cerebrum
ˈsɛrɪbrəm/
noun
ANATOMY
The cerebrum or cortex is the largest part of the human brain, associated with higher brain function such as thought and action

"You will not believe a word of what I am about to tell you. Everything I say will sound ridiculous. I'm going to tell you anyway, because it still makes for a good story and I'm the one on stage with a mic. But you won't believe a word of it, and that's fine. The proof I'll give you right at the end, in one single moment that'll make each and every one of you a believer."

I took a breath. We were into the third day of the grand tour, and the pace was already starting to drag me down. We'd wake on the plane, which had already taken us to a new location. A short ride later and we'd be in position, ready for Cal to jump us back to Locque. Sometimes we had a venue pre-booked, thanks to some early scouting work on his part, but most of the time we were going in cold, targeting union meets, or open-mic nights, or even just public spaces and parks where there was something for me to stand on and shout. I'd deliver my piece, to audiences of varying attention spans, then Cal would jump us back out, live on stage, leaving nothing but a swirl of blue sparks in our wake.

Then we'd get back on the plane and go to the next place, its sub-orbital flight getting us there in an hour or two. And we'd start over. We were managing five destinations per day. My voice was starting to croak.

Having to leave right at the end of the talk was the killer - I never got to see the reaction, or take questions, or gauge whether we were hitting even a tiny portion of success. For all we knew, the audiences might think we were nothing more than a novelty magic act.

I had to vary the length of the talks, depending on where we ended up. Sometimes I could keep going for twenty minutes without being confronted. In other places they'd try to get me off stage as soon as they realised what I was peddling. In the more public areas we had to watch out for cops - with Cal around we could jump out at a moment's notice, but we still didn't want to take any chances. Getting separated would be bad news.

We were somewhere in the northern hemisphere, though my sense of place and geography had honestly been shot for months. Jumping dimensions really did a number on my concept of space. I was surprised I still knew up from down.

The crowded bar was rowdy; everyone drunk as skunks and violent to boot. I kept it short and Cal jumped me out moments before a bottle smashed into my face, narrowly avoiding a repeat of what had happened in Zhangao.

Back on Red we were standing outside on a chilly tundra, the ground frozen beneath our feet and nothing much to see in any direction. Turned out the people had chosen not to settle out here, unlike on Locque, so the place was entirely deserted. On the plus side, the jet had been able to land right on target and was already waiting for us with its staircase extended. Marv stood in the doorway.

"How'd it go?" he shouted at us above the noise of the whirring-up engines.

I shrugged. "No idea. Just like the rest."

"They threw a bottle at her," Cal noted.

Marv grinned. "That good, huh?"

"You seem very chipper," I said, climbing the stairs into the plane and slumping down into a seat.

Marv had drinks ready for us. He was getting good at being a one-man welcoming party every time we jumped back. I'd talked with him at length about whether he should actually come to Locque with us on each jump, but we decided it'd only add a complicating factor. If Cal had to keep an eye on two of us and coordinate jumping us all simultaneously it could be considerably trickier than just me. I still wasn't sure whether it had been the right decision, though, and I knew he didn't like it.

"I've got good news," he said. "I heard back from our friends back in Cord." He pointed at Cal's wrist. "That little gizmo they gave you seems to be working. They analysed the data it sucked out of the air each time you went in yesterday. Took them a while to figure out Locque's wavelengths, or something. And by 'a while', you know with these guys that means about ten minutes."

I sat upright. This is what I'd been waiting for. "And? Anything at all?"

"Hell yes," Marv said, clapping his hands together. "You're already getting onto the news. Depends where you're talking, of course - but anywhere with a vaguely independent press is reporting mysterious appearances and disappearances. Nothing concrete, just a lot of confusion. A girl popping up all over the damn place and vanishing before anyone could talk to her."

"This is excellent news, Marv," Cal said. "If we're already getting people's attention, that means there is some hope."

"It's mostly the comedy/weird story at the end of the news broadcast, so don't get over-excited," Marv continued, "but yeah, it's all good."

"They won't have realised it's all me, yet," I said. "At first they'll assume it's a group of squamata working together."

"Eventually they'll have to start acknowledging that something more is going on," Cal said. "Once everyone starts to realise that our disappearances can't be accounted for."

I sipped my drink and stared out the window as the jet raised vertically off the ground - there was no actual runway here - and then moved off into the sky, leaving the ground far behind. "That's the thing," I said. "I don't know how long I can just keep on repeating this. I think we need to take it up a notch."

Marv made a hissing noise. "Yeah, I'm not liking the sound of this."

Pressing the intercom button I connected through to the pilot. "Hey, Jona! That fancy take-off you just did. Can this thing stay in one place without moving? Up in the air, I mean?"

"It's called hovering," came the reply, "and she'll do whatever I tell her to do."

"Change of plan, then."

The ship adjusted its course towards the new coordinates and we settled in for the ride. By now, even only a couple of days into our aerial road trip, I'd already started taking it entirely for granted and didn't even bother looking out the window as we raised into the night sky, then up above the air as the stars popped out and we floated around the dark side of the planet. I ran through what I was going to say in my mind: I wasn't going to have long this time. Seconds, perhaps.

"We hadn't planned on coming back here so soon," Cal warned. "This might be a bad idea. They are much more aligned with the Earth forces than most of the other places we've been."

"Sooner or later you've got to play at home, right?"

The plane's engines changed pitch as we held position, still high above the ground. An unfamiliar city sprawled out below. The cockpit door slid open and Jona emerged. He leaned on one of the cabin's walls. "We're here," he announced.

Cal stood up. "Exactly how accurate is this location?

Jona shrugged. "About as accurate as anything can be. This baby's got every positioning and gyro device you can think of, and she'll counter any wind resistance that might push us away. We're rock solid."

Tilting his head, Cal closed his eyes and slightly extended a hand, as if he was trying to feel for an object just in front of him. I'd not noticed him doing it on any other occasion.

"Okay," he said at last, "this does feel right. It's tight - I can sense walls and the floor very close, and there's a lot of people on the other side, but I think I can do it."

"If it goes wrong you'll just be a couple hundred feet up in the air without parachutes, right?" Marv smiled unconvincingly.

"Even if that happens I can handle it," Cal said. "I caught you both before, remember?"

"I was unconscious," Marv replied. "My arm had just got pulped, remember?"

Jona laughed. "Ah, you kids. Back in my day we just had the two dimensions, and that was okay. Now there's all of you."

I took hold of Cal's arms. "Ready?" I asked.

He nodded.

"We'll be back," I said.

The plane fell away and

was replaced with a large, artificially illuminated, oval chamber. A slightly smaller oval desk ran around the room, encircling us as we appeared in its centre. There was a collection of gasps from those present, and a strange flurrying noise which I realised was the noise of two dozen pairs of wings fluttering all at once. At once the politicians rose from their chairs and extended their wings, the mix of feathers and leathery skin forming a circular wall all about us.

We were back home. Back in Perlyn. We were back in the Aviary, where this had all gone south in the first place.

Except we'd never been in this room before. This was the council chamber, right at the top of the building, where the wings ruled from on high and sent their decrees down to everyone else. Nobody saw the inside of this room except other wings.

I pointed at Cal. "You all know who he is," I stated, speaking loudly and firmly but resisting shouting. "You're probably still confused about who I am, or what I want." Cal held on to my arm, his eyes burning blue, ready to jump at a moment's notice. "All you need to know is that I'm your end. The reports are true. We're everywhere at once. You can't stop us. We can get into this room. We can get into your houses. We can find anyone, anywhere, anytime. The world is going to hear us, which means they're going to see you for what you are."

Sounds of guards approaching. A door banged open somewhere behind the wall of wings. Cal's grip on my arm intensified.

"You'll be hearing from us," I said, then turned to Cal. "Now."

And with that, in a single moment, we were back on the plane.