Author's Note
This story has been doing far better than I expected, to be honest, and thanks to everyone who's taken a look. I'd just like to invite anyone who's interested to pop into the Riftiverse discord. Lots of other stories in the Riftiverse to read, and it's a great community as well. If you're interested, join by typing Discord, period, gg, /riftiverse into the address bar in your browser.
Hopefully, chapters now, after the very long wait for the second, should come slightly more rapidly. I apologize for that, I got hit by exams, long format essays, and then a summer job far away from either an internet connection or my computer. Anyway, enjoy this one.
Chapter 3-Kosmonavt
"So, who are you?" asked the girl, who I unfortunately could not remember the name of from the book. It was something with an A, but that was as far as I could remember.
"My name is Grigory. Grigory Poznetsov. What's yours?" I asked in return.
"Alison Kayna. What mercenary outfit are you with to get wrapped up in this?"
"None. Ya iz Rossijskoj Armii, not a mercenary group. Now, who are you with?"
"Working on something for my father. Was waiting for Jack in the back there. Never thought you'd be crazy enough to walk right in the front, Jack!"
While she and Jack talked about which docking bay to go to, I thought about what I was going to do.
After all, what was I going to be able to do here? I couldn't tell them what they were walking into, and the whole experience would be what helped Alison and Jack to form into a team, and get Braxton on their side, so removing the tracker was out. Then, I supposed, the only option would be to help them the best I could.
Eventually, we drove up to D-2, and Alison saw the cluster of men in suits around her shuttle.
"Uh-oh, trouble. Did they see us, Grigory?"
Replying quickly, I responded "No, I don't think so. Get away, then what's our plan?"
"You had a backup plan, right?" said Jack to Alison.
"Yes, but not on this planet. Any chance you can give me a ride?"
"Where are you thinking?"
"A planet called Rho Scorvi. Haven't heard of it by any chance, have you?"
"No, I don't think so. Does it have another name?"
"Locals probably have their own name for it, but not anyone else. 'Bout eighty light-years past Immabwi," Alison elaborated.
"You're paying for fuel then," said Jack.
"Sure, got fuel credits right here," replied Alison
Pulling up, the two kept discussing travel arrangements. As Alison asked Jack about the ship, I pulled my kit out, and got my rig back on and ready to go.
'Well, this should be an experience. Signed up for the army, and now a Cosmonaut. What a turn,' I thought, and shook my head to clear my mind, and the grin of disbelief off my face.
Hurrying to catch up, I boarded the ship, set my kit, though not my rifle, down, and went to sit at the table. Jack sat at the PIC's seat and did his pre-takeoff checks and procedures, while Alison began getting clearance from the control tower.
Waiting to be underway, I pulled the cleaning kit from the stock, and slid out the cleaning rod. Attaching the brush. I got to work.
"So, where do I sleep?" asked Alison, raising a question I had been about to ask myself.
"Well, you can sleep in my Uncle's cabin, down the hall on the left. Grigory, you can use the couch out here. Don't touch anything, if you don't mind," Jack responded.
"Davai, don't worry, I won't touch anything," I reassured him.
"You're sure he won't mind?" asked Alison.
"He won't mind," came Jack's reply.
"Alright. If you don't mind, I'm going to go hit the sack. It's been a bit too interesting for my liking," Alison said.
"I'll do the same," replied Jack. "Good night, both of you."
The next days were long, tedious, sedentary ones. The first few, for me, were spent cleaning, repairing, maintaining, and organising my kit. On day four, I decided to further examine the golden key. Playing around with it, I still couldn't find anything out of the ordinary about it, except the shape and images. I set it down on the table, and turned the chair to the left to watch the other two play their games. They were oddly retro, definitely more advanced in tech, but old styled.
Jack had been winning the previous day, but had definitely started to be matched by now.
"Mr. Jack, the ship is almost at the refuelling destination. Please take your seat," came the sudden, surprising call over the intercom by Uncle Virge pretending to be the regular AI.
While Jack went to pilot the ship down, Alison continued to play, and I continued to watch.
Then, suddenly, the ship dipped down. I looked right, saw the key, and saw it fall by my arm, thankfully with the sleeves rolled up. Then, suddenly,
PAIN.
A pain I could feel down to the bones, all encompassing, and wrong feeling.
"Huyyebat, blyat!" I yelled in pain. "That fucking hurt!"
Looking down, I couldn't understand what hurt as much as it did. It had barely cut, and yet it inexplicably ached, more than the broken bone I'd had as a child.
Jack had turned around at this point, and asked about it.
"What happened? You alright?"
"Yes, yes, I'll be alright. That hurt like hell, don't know why. Do you have a first aid kit here?"
"Yeah, just behind you there. Sorry about that."
Reaching behind to find some medical equipment that, besides the gauze I had never seen before, I looked for a needle and thread. Not finding any, I called back over.
"What do I use here to seal wounds? Can't find any sutures, staples or glue."
"You gotta use the red packet of gel there. How do you not know that?"
"Never handled first-aid equipment like this before. Go back to flying, and don't crash us around if you don't mind," I responded.
Grabbing the packet, I opened it, and following the very oddly written instructions on the back, I spread it over the wound and held it shut. Remarkably rapidly, it closed, but it still hurt.
As we landed, I let them know I wanted to get it checked out.
"Don't take off for a little while. I'm going to go find a medical building. That cut still aches, want to ensure there aren't any problems," I called back to them as I left the ship.
Stepping off, I grabbed a map off a rack, slightly surprised they still had physical maps, but certainly thankful for it. Looking at it, there was a symbol that appeared to represent a hospital a couple hours' walk away. Deciding that the only way to figure out which way that was would be to walk outside and compare landmarks, I walked out the main gates, past what appeared to be the InterWorld hub, and onto a crowded, yet still remarkably cold, street. As I made my way to the sidewalk, I heard someone calling.
"Hey man, wait up a moment!"
Presuming this random stranger to be talking to someone else, I continued on.
"The one with the big 'ol backpack there, wait up!"
Wondering if this stranger was talking to me for some reason, I turned around to see the most confusingly perfect doppelganger of the classic Marty McFly I had ever seen.
"Hey there man, finally caught up to you. I'm the Elder who's supposed to get you. Name's Marty, what's yours?" asked the very laid-back McFly lookalike.
"Are you sure you aren't mixing me up with someone else?" I asked in reply.
"Unless anyone else here died recently, no, I don't think so," he responded.
"Then you know what's going on? Thank God. My name's Grigory, and Spasibo."
"Yep, I do. Do you have your key with you? The golden key-looking thing," he asked.
"Yes, I do, but why? I cut myself with it by accident, and was just on the way to get it examined."
"Yeah, the pain just sorta happens. Bonding with the soul hurting and all."
"Well, that would explain the pain." Digging through my bag, I found the 'key' he referred to. "Here we are. Now what do I do with it?"
"Well, now you take it and just kinda… stab the air with it?" Marty said, "but first, let's get somewhere more private."
Moving into an adjacent, absolutely deserted alley, we moved some crates from what I can only assume to be a hardware store based on how heavy they were as a barrier. Then, I stabbed at the air to feel an unexpected resistance, stopping it once it was "embedded" from where I had started the stabbing motion.
"Now, you'll turn it, like a key, and feel yourself drawing power to open it," Marty instructed.
Doing as I was told, I was surprised by the great big, orange, sloppy hole in space it formed.
"Now what? You can't possibly expect me to jump in there," I inquired from him.
"That's basically what you have to do. Then, just kinda keep going in the direction that you're being led in. Don't deviate off, you'll probably end up somewhere else, and I don't want to have to come get you from somewhere else. Though if you do, I guess I can put off paperwork a bit longer…"
"No, don't worry, I'll stay on track. I guess there's no time like the present. Bez muki n'et nauki," I said, before stepping in. The gravity was weird, and so was everything else. The big pipe-like formation the vortex put me in appeared to be made of some kind of orange light, and it was absurdly cold. Shivering a bit, I decided that, if the other guy, Marty, had made it here, it was probably safe.
At each turnoff in the pipe, the golden key would sort of tug at the correct direct. Deciding that that was what he meant by being led, I kept walking, and walking.
Eventually, I came to what looked like a dead end. Walking through, I got one good look at the futuristic city from the key, before gravity reengaged, and I fell back first back into the portal. Recovering from the fall, I decided to dive through. Going for the dolphin dive gave me enough momentum to clear the portal.
Standing up, I experienced this city for the first time.
As I did so, I heard Marty say, "Welcome to Locostral, the place between places."
