"Meerkat duty?" Bryan muttered a little to himself, as he looked around. Okay, so basicly his job was now to see trouble, and call for help. Hopefully he could at least manage that. It's not his fault that the sun didn't give him any-
... No, he was not going to think like that again.
The colours of this planet were... disconcerting. Alien. Yet- Earth-like, in that it was not uncomfortable. It was almost artistic in some ways. Beautiful silver trees, that looked like it was snowing, upon strange yellow moss of golden hues and red grass. Still he was asked to look at potential threats, and right now that seemed to be the two... innocent looking clockwork creatures, rowing the boat for them to get across the river.
"Where are you taking us?" He asked them.
The clockworks said nothing, paddling the boat in perfect synchronisation.
"So... we're just going to let them take us to... wherever?" Asked Bryan to the angel-woman.
Lucas grinned. "It's what they've always done, so we'll just go along for now and see what happens."
"For all we know they could be garbage disposal!" The idea of that in his head was... disturbing now.
Lucas shook her head. "Hey come on. This is a passenger boat. We're obviously passengers to them."
Astra, the little girl alien girl, touched the water running it through her hands. "No Life in the river... that strange? I keep sensing."
Bryan faced palmed. Still, right now, he had to do what they said. His initial excitement had now fallen into quiet despair. It was no longer a journey in which he had any control over. This angel-woman-internet-legend, has swooped in and taken control over everything. When would he ever get a chance to... well... be a man and take charge?
... still... there was a comfort to have an expert, and a warrior at that.
Finally the boat stopped, onto a harbour.
An... alien city.
It was not constructed like anything human had ever seen. each building was a curious geometric shape. Simple shapes existed on the outer regions. Various triangles as pyramids gleaming in silver material, which eventually became squares and more complex polygons the further towards the center they went.
There were gardens and flowers across each home, some of which were tended to by the occasional clockwork-being.
"Is... anyone home?" Asked Bryan to the clockwork pruning a red coloured hedge. It was tending to one of the square shaped houses. The door was geometrically scaled exactly to outer square. It was very odd architecture that kind of reminded Bryan of an 8-bit computer.
The clockwork creature ignored him, but seemed to glance just a little to him. It wasn't a full acknowledgement exactly but... it was like it was trying to remember how to interact with a person.
"Mechanical constructs my man," said Lucas. "Try not to take it personally. Come on, where we want to be is in the center of this city."
"How do you know?" asked Bryan.
"Look at the Pattern. See? More complex as we go to the center. Triangles, squares, pentagrams, hexagrams... what will we find in the center? What's the most complicated polygon you can think of?"
Bryan frowned. What polygon had the most sides?
"Circle," said Astra. "It has infinite vertices."
"Very good!" Grinned Lucas.
Bryan practically kicked himself. Even the kid was smarter!
Lucas giggled. "This whole city seems to be built on mathematical principals... The Machine's gateway must be at the center. We go, see what the deal is, then we can fly out of here."
The light from the star from so far away glowed, and for an instant a rush of energy could be seen going down the rainbow road, into Earth's star-system.
Anneza blinked.
Why was she still here in this asteroid? She had things to do! People to see... honestly, she would forget her head if it wasn't attached.
She quickly and with great experience angled herself towards her home location, and within a mere few minutes, was back to her parents house. She had to slow down just a bit before though, as the rush of hot air might have concerned a few by-standers. They gawked at her a little, but Anneza gave her somewhat patented innocent smile to them.
She was so happy to be back on Earth. Space was... interesting, but her daughter needed a good ground-based education.
"Mum! Dad! I'm home!" she said knocking on the door.
The elderly couple opened the door to her and were... startled to get a warm hug from her. She felt something.. strange with them. "Is something wrong?"
Anneza's mother glanced to her husband. "No... nothings wrong. Is everything okay sweetheart?" She gestured her inside and locked the door. It was still a little odd to have their child float about the carpet as she did.
The space-girl shrugged. "Actually, I feel great! I'm hoping to move into that new house nearer to Astra's school."
"You're... moving out?" Asked Anneza's father blinking.
Anneza gave a coy look. "Well, I know I've been a little unfair to you both and I'm sorry. But I now have Astra to think about, and I'll get a good job- I mean come on, I'm a space-girl. Seriously, I'll work for NASA and fix their satellites if I must."
her elderly father glanced to the computer as if remembering. "Oh... actually, there have been some major computer issues of late. The internet's down."
"Darn," said Anneza flicking her hair back. "I was hoping to get registered on the dating websites. I've been giving this a lot of thought lately and... I think Astra needs a father figure."
Anneza's father nearly choked on a cup of tea. "... say what?"
"Oh you'll always be her grandparents! But she needs someone... to balance her out." Astra floated to the computer, looking at the symbols that greeted her. "It looks like its working just fine!" She booted up the machine and started to write down what she was looking for, tapping her antenna slightly. "Hm... do you think I should get someone that believes in astrology?" She giggled.
"Er... maybe honey..." said her mother. "We'll... leave you to it."
Anneza's mother and father quickly went to the other room where Anneza was out of ear-shot.
"What... is going on?" asked her father. "Has she... gone completely nuts?"
"It.. could be a... reaction to the stress she's been under," said her mother.
"What should we do?"
"Maybe... keep an eye on her for now. I don't know."
