Transportation Escort

[Stitches]

She had to admit it. Touching Laine felt strange. Was that part of her anomaly? It was a peculiar sensation. Like she knew Laine didn’t want her to touch her. She dropped her hand as quickly as possible after instructing her in where the doorway was. She was glad Laine was blindfolded because she quickly removed the glove on her hand and wiped off her hand on her dress before replacing the glove. Then she picked the box up and walked through the portal.

On the other side, a small team waited. There were two researchers and a security member, all of whom also wore gloves. The gloves were very important, because even though the anomaly was an upper household grade, touching it activated its effects. And Pepper was very sure that none of them wanted polka-dotted skin for the next month.

She smiled at Dr. Fredricks, a transfer from L-14, who greeted her in like. “How are you holding up over here, doctor?”

“Oh, we’re doing just fine Pepper. It’s lovely as ever to see you doing well in your new position. Tell me, are you still trying to convince-”

“Oh, let’s not talk about that. It’s still uh, in progress.” Pepper looked sideways at Laine, hoping her voice didn’t sound as panicked as she felt. Other people were allowed to know when they weren’t as close to L-14 as Laine was. But everyone at L-14 wasn’t allowed to know. Not by some big rule, but because Pepper personally would die of embarrassment and request a transfer if anyone found out.

“Oh, I’m being rude. This is Laine, she’s my security transport. Laine, did you want to grab something to eat or drink before we go back?” Redirect. Just redirect. It was a genuine question, despite its ease of changing the subject. It was nearly one pm, and Pepper didn’t know when Laine’s lunches were.

 

[illirica]

They had reached the designated ACF location. There was a team of ACF personnel there, which was appropriate for the situation. Dr. Krasniqi seemed familiar with them, and prepared to complete the anomalous transport. There was a certain degree of conversation, which Laine was not good at. It was not the sort of conversation that was about anything. For a moment it might have become that, but then it did not.

Laine was not bothered by this. She was introduced by Dr. Krasniqi and offered a slight nod of her head in acknowledgement but did not feel a need to add to the conversation. Dr. Krasniqi made a polite inquiry, and Laine thought about it for a moment before turning it into a question of her own.

"Is that a question that means 'do you want something to eat or drink' or is that a question that means 'I want something to eat or drink but I am too polite to say so and am hoping you will say yes'?" Laine was not good at picking up on these untidy bits of conversation, which was why she was asking. Also, she had noticed that Pepper was very polite, and the second option was statistically common among polite people.

"Because I do not require anything, but if you would like to I can be patient, or I can pretend that I do. I am not very good at pretending, but I am very good at being patient."

 

[Stitches]

Pepper blinked in surprise and then laughed. It was the kind of laugh you made when you were completely caught off guard. “No, no, I was asking if you needed anything. I would tell you if I required anything. I really would. If you’re good, we could head back now.”

She turned back to where they had come through and the portal reopened. She looked over at the research team and gave them a little wave, her floppy gloves still on. Dr. Fredricks waved as he turned and started to walk deeper into the facility. Pepper turned her attention back to Laine and smiled. “I appreciate your concern for me, though. I mean, even if it wasn’t concern, I appreciate you asking if I needed anything.”

 

[illirica]

Pepper seemed to find something about this to be funny. Laine accepted this without understanding. Humor often required a great deal of explanation, and this was not the time for it. Heading back now was acceptable, because it would mean they were likely to be very prompt in completion. Promptness was important.

The portal reopened, much as it had before. There was no significant change. Laine had not bothered with removing the blindfold, but she did not need to see the portal to know where it was. It was the place where things did not go where they were expected to, but instead went elsewhere, or perhaps elsewheres. It was a somewhat nebulous concept, but there was certainly a place where things were not where they were expected to be, and that was the portal.

"Security officers are responsible for the well-being of other Foundation personnel while accompanying them on Foundation-sanctioned activities," Laine pointed out. She did not think this was necessarily the statement that Pepper had been looking for, but it was not an incorrect one. It was Laine's job to make sure Pepper was capable of performing as necessary, and that included checking to see if she required additional nutrition before re-embarking.

It was not so different from concern.

 

[Stitches]

Laine gave her a very Laine response. Pepper simply nodded, even though the younger woman couldn’t see her. As they stepped through the dimensional door, Pepper saw the road light up before her. They had returned to the exact same point in the path as they had begun. Pepper wasn’t sure why it was the fixed point for her portal- she had a very hazy and foggy memory of the first time she saw the golden light- but this had always been the entry point.

Pepper offered her sleeve to Laine again by nudging her arm against the other woman’s. Then, she began walking once more, following the light as it wove through the landscape. This time, the shadowy birds didn’t return to greet them. That was… odd. Mikaluss never missed a chance to say hello to her. He referred to seeing her as “an answer to our deepest and most desirable prayers.” Of course, that statement confused her further. At some point, she was going to get that D-Class promotion and she would have a team to examine this dimension more thoroughly.

“That’s absolutely true, but I can still feel grateful when any kind of concern is expressed about my well-being. Even if it is mandatory.”

 

[illirica]

Pepper felt grateful? Laine considered that for a little while. It was a kindness, how Pepper had expressed herself in well-defined words. Feelings were hard to understand, especially for Laine. Having them explained made it easier, especially if the explanation was clear and concise.

"I will think about that." Undoubtedly, this was true. Perhaps it was because it was a small part in the understanding of people, or perhaps it was just because Laine tended to spend a great deal of time thinking about things. "Thank you. For explaining. That is helpful."

Explanations could be helpful for both parties in a conversation, after all.

In the meantime, there were other things to consider as well - not conversations, precisely, but the lack of them. They had entered at the beginning, which Laine had not expected but immediately understood. This was the starting point, and always had been. It was a part of how this anomaly worked. Anomalies were much easier to understand than people.

It was not the starting point that felt untidy, but the silence. Laine liked things to be quiet, but because she liked things to be quiet, she had a very deep understanding of the different sorts of quiet, and this was the wrong one. It did not belong here - or perhaps it did, but not in a way that was likely to be beneficial.

"The quiet is wrong. Do you know why it is?" Whether Laine was asking why it was wrong or why it was quiet was anyone's guess, but given Laine's tendency towards straightforwardness, it was likely that if she hadn't specified it was because she meant both. Pepper might not have known her long enough to intuit that yet, though, or she might only have one of the answers, or neither of them. It was clear, though, that something about this situation didn't fit.

 

[Stitches]

Pepper slowed down and looked around the barely lit area. Something was wrong. It was way too quiet. “I don’t know what’s going on, I-”

Then, the ground began to shake, and she knew. She frantically looked around as the shaking grew worse. Pepper stopped and pulled Laine behind a tall, rocky outcrop. She put a hand over Laine’s mouth and whispered, “Not. A sound.”

She pulled her hand away and watched as the large shape moved around the corner. It was too far to see clearly, but Pepper had made the mistake of seeing one up close before in the past. It was one of the giant worm creatures, with the spiral rings of hands that dragged itself across the ground. The thing was massive, and the earth shook beneath their feet violently with every movement as it dragged itself across the path. It had been years since she saw the last one of these creatures. She wasn’t sure if it could hear or smell or see, but she knew it had a huge mouth full of sharp teeth.

She watched as it rolled and dragged itself across the ground, its strange fingers digging divots into the strange “soil” of the dimension. Its feet or hands or whatever they were hit the ground in a synchronized pattern, a drumming that could be timed with a watch. Pepper had made the mistake before of trying to walk past it. That had almost ended her life. She had no idea how to get Laine past it.

 

[illirica]

This was abnormal for Pepper as well. That was not a good sign, as Pepper was the expert in this particular anomaly.

She was decidedly not an expert in ACF-833, which was not very happy at all about being grabbed at. Movement for security purposes was acceptable, but there was no need to silence an anomaly that already tended towards silence. Perhaps Pepper intended to put a hand over the anomaly's mouth, but it never got there. Instead it stopped a bit short, along with everything around it. The tremors, the tempo of the drumming, the whispers that should have been there but weren't, even the researcher herself. The anomaly pulled back, creating distance. It was not much: an arm's length only, but the barrier was clear, or perhaps it always had been.

Consequences resumed, the distant shaking, the motion around them. 833 touched a single fingertip to the ground, feeling the motion beneath, the distance between the moments: a careful measurement of time. A second finger came down beside the first - not a touch but a tap. One... two... three...

Whatever it was that was before them belonged to the rhythm.

 

[Stitches]

Pepper sat absolutely still on her heels, watching around the corner. The thing was moving slowly, as though searching for something. Still, that repetitive slapping sound as the hands hit the ground of the fleshy planet. Something weird had happened with Laine when she had tried to touch her, but she didn’t have the mind to pay to it right then.

She had to think about how to get them past this thing. The path glowed on the other side of its massive body. The doorway was far enough that running would be a bad idea. She had seen this thing move, and it was faster than it looked. She turned back to Laine, and as silently as she could, she whispered, “This thing hunts by sound. I don’t know if we can run past it. We might have to just go back to the other facility and wait it out.”

She looked back at the thing to find it had slightly turned in their direction. It was still slapping its hands on the ground. God, could it hear them even that far away? They were at least fifteen meters away from it. Could they even make it all the way back to the other doorway? Or would this thing catch them if they ran? Pepper suddenly felt so unsure of how to proceed. If it had just been her, she would have tried to run for the doorway behind her, but with Laine, she couldn’t risk the other woman’s life.

 

[illirica]

833 considered the movement of the thing, wondering if could possibly just stop. Of course, that would be simple. It was...

...not...

...her...

...department.

That was right. She was here to provide security for Dr. Krasniqi. Anomalous interference with ACF-7823 was not the purpose of this excursion. She did not have clearance for that.

On the beat, Laine drew in a breath, and on the next beat, she exhaled it. It did not make her feel better, but that was how it always had been, and it was familiar. Familiarity was good. She could still feel, through her fingertips, the temporal motions, one after another. It wasn't a vibration, it was just a time. Laine was very good at telling time.

On the ground, she could feel small measurements of things that were not part of the whole. She picked one up, and knew that it was a broken bone, part of a skeleton. She could have put it together again if she had all the pieces, but it would not have stayed that way, because her anomaly did not fix things. Instead, she quietly collected a small handful of fragments, and then, waiting for the right time, threw one across the room, landing exactly with the next flailing of the creature.

Laine was not a researcher, after all, but she had sometimes assisted them, and she was very good at keeping time.

 

[Stitches]

Pepper was watching Laine as she threw the piece of bone, and she felt her whole soul nearly leave her body as it flicked to the ground. She looked up at the creature, sure that it was going to rush forward and consume them. Instead, it stayed where it was, hands thumping against the ground in time. The beating continued without any further movement toward them. It. Hadn’t moved.

This was either unbelievable luck, or maybe it was something to do with Laine. Pepper chose to believe it was Laine. She leaned her body toward Laine, and as quietly as she could muster, she whispered, “Do that again.”

She leaned back slowly and fixed her eyes on the creature again. Laine might have figured something out, or if she hadn’t, Pepper certainly was on the verge of something.

 

[illirica]

There was no response from the creature. That was interesting, Laine thought. She was not sure what to do with this interesting fact, because she was not a researcher.

Fortunately, she had one with her. Pepper leaned in - without contact this time - and whispered, very softly, a suggestion.

Laine nodded as Pepper leaned back again, letting Pepper watch the creature as she measured out the rhythm, another fragment of bone in between her fingers. It didn't belong with the first one, or it hadn't before, but now it was all broken and it didn't belong with anything, so Laine supposed that didn't matter. She tossed it again, timing the arc and the fall so that it hit the ground once more in time with the flailing of unseen limbs.

Her voice was always quiet, but this time the words were spaced, precisely, each syllable paired with another in a cadence with the creature's rhythm: beat, afterbeat. "Perhaps... we can... make it... in time."

 

[Stitches]

The bone hit the ground, and once again the beast didn’t react. Pepper took in a sharp breath and let it out slowly. She closed her eyes and started to tap her hand against her leg in time. Besides her, Laine offered a solution. Pepper nodded, although Laine couldn't see that, and whispered back, “I think… you might… be right.”

Slowly Pepper got to her feet, trying to avoid touching the fleshy rock they had been hiding behind. She decided to test their theory before they went forward with it. On the beat, she took a step forward. Then on the second beat, she took another. The beast didn't react to her steps. In fact, it turned away from them, as though it had sensed something else. Pepper wanted to cry with relief, but she didn’t. Instead, she said, in a less quiet voice, “I think… we can… make it.”

 

[illirica]

Laine offered a nod, silent. She was good at being patient, but there was not much sense in being patient right now. Perhaps another time she could have waited until the creature found other things to do, but that was not the purpose of this excursion and a certain degree of promptness in return was expected.

Besides, Dr. Redd would be concerned if Pepper did not return on time.

Pepper was adequate at measuring the time, at least as far as the creature was concerned. That simplified things a great deal. If she had been temporally disadvantaged, Laine would have had to figure out how to keep the time for both of them. It was not necessarily impossible, but it seemed like the sort of stretch that she would be far more comfortable asking for permission about. Anomalies were like that. It was important not to justify overuse, because one justification led to another, and too many justifications led to a breach.

Laine did not like it when those happened.

Her hand was on Pepper's sleeve, or perhaps it had never left, because in this place it most definitely belonged there. "You lead. I'll move - with you." Every step at the same time, but that was simple enough. Anomalous, but in a way that only affected Laine and was for the benefit of Dr. Krasniqi and therefore the Foundation. That made it acceptable.

"Let's go."

 

[Stitches]

With that, Pepper started to move, keeping time with the beast’s hands. There was something oddly familiar She couldn’t quite place it, but it made her want to hum something. She did so in her head, humming along to the beat. Then it hit her. It was the exact beat pattern of “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana. What the actual hell was that supposed to mean?

Still, she moved with it, and the grew closer and closer to the beast. Then, came a choice. They could either skirt around its mouth, which was much closer to the doorway, or they could go down the long way around its tail and leave the Path. Pepper looked at Laine’s hand on her sleeve and nodded to herself. They would take the long way around. She started to head that way, avoiding its razor-sharp teeth.

“We’re going… around its… tail. Don’t want… to risk… its mouth.”

 

[illirica]

Laine didn't need to say anything in response to Pepper's decision. Pepper was the expert here, so it made sense that she would be the one deciding things. Laine gave her a nod to show that she understood and acknowledged, and followed along with Pepper's steps as she changed direction.

There was a step, and it was wrong.

Laine didn't miss it, because that would be unprofessional, but she was very much aware the moment that they had left the path. The path was where they belonged. It was the place in this anomaly where they were supposed to be contained, and now they had breached their containment, and it was very wrong. Laine did not like it at all. She wondered, though, if this was something that others had noticed. The reports said that a researcher had once gotten lost, but they did not specify if she had known when she was not on the path.

The paperwork about ACF-7823 was rather lacking, in Laine's opinion. Perhaps she could suggest that Pepper update it, once they returned. Now was not the time to discuss paperwork, nor was it the time to discuss the fact that they were in the wrong place. It wasn't her decision, after all. Her responsibility was to follow Pepper and keep her safe through this dimension. That was what she would focus on.

Laine just hoped that they would get back to where they belonged quickly, because she did not like this.

 

[Stitches]

Pepper didn’t like leaving the path. She’d left it a few times, but never by herself. Usually, it was with Mikulass, like when he took her to meet his babies for the first time, or when they took her to their shrine to the Dead God. But she’d always had a guide through the darkness. This time, she could barely see and was leading someone else.

To call her anxious would be an understatement.

Still, she led Laine through the rapidly encroaching darkness, until finally, they reached the end of the creature. Only for Pepper to look up and see another mouth. She suppressed her almost-scream of terror to a small squeak, right on beat. The mouth was open, breathing, and it breathed hot air on their faces.

Instead of stopping, Pepper chose to keep moving. Stopping when they were on the beat could be really bad. She wasn’t sure. She just knew that right at that moment, she wanted to be far away from either of its mouths.

 

[illirica]

The air moved. It was... breathing. Of course it was. That fit here. A motion in time. Pepper had said that they were going around the tail of the creature, and tails did not generally breathe. It was not impossible, however - there were some species of sea slugs that Laine had read about. She read about many things. It was a good way of being patient.

And, of course, this was an anomaly. It could breathe however it wanted to, or not at all. Some anomalies were like that. Pepper had not stopped, and so Laine did not stop either. It was better that they move onward. The sooner they could move around this creature, the sooner they could get back to where they belonged. They were still outside the boundary, after all, and Laine didn't like that.

The creature had not reacted to sound before, so long as it had been on the beat, so it was likely that this remained the case. It was not impossible for it to be otherwise, but the probability was strong, and Laine decided that the risk assessment was worth it.

Her words were still soft, on the beat, a single question: "Pepper... can you... create... a path?"

 

[Stitches]

As they walked, Laine asked a very interesting question. Could Pepper make a path? She had certainly never tried before. She couldn’t be sure that she couldn’t. It wasn’t impossible, surely. Where would she even start?

“You can do this. It is as easy as breathing.”

The thought rose up from deep within her and left her with a thick headache. But then, she knew what to do. In her mind, she picture the long unbroken line that was the Path. Then, she pulled it while she breathed in. It stretched, and the lights raced over toward the two women. Soon, the Path was fully curved around the giant beast, and back beneath their feet.

As quickly as the thought had arisen within her, it was taken away. It wasn’t as if she couldn’t recall it– it was as if it had never existed at all. There was a moment where she didn’t know how to change the Path, and then there was a moment where she knew how. Nothing existed between them. In fact, that single missing millisecond meant that she almost tripped over her own feet. She managed to stay upright and walk, somehow keeping to the beat.

“I… did it… I think.”

 

[illirica]

Oh, they were back where they belonged.

Laine wasn't quite sure how that had happened, but what was important that it had happened. Pepper had been responsible for it, she thought, because the path and Pepper went together in a certain sort of way.

"You did." Pepper didn't sound very sure about it, but Laine was. Pepper had fixed it, and they were back where they belonged. They still had to follow the path and get to where they were supposed to be, but at least they had been contained again.

Laine gave the situation a firm nod, much less concerned with it now. "This is... better. We're back... where we... belong."