The Acolytes of Crane "Updated Edition" (22 page)

She shook her head without
glancing back and continued on, as the vault to the chamber closed right behind
her. I bent my knee to bring up my foot at an angle into my line of vision. She
was right. I had a hole in my old shoe hologram that was programmed into my
XJ-731’s. Thus, the hole was fake, but obvious to any passer-by. I
re-programmed the hologram to get rid of the hole.

I walked into the chamber, and
its decontamination field inspected my entire body for viruses and mutant
micro-organisms. Once in, I noticed that everyone from my crew was in the
Chamber of Rafal.

‘What are you guys doing here?’ I
asked.

Lincoln was swift to address me,
‘We’re here to watch your little promotion to the rank of weirdo—I
mean—Messiah. Seems like you are the only one they needed. I don’t know why you
needed us.’

‘We are a team and that is the
end of it,’ I said warmly, smiling over the sense of adventure that we all
would collectively embrace. Hopefully.

‘Whatever,’ Lincoln said. He
stepped about five feet away from me with his arms crossed. I wasn’t sure what
was bothering him. He had been quiet ever since we had that argument with Liam
at my grandparents’ house. Lincoln just wasn’t himself.

‘This is Nezatron. Sorry for the
interruption, now that we have you all here we can get started. Because of your
dedication to duty and your fearless ascent into space we are rewarding you all
with Sandolphin’s Bracers.’ He stopped for a moment, and an airborne
robotic-looking Sepheran, hovering from one teammate to another, strapped the
dark polished gray bracers to our wrists and forearms. ‘These bracers confer
endless offensive and defensive benefits. The purpose of these bracers is to
encapsulate or cover your hands with titanium nano-chain mail. Liam, please
demonstrate by simply pressing the ruby button at the back of your hand.’

‘Just press right here?” Liam
asked.

We all looked on at this chain
mail—tiny rings of metal interlocked together to provide a sheath of protection
over parts of the body. It looked like a macramé coat of metal.

‘Yes. This mail armor is used for
hand-to-hand combat,’ Nezatron said, ‘With these titanium gloves on your hands,
your bones will not break. Otherwise, if you lose a hand or a finger while
fighting, it can be devastating to the team in the heat of battle. Moreover,
these gloves can cause serious damage to any enemy. Since these gloves are so
powerful, you have to show your restraint while fighting. Their force is so great
that you could break a bone in your arm located beyond the support of your
bracers. So ease up on whatever knock-out blow you deliver.’

Nezatron paused. ‘Finally, it is
because of one courageous boy that you are assembled here today. Make no
mistake; without you, he would not be here either. However, it was his blind
devotion to Zane that gives us this newfound advantage over our enemies—Odion,
Travis, and the Dacturon Council. Because of that devotion, the rank of Messiah
was bestowed upon you, Theodore! Zane decreed it the moment you entered his
ship.’

‘That is awesome, dude—good job!’
Dan said.

‘The next day, we will ensure
that each of you enter the Chamber of Rafal. Theodore has already been adapted.
Now it is up to the rest of you to await your turn. When you finish, you will
be given a rolesk for the rest of your years,’ Nezatron said, “With the rolesk,
you will have a vast but limited ability to control Dietons. There have only
been twenty-five rolesks issued in the history of the multiverse. When you are
in the Chamber of Rafal, it will only take about fifteen minutes, and it will
help you to understand the conflict on a deeper level. You will be provided
with history of the multiverse and the resistance. Now, dinner will be ready in
half an hour. Although I am a robot, I have been programmed with the
understanding of the human need for bonding. You may take fifteen minutes to
share camaraderie and freshen up before we have dinner.’ He left.

 ‘Man, I wish they had one of
these chambers in school. I would much rather have fifteen minutes a day to
learn everything, than seven hours a day in the classroom!’ Liam said.

‘Hell yeah, that would leave more
time for shredding pavement,’ Dan said. He dreamily visualized his skateboard.

 ‘I guess we head to our rooms
now,’ Lincoln said, ‘Mariah, you have not said much, are you alright?’

‘
No posanada
…’ she
started, speaking in Spanish before she caught herself. ‘I mean, don’t worry.
I’m fine. Can you walk me to my room, Linc?’ she asked.

Her room must have been down at
the other end of the hallway, so we had to part ways. Liam, Dan and I kept
fooling around with our bracers. We were giving each other a made-up handshake
with the bracers equipped. We were clanging metal together all the way back to
our rooms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and Mariah were having a heart-to-heart.

‘Listen Lincoln, I know you are
having a hard time not getting all the attention, but I think you should lay
off Theodore a bit.’

‘It isn’t that. I don’t really
feel like talking about it right now. What is wrong with you? You have not said
much of anything since we got here,’ Lincoln said.

‘I know, it is just, I miss
mi
familia
and well, there is more. I don’t feel like talking about it either.
Do you need a hug?’ she asked.

Lincoln leaned toward Mariah and
gave her a hug. I caught just a glimpse of the embrace as I was entering my
room. I badly wanted to halt in mid-step and drink in all of the spectacle, but
was too embarrassed to stick around.

I will admit, it bothered me, but
I had so much more to think about than women. Tez said I needed to distinguish
my leadership from friendship. I really took that to heart. Resting on my bed,
I decided to use the time from that moment until dinner to read my
grandfather’s research and to learn about my rolesk.

Looking through the pile of
research papers was going nowhere. I flipped to the last page and I discovered
the one truth that could destroy everything Zane had desired to protect. The
night of the storm, when our tree was ravaged, my grandfather found hundreds of
glowing Dietons, or Metalons as he called them, scattered amongst the yard. The
remains of the Dietons were left dismantled on blades of grass and other
surfaces.

Reading on, I learned about
Marvin's final postulation. After microscopic investigation, he believed the
Dietons were destroyed by the lightning bolt's extreme surge of electricity.

He journaled further of an
experiment that would test his theory, but I reached the end of his research
and there were no results to follow. He wouldn't live to test the Dietons. If
the Dacturons got their hands on that information, Sephera could potentially
see destruction.

I switched my focus from the
research toward the rolesk. I was hankering to settle my curiosity of it.

‘Rolesk,’ I said. Since I was now
aboard the Uriel, I didn’t have to hide my inquiries anymore, so I just said it
aloud.

Nezatron said, ‘The invention of
the rolesk was initially to help Zane amplify his powers of telekinesis. It was
necessary to control so many Dietons. Later, when he enlisted individuals to
help him, he knew that he needed these rolesks for them as well. Therefore, he
developed rolesks with varying degrees of security levels and limitations.
Theodore, since I have your ear, I must inform you there are two other teams
aboard the Uriel. As you know, there are you five, who comprise the Humans.
Then the other two teams are the Bromels and the Karshiz.’

I attempted to set the record
straight. ‘The Bromels—these giant angels, like Migalt?’

‘Yes, Theodore.’

‘And who are the Karshiz? Oh, you
mean those under King Trazuline—ruler of the planet Karshiz?’

‘Correct. The race is named
Karshiz, after the planet. This makes it easy to remember.’

I nodded.

Nezatron’s voice took on an
urgent tone. ‘You now know one important thing. Zane and I believe there is an
evil presence aboard the Uriel. A traitor. Someone is here on the orders of
Odion. Stay sharp, and see if you can sniff out this evil.’

My blood ran cold. ‘How do you
know?’

The robotic Sepheran hesitated.
‘Last week, before your team arrived, we found an unauthorized forced attempt
to access the nerve center of the ship.’

‘Did you find out who did it?’

‘No, Theodore. What is puzzling
is that our Ophanims were recording all visuals within the command room. There
is no recording of anyone at the exact time and location this authorized entry
was attempted. Nonetheless, we are dealing with a very cunning adversary.’

‘Is it possible there was a probe
of the Uriel by another ship, like one of the Dacturons?’

‘No. There was no record of
transmission by any outside source into our ship. We record all incoming and
outgoing transmissions, even that of subterfuge,’ Nezatron said. ‘Therefore, it
must be someone on this ship.’

‘Nezatron,’ I said, thinking of
something that could help ease his mind.

‘Yes.’

‘I have some of my grandfather's
research. There is something I think you should read in here.’

‘Your grandfather was under our
Dieton surveillance. We are aware of his revelations and are working hard to
ensure we can protect ourselves from the horrifying predictions he had
formulated. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will notify Zane of
your loyalty. You will make a wonderful Messiah, Theodore. We are certain of
it. I will see you at the gathering.’

A traitor maybe, as if I didn’t
have enough on my plate to think about that day! Getting up from my bed, I went
to my closet to inventory my equipment. When I walked over to the closet door,
I touched the sensor, and it slid over mechanically.

I laid my bracers next to my
flying kicks, and I noticed a few other things that were peculiar, but there
was one special item lying in my closet: a gun blade, similar to the one that Migalt
had on my first trip to the Uriel. Whoa! I stood there, transfixed by its
terrible firepower.

It wasn’t as big as Migalt’s of
course, but it was majestic. I remembered how he activated the blade, and I had
to test it out for myself. Picking it up gingerly, I caressed the emblem on the
titanium handle of the sword in order to activate it. I remembered the
technique from watching Migalt back then. Upon my command, the tritium
phosphoritite and magnesium substance rapidly jutted out.

My blade was a fiery teal, and I
could see Dietons around me spark as they hit the edge of the blade. The edges
were burning hot. Excited, I parried the gun blade, pretending to fight an
unseen foe. Oops! I burnt my sheets on my bed as I  wasn't properly trained.
Thank goodness I did not sear my leg with the red-hot object. I smelled the
smoke arising from the rips in my bed sheets, trimmed with blackened burn
marks.

Oh no! When I lifted up the sword
in reaction to my accident, I became even clumsier and destroyed the shield to
the lighting mechanism on the ceiling. Sparks flew down from the ceiling and
rained harmlessly on me. Gulping at my ineptitude, I turned off the lethal
weapon.

I heard Nezatron laughing over my
nanocom. ‘Theodore, it is time for dinner, please head down to the dining hall.
Teddy, let’s put the sword away. I will send a Dietonian to fix what you
destroyed. Oh and by the way, that sword was wielded by Zane during our dark
ages when he was being hunted by Odion and the Dacturon Elite.
Wrath
is
its name—it’s one million years older than you are. It would be wise to respect
it—weapons like these are unforgiving, and evolve based on their user. I can
see it has already changed to suit you.’

‘Wait, Nezatron,’ I said.

‘Yes, Theodore?’

‘I need to know more about our
sworn enemy—Odion. How can I best fight him?’ I demanded to know.

‘I figured we may have this
conversation,’ Nezatron said, ‘You have met him once, and that’s far more than
the vast majority of any other beings in the universe. You have first-hand witness
of his power. Imagine the hatred that Travis has, and multiply that by
infinity, and you will have Odion. In the beginning of this mess, when Zane was
created, there was another—’

‘Another Omnian? Yes, I do
remember. He and Zane are brothers, and they are still the only Omnians in the
multiverse,’ I said.

Nezatron said, ‘Yes Ted, he was
taken from the Dacturon scientists who created him, and was raised by the
Dacturon Council. Zane was also created in that same laboratory, but with
different results, and he was exiled by the Multiverse Council. They could not
handle his power.’

‘What makes Odion so powerful? He
got to me, I guess,’ I asked.

Nezatron said, ‘In terms of
physical strength, he is nowhere as powerful as Zane. It is his power over the
mind that sets them apart. Zane does not wage battles in the mind of man or
beings of the multiverse, but Odion does and is capable of destroying an entire
nation in your world with a simple notion of doubt or jealousy.’

I said, ‘What’s stopping him from
entering the mind of Zane? Or any of us, actually?’