Patrik Jones and the Code of the Universe

by Robert S Kleinstone

  She kept talking.

  «You know, the place where you sent us to die actually led us to a place where time is different, as you can see. Even the awareness of the real need of a galaxy, even that is different. They know how to tame the Code. They know that balance must favor those who make the galaxy stronger, more compact».

  «At Elisaar we established that this was a risk. Many died in that vain attempt, and many are still dying to bring the Flower back to its original state» replied the gohtarma, who had experienced arkassian suffering first hand.

  «Darkonar, you were so gifted!» the Solaryan told him, pointing with her finger, underlining the regret of not having convinced him long ago to follow her.

  Then she lifted her sleeve and showed it to him.

  «Here is your deal. I still carry it with me to remind myself of how useless it was to think that everyone had to survive. I know that you Arkassians want to force the Code again. What do you have that is different from me, then?»

  «Forcing to bring back the Code as it was at the beginning, not to favor other races. This last thing we were not able to do and we paid for our arrogance» Lokkar pointed out, in the face of that accusation.

  Akelio smiled, annoyed.

  «Of course! Unfortunately, the Solaryans do not agree, is it not true?! They think that the Flower will find its balance on its own. What a poor illusion... And so you keep killing yourself».

  How true it was.

  «No one can stand above the Code» Kalberham said suddenly.

  «Be quiet, Solaryan!» Mendicar aswered him, who had not liked his comment.

  «Gentlemen, is this the moment?» said Poligon Dhaal, rather annoyed. Could it be that he alone felt the imminent danger of that ancient presence?

  «Sage Poligon». So saying Akelio made a kind of bow. «It’s useless to fight again. In the new galaxy, Arkassians and Solaryans will be part of the chosen races. Look at what a Code left alone could do: the siel of the father of us all to a Terrestrial...». Then she paused, before saying, «Give him to me. Now!».

  «And what will happen when a few chosen races remain? Some will feel superior to the others and other wars will start again».

  «Poligon Dhaal, give me the boy!»

  Akelio wasn’t listening any more. While all her followers were on their guard, she only looked at Patrik. He immediately noticed that her siel was different. It circled around her forearm slowly, as if reading the flow of her thoughts, as if she were ready to leave for something long established.

  All stood together with the siel in hand.

  At the back of the room Patrik's friends held their weapons, but in vain. The energy barrier created by the Falaians had also excluded them.

  Only Guardians were allowed to challenge.

  «Stay back» Lokkar told Patrik.

  «Don’t be silly. I’m not pulling back».

  «They want you. Did you understand what will happen if they get you?! Stay back!»

  As far as Patrik didn’t like the idea, Lokkar was right.

  They all lined up in front of him and in a moment all hell broke loose.

  The siel on one side and the other took the most disparate forms, clashes between expert Guardians sparkled for the hall to the hubbub of sacred weapons.

  Akelio stood still. Her eyes were glued to Patrik and she didn’t care at all about the noise next to her.

  He saw her and their eyes met.

  She began to walk towards him and in a moment he was panicked. He turned to see his friends who were locked out.

  Alannah, with the daggers in her hand, looked at him full of apprehension. Marco, David and the two Portiryans walked nervously with weapons in their hands, like lions in cages. Even Maliki was with them, her eyes on her brother.

  Kaira was not there.

  Patrik turned to look for her more clearly and saw that the child was standing in front of a window with one hand resting on the glass.

  Why?!

  He checked his opponent's advance, which was now only a few yards away from him. He took the siel and warned.

  «Here he is, the chosen one. A young Earthman who has no idea of the power that has been entrusted to him. The poor Kentauros must have gone out of their minds. They didn’t even give you a tunic ... Now don’t make a fuss and follow me!»

  Patrik backed away and changed his weapon.

  «Follow you? Sa that you can kill all the unelected, starting with my planet?»

  «You don’t even know what you're talking about. Follow me terrestrial microbe!».

  «I brand the siel of Armintala, father of the Milky Way Guardians. His soul resides here inside, and he had no tunics. The Code and this weapon are the only things I follow».

  Patrik started with a powerful blow to the Solaryan, which she parried without much difficulty. A series of other shots followed oneanother, but it seemed she was just training. His adversary had no fear of him and this Patrik knew.

  Then, with a sharp click, Akelio gave a curved shot towards him.

  With a rush of adrenalin Patrik managed to avoid it. Only his sweatshirt was torn on his chest.

  «Try to concentrate, Terrestrial!» Lokkar shouted, keeping an eye on him while he was busy defending himself from the attacks of another Falaian.

  The boy nodded, breathless and sweaty. He put the siel in his pocket and took off his sweatshirt throwing it to the ground. While tunics of the three colors, adorned with the sacred signs of the twenty-one planets, gave battle, he found himself with the Adidas, jeans and a Police t-shirt in which Sting wore splendid mirrored sunglasses.

  Akelio looked at him with curiosity and then something struck her.

  «Why did you tattoo Elisaar's pact on your arm? Reply!».

  «How do you not know?! It's a gift you left me. When you created the temporal emptiness, my siel tattooed it on me».

  «What are you babbling about? We had almost caught you, but something interrupted us. A new and unknown force».

  Kaira.

  Patrik understood that it was her.

  He turned to look at her again and she was still there, her hand resting on the glass, but this time she was not alone. On the other side of the window a dark-skinned woman had matched her hand with that of the girl.

  Patrik was not sure, but it seemed to be Evanah, she who had entrusted her to him. The woman looked at him and smiled, he knew he was not alone.

  The Code, Kentaura and the Flower of Eta Carinae were beside him. He felt it. Perceived their presence.

  He warned himself and Akelio did the same, but for the first time Patrik saw on her face an expression that was no longer so certain. Something had escaped her. Like a chess player who is taken aback by his opponent's move, he felt she had underestimated the situation.

  Unlike Patrik, she knew who that woman was.

  She had to fully expect that the Code would raise defenses. It couldn’t be that simple, it had never been so.

  She decided at that moment that the boy had to be eliminated, since Kentaura would never allow her to use him, to take him with her. And then it could only be a threat and it had to be eradicated.

  The two began to struggle again, with more vigor and without saving a single shot. Patrik advanced, for the first time since the beginning of that fight, and that's where it happened. Turning to herself, Akelio hit him on the nose and with a decisive blow knocked away the siel, leaving him stunned and kneeling in front of her.

  «Now you'll come back to the Flower, boy. So that the whole galaxy knows that the Code has failed».

  A precise cut came from her siel, but Lokkar put himself in the middle, piercing her shoulder from side to side.

  Akelio stepped back, wounded very seriously. Even her followers stopped fighting and they all disappeared from the hall as fast as they appeared.

  The force that had isolated them until then disappeared with them.

  Temalkin remained alone and with panic on his face. The Falaians had not brought him with them and for him
it would have been certain death.

  The doors unlocked and the Arkassian soldiers invaded the hall.

  «Damn stupid! One day you will thank my sacrifice».

  He threw himself with all his strength towards those who had been his companions for a long time and his life ended there, under the blows of the arkassian siels.

  Lokkar was on his knees next to Patrik. The two hugged each other, but then Lokkar collapsed to the ground.

  The blow of Akelio had wounded him gravely in the abdomen.

  «Nooo!» Maliki shouted, kneeling beside him.

  Patrik squeezed his hand, trying to make sure of his condition.

  «Lokkar, my friend, what have you done? Now stay down, you'll be better soon. Call a doctor, please» he said crying to everyone else, as they slowly reached them.

  «Stupid Terrestrial, for me it's the end. I knew you would have cost my life» he said softly, laughing at the death that was about to come.

  «Don’t joke, arkassian idiot. You'll be better soon» he replied, trying to smile through his tears.

  Lokkar squeezed his hand with the only force he had left.

  «Patrik Jones, promise!»

  «Tell me».

  «Resume balance. I believe in you, I have always believed in it. Akelio was wrong, the Code always knows where to go. Take it with you, for all peoples, even for mine».

  «Today you saved your people, Lokkar. I promise you that you will be remembered, because today you saved your people. I will do it for you, my friend».

  Lokkar turned his gaze to her sister and stroked her face.

  «Maliki».

  «Yes I'm here».

  He squeezed her hand. «Strong!» he said, looking into her eyes, just as when they were children had promised not to cry in front of lifeless parents.

  «Strong!» she repeated, smiling at him, for she knew what her brother meant to say.

  «Patrik, I entrust you with my little sister. Don’t make her angry, she's dangerous».

  Patrik nodded his head and stared into his eyes, because that promise was really solemn.

  Lokkar looked at the ceiling and smiled again.

  «Stupid Terrestrial» he said with a last, faint voice.

  Then he was gone.

  A total silence swooped into the room, the same place in which only a few moments before was the chaos for supremacy over the entire galaxy.

  Suddenly Kaira took a few steps back, and the window on which she had supported her hand until then shattered.

  Everyone turned.

  She didn’t care about them.

  She looked out, while the wind of Arkass stroked her hair.

  She looked out and smiled.

  Epilogue

  It was late afternoon on that part of the planet Arkass and everything was ready for the funeral ceremony of Lokkar.

  All the black Guardians were ready to honor the corpse of the young melainian who had sacrificed himself to save the terrestrial boy. Whether or not, they agreed with the value of that sacrifice, they still had to respect his choice.

  They would all be there. None excluded.

  «Patrik, any news?» Poligon Dhaal asked Kalberham and David, who had come closer to him in the meantime.

  The two shook their heads.

  Since his friend died, Patrik had locked himself in his room and didn’t want to see anyone. He had to think.

  So many things had happened and he needed to rearrange the ideas. He had walked up and down that room most of the night, and now he felt the weight of all the steps on his calves.

  The fact that there was no right thing to do, absolutely right, made the choices even more difficult. He had talked about it many times with Lokkar and now he found himself alone. This was the thing he missed most. The Arkassian helped him to see things from all points of view, to have an overall vision that could be as objective as possible.

  He appeared at the window to feel the warmth of the air that caressed his face. He still felt his skin rippled with tears.

  Suddenly a big, handsome bird passed in the sky, shrieking its chilling line. Patrik remembered Ubohr, Lokkar's pet, which they had laughed about the first time. That evening he had been hit with a good punch and the thing, strangely, had approached them.

  The Code always knows where to go.

  Now the Arkassian himself who had struck him had saved his life.

  He remembered that old Hebrew saying, he who saves a life, saves the whole world. And Lokkar had done it. He had saved a life by sacrificing his own.

  «Preserving and protecting the life of one living being has the same value of doing so for billions of others, don’t forget it».

  Even Evanah had told him something like this when she had entrusted him with the child.

  He smiled at the thought that this bird had somehow sent him.

  Suddenly everything was clearer.

  He had made a decision.

  Right or wrong, the Code would do the rest.

  He began to get ready to go to say goodbye to his friend for the last time.

  *

  The big woodpile burned with the body of the arkassian Guardian who was dispersed in the wind, as his people did.

  Maliki looked at the fire without crying, she needed to be strong. She was holding Kaira's hand, standing there quietly and silently next to her.

  Alannah, clinging to David's arm, occasionally turned to check if Patrik had appeared.

  All the Guardians formed the circle of respect, standing still to observe the flames.

  Patrik arrived a minute later, leaving each person present speechless. He wore an arkassian tunic.

  He put himself in the circle and took off his hood as a sign of respect.

  «What does it mean, Terrestrial?» Greymar asked, breaking the silence.

  «I am here to honor my friend, and I will do it with his garbs, because that was what he believed».

  «You dishonor his dress. He fought for something you don’t believe» Mendicar replied, annoyed by the ridicule.

  «This is where you're wrong, my dear».

  He raised his head to look at the fire. «See ... You have all hated me, fought me. You hated what I represented. An Earthman with Armintala's siel, unworthy of looking at it. Instead he decided to talk to me. He wanted to understand the gesture of Kentaura. Why me. In love for his planet, he taught me that that weapon you fear in reality belongs to everyone, and must defend everyone. The mistake made by those who thought it was not so, should be fixed. This is why I decided to force the Code!».

  All the Guardians were speechless while a slight smile of victory appeared almost in slow motion on the face of the gohtarma.

  «Patrik, do you realize what you're saying? Think carefully. Now you're upset about Lokkar's death» Kalberham said, taking his arm.

  «Kalberham, the Code is for everyone! He chose me to do it, because we could all do it. This is why I will not enter the Flower alone, but I will wait for the alignment of the Salman moons so that all the Guardians can remedy the damage done».

  «What if it doesn’t work? Have you thought about the consequences?!»

  Kalberham was furious.

  «People die, Kalberham, I can’t turn the other way».

  Patrik approached the gohtarma and Poligon Dhaal, and pulled up his sleeve.

  «Renew Elisaar's pact» he said, turning on his siel, which made the tattoo bleed.

  «I renew the Elisaar pact» the gohtarma repeated, doing the same.

  Poligon Dhaal sighed and then lifted his sleeve too.

  «Poligon...» Kalberham called him incredulously, almost sighing.

  The old Guardian turned to him.

  «Patrik is the chosen one by the Code and we must believe him, otherwise we would not be better than those who want to change it, or even control it. Even when it goes in a direction unknown to us, the Code always knows where to go».

  He turned back to the other two and started his siel.

  «I renew the Elisaar pact».<
br />
  *

  The Olympia pre-flight checks were almost completed.

  Patrik put his clothes back and was ready to take the road back to the galaxy.

  He entered the hall with little Kaira and headed for Poligon Dhaal, who was speaking with the gohtarma.

  «I agreed to let you leave, boy. Our covenant is sacred and the Solaryans have accepted it. We will all be there when there is alignment. The fact remains that you are at risk if the Falaians can appear out of nowhere» said the lord of Arkass.

  «I'll try to never be alone, and I'll keep my eyes open. The moons will be lined up within several months and it may be too late for my mother. After the attack on Earth, they will have been even more ruthless with her. I have to go!».

  Poligon Dhaal put a hand on Patrik's shoulder.

  «The boy can take care of himself, Darkonar. Kalberham will be with him, without considering the crew of Olympia».

  The gohtarma was thoughtful, while his pet played with Kaira.

  He was not convinced.

  Now that he had obtained the consent of the Terrestrial boy, he and his siel had become too precious.

  Suddenly the girl turned to them and said «they come in from there». And so saying, she pointed to Patrik's siel.

  All three looked at each other perplexed.

  «Kaira, what does they come in from there mean?» asked Patrik.

  «That's a door. They come in from there».

  Then she turned and resumed playing.

  Poligon Dhaal smiled in the direction of the gohtarma.

  It was useless to question her that much, Kentaura's child gave no explanation.

  «You can go to Earth, Patrik, if Darkonar agrees. But then you will have to meet the Code priests on one of Salman's moons. If what the child said is true, only they can teach you to control the siel».

  «I promise. From the Earth I will go there. I don’t like the idea of opening a door and finding a Falaian in front of me».

  He made his greeting, took the child and ran away with her on his shoulders.

  «Why are you so quiet, Darkonar?» Poligon Dhaal asked as he saw Patrik going out into the distance.

  «I'm not. Akelio will come back. What we saw is just a taste of what awaits us. You know her... she will win or she will die».