Socket 3 - The Legend of Socket Greeny (8 page)

“Perhaps we should begin a review of your
wormhole travel.” Spindle took a step. “Your trip is in two days
and you still have to complete the orientation.”

“Tomorrow. Right now I need to sit.”

“If I may suggest—”

I held up my hand. “Thank you, Spindle. But
we can go over this later.”

“Very well.”

The office transformed into the darkened
forest, a live feed from the middle of the Preserve. The floor
sprouted the green turf of the tagghet field with trees all around.
I went to a meditation cushion nestled in the lush grass. The sky
was dark, but sunrise wasn’t far off.

“Spindle.” He stopped before exiting. “Send
the kids up here when it’s time for them to rise. We’ll sit in my
office this morning.”

He nodded and left. I folded my legs and
straightened my back, taking a deep breath. The present moment felt
so fragile. I didn’t like that, but being present had little to do
with how I felt.

I stepped out of the shower room and pressed
my face into a towel. It’d been over fifty hours. Still no sleep. I
was feeling it in my face, but my eyes refused to shut. The
exhaustion wore on me like a suit of armor. I wasn’t fighting it
anymore; I just let the heaviness be there. Still, no sleep.

I’d finished a long game of tagghet with the
kids earlier that day, told them about Chute’s visit when I
returned. Playing tagghet with me and Spindle was one thing, but
testing their skills against one of the best high school players
would let them know where they were. The boys weren’t half as
excited as the girls until I showed them an image of her. She was
talented
and
hot.

I got dressed and sat on the bench, leaned
against the wall and closed my eyes. Maybe I could catch some
sleep, but when I took the leaper to my office, it was filled with
the electric blue lines of the wormhole network. Miniature galaxies
were suspended throughout the web.

“This can wait no longer, Master Socket.”
Spindle was standing next to my desk. His tone was stern. His
eyelight intensely glowing, lighting the surface of my desk like it
was on fire. “Your launch is scheduled twenty hours from this
moment. It is critical that you understand your journey.”

He said it like he meant more than just the
trip.

I stepped through a disc-shaped galaxy and
put my hands up like the web had snagged me. “You caught me.”

“If you kindly step next to me, I can
begin.”

“I’m joking, Spindle. Come on, you wake up on
the wrong side of bed this morning?”

“I do not sleep, Master Socket.”

“I know.”

He didn’t reply, simply waited until I
stepped through the dazzling blue lines criss-crossing my path. I
finished putting on my shirt. “You have my undivided
attention.”

“Thank you.”

So Spindle started off with the history of
wormhole development, how the Paladin Nation began space
exploration before the Wright brothers were even born. It was
information I already knew, but I wasn’t about to interrupt. That
eyelight was as bright as I’d ever seen it.

Natural wormholes existed in space. In fact,
most planets were connected to one and once the Paladins learned to
access the one flowing through Earth, they had access to the
universal wormhole web. Paladins developed special equipment to
travel through them and began mapping the universe. My office was
filled with every known avenue that existed. If a traveler was
skilled enough, he could jump from one galaxy to the next. Most
Paladin space travelers never returned, spending their lives
somewhere in the galaxy, jumping planet to planet, mapping and
sending back their data as they went.

“Your ship will be programmed to take you to
your destination,” Spindle said. “But it is critical that you make
a psychic connection with your ship for accurate projection. You
will experience an instantaneous relocation to your destination. It
is quite unpleasant.”

“I know what a wormhole feels like.”

“Traveling from the Garrison to Charleston is
not the same as traversing the universe!” His words were sharp. “If
you lose a psychic connection with the ship, you could lose your
way, Master Socket. One errant thought and you could be lost in
space.”

His eyelight was reaching laser beam
intensity. I nodded slowly.

“You need to be rested before you depart. You
must be able to focus.”

“Noted. I’ll knock out a nap as soon as we’re
done.”

His eyelight relaxed, dimming down to a
subtle glow. He appeared to tower over me, examining my true
intentions. Finally, he stepped into the web of wormholes, tracing
one particular line with his finger that sparkled as he followed it
into a massive tangle of intersecting lines. The web began to
shift. The wormhole led to a galaxy, which appeared to be the Milky
Way. Spindle was halfway across the room—

“Danger, Will Robinson. Danger.”

Spindle stopped. His eyelight circled around
to the back of his head. Streeter’s projected image was standing
next to me.

“Get it?” he asked. “Lost in Space? Will
Robinson?” He looked back and forth between Spindle and me. “You
mean you guys never heard of that ancient TV show with the robot?
They did the remake.” He did robot-arms. “
Danger.”

“Why is Master Streeter projecting into our
meeting?” Spindle asked.

“I’m sorry,” I said, trying to stop Streeter
from doing the robot. “I forgot I scheduled him to come over.”

Actually, I forgot completely. A small wave
of panic swept through me. Spindle was right, I’m losing focus.

“Did I drop in on something top secret?” he
asked.

The wormhole network was public knowledge,
but I still thought Spindle might shoot that eye-laser. I calmed
Streeter down, asked Spindle to keep going. I should’ve told
Streeter to leave, but he was making me laugh. Maybe I was
delirious. It just felt good to smile.

“Do you think this is a joke, Master
Socket?”

“No, Spindle.”

Streeter waited quietly, like listening to
parents fight. I knew this stuff was important, but I needed a
break. Streeter was exactly what I needed. Just seeing his image
lifted the fatigue. I think Spindle picked up on that. There were
still important matters at hand, but he could feel the tension
relax inside me.

“Can we cover the destination?” I asked.
“I’ll work with the ship-integration focus later today.”

He agreed. He followed the wormhole to a
planet on the outskirts of the Milky Way. It was not a long trip,
not by intergalactic standards.

When Spindle touched a planet that swirled
red, white and blue, the wormholes vanished, leaving us in the dark
for a moment. Then the room projected the planet’s atmosphere, like
we were standing right there on the surface.

It was a bleak environment. The sky was
steely. The distant mountains were red and the surface gritty. The
few trees that sprouted here and there on the flat plain were
enormous, but they had no leaves. Instead, their bright green bark
was photosynthetic.

“Your destination is the Grimmet Outpost.”
Spindle pointed to the enormous dome-shaped structure that appeared
between us and the mountains, the white surface looked pink with
red dust. “Your ship will land directly inside the Outpost and you
will be greeted by the Paladin crew that resides there. You will
not be venturing out of the Outpost since that would require
further training and fitted gear. You will be tested for signs of
fatigue and given a tour of the facility before returning
home.”

“I thought you were going away for a month?”
Streeter asked.

“Time does not operate that way, Master
Streeter. Since Master Socket will be traveling at the speed of
light for a short period, time will slow down for him. While his
trip may only seem brief, weeks will pass for us.”

Spindle charged into the rest of the visit,
who I would be meeting, what we would be doing and what I could
expect. Now I was getting sleepy.

A distant flutter echoed from one of the
leafless trees. Then a cloud of brightly colored grimmets appeared
to be heading for us. When they were close enough to hear their
wings, my office projected their images around us. They were as
playful as the ones in the Preserve. Maybe the trip wouldn’t be so
bad.

Streeter walked into the mob with his hands
up. It was hard not to join them when they were near, even if it
was just a projection. Spindle gave up. He left the office without
saying another word. I’d apologize later. In the meantime, Streeter
and I would have some fun.

An hour.

I’d been asleep for an hour before waking up
with a cold shiver running down my back. No memory of a vision or a
dream, just the remnants of one. Maybe it knocked me out again,
only this time I was already sleeping. I laid there staring at the
ceiling but couldn’t remember having a vision, but there was no
doubt one had happened.
Now I’m not remembering them?
I was
buzzing with adrenaline.

I had transformed my office to replicate the
tagghet field, again. I hated that I was getting accustomed to the
convenience of it – the sounds and smells were dead-on – because I
much preferred the real thing, but I let myself be lazy. I told
myself there wasn’t time to get out there, but that was bullshit. I
just wanted to sit. Now.

I had been sitting for almost an hour, sweat
running down my face as the room replicated the humidity. Even
though I hadn’t eaten in almost a day, I felt full. The longer I
sat, the fuller I became. Not full, really.
Dense
.

An hour and a half into sitting, the kids
quietly walked in with their cushions and sat with me. A certain
joy vibrated between us without a word. I couldn’t help but smile
as they folded their legs and settled their minds. Soon, our
breathing was synchronized and we blended with the surrounding
sounds and scents.

The silence was shattered by an earthshaking
tremor. Despite the unnatural interruption, none of us broke from
our sitting. We remained motionless, but I could feel the thoughts
of concern rumble through the office. Finally, Spindle stepped
inside. He paused at the entrance and folded his hands in front of
his belly. He waited until I looked his way.

“Your escort has arrived, Master Socket.”

We sat a few moments longer. The kids didn’t
move until I gave a short bow. I was sluggish to get off the
ground, loosening my joints like my blood had turned to syrup. I
gave the kids encouragement to keep up the schedule, that Spindle
would be taking care of them, and I’d see them soon. The girls gave
me hugs. I held my hand out to shake Ben’s hand, but he pulled me
in for a hug, patting my back.

“Hugging ain’t just for chicks,” he said.

I had to laugh and hugged the rest of them.
I’d gone on trips before. This felt like a long goodbye. Did they
sense the heaviness weighing inside me, sharing my agitation while
we sat?

“Tagghet when you get back,” Aiesha said.
“Don’t turn rusty on me, old man.”

I was five years older than them, and I was
the old man. I was certainly walking like one. I informed Spindle
to take them to the tagghet field and I’d meet him down at the
launch.

I put on my official space travel outfit. It
was dark blue and fitted with numerous pockets and built-in
communication modules, thermal-conditioning adjustments to keep my
body temperature adequate under extreme conditions, armor-imbedded
material to resist impact. Even had a back door to drop a load. I
doubled-checked the backpack that contained everything needed for
surviving extended periods in the middle of nowhere.

When the office was quiet, I called for the
walls to dim the tagghet field projection so I could rest in the
darkness for a while. There was just enough light to see the desk.
I straightened up some papers, activated messages for anyone
contacting me while I was gone and checked over my schedule one
more time.

It was too dark to see to the other side of
the office. Like my future. I was tempted to call Chute and
Streeter one last time, but I’d already said my goodbyes. Instead,
I called up Chute’s room. Her bed appeared. The covers were thrown
back and the pillow dented. She was already about her day.

I needed to do the same.

Paladins were lined up in the parking garage.
Most just nodded as I passed, some shook my hand, patted me on the
shoulder. Servys were hovering in lines behind them. All seemed
present and accounted for. The floor was vibrating with the hum of
something powerful, pulsing through the bottom of my feet; I could
feel it in my teeth. I stepped through the wall to the other side
where the ship would be waiting in the boulder field.

I stopped immediately. I’d seen images of
these deep space cruisers in my studies, knew what they looked
like, but in person it was just… daunting. It was black, oval and
smooth, like a skipping stone. And it took up the entire field,
almost 300 yards across. There were no windows, none visible at
least. The air around it trembled like it was fiercely hot, but it
seemed to have more to do with the color, a black totally void of
light. The ship seemed to be eating the space around it.

The Commander was standing to the side,
letting me take it all in. He nodded at me as if to say,
take
your time.

The vibrations I felt inside the parking
garage emanated from the ship, quivering through the ground with a
low frequency that penetrated solid granite. They intensified for a
moment, like it sensed I was staring. Like it was saying,
yeah,
this shit’s for real, son.

“I had no idea it would be this…” I trailed
off. I didn’t know what I meant. I just had no idea. Period. “This
is just for me?”