by Cara Violet
Kaianan finally arrived at the street. Cars drove past her in waves of stop-start traffic, and to her disconcert, her pursuers kept coming. It wasn’t until she has crossed the street, reached the yellow dirt path and headed up a grassy slope that she felt she had gained time and space. And then that didn’t even last long –
“That way!” A voice shouted.
When she made it to the top of the slope, she heaved herself up over a metal fence and landed facing a massive, deep, bowl-like stage. The land went down diagonally toward the empty stage front, and panting, Kaianan had no idea where to next. It didn’t matter, she soon found her whole face pressed into the dirt and a heavy weight sinking into all the bones down her spine. She tried to kick and scream until a hard knock hit the back of her head and she was out cold.
Chapter Two: A Reintroduction
Thudding in her temple, spotty eyesight and a sore face pressed on cold concrete woke her.
“Kaianan, can you hear me?” someone asked. The fact that she heard them put a smile on her face.
“My hearing is still working,” she said, stumbling around the cold and confined space on her hands and knees before finding something solid. It was some sort of bed.
“Breathe softy; don’t move too quickly; the drug is escaping your body,” the voice said, and she frowned—who the holom was this? She jerked her head round in slight pain, and to what looked like the cell next to hers was the boy who had saved her, who pushed her through a Euclidean Vector, away from the Underworld, when she was last on Earth.
“Do you recall who I am?” he said, sitting on his concrete bed between the bars that separated their rooms, blinking.
Well, she wished she didn’t … did that count? He had appeared out of nowhere the night the Underworld had decided to assassinate her, a fully formed white and silver second skin of aura accommodating him, and somehow, he was able to throw her through a self-generated Euclidean Vector back to Rivalex, just in time… in time to –
“You told me my people were dying,” she said in angst, “how did you know that?”
The shadows covered most of his silhouette, but visible was his drawn, fragile face under long, strawy brown hair, possessing an expression of vagueness. His golden eyes had fallen to a slightly bloodied bandage loosely fitted around his bare abdomen.
“I said how did you know?”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied quietly.
“What? Because you sentenced them to death?”
“Keep your mouth shut if you know what’s good for you.” His eyes were narrowed, burning into her and she gulped in uneasiness, agreeing with herself to drop the line of questioning.
“Where are we?” she said, looking away from him. “Where’s Jax?”
“We’re in the Underworld lair, deep in the sewers,” he said unconcernedly. “In the dungeon cells, to be exact. Jax is fine, the Ministry got to him first.”
“What’s your name again?”
“I must have left an astounding first impression on you then…” Kaianan’s eyes went skyward at this. “.. it’s Arlise.”
She nodded and went back to her thoughts. “How did I end up in the middle of a preform crowd?” she said to herself. “There were thousands.”
“They have their ways,” Arlise said, intentionally answering her, “especially when a there is a large wane in the Siliou. They may have ensured only certain openings were available.”
Kaianan glowered at him. “I was being shot at. Small things were fired at me.”
“Bullets?”
“Yes, I think that’s what Jax said.” Was this what Xandou meant by technocentric? If it was, she wanted none of it.
“Really? Guns … But the Underworld don’t use guns … the Ministry …” he trailed off.
“What?”
“The Ministry does.”
“Well then, how am I here? If it was the Ministry after my neck?”
“I am not sure. Nor am I sure about what is going on.”
Kaianan wasn’t buying any of it. He knew a holom of a lot more than he was letting on and she could sense that in his wayward behaviour (he was also having extreme difficulty in hiding it).
It didn’t seem right, though, how could the Conductors lie so easily. Recalling what she had asked Jahzara, questioning the credibility of the Conductors. Would they open and close Euclidean Vectors to prevent harm to their planet? Or would they allow it to be invaded? Kaianan was certain the Conductors were controlled by the Felrin.
Which drew her to the conclusion: The Ministry of Earth had caught her and handed Kaianan over to the Underworld so she could be executed.
“Why, as the Earth Conductor and person aligned with the Ministry, would Rashid give me to the Underworld if he could get me a Vector out?” she said.
“Perhaps it was out of his control, perhaps the Underworld have started using guns, perhaps the Underworld were actually the ones that caught you? I don’t know.” Arlise replied, quickly.
“No, they were Ministry pursuers and you know it. Why would the Ministry hand me over to the Underworld? Why do they want me dead?”
“You’ve got it wrong, the Ministry of Earth would follow protocol, as much as I don’t agree with half of what the Felrin do, the Ministry of Earth would never do anything against Universal Order laws or policies. You’re an outerworlder, they won’t kill you, they have no jurisdiction to.”
“I killed one of their own. I turned him to stone first, and then he broke,” Kaianan admitted, “they have a right to kill me.”
Arlise sat quiet for a while, exhaling.
Kaianan readjusted her awkward sitting position to sit up on the bed, the death of the Underworld boy intoxicating her mind: the way he turned to stone, how he smashed to pieces on the ground, Julius’s shocked face.
“How are you feeling anyway, since my rescue mission?” Arlise said, changing the subject and clutching his black pants at his knees as he crossed his legs.
It took her a minute as she tried to get herself comfortable. “I’m tired,” she said flatly, caressing her sore neck. “… and overly confused as to why I’m here.”
“Well, everything happens for a reason.”
She didn’t believe that. Didn’t believe that smug look across his face either. This was the guy who opened up a Euclidean Vector to send her back to Rivalex. Why was he still sitting around in an Underworld dungeon cell?
“How have you not escaped?” she said. “Did you not open your own Vector to send me away? You’re a Conductor, right? Can you not open a Vector and get out of here?”
“I can’t conduct a Vector in this state, so why escape the cell,” he said pompously. “There would be no point in even trying. If I asked Rashid for a Vector, he’d say no due to the risk. And then I’d be stuck on Earth looking for an escape plan still half-dead.” He paused to cough. “Here, in the Underworld’s care, I can get sustenance and keep them thinking I can be used at some stage as leverage with Rashid. Although it’s been a while and I think they are beginning to realise I am not Rashid’s priority. They’ve been nabbing ministers instead – two new Ministers of Earth since your departure… both dead. Now that you’re here, I’m sure they’ve never been more excited.”
“Ministers, dead?”
“The Underworld are on the attack,” he said darkly. “They are doing everything in their power to get out.”
Now Arlise was stroking his hair and fidgeting with his fingers, sitting still obviously wasn’t his speciality.
“Why has it been like this?” Kaianan said confused. “Why don’t they have access to Euclidean Vectors?”
“I’m not sure, perhaps the Felrin Congress has its reasons.” He said as if in deep thought. “Your initial arrival sparked a chain reaction, now the Underworld have never been hungrier to Vector out.”
“Did I do this?” Kaianan said feeling guilty, “If I hadn’t come here, would this planet be better off?”
“I don’t think that at all, th
ere was civil unrest here between the Ministry of Earth and the Underworld for years. It will be a topic for the next election of the Universal Order no doubt. They wouldn’t want worlds internally fighting, that could eventually damage their reputation—” Arlise began coughing violently.
Kaianan grimaced when she saw blood drip from his mouth and he quickly wiped it up with his wrist and went back to stroking his hair.
“Are you okay?” she asked, staring at the bloody bandage around his abdomen.
“I need Felrin medicine to heal,” he said sluggishly. “I am slowly dying. No biggie.”
“Does it take fifty years or something?”
“Is this funny to you? And what’s with five hundred questions?” He raised his eyebrows.
“Well you got stabbed … but aren’t dead? You can see how this looks … a little satirical, yes.”
“Satirical?” something in his voice clicked and aggression took over. “How long have you been gone, Kaianan?”
“A few days …” she said, then Boku Jove crossed her mind, “Actually I don’t even know when I’ve come back.”
“I’m immortal, I turn and evolve extremely slow. Can your feeble mind comprehend that?”
Kaianan was baffled by his tone. “Who you calling feeble, skinny boy?”
He laughed, but it was more of a dangerous laughter than a natural one. Not impressed with his vulgarity, she lowered her eyes down and shook her head; with the shadows being overtaken by bright light streaming through the small crated windows, she ended up getting a full-blown look at his circular tribal like tattoos all over his chest and arms. She recalled his torso when he arrived at the station, the lines had been glowing in the light. “What do those … or that whole thing mean?” she blurted out.
He followed her eyesight and in a more relaxed voice said, “They are a pattern.”
“Of what?”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I’m just asking, I don’t know anything about you and you were the one who sent me back to Rivalex … I don’t know if I should be thanking you for allowing me to be there either.”
“No need to thank me, and…” he hesitated, “… this was a design on a ring I was given as a boy,” he exhaled. “It was given to me by my father, and then, I lost it. One day I woke up, my family was gone, the ring was gone and I was a captive with a less-than-civil people who froze me as I was. So here are the ramifications of that.” He pointed to the top of his tattooed chest that wasn’t full of blood or bandages. “And that’s it. That’s the whole story.”
Kaianan could see some form of feeling cross him, but she wasn’t certain; he seemed jovial. Arlise was becoming more and more of an enigma to her.
“I saw him alive just before I met you,” he said eagerly. “He wanted me to save you and I did. Do you know him?” Arlise searched her face for an answer. “Do you know my father, Dersji Brikin?”
“I’ve been asked that several times …” she said in heavy concentration. Julius was in her brain saying the same things, but there was nothing she knew about him or remembered ever meeting him, “… but no, I don’t believe I do.”
Arlise shrugged, looking disappointed. “He has a connection with you.”
Kaianan found that hard to believe. “Perhaps,” she replied, the same time a loud cry bellowed across the room. “Who is that?”
“They dragged a human boy in after you.” Arlise said.
“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me? Reddy?”
“Is – ‘at – you, – Kate?” Reddy’s voice was choppy and he sounded scared.
“Yes, Reddy, I’m in the cell across from you.”
Reddy sat up and to Kaianan’s horror she saw his face was badly injured.
“Those damn Seevaars,” she hissed, “are you okay?”
“What happened?” he asked groggily.
“This is only temporary; we will get you out of here in no time.”
“Where … where have you been? Where did you go? They told me you ran away.”
“Reddy … I can’t really explain …”
“I did everything Kate, I got rid of all my distractions … I concentrated on playing ball… and now I’m in a school program playing all the time.”
Kaianan beamed proudly. He seemed older… maybe… His hair fell a little bit longer around his face but the gap between his teeth was still visible. How long had passed? A few months? “That’s really lovely to hear,” she finally responded.
“But you weren’t there to see me get accepted, to play my first game. I was alone. Again.”
“I’m sorry, Reddy. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to share it with you.”
“That’s okay… I’ve missed you, Kate.”
She smiled through the bars at him. “Get to sleep, Reddy.”
He lay back down.
“You … kind-hearted?” Arlise said, suppressing a chuckle. “Would have never guessed you for more than a pretty face.”
She laughed and felt the heat fill her cheeks. “Shut up.”
Arlise’s head turned. A faint tapping caught Kaianan’s ears.
“Ah, my lady, you’re awake,” a deep voice spoke from the shadows. “Guards, bring her to the Realm Room.”
The door to her cell swung open and two black cloaked, preform Morphs entered. In her state, she was no match for them and was easily detained. They heaved her out of the cell. Arlise placed his finger to his lips symbolising silence. What did that mean? Should she be quiet? Not talk to them? Either way, there was a good possibility she’d be dead before she could say a word.
Chapter Three: The Quarter Summit
The quarter summit of the Universal Order drowned in noise. The Felrin Congress sat in black chairs in front of two hundred and fifty planet and star system representatives who had travelled to Felrin for the quarterly meeting.
“Lively bunch, aren’t they? There’s a Mark missing and here they all are. Farcry gone to their heads, I think.” General Aradar smirked around at the large Avalanche room, with its state-of-the-art slanted seating, accommodating all members of the Universal Order. The seven-foot-tall, bald-headed General raised his black eyebrows in jest at Principal Prudence.
“That’s our plight. We do this to keep them busy, to keep up appearances, and let them know we have everything under control, Aradar. You should know better,” she reprimanded, sitting to the right of him.
Aradar exchanged a flat look with her and turned back to the audience. A woman of few words, Prudence was, yet she still managed to intimidate. That power had certainly gone to her head, using Farcry as ‘keeping up appearances’? He sniggered at the thought. The irony was they all believed it. Felrin was always untouchable, what was one girl on the loose going to do against the greatest species in the universe? Not much. He could see her point. Best not to cause any alarm in the public when there wasn’t any.
Sitting to the right of Prudence were the remaining two Principals and the four of them were metres below the spectators.
Prudence clapped her hands together, “Now is not the time to be deliberating. You’ve had a fortnight to do that.” Her voice bounced around the room. She gathered her loose blonde curls behind her ears and continued, “I would trust you have enjoyed your stay, with the various entertainment and cuisine on offer. So now we must get down to business.” Her thin lips puckered up at the members. Her appearance was made all the more precise by the faultless pressing of her mauve tunic under her white chestplate. Aradar simply rolled his eyes at her.
Principal Ree leant across to her. “The smoke has risen, Prudence,” he whispered.
Pru regarded the ghostly-looking Principal to her right. Long, straight brown hair framed the doll-like porcelain face of Ree as he smirked back at her. She grimaced at him, clenched her fists and said, “With all the Holom-borne ideas in this room, I would gladly give direction to the Chimaera to bring them all to the ground.”
Ree’s smirk faded and he shifted unnervingly in his chair. He thought he was
callous, considering his approach of incarcerating as many citizens as he thought necessary, but no, she was definitely the one to watch out for. He gave a hard gaze to Aige who simply shrugged.
The room dimmed. “Universal members, I present to you the first prophecy that has unfortunately come to light.” Pru waved her hand and the white words burned into the blank wall behind the Principals.
The irreconcilable differences of race will be brought to justice,
Solely by an offspring bearing the Rivalex Mark.
The people will equate and prevail in a new universal order.
By the stroke of bright light,
The sacrifice will be revealed.
On that day of reckoning,
Hidden no longer the cracks to Holom’s door. BI
“The Rivalex Marked Identity has been released and the Period of Enlightenment has subsequently begun … But the threat will be contained—” She couldn’t finish, her voice overwhelmed by gasps around the room.
“I said silence!” Prudence called. “We have pledged our strongest galaxies in an allegiance to stop the Mark and they are on her tail, and the threat will be contained in due time. We now ask your assistance in finding her: if you locate her, alert us. That will allow us to apprehend her in a relatively speedy manner.”
The hundreds of ambassadors continued to grow loud and volatile.
“Silence!” she demanded once more. “We are ensuring your safety as soon as possible. There is absolutely nothing to fear because none of this will come to light—”
This time she was cut off by a voice from the furthest to the right of her. “Present the fear now Prudence, they are in contradiction,” Aige said. Red flames sparked in his blue eyes, and she could even see his ginger beard twitch around his mouth.
What premonition is he having now? She was irritated at the redhead’s abilities to see the volatile future. She cursed at the oldest Principal to sit on the board. Cursed his detached, freckle-faced expression, and cursed him trying to control her situation—which she clearly had control of. “Leave it to me, Aige.” Pru cast her hand over the projection of the first prophecy and it morphed to the words of the second:
