下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
A familiar large and yellow rectangle propped open the door of Compartment 313B.
“Oh!” Beezle said to the rectangle. “You must be Clare. Hello! I am Beezle! From the Arctuiaan settlement in the Delta region of Quasi-Space. I am not like a bee, though I can understand how my name might cause some minor confusions.”
“Um. Beezle?” Elara interrupted.
“I am so rude!” Beezle blushed. “Clare, these are my friends—Elara Adele Vaughn, of Vega Antilles V, and Knot, of the Grix. Elara is also staying in this room.”
“This is cargo,” Elara pointed out. “I saw this in the shuttle, stacked with a bunch of boxes. It’s not...” Elara looked at the large yellow sponge. Tentatively, she reached out and poked at the soft rectangle that couldn’t possibly be a living being. “...My roommate?”
“Elara! You really must not judge! Why, this yellow rectangle will be living with you, and you must be respectful!” Knot chastised.
Clare, in response, said nothing. She also did nothing. She was, as far as Elara could tell, completely devoid of sentience.
“It is so good to meet you!” exclaimed Beezle.
“Well,” Knot added with a shrug. “I’m going to check in to my room. Toodle-oo, neighbors!”
Elara waved goodbye to her new friend as she searched for the right words for her unusual roommate. “Hi. Um. Clare. How’s...” She looked around. The door slowly creaked, held in place by the motionless yellow slab. “How’s things?”
There was no response.
“So...?” Elara asked.
“I do not believe she can hear. Or speak. Or move,” Beezle said. “She is in her dormant state.”
“So how is she going to go to class? Or learn anything?” Elara pointed out.
“I am under the impression that Clare is a Blossh. Her species slowly absorbs information from those they are near. How exciting! Our information will be absorbed!”
“Sure. Great. That’s just what I hoped for when I signed up.” Elara flopped down on her bunk. “I can study, and she can absorb what I study.”
“Aw,” Beezle said. “I think Clare now feels sad.”
“Sorry if I made you feel bad, Clare. You are welcome to my... knowledge. I guess,” Elara said, addressing the slab. “Why not?”
Elara slumped down on the bed, amazed at just how tired she was. She could use a quick nap before dinner. Beezle carefully unpropped the door and gently leaned Clare against a wall.
“Well, anyway. I’m glad you’re rooming with me, Beezle.” Elara hesitated. “It’s been... a difficult day. I left my one real friend behind for a completely new world. It means a lot to meet you and Knot.”
Beezle blinked, clearly waiting for Elara to say more.
“And Clare,” Elara added. “Good to meet all three of you. Really.”
Beezle smiled as she slipped a thin metal ring around her head. “Yes, friend Elara. I do understand the difficulties of leaving one’s home. New experiences are both wonderful and frightening. Why,” she continued, “I endured the hallucination waverider as part of my journey through Quasi-Space. It was like unending torment.” Beezle then paused. “Well, it was like that until it ended. Then it was pretty much fine.”
“Right.” Elara said. “Your day might have been rougher than mine.”
The two girls started to unpack their belongings. Elara fired off a quick message to Danny, explaining little bits of the day and promising to return his call. Beezle activated the ring around her head and joined the OverMind. This meant sitting upright and mumbling to herself in a strange language with her eyes wide open.
The old Elara would have been disturbed, maybe even a little scared. But this? This was... exciting. She had made it to the school of her dreams. And she had two— three —new friends. Very unusual friends, but that was what made the galaxy interesting. Unusual and exciting new cultures, all coming together and discovering that, at the core, they really weren’t very different. They weren’t scary. They weren’t weird. They were all just people.
That was the moment when Beezle opened her mouth wide. With what sounded like a howl, the girl thrashed around for a moment and stood up on her bed. Then her head turned sideways in a move that was possible for the Arctuiaan but was kind of terrifying from a human perspective, and Beezle began to speak with a deep voice that did not belong to her.
“BEWARE.”
Elara felt her skin grow cold. “Beezle?”
Beezle reached out, and Elara felt a hand come to rest on her shoulder. But when she looked her new friend in the eyes, it was clear that Beezle was not in the driver’s seat.
“BEWARE, ELARA, BEWARE. THE EMPIRE THAT DID NOT CARE.” The strange deep voice grew louder. “THEY WERE LOST. LOST, AND THEIR SPIRITS DO ROAM. IN SEARCH OF A NEW, ETERNAL HOME.”
Elara shook her friend. “Beezle! Hey! Snap out of it!”
Beezle’s eyes rolled into her head, and her fingers curled like claws. Her whole body tensed, and then, much to Elara’s confusion, she lay back down and began snoring.
Clearly freaked out, Elara poked Beezle with a pencil.
“Oh!” Beezle said, her voice happy as ever. “Is it morning? Shall we rush off to begin our exciting day?
“No,” Elara said firmly. “No, you just started channeling some scary voodoo monster and said that there was some empire looking for a home.”
Beezle sat up. “Ah! You were graced by a visit from the OverMind!”
“I was what now?”
“The OverMind! All my people’s subconscious thought manifested as a singular consciousness. How lucky you are for such a visit. It is quite rare that they appear to one so soon after meeting!”
“But it sounded so...”
“Dark and bleak and hopeless?”
“Yes.”
“Filled with vaguely prophetic-sounding sinister storybook rhymes?”
“I guess so. Maybe?”
“Hmm... ,” Beezle answered, looking thoughtful. “Definitely the OverMind, then. It leans on the pessimistic side. A by-product of being all-knowing and omniscient.”
And then the small and sweet blue girl sat back down on the bed, and the half smile returned to her face, completely carefree. Nearby, the yellow rectangle that was Clare did nothing. Beezle closed her eyes and gave a slight snoring sound, and about one compartment over, where Knot was housed, came sounds that could only be described as a bear chewing on a giant pile of gravel, followed by the sound of a door being pounded.
“Nope,” Elara said to herself again. “Nothing weird or scary here. Not at all.” And with that thought, she pulled the blanket over her head and proceeded to nap before dinner.