Chapter 8: Castle Part 2

He leads me out of the endlessness and into a darkened corridor on the other side, the two spaces separated by a single pane of glass. Still able to see into the infinite room of metal tables on my right, this new hall sleeps in the shadows cast by the dark, plum-black stone to my left, curving up in an arch above me. The only light draws from tiny golden spheres which float around what appear to be metal branches glued to the wall.

I move closer and see it's not metal at all, but a silvery tree slithering up the dark stone like a snake. It branches into several thin wires, looping about but never expanding more than a foot from the wall. The small spheres hover here, offering about three feet of whitish-yellow light that glows around me.

"Gizella trees," Jeb indicates, "excellent natural light source, though not found around here. Terrible inconvenience to bring them in."

I lightly brush my fingertips against one of the closest branches. It's smooth except for its long, lined wrinkles and feels very similar to carved metal, except for its slight breathing. The wiry, metallic branch seems to expand slightly and then release again at my touch.

"These?" I extend my middle finger to one of the light spheres. As I'm about to touch it, it zaps me with a sharp electric current. Immediately nursing it in my mouth, Jeb chuckles behind me.

"Yes, you don't want to touch those. They're babeebs - they don't like to be disturbed."

"They're alive?"

"Of course they are!" he places himself at my side. "They're tiny organisms that live off the Gizella trees unless another life force is closer."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," he extends his hand, signaling down the rest of the corridor. I follow it and find the entire plum-black wall lined with these silvery trees, dotted every four to five feet down from one another. "We use them to light our way around this base. But if there isn't a Gizella tree where you need to go - say, to your bunker - you simply scoop a few up and over, like this," Jeb gracefully dips his hand inches under the babeebs and lifts them atop his head, where they hover a few inches above. "Only one or two is sufficient. You don't want to leave the rest of us in the dark."

"And they're on the base floor as well? Are they outside?"

"No - we use them solely to light the interior. Just like your kind, we rely on the sun for outdoor exposure," he walks on, hands cupped behind his back. "There are two in your room, so if you bring a few babeebs when you go, remember to take them with you when you leave. We once found a human coveting around forty or so! Can you believe it?"

"Why?"

"Who knows? But to ensure your safety and the safety of others, there are routine sweeps of your room, so don't bring in anything you wouldn't want us to find," he glances back with an endearing smile. This strikes me as odd, but I keep silent. "And these, here," Jeb gestures to the left, "are the evibolas."

He points to an arched door way of deep, sparkling blue. We stop, my eyes adjusting as I take in its moving splendor. It's like looking into the night sky, at the moving stars across varying hues of the universe. Beautiful.

A tall man, dressed similarly to Jeb, walks through the veil, the deep blue evaporating like mist behind him. He has short yellow hair and seems genuinely surprised to see me. He glances at Jeb and, finding immediate comfort, walks off.

"These are the quickest way of transport - for Dofinikes, that is," Jeb is quick to clarify. "Your primary mode is the stairs, located at each corner of the base. But for today," he takes a step toward the archway which has regenerated the navy fogged shield, "they'll serve our purpose."

I'm interested in asking more about the evibolas, where else they can lead, but with the passing of the yellow haired man, another question emerges instead, one I want answered more.

"How many Dofinikes are there?"

"Hmm?" he barely glances at me. "What's that? How many Dofinikes?"

"Clarence mentioned there were about four hundred humans," I keep my best poker face in play. "I'd imagine there'd need to be quite a few Dofinikes to take care of us and..." I gulp, "maintain order."

"Well let's see..." his eyes roll up, quickly counting, "there must be about the same, I should imagine. We mainly stay up here, in the labs and hospitals. We don't have much interaction with the humans unless they are ill or hurt or something is wrong."

"Why?"

"Well..." Jeb exhales, tossing his hands behind his back again, "we feel this is a gentle process for you. Your race is rebuilding itself. I'm sure it needs as little meddling as possible."

"You're not meddling if you're helping."

"Yes, I do agree with that, but we want to encourage your..." he clears his throat again, "relationships. How are you going to develop your race if we're constantly being mistaken for humans? It's less messy this way. And we've already gone over why it's better to assume our human forms. Yes?"

Relationships. That's a euphemism if I've ever heard one. Suddenly, the realization that they'll want me to repopulate punches through me like a cannon ball. All the air's been stripped from my lungs and I have to work to keep my expression dulled.

Just make it to the ground. Make it to the ground and you won't have to worry about any of this.

"So, we don't see you in your true forms... ever?"

"Well not, ever. As you know, no one is perfect. Trouble does arise from time to time and when it does, we have to restore order."

"How?"

"Tetlak is head of the guards. He's absolutely stubborn and refuses to submit to human form so when he appears, the situation tends to dissolve itself. Between you and me," Jeb throws me an honest look, "I'd keep from getting on his bad side. Terrible mood."

What does that mean?

"Beyond today and - hoping you never get hurt or ill - you won't be up here," Jeb spins, "I'll show you to the human areas where you'll spend the majority of your time."

He walks right through the sparkling blue arch, which sits like a thick mist, separating us. I'm quick to follow, passing the navy haze of glistening stars and into a darkened area no more than a few feet in width.

Jeb is ahead but turns to me, indicating I join his right side.

Obliging, I stand next to him, the floor humming beneath us. We're in complete darkness and just when I think nothing's going to happen - it does. Nothing happens. Until Jeb walks back out of the darkness, hands calmly clasped behind his back as he strolls out the same way we entered.

I follow him into an enormously low-lit room - the size of a school gymnasium - darkened like the upstairs corridor with the same plum-black stone walls. The corners of the room host gallant stairwells of pure obsidian, Gizella trees crawling up the steps and along the walls, attempting to climb their way free as babeebs linger on their silver branches, illuminating the hovels with their golden glows.

A massive trunk sits centered in the space, its tangled roots hovering feet above the floor. It glows iridescent lavender with reflecting hints of turquoise and green, boasting at least a yard in circumference. Just above the trunk, a swarming nest of Gizella roots bloom from the center of the black ceiling. The silvery snakes sneak across the marble, reaching all ends with a hive of babeebs suspended under the main nest, just over the trunk - a spotlight on a stage.

"This is the Auditorium," Jeb keeps his hands clasped, leading me forward, "this is where you'll have your weekly meetings with Beshib before Leisure Time begins."

"Who's Beshib?"

Jeb turns, an excited grin on his face - he's been waiting to tell me.

"He's the one who first pioneered your race's rescue - without him, you wouldn't even be here! You'd probably still be attempting life in that filthy planet you left behind," Jeb shakes his head with disgust as I suppress an urge to snap. "At the end of every week he addresses the humans with a reminder of what you left behind and the rebirth the Dofinikes are offering. It doesn't last long - ten, fifteen minutes, really. Then, Leisure Time begins and that's when you can relax, openly socializing."

"We can't socialize during the day?"

Jeb averts his eyes. "The day is for Rebuilding. We're trying to give humans a way to revive their species."

"Is that what they're doing out there? Building? I saw them carrying - "

"Yes," he interrupts, walking again, "we're expanding upstairs. Clarence continues finding more survivors. It's wonderful, really, but we lack the space to house them. Then, of course, there is the repopulating here on Harrizel to comply with. The building is necessary."

"So manual labor?"

"Fallon," he sighs, "try not to think of it as labor. But as Rebuilding. Helping your species have homes when they get here. You have a home. That couldn't exist without the work of your brothers and sisters."

Yeah, a home I'm not even going to keep once you take me outside.

Jeb's fast pace has managed to put some distance between us. A quick trot and I've caught back up with him. "So no talking during the day? No socializing?"

"A bit of socializing quickly turns into lack of work. Without strict attention and focus, nothing would get done. It's for your benefit, really."

"And Beshib? He's the one making all the rules?"

Jeb sighs again, exhaustion in his voice. He's had to explain this before. "I know this sounds like we're against you but it's really for your good. Here we clothe you and feed you, provide you with shelter and if I may be so bold, with family. We only ask for your compliance. The world you came from is not as kind."

He starts walking but I'm at his side again. "So what happened?"

"Excuse me?"

"What happened? With the war?" I stop and he stops with me. "Clarence didn't tell me anything."

"Surely you remember?" When I don't respond, Jeb exhales as a solemn frown crosses his face. Lowering his head, he speaks in a soft voice, his eyes on the black marble below us. "Terrible. What humans did to one another. Killing mercilessly. Destroying their planet... destroying each other. Your world, at one point, was overpopulated and then... it was all gone. Or just about.

"We, Dofinikes, are travelers by nature and came across your planet. We saw what you were doing to each other; saw how you were killing one another. We saved whom we could. But it wasn't enough. You nearly destroyed yourselves. We keep going back, keep finding people who hid out, who are still hiding. We won't stop."