Ilooked to the other side where Patrick was waiting and then jumped, the slingswinging into empty space. At first the speed was slow, but then quicklyaccelerated. The wind picked up, blowing the hair off my face.
Iheld my breath in one silent, exhilarating moment, with the adrenaline raisingmy heartbeat and the sweat moistening my skin. The air rushing past me made myeyes teary and my throat dry. The whistling sound of the sliding mechanism justabove my head mixed with the wind blowing rapidly next to my ears. Just when Ithought it was too much and the adrenaline would make me faint, the leathersling decelerated and came to a slow stop on the other side of the gorge.
Myfeet touched the ground, and at the same time Patrick grabbed hold of my harnessstraps and brought me to a complete stop.
“Youseem to have enjoyed that,” he said, with a smile.
“Itwas… unbelievable!” I could hardly catch my breath. My heart was racing and mypalms were sweating. “Do we take the same route back?”
“What,you’d like to try it again?”
Inodded.
“Yeah,we’re coming back the same way. You’ll get another ride, don’t worry,” he said.As I stepped out, Patrick let go of the sling and it rolled back along thecable to the other side, where the rest of the group waited.
Onceeveryone was across, we continued on. I was at the back as usual, my eyes on the ground, listening to the conversations of the others,but I was mainly interested in hearing J.
Hewas quiet for the last few passes, and I looked up to see him. At the samemoment, he turned around and saw me looking, and he stopped walking and waitedfor me to catch up.
“Patricksaid you enjoyed the cable slide,” he said, falling into pace with me.
“Yes,”I said in my usual neutral tone.
“Mmm.”
Wewere silent for a while, and I wondered if I should have said something more inanswer to his question.
“Iguess Earth is very different than your own world?” he tried again.
“Yes.”
Hesighed, obviously not content with my answer.
Ididn’t understand. I’d told him the truth; what else would he want to know?
“So,where do you live? I mean, where did you live, before the… teleportationerror?”
“Ilived on Senthia,” I said, and looked at him. He met my gaze, and I looked downagain.
“Senthiahas two moons,” I said and glanced at him again.
“Dothey look like our moon?”
“No.”
Hearched his eyebrows. “What do they look like?”
“Theyare a lot smaller than Earth’s moon. They are both white, but one has a wonderfulpurple hue. It is one of my favorite wall images.”
“Wallimages? Like paintings?”
“No.Like walls. Only it is an image.”
Hesighed again.
Ilowered my head. I must be doingsomething wrong.
Ilooked to the front, observing the other members of the group. They weretalking in a lively fashion and their conversation flowed easily, melting fromone sentence to another.
Butour dialog seemed so disjointed.
I am not like that. I could converse without any difficulty at all,but—I glanced at J—not with him.
Ilooked at the ground below my feet.
I do want to talk to him.
And I want to know everything abouthim.
I can’t just let it slip like this!
Itook a deep breath, then turned my head to him and said, “J?”
“Yes?”he said so suddenly I almost jumped. “Ah, sorry… I didn’t expect you to… say myname,” he said, his beautiful smile appearing on his face. I looked at him, andthen I forgot what I wanted to ask him.
Hetook a quick breath, looking in front to the others for a moment and then backat me.
“Whatdid you want to say?” he asked.
“You…”I closed my eyes for a moment, then looked at himagain. “You are close to breaking the IP border.”
Helooked at the space between us and moved a little bit away while still walking.
“I’msorry. Is this better?”
“Yes.Thank you.”
“Noproblem.”
“Howcome Earth Humans know about IP distances?”
“Iheard the Jumpers joking about it.”
Inodded. “And when you first encountered Jumpers, did you know who they were?”
“Wedidn’t.” He shook his head. “At first, we thought they were other Humans that hadbeen cryo-preserved as well, but at some other location. Of course, we soonfound out where they came from. And more kept coming.”
“Howdid you know where to find them? And when to find them? Peter said you alwaysknow when portation occurs.”
“That’sright. Whenever a teleportation happens, it leaves a bright shining light inthe sky, like half a rainbow, only it’s pure white. And it touches the Earthjust at the drop point, and for some reason it always happens in the samelocation.”
“Mustbe a natural porting field resonator,” I said to myself.
“Sorry?”
“Portingfield resonator,” I said, turning to him. “In Uni, all the porting channels connectto porting chambers. Here on Earth, however, it seems the porting can beestablished without a chamber.”
Helooked at me uneasily and said, “You think you could use the same place to teleportback to Uni?”
“Thedata I have now is inconclusive, but I think this possibility exists.”
“Wouldyou… want to go back?”
Ithought again about my imminent port to the Zlathar planet, and my immenserelief when I realized that I had accidently managed to escape.
Andthen I looked at J.
Iwas so happy that I’d found him, that my dreams were in fact Visions, and thatI was here, right now, talking to him.
I don’t know what would make me wantto port back. Ever.
“Ah,”he said and waved his hand once. “You don’t need to answer that. It’s yourbusiness, I guess. So, Uni… is that a solar system?”
“No.Uni is a network of planets and moons where Descendants terraformed theirenvironment.”
“Andhow many Descendant worlds are there?”
“Currentlyinhabitable, two hundred and three. But”—I checked my nanoprobes—“thereare three more in the making.”
“Okay.Does that mean there are two hundred and three Descendant species?”
“No.Each Descendant species inhabits many worlds.”
“Sohow many Descendant species are there?”
“Seventeen.”
“Whatabout the name, Uni? Where does the word come from?” He looked at me. “Is itlike universe? Uni?”
“No,”I said and looked at him, surprised the Jumpers hadn’t explained it. “Uni comesfrom the old university where the foundation for Descendant evolution was created.”
“Okay.Was that on one of your new planets, this university?”
“No,that was still on Old Earth. It was the University of Neurotechnology andInnovation.”
Peter,who was walking just a few IPs in front of us, suddenly stopped and turnedaround. “University
