Chapter 10

The plane landed in Serenith and Major left the plane carrying his bag full of books and notebooks with just a few articles of clothing. He joined the other passengers and walked through the airport to the exit where his ID was shown to an official who stamped it and allowed him to pass. He called for a car to transport him to his hotel.

He had placed the reservation weeks ago and got a good deal on it. It was down the road from the library he wanted to visit so it all worked out.

“Hello sir. Are you checking in?” the woman behind the counter asked him as he entered the lobby. It was an old building, but nothing about it said ‘run down.’ The tile work on the floor was amazing. The walls were covered with beautiful pictures and the windows were new with beautiful curtains covering the windows blocking out some of the bright light outside.

“Yes. I’m Major Digi-Heart.” he said, handing over his ID and payment card to her.

The woman behind the counter was wearing an ID around her neck with a sheer dress covering her body and tied around her waist. Her dark nipples were clearly visible through the material and contrasted against her olive skin. Her dark black hair was tied up in the back of her head then hanging down her back.

The lady’s name was Leila and caught him looking at her body. She smiled at him then went back to checking him in.

She scanned a couple of access cards then put them into a folder and handed them to Major. “Major, here are your cards. Your room is 408 and the wireless access points have an ID and the password is written in the folder. If you need anything else, please let me know.” She said, then smiled at him.

He smiled at him, said thank you very much, “I may reach out to you later.” He then went upstairs to his room. Even on a different world in a different universe, hotel rooms were all the same. A bed, entertainment screen, a shower and toilet with a sink to wash his hands. Just like back home, he laughed as he unpacked.

He checked his phone, got it attached to the wireless network, and verified that he could access the information on the library from the hotel. It all worked for him.

His stomach rumbled and decided that food was the order of business.

He followed his phone to a local restaurant just around the corner from his hotel. The man greeted him at the restaurant and took him to a table.

A beautiful woman came to the table and brought him a glass of water. He said thank you, ‘Shukran’ and she smiled at his attempt to speak the local language. “It is quite alright sir. I speak your language just fine.”

“Oh good. Sorry, I tried to pick up a few words to blend in a little better instead of standing out like a tourist.”

She touched his shoulder, “I understand and thank you for trying. What can I get you to eat?”

“What are the specials for tonight?”

“We are serving lamb tagine with couscous on the side. I would suggest that and Tabbouleh salad on the side if I was you. You look like a hungry man.”

Major smiled at her flirting and agreed to her suggestion.

She made a note on the pad of paper and left him smiling as she walked away. She came back a while later with a cup of mint tea in hand and placed it in front of him. “Mint tea. It is very good for digestion.” she explained. He thanked her for the tea and picked up the tea cup and sipped it. The liquid was sweet, hot with a gentle flavor of mint. He nodded his head to her and she walked away smiling at him.

He picked up his phone and checked his permissions app. He declined all of the home based requests for intimacy and focused on the local ones. He didn’t have any. He smiled, chuckled and put his phone aside and just enjoyed the people around him and the commotion of the new town.

His waitress brought out his meal and put it in front of him. He picked up a fork, took a bite of the lamb and made a happy noise as the flavors exploded in his mouth. “WOW! This is really good.” he said to the waitress.

“Told you.” she laughed and smiled at him then walked away leaving him to eat. He ate the lamb, adding the couscous to each bite and marveled at how well it all went together. He ate some of the salad and just spent time enjoying each bite of his meal. The waitress came back several times to refill his tea cup as well as his water cup.

Once the lamb was done, he settled back in his chair and enjoyed the feeling of being full. She brought him a desert of baklava and the check.

“What is this?”

“It is called baklava. Layers of flaky pastry filled with chopped nuts and sweetened with honey syrup. You’ll love it.”

“Why so small?”

“Because it is so rich. People only eat a small piece so they don’t get sick. Eat too much,” She said with a shrug.

He agreed that being sick is not fun.

Major agreed that the first night in a new hotel is not good for sleeping. Major tossed and turned and just couldn’t rest until the sun was coming up. He groaned getting out of bed and started his day.

He cleaned himself up just enough to make himself presentable. Breakfast was a poached egg with tomato and pepper sauce. It had a bit of spice, which made him smile. The sweet mint tea was just as good as it was last night.

He tried the hummus and pita bread, but it just didn’t taste like a breakfast food. Dinner, of course, but not breakfast.

He went back upstairs and sat down on the bed. He dozed off while looking at the entertainment screen and woke up several hours later. He was a bit off kilter when he came awake but recovered easily enough.

He showered and dressed and left for the library. He talked to a nice woman at the entrance of the library, Amina, and showed him to the history section. He thanked her for her time and she left him.

Major took the books and notebooks and put them on a table nearby. He pulled out his reading list and went back to the shelves. He started down his list but only found four of his books. Happy with those he went to the table and sat down. He looked around to see if anyone was near him, and called for Adventure. “Please scan the four books.”

“Yes sir, Major Jake.” A faint blue light came from his comm gauntlet and scanned the books. He put the books back where he found them and went looking for a private room so that he could talk to Adventure.

He didn’t notice the figure wrapped in black cloth moving through the stacks following him. He didn’t notice the figure standing outside of his study room and listened to his conversation with his ship’s AI. He also didn’t notice that figure touching a band on its wrist before moving away from the door before it opened. No one saw it.

“Excuse me sir.” a soft female voice spoke bringing Major out of his focus on the book in his hands.

He looked up to the owner of that voice. “Hi.” he said simply, his annoyance at being interrupted evident in his voice.

“I don’t want to bother you, but what are you reading?”

Major moved the book around and showed the woman the book’s spine. She recognized the book and said ‘ooh. Thank you.’ before leaving him to his reading.

He was finding more and more objects, symbols and words that just didn’t match what he was reading. The symbols were the main thing that kept showing up here and there in the paintings and the stories he was reading. They were showing up more often in the books he was finding and it was starting to scratch at the back of his brain that something wasn’t right.

He groaned and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. The symbols. Why did they look so familiar? Why can’t he put his finger on where he had seen them before.