Aetheran Child

by Antonin Januska

  “Could you isolate the name tags of people that I know or have met in other class rooms? And please, record these names along with their profiles.” The boy found all of the functions of his inner computer very interesting and tried to take advantage of as much as possible.

  “Done, and someone is trying to contact you. The person’s profile is still off and does not seem to show its name.”

  “Please hold the call for a while,” Lexan turned to the teacher, remembering all the times when his teachers yelled at him to pay attention in class. He could never talk to people and he never liked that. Now that he was in an alien school, he did not wish to give his teacher a bad first impression of him.

  “Sorry for listening in but the teachers do not care. It is a custom not to disturb but communicating is not prohibited. It is your own responsibility to pay attention or to make up for what you have missed. Do you wish me to still hold the call?”

  He thought for a bit and changed his mind, “No, let it through.”

  “About time! Why didn’t you answer earlier?” A familiar voice screamed into the boy’s ear.

  “Hey, why are you calling, Bloo?” Lexan instantly recognized her.

  “I’m just really bored. I should listen more but first year Trans? I already know how to be an Aetheri. This is just lame.”

  “Wait, you’re in Transformation?”

  “Yeah, I’m two seats behind you. You should seriously pay attention to your environment, Lexan,” she laughed.

  “Sorry about that. Can you hold on for a bit? I’d like to listen to what the teacher is saying.”

  “Sure,” she sounded a bit disappointed.

  A slight sound announced the end of the conversation. Another sound let Lexan know the outside sound became unblocked once again.

  “…Transformation,” said Mt. Trance, “is a process where the cells in your body unblock a certain DNA sequence. This sequence is a code that create the Aetheric protein. The protein is rather complex but your body can create a lot of it, very easily. When that protein floods your body, a violent reaction causes the molecules in your body to shift through a different dimension. The vibration is reset which will cause the unreal effect,” Master Trance extended one of his tentacles and let it envelop in a silver-white liquid. Seconds later, the tentacle disappeared and reappeared again, “The higher the frequency, the larger the dimensional shift. Once your body reaches an unstable vibration, your body completely breaks down, shedding itself of any matter, while becoming pure controllable energy. The energy breaks down any other binds, forces, and links between atoms in the matter that makes up your body.

  “The amount of Aetheric protein in the bloodstream often suggests the level the being has achieved. The different levels entice Aetheri energy, the malleable energy created during the shifts and during the state of being. The levels themselves are quantized, that is, a larger amount of energy or protein does not give you more power nor any new abilities if it short of the next level.

  “There is a story from about two hundred thousand years ago. The story talks of the son of an Elder at the beginning of the Aetheric evolution. As most of you know, the Aetheri came to be because of the Elders. The being was able to disappear altogether, an act that is almost impossible. Even the most learned Master and GrandMasters struggle to achieve that ability while still being able to come back to their original forms. The most skilled GrandMasters are able to become invisible to your eyes, to parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, but they can never mask all of the energy their bodies expel. The powerful son could do more than this, of course, he could vibrate the molecules in his body to such an extent that he could travel through dimensions as he pleased. And though he became almost entirely pure energy, he could still come back to his original, Human, form. The energy he possessed made him such an entity that he could even travel into other beings and essentially possess them; take over their bodies.

  “Though you will most likely not achieve that level, no one ever has, you should be able to get to level three, perhaps further. If you major in transformation later on, you may get as far as level five and for those lucky enough, and hard-working enough, they will be able to achieve level six, something that only a few GrandMasters have achieved.”

  The Octid ended his speech, and Lexan left to his last class of the day, curiously named, “Magic.”

  “Bloo?” The boy called Bran up who patched him through to the girl.

  “Yes, Lexan?”

  “How do you know so many people around here? I thought people here were collected from all over the United Republics”

  She laughed, “Oh that. I met a few people over DomeStem.”

  “The what?” Another strange word he would have to learn.

  “Ah right, you’re a CR. It’s a system of communications linked to an enormous alternate reality. One,” she laughed, “that sometimes overlays this reality as well.”

  Internet in 3D, Lexan thought.

  “Thanks, I have to go,” Lexan turned and left to go to his class.

  IV

  Lexan was lucky that all his classes were in a four-sphere radius. He always had enough time to get to class and take a couple of minutes to sit down and relax. “Magic”, he thought, and suddenly all the old fairy tales he heard when he was a child crept up from his memory: fairy tales full of witches, and wizards; fairy tales with dragons and knights. The boy had enough to digest for the day.

  The teacher was, surprisingly, a ritiel. Her skin glowed with vibrant green and scales on her body selectively reflected the light in the room. A thick gel covered her whole body, to keep her skin moisturized. Golden rings and gems decorated her long neck. Her face was similar to a lizard’s with a flat nose connected to the mouth. The underside of her limbs contrasted the green with yellow stripes and fin-like structures covered her head. They were sectioned into three distinct parts that converged at the back of her neck and disappeared below. The teacher had three yellow fingers. The sight was extraordinary to Lexan. He had never seen a ritiel before.

  Her clothing, Lexan noted, was a bit ragged and loose. Her skirt contrasted her comfortable shirt in that it was rather tigh and long, ending by her ankles.

  “Hello class,” she started. Her voice had a strange quality to it. It could be heard from a long distance away as clearly as if the person stood right in front of her, “My name is Tr. Psudala. You will learn about ‘magic’ in my class, and as the name suggests, it will be something extraordinary. Ah, I see some of you puzzled. Let me explain.

  “As you may know from your Transformation class already, an Aetheri’s body is made up of highly vibrant, multi-dimensional particles. Such particles continuously give off a tremendous amount of energy. ‘Magic’ as it is called, is this energy but in a controlled state.

  “The word ‘magic’ came from an Elder that controls and masters this type of energy…” The ritiel continued on and on about energy which caused Lexan to tune her out, just as he tuned out the teachers in most of his classes. He could not believe he would have to endure this class every day, three hours a day.

  An hour or so in, the teacher still discussed various stories about first attempts to harness ‘magic’; Lexan remembered that he had to call Bloo back.

  “She is on the line,” Bran said all of a sudden.

  “What?” Lexan could not hide his astonishment as the timing.

  “Miss Bloo is on the line according to your mental order.”

  “Alright,” He already saw the disadvantages to having a computer wired up to his brain.

  “Hey, Lex.” Bloo said.

  “Lexan, my name is short enough already,” The boy laughed.

  “Sorry, so why are you calling?” She apologized.

  “Just because. The class I'm in is boring,” An incredulous thought came to his mind, “Are you doing anything later?”

  “I've no plans, you?”

  “Nothing. I was wondering if --” Plain and
simple but then Bloo cut him off.

  “I have to go, I just got called on in class. Bye!”

  The boy sat on his mat, looking at the teacher, thoughtlessly. He had nothing to do, Tr. Psudala’s stories seemed to have no ending and so, soon, his consciousness left him, the world went out of focus, and the teacher’s voice seemed to have lost its volume.

  V

  He did not sleep; however, he was not awake either. His mind wandered in a state of meditation but a bizarre type of meditation. A new link has been made, the boy felt, a link between him and someone else. The link went deep and it was strong, their thoughts interfered as waves would, in a destructive and constructive manner. Two tidal waves colliding in the plane of consciousness.

  Lexan felt as if he was awakening in a different body. At first, there was numbness but then came pain. Seconds later, a bloodlust filled his mind. He wanted to cause pain, and make someone bleed, many others. He wanted others to pay for their heinous acts. Justice will prevail in the end. Lexan’s muscles tensed in anger and fear.

  Yes, he feared something. He did not know what, but he felt fear, but also sadness mixed with anger. At the end, he felt happiness, a sort of satisfaction.

  He slowly regained consciousness, or so he thought. He stood in a darkness, as he had before. No lightning flashed, and no sound pierced the silence. The complete and utter silence, seconds later, gave way to a raspy, heavy breathing, one that might hear from a dying person. Maybe a wounded beast that could not go on, or maybe a beast that had just finished with its horrendous carnage and tired itself beyond comprehension. The breathing sound was interrupted by a gurgling sound and a spit.

  Two eyes appeared in the middle of the darkness, followed by a blood stained mouth. The red pulsated and was contrasted by a single electrically blue tear that skidded across the being’s face, revealing the rest of the body thereafter in a parade of blue sparks. It had a knife in one hands while the other hand had a clawed weapon attached to it. Its pale skin bore horrible scars. One such scar was not entirely healed and bled below the ribcage on its left side. The being must have gone through horrible torture or great battles, the boy thought. It breathed in hard, revealing black and rotten skin across its chest. As it exhaled, the being coughed up some blood. Lexan realized it was a man, a young man.

  The man wiped his mouth and stared at the blood. He gave a victory roar that reverberated through the deadly silence. All his muscles tensed up and he took a stance as he waited to do something. The man’s face started to disappear as it shifted into a different dimension to become Aetheric. The Aetheric form, however, did not glow brightly with warm summer colours, as the boy had seen before. Instead, the Aetheri somehow absorbed the light around him and became part of the darkness. The blood vibrated and oscillated around the man’s body in a strange mist of cool winter colors. A dark red aura enveloped his body and the man’s wounds started to heal, his flesh began to lose its irregularities and the blood re-entered his body, slowly. He winced with pain.

  Lexan watched carefully, not knowing whether he should be scared and judge the man sinister, or if simply this darkness and the end of an invisible battle just made him seem so insidious. Finally, the man screamed once more, his body absorbed the red aura and his whole body screeched with the sun’s rays, radiating the bright gold. The bright gleam increased in intensity to the point where the boy had to shield his eyes.

  And just as he removed his arm from the front of his eyes, he awoke into the real world.

  VI

  “-And that concludes today’s lesson. You can take the rest of the time off if you wish or you can go ahead and read your NCC copy of your textbook

  “Lexan,” Bran started, “I am sorry to inform you but I could not record your dream. It seems that the hardware could not find any discernible patterns within your neural network in the past fifteen minutes. I will download a larger neuro algorithm library for the next time you fall asleep.”

  “Why would you record my dreams?” The boy asked.

  “Master Raki has requested copies of whatever you dream and they are for your use as well. I have been programmed to record any and all of your neural activity and give priority to your dreams and subconscious.”

  The boy was irritated, “So what is your conclusion?” He knew now that he could not keep any thoughts to himself. They were going to be constantly monitored and invaded by the electronics of this world.

  “I cannot find a reason why your neural activity pattern did not match any of the human neuro-algorithms at my disposal. It seems that the low density of Aetheric genetical code provides you with a strange and strong mind aptitude.”

  “It might be.” Lexan said and thought to himself.

  CHAPTER TEN

  I

  The sound of alarm let Lexan know that the second day has arrived and thus, he would experience the second class schedule. Only a few classes differed from the first. He started off with combat, the same as the previous day, but continued with an Electronics class.

  “Hello, my name is Tr. Ronic, and I will teach you all about the technology in today’s world and how you can make it work for you. The main goal is for you to understand how everything works and learn the basic skills to control every day appliances. You will have many projects to do which will pertain to your knowledge of your NCC. You will make new chipsets, upgrade it, and customize it.

  “Along with programming, you should be able to make your own wrist computer, which you will do at the end of this year. Next year, in this class along with the building class, you will construct your own spaceship, in groups of course.”

  A wave of talking started up after that last sentence. People discussed how they’d love to create their own ship and travel among the stars through star cruisers. They talked about adventure and visiting their friends. Lexan thought about it and was very excited. He was still too young to even own a car on Earth, and his parents would probably make it hell for him to get one.

  The good mood left him suddenly but he was still excited.

  “Quiet down, please!” Tr. Ronic yelled, “Now, please, upload this program to your NCC,” A prompt informed everyone of the file. “It will tell you what we did in class, what we will do, and about all your out-of-class work,” Lexan activated the connection and waited, “It will also show you all major school events and learning sessions. Some other teachers might provide similar programs which you will learn to integrate in a programming class. This program also includes a copy of your textbook. Start reading as soon as possible.”

  Tr. Ronic ended the class by letting everyone talk until a warning beep let everyone know they should move to the next class. He was a young man that seemed to hold little to no interest in the students but could not hide his enthusiasm for the subject.

  Lexan tapped his NCC and the silver liquid poured out from his wrist bracelet. He checked the time and messages. His next class was programming. He left the classroom, and a few minutes later, he arrived on time. He started remembering the important routes.

  “Hello students, my name is Tr. Circi,” the young man said. His short hair gave way to his bushy eyebrows. He would have been about thirty years old on Earth, perhaps younger but on the galactic standards, he looked about sixty or hundred years old since he was an Aetheri. His scruffy beard gave him a very funny look, “You will learn to understand modern Theric programming, a type of programming with a focus on NCCs. You will construct you own MPI throughout the semester. An MPI is a Main Personality Interface, that is, the program that transfer orders from you to the core of your NCC. For some of you, this might be a great starter career. People all over the galaxy are looking for unique and advanced MPIs.

  “Since it’s a Theric programming type, you will be able to experience your NCC as an Aetheri,” he paused and touched his wrist computer. A holographic icon popped up in the air, “Please download this program for notifications and special access to your NCC. This package contains basic sub
routines, applications, compilers, as well as libraries that you will be required to use. The program also contains a calendar that will synchronize with the calendar from the electronic department.”

  The students uploaded the data, and Lexan shifted his attention to a different matter, as was starting to become his habit.

  “You are getting an incoming call,” Bran alerted him. Bloo’s icon danced on the screen. The boy nodded.

  “Hey, Lexan,” the familiar voice answered.

  “Hey, how are you doing?”

  “Fine, how about you?”

  “Good, good,” the boy thought for a second, “What’s your next class?”

  “Art, you?”

  “Same class, another one.”

  Bloo laughed, “Yeah, what a coincidence? Right, let’s meet up before the class starts. We’ll have some time between classes, so that will work.”

  “Alright, pick the place, send me a message,” Lexan completely ignored what the teacher was explaining and instead spent his time thinking about Bloo and the recess period between classes.

  II

  Lexan left to see Bloo and realized he had more than two hours to spare before Art. He stood in front of the classroom and noticed the news played on the wall. He turned on Degree II vision, as soon as he did that, he found himself in a room with the announcer talking to him. The newscaster woman stood in front of him and talked, her eyes clearly looking at the boy.

  “As another story, we have an interesting phenomenon occurring all over Swift-Space. We will patch you directly through to our on-site correspondent. Jim, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, I can hear you,” the empty space transformed into the inside room of a spaceship where the other newscaster stood by the window that encompassed the whole wall.

  I am here inside our newscasting ship, the Coreena, reporting from Swift-Space. An unnatural wave of energy is spreading through the Twister. We are not sure why it has suddenly appeared but we know that it cleanses the whole system of objects and people who do not belong in this plane of existence. Thousands of ships have already been destroyed along with matching amount of casualties. The physicists tell us that the objects were decompiled from matter to energy and put back together in an anti-matter form. The ships disintegrate immediately after this transformation because the Swift-space universe cannot stabilize the forces involved in the anti-matter atoms. Thus, the ships, once again, transform back to energy by colliding and interacting with the natural particles of Swift-space. The subsequent explosion fuels the wave.