me and said, "Go and secure the Felinian. We're off."

I did so, as the star field around us started to blur into straight lines, and the next moment we knew, we were inside a vortex representing a warp.

15 minutes later, we broke out of warp on the coordinate given to us. Unsurprisingly, there was nothing to indicate any space stations or anything hidden except the fact that we were right in the middle of an unknown system.

"Hmm," said Arcturus. "There is no official name for this system. It only has four planets, all gas giants. We are right between planet three and four."

"There is a space probe 42 kinsec in front of us," said Zarya. "Scan shows that it's just a probe used by scientists to research the gas giants. I don't know its origin, but it's active, so it's not a debris."

"Then let's move forward. Slowly."

As the ship propelled forward, Arcturus said, "Kinsec? Never thought you'd still use measurements from my time."

"Do you have something else in mind?"

"Not if it messes up your sense of distance. We used Tnakr."

"Oh...that's obsolete."

"Yeah, I figured. I'm out of time. You know what I mean."

If I didn't know better, those two were subtly flirting with each other. They may think of it as being friendly with each other, but a guy and a gal sitting side by side talking may lead to something. Or maybe not. You won't know what one's into these days.

That wasn't the concern for the next minute, however. The moment we approached the space probe, it was quickly replaced by something bigger, big enough to cover the window screen. Zarya, acting quickly, fired several retro rockets that stopped the ship with a rather violent jerk. Good thing I put the seat belt on the Felinian. If not, she would be thrown off the seat.

"What the hell?!" exclaimed Zarya as she looked at the unknown thing.

"Holographic camouflage," said Arcturus. "I can't believe it can conceal a space station that perfectly."

Just then, I saw a light came up on the console, and I pointed it towards them. Zarya realized that they were being hailed, so she opened a channel and said, "This is the Vyrkaya. Sorry, we..."

"Someone's fighting with death on your ship, so stop the chatter and dock as soon as possible," said a female voice before she closed communication.

Still surprised, we looked at each other. Arcturus simply shrugged and said, "She must've gotten a lot of them lately."

Now, if you were wondering about Zarya's piloting skills, the Vyrnian was more than capable to handle a Vyrnian ship. She did say that she had a license. She managed to dock on a docking clamp similar to the one I saw previously on a different space station without effort, while Arcturus had a hard time doing so, and was only able to do it after the third try (for context, the Orian slave ship we briefly used did not have an auto-adjusting docking system that Zarya's ship had. However, in this case, due to the docking clamp on the hidden station being configured to manual, Zarya had to align the clamps with her ship herself).

Once the ship was safely within the shield bubble and within an atmosphere, we opened the airlock, where a pair of robots carrying stretchers were on standby. Those robots did not faze the two Vyrnians, but they were quite surprising for me. I've never seen a completely metal construct wheeling around (their legs were wheels). Well, not one, but two of them. They acted much like a golem would, except they were powered by an internal battery.

Once the injured Felinian was on the stretcher and the robots wheeled her away, an organic being came and visit us. Now, the situation was reversed. I was not surprised by her appearance, but the Vyrnians were. In this case, it was because of the presence of a furless Felinian wearing a sweater and pants under a white coat. She looked like a human with the head of a furless cat under those clothes.

"I'll begin the procedure now," said the Felinian. "It will take a couple of hours, plus recovery time."

"Y-you're...naked?" said Arcturus, completely forgetting the fact that we were here to help the injured Felinian.

"You have someone in your ship, dying from goddess knows what, and you are commenting on my lack of fur?"

"Well, I don't," I said. "So, tell me what we can do to help."

"Stay around," said the Felinian. "For her sake."

We looked at each other again, during which I said, "We'll stay."

The Felinian made a smile, which was more expressive without any fur covering her maws. "Good," she said.

Without delaying, she turned around and followed her robots through the corridor, where she disappeared after turning left. I followed her with Zarya. We quickly found ourselves with a door that said, 'Operation in Progress'. Zarya knew what this meant, and said, "That Felinian's life is in the naked one's hands now. All we can do is hope."

I did not think that Felinian was naked, but the Vyrnians thought so. Couldn't blame them for that. I had a feeling that they had never seen one before in their lives, especially Arcturus, who only knew the Felinians from the time they were still like me, a pre-space world. For me, however, it was not a rare sight. However, unlike that Felinian, those Cait Siths shaved their fur to appear naked, apparently to satisfy certain fetishes. Some took it as a lifestyle, because they could ask for tattoos on their skins or even piercings. They were demons, but they still acted like humans, much like most demons who chose to live a life as a mortal.

Anyway, after we decided to wait for the Felinian to recover, we tried to get ourselves comfortable. The Vyrnians did not like the cramped space station and decided to stay in the ship. I couldn't really blame them for being uncomfortable. Even for me, this space station was rather small and compacted. It could induce claustrophobia. I did wonder how the furless Felinian could cope.

Then, a couple of hours later, as I was sitting on a nearby couch making myself comfortable by reading a book on the tablet, the furless Felinian came out from behind a door, sighing and drying her hands with a towel.

"How is she, doc?" I asked.

"She'll recover. It's a good thing you snatched her just as she was exposed in space," said the doctor. "She got herself in quite a pickle. Got into her captain's bad side's my guess. Otherwise, she wouldn't be thrown out of the airlock like a piece of trash. It's the worst kind of death a Felinian can get."

"That's...unnecessarily cruel."

"That's the way her life works, tommy. She's a pirate."

"Uh...my name's not Tommy," I said.

"Tommy's not a name, tommy. It's an expression for males such as you are."

"And...you say she's a pirate?"

"She won't ask you to take her to this little space station if she wasn't, right?"

"So, you're not a licensed doctor, then?" asked Zarya, who heard our conversation and peeked through the ship. "Is that why you're running a clinic in the middle of nowhere?"

"It's a little business of mine. Let's just say this station's a neutral ground for everyone, no matter what they do. I save everyone if I could. For a fee, of course."

I felt that the part where she asked for a fee was the part where she ripped us off. An unlicensed doctor operating an illegal clinic in the middle of nowhere was bound to need more money than it worth. I mean, don't get me wrong. Sometimes, even licensed doctors can do that. Hell, even blacksmiths, too. Not that I am getting on someone. It's just common sense.

"Are you going to ask us to pay for the stranger's fee?" I asked.

"If I am still a doctor in one of the Felinian colonies, I would do that." She then shook her head. "No, I won't force you to pay her medical bills. I won't ask her, either. But...her former captain might give me some."

"Well, that's new," I said. "But how do you even ask her? Call her?"

"Please, tommy. You gave me quite a laugh," said the doctor, chuckling. "Even illegal doctors like me also have patient confidentiality. She barely survived an execution. I can't paint another target on her back. No. All I need is a name, and I can put it on their credit. Discreetly."

"You can do that?" asked Zarya.

"I have a feeling I know her captain. I have the names of some notorious pirates, so I have the general idea. However, I do ask for a favor. Take her with you and get out of this system."

"She doesn't even know us," I said. "And besides, she's a pirate."

"Let me tell you one thing, tommy."

"My name is George, doctor."

"Okay...George. She cannot stay here. If her former comrades knew she's here, she'll be killed."

"And we'll be too if we take her with us."

"Better out there traveling instead of staying in one place with a big target, right? This clinic is hidden, yes, but I bet her former captain knows this place. You might want to drop her on a station or a colony, but that depends on her notoriety. There is a chance that no one even know her, so she can start her life over. But I can bet that she'll return to her old life of piracy and all I did for her will be for naught. You don't want that, do you?"

I hesitated. Sure, this Felinian was clearly abused and finally dumped out in space to die, but at the same time, she was a pirate, and that never worked well if you did not even know who she was. I really hoped Felinians were the kind of people who would be eternally grateful to be saved and not the kinds that took advantage of their saviors.

While we were contemplating on the decision, the Felinian seemed to consider us as guests. She knew the Vyrnians were far too big to go into the space station proper, so she invited me in. Zarya and Arcturus decided to wait while I went with this Felinian. Of course, given that I was an unknown race, she asked about who I was and why I was here. I gave her an honest answer, intriguing her.

"Ah," said the Felinian. "You can get your Vyrnian friends in trouble, you know."

"Arcturus told me about the non-intervention law. But I don't think anyone actually cared."

"Because no one is yet. You're lucky that you're not as shocked as everyone assumed. That, and you're the first pre-space anyone, including me, has ever met. I imagined that you might be surprised for a different reason, but you don't seem to be."

"There are cat people on my Earth too. One of them happened to be my ex."

"Ah. That explains things. You are lucky, you know. That law, with several variations, was made for a reason. It was to prevent a pre-space civilization to regard us as goddesses. I know there are aliens in the past that do this, either for experiment or simply for a plan."

"I'm here because of an accident."

"Yes, I know that. Still, why don't you want to go home? With a warp-capable ship, you can reach home in hours, or even days, depending on the distance."

That was an oft-repeated question that sometimes made me annoyed. I simply gave her the reason: I wanted an adventure. Of course, the Felinian chuckled.

"You still have that drive in you," said the Felinian. "I rather envy you."

"Not really. I heard your kind can reach 900 years old. You can see an empire rise and fall in a lifetime."

"That is if you play it safe. And besides, there is no guarantee anyone would want to travel for so long. Well, unless you're stuck somewhere far and returning home would take years. Felinians nowadays might not even reach 300 given how reckless some of them can be. Much like the Felinian we saved."

"Yeah, about her. How is she?"

"You can see her for yourself."

We walked and talked for a while that I forgot that we were still walking down the corridor. We reached the Felinian's living area, which was a rather modest-looking apartment that was rather big for someone living alone. There were several doors leading to several places, including a bathroom, a bedroom, and even her working area, the surgery.

Just across her living area was a window, where I could see the Felinian we saved slept soundly, wrapped in bandages. I felt sorry for her, but at the same time, I had reservations about taking her with us. Pirates had their own mindset in doing things. Unlike those romantic novels talking about their adventures or such, I knew real-life pirates were not all noble or even dashing heroes. Most were just opportunists instead of rebels. While I know some pirates were chivalrous and were just rebels, it was rather rare.

However, I knew, and the Vyrnians knew, that leaving her here was the same as sentencing her to death. The doctor Felinian, whose name was Iren Dabov, was serious about her request. It's either us or death. Our choice could be too hard for us, especially for someone whose job was to keep someone alive like Zarya. I could not live with simply abandoning her, but at the same time, I did not want her to hinder my own travel. If she was revealed to be notorious, we would be persecuted for harboring a fugitive. I did not want to go to jail just because of kindness.

Good thing I was not the only one who needed to decide. Once I finished with Iren, I walked back to the ship and talked about this decision. The others knew my dilemma. But, like good friends they were, they told me not to think about it too much and trust Iren more.

"The doctor clearly knows her criminals," said Arcturus.

Iren, who followed me as I returned to the ship, then asked, "I can tell that you're discussing her fate. Is the answer yes, then?"

"It depends on her now," said Zarya.

"I understand what you mean," said the doctor. "But until you can get a confirmation, she needs to wake up and talk to us."

Then, as if on cue, there was a beep. Iren pulled out a portable device, took a glance at it, and said, "And now, you can ask her yourself."

I followed Iren to the room, where I could see the lone patient starting to stir from her sleep. Iren checked on her status via a nearby screen as her only patient woke up. The Felinian's emerald eyes then looked at the doctor's light blue eyes, then to me.

"You're the doctor," she said. "The naked doctor. So, this is the Crossroads."

"Judging from your reaction, my guess is this is the first time you've ever been to my place. How are you doing?" said Iren.

"I'm...fine." She rubbed her ribs. "I guess?"

"Good. Now, if you have heard of me, then you have heard of how I deal with things then. I know you've just woken up, but I'll give you a deal. You'll travel with the Vyrnians and the...what's your race again?"

"I'm a human," I said.

"The human. They are the one who saved you from death."

"Traveling with them?!" The Felinian then remembered why she was in the Crossroads in the first place. "But you can't! I don't want to involve them! Michl will find me and finish what she started."

"Michl? Michl Feper?"

The Felinian nodded.

"I should've known. She's one crazy girl, isn't she? What did you do to her, anyway?"

"I...I took the fall. I shouldn't have done that," she said while cursing under her breath. "I can't believe Michl would just throw me out after I've been loyal with her for two years!"

"That's Michl Feper for you. Good thing for you, I can make a deal with her. Now, travel with them, and I can assure you that Feper will not be able to find you again, unless it's a chance encounter. Also, by giving your boss's name, I can put it in her tab. If she refuses, I...can make her life hard."

"B-but..."

"Oh, but she will pay. She got a lot of debts and a lot of enemies. I can simply call in some favors in case things go wrong. Good thing the Crossroads is a neutral ground, but it's my place and she knows it. She won't even dare shoot me if she still values her own life."

I did not know Iren was a dangerous Felinian, but later, I knew she was. Her threats were not empty.

The Felinian looked at me, then back at the doctor, and then to me. Her expression suggested that she was confused, but in the end, she relaxed, sighed, and said, "Thanks, doctor."

"Call me Iren," said Iren. "And if you need patching up, feel free to return."

"I might. It depends."

She then looked at me. "So, I guess I'm part of your crew now," she said.

"If you promise to behave," I said. "We might have a pleasant trip."

"I'll try. Can't promise on that, though," she said, smiling. "The name's Sel. Sel Kylas."

I told her my name, but then she quickly understood why Iren told her about the deal. There was a high chance that this Fepel would come to the Crossroads, knowing that it was a safe haven for the pirates. She did not bother changing into her clothes (they were damaged, anyway), and just walked with me, still covered in bandages and hospital gown, towards the ship, where Zarya and Arcturus waited. They introduced themselves before they started the ship. When it was ready for flight, I turned to Iren and said, "You do know that we might report the Crossroads, right?"

"I know you won't."

"But what if we did?"

"Trust me when I said it had happened before. Like I said, the Crossroads is a neutral place. Everyone will visit this station. However, the authorities won't even bother, anyway, and the criminals know that I will drag them down with me. I hope you won't. It would be a shame if you happen to follow me to oblivion, right?"

"Yeah. It'd be a shame."

"Anyway, you're free to go to the Crossroads. It's always here, on the same coordinates. I can give you my contacts in case you need an appointment, or just a safe port."

I ended up giving her the contact information of my tab. I later found out that she discreetly downloaded my tab's information in case we really betrayed her (thankfully, we did not). She could just sell the information to anyone who's interested on me, a unique pre-space traveler. I knew Iren was scary, but she could be even scarier if she wanted to.

We were lucky that no one came while we were traveling away from the Crossroads. Iren had told us that she was not expecting anyone, but she wasn't really that sure. In the end, we continued our travel to Vyrn with the addition of a new crewmember. Our small party grew slightly larger.

But, then, our leisurely adventure would come to an end sooner than we thought. From here on out, the mystery of Vyrn and the Exodus would haunt us, along with several twists and surpris