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So, after a year of a basic plan but very little progress, things have finally started to fall into place for the sequel to Xerian's story. Hope you enjoy it!


Xerian II - A Quirk of Fate

Chapter 1

Xerian snapped into wakefulness and looked around, grateful to find himself in his own bed. It happened less often now, but he still had dreams - and nightmares - of being trapped in a crazy alien world with no way home. Even waking up in a hotel gave him a fleeting moment of anxiety, a panic that he was somehow back in a land where magic was real and cybernetics were tightly controlled.

"Good morning, boss!" Lautrec said, padding over. It had taken the cyberjag some time to learn the local language and occasionally he would revert to Furrae Common if particularly distracted.

"Morning, Lautrec. Any messages?" the Synth asked him.

"Zuki left a note asking if you would be around tonight. Also there was another interview request and some more fan-mail. At this rate you may have to hire a secretary."

"Yeah, I'll have to consider it."

"Good. This kind of thing isn't really what I was trained for. Can we go for a walk? I'd like to see the shuttle again."

Xerian had been startled at first by the robotic panther's insistence on being taken for regular walks like a dog. Still - if I had spent most of my life patrolling the same building in a secret research facility, I'd want to explore too.

"Sure," the Synth said. "I just hope we don't get mobbed."

"Turns out being kidnapped by aliens from another universe makes you a celebrity. Who'd have thought it?"

"I had hoped the novelty would have worn off by now," Xerian sighed. "Still, it's earned me more than ten years' pay as a courier."

Xerian waved a hand in front of the reader and the door slid smoothly open. He turned towards the stairwell, and the cyberjag balked.

"Oh, right - I forgot," the Synth said apologetically. "We can take the lift if you prefer, but... Well, if you don't try you'll never learn, will you? And frankly the same goes for me. I'm still a little unused to being plantigrade and the stairs help with it."

"I landed on my arse last time," the panther reminded him. "And it chipped the steps. We never had stairs much at Jayhawk. Ramps, yes. A lift system, yes. Dimensional portals and warp-aci, but only a few stairs. Never this many all at once!"

"Just to the next level and then I'll carry you?" the Synth said coaxingly.

"Oh all right," the panther sighed, and hesistantly took a couple of steps down the stairwell. Xerian went ahead and wait for the reluctant cat to descend. It almost went perfectly as he got into a rhythm, but then suddenly lost his balance as he hit the last step and fell down into a heap.

"Well done," a disapproving voice said, clapping sarcastically. "Still trying to house-train your pet, I see."

"Morning, Rexx," Xerian said, before Lautrec could respond. The other red Synth looked at him irritably, blue eyes glaring balefully at him.

"You know, with all your new-found wealth, you could find somewhere larger. Without stairs," he added, and then continued to the upper floor without looking back.

"What's his problem?" The panther asked, making his way down the second set of steps, this time perfectly.

"I wish I knew," Xerian sighed. "I think it's just jealousy."

"What, that he should be the only red Synth in the apartment complex?"

"Probably more to do with the whole fame and riches thing," the Synth sighed again. "No doubt he thinks I'm crazy for just getting a larger flat in the same building... But I like it here. Moving somewhere more ostentatious... that just feels wrong."

* * *

Lautrec stood by the lake, staring at his reflection and waving an elegantly-manicured paw at it occasionally. Xerian stifled a laugh.

"It'll get old one day," the cyberjag said. "But I've been an indoor cat for the most part, remember. I got to see the reservoir at the power plant a few times but we weren't really supposed to go near it in case we fell in."

"I thought jaguars liked water," Xerian said. "I take it they didn't model that in you?"

"Not much point if you're designed to patrol corridors," Lautrec sighed. "Maybe we should have asked Jayhawk about fixing that... too late now, though. Besides, Jakob and company were focused on protection, making us hard to kill and keeping our vital systems safe.

"Anyway, falling in is a hazard for us," the robotic panther continued. "See, a real jaguar has lungs full of air that help keep them buoyant when swimming - even those pretty Synth panthers they've started making here have air-sacs inside them, like most Synths. And you're largely made of graphene and carbon composites.

"But me? I'm a hunk of metal and would sink like a stone. One of the other panthers did, actually. Sixie, I think it was - he slipped and fell in the reservoir. Fortunately we are IP68-rated, so he was able to crawl along the bottom of the lake until he could reach the shore and climb out. We were prohibited from going too near the power plant after that."

"'Safety regulations are written in blood,'" Xerian quoted. "That makes sense."

* * *

On the shuttle, Lautrec watched the scenery fly pass for about fifteen minutes, before a voice distracted him. Turning around, he jumped up on a railing to get a better look at a display panel which was showing headlines from some local news service.

"Oh," he said. "There's been another one."

"Another disappearance?" Xerian queried. "I'm still not sure what to think about those. People do go missing. Sometimes they have an accident, sometimes they just want to drop out of society for a bit. Hard to do as a Synthetic mind... It's not like we can live off the land. But so many at once?"

"Could be the work of a cult," Lautrec said.

"Kidnapping people?! That's horrible."

"Not necessarily," the jaguar replied. "If someone wants to drop out of society for a bit, a religious order may provide them the alternative lifestyle they are seeking. They may have joined voluntarily."

"Wishful thinking, I'm afraid," one of the other passengers sighed, a grey Synth with blue eyes. "Some of the victims clearly didn't intend to leave. Holoscreens left on. Food left unfinished at the table and the cutlery missing too, like they suddenly vanished in mid-meal. Heck, one of them apparently disappeared while showering."

"Really?" the panther asked, surprised.

"Yes. They didn't show up for work for a week. Nobody could contact them so the police were sent around to check in on them. They had to force the front door. And then they found the shower running. They forced that too in case they'd had a nasty accident while showering or something. But there was nobody there - just a couple of accessories they'd clearly removed while showering. And the door was locked from the inside. No other exits. They were just... gone."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Lautrec squeaked excitedly. "Breaking news - apparently they caught one on camera!"

"What?!" several heads all turned towards the screen.

The screen changed to show the figure of a Synth standing inside a bus stop, clearly bored. Moments later there was a flash and they were gone.

"Holy shit," the panther gurgled. "They were vaporised?!"

"Don't say that!" Xerian looked queasy.

"I doubt they were k-killed," one of the others remarked. "The energy flash came from inside the shelter. If it was an energy weapon it would have burned a way through the bus shelter too. And there was a bang."

"You mean they exploded?! Does that happen with Synths?!"

"Of course not. We've had over a thousand years to ensure our power storage systems are perfectly safe," the passenger looked offended.

"No," the Synth looked thoughtful. "Look at the replay... It surrounded them from all sides... I think it teleported them. The bang would then be the air rushing in to fill the vacuum..."

"I take it you don't have that level of technology here," the cyberjag looked worried. "It doesn't work the way our portals do. I wonder if it's magic..."

"You think Bob might be kidnapping people again?!" Xerian looked horrified.

"Either that or someone has just invented a teleportation system and is using it in a particularly antisocial manner," the jaguar sighed. "Maybe it's aliens!"

"Strictly, you are an alien," the other Synth pointed out.

"Yeah, but I'm not exactly going to be invading anywhere," Lautrec pointed out. "Even if I wanted to, I'm pretty sure conquering a realm would trip my safeguards."

"Please don't demonstrate that," Xerian said. "I don't want to have to carry you home. Again."

"But he kicked me!" the panther wailed.

"I said I was sorry!" yelped an orange Synth in the back.

* * *

"Don't forget, 'Zuki was hoping you could go visit," Lautrec said as they approached the gleaming apartment building. "Should I come with or would you rather I went home? I don't know what plans you two had but, well... I don't want to get in the way if you had an intimate night in store."

"Why Lautrec, are you getting embarrassed?" Xerian grinned.

"Not really. Remember, I worked for incubi and succubi. They were constantly letting off steam, lust is their main source of nutrition, after all. If anything I'm happy that some of it's rubbed off onto you, got you more open about it all and allowed you to live a little."

"Having a full-on death experience does change your perspective," Xerian admitted. "I'd say you only live once, but eh..."

"Yeah, it's your second turn," the cyberjag chuckled. "No. I don't want to put things off between you. Though... well, I do kind of wonder what it's like," the panther said wistfully.

"Anyway. I'll go," he decided. "See if I can find a frame-by-frame version of that video. Send my regards to your boyfriend!"

"Are you sure you can manage the stairs?" Xerian asked.

"Going up is fine. Going down is the scary part," the panther said. "And I can use the lift if I get stuck."

* * *

Lautrec had settled into a large dog bed which he preferred to sleep in, and had just begun to doze off when there was a chime in the back of his head.

"Jesus, Boss! You never use the radio link... What's happened?!" he asked.

"Lautrec... get here now... Please!" Xerian sounded desperate.

"What?! What's the matter?"

"It's 'Zuki. He's disappeared!"