The Blake Equation- Discovery

by David Savieri

  Kel, acknowledging the local laws ,forgotten in her hunger, directed the ADS4 to stand on a nearby corner and it did as commanded. Clunking slowly over the street to stand sentry, its head constantly and loyally surveying, all the while being watched suspiciously by many of the other diners.

  ‘What did you order?’ Hayden asked, hoping the meal would be something he could possibly recognise.

  ‘Yle broth and roasted jerp,’ she answered as if it was the most common thing anyone could order, and to her it probably was.

  Hayden gave her the look she’d expected.

  ‘Yle, ’ she started to explain. 'Is most common grain found on many worlds.’ She paused to study her new companion. ‘How do you not know of this?’

  Hayden was about to explain that he’d never heard of it when Kel continued.

  ‘I have not been everywhere in this universe but where, can I ask - is your Earth?’

  'The third rock from the sun.’

  ‘Third rock from which sun?’

  Before he could try and clarify which, their meals were presented.

  He was impressed by the speed at which the food had arrived and by the appropriately large servings. Looking into the large bowl that had been placed in front of him, through the broth’s steam, he tried to make out the familiar shape and colour of a carrot or a potato or even a parsnip to no avail. It was just hot liquid of a translucent smoky yellow colour. He lifted out a large heavy wooden handled spoon that had come attached to the thick brown glossy ceramic bowl through its handle. He stirred the contents and again smelled the rising steam. Not entirely unappealing, he thought so he filled the spoon, lifted it to his mouth and once opened, hesitantly tipped it inside. Swishing it around for a few moments, his cheeks moved rapidly in and out and his lips quivered. Finding it actually quite delicious, he swallowed it happily and wasted no time refilling his spoon again and again until he’d finished the entire bowl within a few minutes.

  A short time later after Kel had finished, the second course arrived on large matching round brown plates with bowls of hot water attached to their sides. Hayden patted his mouth dry with a cloth provided as the new food was about to be set before them. Kel pointed to the water bowls and she wriggled her fingers. Hayden wiggled his back and she nodded.

  ‘Jerp.’ Kel announced, looking ravenous as she said it.

  ‘Ah - and - what - is it - exactly?’ Hayden asked, confused at the cooked animal that had been placed before him.

  ‘From the forest,’ Kel explained. ‘Much too many.’

  Hayden squinted in the half light, trying to get a better look at what it was on his plate. To him, a lack of anything else to hunt would be the only reason that something that looked like it did would be served at all.

  Like most things he was discovering, the jerp looked like many things to which he was familiar but as a whole, nothing.

  It was kind of like an elongated chicken, roasted a similar golden brown but with a rounded head, seemingly no mouth, two large now whitened eyes and six stumpy amphibian like legs all terminated with three small fat claws. It looked very unappealing to Hayden but he had to admit that it smelled excellent. Looking up he saw the burly owner-cook still there in greasy apron, standing over him as if waiting for a verdict. Kel prompted her friend with a flick of her eyes and a nod of her head that he might want to hurry up and try it. Very slowly and not taking his eyes from Kel’s for one second, he reached out and took a greasy hold of one of its small legs. Pulling gently, he heard a cracking sound as he lifted it away and he was a tiny bit disgusted by it. Guiding it tentatively toward his mouth he bit down slowly then tore most of the succulent meat off.

  He chewed a few times then swallowed - Not bad.

  It was like chicken but a bit saltier with a starchy almost sweet potato taste. Taking his eyes off Kel’s, he looked at the cook, gave him a greasy smile and a nod then reached out to remove another leg to take a more assured bite. The cook, pleased with his efforts left the two to eat.

  ‘You like it?’ Kel asked.

  ‘Not bad. I wouldn’t go crazy for it but it’s certainly nicer than I thought it’d be and it is filling my stomach.’ He glanced across at Kel as she watched him. ‘Eat! You must be hungrier than me.’

  And she did, as she most certainly was.

  Hayden wondered about her. What it was like where she was from. What her family and what her people were like?

  He hoped that she’d share her history when things settled down but for the moment, they ate heartily, talked jovially and watched the crowd.

  *

  After what seemed ages but was probably about an hour, their plates were licked clean and they were enjoying purple glass goblets filled with a golden drink that tasted sort of like honey and something mystifying. Kel watched Hayden as he drank, pleased their hunger was being sated. Their serenity was usurped however when a large creature suddenly stood up rapidly at a table three or four away from behind Kel at another kiosk. The thing was humanoid but bigger than any man Hayden had ever seen. Eight foot tall he guessed, its bluish head sat squat on its almost neck-less broad shoulders that were tensed in anger. It had a wide mouth that chewed and three beady dark eyes that peered over the flaring, angry about something nostrils of a very wide nose. Hayden focused back on Kel as she turned to answer his inevitable question. ‘What is that?’

  ‘Bygon,’ she answered in a hushed tone. ‘Not good to upset.’

  ‘He seems pretty upset already.’

  ‘She.’

  ‘She?’ Hayden tried to see it but couldn’t. ‘Why do you think?’

  Kel shrugged.

  Hayden watched with fascination and a little trepidation as the creature sat back down, waving her enormous darker blue three fingered hands about and grunting. ‘That’s one big lady,’ he whispered.

  ‘Very unpredictable. Give time and she will calm.’

  Hayden smirked and Kel tilted her pretty head at his reaction.

  ‘So what you’re saying is - ’ and he almost laughed out loud but suppressed it to a small giggle so as not to let the lady beast hear and get more angry. ‘- Let Bygons be Bygons.’

  Hayden’s amusement was lost on his Devonian friend.

  ‘Who are you, Hayden?’ Kel surprised herself by asking aloud.

  The question didn’t surprise him as he knew it was coming and that it would inevitably have to be answered and answered as best he could.

  He knew that Kel couldn’t go on explaining everything to him, not knowing why she even had to.

  *

  After watching the final patrons that dwindled around them leaving for wherever they were leaving, Hayden thought it was time to tell his new friend what little he knew of himself, his new self. ‘Kel,’ he began, bringing his arms up and resting his elbows on the wooden table, placing his face in his palms cherubically. ‘I don’t know if I believe it myself, I actually should after all that’s happened but apparently...’

  That was when Hayden realised that his wrist was bare! ‘My watch!’

  ‘Your, what?’

  ‘My watch.’ He stared at his bare wrist then looked on the ground immediately around him and under the table then futilely back at his wrist. ‘The Medi-building! We have to go back!’ Hayden stood and rushed toward the mechan.

  ‘They will have it,’ Kel assured him as she hurriedly used her card to pay for the meal. ‘Do not worry, on Kuhl-Agev you are safe for these things.’ Her words were pointless and unheard as Hayden had already raced ahead single-mindedly. Briefly he heard what sounded like the smashing of glass behind him but took no notice.

  It took them no longer than a few minutes to reach the building as Hayden had run very fast and Kel and the Mechan, too, if only to keep up. The tall glass windows glowed against the darkened stone in the night and cast the light from within in long rectangles down the steps and across the cobbled street. It took only a few well timed leaps for Hayden to reach the top of the steps then rush past the fountains, through t
he opening glass doors and toward the large reception desk. He couldn’t lose the watch. It was the only link to his family and who knew when he’d see them again if at all?

  The receptionist was still there. She looked up calmly and upon seeing Hayden he noticed her hand disappear under the desk, her forearm muscles tightened momentarily as if she were pushing something. Before Hayden could have any idea as to what she was doing, the two orderlies who had escorted him earlier appeared as if from nowhere. They approached calmly and upon reaching him, took him by the arms gently and led him to the elevator.

  ‘Where are you taking me?’ he demanded, ‘I’m only here to get my property!’

  The orderlies remained quiet.

  The elevator opened and the Kuhlian who had helped him in the rejuvenation tank stood there. He wore different clothes now and instead of the plain white jacket-robe he wore a dark brown coat with intricate gold and blue weavings of plant patterns, like those on most everything else in Tika. Hayden was led inside and turning to look for Kel, the door closed just before as he caught a glimpse of her looking for him at the foyer desk. He watched the lights on the panel rise rapidly. ‘Fifth floor, eighth floor, tenth floor and twelfth floor the lighted numbers stopped but they sped up, ascending further until as suddenly as they’d travelled upward, they stopped and Hayden’s stomach flipped uncomfortably.

  He was at the top of the building but it was only on the tenth floor that he’d left his watch with the Kuhlian. He looked at the stony faced aliens that surrounded him and was starting to get a little fearful. At least they’re not Sepian, he thought as he remembered the unpleasantness of those rank creatures. Suddenly he heard a voice speaking fluent English and it wasn’t Kel. He turned in the direction of the voice. It was the Kuhlian from the regeneration tank.

  ‘Highness. You are in very great danger,’ he repeated. ‘You must follow us closely and be faithful in the knowledge that we exist for your protection.’

  ‘You exist for my what? Who are you and how do you know me?’

  Things kept getting weirder.

  The Kuhlian smiled and Hayden felt slightly relaxed. The elevator door opened to reveal a very dimly lit room that was nothing like the glass spire he had seen from the ground and would have expected to be in. Turning to look at the three who had led him there, he was about to speak when the Kuhlian who had spoken to him raised his finger to his mouth and called for him to be quiet.

  ‘All will be revealed,’ he said.

  ‘All will be revealed!’ Hayden protested. ‘That’s all I’ve been hearing pretty much since I found out about all of this stuff.’

  The Kuhlians all seemed shocked at the outburst and Hayden kind of liked it. Gazing into the dimness he saw movement. Two more Kuhlians appeared and as they approached, he noticed they wore distinctly different uniforms. Dark grey with a thick yellow stripe down the sides. They were like police or soldiers or something and they took him from the other three and led him away.

  Hayden’s family and friends were an unknown distance away and now he was separated from his new friend Kel in addition to the robot he was now really wanting there.

  Thankfully, Kuhlian guards were by no means as rough as the Sepian version. They didn’t drag him or force him to go anywhere. They simply walked on either side as they led him toward a door at the far end of the large room.

  ‘Come on guys,’ Hayden pressed. ‘What’s going on?’ As he expected, his question went unanswered and his minders just looked stonily ahead as if he hadn’t said a thing.

  ‘Where are we going?’ he asked: again no answer. ‘What are your names?’ No answer. Twisting around he noticed the Kuhlian who spoke to him was still following closely. ‘You say all will be revealed? When will all be revealed and what more is there to reveal?’ The tall Kuhlian, like the others, said nothing. ‘I just want to go back home.’

  The regen-tank alien looked empathetically at Hayden.

  ‘I came back for my watch that’s all.’

  The Kuhlian looked at him calmly and Hayden immediately detected slight sadness in his eyes as though if he did say anything more revealing, he would take as much discomfort in telling as Hayden would in hearing.

  They stood facing a large circular door, the guard at Hayden’s left put his big and slender hand onto a fluorescent yellow pad and the doors began to slowly slide upward away from themselves much like the spreading of a beetle’s wings. The room beyond was comfortable. There was a long sofa upholstered in some kind of animal’s hide, earthy brown in colour with oversized red and black tubular cushions. It looked cozy. The only other feature of note was a large silver tube in the middle of the far wall that went from the floor to the very high ceiling.

  ‘What’s that?’ Hayden asked knowing full well that, as usual, he wouldn’t be answered. It was then that the two guards turned to Hayden, bowed slightly without making eye contact then walked out of the room, the doors closing behind them.

  He felt strangely comfortable with the remaining Kuhlian who proceeded to speak calmly and in the most precise English.

  ‘The Grand Chancellor will see you off this planet High-’

  ‘-See me off!’ Hayden interjected. ‘I’m not going anywhere before I know what’s going on and I am certainly not going anywhere unless Kel is with me.’

  The Kuhlian swiftly walked to the door where he pressed a button, spoke into an intercom and said something in his native tongue. He then returned from the door and sat silently at the opposite end of the sofa.

  ‘What’s your name? ’ Hayden asked confidently. ‘You seem to know all about me but I know nothing of you!’

  ‘My name is Feebru and I am your servant, Highness.’

  As he said this Hayden noticed Feebru made exactly the same gesture again as everyone had including as Kel had when he first met her on the Sepian ship. ‘What’s that you just did?’

  ‘What I did Highness?’

  ‘This.’ Hayden replicated the action.

  ‘It is for the honour.’ The Kuhlian was suddenly silent and the slight smile he had disappeared as if recounting something terrible. ‘It is a salute. A symbol that one is of allegiance to the House of Greythorn and for all it stands.’

  ‘House of Greythorn?’

  ‘I have said too much. Highness, I apologise for speaking above my station.’

  Hayden studied this Feebru, this Kuhlian. A long face with slender, pleasantly homely features. He could like him.

  ‘Servant? Above your position? You have no reason to apologise to me.’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘And why is that?’ Hayden’s candour startled the Kuhlian so he said no more.

  *

  They sat in silence for several minutes when suddenly Kel burst through the now opened doors and out of the dark room beyond. She looked upset so Hayden stood immediately and moved toward her. ‘You alright?’

  ‘Fine but for these Hoodgaffs,’ she complained, gesturing gruffly at the guards.

  ‘They didn’t hurt you? ’ Hayden asked, not even bothering to guess what a Hoodgaff was.

  ‘No, but they could have told me why they were coming for me. I had not much time to stop the mechan before it would have blown them apart!’

  ‘Yes-your mechanical companion may be a problem,’ Feebru started.

  ‘Now they speak! ’ Kel sighed, raising her arms in frustration.

  ‘Why is he a problem?’ Hayden enquired.

  ‘We cannot have a drone soldier with us. A tool of war. That mechan has a sole purpose and that purpose is one of destruction.’

  ‘But he is our protection!’ Kel clarified.

  ‘You will not need it as we will provide all the security needed.’

  ‘No Mechan-,’ Hayden stated, understanding that he was apparently the most important person in the room to the Kuhlians. ‘- No me.’

  It was an easy ultimatum to make as it wasn’t hard to remember again the chilling damage the robot unleashed on the pirate ship. If he was to get into
a situation anywhere near as perilous again, he wanted it about. ‘He saved our lives and helped our escape from the Sepians.’

  Kel was surprised at the way in which Hayden referred to the mechan but more so with his authority of tone - and he was too.

  ‘It shall then continue with us,’ Feebru very quickly and obediently obliged as he again saluted.

  ‘That was easy,’ Kel noted. ‘It is a pity you didn’t have such sway with that Sepian scum.’

  Hayden knew she held no love for their race but was surprised at her strong language.

  ‘The chancellor will discuss those very Sepians with you when he arrives.’ Feebru brushed some unseen lint off of his coat then looked sternly at Hayden. ‘You are in very great danger. Look no further than the words of truth you are about to be told.’ He turned his head slightly and looked at Kel. ‘They will save your life and the lives of your friends and many others.’

  That said, Feebru left, walked through the opening door and disappeared into the dimness with the two guards leaving Hayden and Kel sitting silently on the big sofa.

  *

  Hayden stared at the silver tube at the end of the room.

  ‘Who is this chancellor guy?’

  ‘I do not know.’ Kel answered thoughtfully. ‘Could be Munspac or could be Tej?’

  ‘Munspac? Tej?’

  ‘There was recent votes here for Grand chancellor but when that happened I was on the Sepian ship so cannot tell who won it.’

  ‘Good are they? Good candidates?’

  Kel knew what he meant.

  ‘Munspac came to Devonia when I was younger and from my memory he was good. I know nothing of Tej.’

  ‘They’re both Kuhlian?’

  ‘Both are Kuhlian.’

  ‘The election is a big thing?’

  ‘Grand chancellor vote is very festive.’ Kel’s eyes twinkled as she thought of it.