Aetheran Child (26 page)

The first thing, Lexan did was to plot a course for the Gardens he went to with Nivua.

IV

Minutes later, he stepped out on the luscious green grass carpet. The air felt nice and breezy. Lexan decided to take off his helmet and feel the wind brush through his air.

“Just a few more months, and I won't need this stupid shield.” He said to himself, eating a few nutrition cubes as he did so. A bitterness overtook his mind.
 
All of a sudden, the world of wonder became the world of lies.
 
He pondered upon the invention he consumed. Having eaten little to no real food since he came to the planet, Lexan consumed thousands of those little cubes.

“What an invention,” said Lexan to himself once again. The cubes held all the nutrition he would need, all the vitamins, and even some extra speed-up hormones that adjusted his body to the environment.

He walked down further toward the lake. Sun rays shimmered on its surface. Strange and beautiful world, he thought to himself. All the thoughts and emotions that rushed through his mind suddenly quieted. As if his mind could not handle everything at once, it had shut down. All he could see now was the setting sun, the strange orange-green hue of the sky. Not even the sky's true colors, even if he was disconnected from the computer, his own eyes adjusted the colors of this world to match the ones he was used to seeing.

Lexan dipped his hand into the lake, feeling it as if his hand was no longer gloved. How can this happen? How do these sensors work in such a way as to make it seem his clothes do not exist?

The spherical empire all around stared him down. Who came up with this architecture and design? Lexan kept on asking himself, asking the empty gardens. Where is my Earth? What am I doing here? He felt homesick. Aethers or no Aethers, the normal world, the uncomplicated world, was what Lexan longed for. Instead of all this mess.

“Okay, Lexan, think what's happening here.” He told himself and started making a mental list. The overwhelming feeling of the world went away as he calmed. He made a note on his nano computer to learn more about the culture here, he had missed too much about these people who they were, and what was happening. The initial euphoria of arriving to a new, hidden world disappeared and was replaced by confusion and loneliness.

The war had started, Nethers were attacking Aetheri. What a strange timing, he thought. After hundreds of years of peace, where the Galactic super-states had to deal with simple conflicts, a full-out galactic war was taking place. How cliché, he thought, remembering all the science fiction books he read and movies he saw. Yet, there was something special about this. The war had a meaning, and it was no coincidence, it was tied to him.

Nangern, the boy from the orphanage, his roommate in CI4. The last time he had seen him was back on Earth, the day of his leave when Nangern hit him in the face. Lexan unconsciously rubbed his cheek. The strange thing about the day was that he could not sense the fist approaching. Now, it seemed, Nangern worked for the Nethers. But how? How could the boy he knew from the orphanage be so important that in fact, he became the catalyst to an inter-galactic war.

Lexan remembered the symbol on Nangern's back. It meant something, and he had never noticed it at the orphanage. It might not have been there before. The symbol tied back to one of the Toria that populated and educated the galaxy. Yet another aspect of the Galaxy's history that did not make sense. Billions of stars, and only six beings, six Elders that made it all happen.

The rush of the waterfall nearby distracted Lexan for a few seconds. There is no way I can figure this out, he thought. How could anyone figure this out? He was just a simple boy from Earth. A boy whose parents died, a boy who went to an orphanage where he shared a room with a future General of the Nether military. Maybe he was not that important, Lexan thought, may he commanders a single ship. Maybe he was taken away the same way Lexan was except by Nethers.

It still did not make sense, Lexan would probably never make the situation make sense. Exasperated and frustrated, he put his helmet back on, turned on Degree III vision, which he has never tried before. Degree III vision enabled him to feel like he actually swam in the ocean, feel and interpret the way the fish swam, hear their language. Certain strange hallucinations would occur as well. The waterfall slowed down in its fall. The spectrum of colors he saw increased to include ultraviolet and infrared, even beyond those in the electromagnetic spectrum. He swam through the tunnel down underground inside the lake.

He felt a bit overwhelmed once more by the colors and limited his range of sight back to the natural but kept all the other effects of Degree III vision.

The suit increased the gravity sense to keep Lexan floating in middle of the ocean. He did not wish to surface for a while.

“Think, Lexan, think.” he said to himself again, knowing all too well none of the sounds would escape his helmet. The helmet, which he incidentally did not even see nor feel.

Once more, he thought about his goals. He needed to face Nangern. Nangern, that measly boy he met in the orphanage. How could he assent so quickly? Jealous quickly washed over Lexan. The boy, that one boy, which Lexan saved from the bullies, whose sister he saved as well. He, that strange weakling, bypassed Lexan, within the year and a half they've been apart, somehow, Nangern rose above the ranks of others and grasped immense power. Nangern became a general, or even if not a general, at least a high standing military official with his own ship. A teenage boy! Age did not seem to matter in this world, Lexan thought. Something that he was not used to. Age was a hindrance on Earth, it was a check on the underage to keep the adults in power.

Nangern, Lexan's friend, a strange rival, finally took the lead, and who knows how long he's been there. Yet, he did not know that Lexan was still alive, that he was an Aether studying in the middle of the Milky Way galaxy.

Lexan's first new objective, figure out a way to stop Nangern. Learn more about him, see what's happening to him and why he was chosen as a Nether from Earth.

The water all around did not match his thoughts at all, it was quiet and unmoving.

Then there was Alary. Alary, his love that he has not seen, yet again in a year and a half. He needed to figure out how she got to Athiris, and why. Why were both Nangern and Alary transported off Earth? And how many more Earthlings along with them?

Lexan remembered the cryo-coffin in the spaceship in which he traveled with Master Raki. She might have been there, trained while he slept. When he trained, she slept. That is why he saw her when he transformed into a Aether. He will have to find her and see what she knows about the whole situation.

Lexan surfaced from the half-sphere ocean onto the lake. He turned off the Degree III vision and with it, the instant thought descriptions of all objects disappeared, the colors faded back to their original visible spectrum, the time restored itself and some vision details became fuzzy again.

Joshua, finally activated, relayed Lexan a few messages. He did not want to hear them, and thus turned off Joshua's voice interface, instead Joshua transferred the knowledge directly into Lexan's memory chip inside of his brain.

A route automatically planned itself, as Lexan gave Joshua a thought command to find the nearest “closet”. It was all about timing. Lexan's mind started crackling and swirling. He had so many ideas, so many things he wanted to do. The thought of power flooded his mind, an emotion he has not felt before. He felt the inherent need to triumph over Nangern, to show Alary he had power to protect. Protect her from what? He did not know.

The route he had planned took him to one of the stranger Spheres where he had not been to before.

“Joshua, I need some alone time,” Lexan said, he cut off Joshua's Main Personality Interface. He needed his head to be clear for a few hours, for about thirty hours only until the date with Bloo, Nivua, and Jacque.

Lexan entered one of the pods situated in the multiple rows and columns in the Sphere. Hundreds of people walked past him, entering and leaving the pods as well. They were called “closets” for no other reason than that similar devices were in each and every dormitory where the actual closets would be.

The pod, with its greenish-dark color, stood open like a doorway. Inside was only darkness. Lexan entered, the door swung close behind him. A sullen voice welcomed him, Lexan mentally turned on a public profile that does not activate voice-interfaces. The chamber went quiet while it fed Lexan data on all the worlds and places available for him to visit.

He chose a world from the menu, a world where the three-dimensional physics of his world would apply as well. Yet the time passed much faster in this world. A month inside the chamber would seem like a day outside. Just what he wanted.

The dark wall in front of Lexan disappeared and turned green. The boy entered the new universe, with nothing around. This hidden, shadow world was as vast and empty as the “real” universe. Trillions of people are already here, right this moment, Lexan thought as he looked around the green planet he stood on. Septillion more have lived here since the beginning of time. This planet, it seemed, was either entirely abandoned or most of the population stuck to cities, not the countryside.

Lexan activated his nano-constructed computer which climbed up to his helmet, testing the air. It was breathable, even by Lexan. He took his helmet off and walked on. His NCC took a shape of a bird and flew off to check the surroundings, a trick Romul taught him. It sent him data which suggested that the nearest Shun village was teeming with life hundreds of kilometers away. The bird landed on his shoulder and dissolved.

“This is where it starts,” he said absent-mindedly to his NCC, which transformed once more , this time into a small cat, “This where it all begins.” Lexan looked above him at the green-blue skies. He smiled, it reminded him of Earth.

Lexan turned on a personal journal, something he should have done a long time ago, “I suppose I can't be the average teenage boy anymore. I feel a bit silly thinking I could be some kind of a hero but strangely enough, I think I can do some good in the world. Right now though, I need some time to think, and to train outside of school.

“Without homework, and without people to bother me, I should be able to advance my studies considerably. I might make this into a habit actually.” It was strange writing into a journal, he thought. And it was stranger running away from the world. He felt funny thinking of himself to be a hero, and he knew he may be wrong about all the assumption he made. However, something inside of him burned, burned like a fire, an inkling, a need to gain power, to overcome the world, and to not have anyone interfere and control his life.

He smiled once more, the troubles of the real world left him.

I

The month flew by quickly. Lexan worked hard, he became one with nature, as much as he could at least. During the day, he'd work his body: chopping down trees with his bare hands, swimming through never-ending lakes, climbing tall mountains, and generally perfecting his physical form. At night, he would start a fire, and let the flames lick and engulf his body. He felt the burns, he felt the energy enter and leave. Lexan felt pain and power.

While working out his body gave him a new sense of accomplishment, an order to his life, it was not enough. The confusion in his mind could not be organized through simple exercises and tests of endurance. Lexan spent his off-days, the days where his body needed to regenerate, by playing with his NCC and perfecting the strange metallic creature. He decided, it would never become a lifeless piece of metal again.

The animals, birds, and fish feared him. They would not come close to him, but rather avoid him as much as possible, at first. Lexan showed his kindness, sharing some of the nutri-cubes with some of the sick that could not get up and get out of his way fast enough.

“I feel very different,” He had said to his journal during one of the last days, “It's as if it all makes sense. The discipline, the pain, the power, and all the experiences in just the few weeks, changed me somehow. I am grateful for the time I had to think, think clearly with no interference from a machine and from the busy world outside.”

Lexan had only a handful of days until he had to leave, and he chose to spend those days in deep trance and meditation. As his body recovered from the stressful routine, so did his mind need to adjust for the new insight, and radical changes in thinking. The ever-watchful cat that was his nano-constructed computer, changed shape into a hollow guardian, a statue of large proportions filled with nothingness.

No animal, no human would disturb Lexan. When the storms hit, as they did often, the guardian transformed into a covering that did not let a single drop by.

The guardian, having thoughts of its own, stared helplessly at the skies. It reviewed the past few weeks, remembering the times when Lexan ran through the storms, and let the lightnings hit his body. Soon, Lexan will ascend to a higher level, the guardian thought. With such dedication he had shown in this lonely world, he could become eventually a Grandmaster.

The guardian shut its eyes close, shutting down most of its functions besides the most essential and waited for Lexan to wake up from his spiritual, cosmic, mind-travels to lead them back to their own world.

II

“Finally you're here, we thought you were gonna ditch us,” Bloo looked at Lexan scornfully, “Where were you?”

“Alone, I just needed some time to think. I went to the caves,” he lied. Jacque saw the awkward situation come up and decided to intercede before it blew out of proportion.

“Yeah, this war is heavy stuff. I can barely believe it's happening,” Jacque looked at all of them seriously. Bloo glanced upon him and the whole quartet entered the restaurant.
 
The place was nothing special, it was a bland white-walled restaurant with rounded corners. The whole feeling of the place reminded Lexan of an ice-palace. The white walls shone brightly as they reflected the dim hazy lights overhead.