When Worlds COllide

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. Officer Andreas looked up and sighed. The world never used to be like this, before the incursion. He glanced sideways at his partner, Rannell, and she was watching him, watching the sky. She blinked, her verical eyelids flashing across those creepy, goatlike pupils. He smiled weakly at her, and looked toward the ground. He had come to accept Rannell, but the blinking thing still freaked him out a little bit.

“I know what you’re thinking Juan.” She said, quietly.

“Really, Rannell?" He replied, afraid she had seen his reaction. "Is that one of your magical powers? Telepathy.”

Juan responded with some bitterness.

“No, you are just a transparent son of a bitch.” His partner replied with a wry smile. "We are approaching the anniversary."

Juan looked up at her again, and his stern features relaxed into resignation.

“Sorry Rannell, just thinking about, well, you know.”

It was Rannell’s turn to look toward the ground.

“I know.” She replied simply.

They walked along in silence for a while, each dwelling on their troubled pasts. They had been partners for just over a year now, and were comfortable to be in each other’s silence.

“Do you ever wonder why.” Juan asked, not taking his eyes from the street ahead.

“Why what.” His partner answered.

“You know, the incursion, when our two realities collided, or dimensions overlapped, or what ever the fuck it was that happened.”

“No-one really knows Juan.” She replied simply. “Some suspect it was earth scientists messing with, well, things they should leave well enough alone. Others believe it was like the tectonic plates of earths continents, that have been rubbing together for millennia, and eventually something had to give.”

“Yeah, I know that, but the way it happened. So much destruction and loss of lives. On both sides.” He fell silent again for a moment, the wounds were still raw. “Do you believe there is still a portal up there, somewhere, leading back to your home reality? A lot of people believe that’s why the sky is that purple colour, something radiating in from, wherever it leads to. I guess we’ll never know. No aircraft has managed to pierce the ionosphere as yet and I’m sure the new world government wants to have another failed attempt on their hands at the moment.”

Rannell looked up at the swirling purple clouds and pursed her lips. “Hopefully, we might find out, one day. For now the main focus has to be getting the basic infrastructure back up and running. Electronics, computer networks and communications.”

As if on cue, the conversation was interrupted by the crackling of their radios, and the broken tones of the dispatcher, Claire.

“Cal..zzzzt officezz zzt district twent zzzt un, need zzzzzt atten zzzk. Violezzzt in proce zzzk.”

Since the incursion, as it had been named, radio contact had been severely affected, particularly at night when the purple glow came out. Scientist said it was due to extreme, non-harmful, background radiation. Juan had a suspicion that the scientists were full of shit and didn’t have a clue what was going on. Since the event almost five years ago, earth had been brought to just about a complete stand still. A massive EMP (electro magnetic pulse) had instantly wiped out pretty much every electronic device on the planet. No computers, the financial market crashed, cars died in the street and planes fell from the sky in their hundreds. Juan’s wife Maria had been on one of those planes, flying back from visiting her mother in New Mexico. She had been pregnant with their first child.

Initially, all the active nations in the world blamed one another and the planet was almost thrown in to a nuclear war. But then the portals had begun appearing, all around the world. And above it. From them emerged a strange race of people, who later became recognised as the Koati. Some plummeted to earth from portals high in the atmosphere, those who did not have the appropriate abilities fell to their death. Despite this the Koati were blamed for the preceding tragedy, it was only after some six months of conflict that it became accepted that these people were just as much victims as humanity. Slowly they became integrated into the population, of course there were those who would never accept them and continued to blame them for the incursion.

But mostly, as the planet began to rebuild itself, people came to appreciate the presence of the Koati. The fact that they were all in possession of strange abilities, many of which proved extremely useful in the massive task that was ahead of them, as an advantage.

Rannell had explained to Juan that in their world, everyone was born with an untriggered set of genes which gave them these powers, for want of a better word. They normally activated during puberty, which in their people was after around twenty years, and each power was different, depending on their bloodline. After a few years, it was decided that a peacekeeping force was needed to help with the Koati’s full integration into society. Rannell had volunteered and been matched with Juan, who had been resistant to the idea at first. But as the months passed, he had begrudgingly come to respect her work ethic and commitment.

As their radios crackled and hissed, the two looked at one another, no need for words. Juan wearily unclipped his radio and raised it to his mouth.

“Dispatch, officer Perez here, please repeat location, we are close to district twenty one and can attend.”

“Hi Juan, address is thirteen Providzzzk Clssssh.” Came the reply.

“Thirteen Providence Close,” repeated Juan, filling in the blanks from his local knowledge. “Please confirm.”

“Affirmazzzzk” Came the reply.

“On our way, over and out.” Juan reclipped his radio and turned to Rannell.

“Providence Close is only about ten minutes from here, let’s get going. You head off and I’ll meet you there.”

Rannell nodded and with that unfurled her wings and took to the air in the direction of Providence Close.