The Mirrorverse
Chapter 44

Syrhahn

Phy portalled Syrhahn to behind a small building near the space port.

“Here is a card, it has currency on it to buy your departure on to today’s ship to Seig. It will be leaving soon, you must hurry.” And with that, Syrhahn was alone in the cluttered exterior of the building.

With trepidation in his heart he set out to the port. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, but pushed it from his mind. He didn’t want to give up his only chance of locating the tracker, and needed to feel like he was doing something to replace his son. And then there was the fact that he had done much more stupid and suicidal things in the name of replaceing his boy than getting on that ship.

He walked through a crowded market place that was flanked by haphazard buildings. It looked like each had sprung up with no concern for what was already present. It didn’t feel as advanced as Cxielo, and the people were shorter. He watched the market goers meandering around clutching their bags, some with strange material tied around their heads.

Wondering at ignoring his gut feeling, Syrhahn made his way through the bustling throng, head and shoulders above most of them. Other species were present in small numbers. It made no sense, nothing made sense, but then nothing had since the day Viskra had failed to come home.

Syrhahn accidentally stepped on a small dog like creature which howled, whilst its humanoid owner bawled at him in a foreign tongue. It hadn’t occurred to him they wouldn’t speak English, but it made sense since he knew only certain regions of certain planets in certain universes spoke English.

The ground beneath his feet was dry dirt, and the air was dry and warm. He could see no plant life around him, only the dull sandy dirt and the equally dull sandy coloured buildings. The people, in contrast, were robed in bright colours, standing out as a stark contrast against the desert like planet.

Syrhahn moved on as fast as he could, leaving the disgruntled pet owner behind him. He wove his way through the crowd, eyes on the space port 500m ahead. The whole place gave off a generally uncivilised air. They can fly space craft but they can’t surface a road? It all added to the air of foreboding that surrounded the place.

Against his better judgement, Syrhahn entered the space port, joining a few people being served at desks that ran along the left and right walls. The glyphs on the desks and walls meant nothing to him so he went to the nearest vacant desk, which was on his right.

“Seig,” Syrhahn said to the woman as clearly as he could, while feeling like an awkward giant, towering over all the smaller folk.

What she said in response was anyone’s guess as she gibbered away in what Syrhahn assumed was the local language.

“Err,” said Syrhahn, raising his eyebrows as if to receive telepathic instruction. It wouldn’t have surprised him, nothing at that point could phase him.

She continued talking, and moving her shoulders around comically while still imparting no useful information at all. Or information of any kind for that matter.

Realising that she was pointing to behind him, Syrhahn sidled away from the desk to the opposite end of the small building, feeling even more awkward and uneasy.

A purple man with a head more like a wolf’s than a human’s was motioning for Syrhahn to go over to him. He arrived at the desk and waited for him to communicate. Syrhahn figured the wolf man must get stared at a lot as the only non-humanoid creature there. As always, Syrhahn was side on and watching the rest of the building for signs of danger. It had become a habit again so quickly.

Not for the first time, he realised that Phy could have come with him without concern, since there were other alien creatures present.

The purple wolf-man held out a device that resembled the translation devices Syrhahn had seen Xhisara’s world, which Syrhahn had dubbed ‘Holy World’. He realised that it wouldn’t know what language to speak until he spoke to it. It wasn’t telepathic.

Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and spoke to the device,

“I would like to go to Seig.”

The device made strange noises at the wolfman and he made a similar shoulder movement to the woman at the other desk.

“The second desk from the right on the other side of the hall,” he directed. “Take the translator but you must bring it back, I need it.”

Thanking him, Syrhahn took the translator off the guy with purple fur. Saying that, it could well have been a female. Syrhahn did note the glossy fur and long snout made him or her look incredibly beautiful, magnificent even. The creature looked so out of place wearing clothes and sat behind a desk, he should have been running through a forest not holed up in there.

But then, what right did Syrhahn have to compare an intelligent being to a wild animal? His thoughts were cut short as he arrived at the queue for the correct desk.

Typically, the only other people in there were waiting at that desk, so he moved in line behind them, clutching the borrowed translator.

Unfortunately, Syrhahn didn’t notice the rather large foot belonging to the rather ugly creature in front that only looked humanoid from the rear. Nor did he place his foot down particularly lightly. It rounded on him, snarling. Its nose was too flat and eyes were different heights, as were the curled over ears. It looked like the product of centuries of inbreeding amongst the most ugly and stupidest people that the multiverse could provide.

“You challenge me?” it spat, the translator putting it out in both Syrhahn’s and the wolf man’s languages.

“No,” Syrhahn replied indignantly, attempting to look as unchallenging as possible whilst towering head and shoulders above the fallee from the ugly tree.

“I don’t believe you, what, you’re afraid now?” it sneered, revealing broken yellow and brown teeth.

How did I, in all the space ports in all the multiverse, end up standing on the foot of this cretinous thing, in the one place I can’t just dispatch it? Syrhahn thought to himself angrily.

“Do I look like I’m afraid?” he countered, warning signs sliding into his voice that the hideous creature either missed or ignored. He could tell by the threatening intonation of its voice that it wanted to fight, without needing the translator’s assistance.

He wondered if anyone would mind if he snapped it’s neck, but knew in order to board the ship, he needed not to have murdered someone in the ticket queue.

It showed him its forearm, and the obviously self-inflicted scars on its arm, like marks on a bedpost only more sinister.

“One for every kill,” it informed him, grinning like a deranged lunatic.

“It’s your turn at the desk,” Syrhahn said calmly, pointing in the direction of the terrified looking woman.

“You’re not going to get away with this,” it jeered, unaware of its impending doom. Syrhahn noticed people sidling out the doors, trying not to catch the monstrosity’s attention.

“Actually, I suspect I am,” he nodded, relieved. They wanted this thing dead as much as he now did. It was literally standing between him and his ship to Seig, and thus his son.

It produced a knife and slashed out at him. Syrhahn dodged it easily, he could see the strike coming while the knife was still in its holster.

“Oh, think you’re tough huh?” The speaking translator in his hand needed to be somewhere safe, as the wolf man needed it. It continued to translate the thick headed ramblings spouting from pea-brain from his pocket.

Syrhahn still had so much anger to work out, clearly the walk in the forest had been only a temporary patch. The beast came towards him, slashing at him again. The blade of the knife was a couple of decametres long, plenty enough to stab its liver and leave it to die in agony. But Syrhahn didn’t have time for that.

He took the knife from it like sweets from a baby, it didn’t even see it coming. He threw it across the room, wanting to finish it with his bare hands. The need to get to the ship vied with the need to inflict pain. Syrhahn had never been a sadist of any kind. As an assassin, he had dispatched those he was paid to quickly and cleanly, and any that got in the way.

He wasn’t that man any more, he was so full of hatred that he just wanted to torture this monster, pouring out his wrath at William into its deserving body.

Disarmed, it sneered again, backing off. It was time to go, he needed to get to the ship. As fast as it produced a gun, the gun was sliding across the floor to join the knife. Syrhahn snapped its neck in one swift movement and the foul creature fell to the floor, a far shorter death than it deserved, in Syrhahn’s eyes anyway.

He stood there in the middle of the space port hall, wondering what he should do with the body, and how he was going to get a pass for the ship when all the serving people had run away. He saw a woman running out of the hall through a staff door towards the port side of the structure, and decided not to stick around and await his fate.

Suddenly, a mass of people, mainly men, entered through the port side door, doing rapid shoulder movements.

“Thank you,” the translator said over and over again. “It’s dead, yes?” “Yes it’s dead.”

“I need to get to Seig,” Syrhahn announced loudly, pulling out the translator as men grabbed hold of the body and dragged it out the door.

“We’ll let it out in space,” said the translator, among more thankyous, each followed by the speech of the dead thing and the wolf’s language. Syrhahn wondered how to reset it, it was chaos.

“No problem,” said the device, the speech coming from a man approaching from the rapidly exiting body.

“No problem?” Syrhahn turned to him.

“No problem, I will take you there now, thank you,” he said, a pleasant look on his face. The man was short, only coming up to Syrhahn’s shoulder, and dressed in robes not unlike those the bustling crowd outside had been wearing.

“I need to give this back to its owner,” Syrhahn said, and waited while it caught up. The man took it off him and operated the touch screen, resetting it. It was suddenly very quiet and eerie without its incessant translations.

The man spoke, then held it up for Syrhahn to present it with his language. Unsure of what to say, he started talking nonsense.

“I live in a forest and the women are mad,” he spoke. Come to think of it, it isn’t really nonsense after all, he thought, suppressing a smirk.

“Of course, come with me to the ship,” the man ushered him into the space port where people were bowing to Syrhahn.

“Those things a problem around here?” he asked, looking at the body being dragged to a ship.

“Oh yes, they always start a fight, and always kill. We try to deal with them as little as possible. They are stronger than us, and far meaner,” he sighed audibly. “Don’t suppose we can pay you to stay here, can we?” he added, eyeing Syrhahn hopefully.

“Afraid not,” he replied gravely. “I need to get to Seig.” He was beginning to sound like a broken musical track, repeating his request over and over.

They approached the ship, and Syrhahn was passed onto the ship’s workers. The ship was an antique in Syrhahn’s world, low power and bumpy landings. Nevertheless, it looked well looked after, almost shining in the low sun’s gaze.

Having given up the translation device, he just smiled serenely, mimicking Xhisara’s way as they spoke to him in their foreign tongue. Without using his card, he was taken through the ship into the luxurious captain’s class and placed in a large and very comfortable seat.

He thanked them as best he could. He couldn’t believe that killing one imbecile could have such a reaction from the people. They must have been really scared of them. He wondered why they didn’t arm themselves, but there was no way to ask.

He had no idea how long the flight would be. he didn’t know how far away the planet was, whether it was in the same solar system or a different galaxy entirely. It could be hours or weeks, especially in that prehistoric vessel.

The ship took off, Syrhahn the only person in captains class. It was a less bumpy take off than the history books would have had Syrhahn believe, and he hoped the landing would be similar. It was an old class of ship that required a run up before take-off or the thrusters would leave a burnt crater behind. It was strange feeling g-force in the ship, the newer models compensated for that far more effectively.

When the meals did their rounds after a few hours staring at nothing but space, Syrhahn was absolutely delighted to discover they served meat. He hadn’t eaten meat since Earth, Xhisara’s lot living off fruit, vegetables and grains. It wasn’t any kind of meat he recognised, neither in look nor taste, but was wonderful nevertheless.

He was just relaxing back in his seat, still pondering the mysteries that had brought him there, when simultaneously there was a loud bang and the ship juddered. He looked out his window to see a smaller ship releasing what looked like a Nordhoff Particle Emission, something that had been invented in his lifetime in his universe. The ship that was attacking them also appeared to be of a different era. It and its weapon didn’t belong in the timeline with the antique ships and short people.

The ship rocked as another beam of red light hit it. People were screaming hysterically, while Syrhahn sat and pieced it all together. He was placed on that ship for it to get hit. That meant only one thing, those grey snouted creatures on Holy World were William’s pawns.

He could have been wrong about the grey snouted people leading him into an ambush, but that would explain them being against April accompanying him as she would have just portalled them out of there. She was in danger, they all were, and there was nothing he could do.

He didn’t know how much more the ship could take. He could hear and feel shots hitting the ship that weren’t coming from the ship in his window, which meant they were surrounded by the enemy. All those people on our ship are going to die because of me, because I didn’t listen to my gut in my haste to replace Viskra, he thought miserably. Now not only was he lost, but so were all the people on Holy World, some of whom he’d come to care dearly for.

As the ship rocked, and the synthetic gravity failed; he found himself floating around in the compartment, true regret hitting him for the first time in his life.