Centauri turned their ship parallel to a gray granite cliff that looked like Yosemite’s El Capitan, only much wider. It brooded over rolling, heavily forested hills instead of a narrow glacial valley. They cruised slowly past the unbroken cliff face until a brightly lit rectangular opening showed itself in the solid rock. Centauri nudged a control and the dash responded with a series of high-pitched squeals. A new voice sounded over the dash speaker. Centauri pivoted the ship in midair and drove them into the opening.
Navigation lights illuminated the huge tunnel they’d entered. The ship moved easily down the high, wide corridor. Occasionally another small ship or service vehicle moved past them, heading for the outside. None of the pilots or passengers were human.
“Come on, Centauri.” Alex rapped on the glass again. “Where are we? What’s going on?”
But the old man … it was simpler to think of him as that. . . simply smiled back, amused by his passenger’s impatience.
He angled leftward and set the ship down in a hangar cut out of the side of the main tunnel. Alex could see complex machines filling the chamber. Figures moved in and among them, intent on unimaginable tasks.
The dash lights and the steady tick-ticking faded. The door on Centauri’s side rose with a soft hum, letting in air full of incense, or something like incense. The atmosphere in the hangar nipped at the senses.
“Centauri?”
Still grinning, the old man stepped clear of the ship and waved back at his imprisoned passenger.
“Hey, Centauri!”
Abandoning his ship and his distraught charge, Centauri walked away, disappearing into the distance like a man with important business to attend to.
“Hey, lemme outta here! Hey!” He pounded on the glass partition, then on his door. Maybe that was the accepted method for activating the release. More likely, the mechanism had been released from outside. The door rose, and suddenly Alex wasn’t so sure he wanted it opened.
Someone was waiting for him, and it wasn’t Centauri.
Two arms, two legs, strange but not bizarre clothing, a human face . . . well, humanoid, anyway. The differences were not pronounced, but they were unarguable.
“Hi,” Alex said, smiling wanly. If the features were consistent, then the uniformed being confronting him was female. If they were not, that implied ramifications of shape he preferred not to think about. She . . . it was nice to think of the alien as she . . . stared at him and mouthed something incomprehensible. It sounded a little like baby-talk, except he knew it wasn’t. Her stance and attitude conveyed her impatience.
He shrugged helplessly and she looked disgusted, provided he was interpreting her expression correctly. For all he could tell for certain his reaction might be sending her into paroxysms of joy. Somehow he doubted it.
Gestures were relatively universal. As she moved her arms, patiently repeating the movements as though for an idiot, he finally got the idea that she wanted him to disembark and follow her.
“Okay.” He started climbing out of the ship. “But shouldn’t I wait for … ?” He glanced ahead. There was no sign of Centauri. “I guess not. Lead on, good-lookin’.”
His comment was not understood by his escort, which was probably fortunate, but letting out with a little sass made him feel better. Similar beings immediately swarmed over the ship, tending to outlets and clustering near the stern. One of them muttered something that sounded unpleasant and kicked the lower edge of the main drive. Alex heard something strike the floor with a metallic clank.
He straightened as much as he could and tried to exude an air of complete confidence. “Perfectly logical explanation for all this.”
They passed rows of metal cylinders stacked two heads high. Something was loading them on a wheelless platform with the aid of a glowing fishing pole. The loader had tentacles for a face and resembled a humanized relative of H.P. Lovecraft’s great god Cthulhu, a character who’d kept Alex awake with the light burning all night on more than one occasion. He moved closer to his more human-looking guide.
They entered a doorway cut extra wide, though whether for appearance’s sake or to permit the movement of wide-bodied visitors Alex couldn’t have said.
His escort turned him over to another female of the same species. This new nursemaid was slightly taller and more massive than the first. She made beckoning gestures and Alex followed meekly.
“Got to do something . . . got to make something happen. Can’t just follow th em around ’til I drop. Talk to them. Try communicating somehow. Maybe this one is more responsive.”
As he struggled to think of how best to proceed they stepped out onto a moving section of floor. It carried them before a short creature wearing a dun-colored uniform who pointed something boxy and metallic at Alex. A wide beam of light shot from the box, enveloped him from head to foot.
“Don’t kill me! I haven’t done anything! I …”
The light winked off. Abashed, he avoided his escort’s gaze. The box wielder disappeared through a small door behind a counter, to reappear a short while later carrying a double armful of clothing, which he handed to Alex.
“Mine?” he mumbled.
“Georg-nat,” agreed the alien dispenser, returning to his previous business.
Before Alex could think of another question, the floor moved him on. Looking back, he saw the short alien noshing on something like a deli sandwich, except that the contents were moving. He swallowed, determined not to pry too deeply into the dietary habits of those around him.
He remembered his intention to try and provoke some kind of intelligible response from his guide. He cleared his throat and tapped her on the shoulder.
“Pardon me, but does anyone around here speak Earth?”
She made an unintelligible gesture with both hands but did not reply verbally. The section of floor finally slowed and Alex was ordered off. He expected her to join him, but she did not. The mobile floor slab carried her away.
There were plenty of other aliens around, however, all busy at various tasks. Alex spotted a familiar figure in the midst of them.
“Hey, Centauri!”
He started through the crowd, avoiding contact with the non-humanoid aliens filling the room.
Centauri was arguing with the male counterpart of the two females who’d brought him this far. Although Alex couldn’t understand a word of it, there was no doubt that the two were locked in some kind of dispute. Occasionally the new alien would gesture forcefully in Alex’s direction. Unable to participate, he stood dumbly nearby, holding his bulky load of clothing.
“What’s going on? Centauri, what’s all the shouting about?” He hefted his load. “What am I supposed to do with these?”
Centauri didn’t reply. That was a pity, because Alex would have found the conversation most enlightening. As he suspected, it concerned him.
What the tall alien was saying at that moment was something that could be translated as, “Explain this, you chiseler.”
“Chiseler?” Centauri fought to convey his outrage through the confines of his human mask. “My expenses on this trip were astronomical.”
“Your expenses are always astronomical when you leave this system.”
“No, no, I’m speaking idiomatically.”
“You mean idiotically. Who do you think you are fooling, Centauri?”
“I’m not trying to fool anybody, sightless one. I’ll have you know that you’re lookin’ at A-number-one merchandise here. He’s unique, this one is. Centauri guarantees it.”
“Hey, uh, Centauri?” The two aliens continued to ignore the subject of their argument.
“Really?” The tall alien gave Alex a quick onceover. Unaware of the reason behind this sudden stare, Alex smiled witlessly. “I think this is the ugliest, dumbest, silliest, loudest biped I’ve ever been unfortunate enough to set eyes upon. The only thing its presence guarantees is the waste of time and effort you’ve expended in digging it up from the galactic depths!”
Unable to stand his frustration any longer, Alex stepped between them. “Centauri, dammit, talk to me! What’s going on here?”
The old man turned to him, beaming with delight. “He’s saying how pleased he is that you’re here, and that if there’s anything he can do to make your stay more enjoyable just to give him a ring.”
“Swell, but where are we?”
“Oh, you should see your face, my boy! You love it, don’t you? I can tell by your ecstatic expression.”
“That’s stark fear, Centauri, not ecstasy.”
The oldster was momentarily nonplussed. “It is? Dear me, and I thought I had all your peculiar simian facial characteristics down pat. Ah, well, surface contortions can’t mask the true feelings underneath. I knew you would find this invigorating.” He swept one arm grandly around them. “Welcome to Rylos, my boy!”
“Ry . . . ?” Alex stared at his erstwhile mentor, slowly letting the import of what had just been said penetrate his brain. “Rylos.” Recognition flooded his expression. “Hey, wait. Rylos from the game?” He pointed at the tall creature standing nearby. “He’s a Rylan?”