Elysium: Book Six of The Liminality

Chapter 19: The Void

Getting Zeke and Uber to cooperate with each other is kind of like convincing a feral cat to pose for a still picture with a shelter dog. They are oil and water.

I want them to get along. They are both useful to me. But Zeke's always pinning Uber down or plucking him out of the cabin when I'm inside, and whenever I'm out he makes sure he's always between me and that pod.

I'm prepping things for my trip. A spare set of clothes. A hollow-bored staff that I hope I can turn into some kind of weapon. Who knows if I would find anything to weave with at my next destination. Who knows where I would even end up next.

"C'mon Zeke. Get with it. We're taking him and that's that. There's no other way around it."

I want Uber along for several reasons. One, he is locked onto my will and if I left him behind, he would likely be able to help the Argents track me down. Two, I am getting accustomed to taking naps in his pod. He is way more comfy than the rickety bed in my cabin. Three, sustenance. He has that nipple that provides water or nutrient broth on request and I have discovered to my delight that his broth is weavable into beer, whiskey, iced tea or any other beverage I feel like drinking.

There is a fourth, more, gruesome consideration. In a pinch, he will provide a source of weavable material. I suspect Zeke also had that property but his flesh is too valuable to mess with. Hopefully, it will never come down to having to cannibalize Uber, but it is prudent to have that option.

To tell you the truth, he's been growing on me as a companion. Now that his loyalties have shifted to me, he only aims to please. I'm not sure that when the time came I would have the heart to take a divot out of his side, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

So there I am, scolding my beasts as I finish up gathering and conjuring things to take with us, when I experience something of a breakthrough.

"Zeke! Leave Uber the fuck alone! He's on our side now! Got it? He's coming along."

And he responds. He stops pestering Uber. He calms the fuck down. He just stands there vibrating as Uber slithers around him and parks by my side.

This is a first. I have never previously gotten Zeke to obey a complicated voice command without invoking the name of his mistress.

And he doesn't stop there. He considers carefully what I have told him and follows through. He reconfigures his interior, opening up the back wall kind of like how Uber did by accident to my cabin. Then he seizes Uber, all squirming and squealing and plugs him into the hole he made, sealing up all the gaps flush and tight as a gasket.

Uber calms down when he realizes he isn't being eaten and I'm blown away by what Zeke has created. I now have a bench to sit on when Uber's all closed up, with a cozy bunk with refreshments underneath. Zeke now has a back seat. No more standing to ride or curling up trying get comfy on Zeke's lumpy floor. I'll be traveling in style.

I press my luck with the communication thing and try to get Zeke to contribute to the escape planning.

"Okay Zeke. Now here's the thing. We need to get out of here. Do you know the way out?"

I wait for some kind of response, but of course Zeke just sits there, humming faintly.

"And we'll need a place to hide out for a while. Any suggestions?"

Nothing.

"Zeke. I'm thinking we need to leave. I mean as soon as possible. I don't care where you take me. How about it?"

Zeke remains unresponsive. I'm not sure what I expected. That he would suddenly grow a mouth and start gabbing? Or that a teleprompter display might start scrolling text across his hide? If only I could make it so.