Infinite Horizons

Cassia’s silver head poked out cautiously from the door of the Pathfinder. She looked around for a moment and then ducked back inside.

“Looks like we’re in a parking garage,” she said. Grit scooped up his pangolin and set him on his shoulder.

“You think the ship just knew where Kevin was this whole time?” he asked. Cassia shook her head.

“I’m not sure what is going on with the ship,” she answered. “But I do know that it feels…different than it should. Almost like it’s communicating with me.” She thought about that for a moment.

“When I want it to do something, it’s almost like I’m having a conversation with it,” she said. “I know that sounds crazy.” Grit shrugged.

“I’m carrying around a pangolin,” he stated simply. Cassia chuckled.

“Fair enough,” she said, and led the way out of the ship. They were indeed in a parking garage, and on the bottom level by the looks of it.

“Nowhere to go but up,” said Cassia, pointing to a nearby elevator. Grit nodded his approval and they stepped into the machine. With a shrug, Cassia punched the button labeled ‘Lobby’. After a minute, the doors opened on a large nondescript room, with a plain looking desk in the center. A woman dressed neatly in black sat behind it, typing at a computer. With no other indication of where to go, they headed towards her. She wasn’t sure what it was, but something about the place felt off to Cassia. On her right, Grit leaned over to say something.

“...kind of…here…you think?” She looked over at him in confusion, and he tried again. Cassia watched his lips move, but still could barely hear bits and pieces of the sentence. Grit frowned.

“Why can’t you hear me?” he asked, louder now.

“I can now,” said Cassia. Grit looked thoughtful. His lips moved again but Cassia couldn’t hear what he said. She thought maybe he’d said “strange”. She stopped walking suddenly, and Grit looked at her in surprise. Cassia pointed to her foot and then tapped it on the ground. No sound was heard. Grit’s eyes widened in surprise.

“...like you can’t hear anything over a certain decibel level?” he asked, his voice getting gradually louder until he found the point where it could be heard. Cassia started tapping her foot louder and louder. Right about the time she finally heard the noise it was making, she realized the woman at the desk was staring at them pointedly. She grabbed Grit and they quickly approached the desk.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked. Cassia thought her tone sounded suspicious.

“We’re um, looking for our friend, Kevin?” Cassia said, realizing too late how childish she sounded. The woman let out an annoyed sigh.

“Do you have your identification chip?” she asked, holding out a hand. Cassia looked at Grit, who just shrugged.

“We, um, don’t have that,” Cassia replied slowly. “We’re…not from here.” The woman frowned at that, and looked them up and down.

“I see,” she said, and then grabbed a device off of her desk. Grit nudged Cassia, and she looked over to see his lips move. He rolled his eyes.

“It looks like an otoscope,” he growled with a smile. Cassia nodded absently. She wasn’t sure what an otoscope was, but now the woman was pointing the device at her.

“Hold still, please,” the woman said, though it sounded more like an order. The device beeped, and Cassia watched a bluish light sweep across her face. The device beeped again, and the woman studied it.

“Interesting,” she said after a long moment of silence. “I take it you don’t have an appointment?” Cassia was about to say no, when an alarm started blaring and there was a commotion at a stairwell behind the desk. Three men in black were rushing down the stairs. At the bottom, they paused long enough for one of them to provide hand signals, and then they rushed off in different directions. The woman appeared unconcerned.

“You’ll have to wait here,” she said sternly, as if the two of them were in trouble. Cassia realized that they might actually be, for all she knew. The woman walked away from her desk, and then up the same staircase the men had rushed down earlier. Her footsteps couldn’t be heard, and Cassia thought the silence was eerie. She looked around at Grit to comment on it, but he was following the woman from a distance.

“Grit!” she called in a low voice, but it wasn’t loud enough to get over the strange sound barrier. Cassia vaguely wondered if the barrier extended across the whole universe, or if it was specifically located in this building. She stepped around the desk and rushed after Grit, catching him at the bottom of the staircase. He was peering up, and ignored her when she approached.

“What are you doing?” Cassia said through gritted teeth, though she made sure that she spoke loud enough for him to hear. “We don’t have any idea where we landed! We shouldn’t be making any waves!” Grit raised a hand and pointed up. Cassia tilted her head and realized she could see the balconies of the upper levels. There were vague figures walking away from them.

“Who does that look like to you?” he asked. Cassia squinted, trying to make out details on the figures. Suddenly she recognized the middle man.

“Kevin!” she exclaimed, and Grit nodded. “But he looks different somehow.”

“He’s changed his clothes,” the old man said. “But I’m confident it’s him.” They watched the men walk out of view. Grit started climbing the stairs.

“Wait!” Cassia called. “Shouldn’t we stay here until the receptionist gets back?” Grit shrugged.

“You can,” he replied. “But I'm going after him. Besides, I want to see what this place is.” He turned back towards the stairs and, after a moment of indecision, Cassia followed him. They went up two flights of stairs and stepped out onto the balcony where they had seen Kevin. No one else seemed to be around, so they wandered down the hallway. At the end, Grit pushed through a door and they entered another reception area. There was a woman behind the desk, just like on the first floor. She dressed almost exactly like that first woman, but this one had blonde hair that seemed incongruous somehow, and she frowned at them as they entered.

“Can I help you?” she asked sternly.

“We’re looking for our friend,” Grit said as he approached the desk. “His name is Kevin.” The woman’s eyebrows went up in surprise and she was silent for a moment.

“Are you with the IPF?” she asked eventually.

“No,” Cassia answered in surprise. “We’re just looking for our friend.” The woman seemed disappointed, and even somewhat agitated, when she heard the answer.

“I had hoped he was with the IPF,” she said, staring at her computer screen. She suddenly seemed smaller. “I assumed that was why he had survived so long.”

“Survived?” Cassia asked, leaning forward. “What does that mean? Where’s Kevin?”

“And where are we?” Grit added, somewhat forcefully. The woman seemed unsure of who to answer first. Eventually she simply reached down and touched something on her desk. Behind her, a door clicked open in the wall. She gestured towards it.

“Your friend Kevin seems…nice,” she said, slowly. “This door will take you to him, if he still lives. Follow the stairs to the bottom.” Grit hustled around the desk towards the door, but Cassia hesitated. She looked at the girl in front of her and realized something strange. She was afraid. Cassia could see it in her eyes.

“What are you scared of?” she asked quietly. The sound wall blocked her words, but apparently the woman could read her lips.

“The Singularity,” she said, loud enough for Cassia to hear. “If I am caught helping a contestant, they may make me…” Her voice got quiet enough that Cassia could no longer hear, but she could guess the last word. Fight. She put a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

“Come with us!” She felt like she was shouting. The woman shook her head sadly and gestured to her ankle. Cassia could see an electronic band there with a blinking light. The woman was stuck at her desk, or at least tracked so that she could be punished.

“But why…” she started to ask, before she worked it out on her own. She looked back up at the woman.

“Is one of your copies a Pinnacle?” she asked. The woman’s eyes widened in surprise, but then she quickly nodded.

“So they don’t always just kill you,” Cassia said. She’d spoken too softly for the sound barrier, but again the woman understood. She looked like she might cry.

“Cassia!” Grit called from the doorway. Cassia patted the woman and stepped back.

“I’ll do my best to get you out of here,” she said, not fully sure why she would commit to such a thing for a stranger. Grit raised an eyebrow at her as they descended the stairway behind the door, leaving the woman staring sadly after them.

“Hey, we’re already on a mission to get The Singularity off of Thorn’s back, so we may as well solve that girl’s problem too,” she said. Grit only grunted in reply. Cassia stopped him as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

“You already knew this was The Singularity,” she said, and he nodded.

“I had a guess,” he admitted. “Something about the feel of this place is similar to how I feel about them.”

“Grit, I think they don’t always pit copies against each other to the death,” Cassia said. “That woman back there is in some sort of forced labor.” Grit put a hand on the door in front of them.

“You’re right, we can check that out when we look into the Thorn thing,” he said. “But right now, we should probably prioritize Kevin.” Cassia paused for a moment, and then nodded, and Grit threw the door open.

Bright sunlight blazed in at them, and Cassia had to squint to see anything. As her eyes adjusted, she could see Kevin in front of her, with a pistol extended and aimed at…Kevin? Cassia blinked rapidly, but both Kevin’s were still there. The one with the gun was turning towards her, but Grit was already moving. With an aggressive swipe, he backhanded the gun out of Kevin’s hand. Cassia suddenly realized there were two Singularity Pinnacles just beyond the two Kevins, reaching for their own weapons. Grit’s was already out, though, and it fired accurately twice. The Pinnacles jerked and fell to the ground. Grit had his gun trained on the first Kevin, and he gave Cassia a rare grin.

“Now we’re even,” he growled. Cassia rolled her eyes and let go of her belt knife. Grit had moved too quickly and efficiently for her to even draw it fully.

“Guys, you’re here! I just disarmed this copy,” the first Kevin said, gesturing to the other Kevin. Grit raised an eyebrow at him, then spoke to the other Kevin.

“What’s the name of this pangolin?” he asked, crouching to pick up the strange animal. The second Kevin smiled.

“Tango,” he replied, and the first Kevin snarled and leapt at Grit. Cassia’s arm whipped, and her knife buried itself in the man’s neck. He dropped with a gurgle. Cassia retrieved the blade, wiped it on the dead man, and grinned back at Grit.

“Guess you still owe me,” she teased, and he let out an actual growl. She turned to Kevin, who was sitting down and taking slow, deep breaths.

“You ok there, Kev?” she asked, and he nodded.

“Just trying to process barely escaping death for like every minute I’ve been in this universe,” he said, his shaky voice belying his calm breathing.

“Well, you better process fast, because we’ve gotta get out of here,” Cassia said. “Any big ideas on where to go from here?” There was silence for a moment.

“Perhaps we should sit here with this loud alarm and wait for more Pinnacles to arrive?” Cassia asked in a falsely sweet tone. Grit said nothing, but Kevin’s face colored slightly.

“I think I know a place we can start,” he said. “But it’s not going to be easy.”