Aetheran Child (8 page)

He also noticed that his hair was no longer long but rather short and spiked with gel in a chaotic way.

Within a few moments, the boy noticed that both of them stood in a large room. It was more of a theatre or an auditorium but without any chairs. He and Alary walked through enormous ancient doors that instead of opening outside or inside, completely disappeared into nothingness.

Strange creatures crowded the enormous structure. Large spiders stood upon their numerous legs, human-looking beings eyed him with ease. They were blue, green, stripe-skinned, with horns, tails, duplicate eyes, and other features showing. Some head animal-like faces while others did not bear any markings or parts upon their heads at all. They were faceless, devoid of noses, mouths, and even eyes.

They all expectantly watched Alary and Alexander. The boy noticed a single girl waving at him, which caused him to feel warmth around his heart. It started beating loudly so loudly in fact, that Lexan felt the urge to scream at it to shut up. He felt a sting in his arm, and his heart quieted into a murmur.

Next to the girl stood a boy, also waving, happily. A spider next to the boy created flashed a myriad of colors with one of his legs, no, tentacles, which replaced a symbolic wave.

Everything around, Lexan noticed, was blurry. He could not focus his eyes on anyone else beside those three and Alary. Even as he looked around and tried to distinguish the strange creatures, he realized that he never saw all diversity, he inherently knew it.

Music started playing, distorted again.

“This must be a dream,” Alexander muttered to himself and then turned to Alary, “Alary, I will never you again. The real you is back on Earth. Everything is gone.”

“What?!” She asked in surprise and with that everything shattered and disappeared.

Once again, Lexan fell into the darkness of sleep and hibernation.

I

A hiss sounded pierced the total silence. Needles pressed tightly against Lexan’s skin from all around. The boy could hear Raki’s voice reverberate through his head.

“Do not move, Lexan. I am using an alien equivalent of acupuncture. A wrong move will cause you pain,” The world cleared and the haze dropped as the boy opened his eyes to see the professor making adjustments on some device, “It was actually us, Aetherals, this technique to the Earthlings.” Master Raki chuckled and the needles withdrew from Lexan’s body.

“Done. Now get up and let’s go eat. We have a lot of material to cover and we need to start right away. I also have a new suit for you,” Raki moved onto the central computer console in middle of the room which changed its texture to wood instead of metal.

“Should I take my suit off now?” the boy asked, his throat dry and voice raspy.

“In exactly fourteen minutes it will be six months, which is the required time. An alarm will sound at that time, “Master Raki abandoned the table and walked around the room. He took a box out of shelving that was not there before, “Put this on, it’s a new and better suit.”

Lexan opened the box and laid a silver suit in front of him. Its metallic sheen sparkled from the lights above. A thin monitor lined the forearm on top. More display screens lined the shoulders and the back. They seemed to be woven into the fabric and did not protrude in any way nor did they affect the thickness of the suit. A monitor on the chest read “A student in or before initial training” and then switched to a blue rectangle with “logo” written in the middle.

Dark circles lined the waist and the back meant to hold other pieces of the suit stored in the box.

Raki laid out the other pieces made of light metals onto the middle console. There were large rings, bracelets, lining, and a silver belt. All the items shared common patterned ridges.

“These fit on the suit. They will snap on automatically and -”

A loud beeping noise interrupted the man.

“Master Raki, please report to the cockpit. In Training student Alexander, please report to the dorsal turret.” Las announced.

“Lexan, put on the suit and get to the turret.” The man left and ran to the cockpit. The doors, strangely enough, absorbed him and then solidified again.

Slight vibrations shivered through the ship as the main thrusters powered on. The inertia inside the ship was unnoticeable.

The boy dismantled the metal suit he wore for some six month and suddenly flew into the air.

The artificial gravity seemed to have worked only with the suit. Lexan quietly swore and kicked off the ceiling toward the main room console. The weightlessness was amusing for a short while until he became nauseas and sought something to grab onto when the ship massively shook. The boy swayed harshly into a wall and his back cracked under the force of impact. Lexan winced and pushed off again toward his new suit.

Grabbing the suit, he grabbed the edge of the table just as the ship shook again. Waiting a few seconds as a precaution, Alexander finally put on the tight-fitted shimmering cloth. Lexan noticed the condition his body was in, top shape. He had aged, grown to have a swimmer’s body, lean and strong. He marveled at it as he pulled on the suit and noticed the gravity return once again. Next, Lexan finished the suit by putting on the arm bracelets and other parts as well as a silvery liquid that automatically nestled itself inside the suit.

“Please, put on the helmet, Lexan” Bran called out in a crystal clear voice.

The boy opened another box close by and took out the helmet which was of spherical shape with a ridged front with air intake. It looked like a motorcycle helmet and it was cushioned a similar way inside as well except that it had several needles protruding on the sides.

“Please put on the helmet,” Bran repeated and he placed the helmet carefully over his head, afraid of the needles, but felt nothing.

“During your hibernation, I was instructed to insert standard nano structures into your brain as well as standard interface slots. As of now, you can speak the galactic standard as if it was your native language.

“There are many other features which you can access with a single thought. Unfortunately, now is not the time to discuss this.”

 
“Where’s the turret?” Lexan asked and looked around for some kind of opening.

 
“Go to your cabin, there is an opening in the ceiling.”

He walked and opened the door. A small trapdoor above appeared. When Lexan touched it, it slid open and the floor below rose upward. The ceiling inside the “turret” was strangely low so that the boy had to half crawl toward a circular indent wherein a set of screens displayed various information.

A chair rose up from the floor and enveloped the boy. He found himself in space, he was still inside the turret but he was somehow outside, sitting on the smooth polished starship. His hands had become guns, enormous rail guns. He turned his head and the view shifted to the inside again.

“The turret view will adjust to your needs. I will initialize the standard protocol.” Once again, Lexan found himself in the outer space, but it was red. Clouds of red and red stars swirled all around along with three or four other starships that were actively circling the boy and the starship he stayed on, The Needle.

They attacked continuously but the power shields of The Needle held up very well. The vessels discharged concentrate beams of what looked like light. Some created purposeful rips in the space, it looked like, which siphoned energy into a black abyss.

“I see you are in the turret. This ship has a charge particle cannon and multi-dimensional pulse guns. I will put you on manual control in a second,” Raki spoke to Lexan. The boy instinctively touched a few of the screens surrounding him and guns rose from their grooves around him.

As the ships zoomed in and out of range, triangular markers encompassed them. The guns started expelling massive beams of energy. One of the pulses hit a propeller of an enemy fighter, which spiraled out of control. The fighter slowed down considerably and winked out of existence.

“Who are we fighting?” The boy asked the Master and swiveled around to track the remaining targets.

“They are most likely from the mercenaries from the Outlaw Alliance trying to disable our ship and sell it for parts. It’s a prototype and they’re probably going after that.” Lexan thought to himself questioningly at the word “Nethers” but before he could ask Master Raki anything about that Las announced that the outer shields are down and the Hull emergency shield will not hold for long.

“We need a boost or we’ll die,” Mt. Raki growled and the ship took a turn and accelerated. A low humming sound vibrated throughout the ship. It grew louder and louder with more beats joining in to form a pattern of a song. Lexan took a deep breath, feeling the music penetrate his body and invigorate him.

He closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them, the universe seemed to slow down. The enemy ships gave off a faint glow, a glow that extended forward, mapping out their course.

Lexan swiveled in the turret and started shooting aggressively, following the glowing lines backward toward the fighters. Within seconds, the ship imploded and once again, the ship disappeared into the glowing nothingness of the red space.

Two ships remained. Lexan turned toward them and decided to use the multi-dimensional pulse and see its effects. An extending opaque fabric of space extended and then collapsed into a swirling sphere. The sphere accelerated and hit one of the ships where, upon collision, it enveloped the fighter and crushed it, absorbing even the most aggressive eruptions caused by the engines. The other ship was unfortunate enough to be in the direct path of a shock wave that followed.

The music subsided with the shock wave that shook the ship. The chair leveled back onto the floor and the transparent walls of the turret solidified. Lexan yelled out in excitement with his arms held high. He took a breath and left to the main navigational room.

II

“We should start the first study session,” Mt Raki smiled and beckoned Alexander to sit down the next morning, “You probably have a lot of questions to ask, but before you ask, I'll catch you up to speed with our society and technology.”

Raki continued, “First you will learn the concept of the swift-space or as the youths call it nowadays, the Twister.” Raki moved onto the table computer and an image zoomed in on a holographic screen.

The picture resembled the Milky Way Galaxy but everything that was supposed to be black with darkness seemed to turn ablaze with a soft red glow. As if covered by a fog, all the stars were dim.

“This is swift-space.” Raki motioned towards the picture.

“Is that like hyperspace??” Lexan wondered at this mistranslation, remembering the mass of science fiction books he's read.

“Actually no, I’ll explain that later,” Raki stretched and sat down on a chair next to the console. He looked around the room thoughtfully once more.

“As you may know, there are many realities that co-exist with our own. Each reality has its own unique set of physical laws, matter, and whatever else. All the realities are contained within a set number of dimensions. Try to imagine these realities as if they were geometrical 2-d planes.” He snapped his fingers and the image of Swift-space disappeared only to be replaced by a new picture of large rectangles stacked on top of each other.

“This is our reality. See these planes coming together? They are dimensions. Our main physics theory states that these planes intersect at particular points to form different realities,” Another snap and the rectangles repositioned. They lost their solid form and turned into waves that
 
overlapped, “The theory is not this simple either. It involves other elements but just assume they work the way this model suggests.”

“The dimensional planes are infinite in size and thus create infinite realities. It is possible to travel through these planes to other universes.” Mt Raki snapped his fingers again and a dotted line traced the space between two dimensional overlaps, “Special devices are required to cross among the planes. The line represents a sort of a tunnel between two realities. Black holes, as I'm sure you know, enable such travel but they lead to planes of existence useless for any real purpose.

“Any questions so far?”

The boy stared at the screen, trying to grasp the information presented. Bran informed him that the information has already been stored in the nano structures in his brain. He would be able to access it at any time and understand it completely. Lexan decided to shake his head and stay quiet.

“Moving on, the special device that this ship uses, for example, creates a tunnel between our reality and the swift space. It's called a Multi-Dimensional Symmetry Engine but it usually goes by Sym drive. A fission of heavy anti-matter elements creates the pseudo-matter that occupies Swift-Space.

“Every universe is guided by a set of rules. If a rule is broken, an anomaly occurs to correct what is wrong. When the pseudo-matter is created, a wormhole opens into Swift-Space so that the pseudo-matter can escape. The Sym drive extends the wormhole to encompass the whole ship.”

Lexan nodded, once again assured by Bran that whenever the information will be needed, he could access it. The computer also explained to him that the more he uses the nano-structures, the easier it will be to use them for complete understanding of utterly alien subjects.

“The next thing you need to understand is that there are numerous high-intelligence species ruling this galaxy. First there are Shuns. They are humanoid, and actually, humans fall under this category. It is also the largest high intelligence group in the galaxy. Next there are Ritiels, which are amphibious creatures. They resemble lizards that stand on their hind legs. Lastly, there are Opiders which are basically large spiders. They are the smartest species in this galaxy.

“There are thousands upon thousands of different high intelligence species but these three are the largest and most identifiable groups.”

Master Raki continued talking about different aspects of the culture awaiting Lexan in the new world. Hours passed but Master Raki did not let up.