Close Encounters of the Bus Kind

[Epilogue]

“This is cruel! This is icky! You can’t keep me in here like this! I can feel the goo oozing out of the meat! It reeks! And the only thing worse than these disgusting fatty lumps are the wretched holes everywhere! No wonder you all rot in less than a century!”

Tonya’s hands burned and the blue energy field shimmered as she beat against her cell. She pushed as long as she could stand before finally staggering back onto her bed. The cell was pure white with a small table and bookshelf she had already torn apart, flinging the books across the floor. She had also tossed the toiletries and soap into a corner but had eventually needed to use them. Tonya scowled at the shower and toilet combo in the other corner.

The door down the hall hissed open. Nadia entered dressed in a blue uniform which she hadn’t managed to keep lint off of, with her brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail.

Tonya turned and sneered. “Come to watch me produce waste products? It’s all this meat bag does.”

“Uh…Surprisingly, no. I’m just here to talk.” Nadia grimaced and held her hands in front of her.

“Gum flapping. What about?”

Ruth had instructed Nadia to be patient and not let emotions one way or another rule this conversation. She pulled up a seat across from the force field enclosing the cell. Tonya struck against it with her hand, but Nadia didn’t flinch.

“We still have a lot of questions, after everything. Everyone’s settling in. Leslie is flying high…”

——

Leslie sat patiently in the infirmary chair as Doctor Quail affixed small probes to her forehead and explained, ”We’re going to try to highlight the pattern of your telepathy so we can tap into and direct it for your benefit. Just relax…”

She did her best, but she was antsy. Requisitions Department had just delivered a flight suit to keep her warm and comfortable at high altitude and she couldn’t wait to try it out.

—-

“Eva is in good spirits…”

—-

Evangeline set a hand on her forehead as she gazed at the crystalline screen for the library info search. She had phrased her query so many different ways and yet the same thing kept popping up.

“No results, historical records - JANICE NESBITT.”

Not that that was going to stop her from digging. She had to know…

—-

“Tatiana is an inspiration…”

—-

Tatiana spun in place and scampered down the hallway, then embarrassedly checked to make sure no one saw her, as she left her therapy session. Her family frowned on this kind of thing at home, but Beyond provided her with just the boost of confidence she needed and her therapist told her that she was getting better at controlling her transformations. He hadn’t gone invisible all day!

—-

“Sasha is over the moon about what she’s able to do…”

—-

In a darkened, quiet bedroom, a young person looked up. The rough and manly reflection they’ve seen their entire life is mystically and slowly replaced by soft features and a beautiful shape.

“Oh, Goddess! How?…Oh, thank you…”

Hiding just across the Veil, Sasha bounced on her toes with an effusive smile. Her trainer, standing next to her, gave a quiet thumbs up.

—-

“And Gina and Louise are…. Well… the usual…”

—-

Gina whistled to herself while she held her phone and kept one EarPod in as she listened to the latest episode of her favorite podcast. She gave a thumbs up to Louise on the other side of the room and her twin returned it. A second twin climbed out from underneath the desk and brushed her hair back. A third unfolded a poster and passed it to Gina.

It took several tacks and a few staples but the poster held steady on the wobbly, white wall. Even Louise came over to appraise it.

It was a single shot of the Moon, about four feet across and starkly vivid with desolate craters and rocky crags against the black of space.

Several Ginas set their arms on their hips and sighed.

“One small step closer…”

—-

“But Odessa has been totally unexpected…”

—-

Odessa moved all her belongings into the small, blue quarters. Compared to her family’s house, this is so tiny. So perfect. She appreciated where she came from, but she needed to make it on her own. College was inevitably coming and she was going to step out of the shadow of her family name.

With just a little bit of practice, her illusions were getting more convincing and approaching artistic clarity. Ruth hinted that if she had even better control of them, then she might be able to obtain a pass to freely and publicly create them.

—-

“Thessaly is the strongest person I know and not just her muscles…”

—-

Exuberantly, Thessaly hauled the entire crate into the Beyond cafeteria while she whistled. The soup for lunch was coming along nicely. And she already had a list made out to give to her superior of entrées that she wanted to try out for next week’s meals. Dr. Quail was still testing her astral projection skill but considering her for a myriad of special roles.

—-

“Elsa is just as amazing…”

—-

Giggling and hugging her instructor, Elsa marveled that she had been able to double her size. It was the most intense exercise she’d ever done but it was also paying off at home as she scored three straight points for the team. And she still had enough energy at the end of the day to scream into the little disks that captured her sonic energy.

—-

“Audrey practically has her own zoo…”

—-

Brushing down the greasy feathers of the four-legged, rounded brown wrestic, Audrey knew she couldn’t use her entire break to pet the lovely critter…but just two more minutes!

Long aspiring to be a vet, she had to admit that this job totally spoiled her for that. She worked with extinct, super rare, and wiped from existence animals sheltered for protection and possible reintroduction. She just had to be careful not to turn into one of them on a slow day. Erin was looking for a sociable pet to make friends with Bubsy and she had just the one in mind.

—-

“Marisol has really taken to the organization of this place…”

—-

She squeezed in between the file cabinets with ease and firmed up to push one over. Her family came from a long line of administrators and this was the most comfortable thing for her. How could one top keeping an entire world in order?

—-

“And Erin… she’s…amazing.”

—-

Erin bounced around obstacles and held herself in place as she mounted over the largest one. She couldn’t rely on space crabs to keep her body healthy. It was her responsibility now. And she would do better this time. Better in every facet. Better for Nadia and better for everyone.

She pulled down the drawbridge with a thought and sprinted across it. The monsters better watch out for her…

—-

“…Why do you think I care?” Tonya hissed.

Nadia sighed and shrugged. “You spent years together.”

“Mere moments to my kind. We’re not even old until we’re one-hundred thousand. Our civilization has a billion years on anything you’ve ever known. I spent most of my preparation time turning off my awareness so I wasn’t bored to death by the lot of you.”

“… How did you manage to show up at the bus around the same time we were there?”

”Serendipity. Like everything else. My species has all the luck. That’s why I’m going to escape, and you’ll never know how I did it.”

“Unlikely. We know you had help. Who was it?”

Tonya gave a noisy yawn. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Too tired of all this biological crap. Why do you waste so much time sleeping? Useless.”

Nadia tried to press her further and then come at it more slowly. Each time, Tonya digressed about her farts, about having to dunk herself in the water, and the jiggly pointlessness of boobs.

“I’m never going to have any kids. Might as well hack them off. We reproduce purely. You just shit out a scramble of random genetics and hope for the best.”

Nadia folded her arms. “Your kind don’t have a soul.”

“Yep. Never needed one.” Tonya snorted preemptively, anticipating whatever Nadia was going to say.

“But now you’re organic. You’re mortal. Whatever Grey technology that would’ve continued your existence… no longer works. When you die… you die. That’s it. For sure. Nothing else.”

Tonya scowled and wavered on her feet a little. She cleared her throat, “And…?”

“I feel… sorry for you. That’s all.”

Leaning forward so that her face almost touched the force field, Tonya growled, “I don’t care…”

Getting to her feet, Nadia sighed and remarked, “Clearly. It was nice talking to you though. It’s a shame we couldn’t share more. I can bring in a video screen or some other entertainment. There’s Wi-Fi. The password is just B3y0nd, capitalized with a three for the E and a zero for the O. They have Disney+.”

Tonya bent over and stuck out her tongue. “As if I want to indulge in Reptillian-crafted tripe making your brains rot even more than usual. Hard pass.”

Nadia pressed her lips together. “Reptilians, huh? Guess I’ll have to tell Gina she was right. Well, if there’s not anything else…?”

The response to that question came in the form of Tonya showing off her middle digits. “Right,” Nadia responded. “I do hope you have a good day. See you around.”

As soon as she was out of the room, Nadia slouched and fanned her outfit. Ruth was pushing her to be more active, confident, and take charge of stuff, especially when it came to Tonya. But this felt wrong. She missed the simplicity of driving a dune buggy off-road or safely guiding drowsy travelers through the night to their destination. When she was old enough to get her license again, she had plans.

Time ambled and then shot ahead in Beyond. They could spend what felt like forever doing something here and return to waking with just moments having passed in their lives. Somehow, it was already the end of January despite it feeling like Beyond had their Christmas decorations up not too long ago. Valentine’s Day was coming, and she already had fun plans for what to surprise Erin with.

Back home, Argentina won the World Cup. Her dad loved the partially-real stargazing photo and honestly wanted to build an observatory adjacent to one of the restaurants. Her mom made little overtures of kindness by helping her through a peanut butter ganache dessert parfait recipe for Odessa. Luna was still in a weird sort of limbo concerning Beyond, but she kept quiet and pressed her arms close to her big sister’s side. And her birthday was coming up after Thanksgiving and it was one she was looking forward to for the first time in ages.

But…back to work for now…

—-

Tonya gave an irritated belch of disgust and found some level of revolted amusement as her loud burp filled the air after finishing her meal. She shoved the tray in the corner but cocked her head to the side when something fell off it. It was a tiny gray sliver, like a square pencil lead. Like something she’d seen before.

Checking around the rest of the cell and peering out, she saw that no one was around. Disguising the motion with a stretch, she snatched the square and popped it in her mouth behind the back molars. This worked so much better when she was synthetic but she managed to position it to transmit sound.

A voice filled her head, a familiar voice.

“You failed.”

“Yes. I did, sir, I did. But there were complications. She was too highly developed. They overwhelmed me.” Tonya kept her voice to a mutter, as though she were arguing with herself.

“I made sure you knew where they would be at the most important times. You didn’t do your job.”

Tonya stumbled and fumbled through a myriad of excuses and explanations and details of the complexity of all the work she had to put in and the odds she was facing with this group and how they had outside help and how even her backdoors into Beyond didn’t solve everything.

“Is it still one? A backdoor…”

Clearing her throat, Tonya managed quietly, “Yes. Definitely. Probably. I burned one of them, but... should be fine. If they found all of them, then they would’ve said.”

“Then you’re not completely useless. I’ll take it from here.”

The square started to burn and itch in her mouth, which was the telltale sign that it was self-destructing. “Wait! You gotta get me restored somehow. I can’t stay organic. I’m losing my mind. It’s all goopy and gross and disgusting.”

“No. You failed. Your kind would never even take you back. They didn’t care about you before anyway. There’s a lesson to be learned here and you have to learn it…”

Tonya cursed and spat the foul remains of the communicator into the toilet as she flushed it.

“Fuck you. And fuck your lessons…”

—-

Eva had been distracted for hours since finally getting situated at the check-in desk of the Beyond library. She wasn’t the only link in the security net, but she was currently the weakest. Several academics, geeks, and medical professionals, who she had never seen before, passed by her desk and were scanned in with identification to see the reserved items. She couldn’t have told anyone what they looked like.

Her searches were getting closer, focusing on sudden appearances and anachronistic tales along with medieval accounts and copious folklore. She had learned far more than she ever wanted to know about the etymological history of the surname Nesbitt and how it meant a land bend in the river. But she felt like she was getting close as she glanced up at a completely inconspicuous young woman with hair even blacker than Tonya’s.

Suspicion only crossed her mind for a few seconds before she scanned the card, got a confirmation, and wished the woman “good hunting” in the archives.

That woman slipped back through the rows, turning and twisting and shifting beyond the scope of so many monitoring devices. The ones that mattered blipped out at exactly the right and wrong time. When it was safe, the façade slipped away to reveal a gaunt, thin man with pale, pasty skin awkwardly wearing a suit not meant for him. His pants legs were bunched up. He looked frail and pathetic. His dark, marble eyes scrutinized every corner as he brushed back his greasy black hair.

Agent Cross to some. Carren Cross to others.

But he was Cerberus. All of him… Scattered to the winds of the multiverse because he underestimated his foe. Never again. He learned his lesson.

This time, he would win before they ever realized they faced him. He pushed on the nearest door and quietly slipped inside.

[THE RED ROCK RIDERS WILL RETURN]

=====

As you might’ve suspected from the style of this epilogue, this story will also have a follow-up segment. I’ve received many wonderful suggestions, even the idea of a docile veil monster who might become a pet.

I would like to explore all sorts of possibilities with Tonya and the girls who were not fully developed because of the size of this story’s cast. I’m excited for telling stories of teenagers balancing life, school, and whatever responsibilities Beyond brings them in the [FROM BEYOND] arc. I am looking forward to mixing and mingling genres. Historical romance might be an interesting possibility.

It may flirt with several genres, as well as continue the character development established here.

Next week is the fourth arc and narrative in the series and it’s going to be quite interesting. There are some introductory segments I’m not sure how I’m going to present. Also, it may have small interludes following side characters. The main storyline is “A Brand New Goth Girl” in the [Transform the Dorm] arc.

Get ready to meet Beatrice. This upcoming storyline is not going to be as intense as the previous one, but I make no promises that you won’t cry. I’m not even sure how directly connected it will be to what’s come before, but it’s a story in the same multiverse that I am looking forward to telling.

No poll this time.