Aetheran Child (32 page)

“Yes, but it finally united thousands of scattered nations together. Those two gave rise to the United Galacatic Nations, and our own United Republics.”

“But at what cost? Trillions of people died. Much knowledge has been lost because of the wars. With time, we would have united anyway.”

“I agree.” Spoke another creature and many others nodded their heads.

“We will train both of them. If either chooses to join the Nethers, there is nothing we can do, be it fate. If it is not their destiny, no useless wars will be started and the Nethers will not receive an advantage over us.”

“What about the other schools?” said GrandMaster Korah.

“The two are ours, the other schools have not made a move.”

Everyone agreed. The scene moved forward to Master Raki's departure. The man left alone, leaving the rest of the crew on the planet. Explanation underneath the holographic projection stated that he received new orders.

His shining Needle ship sailed through the Swift Space. Master Raki, saw another ship though. As he finally penetrated the barrier, the no-man's zone where no ship was allowed, a handful of other ships, of unknown design, appeared.

The spaceship made contact. Master Raki, surprised, called the council immediately for advice.

A man in black with a red headdress appeared on the screen, “We know of the two on Earth. We know of the prophecy. Leave us the boy, you take the girl. If you do not oblige, the Toria will rain down their wrath on you.”

The man disappeared and so did the ships.

“The council agrees. Take the girl. The conflict itself might escalate if we take both. Those Nethers feel like they have a right to be in our galaxy. They do not but there is nothing we can do now.”

GrandMaster Kosig nodded and sent Master Raki the official instructions.

According to the logs, Master Raki spent a year in isolation with no more communication. He meditated. Most of the information available about that time consisted of vague information concerning Raki's daily habits. Nothing of interest.

Romul and Remu grew wary of the repetitive information and fast-forwarded the feed until the next communication.

Master Raki woke up from a deep meditation, his ship arrived at the Solar System, decelerating from the speed of light.

“Whoa is that what the Earth system looks like?” Remu said, noting the eight different planets, the asteroid belts, and the blue little marble that was Earth.

“Yeah, that's it. This was probably a few days before I got picked up,” Lexan answered.

The Master seemed to feel a strange disturbance.

“Las, give me the status check.” he spoke.

“Everything is working fine. We are two weeks away from orbit time.” A sultry female voice answered.

He scratched his head, thinking, “Tell me about Earth's space exploration.”

“At this point in time, they have sent remote satellites reaching beyond the system. The earthlings, themselves, have visited only their single satellite they call the 'moon' but have not ventured out further.”

“Have any of those satellites passed us in the past hour or so?”

“No, I have steered the ship clear so as not to interfere,” Las answered and Master Raki sighed. He looked down and thought.

“Patch me through to the council, something is amiss,” he finally said and walked into the cockpit.

“Only GrandMaster Kosig is available at the moment,” The computer said and a holographic representation of the bald man spoke, “Master Raki, I trust everything is in order?” he did not even look up, with a computer screen right in front of him.

“I felt a disturbance that brought me back from the meditation,” the master started, “it was the use of Aether powers.”

“It was probably one of the Earthlings chosen ones, it is not unusual for unlearned children to show Aether powers spontaneously and uncontrollably,” the GrandMaster said, still not paying attention.

“Yes, but this was different. It seemed to come from another source,” the master said.

“Or you may be getting old,” he said, “Master Raki, do not look too closely into this. Give me your progress report when you get to Earth.”

The scene fast-forwarded. Romul, Remu, and Lexan watched silently, occasionally sipping on their beverages.

Needle Mark II, Raki’s elegant ship, settled down on the grassy field and immediately turned invisible. Master Raki sat at the computer console inside.

“Las, please relay a message to the Nethers that there are three children that posses Aether powers,” Master Raki said, “They should be closely on their way, two weeks behind us tops.”

The man thought as he sat on the bolted-down chair, “Also, send GrandMaster Kosig a message that there are, in fact, three potential Aetheri. All of which had already showed a part of their power. I will be taken two of these children, separated at boarding, with me.”

He stood up and walked outside the ship. The recording seemed to cease at that point. It resumed with Master Raki negotiating for the adoption of Lexan.

“I would like to adopt a child, a very particular child,” Master Raki said and waited.

“No problem, the process will take several months. I hope you are ready for this. We will need a proof of employment, and for you to fill out an application. We can have a representative of the child services sent to your home-”
“I do not have time for that,” Master Raki said. He concentrated his eyes on the woman, the woman's eyes became mesmerized, “All of my paperwork is filled out. Send the children in.”

“Yes, give me just a second,” she said, “Which children?”

Master Raki took the records and looked through the names and pictures. He immediately knew.

“Call these two,” he told the woman and she called.

Master Raki then proceeded to create an illusion image of another man, sitting at a chair behind him. The illusion image resembled a heavy-set short man, with short hair. Wearing the same apparel as Master Raki, a dark suit.

“Lexan come in, please.”
 
The secretary politely asked.

Master Raki eyed the boy carefully.

“Hello Lexan,” Master Raki started, he smiled, “I am Hamanulus Raki. Nice to meet you.”

The boy watched both the secretary and Raki closely.

“He is here to adopt you, Alexander.” The secretary smiled.

The little boy Lexan instantly became a nervous wreck as those words escaped the secratary’s lips.

“Uhm..are you okay, Lexan?” the secretary asked. After a short conversation, she announced that he will be leaving with the Master the next day.

“Call Alary in, will you?” the secretary said and Lexan left.

The recording showed Mt. Raki transform into the short man while he waited for the girl to come in. Alary came in.

“Alary, this is Mr. Raki. He has come here and is interested in adopting you,” the secretary announced and motioned to the Master who arrogantly enough, did not even wish to mask his name.

The girl's eyes went wide, “This is great!” She yelled out very excitedly, not faking her sincerity. Lexan, watching the recording, heard his heart skip a beat.

“You'll be leaving tomorrow,” Master Raki announced.

“Awesome, I can't wait to tell Nangern that we're leaving tomorrow!” She happily jumped up but then froze when Master Raki cleared his throat for attention.

“You ARE taking Nangern as well, aren't you?” She asked tentatively with fear in her eyes.

“I'm sorry but the circumstances do not allow this,” the man answered. He stood up, shook her hand and told her he'd be back the next morning to pick her up.

Alary silently mumbled to herself, “I'm losing both my brother and Lexan. On the same day. This can't be happening.”

The log entries showed no more recorded entries. Apparently, Alary was taken on the same day as Lexan a couple hours apart. Alary went first. She was put into accelerated training as soon as she entered the school. The council wished to bring her up to speed with her brother who fought with the Nethers.

“This is crazy,” Romul mumbled, “So, we are actually on the verge of big change, aren't we?”

“It seems like it. Unless the Nethers stop, there will be an inter-galactic war. All order will be upset,” Remu mumbled, still shocked.

“And Alary was here the whole time,” seemingly, Lexan ignored the rest of the log entries, only focusing on the mentions of Alary. He mentally scrolled through the mounds of useless information, scanning for anything important. His NCC automatically recorded her dormitory number and her schedule, “I'm going back. I want to see Alary,” he said defiantly. He stood up, or tried to until Romul grabbed his elbow and pulled him down to his seat.

“Not yet,” Remu said, “there is more.”

II

“There is a file on you, Lexan,” Remu started, the boy sat down with a face of disgust.

“So? I already know about that, that is why I got a new NCC and a new MPI,” he said and was getting ready to leave again.

“Looks like that did not particularly help,” Romul said, “The log inputs have lowered but never diminished. I think that before you do anything rash, or anything that might jeopardize your stance in Athiris, you should review this information.”

Remu nodded at Lexan seriously. The boy’s features hardened. His eyes raged with a bit of anger, “So they’ve been keeping tabs on me even after I removed the old NCC and Bran?” The twins nodded.

“Okay, let’s see what they have on me.”

Remu’s NCC on the table lit up again and showed a picture of naked Lexan. Remu blushed slightly. Romul laughed. Lexan reddened, “Shut up.” Romul gave a command and information unrolled over the table. The profile showed the usual information, his full name, his age, the origin planet Earth. He glanced over at the biophysical information. Again nothing important, he was in good health, both mentally and physically, the diagram showed Lexan’s Aether gene count, the structure of his blood cells. Then something called the neural brainwave matrix, the pressures the Aether-transforming exerted upon his body during transformation, “There is nothing important here, let’s move to the logs.”

Romul and Remu looked at him sternly, “You’re not reading it carefully. Scroll back up.” The information redrew itself to show the previous page.

“I don’t see it, what’s wrong?” Lexan asked pleadingly. The twins looked very serious; Romul reached out and tapped the biophysical information, the Aether subsection.

“Look at your Aether gene count,” Remu said.

“Yeah, I know. It’s zero,” Lexan said, “I found out during the trip from Earth.”

“There is no one in known post-Toria history who has had a zero Aether gene count.” Romul said, he pulled up another panel of information, “Here is the lowest recorded amount, seven percent.” A picture of a man pulled up, his whole body was distorted with blisters all over. Romul’s information log also showed that transformation into an Aether was impossible, simply, impossible.

“Well, what about Alary?” Lexan asked, confused, “Maybe it’s an Earth thing, a low Aether gene count. Maybe they made a mistake.” But he already knew it was no mistake. All the information had a logged entry when it was tested for. Most of the data had been tested five or six times, the Aether gene: seventy eight times all with the same zero result.

Alary’s information pulled up with another staggering amount, “One hundred percent?!” Remu spit her drink out over the table. The NCC did a quick self-cleaning routine, the liquid was gone.

“So, tell me. How is THAT possible?” Lexan asked with skepticism, “She has been tested twice as many times as I have, all with the same result.”

“The same result part, that by itself is staggering. The percentage result usually swings up and down by a percent or two during each test,” Romul said. He pulled up another percentage chart; the highest recorded percentages included the leaders of the schools, the GrandMasters who had over seventy percent Aether gene result. Alary had all of the Aether gene markers, that made her hardly a human, hardly a creature of this universe.

“Look at your status, ‘under constant watch’. Lexan, you and Alary are the biggest genetic anomalies in the past hundred thousand years,” Remu announced, she looked at the boy and carefully scanned him, searching for an indication of why he was so different and how he differed from others, “That explains why you achieved the second level Aether transformation. Alary must have the education equivalent to a fifth year student.” Her eyes burned with envy.

“I did not even know that was possible,” Romul said, he brought up Alary’s education file, “Look at this, she is listed as an Advanced Apprentice.”

Remu looked sternly at Romul, “She achieved all this in less than five months? Five years of study, done over so quickly.” She sighed and leaned back, “I wish I could do that. Be that talented.”

“Lexan, if you ever want to catch up with her, you will have to spend a long time training, alone.” Romul said. Lexan did not speak, “Are you listening to me, Lexan? I don’t even know how you can meet her. Advanced Apprentices are usually taught at a completely different planet than we are.”

He sat frozen. Remu followed his line of sight, “What is it?”

“They’ve been following me all this time,” he said. Thousands of log entries popped up, documenting their trip to the school’s Node DomeStem, documenting their escape from the robots. It even documented Lexan and the twins reviewing all the information. The twins looked at the plan and stared open-mouthed. “Impossible,” they muttered.

Remu took immediate charge and turned off her NCC. She let the others out into the street, “They must have hardware tapped your input enhancer chip,”

“How can we get rid of it?” Lexan subconsciously rubbed his head where the plug-in units were located.

“Surgery,” She looked at him seriously, “We go to a surgeon in the city; they will remove the brain chips and install new ones. It’s the only way.”

Lexan, already angry at the situation, agreed and the trio left. He felt betrayed, he felt completely naked, he felt vulnerable and hurt. Complete and constant watch, surveillance of the highest degree from the beginning to the moment he found out. It started with Bran, software surveillance, monitoring Lexan’s thoughts and dreams, recording them for Master Raki’s review, perhaps the Council’s. But her programming corrupted and Lexan removed her. Finally, he will get rid of the last part tying him to the Council and Master Raki. What will they do? And how can it be he has no Aether genes?