Chameleon, Otto Gramm [hardest books to read .TXT] 📗

Alex said quietly.

– You are quite an unusual man. – Danae straightened a few locks on his head and paused for a second, intently peering into his brow. – You have many talents... – He thought she gave a soft hem. Then she walked away, still smiling. – You can keep the book.

– “Shagreen leather” by Honore de Balzac. – He read the title of the novel that he held in his hand.

– You’ll like it.

Alex could not say anything and just chuckled. That book he planned to read after Goethe. The edition was absolutely new, as if it had not been opened before, and the pages were pleasantly rustling, easily separated.

– A few days ago, Kyle hung me in the air when I tried to escape from the ship... – Alex said with his eyes dropped at the book. – Then I thought that nothing more incredible could happen to me. But every day... or maybe every hour I face something that I don’t even know how to take it adequately.

Danae did not share his irony and spoke a calm and serious voice.

– Being in Kyle’s team is a particular gift that also implies responsibility. You’ll understand this in time. The serum in your veins gives you eternal life and youth. However, you can get this potion only through the pain and suffering of your leader. It happened that his curse became a salvation for many people and for you too. Dispose of it wisely.

– Okay, I’ll try. – He said.

– Accept what is given to you with gratitude and humility, although it can be very difficult. And remember, do not look for yourself in your past. You are what you are now. – With these words, she handed him a small iron object with a chain. Alex took it and saw that it was his military tag.

– It is yours. – Danae uttered.

– Thank you. – Alex responded hoarsely and squeezed the tag in his fist.

 

 

Alex politely refused the proposed tea and went into reflection. Fingering the tag, he mentally repeated the words of the patroness and even managed to forget about her presence, until a loud clap of cloth brought him back to reality. Another reality. The silk curtains disappeared and now Alex could freely contemplate the empty room. The round hall in light colors was barely made with furniture – only a small table with a tea set for three and three elegant chairs by the wall. The light falling from a wide window divided the room into two halves. The guest stood on three steps just at the border of light and shadow.

Danae was no longer in the hall. Alex realized that she had retired so that he could think, and he walked slowly to the spacious terrace. All his worries instantly disappeared as soon as he saw the view. With indescribable amazement, the guest beheld the sprawling city in front of him with many towers, galleries, spires and wide domes. Seven spacious and long corridors, piercing the largest skyscrapers, crossed the whole city. Small vessels of queer shapes buzzed around them like motley insects. The larger ones were moored at the sites from which these corridors began.

“So Chameleon is parked somewhere over there,” Alex guessed.

The buildings sloped down and gradually disappeared in a silvery haze. Alex couldn’t see anything further but the smell of moisture told him there was water behind the fog. Far away, on a sinuous line of the horizon, meandered a green band of trees. However, the most interesting was over the horizon: a thin luminous sickle, stretching in a long arc on the spacious blue sky.

– Fantastic! – Alex exclaimed after a long contemplation.

– This is Taoras. – He heard a familiar voice from behind.

– Kyle!

Captain stood in the terrace doorway.

– Aw! The absent one!

– We never lost you.

– Do you know what I was thinking of when I walked alone down the corridor?

– I can only guess. – He approached and stood beside with a stony face. – I don’t read my crew’s thoughts. That’s my policy.

– I wanted to make Mona Lisa of you. Forgive me for my frankness, but you’re all bastards!

Kyle casually shrugged his shoulders.

– And that’s Danae’s politics. – He turned to his friend. – You must find the way to her by yourself. We don’t interfere.

Alex, puzzled, knit his eyebrows.

– Did I guess it?

– No, you heard her and you let her guide you.

– Interesting methods! Did everyone on the crew pass through it?

– Yes.

– Was there someone who didn’t go to the end?

– There were some.

– What happened?

– Plan А. – Captain answered shortly and fixed his gaze on the horizon.

– I see.

They fell silent.

A fresh wind blew from the city. Swaying the hair and clothes of the comrades, it raced further up the slope, bringing many new fragrances, elusive for an ordinary man, but quite distinguishable for Alex’s nose. He ecstatically pulled in the cool air and detained it for a while, letting the unfamiliar scents to settle in his mind. Few seconds, he stood immobile with his eyes closed, giving vent to his fantasy to paint every note of the flavor. Then, relaxing one muscle after another, he slowly exhaled. When he looked at Kyle, the latter stood silently beside him and gazed into the horizon. The prolonged silence finally became uncomfortable for the newcomer, so he decided to continue the captain’s topic.

– So what’s Taoras?

The man just slightly nodded to the sickle in the sky.

– Is it a planet?

Kyle nodded again.

– Gas giant. – He explained.

– And where are we?

– We’re on Athanna, the satellite of Taoras. – He finally turned to Alex. – In the local language, this means “lower world”, or “lower level”. Arkhanna is the “upper level”. In ancient times, this was the name of the sky, for people considered that beautiful radiant creatures lived there, giving light and warmth to the inhabitants of the lower world.

– And what does really give them? – Alex looked up. – I can’t see anything similar to the sun.

– There. – Kyle pointed his finger at the tiny white dot to the left of Taoras. – This is Arkhanna, the white star. Later, the dwelling people realized that not the sky, but the star was the source of light and warmth, so they passed it that name; later on they called so the whole galaxy, though the star is not too big: a little bigger than the Earth’s Sun. Its distant rays, as they reach the planet, face a powerful barrier of gases and charged particles. This leads to a long reaction and the rays are distributed evenly throughout the atmosphere. That’s why here is always light.

– How do they calculate the time here?

– According to Taoras. The local year lasts approximately as 14 terrestrial. Then Taoras obscures Arkhanna and a night of sorts covers all over planet for six months. This is a special time here.

– Why?

– I think you’ll see it soon enough. Taoras is just at the last stage of wane.

– Do you so stay in many worlds?

– We have a few.

– And does every world have its time flow?

– Time runs the same way everywhere, Al. Although all nations count it in their own way.

– Is there any universal system?

– There is. The Od system. It is defined by the artifact stored at Prahna, Deani home planet.

– What kind of artifact?

Kyle squinted when a warm wind blew into their faces again. The moisture filled his eyes with neon blue.

– The heart of the Ancient. These immortal creatures are half of the astral world and it is almost impossible to kill them. However, one warrior once succeeded. The heart he brought there continues to beat till this day, setting the rhythm of life. They say that all the hearts of the Ancients are beating together with the heart of the Cosmos.

– But you’re fighting them. – Alex was not determined, weather to form this phrase into a question, or an approval.

– Speaking your language, yes. At the same time, I do everything to avoid meeting them.

– Interesting tactics. – Alex signed ironically. Kyle just shrugged. The wind had turned his hair into a sticking black mop, almost like Mitch. Alex knew he wasn’t any better but he felt much more comfortable next to such a captain.

– And what’s behind the haze? A sea? – He changed the topic.

– A strait.

Koldoum found weird that alternation of simple answers and long tirades with explanations. Kyle does not usually respond like that... Although, what does he know about him?

– What an unusual place, it’s so quiet here. – Alex uttered after a few minutes of silence.

– Indeed, even though we are in the center of the metropolis.

– I barely know what big cities look like.

– Usually, they are full with crowds, fuss, a lot of noise, excess of information and not those smells you’re inhaling. However, many people feel comfortable there.

– Not me.

Kyle shrugged again.

– That’s the many-faced world to be accepted. Although it’s possible that modern Tokyo, or New York, would surprise you even more than Taoras in the sky.

Alex chortled.

– Maybe. I only saw them in pictures and photographs in Vietnam. Honestly, I felt like some aborigine.

Now it was Kyle’s turn to chortle.

– You’ll have your chance.

– Are we going back to Earth? – Alex’s face became serious.

– Not once.

Kyle noticed his grimace.

– It doesn’t please you, does it?

– Well no, I... I don’t know. Can’t say. – He shook his head.

– Well, you’ve had enough there.

 

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Publication Date: 08-10-2018

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