Godling (Kairenz Jistora Book 1)

by Dusks, Rydre

  Godling

  Book 1 of the Kairenz Jistora

  Rydre Dusks

  Copyright© 2017 Rydre Dusks

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN

  9781520891842

  For Jessica. You pulled me through and told me to follow my dreams.

  Table of Contents

  Walking into a New World…………………………….………..7

  Eyes Opened………………………………………….………...21

  Project Sylvain………………………………………..………...36

  Paternal Nightmares………………………………..…………...40

  Trouble……………………………………………..…………...57

  Camp Roavo……………………………………..……………...68

  A Ferine Goodbye……………………………..………………..82

  The Black Sheep……………………………..……………….....97

  Blank……………………………………….…………….…….104

  Inner World……………………………….……………….…...115

  The Plan………………………………….………………....….127

  To Agastay……………………………….………………….…155

  A Survivor of Time…………………….……………………....177

  The Godling…………………………….……………………....193

  Haste…………………………………….…………….………..209

  The Daliq'ehete………………………….………….…………..216

  Lucidity………………………………….………….…………..230

  The Truth about Iason………………….…….………………....235

  Esha…………………………………….……….………………249

  Beginning the Cleanse………………….……….……………....254

  Godly Mission………………………………….…………….....267

  Science to Supernatural…………………….…………………...278

  A Banding of Gods………………………………….…………..289

  Fatherhood…………………………………………….…….…..301

  Epilogue………………………………………….……………...309

  Pronunciation Guide…………………………..………………...311

  1

  Walking into a New World

  The satchel nearly ripped as I threw an extra cloth into it, fabric fraying from the strain on the amount of rocks at the bottom. The sound of his cracking jaw still swept through my mind as a race of tingling and panic over what I had done.

  I need to leave. I need to get out of here.

  Mother was not awake. She would not say goodbye to me, and never would. The Anli tribe was about to be left behind.

  Go, go, go.

  My feet padded across broken twigs and scattered orange leaves. The forest smelled of early fall and impending death. My mother would awaken to two empty mats beside her. One belonging to me, and the other belonging to...

  I wound around trees, my breath already rushed and heavy in my lungs, heartbeat in my throat, hands vibrating with the energies of fear. The satchel was heavy, but the rocks were too important to leave behind. I dared myself to look back at the life I ran from, but the shock of the night held on tight to my conscience. The more padding of feet, the further I separated myself from the crime I had committed.

  I'm sorry, Father. Oh, I am so sorry...

  My blind rush for the outer edge of the forest drew me toward a light. The forsaken desert lay beyond, and as my fears rose, so too did the sun over the mountain range. I was free of the forest, only to be stranded in an unforgiving wasteland of sand and heat.

  My bleeding soles brushed over slippery sand while I dug in my satchel and yanked out one of the cool rocks, pressing it to my neck. My only source of cold, and I knew it would not last long. My breath had nearly left me entirely, and an impending sorrow overcame my figure as I saw that the angry desert held nothing for me.

  I was alone to suffer for my transgressions.

  OH, AND IT WAS MUCH TOO LATE,

  MUCH TOO LATE, OOOH,

  HONEY, TO SAY I LOVE YOU!

  The covers flew from the bed and a mad scramble ensued as I snatched up the cell phone to answer it.

  Dawn's hazy light sliced through the cracks of the bedroom window curtains, splaying across the maroon carpet. The song cut off mid-chorus when I finally managed to find the Talk button.

  "Morning, sunshine!" Scarsar Insidd greeted.

  I heard his enthusiasm as static over the speaker.

  "I-Insidd... Is this urgent?"

  "About the same as always, Hightower. I got a special mission for you today. Go meet Kaliqaiah at Seido's as soon as possible. This one's big, and the pay is heavy."

  The other end clicked before I could reply. My boss was never very descriptive when it came to explaining missions to me. Normally the less detailed he was, the more desperate the situation.

  I took a couple of seconds to soak in the calm and quiet of early morning, telling my snapping nerves to calm themselves. It was just a damn dream. The crimes of my younger years were exhausting, but I needed them to remain at the back of my mind. It was time to get ready for my job.

  What is it this time, Insidd? A haywire MetalArt? A hostile nursebot? Then again it could have just been Insidd pulling my leg to go to the cafe for pastries with him, as he had done in the past.

  Once dressed in my proper working clothes--a black leather tailcoat and reinforced boots--I stopped at the entrance to the kitchen to open the tall glass cabinet and fetch my gun.

  "Leaving?" my godfather questioned from the stove. From the smell, it was clear that he was cooking Stelliot's favorite: pancakes.

  "Thank Sol. I haven't had a job for a week, Toanwar," was my response while I checked the gun's rounds. There were enough for one day of officer duty--I would be fine.

  "Stay safe out there."

  Seido's was a short drive toward the inner ring of GreyCross City, about seven minutes without hitting too many stop lights. It was a nice meeting place for private discussions since it was tucked away from too many busier streets.

  The city bustled even for as early as it was. Traffic was sparse in the outer ring, but grew heavy the closer I drove to GreyCross Tower. I watched the aligned, split-level residential buildings gradually slim out as the taller industrial edifices and skyscrapers took their places. President Era had a thing for order, so most of the bigger businesses were closer to the watchful Tower, and housing remained on the outskirts.

  GreyCross was one of the only largely inhabited spaces in the country, but it was an extremely popular city. Every year it seemed that more people moved here despite the president's less-than-affable reign.

  I stopped on the side of the road beside the cafe and stepped out of the car, looking up at the moody grey sky. The Tower stood fierce and looming in the distance, looking like a shadowy lance that pierced the smoggy clouds.

  "Crow!"

  The animated voice belonged to Va'th Kaliqaiah, my teammate. He grinned and waved at me from a line of hungry-looking citizens awaiting their cafe orders. He was never hard to spot. He was the only GreyCrosser I knew of who had spiky blue hair and piercings taking over his face. His black tailcoat was personally modified, having spiked studs on the shoulders but no sleeves, adding to his sense of taste. To me it made him look like a delinquent, but Va'th had a charm that most delinquents di
dn't.

  Despite his obvious desire to buy a meal, he stepped out of the line to speak to me instead. "How're you and your son doing? Still holding up?"

  I nodded, but wasn't too interested in elaborating on my life. "We're fine, Va'th. What did Insidd want?"

  Va'th shifted his weight to his other foot as he leaned against a support beam to an awning, folding his arms. His loud greeting and our appearances had received a few looks from Seido's seated customers.

  "Are those Strejca officers?" a little girl asked, only to be hushed by her mother.

  Va'th smirked at the child before answering me. "Insidd didn't bother with details, did he? Right around here there's been this unruly bot who keeps hacking into data stored by Saydea of the Future."

  I stared at him suspiciously. "Insidd was okay with letting us in there?"

  Va'th raised his eyebrows and lowered his voice, his eyes flicking over to the massive silver building just a block away. "Not everybody feels as disturbed about Saydea as you do, you know. Insidd needs us in there. That place, Mr. Hightower, holds crucial info about biological weapons."

  I frowned, following his gaze. The rising sun reflected off the chrome, capsule-shaped exterior of the biomechanics facility, nearly blinding me. "I have a right to be careful. My godfather hates the place, and it's got to be for a good reason. How did we find out about the weapons?"

  "Insidd did a report on them just recently after the vice president of the company contacted him asking for help. No one else but the Strejca in GreyCross and some of the machine police in Souloroh know about this." He raised a hand to play with one of the piercings in his nose. I tried to ignore it. "Apparently, the hackerbot who's after the data is actually after Allan Dentrin himself. You know the vice president of the industry. That highly educated, scientific whats-it."

  I knew Dentrin. Not personally, but I'd heard about his amazing feats on the news more than once. He was a great man. He could manufacture strong cures for diseases as well as build the highest-rated hospital machinery in the country. He'd been the hero who'd created cures for over one hundred different types of common Iasona illnesses almost entirely by himself.

  "So what's our job then?" I pressed.

  "We gotta stop this hacker. Insidd has already made an agreement with Saydea. We get rid of this robot, and they offer us Strejca a mighty financial reward if we keep our mouths shut about the whole thing. I don't think even President Era knows about this bio-business, and I don't know about Saydea, but the Strejca would like to keep it that way." He widened his pale eyes. "Can you just imagine what our trigger-happy president could ruin with bio-weapons?"

  I shook my head with a sigh. "I really don't want to."

  We made our way down the street, heading for the massive building that read "Saydea ne te Futora" across its front in big cyan lettering. President Era had a lot of affiliation with the revolutionary company, so it was rumored that Saydea stayed thriving because of Era's enthusiasm for the company's products. Anything that had to do with supporting the existence of machines was highly favored by Era. And it normally went without saying, because Era was a machine himself.

  "Now don't be alarmed, Crow, but we're paired up with Miss Ekra Phazer. Insidd told me to just stay out of her way and let her pull most of the weight."

  No surprise. Phazer was the most alluring coworker within our profession, albeit quite caustic in attitude.

  We stepped past the glass doors of Saydea of the Future and into the lobby. It smelled clean... like fresh ink and sterilized equipment. The building itself was enormous, though it didn't show it on the outside. It was built downward rather than up, supporting multiple levels for labs, storage spaces, and who knew what else. As an incredibly popular name on television, a lot about Saydea was already known to most citizens.

  Phazer stood near the front desk of the white-walled lobby with a hand on her hip, the other dangling close to a gun strapped to her thigh. She glanced at us with dull interest, chin-length black and purple hair framing her cheeks.

  "About time," she announced loud enough for a few individuals sitting in the area to look over curiously.

  Va'th scratched his head, giving her a cheap smile. "We're not even late by most standards. What's wrong with you?"

  I grabbed him by his coat and yanked him back a step before Phazer struck him for his provoking words.

  "I got here early to speak to Dr. Dentrin already. He's preparing to show us into the digital record room. In fact, thanks to you two lagging he's probably been kept waiting. If you are done being headaches, you can follow me there. Don't wander."

  I rolled my eyes as Phazer led the way down the right-hand hall.

  I had never liked Saydea. It was cold and quiet, and Toanwar often warned me about getting affiliated with the place. I wasn't sure of the reason exactly, but overall it wasn't really my interest anyway. Saydea was inviting to anyone who wished to study biomechanical engineering and other sciences, but to an outsider invested in looking at everything with a skeptic's point of view, Saydea appeared bitterly eerie.

  We took the elevator down one level and walked for a minute through two hallways. As we passed rooms I caught glimpses of empty but lighted labs of various kinds. There were metal plaques next to every door, but the only symbols on them were scrambles of numbers. Without having knowledge of the numerical code, I couldn't read what any of the rooms were used for.

  Phazer stopped abruptly at a door toward the end of a dim hallway. She swiped a card through a slot, one she'd probably received before Va'th and I had shown up, and pushed the heavy metal frame open. The room was lighter, mostly brightened by several computer screens depicting some surveillance footage of around Saydea's publicly accessed floors. I noted a scientist in a white lab coat next to one of the monitors. He turned to face us when we came closer.

  "Dr. Dentrin, I'd like you to meet my teammates Va'th Kaliqaiah and Crow Hightower."

  "Ah, so pleasant to meet you all. I've had hesitations about contacting you Strejca for help, but I simply couldn't wait any longer," the man responded as he shook our hands.

  He was a lanky man who looked young for his age of forty. I wouldn't have known how old he was if he had not been such a popular subject in GreyCross. His hair was brown, eyes were brown, and his entire appearance was rather mouse-like due to high cheekbones and thin lips. His voice, however, was highly musical, and almost hypnotizing to listen to.

  This wasn't the appearance I expected. He was a lot shorter than I'd imagined.

  "Welcome to Saydea, all of you."

  "Tell us what we can do for you, Mr. Dentrin," Va'th replied cheerily to ease the atmosphere.

  "Dr. Dentrin, if you would." Although said with a smile, it was almost spoken like a demand.

  Perhaps it was due to my still tingling nerves from the dream that morning, but there was something so... off about Dentrin. I couldn't place it, but the plastered smile and glinting eyes simply screamed at me; Fake! Fake, fake, fake! Everything about him is shouting fake! I wanted to feel enthusiastic for meeting such a celebrity, but it was as though my energy for inspecting Saydea had deflated the moment I'd walked through the front doors.

  "We're struggling with a hackerbot given the Ifearian name G’tavei. He is a significantly developed model, physically, with highly realistic features. A non-typical hackerbot look. We need you Strejca to find him because he is causing momentous damage to our computer barriers."

  I looked to Va'th who was busy silently reciting the name of the robot as if he’d heard it before. Gih-tah-vay, Gih-tah-vay…

  Phazer nodded her head to me. Since I lived with a hackerbot and godfather who knew all about them, I figured she wanted me to lead the questions.

  "Is the source of where this robot came from significant to you?" The model's design sounded peculiar to me. I knew very few robotics makers who successfully pulled off making their machines that realistic.

  Dentrin eyed me up and down before speaking. "G’tavei’s origin is
most likely from Ifearor. That's where they create the most hackerbots, and the name fits."

  I shook my head. "But not all are from Ifearor, Dr. Dentrin." I was surprised he’d answered the question as if he knew. "I have a personal Ifearian hackerbot, but he is entirely chrome-cased. The hackerbot that you described sounds like a model from this country."

  "Are you saying that the robot may be from an Iasona company?"

  Va'th spoke up this time. "Most definitely. Ifearian hackerbots are how Crow described them. And that’s how they’ve always been, even when they were first invented back in 2R, year ten-ten. From what you said, this guy sounds like he was made by a popular name in robotics. Like... Voelwrath."

  I shot Va'th an aggravated look. "Voelwrath" was Toanwar's last name, and the trademarked name of his company, Voelwrath Robotics. "Don't go there, Va'th."

  "What? I was just saying, maybe--"

  Phazer cut in before there was a fight. "This means…" She folded her arms, "that this robot could even be from this very city. After we track it down, we will know. Where would you like us to start searching?"

  A booming alarm sounded from speakers in the ceiling, causing all of us to flinch.

  "That's the alarm for the creation lab. I fear that's him," Dentrin announced. "I need two of you to go down into Zone Seven where the lab is located. Someone else needs to be outside to secure the premises with the police in case he tries to escape."

  "We're on it," Va'th responded adamantly.

  Having our goal, we fled the digital record room and ready to capture a machine. Va'th accepted the task of securing the perimeter of the building. Phazer and I moved deeper into Saydea’s many floors.

  "The Zones below the first floor are pretty much cut off from all civilians save the obvious ones that work here. Even the president needs special access beyond this point," said Phazer as we entered the elevator. She moved in front of me to hit the floor number as the doors closed.

  "Sounds like you did your research before coming here," I muttered, glancing her way as the elevator made its smooth descent.