Chapter 13: The Navigator's Trail and Joey's Unease
The Saturday morning sun was already high in the sky, but for Joey, the atmosphere at home remained heavy. The irritation wafting off his father, Roberto, since his return from the police station, hung in the air like a dense fog. He muttered about the incompetence of the police and the town's "growing weirdness" while aimlessly flipping through the newspaper, clearly more rattled by the substation incident than he was letting on.
Léo, on the other hand, seemed to have found fresh fuel for his conspiracy theories. He connected the vandalism at the substation to the other "town mysteries" with an enthusiasm that made Joey shrink inwardly.
And watching it all from the sofa, an island of composed civility in the midst of the domestic chaos, was Mai Sakurajima. Her stoic facade was impenetrable, but her observant eyes took in the entire family dynamic: the father's frustration, the brother's excitement, and above all, Joey's tense silence.
For Joey, her presence only amplified his anxiety. He felt like a specimen under a microscope, his family's dysfunction now under the scrutiny of this enigmatic and pragmatic stranger. He felt trapped, the weight of the world pressing down on him. His worry for Pip, the memory of his silence with Lyra, and now the news of his father's involvement in the substation investigation—it all tangled together into a knot of anxiety and a responsibility he had never asked for.
The brief glint of light he'd seen in the sky earlier was still a vivid image in his mind. Was it another visitor? Or was his imagination just playing tricks on him again? He felt increasingly attuned to these anomalies, as if his own dreams of a different world had turned him into a lightning rod for the inexplicable.
Meanwhile, in the isolated pasture area where her probe had landed, Himeko began her assessment. With the calm and precision of an experienced scientist, she activated a series of sensors on her probe, collecting atmospheric data, energy readings, and scanning local radio waves.
Her tablet displayed a holographic map of the region, with small markers indicating the dimensional fluctuations that had drawn her to this solar system and, more specifically, to this point on the planet.
"The residual tachyon concentrations are higher in the direction of that urban area," Himeko observed to herself, her fingers sliding across the tablet screen. "And there are multiple energy signatures that don't match the local technological baseline. Some are erratic, almost organic... others indicate technological control that, while not at the level of the Astral Express, is clearly exogenous."
She thought of the stories Welt had told about his own unexpected journeys. The universe was, indeed, a place of infinite surprises.
Her initial priority was to understand the nature of the distortions and the situation of any possible "travelers" who might have been caught in them. She wasn't a rescue force, but as the navigator of the Astral Express, she felt an inherent responsibility to understand phenomena that could affect Trailblazing routes.
And, of course, there was the pure scientific curiosity that had always driven her.
With a faint smile, Himeko adjusted a small device on her wrist. "Pom-Pom, this is Himeko. Can you hear me?"
A somewhat shrill, static-filled voice replied from the device: "Himeko! Finally! The readings went all wonky for a moment! The Express is safe, but this region of space is... choppy! Lots of bumps!"
"I noticed, Pom-Pom," Himeko said, her smile widening. "I'm planetside. It appears to be a habitable Class M planet, with a humanoid civilization at a pre-mass space travel technological stage. However, there are a number of localized dimensional anomalies. I'm going to investigate. Keep the Express in a discreet geosynchronous orbit and continue monitoring the fluctuations. I'll send data as soon as possible."
"Understood, Himeko! Be careful! And don't forget to bring back some local coffee samples, if you find any!"
Himeko laughed softly. "Will do, Pom-Pom. Himeko, signing off."
She put away the communicator and looked again towards the city. She decided a discreet approach would be the best course of action. The probe had limited camouflage capabilities, but she preferred direct, personal observation initially.
She checked the utilities on her belt – a small analysis kit, an energy-based personal defense device, and, of course, a foldable thermal mug, because one never knew when one might find an opportunity for good coffee.
Kael, the Tracker, from his elevated position, had triangulated the approximate origin of Himeko's arrival energy signature. It was a new variable, sophisticated and controlled. Unlike Zylar's chaotic arrival or the more organic entries like Lyra's.
He adjusted his plans. He needed to identify the nature and intentions of this new player before the situation became even more unpredictable.
Joey's presence near so many of these events continued to intrigue and worry Kael. Was the young man a catalyst or a simple victim of circumstance?
Saturday morning crawled by at the Wheeler home. Roberto had finally settled enough to shut himself in his study, beginning to tackle the bureaucracy of the substation.
After bombarding Joey with more questions about why he was so "weird" and "such a defender of freaks," Leo finally took off to meet his friends, likely to spread the "news" about the substation and spin new theories.
This plunged the house into a tense silence, inhabited not just by Joey's thoughts, but also by the quiet, watchful presence of his mother, Clara, and the enigmatic Mai Sakurajima.
Mai sat in the living room, reading a book Clara had given her. She was a picture of such politeness and composure that it only amplified Joey's anxiety.
Feeling like a specimen under a microscope, he muttered an excuse and retreated to the sanctuary of his bedroom, his only escape from the silent scrutiny.
Alone with his thoughts, the weight of his secrets pressed heavily upon him. He thought of Lyra. Had she found anything to eat? Was she safe from the neighborhood watches and the town's prying eyes?
The urge to see her, to ensure she was alright, began to swell inside him, overriding the fear that the previous night's encounter with Leo had instilled. He glanced at the small cog and the scrap of leather Pip had left, now tucked away in a desk drawer.
They were tiny links to vast, unknown worlds. His dream of a world without evil felt impossibly distant, but perhaps—just perhaps—protecting these lost beings was a way to begin building it. One small act of kindness at a time, right here in his own small town.
That glimmer in the morning sky... was it another soul in need of help? Or something else entirely? The only thing Joey knew for sure was that his world would never be the same.
Himeko, after brief contact with Pom-Pom, began to move. Her exploratory probe was well camouflaged in the pasture area, and she set off on foot, following her tablet's readings that indicated a concentration of energy anomalies in the direction of the city.
Her gait was elegant and purposeful, that of someone accustomed to exploring the unknown with a mixture of scientific curiosity and a calm inherent to her experience. She was not a warrior seeking confrontation, but a scientist and adventurer, driven by the desire to understand. Her primary goal was to collect data, observe, and, if possible, understand the nature of these strange dimensional disturbances.
At his home, Joey felt a growing restlessness. His father's words about the substation incident and the mention of "strange tools" echoed in his mind, fueling his concern for Pip. At the same time, the memory of the silent encounter with Lyra the night before spurred him on. He needed to know if she was okay, especially with the threat of the "vigils" Léo had mentioned.
Despite Roberto's bad mood, as he continued to grumble about reports and others' incompetence, and Clara's palpable worry, Joey made a decision. He would invent some excuse, perhaps the need to go to a pharmacy or borrow a book from a distant classmate – anything to get him out of the house and towards the city center. The fear of social interactions still followed him like a shadow, but the urgency of his new and secret commitments was beginning to override it.
Kael, the Tracker, was already on the move. Himeko's arrival energy signature was unlike anything he had registered so far in this city: controlled, technologically advanced, and deliberate. It wasn't an accident. He needed to identify the origin and nature of this new presence. His instincts and sensor readings guided him to the same rural area where Himeko had landed her probe. He moved with the agility and discretion of a predator, avoiding roads and using the natural cover of the terrain, his eyes scanning the horizon for any sign.
Meanwhile, Léo, Joey's brother, couldn't stay put at home. The story of the substation and Joey's uncharacteristically passionate reaction the previous night about protecting "lost people" had piqued his curiosity even further. He convinced some friends to "take a walk around town, see if they could find out anything new about the mysteries of your city." His main destination: the central library area, where the "elf" supposedly appeared and where he had seen Joey acting suspiciously.
In the abandoned cinema, Lyra had consumed the cereal bars. The relief from hunger was temporary, but the repeated kindness of the young human (Joey) was beginning to open a small crack in her wall of distrust. She spent the morning cautiously exploring the dark corners of the old cinema, finding faded movie posters and forgotten objects from an era that was completely alien to her. Loneliness was her constant companion, but hope, however fragile, was beginning to sprout.
Pip, after an exhausting and risky but successful night obtaining energy, was in her hideout in the industrial area, working on her portal locator. The parts recovered thanks to Joey's anonymous action had been crucial. Her camouflage device now worked more stably. She needed a few more hours to calibrate the coordinates of a safe escape portal, far from this primitive and noisy planet. The news of an investigation at the substation, which she had picked up in fragments of local security radio transmissions, made her tense, but she couldn't stop now.
Zylar, in the detention center, was under increased surveillance after his escape attempt. However, the small data tablet he had managed to snatch contained valuable information about the facility's security protocols and, more importantly, basic schematics of the local power grid. His engineering mind worked feverishly, searching for a new vulnerability, a new chance.
Himeko, approaching the more remote outskirts, paused for a moment, consulting her tablet. "The energy readings are diversifying," she murmured. "There's a stable, yet fluctuating signature coming from what appears to be an abandoned structure near the civic center."
Her eyes turned in that direction. "And another, more erratic, with intermittent spikes, located in an industrial zone."
She pondered for an instant. The scientist in her wanted to investigate both.
"One step at a time," she decided, with her characteristic realistic optimism. "Let's start with the closest and apparently most stable anomaly. Perhaps we'll find someone for a chat and, who knows, a good cup of coffee."
She adjusted the strap of the bag she carried, where her analysis kit and thermal mug were stored, and continued her walk, an elegant and curious figure against the backdrop of the city countryside, oblivious to the fact that her actions were already being tracked by Kael and that, soon, she might cross paths with other equally displaced beings, or with the young human who had become the unlikely nexus of so many mysteries. Saturday morning still held many surprises.
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I'll be redoing the story. Many things will remain, some will change. I hope to count on your feedback to know if you're enjoying the story or want me to change anything. This is my first time creating a story, so I made several mistakes the first time around. I read one of the comments on the chapters and decided to redo the story to make it more pleasant for you all.
If you like the story, I'd appreciate it if you could check out my Patreon. I'll be posting 40 chapters in advance there. I believe this week I'll be able to create the chapters for paying members. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to today as I'm redoing the chapters and deciding what direction to take the story. If you could comment on the chapters with your thoughts, I would love it. Thank you to everyone who added my story to their collection.
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