Chapter Twenty Two–ENEMY SECRET

 

 

The Gravitational Amplifier hummed, sending out waves of growing vibrations through the vast expanse of the pumping station. Their laughter was a pleasant counterpoint to the mechanical reverberations.

Ari placed his hand gently on Yu’s shoulder. “That was a lesson we’d better remember.”

Yu readily agreed. Although his words were strong, his voice betrayed his weakness. “When it seems like all is lost, it may only seem that way.”

“Right,” Face chimed in, “Don’t always take things at face value. Unless of course, I’m your source!”

Yu had ample reason to be grateful. “Thank K’altun! That new Med-Tech wasn’t alone.”

Ari nodded, then tried to stand and quickly sat down again. “I guess we aren’t quite back to normal.”

“Your normal may not be the best of goals,” teased Yu.

“I’m happy to have you normal again, friend. If the other Tech hadn’t realized how much difference restoring your headband would make . . .”

Yu sensed exhaustion alone wasn’t making Ari leave that sentence trailing. She decided it was time to leave the past and what might have been behind. She focused on the facts. It was 7:00 in the morning. She had made it through a long night of recovery. Willfully she concluded that she’d soon be capable of continuing their journey.

Ari’s Vid-com signaled. Nor appeared, sparing not a millisecond on greetings. “Where are you?”

“We are about 2 kilometers from Yutanius. At the local pumping station.”

“Celarius will arrive at his home promptly at 8:00. You must be there to greet him.”

Flashing carnivore’s teeth, near-fatal falls, and volcanic explosions roared through Ari’s mind. He kept the battles of their journey to himself.

He glanced questioningly at Yu. Yu nodded her ability to leave. “We’ll be there.”

“Call me when you’re underway.” Nor’s image vanished. The words he had not directly spoken lingered -- Prove yourself worthy.

Ari sent Face for the Med-Techs and helped Yu don her silver anti-gravity suit. He was glad to spring into action and divert himself from the wrenching pain his father’s abruptness bequeathed.

Yu smiled weakly. “The suit always makes me feel better.”

“I know you are convincing yourself you are all right. But I want them to check you over anyway.”

Yu submitted obligingly to their examination. She knew arguing with Ari about this was pointless. She didn’t have any energy to waste.

“She’s fine,” concluded the Senior Tech. “I’m sorry if my assistant scared all of you yesterday. He’s a newbie. Besides, severe injuries in Yutans with headbands of this caliber aren’t commonplace.”

Yu shook both their hands. “I wouldn’t have made it without you. Farewell.”

They helped her get to her feet. Yu walked slowly.

“That’s right,” the senior tech encouraged her. “Take it easy. You may be dizzy for a while.”

“I’ll make it. Thanks again to all of you.”

The three said their goodbyes quickly, but with heartfelt thanks. The Med-Techs and the SIC’s that manned the station all felt their efforts were appreciated.

As they walked to a three-seated bubble, Ari carefully monitored Yu’s condition. “How are you feeling?”

She was doing her best to ignore the lingering weakness the fall caused. “I really am much better. I didn’t realize losing my headband made me so vulnerable. I’m glad they fitted me with another so quickly. I felt stripped naked without it.” Her tone grew serious. “Nearing death has made me understand more of the other side. I feel a closer understanding of life’s mysteries and the realm beyond them.”

Ari nodded thoughtfully. A snatch of the whales’ requiem flowed through his mind, as they boarded the bubble.

As Face readied the ship telepathically, Ari signaled his father. As he pulled the Vid-com from his pocket, a 3-D projection formed before them. Ari replied instantly, banishing the healing song.

This time the image had a wider frame. Ari saw that Nor was on the Red Planet.

Nor again plunged directly into his own agenda. “As I told you, Celarius will be home within the hour. You must meet him and see if we can shed some light on his son’s disappearance. No one other than Yoris and his girlfriend, Marana, was reported missing.”

As he so often did, Nor let the facts speak for themselves. He briefed Ari dispassionately and curtly. Between them lay a vast vacuum, emptier and colder than the space between Atlantius and the Red Planet, emptier and colder than the space between Yanna and Celarius, emptier and colder than the space between one edge of the universe and its antipode.

Neither man asked a question of the other. Neither said any farewell. Ari vacantly slipped the Vid-com back in his pocket. Nor’s unvoiced decree echoed. “If the son fails, then the father fails.”

Yu was struck by the palpable void between Nor and Ari. She offered consolation in the form of rationalization. “He doesn’t know we almost died.”

Yu knew her comment hadn’t given Ari the solace she hoped to provide. Not wanting to leave another silence hanging in the air, she stumbled awkwardly forward. “My father is a pain in the neck. He thinks he knows everything. And he thinks I like learning things together. That can be rewarding at times. But mostly it is a pain.”

“When you feel you’ve outgrown your father’s presence, let me know. I’ll trade you.” Ari’s answer cut deeply to the quick of the matter. “How can Nor be so cold? I’m his only son. Face never knew a father. Maybe he was lucky.”

“No one fears for me,” Face responded calmly. “Your father may not show it, but he knows the dangers of the continent. He certainly knows the treachery of the Ancient Ones. He can see that you survived. When you are engaged with the enemy, there is no time for war stories. Perhaps he is purposely avoiding the subject.”

The problem of Ari’s feelings toward his father were replaced by Face’s mention of the crisis.

“What are the Ancient Ones’ plans now?” Yu wondered gravely.

Ari thought aloud, “We know beyond a doubt they’d do anything to prevent us from getting to Yutanius. They must be guilty of something. It’s up to us to find out. Their secret is our enemy.”

 

 

Chapter Twenty Three—PRIMAL GREEN

 

 

Face alerted Ari and Yu. “A solar class ship is closing on us fast.”

“The Ancient Ones?” Ari asked.

“They wouldn’t be that obvious.”

Face directed his attention toward the approaching ship. “It’s Celarius. We should arrive seconds before he does.”

Face saw a landing site clear of the oncoming ship. The bubble automatically responded by depositing them on a flat ledge on the high hill immediately behind Celarius’ mansion.

Moments later they stood on the sunlit grounds and watched the tear-shaped ship drop down from the sky. The shimmering hum of the silver ship blended with the soft surge of the shallow Southwest Sea. The salt-tinged air merged deliciously with the kindred smell of the Dark Matter drive.

Yu sniffed in the metallic symphony. “I love the smell of planetary travel.”

Ari nodded. “When I’m away from the sea, I love that the scent of the drive, it resembles the fragrance of breakers over a shallow reef.”

The stalwart three admired the majesty of the descending ship, a metallic teardrop falling across a clear sky.

“Visibility unlimited,” Ari commented. The vista filled him with a sense of boundless possibility.

The three simultaneously observed small swelling dust clouds as the craft landed. They strode immediately to Celarius’ ship. As the artist emerged, a stately figure fled toward him from the opposite direction.

“That must be Yanna,” Ari rightly concluded.

The tortuous flood of emotions contorting within her fueled her speed. She flung herself into Celarius’ arms. The swiftness of unexpected grief instantly closed all the distances that ever lay between them. Parsecs collapsed, bringing what had been infinitely distant as near as a kiss.

They waited uncomfortably as the couple exchanged long hugs and frantic kisses. Pain beyond comfort sought the cure of a familiar embrace.

Embarrassed by witnessing so private a scene, Ari turned toward his friends. “Face, do your brethren do that?”

“We experience something like the closeness you feel from physical contact from the SES. That’s why we have art competitions. We express in abstract form what you directly experience. We provide the technology, while you Atlantians provide encounters.”

Their curtain of conversation pulled shut to separate them from the married couple’s anguish. Behind it, Yanna sobbed, holding Celarius close. He bent over her, reaching down, lifting her up to him. His words broke in her ears. “Then there is no word of Yoris?”

“Nothing.”

“Two children, gone.”

“No. No! We don’t know that. Yoris may come home.”

Yanna clung to him as tightly as to the frail hope that was keeping her afloat on a tempest-tossed sea of despair.

Still in a tight circle of conversation, the youths stared at the ground. The glimpse they had caught of Yanna’s flight into Celarius’ arms had shown them more than they wanted to see. Yanna’s valiant reputation preceded her. Seeing a woman of such great spiritual and emotional strength wrecked on the shore of a few days’ events was witnessing a catastrophe with all the impact of the volcanic explosion they had endured.

Tears as weighty as melted ice flakes rained down her sculpted cheeks. Yanna pulled away just enough to look deeply and longingly at her husband. He had aged years since their last meeting of only a few hours ago. It seemed that the sun stopped in the sky, that the planet no longer turned beneath the flaring golden orb. A scant few solar minutes passed with the slowness of shadow-long days.

Celarius edged back from Yanna and nodded toward the three friends. “They may be able to help us.”

Still holding Yanna’s elegant hand in his, he walked over to the tight tiny circle. The threesome continued hiding in their conversation.

“Then Intelligent Cystals’s do have girlfriends! You’ve been holding out on us,” Ari teased Face.

“Not as you Atlantians physically do. Strong emotions can, however, be shared. We duplicate them between consenting clan members to emulate Atlantian emotions.”

“Although I am full-blooded Yutan, I still can’t understand why some Yutans hate that,” Yu said apologetically.

They sensed the couple’s approach and turned to meet them. No introduction among strangers was ever more soulful. As they raised their palms upward, knowing what would be encompassed in the formalized greeting was harrowing. Defensively, the five fell into the niceties of social conventions.

As elder and host on his estate, Celarius spoke first. “It is my great pleasure to meet the noted composer of whale songs.”

“The whales do most of the work!” Ari demurred with a dazzling smile. “I can take credit for no more than being the vehicle for sharing it. It hardly compares to building pyramids and creating sculptures in the sky.”

For once in his self-absorbed life, Celarius ducked a compliment with heartfelt truth. “All artists stand on the shoulders of those who came before them.”

“Whales don’t have shoulders,” joked Face. “If they did, we’d slide off into the water.”

They grinned, still defending against the obvious grief of the couple. “I’d gladly immerse myself in their music and the joys of sharing it for the rest of my life,” Ari volunteered.

“When our work is our joy, we have reached our best selves,” Celarius concluded.

“The whales would agree, as do I.” Ari’s thoughts plunged into the waters of the cove. For an instant, he drenched himself in cetacean songs, bathed by In Paradisum, Salt-sung Recordare, Offertorium, and Libera Me, washed over him. He would gladly have remained in the surging sureties of the sea, if in his own deepest depths something had not echoed up into his consciousness. He knew altered states of mind were slippery things. He had to hold fast to the present. For a time, his duty claimed him.

Ari was obliged to quickly come to the point of his visit. “The Supreme Magistrate sent us to offer our services to you and your family. We will do all that we can to aid you.”

Yanna clutched Celarius’ hand with the fear that he might be all that was left of their family. Her eyes leveled Ari. “They said you would come.”

Celarius led her gently toward the house with Ari, Yu, and Face in tow. As they descended to the cliff-clinging mansion, Ari described what he knew. “The Council was told almost immediately about their disappearance. That same day, Nor sent us to join you here.”

“You were sent five days ago? But I saw your bubble land just before me.”

“We came overland on foot. We only picked up the bubble at the pumping station. Nor specifically ordered it for security reasons.”

Celarius knew enough not to ask more. “That trail hasn’t been used by anyone in years. You’re lucky you got here alive.”

Celarius’ concern for their jeopardy made Ari the all the more aware of Nor’s disregard of the hazards they had conquered. He pulled at a strand of his flowing blond hair. “The important thing is that we are here.”

Celarius quickly deduced that the only possible reason for going overland was that treacherous forces we allied against them. “You were hiding from the Yutan terrorists.”

“We don’t know for sure.” Ari was not going to tell him that even more powerful and dreadful forces were at work. “But we will find out.”

Celarius liked Ari’s genuine honesty. It seemed like decent dedication rather than false bravado. His integrity reminded Celarius of his son. “Yoris spoke with the same directness. I wish that I had heard more of what he had to say.”

Unaware that he was doing so, Celarius moved closer to Ari.

It seemed like the graciousness of a welcoming host. He stayed by Ari’s side as they compared their knowledge of the time and place of the disappearance.

Reaching the grand doorway of his domed home, Celarius stood aside to let Yanna enter first, then turned to the three comrades. “Won’t you come in?”

The doors swept open automatically before them. Six impressive meters of crystallized silver and bronze sparkled. Though massively solid and weighty, the faceted shimmering surfaces spread themselves open and shut with no more effort than an eye blinking.

“We’re obviously in the presence of the master. You selected the best of Atlantian materials,” said Face, with a nod to their host.

“With no concern for cost,” added Yu.

“You didn’t scrimp on size,” commented Ari. “This crystal and metal dome home is bigger than most made from synthesized materials.”

“You are right,” Yu noted. “I estimate it must be at least 17,034 square meters.”

“Close, 30,000.” Replied Celarius

“And size isn’t it’s only distinction.” Ari gestured further into the interior. The cavernous space was filled with Celarius’ unique swirling and glowing purple plasma art.

As they entered, they were swept up in grandeur. They paraded reverentially across floors of highly polished marble. It was so shiny, it clearly reflected their images. As they went further into the home, they stepped deeper into luxury. The ceiling at the domed zenith was over twenty-five meters high. Nearly half way from the top, canals flooded downward, rimmed with a rush of blooming magnolias smells. They extended in living walls, swirling around the dome, layer upon layer.

Clearly in awe, Ari understated the obvious. “This is a beautiful home.” His voice echoed in the cavernous spaces. Like Nor’s office, this was a space that demanded the occupants live up to expectation.

Their heels click clacked against the polished surface as they strode toward the living quarters. Face’s limp struck its own unique rhythm.

Yanna’s voice echoed with a hollowness more cavernous than that of the dome. She fragilely clung to civility. “You are more welcome than you can know. Stay as long as you need. All that is ours is yours.” This gracious hostess could find no joy in entertaining on this grief-stricken day. “Would you like to see the rest of the house?”

They nodded. Although hushed with respect for her obvious anguish, their curiosity was engaged. A wonder clearly awaited their exploration.

“Do we really have time for this?” Ari worried, aside to Yu.

“Anything we can glean about her son, may help us find him or clues about his captors.” Yu said softly. “It is precious time, but well spent.”

Ari nodded, pleased to have reason to agree.

Yanna struggled to smile as she began the tour. Her words resonated with sorrow, an aching sigh exposed to open spaces. The heavenly blue dome above them darkened to the deep purple of an angry bruise.

“Gold! Full bright!” At her command, the dome instantly transmuted as if touched by an alchemist. “It is lit or shaded at will to suit the mood. An opaque sensor covers it in different shades of red, blue, gold, or whatever you wish. It will respond to the tone of your voice or that response can be overridden by naming a color.”

Ari realized the sensor had darkened in reaction to her sorrow. She had nullified that unspoken command, choosing a more hopeful hue.

“You should have seen it when the children were little. Their spats would send colors crashing across it, like a wizard hurtling a wand through the heavens at some blasphemy.” Pained by her recollection of her children as suddenly as she had been cheered by it, Yanna continued by rote. “If the plants need more light, or water, or if someone seeks privacy, that too can be controlled by sensors or ordered by voice command.”

She led them upstairs. Each step was a summit for her to climb. “This level holds the sleeping quarters. Here one can view a starlit night with the opaque sensors off. It is quite spectacular. At the lower level is the living space.”

Yanna tried again to steady herself, then caved. “I can't. I’m so sorry, Celar. Please show yourselves around.”

“We’ll stay with you.” Face volunteered himself and Yu as her caretakers, to free Ari and Celarius. Face sensed they each had broken bonds that would interlock.

The established artist and the fledgling leader entered the living room flowing on a sweet wave of magnolia-blossomed scent. To one side he noticed an everyday Atlantian wafer dispenser. That ordinary item made the distinctive artistry of the parlor all the more spectacular. Ari felt bathed by the floral caress of opening blue petals. “I have never seen ultramarine petals on magnolia before.”

“It’s Phylocanthene,” Celarius corrected, with artistic precision. “I had them mutated to the exact point on the spectrum that matched Shaika’s eyes on the day she came to us from the hatchery.” He gestured upward to another drift of blue blooms. ”Those match Yoris’ eyes as a neonate.”

Ari knew Celarius had just exposed his heart. Struck by that vulnerability, Ari felt close. He was in harmony with Celarius’s pain. He was frozen in the moment. In the silence, he and Celarius concentrated on the enriched fragrance that filled the living spaces surrounding them. It created a feeling of nature so sweeping that it carried one’s spirit beyond walled confines. Ari let himself be comforted by the indigo perfume. The gurgling of running water as it fled down little falls and tiny rapids into reservoirs, pools, and canals swept him further away.

Ari finally decided praise would be the best remedy for his host. “While embraced and sheltered within the home you so carefully interweaved with care. We have all the indoor comforts of a lavish home while seemingly outdoors on a prefect spring day events must be unraveled.”

Yanna joined them, as silent and slender as a shadow. She apparently had recovered herself. Face and Yu trailed at her heels, still discussing their exploration of the home.

“The repetition of the curved canals creates a sort of visual echo,” Face concluded.

Yu nodded, “You’re right. It’s the architectural equivalent of creating symphonic sound. They create profound relaxation.”

“Our guests are pleased and fascinated by your home design, husband.”

By addressing Celarius with his familial role, Yanna subtlety reminded them of the task at hand.

Ari focused abruptly on Yoris. “Now that we have a sense of his home life, it is important that we know the details of Yoris’ last days.” Ari paused, realizing what his last words implied. “His last days here at home, that is, before he disappeared.”

“Friends, times of his routine, places he may go,” listed Yu.

“We can show you.” Yanna activated the SES. “I’ll play back all the places Yoris and Marana have visited within the last solar month.”

Celarius explained, “We have had so many threats from Yutan radicals that I decided we needed to document our activities. The remote was programmed to archive at the closest possible intervals. Information streaming wouldn’t allow more to be captured. We have a SES nanosecond to nanosecond, but not . . .”

“Not his actual disappearance. Did Yoris disengaged?” Ari finished for him.

“Determining the length of that missing interval will be key,” Yu noted. “Face, before we tune in, refresh us on how the SES works.”

Face was only too glad to explain. “Phased solar matter is brought in through highly energized solar collectors. The amplified energy is energized and highly focused to produce matter fields. These matter fields, in turn, are generated onto a rough Crystal Quark Nugget which is integrated with the Crystal Intelligence and the brain frequency signatures of the users. These brain signatures are aligned to matter fields within the Crystal Intelligence’s molecular buffers. These assemble or disassemble the thoughts in real time. The scene the user creates is constantly molded, refreshed with updated moving molecular matter.”

Yu tried to clarify. “I know SES was developed within the last fifteen years. Am I right that it uses the Super Crystal Intelligence Clan themselves, highly focused energy from Phased Solar Matter, brain signatures of the user, and the rough Crystal Quark Nugget? And that each ingredient produces replicated matter which is assembled and disassembled with the help of the molecular buffers of the Crystal Intelligence?”

“That’s right. Part of the clan developed a service to all Atlantians. It allows connection to our vast quantum molecular buffers.”

Yu turned to Celarius and Yanna. He wasn’t sure how much of this they were getting, but he knew it was important to include them in the thought process. “Some Crystal Intelligences have become friends with a few Atlantians. They live with them providing the single use of their Molecular Buffers producing independent SES.”

“Is that why Face is with you?” Yanna asked sincerely.

“He is our friend,” Ari quickly affirmed. “He offers us everything a SIC can share with our kind. But what Yu was explaining is a kind of symbiosis. Other Atlantians don’t merge to that extent, but receive service over the airwaves.”

“You don’t feel used?” Yanna wondered. She was glad to think of someone else’s sensibilities.

“SICs love to experience memories and thoughts from Atlantians,” said Face on behalf of his kind. “It stimulates our intelligence.”

“As with any symbiotic relationship,” Yu elucidated, “both benefit. “The Clan gets stimulated and the Atlantians get real-time thought matter using the SES.”

Kindred to its inventors, Face felt it was his place to elaborate. “All users have different brain signatures, unique electronic brain waves. Multiple users can have a SES session going at the same time and experience present, past, or even future experiences and thoughts.”

“However,” Yu clarified, “Independent SES sessions, that is two different events happening at the same time, must be coordinated within each user’s time-space continuum.”

“If not,” Face continued, “Disorientation and confusion result. The Spatial Emersion System can be used for replicating thought as matter.”

Yu chimed in, “Or disassembled back again into thought.”

“Right,” Face agreed. “It can be preprogrammed, packaged into past, present, and future events the user wishes to use.”

Ari sensed Yanna and Celarius becoming restless with this background. The son’s disappearance was a crisis engraved in their every glance. Setting aside a wish that his father would worry about him, Ari tied the explanation and the necessities of the investigation together. “We’ll have an advantage if we use this SES system to gather information from you two. If we find any clues, then we’ll add them. We can also use the SES to turn one of the rooms into a lab. Then we can analyze any physical evidence we collect.”

The tortured parents remained silent.

“With your permission, of course.” Ari deferred politely, to prompt a response.

“Of course. Of course. Whatever you need,” Celarius assured them. “Yanna, release the privacy frequencies.”

“What? Oh, I thought I had. I’m sorry.” Yanna’s thoughts shifted. “Artan Park is the last known place he went.”

“Since we will experience events in real time, we’d better start there,” decreed Ari.

Celarius seemed apologetic. “Naturally, real-time point-of-views usually are private and respected by SES users.”

“Of course,” Yu responded, realizing his pain.

“But in these . . .” Celarius hesitated. Putting names to things could make them too real. Finally he settled on a euphemism and continued with unhealed bravado. “In these unusual times, Yoris would understand.”

“As would Marana,” added Yanna.

Rain fell suddenly. The youths and the beleaguered parents remained dry. Lightning flashed and roiled. Thunder roared. The five witnesses remained safe. It was not the magnificent engineering of the Artan Park gazebo, channeling heaven-thrust voltage that sheltered them, but the unreality of the experience. The storm was not created by clouds colliding — it was the SES.

Ari blushed. Yu’s thought vein pulsed palpably. Face confronted the sight directly. Yoris’ parents averted their eyes, respecting their son and Marana, as presented by the SES.

Marana danced into Yoris’ eager arms, her mouth moist with anticipation. The scent of the blue magnolias yielded to the heavy-drenched dark essence of fern. The primal green scent was thick, sticky with arousal.

The gold of Marana’s gown grew transparent as rain flooded down from her drenched tresses. The rain-thinned cloth that had cloaked her modesty suddenly surrendered, exposing clear signs of her arousal. As if to shield them from view, Yoris cupped his hands over her mounded breasts.

Only the horror of the final scene they knew awaited them prevented Ari from being distracted by her ripe beauty. A hideous roar of triumph rolled over the rain-soaked valley. The mist sucked the couple into its belly. In that instant, they vanished.