My 1000-years love

Chapter 9

So, according to Diarth, the structure of the ship was an elongated oval. At one end was the captain’s cabin, from which an elevator could take you to the bridge on the floor above. The large window in his cabin continued up to the bridge. However, it wasn’t really a window, but a part of T-GInArA’s body, which she kept transparent for her passengers. She could do this with any part of her inorganic body, turning the ship into a completely transparent attraction for exhibitionists, or even becoming invisible on many perception frequencies for the various races of the Third Universe. Speaking of universes, from the wise-beyond-his-years Diarth, I also learned that our universe isn’t the only one.

Universes are cyclical areas of space that seem infinite because of this. At the same time, they have definite boundaries, membranes that only the most advanced races can cross, and only in extreme cases.

“To which the Raiuarath race belongs,” Diarth concluded proudly, as if he himself belonged to it. “In fact, crossing the boundaries of universes happens very rarely. Only a few hundred times in our recorded history. It causes too much membrane disturbance, which negatively affects the entire gravitational field. But we find places of least resistance to increase the number of contacts!”

“We’ve already made contact with representatives of the Fourth Universe! I had the highest honor of feeling the presence of the Allerain wind. They say they originally populated the highest planet, Allianaat. Our race of Allions is named in their honor. We are their very ancient, densified descendants. They say their cosmos isn’t black! The density of star clusters is so high that there are almost no black areas of space. Can you imagine, Haag? And despite what you might think, it’s not that hot there!”

Honestly, I wasn’t thinking about the temperature of an unknown universe at all. Diarth reminded me of an enthusiastic puppy. It was hard to find a more knowledge-filled and eager-to-share teacher. He didn’t even notice when he started calling me Haag casually. He just continued to overflow with saliva, talking about the First Universe, filled only with rainbow energies, with no empty space at all. Beings with our density simply dissolve there, joining the general dance of rainbow streams.

“So it’s better not to go there. But visiting the Second and Fourth Universes is quite possible! From the Second – we also call it the Grey Universe – unauthorized ships from the Lower Planets often fly in. We call them that because they have no concept of good and evil at all, can you imagine? Everything they do is aimed at consumption and enrichment!”

“How familiar,” I thought grimly.

“And they are very dense. Even denser than you Earthlings. By the way,” he continued, “Earth is right on the edge of the Third Universe, where the membrane boundary with the Second is very thin, and its crossing often goes unnoticed by the Universal Conclave! But it’s not just them who fly there. There is an entirely official Spaceport of the United Intergalactic Fleet on Earth!”

“Diarth, sorry, but I think we’ve been circling the same corridor for the third time. Is it looped?”

“Oh, yes, sorry, I got carried away. We need to turn left at the next corner, and we’ll be in the common hall.”

Just like a medieval castle, I thought.

“There is a general meeting of the ship’s crew there, but not every day. Every evening everyone gathers to chat and relax. We even have something like a bar there. Sometimes even with dancing!” Diarth rolled his eyes dreamily.

Great! Not just a ship, but a flying night club for aliens.

“Do they serve drinks?” I asked.

“What?” My guide blinked.

“Alcoholic drinks. I wouldn’t mind some right now. And lots of it.”

“Oh, that. Yes, of course, but it’s not too encouraged. Service!” He spread his arms.

“How many crew members are on the ship?”

“Around a hundred.”

I whistled again. “And I thought the ship wasn’t very big – we haven’t walked that long. Though to be honest, I’m not great at orienting in closed spaces.”

“We’ve only been circling the upper deck. It’s the smallest, for the command and close associates. There are two lower levels for regular crew members: scientific specialists and military units. Another deck is for cargo transport and weapons storage. And the ship’s transportation systems are in the tail.”

It turned out that from the stern of the ship extended two elongated, pointed tails, between which controlled annihilation of matter and antimatter occurred at the necessary moments. The tail also housed regular neutron engines, but they were concealed within the body of the Gravinid for added safety.

In a few moments, we indeed found ourselves in the central hall, and I was once again struck by the size of the rooms on this ship. It resembled an amphitheater. The ceiling height was three stories. Three tiers of balconies stretched in a semicircle, leading to all three habitable decks. We stepped out on the top level. Diart invited me onto a gravity platform, which gently delivered us down.

“This is for regular crew members. Raaths don’t need it – they can teleport!”

“Wow, then why do they even fly on ships? They could just teleport from one planet to another.”

Diarth glanced at me, puzzled.

“But that’s only possible within the same gravitational density. And for distances no more than 12 miles,” he said this as if it were self-evident.

“Really? That’s not much.”

Diarth gave me another bewildered look.

On the “arena” below, closer to the wall opposite the semicircle of balconies, there was a dais with several massive chairs. In the center stood the most ornate and gigantic of them all. A kind of high-tech throne.

“That’s for the emperor, I suppose?” I asked with a touch of irony. “He doesn’t have any issues with grandeur.”

“What can you do, protocol can be useful sometimes. After all, we make contact with many delegations and civilizations. This is also where justice is administered. The crew is large, and although it’s made up of the best of the best specialists and soldiers, some incidents still happen. Just recently, for example, there was a fight between a biological block engineer and a triarius from one of the special forces cells. They destroyed half the mess hall!” Diart chuckled. “And since it was a direct violation of the United Intergalactic Fleet’s charter, they had to be judged. The triarius was even put in the brig. T-GInArA said after research that he’s now unreliable. He’ll have to stay there until we return to Tauanir.”

“An entire year in solitary confinement? Or even longer now? Won’t the guy go completely nuts? Maybe he’s not that bad?” I asked, addressing Diarth, who seemed not to enjoy gossiping.

“That’s what the trial is for. Perhaps, after some time, the Archon will reconsider his decision. But for now, he has decreed it so.”

“And what did the guys fight over?” I inquired, curious despite Diarth’s reluctance to gossip.

“Well, the engineer had been bragging for a long time that the Quidek race lacked brains and was only suitable for cannon fodder, so he got what was coming to him. Now he’s in the medbay with a severe concussion. But name-calling isn’t prohibited by the charter, while maiming the scientific staff is. Especially considering that they have memory and AI chips implanted in their brains, which helps them process information faster. So, Trin was found more at fault. He beat the guy up pretty badly and didn’t respond to orders when the Archon arrived. That was totally unacceptable. So, they suspected malfunctions in his frontal lobes.”

Diarth suddenly fell silent, as if a switch had been flipped, and turned with a bow, not raising his head. Standing at the entrance of the lower deck was the Archon. How could Diarth sense him with his back turned? Seeing Sgannar made my heart pound and rise to my throat.

“Thank you, Diarth, I’ll take it from here,” Sgannar nodded unexpectedly amiably.

“Yes, Ancient One. Arhaite Haagnarath,” Diarth addressed me, “if you need anything, just contact me through this communicator.” Still bowing obsequiously, as if he wasn’t just a carefree, chatty boy, he handed me a lightweight but broad bracelet with a touchscreen.

“It’s multifunctional, but unfortunately, the language implants can’t teach you our writing immediately. So for now, I’ve set it up to contact only me. You can communicate with the Ancient One through your thoughts.”

I nodded, somewhat confused, and added, “By the way, Diarth, you’ve been calling me just Haag without any ‘Arhaite’ for half an hour now and addressing me informally if you didn’t notice. Keep doing that. As I said,” I looked straight into Sgannar’s eyes, “I’m not your ‘Arhaite.’”

Diarth silently bowed and left without a sound.

Sgannar raised one eyebrow. It looked impressive, and he surely knew it.

“Rejecting the title? But that’s how it is now, you are officially my other half,” the Archon said, approaching. He was about sixteen inches taller than me. Looking up to meet his eyes, I couldn’t help but feel like a little girl and thought about how safe and protected one must feel when such a massive mountain of muscle and power gently embraces you. Shaking off the illusion, I raised my eyebrows too – yeah, I can do that as well. We could even compete to see who can raise them higher. But I didn’t feel like arguing.

“Come on, have breakfast in the common area. It’s lunchtime now anyway. I’ll introduce you to the entire crew.” And he turned to leave.

“Wait, Sgann…” for some reason, his full name got stuck in my throat. “I just wanted to say that I shouldn’t have said what I said out loud yesterday. I understand I caused you irritation and deeply regret it.”

Sgannar looked at me with faint surprise.

“Hmm… it seems I’ll have to learn to deal with humans. Quite surprising. Come on,” he offered his hand.

Looking at his large, open palm, I felt the confusion of a first-grader. I both wanted to and completely sincerely did not want to touch it. When he grew tired of waiting, he simply grabbed me and led me to the exit of the forum.

“This is called a ‘forum,’ not an ‘arena.’”

I stopped again and, quite unexpectedly even for myself, exploded:

“Yes. Stop. Just. Stop. Reading. My. Mind! Get out of my head and don’t ever read my thoughts without permission! You will only enter it again when I allow you!” I screamed in a voice not my own. At that moment, the scene before my eyes began to blur and then clear repeatedly. The space around my body became so dense that it felt like an invisible jelly, in which I felt very warm and safe. When everything calmed down, the “jelly” dispersed, and I thought I had a hallucination from the modifier’s side effects. However, when I looked up at my captor, he was smiling.

“You took a bit of time to learn that. Not bad.”