To that, Joseph reached out his left arm and put his index finger in Einar’s chest, “This far.”
“It seems to me that it would be within arm’s length in an open environment. But the area of disturbed energy or coolness would be broader in a smaller room.” Dr. Smith turned to Einar, “Also, those uniforms the agents wear will limit their ability to feel the sudden temperature change in the air. You may need to consider that.”
“If they are more than an arm’s length away, there’s some opportunity to defend yourself,” Einar said thinking out loud.
“You can travel through distance and time?” Logan asked.
“Yes. No limits in tamtu etutu,” Joseph replied.
“It requires a lot of energy to get around…right? Where does it come from when you are in the etutu?” Logan was focused on understanding the strange new world.
Joseph looked and acknowledged his lack of understanding of how the etutu actually worked. He wasn’t a scientist. It worked and that was all that mattered to him. “There is energy in us, the etutu. The strong can take energy from others in the etutu.”
“Siphon energy? You can take energy from other living beings?” Dr. Smith asked.
“Yes,” Joseph answered.
“Can you take me there…into the etutu?” Einar asked without reservation. The room fell silent and everyone turned to look at him.
Ayla was the first to react, “I bloody well get that you need to know more about the threat. It’s a mission. I know you want to hunt down these Roo’kall monsters…I get it. But I think these kids have been through enough. Do we really want to ask more of them?”
“Look, this is something that we have no choice but to understand. Even when you are back on Earth, this threat will follow you. You will never be safe again if this isn’t dealt with. We all need to know how to defend ourselves,” Einar said in his defense.
She knew he was right but didn’t want him alone with the kids. Ayla feared what he might ask of them if alone in the etutu, “Then, I will go to. If they want to take us.”
“How many can you take?” Logan asked.
“He moved an entire regiment at the Baraza Zima,” Einar said looking at Stephen.
“He did it to protect me. He didn’t want to,” Ariel snapped back in defense of her brother.
“We know he had his reasons. But those Redum soldiers killed a bunch of innocent people,” Einar responded.
Logan flashed a disapproving look. Einar realized the thin ice he was treading on but understood what needed to be done.
“You can do that? Move a bunch of people at one time?” Ayla asked.
“I did not do it alone. Others help me. Now, I fight Tisht, Kasadu!” Stephen said with a scowl on his face. He became visibly uncomfortable and seemed like he was about to react negatively to Einar.
Einar didn’t realize that Stephen would be as sensitive about it as he was. His reaction was reassuring in a way as it seemed his remorse was quite genuine. Einar marveled at how the abused and mistreated kids, who lived in cages or on the run for most of their young lives, were able to know wrong from right and genuinely felt remorse and sorrow. What was even more incredible was the fact that they could speak their language and communicate at all. It was perplexing to him. It left him exceedingly curious but cautious, “Look, that is over. Done with. If you can help us, we can defeat the Tisht and the Kurun and stop the advance of the Kasadu. We can do it together,” he said taking a different approach.
Stephen’s wrinkled brow and red eyes had everyone on their toes. They all knew the stories of Joseph’s power and wondered if Stephen’s abilities were similar. Would he use it on them in anger? Duncan looked at Joseph and then at Stephen as if thinking of a way to calm him down.
“Roo’kall attack in etutu. Try kill him,” Duncan said while motioning toward Stephen.
Joseph looked at them, “How far do you want to go?”
Ayla looked at Einar inquisitively anticipating his answer. She felt he was up to something more than a simple excursion to the etutu and back. Her distrust of him grew by the second. “There and back…wherever that is, will bloody well be far enough,” she said before he had a chance to answer.
Einar didn’t reply, just nodded in agreement. Joseph stood up and motioned for them to join him in the center of the room. Logan looked over to Gunner and Astrid, who, up to this point, had been quietly observing. Gunner declined, but Astrid could not help herself. The curious adventurer in her would not let her sit idly by. She could not pass up this opportunity to experience what everyone once believed to be a mere fantasy of overactive imaginations. She stood and took Logan’s arm as they moved to join Einar, Ayla, and Joseph. Duncan also decided to join them.
Joseph grabbed Ayla and Einar by the arm while Duncan took hold of Astrid and Logan. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. The group simply dematerialized in front of their eyes. For all who had remained in the room, the temperature dropped twenty degrees when they all disappeared. A second after the group was gone, the surging power stopped, and the lights returned to normal. Gunner and Dr. Smith looked at each other in awe of the immediate and sudden disappearance. They were really gone. Dr. Smith stood up and walked to the area where the group was standing and waved his hand in the air to see if they had simply become invisible somehow. After the second passing, he conceded that they were no longer in the room.
Gunner realized that he and the doctor were going to be left behind with Stephen, the pouty faced kid with supernatural abilities and his sister Ariel for an undetermined amount of time. Despite all his years in combat situations, Gunner was as on edge as at any point in his life while in the presence of the two kids. Stephen and the boys harnessed a power that Gunner was unable to comprehend and that none of the kids were mature enough to control. He wondered how this power would influence their lives moving forward. Would it turn them to do selfish, illegal, and unethical things especially when considering from where they had come? Would the power and possibilities of what it could bring them turn them down a dark path? Their abilities were coveted by both sides and this made them extremely dangerous and vulnerable. There was no way to control them, no repercussions for their actions, and no one with the ability to tell them no and enforce any punishment should they turn.
The room was gone, replaced by a circular darkness. They were in a world void of light except for small pulses that zipped past them like shooting stars. It seemed as if they were traveling, at minimum, the speed of sound. Oddly, there was no wind in their face, friction or restriction. It seemed supernatural as they were zipping through the etutu without the aid of any artificial propulsion or assistance of any kind. After a few seconds, Logan and Ayla, despite traveling at celerity on their way from Earth to Econ, were experiencing disorientation. Both were determined not to show it while wondering how long they would have to hide it. Where was the landing location? Where were they being taken? Were they traveling a long distance, or were they going somewhere in time?
Just as rapidly as the journey had begun, they were abruptly spat out onto a solid surface and were no longer moving forward. The etutu was dark apart from the ground, which was transparent. Between their feet, they could see what looked like distant stars and galaxies. The vastness of space surrounded them. There was no explanation for what they were seeing. The sky above was dark, they could see forever despite the absence of light. Randomly spread across the horizon were black masses that resembled boulders and small mountains. They landed in between three formations that were eight to ten feet tall.
“So, where are we? Why can we breathe?” Ayla asked as she fought to get her mind off her disorientation and churning stomach. She turned to look at him and noticed the black tunnel behind them. It appeared to be alive as it moved mildly from side to side. It wasn’t made of flesh or any tangible material, but they had just traveled an undetermined distance through it. It was what she imagined it would be like to be shot out of a rifle.
“What is that
made of? Energy from the etutu,” Astrid asked looking over at the two boys for confirmation.
“Yes,” Joseph gave a confirming nod of his head.
“Can I ask another question?” Einar said while looking around in bewilderment. No one replied and simply waited on him, “someone was taken by an unknown being. I have no nationality, no positively distinguishable features…nothing to work off of. This being stepped out of the etutu, grabbed someone and disappeared back into the etutu. Is there any way to find them in the etutu or track them down or find out where they may have exited? I need to know where this person is. It is very important that I find them.”
Joseph looked up at Einar, “There is always a…lingering of energy that can stay behind for a time. Like smoke from a fire, if you can find it before it is gone, it is possible to focus on it and find out where it leads. Focus on her in your thoughts. Try to make a connection.”
“Sorry to use this analogy, it’s like a dog finding a scent and tracking it?” Logan asked.
At no point had Einar divulged the sex of the person he was inquiring about. The boy knew his thoughts. “You read my mind?” he said squinting in the darkness to get a good look at his face.
“Why do you think that we are here?” Joseph asked. “We had to go…we come here.”
“You did read my mind?” Einar asked rhetorically.
“The woman was taken. You want to find her…no?” Joseph inquired with a stone-faced stare.
“Yes,” Einar replied with little hesitation.
“She was taken here. I saw her in your mind. I focused on her and felt her energy here.”
“And here I was thinking we were going to pop in and go right back. I didn’t realize this was a rescue mission!” Ayla snapped back at Einar while staring at him.
“She not here…trap. They come for you!” Duncan said looking at Einar then turning and pointing forward.
In the distance, he could see three approaching figures. Despite the shroud of darkness that enveloped the etutu, he could tell that they were communicating via the use of hand signals. One sniffed the air like a dog tracking down an animal and directed the other two to split up and surround them. It was almost comical to watch as the Roo’kall believed that they had yet to be spotted and still possessed the element of surprise by using the three areas of blackened matter to sneak up on them. Einar wanted to shoot them while they were in the distance but realized that perhaps taking one alive was a better option. How to accomplish this became an emerging consideration.
This Roo’kall was deformed and naturally hunched slightly over. Somehow, he could see the thin gray-green layer of epidermis that covered the creature’s hairless body. Each of them had excessively long arms which allowed them to alternate walking on all fours or upright. Each was armed with what seemed like very primitive weaponry, certainly no match for his sidearm.
“How can we take one of these back with us?” Einar asked Joseph who simply gave him a look that suggested he should wait and see. If the boy was concerned, he certainly did a great job of hiding it.
The closer the Roo’kall came, the more Ayla gave in to her anxiety. Beings such as the Roo’kall were responsible for so many deaths during the short duration of their stay. “Why can’t we just go back? Are we just going to sit here and wait for them?” she looked incredulously at Einar blaming him for their situation.
Logan looked over at Joseph, “Do they really think they are sneaking up on us?”
“Don’t see good here. They smell, hear, feel the energy…very good for them,” he replied while keeping his eyes on the lead Roo’kall.
In a fluid motion, Astrid forcefully pushed Ayla toward the center of the group, spun around and drove the shin of her leg into the throat of a charging Roo’kall. The kick seemed to crush the windpipe in its throat and sent it to the ground reeling for breath.
Einar set his pistol for low-velocity rounds, which was perfect since he had the intention of taking one alive. He saw the Roo’kall that gave the order to separate as it charged. Einar took a shot that was as effective as throwing a rock. The blue plasma flew several feet then pitifully fell to the ground as it burned out. The Roo’kall was on him hissing and thrusting a dagger into his face. He grabbed the clammy arm of the creature, who was surprisingly strong and held the tip away from his face.
Just as the second charged, the third creature came from behind. Logan, not fully recovered from his injuries that resulted from the fight on the beach, charged the gangly creature. It leapt at him, which was a move that he didn’t see coming. He reached out to catch it, but momentum was on its side. The blade punctured his left bicep. Logan rolled to his left, using the weight of the creature against itself slamming it down onto its back. He quickly retrieved the blade from his arm. The Roo’kall had already recovered and was getting back on its feet. Astrid’s right foot connected with the back of the creature’s head, which jolted forward, but had little effect on subduing it. Logan briefly forgot the pain in his arm, charged, and dug the blade deep into the eye of the twisted being. It went to the ground and began to gyrate. Logan dove onto it and pulled the blade from its eye and drove it repeatedly into its face and neck until it was unable to move.
Einar turned his head as brilliant blue light shot out of the eyes of the Roo’kall while it recoiled in pain. It seemed bright enough to illuminate the etutu for miles. The assassin’s knife clattered as it struck the ground, its wielder no longer capable of holding it. Einar took a step back and watched as Joseph, with his hands out in front of him, absorbed hundreds of small, hair-thin bolts of electricity that were shooting out of the body of the Roo’kall. It fell helplessly to the ground. Joseph moved closer; eyes wide with excitement seemingly taking pleasure in what he was doing to the murderous beast. After a few more seconds, he stopped. The Roo’kall’s breathing became labored and shallow as it seemed to be on the verge of death.
“What did you do to it?” Einar asked.
“Drained it of all its energy,” Joseph took on the posture of feeling ill. He turned and fell on his hands and knees. Ayla moved toward him, but Duncan put his arm up and stopped her. From beneath Joseph’s hands, the transparent ground began to glow. The energy, as if conducted by the ground, moved away from them and spread out over the etutu as far as their eyes could see. The area above was illuminated and revealed little to no structure in the vast open dimension. Joseph leaned back on his knees and pulled his hands from the ground. The darkness seemed to chase the light and in a matter of seconds, it consumed the horizon.
Joseph looked more like himself as he turned to Einar, “You okay?” he asked.
Joseph gave an affirming nod, “I know where she is. It is called Aldevi.”
“So, she is still on Econ? Are you sure—”
“Look, Logan has an injury. He needs to get back,” Ayla yelled anxiously, “can you discuss this another time? Can we just go back now?”
Duncan walked over to Logan and looked at his wound. There was a two-inch tear in his clothing where the blade had entered. Blood coated his arm and fell to the ground. Duncan held the palm of his hand over the wound. Logan took a shallow breath as he could feel something odd. The cut began to lift out of his bicep and into the air above his arm. He could see the V-shape the dagger tip had left in his muscle and the tips of torn blood vessels. The thin layer of damaged tissue from the cut hovered over Duncan’s hand and dissolved as if consumed by the etutu. Logan looked over and noticed that the cut was gone. The tear in the cloth and blood on his arm was all that remained. He looked back at Duncan to thank him, but no words came out of his mouth. There was a temporary absence of any ability to say anything. He rubbed the area where the wound was previously bleeding and causing a lot of pain and felt no increased sensitivity or side-effects.
“Only in etutu,” Duncan said.
Joseph turned to Einar, who was wide-eyed in wonder of what he had just seen and pointed at the Roo’kall, “We take him?” Joseph asked.
Einar
needed to shake off seeing the damaged tissues that were pulled from Logan’s arm. “How long will he be in the catatonic state?” He cautiously reached down and grabbed the creature and fastened its hands together.
“Hours, days to recover.”
They all huddled together and were instantly sliding back though the siten. When they returned to the room a very angry Sonia was sitting on the couch awaiting their return. They all leapt back in fear and instinctively assumed a defensive posture when they saw the Roo’kall lying on the floor.
Gunner stood and yelled, “You brought one back!”
Einar pulled an arao from his hip and said, “Acquired asset, need assistance.”
Sonia walked over to Einar, “You don’t have the right to ask these boys to do such things. This is what all of this was about? You wanted access to these boys…to use them. This is some kind of game to you SINSTER agents.”
“Is war, or, the possible death to billions of beings a game? It was SINSTER agents who were working to free you, these boys and the untold scores of slaves in the universe. It was our doctors that returned your mind …actually increased your brain capacity from that of a near simpleton. We are not the enemy. Besides, ask these kids…their kind is being hunted down and killed. Do you want to just wait until they figure out a way to get to them? We are trying to protect them as well.” He understood her position but quickly needed to find a way to address the threat.
There was a tap at the door and Logan answered it. Cyperien ran in with several agents wearing white uniforms and grabbed the Roo’kall, “How did you do this? What is to stop this thing from waking up and disappearing?”
Einar looked at Joseph, “If it is shackled, can it step into the etutu?”
“Better to keep the Roo’kall weak. Better that it doesn’t recover its strength.”
Einar thanked the boys again and quickly moved out of the room with the weakened assassin.
Universal Code Page 58
