Immortalys

Chapter Twenty: Into the Wormhole

"What?" shrieked Blainey into her Surface. "What? We get to go to Deneb?"

"Yes," Friction cried, his voice raising in excitement on the other end. "That's what the people from the Event Department said. They sent it in an official message!"

"An official message? Oh gosh! Does Willow know?"

"Of course; she's already packing. Not that we have much to pack."

Blainey began making a tour of the house. "I can't believe this... So you're sure it's for all three of us?"

"Yep, for all three of us," Friction clarified. "It's just one adventure to the next around here, isn't it?"

"It's so interesting being friends with the Withouts!" Blainey gave a high-pitched giggle and danced around her kitchen. "Aah! We get to go to Deneb!"

"For free," Friction added. He laughed. "I don't think new citizens of Canada get benefits like this."

"Well, when are we going?"

"Tomorrow," he said, "if that's alright with you. They want me to reply with 'yes' if we can leave on the twenty-second and come back the twenty-ninth."

"I'll be ready," replied Blainey immediately. "My dad won't care. I'll start packing too!"

She and Friction ended the call, and she stood there staring at the wall for a few moments. I get to go to Deneb! She silently cheered. For free, for a whole week, and in the company of the cutest boy on the planet.

Once Blainey had gotten ahold of herself, she began packing her clothes. It was easy enough to find shirts and pants to wear for a week-long trip and close them inside her suitcase; it was a little more difficult to persuade her father that she would be safe leaving suddenly with a bunch of random people.

"Blainey," he said, tearing his gaze from some spacecraft expo that was being shown on the Screen, "why are you leaving for a week with those two Withouts that you've just barely met?"

"I haven't just barely met them," Blainey pointed out. "We've been friends for a couple of weeks now. Plus, the Capitol offered it for free, so why would I turn down a gift from Emperor Chasm?"

"Well," her father replied gruffly, "you know our rules, Blainey. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. Be safe, and don't take risks, and—"

"I know, I know," she laughed. She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Have I ever disobeyed you?"

The very next day, Friction stopped by Blainey's house early in the morning to pick her up. Again she kissed her father good-bye and lugged her suitcase out the door, wondering how exactly Friction was planning on getting the three of them to the spaceport. To Blainey's surprise, Friction led her out to a shiny new speeder parked on the side of the road, hovering smoothly above the curb and filled with their neatly organized luggage. Willow waved to her from the front right seat, bundled up in a large coat since it was snowy and cold.

"Good morning, Blainey," she greeted, smiling. "Feeling rich and famous yet?"

"What, where did you get that speeder?" Blainey asked with wide eyes. "It's awesome!"

"Thanks!" Friction took her suitcase from her and stuffed it in the back. "Here, hop in. Yeah, we just bought this. We figured since we were getting a free house and a free vacation we might as well pay for something, so we got ourselves some transportation."

"This thing is amazing," Willow added as Blainey jumped into the back seat and Friction sat up front. "All autopilot and self-navigating. It'll even drive itself home when we get to the spaceport. We can supervise it from our Surfaces." She tapped her Surface, with which she was busy perusing the details of their upcoming flight. "However," Willow sighed, "it's so perfectly built that I doubt I'll be able to find anything to fix when I'm bored."