The second class ended, Celes had been the first to run out the door and shoot down the ramps instead of the lifts. Noc, what Rovanians called the sun, headed for the horizon by the time she exited the residence hall, the light wavering against the force field dome overhead. Most of the staff headed towards the gates to grab some local cuisine, and Celes followed a middling crowd through the gate. Even recruits could exit the compound, though with a strict curfew and a chaperone.
Just outside the complex, by the ‘No Entry Permitted’ holo sign, her teammates waited with their mentors. Meiri and Kyr were of the same species as their apprentices, though they looked odd. Meiri had been spliced with Osaŵ DNA so her eyes, instead of looking reptilian, were reminiscent of an owl’s: wide, round, and rarely blinking. The softer parts of her skin sprouted small and fine feathers that Aloi said felt soft. Kyr, on the other hand, was spliced with Rovanian DNA, giving him a more human-like body shape supplemented by soft tissue rather than hard, bark-like bones. While Selyn could not be augmented by much technology, Rovanians and humans could, and Kyr looked to be more of an android than an odd-looking Selyn. Ayzize leaned against the wall next to them and looked normal compared to the two other mentors, despite having rounded eyes and sharper features than most humans.
“Bout time you got here,” Aloi said, everyone turning their heads over as Celes approached. “You punch Mischa yet?”
“He’s better than a kid named Elliot back home, so no,” Celes said truthfully. Ayzize glanced away to hide a smile, before clearing his throat and pushing off the wall, patting her shoulder awkwardly in greeting. She gave him a smile, mentally shooting a message of >>Tell me everything later?<< when he gave a relieved nod. It felt weird being around him after they had the fight, but she’d rather it be weird rather than them be mad at each other, even if she got a necklace and ice cream out of it.
The mentors let the kids lead, allowing them to run around on the spongy concrete sidewalks as they ventured deeper into the city. The buildings towered higher than anything Celes had ever seen, and even Lyati found them strange; most buildings on the Selyn homeworld, Tellaris, were mostly organic. Some skyscrapers rotated, the separate stories going in different directions, reflecting kaleidoscopes of color onto the pavement. Both hover and flying cars sped past, and the multi-species crowd packed the sidewalks.
If the mentors worried about losing their kids as the girls darted through the crowd, they didn’t say. Kyr and Ayzize could reach both of their charges telepathically, and Meiri could message Aloi with the Tristat. While Celes had been used to being on her own, Aloi darted around with new freedom while Lyati stuck unnaturally close to them, actually reaching out and pulling Aloi closer to them any time she tried to bounce out of sight.
“What about this?” Meiri’s voice sounded through Celes’ Tristat, and the three girls stopped and turned around, seeing Meiri waving at a squat building across the street, the holo sign overhead blinking Rovanian characters. Celes tapped her Tristat for an English translation, but the word was still gibberish. “It’s like a worm place.”
“A what?” Lyati and Celes both asked with varying degrees of disgust, while Kyr and Ayzize gave their species equivalent (noodles for humans). While apprehensive, the three girls agreed to check it out, Aloi skipping on ahead across the crosswalk with Meiri.
The building’s interior looked oddly designed. In the middle stood the open kitchen, separated only by tall countertops from the rest of the dining room. Lines formed at different points from the round kitchen, and the cooks would make the food to order. The diners stood at tall tables, and the dining room resembled a tiny and squat stadium.
The mentors and the girls got their food and grabbed two tables next to each other. The three girls got their own table, and Celes took her first good look at her noodle bowl. Ayzize assured her that these were like regular noodles they could get on Endeavor, but the noodles were snot green and something in the bowl kept wiggling as if alive.
>>Is there some sort of bug in the food?<< she asked Ayzize mentally as the three mentors settled in at their own table next to them.
Ayzize surveyed her bowl, frowning. >>No. There will be something that looks like a dried-up octopus though; it wiggles when it touches liquid. Nothing to be worried about.<<
She looked down at the bowl. She had discovered a feature with the Tristat that showed body heat. She switched on the setting, and the whole bowl lit up a dull orange. Hopefully that only meant the bowl was hot, not because the contents were alive.
As planned, the kids let the adults talk and get comfortable, talking amiably about their day. Things were going well, and the adults visibly relaxed, chatting with each other while unaware of their three apprentices staring at them.
While Celes comfortably ate her noodles—that tasted amazing despite looking gross—a message flashed from Aloi on her Tristat. Subtly bringing it up, it read in English translation, “Think we should get the adults to relax more? A bit of Venk for Kyr and ‘alkihall’ for Ayzize?”
“Hmm, yes,” Lyati said, rubbing her head to turn off her Tristat. “That could be—”
“No.” Celes narrowed her eyes at Aloi, who looked taken aback. Glancing at the adults to make sure they weren’t noticed, she lowered her voice, “Alcohol can make humans mean and violent, so no.”
“Oh crap, I didn’t know that,” Aloi whispered back. “Meiri said it made humans ‘giggly’ and ‘really super relaxed’.”
“I… guess it can, but it hasn’t done that from what I’ve seen,” Celes muttered. “So, no, rather not go that route.”
“Ah, OK, no problem,” Aloi said, scratching underneath her eye, brightening instantly when Meiri glanced to her.
The rest of the meal went uneventfully, with everyone walking out of the restaurant a lot fuller than they came in. At the sidewalk, Meiri turned to the girls, her orange eyes wide. “So, where would you girls like to go next? There is an AR-cade somewhere, or we can catch a human holo-vid, and the Rovanians have a life show that—”
“Home,” all three of them said together. Aloi blinked slowly in false sleepiness, Lyati’s flowers had drooped a few minutes prior, and Celes faked a yawn for effect. “We’re tired.”
The three mentors shared a glance, as if unbelieving at what they heard. “So, let me get this straight,” Kyr said as Ayzize stared at Celes suspiciously. “You three, who had clamored about going out since you were tired of being in the complex, now want to go home after two hours?”
“Yeah. Carry me.” Aloi dramatically fell sideways, and Meiri bent down and scooped her up before Aloi hit the pavement. Lyati dropped her head, and with a sigh Kyr bent down to make her ride piggy back. She clambered onto his back, though she winced at having to touch someone.
Celes looked at Ayzize expectantly, faking another yawn, and he scowled at her. “Don’t give me that look, you can walk,” he said. She pouted at him, and they both had to settle for him letting her hold onto his arm.
The adults sensed nothing was amiss as they continued talking—with Ayzize shooting her suspicious glances less and less—while their apprentices privately messaged each other on how to spring their ‘ambush’. They couldn’t do it out in public and wanted to know if they indeed had been watched by a weird presence in the gate access. The best way to find out was reenter and go through decon again.
Back at the gates, with the inky blackness of night untouched from city lights, scans read their DNA signatures, and they went through the first round of decon. Aloi and Lyati had to be put back down on the ground, and they looked at each other nervously as the lights ran down their bodies.
“So, next room,” Lyati said, the flowers on her head closing—a reaction that Celes took for caution or nervousness. “Why is it empty and why do we have to wait there?”
“Gotta wait for the decon to reset,” Kyr said simply, and all three girls looked at each other, unconvinced.
After decon, they entered said empty room, the door shutting an
d drenching them in darkness. While Celes couldn’t see her teammates, she knew what they would do. Lyati would mentally scan for organics while Aloi would scent the air. Celes had to pour all of her concentration on opening all of her senses, to feel anything amiss in the room.
Expanding her senses outward, she felt three other people in the room and their energy; while her teammates—excluding Aloi and Meiri, being Levan—felt normal, Kyr and Ayzize felt strange… unnatural almost, but it wasn’t scary. Frowning, she felt nothing else once one long minute had passed. Maybe we were tired and thought we felt something, she thought in disappointment. She tapped both Aloi’s and Lyati’s shoulders to signal that she would finish searching.
Suddenly, with her hands still on her teammates, Celes felt her hair prickle on the back of her neck, like what had happened when she had first entered decon a month ago. Aloi and Lyati shifted away from her simultaneously. Pooling all of her energy around her, Celes turned her head while the room grew foggy. Her eyes landed on an outline of a humanoid figure kneeling behind her. It was the same silhouette Celes had seen a month before, with a few details that she had missed. Thick tubes ran from the figure’s body into the floor. The figure lifted its head, face muddled, and when Celes blinked, it vanished.
“What the sh—” Celes stumbled backward as she bumped into Aloi, and the lights flooded back on. Her eyesight adjusting through the white light, she saw Lyati kneeling and laying her hands on the ground where Celes had seen the humanoid figure, while Aloi leaned forward in the same direction, sniffing the area and flicking her tongue.
The sight must have looked ridiculous to the adults, who stared at them with a combination of mirth and concern.
“What are you three—”
“There!” Aloi pointed at the spot Celes and Lyati focused on, flicking her tongue out. “I smelled something, did you?” She looked at Celes and Lyati, who both warily nodded.
The adults exchanged a bewildered expression, but they didn’t look guilty or panicked.
“Is this a new game?” Meiri offered, cocking her head curiously. “I smelled nothing.”
“I felt something,” Lyati said, looking to Kyr desperately as she stood up. “It almost felt Lyre Selyn, but not…”
Kyr looked down at her, his expression smooth. “I was just right there, though, was it—”
“Unless you were kneeling down and had tubes coming from you, I don’t think it was you,” Celes said, too late realizing she interrupted an adult.
Any fear of reprimand was thrown out when both Kyr and Meiri snapped their gaze towards Ayzize, who stared at Celes with new apprehension. The room got quiet, too quiet, and all of them jumped when a voice through the intercom announced to proceed to the next round of decon.
“That is, if they don’t shoot us in the head first,” Kyr muttered, then barked to Lyati, “You need to stay behind me when we go into the next room.”
All three of the kids froze, clearly terrified, when Meiri whacked Kyr over the head. “Oh, shut up, you’re scaring them,” she scowled to both him and Ayzize. “I smelled the same thing when I was a recruit and brought it to my mentor’s attention and guess what, we weren’t shot. I just learned a little bit sooner.”
“What’re you talking about?” Aloi said, staring in between the adults while Celes and Lyati shared a scared glance.
Kyr’s cords intermingled with the dry black flowers on his scalp, the liquid running through them turning from a cool blue into a grey. “Think we should bring it up to Doth’s attention?” he asked, ignoring Aloi’s question.
“Absolutely not,” Ayzize said roughly. “My ass is already on the line; last thing we all need is him going after all of us.”
“Oh please, he’s not going to do anything.” Meiri’s fringes fluttered in anger. Kyr waved a hand impatiently at Lyati, who stared at him wide eyed. “Besides, if she thinks we should introduce them early—”
“It’s too early since they haven’t even been through basic training,” Kyr snapped. “Unless Nelowie revealed something, I truly don’t think this was intentional. Didn’t you say this one’s brother went to Aorírdal?” He waved a hand at Celes, and Lyati and Aloi’s eyes snapped on her immediately. “That was damn near scrying, and since Lyati barely noticed anything last time, a conduit—”
“I revealed nothing, and the PDTs should have stopped it.” Ayzize clenched his teeth. “No one even in Aorírdal can—”
“Silence.” The door to the decon hissed open with Vice Chairman Tralis gliding through. Her usual blue flowers tightly wrapped, she regarded the six of them coldly. Immediately, the adults fell silent and saluted her, and with confused looks, the kids did as well. “This one was by the docking bay when this one was… alerted to this situation.” She said it in a way that had some special meaning, since the adults glanced at each other. “Kyr is correct,” Tralis nodded. “It is too early, and Nelowie shared nothing. However, the implications that these apprentices could see, are interesting.” Her eyes landed on the three of them. Lyati drew back, Celes looked between her and the adults, while Aloi just looked frustrated, her fringe nearly vibrating.
“Interesting for what?” Aloi asked, with Meiri motioning for her to keep her mouth shut.
Tralis looked back to the three adults. “This one is sure you can understand what the recommendation will be, but for now, the meeting will go on as planned. That might change, of course, once Doth gets wind of it, but this one doubts it. Come, this one will accompany you through decon.”
With that, no one felt comfortable conversing, though the next two rounds of decon Aloi tried her hardest to wring something out of someone. Once outside the gate and safely into the complex, Tralis bid them well and departed, with Meiri dragging Aloi away from the Vice Chairman while Aloi screamed questions after Tralis. And Ayzize thought I was bad, Celes thought.
They made it into the copse before the kids all turned on the adults. “We’re not setting another foot anywhere until we know what is going on,” Lyati said, her own flowers tight on her head.
Aloi agreed and planted her own feet into the ground, squatting and setting her full weight on her thighs. “We’ve been practicing throws so don’t even try to haul me outta here, I’d just throw ya!... and pick you back up and hope you don’t come after me, but I’m not going anywhere,” she scowled to Meiri.
Celes knew that she couldn’t force or blackmail Ayzize into doing anything. She suspected if she cried he might be a little more talkative, but if he hadn’t explained what was going on, then he probably had a reason for it. Nevertheless, when Lyati and Aloi shot a glare at her, she folded her arms and looked to Ayzize. “We already saw it, so might as well know,” she said, hoping her voice came out stronger than it sounded to her.
“Nature take me, I need some venk,” Kyr muttered, putting a hand on a tree, and the air smelled smoky in his direction.
Meiri chuckled at Aloi flexing her thighs, while Ayzize looked tired. “We can’t explain what you saw since we’re not allowed yet.”
The kids all looked at each other; they couldn’t bully their way into getting information. “But is there something watching us?” Celes asked, the other girls nodding in encouragement.
“We can’t even answer that.” Ayzize glanced at her, then privately said, >>I know you want answers, and I expect you will bug us until you get them, but this is something we cannot talk about yet.<<
>>Can you give me something?<< she asked as Aloi and Meiri launched into an argument while Lyati and Kyr glowered at each other. >>Why can’t we know?<<
Ayzize grimaced, >>Celes, I’m not even supposed to hint at knowing something even exists.<< At her still pleading expression, he said, >>Fine, a very small hint and you can’t tell Aloi or Lyati. Raxdrýn expanded into security because of survival.<<
>>Yeah, because Raxdrýn would’ve become bankrupt,<< Celes said, remembering her remedial lessons. >>What does this have to do with whatever we saw in decon?<<
>>Everything. And
no, we didn’t go into security to avoid bankruptcy, but to survive, and survival beyond Raxdrýn. We’re talking galactic wide here. That is all I’m saying,<< he scowled as she stared at him with wide eyes.
“Ladies,” Ayzize said aloud, cutting through Meiri and Aloi harping at each other. “You can’t know yet. You will know, just not right this second.”
Meiri opened her mouth, then closed it when Aloi looked at Ayzize while Lyati regarded him with suspicion. “Why can’t we know now?” Aloi demanded.
“Aloi—”
“This is classified information,” Ayzize said plainly. “Everyone who has completed basic training and begins Varôk field training will learn of it, but not until then.”
Aloi frowned, glancing to Lyati and Celes. “So, we are being watched.”
“Yes, you are being watched by multiple people,” Kyr said in exasperation, then held up a hand. “You can ask until you are out of oxygen, but until you complete basic training, then no, you are not allowed to know. So best drop it now.”
“But that won’t be for another four or five years!” Aloi whined. Lyati nodded with a scowl.
The adults refused to discuss anything more when the kids pestered them, walking them back into the residence hall and dropping them off in the vacant basement with the AR games to ‘let off some steam’ while the adults went to another meeting. The act placated Aloi… barely.
“But we all saw it; I dunno why we’re not allowed to know until later,” Aloi said, sitting down on a couch with a frown. “You said you saw tubes?”
“Or… really thick vines, I dunno,” Celes shrugged, leaning against the wall. “I couldn’t see things very well, and I barely saw that. You said it was a Lyre Selyn?”
“Yes, or at least it felt like it, but what you said…” Lyati paced in front of them, a deep grimace on her usually smooth face. “All Selyn can connect with the earth, and Lyre Selyn can grow vines to make that connection…”
“What do you mean, ‘connect with the earth’?” Celes repeated.
Origins of Hope Page 32
