RABAN (The Rabanian Book 2)

by Dan Haronian

  He rose. "Well, it was very good to talk to you again," he said.

  I rose and led him to the elevator.

  "I understand the shuttle is leaving in few days for Mampas."

  "Yes, it’s a test flight."

  "Very impressive," he said. "So are we agreed? I'll come for a short visit? I will be very happy to meet with Sosi and explain my request to him."

  "I'll speak to my father and coordinate a visit," I said wondering what he means by explain my request to him. What explanation could he bring up that would explain his sudden and unreasonable desire to study the Books? Suddenly it occurred to me that my father too would love to stop the launch of the shuttle. I looked at the Doctor as he disappeared behind the elevator door and realized that I might now have two enemies united against me. It might be an exaggeration, but I still felt trapped.

  Sosi sat in front of the network terminal in the shuttle late on a dark weekend night. The shuttle was empty and he surfed distractedly between Seragon, Mampas, Paraday, and Naan. He's eyes were bleary and swollen with age and chronic fatigue. He was waiting for a guest who’d failed to arrive. Finally he stood up and went down the stairs. He heard Su-Thor’s hovercraft whistling as it passed over the shuttle. He stopped for a moment in the middle of the stairs and took a deep breath before continuing to the entrance.

  Moments passed before he saw them walking towards him on the paved path from the landing site. Su-Thor was walking fast and a short person covered in long clothes and a hood walked next to her, almost running. Su-Thor looked around her worried, but there was no one there. When she saw Sosi at the entrance her steps slowed. The person behind her caught up and walked beside her. Under the shuttle entrance light the person raised his head and his eyes meet Sosi's.

  "Hello Sosi," said the Doctor.

  "Hello Doctor," said Sosi gazing at the Doctor's gloomy face. "Come in," he said and led the way inside.

  "I'm sorry for being late. I was asked to do something."

  "That's fine," said Sosi and after catching his wife’s eye, he nodded her his thanks. They looked at the Doctor as he scanned the entrance hall.

  "The architecture is not impressive, but it did fall from the sky," said Sosi.

  "Yes I know," said the Doctor walking into the center of the Hall.

  "Come, I'll give you the tour," said Sosi and the three of them walked through the terminal packed halls.

  "The place is usually packed all afternoon," said Sosi. "There is a class every morning, and sometimes in the evening too."

  "Impressive," said the Doctor. "You've done an amazing job here."

  Sosi looked back at the terminals packed into the hall. "I was surprised how the Books captured the attention of the people here. I thought that it was just me, but I realized later that the Books are somehow imbedded deep in their genes. Part of something ancient." He looked at the Doctor. "Something that was lost."

  The Doctor nodded. "The skipping game," he said.

  "Yes," said Sosi. "The skipping game was a thin thread that kept them connected."

  They walked back to the control deck. "It all started here," said Sosi pointing to the entrance at the end of the stairs. They ascended and before entering the room Sosi pointed to the doorframe.

  "This room was protected like a safe. That is the reason why everything beyond this door survived." He walked inside. "Everything here is original except for this terminal," he said pointing to the networked terminal.

  The Doctor walked behind him and sat down in front of the middle terminal and looked around him. He looked stunned.

  "Are you okay?" asked Su-Thor walking towards him.

  "Yes, yes," he said, the second yes sounded squeaky.

  The shock on his face was obvious to Sosi as well. He thought it was probably how he’d looked the first time he’d entered the room. Sosi sat next to him, hooked up the sensor and opened a page from one of the Books. "This is what it looks like," he said.

  The Doctor looked at the screen for a moment, but then turned his face to Sosi. He rubbed his knees agitatedly. "I need to tell you something," he said still rubbing his knees.

  "Ahhh, I can wait downstairs," said Su-Thor.

  "No, no," said the Doctor immediately. "Stay. You also need to hear this."

  He waited for a few seconds. His lips moved, but no words came out of his mouth as if he was deliberating on what to say. He looked at Su-Thor. "I met Raban, in Naan," he said and suddenly smiled. "He's very like you."

  Su-Thor smiled. "People say he looks like Sosi."

  "Yes, he looks like Sosi in his face." He went back to rubbing his knees. "He's a fighter," he finally said.

  Su-Thor nodded and looked at Sosi.

  "You've done a tremendous work here," he continued looking around him. "Not only in the Shuttle but overall, in the city that you’ve built." His voice became squeaky again and he stopped.

  "Why are you here?" asked Sosi abruptly, and Su-Thor gave him a hard look.

  The Doctor caught her look. "He's right. I should say it and be done."

  "Say what?" asked Sosi.

  "I think I was wrong," said the Doctor turning his face away from Sosi to the graphics on the wall. "I think your way is the right way. Naan will eventually collapse."

  Sosi looked at him stunned, and shook his head. "That's very flattering," he said.

  "I didn't mean to flatter. I'm extremely worried about the future of Naan."

  "I think it's a bit too late."

  "Yes, maybe."

  "They are already used to their new life. Nothing can detach them from it," said Sosi.

  "Yes, it will be difficult," said the Doctor, "but I don't think there is another option."

  Sosi stood up, his thoughts wandering. "No other option?" He said. "Options to what? What exactly do you want to do?"

  "I don't know," said the Doctor and after a short hesitation he said, "I want to move here. I can no longer live in Naan."

  "You can’t," said Sosi immediately.

  "Sosi!,” yelled Su-Thor.

  He looked at her. "He is Daio's right hand. Do you want a war? It's enough that we need to deal with Raban's shuttle. We don't need to manage additional crisis."

  "This story of the shuttle is not only Raban’s," said Su-Thor angrily. "It's of the Chosen, and it's not a crisis."

  "You're right and I didn't mean to imply otherwise," said Sosi. "And because the shuttle represents the City of the Chosen, this story now with the Doctor will create chaos. The Doctor is not some nobody from Naan deciding to defect to the other side."

  "You are exaggerating your fears," said Su-Thor.

  The Doctor looked at him and sighed. "I'm not from Naan," he suddenly said.

  Sosi wanted to say something, but was confused by the Doctor’s words. He gave him a questioning look.

  "I came here two hundred and thirty years ago."

  "Two hundred…” said Sosi. Then an indulgent smile appeared on his face. It was as if he’d been having a long talk with someone he suddenly realized was crazy.

  "My face doesn't look too young to you?" he asked. "I met you here when you arrived. You were young then and I was older than you. As you can see I have aged very little. Haven’t you ever wondered about this?"

  Sosi shifted his gaze from the Doctor to Su-Thor and his smile gradually died.

  "I wondered yes, but what was I supposed to do?"

  "I am two hundred and sixty two years old," said the Doctor. He shook his head a bit and after a short pause he said, "Approximately."

  Sosi shook his head. "What do you mean?"

  "I was born on Paraday. I was an anthropologist and specialized in ancient languages."

  Sosi sighed and shot a look at Su-Thor. Had the Doctor gone mad? "You cannot be two hundred years old," he said. "I think you need a different kind of help."

  "Two hundred and sixty two," said the Doctor and smiled. "I was killed in an accident when I was thirty. I was reborn in a lab. They built me a new body," he said plac
ing his hands on his chest. He looked at their stunned faces and continued, "It's real. I'm not crazy."

  "It's ridiculous," said Sosi.

  "I'm one of few ever to receive such a resurrection before mechanical implants were outlawed on Paraday. They wanted to return me to the lab, to dismember me, so I escaped." He paused for a moment and a bitter smile appeared on his face. "I came here, far from everything I’d ever known. This place was deserted; there was nothing here except for mining companies. I joined one of the groups. I had to if I wanted to avoid people asking what I was doing in this deserted place. I was taller than the regular miners but my physical strength compensated for my shortcomings. One day, when I was deep underground, I discovered a treasure." He gazed at the writing on the screen. "I found the Books."

  Sosi's heart started to race.

  "I hid them. Not that anyone cared about moldy old manuscripts, but I didn't want anyone to know. I had a feeling they were not just manuscripts. The language was hard, as you know. I joined a family who’d decided to settle here and started to study them. A few years later, when I realized they were prophecies, I went back to Paraday."

  He looked at the screen. "It wasn't easy to convince them, but eventually they realized that they could not dismiss thousand year old Books that foretold the biggest illness to ever affect the galaxy. Even back then they suffered much from information scrambling."

  He looked at their shocked faces. "I know my story is not easy to digest. but it is true." He shook his head and looked pensive. "They still wanted to disassemble me after I returned. For three years I lived there as an illegal being on borrowed time." He grinned. "And then I came up with this idea," he said looking around him.

  Sosi followed his gaze. "The shuttle?" he said with a faint voice.

  "I'm the architect," said the Doctor.

  Su-Thor covered her mouth with her hand in shock.

  "This shuttle left Paraday, but we made sure it had nothing to do with Paraday. It all evolved around Naan."

  "What, what was the purpose of all this?" asked Su-Thor.

  "Ohh, the question of all questions," said the Doctor. "You already know the Books are talking about the Chosen who will deliver Naan from darkness, but I assume you know that wasn't its real mission. The main thing was always the war against information scrambling. Our Chosen, this Chosen, was meant to rescue the galaxy from its horrors."

  Sosi walked to the far side of the room. He knew all this, but the Doctor’s story left him completely amazed.

  "Finally I went to the Paraday Grand Council and offered to be their messenger here, to oversee things. We already knew the Naanites would be shorter than average," he said and looked at his body. "So I went through an adjustment."

  "Unbelievable," said Su-Thor shaking her head, her hand still covering her mouth.

  "Yes, I know," said the Doctor. He stood up and walked towards Sosi. "I also know you have hidden the Eighth Book,” he said watching Sosi's face go pale.

  "Eighth Book?!" called Su-Thor from behind. "What eighth book?"

  Sosi looked at her and nodded his head as if refusing to answer.

  "Sosi, what is he talking about?" she asked and approached him.

  "There is an eighth Book," he said in a low voice.

  "Eighth Book?"

  "I'm sorry. I had to hide it."

  "Why?" Her tone was harder and he understood that more than asking why he had hidden it, she asked why had hidden it from her.

  "The eighth Book would have started a war here. It would have destroyed our city. I couldn't take the risk."

  Su-Thor shook her head. It was too much for her. She started to walk away from them mumbling to herself.

  "Su-Thor!" called Sosi.

  At the door she turned. "You gave your life to these Books. I didn't ask anything in return. I didn't protest. Why would you hide this from me? What's in this damn Book that you cannot tell me?"

  He walked towards here. "It talks about the Chosen one he said.

  She looked at him, doubtfully. "All the Books talk about the Chosen," she said.

  He shook his head. "It's more specific."

  She started to laugh and tears were in her eyes. "So the book is talking about you," she said. Her laughs stopped abruptly. "You where afraid."

  Sosi didn't answer and the Doctor approached them. "The Book doesn't talk about him."

  Sosi looked at him for a second and then closed his eyes. "The Book talks about Raban," he said with a trembling voice.

  Su-Thor’s face went pale. "Raban?"

  The Doctor walked away. Sosi sagged against the wall defeated.

  "All this time I was so sure that Daio was the Chosen," said the Doctor in a squeaky voice. "He fit the description in almost every detail. He is a born leader. His relationship with Mampas was also a sign. After all, the chosen is to rule there. The problem was that he got so immersed in the values of Mampas. I thought it was just that he was too busy trying to rebuild Naan, that when things settled down he would shift things back closer to the prophecies in the Books. But that didn't happen." He paused for a few seconds and looked at Sosi. "You began to look more like the right person. You avoided power like it was fire. For the thirty years I lived believing that Daio was the Chosen. All that time I compared him to you, and each time still I felt I’d chosen the right brother. Then Raban suddenly lifted himself above all this noise and took the lead." He shook his head. "As you know, the text is inconclusive. It can be one of you or it can be one of the younger generation."

  Sosi lifted his eyebrows. "I'm sorry I couldn't be what you wanted me to be and I'm sorry I was a distraction."

  "I mistook the generation," said the Doctor. "If you think about it it's not so bad. I’ve been here two hundred and thirty years so what's couple of years more."

  Su-Thor gazed at him, completely shocked. The Doctor looked back and forth between her and Sosi. "Now do you understand that it's not some kind of scam? I can simply no longer live in Naan. I can't."

  "I assume you have ruled out the other children," said Sosi.

  The Doctor nodded. "The only one that showed some promise was Naan. He fits the text in many respects. He already has a presence in Mampas. He is doing well. He is very close to Thesh." He shook his head and tightened his lips. "But it cannot be him."

  Sosi unlocked his knees and let his back slide down the wall until he sat on the floor. Su-Thor walked towards him. She bent down and looked at him.

  "What are we going to do with Raban?" she asked. "He needs to know about this book."

  Sosi smiled and then started to laugh. "He already knows. He discovered it by himself." His laughter grew. "He broke through all my blocks. Those in the network and those in my mind," he said with a look of consternation.

  "Then you haven't taught him from childhood in vain," she said.

  "It's not my teaching. It's all him."

  "So he knows he's the Chosen?" asked the Doctor.

  "No, he thinks it's me. He doesn't understand the book. He only saw it for a few hours."

  "You know he's going to be the ruler of Mampas," said the Doctor.

  Su-Thor pushed herself up. "Mampas?” she said in fear. "How exactly is that going to happen? Why does he need to rule Mampas?"

  "He cannot fight information scrambling from here," said the Doctor. "He's destined to rule Mampas and run the war from there."

  "I don't want him to run any war. Hasn’t our family sacrificed enough?!" She said and tears started falling down her cheeks.

  "I'm sorry," said the Doctor.

  Sosi stood up. "He's going to be all right."

  "No he won’t. How can you even think that? Raban ruling Mampas? How? What army will he lead?"

  She walked away.

  "I don't know and it is not our problem," said Sosi. "We don't need to do anything. If this is going to happen it will happen. There is still a chance that it's not him. Maybe we made a mistake." He looked at the Doctor hoping to hear some confirmation of this possibility,
but the Doctor didn't say anything.

  "So you have been behind this whole thing all along," said Sosi.

  The Doctor looked at him and nodded. "Thirty years ago I thought you suspected something," he said.

  "I knew you were not what you seemed. I thought you were sneaky and manipulative but I didn't imagine the scale of your deceit. We were like sheep led by a sophisticated shepherd."

  "No, I'm not the shepherd," said the Doctor pensively. "I'm more like a dog walking in front of in front of his master, only I never knew who my master was."

  There was silence for a few seconds as they all digested the situation.

  "You found our family name from the Eighth Book," said Sosi.

  "Yes, it appears at the beginning of the book."

  "Raban saw it immediately on the wall," said Sosi pleased.

  The Doctor looked at the wall. "I think we need to tell him that he is the Chosen."

  Sosi shook his head. "No. Like I said if he's the one then he's going to be the one. I'm not going to force him into the role."

  They were silent again for a few seconds. Finally Sosi said, “So you know this Shuttle quite well."

  The Doctor nodded. "What's left of it," he said smiling. He looked around him. "Sitrus would be proud," he mumbled to himself.

  "Yes, two hundred and sixty years ago you were very strong in anything related to metal," said Sosi studying the Doctor's body.

  "Ninety percent artificial," said the Doctor lifting his hands.

  Sosi looked at Su-Thor where she leaned on the wall beside the door. "Are you okay?"

  "No."

  He walked towards her. "Except for the Doctor telling us his story nothing has changed. You don't need to worry. We are not going to intervene or anything. If it doesn't happen then it won’t.”

  "How can you say that when you know this about Raban. Everything we are going do in relation to him is going to be tainted by our knowledge of his future. How can this not affect him?"

  "If we succeed, don't you think it's going to be an amazing achievement? For him and for us?"

  She shook her head. "I’ll pass."