The Rising Sun: Episode 1

The Rising Sun

Clocks

BOOK ONE

J HAWK

Copyright
© 2014 J Hawk

“
ALL POWER LIES WITHIN”

- Swami
Vivekananda

EPISODE 1

The howling of
the winds rose over the air, casting an atmosphere of gloom over
it. The barren sands of the desert flowed forth in all four
directions, a never ending, lifeless expanse. The sand dunes
plunged and rose in a ruthless fashion, seeming to have a mind of
their own.

The world lay
blanketed in a deep, serene black. The night sky carried the
meanest tint of violet, a colour effected by the planet’s
atmospheric condition.

The cold wind
lashed at Zardin’s robes. His ink black cloak flapped wildly, but
the rest of his body stood as still as iron, a rigid sense of focus
clutching every nerve in it. The hood cast over his head covered
the upper half of his face, leaving darkness to shroud the other
half below. He stood as unmoven as a statue, with his stare
fastened on the scene directly ahead of him.

Less than a
mile from where he stood on the crest of a sand dune, a gigantic
structure lay sprawled over the desert’s barren floor. The
building’s lavish size would have dwarfed any ordinary city
structure. But at this distance, the majesty of its craft seemed to
wither: The giant structure was swallowed in the immenseness of the
vast desert around it.

All of this,
the details of Zardin’s surroundings and the scenery around him,
were delivered to him not through his
eyes
… but through his
mind
. His perfect instrument in knowing the world around
him…

He could hear
the sound of wind torn, flapping robes emit not only from his own,
but from right behind him. He turned slowly, gazing at the line of
four men standing right behind him. Covered in ink black cloaks and
hooded as he was, they stood as still as lamp posts. Their postures
emanating an unwavered sense of focus. Like Zardin, they too had
what looked like a thin black stick slung behind them.

A burning sense
of resolve seemed to fill the air around these five cloaked men who
stood in the middle of this colossal, lonely desert. Feeling sharp
teeth clench within his mouth, Zardin turned his cloaked head fully
to face the line of men right behind him.

“Men, you know
the plan.” he called, the iciness of his voice mingling with the
blank howl of the wind.

The foursome
returned a set of swift nods, the motion dampened slightly in the
darkness cast over their hoods. The men met Zardin’s stare
unflinching as he rested it over them for a brief second before
turning back around.

The structure
far out in the middle of the desert ahead of them was carved with a
fine elegance, no doubt an exquisite sense of grandeur afforded by
this planet’s government only for the highest of purposes.

Known as the
Mech laboratory, this was established by the King of this planet a
few years back. It had been built with the purpose of supplying the
planet’s government with a stream of technological innovations.
High end gadgets, gizmos and techno devices were manufactured here
in this facility, and handed over to the control of the
government.

But the science
born here was kept well guarded within the government: when
building it, the King and his council had decided for Mech
laboratory to be a well kept secret. It was, they deemed, a measure
necessary for the planet’s greater good: for this technology had to
be kept from falling to the wrong purposes.

And so, when
establishing it years back, the King and his council had decided to
have it built here. In the middle of the soulless Drylac desert,
away from the civilian eyes. And since then, they had kept the
existence of Mech labs a guarded secret.

Or they
thought they had…

Zardin felt a
smile liven his features beneath his hood’s dark shroud.

The five of
them had come here to obtain a certain object, a certain very
important object, from the building lying ahead of them in the
desert. And once they had, once they secured this precious artifact
they had come for … the wheels would be in motion. And the entire
world would stand by and watch helplessly.

Zardin let his
thoughts run over the plan for a few seconds. The workers inside
Mech’s facility were blissfully unaware of what awaited them. The
only concern enveloping them as of now, was a scheduled visit they
were expecting from the King and his council in a few minutes. They
were too busy anticipating the visit from their noble King to
realise that there was something slightly more deadly hurling
towards them…

Stroking his
other hand with a single, long fingernail, Zardin continued to
survey the building for a final moment. Then, he slowly turned
about fully, facing the line of men standing behind him.

“Brace
yourselves,” He ordered. His voice seemed honed to a hiss like
sharpness in the wheezing of the wind. “It’s time.”

__________

“So it just
detects…” Argos slowly lifted his eyes from the pen like device
held in his hand, and looked at the engineer. “Minerals? In the
earth?”

The engineer,
whose face showed a sign of brewing affront, raised an eyebrow.
“It’s a mineral detector. That’s what it’s supposed to do.”

“Don’t get me
wrong, it’s fantastic.” Argos lowered his eyes to the pen like
device, the mineral detector. “Just not nearly as fancy as some of
the other stuff you guys usually make - That was a compliment.” he
added hurriedly, catching sight of the indignance flaring in the
engineer’s face. “I meant you’re great at what you do.”

Without waiting
for a reply, he thumped the engineer on the back, pocketed the
mineral detector and walked off. He walked down the showroom,
pausing at the second most crowded desk. Another engineer clad in a
white suit was explaining the functioning of a device that promised
to be far more interesting than the mineral detector.

“- something
that takes technology to a whole new level,” the engineer was
saying, holding up a large disc like device. “And we in Mech are
truly proud to have this unveiled for the King this time. Picking
up mystical energy with the help of this device is -”

A greatly
intriguing new device. Which the laboratory had just brought out.
Argos felt a steadily growing daze as he listened to the engineer
describing it.

“… the device
can locate mystics standing within a radius of a few metres –” the
engineer was saying.

Argos gave up
trying to make reason out of what he was hearing. He turned to a
man by his side, who had also been listening to the unveiling of
this new innovation. “Let me get this straight: they’ve come up
with a device that can … locate
mystics?
”

“That’s right.”
replied the other, turning sideways to face Argos. “It has the
capacity to detect mystics through mystical energy fields. This is
a groundbreaking new innovation for locating mystics.”

Argos gave a
forced chuckle. “Locating mystics wouldn’t be such a good idea … It
might turn out to be the last thing you do.”

“Tell that to
the Naxim.” replied the man. “They’ve given us a huge order for
these devices. Shipments have already been made to some of the
closest planets.” He shrugged. “You can’t get enough anti mystic
security these days.”

Argos nodded.
“The Naxim have been dying for a device like this. A device to help
them with what they do. Wonder why though, seeing as they’ve almost
chased most mystics out of the inner spectrum.” He turned sideways
and walked off, adding in a low mutter, “And thank the heavens for
that.”

Mystics…

A shudder
passed Argos, who quickly muttered a prayer and drew his thoughts
elsewhere.

Mystics were a
class of men whose minds had transcended beyond the usual borders
known to man … thereby absorbing new potentials. New abilities.
Strange
abilities … Through their elevated state of mind,
they could command supernatural powers that defied the laws of
nature themselves.

But they were
the source of fear like nothing else…

This rare class
of men was the cause for great terror among the people in the
spectrum. Terror that had survived for ages now … and would
continue to haunt them evermore. For history had been shaped to
know mystics as nothing but evil, satanic creatures: they were
known to be responsible for wreaking anarchy and mayhem like
nothing else.

The Naxim was a
prominent anti terrorist organisation committed to hunting down
mystics. But even with their best efforts, which had carried forth
for ages, the Naxim had failed in erasing the deep rooted fear that
the world held for them. For that curse among the class of men
known as
mystics…

Argos emerged
into a long corridor outside the showroom, striding down it in a
quick pace. As he briskly stalked down the long passage, he
couldn’t help but feel a squirmish sensation at the base of his
stomach. As the manager of the securities for this building, these
were certain pressurizing instances he faced in his job. This was a
top secret facility, and on any ordinary day, nothing could be
allowed to go amiss. But on this particular day,
absolutely
nothing could be allowed to go amiss…

The King, the
executive head of the planet’s government, and his councilmen were
about to arrive here on a routine visit which they made once every
three months. On this routine visit, they inspected the gadgets
developed by the techno company, and made their plans for ordering
and distributing the new innovations for various government
purposes.

This was a day,
once in three months, that kept everyone in the facility slightly
on their nerves: It wasn’t everyday you had an audience with the
most powerful man in this state and his advisors. But Argos was the
one on whom the majority of the pressure fell on, for he was in
charge of the security enforced during the King’s visit.

Humming to
himself as he walked to cool his nerves, Argos exited the corridor
at its end and emerged into a vast, chamber like hall with desks
lined against its walls. The main hall was in the clutches of a
frantic buzz of activity. The workers were preparing the audience
with the King and the showcasing of the gadgets that Mech had
brought up. Men in coats and suits walked about in quick, dashy
paces, all of them busy talking to each other, or to someone in
their z-coms(The device used as the widespread mode of
communication).

The large
circular hall had a line of desks placed against the wall at one
end. Standing rigidly in a line in front of the wall on the right
were about two dozen robots, all of them crafted in the build of
men, with two arms, two legs, and a torso. Their heads looked
nothing more than helmets, with a large glass patch at the front.
They stood lined against the wall in unmoving attention postures,
all of them identical in their thin build and elegant metallic
finish. The Rash-cons were the typical robotic soldiers used in any
army or security force: made with an uncompromised intelligence
that defied even that of men, these were the standard force
employed for armies and security forces all over the spectrum.

“Argos, have
all security checks been completed?”

Argos wheeled
to face the source of the voice. Pan, the director of the
organisation stood behind him, dressed neatly in his best suit.

“Yeah, they
have.” replied Argos airily.

The carefree
tone didn’t go amiss: Pan tilted his head slightly, a scowl
narrowing across his brow. “Argos, this is the worst time for some
kind of goof to happen in our facility… in front of the King.”

“Oh, relax.
Nobody even knows this place exists.”

Pan’s scowl
deepened, and he opened his mouth to respond. But the next second,
a fierce beeping arose, laying waste to the retort he was building.
Digging into his left suit pocket, he withdrew a small metallic
device. He pressed a button on the z-com to answer the incoming
call.