Ascension Seekers

by Amy Proebstel

  “Family we have gathered together for the important task of giving the protective crystal to Barla. Barla, do you agree to allow me to look into your mind in order for me to assign a unique crystal?” Rasa waited for her mother to reply before continuing.

  “Yes, I do.” Barla wondered what Rasa would see of her future.

  Rasa dipped her finger into the green liquid in the bowl beside Barla’s knee. She marked a line in green across her mother’s forehead and chanted, “I mark your forehead to be able to divine the thoughts and intents of your being.” She dipped her finger again in the bowl and marked a circle in green on the back of each of her mother’s outstretched hands chanting, “I mark each of your hands to be able to divine the actions for which you will be responsible in your lifetime.”

  The room was utterly silent as Rasa held each of Barla’s hands in her own. With her eyes closed, she began to rock back and forth as she spoke, “Allah dari langit, silakan me panduan dalam penyelidikan. Membuat saya benar bacaan dan kristal tugas tepat.”

  Barla recognized the same words from her own children’s ceremonies so long ago and easily translated Rasa’s phrase with, “Jehoban of creation, please guide me in the quest. Make my readings true and the crystal assignment precise.”

  They all sat in silence as Rasa continued to rock silently. Rasa had never probed an adult mind in this manner. She was finding it both difficult and fascinating as she had to shuffle through her mother’s consciousness while trying to see into her future.

  Rasa finally spoke again. “Your life has many challenges to come in the future. Gentleness is apparent in your very nature as well as a strong sense of right from wrong.” Rasa finished and released Barla’s hands. She had seen some wondrous things in her mother’s past and future and she was more than a little alarmed at the visions. To hide her sudden apprehension Rasa opened the hinged lid of the ornate box on the floor.

  The lid obscured her view of the contents, yet Barla knew the box contained the protective crystals. Barla had already seen her crystal and wondered if Rasa had taken it from her pocket and put it into the box.

  Rasa did not hesitate as she reached into the open box. She brought forth the same pendant she had already shown the family. She purposefully closed the box as she deftly threaded the crystal onto a delicate, but ornate, chain which was procured from an almost hidden pocket in her tunic.

  She then handed the necklace to Barla and continued the slightly-altered formal procedure, by saying, “As you place this crystal of protection on yourself, say, Saya memakai ini dengan restu dari Tuhan.”

  Barla repeated the phrase as she placed the necklace around her own neck. She silently translated the phrase as ‘I wear this with the blessing of Jehoban.’ Knowing with certainty this was true, she felt a sudden warmth inside her heart and the prickle of tears come to her eyes as she realized she had been accepted by Jehoban.

  Rasa took a new warm, wet cloth and wiped the green liquid from Barla’s forehead and hands. She rinsed the cloth in another bowl of clean water. Rasa removed the cloth, picked up the cup and handed it to Barla and announced, “I give you this water to drink. By the drinking of the liquid which contains your essence, you will seal the bond with your new birth crystal.”

  Barla brought the cup to her lips and drank down the mint flavored water and then returned the cup to Rasa. To conclude the service, Rasa then spoke to everyone in the room, “With Barla safe and protected from harm because she is united with her birth crystal we can all celebrate.”

  Barla stood and turned to face her family. The three most important people in her life came and hugged her from all sides. Never before had she felt so loved. This moment was possibly the best one of her life. Her blessings kept multiplying and she offered a silent prayer of thanks to Jehoban for His mercy.

  There was not a single dry eye in the room and they could not have been any happier about it. Finally, they sat down and used tissue to clean themselves up a bit. Barla could not contain the question which had been plaguing her so she asked, “What made Jehoban want to give me a birth crystal at my age?”

  Rasa answered, “Amanda met with Jehoban and asked for it be given to you.”

  “Amanda? Why would she do it? She doesn’t even know me.” She continued to ponder the many questions in her mind.

  Rasa considered her mother’s questions. She knew the truth about Amanda being related to them, but her mother had no idea. This was not her place to say anything, of that she felt certain. She finally answered what she could by saying, “When you meet her, you can ask her yourself. There are many surprises in all of our futures.”

  Barla raised her eyebrow at her daughter’s cryptic remark. Once again, she wondered what Rasa had seen of her past and future. She knew better than to ask, but her imagination could still think about it.

  Ahn piped in with his comment, “I’ll be sure to give her a big kiss for asking Jehoban on our behalf.”

  Rasa turned to her brother and asked, “How long are you able to stay home?”

  “A few weeks. Why?”

  “We need to train Mom on how to use her crystal. I’m sure she remembers the lessons from when we were little, but it’s quite a different story when you are the user and not merely the observer!”

  “That’s right. Mom, now you won’t have to do everything by hand. Imagine how much more time you’ll have when you’re able to just think everything done.” Gravin was eager to begin the lessons, but he believed Rasa would be the better teacher and he said as much to his sister.

  “Oh, Gravin, I have it on good authority that you are an excellent teacher. I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for your training. I have a few days off so we can do it together, okay?” Rasa held her brother’s arm in her hand and squeezed it lovingly.

  Chapter Nine

  RICCAN DECIDED HE would make a family affair of teaching Amanda how to fly the telepod. He planned to instruct her first in his newest telepod and then give her his older one to use for her missions in Tuala. When he got home from work, he was going to tell them all about it.

  With Behn having just left the house from his afternoon crystal lesson, the girls seemed to be in good moods. Amanda had spent the day researching different ideas about leads on the ten remaining samaras.

  Riccan was glad to be away from the office where he had experienced a particularly bad day with his boss, Ela Nena. She had decided to give Riccan a few extra duties as well as a tighter deadline for several of his projects. He was starting to believe Ela Nena was purposely being harder on him because he had gotten married. There was no other explanation for her sudden change in attitude toward him.

  He walked into the kitchen from the garage at his home in Florida. The first people he saw were his two girls getting themselves a snack while they sat at the kitchen island. “Hey, you two. What’s to eat?”

  “We were just trying to decide that ourselves. Maybe since it’s getting so late, we should just plan to make dinner,” Jena suggested.

  “How about foxl stew? I haven’t had it for ages and it sounds delicious,” Juila exclaimed.

  Riccan asked, “Do you want to make it yourselves or would you rather I just put it together?”

  The girls both looked at him and batted their eyelashes innocently.

  Riccan laughed and said, “Alright, alright, enough of the puppy dog eyes. I’ll make dinner. You’re going to love my grandma’s recipe for it, too.”

  The three of them began to laugh just as Amanda appeared in the hallway from the study. She walked forward and smiled at the happy picture her family made as they enjoyed one another’s company in the kitchen. “What’s so funny?” she asked as she reached the island.

  “Hi, honey,” Riccan said as he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “The girls were just convincing me to cook dinner for the family. They were practicing their best powers of persuasion by batting their eyelashes at me.”

  “It appears to have worked,” Amanda declare
d. She took a seat at the island and prepared to await what was sure to be a fabulous meal.

  “When are you going to learn to create, Mom?” Juila asked in the sudden silence.

  “She already has,” Riccan commented even as he began to compile in his head the list of food items he would need to make dinner.

  Juila turned her gaze from her father to her mother with eyes wide with amazement. “You have? When? I’ve never seen you do it.”

  Amanda rolled her eyes at her husband’s gross overstatement of her abilities. “I’ve created one dish in my lifetime and it was barely edible. Your father is a much better chef than I’m afraid I’ll ever be.”

  “And she’s content with letting me do all of the hard work,” Riccan added with a wide grin on his face.

  “Hard work! Ha!” Amanda scoffed.

  The entire family laughed.

  Within a few minutes Riccan had a large pot of stew prepared and placed in a large kettle in the middle of the island. The girls prepared the table by getting out dishes, silverware, and napkins. Naturally they used their talents to do the work.

  Amanda sat in awe of her family’s easy use of the elemy when she could barely manage to do anything without great effort. Even then, the results were far from predictable. It was obvious she should spend at least part of each day working on getting better with her crystal skills.

  She had been so consumed with finding the samaras that she had neglected to train. Obviously, Jehoban had entrusted her with her own birth crystal for more than just allowing her to fit into the Tualan society. He must have wanted her to use all of her abilities to their fullest. She owed it to Him to be her best.

  The family ate dinner without much conversation. As always the food was excellent and everyone praised Riccan for another successful meal. When the pot of stew was empty, the girls took it upon themselves to use their powers to clear the dishes and put everything away.

  Riccan sat back on his stool and sighed with contentment. “I was thinking we should all go out in the telepod so Amanda can start to learn how to use it. What do you think?”

  Amanda was pleased to hear the suggestion about her learning to fly. However, she was not so certain their daughters should be going with them in case her navigational skills got them lost in between spaces. It would be bad enough knowing she had caused her husband’s demise, but she could not reconcile the idea of taking out her entire family in one flight.

  “I don’t know, Riccan. I wouldn’t think it would be such a good idea. What if something went wrong? Maybe the girls should stay home for the first few flights.”

  Riccan began to laugh at Amanda’s concern for killing her family. He knew his telepod was built with safeguards against her fear and told her as much.

  Amanda was relieved to hear about it, but she still could not fully release her fear for them all being together.

  Jena could see her mother’s internal struggle as she watched her expression change. “Juila and I have homework to get done tonight. Maybe we can go another time.” Mom is scared to have us go. She doesn’t need the distraction while she’s trying to learn something so important. Back me up on this, Juila, Jena hurriedly spoke in her mind to Juila.

  “Jena’s right, Mom. We can’t go tonight. Sorry, Dad. It’s going to have to be the two of you tonight. I’ll look forward to a future flight, though.”

  “Okay. I guess it’s settled,” Amanda said brightly. She pushed herself off of the stool and looked over at her husband. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”

  “I’m ready. Let’s go,” Riccan said even as he leaned over to kiss each of his daughters on her forehead as he moved past them to go out to the garage. “Be good. I’m not sure how late we’ll be.”

  “We’ll be fine, Dad,” Jena smiled as she reassured him.

  “I know,” Riccan smiled and put his arm around Amanda and turned them both to leave.

  “I love you both,” Amanda called over her shoulder as she let herself be led out of the house.

  “Love you, too,” the girls replied in unison.

  Riccan opened the garage door and they stepped down onto the concrete pad. The telepod was in cloaked mode, as it always was whenever it was on Earth. “I think I’ll guide the ‘pod to Tuala and we can start your lessons where we won’t have to worry about being seen.”

  “I love the way you think,” Amanda said. Secretly she was glad to be able to carefully watch the steps he took to get the craft ready for flight before she would be called upon to do the same.

  Riccan palmed open the side door and stood to the side while the ramp unfolded for them to enter the craft. He let Amanda enter first and get herself settled in the right-hand seat reserved for the co-pilot. He followed her and took the left seat. At the same time they put their seatbelts on.

  Riccan used the remote to shut the side door and waited a second for the door to completely shut, creating an airtight seal. He looked over at Amanda and began teaching her the basics by saying, “The control panel is mostly handled the same way as the conventional telepods, but the displays are all located within the plascreen. On other telepods, each function has its own light on the board. This one integrates them all to one screen so there’s less chance of missing something vital. There’s even a built-in safeguard against pilot error which is almost equivalent to an auto-pilot, to which I was referring in the kitchen.”

  “I’m glad to hear you thought about putting it into your telepod,” she said as she nodded understanding of Riccan’s explanation so far.

  Riccan touched the plascreen to turn it on and then he activated the telepod’s crystal drive. The vessel rose several inches above the ground soundlessly and hovered in place until Riccan was able to verify each green light on the screen.

  He switched screens to be able to enter the course they would be traveling. He typed in the coordinates and pressed enter. Immediately, the course was locked and loaded. With a nod of readiness to Amanda, Riccan pressed the button on the screen to begin the teleportation to Tuala.

  Three seconds later they appeared over a flat, grassy field mere inches above the ground. Riccan issued all of the shutdown procedures, turned to Amanda and said, “Are you ready? Press this button right here.” He pointed to a plastic circle on the dash.

  Amanda pressed it and saw the panels light up in front of both her and Riccan. “Okay, now what?”

  “When the display screens clear of all of their test messages, then you’ll press the activate button on the touchscreen in front of you.” He waited a few seconds and then pointed at the screen, “Right there.”

  “Can I do it from either screen?” she asked as she reached toward the screen in front of her and hesitated.

  “Yes, they are both identically connected to the main system. Good! Do you feel us levitating?”

  “Yes. Do I have to worry about us continuing to rise?” She anxiously looked down out of the windshield in front of her.

  Riccan chuckled at her reaction and then answered seriously, “No, it’s programmed to stay a few inches from the ground. However, if you are operating an older telepod then you would have to pay attention to the altitude from the moment you activated the flight switch. Good question. Now, using the touchscreen, tap on the navigate button and enter Kirma. From the initial location we will then enter a secondary location to go to Pantano so we can stop for a moment and say hello to my parents.”

  “Why Kirma?” she asked even as she was typing it in.

  “It’s an area with relatively little air traffic. The actual coordinates are stored in the memory of the telepod. Here, let me show you really quick so you’ll have a visual in mind while we travel.” He pulled up an aerial map and pointed to the spot. He wanted Amanda to become more familiar with Tualan landmarks.

  Amanda leaned closer and could see the topography of the land was slightly different, otherwise, it just looked like land. She nodded her head and asked, “Now what?”

  “Look over the entire dash and make
sure you don’t see anything lit up in red. Red is bad. If you did happen to see anything red, then you would immediately shut down the telepod and begin again. Never take off if there is any sign of trouble.”

  His advice seemed perfectly reasonable. Amanda once again nodded, looked over the dash, and replied, “It all looks good.”

  “I agree. Now concentrate on the location where we are heading and, at the same time, press the activate travel button.” Riccan did the same thing from his seat just to make sure they actually ended up where they intended.

  Everything went black as they teleported between locations. With equal suddenness they emerged over the outskirts of the city of Kirma in the brightness of the evening sun.

  “That was perfect. Now I want you to land the ‘pod over there in the open field using the manual controls,” he said confidently.

  “What? I don’t have any idea how it works. You’ve got to be kidding!” Amanda looked over at Riccan with an alarmed expression.

  “How do you expect to learn if you only ever watch me? You need to get the feel of the craft as she’s flying. Just so you know, I have the same controls on my side so I can make any corrections should I see anything going awry.” He put his hand on the manual control and raised his eyebrows to confirm she was going to comply with his instructions.

  “Fine, but don’t blame me if something happens to your telepod. I warned you!” Amanda spoke more sharply than she intended since she could feel fear spreading through her entire body. Her hand shook as she lifted it to hold the manual control stick. She tried to delay the inevitable by asking, “Don’t you think I should try to maneuver the telepod first before I get too close to the ground?”

  “Sure, if it’ll make you feel more comfortable. Try moving in a lazy eight pattern,” he said with a smile on his face. He looked out the windows to make sure the surrounding airspace was clear. The telepods were designed to repel each other when they came into close proximity due to the crystal drives. Still, it was good practice to make sure all was open around them.