Aetheran Child (31 page)

Lexan grabbed the two, throwing Remu over his shoulder, and jumped outside the bubble right before it came to a full stop.

Romul came to and the two crawled behind a beam within the transport station that they had just come from.

“Where am I?”
 
Remu asked, a little too loudly as she woke up. Sentry droids started swarming around the area.

“Shut up Remu,” Romul hissed.

“Why? What's happening?” She asked again, still too loudly.

Lexan grabbed Remu strongly and set her down in front of him.

“What the hell?” She shrieked, and the sentry droids finally sounded the alarm. The little flying spheres accelerated toward the tracks, their little circular sensors scanned the area with thin beams of light. Lexan saw the beams as red streaks in his blue-shifted visible spectrum.

“Shut up. Romul let's move!” Lexan yelled. Expecting to see the droids shift and scan the area where he spoke, he grabbed Remu and jumped over the transport bubble. I jumped? He thought to himself wonderingly. The meters high leaps positioned him in front of the transport. The bubble was exposed to any kind of entry.

Remu tried to push off the invisible force. She could not locate the source of the force that grabbed her. She struggled even as Romul told her to stop. Someone, or something, laid her down in her seat. The Aether Romul jumped into the small universe.

The bubble sped off. They traveled six Spheres diagonally up. Lexan pushed the two off the transport once he saw the sentries were gone.

“They're after us,” Lexan said, Romul nodded when he saw the sentry droids speed after them, in the far distance.

“We're almost there, if we travel three Spheres to the left, we'll get to a Sphere full of closets,” Romul said.

“Who are you talking to? What's happening?” Remu yelled out.

“I'm talking to Lexan. We're headed for a closet to lay low for a bit and think this through,”

“But, where is he? Three-way the channel so I can talk to him, too. Or at least, don't be so rude and mute yourself when you talk to him,” Remu said disgustedly and got up. She checked her NCC and booted up her internal computer. Her head pounded, she groaned.

“Flush your body chemistry,” Romul murmured.

“What do you mean you can't see me?” Lexan eyes went wide and he turned around in his seat to stare at Remu who seemed to continue to ignore him.

“I couldn't see you before either Lexan,” Romul said, “Remu, he's in some kind of a strange Aether form that only Aetheri can see. You won't see him nor hear him, but he's right next to me.”

Busy with her NCC and readjusting her body chemistry, Remu jerked upward and stared incredulously, “You're kidding.”

“No. Turn into an Aether and see for yourself.” Romul said a bit annoyed. He took out his NCC and let its nano-constructed tubules reach below the transport. He programmed it so that the transport would not stop going.

An armada of Sentry droids followed while the trio hid. Remu sat cross-legged and after a minute, she let her body transform.

She made a face and turned toward the boy previously holding her, “Lexan, he was serious! How come you were invisible?!”

“I didn't know!” Lexan yelled defensively, “We'll talk about this later. When are we getting off, Romul?”

They jumped into another random transport and sped off horizontally. Lexan, again, threw them all out of the bubble universe once he saw the transporter level of the closet Sphere come up.

The station appeared and within half a second it was gone again. All three had jumped out and ran behind the pillar. Their Aether images confused the general sensors.

A hoard of new flying sphere robots swarmed the place and exited just as quickly, pursuing the transport. Droids from the current Sphere exited through the track as well. The boy was glad he used Romul’s programming for this transport as well.

“Great, the transporter trick worked perfectly, now we're free to go,” Romul jumped up and smiled. The other two followed him down the station until they reached the elevator. When they arrived to the main floor which housed hundreds of coffin-like capsules, Remu stopped all of them.

“Are you sure they won't be watching this part of the Sphere?” she asked.

“Yeah, they are only at the transport stations. Now let's go,” said Romul, getting more annoyed with each breath. His long blonde hair wavered around in the Aether form. As soon as he took a step outside of the elevator, though, another alarm sounded through the emergency network. An “identify” command was sent to the three.

“We gotta run,” Lexan yelled and headed for the closest closet. Romul and Remu followed, running slower than the Aether in front of them. Sentry droids swarmed the area immediately, scanning for the criminals. Their formation spread over the area like ants searching for food. And all with a purpose, search for the intruders. Lexan wondered again, as before, why no doors, no force-fields, no extra security measures were implemented to stop them. Getting in the closet will be the real challenge, he thought, because then I will know what’s really going on.

The rows and rows of stacked upright coffins protected the trio as they ran. Some of the first robots entered their row and signaled the others to join.

“Identify yourselves,” the droids screamed. Lexan looked back and something made him think of his teachings. A burst of fire shot down their enemies. Their melted innards spread on the white tiled floor.

“Nice shot,” Romul said as he exhaled, “I see an open closet right over there.” He pointed and following the line of sight flew by a red electrical blast.

“They're shooting at us!” Remu screamed. Lexan once again turned around and melted a couple of the flying robots.

“Come on, we're almost there,” he yelled as he neared the closet. The boy stopped in his tracks and opened the chamber. He set the dimension warp for another time-space continuum. One where time passed by quickly, the same one he had been in before. This time, though, he chose a different location.

Instead of an empty landscape, he chose a busy city. A galactic marketplace. The funny thing about closets was that it could take a person anywhere in the other dimension, any place a person chose. But when coming out, that person would reappear in the same exact place where he or she started. Those were the rules, and that was the law.

The chamber energized and welcomed its visitors. As Lexan waited for his companions, he continued to pick off the sentries with bursts of fire, the only 'spell' he could remember on the spot. I need to start paying more attention in class, he thought. Unfortunately, 'spells' could not be recorded by the NCCs, the feeling and the way to cast them were indescribable. They were just feelings, concentration, and conjuration mixed together.

“Lexan behind you!” Remu yelled and pointed next to the boy holding the door. He turned around and saw three Sentries floating. They did not even notice him, they were waiting to ambush the two still running. They can't see me, he thought. With a smack of the hand, one of the sentries flew into an adjacent casket.

“Unit down, what happened?” the second floating droid yelled before Lexan kicked it to the floor.

“We can't see the enemy, caution,” the third yelled and transmitted to the others as Lexan grabbed it and the droid melted to the ground. By the time he accomplished this, Romul and Remu caught up.

“Let's get in,” they said simultaneously. The three entered the chamber, unfortunately, a visitor joined them. One of the droids. It started screeching loudly and flashing a series of lights intended to blind the enemy. It worked on Romul and Remu who waved their arms around in hope to hit the robot. Lexan stared at the duo and the robot. He could see clearly, the lights were never bright enough too blind him, they seemed to be in a strange fog.

The robot opened some of its ports, somehow, Lexan knew it would release gas, sleeping gas. He could not let that happen. The other side of the closet opened and the boy punched the droid hard enough to send it flying across a street busy with people. It exploded on impact.

“We're here,” Lexan said and walked outside.

I

“Are you serious, but how is that possible?” Remu yelled out, slamming her mug-full of drug-enhanced liquid down.

“I don't know, I don't even know how to explain it,” Romul answered, taking a sip of the same drink. Much to Lexan's annoyance, Romul and Remu chose an authentic Earth pub four or five centuries old. The harsh wooden benches and tables were uncomfortable, the whole place reeked of alcohol and smoke. Small invisible lights simulated torches and fire-lamps.

“Maybe you just interpret the data wrong. Both Remu and I exited at the same time, isn't that right?” Lexan took a sip, savoring the taste of the beer. According to chemical analysis, it was nothing more than water accentuated with taste-modifiers. Unlike Remu's drink, which had a small dose of mind-altering drugs to give her a slight drunken feeling without the negative health repercussions. She could flush it out of her body whenever she wanted to as well.

“No, it's not right. You exited after Remu. The command takes exactly five milliseconds to execute. After those five milliseconds, my sister exited the system, but you remained there for another three or four seconds. Which, if you received the emergency exit command, wouldn't be possible. And if you did not receive it, you would have stayed there.”

“I exited just as Remu did. I remember having my leg right next to hers before I jumped up to attack the police droids. I left one second after I took my eyes off her.” said Lexan and electronically ordered a different flavored drink, bypassing the polite environment protocol. He did not wish to yell at the barman to serve him.

“Then there is three seconds to be accounted for.” Remu said finally.

“Three seconds?” Romul started, “I don’t even know where that time could have gone, and what you did,” he turned to Lexan, “ But after you turned into an Aether and disappeared, that moment, your body seemed to explode. It was crazy.”

“But, I didn't do anything,” Lexan said defensively.

“Actually, you did a lot of things while you were away.” Romul said seriously, his hair finally off his face, “While you were in the DomeStem, a lot of strange things happened.”

“Like what?” Lexan asked dumbfounded.

“There were times where you turned into an Aether and back, like I said, still plugged in though. You even turned invisible, just like you did when we ran away except I had no time to pay attention to that at the time.”

“I have no idea how I did that,”

“ You know, there is such a thing as an invisible Aether,” Remu said, her NCC materialized on the table and showed a hologram that only the trio could see. A figure stood motionless, information covered the desk under its feet, “Look. We all know about turning into an Aether, because we have all done it, right?”

“Yeah, but what's your point? None of us have turned invisible and undetectable. You saw how the droids ignored Lexan.”

“Yes, well look at this. Here is the first stage of Aether transformation,” a sexless figure flickered into a transparent Aether floating on the desk, “What none of us know, and will not even learn about until we are apprentices is how to achieve the next level.” The figure, once again, flickered but with another jolt of energy the figure left, no one was there, “This is stage two. The invisibility. Lexan, did you by any chance see through objects?”

“Yeah, I did. Why?” he watched the hologram, trying to figure out where the figure went.

“Another ability we will all gain in stage two. We will also be able to walk through walls, and avoid matter. Meaning, nothing but energy or other Aetheri will be able to hit us.” Remu went on, “It's quite incredible that it's possible for anyone to do transform to Second Stage with enough years of training.”

“Okay, I get that, but why can I do this so easily? And not even know about it?” Lexan asked, studying the rest of the data about Stage Two. He stored the ability list as well as everything else in the internal fast-access memory in his brain.

“I don't know. That's the thing, you should not be able to do this yet. Everyone else will achieve this ability in three or four year's time,” Remu shook her head. Romul looked at the other boy thoughtfully as he downed yet another simulated beer.

“Let's look at the information we retrieved, maybe that might help,” The boy said and ordered the slightly intoxicating version of his drink. The nano-constructed computer on the table showed a holographic menu that categorized the information.

Lexan selected to see the information in chronological order as it was filed or as it happened.

A little figure of Master Raki and the council appeared.

“I am sensing a being ready for training,” GrandMaster Korah spoke.

"Prepare to find him, Master Raki and bring him here."

"I will Grandmasters. I already have my ship prepared and also my crew," responded Master Raki and bowed to the others. They all watched him with purpose.

“Do not involve too many men. This mission is classified, Master Raki. I hope you understand that,” GM Kenna scratched his horns unconsciously and stared at the man with his piercing red eyes.

"We don't get many Earthlings, do they call themselves? Oh yes, we do not these days, Last I remember was about 30 years ago and then 250 years before that. Look at it now we have two of them at the same time?" Stated another creature.

"I won't fail." Mt. Raki bowed once more and ended discussion by walking through a section of the wall, random in choice..

After the master left, the council started another session.

“They must be the chosen ones. The book of Prophecies predicts their comings.”

“It also predicts that one will turn to the Nethers and one will be with us.” GrandMaster Kosig said.

“Yes, but that is of no consequence. According to the prophecy, if both our worlds, our galaxies pass the tests of the Chosen Ones, nothing will happen. If either world shall fail, the other will take over both domains.”

“It is NOT of no consequence. Six thousand years ago, only two cycles, the chosen ones caused a war that decimated our whole civilization, we practically had to start from scratch!” One creature, outraged, jumped up to its feet.