Jack James and the Call of the Tanakee (15 page)

“BEFORE YOU SET foot in the Discovery Room, you must put on your body armor,” insisted Rory, one of the Eteean lab chiefs. She ushered Argus and Jack to the center of a small buzz of activity. Technicians scurrying about. Computer readouts blinking in midair.

“What body armor?” wearing nothing but a towel, Jack searched for a rack of suits, some hangers with clothes draped over them, something. All he saw was Rory in her sterile white, smiling, holding an eye dropper.

“
This
body armor,” she squeezed a globule of black liquid onto Jack’s wrist, and then placed one on Argus’s. Instantly, the darkness spread. Up Jack’s arm, across his shoulders and down his chest to his toes, pushing the towel off his waist and creating a tightfitting outer coating over his skin. Jack’s lungs constricted. He felt a sense of suffocation.

“Just relax,” Rory advised him. “It goes on and shapes to your body automatically.”

 In a matter of seconds he was covered neck to feet with the strange substance. Not a liquid after all, but not a solid either. He imagined it was going to be uncomfortable. Body armor sounds so bulky and restricting. Yet this stuff wasn’t stiff or awkward in any way. He liked that it was black, and the thin channels of light pulsing in peculiar patterns up the legs, arms and chest gave him the feeling of wearing an Eteea machine.

“Try the helmet,” Rory suggested.

“The helmet?” Jack said, and the second he said it, the black substance ran up the back of his neck and enveloped his whole head except for his mouth. He thought he’d be rendered sightless, but it was quite the opposite. His vision seemed enhanced with brighter colors and more distinct contrasts.

“Look at you, Jackie Boy,” Argus grinned mockingly. “Now you’re looking like a real Eteean!”

Jack shook his head. Then his eyes felt like they bulged from their sockets when Amelia showed up from the girls’ fitting area, sporting her snug one-piece, the sleek lines blending nicely with her slender physique. It was the first time Jack really noticed Amelia had a feminine shape. He blinked and felt his face becoming red, heart fluttering like a hummingbird.

“Amelia!” Argus gasped. “You look…you look amazing!”

Jack glared at him.
He
wanted to say that.

“What?” Argus glanced at Jack and shrugged.

“Nothing,” Jack said, then turned the topic back to the suits. “What
is
this stuff?”

“Bioengineering,” Argus answered. Jack’s memory flashed to the first moment he laid eyes on Argus, back at Teresa’s house, when he thought the kid was a bad guy. He still wasn’t too sure.

“Bioengineering?” Jack directed his question at Rory. “You mean this stuff was engineered by mimicking nature? It feels so…” he moved his arms, admiring the freedom and flexibility. “It’s as light as a feather.”

“Yeah,” Amelia laughed. “Doesn’t even feel like I have anything on.”

“It’s neovestis,” Rory said matter-of-factly.

“Neovestis? What’s that?”

Rory snickered.

“I keep forgetting you guys just got here. I’ve been living here so long, it all seems like old hat. This material has been synthesized and patterned after the shell of a longhorn cowfish and the slime of a hagfish.”

“Fish?” Amelia glanced at the suit again.

“Sure.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, brushing the suit with his palm. “I remember reading about this kind of thing before. Using nature for inspiration for tougher, better body armor—”

“And lighter aircraft, and more flexible, durable materials. We’ve bio-engineered all kinds of other technologies.”

“Like what?”

Rory smiled.

“You have a lot to learn yet. I know. I remember when I first was introduced to the
real
world, not the fake one the Nagas want us to see,” she shook her head. “It’s a shock, learning just how advanced human technology really is. Hidden lunar and undersea colonies. Invisible aircraft over the major cities. It’s remarkable.”

“What?” Jack was stunned. “I thought it was just the Eteea machines.”

“Oh, no. Not at all. It just begins with the Eteea machines. Those machines represent an even higher level of our technological evolution. They’re more than just machines, as you and your friends have found.”

“So come on! Let’s go and find out what they can do!” Argus led them through a short passageway into a larger area, much like a gymnasium. Only this gym had no basketball hoops, no wooden court, no grandstands. It did have some of the most ingenious things—mazes made of beams of light on the ground and in the air resembling a mishmash of trapeze wires in a futuristic circus tent. Jack was mesmerized for a moment as Argus hurried to the far wall where an open cabinet seemed to shimmer with life.

The closer Jack looked, the more he realized he was looking at a sort of weapons locker, and inside were several Eteea machines, one of them the O/A.

“Hey! What are these doing here?”

“The Eteean staff brought them in here for us,” answered Amelia, and Jack went to pluck up his machine, but Argus got in his way, taking it for himself.

“Uh-uh,” he shook his finger. “Remember? This is
my
machine, now.”

“Jack, here,” Amelia pointed to a machine with an amber glow. “Your dad said you should use this one.”

He held the device in his hand and felt the awesome power of the multiverse. The connection was instantaneous, and, though the machine seemed less powerful than the O/A, he knew it would work. The things he could do. He’d show them who was best at operating these machines.

The mazes suspended above them started to make sense. The passages of light. The spinning objects and the intersecting tracks. It was an obstacle course, and Jack prepared to run it, but before he got started, Amelia took a machine in her hands and it flared up with a rosy hue. Jack could see right away she needed help. Problem was, Argus saw it too.

“It’s okay,” Argus edged close and held her hands as she handled the machine. “You can feel how strong it is, can’t you?”

“Yeah,” she said breathlessly. “Jack, this is amazing. You never told me how this feels.”

Jack was about to tell her to hold on because the feeling would only become more intense after she actually achieved omnidimensional energy absorption. Argus, as usual, beat him to the punch.

“Just wait,” he said. “It gets better. Now press and hold.”

She hesitated for a moment, saving a special glance for Jack. Then she did as Argus instructed, holding her palm on the machine. Whistling. Chirping. Churning. An internal lightning storm. Her machine powered up rapidly, and Jack saw a familiar sight. Duplicates of Amelia. Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, merging into her one after the other, so fast it was a blur. When it was all over, Amelia glistened with ethereal energy.

“Oh my…oh my…” she looked at her hands, watching the slight trail of duplicates follow her movements. “This is so weird!”

“Okay,” Argus nodded. “You’ve done it. Maximum power absorption. Good job. Now we can use this facility for what it was intended. We call this the Discovery Room for a reason—to discover our Eteea machines. So, Amelia…discover away!”

She seemed mystified.

“I-I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s easy,” Jack seized his chance to help. “Just think it, and it will happen.”

“Yeah, watch,” Argus pressed the O/A and an instant translucent globe appeared around him, lifting him off the floor five, ten, twenty feet. “Come on up, the air’s fine!”

With a giggle, Amelia closed her eyes, then had to open them again quickly when her own pinkish sphere popped into place, surrounding her and taking her up. Soon she was hovering at the same altitude as Argus, and together they began to follow the light maze in a series of twists and turns, climbs and dives. Faster and faster they flew, spinning and circling each other as they went.

All Jack could do was watch, feeling a bit more dejected with each squeal of glee from Amelia, each self-assured chuckle from Argus. And it didn’t help that the two were doing so well they began to attract attention. Starting with Rory, one person after the next filed in—lab technicians in sleek white smocks, soldiers in sturdy, solid body armor—all to see the kids strut their stuff. The crowd oohed and aahed at the mid-flight spectacle of speed and agility. Everyone but Jack. He just wanted it to end.

“Jack, did you see me?” Amelia was at his side all of a sudden. “I’m really getting the hand of this Eteea machine stuff.”

“Yeah. Congratulations,” he glanced at the machine in his hand. Powerful, yes. But not nearly as potent as the O/A. He wanted
his
machine back.

“Oh, Jackie Boy,” Argus sped so fast to Amelia’s side it was basically instantaneous. “Don’t be that way. We can be—whoa!” he reacted to Amelia as she powered down her machine and nearly toppled over from the sudden energy loss. Jack knew the feeling well. He also knew Argus had powered down too, which presented Jack the perfect chance to snatch the O/A from him.

“That’s mine!” Jack struggled with him for control of the machine. Argus stayed calm and cool, but Jack could see him straining too. Both boys fell down, sending the weapons rolling on the floor. Amelia shrieked, then Jack saw several streaks of color, brown and orange and silver and white. Suddenly, all five Tanakee stood around them, and they pulled the two boys apart.

“Stop it!” Takota ordered. “Didn’t you hear a word the commander said? We can’t fight each other!”

“You’re just protecting
him
!” Jack accused Takota.

“Jack, that’s not true,” Takota’s eyes filled with grief.

“It
is
true,” Argus stood, wiping off and straightening his uniform. “Takota, you’re
my
protector now, got it? Mine!”

Takota sighed, ambling closer to Argus and letting his sorrowful stare drift to Jack.

“I can’t let you touch him, Jack,” he said. “Argus is right.”

“What’s going on in here?” Commander Klein, escorted by a pair of bodyguards, made a hasty entrance into the Discovery Room, scrutinizing the fallen Eteea machines.

“He thinks he still gets to use the O/A,” Argus told him.

The commander gave Jack an agitated smile.

“Listen, Jack. I know this might be a little hard to take, but you’ll understand why I put Argus in charge when the time comes,” he pointed to the other Eteea machines. “And you get a machine, just not the most powerful one. That goes to the True Soul.”

“But, my dad made it…for me,” Jack sniffled.

“He
did
make it,” Commander Klein said. “But not for you. Now, we’ve gone through a lot of trouble to find the other machines, and your father has been working very hard to get them running again. For you. For all of us.”

“But what about Takota? He’s my friend. My protector.”

SEVENTEEN

IN THE ROOM CALLED the Connections Center, which looked like a giant circular auditorium, Jack was stricken by the amazing technology which, to the commander’s staff and other personnel, was commonplace. Jack had gotten used to holographic monitors and sleek, simple control panels with no physical buttons to press or wires to plug in, but only in his dad’s tiny lab. This room was like taking Ben’s ideas and equipment then blowing it up to a massive scale. Dozens of reclining chairs, much like that in a theater, arraigned in circles, faced a large display in the center, with several suspended, holographic monitors showing various locales around the globe.

Amelia sought Jack out and placed herself in the neighboring seat. He wanted to move, but his mom and dad boxed him in. The Tanakee were there too, though at that moment Jack felt all alone.

“Thank you for your attention, everyone,” the commander said. “I’m going to cut to the chase, because we don’t have any time to waste. To tell you about the situation as we know it, let me introduce Doctor Jonathon Hutchinson.”

Hutchinson, a tall, thin man with an angular nose and long, windswept silver hair, nodded.

“Thank you, Commander. We owe you and your team a debt of gratitude. Without your small but dedicated group, I dare say the Earth and the human race would’ve had their fates sealed long, long ago.”

He swished his arm and a large, holographic display showed open space, thousands of stars and several constellations. The doctor swirled his finger at the display and it turned to a three-dimensional series of scaffolds made of nebulous light and cloudy, thin filaments. It seemed almost like a computer animation of the arteries and veins and capillaries in a human body. Only this wasn’t a human body. It was the universe, webbing surrounding and interconnecting everything. A massive network of cells with charged synapses at every junction, the stars acting as firing mechanisms, the points of connection.

“Scientists have long postulated there is much more to the universe than our limited perceptions can detect. Only through keen observation, using what little we understand, the astrophysical community has begun to measure what is called Dark Matter, which is actually the internal substructure, the core that binds and connects and holds the universe together. We’ve told the public very little about Dark Matter, only enough to satiate the masses, actually. One thing we’ve told them is that Dark Matter is a theory, and even if true, it’s just an inanimate force, an uncaring, unfeeling, non-sentient entity. But we know better. We know Dark Matter is alive, and we know it’s…Eteea.”

Jack was beyond bewilderment. He searched the other puzzled faces in hopes someone might have known what the heck was going on. A general murmur signified the overall confusion in the group. The only one who didn’t seem perplexed was Argus, who watched with keen interest. And when the lecture stalled, he prompted the doctor with a question.

“Doctor? If Eteea is Dark Matter, then what do we have to be afraid of?”

“We don’t have anything to fear from Dark Matter, or Eteea, at all. It’s a benevolent force. It confirms the theory of quantum connectivity, really. It also confirms what has been written in religious texts all over the world. It’s truly a remarkable thing, Eteea. It’s both scientific
and
spiritual. Both logical and fantastical. Truly a miracle. But it’s not infallible, as we’ve witnessed recently.”

He swept his arm again, and the screen zoomed out of the Milky Way, then veered in another direction, past several other galaxies, further and further into the remote reaches of space until it came upon a system of planets shrouded in a lavender nebulous cloud and revolving around a red giant. Immediately Jack recognized it as the La’oon system. He locked eyes with Takota. Takota nodded slowly. Amelia must have realized what it was too. She gasped and squeezed Jack’s hand.

Jack stood.

“I know this place. This is where the La’oonians live.”

“Who?” the doctor looked confused. Argus sat straighter, and the commander perked up as well.

“What’re you talking about, Jack?” his mom asked. “How do you know?”

“Because I was there,” he indicated the small, shimmering planet. “Right there! We both were,” he gestured to Takota. “Takota and I.”

“What?” Liz raised her voice. “When did this happen? Are you teleporting to other galaxies without asking your mother first?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose. The O/A started up on its own and just took us there,” he pointed at the hologram. “To that very place,” he felt terrible suddenly. “We saw it all. So much destruction. So much death.”

As he spoke, the live action occurred right before his eyes in stunning 3D and bright, crisp color. Just as he’d seen before when the O/A lifted him and Takota away from the alien world at the last second, he once again saw the La’oonian home planet bombarded by several larger ones. A collision of such immense magnitude, so destructive, so bright, even the display had a hard time showing it, fading and fragmenting as the celestial bodies broke apart, consumed by a dark, sinister presence of unparalleled proportions.

“That’s what we saw,” Jack lowered his head.

“This,” the doctor cast a suspicious look at Jack, then continued. “Is what we’re facing, what our own galaxy is facing. Total and complete destruction. An extinction event to end all extinction events. After this, there is no more. No more anything. No more universe, at least not the way we know it. Something will take its place,” the doctor swished his hand and the screen focused in on the dark void. “For as long as we in the scientific community have known about Eteea, we’ve also had knowledge of its exact opposite, its mortal enemy, if you will. This savage force exists only for one thing: to destroy, to consume, and transform everything in its path into bleak desolation. The public knows it as Dark Energy. But we know its real name—”

“Essinis,” said Cheyton. The Tanakee shuddered at the very word. So did Jack, and he felt Amelia’s trembling hand. Not Argus, though. As everyone else shifted and mumbled, Argus stared at the animated loop of the La’oonian planet’s destruction, almost with a smug satisfaction.

“Correct,” Doctor Hutchinson confirmed Cheyton’s assertion. “Essinis. We’ve been tracking this menace for a long time. For centuries, astrologers, and then astronomers have been aware of Essinis and its effects on the universe. It’s tearing apart everything in its path and, soon, it will reach us and destroy all that we know.”

“But this system is millions of light years away,” Ben said.

“Billions, actually,” corrected the doctor.

“Okay, billions. Even better,” continued Ben. “It’ll take trillions of years to get here. Why are we so concerned about this now?”

“Under the normal laws of physics, I would agree with you. But this is far from a normal circumstance. Essinis is growing faster. Its size is increasing exponentially. At first, we had no cause to worry. Now that we’ve recalculated its rate of growth and its trajectory, we’ve come to the conclusion it will reach us much sooner than we first thought.”

“How soon?” Ben’s face went blank. Jack had never seen him so serious.

Doctor Hutchinson breathed heavily and glanced at Commander Klein. The commander nodded, and the doctor continued.

“Within two weeks.”

“Two weeks!” Ben stood quickly. “That’s not enough time!”

Jack’s stomach butterflies made another frantic appearance.

“What are we going to do? I’ve seen how powerful Essinis can be. Look at it. It eats planets. It destroys galaxies. I tried to fight it,” he motioned to Takota. “We tried to fight it. I’m sorry, but even as powerful as Argus is, and as much ability as Amelia has, and as good as the Tanakee are, we’ll never be able to overcome it, especially with the Nagas breathing down our necks.”

“That’s why
I’m
here,” Argus stood and puffed his chest. “If it were me, I wouldn’t have failed the La’oonians. Their home world wouldn’t have been destroyed.”

“Argus!” Amelia chastised him. “That wasn’t nice.”

“I’m just telling the truth.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jack tried hard to keep his anger in check. “You have no clue. There were Eteea warriors in that galaxy at one time, but when Takota and I were brought there, they were all gone. All except for one. And she’d lost her protector. Essinis was all over them. It was fast, and powerful, and there was no stopping it.”

“I’m not afraid of Essinis,” Argus waved his hand dismissively. “None of us should be afraid of it. We’ll be fine,” he had a misplaced confidence, and Jack knew that would be his undoing.

“You just don’t know,” Jack brooded.

“I
do
know,” Argus’s eyes brightened, and, at the same time, darkened. It was the strangest thing, and it felt like nobody else saw it but Jack. “I know all about Essinis, and I know it won’t be a problem.”

“It won’t be a problem once we finally locate all the Children,” added the commander.

“You mean the Children of the Blue Crystal?” asked Amelia.

Her father nodded.

“That’s our next step, to bring them here, under the safekeeping of the Eteeans,” he faced the Tanakee. “And it’s imperative that we pair up each child with his or her protector. We can’t even try to make a move until all the Tanakee have been located.”

“How did you locate them before?” Amelia asked. “How did you locate Jack and Takota? And Argus?”

The commander clenched his jaw and took a deep breath, staring at his daughter silently.

“What?” she asked again, this time more forcefully. “Why won’t you tell me how you found them?”

“You mean you don’t know?” Argus chuckled. “Commander Klein? You haven’t told Amelia yet?”

The commander rumpled his brow at the boy. Jack felt as apprehensive as Amelia looked.

“We don’t need to divulge every detail,” said the commander.

“Why not?” Argus prodded. “You told me you were proud of your daughter. That she’d already been a tremendous help to the Eteeans.”

“But I just got here,” she alternated her stare between her father and Argus. “How could I have helped with anything?”

“Listen, Amelia, we—”

Her dad begun to explain, but Argus, in his usual arrogant and inconsiderate way, butted in.

“He’s been using your abilities all this time,” he crossed his arms, smiling that arrogant smile of his. “Listening to you while you were asleep. Hypnotizing you without you knowing it. Tapping into your Eteea powers using technology you haven’t even heard of. That’s how he found Jack. That’s how he found me!”

Amelia gathered a short, rapid breath, her lips pursed, her jaw clenched.

“You did
what!
”

Her father squeezed her elbows.

“Don’t be angry, honey,” he both begged and seemed to command her at the same time. “It was the best way, the only way to utilize your aptitudes for the mission status to be a success.”

“Utilize my aptitudes?” she twisted away. “Mission status? I’m not some piece of military hardware! I’m a person, with feelings and emotions and…I’m your daughter!”

“Now, Amelia,” her dad took a careful step in her direction.

“
No!
” she burst from his advance, spun on both heels, and stormed out, her long hair whipping in a frenzy, her eyes aglow with rage. Jack wanted badly to comfort her, but the look on her face filled him with such fright he had to stop and take a quick breath. Never, ever, had he seen her so angry. She sprinted through the exit membrane, disappearing behind a film of iridescent fizzles and sparks.