by Chucho Jones
“Quick, inject him with a hundred cc’s of vitro-nanites. He’s bleeding internally,” said one of the doctors. “His spine got completely traumatized from the lumbar to the cervical, he will need to undergo a laser procedure to correct it,” said the second doctor. Victoria saw her family’s anguish as they all awaited the prognosis. Leon’s body began to twitch and turn as his bones realigned. Greg walked over to the family.
“Please, understand that we are doing everything within our power and resources to optimize him,” said the robot, trying to comfort the group. Victoria wiped her eyes as she wrapped her arm around Laura. She felt her guardian’s body trembling in shock.
“What the hell is going on? What happened to my brother?” Laura asked. Oliver got off his chair and on his feet.
“He saved us all. We were attacked by something else. A vile creature. It was sucking the energy out of people. She could shapeshift her body somehow. It was difficult to nullify her,” the boy said. Despite the fact that the shimmery glow reflected on Oliver’s specs hid his eyes, Victoria realized he felt pain for his uncle. She had become worried about the alien arm changing her friend. Even though the boy had grown into a stranger, she was able to pick out his usual charming features.
“What do you mean you were attacked by something else? Another evil bitch, that’s just great!” said Victoria.
“Watch your mouth young lady,” said Laura to the girl, “What? You’ve been cursing like a sailor since we’ve gotten here, and when I blow off some steam you put me down?” Victoria replied – with a rushing sensation.
The medics kept working on Leon behind them, the energy in the room was tense. Even Oliver had a hard time standing up, but the boy was perplexed at Victoria’s reaction. She saw him looking at her and she caved. Laura grabbed her by the shoulders.
“Listen, I know we’ve been through hell, and it seems this rabbit hole will never end. How about we all keep it together from now on. We must stay strong. I promise not to lose it again if we stick together through this,” said the nursing mother to her children.
Greg approached Oliver, a metallic plate opened from the center of his chest and small tendrils came out reaching for Oliver’s alien arm. The vitro-plasma that resided in the slot of the back of his hand began to glow. Greg’s display at the base of his bulbous crystal head began to ripple as if creating a reading. The stereoscopic camera lenses dilated and the positronic brain inside the bulbous head began to glow.
“Master Hawke, we need to tend to your medical needs, could you accompany me to the next medical pod, we need to evaluate your condition,” said the robot to the boy. Oliver looked at his mother. She looked at her dying brother laying on the operating table being helped by F.A.M.I.L.Y.’s crew. She looked at Victoria, then Oliver.
“Fine, let’s take a rest. Show us where to go.” Laura said to the robot. Victoria felt a brief warm feeling. They could finally take a break.
8
Chapter 8
The sun was wavering below the horizon, tucking itself away before the onset of night. The cool evening breeze crept through the bushes, and the chill of the starry night made its way through the sky – just after being kissed by a shooting star. What sounded like Heartbeats in the distance, turned out to be muffled noises echoing about. From the night sky, another star shined brighter than the rest, standing out like a glistening agate among diamonds. Suddenly, the star changed. What looked like a falling star was, in fact, a saucer-shaped craft. Its speed never decreasing, the trajectory headed straight for a barn on Earth.
SMASH!
Darkness took over and suddenly a rushing jolt woke Leon up. A hazy blue liquid covered his environment, he tried to breathe, but instead he swallowed the blue hazy liquid. He felt desperate, and his body felt stiff. A warm numbing sensation overcame him. His thoughts spun faster than a record in a jukebox. The last thing he remembered was fall-jumping off the scarlet manta drone to stop the dark glider from ripping Omnimainden’s core out. His body felt a combination of a painful and a warm tickling sensation. His arms and legs responded to awkward involuntary movements.
The blue liquid rapidly turned into vapor. The capsule’s door opened and mist filled the room where the pod sat. Leon quickly sunk on the soft side of the pod as he took a moment to put himself together. His whole family awaited his recovery, impatient for him to come to his senses. He rubbed his eyes, he recognized Laura and Victoria, it took him a few seconds but he figured that the grown teen must be Oliver.
“How long was I out?” he looked around the room. A combination of light colored and sleek advanced technology with chrome accents dressed the cottage dining room, where the medical procedures were taking place. He saw Laura Standing next to her aging son. Victoria held Chuggy’s hand, and the machine who once was a menacing foe stood by them, like a hyper advanced robot butler ready to take orders. It suddenly hit him. He remembered everything, as if it had just happened yesterday, not only the past events of Auroville but most of his childhood before the encounter, before his accident. He felt heavy on the stomach as his mind took him back to the day that he woke after the dreadful moment. It had been just a dream. He moved his body, it felt stiff, his bones cracked in an acute echo. He had marks in every joint in his body. His head was in turmoil, I thought I died, he thought to himself.
“Please captain, try to walk over to me,” said the bulbous robot to Leon, as he slowly stepped out of the pod. He felt lighter, tighter, with more energy than before. Suddenly the worries of his old life dissipated as he rose and walked from the pod to his family.
“Do you remember what has happened to you?” asked the robot. Leon held her sister tight in a loving embrace. Victoria joined them, followed by Oliver. Chuggy jumped on Victoria’s back then onto Leon’s shoulders and disheveled his hair.
“Alright, alright, I’m happy to see you all too,” he said to his family. He turned to the robot and quickly recognized some of the old parts.
“Gr-3g right? Now, I remember everything,” he said with a firm tone as his mind skimmed through his life’s memories in a flash, something inside of him made him feel better, more confident.
“It’s Greg, the captain. It’s my upgraded codename provided by Oliver.” the machine said. Leon looked over at Oliver with a disapproving gesture. Then, Omnimaiden walked into the room, Leon’s heart skipped a beat at the site of the glorious woman, this time her frame had hints of gold and green that accentuated her beauty. He felt perplexed at the site of the lady.
“Excuse me tinman,” he said to the hovering robot and rushed over to Omnimaiden.
“Connor, are you alright? I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough. Did we save your core?” he said to the maiden with a glare in his eyes.
“No captain, F.A.M.I.L.Y. apologizes for risking your welcome. Unfortunately, I have no recollection of the mission on account of losing my predecessor’s core. However, I am happy to make your acquaintance and assist you in furthering your quest. I am deeply sorry your experience in 2166 hasn’t been the most optimal. Any questions?” said the new maiden to Leon.
“Where is she?” He asked.
The room had a white luminosity that brought calm into the environment. An oval door glided its yin-yang doors to the side in a delicate swoosh.
The room was eerily familiar to him. Something about it. At first, he thought of how he got there, the house he was in, the stairway, everything had a sense of home yet also was completely alien. He gazed the room and saw her there. Connor laying in a glass pod. Getting close to her and with an honest stare, he put his hand on the glass. He focused his attention on the cavity on her chest. The core was gone. He closed his eyes and made a fist. He struck the glass as hard as he could. The stroke was such that he managed to crack the glass. He got distracted by this feat. Laura and the rest followed behind him along with Greg and the neo-Maiden. The golden beauty approached him and gently grabbed Leon by his shoulder.
“Stop! Please. Let me show you something.”
<
br /> The maiden strolled to a glass pod across the room. Oliver looked at the broken glass, fixed his specs, then looked at Leon.
“Did you do that?” The boy asked in wonder. Everyone looked at him in surprise.
“I guess I did”, he said looking at his fists. A chandelier-like device came lower from the ceiling. An energy mist emitted from the artifacts core. A luminous being manifested in front of the full crew. A female beauty made entirely of light. Everyone looked at each other in disbelief then back at the maiden. Leon was lost in what his eyes were gazing upon.
“Hello everyone, I’m Connor, I’m happy to finally meet you all in person. I’m the real being behind Omnimaiden and Neo-maiden.” Said the luminous beauty. Leon second-guessed his infatuation towards the future lady.
“So, are you some sort of alien?” asked the wondrous rebel. Laura threw her arms up in the air and snapped them against her hips.
“Of course! an alien war between species – and Earth is caught in the middle.” said Laura anticipating the truth.
“Not at all, I was human once, about two lifetimes ago. I’m a cause of the toxic spills of World War Three. I have a condition that turned my every molecules into energy. Here at F.A.M.I.L.Y. we use phantom technology to keep me here. Otherwise, my molecular structure would be lost in dimensions,” said the maiden as to explain herself. Leon felt the honesty behind her intentions. He looked at his family, they also seemed convinced.
“What is phantom technology?” asked the boy as he fixed his specs, scanning the luminous beauty from top to bottom.
“Technology we developed after a former F.A.M.I.L.Y. member by the code name Telephantom. He could dive into dimensions like it was water. It’s the same technology Enlumacorp has been after in order to operate the monoliths dimensional drive,” said Connor to the team. Oliver got closer to her and stretched his arm out to her to touch her shoulder. The energy flowed through Oliver’s fingers and forearm and back at the maiden.
“I see, it’s what you use to describe the wielder’s power, dimensional physics and quantum computing,” said Oliver, as he stood in front of the lady. Leon raised his left arm and lowered the boy’s robot arm away from the maiden as he raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe you shouldn’t fiddle with that,” said Leon to the boy. The maiden turned and smiled at Leon; Leon saw her smile as she wanted to recognize him.
“It’s ok, you can try it too,” she said to the recovering rebel. Leon raised his right hand as the maiden held her left palm up. their fingers crossed as they locked hands together. Leon felt a rushing, tingling, sensation throughout his whole body. Almost like a light electric current going through his body.
“Wow, that was accelerating,” said the young man with a light scoff. The colors seemed a little brighter and everything became acute to his senses for a moment. Laura and Victoria looked at each other – aloof from the matter.
“What you felt, was the phantom technology syncing to your nanites. Master Hawke, knew exactly what to do to sync with me,” said the maiden. Laura looked at the maiden in distrust and stepped into the triangle.
“Why is it necessary for them to sync with you?” Asked the commanding officer. Leon saw the expression on her face and he feared she would begin causing a scene.
“I’m sure she has an explanation; can we please begin to trust somebody around?” said Leon to Laura, in a demanding tone. “Listen, whatever they stole from her we needed it to move on. I guess we’ll have to work together on this one sister,” Leon said as he strolled around in his underwear.
The round edges of the walls began to close in toward the middle of the room around the chandelier device. The crew sat around Oliver, nodded at Leon, and smiled. From the center of the floor, indentation extruded to shape a holo table around the lounge. Leon sat at the edge of the lounge’s seat and as soon as his ass cheeks touched the seat laced straps forced around his extremities and around his chest and neck, miniature nannies in assortments of grey, silver, and red crawled around and up his body to fit completely around the naked scoundrel.
“Wow, nice rags,” said the devilish scoundrel.
The glowing maiden approached the group and raised her arms around the holo table that created around them. She began to move her fingers across the pads.
Assorted images began to rise from the table up into the environment, no dust specs could be seen from the completely sterilized room. An image of a tall building with the words ‘Enlumacorp’ displayed in the holo table. The displays closed into a mezzanine near the penthouse. The mime was grappling from the mezzanine off into the distance carrying Oliver on his shoulder. The Image made the crew uncomfortable in their seats.
“Why are you showing this to us?” asked Victoria. The enlightened beauty gave comfort to the teen as she reached her hand to the side of her arm.
“Our journeys are intertwined. The man that disrupted your convoy is Chance, code name ‘The Mime’. He was a former F.A.M.I.L.Y. member but we lost him on account of his neurosis. He grew up in the confinements of F.A.M.I.L.Y., began to learn the secrets of our operation and suddenly went rogue,” said the maiden, as her body pulsated light force in and out of her being – as if to show the rush of her emotions.
“Yeah, the lab rat treatment can do that to you. I’m beginning to understand this guy,” said Leon. Everyone else looked back at him… “What? I’m just saying. You know what I’m talking about,” he said, as he tapped Oliver on the shoulder.
“Chance was one of our most valuable assets but he went rogue after we failed to stop the first monolith to hit Earth’s orbit,” said the maiden.
“What’s so important about this image then? It’s not just about Chance and F.A.M.I.L.Y., I want to know more about Dr. Dicken’s legacy,” said Oliver, wanting to get all the information right away.
“That’s exactly it Master Hawke. The phantom technology is what has triggered this million year catastrophe. When you shattered the cosmos, you created a ripple effect in existence. Dr. Dicken’s believed that there were limited points in existence where situations collided with perfection to maintain the flow. We’ve been chasing Mr. E’s endeavors for over a hundred years and It’s not until today that we’re able to put a stop to it,” said the maiden. It was as if she was trying to sell something to the crew.
Leon began to get the sensation that he might get cornered into doing something he didn’t want to do. Like almost everything in his developing life.
“Let’s say we begin to believe you, what does this… Mr. E ’s endeavors, have to do with us?” she said, while raising her hands and moving her fingers in air quotes.
“And how exactly will this help us to get home?” Asked Laura with disbelief in her tone.
“Enlumacorp is planning on taking all rate A citizens into an intergalactic voyage for the promised land. Some people even worship him as a god on Earth, in some cases others have deemed him as a demon,” said Connor, convincingly.
“That just sounds like a load of a crap lady – come on demons?” said Leon, in an aggravated manner.
“Hey, you said almost the same thing about aliens. Let’s give this lady a chance,” said Oliver to soothe the room’s energy.
“Aliens or demons Worthington, if we take the chance to disrupt the monolith’s voyage there’s a way to use the wielder’s power to open a portal to your next destination. You will need a vessel to take the trip and the only IFO capable of taking such a trip is at F.A.M.I.L.Y.’s lighthouse,” said the maiden – as if enticing the group to an agreement.
“Where is this lighthouse?” Laura asked.
“It’s orbiting Earth as we speak,” answered Connor. Leon could feel the aggravation taking over, too much information was beginning to overwhelm him. He got up and walked away from the briefing lounge.
“You mean space? Forget it! I’d rather take my chances in this place,” he answered without backing down.
Leon realized Victoria had her eyes locked at him in a disapproving ma
nner.
“You just gonna walk away from them, like you always do?” said the girl with teen angst behind her words. Leon felt a cold shiver down his spine as if he had been called out for being a chicken.
“Hey, you’re not the one dangling from a broken rocket ship into nothingness baby girl, so shut it,” Leon came back at her.
“Absolutely, but you were not the one who fought an alien robot to stop the alien madness once and for all,” Laura jumped in, “You’re the one who walks away, like right now.” Victoria got into the argument as well. The maiden stood there looking at their interactions, “I was the one taken by aliens remember. And, I was also the one to find Oliver and free our asses from the alien bitch,” said Victoria – who was holding back tears. Oliver stepped in and held Victoria from her shoulder.
“You’re right. and you’ve always been there for me. I’m the one that must carry this thing, who knows to where and when. I need you. All of you. That includes you Leon. You’ve already gotten me this far. This new-found knowledge drives us to work together. Don’t you understand? Somewhere Dr. Dickens created the technology for this to happen, we can’t back down from our destined path. Not right now,” Oliver said, certain in his words. Leon couldn’t help but succumb to the rooms energy, he thought of the struggle and he realized they haven’t gotten there just to stay.
“Fine, what have we got to do?” he asked the luminous maiden.
“We need to get to the lighthouse, come with me to the barn, I will assist Master Hawke in the teleadeportor, and we can begin our voyage,” she said, while sliding through the doors of the luminous white room.
“I guess we’re in for another family trip,” said Victoria in a perky tone – she was making a funny face at Oliver.
9
Chapter 9
