Aetheran Child

by Antonin Januska

  “I think I will look into it. Not over the break though, okay?” Lexan said and waited for an answer from Solan.

  “Yeah, definitely, cool. Get it as soon as possible. I'll teach you the basics after school. I think the next break is in two months?” Solan posted the school calender which showed a one week break two months after the one coming up.

  “Alright, we'll do it then.” Lexan gave Joshua an order to fill out the appropriate funding papers for Sun-Surfing. He also looked under nutrition and found he may get a certain allowance credits with which he may try out the Galaxy's food. He applied for that as well.

  He noted the job section, highlighted it, and gave Joshua an order to scan all the available places.

  The boy switched over to his conversation with Romul and Remu whom have continued their own chatter while he was gone.

  “Let's make it on Decday.” Romul announced, “And kind of late when most people leave for the parties. How about 27.00?”

  “Make it 28.00,” Lexan started, “People will be already at the parties, therefore empty halls.” Good, he thought. He'd have five hours with Bloo, two or three with Jacque and Nivua, presumably.

  Remu and Romul agreed and marked their schedules. They turned off the channel. One down, two to go, he thought.

  Lexan switched back over to Nivua, Jacque, and Bloo, “Alright. That's it, 23.00 on Decday? We should go see a showing after.”

  “Good idea.” Jacque blurted out, “We should go see some scary movie.”

  “Yeah, I like that idea, Jacque,” Nivua said excitedly, “We should go see the Ravagers.”

  Bloo agreed and booked a showing. She was always so organized, Lexan thought, “Okay, we'll go see Ravagers right after dinner.”

  Everyone said their goodbyes and switched off the channel.

  Meanwhile, the class was about to end. Tr. Circi assigned some more meaningless homework, Lexan knew he could finish within the hour.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  I

  “Dance tickets available. Get them before break. Mid-year Dance, only 15 credits. After the break, the price will go up.” A sign flashed across the walls and across the opening door that was marked with I623CI4. Lexan stepped through and fell down on his bed. Only then did he notice a figure lying on the bed. It wasn't Jacque.

  “Hey Lexan, what's up?” She said, Lexan rolled over and saw Nivua lying down comfortably on Jacque's bed.

  “Nothing, just mind exhausted. I hate all this socializing, never any peace.” He rolled his eyes, and then put it over his eyes. Remembering the reason why he even wore a suit, he prompted Joshua to up the oxygen dosage and adjust his body's efficiency.

  “Oh yeah, sometimes, I like to get away from it all.” Nivua answered and took off her helmet. The long hair of her avatar disappeared and was replaced by a neat bundle. She placed her fingers into the bundle, pressed something together, and the bundle fell apart to show the same length hair, Lexan always admired.

  She turned to him, with her large brown eyes and smiled. Her golden skin reflected the light like a diamond. Lexan found himself staring but then tore his eyes off her to look above, at the ceiling. He saw a small spider crawl from the corner, silently, and very carefully. He tried to zoom onto it, but when he did, the spider disappeared. Perplexed, he scanned the rest of the room but found nothing except for Nivua's stare.

  “Is anything the matter?” He asked cautiously.

  “I'm bored and Jacque has a class.” she rolled over on her bed and sighed, “Let's go do something.” she suddenly said and looked over at Lexan. Bloo had class too, he thought. He also did not have any plans, not on Octdays, he never has plans on Octdayst. Two more days until Decday and then he could enjoy the twenty-day break. He smiled.

  “Yeah, what do you have in mind?” He asked and pulled up the information on current festivities in the area.

  “I'm not sure,” She rolled over on her back, “Let's go see the waterfalls!” She jumped up with a wide smile on her face.

  Lexan plugged the route into his mind, so that he would not have to follow it on the screen. They walked out of the room toward the garden located in one of the open spheres. The structural integrity stayed the same, the only difference was that the top half of the sphere featured large gardens with waterfalls, rivers, and a lake without a top covering while the bottom, below the transportation station, hosted an aquarium filled with many kinds of fish and other oceanic monsters.

  They followed the shortest route, doing so as if they had walked the way millions of times before, until they reached the transportation station which blasted them through the tubes into one of the lowest spheres, right above the ground. As they exited the station, rolling signs jumped out at them, announcing all the newest fauna and flora present in the sphere. Other signs pointed them toward the surface and the gardens.

  Lexan and Nivua followed those signs until they emerged in a luscious green garden that smelled like roses and fruit. Flowers bloomed left and right, exposing its pollen to the buzzing bees. Small animals, such as rabbits, mice, and beavers, scattered away at the couple's arrival. Except they were not rabbits, mice, and beavers, the boy realized, they were creatures that resembled them but were of a different planetary origin. Joshua quickly identified the creatures as latkins, breaces, and lerpers. And the flowers were not waiting to be pollinated by bees. Lexan slowly walked along the brown path inset between the green plains. Nivua took him by the arm and led him toward the cascading waters.

  The long river snaked through the gardens and featured a countless number of small bridges where one could cross from one side of the Sphere to the other. Lexan walked over to the bushes by the side. He ran his hand across the smooth leaves and tore one off. As he stared at it laying on his hand, the wind picked up and the leaf flew off into distance. Nivua walked up behind him and picked up a flower. She placed it behind her ear and looked upon the waterfalls. They crept closer and closer until they felt the fine mist spray them across the face.

  A large rock lay in middle of a crescent-shaped watefall, breaking the water into two falling streams. Lexan and Nivua climbed up the side of it. It seemed too easy for Lexan's muscles, he was too used to his body and how it felt back on Earth. Experiencing a gravity stronger than on Earth, he placed on hand after the other upon the rocky wall. Only now did he feel how strong he has become. He marveled at the way his muscles responded dutifully, carrying out every command he gave. Even with the gravity being twice of the original, he could climb with no problem. His right arm reached for an opening and as he heaved higher, his feet slipped and he hung on by one arm. Just like in the movies, he thought. But he was not worried, in the case of an emergency, he would give full control of his body to Joshua. The computer would think with lightning fast speed, deciding whether to reach for the wall in case of a fall, and straining his muscles to the extreme to minimize the damage.

  But nothing happened, Lexan hung on, looked down, and reached for a hold with his other arm. Nivua had no such problem, being agile as she is, she was already on top. Lexan followed, still amazed by his strength and by the speed he climbed. The waterfall stood upon a three hundred meter cliff and they had scaled it within ten minutes.

  “Isn't it beautiful out here?” She looked out, over the tall trees, the small forest, the pasture and the lake. Her eyes followed the line of the river finally reaching upward toward the sky and the bright sun. She smiled, spread her arms, and let the wind ruffle through her suit. She put her hand in the water, and felt the temperature.

  Lexan stood by silently, looking up at the horizon. Everywhere, Spheres, he looked left and right, the only thing he saw was a net, a mesh network of Spheres connected by transportation tubes. Nothing else. Below them, on the ground, the real surface of the planet thrived with green vegetation and an occasional tall tree standing out in the plains. He looked up above to see the mesh continue obscuring the white sky.

  Nivua suddenly took off her suit,
revealing her beautiful body and a thin layer of fabric. She jumped in, swimming against the current, away from the cliff's edge, “Come on! Get in Lexan!”

  He started at her in disbelief, “Joshua, how is it possible for her to breathe normally without a helmet or a shield?”

  “Her lungs are used to the high pressure and high oxygen levels.”

  “Are mine?” He asked.

  “Not yet but you can download a program for you NCC to turn into a rebreather. It will last several hours on its charge. If you let me re-program the original set of instructions, I can turn half of the rebreather into solar panels and thus provide it with more energy. That will make it last as long as the sun is out. Also, beware the gravitational pull. I will notify the Sphere to adjust to your body but it may not be able to do so completely.”

  “Do that.” He said and took off his helmet. He let his hair sweep in front of his eyes. The NCC climbed up from its dock on his wrist and positioned itself over his mouth and nose. A small silver string connected to his cerebral plugs by the back of his head. The liquid solidified, showing thin grills in the front with small solar panels attached, “Joshua?”

  “Yes?” Joshua answered.

  “One more thing, program the computer to alert me when I have only half an hour of recess left.”

  “Done,” and with that, Lexan took the rest of his suit off and laid it out by the river. He jumped in, making quite a large splash at which Nivua shrieked. His body became heavier and he felt an uncertain pull but didn’t mind it.

  He felt the water envelop his body, streaming against his skin. It pushed him downward toward the gaping jaws of the waterfall. He felt Nivua swim beside him, and suddenly, she jumped on his back.

  He quickly shook her off, laughing. She tried again, this time tightly grasping his legs. He could not hold on, and the water took them both. They dived into the water, Lexan tried to hold onto the rocks on the bottom. but they were too slippery. He finally let go, and let himself be dragged by the stream to the cliff’s edge. Nivua let go of him too, she screamed with joy. Then, she pushed herself under the water, and jumped up. Her amazing muscles pushed her so far off the ground, she did a backflip and crashed into the wall of falling water going down.

  Lexan followed her closely, without the tricks. He positioned himself so that he could kick off the edge when he got close enough. His foot buried into the ground and then he lept off the edge, seeing the smudge of the Spheres and the garden around before he promptly accelerated toward the ground. He noticed the ease and strength he felt as he leaped off. He should not have felt that, the planet’s gravity was much stronger and the Sphere should not be able to compensate this much. He asked Joshua but he could not explain it.

  The water droplets splashed hard against his face and in his eyes. He saw the bronze blur that was Nivua to the right of him, extending her hands toward the waters, finally submerging herself into the lake.

  Lexan did the same, and became one with the water, falling quickly and blindly. He felt his knee scrape a rock. He quickly pulled away and propelled himself outside into the air. His body flipped a few times, turning left and right before he steadied his position again.

  Twenty seconds later, he splashed into the bottom pool, falling through the mist and foam the waterfall created. He dove deeply, very deeply yet he still could not see the bottom. He swam even deeper, pushing himself with powerful strokes. He could see lights at the bottom and then he saw it.

  There was a tunnel that lead to the bottom of the sphere, into the ocean. He looked to the side of him and saw Nivua following. He smiled and pointed upward. They surfaced seconds later.

  “Isn't this exhilarating?” She screamed over the loud roar of the cascading water.

  Lexan screamed back, “Yeah! That was amazing!” He smiled and she smiled back. Nivua swam and pushed him into the water, then kicked and headed for the shore. She lifted herself upward and laid down on the grass. She took in the sunshine, breathing heavily from the short exercise. Lexan admired her from distance and then followed suit. He laid himself out on the fresh, green grass. The sun above shone through his water-filled eyelashes while his hair bounced around his forehead with the gentle breeze.

  Nivua closed her eyes and took in the sun's rays, “Isn't it so nice out here?” She said without turning.

  “Yeah. I did not even know this place existed.” Lexan replied with the sentence he used so often with Bloo. Bloo always surprised him by taking the both of them to strange and exotic places on the planet. They explored the caves beneath the Sphere network. They ventured out into the enormous malls and window-shopped aimlessly for hours. Lexan even saw the animal farms and safaris in the plains. He had walked the planet's surface, feeling the strange and unfamiliar soil in his hands. Yet, no matter how much time he spent discovering the beauty of the planet, he could never see it all.

  The sun dried his hair within minutes, the undersuit dried itself too. He saw a strange butterfly-like creature fly over his head. It has large translucent wings tinted with a pale blue. A swirl of patterns layered the wings, but ever so smoothly, being as translucent as the base pale blue. The butterfly landed on his chest, gently opening and closing its wings. Lexan stared at it for a while then swiftly turned into an Aether. The butterfly could still see him, he knew that but now, his skin and his suit would feel different to it. It flew upward, toward Lexan's face and looked down upon him. It seemed to want to converse, not knowing how to, so instead of saying anything or communicating, the butterfly landed on Lexan's nose. It walked up to his forehead then back to his mouth. Finally, it lifted off, not knowing what to do and flew away into the bushes. The boy felt a connection to the butterfly and felt its frustration but could not hear its words.

  Nivua watched the butterfly leave then turned into an Aether too. She followed the butterfly, levitating above the ground. Lexan did not follow her, instead, he jumped into the water again.

  The water seemed to react differently now. Instead of enveloping him and rushing the torrents against his body, the water flowed through him occasionally, creating whirlpools and underwater tornadoes. Lexan knew his body needed far less oxygen to survive in this state and so he dove down, farther into the ocean beneath.

  He lit his way along by creating a bubble of bright light. The bubble, nested upon his hand, illuminated everything around in the tunnel. Lexan kicked strongly and dove deeper and deeper. The tunnel, he noticed, was made of glass or a similar see-through material. He saw the transportation station and various people walking around, even a couple of Opiders. Few Shuns turned their head toward him but then walked off.

  The sea spread out in front of him, filled with thousands of fish. The first fish he encountered were very small, and colorful. They swam through him a couple of times. Others swam right in front of him, and like the butterfly, they strangely stared at him. Lexan did not know what to do so he simply watched the creatures swim in the water in various patterns.

  Even deeper, the fish grew larger and stranger. Some grew natural lights into their bodies. Others glowed brightly very brightly. Their skin hosted bioluminescent cells that turned on and off. Once again, creating patterns. Lexan wished he could ask Joshua what that meant or what they wanted. He made a mental note to do so later. The creatures encircled him once again and swam with him.

  Nivua was nowhere to be seen. She did not follow Lexan down into the ocean, which proved to be much larger than he thought it would be. He swam for at least fifteen minutes until he reached the bottom. He could not feel the enormous pressure of the water, which surprised him and what surprised him even more was the absence of cold.

  The waters swirled around and pushed up against Lexan, with larger and larger force. He felt his body falling apart into its normal state but instead of transforming back, he closed his eyes and meditated. The complete silence calmed him and gave him some time alone with thousands of sea critters around. Alone time without any electronics nor any sounds,
with no connection to the outside world, gave him a sense of peace.

  His re-breather beeped soon after he closed his eyes, annoyed, he swam back up through the tunnel into the small lake which the waterfall deposited into. Once he surfaced, he saw Nivua back in her suit, walking around the gardens, and picking random flowers. Lexan, still in his Aether form, swam directly up the waterfall. The water splashed hard against his body while his hands pushed the water downward toward its destination. After a while, he had to switch and grab the rocky wall behind the curtain of water. The boy climbed with furious speeds, not even realizing that his body had started turning back into his human form. By the time he reached the top, he looked like any other being on the planet.

  Nivua watched him carefully from the bottom. She admired him, more than she should have. And she knew that too. Minutes later, they met up by the base of the cliff.

  “I gotta take Bloo here sometimes.” Lexan said and Joshua made a note about it.

  “Yeah, this is a nice place. Jacque doesn't like nature much though.” Nivua answered pondering and looked up at the sky, “The recess is just about over, we should hurry up.”

  They turned to leave and walked to the transportation station.

  II

  “In other news, the swift-space is nearing complete collapse. It has been centuries since the last universe found through the fifth dimension had to be closed off to the general public. The top of scientists in the United Republics, Outlaw Alliance, and United Galactic Nations have been trying to solve the problem but have not made any progress in weeks. Our correspondent Jim has the story...”