Immortalys

Chapter Seventeen: Time Warps and Weapons

Since the group of officers had chosen a spot so near the window, Friction again felt dizzy, and he promptly took a seat on the carpeted floor in front of the chair that Willow had just sat down in. She gave him an amused glance.

Altair stood and offered his chair to Blainey. "Here, have a seat."

"Oh, I couldn't!" said Blainey, her eyes widening.

"It's all yours," Altair insisted, moving near the windows. "Honestly, I can't sit down for any longer this morning."

Brushing her hair nervously behind her ear, Blainey perched herself on the chair and glanced around at the ceiling.

"So," Altair said, "what was the most interesting thing you learned on your tour?"

Friction and Willow shared a glance, and then Willow said, "The Bermuda Triangle thing, for sure. It makes so much sense now. There really are such things as 'alien abductions.'"

Richard nodded, grinning. "I heard you guys talking about that. Sometimes I feel bad for all the people on Earth who are scared of the Bermuda Triangle and attribute all of the disappearances to 'time slips.'" He chortled.

"But what do you do with all of the people that get taken from the Triangle?" asked Friction.

"They gladly assimilate into our society," Richard shrugged. "Most of them don't even want to go back. I mean, if they told people about it, their society will just think they've gone insane."

"So yes, we're saving them the trouble of embarrassing themselves," laughed Altair.

"And they're amazed at the technology they get to see instead, like our other Withouts do who come here at their own will," Richard continued. "Why would they go back when they've played games on a hologram and traveled through a wormhole to Deneb?" He snorted and shook his head. "There's your 'time warp,' people: getting acquainted with Immortalys. There's no such thing as magical anomalies here— just science. We have figured out how to control all of these things."

"I wouldn't go that far, Richard," Altair chided, beginning to pace in front of the window. "It is true that we've discovered nearly every secret the universe has thrown at us, yet we do not know them all. There is still that one secret out there, created at the most random times by the most mysterious force in the universe, which has puzzled people for millennia."

"Here he goes again," Malcolm MacGillivray said, and he winked in Willow and Friction's direction. "Tall tale coming up... plug your ears..."

"None of them believe me, obviously." Altair shook his head, looking completely serious. "I would have gotten more people to believe me a century ago when we were a little less wise about the universe, but... that time is long gone."

"Believe what?" Blainey inquired.

Altair smiled mysteriously. "If you know me to always give true and honest answers, then this story might try your faith. I am going to tell you about the anomalies of gravity."

"Is this a time warp story?" asked Friction with excitement.

"Yes."

Willow narrowed her eyes. "I thought you guys just said that 'time warps' were controlled by Immortalys. I like time warp stories, but I've never fully trusted them."

"And you never will," Altair conceded, "unless you experience one for yourself." He tapped his fingers together thoughtfully as he continued pacing. "The passage of time follows strange laws, Willow— rather like the English language. With the rules come the exceptions."

Willow raised an eyebrow, but because the emperor of Immortalys was the one talking about this topic her skepticism seemed to be draining.

"So," said Blainey in an awed voice, "what was the time slip like?"