26. The Shadow of Time

Seated on the floor of Toshi and Felice's room, Avocato took a sip of tea before resuming his task of polishing boots. Finals were looming and in little over a month, their second year would be done. On the bed behind him, Pawlette was helping Kedi memorize the calibration standards for lightfold engines. FannFee and Nikos sat in the hall with Kip for an impromptu accounting review. Toshi was moving among them, taking vitals, while Felice lounged at his desk and read a news feed aloud to them to practice his Galactic Standard.

" . . . sector six, Sol system, planet Ear-th-"

"Planet what?" asked Avocato, buffing the boot set over his hand.

"Ear-th," repeated Felice.

"Earth," corrected Avocato, smiling.

"That's not how it's spelled."

He snorted faintly before dipping his fingers in a bowl of water beside him and flicking droplets onto the shining leather before going right back to buffing. "What the inhabitants of Earth do to Galactic Standard is close to criminal, Felice. They actually think they created it."

It was Felice's turn to snort.

"So what's happening on Earth?" asked Avocato, ignoring Toshi as he began running a scanner over him from ears to toes and muttering things like, "Tail fully healed," and "Blood pressure low due to relaxed stay and seated position," and "Heart rate fifty-eight? Do not stand up quickly, Cato, you'll pass out."

"Not much, but the space around it, now. . . "

"Avocato, your temperature is 1.1 degrees higher than Ventrexian average," said Toshi, intent on the scanner. "Do you have a fever?"

"No. That's just me, Tosh."

"That's . . . not normal."

He saluted with his tea. "Like I said."

The others chuckled, and Avocato grinned at Toshi as he set the boot aside and picked up the next in the lineup. Though he had taught all his friends how to polish leather, none of them were quite as adept at it as he. In the morning they were due for an inspection by General Mor, who was visiting the academy to give the students a class in Tryvuulian culture and how it affected their battle tactics. Avocato was related to the general through the House of Hiis, though if he had ever met Mor, he had no memory of it. Nonetheless, since he was so completely unmistakable as an Imperial, Avocato fully expected some attention to land in his lap. He wanted to look his best for his relation and he was determined his friends would as well. And so, he was polishing everyone's boots.

Pawlette's boots just needed touching up, as did Nikos', and and both had small feet, so he was done with them before Toshi was done fussing. "Kip!" he called, not yet willing to move. "Go get your boots!"

Kip took one look at the row of shining black boots, accepted that his skills were lacking by comparison, and promptly raced to fetch his own footwear. "Shameful," was the extent of Avocato's critique when they were handed over, and he got to work. After a minute he tapped Felice on the leg, nodding toward the news feed.

"A notice from the Infinity Guard science division," droned Felice, scanning the article to paraphrase. "They describe the event as a gravitational anomaly, but it appears a dimensional rift opened not far from Earth's only natural moon."

"How could that happen?" wondered Avocato.

"Space is weird," volunteered Kedi.

"If a black hole passed, it could have weakened the fabric of space," Pawlette said, giving Kedi a swat. "Usually, extreme fluctuations of gravity are responsible for trans-dimensional crossovers. Rifts aren't unheard of, though they're pretty unstable, and they can be pretty dangerous to the spaceways."

"Not to mention something trying to cross over to this dimension," said Toshi.

"And this is the Infinity Guard," observed Kip. "They are not noted for their enlightenment, respect for the laws of nature or regard for their own planet's environment."

"Well, that would explain their detonating an anti-matter bomb to seal the breach," said Felice.

"WHAT?" exclaimed seven horrified voices at once.

Felice savored their reaction for a moment as all they piled into the room to gape at him.

"They could have wiped out their own planet!" squeaked Kip. He smacked a hand to his forehead. "They're insane!"

"Or desperate," allowed Nikos. "Felice, read."

"Infinity Guard Captain J . . . Joh . . . Jo . . . h . . . n - Cato, pronounce that," he ordered, giving up in frustration.

Avocato twisted to see the padd Felice held up. There was an image of a tall human male, broad of shoulders and chin, topped with brown hair. Beside him stood a much smaller being whose species was completely unfamiliar. The smaller being had a large, rounded head like an egg, wide eyes, and smooth green skin. Both wore Infinity Guard uniforms, and both were smiling. Though he couldn't quite judge alien body language that well, it seemed as if they were on very familiar terms with one another. Avocato's eyes narrowed as he considered the oddly spelled name beneath the picture. After a moment's silently sounding it out and wracking his memory, he slowly said, "John."

He paused, wondering at human naming conventions, trying to place why it seemed familiar.

Felice huffed. "Why do they include letters they don't pronounce on Earth?"

"They have something over seven thousand languages on the planet. A lot of them got mashed together. Of course they can't spell!"

"Seven thousand?" echoed FannFee, her eyes wide. "No wonder their planet's a mess. They can't talk to each other!"

They took a moment to digest that. Ventrexia had just one language, though ancient versions of the tongue were still used in the temples and for some ceremonies. They were once race, one language, one religion, one government, with local adaptations and variants springing up as needed. The only subspecies of Ventrexians known were Tiger Tigers. Their isolationist ancestors had colonized one of the moons of Gorum Ceti almost eight centuries ago and politely asked to be left alone as soon as they were self-sufficient. The high gravity and weak magnetic field of the moon had resulted in the compact, wide-eyed, and energetic little species adapted for extreme climates. Contact had resumed with Gorum Ceti over the past century, and there was steady commerce but very few visits between Mother Ventrexia and her strange, far-flung offspring.

"Infinity Guard Captain John Goodspeed and co-pilot Commander Jack flew to the breach. Readings indicate there was a time skip caused by the issues with gravity. Exactly what happened wasn't recorded by the ship because of the skip. The recording go from from the crew approaching the breach to Goodspeed and the bomb being absent and the shock of the explosion hitting the ship. Goodspeed seemingly carried the anti-matter bomb into the rift and detonated it."

They were quiet, impressed by such courage and sacrifice.

"Did it work?" asked Kedi quietly.

"Yes. Mostly. The region still seems unstable, but the rift is closed."

Pawlette shook her head. "For now. Odds are good it will happen again if the region stays unstable."

"What about the co-pilot?" asked Avocato, setting the boot aside to sip his tea.

Felice scanned the article, skipping the scientific analysis. "Uh, here! Commander Jack survived with extensive injuries and apparent exposure to some unknown radiation. Weird. The radiation was only in Commander Jack, not the ship itself. At the time this was written, he was hospitalized and they anticipate he'll recover, though they don't know if he'll be able to return to duty."

"That would be a lot to live with," Avocato murmured. He reached for Kip's other boot, and looked pointedly at his host. "Now read the whole thing from the beginning. Out loud."

"But there are these grab bag science words in the middle!" Felice whined.

"Even better."

"I hate you."

He smiled. "With feeling this time, Cadet."

"I hate you, sir!"

Avocato just laughed.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

The article - with many asides and debates - was read in its entirety. The tea was drunk, the boots - including Kip's roommate's and two of Pawlette's engineering friends - were polished, studying was done, and the chime sounded for lights out. Everyone grabbed their footwear and made their ways to their rooms, calling out thanks and promises to meet up in the morning.

"The name of that Infinity Guard captain," said Nikos as he set his boots by his uniform. "Goodspeed. It's the same as the man we met in the station at Alfitrix."

Busy stowing the polishing supplies, Avocato blinked, realizing. "You're right. I knew I recognized it. John Goodspeed. And . . . Gary Goodspeed."

"I wonder if they could be related," said Nikos, stretching.

Avocato shrugged, uncertain. "Possibly. It could be a clan name or a family unit."

"Or it could be the most common name on the planet and every third human is a Goodspeed," Nikos said with a laugh."I wonder how old that would make Gary Goodspeed now."

"That's hard to say since he was clearly traveling through time. Younger than what we met is my best guess."

"Still, what Captain Goodspeed did was remarkably brave, even if the effect is most likely only temporary."

"Yes," said Avocato, his expression distant. His thoughts in that moment were half a galaxy away, to a shining blue planet where lived a man or boy with yellow hair and greenish-brown eyes, a ready, easy laugh at being called humanoid trash, and a burning desire to be believed. Softly he added, "They're not without their heroes, too."