Airports (or the airport's younger, more glamorous sibling, the spaceport), as I would come to learn, were all alike. A maze like series of corridors leading to - when you eventually find it - your gate, with a lounge filled with uncomfortable chairs and a guaranteed annoyance.
Today, that annoyance was a baby screaming directly in my ear. I was tempted to turn that ear off, but Tim was on that side, and, after all, I was still his bodyguard. Despite the infant human's best efforts, I could hear Tim's every breath.
"Can I have your attention please?" The gate steward announced into a microphone. "First class passengers for flight 258 to Rabalo City may now board."
I stood and tugged on Tim's arm. Mieu followed us down the tunnel to the plane.
First class was filled with luxurious leather seats. "Sit by the window, Tim," I said. He sat and I sat next to him, with Mieu taking the aisle seat.
Mieu could have ridden in the plane's cargo hold, but I wouldn't have that. It wasn't all that uncommon with businesspeople to ride with their cyborgs, anyway. The airlines didn't care; after all, a cyborg in a seat brought in the same amount of money as a living customer.
Tim buckled in, and then turned to me and asked, "Why didn't we teleport there?"
"My pass only covers me," I replied, "and to teleport you, Mieu, and our luggage would cost far too much."
"Ok," He sounded nervous.
"This is your captain speaking," a young woman's voice sounded through the plane, "We'll be taking off shortly. Our flight time to Rabalo City will be a little over six hours." Normally, on a flight this long, it would be a suborbital flight that would take a little over an hour. However, Rabalo City's airport wasn't big enough to handle them.
I heard the plane's stand retract with a loud "ka-chunck". The plane was now floating six feet above the tarmac, supported by a repulsor field.
The plane floated to the runway. The jet engines, virtually unchanged for a 1500 years, roared. We were all shoved back into our seats as the plane lifted into the sky.
I looked over at Tim and saw him latched on to the armrest. "You should have told me if you were afraid of flying, Tim." I said.
"I'm OK," Tim said, but his voice and face betrayed the truth.
I took his hand off the arm rest and put it in my hand. "Don't worry. There hasn't be a death on a plane for almost a century."
Just then, the plane hit an air pocket and dipped. Tim squeezed my hand with crushing force. "It's alright," I said. "Hold my hand if you need to."
The plane leveled off. The captain came over the speakers again. "We've reached our cruising altitude of 52,500 feet. If you look out the left side windows - or for the first class passengers, the monitors in front of you - you'll see the Western Rift Mountains on the horizon."
For the next hour, Tim crushed my hand whenever the plane unexpected dipped or climbed. I called over a stewardess. "Excuse me, but my cousin here is scared of flying." I showed her Tim's crushing grip. "Do you have something to help?"
"Of course," The stewardess stepped into the forward cabin and came back with a pill and a glass of water.
"Thank you," I said. The pill was anxouizine and the effects were quick. Tim relaxed and slowly, as some people did when taking it, feel asleep.
Tim was still asleep when we landed four and half hours later. Mieu gently carried him out of the plane and through the airport. He awoke when we stepped out into the balmy night.
"We're here," I said. "You can sleep once we get in the car."
"I'm awake," Tim yawned.
I rented a luxury hovercar. Port Lyria, where we were staying, was on the other side of the island. We left the bright lights of Rabalo City - the largest city on the island - and drove on to the southern highway. We passed through small towns and we eventually arrived on the island's second largest city, Merkre, and I stopped at a fast food place.
"Hungry?" I asked Tim. He hadn't ate since we left our house, eight hours ago.
"I probably should go to the bathroom, too," he said.
I took him inside and ordered while he went. He was already in the car when I came back. I passed the hot food back to him.
"Thanks," he said, unwrapping a burger.
I turned the car on and it settled on it's repulsor field, like the plane did earlier. I drove back on to the Ring Highway, and we left Melkre behind.
On the way north, I admired the scenery around us. It was dark, but my eyes allowed me to see as if it was day. To our left was the turquoise sea, fronted by a strip of white side. The other side was jungle, essentially a wall of lush green leaves rising up the mountains at the center of the island.
An hour later we finally reached our destination, Port Lyria. Port Lyria wasn't a large city, or even a large town with a population of 8400 (I read it a sign at the town limits), but it was known for being the landing point for the first wave of colonists from the northern continent 2200 years ago.
The Lyria Star Hotel was the largest building in the city, towering thirty-five stories above us. I pulledinto the garage and turned the car off. We entered the elevator.
"Welcome to the Lyria Star Hotel," a pleasant voice filled the elevator. "We hope you enjoy your stay."
The doors opened and we were greeted by a yawning desk clerk. "Welcome to the Lyria Star Hotel." He mumbled. "Do you have a reservation?"
"Rydori." I handed him my ID.
The receptionist typed something into his computer, looked at the results, blinked, and looked again. "It seems that one of our penthouse owners has allowed you the use of his room during your stay."
"Really?" I didn't hide my surprise, "Who?"
"Our honored guest has requested to be unnamed. Do you want the room?"
I was naturally suspicious about our unnamed benefactor. General Pyre would have told me, and Jager wouldn't do something like this. Those were the only two people were supposed to knew where I was staying. However, if anyone wanted to harm me (or, more importantly, Tim) they would know where we were even if we didn't take the room. "Sure."
The receptionist handed over three keycards. "Use the far right elevator. Thank you for staying at the Lyria Star."
The interior of the elevator was plated in gold and trimmed in brilliant blue lapis lazuli. I stuck my keycard in the rose gold trimmed slot and a small screen lit up, showing where the elevator would take us. Our penthouse, not surprising, was on the top floor. One level below that was the Star Reach Restaurant, and there was a pool and a an entertainment floor as well. I selected the penthouse.
The elevator opened into a small foyer in front of our room. "Tim, hold up out here," I said. "Mieu and I are going to check it out."
Tim nodded.