Shelby and Shauna Kitt and the Dimensional Holes. P. H. C. Marchesi

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ eyes nearly filled with tears as Marina gave him an affectionate hug, and it struck Marina that she was in danger of crying also.

      “We better go,” she said, turning quickly to Lendox. “Where’s that ship of yours?”

      The mirian vice consul tapped his ear for a moment, and then turned to Charlie.

      “Do not be frightened by what you see,” he said. “You will be perfectly safe, and so will we.”

      Charlie nodded, looking thoroughly alarmed. Marina briefly wondered what Lendox might be talking about, but she was just too eager to get to the White House to bother with any more questions just then.

      “So how do we get in the roomix?” she asked.

      “It reads my energy signature, and whatever is attached to me. Here,” he said, stretching out his hand, “if you hold on to me, you will be able to get in. Are you ready?”

      It occurred to Marina that she had been ready her whole life, and yet no one had ever asked her that. With a growing smile on her face, she gave Lendox her hand. Everything around her immediately began to melt away, and she felt extremely dizzy as the shapes in the room became unrecognizable, and then disappeared completely under a soft, blue light.

      “Here we are,” Lendox said, firmly holding her hand. “It is a disorienting experience the first time, but one soon gets used to it.”

      After a few moments of leaning against the vice consul, Marina found that she was able to focus again. She saw that she was in a curved space made of something that looked like blue glass. There were no seats, but the floor had pillows of different shapes and sizes all around. In fact, there seemed to be nothing in there but pillows and space.

      “I guess you weren’t kidding about the pillows,” she said, laughing. “This is like a lounge area, but without any furniture. I’d never guess it’s a ship.”

      “It is not a ship, though perhaps it resembles one to you,” he said. “This is actually the most advanced roomix model we have.”

      Marina noticed that Lendox’s eyes looked intensely blue under the light of the roomix. He struck her as more human all of a sudden – even his hair did not seem quite as outrageous as before.

      “If this is just a room,” she said, sitting down and realizing that the floor was as soft as foam, “where’s the ship?”

      “It is taking us there,” said Lendox, sitting down next to her.

      “Right now? I don’t feel anything!”

      “The roomix is designed that way.”

      “Then how do you know you’ve arrived?” she asked, feeling more confused than ever.

      “The lights turn yellow if you are going to a public place,” explained Lendox. “If you are paying a visit to someone, however, you must wait until the lights turn pink.”

      “Why?”

      “Because pink indicates that the person you are visiting has accepted your invitation by touching the roomix,” explained Lendox. “That is when you walk out.”

      “Can’t you just walk out anyway?”

      “Well, yes,” said Lendox, surprised at her suggestion, “but that would be rude.”

      Marina silently laughed at the thought that aliens who could travel across dimensions were actually worried about politeness.

      “Since we’re talking about being polite, should I call you vice consul?”

      “No,” said Lendox, smiling. “Vice consul is a title I have not held for very long, and which does not truly define who I am. Please, call me by the only name I have, which is Lendox.”

      “You don’t have a family name?”

      “No. On Miriax, everyone has only a single name.”

      “But what if two people have the same name?”

      “No newborn is allowed to be given a name that already exists,” explained Lendox, simply. “No two people are the same, so no two people have the same name.”

      “It must be impossible for parents to come up with a name that hasn’t been used,” said Marina, shocked.

      “Only if they are not creative.”

      Marina was about to say that there would be chaos on Earth if every name had to be original, but the lights of the roomix turned yellow and then pink, and Lendox quickly got up.

      “They have accepted our invitation,” he said. “Shall we go? The consul is not very patient.”

      “How do we get out?” Marina asked, scanning for a door as Lendox reached for her hand. “I don’t see an exit.”

      “There is no door yet,” said Lendox. “Once we walk into the wall, the wall becomes the door. We call it fluix technology. Do not let go, or you may be stuck inside the wall.”

      Marina tightened her grip on Lendox’s hand, and followed him straight through the wall. Everything around her became distorted again. She saw an emerald blur as she walked, but it disappeared before she could identify what it was.

      “We have arrived,” whispered Lendox, coming to a halt. ”You should recover your vision more quickly this time.”

      Marina leaned on the vice consul as her eyes struggled to focus. Within a few seconds, she realized that she was in the oval office of the White house. The president stood off to one side, talking to a remarkably tall, older mirian woman with short gray hair styled upwards just like Lendox’s. She wore a black jacket embroidered with gold lines, and which displayed five red and gold buttons. As she talked to the president, three other men wearing military uniforms looked rather tensely in her direction.

      “Oh – there she is! Hello, Ms. Gibbs,” the president said, stepping forward to shake her hand. “Glad you could make it so soon. Let me introduce you to Astrax, Consul of Miriax.”

      The president gestured politely to the tall woman, who blinked in recognition and bowed her head slightly. Marina warmly stretched out her hand, but Astrax did not take it.

      “Apparently, they do not think it is not polite to impose one’s energy field onto another person’s,” the president told Marina. “They consider handshakes to be intrusive.”

      “Sorry,” said Marina, awkwardly. “I didn’t know. Seems kind of illogical, though. I mean, you hold someone’s hand to get into their roomix, but you won’t shake their hand?”

      “It does seem completely unreasonable,” said Lendox, good-naturedly. “No wonder tourists get so confused on Miriax.”

      Astrax, seeing Lendox smile, gave him a disapproving look.

      “I believe you have already met my nephew,” she told Marina. “He is, as you know, the vice consul at the Triux.”

      “What’s the Triux?” asked Marina, СКАЧАТЬ