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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 82: Beam 156
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Hastings 253
Where am I, the white-haired man wondered. He struggled to focus, to make sense of his surroundings. It looked bleak. He managed to speak, and said what he had been thinking: “Where am I?”
“Sir,” Dawn said, “I have not yet established our situation beyond that we appear to be in unpopulated open country, sir.”
He shook himself, and turned toward her voice. As usual, she was the first to acclimate to a new world. Was that because she had a head start this time, or did they all arrive together? It didn’t matter. As his brain cleared, he saw the weapons cart, then Bron’s tool cart, and the unconscious blacksmith himself, and Bob thrashing as if having a bad dream, and finally, in a heap behind him, Ashley.
Relax, he told himself. Someone’s missing--yes, there she is, that direction.
“Sophia is here somewhere,” he said.
“Sir, yes, sir. She is roughly twenty degrees north northwest, distance uncertain. I do not yet know whether she is moving, sir.”
“Well, we should get ready to meet her. Bob! Bob, wake up! You’re having a bad dream, and honestly we could use your help.”
Where we are? The familiar telepathic voice of their companion came into his mind.
“We’re still trying to work that out,” Beam answered. “It’s another world, obviously. Speaking of which, why didn’t you know the soldiers were going to shoot us?”
Demon hunters.
That actually made some sense. If the soldiers had decided that Bob and Dawn were demons, and adopted the strategy of eliminating the demons first, they would be thinking about killing demons, and Bob wouldn’t automatically realize that they meant him.
Meant me?
“Well, you and Dawn, I would guess. Those people wouldn’t understand the concept of people from another world, let alone another universe. So they thought you were evil spirits. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you for not thinking that you were an evil spirit. I certainly don’t think so.”
There was a mental silence for a moment.
Thank you.
“So, what are you hearing?”
There was another pause, and then, No big brains near. Sophia witch is here.
“Yes, thank you, I knew that.” Then he thought a bit about that, and added, “Can you reach her mind and let her know we’re here and waiting for her, find out whether she’s able to come to us?”
For another moment he was silent, then, She not conscious.
Well, she could be sleeping; or she could just have arrived. Hopefully it’s not more serious than that. “All right, we’ll go to her as soon as we’re all ready.”
Bron groaned. “Where am I?” he croaked.
“Still working on that, Bron,” Beam said. “Thus far we know that it’s a new world, a pretty barren wilderness. Bob has recovered his telepathy, and,” he added, noting that the alien was now floating above the ground, “his levitation, and Sophia is here somewhere, but not conscious. We’re going to head her direction as soon as we’re all organized. Ashley’s still out, so take your time getting things together.”
“Sorry I didn’t do better,” he said, propping himself up on an elbow.
“Hey, they managed to get past our defenses and take out Bob and Dawn. I don’t think they knew what they were doing, but they got very lucky. So here we are, wherever here happens to be.”
The blacksmith nodded, shifted his head in a sort of figure eight pattern that looked like he was loosening his neck muscles, and sat up.
“I’ll be with you in a minute,” he said.
“What happened?”
It was Ashley. Beam wished he could get everyone to wait for everyone else, so he would only have to explain things once, but that couldn’t really be arranged.
“You just traveled with us to another universe. Congratulations; you’re a verser.”
“Oh,” she said as she sat up, and then steadied herself before continuing. “Are you emperor here?”
“No,” he replied, “but the day is young.”
“Sir.”
Dawn never interrupted unless it was important.
“Yes, Dawn?”
“Humanoid creatures approaching from the southeast, sir.”
Odd. “Bob, I thought you said there were no big brains in the area.”
There was another pause, and then the idea came, Tiny brains in dead brains.
What the--“What does that mean?”
Creatures, big brains dead, tiny brains.
Nope, that wasn’t very revealing.
“Well, everyone grab your stuff. We’re going to have to get moving.” Closing his eyes, he focused on that feeling that pointed to Sophia, and started walking that direction, everyone else forming a loose group around him.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #472: Versers Vanish. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
