CHOSEN: A Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Dystopian Novel (11 page)

Adams
watched him with interest. “So, do you like it?” he finally asked. “I’ve been
flying this girl for just over a year when I have lighter loads, usually
chartered. She’s small, fast, and efficient.”

Stephen
stood up. “It’s really nice, Mr. Adams. Wish I could fly in it, but when we
leave we’ll have to take the air bus since it’ll be so many of us.” Stephen
felt inside of his pocket on the small piece of candy and pulled it out slowly.
He looked behind him and out the windows of the craft.

“Mr.
Adams? My mom wanted me to give this to you. It’s only for you.” He handed the
candy wrapper with the attached microdot over to Adams, all of it still in the
plastic baggie.

Adams
took it and looked at it closely for a moment before he placed it in the inside
pocket of his coat. “Do you know what it is?” Stephen asked Adams. 

“Yes,
I do. Thanks. It is important. You better get back to your sister and dad. I’m
sure they are waiting for you,” Adams said peeking out the window. “Enjoy your
last couple weeks on the ice. I myself have gotta fly.” He patted the pocket on
his jacket.

Adams
watched Stephen walk out and down the few steps to the ground below and then
waved towards Johan and Stella. He lowered the door and walked toward his
pilot’s seat. Once in his chair, he reached in his pocket and took out the baggie
and candy wrapper. Adams removed the microdot and candy wrapper from the small
baggie and he quickly scanned it with his portable reader.

The
folder Noah popped up. It was there. He put away the reader and placed the
candy back inside the baggie, putting it back safely inside his coat pocket. Things
were in motion.

Antarctic Research Center

Nearly sixteen years
had passed and still Mave
had never told Zura or Johan that she’d known all along that their twins would
be born in Antarctica. Stephen and Stella were the only ones who could have
been selected for that place and arrive in the needed time.

The Unseens had chosen to split the Chi into two bodies.
They had decided it would have been too much energy for one to handle and it
was too great a risk to the mission for the person they’d chosen to become
overwhelmed and dysfunctional.

Twin souls could work together, help each other, and
balance the Chi. The Unseens and the Earth Council had given generous leeway
with how things happened, as long as certain key things happened along the way.
One of those key things was that a child had to be born on each of the seven continents,
which were now represented by the seven regions.

Each region held an energetic blueprint and each of the
chosen children embodied the energy of the region. Together they would be
strong enough, powerful enough that even the World Consensus and UniCorps would
have a difficult time stopping them. It would require that they had their own Awakening
and were guided by the Keepers until it was time to act.

Just like Mave and the other Keepers, each person had a
role, a part to play. Some greater than others, but all critical to the success
of the mission. It didn’t matter what the part was, but when the time came,
they would have to play it. Everyone would have their moment.

Mave considered herself fortunate. She was one of a handful
of people, all Connecteds, who had some powers in common and some unique gifts
that allowed them to serve their mission. All five also went through the
‘Awakening’ when they were ready to understand and act on what they’d been sent
to do.

For her the Awakening happened soon after becoming a
para-adult. She’d gone to camp one Summer for science and technology and met
some other very interesting people. While at the camp, she learned that they’d
been brought there on purpose, under the direction of the Council.

It was during that camp that Mave met Y Chang and Canson
Pritchard for the first time. She’d also met Dr. Lima who now served as a
Director for a University program that provided camps in science and technology
to teens and university aged students.

Canson Pritchard was a teaching counselor at the camp the
year she attended and was already working in the science field in education for
one of the virtual schools. The camps were a way for him to earn extra income
when school was out.

Y Chang was around the same age as Mave, but Y Chang had
been much younger when the Awakening happened for her. She was just seven when
she’d had hers and like Mave, she was from the Eastern Way. By the time Canson
received his Awakening he was nearly thirty years old.

As far as Mave knew, the fourth Keeper still had not gone
through the Awakening. The Council was concerned he had been lost to the
temptations that claimed so many other Connecteds. Mave and the other Keepers
weren’t told exactly who he was but had been told he had chosen a difficult
role and been born into power, wealth, and privilege.

The Earth Council had agreed to allow this power along
with certain personal attributes. To them it was worth the risk in order to have
access to and affect those in power and to serve as Keeper for one of the eight
who was to play an integral role in the mission. The eighth was also closely
associated with the world of power, wealth, and privilege.

The Earth Council had chosen not to reveal either of their
identities to the other Keepers so as not to interfere with free will. While
Kean was uncertain, the others still held out hope that his free will would
lead him to the path they needed him to be on.

Dr. Lima had brought them together in a special book club that
summer, where they discussed literature, world history, social science, and
science. She’d shown them how it was all woven together. Dr. Lima was Mave’s
guide and mentor and had been critical to her own Awakening. She recalled Dr.
Lima’s talks and discussions about the use of the Connection.

Dr. Lima once said “there are some who use the Connection
for good. There are others who use the Connection for purely selfish gain. Yet,
most are still unaware that they are Connecteds and so aren’t using their power
for anything at all.”

When she started camp that summer she had no idea that it
would change her life. Mave had been in that intimate club with Y Chang and Canson.
Yet, even then, Dr. Lima always seemed to be waiting on someone else to show,
but he or she never did.

Mave remembered how Dr. Lima looked around at the three of
them as if she were thinking deeply, considering them on some other level. She
then told them a story about the Festival of Lights. It was a story that had
been passed down to Dr. Lima from her own Keeper.

Many nights when she lay in bed at night, unable to sleep
because of the weight of everything she had to do, she’d recall that story.

Dr. Lima began by telling them of a wondrous Festival of Lights
that happened every year at the Winter Solstice.

“Let me tell you all a story,” she began. “One that I was
told around this same point in my life. Pay close attention to this magical
tale,” she’d told them as she began changing their lives that evening.

“The Festival of Lights was a celebration of the coming
light and of choosing to help brighten the dark. Where we are here in the Southern
Allegiance Region there was a traveling caravan. People would hang colorful, handmade
lanterns on their vehicles as they drove, to let others know which way to go. It
was quite a sight. Especially, as the people got closer and closer to the
festival. The line of lanterns coming in gave a clear path for anyone who may
have gotten lost along the way.”

Mave remembered that Dr. Lima paused then for a moment to
let just that part sink in to her book club members.

“You know, it didn’t matter who you were. People gathered
from every corner of the world at the point where the sun is closest to the
Earth. Some would arrive before the festival was to begin and craft lanterns. As
the legend goes, at midnight the clouds would part and the sky would clear.
Within moments, there would appear millions of stars. The people would light
their own lanterns and release them into the night sky to join with the stars.”

Dr. Lima waved her hands towards the sky, where the first
sign of stars had started to show. She put her hands in her lap and studied
them before continuing.

“As the story goes, there would be so many lanterns,
shining so brightly, it would appear as if dawn had come early. The glow could
be seen from miles away. After the lanterns had all been released, then the fun
would begin. There’d be a celebration filled with music, dancing, singing,
drinking, talking, and all kinds of celebration in anticipation of the new day
coming. It was when the morning star would cast off the remaining darkness and
be with them longer and longer each day.” At this point, Dr. Lima smiled.

Her face lit up as if she were watching it all in front of
her at that very moment, her very own show. Her eyes went somewhere else as she
experienced the magic of the story.

It was early in the evening two days before they were set
to leave, and after they’d heard the story. The four met on the far side of
campus and rolled logs over to sit on before gathering sticks to start a small
fire. The fire was more for light than for warmth and Dr. Lima had insisted.
She loved a good fire.

Dr. Lima had continued the story by telling them that at
the festival, there were always some who just watched and enjoyed the beauty of
the lights, but chose not to participate in lighting their own lantern and
releasing it.

That evening as they sat listening to the end of the tale
about the Festival of Lights, Dr. Lima stopped and looked each of them in the
eye. Then she forced the three to lean in to hear her as she whispered what Mave
remembered felt like a secret.

“You are all lanterns,” she said leaning into them as well.
“You can choose to light the lantern or not, but that doesn’t change the nature
of what you are.”

Dr. Lima then sat back on her stump and picked up a super-sized
marshmallow and shoved it onto a stick. As she stuck the stick in the fire.
Mave could see her smiling.

On that warm July evening Dr. Lima said a great deal more
but when Mave was in her darkest moments and doubted her choice, she remembered
that she’d chosen to light her lantern. The choice had cost her some of the
simplest pleasures of life, but she’d made it and was committed to it.

After those two weeks of camp they all went their separate
ways. Dr. Lima remained in Southern Allegiance, Mave returned to her home in
the southern part of the Eastern Way. Canson left for his home in Australia and
Y Chang returned to the main continent of the Eastern Way.

They all went back but none of them were the same. The time
spent with Dr. Lima. Canson, and Y Chang had ignited something dormant in Mave
and that fire continued to burn. It wasn’t much later that Mave would have the
talk with her mother in the garden that brought it home fully and deepened her
conviction.

Mave exhaled deeply. Long ago, when her hair didn’t shimmer
with strands of silver and her eyes weren’t artfully embraced with lines that
gave a memorable mark of the joys and trials of life, she settled on the
realization it was better not to know, especially if they weren’t prepared to
use it, than to know and abuse it. She adamantly believed that with power comes
responsibility, and too many Connecteds had abused their power or had allowed
themselves to become corrupted by it.

Since that camp all those years before, Dr. Lima had been
assigned as a Lead Guide, helping the Keepers who were selected to guide the
Chosen eight. The time was coming soon when they would need to meet again and
they would discuss the newest developments and move forward with their plans.

***

Mave would have
to report on what the data
showed and she knew they weren’t yet fully prepared to address the speed at
which things might progress from that point. There were certain measures the Earth
Council tried to refrain from using because it began to border on their laws of
order and that would be out of line with the Unseen.

She would just have to try and remain focused for the time.
There was nothing she could do except be prepared and that wouldn’t happen by
worrying.

Part
of that preparation was the special event Mave was planning for the twins. She
wanted it to happen when they were back in New South City. With all that was
going on, she wasn’t sure she would have enough time to make it work or that it
would make sense to her no nonsense Stephen.

Between
the findings, the reports, the visit from the science divisions of both the
World Consensus and UniCorps, and that evening’s annual ARC Gala, there was
very little time for thinking about or planning anything else.

Mave
hoped she’d have enough time once they were back in Northern Allegiance and in
their other routine to pull it all together. Once back there, they were always
more scattered. Their schedules were harder to keep track of and she couldn’t
just walk over to their living quarters.

She
couldn’t do it on her own and, as she considered it further, realized she
shouldn’t have to. She would get help from their parents, plain and simple. They
couldn’t afford to lose time since she had to coordinate more than just the
twins for this surprise.

With
a few taps to her watch, Mave sent a quick note to her longtime friend Canson
Pritchard. She needed to make sure he was on target for his next part, which if
things were going according to plan, would be happening fairly soon. He needed
to help her send out the signal for what would be a not so coincidental
coincident.