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I WANTED to thank Ray and Valcas for trying to protect me during the Uproar’s attack on the jet. But by the time I turned around from looking out the window, Valcas had already gone outside.
I watched as Ray pulled himself up off the floor, shaken and visibly upset. Later, I thought, after he’s had time to recover from what just happened. I couldn’t imagine what images Ray had recorded in his mind from the attack.
After exiting the aircraft, I found that the bridge ascended from grounds covered with wild grasses on both sides. One side spread out to a large open field. The other side looked like a campground with a fire pit and a small wooden building.
I breathed in the still, grassy air.
Ivory led us to the side with the building; a small cabin built out of logs, and motioned for us to go inside. There were two rooms, both unfurnished. The larger front room opened to a back room that had a window but no door. I glanced down at the floor. Like the sod hut, the ground in the cabin looked hard and cold.
As I studied the cabin, I suspected that the elements of the Nowhere were significant only to Ivory, who had brought us there.
Ivory waited, with her hands on her hips, until everyone got their fill of looking around and then called for a meeting in the front room. She picked up a couple of sleeping bags in the corner. Throwing one to Valcas and the other to Ray, she said, “We’ll be safe for the night. You two will sleep in here. Calla and I get the adjoining room.
“There’s a campsite outside where we’ll prepare and eat dinner. You’ll find a change of underclothing wrapped in the sleeping bags. There are no showers here, so feel free to wash in the river.”
Ray smirked at Ivory’s last remark, which he seemingly tried to hide by hurriedly unpacking his sleeping bag in a corner of the front room.
“Tomorrow we will begin our search for Plaka,” Ivory said, ruffling her hands through her short white hair. “We’ll start with his homeland, which is what I had planned for today, but—well, we all know how that turned out. From there, we’ll look for leads.”
I raised an eyebrow. “You mean we’re going to Earth?”
Ray looked up from his sleeping bag. Almost simultaneously, Ivory creased her forehead and frowned. So did Valcas.
“Plaka isn’t from Earth,” Valcas said.
“But I thought— Wasn’t that where you met him?” I stuttered. “His name—isn’t it Greek?”
The silence that ensued answered my question. We weren’t going to Earth. Tonight, we would stay at the cabin, Ivory’s Nowhere, to regroup.
My father was from another world. Who knew what news tomorrow would bring.
***
I TOOK EXTRA TIME TO lay out my sleeping bag and reorganize my backpack. No one seemed to mind. I assumed they thought I was also shaken up by the Uproar incident, and that they were trying to give me space. I was probably more worked up than I’d realized. It had all happened so fast. I wasn’t sure what to feel.
I blinked dust from my eyes and took another look around the small back room that I was supposed to share with Ivory.
A tiny window carved through the wooden walls caught my eye. It held a colored piece of glass that cast an eerie blue light into the room. For whatever reason, that made me feel lonely. I craved being outside and, strangely enough, the company of my team.
I double-checked to make sure the travel glasses were securely placed inside my backpack and left the cabin to join the others.
Outside, I found Ivory and Ray sitting by a pile of wood, watching Valcas kindle a fire. His hands moved automatically, as if he’d done this many times, but his forehead was creased; he was clearly thinking about something else. Eventually, he looked up at Ivory.
“The Uproar has been catching up with us more quickly,” he said. “We can’t afford to have something like that happen again, especially when we’re up in the air. It’s too dangerous.”
Ray sighed. “It’s not following us... at least not right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“It didn’t follow us here. For some reason it retreated after the jet’s engine caught fire. I think the fire repelled the Uproar. Ivory’s good, but she didn’t outrun it.”
Valcas’ eyebrows furrowed momentarily, but he didn’t argue. “We’ll need to inspect the jet.”
“It’s not necessary,” interjected Ivory. “If it’s the engine, then we won’t be able to repair it ourselves. I noticed something going wrong, but I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. That’s why I brought us here. Ray seemed too distracted to fill in additional details...”
Ivory frowned and looked at me. “Calla, follow me, please.”
Together, we walked across the bridge, past the jet and into the clearing on the other side where there was a landing strip. Ivory narrowed her eyes, squinting off in the distance.
I followed her gaze. There was something out there, a bright blue object, at the other end of the strip.
“Ah, good. It’s here. It’s not a commissioned TSTA vehicle,” Ivory said as we decreased the distance between us and the object. “But we seem to be beyond that now. I could tell from the controls and monitors that the TSTA jet had been damaged from the inside, so I brought us here, to a Nowhere, by searching for several things all at once—this bridge near where I grew up, the cabin I’d lived in while in the Aborealian Armed Forces, and my very first training jet.”
The blue object came into focus and grew larger as we drew nearer. Once we were standing right next to it, at the far end of the landing strip, Ivory carefully looked over the bright blue jet.
“So then traveling with vehicles is a lot like traveling with the glasses. It requires a search?”
“I’ve never used an object that wasn’t a vehicle manufactured specifically for time travel; but, from what I’ve heard, the way you put it sounds about right.” She patted the side of the jet. “This old thing will have to do for now.”
“What is the significance of the river?” I asked as we walked back. “I know that a river should be flowing, but its stillness means we are in a Nowhere. Like Edgar’s workshop in the woods, specific details such as his favorite car and Shirlyn’s brook were built into the Nowhere, which may have been a made-up place sometime before that. This river must be important to you.”
Ivory smiled. “Yeah, well, we all have things that are important and meaningful to us.” She put her arm around my shoulders as we walked back to camp. “You’ve learned a lot in a short time. You’re... insightful. I can see why Valcas has grown fond of you.”
Ivory’s last comment made me groan, which of course made her laugh.
By the time we returned to the campsite, Valcas had a cozy fire going. Ray sat on a sleeping bag that he’d unfolded and spread out like a picnic blanket. Smiling, he invited me to sit down next to him.
Valcas glared at us from the other side of the fire as I gratefully accepted. His voice, usually so smooth, was now gritty with jealousy. “Don’t get too comfortable, Technician. Give me one more reason to chaperone you and you’re gone.”
Ivory chuckled as she threw a log onto the fire. “You’re just grumpy because you didn’t think of something like that first. Nice move, Ray.”
I cringed, embarrassed, and looked over at Ray to gauge his response. His dark blue eyes, brightened by the campfire, were intently watching Ivory. I looked up in her direction. Flames flickered, lighting up her white hair just as strongly as they reflected off Valcas’ dark glasses.
I couldn’t tell whether Ray was pretending to ignore the conversation, recording Ivory tending the fire or thinking about something else. Just when I thought he’d zoned out completely, he spoke.
“What if we were to extinguish the Uproar by finding a way to surround it, by backing it into a corner?” Ray’s voice was quiet but tense.
“Excuse me?” Ivory asked, the steady blaze of the fire dancing in her eyes.
“I think we could confuse the Uproar by backing it into a large body of fire. It would resist going forward.”
“The only large body of fire I’ve heard of is the Fire Falls,” said Ivory.
“The Fire Falls?” I echoed.
Valcas nodded. “I suppose it could work. The Uproar is a sentient being, but I’m not sure it understands that it’s possible to get to the other side of the Fire Falls.”
Ivory’s mouth dropped open. “You can do that?”
Valcas stared at me through the flames for an uncomfortably long period time and then twitched slightly, but obviously enough to attract attention.
“What is it, Valcas?” Ivory asked.
“If the Uproar resists fire, then even if the Uproar could not be destroyed, the other side of the Falls would be an excellent place to escape. I can’t think of a better hiding place.”
“So you think—” Ivory said, wide-eyed.
Valcas nodded. “Calla, your father just might be alive.”