Chương 67: Chapter 29: Exchange

"Flint!" I yelled out, half crying as the second set of airlock doors closed behind us, sending our transporter ship gently off into the open space behind the lifeboat. I wound up and punched the wall in front of me, sending a loud ring through the little room. The pain erupting through my hand was a nice distraction from what had just happened. I left him behind. He left the ship, pretending to be me, so that I could go back to earth. I wanted him to be with me. I didn't want to feel so alone.

I wished I'd do something.

"Aaahh!" I screamed as I punched the wall again. A sliding door slammed open from near the front of the transporter.

"What's going on back here?!" came a frustrated but familiar voice.

"Abel!" I yelled out as I turned around to try to see her but my vision was clouded by tears that stuck to the front of my eyes due to the lack of gravity.

"Tess! You made it! I didn't think you were with us!" she exclaimed as I heard her approaching. I pulled the visor up, trying to wipe my tears away as best I could as she approached.

"Tess how did you… Oh… Are you okay?" she asked as she got close enough to see me properly.

"I… I don't… It all happened so fast" I stammered.

"Hold on hold on, you don't have to tell me right now" she said as she grabbed my arm and started gently pulling me through the ship as we passed a large black box and a few items strapped to the walls, including some small mecharan sculptures and to my surprise, a gravity board. We passed by it all as Abel led me over to the cockpit area. I was shaking as I kept trying to brush my tears aside. I let her guide me as I was brought past the other melodians, all of which were still inside the assembler.

She pulled me up into a familiar looking cockpit, one I recognized from when I'd left earth and when I went to lifeboat seven with Flint. A new wave of shame hit me as I imagined Flint getting dragged away, locked up, his assembler updated, forcing him into it like the others.

"Tess!" I heard Abel yell through my thoughts. I could barely breath as my body shook, my hands covering my eyes as I tried to think of anything else. A firm hand slapped the side of my face, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Gah!" I yelled, blinking as I was brought back onto the ship. Abel was looking me in the eyes as she pulled her hand back.

"Don't make me do it again" she said. I shook my head "I… Sorry… sorry" I tried to say.

"Then tell me what happened!" she said, pulling back a little.

"I… I messed up Abel" I said, shaking my head.

"Tell me what happened Tess, what has you so upset? What did you do?" she asked, the annoyed tone in her voice changing to concern. I sighed, trying to clear my thoughts enough to be able to talk.

"We… We were ambushed. The mechara. They found us. I don't know how, maybe one of the melodians told them about what we were doing, but they found us, they destroyed all the instruments…" I said, trying to keep my voice steady. Abel's expression changed from concern to anger as I told her.

"Is that what the spinnup was about?" she asked.

"Y-yeah. They used that as their opportunity to go down into sector four" I said, wiping another tear from my eye.

"That lying, backstabbing piece of shit…" she said, her hands clenching as she looked out the window at the lifeboat.

"What?" I asked.

"It wasn't one of the melodians Tess, it was Artemis" she said with rage in her voice.

"Wh-what? No, why would he do that?" I asked.

"I don't know" she said, "We were getting ready, Sedim got pulled aside by a melodian who was in the assembler. Artemis told him… Something, and suddenly there was this big rush. He told me to continue working on the preparation as he ran off, then the spinnup happened, then the assembler four got activated. Most of the other melodians were forced into the assembler but I guess Artemis didn't bother with me because I had an assignment to carry out and…

well, they told me I couldn't leave, there was some sort of emergency but I had to continue getting the ship ready with the payload. I was expecting you to show up at some point but when I didn't see you I figured you'd decided to stay."

"But why would Artemis do that? I thought he was on our side" I said, looking out at the lifeboat with Abel. Abel shook her head "I have no idea. I don't know what side he's on anymore."

"Well why don't we just ask him?" I said as I started pushing myself toward the door. She grabbed my foot, pulling me back "Don't bother. They're using the assembler four."

"What difference does that make?" I asked. She sighed, "This is what we've been trying to stop this whole time. The assembler four is different. The assembler three keeps the user in a regular state of consciousness, it's just that they feel like they're in a past memory. The assembler four slows everything down. The user is still there, but they're experiencing time slower. It's a balance between being asleep and being awake and in that state they don't process things the same way as they otherwise would.

It also means the user isn't able to be communicated through like they can with the assembler two or three."

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

"Those documents you found on lifeboat seven. The Sloan project. That's what this was all about. They wanted to make it so melodians never needed downtime anymore. The mechara see it as an advantage because to them, the melodians favorite time while they're awake is their time in the assembler. So this means they never have to leave it."

"Okay but what does Sloan have to do with any of that?" I asked.

"We're not sure. Sadly we haven't had a chance to go back to lifeboat seven to look for more files. The ones Flint grabbed were just about the assembler four" she said. I moved back into my seat, looking out the window as we passed by the large bubble that revealed the ghostly shape of lifeboat seven inside. I sighed, wondering what other secrets it held inside it. Artemis, Sloan, the assembler, along with just about everything about my past were hidden away in its depths.

"I hurt Nori" I said quietly.

"Hm?" Abel asked, turning her gaze from lifeboat seven to me.

"I… Thought she'd help us. I thought she'd help get the instruments back, shut down the assembler. I thought she'd have my back" I said as I looked down at the floor.

"Is something wrong with your back?" she asked, looking confused.

"What? Oh, no it's…" I shook my head, "I thought she'd help us." She moved next to me, grabbing my hand and holding it as we both looked out the window as lifeboat seven disappeared, making earth the only visible thing in front of us.

"Tess, you're new to this place" she said, "I understand why you didn't know about all this. But the mechara… They always disappoint. They'll always fail to stand up for us. The listeners weren't just made up of players of the gravity games. The listeners are made up of all the melodians who had the sense to realize that the system on the lifeboats were made to keep them down. The listeners are the melodians who wanted to change it. I'm sorry, but as different as Nori is, she's still a mechara.

She'll never understand what it's like to be in our situation because she's never had to see it, she's never had to experience it. She might think that things would be better if the mechara and melodians got along better, but that's as far as her thinking goes. If more mechara were like her, maybe things would be different. But as long as she's not willing to stand up for us, she's just as responsible for the mechara's actions as the rest of them."

I sighed, gripping her hand a little tighter "I guess I just thought she was different enough to help us…"

"I'm sorry Tess" she said. With a long sigh I gripped her hand a little tighter, "I asked Flint to join me on earth, but we were caught right before we left. That's why you saw me… Like that, out there. They realized I was on the ship and he… He…" I shook my head, tears starting to fill my vision again.

"He pretended to be you so you could stay here?" she asked. I nodded.

"Huh… Well that was nice of him" she said, crossing her arms. I shook my head "They took him away, now I don't know what they're going to do to him. I'm afraid they'll… They'll…"

"Tess" Abel said, squeezing my hand a little tighter "He'll be fine. I've seen him get in scuffles with the mechara more times than I can count. He practically turned it into a sport. He did what he did to help you but he knows what he's doing. He'll be fine."

"D-do you think so?" I asked, using my other hand to wipe tears out of my eyes. She nodded. I appreciated her confidence but I couldn't help but feel like she was just saying whatever she could to make me feel better.

"Oh hey, do you wanna see where we're going?" she asked. I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment "Uh, sure." She reached into a bag under the center console and unfolded a large paper world map and started unfolding it out over the dashboard.

"Okay so, our first stop is here on this little island" she said as she pointed to a small red dot that had been drawn onto the map.

"New York City?" I asked. She giggled "Oh right! I forgot you probably know where all these places are! Yeah it's our first stop, then we'll be traveling heavy over here" she said as she pointed to Austin, then we'll be…" I cut her off, "Traveling heavy?" I asked. I felt like it wasn't terribly important information, but more than anything I was happy to think about anything but what had just happened on the lifeboat.

"Oh right, it's interesting, it's the opposite here than what we're used to on the lifeboat. By traveling slower you actually get heavier, since gravity is generated by the planet it…" she started to say before I cut her off again.

"Abel what are you talking about?" I asked, feeling extremely confused.

"Uh… Well… Okay so, if you travel against earth's spin, you get heavier, because the outward momentum is less, so unlike on the lifeboats… Oh! Were you never told about that on the lifeboats?" she asked. I shook my head.

"Uh, did you ever notice that there are those big trains that travel in one direction but a bunch of little, slower trains that travel in the other direction?" she asked. I thought for a moment, "Oh, yeah I do remember that."

"Okay so, the big ones move against the rotation of the lifeboat, so by traveling on those, the faster you go, the lighter you get. The smaller ones travel with the direction of the ship, so they make you heavier. Because of that, we call one direction of travel 'light' and the other direction 'heavy.'"" Huh… But that's not really how it works on the planet. I've traveled before but I've never felt lighter or heavier" I said. Abel shook her head "It's not about actually feeling heavier or lighter. It's a direction.

Like this" she said as she pointed to the compass on the map, one finger tip on the word 'West' and the other on the word 'East.'" Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Ah I get it. Okay so, in this case, West is 'heavy' and East is 'light' right?" I asked.

"Uh, sure, if that's how those are pronounced" she said, "so after that we're going here" she pointed to Los Angeles, "Then we'll be heading across this big pool of water to here" she said as she pointed to Tokyo, "and after we go through all these places" she said pointing to a few spots throughout Europe "we'll head back up to lifeboat eight." I reached forward, pointing to Austin "This one is closest to where I lived on earth.

I think I'll get off there and make my way back home, which is up here" I said as I moved my finger up to Colorado Springs."

"Do you think the mechara will let you do that?" she asked. I shook my head "I doubt they'd be happy with it but I won't be asking for permission" I said with a firm tone. Abel patted me on the shoulder "Good, you're thinking like a listener." A small buzzer went off above us.

"What's that?" I asked. Abel reached over, pulling a seatbelt over my chest and clipping it in.

"It means we're at the fun part" she said as she pulled a similar seat belt over herself. The transporter started to shake as a faint red glow started to cover the windows. I grabbed onto the side of the seat as the shaking became more violent as sudden bursts of gravity would hit us as the wings would catch a bit of lift off the air.

As we plummeted through the atmosphere the feeling shifted from feeling like we got bursts of gravity, to feeling like we'd get bursts of weightlessness as the air got thicker and we were feeling the effects of gravity more often than not. A big smile crept across my face as the view out the front window shifted from the blackness of space to a familiar shade of blue.

"Wow!" Abel exclaimed as the nose started dipping downward, revealing the horizon "Look how far it goes!" She unbuckled and leaned up to the glass, her eyes wide, her mouth agape as she looked side to side over what must have looked like an endless landscape in front of her. As the landscape opened in front of us I could just barely hear the sound of her humming the tune of "Gimme gimme gimme" by Aba. I couldn't help but feel like it was possible for the listeners to bring music back to the lifeboats.

I smiled, unbuckling myself as I stood up next to her. It was such a familiar sight to me but to her it must have looked as strange as I thought the lifeboats were where I'd first arrived. Ahead of us I could see the New York City skyline coming into view. Abel was speechless, her eyes glued to the window as she looked down at the trees, the houses, the lakes and rivers below us. I noticed the trees were bare, which meant we were a bit later in the year than I'd thought we were. How long was I on the lifeboat?

I asked myself.

"Uh, Abel?" I asked as we were approaching the city, the large buildings coming into view as we started to fly over them.

"Hm?" she asked, her eyes not leaving the windows.

"Shouldn't you be flying this thing?" I asked.

"Oh, no it's all on autopilot. It knows where to take us" she said as we flew over the majority of the buildings. It looked like we were about to fly past it before we banked to the side and started flying along the East river.

"There they are!" Abel yelled out. I looked over to see what she was talking about and sure enough, the highway along the eastern side of Manhattan was completely filled with humans, all watching as they looked like they were holding up their cell phones to take pictures. It looked like an endless sea of people on both sides of the river, all trying to see us as we flew past them. Until I'd seen them it hadn't quite fully occurred to me that I was truly back on earth.

I was so focused on what to do next, what happened to Flint and Nori, wondering how I'd get back to Colorado Springs. I smiled as I looked around, seeing the city around me, seeing humans again, seeing the sky above me and feeling true, real gravity pulling me down. I was back on earth and I had no intention of leaving again.

The ship started to slow down as I heard the engines rotating in place, moving into a vertical position rather than horizontal as we started slowing down, the ship turning as we flew down onto a small cleared parking lot near a large grey building.

"Oh of course" I said quietly.

"What's that?" Abel asked.

"I recognize this building. It's the United Nations. Of course this would be our first stop" I said.

"Why? What is this place?" she asked.

"It's like, a big meeting place for different world leaders to get together and talk" I said.

"Oh is this where the leader of earth stays?" she asked.

"Uh… No it's… Nevermind I'll tell you about it all later" I said. The streets immediately around us were filled with people all trying to get a photo of the ship as it pulled in for a landing. I felt a small jolt in the ship as it landed, the engines slowing down as they started to shut themselves down.

"Okay okay I have to get everything ready. Tess, can you stand in your previous spot and just pretend to be one of the others? There's a whole bunch of stuff I have to do but if you just follow along I don't think anyone will notice that you're not using the assembler" she said.

"What are the other melodians supposed to be doing?" I asked.

"They're just here for the show of it, they didn't want a single melodian coming down here on their own. It doesn't matter right now, just stand in the grid and follow along. Oh, also" she said as she reached up, putting my visor down to cover my eyes. I nodded, moving back into the cargo area and getting back in my spot. The other melodians were all facing outward toward the doorway. To my dismay, there were two empty spots, one at the corner and one in the middle of it all.

I sighed as I figured Artemis had left the empty hole in the middle so the gap wouldn't be as obvious, which meant the corner was for me. Once I'd found my place the large door started to slowly open. The scent of the winter earth air filled the ship, giving me an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia for it. I heard the cars on the street, the people speaking in the distance as they saw us for the first time, the sound of helicopters flying overhead.

The group started to march forward so I did my best to keep pace with them as we entered out into the parking lot. For the first time in a long time there was nothing above me aside from a bright blue sky. The sun was at an angle, something I hadn't experienced on the lifeboats since it was always aligned with the sun. I noticed how strange it was to take note of such an obvious thing, but after spending months on board the lifeboat I found a new appreciation for the little things I'd left behind.

As we had almost fully exited the ship, the engines on the side made a loud thud noise as a burst of smoke billowed out of them, engulfing us in the thick smoke for a moment. I was a little concerned but I heard Abel behind us moving a large box out of the ship and bringing it out around us. She didn't seem concerned about it at all. I would have guessed it was normal if it wasn't for the fact that when the same type of transporter landed on earth for the first time the engines didn't do that.

The crowd started moving forward, taking me out of my thoughts as we started walking behind Abel as she pushed the large cart toward the building. As the grid of melodians reached the crowd of humans standing near the doorway they all individually turned to the left as they started making their way toward the doors. It reminded me of videos I'd seen of soldiers marching, but thankfully we weren't stepping in time with each other or I'd stand out a lot more than I felt like I already was.

I kept my head straight but under the visor I was looking up at the humans as we walked through the crowd and up to the building. I couldn't tell, but I liked to imagine that one of them was Emily. The crowd of melodians squeezed through an open double door, leading us into a large hallway as Abel guided the group through the building. I guessed she was probably shown a lot of maps of the places we'd be going ahead of time. As we filed in I noticed something strange.

After our little turn maneuver, I had found myself in the back right corner of the crowd, giving me a good look at the square grid of melodians as we marched through. I tried standing a little taller, frowning as I noticed the grid had filled itself out, there weren't any empty spots anymore. My eyes went wide as I looked to the front of the group. One, two, three, four, five I counted in my head. I then counted down along the group in front of me. One, two, three, four, and myself I counted.

It was the correct number of melodians. I stood taller again, looking over the crowd to find that each spot had been filled, with Abel leading the group as we walked out into a large open room. It was like a massive version of the auditorium from when I started teaching the melodians music. I was so focused on the melodians in front of me I hadn't noticed the humans in the seats were all standing, cheering and clapping as we walked into the the main hall. There was an eerie feeling in the air.

I counted again but got the same result. I didn't know what was happening but I needed to tell Abel. She was at the front, sliding open the back of the large box she'd wheeled into the place. Just before I was going to say something a large screen in front and behind us turned on. Despite the unnatural yet comfortingly familiar red blue and green light coming from it, I could see the image of a mechara standing in front of the camera coming through.

"People of earth" she said, each word sounding a little strained. My attention was pulled away from the melodians as I heard Nori's voice going through the building. I frowned, looking up at her as she tried to smile as she spoke. I felt like I'd overreacted. She didn't deserve to have her mural destroyed. She didn't deserve what I'd told her.

"We come in peace" she said, causing the crowd to laugh a little. I was confused, but Nori smiled as well.

"Me was told, you understand reference" she said, "But yes, we sorry for wait, we sorry for no talk for long. But many questions, your side and ours. Now we think… Path forward. For us. Many bad happened to us in past, but moving forward, we need help. We cannot stay, but with help, we continue. Supplies you give, in exchange, we give knowledge of material." Abel reached into the box, pulling out a large clear bin that looked like slabs of material.

"Iron, but stronger than diamond" she said as Abel pulled out a slab of metal.

"Plastic" Nori said as Abel pulled out a long strand of what looked like a plastic tube.

"Bend, yet no snap, no rememberence" she said as Abel twisted it into knots, then let go, having it snap back into place.

"Also strong" Nori said as Abel reached back, slapping it as hard against the box as she could, causing a loud whip-like crack to echo through the room, causing a gasp to come out of the crowd. Abel set the plastic rod down next to the iron slab.

"Many more similar. We give to you as gift, with knowledge of reproduction. This material bring mechara kind to final stages, able to build great machines like lifeboats, build small machines that fit inside body" she said. I felt a small flash of anger as I realized she was talking about the assembler. Out of the corner of my eye, a melodian balled their fists near the front of the crowd. I tilted my head. None of the other melodians had responded to it.

"Finally, main gift. It called 'Artemis Node'" Nori said as Abel reached into the box, pulling out the sphere that Flint and I had found for them on lifeboat seven.

"With this..." Nori started to say, but the video feed was cut off, the screens all turned black and the audio from Nori cut out. Abel looked up, looking confused about what had just happened. The melodian in the front stepped forward, grabbing the sphere from Abel's hand. I recognized them, they were the one that had reacted to the reference to the assembler.

"I'll be taking that" the melodian said. My eyes went wide as I heard her voice. A chill ran down my body, the entire room felt colder as I recognized the voice from my past. The woman who'd killed John. The woman who took my life away from me. She was standing right there, right in front of me. I felt like my thoughts were short circuiting. How did she get here I was asking myself. Abel stepped back, clearly recognizing her voice as well.

Sloan pulled the helmet off, revealing the split in her fur with the left half white like the older melodians, the right half a pure black, like the young ones.

"I apologize for the interruption" Sloan yelled out to the humans as she switched to English, "but this particular item is meant for me. You can keep the others. We may see about arranging for another to be…" She was cut off as Abel lunged forward, trying to grab Sloan, but she dodged, causing Abel to fall forward, landing face down on the ground next to her. The crowd gasped as Sloan smiled, looking down at Abel with a smug grin "And here I thought you'd all be too timid to stand up for yourselves."

Abel leapt up, trying to tackle Sloan once more, but Sloan was faster as she grabbed Abel's hand, twisting it backward, causing Abel to scream as she fell to the ground with Sloan stepping between her shoulder blades and holding her down. I felt like I was supposed to do something, but the fear, the cold, the helpless feeling I had as I heard the monster's voice speaking. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I could only watch in horror.

The crowd was starting to get up from their seats, filing out of the room as quickly as they could as they'd realized that things weren't exactly going the way things were supposed to happen.

"You're a monster!" Abel yelled out, sounding out of breath, "They'll never let you return to the lifeboats!" Sloan laughed, tossing the Artemis node up and down in her hand.

"Why would I ever want to go back to that prison?" she asked as she looked at the node "no no, I'm not here for that. I have to say though, I'd given up hope on you lot a long time ago. It's good to see you lasted just long enough for me to see you off." My eyes were locked on Abel, it looked like she couldn't breath, her struggling was slowing as Sloan held her to the ground. I had to do something. I had to stop her.

"But hey, today's just full of surprises isn't it. After all I never thought I'd see my old friend again" she said, switching to English halfway through the sentence. I looked up from Abel to find Sloan looking me dead in the eyes. Her green and blue eyes starring into me as my fear swelled inside me. My muscles tensed, I couldn't move, I couldn't breath as her evil glare felt like it was tearing through my very soul.

"So what brought you back?" Sloan asked, continuing to speak English. She took a step forward as Abel choked down a deep breath.

"Did you not find what you were looking for? After all that work, after everything you did, after all the harm you caused, did you decide it wasn't worth it anymore? Did you think you could just return to…" Abel reached out, grabbing Sloan's leg and yanking it toward her. For the first time, Sloan seemed caught off guard as she stumbled forward. In a moment of clarity I ran forward, barreling through the crowd of melodians and grabbing the Artemis node as it fell from Sloan's hand.

I didn't know what Sloan wanted to do with it but whatever it was, it wasn't good. Tucking it under my arm, I started running, using my legs and one arm as I held the node with my other arm. There was a scuffle behind me as I ran as quickly toward the doors as my legs could take me. As I neared the doors I heard a scream come from the stage and quickly start traveling toward me. It was Abel, but for some reason the scream was coming from above.

Abel crashed into the table next to me, shattering the wood as she went tumbling end over end to the ground. She gasped but waved me forward.

"Go! Run!" She yelled as she started to get up. I glanced behind me to find Sloan running up between aisle. Without moment wasted I ran through the doors, closing them behind me as Abel pressed in from the inside. A loud bang rang through the doors as Sloan collided with them as the two continued to fight. I didn't have much time. I had to run.