The Ghost of Sephera

by J. D. Tew

  I feel safe for a moment, but also I worry. Maybe this Dieton is here to kill me! It may enter my arteries and cause an aneurism. I try to throw the Dieton across the room, and my arms fling the mat to the side out of paranoia. Dejected, my thoughts turn to an earlier discovery—a disc that I found weeks ago under the surface layer of dirt. It is made of a silver-like metal, an inch wide, and thinner than a dime. Long adept at faking sleeping or boredom, I lie next to the hiding spot for the disk, and feel around for it. I recall having heard voices through it—voices that could help me escape from the prison. Yet, it has been quiet for some time now, and I should hide it once again before the guards spot anything suspicious.

  I toss and turn on the floor, providing the cameras with my best sleeping impression. My acting skills are lackluster, but with a quick hand and sneaky slip of the disc into the corner, I nudge some dust over the disc with three adjacent fingers, and the mission is complete. Hidden, the disc will no longer strangle my waking minutes with fear.

  I try to rest, because I will need it for tomorrow’s endless account of history, for the selfish warden’s entertainment. The battle for Liam was getting close. And if I weren’t so tired, I’d tell the tale. I lie on the floor of my cell and count each blink until I doze away.

  10 THEODORE: CAVE OF RANVIER

  I am lying on my back. The rough floor leaves a coating of dirt at the base of my neck. I dust it away with my hand. Looking over to the left side of my cell, I see my sleeping mat is curled up against the wall where I had accidentally thrown it while trying to evade the errant Dieton.

  It is fantastically apparent now; the Dietons are watching me, for what reason, I cannot fathom.

  I look straight up. The flashing light on the turret cannon projects its usual throbbing red glow against the walls. I fling my arm over to my tablet lazily, and bring it up over to my face to record. I say, “I was still in Mag’s company within the Gitushkas’ lair.”

  My voice is deep, as I lie on my back. I sit up to grab a drink. As I’m looking down the ridge of my nose into the paper cup, I realize it is empty. I see another blue light, nearly washed out from the pulsing red light of the room.

  A Dieton! Right at the bottom of my paper cup.

  Then, I perceptibly notice two glowing blue points, lined up in my angle of vision. I blink my eyes, thinking my vision is blurred and I am seeing double. However, after doing so, I realize it is not my vision that is at issue, but rather there are actually two Dietons.

  One still at the bottom of the glass, and another on the edge of my nose. My eyes cross while I examine the one perched on my nose. For a moment, I worry about security, but for the monitoring guards to see a minute object on my nose, they will need to do an extreme close-up, as this Dieton is an eighth the size of a freckle.

  I plant my hands on the ground to push myself upward. Quickly, cupping my hands over my face to pretend like I am coughing, I conceal the emanating light of the two Dietons within the small dark area inside my hands.

  What are these minuscule objects doing here? Then, as I gaze at both Dietons, both disappear. Unless I was seeing hallucinations, these Dietons were watching me.

  “What do you want?” I yell to the Dietons.

  “Is there a problem in there?” the guard shouts through the talk space.

  “No, nothing!” Quickly I pick up the tablet and start recording. I don’t want to catch the electric prod in my thigh again.

  “Just recording that’s all... Where was I? That’s right. I was about to enter into the Gitushkas’ lair, worried because the Gitushkas seemed unpredictable.”

  Gorb yelled over an intercom as he saw me approach, alone. ‘I see you! For a messiah, you sure travel light! Where is your sword? Don’t you guys carry weapons?’

  ‘We were trained for hand-to-hand combat aboard the Uriel, after enlisting in the fight. I don’t need my sword right now, besides... I am not threatened by you, Gorb. You seem cool enough.’

  ‘You’re going to drive him crazy with all of your questions, Gorb! Stand back, Theodore.’

  The cave wall started to shift along steel rails, and the dusty corridors of the cave trembled again. The wall slid down into its designated slot and I walked into their den. The den looked different. All gadgetry was on display, situated on the same axles. Gorb and Mag adjusted the mist lavage that showered their soft tissue.

  ‘I don’t have much time before my crew realizes I’m gone, and I don’t want to risk revealing your position. So why did you want me to return down here?’ I asked. ‘And how do you power all of this?’

  ‘Such a hurry. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, Theodore. We save time by doing things right the first time, rather than fix mistakes over and over again. You make me laugh. We are what your people would refer to as a type-III society. We utilize the energy of our galaxy. Your people are still barely tapping the power of their star—the sun. Everything down here is powered by solar and wind. Gorb and I funded the creation of three energy farms that are not too far from here. Let’s get to the point. I’m sorry if I made it seem very scientific, but I wanted you to spend some time here, so you understand it all. The truth is that I am a lot like Eppa, and your skepticism is problematic. I don’t care whether you agree with the planet Sephera’s operation or if you vow to destroy all Sepherans completely, but you must keep an open mind.’

  ‘Why? It seems that everyone who favors Eppa are always the people who are eager to explain it, so that they can try to persuade me to like Eppa too.’

  ‘No, no. I don’t favor Eppa. I favor myself. As I said, I am like Eppa. Obviously Eppa looks very different from our species, but we function similar to the way she does. In fact, we pre-existed Eppa. We collect information like she does, and in some cases we use it immorally. I knew about you. After combing through your history and hacking your electronic network surrounding Earth, I probably know more about you than you even know about yourself.’

  ‘I see. It’s an invasion of privacy. You have no right to stick your nose in my business, and neither does Eppa!’

  ‘That’s a matter of opinion. What do you have to hide? What is it that you don’t want me to see? Truth? Studying your planet, I see you humans spend so much time bickering over lies, because you have lost touch with honesty and respect.”

  ‘I’m not disputing what you say... but I don’t see how what’s happening on Earth is relevant to what you’re doing here,’ I said.

  ‘Mag. Can I sit in while you speak with the messiah?’ Gorb asks, interrupting.

  ‘Yes, Gorb. Please remain quiet.’ As Gorb sat down, the room became more clouded with stench. I could barely breathe, and started to lose my focus. ‘Theodore, Earth may not be a part of this, but in an instant they might. This is beside the point. Your existence in this galaxy is as big of a problem as mine or Eppa’s. You exist to abolish maybe Eppa, and Odion, as it stands, but you do not have a handle on why these entities exist. Why is Odion the way he is? Why did Zane create Eppa? What does Sephera offer to society, and what does Odion offer?’

  ‘Those are all great questions, but I know why I have been chosen. I have been chosen to destroy Odion; he’s a killer—a dictator. As for the existence of Sephera and Eppa, I am hoping to find out, so that I can figure out how to destroy Odion. I was hoping that you could tell me.’

  ‘And Lincoln, what of him? He is now of Sephera, doesn’t that matter to you? Is he just one of these distractions? What does matter to you, Theodore?’

  ‘Love. Honor. Fighting for what’s right!’

  Mag leaned over to me, placed her slimy tentacle on my shoulder and said ‘Theodore, how can you fight for something you’re not aware of?’

  ‘I guess I can’t.’

  ‘That is why you need Eppa.’

  ‘What can she do for me? She’s a computer.’

  ‘Ohhh, Theodore. Eppa is more than just a computer. She houses information of everything ever created. Beyond the observations after her inception, she went even fur
ther and discovered every historical account ever journaled in all ten galactic realms. She is a collector, like me, but far more effective. She’s backed by the Galactic Council. What she can do with all of that information... that is the amazing thing.’

  ‘But why does she exist? What does she offer?’ I asked.

  Mag withdrew her tentacle and said, ‘That is something only you can find the answer. Why don’t you ask her?’

  I almost lost my balance in laughter. ‘Ask a thing why they exist?’

  ‘Theodore, Eppa is probably waiting for you to ask her this very question. There is no doubt she is watching, right now. Why might she not inform Zane of your present location here, so he can capture you?’

  The very thought chilled me to my bones. Was this a trap? ‘Good point. Zane created her, and I do not know where her loyalties lie. I had no idea that she was aware of everything I do and ever have done. I don’t know!’

  ‘Then go find her, Theodore. Fill in the gaps before you start altering Time. Your mere existence could be a black hole, and I’m not talking about the celestial outer space body which sucks everything into a uncharted abyss. I’m talking about the boy who changes everything without a rigid plan. There is a danger just waiting to grasp you by the throat, and it isn’t what you are thinking. Odion must be destroyed, that is true. Do what you must, but in the end, your sword must meet Odion’s body. You need to focus on truth.’

  ‘How can I get to Odion, when the time comes? It seems impossible.’

  ‘You can make the improbable possible, Theodore. There is a complex interstellar anomaly that only occurs every seventy-two years when the Cridulian stars are aligned, and a direct portal to Odion’s solar system appears. Currently, this anomaly would deliver you into a mess of asteroids. You and your crew would have to fly through the highly magnetic and constantly shifting Diagome Astroid Belt, and no one ever survives this fragment-littered area of space. It is a young formation and very unpredictable. It was caused after Odion destroyed the two planets orbiting the area. There’s more. The window for this opportunity will eventually close, and you have to ensure that you make passage through the anomaly before the portal vanishes for good. The Dacturons would never suspect a lonely soul to ever embark on this flight path, because everyone in the galaxy is too afraid to embark on it. It’s even considered suicidal, and rightly so. But this is the only way.’

  Mag was schooling me and I was doing my best to evolve my perception of the galaxies. She was sitting in a chair and Gorb savored my presence. Mag asked me to step over to her laboratory. An extremely large and fanciful microscope sat upon a table.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘This is a three dimensional autoscaniscope. It locates anything in motion and then adjusts to a magnification necessary for observation. Take a peek.’

  ‘Okay.’ I placed my eyes over the binocular tubes and I could see something very familiar to me. ‘Dietons, thousands of them!’ They were interlocking and forming something.

  ‘Pull your eyes away for a second,’ Mag asked. I withdrew my eyes from the microscope and saw that the Dietons had formed a tree frog. The frog was on the specimen plate of the microscope.

  ‘Wow, that is so real. Why do you have it?’ I asked.

  ‘It ventured into my cave. I presume it found its way here after being a stowaway of illegal transport.’

  ‘It is so real. It’s even wet—or maybe it isn’t. Yes, it’s actually just an illusion that it is wet. Just systematically reflecting light in the same way water does.’ I touched the specimen, but there was no liquid upon my fingers.

  ‘Now watch,’ Mag said. She grabbed a pencil-sized laser pointer, and it sure wasn’t the dainty type used in dull corporate presentations. No, this one was a monster that could melt entry into the steel wall of a safe.

  ‘Wait! What are you doing?’ I asked as she brought the dangerous-looking weapon—uh, instrument—closer to the illusory replica of the frog. She held me still with one of her tentacles, as she zeroed in with the laser.

  ‘See how it squirms? It is doing everything to avoid destruction. Does this remind you of anything?’

  ‘I don’t know. Just don’t destroy it, please.’ I don’t know what came over me, but I didn’t want her to destroy it. The frog looked so real and frightened. I wondered if Lincoln could have been frightened that very moment, on Sephera. ‘Don’t touch it!’ I yelled. ‘You’re not hurting the frog, but you’re upsetting the balance of the Universe!’

  ‘Oh? Yes-yes. You’re correct. Just because something isn’t alive doesn’t mean it isn’t living or has a life. This frog has a purpose, which probably isn’t different from the purpose of its real counterpart on Earth.’

  ‘I get it!’ I exclaimed. ‘I hope you understand, I’m under a lot of pressure. Compared to you, I’m always bypassing the slow path of life, when I should be learning from everything in front of my eyes. I envy you, taking the time and uncovering important scientific discoveries.’

  ‘I agree. So now that you understand better, what are you planning to do now?’ Mag asked.

  ‘After I rescue Liam, I will travel to Foita and have a conference with her—with Eppa.’

  ‘Attaboy! Oh, speaking of your friend, there is a horde of pirates on my security cameras. This is the second time they have escorted the prisoners to the mining fields today. You better hurry back to your ship. We would help but would rather watch your life play out without any more interventions from us. Thank you for coming back. You are a man of your word.’

  ‘Thank you, Mag. And Gorb, I’ll miss you! Haha.’

  Gorb leaned over and patted my head with his giant tentacle, my hair clinging to its slimy surface. He said, ‘You sure you don’t want to stay for dinner. What? I’m kidding!’

  I laughed hysterically, as I was leaving through the lair’s opening.

  Mag said, ‘I’ll be watching! Make us glad to have not eaten you.’

  “Using my boots, I soared through the cave to the ship. The time to face the Skiorf pirates had arrived.”

  11 THEODORE: THE AMBUSH

  “Once I returned to the ship, I quickly grabbed my sword. Before exiting the ship, I adjusted Freebird’s perimeter security level to maximum. We programmed Freebird, upon entering the cave, to stun any intruders entering within a twenty-meter vicinity of its exterior. Freebird’s central processing unit was very aware of my crew’s cellular makeup with exact accuracy and could identify any member of the ship by this means.”

  After leaving the assigned twenty-meter perimeter, one would have to identify their re-entry before breaching the perimeter again to enter it.

  I lowered the hatch and stepped outside. The valley was quiet with exception of some insects clicking, popping of bush twigs, and the occasional wind gust.

  Immediately, I felt a presence. The Gitushkas were right: the Skiorf pirates were here. Feet were pulverizing the ground from a couple hundred meters away; the cadence was foreign, and the cool wind carried the grunting sounds of at least fifty people. We had a hill between us. I readied my gear.

  I abandoned my position, and searched the rough landscape to see what had shaken the valley, as well as my state of sporadic thought. I staggered my approach, taking cover behind different rock formations.

  The sky’s two moons commanded the bleak horizon; they were like giant headlights in the sky, and I was like a cautious lizard caught against the dark and dusty landscape of Karshiz. I crept toward the marching unit; after observing them for a moment, I knew they were an ill-trained bunch. Their structured advancing march was no coordinated goose step.

  I hid behind a jagged boulder to spy on the passing group of soldiers and their detainees. Their humming chant took form as they approached; it was hypnotically mundane.

  ‘Det, moret. Det, moret, zichulot mot de turbot chickot-chickot en bulofot. Det, moret, det, moret . . .’

  Unfortunately, the bush next to the large slab was a disaster-in-waiting designed to thwart my careful pla
ns, for I was allergic to whatever was in it. On Earth, my only allergy was to the herb sage, but this was much worse. The allergens made my throat feel so scratchy, I felt like I had just eaten chunks of walleye full of fishbones. Oblivious to my ongoing torment, the marching unit carried on just directly in front of my position. As they drew nearer, I was able to identify them in the moonlight.

  Flabbergasted by what I witnessed, I whispered loudly, ‘Liam?’

  Not one... not two, but forty-two Liam McCaffreys. My burly friend and protector from my home town... he was alive? And why so many of him? The dominos of similar likenesses of Liam seared my mind. I recognized him, but to see him forty-two times—it just blew me away.

  What? This cannot be! I thought.

  Curiously, there was one Liam acting in a discordant fashion compared to the more relatively smooth progression of the other Liams. Like a stone thrown in water, this errant Liam disrupted the harmony of the other clones; those in closer proximity were thrown more in disarray than those further away. Just like Trazuline had suggested, the gaggle of Liams were escorted by a band of twenty-five Skiorf pirates brandishing weapons. Although the Liams outnumbered their escorts, they were chained to one other, making escape improbable.

  I thought—why are there electromagnetic chains on these prisoners? That was when I realized that these slaves were Sepheran. When Sepherans are reformatted, they mimic the life forms around them. They were mimicking Liam! It was sad too, as I knew that those Sepherans were Dietonical representations of real people that died. Those pirates stripped them of their identity and now these Sepherans were lost, clinging to the real Liam’s human essence.

  Immediately, when the tickle in my throat from the sage-like bush urged me to hack, my amulet started to shine, warning me of danger to come. I hid it under my shirt, so that the Skiorfs would not detect the glow.

  I used my boots to initiate my invisibility. Invisibility was a powerful tool that I never took for granted; it was to be used only in defensive situations, as I was bound to my innate sense of morality. I only used it when my life was in danger. Then, unable to hold back any longer, I let it rip. Coughs echoed throughout the distant stillness of the valley. Sixty-nine heads turned immediately into my direction—those of the forty-two Liams, and more fatally, those of the twenty-five dastardly Skiorf pirates. It was time to run for cover.