Aetheran Child
Page 31
The boy stood in front of the ship. He checked his NCC for the hour, and noticed he had only ten more minutes. The day went by quickly, especially since he fell asleep in the Gardens. He has never felt so relaxed and right about his decision though, which mattered to him the most at the moment.
Solan and Krall came to see him, wishing him good luck. Solan was still bitter at Lexan for leaving him to Sun Surf alone but understood his intentions. Krall laughed and winked at Lexan when he said, “I'll see you in half a year, my friend.” The boy had returned from his vacation early because the United Republics had finally cycled into its Imperialistic era.
As he watched hundreds of other students get onto the ship, he realized that he had no one else to part with. He began to walk toward the ramp when someone grabbed his arm.
“You can't go,” a voice too familiar said. Lexan turned around only to stare right into Bloo's fiery eyes stung with tiny mucous beads that rolled down her cheeks. The boy blinked.
A hallucination, he realized, and in front of him stood Charles. The chatterly, warm Octid from the Cardinal Regions, “You can't go alone. Come on, help me out with these bags.”
The enormous spider handed Lexan two large bags, and carried the rest with his strong appendages, “I did not realize you wished to join the Peace-Keepers, [Muray].”
The boy smiled and laughed, “I didn't realize you'd join, too. And by the way, it's Lexan.”
Charles's antennae glowed a brilliant green, the laughter of his species, “So your equipment was hacked too?”
Lexan nodded and could not help smiling. He could not have wished to have had a better friend to come along with him. The journey, his trip, and destiny might not be as lonely as he thought.
“When did you figure it out?”
“A few days ago during my Solitude Training,” Lexan remembered the Octid telling him of this secret training he performed during the break.
They walked together up the pathways toward the saucer, “Where should we get a room?”
Charles glowed a green again, he was obviously happy at the moment, “Wherever. Let's go.”
Without a single look back, Lexan walked on and on, between hundreds of people up to the enormous black saucer , the size of a city.
The darkness around his heart grew heavy and tangible. Despite it, he was happy, happy that he finally managed to come up with a way to help. Even though he might get killed, even though he will have to endure brutal training, even though he will eventually be brainwashed by the government and fight in this Nether war, killing innocent men and women; he felt certainly happy. Even though he will never be able to return back to this world and see these people that changed his life forever in those short few months, he knew it was best this way.
Even though Alary would stay here and live out in peace until the war reached the Aether system, Lexan would keep her in his heart. And even though Bloo, Nivua, Jacque, Solan, and all the others will never hear from him again, they will remember him as the strange Cardinal. The boy from an unknown world, without any understanding of this strange universe, he will be remembered.
Romul and Remu would certainly remember him. They will with most certainty never venture out into the Council sub-Node again, or experience such danger that he exposed them to.
But all might forget and live out their monotonous lives and forget about the changes he made, the realizations Lexan showed them all.
I am abandoning so much, he thought, for such an impossible task. All my efforts my go in vain. Yet on this day, June Third of the Earth calendar, he stood by his convictions.
“Just one question, Charles. What made you join the Peace Keepers?” he asked, stepping inside the black-walled saucer.
“Destiny.”
Epilogue
Behind, at the mouth of the port stood Bloo. Her burning red eyes glowed with tears. Her lip trembled, her quilt hair shook and fell down on her back. She clutched in her hand an item. In front of her, the saucer started to close up. All the people, many of her dear fellow classmates already left. This particular sector had been the last to load up new recruits.
In five long months, all those young men and women would enter training. A few months later, they would enter the war that ravaged the Independent Outlying Nations. Lexan, she thought, is most likely going to die then.
“Stupid, stupid boy,” she whispered with anger and sadness.
Her hands balled up into fists, her knuckles whitened. She wished she could hit her intangible feelings.
She cried solemnly, quietly, but ready to burst out loudly if she was not alone. People all around her stood and felt the same as her.
No, not exactly like me, she thought. She listened to Lexan's message days ago. He apologized, apologized for everything. She did not expect that. And she knew that he truly loved her.
But now she lost him, “He's gone,” she whispered through her clenched teeth.
Her hand was at the point of crushing the item in her hand.
She opened her hand to look at it. A simple ring made of durable metal. An alloy that could withstand the scorch of a star. It bore three small crystals that lit up whenever it received enough energy.
A new channeling ring for Lexan, one that impossibly connected to hers across the universe. If hers glowed, so would his and vice-versa. She wanted Lexan to remember her and know her love was true. And to think of her whenever he looked down upon his hands.
She broke into a sprint to the end of the platform. The bridges had already withdrawn and there was no way inside.
“May I help you miss?” A man Sky Surfed down to her level, he was dressed in a black skin-suit covered with grey armor. He was a military man, “Is there something you need?” he asked again.
“My friend, he left. I forgot to give him something.” she mumbled, her tears started to crust and dry on her skin.
“No problem, I can deliver it to him,” she smiled at the man and he smiled back at her, “Tell me his name, and he'll have it in no time.”
Bloo dropped the ring in the man's extended hand and mumbled, “His name is [Muray].”
The man surfed up and to the saucer. And just as he was out of her sight, the poor Cardinal girl broke into another cry.
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About The Author:
Antonin Januska is a writer, programmer, and a hobbyist photographer. You can catch up with him on his writing blog, Thought Essays or his programming blog, AntJanus.
The sequel to this book is already in the works under the title of Origins of Aetheri.
Follow me on Twitter: @antjanus