"ILLYA!" came a cry from Tremain's right. He tore his eyes away from the scene before him and watched as Sen fell to his knees, his arms outstretched.
The room was empty, save for Sen.
He looked around, his wide eyes streaming with tears. Standing, he wiped the tears from his face, quick swipes with his shirt sleeves, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his chest heaving with each one.
Tremain felt a pull and soon found himself in the void, Sen's glowing orb floating next to him.
"I'm so sorry," Tremain said. "I could feel your desolation."
"I could not relive that moment." Sen said, his voice almost a whisper.
"I understand."
"It was the next step in our evolution." Sen explained, "The council said there would be some who didn't ascend in the first wave and they would follow in turn. Those of us who were left behind, eventually found each other and became a sort of community. I found none who were as suited to me as was Illya." He paused, the silence punctuated by the swirling of the memory shards. “I tried to practice, so I could join her, but I was lost. I was alone in spirit. Then I was just alone."
Tremain couldn't find the words to console Sen. The pain of his loss caused ripples to fan out, disturbing the other memory shards, which made a tinkling sound as they knocked into each other.
"What happened then?" Tremain was able to ask.
"Eventually, I found a balance. I continued to practice. I learned. I became stronger and listened for another call. One which never came."
Another memory shard loomed in front of them. At Sen's gesture, Tremain steadied himself and pushed into it.
A much older Sen sat in a bare room. The room was dark save for a single light which illuminated the plush chair Sen reclined in. Tremain gasped as he realized how old the being was.
His skin was sallow and hung off his too-thin frame. His sunken cheeks puffed with each weak breath while his eyes, rheumy and red, gazed at nothing. He was completely bald, with dark age spots dotting his scalp. He grimaced as he strained to lift his hand and made a subtle gesture.
A swirl of dust and other flotsam gathered into a cloud in front of Sen. As it whirled, a form took shape within it, one Tremain easily recognized; the metallic framework of Sen's current body.
As the form solidified, the aged figure took one more shuddering breath and grew still. The large eyes closed for a final time.
The glow, once it began, soon suffused the entire body, absorbing it into a ball of mental energy. Tremain gasped as tendrils reached out and wrapped around the metallic form, pulling the energy into the shell.
The now glowing metal framework animated, flexing its joints and testing movement. Satisfied, the figure stomped to the window, held its hands behind its back and stared out into the night.
Tremain was pulled out of the memory.
"Why the hardware?" He asked.
"My body was failing. I chose to create a new form that wouldn't suffer the frailties of biology."
"And you wonder at what you've lost." Tremain shook his head. "I think I understand you now, in part. I can see why you are so lonely. I am very sorry for that. But I still don't see how you came to feel that humanity needed to be eradicated."
The energy that was Sen flared once and threw tendrils out into the void. Another memory shard flew into and absorbed Tremain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tremain was back in the castle at the top of the mountain. At first he thought he was back, but something was different. No Christopher, no Alice, just Sen, standing in contemplation at the window. Tremain walked over and looked out into the valley.
The view was spectacular from this vantage. Puffs of clouds floated far below the window. Tremain could barely make out the features of the valley floor. Sunlight glinted off a meandering river.
Tremain started as he heard a roar from the skies above. He looked up, but could see nothing. Far up in the clouds there was a fiery speck, growing larger. Curious, Tremain looked around, then shrugged and jumped out the window.
He fell for a short distance, his arms and legs flailing, then he . . . stopped. Giving a short chuckle, he looked towards the growing, glowing dot and shot upwards.
"I so wish I could do this in real life." He said out loud to nobody. A laugh escaped him as he soared towards the . . . shuttle? Yes, it was a shuttle, with a thick series of cables trailing out behind it Tremain realized this wasn't just any run-of-the-mill shuttle. He read the name emblazoned on the side: USS Mayflower. This had come from the colony ship.
He was reliving Sen's memory of humanity arriving on New Earth. The cabling was obviously the first iteration of the space elevator.
Time seemed to advance much faster now. Tremain remained in place as events unfolded before him. Near the coastline, the shuttle landed. Soon, a series of capsules descended from the cable. Each one disgorged its contents and rode back up. Tremain watched as habitat structures were built and the colony began to take shape.
In rapid succession, other modules were built and then were replaced by larger, more permanent structures. He watched as residential areas took shape and Capital city formed around them. Tremain then watched a group of individuals depart, heading away from the city. With a start he realized them to be the Mayflower people, the tribes that lived in the belly of the ship as it slowly drifted towards its destination. They were leaving to live out their simpler lives away from the much more advanced colonists.
Tremain's attention followed the Mayflower tribes as they marched. The sun rapidly rose and set many times during the journey, until they reached the jungle at the interior of the continent. A camp formed, then disappeared.
Tremain's focus zoomed in. He watched as the tribes discovered labyrinths inside the hillsides. A glowing light helped them navigate the maze, then showed them the safe passage which bypassed the labyrinth.
"Sen?" Tremain gasped. He watched as the tribes constructed an irrigation pump, ingenious for their level of technology. They built a temple around a larger stone in the valley on the other side of the hills. "They had found a lodestone." Tremain whispered. That explained the increase in their mastery of metallurgy and engineering.
Time moved faster yet. The scene before Tremain blurred as figures came and went. He zoomed back to a distance above the hills as he saw a massive flash of light. His perspective changed as he found himself in a long valley. Mountains shot up on each side. Tremain realized he was in the valley below Sen’s castle. The tribes had been relocated.
They built temples with a burst of light carved above the doorways. Tremain's brows furrowed as he realized who they were worshiping. The Mayflower people flourished as their "god" watched from on high.
Tremain felt himself pulled up once again and found himself facing Sen. His disgust got the better of him.
"Are you proud of yourself? You were . . . are revered as a god to those people!"
"To them I am."
"And you're proud of that, aren't you? You couldn't just leave them to live on their own? Why did you have to relocate them?"
"They discovered a lodestone. It was influencing their development. I . . . guided them."
"And the maze? We've found more of those scattered around the area."
Sen's light flared and tendrils grew and shrank.
"Those were creations of our young ones. To teach them to control their mental energies, they created underground mazes and other more complex structures. Your people were drawn to the lodestone. I had to show them the pathway through the maze so they wouldn't get lost." The light dimmed slightly. "I confess I was curious about your people. I had been alone for so long that I became involved in their lives. They worshiped me. They sacrificed to me." Sen pulled Tremain back into yet another memory shard.
As the scene became clear, Tremain found himself hovering over Capitol city, with Sen next to him.
"I removed myself from direct contact, disgusted by what I had caused. I meditated for a long time. While I was not pa
ying attention, your people spread."
Tremain felt displaced as time moved rapidly again before him. Capitol city grew. Buildings were built up, torn down, city blocks re-arranged, then enlarged. The mag-lev train was constructed, Centennial Park was framed. Tremain watched as the colony spread out, new cities were formed, boats were built and traveled to other continents. Civilization flourished.
"It seemed as if overnight your people had spread across the face of my world. You laughed, you loved, you posessed everything I had lost."
"And when did you start sending your constructs to spy on us?" Tremain asked.
"Not long after I ceased meditating. A group of your people had separated. I collected them to study."
"Daylin's expedition." Tremain's anger grew. "They were studying the plants and animals. They were no threat to you."
"Your entire race is a threat!" Sen's light grew agitated, throwing tendrils at random. "I studied your biology, created my constructs so I could learn more about your species. What I found was alarming."
Tremain's anger, quick to build, subsided just as quickly.
"And you found what, exactly?" He asked.
"Your race is barbaric. You destroy each other over petty ideological disagreements. You waste your lives away, using whatever drug you choose to abuse."
"And your people? No similarities at all? How long had you been a civilization?"
"Millions of revolutions."
Tremain sneered.
"Millions, eh? We've only been around for a few hundred thousand years. We're still in our infancy compared to you. Give us time, we'll catch up. If you've paid any attention, however, you haven't seen any of those "barbarisms" as you call them, here on New Earth. If you haven't noticed, we've grown up as a species, just a little." For emphasis, Tremain held up his forefinger and thumb, spaced just slightly apart. We're evolving as well, Sen. Don't curse us all just because we have a violent history. If we dove deep into your people's history, I'd bet we'd find some similar events."
Sen's agitation reached its peak. Tendrils whipped out and wrapped around Tremain's virtual body. With a cry, he tried to break away, to no avail.
"This is pointless" Sen's voice boomed across the void. "You choose to argue. My decision is made. Your people will be removed."
Tremain felt himself being thrown back into the void. Sen's light reduced to a pin prick, then went out. Tremain felt his arms and legs pinned in place. He was trapped.
"No . . ." His whisper faded into the darkness.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Christopher had just finished his second glass of juice when a loud banging sound rang out through the castle.
"That's coming from the sitting room." Alice said and rushed away. Daylin and Christopher shared a glance.
"Maybe we should check on Uncle Tremain." Christopher suggested. His father nodded and they followed Alice, albeit a little slower.
They entered the sitting room, where Tremain still sat on the couch, his eyes closed, but moving back and forth rapidly. His breathing was regular. Sen still remained where he had been, standing in the middle of the room, his arm outstretched to Tremain. Alice stood to one side, her arms crossed, a crooked smile on her face.
The cause of the banging sound became clear to them as they moved into the room. Smitty was holding one of Sen's rib pieces, swinging it like a club in his awkwardly-jointed state, slamming it again and again onto Sen's oval head, his mad cackle echoing around the room.
"HAHAHA . . . take me apart, will you?"
BANG!
"I'll take you apart with your own bones!"
BANG!
Christopher watched as the repeated blows caused little to no harm to the stationary metallic figure. He felt like he should stop Smitty. Instead, he went over to where his uncle was on the couch, still unresponsive.
He wondered what Tremain was experiencing when he noticed a glow emanating from his uncle's temples. He jumped back as the glow coalesced into a stream that meandered up Sen's arm and surrounded the oval head. Smitty, oblivious to anything other than his feeble attempts to cause some sort of damage, was caught unawares as a metal arm whipped up and slammed into him, mid strike. He yelped as he was thrown into the opposite wall and sunk, insensate, onto the floor.
"I have had enough of humans." Sen's voice grumbled from all corners of the room. Christopher turned to his uncle, expecting to see him rouse as well, but there was no response.
"Uncle Tremain!" He yelled as he shook Tremain's shoulder, to no avail. He cried out in alarm as he felt himself lifted into the air. He saw his father and Smitty, who uttered a mewling whine, were similarly restrained.
"Humans . . . why I ever permitted your existence is beyond me. I will . . ."
"SEN, STOP!" Alice yelled, her face contorted in anguish. Christopher glanced over at her, amazed at her courage.
"You dare to oppose me?" Sen challenged.
Alice stepped closer to the metallic frame, fists balled.
"Put them down! There's no need for this!"
"What do you know of need? You know nothing!" Sen waved a hand and Alice flew backwards, hit the back wall and fell onto the couch, unconscious. He turned his attention to the three humans he still held suspended in the air. "After humanity is destroyed, I will finally have peace."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Tremain struggled. Straining at his invisible bonds, he willed himself to be free, to no avail. He was stuck and stuck good. Christopher came to mind just then. Christopher as a baby, as a toddler, a boy . . . he hasn't yet begun his life and it will be swept away from him in an instant of wind and rain.
Desperation soured his soul. He could do nothing to save humanity. Frustration seethed in him as he continued his struggles anew.
Nothing. He was still caught like a fly in a spider's web.
Calming himself, he realized he had to try a different tactic.
He reached out his awareness.
If he was going to be trapped, he'd prefer to know exactly where he was.
As he probed, the entirety of his galaxy of memories appeared in a flash. He wasn't trapped in Sen's mind at all. He was home, well, of a sorts. He knew his own mind, or at the very least, he was familiar with it. He was no psychologist, but he did know a thing or two about a thing or two. But first the restraints needed to go.
He concentrated on his left hand, imagining the restraints as nothing but wisps of clouds.
Nothing.
He tried again, focusing his awareness to this one task.
A foggy apparition took shape around his wrist, diaphanous swirls and eddies floating away. His hand was free.
Waggling his fingers, he imagined the same thing on his other arm and his legs. Soon, his restraints were gone.
But where to now?
He probed his mind, looking for the exit to his own consciousness. What a field day Freud, Piaget and James would have had if they could have only experienced this. He chuckled, the irony not lost on him.
Something pulled at him.
He concentrated, looking for the source.
The tug came stronger this time.
He whirled to see a dog nipping at his pants. No, not just any dog, his childhood puppy. He had been a mixed breed dog, his black and grey fur shaggy on his body.
"Spencer!" he yelled. Crouching, he hugged the puppy close, feeling Spencer's nose nuzzling into his neck. The puppy’s breath was hot on his skin as he sniffed at his owner, then a wet tongue swiped across Tremain’s ear. He loved every moment.
Spencer pulled away and pranced a short distance from Tremain. Turning back, he gave one yip and looked away, tail wagging.
"You want to lead me somewhere?" He chuckled. "Don't tell me, Timmy's stuck in a well somewhere?"
In response, Spencer yipped again, turned in a circle and started walking away, craning his neck to see if his friend was following. Laughing, Tremain followed.
"Of course I'll come with you . . . lead on!"
Spencer
took off. Tremain started running, then realized this was just his mind's projection and let his awareness carry him along.
The image of Spencer burned in his memory. He could almost feel another sphere igniting and taking form. He had loved this dog with all his young heart. It was a cruel twist of fate that had separated them as Spencer had succumbed to a congenital heart defect when he was only four years old.
Let Sen figure that bond out. Tremain thought as he followed his spectral pet.
Spencer led Tremain to the base of a spiral staircase inside a nebula of clouds which sparkled in reds, purples and intense golds. With the galaxy of memories swirling about him, Tremain paused, struck by the surreal nature of it all.
An image came to his mind, that of an old, withered Sen as he transferred his consciousness to his new, metallic prison. A smile came to Tremain's face.
I've got him.
Tremain looked up at the spiral staircase. Spencer had already climbed the first few stairs, tongue out, tail still wagging, waiting for Tremain to follow. The dog's unblinking eyes bored into Tremain as he stood at the base.
I really need to work on my imagination. Spiral staircase, indeed!
He began to climb.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Christopher's eyes bulged as he realized what was going to happen. He hung suspended in the air as Sen's anger made the couches shudder. The fires in the sconces whipped around in a fury as anything that wasn't tied down whirled around the room.
"My storm will be unleashed. Its power will wipe your presence from the face of my world." Sen intoned as the small storm in the sitting room raged on.
"You'd best get on with it then." Came a weak voice from the couch. Christopher saw his uncle stand. He swayed on his feet, but he was regaining his strength. He shook his head and blinked a few times. His stare was cold as ice. "Go on, do it. Destroy us." He stepped closer to Sen. "Go on!"
The Adventures of Tremain & Christopher BoxSet Page 25
