Showing up at the nearest Elusian portal unannounced, I wasn’t sure what to say to the interdimensional pioneers—and I was even less certain about what they might tell us. The way Capal had said that our dimension was artificial, as if it was self-evident, stuck in my brain. Sofia had the official script from the ESU, but I wasn’t planning on reading from a teleprompter like a good boy. I would’ve once called such behavior robotic, except knowing Mikri had good improvisation skills, that seemed unfair.

  How long are we going to pretend like we don’t know that Mikri is an invisible passenger on this ship, and behind the mysterious glitches we keep encountering? The navpoint for the portal has shifted 13 times, the master alarm has gone off a few less than that, and the spacesuits’ speakers are crackling with morse code for D-A-N-G-E-R.

  “Hmph. That last one was pretty good, to be fair.” I tapped my fingers in the pattern for M-I-K-R-I. “Alright, you can come out now. We can’t have you doing this while we talk to the Elusians. Like, really, is this what a ‘nice machine’ would do? Seems more like a bored polterdunce to me.”

  “That wasn’t me,” Mikri said unconvincingly through the PA system. I knew it. “It’s your precognition. You want to turn back.”

  Sofia arched an eyebrow at a security camera. “Mikri, I can tell you’re not processing recent events well. It’s okay to be vulnerable with us, but you can’t lash out; it’ll only hurt you and those around you worse. How can we make you feel better?”

  “Turn back. No more missions.”

  “You would be happy seeing us unhappy? All of this—Caelum—to explore, and you want curious, risk-taking adventurers to sit back and watch others get the answers we crave. Why don’t you help us go for this goal, in as safe a way as possible, rather than wishing to prohibit our mission? It would be like if I stopped you from trying to fix us, because I feared the outcome.”

  A forlorn beep came over the speakers. “You…fear the outcome of me trying to help you?”

  “Honestly? Yes. I fear that you would do anything to achieve your objective, but I don’t tell you to abandon that goal altogether. I give you ways to direct that energy that I feel the most comfortable with.”

  “I do not feel comfortable with any of the avenues you wish to pursue. There is no certainty for what the Elusians will do.”

  “Exactly—any worrying is speculation now, not even supported by evidence. Listen Mikri, we’ve wanted to know why Sol is the way it is since the moment we met you. Our motives weren’t a secret. You don’t forget anything, so tell me this. What was it you told us about them, when you tried to offer us an ‘incentive’ to help the Vascar?”

  “‘The Elusians are way less sexy than Preston,’” I chimed in. “I remember. Mikri wanted me to drop my drawers so badly, that he gave me a ‘medical exam’ day one. I knew my peachcakes were as good as a work of Michelangelo, and I gave him a full view with pride and joy. He said it was…fuego.”

  “I don’t want to hear any more words come out of your mouth, peachcakes. I’m asking Mikri a very serious question!”

  “And so am I. What would you rate my attractiveness, on a scale of 1-10?”

  “I am not capable of ‘attraction’ from biological systems which I do not possess, so probably zero,” Mikri answered.

  “Fucking chipbrain. Silversheen. Clankergroin! Our friendship is over, over!”

  “Or…ten. Yes, ten.”

  “Correct answer.”

  Sofia facepalmed. “You’re letting Mikri dodge my question, which I know he doesn’t want to answer. Repeat verbatim what you said about the Elusians when we were parting ways, back on Kalka.”

  “I’m throwing myself upon your kindness,” Mikri responded in a matter-of-fact voice.

  I clicked my tongue in amusement. “Throwing yourself on me, huh?”

  “Mikri,” Sofia chastised, not even bothering to correct me. “Someone has to be a mature adult here. You know that line isn’t what I was looking for. Whatever Preston might go around saying, you can’t ‘retcon’ your own words. Respect me enough to state them.”

  The android beeped in disappointment. “We’ll…even help you meddle with the Elusians, if you really want to look there.”

  “What was that?”

  “Enough! I know what I said, and that you have not forgotten my regrettable words.”

  “Would you lie to us, Mikri?” I asked, deciding to put on a serious face for a moment. “You would offer to help and then do the opposite?”

  “No! Never. I simply did not have the full array of facts, such as an awareness that they abducted humans, when this statement was made.”

  “Well, if it’s any consolation, it sounds like they put those humans back.”

  My scientist companion crossed her arms. “A change of circumstances doesn’t invalidate an agreement, Mikri. You know that. That’s why you run your calculation matrix, to account for all possibilities before you act. If you want us to trust anything you offer in the future, then you need to uphold your end of the bargain. Promise you won’t sabotage us further.”

  “I promise.”

  “And that you won’t interfere at all. These answers are ours to acquire.”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “I will only help if asked.”

  The Vascar receded back into silence, though I knew the tin can was watching all the same. It was a positive that we sorted that “Spooky Robot” act out before pulling up on the Elusians’ doorstep. I wasn’t sure what I expected from an interdimensional superpower: a fleet zipping in around us, oozing vaporization dust that consumed the very space around it in an intimidating way. Or perhaps a primordial construction that existed between dimensions, a complex of holdings that stretched farther than the largest decimal point Mikri could count to.

  I expected the pompous and grandiose, dunking on Larimak’s sad, emo castle. If I admitted it, I was about to crap myself over fear of what they might do; I was expecting literal gods beyond my comprehension. Instead, the Elusians’ border checkpoint looked like…a drive-thru window. It didn’t come off as a defensive bastion of immeasurable power, capable of warding off any travelers. The gray aliens’ get-up needed a facelift, if they wanted to live up to their reputation at all.

  There was seemingly nothing stopping us from galloping along into this portal, apart from this humble guard station. I slowed the spaceship down, pulling Sofia right alongside the small building. We couldn’t exactly roll down our windows like a traffic stop in the void, so I hoped the Elusians would answer a hail—

  “Billions of microscopic objects are entering the spaceship through external thrusters,” Mikri stated.

  I rolled my eyes. “Mikri, I’m not falling for that.”

  “I am not making this up!”

  As if to confirm what the android had detected, the nanobots began to congeal into a visible film, before displaying a holographic avatar with their lights. A projection of an emotionless, “stereotypical alien” figure in a chainmail-like fabric stood before us, and the black pools that made up their eyes studied us with an unrevealing demeanor. I was tempted to back away or grab that old pocket knife, then remembered that holograms couldn’t hurt me. The Elusians hadn’t sent their nanobots into our ship compartments…although they probably could.

  Yeahhhh, we shouldn’t piss them off. They could devour us from the inside, just like Chef Vanare’s food.

  “Hello? We’re humans, dropping by unannounced. I think you might’ve been on a space cruise to our dimension before. Sucky physics, wimpy speed of light, precognitive apes—ring a bell?” I asked the shimmering figure.

  There was no response from the alien, as they scrutinized us without any acknowledgment of my words.

  I leaned over to Sofia. “Man, this dude didn’t even crack a smile. Tough crowd. Can they hear us at all? Maybe you try with the ‘normal people words’ the ESU gave you, and some fifth-dimensional jazz. Go on.”

  The scientist forced a smile, clearing her throat. “On behalf of humanity, we’d like to offer our deepest gratitude for the protections you put around our dimension. It honors us to have a sophisticated species such as yourselves take an interest in us, and we hoped you’d be willing to shine a light on our place in the universe. You’re the only other dimension-hoppers, and…we have many questions. We’re still learning about our unique capabilities, and hope to receive any guidance you might be willing to offer.”

  The Elusian gave no indication that they had heard any of her speech, remaining mute and static. Their entire demeanor made me uneasy, just on the basis that they hadn’t done anything. What was the purpose of appearing before us like some divine apparition? I shared a glance with Sofia, gauging whether we should be concerned about what the grays might do.

  I lowered my voice to a whisper, and jabbed my thumb toward the drive-thru window. “Tell them I want a cheeseburger and fries…and a large coke. Go on.”

  “Preston, knock it off. I think we should wait and see what they do. For all we know, this isn’t even a real person; it’s a virtual assistant that we don’t know how to activate,” Sofia responded.

  “This is not an artificial intelligence,” Mikri explained unprompted. “Visual data is being relayed from a camera interface through these nodes, and I do not detect any active code that I can access. This is the equivalent of a video call, by my understanding.”

  “Okay then. Maybe their cell service is spotty.” I leaned back in my chair, waving a hand in greeting. “How are you doing? Blink three times if you’re in danger. Wait, you…don’t seem to blink. Um, look, we just wanted to know why you put that whole wall around our dimension; it’s a good barrier, of course. Saved our ass. You rule, gray man. Or woman.”

  Sofia shushed me. “My colleague is excitable, but he has a point. If you can hear what I’m saying, we’re not here to challenge you in any way. All we’ve come to seek is the truth about Sol. I think you know it. It was my belief that you…cared about humanity, for some reason.”

  The Elusian finally moved their head, and stared at the scientist for a long moment. They raised a gray, leathery hand, holding up a pointer finger in a gesture that seemed familiar. I listened with an uncharacteristic seriousness; they had my rapt attention for the words that might come next. The answers they could provide would hold the answers to everything, and perhaps even welcome us as the second interdimensional polity. I was glad that we had cameras recording this, because I could sense a momentous statement looming in the air.

  The voice that spoke, in perfect English, resonated within my eardrums with a booming quality. “We are your creators. Do not seek us again.”

  I was left dumbfounded by the Elusians’ words, as a thousand more questions leapt onto Sofia’s tongue; my singular thought was why humanity’s…supposed creators were so eager to push us away. Before we could ask the holographic figure anything more about our origins, the creature flicked its wrist and the hologram dissipated. In the next instant, space caved around us, like reality itself was swallowing us whole.

  The next thing I knew, the drive-thru station was gone. The shift was disorienting and disconcerting to all of my senses. We’d been teleported back inside the hangar bay we’d launched from, which got soldiers with guns swarming toward us very quickly. I was too stunned by our sudden transition to find the words to radio them, though Mikri didn’t skip a beat explaining that “Preston and Sofia’s coordinates were reset by an outside party.” Well, now Takahashi definitely knew that the Vascar was keeping tabs on us, but there were bigger questions to reckon with.

  The Elusians warped us right back where we came from with a flick of their wrist, and declared themselves to be our creators. After that, they told us never to seek them out again, as if they didn’t want to be involved in us. It answered none of the questions about why they had created us, and what that even meant; it spoke nothing about why they didn’t want to interact with us, when they were apparently aware of the ins-and-outs of our hangar bays.

  The power they wielded at their fingertips was petrifying, to see how easily they had whisked us off anywhere they pleased. I didn’t even understand how they had sent us from point A to point B at will, but I suspected Capal, Sofia, and Mikri would be hellbent on understanding how that had worked. We couldn’t hold a candle to the Elusians’ power now, but they hadn’t been outright hostile to us. Perhaps our creators wanted us to become like them on our own?

  I wasn’t sure what to make of any of this, but I knew it’d rock the very foundations of what humanity believed to be the meaning of our existence. If this was the confirmation that Sol was an artificial dimension, then our gilded prison had been handcrafted by the Elusians. For the first time, I found myself agreeing with Jetti’s notion that we weren’t merely ordinary people. As the chosen creations of interdimensional gods, our species’ goal from here on out should be to seize our destiny.