Elementis 1: The Heir to the Stone (12 page)

A large silver ear faded in over the silver heart.

"The silver ear is partly used to heighten telepathic transmissions and can in fact be pre-programmed with both memory and intelligence. There was no limit as to what Oreaus could control. By the time the Cytherean Council of Justice had decided to put a stop to the work of Oreaus, it was too late. The dydrid were too strong, their numbers grew quickly and the fortified city of Mercron could not be overcome."

An image of the metal city of Mercron came onto the data-screen. This was the first time Jonas had seen it. His eyes lit up with the cruelty of the clawed structure.

"It became apparent, however, that there was one thing which Oreaus could not fully control—us." said Witakker, waiting for a response from Jonas.

Jonas promptly turned. "The cythereans?" he asked.

"We could not understand why until we discovered much later that we are in fact distant descendants of the esla. As fate would have it most of our minds had developed a resistance to being controlled, even by Oreaus. This made his hate for us grow beyond obsession. Greed and power consumed him—a troubled mind indeed. He needed materials which he didn't have to expand and improve his race. He demanded the mining of essential resources from planets across our system and beyond."

Mercron disappeared and a working mountainside quarry came onto the windshield. Oversized digging and drilling machines ploughed into the side of the rock, collecting and sifting through every grain.

"One day, in a mining field on the baron planet of Lapia, a small, orange stone was uncovered, the make-up of which could not be identified on site. The stone was analysed and found to contain the atomic structures for every single element in existence."

An orange stone appeared on screen, spinning around. Jonas recognized it instantly; it was the stone his father wore on his wrist.

"After date testing and so forth, scientists believed it possible that this stone was created at or even before the very moment of the birth of the universe. Oreaus had found the oldest object ever uncovered. The scientific community named it the element stone, but Oreaus soon came to rename the stone, the Elementis. Word soon spread from system to system about what wonders such a stone might hold. Eventually, one of Oreaus's scientists, in an experiment which sent an electromagnetic pulse into the stone, noticed that the mass of the atmosphere in a controlled chamber had grown by 58.9332 atomic mass units."

A voice called out from behind Witakker, "Cobalt!"

Everyone turned around to see Twain holding his hand over his mouth, "Sorry," he said, "I didn't want to miss anything!"

"Yes, cobalt," Witakker said, waving him across to join them, looking almost as un-amused as Cortex, who Twain came and slid in comfortably next to.

"The scientists discovered that when they altered the frequency and intensity of the electromagnetic pulses, the stone would produce different elements in different quantities. It wasn't long before they had realised its full potential and how to control the stone. Almost overnight the element stone became the most powerful thing in our universe. And its owner, Oreaus could do with it as he wished."

Jonas kept his eyes glued on the spinning stone, "And what did Oreaus do with the power?"

The stone faded from the windshield; behind it a dusty brown moon came into view.

"That!" said Witakker.

"He made an entire moon?" Jonas questioned in disbelief.

"Seven entire moons," Witakker added. "What we know today as the trade moons. With the power of thought alone, the Elementis was found to be capable of turning any existing element into any other element which the master should choose and all with the power of the mind. Oreaus transformed the moons cores from solid rock into precious stones and he added the atmospheres to match the composition of the air on Aquilla. He created mountain ranges with solid rare metals and rivers that flow with exotic liquids, with which he would use to build his armies and expand across the universe until he had dydrified every race for himself to control. If any race would not submit he would destroy them. Oreaus wanted eternal life to see his vision through from inception to the very end. He re-constructed his body so that he could replenish any part to keep himself alive. He named himself "the Zohr" and swore to his race that they would one day rule the entire universe. The Zohr became unstoppable. The cythereans were the last race of our planet remaining, he intended to dydrify those which he could and destroy the rest of us."

Skylark delved into the brown moons dust filled atmosphere. Beneath a layer of gritty cloud came air as clear as the mother planet. They flew above a shimmering mountain of pure silver rock with rivers of golden liquid flowing through the valleys.

Witakker continued. "Now you must understand, back then our people were not used to being leaders, planning attacks, defending against armies, or fighting in wars of any kind. We had merely become a small thorn in the side of Oreaus's plans to rule, and he wanted us eradicated forever. He and his fantom soldiers stormed Enterra killing our people and burning our city. He personally evaporated and petrified our ancestors with the Elementis, smiling as he brought us to our knees. We had no choice but to fight. And in the depths of war we formed the Cytherean Guard to protect us. But it was a losing battle. The Zohr had all but wiped us out, when he realised he found humour in the idea that there may be a use for the cythereans that remained. He enslaved survivors, mainly old men, women and children, putting them to work on the materials he fabricated with his precious element stone. The slaves built many things for Oreaus, parts for ships, parts for weapons, the fantoms uniforms and whatever else they were told to do."

Jonas needed to know more. Question after question flooded into his thoughts. "But how did we survive when everyone had been enslaved or killed?" he said, staring at the metal mountain peaks below.

"Not everyone was killed. Of the hundreds of thousands of Cytherean Guard, we had five men remaining. Those five men of the Guard saved us from certain tyranny, which would no doubt have lead to the extinction, or permanent enslavement of our race. They showed such courage and bravery in their actions that every man and woman of cytherean origin owes them their lives. In fact, the king's four protectors are a long-lasting symbol that pays a great homage to these five men. Their plan was uncomplicated but intellectual in its simplicity. One of the men volunteered for the toughest part of the plan—Valdoor Krestwell, the eldest of the five."

An image of Valdoor appeared on the windshield. A strong, older-looking man, thick brown hair, showing his age with a well-set, wrinkled face. Jonas could see a part of his father in the mans face. It was the blue eyes which flared with all the troubles of the world. Jonas gazed at the man on the screen, feeling some kind of distant connection to him. Then it dawned on him. He was related to one of the five men who had saved his race. He felt a great sense of pride, history and purpose chill through his body. He couldn't take his eyes from the image of Valdoor but listened on as Witakker continued.

"Valdoor was purposefully captured and put to work on munitions where he secretly trained the old men, women and children in combat and defence. Valdoor's slave army made and stowed weapons readying for a large-scale attack on their captors. The other four men of the Guard were entrusted to ready a ship, the Utopious, and to gather supplies ample enough for the two hundred or so slaves, to escape and disappear into deep space, in a final attempt to restore stability back to our race."

Valdoor's image faded and a deep-space transporter ship replaced him. An odd shaped ship in the form of a decagon with boosters covering each of its ten sides. Jonas had seen nothing like it before. A beautiful ship, he thought, an ingenious design for movement in the unlimited dimensions of space.

"It was win or lose. They were unmistakably fighting for survival. The Guards agreed that on the night of the next pure black fall when Aquillas largest moon, Natwi had waned into full darkness, they would attempt the most important deed the cythereans had ever encountered. And so the plan was put to action. No sooner had the slaves fooled their keepers that they were asleep, when an almighty barrage of lasers, forged by their own hands broke the heavy prison doors free from their hinges. And with their new-found courage and a leader in which they trusted implicitly, the fully armed, two-hundred strong Cytherean Guard fought their way out of the Zohr's capture to save their own freedom. There was one happening however which was not a part of the cythereans acute plan. Valdoor was the last of our people to escape the factory when he realised that the all-powerful destron and element stone had been left unguarded."

The Utopious dissolved on screen and a destron appeared; a machine with a raised clasp in the centre where the element stone sat.

Jonas had seen the element stone inset on his fathers bracelet but not heard of a destron before. "Wait, there was no energy-star?" he asked, having heard the term spoken about and realising that it was the connector between the stone and the mind.

"The stone, when it was first used by Oreaus would sit in a destron, only he could control it and it was heavily guarded by fantoms. But the Zohr's confidence in his own army's strength was his eventual undoing. Valdoor stepped over the dead bodies of the fantoms and removed the element stone and the primary mechanisms of the destron. He knew that with the stone in their ownership, perhaps peace could one day be restored and the Zohr’s reign be stopped for ever. One hundred and twenty two cythereans disappeared deep into space that night. The survivors of the great war mourned for their people and recuperated physically and mentally. We had survived."

Jonas didn't understand something. "Why though, after all of that, did we come back to Aquilla?"

"The Zohr is far too evil and powerful to have been left to his own devices with all of the resources he had created," Witakker told him.

"Okay, so why don’t we use the Elementis to kill the Zohr?" said Jonas.

Witakker turned a smile at the boys line of questioning. "The stone may be one of the only things that can stop the Zohr, but you would have to ask your father why," he said. "Now, when we return home, tell your father that you will try your hardest to access your eslanic powers and that you will protect the Elementis from every evil in the universe. Otherwise you've just completely wasted my day."

"I'll think about it," Jonas said, trying to sound as disinterested as possible.

"Well. It's a start," Witakker returned.

Chapter X

Creation

In the depths of Mercron every fantom colonel stood in near silence. The sounds of a thousand creatures wispy breaths was all that was heard on the stone-layered steps of a crescent-shaped auditorium. They stared at the platform in front of them; the anticipation of seeing their leader so close excited the metal in their bones. The Zohr entered. Their eyes came alive as they watched his heavy black cape flap around his feet, making his way to the centre of the stage to address his colonels. 

Amongst the colonels and throughout all ranks of the dydrid army, there were three classifications of soldier; the converted, the cloned, and the purebreds. Each of the converted or cloned fantoms originated either from the stolen minds of Aquilla's native species, or they came from some far-off captive race, taken from planets raped of their men and converted by force with dydrification. Only the strongest soldiers from each of the converted were ever cloned, and when it was done so, they were cloned thousands of times over, artificially born with the DNA of the Zohr integrated into their own. And those who had not been captured and dydrified were the purebred dydrid, born into this world by natural means, killing their mothers with every arrival. They were the strongest, smartest soldiers within the army; they were pure-blood warriors, born with the natural instinct to hate those of cytherean descent.

All soldiers no matter where they came from or how they were created had one thing in common. Every single converted, cloned and purebred dydrid was ruled by one mind— the Zohr's. He brainwashed them with his eslanic ways into thinking as he did, turning them into power-driven idealists, murderers and servants to every thought of the dydrid leader. Their souls were lost inside of their hijacked minds, suppressed to a dark neural corner and never to be seen again. He controlled everything.

The Zohr looked down upon his subordinates, watching their keen eyes waiting for him to speak.

"Each one of you commands ten thousand highly skilled and war-thirsty warriors," he boomed as the echoes of his voice filled their silver ears with his music, a song about war which they had longed to hear for many years.

"Let them know this!" he thundered, stirring the colonels to grunts and growls, as the Zohr's passion vibrated through their bodies.

"The time for invasion is near," he said, quieter, widening his eyes with the thought. "The time to cleanse the universe is near!"

He paused, letting the words resonate around the auditorium until the very walls of the room had absorbed the meaning of terror.

"On the third rising of Valo, we attack. The cythereans will die as they sleep in their beds."

The fantom colonels roared in celebration.

"No man will be left standing!" the Zohr promised, shaking with might as the colonels stamps and screams grew louder. "The Elementis will be ours!"

Sharp teeth erupted from the war-hungry mouths of the fantoms. Silver veins in muscular necks pumped with adrenaline and the sounds of wrath rang out through the dark halls of Mercron. A declaration of war that would begin in three days time and at last the fantoms would have their day. They would crush the cythereans with a strength beyond their wildest fears. They would return the ultimate prize to their ruler.

*

Mutus was silent as Calyx followed his footsteps down a dimly lit corridor. They moved through a series of doorways, down a never ending hallway surrounded by walls of earth. Finally they reached a room, deep in the tunnels beneath the metal walls of Mercron. The room was empty of any signs of life, but it was full of thousands of glass-cased pods. Calyx peered closely into them. Each capsule was filled with a clear liquid. What was this place? he wondered. Mutus watched Calyx eyeing up the pods with interest. Calyx peered across to the hairless man and his cold eyes, to assess his reaction as he walked closer to one of the pods. There was no reaction, and there was nothing inside this pod but more clear liquid. Calyx wandered around to the next capsule bending down to look through the glass, again it was empty. A skewed figure appeared next to Mutus through the refraction of the liquid. Calyx rose up from his bending position to see the Zohr staring at him. Mutus left the room.