The tears glistened in front of us as if there was a thin veil between our world and. . . Something else. I felt anxious, and my breathing was quick and shallow and my heart was beating and in my chest like a drum. Zoe and Chase were standing beside me, one woman and one man, the embodiment of the near-perfect Manifest from their assist carts.
“Final equipment check,” I said, my voice more in control than I had ever wanted it to be. We each went through the wardrobe one more time again not that we had to go through much. To prepare for traveling to another dimension, how does one do it?
That is because our improved bodies were our main fortune, the bodies that could function in various conditions effectively. But we had also stocked up on emergency food provisions, portable power sources and state-of-the-art sensing devices fabricated by Alessandro and his team to work in conditions theoretically impossible.
“Brianne,” There was anxiety in Alessandro’s voice and for some reason it made my ears perk up. ‘Obviously their energy reading is all over the place whatever you are going to do you have to start it now’, the growl of the tear.
I sighed, taking my gaze at my friends. “You have a last chance to back out,” I said as best as I could muster, a fake smile.
Chase looked determined; his jaw muscles tensed. No way could we ever let you down. We are standing right by you.
Zoe agreed, she was scared and enthralled at the same time, this was a scientist after all. “Let’s make history. ”
“Okay,” I replied, walking back to the glistening curtain in front of us. “Here goes everything. ”
I extended my hand, the elongated fingers touched the surface of the tear gently. It felt. . . strange. Again, this is not what can be described as solid and not in the category of a liquid either, but something in between. When I am in its presence, I feel that I am simply stirring the water in a pool of several sources of light.
Taking one leap back into the water, I bid farewell to the world which was gradually receding from my view. The tears surrounded me and after that I had a feeling that something like an electric current ran through my body. Then, for a while, I was taut, as if my being a woman were pulling every molecule of consciousness into me this way and that.
***
The world that we saw on the other side was one that cannot but be described. These were patterns where the colors I had no name for appeared or blended as if they were in motion even as I tried to focus on them. Buildings that should never be possible rose in the distance, with their designs being a rebuttal to everything that was taught in physics.
‘My God,’ whispered Zoe next to me, whose senses had been significantly boosted by magic, she was unable to believe what she was seeing. “It’s. .. it’s beautiful. ”
Chase was already in a defensive posture, thinking like a soldier he is even though he is in a very foreign land. “Stay alert,” he warned. “Here we do not know what type of threat could be present. ”
I nodded, have my head as I tried to shake the complaint that was slowly enveloping my mind. “Zoe, you begin taking thermals. Chase, you go do a sweep of the outside edges. I will attempt to see if we can raise anyone back at headquarters. ”
While my friends started working, I extended my telepathy for the first time and tried to feel the bond between our realms. I did and to my utter shock was able to discover it almost instantly- a thin thread of data that ran through the tear.
“Alessandro? Morris? Do you read me?” I shouted through the link.
There was a silence of sorts for a while as all that was heard on the broadcast was noise. Then, I barely distinguished Alessandro’s voice. Finally, he saw a girl, ‘Brianne? Thank God. We were worried the link wouldn’t hold. Are you alright? What do you see?’
The only thing I attempted to do was to name what we saw, and it was really impossible to do that properly. “It’s like its own level which nothing could have prepared us for,” I said slowly. “From the inside, as they say, everything here… is not even different. It is, in fact, hell. Here there is a whole new set of bad things, bad ways of thinking, bad ways of reacting. Here, the laws of physics by which, so often in business, our actions are guided appear to be in some sort of slow and continuous mutation. ”
This is something that I realized while I was addressing the audience. It also felt as though the colors and the patterns in my environment responded to what I was saying, changing their positions and merging into intricate dimensions. The thought of it was eerie, for the environment was awakened and responding to our coming.
“Hi boys,” I yelled to Zoe and Chase. “Do you observe this? The way that everything is shifting?”
Zoe, who was looking at her sensor array, got a big look in her eyes. It is not merely motion, Brianne, she said, gesturing at the data on the screen before her. Energy fluctuations are rising and organizing themselves into distinct formations. That’s learning. The environment is evolving in response to the collective presence of the group.
I got goose pimples. “Is it dangerous?” I asked myself, and I realized how easier it would be to die in this territory where we are strangers.
I looked at Chase, who was shaking his head and looked just as uncomfortable as I was. “I don’t know. There is no clear threat or not here; everything here could be a threat, or none of it is. Our parameters don’t translate well. ”
It was just at that moment that, as though in answer to our growing discontent, the designs of the walls became more distinct. Engulfed in the disorder of melting structures, I saw trees and flowers growing out of it all still retaining the edgy, mechanical feel, though relatable.
“It’s attempting to speak,” Zoe said, and her words held awe. Child. Simply, it gives us more comfort or makes us more comfortable. At least, this is incredible!
I would have said something about that when I guessed a shadow swept across my thoughts. It was not like the Architect or, for that matter, like the entity which they had met back on the Earth. This was something far greater, far other something that could swallow the entire universe whole, and not even notice the difference.
‘Hi, children of dignity,’ a voice that was not a voice in my head said. This is a journey that has transcended the impossible to start with. And it will break you beyond your comprehension”