The Next Day

— Isdia, Colyath 25, 8054 —

“Why are we doing so much walking…?”

“It hasn’t even been an hour,” Pierce remarked. “Are you seriously tired already, dweeb?”

“I’m not tired, it’s just annoying,” Austin countered. “We’re traveling by Interstellar Gate! I thought there was supposed to be a whole interstellar rail system! So why are we walking?”

“Sorry, but that’s just how it is,” replied Christeané — who walked ahead of the group, beside Davídrius. “Nayasis is a Tier 5 world, after all. Settled only a couple years ago, in fact. There are barely a couple thousand people living on the entire planet. They just don’t have the infrastructure to handle Gatetrains yet.”

“Aw…” Austin grumbled as he returned his attention to the trail he trod upon. Having just arrived on the planet of Nayasis an hour ago, Davídrius and Christeané now led Austin, Pierce, Spike, Conrad, and Mark down a long, winding trail through green, rolling foothills. Distant mountain peaks covered the north and eastern horizons, while a small settlement could be seen nestled in a valley to the west. A lush forest blanketed the lands to the far south and west, flanking a tiny river that ran down the valley and disappeared into the distance.

“So that settlement is the only village on this entire planet?” Mark questioned.

“Yep,” Christeané airily replied. “It’s real cozy, isn’t it?”

“More like ‘lonely’,” Austin muttered. “Literally the only civilization on the entire planet, and it’s a two-hour hike from the Gate! How do these people live?!”

“You know, dweeb, there was a time before modern comforts where everyone lived liked this,” Pierce jabbed.

“Hell, this is better than some folks have it in Treséd,” Davídrius declared.

“Why is the village so far from the Gate, though?” Spike questioned. “Seems like a pain, in case there’s an emergency or somethin’.”

“I don’t know how Earth goes about colonizing new planets, but this is just par for the course for Nimalians,” Christeané remarked. “For some reason, Gates aren’t always located in the best place for an actual settlement. So the people who come to found the first settlement look for a better area nearby, and only move the Gate into the settlement itself once it’s gotten off the ground. That’s usually around when the colony gets upgraded to Tier 4.”

“We still got half an hour or so before we get to the village, anyways, so stop complainin’,” Davídrius said as he passed an annoyed glance back at Austin and Pierce.

“’So stop complaining’,” Austin echoed in a mocking tone, albeit just quietly enough for Davídrius and Christeané to not hear. “Man, this is ridiculous. We’ve been traveling so fucking much recently, can’t we at least get a break? Or visit somewhere where we can actually relax?!”

“That’s what the week after Hunger’s Bane was supposed to be,” Pierce pointed out. “And yet you decided to stay at Tresnon, like the dweeb you are.”

“At least I didn’t run off and get into trouble somewhere, like you did,” Austin shot back.

“Hey, at least I helped save people. We aren’t talking about me, anyways — you’re the one complaining about not getting a vacation to relax, when you had one less than a month ago!”

“I just wanna go to somewhere like Oriciid’kas, but without having to worry about the Nanocreatures, or whatever. Is that too much to ask?!”

“You can ask for it all you like, and I actually agree that a real vacation would be nice. But when you complain as much as you do, it really makes you look like a dweeb. You dweeb.”

“I am not…!”

As Austin and Pierce continued bickering with each other, Spike, Conrad, and Mark watched from a few paces back. “…Same as usual for those two, huh?” Conrad remarked, his hands in his pockets as he trudged along beside Spike and Mark.

“I suppose there really is no stopping them…” Mark mused.

“This still don’t seem right…” Spike muttered, his gaze turned downward as he inspected the trail they walked upon. “Look at this trail. It’s a footpath. Are you seriously gonna tell me that the Nimalians didn’t use trucks or anythin’ to carry stuff and equipment between the Gate and that village?”

“Eh, Nimalian vehicles all hover, don’t they?” Conrad questioned. “Do hovercars leave tracks, like wheeled ones do?”

“I guess not. But in that case, why don’t we got a hovercar? Why’re we walkin’?”

“Perhaps this is just part of your training,” Mark suggested.

“Some training,” Conrad remarked. “…But I’m with Spike, actually. This whole thing seems off. Like, it only took us two Gate trips to get here from Nimalia. It took the same number of trips to get to Sikalia, but at least Sikalia was a Tier 2 planet, right? Shouldn’t you need more trips to get to a Tier 5 planet?”

“That is a good point…” Mark mused. “With the way the Gate network is organized, you do typically have to step down through the world tiers one at a time. And since Nimalia is a Transpace World, it should’ve taken us five Gate trips to ‘step down’ to a Tier 5… odd.”

“It’s gotta have somethin’ to do with that place we stopped at in-between Nimalia and here, right?” Spike questioned, carefully keeping his voice low so only Conrad and Mark could hear him. “That place looked crazy fortified, like a fortress, or some shit.”

“It definitely did remind me of Eana, SERRCom’s Primary Fortress World,” Mark commented. “We weren’t there for long, but… what was it called? I don’t think the Deans told us.”

“Kandieras,” Conrad answered. “…That’s what I overheard from some of the soldiers there, anyways.”

“Wait, really?” Mark regarded Conrad with surprise. “Kandieras is the Nimalian Union’s Primary Fortress World!”

“What? And we went there?!” Spike responded incredulously.

“I’m gonna guess that Primary Fortress Worlds aren’t part of the civilian Gate Network,” Conrad deadpanned.

“No, they aren’t…” Mark commented.

“Neat. So something is hella off, here, then.”

“We took a shortcut through a Fortress World…” Spike muttered in contemplation. “…I mean, I know the Deans are galactic heroes and stuff, but… this don’t seem right at all.”

“…Well, regardless, the Nayasis settlement is very small,” Mark pointed out. “If there’s an ulterior motive for us being here, then I’m sure we’ll learn of it soon.”

“Ulterior motives…” Conrad echoed, and then released a weary sigh. “Man, I’m so tired of all this stuff. Can’t we just have a straight-forward trip, for once?”

“The Sikalia trip was pretty straight-forward, wasn’t it?” Spike questioned.

“Try saying that to Austin or Pierce, and watch how they react,” Conrad deadpanned. He then shrugged. “Oh well. We’re already here, so no use complaining now, I guess…”

“Oi, stop laggin’ behind! We don’t got all day!”

“Oops…” Mark looked over at Davídrius, noting that the rest of the group was now a fair distance ahead of Mark, Spike, and Conrad. Mark then led the trio as they quickened their pace to catch up with Austin and Pierce, who themselves had fallen into sullen silence.

“…This is really quite the crew you have, here,” Christeané remarked to Davídrius as the two Deans eyed the Earthians trailing them.

“You don’t fuckin’ say…” Davídrius muttered, finally turning forward again to continue following the footpath.

Christeané regarded Davídrius with an amused smirk, and then elbowed him playfully in the side. “Oh c’mon, teaching these kinds of students is exactly what you do at WCU, isn’t it?”

“We’re supposed to be teachin’ Tresédians,” Davídrius countered. “And even then, the most unruly kids are in year 1 and 2. There’s a reason I got other people to teach years 1 and 2, you know.”

“So cold. Don’t you care about your students?”

“Tch. Don’t your students call you the ‘Absentee Dean’ or some shit, ‘cause you slack off all the time? You ain’t one to be talkin’, here.”

“Ah ha ha, fair point!” Christeané remarked with a laugh. “Though, I have to say, I don’t slack off. I’m just really efficient at delegating. People love my combat classes, so I’m doing something right.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Still…” Christeané glanced back at the Earthians again. “It sure sounds like they’ve been through a lot, huh? They’ve been to four of the six Continent-Nations, an entire other planet in the Union, and even the CSA! You sure pulled a lot of strings, huh?”

“More like everyone else was pullin’ strings…” Davídrius grumbled. “My word don’t mean shit to most folks outside of Treséd. I gotta keep leanin’ on Kaoné, Rebehka, Kevérin, and Kevken for these stupid trips…”

“Really? It’s still that bad for Tresédians, huh?”

“I told y’all this would happen, way back when Kaoné got the idea to turn our school into a whole global thing. Havin’ similar schools in the other nations ain’t gonna ‘legitimize’ WCU, it’s just gonna make people think that WCU is tryin’ to steal fame. Despite the fact that we were first…”

“True. Even back when I was helping you at your school, back when we first started it up… having my name there didn’t seem to help at all. Trying to get recognition from the other nations was like pulling teeth. It wasn’t until Kaoné and Rebehka started up their school in Nimaliaka that people started paying attention.”

“And I can tell you now, it sure as shit ain’t gotten any better since.”

“That’s a damn shame. And now you’ve got this new Bleeder problem to deal with… sounds like things are getting busy, back in Treséd.”

“Yeah, no shit.” A scowl crossed Davídrius’s face. “Can’t believe I agreed to this stupid trip, in the middle of all that…”

“I can’t believe it, either!” Christeané remarked. “…But, it is important.”

“So says Kevérin, but that fucker is the reason my Bleeder problem even exists in the first place.”

“I wasn’t there at the time, but can you really blame Kevérin for those Bleeder guys coming back? I mean… it was Kevérin and Siyuakén who fought them way back when, right? I know Kevérin wasn’t very reliable at the time, but I’d think that Siyuakén would’ve done the job right…”

“Well we can’t very well ask her, now, can we?”

Christeané passed Davídrius an incredulous glance; upon noticing this, Davídrius released an irritated sigh.

“…Sorry,” he muttered.

“Man, you really need a break,” Christeané remarked. “Bringing up Siyuakén like this, too… well, just think of this trip as trying to make sure that no one else ends up like her. That makes it better, right?”

“…Tch. Let’s just get this over with,” Davídrius muttered, continuing to lead the group down the trail toward the lone settlement of Nayasis.

---

*

“Welcome to Kani, the provisional capital city of Karania!”

“It’s pretty small, for a capital city,” Sky remarked, her hands on her hips as she surveyed the city before her. The tallest buildings stood no taller than five stories tall, and even those were rare; most of the city seemed to consist of one- to three-story buildings built around wide roads that themselves were marked by hastily-laid concrete. Karania’s Interstellar Gate was located within a small Gateport in the center of the city of Kani, across the street from what appeared to be the city hall — which Kaoné, Rebehka, Twy, Sky, Phoenix, Kestrel, and Danielle now stood in front of. Much like the other Nimalian cities that the Earthians had seen, the architectural aesthetic of Kani reflected natural terrain formations; unlike the other cities, however, most of the buildings appeared to be prefabs, and looked nigh-identical to each other. The city overall bore the aura of a small town only recently beginning to build up from its moment of founding. Even the geography was fairly plain, with Kani located on a long north-south coastline — vast ocean waters to its east, and a stretching, flat plain to its west. The only landmark of note was a research facility of some sorts built over the ocean waters to the east of Kani, just a couple of kilometers off of the coast.

“It doesn’t seem very busy around here, either…” Phoenix observed as she swept her gaze up and down the city’s main street. Despite arriving on the planet in the middle of its day, there didn’t seem to be much traffic to speak of, pedestrian or otherwise.

“Well, Karania is a Tier 4 World,” Rebehka pointed out. “Less than 400,000 people live on this planet, and not all of them are in Kani.”

“There’s multiple cities, here?” Danielle questioned.

“Ha! I don’t know if I’d call them cities, but yes,” Rebehka replied. “Norel is a couple dozen kilometers to the north, and serves mostly as an NSD base. Rania to the west, and Esken to the south, are both industrial centers. And all four cities are actually located on a large island off the coast of one of the main landmasses.”

“As a Tier 4 World, Karania is still planning out its planet-wide infrastructure,” Kaoné explained. “In fact, the last I heard, it still hasn’t been decided if Karania will become a Fortress World or a civilian one. The NSD has been pushing hard for a new Fortress World, and Karania supposedly has plenty of untapped resources…”

“I still think it’s ridiculous that militaries are given entire planets to do with as they like,” Phoenix said.

“I don’t think it’s so bad,” Rebehka replied. “Given the kinds of threats that exist in this galaxy, large space fleets are a must. By designating a planet as a Fortress World, for solely military use, it allows militaries to setup massive industrial centers and foundries to build their fleets without polluting the planets where people actually live. There seem to be plenty of habitable or near-habitable planets in the galaxy, too, so we aren’t about to run out of space anytime soon.”

“Uncolonized arm…” Kestrel commented.

Rebehka nodded. “Yes, that, too. There’s still an entire arm of the galaxy that hasn’t been colonized, yet. I understand where you’re coming from, Phoenix, but I think the Fortress World system has more merits than it does drawbacks.”

“Anyways!” Kaoné clapped her hands, as if to draw everyone’s attention. “As we discussed yesterday, we’ll be spending our time here on Karania training with all of your abilities. I’ve received permission from the local government to use the nearby waters for that, but we need to check in to where we’ll be staying, first.”

“Wait, waters?” Sky echoed incredulously, “hey, we aren’t all sis, you know! How are we supposed to train in the ocean?!”

“That’s easy. I’ll just freeze it,” Rebehka responded coolly.

“…Oh. Huh.”

“Between Rebehka and myself, we’ll be able to simulate all kinds of terrain for you all to train with,” Kaoné declared. “And while over the waters, we won’t be getting in the way of anyone, or putting anyone else in danger. But, as I said, we need to check-in first. So follow me, please.”

“Wow… staying on another planet!” Danielle remarked as she and Sky began following after Kaoné and Rebehka. “I mean, this isn’t the first time, but it still feels kinda… rustic, here! I like it!”

“Aren’t you with SERRCom? Don’t you travel all the time?” Sky questioned.

“Well, yeah, sort of,” Danielle replied. “But it’s always for missions, never for fun. When we came to Nimalia a month ago, that was the first time I’d ever been to a planet that wasn’t Earth that still had big cities and everything!”

“Really? Damn, that sucks. You should’ve been with us when we went to Sikalia, then! That was really cool! Or, wait!” Sky snapped her fingers, having just had an idea. “How long are you staying with us? Maybe we’ll get a chance to show you some of the cool sights on Nimalia!”

“I don’t know how long we’ll be here, but I hope I’ll get to see that stuff, too!” Danielle exclaimed. “Last time we went to Tekdecé, I think? But I’ve heard about there being giant trees somewhere. I want to see those, too!”

“Oh man, the giant trees were something else! A whole forest of them, too! But that’s not everything, we’ve gotta go see the city built on the waterfalls in Riverana. It’s like straight out of a fantasy novel!”

“Really?! Cool! I can’t wait! Oh, and I also heard about these mysterious fogged-up islands, somewhere, that are supposed to be like Nimalia’s version of the Bermuda triangle? I wanna check those out!”

“I think I’ve heard of that, too. The Fog Islands or something, right? I haven’t been there, but it does sound kinda interesting. And spooky, too! I guess we should put that on the list of stuff to see… maybe also the Hazard Islands, too? That could be interesting…”

“Sounds dangerous… I’m in! But, uh, what are the Hazard Islands, again…?”

Sky and Danielle continued chatting about the sights and locales of Nimalia, otherwise oblivious to their surroundings. Trailing them were Twy and Phoenix, who warily observed the passing city while Kestrel brought up the rear.

“…All of this is hella suspicious,” Phoenix muttered.

“Mm…” Kestrel grunted in affirmation.

“I can’t shake the feeling that something’s off, either…” Twy responded, keeping her voice low.

“We got here from Nimalia hella quickly,” Phoenix remarked. “Only one stop in between, and it was one hell of a military fortress. It was nothing like the connection we had to make while traveling to Sikalia!”

“We’re on Karania, too…” Twy glanced to the group’s right, where the coastline stretched to the horizon in front and behind them. Further east of that was the research facility built over the waters. “…That facility over there,” Twy said, subtly gesturing toward it, “…is that the Infection Research Center?”

“What?” Phoenix furtively glanced toward the facility before passing Twy a questioning look. “Infection? As in, metallic infection? How do you figure?”

“Kaoné’s mentioned an Infection Research Center on Karania before, right? It’s where she first cured an animal of the infection… right?”

Kestrel nodded. “Mhm.”

“Now that you mention it, I think I do remember something like that…” Phoenix mused. “…That can’t be a coincidence.”

“I agree,” Twy replied. “But… I still don’t see what the connection could be. If the Deans wanted to look into the infection, then why are we here? And if that really is their goal, then why haven’t they told us, yet?”

“Secret?” Kestrel suggested.

“It’d have to be one hell of a secret to explain them not telling us,” Phoenix countered. “And if there really is an ulterior motive, then I swear… hell, this won’t even be the first time they did this to us. The Oriciid’kas trip was just Kaoné and Rebehka bringing us along on their infection-related business, too, and they didn’t tell us until we were already there!”

“I suppose I can understand their secrecy…” Twy said. “The infection is intelligent, right? Or, at least, moreso than a regular disease. Maybe being secretive really is important to fighting it. …Or maybe we’re just reading into this, too much.”

“That’s bullshit, on both counts,” Phoenix declared. “The ‘secrecy’ that people like to use with the infection is about saving face and ‘reducing panic’, nothing more. And it’s the same secrecy that will screw us over, in the end.”

“I guess…”

“I don’t think we’re reading too much into this situation, either. Like, seriously, just think about it — did they really bring us to an entirely different planet, just to train in isolation? Hell, it sounds like we aren’t even going to be training on land, but on the ocean itself! Why couldn’t we have just done that back on Nimalia, huh?”

“Bleeders,” Kestrel stated.

“We don’t have to stay in Treséd, we could’ve gone anywhere,” Phoenix argued.

“Relédiaka, Riverana…”

“…Alright, fine, you have a point. The Bleeders do seem weirdly global… but still. Even if we came to this planet just to get away from the Bleeders, it still doesn’t explain why four of the six Deans decided to take time out of their busy schedules just to train a bunch of Earthians like us.” Phoenix passed Twy and Kestrel an apprehensive look. “Something is fishy here, mark my words.”

“I really hope you’re wrong,” Twy replied as the group continued following Kaoné and Rebehka through the streets of Kani. “But, given everything that’s been happening lately, I can’t shake the feeling that you might be right…”