Th’ael didn’t wait long before he re-issued his command to the motionless crowd standing in front of him. “Weapons? Quick? Any of this ringing a bell?” he boomed impatiently.
“I’m all in, Th’ael, but first you should heal. You’re bleeding. No offense, but there is no way you can expect any of us to be of use to you in fight after sleeping for so long without any real food. I feel depleted. Let me eat and then we will show the Thrall who’s really in charge of this planet when we bring back a full armada and demolish their way of life,” purred a sleek, beautiful Ah’naki female.
CHAPTER FOUR
AARIK
Aarik stood in the cramped shower holding his head while his mind processed the events of the past few days. The whole process of reestablishing a workable Terra Locke passed with lightning like speed, barely giving him enough time to think about the whirlwind his life had become. He never gave much credit to the conspiracy theorists of the world, but after the tour from the other day ended on the tenth floor, he had a newfound respect for their ingenuity, courage, and dedication to find the truth, however far stretched it might appear.
The ninth floor was interesting, filled with artifacts in disarray from the Mexican digsite, meaning they were only halfway through reconstructing the chamber they uncovered last year. It was the artifacts on the seventh and eighth floor that had Aarik reeling in disbelief. There were artifacts squirreled away from the public that only existed within fairy tales, myths or religious texts. Items like Solomon’s ring, the Ark of the Covenant, Pandora’s Box, a Cosmic Egg, and the Omphalos stone, just to name a few, were enough to make anyone question what else could be out there.
Aarik reminded himself, as he toweled off and got ready to head down for breakfast, that even though he would love to crack the secrets of each artifact, he couldn’t afford to be distracted from his true mission. Time was running out and his lack of progress began eating away at him not only during his waking hours, but through his nightly dreams as well. The dark circles under his eyes were a stark reminder of his lack of sleep and only fueled his need to uncover a way to find Th’ael and stop him from destroying humankind and soon.
Listening to his grumbling stomach, Aarik closed the door to his room and padded towards the kitchen with a purpose. He imagined Doris was already up, whipping together something delicious to nibble on, and tried to project his need to whoever was listening. He could live with little to no sleep for days as long as he was guaranteed all the food he could eat in return, and when the smell of coffee and bacon wafted towards him the closer he got to the commons he pumped his fist into the air and picked up his pace.
He pulled in a large whiff and followed the aroma, like a rat following the pied piper, without stopping until he pulled up a chair at the bar and sat down with a smile. Doris poured him a cup of joe and placed it in front of him without saying a word. She flipped around, grabbed a plate and stacked it high with pancakes and bacon before she slid it across the bar towards him and clapped when it stopped in time. She wiped her hands dramatically on a red apron that read, Keep Calm Bake On, before she pointed to the butter, syrup, and powdered sugar on the bar in front of him when she was done. Pulling out an earbud, she said, “Bon Appetit!” before she put the bud back in and went back to her griddle using her spatula as a microphone, and humming the song, “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.
Aarik chuckled to himself as he devoured the meal. Doris was quickly becoming a legend among the employees, with many calling her Mother Doris, in homage once they tasted her cooking. He was happy to see how quickly she had adjusted to their new home, without any outward signs of difficulty. She adored cooking for large crowds and the next crew would be making their way through her kitchen soon, as they headed to their workstations over the next hour.
Making his way over to the sink, he barely rinsed his plate before Doris snatched it out of his hands and tsked at him loudly, not realizing she was practically yelling at him over her music she blared out, “I see that you’re tired, so I won’t castrate you today, but please let me get that for you.”
Aarik reached over and pulled out one of her earbuds before he answered her, “Sorry about that, was only trying to clean up before the masses arrived, to pay you back for the yummy food. I’ll get out of your way and head on down to the hangar bay. I have a little more than an hour to waste before I’m scheduled to meet Kiya and Taylor. I plan on working on the next station while I wait.”
“You won’t have to wait. Kiya and Taylor already passed through here and had similar plans to wait for you in the hangar bay earlier. Although I could have sworn Taylor called it the Terra Locke. Which one is it?” Doris replied in a quieter voice as she plucked the other earbud from her ear and shoved them into her apron pocket, looking up at Aarik in anticipation.
“Synonymous actually,” Aarik replied backing up and tried to redirect her thoughts by changing the subject, calling out as he headed to the elevator bay in a hurry, “Thank you for breakfast Doris. I love crunchy bacon and could eat it every day.” He screeched to a stop by the doors and called out a greeting to the resident babysitter, “Good morning, Ailla. Hoping for a quick ride to the tenth floor if you wouldn’t mind, please.”
“Good morning. You’re up early today, Dr. Landon,” replied Ailla overhead, as the elevator doors sprang open like she was anticipating his arrival.
“Not like I’m one to complain, but since you asked, I’m only up early because the bedding around here is not meant for someone of my stature. I find my feet can only handle dangling from the edge of the bed for so long before they fall asleep which makes sleeping for long periods of time pointless,” responded Aarik innocently and then smiled when Ailla remained quiet until they reached his floor and she added, “I hope you have a better day, Dr. Landon. I’ll see what can be done about your sleeping accommodations, but until then I look forward to reviewing the progress your team makes today in the hangar bay when I return to my office this afternoon. The director is anxious to show the others your advancements on Project WEST.”
“Thank you, Ailla. It’s nice to know upper management is open to suggestions AND takes pride in the work of those under them,” Aarik added as he exited the elevator, trying to get in the last word.
“No problem, Dr. Landon, but I wouldn’t go as far as saying they’re open to suggestions, down there. I was merely trying to ensure you’re able to work to your full capacity tomorrow, because to be honest, you look like shit,” Ailla added after the doors closed.
Looking above his head he smiled politely in the direction of the video camera and decided to ignore her last comment. He smoothed his hair down as he headed toward the podium, calling out to Kiya and Tyler, “Thought I was the only one crazy enough to spend all of my time down here,” but when he rounded the corner to find only Kiya looking back at him with a welcoming smile he added, “Hey there. Where’s Taylor?”
“Anna has that deadline today and after batting her eyelashes a couple times, Taylor skipped out on us with a half-ass promise of coming back sometime after lunch,” replied Kiya, with a smirk and a shrug.
“Damn. We had plans to work on the podium and figure out how to make the craft terra jump to certain destinations this morning. It was the only break we expected to have this week,” complained Aarik in a pouty voice.
“I know. I was there when Anna pointed out we weren’t expecting another shipment from Washington today at dinner last night. We can work on it together until he gets back and hope we have enough time this afternoon to make some breakthroughs. Anna said Jones indicated on the way out that he wouldn’t be back with the broken craft until tomorrow,” placated Kiya, as she climbed into the craft and patted the spot next to her.
“Alright, but I’m not going to let him forget how big of a part he has to play in us uncovering the mysteries of this technology,” responded Aarik and then regretted his choice of words when he noticed Kiya’s forehead crinkle in response.
“Gee thanks for the vote o
f confidence in my abilities to be of assistance,” added Kiya with a wink.
Thankful for the save, Aarik joined Kiya in the craft and squeezed her hand in acknowledgement. “I meant no offense, it’s just that Taylor and I have solved many puzzles together and I’m used to the way his mind works,” Aarik said with a gleam in his eye as he stared down at Kiya and mouthed the words sorry.
“I see. Well maybe you would have solved the puzzles sooner if you had brought in someone who didn’t think along the same lines as you. Just saying,” replied Kiya with a grin before she mouthed the words, not sorry and then giggled when Aarik grabbed his chest like her words were a shot to his chest.
“Point taken. So I’m guessing you were referring to yourself when you brought up this other person and if that’s the case, what would you suggest we try first?” Aarik asked out of curiosity.
“Power up your medallion and see where it takes us!” proclaimed Kiya, as she tapped her fingers along the dashboard waiting for Aarik to catch up with her enthusiasm.
Aarik looked around the auditorium and memorized the location of all the cameras Ailla would be using later to decipher any progress they made on the podium and craft and groaned quietly. He wished there was some way he could interfere with the recordings and smiled when a brilliant idea flashed through his mind.
“I’m a bit out of practice. Let me try, if not maybe you can get your laptop and work out the correct tone for us, if I fail,” replied Aarik before closing his eyes. He hoped the lie would buy him enough time in the inner cloud of knowledge to find the right chant allowing him to turn off the cameras. He really didn’t want to put on a show for the director if he had the choice.
It didn’t take long to enter the zone through meditation and as he floated in the dimension of knowledge, he concentrated on what he needed and was surprised to find the answer was at the tip of his tongue. All he had to do was open his mouth and the words would be there when he needed them most. He whispered the words to turn on his medallion and at the end of the chant he added in the words to interfere with the cameras before he changed his mind.
He opened his eyes and stared at the light emanating from his medallion with renewed attention. It almost looked like the light swirled around a bright center like it was mimicking a small spiral galaxy. He did a double take and pushed the medallion toward Kiya, intending to ask her if she was able to make out something similar before she looked and him and said, “What do you want me to do with it?”
“Sorry. Look at the gem and tell me what you see,” Aarik said in embarrassment.
“It’s glowing?” answered Kiya slowly, as she looked back and forth between Aarik and the gem as if she wasn’t sure what kind of answer Aarik was looking for.
“No. I know it’s glowing. Look closer” prompted Aarik, as he nodded toward the medallion, encouraging her to take a closer look. Kiya took it into her hands and gazed down at the gem, concentrating on it from varying distances before she paused and breathed out, “Dammmnn…”.
“Does it look like a spiral galaxy is lighting up the center of the gem to you?” pestered Aarik, for reassurance.
“Yes. I don’t know how, but it does,” whispered Kiya reverently.
“Good. Glad I’m not the only one who can see it,” answered Aarik, before he took the medallion out of her hands and held it above the key slot before he added, “Not sure what will happen next, so hold on. Here goes noth...”
“Wait!” screamed Kiya as she reached into her back pocket and said, “I want to record the shimmery thing that happens when it teleports.” She smiled over at him when she was ready and proclaimed, “Ready.”
He smiled back at her and said, “We’re going to have to come up with something a little more technical than ‘shimmery’ thing. Not sure I feel comfortable with something so girly sounding when I write up my reports.” Aarik air quoted the word shimmery and winked when she stuck her tongue out in response to his teasing.
“When you come up with something better let me know,” finished Kiya with a shoulder shrug, before she used her phone to motion toward the slot. “You can go anytime now,”
Aarik smirked at her impatience and added a countdown to get on her nerves, “Alright, in 10… 9…”
“You’re doing that on purpose. You didn’t do that last time,” whined Kiya with a pout.
“And you are adding more time by interrupting me,” added Aarik jokingly, then with a serious face he said, “Alright. No more delays. No more countdowns. No more…”
“You’re doing it again. Not that I don’t love the sound of your voice, but this is a waste of space on my phone. Let me start a new one so I can delete our ridiculous conversation later. Alright, ready. Again,” replied Kiya in mock annoyance.
“I just like it when you get all riled up,” Aarik answered honestly and then oomphed loudly when Kiya lightly elbowed him in the ribs.
Without delay Aarik, inserted the glowing medallion into the craft before she upped her game then jumped in his seat when the clamps holding the craft sprang open, releasing the vehicle. His first thought was, “Oh shit!” but when the craft hovered in the air instead of dropping, he looked down to make sure he hadn’t soiled himself.
Kiya, fearless of the lack of support, was practically hanging upside down out of the craft so that she could verify they were floating and hollered as she returned to her seat, turned off her camera and said, “Holy moly! We’re hovering. I think it has something to do with the super cool metal this craft is made out of and the earth’s magnetic energy as a power source, or something along those lines. I need access to the internet and pronto. Scratch that, we’re moving. Where is it tak...”
Kiya’s voice broke off after the craft backed up to the left and began inching forward in a straight line towards the back of the auditorium. It was like it was being powered by an ion drive, because the longer it moved forward the faster it gained speed. Aarik panicked with the wall fast approaching and scrambled to remove the medallion to stop their impending collision, but it was locked into place.
At the last minute he entered the inner cloud to turn off the medallion, but instead was shown how to control the craft using sound. In a flash, the incantation and tone needed were downloaded to his mind like he was plugged into a computer. He opened his eyes, repeated the chant he had been given and sighed in relief when the craft slowed to a stop without a second to spare.
Aarik looked over at Kiya and was surprised to see she was smiling. He grabbed her hand to get her attention and brought it up to his lips. After he kissed it reverently he asked, “Doesn’t anything faze you?”
“Oh, I was fazed. I thought we were going to become one with the concrete wall for a couple seconds there. If you would have looked over at me thirty seconds ago you would have seen a completely different expression, but when you used your multi-layered voice I knew we were saved one way or another. I was leaning towards teleportation, but this works too. How did you do it?” replied Kiya breathlessly.
“My only thought is that, when I entered the cloud, my mind was in a state of emergency,” answered Aarik quickly and before he could explain himself further he was interrupted by Kiya.
“Cloud?”
“Sorry. It’s the only way I can explain the knowledge center I find when I enter a meditative state. I equate it to cloud technology on the internet, a vault of stored knowledge available to anyone that has access to it. When I went in today, my mind was focused on a specific need so it presented itself. I was an enhanced version of Google’s search engine, only better. I didn’t have to filter through pages of useless search results, because it...it was innate. Sort of like Plato’s theory of epistemology, where he said knowledge was never learned, but recalled from the inner soul. Does that make sense?” pondered Aarik, while he massaged his jaw in thought.
“Completely. It’s a combination of the room of requirement in Harry Potter AND the cloud in my opinion. It gave you what you needed when you needed it,” agreed Kiya,
with an awestruck look in her eyes.
“We better get this thing back to the docking station before they question how I got it here,” replied Aarik.
“Um. Won’t they just look at the camera footage?” asked Kiya, wrinkling her forehead in thought as she looked about the room.
“They could, but it won’t do them any good. They aren’t recording right now. I turned them off,” responded Aarik, with a wink and a smile.
“Sneaky. Sneaky, Dr. Landon. Not sure how long your little shenanigan will work. You know you’re already on Director Sorr’s shit list,” Kiya said in contemplation.
“I’ll play dumb. It’s not like they won’t find out eventually, but until then I like feeling like I have the upper hand,” replied Aarik.
CHAPTER FIVE
KIYA
Kiya understood Aarik’s need for control, but wished he exercised more caution when it came to how much he pushed the uptight director. She seemed to be the vindictive type and wouldn’t put anything past her. Struggling to wrangle in her own anger for their lack of progress, she grabbed her phone as a distraction and watched the screen when Aarik closed his eyes to enter the cloud. She dropped her phone in her lap when his voice took on the layered effect during the chant as delicious shivers swept over her, soothing her nerves in the process.
She should be elated they had made any progress at all with the craft, but couldn’t get over the feeling time was not on their side. She decided to hold off on revealing her cryptic thoughts while Aarik maneuvered the craft back to the docking station with ease. The clamps only engaged when he removed his medallion, locking it back into place for their departure of the vehicle.
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