gradualism
ˈɡradʒʊəlɪz(ə)m/
noun
BIOLOGY
the hypothesis that evolution proceeds chiefly by the accumulation of gradual changes (in contrast to the punctuationist model).

Whenever we jumped we were accompanied by a blaze of blue sparks, which swirled around like snow before falling and disappearing like embers from a fire. I'd never noticed before, but when they lasted long enough to impact on the ground they'd sparkle and, just for a moment, there'd be a tiny dark hole, like a glimpse into a void. It would be there for half a second, then the hole would close and all would be normal.

The fields stretched out in all directions, with the mock-Aviary towering above, silhouetted in the distance. It was near dusk, with the sun fast descending and the skies a vivid orange.

"This place tastes amazing," I said, flicking my tongue out. "I'm not sure what it is, it just tastes cleaner."

"You've got weird priorities," Marv said, kneeling on the ground and breathing heavily.

I crouched down next to him. "Are you alright?" His dark skin had gone a little grey.

"I'll be fine," he said, waving his good arm, "but I've not done this as many times as you guys, remember? It's like being on a crazy fairground ride and then realising the harness isn't working right."

"You just described our entire lives," I muttered. Cal was standing a short distance away, gazing at the Aviary. "What's the plan?" I asked.

He pointed, not at the Aviary but at a nearby complex of buildings which were just visible over a hill. "We go there," he said, "and find out what's going on."

"Just like that," Marv said flatly.

Cal turned towards us. "I don't have any specifics for you," he said. "None of us really know what we're dealing with here. But you chose to come with us."

Marv held up his hand. "Don't get heated, man," he said, "I know we're making this shit up as we go. It's just worth pointing out every now and then, is all I'm thinking."

As the sun made its final descent we moved carefully through the long grass towards the complex, keeping low and watching out for any signs of life. The fields seemed empty, as did the surrounding valley. The Aviary and the nearby buildings were the only structures visible. We crested a hill and found ourselves looking down on the network of buildings, which were surrounded by an enormous metal and wire fence. The architecture was both familiar and foreign, with odd building materials that weren't recognisable but an overall sense of purpose which still made sense. They were still people, after all.

We lay down in the grass, keeping a low profile while we waited for the sun to finally sink below the horizon. Cal was off in his own little world, a few feet away from us, eyes locked on the cluster of buildings. I lay next to Marv, close enough so that our bodies touched a little. It occurred to me that this would be romantic, if it wasn't for the presence of a dimension-hopping revolutionary and a possibly evil scientific base. Other than those things.

"Sucks, huh?" I said.

"Yep."

"When we met at the Black Jasmine," I said, "you seemed to be hitting on me a bit. Were you?"

Marv was resting his chin on his remaining arm and he tilted his head to look in my direction. "Hell, yeah," he said. "You were a girl, it was a club."

"Pfft," I said, which is a noise squamata are particularly well equipped to produce, "for real, don't be a smartarse."

"Did you know," he said, dodging the question, "that squamata are a bit of an enigma to thermals? We can't read your heat signature with any kind of accuracy, because you soak up your surroundings more than most people."

"I did not know that, Mr Scientist."

"True story. Most people, I know if they're lying, or panicked, or whatever. You? Not so simple."

"Awesome," I said. "So if I said I thought you were pretty ace, you wouldn't know if I was being serious or sarcastic?"

"You got it," he said.

"Good to know."

Shadows crept across the landscape. Lights flicked on all at once around the base, illuminating the place in pools of soft white light. At one end was a large car park, full of vehicles. Next to that were a series of low, nondescript buildings. Then in the centre was a larger warehouse, with all kinds of peculiar pipes and structural work protruding out the back.

"Something's happening," Cal said, crawling over to us and pointing.

There was movement, as people started to emerge from the buildings and make their way back to the car park, some walking alone, others conversing in groups. They all seemed relaxed, moving slowly and taking their time to drive out of the complex in single file. Ten minutes later most of the vehicles had departed.

"How we looking?" Cal asked Marv.

"Kinda hard to tell at this distance, dude, but it looks pretty quiet down there."

We cautiously made our way down the hill, acutely aware of the lack of decent hiding spots, until we reached the fence. It was super tall, with metal cladding at the base to stop anybody climbing up the mesh. There were signs spaced at regular intervals in a weird alphabet but with a pretty clear graphic of a guy being electrocuted.

"We can't exactly walk in the front gate," I said. "This might be a no-go from the start."

Cal smiled. "You're not thinking multi-dimensionally," he said with an excited grin and eyes burning blue.

"Yeah," I said, "I what?"

He took our hands and pulled us out of the world. The air popped and compressed and we were back in the desert, a long way from our rocky shelter. We were lucky that the sun had gone down here as well. "Walk with me," Cal said, taking purposeful steps forward. "A little further." We walked a few more paces across the featureless, dusty ground.

"Check this out," Cal said, and he parted reality again and we slid through the gap in the universe and back out to where we had come from.

Except we were on the other side of the fence.

"That is some cool shit right there," Marv said.

"It's the same trick they use with the Aviary replica," Cal said. "On the desert version of this planet, there's no fence."

"There is no fence," I repeated slowly. "Man, we should really rob a bank."

Marv gave us the all clear and we ran across the yard, trying to muffle our footsteps as best we could. One of the smaller buildings was just before us. Marv walked up to one of the windowless walls and stared intently at it, moving his head from side to side.

"Looks clear," he said.

There was a flash of blue light and Cal disappeared.

"How rude," I said.

"Be hard to explain how we got here if we were spotted," Marv said.

I tentatively touched a finger to his wounded shoulder, where an arm should have been. "How is it?"

He looked down at the stump. "A little useless," he said. "But whatever that assassin guy gave you did the trick. A wound like this would probably have killed me if I'd gone to a Locque hospital. I wouldn't be up and about doing spy shit, for sure."

Another flash and Cal was back in a shower of blue sparks. "Nothing," he said, "it looked like a canteen. It was weirdly familiar, if anything."

The next stop was the big warehouse. There was no point checking all the other buildings one by one. We moved through the silent base, Marv on constant look-out for signs of life, and huddled up against the enormous warehouse wall, which towered above us by at least four floors. "There's somebody in there," Marv said, "or at least one person. A ways off, though. And there's something else, right in the centre of the building. Not a person, but it's giving off a huge amount of radiation."

Cal checked it out first, then came back and got us. We repeated the desert trick, using it to move through the warehouse's wall. We were in the shadowed bowels of a cavernous room, gantries criss-crossing above and surrounding an enormous, spherical contraption. The device was as large as two trams stacked on top of each other and was clad in thick metal panels. What looked like viewing areas were dotted around the sphere, through which we could see dancing blue light.

"Anybody else thinking the colour of that light looks kinda familiar?" I asked.

"This is how they do it," Cal said, "this is what they use to do what I do."

"Looks pretty hardcore," Marv said. "I don't see how you'd be able to do whatever that thing does."

It didn't seem that anybody ever walked around down at the bottom of the warehouse. It was dark and oily and evidently hadn't been cleaned for a while. We scurried beneath the walkways like rats, trying to figure out what we were going to do next. In one corner there was a series of simple, pre-fab offices suspended off the floor.

"Someone is leaving," Marv said, pointing.

A door opened and a man emerged. It wasn't the guy we'd encountered in the Aviary, I was glad to see. This one looked completely different. No scars - just a pair of glasses. He looked more like someone who spent his days behind a desk.

"Keep watch, I'm going to ask him a few questions," Cal said, already starting to move off.

Marv reached out and grabbed him. "Hold up, super spy," he said. "Before you go blowing our cover, how about we check out that room?"

Cal looked annoyed and glanced at Marv's hand as if it was diseased, then he acquiesced. "You're right," he said. "Is there anybody else in there?"

"Nope, all quiet."

We swung up onto the lowest walkway and ascended the stairs, tip-toeing on the metal steps. The door to the office was unlocked - presumably any security they had was on the building itself.

The room was dark, dimly lit only by rows of blinking lights of varying colours. The entire place hummed with what sounded like small fans. My vision adjusted to the darkness quickly and I found what looked like a light switch on the wall. The room was gently and gradually illuminated, revealing a series of screens and desks. The room was tiered, with the front desks lower then those at the back. All of them pointed towards a larger screen, on which was a logo of some kind that bounced from corner to corner.

Cal walked around the room, opening up notebooks but finding himself unable to understand anything. "What is this place?"

Each of the screens on the desk had similar controls in front of them - oblong slabs with protruding buttons and a small, hand-sized device. I gingerly lifted up the device and as I did so the large screen at the end of the room came to life. The bouncing logo vanished and was replaced by a tiled display of different camera views.

"Their technology is pretty advanced," I said.

"Now you're thinking that?" said Marv. "The big copycat Aviary, auto-healing packs and giant pan-dimensional gizmo out there didn't clue you in?"

The various views on the screen switched every few seconds. The longer I stared at them the more familiar they became, until I realised with a start that I was looking at locations from Perlyn. These were places I'd hung out back home. "It's our city," I said.

My attention was drawn to one particular tile, showing a typical kitchen. It took me a moment to realise it wasn't any old kitchen: it was my kitchen. The woman sitting alone at the table was my mother.