2. A New World

Night had fallen by the time the boat reached the mainland. Shadow had found himself a ledge outside the...sort of building on the top of the boat. He thought the floor was called a deck, like the floors of the ARK, but maritime terminology had not been a large part of his training on the ARK, before or after he was awakened, so he wasn't sure what the house-like part was. At any rate, he was up out of sight, especially given his black fur, while the humans - sailors, he did know that much - scurried to tie up the boat and unload a few crates. As soon as the coast was clear, he dropped down from his perch and glided down the ramp to the...dock, he thought it was called. He then skated up towards the massive buildings at the far end of the rough planks. His hover shoes gave him a smooth stride over any solid surface, but this was a far cry from the smooth-textured metal or stone walkways of the ARK.

Reaching the buildings he kept to the shadows, shivering as a sudden draught of air came rushing past towards the water. Wind, the thought surfaced from deep in his brain, wind is a frequent occurrence where water meets land because the land holds the heat during the day and the water at night. Warm air rises and lowers the local pressure which causes the colder air to move into the area. That was the flat, emotionless knowledge of his flash-training. Current experience added the more emotional footnote, and it's cold! He wasn't particularly affected by cold or heat, not to the degree that humans were, but he was aware of temperature and was most comfortable in a certain range. Everything was very strange; at least in the GUN base he had been surrounded by walls and ceilings as he had been his entire life. Here, around the buildings was open air, and above...

He tipped his head back and looked up. The sky above was black with dark grey areas where lights reflected off...clouds? He'd never seen them from below...and in the black areas a few faint stars shone through, far fewer than he was used to on the ARK. He shivered involuntarily, there was so much SPACE! Stop it, Shadow, he told himself firmly. You went out of the ARK a few times, and that, even with the fizz fields, was more open space than this is. This is the planet you and Maria always wanted to go to. He blinked as his eyes stung, and swallowed against a strange feeling like food caught in his throat, though he hadn't eaten in - Can it REALLY be fifty years!? He shook himself, trying to focus on the present. I have to do what she wanted done, because she can't – she's not here to do it herself. After another look around, and another involuntary shiver at the strange, open, windy space, he headed towards the lighted part of the complex, where he could see a tall fence and several gates.

When he got close enough to see clearly, he could see that there were human guards in a small building near the only gate that was open, and huge vehicles going in and out through it. Trucks, his training supplied, tractor-trailers or semis. Moving cautiously along the edge of the lit area he noticed a hole in the bottom of the fence between some metal barrels. A quick dash took him across the lighted pavement. After a moment he flopped down on his chest and crawled through the hole. Small plants were growing all around, not in pots or hydroponic tubes but out of the floor. The ground. I'm on Earth now, so what is below me is ground, unless it's inside. He quickly discovered that not all of the plants were so small, and some had sharp points on them. He made his way back towards the gate and the corridor of pavement leading away from the buildings. All of the trucks were gone now, so he moved alongside the paved strip until he was certain the guards wouldn't see him, then moved out onto it and kicked on his skates. This is a road. A road has to go somewhere. When I get there, maybe I can find how to get to Bay Port to find the "National Reserve Bank" that the article mentioned. Then the Chaos Emerald will be mine!

Actually, he reflected, if I can get close enough I should be able to sense it...but this world is a lot bigger than the ARK.

Before too long he came to another road crossing the one he was on. A large sign indicated several directions with a word or two opposite each arrow. One phrase caught his eye. "Bay Port," he read aloud. "That's the name of the city I need to go to. So...that way." He turned and followed the road leading left. Before long buildings began to appear on the sides of the road, many dark and unwelcoming but a few brightly lit and with people visible inside. He tried to avoid the lit areas as he avoided the occasional vehicles on the road, but in some places he had to go across them. He came to a dead stop when he saw one door slide open as someone exited, not because of the door, but because of the person. Unlike the humans that he had seen all his life, the person walking out that door was only three feet tall - a few inches shorter than he - grey furred, and waving a long tail behind her. It was the first dokan he had ever seen. Unlike Shadow, who wore only his hover shoes and gloves, this cat wore a knee-length denim skirt and a blue top as well as gloves and shoes. He gaped as she walked off in the other direction, got into a small vehicle - a car, he remembered - and drove away. Suddenly realizing his mouth was open he closed it. A dokan. A real dokan. He skated on, wondering if there were any other hedgehogs around beside him.

After a while he noticed that off to one side the sky was getting brighter. He turned away from the road into a patch of plants, grass and trees. There were different types of trees, but although he knew some of the names he didn't know what name went with which tree. Sitting down on a convenient bench, he looked at the sky as the blackness faded and the light grew brighter. Orange and gold crept up into view and eventually the blinding disk of the sun rose behind the hills. Shadow gazed around in absolute wonder as the sky above him turned the most beautiful blue he had ever seen, the same shade as Maria's eyes. Clouds floated in puffy white clumps. The colors are so bright. So completely different form the ARK's monochrome background. He remembered the steel and plastic corridors he'd lived in; there were accents of color in the people and furnishings, but the basic colors were shades of grey and white, with the absolute black of space outside every window. Only the garden area, where Maria would sit and pretend she was on Earth again, had anything like this and it was so, so poor an imitation. Oh, Maria, he thought, I wish you were here to see this; it's what you always wanted to see.

The traffic on the street was picking up, more vehicles traveling at higher speeds, and now bicycles and pedestrians were on the pale strips of pavement along the darker main strip. Most were human, but a few were dokan of various races: a rabbit, another cat, and a family of rust-colored foxes. He got up and moved back towards the sidewalk, hesitating as he reached the foxes, who were looking at a sign he hadn't noticed when he turned onto the green area. Or rather, the vixen was looking at the sign. The dog fox was looking at a piece of paper he was holding, while the son was trying to drag his mother into the green space. Shadow noted that the sign read Mission Park and was about to move into the flow of walkers when a voice stopped him.

"Excuse me, sir. Mr. Hedgehog?"

Shadow blinked at the canine in surprise. "Ah, yes?"

"Do you live around here? We're tourists and I'm afraid we're a bit lost. We were looking for the bus to Golden Span Park."

"Oh. No, I'm afraid I'm new here myself," answered Shadow. "In fact, I'm lost too. I just sat down for a few minutes while I...tried to get my bearings."

"Oh. Well, I'm Dai Reynard, that's my wife Lilia, and our son–"

"David," interrupted the son. "We're foxes, what are you?"

"David! You know you're not supposed to interrupt! I'm sorry sir," said Lilia to Shadow. "He's a bit too curious sometimes."

"That's all right," said Shadow, crouching down a bit, so he was level with the cub's gold eyes. "I'm a hedgehog," he said to the fox cub. "My name is Shadow." He looked up at the adults who were conferring over the piece of folded paper, which he now saw was a map. "Do you know where the National Reserve Bank is located?" he asked as he stood back up.

"Hmmm," said the vixen as she unfolded more of the map. "Ah! Yes. Here it is...right here." She indicated a spot on the paper, Shadow saw the tiny letters spelling out the name of his goal. "And we're here," she continued as her black-gloved finger traced across the map to a green patch labeled 'Mission Park'.

"Ah, yes, I see," said Shadow as he committed what he could see of the map to memory. The visual diagram would be more useful than the directions he'd memorized earlier, especially as he wasn't certain where he was supposed to start from for those. "Thank you very much ma'am. I hope you get where you're going." He nodded to the adults and gave the cub a little wave as he started down the sidewalk. At least now he knew where he was going.

It was a very long walk. He didn't want to use his skates, since he didn't see anyone else using anything similar, and he had to stop periodically to rest; the fifty years in stasis - he felt the shock anew every time he caught sight of the date on a newspaper or sign - had had an effect on his stamina. Adding that to the fact that everything was strange, from the sights and sounds of the city to the very dirt beneath his feet and the sun arcing across the blue sky above, it took him most of the day to find his goal. It's probably just as well, he reflected, as he looked at the large grey building by the light of the setting sun. This sort of work is better done in the dark, especially when one has black fur. He turned away and found a place where he could watch the sun set. It was even more beautiful than the sunrise, as from his vantage point he could see it seeming to sink into the ocean. Once night had fallen he returned to the bank.