While not the first to discover the ability to travel through reality, Hermes Transportation perfected it. While every corporation makes its own ships, Hermes is commonly regarded as the best. Whether on land, space or the cosmic rainbow that rests between worlds, you want to be in a Hermes.

-Excerpt from Erodotos’ compendium

Chapter 4 - Naak

Naak was stuck on El Castillo Hea 54, Patli’s warship.

“The board wants to thank you personally for the great work you’ve been doing in the field. I know you don’t like staying in one place for too long but… this is important." Patli had looked at him with those doe eyes. It was the afternoon after he had arrived in the Erkalon node.

He was trying to amuse himself by walking around the space station. “Castillo” class Maximon ships were mobile cities. Capable of comfortably housing a hundred thousand people. It had shopping malls, resorts, a golf course, parking bays for smaller shuttles and separate hangers for the thousands of Maximon fighter jets laying in wait, seemingly eager for the opportunity to be set free to rain down death from the skies.

“Have you ever been on a station this big, Steffen?” asked Naak. The boy was an accountant that he had decided to hire to keep track of all his various investments. Naak enjoyed toying with individuals in high society, that was his game. The mundanity of the numbers, on the other hand, bored him. Better to hire someone more numerically inclined to take care of that sort of thing. “It never seizes to take my breath away.”

“No, sir.” Steffen was a dull bespectacled teen, with rarely anything interesting to say. He was perfectly suited to his task, but he made for dull company. Naak had tried to get a lively young woman instead but even he had to begrudgingly accept that none of the candidates had Steffen's innate ability for working the books. Eventually, he’d been taking on more secretarial duties like keeping track of Naak's appointments and reservations. “Nothing quite as big as this. No.”

“Hmm,” Naak grunted. “When are we departing for the meeting?” It was only possible to use short-range communications for the current node, meaning they could only holo-call ships orbiting Erkalon. To attend the Maximon board meeting, they would need to travel to the same node as every other Maximon overseer. The security measures were intensive, and such undertakings were met with higher scrutiny from everyone involved. And plenty from those who shouldn't.

“A note just came in from Patli’s desk. We're hitting the rainbow today, in a few hours. There might just be time for lunch before we depart if that's to your liking, sir.” Steffen shuffled, trying to keep pace with Naak. The walls and floor of the station were too white, too clean. A stubborn effort to create the impression of perfection.

'Hitting the rainbow,' was a colloquialism for travelling to another reality. Corporations liked to have their meetings in Sector Two worlds. The two Sector One nodes, New Earth and Desparto were too dense. Too many people meant too many variables which meant too much threat. Sector Two planets were quieter than Sector One, and not as unpredictable as Sector Three, it was a perfect choice. And since Erkalon was a Sector Two world, their journey would be short.

“Why not,” Naak replied to Steffens lunch inquiry while turning to face yet another long, stark corridor. “What’re you in the mood for?”

*

Steffen had chosen a grilled steak place in the general food court, and Naak had indulged him. The meat was served with butter and garlic. It was better than some of the food he’d eaten in premium restaurants as of late.

Naak had read over the incident report he had stolen from Patli. The information was sparser than he had hoped. He had enough to know that Maximon was guarding something valuable on Tefnut. He knew they had a base called the Cauldron in the centre of a dead volcano. Some wild beast had stormed in during the attack. Sector three worlds had the potential for incredible new resources. The possibility of discoveries far beyond human comprehension.

Those incredible discoveries weren’t always useful, and sometimes they were not safe. Or rather, they most often were not.

“Have you ever been to a Sector Three world?” He chewed on another piece of steak.

“No sir,” Steffen said sheepishly.

“Insightful as always. Perhaps we’ll take a trip soon.” There was a slight commotion outside, people shuffling towards the residential wing. It was time.

The announcement came to strap in and prepare for temporal travel. When interdimensional travel was discovered, many assumed it to be a divine discovery. Scientists instead insisted it was of this world, there was no magic or miracles involved. It was temporal instead of spiritual.

It didn't matter if the general population agreed or not, the wording ‘temporal’ stuck. A common misconception was that some sort of time travel was involved. But no, it was ‘simply’ travelling to another reality’s version of Earth.

*

Naak entered his first-class suite and made himself a drink.

“Good afternoon, Naak Maximon 0451” an automated voice rang out. When you joined a corporation, your surname was removed and you were given a number instead. He was once Naak Osiris 0451 before he was assigned to infiltrate Maximon. It took a bit of creative accounting to hide his double wage.

He sat on a luxurious leather chair and two straps automatically secured him. When travelling on the Bifrost went smoothly, there was no noticeable change inside the spacecraft. If things went wrong, they would probably be dead already. Still, it felt comforting to secure yourself in place.

Naak sipped his vieux carre as he watched a live holo-feed from outside the ship. The pilots would be calculating the exact speed and trajectory before they turned on the bifrostal engine. Once in the rainbow realm, it would be impossible to adjust the trajectory, and the station would simply ride the wave until it hit the door on the other end. If they did it right, it would be the right door.

A bright light appeared in the feed, which seemed to suck the entire El Castillo Hea 54 in. The cold dark expanse of space outside was replaced with a swirl of dancing colour. A corridor of possibility, both everything and nothing all at once. No wonder it had been colloquially named after the Norse myth, the Bifrost. The rainbow that Thor himself would ride from Asgard to Midgard and every other realm besides.

Naak had no doubt the myth had also been part of the corporate rebranding that had taken place three-hundred years ago. After the first corporate war, an effort was made by the corporations to seem more human and less antagonistic. It says a lot about the nature of the corporations that even when trying to humanise themselves, they would name themselves after gods.

The journey only took thirty minutes, which was as short a temporal journey as any. Naak had remained seated, as he poured over the documents about the planet Tefnut. Maximon had developed a shield that could repel bullets, and his employer Osiris primarily made its money selling ballistic weapons. The stock was falling and if he could find some way to tip the scales back into Osiris' favour… He shivered at the thrill. He would go to this meeting, let Patli parade him around in her boastful arrogance, and then he would turn around and work directly against their interests. It’s just what he did.

When the Bifrost disappeared and the darkness of space once again surrounded the ship, Naak tried to access his ‘com’ to find out which node they were in, the secret location of the Maximon board meeting. Perhaps he might even send a message back to Amunet with this information.

His device wasn’t working. He tapped the bracelet on his wrist again. Nothing.

“Release,” He said. The belts stayed in place. A power outage? A holo-feed appeared in the centre of the room, from Patli’s office.

“Breach!” An explosion deafened him as his door was thrown off its hinges. His ears rang and his eyes stung as three fully armed Maximon soldiers entered the room, pistols drawn.

“Wait, Patli!” He struggled against the restraints. “Why!” She didn’t say anything. Instead, a message appeared on the holo.

“From: Naak

To: 34(encrypted/osi).

-I’ve got a lead.”

“Shit.”

A tranquillizer dart hit him in the chest.