Elysium: Book Six of The Liminality

Chapter 27: Visitor

Alcohol. That's the ticket for withstanding the brutal blankness of the void. I finally figure out how to coax Uber to turn the fluid coming from his tap to morph into a kind of hard cider that as far as I can tell pushes about ten percent alcohol by volume. What better way to take my mind off of things? I'm way more easily entertained when drunk, and the little things don't bother me as much.

Unfortunately, the big things remain troublesome. This whole deal of not being able to show my face in any realm of life or afterlife brings me down. What is the point of existing if this freaking void is the only place I'm allowed to be? I know it is a bit redundant for me to be feeling suicidal, but unfortunately that is the avenue that my drunken state leads me. This is not at all the party for one that I had intended when I taught Uber how to brew.

Uber, apparently, is bred not to tolerate depression in his master. The faux cider I am drinking comes to take on an aftertaste that was not so pleasant and I think it has psychoactive properties because I am getting buzzed with something else that starts to override my intoxication and file down the sharper edges of my distress. And that leaves me feeling kind if hollow inside because pretty much all my thinking of late has borne a core of negativity.

I stop drinking Uber's swill. Maybe I'll try making my own brew outside the pod where Uber can't tamper with it. Zeke's got his own taps and he knows better than to mess with the head of an old pal like me. Or maybe he only really cares about Gaia.

So here I am, semi-sober and drifting again. Aimless. I'm tempted to put some feelers out for the Singularity. That whole interception fiasco by the Pennies kind of turned me off, but now I don't care if they try it again. It beats all this floating around with nothing to do.

A buzz kicks up in Zeke. At first, it's barely noticeable, but then it builds into a full blown vibrato that rattles my teeth.

"Cool it, Zeke. I don't need a massage right now."

The vibrations intensify. Something large bumps into us and one whole side of Zeke melts into it and incorporates it into the wall. I rise up, alarmed to find an Ophanim spinning, half inside, half out in the void. The spinning hoops slow to a halt and disassemble, folding themselves into a flat platform. In its midst, arms folded, hair singed, face burned, stands Gaia.

***

I am all discombobulated at the sight of her. I'm still kind if hung-over from all the drinking and fuzzy-headed from whatever drug Uber spiked my beverage with. I stumble over and attempt a hug, toppling into her arms, dragging her down to the floor.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you all quivery and clammy?"

"Been drinking," I said. "Cider. And some shit that pod put in my drink."

"What is a flesh pod doing here? Did you take it from Elysium? Are you daft?"

"Uber wanted to come."

"Uber? You gave the pod a name?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"I thought you hated flesh constructs. You never cared for mine."

"I don't know. I've always liked Zeke. And Uber's starting to grow on me. It's only that monstrosity you installed in my house that I have a problem with."

She picked herself up the floor before helping me up.

"I'm surprised the Argents haven't found you by now. Pods can be traced, you know. It might mean that you are of very little interest to them. In which case, that is good news. It keeps you safer."