Forge Kin

by Jason Melzer

  Listening, the softly distorted voice that came up was firm. “What are you doing here? If the Davon find you they might execute some of my people on the prison ship!” Tolan spoke up as I suddenly felt a little colder in my suit. “We are apprentices of the forge. I was sent here so I could serve and help Ocelia.” The figure cut Tolan off. “It would take more than a sentinel world to save us. Find another world to serve and leave us to live.”

  Link switched on the lights on his head and I watched him observe the ferns scattered in the streets. Looking at the unkempt buildings many showed rot and damage from the elements. But on the road were large rocks as Link tapped one breaking it to reveal skin. A drone quickly repaired the damage heaping dirt onto the break and fusing it shut with some kind of spray. Looking around I realized all of the rocks looked like stone people.

  Spread across the road the hundreds of rocks shocked me as the ghost rebuked Link. “You robot, leave the dead to sleep.” Two young spectral children emerged from among the ferns playing before seeing me. As they approached one called to me. “Would you like to play with us?” Looking closer to them they were somewhat different than Tolan being darker but the same in body shape.

  The Same child asked me another question. “Can I see your face better? It’s hard to see you in the space suit.” Reaching around and turning off my space suit Link knocked a few of the drones back before catching a dart in his palm. Chip turned on my space suit as Link held up the dart and spoke to all of us. “This is why you do not turn off your space suits. The drones will put you in stasis if they tag you with one of these. Until this world is fixed those suits stay on.”

  Watching Link put the dart away in his chest storage compartment I pushed away the embarrassment. The two children still wanted to play as their reflections drew my attention to a large puddle in the road. Walking over towards it I looked for life in it as I listened to the ghost that approached us. “You need to leave before you are found.” Tolan answered her.

  “I am Tolan Torah of the reef world Shoal and these are Preti and Simran Singh of the planet Earth. Who are you?” The Pontu was silent as I saw a ripple form in the edges of the puddle. It happened again with another ripple drawing my eyes before I turned to touch Links leg. “I am Suntrah Tesila captain of the sentinel world Ocelia.” Tolan couldn’t hide his surprise. “Sentinel world? Do the Davon have control of your armories?”

  Links hand touched my shoulder before his cold metal finger dipped into the water. A ripple again formed on the edges of the puddle as Suntrah had mourning in her voice. “Most of the bigger weapons are gone and lost in far off wars. Our lives are still a shield against our rescue.” Turning back to my guide he held a finger up in front of his face motioning for quiet as Tolan asked another question. “Can people in stasis be moved with portals from other worlds?”

  Glitch replied. “Emergency support could but you would need a lot of worlds to do that quickly. The population here is fifteen million. You would need to use hundreds of reef worlds for a ten minute evacuation window.” My sister crouched by my side touching the rock next to me as Tolan planned it out. “We can portal Ocelia to Ponris. It has over a thousand worlds that can transport and defend us.”

  Chip pulled my sister away from the rock as he chimed in. “Portal systems are encrypted. The Davon will know if we unencrypt them. We need to deal with the stasis protocols before we can go to Ponris.” I looked over to a ghost child lighting up the puddle with a finger as Suntrah lamented. “To release us from the survival programming you need to restart the main power. But many will wake up vulnerable and without our keys. Rescue could not track us.”

  Turning away from the pale children I looked back to Suntrah who looked lost. Standing up with the group I remembered learning on Shoal that the schools connected to the people’s implants. Breaking the silence Suntrah looked over to me blankly. “The school system connects with your implants when needed? Can’t you just connect everyone for an update and broadcast their locations?” Suntrah’s eyes went wide as Glitch answered.

  “The education system is perfectly accessible and a secondary system. We could mask the intelligence gathering while we move Ocelia.” Hearing a crash far off in the mist Link stood next to me as he called out to the others. “I have just detected a radio tracker activate. There is a large mass approaching.” Suntrah looked down the foggy street with worried words. “Turn off your radio’s. If the Davon find us they will kill us all.” Everything went silent as Link touched something on my back pack and the ghosts started to spread out.

  Suntrah lead us through the mist as I felt the ground shake between my breaths. Two crowded streets over we arrived at a building smaller than the others along the road. Part of the roof top was collapsed into the street but the front was still intact as we passed the various statues on the way inside. Leading us down the stairs into a basement the stone forms inside meant we weren’t alone. Behind us Glitch closed a steel set of rolling doors as I took a seat on a bench.

  Preti and Tolan sat quietly next to me. Looking to movement at the doors they were opened by drones projecting the two ghost children we met earlier. Glitch again closed the doors and the shaking feeling loosened dust from the ceiling. The heavy thumps that shook the ground passed becoming weaker. Finally stopping I saw our guide’s body language while talking to Suntrah as I waited in the quiet. In the silence the children waved for me to watch them before they started to show me a game.

  I couldn’t hear them but I watched one tag the other and run as the first closed his eyes and spoke. They were playing a game of hide and seek like I did when I was younger. How different could they really be if they play the same games as humans and cared for their children in families? Were the Pontu’s biggest differences just their investments in knowledge?

  Link took me out of my thoughts for a moment as he tapped my arm and reached into his chest storage compartment. Pushing the tag he caught earlier to one side he pulled out a flat panel and plugged it into a socket in his chest. The panel lit up and words scrolled across the screen as Link communicated with me. ‘We have decided that the sun must be turned off to reboot Ocelia’s power plant and reset this worlds programming.’

  Nodding that I understood him the words kept scrolling across the screen. ‘Each apprentice has been given a job. Yours is to turn off the sun and turn it back on. Do you remember how to do it?’ The words yes and no appeared on the screen and I touched the yes button. Link nodded back to me as he continued to scroll words across the screen. ‘After you turn on the sun you will get further orders that I will expect you to follow. Do you understand?’

  Hitting the yes button more words continued crossing his screen. ‘We are going to wait for Suntrah to return with items for the mission. Preti will help steal a ship full of prisoners and Tolan will be rebuilding the medical node. You will be going solo in your mission but I will able to talk to you if you need help. Do you understand?’ Nodding to Link I looked back to the spectral children who finished their game with one finding the other.

  Suntrah got up walking towards the door of the basement. Link again touched my arm showing me the screen with words scrolling across it. I felt hungry as I read it. ‘It would be best for you to sleep right now. I will wake you up when it is time to go.’ I wasn’t very tired as my stomach growled while I found myself laying on a flat and uncomfortable part of the floor.

  Next to my sister who was already asleep I took her hand for a moment and closed my eyes. Opening them the ghostly children came to my side before lying down next to me. I didn’t know if I should be happy that they were smiling at me or nervous as I finally yawned tiredly. What would Terminus say to me tonight? Would I get to build a world again or would there be something else to do? Hungrily I closed my eyes as my mind kept busy thinking of my adventures on Koleas and on Tychod.

  My thoughts fell back to Listal and Tolajh where I had been slow and they had paid for it. It seemed somehow wrong that I would fix their problems but l
eave them to die. Like I had cast them into oblivion. It seemed evil as my thoughts stopped racing and I opened my eyes. Looking up I found two figures stood with me. Listal was tall enough to nearly touch the ceiling and Tolajh leaned over the side of my face talking. “Why do you think she feels guilty?”

  Listal noticed my eyes responding happily. “Good night young one. I hope you are ready for a walk.” Taking Listal’s hand she pulled me up to see the room was empty except for us. Leading excitedly to the door and waving for me to follow Tolajh called from the stairs ahead. “Try and keep up with this!” Following him to the misty street my world from past dreams was floating above us.

  Looking up to it I turned back to see Listal and Tolajh welcome a man who looked up at the world as he joined us. “This is a beautiful start to a world Simran. But I think you can finish it before you wake up.” Looking up with him I saw three smaller worlds floating next to my reef world. Grandpa touched my shoulder for a moment and I looked back to him as his kind voice carried in my dream. “Do you know what makes me most proud?”

  Turning around to him I wished that I had his wisdom as he continued. “I had a long time to make beautiful things in my life. It made me happy when I shared them with my family. My lesson for today is one Gandhi taught me. Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony. Why do you seem unhappy Simran?” Not sure what to say tears streamed down my cheeks as the old man hugged me for a moment.

  With a pitiful voice I answered him. “It’s just Listal and Tolajh died on my apprenticeship. They were good to me and I left them to die when they kept me alive.” Listal placed a hand on my shoulder and Tolajh put one on my leg and my burden fell away. Grandpa pulled out of the hug to kneel down and look me in the eyes with a question. “So how can we keep their memories alive with your good heart? How can your thoughts, voice and actions be in harmony?” Sniffing I looked down for a second unsure.

  The thought crossed my mind in the quiet before I looked at the world above with an answer. “I can name cities after them so people will know them. I can keep their memories alive with this hope and dream.” Grandpa let go as I rose to the world and he called up to me. “I knew you could you could keep their memories alive and find peace. I see in you a festival of flame my dear one.”

  Looking back down Grandpa stood with Listal and Tolajh watching me. Reaching up I called back “Listal. This great city is named for you!” Touching the face of the world the point of the world was marked with a golden ‘X’. I reached over to a second point on the other side of the reef world. “Tolajh. This great city will be named for you!” Another golden ‘X’ appeared as it moved with the face of the world.

  Seeing Grandpa still I called to him last. “Thank you for being with me grandpa. I will plant you a forest like the one you grew up in right here.” Touching the surface again another golden x marked the world as the voice of Terminus came from behind. My loved ones disappeared as I looked to them discovering I was alone. Following the voice the sphere was behind me in the mist among the city ruins. Quiet war machines were fallen before the sphere as it spoke to me.

  “Now that you have quenched with fire it is time to breathe into this form the breath of life and quench this world’s thirst.” Turning to three worlds floating next to my ring I touched a large blue world covered in clouds. Touching spots inside of the ring of my world I watched blue atmosphere spread from portal doors. When the portal doors disappeared I touched the red colored world and again touched its atmosphere.

  The red and blue air formed small storms making the sky dark and foreboding. I looked last to an orange world covered in clouds with rings around it. Touching it I began to open doors to the atmosphere of my world before the red and blue murk began to disappear with white rain clouds filling the skies. I watched lightening and rain fall to the world below as the skies looked just like Earth’s. “Now my apprentice you must polish and beautify your creation with life.”

  Asteroids surrounded me before I touched one to see it disappear. Seeing light on the world I watched as rocky soil dropped from a portal door onto the face of my world. Looking for more I touched every asteroid that appeared before watching for the land to fall into place. Looking to the appearance of a new world I saw Earth as it showed my home of India. In shock I started to shiver.

  Looking to the other worlds I recognized Venus, Saturn and Neptune, before looking back to Earth. Reaching for it India rushed past me and I opened my eyes again on a foreign world. I was the last to get up as Tolan was gone and Preti stood by the basement door. Link sat by my side before noticing me get up. As Link got up he reached for my arm and helped pull me up from the dusty ground.

  Link again held up the screen as words began to scroll across it. ‘Suntrah has returned with what we needed. The Davon seem to have left the area so our mission can start now. Tolan has left for the maintenance forge already and we will now leave for the prison ship. Are you ready for your mission?’ Reaching and hitting the ‘yes’ button Link was patient as the words kept scrolling across his screen.

  ‘From the portal station you will go into space to restart the sun. I have given all of you plasma shields and portal upgrades to your armguards to help in your defense. I will help your sister save lives and Tolan will save Ocelia.’ Link asked if I understood and I hit the ‘yes’ button before walking to Suntrah and my sister at the door. I was uncomfortable with the quiet as we left the building walking into the thick fog of day.

  The ghost children were playing their games out on the streets before waving to me as we passed them. I waved back before looking closely at my left armguard and the new equipment on it. Moments passed and Link pointed out a large doorway that looked like a gate in the road. Chip started accessing its holographic terminal as Glitch emerged from the fog without Tolan. I would not be the only one who was alone for the mission.

  Looking to my older sister she kept a brave face as we waited for the portal system to turn on. The children ran across the road playing as one seemed to tag the other and start running into a wall with its drone. Shaking my head the kid reappeared as I laughed in my suit. Looking to my sister she laughed with me before smiling the way she used to before this adventure.

  It was like having fun back home in India. Link bent over and touched a button on my back and Tolan’s voice came over the radio. “I am starting to build the medical node right now. Start your missions now!” Chip turned on the gate and a large cylindrical ship could be seen through it as Link spoke. “Do not return for us my apprentice.” Leading everyone through I saw how giant it was on the other side. Link took my arm and spoke looking into my face.

  “You have three missions Simran. Restart that sun, fly this world to Ponris and radio for help. Tell them your name and that you are an apprentice of the forge.” Sounding nervous he continued as my right armguard lit up brightly. “Ocelia now recognizes your authority and will let you move us to safety and radio for help. The portal node in your armguard will take you to safety after you do this. Now go!” Watching Link turn and run for the ship I saw Preti, Chip and Glitch already running up its ramp in the distance.

  I was alone on the street opening the portal door as an orange shaded room appeared. The room closed me off from Ocelia and opened to the blackness of space. Looking at the thruster nozzles on my armguards I hopped through the doorway and floated. Ocelia’s surface was far below as I used my thrusters to face the dim sun. Both of my arm guards shined their rainbow colors as I reached forward with my right hand closing my fist.

  I felt the sun turn off while the streams of plasma slowed and finally stopped. The outer shield turned off venting orange plasma away from the sun’s empty shell. The heat passed me and I looked down to see the world now covered in darkness. Knowing it was time to turn it on I turned my right fist face up before I tried to open my hand. Struggling to open my hand my fingers started to spread as the suns shields turned back on.

  The sphere flashed first a bright y
ellow before an intense orange started to fill it. Moments passed and Links voice came back to me. “You did it Simran. The drones are all rebooting and the people are starting to wake up! Hurry and get us to Ponris!” Looking around for the back of Ocelia I saw the engine satellite and I moved so it was behind me. Looking ahead I held both of my hands forward together.

  I struggled pushing my hands apart as if opening the curtains of a window. It opened and through the door I glimpsed a world that was blue and mostly green surrounded by so many reef worlds. Feeling the engines roar in my mind my gravity wings pulled me forward to freedom. Passing through the door I started to hear a few radio voices which soon multiplied. Hundreds to thousands of voices filled my helmet as Ocelia began moving through the portal door. Bright flashes drew my eyes to hundreds of ships emerging around Ocelia and firing upon it.

  The radio chatter finally cut to one simple voice. “Unknown reef world identify yourself! Unknown world respond.” Remembering my instructions I called out. “Help us. I am an apprentice of the Forge named Simran Singh. I am bringing the world Ocelia into orbit around Ponris. The Pontu prisoners are awaking and need evacuation before the Davon kill them.” As we finished passing through the door I turned around to watch the engine satellite turn on.