by Dan Haronian
RABAN
Dan Haronian
Edited by Thaddaeus Moody
Copyrights © 2012 by Dan Haronian
All rights reserved.
No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without written permission from the author.
In memory of my friend, Uri Possen
"I’m not waiting for anyone," I mumbled to myself as I walked toward the canyon.
I’d said this to myself several times since leaving school. At first with confidence, but now, in the falling darkness, I looked at the mountains around me and wondered if it was such a wise decision. At least it wasn’t going to be a dark night.
I looked up at the other side of the canyon. Unlike the white quarry land around me the land there was brown.
"The City of the Chosen is just over that mountain," I said, trying to cheer myself up. I wished I knew it was true. I’d never walked home from school on foot. We often went hiking in the mountains around the school, our teacher said it was an important practice, but we never went very far.
"I can do it," I said to myself.
The school was close to the edge of the White Plains. I’d already managed to cross the desolate roads from there to the canyon. Now it’s white expanse stretched below me as I stood on the edge of the stairs. After being deserted for hundreds, or maybe thousands, of years it was like a ghost town. I didn't like this place. My father’s stories of it gave me goosebumps.
I took a deep breath and hurried down the stairs as fast as I could. I slipped once, but was barely able to stop myself from rolling down the stony stairs. When I arrived at the bottom I was relieved, but I didn't stop. I kept running until I’d crossed the entire width of the canyon. It was as deserted as the White Plains. When I reached the other side I was completely exhausted, but I still didn’t stop. I went straight up the trail on the other side of the canyon and only allowed myself to stop and rest just before reaching the top of the mountain. Dion was setting and I knew there was no chance I was going to make it home before Mampas rose. I thought again about the damn transportation that had made me do such a stupid thing.
"The way from here on should be easier," I said aloud to myself, “I walk fast. Maybe I can still make it.”
The trail was wide and I’d heard from one of my friends that the trail should be slightly downhill the rest of the way home. It didn't feel like that and my legs started to cramp.
Then I heard the hovercraft. I looked back and noticed a small light. I kept walking. The hovercraft came closer and was flying very low. I knew they’d spotted me. Dust rose into the air around me. I stopped and covered my face with my hands. The hovercraft skimmed above me and landed on the trail some distance away. A figure jumped out and ran towards me with short and fast steps.
"Raban," he called.
I nodded, my hands still on my face. I thought it was pointless to call my name. I was the only one foolish enough to try walking home from school, alone.
He reported back that he’d found me, took my hand gently, and walked me to the hovercraft. He lifted me in and someone else led me to a seat. The second man then strapped me in and sat down across from me.
"I'm Dr. Raam," he said. "How do you feel?"
"I'm okay," I said quietly.
"Do you feel dizzy? Do you have headache?"
I shook my head.
He handed me a bottle of water. "Drink," he ordered me.
I drank and looked out the window. The flight took only a few minutes but the number of mountains and valleys we passed over made me feel even more stupid.
The hovercraft touched down at the landing pad closest to my house. My mother was standing at the top of the hill, her dress blowing in the wind. My anger grew. The Doctor released the safety belt, took my hand, and led me outside. We crossed the bridge over the creek and he tightened his grip. I looked at him. He was looking at my mother. His hand shook and distracted me from my anger. Years later when I remembered this day I thought he was simply excited to meet my mother.
"He is perfectly fine, he said as we approached my mother. She nodded and wiped at the tears streaming from her eyes. I thought she would start to sob, but she kept calm, as if hovercrafts with a doctor aboard picked me up from the wilderness every day and shuttled me between the school and our house.
"Thank you so much," she said in her thick Mampasian accent. The doctor bowed and backed away a few steps before turning around and running towards the hovercraft.
"How could you do something so stupid?" she asked taking my hand in her left hand and pulling me to the house. She held my hand so tightly that it took an effort to not cry out. She was so mad that she didn't notice how hard she was squeezing with her bionic hand.
"What caused you to be so stupid and irresponsible?" She continued when we went inside.
I didn't answer. I flexed my hand several times after she released me and glared at her. She hadn't even hugged or kissed me.
"You can’t just leave school like that, and I don't care what happened."
"I spent half of the day waiting on the damn hovercraft."
"Watch your language," she said and waved her finger at me.
I lowered my head, then I walked to the dining table, sank into a chair, and lay facedown on the smooth wood.
She walked over to me, "I was worried about you. I was afraid something had happened to you."
"Nothing happened to me."
"It could have been a disaster," she growled.
"Why can't they arrange for a separate transport? Why do fifty kids need to wait for so long? Are we so much less important?"
"You're not less important. It's not about you. It's a logistical problem."
"Logistics," I said angrily, thinking about the meaning of this word.
"They don't have enough hovercrafts available. The children from Naan have priority so they can make it to their additional lessons," she said, but she sounded uncertain.
"If they can afford teachers from Mampas who teach them how to be kings then they should be able to afford a few hovercrafts to get them there. And besides it's not my fault they don't have a hovercraft."
Her face became softer. I thought she’d found something in my words, but then she said, "So the solution is to walk home? Through the wilderness? The solution was to risk your life? Where is your brain?"
"I don't want go to the school anymore," I said.
"You're a child and you don't get to decide anything."
"Why don’t we build a school here? There are enough kids among the Chosen."
She shook her head. "It's not a matter of building a new school. We are one family, one nation. This joint school is very important."
"It has no significance for me."
She sat next to me.
"I’d rather study with kids from the Chosen. We don't even have any relations with kids from Naan."
"So that’s it?"
"No it's not."
"Did you fight with Naan today?"
"What kind of name is that? Naan is this entire place, this entire planet. Who calls his son Naan?"
"Someone who loves this planet a lot," she said immediately. "So? Did you fight with him?"
"No!"
"He's not your age. You don't need to mess with him."
"I didn't fight with him. And I don't mess with him. I told you we barely speak with the kids from Naan, including Naan. If anything it's him who is messing with me."
"Do you want me to speak to the principal?"
"No thank you," I said angrily. I stood up and walked to the door that led to the backyard. I immediately stopped when I
saw my father standing behind the screen door.
"Hello."
"Hello," I said in a low voice.
He opened the door and stumbled inside. Su-thor gave him a tired look. "Finally," she said.
"I found a great place today. Stunning. You're coming there with me."
"You found this stunning place while the police spent hours looking for your son. A son who decided to take a similar pointless trip."
"You went for a trip?" asked my father.
I nodded.
"And all the police went looking for you?" he continued as if he was admiring some innocent mischief.
"Sosi, it's not funny," reprimanded my mother. "The hovercraft was late and he decided to walk home by himself. And if you give him the feeling that it's was not so bad a decision, next time they won't find him."
He gazed at her, and then at me. "Your mom is right. You cannot just leave school like that. Even if you are angry and even if it's because of the damn hovercraft." He looked at my mother and then looked at me again. "But I like the idea that you that you thought you walk all this way on foot. Did you know how long it woiuld take?"
"I don't think he even considered it," said my mother. "The fights with Naan are making him crazy."
My father nodded. “I'm going to take a shower," he said. "This isn’t over," he added in a tone of feigned reprimand. It didn't impress me and it surely didn’t fool my mother.
I helped her set the table for dinner silently, and my father came down from the second floor after a little while, clean and fresh.
"The place I found is really outstanding," he said as we sat down. "The colors when Mampas sets are amazing. It's right on the edge of a mountain. There is a large plateau there. It’s a perfect camping site."
"How wonderful for you," mumbled my mother.
"The place overlooks an endless forest, like a green and endless carpet. Simply amazing."
"I can understand why you're so happy to see Mampas setting," my mother said, “but I don't understand how you're not tired from all these trips."
"You can't understand it because you were born in the desert."
"And you? As far as I know you were born in one of the slums of Seragon."
My father laughed and a little smile appeared on my mother face.
"So the hovercraft was late again?" my father asked when we started to eat.
I nodded, but I didn't feel like arguing anymore.
"Yes, the students from Naan need to get back there quickly so teachers from Mampas can teach them how to lie to people while smiling," he said.
"That's not true," my mom was quick to say.
"So what do you think they’re learning then? What is there to teach? Did Daio need anyone to teach him how to become the leader of Naan?"
"You of all people should know that to become the leader of Naan ten years ago one needed luck more than anything else. The challenges facing the next generations will require daily interaction with people from across the galaxy. Believe me, there is much to learn."
"We are of no interest at all to anyone across the galaxy," he replied immediately and glanced at me. "In any case it was silly to leave school like that. You risked your safety because you were angry, and that was stupid."
"Naan laughed at me when he and his friends boarded the hovercraft. We sat there like a bunch of idiots waiting for it to return." I let out a short sigh thinking of the things that had gone through my mind. "I couldn't stand it anymore. I started to walk down the road thinking the hovercraft would come and pick me up. But it didn't, so when the road ended I decided that I didn't want to wait."
My parents looked at each other.
"This has gone too far," my father said. "I’ll speak with the principal, maybe we can work out something."
My mother shrugged her shoulders and my father gazed at me again.
"The students from Naan study how to behave in their world, so as a compensation you will receive special lesson tonight about our world," he said smiling. My mother smiled too, but I knew it was only because of the smile on my face. She hated to see us surfing to dubious places.
"Combined sensors?" I said, surprised. It was right after dinner and my father had pulled the combined neck sensors from a drawer in his study.
"We haven’t used them in a long time because you already know how to surf like a grown-up," said my father.
"So?"
"Do you know how to open the doors that no one but you can see?"
"What do you mean?"
He smiled when he saw the surprise on my face. "Just remember you are not to tell anyone what you are about to see."
"Dad!"
"I’m just checking."
He hooked one of the sensors to his neck and gave me the other one.
"What do you know about Seragon?" he asked.
"I know you came from there."
"Yes."
"And sometimes you say something in Seragonian."
"Me?"
"When you're angry."
"I guess, sometimes."
We hooked in to the network. My father surfed and the screen flickered rapidly.
“Seragon is an amazing planet. You've never been to Mampas, but if for some reason you are ever there, remember that Seragon is one thousand times it size."
He approached Seragon information circles as I watched.
"You know why we left?"
"You escaped."
"Correct. We escaped because of the place we are going to now."
His words excited me. Seconds went by quietly. The screen flickered wildly and I wondered if I would ever be as fast as him.
"This place is very special. It's important that you know how to approach it, although I hope you never need it," he said. A few seconds later he asked, "Do you feel anything here?"
I peered at the screen. "No, I don't see anything. What do you mean?"
"It's hard to see it. For now try to feel something in the neck sensor."
He moved quickly back a few information circles and then forward again. I noticed a strange new way that he twisted his neck.
"And now?" he asked.
"No, I don’t…,” I said but I wondered if I’d felt something.
"It's very brief, concentrate."
"Okay," I said, then furrowed my brow and focused. He surfed again, backward then forward, jumping quickly between the information circles.
"I felt something," I suddenly said. At least I thought so.
"What did you feel?"
"I don't know, a vibration in the sensor," I said.
"Okay, now focus again, and watch the screen this time. It's fast."
I didn't answer, only peered at the screen and waited. The screen flickered wildly again and my eyes focused.
"Now," I suddenly called.
"What did you see?"
"I don't know. It looked like a path."
My father smiled. "Exactly. Remember this path. It leads to a very special place."
"What’s so special about it?" I asked.
"It's a path to secret processor. Nobody knows about it."
"It leads to a place? Can we go in?"
"We can, but we might suddenly find the whole army of Seragon hovering over our house, and I don’t want to make your mother angry," said my father and laughed.
"What's a processor?" I asked
"A processor is a database with a brain. Only the brain of this processor is very unique. It can analyze all sorts of things that normal people cannot. It’s more powerful than all of the other processors or databases in the galaxy combined."
I nodded and stared at the screen.
"Its name is Shor and it holds many of the Seragonian government’s most closely guarded secrets. Remember its name. Shor."
"Shor," I said.
"It was the reason your uncles and I had to flee Seragon. More importantly, it helped me find the cure for the plague."
"The plague that took Mom’s hand?"
"Yes that's the one.
"
"Is it different than the Sinners’ plague?"
"No, it's the same plague, but try to focus."
I looked at him admiringly as he continued. "As you can see it's well concealed. Only someone who knows about it can find it, otherwise it’s like it doesn't exist."
I looked back at the screen. "Doesn't exist?"
He nodded. "We were lucky to escape," he said in a tone that sounded like he wanted to say something more but he didn't.
"How did you discover it?"
"By accident. I surfed past, I was checking some sophisticated box for performance and there it was." He thought for a second. "You know the flip books you make to animate your drawings?"
"Yes," I said
"Every picture, by itself, is just a picture but looking through them fast makes everything come to life. That’s what happens when you surf fast. Sometimes you see things you can’t see otherwise."
"When was this?"
"Many years ago. I was about seventeen. That's in Seragon time."
"Seventeen," I said.
"About fifteen years old in Naan's time."
I was eleven years old that day, and I felt proud that he thought I was ready. By the time I turned fifteen though I realized it wasn’t about the age.
"Think you can remember how to get here?"
"No," I said quickly and gazed at the screen. "It's deep into far off information circles and you surf so much faster than me. I don't think I can do it."
"Yes, it is quite far off, and the surfing is far from easy. Very few can surf like this. Making the special twist of the neck at just the right time is extremely difficult, but it's important that you know about this place and how to open this path."
"I don't think I can."
"That’s why we are using the combined sensor today. I'll help you. It's important."
"Why is it so important if I cannot go in there?"
He thought for a moment then said, "It's like the weapon you never want to be forced to use. A Doomsday weapon."
"A Doomsday weapon," I mumbled and looking at the screen again.
"Until a few moments ago I was only one on Naan that knew about this place," he said. "Now you know a secret that none of your uncles, nor any of your cousins, with their special teachers from Mampas, know about. Your mother doesn’t even know about this place."