Chameleon by Otto Gramm (free ereaders .txt) 📖

his height (“A centimeter below” immediately responded Koldoum’s sharp eye) but with a sturdier, sportier and more plastic figure. His thick black eyebrows curved in a joker-alike manner, featuring the almond-shaped eyes of a deep green-blue shade. A broad, rough nose with a hump, an outstretched chin, covered with a short black beard and a fervent smile completed this image. However, his clothes looked strange to Alex: black raglan with white protruding seams looked like turned inside out, wide, rumpled, khaki pants literally hung on him, forming a lot of tucks at the hem. They hid sneakers with massive sole and weakened thick laces.

“What’s his race?” Alex asked himself.

Kyle snorted.

– He’s from England. – He replied. – It’s just the fashion.

His laughter was picked up by the others.

– Mitch, when you finally get rid of this foolish image? – Will added. – You make people frightened and mislead!

– Said an old overgrown partisan. – The boy calmly parried, as he pressed something on the alcove top, right behind the arc lamp. Then he turned to Alex. – Feeling better? That’s okay, you’ll get used to.

A low and velvety voice of Mitch didn’t fit his young and a little predatory face. His speech poured in a clean, smooth flow. For the first time hearing the English dialect, Alex was spellbound by it.

– Let’s go, I’ll show you your apartments. – Skorvi purred out and invited him along. Leaving, Alex noticed on the left one more door, behind which a spiral staircase went up.

– Way to the second tier and the bridge. – Mitch explained.

They went out to a familiar corridor with two lines of identical doors on both sides. Stopped at one, the boy touched a panel at the entrance and the door slid aside. The room was dark. Mitch pressed something on the inside wall. A soft light came in bright strips along the walls and ceiling, forming an angular pattern.

– Turns on by a simple touch to the stripes. – Mitch first stepped inside. – Turns off the same way. You can press on any part. Hold it for three seconds – turns on across the whole room to the maximum. Three more – it gradually goes out until you let go. Two quick pressures – only one section is lit, if not all illumination is needed. You’ll learn.

– How long did I sleep? – Alex asked, looking into the dark window. – Is it night already?

The answer was a quiet chuckle.

– Kyle told me that you’re a bit nervous after all that... well... you’ve been through. And then, as they say, out of the frying pan into the fire. In short, look closer and you’ll understand.

Alex entered the room with some distrust. It was spacious, uncluttered; opposite the front door was a huge panoramic window from floor to ceiling. Slightly similar to the conference hall. Only a huge “U” table in the centre was missing. Koldoum clearly remembered that hall. Though he was there only once, in the beginning of his imprisonment, but it was there he first met Warren.

That day the elite of scientists and doctors from all over the world gathered there. When Alex was brought on a carrying cart, bound and bandaged so that he hardly could breathe, he was met with surprise and even admiration by such a diverse audience that under different circumstances he might feel flattered. Then his he was overflown with anger and fear... fear of those dark, light, black, narrow-eyed, bearded mannequins in turbans and skullcaps. No eyes, only glasses. Long debates began, full with incomprehensible terms. Everyone tried to prove something, to justify... Only one face remained calm and impartial. The youngest face of all present, a little oblong with a high rounded forehead and relief brow ridges. Smooth skin slightly glossed and black hair was slicked with gel. Long a little aquiline nose and narrow lips in the shape of a bow tied in the middle made his face look like a portrait of an Italian Renaissance master. But the most impressive were his eyes of a very rare grey shade – celestine eyes. From time to time, they looked up from the folder and fixed at Alex, devouring. Debate with the auction came to an end. The owner of the slave was determined, but he did not really remember to whom he was sold. The future One-one-only understood with some relief that he was not given to this young specialist. However, a second before the hammer hits, Warren gets up and says something. The audience freezes. Alex’s heart freezes too. Everyone laughs, however, Warren is not a bit confused. He talks to the orderlies who brought Alex. Those, having received their superiors’ approval lay Alex on the table and unstrap his abdominal area; meanwhile Warren puts his instrument set on the table. Alex’s shirt is lifted up to his breast... the naked skin fells chill, his guts shrink into a tight lump. He threw his last pleading glance... but saw only porcelain masks depicting sophisticate, interest and even excitement... Luckily, he lost his conscious at the beginning of this operation. His brain could not stand the pain and switched off. When Alex woke up, the first thing he saw was Warren’s cold face. He told him a phrase in German. It seemed “welcome”.

– Hey! You okay? – Mitch’s voice broke through his memories.

– Yeah, I just... was thinking. – Alex recovered and saw that he was still standing at the door, and the young man held his hand on his shoulder. He flinched away.

– I’ve been laying myself out for ten minutes. – Skorvi said, displeased with this gesture. – Did you remember anything?

– No, sorry.

– Never mind. No one here understands things at once. Settle down.

The main living part was at the left wall: there was a table in the corner, a levitation chair, like the one he saw in the hall, a bit further was a bed. On the table lay a package. One more door in the wall to the right.

Alex came closer and peered into a dark window.

– I can’t see a thing.

– I told you that it’s toned on. – Mitch said wearily, standing right behind him. – I also told you how to tone it off and how to add light from the window. Let me show you.

With a quiet “uh-huh” Alex stepped aside. The young man pressed something under the windowsill and walked away. At first glance, Alex thought nothing had changed, but then multicolored glowing spots filed the entire window. It was night outside. While wondering around the jungle Alex had chances to admire the beauty of a starry sky, though here it was different: instead of tiny flickering sparkles, he saw billions of bright spots. Alex lowered his eyes. “No horizon!” flashed through his mind.

– What the...?!! – He roared and jumped to the opposite end of the room, pushing Mitch onto the bed.

– Are you out of your mind?!

– That...! That...! – Alex muttered, his trembling hand pointing toward the window. – That’s too much! I thought... It can’t be real! It can’t be! Can’t be...

He repeated that like a broken record, as he buried his face in his hands and slid down the wall. Mitch anxiously watched his wobble and incoherent mumbling. When the man was a little quiet, he got up and approached uncertainly.

– Hey, are you all right? – Skorvi touched his shoulder.

Alex jumped and suddenly a shock wave tossed the boy back onto the bed. Dazed with surprise, Mitch glanced at the dark silhouette in the doorway. His hands were clenched into fists, his face was stony and his eyes... Skorvi gasped: Alex’s pupils were so wide that his eyes seemed black. Not believing, Mitch closed his eyes and when looked at the door again, no one was there.

 

 

The pilot cabin was a spacious room without any extra partitions located in the ship head. A huge dome of a solid glass started from the ship bow and stretched farther, capturing the bridge and the second tier; a wide panorama opened from any room on the top floor and, of course, from inside the cabin. Next to the control panel, there were two seats for the pilots, and behind – on a small dais – two more for navigators. In one of them sat Diego. Vivy – at the helm. Kyle stood next to her, gazing at the cosmic distance.

Along the glass dome, two staircases descended from the bridge. Between them were those elevators, which were connected with the hall and spacious alcoves with sofas – a cockpit of sorts. Shad longed comfortably in one of them, engrossed by the tablet as usual.

The flight was calm. However, just at the moment when Deani got up and went to captain, the ship shuddered and the lights on the control panel fluttered. Shad fell into the armchair next to Spaniard.

– Qué era? – Diego asked when everything ceased.

– The action of blocking drugs has ended. – Kyle replied evenly, his robust figure did not even stagger.

– That was Alex? – Vivy was amazed. – Maybe you should have shown him around on your own. Mitch is not too consistent.

– He’s working off his fault.

– So you decided to sic Alex on the boy? – Diego chuckled. – You are cruel, heh!

– Alex is more scared than angry. – Shad intervened. – And all because someone had opiated him before takeoff.

– He’d passed out anyway.

– Nikole’s drink would have given him enough strength to take Will’s nuts and bolts. Alex was exhausted, however for a man who is still confused in realities it would be a little overkilling to fall asleep on Earth and wake up in the open space, don’t you think?

– Ok, I agree. So where is he now?

– Did you show him the ship? – Kyle asked.

– Ask MacNeil.

– That’s why he’s in the left wing. I’ll bring him myself.

– Will’s the vessel instructor. I’ve only prepared him for Athanna, uploaded few languages, some rules of etiquette... just in case.

– We will not stop there for long, so I hope he won’t need it there.

– Pity, I’d love to see his transformation.

– Turn around then. – Shad nodded toward the bridge: Alex was already there.

– Santa Maria! – Spaniard gasped, as he saw a dark aura around the guest.

The panorama of a vast space behind the glass shook Koldoum for a second, but he quickly picked himself up and moved forward. Approached the edge of the bridge, he jumped over the barrier without hesitation, flew down from three-meter height and in a moment stood face to face with Kyle.

– What the hell’s that?! – He asked, not noticing the strange matter around him.

– Three-layer alloy of seventeen minerals, of which you may only know strontium, titanium, palladium and an indispensable ferum... with carbon. – Captain answered calmly. – Next goes the layer of complex liquid photoabsorbers, two protective layers and an open space. Well, not yet quite open, we are only next to the Neptune orbit, which is now on the other side of the Sun. The open space will start after we pass the second boundary of the Solar system. There we’ll speed up.

– What the god damn Neptune?!! – The atmosphere around Alex was getting hotter, his eyes darkened again. – This is beyond fucking senses! It’s impossible! All this is...

A ball lightning flared in front of his face.

– What the...?! – He yelled and jerked back. The gray haze was immediately gone, the sparks and the flashes extinguished, everything was quiet again, leaving only astonishment among all the present. All except for the captain.

– Finally, I observe quite an adequate reaction. That’s good. – He said contentedly.

– Adequate?! – Several voices sounded at the same time.

– Shock. Rejection. Emotions out of control. You all have been through it.

Alex gazed at others in wide-eyed astonishment. His index finger pointed to a spot where few seconds ago, a bright charge was.

– We’ve never