Origins of Hope

by Anastasia Drapievsky

  Celes frowned. “What does that mean?” She hurried next to him as she carried one of her duffle bags.

  “People know Raxdrýn headquarters is in this city, and because I look strange, stranger than normal?” He pointed to his eyes as they walked for the lifts, his iris overly large and the silver streaks wavering. “A bit of a giveaway.”

  “But, you fight XIKs,” she said, wondering why people stared Ayzize in fear. “Shouldn’t they not be afraid?”

  Ayzize chuckled. “Anything to do with XIKs has a lot of fear attached with it; though most of the galaxy dismisses the Verakas virus since it has been centuries since the last major outbreak, that fear is still there, deep down. Pity it isn’t large enough to actually do anything about it...” he muttered.

  Celes shouldered her bag more securely on her shoulder as she followed him. Holding fear of Varôks made little sense, and the further she strayed from Endeavor, the more she realized just how much she didn’t know.

  At the station entrance, two figures clad in head to toe slick armor met them in front of a small but sleek hover car. Celes didn’t know what to stare at; the figures or the car. The figures were bipedal, but one’s shoulders was too broad to be a human and the other too narrow. They didn’t seem perturbed by the rain, and Ayzize tapped his temple, producing a small force field around him and Celes so they wouldn’t get rained on. The car hovered without sound, smoke or hazy air, and didn’t even waver. The air smelled surprisingly clean.

  The figures scanned them with some tech on their wrists, a blue light bathing and wavering over her and Ayzize. Celes wanted to ask them questions, but since Ayzize didn’t even greet them, she followed his lead, though she did at least say, ‘hi’. They said nothing back, though the narrow one nodded to her.

  “Frenknal-i,” the broad-shouldered one said, turning away at the same time as the other one did.

  “What?” Celes blurted as the car doors opening automatically. A door opened near the front of the car, and Ayzize deposited their luggage inside it. A console of lights blinked on the dash, but no driver sat in the small seat.

  “He said, ‘Get in’,” Ayzize said, closing the front door. The two figures went in through the middle while he and Celes took the back.

  Shaped like an oval, the interior provided enough room for the four of them to sit across from each other. The seats were covered in a strange material, and she enjoyed running her hands over it.

  “This is nice,” she said, petting the seat. The narrow figure sounded like she chuckled, though the broad-shouldered one didn’t move. The doors slid shut, and the car moved; at least, the buildings and the station through the window glided past. No sound came from the engine, and she couldn’t even feel the car move. “Whoa, this is really weird,” she said, looking between the two windows. “You guys have a good driver.”

  The narrow figure chuckled again with Ayzize, whereas the broad shouldered one sound like he sighed. “The car is automated. No driver,” Ayzize said, leaning back into his seat.

  The broad shouldered one spoke again, his voice deep. The narrow figure looked in his direction while Ayzize frowned. “She doesn’t have a universal translator yet.”

  The broad shoulder made a sound that sounded like indignation, and Ayzize rolled his eyes. “You can criticize my species’ government when yours shapes up.”

  The car smoothly glided through the narrow streets, passing by smooth stone sidewalks and tall, heavy buildings. Few passersby walked the sidewalks, with force-fields creating a barrier between them and the vehicles—as Ayzize explained when another vehicle had accidentally splashed water that smacked into an invisible wall and glided down like raindrops on windows. Celes pressed her face against the glass, twisting her head in an odd angle to look at multiple skyscrapers, reflecting lightning as they slowly rotated or rippled. High up, several other vehicles zoomed around, and Ayzize explained that some wealthier residents liked to get expensive lev-cars, though the mag-trains underneath the city were more effective transportation.

  “Why didn’t we use the mag-train to get directly to Raxdrýn, then?” Celes asked, watching a human and an Aphin Selyn walk leisurely down the sidewalk.

  The two covered figures made sounds or spoke in their native language, and Ayzize stated, “We don’t have a station nearby.” It sounded halted, as though he held something back, but since he didn’t say anything else, Celes didn’t pursue it.

  After twenty minutes of zooming to their destination, Celes spotted something odd in the distance. Reaching to the tops of the nearby skyscrapers, light wavered in odd patterns, like sunlight weaving in ripples of water. It stretched downward in a dome-like slope, and while transparent, she couldn’t see any buildings or skyscrapers in it. “What is that?” She asked, pointing to the dome.

  Ayzize hummed. “That is Raxdrýn,” he said.

  “Huh?” She whipped her head to him, who hadn’t even looked out the window himself. “How'd you know what I was talking about?”

  “Dome force-field.” It wasn’t a question, and wondering if Ayzize had read her mind or she accidentally projected it, she nodded. “Some places have smaller force-fields, but Raxdrýn has the largest complex on this planet, and due to security reasons, needs to be very secure.”

  “Why?”

  The broad shouldered one muttered something, and Ayzize gave him a dirty look. “You’ll see soon enough.”

  Adults said that phrase when they wanted kids to shut up, but Ayzize was nicer about it at least. Frowning, she returned her gaze back to the window.

  Within minutes, the vehicle pulled up to a gate. A nano-steel fence rose fifteen meters high, and seemed to run the edge of the dome, while the force field rose from the top of the fence. Two guards wearing the same black armor as their escorts manned the gates, gates plated in thick nano-steel and hardened stone. A sign with holo letters and alien characters lit up the gate, with a multitude of written languages on it. The very last one was in English, stating:

  ‘NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY PERMITTED. LETHAL FORCE WILL BE USED AGAINST INTRUDERS.’

  The vehicle powered down, the broad shoulder and narrow figure smoothly getting out of the car, and Ayzize motioned Celes to follow. Feeling trepidation, especially with the sign, she slid out of the car, rain immediately pelting down onto her head.

  The two guards did some kind of salute to their escorts and Ayzize, with their right hand across their chests with fists above their left breast. Celes subtly did the gesture to remember it. Ayzize came around the car with their luggage, rain sliding smoothly off the force field around him.

  “Oh,” he said, his dark cheeks reddening as he jerked his head to Celes to stand next to him. “You’re soaked.”

  She shrugged. Not the first time she had to walk around in the rain. She had tried several months ago to make a psychic barrier with her mind to create an invisible umbrella, but it tired her out fast. “I don’t mind.”

  Ayzize ‘hmphed’, then gestured for her to follow their escorts past the guards and into the gate door. She did so, staying only in front of Ayzize so she wouldn’t get rained on, and entered a dark room, the guards closing the door behind them.

  Strangely silent, and the only source of light shining from a fixture on the ceiling made Celes feel on edge. “Uh, where are we?” she asked.

  A beam of light above their heads buzzed. She jumped at the sound, the beam descending her body and up again. More beams flashed around them, the light dancing on the stoic escorts and Ayzize.

  “Decon and Bio-read,” Ayzize said, white light crisscrossing his face and body. He had placed the bags down and crossed his arms. “Decontamination to get rid of bad germs and other bacteria. Bio-Signature reads your DNA to make sure you are allowed to set foot in HQ. I sent over your med-chart to Raxdrýn before we even left Endeavor, so they have it.”

  “What happens if they don’t have it?” She put up a hand to watch the beams of light ripple across her tanned skin.

  “Then we
wait outside while they sort it out.” Ayzize paused for a moment. “Whatever you do, though, do not charge in before Bio-read finishes. If you get through the door, the laser turrets will kill you.”

  So that was what the sign meant. Celes gulped and looked at the light beams, praying that they would let her in without frying her to a crisp. The beams suddenly disappeared, drenching them all in darkness, before lights went off around the room. Celes winced, though the others didn’t move.

  A strange sounding phrase went through an intercom somewhere, one that Celes couldn’t replicate under her breath. The hair at the back of her head prickled, as if someone had leaned in very close to her. She whipped her head back, but no one stood leering behind her, and the others hadn’t moved. She had a fleeting mental image of a silhouette at the corner of her eye, but when she looked in its direction, nothingness met her. Blinking, she felt her nerves slowly ease, though it felt like EmTel rather than herself relaxing.

  “Emotive telepathy for the psychic species,” Ayzize confirmed. She looked at him, eyes darting to the corners of the room, and he gave her a bewildered stare at her reaction. “We’re clear. Let’s go.” He nodded to the escorts, and gently pushed Celes’ back to move.

  Shaking herself that she had seen something—she only had a few hours of sleep, after all—she did as she was told, staring suspiciously at the corners for any laser turrets that could train on her.

  They went through several more rooms of security; their luggage checked in the next room, and then another round of decon in the next. The escorts moved through the fourth room with ease and left entirely. Celes waved to them, but the narrow one was the only one to return the gesture, though the broad one grunted in a somewhat friendly manner before they went through the opposite door and left.

  The next room almost looked like a shop, with rows of cases on a wall and curious looking devices displayed behind plastic. A single Kath’laka manned this room, and as Celes went through the room staring at the assortment of devices and weapons—but not touching it, as much as she wanted to—Ayzize spoke low to the Kath’laka.

  “Celes, come here,” Ayzize said, motioning for her to step up to the counter.

  Glancing at the Kath’laka with white fur and dark blue eyes, Celes approached the counter, being careful to smile, showing no teeth. The Kath’laka perked her ears up, and her eyes bright. Returning the gesture maybe? “Grunal bekwan,” Celes said.

  “Grunal bekwan,” the Kath’laka said back, her ears still perked up. She turned to Ayzize and asked him something in her language, and he shook his head.

  “Elementary,” he told the Kath’laka as she moved around the counter. “If that. She’s self-taught.”

  The Kath’laka kneeled down in front of Celes, but still towered six inches taller over Celes even without the large ears. The Kath’laka spoke to Ayzize, who grunted.

  “She is outfitting you with a Tristat,” he told Celes as the Kath’laka held up a circular object, and Celes brightened. “Until you are past adolescence and get the neural version, you will use this. It will interface with your brain through skin contact, but it won’t hurt; just a tingle in your spine. You can mess around with the settings later, but it already has a universal translator.”

  Celes grinned with happiness, excited to finally understand everyone with no need for Ayzize translating, and hastily moved her lips over her teeth. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly as the Kath’laka tapped her temple, a band of gold light gliding across the Kath’laka’s eyes as she focused on Celes’ head.

  The Kath’laka’s chest rumbled slightly, her eyes still kind as her paw-like hand gently swept away Celes’ hair, lightly pressing the Tristat onto her temple. A shiver ran down Celes’ spine and she wiggled, but it didn’t hurt; it just felt like a tickle.

  “How does that feel?” the Kath’laka asked in English, her mouth moving out of time with her voice.

  “I can understand you!” Celes gasped, her eyes wide and grinning again as she momentarily forgot covering her teeth again. “Oh man, this is so cool! How do I get the cool light across my eyes? How do I change the color? How—”

  “Celes,” Ayzize said in warning as the Kath’laka rumbled deeply in her chest again.

  “Sorry,” Celes said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly as the Kath’laka requisitions master chuckled.

  After getting a few more items for Ayzize, they entered another room with frosted doors. Besides the two of them, the room was empty and devoid of any furniture, but it felt strange, as if an unseen presence watched them, but she could see no cameras or any other devices.

  “What’s this room?” she asked, still looking around suspiciously. “Are we being watched?”

  Ayzize didn’t respond right away. “There are some hidden cameras, but this is the last room before we enter the complex.”

  “Oh,” she said, looking to the corners of the room and waving when Ayzize didn’t have his gaze locked on her.

  The doors suddenly hissed open, and the sterile air turned into a damp mist with the smell of rich dirt. Ayzize motioned for her to step out in the complex, and with jaw dropped, she did so.

  The dome shield rose high above, with blue and white waves of static occasionally crackling and running down the dome. Celes tried to keep her head turned around at all sights as Ayzize led her throughout the compound.

  The first thing they encountered was a mid-sized shuttle pad with several engineers in orange uniforms working on a grounded shuttle. A small forest lay behind the shuttle pad, the trees looking like a mixture of the brown trunk and green leaves variety with a few other colorful ones. A tree with teal bark and white flowers looked like a cherry blossom tree. Multiple twisted orange trees with black leaves that mimicked spindly fingers stretched into the sky. The air smelled musky and earthy as Ayzize led her on a dirt path through the forest.

  “What’s that?” she asked when she caught a plain building through the trees, pointing to their right.

  “Housing,” Ayzize said gruffly, then tapped the side of his head. Her Tristat activated with a gold band flowing in between her ears, and she gaped when a circular AR map formed in front of her. “We are here,” he said, two small red dots appearing in what looked like a group of trees surrounded by four buildings on the map. “We use this area for training and a place to relax. We passed the docks, that is housing, Administration is to the west, and we’re going to HQ,” he said, pointing to a small circle in the center of the map.

  “What’re those three other buildings?” she asked, eyeing the ones in the back.

  “Business and Security, Science Labs, and R&D,” he said, the biggest building in the entire complex lighting up last. “Research and Development.”

  “Why is it so big?”

  Ayzize sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Celes, enough. I can’t tell you everything immediately. Some adults here don’t like chatty kids, and some instructors will actually punish you for asking a lot of questions. I would answer some of your questions if already if you stayed quiet.”

  Celes looked down, feeling stung and a little ashamed. She never got to talk a lot on Endeavor, since no one had been interested in what she had to say. “Sorry. I just don’t know anything here...” She mentally cursed at herself; this was the second time Ayzize had to reprimand her.

  Ayzize slowed his steps to look at her, and she turned her head quickly, pretending to be interested in a pink and green tree so he wouldn’t see her reddened eyes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have said that in that way,” he sighed as she glanced at him in the corner of her eyes. He looked frustrated but also embarrassed. “It’s been a long journey and I haven’t had a traveling partner for a long time, and definitely not one as young as you.” He moved to reach out to her shoulder but dropped his hand. “You’ve been handling this well. I’m proud of you.”

  She felt as though her chest filled with warm and comforting air, and she looked up at him with a hesitant smile. “Really?”

  He cleared hi
s throat, looking a little uncomfortable, but nodded. “Really.”

  She held her grin from ear to ear all the way through the small forest and into the clearing in front of HQ, a dome-like and sturdy looking three story building made of nano-carbon steel. While the forest had been deserted, the area around HQ had some activity, with groups of people milling about and jogging together in black clothes, while others in blue and white uniform coats argued together and tossed holo screens at each other. The leader of the joggers saluted Ayzize as he passed, Ayzize returning the gesture while Celes quickly copied him. She had opened her mouth several times to ask what was going on, but restrained herself, watching for Ayzize to give her some kind of go ahead.

  One person in the blue and white coats had spotted Ayzize and paused by HQ’s door. This was the first male Rym Celes had seen in person, and she tried not to stare. This one looked as intimidating as the news reports of Ascendancy attacks on outlying GA colonies portrayed, with glowing white eyes, a muscular build, and a perpetual frown on his face, but he smiled at Ayzize’s approach.

  “Ayzize, it has been a while,” the Rym said, saluting Ayzize as the two of them approached, waving off his fellow blue and white uniformed colleagues. Celes tried not to stare at the Rym’s mouth, also moving out of time to his deep voice.

  “Indeed, Bendal,” Ayzize said, saluting the Rym back. “I’m surprised to see you out of R&D.”

  “Maybe not so much as I am to see you with a child,” Bendal replied good-naturedly, his eyes moving down to Celes. “Greetings, human child.”

  “... Greetings, Rym adult...?” Celes said back, looking up to Ayzize hesitantly.

  Bendal covered his mouth, eyes closed and laughing. “Clever one,” he said, turning his gaze back on Ayzize. “We can use more wit in the recruits versus egotistical strength, especially in the humans who just want to punch their way through everything.” He said it with no hint of hostility, but Ayzize stiffened and narrowed his eyes at the Rym. Celes looked between the two of them; was she supposed to be offended by that too? “Besides you, of course. I’ve read your reports when dealing with other humans; rather amusing responses.”