RABAN (The Rabanian Book 2)

by Dan Haronian

  "You think like a worried mother. I'm sure that you will change your mind when things begin to happen."

  "What about my father?" she asked.

  Sosi furrowed his brow. "You father?"

  "If Raban is going to be president, or whatever, of Mampas, how are they going to get along?"

  Sosi shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, but I'm sure things will work out."

  She shook her head. "How can you accept all this with such serenity?"

  He looked at her. "Su, you have no idea how hard it was for me to carry this thing by myself for all these years. First to think that maybe I was the one, and then to find out it's actually Raban. To know and do nothing." He looked at her and the Doctor, still having a hard time believing. "Now I have you beside me."

  "I'll notify Daio of my resignation," said the Doctor. "After two hundred and sixty two years I deserve some rest."

  "I don't think that is wise. They won’t be very understanding."

  "I'm not going to leave Naan. I’m retiring because it's time. Daio will understand. I'll come here for visits and when I come for good they won’t suspect anything."

  The Doctor notified Daio of his retirement the next day, and despite the shock the people around him accepted his resignation with understanding. Many thought he should've done it long before, to open up his position to the younger generation. After all, despite his young looks, he was older than Daio.

  In a modest ceremony, a day later, Daio said that he didn’t think the Doctor could ever be truly replaced. The Doctor responded that he was only an advisor and that in any case he hadn’t been useful for quite some time.

  Despite his modesty, the nomination committee concluded that they needed three people to take over his various activities.

  "I understand you don't feel well," said Daio entering the Doctor's office one afternoon.

  "It’s nothing serious," said the Doctor promptly. "I think something’s wrong with my knee."

  "You're retiring and all of a sudden you're getting sick," said Daio as he walked towards his desk. "I’ve heard about people who simply dropped dead after retiring." He gave the Doctor a sly glance. "Maybe you should reconsider your retirement."

  "It's nothing. The pain has been there the whole time," said the Doctor following Daio's gaze. "It's only now that I'm paying it some attention."

  Daio's gaze shifted to the pages that were scattered on the desk. "The Books," he said lifting one of the pages and looking at it. "The pages Sosi brought over," he said looking at the Doctor. "Where did you find them?"

  "In the archive. It took me a while."

  "No wonder your knees are hurting," said Daio looking at him worried.

  "I also found Sosi's commentaries, but I'm not sure how accurate they are today."

  "You are interested in the Books?"

  "They are interesting because they are at the center of life of the City of the Chosen. I’ve always wondered what they find in them. Now that I have some free time, maybe I can get some answers to the questions that have been running through my head for a long, long time. Maybe if I understand them I can find a way to build a bridge between us."

  "I thought you were retiring," said Daio.

  "Exactly, I'm only retiring. I'm still here."

  "Maybe they can send someone over to teach you," said Daio putting the page back on the desk.

  "I don't think that is possible. I understand they don't even allow the Books outside of the shuttle."

  Daio paced the room looking toward the ceiling. "Here's an interesting idea," he said turning to the little man. "Why don't you go there?"

  The Doctor looked at him seemingly surprised. His plan had worked. "Go where?"

  "To the City of the Chosen. I mean, if they'll accept you there. You could study the Books and…"

  "You want me to become a spy?" wondered the Doctor.

  "No, no. Spy is too strong a word," said Daio. "I thought that if you'll really got to know them maybe you would be able to do exactly what you said, bridge the gaps between us. Take for example the shuttle, I mean Raban's shuttle. Would you have ever believed that they would have that kind economical aspiration? Something is changing there and maybe with your help we can channel it."

  He paced the room again and in the thoughtful tone he said, “The distance between Naan and the City of the Chosen is big, but maybe there are shortcuts." He looked again at the Doctor. "Maybe you could find such a shortcut."

  "I'm not so sure," said a Doctor hesitantly.

  Daio approached the desk. "You know Raban was at our house not long ago."

  "Yes, I heard," said the Doctor.

  "He's an impressive boy. I told him he needs to be the next leader of the City of the Chosen," said Daio and giggled. "I think I frightened him so much that he started to recite something from the Books. Something about restraint."

  "He is a very special person."

  "If he hears it a few more times from you, he might get use to the idea. I have no doubt that the relations between us and them would improve dramatically if he became their leader."

  "Do you really want him to be their leader?" wondered the Doctor.

  "Yes, of course. He's worthy from any aspect, and I think this shuttle project testifies that he is not that different from us. I have no doubt he is going to be much more flexible than Sosi."

  The Doctor looked away for a moment as if he was considering things. Daio looked at him smiling. "I don't think we are done with you yet. I think you're starting a new career. You need to go there and become an ambassador of goodwill. Study the Books and all that, but see what's going on there as well so we'll know what to expect and how to channel our efforts."

  "I don't know, this is clearly spying," said the Doctor. "I'm tired of special missions."

  "But it is what you are about to do anyhow? You said yourself that you intend to learn what they see in the Books. That is exactly what I'm asking you to do. I only want you to update me."

  The Doctor looked at him and sighed. "I guess I can try," he said. "Let's see if they accept me first. In any case I don't want to commit to anything. I’ll see what it is like to live there. I resigned so I could live comfortably and not to take on any more obligations. Especially one that includes leaving Naan." He forced another sigh and in a tired voice said, "I'm too old for this."

  "Naan will thank you," said Daio.

  Like a painter looking at his painting on the easel wondering if it's worthy, I looked at to the shuttle from the stage we’d set up for the departure ceremony. I did not know what had caused my father to change his mind, but he’d agreed to move the ceremony from the Chosen to the airport and even agreed not to wait for the expected commercial flight of the shuttle. Maybe someone had explained to him how ridiculous it would be to hold the ceremony so far from the shuttle. It would be like a wedding with hundreds of guests but no groom or bride. Besides, having a ceremony at the Chosen, would mean alienating Naan and its leader.

  Hundreds of people from the Chosen would come for the ceremony. Airport management had cleared a major part of the field to allow the crowd to watch the shuttle leaving on its first voyage. The news network of Naan had broadcast our press conference the previous day and had followed up with a video tour of the different compartments and storage bays inside the shuttle. The support messages and words of encouragement hadn’t stopped to arriving since that broadcast. Some of them even came from Naan.

  The evening started to fall. When the intake ramp was finally down I walked over to the shuttle, and stared up at the green striped symbol of my father on its tail. I stopped with a heavy feeling. No doubt I was excited, but there was also something else. I think I was afraid of the void the shuttle would leave in my life as soon as it departed. With nothing to take up all of my free time I would be forced to deal with things I didn’t want to deal with. I stood there for a long moment then walked over to the security booth.

  "Good evening," I said to the guard at the entrance.
/>   "Good evening sir," returned the guard and gave me a serious look.

  I walked to the elevator.

  "Ahh, sir," he called behind me. "I must remind you of the problem in one of the halls on the lower deck."

  I turned around. "Yes, I remember," I said lifting my hand to thank him. "It's not serious matter, but I'll check it now."

  I pulled the pad from my pocket. After going through the details of the problem I walked to one of the carts parked next to the elevator. I drove under the shuttle and parked next to one of the elevators in the back. After typing in the appropriate code, I stepped in and went up to the third floor of the lower deck. As I left the elevator I passed by the doors to the frozen cargo halls that were already loaded with test products. It was only a test flight but we still wanted to test the different systems with a real cargo.

  Each frozen hall had a mechanism that pulled the required products out of the hall when the shuttle arrived at each delivery point. The unique part of the system was that the products could be taken from these freezing halls without breaking the special conditions in the hall. In front of every hall was a large intermediate cell that separated the hall from the outside. The system sucked all of the air from the cell before shifting the wall separating the cell from the hall. Next the mechanical system placed the cargo going out inside the cell, and brought back the separating wall. The system would then increase the pressure in the cell and exchange the freezing liquids of the cargo with water. Then the cargo was ready to be shifted outside the shuttle.

  The problem that was reported by the engineer was in one of the conveyors in the pressure cells. I reached the cell, typed my ID code, and the door slid to the side. I walked over to the control board inside the cell and started to run a diagnostic procedure. Suddenly I heard something fall in the back. I shifted my head to see what had fallen but at the moment the light went off. I heard footsteps behind me and a heavy hand landed on my shoulder. My attacker pinned me against the wall. I shouted in panic and tried to struggle, but he was far stronger than me. Something pressed against my neck. There was a sharp pain in my neck and I felt a cold liquid penetrating me, then unconsciousness overwhelmed me.

  I woke up in darkness lying on the floor. The familiar smell of plastic was in the air. My head ached and I felt nauseous. I moved my hand on the plastic surface and felt the flexing of protruding squares that prevented slipping. Things started to come back to me. Someone had attacked me and I was still in the pressure cell. In spite of the darkness a dim light came from the window in the door that separated the cell from the corridor.

  I promised myself that someone would pay for this. My headache suddenly increased. I pushed myself up, but was only able to stand after a great effort. My steps were heavy, as if my shoes had magnets pulling them toward the metal floor. I walked to the door. It was locked and I was suddenly terrified. Whoever had attacked me could have very easily killed me. A simple command to the control board would empty the air from the cell.

  My body was heavy, and I felt nauseous and weak. I searched my pockets for the pad thinking about the watch in it, but the pad wasn't there. I refocused my attention on the corridor beyond the window and wondered how long I’d been there.

  The heavy feeling in my legs grew, and I felt as if my muscles could not stand the effort any longer. I moved away from the window and sat down on the floor next to the cell wall. Maybe someone had made a mistake. Maybe the guards thought I was someone else. Maybe they thought I was a burglar. But then I remembered the sting in my neck. Burglars don't get anesthetized.

  Suddenly I heard people talking. I tried again to stand up, but I was too weak. My thoughts were interrupted when the light turned on. It blinded me. I closed my eyes and blinked when the door slid open. I lifted my hands to shield my eyes from the blinding light while trying to make out the people standing around me. There were three of them and through my fingers I saw them exchange a look and smile.

  "What’s going on here?" I said angrily. "What are you doing?"

  One of them started to laugh.

  "Do you know who I am?" I called, but they didn't answer.

  "They know who you are," I suddenly heard a familiar voice approaching from the door. They stepped aside.

  "Naan," I said. He had a big smile on his face. "What… What is going on here?"

  He bent over me. "What do you think is happening?"

  I felt my neck again. "What's going on here?" I asked again confused.

  He gave me the look that I remembered from many years ago. Where was this look in our last meeting?

  "What's going on is that many people in Naan can sleep peacefully now. You're no longer a threat to anyone," he said.

  "What?"

  "You and your crazy friends in the City of the Frozen. I know what you're cooking up there. You're not allowed to govern anything, but power that comes to you unsought is something else."

  "Naan…" I called completely confused.

  "And I promise you the desertion of the Doctor will do you no good."

  "The Doctor?"

  "That spineless old man," said Naan grinding his teeth. He stood up and looked at me with contempt and his face went red. He bared his teeth as if he was about to devour me.

  "I'm Naan, and I will rule Naan," he said.

  I stared at his red and angry face, and for a moment I thought about the symmetry in the sentence.

  "Get him out of here," he said walking away.

  Two men lifted me as if I was made of straw and led me to the elevator. From there they dragged me out of the shuttle.

  The flat and empty horizon hit me like a blow. I lifted my gaze and saw the ring of Aesder. My heart fell. "Mampas," I whispered, trembling.

  Naan stood in front of me watching my face. A big smile spread across his own. He looked me up and down. But his comparative stature didn't seem to bother him anymore. It was as if he was cured of his feelings of inferiority.

  "Welcome to the desert of Mampas," he said, then grabbed the collar of my shirt and pulled me down until I fell to my knees. "But don't worry you won’t be here for long," he whispered venomously in my ear.

  He walked quickly over to a big shed and his goons dragged me after him.

  A young bearded man walked up me. "Welcome to rebel base thirty three," he said in Desertian Mampasian then gave me a toothless smile.

  A chill went through me as I thought of my mother. His accent reminded me of her.

  "There's no second to him when it comes to scrambling. Isn’t that right, Raban?" said Naan in Mampasian.

  I didn't answer and Naan continued, "He'll be very happy to scramble information for you. It's a great commandment for people from the Frozen. They are happy to do it for free."

  "You are helping the rebels?" I said and Naan answered me in Mampasian, "I am with the survivors."

  The bearded men exposed the space between his teeth again and nodded to the men who were still holding me. They walked me to the shed and led me to a narrow door in the wall. It opened and they pushed me into a narrow shaft. The door closed and everything went dark once again. A few seconds passed and a suffocating feeling filled my throat. Suddenly the floor under my feet disappeared, and I was sucked downward. I stopped breathing and shouted in panic. The pressure in my ears grew until I thought my head was about to explode. Suddenly the fall stopped, the pressure in my knees grew so strong that I thought they were about to explode as well. A door opened and I collapsed into a brightly illuminated corridor. The pain in my knees decreased but the pain in my head remained. My mouth was open wide and I was breathing heavily.

  The bearded man appeared above me as if he were a magician. Two other people held my shoulders and led me along a corridor until we arrived at a circular hall ringed with elevator doors. Two additional corridors merged into circular hall. We walked along one of the corridors and when my legs failed they dragged me as if I was a sandbag.

  The toothless bearded man stopped at one of the rooms along the corr
idor and opened the door. They dragged me inside and threw me to the floor.

  "This is your room," he said.

  I barely looked around me. The room had very little furniture. Along one of the walls were a bed and a simple shelved cabinet. On the other side of the room a terminal sat on a desk and a small yellow processor peeked from under the desk.

  "We have scramblers here," said the bearded men, "but if what Naan says is true, you'll be a significant addition to our capabilities."

  He smiled at me "Just a few more things to show you," he said abruptly, and the two men grabbed me again and dragged me out into the corridor and into another room. "This is the kitchen for this corridor," he said opening another door. He opened the door on the other side of the corridor. "This is our fitness room. You'll spend a few days here until you get used to the gravity of Mampas. After that, when you start working, you will finish every day here. We have also prepared a training program for you to make sure you are fit." He held my chin. "We love to nurture our investments," he said and laughed.

  Moments later I was thrown back into my room. "We'll give you some time to digest all this," said the bearded man. "Tomorrow morning we'll start working on your fitness. You will meet our people and we'll tell you what we want you to do."

  The goons left the room but he remained standing there. "It's important you know one more thing. There aren’t a lot guards here. After you get used to the place you'll find out why. It's very easy to escape to the outside. But we’re in the middle of the desert. There is nothing outside for you except a long and painful death. And if for some reason you try to escape, and something happens to you, be sure we'll ask for our investment back. I guess in your case we will charge an additional fee from your family, if you know what I mean."

  The door slammed and I was left lying on the floor. I closed my eyes and my thoughts wandered between Naan, my parents, and the shuttle. Everything in my mind was scrambled.

  Naan‼ What had happened to him??? What had made him do such a crazy thing? I don't know how long I lay there like this. I probably fell asleep, or fainted. When I opened my eyes again I hurt all over. It might have been from lying on the floor for so long or simply from the elevated gravity of Mampas. I lifted my head a bit, then pushed myself up and tried to stand. I couldn't. I lay there for long time. I tried to reposition my body from time to time to ease the pain but every time I got comfortable a different place started to ache. I felt the need to stand so I pushed myself up again. Finally I made it to my knees. I tottered towards the chair beside the desk then lifted myself and sat. I took several deep breaths before turning to the terminal. I placed the sensor to my neck but it didn't take long for me to find out that the terminal was disconnected from the network. The ridiculous hope that I could call for help died.