Getting Deeper
Saki stirred like someone struggling to come up from underwater. Hunter wanted to go to her and was about to do that when he suddenly stopped.
Saki was glowing a dull white and was buzzing faintly. Her features appeared like glitched computer images; jagged and indistinct in some places. Then she vanished.
"Hamarr!" Hunter cried in alarm.
Then Saki was there again. She continued in that cycle of unrealness in even intervals for the next few minutes.
Hunter and Hamarr looked on helplessly.
"We have to do something…" Hunter could not hide his worry.
"It might help to move her right now," Hamarr tried to assuage his master's fears but he, too, could not help but show his doubts.
"...but we have to be careful. We know what this means, Hunter. We have seen this before. We can save Saki but we have to do it fast."
"Call for the mobile containment unit," Hamarr turned to Tizon.
"Already on it. They're on their way," Tizon is already setting up the energy beacons around Saki.
"I figured out you'd say that and has already set up an anchor point right here. If things get really dicey, it is better to have a non-random extraction point." Tizon said by way of explanation to Hunter.
Hunter just nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He cannot show weakness especially when his subordinate has acted in a remarkably commendable manner. Tizon is an experienced member of his expedition team. He knows what he is doing. Despite his fears, Hunter is somewhat calmed by that thought.
The support team arrived shortly. They did not waste any time in setting up additional safety protocols before they moved saki to the containment vehicle. Timespace anchor buttons were attached to her and were immediately but carefully transported to the state-of-the-art facility of HULI Corporation.
"Window?" Hunter asked Hamarr who had just finished consulting their lead scientist.
"Readings show a slight anomaly around the possible location and allowing for timespace distortion of .001 percent puts us in roughly three hour limit."
Hamarr is already on his gears.
"Isn't there a closer rip to set up a jump?"
Hunter was hoping for a different answer but he already knows the answer deep in his heart.
"This one is new," Hamarr said and the dismay in Hunter's face was almost comical.
"How is this possible? I thought she was just temporarily displaced due to her proximity to the Flame scroll and the energy aligned with the catalogued dimensional rips".
"That's what we intend to find out. Without a reading from the other end, who knows what we might find? You know how quantum possibilities are on the other end of a doorway."
Hamarr explained.
"There is another thing, Hunter. The distortion around Saki's location suggests an energy fluctuation that means one thing in our experience."
"A possible tail-end tear." Hunter didn't like the sound of that.
"Yes. One of the scrolls mentioned something of this size." Hamarr looked at Hunter's eyes seriously and Hunter's heart skipped a beat.
"A Fox Doorway," Hunter whispered softly.
"Our biggest haul doesn't even come close to the size of that. The scroll mentioned of doorways this big but we have never seen one. The energy required is not possible within our star system. The gravitational pull alone would tear every planet within the solar system out of their orbit." Hamarr is slowly coming to a realization and his mind is reeling at the implication of that.
They quickly suited up for the jump and approached a door marked "8".
"Okay guys, listen up," the old guy addressed the men before him.
"The pathways to be followed are close enough for the first few turns that we can use our own doors to run alongside it. When we can, we will set up timespace anchors where the path splits. That means leaving one of you to manually correct the anchor orientation in case a sudden shift in energy creates a deviation. You know how intersections behave. If we go in deep enough, it might be that only Hunter and I can survive the trip so be prepared to hold the backend. We have 3 hours max. Understood?" Hamarr looked each one in the eye. The possibility of being lost in the timestream is not one to look forward to. He had to make sure that everyone is on the same page as him.
No one even showed a slight hesitation. He smiled and motioned for them to go inside the doorway marked number 8.
The disorientation was not something they got used to even with the countless jumps they made. The inside of the door was not what anyone can call conventional. There was no direction or reference point to speak of. No one knows which is down or up or left or right. There was no sense of change in direction even though they know they have been walking for a while now. The only way to know that something is happening is the slowly growing sound, a hum in the atmosphere that reverberates in their whole body.
The light that assaulted their senses was not what they could conceive logically. It was as if it was solid. Like a jello that moves in the speed of light.
One might think of a movie house where the picture was blurry and indistinct at first then your eyes adjust to it and then it becomes clear. It was almost like that except it was not their eyes that perceived that light. It was their whole mind. All of a sudden the sound grew more distinct and they can make out intelligible sounds...but played back ten times than normal.
When it slowed down to a point where they can hear a smattering of incomplete sentences, Hamarr signaled for them to stop.
"The parallel path diverges here. We can make a splice and jump again. From there, it will be totally new. We have not mapped that path. So we have to set up the anchor points every time it splits."
They made the jump to Saki's pathway.
Hunter felt an audible click and his head was filled with everything that is Saki. Her thoughts and emotions came flooding inside him that for a moment, he forgot who he was.
The two enormous beings that came blasting in his consciousness were too overwhelming and Hunter found himself reaching out to Saki.
It took a moment before he found his bearings. When he came to, he was on his knees in front of his men. Hamarr wanted to help him but he waved him off.
He unsteadily got to his feet and found his team already set to move again.
"There are too many branches here that I am afraid that it will only be the two of us who will go ahead. That's one of the bad news," Hamarr reported.
"Give me the other bad news…," Hunter answered evenly.
"The Fox Doorway is guarded by psychic versions of antibodies. There will be a fight," the old guy sounded exceptionally upbeat at that.
"Is there any good news?" Hunter clenched his teeth.
"I haven't felt this good in years," Hamarr grinned sunnily.
"Is that supposed to be reassuring?" Hunter wanted to sound stern but he found Hamarr's demeanor strangely calming.
"Trust me," Hamarr declared confidently and Hunter grudgingly followed when the muscular old guy hefted one large bag and walked forward.
It's only the two of us but it feels like with every step, the sense of Hamarr is slowly expanding; multiplying...becoming more menacing.
The attack came without warning but Hamarr caught the neck of a faceless assailant and flung him effortlessly.
Hunter decided to let the large man take care of the vanguard and he took care of the ones who tumbled aside as Hamarr ran forward like a human battering ram. Hunter followed like a small tornado alongside the catastrophe that is Hamarr.
The old guy did not even bother to let go of the bag as he ran along the seemingly endless corridor full of snarling humanoids.
They appeared not to have any weapons but their attacks felt like they had swords and other sharp implements. Hamarr's arms were full of small and shallow cuts and Hunter knew that if he didn't coat his arms with enough aura, his would be infinitely worse.
At the end of the path was an enormous doorway filled with undulating and constantly shifting symbols.
Guarding it was a giant blob of a man-shaped monstrosity. Its skin bulged and shifted continuously like some other being was caught inside and was struggling to get out.
It didn't have a mouth but its scream filled both their heads.
It charged directly at Hamarr; maybe perceiving the larger man to be the real threat. Hunter unleashed a powerful blow as the creature sped past him.
It appeared to easily shrug it off and Hamarr was thrown by the force of the blow despite guarding.
While Hamarr was still flying in the air, the enormous creature followed it like a cannonball and smashed Hamarr's head against the wall. The sound it made was like a meteorite crashing to the earth.
Hunter feared for Hamarr's life. Nobody would have been able to survive that.
Miraculously, the one that got up was not even a little bit reeling. Instead, he was grinning like he was greeted by a comrade instead of being battered against the wall.
The creature winded up for a mighty blow.
The air that was generated by that swing boomed like thunder. It caught Hamarr squarely on the chest.
He stepped back twice and caught himself steady.
The thunder came again.
This time he stood firmly and the blow bounced off his chest.
The creature looked at its crushed arm in disbelief even though it had no facial features to show it.
It swung its left arm.
Before Hunter could blink, the giant creature crashed against the doorway.
Hamarr stood across Hunter and the younger man had never seen his most trusted subordinate in that state of magnificence.
The creature shrieked and fled the place like darkness being banished by the light. With it are the other creatures that were lurking around.
Before Hunter could speak, his mind was pierced by Saki's psychic scream.
In his mind, a hand is flailing wildly in the dark. He knew whose it was.
He looked at Hamarr in alarm.
"Don't ask me how I knew but I can open this door. Only you can go through. I have to hold it open for you." The old warrior before him put his hand on the surface of the door and pushed.
Before Hunter stepped through, he happened to glance at the top archway of the giant door.
Written on it in one of the ancient languages is Hamarr's true name.