May had to admit: Planet Er-na truly provided an amazingly colored vista.

Whatever glimpse she got from her room in the hospital could not beat a front-seat view from the hovercar that steadily climbed farther and farther towards the atmosphere.

As bizarre as a pink sky was to a denizen of blue-sky Earth, it was hardly the most surprising thing among this planet’s atmospheric wonders.

No, that would be the large, pregnant silhouette of Er-jani, the sole satellite of Planet Er-na that also hosted an artificial habitation on its surface. For it to be visible during the daytime when the green-tinged sun still ruled the sky highlighted just how big it was, and how close.

When day gave way to night, and the pink sky transformed into dark purple, Er-jani hung like a silver ball. Its companions that did not appear during the day would reveal themselves in their red and green glories: the Sil-na and Fin-na.

Kajakh had explained to her one night that in the Al-jurba system, these celestial bodies represented the third and fourth planets from the core sun, El-kana. They were colder than their sister-planet Er-na, and yet their majestic presence dominated the second planet’s atmosphere.

According to him, while Er-na enjoyed more prosperity owing to its more arable climate, Sil-na and Fin-na both had developed better technology, and more importantly, stronger military power.

Needing one another, the three sister planets lived in harmony.

From the way he spoke, May sensed that Kajakh had attached some significance to this knowledge. Alas, any implied importance was lost to the amnesiac who only used it as a good bedtime story.

“I’d still feel more comfortable if you stayed in our house for a few days,” Kajakh expressed, sitting on the driving seat. In front of him, several orbs floated, each one playing an obscure role in moving this four-seat hovercar.

It took her all not to sigh at another attempt of mollycoddling her. Not that May did not appreciate the effort, but when that protection came with tight monitoring on her daily activity, she knew what she had to do.

She still had to find out exactly how did she end up in the hospital. Since she heard of her own death on the operation table, she had suspected that the original May Ling’s death triggered her metempsychosis from an Earth-dweller to this Terran Er-nan denizen.

Then again, if things were that simple, people like her would already build up a significant population.

There had to be more to this than meet the eye. And to do that, she had to keep nosy people away from her research.

Meaning, cohabitation with any concerned party was out of the question.

“I’m not a kid anymore, Kajakh,” she refused point-blank. “You said it yourself, my house has EVE to monitor my condition. Besides, you’ll be working most time anyhow.” Kajakh flinched at the reminder, but she pressed on. “I know my limits; the nurses made sure of it.”

Given the number of times the robo-nurses caught me when May tried to get off of the biobed to test out her new body, the hospital had deemed it necessary to educate the rebellious patient on what she could or could not do during recuperation.

Kajakh – jerk motherhen that he was – had approved wholeheartedly.

Though it didn’t look like the impromptu lesson reassured him of her capability. “If I need anything, I will call you,” May reminded him, raising her right hand to show him a wristband made from a transparent crystal-like substance with flecks of metallic green and gold floating within. “You gave me this just this morning, remember?”

He eyed it from the corner of his eyes, veins twitching in his forehead, presumably from thinking hard for another reason to keep her by his side. Eventually, he sighed long and hard, as if doing so would help him let go of his reservations.

“I don’t like it,” he admitted, “but I suppose you want your own space too, huh?”

May shrugged, smiling wryly. “I lost my memories, Kajakh, not my brain,” she replied candidly. “I can only be grateful I haven’t lost the ability to function properly. Imagine cannot walk, talk, or read, or write.”

Thinking of the very real possibility, the Earth-native didn’t need to fake the scowl latching onto her expression. Her companion, ever sensitive to her mood, caught it easily.

“Whatever you lost, you’ll get them back.” Orange eyes chanced shooting her a reassuring look before returning to the traffic. “You’re a fast learner. You’ll be reaching for the stars again in no time!”

May smiled, appreciating the reassurance, even if it was way off-base. “Thanks, Kajakh.”

All her worries aside, May knew her situation could have been a lot worse than waking up in an orphaned girl’s body who still had people who cared for her.

Her fingers traced the beads sewed onto dark green poncho that she wore over a yellow shirt and beige trousers, appreciating the swirls of color on the clothing as opposed to Kajakh’s simple yet tasteful plain one.

From observing the pedestrians as their hovercar floated through the city’s traffic, she concluded that this was a typical Ernan fashion. No matter the species or body-shape – and believe her, body shapes did vary tremendously here – the clothing style fits Ernan denizens comfortably.

She had even seen a quadrupedal creature wearing a customized poncho!

At the next intersection, Kajakh took an exit that led them seven levels up to a larger highway.

Unlike the traffic May was familiar with, back on gravity-adhering Earth, Ernan’s intersection involved moving from one cut-off road to another at higher or lower levels. The middle of these intersections often resembled a hollow pillar where hovercars moved up and down in an orderly manner, like dancing streams of water.

“Sleep if you’re tired,” Kajakh entreated, having taken her silence as a sign of fatigue. “It will take a while to get home even with the Warptubes.”

Warptubes?

Smiling as if she knew what he was on about, May opened her mouth to reply when abruptly, the hovercar’s interior flashed red, a strange alarm chimed urgently in accompaniment. Kajakh did not waste time in sliding left, an action May saw other people imitated.

Once parked, a translucent red holoscreen appeared on the dashboard, bearing a white symbol that looked like a rearing winged-canine with six legs against a royal purple background.

A message blared as text scrolled up on the screen.

‘Citizens, a high-speed chase is underway. Please stay clear of the routes marked on your navigation system. Access to Lower and Upper Rings will be limited until further notice. This is an official notice and order from the Nimuth Law Enforcement City Guards. Citizens, a high speed-chase –’

Kajakh tapped on the screen, effectively cutting off the electronic voice. A green 3D rendering of what May assumed was Nimuth’s traffic system appeared, several lines highlighted in glaring scarlet. He swiveled the model in his hand several times, zooming in and out where necessary, deep in thought.

“They’re close by,” he muttered. “Which blackhole did these idiots throw their logic into? Risking a race in the Mid-Ring is just asking for collateral damage.”

Just as he finished saying that, May heard high-pitched noises not unlike that of Earth’s fighter jets sped over where Kajakh parked. One large hovervehicle followed by two smaller ones bearing the same insignia displayed on the public announcement’s background.

Two more uniformed vehicles soon joined the City Guards’ chasers, and the collective racers disappeared from view when the pursued took a sharp dive down at the intersection Kajakh had been driving towards.

“This is why they shouldn’t install Warptubes in the Lower Rings,” Kajakh muttered, his entire demeanor screamed of dissatisfaction. “It only lets unsavory elements easier access to ruining decent people’s lives.”

“Lower Ring?” the question slipped out before she could censor it, too busy being amazed after witnessing a live scifi-grade vehicular hot pursuit.

“It’s…” Kajakh hesitated, visibly formulating an acceptable answer that would not offend her sensibilities. Amused, May did not feel the need to relieve him of this misplaced chivalry. “It’s where people who can’t afford to live in Nimuth’s city proper gathers.”

Ah, a slum then. Even in a futuristic (to her) planet like Er-na, this urban problem still persisted.

“Doesn’t mean all of them are bad,” May felt compelled to point out.

“No, definitely not,” Kajakh immediately refuted. “However, Nimuth’s Public Safety Statistics recorded Lower Rings’ crime rate as the highest among all Er-jani’s districts, only taking second place sometimes to Er-jani’s Guroto Habitation.”

He stared at the intersection where the pursuit disappeared with a small frown and confessed in a voice so small she almost missed it. “If it’s up to me, I’d rather not have any part of that community infecting ours with their degenerate ways.”

May nodded in understanding, as if those names meant something to her. After which, she inquired on the most pressing matter: “We can’t use the Warptubes then?”

Kajakh snapped out of the morose mood he’d fallen into. Restarting the hovercar, he said, “We can. Everyone with special codes or specific coordinates provided by their communities or workplace can open the Warptubes.”

He tapped on his communicator wristband. “Each code is imbued in the CINe-comm, not the hovercar, so it acts as localized ID verification.”

The vehicle hummed as it came back to life. It, along with dozens of its brethren, evacuated the road they were in a file, which soon broke when it reached the next juncture. Same as before, Kajakh went further up.

As the hovercar climbed higher and higher, May wondered just how tall the buildings in this city could be. From outside going in, the clustered super-skyscrapers resembled a forest filled with gleaming mother-of-pearl pillars, each one jutting up as if aspiring to touch the sky.

Tall, uncompromising, intimidating.

The city of Nimuth was the definition of majestic given form.

“May,” Kajakh called.

“Hm?” May responded absently, eyes still riveted towards the city outside.

“Never step foot in the Lower Rings,” the orange-eyed man advised – no, warned in a tone that brooked no argument. “There is nothing good there. Not the people, not the place. Anything that goes in there rots.”

Surprised at the vitriol in his words, May chanced a quick glance at her companion, noting tight scowl and clenched jaw.

There is a story behind this, she surmised.

“I won’t,” May promised, infusing as much sincerity as she could into her voice.

Though curious, she did not feel like risking Kajakh’s ire by asking irrelevant questions.

Their path soon brought them out of the dense building into what constituted as an open plain, except instead of an expand of solid land, this one involved a circular structure where roads from all directions converged towards the center.

Strangely enough, all the transparent paths where the hovercar traveled on sloped up towards the end, leading to a floating circular structure. Within the circle was a pearly, swirling whorl of energy ready to swallow hovercars that accelerated towards it without spitting them back out on the other side.

Could it be…

“That’s the Warptube Node,” Kajakh said, anticipating her unspoken question. He joined one of the queues and raised his armband to one of the orb-controller to be scanned. “Usually each ‘Tube has a fixed destination, but due of today’s special circumstances, it will only open after our codes are verified.”

It didn’t take long to get to their turn. Once the hovercar in front of them disappeared, Kajakh waited for a few seconds before accelerating towards the milky whirlpool. During all this, May had to take several deep breaths to calm her thundering heart.

Fuel by equal part of excitement and fear, May didn’t close her eyes when the hovercar hit the white and –

– her senses failed her –

the jarring disconnection passed as quickly as it came.

Next thing she knew, the hovercar burst out of the Warptube into a magical realm where white structures floated above a white expanse of greenish-pink clouds.

Breath caught in her throat, May stared at the impossible scene spread out before her, noting absently that the daylight moon looked even bigger from this place.

A city in the sky!

Looking at the wonder-come-to-life before her, May couldn’t even summon any irritation when Kajakh chuckled at her dumbfounded expression.

“Do you remember this?” Kajakh asked, sounding wistful, as if he was seeing something she didn’t.

“No,” she answered, not bothering to hide the awe and reverence in her voice as she drank in the dream-like vista.

Unlike the city below them with its tall and rigid skyscrapers, the structures that floated above the sea of clouds preferred curved edges. Most of them adopting prism-shaped architecture with gleaming surfaces with carved ridges. With each of them reflecting the color of the sky and the sun, with the gigantic Er-jani floating in the background, the city became ethereal.

“This is the Upper Circle of Nimuth,” introduced the orange-eyes man. “The capital’s proudest creation.”

From the way he spoke, it wasn’t just the capital who felt proud of it. May grinned widely, heart beating with excitement at the thought of living above the sea of clouds. He steered the hovercar to circle the central structure, the largest among its peers.

“Among the local residents, we have our own name for Nimuth’s famed city above the sky,” Kajakh continued, expression lighter after seeing her in a better mood.

“Welcome to Atmos.”