Remu frowned and activated her NCC.
“When we run through into the next Mandala, we can do an emergency force close on our link.”
The shadows gained considerably and started attacking the two but they never hit. It looked as if they were programmed to scare the two but never harm them. Lexan made a mental note to discuss this with Remu once they got out.
They ran as fast as they could, Lexan made vague attempts to fight off the anti-bodies. A few minutes later, the portal appeared in front of them. Remu gave a command and the door opened wide. With a giant leap, Lexan grabbed Remu's arm and they fell through. The boy gave a backward swing, destroying the door terminal from the outside. The door slammed shut, leaving the anti-bodies inside the enormous maze.
“Good, we're through,” Remu got to her knees and stood up only to meet face to face with a Police Droid program. A large shiny robot with a blue uniform. Few guards stood by him with their red-golden outfits.
Lexan reacted instinctively, and threw himself over Remu, who in shock, could not even do anything.
“Get us out!” he shouted but Remu's whole body was frozen.
“We're done for,” she whispered with fear. Around them stood a whole army of Police Droids, twenty different officers at least. Lexan ground his teeth in frustration, he took ahold of his sword hilt tightly. His knuckles went white, his whole body seemed to explode with energy. I will fight them, they can't take us, he thought, they will send me back to Earth. He could not bear going back to Earth, back to that old world. He could not bear the restriction and the blindness he had to endure.
A few of the closer Police Droids took out their weaponry as a precaution. I can't leave, he thought, especially now that I know where Alary is. The energy around him burst once more, the main Police Droid called to the others and they moved in to apprehend two.
“Emergency Log Out,” a female voice said. The droids did not seem to hear it but the two motionless students did. With an exclamation and a short shriek, they disappeared.
V
“Good, you're finally awake,” a voice spoke out. Firm hands gripped Lexan's barely conscious body.
“Wha-? Where?” he struggled to piece together a few words, “am I?”
“You're out of DomeStem. You're here. Now get up and help me with Remu,” the voice had an edge to it. It sighed with exhaustion and deep labored breathing.
The boy opened his eyes to encounter bright lights, the immediate shock turned the brightness into darkness. A pounding headache paralyzed him.
“Hold on, this might help,” once again the voice spoke, giving mild guidance. A hand touched the boy, it seemed to be poking his wrist.
“Stop that,” the boy said but the voice ignored him.
“Booting...” Another voice spoke, it seemed to speak from within Lexan's had, it was familiar, “Body chemistry reset in process.”
Lexan felt the chemicals spread through his body and awaken him. The darkness disappeared in front of him stood Romul. With the headache gone, he could concentrate on what was happening. They were out of the Inner DomeStem. A list of information automatically pulled up, informing the boy with the acquired information as well as the status of the Main Personality Interface. Looks like Joshua is up and running, Lexan thought and smiled at the print out of the information. He had everything on Bloo, and on Alary, as well as Master Raki.
But what had happened?
He turned and saw Remu lying unconscious.
“I can't wake her up,” Romul cried exasperated, “We need to get out of here.”
The tall boy tried to lift his sister but seemed too tired. His usual slick pony-tailed hair fell into his face. He straightened up, his hair fell to his shoulders, and looked at Lexan. The smaller boy stood up and helped Romul.
“You grab the legs, I'll get her arms,” Romul said and both of them heaved, she was light enough, thought Lexan, I could probably carry her alone.
“I think I can carry her alone,” he said and the other nodded. They put Remu down and Lexan lifted her over his shoulder.
“Where are we headed?” he asked as he gripped Remu's legs firmly with one arm so as not to let her slide down.
“To the dorms. Here's the map. The trip should take about half an hour. I know it's long but we don't have a choice.” Romul said and sent Lexan the maps. The trip went through some of the familiar Spheres.
“How about we make a stop at a closet?”
Romul stared for a second and nodded. The boys left, watching out for flying sentry droids. They ran down to the transport station, which obviously enough, had twice as many sentry droids circling it. There was no alert, no visible known alert, in place, the droids just circled. The school bulletin explained that they were at all transport station for security.
“How are we gonna get out of here?” Lexan asked Romul.
“We'll have to run up behind the diagonal lines over there. Then, we'll have to jump on a transport.”
The two ran behind the angled runways and hid. The sentry droids did not notice them. Or acted as if they had not. Lexan could not shake the suspicion that the Council let them go, and let them be, but for what reason? A couple of lights flashed but none stopped by the runway where Lexan and Romul stood.
“We'll have to transform into Aetheri. Otherwise, I don't think there's any other way to get up there. I did not realize how fast the transporters accelerate.”
Lexan closed his eyes and concentrated. He could hear his heart thump too loudly, the stress peptides flooded his system. His whole body shook. The adrenaline beat through his veins too fast, too much.
“Who would have thought it'd be this hard under pressure?” he said awkwardly, trying to relieve some of the built up stress. Lexan sat down, and crossed his legs. Suddenly, the thoughts in his mind unraveled and smoothed. His whole body vibrated and he became an Aethe. It's not supposed to be this easy, painless, without a hitch, he thought, but then let the matter go. He had other important things to worry about, transforming too quickly and too easily was the last issue he’d want to confront.
“It's your turn,” he spoke but Romul did not respond, “hey, come on Romul, transform.” The boy did not respond at all. He seemed nervous, very uncomfortable to be in the situation, Lexan noticed. The Aether took off his helmet and looked around, in this form, he did not need the rebreather.
The surroundings changed. Everything had a clear blue haze over it, some objects glowed with a peculiar aura. Romul glowed with a distinct white blue, and so did Remu. Although her aura seemed to be fainting. Somehow, Lexan was able to see through walls, but barely. The tubes that ran across the transport station showed its hidden serial markings. Sentry droids that flew around, exposed their electronic innards, including their motors that kept them afloat.
Lexan spoke at the boy looking out for danger again, “Romul, hurry up. Transform.”
The boy finally turned around, but looked right past Lexan, “Where did he go?” he asked himself.
“Lexan,” he called out and Lexan responded, “right here Romul!” the other ignored him as before.
“Damn boy skipped out on us, sis,” Romul said and threw an awkward grin over to Remu's direction. The sister, of course, did not respond, which wiped the smile off the boy's face. He took a couple steps back toward the wall where his sister lay. His hands came together and in a couple of seconds he became an Aether.
Once again, Lexan's vision of the boy changed, he seemed more real than anything around. His strange aura became brighter, stronger, more visible.
“There you are, where were you?” Romul asked as he walked up to the other Aether. He stopped suddenly and looked Lexan over, “Why do you look so strange?”
“I was here the whole time. And what do you mean by strange?” the Aether responded, looking at his hands, he could not see anything wrong with his body.
“You're just, less visible. It's kind of eerie.” Romul answered and made a
strange face.
“Let's just go,” Lexan cut him off and headed for Remu. He stumbled a few times because he could not recognize the difference between the floor and what was beneath. The floor seemed to be a light white, a transcluscent color with blue objects behind it. All the colours around the boy seemed to flatten into shades of blue with white lines representing outlines of objects. Everything except for Romul who still, seemed more real than anything else around.
Shadows floated aimlessly around, Lexan did not know what they were. The shadows seemed to waver and follow no physical laws, nor any goals. They just floated around. As confused as he was, Lexan did not ask Romul about the shadows for he saw a transporter heading their way, the right way.
“Look, we can get on that transporter.” he pointed ahead, only to realize, he pointed at another transcluscent wall.
“I don't see anything,” Romul answered but just in case, he got ready. Both boys walked to the side of the track that run diagonally up and away. A transporter light deccelerated to a stop, two people walked out, and the twisted light sped ahead again.
With Remu over his shoulder, Lexan ran out to the track and jumped on the light, that Lexan now realized was actually a small world, a universe on its own twisted through dimensions higher than the third or even the fourth. The tiny universe closed off from the outside every time it passed over a marker situated all around the transport level.
The trio fell toward the closed off bubble and actually made it just in time before the portals all around the material light closed off. Lexan still stayed aware of his surroundings inside the bubble but noticed Romul’s and Remu’s bodies stood motionless, suspended within the tiny world. The boy looked outside and saw the blurry outside world move with super speed as the bubble traveled from one sphere to another.
Lexan grabbed the two, throwing Remu over his shoulder, and jumped outside the bubble right before it came to a full stop.
Romul came to and the two crawled behind a beam within the transport station that they had just come from.
“Where am I?” Remu asked, a little too loudly as she woke up. Sentry droids started swarming around the area.
“Shut up Remu,” Romul hissed.
“Why? What's happening?” She asked again, still too loudly.
Lexan grabbed Remu strongly and set her down in front of him.
“What the hell?” She shrieked, and the sentry droids finally sounded the alarm. The little flying spheres accelerated toward the tracks, their little circular sensors scanned the area with thin beams of light. Lexan saw the beams as red streaks in his blue-shifted visible spectrum.
“Shut up. Romul let's move!” Lexan yelled. Expecting to see the droids shift and scan the area where he spoke, he grabbed Remu and jumped over the transport bubble. I jumped? He thought to himself wonderingly. The meters high leaps positioned him in front of the transport. The bubble was exposed to any kind of entry.
Remu tried to push off the invisible force. She could not locate the source of the force that grabbed her. She struggled even as Romul told her to stop. Someone, or something, laid her down in her seat. The Aether Romul jumped into the small universe.
The bubble sped off. They traveled six Spheres diagonally up. Lexan pushed the two off the transport once he saw the sentries were gone.
“They're after us,” Lexan said, Romul nodded when he saw the sentry droids speed after them, in the far distance.
“We're almost there, if we travel three Spheres to the left, we'll get to a Sphere full of closets,” Romul said.
“Who are you talking to? What's happening?” Remu yelled out.
“I'm talking to Lexan. We're headed for a closet to lay low for a bit and think this through,”
“But, where is he? Three-way the channel so I can talk to him, too. Or at least, don't be so rude and mute yourself when you talk to him,” Remu said disgustedly and got up. She checked her NCC and booted up her internal computer. Her head pounded, she groaned.
“Flush your body chemistry,” Romul murmured.
“What do you mean you can't see me?” Lexan eyes went wide and he turned around in his seat to stare at Remu who seemed to continue to ignore him.
“I couldn't see you before either Lexan,” Romul said, “Remu, he's in some kind of a strange Aether form that only Aetheri can see. You won't see him nor hear him, but he's right next to me.”
Busy with her NCC and readjusting her body chemistry, Remu jerked upward and stared incredulously, “You're kidding.”
“No. Turn into an Aether and see for yourself.” Romul said a bit annoyed. He took out his NCC and let its nano-constructed tubules reach below the transport. He programmed it so that the transport would not stop going.
An armada of Sentry droids followed while the trio hid. Remu sat cross-legged and after a minute, she let her body transform.
She made a face and turned toward the boy previously holding her, “Lexan, he was serious! How come you were invisible?!”
“I didn't know!” Lexan yelled defensively, “We'll talk about this later. When are we getting off, Romul?”
They jumped into another random transport and sped off horizontally. Lexan, again, threw them all out of the bubble universe once he saw the transporter level of the closet Sphere come up.
The station appeared and within half a second it was gone again. All three had jumped out and ran behind the pillar. Their Aether images confused the general sensors.
A hoard of new flying sphere robots swarmed the place and exited just as quickly, pursuing the transport. Droids from the current Sphere exited through the track as well. The boy was glad he used Romul’s programming for this transport as well.
“Great, the transporter trick worked perfectly, now we're free to go,” Romul jumped up and smiled. The other two followed him down the station until they reached the elevator. When they arrived to the main floor which housed hundreds of coffin-like capsules, Remu stopped all of them.
“Are you sure they won't be watching this part of the Sphere?” she asked.
“Yeah, they are only at the transport stations. Now let's go,” said Romul, getting more annoyed with each breath. His long blonde hair wavered around in the Aether form. As soon as he took a step outside of the elevator, though, another alarm sounded through the emergency network. An “identify” command was sent to the three.
“We gotta run,” Lexan yelled and headed for the closest closet. Romul and Remu followed, running slower than the Aether in front of them. Sentry droids swarmed the area immediately, scanning for the criminals. Their formation spread over the area like ants searching for food. And all with a purpose, search for the intruders. Lexan wondered again, as before, why no doors, no force-fields, no extra security measures were implemented to stop them. Getting in the closet will be the real challenge, he thought, because then I will know what’s really going on.
The rows and rows of stacked upright coffins protected the trio as they ran. Some of the first robots entered their row and signaled the others to join.
“Identify yourselves,” the droids screamed. Lexan looked back and something made him think of his teachings. A burst of fire shot down their enemies. Their melted innards spread on the white tiled floor.
“Nice shot,” Romul said as he exhaled, “I see an open closet right over there.” He pointed and following the line of sight flew by a red electrical blast.
“They're shooting at us!” Remu screamed. Lexan once again turned around and melted a couple of the flying robots.
“Come on, we're almost there,” he yelled as he neared the closet. The boy stopped in his tracks and opened the chamber. He set the dimension warp for another time-space continuum. One where time passed by quickly, the same one he had been in before. This time, though, he chose a different location.
Instead of an empty landscape, he chose a busy city. A galactic marketplace. The funny thing about closets was that it could take a person anywhere in the o
ther dimension, any place a person chose. But when coming out, that person would reappear in the same exact place where he or she started. Those were the rules, and that was the law.
The chamber energized and welcomed its visitors. As Lexan waited for his companions, he continued to pick off the sentries with bursts of fire, the only 'spell' he could remember on the spot. I need to start paying more attention in class, he thought. Unfortunately, 'spells' could not be recorded by the NCCs, the feeling and the way to cast them were indescribable. They were just feelings, concentration, and conjuration mixed together.
“Lexan behind you!” Remu yelled and pointed next to the boy holding the door. He turned around and saw three Sentries floating. They did not even notice him, they were waiting to ambush the two still running. They can't see me, he thought. With a smack of the hand, one of the sentries flew into an adjacent casket.
“Unit down, what happened?” the second floating droid yelled before Lexan kicked it to the floor.
“We can't see the enemy, caution,” the third yelled and transmitted to the others as Lexan grabbed it and the droid melted to the ground. By the time he accomplished this, Romul and Remu caught up.
“Let's get in,” they said simultaneously. The three entered the chamber, unfortunately, a visitor joined them. One of the droids. It started screeching loudly and flashing a series of lights intended to blind the enemy. It worked on Romul and Remu who waved their arms around in hope to hit the robot. Lexan stared at the duo and the robot. He could see clearly, the lights were never bright enough too blind him, they seemed to be in a strange fog.
The robot opened some of its ports, somehow, Lexan knew it would release gas, sleeping gas. He could not let that happen. The other side of the closet opened and the boy punched the droid hard enough to send it flying across a street busy with people. It exploded on impact.
“We're here,” Lexan said and walked outside.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I
“Are you serious, but how is that possible?” Remu yelled out, slamming her mug-full of drug-enhanced liquid down.
Aetheran Child Page 24
