Chapter 9
The Second Shift
Henry went into the locker room. It was a rectangular room loosely divided into three sections. Next to the door there, was a tile walkway roughly three feet wide. It lead along the long wall to what looked like a room full of shower stalls at the far end of the room. He walked forward past the privacy wall on his left. Past the wall was a bank of lockers with a bench in front of them. In the center of the room was another section of tile floor with two bathroom stalls, and bank of mirrors with two sinks. Henry’s locker was in the center of the long wall where the tile, and carpet met.
The lockers were a bit taller than Henry, and were made of a varnished white oak. In the center of each oak door near the top was a brass number. On the right side of each locker was a brass knob with a small one-inch black square of the same crystal material that made up the display screen of his tablet. Henry pressed his thumb against the crystal square, and heard a click from with in the locker. He pulled the knob, and the door swung open.
Henry found a shelf near the top of his locker that contained his electronic equipment. From the bottom of the shelf hung his uniform. It had been cleaned, and pressed. He hung his coat on the back hook, and began changing his clothes.
His technology was in sleep mode having turned back to its clear glass form. He put his glasses on tucking the earpiece into his ear. Then picked up his tablet, it immediately came to life in his hands as it had done before. It amazed Henry that what looked like a thin piece of clear glass was really a computer. The screen lit up with the words
“Scanning for identity markers”
“Syncing bio-electrical signals”
Henry then heard through his earpiece as the words appeared on his screen. “Welcome Henry Thomas, activate interactive schedule or interactive map function?”
“Turn on interactive schedule, please”.
“Attention Keeper Thomas, incoming clients arriving at IG gate 12, please proceed to gate IG 12,” the voice in his earpiece said.
The screen brought up a map of the terminal. The gate in question lit up on his map, and a path of travel was illuminated from his current location. Another box appeared in the upper left hand corner with the time until opening. Twelve minutes was not a lot of time to get there.
Henry closed his locker, and headed back to the break room where he found his mom, and Amica waiting for him. Amica had changed into her uniform as well, and his mother had hung her coat up, but both ladies still held their purse.
“See, I told you he looked handsome in his uniform didn’t I Mrs. T?” Amica said with a smile.
Henry blushed a little. She had said it in teasing big sister sort of way, but there was a look in her eye. Henry wondered if she really thought he was handsome, but quickly dismissed the idea as silly. He did a little twirl holding his jacket open like a model hoping she wouldn’t notice he had blushed.
“Well if you are done looking at me like a piece of sexy meat, my schedule says that I have less then 12 minutes until my opening,“ Henry said trying to tease her back.
“I said handsome. Mrs. T did you hear anyone say anything about sexy” she asked. “Anyway you’re right about needing to get moving.” Amica said.
She led Henry through the door with the words Milky Way Terminal at the end of the break room. They came out near the trash compactors in the room behind the elevators of the Milky Way Terminal.
“I’ll be back in a sec,” Amica said taking her purse, and heading into the break room.
“Mom, did you want to put your purse in the break room, I’ll bet Amica will share a locker with you?” Henry asked.
“No, I’m going to hold onto it. Amica said I could explore the terminal a little after you guys got started, if I wanted to. I want to have my wallet with me,” she said.
“They use a different currency here, than on Earth,” Henry said. He reached into his pocket, and took out his wallet; withdrew new debit card, and handed it to his mom. “Put this in your pocket, it has around 500 credit on it, if you see something you want use this.” Henry said.
“Henry you don’t have to do that, I don’t want to take your money,” his mother said.
“Mom four hours may be a long time to spend watching me work, I want you to be able to go explore, and have fun if you want to,” Henry said. Just then Amica walked back out of the break room, and lead the way out into the main terminal.
Henry was quickly beginning to feel at home in the hustle, and bustle of the Milky Way terminal, but kept a close eye on his mother as she saw the expanse of alien life forms going about there travel plans in the main hall. Henry walked up behind his mom, and placed his arm around her shoulders.
“Welcome to the Milky Way Terminal, they have a news stand over there, there are also stores, and restaurants upstairs.” Henry said.
“Attention Keeper Thomas, Incoming clients at IG gate 12, please proceed to gate IG 12, 6 minutes until opening” his headset said. Henry turned and looked at Amica who had a horrified look on her face, she had obviously just gotten a similar warning through her earpiece as well.
“Henry we have to move, 12 is a hard gate to open I don’t know that 6 minutes will be enough time. I think we are going to be late, let’s move, “ Amica said. It would take about three minutes for the computer to align the gate, and another couple of minutes for Henry to perform the opening, time was running very short. Henry began to think of a ways to speed up the process, as he followed Amica to the gate with his mother in tow. She had listened carefully to what they had said, and was moving quickly to keep up. Henry could tell from the way she tried to look at everything that she had a thousand questions, but was saving them for later. When they reached the gate, there was only 2 minutes left until the gate needed to be open. The gate was empty, and the computer was asleep.
“Henry, I’m sorry we spent so much time talking. I didn’t mean to make your first opening late, it will take at least three minutes for the computer power up the gate, and align it correctly for you.” Henry thought about what Roberts had said yesterday using the computer to make sure things went smoothly, but things were already not going smoothly, and his gut told him to improvise.
“I have a plan,” Henry said. He walked over to the gate, and placed his hands in the center. Henry had opened 12 yesterday, and the gate felt familiar. He felt it come to life immediately under his fingertips.
“Are you really going to do what I think you’re doing?” Amica asked sounding a little nervous.
“Why, is it dangerous?” his mother asked, their voices were quickly dropping in volume as he focused on the gate powering up under his hands.
“It can be, but more importantly it’s difficult to do, well at least for normal keepers, but your son isn’t exactly a normal keeper,” she said sounding the slightest bit proud.
“Amica I need the destination coordinates, I didn’t get them off my tablet,” Henry said.
“Coming,” she replied. “Mrs. T wait right here, and don’t touch Henry,” Amica read the gate coordinates to him. He pictured the numbers on the orb face as Amica read them and closed his eyes. The face of the orb shifted to contain the numbers that Amica had read off to him.
“Here check these for me,” Henry said reading the coordinates off the orb to Amica.
“Correct,” she replied
Henry touched the center of the orb. The beam of light shot out the back. Henry felt it traveling into the blackness of space. He felt the thrum in his chest as it struck the other gate, and unlike before, it only needed the tiniest adjustment to bring the reflection back to his chest.
Henry could not describe what he did but he pushed open his mind, it felt like he flung open a floodgate and energy poured into him. He felt a tug at the back of his mind trying to pull his focus along the course of the beam, a part of his brain screamed in agony. In his haste he had pulled far more energy than he had used yesterday. He did not know what would happen
if he lost focus but he did not think it would be good. He opened is eyes, the outline of the doorway blazed with light, the gate thrummed; but his body was still full of energy. He needed to get at least most of this energy out of his body. He channeled it into the outline of the door. He did not think it possible but the light grew brighter changing from a soft golden color to a bright white. It blazed so bright he thought the metal of it would melt. Henry pulled. He felt the gates slam together, and the door open. The thrumming of the gate stopped immediately and the glow returned to a deep golden color.
He looked down at his clock, the gate opened on time. He looked over to Amica, and his mother; they were looking at him with wonder in their eyes. He had opened a gate with out the computer, he was proud of what he had done.
Henry transported his clients and closed the gate behind him. He found his mom, and Amica talking.
“So there are these gates all over the universe, and people like my Henry, and you open them so that people can travel around the universe. Aren’t there space ships, and stuff like that?” his mother asked.
“Not as many as you would think. Faster than light travel is still an imperfect science, so most commercial travel is still passed through, and regulated by the ITS, and the keeper’s union,” Amica said.
“Doesn’t that create a monopoly on the control of the gates, or has the universe evolved beyond that. On Earth, we have a problem with the cost of fossil fuels like gasoline. Well you live there you know,” his mom said.
“Tell me about it, the price of gas just keeps going up, that’s why I went electric, but to answer your question no, the universe has not really evolved beyond that concept. The real problems come from the keeper’s union and the keeper’s fees. After the ITS pays those they are barely covering overhead, where the ITS really makes their money is in the transportation of goods through the cargo gates. They charge different fees depending on the type of merchandise,” Amica said.
“That sounds like a good idea,” his mother said.
“It started out as one, and does a good job on the whole, but it has created a black market gate system that moves merchandise that shall we say is of questionable origins, or uses. Items that are black listed, or illegal on some worlds but not on others are smuggled through secret gates hidden through out the universe,” Amica said. Then she lowered her voice substantially, making it hard for Henry to hear, so he moved closer. “Now personally, I think the keepers union is involved, the real reason they stopped putting the squeeze on the ITS system is because they get a cut of the profits of everything that moves through the black-market gates,” Amica said. Henry smiled. Here was the Amica he had met yesterday. He wondered how much of her dislike of the keeper’s union came from her belief that that they had helped to betray her planet, and how much was based in actual fact. As he was now a member of the keeper Union he hoped that it was just unfounded prejudice, but she seemed the type of girl to be informed about the opinions that came out of her mouth.
“Henry are you a part of this keeper union?” his mother asked, after noticing his arrival.
“I am, but I will quit if you two really think I should.” He said.
“No,” both Amica, and his mother said in unison. They turned, looked at each other, and smiled. Then his mom indicated for Amica to go first.
“Henry the universe is a big place, and although I think parts of the union near the top are up to no good, a very large majority of the keepers in the union are just doing their jobs so they can support their families. I would hate to see you left unprotected, or vulnerable because of something I said, they could be a powerful enemy,” Amica said. She seemed genuinely worried that she may have put Henry at risk. Henry turned to his mother for her reason.
“I think being in the union certainly has its advantages, the important thing is that you are aware that in any system there are going to be people who abuse their power. You just need to be aware that not everyone you talk to is going to be a good person, just like if you were on Earth,” his mom said.
“Attention Keeper Thomas, Clients Exchange at IG gate 9, please proceed to gate IG 9, 10 minutes until opening”.
“Well it sounds like we have another opening,” Henry said to the group. He began walking towards the gate indicated on his map. It was across the hall, and third from the end.
“Yeah, we’d better get moving. I have to check in clients while you prep the gate for opening. I have to say watching you open such a gate bare handed was something, but maybe you should hold off until after you have gone through the full keeper training, what do you say,” Amica said. She sounded worried. Maybe what he had done was more dangerous than he had realized.
“When do we start that anyway?” Henry asked.
“Tomorrow,” Amica said. They arrived at the gate, and Amica went to her podium to do her job. There were already a few clients who had taken a seat in the appropriate waiting are.
“Check in for departure at Inter-Galactic Gate 9 will now begin, please bring your boarding pass up to the gate please,” Amica said over the speaker.
Henry checked his tablet, and saw that he still had a few minutes until his opening, so he went over to his mom.
“How are you doing?” Henry asked.
“I am doing okay, I think this whole thing is amazing Henry, I really do. Is this something you could see yourself doing for a living, or do you plan on doing this to put yourself through school? I don’t know? Does that question even seem relevant anymore, so much has changed in such a short time that I am not sure entirely how to react,” his mother said. Henry was not sure how to respond. He had thought so much about his life after high school when he could be free of Paul, but had not thought much about what his life would be like after college. His mother was right much had changed. He would need to seriously think about his future. His mother must have seen some of the thoughts that were going through his head.
“We have plenty of time to discuss those kinds of things. The important thing is that for now you seem to have found a job that you can do while you are still in school, and from what your father said pays really good money.” She gave him a big hug.
“Would you like to see how it works?” Henry asked. Walking towards his gate control computer.
“Now last time I was running late, and I didn’t use the computer, but I think Amica would prefer if I did it the regular way this time,” Henry said placing his hands on the black crystal screen.
“Now we enter the gate coordinates here on the big screen. And when we are done the computer takes over for a bit,” Henry said. He typed in the series of numbers that appeared on his personal computer. The screen display changed.
“Aligning gate,” appeared along with a progress bar.
“Is there a limit to how far a gate can reach?” his mom asked.
“As I understand it, and remember I have only had a little training so far, there are five levels of gates. They are broken down by the amount of power, or energy that the gate is capable of channeling. The amount of energy that a gate can hold determines how far away the other gate I want to connect with can be, for example gate 12 the gate I just opened is a level five gate, it is capable of reaching any other gate in the universe.”
“So what is the computer doing now?”
“The computer aligns the gate properly.” Henry said.
“If the computer does the alignment then how were you able to open that last gate with out it?” his mother asked.
“Advanced gate keepers can place their hands on the gate, and direct its alignment without help from the computers,” Henry said.
“Like I said given that this is your second day, how did you open the gate with out the computers?” his mom asked again.
“Well I posses a high level of natural ability, and we were running late so I just thought I would try it, and it worked,” Henry said trying not to sound arrogant when he said it, he did not think he had pulled it off howeve
r judging from the look on his mother’s face. He had not said it to be arrogant; it was the truth. He did possess a very high level of talent.
“So you put everyone’s travel plans at risk; just to see if you could do it?” his mother asked. Henry had not looked at it this way, given that he was already running late, if his attempt had failed; all of the people who had been counting on him to open the gate for them could have been delayed greatly while he tried for the second time to open the gate.
“Henry these people who run this station have put a lot of faith in your abilities. I hope that you can understand what a responsibility that is, that you are opening these gates in a professional manner. Yes, you were running late, but being late by a minute or two is a large difference from however late you could have been if you had failed and needed to start over. What if those people had somewhere they needed to be by a certain time, and you let them down. I thought I raised you better than that,” his mother said. Henry knew she was right. What he did touched the lives of not only the people he was transporting, but the lives of those people they needed to interact with when they got where they were going.
“I promise I will work harder,” Henry said. As if on cue the gate control computer display changed.
“Gate alignment complete,” the computer displayed.
“What happens now?” his mother asked, as if their conversation from a second ago had never happened. His mother had a way of correcting him and then moving along as if nothing had happened. It was one of her best qualities.
“Now I go over here, and place my hands on the gate like I did before. It is the keeper that actually creates the connection between the gates,” Henry said. He walked over to the gate, and placed his hands on it. His mother came with him, but stood back a foot or so.
“Now I close my eyes, while I do that, please don’t touch me or the gate okay,” Henry placed his hands on the gate. This time he was more conscious of his mind and was much more careful how much energy he let in this time. The opening went smoothly.
“Now we tell Amica, the gate is open, and ready to move clients. This is a client exchange which means that not only will we bring people through the gate, but we will bring clients back with us”. He walked over to Amica. She smiled at him.
“That was nice opening, especially for a green, but I guess after a barehanded golden I should not really be to surprised, “ Amica said. She said it in a playful tone, but Henry felt as thought there was a growing respect for his ability in her voice.
“I’m sure when you get your chance tomorrow you are going to do great, I can feel it,” Henry said. It was true; he realized as he said it; there was something in her that he could feel, some kinship. He focused on his feelings. He realized now that he had centered his concentration, that it was her ability that he was feeling. He could see the potential within her waiting to be developed. If she worked she would be able to open the golden gates as well as him. He made a promise to himself that he would do what ever it took to help her reach the potential he saw. That it was the least he could do for his new friend after she had helped him find his bearing in this new world.
“Shall we move these clients Henry?” Amica asked. She was looking at him funny.
“What’s with the funny look, did I do something wrong again?” he asked. If there was one thing he could count on it was Amica setting him straight when he stepped out of line.
“No, but you saw something, didn’t you; with that creepy natural thing? It always used to weird me out when my dad did that. What did you see? Tell me or I’ll hold these clients until holding that gate open wears you down like an over sharpened pencil.” Amica said with a pleasant edge to her voice.
“It was nothing really. For a second, I could see the potential to be a keeper within you. I knew that you would be powerful; with work you will be able to do the golden gates. I was thinking that if we trained together, and worked hard we could get you there,” Amica smiled warmly.
“Thanks Henry, that really means a lot to me, shall we move these people. In the future try not to do the creepy natural thing would you?” Amica said as she pushed some buttons on her pad.
“Travel will now commence, please check your area for any belongs you may have dropped, and pass through the gate in an orderly fashion,” she announced. Henry led the clients through the gate. Amica and his mom brought up the rear. His mother hung back watching the whole time. Henry led the clients coming to his terminal back through the gate. When his mother and Amica were through the gate he pushed the gate closed, and released the connection. He sagged a little in the shoulders as he felt the energy he had expended leave his body.
“Thank you Henry, that was very special. It was very interesting to see what you can do,” his mom said. “The universe is certainly full of interesting people, how long until you, and Amica have a break?” his mom asked. Henry looked down at his schedule, and found that he had 20 minutes until his next opening, and it was at the same gate he was now at.
“I have about 20 minutes until my next opening, why?” Henry asked.
“Well I was thinking that I would like to look around this place, and wondered if you could show me the way back,” his mother said.
“Sure, let me just go tell Amica where I am going, and I’ll be right back,” Henry said. He went over to Amica who was checking in clients for his next opening. He waited until she had a moment to speak; while he waited, he watched her interact with her clients. She had a very pleasant, and fun personality about her. He found himself thinking about what his mother had said earlier about asking Amica out. They certainly had a great time when they were together. He wondered if Amica would date a human, especially a human as awkward as himself. He didn’t even know if a girl who would live for thousands of years would be interested in a boy who would only live to be 85 to 90. Now that he had the technology of the universe at his fingertips maybe he would live to be a hundred, but when it came down to it, that was only a year on her planet. It didn’t really matter; he thought to himself anyway, he was kind of with Britney. Amica had a moment to talk, and thankfully it did not look as though she had picked up on his train of thought. She would probably laugh if she knew he was thinking about her like that. Besides right now he was glad to have a friend.
“I am going to take my mom back out to the main terminal so she can have a look around, I’ll be right back,” Henry said.
“Ooh, that will be nice for her, I would take a moment, and stop at the book store on the first level, I saw a really nice universal travel translator in there. It was not cheap, but if you are going to bring your family here to explore, or if you are going to come on your day off out of uniform it would be a good investment. I’ll hold down the fort until you get back.
“Thanks that sounds like a great idea, you’re the best. I don’t think I would make it through any of this with out you.” Henry said sincerely. He found his mother, and headed quickly towards the bookstore, he did not want to be late for his opening, and make Amica look bad.